Bengals hope Marvin Lewis returns quickly from “minor health issue,” to face his friend

With word Tuesday afternoon that Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis is stepping away from the team to deal with a "minor health issue," and no early indication how long he will be gone, maybe he has an extra incentive to hurry back.

In Friday’s preseason opener against the Bucs, his buddy and former teammate Dirk Koetter will be in Paul Brown Stadium. They were teammates and then graduate assistants together more than three decades ago at Idaho State.

“He's been a student of the game. We sat in grad school classes and never paid attention," Lewis said of Koetter in a Tampa Bay Times story that popped up last year when the NFL owners meetings were in Boca Raton, Fla. “All we did is doodle plays back and forth.”

In Tuesday’s practice, special teams coordinator Darrin Simmons was in charge.

Fan reaction didn’t take long after word of the Bengals’ coach began flooding social media Tuesday afternoon.

🏈 respect he deserves. https://t.co/e18UOSGOCK— Chasing Ballgame (@chasingballgame) August 8, 2017

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