Cincy 360 w/ Tony Pike & Austin Elmore -- 6/12/25

Tony and Austin talk about Shemar Stewart's absence from mandatory minicamp, check in with Richard Skinner and John Cunningham, take your calls and TalkBacks and more on ESPN 1530!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
By Skyline Chile. Stop by Skyline Chili through a three
way or cheese cony today. Feeling good, It's Skyline Time.
This is ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Good afternoon, Happy Thursday.

Speaker 3 (00:17):
Welcome into our latest edition of Sincy three sixty right
here on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station. Or you
may be listening to via the iHeartRadio app. If so,
thank you for listening along. Excited to get to another
show today. If you are listening via the iHeartRadio app,
go ahead and leave us a talkback. We'll get to
those in the second hour. Best talkback of the week

(00:39):
will win a Cincy Shirts gift card. We'll vote on
that tomorrow Today on the show, I believe we have
two more sets of tickets to give away, correct Austin.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
That's right, Yeah, three tickets Big Three and also the
FIFA Club World Cup coming up next Wednesday.

Speaker 3 (00:55):
Okay, we'll do those at the end of our number
two to start our number three. It was a monumental
night for UC Athletics last night, the official ribbon cutting
of the indoor Practice Facility, the Shaikley Indoor Practice Facility
and Performance Center. John Cunningham, the athletic director of the
University of Cincinnati, will join us at two o'clock today,

(01:17):
John to talk all things last night. Well, ask him
a little bit about the house settlement as well. Richard Skinner, Skinny,
we'll join us at one o'clock today. Can't imagine that
Skinny's got a lot to talk about. With the Shamar
Stewart situation, Zach Taylor spoke to the media today as
a mandatory mini camp wrapped up. We'll play about six
minutes of what Zach Taylor had to say, uh and

(01:39):
uh and more. We've got your phone calls five, one, three, seven, nine,
fifteen thirty. Gordon Whittmeyer posed a very interesting question and
I don't even know if it's a question, but it
was a it was an idea for the Cincinnati Reds
and it pertained to Hunter Green. Well talk about that

(02:00):
an hour number three today. We've got to obviously talk
more about the Cincinnati Bengals. The Chamar Stuart situation continues
to drag on and does not feel like there's an
end in sight currently, as Shamar Stuart left mandatory mini
camp amid his contract dispute. I believe he left yesterday, correct,

(02:27):
Is that what officially was said. I don't know, but
he did leave mandatory mini camp and he is and
was not with the team today.

Speaker 2 (02:37):
I'm assuming he just didn't come today. Yeah, that would
be my guest. And probably on the way out yesterday
was like, hey, there's not much going on today. I
don't want to be a distraction. There was another open
locker room period again today. Probably the best so probably
how it would have worked is Zach talks to the
media at ten o'clock in the morning, and then media

(03:00):
goes and tries to talk to Shamar again during the
Oprah locker room, and Shamar is probably like, you know what,
I'm not going to do that, not gonna probably not
going to be a distraction. Is that was probably the
way it was spun, that he doesn't want to be
a distraction. But I would also imagine that's trying to
send a message as well, is that hey, I'm still

(03:22):
unhappy and I'm not going to show up because I
think the the like the general response is and like
you see it in the national media. If you look
at Adam Schefter in his post this morning that says
he's not at training camp or not at mini camp.
The immediate response is gosh, the Bengals have screwed this

(03:43):
up again, like here we go again. The national media
and everybody's reacting. The Bengals just can't figure it out.
So that sends that message, which smar Stewart not being there.
But I think it can kind of work both ways.
Is and hey, I don't want to be a traction,
but also you guys have pissed me off at the

(04:03):
other side of things in open locker room today. If
there's nobody, if Shamar Stewart's not there to be talked to,
well guess who has to answer for him, all of
his teammates. So I don't think that's the whole idea
that it's like, Okay, I don't want to be a distraction.
I don't buy that at all.

Speaker 3 (04:20):
Yeah, it is, uh, it's it's it was such an
interesting week and it's such a big off season, and
it's a major part of the off season because the
next time these guys get together it's training camp. This
this was like that that last hurdle, and in navigating
that last hurdle, no Trey Hendrickson, no Shamar Stewart, and

(04:44):
what the ramifications are for that. The coaches are obviously
going to say the right things. They're like Al Golden
spoke the last thing. Al Gold's gonna get up there
and says, well, without Trey and Shamar here, we really
didn't get any work done. He says all the right things.
You know, we got a lot players were able to
take advantage of the reps. Everything that you want to say.

(05:04):
You're never gonna find a coach that comes out and says, man,
we wasted a man a camp. You're never gonna have
a coach that says, well, our offseason program has just
been terrible. It's always gonna be good. It's always gonna
be the positive going forward. But for the Cincinnati Bengals,
and how important this time is you you do wonder
how much this has weighed on on this team and

(05:25):
and and specifically on the defensive side of the ball.
And as Moe brought up, and as Austin just alluded to,
it leaves Zach Taylor to answer more questions, It leaves
Joe Burrow eventually to answer more questions for what's going
on from an organizational standpoint.

Speaker 2 (05:41):
You also got to understand too, you know, I completely
lost my thought all right, yeah.

Speaker 3 (05:49):
Well why you figure out your thought? Well, let me
go with NBA Finals Game three. I just did that
NBA Finals. Well you're thirty, now I have a good
point to me. Memory starts the first thing to face.
It immediately left me. Yeah, Lee. Game three last night
a massive fourth quarter for the Indianapolis Pacers, who came

(06:12):
from behind again in the fourth quarter to beat the
Oklahoma The Indianapolis Pacers Indiana Pacers. They trailed by eight
after one, they led at half, they trailed after three,
and they outscored the Oklahoma City Thunder thirty two to
eighteen in the fourth quarter to win Game three and
take a two to one series lead against the heavily

(06:35):
favored Oklahoma City Thunder. Pascal Siakam twenty one points last night.
Tyrese Halliburton nine rebounds, eleven assists, twenty two points. Benedict
Matherin twenty seven points off the bench for the Indianapolis
Pacers last night. That's the Indianapolis Pacers. It was a

(06:58):
big win. Shaggill just Alexander was only nine to twenty
from the field. He had twenty four. Jalen Williams twenty six.
Chet Holmgren actually showed up in this series and had twenty,
but not enough as the Pacers take the two to
one series lead Game four in that series in Indy
tomorrow night. So obviously that is something to watch out
for NBA news. I did see Austin, is it true

(07:21):
that the Bills are blocking Billy Donovan to the Knicks?

Speaker 2 (07:23):
Are you okay? Is that true? You just said Indiana
Indianapolis Pacers twice, and then you just said are the
Bills blocking Billy the Bulls? Everything good?

Speaker 3 (07:33):
No, Samar Stewart's got me all okay, I'm just got
me all out of whack.

Speaker 2 (07:36):
I'm checking. I also saw that the UC conference schedule
just came out, so I don't know if you were
stammering over that. No, I haven't loved that. Yeah, I
don't know what the Bulls are doing, dude, I don't know.
I also don't know what the Knicks are doing now
because everybody they're trying to talk to, the teams are like, no,
we want him.

Speaker 3 (07:55):
There's a video going around. You ever see that video,
like the little kid at the White House and Trump's
talking to him. Yeah, there's a video. There's an image
going around. It's like Trump basket. Do you want to
coach the next do you want to coach this team?
I mean, it's just it's incredible to pull the plug
on a coach that advanced the Knicks further than they
having twenty five years without seemingly a contingency plan. You

(08:17):
would think that if you make that move, you have
one or two guys in mind that are home run highers.
It feels like they're just taking shots in the dark
right now? Is the New York Knicks. Yeah, it's absolutely incredible.
NHL Stanley Cup Finals Game four tonight. The Edmonton Oilers,
coming off getting beaten down in Game three, take on

(08:39):
like a Grand Canyon Mule.

Speaker 2 (08:42):
Nice.

Speaker 3 (08:42):
They take on the Florida Panthers tonight Game four. From
an NHL standpoint, and former Bengal linebacker Jermaine Pratt has
a new home.

Speaker 2 (08:53):
Let's go playoff P.

Speaker 3 (08:55):
How about playoff P going to the team that he
helped the Bengals end the drought on That's right, the
Las Vegas Raiders have signed Jermaine Pratt.

Speaker 2 (09:03):
That's twice now where the Raiders have immediately scooped up
somebody off of the Bengals scrap heap. If you remember
they did it right away with Alex Kappa when he
was cut, and they did it right away with Jermaine
Pratt when he was cut. And not bad of a
deal for Jermaine, I think, just over four million dollars
with a bunch of incentives. Good for him to be

(09:23):
able to land a spot quickly with a pretty decent payday.
You mentioned a uc schedule. I didn't see that yet. Well,
I should say not a schedule. The have actually been released.
We knew some of them. We knew they'd be playing
Houston twice, but we weren't sure about the other opponents.

(09:47):
The home and home will be Houston, West Virginia and UCF.
The Bearcats will once again have to go to Kansas
this year. Arizona, Arizona State, Kansas, Texas Tech, TCU, and
Kansas State are all road trips. Colorado, Iowa State, Oklahoma State, BYU,
Utah and Baylor all come to Cincinnati. And the home

(10:10):
and home with Houston, UCF and West Virginia.

Speaker 3 (10:13):
That's a good BYU team that's gonna come in Arizona.
They got Lebron's kid.

Speaker 2 (10:19):
Do they really? I forgot there was another one? Bryce?
Bryce is what Arizona. Arizona's had an unbelievable off season
price better than Brownie. I think.

Speaker 3 (10:26):
So okay, I think so I kind of forgot about Brownie. Yeah,
some some tough road trips.

Speaker 2 (10:33):
Yeah, that ain't easy anytime you got to go to Kansas.

Speaker 3 (10:35):
Tough road trips for the Cincinnati Bearcats. But they're built
like that, man, They're built for toughness. They're built for
tough road trips under West Miller. Sure, man, what a
week it's already been. There was just something about today,
getting into the office this morning and walking over you
sit kind of in the middle of the sales department.

Speaker 2 (10:56):
Yeah, it's not helping.

Speaker 3 (10:58):
And it's a walk down there and probably have like
one of the more advanced discussions we've had since I've
been here. It's crazy what this Shamar Stewart situation has done.
Advanced discussion, Yes, like just the curiosity from folks right now.
I mean, there was probably six or seven people in

(11:19):
the sales room and it was just a good old
like it's what I imagined in this business as.

Speaker 2 (11:24):
Like the water cooler talk.

Speaker 3 (11:26):
Yeah, everyone just kind of given their ideas, given their thoughts,
feeling out the Shamar Stewart situation. It's insane to think
that starting this week this was not on anyone's radar
at all. Now the Trey Hendrickson situation was on the radar.
Is he gonna show? Is he not gonna show? What's
gonna play out during mini camp? Joe Burrow was gonna

(11:47):
speak this week we talk about the actual play on
the field and maybe dissect did it feel different at
training camp? Did it feel like there was more of
a sense of urgency and instead it is been this
unbelievable situation that is unfolded with Shamar Stewart.

Speaker 2 (12:05):
Is it all that unbelievable?

Speaker 3 (12:07):
I think so, the situation is not Do you think
what he said on Tuesday is still to me unbelievable.

Speaker 2 (12:14):
Do you think Trey Hendrickson is upset that Shamar Stewart
has stolen the headlines? Oh? What if Trey would have
shown up today? That would have been funny. Oh that
would have been hilarious. Oh, by the way, I have
a contract issue too. Wouldn't that have been great? Man?

Speaker 3 (12:34):
That that would have been something you know, I don't
want to be I didn't think this was going to
be a thing that was like, you know, does the
Chamar thing get panned out? I think would have been
a question, But what he did on Tuesday, No, I
never would have expected something like that to happen.

Speaker 2 (12:53):
Yeah, after what happened Tuesday, that's the first time where
I felt myself be a little bit concerned about the
relationship between him and the franchise moving forward. That's the
only time I've like really found myself all that concerned.
And even now as I kind of feel like I

(13:13):
learn a little bit more about how these negotiations might
be working out, I still don't feel like he's not
going to play this season. I don't feel like I
think they're going to get a deal done before training camp.
That's just my guess.

Speaker 3 (13:29):
But a deal doesn't change what he said, correct, And
it's just going to make things awkward. Well, An it's
a ton of pressure, Like what if he goes the
first five games and doesn't register a sock. It's put
so much on his own shoulders as well.

Speaker 2 (13:44):
Yeah, And it's and I think in a way soiled
relationship with the fans because number one, they already didn't
like the pick because of how unproven he was at
the college level, and number two, he's kind of thrown
a tantrum here about something that's relatively normal across NFL contracts,

(14:04):
And so because of that, fans are like, listen, dude,
we're supposed to be counting on you to have an impact,
and we know you didn't produce at a high enough
level in college. We didn't love this pick to begin with.
You're not helping yourself. And when he addressed the fans
and was like, oh, they love you, I hate you.
They'll find a way, you know that sort of I

(14:25):
don't know, carelessness, it seemed like a flippant way of
answering that question. He didn't score any points with the
fan base, hasn't scored any points with the fan base,
and again, with what this seems to be coming down to,
you're not going to relate to the fan base much
at all with that either. So he's put himself in

(14:47):
a tough position. The Bengals have not helped certainly in
the way that this has gone, choosing him to be
the guy that they want to implement this on. But
you know, I think they see this as you guys
ask for us to guarantee more money later in deals. Well,
we're still going to have to do something to protect ourselves.
That's how I think the Bengals view this right or wrong,
and so because of that, this comes from it.

Speaker 3 (15:10):
Look at the end of the day, at the end
of this week, the end of mini camp, two things
are true. He did not help his situation in any way.
He's not played a snap in the NFL, and what
he said about the organization puts him in a very
tough spot. At the same time, I think the Bengals
front office from a contract standpoint, is wrong in the

(15:34):
way they've handled it as well. And it brings me
back Austin to the combine and meeting with Shamar Stewart
once not bringing him in for a visit. And this
is speculation, but this is just what I'm thinking. You know,

(15:55):
Shamar Stewart didn't remember at first even meeting with the Bengals.
It must have not been a memorable meeting. But you
didn't bring him in for a visit. You then draft
him and you decide that you want to change some
of the language as it relates to defaults in a contract. Now,

(16:17):
is it possible that when Shamar Stuart got here, maybe
the Bengals picked up on one or two things and said, well,
this makes us a little uneasy. We need to add
these defaults to protect ourselves. Could be if that's the case,
shame on the Bengals for not doing more homework. Shame
on Shamar Stuart in the same sense. But multiple things.

(16:41):
I think we're at play here, And maybe it was
a situation where at the end of the day, the
Bengals are a little bit concerned about different things about
Shamar Stuart and have come back and said, you know what,
we want to add these defaults. Now I've been asked,
what is the worst case scenario that can happen? Not

(17:05):
what we think is going to happen, but if this
played out and continue to play out through training camp,
what is the worst case scenario that could happen with
Shamar Stewart?

Speaker 2 (17:15):
What would your answer being? According to Friend of the
Show Jordan Reid ESPN NFL Draft analyst, he could re
enter the twenty twenty six draft, but he would have
to sit out a year, meaning he wouldn't be able
to play this year. He would be eligible to be
selected by any team other than the Bengals, so he

(17:36):
would essentially take a year off. We know how bad
he already needs to be developed as a pass rusher,
and any team in twenty twenty six could draft him
besides the Bengals. Now, the other option you would think
is if he were to take a year off, could
he go and play in a different league, the Canadian League,
the UFL league, whatever. If he were to do that,

(17:57):
according to the NFLCBA, the Bengals would then retain his
rights for three years. So his options are sign the contract,
sit out a year, re enter the draft, or go
play in another league. The Bengals retain his rights for
three years. Not a lot of leverage for the guy, right, And.

Speaker 3 (18:19):
You don't think that the they sit out of here
and re enter the draft would bode well for a
guy that already had a lot of questions coming into
the draft about production on the field. That's where things sit. Obviously,
mandatory Mini camp is over. These sides can continue to
negotiate to get a deal done. But the next time
you see all these guys together is going to be

(18:41):
training camp. July twenty third is the first day of
training camp, the first practice. So what happens between now
and then? I have no idea what happens between the
Bengals and Trey Hendrickson between now and then. I have
no idea, but at some point, one of the two sides,
with Shamar Stewart and Trey Hendrickson and the Bengals front office,

(19:01):
is gonna let themselves walk back a little bit on
their stands. Because if both sides draw their line in
the sand, and both sides put themselves into the corner
and say, well, we're not we're not breaking, we're not
giving in, then this is going to get uglier. One
of the sides is going to have to make some

(19:23):
type of concession to get these deals done. And historically,
Austin talked about this yesterday. Historically, that's not something the
Bengals do unless your name's Joe Burrow, right, wrong and different,
love it or hate it. That's how things operate around here.

(19:44):
Let's take a break. We we have a poll question today.
We sure do what's our poll question today?

Speaker 2 (19:52):
When we come back, we're gonna hear from Bengals head
coach Zach Taylor what he said about Jamar Stewart and
Mini Camp as a whole. And you know, just watching
Zach today talk to the media, watching Zach a little
bit over and over again. I asked the question Revivefitnessystems
dot Com poll question, which is a tougher job United

(20:14):
States President or Bengals head coach?

Speaker 4 (20:17):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (20:17):
Seventy three percent say head coach to the Cincinnati Bengals
is tougher than being the president of the United States.
Makes sense. I kind of agree with him. Makes sense.

Speaker 3 (20:26):
Uh, we'll get that audio, Zach Taylor after today's mandatory
mini camp. You'll hear that when we come back. After that,
we'll open up phone lines five, one, three, seven, four, nine,
fifteen thirty.

Speaker 2 (20:35):
We'll get your phone calls.

Speaker 3 (20:37):
We'll lead into Richard Skinner at one o'clock centty three
to sixty thanks to Skyline Chili on the Home of
the Bengals ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station, nine point lead.

Speaker 5 (20:47):
They get it in JAD fires from forty no good
and the Pacers hang on. Theyveto Bahoma City one sixteen
to one oh seven, And I've grabbed the two games
to one lead in the NBA Finals against the best
team in the NBA all season long.

Speaker 2 (21:05):
That is how it sounded last night as the Pacers
take a two to one series lead in the NBA
Finals Game four tomorrow night in Indy Obviously something to
watch there is the Pacers could put a lot of
pressure on the Oklahoma City Thunder in this series. That
was the call on ESPN Radio.

Speaker 3 (21:23):
That is how it sounded last night with Indy winning.
This is what it sounded like today as mandatory Mini
camp wrapped up and Zach Taylor spoke to the media.

Speaker 6 (21:35):
I think we had a really productive offseason. We certainly
got better in all areas, able to kind of keep
our stride on offense with a lot of guys returning defensively,
al and the new staff, some of the new players
have done a great job putting in the work to
make progress.

Speaker 2 (21:50):
Every single day.

Speaker 6 (21:51):
And now the key is just over these five weeks,
these guys staying in the playbooks and so that we
can hit the ground run and we come back for
training camp.

Speaker 2 (21:57):
But made a lot of progress.

Speaker 6 (21:58):
I think it was a great spring for our team
and look forward to getting back after summer break.

Speaker 2 (22:03):
His latest sun Schamar and why wasn't he Yeah, he
wasn't here today, So we just focused on the guys
that were here.

Speaker 3 (22:08):
What are the conversations been like with him?

Speaker 2 (22:11):
He and I have had positive conversations. He communicating with.

Speaker 7 (22:15):
You before he left or did you guys.

Speaker 2 (22:19):
Did We've had good communication. I can said a big deal.
He's missed out on a few reps.

Speaker 6 (22:23):
I think for all the rookies, you'd like him to
be on the field. But certainly there's things that that
happen over the course of an NFL career, and this
is one of them right now. So, uh, he's been
in the meetings, he's been positive in.

Speaker 2 (22:34):
That way, he's been learning.

Speaker 6 (22:35):
He's been a good learner, and we look forward to
getting back on the field quickly.

Speaker 2 (22:38):
This is obviously a first for you when it comes
to a first round pick. How have you navigated the world.

Speaker 6 (22:44):
There's a first for everything, you know. It's it's uh,
every year you kind of learn something new in this
position and and this is just one of those things
that the players have managed really well and we keep
the team moving and when when he jumps on the field,
that'll be great for a team.

Speaker 2 (22:56):
He was pretty critical the other day of the organization.
How do you balance set? How do you react to that?
Representing the organization?

Speaker 6 (23:03):
I think there's there's education that happens with all the
rookies that we do our best to educate them.

Speaker 8 (23:07):
Number one.

Speaker 6 (23:08):
We want to protect our team in our locker room,
and so there's some things I understand when there's frustration there,
but that's how he chose to do it, and that's
that's his prerogative, and and we look forward getting him back.

Speaker 8 (23:18):
In the fold.

Speaker 5 (23:19):
He told us that he won't practice unless he signed
his contract.

Speaker 9 (23:23):
So at this point, are you confident that he'll have
his contracts signed by started training camp.

Speaker 2 (23:27):
I'm not going to make any predictions. Did you talk
to him following those comments he made the other day.
We've had good communication. He was already concerned that this
thing lingers people.

Speaker 7 (23:35):
Let's say he gets a deal done, give it all
of the back and forth before he's even signed.

Speaker 2 (23:39):
That lingers moving forward.

Speaker 6 (23:40):
We I think we have a great team right now,
and so our focus is just keep this team moving forward,
and when those situations work themselves out, we'll welcome those
guys back on the field. But right now, we have
a great team that's made great progress, and we'll focus
on that.

Speaker 3 (23:52):
Pretty good about what he can bring you all moving
for given all the stuff that's happened, how do you
feel about him as a player?

Speaker 6 (23:57):
Yeah, I do, I do, And we've had a COVID
off season before, or we've never had an off season,
you know, when you started August fifteenth, So there's still
time to get work in and I'm excited to get
him to do that.

Speaker 10 (24:06):
To deal with a little bit of distraction last year
with Jamar at training camp, and I certainly don't know
what's happening with Tray and with Jamar. Is there anything
you learned from last year that you can take into
this training camp to help prepare yourself to handle this.

Speaker 2 (24:20):
I think every situation is a little bit different.

Speaker 11 (24:23):
How do you think alis Donne in terms of accounting
for the You know, you don't have three projected starting
defensive linemen.

Speaker 6 (24:30):
Outstanding, And I agree with what he said yesterday. This
is a positive in some ways because so many guys
have got so many reps and they've been able to
cross train, and so it's been really good for guys
as we build that depth, guys are fighting for opportunity
in that way, it's been a very positive thing. I
think Al and our staff has done a great job,

(24:51):
especially on that side of the ball, practicing with intent
every single day, the install with what we're trying to achieve,
holding guys accountable, and the players have really bought in
and that's been exciting for me to see.

Speaker 2 (25:03):
Describe his attention to detail, and it really stands out
watching him do his things.

Speaker 6 (25:07):
I mean, he's he's a grinder first and foremost. I
mean he's in here cracking dawn every single day, making
sure everything's ready for the coaches, number one, and that
they've talked through every area.

Speaker 2 (25:17):
Because it's new.

Speaker 6 (25:18):
We got guys from different backgrounds, are good guys from
the Saints, from the Rams, from the Patriots, from Notre Dame,
guys that were here last year with Chuck, Jordan and Ronnie,
and so it's been good. He's been grinding over these
last five months to make sure everybody's on the same
page and meet an extra and just really impressed with
the process they followed and talking through all the all
the hard things that you have to iron out so

(25:39):
that by the time you give it to the players,
that players believe in it and understand it very clearly.
And so really just hats off to the defensive staff
for the work they put in to get on the
same page and allow us to make the progress we've
made through the spring.

Speaker 11 (25:50):
Not sure if you saw it but Al said that
he regrets not taking your advice about taking a day
off when when he got hired he has he told
you that a community, I.

Speaker 6 (25:59):
Mean, it's mostly ball with us, and you know, he's
just he needs a vacation. There's no doubt about it.
He's earned it, and so I'm excited for him, you know,
just off the college season that they had, and and
just so thankful for the work that he's put in,
you know, to make our team better, our organization better,
and so that that will pay off in the season certainly,

(26:19):
but for now, he certainly deserves a vacation.

Speaker 10 (26:21):
There's someone's talk about the fast start and what you
guys need to change, either in the offseason or training campus.
There have been anything tangible that you've seen that you've
been acted here in the last couple of months to
help make that.

Speaker 6 (26:32):
I think every season has been different, you know, the
reasons for our zero to two starts have been different.
I think every single season. It's something we we certainly
talk about, and training camp will feel a little bit
different in some ways. We're only going to practice with
ourselves this offseason. I mean this this preseason. We're gonna
let our starters play a little bit more, hopefully in
the games. Hopefully that that plays out that way, And

(26:53):
I do think practicing the mornings will be good from
the player's standpoint, you know, to take some of the
temperature off of them to get really quality reps. There
will be opportunities later in camp to fight through the
heat as we get ready for some one o'clock games.
The only only real difference is for the coaches. The
install progression is a little bit different when you practice
in the morning, but we embrace that it'll be it'll
be good to change it up for us. You know,
some of us have been here a long time, so

(27:15):
it'll be good to change it up and have to adapt.
Like there, we ask our players to adapt. So I'm
really excited for training camp to get here so we
can start putting the work. We've talked in depth about
it as a coaching staff, so I feel like we're.

Speaker 2 (27:24):
Already ready to go tomorrow. But we'll take these five
weeks and fine tune everything and be ready to go
all right.

Speaker 3 (27:30):
So that is Zach Taylor from earlier today at pay Corps.
Obviously it's it's it's coach speak. Everything with Shamar Stewart.
There's nothing you don't expect Zach Taylor to say.

Speaker 2 (27:44):
There.

Speaker 3 (27:45):
The talk of the approach in the offseason and not
having joint practices and playing the starters a little bit
more in the preseason, all I think is something that
I think will bode well for this team. But nonetheless,
I think you sit back and you listen to that.
There there's no real surprises there. He didn't say anything
about the samar situation that I was blown away by.

(28:05):
I think that's a coach that's trying to have the
back of his players and at the same time portray that, hey,
we also need these guys here. But we mentioned this
yesterday and Moe alluded to this as it relates to
Joe Burrow Austin. It's just you almost can see how
much it weighs on Zach having to answer these questions. Yeah,

(28:26):
and it's just not something he should be having to
do at mandatory mini camp. But again, the way the
situations have unfolded.

Speaker 2 (28:36):
Especially this third guy who we just had the conversation
last week, he's on the hot seat right like his
seat is warm at the very least coming into this
season because of the amount of money that has been
spent on the roster and because of who the quarterback
is and because of this quote unquote when now Super

(28:57):
Bowl window that they're in, this is a guy who
probably feels some pressure and feels like he can't do
the job with his best of his ability because the
people in the front office are constantly squabbling over contract details.
Now I've said I think the Bengals are in the
right on Trey Hendrickson. I would hope that they're a

(29:19):
little bit more open minded with Shamar Stewart. I think
both sides in both negotiations are at fault, but the
noise keeps getting louder when the narrative proves to be
true that the Bengals can't seem to negotiate and keep
people happy and like for Zach, I'm sure it's exhausting

(29:43):
because he would love to talk about how they're moving
Jamar Chase around to different spots and the impact of
the continuity with Dan Pitcher in year number two, and
how great Chase Brown is and the battle between the
guards and training camp and what they're going to try
to do in the running game to get a little
bit better, or how Shamar Stewart and Trey Hendrickson could

(30:04):
work together to provide a rushing the passer tandem, and
what Al Golden's done with the linebacker said blah blah
blah blah blah, Like there's so much more football stuff.
I'm sure he'd rather talk about.

Speaker 3 (30:14):
Yeah, I'm sure he'd rather talk about, you know, scheme
wise man, seeing what Al Golden's been able to do
in a short amount of time. But at the same time,
all the points you just made, it was a decision
that Zach had to make as well to move on
from Luanna Arumo and bring in Al Golden. Yeah, and
now your defensive coordinator, who's a first time NFL defensive coordinator,
is essentially installing a new scheme with one hand tie

(30:35):
behind his back.

Speaker 2 (30:36):
Yep.

Speaker 3 (30:37):
And Zach has to answer for that as well. So again,
regardless of what you make of Zach as the head coach,
the situation he's been put in is not fair at
this point. And I know that that's part of the
role as the head coach, But what a nightmare scenario
for the head coach of the Cincinnati Bengals to have
to deal with in June.

Speaker 2 (30:56):
And here's the other thing too, thinking deep into the future.
All right. You know, let's say I don't know whenever
Zach Taylor leaves here, whether he's fired or he gets
another job or a retire whatever it is. Why would

(31:16):
any coach or any player want to come to Cincinnati
if this is constantly what's happening, If you're negotiating through
the media, if the narrative is that the Bengals don't
negotiate in good faith, if there is a belief that
they don't have your back, and it is not a

(31:36):
collaborative relationship. It's players and coaches versus front office. If
that's the general belief among agents and players and coaches,
why does anyone want to come here? Yeah, and again,
thinking deep into the future, Joe Burrow's contract is up
after twenty twenty nine. Does he want to keep dealing

(31:59):
with this? Does Jamar Chase want to keep dealing with this?
It is the and ultimately and ultimately to the fans. Sure,
how many fans if the Bengals go out these next
four or five years and don't win a Super Bowl
or at least play in another one, are out the

(32:21):
door When Joe Burrow is out the door and aren't
coming back? Correct? If this dog and pony show continues.
You mean you want to talk about why a stadium
lease and all that stuff is important, and we're supposed
to get some information on that at one o'clock today. Like,

(32:42):
if they screw this up over the next several years,
because I believe they're in a Super Bowl window, the
the the damage to the fan base and ultimately the
franchise could be irreparable when it comes to their future.

Speaker 8 (32:58):
Here.

Speaker 2 (32:58):
Yep, it's like, make no mistake, there's a lot on
the line. And I've been pro Bengals in all of this,
and I am pro Bengals in all of this, but
I can't help but wonder at some point do you
just say, all right, screw this. We have more important
goals right than worrying about guaranteed money down the line.

(33:20):
It's at the is the pr disaster worth the money
that you could potentially save and you aren't even guaranteed
to save it. You might you're more than likely gonna
have to pay it anyways, It's at the end of
the day.

Speaker 3 (33:37):
And again I thought Moa alluded to this in Quick
Hitch yesterday. At the end of the day, do you
ever sit down as the Bengals and say.

Speaker 2 (33:45):
And it's just not worth this. Yeah, let's let's just
get this deal done.

Speaker 3 (33:49):
We talked the other day, like what was the app
what is the absolute worst case scenario of Trey Hendrickson
is signed in falls flat. You don't lose much, You're
still in a good cap situation, you still have to spend.
There are ways that you can and to build in
to get out of it. Like that to me, the
Schamar thing, like, at what point does it get to

(34:09):
before you say, you know what, let's swallow the pride
here and let's make sure that this gets resolved and
let's get to a training camp with zero distractions. Let's
go try to win a super Bowl. And the best
way to win a super Bowl is to actually do
football things during training camp. Not worry about who's not practicing,
who's not showing up, who's got a contract situation, what

(34:29):
the distractions are. How about just show up and play
football and try to win a championship. At some point
between now in July twenty third, you've got to sit
down and say, is it really worth what's going.

Speaker 2 (34:43):
On right now? That has to be answering. And you
know I've talked about this before. The Bengals care about
public perception more now than at any point in the
history of the franchise. They do. Those are conversations that
are had and that matter in those walls. How much
do they care, I don't know. Maybe not enough to

(35:03):
change and bend on certain stuff. But you've got to
at least have that conversation, just from a pr and
a marketing standpoint, to say, Okay, yep, listen, this is
not worth the fight. This isn't the hill to die on.
M let's bring that being said, like again, to reiterate.

(35:24):
I think the Bengals are right in all of this.
I really do. But sometimes you just gotta say, screw this,
We'll we'll pick it up another time.

Speaker 3 (35:32):
Yeah, uh, let's pick this up when we come back
for the first time today. We'll open up the phone
lines five, one, three, seven, fifteen thirty.

Speaker 2 (35:40):
We'll get your phone calls and reaction.

Speaker 3 (35:42):
Next on ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports Station thanks to
Skyline Chili.

Speaker 4 (35:46):
Hey goifteen thirty, Welcome back, Thanks for listening on a
Thursday since e three sixty thanks to Skyline Chili.

Speaker 3 (35:58):
No Reds today, but we will talk balk Red's In
our number three, we'll talk to John Cunningham, the athletic
director of UC. In our number three, we'll talk to
Richard Skinner to kick off the second hour and your talkbacks,
and we've got soccer and Big Three giveaways at the
end of our three where you can win tickets as well.

Speaker 2 (36:17):
We just had somebody tweet at me and say, hey,
you guys doing a ticket giveaway today. Yep, thanks for listening.
If so, what are those soccer tickets? So I told him,
you know, it's uh, it's CF Pachuca against FC Salsburgh Wednesday,
June eighteenth. TQL staties next Wednesday. Yeah, that's coming up
six pm o'clock. Big Three coming up. The bananas, the

(36:39):
Savannah Bananas are in town this weekend. You know, Banana ball,
Banana ball. It looks like it's gonna have to be
umbrella ball. Oh yeah, what are they do in the rain?
I don't know. I figured those guys just play probably,
I mean they don't care. They don't have any rules.
They got that they make their own rules. But they
got that guy on stilts. I don't know.

Speaker 3 (36:56):
You you're little may not be able to play. Yeah,
you might might not be able to bring the stilts out.
Let's take some phone calls. Jay is calling in Hijay.

Speaker 12 (37:05):
Hey, I just wanted to talk about the contract with Sama.

Speaker 2 (37:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 12 (37:10):
Why would the Bengals bring something like that, because if
you think about it, where they put that in Joe
Burrow's contract?

Speaker 3 (37:18):
Probably not they didn't. They obviously didn't put it in
Miles Murphy or a Marius MEM's contract, because that's what
Shamar wants. He just wants the same that the previous
players have received, which leads me to believe I wonder
if the Bengals have learned something or they saw something
at rookie mini camp that maybe leads them to have
a little caution that they wanted to slide some of

(37:40):
this default language in. I don't know that that's me speculating,
but I don't know why you would dig your heels
in now and say this is the time where we're
putting this in and we're not going away from it.

Speaker 12 (37:52):
Yeah, And so if you look at it, I can
understand somewhat out of but this is some I guess
a little new. When I was listening to you guys
yesterday at the end of the day about two or
something I'm like, there's so many external factors that plays
and that I mean, a guy can just get arrested
for a simple thing and there goes this guaranteed money,

(38:14):
So I can understand his push back, you know, so,
But I thought you guys sounded a little naive to
that bang. But things happen outside of the sports world,
and that can affect those guys in the sports world.
So I'll shut up and listen.

Speaker 2 (38:30):
That's the thing, Jay, and thank you for the phone call.
That's what we don't know, right, we don't know the specifics.
Like if I'm Schamar, you know, I would especially be
pushing back on an arrest triggering default. Right, There's we
see it all the time where a person is wrongly
arrested or wrongly accused for something they didn't do. So
sure I get that, I would absolutely, But if I'm

(38:52):
the Bengals, I'm also saying, okay, well if you pass,
if you fail a drug test, which are mandated by
the league, well then we're going to trigger that default.
We don't know the specifics of each and this is
probably what takes a little while to hammer out, is
the case by case basis and creating specific language for

(39:12):
specific things that could or could not happen within And
so it makes me wonder are Schamar in his camp
even open to that negotiation of case by case basis,
or are they saying, no, we won't accept anything you
offer when it comes to default. If that's the case,
they're not going to get very far. No, it's uh, I.

Speaker 3 (39:35):
Said, And that's the that's the problem with not knowing
the details. As we've talked about, you don't You're you're speculating.
And again point there's a couple of ways that you
could probably help with this. You could increase the guarantee early.
You could increase the signing bonus. You could give the
signing bonus in one lump sum. You could increase injury

(39:56):
protections maybe early in the deal, create better cash for
the player early, and still protect yourself on the backside.
That's usually how you know what you get to the
middle on something with these negotiations. Reminder, Amariusmims, although he
didn't have maybe this specific language, and his deal didn't
sign until the end of July last year, right before

(40:17):
training camp, so there's still a lot of negotiating that
happens between now and then.

Speaker 2 (40:22):
Yeah, what's up, Mark.

Speaker 13 (40:26):
Hey, I got I gotta take on this Mars Stewart thing.
I wanted to wait until everybody else voice ter opinions.
My opinion is, you know you got the message and
then you got the messenger. I'm more focused on the message.
I don't care, but I'm not focused on him because

(40:46):
I could go down the list of first round draft
picks past and present that have a problem with this
family on their contracts, and I feel like, if you
felt like you had to put this for virgin this
contract because of something you've seen about him, well that's
your fault.

Speaker 3 (41:06):
Yes, that goes back to that goes back to meeting him,
meeting with him at the combine once and not bringing
him in for a visit that that would fall back
on the Bengals if that were the case.

Speaker 14 (41:16):
Yes, yeah, you you shouldn't have drafted them if you
felt like you had to put this verbage in. And
just like with the Geno Stone contract, if he didn't
play up to the contract, now you want him take
a pay cut, and he took it.

Speaker 8 (41:32):
But it's like this.

Speaker 14 (41:33):
Family is all about trying to save money and protect
their best interests, and you know when you when you're
in a job employee manager, when you in that kind
of environment.

Speaker 2 (41:46):
I can't speak for you.

Speaker 14 (41:48):
In Austin, I can speak for myself. I don't care
about being treated special, but I wanted to be treated fairly.

Speaker 2 (41:56):
Sure.

Speaker 14 (41:56):
You know, if the day you realize that you got
treated different than somebody else, that's what they you're going
to want out of that organization. Yeah, they that's a problem.
That's a problem with anybody.

Speaker 2 (42:10):
Thank you Martin for the rest of the show. Appreciate it.

Speaker 3 (42:12):
You know that the Chamar side of things can be
they feel disrespected. Well, why didn't you You didn't put
this verbage in before? Do you think less of me
than you do of them that you got to put
this verbage in? Maybe that's a jumping off point to say, well,
not that that's not gonna fly. So again, we don't
know the details. We're just speculating at this point. Let's
get one more in here before we got a break.

(42:33):
What's up, Drew?

Speaker 15 (42:36):
Yeah, So.

Speaker 16 (42:38):
From what I heard yesterday, it sounded like some of
other teams who have similar contracts like this are the Eagles.

Speaker 8 (42:46):
So I don't think.

Speaker 16 (42:48):
The Eagles have whole a bunch of boy scouts playing
up and their d line and they they don't have any.

Speaker 8 (42:54):
Issue with it there.

Speaker 16 (42:56):
But I also I'm arguing both sides. Let's say, worst
case scenario, it's a Trevor Bauer type thing that pops up,
and I'm not saying that that's going to happen, but
Trevor Bauer found out he I don't know if you
guys know too much in contract, Tony, Mike, since you
signed wind out of everybody listened to the radio right
now unless it was having If he was found out

(43:19):
guilty and did get in trouble, does the money come back.

Speaker 7 (43:22):
Or do you know?

Speaker 2 (43:23):
No, I don't know.

Speaker 3 (43:24):
I think that would be more specifics of the case itself. Obviously,
they cost Trevor Bauer a ton of I mean millions
upon millions of dollars and he didn't get much in return,
and it did stop his major league baseball career. I
think each individual case would be different, but yeah, it's
certainly fair to question that as well.

Speaker 2 (43:44):
My guess would be no, right like he would probably
have to fight it in court, would be my guess, yep,
which causes more of an issue.

Speaker 16 (43:51):
Well, then I totally understand his side, sure, because I
mean that took Bower what three four years to get
that result that I don't even know. It seemed like
it took forever.

Speaker 12 (44:01):
So all right, guys, I appreciate it, Drew.

Speaker 2 (44:04):
Thank you, man.

Speaker 3 (44:05):
I appreciate it. It's just again, it's it's so much unknown. Yeah,
very much unknown. That's what I.

Speaker 2 (44:12):
Hope this is. I hope that they are ironing and
ironing it out case by case basis so that the
language is clear and precise for both sides. Yep, that's
what I hope this is all about. And I hope
that Stewart's camp is not just saying nope, we're not
doing this whatsoever. You know. So last night his stepdad

(44:36):
Mo Marquez was posting on Twitter and said, not a
person in this world would sign a contract stating that
if you do something wrong this year, the company you
work for can take the remaining four or five years
of your contract, especially when the person has had zero
infractions for twenty four years. Right, would somebody be a

(44:57):
Trevor Bauer situation?

Speaker 8 (44:59):
Though?

Speaker 2 (44:59):
For sure somebody reprobbed time and says to him that
other teams have this language, and Samar's stepdad says, other
teams have had this language for years, but the Bengals
are randomly picking your seventeenth pick to change your language.
If this was the language of years past, it would
have been signed already. We just want the same thing,

(45:21):
nothing more, nothing less.

Speaker 3 (45:22):
While I don't know if the Bengals brought it up,
I do know that there are teams, like Drew mentioned
the Eagles, that have that verbiage. When you meet with
draft picks, you talk about that, okay, like, hey, this
is how we structure our contracts. Are you good with that?

Speaker 2 (45:37):
Interesting?

Speaker 3 (45:38):
So again in a setting where you met with Shamar
Stewart once, I don't I'm sure you didn't bring up
in that. Hey, by the way, we're going to change
our defaults in some contract language.

Speaker 2 (45:50):
Are you good with that? Yeah? So yeah, And we
know that the way the Bengals communicate, that probably wasn't
a conversation I had, well, especially if it was a
twenty minute meeting and the combine he didn't even reviewer
talking about football, correct and his agent wasn't there.

Speaker 3 (46:05):
Let's take one final break, quick touch and go when
we get back, and we'll spin some of this to
Richard Skinner as well, who joins us to kick off
the Second Hour coming up on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati
Sports Station thanks to Skyline Chile.

Speaker 1 (46:19):
This is Cinci Shirts Cincy three sixty About Cincinnati from Cincinnati,
sponsored in part by Cinci Shirts, Cincy Shirts, All Cincy,
all Day. This is ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 3 (46:36):
Welcome back our two thanks to Cincy Shirts. Thank you
for listening on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station. Let's
dive right into it, covering the Bengals in many other things.
For Local twelve is our guy Richard Skinner, who is
nice enough to join us to kick off the second hour.

Speaker 2 (46:56):
Here, Skinny, what's going on?

Speaker 8 (46:59):
Loving right? Why are we doing it? What thing going on?
Is the US opening? I'm momenting taking Shane Lowry on
one of my sheets in a pool.

Speaker 3 (47:07):
It has been you know, that's just why I wanted
to connect, because it's such a slow week and there's
not much going on, just a mundane, mandatory mini camp.
You know what's crazy is you start the week and
you're thinking, Okay, we get to hear from Joe Burrow
this week. That's always a good thing. Is Trey going
to show up? Is Trey not going to show up.
What's that going to look like? And quite frankly, we've

(47:28):
we've really talked nothing about that this week because of
the Shamar Stewart situation. And before we even dive into
the situation as a whole, you've obviously been doing this
for a long time. You've been covering the Bengals for
a long time. Is there anything similar from a rookie
standpoint that has left you feeling the way you probably
felt Tuesday after Shamar Stewart spoken in the locker room.

Speaker 8 (47:52):
Well, you know, back in the day, wookie contracts were
negotiab negotiable. Now obviously you know tell you they're slotted, right,
I mean the one thing everybody those both sides of
notion marks too. It's going to make eighteen point eight
million dollars. Back in the day, though, they can negotiate anything.
And I mean to tell you when they used to
have things this is pro even before your tel you
used to have things called two a day's believe twice

(48:13):
a day, and you'd spend your time in between the
two prizes were. This is back when they were at
Wilmington and we had our own little dorm room there
as reporters, you'd spend your time in between the practices,
not just writing the practice, but then calling the agents
of the picks that weren't signed. And those were always protracted,
always long, always took forever. So but this is this
is kind of a new one now in the day

(48:33):
and age of where you know, everything's kind of set
in stone. You're just waiting for the guy above you
who was slotted to sign, and you sign and it
just kind of trickles down and yeah, maybe there's occasionally
some haggling over the guarantees, with those always get ironed
out quickly. This isn't getting ironed out, man. I mean,
the Bengals aren't going to blink. And at the moment it,
Pierce Chamar's is not going to blink. And I don't
know how this gets settled because it's over. It's over

(48:54):
some guarantees when he gets them, and you know, is
there a possibility if he does something nefarious that they
can they can void them, and he wants the exact
same language that Marius Mimms had in his contract last year,
and getting the guarantees exactly when Marius was gonna get them,
and boring that he's not gonna sign I don't think,
and you know, I don't know how this finally plays
its way out. I just don't.

Speaker 3 (49:15):
There was a moment when he spoke Tuesday where Austin
I believe it he used the air quotes, yeah, and
when talking about the Bengals, and there was like a
three or four second pause from the media of what
just happened?

Speaker 2 (49:28):
Where do we go with this?

Speaker 3 (49:28):
From a question standpoint, how was there any expectation when
he was speaking Tuesday that that really anything was gonna
come about this because obviously we haven't had much of
a chance to hear from him. And then just to
see him go on that ran I would, I would,
I would imagine is an incredible moment from a media
standpoint when you're covering this guy.

Speaker 17 (49:49):
Well, let me let me give you this one.

Speaker 8 (49:51):
So a lot of us from press conferences, we share
the quotes, we like, split up the transcription just because
I don't want to Nobody wants to do twenty minutes
at Joe Burrow Biben. So so it's like eight or
nine of ten of us sit there on a daily basis,
and for press convererces we did him up. And occasionally,
if you have to go talk to a player. He'll say,
hey man, I'm not going to be in for that,
but you know here's my here's I'll I'll be able
to get an audio and I'll do my part. So

(50:11):
I didn't go into Joe.

Speaker 17 (50:12):
Bro that day.

Speaker 8 (50:13):
I wanted to locker room because I had to get
another player. And I see Smart sitting there by himself
right and nobody's really talking to him. And I thought, oh,
I'm just gonna go up and ask, and I said,
so I went to This was the wave you guys saw,
and I was in on that too, was the second wave.
I was there by myself for about two minutes with him,
and I walked up and then she said, hey man,
you got a minute. He goes, depends on what you're
going to talk about. I said, I think you know
what I'm going to talk about. And I asked him,

(50:35):
and I got a couple of quick a couple of
short answers, and then he went a little bit longer
than answer when he and he finally looked at him
and goes, you know this is really stupid the way
they're handling this. And I went, okay, well there's my
there's my money. Quote for the moment, and then I
finally asked him. I said, you know, could this linger
into camp? Would you consider not signing Gouse? Man, I'm
gonna answer that, and he goes. He goes, I'm done, okay,
said appreciate your time, and he gave me at least

(50:55):
what I thought I needed and he left and so
I felt bad, like I skipped Joe. I really wasn't
planning on doing shamar by myself. And then I'm like, well,
maybe I'll try to share this because I'm a nice guy.
Well then, right as everybody was coming in from Joe's
press conference, he came back and sat at his locker
and he was approached by the whole group. At that point,
I initially wasn't gonna go over because I already talked

(51:16):
to him like, man, I gotta go back over and
listen to some more of this. And I really think
that was the point of time. After talking to he went,
you know, I got more to say, and I need
to say it to a bigger old hands. So that's
I think why he came back to the locker room.
I think he really wanted his point out there.

Speaker 3 (51:28):
It is, it's remarkable, but when you get into. And
the hard thing is is that everything you're going off
is kind of what both sides are saying. We don't
know the details of what the contract says or doesn't say,
but as it relates to Shamar Stewart's side, it it's
almost divided a fan base because you have fans that say, well,

(51:49):
I'm I'm Team Bengals here, you have fans that say, well,
I'm on Chamar's side, and then you also have kind
of where I'm at to say, well, I don't agree
with how the Bengals are doing it, but I also
don't agree with what Chamar did on Tuesday. Where do
you fall when when you look at this situation as
a whole on you know, if you've got to point
the finger one way or the other, how do.

Speaker 2 (52:08):
You do that?

Speaker 8 (52:10):
I'm pointing to the Bengals mostly to be honest with you,
I mean, why did you pick this guy now to
change language in the contract? I know some other teams,
you know, I found out that some other teams have
done it sound like the Bengals are the only ones
doing this. Some other teams have done some of the
language that they're trying to do to Schamar, But why
this guy now? And again, if he's balking this, this

(52:30):
is probably intertwined as well with the Trey Henderson situation,
like you guys need me so get it done and
they're looking and blinking and going, no, we're good. I mean,
I you don't want to sign, that's on you, And
so I do probably lean way more towards Schamar's side.
I don't think what he did Tuesday was all that nefarious.
I think what he did today just stirred the pot

(52:50):
to the point of you know this, this escalated it
today by him but not being there.

Speaker 3 (52:56):
When you look at what led to him being rafted skinny,
do you think that because my and again it's all speculation,
but I'm thinking, okay, maybe something happened when he got
into town and the Bengals were a little concerned and
maybe they felt they needed to add these defaults because
if you remember back, Samar Stewart didn't even remember meeting
with the Bengals leading up to the draft process. There

(53:18):
was one meeting at the combine, he didn't come into
Cincinnati for a visit. Does that play into this at
all of maybe you look and say, okay, maybe the
Bengals should have done a little bit more of their
homework when deciding who to draft.

Speaker 8 (53:32):
Yeah, I don't, but again it's it's certainly a point
worth raising because the one thing, and I think it's true.
I mean, he has been here for everything. He's been
in meetings from redyunication, he's been on time to everything,
you know, So he hasn't been a red flag guy
to this point. So I don't. I don't think that's
the case. I don't, but it's just it's it's wild

(53:53):
of why are you doing that? Like, let's not forget
this either to meet yours. Knight's not signed now. He
did sign a waiver that allowed him to practice, and
he did practice in the OTA stuff in this week's
mini camp, but he's he's walking at the similar language
in his contract. And will that get resolved by the
time training camp hits too, Because if it's not, then
I'm gonna guess that he may not participate. I would

(54:14):
guess it does for him, But I don't know, man,
It's why you're trying this now is really beyond me.
Why you pick this guy this time to do it.
Maybe they got word that other teams were starting to
do it and they felt like they needed to be
in the same boat. But again, this may be completely different.
If Trey Hendrickson is a willing participant, if things are

(54:34):
going good with him, that you may tell the rookie, fine, dude,
we're good. You don't want to sign. That's on you.
But they need him, and they've blown because of language
in a contract. Because again, if it's eighteen point eight mil,
that's not negotiable. Everybody knows that's the figure. You go
to any website inclishy, that's the number eighteen place. The
Bengals know that his side knows that. If you're just
haggling over one to pay guarantees, what are we doing

(54:55):
here when you need this guy and you've blown now
a bunch of chances for him to get reps leading
into training camp And if people bought you out, it's
just ota reps. I will tell you this. Watching Jerry Montgomery,
the defensive line coach coach the last couple of days
during this stuff, he was literally coaching guys up after
almost every rep. So don't tell me that the reps,

(55:17):
the physical reps, don't matter. Maybe they don't matter for
Trey Hendrickson, right, He's done it before.

Speaker 17 (55:22):
He's got his.

Speaker 8 (55:22):
Pass rush moves down, Pat. You're not gonna change him,
nor do you have any little reason to change him.
But a young guy who was drafted more on traits
than on production, And do you think you can coach
up those traits into being a productive player.

Speaker 17 (55:35):
You haven't got a chance to coach.

Speaker 8 (55:36):
Him up at all, and you won't until training camp
if you even get to do it.

Speaker 2 (55:39):
Then do you think that Schamar's camp is open at
all to negotiating, Like what exactly triggers the defaults? Or
are they just saying remove that future default or the
future contract guarantees being voided altogether? We're not even gonna
discuss it.

Speaker 8 (56:01):
I think they want the exact language that Marius Man's
head and barring that, I just don't think they come
off of it. And this is gonna be fascinating to
watch it play out. I know it sucks if you're
a fan of this stinks. I mean, you know, I'm
watching the defensive line the other day and I see
Miles Murphy and Joseph Osaie and they were playing a
five man front and the fifth man was said with Johnson,
I like said, I actually think he's got a chance

(56:23):
to be a nice rotational piece. He's not Trey Henderson
and he's not the physical traits of Shamar Stewart, and
so that's where you're at right now. He was literally
with the first team said Johnson is the fifth man
on a five man defensive front, and that kind of
struck me. Again, I like said I do, and he
think he's a good story, and I think he does
have some value on a rotational basis perhaps or maybe

(56:44):
ten snaps of game basis, but not in there with
the first unit on the opening gaming that you need
to win at.

Speaker 3 (56:49):
Cleanland, Skinny, I wonder because to me, it's not only
the individual distractions, but it's the sum of those as well.
It's supposed to be a different offseason feel, it's supposed
to be a faster start, and yet you drafted a
guy at seventeen to make an immediate impact. Trey Hendrickson
is still not signed. You have money available to make

(57:11):
that happen, and you have a first time NFL defensive
coordinator who's installing a new scheme, who's installing a new playbook,
essentially with one hand tied behind his back because they
didn't overhaul this defense when you look at the sum
of all of that together. How problematic does that become
for this defense? Because right now, like this is it,

(57:32):
the next time this team gets together, it's training camp
and then the season starts. How problematic do all of
these things now become as a whole.

Speaker 8 (57:40):
I think they become very problematic. And I'll throw the
other monkey wrench into it's for meated that. I just
I'm still finding odd that they haven't done it is
bringing in a veteran safety added the mix, you know.
I mean, it wasn't like your two safeties played great
last year, right and behind them, you've got a guy
who's played eleven snaps in his career in ja On
Anthony and another guy in Tysanders who's never played a
defensive snap in a single NFL game. So if something

(58:03):
were to happen to the two starters who didn't play
very well last year, your next man up is a
guy who's barely played in this league. And I think
that's extraordinarily problematic. So you want to pile onto the problems.
There's the problems as well, and as we mentioned, Demetrius
Knight's been lining up alongside Logan Wilson with the ones.
It's not as to the stone and Zach even made
a point today if there's still competition there. So I

(58:23):
think somebody asked the question about, you know, Demetrius being
a starter, and that's probably the right answer, even if
he thinks he's going to be the starter. But again,
what if he doesn't sign his contract by training camp?
And you talk about that. So you've got a level
at safety where you're holding your breath with two meg guys. Again,
maybe he gets more out of them than Blue A.
Rumo did at linebacker. Then the guy you were projecting
the start may not be available, and you know, your

(58:45):
first round pick and your all pro defensive end may
not be there. That's that's a that's a tough spot, no.

Speaker 3 (58:49):
Question, when when you look at the situations and how
they're unfolding. Mo talked about this yesterday on the show.
Do you envision at any point between now and camp
the Bengals getting together and saying it's just not worth
it because I know historically they don't allow themselves to
get back into a corner. I know that they don't
bend the knee. I know that they don't move the

(59:10):
line in the sand. But is there any point and
the next month where you get together and say, man,
it's just not worth the distraction that this is causing.
Let's just go back to the language that we've used
previously and use it for Shamar Stewart. Let's get the
Trey Hendrickson deal done. Let's go into a camp where
we can worry just about football and trying to get
back to the super Bowl. Is there any chance that

(59:31):
they can get together and say it's not worth it.
Let's just let's give these guys what they want.

Speaker 8 (59:38):
I can't remember where this line first came up, but
it's only use a lot among ourselves in the media group.
I use it a lot too, And it was came
to a player years ago who I can't remember. He
wanted something and it's a great Mike Brown response, which
was guess what?

Speaker 17 (59:53):
So what?

Speaker 8 (59:55):
And I come back to that every time, like in
this regard of a you know, we we'd like to
get this thing done, Mike, and you know, just you
can just bend a little bit there, and I can
just hear him in my mind going, guess what?

Speaker 17 (01:00:08):
Still?

Speaker 8 (01:00:08):
What I mean? They just don't feel like they do bend,
And that's why we're at these and that's the other part.
Listen again, it's if other teams are putting some of
this language in contracts now, and it's starting to become
a wave of you know, trickling down to teams. Okay,
I get that part to some degree, but I hate
to be that guy, but I'll be that guy. The

(01:00:30):
Bengals just don't get the benefit of the doubt on
this because of how many times it feels like we're
in this situation.

Speaker 2 (01:00:34):
Yeah, you do.

Speaker 3 (01:00:38):
You worry at all about what it puts on the
shoulders of Zach Taylor and Joe Burrow because at the
end of the day, they're the ones that have to
answer to it. You know, Zach had to answer the
questions today, Joe had to answer them on on on Tuesday,
and Joe talked about it is a distraction with Trey
Hendrickson and that wasn't even with the Shamar Stewart stuff happening.

Speaker 2 (01:00:57):
Again.

Speaker 3 (01:00:58):
If you're Joe, you're finally healthy, there's been no weird
off season, you got your guys signed, You're ready to
just go play football, and here you are again having
to be the voice having to answer the questions. Does
it get to a point where just it just wears
them down.

Speaker 8 (01:01:14):
I don't think with Joe because it is you know,
we speak to him pretty infrequently. I mean, it'll come
up again if this is the situation in camp. But
I think once the season starts, if they're not around,
they're just not around. But I do I think to
that point it is. I know Zach tried to downplay
that today. It's more it's more you guys talking about
this stuff. It really, you know, people in the locker room.

(01:01:36):
I don't know, man, I think that stuff does permeate
in the locker room too.

Speaker 17 (01:01:40):
I will say, I.

Speaker 8 (01:01:41):
Guess if you're looking for the silver lining positivity to
this is there are no distractions on the offensive side
of the ball where Joe Currow and gang play. That's,
I guess a good thing. And you know he's healthy,
the receiving core is healthy, and so that group can
certainly hit the ground running. And maybe we watched just
a bunch of fifty to forty five games this year.

Speaker 3 (01:02:04):
Are you are you at all concerned about the offensive
line as a whole still of where things are at
Lucas Patrick, Cody, Ford fair Child, Courtel Volson, Are you
at all still concerned about guard and knowing that they're
probably not going to address it between now in training camp.

(01:02:25):
But are you good what the offensive line as a
whole and where it is now or are you still
a little apprehensive about that?

Speaker 14 (01:02:33):
Yeah?

Speaker 8 (01:02:33):
I think we need to see him with the pads
on right. I you know, it's so hard to tell
in these kind of settings where you know you don't
have full pads on, there's not full contact and all
of that, how effective guys are so at the moment,
I would say no, because I do think I think
they are better at the guard spots than they were
last year. It'll have to play itself out. I like

(01:02:56):
the fact that you know it's a Patrick Ford competition
only game of his hand in danded dealing with Fairchild
the starting job. I do think when it all shakes out,
it will be dealing Fairchild at left guard Lucas Patrick
at right guard. Is it perfect? No, but it hasn't
been perfect for a while, and it wasn't perfect last
year and Joe Burrow still through for gazillion yards.

Speaker 3 (01:03:14):
Have you sensed at all in the off season programs
more urgency or a different vibe on the field because
so much was made again of this offseason and finding
a way to start faster, and Zach alluded to it
today with no joint practices and playing some guys more.
But have you sensed a little bit of a renewed energy,

(01:03:35):
an uptick in the urgency that has happened through this
training camp process.

Speaker 8 (01:03:42):
No, And I don't mean that in a negative way.
It just feels like the same to me. You know,
they do a lot of positions, real stuff and don't
get together for a lot of eleven all eleven stuffing less.
I forget and you know this too. I mean, to
collective bargaining agreement only allows you to do so much
from a physicality standpoint. You know. I will give Zach
the credit of, Hey, he's trying to tweet some things.

(01:04:03):
I mean, it may sound small, and it probably is small,
you know, going from the afternoon practice to the mooting practice.
Will that be a positive? The fact they aren't doing
joint practices? And he said, Hey, we get six fully
padded practices between our preseason opener and the next preseason game,
and we're going to take advantage of those to improve ourselves.
And maybe that's a positive, Like, hey, instead of worrying
about going head to head with another team and competing

(01:04:25):
in a joint practice. You really have six good practices
to look at that opener and go, Okay, where are
our strengths, where are weaknesses? What do we need to fix?
And we've got a little bit of time here to
fix them before we lace them up again. I think,
you know, trying to do some things like that and
doing some things internally are good. I think he's trying
the fact that you mentioned it, I mean, he's been
open to playing starters in the preseason.

Speaker 17 (01:04:46):
He was asked today, you.

Speaker 8 (01:04:47):
Know, could it be multiple games? And he said, you
will see taken on a game by game basis. It
could be two games, could be three games. And so
I do think and it may just be a head
nod to the fans, like I get you, I hear
you complaining about it. I'm going to try to do
some different things and maybe that'll get you off my
back and you know, maybe miraculously we start two to zero,
because I do think there've been midigame, there's been mitigating
just growth circumstances almost every year that have felt for

(01:05:08):
those slow starts. Well, the good part is he's feedles,
he's as healthy as he's ever been at this point,
and that's a great thing and hopefully it stays that way,
and I think that would go a long way towards
the Bengals getting off to a fast start. But I
do think he recognized that even if I make changes
just for the just for change's sake, that it needed
to be done.

Speaker 12 (01:05:26):
So I'll give.

Speaker 2 (01:05:27):
Him some credit for that, Skinny.

Speaker 18 (01:05:29):
It is.

Speaker 3 (01:05:30):
It's going to be a very interesting time now between
this and training camp and leading into training camp. What
is the easiest way to follow along with everything you'll
have going on between now and then?

Speaker 8 (01:05:40):
Yep, just head to Local twelve dot com, slash sports
or catch me on the X at Local twelve.

Speaker 2 (01:05:45):
Skinny Skenny, you're the best man.

Speaker 3 (01:05:48):
If you're wondering, Shane Lowry is not at this point
going to get into double digits, so it looks like
he's gonna finish at plus nine, so you at least
have that going for you.

Speaker 8 (01:05:57):
Yeah, that's not gonna make the weekend. I don't feel
that's not and that's not going to help me out.
I'm going to need four other players on my five
man sheet to do well, and that's usually a big
ass skinny.

Speaker 2 (01:06:05):
What would you shoot in eighteen at Oakmont?

Speaker 19 (01:06:10):
If I okay, from the tips, no tips, I'd be
lucky to break one. I'd be lucky to break one
to twenty from the tips, and I'm probably like a
sixteen to eighteen handicap.

Speaker 17 (01:06:22):
As it is.

Speaker 8 (01:06:22):
I just love the game itself and I do like
to play it. So nowadays when I play, I usually
play if I'm lucky, you know, six thousand yards and
I'm still shooting. I'm still hoping to break nineties on
those days. I can't imagine from the tips on this
particular course where I mean, if if a guy like
me hits hitting the rough, I might be in there
for a month trying to hack that ball.

Speaker 2 (01:06:44):
Three hundred yards. I said last night, I'm shooting two hundred.

Speaker 8 (01:06:48):
Oh, I'm not even I can set us score high enough.
I mean, there could be certainly holes that are fifteens
and eighteens, or like they used to do when my
daughter play high school golf and some girls weren't as
good as some other girls, and the move place to
play along. You sometimes just go. It's called a circle nine,
where you put a nine down on the card and
circle it and goes down as a ten. I'd have
a lot of circle nines on that card.

Speaker 3 (01:07:09):
Man, Skinny Man, you're the best. Thanks so much for
your time. We'll talk again soon.

Speaker 8 (01:07:14):
Take care.

Speaker 3 (01:07:15):
Yes, sir, that is a Richard Skinner of Local twelve.
Very very interesting stuff there from Skinny to fall back
on as it relates to the Shamar Stewart situation as well.
Your talkbacks are next on ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports
Station thanks to Cincy Shirts.

Speaker 2 (01:07:32):
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Speaker 1 (01:08:41):
Com here every show at ESPN fifteen thirty dot com top.

Speaker 2 (01:09:15):
All right talkbacks.

Speaker 3 (01:09:17):
Thank you to our friends at Cincy's Shirts here for
hour two and for supplying us each and every week
with a gift card to give away on Friday based
on the best best talkback we receive throughout the week.
Let's get into today's.

Speaker 2 (01:09:32):
Yeah, let's do that Sincy's shirts. Baby, YEAHOK, disregard that's
from the wrong day.

Speaker 18 (01:09:41):
Okay, Man Shamar just walked out on his team in
practice this and everybody will say, well, he hasn't signed
the contract yet, it's not his team yet, he's found
an employee yet.

Speaker 20 (01:09:52):
I don't care.

Speaker 10 (01:09:53):
I mean, dude, you're you're walking away from life changing
money just to prove a point.

Speaker 18 (01:09:58):
Sign it, get your ten million dollars bonus and get
the hell.

Speaker 2 (01:10:01):
On the field and show everybody you're a good teammate.
You don't have any pelts on the wall to back up.

Speaker 21 (01:10:06):
You have no collateral except your potential, and your attitude
is not helping you at all.

Speaker 18 (01:10:11):
Bro.

Speaker 3 (01:10:12):
Yeah, I don't think as much of him leaving early
was anything excepted. It does avoid a little bit of
a distraction, but again, as we talked about earlier, it
also opens the door for a lot of national outlets
to pick this up and run with.

Speaker 22 (01:10:26):
What's up guys, Kahunick watching the field of study in SATs,
did you know that Burrow had the longest run for
scrimmage at forty nine yards last year? That came happen
again Chase Brown's got too much home run ability. We
got to getting three over sixty sixty five yards. Tony
to hear me out, did you ever run power Talless
quarterback lead.

Speaker 2 (01:10:44):
I think they need to start looking at that.

Speaker 8 (01:10:46):
No.

Speaker 22 (01:10:46):
I did it in high school. I would get out
there and do blocking drills. I had Power toss it
back in that quarterback leads to get the extra blocker
out there. So now your quarterback's not wasted his handing the.

Speaker 2 (01:10:56):
Ball telling you it's not strong enough. That's one thing
you never want. It's definitely the Bengals don't need to
do that. But yeah, that is a fun fact from
last year. Bro had the longest run from scrimmage for
the Bengals. It was that forty nine yard touchdown run
against the Giants.

Speaker 23 (01:11:12):
Here, I'm not looking everything rubber and kind of right before,
but right takes.

Speaker 2 (01:11:22):
Pretty good if you're smother. All right, thank you, Carl.

Speaker 24 (01:11:29):
Hey, what's up, guys? It's one from the Jamar Stewart.
I had you back yesterday and now today. You know,
voted on the table and the words of the song.
You gotta learned when to hold them and learn when
to photo them, and you don't folded out already out
of mandatory ot as, and you don't even have a
contract yet, So now you're showing your true colors. So

(01:11:51):
I hope you understand and learn from this mistake that
you done did.

Speaker 2 (01:11:55):
Oh there you go. Oh hey, it's m Milford.

Speaker 16 (01:12:03):
Yeah you know where.

Speaker 2 (01:12:06):
Yeah.

Speaker 9 (01:12:06):
You haven't heard from me in a while because I
fell down. I took a really bad fall down some steps.
Oh no, and caused a hematoma in my backside and
I had to have surgery and everything. I was in
the hospital for four days. What personal injury have you
done that's kept you in the hospital for.

Speaker 2 (01:12:26):
A couple of days? Oh my goodness, got text there.

Speaker 3 (01:12:29):
I've never had a prolonged hospital stay, just some surgeries
from sports.

Speaker 2 (01:12:33):
Yeah. I think the longest I was ever in the
hospital I had a broken arm that was only a
couple hours.

Speaker 7 (01:12:40):
Tony Olson's Jack evert in College Hill. I think there's
a lot of fault on both sides of the Shamar
Stewart contract situation. But in the same breath, he was
picked as a project. He needs these reps, and I
see why he's mad that he's getting this language when
he was picked before our last three first rounders. Honestly,
he needs the reps. Just get him in the building,
get him signed, and then deal with this catching up

(01:13:01):
to the rest of the league. With the language. When
we go to the ANC Championship for Super Bowl again
this year, if that's the expectation, then we should expect
to have a late pick and that's when we should
finally catch up with the rest of the league.

Speaker 2 (01:13:10):
That's fine, I understand that that.

Speaker 20 (01:13:13):
Hello, this is former president Old Reagan. Well, well, I
was going to say something, but it completely left me.

Speaker 2 (01:13:22):
Oh no, no, no, I know what it was. That's right.

Speaker 20 (01:13:24):
Uh, this whole Shamir Stuart thing is proving the Bengals
to be wise, believe it or not, especially in requiring
the qualifier about a player bad mouthing the organization and public.
In fact, I think from now on, I'm going to
start calling Shamir mal as in mal content male Stuart mal.

Speaker 16 (01:13:46):
And The OSCAR for best coach speak of the Year
goes to Zach Taylor, Cincinnati Bengal.

Speaker 2 (01:13:55):
He said, a lot of practice. Yep, oh yeah, it's interesting.

Speaker 25 (01:14:00):
He said they had a great spring the Bengals. Well,
I mean it could have been better if Star and
Henderson were there. Yeah, they Star and Henderson have a
different definition of mandatory than some of us. I'll tell you,
the Pacers are relentless. They just keep coming at you.
I'm surprised OKC is still a two to one favorite.

Speaker 2 (01:14:24):
I know, I am just insane. Think I am too.
I've heard Brian Windhorse say something interesting too. If you
kind of look back late in that game, Pacers are
all standing up ready to go, and during a free
throw and all the OKC players hands on knees bent over,
looks like the Pacers might be in better shape.

Speaker 3 (01:14:43):
I thought it was interesting early in the series that
it was OKC that has like adjusted themselves defensively for
what Indy does, and it's like, you're the best team
in the regular season. Do what you do make the
other team adjust to you. I thought that was interesting.

Speaker 15 (01:15:00):
I say they should get trade done.

Speaker 2 (01:15:03):
But whatever.

Speaker 13 (01:15:05):
What really bothers me is Canty and the national media
going off.

Speaker 2 (01:15:12):
What's the truth?

Speaker 13 (01:15:13):
Are they trying to reset change language or not?

Speaker 2 (01:15:22):
Every great day guy.

Speaker 3 (01:15:23):
That's essentially how many licks does it take to get
to the center of a TUTSI pop?

Speaker 2 (01:15:26):
No one really knows. At the end of the day,
I haven't had a TUTSI pop in a while.

Speaker 10 (01:15:31):
Guess who's pitching for the Tigers for today and the
Reds we're not facing this weekend.

Speaker 2 (01:15:38):
Starting pitchers so far this year. Yeah, that's good living
for the old Red Legs Tigers unfortunately, and one of
their best young pitchers has to have Tommy john too,
So uh Sunday, however, Father's Day could be a bloodbath. Oh.
The reason I say that is that the Tigers are
one of, if not the best teams in base Sunday

(01:16:00):
being left handed pitching, and it looks like Wade Miley's
going to be pitching that day.

Speaker 26 (01:16:05):
TP fifteen, Audi Mount healthy, What up, Dough? We're going
to refer to this as the Burton Calls because I
think the Bengals front office sees all the drama he's
calls and wants protection from that and mispronouncing team names
and forgetting stuff only gets worse with age.

Speaker 2 (01:16:29):
Just wait till you flick the light for the room
and try to flush the toilet. Oh well, oh boy,
all right? Interesting, I had a situation earlier where I
had toilet involved. It's the Beauty Radio. You guys didn't
even know. No one knows. Yeah, I still don't remember
what I was going to say an hour ago. Gets Adam, Hey.

Speaker 27 (01:16:52):
Adam, regarding the Bengals contracts, Okay, I thought, in this
new Bengal era where they're a good team and do
things differently, that Katie was supposed to be in control,
that Katie was supposed to be doing all this stuff.

Speaker 15 (01:17:07):
This sounds like the same old Mike Brown bs.

Speaker 27 (01:17:10):
Actually, my question to you is who is still controlling
the purse strings?

Speaker 15 (01:17:16):
Is it Mike, isn't Katie? Is it by committee?

Speaker 17 (01:17:21):
Kaya?

Speaker 2 (01:17:21):
Katie negotiates the contracts. Katie has negotiated the contracts for
a long time, fifteen twenty years. Katie is the primary
contract negotiator.

Speaker 18 (01:17:34):
Alston Jack over the cot jail, Sorry, double dip.

Speaker 28 (01:17:37):
I would love to just sit down and be able
to have an opportunity of conversation with the Blackbirds. I
don't want to insult them personally.

Speaker 18 (01:17:43):
I'm all for insulting.

Speaker 28 (01:17:44):
People professionally, though, I just really want to know do
they not have any interpersonal skills or emotional intelligence, because
like we are always in these disputes of contracts and
players feeling disrespected.

Speaker 7 (01:17:56):
I just want to see how they interact with people
good question.

Speaker 2 (01:17:59):
In my I limited interactions with them, they've been lovely people,
Like seriously, I just I've heard the stories of the
way players feel like they're treated players, families feel like
they're treated other you know, people that have worked for
the organization don't always share that. In my limited time
around them, they've been lovely.

Speaker 3 (01:18:21):
As someone who was passed on by the organization multiple times,
I just prefer to to keep to myself here.

Speaker 18 (01:18:27):
Yeah, hey, it's God. I've got a perfect solution for
the Bengals defensive problems.

Speaker 2 (01:18:33):
What is it?

Speaker 18 (01:18:34):
Get rid of Trey Henderson and Shamar Stewart, have Tony
Pike and Austin Elmore take their place and have bad
decision James Rapine and Snop Bubbles do since the three.

Speaker 2 (01:18:48):
That would be a duo?

Speaker 3 (01:18:49):
Can you imagine that's also a little bit of a
little bit of a stunt game.

Speaker 2 (01:18:55):
Listen, I don't think I have the athletic profile to
be an edge rusher, run stopper. I could be a
nose yeah yeah, I could just fall down slide, you
could slot out sometimes. I don't think I could go outside.

Speaker 18 (01:19:08):
Oh yeah, I'm paid Tony and Austin a million ee
to be on the Bengals.

Speaker 2 (01:19:14):
I'd take a mill now the Bengals a little bit more.
If the Bengals said, we'll give you a million dollars,
but you can't screw up for the next four years,
I would still probably take a million dollars. Yeah, you
really have to trust yoursel embarrassing. What's good? My sp
keeps out here in Sonny hot z on it?

Speaker 8 (01:19:32):
What up?

Speaker 2 (01:19:32):
Tonny? What up about?

Speaker 14 (01:19:33):
Man?

Speaker 2 (01:19:33):
I feel bad for z that I really do. I mean,
he already on a hot seat. You just making it worse.
The front office don't care, man, they don't care.

Speaker 8 (01:19:42):
Take that clause about that contract, man, and focus on winning.

Speaker 2 (01:19:45):
Get a brother what he needs and let's go. It's
so embarrassing. I turn on the TV, the national media.
Everybody's eating the Bengals alive as of ownership. Just embarrassing.

Speaker 17 (01:19:54):
Man, Get your foot out so you know what and
pay him.

Speaker 2 (01:19:59):
Ronnie runn represent.

Speaker 29 (01:20:00):
The NAT bouncing to you guys and your guests. The
more I agree with the Bengals and the contract negotiations
with Samar Stewart, I don't understand why this one individual
would hold up the Bengals progressing and using the same
contract language that every other team in the NFL is using.

(01:20:21):
If not now, then when next year's first Roun Pickston,
he's the same. Excuse the year for that, the year
for that. It will all be the same if they
don't get it in there.

Speaker 3 (01:20:29):
No, it's not every team in the NFL that use it.
There are some teams in the NFL that use it.
And if you are open about that, and I don't
know if the Bengals were, but when you meet with
these individuals, you bring them in in draft meetings and
say this is now how we're handling our draft or
our contracts, you get a little bit more of an
understanding of it. So I don't think it would be
the same situation.

Speaker 2 (01:20:50):
I do think that teams would put anybody they draft
would push back on this if they were the first
person to get that in their deal.

Speaker 3 (01:20:59):
You yeah, but that's why you got to You got
to be open at the start. You got to communicate
that right now.

Speaker 2 (01:21:04):
But get going.

Speaker 3 (01:21:05):
So maybe what if they did right? It sounds like
from Shamar's side that this is all.

Speaker 2 (01:21:09):
But does that change if you tell them during the
draft visit, this is what we want to do. Does
that change anything?

Speaker 3 (01:21:17):
It should really the way that they're talking about it,
they're blindsided by it.

Speaker 2 (01:21:21):
If they had told Joe Burrow this is what we're
gonna do, and he says, I don't want that, would
they have not drafted number one overall? Probably not. There's
no way I disagree with that. Well, how the Eli
Manning situation play out? Oh that was about? Was that
about money or about an inept franchise altogether? Could have
been the franchise, but he he essentially said early his
dad more than anything, don't draft men. They didn't.

Speaker 30 (01:21:42):
Yeah, the Bengals are more interested in winning an argument
instead of winning games. That quote just says it all
about Ebenezer Brown and his daughter's running that franchise.

Speaker 21 (01:21:58):
Yeah, I'm tired of shamar and uh Trey garbage going on.

Speaker 2 (01:22:03):
Okay, I care less if they played probably need him though,
but whatever. Uh looks like the Reds are avoid Scuball.
He's pitching today. I think the Reds are gonna possibly
sweep the time. Oh definitely, two out of three. Okay,
give me what you're drinking.

Speaker 31 (01:22:23):
Tony Austin George in the valley, So you love George.
It's still side. I just started listening. But how can
you be this guy? I mean, so, let's say he
goes back into the draft next year. Let's say they
don't sign him. I mean that when he said that, though,
you know what's up? So what that kind of scares me.
They're not gonna They're not gonna negotiate with him. So
what happens when he goes back in the jeft? Do

(01:22:44):
you still think he's gonna be a top seventeen big
I don't think. So he's gonna lose a ton of
money not to sign.

Speaker 2 (01:22:50):
He has to sign. What show is he listening to?
I don't know, but I think he goes back in
the draft. What if the Bengals take him again? They can't.
That's the whole thing. Oh that's the rule, they can't.
I'm out, George from the I don't know. I can't
speak for Tony, but from the very beginning, I've been
on the Bengals side on this. I win the players.

Speaker 15 (01:23:10):
Hey, guys, it seems to me that the players are
both kind of silly in this when they're parts both
of them. Ray and Shamarhamar has an issue with these
cloths about the behavior action whatever they got in there.
I mean, we don't know details, but if it's not
a problem for hidden behave and I have an issue,

(01:23:31):
then sign the contract. Bars Draig is I mean, I
don't know. Does he want just the one big year
or does he want four small years?

Speaker 3 (01:23:41):
Yeah, it's just it's not just one offs. It's year
after year that that players do have contract dispute or
contract problems, and it happens across the league. But it
does seem to to rear its uggly had more than
you'd like it to here.

Speaker 2 (01:23:58):
The Bengals have almost never in their history guaranteed money
past the first year. They have slowly started to change
on that. T Higgins, Jamar Chase, Joe Burrow, they got
guaranteed money beyond year one. Those contracts apparently do not

(01:24:20):
feature these clauses, which means there's no default language that
those guys could default on and ruin their guarantees. When
we've talked about those contracts being negotiated in the past,
when we talk about guaranteed money past year one, this
is the type of stuff that gets negotiated, the details
that get hammered out. Those three contracts don't have default

(01:24:43):
language for guaranteed money past year one or any of
the future years. Those three, however, are proven NFL commodities,
among the best at their position, who have a prior relationship.

Speaker 3 (01:24:57):
With the Bengals. Trice a proven commodity. I agree with
that best of one of the best at his position.

Speaker 2 (01:25:02):
But I don't think the tray thing comes down to
guaranteed money. I think it comes down to length and
total money. I don't think it has I don't think
guarantees are the issue with Trey. So I can understand
where Schamar's like, wait a minute, you just did those
three big contracts and they didn't have it. But the
Bengals are like, yeah, you're not them. Those guys are

(01:25:23):
really good. Right when I.

Speaker 23 (01:25:26):
Was drafted, I Mike Brown, I asked my agent, what
does this mean?

Speaker 5 (01:25:35):
A MYA starter?

Speaker 18 (01:25:37):
Will I be rich? Here's what he said to me, Hey, Schamar, Chamar, whatever.

Speaker 2 (01:25:46):
Will be will be. The money's not there, And hey Chamars.

Speaker 9 (01:25:59):
Yeah, just hurt God. Leave a talk about God. Where
were you when I was falling down the steps? You're
not at least I didn't break anything.

Speaker 2 (01:26:09):
Yeah, I mean you're still with us? Thankful? Oh yeah,
have you.

Speaker 11 (01:26:13):
Ever heard of a player and negotiations? Say, oh, I've
been treated so well on any team in the NFL.
I think this is just always a negotiating factor. They
try to I guess ouse their employer and publicly and
to try to get some leverage.

Speaker 2 (01:26:32):
It's sad. I agree. I think you look at the
Trace situation and the fact that they are negotiating in
the media and they are trying in leaving mini camp
and getting the national headlines. All that is employed to
gain leverage and they don't have it. And they also
probably don't know because when you look at the list
of players that these guys represent his agency, none of

(01:26:56):
them are former Bengals. These guys probably have no idea
how to Bengals really operate, and so because of that,
they think that they can pull some something like this
and that will give them leverage. Bengals don't care. I
promise you they don't. Actually, I didn't think anyone honor
to contract anymore.

Speaker 29 (01:27:18):
And I think people in sports make way too much money,
especially when they're amateurs.

Speaker 2 (01:27:26):
You make money for other people, they give you some.
It's pretty good. That was our last one.

Speaker 3 (01:27:30):
All right, Austin's got a question today. It's right ticket giveaway?
Are we going to do both again?

Speaker 2 (01:27:36):
I think we're gonna unlock the phone lines at five one, three, seven,
four nine, fifteen thirty, and we're gonna fill up the
lines and we're gonna allow each caller to choose, or
we're gonna allow the How do we want to do
this last year or last year? I think my brain

(01:27:56):
there's something going on too. One. Yesterday we allowed the
caller to select what they were playing for. Yes, do
you want to do that again? Sure? Okay? Five three, seven,
four nine, fifteen thirty. You have the option for Big
Three tickets coming up in July or FIFA Club World

(01:28:18):
Cup tickets coming up this Wednesday night at TQL Stadium.
So we will do how do we give away two
two percent of tickets? Well, if you remember yesterday, yeah, time,

(01:28:39):
yesterday we had the sixth overall caller, yes, get to
pick right which tickets they would win, and then the
other okay, yes.

Speaker 3 (01:28:48):
And then the other caller would answer a question by default.
How about today the fifth caller?

Speaker 2 (01:28:52):
What if we default? Oh boy, okay, So the fifth
caller today gets to choose what tickets they want. Caller,
we'll have to answer a trivia question. Yes, five one, three, seven, nine,
fifteen thirty Austin. You get the trivia question. That's next
chance a really clean operation here.

Speaker 3 (01:29:10):
On ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station. Thanks to Cinti Shirts,
Hey do you.

Speaker 2 (01:29:15):
Run a small business?

Speaker 1 (01:29:16):
But he continues on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 2 (01:29:27):
All right, Dan Strong one, I gotta have some fun tonight.
Welcome back, end of.

Speaker 3 (01:29:36):
Hour number two. Thanks to Cincy Shirts. Thank you for listening.
On ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station. We have a
couple sets of tickets here to give away Austin. We
had our fifth caller gets their choice of the tickets,
and then the remaining callers we'll get to answer.

Speaker 2 (01:29:53):
A trivia question. That's right. I just spoke to our
fifth caller. Our winner Jason from Liberty Townshase, and Jason
has chosen Big Three Basketball coming to Cincinnati this summer.
Perfect Father's Day gift. This weekend, you get to see
the likes of Dwight Howard, Joe Johnson, Jordan Crawford, and
Bearcat legend Lance Stevenson, Born Ready and more at Heritage

(01:30:17):
Bank Center on Saturday, July twenty six. You can visit
Big three dot com for more information. Those are the
tickets that Jason chose, which means we have two tickets
to give away for this coming Wednesday for the FIFA
Club World Cup at TQL Stadium. It'll be CF Pachuka

(01:30:39):
from Mexico's Liga MX against FC Salsburg from the Austrian
Bundesliga coming up at six o'clock this Wednesday. Are you
ready to go? All right? Our first caller is Tony
and Erlanger. Hello, Tony? How are you? Tony? Are you there?

Speaker 14 (01:31:01):
Yes?

Speaker 2 (01:31:02):
I'm wonderful. Today's trivia is centered around Bengals first round
pick Chamar Stewart. Are you ready?

Speaker 20 (01:31:11):
Yes?

Speaker 2 (01:31:12):
What city and state is Shamar Stewart from?

Speaker 12 (01:31:19):
I know it's mate, Ohio.

Speaker 17 (01:31:21):
I have no clue.

Speaker 8 (01:31:23):
I wish I wish it was.

Speaker 12 (01:31:24):
I wish it was.

Speaker 2 (01:31:28):
Would you like to make a guess at all?

Speaker 12 (01:31:31):
Uh, Louisiana?

Speaker 2 (01:31:33):
That is incorrect? Out there? Good guess? We go to
Jim in Milford. Jim, where is Shamar Stewart from city
and state?

Speaker 9 (01:31:42):
I don't think I've been here, but I've been close
to Mirror Mar Florida.

Speaker 2 (01:31:47):
Oh, that is a very good guess, and that is
the correct guest. That is right, Jim and Milford recovering
from his book, has won two tickets to go see
the FIFA Club World Cup. Jim, congratulations, thank you. Alright,

(01:32:08):
you took a fall for you really did, all right?
Hold on, hold on, I'll put you on hold. We'll
get Jim's information. There were two possible answers there. I
would have accepted because he was born in Miami, but
he was raised in Miramar. They're right next to each
other Miami Miami Gardens, So would I would have accepted
either one of those. Congratulations to Jim. That's nice of you. Yeah,

(01:32:31):
real quick. Samar Stewart really has been acting like a
Florida man. Yep, you're right.

Speaker 3 (01:32:36):
Postman Law Injury report delivered by Postman Law Injured Postman
delivers not much from an injury standpoint today, quite frankly,
because the Reds don't play today. But Austin what we
did learn yesterday, what do you make of what's going
on with Austin Hayes.

Speaker 2 (01:32:54):
Doesn't seem good at all. Yeah, I guess he's going
to be reevaluated again tomorrow in Detroit, but was not
ready to go. Still felt a lot of soreness. I
would assume we don't see him for a while.

Speaker 3 (01:33:08):
No, Marte is targeting June twentieth to begin a rehab assignment.
He still needs another MRI. Carson Spires through a second
bullpen session on tri day by and h Rhett Lauder
has reported to the Reds complex in Goodyear, Arizona to
begin a rehab program.

Speaker 2 (01:33:24):
Oh that feels like good news.

Speaker 12 (01:33:26):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:33:26):
I didn't know if I would expected that so soon. Yep.

Speaker 3 (01:33:29):
I know Red's been traveling with the team, and I
know that many have been wondering what about Peyton Stoveall?

Speaker 14 (01:33:35):
Who?

Speaker 3 (01:33:36):
Peyton Stoveall? Uh, he's been out with that hamstring injury.
He is four for thirteen with two RBIs, a stolen
base and four runs scored in four games.

Speaker 2 (01:33:43):
And high A Dayton Peyton Stoveall, Yes, isn't he the
kid that's from here?

Speaker 18 (01:33:48):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (01:33:49):
You see the cat that they signed from the He's
from Louisiana. Okay, maybe I'm wrong, but uh yeah, Peyton
Stoveall all right, Hi A Dayton getting some gut done.
That is dragons are like seventeen and fifty. Our Postman
Law injury report. It's delivered by Postman Law.

Speaker 3 (01:34:04):
If you're injured, call eight four to four Postman next
to kick off the third and final hour. We've got
to get to some Cincinnati Reds. We've got to get
to some phone calls. Five one, three, seven, four nine,
fifteen thirty before any of that. A monumental night last
night the University of Cincinnati, the unveiling, the ribbon cutting
of the indoor Practice Facility, which means we will be

(01:34:25):
joined by the athletic Director, John Cunningham to kick off
the third and final hour of Cincy three to sixty
Next on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station, sponsored in.

Speaker 1 (01:34:35):
Part by Pennstation EASTCA Subs, handcrafted hot grilled subs, fresh
cut fries and lemonade. It's all about good taste. Pennstation
East Coast Subs order online today. This is ESPN fifteen
thirty Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 3 (01:34:50):
Welcome back, Cincy three sixty rolling along Hour number three.

Speaker 2 (01:34:54):
Thanks to our friends at Penn Station. Thank you for listening.

Speaker 3 (01:34:56):
On ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati's Sports Station a UH A
monumental day yesterday at the University of Cincinnati UH with
the opening of the UH, the Indoor Practice Facility, the
Sheikhley or Shakeley Indoor Practice Facility, and Athletics Performance Center. Uh,
this is a vision that has has come to life

(01:35:16):
rather quickly, and last night kind of culminating with an
awesome event, and here to talk a little bit about
that today and everything else going on at the University
of Cincinnati. Is the athletic director joining us now, John Cunningham. John,
what's going on?

Speaker 17 (01:35:31):
Not too much, it's it was a lot of fun
yesterday and always good to be with you, Ton.

Speaker 3 (01:35:35):
You know, I have to imagine it's one thing when
you you see renderings and you see construction happening and
and the cranes are on campus and I know that
that I heard you speak one time that you know,
if if you get to a point where there's not
cranes and growth happening on campus, then that's a bad thing.
So you you've kind of seen the vision, but to
see it from start to finish and then have that

(01:35:59):
culminate in last night with the ribbon cutting and the
grand opening, what was that like for you to be
there at that moment when when things were essentially made
official last night?

Speaker 17 (01:36:12):
It was it was a great night. Obviously. I think
there's two moments for me. One was our team really.

Speaker 2 (01:36:18):
Had not seen the facility. They've seen little bits of it.

Speaker 17 (01:36:21):
Uh maybe some of them had taken hard hat tours
a long time ago. But so to walk the team
into the locker room and let them see everything was
really cool. It feels good to give that to them
because we haven't had an indoor u for two years.
We've been practicing outdoors in the cold, and and you know,
I look out my window in my office and I'm
in November and I see them out there and it's

(01:36:43):
it's bad weather and treating cold and they're trying to
get work done prepping for a game that week. So
it was great to give that to them number one,
And then I think the other thing was it was
great to get it, you know, to open this facility
up and give that moment.

Speaker 2 (01:36:57):
To our donors.

Speaker 17 (01:36:58):
Our highest level donors were the ones that were participated yesterday. Obviously,
the shake leads the Burns, you know, the Leonard, the
you just go on and on these people that have
that have given so much to our program, and that
was awesome to see to see them there and get
to enjoy that that night.

Speaker 3 (01:37:18):
I think it's important as well, when you talk about
the competitive edge and the recruiting aspect of this because
we we we can talk about the details of the
facility itself. But what this does now for UC athletics
on a recruiting level and a competitive edge level, I
would imagine would would take things to the next level

(01:37:38):
for you.

Speaker 17 (01:37:40):
Yeah, I mean, I was talking to Vak Grant last night,
Zach's our GM in football, and he had several stories
about guys that they're in on now and and frankly said,
I don't know if we'd be in on them if
we didn't have this. And certainly, you know, if we
were one of five schools we show them this, and
now we're we're at the top of that list, and

(01:38:01):
so it changes the game. And I know, you know,
college athletics obviously is so much different with you know,
revenue share and then IL and all those things. But
every single player that comes through our door, football wise,
wants to play in the NFL. And if you can
show them that you have the best facilities for their
mind and body to get them prepared for the NFL,

(01:38:22):
that's gonna that's gonna make a difference. And so that's
what this facility does for us.

Speaker 3 (01:38:26):
It's obvious when when you look at it you see
the huge turf field. You you see uh, some of
the former players from a football standpoint that have have
made an impact at the university. But I think it's
also important to note this isn't just a football facility.
Talk about, uh, the the athletic department as a whole
being able to use this space from a productive standpoint.

Speaker 17 (01:38:51):
It really kind of breaks down two ways. Number One,
I mean, just like we used the bubble in the past,
which is, you know, when there's any weather at all,
we're putting all of our sports in there, our winter
sports especially so lacrosse practicing in there, soccer practicing in there.

Speaker 8 (01:39:06):
Uh.

Speaker 17 (01:39:06):
We we put baseball nets in the facility specifically to
allow Coach Fisher to do what he loves to do,
which he loves. He loves to use netting until it
worked out really well. He likes to get guys in
there and hitting and pitching in the in nets, and
that's what he's used to, that's how he operates. So
we're able to kind of, uh you know, retrofit it
to to coach Fisher when he came on board. So

(01:39:28):
all those things were were great. We'll continue to use
that in any other the other piece of the equation
when you think about all sports, is our nutrition center.
So the gold Family Nutrition and Performance Center for just
student athletes and staff. So it's it's it's exclusive to athletics,
be a place for for all of us to gather. Uh,
you know, I said yesterday, break bread. Sometimes you can.

(01:39:50):
You can get a lot of work done just sitting
around having a meal that doesn't necessarily take place on
a field. You build that camaraderie and that that one
team mentality.

Speaker 3 (01:39:58):
I think it's unique because it's it's something you don't
really talk about, but the way things have been for
the last couple of years. You know, if you're lifting,
maybe you have to go down to the football field
to stretch, and then you've got to go to the
weight room, and then you've got to go somewhere else
for meetings. The facility now it literally houses everything from
recovery to player lounges to as you mentioned, nutrition. I

(01:40:20):
saw there's a barber shop, chair, there are there's games,
there's offices. It houses everything, and I would imagine from
a functionality standpoint as well, it kills a lot of
that downtime that coaches can now spend more time with
these players, they can get to business quicker. But just
the functionality of it as a whole, it's literally a

(01:40:42):
one stop shop.

Speaker 2 (01:40:43):
For everything it is.

Speaker 17 (01:40:45):
I mean, it creates such efficiency in a lot of ways.
When you think about the limited time college football specifically
have to prepare for the season, you know, it really
is a month of time to prepare for an entire season,
you have to be extremely efficient, and that's that's what
it does. I mean, it creates that efficiency top to bottom.

(01:41:06):
Allows our players, like you said, to kind of have
their whole day set out in that building and do
what they need to do. And then you know, hal
some downtime too. It's important. You got to arrest that
body and that mind, and so there's places within that
building to just take a break and hang with your
teammates and build camaraderie day.

Speaker 3 (01:41:26):
I know that you're talking leading architecture firms that that
conspired on this project. But to have something that was
approved in just May of twenty twenty two, groundbreaking in
May of twenty twenty three, to be finished as we
sit here in the middle of June of twenty twenty five,
I would imagine that this was a pretty fast timeline

(01:41:47):
to put up such an impressive structure from a from
an architectural standpoint, it was so.

Speaker 17 (01:41:54):
You Gindler nationally MSA locally, We're phenomenal from an architectural standpoint,
and sure is the construction build. I was talking to
a couple of eights. We were down in a meeting
called NACO, which is a bunch of athletic directors just
this week in Orlando, and some couple of them asked
me about it. I said, you know, when we started,
we finished, and they just they could not believe that

(01:42:16):
at a public institution, specifically, we were able to move
that efficiently and get it done in the timeframe that
we did, so they were very impressed. I was always
impressed with the work that was being done there and
the timiness of it. I always said, staying on time,
on budget with music to my ears, and that was
consistent across the board throughout the projects.

Speaker 3 (01:42:36):
So great partners are Planning obviously was very important for
the project itself. But I know you guys have been
ahead of the curve from planning to what happened last
Friday the house settlement. From a collegiate sports standpoint, just
talk a little bit about how proactive you guys were
to remain competitive and compliant with everything that's now changing

(01:43:00):
the college landscape to make sure that foundation is strong
for the future.

Speaker 17 (01:43:05):
Yeah, I mean we had to get ready because this
change happens on July one, and like you mentioned, we
did not hear officially that that the house settlement was
completed until Friday last week. So, uh, you know, we
we did a lot of work to get ready so
that we can immediately go into a new faith. So

(01:43:26):
you know, for the past couple of years, most NIO
has been done through collective and we had a great
collective and they're still around, but Cincey rains with great
partners and and uh they're fantastic. But in a new
model that comes in house, that becomes something that we're
doing through our revenue share, and so we created what

(01:43:46):
we call the Impact Fund to help us fund that
so we can compete at the highest level, retain the
very best, and go toe to toe with anybody in
the country. And so that's what we're working on and
that's the investment for the future. But yeah, it takes
a lot. We're doing individual contracts, nil contracts with our
student athletes, so there's a lot of work that our

(01:44:06):
legal team has to do. We have someone named Trevor
Wright that moved over from compliance to specifically handle the
contract piece to this, and then Eddie Taylor is somebody
that's worked for us for a couple of years, but
now he's really focused in on NIL deals with businesses
and so he's out in the community working on business
deals as well. So a lot of that planning and

(01:44:27):
infrastructure took place before and now we go July one,
right around the corner.

Speaker 3 (01:44:32):
I know it's important to live in the now, and
certainly there's a lot of exciting things happening around the
University of Cincinnati. But you mentioned the future and how
the indoor facility is going to shape the future. But
just the landmark moment here in college sports with the
house settlement and being ahead of the curve to make

(01:44:53):
sure you're shaping the future of collegiate athletics, how important
is that to So both have to live in the
now and what's going on, but be very aware of
the ever changing environment in college sports to make sure
you're settled for the future as well.

Speaker 17 (01:45:08):
At you see, that's a great question, and well, put,
I mean, you know, we we do need to focus
in on making sure that we're taking care of our
student athletes. You know, this transition period from you know,
a collective model into a revenue share model. We've got
to make that transition smooth. So there's a lot of

(01:45:29):
now that's going on. But to your point, you know,
where's college athletics going long term? What do we look
like in twenty thirty when a lot of the television
rights deals come up? You know, is there a shuffle
that's going to take place? And then where are the
Bearcats in that mix? That has to be our focus
And so I talked to my team about that all
the time. Is you know, we've got to get ourselves

(01:45:51):
competing at the very highest level very quickly, so that
we were in the mix if there is a shuffle
down the line, and we just have to be nimble
and flexible, because as we've seen over the last couple
of years, this think's gonna bob and weave and move
around a little bit until we get it right. But
I'll go back to this point, which is college athletics

(01:46:11):
is really important to our country. It's part of our
you know, it's ingrained in a lot of things. That
we do. It's very popular. It's the reason we're so
successful in Olympics, you know, every four years, and it's
you know, something that people love. So we got to
protect it, and collectively as athletic directors and presidents of

(01:46:33):
the university, we've got to find a way to protect
this great thing that we have.

Speaker 3 (01:46:37):
John, thank you so much for your time today. I
know it's been a busy couple of weeks as you
guys prepared for everything last night, the videos, the photos,
the presentation could not come across any better. And we
certainly appreciate your time today and appreciate the work that
you've done and continue to do to get you see
in the best possible avenue going forward for the future

(01:46:58):
of athletics as well. We appreciate the time and we'll
talk again soon.

Speaker 17 (01:47:02):
Thank you, Tony, always good to talk to you.

Speaker 3 (01:47:03):
We'll take care, Yes, sir, that is John Cunningham, the
athletic Director the University of Cincinnati Bearcats. Kicking us off
an hour number three. When we get back, let's switch gears.
I know the Reds played yesterday day game. They do
not play today, but there is still some news as
it pertains to the Cincinnati Reds. We've got some Wade
Miley news that we can talk about, but more than that,

(01:47:27):
a Hunter Green conversation that was brought up earlier in
the week that I think deserves a little bit of time.

Speaker 2 (01:47:33):
We'll do that when we get back.

Speaker 3 (01:47:35):
It's since E three to sixty on ESPN fifteen thirty
Cincinnati Sports Station, thanks to Penn Station.

Speaker 4 (01:47:40):
Is no better way to spend your afternoon unless you've
got kick back on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 2 (01:48:04):
Welcome back.

Speaker 3 (01:48:05):
It is sincey three to sixty thanks to Penn Station.
Thank you for listening on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati's sports station.
Before we dive into a Hunter Green conversation, Yes, a
Hunter Green conversation. I know he's on the injured list,
but still got to talk about him. I got to
give a special shout out here Austin, Okay, our guy

(01:48:26):
Jeff Henry.

Speaker 2 (01:48:27):
Who is this breaking news? No, he's still an album.

Speaker 3 (01:48:30):
Still doesn't release the second album, So imagine this news
if he ever does release the second album. Jeff Henry
is being inducted into the Northern Kentucky Music Legends Hall
of Fame. Really, yes, you can do that with only
one album. That's the thing that is incredible to me.
A mainstay in the area music scene for over twenty years,

(01:48:53):
he literally performs almost seven nights a week. He's all
over the place, and he is being relief or he
is being inducted indeed the Northern Kentucky Music Legends Hall
of Fame. It actually says in this release Austin that
his first CD, Watertown, is a mix of what Jeff
describes as Folcon rockin blues, and it also adds that

(01:49:16):
he's currently putting the finishing touches on a second album.

Speaker 2 (01:49:19):
Was this written in twenty fifteen or twenty twenty five?
It's a good question. It's a good question. Does Jeff
still listen to the show or is the verbal abuse
speaking too much for him? I would imagine he is listening,
okay right now. I would hope he's not working on
the album.

Speaker 3 (01:49:35):
And if that's the case, won't he have something to
say about what's next. Gordon Wittenmeyer of Cincinnati dot Com
g Dub as he's known g Dub, has stated Austin
or press box wag whatever that means, has stated that
now very well be the time to trade Hunter Green. Now,

(01:50:04):
this is a lot for me. This is a lot
to take in because Hunter Green has been a constant
for this Reds team. Hunter Green has been one of
those guys that has led in so many ways for
what this team is trying to do. So why why

(01:50:27):
would we even entertain the thought of moving on from
Hunter Green?

Speaker 2 (01:50:33):
You know, rarely when Gordon Wittenmeier shares his opinion do
I agree with him. But instead of just reacting to
the headline, I wanted to read the article. I wanted
to hear his point, and he made a couple of
good points. I have to give him credit. He mentioned
the fact that Green is on the io right now,

(01:50:57):
and the way he's been injured allroad, it will almost
assure he will fail to reach thirty starts in a
season that will be the fourth time in four full
seasons he's failed to reach thirty starts. I think we
would call that injury prone. Sure, maybe even like T Higgins. Perhaps.

(01:51:20):
He also mentioned his career high as twenty six starts,
which was last season with one hundred and fifty and
a third innings. He probably will not reach either of
those numbers this year because of his injuries. Okay, he
also points out that the Reds, if I'm not mistaken here,

(01:51:42):
see if I can find it where I had it
in just a moment ago. The Reds are above five
hundred without Hunter Green this season, and they've played in
the past five hundred ball or better without him in
the past. So the point he's trying to make is
do they need him all that much? On top of

(01:52:04):
the fact that he has forty million dollars in salary
left for twenty twenty six, twenty twenty seven, and twenty
twenty eight. That is a bargain in baseball for a
picture of his caliber, correct, and a bargain for a
guy with team control through twenty twenty nine would demand

(01:52:27):
an absolute haul. All of these things I agree with.
All I agree with. But if you were to do that,
could you still spend a message that you're trying to
win a championship? It really depends on who you get

(01:52:51):
in return. If you get six prospects, no, you can't.
If you get two guys that can come in and
start on the big league club and two more prospects, okay, maybe,
because are you offsetting the money that you would spend
on Hunter Green with the guys that you could actually

(01:53:13):
afford a decent bat, a couple of guys that could
start in the outfield. I mean, I think that makes sense.
You also have to take into effect, or take into
account Rhet Louder and Chase Burns, Chase Petty and Chase Well,
Rhet Louder and Chase Burns are still here and are
going to be under team control for the foreseeable future. Sure, now,

(01:53:37):
I would argue those guys are still very much unproven,
and Rehet Louder might have an injury problem just as
much as Hunter Green does. I went into this article
reading it thinking this is going to piss me off,
but I finished it thinking that's not the worst idea
I've ever heard. Yeah, it's not.

Speaker 3 (01:54:00):
It's one that you originally you see and you're like,
what are we talking about?

Speaker 8 (01:54:04):
Right?

Speaker 3 (01:54:05):
But to really dive into the details of you know,
what could this look like the king's ransom you could
get in return? And do you see this team being
a legitimate championship contender the way they're currently constructed?

Speaker 2 (01:54:21):
And if if the Reds are going to continue the
model of we're not going to go out and buy
big players in free agency, then maybe the only way
you can acquire them is by trading away the good
players that you bring up organic.

Speaker 3 (01:54:42):
Now the original or the backlash right away would be incredible. Oh,
of course, it would be absolutely incredible.

Speaker 2 (01:54:48):
Yeah. I think the other part of this too is
after next season, there is almost certainly going to be
an extended lockout in Major League Baseball, and part of
it is going to be there's some owners that want
a salary cap, there's some that don't. A salary cap
would mean a salary floor. The players have some stuff

(01:55:10):
that they are very angry about that they're going to
want to work through. Just about every expert you talk
to thinks that there will be a lockout next year
that will extend well into the baseball season, maybe through
April potentially May. If that's the case as well, how

(01:55:31):
does that or how could that potentially affect your plans?
I don't know if it would, you know, two months
of the season would change everything. But if there are
new financial barriers or what's the parameters that you would
have to abide by that maybe make it more competitive

(01:55:51):
for a team like the Reds, would you then not
want to trade him that?

Speaker 3 (01:55:57):
Like that to me is the answer to part and
The other dynamic here is what I think is a
strong staff right now, and what does Rhet Louder and
Chase Burns become because if they step into the rotation,
you know, you just got to make cooks in the
kitchen regardless. Sure, and then you can maybe move on
from a guy that's been injury prone. But at the

(01:56:19):
same time, when he's healthy, he could be one of
the best pitchers in baseball on a very friendly deal
under team control for a team that could come in
and say, Okay, this could be the difference of us
making a legitimate championship run. I think the other side
of this, which would make this an easier conversation. Andrew
Rabbit helps that. Sure, the uneasiness at which we talk

(01:56:39):
about Nickelodolo probably hurts that a little bit.

Speaker 2 (01:56:42):
Who do you think has more trade value? Hunter Green
or Andrew Rabbit right now? Obviously right now it's but
if we're having this conversation December.

Speaker 3 (01:56:51):
But I think at the end it's Green because the
length of the contract, the team control, and the friendliness
of the contract, because I don't think at the end
of it, I don't think I have it signs a
team friendly deal. Yeah, So I think you probably get
the Reds offered habit. How would you feel if the
Reds offered a have it the same deal Hunter has
right now?

Speaker 2 (01:57:10):
Sign it. Yeah, go let's do it. I'd be in
on that for sure. I mean all the stuff that
Gordon kind of outlines is the detractors to Hunter and
which is primarily injuries. Yeah, that I'm willing to live
with because it's not a bank breaking contract. You know,

(01:57:31):
if it was like at the time when Vado signed
his extension, twenty five million dollars a year, that was
a lot that was one of the biggest in baseball
and he didn't play. But you know, it's it's one
hundred and twenty games a year. I would be upset
with that.

Speaker 3 (01:57:44):
It's something you rarely hear in today's baseball of a
star player and team friendly deal in the same sentence.
Normally it's it's not it's it's a deal that's just
gonna absolutely make it very hard.

Speaker 2 (01:57:55):
That deal made a lot of sense for Hunter and
a lot of sense for the Reds. Yeah, it's perfect fit.
He's gonna turn twenty nine or he's gonna be what
thirty going into his thirties, hitting a free agency. People
forget how young Hunter is. That's also part of the
reason why you would get a huge chunk yep in return,
huge hole and a guy who's already had Tommy John.

(01:58:17):
So you feel pretty confident about his elbow moving forward.
Obviously things are different. But I don't know. I really
was kind of surprised how much it made sense. Yeah,
because I often, quite frankly, often Gordon doesn't make sense.
So I was, I don't know, kind of impressed or like,

(01:58:40):
for the first time of my life, kind of open
to that idea. Yeah, And that was tough because Hunter
is my favorite Red I've said that before, twenty five
years old. Again, you know, just all the attributes you want.
I mean, we were talking about him earlier in the
season as an All Star starter, saw a young candidate
Star Game. Last year, injuries have derailed out a little bit.
But I think too about Alexis Day twenty three months

(01:59:02):
ago was pitching the All Star Game for the Reds.
Sure two years later, he can't throw a strike. Life
comes at you fast in a big leg. Let's grab
a break, come back.

Speaker 3 (01:59:13):
We can grab a phone call five on three, seven, four, nine,
fifteen thirty as we roll along here in our number
three thanks to Penn Station on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati
Sports Station. Welcome back since E three to sixty thanks

(01:59:34):
to Penn Station on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.
We have a few minutes. Moagar is out, I believe
till the twenty third of June. Load management season for Moagar.
Some people have it all, some people.

Speaker 2 (01:59:50):
Have it all.

Speaker 3 (01:59:50):
I'm not gonna say anything because I'm gona try to
do some load management July. I just haven't got anything
booked yet.

Speaker 2 (01:59:55):
Before you pride book it, July is in a couple
of weeks. Yeah, it's crazy. Don't talk from our stewart
there before we welcome in Chad Brenda. Who's in for
Mowggar today. Let's take a phone call. Well, we don't
have any jones. Yeah, we just lost it. It was
Mike in La, which I was great to hear from. Yeah.
So for those of you I know we've been asking
people have been asking us if we've heard from Mike.

(02:00:15):
Mike just called in. Yeah, and he was on hold
and as soon as the commercial break ended he hung up.
So he's a busy man. Hopefully he'll call us back,
but it was good to hear Mike's voice. We also
have the uh, there was a story out about Wade
Miley today. Yeah, and it's it's hard because we just
don't have enough details yet, so you don't want to

(02:00:36):
overreact to anything. But there are details emerging in the
Tyler Skagg's civil case. If you remember Tyler Skaggs with
the Angels Pitcher who died in twenty nineteen following a
drug overdose. The team's former communication director, Eric Kay, who's
now in prison. There have been details released and Wade

(02:00:59):
Miley has found himself in some of these documents that
are found. It was a deposition from the former agent
for Skags in which he testified Skaggs had told him
sometimes that he received prescription drugs from Pitcher Wade Miley.
Wade Miley and Tyler Skaggs were teammates on the Arizona
Diamondbacks at the time. In his deposition, he said he

(02:01:23):
became concerned with his client's drug use in twenty thirteen,
confronted the family director directly about it, and Wade Miley's
name was brought into this. It was also brought in.

Speaker 3 (02:01:36):
Brought against It was also in the Eric Kay deposition,
where Miley's name was released in a recorded prison phone
call where federal prosecutors filed an exhibit for k sentence. Hearing,
Kay told his mother that Wade Miley had been a
drug source for Tyler Skaggs. Now, at this point, Miley,

(02:01:59):
through his agent as a clined to common He's not
been charged with the crime or formally accused of any wrongdoing.
But this this is now hundreds of pages of testimony
that have been pouring through, but it is prevalent at
least a little bit to the starting pitching now for
the Cincinnati Reads and Wade Miley, which was in all
accounts a very sad situation around Tyler Skeggs.

Speaker 2 (02:02:21):
Yeah, I mean it's it's gosh, it's been a while
now since this has happened home. I think six years
since he died. I don't. When I read it, it
came across to me as Wade Miley and Tyler Skaggs
would sometimes use these prescription drugs when they were teammates together,

(02:02:43):
and that could have been the introduction for either one
of them to that, and Miley maybe did it every
once in a while or whatever it might be, and
then Tyler Skaggs found himself getting addicted. It's really hard
to say, and now it being twelve years since any
of that actually happened between the two is it's just

(02:03:06):
the whole situation. If you've not read the story in
the past, sure, how it all happened is just insanity.
And I feel bad for you know, Tyler Skaggs just
couldn't seem to get the help he needed, and there
were interventions and all sorts of different stuff that happened,
and it was obviously a tragic ending. And it certainly
is noteworthy though that Wade Miley was mentioned in that.

(02:03:28):
I don't know if that means anything can happen or
come from it.

Speaker 3 (02:03:31):
But it's just again, you don't want to jump to
conclusions in something like this, but it is information that
has been made public and we are just portraying that
information as well. If you missed anything from earlier in
the show today, NBA Finals Game three last night went
to the Indianapolis Pacers. Indiana Pacers. Sorry, let me just
start the We just finished the show the same way

(02:03:52):
I started it. Do you know that in this series,
through three games, Tyrese Haliburton has yet to shoot a
free throw?

Speaker 2 (02:03:58):
How about that? That's amazing and yet they hold a
two to one series lead. Are we I meant to
ask MO this because I don't I trust him with
these sorts of things. Can we say Haliban on the air?
Can we? I don't know. How do we feel about
that nickname? I don't know. I feel like it takes
the power away from the Taliban? Okay, I like that,

(02:04:19):
give it something. I mean, it's like, hey, yeah, we don't.
We're not scared of you. We've got Tyrese Haliburton. Okay,
and you know you know what I mean? Does that
make sense? Yeah? Take it? You know you watched that
Ben Ladden documentary. Oh man. You know what's crazy ironic
about that is that the CIA used to watch Ben
Laden walk in the garden every day. I had no

(02:04:40):
idea at the time it was beIN Laden. They thought
it was and you know what, they called him the Pacer. Yep. Incredible.
That's wild. And here's Tyrese Haliburton doing what he's doing
the Haliban the Haliban. Man, that was fun. I can't
tell if that's something that I can laugh at or not,
Like you know what I mean? Like, are people going

(02:05:02):
to get upset about that. Well, people get upset about everything. Now,
I know that's why I'm confused.

Speaker 3 (02:05:07):
Edmonton and Florida tonight in the Stanley Cup Finals Game four.
Game four of Indye and Oklahoma City will be tomorrow night.
Jermaine Pratt signed with the Las Vegas Raiders GP money
Man one year deal, go get you some.

Speaker 2 (02:05:22):
And Shamar Stewart left camp early. Where do you go today?

Speaker 3 (02:05:27):
Where do you think he went? That's a great question, Mirah, Mar,
that's a great question. You want to Maybe he had
a flight to catch, he wanted to get up.

Speaker 2 (02:05:34):
Give Shamar some credit because I know he've been dogging
on him today. I think he's getting bad advice from
his agent and from his family. Number one, Number two
he has been working out in working out hard. Videos
of that came out. And number three Al Golden, who
I don't think is a coach speak type of guy,
did go out of his way to say Schamar has
done a great job with the mental reps and in

(02:05:56):
the meetings and asking good questions. Okay, so I want to,
you know, be fair to the kid that like it
does seem like outside of getting that off his chest
the other day, and not being there today feels like
he's done a lot of things, right. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (02:06:11):
Now again, it's it's a unique time now because the
next time these guys are together it's training camp and
then it's the season.

Speaker 2 (02:06:19):
Let's go. So we're getting close.

Speaker 3 (02:06:22):
Feels like there's a lot, a lot that has to
be bridged through this gap in the meantime Trey Hendrickson,
Shamar Stewart and anything else that uh that presents itself
for the Cincinnati Bengals. That's kind of been the unique
thing about this Austin, is that we've not spent much
time at all talking about Trey Hendrickson not being here
this week and costing himself over one hundred thousand dollars

(02:06:43):
and what that now looks like as July twenty third
wol approach.

Speaker 2 (02:06:47):
Yeah, so I can't wait, dude, man, are you sure
you're gonna take time off? Can't wait in July? Yeah?
That that you're not gonna miss training camp?

Speaker 16 (02:06:55):
Right?

Speaker 2 (02:06:55):
No, gosh no, but that that time right before training
camp unless Chamar couldn't search for it, and don't benify
me with a search one. Unless it's on a golf
course or ideally a beach, you gonna be down there
in Miramar with Chamar. I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go,
uh this, have you go down to Florida start training
with him for a week during training camp. I'm gonna

(02:07:15):
get you a reservation early for the dockery deck. Oh
we didn't even talk about that. That's what I'm gonna do. Yeah.
By the way, Dan Pitcher not helping things yesterday. Uh,
we'll get some of that tomorrow. Dan Pitcher said, I
can't even say it with a straight face. Basically, Dan
Pitcher said that it's gonna be a great battle between

(02:07:39):
Cody Ford and Lucas Patrick at right guard for the
Bengals during training camp, which if Cody Ford were to
win such a battle, that would mean that the otman
here has to watch Bengals at Brown's Week one from
the dakery deck in Cesta Key, Tampa, Sarasota. How many
of them they got? I believe three total that I

(02:08:02):
know of. All right, but the this, yes, the key
ones man, you gotta go to the og in the village,
all right, I'll just do whatever you say.

Speaker 3 (02:08:09):
Chad Brendle Brindell And for Mowegar, today is next with
quick hits on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station thanks
to Penn Station.

Speaker 1 (02:08:19):
Until UKY sixty continues on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.
It's time for since he three sixty quick hits on
ESPN fifteenth thirty is.

Speaker 2 (02:08:31):
Looking for mo Yeah, he's out today and he's got this. Uh,
what is it tomorrow? The Banana Bash?

Speaker 8 (02:08:36):
Is that?

Speaker 2 (02:08:37):
What it is? Also something, dude, there's a lot of
Savannah banana stuff going on over the weekend. Nonetheless, you
couldn't find me downtown search warrant during the bananas. Nonetheless.

Speaker 3 (02:08:47):
Uh, the Moweger Show still happens, but this is the
time of the year becomes the Chad Brendle Show. Chad
is in today, he joins us now for uh next week.

Speaker 2 (02:08:56):
For quick Hitsay, now, I'm going vacation. You're smart. Where
are you going? A ton of beach.

Speaker 21 (02:09:02):
I've found a house on Verbo, big backyard, private swimming pool,
half a block from the beach.

Speaker 2 (02:09:08):
We got the beach, I got my own pool, a grill.
That's living right. I'm set, man, I'm looking forward to it.
That's nice.

Speaker 3 (02:09:15):
That Polo is nice too. That Jordan Brand Polo that's
that's a nice Uh. Now Chad is reaching in.

Speaker 2 (02:09:22):
I was waiting for this. Look at this. Oh my goodness,
I got a new golf polo right here in studio today.
Look at this.

Speaker 3 (02:09:32):
I'm gonna I'm gonna head on out. Chad, Thanks for everything.
This is unbelievable.

Speaker 2 (02:09:38):
Don't you bring me Chad? You can't.

Speaker 3 (02:09:40):
Yeah, I can't say you never given anything to me.
Now you fit in an extra large I can fit into.
I can fit into one. I'll make it work. The
only thing that doesn't is my arm, so I can
cut the usually my arms. There is a There's a
lot to get to. There is from this week. The
Bank Bengal Mandatory Mini Camp ended today. The Reds five

(02:10:03):
game winning streak ended yesterday, a new indoor practice facility
was opened, and a basketball opponents are now known.

Speaker 2 (02:10:11):
Yeah, where were you last night? I was looking for you.

Speaker 3 (02:10:14):
I got to actually walk through a little bit on
on Tuesday. I got to see a couple of things,
and I'm gonna do the I think there's one that's
happening next week as well.

Speaker 2 (02:10:22):
Yeah, I'm gonna go to see that.

Speaker 21 (02:10:23):
I'm not the MC. You're just gonna go do it.
And walk through. It's the training stuff. Like Aaron took
me and Keegan through all the training facility. Some of
the stuff in there is just an other worldly.

Speaker 3 (02:10:36):
One of the one of the cooler features that not
many people have talked about a ton is the car
wash because if you ever have been on a field
or a turf field, there's always those black pellets that
are all over you. And they have these indoor pool
areas to recover or heated or cooling.

Speaker 21 (02:10:53):
Hubs to get underwater treadmill, a float tank with fifteen
hundred pounds of absence saw well.

Speaker 3 (02:11:00):
To get in there, you go through a little car
wash where you spray all of the stuff from the
field off of you and then enter the pools.

Speaker 2 (02:11:07):
Yeah, it's it's sharp. They've literally thought of everything. It's sharp.
That's the thing.

Speaker 21 (02:11:11):
Like the field is what like everybody talks about, but
ultimately that's just a football field with the roof on it.
Like it looks amazing, the architecture is it's unbelievable, but
it's just a football field with the roof on it.

Speaker 16 (02:11:26):
Ye.

Speaker 21 (02:11:27):
Walking through that facility on the inside park is the
weight room is incredible. The training facilities are incredible. The
meeting rooms I did see. I saw Tony Pike on
the wall of the quarterback room. Yeah, big time stuff.
Although the steps coming in, yeah have like all the
prominent donors listed on them.

Speaker 2 (02:11:47):
Yeah. I didn't make that list. And I saw Jason
and Travis on there. Yeah, but I didn't. I didn't.

Speaker 17 (02:11:52):
You must.

Speaker 3 (02:11:52):
I went to the top when they were pouring the concrete.
I put my handprint in there as part of the
fifty dollars donors. The dining facility, it was was outstanding.
I had Uh, they have mac and cheese that you
could put Bray's short ribs on top of, and then
they had toppings to put on top of that. I
got some crushed Grippo's on top of my short rib.

Speaker 2 (02:12:14):
Now was that for you guys? Or was that for
the players? Because that doesn't sound like performance fuel. No,
that was like for the the event, the event, Watch
what we can do in here? Making sure, watch what
we can do? It was it was about running out
of gas forrest quarter. Now there's I had plenty of gas.
That was done. Wasn't the problem. I was done right
before the players went and took the field. What else?

(02:12:37):
What do you got coming up on the show today, Are.

Speaker 21 (02:12:39):
We ready Tony to make a bold claim about the
Reds and that is Andrew Abbott has passed Nicolodolo.

Speaker 2 (02:12:46):
Oh, I don't think that's that bold. I think it
might be passing Green.

Speaker 8 (02:12:50):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (02:12:51):
I mean Hunter Greens out.

Speaker 21 (02:12:52):
And when you're talking second opinions, you're not talking Hunter
Greens gonna be out until like.

Speaker 2 (02:12:57):
A couple weeks June nineteenth. You're thinking longer.

Speaker 21 (02:13:01):
And Nick Lodolo is not ready to step in and
be the number one guy. He's not, He's he hasn't
ascended to that point. I think that's been one of
the more disappointing. But but Andrew Abbott has Been's been
phenomenal as surprising as Lodola has been disappointing. Are we
ready in this period however long this is without Hunter

(02:13:22):
Green to say Andrew Abbott is the number one?

Speaker 3 (02:13:25):
It's it's weird because the the Lodolo conversation has always
been Kenny stay healthy. Yeah, and he has stayed healthy,
and he's still been inconsistent, underperformed, still been inconsistent.

Speaker 21 (02:13:38):
I want to ask a question for for you and
Austin Blackburn's fantastic.

Speaker 2 (02:13:47):
I came up with that in the car on the
way here is fantastic. Now it makes sense. Why why why.

Speaker 21 (02:13:53):
Can't Shamar Stewart speak his mind? Why why can't I
heard you guys yesterday, I heard you guys today. He's
too young. He can't speak out. He's got to shut
up and tow the line. Look, there are he has
free speech. There are consequences for that free speech.

Speaker 2 (02:14:10):
But the man is right.

Speaker 21 (02:14:12):
They are more interested in winning negotiations and saying and
I heard Austin say this yesterday, and I do agree
with him that they believe, probably very incorrectly, that winning
the negotiation is part of being a winning franchise. And
to an extent, sure, you don't want to get your
butt kicked in negotiations, but Jamar Stewart's right, they're more interested,

(02:14:36):
especially going from the end of one season to the
beginning of the next. It has been a disaster here
for how many years now?

Speaker 3 (02:14:44):
And it also it leads in my biggest question between
now and camp. Do they ever just get together and
say what we're doing it's just not worth it. It's
not worth it, isn't the battle to stick our heels
in and not move on what have we talked about
this entire offseason starting fast?

Speaker 17 (02:15:00):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (02:15:01):
Do they ever look in the mirror and say, maybe
this isn't happening because.

Speaker 3 (02:15:05):
Of us starting fast and improving the defense. Well, yeah,
you're limiting both of them.

Speaker 2 (02:15:10):
Practicing.

Speaker 21 (02:15:10):
But what is this four off seasons in a row,
now that we've had stuff like that Jesse Bates into
Tea into Jamar and t into Trey.

Speaker 2 (02:15:22):
Like now, Schamar, it doesn't have to be like this.

Speaker 21 (02:15:27):
Well, everybody's got this, right, everybody's got well, not everybody has.

Speaker 2 (02:15:31):
It every year unless you're the Cowboys. Are the Cowboys?
The model franchise that you want to go after?

Speaker 16 (02:15:39):
Is that?

Speaker 21 (02:15:39):
Who your role model is is Jerry Jones and the
Cowboys who haven't done anything in a quarter century. So yeah,
maybe there are going to be ramifications for what Shamar said,
But I don't fault him for that. I don't fault
him for speaking his mind. I don't fault him for
if you saw what I posted on Twitter saying the
quiet part out loud. They are more interested in winning

(02:16:03):
the negotiation and in proving that they have their thumb
on their players except for Joe. What team president John
Burrows is my life to call it.

Speaker 2 (02:16:13):
Don't you think though, if the other day he would
have towed the line and said, you know, all the
right things, all the coach beak blah blah blah, fans
wouldn't be turning on him like they are now. I
don't know if.

Speaker 3 (02:16:25):
I don't know, but I don't know if it would
get any reaction from Like, I don't know what I did.
I just got a reaction from the organization. But you
would think it'd have to it would have to push
some type of button.

Speaker 2 (02:16:35):
I just got a tweet from a guy who says,
based on what we're seeing play out, I completely get
why the Bengals want that language with this guy. If
he had said all the right things Tuesday or people,
I don't know. I don't know if it gets done
if he said everything he did too, That's the thing.
I don't know if it gets done now. I don't
know anything. Yeah, it's true. I just I'm trying to

(02:16:56):
look at all the different angles here. I feel like
that's a's job that gave the fans more reason to
jump on the Bengals side than it did jump on
his side.

Speaker 21 (02:17:09):
I don't know, I experienced said he said, what needed
to be saying it has created a divide.

Speaker 3 (02:17:16):
Yeah, for sure, there's team Chamar, there's Team Bengals, and
there's not a lot of in between.

Speaker 21 (02:17:20):
There's team Quit doing this, Yeah, quit putting yourself in
this position where every offseason all we're talking about is
contracts and the Bengals won't budge. And you know, the
Bengals don't believe in negotiation. There's no negotiation the Bengals.
This is where we're at and you and you'd take
it or.

Speaker 2 (02:17:38):
You kick rocks. Yeah, I don't agree with that. That
and more is coming up next on the MOI.

Speaker 21 (02:17:46):
George Nice, the Handsome One, George Vogel, Yes, Jim Kelly Nice,
the Voice of the Bearcats, along with Dan Horde and
Jeff ff car Today as well Man.

Speaker 3 (02:17:56):
All coming up next on the SPN fifteen to thirty
cents at Sports Station.

Speaker 2 (02:18:01):
Have a great rest of.

Speaker 3 (02:18:02):
Your Thursday, enjoy the Malwagger Show with Chad Brendle WCKWI Cincinnati.

Speaker 1 (02:18:06):
Make us the number one preset on your car radio
and on the free, new and improved iHeartRadio app. Free
never sounded so good.

Speaker 2 (02:18:13):
ESPN fifteen thirty