6/10/25 - The Mo Egger Radio Show - Mo Egger

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen in oh Man, you are listening right
now to a very very happy, very very grateful man.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Good afternoon. This is ESPN fifteen thirty. My name is Moeger.
Thank you for listening right when the shine had war
off from last night's Ohio Cup clincher. Not that I
wasn't still basking in the aftermath, but you know, professionally,
I started to turn the page. Okay, what about today's show,
and then dropped from heaven by.

Speaker 3 (00:31):
The sports talk.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
Radio gods, we have Schamar Stewart versus the Bengals, and
even better, this happened on a Tuesday, so here he's
forced to talk about this now with me covering Schamar
Stewart versus the Bengals for the Athletic, Theathletic dot Com
and the Growler Podcast, our friend Paul Dayner Jr. It
is awesome to have you. I am so excited. Yeah, yeah, no,

(00:55):
it's great. Let me just tell you what the best
just dropped from heaven by the sports talk radio gods.

Speaker 4 (01:04):
Can we get one day in the middle of June
like this? No, just one time. Can I just be like, oh,
nothing weird to report today? Kind of a very simple day,
very calm practice. Nobody's yelling at management. No, we have
like multiple people. This is the best, and I mean.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
We have Joe.

Speaker 4 (01:27):
We talked to Joe Burrow today. No one even cares
about that anymore.

Speaker 2 (01:31):
Irrelevant the only day the five years that Joe Burrow
has been with the Bengals that anything they get out
of his mouth is totally irrelevant.

Speaker 4 (01:40):
Although knew he had a good joke. Last year they
had two people holding out and this year there's just one.

Speaker 2 (01:44):
So that's good going in the right direction. It's a joke, mo, okay,
how it's like this all right? I doubt there's anybody
who is uninitiated, but let's just do a reset for
anybody who's maybe been at work all day and they
want to know what's going on. So the Bengals today,
day one of miniicamp right o Trey Hendrickson, which was
not unexpected. Shamar Stewart is still not practicing, but he

(02:05):
is there, and today he talked with you guys, yes,
and he sounded off.

Speaker 4 (02:10):
He sounded off, yeah, I mean he he essentially he
essentially voiced his displeasure with the organization.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
I mean, there was no real holding back, I mean.

Speaker 4 (02:21):
A part of the Bengals. He just got here six weeks.
He doesn't have any contract yet. He just got here,
and he's like, let me tell y'all something.

Speaker 2 (02:33):
He says, you know, he says, let's see.

Speaker 4 (02:36):
He says, he's not asking for anything that hasn't been
done before. Y'all just want to win arguments more than
winning more games. Just got here. He's honestly pretty observant.
Quickly observe it, dud dude learns quick quick.

Speaker 2 (02:52):
He called it.

Speaker 4 (02:54):
He called this something very simple to fix. Its kind
of disappointment to disappointing. Excuse me, and you know, you
just he's totally just disenchanted with everything in this conversation.
And he said, I can't really say what I really
want to say. It's their contract. They can do with
what they want with it. He is there is he's

(03:16):
upset about language inside of the contract. That has to
do with avoiding future guarantees. At some point, they didn't
like language in the waiver originally that a lot of
people sign, these rookies. He's not the only unsigned rookie
didn't like language and that and that led to this

(03:37):
not participating, saying he wants to participate, but deciding, you
know what, I'm just gonna I'm just gonna fire off
how I feel and I get it. Here's here's my
side on this. Because I think everybody is seeing it
through different views. I think everybody's to blame.

Speaker 5 (03:53):
But I I.

Speaker 4 (03:55):
Will say this, I understand him not knowing how to
handle this situation. He's a twenty one year old kid
who never really thought he would ever be This was
supposed to be simple. I don't know anything about the
specific type of guidance he's getting from an agent or
what they would have in his agenda. And I don't
know why the Bengals are so dug in on trying
to take this fight out and this precedent out on

(04:17):
Shamar Stewart, other than they feel like they need to.
I probably would have advised him not to do this.
Like to me, it's this is your home, this is
your work home. You just got here, right, you may
feel this way. Would keep that to yourself for now,
because guess what, it's probably gonna happen like next month.

(04:39):
Sometime you'll figure it out and sign and you'll be
there to begin a training camp and you'll wish you
didn't say all that stuff. Now, maybe not, Maybe he'll
be like, I'm not gonna sit here and just take
this and let them try to take money away. So
I hear both sides. I think this is probably not
the greatest way. That wouldn't have been what I would
have done. But I'm not in a situation where they, yeah,
you feel like they're trying to take money away from me.

Speaker 2 (05:01):
I just cannot believe.

Speaker 6 (05:04):
This.

Speaker 4 (05:07):
That's the easiest thing in contracts in the NFL today.
I cannot believe this has reached this level where the
guy you just picked is just throwing it shots at
everyone in the organization as high up as it goes.
Already already he doesn't even know what the shoulder pads

(05:27):
feel like yet.

Speaker 2 (05:28):
Drafted six weeks ago. So I had a handful of thoughts.
Number one was, if I didn't know any better, I
watched the video Mike Petrellia. I watched his version, Yeah Trags.
He's sitting at his locker, and if I didn't know
any better, I would think that was a player who
had been here for four years, who had reached a
point of exasperation during the course of his NFL career

(05:50):
with the Cincinnati Bengals. That's obviously not the case. He's
been here for six weeks, he hasn't signed his contract yet,
So there's number one. Number two. I know, realistically this
wasn't gonna happen, but I kept waiting for a teammate
to come up and go, dude, like Schamar, come on,
you know, not make a but like I kept waiting
for like a veteran teammate to look at that and

(06:11):
come over and go, hey, let's uh, let's get out
of here. We got a meeting to go to, Like,
I mean, just because the more he talked, the worse
it got. And I love it because I'm in sports
talk radio. But the more he talked, the less good
came out of it, right, Yeah, So I kept waiting
for that, and then there was just something interesting. Twice

(06:31):
we've had Trey Hendrickson's stand on a Cincinnati Bengals practice
field and air out the organization. And then we had
Shamar Stewart, who hasn't signed his contract yet, sitting inside
the locker room inside the stadium, at his locker that
the Bengals have given him and he's got to like
go off to a meeting after that I guess and
just air out the franchise and the dude has barely

(06:52):
been here. That is remarkable. Yeah, that is a remarkable visual.
Yeah it is. I'll just say that.

Speaker 4 (07:01):
I mean, I feel like I don't know what there's
immaturity at play here because he's a young kid, and
which is.

Speaker 2 (07:08):
Why I kept waiting for a veteran teammate to come
up and go. But he's in the middle of this, like,
no one knows what he's saying. Sure, right, you don't
know he could be in their view. No, if you're
not in there. I mean there's a little huddle around
him that lasted. You can't know.

Speaker 4 (07:22):
I mean, you couldn't hear even in the outside of
the huddle. It's hard to hear what was actually being
said in there, So no one knows what's going on.
And I'm guessing no one approached him with like, hey,
don't say anything, or maybe there was people saying, like
you've talked about stars, say I'm doing what's right or
whatever that exact quote was. I don't I'm not pulling.
I don't have a directly in front of me. But

(07:43):
you know, maybe he feels vindicated in things that he's
hearing behind closed doors, and so he's just gonna say
what he wants to say.

Speaker 2 (07:52):
It's just not great because.

Speaker 4 (07:56):
Because my point in this is that no one will
remember this, and I don't I think if he would
have been quiet here, I still.

Speaker 2 (08:01):
Think no one would remember this.

Speaker 4 (08:03):
Right because he if he shows up at training camp,
no one would remember that, oh yeah, he didn't participate
in mini camp.

Speaker 7 (08:09):
Right.

Speaker 4 (08:10):
And again I'm gonna continue to reiterate what I often do.
There's just, especially for linemen, there's just not a lot
happening out there.

Speaker 2 (08:19):
Would it be better to these out there?

Speaker 4 (08:20):
Of course, until the pads come on and it gets
real in training camp, I don't think this is an impact.
But now it feels like it's escalated to this point
where now this guy just feels like he doesn't.

Speaker 2 (08:29):
Like it here.

Speaker 4 (08:30):
Yeah, where it went from a little annoyance in your
contract thing that's like, okay, there's still a bunch of
guys that aren't signed, we can work this out to
like I don't like it here is what his body
language and a lot of his words are saying, Yeah,
he just.

Speaker 2 (08:44):
Got raped.

Speaker 4 (08:48):
Number seven set overall, and the one thing was like, look,
I'm not saying he's not a good kid. I think
he's in a tough spot here. But it was like, okay,
we doesn't have production, Okay, but now we have this.
So it's like the same problems that you were having
with Trey Hendrickson's situation, minus the sacks.

Speaker 2 (09:08):
Okay. So I don't know, like.

Speaker 4 (09:13):
All this over what over some setting, some precedent off,
some void language, okay, and maybe the Bengals have decided, Man,
it is really important right now, Like this is the
moment we have to Maybe maybe it shouldn't be.

Speaker 2 (09:30):
I don't know. I don't know. Here's what I do know.
If you're not practicing, maybe you shouldn't have a locker.
And if you don't have a locker because you're not
changing into anything, then you can't sit there and say
bad things about us. Problem solved. Yeah, no contract, no locker.
Yeah right, you get a locker, you get some stuff

(09:52):
like why do you have a locker? You're not dressing
for practice, didn't do anything out there, Why do you
have a locker. If you don't have a locker, you
can't sit an hour locker and dump all over us.

Speaker 4 (10:03):
I just we it just seems like, you know, we
talked to about the Bengals being up to the.

Speaker 2 (10:11):
Task this offseason.

Speaker 4 (10:12):
A monumentous off season in terms of the challenge in
front of them, Right, they had to do so much,
and they did some things. You know, they get t
and Jamar done and that's great, but like they have
not been up to the task on so much of this.
It's like this, so much of this is how is this?
It's the lingering. It's that it goes on and you

(10:35):
had the ability to nip some things in the bud
and avoid the distractions. It's the same conversation we had
last year with Jamar Chase. It's the same conversation we've
had this off season with Trey Hendrickson. I'd throw in
the Jermaine Pratt situation into this too, of just letting
that unnecessarily linger and kind of hold him.

Speaker 2 (10:53):
Hostage for god knows why.

Speaker 4 (10:55):
And now this thing over just fighting with your first
round pick over this stuff. It's just it's the lingering
and the constant battling and bickering over this stuff that
it's just it's pervasive and it affects more than the
guy that it's happening to.

Speaker 2 (11:13):
With respect to Schamar specifically, It's just not a good
way to start a new relationship.

Speaker 5 (11:18):
No.

Speaker 2 (11:19):
I mean, he may end up having a terrific career
and sign a second contract and be, you know, a
guy who's here for a decade, and it may be awesome,
but this is just not the way to get started
with with a guy who they obviously view as central.
We took him in the first round at a position
of need where they, you know, have a guy that
they're in another standoff with, Like it's I've watched Bengals

(11:44):
players show dissatisfaction. We've witnessed you know, holdouts. We're not
really in that era anymore. I guess we're not supposed
to be. I've not seen anything like this. I've heard
the holdouts agent sound off. You know, we all remember
the nineties and early two thousands when invariably, you know,
the agent would speak on behalf of the player. The
player was nowhere to be seen. Here, the player is

(12:04):
very much to be seen. He's right there, yeah, right there.
I said this to you about the Trey Hendrickson thing
four weeks ago. I had never seen anything like that before.
I certainly have not seen anything like this. It's remarkable
and it's such a bad way, regardless of where you
want to lay the blame. It's such a bad way
to start what has to be a good working relationship.

Speaker 4 (12:25):
Yeah, I mean, it's a bad taste in your mouth immediately,
even if he signed it to you know, tomorrow, is
he gonna come back and say, oh, I didn't feel
any of that. I was just making that stuff. Well,
I don't really really have these problems. I don't really
feel this way. I'm not really you know, everything that
I was doing and saying, ah, that's not really how
I feel. You know, it's out there now, which and
that's fine if that's it's just public and maybe there

(12:47):
were there's a lot of people that feel that way.
The good I mean, the you know, I do think
that it's it's easier for the team and everybody to
kind of sluff that stuff, this stuff off a little
bit more than last year. But god, the it's the
ultimate Okay, if there was a lesson to be learned
from last year, is like, let's just forget all that stuff.

(13:08):
And they haven't been able to because just in the
it's like the easy stuff, not calling Trey Hendrickson situation easy,
but like when you get to a certain point, you
know what the decision you need to make is. It's
A or B, and the and the inability to just
make the decision and move on. It's just it hangs
out there and it makes so many of these things
just drag out and cause days like this. Although this

(13:29):
was fairly unprecedented.

Speaker 2 (13:31):
So does does the sixteenth overall pick Walter Nolan signing
his contract with the Cardinals shape this in any way,
shape or form.

Speaker 4 (13:40):
Maybe, I don't know. I love talking about contract language
in June Mo. It's my favorite. Yeah, absolutely. I mean
we're we're in weird, uncharted territory here with this, at
this point where there's this thing. So I don't know
that that changes that it changed Maybe maybe it changes
the view of one side or the other.

Speaker 2 (14:00):
I just don't know.

Speaker 4 (14:01):
At this point, I can't sit here and say that
I have a feel for what that's.

Speaker 2 (14:07):
Gonna how it's gonna affect it.

Speaker 4 (14:08):
Because this is a guy who clearly sounds different than
most rookies that don't haven't signed yet sound This isn't
like your standard oh waiting for the slot to come
through conversation.

Speaker 2 (14:19):
I do have some things to ask you about that
don't necessarily have anything to do with Shamar Stewart, but
not yet. Nineteen minutes after three o'clock, He's Paul Tanner Junior.
Read his work The Athletic dot Com and catch the
podcast The Growler multiple times per week. As we say,
where you get your podcasts, including YouTube. Twenty minutes after

(14:40):
three o'clock, Paul's here till four, I'm here Toll six.
This is ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 3 (14:45):
Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 8 (14:50):
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(15:10):
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Speaker 2 (15:22):
This report is sponsored by Rapid Radios. Rapid Radios are
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and no subscription as ZESPN fifteen thirty. Paul Danner Junior
from The Athletic and the Growling podcast is here till
four o'clock. Bengals had a day one of minicam today
and some stuff happened on the field. I guess that
we'll discuss that much right now. Shamar Stewart is digging

(15:44):
in in his battle with the Bengals. That's made waves
today and it's been a lot of fun for me. Yeah,
it's great. Schamar intimated that the star players are on
his side. Yeah, do you believe him? Uh?

Speaker 4 (15:59):
Yeah, that would be a weird thing to make up
or know that you even could make up when you
just got here, when you just got here.

Speaker 2 (16:05):
What he did today though, was weird. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (16:08):
I would think that there's probably, you know, that could
be as simple as somebody like Jamar or t or
Trey being like, man, fight for yourself, fight for what
you believe in, like a passing comment. It could be
a something as simple as that. It could be something
as large as a lunch meeting with all of them
gathering around, you know, like like I that could be

(16:31):
when you're talking about something a twenty one year old
kid says, surrounding by media like that in that situation
for the first time in his life.

Speaker 2 (16:39):
The background on.

Speaker 4 (16:40):
It is hard, you know, to know specifically what would
warrant him saying that, But yeah, you would think that
there was probably there.

Speaker 2 (16:46):
I don't think it's something would make up. So they're
putting this language in a contract, and they want to
put this language in his contract, the sort of language
they haven't included in the deals for any of their
other first round picks. Yeah, do people with the club
suggest to you why they want to do this, because

(17:09):
it feels it feels from out of left field.

Speaker 4 (17:13):
It would be helpful to know their side, right and
there's nothing there is There is nothing there, no and
and no one. You know, there are ways to do that,
but there, you know, there is nothing there right now
in terms of help me understand why you would want
to do it.

Speaker 2 (17:32):
You know, there's nothing suggesting that they think there's maybe
a character issue or a professionalism issue, or some sort
of issue with Shamar that is exclusive to him that
they want to protect themselves from by including language they
haven't with other picks.

Speaker 4 (17:49):
I mean, the only thing is the nature of who
he is as a prospect being raw maybe percent as
a risk reward, high risk, you know, chance of busting
situation in terms of just the lack of production. Maybe
it's fear over that, you know, wanting to hedge a
little bit more because of the nature of who he
of who he was in college. Then don't take him right, right, Like,

(18:12):
if that's what this is about, then then then he
shouldn't have been your pick.

Speaker 2 (18:16):
Is there anything that would suggest that if Shamar Stewart
had come off the board at sixteen and they take
any other player at seventeen, that they're putting the same language.

Speaker 4 (18:23):
In no way to know that, Yeah, I have no
way to know that. I mean, there is just isn't.
I mean, it's to speculate it, you'd be speculation, right,
I don't.

Speaker 2 (18:33):
I don't know because some have taken this is this
is just how the Bengals want to do their contracts
moving forward, and it just it feels like a weird
It just feels like a weird thing to just decide
we're going to start doing this year when we're taking
a player who is drafted in a comparable place to
players we have taken recently. Yeah, Shamar Stewart's dad said

(18:53):
in a podcast, I think a week ago, Look, you
want to set a new precedent whin the Super Bowl
this year, then do it next year with the guy
you take thirty seven and overall that would make sense.
Or doing it with a guy if you really stink
and you draft in the top five or top ten,
do it then. Like it's so I think what a
lot of us have done after we have gotten done
kind of just laughing at the absurdity of the situation.

(19:15):
Is like, all right, what is there specifically about Shamar
Stewart that compels the Bengals to do something differently than
they've done with any other player who has been drafted,
especially when they have drafted close to seventeen in the
first round in recent years.

Speaker 4 (19:30):
The I mean to me, it goes back to what
I was saying. I think it's the it's the bust potential,
you know, the chance of if he doesn't start becoming
the athlete that he was, if he is one and
a half sack per year guy, you know, if that
is the case, versus becoming, you know, growing into what

(19:51):
they think he can be as a player.

Speaker 2 (19:53):
The ability to not be stuck on that money.

Speaker 4 (19:55):
They feel like it's a higher risk right now than
in previous That's that's the day diference between him and
others and I. You know, you could have probably made
a similar argument about Marius mims.

Speaker 2 (20:08):
Raw a little bit of a project, yeah, not a
lot of experience.

Speaker 4 (20:12):
Yeah, but also you know you could have had. It's
just that it goes back to me. It also goes
back to though, you know, just the willingness to sign
the waiver and just go practice by the player, which
meant so maybe that is part of it where it's like, okay, well,
if you're willing to go sign and practice and you're
you're about the right stuff and you you land there,

(20:32):
nobody knows if you felt this way. I just you know,
I think he I I just I don't know what
to say about it anymore, right, Like what do you
what do you say? Yeah, it's ridiculous. You could just
sit and laugh the way I do. That's what I've
been doing. It's ridiculous that we're talking about language and

(20:56):
contracts and deferring guarantees in June with the guy who
just got here. It just for everybody involved, there's there's
just there's no reason for it to be at this level.
There's nothing.

Speaker 2 (21:09):
Maybe the Bengals don't care, maybe most listening to this
conversation don't care. But what is more damaging to the
bengals reputation what they're doing with Trey Hendrickson or the
Shamar Stewart situation.

Speaker 4 (21:27):
Probably the Shamar Stewart thing, because it looks more petty
and it looks more like, man, they're just impossible to
deal with you. We've made the argument about not signing Trey,
but yeah, I.

Speaker 2 (21:38):
See the basic premise of their position.

Speaker 4 (21:40):
Like creating Trey Hendrickson was the number two thing of
my ten things the Bengals need to do this offseason, right,
Like we there's a real argument to be made for
moving on from the guy who's turning thirty one at
that position this year and not paying him the top
of the market. Like I think you can make football,
you know the way it's gone down obviously, and compile

(22:01):
with everything else it's not great. But I think this
just feels petty and silly, and it's that they're just
gonna fight you tooth and nail on every single thing,
no matter who you are, even if your first round
pick who just got here in a slotted contract.

Speaker 2 (22:13):
That should be easy.

Speaker 4 (22:14):
So yeah, I think that is more damaging to reputation
than something that you can you can make football arguments
about and see where they're coming from.

Speaker 2 (22:23):
Many have said over the years that the Bengals care
more about winning negotiations than they do football games. That
has been something that has been lobbed against the Bengals
for decades. To have a guy come in and say
pretty much the same thing when he was drafted six
weeks ago is extraordinarily striking. Yeah, maybe he is talking

(22:45):
to the stars. I mean really like, because those are
the people that would say that is a line that
has been spit out about the Bengals for a long time.
Twenty one year old kid who just got here doesn't
just manufacture that. So that's what I'm kind of curious.
Like someone says that to him. Someone someone says that
to him, someone who matters said that to him. Yeah,

(23:07):
and it could be his agent, sure, right, I mean
that would that sounds like the type of thing that
an agent would say. I mean, and probably, and there's
a lot of agents that have a lot the vast
majority probably, But like I I'm just saying that's that's
where that's something like that more than likely comes from. Wow,

(23:30):
you know there's other stuff. I promise you. Joe Burrow
talked today, mo Joe Burrow talked today and acknowledged that
the Trey Hendrickson situation is a distraction. Yeah, and that's
like the second thing we're going to talk about. Yeah,
it's another there's another distraction. Uh, all right, Well we'll
get a break in. Paul Danner Junior's with this from
the When do we get to talk about the Ohio Cup?

(23:53):
You know, we can do that next if you want.

Speaker 4 (23:54):
No, No, I'm here. No, I mean, I just I
just you know, I'm excited. I love the Ohio Cup.
How could you not?

Speaker 2 (24:00):
The question now tonight is like, is there a little
bit of a hangover? Oh? Oh, okay, hangover? What happens
do the Reds sort of you know, burst through because
they're riding that afterglow or a little bit of a hangover.
And then from a guardian's perspective, what do you play
for twenty six away from four o'clock sports headlines and more? Next,

(24:21):
Paul Tanner Juniors. Here, This is ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati
Sports Station.

Speaker 3 (24:25):
Sincy three sixty with Tony Pike. If we want to
move on, they'd have to keep going and bustin Elmore.

Speaker 2 (24:31):
I think you should continue.

Speaker 1 (24:32):
Let me keep going there Sincy three sixty tomorrow which
twelve News on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.
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Speaker 2 (25:15):
This report is sponsored by Taco Benz Protection and guaranteed
credit approval from their family to Yours for Life kelseyshev
dot com. With the champagne still being soaked up from
the visiting clubhouse in Cleveland, the Reds are preparing to
take on the Guardians tonight, game two of their three
game series. Andrew Abbot's going to pitch against Slade scone

(25:35):
six forty tonight seven hundred WLW. Starting lineup this evening.
TJ Friedel is leading off in center. Lux's dhing Ellie's
at short cees third, Tyler Stevenson is catching Will Benson
and left Spencer Stewart first. Jake Freeley, after a big
night last night's in right field, hitting eighth. Matt McLain
is playing second base and batting nine. Florence on the

(25:56):
road against Windy City tonight, and the Bengals held day
one of minicamp today. I'm sorry, really quick. Florence is
hosting Wendy City, so you can go to that game.
Don't drive to Chicago to go watch the Alls tonight.
They're home six forty two, first pitch. I don't want
to give out bum information. The Bengals held day one

(26:17):
of minicamp today. Trey Hendrickson was not there. Schamar Stewart
was there but not practicing because he's upset stuff. I
can tell you really want to talk about things that
have nothing to do with Shamar Stewart anything else. I
just I'm just over I'm just over all of this.
The practice today, did anything interesting happen? Very little Okay.

Speaker 4 (26:43):
Previous weeks we're talking about the competitiveness, right, it felt
like it ended, And I said, when did it start?

Speaker 2 (26:49):
It was very very slow, very slow. Today. Not a
whole lot that that really happened today. Okay, Joe Burrow talked, Yes, Yes,
anything interesting from Joe today, you know a little bit.
I think.

Speaker 4 (27:05):
It's just sort of you know, business as usual, a
little bit with him where he talks about, you know,
his health and the risk and that he still works
through it and working on spin rate and still you know,
trying to work on that, but feeling like he has
a feel for what he needs to do to get

(27:27):
through the year. I I just think he feels like
he's in It's almost like he's trying not to jinx it,
you know. He just feels like he's in a really
good place, the best place he's probably been.

Speaker 2 (27:42):
At this point.

Speaker 4 (27:45):
And so there's a okay, feels like, gosh, got your
guys out there and something.

Speaker 2 (27:50):
And I know I mentioned this last week.

Speaker 4 (27:51):
I'm writing this story on Dann Pitcher in year two,
and I was gathering a little bit more on it today.
It will be out soon, I promise, I promise. It's
mostly done. I got time other things keep pushing the
good stories back.

Speaker 5 (28:05):
Mo.

Speaker 4 (28:06):
I don't want it to be this way. This is
probably where a lot of my frustration comes from. I'm like,
I'd love to talk about football stuff. Don't you like
talking about football stuff?

Speaker 2 (28:14):
Not in June, no September through January? Hell yeah, yeah,
get a lawyer on the phone, let's go and so.

Speaker 4 (28:23):
But I think him talking about this being the first
time they felt like they haven't had to get a
new guy into the mix or work on some new
aspect of something, and just the general continuity that is
happening right now really has them feeling like they're in
a great place offensively, then the guard thing will work
itself out. But like there's just everybody you talk to

(28:47):
involved in this offense feels great about where they are,
the adjustments there they are able to tweak to see,
you know, how they learned from all the personnel that
is back this year, and the way that they can
build better around them, whether it be tweaking the running
game to build better around Chase Brown and what his
skill set is to get SICKI to Yoshabash, having a

(29:11):
better understanding of how he can be used in him
being clearly bigger, stronger, faster, Twitchyre.

Speaker 2 (29:17):
Being used I think the t Higgins use last week.

Speaker 4 (29:21):
And feeling like they have so many more answers and
year two for Dan and all of that stuff. You
can just sense that when Burrow was talking about it
today of just man, you just feel like you're just
in a really good place offensively with what they were
coming off of last year, and so that they have
answers even if there's injuries, even if there's which they're

(29:41):
inevitably there will be, I think, feeling like they have
a lot of answers that they can get to and
just being as prepared as they could be right now
to do exactly what they haven't done, and that's start fast.

Speaker 2 (29:52):
The Bengals made it official today. Jermaine Pratt is being released.
This is something we've talked about for five months now,
months to release?

Speaker 3 (30:02):
Cool?

Speaker 2 (30:03):
What do we do? What is happening? They turn him
into a sympathetic figure.

Speaker 4 (30:06):
Yeah, where it's you essentially hold this guy hostage. Okay,
you you want to wait until after the draft?

Speaker 2 (30:15):
Undersid? I get it? Like, Yeah, first of all, he's
not in your plans.

Speaker 4 (30:20):
Wasn't in your plans in January, the same way he
wasn't on Monday.

Speaker 2 (30:23):
Not in your plans. You know you can.

Speaker 4 (30:26):
It's not about where, it's not about distribution of money
or any of that. You knew what you were gonna do.
You're gonna try to get Okay, try to get a trade.
No one is taking that money for Jermaine track. Nobody
was doing that, right, and they knew that the moment
that there was the idea that Jermaine has requested a trade. No,
you guys just said go find a trade for yourself
and see if someone will take on your contract and

(30:48):
get you the money for you.

Speaker 2 (30:49):
Okay, and okay, you want to.

Speaker 4 (30:53):
Hold on to something that you didn't have to bring
him back into the mix and be hey, go go
get him come. Well, good to have you back, Jermaine.
Is that what was gonna happen if if you really
didn't get a Okay, So let's just say that you're
keeping that alive. Okay, But the moment you draft Barrett Carter,
the move should it should have been the Bengals select
Barrett Carter and released your main prep. Right, You've you've

(31:14):
signed linebackers, you've traded, you've you've drafted to.

Speaker 2 (31:19):
What is happening. There's no reason to do that.

Speaker 4 (31:21):
It's okay whatever, whatever your reason is, it doesn't matter.
It becomes it becames you. This guy doesn't deserve this.
He deserves to be able to move on with his
life and go find his team. You already caught. You
know you're not gonna do it before free agency where
it's easier for him to find a landing place where
he can go play. Okay, that's your right, you can
do it that way. I'm sure the player hates it.

(31:41):
I'm sure a lot of players see that treatment and
don't like seeing that happen to a friend of theirs.
But it's like, it doesn't have to be this way,
and I feel like he is a guy for his sours.
It went for him last year, and you know everything
that happened that went wrong last year on that defense
he did. He didn't deserve that. It's nice to say

(32:03):
thank you Jermaine for all that you did. You know
what a better way to say thank you would have
been to let him go the moment after the drafter earlier, I.

Speaker 2 (32:09):
Did feel like I mentioned he kind of became a
sympathetic figure when you know it was out there that
they're officially going to release him, which we all knew
they were going to do. I kind of felt like
Bengals fans spent more time talking about some of the
moments that Jermaine authored here. I mean, I said on
my show yesterday, is a handful of athletes in this town.
Sam Hubbard's one of them two that when you mentioned
their name, your mind instantly goes to a specific play,

(32:32):
And with Jermaine, it's that night against the Las Vegas Raiders.
And what I thought was cool yesterday, at least on
social media, is that's what Bengals fans did. I feel
like the way Jermaine played this year and how he
kind of handled himself kind of obscured the fact that
if you look at that twenty nineteen class, you could
argue he was the best pick of that draft class.
You know that included Jona Wims, that included Drew Sample,
who's still with the team. And then if you kind of,

(32:54):
you know, understood what his role in those teams in
twenty one and twenty two were, he was a contributing
to teams that won lots of games. Yeah, I did
lots of really cool things, and it was a big
part of that. I felt like, had they cut him
in January, nobody's talking about that. I think because of
the timing of this, more people focused on some of
the good stuff Jermaine did while he was here.

Speaker 4 (33:15):
Yeah, and he deserves that, yes, you know, I mean,
I just think you think about those defenses he was
a big part of, so, I mean the opener against
the Vikings, yeah, I mean when he just pulls that
ball out of nowhere of Travis Kelce in the home
Chiefs game, and then obviously the interception. I mean he's
also a part of the of the fumble in the jungle.

(33:35):
I mean it's not like I mean, he was just
as much part of it as anybody. And so he
was a big part of that. I always he had
one of the coolest sideline moments when he got caught
on video and he was looking up into the stands
that kill kill and I was like, they use that
and I think every video for about a year and
a half because it was great. But I was like
always I think of him in that way and that

(33:57):
he was just he was part of the personality and
swagger of that defense in a lot of ways, and
it was usually in the biggest moments. It showed up,
and so I think he you know, this happens. Guys
have bad years, careers go south, it stops working out,
and it changes a little bit of the way that

(34:18):
they're viewed. I think it doesn't take long or in
this case, six months, I guess, for people to see.

Speaker 2 (34:23):
Germine a little bit more of the way he probably
deserved to be seen. Which beat would you find more
enviable the one that you're on now covering Shamar Stewart
and Trey Hendrickson or having to cover Aaron Rodgers and
the Steelers.

Speaker 4 (34:37):
I'll still take the bagels at this point, I don't
I want nothing to do with anything that has to
do with the Aaron Rodgers beat, just the toxicity of
that and the constant nature of that, and then the
national uh maybe the flammability, Yeah, everything that happens with him,
And then you have to worry about him.

Speaker 2 (34:57):
Where is he appears? What is he on a pot?

Speaker 4 (35:00):
Am I gonna have to like get a vaccine expert
on the phone, like where do we end up? You
never know where you're gonna end up with these And
then the only thing is that you haven't ended up
in a lot of winning with him, and so yeah,
I probably would take this current situation over having to
deal with Aaron.

Speaker 2 (35:18):
It's interesting. It's interesting in the AFC north man. I mean, look,
I don't know how much he raises Pittsburgh ceiling, and
as a fan, I am desperate to watch that go sideways.
That would be awesome. But it's an extraordinarily interesting dynamic.
This relatively stable franchise that sort of holds itself to
a different standard, I think lowering itself to kind of

(35:40):
letting Aaron Rodgers dictate the off season is a really
interesting dynamic.

Speaker 4 (35:43):
Grasping its straws is what they're doing. I mean, they're
just this is a I mean, fittingly Fraron Rodgers. It's
a hail Mary, you know what I mean. It's like, well,
I don't know, maybe maybe we can find a way
to get service will play out of a guy who
has been great. Maybe he has one last great season
we can build around him. I don't you know. It's

(36:03):
since Ben, since the end of Ben Roethlisberger, this is
what the Steelers have been, Yeah, grasping its straws at
the quarterback position, looking for any level of serviceability from
anybody that could do it, and talking themselves into that,
and they'll and and you know what, they'll I don't
know if you knew this. Mike Tomlin has never had
a losing season in his head coaching coaching career. Every

(36:26):
year he's at least won one more game. Yeah, yeah,
so so so they'll probably get themselves to that level.

Speaker 2 (36:34):
Suh. That yeah, I mean, but if it goes if
it goes south, it just has tremendous like toxicity and
flammability potential.

Speaker 4 (36:44):
Oh, there's no doubt. I mean Tomlin Rogers relationship, Uh,
I would have I wouldn't mind hard knocks there this year,
just to get a feel for that, because obviously he
hasn't been the easiest to deal with in his last
couple stops.

Speaker 2 (37:01):
Right, he can't move. And so if Shamar Stewart or
Trey Hendrickson end up playing for the Bengals, I think
that first game here is week six, Week seven, then
they should Shamar Stewart should get a sack and then
he can find out what it feels like to sack
a quarterback.

Speaker 4 (37:16):
Most most likely to sack a to sack Aaron Rodgers first,
Miles Murphy.

Speaker 2 (37:21):
Shamar Stewart or trade. My money's on Miles. He's here.

Speaker 5 (37:25):
At least he's here.

Speaker 2 (37:26):
Like this huge like make or break season for Miles Murphy.
No one's talking about him. He's gonna be like, this
is awesome, this is great. I'm gonna get some reps
now where they really need him to make it. Huh sure,
all right, well thank you? Yes, always this was uh
this was fun mo. Yeah, yeah, I enjoyed it.

Speaker 4 (37:43):
I always enjoy time with you, even when even when
it's something that I despise talking about. We like the
fun in football, of course, and this is just it's
not not fun. It's annoying, and it's dumb stuff, and
it's lawyer stuff, and I just like, I just don't
find it. And I'm I understand the need to know

(38:05):
and the need to understand the pick sides, and I
and and I'm here to We just did talk through
all of it. I just I just don't like it.

Speaker 2 (38:12):
I get it. I I don't want to say that
I don't love it, because if you don't love it,
then why you're doing this? Yeah, but there's a big
part of me that wants this to get resolved so
we can start to talk about the the fun part
of this, which is the Yeah.

Speaker 4 (38:27):
Like I've had a lot of fun, like doing stuff
on the on the evolution of the Bengals offense in
the background for the last week and a half, Like,
I have a lot of good stuff.

Speaker 2 (38:35):
I can't wait to get out and listening to Joe
talk about to today it was a lot of fun.

Speaker 4 (38:38):
It was I really, I really like am excited to
write more about what I've got on all of this,
and I feel like it keeps getting pushed back because
stupid things keep happening.

Speaker 2 (38:47):
Mote, It's Harry Season, Talk Football. Well, thank you as
always my pleasure. Paul Danner Junior read his work covering
Shamar Stewart and no football at the Athletic Doc.

Speaker 4 (38:58):
Come and get the Cup, Ohio Cup talk, Ohio Cup talk.

Speaker 2 (39:03):
Yes, she truns ran about the Ohio Cup. Yeah. Pattock
dot Com Absolutely, and Paul's podcast The Growler as well.
It is a seven away from four o'clock. I'm oweger
glad you with us today on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 3 (39:15):

Speaker 8 (39:20):
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and survivors, called five one, three, five eighty five UCCC Roadways.
Right now, that's on Lynn Street and accident over at

(39:42):
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That's down to one lane near the Carrol Cropper Bridge
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Speaker 7 (39:52):
This report is sponsor for ESPN fifteen thirty on Molegar.

Speaker 2 (39:57):
Thank you for joining us today. So we've got the
Ohio Cup, Reds win the Ohio Cup. More importantly, as
much fun as we have had with the Reds winning
the Ohio Cup. They've won four straight through above five hundred,
playing really well. And you know, the onus, which is
often on the front office and ownership is shifting for

(40:17):
the next six weeks. We're gonna get to that here
in just a few minutes. More on the Shamar Stewart situation.
We've talked a lot about what he said. We haven't
really played the audio for you. We'll do that a
little bit later on this hour. Plus Brennanman and Jones
on baseball we're gonna step away from sports for just
a few minutes. And no, we're not going to do

(40:37):
any hardcore, serious political talk. That's not what we do.
But there's an event coming up two weeks from this Saturday,
on the twenty eighth of June at Mount Saint Joseph's University,
and it's going to be a night to celebrate and
remember our old colleague, my friend and mentor, the great
Jim Scott, who passed away almost exactly a year ago.

(41:00):
And you have heard me over the years talk about
Jim and his work here and me getting my start
working with Jim, which was so much fun and learning
so much from him, and we talked a lot about
Jim after he passed. This night two weeks from this
Saturday is going to be a lot of fun. I
am going to be one of the MC's along with
the great Denny Jansen and from our newsroom down the

(41:20):
hall Brian COLEMs on seven hundred WLW, and so I
wanted to talk about the evening which is going to
be awesome. It's officially called a celebration of Jim Scott
music and memories I have with us in studio. Jim's
wife Donna and also Maria Bruce is with us helping
to coordinate and put on this event. Ladies, it is awesome.
Get close to those microphones now.

Speaker 6 (41:40):
Thank you so much for having us.

Speaker 2 (41:41):
Good to have you guys here in studio. What's going
on so much?

Speaker 9 (41:46):
Well, we're getting close to the event and very excited,
very excited to talk about it, and we appreciate you
having us.

Speaker 2 (41:52):
Two weeks from this Saturday, it starts at six o'clock.
It's going to be in the evening. It's out Mount
Saint Joe. What's going to happen that night.

Speaker 9 (41:58):
Oh, my goodness of stuff. So we first want to
stress that this is not a funeral. I think a
lot of people, you know, saw celebration of life and
their thinking, oh, this is a funeral. This is not
a funeral. This is going to be like a big
party celebrating Jim. So we're going to have lots of musicians, singers,
wonderful mcs who are going to tell great stories.

Speaker 2 (42:17):
Some special guests and me and yet exactly.

Speaker 9 (42:21):
And then it's also a big fundraiser, so we're gonna
have basket raffles and lots of stuff to raise money
for als.

Speaker 2 (42:26):
Yeah, so obviously Jim, Jim fought Donna an awesome war
and battle against ALS, and it was inspiring to watch him.
You know, he was in the Opening Day Parade last
year and ALS was taken a hold of him, but
it hadn't taken everything away. Still had a smile, still
had his ability to connect. And we all know what

(42:48):
ALS does, but watching it firsthand and watching how Jim
fought it so courageously, I know he would be happy
to see the rest of us sort of continuing that
fight in his stead right right.

Speaker 7 (43:00):
You know, ALS is about as bad as a disease
gets because it takes everything away and all you have
left is your mind and your personality. And Jim lost
his voice, he lost his ability to move, he lost
everything but his spirit.

Speaker 6 (43:20):
And he he.

Speaker 7 (43:22):
Met Als with all the grace that you would expect
of Jim Scott always. Yeah, you visited him, You used
to visit him a lot more so, you know, he
just was amazing.

Speaker 2 (43:33):
Well what was uh? You know, remember he called me
and he told me about his diagnosis. And I'm sitting
there on the other side of the phone the phone
and I'm chrestfallen. And the next thing he says to
me is, well, I'm learning how to play golf with
one arm. And I thought, well, that's nice. And then
he goes, so you're gonna have to tell everybody how
I beat you with one arm. So he had a

(43:54):
great sense of humor, but it was it was it
was inspiring to watch him go through what he went
through and do it in the way that he did.
And I'm so excited for this night two weeks from
tonight at Mount Saint Joe. And it's going to be
a celebration and there's going to be music, and it's
going to be fun, and it's going to raise money

(44:15):
for people who could really use him Ria, Yes, and.

Speaker 6 (44:17):
Lots of videos and videos, some special guests.

Speaker 2 (44:21):
Yeah. And I think it'd be cool to kind of
help tell Jim's story too, just as a broadcaster in town, right,
and not just as a broadcaster, but as a community advocate,
as a champion for the city, and somebody you talk
about events like this, who was a part of thousands
of events just like that, And that, to me is
the kind of the sweet irony of this whole thing,
right right, That's what he would want. He was Cincinnati's MC.

Speaker 7 (44:43):
He was right, right, oh my gosh. Over over almost
fifty years on Cincinnati radio. I mean, Jim em seed
something at least twice a week.

Speaker 2 (44:53):
Yeah, sometimes twice a day.

Speaker 6 (44:55):
Yeah, sometimes twice today.

Speaker 2 (44:56):
I would work with Jim in the morning and we'd
get off at nine o'clock and then do our stuff
for the next day. And you know, I would say, well,
I'm going to go home and take a nap, and
he would say, well, I'm going to go host this
luncheon and then we're gonna go to happy hour with
some advertisers, and then I've got to host this thing tonight,
this banquet, and I'm going like, uh, well, geez, I'm exhausted,

(45:19):
and I'm much much younger than you, and I'm gonna
need a nap today.

Speaker 7 (45:22):
The man never slept, no, he and when he finally retired,
I think we realized that he was actually sleep deprived.
He would just catch. He would catch two hours here,
an hour there. And one time I was on two
seventy five driving and there was a car pulled over
on the shoulder of the road.

Speaker 6 (45:41):
Tonight.

Speaker 7 (45:42):
I thought, oh my gosh, Jim's that's Jim's car, So
so I pull over to the shoulder as quickly as
I could, and I start going backwards and it was Jim.
And here he is a sleep taking a nap on
the shoulder of I two seventy five, safe, leaning back
with his mouth hanging open.

Speaker 6 (45:59):
But I thought he was dead, you know, And I said,
don't do that here.

Speaker 2 (46:03):
That's what he would do.

Speaker 6 (46:05):
He would just pull over somewhere and take a nap.

Speaker 2 (46:07):
Yeah, how he kept the hours he did? I'll have
I'll never have any ideas. So it's a ticketed event, yes,
So it's the twenty eighth a Mount Saint Joe. Where
can people go to get tickets and more information? Yes?

Speaker 9 (46:20):
On Mount Saint Joe's website. So I think it's www
dot msj dot EEDU backslash Jim Scott or you can
just go to Mount Saint Joe's website and search Jim Scott.

Speaker 2 (46:29):
Right, and it's it's all right there.

Speaker 10 (46:31):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (46:31):
Why why Mount Saint Joe do we know? Is there
a good reason? Well that's where I met him, okay.

Speaker 9 (46:36):
And so he went back to school to finish his degree.
He had one class to take and he happened to
be in my my one of my site classes.

Speaker 2 (46:43):
Is that right? Yeah?

Speaker 9 (46:44):
I met him, and we got drinks after class every
single week. Wow, and we became really close.

Speaker 6 (46:49):
Seventy five went.

Speaker 2 (46:50):
Back to school. Yeah, yeah, Yeah, I remember when that happened,
because we talked about how like it's, uh, you know,
it's you could always go back, you know, you could
always go back, and it's you know, you're never a
finished product. You could always go back, reinvent yourself and
study something that you never thought you would be that
interested in. Yeah, and he.

Speaker 6 (47:06):
Loved it, Yep, he did.

Speaker 7 (47:08):
He was like he was like a third grader getting
on the big yellow school bus every single day.

Speaker 2 (47:13):
Never knew anybody who had more curiosity just about people.

Speaker 6 (47:17):
Oh right, oh my lord, Hi, I'm Jim Scott. What's
your name? Tell me about you?

Speaker 11 (47:22):
Right?

Speaker 4 (47:22):
Yeah.

Speaker 9 (47:23):
The first day of class he walked around, every single
student shook their head and.

Speaker 2 (47:26):
Said, Hi, I'm Jim. What's your name?

Speaker 9 (47:28):
Yeah, And of course most people in my class had
no idea who he was, were all like, oh my gosh, he's.

Speaker 6 (47:32):
The sweet older guy.

Speaker 2 (47:34):
He's adorable. Hey. The first time I met him, he
what's your name, where you're from, what's your mom's name,
what's your mom's maiden name? And I'm going like, this
is kind of weird, but that he did that with everybody,
it just had an insane curiosity, unbelievable. So six o'clock
on the twenty eighth, and the door's open at five pm.

Speaker 7 (47:54):
Right, because there's riffles and our dirvs in a cash
Memoriia memorabilia.

Speaker 2 (48:00):
Rebel of memorabilia. Yeah, very good. And Denny Janssen a
broadcasting icon and Brian Colembs a broadcasting icon. And then me,
I mean, you know, for the love of God, if
if one is not like the other, that's it, right there, Jim,
there's no well, yes, I would agree with that. It's

(48:22):
it's an honor to be a part of it. And
I can't wait. It's going to be a lot of fun,
and I think fun for anybody of any age. Yes, right, yeah,
So if if you grew up listening to Jim Scott
back you know, in the seventies, or if you just
kind of caught the tail end of his career, or
just want to know more about somebody than so many
of us hold and such I regard, this is going
to be a great night for everybody.

Speaker 7 (48:43):
And tickets are thirty five and fifty dollars, which is
reasonably priced for a fund raiser with food.

Speaker 2 (48:48):
Yeah, fundraiser is the key here right right? Food? And
I heard cash bar in there as well. Yes, yeah,
all right, that's critical. All right. Well if I wasn't
going to say yes already, I'll be there, all right.
So just go to Mount Saint Joe website. Ye, look
for Jim Scott and you can find all the info. Yep, terrific.
I will see you ladies on the twenty eighth.

Speaker 6 (49:06):
Awesome, Thank you so much.

Speaker 4 (49:08):
Mom.

Speaker 2 (49:08):
I cannot wait. You're going to be great. And I
don't have to get that dressed up.

Speaker 6 (49:12):
No, I would say, I call it business casual. Okay,
dress for this thing. It's not aware.

Speaker 2 (49:18):
Business casual for me is look at me, right, so
people surprise the people. Yeah, we'll say if I show
up with hair, that's what that'll do, ladies, Thank you
so much. Thanks, all right. That is two weeks from
this Saturday night at Mountain Joe starts at six o'clock
and the doors open at five. Get tickets at Mount
Saint Joe's website search Jim Scott. It's going to be

(49:40):
an awesome night, a great celebration and uh I'm honored
to be a part of it. All right, Uh, let's
spend a few minutes on Shamar Stewart and celebrate the
Ohio Cup. Next ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 3 (49:51):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen.

Speaker 2 (49:53):
Free does sound amazing right now, doesn't it. I'm Alegar.
This is ESPN fifteen thirty. Thank you for listening today.
Hopefully you're having like the greatest Tuesday of all time.
Good stuff from Paul Danner Junior. In the first hour
on Shamar Stewart. We haven't yet played the Shamar Stewart audio,
which we'll do that in just about fifteen minutes. And
I've got tickets to go see the Big Three in Cincinnati.

(50:15):
We will give those away later this hour. I've got
a choice. I've got a choice of two games you
can play. That coming up in just a bit, plus
Brendanman and Jones. On baseball, the Reds did win last night.
Their winning streak has been extended to four and yes,
it's fun to talk about the Ohio Cup and it's neat.
It's cool, I guess to take the Ohio Cup from

(50:37):
the Guardians for the first time since twenty fourteen. More
than anything, this team is a game over five hundred.
That is not necessarily anything to write home about at
this stage in the season, but they have pulled themselves
off the plank because it kind of felt like they
were standing at the edge of it at the end
of that series against Milwaukee. Winning three straight against Arizona,

(50:57):
beating the Guardians last night, doing so behind sixteen hits,
a big night for Jake Frayley, a serviceable night for
Wade Miley, and some pretty good bullpen work. Reds win
the first game of the series. They're in the midst
of a stretch of starting last night, eighteen straight against
teams that have winning records. The schedule does not get

(51:19):
very easy over the course of the next couple of weeks,
and so I'm really interested in where this team is.
They've played sixty seven to this point. Their next seventeen
games will take them through the midway point of the season.
Those seventeen games include two more with Cleveland, who's three

(51:42):
over five hundred, three with the Tigers this coming weekend.
Detroit is having an awesome season right now, the best
record in baseball three in Detroit. The Minnesota Twins are
on the schedule here. Minnesota has rebounded from an awful start,

(52:02):
currently in second place five over. I'm still not sure
the Cardinals are good, but up until the point where
they just lost too straight, they were eight over five hundred.
The New York Yankees are the defending American League champions,
with a reasonably comfortable lead in the American League East.
The San Diego Padres are nine over five hundred. The

(52:26):
Reds next seventeen games are against teams with a combined
winning percentage of five fifty seven, which over the course
of a full season is ninety win baseball. So they've
got a pretty tough task in front of them. The
good news is offensively, at least they're getting healthier. We'll
see if Austin Hayes he was gonna run yesterday that
got pushed back because of the rain they had yesterday

(52:47):
afternoon in Cleveland. We'll see if he comes off the
injine list over the next day or so. So it's
great that they've kind of they have pulled themselves off
the plank, right, They've pulled themselves off the brink, and
now we can at least entertain the possibility that they
can compete for something meaningful. They're going to have to

(53:09):
beat some really good teams in front of them in
the coming weeks. We've talked a lot just during the
season about Nick Crawl and the job that he did
putting this team together, the job he has done in
making certain roster decisions when players have gotten hurt or

(53:30):
players have underperformed. We have talked a lot about the
job that Tito Francona has done. We've talked a lot
about his demeanor in the postgame interview settings. Obviously, ownership
has been brought up a lot. We've also discussed what
the Reds may or may not do it the trade deadline,
and right now they're in a situation. They're in a

(53:50):
position where you wonder are they buyers or are they sellers? Now?
I would argue, if you have to ask if you're
a buyer, you really shouldn't be one. If you have
to ask if you could afford something, you shouldn't buy
it because you probably can't. But that's where they are
right now. Right if you could not, I think most
could not articulate specifically buyers or sellers. Now some have

(54:11):
suggested they should prepare to sell, and that's not an
unreasonable position, I guess It's also not unreasonable to say, well, hey,
can we revisit this maybe a week after the All
Star break. We'll see. But for all that we've talked
about Nick Kral, Terry Frank Conen ownership, over the next

(54:33):
six weeks or so, the onus is on the team.
There are what fifty one days between now and the
trade deadline, obviously not fifty one games, so a little
bit more than seven weeks. That's not to say that
there won't be a roster tweak. That's not to say
that Nick Krawl shouldn't be working hard to try to

(54:56):
find ways to make this team better. It's not to
say that he shouldn't be working on possibilities in case
the Reds are in a position to sell. But anything
the Reds do of any major impact via trade is
probably not going to happen until deadline day July thirty. First,

(55:17):
there are no reinforcements coming up from Louisville Hunter Green, Unfortunately,
it's probably gonna be forever before he comes back. Austin
Hayes is on the verge of returning, might have to
make a decision about what to do with jam or
Candelario when he comes back, and a corresponding roster move,
Cees has returned. I don't know that, at least from

(55:42):
a position player standpoint, that this team is going to
be any healthier than it's about to be. I know,
the last time I said that, suddenly a whole bunch
of guys got hurt. So, you know, knock on wood,
But the onus is on this team. It's an amazingly
obvious take. But right now, like it's on this club

(56:05):
as currently constructed, to put the front office in a
position that they have almost no choice but to add
a piece. It's up to this team to put itself
in contention. It's up to this collection of players. And
again I know this sounds obvious, it's up to this

(56:25):
collection of players to be better than they have to
this point in the season. That means offensively. You know,
we've talked about Matt McLain and you know some have
accused me of being unfair towards Matt McClain. It's not
being unfair. It's a reflection of how bad he's been
this year. Right, like nobody's given up on the dude,
but like Matt McClain hasn't been very good. Hopefully, Hopefully,

(56:52):
what he has been able to do, and he took
an over last night over five, but what he was
able to do in that series against Arizona sort of
foreshadows a guy who's capable of going on a little
bit of a run. Here the Cees thing, he's made
a big impact. That can't be a mirage. Austin Hayes
has to come back and hit. Tyler Stevenson has to
hit consistently. Obviously. They need Ellie deler Cruz to be

(57:14):
better than he has been, and he has been at
least okay. They need TJ. Friedo to continue to be
as good as he has been at the top of
the order and he has been fantastic this year. Need
the outfield production top to bottom to be better. Like
it's now, we're at the point of the season. Like

(57:34):
the front office has done its work. Terry Francon has
had time to get a sense of who can do
what and figure out how to manage this collection of players.
Impose his personality on the team. It's June tenth, between
now and July and thirty first, it's on the team.
It's on the players. The guys who have underperformed can
no longer underperform. The guys who have gotten hurt have

(57:57):
to find ways to stay healthy. Have been okay, need
to be better. The guys who have had lost season
so far need to find themselves. Players who are you know,
in the middle of put upper shut up seasons need
to put up like that's this is to me like
when the baseball season. I think it's not frustrating, but
you know, it's it's kind of a little bit more

(58:18):
now about what happens during those nine innings than anything
that's going to happen in the front office. So we'll say, man,
I have I said yesterday that I'm hopeful yet skeptical,
and I still feel the same way. I'm hopeful because
of the return of Cees. I'm hopeful because hell they've
played has been fun to watch and productive, and it's

(58:40):
been crisp for the most part, although not completely one
hundred percent clean, and some guys have started to hit
a little bit. I'm hopeful that this could be the
beginning of something sustainable. I'm skeptical that it will be
because most of us thought it was an incomplete team
to start the season, and we've seen the Reds win
three or four games in a row and then give
them all back within less than a week. We'll see.

(59:04):
But if the narrative for the Cincinnati Reds, which you
know what they are about ownership in the front office
and all that, it changes over the next six weeks,
if the players force change, if they force the narrative
to change, if they put Nick Krawl in a position
where he has almost no choice but to find somebody

(59:24):
who can further the cause of getting to the postseason,
maybe even winning the division. So we'll see. But now
it's on the players. The early returns have been good,
at least since Friday night, or I guess really since
Saturday afternoon. This is the part of the season we're
talking about. Nick Krawl doesn't do a lot of good.

(59:46):
I'm not interested in who he can get on June tenth.
I'm interested in what the Reds can start doing between
now in July thirty. First, to put Nick in a
position where he has no choice but to make the
team better, or or are they so god offughllly bad
that now Nick Crawl has to find something in exchange
for assets he can move.

Speaker 5 (01:00:06):
We'll see.

Speaker 2 (01:00:08):
Andrew Abbott on the Hill tonight, Um I got a
poll question at Moegar on Twitter. Thanks to United Heartland Insurance,
make sure you check out uhi ns dot com if
you need insurance. Frankly, even if you don't, offices in Hamilton,
Burlington and Cincinnati cover all of your insurance needs. Shamar

(01:00:30):
Stewart versus the Bengals because you're required to pick a side.
Whose side are you on? Shamar or the Bengals? Vote
now at moegar close to two thirds of you are
taking Schamar's side. I am too. You'll hear what he
had to say today next on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati

(01:00:51):
Sports Station.

Speaker 1 (01:00:52):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty. Traffic from the.

Speaker 8 (01:00:57):
largest supportive services program for cancer patients and survivors, called
five one, three, five eight five. UCCC Police emergency crews
on the scene of an accident on State Route forty

(01:01:17):
eight at Grandon Road. Traffic being directed around that spot.
Also keep an eye up for an overturned vehicle on
Eggleston Avenue at Third Street. I'm at Ezelic with traffic.

Speaker 2 (01:01:29):
Natty Sports stations, timelines our service at Kelsey Chevron LTE,
home of lifetime powertrain protection and guaranteed credit approval from
their family to yours for life at Kelsey chef dot com.
Reds and Guardians again tonight in Cleveland, six forty first pitch.
The game is live on seven hundred WLW Andrew Rabbit

(01:01:50):
and Slaves and Coney are Tonight's hurlers. I don't know
why I said hurlers. Nobody in real life ever says
nobody is like cut tonight? Who's hurling? Who are the
hurlers and Tonight's game? I owe a dollar to the
fine Cup. Go ahead, fine cut, fine cup. Yeah, dollar
to the Fine Cup for me using a word on
the radio that you would never use in real life.
No one in the history of real people talking with

(01:02:12):
each other has ever said, Hey, Andrew Abbott's the hurler tonight.
By the way, I forgot to print this off I read.
I don't know how I stumbled into this. You know,
there's a lot of fear that AI is going to
take everybody's job, and so I read an AI description
on the Internet of the Reds winning the Ohio Cup

(01:02:32):
that I need to read on the air. You want
a red starting lineup tonight, of course you do. Here
it is freedom and center. Lux's dhing Elliott short Ces
at third base, batting fourth, Stevenson behind the dish, Benson's
and left Steers at first Freely after a big night
last night at right field, batting eight, Matt McLean playing
second base and hitting ninth. Florence y'all's home tonight for
Windy City. A game starts at six forty two in Florence.

(01:02:58):
The Bengals conduct today one of mini caamp today. No,
Trey Hendrickson did not show up. Tamar Stewart, well, he
didn't practice, but he was around, and he was there,
and he was talking with reporters and he's dropped. I'll
call them some bombshells. The scrum audio that we have

(01:03:20):
is like four minutes long. I'm not going to play that,
but here is a brief snippet that we stole from
Channel nine's Marshall Kramsky.

Speaker 10 (01:03:30):
Like some people say, who all agree trade will be
right right, but technically still one percent wrong for being
on the contract. So in my case, I'm a hundred
percent right, so it should be a no brainer. And
in Tray's case, I think it should be a no
brainer too. I mean, he led seventeen and a half

(01:03:50):
sacks for two years back the back. If I was
the GM or I was the owner, take all my money.
But I guess they don't offer you like that.

Speaker 2 (01:03:59):
But this is a player who two months ago didn't
have an NFL team because the draft hadn't happened yet.
Two months ago he was drafted, what six weeks ago?
Seven weeks ago, guy hasn't signed his contract yet, signing
off on the Bengals. I think this is I think

(01:04:20):
for me at least, this is the money. Quote from
Schamar today. This is audio that we stole from ESPN's
Ben Baby.

Speaker 10 (01:04:29):
As in how far I'll take it, it just depends
in my case, right, I'm asked for nothing you've never
done before. But in y'all case, y'all just want to
win arguments. They're winning more games.

Speaker 2 (01:04:39):
In my opinion, y'all want to win arguments instead of
winning more games. In my opinion, that's from Shamar Stewart.
I said this to Paul Danner Junior earlier. I watched
the video of him today and I listened to the
audio as Tony and Austin played it, and it looked
and sounded like a player who has been here for years,

(01:05:01):
who has just reached a point of total exasperation with
the Bengals, not a guy who hasn't practiced yet. You know,
we really don't have rookie holdouts anymore, but I remember
what they were like. You know, Andre Smith, Achilles Smith,
Justin Smith. God, if your last name was Smith, I

(01:05:22):
guess you had a rookie holdout. And oftentimes there was
agent posturing, nothing from the player, nothing like that. It's
pretty remarkable. It's it's pretty remarkable. And I guess, like

(01:05:43):
in life, man, you got to pick your battles. The
Bengals have chosen this battle now. I certainly don't believe
that if the idea is to have the best possible
working relationship with the Bengals that you can have, I'm
not sure the best idea is for the new guy

(01:06:05):
to be sitting at his locker popping off in what was,
at least from where I said, a remarkable scene. I
don't know if I was advising Shamar Stewart, I don't
know that I would have told him to do that. Now,
as a content guy is a sports talk radio guy.
Of course I love it. Let's not kid ourselves. But

(01:06:30):
I don't know how productive that was. I understand his
point of view, and if we have to take sides,
I'm taking his, but I don't know that that was productive.
What I do know is, or at least what I
strongly think, is that this entire thing is stupid, like

(01:06:54):
just stupid. The Bengals versus Trey Hendrickson thing not stupid
like I think the Bengals basic premise there is not incorrect.
I think Trey's basic premise there is not incorrect. I
think it's done that the two sides, I guess, really
aren't negotiating right now, but there's some nuance to that.

(01:07:15):
There's a lot of nuance to that, and there's a
lot of money at stake. To a degree, a standoff
or a holdout is almost inevitable. Fact. That's something we
talked about on this show back in December, that this
was leading toward a place where the two sides were

(01:07:35):
just going to engage in a staring contest and we
were going to have a holdout or a hold in,
and another off season of distractions. This with Shamar Stewart
feels entirely avoidable. Schamar wants his contract structured in a
way that is similar to every other player that has

(01:07:58):
come before him, including guys who were taken at a
comparable place in the first round of the draft in
recent years. That is not an unreasonable request. And if
you're the Bengals and you're so worried that, well, Schamar
might do something that makes us want to take some

(01:08:19):
money back or avoid his guarantees. Whatever that thing is
that you're worried about, should have kept you from drafting him.
If you had such incredible concerns about something regarding Shamar
Stewart that you now want to offer him, you now
want to him to sign a contract that's unlike any

(01:08:41):
that have come before him. You just simply shouldn't have
taken the guy. So it was avoidable because you could
have taken anybody else, anybody else for a team that
had a lot of different needs, you could have taken
anybody else instead. You chose him because you believed in him.
He's just said you did. You believed in him. You
were willing to overlook the fact that he doesn't sack
the quarterback all that often. So you like the guy enough,

(01:09:02):
except you want him to sign the kind of contract
that nobody before him has had to sign. I mean,
if I was Shamar Stewart, I'd tell you to pound
sand too. But more than anything else, this is just
entirely avoidable. There's there's a lot of room between Trey
and the Bengals, and there's some nuance to that. Nobody

(01:09:26):
loves the fact that there is likely to be a
hold out. Nobody loves the questions that will hover over
training camp about whether or not Trey will play the
first game. I you know, I think most of us
could have seen this coming a year ago, year and
a half ago. This one was Shamar Stewart. There's either

(01:09:50):
something so out of left field that we don't know
that is compelling the Bengals to do this, or they
genuinely just want to win an argument with their first
round pick. And by the way, that verbiage from Schamar,
that came from someone, I mean, because that's he heard

(01:10:11):
that from someone, He heard that from a player on
the team, He got it from his agent, like that
that comes from someone that's a twenty one year old kid.
But the fact that that came from someone tells you
as somebody who has either been with the Bengals before,
negotiated with the Bengals before, or is deeply familiar with
working with the Bengals. Not Shamar Stewart. But the whole

(01:10:32):
thing's avoidable, like just go, you know, okay? Is it worth?
Is it worth starting our relationship like this, We've already
pissed the guy off. Is it worth starting what we
hope is not a four or five year relationship, but
what you hope is a decade long relationship with a

(01:10:53):
guy who you need to help transform your defense? Is
it worth starting things off this way? Is it worth
the ridicule we're going to have to endure? Is it
worth it? Is this worth it? I think if you
run or own the Cincinnati Bengals, you have to ask
that question. Chamar Stewart's position I do not disagree with. Again,
if I was advising him, and I think for the

(01:11:16):
most part, we could be happy that I'm not advising
football players. It would not be sitting at your locker
and trash the organization, Like, let's not do that. That's
probably not helpful. It's helpful to me, it's not helpful
to the team. It's not helpful to Chamar's cause, But
this is just stupid. I mean, there's no other word.
I have no other more somantically responsible word that I

(01:11:38):
could use to describe how I feel about this. This
is stupid and unnecessary and petty and avoidable. And look,
if they get the deal done and Chamar shows up
for day one of training camp and has a great
rookie season, no one's going to bring this up, I understand.
But in the short term, like, what purpose does this

(01:12:00):
serve to engage in this stare down with your first
round pick? What purpose does it serve to compel that
player to say the things about you that he said?
How is this helpful? How is this not a distraction?

(01:12:24):
I don't know how you don't tonight, like now tonight,
if you're Katie, Mike, Troy, Duke, Elizabeth, anybody else in
the organization. I don't know how you don't pick up
the phone and call Schamar's agent to go cool, Look,
the money is what it is. You're slotted. We're gonna
give you the same language that we gave to a
Marius Mims And can we just move on the guys?

(01:12:46):
Already here, his pads are fitted for he's got a helmet.
Can we have him on the field tomorrow. Can we
just go ahead and avoid this being a thing? This
is not a battle where fighting. We say it all
the time, pick your battles. What are we fighting over here?

Speaker 5 (01:13:07):
What?

Speaker 8 (01:13:07):
What?

Speaker 2 (01:13:07):
Why is this battle being waged? What is the end goal?
What purpose is it serving? And how petty and stupid
does it make you look? I would be asking myself
those questions if I ran the team. How about you?

(01:13:28):
Phone lines are open five one, three, seven, four nine,
fifteen thirty at eight sixty six, seven oh two, three,
seven seven six. We do have some Joe Burrow for
you in next hour. The Big Three tickets we give away.
I'm gonna give away at five thirty three. So if
you want to go see the Big Three downtown July
twenty sixth uh, Big three dot com. Lan Stevenson's going
to be there, Jordan Crawford's going to be there. Hall

(01:13:48):
of Famer Dwight Howard's going to be there. To Big
three dot com, Uh, we'll give away tickets coming up
in the five o'clock hour on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 1 (01:13:57):
Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty. Traffic from the.

Speaker 8 (01:14:04):
largest supportive services program for cancer patients and survivors, called
five one three five eighty five UCCC. On State Route
forty eight, there's an accident at the intersection of Granden Road.

(01:14:25):
Police emergency crews directing traffic around that spot. Also got
an accident eastbound seventy four on the ramp to Ribolt.
I'm at ezelic with traffic.

Speaker 2 (01:14:35):
This reporting is sponsored by Rapid Reading from five. This
is ESPN fifteen thirty. Justin Williams from The Athletic was
on our show yesterday. It was awesome outlining the way
the new House settlement's going to impact you and I
as fans of college football, college basketball, and a lot
of other intercollegiate sports. If you missed that conversation, go

(01:14:56):
get it now. It's on the iHeartRadio app. Can also
check out my page at ESPN fifteen thirty dot com.
Podcast of this show are a service of Long Neck
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better place to post up. Watch the ball game tonight,
long Necks. I'd see it long next this evening, we
will find out. We'll see, we'll see, could be there
tonight right now, Brennanman and Jones on baseball. All right,

(01:15:23):
here we go. It's four minutes after five o'clock. This
is ESPN fifteen thirty egg. There's nothing like turning on
the local news and seeing someone you know. It's the
mikelob Ultra five o'clock Happy Hour thanks to michelob Ultra,
Superior Taste, Superior Life beer. No better way to celebrate
the Reds winning the Ohio Cup than by enjoying a

(01:15:47):
nice cold michelob Ultra. Red's looking for five straight tonight
in Cleveland's second of three against the Guardians. Reds have
clinched the Ohio Cup. Tonight, they give the ball to
Andrew Abbott. Reds are looking to get to five hundred
and they have changed perhaps the trajectory of their season.
More on that coming up in a bit. Plus we
will give away some Big Three tickets. I'm gonna test

(01:16:09):
your Ohio Cop knowledge coming up in let's say just
about thirty minutes or so. Plus we have the best
of Joe Burrow from earlier today as well. The news
of the day involves Schamar Stewart. So the Bengals held
Day one of minichamp today. Trey Hendrickson did not show up.
That was not to be not a surprise. I guess

(01:16:35):
Shamar Stewart did not practice, but he was there. He
spoke about his contract dispute. He said quote, I thought
I would be on the field by now. Says very
disappointing because I thought they wanted to get me out
there to see what I could do. Also says he
can't really say what he wants to say. When asked

(01:16:56):
if the team had given him any reasoning for the
sudden change in language, he says he believes he's one
hundred percent right. Also says quote, I'm not asking for
nothing the team has never done before. But y'all meeting
the team, y'all, the team just want to win arguments
more than winning games. That's from Shamar Stuart, a rookie

(01:17:19):
who hasn't yet signed his contract and has not played
it down in the NFL. We have a pol question
thanksing that at Heartland Assurance on Twitter, Whose side are
you taking? If we make it about taking aside, I
make it about Shamar Stuart. I will say this though, like,
if you're shamar okay, when you finally get here, you

(01:17:43):
better ball out number one. The team needs you to
number two. You're the guy that showed up and called
out the franchise before you played it down. And like,
I understand the optics of that. That's why I wouldn't
have handled it this way. Like there's there's a difference
at any workplace, Like you've worked for same company ten

(01:18:04):
fifteen years, you voice your displeasure. It's a little bit
different than the dude who's fresh out of college who
got hired two weeks ago. There's just a major difference.
You've worked for a place your entire career. You got
some things to say, same, You've got some things to say.
They've got some weight behind them, they've got some experience

(01:18:25):
behind them. New guy who just showed up has barely
cash two paychecks. Suddenly that dude's going to start telling
everybody how things are. It's a little bit different, And
so I know that's how it comes across. Those words
are going to come back to them. If well, let's
see if the sack production at the NFL level equals

(01:18:46):
the sack production at Texas Tech or Texas.

Speaker 5 (01:18:50):
A and m.

Speaker 2 (01:18:50):
I'm sorry. We'll see. We'll see. It's a less than
ideal situation. It's avoidable. Five point three seven four nine
fifteen thirty is our phone number, thanks to those who
have waited patiently. George calling from Dayton. You're on ESPN
fifteen thirty high George, Hey, Ma, how you doing. I'm
all right, man, what's up?

Speaker 5 (01:19:10):
Okay? So I was in agreement with you about the
smart suit thing until today, Sanders right, Austin.

Speaker 11 (01:19:19):
Austin says that earlier today that that contract like the
Eagles of Wroten contracts like that. There's a couple other
teams that And I'm not even saying I know this,
that's just what he says.

Speaker 5 (01:19:32):
So you're saying that this is like a new thing.
I think it's a new thing for the Bengals, But
is it a new thing like no other NFL team
has ever done this?

Speaker 2 (01:19:41):
Or doesn't matter. The Bengals are the team that drafted
Shamar Stewart.

Speaker 5 (01:19:46):
I mean, how can you agree with him when he's
spouting off like that.

Speaker 2 (01:19:49):
Well, I wouldn't have I would I would not have
told him to spout off. I don't think that's helpful.
But the basic the basic premise of his argument. I
understand you didn't offer the dude who got drafted last
year in the first round a place behind me. You
didn't make him sign a contract that had these offsets
or that had these potential guarantee voids. Why are you

(01:20:10):
making me do it?

Speaker 5 (01:20:12):
So if the Eagles have done it, and a couple
other teams have done it, why can't the Bengals do it?

Speaker 2 (01:20:17):
Bengals can do it, just do it with somebody else.
I mean, they're allowed to do it, and samorrow Story
is allowed to not allowed to not sign it.

Speaker 5 (01:20:25):
Okay, Well, then he can just sit there and would
you get well, what happens if he doesn't sign that,
he's not going.

Speaker 2 (01:20:30):
To get paid.

Speaker 4 (01:20:32):
What happened?

Speaker 5 (01:20:33):
What happens next year? Does he get a sign with
any team?

Speaker 2 (01:20:36):
Uh? Bengals hold his rights, and then he would and
then he would re enter the minor standings and re
enter the draft next year.

Speaker 5 (01:20:45):
So I agree with you and with what you were
saying the whole time, Like I agree with Smart Stewart,
but now I don't because of the way he started off,
like he doesn't like you said four years a four
year player saying something like that okay, I get it. Yeah,
has not even played a game. Don't even step on
the field saying that it's not okay.

Speaker 2 (01:21:03):
I would not have spout it off, like that's not
how I would have handled it. I mean, that's not
going to help him at all, and that's not going
to help move the Bengals closer to his to what
he wants. But the basically, sure, you're exactly right, but
the basic position I completely agree with. Like, forget what

(01:21:25):
the Eagles have done of the forty nine ers, of
the Chargers or anybody else you your franchise. Like, if
I negotiate with iHeartMedia, I'm not that interested in what
the other companies have done. Like, tell me what you've
done with the other people who work here. Tell me
what you've done with other people that my experience and
the same thing, right, Like, if I'm Schamar Stewart, I'm
negotiating with the Bengals based on what the Bengals have

(01:21:46):
done in the past. They're trying to set a new
precedent for themselves. That's fine, do it with somebody else,
But I'm with you. I don't know that him sitting
in his locker today doing what he did is helpful
at all, and that's it's it's not going to help him.
I think in the court public opinion, it's going to
be something that gets thrown in his face if he
ends up being a bust uh and it ultimately doesn't

(01:22:06):
make I'm sure it doesn't make the Bengals come uh
come at him and go, okay, fine, we'll do what
you want. But his his basic position I have no
issue with.

Speaker 5 (01:22:14):
Did you know the Bengals as well as I do, Like,
they're not gonna get They're not gonna give in now
because of what he's done, Like, because of what he
said today, they will not give.

Speaker 2 (01:22:22):
In and we're gonna give it no matter what. I mean,
they'll they'll they'll give in when they have to, and
they don't think they have to now. And no player's
public posturing has ever compelled the Bengals to give that
player what they want.

Speaker 5 (01:22:38):
Yeah, I agree, It's just I don't see how it
gets solved at this point because of what he said
to that.

Speaker 2 (01:22:43):
Yeah, you know, I I think that's fair. Like I
don't know, I don't know that we are any further
to Shamar Stewart being on the practice field under contract
than we were this morning. I can understand his frustration.
I can understand his point of view. I don't know
that this was the way to do things.

Speaker 5 (01:23:02):
Yeah, I think we're further away because of what he did.

Speaker 4 (01:23:04):
Maybe.

Speaker 5 (01:23:06):
I mean it's it's just it sucks too because we
need them, no doubt, and like.

Speaker 2 (01:23:10):
Look, regardless, like these two are going to have to
forge a good working relationship with each other now. I
certainly think you can criticize the Bengals for starting the
relationship by digging in on the contract language. But Shamar
Stewart's way of handling it this way is not getting
the relationship off to a good start. And and that's

(01:23:31):
I think that's a very fair criticism.

Speaker 5 (01:23:36):
Yeah, it's just hard to listen to man Bengals, to
the rest of the same team, you know, the same organizations.
They just they screw everything up.

Speaker 2 (01:23:44):
George or not, You're not the only person to to
make that observation. I do appreciate the phone call. Like,
if I'm Shamar Stewart, I do not care about what
the other teams have done. The Bengals are trying to
establish a new precedent for themselves. Look, I don't know
how many teams have insisted upon contract clauses that you

(01:24:07):
know that any sort of default by Shamar Stewart voids
the guarantees. I don't know how many teams have done that.
I'm sure many have. If I'm Shamar Stewart, I'm not
interested in setting an organizational precedent. I'm not interested in
signing something that the guy who was taken last year
one spot later didn't have to sign, Like, why are

(01:24:28):
you establishing this new precedent with me? And by the way,
other teams can do all sorts of things with contracts.
They could do whatever they want with contracts. I'm not
negotiating with those teams. I'm negotiating with this one. They're
doing something that for them is totally unprecedented. Shamar Stewart's
dad said publicly last week, like win the Super Bowl

(01:24:51):
this year and try to establish a precedent with the
guy who's taken thirty second. Overall, it just it's unnecessary.
It's unnecessary to do what has And this is the
question we don't have the answer to. What has compelled
the Bengals to do this this year with this guy

(01:25:13):
that did not compel them to do this with any
other player they've drafted in the first round at least.
I mean, the Cincinnati Bengals, who are the last team
to do things because other teams do it, suddenly want
to start doing things the way the Eagles do it,
just because that's how the Eagles do it. I mean,

(01:25:35):
the team that is the very last in the NFL
to keep up with the Joneses. Suddenly they decide, well,
here's how these teams structure their contracts, so that's how
we want to do it. Come on, and so, what
is it about Shamar Stewart specifically that is compelling the

(01:26:00):
Bengals to put in a contract clause that wasn't there
with anybody else. Is there some sort of concern you
have about him? And if so, why did you draft
him in spite of that concern? So it's it is

(01:26:25):
funny on some level, it's frustrating on a different level.
Like this offseason to this point, the high point of
it was the Bengals signing two players who have already
played for them, one of whom was gonna play for
him this year no matter what. So they get Chase

(01:26:48):
and Higgins done. Al Golden may be a terrific defensive
coordinator In fact, I'm gonna bet that Al Golden this
year does a pretty decent It's hard to have a
defense as bad as last year's. But take away that
take away Higgins and Jamar Chase, and the Higgins thing

(01:27:11):
is significant because he was said to be a free
agent and they did bring him back. That's good. That
is really good. They let the Jermaine Pratt thing go
longer than it should, which might not have any impact
on the team this year, but it's just a sort
of a crummy thing to do to a guy who
did do a lot of good things for you. The

(01:27:32):
Trey Hendrickson thing seems unresolved and feels like it's gonna
leak into training camp and maybe beyond. They're at odds
with their first round pick, who is now publicly blasting them.
The defensive overhaul that a lot of people thought we'd
see and expected, or at least hope for, really never came.

(01:28:00):
Joe Burrow is good enough to maybe overcome all these things.
Best quarterback in the NFL as far as I'm concerned.
But does it feel to you like this has been
a great Bengals offseason? Five point three seven four nine
fifteen thirty just from a player acquisition standpoint, from the

(01:28:23):
standpoint of eliminating distractions, it hasn't felt like a great
off season. They still may have a great team, in
large part because they've got a great quarterback and should
have a great offense. And yeah, man, maybe they did
hire a great defensive coordinator who can do some things
with some players who underperformed last year. I don't know, man.

(01:28:47):
We heard in the aftermath of Chase and Higgins getting
done because of the time spent on those deals, they
couldn't devote their full time and energy to free agency.
Some positions that we thought they would go heavy in
they either didn't go heavy in addressing or to a
degree ignored altogether. Their first round pick has a major

(01:29:13):
question mark about his production and is now popping off
about the organization. I believe the Bengals are going to
be a ten win team next season. I genuinely do.
And ten wins should be good enough to get him
to the postseason. And if they're in the postseason, they've
got a chance. But if I'm just looking at this

(01:29:38):
off season in a vacuum, especially if the goal was
to end it by starting training camp with as few
distractions as possible. Mission not accomplished eighteen minutes after five
o'clock at moegor on Twitter, poll questions out there. Thanks

(01:29:59):
to you Heartland Insurance. You'll hear Joe Burrow at a
few minutes on the Reds as well. Next on ESPN
fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 1 (01:30:06):
Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic.

Speaker 8 (01:30:12):
From the UC Health Traffic Center. From massage therapy to
stress relief and cancer surveillance. The UC Cancer Center offers
the region's largest supportive services program for cancer patients and survivors,
called five one three, five eight five UCCC. On Grandon Road,
there's an accident at State Route forty eight. Please avoid

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the area as police are directing traffic around that spot.
Once found two seventy five. It is an accident on
the ramp to seventy one seventy five. I'm at Ezelach
with traffic this reporting.

Speaker 2 (01:30:45):
This is ESPN fifteen thirty on moweg We're gonna give
away Big Three tickets. Last year to promote the Big Three,
we had Charles Oakley on the show. I don't think
we're having Charles on this year, but the Big Three
is coming to a Heritage Bank Center on July twenty sixth.
Still those you a date he does owes me. Remember
he promoted the Big Three and then the team that

(01:31:06):
he coaches, I guess didn't qualify for the event here,
so he never came to Cincinnati. He was supposed to
take me to the Cincinnati Music Festival, and so Charles
Oakley does owe me a night out in Cincinnati. I
was gonna cut my vacation short to hang out with
Charles Oakley last year, which any reasonable human being would
have done the same. So anyway, but we've got Big

(01:31:27):
Three tickets that were given away. Big Three events are fun.
We're gonna give him way in about ten minutes, we're
going to test your knowledge of the Ohio Cup, or
at least the rivalry between the Reds and Guardians, if
you want to call it a rivalry. Joe Burrow did
talk today. It's been kind of a Newsworthy day with
Shamar Stewart. Also, the Bengals did make it official. Jermaine

(01:31:49):
Pratt was cut today, which came to the surprise of
no one, But the Bengals did finally make it official.
Trey Hendrickson didn't show up. Joe Burrow talked today, talked
extensively about the develop them into the offense year two
for Dan Pitcher, all the continuity and all that's really exciting.
But here is Joe on Trey Hendrickson's absence and the
potential that may provide for young guys. Is Trey not

(01:32:13):
being here, his deal not done. Is that a distraction?
Of course? Of course.

Speaker 12 (01:32:19):
Last year we had two. This year we have one,
so we do have less. You'd love to have none,
but you know that's life in the NFL. We're all
supporting Trey and would love for him to be back.

Speaker 4 (01:32:30):
Being a distraction when a player misses, especially a key
player this portion of the season with mini camp OTAs,
how does that affect the team or as an individual?

Speaker 12 (01:32:41):
No, I'm not sure it does too much. Number One,
when the young guys get more reps in training camp,
and you know that's big for them. You know, nobody's
worried about Trey working hard and doing what he needs
to do to be ready if we happen to have
him this year. But I think you know, those young
guys get those mental reps and those physical reps are
big for that themselves and their development on the offensive

(01:33:05):
side of the ball. You know, we have everybody, so
it's not too much of a distraction for us as
it was in years past. So I'm probably more of
a defensive thing.

Speaker 2 (01:33:16):
By Joe, by Joe Burrow earlier today. On one level,
like we say this all the time about Zach Taylor,
Zach has to be the spokesperson, the press secretary for
the team, which puts him in a position to talk
about things that he's not really involved in. Like he's
not getting the Trey Hendrickson thing done. He's not the
reason why the Trey Hendrickson thing hasn't gotten done. He's

(01:33:39):
not really the reason why the Shamar Stewart thing is
still a thing. Same for Joe Burrow. It's kind of
a spokesperson number two, and that's just the role that
comes with being an NFL quarterback. He did acknowledge that
it's a distraction, and like I believe this. I think
if you have a good, relevant NFL team that holdouts

(01:34:00):
or hold ins or some sort of contract dispute is
just a way of life. TJ. Watt is missing Mini
camp in Pittsburgh, and TJ. Watts a remarkably good player,
but like I just I feel like if you have
good players plural that maybe not on an annual basis,

(01:34:23):
but on a regular basis, some sort of contract issue
getting in the way of preparation or just being a
thing is just something you're gonna have to deal with.
When the Bengals were really bad, you know, like, I'm
not even going back to the nineties, let's just say
sixteen seventeen, eighteen, nineteen twenty. Those five years, five years

(01:34:46):
not making the playoffs, five years with a coaching change
in the middle of it, five years with the Bengals
hanging on to a bunch of players they probably hung
onto for too long. Those five years bad teams. I
don't recall there being one contract issue. Now, there were
players that left, and you know, perhaps unfortunately so Andrew Whitworth,

(01:35:09):
Kevin Zeitler, Marvin Jones, Mohammed Sanu. Some of those players
went on to have more success than others. Correct me
if I'm wrong. Sixteen seventeen, eighteen, nineteen twenty, there was
the very brief discussion about whether or not to pay
Joe Mixon and the potential for a hold in there
that never really took on the life of its own,

(01:35:30):
that so many of these subsequent contract issues have taken on.
Bengals had bad teams, They had bad players, nobody you
really wanted to invest in. They had a bunch of
bad draft classes. I mean that's so now the Bengals
have been relevant the last four years, that is inarguable,
four straight winning seasons, been in the playoffs, Super Bowl

(01:35:51):
a few years ago. All that bunch are really good players.
A lister at quarterback, a lister at wide receiver, two
a listers at wide receiver, some very good players. There's
been a contract thing now we'll call that, going into
four consecutive training camps. So there is a big part

(01:36:14):
of this that feels like just the cost of having
a relevant team. A relevant team means you're gonna have
some good players and have a lot of good players. Eventually,
there's gonna be somebody who's not happy with his contract status.
There's going to be a player that the team goes,
you know what, we really like you and appreciate what
you have done, but we don't want to pay you
what you want. There's going to be something so I'll
at least acknowledge that maybe you want to do it

(01:36:36):
with me. At the same time, if you're Joe Burrow,
or if you're Zach Taylor, or if you're you and
I as Bengals fans, wouldn't you just love just once
to go through training camp, get ready for the season,

(01:36:57):
talk about the season, building excitement for the season, without
some sort of question looming over the entire process about
a player's deal, his future and whether or not he'll
play week one, or when's he gonna come to camp?
Will he show up for a preseason game? Will he

(01:37:19):
come to a preseason game and sit in the suite?
I have to imagine and like, I can't reiterate this enough.
The Bengals basic premise with Trey Hendrickson, I have no
issue with their position with Shamar Stewart makes no sense
to me. But if you're regardless of which side you're on,

(01:37:43):
if you're Joe Burrow or Zach Taylor or hell just
you Johnny Bengals fan, isn't it exhausting to have to
go through something like this every year and be a
distraction for a team that because of the quarterback Harbor's
legitimate championship hopes. How is the answer not? Yes, Hey,

(01:38:10):
you want to go see the Big three?

Speaker 4 (01:38:12):
Five?

Speaker 2 (01:38:12):
One, three, seven, four nine, fifteen thirty. We're looking for
contestants five one three, seven, four, nine, fifteen thirty Big
Three Professional three on three basketball at the Heritage Bank
Center July twenty six, featuring local products like Lance Stevenson
and Jordan Crawford.

Speaker 5 (01:38:28):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (01:38:28):
We'll try to give away some tickets based on your
knowledge of the Ohio Cup and Redsveeg Guardians. Next, hopefully
on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 3 (01:38:38):

Speaker 8 (01:38:43):
to stress relief and cancer surveillance. The UC Cancer Center
and survivors, called five one, three, five eight five. UCCC
Police and Emergency Cruise remaining on the scene of an

(01:39:03):
accident Grandon Road at State Route forty eight. They are
directing traffic around that spot on eastbound two seventy five
and Sharonville accident on the right shoulder at seventy five.
I'm at Exelich with traffic.

Speaker 6 (01:39:16):
This report is sponsored by pay Day.

Speaker 2 (01:39:18):
Trevor lay Ten, I know what you're doing here. You're
playing some ice cube because it's the Big Three. Well
done Sly Reds and Guardians tonight in Cleveland. Andrew Abbott
and Slade Seconi on the Hill six forty tonight on
seven hundred WLW. Reds have already clinched the Ohio Cup,
so I'm not sure what the two teams will be
playing for this evening. Starting light at this evening, Fredol's

(01:39:40):
in center, lux is dhing l E Dela Cruz is
playing shortstop, Cees Christian and Carnassi on Strand is playing
third base and batting fourth. Stevenson catches Bensonson left, Spencer
Steers at first base, batting seventh, Jake Freley and right
man McLean at second base, betting ninth. Larrence y All's
host Windy City Bengals, conducting Minicham today Day one. They

(01:40:04):
also cut Jermaine Pratt, no Trey Hendrickson, no Shamar Stewart,
and he popped off today. By the way, we're giving
away Big Three tickets here in just a second. Tomorrow
Tomorrow is my last day hosting this show until Monday,
June twenty third. So if you hate my guts but
you love listening to ESPN fifteen thirty, you will really

(01:40:25):
enjoy the next seven shows after tomorrow, so we have
to cram in a lot of giveaways tomorrow. So we
have more tickets to the Big Three which will give away.
We also have tickets to one of the FIFA Club
World Cup matches at the Soccer Venue on the West
End of Cincinnati. And I got an email here from

(01:40:46):
the food and Beverage hospitality team at the Soccer Venue
on the West End of Cincinnati informing me that they
are unveiling a special menu item for this year's tournament.
And they sent me details on the Olympico burger that
they're gonna be serving, along with some high res photos.

(01:41:07):
And I've been asked, can you share on social media
and tag us? Look man, simple rule. You want to
promote your food, send us food. You know, I mean
radio one oh one. You send some free food. Radio
guys gonna talk about it. That's that's how it works.

(01:41:29):
I've never heard of. Hey, we'll send you a picture
of this hamburger. Mind sharing it with your audience? Hard
pass on that one. Here's a picture of something we're
not gonna let you have. Mind sharing it. That from
the food, beverage and hospitality team at the soccer venue

(01:41:50):
in the West End of Cincinnati, promoting the FIFA FIFA
Club World Cup. I must cut with the FIFA Cup
World Cup. That's not it, all right. Big three though,
is coming and uh you can win tickets. You could
also buy him at Big three dot Com. Uh. Dwight
Howard's gonna be there. Joe Johnson's gonna be there, Jordan
Crawford's gonna be there. Lan Stevenson's gonna be there. Born

(01:42:13):
Ready Heritage Bank Center, Saturday, July twenty six If you
have not checked out a Big three event, they are
a lot of fun. Big three dot Com again, Saturday,
July twenty sixth. Last year they had it on a Sunday.
This year it's gonna be on a Saturday. Uh, Dad
went last year. It's good time. Yeah see, and you
probably see Tarn there. Hang out with Tarn all right.
So we're we're gonna test people's knowledge of the Ohio

(01:42:36):
Cup and the Reds and Guardians, and maybe this lady
will decide that she'll send us some Hamburgers. If I
will say this, if she sends Hamburgers tomorrow, we will
promote their burger. No doubt, Yeah, no doubt about it.
I mean that is not I am shameless in that.
You send burgers here, we'll promote your burger we have

(01:42:57):
with this Todd in Norwood. Hi, Todd, how you doing?
You're gonna You're gonna play for Big Three tickets.

Speaker 5 (01:43:02):
I'm ready, I'm right, all right?

Speaker 2 (01:43:05):
Well, Todd sounds excited. We have a guy on a
whole name JT. Now you know how we do our
stupid We haven't done a stupid game on this show
in quite a while. I'm gonna throw you, Todd, five
multiple choice trivia questions about the Reds and Guardians slash Indians.
I don't need a coin flipper thing.

Speaker 8 (01:43:21):
You know.

Speaker 2 (01:43:21):
We'll leave the coin flip right, you can leave the
but you need the right bell in the wrong buzzer.
And if you get three of the five correct, Todd,
you're gonna go see the Big Three. If not, JT
is gonna go see the Big Three even though he
did nothing. Are you ready? I'm ready, Taran? Are you ready?
I'm ready? I'm not sure. I'm ready. All right, here
we go. My handwriting is terrible, so I hope I

(01:43:41):
can get through these. The last time the Reds clinched
the Ohio Cup was in twenty fourteen. Cincinnati beat the
Indians at the time on August seventh, and a four
to nothing shutout that clinched that year's Ohio Cup. This
Cincinnati starting pitcher through seven scoreless in that game. Todd
was at A Johnny Cuato, B. Homer Bailey or C.

(01:44:04):
Mike Leak. Do I have a Mike Leak Homer Bailey?
It was Homer Bailey in one of his four good
starts with the Reds. That's okay, that's okay, Todd. We
have four more questions. You only need to get three.
Are you ready to go?

Speaker 5 (01:44:20):
I'm ready. Let's go.

Speaker 2 (01:44:21):
The most lopsided game ever played between the Reds and
Guardian Slash Indians occurred on July eleventh, twenty eighteen, a
nineteen to four Cleveland victory. This Red's position player pitched
in that game. A Alex Blandino, B. Jose Parazza or C.
Scott Schebler. Alexo, Do I have an Alex Blandino? Very good?

(01:44:45):
All right, Alex Plandino. The correct answer. I'll tell you
what say what you want about the current state of
the Reds. We're no longer talking ourselves into Jose Parazza
and Scott Schebler. All Right, Todd On June sixteenth, nineteen
ninety seven, that was the first first regular season game
ever played between the Reds and at the time, the Indians.
Cincinnati won that game four to one. Who was the

(01:45:08):
Reds manager? Was it a Jack McKeon, b Ray Knight
or C. Bob Boone?

Speaker 5 (01:45:15):
Jack McKeon?

Speaker 2 (01:45:16):
Was it Jack McKeon y night? About a month or
so before he got fired? That's all right, that's okay.
You're down to one, but you get these next two
and you're gonna go see the big three. All right,
here we go.

Speaker 11 (01:45:30):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (01:45:30):
The first player to ever record a played appearance in
a regular season game between the Reds and Indians was
A Ken Loughton, B. Barry Larkin or C. Dion Sanders?

Speaker 5 (01:45:47):
How about Beyon Deon Sanders?

Speaker 2 (01:45:49):
Was it Coach Prime? Coach Prime?

Speaker 5 (01:45:52):
Yes?

Speaker 2 (01:45:53):
Led the ballgame off that night in Cleveland. Oral Herscheiser
was starting in Deon Sanders, the first batter ever in
his tree of the Ohio Cupan. All right, here's our
last one. This is make or break. Shin su Chu
joined the Reds in twenty thirteen, which gave him a
chance to play against his Cleveland teammates from the year before.
There was another Reds player that season, twenty thirteen, who

(01:46:18):
also joined Cincinnati after playing for the Indians in twenty twelve.
Was it a Jack Hanahan, b Orlando Cabrera or c
Adam Rosales Adam Rosales, Man, Todd, I'm so sorry. You

(01:46:38):
could still buy tickets to the Big Three at Big
three dot comer. Hell, you can play one of our
stupid games tomorrow. A JT. You did absolutely nothing. Congratulations,
thanks man, I really appreciate it. No skin off my back.
You're very welcome. Maybe JT can take Todd. Jack Hanahan
was the correct answer. Adam Rosales. Adam Rosales played in

(01:46:59):
the big leagues for like ten years. And remember he
played for the Reds and he wasn't very good, but
when he would hit a home run, he would sprint
around the bases like he would do like a hole
like Carl Lewis, thing around the bases. And I remember
once my colleague Lance McAllister, who at the time was
still doing this show and Adam Rizzales got called up

(01:47:23):
literally said on the air about Adam Rizales, He's my
new favorite player. What because he was a great fielder. No,
because he was a good hitter, of course not. But
when he actually did hit a ball out of the ballpark,
he ran around the bases like a man possessed. I've

(01:47:43):
never been more embarrassed for a fellow radio host, and
there's a lot of times I'm embarrassed by my fellow
radio hosts Adam Rasales. Not the answer that dude didn't
have a pretty long career for a guy who's claim
to fame was he runs. That just goes to show
there's like a there's still a certain type of baseball
fan who just loves that sort of stuff. It's like,
I'll take the guy who has thirty five bombs, you

(01:48:05):
take the guy who hit six and sprints around the bases.
Congratulations to a JT. Big Three basketball is back in
Cincy this summer. And tickets, you know, by the way,
they make a perfect Father's Day gift. If dad loves basketball, well,
Father's Day is Sunday. Get tickets. Now you could take
dad to go see Dwight Howard, Joe Johnson, Jordan Crawford,

(01:48:26):
Lance Stevenson and more. Are Lance Stevenson and Jordan Crawford
on the same team? Because remember when they got into
a fight during one of their not the Big Fight,
but like the the twenty nine twenty ten Skyline Chili
Crosstown Shootout. Jordan Crawford was an awesome player. Lance Stevenson
was a pretty good bearcat. But those two guys had beef.

(01:48:47):
I think it was Jordan Crawford walking through UC's huddle
if I remember it correctly, and I might, that's been
what sixteen years. Maybe I'm not Jordan Crawford and Lance
Stevenson had beef. Maybe they'll have beef at they Heritage
Bank Center Saturday, July twenty six go see the Big Three.
Buy tickets and learn more at Big three dot com.
That's Bigfree dot com. More tickets tomorrow. I did have.

(01:49:16):
I came up with four. I needed a fifth for
know your Indiana Pacers I might hold because you know where.
I'm told Cincinnati is a Pacers town. Literally this weekend,
gentlemen came up to me. Played a round of golf
on Friday, then joining a cold one at the nineteenth hole,
and a guy comes up to me, probably knowing that
I'm a Knicks fan, and says Cincinnati is a Pacers town.

(01:49:40):
So it is fourteen away from six o'clock. This is
ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 3 (01:49:49):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty traffic.

Speaker 8 (01:49:53):
From the UC Health Traffic Center from massage therapy to
stress relief and cancer surveillance. The u See Cancer Center
and survivors, called five one, three, five eight five UCCC
earlier accident has now been cleared out on Grandon Road
at State Route forty eight. However, eastbound State Route sixty three,

(01:50:18):
it's an accident between seventy five and Gateway Boulevard. The
right lane blocked on at Ezelic with traffic.

Speaker 2 (01:50:25):
Game three is tomorrow. Pace for something not not heard
on ESPN fifteen three Cincinnati Sports Station, unless you want
to hear the NBA Finals. Mary in Mount Washington, You're
on ESPN fifteen thirty. Mary, how are you?

Speaker 13 (01:50:48):
Oh, my one, I'm pretty good, a little frustrated, a
little frustrated, you know, a long time listed, big fan.
Haven't talked to you in quite a while, but I
got away in a little bit. We've just had so
many since show's come. Between the injury and the epidectomy
and then the holdout last year, the slow starts. We

(01:51:10):
can't afford to keep doing this. And the Bengals did
pay Trey a couple of years ago, and he signed
a pretty nice deal at the time, he thought, and
you know what, he did what we wanted him to do,
and he's been great. But still our defense is not enough.
And so this rookie, I mean, even when he was

(01:51:31):
at the draft, said there's going to be a lot
of teams that are going to be mad they passed
on me. I hope that's true. That you're not going
to be able to do show anybody anything if you
don't get out there and sign the contract and play.
So it's just, you know, it's hard. Us fans are
thirsting for the playoffs and the super Bowl again, and

(01:51:53):
we've got an offense that can do it. And I
do believe the Bengals have been trying to do better
as far as in these guys, but we've also had
a lot of first round bus I can name lots
of them, you know, So go ahead and get out
there and prove it. And I promise you, if we
don't pay you, somebody else will.

Speaker 5 (01:52:15):
That's about all I got to say.

Speaker 2 (01:52:17):
Well, Mary, I thank you and nice to hear from you.
I appreciate the phone call. Yeah, look, there's there's there's
Shamar Stewart's position as it relates to what the Bengals
are asking him to do contractually. I look, he's looking
out for himself. He doesn't want to be used as

(01:52:40):
the guy who's gonna set the precedent. He wants to
be treated like other players who have been taken by
this team. He doesn't want contract language and his deal
that wasn't in a Marius Men's or not in Miles Murphy's.
And I understand that. I also understand how this makes
him look. I understand how today's mini rant makes him

(01:53:03):
come across by the way. We had a guy who
called before, and I'm sure there are many like him
who kind of saw it his way until he popped
off today. And I'll grant you this man like I
do think there's something about Look, you're the new guy, Okay.
You have every right to, you know, look out for yourself,

(01:53:23):
seek the contract terms that are best for you, not
sign the contract until it's to your liking. You have
every right to do that. But there's a little bit
of a difference between a player who's been here for
a while popping off telling everybody how he feels, ripping

(01:53:43):
the franchise, and a new guy doing it. There's just
a difference. And again I use the example. Maybe it's
not the best one, but like somebody who's worked at
a company for a long time, who has perspective, who's
put in some time, who's done the work, who's you know,
accomplish some things as a pro, that person gets I

(01:54:04):
think a little bit more leeway and kind of telling
everybody how things are at work then the dude who
just graduated from college and showed up two weeks ago.
So this doesn't make Shamar Stewart look good, But one
of the objectives that so many of us have talked
about is it relates to the Bengals getting ready for

(01:54:24):
the season, especially given their track record of starting slowly.
Has been go through camp with as few distractions as possible,
go through camp with no issue looming over the preparation
for the season, and no questions existing about whether or
not a guy's going to be there for the first game.

(01:54:47):
If that was the biggest objective of this offseason, maybe
it wasn't for you. If that was the biggest objective
for this offseason so far, at least, mission not accomplished.
The Trey Hendrickson things still is there. I'm like Mary,
I understand the Bengals point of view here, I really do.

(01:55:10):
I'm not even saying that I don't entirely understand the
Bengals point of view when it comes to Shamar Stewart.
I just understand Shamar Stewart's point of view more. I
do not think, though, that today was helpful. I didn't
think Trey Hendrickson a few weeks ago showing up the
practice to sound off in Grant stand, I don't think
that was helpful. I don't think today was helpful. The

(01:55:31):
goal was to get through training camp and start training
camp and go through the summer with as fuge distractions
as possible. That hasn't been done. Today didn't help. We're
back tomorrow at three oh five. Thanks to Tarren Bland
for producing. Tony and Austin have since he three to
sixty at noon tomorrow. Have a great night. Thank you
for listening. This is ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports station

Speaker 10 (01:56:00):
Since

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