11-27-25 Ken Broo in for Scott Sloan

Ken Broo fill in for Scott Sloan on this Thanksgiving morning discussing the return of Joe Burrow, the best and worst airlines for your holiday travels, and how to avoid discussing politics at Thanksgiving dinner.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
You want to be an American idiot.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
Hey, on this stay to day, nobody wants to be
an American idiot. Well, I guess you could be an
American idiot. You're probably an American idiot last night. I
mean there was a pretty good chance last night was
the big drinking night of the year. Did you become
an idiot on the day before Thanksgiving? One would hope not. Nevertheless,
if you have this radio station and this program is
open to you as well, open to all comers as

(00:27):
you like, welcome and for Scott Sloan today, I am
Kim Brew. Great to have you with us as we
get ready for hopefully a gathering of family and friends.
I know this is a tough day if you don't
have family. This is a very tough day if you've
lost a loved one in the last year. And I
suppose it's a little bit different if your family is

(00:48):
with you and you can gather with friends. But if
you cannot be known too that we are thinking of you,
we are thinking of you. I don't laugh. In the
last half hour, when Steve Hawkins played the Turkey Drop,
the clip from the WKRP episode all those years ago,
less Nessman who I actually got to interview. I actually

(01:10):
got to interview less Nessman when I was working in Tulsa, Oklahoma,
back in the late seventies. Just a really, really nice guy.
He was out there promoting the series WKRP. But I
often wondered if the inspiration for that, for that Turkey
Drop episode was something that I was involved in fifty
years ago. Fifty years ago. Now, if you're old enough

(01:32):
to remember this, maybe you can recall a hockey team
that played in this town called the Cincinnati Stingers. They
were in the WAJ for about four years and then
when the WAJ at least four of their teams were
assimilated into the National Hockey League, the Stingers folded. Didn't
have enough season tickets sold to impress the National Hockey League,

(01:52):
so they folded.

Speaker 3 (01:53):
But it was.

Speaker 2 (01:54):
Fifty years ago, on the twenty second, which would have
been fifty years ago, last sets Saturday night, that the
Stingers played Quebec, the Quebec Nord Deeks at what was
then known as Riverfront Colisseum, and they had a giveaway
and the giveaway was one hundred lucky fans had tickets

(02:14):
taped to the bottom of their seat to get a
free frozen turkey from Kroger. There were another ten fans
who had lucky tickets to get a live turkey, and
the live turkeys were released on the ice at Riverfront Colisseum,
and then those ten lucky folks were given a sack

(02:35):
each one a sack, a Burlaps sack to go out
and get the turkey and put the turkey in the
sack and haul it off. And I'm guessing there was
somebody there to take care of the rest of the
stuff so they could have the turkey for Thanksgiving Day.
It was just a promotion the team did. It did
not go well. All of the live turkeys huddled in
the corner of Riverfront Colisseum. I don't know how Peta

(02:59):
didn't get done this one, but that was fifty years
ago today, and I often wondered if the folks that
wrote the episode for a WKRP that aired on October thirtieth,
nineteen seventy eight. It was a guy by the name
of Bill Dile and then the series creator Hugh Wilson.
They wrote the episode. I often wondered if there was

(03:20):
any inspiration from that incident at Riverfront Coliseum WKRPI. I
used to work with a guy that wrote an episode
for WKRP in Cincinnati. Years ago. I worked at WSAI
and they had an evening disc jockey by the name
of Casey Petrowski, who was a really creative guy. Wound

(03:40):
up going to Hollywood and appeared in several a television
show series show. He was in Firefly and wrote an
episode for WKRC. I'm WKRP in Cincinnati, terrific voice over actor,
so there's a little WKRP history. But I often wondered

(04:03):
if that episode was inspired by what happened fifty years
ago last Saturday Night at the Riverfront Coliseum. Well tonight
and what's happening now tonight? Joe Burrow is back as
the Bengals go out to Baltimore and take on the Ravens.
And there are still some folks who think the Bengals
have a smidgeon of hope of making the NFL playoffs.

(04:26):
They would have to go on the mother of all
winning streaks. They've only won three of their first eleven.
But nevertheless, Burrow is back and a lot of people
are questioning, why would you come back, Joe? They're three
and eleven chances of making the playoffs not good? Why
not just you know, fold it for this year and
come back stronger in twenty twenty six.

Speaker 4 (04:49):
I'm not gonna ever go to somebody and say, yeah,
I'm healthy, but I don't think I don't think I
should go out there and play. It doesn't make a
lot of sense to me. I'm not gonna live my
life and play this game scared of something happening, like, Yeah,
something's gonna happen.

Speaker 5 (05:08):
It's football.

Speaker 4 (05:10):
Guys are gonna get hurt, Guys are gonna get concussions.
You're gonna break bones, tear ligaments. It's a physical, intense game.
That's part of this. And yeah, I've had injuries. There's
not a lot I can do about that. I work
really hard to have that not happen. But what I
can do is when it does happen, I can control

(05:30):
how I'm attacking my rehab and attacking practice and doing
everything in my power to get back as quickly as possible.

Speaker 2 (05:36):
Thanksgiving Night in Baltimore against the Ravens and right here
on seven hundred W WELW. So what is waiting on
the Bengals when they get out there? What kind of
Ravens team is it? Well, it's a Ravens team that's
red hot. They've won five in a row and they're
automatically back in the conversation for an AFC North tidle.
They're tied with Pittsburgh right now. Covering the Ravens for
their official website Ravens dot Com. Is a good guest

(06:00):
of the program I do on Sunday mornings here on
seven hundred wyl W. He is Clifton Brown, Clifton, how
are you on this glorious Thanksgiving?

Speaker 3 (06:08):
I'm doing fine. Can happy Thanksgiving to you and everybody.

Speaker 2 (06:12):
Absolutely right back at you, my man, right back at you.
Nothing like having to work on Thanksgiving?

Speaker 1 (06:17):
Right, yeah, you know how.

Speaker 2 (06:22):
That's what we do. And the Ravens caught the Steelers
on Sunday, and I don't think it's any secret the
reason why the Ravens hit that swoon is because Lamar
missed three games. He's back now. I guess there's a
there's a toe injury that's popped up, so this will
be the toe bowl U in this game tonight. But
is that serious? Is anybody looking at his his toe

(06:43):
injury as being anything that's serious?

Speaker 6 (06:46):
Well, you know, they keep Lamar tell thing undergrapped as
much as they can.

Speaker 3 (06:51):
He doesn't usually say much, does the of the excuse,
but yeah, I mean I think that he has learned.

Speaker 6 (06:57):
This year, for sure, more about trying to play and
playing effectively when he's not one hundred percent.

Speaker 3 (07:03):
He's had an ankle issue, he's had a knee issue.

Speaker 6 (07:06):
He's missed a day of practice the last two weeks
before this week. So yeah, this is kind of like
getting to be the norm that you know, he's figuring
out that, Okay, I probably need to get a little
more rest during the week. You know, on game day
I could be effective. And so far he's definitely been
effective enough for them to keep winning playing through any

(07:26):
of injuries.

Speaker 2 (07:27):
He's not and I think this is understandable, but he's
not really running as much as he did before the
hamstering injury. And I think the thing he got away is,
you know, he's he's an older player now with Tina
tend to think of Lamar Jackson as being this this
youthful guy. And even though football players to you and
me look young and youthful, he's he's a little bit older.

(07:49):
And then he had the hamsterring injury. But he doesn't
seem to be running as much. Are those Are those
the contributing factors?

Speaker 3 (07:56):
Yeah, I think that that they all are chidectic.

Speaker 6 (07:59):
And yeah, the hamster, I think it's been the biggest
fact that you know, he missed three games, as you mentioned,
and hamstring's a tricky even after you start healing, you know,
it's easy to re injure them. So yeah, I mean
him running less is a natural evolution. I think of
his career, he's become such a great pop passer.

Speaker 3 (08:17):
From the pocket. He doesn't have to run.

Speaker 6 (08:19):
As much as he did earlier in his career to
win games, and I don't think he wants to run
as much. And then, of course, you know, getting Derek
Henry last year, I mean, why would you run so
much if you could just hand the ball to twenty
two and watch.

Speaker 3 (08:32):
Him do his thing.

Speaker 6 (08:33):
So I think Lamar though, wants people to know that,
you know, if he's healthy and has to run, he
can still do it like he always did, and that
may be something you see more of going down the stretch.

Speaker 3 (08:46):
Of the season. And if the Ravens do get in
the playoffs.

Speaker 6 (08:49):
Then I think he'll he may take the bubble wrap
off and really become that dynamic runner we've seen before.

Speaker 2 (08:55):
Yeah, I'm looking. I'm looking at their offense. They're best
healthy as any team at this point. I mean, we'll
see about Lamar's tow injury, but I know Rashaan Bateman
had an ankle problem and officially listed as questionable. But
I mean this is as as this season goes. This
is about as healthy an offense as there is out there.

Speaker 6 (09:16):
Yeah, I mean that's so much a part of things.
They've had a lot of injuries early in the season.
They were really decimated, you know, weeks four and five
during their losing speak and you know, you can't control that.

Speaker 3 (09:29):
You just had the hole. That's a matter of being lucky.

Speaker 6 (09:32):
That played into in the NFL a lot, you know,
being healthy at the right time, get having enough pieces
to win games down the stretch.

Speaker 3 (09:39):
Yeah, the Ravens, you know, certainly are knocking on wood.

Speaker 6 (09:42):
But yeah, at this point in the season heading into
Week thirteen, to be as healthy as they are as
a serious advantage.

Speaker 3 (09:49):
And that's one reason why I think they're playing well.

Speaker 2 (09:51):
Yeah, they are. They're playing extremely well right now. And
I think one of the concerns earlier this season was
on defense, is was getting heat on the quarterback go
out and they make a couple of deadline deals, and
I thought, we're genius by the front office. Draymond Jones
they get from the Titans already he's had an impact,
and then Lohai Gilman they got from the Chargers, and

(10:13):
all of a sudden, that defense seemed to kind of
get a little more juice. Now, I thought those were
master strokes by the front office out there. Would you
be on the same page with me.

Speaker 3 (10:23):
No question.

Speaker 6 (10:24):
They've made an immediate impact and an important one. Jones
he's just a baller up front as both an edge
rusher and he can play defensive tackle, so that versatility fit.

Speaker 3 (10:35):
Into the way the Ravens like to play.

Speaker 6 (10:37):
And he had a sack and a half against the
Cleveland Browns in their landscases.

Speaker 3 (10:41):
Jones made an immediate impact.

Speaker 6 (10:43):
And then Gilman, a savvy vet rarely makes mistakes. Putting
him next to Malachi start to safety has allowed Kyle
Hamilton to All Pro safety, to play three or four five, which.

Speaker 3 (10:57):
Only he can do, you know, moving up in the box.

Speaker 6 (10:59):
Playing linebacker inside or outside, playing defensive end, linsening, impacting.

Speaker 3 (11:04):
The run game, and now they can turn Hamilton loose
because they have Gilban.

Speaker 6 (11:09):
Yet a defense over the last five games has really
been one of the best in the NFL.

Speaker 2 (11:13):
Yeah, the one thing that I noticed that it just
stands out and again, compared to other defenses that Baltimore's had,
maybe it's not a fair comparison. They don't seem to
be taking the ball away as much. They got seven picks,
seven fumble recoveries. Is that getting any play out there?
Because you know, again Baltimore's defense was always based on
aggression and getting the ball. What's going on there?

Speaker 6 (11:36):
Well, I mean that to me is something that is
changing since they started winning.

Speaker 3 (11:41):
I mean ten of.

Speaker 6 (11:41):
Those takeaways has come to the last five games, so
they've gone from getting on any takeaways in the first
sixty games to getting, you know, one or two a
game during this winning speak. And they had a huge
turn or takeaway last week ainst the Brown. They were
about to go in for touchdowns trailing by which would
have cut it to three in the fourth quarter, and

(12:02):
Maul and Humphrey ship the running back in two to
the two yard line. Gillman made the recovery and that
really kind of sealed the win for the Ravens. So
it's something that's starting to come more in budgets for them,
and that usually happens when you start playing good defense.
You have more guys around the ball. Now they're really
looking for that second guy in is looking for the strip,

(12:23):
And yeah, I think that you're right.

Speaker 3 (12:25):
That has been a thing that you're.

Speaker 6 (12:26):
At a defense that wasn't showing up early in the season,
but now it's starting to show up a lot.

Speaker 2 (12:32):
Yeah, this is a really big stretch for the Ravens.
I mean, you got this game tonight with the Bengals.
Next week, you get Pittsburgh in there, and then back
out here in two weeks in Cincinnati. I think the
division games are going to determine exactly who wins this division.
I can't, for the life of me for see more
than one team coming out of this division for the playoffs.

(12:52):
But maybe who knows. I mean, everybody's beating up on
everybody else right now. But I think it's critical if
the Ravens are going to go and win this thing,
They've got to win these next three games, don't they.

Speaker 6 (13:04):
Well yeah, I mean, you know, maybe they could lose
one and still get in, but certainly.

Speaker 3 (13:09):
When you start one in five, you don't.

Speaker 6 (13:11):
Leave yourself much room forever, and that's what the Ravens did.
So even though they've won five in a row, all
these upcoming games are still hugely important, particularly the two
head to head games with the Steelers. You know, it's
hard to Steelers Ravens robbery. It's so intense that it's
hard to get a sleep.

Speaker 3 (13:29):
But I think if either team.

Speaker 6 (13:31):
Gets to sleep this year to season series, that all
private team to win the division.

Speaker 3 (13:35):
You know, their team has ever won the AIRC North
three straight years. That's what the Ravens are trying to do.

Speaker 6 (13:40):
So it's going to be tough because of their start,
but at least they put themselves in position now the
Ravens where destiny is in their hands.

Speaker 3 (13:48):
You know, if the Ravens win their games, they're going
to be in the playoffs. So they don't have to
leave it up to anybody else.

Speaker 6 (13:55):
It's up to them, right and certainly at this time,
you know, head into the last six games, this is
when they want to be playing their best football.

Speaker 2 (14:02):
What do you think wins the division? Clifton is it ten?
Does ten win it?

Speaker 3 (14:08):
I would sign up for ten yet and take my chance.

Speaker 6 (14:11):
I think that as long as one of in the
Ravens perspective, as long as one.

Speaker 3 (14:15):
Of those ten at least one game against Pittsburgh, I
would sign up for that.

Speaker 6 (14:21):
You know, again, if the Steelers sweep, to see this
series tans Brian not going to be enough, but yet
I would sign up for ten and definitely was up
for left.

Speaker 2 (14:29):
Yeah, there you go. So you got two left with Cincinnati,
got two left with Pittsburgh. We chatting with Clifton Brown
Ravens dot Com Joe Burrow tonight, and uh, there's great
debate in this town, but not only on sports talk radio,
but certainly on social media and just the fan base
in general. You know, the Bengals are three and eight.

(14:50):
I think it would be safe to say that it
would have to be a fortuitous long shot for them
to be in any playoff conversation, But do you where
do you come to down on playing a player as
valuable as him, as opposed to say to yourself, Okay, look,
it's not working out this year. Maybe we just wait

(15:11):
and regroup and get this thing in twenty twenty six. Yeah,
I'm just wondering what your thoughts would be on something
like that.

Speaker 3 (15:18):
I think It's a very interesting question.

Speaker 6 (15:21):
I mean, I respect Joe Burrow a lot for his
desire to play.

Speaker 3 (15:25):
That's what you want from a player.

Speaker 6 (15:28):
And but the reality is, yes, they already have eight losses.

Speaker 3 (15:33):
Even if they ran the table nine and eight might
not be numb.

Speaker 6 (15:36):
And then the type of injury he has, I mean,
you know, I'm not a duntor, but you know.

Speaker 3 (15:41):
Those two injuries can be really debilitating. You know, I
would think there's.

Speaker 6 (15:45):
A chance he could be injured, and there's certainly a
chance what he starts playing that he could suffer a
lot another injury. And he has been injured quite a
business career already, and he's a great player, franchise quarterback.

Speaker 3 (15:59):
When he's not available, it's just really tough for the
Bengals to win. So yeah, I mean, you know he's
going to want to play. That's not even an issue.
The question is do you allow him to play in
this situation? But apparently, you know he is.

Speaker 6 (16:17):
It's they're leading towards playing him, and he's going to play.
And I really just hope he stays healthy. He's already
had enough injuries in his career. I hope he can
get through this season healthy. But if he doesn't, there's
definitely going to be some second guessing going on.

Speaker 2 (16:32):
Okay, so what do you figure the Ravens have cooked
up defensively for him tonight? And how do you see
this game playing out?

Speaker 3 (16:40):
Well?

Speaker 6 (16:40):
Yeah, I mean Joe Burrow, you know, when you're dealing
with him, any mistake you.

Speaker 3 (16:45):
Make, he's probably gonna take advantage of it.

Speaker 6 (16:47):
So the first thing is try and live in the
big plays, particularly between he and Jamartiz once.

Speaker 3 (16:53):
If you can do that keep them from taking the
top off.

Speaker 6 (16:56):
Or from Jaysey, know, breaking a tackle and making a
long run aft to catch it, then yeah, I think
they want to make them one to the minto you know,
stop the Bengals running game with Joe and second and third,
second and long, third and long. You gotta believe his
mobility isn't one hundred percent his first game back after
not playing for this ball, So yeah.

Speaker 3 (17:15):
Put pressure on him, put him.

Speaker 6 (17:16):
An obviously practic situations, and then send the pass rush
after him and see if you can.

Speaker 3 (17:21):
Force him as a mistake. But that he said, than done.
I mean, he's a great player.

Speaker 6 (17:27):
I feel like, you know, he'll make plays, Chase will
make plays. It's just limiting them and you know enough
to where you do what you can win the game.
You don't want to get a shootout with the Bengals.
The Rings one two shootouts against the Bengals last year
but barely escape both times. If they can hold the Bengals,
you know the twenty twenty three points. I think the
Ravens feel really good about their chances to win.

Speaker 2 (17:49):
Clifton Brown Ravens dot Com. It's always great catching up
with you again. Happy Thanksgiving and let's go. We'll see
what happens tonight.

Speaker 3 (17:57):
Thanks thanks to Amy can be good.

Speaker 2 (18:00):
You bet line on this game is seven. You can
get seven and a half on some books, but seven
is the line. Bengals plus seven kickoff is what is it?
Eight to fifteen tonight? Right? Pregame show begins at four,
they tee it up and they play and that's why
they play the games. Willie more of the Bengals as
we progress through the morning, and a lot of other

(18:21):
stuff to get to as well. Happy Thanksgiving to you
and your family from seven hundred WLW nine eight on
this Thanksgiving and good morning. I am ken Brew for
Scott Sloan. Wherever you are, however you're listening, whether it's
this great medium of terrestrial radio or on the iHeartRadio app.

(18:44):
We welcome you on in on the first of the
last major holidays of twenty twenty five. On the show today,
how not to let politics ruin your Thanksgiving Day dinner. Now,
we talk about this a lot this time of the year,
but it's always good for a refresher course. You know,
you don't want to go somewhere and spend three or

(19:06):
four hours with family and just have it so stressful.
So some tips on how to keep your mouth shut,
and some tips when somebody else is opening their big
yap other than the stick a piece of turkey down it,
how you can steer the conversation elsewhere because this can
be a stressful time for some people. Also, why are
so many of us bored at work? It's boredom now

(19:30):
that is plaguing a lot of businesses. Not necessarily burn out,
but boredom. What does that mean? And if you're bored
at work, whose fault is it? Is it your fault
or is it the guy or woman you answer to
the best and the worst airlines for holiday travel. Now,
you may be in the middle of holiday travel, or
you may be booking flights for the Christmas season, What

(19:53):
airlines rate the best, what airlines rate the worst, and
are the low cost carriers really the worst. We'll get
into that before we're done today. And then also just
her where the governor wants to aban NFL prop bets
here in Ohio, I would say to him, good luck
with that. But nevertheless NFL prop bets and why so

(20:15):
many of us get suckered by them? It might be
because we're not paying attention to the right things. So
as you get ready to make your wagering choices for
these three National Football League games today, it may be
something to pay attention to. We are here right until noon.
I watched the UC basketball game last night. It was

(20:37):
not good from the UC point of view. No way,
no shape, no how. I don't know how Wes Miller
can can put lipstick on what happened yesterday. That was
what they call a by game. In other words, you
pay a school that you are by all means better
than and should whack. You pay that school to come

(20:57):
to your gym, to your arena, to wherever, and you
put a hurting on that team in front of your
home fans. You make the home fans happy they get
some money, but you get some prestige. Didn't work out
that way last night, sixty four fifty six, Eastern Michigan
University from the MAC comes to fifth third and beats

(21:18):
the Bearcats sixty four to fifty six. Eastern Michigan had
some sort of zone defense that simply the bottomized, you see,
and west Miller was talking about that after the game.

Speaker 7 (21:32):
The zone bothered the lineups that we had to play
with on the floor tonight. We haven't we haven't played
offense with a lot of the lineups we were playing tonight.
And that's not an excuse by any means.

Speaker 8 (21:44):
It's not.

Speaker 7 (21:44):
I'm not in the excuse business. But we had a
lot of stagnant and we're trying to run the action
that we've worked on and put in. But we have
people in positions that never been in and we had
a lot of busted possessions tonight.

Speaker 2 (21:54):
I mean, if you look at the box score, there's
nothing really staggering about it that you look at and say, oh, well,
that could be a problem. I mean, Eastern Michigan got
to the line eight more times than Cincinnati. Okay, that's
an issue. Eastern Michigan out rebounded Cincinnati. That's a real issue.
But again, you know, the Cincinnati didn't have three of

(22:15):
its big men, and I think that had something to
do with it. Tyler McKinley, who started the game for Cincinnati,
gave him twenty three twenty three minutes, but just two
points and wound up fouling out. But there were a
lot of reasons, I guess, strategically, starting with the fact
that the big guys up front just weren't there.

Speaker 7 (22:34):
I'm not in the excuse business, but we're missing if
you look at the roster we put together, we're missing
three of our top front court players, you know, with
Jalen Haynes and Baba and now Jaln Celestin, and these
are all old, experienced guys, physical guys, So you know,
we that obviously is a incredible effect on our team.

Speaker 5 (22:55):
But it's not an excuse.

Speaker 7 (22:56):
We got to collectively figure out how to you know,
bridge those gaps. And that's that's the top that we have,
and that's a will attach.

Speaker 2 (23:03):
Well, they get Tarleton State on Monday night at fifth
third and then Friday night they hop the bus and
they go to Xavier and that seven thirty tip at
the Sintas Center of the Crosstown shootout one week from
tomorrow night. That was not a good way to warm
up for it by any means, by any stretch of

(23:23):
the imagination. But nevertheless, there you go again, the Bengals
tonight at eight o'clock, a ten to be exact. Pregame
show begins at four. There's a line of thinking that
Joe Burrow should not play in this game, and I
never really understood that. I have to be honest with you.

(23:44):
They're paying him hundreds of millions of dollars to play football,
and the record of the team should not have anything
to do with whether or not Joe Burrow should be
able to do his job tonight, if indeed he is
healthy enough to do his job. Now, he's not going
on the field because he twisted the arm of Zach Taylor.
That would be inherently irresponsible on Taylor's part to say

(24:06):
nothing about what it would mean for the team doctor
and for the team owner. So they're not running him
out there because Joe says he's okay. And you know,
all those medical reports that you have on me, pay
no attention to them. No, he's been cleared by doctors,
the coaches signed off on it, and obviously the owner
is signed off on it. And understand that players are

(24:28):
really not players in today's world of professional sports. Their investments.
That's how they're looked at, their commodities. And they have
a lot invested in the commodity that is known as
Joe Burrow. But he is paid to win football games.
He is paid to play football. He's not paid to
sit around if he's not healthy enough to play. So yeah,

(24:50):
he's going to play today. And even though it would
be really an exercise and futility to sit around and
do the permutations as to what path, if any, is
open to the Bengals for a playoff Berth. Look, they're
three at eight. They would have to rip off six
wins in a row. They've shown no signs of doing
that so far this season. Their defense, and there's a

(25:13):
great story today on ESPN dot com about how the
Bengals may have the worst defense in the history of
the National Football League. This defense twenty twenty five, and
it's statistically supported by various metrics that are used to
data analyze football players and football teams. DVOA is an

(25:35):
acronym that you here thrown around a lot. Now when
you read about football, that's defense adjusted value over average.
I'm not going to bore you with the metric, but basically,
it's an adjusted statistic that puts it up against other teams.
Your stat on that up against other teams, and it

(25:56):
compares you or your players. However you want to break
it down to the league average on a play by
play basis, then it's tempered by what other team strength
of schedule is. It really is boring stuff, but bottom line,
it's a metric to measure strength, weaknesses, greatness and awfulness
of football teams. And the Bengals are flat out awful,

(26:17):
historically awful this year using that basic metric. So yes,
a run of the playoffs is a pipe dream more
than anything else. But still Burrow wanted to play. He's
cleared to play, he's healthy enough to play, and in
his mind he said this was a no doubter tonight.

Speaker 4 (26:37):
I'm not gonna ever go to somebody and say, yeah,
I'm healthy, but no, I don't think. I don't think
I should go out there and play. That doesn't make
a lot of sense to me. I'm not gonna live
my life and play this game. Scared of something happening, like, Yeah,
something's gonna happen.

Speaker 5 (26:56):
It's football.

Speaker 4 (26:57):
Guys are gonna get hurt, Guys are gonna get concussions
and to break bones, tear ligaments. It's a physical, intense games.
That's part of this. And yeah, I've had injuries. It's
not a lot I can do about that. I work
really hard to have that not happen. But what I
can do is when it does happen, I can control

(27:18):
how I'm attacking my rehab and attacking practice and doing
everything in my power to get back as quickly as possible.

Speaker 2 (27:25):
Yes, exactly. And let's not forget Joe Flacco played really
well when he was in there. Maybe not so much
against Pittsburgh, but two weeks ago, three weeks ago against Chicago,
he threw for four hundred and forty nine yards against
the Jets, two seventeen against the Jets, two touchdowns, no interceptions.

(27:50):
Against the Steelers, Part one, three hundred and twenty eight
yards thirty one to forty seven, three touchdowns against Green Bay.
Against Green Bay three hundred and twenty I'm sorry, two
hundred and thirteen yards twenty nine to forty five, two
steps touchdowns, and no interceptions. The problem while Burrow was
away wasn't exactly quarterback play. Here's his head coach on

(28:15):
his quarterback, Saint Joe coming back tonight.

Speaker 9 (28:18):
Well, difficult to predict. You know, it has been several months,
and so again I'm not going to make any predictions
on what it looks like. But again, he's put himself
in great shape. It's good to see him through the
progression that we've had over the last several weeks. I
think it was a fair progression for him to do
the seven on seven, do the eleven on eleven, get
your mind right, try to get ready to play in
a game, and then ultimately we'll wait and see where aliens.

(28:41):
But I think it's been a really good progression that's
been helpful for him and then everything he can and
we can to get him ready to go playing a game.

Speaker 2 (28:48):
Baltimore's defense isn't great. It's struggled. It's taken the ball
away a lot the last couple of weeks. It struggled
to put heat on the quarterback. They addressed some of
those issues at the trade deadline. If Burrow comes out
tonight and throws for three point fifty and three touchdowns.
That would be Boroline miraculous for a guy who hasn't

(29:10):
thrown a football in what has it been two months?
What was that Jacksonville game was early in September, so
it's been two and a half months. Basically, If he
comes out and does something like that and it would
be Borrow, it would be legendary. But it's not fair
to expect that, just as it wasn't fair to expect
this offense, regardless of who was at quarterback, to consistently

(29:34):
every week deliver thirty thirty five, thirty eight points. Remember
that narrative, Oh they can outscore anybody. Oh, the defense
just has to be Abbridge and all. You know, that's
all they got to be. Because Burrow and Higgins and
Chase can put up thirty five points every game. It's
one thing to be able to do it. It's another

(29:54):
thing to have to do it. So I don't know
what to expect tonight either. I would think that we
will see some vintage Burrow, will see how well he
is at the thing he does best, in my opinion,
and that's extending plays. Meanwhile, out in Baltimore, the head
coach out there who has been on the job forever.

(30:14):
John Harbaugh says that, you know Flacco Burrow, it probably
from a strategic standpoint, does not affect what the Bengals
are going to try and do tonight.

Speaker 10 (30:23):
They're going to stay on track, I'm sure, and what
they've been doing is pretty much what they had been
doing with Joe, So expect to see the Bengals run
their offense with Joe.

Speaker 2 (30:36):
And then of course you have Lamar Jackson. Now, Lamar
Jackson's not hurt. He missed three games with a hamstring
poll and there are those who think that now that
he's back, he's not moving anywhere as well as what
he did before he suffered his hamstring poll. But the
team is winning, and the cog that makes that wheel

(30:58):
go is, of course us Lamar Jackson. There's no question
about it. Here come the Ravens tonight. The Ravens have won.
They're six and five, they won five in a row.
I'm looking at point differential, which is always interesting. They're
plus fourteen. You always want to be on the plus side,

(31:21):
but they haven't really lit it up. By NFL standards,
eleven games, two hundred and seventy five yards. That's a
little south of twenty seven yards a game, and their
points against through eleven games is two hundred and sixty
one points allowed. That's a little south of twenty five

(31:42):
points per game allowed. So they're differential is not great,
but they are playing better lately. Not a great team
at home three and three. Nevertheless, they are playing better lately.
And I don't expect this tonight, but these games between
the Ravens and the Bengals recently have been shootouts. They've
been who's got the ball last is usually the team

(32:04):
that wins. Lamar Jackson was talking about that this week.
The back and forth, the back and forth. It seems
to go on.

Speaker 10 (32:14):
Back and forth, you know, as seems like every time
we feared him, move be going back and forth.

Speaker 6 (32:19):
Great quarterback over there, you know, great receiving corps.

Speaker 3 (32:24):
So just looking for it.

Speaker 2 (32:27):
We'll see as it goes on tonight. Yeah, we'll see
as it goes on tonight. I don't know. It may
it may not, but I do know this that if
Burrow comes back and does what he has done in
the past, that'll be nothing short of miraculous. Meanwhile, you
got Jamar Chase, and Jamar Chase is back after sitting

(32:50):
out of suspension for spitting. He really wanted to move
on from it. When he was questioned about it earlier
this week, didn't seem too concerned that it would affect
his image long term.

Speaker 11 (33:03):
I mean, I have think of the day. I don't
really have them to prove who I am. I mean,
either you like me or you don't, I could care less.
I'm still gonna go for that end of the day.
I got kids, I got people to take care of,
so I could really care less. So I'm going out
there and be the same play I am, you know
what I'm saying, and play football as at the end
of the day, and nobody gonna stop me from who
I am.

Speaker 2 (33:22):
Chase without Higgins means Chase gets probably man help, may
get manned straight up, and it might be one of
those deals where the Ravens say, you know what, andre Yosi, Vas,
Mike Oseecki, Mitchell Tinsley, you know you guys beat us.
We're not gonna let Jamar beat us. So we'll see.

(33:43):
I don't know. The fascination tonight is with Burrow and
exactly what he can do with having done nothing for
two and a half months because of the injury to
me that's the hook. That's the story. As the Bengals
head out to Baltimore to take on the Ravens tonight,
and right here on seven hundred WLW, do you want to.

Speaker 3 (34:04):
Be an American idiot?

Speaker 2 (34:07):
Hey a ten oh fix ken brother, Scott Sloane, Happy
Thanksgiving to you. It was just checking the nine on
your side forecast the weather department at WCPO Channel nine,
expertly presided over by Steve Rawley. Doesn't look like we're
going to get above thirty four today, but no precipitation.

(34:29):
And I suppose that's good, right, because bad would be
you know, at thirty four, you'd get you wouldn't get snow,
probably wouldn't stick, you just get that crud that would fall.
But none of that crud on this Thanksgiving. Just cloudy
skies and temperatures in the mid thirties. I saw this
stat we'll find the final stats for this year, but

(34:51):
last year, nearly eighty million people traveled over fifty miles
or more from home before and after Thanksgiving. That's according
to about six million of US flew and more than
seventy one million of US drove last Thanksgiving. And that's
good because we could reconnect with family and friends. You know,
we become a disconnected society would be a good way

(35:16):
to put it. We tend to stay in touch with
characters on Twitter or perhaps instant messages. Phone calls are big,
and phone calls today were kind of like in person
visits back in the bad old days of the nineteen eighties.
Now it's you got a phone call. My goodness, they
must really care about me. But it's it's true, And

(35:38):
forget about in person visits except for holidays like this.
And I think on holidays like this, we tend to
understand that we are disconnected society. And so today is
a good day to connect with people that are important
in your life. And maybe maybe ring a little bell
in your head that would say I got to try
this more often. But you know, when you get together,

(35:59):
you gotta have some sort of decorum and filter. Now,
this is a survey done by two thousand adults twenty
one and older. And this survey found out it was
done by Saint Francis Winery and Vineyards. Well, you're half
in the bag when you ask these people anyway, so

(36:20):
expect any answers. Forty two percent say politics will end
to dinner quicker than that. Twenty eight percent says finances,
Oh my gosh, don't talk to somebody about their appearance
or way. Twenty six percent say it's over if the
conversation goes that way today, And for gosh sakes, when
your cousin Mary shows up, don't ask her when is

(36:43):
she getting married? Because any kind of talk like that,
twenty percent of the time, that's the end of dinner
on Thanksgiving. So when we reconnect today, it's important to
know how to connect because, as I said, disconnection is
is not good. Somebody else knows that is standing by
the way in doctor Jonathan Thorpe. He is a relationship

(37:04):
expert and also the CEO of Quantum Connections. I'm not
sure what quantum connections is all about, but maybe he
can explain. Doctor Jonathan Thorpe, how are you on this
glorious Thanksgiving day?

Speaker 8 (37:17):
Fantastic ken, Thanks for having me on.

Speaker 2 (37:19):
We are a disconnected world, aren't we. It just seems
like we're always looking to plug in somewhere where there's
no plug. How did we get here?

Speaker 12 (37:27):
You know, no matter what measure you look at, most
everybody agrees that this connection has never been worse the
outgoing Surgeon General of this country actually called it today's
epidemic on the same scale that smoking was back in
the sixties and nutrition and fitness were in the nineties.
He said, today, isolation, loneliness, disengagement is kind of corrupting

(37:50):
our society in so many of the worst ways.

Speaker 2 (37:53):
I think it's also kind of put some fencing around
our brains in this sense that we don't look for
information anymore. We look for affirmation, and we tend to
gravitate towards people and things that tell us, hey, you
know what, you're right, Hey, you know what you're right,
as opposed to trying to expand some thought and look

(38:13):
for things maybe that we don't know about or never
considered or thought were nuts. I think there's a lot
of that going on today too.

Speaker 5 (38:20):
What about you, Yeah, you're so right?

Speaker 12 (38:22):
I think on a lot of levels, the way we
think is changing, and a lot of people, for the
longest time thought our brains were hardwired and at birth
you kind of inherited a set of tools that you
kept for life. I think more and more people today, though,
understand that the brain is really plastic and capable of change.
And while that is good for so many the right reasons.

(38:42):
It's also capable of actually succumbing to things like much
shorter attention spans and this need for validation that you
just described, and in memory, if you think about it,
we used to have to file things away in short
term or even long term memory. Today there's no need
because you can pull out a fun and google just
about any single piece of information.

Speaker 8 (39:04):
So the need to use your brain becomes less or less.

Speaker 2 (39:06):
Sure, And it even boils down to things like directions.
Everybody uses GPS now, but you had to remember things.
You had to remember how to get from point A
to point B fifty years ago. Now you know, you
just put it address in and boom, you're there. You
don't have to pay attention to that. But I like
what you said about isolation because I think there's a
lot of that going on too. I think, and you know,

(39:28):
everybody wants to blame COVID, everybody wants to blame the Internet.
I don't know if it's those things or something else,
but it seems to me that as a society we've
become more isolated. We've become slaves to that handheld device
or to a laptop or whatever it is, and I
don't know if there's a way out of that. Have
you discovered a way out of that?

Speaker 12 (39:48):
Well, there has to be ways that we can at
least try, you know, And I think COVID gets a
bad wrap. I think the trend was actually going in
this direction well before COVID and thanks in large parts
of things like technology and things like social media. I
think we started to see these changes that I think
COVID only accelerated. But if you ask me for a

(40:09):
way out, ken, I would tell you this absolutely understand
Number one, that there's a ton of energy. That this
is an emotionally loaded time to begin with. So when
people travel and spend money and spend some of their
precious vacation time getting together. You know, three and four
Americans are getting together this year for Thanksgiving. The first
thing you got to do is make sure you understand
and read the room and understand how much energy is

(40:30):
already present. We have it shortened attention spans. We're primed
to react instead of reflect. When you think about politics,
it's already an incredibly polarized environment right now, where you
don't talk to too many people that are sixty forty
on one issue or you certainly don't see about in
the media. You know, it's suggested that everybody's one hundred

(40:52):
percent one way and zero percent the other way. So
understanding that this polarization is really being fed actively.

Speaker 8 (40:59):
And the last thing is is holiday expectations, right.

Speaker 12 (41:02):
We want the day to be perfect, we want it
to be memorable, to live up to our you know,
the rich memories that we carry, and so all those
things make it a super stressful day. That's the first
thing is taking stock of that. Don't blow that off.
The second thing, Kenn is you got to shift. You
got to shift away from your reactive nature and kind
of move to a reflective or a listening nature.

Speaker 2 (41:26):
Okay, I've always defaulted this, and you tell me if
this is you know, a week way out. I always
identify somebody in the family that you know is either
kind of like comical or quippie or can can do
things on a turn of a note that can get
a conversation, for example, Thanksgiving. Here we are Thanksgiving. Get

(41:48):
it away from what it invariably walks into, which is
that polarization, that political wall, and I pull that person aside.
I know I got three or four of them in
my family. I say, look, if things start to go
off the rails with Uncle George, here's what I need
you to do. It's no problem. I got you covered.
I think you got to have some sort of designation,

(42:08):
designated conversation turner at your table this Thanksgiving that will
take you away from things that invariably would lead to fights.
Now my week for doing that? Should I just should
I just you know, just say let it go and
we'll see where all the chips fall.

Speaker 5 (42:25):
My week for doing that, I don't think so.

Speaker 12 (42:27):
I think every every family's got the crazy Uncle Harold,
and I think fortunately most families have the clown the
gesture somebody to step in and save and redirect. I
think that's healthy. But at some point, you know, can
you you would probably want to say, maybe we don't
need to redirect to save us. Maybe as a family

(42:48):
or as a as a group of friends, we can
actually begin to listen more, react less. And so if
somebody says kind of the the off putting comment or
the risky comment, you know, instead of reacting to it,
invite them to kind of share the story or maybe
the experience of why that their views are shaped the

(43:09):
way they are. And so Ultimately, the goal might not be,
you know, at Thanksgiving dinner this year, maybe I don't
want to just try to find one more person and
change their mind so that they think like me.

Speaker 8 (43:20):
Maybe instead the goal is, let me find one more.

Speaker 12 (43:23):
Person that I understand better, regardless of how they think,
and that we can actually go forward and say, you
know what, I don't Because I listen to you and
because I respect you doesn't mean I have to agree
with you. I would say that's probably a healthier posture
to assume.

Speaker 2 (43:38):
So for someone that is putting the finishing touches on
the covered dish that they're going to bring to Thanksgiving dinner,
maybe it's maybe it's coming up here rather quickly, and
you know, they're listening to the good doctor Thorpe and
some advice, and maybe they're going through some personal anks
because they know invariably that with a large gathering there's

(43:59):
going to be something that even the quipster in the
family can't get back on the rails. What do you
tell them should they be all wrapped up and angst at.

Speaker 12 (44:07):
This point, I would say, don't ignore the emotion that
goes into the day. There's a lot of pressure to perform.
I would say, take a deep breath and pause and
let everybody know that, Hey, this conversation, this meal is
going to be filled with safety and fraternity and fellowship,
and let's just enjoy each other's companies, tell some stories

(44:27):
and make today being about our experiences, you know, and
our shared bonds instead of policies that, in all likelihood,
the five of us, the ten of us here at
the table, aren't going to solve or change today.

Speaker 2 (44:40):
Yeah. You ever have one of those dinners though, Doc,
I mean when you go there, it could be Christmas,
it could be another holiday, it could be thank who knows?
You ever have one of those dinners? And do you
feel compelled being a doctor, being someone who's a relationship expert,
do you feel compelled to step in? What do you do?

Speaker 12 (44:58):
I'm at those dinners all the time, Ken, and I
think if the people that are sitting and eating dinner
with me know what I do? Everybody turns and looks
and says, well, what are you going to say? Can
you pull us out of the spire?

Speaker 7 (45:10):
Bool?

Speaker 12 (45:11):
And you know, sometimes it's best probably just a smile
and let the let the group kind of manage it
and not step in. To try to feel like you
have to intervene or save. Most of the time people
figure it out and they kind of discover that maybe
if we just give each other a chance to kind
of be seen and heard, that a lot of really

(45:31):
good things follow those two things.

Speaker 2 (45:34):
Doctor Jonathan Thorpe as our guest. He is a relationship
expert CEO of Quantum Connections. Why can't we all just
get along with each other? Doctor? Have you ever stopped
to think why we can't all just get along?

Speaker 8 (45:48):
Well? I think we can.

Speaker 12 (45:49):
I think we have to change the way we think
about difference. Right now, Difference is such a dividing influence
when if you just reframe it, I suggest it's easy.

Speaker 8 (46:00):
It's certainly not.

Speaker 12 (46:01):
But if we began to look at difference as kind
of a curiosity spark to say, I don't need to
become that person or the differences that they display, but
I sure would love to understand the better, to understand
why they are motivated to think and act and speak
as they do. And I think if we just reframe
difference to say, hey, that's going to create variety, and

(46:23):
we've got to have variety to actually form the solutions
that we all need. To solve the world's most pressing problems.
We're not going to do it if we all think
an act alike. We have to combine different solutions.

Speaker 2 (46:34):
Yeah, you're not going to settle the world's problems at
a Thanksgiving dinner. Trust me. I just have a wild
assumption that the world leaders aren't going to be hanging
on every word at your Thanksgiving dinner. I think maybe
if you approach it that way, maybe it'd be a
little more more palatable for you. But I wish you
and your family are happy Thanksgiving, Doctor Thorpe, And then
who knows, maybe this time next year we won't have

(46:56):
to have a conversation like this, But my guess is
we will. What's your guests?

Speaker 8 (47:00):
Yeah, yeah, here's for hoping.

Speaker 12 (47:02):
I think we can all get a little bit better
and maybe maybe if we take a little bit one
step forward, I think we'll be better off.

Speaker 2 (47:09):
Doctor, Good stuff. How can people find you? When? When
they find you? What do they get?

Speaker 3 (47:15):
Sure?

Speaker 12 (47:15):
You can learn more at Quantum Connections dot com and
here at our website. We offer personal development programs for
individuals couples, but we also offer organizational development programs if
you have teams or even departments that want to pull
together and actually learn how to help everybody feel more
seen and heard.

Speaker 2 (47:34):
Yeah, yeah, who wouldn't want that? Okay, Doc, stay well,
we need to hear your voice and hopefully we can
do this again.

Speaker 8 (47:41):
Yeah, thanks much, Ken, have a great Thanksgiving with you.

Speaker 2 (47:43):
Too, You too, don't talk about work in career on
this list is what are you going to talk about today?
If you can't talk about politics, finances, appearance or wait, religion,
spiritual beliefs, previous role, lit romantic relationships, mental health and
work career? What are you down to about that Uncle

(48:04):
Joe's bad knee? Talk about that. That's good for about
thirty or forty seconds, you know what, Just talk and
take it upon yourself. If things seem to be going sideways,
you know, stand up and say something like, oh my,
what do you think Joe Burrow is going to do
tonight ten twenty two on this Thanksgiving day. Great to

(48:25):
have you with us right here on the home of
your Cincinnati Bengals. Eight fifteen Kick Tonight four o'clock is
when the pregame show begins on seven hundred WLW. I
love it when Willie plays guitar and Sloan and Eddie

(48:50):
whistled behind him. Now that's some fine entertainment right there.
Welcome back seven hundred WLW ken Brew for Scott Sloan.
Happy Thanksgiving to you as you go over the river
and through the woods to wherever you're going for Thanksgiving
dinner today. And if you're hosting it, God bless you. Everybody,
well not everybody. I'm here right, Dave Keaton is here

(49:13):
today working a holiday, but most of us are off
on Thanksgiving Day. And that's a good respite because there
is something that is creeping into businesses all over the
country and it's rearing its ugly head, particularly at the
worker level. It's not burnout, it's bore out, d ore

(49:34):
bore out, bor out. What does that mean, well, borout.
It happens when people become mentally disconnected or show a
lack of interest or engagement in their work. You know,
they kind of show up, but they're not showing out.
It often shows itself. You know, when you're burned out
with stress, some physical symptoms, maybe you're you know, you're

(49:58):
not feeling right, maybe you're cranky. Bore out is just
mined at numbing. It's like you've checked out. It's like
zombie like you're just putting in the time to get
the work done. I used to work with a guy
who shall go unnamed, many many years ago, and this
guy would show up for work and he would throw

(50:20):
his briefcase when people actually still carry those things, and
his coat his overcoat down over his chair and then
would disappear. Nobody could find him. Nobody could find him.
And what would happened as managers had walked back or
other people that might, you know, be in charge, and
they'd walk back, Well, where is well, he's here somewhere,

(50:43):
I don't know, there's his coat, there's this The guy
just threw his coat and his briefcase or whatever it
was is. Yeah, I guess it was his briefcase down
and then disappeared, walked out of the place. Hey, come
back for maybe like forty five minutes, then leave again.
Nobody saw, but his coat was there. That's borout. Actually

(51:05):
that was a scam. But that's borout because you just
feel completely disengaged on the job and it's costing these
these these businesses money. This was the study that was
done by the American Journal of Preventative Medicine. Disengagement is
what they call it medically burnout cost US employers an

(51:25):
average of four thousand dollars per year for hourly employees,
forty two hundred dollars per year for salaried non management employees,
and over ten thousand dollars for managers who are bored out,
and over twenty thousand for executives who are bored at.

(51:45):
Why is everybody bored on the job? Well, let's find
out kind enough to carve out some time on his holidays.
Dwayne Deson. I've had Dwayne on the show before. I
wanted it him to come on today because it seems
to me this is a chronic problem. Now, yes, he's
a business strategist, but he read a book that I

(52:07):
read maybe four or five weeks ago, right when it
came out. It's called operationally Felt manage costs to increase
profits and enhance performance. Who doesn't want to do that?
He's with a group called the Efficacy Group. We'll find
out more about that, hopefully as we press on with him.
But for the moment, Dwayne decent. How are you on
this glorious Thanksgiving day?

Speaker 8 (52:28):
I am very welcome. Thank you for calling.

Speaker 2 (52:30):
What is the difference between bore out and burnout. Where
would the line be drawn there?

Speaker 13 (52:37):
Well, the big difference is, I think is with burnout
you're much more exhausted because you're being overworked, and borout
can be for a few reasons. Either you're underworked and
therefore your board, or perhaps you're just not challenged, which
is the other common aspect of bore out. Now there's
they're very both have serious consequences. One, a lot of

(52:59):
people are having accesses and people leave because they're burned out.
But people that are bore out are not engaged and
usually are not producing the best work because of that.

Speaker 2 (53:08):
Either way, it sounds like it's a management problem.

Speaker 13 (53:12):
Well, I would actually say two issues. One, it is
a management problem where that means you're not challenging employees,
you're not creating a dynamic, exciting environment, and therefore you
and you're not helping your employees grow and therefore the board.
So I would say yes, But there's also an employee
aspect of this where you have to make sure you
don't take a job that is not.

Speaker 3 (53:32):
Going to challenge you.

Speaker 13 (53:33):
If you take a job just because you want maybe
a work life balance and low hours or whatever your criteria,
and then all of a sudden, you're not challenged at work.
That's a bad thing too. So I think you have
to make sure that you seek opportunities as an employee
that is going to challenge you and going to make
you work and.

Speaker 8 (53:50):
Not cause a bore out certaint you know.

Speaker 2 (53:51):
I see this this Gallop report that says that employee
engagement in our country fell to its lowest level in
ten years. That was a report of survey I guess
taken in twenty twenty four. Thirty one percent of workers
say they feel engaged on the job. Okay, So if
you're not engaged on the job, you're either not buying
in right or you're not be given a reason to

(54:12):
buy in. And I don't understand where the problem is here,
because if the boss wants to make money, right, boss
wants to make money, And in a lot of jobs,
if the boss is making money, chances are you doing
the work for the boss will make money. So how
has it fallen into only thirty one percent here in

(54:32):
this recent survey? How's it falling that low?

Speaker 13 (54:35):
Well, I think that set back to a little bit
of the combination of employees are taking positions that aren't
challenging them is one, and so that's creating a problem
because people want to have this work life balance, and
that's very common on the younger generations now.

Speaker 1 (54:50):
But then I also think that work is trying to
become so automated.

Speaker 13 (54:54):
Now that we are trying to we feel like to
be efficient and to manage costs, we have to make
everything very routine and tight and and so there's very
little variation in processes, and because of that, you almost
end up acting like you're a machine where you're doing
one function over and over and over again, and then
you result and end up feeling unchallenged.

Speaker 5 (55:15):
Because of it.

Speaker 2 (55:15):
Yeah, this is this is the second time that you've
said the word or the phrase, don't feel challenged at work. Okay,
I'm looking for another job. I'm well, this is a hypothetical.
I'm very happy where I am, but us I'm looking
for another job and I'm looking around and I'm looking
at various companies that offer what I do. How would
I how would I go through the interview process and

(55:37):
know that this is a job that would challenge me,
knowing full well that the other side of this is
we're talking about work life balance, where you'll take anything
to earn a paycheck, to make sure that things at
home are the most important things in your life. Nothing worried,
nothing wrong about that. Certainly, that's that's a great priority
for a number of people. But how do you know

(55:58):
when you're out there if job that's offered to you
will be a job that will challenge you and you
will not become bored out? Great question.

Speaker 13 (56:08):
What you really need to do is ask to speak
to other peers that you'll be working with and to
get a feel for the company, to get a feel
for what they do and what their job roles are.
And then one of the questions you can ask them
to say how challenged do they feel on a day
to day basis, whether what's their hours are they do
they receive additional training or other types of aspects that

(56:29):
might make their positions more interesting. So, don't just take
a job by you that you interview with your boss.
You spend an hour with that person. You assume you
understand a position if you can, and I think usually
the most companies are very open to try to speak
with some of the people that you'll be working with
that have similar positions so that you really garner what
they're doing.

Speaker 2 (56:49):
Yeah, Yeah, it would seem to me that the people
that would be the most successful at this would be
the people I'm speaking of, people who are not going
to be bored out, are not going to be burned out,
would have an ultimate goal. This is what I would
want to do, This is what I want to do
ten years from now, This is where I would ultimately
like to wind up in this career that I'm building.

(57:12):
I mean, that's probably old guy thinking, because now, I think,
as you mentioned, we have a society, particularly the younger
demographic of it, that wants work life balance, and because
of that, careers really aren't the issue here. It's jobs.
They'll take a job as opposed to looking at what
the long term goals are for a quote unquote career.

(57:35):
Have careers taken a back seat with the under thirty
crowd in your opinion, I think there.

Speaker 3 (57:41):
Is a problem with that.

Speaker 13 (57:42):
I think many people aren't looking what they want today
and not necessarily what they're going to want in ten
or twenty years from now. So when you are thinking
about your career, you should be thinking about the long
term aspect of that and make sure that you are
working to that and progressing along that path and I
think you bring up a good point about making sure
that you're challenged and the other ways of doing that

(58:03):
other than just what the employee provides you. You can
go to your employer and tell them and say i'd
like additional responsibility, take the initiative. You can look for
training opportunities so you can expand your skills, look for
processes that aren't working well and make suggestions and get
involved in how to improve them. So kind of become
part of a solution. And if you do that, you

(58:24):
really add not only you're going to feel more engaged,
but you're going to add a lot more value to
the company and be more appreciated.

Speaker 3 (58:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (58:29):
I would have to think that anybody who with half
a brain that runs a company would be able to
identify a person like that as opposed to just some
floater or somebody that's just trying to take a job.
Dwen Dcent business strategist. His book is Operationally Spelt Manage
Costs to increase profit and enhance performance. Look, this is
maybe all topic a little bit, but AI is here

(58:52):
and it's only going to become more prevalent in a
lot of businesses. If you're somebody who is a line worker,
someone who's not middle management, someone who is not in
the corner suite, the C suite. What should you be
doing about AI? Because it sounds like AI is going
to take away a lot of the jobs maybe that
we've been talking about here in the last couple of minutes.

Speaker 13 (59:15):
Yes, I do not think you're off point at all.
AI is a big factor, particularly here because you're talking
about people that are doing somewhat re team task or
not challenged for whatever reason. But usually that's a sign
that has worked that AI can do pretty efficiently as well.
So if you are in a position where you're bored out,
I do think you're more at risk being replaced by

(59:35):
AI type of solution. And I think the solution to
that is not to avoid AI and dreddic, but it's
actually to engage AI. How do you embrace AI in
order to make your job easier. May take away the
boredom aspects of what you do and the routine aspects
of what you do and try to make them something

(59:55):
a little bit more exciting, so you know, you have
the time to concentrate on the type the work that
maybe you enjoy more, that's more creative. That AI really hasn't.

Speaker 2 (01:00:03):
Been able to do yet, or maybe take on an
additional task or two at work, something that might prepare
you for the next level up at that particular company,
so you become more valuable to that company and stay
a step or two ahead of AI. I mean to me,
that would make sense, wouldn't it.

Speaker 13 (01:00:20):
Yes, And I think one of the things that creates
boredom and more out is when you are when you're
in the same position for a long period of time.

Speaker 3 (01:00:28):
So you should try to be on a.

Speaker 13 (01:00:31):
Management track of some kind, or at least a progression
track of some kind where you are consistently challenged and
promoted every couple of years so that you're not doing
the same thing over and over and over again.

Speaker 2 (01:00:42):
Yeah. I hate to say it, though, but Dwayne, you
and I both know there are just some people that
just don't want want to do that. They don't want
to be motivated. Maybe it's it's just a function of
human nature, but they just they don't want any of that,
and they'll just wait for the truck to hit them
at work as opposed to try to do something like
we just suggested. And maybe the key for management is

(01:01:04):
is when you're looking to fill positions. Who are the
people that would seem to you And if you're a
high somebody's doing the hiring, you should have your antenna
up about this someone who looks and acts like they
would be motivated for that. And maybe that's what it
all comes down to. There are people in this world
that are motivated and there are some that are not.

Speaker 13 (01:01:21):
Right, I think you're correct in that there are people
that are motivating people that are not. But part of
the job of a company is to help employee get challenged,
and I think what happens is that employees might at
first think, well, yes, I kind of just want my
routine and just want to go get my paycheck and

(01:01:42):
go home. But I think over time they do get
frustrated with that, and if you do challenge them, I
think they're more content and happy at work. So even
if it's their instinct to say, you know, I just
don't want that stressful life or whatever they're trying to avoid,
I think sometimes when they're given an opportunity and maybe
put a little preasure on to succeed and to do better,

(01:02:03):
they actually grow.

Speaker 3 (01:02:05):
As an individual.

Speaker 13 (01:02:06):
If you are an employer and you find employees not
only during the interview process that you think are not
going to be the type that grow with you, or
if you are employing people that are just stagnant and
weighing down the organization.

Speaker 5 (01:02:18):
I think you have to make tough decisions on both
those counts, all.

Speaker 2 (01:02:21):
Right, Dwayne the Efficacy group. When people go to the
epicygroup dot com, what do they find besides a nice
picture of you? And then what do you offer?

Speaker 13 (01:02:30):
Well, I do I help companies manage costs. And that's
interesting in that there's a big cost waste when you
talk about bore out and burnout and a lot of
those aspects of it. So part of what I help
companies do if I help them make a more vibrant, energetic,
and attractive environment so that they get good employees and
they don't have to overpay for employees. They don't have

(01:02:53):
employees that are just not productive and not producing for
the company, so it's a big cost rating for them.

Speaker 8 (01:02:58):
So that's the piece of what I did.

Speaker 2 (01:03:00):
Yeah, absolutely, and probably pick up a copy of Operationally
Felt Manage cost to increase profit and enhance performance would
be a good starting point and entry point into Dwayne
deson Business Strategist And look, thanks for your time here, Dwayne.
I think you explain things rather well. We appreciate it.
Let's pres it down the road. How about that.

Speaker 3 (01:03:20):
I look forward to it.

Speaker 2 (01:03:21):
Yeah, gallup, this gallup thing. Employee engagement in the US
fell to its lowest level in ten years in twenty
twenty four. Again, thirty one percent of workers say they
feel engaged. Let me do my Ohio University math. Oh yeah,
that would mean sixty nine percent of us. Sixty nine

(01:03:43):
percent of us don't feel engaged at all on the job.
Thirty nine percent of workers feel strongly that their employers
care about them as people. This isn't Yes, this is
a worker problem, but the cause of the worker problem
is not the worker, by and large, it's what's happening

(01:04:06):
above that worker, middle management, and then who sits in
the c suite and dictates all of this stuff. And
by the way, if you own a company, it's costing
you boku bucks coming up on ten fifty five. It's
ken Brew for Scott Sloan on this Thanksgiving Day. In
a moment, if you're traveling this weekend, beware of the

(01:04:28):
airline you have a ticket for, because it may not
be as seamless as it would seem seven hundred w
welw do you want to.

Speaker 3 (01:04:40):
Be an American idiot?

Speaker 2 (01:04:42):
Oh, whatever you do, please don't don't ever do that.
Don't ever be that reflects poorly on America. Welcome back
hen Brew for Scott Sloan Thanksgiving. Happy Thanksgiving to you.
I hope wherever you are today that you're celebrating this
with family friends. I know that doesn't often happen, and

(01:05:03):
I know that often on a lot of Thanksgivings, it
doesn't happen for everyone. And for those of you struggling
with the holidays today, I get it. I totally get it.
And if you know somebody that maybe is maybe they've
suffered the loss of a loved one in the last
year and this is a really wretching Thanksgiving for them,
or perhaps someone who doesn't have any family that you
know of, knock on the door and if you're so

(01:05:26):
inclined to invite them over, because these these holidays are
great if you are a family or a congo conglobration
of families, I mean anymore, that's what we are. We're
hybrid families. But if you know somebody that is not
part of a family today, maybe somebody you live in
a neighborhood with, or maybe somebody you see at Kroger,

(01:05:48):
or maybe somebody that you just know from your church,
or whatever it may be. It's not bad to call
up and say, hey, you know, we're having dinner today
at four o'clock. Would you like to join us? We
all have one thing to be thankful for, And it
doesn't matter who we are, And it doesn't matter what
our financial status is, or what kind of race we

(01:06:09):
are or ethnicity, how we choose to if we choose
to worship. We all have one thing in common. We're
alive today. We woke up this morning, and there is
that to be thankful for. So on all of that,
Happy Thanksgiving to you. If you're traveling this Thanksgiving, you
know that it is an adventure. Thank god they've got

(01:06:31):
the government shutdown over with. I can't imagine what the
shutdown would have been like if it was still an
effect for this particular holiday, because, as we've already noted,
last year's stats showed us that over seven million people
traveled on the Thanksgiving Day weekend, and a majority of
those traveled by air. And if you're traveling by air,

(01:06:54):
you do one or two things. You go to the
airline you're most comfortable with, or you find the airline
that you can afford. And there are a lot of
good low cost airlines there are, they're not the best.
You have to go in there and understanding that they
operate on a slimmer budget and so because of that
they may not have all the amenities of the bigger airlines.

(01:07:17):
Finance Buzz, and I have to be honest with you,
I've never heard of this finance Buzz, but it reviewed
stats on the numbers of canceled and delayed flights, mishandled bags,
average arrival, and delayed lengths.

Speaker 7 (01:07:35):
And.

Speaker 2 (01:07:37):
They were awarding scores to airlines. Now, this survey apparently
occurred over the last three months. Guess which airline scored
the best. It's an airline that you used to have
a hub here, Delta. Of all the airlines, its score

(01:07:57):
came out as thirty five point nine. What does that mean, Well,
fifty was perfect. Delta scored thirty five point nine. Right
behind it was Hawaiian Air at thirty two point nine.
Sure there's a weather reason for that, and then came
Southwest at twenty seven. And again this is a conglomeration

(01:08:22):
of stats flights delayed, flights canceled, average delay length, and
the percentage of mishandled bags. Low cost airlines Frontier eighteen
point seven, Allegiant eighteen point four, American not much better.
They came in at twenty. The average flight delay for
Delta was sixty five minutes. That doesn't sound great, but

(01:08:46):
it was sixty six for United, seventy five for American,
seventy five for Allegiant. So what does all this mean?
And if you're flying, if you've already bought a ticket
for this weekend, well, you know what, You're stuck with
the ticket you got. But if you're thinking of buying
a ticket for travel later in this holiday season, listen up.

(01:09:11):
Brandon Blewett is about to weigh in, Say ken, Who
is Brandon Blewett. Well, he's an expert on airline passenger
experience and has written a book which is a really
funny book, How to Avoid Strangers on Airplanes, Survival Guide
for the frequent business traveler. He liges in so many
miles on airlines it equals seventy round trips around the world.

(01:09:36):
And he's standing by the way in on exactly what
this Finance Buzz rating and scorecard was all about and
Brandon blew it. How are you on this glorious Thanksgiving day?

Speaker 5 (01:09:46):
You know what, I'm good. My flight was not delayed.
So what more can I say?

Speaker 2 (01:09:51):
You're so you're the guy? Okay, you're the guy.

Speaker 5 (01:09:54):
I have his play delayed.

Speaker 2 (01:09:56):
I'm looking at these numbers here. They're not very good,
even for Delta, which is the top rated airline here
in terms of percentage of flights delayed, percentage of flights canceled,
the average delay length, the average of mishandled bags. I mean,
the numbers here are not good. So I guess I'm
asking is is Delta the king of the hill? And

(01:10:18):
if so, what hill is it king of?

Speaker 14 (01:10:21):
It's really interesting the list of Finance Buzz put out right,
because how they factored it is what's the most disruptive
and what is the least dependable? Probably depends on you
know how often you travel, and you know what your
travel plans are.

Speaker 5 (01:10:37):
Because for me, I travel every week.

Speaker 14 (01:10:39):
So if a flight's delayed, yes that's annoying, but it's
not going to be devastating. So a flight cancelation would
be the bigger drawback for me. You know, I'm looking
through the you know, the stats, and it looked like,
you know, Delta, you know, score the best in almost
you know, every category.

Speaker 5 (01:10:57):
So look, they have, they have a stellar reputation.

Speaker 14 (01:10:59):
I lived in Atlanta four eleven years, flew them every
week and generally had a very very positive experience with them.
So I do think that they are you know, king
of the hill, so to speak, based on the latest ratings.
I also think with airlines that you mentioned that the
ratings aren't that good for all of them.

Speaker 5 (01:11:16):
Yeah, that's fair. I do think that the.

Speaker 14 (01:11:18):
Airline industry in general has to deal with so many
external factors that a lot of other businesses don't have
to deal with, you know, namely weather. If you have
a hub and spoke model and a storm rolls through
your hub, that's just going to cause the chain reaction
of bad events that happen, you know, across your entire network.

Speaker 2 (01:11:36):
Yeah. No, no, that's true. There's a lot of things
that are outside the airlines controlled, there's no question about that.
And just the skies are jammed, let's face it. I mean,
these air traffic controllers are They're wizards and make holding
this work. But I'd be interested to drill down and
see what they mean by number of flights delayed. If

(01:11:56):
you leave the gate, if that plane pushes back sits
on the tarmac, is it delayed because it left the
gate on time? And the percentage of flights canceled? Okay,
I think you really can't get around that one. All
that much percentage of bags mishandled? Well, what does mishandled mean?

(01:12:16):
Does it not arrive when you're there? Does it mean
it's banged up? Does it mean you have to wait
longer at the carousel for the bag to be delivered?
Some of this stuff is on its surface, okay, But
when you drill down, let's just take flights delayed. You know,
there's some wadlines that say, hey, it's another on time departure.
Then you sit on the tarmac for two So flights

(01:12:38):
is a really kind of nebulous thing, is it not?

Speaker 14 (01:12:42):
It is, And it's even more complicated by the fact that,
as I understand, the FAA used to measure it based
on arrival time, so long as you were within thirty
minutes of your scheduled arrival.

Speaker 5 (01:12:53):
So there's even a little bit of wiggle room for
the airline.

Speaker 14 (01:12:56):
There, and I think what shall also see with many
of the airlines now is we'll pad the flight time, right,
So even if you sit on the tarmac for an
extra twenty minutes because they have booked, say three hours
before a flight that's likely only two hours and twenty
minutes in airtime, you'll still wind up that your destination
on time, so as I understand, and what they use

(01:13:18):
here to calculate was not based on when you leave
the gate. It's based on when the plane arrives at
the gate of your destination.

Speaker 5 (01:13:25):
Yes, yeah, okay, So.

Speaker 2 (01:13:26):
Out of a score of fifty, Delta was overall thirty
five point nine, and the rest of the airlines that
we would fly here in this area of the country
would not stack up all that well. I guess the
next ranked one was Hawaiian Air, but obviously Cincinnati. He's
gotten far away from Hawaii's you can get.

Speaker 14 (01:13:45):
When you're only flying between the California and Hawaii, the
weather's always perfect, you're probably not going to be a
subject to most of the elements of the rest of
the country as well.

Speaker 2 (01:13:52):
But when you get to airlines like United and Spirit
and American in Frontier and Allegian and the Jet Blue,
and Southwest you're talking basically fifty percent. If the score
is fifty these airlines are all scoring below twenty five percent.
So that's not good, is it?

Speaker 5 (01:14:14):
No, it's not.

Speaker 14 (01:14:15):
And if you look at Southwest in particular, so for
Southwest and percent of percent of flights canceled, you'll notice
THEIRS is two point four percent, which is higher than
I think almost every other airlines stay of Alaska. If
you look at Delta, United, an American, you'll see they're
all below one percent. And the reason for that is
that Delta American and United have a hub and spoke model,

(01:14:39):
so they within their network they have call it eight
to ten airports where all of their show and they
all leave there. So if you're able to fly people
to that hub, the likelihood that they can get a
new plane, get a new crew. If something you know
where to go wrong, you know your inbound crew or
your inbound plane are delayed, they can mobilize. They have
mechanical operations at those the at those airports, and so

(01:15:02):
they're able to get things moving.

Speaker 5 (01:15:04):
When you see airlines like.

Speaker 14 (01:15:06):
South West, they're more of a point to point airline,
so they don't fly everything into one You know, into
eight to ten airports and everything goes from there. So
if a flight gets delayed or canceled, it causes a
serious chain of the events where all these subsequent flights
that were depending on that aircraft could get canceled. And
then airlines like you know, Spirit, Frontier, Allegiant, you know

(01:15:29):
Jet Blue, to some extent, they just have a very
limited network and so if a flight gets canceled or
a flag gets severely delayed, it just creates, you know,
math chaos within the system for the rest of the day.

Speaker 2 (01:15:41):
Well, and that brings me to the to the cheap
or low cost airlines, Frontier Allegiant, They're both way down
the list. Frontier eighteen point seven out of fifty, Allegiant
eighteen point four out of fifty. They are delayed percentages
right around twenty five percent, cancelations right around two sent
a little better for Frontier. Maybe it's me I fly

(01:16:04):
Allegiant a lot. I like the airline. I just want
to get to where I'm going. I don't I don't need,
you know, a lot of frills. Most of their flights
to where I go are less than two hours. But
why would Frontier an Allegiant be that way, allegiant is
point to point I think you just mentioned that, you know,
will do I mean a plane will fly from Cincinnati

(01:16:25):
to Fort Lauderdale and turn around to I'm back from
Fort Lauderdale to Cincinnati. So the stress is on that
is on that particular crew, on that particular flight, on
that particular situation, because if you strand a bunch of
passengers in Cincinnati, you're also stranding a bunch of passengers
in in Fort Lauderdale. They're not going to fly another
play plane end to grab a bunch of people from

(01:16:47):
Fort Lauderdale. So but why don't they rates so low?
I don't I don't understand that.

Speaker 3 (01:16:52):
Well.

Speaker 14 (01:16:52):
They also they don't have the same number of aircraft.
If you look at the number of aircraft in the
fleets for you know, Delta, American, United and probably Southwest,
they have a lot more planes. So if something goes
wrong and a plane has to be taken off shelf
for for an extended period of time, there's there's not
just let's go get the plane that's at you know,
East seventeen. You know, if you're at DFW and bring

(01:17:14):
it over here, because you know it was you know,
just brought back into commission per maintenance. It just it
causes a cascade that it's really really hard for those
for those airlines, you know, like Allegiate like Frontier to
catch up from.

Speaker 2 (01:17:28):
That makes sense. Brandon Blew It's an expert on airline
passenger experience. He's the author of How to Avoid Strangers
on Airplanes survival guide for the frequent business traveler. How
do you avoid strangers on airplanes? They're all strangers. You
just wrought the stranger that doesn't talk to you right.

Speaker 5 (01:17:45):
By my book that you hold up the cover and
people get the points.

Speaker 7 (01:17:52):
Go.

Speaker 2 (01:17:52):
It's all in. It's all in the jacket. It's all
in the jacket. What did you exactly what did you
make of transfer to As Secretary Sean Duffy is saying
this week that he wants people to dress up more
on airlines and flights and not wear pajamas or I
guess like sweatpants and things like that that hopefully if

(01:18:13):
you dress better there would be fewer I guess, fistfights
on the Spirit airlines. But my point being is, I mean,
it's kind of like we have gotten sloppy. I'm old
enough to remember when you literally did get dressed up
to fly on an airplane. Those days have long gone.
But what did you make of what he had to
say this week?

Speaker 5 (01:18:33):
I actually agree with it wholeheartedly. I think that when
you I'm not saying that.

Speaker 14 (01:18:37):
Everyone needs to go back to wearing a suit and
high right, But I do think there is an element
if you're showing up in pajama pants and flip flops
and you know, hoodie, something that you would only wear
your home, you start to view your surroundings out in
public as your home. And I think that's when you
think that everything should be accommodating to you and your wishes,

(01:18:59):
and it's like, no, we're in an airport, we're on
a plane.

Speaker 5 (01:19:02):
It's in a shared space. It's a limited space.

Speaker 14 (01:19:05):
And I've noticed, look when I you know, we do
a lot of remote work, but when I show up
to work and I have a meeting, and you know,
I dress for the occasion, it elevates my performance. And
I think that there is an element to that that, yeah,
we we've gotten a little bit sloppy.

Speaker 5 (01:19:19):
And I think it it may make maybe.

Speaker 14 (01:19:22):
It's marginal improvements and passenger behavior, but I don't think
it's going to hurt by any stretch of the imagination.

Speaker 2 (01:19:28):
No, I don't either. And I just think that decorum
in this country obviously, has has taken a really sharp
turn for the worst in the last couple of decades.
And here we are today, And when you're stuck in
this aluminum tube, uh for three or four hours with someone,
the last thing you want is that someone to come
in there and they sit down next to you and

(01:19:49):
they got their pajamas on, and chances are they just
rolled out of bed and they didn't shower and they stink.
I got you here. Here's another pet peeve of my brand.
It's sorry. I'm just gonna say, bring it. I think
they should ban outside food on a plane because invariably
somebody is going to come strutting down that aisle. It's

(01:20:09):
loaded with onions and garlic or some other curry or
something is just going to stink to high heaven. These
airlines should say no outside food on this plane, and
then and then and then some food on the plane
for free. How about that?

Speaker 14 (01:20:27):
I think they we'll have to talk to the airline
executives about about the latter point. I do agree with
with your point on bringing obnoxious smelling foods onto the plane.

Speaker 5 (01:20:36):
I always laugh. I fly between Washington, Dulles and.

Speaker 14 (01:20:39):
Dallas Fort Worth, you know, at least once a month,
and there is a Benz Chili across from the from
the gate, and I just thought, what a what a
horrible thing to eat, either before you get on the
plane or on the plane. It should a minimum, should
be limited to cold foods that do not smell.

Speaker 2 (01:20:58):
I worked in Washington, DC. I've been to the actual
Ben's Chili and it is it's a landmark in DC.
It's not I guess the airport. One is just kind
of like a branch. The other is uh is in
downtown d C. And I've been to it. It's very good.
I mean, I like it. But you're right, you you
know it's Ben's Chili about a block and a half

(01:21:19):
before you get to Ben's Chili. So imagine walking down
the aisle of a plane, either having just consumed it
or bringing what wasn't on the plane. It's just it's
it's just it's it just drives me crazy. Well anyway, Uh,
this is interesting stuff, and you're an interesting guy. And again,
Brandon's book has how to avoid strangers on airplanes survival

(01:21:39):
guide for the frequent business traveler. Sounds like a good
read for anyone that's boarding a plane this holiday season. Uh, Brandon,
you stay well and hopefully we can visit again down
the road.

Speaker 5 (01:21:51):
Thanks absolutely, enjoy it.

Speaker 2 (01:21:54):
Delta was also recently named best US Airline by Forbes.
In its second an You Will Verified Air Travel Awards Performs,
the airline received five awards, the most of all airlines considered.
They also say that Delta's complimentary Wi Fi and customer
service a big benefit passengers. Remember the days at CBG

(01:22:19):
you could fly anywhere in the country, it seemed before
the merger, right, what was it the merger with Northwest
you could go anywhere, and then of course it was
calm air and how wonderful that. Don't get me going
on what happened to Delta here in Cincinnati. But if
you fly Delta now know that you are flying the
airline that received finance buzz top Breeding in twenty twenty five.

(01:22:45):
Say that to yourself. If you know you got like
a two hour delay, it might comfort you. It's eleven
twenty six on this Thanksgiving morning. Ken Brew for Scott's
Loan News Radio seven hundred WLW on this Thanksgiving morning.

(01:23:06):
Good morning, I am ken Brew and for Scott's loan.
Today Bengals football down the road. Of course, No t Higgins,
he's out with a concussion. Joe Burrow is back, and
so is Jamar Chase. After that spitting incident against the
Steelers a couple of weeks ago, someone asked Jamar this
week in his news conference if he's worried about his

(01:23:27):
image now being a team captain and then you know,
dropping a loogie on an opposing player and you know,
lying about it initially, and he just this is what
he had to say.

Speaker 11 (01:23:41):
I mean, I at think of the day, I don't
really have them to approve who I am. I mean,
do you like me or you don't. I could care less.
I'm still gonna go for that end of the day.
I got kids, I got people to take care of,
so I could really care less. So I'm going out
there and be the same play I am. You know
what I'm saying, and play football as at the end
of the day, nobody gonna stop me from who I am.

Speaker 2 (01:24:00):
See if the Ravens can stop him tonight they have
not in games past. He is Last year he had
went to town on the Ravens defense. So we'll see
what happens tonight pregame show at four all the play
by play with Dave Lapham and Dan Horde beginning at
eight fifteen tonight right here on seven hundred at WLW.
I heard mentioned in our newscast in the last couple

(01:24:23):
of actually the last couple of newscasts, that Mike DeWine
was on with Willie this week and he wants to
work with the NFL to outlaw prop player bets. And
my thinking is two pases out of the tube. Dude,
I'm not sure you can do that, and I'm not

(01:24:43):
sure you don't open yourself up to litigation from fan
duel and DraftKings and some of these other books that
are already in this state and making Hay I mean,
he was not successful in blocking high school player nil money,
which was just signed into law, So I'm not sure
that or just became law. I should say, would be

(01:25:05):
the more the more applicable term. But you know, I mean,
once you once you've okated, once the voters have voted
for it, once it's there, you're you're You're not going
to be able to go back and say, well, wait
a minute, that's not what we really want. And quite truthfully,
by the time it would get reversed, if it could
get reversed, he's not going to be around anyway, and

(01:25:27):
he will, he'll be out of office. But I just
don't think you can do that. I think you open
yourself up for a lot of things that you don't
want to open yourself too. I mean, it's noble with
all of the specter of fixing that's gone on with
the NBA and with Major League Baseball recently, but I
think it's a noble offer. It just I just I

(01:25:49):
think you're you're kind of wasting your time there. But
you can gamble today, and there are prop bets available today,
and what better source to turn to for wagering information
is our next guest. He is the wagering guru at
Pro Footballfocus dot Com. As a matter of fact, Pro
Footballfocus dot Com kind of takes the guesswork out of

(01:26:10):
making money when you wager legally, of course, and Mason
Cameron's here to talk about all of that as we
count down to NFL games that begin here in less
than an hour. Mason Cameron, how are you on this
glorious Thanksgiving Day?

Speaker 1 (01:26:26):
And I'm good.

Speaker 3 (01:26:26):
I'm good.

Speaker 5 (01:26:27):
Always a good day.

Speaker 2 (01:26:28):
To be on here with you, God bless you. I
love it when you say that. Look, is it fair
to say that. I think a lot of people they
like the idea of gambling, but they don't really have
the knowledge that they need when it comes to gambling.
I says there's a lot of people out there that
like the action, but they don't know how to play
the action. Is that a fair assessment?

Speaker 15 (01:26:49):
Yeah, I mean I would say that that is a
great assessment of the situation. You know, ninety five percent
of the betting public really doesn't quite understand some of
the new wants that go into wagering on the NFL.
And you know, the books have been around for a
long time. They know what they're doing. They're sharp for
a reason, and it's difficult to find edges against them

(01:27:12):
if you don't really know where to look or if
you're going, you know, with your guts. So it's it's
one of those things where the casual better. You know,
they tend to lean in on the vibes, and you
know they bet with incomplete info, you know, name value
things like that.

Speaker 1 (01:27:26):
I can't tell you how many times you know, a
buddy of mine, you know, in the group, Chech goes
he's due, He's due for a big one. And that's
that's just not how this goes.

Speaker 15 (01:27:36):
When we talk about what sharps do, sharps bet with
data and expected value margins.

Speaker 3 (01:27:42):
So when we talk.

Speaker 15 (01:27:43):
About some of those things, the expected value is really
when we when we see a line by the book,
it has a implied probability of what the book is
expecting to happen with this line, and frequently we as
casual betters just don't take that into account.

Speaker 1 (01:28:04):
And when we have a projection based against.

Speaker 15 (01:28:06):
That, that's really where you get in between the margins
and find where the real value in the market are.

Speaker 2 (01:28:10):
Yeah, I love the gut angle to that. You know,
oh man, you know they've lost three straight so they're due.
Oh oh, you know they played a three to four
a month ago and they do really too well against
that defense. And you know, running back X really knows
how to hit, you know, the the outside run and
where that's where it's going to go. He's gonna have
a big day, you know. I think he's gonna have

(01:28:32):
one hundred yard day. And it's like, if you're thinking
that don't you think the teams are thinking that? And
don't they like adjust when that happens. I mean it's
like there are people, as you just said, I think
in so many words, there are people out there that
just know more than you do. I think gut, I
think gut. Anything is bad. They trust your gut. No,

(01:28:55):
I'm not no analyze it and make your best call
anything in life, but certainly.

Speaker 1 (01:28:59):
With game right Yeah, no, absolutely.

Speaker 15 (01:29:03):
I mean your gut might tell you one thing, but
when you break into the data, it can tell you
something entirely different in regards to where you should be targeting.

Speaker 1 (01:29:14):
You know, a lot of this.

Speaker 15 (01:29:16):
Stuff comes from It's a similar thing with fantasy football.
A lot of this comes with name value and people see, oh,
I have X receiver that I have to play every
single week because you.

Speaker 1 (01:29:27):
Know I drafted him highly or something like that.

Speaker 15 (01:29:29):
It's a very similar thing where the public loves to
bet on guys that are bigger names, and sometimes that's
just not where it is.

Speaker 1 (01:29:37):
Because the books pay attention to.

Speaker 15 (01:29:39):
They bet these lines, they know where the money's coming in,
and they adjust accordingly.

Speaker 2 (01:29:43):
So you've got this thing at pro Footballfocus dot Com.
It's the player prop tool, and we talked about gut.
Now this tool obviously collates and gets as much information
to the betting public as possible. But this one is fascinating.
I think is getting burnt by overs, getting burnt by

(01:30:04):
an over. To me, if you get burned there, that's
like the easiest thing to fix, because you should never
be getting burnt by overs. Is that one of the
easiest things to fix?

Speaker 1 (01:30:17):
I would say, Yet it's so overs all in all
aren't all bad.

Speaker 15 (01:30:23):
It's just you have to be more selective with the
matchups in the spot that you pick. It sort of
goes into what we were just saying, where the casual
betters they go to take the big name to go
over big lines, and that's just not where the value
lies in the market. The real game of betting is
finding the value versus what the book is expecting. So

(01:30:44):
just an example, say Von Barkley. We all know excellent player,
excellent running back, phenomenal dude, and he continues to be
priced very, very high with both his average yardage line
this season sits around about eighty two and a half yards.

Speaker 1 (01:31:00):
That's insane when we.

Speaker 15 (01:31:02):
Talk about he's only exceeded that expectation three times this season,
so betters are going to continue to go and pour
money on his overs where even when it doesn't really
match up.

Speaker 1 (01:31:16):
The underplays are strong there.

Speaker 15 (01:31:18):
Now, it's not just the sweeping, you know, proclamation of
only take unders. It's more of a we have to
be more selective with our over bets versus where we
take unders, because especially with some of these big names,
the name value is priced into their line.

Speaker 2 (01:31:36):
Yeah. And I think what's going on with a lot
of these folks that struggle with that is it's emotion.
It's an emotional thing. You mentioned, like in fantasy football,
you draft the guy, Hey, I'm going to play this guy.
It took him in the second round. Even if the
guys a stiff and not having a good season, you
keep playing him thinking, you know, it's just a matter
of time he's going to hit his stride. So I

(01:31:57):
think what we're talking about here is distracting the emotion
out of the equation and bringing more facts into the equation.
Would that be a good way of putting it.

Speaker 1 (01:32:07):
Yeah, absolutely couldn't agree more.

Speaker 2 (01:32:09):
By the way We're chatting with Mason Cameron Profootballfocus dot Com.
And I mean, it's the most analytical website for any
sport anywhere that's out there, and he, as I said,
as they're wagering, guru, give me an example of a
player this year, don't matter whether he's a running back, quarterback,
wide receiver. Give me an example of one player this

(01:32:30):
year who is true to form to the stats that
you have seen on that player before any given week.
Is there anybody that just more often than not hits
the mark.

Speaker 15 (01:32:41):
So it's difficult to say completely because what happens is
books really do make these adjustments and they probably address
better than anybody in the business on what they're seeing
on the field and analytics.

Speaker 1 (01:32:58):
That they're seeing.

Speaker 15 (01:33:00):
But what we do see is that frequently it's these
players that you don't really see a ton of, or
players with lower lines that hit more frequently. You know,
just as one example, Alex Pierce is a guy that
I love to bet in situations where he sees man coverage,

(01:33:20):
coles wide receiver, ALC piers where he sees man coverage
or single high coverages, because that is a guy that
gets the ball in those situations. He has a higher
yards per route run instance in those. Now, again it
really depends on how books are viewing this to see
where the value lies, because again, betting isn't necessarily about saying, hey,

(01:33:42):
this player good, but it's also about analyzing every piece
of it as well as the probability of them to
hit the line, as well as the value given based
on how books are pricing it. So that's one example,
and I'll have another one here or you hear it
a little bit.

Speaker 1 (01:34:00):
I've been working on some of these Thanksgiving games and
I have one that I like that I'm going to
give to all the listeners here at the end.

Speaker 2 (01:34:08):
Sweet Sweet, Absolutely, And I guess a lot of it
depends on hell too. By the way, Pierce former University
of Cincinnati standout, and I think a lot of it
depends on health. Pierce has had the same quarterback all year.
A guy like Jamar Chase is a mercurial because Joe
Burrow has been out for the majority of the season,
So I think that too would have to factor into

(01:34:30):
it as well.

Speaker 15 (01:34:31):
Right, Yeah, absolutely, absolutely circumstances. So just as a great example,
this week, we saw lines fluctuate quite a bit regarding
like a guy like T Higgins, where T Higgins was
playing a matchup against a Patriots defense that is susceptible
to some deep balls, is susceptible.

Speaker 1 (01:34:53):
Through the passing game.

Speaker 15 (01:34:55):
And you know, when throughout the week we're talking about
Joe Burrow potentially coming back, and there wasn't really a
you know for sure until I think it was maybe
Friday when we knew that, okay, he's not going to
be coming back.

Speaker 3 (01:35:07):
In the market.

Speaker 1 (01:35:08):
Itself adjust based on that info.

Speaker 15 (01:35:11):
So it is good to get in early, to get
in often, and to really shop the lines throughout the
week and find the right time to jump on a
specific line that you might like, whether it be an
over on a lower line or an under on a
higher line.

Speaker 2 (01:35:27):
Yeah, by the way, Burrow is back, and you know
he's he's playing in this game tonight, And I'm just
I'm just wondering as you look at that game. I
think the last and latest line I saw on this
game was Baltimore minus seven. What do you expect from Burrow?
And what do you think plays out in this game

(01:35:47):
for Cincinnati win loss, or or what? How do you
see it?

Speaker 3 (01:35:52):
So this one is definitely a difficult read.

Speaker 15 (01:35:55):
On the surface, I think that the plus seven isn't
a bad look. It's a little difficult on the road,
I would say, particularly when we've seen what we've seen
from this Baltimore Ravens defense after their adjustments, So this
is a great team making adjustments. What the Ravens did

(01:36:17):
is they did a similar thing this last season where
they move Kyle Hamilton around. They've had issues inside in
the box, so they actually took Kyle Hamilton from a
deep free safety look.

Speaker 1 (01:36:30):
They brought him more into the box. He plays more slot.
He's up there with being one of.

Speaker 15 (01:36:35):
Their Petter linebackers, and they love to get him in
situations where he can affect the game and where he
can draw attention. So one of the looks that this
Ravens team likes to do is they do a double
mug blitz look where they bring Kyle Hamilton and Smith
into the right onto the A gaps and then they'll
stunt out of it and bring the pressure and.

Speaker 1 (01:36:56):
Bring the heat.

Speaker 15 (01:36:57):
So really a big decider for this one is going
to be how Joe Burrow plays against the blitz and
against that stunt look in particular. And he's actually had
a pretty solid career sample of being able to beat
the blitz, so there is some potential.

Speaker 1 (01:37:15):
There for the plus seven it's it's going to really
come down to if the defense can hold Lamar down
just a little bit.

Speaker 2 (01:37:22):
Yeah, And the total is a big number here too,
fifty one and a half. You know, I think they're
banking on the fact that the Bengals defense isn't all
that good and that Burrow is back. That's a pretty
hefty number. So was that your special you were promising
us here, Mason? Was that the special I got?

Speaker 6 (01:37:38):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (01:37:39):
You got another one?

Speaker 3 (01:37:39):
I got?

Speaker 1 (01:37:40):
I got one more for you.

Speaker 15 (01:37:41):
So what i'mk in here this week is it's actually
going to be an over And this is one of
those spots where we do, like I said, I mean,
it is a bigger name, but it is one where
the books sort of have this price a little bit
lower than I would have expected, and we're going to
sort of attack on an over margin here. But when

(01:38:02):
I look at a guy like Jordan.

Speaker 1 (01:38:04):
Love playing Detroit, and we see Detroit.

Speaker 15 (01:38:07):
This is a defense that runs one of the highest
man coverage rates in the NFL. And even with you know,
they've had some injuries in the back end there, even
with some guys potentially coming back this week, that's one
of those things where man coverage is a difficult scheme
to run at a high level.

Speaker 1 (01:38:27):
And when we talk about what Jordan Love has been
able to produce against man coverage looks this season.

Speaker 15 (01:38:32):
He's the highest rated passer in the NFL against man coverage,
and his passing yardage line right now is two twenty
eight and a half.

Speaker 1 (01:38:40):
Our projection on the tool.

Speaker 15 (01:38:42):
Sits about nine yards higher than that, at about two
thirty seven and a half.

Speaker 2 (01:38:46):
Wow. Wow, Well, we'll see that. Looks like a smart
play as well. At any event, we'll get answers. You're
starting at about about a half an hour a little
more than that, Okay, Mason Cameron, thanks for your time.
You stay well and we will visit down the road.

Speaker 1 (01:39:01):
Take take care.

Speaker 2 (01:39:02):
You bet, you bet. It's eleven fifty six on this
Thanksgiving morning. Sterling is next on the home of your
Cincinnati Bengals. Seven hundred W l W