COLERAIN TWP., Ohio — Chris Wills doesn’t have a secret recipe. Most of them actually come from the Internet. She just adds more.
More Ghirardelli chocolate. More peanut butter. Bigger cookies.
Wills isn’t a chef. She doesn’t own a bakery. But at every Cincinnati Bengals training camp, you can find her passing out cookies to players.
“They come running over across the field,” Wills said. “Sometimes they even give me a hug. It’s so sweaty.”
Meet the fan that Bengals players call the 'cookie girl':
In her driveway before Thursday Night Football, Wills wears orange shoelaces. She has two orange cars, and one is even signed by dozens of Bengals players.
“Even my lipstick is orange,” Wills said.
Inside, her husband laughs.
“It’s a little bit crazy,” said Mike Wills.
I asked Mike who the bigger Bengals fan is, and he laughs again.
“Who’s got the orange hair? Not me,” Mike said.
Growing up in Westwood, Chris Wills never went to Bengals games. Her family didn’t have the money. But she always watched with her dad, who has since passed away.
“He would get frustrated and call them the Bungals,” Wills said. “But I was obsessed.”
More than 15 years ago, she brought cookies to training camp. She just wanted the team to know how much they meant to her. So, she gave some to former linebacker Rey Maualuga. He ate them right on the field.
Soon, Wills was making cookies for security guards, too.
“They called me the cookie girl, and it just kind of stuck,” Wills said.
She's been a season-ticket holder for more than a decade now. And she never thought she’d still be making cookies.
“They really always appreciate it, and that makes me happy,” Wills said. “It just goes to show it’s more than football. It’s like family.”
