8/19/26 - The Mo Egger Show: Can the Bengals Stay Healthy? Does Joey Votto Really Want "The Reds Job?" - Mo Egger

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Oh, Bengal, It's preseason football. Will Joe Burrow and the
Bengals be ready to roar against Caleb Williams and the
Chicago Bears. It's a pig shirt power struggle. Why not
have to go live from Dan Ordon Dave Laffat. Coverage
begins Saturday at five thirty pm. Stream for free on
the new and improved iHeartRadio app or ESPN fifteen thirty,

(00:23):
the official home of the Cincinnati Bengals.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
I can't wait Saturday night.

Speaker 3 (00:27):
I'm more excited for tomorrow because we might get some fights.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
Get some fights tomorrow. Bengals Bears training camp, joint practice. Tomorrow.
We're on the air at ten am eighty Doring Window,
Tony and Moe Training Camp Show. Sign me up for
some fights. There is one one remaining important Bengals training

(00:52):
camp topic, and I'll tell you what it is in
just a few minutes. Thank you for listening.

Speaker 3 (00:58):
I'm Moegar. This is the fifteen thirty. I hope you're
having a great afternoon, a great Wednesday. We have a
lot of stuff to get to today. Entire show preview
is available on Twitter at Mulleger. Thanks to share Facts
credit Union, You like to golf. Are you better at
me than golf? At golf?

Speaker 2 (01:15):
Yes? Are you better than me at talking? Probably?

Speaker 3 (01:18):
But SHAREFFACX Credit Unions having their annual golf outing benefiting
Cincinnati Children's charity September the twenty eighth. Learn more and
sign up. It's at the Heritage Club in Maason. Go
to share facts dot org. While you're there, you could
watch our show. We are broadcasting the show, We're streaming
it on YouTube, We're putting it on Twitter. It's like
a real big boy twenty first century sports Talk radio operation.

(01:42):
Tony Pike joins us in about forty minutes. I saw
something at the ballpark last night that I think might
be a little revealing. We'll get to that coming up
in just about fifteen minutes. Also, FC Cincinnati plays to
night Chris Whittingham from Apple TV. Later on this hour,
Bengals Bears tomorrow training camp joint practice. After that, it

(02:07):
is my sincere wish we see next to nobody who matters. Now,
I know there's a fine line, right, there's that line.
On one side of it are the players who matter,
and on the other side there's the players who don't.
And some of the players who don't still are really important.
I get it, you can't sit every single player who matters.
But I'm gonna watch the practice tomorrow. We go on

(02:31):
the air at ten o'clock tomorrow morning, Adorn Window, Tony
and MOK Training Camp Show, and I'm excited personally because
I don't think I've ever been there for a joint practice,
and I'm excited to broadcast, but I might watch some
of it through my fingers, because if all the guys
who matter the most practiced tomorrow, I'm guessing we see

(02:51):
very few of them on Saturday, maybe none of them, and.

Speaker 2 (02:55):
Then again maybe none of them.

Speaker 3 (02:57):
In that last preseason game against Philadelphia a week from Friday.
There's one topic left. There's one topic left. This team's
got pretty good depth. The rookie class has showed encouraging signs.
There's no reason to overreact to one preseason game. But

(03:17):
I think we like what we've seen from most of
the positions at the bottom end of the depth chart.
I said this yesterday. I think we're focusing on offensive
line depth because we should, and because some of those
guys have left a lot to be desired. But I
think there's been this hyper focus on the back end
of the Bengals offensive line group, because everywhere else there's

(03:39):
good things happening, and everywhere else this team is healthy.
This team's greatest asset today is the health of all
its important players. I know Brian Cook has missed some time,
Dax Hill a little bit, obviously, Shamar Stewart hasn't really
done anything. But it's most important guys are healthy. That's

(04:00):
the topic right now. Between now and one o'clock on Sunday,
September thirteenth, what happens that compromises that just a little bit.
I'm now in play at safe mode. I think the
Bengals should be in play at safe mode. Every single
day you read about a training camp injury, a preseason injury.

Speaker 2 (04:22):
You know we're dealing.

Speaker 3 (04:23):
With a Mecca Agbuka with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who
may not play Week one against against Cincinnati.

Speaker 2 (04:30):
Like I am good. I'm good putting the guys.

Speaker 3 (04:34):
Who matter the most in a bubble, put them in
controlled practice environments with their own guys. Obviously, there's still
a possibility players can get injured, but that's the question.
Between now and September thirteenth, When does their biggest asset
get compromised. When does that get cut into just a
little bit, Because if they have a healthy roster to

(04:55):
start the season, their own history notwithstanding, and their own
struggles early in the season offensively of getting off to
a good start, outwithstanding, there's no reason why this team
can hit the ground running. There is a piece in
The Athletic Today where one of the writers simulates the
entire season a whole bunch of times, and if you

(05:19):
go look at it, it illustrates how open, but also
how good the AFC is. Bengals cannot afford to get
off to a slow start. If the idea is to
be in the best possible position in January to get
to and win a Super Bowl, that it means the
idea this year is to be the one seed. And
I know we're talking about going from a six and
eleven record to be in the one seed, but like,

(05:41):
that's the idea this year. That's the idea this year,
and so the best way to get off to a
fast start is be whole week one. I don't know, man,
that's it. Like, I think we're all pretty thrilled about
a lot of the things that have unfolded at wide receiver.
How a lot of things have unfolded linebacker, How a

(06:03):
lot of things have unfolded at the bottom end of
the depth chart on the defensive line, still nuts about
what's happening with backup safety play. Dejon Anthony and PJ.
Jewles left a lot to be desired. Maybe those are
special teams guys, and what we saw in the field
from them on defense is not reflective of their ability
to contribute on special teams units.

Speaker 2 (06:22):
But still, this this team is It's.

Speaker 3 (06:25):
Their biggest asset, and the longer they can maintain that,
their better, their chances are. That's the storyline. What cuts
into their biggest strength, what cuts into their biggest asset.
I wouldn't play anybody who I'd tell Joe Burrowing Company,
don't even come to the game on on Saturday, Like,

(06:45):
go find something else to do. Don't even don't even
worry about coming to Philadelphia. Or if you come to Philadelphia,
will take all the players who matter and will like
we'll drive him to the Jersey shore or something. Oh
want any of those guys out there. Twelve minutes after
three o'clock, Reds lose last night. A feeble offense continues

(07:07):
to be exactly that. They have played seventeen games in
the month of August. They have scored one run or
fewer in seven of them. Last night, the Milwaukee Brewers
scored twenty two runs. The Reds have scored over their
last eight games combined twenty two runs. It's absolutely feeble.

(07:34):
I don't care that much about Tito talking about working
counts and how his hitters battled. This is a results
oriented business. It's late August, the season has spiraled down
the drain. I think anything that Tito says at this point,
from my perspective, is going to go in one ear
and out the other. So let's talk about Joey Vado instead. Unfortunately,

(07:58):
Joey Vado doesn't play for the Reds, doesn't play for anybody.
He's on NBC, he's on MLB Network, and I feel
like it's taken him, Like for the few holdovers, it's
taken retirement for those folks to realize maybe how good
Joey Vado was.

Speaker 2 (08:15):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (08:16):
Joey Vado does a hit with Brian Kenny yesterday where
he answers questions from fans, and this has made the
rounds on social media. We aired it yesterday, we spent
some time on it. Let me be upfront about this.
I'm gonna ask Joey Vado is not the general manager
or director of baseball operations for the Reds in twenty

(08:37):
twenty seven, But as remote of a possibility as it
may be that he works for the Reds in either
one of those capacities, I would still rather talk about
Joey Vado running the Reds than Key Brian Hayes or
Johanio Suarez or j J Bleda, or a team that
can't hit, a team that enters today seven and a
half games out of the last wildcard. So tarn go

(08:59):
ahead and give me Joey Vado answering a question from
a fan yesterday on the MLB Network from.

Speaker 4 (09:07):
Brenda who asked, why don't you come back and be
the hitting coach or just come back in any form
we need you. If there's a Reds fan we need you,
who we is, will you consider I'll elaborate on that.
Do you want to coach or manage or get back
in the game.

Speaker 5 (09:19):
Officially, No, I don't thank you for the any time
you want it, any time you wanted it. It's an honor.
But I get to do this, I get to come
here and hang out and and I'm just not motivated
to hop on a plane and head all over the country.
And most importantly, to serve the hitter, you have to
spend time in the minor leagues.

Speaker 4 (09:40):
Okay, Oh, you'd want to get an apprentice ship and
you would half way up and ye, how about front office?
If they want a lot of guys dabble in the
front office who are former players, and then you can
pick your spots.

Speaker 5 (09:48):
Yeah, if they want to give me the Reds job,
I'll take it.

Speaker 2 (09:50):
You've been running the club. Yeah, just give me the
gm off.

Speaker 3 (09:53):
All right there, Joey Vado yesterday, I don't know. Here's
why I know, Man, the red are bad and frankly,
they're not as currently constructed, both on the field and
in the front office. They're not that interesting. So sign
me up on one level, sign me up for Joey
Vado being the guy A. Joey Vado is one of

(10:16):
my five favorite Reds players of all time. I'm a
huge fan b I'm a fan of interesting. It's been
the most repeated mantra on this show for nineteen years.
Be good or be interesting. Joey Vado not that long
after retiring, stepping into the front office and being in
charge of the team. That's interesting. Joey Vado himself is interesting.

(10:41):
Him moving into that role, that's interesting. Like for me,
I'm a little bit selfish about this. Invigorate me with something,
give me some reason to pay closer attention. Invigorate a
fan base with some level of excitement. This entire thing.
And when I say this entire thing, I mean like
the Reds, the Cincinnati Reds. This entire thing feels stale.

(11:05):
The bloom has come off, the Terry Francona Rose, The
excitement of twenty twenty three feels like a lifetime ago.
Like I'm at this point, I'm for anything that sort
of like you know, jogs my attention, gets me remotely excited,
or is just a deviation from the norm. Give me
something interesting, give us something interesting. So yes, let's do it.

(11:30):
It's probably nonsensical to talk about. But I'd rather talk
about the nonsensical than yell and scream about Ellie de
la Cruz getting a day off, or wonder if Matt
McClain is every time he gets a hit, Hey, hey,
is twenty twenty three back? Or debate the key Brian
Hayes thing, or talk about what their plan is in

(11:51):
the outfield, or sift through Indrey. Let's let's go to
fantasyland and fantasize about Joey Vado running.

Speaker 2 (11:58):
There's no guarantee it would work.

Speaker 3 (12:01):
In fact, understanding that the track record of this franchise
over the last twenty plus years is what it is,
that they've had Hall of Fame caliber execs, they've had
Hall of Fame caliber managers, and the results have basically
been the same, that would suggest the results would probably
be not that dramatically different if Joey Vada was in
charge of the baseball operations. But you know what, it's interesting.

(12:22):
I'm here for interesting because there is almost nothing else
about this team right now. You can tell me if
you disagree that it's really all that interesting. Five point
three seven four nine, fifteen thirty. I I don't know
how serious Joey Vada is being. I think he's a
calculated guy, and so I think when he speaks on
the record about things like the Reds, he's he's speaking

(12:49):
from a place of intent, meaning he's he's intending on
what he says. Landing and resonating. Do I believe he
really wants to on the Reds. I'm not qualified. I'm
gonna psychoanalyze Joey Vado. God im a handful handsful of
doing it with Joe Burrow. But I do think more
than anything, it is a commentary about how the Reds

(13:12):
are being run from someone who has intimate knowledge with
how the Reds are run. I think what he was
doing if if the Reds were ten over five hundred
in the real thick of a playoff chase, if things
were going well, if this team was coming off a
playoff advancement last year, if this team looked like a

(13:33):
bonafide contender, chances are Joey Vado isn't telling anybody, yeah,
give me the Reds job.

Speaker 2 (13:39):
I think what he's doing is.

Speaker 3 (13:40):
Telling you, like, yeah, like the person doing the job
right now ain't getting it done, so the hell give
it to me. And that is somebody who knows intimately
well how this franchise operates, knows who's on the team,
cares about the team, and is unimpressed and unhappy with
the results.

Speaker 2 (14:00):
What do the Reds do with that? Hell, I don't know.

Speaker 3 (14:03):
What do you and I do with it, Well, whatever
the hell we want, whatever we do with Joey Vado,
talking about the Reds job is I think a lot
more fun than talking about almost anything else as it
relates to this baseball team.

Speaker 2 (14:14):
But yeah, I'm here, let's go, let's do it.

Speaker 3 (14:16):
I do think I do think putting Joey Vado in
charge of the baseball operations would sort of be the
most red Z thing ever. We'll get to that a
little bit later on at Moulager on Twitter. Thanks to
Delta Dental, Delta Dental is building healthy, smart, vibrant communities
for all. Go to Delta Dental oh dot com. Can

(14:36):
I tell you what I noticed sitting in the stands
last night that maybe nothing or maybe something, But to
me last night it wasn't insignificant. I'll tell you next
on ESPN fifteen.

Speaker 6 (14:48):
Thirty, So you cky Cincinnati and iHeartRadio station g Garanteed
Human ESPN fifteen thirty Hard Radio.

Speaker 3 (15:02):
If you're watching on YouTube or Twitter, you just saw
me try to talk without turning on the microphone. I
have been in broadcasting in some way, shape or form,
going back to my days on Flyer Radio at the
University of Dayton for thirty two years and about once
a week I will attempt to talk without turning on
the microphone and I just did it there. See, that's

(15:25):
that's why, that's why you should watch. It's like a
blooper reel. This entire show sometimes is a blooper reel,
but more so when you watch the video. Twenty six
minutes after three o'clock, Chris Whittingham Apple TV on FC
Cincinnati is gonna join us in about ten minutes, the
Orange and Blue hosting New York.

Speaker 2 (15:44):
City FC tonight.

Speaker 3 (15:47):
After a weird game in Orlando where they salvage a point,
probably should have gotten free, but still one is better
than none. I'm told more on Joey Vado later on
Tony Pike on tomorrow's Bengals Bears joint practice coming up
in about twenty minutes as well. This may be nothing
and it may be something, but it stood out to

(16:08):
me and so I'm going to pass it on and
you could do whatever you.

Speaker 2 (16:12):
Want with it.

Speaker 3 (16:13):
I'll be honest with you. When I go to a
baseball game and the picture is taken out, regardless of
which team, I typically don't follow them with my eyes
into the dugout and pay extraordinarily close attention to what
happens once they get there. But those of us, and

(16:34):
even those of us who don't, but those of us
who watch baseball on a regular basis, you know, you
see a pitcher who has a good outing, he's taken
out in the middle of an inning, and you usually
see once the picture gets to the dugout some degree
of congratulations from his teammates. Now, when that happens, obviously

(16:57):
the majority of his teammates are in the field. Others
are obviously in the bullpen, but there was still some
team personnel in the dugout. So last night Andrew Abbot
pitched pretty well, certainly gave his team a chance. It's
not his fault. The Reds offense is feeble. They scrap
out three hits. It was three to nothing after Saint
Louis scored one more on the top of the eighth inning,

(17:19):
and three nothing felt like thirteen to nothing. So Andrew
Abbot is pulled after six and a third good innings,
good start. He comes off the mound, Tito gets the
ball from him, and for reasons that I don't necessarily
understand myself, my buddy and I were at the ballpark

(17:41):
and we were sitting not midway between third base and
home played a little bit closer to third base. But
I'll say this, we did not sit in our assigned seats,
so we're sitting, I don't know, twenty four, twenty three,

(18:01):
twenty four rows up from the first row, so kind
of up with a very clear view into the dugout.
And they pull Andrew Abbot and I don't know why,
but I followed Andrew Abbot with my eyes from the
moment he left the mound and gave the Balditarry Francona

(18:23):
and walked into the dugout. And I kept following him
as he went into the dugout. And then I saw him,
and I think TV captured this. He like slammed his
glove and slammed his hat, and you could understand why.
In between him leaving the mound and him getting to

(18:44):
the bench slamming his glove, I don't believe one person
in the dugout even acknowledged his existence. Again, I might
not have the greatest eyesight, made somebody that I didn't
notice did say something to him, but he just got done.

(19:05):
Ninety eight pitch performance. Good performance kept the team in
the game. Got a nice ovation from the crowd, comes
into the dugout. No one acknowledges him. No one says,
there's not a high five, there's not a handshake, there's
not a hug. And again like it, it's not a
pack dugout because the Reds are in the field and

(19:27):
relievers are in the bullpen. But still nobody in the
dugout thought to go up to Andrew Abbott and say, hey, man,
nice outing, Maybe we can score you some runs. Zach
Maxwell has it from here. Hey Andrew, thanks for keeping
us in the game. Hey Andrew, any chance you can
grab a bat and hit because nobody else can. I
don't know, man, I just I just think that's interesting,

(19:49):
and maybe it's nothing. It's a very good chance it
is nothing. And there may have been somebody beyond my
view that like patted him on the butt or something,
but I do think it's rare, and watching this sport
for a very long time, pitcher comes off the mound
after a bad outing, and usually like there's somebody who
acknowledges him. My guy walks into the dugout and you know,

(20:11):
he slams something through something, he wasn't happy. Whatever, that's fine.
And I don't think it was unhappiness with being taken out.
I think it was unhappiness with a pitch that he
made in the seventh inning last night. But a good outing,
good pitching performance. Not a soul in that dugout said
anything to him. Maybe it's something, maybe it's nothing. It

(20:35):
didn't seem insignificant to me last night. Sports headlines and
Chris Whittingham from Apple TV on FC Cincinnati.

Speaker 7 (20:41):
Next Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty traffic.

Speaker 1 (20:47):
Weveport station, ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 3 (20:51):
We do sports headlines in just a few minutes on Moeger.
This is ESPN fifteen thirty. Thank you for listening today.
Midweek soccer tonight for FC Cincinnati is the Orange and
Blue plays the first of back to back home games
tonight against New York City FC.

Speaker 2 (21:05):
That game will start at seven point thirty.

Speaker 3 (21:08):
Television coverage on Apple TV, where our friend Chris Whittingham
has the call and he is kind enough to give
us a few minutes.

Speaker 2 (21:14):
Chris, it's good to have you. Good afternoon, Chris, good afternoon.
How are you do we not have Chris? Do we
not have Chris? I'll hit the whole thing I'll click
this now. Let's try again.

Speaker 3 (21:28):
Hi, Chris, all right, well that could be a problem,
frenth course of the afternoon, Karen, What should I do here?

Speaker 2 (21:36):
Should I do? Sports headlines?

Speaker 8 (21:38):
Ye?

Speaker 2 (21:39):
All right?

Speaker 3 (21:39):
Sports headlines are a service at Kelsey chevro lebel of
lifetime or train protection and guarantee credit approval from their
family to yours for life, Kelsey chef dot Com. Tonight
at GABP, it's game four of a five game series
between the Reds and Cardinals. Chase Burns against lefty Matthew Libertor.
Six point forty is tonight's first pitch on seven hundred

(22:00):
wl W am I doing the lineup? I'm doing the lineup.
Chase Burns staff Ace on the hill for Cincinnati, Dela Cruz,
Steuart Myers Suarez plays third. Stevenson DHS totally is in
right today. Travina McLain round out the order. Reds are
currently seven and a half games out of the last
wild card spot. San Diego's losing two to one to

(22:21):
the Mets, so they could take the field seven games out.
FC Cincinnati tonight against New York City FC again, the
first of back to back home games for FC Cincinnati.
Seven thirty tonight, Apple TV, our guy Chris Whittingham has
the call and is with us.

Speaker 2 (22:37):
Now we believe Chris, are you there my phone working?
Oh you sound great, You sound awesome.

Speaker 3 (22:43):
You're able to accomplish this very, very primitive piece of technology,
so it's great to have you. Nonetheless, I think we've
gotten to the point in FC Cincinnati season where your
guess is as good as mine as to what's going
to happen, because every time I think I have this
team figured out, I'm proven wrong.

Speaker 9 (23:04):
Yeah, I think it's one of the teams that is
definitely all over the place. I mean, just look at
the fact that they score the most goals in the
league and they've conceded the third most goals in the league.
So you definitely have a team that is fun. It's entertaining.
I will say, I do think what they did this
past weekend against Orlando is more like what their identity
would want to be like, which is more of a
grinded out and then rely on a couple of moments

(23:26):
to get you in the game. But I think it
is very interesting that you have a team that has
all of this attacking firepower. Can you get pava Buca
into the goals. He's got five goals and seven assists
this season, and at vander having an MVP caliber season
on the basis of his individual performance, but it just
seems like the overall connection of everything just isn't quite
coming off.

Speaker 3 (23:45):
So like, how much have they rectified their issues on defense.
It's great to have Roman Celentano back. He was terrific,
especially in the first half against Orlando. It does feel
like things are still a work in progress, but I
do think things have gotten better.

Speaker 9 (24:00):
Yeah, I think it's just finding the right combination of players.
I think there was a time with you know, Mioska
at his very best, in Miles Robinson at his very best.
That I mean, that's one of the absolute greatest back
lines that you can possibly have. I think Robinson was
building up to the World Cup and I think was
almost I don't want to say tentative is maybe the
wrong word, but I think was most concerned about arriving

(24:20):
at that World Cup healthy. But at this point now
you just kind of have to let it rip right
and play your absolute best. So I think it's just
about getting Miasca back to his absolute top level form
anchoring that back three. Having him be healthy and finding
the right combination of players around it and that right balance.

Speaker 2 (24:36):
Ahead of them.

Speaker 9 (24:37):
So yeah, I think they have taken a step towards
solving that problem. I think they still can play a
chaotic game every now and again, but I still don't know.

Speaker 10 (24:45):
You have to see it for multiple games where you
really feel confident.

Speaker 3 (24:48):
In And we saw this this time of year. Last year,
Chris Albright was was pretty busy with transfers. Other teams
have been this summer. FC Cincinnati not so much. What
should be on Chris albright shopping list?

Speaker 9 (25:01):
I think it should probably be another center back, I
particularly one with more of a veteran profile.

Speaker 2 (25:07):
I think you look at some of the players.

Speaker 9 (25:09):
That that do have teenage, that Debbie you know, has been
out with you know, with injury for a while, and
they've got some players that could fill in. But I
still think look in the forward positions, I think you're
pretty rock solid with Dank and Evander, although you know,
it'll be interesting if Dank ends up surviving the entire
transfer window in Cincinnati. There's been some suggestions he may

(25:29):
he might be off to the Premier League to go
play with one of the newly promoted sides Hull, So
I guess if there's some incoming, then maybe you have
that ability to reinvest that money back into the transfer market.
So yeah, look, I think ultimately just comes down to
having a little bit more of a veteran presence and
in the center of defense alongside me as again Robinson,
And honestly, you know, you don't want to start replacing

(25:50):
people before it's you know, too early, But I do
think maybe another kind of pillar in that area.

Speaker 10 (25:56):
Could be useful.

Speaker 9 (25:57):
Yeah, I think any kind of you know, experience or
players who maybe the profile is more about their defensive
abilities and their attacking abilities. You have so much going
forward that now you just have to find a few
more profiles that I think can make you more solid defensively.

Speaker 3 (26:11):
Chris Weddingham Apple TV. FC Cincinnati hosting New York City.
These two squads separated by a point. When you look
at them statistically, they are not exactly mirror images of
each other. So a big opportunity tonight for both teams.
Where does New York City present problems for FC Cincinnati.

Speaker 9 (26:28):
Well, if I can, I'll kind of start on the
flip side of that question, because I do think that
the biggest thing that f C Cincinnati has in their
favor is health. New York City comes into this game
dealing with a number of players out injured. I think
you look at their defensive line, in particular at Thiago
Martins is a player who I think is really important
to them, but he's still recovering from an injury. He

(26:49):
might play tonight, but he's not at one hundred percent tonight.
I think we can say on the base of how
he's been trying to recover from injury. They have several
other key defensive players out in the forward areas as well.
They're just trying to figure things out. But they do
have Nico Fernandez mcala tonight, one of the joint top
goal scorers in MLS who has been absolutely stunning this season.

Speaker 10 (27:08):
So he definitely is a great player.

Speaker 9 (27:09):
But look, I mean, you're talking about an NYCFC team
that could be without six or seven players you can
consider starters. So I think that's definitely the biggest area
for New York City. I think from an f C
Cincinnati point of view, I think for them it is
about figuring out how to stop Nico Fernandez Marcau. On
the other side, he definitely is that creative player through
the middle. He's great from a dead ball from long

(27:31):
distance and is absolutely the engine of this team. There's
one player in MLS on fourteen goals, that's Petarmusa, and
you have Nico Fernandez Marcau who's on thirteen goals. He's
been absolutely brilliant this season and is definitely the player
to be afraid of.

Speaker 10 (27:44):
From an f C Cincinnati point.

Speaker 3 (27:45):
Of view, where I am sitting right now is about
ten miles north of TQL Stadium and it is pouring.
Hopefully that is not the case tonight, and you have
a great atmosphere and a great call.

Speaker 2 (27:55):
Because I appreciate the time, man, thanks so much. Yeah,
it worries. Thank you. Apple TV.

Speaker 3 (27:59):
Tonight thirty FC Cincinnati hosting New York City again. F
C Cincinnati a one point lead ahead of New York
City FC in the MLS Eastern Conference standings. Apple TV
has the television broadcast. We have the radio broadcast on
ESPN fifteen thirty starting at seven o'clock. Shall I continue

(28:22):
with sports headlines? No practice for the Bengals today they
take on well, they host the Bears. I don't really
take practicing with the Bears tomorrow. A door and window
Tony and Mo Training Camp show comes your way ten
o'clock tomorrow morning. Florence, y'all's on the road against Lake Erie.
By the way, that Mets Padres game. If we're still
tracking this, New York is up on San Diego three

(28:42):
to one, bottom of the eighth inning, and Queens Padres
up seven and a half games on the Reds in
the hunt if you will for that last wild card spot.
Tony Pike is gonna join us Latest, Latest, Latest talking today,
not easy for me, latest on the Bengals. We'll talk
about tomorrow's joint practice and how it's going to work

(29:04):
next on ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 7 (29:07):
Scinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic from the.

Speaker 1 (29:12):
Fifteen thirty with the latest from Bengals training camp, brought
to you by Camba Credit Union. On your official home
of the Cincinnati Bengals, ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 3 (29:25):
Funny Pike joins us once an hour with live training
camp reports and a lot to talk about as things
unfold today. But there's going to be a lot to
talk about tomorrow with a joint practice with the Chicago Bears,
and I guess My first question is will we see
any fights.

Speaker 11 (29:37):
I'll tell you what if you follow along to anything
that's happened across the NFL with some of these joint practices,
Mo they were it was a joint practice between the
Cowboys and the Saints yesterday and it was described as
something that turned into a WWE style brawl. And at
the center of it, SA, I'm a WW guy. Scott
Steiner is a WW Hall of Famer. Okay, his son

(29:58):
plays tight end for the Saints. He body slams some
dude to the turkey like it was. It was physical,
it was intense, and I'm watching that and I think
to us talking to Demetrius Knight on Tuesday, and Demetrius
Knight said, I expect things to be chippy. I expect
him to be intense. I'm ready to.

Speaker 2 (30:16):
Go outline for me how this is gonna work.

Speaker 3 (30:20):
So any joint practice, but this one in particular, do
Zach Taylor and Ben Johnson huddle together in the day
or two beforehand morning of whatever it is, and go, look,
here's how we want this unfold, here's what we want
to work on, here's what you want to get done.

Speaker 2 (30:32):
Or is it like, hey, welcome. We're gonna go unscripted.

Speaker 3 (30:34):
Because that's kind of what I would like to see
happen with Ben Johnson's offense.

Speaker 11 (30:38):
I don't know if I would. I don't know if
I would, But they will. They will control as much
of it as possible. They may do a series or
two of unscripted like we saw. I mean, there was
offense ran thirty eight plays in yesterday's practice. It's not
gonna be that much. But you also want to get
individual stuff done. You want to Hay, we're gonna work
on first and tent. We want to have you know,
maybe Ben Johnson wants a third nine emphasis for his offense,

(31:00):
get together and talk about that. But like one on ones,
seven on sevens, that's not scripted. You know, you don't
know what's coming on the other side of the ball,
and you've got to to read and react a little
bit more So, it's less about playing the drill and
more about having to play your opponent, read and react
because even if it is scripted, you're not sure, you're

(31:20):
not familiar with the things that you're seeing on the
other side of the ball.

Speaker 3 (31:23):
What do you get out of this? If you're a
coach that you don't get out of a preseason.

Speaker 11 (31:27):
Game ones versus ones just an insane amount of it.
You'll never get that in the preseason. They are always
gonna be guys that get held out or you're not
gonna show a full playbook. This is their best versus
your best. And it's also isolated in many different areas.
There's two practice fields, so you're gonna get o line
D line one on one, and then you're gonna flip

(31:48):
it and do a line D line on the other side.
You're gonna get one on ones with wide receiver and
dbs with their offense on one field, and then the
Bengals offense on the other field. And that goes through
seven on sevens and then goes through a team, and
it's just it's such a competitive practice and it always
kind of brings out the most because we reference dog
days a lot. They're at the point now where they've

(32:10):
been so tired of playing against each other and hitting
each other every single day. Now here comes somebody else.
And for this Bengals team, like how many guys have
we talked to the talk about a chip on their shoulder.
This is like the first chance that the starters Dexter
lawrenceon just playing two or three reps tomorrow. This is
the first chance they get to kind of go out
and say, Okay, this is who we are in twenty

(32:31):
twenty six.

Speaker 3 (32:31):
Yeah, I'm looking forward to it, and I'm looking forward
to hopefully a fight.

Speaker 2 (32:36):
Yeah, we will see a scuffle, bruhaha. Something I'll say
this though, like I don't need to see like a
helmet being swung. Well, if it's like, if it's you know,
a Chicago Bears players, sure helmet's being swung the sure
all in. Okay.

Speaker 3 (32:51):
The one asset, the biggest asset I think the Bengals
have right now at this stage of the preseason is health.

Speaker 1 (32:56):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (32:56):
We've talked about this a little bit, but like we
focus a lot on the backups on the offensive line,
and that's an issue, but it right now is one
of the only issues, in large part because the rookies
are showing well, some interesting battles are unfolding, a tight
end at wide receiver, on the defensive line, there's not
a lot of other stuff and so like, what I'm

(33:17):
most paranoid about between now and the start of the
regular season is can they get to the post as
healthy basically as healthy as they are right now.

Speaker 11 (33:24):
And I would say, I don't know what the percentage is.
I would say if they get through tomorrow's practice healthy,
those percentages go down drastically, because we've seen the difference
at practices since we've been down there. There's intense and
then there are easier days. If you just look at
the schedule, Tomorrow is going to be a heavy, heavy
work day. Starters won't play much if any on Saturday.

(33:46):
You get into next week, that's a third preseason week.
You travel next week, so that changes up the schedule
a little bit. You only got one or two really
hard work days left, and then the preseason is going
to be over. So get through tomorrow and then I
think that that chance starts to go down significantly.

Speaker 2 (34:01):
All right, Tony, thank you very much.

Speaker 3 (34:03):
Tony Pike back with another training camp report at four
forty five, and he and I are together tomorrow for
the A Door and Window Tony and Training Camp show
that's at ten o'clock. We go until noon leading up
to Sincy three sixty. The joint the training camp, the
open to the public portion of training camp has come
to an end, and the Cincinnati Bengals have no obligation

(34:27):
to let us broadcast from training camp. They have been
extraordinarily accommodating to us, and I've asked a few radio
folks from around the country if the team in their
market would allow a couple of yay who's or one
yay who and an expert analyst to do a live

(34:48):
broadcast from the joint practice and for the most part,
and there were exceptions, but for the most part, the
answer was no. So we'll be down there tomorrow ten
until noon and bring you everything as it happens. We
have two more training camp shows next week. Bengals practice
in the afternoon starting next week, and so the schedule
is going to change a little bit. Instead of being

(35:09):
on at ten am, we're just gonna do our noon
to six block from the training camp practices on Monday
and Tuesday. We'll worry about that later tomorrow ten o'clock
in the morning, eight e Door and Window, Tony and
Mode Training Camp show, and of course on a Saturday night,
it's the Bengals and Bears at the event you originally
known as Paul Brown Stadium, kick off at seven o'clock

(35:31):
on ESPN fifteen thirty. I Will I'll say this, and
I would imagine you'll agree. This is a busy week
for the Bengals. Practice tomorrow with the Bears, game with
the Bears, one more preseason game. If you have and

(35:52):
I hate wishing the summer away, because summer's my favorite season,
but if you have spent almost every single day since
mid April just waiting for the season to get here.
With the season moved back week because of how the
calendar fell this year, the next three weeks are going
to be interminable. The freezing cold takes Guy. Fred Siegel

(36:17):
joins us next on ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports station.

Speaker 10 (36:22):
This report is sponsored by.

Speaker 1 (36:24):
I Down Bengal. It's pre season football. Will Joe Burrow
and the Bengals be ready to roar against Caleb Williams
and the Chicago Bears. It's a pig skin power struggle.
Get the goal live from Dan Or to Dave Laffat.
Coverage begins Saturday at five thirty pm. Entreem High Free
are the new and improved iHeartRadio or ESPN fifteen thirty

(36:48):
in the official home of the Cincinnati Bengoe.

Speaker 2 (36:51):
Toni is going to be on the call as well.
Just it's not like he doesn't work here.

Speaker 3 (36:55):
What's up, moegor ESPN fifteen thirty, Thank you so much
for listening. Speaking it's he joins us in forty minutes,
Latest training camp update, Brendanman and Jones on Baseball, Wise,
Money Sports, and maybe the largest and longest shadow in
Cincinnati sports. You know what it is, I will tell

(37:15):
you in fifteen minutes. It's a good classic sports talk
radio ts right there. One of my absolute favorite Twitter
slash x feeds is Freezing Cold Takes. And I don't
know if this is I don't know if this is good.
I don't know if this is bad. I don't know
if this is an indictment against me. I don't know
if it's a statement about h how accurate I've been

(37:38):
with predictions and takes. I've never been Freezing Cold Takes
Old takes Exposed. So Fred Siegel has for years run
this account which sort of exposes, and I think does
so in a playful way, exposes bad takes, takes that
ended up proven to be bad, or inaccurate predictions or
analysis that proved to be faulty. And he's got a

(38:01):
book and it's called Freezing Cold takes college football. He's
done a pro football one came out a couple of
years ago as well. It's an incomplete history of the
game's most inaccurate statements and predictions. And our buddy Jeremy
Round from Fox nineteen made the book, so we're excited
for him, excited for Fred. The book came out yesterday.
It is awesome to have you, Fred, Thanks so much
for doing this.

Speaker 2 (38:21):
How are you?

Speaker 12 (38:23):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (38:23):
Great?

Speaker 13 (38:23):
Thanks for having me.

Speaker 3 (38:25):
I'm sure there are folks in my audience, though not
that many I would imagine, but I'm sure there are
some who don't know what old takes exposed is, what
freezing cold takes is, So give me the thirty second encapsulation.

Speaker 13 (38:37):
Okay, Well, on social media, I have an x and
Instagram and a bunch of other of the social media platforms.
I basically it's pretty sickle. I post predictions or proclamations
made by mostly media members, mostly about sports, about that
turned out to be completely wrong, and as soon as

(38:58):
we can determine that they were wrong, I'll post it.
If it's something that's interesting enough.

Speaker 2 (39:06):
Is college football the sport that feeds your feed the most?

Speaker 13 (39:12):
Yeah, well, it's the perfect sport for bad prediction.

Speaker 8 (39:18):
By fall, But I don't know. It may be tied
with the NFL.

Speaker 13 (39:23):
Of what feeds the most, just because there's so many
discussions about the NFL, and there's so many people sending
me things about the NFL because it's the most popular sport,
But college football has the It's by far the gold
mine of cold takes in terms of the way it
structured and the way that people treat it. It's so

(39:43):
emotional about it, and the fact that there's so many teams,
there's so many players, there's just so many games, and
there's just so many narratives that you could put on
any game. It's so easy to overreact anything.

Speaker 3 (39:55):
You send me the book and I joke with a
coworker of mind, I'm like, he could have probably done two.
Cha is just on Ryan Day in Ohio State from
nearly two years ago when they lost to Michigan and
there was a lot there. Is there anybody, any figure
in college football that has lent itself, lent him or
herself to more freezing cold takes than Ryan Day in
the aftermath of Michigan twenty twenty four.

Speaker 13 (40:19):
I don't think so. I mean, maybe coaches certain coaches
when they're hired, there's an overwhelming positivity about them. I
would say, like Scott Frost when he was hired by Nebraska.
Everyone thought it was going to be so good there,
and it just fell on his face. But the Ryan
Day thing, what was interesting to me was how Ryan
Day was just completely written off and was treated like

(40:42):
he was going to be fired after that Michigan loss.
Was a really bad loss, but he had won so
many games. No other coach has ever been considered to
be fired for performance based reasons for doing.

Speaker 8 (40:56):
That good.

Speaker 13 (40:58):
And the fact that Ohio State had such a good
team and so many great players that to just assume
that they weren't going to do well in the playoffs
was kind of faulty within itself.

Speaker 3 (41:11):
I think there's some of us who you know, were
familiar with what you do on social media that thought
this was going to be a book that was sort
of limited to the social media age. What I liked
about this there's a blurb in there from one of
my all time favorite UC Bearcat football games, which is
when they beat ron Data and Wisconsin in nineteen ninety nine.
That's years before social media. So what is your favorite

(41:33):
sort of I don't know, pre social media, maybe pre internet.
Example of freezing cold takes in college football, well, there's
a few.

Speaker 13 (41:42):
I mean, one of my favorites is is the Sugar
Bowl in ninety three, which was between Miami and Alabama,
and Alabama was number two in Miami's number one. Back then,
he didn't always have a national championship game because there
was a Rose Bowl. Everyone was contracted different bowls for
different conferences.

Speaker 2 (42:02):
So it was it was a de facto national.

Speaker 13 (42:04):
Championship game and Alabama was just treated like they were
written off and everybody thought Miami was gonna pulverize them,
and that's what you. Miami had the dynasty going on
back then and Alabama killed him. But the takes during
that game was before it is unbelievable and I highlight
that in the book. But those were my favorite types

(42:25):
of things to research, uh, looking back at the old
newspapers and finding the old ones from before the social
media and sometimes even before the internet, which was the
case for that game. So that was a great one.
And uh, yeah, the Cincinnati one was really good.

Speaker 9 (42:41):
Uh.

Speaker 13 (42:42):
I don't I think Jimbo Fisher was the offensive cornery
that year.

Speaker 3 (42:46):
He was yeah, and that was a terrible UC team.
They had lost Detroit the week before. Ron Daane was
going to destroy him and he had a big game.
He also had a huge fumble in the end zone.
I helped tear down the goalpost that day. So that
that game that was being seeing a blurb about that
game wore my heart.

Speaker 13 (43:03):
Yeah yeah, I mean because they were I mean, Wisconsin
was probably favored by a Gazilian ployee yep.

Speaker 8 (43:09):
Uh and uh yeah, so they I think.

Speaker 13 (43:13):
They had a quarterback in there that wasn't that good.
They switched quarterbacks after that game, and then they won
the Rose Bowl.

Speaker 2 (43:19):
Uh yeah.

Speaker 3 (43:19):
And and the Bearcats I think won two, two or
three games that your Fred Siegel Freezing Cold Takes an
incomplete history of the game's most inaccurate statements and predictions.
Who is your your favorite? Who owns your favorite account
that you you know is just going to be a
gold mine during the college football season for for takes
that don't age.

Speaker 13 (43:38):
Well, oh yeah, I guess, uh cal heard, uh Tim Brando,
he's great with coaching hires and he always defended them.
And uh, I mean there's some new ones that have
come up who've wrote Risen up in the past years.

Speaker 8 (43:59):
Uh, some of those SEC guys.

Speaker 13 (44:02):
SEC might maybe, but the Coward's always there. And I
would say probably Brando that would be the two of
my favorites. But there's some other ones too.

Speaker 3 (44:18):
You know, in going through the book, I knew I
would see a lot of like Clay Travis and Aaron Torres,
and you know, those guys are great like college sports
take artists. I wasn't expecting to see like guys like
Aaron Boone. And obviously this is not I think when
Aaron Boon was managing the Yankee, But you got a
tweet from Aaron Boone about college football. Who is like,

(44:39):
whether it's college football or any other sport, like somebody
whose take you have used that like the average person
would think would have no connection to the sport they're
pining about, or even sports at all.

Speaker 13 (44:53):
Well, you sometimes it's politicians. Yeah, out of nowhere, we'll
say something about somebody, I mean, even the president.

Speaker 8 (45:02):
I mean back in the day, he has some good ones.

Speaker 13 (45:05):
Johnny Manziel randomly saying that Johnny Manziel is gonna be
great for the Browns in between whatever he posts about
was tweeting about at the time, like that type of thing,
but politicians probably, but Aaron Boone.

Speaker 1 (45:21):
He was he wasn't with.

Speaker 13 (45:22):
The Yankees then, Yeah, during that post, he was with
you again doing baseball, so he was posting about Yeah.
Surprisingly enough, he was posting about every game that was
being played, like whether it's NFL or he was very
active on Twitter at times. It's sometimes Alex Cora too
when he was Yeah, he was doing but I don't

(45:44):
know how much football, but he was acting very active
and very responsive. So yeah, sometimes that happened. It could
be an actor too, maybe, but I can't think of specifics.

Speaker 2 (45:54):
But yeah, so so obviously.

Speaker 3 (45:57):
And and look, there's a lot of sports talk hosts,
a lot of calumnists, a lot of people with podcasts
who have been the people that have gotten because I
think most folks when you when you like, you know,
you'll retweet something that they have put out there. Usually
it's you know, folks are good sports about it. When
you give opinions publicly, some of them are going to
be proven to be wrong, and and you highlight that
and it's done I think in a fun way for

(46:18):
the most part. Right, I don't know, But who's gotten
mad at you? Who's not had a sense of humor
about it.

Speaker 8 (46:26):
Well, I mean, I can't.

Speaker 13 (46:28):
I can't even remember. Back in the day there was
a bunch of high, high level people who got mad
at me that then realized about what you were talking about.
But people do get I'd say more of the writers
get mad at me about in the uh in my
d MS, I mean, which I don't. I don't share
my ideas, but some get really mad to the point

(46:48):
where I feel bad for them that they get really mad,
like it's got to be something going on in their life.
But I think, you know, the writers, like there's a
certain accounts, are certain platforms, like the guy from when
when Gedsin was around, Yeah, this is like five years ago.
I guess those guys did not like me at all,
and they used to really really really try to bug

(47:10):
me and and kind of very snarky about it. But uh,
more of the writers than anything, because they feel like
they're working hard and I'm coming in and just getting
a cheap shot out there, and that's really kind of
the way they feel.

Speaker 3 (47:26):
Uh yeah, I've I've dealt with that a little bit myself.
Fred Siegel Freezing Cold Takes and Incomplete History of the
Game is most inaccurate statements and predictions as as we
as we wait for the college football season to begin.
If you love the sport at all, and I promise you,
you will love this book, Fred. Where is the best
place for people to get it?

Speaker 13 (47:44):
You get Amazon? Any what place you get books? Really? Amazon,
Bars and Noble and in stores, I think, I mean,
I don't know how that works whether they're in every store,
but they should be in the stores. So but online,
certainly Amazon, that's probably the best place.

Speaker 2 (48:01):
But anywhere you can get books, all right.

Speaker 3 (48:03):
We tweeted out a link at Moweger. Friend, I know
you're doing a lot of these. I appreciate you making
time for us, man, Thanks so much, thank you. I
appreciate this book was a lot of fun, freezing cold
takes and incomplete history of the game's most inaccurate statements
and predictions. This is the second version of this type
of book. He's done one for the NFL. I don't

(48:23):
think there's a sport that lends itself to more bad takes,
and I've had my fair share of him than college football.
He does include what people said leading up to and
you've got to be like UC die Hard, I think
to remember this. Nineteen ninety nine, they play Wisconsin. That
was a bad U see team, and the week before

(48:47):
they played Troy and lost I think thirty one to
twenty four at Nippert Stadium. And what I remember about
that Saturday night is I went to that game by myself,
as engaged to my first wife, and she's like, nah,
we're not good. So the next week I go with
her and others to see him play Wisconsin and they

(49:07):
were enormous underdogs. Ron Dain you see that year when
three and eight Berkatz beat him seventeen to twelve. And
what I remember more than anything is the following week
they went to Ohio State and they actually led the
Buckeye seventeen to three before losing that game like thirty
one to twenty one, or I wouldn't have been thirty
one to twenty one, thirty one to twenty or thirty

(49:28):
one to twenty four, something like that. But yeah, they
lost to Troy the week before in front of maybe
a thousand people. Came back they played Wisconsin. The stands
were filled with Wisconsin fans, which he really couldn't tell
at first glance because they wear red. You see wins
fans storm the field. My buddy, the late great Rich

(49:51):
Wahlberg ran on the field with me. We get our
hands on the goalpost. Wisconsint guy gets in my face
and says something to the effect of, hey, remember last
time you guys graduated a basketball player. And I looked
at him and I said, well, let's talk during basketball season.
And that year Kenny Martin would break his leg and

(50:12):
Wisconsin would go to the Final Fours an eight seed.

Speaker 2 (50:14):
So karma karma for me, I guess.

Speaker 3 (50:17):
But anyway, it was fun to see that game included
in this book Freezing Cold Takes by Fred's See.

Speaker 2 (50:22):
I love that site.

Speaker 3 (50:23):
I love watching people get mad that their old takes
get reposted. If you're in the opinion game and you
can't have a sense of humor when somebody throws your
bad opinion or proven wrong opinion back at you, then
get out of the opinion game. Nineteen after four, speaking

(50:44):
of college football, the longest shadow in Cincinnati sports looms,
plus the Bengals are worth How much money will do
Wise money sports? With Brad Johnson, We've got to talk
about how Nick Krawl continues to not be able to
flip players and Tony Pike as well. Latest from Bengals
training camp. This is the fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 7 (51:01):
Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty traffic.

Speaker 14 (51:07):
There is still an accident on southbound seventy five over
at Western Avenue. Traffic through that area stop and go
back from seventy four. Also eastbound two seventy five after
Mineola Pike in accident blocks the right lane and kemper road.
An accident at Hamilton Avenue. I'm at Eazelic with traffic
from the UC Health traffic.

Speaker 2 (51:28):
A journey to La starts.

Speaker 1 (51:30):
Now.

Speaker 7 (51:31):
Get training camp coverage as it happens on the Official
Hall of the Bengals, ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 2 (51:40):
Station Plane, Earthwind and Fire hearing. It's not September yet,
right almost almost.

Speaker 3 (51:56):
We got your birthday next week, Tarn trying to skip
ahead past it's your birthday.

Speaker 2 (52:02):
Yeah, you know, once you get past her an age,
it is just you know, older Tarren turns forty one
next week.

Speaker 1 (52:08):
I hold, you have to tail itbody.

Speaker 3 (52:12):
Brandan, Mian and Jones on baseball in uh in thirty minutes,
I enjoyed.

Speaker 2 (52:17):
I enjoyed. Fred Siegel on college football.

Speaker 3 (52:21):
Tony was talking about this with me on Sincy three
sixty Scott Saderfield appearing on different lists of coaches on
the hot Seat.

Speaker 2 (52:28):
There is a very long shadow that.

Speaker 3 (52:30):
Looms over this UC football season, and it's the shadow
of last year. Like it's it's easy to forget. On
Halloween Night last year, if you're a UC fan, you
went to bed with your team seven and one in
the very very thick of the Big Twelve Championship race,

(52:50):
legitimate chance to make the Big Twelve Title game, a
schedule that in twenty twenty five felt like it had
broken for the better. Didn't have to play text Tech,
they were going to be featured on game day in
Salt Lake City where they were playing against Utah, and
they never won again. And I don't know at that

(53:11):
point that they had to win the Big Twelve or
play in the Big Twelve title game to make everybody
feel like the season was a smashing success. But you
had to win at least one, probably two. You couldn't
go winless the rest of the way, And so it
was a disappointing finish, exacerbated by the fact that the
way the end of the twenty twenty five season played

(53:33):
out mirrored the way the twenty twenty four end of
the season played out, and also last year's team felt
like it felt like a lot of work had been done,
kind of building toward twenty twenty five, Dante Corleone coming back,
Joe Royer coming back, them investing a lot in.

Speaker 2 (53:52):
The portal, recruiting very heavily in the portal.

Speaker 3 (53:55):
Guys they thought could come in and make a make
a difference, and it ended with a seven and six record,
a forgettable Bowl game appearance, at a whole bunch of
disheartening losses. At the end, Brendan sorosby state say which
one about Brendan, but it was a big deal to
I think everybody that he stayed to play for the

(54:15):
Bearcats in twenty twenty five, and so like unfortunately, the
shadow of last season sort of looms over this year.
Everybody that I have talked to, including what I talk
to myself, when asked about this year's team, I don't
know from what I've seen when I've gone to practice,
and I haven't had a chance to go as much
as I would like, But offensively, they've had a hard

(54:38):
time throwing the ball downfield. I think they're going to
be fine on the defensive line. Scott Saderfield has publicly
and privately talked about how much better he thinks his
secondary is going to be this year, But I don't know.
There certainly doesn't seem to be a lot of high hopes.
And I think it would be understandable, were forgivable if

(54:59):
this this year, because it kind of feels like rebuilding,
if they finished with a relatively meager win total, because
you know what, all right, fine, everything was building toward
twenty twenty five, and then we knew kind of hitting
the reset button twenty twenty six. Maybe there were gonna
be some some rough patches and they were gonna have

(55:20):
to take a step back and then build back toward
what they were in twenty twenty five, except that twenty
twenty five ended up being so underwhelming, and I know
things unfolded the way they did in twenty twenty four
as well. So I think when you talk about this season, unfortunately,
I think barring something unforeseen, which is winning nine ten

(55:41):
eleven games, which honestly I can't find anybody who thinks
UC is gonna do that this year, I think, no
matter what happens on the field this year, If they
are where I think most are gonna kind of project them,
which is five wins or six wins, it's not gonna
feel like enough. Why because they will have not escaped
the shadow of twenty twenty five. And so what is

(56:04):
Scott Saderfield have to win this year in order to
keep his job or lessen the pressure on him. I
don't know. I don't know if it's Bowl game or bust.
I don't know if it's you gotta win more games
than he did last year.

Speaker 2 (56:15):
I do not know.

Speaker 3 (56:16):
I do believe, though, it is going to be hard
for this year's team to separate itself from the failures
of last year's team. And let's be honest about that, man,
that last year's team was not considered a success. At
one point.

Speaker 2 (56:31):
It was. But you don't bring.

Speaker 3 (56:33):
Back all those guys, high priced guys, and you don't
bring into the program the players they brought in. They
had an NFL wide receiver in Cyrus Allen. They had
and I have no idea what's going on with Joe
up in Cleveland, but they had an NFL tight end
in Joe Royer. They had some high caliber guys back
on defense. They brought back their quarterback. They won seven games,

(56:53):
and so I think if had they finished the deal
and at least one let's say they finished with nine
wins or ten wins, maybe don't make the playoffs, but
you go, you know what, pretty fun year, pretty successful year.
I think you would take pretty much anything that happened
this season and you give them a pass for twenty
twenty six. But you have to earn passes.

Speaker 2 (57:13):
I don't think.

Speaker 3 (57:13):
Because of how the last two seasons unfolded, specifically last year,
that Scott Saderfield has a pass to cash in.

Speaker 2 (57:20):
We will see, at least with the public now.

Speaker 3 (57:23):
In terms of the administration, John Cunningham, I have no idea.
I don't know what the win total has to be
if they've made it about a certain win total. I
do know this that as this season gets underway two
weeks from Saturday, this team is going to have to
work really hard to escape the shadow of what happened
at the end of the year last year.

Speaker 2 (57:45):
The Bengals are worth seven and a half billion dollars.

Speaker 3 (57:49):
We'll talk about that on Wise Money Sports with Brad
Johanson from Omega Wealth Private Capital.

Speaker 7 (57:53):
Next Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic you See.

Speaker 14 (58:00):
Health Traffic Center at u See Health. They never miss
a beat. Your heart shouldn't either. If you have signs
of a cardiac rhythm disorder, don't wait to be seen.
Schedule online at ucehealth dot com.

Speaker 2 (58:10):
They're down at Bengal.

Speaker 1 (58:13):
It's pre season football. Will Choe Burrow and the Bengals
be ready to roar against Caleb Williams and the Chicgo Bears.
It's a pig skin power struggle. Get the goal live
from Dan Or to Dave Laffat. Coverage begins Saturday at
five thirty pm. Stream for free are the new and
improved Ihart Radio app or ESPN fifteen thirty, the official

(58:35):
home of the Cincinnati Bengals.

Speaker 3 (58:37):
Wednesdays, Mean Wise Money Sports with our guy Brad Johansson
from Omegawealth Private Capital, Back with Me and studio Fresh
from Phoenix.

Speaker 2 (58:45):
What's up?

Speaker 10 (58:47):
Yeah, Fresh from Phoenix.

Speaker 12 (58:48):
Phoenix is like one hundred and one hundred and fourteen
hundred and fifteen during the day. Yeah, and then when
we're walking back from dinner at like nine pm, so
it's like midnight your time, it's a cool one O
two three kind of but there's no humidity.

Speaker 10 (59:04):
It's a dry heat.

Speaker 12 (59:05):
Yes, my oven also a dry heat. I don't put
my head ache. Yeah yeah, but we didn't get it.
And they even got rain out there while you guys
were getting some rain here.

Speaker 1 (59:12):
Wow.

Speaker 10 (59:13):
Really yeah? Yeah, monsoon seasons so very good.

Speaker 2 (59:18):
We talk sports and business every single week.

Speaker 3 (59:21):
So NFL franchise valuations for twenty twenty six came out.
The Cincinnati Bengals bad news is least valuable NFL franchise
thes is at seven and a half billion dollars. Their
valuation has increased exponentially from a year ago, and they're
still worth more than pretty much every non football professional

(59:42):
sports franchise in the United States.

Speaker 12 (59:44):
It's what's before I even get it? What's your take
when you see this number that they go from five
point five billion to seven point four and you are
the worst?

Speaker 10 (59:55):
Okay, you're you're the cheapest.

Speaker 2 (59:57):
Yeah, you know what.

Speaker 3 (59:58):
It's it's the old joke the person who finishes last
to medical school.

Speaker 10 (01:00:01):
It's still a doctor, doctor, still a doctor.

Speaker 3 (01:00:04):
The least valuable NFL franchise owner is still worth seven
point four.

Speaker 12 (01:00:08):
Bill, Let's go to number one. So Dallas Cowboys are
worth fifteen point five billion. They're up. I think it
is probably twenty one percent. What are the Bengals of?
Thirty five percent increase for the Bengals in a year,
and this is b You're talking billions of dollars. And

(01:00:31):
the idea is everybody looks to the front office and go, golly,
you're worth seven point four billion. What are you doing
spend the money because it's it's not real money, true
football team, true retirement portfolios. Suddenly the Bengals have not
won anything, but suddenly they're two billion dollars worth more,

(01:00:57):
driven by media rights, league economics, revenue growth, stadium local
opportunities for revenue, sponsorship, merch, ticketing, and what drives values
is scarcity.

Speaker 10 (01:01:13):
They're still only thirty fifteen, so you are what you are.

Speaker 12 (01:01:17):
Shoot the Cowboys in one squat, but they're up. And
I think, if I'm not mistaken the number one sports
franchise anywhere of anything, I don't want anything, but you
see people wear Cowboys merch and Jerry says, he says

(01:01:39):
he wants to win. It's kind of what people say
about Mike Brown. He says he wants to win. How
do we do this? You're buying a piece of the scarcity,
I guess is what it is.

Speaker 2 (01:01:49):
So these are true first world problems. But what to
make the Bengals worth even more?

Speaker 12 (01:01:58):
Media? You're involved in that, Yeah, and there's changes in
Bengals media.

Speaker 10 (01:02:05):
Okay, revenue?

Speaker 12 (01:02:09):
Can you produce more with the product that you put
on the field, no matter what the stadium economics? How
do you feel about the stadium economics of this, because
I think I still own a seat license that is
not worth anything.

Speaker 3 (01:02:22):
Likewise, Yes, I have a love hate relationship with the
idea the taxpayers are going to fund professional sports stadiums.

Speaker 2 (01:02:31):
Yeah, I have a love hate relationship with it.

Speaker 3 (01:02:33):
I view it as, probably in this day and age,
a necessary evil. But do I wish that the people
who would benefit most from a stadium would pay for it?

Speaker 10 (01:02:41):
Yes?

Speaker 12 (01:02:41):
And those are owners of sports teams than winning? Winning
is like the forced thing.

Speaker 2 (01:02:46):
Yes?

Speaker 12 (01:02:47):
And do you remember when I told you about this
about Paul Brown when they went back to the Super
Bowls in the eighties, and it was, I don't know
whether we want to do this expensive to come down
and move the team and do all of that stuff.
It's not real money, but winning then produces the long term.

(01:03:08):
It's kind of the kind of the same thing that
we talk about. I don't know in retirement, are we
looking long term or we just looking short term kind
of thing?

Speaker 2 (01:03:17):
M and like, how do you boost your value? Yeah?

Speaker 12 (01:03:20):
How much money do I have? What's my money designed
to do? It's all a part of that. I think
the major factor in all of this is how long
do you hold on to it? What do you want
your money to do? And how long is it going
to last? Kind of thing that that's the most significant.

Speaker 2 (01:03:43):
So let's let's play make believe. Okay.

Speaker 3 (01:03:46):
So I mean there's whenever the Bengals are Badah, you hear,
folks just implore the Brown family to sell the team.
None of us believe that's ever going to happen to happen.
But like, there's valuation in there asking price. So let's
say the Bengals went on the market. You talk about scarcity.
Pro football teams don't go in the market all that much.

(01:04:07):
What could the asking price be? What could they fetch
if they put the team on the block.

Speaker 12 (01:04:11):
Well, so you just told me Brad at some point
four it is scarcity. So it's what's it what's it
worth to you? It's what somebody will pay for it.
So if you were to do it on the block
right now, somebody's going to go, I can do it
better than the current and front office. Does it fetch
eight billion? Does it fetch nine billion? If if you're

(01:04:34):
saying the Cowboys are worth fifteen and a half and
I've got this here and I can do all of
those things that you say, I can merch, I can
change the stadium, I'm guessing I think it would be
closer to nine billion than it would fetch if somebody
is going to buy the team right now, let's.

Speaker 2 (01:04:53):
Go to the West coast.

Speaker 3 (01:04:54):
So we have a lot of folks listening to us
who like to flip houses.

Speaker 2 (01:04:58):
Some people you do. Some people flip sports franchises.

Speaker 3 (01:05:02):
Mark Walter buys the Lakers at evaluation of roughly ten
billion dollars. Less than a year later, he sells his
shares reportedly for twelve point five bill That's a two
point five billion dollar increase on paper in less.

Speaker 2 (01:05:18):
Than a year. Gotta love it.

Speaker 3 (01:05:19):
So, uh, that's extraordinary, that's extraor that's that's ultra flipping.
This guy's in the sports business Hall of Fame as
far as I'm concerned.

Speaker 10 (01:05:28):
Do do those ultra flippers listen to this program.

Speaker 2 (01:05:31):
I don't know, we'll find out of them. I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:05:35):
Hold it.

Speaker 12 (01:05:35):
And now there's whole the whole bus family. Are we
selling our shares? Are we keeping it? Genie saying no,
we're not selling our shares? How much money do I
have to do it? It's same thing with Bengals stuff.
What is my money designed to do?

Speaker 2 (01:05:52):
So?

Speaker 12 (01:05:52):
Two million dollar retirement portfolios and automatically successful retirement.

Speaker 10 (01:05:57):
I see people come.

Speaker 12 (01:05:58):
In with ten million, who of a lot more problems
trying to solve what they're spending than somebody who comes
in with five hundred thousand and goes, this is what
I got, This is what I need.

Speaker 10 (01:06:09):
This is what I'm going to do.

Speaker 12 (01:06:11):
What matters is how much the income can produce, how
much volatility you can withstand? How are we paying taxes
on this? How much principle do you have to preserve? Ultimately?
What you want to leave behind? This is you know,
I'm sorry, I'm going to pitch it. We talk about
the vital report all the time. That's your volatility. What's
your income? How do you deal with your taxes? How
are your asset preservations? What do you need to make

(01:06:34):
sure that you stay to pay in case you get sick.
And what's your legacy plan? So if you're going to
sell it in two years, if you're going to live
for two years, how much is that going to move
down to the next generation or how much goes to
Uncle Sam?

Speaker 3 (01:06:47):
All Right, so this dude can flip the La Lakers
for two point five billion dollars. None of us have
that kind of coin. But are there things that regular
folks like me can flip in a short amount of
time and earn a pretty Yes?

Speaker 12 (01:07:01):
It's simple answer. Yes, you can flip quickly. There are
things that you can. Am I going to tell you no,
you can. You can flip quickly and earn. What happens
in the market, what happens to your family? Do you
get sick? Are there other assets? Do you have liquidity
if you're going to flip something right now? And whether
or not it actually makes sense?

Speaker 2 (01:07:22):
Like I I would like to flip houses. I'm good
with tools.

Speaker 10 (01:07:25):
I would love to flip houses your hand. No, I'm
not good.

Speaker 3 (01:07:28):
Like, get get my handy, roll my sleeves up, get
my hands dirty, do that sort of stuff.

Speaker 10 (01:07:32):
You've got plenty of time to do that too.

Speaker 3 (01:07:34):
I have no time, that's the probably no time to
do that, and it just it does seem like a
lot of work, and in my free time, I love
doing work.

Speaker 10 (01:07:41):
Okay, so hire the experts.

Speaker 1 (01:07:43):
What if?

Speaker 12 (01:07:43):
What if you if you have the liquidity and you
can move the money to flip. This is the same
thing with retirement, you do. I can do my own investments.
I got this thing figured out. Okay, what's hot? I
listened to all the market stuff. I know where I
can go, but I don't have the time to do it.
You hire experts to say, let me help you with
your vitals, your volatility, your income, your taxes.

Speaker 15 (01:08:06):
If you're going to flip, can you financially hire some
guy to do all the stuff that you go or
are you going to walk in the house and go crap, dude,
you didn't do this right.

Speaker 10 (01:08:17):
I could have done this.

Speaker 12 (01:08:18):
Well, it's whether the money is there and you have
the liquidity when something what if happens?

Speaker 3 (01:08:26):
So I want to ask you one more question about
this guy who's normals.

Speaker 2 (01:08:30):
So this guy is like the Feds are looking into him.

Speaker 10 (01:08:33):
Oh yeah, I love that.

Speaker 3 (01:08:34):
Because of billions of dollars of loans and financial arrangements,
and so a lot of folks have said, he's doing
this because he's being investigated by the FEDS.

Speaker 2 (01:08:44):
So how does this play a role?

Speaker 3 (01:08:47):
Hopefully none of us are going to be investigated by
the FEDS when I start flipping houses.

Speaker 2 (01:08:51):
The Feds are going to have no role of me
flipping houses.

Speaker 10 (01:08:53):
What did I just say?

Speaker 12 (01:08:54):
Liquidity matters because if you're dealing with the FED saying
so billionaire can own billions assets, you still got a
liquidity problem, Especially if you're dealing with the issue of
the FEDS coming in. You have to understand you may
be forced to sell something if somebody's coming in and saying, oop,
you didn't do this right. And here's the problem with financials.

(01:09:17):
If you don't do it right every single you're not
allowed to make mistakes in the financials. So income and
liquidity separately. Long term asset growth, what pays the bills?
What can grow? And am I doing it the right way?
Because when you do it the wrong way it can cost.

Speaker 10 (01:09:38):
You like that. That's why you got to get your
vitals checks.

Speaker 12 (01:09:41):
Volity, income volatility, I think it's fullward income taxes, asset preservation, legacy.
You have to make sure that you do it right
every single time. Unfortunately, Mo, you and I don't look
like it, but we're probably going to live another thirty
years and you would kind of like your money to

(01:10:01):
last until your last.

Speaker 3 (01:10:03):
Breath would be great. We'll see when that last breath comes.
Omega Wealth, Private Capital, Owprivatecapitol dot com. Why is money sports?
Talking about the business of sports? Every single week? We
talk with Tony Pike every hour. Bengals Training Camp are board.

Speaker 7 (01:10:16):
Next Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty traffic from the UC Health trip.

Speaker 3 (01:10:25):
Tony Pike is with us. No Bengals training camp practice today.
There is a joint practice tomorrow ten am. Tony and
I will be there for the AE Door and Window
Tony and Moe Training Camp show. Yesterday at the at
the end of practice, we had a chance to chat
with Demetrius Knight, and I root hard for him, and
I root hard for Breck Carter despite all the criticism
that we've all levied against those guys, because I think

(01:10:45):
they were thrust in a very unenviable situation last year,
thrown to the wolves, not much of a safety net.

Speaker 2 (01:10:53):
This year, those guys have had a great camp.

Speaker 3 (01:10:55):
Yeah, but I also feel like there's some really good
things happening below those on the depth chart at their position.

Speaker 2 (01:11:02):
Yeah.

Speaker 11 (01:11:03):
The guy that stands out to me so far, Orren Burks,
I think has made some really really good plays. And
there's a cast of players. But you mentioned that the
Demitrious Night conversation, you asked them about the depth below.
They're confident in what they have, you know, last year.
And I think one of the coolest things from Demetrious
Night yesterday how self aware he was about last year. Sure,

(01:11:23):
like he didn't run from it, like one good last
year and he knows why. He's trying to explain why.
And again he's had a great, great preseason. You got
to do it in the regular season. But he's just
so self aware and you could tell like the leadership
that he's taken going into year two. And I feel like,
not just next to Barrett Carter, but I feel like

(01:11:45):
those other guys on the depth chart as well are
kind of feeding off that. And it just feels like
a group of guys who are growing in their confidence.
And when you get that, it can be dangerous.

Speaker 2 (01:11:56):
Yeah, I would agree. Tony Pike back with me.

Speaker 3 (01:11:58):
By the way, the interview we did Yesterday with Demetrius
Night is available on the iHeartRadio app and it is terrific.
Tony Back with Me at five forty five eight Dorn Window,
Tony and Moe Training Camp Show Tomorrow morning at ten
live from Tomorrow's Bengals Bears joint practice on ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 2 (01:12:13):
Brendiman and Jones on Baseball is next. This record is
sponsored by Taco Bell. Ready for some football? We are
borrow to Chase happens here.

Speaker 8 (01:12:25):
This is the official home of the Bengals, ESPN fifteen thirty,
Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 3 (01:12:31):
There you go, Thanks very much. This is ESPN fifteen
thirty on Oeger. Thanks for listening today. Jamar Chase was
ranked as the sixteenth best player in the NFL. If
Joe Burrow plays and Jamar had some amazing games with
Joe Flacco playing quarterback, his Thursday night performance against the

(01:12:53):
Pittsburgh Steelers was a virtuoso If Jamar Chase and Joe
Burrow play all the game that matter together, Jamar ain't
going to be the sixteenth best in the NFL one
hundred Top one hundred, and Joe Burrow is going to
be closer to like the top five there you go.
Put that in the freezing cold takes Q if you will.
My name's Maaggar. This is ESPN fifteen thirty. Thanks for

(01:13:16):
listening today. I got a Bengals thing. We got to
get to here in just a second. The Internet is
about to explode, which is kind of why the Internet exists,
for people to lose their mind over certain things. And like,
I am a big fan of a lot of things
happening in college sports right now, but even I will
point to and discuss the absurdity of some things happening

(01:13:39):
in college sports. So a judge in Louisiana has granted
a group and I'm reading here from Pete Damil, friend
of the show. Pete Damil, a judge in Louisiana has
granted a group that includes sixteen football players, including several
in NFL training camps this summer, a restraining order that
allows them to return the college sports this season. According

(01:14:02):
to a story that Pete has written along with somebody
else and I got a scroll, I totally screwed. A
bunch of football players, including some ruin camps this year,
have sued to be allowed to come back and play
college football. We are seeing this in college basketball. But
in this case, you have guys who are in a

(01:14:23):
handful of players who are currently in NFL training camps.

Speaker 2 (01:14:28):
This according to both Pete Tamil and Good God.

Speaker 3 (01:14:37):
I sometimes I rely on the Internet to give me
the name of somebody and I can't do it right now.
So off to an awesome start. So the Internet's losing
its mind over this. Internet exists to lose its mind.
Even I will admit to the absurdity of this, and
I am a proponent of many things happening in college

(01:14:58):
sports right now. Dan Dan Murphy is the other person here.
Pete says his story is coming out here very soon
and will have some of the names involved. But among
those that he is reporting Daiquon Wright, who played for
ole Miss last year, Xavier Harris, and South Carolina safety
DQ Smith. So you have players who are actively in

(01:15:20):
NFL training camps right now, and a judge has granted
them a restraining order that will allow them to return
to college sports this season. And so everybody, understandably so
is going to opine on this, and many will lose
their minds over this, and you could understand why here's

(01:15:43):
something that could happen though it's unrealistic. The ones who
are going to complain about the ones who complain most
about the direction that college sports has gone in are
college coaches. And many of their gripes are very legitimate
and can be, you know, easily, not just understood, but
you could you could see where they're coming from, and

(01:16:05):
you probably agree with them. So here's something that can happen,
but won't. We'll all lose our minds over this. Coaches
will lose their minds over this, People who care about
college sports will lose their minds over this. But I
know all it takes is one but college coaches will
let these guys come back to school. And so, like,

(01:16:25):
if you want to enact change, sometimes you have to
take dramatic or drastic measures. And I don't know how
this would fall under the umbrella of collusion, but like,
if you don't want these guys playing college football, then
have coaches in gms not give these guys a chance
to play college football. These coaches are paid to win

(01:16:46):
football games. These general managers are paid to assemble rosters
that will help coaches win football games. And so there
probably isn't a coach in college football who's going to
say no to one of these guys if they have
a chance to get them, assuming they would find room
on their rossure for them. But if you want like
these guys tonop like college football. Really it's it's out

(01:17:07):
of the hands of Congress. At the moment, courts are
obviously not getting in the way. The n CNBLA can
barely get a victory in court. Just have your favorite
college coach say no to players who have participated in
an NFL training camp. Or what the NCNAA could have
done is just allow the class of twenty two guys
five years of eligibility, and they would have saved themselves

(01:17:28):
a summer's worth of headaches. The Athletic dot Com Austin
mock He does this every year. He's got a projection model,
and a lot of publications do this, but he uses
an NFL projection model to provide an early look at

(01:17:49):
what to expect. He writes specifically about each conference separately.
I'm making this about the AFC. He uses his NFL
projection model to provide an early look at what to
expect in the AFC, and so, based on his projection model,
the Baltimore Ravens have a seventy three percent chance of

(01:18:09):
making the postseason, and they're his projection model. What they
do is they they repeat this process. They they take
into account various metrics to forecast the quality of each team.
They simulate each game of the regular season and playoffs
until a Super Bowl champion emerges, and they repeat this

(01:18:31):
process one hundred thousand times, so one one hundred thousand
simulations in the AFC. The average number of wins the
Baltimore Ravens end up with is ten point nine. That's
highest of anybody in the AFC. Right behind them Buffalo
ten point seven, bills a seventy three point four percent

(01:18:54):
chance of making the playoffs. New England next ten point three,
sixty eight point two two fourth. The Bengals ten point
three again won one hundred thousand simulations, So the Bengals
averaging out based on one hundred thousand simulations ten point
three wins and they make the playoffs sixty four point

(01:19:15):
eight percent of the time with four percent Super Bowl lots.
What stands out when you read this piece it's at
the Athletic dot Com, is no AFC team is forecasted
to reach eleven wins. Now, I would bet a decent
amount of money that somebody in the AFC is going
to have eleven wins. Somebody will, maybe it's the Bengals.

(01:19:36):
They're over under his ten and a half. But while
he has no team winning eleven games, he has eleven
AFC teams that are pegged to win at least eight,
and he's got nine that are pegged to win at
least nine, which means that more than half of the
teams in the AFC are projected by his model, projected

(01:19:58):
to finish above five hundred. This illustrates how good the
AFC is going to be this year, or I guess
I should put it, how good the AFC is expected
to be this year. You know, last year, it was
one of the things we talked about a lot, was
how you know, one of the reasons why the Bengals

(01:20:18):
season was so disappointing was the AFC really felt like
it was up for grabs. Bill's kind of took a
step back. Kansas City took a number of steps back.
Pittsburgh wasn't great, Baltimore wasn't very good. A healthy Joe
Burrow and the Bengals maybe could have seriously contended in
a year where the one seed was earned by the
Denver Broncos and their quarterback didn't even play in the

(01:20:39):
AFC Championship game, but the better half of the league.
I think most expect for it to be the AFC.
So what it does is it illustrates how loaded the
top of the conferences. The good news is you don't
see a lot of these teams that are projected to
win nine and a half ten or ten and a
half games. You don't see that many of them on

(01:21:00):
the Bengal schedule. We've talked a lot about how easy
the Bengal schedule is, but it also illustrates how little
margin for error there is going to be in the AFC. Now,
you might argue, well, but in the division, Pittsburgh is
not that likely to really contend. Some would disagree with that,
The Browns aren't even close to being ready to contend.

(01:21:24):
And then there's folks like me who kind of believe
the Baltimore Ravens are a little overhyped. I'd be unsurprising
if they made the postseason. I think it wouldn't be
shocking if they won the division, but I think many
are giving that team a little bit more credit than
it deserves. Still, the goal this year is to have
the best possible record, Maybe get a one seed, play

(01:21:45):
as many home games as possible, go into the playoffs
with ahead of steam. Maybe rest some guys week eighteen
because you've locked into your seed, Or play games toward
the end of the season where you're not scratching and
cloging for your playoff life but you're playing for seeding,
or you've clinched to playoff berth, but you're trying to
win a division title, that sort of thing.

Speaker 2 (01:22:03):
If you look at how.

Speaker 3 (01:22:04):
Crowded, and again these are computer simulations, they're not real life,
but I think when you look at this, it kind
of illustrates how small of a margin for error even
contending teams are going to have, which means if you
get off to a slow start, it could be more
difficult to recover because of how good the top of

(01:22:25):
the conference is supposed to be. Or if you have
a mid season loll if you just you get through
the first part of the season, then you get into
the dog days and you lose three in a row
or four out of five, that sort of thing. In
a year like this, with this half of the league
as deep as it looks like it is, or as
good as it looks like it is at the top.

(01:22:47):
It's going to be more difficult to recover from a
mid season lull or if you've done what the Bengals
have done the last couple of years, and more so
in twenty twenty four than twenty twenty five. But dig
a hole and then try to author this last gasp,
you know, desperate dash to the postseason and you try

(01:23:09):
to catch up and you try to come from low.
It's going to be harder to do, perhaps with a
conference this good. So I make this about the Bengals health.
I know I've dwelled on this a lot. This has
been a great training camp in preseason. Why we've had
no bad health news Shamar Stewart aside, that's the storyline

(01:23:30):
for the next couple of weeks. Tomorrow, with the practice
with the Bears Saturday, the game against the Bears Friday
against Philadelphia, nobody of any major consequence could play. Their
greatest asset right now is really good health. And then
you add to it, it feels like they've got a
lot of depth at a lot of different positions. And
I know we will discuss the offensive line in particular

(01:23:52):
the backups, but with such little margin for error with
a top of the conference that seems to be really
really good, with nine teams in your conference that this
simulation projects to finish above five hundred. I'll tell you what, man,

(01:24:14):
I'm protecting my best asset and I'm gonna use that
to get off to a great start. And as much
as you could say, well, wait a minute, their track
record isn't getting off to a great start. Look, man,
if Zach Taylor and Joe Burrow and the continuity of
the offense, if they can't figure out a way to
function well enough to win some games early with an
improved defense, then what are we doing? But it's gonna

(01:24:36):
be crowded the margin for error. Bengals nearly did it
two years ago. They were four and eight and came
this close to making the postseason. That ain't gonna work
this year. Not gonna work this year. It's the better
half of the league, a lot of depth. Gar Reader
at the Athletic dot Com. Joey Evado being the GM

(01:25:00):
at the Reds would be fun. It would also be
like the most redzy thing ever. That plus dates you
need to know if you like the Cyclones and Tony Pike,
latest from training camp next ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 7 (01:25:13):
Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic.

Speaker 2 (01:25:19):
From the uce Pike.

Speaker 3 (01:25:20):
One more live training camp report at five forty five.
Don't forget tomorrow morning, ten o'clock the AE, Door and
Window Tony and Mode Training Camp Show on ESPN fifteen
thirty Live live as the Bengals and Bears conduct a
practice with each other.

Speaker 2 (01:25:37):
Hopefully it includes a fight. Why not? Right? Why not?
Like these?

Speaker 3 (01:25:45):
The conditions are ripe for a fight because a in
a preseason game, if you get into a fight with somebody,
there's repercussions. Those are sanctioned NFL events. Nothing happened to
Aaron Donald, I believe a few years ago when he
tried to fight like the entire Bengals team. A fight
in a practice carries with it no league sanctions. So

(01:26:06):
let's do it. Let's go see the Bengals embarss scrab tomorrow.
Sign me up ten o'clock tomorrow morning with Tony. Can't
wait for that one more time? Tarn give me Joey
Vado with Brian Kenny on the MLB Network yesterday, Answering
questions from fans from.

Speaker 4 (01:26:24):
Brenda who asked, why don't you come back and be
the hitting coach or just come back in any form?
We need you out. If there's a Reds fan, we
need you who we is? Will you consider I'll elaborate
on that. Do you want to coach or manage or
get back in the game officially?

Speaker 5 (01:26:39):
No, I don't thank you for the any time you
want it, anytime you're wanted. It's an honor. But I
get to do this. I get to come here and
hang out, and I'm just not motivated to hop on
a plane and head all over the country. And most importantly,
to serve the hitter, you have to spend time in
the minor leagues.

Speaker 4 (01:26:57):
Okay, Oh, you'd want to get an apprenticeship, you would
have way up.

Speaker 2 (01:27:00):
But yeah, how about front office?

Speaker 4 (01:27:01):
If they want a lot of guys dabble in the
front office or former players, and then you can kick
your spots.

Speaker 5 (01:27:06):
Yeah, if they want to give me the Reds job,
I'll take it.

Speaker 2 (01:27:08):
You've bean running the club. Yeah, just give me the
GM off. All right, there we go, we'll make news.
All right, there you go. Joey Vada with Brian Kenny.

Speaker 3 (01:27:15):
Yesterday, Internet was having a lot of fun with this yesterday,
and like I think, Joey Vado, I am, I am
not qualified. I don't think any one of us is
to get inside the head of Joey Evado and predict
what he's thinking when he says stuff. But I don't
think he just says anything off the cough. I don't
think he says anything that isn't being given some thought.

(01:27:37):
I don't know if he was legitimately campaigning for the job.
I do think it is plausible that he was offering
a commentary on the job being done by the person
who has the job. He was referring to, meaning Nick Crawl,
if the Reds were fifteen over five hundred, if the
Reds were streaking toward the postseason, if they were leading

(01:28:00):
the division, if they were bona fide title contenders. Joey's
not talking about the Reds job. So he may be
telling you that he knows it's going to be open
the Reds job. He may be telling you the person
in that job right now ain't getting it done, so
why not hire me. I don't know what the specifics

(01:28:21):
of his message are. Maybe it's I want to run
the Reds, but there I cannot help. But think that
there is something there. I've said I've said one thing
more frequently than anything else on this show since it started.
In sports, I ask one of two things. Ideally, both

(01:28:43):
be good or be interesting. It's awesome if you're both.
You gotta be one or the other. The Reds are
not good. I'm not really sure right now how interesting
they are. The Tito Francona experience seems stale. There's just
a frustration with the fact that as an organization, as fans,

(01:29:06):
we all feel like we're on this hamster wheel of
unending mediocrity. I'm all for anything that shakes things up
a little bit, that reinvigorates the fan base, that provides
something interesting. Joey Vado working for the Reds in any
capacity is interesting. Now he has shot down the idea
of hitting coach that sort of thing, but like just

(01:29:29):
the concept, as unrealistic as it may be. The idea
of Joey Vado running a Major League Baseball franchise that
in itself is interesting, running this one even more interesting.
So sign me up for interesting. But admit this, we
all love Joey Evado. I think he spent the last

(01:29:50):
few years of his career winning the few holdovers who
held against him, the stuff like well he walks too much,
or how much money he made, Like Joey Vado is
a belo, lod revered figure. His jersey numbers should be retired.
He'll be in Cooperstown one day. Joey Vado is one
of my five favorite all time Cincinnati Reds players. But

(01:30:12):
let's be honest, the Reds just hiring Joey Vado would
be a very on brand thing to do for this franchise.
It would be very red zy because what if so
many of us wanted the Reds to do. Look, take
a look at your operation and then take a look
at the operation in Milwaukee. Take a look at the

(01:30:32):
operation in Tampa, take a look at the operation at
times in Cleveland. Look at these markets where okay, there's
maybe some financial disadvantages, but the teams are always good.
Like I don't know if Nick Krawl is going to
be out of a job. I don't know if the
Red's going to shake up their front office. But for me,
the first thing I'm doing is and I've already started

(01:30:53):
this process. If I'm running the Reds, I'm looking at
the Milwaukee Brewers going like who do they have who's
their number two, who's their number three? Who's the guy
working through their system like Nick Krawl worked through the
Red system that we could poach and put in a
decision making capacity here. How about turning over some stones,

(01:31:16):
how about not promoting from within? How about mining these
organizations that seem to consistently do what the Reds can't
see who they got see if you can get him here,
That's I think what we all agree the red should do.
Simply hiring Joe Evado because he's Joe Evado would seem

(01:31:36):
like a very on brand thing to do for the Reds. Yes,
he's a franchise great, Yes he's a beloved figure.

Speaker 2 (01:31:44):
But why are you hiring him?

Speaker 3 (01:31:46):
Are you hiring him because you think his baseball mind,
his brilliant baseball mind as a player, could translate into
successful work in the front office, being a guy who
could helm, if you will, an entire baseball operation.

Speaker 2 (01:32:01):
Okay?

Speaker 3 (01:32:01):
Or is it hell Joey Vada wants to be the GM.
That'd be fun that get people talking. Would it surprise
you if you learn that the Cincinnati Reds were hiring
somebody for an important decision making capacity just because they
are who they are, They're beloved, and they'll get people excited. Look,
I love Joey Vado, and there is a big, big,

(01:32:23):
big part of me that would love to see him
involved with the Reds in some way, shape or form,
because I think he's smart, I think he's interesting, I
think he has a great perspective. But even if he
had legitimate interest in working for this franchise, even if
he had legitimate interest in running this franchise, I'm not
making that decision until I cast a wide net. I

(01:32:43):
have begged the Reds to do this on multiple occasions
over the years. Cast a wide net. Hire from outside,
talk to people with different perspectives, find out what they're
doing in Milwaukee, find out what they're doing in Tampa.
Find out what they're doing in play that they're successfully

(01:33:04):
competing for championships, division titles, competing for postseason spots every
single year. Turn over a lot of stones, talk to
a lot of people, have a wide list of candidates,
and at the end of it, if like there's a
role for Joey Vado or if he emerges as the
guy you want to hire, cool, But it would seem

(01:33:24):
very Redz to just go ahead and go, Uh, Joey's interested. Cool, Joey,
you're the guy that's no knock on Joey. It's a
statement about how we expect the Reds to do things,
and it's a statement about how the Reds shouldn't do things. Uh,
if you love the Cyclones, dates you need to know.

Speaker 7 (01:33:45):
Next Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic from the UC Hill.
You found Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen.

Speaker 3 (01:33:55):
Thirty Tony Pike in ten minutes, a few Reds roster move,
some items to discuss in just a second. The Cincinnati
Cyclones today announced their promotional schedule ahead of the twenty
twenty six twenty twenty seven season. The home schedule begins
excuse me in just a couple of months, as Cincinnati
will host the Bloomington Bison on first face off at

(01:34:18):
the Heritage Bank Center.

Speaker 2 (01:34:19):
The play by play voice of the Cincinnati.

Speaker 3 (01:34:22):
Cyclones is our guy, Rudy Hodgson to talk about this
year's promotional schedule.

Speaker 2 (01:34:26):
Rudy, awesome to have you, good afternoon.

Speaker 8 (01:34:29):
Yeah, it's been a while, great to hear from you.
Excited for the new season to roll around, happy.

Speaker 2 (01:34:34):
To be here.

Speaker 3 (01:34:35):
Give me an idea of some of the standout highlights
of this year's Cyclones promotional schedule.

Speaker 8 (01:34:42):
Absolutely. I mean, we got the old favorites, Teddy Bird
Toss is coming back, we got our throwback night. We're
going to be you can believe it's celebrating the twenty
fifth season of the Cyclones here in Cincinnati, so we'll
have a pretty nice celebration.

Speaker 2 (01:34:56):
On that night. But we also got Marvel.

Speaker 8 (01:34:58):
We got some new stuff as well that we're excited
to introduce to our great fans.

Speaker 2 (01:35:05):
But I think I'm most.

Speaker 8 (01:35:06):
Excited for our Cony bobblehead giveaway night with our good
friends at Skyline Chile. So that's that's gonna be awesome.

Speaker 2 (01:35:13):
You can't beat that.

Speaker 3 (01:35:14):
A grand total of nineteen giveaways and ten specialty jerseys.
Have you memorized all ten specialty jerseys?

Speaker 8 (01:35:22):
Yeah, let me rattle them off for you.

Speaker 2 (01:35:24):
No, I'm just kidding.

Speaker 8 (01:35:26):
I know the hits, but unfortunately I am not a robot.
Gotta I gotta, you know, maybe do some homework before
I start rattling them all off. But I do have
some favorites, that's for sure.

Speaker 2 (01:35:36):
Give me the favorites. What are they?

Speaker 14 (01:35:38):
Well?

Speaker 8 (01:35:39):
My favorite is this year for military Appreciation night, We're
doing top gun jerseys. We're gonna have the boys skate
out on the ice for warm ups in the av eaters.
So it's gonna be awesome to combine one of all
what is already one of our favorite nights, but also
put a nice cinematic twist to it. So there's one
and then, I mean, you can't go wrong with roback.

(01:36:00):
Everybody loves that old school logo.

Speaker 1 (01:36:01):
Everybody loves, you know.

Speaker 8 (01:36:04):
Just kind of the memories of the Kelly Cup titles.
So I love the looks that we're going for, so
hopefully we can replicate some of that magic of eight
and twenty ten here pretty soon.

Speaker 3 (01:36:14):
Walk me through when camp starts and give me a
brief snapshot of how you think this team is going
to be and what you think is Prospects for a
better season in twenty six and twenty seven.

Speaker 8 (01:36:28):
Are absolutely I mean, I think one of the biggest,
the biggest bright spots is this team is going to
be a really nice combination of young but also a
veteran scoring presence. Expect a lot of goals from this team.
We have a pretty big announcement that I can tease
coming off Friday as far as the player that is

(01:36:49):
going to be joining the Cyclones that has some incredible experience,
some NHL experience as well, and he's going to be
coming Cincinnati. This is a name that people are going
to know, people are going to love, and we are very,
very excited about what coach was Lowski is trying to build.
Training camp is middle of September. I'll trickle into October

(01:37:09):
with some of the players that are going to be
up in Toronto with the mic bel Leaves and the Marleys.
But you know, I say it every time we talk,
this isn't it's minor league hockey, but it really isn't.
These guys are so close to making their way up
and there's a lot of talent and you'd be surprised
how many of these guys you could see wearing maple

(01:37:31):
Leafs jerseys at some point, very very soon. It's an
exciting setting time to be a Cyclone.

Speaker 2 (01:37:34):
Fan all right.

Speaker 3 (01:37:36):
Season start, so home schedule kickstarts on October the twenty fourth.
Cyclones and Bloomington first face off. I have the annual
shut Out the Hate Night, which is going to feature
the first specialty jersey in the season. That is on
November the sixth, We've got Country Night, We've got the
Shrek Mattinee. I'm for more daytime hockey. By the way,
just tell the higher ups more another players don't love

(01:37:58):
them more day time I'm pucks.

Speaker 2 (01:38:00):
I'm here for that.

Speaker 8 (01:38:02):
You'd be surprised how many of the guys like the
mattin a games. I actually think it's one of the
reasons why we're doing it. Because fans like it. The
players love it more rest for them, so I'm all
for it. Also means I get to go home a
little earlier.

Speaker 2 (01:38:14):
Yeah, I can't argue with that.

Speaker 3 (01:38:16):
Rudy, Well, chat again as the season gets closer, Man,
we'll be paying attention to your announcement on Friday as well.

Speaker 2 (01:38:20):
Thank you, as always, Thank you very much.

Speaker 8 (01:38:23):
Good talking to you.

Speaker 3 (01:38:24):
That's Rudy Hodgson. He is the play by play voice
of the Cincinnati Cyclones. All right, a couple of Reds
news items Reds and Cardinals coming up tonight. Ron Marinaccio
has elected free agency in lieu of accepting the outright
assignment to Triple A Louisville. Best of luck to him. Meanwhile,

(01:38:44):
Tony Santion is gonna They're hoping to have him back
on Friday, activate him on Friday for the first game
of that series against the Diamondback. Spencer Steer going to
have a follow up on his wrist this weekend. Cincinnati
is also signed pitcher Darius Vines. Darius Vine sounds like
a cheesy like is it somalier? Why an expert? Well,

(01:39:09):
then people like sticks their nose in the glass and
has all these like impossible to approve opinions on why
Terius mine? Anyways? A pitcher made two starts to the
Braves in twenty twenty four. They have been pitching in
the Mexican League game tonight six forty seven hundred WLW Bengals.
No practice today, Tomorrow joint practice with the Bears. We

(01:39:30):
go on the air at ten o'clock from tomorrow's training
camp practice eighty Door and Window Tony and Mo Training
Camp Show. We have been busy. I have been I
felt like I've been flying by the seat of my pants.
We have not had time to take phone calls today
because we've been so busy. My apologies, but you will
hear Tony Pike on the training camp practice.

Speaker 7 (01:39:50):
Next Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty traffic.

Speaker 1 (01:39:57):
From the UC Help you used to be in fifteen
thirty with the latest from Bengals training camp, brought you
by Skyline. Hilly feeling good. It's Skyline time on your
official home of the Cincinnati Bengals. He has to be
in fifteen thirty.

Speaker 3 (01:40:16):
Tony Pike joins us once an hour with live training
camp reports and a lot to talk about as things
unfold today. But there's gonna be a lot to talk
about tomorrow with a joint practice with the Chicago Bears.
And I guess my first question is will we see
any fights?

Speaker 11 (01:40:27):
I'll tell you what if you follow along to anything
that's happened across the NFL with some of these joint practices,
mo they were it was a joint practice between the
Cowboys and the Saints yesterday and it was described as
something that turned into a WWE style brawl. And at
the center of it, So I'm a WW guy. Scott
Steiner is a WW Hall of Famer. Okay, his son

(01:40:49):
plays tight end for the Saints. Okay, he body slams
some dude to the turkey like it was. It was physical,
it was intense, and I'm watching that and I think
to us talking to Demetrius Knight on Tuesday, and Demetrius
Knight said, I expect things to be chippy.

Speaker 2 (01:41:05):
I expect him to be intense. I'm ready to go
outline for me how this is gonna work.

Speaker 3 (01:41:10):
So any joint practice, but this one in particular, do
Zach Taylor and Ben Johnson huddle together in the day
or two beforehand morning of whatever it is, and go, look,
here's how we want this unfold, here's what we want
to work on.

Speaker 2 (01:41:21):
Here's what you want to get done.

Speaker 3 (01:41:23):
Or is it like, hey, welcome, We're gonna go unscripted,
because that's kind of what I would like to see
happen with Ben Johnson's offense.

Speaker 11 (01:41:29):
I don't know if I would. I don't know if
I would, but they will. They will control as much
of it as possible. They may do a series or
two of unscripted like we saw. I mean, there was
offense ran thirty eight plays in yesterday's practice. It's not
gonna be that much. But you also want to get
individual stuff done. You want to Hey, we're gonna work
on first and ten. We want to have you know,
maybe Ben Johnson wants a third nine emphasis for his offense.

(01:41:50):
So you get together and talk about that. But like
one on ones, seven on sevens, that's not scripted, right,
You know, you don't know what's coming on the other
side of the ball, and you've got to to read
and react a little bit more. So, it's less about
playing the drill and more about having to play your
opponent read and react because even if it is scripted,
you're not sure, you're not familiar with the things that

(01:42:12):
you're seeing on the other side of the ball.

Speaker 3 (01:42:14):
What do you get out of this if you're a
coach that you don't get out of a preseason game.

Speaker 11 (01:42:19):
Ones versus ones just an insane amount of it. You'll
never get that in the preseason. There are always gonna
be guys that get held out or you're not gonna
show a full playbook. This is their best versus your best,
and it's also isolated in many different areas. There's two
practice fields, so you're gonna get o line D line
one on one, and then you're gonna flip it and

(01:42:39):
do a line D line on the other side. You're
gonna get one on ones with wide receiver and dbs
with their offense on one field, and then the Bengals
offense on the other field, and that goes through seven
on sevens and then it goes through a team, and
it's just it's such a competitive practice and it always
kind of brings out the most because we reference dog
days a lot. They're at the point now where they've

(01:43:01):
been so tired of playing against each other and hitting
each other every single day. Now here comes somebody else.
And for this Bengals team, like how many guys have
we talked to to talk about a chip on their shoulder?
This is like the first chance that the starters Dexter
lawrenceon just playing two or three reps tomorrow, This is
the first chance they get to kind of go out
and say, Okay, this is who we are in twenty

(01:43:21):
twenty six.

Speaker 2 (01:43:22):
Yeah, I'm looking forward to it, and I'm looking forward
to hopefully a fight. Yeah we will see scuffle b haha. Something.
I'll say this though, like I don't need to see
like a helmet being swung.

Speaker 3 (01:43:34):
Well, if it's like if it's you know, a Chicago
Bears players, sure helmet's being swung. The sure all in Okay,
the one asset, the biggest asset I think the Bengals
have right now at this stage of the preseason is health. Yeah,
We've talked about this a little bit, but like we
focus a lot on the backups on the offensive line,
and that's an issue, but it right now is one

(01:43:56):
of the only issues, in large part because the rookies
are showing well. Some interesting battles are unfolding, a tight
end at wide receiver, on the defensive line. There's not
a lot of other stuff. And so like, what I'm
most paranoid about between now and the start of the
regular season is can they get to the post as healthy,
basically as healthy as they.

Speaker 2 (01:44:15):
Are right now.

Speaker 11 (01:44:15):
And I would say, I don't know what the percentage is.
I would say if they get through tomorrow's practice healthy,
those percentages go down drastically because we've seen the difference
at practices since we've been down there. There's intense and
then there are easier days. If you just look at
the schedule, Tomorrow is going to be a heavy, heavy
work day. Starters won't play much if any on Saturday.

(01:44:36):
You get into next week, that's the third preseason week.
You travel next week, so that changes up the schedule
a little bit. You only got one or two really
hard work days left, and then the preseason is going
to be over, So get through tomorrow and then I
think that that chance starts to go down significantly.

Speaker 3 (01:44:52):
I Tony, thank you very much. Tony and I back
together tomorrow morning. Eight Door and Window Tony and Mode
Training Camp show from tomorrow's Bengals Bears training camp joint practice,
and don't forget Saturday evening it's the Bengals hosting the
Bears at seven o'clock. Tony on the call with Dan
Horde and Dave Lapham. Pregame starts at three five. Show

(01:45:13):
is over, Gotta go, have a great night. Talk to
you tomorrow morning, Thanks for listening, Thanks to Tarren Bland
for producing, and then back at it tomorrow three oh five.
Long day tomorrow, looking forward to it. This is ESPN
fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station

Speaker 1 (01:45:43):
At Nicks Goo Plumbing

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8/19/26 - The Mo Egger Show: Can the Bengals Stay Healthy? Does Joey Votto Really Want "The Reds Job?"

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