4/3/25 - The Mo Egger Radio Show - Mo Egger

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Oh, No one covers the Bengals like ESPN fifteen thirty,
Cincinnati's sports station.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
That is us. What's up, Good afternoon, four minutes after
three o'clock. This is ESPN fifteen thirty. Thank you for
joining us today. My thanks to Jeff Brendle who pinched
it for me. Yesterday was my opening day, like the
real opening day. I saw the Reds lose. I saw

(00:28):
the Reds not score a run, and we're gonna discuss
the offensive woes, the somewhat predictable offensive woes of the
Reds here in just a bit. Full show Rundown is
available on Twitter at moegar thanks to Emory Federal Credit
Union your credit union with Hart since nineteen thirty nine.

(00:48):
Good to EMORYFCU dot org. It's one of those days.
It feels like a Monday because we had a very
very very very very short show on Tuesday because we
were on after use his game in the Crown, and
I was off yesterday. So I'm a little discombobulated, so
to speak. But we do have with us in studio
because he wasn't with us on Tuesday because he was

(01:10):
in Palm Beach. He was at the owners meetings. But
he's here today from the Athletic in the Groundard podcast
Paul Danner Junior High.

Speaker 3 (01:17):
In case you're not feeling discombobulated enough, I'm here on
a Thursday.

Speaker 2 (01:21):
It's weird.

Speaker 3 (01:21):
Maybe, I think is the first time I've ever been
on this show with you on a Thursday. It's it
might wait to go back through the records, Tarren, Yeah, Terribill,
Teraryen will, We'll go through. I don't know that that
is ever happening. I don't know if it has either,
But I'm happy. I'm happy to do it. I'm happy
to be here. I feel like I feel like I've
got lots of things. I got lots of thoughts in
my head to you.

Speaker 2 (01:42):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (01:43):
You know, you come back from something like what happened
in uh in Palm Beach, and uh, there's there's a
there's a lot that you don't even have a chance
to get off your chest because everybody's talking about a
couple of the bigger stories that came out of there.

Speaker 2 (01:55):
So I think there's a lot of ground for us
to cover. It's it's a little rare that like the
team that made makes the most noise of the team
that gets talked about the most at that thing is
the Bengals, not anymore.

Speaker 3 (02:05):
Everywhere where you go, this seems like this is the
way it is, right Yeah, you know, I was sort
of I actually was just writing this as sort of
the lead of sort of things I'm hearing story it's
gonna be up tomorrow, the lead being like, you're kind
of getting used to the Bengals becoming the most talked
about thing everywhere they go right now, because even you know,
no matter where it is, it seems that days later

(02:26):
they tend to be this resounding storyline of whether it's
been t and Jamar or Trey or the stadium or
whatever else then happens on Pat McAfee, it's like, uh,
it just seems like it's.

Speaker 2 (02:37):
Kind of following them right now. Well, we knew the
off season was gonna be like this. They had a
combustible off season in front of them. Yes, and it's combusting.
It's combusting. Yes, and I'm here for it. I'm here
for it. I'm so excited. There's so much. I guess
let's begin with what I think for most people was
the big story out of the owners meetings as it
relates to the Bengals, which was Katie Blackburn on Trey Hendrickson. Yeah,

(03:01):
were you? Were you surprised at what she said? Were
you surprised that she took what, I think privately has
been a stance that most of us have understood. This
is their stance, that this is their stances is well known, right,
Like Trey's been offered a contract, he could take it
or leave it. He's under contract this year. This is
where we are. But it wasn't surprising at all to

(03:22):
you to hear her articulate her thoughts the way she did.

Speaker 3 (03:26):
I mean, I don't think it was probably the cleanest
messaging that you'd want, But I don't think the messaging
was inherently off. I think there is a bit of
exhaustion with this, not just from you and me, And
I'm not exhausted.

Speaker 2 (03:43):
No, you want more.

Speaker 3 (03:44):
You've got to find some way to replace t Higgins
that for years filled this this space with Somebody k
new so, but I think from their perspective, it's like,
this is the Trey Hendrickson experience, this is what it
is every year for I mean, he wasn't lying when
he said for three years. For three years he's been
making demands and being they use the word passionate about

(04:07):
trays please and being you know, whether it's threats I'm
missing air quotes around that about what could happen or
distractions and all of that and wanting more money and
this happening in the offseason, and then a lot of times,
I don't know if you want to call it calling
their bluff or actually getting an extension signed, or whatever's
happening right now has worked itself out and he's played great.

(04:31):
They've gone through this year after year after year with
Trey Hendrickson, and so I think the point that Katie's
making is we're going to continue to handle us the
same way that we have now. I understand him having
issue taking issue with it, and he has every right
for that. But I think that they're saying, we're offering
you more money, we're offering you an extension. There's something

(04:54):
at some point, and this is true in every negotiation
anywhere in any business. At some point both sides do
have to decide if this makes them happy or not.
Trey has an option to say this doesn't make me happy,
I'll play out the remaining year and go be free.
The same way when he made the biggest mistake he's
made in all of this. A couple of years ago,

(05:15):
he took the deal instead of saying I'll play it
out and then could have hit free agency this past offseason,
but the number one free agent on the market and
have gotten more than Milton Williams and all of those
people did out there, could have had that right, chose
not to do so. And so you can find whatever
that is for you, whatever your happiness level is. So

(05:38):
I understand what maybe Katie was trying to stay there. Yeah,
and I understand the reaction of Trey being mad about
someone telling him what makes me happy and what the
market really is and what I deserve. I get all
of it, because the other part of this is he
is saying, I'm trying to help you guys, like, if
you don't want to give me the money somebody does,

(06:00):
go get some picks for him, go trade. And and
the word around Palm Beach was the Bengals have never
really been really that dedicated to trying to trade Trey Hendrickson,
Like that's never really felt from other teams that they're
trying to And maybe that's posturing in the trade, but
that's the vibe that's out there, and so when that,

(06:21):
when both those things are happening, you understand Hendrickson's frustration,
and round and round we go.

Speaker 2 (06:27):
You just hate when it's public and it just goes on,
and I love it when it's public. I'm I'm I'm
here for it. I want more of it. But my
take with this all along has been I don't blame
either side, no, but what did happen is impossible for
me to ignore. And what did happen is what you

(06:49):
just talked about. Trey Hendrickson signed to play for the
Cincinnati Bengals in twenty twenty five when he could have said,
screw it, I'm going to hit free agency at the
end of the twenty twenty four season. Well that that
decision has consequences, and one of those consequences is he
is stuck playing here at the mercy of the Bengals
and they could do whatever they want with him. In
the short term, he missed a chance to hit free

(07:12):
agency when he willingly signed a contract to play here. Now,
in the short term, he had the security of the
twenty twenty five season, a boatload of cash, But there
is a long term consequence. He knew that going in
So if we're making about making it about taking sides,
which many are like, I understand Trey wants as much
money as possible. He's a great player. He's the greatest

(07:33):
free agent acquisition in franchise history. I don't blame him,
But buddy, you did sign that contract. Yeah, and when
you signed that contract, you signed up for whatever came
with it. Had you had a four sacks season last year, well, hey,
look I'm under contract. I'm making the sixteen million dollars
whatever it is for twenty twenty five. Right, good for you.
You did it, Go ahead and do better this year. Well,

(07:55):
he did end up having a great season last year.
He knew that was a possibility, and he knew if
that was a possibility. Then along with that came the
fact that he, you know, was gonna miss out on
a chance to go hit the open market. He knew
that then. So I don't feel bad for.

Speaker 3 (08:09):
Him now, No, no, but he you know, loyalty wouldn't
have gone both ways. If he would have had a
one sax season and was terrible, the Bengals would have
cut him and he never would have gotten Seemingly that's
part of the contract too. Sure, but my thing is
from a Bengals perspective where I think that they have
botched this most is and I think this goes for
everything that they've done.

Speaker 2 (08:29):
There's just been no decisiveness. What are you doing?

Speaker 4 (08:33):
Like?

Speaker 3 (08:34):
And I mean that in like a very specific way,
what art like? What is the plan here? Because the
meandering into free agency of the Tea and Jamar deals
and what was very specific. I thought this was maybe
the most underdisgusting that Katie said with us, and I
haven't hardly seen this her admitting the t and Jamar
deals took free agency essentially off the table for them,
admitting that it shifted everything and say so, if that

(08:57):
was the case, then getting those done before that, so
you could have had a clearer plan in free agency,
having a clearer plan with Trey Hendrickson the Sunday before
the negotiating window began, we have all the best offers
in front of us. We know what it's gonna take
to sign Trey Hendrickson. Let's make a clear to Let's
either trade him for the best thing that's out there

(09:19):
right now and do that and then fix the pass
rushing free agency, or let's say we're gonna we're gonna
deal with Trey, or we're gonna get a deal with
Trey and find a way to make that happen along
with all get all of it settled.

Speaker 2 (09:33):
There were months years.

Speaker 3 (09:34):
Yeah, to get that stuff settled before the time where
you could easily plug the gaps that exist with whatever
side of the decision you make. And now they're at
a side where we have talked about this. You're going
into the draft and you're like, gosh, they don't have
enough pass rush. They need a linebacker, they need a safety,
they need a guard, they need a swing tackle, and

(09:54):
you and you don't feel like you checked any of
those boxes. And it just it felt very rudderless, planless.
And that's how you when you're plan less, what happens
frustration from people that want to know your plan, voiced
publicly on the Pat mcafie show. Uh in the soap
opera zone and that's what you end up getting it

(10:16):
and you're in it now. And maybe that's maybe that
was part of their plan the whole time. I don't
know that that's necessarily the case, but you're that's their mistake.

Speaker 2 (10:25):
That's what's landed them in this same place as well. Yeah, Uh,
do you or do the Bengals believe that Trey Hendrickson
will willingly miss games if a deal doesn't get done.

Speaker 3 (10:36):
I think it's something that's really easy for him in
his camp to say.

Speaker 2 (10:40):
On where April third. I.

Speaker 3 (10:44):
I think they have been down this road before, these demands,
and you know, threats have been made before, and he's
played and the best way for him to I guess
amend for the mistake he made a couple of years ago,

(11:06):
would be to play out this year and get to
free agency as soon as you can. Have another great
season and get to free agency as soon as you
can if you're not willing to take whatever the Bengals
end up having on the table, as you've used the
best officer like that, that is, that's that's it.

Speaker 2 (11:21):
And so.

Speaker 3 (11:23):
Does it help him to go full Napalming like we
saw happen last year?

Speaker 2 (11:29):
What was it with son Reddick or not?

Speaker 4 (11:34):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (11:34):
Whoever?

Speaker 4 (11:35):
That was? Yes?

Speaker 2 (11:37):
To go do that?

Speaker 4 (11:38):
Is it?

Speaker 2 (11:38):
Does that help? Did that help Sonreddick?

Speaker 5 (11:40):
No?

Speaker 2 (11:41):
Go out there and play great again?

Speaker 3 (11:43):
And I think they're betting on that the same way
they've kind of bet on that in recent years, or
maybe that eventually Trey will come around and say something
that I've been saying that yeah, it's it might suck
to feel like you could have gotten more and that
you miss this opportunity, but this is your moment to
get the most value that you'll have in the rest

(12:03):
of your career. And whatever is on the table that
might be frustrating, it might be disrespected by it, but
you got to say to yourself at a certain point,
is that better than being forced to go do it
again for just sixteen million dollars and hoping that I
do and that my value is still there next year
when I'm a year older in free agency.

Speaker 2 (12:25):
I think they're.

Speaker 3 (12:25):
Betting on knowing where his opinion might land on that
eventually too, So don't I don't think he'll miss games,
but I understand that the messaging from his side right
now is very much a willingness to do so.

Speaker 2 (12:36):
Joe Burrow took the t Higgins thing into a different
direction last December ninth, right we've discussed that at nauseum.
Bengals players come back for the off season program April
to twenty first. I'm guessing at some point within that timeframe,
Joe Burrow is going to talk to you guys, could
you see this getting accelerated if Joe Burrow decides, all right,

(13:00):
my new cause celeb is getting Trey Hendrickson paid, a
guy that he has talked about, though not as effusively
as he talked about t Higgins.

Speaker 3 (13:07):
Have they already signed a guard at that point, because
I think he might bet on his own protection before that, right,
you know, there's a self preservation mode to this. And
if he's looking at that situation and he's saying, look,
if we're talking about where the money needs to go
and you're really picking between X and Y, and I'm
not saying that it should be that way. I'm saying
if that's how it's viewed, then I think he's probably

(13:31):
gonna have more interest in his protection. And that's no
disrespect to Trey. I just think that's probably what Joe's
opinion would be. This is me speaking on just yeah,
the thought of the current landscape.

Speaker 2 (13:43):
But Zach Taylor last week or Tuesday Breakfast without Breakfast,
which is a different story, said we're kind of done
at guard in free agency? Yeah, until the draft, Until
the draft. Yeah, so the players show up before the draft. Yeah, Again,
I'm imagining at some point you guys are to get
a crack of talking to Joe Burrow, Someone's gonna ask
him about Trey Hendrickson. Could Joe kind of do with

(14:06):
Trey what he did with t I think he could try.

Speaker 3 (14:10):
Yeah, yeah, I mean I but that doesn't necessarily mean
that anything's gonna get done. I just think that what's
needed to be said and what's gotten that to the
point that it's hit now is all there, like everybody
knows what it is. It's almost like a couple of
weeks ago, wherever it was we talked about how it's
all the cards have been on the table. I just
think it's all out there, like we know that he

(14:32):
wanted it, but it becomes a matter of here's all
the things that are in front of them. I still
think that t and Jamar was really what this whole
thing was all about for him, t mostly, and so
I think that his tone will be interesting, how aggressive
it is. Are we gonna get the need thing? Are
we gonna get are we gonna yeah? That'd be nice,

(14:53):
or I hope they figure it out, or I'd love
to have Trey. Of course, there's there's you know, ten
different layers of how how much that Cancun. I don't know.
I don't know if he'll take that on again. I
think that his main concern will be the line in
front of him.

Speaker 2 (15:08):
Paul Danner Junior covers the Bengals for The Athletic as
well as the Growler Podcast. By the way, within the
Growler podcast network, you have power stacks.

Speaker 4 (15:17):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (15:18):
Charlie Goldsmith Brian Geeson's log on All Things Reds.

Speaker 3 (15:21):
New episode Up the Day on the power outage that
happened the last couple of days. But you know, kind
of weighing how serious to take it.

Speaker 2 (15:30):
I thought it was.

Speaker 3 (15:31):
Actually it was a really great smart conversation, as you
might expect from Charlie and bright On.

Speaker 2 (15:35):
I got about that. I go listen to that. Nineteen
minutes after three o'clock. I got a question here, this
question I don't think was aimed at you and I,
but I got this question here on social media, and
I'm going to ask you the question that I got
here from Ronnie Smith on social media.

Speaker 3 (15:52):
I try not to we're gonna go down that road
we're taking. We're taking questions off the internets. So I
was going to ask you this doesn't make fun of
my appearing does it. No, have you seen at bald
Daaner Junior.

Speaker 2 (16:04):
That's the thing. Yeah, similar to Toeger.

Speaker 3 (16:06):
I think maybe the same guy owns both Toegger and
bald Daaner Man, which which is great, which I would
have a lot of respect for.

Speaker 2 (16:14):
Yeah, so maybe that could happen. That's where's from perfect,
very good. We'll check that out when we come back.
It's twenty after three o'clock on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 6 (16:23):
Station, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty traffic.

Speaker 7 (16:29):
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Schedule the same day appointment. You see health dot com
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(16:49):
and we do have heavy your traffic. Two seventy five
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Kentucky Indiana state line. I'm Rick Shrimp with traffic.

Speaker 2 (16:58):
This three five after three, This is ESPN fifteen thirty.
It's a Thursday. Paul Danner Junior is usually here on Tuesday,
but we didn't really have a show on Tuesday, and
Paul was in Palm Beach. What is it like to
cover the owner's meetings? It's unbelievable. It is.

Speaker 3 (17:11):
You take a league that has made so many people
so wealthy, right, and then you take them trying to
find a way to treat those wealthy people to an
experience that feels even above their normal means, and you
get the breakers, which is it's just I mean, we
were they have what you know, a reception to one

(17:34):
of the times that the media is kind of truly
are out allowed to go in and make them be
part of the experience, and you know, I actually I
actually almost ran into Roger Goodell. He's on the other
side of a column as he tried to come out,
and I like almost bumped shoulders with them. And then
right after that, I was standing right in front of
Guy Fieri came walking into the pillody and then about

(17:57):
twenty minutes later, I'm eating you know, the delicious uh
grouper and crabcake and this risotto that they had mixed
up in a cheese bowl for you, specifically in front
of you, and Serena Williams came walking right by me
and you're just.

Speaker 2 (18:11):
Like, as just ridiculous, What am I doing? What was
Serena Williams doing at the NFL's owners It's.

Speaker 3 (18:18):
A good question. I don't want to say specifically because
I don't know. I thought it was something to do
with maybe a minority ownership situation or connection with the
minority owner. I don't know specifically, other than everyone was
very much in awe despite a lot of very very
very famous people and rich people being in the building.

Speaker 2 (18:38):
Everyone was like Serena because she's awesome. Cool. I don't
know how things work at the Athletic. If the Bengals move,
will you move with them to Kentucky County? I grew up,
I grew up out there. Yeah, I don't know Warren County.
I got a name. I got a tweet here from
Ronnie Ronnie Smith or the Bengal leaving after twenty twenty six,

(19:01):
this was one of the time what does that mean?
Leaving leaving where? Leaving downtown? Leaving downtown is in places.

Speaker 4 (19:08):
I mean, it.

Speaker 3 (19:09):
Would not be a quick process, right, but it would
be the beginning of that process going in motion could
start here soon. I would so I technically not leaving
in twenty but you could see that. You know what,
Look what's happened in Chicago right now. Right every every
year at the league meetings, they're like settling on a

(19:31):
different place. They're gonna be downtown, They're gonna be at
this place. They're gonna be Island. This year was they're
going out to Arlington Heights. Kansas City is looking at
They're gonna maybe go they didn't get the votes. They're
gonna go from Missouri to Kansas Cleveland. Everyone's sueing everyone.
They're gonna go to Brook Park. This stuff's happening everywhere.
This is what's happening. And when it comes to these stadiums,
when it comes to getting whether it's renovations or billion

(19:53):
dollar mechas, this is. These are the fights and and
the battles that happen across the league. They're sort of
it's weird, there's this building boom happening right now. Everybody's
in these situations. A third of the league really has
some kind of a stadium situation that's either in the
process or or where the Bengals are with it, so
leaving the city is not a thing. But I think

(20:15):
when you look around at all that's happening in the
league and all the ways that teams are utilizing ways
to get what they want, it's in play. I mean,
it's always in play to say, hey, is there another
county that haven't has interest here and doing some of
these other things that you've seen. Maybe there could be
a lot of state money involved in it if you
did do it or whatever. That is what was clear

(20:37):
from Katie, and I know I'm kind of going off
tangent with the actual question. I would not follow the
Bengals if they left Cincinnaties for the record, in case
anybody cares.

Speaker 2 (20:47):
But I also would not know this is where I am.
I would be happy to come from. I don't know
what I would be doing for a living, but I
also don't matter. You know, whatever, you'll find something, You'll
figure something out. That's doubtful, but go ahead.

Speaker 3 (21:00):
But you know, I just think right now, you get
into the Bengals are in a situation with this, say
they want to be I do believe that, like I
do believe what Katie was saying, which has been just
ripped far out of context in a lot of different
places right now. Is that their sole focus right now

(21:21):
is that June thirty deadline and finding a way to
put agreement in place that can make this happen. Downtown
it is where they want to be. They want to
stay downtown. They want a reasonable renovation of that facility
that can keep it going similarly as it's gone for decades.
That's what I do, one hundred percent on a quickly

(21:42):
believe that's what they want.

Speaker 2 (21:44):
Now.

Speaker 3 (21:45):
Do we all see the irony of them asking for
more urgency from someone else in a negotiation?

Speaker 2 (21:50):
We sure do. We sure do that that is the best,
that's it.

Speaker 3 (21:57):
But I do think that the end is that they
do want to continue to see out everything that has
been created down on the banks and being a part
of that, and they they like that. I one hundred
percent believe that it just was does it. I don't
know if it gets done, And I don't know if
it's fair to ask for urgency from the commissioners because

(22:18):
we don't know the back room of what's going on.
We have emails that have emerged over in previous months,
but like we don't know specifically who's really dragging their
feet and who's not. All I know is I do
believe them when they say that their goal with one
hundred percent is to stay here downtown in Cincinnati and
not have to start looking into those other avenues that

(22:41):
could exist.

Speaker 2 (22:42):
But when we talk about them moving, the move is
within this area. Yeah, nobody's talking about them moving to
Mexico City or Toronto or Saint Louis or anywhere like that,
or London like that's that's not that. This isn't I
remember the mid nineties. I mean I remember Mike Brown
going to Baltimore. We're not doing Baltimore as We're not
talking about that though, right, We're talking about Warren County

(23:04):
or Kentucky or mid the relocation feel too, yeah exactly.
I mean, okay, so now tell me this and I
this is my least favorite topic, so I'm loath to
bring it up, but it was one of the headlines
you wrote about it from the the uh Katie Blackburn
availability in Palm Beach. There's this June thirtieth deadline, right,

(23:26):
and so this deadline is the date at which they
County can exercise a two year rolling extension. Right, a
two year extension of the currently the Bengals. Yeah right, Okay,
I hate this topic. I don't want to understand. I know,
I know it's politics and I hate politics. Yeah yeah,

(23:46):
So the county has to enact this extensions the Bengals do. Okay,
if we get to June thirtieth, then there's been no
they have an exercise the option to extend this lease than.

Speaker 3 (23:59):
What then the lease would They'd have but two June thirtieth,
twenty twenty six to complete it or it totally expires.

Speaker 2 (24:07):
So now there's two ways to look at this. You
could look at it.

Speaker 3 (24:12):
If they hit the extension, it means they don't think
anything's gonna happen soon, and they're gonna use those two
years added on to start exploring other possibilities. The best
way for this to go is that they have an
agreement close or in place at that date, and so
they know that they just have a year to finish

(24:32):
it off and get it done before everything totally expires.
But this is kind of a moment in time here,
I think on that it just to kind of truly
dumb it down, just know that it's important moment to
try to have some understanding that something is in place,
and if not, then you know you can. Then you
can start seeing what's happening in a lot of these
other cities, start to happen here where you start to

(24:52):
have talks about other places and land out in counties
and whatever that's happening all over the league.

Speaker 2 (25:00):
Already bored with the time understandable. I did it. I'm
a you know going around the league a lot, and
you do too.

Speaker 3 (25:06):
I love downtown stadiums, yes, like I. I loathe when
we have to go somewhere like Kansas City or going
out to Arlington in Dallas or any number of these places.
It sucks. It's not it's not a fun experience. You
don't feel like it just doesn't. None of it feels right.
And I love going to Baltimore. I I love going

(25:27):
to places like Pittsburgh with the Dead, like all of
these places that truly have a downtown experience that the
city feels a part of. And kudos to the fact
that the Bengals have kept their facilities down there and
kept all the players and the taxes associated and everything
else in Hamilton County, understanding the importance of that, rather
than doing what so many teams have done and just
having their practice facilities and everything and then basically you know,

(25:50):
being out in whatever Mason, Milford or wherever. So kuzm
on that, but I just I like that, like I
like the downtown feel. I think they do too. I
think it's great for the city. And that's what I
care about most is is this the city keeping the
feel I think that it has. I think there's there's
just something special to what they what is going on

(26:10):
down at the banks, even though they somehow still haven't
totally finished the project and we're talking about renegotiating at least.

Speaker 2 (26:15):
I just it needs to stay like.

Speaker 3 (26:17):
That, and I hate going places where it's somewhere out
in the middle of nowhere. And that's becoming this trend
because you can build these, you know, complexes with entertainment
districts and whatever.

Speaker 2 (26:30):
That's fine.

Speaker 3 (26:31):
It's like part of the new future of the NFL
that I don't buy into, the same way the Browns
shouldn't be playing in a dome.

Speaker 2 (26:37):
Danner hates Mason. That's what I grew up in Mason.
I love Mason. I'm a Mason guy. Shout out Saint
Susanna in the house. I'm totally with you. Yeah, I
just I don't like this. I don't like it either.
I hate talking about it. I hate that's a thing.
But here we are. We are. It's a thing. I

(26:58):
acknowledge its significance. Yeah, I acknowledge its significance.

Speaker 4 (27:01):
I just.

Speaker 2 (27:03):
I remember the one thirty years ago and how unfun
it was, and it resulted in the Bengals getting a stadium,
and the Bengals getting a stadium resulted in a lot
of cool things happening downtown, which we all love. But
I remember that and I remember how unfun it was,
and I liked fun. Yeah, this is not the fun
part of it.

Speaker 3 (27:19):
Oh, pretty much everything happening right now is not the
fun part of sports. Yeah, Like, we haven't even we're
how far are we in here? Thirty five minutes in here?
We haven't even talked about the draft yet. It's three
weeks from tonight.

Speaker 2 (27:31):
Yeah, we're gonna do that when we come back on
ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 6 (27:35):
Station, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic.

Speaker 7 (27:41):
Well, then you see Health Traffic Center, don't bind it,
in't suru where you slowly get down. You see Health
Orthopedics and Sports medicine experts can help keep you moving.
Schedule the same day appointment you see health dot com
traffic on seventy one Sounds bound the Red Banks Songs
with a disabled vehicle on the left shoulder and seventy
five west about approaching the viaduct accent on the right
hand side. Highway sixty three in Union to Route seven

(28:04):
forty one in Warning County shut down due to a crash.
By Rick Shrump with Draft.

Speaker 6 (28:08):
Fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports station right very quickly.

Speaker 2 (28:12):
Here sports headlines of service at Kelsey Sheppard Light, Reds
and Brewers Tonight at Milwaukee, first of four Nicolodolo versus
Nestor Cortez seven forty Tonight seven hundred and WLW College
Basketball U see plays in the quarterfinals of the College
Basketball Crown tonight in Vegas, taking on UCF. Cincinnati beat
the Knights in Orlando ninety three eighty three. This season

(28:33):
tip off at seven, and that game tonight on ESPN
fifteen thirty. Winner will take on either Villanova or usc
Just another couple of minutes here with Paul Danner Junior.

Speaker 3 (28:42):
You can be here on Tuesday. Oh yeah, I'm here
on Tuesday. We need to get back to normal, get
it back to normal. Too many things there.

Speaker 2 (28:48):
Back into the swing of things back on Tuesday, a right,
So that'll give us Tuesday is the eighth, the fifteenth,
and the twenty second to exhaust every conceivable draft topic
there is. Okay, good, We were just talking about this
off here. There have been so many other things going on.
And I said this to a couple of other people
who also cover the team, like, I've barely paid attention

(29:08):
to the draft. Yeah, I've barely paid attention to mock
drafts or draft possibilities. Here's what I do know. It
feels like they're playing with fire at guard. Yeah. Yes,
here's why it feels hotter than that.

Speaker 3 (29:22):
In my opinion, after this week, they seem to feel
kind of content about where they're at, and I think
I tried to relay that in the story I really
on Tuesday. I think they view it as you know,
and look, they're not signing another free agent between now
and that caught a lot of fire on the internet.
I think they feel like they can pinpoint and find

(29:43):
a guy who can, at the very least compete in
a better perspective, be locked in as day one starter
at one of those two positions in this draft, whether
it be at seventeen or at forty nine or some
other combination. And I think that's true. And then the
and then I think you they certainly feel okay with

(30:06):
the competition between the other four that are currently there
and whatever else maybe could get thrown in afterwards. I
think the problem becomes their drafting history. There something that
you know. Zach Taylor admitted, Yeah, there's truth to what's
happened there. The fact is, since you're gonna read my life,
I was gonna need to say it, or you can
read it.

Speaker 2 (30:26):
Every time the Bengals gave one of their offensive line
draft picks a second contract, was twenty eleven fourth round
or Clinton Bowling. They have drafted twenty offensive lineman. Since
that's fact. These are facts.

Speaker 3 (30:37):
Now, Trey Hopkins was undrafted, right, so he doesn't. I mean,
I'm not accounting fair fair, that's it. Though, that's staggering.
That is staggering, daggering. Maybe a Marius Mims breaks that right.
We don't know, hope. So, but that is these are
the facts of the case. They are undisputed, and you're
talking about a team that has not in round two, three,
four been able to find real solution that have proved

(31:01):
lasting when really the rest of the league has done
it with some level of success. That's a problem. The
other thing is that's part of this is that I
think that you know, if you read the tea leaves
and you kind of look at it, I think that
they're targeting tackle as well here because they have one.
They still don't really have a swing tackle right Okay,

(31:22):
they are two years away from Orlando Brown being a
free agent, okay, at left tackle, so you can, to me,
the perfect situation is someone like a Kelvin Banks from
Texas who could come in guard today, tackle the future.
If something happened to Mims or Brown right now, could
kick outside and be okay there and then your other
competition guys screwed up and play guard. I don't disagree

(31:43):
with that strategy. It's just a matter of if that's
where it ends up going. But tackle is on the mind.
I think at this point too. It's certainly not a
forgotten position. If you look at kind of what they're doing,
and both guys they have talked to and brought in
and things like that.

Speaker 2 (31:58):
You've not even done your first macht your first one point, Oh,
did come out?

Speaker 4 (32:03):
I did?

Speaker 2 (32:03):
I did?

Speaker 3 (32:03):
I did point five? I did point seventy five sounded
less prepared for did come out after free agency? And
I had Mike Green the edgeress Oh yes, yes, yes,
from Yah Marshall.

Speaker 2 (32:15):
I did read that. Yes, And Dan Burglar's Beast comes
out next Wednesday.

Speaker 3 (32:19):
That's really when it starts, though, Like when the Beast
comes out, everyone is fully okay. Draft is like all
the way here, even for the people that only kind
of pay attention to it.

Speaker 2 (32:28):
Right, all right, Well Tuesday, we'll uh, we got much more.
I have a lot of more thoughts unless Trey Hendrickson
says anything else. Yeah, I guess I don't really Well,
thank you for carrying me this segment. I didn't know
how the least roll over worked. I forgot about draft
one point. Oh, it's all right whatever Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday
will be back.

Speaker 3 (32:48):
Tuesday will be normal swing of things on Thursdays.

Speaker 2 (32:51):
Maybe that were awesome. I don't know about that always.

Speaker 4 (32:55):
All right.

Speaker 2 (32:55):
Paul Tanner Jr. Read The Athletic dot Com. His coverage
of the Bengals and the Growler podcast is well, yes,
very good. We'll see Paul back here on Tuesday. Chad
Brendle on the Bearcats.

Speaker 6 (33:05):
Next Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty, Traffic, etc.

Speaker 7 (33:14):
Don't bend it, intrue me, you slow, get down. You
see health orthopedics and sports medicine experts can help keep
you moving. Schedule the same day appointment you see health
dot com. Traffic sewing on seventy one southbounded Red Bank,
a breakdown on the left hand side, an accident on
the right shoulder, seventy five southbound approaching the liaduct delinks
back to seventy four, and nor what lateral is sewing

(33:34):
between writing and seventy five. I'm rick shrimp with traffic.

Speaker 2 (33:38):
This more on that in the four o'clock hour on Moegar.
This is ESPN fifteen thirty. On Thursdays, we talk you
see basketball and football and more with our buddy Chadbrendle,
Bearcattournal dot com and frequently in weeks. In recent weeks,
the fill in host of this show Chads with us.
Now you see is getting set to play in the

(33:59):
Crowns and I Hi, Chad, I'm out right doing I'm well,
do you see men's basketball program has a general manager.
His name is Cory Evans tell me why he is
a good addition to this program.

Speaker 8 (34:14):
I think the biggest thing in that general manager spot
is you want to get somebody that has their hands
in a little bit of everything. Corey has ran and
like his career, started running a like a high school
scouting service that assistant coaches and head coaches from across

(34:34):
the country subscribed to. And then he got into kind
of my line of work working for rivals dot Com
as a national analyst. So he's connected in the high
school scene. And then he's been with the Thunder for
five years, so now he's connected in the college scene scouting,
you know, going out to college games all over the
country and getting a feel for what's out there. That's

(34:57):
kind of the important thing to me is that you
find the guy that can help in both areas. I
don't think it does you any good if you just
get a scouting guy or you just get a high
school guy. You need a guy that's got his hands
in both. Corey does that. He checks that box, So
I think that is that is my main reason to
think that this is a good hire. And I mean

(35:20):
everybody in the industry speaks well of Corey and that's
usually a good sign.

Speaker 2 (35:26):
Is his department him and him alone? Or will he
have a staff that includes assistant general managers?

Speaker 8 (35:35):
Right now in basketball it's pretty much just a one
man job. You still have three assistants that are out
on the road recruiting that are going to handle a
lot of you know, the legwork there, So they would
kind of be under his umbrella. Football, because you've got
to recruit so many guys, you really need to have a,

(36:00):
you know, a pretty large department. I don't know if
it needs to be larger than an NFL department, unless
the NFL department is the Bengals. But I don't think
in basketball we're to the point where they need, you know, two, three,
four guys in that department quite yet.

Speaker 2 (36:18):
Uh What does the uh the minute distribution in the
first College Basketball Crown game by Wes Millard tell us
about who may or may not be coming back?

Speaker 8 (36:31):
I would I would take it to tell me that,
however long their time lasts in the Crown, that's probably
the last that we will see of Arrington Page. I
think that's probably a pretty safe bet. I don't know
that you can be encouraged by Tyler Betsy only seeing
two minutes in that game in terms of will he

(36:51):
be around. Uh, that's really all I took from it.
I do like that, you know, hey, if what they
said is is legitimate, that Ray Von Griffith and halven
Zella we're you know, putting in the work that they
earned their minutes, then hey, good for them. Good for
those guys to stay engaged and keep busting their butt

(37:14):
and get a chance to get out on the floor
and in this tournament. And honestly, I mean, Ray still
fouls too much, but I thought Ray looked okay, and
I thought Halvey looked really good for a guy that
hasn't played all year.

Speaker 2 (37:26):
When the season ends, do you expect an exodus?

Speaker 4 (37:30):
Yes?

Speaker 8 (37:32):
My guess right now is four five guys that remain.
I think it's more likely than not that we'll see
both Gisel and Daday on this roster. I'd have to
imagine Tyler McKinley is still here, just based on what

(37:53):
we've seen this year. Like I'd be pretty surprised if
Josh Reed's not back, wouldn't you. He feels like he's
earned and his position in this program. From there, I'm
not really sure what it's gonna look like I could
see all of those guys leaving. I could see one
or two of those guys coming back. But I do
expect there to be five, six, seven spots available for

(38:17):
the transfer portal when the dust settles here in a.

Speaker 5 (38:20):
Week or so.

Speaker 2 (38:21):
Do you think that we'll get a deluge of news
about players joining the UC program once this season ends,
whether it's tonight, Saturday, or Sunday.

Speaker 8 (38:31):
Yeah, maybe even before then. I don't think it's completely
dependent in making additions.

Speaker 4 (38:38):
For the team to be done.

Speaker 8 (38:40):
I do think it's possible while they're still out in
Vegas something could happen. I know the staff has been,
you know, working on this as well as preparing for
Central Florida tonight, so it wouldn't surprise me if we
saw some movement. I think it's more likely that things
will start to happen on this is over, But if

(39:02):
something were to happen in the meantime, I wouldn't be shocked.

Speaker 2 (39:05):
They have an opening on the coaching staff. What sort
of assystem do they need?

Speaker 8 (39:12):
The trend in college basketball is NBA guys, right, I
wouldn't be terribly upset to see someone with an NBA
background to maybe come in and assist with Cincinnati's offense,
although I don't know. You know, everybody complains about the offense.

(39:33):
If you don't have great offensive players, it doesn't matter
what offense you run, you're not going to be good
on offense. So I think that's part of the problem
that needs to be fixed. I could see if they
really looked at it and said, hey, we haven't had
somebody that's been a specialist with the big men since
Mike Roberts left, maybe they try to go that route

(39:55):
with it. I think there's a couple different ways they
can go. I think with Corey in place like you
don't necessarily have to go with somebody that has massive
recruiting connections. I think you can be a little bit
more creative with it now given that the GM role
is filled. So it'll be interesting to see if it's
more game specified a big man coach, a guy to

(40:20):
help run the offense, something like that, as opposed to
somebody like Drew Adams who had a lot of recruiting connections.

Speaker 2 (40:27):
We'll talk next week and I'll have a lot of
football questions in advance of the Spring showcase. Thank you
very much, all right, Thanks mate, every good one, You're
the best. Chad Rendel, Bearcat journal dot com. Coming up
on four o'clock on ESPN fifteen thirty. If the amazing
regenerative treatment all right?

Speaker 8 (40:44):
There you go.

Speaker 2 (40:45):
What's up? It's four minutes after three o'clock. No, it's
four minutes after four o'clock. Like doing doing today? This
is the ESPN fifteen thirty. I should have been taking
today off as well. In twenty minutes, we're going to
do this. James or Pene's gonna join us. James and
James loves the draft. Dana and I were just talking

(41:05):
about this. This has been a different type of offseason.
I think with the Bengals. The focus has been obviously
on Jamar and t and Trey and free agency and
some of the things they've done and not done in
free agency, and you know, you add to that March
madness and the start of the red season. I feel
like you're average Bengals fan. Now. I know there are

(41:27):
folks who love the Bengals who live for the draft,
but I feel like you're average Bengals fan. Your typical
Bengals fan, somebody like me. Your typical Bengals fan is
as not into the weeds with the draft as might
normally be because there's been a lot of other stuff
to pay attention to and talk about. And so we're
three weeks away. We're three weeks away from our annual

(41:50):
draft show at Long Necks and Wilder, which I can't
wait for. James is always a part of that. And
so I called James to book his appearance on that show,
and I said, why don't you join me this week
and we'll kind of because he's mister draft, and even
he would admit he's more behind than usual, but we'll
talk about the draft from the perspective of all right,

(42:12):
this is just starting for a lot of people. You
have a lot of people who've been paying attention to
other stuff, and the draft is this is a huge
draft for this franchise for a lot of different reasons,
not the least of which is they haven't been good
at drafting here recently. So James is going to start
like the sprint to the draft for us coming up
in just about fifteen minutes. Also in one hour, Richard Patino,
Xavier's new men's basketball coach, is going to join us,

(42:34):
and we are we are looking forward to that. The
Reds are two and four. Let's acknowledge a couple of things.
It's six games out of one hundred and sixty two, right,
it is a microscopic portion of their season. You can
go to and four to start the season and go
on to have a great year. It's not at phase

(42:57):
value worth panicking when your team starts too and four.
And by the way, the thing we thought had a
chance to be really good has been really, really, really good.
And that's encouraging. If you're a two to four team
and you're getting really good starting pitching, well, then it's
not worth shelving your hopes or readjusting your hopes for
the season. Starting pitching has been awesome. Hunter Green yesterday

(43:20):
was really good. Carson Spyers on Tuesday was terrific. The
Reds have gotten awesome starting pitching this season. They've had
two innings in six games, two innings where the starting
pitcher has given up more than one run in an inning.
Starting pitching has been terrific. The offense, aside from Monday night,
has been horrific. Now you might go, it's no big deal.

(43:44):
It's a handful of games they got shut out back
to back games. That's really good. Starting pitching Nathan Avaldi
on Tuesday Night for the Rangers was awesome. Bruce Bochi
letting him face Ellie de la Cruz with the game
on the line, I felt like I was watching a
game when I was nine years old in nineteen. That
was a cool moment. Unfortunately, it didn't work out for
the Reds. The problem is this, It's not so much

(44:07):
that the Reds aren't hitting, it's that we knew they
weren't really going to hit. Like, if Joe Burrow and
the Bengals offensively start slow, that's gonna be a problem
because the Bengals in recent years have always started slow
and it's it's come back to haun him at the
end of the year. But let's say at the beginning

(44:30):
of the season Joe Burrow has a tough go of
it and the Bengals just can't get the passing game
unlocked to a degree, you're gonna go. They're fine, they
have a track record. It's Burrow, it's Chase, it's Higgins.
Give them some time in This offense is gonna cook
because there's a track record. Conversely, though, if the Bengals
offense is sputtering or limited or is not doing what

(44:55):
it should because Joe is getting hit a bunch and
the pressure is coming from the inside, pretty good chance
you're going to go. God, I saw that coming, Like
Joe is getting hit and he's on the run, and
they're not stopping pass rushers from the interior and the
guards are not holding up, and I'm not surprised because

(45:15):
we kind of saw that coming, and so that makes
it really problematic. That's kind of how I feel about
the Reds offensively. It's not that they've had six games
where five of them offense has been an issue. It's
that we went into the season worrying about the offense,
and all these six games have done is amplify those worries.

(45:38):
There's just not enough high end offensive potential on this
baseball team. There's not enough depth. They've got a guy
he is currently the dude in the crosshairs right now,
and Jake Frayley, who is a really likable guy. But
since his first season in Cincinnati, Jake Frayley's numbers have
done nothing but dip. He turns thirty this year. He

(46:00):
was a low ceiling offensive player to begin with. The
numbers have dipped every year. Jake Frayley was a guy
who in February we wondered, are you gonna play him
every day? While they're playing him every day, the results
aren't good. The lack of results is frankly not that surprising.
The lack of offensive punch is amplified when you do

(46:23):
what Jake Freiley did on the base pads in the
eighth inning yesterday. You add to that the fact that
Spencer Steer is playing. It looks terrible at the plate.
Are his struggles solely related to his injury issues? Is
the shoulder bothering him that much? I don't know. What
I do know is this, At the end of spring
training he was gonna start the season on the injured list.

(46:44):
There's a reason why. It's a health reason. Why did
that health reason just go away? Is he a ticking
time bomb? Should we have a game guessing when which
date Spencer Steer goes on the injured list? From an
offensive perspective, there is a really, really good chance that
the roster is just not good enough. From an offensive perspective,

(47:07):
now you may believe the Reds have enough good starting
pitching to overcome that and get to eighty eight eighty
nine wins, get to the postseason, maybe win this division.
I hope that's the case. You may believe this bullpen
is going to be good enough. You may believe the
top end offensive players, Matt McClain is off to a
great start, Elie Dela Cruz off to a great start.
You may believe those high ceiling guys are capable of

(47:30):
dragging the rest of their teammates to a place where
this team is in the postseason. Maybe, but I think
most of us believe that from an offensive perspective, that
there's a really good chance that this roster is just
not good enough. I could have declared that a week ago.
In fact, I did on Opening Day a week ago

(47:51):
at Smoke Justice. That's an exact quote from me, and
I didn't get a lot of pushback to it, either
from either my co host or anybody who heard that show.
From an offensive perspective, there's a really, really good chance
that the roster is just not good enough. Now I
can hear, I can hear out there there's someone clearing
their throat to remind me that Austin Hayes is hurt okay,

(48:15):
and that Tyler Stevenson is hurt okay. And along with that, hey, wait,
until they get healthy. Okay, two things about that. Number One,
this team is probably never going to be healthy. That
doesn't mean that Austin Hayes isn't going to come back.
It doesn't mean that Tyler Stevenson's not going to come back.
You're always going to be dealing with some sort of

(48:37):
injury issue. I think one of the biggest fallacies in sports.
I think one of the biggest time wasters in sports
is when we imagine how good a team is going
to be when everybody's healthy. How often is everybody healthy?
That doesn't minimize the impact of Austin Hayes, who I
think we all agreed was a good offseason acquisition. I
am worried about Austin Hayes from this perspective. He's dealing

(48:58):
with a CAF issue. He dealt with calf issues last year.
How much are we going to be talking about the
dude's calf issues? And frankly, Tyler Stevenson and I keep
beating this drum. I love Tyler Stevenson. Tyler Stevenson is
really important to this team. Tyler Stevenson is really good.
It's an oblique he plays catcher. Oblique injuries regardless of
where the guys plays are always weird. It's always a

(49:21):
tough timeline there. Matt McClain dealt with an oblique last year.
I worry about those two things. But number two, the
other part of the hey wait until they get healthy
thing is by the time they are healthy or at
least healthy, err, how big of a hole will they
have done? You might argue, Look, Jamer Candelario is going
to hit more. Okay, you might argue Gavin Lucks is

(49:42):
going to hit more. Okay. By the time that starts
to happen, how many games will they have lost? And
how big of a hole will they have done? I
keep coming back to this because we say it every
year and they rarely do it. Although they did win
nine of their first fifteen last year. Got to get
off to a good start, got to avoid the slow start. Well,

(50:03):
the easiest way to do that is to not lose
a bunch of games early. By the way, we also
said this year they've got to be better at home.
Thirty nine and forty two a GABP. Last year so
far not so good. Two wins, four losses in the
first six home games. So for a franchise that has
a very very recent history, but a very recent, long

(50:23):
history of getting off to slow starts and torpedoing their
chances before we even get to Mother's Day. I put
an added importance on games at the beginning of the season.
I put an added importance on games in April, especially
when you're not playing very good teams. The Brewers have
won their last two reds are a Milwaukee tonight for
the first of four. That Milwaukee team has a starting

(50:44):
staff that has been destroyed by injury, and the guys
who have pitched have for the most part, stunk, including
the guy who gets the ball tonight. If you're gonna
do the whole we got to get off to a
fast start thing, or we at least have to avoid
the slow starts thing. Than what you gotta do when
you've lost four out of six is to go to
Milwaukee and win more than you lose and then do

(51:05):
the same in San Francisco. Like, if we're gonna do
the thing where it's they gotta get off to a
fast start, we're gonna do the thing where they've got
to avoid the slow start. And by the way, those
are two kind of different things that that actually has
to be something we mean and not just something we say, well,
the way you get off to a better start is
to score more than zero runs. I fear that this

(51:25):
team offensively is not good enough. I feared that in March.
I feared that last week. I fear that when healthy.
I fear that when not healthy. So you could sit
there and go, hey, mo, they're gonna get Tyler Stevenson back. Cool,
he ain't gonna play to night. Ain't gonna play this weekend. Hey,
they're gonna get Austin Hayes back. That's neat. Ain't gonna
play tonight, ain't gonna play this weekend. Right now, You've

(51:47):
got a guy in Spencer Steeer who looks like he's
hitting with one arm. Uh. You've got a guy in
Jake Freanley who just looks lost at the plate and
when he gets on base can't avoid making outs. Not
a high ceiling offensive player to begin with. You've got
guys like Candelario and Lux who should hit more than
they are, but are a part of an offense that
at best feels incomplete and at worst is just not

(52:09):
very good. The issue with that is that's not a
reaction to six games. It's an assessment of the team
as a whole, and then you add six games to it.
And those six games have only confirmed what so many
of us observed and feared. This team's offensive limitations may
and probably will ground it and lower its ceiling. Look,

(52:35):
we were talking a month ago about who the Reds
might get at the deadline. That in itself tells you
we knew and we know this team's offensive ceiling is low,
and the roster itself is incomplete. All the six games
have done is amplify those concerns and reaffirm that observation.

(52:55):
You are welcome the chime in at five point three, seven, four, nine,
fifteen thirty. But first, James Rapeene starts the draft process
for US.

Speaker 6 (53:02):
Next Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty traffic.

Speaker 7 (53:09):
Well, then you see Health Traffic Center. Don't lend to
intrut you slow, get down. You see Health Orthopedics and
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same day appointment. You see health dot com seventy five
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four between Ryebolt and two seventy five volumes are picking

(53:33):
up here Ronald Reagan Highway between playing Field and seventy
one also sluggish. My rich remp with traffic.

Speaker 2 (53:39):
Wow, we're starting the four twenty segment at exactly four
to twenty, like for to twenty. Oh oh, that never happens.
Run him minute. Jones on baseball coming up in thirty minutes,
and new Xavier men's basketball head coach Richard Patino joins
us in forty five minutes and looking forward to that.
All right, the draft starts in three weeks weeks from tonight,

(54:01):
and you know how much James Rapine loves the draft.
Bengals Talk dot Com, Enter the Jungle, locked on Bengals.
And by the way, now that Red season has started,
my favorite thing about Red One of my favorite things
about Reds on TV is you get done watching the
game right then they do the postgame show. And this
this happened on Saturday. There's James. He's like the postgame

(54:22):
show to the postgame show on the FanDuel Sports Network.
And I wanted to talk draft with him because for
a lot of us, the process is just starting.

Speaker 9 (54:29):
Hi, James, Yeah, there's nothing like talking football after the
Reds postgame show.

Speaker 2 (54:35):
Well, what always happens is like sometimes I will turn
off the TV after the postgame show and I'll go
do something else, and then I turn on the TV
the next day and at like seven thirty in the morning,
there you are. Or sometimes I'll be out and about
and the game will have been on, but like the
bartender hasn't turned the TV station and there you are,
and then there's no sound that I'll have to say,

(54:57):
like can you turn that on? And they're like, no,
we got music on, and so well, I have to
imagine what you're saying. But you are a staple of
this time of year specifically.

Speaker 9 (55:06):
Yeah, my goal is for everyone in bars across the
city to have to see my mug. Even if you
can't hear me, you have to see me and know
that I'm there. So I'm glad it's working out.

Speaker 2 (55:16):
If you look at the draft order, right in the
first round, when where is the line between the teams
that are excited at picking round one and the teams
that would prefer to trade down?

Speaker 4 (55:28):
Oh, ahead of the Bangles.

Speaker 9 (55:30):
Put it that way, I think it's certainly ahead of
the Bengals, And you could look at it, and I
think I think in that Dallas range, so they're twelve,
that it starts to get pretty icy. You could go
all the way to the Colts, and part of that
depends on that. Does a Tyler Warren fall. The Colts
would be probably pretty excited to get him at fourteen

(55:52):
if you were to fall, But if not, then yeah,
you're looking at a lot of prospects that are going
to have flaws that are going to make you pause.

Speaker 4 (56:00):
And I think that's what.

Speaker 9 (56:02):
The middle of this first round is and that's what
the Bengals are going to have to navigate through.

Speaker 2 (56:08):
More than anybody I know, you have been adamant going
back years that the idea is to draft players and
not positions. And you know, we as fans, we always say, well,
they need an edge rusher, so we focus on edge rusher,
and the idea is to draft players, not positions. Do
you at all veer from that? Given the very obvious

(56:28):
needs the Bengals have on the offensive line and on defense.

Speaker 4 (56:32):
No, not one bit.

Speaker 9 (56:33):
If the Bengals are that worried about their offensive line
or and their.

Speaker 10 (56:37):
Defense, then they should have addressed that and got it
to a level that they're comfortable with in free agency,
and I think you and I certainly questioned what they
did or didn't do in.

Speaker 9 (56:49):
Those spots, But that can't let you that your free
agency can't force you to go in a direction in
the draft, and when you do that, it's hard enough
to get it right anyway. And so in a draft
that I look at and I think it's it's a
bit weaker early. I think day two it's not. As

(57:11):
there are a lot of guys I would take on
Day two and feel good about on Day one. Feel
like the Bengals are going to be drafting potentially a
Day two prospect. And so the way you avoid that
is you look at every position and you make it
clear that, hey, if there's a game changing tight end,
I'm open to it, or if there's a game changing
running back at the top of our.

Speaker 4 (57:31):
Board, we're going to go that route.

Speaker 9 (57:33):
Obviously, I think everyone would love for them to address
their pass rush or to protect Joe Burrow with a
stud Kevin Zeitler two point zero I pick seventeen.

Speaker 4 (57:43):
Everyone would love that.

Speaker 9 (57:45):
But if that's not there, don't force it. In the
comparison I made earlier this week on Cincinnati Bengals talk.
It's all right, Well, if Corey Dillon is there and
Jonah Williams is there, who would you rather have?

Speaker 4 (58:01):
Noither one's a bust.

Speaker 9 (58:03):
One is clearly more way more valuable and.

Speaker 4 (58:08):
Is in the Bengals Ring of honor for a reason.

Speaker 2 (58:11):
You've written about this team's ability if they take advantage
of it to really make a lot of progress on
Day two. Walk me through how their positional needs match
the depth in the draft that puts them in that position.

Speaker 9 (58:27):
Let's see, it's tough because I would love a bunch
of Day two picks, and that's why I'm sure the
Bengals would.

Speaker 2 (58:34):
Love to trade down.

Speaker 9 (58:34):
If they could move down from seventeen to twenty four
today and had another Day two selection, they would do that,
maybe even seventeen to twenty seven and drop that far
down because you look at the safeties in this class,
and I think that there are multiple guys you could
really like. Obviously, it's going to start and end with
Xavier Watts. Everyone's going to talk about him because at

(58:56):
the Al Golden Connection. But it's certainly are a bunch
of guys in the middle that you would consider, and
one that I think the Bengals are really interested in.
It would be Kevin Winston Junior out of Penn State,
and I think he's someone you look at his game,
in his athleticism, in his size, and he's coming off
of an ACL, but he's going to be ready for

(59:17):
camp ran a four or five or sub four or
five at the Pro day last week despite not not
even being six months into his recovery from an ACL.
So I mean, so he's a special talent. So if
he's there on day two, I picked forty nine, I
think you seriously consider him, And certainly I picked eighty
one in the third round Andrew Macouba at safety, another guy,

(59:39):
And I do think that the Bengals probably put themselves
in a position because they didn't sign one to take
a safety either on day one or day two. Maybe
it's picked seventeen, maybe it's in rounds two or three.
And so I think that that's one of the needs
that lines up where you could look at day two
and say, all right, well that makes sense. I think
offensive line certainly could. Rattledge is the guy you're going

(01:00:01):
to see a lot on social media, Like if you
do the PFF mock simulator, he's going to be there
out of Georgia in round three. He's not going to be.

Speaker 4 (01:00:08):
There in round three.

Speaker 9 (01:00:09):
Get that out.

Speaker 2 (01:00:11):
Of your head.

Speaker 9 (01:00:11):
If the Bengals want him, they're going to have to
cross their fingers that he's there in round two. But
that's certainly someone that you could could see them taking.
An athletic guard that could come in right away, I think,
and start for you. And then as far as the
defensive front, I mean, there are a bunch of guys
and I think that don't be shocked if one of

(01:00:31):
these guys at the Bengals are mocked like the James
Pierce juniors, maybe a Walter Nolan. Some of these guys
might just fall to the second round. Anyway. There are
a lot of questions about them, both on the field
some of them off the field, and when that happens,
that leads the guys falling. So don't be shocked at
off one of these really high end and I say
that in quotes defensive linemen that people are talking about

(01:00:54):
fall to the middle of round two and may fall
to the Bengals.

Speaker 4 (01:00:57):
I picked forty nine.

Speaker 2 (01:00:58):
You wrote about things you think about the draft, and
one of them was you saw the Bengals taking a
safety early and acknowledge that there are going to be
a lot of people who if they do that, don't
like it might take is you can't blast them for
their ability or inability to replace Jesse Bates and the
first version of von Bell and then be opposed to
them taking a safety when they haven't sufficially addressed the

(01:01:20):
position over the last couple of years.

Speaker 9 (01:01:23):
It's fair, Yeah, it's it's frustrating and annoying that we're
still here. But I'm not going to get mad one
bit if they take a safety at seventeen, you know
they take Nick even worry from South Carolina? All right,
My big question with him isn't his athleticism is in

(01:01:45):
his ability to hit, his ability to play football at
a high level. Does he fix that back end issue
that you have Malachi Starts? I would wonder, all right, Well,
he certainly fits the bill in a lot of ways
for Georgia and can play that back in, but is
he aletic.

Speaker 4 (01:02:00):
Enough to take seventeenth?

Speaker 9 (01:02:02):
Overall? Jesse Bates was a second round pick, and that's
why I look at the drop off and I could
totally see what I'm saying. Yeah, Malachi Starts is really good.
But let's wait and see if Exaber Watts is there,
Andrew mccooba is there, or Kevin Winston Junior is there.
But I look at the safety class and I think

(01:02:23):
they to be able to be doting that you're going
to see one of these guys fall into the fourth round,
fifth round, that that can come in and play right away.
And I don't know about you, but I don't feel
great about them just keeping Geno Stone around.

Speaker 2 (01:02:37):
No.

Speaker 4 (01:02:37):
I think I've been one.

Speaker 9 (01:02:38):
Of the Yeah, and I've been one of the only
maybe not maybe I'm not reading all of the coverage
that my colleagues are putting out there, but I'm pretty
critical of that because I just I don't think that
that's the right move given you could have saved six
plus million dollars in cap space, and what I saw
last year was a replaceable safety replace what Tyson Tyson Anderson,

(01:03:02):
which could probably do, but like he's faster, more athletic,
you know, he can tackle.

Speaker 4 (01:03:06):
He sought on special teams.

Speaker 9 (01:03:08):
So I think that that's one of the bigger mistakes
that goes not talked about as much. I would say, So, yeah,
I think they do have to go to stay throughout
early in this draft, and it's because that's part of
the strength of the draft.

Speaker 2 (01:03:21):
Certainly, you've done one MOB draft. How many will you
do between now in April twenty fourth?

Speaker 9 (01:03:26):
Oh, probably four? I would say, right, we're three weeks away, so.

Speaker 4 (01:03:32):
I'll do one.

Speaker 9 (01:03:34):
Let's see, it's Thursday, so I'll do one next week,
one the week after, and then I'll probably after that
it'll be like down to the wire. So I'll probably
do one one final one or a predictive one or
something like that. So at least three more, maybe four.

Speaker 4 (01:03:50):
Who knows.

Speaker 9 (01:03:50):
I think in that range though, so well, we'll finish
for five mo. I think that's a fair number five months.

Speaker 2 (01:03:56):
I think, yeah, for better than most. I think pretty
much better than everybody. All Right, I know this is
your time of year. I'll see you at Long Necks
in three weeks. Thank you as always.

Speaker 9 (01:04:07):
Can't wait and buckle up because we're going to be
talking about running backs and tight ends at Long Necks
and people aren't ready for.

Speaker 2 (01:04:14):
No, they're not. I could you know as well as
I do. They're not ready for it. I'm not sure
I'm ready for it, but I do understand where you're
coming from. I just I want them to trade down.
I want more picks. Oh I pick at seventeen. But
I think there are people in my position, in your position,
across the country saying the exact same thing about the
respective NFL team.

Speaker 4 (01:04:34):
Yep, no doubt.

Speaker 9 (01:04:35):
Trade down is the number one mock draft spot for
the Bengals at seventeen. Everyone's doing it, which means they
are going to have to stick and pick moll.

Speaker 2 (01:04:45):
Stick and thick. All right, thank you as always, man,
do appreciate thanks mo. See it's our guy, James or
Paine Bengals Talk. Since I had Bengals Talk dot com
part of s I Enter the Jungle, locked on Bengals
and U. They air James Show on FanDuel Sports Network,
and that obviously is the network that carries the Reds games.

(01:05:06):
And so if you're like me and you you have
the game on and then you sometimes go do others.
Suddenly there Saturday, the game ended, the postgame show aired,
and then I'm walking to my living room, walking to
my grill, and there's there's James. There's James talking Bengals
gotta watch And as my wife said, oh, it's jamesy.
That's what we're gonna call him from now on all

(01:05:27):
right sports headlines Next ESPN fifteen.

Speaker 6 (01:05:29):
Thirty Sanatti's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic.

Speaker 7 (01:05:36):
Well, then you see Health Traffic Center. Don't blind to
injury me you slowly get down. You see health Orthopedics
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Your traffic on seventy five south bound Hoppele to the
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This report is sponsored by Rapid Radios. Low's is the destination.

Speaker 2 (01:06:10):
Service of a Kelsey Chevrolet Home of Lifetime powertrain protection
and guaranteed credit approval from their family to yours for
life Kelsey, e chev Co, Red's and Brewers Tonight First
four In Milwaukee, it's like reigning NonStop here. They don't
worry about that in Milwaukee because they have a roof.
Nick Ladolo will get the start for Cincinnati against Nasty

(01:06:33):
nest Or Cortes seven forty tonight on seven hundred WLW.
Here is the unsponsored Red starting lineup, free for spons
not free, but available for sponsorship. TJ. Friedel is leading
off in centerfield, Matt McClain and second base, Eli Dela
Cruz at short, Ces at first, Jamber Candelario at third.
Blake Dunn is playing right field tonight. Spencer Steer in

(01:06:55):
his one arm is d aging, Santiago Espinall's in left field.
Jose trev was behind the plate batting ninth. The starting
lineup tonight includes Blake Dun in right field, Santiago Espinal
and left I say those things without comment. Time for

(01:07:16):
today's Postman Law. Injury reported is delivered by Postman Law.
If your injured, Postman delivers Alexis Diaz through a simulated
inning of batting practice on Tuesday and the next step
for him is a rehab assignment at HIA Dayton that'll
be tomorrow. He is expected to pitch two innings as
he is to attempts to come back from the hamstring issue.
It's it's hamstring inflammation. Start of the season on the

(01:07:39):
injured list. Andrew Abbot is set to make another start
for Louisville on the sixth of April, which is Sunday
through eighty five pitches over five and two thirds innings
for Triple A Louisville on April the first at Omaha.
Andrew Abbott it feels like he is very, very close.
We talked about this on opening Day. His last spring
training start, which as the Sunday before the season started,

(01:08:01):
was awesome. Obviously started spring training kind of late because
of that left shoulder issue. Hopefully all goes well with him,
and then they might have a bit of a pleasant problem,
so to speak, because of how good Carson Spiers was.
My expectation. I think most of us expect Andrew Abbott
to rejoin the starting rotation and maybe Spires to move
back into that swing guy role. But it is a

(01:08:22):
nice problem to have. That is today's Postman Law injury report.
It is delivered by Postman Law. If you're injured, call
eight four to four Postman. That's eight four to four Postman.
Also tonight college basketball on ESPN fifteen thirty, you see
as one to ozer this year when they play on
this station. They won Tuesday in the Crown. They play
tonight for a berth in the semi finals of the

(01:08:44):
ground against UCF. Tip off at seven o'clock. Pregame coverage
with Dan and Terry from Sin City at six thirty.
The winner of tonight's Big Tilt, a rematch of a
Big twelve regular season game, will take on either Villanova
Mike Nardi, the interim coach there, or You coach by
Eric Musselman, who yes was the coach of Nevada when

(01:09:05):
the Wolfpack came back from down twenty two in the
second half to beat uc in the NCAA Tournament. First
things first, got to get past UCF tonight. Good luck
to the Bearcats. Pole question. I asked this yesterday. I
asked it kind of late in the afternoon. I was
not on yesterday, but I still threw a pole question
out there. I'm going to do another here in just

(01:09:25):
a bit. But our poll questions are a service of
United Heartland Insurance with three offices in this area. Go
to United Heartland Insurance if you need something insured. Boom,
there you go. They'll ensurin it for you. Uhi NS
dot Com. Katie Blackburn versus Trey Hendrickson, who you got
about fifty five percent of you, say Trey. So at

(01:09:46):
the owners meetings, Katie Blackburn said, this is the quote
that I think drew the most attention. Asked about Trey
Hendrickson quote. I think some of it is on him
to be happy at some point. Trey hendrick And responded,
I'm sure you have heard this, but I'll play it. Nonetheless,
here's what Trey had to say about those comments yesterday
on the Pat McAfee show.

Speaker 4 (01:10:08):
Well, first off, yesterday was April Fools.

Speaker 11 (01:10:11):
So I was traded to all thirty one teams and
had like one hundred different contracts. So the one thing
I was hoping that wasn't April Fool's.

Speaker 4 (01:10:19):
Joke was that article.

Speaker 11 (01:10:20):
But called my agent I found out it was not,
you know, and that was a little disappointing because communication
has been poor over the last couple of months. You know,
that's something that I hold in high regard. You know,
they have not communicated with my agent directly. It's been
something that's been a little bit frustrating. But again, this

(01:10:40):
is the business of it.

Speaker 2 (01:10:43):
So there you go. There's Trey Hendrickson. Trey Hendrickson is
the greatest free agent acquisition in franchise history. That to
me is almost not debatable. If you're a Bengals fan
and I am you like Trey Hendrickson, I am hoping
to see Trey Hendrickson have an awesome season this year.
We all are. The Bengals are a couple of things

(01:11:04):
about that. Number one, the whole lack of communication thing,
and that has been a recurring theme over the years
when you hear from when you hear from players about
communication and the Bengals. Sometimes it's a player in his contract.
Sometimes it's maybe a position change, like Jodah Williams a
couple of years ago. I do wonder this, like, if
Trey Hendrickson's agent decided I need to get a hold

(01:11:25):
of Duke Tobin. Is Duke Tobin like gonna run and hide?
Or is Katie Blackburn gonna run and hide, not answer
the phone, not return the phone call. Lack of communication?
How much of that is Trey Hendrickson's agent not really
doing everything he can to communicate either. I don't know.
I'm just asking the Katie Blackburn quote. I think some

(01:11:51):
of it is on him to be happy at some
point maybe that's not the most semantically responsible way of
putting her point out there, but I don't disagree with
her point. I think it would be better put if
she said, look, we're negotiating with them, we've got offers
out there. It's it's it's kind of up to him
to be happy with what we have offered. And I

(01:12:15):
don't disagree with that. I don't think the Bengals are
wrong here. And I know it's the Bengals, and it's
a contract, and it's a popular, productive player, and so
the natural inclination for many is to come out with
pitchforks aimed at Bengals ownership because we love the player

(01:12:35):
Bengals ownership despite the team's recent success that's relative, by
the way, not that popular. I can only speak for myself.
You are welcome to disagree five one, three, seven, four, nine,
fifteen thirty. I just don't think they're wrong here. Number one.
I don't think at any point the Bengals have turned
up their nose at the idea of Trey playing for

(01:12:56):
them in twenty twenty six. I'm sure there's an offer
out there, or at least has been discussions of a
contract where the Bengals go, look, we want to pay
you more, we want to keep you here. We're just
not going to meet your asking price because, and I
think understandably so, there is there's a hesitancy to pay

(01:13:20):
Trey when he's thirty two, thirty three, thirty four years old,
money more reflective of the production from when he was
twenty nine and thirty years old. I understand that. I
think most should and do understand that. Now you may say,
screw it, you want a serene offseason, pay Trey. He'll

(01:13:41):
still give you good production. And I don't think that
point of view is necessarily wrong either. Like I've done
this often over the last couple of weeks, really the
last couple of months, and again I can only speak
for myself. I don't think either side is wrong here.
Trey is trying to get every possible dollar. Trey has
talked and his agent has communicated with teams that during

(01:14:01):
his tour of the NFL, where the Bengals allowed him
to explore trade possibilities, have indicated, yeah, we'd give you
kind of what you're looking for. And so if I'm
Trey and I think of your tray, that's where you're
starting the negotiations, right, you're starting with that dollar figure
that other teams have been willing to give you. And
then there's the Bengals point of view. We don't want
to give you thirty two thirty four million dollars when

(01:14:22):
we don't think you're going to be able to put
up the kind of production, the kind of numbers that
you've already put up in twenty six, in twenty seven,
in twenty eight. Remember he's under contract for this year.
I don't think that's wrong either. I have a hard
time taking sides here, but what I do know is this,
Trey Hendrickson signed a contract to play for the Bengals

(01:14:42):
in twenty twenty five. And so this concept that while
they're holding him hostage or they're they're doing him wrong. Like,
decisions have consequences, man, like they do. Short term decisions
often have long term consequences that you don't like. It
feels to me like Trey signed that contract extension. I've

(01:15:04):
tweeted out the photo of him a couple of times
signing that contract extension. Dude looks happy as hell, got
a big old smile in his face, and you can
understand why he's getting a lot of money to play
football in twenty twenty five some long term security. Great,
but that decision has consequences. It keeps him from being
a free agent right now, kept him for being a

(01:15:25):
free agent when free agency opened a month ago. Well, Trey,
you should have thought about that, man, Like, sorry, dude,
you should have thought about that. And that might not
have been a perspective that he wanted to hear. It
might have been a perspective that his agent communicated to him, Like, Dude,
if you sign that contract, that's cool. But if you

(01:15:46):
have another awesome year in twenty twenty four, if you
do something like lead the league in sacks, you're kind
of going to be tethered to this contract that's not
going to be worth as much as you might be
able to go get in free agency. Decisions have consequences.
Trey made a decision. Katie's not really saying that, but
I wouldn't blame her if she did. Dude, you signed

(01:16:08):
a contract. That contract means you're gonna play for us
this year. That contract gives us exclusive negotiating rights with you,
and we would love to negotiate a contract. But if
we're gonna agree to one, guess what, man, you're you're
just if you're gonna play here, there's gonna be a
dollar figure that we offer you and and you're gonna
have to like it. You're gonna have to be happy

(01:16:30):
with it in order to sign here. And if not,
go hit free agency at the end of this year,
and we'll see what happens, and maybe you make us
look bad. Maybe maybe we end up looking really smart.
Who knows. By the way, Jay Morrison wrote about this
for a Bengals Talk dot com. If the idea here
and look, Katie was being asked questions at the owner's meeting,

(01:16:52):
which he's not required to speak at. I'm glad she did.
You might argue that based on how she kind of
put things here, maybe she needs more practic just speaking
to the media, But she didn't go seek the opportunity
to talk about Trey Hendrickson. Trey did that yesterday with
Pat McAfee, and as a content guy, I love it.
But if the idea here is I'm going to get
into a public pissing match with the Cincinnati Bengals, good luck,

(01:17:18):
like good luck getting into a public back and forth
with the Cincinnati Bengals, because they're just not going to
engage you, and they're not going to cave because publicly
you go on a rampage knocking the Bengals for god
knows what. At the end of the day, here, I
just I don't think either side is wrong, But I
really don't think the Bengals are wrong here, Trey Hendrickson

(01:17:39):
signed a contract. Dude, you wanted to hit free agency.
You shouldn't have signed a contract. It's not that hard
like you signed it, man, and you certainly reaped the
short term benefits. The short term benefit was a degree
of security and pretty much a guaranteed paycheck for this
coming season. But what you decided against was hitting free
agency this year. Sorry, man, So now you can only

(01:18:03):
negotiate with us. Our position is we're gonna pay you
X you want. Why. If you're gonna stay here a
long term and not hit free agency, you're gonna have
to be happy with X. And if you're not happy
with X, all right, well we're probably not going to why.
I don't know that it would have done Katie any
good to say that, but that's kind of what she meant,

(01:18:24):
and she's not wrong. You're in the contract to play
for us if you want to keep playing here. You're
gonna have to choose to be happy with what we
offer you. There's nothing wrong with that. That's not disrespectful
to Trey. That's just how it is. My boss would
say the same thing when I negotiate with him, right like, dude,
you want X, we're offering you why. Uh, Chances are

(01:18:47):
if you want to keep working here, you're gonna have
to be happy with why. It's within my rights to
go uh uh, I'll hit free agency do god knows what.
But that wouldn't bother me. I don't think it should
bother you. If you're a Bengals fan, there's nothing wrong
with that perspective. It would be one thing if they
just weren't negotiating with him. I've heard nothing to suggest

(01:19:07):
the Bengals haven't at least exchanged terms with Trey Hendrickson.
So it's on him to be happy at some point.
To me is we've made an offer. This is what
we're willing to pay. If he wants to avoid free agency,
if he wants the security, if he wants to keep
playing here, he's gonna have to be happy with what
we've offered. There's nothing wrong with that. But if this

(01:19:30):
whole thing is, well, the Bengals are doing him dirty
by holding him. Hop dude, guy signed a contract. Man,
if you wanted to hit free agency right now, old
boys shouldn't have signed the contract. He signed it. And
I'm looking at the picture right now. He loves RelA
happy and nobody holding a gun to that dude's head.
He looks like he's signing that in his own volition.
No decisions have consequences the consequences of that decision is

(01:19:53):
you're not hitting free agency. And if you want to
want to keep playing for the Bengals, whether it's right
or wrong, you want to keep playing for the Bengals.
I want to avoid hitting free agency, Well, then you're
gonna have to be happy with what they've offered you.
Not happy with it? Play this year, hit free agency.
See what happens. Brendan the Jones on Baseball coming Up.

(01:20:13):
Richard Patino joins us in twelve minutes on ESPN fifteen
thirty Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 6 (01:20:18):
Station, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 7 (01:20:23):
Traffic From then, you see health traffic Center. Don't bend injury,
you slow, get down. You see health orthopedics and sports
medicine experts can help keep you moving. Schedule the same
day appointment. You see health dot com. Seeing south Awan's
on Norwoods Idol now westbound between Montgomery and seventy five.
Also heavier pockets at traffic seventy one north Baum Montgomery

(01:20:44):
to Ronald Reagan Cross County Highway southbound seventy five Hopple
to the Brent Spence Bridge, about a fifteen minute drive.
I'm Rich Shremp with traffic. This report is sponsored by your.

Speaker 1 (01:20:53):
Goals like ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati's Sports.

Speaker 2 (01:20:58):
I'm sure you go it's five oh five. If this
is ESPN fifteen thirty. My names Mowager. Thank you so
much for joining us. Hopefully you're having an awesome Thursday afternoon.
It was a really fun event at Zaba University on
Tuesday at the university introducing it's a new head men's
basketball coach, a guy who I would imagine has gotten

(01:21:20):
very little sleep because he's got to put together a roster.
So we thank him for his time because it's very valuable.
And welcome to Cincinnati. The new head coach of the
Xavier Musketeers, Richard Patino, coach. It's good to have you.
Welcome to Cincinnati. Thank you for joining us. How are you?

Speaker 4 (01:21:36):
I think the description was pretty accurate. But I'm doing great.
You know, got a lot of work to do, but
it's it's all good. I mean, I do think a
lot of coaches, regardless of new job or not, they're
just dealing with this right now. So it's hard, but
it's also not insurmountable by any means. To put it
all together and we're going to do our best.

Speaker 2 (01:21:57):
You accepted this position over a week ago, so how
would you described the last eight or nine days.

Speaker 4 (01:22:04):
You know, it's been good. I mean the first thing
I really wanted to do was locking on a staff.
You know, I really times have changed a little bit
where it's not as much the normal old school recruiting
as before, which isn't horrible. So you know, we had
great success in New Mexico with a lot of those guys,

(01:22:25):
and I just felt like they understand what I want.
I understand what I'm getting out of them, so, you know,
spoke with them, put them together, then came down here,
had to do all the you know, the press conference,
meet the boosters, meet fans, all that, which is great,
you know, but now it's time to get to work
and it's been really exciting. I mean, it feels right

(01:22:47):
in so many ways.

Speaker 2 (01:22:48):
You you have to to put put together a roster
in this era where the transfer portal is not new
to college basketball. It's something we talk about this time
of year every year, but there's such sheer volume. So
how do you navigate just those hundreds of players who
put their names in and decide which ones you want
to reach out to, which ones you want to have

(01:23:10):
make a visit, and ultimately which ones you want to
be a Xavier Musketeer.

Speaker 4 (01:23:15):
But it definitely more business transactional than ever before, you know,
and and my hope is that they still value the
other things. Now that does not mean that they're bad
people for wanting to be compensated financially, but they also
have to understand, like we got to put together a team,

(01:23:35):
we have to put together a roster. So you know,
there's there's certainly the things that we sell, whether it
be xavior in the in the you know, the past
success and so many good teams, so many good players,
so many good coaches, and what the value of going
to Xavier is playing in the Big East, what it's
like playing for me with the system and all those

(01:23:55):
things and talking about the success of previous guys. You know,
so early it's just such a blank canvas because you know,
you don't really have a whole lot. But I think
as the pieces start to get to be put together,
they'll be able to see it a little bit more
and just see how great the experience of playing the
Savior is all about.

Speaker 2 (01:24:14):
You want to put together a team, but you want
to put together a good team, right. You don't want
to just cobble together a roster. But you know, time
is of the essence. Is it hard this time of
year as you're doing that, whether you're taking a new
job like this one or a jirole plays is is
it hard to be patient when it comes to putting
that roster together?

Speaker 4 (01:24:34):
Yeah? It is, But you have to tell yourself that, Okay,
it's a April. You know, the portal is still open
for a little bit, and you don't need to sign
a whole team by the time the portal closes. You
just need to really get something in line by you know,
the summer when summer starts for us, which will probably
be the beginning of June. But you don't want to
make mistakes, just to check a box. You know, you

(01:24:57):
have the are they good enough? Are they the type
player that we want? Do the pieces fit with the
other guys that we will add?

Speaker 3 (01:25:05):
Uh?

Speaker 4 (01:25:05):
And then there's the the financial component to it too,
you know, And that's just that's a moving target right now.
And the hard part for a lot of coaches is
nobody knows the truth, you know, so you've got to
do your best to try to put something together as
best you can. And you know, it's like it's like
at the blackjack table. Sometimes you're gonna walk away, you know,

(01:25:27):
And it's just kind of is what it is. And
you know, we'll get we'll get guys that want to
play a xavier and certainly want to play for me,
and I understand the value of the whole experience.

Speaker 2 (01:25:36):
Would you add your voice to the chorus of people
who want to see the portal open up later, like
while the postseason tournament's not happening.

Speaker 4 (01:25:45):
Yeah, I mean, even if you wanted to open it
like now just because it's down to four teams is fine.
But I just I don't understand why you can't do it,
you know, if it's gonna be a month or however
many days it is why can't you do it right
after the season and open it up because school's not
going to end. I mean most people are not done
until like second or third week in May, so it

(01:26:06):
makes a lot of sense. I mean, you know, we
can sit here and crap on the n C DOAA
all we want, but you know, they've also got a
very hard situation as well, so I think they understand
that it's pretty ridiculous and it's going to change again.
I know April seventh will change a lot of things,
but it's it is challenging. It's challenging for the coaches,

(01:26:28):
it's challenging for the fans to kind of get connected
to these teams. And my hope is just there's a
little bit of just guardrails to this whole thing moving forward.
But the transfer portal opening right as the tournament starts
makes zero sense to me.

Speaker 2 (01:26:44):
We're on the same page there. New Xavier head men's
basketball coach, Richard Patino with us your first contacted about
the opportunity, and I'm sure there's a lot you know,
you know the Big East, you know the basketball history
of the school, you know how much basketball matters to
the Xavier community. But in any job interview that the
candidate wants to know more about the position that he's

(01:27:05):
applying for. So what were the things you asked about
Xavier University?

Speaker 4 (01:27:10):
Well, not to brag by any means, but I had
a lot of conversations with several schools. Some felt right,
some did not feel right. You know, I loved New Mexico.
New Mexico was great to me. But I'm not from
the West coast. I'm not from the Southwest, so that
took a huge adjustment for me. I've got little kids,
I've got a family. Majority of all my family are

(01:27:34):
on the East coast, whether it's New York, whether it's Florida.
So when Xavier called, it was not as much about
asking questions as much as it was where do I sign, honestly,
because it just felt so right. So I was very fortunate.

Speaker 2 (01:27:49):
You know.

Speaker 4 (01:27:49):
The first thing I thought of, honestly, was that they
wouldn't go outside of the family. You know, they had
done it for so long. So I was grateful when
Greg called me. And you know, certainly you want to
know about the financial investment, not necessarily for my salary,
but for rev share and because right now, more than ever,

(01:28:10):
it is clear that investment is affecting winning. You know,
so what exactly did that look like? Is that competitive
in the Big East? Obviously, I've got a good lens
of another program in Saint John's, so I understand kind
of what they're doing to compete. They want a title,
and how can we do that moving forward? Because the

(01:28:31):
expectations are high here and that's great. I want them
to be high, but it also needs to make sense financially,
and I think Greg really understands that as I continue
to get in front of booster or stakeholders and all
these people, just getting them to realize, like, if you
want to see the Cintas Center packed, if you want
to see this competing for Beast Championships, the financial investment

(01:28:52):
is huge. And I think everybody really does understand that.

Speaker 2 (01:28:54):
You bring a lot of your assistance with you. You
are going to retain Dante Jackson, who who's connection with
this program goes back many a year. Give us an
idea of the qualities you saw in him that made
you want to retain him.

Speaker 4 (01:29:09):
Well, I told him I was pretty blunt with him.
You know, I'm not really a gray area guy. I mean,
it's pretty black and white with me. That's why I think,
you know, being back on the East Coast works. But
you know, I just told him, I said, Dante, I'm
not hiring you because you played basketball at Zager. That
doesn't help me win a Big East championship. I'm not
hiring you because you're in this program right now. I

(01:29:31):
want to know, are you the right coach to work
under me for us to work together to go win
a Big East title. You know, that's great that you
have those extra things. It is going to open up
so many doors for me to meet so many great
alumni and former players in the area and so on.
But I'm not hiring you if it's not right for
our staff. And the more I got to know him,

(01:29:53):
the more I had my staff kind of connect with him,
it felt right, you know. I mean, it's not I'm
putting together team and that consists of players working together,
but also staff working together. And you know, Dante was
just a perfect fit. So he's been great now since
I've hired him. It definitely helps on a day to
day basis, whether it's official visits, knowing all those things.

(01:30:16):
So he has been terrific. I really enjoy being around
him and the chemistry with the staff has been really
good so far.

Speaker 2 (01:30:22):
We talk about the staff, we see the role of
general manager becoming more and more prolific in college basketball.
Is that a position that you could you could see
yourself adding?

Speaker 4 (01:30:33):
I think at some point it's absolutely necessary. We're certainly
behind the eight ball a little bit with what we're
doing right now because when you inherit a roster of
not a lot of players, you just got to hit
the ground running and you don't necessarily have time for
all the other stuff. So we certainly have contacts with

(01:30:54):
a lot of agents. I mean, this is what it's
become now. I mean, I feel like a general manager honestly,
where I'm having to decide where we're going to invest
money and so on. So I do think they're necessary,
especially with the potential growth of a Big East program
where there's not you're not going to hit that twenty
point five million dollar cap. But you know, Kenna GM

(01:31:16):
worked tiresly to help with the fundraising with the people
in our in our department, as well as speaking of
these agents and understanding that the only hard part about
this whole thing is we just don't know what the
truth is on contraction all those things. So until there's transparency,
it's going to be very, very challenging for everybody. But yes,

(01:31:37):
in a long winded answer, I would absolutely be open
to it. But it's just it's hard right now to
focus on that. We got to put it together a
roster first and foremost, and then to who the right
fit might be.

Speaker 2 (01:31:48):
All right, another couple of minutes, because I know you
are are short on time because you have so much
going on it. It's not like you haven't lived close
to Cincinnati before because of your time at the University
of Louisville, so you were in our backyard. But how
familiar were you or are you with the city that
you're moving to.

Speaker 4 (01:32:06):
Oh, it feels like home already. You know, I've spent
a decent amount of time here. I've coached at Xavier,
I've coached at Cincinnati. You know, as an opponent, I've
spent a lot of time up here. I've already had
you know, good friends from Louisville and Lexington who have
come up to visit. You know, my wife and we
loved Albuquerque. It's not it's not a knock on Albuquerque,

(01:32:27):
but she was here with our kids for a couple
of days and looking around at the neighborhoods and everything,
it just it just felt like home. So and that's
important to me, you know. I mean, I want my
family to be good. I want obviously I'm raising children
so that I can really focus on those two things,
which is my family and my job. And you know,
if we've got kind of both of those things in alignment,

(01:32:49):
it makes me better, makes our program better. So everybody
feels really really comfortable.

Speaker 2 (01:32:54):
Are are you even allowed to offer me a final
four pick?

Speaker 4 (01:33:00):
I would say, you know, it's funny. I've been asked
this a lot on the radio, and I like didn't
even know who was playing, so I'd look it up.
But I would say, you're going to see two really
good games. I think the Houston Duke game will be
one of the ugliest basketball games anybody has watched. But
it depends on what you want to see, right. If

(01:33:20):
you love good defense, you're going to see that with
Houston and Duke, because Houston is obviously a phenomenal defensive team.
Duke is long athletic, they could switch everything. Florida Auburn
I think will be way more aesthetically pleasing. But I'm
going to go with Duke to win it all?

Speaker 2 (01:33:37):
All right? Four ones? I mean, are you worried, like
dance naa tournament, there's no more Cinderella's that's like an
awful thing? Or is this a one year outlier.

Speaker 4 (01:33:48):
I'm not saying it's impossible and out of the realm
that the haves separate from the have nots, But I
think it's way too early to say this is a trend,
this is the one year thing.

Speaker 8 (01:34:00):
Now.

Speaker 4 (01:34:01):
We just have to realize everybody that is more of
a business now than it's ever been, and if you
want to compete at the highest level, you got to invest,
and some are just not going to have the capacity
to do that. So it's very very you know, it's
very prevalent who's doing it, who isn't. And you're looking
at those four number one seeds and they certainly have

(01:34:22):
done that. So we're all, you know, everybody's kind of
moving on the fly right now. Is it a concern
a little bit? But I do think when the House
settlement kicks in, there's going to be a little bit
more law and order, so to speak, and everybody's going
to figure it out a little bit more. But right now,
it's it's certainly just a free for all, and the

(01:34:44):
people with the most money are being able to do it.
Doesn't guarantee you that, no, it does not, but it
certainly is an advantage.

Speaker 2 (01:34:51):
Yeah, no question about that. I can't thank you enough
for doing this. Welcome to Cincinnati. I hope we can
do this often, both during the off season and and
once you guys get under way on the floor. Welcome
to town.

Speaker 4 (01:35:01):
Thank you so much, Thank you appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (01:35:05):
That's Richard Patino, the new head coach at Xavier University.
Good stuff there. Nineteen after five o'clock. I think we
have one more guest. We're gonna preview the spring showcase
coming up here at Nippert in just about fifteen minutes.
The Reds aren't scoring tonight. They play a team and

(01:35:25):
Nester Cortez and the Brewers who have given up a
ton of runs eleven, twelve and twenty in respective games.
We'll get to that, and we've got to spend a
few minutes on Mike McConnell, who will host his last
show tomorrow. Thank the folks at Xavier for lining up
Richard Patina. That was a fun conversation. It is twenty
after five o'clock. This is ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 6 (01:35:48):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty traffic.

Speaker 7 (01:35:53):
Well, then you see Health Traffic Center. Don't bend. Didn't
true me? You slowly get down. You see Health Orthopedics
the same day appointment. You see health dot com traffic
going on two seventy five westbound at the Indiana Kentucky
state line. With so it bounce back to Highway eight
and southbound. We have delays back to West fifty in Indiana.

(01:36:14):
Also seventy five southbound, howfle to the brench Bench Bridge
by a twenty minute drive. I'm Rick Shrimp with traffic
this week.

Speaker 2 (01:36:21):
This is ESPN fifteen thirty. My name is much reds
and Brewer. Tonight Nester Cortes will make his second start
for Milwaukee. His first one was a disaster. He's got
an ERA of thirty six. They got pummy pitching that
game with the Yankee score twenty runs, and Nicolodolo, who
had a good start in the second game of the season,

(01:36:43):
did not have his best stuff. We'll get the ball
for Cincinnati two and four in itself is not worth
overreacting to. There's one hundred and fifty six games to go.
When the way they play early on amplifies your your
pre existing fears about the team. In the big fear
was offensively they're not gonna be that good, then the

(01:37:03):
two and four stands out a little bit more. They're
not two and four if they were losing games nine
to eight, if they were losing games ten to seven,
my take would be like, this staff is gonna be okay.
It's just that there's a large concentration of games where
good pitchers gave up a lot of runs. I would

(01:37:24):
focus on, Hey, they're scoring more runs than we thought.
This pitching's gonna be okay. That's not every slow starts
the same two and four. If the Reds were hitting
and just you know what, they had a couple of
bullpen implosions or a starting pitcher had a bad start,
but offensively they were putting together you know, nights where
they're scoring six to seven runs, I would I'd go

(01:37:45):
forget the record. If this team hits the way they have,
the pitching will catch up. The question coming into the
season was pitching's gonna be Okay, is the hitting gonna
catch up the starting pitching and for the most part,
the relief pitching. It's been outstanding this year, outstanding one
through five. The question coming into the season was well
they hit. The question was also are they going to

(01:38:07):
be better in one run games? So obviously the last
two games were one run games. But if you look
at the four games they've lost, they had a one
run lead in the ninth inning on Opening Day lost,
They trail by a run going into the eighth inning
on Sunday lost. What happened in the eighth inning, Well,
they make defensive mistakes, they make base running mistakes. It

(01:38:27):
took a one run game, made it a three run game,
like it's not technically a one run game, but it's
a close game there for the taking. And then each
of the last two nights one run losses. Like there
is unfortunately a very twenty twenty four feel to the
start of twenty twenty five. Injuries, some major ones Hayes
and Stevenson, plus d as an Abbot, lack of depth. Tonight,

(01:38:50):
Blake Dunn and Santiago Espinal are going to start in
the outfield playing shorthanded, which it feels like they are
as long as Spencer Steer is active and not forming
well in close games, plus not winning at home. Those
were all themes from last year. When the slow start
is the continuation of themes from the year before, and

(01:39:10):
the year before was a disappointing year that cost the
manager's job. That's really frustrating and it's really sobering. I
keep harping on this. A month ago, people were wondering
who are the Reds gonna get at the trade deadline?
That was an acknowledgment that the offense, the roster is
incomplete the deadline. It's April third, the deadline. The deadline

(01:39:34):
is more than three months away. Hey, got like over
one hundred games between now and then. Is the offense
going to be good enough? And how many starting pitching
performances will they waste? And when is a team that
was bad at running the bases last year gonna answer
the clue phone and be better at running the bases
this year? When's the Terry Francono effect going to be felt?

(01:39:56):
Perhaps starting tonight. Good stuff, by the way, with Richard Patino,
this is a big weekend to pivot to the other
school in town. A big weekend for UC Athletics, will
preview it next on ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 6 (01:40:09):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 7 (01:40:12):
Traffic on the you see Health Traffic Center. Don't lend
injury me you slowly get down. You've see Health Orthopedics
the same day appointment. You see health dot com. Traffic
sewing nine seventy five southbound Hoppel to the Brent Spence Bridge,
About a ten minute delay to seventy five in westbound.
In southbound at the Carrol Cropper Bridge, you're sewing DeLay's

(01:40:34):
on the westbound side Highway eight in Kentucky and southbound
we're selling back to you West fifty and Lawrence Burg.
Guy Ritch renp with traffic. This report is sponsored.

Speaker 1 (01:40:43):
No one covers the Bengals like ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati
Sports Station.

Speaker 2 (01:40:49):
You got a UC basketball tonight on ESPN fifteen thirty,
Cincinnati playing in the College Basketball Crown against UCF That
Gambell tip off at seven o'clock. Pregame coverage here on
EA fifteen thirty will be at six thirty. A week
from this Saturday, speaking of UC is a big day
for UC Athletics, a ton of events on campus and

(01:41:10):
a Bearcats at the Ballpark promotion before the Reds play
the or as the Reds play the Pirates. This is
going to be a week from this Saturday, the twelve.
You've got the Spring Showcase, Spring football game so to
speak at UC, and so much other stuff going on.
Here to tell us more about it from the University
of Cincinnati. There associated Associate ad in charge of Marketing

(01:41:33):
and Fan Engagement, Stanley Fraser. Stand the man, Stan, what's
going on?

Speaker 5 (01:41:38):
I much just enjoying life events.

Speaker 4 (01:41:40):
How'll go out?

Speaker 2 (01:41:41):
Everything is awesome. The Spring Showcase should be awesome. Hopefully
we have good weather for it. Everything gets underway. This
is a day long calendar of events happening a week
from Saturday. Walk through it for me.

Speaker 5 (01:41:55):
Yeah, you just hit it on the air right there.
That's the key piece of all of it.

Speaker 4 (01:41:59):
This.

Speaker 5 (01:41:59):
We just need a great day. We started out with
the fan fest and pregame. Heled a detailgate on Shaky
Line here at the on campus at ten o'clock ten am.
That'll run from ten to noon, and then we'll get
the practice started. There'll be some you know, open practice

(01:42:20):
sessions there will be some some you know, some scrimmage
portions as well, and that'll go from twelve to noon.
That'll take us back up to shake we Long where
we kind of continue the fan fest. There'll be prizes,
they'll be giveaways up there. Anybody who's trying to get
their first first swings of the season. Will have a
nine hole mini golf out there, have some inflatable with

(01:42:42):
some games for families, a lot to do on that
Shakely line there, and then that'll take us right into
like you said, home baseball game. Bearcatch back at home
at three pm. Get that going, and then we kind
of finished the day off with the Bearcats at the
ballpark down at the Great American Ballpark.

Speaker 2 (01:43:06):
At six forty and you've got the new volleyball coach, Daniella.
Tomich is going to be a part of that, Joe
Royer and Dante Corleone is well going to be thrown
out the first pitch. That is the Reds and Pirates.
The open football practice. The spring games across the country
have evolved over the years. This effectively replaces or maybe

(01:43:27):
not replaces, but it's a different version of the traditional
spring game, correct right right right, And.

Speaker 5 (01:43:33):
You know there's there's a lot that goes into it.
I think that you know, we more so than anything,
I think is a great opportunity for our fans to
come out and get get an opportunity to.

Speaker 4 (01:43:42):
See the team.

Speaker 5 (01:43:44):
Just like you said, a whole lot of things change
in college athletics these days. So it's the first look
of this iteration of the team, and you'll see some faces.
You'll see some some of the new guys that people
have been raving about talking about and that we got
in a transfer portal, as well as seeing some of
the guys who've been on around here and get to
see how they've improved over the over the brick.

Speaker 2 (01:44:03):
Yeah, that's obviously key, especially in this day and age.
A lot of new faces. And you mentioned the baseball game,
and the UC baseball team was ranked nationally early in
the season. They're playing really, really well right now, five
wins in a row. I can't tell you how many
people I talk to who have said, you know what,
I haven't been to a game. I hear it's a
lot of fun. This is an opportunity a week from Saturday,

(01:44:23):
and as of right now, the team is playing really well.

Speaker 5 (01:44:26):
Teams playing really really well, we go over to Texas
Tech this weekend, hopefully they come back with three wins,
and then like you said, we go back into a
series next weekend. We've had really good crowds thus far,
a lot of engagement with the people there at the game,
so our students are really showing out. That makes a
big difference, right And yeah, the atmosphere has been great

(01:44:49):
and all for a great performing team right now, and
hopefully they keep that up and we want to keep
filling those those stadium stands and give them the whole
field advantage.

Speaker 2 (01:44:58):
Yeah, everything starts on Saturday morning, April the twelfth. You've
got the open football practice, postgame autographs with Bearcat players,
the shake Ley Lawn Fun Zone, the Bearcat baseball game
at three o'clock, and then Bearcats at the ballpark at GABP.
That is going to be a six forty first pitch
if you're a UC fan. Clear the day. Hopefully the

(01:45:19):
weather is much better and should be a lot of fun.
I will see you there, my friend. Thanks so much,
Sluie Teeter. That's our guy. Stand the man, Stanley Fraser,
University of Cincinnati. The open football practice at noon. More
details about the exclusive pregame adtailgate for season ticket holders
coming up at Go Bearcats dot com. A couple of
things really quickly here. Red's in Milwaukee tonight, first of

(01:45:43):
four with Nicolodolo getting the ball. The starting lineup tonight
against Nestor Cortes. Are you ready? Even if you're not here?
It is Friedel McLain, Dela cruz In, Carnassi on strand,
Candelario done, Blake done, not Adham, Blake Don in right field,
Spencer Steer with his one arm is going to be dhing,

(01:46:06):
Santiago Espinal and left Jose Travino is behind the plate
seven forty tonight on seven hundred WLWD. Poll questions on
this show or a service of United Heartland Insurance, go
to United Heartland Insurances website at uchins dot com. Blake
Dunn and Santiago Espinal are starting in the outfield for
the Reds tonight. How does that make you feel? Ninety

(01:46:27):
point eight percent of you so far voting just started,
say not good. Vote now at Moeggar. I give me
a second here to talk about something that has pretty
much nothing to do with sports. But tomorrow morning is
going to be a big day here down the Hall
on seven hundred WLW, Mike McConnell is going to conclude

(01:46:51):
what he announced this his retirement last week and said
he has been doing radio shows on the radio since
nineteen seventy five, fifty year radio career that over the
last ten years. In fact, it's like almost ten years
to the day, ten years as the morning show host
on seven hundred WLW. Mike is hanging it up. Tomorrow
is going to be his last show from five to nine,

(01:47:13):
and so, first of all, congratulations to Mike, who I'm
sure is listening to this right now, big ESPN fifteen
thirty guy, but has had just an awesome career, an
awesome career. Fifty years in this business is remarkable, and
to do it across multiple formats is amazing. My entry

(01:47:36):
way into this business was provided by the opportunity to
be Mike's intern, and I know the exact day that
I started as Mike's intern, May twelfth, nineteen ninety seven. Unfortunately,
and I'm sure we're not the only company, but we
don't have internships anymore, which I think is really unfortunate,

(01:47:59):
but that's just how it is. Fortunately, we had internships
in nineteen ninety seven, and I was Mike's Mike Mike
went to UD. I went to UD, and for reasons
I don't know, Mike came and spoke to It wasn't
even a class, it was a club. I was in
this like really nerdy broadcasting club at UD and Mike
came and spoke and I remember going up to him,

(01:48:19):
very very shy, very very painfully and like sort of
in the most meek way possible, asking him if if
there were opportunities to be an intern, and thank god,
he said yes, and he gave me the name of
the person to call, and I called that person and
then suddenly I was an intern and I was on
Mike's show, and it was I've said this up to

(01:48:41):
a lot of people who've asked about how I got started.
I remember that first day as an intern on Mike
Show and it was like, all right, you're gonna screen calls,
and I didn't know what that meant. But what I
do remember is just being in the studio and watching
and listening and just observing everything that was going on
and saying to myself, these people are having a lot
of fun. This is what I want to do, and

(01:49:04):
not so much because of like Mike pulling me aside
or anything, but just by watching and observing. I've said
this before. If you ever said I want to be
a talk show host, and whether it's a sports talk
show host or a general talk show host, I want
to be a talk show host, what I would tell
you is listen to Mike McConnell every day. He over
the last ten years hasn't done so much a talk

(01:49:25):
show as what we say in the business a newswheel.
But when I started here, Mike was on from ten
am to two pm, and then I think that that
turned into nine to two and then ultimately became nine
to noon. But in those years, Mike, I he is
the best talk show host I've ever heard, the best

(01:49:45):
talk show host I've ever heard, sports or nonsports. And
I've said this to people who randomly bring up this business.
If you wanted to learn how to become a talk
show host, I would say, listen to Mike McConnell every
single day. And for me at that stage and going
from intern to somebody who was a part of the
staff and would get a chance to run Mike's show,
and then for a couple of years I ran Mike's

(01:50:07):
show every single day just by watching and observing and listening.
I mean, it's a talk show host masterclass. The fact
that I'm not better at this job is a damning
indictment because I had at my disposal the ability to
be a part of Mike's show, whether it was as
an intern, as a producer, as a board operator, whatever

(01:50:28):
it was, and it was so educational. I learned so
much and I had so much fun. There are people
in our business radio consultants who will come in and
tell you how to do a talk show, and whatever
they tell you is kind of the exact opposite of
what Mike would do, because Mike's show would be pretty
much no frills, not overly produced, no gimmicks, no built

(01:50:51):
in segments. It was Mike and the callers and the guests,
and the star of the show was Mike and Mike's
preparation and depth of knowledge, and the beauty of his
show to me was always he could do like a
hard hitting time, like a hard hitting local topic, and

(01:51:11):
then do a topic on something happening happening like in
international politics, and then do something fun and lighthearted, and
you stuck around for all those segments no matter what
he was doing, whether he was talking about some serious
topic or something happening abroad or something happening nationally, or
just weird news items, or sometimes weaving in a sports topic,

(01:51:32):
or sometimes doing something fun like drinking or music or something.
The range of his knowledge and the depth of his
abilities and talents I to this day am still in
awe of. And you've probably heard me say this as well.
The people whose content I have always enjoyed the most
are the people that when I turn them on or

(01:51:54):
when I read them and something big is going on,
there's a big story, I seek them out. I seek
out their content because their opinion matters, and because I
genuinely don't know what they're gonna say. Are There are
a lot of people who do talk radio, or they
do podcasts, or they write columns, or they do sports talk,
whatever it is, and if there's a big story, many

(01:52:17):
of them you know what the slant is gonna be,
especially in this day and age in politics, right Like,
you turn on Jesse Waters, you know what his take
on the news of the day is gonna be. You
turn on Rachel Maddow, you know, I mean, you just
do right and there's a lot of folks in our business.
You could say the same thing. Hell, you might say
that about me. What I've always loved about Mike and
a handful of others is when there's a big story,

(01:52:39):
I've always turned Mike on because his opinion matters, and
because I genuinely don't know what his take is gonna be.
And sometimes I've been really surprised by it, and sometimes
I've changed my mind, and sometimes I've thought, God, I
can't believe that's Mike's take. But that's the content that
I seek out. Those are the people that I value
the most, the ones that I don't know. I don't
know what mike'sa is going to be, so I have

(01:53:01):
to listen because I genuinely don't know, and so I've
always really appreciated about that about him, And more than anything,
I've always stood from a distance in off of somebody
who loves this business as much as I do, and
loves this this genre of broadcasting as much as I do.
I think he's the best ever do it. And I

(01:53:22):
talked about Jim Scott effusively when he passed away last year.
I loved Jim, and I worked with Jim closely and
I miss him to death. I hold Mike in just
as high a regard, and I'm going to be listening tomorrow.
It's going to make me sad, But I thank Mike
for giving me the opportunity to be a part of
his show many many, many years ago. I don't think

(01:53:44):
I was very good. I would often make mistakes or
do or say the dumbest thing possible and then get
made fun of on the air. I was once late
to work, and the hard part about being late to
work was listening to him. Rip me the entire drive
in for being late to work. But just an awesome host,

(01:54:07):
a terrific guy, and somebody who's made quite an impact
on radio, in this in this city, certainly in this company,
and on a bunch of us here in this building,
whether there are folks who are in the building now
or people who have passed through. So congratulations to a
Mike on a remarkable career. And you know, he's one
of those guys. I was listening this morning. He said

(01:54:29):
if something like stuck in his crawl and he you know,
wanted to get something off his chest, he was still
gonna call in and do stuff like that on his
own show. It ain't gonna surprise me at all if
like we never hear from Mike again. Along with that
is the announcement today that Tom Brenneman is going to
take over that show for Mike starting on Monday morning.
And I'm really happy for Tom. Tom is somebody who

(01:54:52):
over the years has been very very nice to me,
very encouraging to me. I will never forget. We've told
this story a billion times too. We caught it hit
the seat next to me. I caught Chrisvilllake's first ever
home run ball, and I gave it to Chrisvilllake and
didn't make a big deal about it. And that's neither
here nor there. The story got back to Tom, who

(01:55:12):
then spent like two innings talking about how much he
liked my show, and I remember my phone that and
I'd blown up from people who are like, God, you know,
did you pay Tom to do this? Always a willing guest,
always somebody who's offered an encouraging word. And we know
how his time in the Red's TV booth came to
an end, and that was unfortunate, and god knows I
was critical, But over the last nearly five years, I

(01:55:34):
don't think anybody in that position that has kind of
bottomed out professionally the way Tom did. Could do more
than Tom has done to make amends, to learn, to
show contrition, to be apologetic, to try to be better.
And that has been something that I've watched from afar
that I've been very impressed by. And Tom has weaved

(01:55:56):
his way back into the into the business doing a
show on Chatterbox, a podcast that he does. He's done
a bunch of shows at night on seven hundred WLW,
and so he is deserving of the opportunity to host
mornings and I can't wait to hear how he does.
And I'm thrilled for him that he gets an opportunity,
because God knows, I believe at least he deserves it,

(01:56:17):
and I think most would agree. So there you go.
The sentimental portion of the show is over, so is
the show itself. We're back tomorrow. I say that like
I was surprised, although in this business, let's be honest,
you never know. By the way, when I do my

(01:56:37):
last show, there ain't gonna be anybody on another radio
station wishing me well for ten minutes, and frankly, nor
should they. Thanks to a tarrem Blandford Producing. Thanks to
you for listening. Have an awesome night. We return tomorrow
at three oh five. Anything he might have missed go
get in the podcast page or the iHeartRadio app Thanks
to long Next Sports Grill. Have a good night. This
is ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 6 (01:56:58):
Station, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic.

Speaker 7 (01:57:14):
Well, then you see Health Traffic Center. Don't lend the
injury you slow get down. You see Health Orthopedics and
sports medicine experts can help keep you moving. Schedule the
same day appointment. You see Health dot com. Two seventy
five eastbound at the combsail Bridge. Accent has a left
lane block, nor would lateral least bound at Paddock crash
now blocks the left lane and seventy one north bound

(01:57:35):
after Stewart got a breakdown. That's taking up the center lane.
By Rick Schremp with traffic

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