1/31/25 - The Mo Egger Radio Show - Mo Egger

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Entered this nationwide. Keward on our website. Bills, that's bills.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Enter it now you've found Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty bills bills.

Speaker 3 (00:09):
I said, bills, bills, bills. Hell am I doing? It's
not six o'clock yet. Hi, I'm Alegar. This is ESPN
fifteen thirty. Thanks for listening. You know what I'm gonna say. Right.
I hope your weekend's off to an awesome start. We
I think we pulled out of the single digits, maybe

(00:30):
for good, maybe for I almost wore shorts today, Not
that you care what I wear. Just I don't think
you care what I wear, nor shoot you.

Speaker 4 (00:39):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (00:41):
They have a lot to get to today, the loaded
weekend in college basketball, more on the coach col booing
topic that everybody seems to be big, mad and divided about,
divided over in hashtag BBN. We've got Joe Burrow on
t Higgins, We've got the Trey Hendrickson thing which will
not go away, and I'm glad it's not gonna go
and so much more between now at six o'clock. Full

(01:03):
show preview is available on Twitter at moegger thanks to
Emory Federal Credit Union. Your credit Union with heart since
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I go to Emory Federal Credit Union on Bridgetown Road
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(01:24):
I'm the grandson of a twenty six year bank manager.
I like to walk into the financial institution and I
say hi to the folks, and I do my business,
and I take care of what I got to take
care of. And at Emory Federal Credit Union a refrigerator
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because I'm a member of Emory Federal Credit Union Emory

(01:45):
FCU dot org. I probably shouldn't do this. I'm probably
I'm not the smartest man in the world. Let's be
honest about that. I'm not exactly breaking new ground there.
I'm not the smartest man. Probably shouldn't do this, though,
but I'm gonna do it anyway. And if you're a
Reds fan, you could do it with me. I am

(02:06):
going to I'm gonna take the bait. I'm I'm gonna
I'm gonna just grab a hold of that bait and
see what happens. I'm gonna take the bait or the clickbait.
You might argue it should be called the I'm gonna
do it. I probably shouldn't, but I'm gonna do it.
Wanna do it with me? Last night, John Hayman in

(02:29):
The New York Post had a piece that began with
this headline, Reds could develop as dark horse Pee Alonzo
landing spot as free agency drags on. Now, be honest
with me. If you were on social media last night,
or if somebody sent this to you, or you just
happen to see it, maybe you're a big ny Post

(02:51):
dot com reader just grabs your attention. Right, wait a minute,
Reds and Pee Alonzo. You could argue it's clickbait, and
maybe it is. In fact, I think it is, and
I don't think there's anything wrong with clickbait. Like my
job is to get you to click on the podcast
or the listen live and back when I used to
do a blog, the blog like, there's nothing wrong with clickbait.

(03:14):
The idea is, hey, I need you to go to
this to support my way of making a living, So
would you click on it? Nothing wrong with clickbait. I
took the bait and I read the piece, and now
I'm going to take the bait even further and talk
about it. So John Hayman of The New York Post
started the piece by writing, how about long shot reds

(03:35):
as a Pete landing spot? Now that's not really a
normal sentence, but we'll go with it anyway, and he writes,
could the rights pursue Pete Alonzo? It's probably a long shot,
But with Alonzo's market not developing, his expected word is
since he may consider it. Now think about that, okay
for a second, Not since he is in the mix,

(03:55):
Not since he is going to consider it, Not since
he is considering it. It's they might consider it, like
they they might give it some thought. Right, It's like
when my daughter asks if like all our friends can
sleep over. They're saying yes, and there's considering it, and
then there's I might get around to considering it. And
if I consider it and you like the decision, then
the answer is going to be yes. Like, there's lots

(04:17):
that has to happen there. And John acknowledges that it's
unusual for a star free agent to go from a
place like New York to a smaller market like Cincinnati.
He does mention that Cincinnati, with its smallish ballpark, might
be a nice spot for Alonzo to re establish his
value on a deal with early opt out. So he

(04:39):
signs a deal. Theoretically, he comes here, he hits a
thousand home runs, and then he opts out, which is,
you know, it's kind of what Nick Castianos did after
a couple of years. And then he runs through all
the possibilities for Pete Alonzo here, and the smart money
still seems to be on him rejoining the New York Mets.
We will see. Now there's lots of conclusions that you

(05:02):
can come to, or lots of assumptions you might be
willing to make, and they're all fair. One would be, well,
look this is this is Pete Alonzo just trying to
do anything he can to drum up interest or increase
his value. And so if you dangle another team like this,
other sort of from out of left field team, then
maybe it compels the Mets to move more quickly or

(05:24):
another team to move more quickly or up their offer
like agents do this all the time. It could be
and I don't discount this either. It could be the
Reds dropping it, and and now it seems like the
Reds are really trying, right, I mean, we've we've joked
about this a lot this offseason, and I think the
Reds have had a decent offseason so far. They've had

(05:46):
a I think a good and productive week. But you know,
we've joked about how many players they've been in on,
or have considered or kicked the tires on, and so hey,
here's another one, here's maybe the biggest fish still out there.
Let's h we'll drop this. Hey, we you know we
could consider it, not we are considering it. We could
consider it, and if we consider it, then you know

(06:07):
we could do it. And it makes it seem like, hey,
we're trying. We're this franchise that around the country has
fair or not a reputation for being kind of cheap,
and so hey, let's let's make it known that, Hey, hey,
don't we could we could sign Peede Alonzo. See, see,
we're trying. Maybe. I know I'm not supposed to take

(06:29):
the bait here. I know I'm not really supposed to
to devote time on an on an afternoon drive talk
show on this station. I know I'm not supposed to
do this. I know I'm not supposed to as as
a Reds fan. To even envision the site of Pete
Alonzo hitting balls off that riverboat thingy up there in
center field A gabp. But I'm gonna do it anyway.

(06:50):
I'm gonna do it anyway, or I'm at least gonna
talk about it. Because here's the thing. Okay, it seems implausible, right,
it seems totally implausible. Most of us saw this last
night and laughed or had a chuckle or tried to
figure out the right joke to come up with. And
we've had some fun with this. But the problem is this,

(07:14):
this type of thing actually shouldn't be that implausible or
that eyebrow raising or even that unlikely. Now, look from
a pure baseball perspective, I'll be honest with you. I
think you could argue, you know, Pete Alonzo for some

(07:35):
big money deal, multiple years guaranteed. Ah, I'm good, we'll
pass on that. Like he is thirty years old, his numbers,
while still impressive at least from a power perspective, did
dip from what they have been. He's been uber durable,
played in every game last year, is played in at
least one hundred and fifty eight games in each of

(07:56):
the last three years. Joey Vado used to do that.
But you know at some point he's gonna get hurt.
Some point, injuries are going to catch up to him.
By the way, for what it's worth, Pete Alonso, big name,
huge homer in the playoffs against the Brewers, home run
derby regular Ellie de la Cruz had a higher OPS.
By the way, Tyler Stevenson's OPS last year six points lower.

(08:18):
So from a baseball perspective, if it's a year, you
might be going, dude, let's do it. Let's get Pee
Alonzo for a year. Let's watch him hit fifty home
runs a GABP and then he can go and he's
re established his value and the Reds get what they
want the short term, and maybe Peek gets what he
wants in the long term. And we're good here. But
you're being fair if you go, you know what, a
four or five year commitment to a player like that,

(08:40):
as good as he is, as powerful as he is. Yeah,
we're okay here. Guy's got a cool nickname, but I'm
not paying for five years of having the ability to
refer to polar Bear on the home team. The problem,
I think, though, is this not whether you would or
won one pe Alonzo or how far fetched it is
to even consider the possibility of Peter Alonzo being here.

(09:03):
The problem is that when most of us saw this,
we chuckled, and it was probably the first time all
off season long anybody even gave thought to Peter Alonzo
being a Red. Isn't that kind of the issue? Shouldn't
we and the franchise itself be at a place where,
regardless of market size, it's actually not that far fetched

(09:25):
to think that the Reds could get involved with a
premiere free agent. Now you might go, well, yeah, the
problem is baseball's economics. There's very good arguments that can
be made that that is the biggest issue. You could
also make the argument that the Rats could sign Peter
Alonzo and they could jump into the derby and maybe

(09:45):
maybe they're not going to offer him the most lucrative contract,
but they should be in the mix. They can be
in the mix that they really really really wanted to
be in the mix. They could be in the mix.
They could pull their resources, they could find a way
to get it done. Like I understand that there are
teams that don't have the revenues that the Yankees do,
or that the Mets do. We understand that, but it's

(10:08):
still a major League baseball team that's worth a hell
of a lot of money with nearly two dozen owners.
You mean to tell me that if they really wanted
a guy like Pete A. Lonzo, who is still on
the last day of January, unsigned they couldn't put together
their resources and get it done. Of course they could.
The issue with this whole thing is not that I'm

(10:30):
taking the bait, not even the merits of signing him
or the merits of not being interested in him. That
the problem is every offseason we laugh or scoff or
dismiss the mere suggestion that the Reds could be involved

(10:50):
with players of this stature, because we've somehow accepted that,
you know what, the Reds can't sign a guy like
Pete Alonzo. Now, you could attribute that to baseball's economics
if you want. You could attribute that to ownership if
you want. You could attribute to whatever you want. But

(11:13):
whatever you attribute the problem to, there is a problem.
And I'll be honest. For me, it's it's less about
baseball's economics than anything else. But I'll acknowledge that baseball's
economics are a factor. That's the problem. The problem is
that like I talk about this and you're shaking your head,

(11:33):
or you're going, dude, mo, why you're taking the bait,
or you're laughing at John Hayman, or you think it's
stupid that some of the Reds blogs out there have
taken this and run with it. I don't blame them
at all. Their the idea is to get, you know, clicks,
so use it as clickbait. But the idea is it's
viewed as nothing more than clickbait instead of a realistic thing.
Like when the off season started, we didn't even talk

(11:55):
about the merits of you know, could the Reds get
Pee Alonzo if the market kind of creators for him,
even for just a year. We didn't even entertain it
until at least maybe last night. That's maybe that's a problem. So, yeah,
I took the bait, and yeah, man, if you told
me somehow someway the Reds could get Pete Alonso for

(12:15):
a year or two, I'm in for that. I'm not
that interested in a huge deal. Although let's be honest,
I want to win now, and so what do I
care about what they're doing four or five years from now,
so I'm taking the bait. The problem is that this
is bait, and unless we're all very pleasantly surprised, very

(12:37):
little else eighteen minutes after three o'clock, you're welcome to
chime in. We we were loaded with guests yesterday and
a bunch of good ones. We are. We are pretty
free until five forty today, so lots of time for you.
Five point three seven four nine fifteen thirty is our
phone number eight sixty six seven oh two three seven
seven six. You can send me a tweet at moegar

(12:58):
thanks to Delta Dental, which is building healthy, smart, vibrant
communities for all. Go to Delta dentaloh dot com. More
on that later on. The Pro Bowl games are happening
right now, which I guess this year, I'll admit to you, man,
there was some good basketball games on last night. I
didn't watch the Pro Bowl when it was a pseudo

(13:19):
football game, and I guess they played dodgeball in the
Pro Bowl games last night, and they're going to continue
on Sunday. And that that's your thing. The that's your thing.
I didn't really pay attention, but I did see that
Joe Burrow has talked again about the Bengals and established players,
and he wants him to get paid, and he wants
him to stay, and we're obligated to play that. I
don't think Joe Burrow is going to be mad if

(13:41):
T Higgins walks that incredible hot take is next on
ESPN fifteen thirty and the official Home of the Bengals,
an official radio partner of the Bengals. Partner twenty four
minutes after three o'clock. This is ESPN fifteen thirty. More

(14:04):
bait taking later on, and we'll talk about college basketball.
The weekend ahead Sunday for UC is going to be
really really interesting, the Bearcats hosting the Mountaineers. And tomorrow
night at Ruberena is going to be interesting too, because
John Callaperi comes back with his Arkansas Razorbacks for a
game that you'll hear on ESPN fifteen thirty, and we'll

(14:27):
find out once and for all, what do the fans do.
My money is on the booze outweighing the cheers. We
touched on that a little bit yesterday and we'll do
so again coming up in just a few minutes. So
during the Pro Bowl games last night, while players football
players were playing Dodgeball. I guess Joe Burrow was there.
They're in Orlando for the Pro Bowl games, which last

(14:47):
multiple days. They are worse places to be, I guess
than Orlando in late late January. It's January, late January,
early December. So you're gonna hear Laura Laura Rutledge. Easy
for me to say. Laura Rutledge, who's on NFL Live
and SEC Now and has been on this show, joined

(15:07):
us during the Super Bowl week when I was broadcasting
from Los Angeles. Here's Joe Burrow, the quarterback of the Bengals,
and Laura Rutledge.

Speaker 5 (15:16):
Yeah, everybody sees it. Every single week we get a
week out he continues to make unbelievable plays, make people miss,
score fifty plus yards touchdowns. I mean, I don't know
what more he could do to show and prove himself.
You know, we have several guys like that who have
stepped up for us and deserve to be paid and
deserve to be paid what they're worth.

Speaker 3 (15:39):
Sore, you go, several guys who deserve to be paid
and deserve to be paid what they're worth. And this
makes headlines because whenever Joe Burrow talks, especially when the
subject is his teammates and the contract status of his teammates.
It gets people talking, and it gets clicks clickbing. I

(15:59):
think you could go broke trying to get rich, trying
to get inside the head of Joe Burrow. So I'm
not gonna try to do that. I'm just gonna I'm
just gonna make an assessment based on what I've watched,
and if I do that, I'm at this conclusion. I
don't think, and I certainly leave room for being wrong

(16:21):
here down the road. I don't think Joe Burrow will
be mad if T Higgins walks in a couple of weeks.
I don't think that if T. Higgins leaves to go
play for another team, that Joe Burrow will be mad
beyond belief. Disappointed, sure, curious as to what's next, most definitely,

(16:47):
but big mad. And even if he stews a little
bit privately, I don't think he's gonna request a trade.
I don't think he's gonna threaten to retire. I don't
think there's gonna be this big public demiminstruation of his unhappiness.
I don't think he's gonna throw a temper tantrum. I
don't think he's gonna send a bunch of cryptic tweets.

(17:07):
I don't think he's gonna be mad. I do think
that Joe Burrow will be mad if T. Higgins leaves
and they don't replace him. Joe, in one of his
many instances where he has been asked about topics like this,
has said, and I'm paraphrasing him here, like you don't
want to be the team that's constantly letting really good

(17:28):
players get away, and you don't if you can't replace them.
And I keep coming back to that. You know, the
biggest names they've let go and let walk in free
agency have just been players they haven't been able to replace.
They never were able to replace. If you want to
go back a long time ago, Andrew Whitworth. They still
have not replaced Jesse Bates, Right, that's the thing. Really

(17:50):
last year didn't replace Chodoba Woozier. I think Joe Burrow
will be mad if T. Higgins leaves and they don't
replace him. Now, I don't mean like they lose him
and the next day they go sign another wide receiver,
or they lose him and they draft the wide receiver
in the first round. I think, you know, what I'm
getting at here, like you're looking for someone to replace
the production. You're looking for someone to replace him in

(18:12):
the offense, and you know Serve is a really good
number two to Jamar Chase, which is and this is
no knock on Tea, which is what he is. You're
looking for a replacement for T Higgins. That doesn't mean
the numbers look exactly the same, but you know you
want to walk away from it at the end of
the year and go, yeah, they didn't miss Tea because
this guy did this and filled this role really well.

(18:33):
Then Joe Burrow gets mad. I wasn't mad that Jesse
Bates left. I'm mad they still haven't figured out how
to replace him. I was not mad that Andrew Whitworth left.
I understood why they did what they did. I'm still
mad that they never really replaced him. Their plan to
replace him didn't work. I think Joe Burrow will be
mad if T Higgins leaves and the the team ends

(18:57):
up being lousy. I think Joe Burrow will be mad
if he keeps having himself debated on those shouty shows
that you watch on ESPN and FS one because his
teammates suck the only reason Joe Burrow is being debated
as maybe or maybe not an elite quarterback is not
because Joe Burrow has shortcomings. It's because he played on

(19:17):
a team that's stunk this year. So Duke Tobin's job,
if we are starting to fling it back to the
assumption that T Higgins is not going to be here,
Duke Tobin has to find teammates who don't stink. He
has to find a willing replacement. He has to find
not a willing replacement. He has to find a good replacement.

(19:38):
Maybe that's within maybe that's via the draft, maybe it's
in free agency, maybe it's kind of in aggregate, whatever
it is, I don't think it's as cut and dry
as you know T Higgins signs with the Chargers of
the Patriots and the packers of the Steelers or whoever.
I don't think it's as cut and dry as T
leaves and now Joe is really really mad. I think
T leaves and Joe goes, Okay, what's next? And then

(20:01):
he plays with what's next, and he gives this year
a chance to prove that what's next is at least
as good as tea. But if it's not then problems again.
I'm not trying to get inside the head of Joe Burrow.
I don't think anybody should try to do that, because

(20:22):
it seems kind of hard to do. But I don't
think we're dealing with some petulant child here. I don't
think we're dealing with somebody who is ignorant of the
financial realities the Bengals are dealing with here, ignorant of
the possibilities the t Higgins is now allowed to embrace like.
I think Joe gets how it works. He has his preference.
He'll do what he can to state his preference. But

(20:43):
my guess is if he doesn't get his way, he'll
ask what's next, and then give time for what's next
to work, and if it does, all good. If not,
you do not want to get to a place where
Joe Burrow is not just stewing about the player you
let get away, but frustrated over your ability to replace him,

(21:08):
and continually on the outside looking in when other quarterbacks
are starring in the playoffs. Twenty eight away from four o'clock.
Have you ever broken up with someone? Have you ever
wanted someone to break up with you? Ever been in
a breakup? Ever let an employee just walk. If the
answer is yes, do you care where they go next? Next?

Speaker 2 (21:32):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty traffic.

Speaker 6 (21:37):
From the UC Health Traffic Center. Expect more at u
see Health, more clinical trials, more treatment options for personalized care,
more chances to get you back to being you. Visit
ucehealth dot com. Traffic is slow southbound seventy five between
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Speaker 7 (21:55):
Wait.

Speaker 6 (21:55):
Looking at about a fifteen minute delay in through there
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Speaker 3 (22:10):
Sports headlines are a service at kelsey chev Light, home
of lifetime power train protection and guaranteed credit approval from
their family to yours for life kelseyschev dot com. It's
a light sports news day. Got a couple of area
college basketball teams and actions. I both struggling. Dayton's on
the road against Saint Louis. The arch Baron Cup up

(22:31):
for grabs. Seven o'clock is your tip. Indiana's at Purdue
Hoosiers have lost four of five, including their devastating loss
at home to Maryland at the Horn not really at
the Horn in the last seconds. Last Sunday. Tomorrow, NK
used at Oakland. The North lose again last night. That's
now six straight defeats for Darren Horn's team. That is

(22:52):
on ESPN fifteen thirty. It's a college basketball double header
on ESPN fifteen thirty. Tomorrow, NKU and Oakland and then
Kentucky versus Arkansas at Rupp Arena. Pregame at seven thirty.
I'm sure they'll carry it on the Kentucky Sports Network.
I'm sure they'll carry the audio. You'll hear it when
John Calla Perry walks out, fans probably booing him. Also tomorrow,

(23:13):
Miami battles Ohio University. On Sunday, it's u SEE hosting
West Virginia. The environment on Sunday of that game is
going to be interesting. And Ohio State battles Illinois. Tonight,
the Cyclones skate and play hockey against Wheeling. Then they
have an afternoon game tomorrow against Toledo. The Teddy Bear
toss Tonight's puck drops at seven thirty. Also tonight, Columbus

(23:36):
on the road against Utah, a club still searching for
its name. I guess dealing with all sorts of legal
issues as they try to find one. On the Kentucky
Arkansas we talked yesterday about Rick Patino. Rick Patino shot
a video. Rick Patino's the coach at Saint John's, for
some reason, cares about whether Kentucky fans boo the coach

(23:59):
at Arkansas. I don't. I don't know why he cares,
but he shot a video essentially kind of pre lecturing
Kentucky fans why they should cheer John Caliperry. My take
on this is, I don't. I don't believe in lecturing
people about their behavior unless their behavior harmed somebody. And
I'm not going to admonish people for booing. I don't

(24:20):
admonish people for cheering. You do what you feel compelled
to do. I have my opinion on it, but I
just I don't. I don't. I don't believe. I don't
believe in lecturing. I don't believe. Number one, I'm not.
I'm not sure why Rick Patino cares, and don't think
it's his place to lecture people, and it's certainly not mine.
If you want to boo someone, boo them. I if
I was a Kentucky fan, I would not boo John Caliperry.

(24:43):
I think the body of work outweighs the negatives outweighs
how things kind of went down the last few years,
and the way things went down the last few years
weren't good, not just how he left, but like it
was painful watching them offensively, it was painful and still
is painful. I think to a degree watching him not
adapt to the times. It was painful watching him not

(25:03):
embrace the new thing in college basketball, which is get
old and stay old. And I think that in itself
was the main reason why the results in recent years
at UK were limited. But I think the body of work,
the good stuff, dramatically outnumbers that other stuff on and
off the floor. So if I'm a UK fan and

(25:25):
I like, genuinely like UK basketball because I think it's
really good for the sport when they're good, I think
it's really good for college basketball in this area when
they're good. And Kentucky should bludge in Arkansas, which is
kind of the part of Tomorrow Night that nobody's talking about.
But if I was at that game as a UK fan,
I can't imagine booing him. I might not jump up
and down and you know, act like I've won a

(25:46):
new car in a game show or something when he
comes out, but I cannot. For me, at least, I'd
have a hard time not cheering him and then rooting
for him to lose by forty five points. It's interesting
I got. The pushback I've gotten has been Number One,
thank you for not lecturing people, because there's a lot
of folks, a lot of folks in media like to
tell fans how they should behave, which I think sucks.

(26:08):
Like again, as long as you're not harming someone, as
long as you're not being overly inappropriate, as long as
you're not stocking the athletes, as long as you're not
attacking them personally, like leave us alone. Right. Some of
the pushback that I've got has been like, you know what,
if only he wasn't at Arkansas. The problem is he
went to an SEC rival, right. Number one, This is

(26:32):
the first time I've heard Arkansas referred to as a
Kentucky rival, maybe since the mid nineties. It is a
fellow SEC school. But at the end of the season
last year, when they lost to Oakland and suffered another
kind of embarrassing early round exit in the tournament, this

(26:54):
on the heels of losing the way they did in
the SEC tournament, every Kentucky fan that I know, and
I know a bunch threw up their hands and said
time to move on. Coach cal thank you. Time to
move on. And then it was of course like, oh,
go get Dan Hurley. It didn't happen. I'll go go
go Jay, Right, Well, that didn't happen, and he got
Mark Pope, and like, how do you not like Mark Pope?
So sign me up for Mark Pope? Right, But nobody

(27:18):
wanted him, so like if you if you, they didn't,
they didn't fire him. I get it. John Caliperry on
his own moved on, But that's what you wanted. So
like if you're if you're in a relationship where you're
kind of done, but you maybe don't do the dumping

(27:40):
and you're instead the dumpy, but you're not that upset
because you want it out anyway, do you really care
where she goes or he goes? Like you just want
it out. I'm gonna be happy if I'm out of this.
Once you get out, Like, like you break up with
your girl friend, guess what, man, she might decide to

(28:02):
go out with your arch enemy at work. Well, you
can't get mad at her for that. You let her go.
And again I do understand Kentucky didn't fire John Caliperi.
I don't know one UK fan at the end of
the year that was like, yeah, man, let's run this back.
So if you wanted them gone, Arkansas's opening gave you
and him the out. Who do you care where he went.

(28:25):
He wasn't gonna retire. And eventually, like Kentucky, if Kentucky's
really good and they're not quite there yet, I think
they're in that second tier of teams that is really
dangerous because they can score against anybody, but they really
can't stop anybody consistently enough to be counted on. But like,

(28:45):
if you're among the upper echelon teams in the sport,
you know everybody's a threat. You might run into anybody.
And that he wasn't gonna go coach at like Mercer.
He wasn't gonna it was gonna go take a coach
Morehead State. Sorry, nothing against Morehead State. He's gonna go
coach a big time program. It's gonna go coach in
a major conference. Well, there's only four of them, so

(29:06):
pretty good chance he was gonna end up in the SEC.
So he has. And and by the way, if it's well,
we would have been manned had he gone to any
SEC school what he had have been manned? Then had
he gone to Louisville in the ACC and Mad I'm
sure had he gone to like Carolina or Duke or like,
there's only probably a short list of schools that fans
would have been like, Oh yeah, go there. Maybe maybe

(29:26):
like you see, not really a Kentucky rival at the moment.
But if if you wanted him gone, what do you
care about where he went? You wanted him gone, he
left Arkansas gave you an out. Who knows if if
you wanted John Caliperry gone and Arkansas didn't have the

(29:51):
job available, you might be stuck with the coach you
didn't want. Not only should you cheer John Caliperry, maybe
you should cheer the University of Arkansas. They were willing
to hire him. You know, I know Louisville fans that
couldn't wait to move on from Scott Sadderfield. By the way,

(30:13):
guest on the show yesterday, go find the interview on
the podcast page of ESPN fifteen thirty dot com or
the iHeartRadio app who say to me like, dude's so
happy you see, took him off our hands. Okay, because
they didn't want him. Say, a lot of UK fans
didn't want John Caliperry, did not want him. Arkansas gave
him an out, gave you a new coach, gave you
a fresh start. How do you boo that again? I'm

(30:36):
not lecturing, I'm not admonishing do what you want. I'm
not gonna hold it again. Look for me, I think
booing John Caliperry is small. I think it's petty. I
think it's unappreciative. It just that's just me. Now I
can be those things without question. But if you decide,
like if this radio station, if this company decides, you

(30:58):
know what, Mo, We're good, thanks for everything, Sea, which
you never know when that may happen, Well, guess what, man,
I'm probably gonna go work for a media competitor. Like
that's just how it works. You can't get mad at
me if I go and do that. If you didn't
want me, by the way, we can maybe apply this
to T Higgins. So I'm fascinated to see how it

(31:21):
unfolds tomorrow. And you know, Arkansas is bad John calla.
Perry's teams look like they did here without players who
are as good and Mark Poach's team, you know, there's
nothing to not like about that guy, Like every interview,
every coaches show, every profile. Like I used to love
listening to John Caliperry talk, and I still do. I

(31:42):
really liked listening to Mark Pope. Speaking of John Caliperry,
he did talk about his return to Reperena here it
is our focus.

Speaker 8 (31:49):
The last few days has been us, so we haven't done.

Speaker 9 (31:55):
That stuff.

Speaker 8 (31:55):
We'll start today and tomorrow worrying about Kentucky. I'm trying
to make sure we are organized, that we understand what
we're trying to do, that there's there's no confusion. So
our kids could be aggressive and go play, but I

(32:16):
cherish my time there, and so does Ellen and our family.
Great friends, lifelong friends they'll be now. I want you
to understand, even my friends are Kentucky fans. They grew
up with Kentucky and they're gonna be Kentucky fans.

Speaker 3 (32:35):
Now.

Speaker 8 (32:35):
I hope they have red sox on, but they that's
what it is. And you know, I look forward to
walking into building, and you know, as an opposing coach
I'm the opposing coach. I in my time, I don't
remember them ever cheering an opposing coach. So if I'm fine,

(32:58):
all I know is the fans. They're terrific. They were
terrific during our run. They're engaged, and my guess is
they're gonna be really engaged on Saturday.

Speaker 3 (33:10):
I mean, that's he's handling it the right way. And
if he gets boot, he gets booed. And you know,
most coaches who coach there haven't, you know, taken him
to four final fours. But that's I guess that's a
different story. And he does have bigger problems because his
team is awful, like they I watched him play against Tennessee.
They lost that game by twenty four and it wasn't

(33:32):
that close. And offensively they continue to look like a
team with an offense from like two thousand and two. Anyway,
you'll hear the game and the booing or the cheering
tomorrow pregame at seven thirty on ESPN fifteen thirty. We're
gonna we're gonna take more bait. This is not Pete
Alonso bait. We're gonna take more bait. Coming up at

(33:53):
at four h five and We're gonna do something that
I don't think has ever been done on this radio
station as well on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 2 (34:06):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty. Traffic from the.

Speaker 6 (34:11):
UC Health Traffic Center. Expect more at u see health,
more clinical trials, more treatment options for personalized care, more
chances to get you back to being you visit ucehealth
dot com. Traffic is slow southbound seventy five between Western
Avenue and Fort Washington, Wait looking at about a fifteen
minute delay in through there, and construction westbound two seventy

(34:34):
five near the Kentucky Indiana state line closing down the
right lane. I'm at ezelk with traffic.

Speaker 3 (34:42):
This means if you miss stuff on this show, my
feelings are only mildly hurt. We record everything, We put
everything on the internet, and it's free. You can listen
to it on the iHeartRadio app. You can also you
can just go to my podcast page or my page
of the esp thirty doc if you can also go
to the podcast page of ESPN fifteen thirty dot com. Basically,

(35:04):
there's no excuse for you to not hear stuff that
you might have been too busy to listen to. We
had a lot of good stuff yesterday. Kelsey Conway from
The Inquirer was really strong on from the Senior Bowl.
But we talked about Trey Hendrickson and t Higgins and
Jamar Chase, and let's let's face it, before the Bengals
draft players, there's gonna be a resolution with at least
one of those guys, maybe two, ideally three, and those

(35:30):
resolutions will impact the draft. But Kelsey was terrific yesterday
and you're gonna want to hear what she had to
say about what's ahead with Trey and t and Jamar.
Also Scott Sadderfield on the show yesterday. I thought scott'
Sadderfield was pretty good. And I look, man, I get it.
A lot of many most UC fans down on the

(35:51):
direction of the football program right now, but I thought
Scott was good yesterday and talking about the impact, the
hopeful impact expected impact of some of the players who
have come to Ucee from the transfer portal. Also had
Clay Snowden from Jess Baseball on the no brainer trade
the Reds made this week and Justin Vive was really
good as well. Cyclones captain that team is playing really well.

(36:13):
They play tonight and tomorrow is my favorite. It's one
of my favorite promotions in all of Cincinnati sports. It's
the annual Teddy Bear Toss, which, you know, you think
about what it must be like if you're a little
boy little girl and the police have to come, but
the fire department has to come, and it can be scary,

(36:34):
it can be nerve wracking, it could be terrifying, and
you know, sometimes the teddy bear goes a long way.
And so the cyclones collect all these teddy bears and
then distribute them to the Cincinnati Police and Cincinnati Fire Department,
and when a teddy bear is needed, they've got one.
So tomorrow, four o'clock is when the puck drops. They
played Toledo. If you've got nothing to do, go to

(36:55):
the game and bring a teddy bear, Tarin. How are
we doing on time?

Speaker 9 (37:00):
We have about a minute and half.

Speaker 3 (37:02):
We had about a minute and a half. Should I
talk to Dave now and then cut him off or
start the hour fresh by taking a phone call and
giving Dave an unlimited amount of time.

Speaker 9 (37:12):
Let's break the rules and start four o'clock hours.

Speaker 3 (37:14):
Start the hour. Start the four o'clock hour with Dave.
Are you gearing up to give us a Royal Rumble preview.
You'll be at the Royal Rumble.

Speaker 9 (37:21):
Tomorrow, I will be all right.

Speaker 3 (37:23):
How many live WWE events have you been.

Speaker 9 (37:25):
To in my lifetime? Yeah, I'll say at least fifteen,
at least fifteen.

Speaker 3 (37:32):
Is this your first Royal Rumble?

Speaker 9 (37:34):
It is? I went to Summer Slam last summer. Yeah,
now the Royal Rumble. There's need two more at Rustlemania
and Survivors.

Speaker 3 (37:41):
That's the Grand Slam of pay per views, correct, super Bowl?
This super Bowl of Wrestling, and you this is an
India is at at the Cold Stadium Lucas Oil. Lucas Oil, Yes, sir,
great place, awesome. And so the Royal Rumble. When I
was a kid, I remember when this concept was introduced.
It's basically a battle Royal, like thirty guys in the
same ring.

Speaker 9 (37:58):
Right, yeah, but they probably they probably changed it from
when you were doing it now. Yeah, they send a
superstar every ninety seconds. Okay, Yeah, so guys can be
an lemnae before all thirty years.

Speaker 3 (38:10):
And then the winner of the Royal Rumble gets a
chance to fight the champion at WrestleMania. Yes see, I
know my stuff. There we go, I should do the
Royal Rumble preview. I couldn't name any wrestlers, you know,
when you do the Royal Rumble preview, I'm just gonna
come at you with a bunch of like wrestlers from
the late eighties. Right, that's fine, Okay, So I hope

(38:31):
you're you're well versed. I have to check when you
do that, because there are so many, unfortunately, you know,
wrestlers from that time that passed away way way too early,
that when you when you play the let's name wrestlers
from the eighties, there's a better than average chance that
you're naming someone who's no longer with us.

Speaker 9 (38:47):
Possibly.

Speaker 3 (38:48):
All right, well that's coming up a little bit later on.
We killed time there. We'll take some phone calls. I
do have a pole question, like our fifty eighth pole
question about t Higgins. It is coming up here in
just of it, we also have to play more Chris
Canty banging on Joe Burrow and Cam Cam Newton coming
to his defense. I got no issue with Chris Canty's take.

(39:10):
I don't agree with it. Chris Canty is not the problem.
Chris Canty's take is not the problem. I am good
at identifying problems. I'll tell you what the problem is.
On ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports Station. Not thinking about it.

Speaker 1 (39:23):
She has to win one thousand dollars. Enter this nationwide
keyword on our website. Bank that's banking.

Speaker 3 (39:29):
Enter it now. Yeah, what's not mullegor. This is ESPN
fifteen thirty. Thank you for joining us on nice looking
Friday afternoon. All the snow, all the snow, and my
house is melted and it's nice. I hope it doesn't
come back. Oh what do we have? We We've got

(39:54):
to play more Chris Canty with the same take basically,
but on a different outlet. Chris Canty, who you hear
on Sportsman Like Weekday mornings on ESPN fifteen thirty, took
his Joe Burrow is not any lead quarterback take, took
it to TV, took it to Cam Newton, took it
to First Take. Which means, if you got your oil
changed today, you probably this morning you you probably watched

(40:17):
Chris Canty talk about Joe Burrow. Because every time, and
I will admit this, people get mad at me. I
try to change my own oil like I have a
small rule, like no one will ever cut my grass
for me. If I can do it myself, I do it.
But I rarely have time, so I do it quickly.

(40:40):
And every time I go into an oil change place.
Now the Skip Bayless show is not on TV anymore
because Skip Bayless got back got whacked by FS one,
so now it's something else. But every time I go
into an oil change place, you either get Skip Bayless,
a judge show like a courtroom show, or first take.

(41:00):
So in oil change places across America, Chris Canty was
telling people waiting for their oil to be changed, hoping
the guy didn't come in with a dirty filter, and
listening to to Chris talk about how Joe is not
an elite quarterback and we'll address that in uh just
a few minutes. But as I told Dave and Florida,
wait and we'll get to you. And unlike the Cincinnati Reds,

(41:23):
if I ask you to wait, I eventually deliver a payoff. Hi. Dave,
you're on ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 4 (41:31):
Hey Mo, thanks for breaking the rules.

Speaker 3 (41:33):
I appreciate that you're not supposed to take a call
in the first second of the hour.

Speaker 10 (41:37):
I tried, Well, you're a man of your word unlike
Nick krawl is. So we'll discuss that later. So my
take quickly on on.

Speaker 4 (41:50):
The t Higgins situation is that I might out.

Speaker 10 (41:52):
Look on this is a little different, I think than others.
Is because we're talking about we need to sign Tea,
we need to sign Jamar, and we need to sign
t Well. First of all, trade's under contract for next year.

Speaker 3 (42:02):
Correct.

Speaker 10 (42:03):
So to me, to me, I wouldn't much rather have
a offense that we saw last year that puts up
thirty points a game and build a defense that I
don't need an elite defense. I need somebody that can
stop some people, make some stops and win some football
games that way. And I feel like if we keep

(42:27):
sign T, we keep that offense intact and then go
out and build a defense that, you know, middle of
the road, fifteenth maybe overall.

Speaker 8 (42:37):
You know.

Speaker 10 (42:38):
That's what weird that that's my That's that's the way
I look at this. I'm not I'm not ready to
give Trey Hendrickson twenty four million dollars a year, twenty
five million dollars a year for the next two to
three years. I would much rather give that money to
Tea and and.

Speaker 4 (42:52):
Go from there.

Speaker 3 (42:54):
Yeah, I think there's two different you know, to easy
for me to say. I think there's two different tray
versus t discussions. There's who would you rather have next year?
And there's who would you rather give an extension to
if you're only giving one. If it's if it's about
the extension, that's that's pretty easy for me. It's it's
t because he's the younger player. He's the guy who
three four years into the deal, has a better chance

(43:16):
of replicating the player that he is now than Trey Hendrickson,
who's going to be thirty one and let's face it,
probably uh never gonna be as good as he has
been the last couple of years. That doesn't mean it
can't be effective. It's about if it's about an extension,
that's that to me is a no brainer. It's tea.
If it's about next year, Look, man, I'm I'm all
for both. I have no issue with either guy being

(43:36):
on the team. I do think if you're going, look,
take this terrible defense and build it to the middle
of the pack next year. I don't know what that was, Okay,
Jeff Davey, all right, good, Yeah, I'm okay, You're good.
Sounded like maybe the rip broke wind or something. Anyway,
So I got you. So, So if it's about building

(43:57):
a middle of the pack defense from what they had
last year, you could do it. And then there's two
different thoughts there as well. I have a better chance
of doing it around a guy like Trey Hendrickson who
is near the top of his game, or I have
a better chance of doing it with the draft capital
that I could acquire and the money that I could
free up by trading him. And that's why I think
this dynamic is so interesting, Like you can move on

(44:20):
from Trey in twenty twenty five, free up a lot
of money that's on the books right now, get a
draft choice or maybe more that could help you, where
with Tea you're just letting them walk and you're gonna
get the compensatory pick.

Speaker 10 (44:35):
Right I yeah, I mean I I agree with that.

Speaker 9 (44:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 10 (44:39):
No, And real quick, I let you go my take
on Chris Canty.

Speaker 4 (44:45):
Sure, I mean, the guy just.

Speaker 10 (44:47):
Likes to run his mouth, right, But the other day
he tried to start to compare Joe be an elite
to Allen and to Lamar and Patrick Mahomes. Now, Patrick
Mahomes is in a whole different strata speare from Joe Burrow,
Lamar Jackson, and Josh Allen. So his his comment was

(45:07):
that Joe Burrow is not elite because he didn't get
his team to the playoffs. But if you want to
throw Josh Allen Lamar Jackson as elite, has Josh Allen
gotten his team to the Super Bowl? Has Lamar Jackson
gotten his team to a super Bowl as Lamar Jackson?
I mean, how many AFC Championship games has Lamar Jackson

(45:31):
played in? How many AFC Championship games as Josh Allen
played in.

Speaker 4 (45:37):
So to sit there.

Speaker 10 (45:38):
And say that that Joe is not elite because those
two guys do whatever they do and they made the playoffs,
I think it's just it's just asinine and he just
I mean, and I get it, I get the whole
you know, first take and there you know a lot
of it is. I want to you know, they got
to have a storyline and they got to keep them

(45:59):
relevant it. But I mean, he's just he's just an ass.

Speaker 3 (46:05):
Hey listen to him Monday morning on ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 10 (46:08):
Dave, Yeah, sorry, I listen. My first listen is to
either you and Daner and ball don't lie or locked
on bangles with Raupine. So that's who I listened to.

Speaker 3 (46:26):
You can't go wrong with that, Dave. I appreciate the time, man,
thank you. All right, So right on Q, let's so
this this is not I'll admit we played Chris Canty
on Wednesday show from his show on ESPN Radio and
talking about Joe Burrow and and so we're gonna play
this cut from first take. This is not Chris Canty's

(46:47):
part is not at all dissimilar from what we played
on Wednesday. But you're gonna hear the attempt at a
rebuttal and I think a mostly successful one by Cam Newton.
You know, look, if we're gonna make it about these quarterbacks,
Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Joe Burrow, I'll lump them all
in together that they're they're a listers. I think all

(47:07):
three of those quarterbacks will win super Bowls. I think
any team in need of a quarterback would love any
one of them. I could look at their resumes and
I could say, you know, well, Joe has more postseason success,
but you know Lamar's MVP. I mean we can we
can do that. And and I could sit here until
Monday in front of this microphonel we can discuss that.
I lump them all together and they're all trying to

(47:29):
get to where Patrick Mahomes is and he's on the
verge of maybe winning his fourth But I'm gonna play
this audio and I'm less interested in the opinion of
Joe Burrow that either man is going to express, and
I'm more interested in something else. And I'll tell you
what that is after we play the audio. Hit go
ahead and hit it. He's not an elite quarterback. And

(47:52):
we've got to get out of this.

Speaker 11 (47:55):
We've got to get out of this thing where we
want to anoint everybody an elite quarterback.

Speaker 7 (47:59):
Who I'm just saying, we can't give the runner up
to the runner up to the runner up elite quarterback status.

Speaker 11 (48:06):
They ain't but three spots on the metal stand when
we start talking about the podium. It's a gold medal slot,
it's a silver medal spot, and it's a bronze medal spot.
All right, the fourth place guy don't get an acknowledgement.

Speaker 7 (48:17):
And That's where I'm at with the Joe Burrow of
it all. I think when you look at the Big.

Speaker 11 (48:21):
Three when you look at what Patrick Mahomes has done,
when you look at what Lamar Jackson has done, when
you look at Josh Allen's body of work, those guys
have done more in this league in terms of being
able to validate their abilities as a quarterback. When it
comes to being able to acknowledge the level of player
that you are, we got a couple of ways we
measure that in the league. It's Super Bowl rings, it's MVPs,

(48:43):
and it's all pros. Joe Burrow ain't got none of those.
Joe Burrow's claim to fame is once upon a time
four years ago, beat Matt Patrick Mahomes in a playoff
game on his way to losing the Super Bowl. I'm
sorry that doesn't give you elite statuscity.

Speaker 12 (49:01):
Since I got to match fire with fire, I thought
you was gonna I thought you was giving it away
because you had the orange and black, you know, Apple
watch House, Like, oh okay, a boy to come around
go with the Bengals. But if it's not Joe Shisty,
who else? Because when you watch Joe Burrow in the pocket,

(49:21):
he knows he's going to get hit.

Speaker 7 (49:22):
He knows he.

Speaker 12 (49:23):
Doesn't have the offensive line to really sustain and hold up.
But still and yet he's still delivering. Now, if you
give Joe Burrow, as you know, mister Chris Camp, I
need you to do your job on the defensive line
so I could do my job as an office too.
He's doing his job, but he needs other people to

(49:46):
do their job.

Speaker 3 (49:46):
If you give Joe Burrow a.

Speaker 12 (49:48):
Top fifteen, haven't forbid a top ten.

Speaker 3 (49:52):
Defense, what would they be?

Speaker 10 (49:53):
Then?

Speaker 3 (49:54):
His defense that he played with this year is atrocious.

Speaker 12 (49:57):
It goes without saying his step line, and there nobody
keep talking about it ain't just him the dude and
talking about I ain't giving no Super Bowl.

Speaker 7 (50:03):
Back for MVB.

Speaker 12 (50:04):
Yes, Joe Burrow did his job. You do your job
better than the opposing person doing their job. Like I
said yesterday, you need eleven guys doing one thing the
best of their ability, not one guy doing eleven.

Speaker 3 (50:19):
Joe Burrow held his into the bargain up.

Speaker 12 (50:22):
Now, as far as his defense, they failed him and
they know that. And it's embarrassing to even say that
a guy who put up those type of numbers doesn't
have nothing to show for it because the inability of
his counterparts.

Speaker 3 (50:37):
Cam Newton, Yes, Cam Newton. There's no video there wearing
an awesome cowboy hat. Cam Newton's dead on. By the way,
there's a premise there that Chris Canty offered up that
I do wholeheartedly agree with. I remember Joe Flacco wins
the Super Bowl at the end of the twenty twelve
season with the Ravens, and we launched into this. We

(50:58):
was Joe Flacco elite discussion, and the point that I
tried to make was elite isn't one third, it's not
one fourth. Elite is best of the best of the best.
So you can't have in a thirty two team league
like twelve elite quarterbacks. It doesn't work that way. So
I do agree with that premise. But Cam Newton spot
on there. The problem isn't Chris Canty. It's not even

(51:22):
his opinions. It's this the is filling the blank quarterback
elite conversation will never stop. It's been ongoing since I
started following the NFL. I mean, I'm not that old,

(51:43):
but I've been following this league for a long time
as a fan, and you know, Grant and media has changed,
and you know, we didn't have maybe twenty twenty five
years ago live daytime shows on multiple cable networks where
people were screaming at each other. But we've had talk radio.
I had sports talk radio now for decades. We've had columns.

(52:03):
I mean, there have been lots of venues for people
to express publicly their opinion on quarterbacks and my entire life.
I've listened to people debate, you know, the tears of QBS.
I remember one of the I used to love this
show on a nationally sitting in one on one sports

(52:23):
Bob Kemp. If you're like a hardcore mid ninety sports
talk radio nerd, Bob Kemp was on overnight every night.
He was one of the best sports talk radio hosts
I've ever listened to. I remember I was on high
school the night the forty nine Ers beat the Chargers
to win the Super Bowl. This would have been in
January of ninety five, and listening to him engage people

(52:45):
in the argument about whether Steve Young was elite. I
don't know if he used the word elite. I think
we've crafted that word and made it trit over the
last twelve to thirteen years. But the point being, I
remember when people debated this about John Elway. I remember
when people debated this about Boomer Assiasin. I'm old enough
to remember that, and again we didn't maybe have the

(53:07):
volume of voices out there. But Boomer Assiasin was an
MVP during a time where he was playing with a
bunch of dudes who are in the Hall of Fame now,
and Boomer was the best player in the league that year.
But there was still a thought that, well, he's not Montana,
and he's not Kelly, and he's not Dan Marino in
a warm mo like. So the point being, these conversations

(53:30):
have existed for a very long time and they're not
going to stop. The problem is is that in this
period of time, Joe Burrow is the central figure of
the conversation. He is in the cross hairs of the
conversation and until he and they win one, that's not

(53:50):
gonna stop. Lamar Jackson's gone through this, Josh Allen has
gone through this. And by the way, if next year,
let's say next season, Joe Burrow plays Josh Alan in
the AFC Championship Game, well then guess what who's going
to be on the outside looking in Lamar Jackson and
the conversation will be more about him, Or if it's
Joe versus Lamar by the way, right now, if we

(54:13):
really want to do this right, and you're not gonna
like this, if we really want to make it about
you know, there's only the the the elite, uppercrust, absolute
top tier qbs. There's really only one because everybody's chasing
Patrick Mahomes, right, everybody's chasing Patrick Mahomes. But until he
wins one, and you could apply this, I guess to
Josh Allen and Lamar too, because they haven't won one yet.

(54:36):
There's always going to be these debates and not that
if you win one, you're exempt from, you know, us
talking about your career, your legacy, should you have won
more than one. But I do feel like once you've
got one, you're in the club. Like you're you're in
the club. They can't take that away from you, Like
that's that's a trump card. Yeah cool. This guy threw
for more yards, I got a ring, Yeah cool, this

(54:59):
guy's won more MVP. He's neat like he's in the club.
He's got a Lombardi, he's got a title. And so
this conversation is not going to end. This is why
if I'm Joe Burrow, I'm so frustrated. Okay, I'm on
the outside looking into the playoffs QBS that I'm I'm
at least as good as and in most cases better

(55:20):
than they're playing in the postseason. You might argue one
is playing in the Super Bowl. He Patrick Mahomes wasn't
as good head to head, you know, QB versus QB
wasn't as good as Joe Burrow this year. If he was,
he'd be an MVP finalist. But yet those two guys
are playing. Not only are qbs who are my peers
and in some cases inferior, not only are they getting

(55:41):
in consecutive years the showcase of the postseason. I've got
to hear about how I'm not elite when I just
had an MVP caliber season. That's not Joe Burrow's fault.
It's the team's fault. It's his teammate's fault. It's the
organization's fault. It's the defense's fault. It's Luen Rumo's fault.
It's the offensive line's fault. It's Taylor's fault, it's Frank
Pollock's fault. It's not Joe Burrow's fault. That's the issue.

(56:06):
You are gonna find more people than Chris Canty who
think that Joe Burrow isn't quite there yet as long
as he's not playing in the postseason, just as you're
going to find that, there are people who will allege
that Lamar Jackson's not quite there yet. And by the way,
Lamar Jackson's postseason performances have been very uneven. He had
multiple turnovers in their game against the Buffalo Bills. Joe
hasn't had a transcend in postseason performance yet, but he

(56:28):
hasn't had a real clunker either. Right, but until he
wins one, until he's like you know, they for people
who stand outside to go in nightclubs, they have velvet ropes.
I guess until he wins one, the velvet rope is
gonna be up, and if he wins one, it's gonna
be pulled back and he walks in, and then we're
kind of done with this elite quarterback conversation at least
for a while. Maybe it pops up again if he

(56:51):
plays fifteen more years and never gets back to one
like Aaron Rodgers, or if he plays for another what
twelve thirteen years and doesn't get back to one like
Drew Brees. My new friend. But the problem isn't Chris
Canty's take. It's that he is in the heart of
this conversation to begin with, lumped in with these other
qbs who also haven't won. You heard that clip there.

(57:14):
I don't think Patrick Mahomes's name was mentioned. So the
problem for each one of those three guys, and you
could add others to the conversation, of course, and maybe
some will be added to the conversation. The problem is
you've got three dudes who are being talked about and
are basically looked at as the same because they haven't won.
So if I'm Joe Burrow, that's the thing here, man,

(57:36):
Like I'm doing my part. I need this team to
get me out of Chris Canty's mouth. I need this
team in this franchise to get me off a first take.
I need to no longer be a part of this
conversation because I'm exempt from it. I'm in the club.
I'm on the inside looking out at the qbs that
are still being talked about as maybe or maybe not
being elite. The conversation will go on forever. If you

(58:00):
live for another thirty forty to fifty years, you will
constantly hear people debating which quarterbacks are the best, which
quarterbacks are elite. It's not going to go away. What
you want is for your team to have achieved enough
that your quarterback is exempt from it until that changes.
No matter what Joe Burrow does, and he was awesome

(58:21):
this year. He played at an MVP caliber level. He
played like the best quarterback in the sport. He won't
win the MVP for the same reason we keep talking
about him being or not being an elite quarterback because
the team and the franchise failed him. If that continues,
you're just gonna hear more people like Chris Canty talking
about how he's not among the best. That's the problem

(58:46):
that in us being leate twenty three after four ESPN fifteen.

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This reporting sponsored bike things on social media. One is
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(59:48):
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thank them for that. Check Out what you're spending on
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can help you save a lot of money, So go
to uhins dot com. If t Higgins returns next season
to the then you originally known as Paul Brown Stadium

(01:01:33):
in another uniform next year? Should fans boo him? Vote
now at Moegar should fans And there's three choices. Should
fans boo them comes back in another uniform next year?

(01:01:54):
Or you know, even let's say he's on a team
that doesn't come to what used to be called PBS
season and he comes back in two years in a
different uniform. Should he get booed? Vote now at mulwager
on Twitter or x whatever you're gonna hear Sean Miller

(01:02:18):
and West Miller. We'll look ahead to the weekend in
college basketball and I there are reasons and there are excuses,
and then one is neither. I'll explain next on ESPN fifteen.

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Speaker 3 (01:03:12):
On ESPN fifteen thirty are a service of Kelsey Chevrolet,
Home of lifetime power train protection and guarantee you credit
approval from their family to yours for life Kelsey chef
dot com. I do not count as sports headlines any
haggling between the County and the Bengals. And there's a
story on that, and I skip past that one. I'm

(01:03:33):
not ignorant of the news. I'm not one of these folks.
I don't want to know. Like I just I could
not be less interested legitimately. And I say this as
a Bengals fan, a Hamilton County taxpayer, season ticket holder,
sports talk radio host. I've never been less interested in
a topic than what the County and the Bengals are

(01:03:56):
going to do to extend their lease, revise their lead.
I just I can't do it. I'm not quite to
the point that I'm mwing certain terms on social media.
I haven't done that in a while, but we're getting close.
So those aren't sports headlines. There really aren't that many
today college basketball. Tonight, dayton battles Saint Louis. I'll make

(01:04:17):
an admission here. The Flyers fooled me. I thought this
team was going to be really, really good once they
turned the page to Atlantic ten play. They're on the
road tonight against Saint Louis. They are four and four
in the league. They have played two blatantly non competitive games,
including their tilt the other night against Saint Bonaventure. I've

(01:04:37):
not seen a team they and Maui when they played
so well. They only won one game, but they played
so well, nearly beat North Carolina, nearly beat Iowa State,
and I thought, like number one, these guys offensively can
score a lot of different ways. Defensively, they will hound you.
They really look like a team that enjoys playing with
each other, and over the last two months they've morphed

(01:04:58):
into a team that looks like they hate laying with
each other. Cream Abdul Jabbar plays for Saint Louis. Hopefully
no fights in the stands. Did you watch that on
Tuesday night CBS Sports Network, Saint Louis was playing VCU.
You might have been waiting for the Bearcat game to start,
and it was awesome. It was awesome because they kept
showing it. You know, typically if there's a fight in

(01:05:18):
the stands, and part of it was like it was
right behind the bench. Was that the VCU bench, so
it was kind of hard to avoid. That was awesome.
Now I'm not sure why they couldn't keep playing the game,
but that was awesome. Seven o'clock tip off tonight. Indiana's
on the road against Perdue. Hoosiers have lost four or five.
Just took a killer of a loss to Maryland last Sunday. Tomorrow,
NKU battles Oakland Grizzlies beat the Norse by fifteen points.

(01:05:42):
Here the Norse last night on the road against a
bad Detroit Mercy team shot thirty percent from the field
and fourteen percent from behind the arc. Darren Horns club
has lost six consecutive games. Four o'clock tomorrow on ESPN
fifteen thirty. By the way, you might have heard on Wednesday,
Rick Brooring was with us. He is every Wednesday to
talk Xavier and NKU basketball, does the NKU broadcast, and

(01:06:06):
he has a growing Facebook presence because Rick is running
things back to like it was two thousand and seven,
and so the last couple of weeks, I've given him
a Facebook assignment and I asked him to write a
column about what he would do if he was named
commissioner of college basketball and what he would do. His
ideas are awesome, So go find him on Facebook and

(01:06:29):
read his piece. Miami bounds back after their loss to
Akron with a win over Eastern Michigan. The RedHawks taking
on Ohio tomorrow, you could make the argument, and I
actually think the Xavier Musketeers are going to get in
because I think they're getting better. They play a bunch
of bad bigies teams. They do get Creton at home.
They have beaten Villanova Xaviers off until Tuesday when Georgetown

(01:06:52):
comes to town. You might argue, and Akron's going to
have a lot to do with this, and the randomness
of a conference tournament might have a lot to do
with this. You could argue that Miami might have the
best chance of any Southwest Ohio team of making the
NCAA Tournament. Kentucky and Arkansas Tomorrow, for all the John
Caliperry talk, the story of the game tomorrow for the

(01:07:14):
Wildcats really should be should be an easy home win.
Eleven and a half point favorites. The Razorbacks are bad offensively,
you could argue, and I would say it's probably LSU.
But there are three absolute dregs of the SEC, which
is the best conference in the country this season. Arkansas
is one of them. So is LSU, so is South Carolina.

(01:07:35):
Kentucky still plays those teams. But first things first, John
Caliperry and Arkansas Intown tomorrow seven thirty is pregame on
ESPN fifteen thirty. Let's do this quickly and then we'll
talk about Sunday. I did mention Xavier coming off the
loss to Creighton on Wednesday night. They don't play this weekend.
Georgetown's here for an eight to thirty game on Tuesday.

(01:07:57):
Here's something that wes no West. Here's something that Shawn
Miller had to say after the loss to the Blue Jays.

(01:08:41):
I like that message. I mean, first of all, Sean
after some of the losses his team has suffered this year,
has he's looked either like someone who has something he
wants to say but can't and maybe that's been about officiating,
but also a coach who was very frustrated that was
a that wasn't a really tough loss. I mean, I
never felt like Xavier was going to win the game.

(01:09:02):
Creighton's very good offensively. It was an eight point game
with under four minutes to go, and they kept getting
stops on defense and couldn't translate that into points. And
then eventually Creighton comes down and hits a three. They're
up eleven. Ballgame. But after a game like that, which
sort of it's not the end by any stretch, but
you kind of cut the season in half because the
season was front loaded in the Big East with the

(01:09:23):
tougher teams and tougher venues. I think there's something about
saying that publicly about your team, like, dude, we have
a chance to take off if we continued, And this
wasn't said, but I think it was implied. If we
continue to improve the way we have over the last month,
and he can't say this. With the opponents we have
in front of us, we can take off this season.

(01:09:45):
And I don't think it's implausible. They have no margin
for air. They cannot afford a bad loss. But I
don't think it's implausible to start talking about Xavier and
the NCAA tournament. We're still really a long way away
from that. But that was a non starter. Just a
couple the weeks ago and it's no longer. You see
in West Virginia on Sunday, you know the Mountaineers that

(01:10:07):
kind of felt like they had arrived. They beat Kansas
on New Year's Eve, and then a couple of weeks
ago they beat Iowa State and it was like, oh boy,
maybe the West Virginia Mountaineers are going to be like
legitimate contenders in the Big Twelve. Since then, they have
lost three games. You see, is going to play against
a player who has played against him and played well
at two different schools. Javon Small scored nineteen against him

(01:10:27):
when he was at Oklahoma last year and twenty three
in a game against Cincinnati while playing for ECU a
couple of years ago. I am really interested in the
atmosphere and the environment on Sunday. First of all, we've
talked about this a bunch. You keep looking for a

(01:10:48):
desperate effort by the Bearcats. You keep looking for a
complete performance by the Bearcats. Their season is hanging by
a threat. You may have already declared him, but they
are coming home. Their season is hanging by a thread.
Does the team inspire the crowd to create the sort

(01:11:12):
of atmosphere that so many of us love about Fifth
Third Arena when it's at its best. Does the crowd
urge the Bearcats on to a badly needed home victory,
or does the team play so poorly again that the
booing we've heard in two of the last three home
games becomes even louder and comes from an even further

(01:11:37):
place of disgust. This team needs a victory. I think
this coach badly needs a victory. Let's call it what
it is, because it's interesting. I've had a couple of
different people text me in the aftermath of what happened
against Utah about what Sunday may look like if things
go poorly. Now, I obviously hope they don't go poorly,

(01:11:58):
but if you've listened or watched, or if you've been
at some of those games, like we've talked a lot
about booing the last couple of days, that wasn't just boy,
the team is playing poorly. I think that was coming
from a place of dissatisfaction with just the current state
of the program. And I think when you take that
and you add to it, maybe another poor performance and

(01:12:19):
perhaps more former players expressing how they feel about what's
going on with uc basketball right now. It could create
a pretty ugly scene on Sunday. Two o'clock is the
game on Sunday afternoon. And look, hopefully it sounds cliche.
Hopefully they put it together because the Utah game and
for a stretch offensively, they were fine. Jason Williams has

(01:12:41):
a piece in the in the Acquired Today about how
uce basketball is soft when you get out rebounded seven
straight games, when you get crushed on the boards by eighteen,
when you have the defensive issues and kind of get
pushed around the way the bear Cats have. I'm sorry
that label starts to apply, and so it's up to
the team to do something about removing that label. We'll
see if they do so. Ohio State battles Illinois. The

(01:13:02):
Buckeyes lost three straight heartbreakers, each by two points or last.
They have since one free consecutive games and taken on
an a line iteam that lost a tough one at
Nebraska last night. Also this weekend, Cyclones are home for
Wheeling tonight, Toledo tomorrow, and the Blue Jackets on the
road against Utah. So there you go, while we're at

(01:13:22):
at Taran, go ahead and give me some West Miller
audio from yesterday.

Speaker 13 (01:13:27):
I don't think it's a simple answer. Probably is simple
and an answer, but the process isn't so simple because
there's the frustration stems from certainly not finding the results
that you want to find. That's frustrating. There is some

(01:13:50):
things that from an effort standpoint, that have been very admirable,
like the way that they're coming into practice trying to
do the right things. So there's some things there that
create more for you. You know, you make a great effort,
you try to improve some things, and then you don't
find the result right away. That can be frustrating. But

(01:14:11):
so those type of things are creating frustration for sure.
And the third thing I'd say is when there's a
high level of care like I'll talk about character here
in a second, but there's a high level of care
in our locker room amongst our team and coaching staff.
And so when you care at a high level and
again you feel like you're not reaching the standard, that's frustrating.

Speaker 9 (01:14:35):
So there's some frustration there.

Speaker 3 (01:14:38):
Les Miller, that was yesterday. I think it's I think
it's hard if you're where he is right now, nothing
you say is going to work. If he comes out
and lamb basse his players, he's going to get criticized
for it. Mc cronin did it a couple of weeks ago,
got crushed for it. Maybe a code shouldn't care. I
know Mick dudn't. Actually that's not entirely true, but like

(01:15:02):
he can come out and talk about toughness and lack
of effort and he's going to get crushed for it.
And he could say what he said yesterday and he's
going to get crushed for it. I look at the
effort piece and I go, that should be implied, like
that's just, especially as a UC fan, that I expect.
I expect effort. I don't go out of my way
to talk about, oh, they really played hard, like there's

(01:15:23):
also something else, man, and I I've gotten myself into
this conversation a couple of different times. I went and
grabbed a sandwich on my way to work today and
I ran into somebody who I'm not going to say
who they are, but I really respect and knows a
lot about college basketball, and we were talking about a
few different teams in the area. But he goes like, yeah,

(01:15:43):
you know what with the nil right now? And like
nil's changed the game. And I am the biggest proponent
of NIL you will ever meet, because I want everybody
to get paid everybody. I certainly do acknowledge that maybe
some guardrails would help the sport, right, including just like
let them collectively bargain and get contracts and maybe have

(01:16:03):
multi year contracts. And I think that's the best way
to do it. I'm not sure that's reality anytime soon,
but I feel like this has kind of become a
little bit of a bailout or a cop out. When
a team goes south, well you know the NIL, Yeah,
guys are checked and they got their money. Well, then
he got the wrong guys. Like the players on the

(01:16:27):
Houston Cougars are getting paid. Have you watched them? And
the players at Alabama are getting paid? Have you watched them?
And the players at Iowa State and Tennessee and Marquette
and Michigan State and Purdue and Kentucky like some of
the best teams in the country. Auburn obviously they're getting

(01:16:47):
paid as some of those teams are more known for
just how they play. The effort, Like everybody talks about
how Houston reminds folks, And I've said this for years.
The way Houston plays is reminiscent of some of these
Bearcat teams that so many of us love. So like,
everybody's getting paid. It's not a blanket state, like, well,

(01:17:08):
you know, they're losing because the guys are getting paid
and they got their money, and it's causing issues in
the line. And I'm not saying that any of these
things apply, but I've I've I've had multiple conversations over
the last couple of weeks about UC specifically because people
know I'm a Bearcat fan, I guess and it's like, well,
you know, an Il, I dance Gillet, and I bring

(01:17:28):
up Dan because Frank Lee recently and I think he'd
admit this statistically and otherwise has been struggling. I don't
know what he's getting paid. I don't care what he's
getting paid. I don't care what he does with his money.
But we can't just go an Il see like, well,
I'm getting paid right like like I mean, I'm getting
paid to do this right now. I work my hardest
at it, I try, like I care, like I just

(01:17:51):
I refuse to go that route. And I it's not
to say that it doesn't apply to certain people it
does in life, Like there are certain people that, like,
you know what we see it in sports. They get
their money and it's not the same. The efforts maybe
not the same. Level of commitment is maybe not the same.
But if that's the case, like nil is not going away.

(01:18:14):
It may be regulated better, but it's not going away.
So now part of the formula for a head coach
and for a staff is going to be you know
they always talk about we've got to recruit the right guys. Well,
recruit guys that when they get paid, it doesn't inhibit
their willingness and ability to get better, improve, be accountable,
do the right things, practice hard work on their own,

(01:18:36):
be a good teammate, care about performance, care about winning.
And like I don't hear this from Wes or from
coaches necessarily, but if if the lament is going to
be this is becoming harder, Like some have gotten out
because you know, they just don't like the new way
of doing things, and new ways of doing things usually

(01:18:57):
have casualties. I mean, we've seen it in this business
all the time, right, But you know, you sign up
to be a coach, you're getting paid a lot of money.
Here are the rules here the parameters figure it out
and identify the right guys. And if you have guys
who because they're getting paid, now, whatever it is that's

(01:19:19):
prohibiting them or keeping them from doing the things that
your program needs from them, you're going to be held
accountable for that because you recruited the wrong guy. Again,
I don't I don't know that that's applicable to any
Bearcat necessarily, but you know, well, they're getting paid. That's
why they're well with the winning teams. Those guys are

(01:19:40):
getting paid, right, I mean, I watch Iowa State play.
Those dudes go I watch al Alabama's my favorite team
in the country. Natoas is right now, my favorite coach
in the country. Like, I love how his teams play offensively.
They are something to behold. Dudes are getting paid a

(01:20:00):
lot of damn money. I'm not that interested. I'm just
speaking for me, which is all I can do. I'm
not that interested in Well, they're losing, and the reason
is the money issues and not like money, money can
change things, man, money can create jealousy. I see it
in the real world, right, like money can change relationships.

(01:20:22):
As a coach, you've got to figure out a way
to work through that. Had to figure out a way
to identify the right guys and if there are issues,
and by the way, there have been issues permeating through
locker rooms since the start of sport. Whatever it is
could be playing time, could be a girl. I mean,
it could be anything. So now it's money, you had

(01:20:43):
to figure it out. If you're the coach, I hope
that came off. Okay, it's seven away from five o'clock.
You're gonna hear Chad Johnson speak the truth and it's
a tough one and I'm gonna I'm I'm gonna grab
onto the bait again as well on ESPN fifteen thirty

(01:21:03):
Cincinnati Sport Station.

Speaker 2 (01:21:06):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty traffic from the.

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I seventy five and also southbound seventy five. Another accident
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Speaker 3 (01:21:53):
Yeah, what's up? It's a five oh four. This is
the fifteen thirty. I'm Moager. Thank you for listening. Hopefully
your weekend is off to the greatest start ever. We've
made it. We're at the last hour of the week.
We've made it. We've made it almost there. Not that

(01:22:13):
we've been counting down. Coming up at about fifteen minutes, A
hard truth from a former Bengal more on the college
hoops coming up this weekend, and so and so, we're
glad you're here. Plus we're gonna chat with one of
the new players to Scott Saderfield's program at the University
of a Cincinnatia, conversation that I think you'll enjoy. We

(01:22:37):
will get to our poll question here in just a
bit as well. He do we Tarran and we got
Tarran Bland's Rumble Royal Rumble preview. He will be there
in Indianapolis tomorrow. You do a great job of monitoring stuff,
as it's happening. Has has Pete Alonso signed with the Reds?

Speaker 9 (01:22:54):
Not you?

Speaker 3 (01:22:55):
Is that a thing? Have we gotten word that there's
going to be a like a press conference or anything?

Speaker 9 (01:22:59):
If that happen, I think we'll throw a parade.

Speaker 3 (01:23:01):
Pet Alonzo he has he signed with anybody? Uh?

Speaker 9 (01:23:04):
No? All right?

Speaker 3 (01:23:05):
Uh, but feel free to break in with any late
breaking Pee Alonzo news between now and uh six o'clock.
Let me know, because I want to make sure I'm
all over this. We're you know, we're doing this because
uh last night, Uh John Hayman from from the New
York Post. Boy, I can't tell you man, I read
the New York Post all the time. Uh he he
gets everybody's attention with a clickbait article. And like, I

(01:23:29):
don't use clickbait as a derogatory term. Like if if
you put stuff online, whether it's a blog, newspaper, article,
radio show, a podcast, like, it doesn't really work if
if nobody consumes the content. So you got to send
people to the content. The way you send people to
the content is, you know, to lure them with something.
That's what bait does. It lures people. So I got

(01:23:50):
no problem with clickbait. But some clickbait last night, if
you will, from John Hayman of The New York Post,
who asks how about the long shot Reds as a
p Alonzo landing spot, and then he writes, could the
Reds pursue Pete Alonzo? It's probably a long shot, but
with Alonzo's market not developing as expected. Word is since

(01:24:12):
he may consider it now, it's not word is since
he is the favorite to sign I'm not his word
is since he is going to sign I'm not. Word
is since he is engaging with his agent. It's not
even word is since he is considering it. It's word
is since he may consider it. He may if I

(01:24:32):
ever tell you like hey, I might consider that probably
not going to do it like hey, we're all going
to go on a hunting and fishing trip that would
get for me. The I might consider that. That's my
gentle way of telling you no, because I'm if I
consider it, that's different than I might consider it.

Speaker 6 (01:24:56):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (01:24:56):
There are lots of things this could be. This could
be simple, well, his agent pee Alonzo's agent trying to
trying to to stir things a little bit and get
things moving. It is the last day of January. It
could be him trying to compel the teams that are
more likely to sign him to come to the negotiating
table and make more serious offers. That's very well what

(01:25:20):
this could be. It wouldn't surprise me at all. And
this isn't a criticism either. If if you're the Reds, well,
hell man, you know we've kind of got this rep
for you know, we're cheap. That's their rep. Sorry. Uh,
We're never going to be involved with guys like this.
We don't care about winning. What better way to dispel
that beyond actually signing the player than hey, making it

(01:25:40):
seem like, hey, we could be we know we could
be involved in the Pee Alonso sweepstakes. Now, what's worth
pointing out here is John Haymon kind of writes about
this from the standpoint of not so much Peter Alonzo
signing a mega contract with the Reds, but signing a
contract that gives him some opt outs. You think of
Nick Casti, who played here for two years, signed a

(01:26:01):
forty year deal, had a great year in twenty twenty one,
and then opted out and signed for even more money
with the Phillies. Nick Castiano's used Cincinnati to increase his
his market value good for him. And so the theory
here is, well, you know, Pete could come to Cincinnati,
playing great American ballpark, hit eighty home runs, and you know,
suddenly he's back to being a high value player and

(01:26:24):
he hits the free agency because he opts out of
his deal and gets the money that he's looking for
right now. Maybe maybe so I took the bait. I
took the bait. And I've talked about Pete Alonzo today,
By the way, there are if you're talking about, like, hey,

(01:26:46):
this dude should have been signed to a huge money
contract a long time ago. I can make I can
make arguments why maybe that shouldn't be the case. I mean, yeah,
a good year last year he had thirty four home runs.
That's not an insignificant number, but his numbers were down

(01:27:08):
from the year before, and the year before they were
down from what they were the year before that they were.
Pet Alonzo hit forty in twenty twenty two, hit in
twenty twenty four, hit thirty four. His OPS fell by
about forty points. Dip below, dip below eight hundred. Eli
de la Cruz had a higher OBS last year. Tyler

(01:27:30):
Stevenson's OPS was only six points lower he plays catcher.
Pete Alonzo played in every game. Last season, he played
in one hundred and fifty four games. Two years ago,
he played one hundred and sixty games. In twenty twenty two,
I'm kind of wondering, like, when's that gonna fall off,
because it does. I mean, Joey Vado for years played
in every single game and then suddenly could never stay healthy.

(01:27:50):
Pee Alonzo was also now thirty years old, So there's
a part of me that goes, you know, there's a
decent chance that his days of hitting forty home runs
every single year in the not that he still can't
hit the ball out of the ballpark, not that he
still can't help your team. But this is kind of
the problem with baseball free agency. A lot of dudes
hit free agency for the first time and they're thirty,

(01:28:11):
and teams go, yeah, I would love to pay you
for the player you were if you're still going to
be that guy. But this is a pretty good chance
you're not going to be. So if you're looking at
this from hey, he should be getting one of those
mega contracts. I don't know, dude, thirty year old first
baseman whose numbers dropped, Still good, but whose numbers dropped
last year? Not doing it now? Short term? I'd be

(01:28:33):
in whether it's the Reds, the Giants and the Mets whoever, like, yeah,
give me Pete Alonzo short term, especially a GABP. But
the problem with this is we don't have the discussion
from a baseball perspective. Right here in Cincinnati. We don't
have it from a baseball perspective and debate the pros

(01:28:55):
and cons of Like, dude, what if you could get
him here for let's say, for two years and maybe
he could opt out after one? What would those power
numbers look like at GABP? What would you do with
the Christian and Karnasi on strand how would it impact
lineup construction? How would it impact roster construction? We don't

(01:29:17):
even have those conversations because well, when we saw this
last night, we all laughed and made jokes and talked
about how it's clickbait and wonder, really what's in play here?
The problem is this type of thing shouldn't be that

(01:29:37):
implausible or eyebrow raising or unlikely or considered a non
starter or something that we don't even talk about from
a pure baseball perspective, because we've been conditioned to believe
that there's no chance the Reds can or would sign
a guy like this. Now you might say, yes, Mo,

(01:30:02):
it's a problem, And it's a problem because of Baseball's
economic model. That's fine. And you might say, mo, it's
a problem because of the Reds just their inability or
unwillingness to pull the resources together among all their owners
and spend on Pee Alonzo. And maybe that's the case,
but whatever it is, that's an issue, and it's frustrating

(01:30:25):
as a fan. Like you could say whatever you want
about the NFL and how it does things and the
pros and cons of a salary cap, and I could spend,
you know, weeks on end talking about the pros and
cons of a salary cap. But like pretty much every team,

(01:30:47):
not only do they have a shot at the Marquis
free agents, fans believe their team has a shot at
Marquis free agents, some more likely than others, others based
on need. With this sport and with this team, we
just dismiss it. Like we're gonna do it with the Bengals,

(01:31:10):
We're gonna do with the NFL. Look at the list
of available free agents, and find you know the right
fit and who fits, and it's kind of a fun
exercise with baseball. We don't really even do it that much.
We don't do we don't do with the pen alonzo.
So like, the thing about this is, I watched everybody's
reaction on social media last night, and it was a
combination of people snickering and wondering, Okay, what's behind the

(01:31:30):
closed door, what are they really doing? Why is this
being written? A handful of fans in New York panicking,
a handful of Reds fans, you know, sort of going
crazy with delusions of grandeur, if you will. But the
frustrating thing for me, and again, if it's just about
baseball's economics, that's fine, And if it's about how the
Reds do things, that's fine. We don't even we don't

(01:31:54):
even entertain this like this dude's been a free agent
for four months. We haven't even we haven't even like
it's never been brought up. And I'd like to be
I'd like, as a Reds fan, I'd like to be
in a place where this sort of thing could get
brought up and debated on its baseball merits, on its

(01:32:15):
baseball bona fides, that doesn't happen, and it's not gonna happen.
And you know, they're I'm sure a lot of folks
out there who think Pee Alanza re signing with the
Mets is and inevitability. And if that's the case, that's fine.
And and again, I don't know if I'm giving this
dude a five or six year contract, but I believe, actually,

(01:32:36):
like if if the Reds really really really wanted to
bring in Pede Alonzo and at least for a year
or two and say, all right, look you go and
see if you can get a five or six year deal.
If not, we've got this really healthy two year offer,
and you know what, you can opt at it after
a year. I think they can do that. I believe
wholeheartedly they could do that. They won't, or at least

(01:32:59):
we don't think they will. Now they do, we'd be
very pleasantly surprised. And that's an issue. Okay, you may
blame it all on baseball's economics in this particular instance,
you know, nobody's talking about. At least I'm not hey,
sign that dude to an eight year contract. I think
that'd be sort of obscene, because again, thirty year old,
like it's at some point the production's gonna drop off.

(01:33:21):
I'm not that interested in his bad years, but God
put him in the lineup next season. Yeah, I do that.
The perception and the belief are that the Reds won't
and so you don't even get to the point that
you talk about what it would look like if it
did happen because we assume it won't. That's not very

(01:33:43):
healthy for the old hot stove. Sixteen minutes after five o'clock,
you're gonna hear Chad Johnson on T Higgins.

Speaker 2 (01:33:51):
Next Cincinnatis is and I quote.

Speaker 3 (01:33:55):
I want to live until the last day of my life.
It is twenty one minutes after five o'clock. This is
ESPN fifteen thirty. Thank you for listening. Happy Friday, Thanks
so much. I got a couple of things on Twitter.

(01:34:18):
One go sign up and you can win a big
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(01:35:02):
uhi NS dot com. If t Higgins comes back and
plays against the Bengals next year in Cincinnati, should fans
boo him? Eighty one point six percent of you say no,
sixteen point three percent say yes if he's with a rival,
and uh two point one percent say yes, should boo him?
I guess no, matter what, I would not boo him. Look, man,

(01:35:27):
he's gotten to a point in his life. He has
achieved and that's the right word. He has achieved free agency,
So the Bengals got him to this point, So I
wouldn't boo him. Also, wouldn't boot John Calipari not apples
to apples of course. But that's the thing here now

(01:35:49):
man like we we we can. We can talk about
what Joe Burrow wants and the Bengal's going to give
him what he wants. And you know, and I want
T Higgins to play for the Bengals next year, just
full disclosure for what it's But if he doesn't, okay,
like he is a chieved free agency. Chad Johnson talked
about that with Charlie Clifford on a Channel five.

Speaker 9 (01:36:10):
I love T.

Speaker 14 (01:36:11):
I love what T has done for our team. I
love that dish of having Tea on the team as
a player and what he's been able to contribute as
a number one receiver. He's not a two, he's number one. Therefore,
I feel he deserves to be paid as such. In
order to be paid as such, it can't be with
my beloved Bangles, and he deserves that. And I think fans,

(01:36:32):
I would hope they would understand that you have one
shot at your big deal.

Speaker 9 (01:36:37):
You have one shot.

Speaker 14 (01:36:38):
You worked your entire life to get to this point
to enjoy the fruits of your labor in what you deserve,
after work, working since four years old, five years old,
to get to this point, and to me, I think
it's kind of selfish of myself and as fans to
tell T, well, why don't you take less to stay
here with us when you only have one shot?

Speaker 3 (01:37:00):
Just one?

Speaker 14 (01:37:01):
You don't do you don't give a hometown discount, not
only your first deal, Okay, your second one, Okay, your
third that's a different story.

Speaker 7 (01:37:07):
You know.

Speaker 9 (01:37:08):
It's all about.

Speaker 14 (01:37:09):
Getting as much as you can while you're in that
small wind up opportunity. As much as I would love
T to be there, I want him to get what
he deserves, man, you know, to be able to take
care of your family, your mom, all those they had
a sacrifice for you growing up, and his I want
his kids kids to be straight. You can't do that
taking hometown discounts, you know, and just being honest.

Speaker 3 (01:37:31):
I like the honesty. I mean, he could take care
a lot of people if he takes a hometown discount.
But that's very good chance. That's where Te's head is,
right now, right, that's good, good, very good chance. Excuse me,
that's what he's thinking. And like so now they're at
a point the Bengals could offer t Higgins a great deal,

(01:37:55):
top end deal, right, great deal. They could offer him
more money than they had previously offered him. Another team
might offer him one dollar more, Like they've put themselves
at the mercy of T Higgins. And you know, it's
interesting about this, And Tia said, you know, when when
the season was going on, said all the right things,

(01:38:17):
and one of the reasons why I want him here
is like, to me, that's that's the sort of person
that you want a part of what's next. And there's
a big part of twenty twenty five that's like what's next.
It feels like they're gonna be moving on from a
lot of guys who were on the team last year.
They're gonna have to get younger on defense, They've overhauled
the coaching staff, new offensive lineman. Like it does feel
like a lot of the same, but it sort of

(01:38:39):
feels like the next version of the Bengals. I'd love
to build that around a person like T Higgins, who
this entire time I think has handled himself publicly at
least just awesome, played hard, played hurt, played well, said
all the right things, you know, didn't screw around with
training camp, Like that's I want him here. But they've

(01:39:00):
gotten to the point where they don't control it. T
Higgins controls it. And so you know, my buddy Andrew
Philippony and Pittsburgh talked about how much he does radio
show in Pittsburgh, how much the Steelers love T Higgins.
Of course they do. So like now you're at this
place where, Okay, you didn't get it done with T

(01:39:23):
for whatever reason. Could have been the agent's fault, could
be t asking too much, could be very real and
legitimate and fair concerns about his durability. And by the way,
those are legitimate. I mean, the tea is hurt a lot.
He misses a lot of games. He missed games his
past year. But now you're to the point, like you know,
T Higgins might end up with the Pittsburgh Steelers. I
don't know if he will or won't, but he might.

(01:39:46):
Like you've let him play out his contract. That has happened,
and he has earned the right to go see what
else is out there? What else is out there might
be just a tad bit more competitive the Bengals. And
so we know what Joe Burrow wants, and we know
what what a lot of us want. What does T

(01:40:07):
Higgins want? And look, man, maybe maybe he is so
happy here loves it here so much, has no issue
taking a hometown discount. Maybe we don't know, and so
like this is what we talk about. He's gonna leave
in free agency. Okay, Well, he may go play for
a team that we don't care that much about. Like

(01:40:27):
let's say he goes to Green Bay and plays for
the Packers. Cool, what if he ends up in a
place like Kansas City or Buffalo, Baltimore, Pittsburgh and some
of these teams it's less realistic than others obviously, Like
well then what and and and then not so much?
How do you feel about Tea? But it's it's it's

(01:40:52):
one thing to not get it done with T. It's
something else to have him go to a team that
is one of your more direct competitors and they've gotten
into this, and they may be comfortable having gotten into this.
You know, that's something else we don't know. The Duke
Tobin's Q and A with Kelsey Conway talked about, well,
it's gonna be hard to get a deal done with

(01:41:12):
both Jamar and t And to me, like I kind
of read that as yeah, we'd like to, but we're
we're not gonna. And so that I you know, we
a lot of us have changed how we've talked about
T Higgins because of what Joe Burrow said nearly two
months ago. We don't know if the Bengals have changed
their minds, but by having this belief that, you know what,

(01:41:35):
we're gonna have Tea play his ears here in Cincinnati,
franchise tag him five years and then we're willing to
let him walk. Willing to let him walk. Could be
he's playing against you twice a year, where he's playing
against you in a big playoff game next year. I
know what Joe Burrow wants, but what Joe Burrow wants, frankly,

(01:41:58):
isn't as important right now. It's about what t Higgins wants.
It's about what other NFL teams want as they look
at the group of wide receivers. It's about what they
can pay. Maybe it's about what their coaches and their
quarterbacks want. Like for all the time and energy we've

(01:42:20):
spent on what Joe Burrow wants and him on the
Pro Bowl games, and understandably so, he's the quarterback of
the team. He's one of the best in the sport.
He is the most important Bengals employee probably ever so
what he wants matters, but right now what he wants
is one thousand times less important than what T wants

(01:42:41):
and what all those other teams want, and maybe what
his agent wants. And so they've gotten it here. And
you know, you could choose to hold ownership accountable if
getting here means T does go play somewhere else. But
this is the part that we don't know. And I,
you know, I want you to be a Bengal, and

(01:43:03):
I wanted Jesse Bates to be a Bengal. But all right,
so the team did what they did. Now they've hit
free agency, they have no obligation to do hometown discount.
If they do, fine, they have no obligation to take
less or you know, hey, hey put put winning first
by staying in Cincinnati, which who ever thought I'd say that?

(01:43:25):
We don't know. It's what makes this so interesting. It's
what makes this so interesting. And as as somebody who
has stated publicly not that my opinion matters for anything,
that my preference is to have him here. And I
think you can figure out a way to build a

(01:43:46):
team next season, because the Jamar Chase money really wouldn't
kick in until after this year. You could you could
spend this offseason making the team better and still having
those two guys on your roster. What I did Paul
Danner junior spreadsheet, it's really eliminating. You take the chunk
of money and he said it at twenty three mil.
But you take that chunk of money and you start

(01:44:07):
to apply it to multiple areas in the team. It's interesting.
And so the key is then going to be if
he does leave, there's going to be hurt feelings. What
do they do with his money? What do they do
at his position? Twenty nine away from six o'clock, we'll
try to squeeze in some phone calls after sports headlines
on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnatis Sports.

Speaker 2 (01:44:27):
Station, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty. Traffic from the.

Speaker 6 (01:44:34):
UC Health Traffic Center. Expect more at uce Health, more
clinical trials, more treatment options for personalized care, more chances
to get you back to being You visit ucehealth dot com.
On southbound seventy one seventy five. An earlier accident now
cleared away after Twelfth Street East found two seventy five.

(01:44:54):
It's an accident on the ramp to northbound I seventy
five and also southbound seventy another accident, this one before
nor would lateral on that he's that like with traffic.
This report is sponsored by imans A Service.

Speaker 3 (01:45:09):
I know, Tarin, We're gonna do Royal Rumble here in
just a second. You're playing the John Steene of music.
I looked up he is the current betting mine favorite
to be the winner of the Royal Rumble. What do
you get? What do you get like a bag of
money or something for winning the Royal Rumble.

Speaker 9 (01:45:23):
Guarant main event at WrestleMania to Vola Wrestling.

Speaker 3 (01:45:27):
Okay, you don't get like like a trophy or something.

Speaker 9 (01:45:29):
No, no, no no, you can stand on top rope
and points of this sigh.

Speaker 3 (01:45:32):
Okay, you just get to work again. That's fun. Let's
see no real sports onlines. There are a couple of
area teams in action. Men's college basketball dating on the
road against Saint Louis the arch Baron Cup on the
line tonight you watch Robbie Avlo used to be at
a Indiana State a cream abdul jabbar, if you will,
I use that. Purdue NKU at Oakland tomorrow, Norris trying

(01:45:54):
to break a six game losing skid, Sportscasterward Skid Miami
taking on Ohio University tomorrow at three point thirty Kentucky
in Arkansas. You might heard Coach Cal's coming back Cal
Coach Cal coming back Tomorrow night reperend at nine o'clock,
tip seven thirty. Pre game. Sunday it'll be UC in
West Virginia at two and also Sunday, Ohio State takes

(01:46:16):
on Illinois. Cyclones play Wheeling tonight downtown and then play
Toledo tomorrow an afternoon affair and the Teddy Bear Toss.
Also tonight Blue Jackets play Utah. All right, so this
is in Indianapolis. Tomorrow, people, you could wager money on
professional wrestling, which is still really astounding to me because

(01:46:39):
if I have a strong inkling, if I have insider
information Taran, if you will that a certain wrestler is
going to win. Let's say I'm working for the WWE.
What's keeping me from making a wager?

Speaker 9 (01:46:53):
Your job?

Speaker 3 (01:46:54):
Okay, well there is that. Who are you rooting for tomorrow?

Speaker 9 (01:46:57):
Johnson?

Speaker 3 (01:46:58):
Now it really he's been wrestling for a long time.

Speaker 9 (01:47:01):
Yeah, this is his farewell farewell tour.

Speaker 3 (01:47:03):
This is it, He's done. Is you can go go
make movies and stuff.

Speaker 9 (01:47:06):
At the end of twenty twenty five. Yes, he will
retire retire from wrestling.

Speaker 3 (01:47:10):
Right, He's been wrestling for twenty twenty five years since
two thousand and four. Does he still wear jorts? He
does so, he wrestles in jorts. Yes, this is still
Is he the only American male who still wears jorts.
Probably in the mid nineties, I wore a lot of jorts.

Speaker 9 (01:47:28):
We have photos of this.

Speaker 3 (01:47:30):
Uh, probably mid nineties I wore. I one of the
nicest piece of fashion advice I ever got. I was
a freshman at the University of Dayton and a young
lady said to me, this is early because it's August.
We have shorts. I'm wearing my jorts now. You know,

(01:47:50):
I'm from northern Kentucky, probably at the time, the jorts
capital of the world. And this girl said to me,
you should get new shorts. And uh kinda looked at
her with a puzzling question, and she's like, no, nobody
wears jeorts. Man, this is thirty years ago. So but
he's still wearing jeorts now, do they?

Speaker 12 (01:48:11):
So?

Speaker 3 (01:48:11):
How many people it's thirty if they have a men's
royal rumble and a women's royal rumble.

Speaker 9 (01:48:15):
Correct, women's is newer.

Speaker 3 (01:48:17):
Women's is newer. Thirty women in the ring at the same.

Speaker 9 (01:48:20):
Time, Uh no, they do the same thing like the
man in every ninety seconds.

Speaker 3 (01:48:23):
So every ninety seconds for both sides until how many
are in the ring? Possibly?

Speaker 9 (01:48:28):
I mean, if no one gets eliminated, it could fill
up with all thirty. But there will be people eliminated before, so.

Speaker 3 (01:48:33):
We could have thirty women wrestlers in the ring fighting
each other at the same time. Could won't likely happen, though,
are you are you rooting? Do you have a favorite
women's wrestler?

Speaker 9 (01:48:43):
I haven't really thought about really thought about it.

Speaker 3 (01:48:46):
Says here, Charlotte Flair is the odds on favorite? Is
that Rick Flair's daughter? Yes, is Rick Flair? They're going
to be there.

Speaker 9 (01:48:52):
Possibly he might be like a celebrity in the crowd somewhere.

Speaker 3 (01:48:56):
Okay, what kind of shape is Rick Flair in these days?

Speaker 9 (01:48:59):
Not good? But I know he's talking about he wants
to wrestle again.

Speaker 3 (01:49:02):
Howeld's Rick Flair?

Speaker 9 (01:49:04):
He's at least eighty.

Speaker 3 (01:49:06):
He shouldn't do that. I don't I would recommend. I
would not recommend that. Are there other bouts aside from
the actual Royal Rumble Rumbles.

Speaker 9 (01:49:14):
Yes, there's actually others. That will be a ladder match tomorrow.

Speaker 3 (01:49:17):
So refresh my memory. So they put a ladder in
the ring, and then to win it, you have to
climb it.

Speaker 9 (01:49:21):
They don't be in the ring no more. They're under
the under the ring and outside of the ring. So
you have to, yeah, get it and.

Speaker 3 (01:49:26):
Do the guys hit the other dude with the ladder.

Speaker 9 (01:49:28):
Yes, hit him with the ladder, jump off the ladder. Yes,
you have to climb the climb the ladder and pull
down the titles.

Speaker 3 (01:49:34):
All right, who's competing in the ladder match?

Speaker 9 (01:49:37):
Cody Rhoades, son of Dusty Roads, right, and Kevin Owen's okay?

Speaker 3 (01:49:42):
And is there any other big bouts, any any titles
on the line tomorrow?

Speaker 9 (01:49:47):
Well, that's the that's the main title. That's the main
title that's on the line tomorrow. Right, very good?

Speaker 3 (01:49:51):
And what time does this start?

Speaker 9 (01:49:52):
Six o'clock?

Speaker 3 (01:49:53):
Now they move the wrestling to Netflix? Is that a thing?

Speaker 9 (01:49:56):
No, it's wrestling, Well, wrestling is still well rawles on Netflix.
The Rumble will be on Peacock tomorrow.

Speaker 3 (01:50:02):
Rumbles on Peacock. Yes, I don't have Peacock. But if
I want to watch Peacock, if I want to watch
the Royal Rumble, I gotta get it on Peacock. You're
gonna miss Nick Lakers for this, you know, No, all right?
I want you to tell me how you feel about
the odds of the following wrestlers and the Royal Rumble. Okay, okay,
Davy boys Smith he's no longer with us. Barry Horowitz,

(01:50:23):
not sure who that is. Bam Bam Bigelow, he's no
longer with us. The Junkyard Dog, he's no longer with us.
Um Nikolai Volkoff.

Speaker 9 (01:50:36):
I don't think he's no longer with us.

Speaker 3 (01:50:38):
The Red Rooster.

Speaker 9 (01:50:41):
I think he works behind the scenes.

Speaker 3 (01:50:43):
What about do they still do tag team wrestling?

Speaker 9 (01:50:45):
They do?

Speaker 3 (01:50:45):
What about the Rougeaux Brothers? Are they going to be
in the Royal Rumble?

Speaker 9 (01:50:48):
No?

Speaker 3 (01:50:48):
How about Tito Santana?

Speaker 9 (01:50:51):
No, see that that part of the rumble is over
with now. Like they used to bring back the nostalgic
guys like from the eighties, but they're old. I mean
we steal they would they would be there. Remember Pete
Rose was in the Royal number once.

Speaker 3 (01:51:02):
That's why he's in the Wrestling Hall of Fame Pete
Rose because he was he got body, he got dropped
on his head.

Speaker 9 (01:51:07):
Right, Yes, Drew Carrey was in the Royal because.

Speaker 3 (01:51:10):
I watched one thing a couple of years ago. They
brought back Sergeant Slaughter, who I thought was old when
I was a little kid, and then I'm watching he's wrestling, like, wow,
what do we Is he still with us?

Speaker 9 (01:51:22):
Is the Sarge?

Speaker 3 (01:51:25):
What about Lord Alfred Hayes?

Speaker 9 (01:51:27):
I don't think he?

Speaker 3 (01:51:28):
Is he doing any ringside commentary?

Speaker 7 (01:51:30):
No?

Speaker 9 (01:51:30):
Okay, Jesse to Bidey Ventur is still around. He was
just doing Saturday Night main event.

Speaker 3 (01:51:35):
Is he back doing the wrestling thing?

Speaker 7 (01:51:37):
Yeah?

Speaker 9 (01:51:37):
He was commentating last Saturday.

Speaker 3 (01:51:40):
Really is he back because Vince McMahon's no longer in it?

Speaker 9 (01:51:43):
More than likely?

Speaker 3 (01:51:44):
Yeah, King Kong Bundy is he competing?

Speaker 9 (01:51:49):
No?

Speaker 3 (01:51:49):
How about King Haku?

Speaker 9 (01:51:52):
No? Ha cool? I think his son is If I'm mistaken.

Speaker 3 (01:51:58):
Will Sean Mooney be providing the commentary?

Speaker 7 (01:52:01):
No?

Speaker 3 (01:52:03):
How many of these names? Did you know?

Speaker 9 (01:52:06):
About? Half?

Speaker 3 (01:52:06):
About half? All right? So this is on Peacock tomorrow
night and I can bet on it and it's at
Lucas Oil Stadium.

Speaker 9 (01:52:11):
Yeah, you just come over.

Speaker 3 (01:52:14):
I could. I'm going to beer Fest tomorrow, So I'm
going to beer Fest at noon at the Cinta Center.
So I don't know that I will find transportation to Indianapolis,
But yeah, so I mean, you never know, like I might.
I might find the need like you get done with

(01:52:35):
the day session of beer Fest, and all right, see
if I can find a driver that'll take me to Indy.
You never know, but I'll probably maybe I'll get peacock
And I was Steve Lombardi, the Brooklyn Brawler. Is he?
Is he competing?

Speaker 9 (01:52:49):
No?

Speaker 3 (01:52:50):
But the Doctor of Style slick?

Speaker 9 (01:52:54):
No.

Speaker 3 (01:52:54):
Do you think the people waiting on hold to talk
about sports are frustrated by the fact that I'm taking
up all their time by naming wrestlers from nineteen eighty seven?

Speaker 9 (01:53:02):
Either frustrated or having a good laugh, probably not having
a good ladder.

Speaker 3 (01:53:05):
Well, Arren, have a good time and we'll get a
full rundown on Monday of your experience at the at
the Royal Rumble.

Speaker 9 (01:53:11):
Yes, and hopefully my Lakers beat your Nicks tomorrow.

Speaker 3 (01:53:14):
Plausible. Well they'll work, good man.

Speaker 9 (01:53:16):
Yeah, I've been kicking teams, athletely crushing people. That's gonna
be a good game tomorrow night.

Speaker 3 (01:53:21):
All right, if I can get them the mouse, we'll
actually talk to people who can maybe save this. Good Arren,
have a good time, Matt, you're on ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 15 (01:53:31):
I wouldn't say I got a belly laugh out of it,
but a little chuckle.

Speaker 3 (01:53:34):
All right, very good. I mean I could have kept
going on. Ahead, No, please go ahead.

Speaker 15 (01:53:42):
One of my friends once met the Iron Chek, so
he was working out in the same gym really.

Speaker 12 (01:53:47):
With the iron sheet.

Speaker 10 (01:53:48):
This is in nineteen eighty.

Speaker 15 (01:53:49):
Nine, and Iron Cheek was big in the early eighties
when I was a kid. But anyway, let's move on.
I don't if j Higgins isn't playing for the Bengals,
don't care where he plays. You were talking about, Well,
he could go to Pittsburg and there once they're not
playing for us, then I don't. It doesn't matter, and
I would like him to stay.

Speaker 3 (01:54:10):
Sure, so I do.

Speaker 15 (01:54:11):
I understand what you're saying, But we have to be
we have to be grown ups about how the how
business works, and we can't pay everybody and why it's
gonna have to go on, and we're gonna have to,
as you put it, figure out what we're gonna do
with that cash of money, and we're gonna have to
spend it and develop better receivers, just like when remember

(01:54:33):
when Hushman Zana left and went to the Ravens. Now
like dag go, that's kind of a bummer. It didn't
change our lives, and this is this is the same
sort of situations.

Speaker 3 (01:54:46):
You know, And yeah, well I was gonna say. The
thing is like, I would like Tea to play for
the Bengals next year, and I think they can compete
for a championship if T plays for them next year.
I I also think if T leaves, which I didn't
mean to do that, but if T departs as a
free agent, I certainly believe there are things you can

(01:55:08):
do this offseason that keep the Bengals in a position
to compete for a championship. I don't believe that all
hope is lost if T Higgins walks. And by the way,
if T Higgins is here, well, then to a degree,
the larger goal, which is to make the roster better,
it becomes a little bit more difficult to achieve because
there is a little bit less money to spend.

Speaker 15 (01:55:30):
Absolutely, I agree with you, and that's that's what you
were talking about with Paul Daaner's exercise.

Speaker 3 (01:55:35):
Whichever we lost, do we lose Matt And that's what
salary cap is. Yeah, you know it's Matt. I a
go ahead, have a great weekend, man, Thank you, thank
you very much. Kind of lost you at the end there.
I I mean, nobody wants to view it this way.

(01:55:56):
One of two things is going to happen. Either T.
Higgins is to leave, and the money you would have
paid to them you now have at your disposal to
address a lot of areas that need addressing. Also, you
got to use college football to find a wide receiver,
and college football has a lot of awesome receivers.

Speaker 8 (01:56:16):
Or T.

Speaker 3 (01:56:16):
Higgins is on your team next year. I don't know
what is happening to my voice? Tarin, How are we
on time?

Speaker 9 (01:56:22):
I've got about three minutes?

Speaker 3 (01:56:23):
Well the model Rick Martelby there, No, okay, Brian in
College Hill, thanks for hanging on. You're on ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 4 (01:56:31):
Hey Mo, how you doing that?

Speaker 3 (01:56:33):
I'm wonderful yourself.

Speaker 4 (01:56:35):
I'm doing well. Hey, I'm gonna start this off with
two questions and then I gotta I'll be quick. I
only got three minutes. First of all, is it a
fact that the NFL gives each team like three hundred
and like forty a year?

Speaker 3 (01:56:54):
True, like like the salary cap.

Speaker 4 (01:56:58):
No, I mean this is the a distribution to each
NFL team. They receive three hundred and forty dollars. I
don't know what that money is for. I was wondering
if you knew. But I saw it on it on it,
you know, I looked it up there in Google. Somebody
told me about it. I looked it up, and it is.
It's a fact. But they didn't say what that money

(01:57:19):
went to.

Speaker 3 (01:57:19):
It's it's there, So I believe, and I will look
this up. I believe what you're referring to is the
media money, because unlike let's say baseball, where all that
most of the media money is local, all the money
in the NFL from a media perspective is pulled into
one and then it gets divided among the thirty two teams.

Speaker 4 (01:57:38):
Got you? Secondly, do you think that in reality can
the Bengals afford t Higgins?

Speaker 3 (01:57:46):
Sure they could afford them. It's not a matter of
the There are a lot of things, Brian, that I
can afford, but if I buy them, then I might
have to cut costs elsewhere so they could afford him.
Now the question is can they sign and also do
the other things they need to accomplish. And I believe
with the draft, I believe if if you're okay with

(01:58:07):
cutting five or six guys that you could save money
by cutting. And if you're and if you do the
right things in free agency, and maybe even if you
trade Trey Hendrickson, I believe both goals can be accomplished
where you ensure the T. Higgins plays for the most
of the rest of the decade for you, and you
make your team significantly better next season.

Speaker 4 (01:58:26):
Okay, so it should in my mind, it should be
a rat. Shouldn't even be a question of whether or
not T. Higgins is here next year because they can't
afford it. I can think of a lot of dead
weight on that team that that you know, doesn't you know,
matter to the team that could be gone or you
can you can save a lot of money. Here's my
last one. I know you got to go. I gotta
This is my high take. T Higgins in my mind,

(01:58:50):
this is my opinion, is not a number one. And
here's why. Because E Higgins is more of a batman
and Robin Starsky and Hutch any duo that you want
to use through Jamar Chase and they work well together
in what they do because t Higgins is gonna look,

(01:59:13):
he's gonna miss a couple a few games in the
season every season. He's done it for the last I
don't know how many years, and then you have Jamar
Chase there to take up that space. But Tim Higgins,
he compliments U Jamar Chase so well. Unlike any other
team that I could think of in the NFL. They

(01:59:33):
are like a dynamic duo, and I think that's the
only way it's gonna work. I don't believe he is
the number one because he is not durable. He is
not Jamar Chase. Jamar Chase is a running back that's
big and able to catch a really you know, every
ball you throw to him. So I think that the
whole dynamic. If he leaves, I put it like this,

(01:59:55):
if he leaves, his career is gonna take a dip
because he's not gonna be if they make anybody makes
him a number one, he's not durable number one to
be a number one.

Speaker 3 (02:00:04):
Yeah, I think Brian, it's good to talk to you
have a great week, and I think there's validity to
what you say. Now, do I think t could step
in and be a number one wide receiver with the
right quarterback. Absolutely, but I'm sure I would be willing
to bet there are teams that look at Tea Higgins
and go I'm not there. Durability the main reason, and

(02:00:24):
durability obviously cuts off production a little bit. And look,
he's with the exception of his first year when he
was playing with an older AJ Green, he's always existed
in the shadow of Jamar Chase, and I'm sure there
are some teams that view the way he is been
used behind Jamar as evidence that he is not Batman.

(02:00:45):
We're done? Is out bat Jack going to be there?
Does he have a chance to win on tomorrow night?

Speaker 9 (02:00:52):
Same chance as you and I?

Speaker 3 (02:00:53):
How about SD Special Delivery?

Speaker 9 (02:00:55):
Jones Hail? No, all right, Jake the Snake Roberts he's
doing better, But no.

Speaker 3 (02:01:05):
He is still with us, which one might argue is remarkable.
All right, well, Tarren, have a great time and we'll
get you a report on Monday. Good luck to John
Cena and Rick Flair's kid. We're done, returning tomorrow at
three oh five. Have an awesome night. Thank you for listening.
Thanks to Tarran for producing. Have a great weekend. This
is ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 2 (02:01:25):
Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic from the.

Speaker 6 (02:01:33):
UC Health Traffic Center. Expect more at u see Health,
chances to get you back to being you visit UCHealth
dot com. On northbound seventy one, it is an accident
near the end of the exit ramp to Ridge Avenue.
Northbound seventy one seventy five at Kyle's Lane. Accident off

(02:01:55):
on the right shoulder. Also northbound two seventy five on
the Indiana Accident on the right shoulder at US fifty
met Ezelic with traffic.

Speaker 7 (02:02:05):
This report is

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