5/14/24 - The Mo Egger Show - Mo Egger

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
You found Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.What's up, Good afternoon on Moegger.
This is ESPN fifteen thirty. Thankyou for listening. Thrilled that you are
here. Hope you're having a nicedry Tuesday because it's been rainy outside.
We got a lot to do.We're giving away more Hooty and the Blowfish

(00:20):
tickets every day this week four thirtythree today, be ready. And yesterday
we played a little trivia game.We wanted to test your knowledge of the
various connections between the Reds and ArizonaDiamondbacks. We're going to do something even
easier coming up at four thirty three. So if you want to go see
Hooty in the Blowfish on June seventh, your chance at four thirty three.

(00:46):
The Reds lose last night. Here'swhat I love. I love a lot
of things about Paul Danner Junior beinghere. But you know, he covers
the Bengals and in his job descriptionis Bengals beat writer slash podcaster, which
means he's not supposed to talk aboutthe Reds, which means we don't have
to. I would love to.I would say, you guys, did
connections with the Reds and the Diamecs. Did you did you mention Kevin Newman?

(01:08):
We did. Kevin Newman was partof one of the questions, and
little did you know how prophetic?Oh I knew you, Oh I knew
you know how things are going rightnow with that club? Right, I
have to say I probably did whata lot of people maybe did, which
was quite late into the evening.Woke up to check a score. Oh

(01:29):
what happened? Right? And Isaw they had Mike Ford had just oh
yeah, he brushed his triple.And I'm like, you know what,
I'll turn on the I'll stay uphere for the next ten minutes and watch
this night then and watch it finish. The moment that ball went into the
ribs on the first pitch, justas you knew, Yes, I didn't.
I was like, I don't needto waste any more time. I

(01:52):
could be sleeping. Once I sawhim writhing in pain next to the batter's
box, exactly what was going tohappen next, And sure enough, yeah,
it was pretty sad. This isthis is how, this is where
it is, where it's at,this is how it works. Yeah.
Uh. Paul covers the Bengals forthe Athletic dot Com. He also is
a podcaster here It's no, it'sthe Growler almost okay one the Growler podcast.

(02:16):
Yes, the latest one today isout. It's out, very good
and check that out. We talkedabout the schedule. Yeah, we we
spend some time doing some stuff fromrookie Mini Camp observations and a little Trey
Hendrickson talk. Lots of lots ofstuff that maybe we'll even touch on today.
Yes, there's lots going on forlike a random Wednesdays, random Tuesday,

(02:37):
and maybe I'm not going on schedule. It is a day. I
love this day, like yes,because look I can do the old man
yells at cloud thing where I alreadyknow who they're gonna play, Like this
is the last mile post. Thisis I mean, I know there's stuff,
there's other stuff that's gonna happen duringthe off season, but this is

(02:58):
like the last this is the lastbar to clear. Like now it becomes
real, it's crystallized. I canwrap my brain around when they're gonna play
who, where I might be ableto go, where the schedule might provide
some relief, where it could providea gauntlet or favorite word when it comes
to talking about a schedule and ithappens, and there's nothing but anticipation.

(03:19):
Nobody's you know, you mentioned tome on the podcast today, But two
years ago the NFL said, cool, you're gonna play three primetime games in
the division. All right, that'sless than ideal, but you could still
win those games. You could stillprepare to play in those games. I
think we all walk away excited andfilled with anticipation, and there are no
losers. And I like it.I like tomorrow. It's hard to be

(03:39):
It's hard to be a loser becausethis is one of the most fun parts.
It's the it's the trip, it'sthe season, It's what's the experience
going to be? What can youdo? Can you go with their buddies?
And how how can that be fun? I look forward to all of
that, especially as someone who youknow, we're I'm very luckily and to
be someone who gets to, uhtravel to all of these games and it's

(04:02):
a big deal. Where are yougoing, how's it gonna be, where
we're gonna be there? What canwe else? Can we do? And
we're there? And uh so Ilook forward to this. I do think
there is a sliver of importance notas it is. Could it can't hard
to be more overblown than it is. I mean, we we've established that

(04:24):
the NFL is just absolutely pulling thisas far as it possibly can too much.
But there is some portion of thisthat matters from an actual who's gonna
win the championship perspective, and Ithink those are some of the interesting things
that you look at as far aswhere some of when some of your games
come what is the best advantage ofwhen you can play teams with rookie quarterbacks,

(04:46):
teams in your division, which allof this type of stuff can come
together. And that's why that's whyI love doing mock scheduled. Yeah,
so you did the mock schedul didnow you did the mock schedule and it
came out just after the NFL announcedBengals v. Chiefs Week two. Technically
it was before, so I tookit early out it was before. Yeah,
so it's o l Yeah, youhad the Bengals and Chiefs Week seventeen.

(05:09):
My box schedule was a best casescenario. It's trying to get it.
It's not trying to predict necessarily,which is my way of talking myself
out of having the miss but it'sit's trying to point out, if you're
looking at this strictly through the Bengalslens, what is the best thing that
you could see, and so itcan show maybe when the worst thing that
happens to you, what that couldbe. All Right? Can I admit

(05:30):
to having a preference for the KansasCity game late? Yeah, for a
couple of different reasons. Now,I know you might say, well,
look week two, there's more ofa guarantee that you're gonna get Burrow versus
Mahomes, the two key figures inthat game. I understand that. But
number one, the Bengals have hadslow starts. Much of that is tied
to Burrow's health. I get it, But still they have a recent track
record of starting slowly. When you'restarting slowly, is going to play the

(05:56):
Kansas City Chiefs, that defending SuperBowl champions perhaps smarting in the math of
a home loss to the Baltimore Ravens, is is that really what you want?
But also just from as a fanof the NFL, a fan of
the Bengals, but as a fanof the NFL, those Bengals Chiefs games
and maybe the one this past seasona little bit less, so there was
such bigness to them. The stakeswere pretty clearly defined the teams. We

(06:21):
kind of had established what they were. There were clear stakes for the Bengals,
they had to win that game onNew Year's Eve against Kansas City.
We know what the stakes were forthe games in twenty one in twenty twenty
two. NFL football is generally atits best in December and January, and
so I like those games. Oneof the reasons why that rivalry has turned

(06:44):
into one of the best in thesport is I believe because of all the
stakes involved with those games, andthose have been amplified because of when they've
occurred on the calendar. This gamewill matter, but in a lot of
ways, it's been put into thepreseason. Yeah, I mean, the
both teams have kind of treated thistime of year. Everybody's trying to win
and nobody's gonna call it that,but let's be honest. I mean,

(07:05):
they spend the first month trying tofigure out where they're at, and that's
been the case. I mean,the Chiefs have been buried for their September
and into October performance multiple times andgone on and right of the ship and
figured it out and gone to winthe Super Bowl or make the as a
championship game. Same thing for theBengals. I mean, they've had these

(07:25):
issues. I mean, I putout today Joe Burrow in the first two
weeks of the season less, he'sone and seven, I mean, and
the one win was they had toget a strip against Minnesota to keep them
from going to kick the game winnerto make an to eight. I mean,
it's not like there hasn't been bothof these teams using this time to
figure themselves out and lose a gameand say we're figuring, think we'll get

(07:48):
there, it'll be fine. Youdon't want that. You want Burrow Mahomes
in this rivalry to have the stakes, to not have an excuse to have
something where at the end you sitthere and you look in the mirror and
say, that might have cost usthe inability to beat this rival and that
kind of stinks that that's where thatgame ends up, But so be it.

(08:09):
There'll be plenty of other ones.It's not huge, and in the
end you still may end up lookingback on it when the seeding works itself
out to say, oh, thatgame did end up deciding something there,
But it's not the same when youdon't have the finality that you can have
when these two teams get together likeyou have in really every single game that

(08:30):
they've played in Burrow versus Mahomes forthe most part. In your mock schedule,
which I want people to read,there is one game that I hope
you well, you didn't nail it, but I hope you nailed it in
in terms of just occurring somewhere closeto where you had it on the calendar,
and that's the Chargers game, rightnumber one. If you play them
early, Harball has less time tosteal your signs. Yes, sure,

(08:52):
but like that Harball Herbert thing's goingto work. It's going but not probably
will take a little bit of timefor playing them in September. Yeah,
no, no doubt. I thinkthere's there's a number of different teams.
I think that really Bohoo's the Bengalsto seeing early and yeah, Harbaugh Herbert
certainly feels like the combination that youjustice and they have a lot of new

(09:16):
pieces there in LA that they're kindof working in and young players that you
just want to try to take advantageof it. Taking a little bit of
time there that you know you havethree potentially rookie quarterbacks coming to paycorps.
You want to see all of thoseearly. I point to the Commanders specifically,
who I think had a nice draft, have a nice team. Dan

(09:39):
Quinn is not a first year coach, so it's going to take him less
time probably to get things rolling.But there's so much change ownership quarterback coach,
get them early in your house.Take advantage of that. And really
you could say the same thing aboutDenver and about New England, who could
could have rookie quarterbacks. You wantto see those teams early because they those
are teams that as they get going, could figure things out. Look at

(10:03):
Houston last year, it once CJ. Stroud got going. As Bengals fans
know, they were incredibly dangerous.But if you would have gotten them a
little earlier in the season, itwould have been a little different. So
you, I mean, there's alittle advantages here and there that you can
find, but those those would standout in a new coach would certainly be
at the top of the list too. That's that's that's been proven over the

(10:24):
years. How many NFL stadiums slashcities have you have yet to go to?
I did not ask that, well, how many have I not been?
I think I've been. I thinkI've been to all of them.
I don't think that there's one thatI just because the Bengals have been everywhere
and I've been around too long,so I'm pretty sure I've been to every

(10:48):
single one. Maybe new stadiums thathave been built that I haven't been to
yet, but I think for themost part. You know what, Minnesota
I missed. I missed the lasttrip to Minnesota for whatever reason. I
think there were there was some kindof a personal reason going on there,
and that's the only one. Ithink. That's the only one left on

(11:09):
my list. Okay, I wantyou to draw upon your experience covering this
league because I I want to rollthrough some of the road games and I
know you and I kind of didthis exercise. But if if there's a
fan out there, who's you know, thinking about? Okay, depending on
how the schedule unfolds, here's whereI want to go. I need your
recommendation based on city, based onthe stadium, the in game atmosphere.

(11:31):
I know you're not watching it fromthe same perspective as I am, but
I still I've seen it. Iwant to do that. And I guess
also the international game, we've arrivedat the conclusion that's not going to happen.
Yeah, I think everybody kind offigures that's not going to be the
case, just because of the natureof what that's been in recent years.
And Trey Hendrickson talked again today andI want to talk about him as well.

(11:52):
And we also have to look aheadto my favorite part of summer media,
darling Trey Hendrickson. Now, yeah, interesting it is seventeen minutes after
three o'clock. He's Paul Danner Juniorcovering the Bengals for The Athletic and his
podcast The Growler. At seventeen afterthree o'clock ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports station.

(12:13):
At three o'clock. This is ESPNfifteen thirty. I'm a leger,
Aaron, can can you get ahold of the iHeartRadio help desk so we
could make sure the keyboard works well. I can do the show that'd be
I've had to change the batteries.I just changed the batteries and the keyboard

(12:33):
in the last twenty four hours.I've had to fix Tony Pike's headphones.
I've had to fix the mouse thingyin here, and now the keyboard doesn't
work. And if the keyboard doesn'twork, I can't log into the system.
And because we don't have an actualtelephone here, then I'm not going
to be able to take phone callsif I can't log into the system.
You know, the more you cando this is making yourself indispensable around here.
I want to be dispensable today,Be honest with you. Thank god

(12:56):
you're here, Paul Danner Junior,the athletic. Which you think I'm going
to do? I don't know howto help a keyboard. I mean,
I can't make that work. Itfeels like every time there's some new gadget
in here, Like what was wrongwith the keyboard we had that had a
wire to be plugged into something?Well, oh you've moved, you've moved
to wireless. Bring wires back,Yeah, bring wires back. Like we've

(13:20):
been putting phone calls on the radiofor one hundred years and then we decided
let's use a computer to put thephone calls on the air, and now
it never works. You know,I heard you can do an entire show
just taking phone calls on your phoneand holding it up to the microphone,
you can Yeah, it can happenfor hours at a time. On the
list of places that the Bengals willbe traveling to this year, if a
fan is like, this is thetrip I want to go on, which

(13:43):
one should they be rooting for tofall in their possible window? Well,
okay, so you're you're you're phrasingof that takes me to a different place
than maybe I was going to answer. Not because it's bad, just because
if you've never really been on atrip, or to me, if you're
kind of a regular you do atrip every know often, or you're gonna
start doing more. Charlotte. Charlotte'sa great city. It's a very you

(14:07):
know, for for those that arefrom Cincinnati, like the comfort of the
size, you've got the downtown uhStadium. They call themselves the Queen City,
they sure do, and so butyou've got it's a fun city.
It's a great food city. You'regonna get good weather down there in the
fall for the most part, aslong as as gonna end up too late.
You know. It's just a Ilike Charlotte as a city as a

(14:28):
whole, and where it's situates easyto get around, you're not gonna get
concerns over angry don't like you passionatefans. You know they're they're in a
tough spot, you know, don'tyou want to you don't run into David
Tepper anywhere. But outside of that, I think you're in a good place
down there. It's just a greattrip. I highly recommend Charlotte to anybody

(14:54):
that can go that maybe does alot of trips and is because you're not
gonna get back there for a while. But if you're just like, you
know what, I think I'm gonnatry one. Baltimore. Yeah, Baltimore
is great both easy flights, greatdowntown stadium, good hotels, places to
eat, things like obviously is afood city. You're gonna you're gonna crush

(15:16):
it there with the crab cake situation. You got things you can lean into.
Baltimore is a is a great townand it's a great place to go
see a game. The atmosphere isawesome. You know it's gonna be a
big game, an important game indivision. Highly recommend Baltimore. They've done
a great job with the facility there, which is gonna get even better.

(15:37):
I selfishly love it because it's oneof the few that haven't kicked the media
out of the good low press box. Nice. Everybody else is like up
in some weird corner now because they'vesold everything for sweets that used to be
where we went, which is whichI get, but personally still like that.
It's it still keeps us in agood spot. So, but Baltimore
is a great trip as far asease to go and all the things that

(15:58):
you want to get. That ofthe places the Bengals are going to this
year, where would you say don'tgo there? La New York because it's
not New York, because you're goingthe stadiums in New Jersey and there's nothing
nearby. There's nothing nearby, Likeif you want to go place in America
to get in and out of,it's terrible. Yeah, and it's not

(16:18):
an aesthetically pleasing stadium. Yeah you'regonna so you're gonna fly in a Jersey.
You should stay in New Jersey andgo if you unless you want to
go to New York. But thenyou're dealing with getting in and out of
all that. It's just if you'regoing there for the football game. It's
very disconnected from from the good partsof going to New York, so you're

(16:41):
not really getting both. Just goto New York some other time when it's
not around the Bengals game. Yes, you'll love that. Go see the
Reds play the Mets Yankees. Noquestion right, which I don't think is
you're gonna get that, get thechance to double up. It was potential
for the first weekend, go tothe NBA Finals and see the next next
week. Sure of course where MSGis gonna be rocking. I heard art
and game tonight. Yes, you'regonna be. But you know so that

(17:06):
that would be my LA. Youknow, you had a great experience in
LA for the Super Bowl, youknow, but it's like it's so spread
out the state. Again, you'regoing down to the stadium down in Inglewood
or whatever. You're not in downtownLA. Maybe you can go out to
like Santa Monica, but that's notnothing is closed. Getting around is an

(17:26):
absolute night. So it's not fun. Going to l A is not fun.
And there's nothing really near the stadium. No, there's no there's not
an easy way to do anything.So the biggest cities, which would seem
the most interesting, I actually justfor logistically, I don't really particularly enjoy
it. I like, we haveso many of these now, and I

(17:48):
know it's been a discussion point anda number of different places that are making
put you know, building new facilitiesor whatever. But like, I just
love the downtown stadiums where you canstay down there, you can walk,
you can have everything around the stadiumlike it's a As a visitor, it's
fantastic. And so I am partialto all of those types of places,

(18:10):
which is why Kansas City can pouncesand Yeah. Yeah, you talk about
awful. It is having to driveall the way out to the suburbs awful
to get in and out of theirlittle sports park. The stadium stinks because
well from our perspective, we're onthe moon for the press box, and
it's just it's just it's too big, it's old. Everything about it is

(18:33):
not great. Now, I'll saythis from a fan perspective. I've been
twice. I went to the disasterof the twenty eighteen game when they lost
forty five to ten, and thenI went to the AFC Championship game that
the Bengals lost. Now, Ireally like downtown Kansas City. Yes,
the tailgating scene is makes up forthe fact that there's really nothing nearby.

(18:56):
Both times I went, at theend of the third quarter in twenty eighteen,
we took off because it was fortyfive to ten and had no issues
getting out, and after the AFCChampionship game, because everybody wanted to stay
and watch them get the Lamar HuntTrophy. Bengals fans had no I was
back in my hotel room in tenminutes, so that was no big deal.

(19:17):
But I could certainly understand on anaverage basis, why would be kind
of rough, very hard to get. I saw it was. We've been
there and it's only been freezing,so this will be a nice change of
pace. It's been too that.Maybe the coldest I've ever felt walking out
of a game was walking out ofgames in Kansas City, where the wind
just whips across that open parking lot. Yeah. Either there was like a
car that caught fire, the grasscaught fire. Yeah, I watched that

(19:40):
from my hotel room. It wasjust chaos that typically tends to happen around
there. So I'm not a hugefan of going there, but obviously you
know what you'd be getting between thegame being fun and the tailgate scene from
my perspective, which is being afan on the road. Those were the
nicest people for my money. Thosewere those were the them in Green Bay,

(20:00):
Green Bay, where they're used topeople kind of making it a bucket
this trip Green Bay and Kansas City. Those but Bengals fans have decided they
hate the Chiefs. Now when Iget it, why it's it's such a
cool rivalry. But both times Iwent, the fans were kind. So
if you're looking for people that aregoing to be nice, I would say
Kansas City would be close to thetop of the list in my experience.
Yeah, I think that's I thinkthat's fair. I thoroughly enjoy Kansas City

(20:23):
downtown, like you were saying,I like that, I like staying down
there. I like the hotel,the whole scene down there, as far
as you know, I I actuallyI like all of the asc North.
Like I don't mean to I'm notdisparaging by saying I like Baltimore. I
think Pittsburgh's great. I think Cleveland'sgreat, and they kind of get I
feel like amongst fans maybe a badrap. Oh, I don't want to

(20:47):
go I've heard this or that,Like I don't know. I don't see
that as much. Yeah, I'venot seen that be a big problem.
I think it's a little bit more, maybe combative in some points, but
I don't feel like you really haveto worry like I think some people worry
about that being an issue. Wetalked about this on your pod about the
Pittsburgh thing and my I've not beento a Bengals game at the current Steelers

(21:12):
stadium. I did go when Iwas in college at Three Rivers. I
went to Cleveland last year, andI've been to Baltimore. And to me,
regardless of where you go, there'sa difference between feeling unsafe and feeling
just like an outsider who's being rassed. Yeah. Yeah, there's a difference
between Hey, I got into itwith a fan of the other team and

(21:33):
it was good natured and fun,and then it's maybe a little bit beyond
that, which I kind of alwaysextricate myself from that, and then there's
unsafe. It's hard for me tofeel genuinely unsafe at the sporting event,
and if I do, I'm justgonna remove myself from it. And so,
you know, the other fans thingfor me and my experience, I
just don't care that much. Ifyou want to yell at me because I'm

(21:56):
rooting for the Bengals, then fine, and if you go overboard, then
I'm gonna go get help. AndI just that's never been I've never had
an issue. It's never been anissue for me. No. But I
also think it's like when you're notin a playoff game, or you're not
in a game late in the seasonwhere there's gonna be really high stakes,
sure, it's so much easier tonot have to worry about that because that

(22:17):
does that is reflected in fan behavior. Yeah, Like I mean, I
I think there's a lot of toplethat feel like they're lucky to be alive
that left the Bengals Steelers playoff gameat oh five, you know where it
was like it was just a lotof emotions up in that in fifteen probably
no question. Yeah, that there'sno question about that. I will say.

(22:37):
I mean, you know, it'sit's almost old hat now, but
I mean Nashville is just great.Like it's drivable. I am very I
love drivable because you're you're on yourown convenience and timeframe to whatever you got
going on that weekend, and it'sso such an easy drive. It's you
know it's gonna be fun. Youknow, the food's going to be good.

(22:59):
This Dadium is is it's older,but it's it's nice, it's easy.
The fans are plenty nine, Imean, and there you talk about
used to people coming in from outside, I mean tourist city, So you
can get on any number of differenttype of pedal wagons that they have.
There's there's like twenty five different versionsof a pedal wagon. I saw like
a pedal tank at one point lasttime, So you never quite you can

(23:22):
get into anything you want to inNashville, which I always which I always
enjoy. So that's I mean havingthat there is it's kind of it's it's
a nice one to have in yourback pocket. Paul Danner Jr. We
talked about this in greater detail.The Athletic dot Com is where he covers
the Bengals, the Growler podcast andget that, as we say, where
you get your podcasts. Trey Hendricksonspoke today. He's practicing. We'll discuss

(23:47):
him and his current relationship with theBengals next on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports
Station SINCY three sixty with Tony Pike. Do you want to move on.
We don't have to keep going andBoston, ELM, I think you should
continue. Let me keep going thereSincy three sixty tomorrow which twelve News on
ESPN fifteen thirty. Sports headlines area service of Kelsey Chevroale, home of

(24:12):
lifetime power train protection and guaranteed creditapproval from their family to yours for live
kelseyshev dot com. The twenty twentyfour NFL schedule is going to be released
tomorrow night. We do know whothe Bengals are going to play Week two.
It'll be the Chiefs in Kansas City. You'll hear the game live on

(24:33):
ESPN fifteen thirty. Cincinnati today alsosigning a pair of draft picks, Jermaine
Burton and Eric All. Meanwhile,the Reds and Diamondbacks again Tonight, Cincinnati
with a heartbreaking walkoff loss. Anotherone run loss, another walkoff loss.
They fall to Arizona. Tonight.They try to bounce back and they give
the ball two hundred green nine toforty. Tonight's first pitch on seven hundred

(24:55):
WLW. Brandon Williamson has been sentto High A Dayton on a rehab assignment,
and it's Tony Perez's birthday. Igot an email asking me to say
happy birthday to Tony Perez. Yeah, doggie, it's great. You think
Tony's listening. A big fan ofthe shot, big fan loves the three
to four hour on Tuesdays, noquestion. Paul Danner Jenior's here for the

(25:15):
next twenty minutes or so. TheAthletic dot Com, the Growler podcast,
which is outstanding, And is thereanything else? You got a plug?
No, that's pretty much. It'spretty much where're at right now. Trey
Hendrickson is talking. Yes, Uh, noteworthy because he talked and he's not
a guy who talks a lot,or noteworthy because a couple of weeks ago

(25:36):
he has for a trade. Allof the above. Okay, his tone
has changed dramatically. He has gonefrom notably uninterested in these types of any
type of conversation with us to theopposite. So this is the thing about
this. Trey's been a terrific player, and by no account have I heard
that he's a bad guy. ButI was thinking, as I was reading

(26:00):
Jeff Hobson's Q and A with himor back and forth with him at Bengals
dot Com yesterday, I'm like,God, he's played here three years,
I can't recall one thing that hehas said that I have found interesting.
And that's not a criticism. Noteverybody's interesting. You could very well argue
I'm not interesting, But today itfelt like he was interesting. He I
think you know what I mean.As players go through their careers and you

(26:25):
should get to a certain point andyou eventually reach a point where you realize,
oh, I guess these people thatI've been despising there's value in having
a relationship with them. And Ithink he experienced that firsthand when he felt
miscast maybe in what happened with thetrade thing, and felt like everyone pointing
out to him, well, youdon't have any You've never cared about having

(26:49):
any kind of a relationship with themedia, to have someone that you feel
like you can speak this openly orhonestly too, or you've been kind of
just not uninterested in any of that. So when you get to this point
now, I think he realized,Okay, that this is something that I
need to mend, or at thevery least in this moment, I need

(27:11):
to use these people to help getmy message out there and maybe do some
pr spend some people can hear meand hear my point of view on this
entire thing, and they did,and he has. He spoke with Jeff
Hobson yesterday and a gaggle of mediatoday and got his point across, and

(27:33):
everyone's fine with that. Like,sure, look, everybody wants to feels
like they should be making more money, probably, and everybody says, yeah,
but I'm still here, going todo my best at this job,
even though I would like to bemaking more money. This is life with
a job. Okay, yes,yeah, I get it, And you're
allowed to be frustrated. No oneis holding any of that against tre Hendrickson

(27:55):
at all. But the fact thathe is showing up during the voluntary portions
and is dedicated to trying to wingames here and is focused solely on that,
I think speaks to what everybody wantedto get out of this anyway,
and the way that he's handling thisis good for everybody. Every We can
out wash their hands in it andsay okay, are we done with that
portion of the program now, andhis voice has been heard. It was

(28:18):
an unfortunate two day blip that doesn'thave to define what has otherwise been a
remarkably good run in Cincinnati. Whathappened the last two days. If it
would have happened at the two dayblip you're referring to, this all would
have gone much smoother. And I'mnot saying that he should have reached out
to the media, but like ifhe just would have done it in this

(28:41):
type of a setting, yea,I am going to openly address that I'm
frustrated that I don't make more thanother people. I wish that I did.
I wish that the team, youknow, was willing to listen to
paying me more than not. Iget it, this happened, I signed
it. I get all of that, and I still feel this way.
I want to win here. Ilove Sincenty. If all of that was

(29:02):
the case, I think he's youstill accomplish what he wanted to accomplish with
the trade request without all the garbageended up coming with it. Why did
it have to go public his traderequests? Yeah, because he wanted it
public, but like it didn't.But I don't know, you could ask
for more money and be armed withthe knowledge that trying to get into a

(29:26):
public negotiation with the Bengals is justnot going to work. Yeah, I
mean that was the miss. Thatwas the obvious missdap. And then when
when we all know that and weknow what you did nine months ago,
you're gonna be laughed at. Idon't think anybody thinks he's a bad guy.
Again. My take from the gettohas been, uh, dude,
you shouldn't have signed that deal ninemonths ago. I don't blame you for
trying to get more money, especiallycoming off of last year. But it

(29:47):
just that there's a part of itfor me. It's like if I'm Trey
I had, I'm making the sameamount of money at the same contract,
I'm playing for the same team,and now I got to kind of explain
myself or if this would have beenhandled behind closed doors, I wouldn't have
to do that, no doubt.I mean, but I think he did.
I think he just wanted almost justwanted it. Sure you wanted more

(30:07):
money. I think he's wanted topoint it out, like I am underpaid,
right okay. And I think standingup and saying it kind of the
way that he has no how he'sconflicted by that, but still here trying
to win and all those things,like, I don't does that make as
much headlines? Does that draw asmuch attention to it. I don't know,
but it wouldn't have mattered anyway.So I just I think it would

(30:30):
have been better off if the traderequests wouldn't have happened and this would have
happened instead. Voice your concern,use the media as as the megaphone to
put it out there that you're unhappywith where it's at. But you also
are here to play, and Ithink you get what you want out of
it. But I mean, tome, it would have been a lot
more human, not that he cares, not that he cares what I think

(30:52):
or what anybody else thinks, norshould he, but it would have been
a lot more human had there beenno trade request and he just would have
come out and said, you knowwhat, if I could do it all
over again, I wouldn't have signedthat one year contract extension nine months ago.
Boy, what a dope I am? No, look at me,
you know? Moving forward, ifyou're in my situation, maybe think like
I would. I would relate tothat. That to me would make him

(31:12):
not a sympathetic figure, but butI would have some empathy for that,
as opposed to the route that hetook, which for a couple of days
and I really think only for acouple of days made him a joke.
Yeah, I mean, being combativein a no win situation is not going
to get you in. I totallyagree with you because I think it is.

(31:32):
There is a lesson, a cautionarytale to the rest of the league
or into the rest of the team. Yeah, look the story, that's
the story is it? Hey,to the rest of the locker room.
Hey, if they offer you thisbeware, it may feel good in the
short term, but in the longterm, you know, it can backfire
on you because what I don't likeabout it. And again, this is

(31:56):
probably going to be the last timeI give this any thought. He's with
the Bengals. He could have aterrific year. If he plays the way
he did last year, he'll havea chance to be the defensive player of
the year, like he was thatgood. But what it did is it
made Trey a punchline locally and thennationally. What happens touse the Bengals being
cheap when they've done nothing wrong.They've got a player at a premium position

(32:19):
who's really good on a value contract. That is smart. What the Bengals
did was smart, But instead whathappens, they get dragged through the mud,
and necessarily because see it's the Bengalsbeing cheap again when it was it
wasn't that, And so if thething doesn't go public, that doesn't happen.
And that's the part that I II'm not a part of this,
but I regret happening because of howthis was handled. Yeah, And I

(32:45):
think the other part of it is, I think this is does say something
to the fact that they've so quicklybeen able to leave this behind them to
the staff and everyone, players,leadership, everyone, and that's kind of
tasked with building relationships with Trey forgetting it from where it was to where

(33:09):
it is now so quickly that that'snot easy to do. This blows up
and lasts much longer and can bemuch more destructive in a lot of places.
And so I I do think thatthat's a little credit to where they're
at and that yeah, maybe itwasn't good how they got there, uh,
to where Trey was to that point, But I think the reaction and

(33:30):
the ability it's been what a weirdskill they seem to have with this,
Like they have some unbelievable way totake these disgruntled players and get everybody to
play nice and be happy about it. But that's I do yeah, because
that and that's that's because you havea place of and you and you.

(33:52):
They lean into players that play fortheir teammates and that matters to them.
And and if you get enough guysthat feel like letting their teammates down is
the worst thing they could possibly do, you get a bunch of guys who
maybe they get frustrated about the businessside, like every team does, but
at the end of the day theylook their teammates in the eye and say,
man, I can't. I haveto. I have to be here

(34:14):
doing everything I can because of theguys that are around me. I've got
like ninety seconds here, all right, have When does this publish? You
know my favorite storyline of the summer? Yeah, who's the guy off the
radar, off the grid? Thatis a couple of days in the training
camp going to be the guy thatsuddenly you folks down there practice, start

(34:37):
tweeting about, start writing about,and very organically becomes the darling of training
camp and then plays in the preseasoninvariably if he's a skilled player, catches
nine passes. If he's a defensiveguy, creates a bunch of turnovers or
havoc or whatever and becomes the appleof everybody's eye. And he is He
is the guy that is the darlingof the preseason, that around cutdown day,

(35:00):
he's the guy we want to see. Does he make the club or
not? The Moegar Award I thinkit should be it's named after. Is
this gonna be in the piece?You know, I liked it. I
liked to name dropped you in apiece. That's true. This feels like
a great opportunity to drop in theMoeger Award. Cole Burgess is this year's

(35:21):
Moegerward. He fits, he checksevery Moeger Award box. Okay, small
school, incredible athlete, hasn't playedagainst elite competition, but you get him
out there in the summer with noneof the pads or any other stuff.
Elite athlete, receiver who's gonna makesome dynamic catches. Okay, small school

(35:42):
guy who's got so much potential whathe could be? So Courtland damn Pitcher's
school. Okay. Uh, andso you're you're gonna see him, and
he's he's got a really infectious personality. Uh, really smart dude cares about
it, like all the things thatyou want. Uh, you're gonna see

(36:02):
video that's gonna get tweeted of him, like catching a touchdown from Logan Woodside,
going airborne in the back of theend zone or some kind of craziest
and you're gonna and it's just gonnaget thrown in your face. And it
was like, you know what,this is it? This is it?
They never needed tea in the firstplace. Okay, it's Burgess time start

(36:25):
up the Burgess Brigade because he's here. So I am writing a story about
his backstory is really interesting. Idon't know when it will be out specifically
yet. I just have to writeit, so it's a matter of when
it publishes. But I will havea story on him for everyone to soak
up and then they can just startinundating you. It's going to be the
summer of Cole Burgess and I cannotwait to the you know, follow follow

(36:51):
the likes of Kendrick Pryor and JakeKumerow and so like so many Audentate like
so many that have come before.Yoshi Boscher's that too, and you know,
can Car and a lot of thoseguys and a lot of those guys,
and this could this could be thelatest The Growler podcast latest episode is
as up right, Well, Ithank you for a second consecutive Tuesday for

(37:13):
carrying me as I was dealing withthe keyboard and various other issues. Honestly,
one of these weeks, I'm gonnagive you a full undivided hour of
attention. It's just great to bein the presence of someone that can do
so many things at once from somany different corners of the building. You
know, I just it's it's it'sgreat to see and you know you you
have earned every bit of your paycheckhere today. Well, thank you.

(37:35):
Yeah, you're welcome. Read Paulthe Athletic the Athletic dot com, follow
him on social media at Paul DannerJunior, and make sure you catch the
podcast The Growler. Where you getyour podcast, it's six minutes away from
four o'clock on Moeger. This isESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports station.
Since NATPN fifteen thirty. Oh wait, hey, you hit the long plus.

(37:55):
What's up? Can I on Mogar? This is ESPN fifteen thirty.
My thanks to Paul Danner Junior.By the way, I just got the
computer fixed in here. I havenot I have not thrown out the phone
number, and yet we got folkswaiting on hold, Taren, What do
we do? We do something wrong? Oh? No, people just want
to want to talk to you.They just want to talk to me.

(38:17):
Yes, well, listen what Ihave to say. What I had planned
for this segment is really nothing new. The Reds lost again. They continue
to frustrate. Alexis d As hasbeen playing with fire all year. And
there are very good closers who arehaving very good years. They blow says,

(38:37):
they have bad outings. You putup with it, you deal with
it. Alexis d As, fromthe beginning of the season through last night,
has not come close to consistently lookinglike the pitcher who quickly ascended to
being one of the best closers inbaseball in twenty twenty two and certainly last
year. And his issues do goback to the latter portion of last season,

(38:59):
and I am concerned. I dohave a question about this year's team
that we'll get to here in justa bit and we'll play the Trey Hendrickson
audio. I just I feel bad. I feel bad for all parties involved
with this Trey Hendrickson thing. We'llget to that coming up in a bit.

(39:19):
And we're giving away Hoody and theBlowfish tickets this hour four to thirty
five. And I think today's game, if I can find my questions that
I wrote down, I think today'sgame is pretty easy. I said that
yesterday. And the person we hadon win over three that's coming up at
four thirty five if you want togo see Hoody in the Blowfish and Brendanman
and Jones on baseball as well atfour fifty. Since we do have folks

(39:40):
waiting, and since I enjoy talkingwith others, let's, uh, let's
see what's on everybody's mind. Jat, you're on ESPN fifteen thirty. What's
going on? Hey, Moll waslistening to your show yesterday and you were
discussing how the Columbus Crew fans were, you know, taunting f Cincinnati by
calling us Kentuckians or go back toKendalla. It wasn't. It wasn't fans.

(40:06):
But before the game on the PAsystem, they played My Old Kentucky
Home, which seems like a weirdsong to play before really any sporting event.
It's not the Kentucky Derby, butspecifically one that's being played between two
teams based in Ohio. And soit felt like this was their way of
taking a dig at FC Cincinnati.And I'm trying to wonder what's so funny
about that, Well, it's Ilove you for saying that mode. That's

(40:31):
that's so sweet and not only sweet, but kind of naive in a way.
I moved. I'm born and raisedin Northern Kentucky, and I left
when I was twenty one. Iwas good in California and lived in New
York. And no matter where Ihave lived, and you know, when
I lived in California, everyone usedto look down upon those who lived in

(40:53):
the valley. And then when Ilived in New York, everyone looked down
upon those that lived in New Jersey. And there was just a body of
water, it was a river thatseparates Manhattan from New Jersey. But somehow
the people in Manhattan felt they werefar superior to the people in New Jersey.

(41:13):
Not everyone, and not everyone inCincinnati feels that they're superior to the
Northern Kentuckians. But for example,when I moved back, I moved back
from California seven years ago and Iremember being with my wife at a bar
in Mount Adams and we're just lookingover, you know, the Ohio River

(41:35):
in the The waitress came up tothis and she goes, oh, what
you're looking at is Kentucky. I'mlike, yeah, I said, well,
I know you guys just moved.But let me tell you something.
They're a little bit slow over there, and things are different, and when
they come to the city they kindof mess everything up. I'm like,
well, great, because that's whatI was born and raised. But thank
you for the warning. And youknow, I lived downtown and I have

(42:00):
some fancy neighbors and they thought Iwas moving in from California and they were
like, oh, we can't believeyou're moving from Los Angeles to Cincinnati.
And uh, you know, wewere having like a great time and we're
looking at our window. We cansee the suspension bridge from my place,
and they were like, that's Kentucky. Let me just run them. There's

(42:23):
a bunch of banjo pickers and imbredsover there. And so it's like,
I think it's like a natural thingthat but I love the way you I
love the way you described it,like it was so innocent. Night like,
I can't believe that people would beoffended or or they thought they were
offending us as Cincinnatians from you know, by playing the old Kentucky home.

(42:45):
Bo Yes, they're calling us abunch of imbrids and the Hillbillies, but
we happen to have a team inOhio. I went to Coveting Catholic and
when we were playing Molar and football, the football, the Molar players would
be like, oh, we canwait to see what you Hillberly's had to
offer as far as like being afootball players, I'm surprised you can read

(43:06):
and whatnot. And even Northern Kentuckians, you know, I went to come
to Catholic and we would play BoomCounty, which is like two stops down
from my seventy five, They're like, oh, I guess those guys have
been you know, you know,playing their banjos and like making out with
their sisters all day. You know, it's it's just a thing. Like
so, I'm so happy that youwere like, why weren't we offended by

(43:28):
the Oak Kentucky Home? But that'swhat exists, and I'm sure you know
that now. I don't want tobe pedantic with you or less you hear
about the bias, but there wasa definitive bias between Cincinnatians and northern Kentuckians.
Your thoughts, please, Well,I've run into that in my life.
I don't run into it on adaily basis living in Cincinnati. I
was born in Kentucky. My family'sfrom Kentucky. I went to high school

(43:50):
in Kentucky. I consider myself aKentucky and I live in Cincinnati, and
I've lived on the Ohio side forthe last twenty four years, and I'm
very happy, and I mean,to me, it's it's it's been all
one big place. What I willtell you in my experience is when I
went to college at the University ofDayton, right, which is you know
a school it's it's a Catholic school, so it draws from a lot of

(44:12):
the big Catholic schools in Ohio.And you would tell people, Yeah,
I'm from Taylor Mill, Kentucky,and oh, okay, do you have
running water? Like, oh yeah, we have cable television and running water
and electric and boy, it's wehave like an interstate close to her.
And so I ran into that alittle bit. And some of it is
sort of of tongue in cheek andlike, I'm all for I'm all for

(44:34):
the tongue in cheek part of anyrivalry, right, Like you know,
UC fans love to talk about howXavier really in Norwood? Well not really,
but okay, fine, that's kindof a fun, petty part of
it. I just don't understand what'swhat's supposed to be funny about my old
Kentucky home. What's supposed to makeme, as an FC Cincinnati fan once
I'm a very casual one, what'ssupposed to make me go, oh boy,

(44:55):
you god? Is there? Like, what's what's funny about that?
I can drive to places within avery close proximity to downtown Columbus that I
would say are just as rural,that are maybe just as one might say,
rednecky, as whatever you want tosay Kentucky is. But you know,
that's just that's part of life inthe United States. I just I

(45:17):
it's one thing when it comes fromfans. It's something else when it comes
from the PA system at their stadium. I mean, somebody with the organization
thinks it's fun to make fun ofKentucky, And I just think that's an
interesting choice that is an interesting choice, and I think that person who decided
to play my old Kentucky home kindof strengthened the results of the FC Cincinnati

(45:42):
fans. And they don't see anythingwrong with being from Kentucky, but in
their minds, like to us beingfrom Cincinnati, northern Kentucky, it's not
an insult. But I'm sure tothe Columbus crew guy who put my old
Kentucky home up, that was justa hilarious burn that we didn't get and
they got it. Nana an upset. I believe they get to play my
old Kentucky home and our team gotto beat him. So I guess,

(46:05):
I guess we both get what wewant. JT. Thank you very much
for the phone call. Thank you. You know. I was on a
show once and we were talking aboutthe question was the greatest high school athlete
you've ever seen? And my responsewas Shawn Alexander. Shawn Alexander graduated from
Boom County the same year I graduatedfrom Scott High School and Taylor Mill and

(46:30):
I would go with other dudes toBoom County games because I wanted to watch
Shawn Alexander. It's the best now, I mean, I didn't watch Ken
Griffey junior in high school, butthe best that I watched with my own
eyes was Shawn Alexander and I providedthis answer and I got the yeah,
but it's Kentucky, like okay,and he was the MVP of the NFL,

(46:52):
went on to break records at Alabama. He was pretty good. So
there I've encountered that. But mywhole thing with the color screw thing,
like, I think it's an awesomerivalry. I said on yesterday's show,
I think one of the best thingsthat it's ever happened to f C Cincinnati
is Columbus kept at soccer team.And I also know there's a lot of
fans of f C Cincinnati who usedto be Columbus Crew fans because they wanted

(47:15):
a major league soccer side and FCCincinnati didn't exist. So a very natural
geographic rivalry was born. And thecool thing is both teams are good.
They've played in high stakes games.Obviously, the tip of the iceberg in
that regard would be the Eastern ConferenceFinal last year, which was a heartbreaking
result for US in Cincinnati, butit was a chapter and what has become

(47:38):
a really fun rivalry, a goodrivalry, and the latest chapter was Saturday
night. FC Cincinnati beat them,and you know there's there's some measure of
revenge that was exacted. It's alsocool to get three points against a team
in Columbus that is pretty damn good. They're going to play in the final
of the CONCACAFF Champions Cup. SoI'm all for the back and forth that

(48:00):
comes with any rivalry. I am, and I'm all like I love the
bear Cats and the Rats and theBengals and whatever rivals of those teams want
to say about those teams that Icare about. If it's funny, I'll
laugh, like I think a lotof the xavier you see back and forth
is genuinely hilarious, genuinely hilarious,regardless of where it comes from. I

(48:22):
don't understand what's funny about playing myold Kentucky home before a Columbus Crew f
C Cincinnati game. Like, yes, geographically speaking, the stadium that f
C Cincinnati plays and is pretty damnclose to Kentucky. What's wrong with that?
What's wrong with Kentucky? And like, folks from my side of the
river, we do have a littlebit of a chip on our shoulder when

(48:43):
it comes to that stuff because it'sit's a great place to grow up,
it's a great place to live,it's a great place to raise your family,
it's a great place to work.Like, you know, man,
I'd be completely honest with you.When my wife and I had our daughter,
we were both living downtown. Wedecided, you know, we wanted
a yard, and I lobbied hardto move back to the eight five nine,
and my wife, a Native Westsider, won the discussion. So,

(49:07):
like, I'm a little bit sensitivewhen it comes to that because I have
I've heard it before, but thatlike, what's what's funny about that?
What's funny about playing my old Kentuckyhome before? And FC? Like again,
like you want to you want tomake fun of Cincinnati for any number
of things, I'm here for it. Like if if you've lived here long
enough, you hear the jokes theydon't like our chili and Cincinnati's stuck ten

(49:30):
years ago. I like, there'sa billion of fine and the ones that
are based on some kernel of truthare funny. I can laugh at myself.
We should be able to laugh atourselves even more. I need the
humor explain to me. And that'swhy I did the like four minute segment

(49:51):
yesterday. We put it on socialmedia this morning. I don't believe the
Columbus crew hates Kentucky, but butI I just that's funny. Like you
sat around all week like, man, how can we how can we just
stoke the flames of this rivalry alittle bit more. Let's play my old
Kentucky home before the game. Thatwill show them. That'll be like,
what's I'm for any joke at myexpense as long as the joke is funny,

(50:15):
right, what's funny about my oldKentucky home being played before a soccer
game between FC Cincinnati and Columbus seventeenminutes after four o'clock five one, three,
seven, four nine fifteen thirty isour phone number. By the way,
I neglected to mention on Twitter slashx. Our show preview video is

(50:36):
available thanks to our friends at EmoryFederal Credit Union. You and I can
belong to the same credit union.You just have to join Emory Federal Credit
Union. It's one of the bestdecisions I've ever made. Go to EMORYFCU
dot org. A regrettable decision bya Bengal. We'll hear from a Trey
Hendrickson next twenty four and for fourThis is ESPN fifteen thirty. You can

(51:00):
send me a tweet at Molegar onthe Delta Dental twitter feed. Thanks to
our friends at Delta Dental, whichis building healthy, smart, vibrant communities
for all good at Delta Dental,oh dot com. Trey Hendrickson is has
been practicing and was on the fielda He did a I think a pretty
good and insightful piece where he wasHe chatted with Jeff Hobson of Bengals dot

(51:24):
com. You can find that onthat website. Today he met with a
bunch of reporters down there at thevenue formerly known as Paul Brown Stadium.
Here is and what has been avery weird and I guess you could say
eventful offseason for the Bengals edge rusher. Here is a tray chatting with reporters
a little bit earlier today. Lastyou had signed the extension last year and

(51:52):
hindsight, do you have any regretsabout that? Or yeah, that's a
good question, now I don't.I think my goal was to play here
longer. So when they offered mea chance to play for Cincinnati another year,
I took it, I would takeit again. And you know,
the production side is not I'm notasking for like a great business decision,

(52:14):
you know, I know that askingownership. There's not a lot of ways
to cut it. I just knowwhat I can do and how I can
do it, and I think mytape has proven that over the last four
years as a starter. And youknow, like at the end of the
day, I understand the business sideand I'm not asking, like you know,
for good business decisions. It's atthe end of the day, it's

(52:36):
just I'm not going to let theteam suffer for that. Where you are,
Yeah, I think that's what havinga foundation in Jesus Christ is is
a piece that surpasses all understanding.You know, I'm able to have peace
in my family and my home andI'm blessed out my wife as a soundboard
for that. All Right, there'sTrey Hendrickson earlier today. You know,

(53:00):
I asked this to Paul. Ihate that this went down the way it
did. And look, I believewhen Trey talks about I don't want to
let my teammates down, and youknow the insinuation he's going to do everything
he can to be ready for theseason and help the team. I believe
all those things. There has beennothing about Trey Hendrickson's performance as a Bengal

(53:22):
on the field, in the lockerroom, anywhere else to make that would
make you feel like his his willingnessto do everything he can to play his
best is going to be compromised byhow he feels about what he's paid,
his contract status, his relationship withthe Bengals. Trey Hendrickson was awesome last
year. And maybe it's too muchto expect any player to have a season

(53:43):
that's almost exactly like their best year. But I think we're all expecting Trey
to have another very good and productiveseason and help the Bengals get back to
the postseason and maybe even win achampionship. He was a terrific signing,
and and so there's I hate thatthis happened. I hate that this happened
for a few different reasons, notthe least of which is I think it's

(54:05):
it's kind of it's taken briefly alittle bit of the discussion away from specifically
how good of a player he isand how good of a player he has
been since he got here. Hewasn't awesome in twenty twenty two, but
he was terrific in twenty one.He was unbelievably good last year. He
was has been a terrific signing bythe Bengals, and the Bengals did the
right thing in extending him for thetwenty twenty five season, because they're going

(54:30):
to get every bit of his remainingprime years and do so at a at
a pretty manageable cost. What Ihate about how this played out is it
was unnecessarily made public with there beingno direct benefit to either party, like
who got anything out of this?Who got anything out of this becoming a

(54:52):
two or three day story. Idon't blame Trey at all at all for
asking for more mo and more yearson his contract. I don't blame anybody
in any job, any job,for trying to maximize their value for asking
for a raise. You can't inmost cases get what you don't ask for.

(55:13):
Whether you're playing football or working whereveryou ask for more money, I
can't blame you, and I certainlycan't blame you if you're coming off a
good performance, maybe it's a goodquarter selling stuff, maybe it's a good
season. Playing edge rusher in theNFL can't blame anybody for trying to maximize
their value and maximize their worth,trying to get more money, trying to

(55:35):
create a better working environment. Can'tblame anybody. I just don't know why
this had to be a public ordeal. And it didn't go public because the
Bengals made it public. It wentpublic because Trey's side made it public.
At what cost? Well, fora couple of days, Trey Hendrickson was
a punchline. Now in the grandscheme of things, does he care?

(55:59):
I'm glad to believe you do.Is it gonna impact his performance? Probably
not? But he allowed himself tokind of get laughed at, because what
do we all do? Well,dude, you shouldn't have signed that contract
last July, Buddy, do youknow that negotiating publicly with through the Bengals
isn't gonna work? Pal, You'regonna be thirty one by the end of
this current deal, Like, whyshould the Bengals pay you when you're thirty

(56:20):
two, thirty three, thirty four? What are you doing? It made
his agent look like an idiot.It made Trey look not good, And
whenever somebody looks not good, thenpeople are gonna say unfair things about them,
like, well, Tray's selfish.No he's not. He's a guy
looking for a pay raise. That'snot selfish. Asking for more money doesn't
make you selfish. But the waythat it played out allowed him or put

(56:43):
him in a position where he wastaking some shots that I don't know that
we're deserved. At the same time, I laughed at Trey for how he
handled this. How could you not? How could you not laugh at his
agent? And then along with thisthe Bengals and this doesn't happen locally,
but you know how it works withthis franchise, and maybe some of it's

(57:05):
earned where player asks for a tradeand nobody dives into the details. It's
just see guy once out of Cincinnati. See it's Bengals ownership being cheap.
They take criticism that they may ormay not care about, but that is
unwarranted and that they wouldn't have hadto absorb had this not played out publicly.

(57:30):
There's also the Bengals longstanding track recordof not negotiating publicly, not caving
to public pressure. So if theidea, and we talked about this three
four weeks ago, if the ideawas I'm going to get the public on
my side, and public pressure isgoing to make the Bengals give me a
new contract. How that ain't gonnahappen. So this was a means to

(57:52):
what end? And again, doesit change the relationship that the Bengals and
Tray have? Probably not? Butdoes it mean that he has no chance
of getting a pay raise or alonger contract extension? Of course not.
Does it change how you and Ishould feel about him playing for the team
this year? Nope, It justthe whole thing was unnecessary because it accomplished

(58:14):
nothing. I'm not led to believe, and perhaps time will prove me wrong.
I'm not led to believe that Treyis getting a contract extension anytime soon.
And I'll be honest with you,if the Bengals gave him a contract
extension, I would wonder why whydo you have to do that. He's
going to be thirty at the endof this season. You have him for
this year and next year. Whywhy can't we wait a season? Let's

(58:37):
see how he plays this year?And from Trey's perspective, he gets laughed
at. His agent looked like abuffoon. Some will say Tray looked like
a buffoon. Folks are going tosay things about trade that might not be
fair at and what was gained?Nothing was gained. His salary is the

(58:58):
same, his contract status is thesame, He's playing for the same team.
He, for reasons that I guesscould entirely be pinned on him,
is the guy who perhaps threatened toretire, Like, why did this happen?
I'm a talk show host, soI'm thrilled that it played out publicly,
thrilled it gave me something to talkabout. But this could have played

(59:23):
out very, very privately. Hey, let's have a meeting, let's ask,
let's see where they are. Likewhen the Bengals gave Trey Hendrickson the
contract extension last July, those negotiationsdidn't play out publicly. Contract negotiations can
play out privately. That didn't playout publicly. It played out so privately

(59:44):
that when we saw that Trey wasgetting a contract extension, many of us
were kind of surprised, pleasantly surprised, but surprised. Nonetheless, why did
this have to happen publicly? Whatwas gained? What did Trey get out
of this? Anything good? Whatdid the Bengal get out of this?
Anything good? So maybe some lessonsmoving forward. One would be, you

(01:00:06):
know what, before you sign thedeal that Trey signed last summer, which
he says he doesn't regret signing,which is fair if you're in that position.
Hey, look, man, thinktwice before you sign. Think about
what you might be able to getif the year in front of you turns
out to be the best of yourcareer. Think about it. But I

(01:00:28):
think the other lesson would be,like, let's just negotiate privately, because
you're not going to get the Bengalsto bend to your will by leveraging the
public against him. You're going tosubject yourself to some very unnecessary criticism,
and you're maybe not going to dothe Bengals any favors by subjecting them to

(01:00:49):
any unnecessary criticism. What was gainedby this five point three seven, four
nine, fifteen thirty is our phonenumber? Want to go see Hooty and
the Blowfish June seventh, River BendMusic Center. Here's what we're gonna do.
We play these stupid trivia games thatAustin and Tony stole today. The
Reds are not very good this year. Maybe they'll turn it around. The

(01:01:13):
more that they lose, the morewe have to hear people talk about last
year, whether it's relitigating the tradedeadline in twenty twenty three, or how,
hey, look, they don't havea good record, but last year's
team at this point didn't have agood record, and see how that team
ended up not in the playoffs.So since we can't stop talking about the
twenty twenty three Reds, let's testyour knowledge of the twenty twenty three Reds.

(01:01:37):
I need two contestants. Want togo see Hoody and the Blowfish five
to one free seven four nine,fifteen thirty. That's five to one three
seven four nine fifteen thirty. Ifyou win, you're going to Riverbend on
June seventh. If you don't,you can play tomorrow, or you can
go ahead and buy tickets. It'stwenty five away from five o'clock. We'll

(01:01:57):
play next to ESPN fifteen thirty,Cincinnati Sports Station Team thirty. We're broadcasting
from the ESPN fifteen thirty studio,powered by Greater Cincinnatis roofing and exterior restoration
experts Madewell Restoration dot com. Beready for severe weather with a Madewell pre
inspection kind of hit it. KenBrew would nail that we're giving away Hooty

(01:02:21):
and the Blowfish tickets in a second. They're coming to Riverbend on June seventh.
Before we do that, though quickly. Local sports headlines are a service
of Kelsey Chevrolet Home of Lifetime powertrain protection and guarantee credit approval from their
family to yours for life kelseyshev dotCom. Bengals are going to play the
Chiefs week two. We don't knowwho they're going to play week one.
We don't know who they're gonna playweek three. We do know they're going

(01:02:43):
to play the Chiefs week two inKansas City at Arrowhead Stadium. A game
will kick off at four twenty fiveon Sunday, September the fifteenth, Week
two. You'll hear it live onESPN fifteen thirty. Bengals today signed two
more draft choices, why out JermaineBurton and tight end Eric All third and

(01:03:05):
fourth round picks, respectively, Redsand Diamondbacks again tonight, Cincinnati trying to
break now a three game losing streakafter a tough walk off loss last night.
Hunter Green and Slade Seconi will betonight's pitcher's nine forty this evening seven
hundred WLW Lefty Brandon Williamson sent toDayton on a rehab assignment. All right,

(01:03:28):
it's contest time. It's game time, it's hoodie time, it's trivia
time, Taryn. Who are ourcontestants? We have? Josh, Josh,
Josh? How you doing? Areyou there? Josh? Say hello,
Josh? You want to go seeHoody and the Blowfish? Are you
excited? Sure? All right?Very good. Sounds like he's driving through
a tunnel, Tarran. Who elsedo we have? We have? Dan?

(01:03:50):
Dan? Dan? Are you asexcited as Josh? Is? I
feel like it? Maybe just sayit's excited. Maybe? What I understand
well that that level of excitement ishard to match, Tarren? Do we
who is calling the coin in theair? Josh, go ahead and call
in the air, Josh, goahead? Heads or tails? Tis yesterday?

(01:04:10):
I gotta go ahead. No,somebody was actually listening yesterday. How
about that? We found them?All right? Wow? Okay, Josh?
Heads or tails? What do wehave there? Tarren? It is
tails? Okay? Uh so uh? Dan gets to pick Dan. You
want to play? You want tosit and do nothing. I'm gonna play,
all right, You're gonna play,all right, very good. Put
Josh on hold and we'll we'll chatwith Dan. And we got people walking

(01:04:32):
in and their cell phones ringing inchaos unfolding here at the radio station.
All right, Dan, here wego. You're a Reds fan. I
am all right, very good.You sounded like sounded like you have to
think about it for a second.I get it. It's it could be
a question out and now I stealplenty of Valley Sports user name and passwords.
I like it. I can appreciatethat. All right, Dan,

(01:04:55):
here we go. What we're gonnado is we're gonna ask you five questions
about the iconic eighty eighty outfit thatwere the twenty twenty three Reds. And
if you get three of the fivecorrect, you're gonna go see Hoody.
And if you don't, Josh isgonna go see Hoody. And maybe you
guys can go with each other.I don't know. Are you ready?
Yeah? Here we go. Questionnumber one. You gotta get three of

(01:05:17):
the five correct. There's the music, all right, Dan? Question number
one, This twenty twenty three redled the team in home runs allowed,
most home runs given up by apitcher. Was it a Luke Weaver b
Andrew Abbott or C. Graham Ashcraft. Let's go with a. Can I

(01:05:40):
get a Luke Weaver Tarry? Yes? Very good, very good? All
right? One one for one,one for one? All right? You
got to get two of the nextfour? Correct? All right? You
should. Let's see this twenty twentythree Red started at first base on opening
day? Was it a Joey Vado, B Jason Vossler or C. Will

(01:06:01):
Myers B JV. Can I getB who said? B? Oh?
Yes? Jason Vossler started had twohits on opening day last year. See,
I told you this was gonna beeasy. We're zipping right through this.
Here we go. You gotta getone more correct? Yea. My
handwriting, by the way, isawful. This twenty twenty three Red recorded

(01:06:21):
a save. It is only bigleague appearance. Was it a Joel Koonel
B Ricky Karcher or C Alec MillsRicky Carter? Was it Ricky Karcher?
What else? How about that Dangoes three for three with an intimate knowledge
of that iconic eighty two and eightyoutfit known as the twenty twenty three Reds,

(01:06:45):
a club that will be forever immortalized. As we talk about them incessantly
all throughout twenty twenty four and foryears to come. Dan, you're gonna
go see Hoody and the blow ofDan. How old are you? Yeah?
Bout let me tell you something.I'm almost forty two, and last
year I called in and I decidednot to answer, and I won Bill
burd tickets and you called me amute, so I had to call that

(01:07:09):
game. All right? Well,Dan, do you like golf? I
do? All right? Every everyforty two to forty eight year old man
who likes golf is going to beat this show, including me, So
I'll see you there. Okay,awesome man? All right, you know
we have a mutual friend Randy riqueutwe do. We're both bring Randy to

(01:07:30):
the concert. I'll ask her.I'll have her and John to come.
All right, very good. Wellyou only want two tickets. You're gonna
have to go in your own pocketfor the third? All right, Dan,
thank you? Well, don't haveto Yeah, don't have to take
for it. I understand Randy canafford it, all right, Dan,
hankt tight. Well, we'll getyou all the details to do you want
to try to answer the other two? Sure? I made them very easy
today because I was accused of makingthe questions too hard. I don't like

(01:07:55):
you giving in given the pressure likethat one. Okay, well, we're
gonna play again tomorrow. We'll makehim impossible tomorrow. I have no idea
what the questions are going to beabout, but we'll make them impossible tomorrow.
This twenty twenty three Reds deadline acquisitionhas appeared in thirty games in a
Cincinnati uniform, and he has alloweda run in just one of them.
A Sam mal b Connor Overton orc Brett Kennedy Mall. Yes, current

(01:08:19):
Louisville bat Sam Mall. He pitchedso well, so well in a Red's
uniform. The Reds decided, youknow what, We're gonna send you on
a trip to Louisville. You couldride buses in the International League. You
get to see places like Toledo,Columbus, get to stay at a hotel
in Louisville. Great work, righthere we go, uh Taran. The

(01:08:40):
twenty twenty three Reds vaulted in thefirst place by themselves with a five to
four win over the Rockies. Agabp last June sixteenth, I'm sorry June
nineteenth, three Reds homered in thatgame. One was Kevin Newman, one
was Joey Vado who was the thirdwas it Will Benson, Elie Dela Cruz
or Nick Senzel. It was Senzel. Very good. See, I told

(01:09:02):
you I made these nice and easy, all right. Unfortunately for Josh,
we we have any consolation prizes.He can call back tomorrow. He can
call back tomorrow and try to winHooty and the Blowfish tickets. We'll give
more away. I think at fourthirty three. I think we're doing it
at four thirty three tomorrow. Idon't know. We're giving away Hooty and
the Blowfish tickets and if you don'twin them, you could buy them hoody.

(01:09:26):
Darius Rutger is a big Reds fan, big big Reds fan. He
likes the Dolphins and the Reds.And I don't know what else bad idea
about about doing this down the line. But I don't know if we could
do it or not. What's youridea? Like what if someone I went
all five or five? Like couldthey get two two sets? But I
don't know if we can do thator not. I'm not sure we're allowed.

(01:09:47):
I don't know what the promotions departmentwould would say about that, right,
Oh yeah, I think you shouldget you should get something if you
get all five five or five?Well we uh or maybe like risk at
all, like ooh, Tara,now you're now, but risk it all,
but then you have to like getmore if you get all five?
Correct, Like what's the point ofrisking it all if you don't get more?

(01:10:08):
If you get them all? Right? Not if what I'm saying,
we have to see our promotions likeif we can do that, Like you,
if you risk it all, gofive to five, you get two
sets of tickets. Want two sets? But if you go, but if
you try and you don't get it, you don't get nothing. You don't
get anything. The other person,well, we'll think about this. Maybe
you get a chance to meet Hoodyhimself, Darius Rucker and the other people

(01:10:30):
in the band. We get ameet by the brand new addition. Yeah.
With Charles Oakley, Brendanman, andJones on Baseball's coming up on ESPN
fifteen thirty. This baseball, Thereyou go? What's up? Get I
prove moo edgard. This is theSPN fifteen thirty. Thanks for hanging on
and uh listening to our show today. Thanks for hanging on. What the

(01:10:51):
hell is that my streams got crossed? That's what we usually say to colors,
and we do a lot of folkswho are waiting, so we will
get to them. But thank youfor let's I hope you're having an awesome
Tuesday and you've found a way tostay dry. Uh, not a long
day. You know what I wantat the end of a long day,
ice cold michelob Ultra. It's theMicultra Happy Hour. Thanks to our friends

(01:11:13):
at Michelo Ultra. You know weare. You wouldn't know it by being
outside today, I guess. Butwe're getting closer and closer to summer.
There's no better beer for summertime,for pool parties, for the golf course,
for anything, for the broad forbroadcasting in my back I'm going to
figure out how to do that atsome point this summer. It can't be

(01:11:36):
when it's like a thousand degrees outbecause then you have to worry about the
equipment overheating. At some point thissummer, I'm going to do the backyard
show. Yeah, our friends downthe hall for the eclipse, they broadcast
from Rocky's house. Why can't wedo that. We don't need an eclipse.
I just need a night. Butthen we have to invite people over.

(01:11:58):
I want strangers coming over my house. No, that sounds pretty nice
anyway. For anything you're doing iceschool, Michelobultra hits Jess Right, we
have a busy hour. The Universityof Cincinnati baseball program is having a really
good season in the Big Twelve,and they've got a chance to make the
NCAA tournament. Jordan Bischel's squad gotscrewed today. And I know there's not

(01:12:21):
a huge audience for college baseball,and maybe a smaller audience for UC baseball,
But Bearcat's got job today, andso we're gonna spend some time on
that in just a second. Also, Doug Gottlieb. Doug Gottlieb is going
to be the coach at Wisconsin GreenBay. Former college basketball player at Notre

(01:12:44):
Dame and then Oklahoma State, andhe's been a media personality for years.
He's one of the few like analystsin college basketball that I think is good
because he's willing to say this coachstinks. Except he's not going to be
able to do that now because he'sgoing to coach with consin Green Bay.
He's still going to coaches, He'sstill gonna host his radio show. I'm
not happy about this. I'll explainwhy, and we'll spend some time on

(01:13:08):
the Reds, who lost again lastnight as well. We've been able to
kind of avoid them today, whichgot to be honest with you, hasn't
been all that bad. The bigBengals news of the day tomorrow is the
schedule release you've heard us talk about. Tomorrow night's schedule lease show. This
is going to be a really goodtime. Starts at seven o'clock tomorrow night,
hosted by Lance myself. Rocky AustinElmore is going to join us for

(01:13:30):
the last hour seven to ten atbad Tom Smith will preview the schedule.
Then we'll review the schedule. Thisis a really fun night. We did
find out today that the Bengals aregoing to start. We're not gonna start,
but they're going to play Week twoagainst the Kansas City Chiefs in casey
fourth consecutive year these teams will havemet in the regular season. Now,

(01:13:50):
I will admit to you just asa football fan, Bengals fan, yes,
but football fan, I think thisis one of the best rivalries in
the entire sport. Frankly, Ithink it is the best rivalry in the
entire sport because it's organic, it'snot based on geography. It's not a
rivalry because it's supposed to be.It's a rivalry because these teams have played

(01:14:11):
in some immensely high stakes games,some really good games. I think there's
some distaste, but I also thinkthere's a lot of mutual respect, like
there's this is a great rivalry.Part of why this is turned into a
great rivalry is the games have beenreally good, but they've also meant a
lot. Football in December just mattersmore. It means more. The stakes

(01:14:33):
are clear. The stakes of everygame are big. The stakes of the
game in September could be huge andcould prove to be even bigger depending on
how the season unfolds. But what'sbeen cool about these games is they've been
played late in the regular season.All three of them played in December,
right, and then the two playoffgames obviously, so there's been clear stakes.

(01:14:56):
I think you have a better senseof what the teams are now.
You gotta admit Bengals Chiefs last yearis better. If Joe Burrow plays and
he didn't play, and so there'sobviously a better chance he plays Week two
than he might play Week fifteen,sixteen, and seventeen, just because the
season could take its toll. ButI was a little bit disappointed by that
because this game has been something tolook forward to. I think, no

(01:15:17):
matter who you root for, now, everybody who would watch it Week sixteen
seventeen is still gonna watch Week two. But still I've enjoyed these games having
a lot riding on them, andthere is more riding on games in December
when two great teams are playing.Then if two teams are playing like Cincinnati
and Kansas City Week two at thesame time. Because I'm a rose colored

(01:15:44):
glasses guy, I'll look at itfrom this perspective. The Bengals need to
start faster. We can't do thisevery year, right the well, they're
zero and two, but they've gottime to get caught. We can't do
it every year. It's playing withfire. It's hard to do in the
AFC. No, it's hard todo in the AFC. And while not
having home field advantage throughout doesn't dothem your chances of getting to the Super

(01:16:08):
Bowl. The easiest way historically speaking, to get to the Super Bowl is
to host as many playoff games aspossible. Let's play one fewer playoff game.
I'm gonna do the same thing thisoffseason I did last offseason because I
think there's some validity to it.Get the one seed, play one fewer
playoff game, never have to goon the road. Control that part of

(01:16:30):
it. Man, what's going tobe really hard to do. If you
lose a bunch of games early thelast couple of years, they start zero
to two, they have to playcatch up and one seed is out the
window. Obviously, the Bengals wouldhave taken a seven seed last year.
So now you might say, well, look, last year they played Cleveland
week one, they played Baltimore weektwo. If playing Division opponents of playing

(01:16:51):
the Baltimore Ravens a playoff rematch,if that's not going to compel you to
do more to start quicker than whatwill. But oh, that's fair.
At the same time, you're gonnaget the defending Super Bowl champions. Week
two, you're gonna get, arguablyright now, your biggest rival. Week
two, you're gonna get the quarterbackthat remains kind of the gold standard,

(01:17:15):
that has what your guy wants onthe road Bengals week two. If this
could, perhaps excuse me, sharpenthe focus for putting the best possible team
on the field early. I'm allfor it, like they don't have to
run out of the gate four andoh five and oh that doesn't guarantee success.
And I am all for managing trainingcamp and managing the preseason with an

(01:17:42):
eye on the regular season and aneye on health and availability. In the
Bengals, for the most part,have done a pretty good job of that.
But there's gotta be some sort ofmiddle ground. There's got to be
some sort of middle ground between wedon't want to put anybody at unnecessary risk.
We want to make sure we haveas many of our players available to
answer the call week one as possible. We don't want to do something stupid.

(01:18:06):
We don't want guys to suffer unnecessaryinjuries. We're gonna use caution while
at the same time using the offseasonand using training camp and using the preseason
to have a team that's ready tocompete and capable of winning games early in
the year. Look a major reasonwhy the Bengals did what they did in

(01:18:27):
twenty twenty one. They finished greatright, they finished great. They also
started really well, like they won, they won their first game of the
season, They won three of theirfirst four. So then what happened in
the middle of the year, therewas a little bit of a lull.
In two different occasions in twenty twentyone, they lost consecutive games. They

(01:18:51):
lost a heartbreaker to the Green BayPackers at home, but they had built
a little bit of a cushion sothat those things those two games was two
seper two game losing streaks didn't doomtheir season, and as a result,
when they finished great Week seventeen orI guess Week eighteen against the Browns that
year, notwithstanding when they played nobodyand lost, they weren't a position to

(01:19:13):
win the AFC North Vault to thethree seed, go into the playoffs with
a measure of momentum and track tothe super Bowl. That matters this year.
It matters to me in this division, in this conference, when your
goals are very clear. Look,the Bengals are going for it. There's
no ambiguity here. They're going forward. That's why t Higgins is still here.

(01:19:33):
It's why it was asinine to suggestthey're going to trade Trey Hendrickson,
they're going for it, which meansyou got to go forward a little bit
earlier, which means you got todo a little bit better job of prioritizing
Week one, game one, Weektwo, Game two, Kansas City Week
two. Now, yes, ithelps if you have a Joe Burrow who

(01:19:53):
didn't just come off the surgeon's tablewith an appendectomy, And it helps if
he didn't spun it, doesn't spendtraining camp with a calf injury. Those
things certainly help. But at thesame time, if you have watched the
Bengals over the last two years,early in the season, early in the
season, even acknowledging that Burrow hasn'tbeen nearly himself, the team as a

(01:20:13):
whole has looked unprepared. I'll saythat about the twenty twenty two team,
which was great, arguably, arguablyin the regular season, the best in
the history of the franchise. Thatteam early in the season looked unprepared.
The team the Bengals fielded last year, which was not a bad team,
early in the season looked unprepared.Remember we heard all the excuses on Cleveland

(01:20:35):
it was rainy. Well, it'skind of a band match up, dude,
they looked unprepared this season. Ihave no idea who they're gonna play
Week one. My guess is it'sthe Patriots or Commanders. I have no
idea they're gonna play the Chiefs weektwo. If you look ill prepared,
if you are ill prepared, bythe way, they're gonna have extra rest

(01:20:58):
because they start the season on aThursday. Who knows what happens in that
game between Baltimore and Kansas City.By the way, think of what you
have a chance to do. Now, if you're a Bengals fan, I
can understand rooting for KC in Weekone because they're playing an AFC North team.
But let's say Baltimore does what Detroitdid last year and they go to
Kansas City and win. You gota chance of you the Bengals if you

(01:21:18):
take care of business week one,to put two games of distance between yourselves
in Kansas City, and you willhave had the head to head tiebreaker in
your pocket before we get to midSeptember. That's a big, big deal.
Now, who knows what happens inthat Baltimore Kansas City game. Who
knows what the Bengals do week one, But starting fast matters it matters.

(01:21:41):
It matters more than we pretend itdoes, or that we pretend it doesn't
in September every year. So ifnow this kind of looms over training camp
a little bit more, and thislooms over the offseason program, and this
looms over sharpening the team and gettingit more prepared to get off to a
good start, I am now allfor this KSE game being week number two.

(01:22:03):
I want to start faster. Iwant to win the Super Bowl.
I want to have home field advantagethroughout the playoffs. The easiest way to
do that is to start fast,get out in front of everybody, and
stay out in front of everybody insteadof having to play catch up. That
case, game is going to betough enough as is if you don't prioritize

(01:22:26):
getting off to a better start.And again I get it, Burrow.
Hopefully there's there's no other procedure he'sgoing to go through this year. Let's
not be stupid with him. Butthere's got to be a sweet spot between
let's get our guys ready, let'salso protect their availability. And if the
Bengals don't find that sweet spot,who knows what's going to happen at Arrowhead
Week two, five point three,seven, four, nine, fifteen thirty

(01:22:48):
are our phone numbers. Reds loseagain last night. Alexis Dias is not
himself. I have an admission,I haven't a mission, and I have
a gripe, not with the Reds, but with what happened to another area
baseball team today. We'll get tothat next. It's the Michelo Ultra Happy
Hour Moeger eighteen after five, ESPNfifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports Station SAT four

(01:23:14):
after five o'clock. This is ESPNfifteen thirty. Because I'm an idiot,
I scheduled I gotta fix this duringthe next break. I scheduled our poll
question to go off tomorrow morning.It'll be a thanks to our friends at
United Heartland Insurance. I'm sure they'revery proud of this partnership right now that

(01:23:35):
has had the tweet go off.I had it scheduled. I had it
scheduled to go at four to twenty, and then I accidentally scheduled it for
four to twenty tomorrow morning. That'sgood. I was wondering why I won
there. Dope, Doug Gottlieb's gonnahave to do all this and coach a

(01:23:55):
basketball team which we're gonna get toin a second tough one for the Reds
last night, like you can Yeah, we've beat this into the ground.
You could do You could do asmuch as you want on how much time
there is left on the schedule andhow things compare to last year, when

(01:24:16):
the team, you know, vaultedin the first place in the middle of
June and stayed in contention really throughoutthe end of the season. You could
do all that to comfort yourself andthat's fine, or you could wonder how
big of a hole they're going todig before they start playing. Well.
They're seventeen and twenty four. Ifthey have last year's record, that will

(01:24:40):
not leave that will leave them outsidethe playoffs looking in. If the idea
of this season was to get tothe postseason, they're gonna have to win
north of eighty four games, probablymore than eighty five eighty six. That
math is becoming difficult early. They'reseventeen and twenty four, they're currently for
last place. The top of thedivision is slightly better than it was last

(01:25:03):
year, and so we can dismisslosses because they're happening in April and May.
But you can only dig so deepof a hole. You can talk
all you want about who's going tocome back via come back from injury or
suspension, and those guys will certainlyhelp, but what's the cause going to

(01:25:25):
be by the time those players comeback. It is frustrating to watch.
It is disappointing to watch. I'llmake an admission though, I kind of
believe like level of anger should usually, not always, but usually be commensurate
to level of expectation. When theReds were disappointing in twenty eleven, that

(01:25:48):
kind of pissed me off because theytook the team the previous year too.
I know we're going back aways theprevious year and really didn't make it any
better. In twenty fourteen, whenthey said goodbye to one of their best
offensive players at a member of theirstarting rotation and did really nothing else to
make the team any better in theirabsence, well, that upset me because

(01:26:12):
my expectations were bigger for that stretchof baseball when the Reds were continually awful
every single year. The awfulness grewtiring, our patience was tested. But
in none of those seasons that Ithink those teams were going to be any
good. This year's team I didn'tknow. I had hopes, and I

(01:26:34):
still have big picture hopes for thisorganization and for so many of the young
players on it. I'm not rulingout them making a run and at least
being in contention by the end ofthe season. They've played an inordinate number
of games against teams from the Westerndivisions. They really haven't played teams all

(01:26:59):
that much in the National League Central. There's been a series against the Brewers,
and by and large they still haveto play the bulk of their games
against the Cubs, Brewers, Pirates, and Cardinals, So the schedule's been
sort of weird. There is time, but like I watch people lose their
mind over this team, and Ido share the disappointment. I guess what
I would want to know is,if you're losing your mind, what were

(01:27:20):
your expectations? My expectations, Ireally didn't have any. I talked about
this nearly every single day in Februaryand March. I didn't know. It
was the first time in a verylong time I really didn't feel comfortable kind
of pinpointing roughly how many games theywould win. I settled on a guess
of between seventy nine and eighty fourwins, still doable. By the way,

(01:27:44):
that range probably doesn't put them inthe playoffs. My expectations weren't win
the division. It was a hope. It was something that I could believe
could happen. But you know,it's also a team with a whole bunch
of young dudes. That's not anexcuse, it's not the reason. There
are a lot of reasons why thisteam is underperformed. There's a lot of
reasons why this team is sitting todaytied for the third worst record of the

(01:28:09):
National League. A lot of reasons, but youth is one of them.
My injuries are a part of it, too, but youth is one of
them. And so I share thefrustration. I understand and I feel the
impatience. How are you not impatientwith the Cincinnati Reds. It's been forever
since they've won anything meaningful. We'reall impatient, but with this team in

(01:28:32):
particular, I guess I don't getas mad. I don't get as exasperated
because doing so would reflect them notmeeting my expectations. They can't not meet
my expectations because I didn't really haveany. Now I expected them to not

(01:28:53):
go totally backwards. If they lostone hundred games, that'd be a problem.
But I said back in March,this team could win ninety, don't
think they will, but it wouldbe unsurprising. This team could lose ninety,
don't think they will, and itwould be unsurprising. Now, let's
be honest, losing ninety looks morelikely than winning ninety. But I get

(01:29:18):
amused by it, and it frustratesme, and it disappoints me. And
look, man, from my perspective, what I do for a living,
it's so much more fun when we'retalking about baseball games and not why you're
not going to games and why peopleare mad at ownership and should we move
on to the Bengals in May.I last year's team I will be eternally

(01:29:42):
grateful for because it made baseball afront and center thing during baseball season,
and we talked about baseball games andthe trade deadline and adding players and it
was awesome. It was awesome,And as a fan, like, it's
so much more fun here when theReds are relevant, so much more fun
to go to games, to findpeople to go to games with, Like,
it's great. But my I didn'tknow what to expect with this team.

(01:30:05):
So it's a little bit different thanif I'm going into a season and
I can only speak for myself.You may disagree. If I'm going into
a season thinking like, man,these guys have a chance to be really,
really good, and they they aren't, or they're not equipped with a
chance to be really good, thenI'm upset. I hated the twenty twenty
one season. That was a decentteam. Ownership cut off its legs before

(01:30:29):
the season even started, never reallygave it a chance at the trade deadline.
That was really upsetting. If youcare about this franchise, this there
are some things I wish they wouldhave done a little bit differently. I
wish they would have found a betteroption than Jamer Candelario, who, to
be fair, is swinging the batbetter. I wish they wouldn't have demoted

(01:30:51):
Sam Mall. I wish they'd figureout what's wrong with Alexis Das. I
wish they had a little bit moreoffensive and positional depth. I wish they
hadn't had a bunch of guys getinjured. Obviously, more bad news with
TJ. Friedel yesterday, But canyou really be and again there's I think
there's a difference. We've talked aboutthis. There's exasperation with the organization and

(01:31:13):
then non stop please for patients andthe unending not winning. That's one thing
with this particular team. My expectationswere pretty meager. I got shouted down
a lot during the offseason for notjumping on the bandwagon and assuming that this
team was gonna win ninety two gamesbecause they won eighty two games last year.

(01:31:33):
But if you don't have major expectationsfor me at least, it's it's
hard to be just pissed off.It's hard for me to just start frothing
at the mouth. There is abig part of me that I don't want
to say, expected to step back, but understood the possibility of that happening.

(01:31:56):
It's a young team the lot,even with all the young guys who
are hurt, it's a young team. And by the way, the backups
for a young, inexperienced players weren'tgoing to be multiple time All Stars.
I'm not making excuses for this club. This franchise does not deserve them.
And whatever whatever way you want totake out your anger on this team,

(01:32:16):
as long as you're not bothering theperson that runs the social media account is
justified. You are being completely fairif you're throwing up your hands going like
I'm tired of this, I'm done. I'm frustrated with being told to wait
and hearing about the future, andI just I'm like, if that's how
you feel, man, do it. I get it, I really do.

(01:32:36):
But from my perspective, like somebody, my wife asked me on Sunday,
like, how disappointing is this?And I go, it's it was
when they got walked off in SanFrancisco, and I go, it's disappointing,
but it's it's it's not as disappointingas it would be if I thought,
God, this team has a chanceto be really really good. I
didn't feel that way. I didn't. I'm not going to tell you I

(01:32:57):
thought they were going to be reallyreally bad either. I didn't know.
I had some optimism, but Ialso had some concerns. I had some
hope. I also had some fears, like I don't know. Man,
again, you apply this to aconversation about just the franchise as a whole.
You know, this is and I'mgonna talk about this later this week.
This is this is why you can'tsuck every single year forever, because

(01:33:24):
the more losing becomes the norm.When you have a year like this,
the feeling becomes so familiar that evenif things are better, which in many
respects they are with the Reds,it gets lumped into all those hopeless seasons
and the reaction is the same.It's apathy, it's people turning away.
It's folks wondering why should I go? Why should I support this? And

(01:33:45):
you know, there's also something economicabout this, right Everything costs so much
damn money right now. Like ifif you're a team and you're not competitive,
like dude, it's it's tough.I mean, we can debate how
good or bad the economy is.Right now, folks are paying three point
fifty a gallon for gas. Still, everything's absurdly expensive. I was going
to buy in this summer, butwait a minute, it's mid May and

(01:34:08):
you're seven under, You're in lastplace, and I'm supposed to jump on
board with supporting this financially and whenthere's other stuff I could pay my money
at, or pay my money on, or spend my money on. English
is a second language from me,apparently, like you know, like I
get it, I get any frustrationor anger that people are projecting toward the

(01:34:30):
Cincinnati Rents. But for me personally, this is a bit of an admission.
I'm not quite to the same placethat others are because my expectations weren't
over the top. If they were, this would be really upsetting, but
they weren't. Because I don't wantto say that I saw this coming.
How could you? How could youpredict that Mam mcclaim was going to get

(01:34:51):
hurt, et cetera. But notbeing as good as last year always seemed
plausible. One might argue, Idon't think I did, But one might
argue even likely I at least acknowledgethat. So I have a hard time

(01:35:16):
being as angry as I guess everybodyelse is. Disappointed, frustrated, exasperated,
throwing my hands up last night,like I didn't want to hear about
how hard they played. I don'tknow if David Bell even talked about how
close they are, Like I justdon't want to hear it. I just
I didn't. I didn't want tolook at social media and read about well
they showed some some grit, likeI just win the game, man,
Like I just wasn't it. I'mnot interested in it. Today. I'm

(01:35:40):
less and less interested about hearing howhard, how hard they play. Well,
they're a baseball team. Of coursethey should play hard, but getting
overly emotional because of the results.I can do that a lot man.
I could do that. I coulddo that with this year's Bengals team coming
up, because my expectations are massive. I didn't have massive expectations for this

(01:36:02):
baseball team. I do have amassive beef with what happened at U SEE
today. We'll spend some time onthat. And Doug Gottlieb is about to
make my life and everybody else whodoes what I do for a living,
make our lives a lot more difficult. I'll explain in on ESPN fifteen thirty
Cincinnati Sports Station time in the showNot on Earth Quickly Here. The UC

(01:36:30):
baseball team is having a very goodseason in their first year of the Big
Twelve. The new coach is JordanVishaal, who's god, it seems like,
to have fun, likes to lethis players have fun. So they
are very much on the bubble asthe Big Twelve tournament and the NCAA tournament
selection process an inch closer. Sotoday they played a game and started at

(01:36:54):
eleven am. They try to playa game against Yukon, obviously a non
conference game. You see needs everywhen it could get as very much a
bubble team. The weather was notgreat. They played through some rain at
the UC Baseball Stadium. They trailedone nothing. The Bearcats in the bottom
of the fifth inning loaded the bases. They then called the game all right,

(01:37:19):
They called a rain delay. Thatwas a delay, and then the
game has been ruled a no contest. It will not be made up.
I am assuming here, and I'vetried to get an answer. The person
that I trust on such matters tonot get back to me. But it's
kind of like the big leagues,like five innings is an official game.

(01:37:41):
You've played through bad weather, it'slate in the season, the game is
not You're not gonna be able tomake it up. The home teams down
by a run, very much onthe bubble. To make the NCAA's they
load the bases. You don't playthat one out. That doesn't make a

(01:38:03):
lot of sense. Best of luckto the Bearcats who are having again a
goode. Jordan Bishell on the showmaybe two weeks ago, having a very
good season year one of the BigTwelve. They continue with three home this
week against Oklahoma. Might try toget to one of those Thursday, Friday
and Saturday. Doug Gottlieb is asports talk radio host who's also a college

(01:38:29):
basketball analyst. Spent a few yearsas a part of the NCAA Tournament covered
John CBS and Turner. Had acollege basketball career that started at Notre Dame,
continued at Oklahoma, and then healmost immediately jumped into broadcasting and he's
got a sports talk radio show.For years, he was on ESPN.
In recent years it's been on FoxSports Ohio and his show is on at

(01:38:53):
the same time ours is, soI don't often hear it, but it's
one that I've enjoyed and that I'veheard, And so the reason I bring
this up is he is doing somethingkind of interesting while still hosting his show,
which I always it aired three tosix. I guess moving forward it's

(01:39:14):
only going to be a two hourshow, or his participation is only going
to be for two hours. He'sgoing to be the new head coach at
Wisconsin Green Bay. He's tried tobe a head coach before, he has
not gotten the job. Now He'sgoing to be the head coach at Wisconsin
Green Bay. That in itself isnoteworthy. What makes this even more noteworthy
is he's going to continue to dohis radio show. He's going to do

(01:39:38):
a nationally syndicated radio show while stillcoaching Wisconsin Green Bay at Division one.
They're in the Horizon League with NKAU, a Division one men's basketball program.
I have two thoughts on this.Number One, Doug Gottlieb can be a
full time sports talk radio host anda full time men's basketball coach. For

(01:40:01):
twelve years now, maybe even more, I have been lobbying the Bengals to
hire me as the Director of CommonSense, which is a game day position.
If Doug Gottlieb can host a showevery day and run a Division one
men's basketball program, I can't bethe Director of Common Sense while hosting this

(01:40:24):
show. Thought number two, Ifyou do what I do for a living,
Doug Gottlieb is about to ruin itfor all of us because he's going
to do a sports talk radio show. He's also going to take on the
responsibility of overseeing and running a Divisionone men's college basketball program. This entire

(01:40:50):
gig is about fooling people and convincingthem that, man, it's a lot
of work. I'm really spread thin. It takes a lot to put this
show together. Oh yeah, youhear the three hours, but there's really
so much more that goes into it. That facade goes away if you have

(01:41:15):
someone doing this job while also coachinga Division one men's college basketball program.
Do you know how many things I'vebeen able to get out of because I
got a show. Man. Igotta I gotta i gotta prepare for the
show. I gotta watch games,i gotta read stuff, I gotta talk
to people. I've I've got todo. I've gotta do a lot for
the show. It's I know there'sthere's some that you don't see. You

(01:41:39):
hear the show, but there's alot that goes on behind the scenes.
Doug Gottlieb is pulling back the curtainand revealing to the world that these jobs
couldn't be easier and couldn't be lesstime consuming. This dude is about to
ruin it for all of us whodo this for a living. His entire
operation is based on My entire lifeis based on Hey man, I got

(01:42:02):
those three hours in the afternoon.Can't do anything else, can't take on
anything professionally, can't take another job, can't do anything else at the radio
station. Really busy preparing that show, really really busy. Sorry, can't
go to lunch, can't do stuffyou need me to do, Honey,
I'm not gonna be able to workon that in the morning. Got to
prepare for the show, you knowwhat. Not gonna be able to go

(01:42:26):
do that because I gotta watch thatgame tomorrow night. Sorry, Doug gott
leaves about to screw this racket upfor all of us. Thanks a lot,
Doug, Taren. How much timedo we have? Oh, we
have about five minutes, Jeff,you can have two of them go real
quick now. Trey obviously told hisagent that it was okay to say what

(01:42:50):
he said. No doubt about thatright now, no question, Yeah,
exactly so, and just quickly.Great stuff with Paul as usual. Thoughts
on Dallas Thanksgiving would be awesome.Would be the only reason I would want
to go to Dallas. Now,I've been to Dallas. I've been to
Jerry World for the Cotton Bowl.Nothing against Dallas, but I would want
to go if it's the Thanksgiving Daygame, that would be cool. Baltimore

(01:43:14):
for a night game is a totalno gun. I've only gone for a
one o'clocker. I didn't go lastyear just for that purpose. It is
way too dangerous. Nashville is gettinga little out of control. But if
you're of a certain age, muchyounger than I am, I guess it'll
still be fun. I'm rooting forNashville on a Thursday. I'm rooting for

(01:43:35):
that game to be on a Thursdaynight so I can turn it into a
weekend in Nashville without being part ofthe weekend. Yeah, my daughter's lived
there for a year and she's alreadylike, I haven't been down a Broadway
in eight months. It just gota little crazy. So so move on
to the next guy. MO HappyTuesday. Okay, Jeff, thank you
as always here. Let's see Scott. You're on ESPN fifteenh How are you

(01:44:01):
well? Well? How you doing? I'm all right? What's up?
Oh? Not much man. Soyou're talking a little bit about your expectations
for the Reds, and I thinkthe most frustrating part is that I think
this organization thinks very similar to theway the way you do or the way

(01:44:21):
you did I mean, I don'tthink they come in with the expectations of,
hey, we should win a weshould win a World Series, and
we should compete for a World Series. I think they come in and go,
well, yeah, you know,things go right. Yeah, maybe
we make the playoffs. That'd begreat. Yeah. I think there's a

(01:44:41):
lot of a limiting to that.It is. It is rarely, it
has rarely looked like a franchise thatis willing to do everything it can to
win a championship. Yeah. Imean even though, okay, think about
think about the Red Sox. They'replaying a bunch of young guys right now,
They're not a veteran team. Whatdo you think the expectations in Boston
are for the Red Sox? Massive? Right so? And I think that's

(01:45:05):
where you know, as a Redsfan, I mean, for gosh knows
how many years I've I've been pullover these guys, and I think that's
the frustrating part is and I thinkother fans have that same frustration is you
know, show me that you care, and if you don't, then we're

(01:45:25):
gonna go find something else to do. I've been watching the NHL hockey playoffs.
I don't think I've seen more thanthree innings of Reds baseball in two
weeks. Yeah, I mean Iwould, I could. I could assure
you, Scott, as somebody who'swatching early all of them, you haven't
missed much. But what you saymakes sense. I appreciate the call as
always. I mean, I Ithink, unfortunately for this team, what

(01:45:47):
it battles is how people feel aboutthe organization. I'm gonna take Mike's call
because if I don't help Sey,I mean email Mike, go ahead,
and the show. Nervous about thegame tonight, very much, very much.
So okay, okay, do youthink do you think the reason Minnesota
lost these two at home where theyjust got tight from plants. Some teams

(01:46:09):
do that, they get tight whenthey play home. There's a reason why
Denver won last year's championship, andyou've seen why the last couple of games.
I still like Minnesota weirdly, Istill like Minnesota in the series.
I probably should not, but Istill like Minnesota in the series. But
Denver has played like a champion theselast two. Well disappointed me today.
They asked you your favorite when youtold me this a year two years ago.

(01:46:32):
But Utaw Jim Rome had the bestsolo radio show that you had ever
heard, and then today you kindof backed off that a little bit.
You said, well, he talksabout him, know, his great questions
and then whatever is on himself.But he had the most innovative, unique
show. Yeah. I agree.Yeah, I don't think I ever said

(01:46:53):
favorite. I think most impactful,most wide reaching, one that the most
amount of people have tried to emulate. It's Jim Rome, without question.
He's in an awesome career. Justfor me, the host that I enjoy
listening to the most, and Ilisten to a ton of sports talk radio
from around the country. I don'twant to say I don't listen to him,

(01:47:15):
or he's I don't like him.It's just there are others that I
prefer a little bit more. Mike. I got to run man, Okay,
thanks so all right, well,thank you, We're back out of
tomorrow three h five. Have agreat night, Thank you for listening.
Thanks to Terran for producing. Thisis ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati sports station

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