6/12/25 - The Mo Egger Radio Show w/ Chad Brendel - Mo Egger

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Bengals.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
Like ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati's sports station.

Speaker 1 (00:17):
Here we go the Moegar Show, hosted by not Moegar,
Chad Rendall in the driver's seat for your Thursday afternoon. Boy,

(00:39):
do we have a lot to get to today. Plenty
of Bengals talk. Shamar Stewart saga continues Stuart Leeds camp
mandatory mini camp. The next time that we could possibly

(01:02):
see him is coming up when training camp starts in
five six weeks. Whatever it is. I have thoughts, especially
when you go back two days to Schamar holding court

(01:22):
and making a comment that will probably live in Bengals
lore forever. They want to win arguments more than they
want to win games. I know he's he's taken a
lot of heat on these airwaves from Tony Pike and
Austin Blackburn on Sincy three sixty. You think that'll stick, Tarn?

(01:48):
Is he getting get mad at me? If that sticks?
Austin Blackburn? I like it. It's got a good ring
to it from Moegor yesterday, and look, there there are
consequences to free speech. It's probably not. It probably didn't
go over great in the front office yesterday when Shamar

(02:11):
Stewart said that and put that out in the world.
But one, he's not wrong. It's something we have dealt
with every off season. How many off seasons in a
row have we dealt with the Bengals and a contract dispute?
I mean this at least goes back to Jesse Bates, right,

(02:35):
Jesse Bates, then T Higgins, then Jamar and T Trey Hendrickson.
Shamar Stewart like, at some point, it's not the player
because this is not something that happens everywhere. Sure, people

(02:57):
all everybody has off season stuff offseason, you know, contract
squabbles with their players. Yeah, but not everybody does it
every off season. What the Cowboys? The Cowboys or who
you're modeling yourself after. Really, I don't think that's a
good spot to be in, So you know, you don't

(03:23):
you don't look forward to a rookie saying something like
Shamar Stewart said yesterday. But the kids got a pretty
good read on the situation. This is not a player
friendly franchise. Why do you think they get such a

(03:44):
bad perception in the media. Who is the national football
media largely made up of former players? You think those
former players don't know former Bengals. I think they don't
talk to former Bengals to help formulate their position on

(04:08):
when Bengals news becomes available. Of course they do. The
perception is reality in this case, not perception. It becomes reality.
The perception is reality because the Bengals are not a
player friendly front office in a player friendly league. To them,

(04:40):
they are still playing games, you know, January February through August,
and those games are front office versus employee. I don't
think that's good for the overall health of your franchise.
Think that's good for your locker room. I don't think

(05:03):
that's good for it. Guess what, starting fast coincidence? Just
a coincidence that they've had this stuff to deal with
every off season and every season they start slow. Sure,
just a coincidence. I'm not saying I'm fully on Schamar

(05:30):
Stewart's side. I'm saying I understand and I'm on his
side more than I'm on the side of the people
that are in charge and continue every off season to
allow distractions in their locker room because they can't negotiate
and find middle ground unless Joe Burrow yanks the chain

(05:56):
and says get it done. Reds off today. Six game
winning streaks snapped yesterday. Nicolodolo roughed up going into a
big three game set with the Tigers, who are playing

(06:19):
as well as anybody in Major League Baseball. They are
having an outstanding start to the season. But the last
two games one and Andrew Abbott complete game shutout, the
other kind of a stinker by Nicklodola wasn't a great performance,

(06:45):
didn't put his team in a position to win. And
I think it brings up an interesting question. Hunter Green
out for a while. And we know this because we

(07:07):
are talking about second opinions, and you know, just making
sure making sure Hunter has all the information, which I
believe to be the case. I also believe that when
you're talking second opinions, nobody gets a second opinion for
like a blister on their finger. Nobody gets a second

(07:29):
opinion for something that is rather uh not something that's
gonna cost you a significant period of time. Nobody goes
to the doctor. The doctor gives you a flu test,
you have the flu, and they say, I'm gonna need
a second opinion. It's not how it works. It's pretty

(07:54):
clear Hunter Green's probably gonna be out for a while,
which means somebody's gonna have to step up and anchor
this rotation. The thought process coming into this season, Hunter
Green won and Nickelodolo if not one B two, Nickelodolo
sits at four and five solid era at three seventy six.

(08:17):
It's not like Nicklodolo has been terrible, but against Cleveland
three and a third, five hits, six runs, all of
them earned two walks, a home run, six strikeouts. When
compared to the night before, Andrew Rabbit three hits, nine innings,

(08:42):
no runs allowed in a game with no margin, prayer
the Reds win one to nothing, Andrew Rabbit, there's a
complete game shutout. Are we at the point where Andrew
Abbot has moved ahead of Nickelodolo in the pecking order

(09:04):
of starting pitchers in this organization. That's not to say
I don't like Nicolodolo or moving on from Nickelodolo, but
I think we're getting a better picture that Nickelodola might
be a three or a four in your starting rotation,
and Andrew Abbitt might be a two looking like he's

(09:24):
in the conversation as a one. It's going to be
interesting because it doesn't seem like they're gonna have Hunter Green.
They are entering the toughest portion of their schedule right now, Twins, Cardinals, Yankees, Padres,

(09:44):
Red Sox to close out June. It's going to be
a tough two and a half weeks. Starting pitching is
going to be important. A big day in UC News.

(10:05):
I was at the ribbon cutting ceremony for the indoor
practice facility last night. I know the headliner is the
practice field, which is gorgeous. It's the architecture is unbelievable.
It really is an absolute showstopper on that front corner

(10:29):
of campus as you're coming into Varsity Village. It's magnificent.
But man, I was blown away by the performance center.
Blown away. Had a chance to tour through the training
facility with Ohio's Athletic Trainer of the Year, Aaron Hemmler.

(10:51):
Kind of gave Keagan and I some insight into what
everything was and why they had it. It's gorgeous. You
would love it, Taran. Aaron put my daughter Kelsey in
the cryogenic chamber at negative one hundred and thirty four degrees.

Speaker 3 (11:14):
She probably had all her clothes on for the most part.

Speaker 1 (11:17):
She did well. She had on a dress I told
her to dress nice. We had a formal, you know,
a business casual event to go to, so she dressed nice.
But she was in a dress in like flip flops,
so it is coldon there. It's like, I mean, it
looked like you know why when they freeze Han Solo
in in Star Wars kind of look like that. Just

(11:41):
smoke bellowing out of the thing as soon as you
open it. But just amazing. The weight room, the team rooms,
the players lounge, the coaches offices that all overlook the
football field, the practice field. Just first class and we
don't normally get a lot of nice things here in

(12:03):
the city Terran. This was as good as any facility
in the country. Now, of course, guess what happens the
next person that's building one of these comes to Cincinnati
and says, oh, okay, we're we're gonna one up that.
That's how this works. But for now, for today, Terran

(12:23):
one of the best facilities in the country, if not
the best, it was great. We will talk to Jim Kelly,
former Bearcat legend, Hall of Famer and now the color
commentator for UC football. He was there as well last night.
We will get his thoughts as someone that played at
UC in the seventies has been around and close to

(12:44):
the program ever since. What his reaction was, what it
was like seeing something like that located on the University
of Cincinnati campus. And also the schedule matrix for UC
basketball released the Big Twelve portion. They will play home

(13:04):
and away Houston, UCF, and West Virginia home games for
the Bearcats, Colorado, Iowa State, Oklahoma State, BYU, Utah, and Baylor.

Speaker 4 (13:14):
So four.

Speaker 1 (13:18):
Of what is expected to be four of the best teams,
three of the best teams in the country. We don't
know necessarily about Baylor, but Scot Drew usually has a
really good team. Houston, Iowa State, BYU all expected to
be outstanding. You'll get all those games at Fifth Third
Arena and then away who Buddy Arizona, Arizona State, Kansas,

(13:39):
Texas Tech, TCU, and Kansas State. Never a dull moment
in the Big Twelve. Also, John Rothstein reporting, and I
can confirm I have been hearing this as well that
Cincinnati and Dayton are finalizing a home and home that
would start at Fifth Third Arena this year. It's coming

(14:01):
November December, So if that's true, what we know out
of conference is Xavier on the road, Louisville at downtown
in a neutral site game at the Heritage Bank Center,
and then Dayton at Fifth Third Arena. I know there's

(14:23):
they're close to a neutral site game with a team
that was in the top forty in Ken Palm last year,
so that should be good. And Wes Miller putting a
schedule solid scheduled together for the Bearcats as they enter
year three in the Big.

Speaker 3 (14:41):
Twelve OH preseason tournament this year.

Speaker 1 (14:44):
They're going to do an empty Louisville's a part of it,
so they're not going to go out of town for one.
They haven't. I think the only one they've done since
Westcott here was Maui, which isn't a bad one, no,
but that one was scheduled. That one was scheduled when
Mick was here. You want to hear something crazy, Darren,
I was. I was talking to Brady Lichtenberg last night

(15:07):
and he's the backup quarterback to Brendan Soorsby for you see,
And so what do you think, man? He said, I
it's they I was promised this facility when I was
a sophomore in high school. How long ago that was?
For Brady Lichtenberg twenty sixteen. Twenty sixteen, I think he

(15:31):
had a COVID year. He had a red shirt year.
So this is his sixth year at the University of Cincinnati.
So six and then you go back a couple more
to get to his sophomore year in high school. Like
twenty sixteen was when Brady Lichtenberg started being recruited by
Cincinnati and they told him while you're playing here, will
we will have a brand new indoor practice facility for

(15:54):
you to play in at the beginning of the Luke
Figle era, And sure enough he just held on long
enough Tarran to get it. Twenty sixteen, it's twenty twenty five.

Speaker 3 (16:08):
Who was the coach at twenty sixteen? Was that Fickles
first year.

Speaker 1 (16:10):
So December tenth, twenty sixteen was Luke Fickle's introductory press conference,
So Tommy Tuberville coach the twenty sixteen year. Fickle came in,
you know after that, after the go to Hell get
a Job Tommy Turberville's show. And then twenty seventeen was

(16:33):
Fickles first season as head coach. So yeah, can't wait
to play in that can't wait to work in that
new practice facility. Brady Lichtenberg, You finally get your shot.

Speaker 3 (16:48):
Boy should be on his doctor's degree by that.

Speaker 1 (16:50):
It should be on. All right, let's take a break.
We'll get to it. Jeff ff car coming up in
about ten minutes. Right here on Cincinnatis ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 4 (17:02):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 5 (17:06):
Traffic 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. CULL five one three five eighty five UCCC
one accident right now that is on Madison Road east

(17:27):
of Edwards. Also keep in mind a disabled vehicle southbound
seventy one between Kenwood and Red Bank Road that has
got the left lane blocked off. I'm at ezelic with traffic.

Speaker 6 (17:39):
This report is sponsored by Rapid Radios.

Speaker 1 (17:55):
Samoager Show, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty. Chad brendle In promo
eger Uh, I'm in today. They they've got the banana
thing tomorrow, right Tarn Yeah, right, So Mo's live from
the Holy Grail tomorrow. If they if you call tomorrow,
will you be on the banana phone. Yes, I think

(18:18):
you will be right. So do you have the sound ready?
Ring ring, ring ring banana?

Speaker 3 (18:22):
Well, that's definitely down a hall. We don't have to
worry about it down here.

Speaker 1 (18:25):
Okay, okay. So I'll be back Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday of
next week as well. But Trags is in Monday, Moses
out for a while. Uh. I'll be in Tuesday, Wednesday,
Thursday next week. Then I leave for vacation, Tarran. I'm
going to the beach for a week with the beach,

(18:46):
Daytona Beach. Actually looking forward to it. Nice to get away.
We didn't we didn't talk about Kendrick and Sizza. It
was it was good with Saint Louis for Kendrick, Lamar
and Siza. Last week took the new girlfriend and the

(19:06):
daughter had great seats. You know what the star the
night was there?

Speaker 7 (19:11):
Terran?

Speaker 1 (19:13):
Well, was it Mustard as the opener? His DJ set
was iconic, I mean from the eighties all the way
to like current day, just seamlessly through it. For it
was like fifty minutes. It was very good, very good
DJ set. And then Sizza and Kendrick were great. Kelsey

(19:37):
had a great time. I talked about this last week.
Terran the train system in Saint Louis unbelievable, How we
don't have a train system and drew western heide. He
made a good point, he said, a lot of it
is because of the hills. Not a lot of hills
in middle of Missouri. But how we don't have a

(20:00):
train system that goes from the airport up to like
Mason baffles me. It was such an easy way to
get out get around town. My uncle lives like fifteen
minutes outside of Saint Louis. We drove from his house
like five minutes to the train station, hopped on the train,
took it downtown, went to the concert concert, got over,

(20:21):
hopped on the train back to his place. Didn't have
to pay fifty dollars for parking, paid two dollars and
fifty cents for the train. It was a great show.
Great show.

Speaker 3 (20:33):
Well, we can barely figure out a street car here.

Speaker 1 (20:35):
So I know. And that thing doesn't leave downtown, doesn't
go to northern Kentucky, doesn't go to Clifton. Unbelievable.

Speaker 3 (20:45):
Well, if they tried to go over to nother Kentucky,
I guarantee we have one in the River by now.

Speaker 1 (20:51):
I mean that theirs has to go across the Mississippi River, Darren.
It's bigger than the Ohio. They figured out how to
do it. It was great, great mode of transportation. All right,
let's let's take a break. We got Jeff Carr coming
up on the other side. Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 4 (21:15):

Speaker 5 (21:19):
Traffic from the UC Health Traffic Center from massage therapy
and survivors.

Speaker 8 (21:33):
CULT five one three, five eighty five.

Speaker 5 (21:35):
UCCC avoid the area of Triple Crown Boulevard between count
Fleet Drive and Whirlaway Drive. Police activity going on in
the area and on westbound two seventy five right lane
blocked from a disabled vehicle at Cold Rain on at
Ezelic with traffic.

Speaker 1 (22:04):
Rolling right along. My legger show, not my egger God.

Speaker 9 (22:09):
This is it MC breed pop Okay, got called Gotta
get in Mine, produced by Warren Gee.

Speaker 1 (22:15):
I like it. It's got a little funk to it.
This is a request by our guy Natty Ron. I
like it.

Speaker 10 (22:25):
Ron.

Speaker 1 (22:28):
Let's get out to our first guest of the day,
our guy, Jeff ff Car. That's Jeff with three f's.
Uh have you have you officially changed your name on
your birth certificate to Jeff F f Car.

Speaker 7 (22:44):
Well, they do put my whole middle name instead of
just my middle initial on there.

Speaker 1 (22:48):
Okay, I think you should look into it. I think
you should look into it.

Speaker 7 (22:54):
Hey, if you're taking requests by the way, Che's Burger
and Paradise by Jimmy Buffer, that's a pretty pensil banger
right there.

Speaker 1 (23:00):
That's not the type of request we take. I'm just
saying it's a little different. It's a little different. Let's
start here, Jeff Hunter Green seeking a second opinion. They
said they've got the second opinion right like they have

(23:21):
the MRI. They know what's going on, or at least
have gotten it looked at. Again, When I hear second opinion,
makes me think it's going to be a while. Am
I off base there? I mean, what are we looking
at all Star break August? Like, what is your instinct
on how we're looking here? On how long we're going
to be without Hunter Green? Yeah?

Speaker 7 (23:42):
My gut feeling when you go for a second opinion,
the length is months, not week. I almost wonder if
it's All Star break or post All Star Break. The
guests because a co host on my podcast, Steve, he's
a little bit of a medical professional on the you know,
on the day side, and he he was talking about

(24:04):
this sounds like something that we haven't really heard a
whole lot of in sports. There's a muscle that does
kind of connect your growing in your back, called the
soas muscle, but that's like in between some bones. So
I don't know if that's like a surgery type deal
or if that's just a you gotta sit and let
that thing heal type type injury. If that's indeed what

(24:26):
it is, and if it's not, then hopefully whatever it is,
it's something that they can move quickly on. But it
does make me wonder though, Chad, I don't know. Like
the question coming into this season was not his Hunter
Green Elite. The question was can he make thirty starts
in a season? And he's starting to wonder if he can.

Speaker 1 (24:44):
I mean, he's not going to this year.

Speaker 7 (24:49):
If he might not, he might not pitched this year
as much as he did last year.

Speaker 1 (24:53):
Right, It's a concern. It's definitely something that He's supposed
to be the face of the franchise, like in terms
of you know, the starting rotation, Ellie's the face of
the franchise. But Hunter Green is supposed to be like
the Ace, the the guy that goes out there every

(25:13):
fifth day, can stop a losing streak, you know, can
can can be the hammer. And once again, unfortunately we're
talking about him not being a guy that can power
through for two hundred, you know, one hundred and seventy five,
forget two hundred, one hundred and seventy five innings. But

(25:34):
that turns to my next question is has Andrew Abbott
passed Nickelodola in this rotation?

Speaker 7 (25:45):
Nicolodola, Yes, I believe so, just because what we have
seen recently from Nick Nicolodola doesn't feel like an avarition.
It seems as though it's been more of a trend
these last couple of years. Has strikeout rates have gone down,
his effectiveness, Like the number one weapon he had coming

(26:05):
up was that backfoot break, and that feels like he
might be able to reach back and get that pitch
right once or twice an outing, and then the rest
of the time it's more of a show me pitch.
His outpitch has almost become this change up, and that's
just not who he is. Like, I feel like, if
we're talking about Nicolodolo being a two pitch pitcher and

(26:27):
those two pitches are a fastball and a change up,
that doesn't sound like a starting pitcher to me. So
I wonder a little bit how he's going to get
out of this funk, because I mean, the underlying numbers
on his last start, his velocity was actually up, and
typically if we're talking about an injury, velocity is down,
and so it's obviously not that. And then you also

(26:50):
wonder about, you know, the fact that his commands just
didn't seem to be there at all, Like it seemed
like he was throwing, not pitching in his most recent start.
So what is he working through and is it something
he can turn around here quickly? That's going to be
the million dollar, well more than a million dollar question
when it comes to Nickelodola, and you know, it feels

(27:13):
like Andrew Rabbit has passed him up. I do need
to see more sure of this from Andrew Rabbit before
I like, say, he's passing up Hunter Green. But man,
he's looking really good, right, now.

Speaker 1 (27:23):
Yeah, I don't. I mean, I'm not ready to move
him past Hunter Green. But the question, I think it's
important because if Hunter Green's out for a significant amount
of time, somebody has to be that number one. And
I'm much more comfortable at this point saying it's Andrew
Rabbit than I am saying it's Nickelodola.

Speaker 7 (27:41):
Yeah, if we had to pick somebody on this staff
to be like, all right, look they got you know,
the Reds are facing the Pirates and we know what
that means. But Paul Skins is on the mound. So
who are we facing against Paul Skins? Yeah, Andrew Rabbit
feels like the guy that I'm picking at the moment.

Speaker 3 (27:57):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (27:58):
Chase Burns Louisville debut you today. Five point one innings,
pitch four, hits, two runs. He did walk four, which
is not unusual for a guy moving up a level.
Sometimes they get a little a little too amped up,
as evidenced he walked the first two batters. Those are
the two runs that he allowed. Seven strikeouts. How soon

(28:22):
are we going to see Chase Burns And is it
dependent on Wade Miley at this point?

Speaker 7 (28:31):
I think so, But I also think that they are
going to consider his personal development before they consider the
needs of the roster. I think Chase Petty will be
the next call up. It's not gonna be Chase Burns,
but I mean, if you're talking about multiple call ups,
if for some reason another you know, if Wade Miley,
if the newest developments in his personal life do become

(28:56):
an issue, then you're going to probably need somebody to
replace him. That'd probably be Chase Petty right away. And
so then if somebody else gets hurt, I think they've
got to consider Chase Burns if it's.

Speaker 1 (29:08):
Not within the next month.

Speaker 7 (29:11):
I would like for him to make at least four starts,
maybe five in Triple A before the Reds really consider
bringing him up. But it's clear that he's very advanced,
and like you mentioned, like he hasn't really I mean,
coming up to Triple A and walking for guys in
your first start is understandable for most, but considering where
he was at in Double A, it is a little

(29:32):
bit surprising. But I'm glad to see it because he
hasn't struggled yet. He is absolutely mowed down IA and
Double A to the point that it makes you wonder
why he was ever there in the first place. So
now that he's in Triple A, let's you know, I'm
not rooting for anybody to struggle, but quite frankly, we
need to see it a little bit struggle and then
overcome those struggles is what we really need to see

(29:54):
from Chase Burns.

Speaker 10 (29:54):
At this point.

Speaker 1 (29:57):
This team has been a roller coaster. But when I
go back over the way that this has played out
so far, the one thing and that I keep clinging
to Jeff, is that this team has shown enough spurt
ability to make me think it's in there right enough

(30:21):
times where they've gone five and ohero or six and one,
like they've shot themselves in the foot by giving it
back almost immediately. But the way I've always looked at
this over the course of a long Major league season
is have those little, you know, hot spots for a
week or two weeks, and then play five hundred the

(30:42):
rest of the way, and you're gonna end up where
you want to end up. Is this team gonna be
able and it's gonna be much tougher over the next
month because the schedule is much tougher over the next month,
But are they able to kind of hold serve and
then hit these little, you know, turbo boosts to where

(31:04):
they can get themselves into a position where they're five six,
seven games over five hundred instead of one game over
three game, two games under one game over three games
what they've been at five hundred fourteen different times this year.
Fourteen they're really crazy.

Speaker 7 (31:25):
But yeah, I think so because of their pitching and
their most recent win obviously not their most recent game,
but their most recent win was super encouraging to me
because it felt like throughout, you know, to this point
in the season, the good spurts that they've gone on
have been because they have just been scoring at will

(31:45):
and for once a one nothing ball game went their
way instead of against them. And I think that this
pitching staff is good enough to hold opponents down to
the point that as long as the lineup scores NF
it doesn't have to be a good lineup. And quite frankly,
their season long statistics point to the fact that they
are middle of the road, So I think that there's

(32:08):
enough data to begin to expect that this team can
be in a position to take that leap to the playoffs.
I'm still a little leery that my preseason prediction of
them making the playoffs is not going to come true.
But I think that this team is a no worse
than five hundred ball club. Like I think that there

(32:29):
were some people who were thinking about two weeks ago
that this team would win like seventy five ball games,
and I just don't see that happening. But the big
question will be can they make the jump to win
eighty seven eighty eight ball games, because I think that's
what's gonna take to get a wild card, and then
you would definitely need the Cubs to call him down

(32:49):
a bit, and then I think you got to win
about ninety games to win the division.

Speaker 1 (32:53):
Well yeah, and I also don't think we envisioned both
Saint Louis and Milwaukee playing well.

Speaker 7 (33:01):
Right, I still don't know what I think about Saint Louis.
I don't know that I buy this, but I don't
know that they are going to fall off enough to
be as bad as they were last year, right for sure,
But I think that the Reds can overcome both those teams.
The Brewers don't hit enough to really justify picking them
as a contender. I think they've gone on a nice

(33:23):
streak here recently, but I think they're more likely to
finish the season under five hundred than over it. So
I think that the Reds can overcome both those teams.
It's just going to be how does this Cubs lineup
continue to pick up its pitching staff, because it's flipped
from where the Reds are, and their lineup is much
better than the Reds lineup is, but their pitching staff

(33:44):
is very middle of the road. And if they have
another injury because they lost I mean, showt that a
Monaga looks like he might be coming back reasonably soon,
but of course Justin Steel had.

Speaker 1 (33:54):
Tommy John so he won't be.

Speaker 7 (33:56):
So if they lose another pitcher, they're going to have
to make a trade, and we know that they're at
least aggressive enough to do that. So there's definitely a
lot of ifs when it comes to the Chicago Cubs.
But I think that the Reds can at least get
up into that second spot and put enough pressure on
the Cubs that, hey, you got to just keep playing perfect.

Speaker 1 (34:19):
Excuse me, what do we know about Austin Wins and
Noel v Marte and some of these injured guys that boy,
if you could, you know, get some of the Candelario,
who I don't think is as dreadful as we saw
him at the start of the season. We talked about
how bad the lineup can be at times and how

(34:41):
bad the bench has been most of the season. Is
there any relief insight on that front.

Speaker 7 (34:49):
I think Candelario is probably the closest of the of
the three. Austin Hayes just continues to have these weird
updates where it's like, no, his footstill hurts and they
swear it's not a break, but it must just be
a real deep bone break.

Speaker 1 (35:04):
This might be the deepest.

Speaker 7 (35:05):
Bone bruse I've ever heard of on anybody, because they
keep confirming that there was no break, there was no
fracture or anything like that, and yet he is still
having issues with it. And I think they said there
would be another update on Friday, But at this point
it feels like if he finally gets the all clear,
if he's finally feeling healthy and ready to go, he's

(35:25):
going to need a couple of games in Louis, so
it's not going to be a meet, So we'll probably
see him at some point in the next week or so.
I think Jammerrick and Alario is in the same boat,
and then I was really surprised to hear that noelvi
Marte is close to a rehab assignment. I think they
said on the twentieth is when they plan to begin
a rehab assignment for noelvi Marte because he had the

(35:46):
Grade two oblique strain, And when they said grade two,
I expected, all right, we're not going to see him
till at least the All Star break, maybe after the
All Star break, which that could still could track. He
still could have a long rehab in Triple A before returning,
because I like what the Reds did with Christine and
Karnassi on strand they didn't bring him back as soon

(36:07):
as he looked like he was ready. They're like, okay,
you're healthy, you're ready to go. Now get your timing
back and then we'll bring you back to the major leagues.
And as much as the lineup seemed to be suffering
while he was done in Louisville, I think ultimately that
was the best thing for the individual.

Speaker 1 (36:21):
Player can in Karnassi on Strange and he's not going
to keep up what he did when he first came back, obviously,
but what is a reasonable expectation for what his production
looks like going forward.

Speaker 7 (36:37):
I think he is this team's clean up hitter and
the reason that the Reds did not spend the money
that we wanted them to go spend on a cleanup
pitter this offseason. And I think that that's what the
Reds are betting on. But I do believe he's got
the profile to meet that. The question has always been
is he going to be healthy long enough to prove anything? Yeah,
and so far, I mean, at least for once, he

(36:59):
went crazy because you know, at the beginning of last year,
you know, he's dealt with the injury that he suffered
in spring training. He struggled and then he got hurt
for the rest of the year, and then this year,
he gets hurt in spring training, and then he starts
the year slow, and then he gets hurt again. And
you're like, all right, I get it, you're coming back
from injury and you're not playing up to your normal potential.
But at some point we got to see you go.

(37:21):
And so the fact that he shoved whenever he came
back really helped me feel as though that the scouting
report on him of just being an absolute masher who
can be the scary guy in the middle of your
lineup is obtainable, but we need to keep seeing more
of this from him.

Speaker 3 (37:39):
I'm with you.

Speaker 7 (37:40):
I don't expect him to be you know, hitting around
three hundred, slugging around six hundred with.

Speaker 1 (37:46):
Forty home runs. Yeah, I don't think he's that guy.
But they need a twenty five to thirty home run
guy and he could definitely be that.

Speaker 7 (37:54):
I think in his future he's a forty homer guy
if he continues to develop, but not this year, and
I think twenty five is reasonable.

Speaker 1 (38:02):
All right, I appreciate it.

Speaker 10 (38:03):
Man.

Speaker 1 (38:03):
Where can the people find you?

Speaker 7 (38:06):
You can find Lockdown Reds wherever you get your podcasts,
including the iHeartRadio app. You can also follow me on
social media at jeffcar with three f's on x and
on TikTok as well.

Speaker 10 (38:16):
Well.

Speaker 1 (38:16):
There be a banana ball locked on RADS edition this
week this weekend. I tried.

Speaker 7 (38:22):
They don't make those tickets easier they get no, no, sir,
not too easy at all, unfortunately, No, but hey maybe
one day.

Speaker 1 (38:32):
All right, I appreciate it, man, Thank you. Hey, take
it easy, Chad go Red There you go, jeffcar locked
on RADS. Let's take a break Hour number two on
the way the Mowegger Show, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 4 (38:44):

Speaker 5 (38:48):
Traffic from the UC Health Traffic Center from massach therapy
offers the region's largest supportive services pro gram four cancer
patients and survivors culled five one three, five eighty five.
UCCC continuing to have police activity blocking off Triple Crown

(39:10):
Boulevard between count Fleet Drive and Whirlaway Drive. Avoid the
area if possible, and also picking up a crash on
Auburn Avenue at Sycamore On at Exelic with traffic.

Speaker 2 (39:21):
This report a sponsored by Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 1 (39:40):
Here we go, Hour number two The Moagger Show, brought
to you by Not Moager Chad Brendel, Bearhead Journal dot Com.
Filling in today four mo Our number two. We have

(40:05):
Jim Kelly joining us as we talk about the opening
of the new Palace at the University of Cincinnati, the
new Shakeley Indoor practice facility and training complex. It's I'm

(40:30):
not one to get caught up in those things. New buildings, uniforms,
they're in necessity. They generally they don't move the needle
for me, A great deal I was. I will say
I was impressed with the fifth third Arena renovation. I
thought that was especially considering what was there and then

(40:57):
what they turned it into. That was impressive. I am
on that same level, if not maybe even a little
more when it comes to this new facility for the
University of Cincinnati football team, it is wow. If you

(41:17):
get a chance, go check it out. It is outstanding,
absolutely outstanding. So we'll talk to Jim about that at
four point thirty, but here for the next segment or two,
we'll get two Bengals. It was the conclusion of the

(41:38):
OTAs today or the mini camp mandatory mini camp excuse me,
conclusion of mandatory mini camp today. The Shamar Stewart saga
is still ongoing, and shockingly, Taran we barely mentioned Trey
Hendrickson this week, barely mentioned trade this week because Chamar

(42:02):
spoke to the media, he had a couple of highlight quotes,
and Zach Taylor was on the microphone today. So let's
hear from Zach Taylor on his experience with Shamar Henderson
and some stuff on OTA s er Henderson. Shamar Stewart, Sorry,

(42:26):
go find him.

Speaker 3 (42:27):
I did.

Speaker 1 (42:27):
Oh well, whatever, let's hear from Zach Okay.

Speaker 11 (42:31):
I think we had a really productive offseason. We certainly
got better in all areas, able to kind of keep
our stride on offense with a lot of guys returning defensively,
al and the new staff, some of the new players
have done a great job putting in the work to
make progress every single day. Now the key is just
over these five weeks, these guys staying in the playbooks
and so that we can hit the ground run and

(42:52):
we come back for training camp.

Speaker 8 (42:53):
But made a lot of progress.

Speaker 11 (42:54):
I think it was a great spring for our team
and look forward to getting back after summer.

Speaker 12 (42:58):
Brick Don Schamar and why wasn't he years here today?

Speaker 8 (43:03):
So we just focused on the guys that were here.

Speaker 1 (43:04):
What one of the conversations been like with him?

Speaker 8 (43:07):
He and I have had a positive conversations.

Speaker 12 (43:09):
All right, did he communicate with you before he left
or did you guys?

Speaker 5 (43:15):
He did.

Speaker 8 (43:15):
We've had good communication.

Speaker 9 (43:17):
I said, a big deal he's missed out on on
on field reps.

Speaker 11 (43:19):
I think for all the rookies, you'd like them to
be on the field, but certainly there's things that that
happen over the.

Speaker 8 (43:25):
Course of an NFL career, and this is one of
them right now. So, uh, he's been in the meetings,
he's been positive in that way, he's been learning.

Speaker 11 (43:31):
He's been a good learner, and we look forward to
getting back on the field quickly.

Speaker 4 (43:35):
It is obviously a first for you when it comes
to a first round pick.

Speaker 1 (43:38):
How have you navigated the world.

Speaker 11 (43:40):
There's a first for everything, you know. It's it's every
year you kind of learn something new in this position
and and this is just one of those things that
the players have managed really well and we keep the
team moving and when when he jumps on the field,
that'll be great for a team.

Speaker 5 (43:53):
He was pretty.

Speaker 1 (43:53):
Critical the other day of the organization. How do you
balance that? How do you react to that? Representing the organization.

Speaker 11 (43:59):
I think there's the education that happens with all the
rookies that we do our best to educate them. Number One,
we want to protect our team in our locker room,
and so there's some things I understand when there's frustration there,
but that's how he chose to do it, and that's
that's his prerogative. And we look forward to getting him
back in the fold.

Speaker 4 (44:15):
You told us that he won't practice unless he signed
this contract.

Speaker 12 (44:19):
So at this point, are you confident that he'll have
his contract signed by starting training camp.

Speaker 8 (44:23):
I'm not going to make any predictions.

Speaker 3 (44:25):
Did you talk to.

Speaker 13 (44:26):
Him following those comments he made the other day.

Speaker 8 (44:28):
We've had good communication.

Speaker 12 (44:29):
There's concerned that this thing lingers even let's say he
gets a deal done, give it all of the back
and forth before he's even signed.

Speaker 8 (44:35):
That wingers moving forward is how.

Speaker 11 (44:37):
We I think we have a great team right now,
and so our focus is just keep this team moving forward,
and when those situations work themselves out, we'll welcome those
guys back on the field. But right now, we have
a great team that's made great progress, and we'll focus
on that pretty good.

Speaker 8 (44:49):
When he can bring you all moving forward.

Speaker 12 (44:50):
Given all of the stuff that's happened, how do you
feel about him as a.

Speaker 8 (44:53):
Player, Yeah, I do, I do.

Speaker 11 (44:54):
And we've had a COVID offseason before we never had
an off season, you know, and you started August fifteenth,
so there's time to get work in and I'm excited
to get him to do that.

Speaker 14 (45:02):
You got to deal with a little bit of distraction
last year with Jamar at training camp and I certainly
don't know what's happening with Tray and with Jamar. Is
there anything you learned from last year that you can
take into this training camp to help prepare yourself to
handle this?

Speaker 8 (45:16):
I think every situation is a little different.

Speaker 12 (45:19):
How do you think Al's done in terms of accounting
for the You know, you don't have three projected starting
defensive line that.

Speaker 11 (45:26):
Outstanding And I agree with what he said yesterday. This
this is a positive in some ways because so many
guys have got so many reps and they've been able
to cross train, and so it's been really good for guys.
As we build that depth, guys are fighting for opportunity
in that way, it's been a very positive thing. I
think Al and our staff has done a great job,

(45:47):
especially on that side of the ball, practicing with intent
every single day with the install before we're trying to
achieve holding guys accountable, and the players have really bought
in and that's been exciting for me to see.

Speaker 1 (45:59):
Can you describe his attention to detail?

Speaker 4 (46:01):
It really stands out watching and do his things.

Speaker 11 (46:03):
I mean he's he's a grinder first and foremost. I
mean he's in here cracking dawn every single day, making
sure everything's ready for the coaches number one, and that
they've talked through every area because it's new. We got
guys from different backgrounds. Are good guys from the Saints,
from the Rams, from the Patriots, from Notre Dame, guys
that were here last year with Chuck, Jordan and Ronnie,
and so it's been good. He's been grinding over these

(46:26):
last five months to make sure everybody's on the same
page and meet an extra and just really impressed with
the process they followed and talking through all the all
the hard things that you have to iron out so
that by the time you give it to the players,
that players believe in it and understand it very clearly.
And so really just hats off to the defensive staff
for the work they put in to get on the
same page and allow us to make the progress we've

(46:46):
made through this sprint.

Speaker 14 (46:47):
Not sure if you saw it, but Ale said that
he regrets not taking good advice about taking a day
off when when he got hired, did he has?

Speaker 11 (46:53):
He told you that, I mean, it's it's mostly ball
with us, and you know, he's just he needs a vacation.

Speaker 8 (47:01):
There's no doubt about it.

Speaker 11 (47:02):
He's earned it, and so I'm excited for him, you know,
just off the college season that they had, and just
so thankful for the work that he's put in, you know,
to make our team better, our organization better, and so
that will pay off ter in the season, certainly, but
for now, he certainly deserves a vacation.

Speaker 14 (47:17):
There's been so much talk about the fast start and
what you guys need to change, either in the off
season or training camp. Has there been anything tangible that
you've seen that you've enacted here in the last couple
of months to help make that happen.

Speaker 11 (47:28):
I think every season has been different, you know, the
reasons for our zero and to two starts have been different.
I think every single season. It's something we certainly talk about,
and training camp will feel a little bit different in
some ways. We're only going to practice with ourselves this offseason,
I mean, this preseason, we're gonna let our starters play
a little bit more hopefully in the games. Hopefully that
that plays out that way. And I do think practicing

(47:51):
the mornings will be good from the player's standpoint, you know,
to take some of the temperature off of them, to
get really quality reps. There will be opportunities later in
camp to fight through the heat as we get ready
for some on o' call games. The only only real
difference is for the coaches. The install progression is a
little bit different when you practice in the morning, but
we embrace that it'll be it'll be good to change
it up for us. You know, some of us have
been here a long time, so it'll be good to

(48:12):
change it up and have to adapt like that.

Speaker 8 (48:14):
We ask our players to adapt.

Speaker 11 (48:15):
So I'm really excited for training camp to get here
so we can start putting the work. We've talked in
depth about it as a coaching staff, so I feel
like we're already ready to go tomorrow. But we'll take
these five weeks and fine tune everything and be ready
to go.

Speaker 1 (48:25):
When did you make that call to switch practice.

Speaker 8 (48:28):
Time a couple of months ago?

Speaker 10 (48:29):
What led to that?

Speaker 11 (48:30):
Ultimately, just we want to think about, you know, what's
what's the best thing for this team, the twenty twenty
five team. And you know, so again, just because we've
done it a certain way, I kind of said this forever.
Just because it's been done a certain way forever doesn't
mean that that's how we have to do it, and
so sometimes it's good, you know, for the often staff.
A lot of us have been here for seven years.
It's just good to have to adapt and adjust and

(48:50):
keep your on your toes a little bit and adjust
to a new schedule. And I'm excited about it. I
think it'll pay dividends for our players and then so
we'll put into effect this year.

Speaker 7 (48:59):
Sounds a nice progress.

Speaker 3 (49:01):
He's obviously gonna step in here.

Speaker 14 (49:03):
And be the opening game guy.

Speaker 3 (49:04):
How have you seen his aggression?

Speaker 11 (49:06):
Uh, well, those guys are still competing for that. And
and but I do think that he has worked really hard.
You know, as I come in the building, he's one
of the first guys in the locker room every single day.
Very mature, he's ready to go, ready to compete. I
think that linebacker room has all taken really good steps,
you know. I think Mike Hodge has done a good
job with the group. They're understanding what the defense is

(49:26):
calling for. And so I think that you're you're you've
got some rookies, you got you got a guy we
are quite you know, Oraren Bork's through free agency, and
then Logan who's back here, And so I'm really excited
about the growth that group has shown over of course
the off season.

Speaker 1 (49:40):
There you go Zach Taylor today addressing the media after
the end of a mandatory mini camp, and the next
time we see the Bengals will be at training camp.
So one, we're getting there. Two you got along five

(50:02):
six weeks. Tarn got a long five six weeks ahead
of us as we track, Does Shamar Stewart get done?
Does Trey Hendrickson find a deal with the Bengals? But
we are back to offseason uncertainty and off season uncertainty

(50:24):
around a defense that needs to take a drastic step.
Not a drastic step into the top ten. They need
to take a drastic step to the middle, because even
being in the middle is good enough. When you have

(50:45):
Joe Burrow, you do not have to be the eighty
five Bears. But they have slipped so far defensively. They've
brought in guys and fit and free agency, they have
not drafted well, they have not developed well. We've talked

(51:06):
about that a ton when I've been in this chair
that I think you know who they've signed and who
they've drafted. Yeah, hasn't been great. But over the past
three four or five years, we haven't seen a lot
of guys come in and get better, and you are

(51:28):
now tasking Shamar Stewart with getting better without the benefit
of really doing anything leading up to camp. Has not
been a factor, has not taken a snap of rep

(51:53):
through OTAs and through mandatory mini camp. And if you're
talking about the important of starting fast, isn't part of
that importance having your guys on the field, not having
everybody on the team answering questions about who's not there,

(52:19):
It doesn't make a whole lot of sense. And it
goes back to what Stuart said, they're more interested in
winning the argument than winning games. Does that mean they're
not interested in winning games?

Speaker 10 (52:33):
Now?

Speaker 1 (52:33):
I don't think it means that. But an important part
of winning games is having a tight offseason program. If
it wasn't important, why do they have it. If it
wasn't something that is meaningful to how your team does that? See,

(53:00):
they wouldn't do it. They'd just show up at camp.
Like the old days, a lot of guys you know,
didn't do anything in the off season, didn't take care
of their bodies. They'd show up at the start of
camp and that was when they got ready. For the season.
It's not how it is anymore. Why because you're better

(53:26):
off spending more time honing your craft. And this franchise,
for whatever reason, likes to spend a lot of their
time from the last snap of the last game of
the previous season to the first snap of the current

(53:46):
season dealing with off the field drama that is in
large part created by the front office. Sundst phone lines
are open. Jim Kelly Junior Bearcat Legend joining us at

(54:11):
four thirty. Let's take a break more after this the
Mowagger Show. Since that, He's ESPN fifteen.

Speaker 4 (54:16):
Thirty, ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 5 (54:21):
and survivors.

Speaker 8 (54:36):
CULT five one three five eighty five.

Speaker 5 (54:37):
UCCC Triple Crown Boulevard does remain blocked off due to
police activity between count Fleet Drive and Whirlaway Drive and
expect delays heading southbound on seventy five between Western Avenue
and the Brent Spence Bridge. I'm at ezelic with traffic.

Speaker 8 (54:54):
This report is sponsored by State.

Speaker 1 (55:04):
You probably keep the last chick. You want to laugh
it out.

Speaker 3 (55:07):
We got my ass had looked.

Speaker 1 (55:11):
A little tupac heavy to that.

Speaker 9 (55:14):
I don't mind it, big Stone living handless towns days
like Mama religion mind it.

Speaker 10 (55:21):
Week twelve.

Speaker 1 (55:24):
Like us open ongoing at Oakmont, JJ spawn in the
clubhouse as the leader at four under sixty six. Course
looked dumb. It's a really difficult course. Not a lot

(55:47):
of trees, not a lot of water, very difficult rough
and uh it's it's easy. It's difficult to navigate through this,
this core course. But early in the day at least
things were going pretty well. That has not been as
much of the case as the day has worn on.

(56:11):
Some notables. Patrick Reid just hidden albatross taran three under
hold in the second shot on a par five. Pretty good,
but he's still only one under on the day. Scrolling
through the list, Brooks Koepka at one under, Jordan Speith

(56:37):
and Colin Morikawa both even last I checked, And this
thing updates as I'm talking, so it makes it difficult sometimes.
But Scotty Scheffler was at one under. He is now
two under at the turn or two over, sorry, two

(56:59):
over at the turn, so not a great start for Scheffler.
Let's see how he does on the back nine, if
he can can make up some ground and get back
into contention. He is six back currently. Red's off today Detroit,

(57:23):
the best record in baseball. Reds taking on the Tigers
this weekend. Seven to ten start tomorrow, one ten on Saturday,
and then twelve five on Sunday. Audie's going up there

(57:48):
for the weekend. Yep, he takes a lot of trips.
They is is he getting some under the table cheddar
They don't talk about in the producer meetings. I'm not sure,
and check into that. Check into that. Jim Kelly, the
Bearcats legend and color commentator for UC football games, joins us. Next,

(58:15):
let's take a break and we will talk some indoor
practice facility after this right here on Cincinnati ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 4 (58:24):

Speaker 5 (58:28):
Traffic from the UC Health Traffic Center. From massage therapy
to stress relief and cancer surveillance, The UC Cancer Center
and survivors. CULT five one three five eighty five UCCC
Triple Crown Boulevard remains blocked due to police activity between

(58:49):
count Fleet and Whirlaway Drive and Glenmore Avenue. There's an
injury accident, this one over at Work Road with police
on the scene. I'm at Ezelic with.

Speaker 1 (58:59):
Track this report fighting people rolling right along the halfway point.
In today's program, we bring in a legend, someone who

(59:24):
has seen many, many, many moons throughout the history of
UC football. And uh, he was there last night at
the ribbon cutting ceremony, and uh, the ability the first
opportunity to really walk around and get a look at
the new Larry Shakeley Indoor practice Facility and Performance Center.

(59:48):
And I thought, who better to talk about the newest
era in UC athletics than my good friend Jim Kelly. Jim,
how the heck are you?

Speaker 10 (59:57):
I am good, Chad? How are you? I hope all
all is well? Today?

Speaker 1 (01:00:01):
All is wonderful. Today. It's a nice little muggy, but
it's a nice day outside. And the weekend kind of
starts when I get Doney, Well, I've got a BCJ
podcast to do tonight, But the weekend kind of starts
when I get out of here.

Speaker 10 (01:00:13):
You're always working, but I hear you, it is a
little muggy. I'm outside right now, but I'll take it.
I'll take it over the cold in the rain for sure,
any day of the week. When you walked into that
facility last night, it was nice. They had the dance
team and the cheerleaders and the bear cat there to
greet us. You know, they gave us a nice round

(01:00:33):
of applause. Yours deserved far more than mine. But when
you walk into that building, do you kind of take
a minute to reflect on everything that led up to it. Yeah,
First of all, you're very kind to say my applause
was more than yours, or should have been more than yours.

(01:00:55):
I don't think so. You're a hard working man and
you deserve it all. To your question, yeah, I mean considering.
So I am coming up on and this this pains
me to say this. So my last season of playing
at Cincinnati, at the University of Cincinnati was nineteen seventy five,
So this will be my fiftieth year of that senior

(01:01:18):
year coming up here this football season, and that's a
long time. I get it. But what I have seen
over those fifty years and where it was when I
started there in the early seventies, I would have never
imagined what you know, what I laid my eyes on
last night, even though I toured the building, you know,

(01:01:41):
prior to its you know, being being finished. What I
saw last night was just absolutely stunning to me in
every aspect of it. I mean, the field itself is breathtaking,
but then the things that go along with at the
weight room, the training room, the locker room, the team rooms,
even the eating rooms for the individual positioned groups, not

(01:02:05):
to mention the lounge and you know, the equipment room
that's still being worked on. But at the same time,
never would have ever dreamt that it would be anything
like that. And I know the guys that I played
with and when we dressed in the in the closed
end of the stadium, so the horseshoe end of the stadium,
there used to be two tunnels there and one of

(01:02:27):
those led to the locker room. I think the band
had the other one. And what we had in there,
which I won't call it state of the art, but
they tried to keep up with, you know, with the
big programs. As far as locker rooms, it was nice.
We had you know, our own what wasn't metal lockers
is you know, I mean, we had these wooden lockers
with padlocks on them, and we could hang all our

(01:02:49):
gear there and it was okay, but that's all we knew.
And then when you see something like what we what
we witnessed last night and got a chance to tour it,
just it takes you yond where you could have ever
believed football would have gone. And I know, it's it's
been a while, and it's an arms race, and you
kind of ratchet up along the way, and you know,
you try to outdo the other team. But I will

(01:03:13):
that being said, I will give everybody at the University
of Cincinnati that worked on this project a lot of
props because they didn't leave any stone unturned and they
went out of their way to make sure that this
is one of the best places in the country.

Speaker 1 (01:03:26):
I think that's one of the things that stood out
for me. You know, I haven't been around as long
as you, but I'm getting to the point, Jim, where
I've been. This is my going on my nineteenth year
on the beat.

Speaker 10 (01:03:39):
I've been not a rookie for sure.

Speaker 1 (01:03:41):
I'm not a new guy anymore. Somehow, I don't know
where I don't know where those nineteen years went. It
feels it wasn't that long ago that I started during
Mark d'antonio's final season, but I just kind of look
at the stages and the step and it always felt

(01:04:02):
like like the practice field was nice, but it wasn't.
It didn't put them at the top of anything. The
renovation to Nipper was was nice, but it never felt
like when you saw that, like, oh this is It's
still a special place, but you never felt like, oh, man,
this is the best stadium in the country. I did
get that feeling a little bit with Fifth Third Arena,

(01:04:24):
how how much they changed it and how much they
innovated it that you know, this is one of the
basket better basketball arenas in America. I walked out of
there last night thinking, I can't imagine there's a place
that's better. Maybe there's a bunch that are right on
par but I can't imagine that there's a place that's
better than what they put together. And and it just

(01:04:47):
it was some of that stuff, like walking through and
seeing the training room and all the different technology and
resources they have to treat and and get athletes not
just better when they're injured, but to the to their
peak performance. It just it blew me away. And we
don't normally have the nicest things here, Jim. That's part

(01:05:08):
of Cincinnati, right, We're gritty and make more with last.
But boy, I walked out of their feeling. I can't
imagine there's a place that's better.

Speaker 10 (01:05:17):
Well, you're absolutely right, and I think you you did
a really nice job there on that analogy. And I
would put the arena with the way that they were
able to change the inside of that kind of blew
me the way the first time I was in there,
butt the other ends of it. Take the bubble, take
even Knippert, you know, a couple of different stages of
solidifying Knippert and making it better. It always seemed like

(01:05:39):
it was a step that kind of caught you up
but still left you a little behind. Not not necessarily
the arena part, but on the stadium and on the bubble.
In the bubble outbore, it's uh, you know, it's use
and it got kind of a damp, smelly I'm not
sure what the term would be.

Speaker 1 (01:05:58):
And it's stunk. You can say it's sunk in there
for a little while.

Speaker 10 (01:06:03):
It smell like a hockey locker room. But I would
also say that I have been on other campuses, and
I mean big time schools, P four schools where I've
gone through their indoor facilities and maybe it doesn't smell
like that bubble smelled, but it's darker, it's dingier. Now
again they're older, but what I saw last night was

(01:06:26):
the amount of you know, the brightness of the facility,
the cleanling. Well, obviously it's brand new, it's not going
to be sarky, but all of the bells and whistles
that go along with it. I've never seen anything like that.
And as you just as you just said and put
it u they took a step above everybody else. You know,
there there's probably places out there that are comparable, but

(01:06:50):
that one, certainly you know, is up there with the
best of them, if not a step ahead at this
particular point in time.

Speaker 1 (01:06:56):
From a player perspective, what does that having everything in
one place, having everything you need right there, what kind
of advantage does that give a team that you know,
now you're going to be around the guys all the time,
It's not going to be you know, these guys are

(01:07:16):
in the second floor in the training room, and these
guys are on the first floor, you know, in the
in the locker in the weight room and guys are
out on the field and coaches are on the seventh floor.
Like now, everything is right there. What kind of advantage
do you think that gives a team?

Speaker 10 (01:07:33):
Well, so next to the military, and this is my opinion,
and next in the military, being on a football team
is the biggest band of brotherhood you could ever imagine.
Now what you just said there. So if you go
back to the Linder Center, you take the Lender Center
where the training room was down on what was it
on two? Yeah, and the meeting room was on two,

(01:07:55):
But then there were coaches offices on seven. There were
other offices sid office, which those guys spend a lot
of time in having to talk to comedian, so on
and so forth.

Speaker 1 (01:08:06):
Up on eight.

Speaker 10 (01:08:07):
Then you got the field, which is I don't know,
let's just say one hundred and fifty yards away from
the training room. The locker rooms down around the corner
around two or three corners bend in. So from that standpoint,
what it does, and not that they wasted a lot
of time getting from place to place. I mean they
you know, they knew their schedules and they that goes

(01:08:28):
with the territory. But in this particular case, you know,
you literally you can have your coaches meeting, you can
got a half hour to do some you know, do
some study in or schoolwork, or you want to just
play video games or you know, catch up on you know,
Sports Center or whatever's on the video screen. And not
only that, fifteen seconds later you can be in the

(01:08:50):
locker room, another fifteen cent well after you're dressed and everything,
you can be on the field and ready to go.
So all it does is solidify that feeling that you know,
you are one team and one group of guys, and
you know it doesn't make you a better team, but
at the same time, it certainly allows you to be

(01:09:10):
closer and to have those kind of that kind of
unity that you can have. And we all know we've
seen it when teams are together and unified, even you
know there's skill levels here, whatever it is, but when
they're unified, they're going to play better together. And that's
exactly what this is going to allow the Cincinnati Bearcats
to do.

Speaker 1 (01:09:30):
As a former player, do you are how amazed are
you when you walk through the training facility and you
see the hot tubs and the cold tubs and the
underwater treadmills and the cryo chamber and all the different things.
And talking to Aaron Hemler last night, he said, I
asked him, I said, where does this put you guys

(01:09:51):
in terms of training facilities? And he said, there's a
lot of places that have this, and they have that,
and they've got one of these things and two of
these things. He said, I think this is the only
place that went and took all of the best stuff
that everybody was doing and put it into one place.
As a former player, do you just think, how did
how did we get here? They used to rub dirt

(01:10:12):
on it, and uh, it's amazing to think the progress
and and and how incredible that facility is.

Speaker 10 (01:10:21):
Well, I mean, and when when I mentioned before that
we would you know, our locker room was a Nipperts.
So was our training room. The only thing we had
three of were training cables where you would get your
ankles taped or whatever. You know. I think they had
two whirlpools and that was it, you know. And again
the medicine has changed, all the treatments have changed. We

(01:10:43):
didn't have cold I guess you could have created, you know,
a cold water whirlpool, but that wasn't the thing at
the time, you know, so, but it was all we
had and you know when we made do with it.
But what you just said, and if you mentioned Aaron Himler,
he's wung just a ton of award, not just him,
but the medical staff, the training staff. He's won a

(01:11:04):
ton of awards this year. So not only do they
have the good stuff and and everything of it all
at once. You know, this is a first class operation,
you know, making sure these athletes get help, and not
only that, all of that equipment that you're talking about,
in all the technology that you're talking about that allows

(01:11:24):
them Okay, let's say a sprained ankle used to take you,
I don't know those five, six, seven days to heal.
They're getting guys back on the field, not necessarily will go,
but they're getting guys back out there after a couple
of days and at least letting them stretch it out,
and you know, the potential of maybe only missing a
week or not even missing a week with a bad sprain.
So it's pretty amazing the way technology and medicine is gone.

(01:11:48):
But you can only do what you can do when
you have the equipment. And that's one thing that Aaron's
done a good job of, you know, highlighting what those
pieces of equipment are and that technology is in the
and the UC folks have not held back money wise,
and they've allowed him to get that and it makes
them one of the best training staffs in the country
as well.

Speaker 1 (01:12:09):
Now they've got the facility, they've got the continuity. You're
in year three of Scott's Sadderfield. You've seen some spring practices,
You've seen the level of talent that that this team
is going to put on the field. How bullish are
you on the prospects for the Cincinnati Bearcats in twenty
twenty five.

Speaker 10 (01:12:30):
Yeah, I'm bullish big time. You know, they improved last
year from the previous year, from Scott's Saderfield's first year,
and when they were sitting there at five and two,
I think we all expected, you know, a really nice finish,
maybe not winning them all, but you know, with what
would it be five games to go maybe three and
two and finish in with seven or eight wins that

(01:12:52):
didn't happen. I do expect to be in that range.
You know, seven and five, maybe eight and four are
clearly bold and Bowl eligible. With six and six, there's
a couple of reasons for that. One, I think they've
improved their talent, particularly in the secondary side of things.
I think the offense is going to be really really good,

(01:13:13):
good running game, good quarterback, wideouts look solid. You've got
an offensive line with some experience, but really good talented player.
You've got, you know, in All America with what I
think is going to be an All American tight end,
not to mention some depth to tight end. So from
the offensive side of the ball, I think they're going
to be really good. On the defensive side, you've got
a solid defensive front. One of the things I saw

(01:13:35):
last night was a slim down Dante Corleone, the Godfather,
a very strong, but slim down, which I think is
going to make him quicker. And obviously he's not battling
what he was battling last year with the you know,
the the blood clotting, the lung, not to mention just
getting the you know, a late start because of not

(01:13:56):
being allowed to practice and participate in some things. A
solid group of linebackers that are back, and then the
secondary that I believe is much improved. That being said,
there's one other thing I would factor in, and that
is the fact that you have seven home games, and
I kind of look at it this way, to go
back to the old gotch Luke Fickles was its second year,

(01:14:19):
I believe, opening up at u c l A.

Speaker 1 (01:14:22):
Yeah.

Speaker 10 (01:14:24):
Yeah, I look at the Nebraska game as the UCLA game,
And I'm not saying that's a game that's a slam
dunk win for the Bearcats. But if they play well
and they win that game, and I know a lot
of people have been saying that's really going to you know,
set them off to be three or four and oh
at one particular point in time, you know, I'd worry
a little bit about bowling Green in game two as well.

(01:14:46):
But at the same time, it clearly creates a path
where with all those home games, and not to mention,
you know, in Oklahoma state on the road, who I
think speedable. You know, I don't know about Utah right
now on the road. So the road games always scare me.
But in this particular case, with the home schedule and
a couple of games on the road that I think

(01:15:06):
you can I won't say steal, but win if you
play well. You know, I honestly look through a much
better year.

Speaker 1 (01:15:13):
I really do I agree, all right, man, I appreciate it.
Thank you so much. It was great to see you
last night.

Speaker 10 (01:15:18):
Chad. Any time, and I can't.

Speaker 1 (01:15:19):
Wait to watch it too, camp in that indoor practice facility.

Speaker 10 (01:15:24):
Well, and that's a good question. Yeah, you know, yeah,
we'll leave that go for We'll get that.

Speaker 1 (01:15:29):
Thanks, Jim. I appreciate it.

Speaker 10 (01:15:31):
Yeah, okay, all right, Chad anytime? All right?

Speaker 1 (01:15:34):
Late or break Brendaman and Jones on baseball up next,
since I he's ESPN fifteen.

Speaker 4 (01:15:39):
Thirty, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 5 (01:15:44):
and survivors. CULT five one, three, five eight five UCCC
Triple Crown Boulevard remains blocked off from police activity between

(01:16:06):
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Speaker 1 (01:16:17):
This report is sponsored by Rapid Radios.

Speaker 2 (01:16:20):
Rapid Radio covers the Bengals like ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati's
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Speaker 1 (01:16:41):
Here we go our number three nomagger show, Cincinnati, ESPN
fifteen thirty. Chad Brenda filling in from Egger. You can
find me on socials at Chad Brendo or Bearcat Journal.

(01:17:02):
Thank you for choosing me incredibly fast. First two hours
of the show. Phone lines are open. You'd like to
chat Bengals, Reds, Bearcats a lot to get to.

Speaker 10 (01:17:19):
You.

Speaker 1 (01:17:19):
See basketball matrix for the Big Twelve for this coming
season released earlier today. Bearcats will play Houston, UCF and
West Virginia home and home. The home game only will
be Colorado, Iowa State, Oklahoma State BYU Utah and Baylor.

(01:17:41):
I've seen people complain that the home slate is not
strong enough. Tarn Houston is number one preseason byused in
the top five to seven anywhere you look in Iowa
State's in the top ten three top ten teams. Is
not a good enough home for some people? What are

(01:18:02):
we doing? And then Baylor perennial top twenty team under
Scott Drew and the return of Dan Skillings to fifth
third arena? Do you want all of them to be
a murderer's row? Come on? The only games that aren't

(01:18:27):
great there Colorado Oklahoma State and Utah, and then I
think UCS probably gonna be pretty bad. You have nine
home games in conference, almost half of them are going
to be elite teams, and then you get challenged on

(01:18:49):
the road with Arizona, Kansas, Texas Tech. But I think
Arizona State is winnable. I think TCU is winnable. I
think Kansas State is winnable. West Miller's gonna have to
take his team and not lose those type of games.
Those are the type of games they lost last year
that if they won, would have put them in the

(01:19:09):
NCAA Tournament. Got to go get a couple on the road,
and they got to do a better job holding serve
at home. You gotta beat Colorado, you gotta beat Oklahoma State,
you gotta beat Utah, gotta beat UCF, West Virginia, and Baylor.

(01:19:30):
I'm sure they'll have decent teams. You're at home. You
gotta win those home games. That's the challenge for Wes Miller.
I see a lot of argument about the non conference schedule,
and we don't have enough of the great teams at
home gonna win games. They could have lost all of

(01:19:51):
the big games last year, all of them in the
Big Twelve. If they didn't slip up at Kansas State,
Kansas State UC, both games against West Virginia, the game
at Utah. Win two or three of those games, you're
in the NCAA tournament. Win more, and that usually takes

(01:20:17):
care of everything. Also being reported by John Rothstein, and
something that I can confirm I've been hearing as well
is a home and home working on being finalized with Dayton.
I would love to see this continued in perpetuity, where
you have Xavier on the road this year, Dayton at home,

(01:20:40):
and then you just flip them every year. Next year
you've got Dayton on the road, Xavier at home. You
should play those two teams every year. It's my belief.
I like that we're headed in that direction. They've played
Dayton twice two years. They played them downtown the Heritage

(01:21:02):
Bank Center. Now the games are moving to campus. Cincinnati
also has reportedly Louisville down at Heritage Bank Center this year.
So right now we know they play Xavier on the road,
Louisville neutral downtown, and Dayton at Fifth Third Arena for

(01:21:23):
the out of conference portion. I expect another neutral site
game announced, which I think will be a top forty
type team and then at least one and maybe two
more after that that are of power five, top fifty
seventy five quality quad one, quad two type opponents. Do

(01:21:48):
you watch finals last night? Te Oh me, yeah, watch
finals last night. Oh, of course, Pacers up two to one.
They're gonna They're gonna make this thing a series. I
don't know if they're they're gonna win it, but I'd
be shocked if we're If Oklahoma City wins it, I'd

(01:22:10):
be shocked if if it doesn't take them seven. I
think the Pacers can win at least one more. I mean,
we saw last night their pace. I thought really bothered
Oklahoma City into the first half and into the second half.
Would you agree, No, don't know, no, No, Oklahoma City

(01:22:35):
was up at the end of the first quarter and
the end of the third quarter. I thought, I thought
the Pacers wore them down like that. Again, Hey they
Nemhar did a great job defending him, pressured him in
more turnovers than free throw attempts. I think the Pacers
are learning how to guard him. Terren I said from

(01:22:55):
the start, I think it's gonna be a great series.
I think it's gonna go seven.

Speaker 9 (01:22:58):
I think last night was last getme and he wins.
That's how many more than thirty point performance are we
going to get? And I love this guy, but being
math En off the bench, yeah, I mean, but that's
the Pacers, that's their depth.

Speaker 1 (01:23:11):
It might be Nemhard, it might be Netsmith, it might
be Mathurian, it might be Siakam. Like as long as
I think Halliburton's the key if he's getting in the twenties,
mid twenties and he has one other guy step up
around him with as efficient as their offense is, I mean,

(01:23:34):
I I everything pointed to Oklahoma winning this one pretty comfortably,
and here we sit at two to one. Pacers in
Oklahoma City didn't look as good on the road last night.

Speaker 3 (01:23:49):
Yeah they Yeah, there's splits are crazy.

Speaker 1 (01:23:52):
They're dominant at home. I mean that that Game one,
Indiana stealing Game one in the final three minutes really
could decide this series because all they've got to do
is win one, you know, the two home games, Game

(01:24:13):
four in Game six. If you win those two games
in Indy, the Pacers are your NBA champions. They don't
want it to go to seven though, you don't want
game seven and O KC. No are you where are
you at? On Halliburton like he was. He was almost
a ghost in the first two games and really started

(01:24:37):
slow last night. What he didn't have He didn't score
in the first quarter, did he? Yeah? Two points first Yeah,
and then all of a sudden with twenty two, eleven
and nine. I don't think he's a superstar, No, but
he's a star all.

Speaker 3 (01:24:51):
Star player, very good player. But yeah, right below superstar.

Speaker 1 (01:24:57):
Can he get there?

Speaker 3 (01:25:00):
Honestly?

Speaker 10 (01:25:00):
No?

Speaker 9 (01:25:01):
And I think Magic Johnson said that perfectly on the
first take this morning. Superstars are guys where you're going
to You want to go on the road. You want
to see them play Halla. Burton's game isn't exciting enough
where you want to get fans to come and see
him play.

Speaker 1 (01:25:14):
But I don't think anybody wants to go see Shaye
play either, not like that, not like Katie and Lebron
and Staph and aunt like. I don't think he's gotten
to that level yet. I don't know that his game
takes you to that level because it's his game is
more technical, it's not flashy. Would you would you if

(01:25:43):
if Shay was was going to Cleveland to play a game.
Would you pay to go see him in Cleveland?

Speaker 10 (01:25:53):
No?

Speaker 3 (01:25:53):
Not in Cleveland, though, I.

Speaker 1 (01:25:55):
Mean that's what they had the best record in these
didn't they kats? Yeah, best record in the East, best
record in the West, playing up the road in Cleveland.

Speaker 3 (01:26:04):
Those games were fun, the two that they played, I know.

Speaker 1 (01:26:08):
But I'm not going to see just Shay. I don't
think us open. We've got to tie at the top now.
Sungai m and JJ Spawn both tied at four under.

(01:26:28):
M is on the twelfth, so still a ways to
go for him. Thurston Lawrence and Matthew Pawan are both
three under one shot back. Brooks Koepka is one under.
Patrick Reid is one under. Jordan Speeth is at even par,

(01:26:52):
John Ram is at even par. Who else we got
here at even? Colin Morikawa is a even We're scrolling,
Chef Scottie Shafter back to one under, so he's hanging around.

(01:27:12):
Not having a great day for Shafter, but he's hanging around.
Part of me wants to keep scrolling until I get
the tiger. Bryce and d Chambeau three over, Rory four over,

(01:27:32):
Phil Mickelson four over. There you go, let's take a
break talk some Schamar Stewart. We haven't done that enough today.
We'll talk some more Shamar Stewart, and then my guy,
George Vogel, the handsome one after that. Since that he's
ESPN fifteen three.

Speaker 5 (01:27:54):
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.
CULT five one three five eighty five. U CECC is
closed off for police activity between count Fleet and whirl

(01:28:17):
Away Drive. Please avoid the area if you can. And
also in northbound seventy five. It's a disabled vehicle on
the ramp to Hoppel Street on that ezelic with traffic.

Speaker 1 (01:28:28):
This report is here, we go keep it moving. Since

(01:28:49):
that's ESPN fifteen thirty. Chad brendle In can find me
at Bearcat journal dot com. You can find me on
Twitter at Chad brendle thew Sorry I was jamming for
a minute.

Speaker 10 (01:29:09):
Projects how yes, the fucking gun cow would.

Speaker 1 (01:29:14):
Be Shamar Stewart is he's taking a lot of heat
and I look. Free speech is an amazing thing, but
free speech also holds the weight of consequences and just
get to say whatever you want. That that's my favorite

(01:29:35):
part about when when people can play I've got free speech. Yeah,
you got free speech, but that speech is also tied
to consequences. And there's gonna be some backlash when you
say something like Shamar Stewart did, and there should be.
He went at the organization point blank. But here's the thing,

(01:29:57):
he was right. More often than not, when we get
to the off season, this organization, this front office, treats
contract negotiations as if it were a game, and they
want to win or lose. Win at all costs, no

(01:30:23):
matter how much it ruins the relationship with the player,
no matter how much it messes with the locker room
at the expense, even of potentially doing things like starting
a season slow because a guy like Jamar Chase missed
a boatload of time in the offseason, because a guy

(01:30:46):
like Jesse Bates didn't feel he was treated properly. You
don't think those Bengals defenses the last two years would
have been better if the front office would have figured
out how to get something done with Jesse Bates. You
kidding me? In a league where the teams that win
are the teams that perpetuately that populate the top ten

(01:31:09):
at every position across the board with their players, Jesse
Bates is one of the top three to four safeties
in the NFL. Because the Bengals had to win the
contract talks, Jesse Bates has gone. Look how much money
they've spent on safeties the past couple of years and

(01:31:31):
the defense stunk. You think that defense wouldn't have looked
a heck of a lot different without Jesse Bates back there.
But the Bengals had to win the negotiation. They had
to run Jesse Bates out of town and show that
they could do it. I don't think t Higgins is

(01:31:56):
here and this isn't a new thought. T Higgins isn't here.
If Joe Burrow doesn't say keep him, don't care what
it takes keep him. Now, Trey Hendrickson's that's on the

(01:32:19):
back burner because of this Shamar Stewart thing. But once again,
Bengals have to win the negotiation. Look, and I don't
think they're wrong with Trey Hendrickson. I think if they
truly have offered twenty eight million dollars two years, two
year extension, meaning this year and two more years twenty

(01:32:40):
eight million dollars, that's what a uh he's making sixteen
Now bump it up to twenty eight twelve. That's a
seventy five percent pay increase. But at some point don't
you just look at it and say, look, we got
the kap. We can throw a couple extra million dollars

(01:33:03):
a trade to get this thing done, to get him here,
get them happy, and go try to win a super Bowl.
Because guess what, the teams that are generally playing for
conference championships and playing in Super Bowls are the teams
that are finishing at the top of the conference, the
teams that have fourteen fifteen wins in the regular season.

(01:33:28):
The Bengals are maxed out at eleven twelve tops. Why,
you'd give a bunch of reasons. One of those reasons
is going to be that things are never settled in
the offseason. Their players aren't taken care of properly. They
let players go because they have to win the negotiation.

(01:33:49):
They don't value a certain guy being one of the
best in the league. Many guards if they let walk
over the years because they don't value gaar, they don't
value safety, they don't value linebacker. That's what we hear,
you know, to excuse a lot of the moves that
they made. Aw they don't value that position. Yeah, if

(01:34:11):
you're run of the mill at that position, maybe you
don't value it. But if you've got one of the
best in the league, guess what, it's pretty dang valuable.
Is Shamar Stewart going to end up there? I don't know,
but the way the Bengals have treated him, if he
does end up there, probably not going to be here
after year four either. Let's go to Jason real quick

(01:34:38):
before we take a break. Jason, what's up?

Speaker 10 (01:34:42):
Hey?

Speaker 1 (01:34:42):
What's going on?

Speaker 10 (01:34:43):
Man?

Speaker 1 (01:34:43):
How much? How are you?

Speaker 10 (01:34:46):
I want to talk about Schamar?

Speaker 13 (01:34:49):
And I'm curious Mo expressed some similar sentiment to you
yesterday or that as you yesterday. If the Bengals can't
adjust a contract, because that's how it used to be
at one point, is it all right for them to
adjust rookie contracts? You know, the argument is we can't
do it because that's the contract that Sims got last year.

Speaker 1 (01:35:12):
Then you'll just literally never change this rookie contract. Well,
guess what, Jason, there is a way to do it.

Speaker 10 (01:35:19):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:35:19):
You know what always kind of wins in negotiations money money.
So from my understanding, some of these other teams that
have put these clauses in have offset adding these clauses
to the new contracts by giving a little bit more
upfront money and saying, Okay, yes, we are changing the language,

(01:35:42):
but as a sign of good faith, we're gonna give
you a little bit more guaranteed money so that it's
not a one sided situation, so that it's an actual negotiation.

Speaker 3 (01:35:56):
Right.

Speaker 1 (01:35:56):
So you're saying the Bengals are changing the language, and
they're not.

Speaker 13 (01:35:59):
They're not meeting in the middle and the guaranteed money.

Speaker 1 (01:36:01):
Yeah, So I think if they would add a little
bit more guaranteed money, I think Shamar Stewart in his
camp would be a lot more likely to say, Okay,
we're okay with changing some of the language that you
want to change, and you want to set a new precedent,
but we're going to make sure that there's give and take,
not just take and take. And I don't blame them

(01:36:23):
for that at all.

Speaker 10 (01:36:25):
Okay, I appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (01:36:26):
All right, thanks, no problem, Let's take a break. We'll
talk to a guy that's covered the Bengals for four
decades next and get his thoughts. The Handsome One George
Vogel Coming up next Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 4 (01:36:41):

Speaker 5 (01:36:45):
and survivors. I've won three five A five U SECC
South found seventy one, seventy five. The entrance ramp from

(01:37:06):
Mountain Zion Road is shut down from an overturned semi
south found seventy five at Western Hills Viaduct. There's an
accident off on the right shoulder. I'm at exelic with traffic.

Speaker 9 (01:37:27):
We like the breeze flow straight out of Balns them
they got boo bodies habout Brooklyn.

Speaker 1 (01:37:31):
Kids US Floor Terran. I don't know many people that
I would have on that I would feel comfortable saying
he's cool like that, But one of them is George Vogel,
former former legendary TV sports reporter for WLWT, now star

(01:37:55):
of George in the Jungle on the Bearcat Journal podcast network.
My friend George Vogel, George, did I get you off
the golf course. How are you this Thursday?

Speaker 10 (01:38:06):
No, I'm recovering from twenty seven holes yesterday. Oh well,
I'm coming off back surgery. So I decided, what the heck,
let's press it and see where I'm at. So, so far,
so good. I'm glad that rain.

Speaker 15 (01:38:20):
I'll be back out there tomorrow, just just maybe eighteen, George,
maybe eighteen and then and then like drive the cart
for the other nine with your buddies, right right.

Speaker 10 (01:38:31):
Well, you know there there, there may have been a
beer or two involved to kind of help.

Speaker 1 (01:38:38):
You got more pins and needles in you than Ben Mak.

Speaker 10 (01:38:42):
I know, it's crazy. Yeah, the neck, the back, you know,
a stint here, a stint there. You know, I got
the third of a kidney floating around.

Speaker 1 (01:38:54):
Somewhere in this world, I hear, Just don'd it to
sign a third of a kidney floating around?

Speaker 10 (01:39:03):
Yeah, exactly exactly. But yeah, everything's good man, cooking along
and uh, you know, ready to get out and enjoy
some beautiful weather whenever the rain quit's you know, coming
every other h twelve hours.

Speaker 3 (01:39:17):
No doubt.

Speaker 1 (01:39:19):
You have covered and been around the Brown Blackburn family,
the Bengals Organization for a long, long time. What was
your immediate reaction when you saw Schamar Stewart say they
want to win the argument more than they want to
win games.

Speaker 10 (01:39:39):
My immediate reaction was that dude could not have encapsualized
the last thirty plus years of that organization more succinct.
And then, how you know, ten words or less than
what he just did. That's what it seems like to me.

Speaker 1 (01:39:57):
Yeah, And and the sentiment though, and Tony and Austin
talking about this, Moe has talked about it a little bit,
and there are consequences for your your actions. There's things
he's gonna have to deal with inside the building for
saying that. But the general consensus is he's too young
to say that. He's a rookie. He hasn't earned the
right to say that. But if he's right, he's right.

Speaker 10 (01:40:20):
Yeah, exactly. And my guess is, obviously he's talked to people,
his agents and the bike, you know exactly how this
is going so and what's up. And I'm sure they've
told him, look, dude, here's the deal. This is what
happens a lot in Cincinnati. And you know, the NFL

(01:40:41):
did a great job getting the way they signed draft picks,
you know, sort it out and you don't have those
laws at all out. Yeah, it was a total mess.
And look, they had to get it right because a
lot of veterans are sitting around with, you know, five
good years in the league and they're watching some guy
who's never played it down getting more money up front

(01:41:01):
than they ever dreamed about. So I know that was
you know, the veterans had an interest in getting this
thing right. But it feels like we're getting pulled back
into that Bordtex again where you know, you're sitting there
and these young players are missing valuable time because of
a contract squabble.

Speaker 1 (01:41:19):
When they talk about this franchise over the past couple
of years starting slow, do you think there's anything And
there's probably multiple, multiple reasons why they have started slow.
Some of it is they've played some really tough teams,
But when they haven't played really tough teams, it still
started slow. See a terrible Patriots team at the start

(01:41:42):
of last season. Do you think this constant Jesse Bates
and t Higgins and Jamar Chase and Trey Hendrickson and
now Jamar Stewart, like, do you think that has anything
to do with it?

Speaker 10 (01:41:55):
It's got to have a little bit to do with it.
You know. Joe Burrow termed it a bit of a
distraction the other day about the Hendrickson situation, So it's
got to have a little bit to do with it.
You know, we've been tapping on Zach Taylor for not
playing these guys much in the preseason, and I think
they do need to do a little bit more of that.

(01:42:16):
But I yeah, there's multiple reasons, but not having everybody
you know, situated on the same page, pulling in the
same direction right now, heading in the training camp and
all that is something that you know, you should be
able to figure out and get it done one way

(01:42:37):
or the other instead of playing these games.

Speaker 1 (01:42:41):
What happens in the locker room when somebody drops what
Schamar Stewart dropped to the media the other day, what's
George Vogel's life. When a Carl Pickens or a Corey
Dillon or somebody said something and you're rushing to get
that that on the.

Speaker 10 (01:43:00):
Air, You're smiling like the Grinch when they looked at
that Christmas tree he was gonna steal. I mean, you are,
You're loving it. It's like, this is good stuff, man,
and we got something to talk about for a while.
Not that you want to see the sension on a team,
but you do like to hear honesty. Yeah, I mean,
we all know something's going on, and I'm glad the

(01:43:21):
kid was honest about it. And while he is a rookie,
he hasn't played down in the NFL. This is affecting him.
He wants to be out there, he says, he wants
to be out there, and I think he would be
out there if they had this thing straightened out like
some other teams have been able to do. And I
don't know why, it's always the Bengals put themselves out

(01:43:43):
there is the guinea pig for all this new stuff
to you know, get around paying players what players think
they should be paid.

Speaker 1 (01:43:51):
Well, there are teams that have done this. Georgia, the
Eagles have done it, the forty nine Ers have done it.
There are teams that have introduced this language. But you
know what those teams did. They said, we're taking a
little from you by doing introducing this language. But what
we're gonna do so we're gonna give you a little
extra upfront. We're gonna reward you. You know, we're gonna

(01:44:13):
we're gonna engage in some give and take some negotiations,
if you will, exactly. And that's where I think this
has all gone awry, because I think if you went
to Shamar Stewart's agents, if you're Katie Blackburn, and you said, look, yeah,
we we you know this is kind of where things
are trending in the league, or we're gonna introduce this,

(01:44:34):
but you know, we're gonna make it up to you.
We're gonna make sure that you're taken care of. I
don't think this would have been a problem.

Speaker 10 (01:44:41):
I don't either, And I think I think the agents
get it. They understand it. It's like, Okay, if you're
gonna give him this over here, we'll give you that
over there, you know. And I don't know what they're
thinking or while they're beginna why they are thinking it,
but I do know this. They need pass rush help
and you know, know you draft the guy in the
first round to be that help and maybe insurance, you know.

(01:45:05):
And I'm not saying he's gonna be Trey Hendrickson by
any stretch, but they got a tax situation going on
to this bad a bad time for the Bengals to
set this standard. I mean, they should have been the
last team wanting to do this when they have the
defensive issues that they have.

Speaker 1 (01:45:24):
How bad do you feel for Al Golden because they
are essentially forcing like he is going to take all
the heat because they did not overhaul that defense. They
did not know make drastic changes to a defense that
was dreadful the last two years, and they basically said
we believe in now we're gonna put this on his

(01:45:46):
shoulders and he's gonna fix it. Do you feel bad
for Al Golden?

Speaker 10 (01:45:52):
I do. I mean he's getting paid handsomely to deal
with it, but he's got to be sitting there and
looking at the honey they've thrown at the offense and going, uh,
you know what what are we doing over here on
the defensive side? I mean, I need more than crumbs.
And and you're right, they didn't do much to, if anything,

(01:46:13):
to overhaul that defense. In the free agency pool, you know,
they're coming in with the same corners and dbs, which
I get it, there's talent there. They feel like that's
the deepest part of their team on defense. But you
got a bunch of young guys there. I think, uh,
you know, Dax Hill's been with this team the longest

(01:46:34):
out of those guys, and there's an injury history with
some of these young guys that I don't know how
that's gonna shake out, and you know, who's going to
be on the field and for how long I don't know.
And they are banking on some guys, you know, coming
back to a higher standard than what maybe they played
to last year. And we'll see if that works out.

(01:46:55):
But I think that's a bit of a game on
this defense. Even though they're coaching staff is really good
about it, they should know a hell of a lot
better than I about them. But I'm still looking at
that with you know, a little bit sideways.

Speaker 1 (01:47:07):
Is it time to go just full greatest show on
turf George and say, look, we're gonna put up forty
five a game. We're gonna it's gonna be a track meet,
have fun keeping up with this.

Speaker 10 (01:47:17):
Yeah, as a guy told me today, the Bengals have
the offense to put up ninety a game, but their
their defense is gonna give up ninety a game. So
it is gonna be fun to watch. I think I
think their games will be very entertaining. I just hope
they're not very frustrating.

Speaker 1 (01:47:35):
I guess the ultimate question is this franchise is never
gonna get out of its own way, because they truly
do believe. I think that's the thing, right, They truly
do believe winning the negotiation is a critical piece of
winning football games. And they're not gonna budge. And we

(01:47:57):
have seen this for like I said, you've done it
for four decades covering this team. It's not since Paul died.
It has been this way, right, and it's not going
to change, no.

Speaker 10 (01:48:11):
No, And we thought it was going to change when
Marvin came in, and it kind of did a little bit,
and they went out and got a few free agents
the first year and a few more than next. But
you know, by the time you know they got a
team on the field that looked like it was ready
to advance, it kind of regressed back into the same
old thing. And you know, Zach comes in and Burrow

(01:48:33):
comes in, and you're feeling good and it's like, Okay,
it's not the same old Bengals. But then now here
we are, you know, in twenty twenty five saying Jesus,
this looks like the same old Bengals again. I mean,
I hate to think that, but that's what it is.

Speaker 1 (01:48:48):
The organization across town is looking a lot like the
Bengals as well in a lot of ways. My biggest
question for you, I'm curious, do you think we under
estimated the ramp up period of Terry Francona taking over
and just thought it was going to be seamless, thought

(01:49:08):
it was going to be easy. Terry would come in
and all of a sudden this team would start winning.
Is it possible that they are still in the midst
of becoming a Terry Francona run team.

Speaker 10 (01:49:24):
Oh yeah, I think so. I mean, I think he
took control early on and done what he can and exerted,
you know, his influence the right way. But really, after April,
I'm sitting there thinking, my god, this guy's probably wishing
he was still on the couch in Arizona and having
that phone call. But no, I feel like they're there.

(01:49:47):
We'll see. Well, I feel like they're rounding into it.
You know, you gotta get a guy like Nick Lidolo
to start pitching up to his potential consistently. You know. Obviously,
you got to get healthy. That's the problem, and I
you know, I hate to make excuses for small market
teams that they just can't be deep, and the Reds aren't.

(01:50:11):
You know, you see what happens to the lineup when
Austin Wins goes out. You know, thankfully Cees came back
and was you know, hitting the cover off the ball,
so that kind of masked that a little bit, and
they played better over the past week. But are they
going to be able to maintain that? I don't know.
You know, maybe they are rounding in the Terry Francona

(01:50:32):
type of a team in time to still save this season,
because there is time. You know, they they've given themselves
a chance with their play here lately.

Speaker 1 (01:50:43):
I think the biggest thing that reason for optimism, George,
one of the key things for me in baseball has
always been can your team go on these five and
one six and one weeks where you catch some momentum
and you gained some ground on being above five hundred.

(01:51:03):
The Reds have shown the ability to do that. I
think the biggest thing is can they cut out going
five and one over a week and then the next
week going one and four and giving all those games back.
They've been at five hundred fourteen times this season, already.

Speaker 15 (01:51:23):
I know.

Speaker 10 (01:51:24):
I know that's and we're gonna find out to have
this weekend. I mean, they dropped that last game to
the Guardians. Now they go into Detroit, which you know
is a team that's been playing very well this season
and earlier this you know what we've seen so far.
As they go into something like that, and it may be,
you know, God forbid to get swept, but they did.

(01:51:46):
I wouldn't be shocked because the season that's been going.
So they show a glimmer. You know, they were praying
for a spark and they got it from Cees. Hopefully
they can make something, you know, a little more consistent
out of it. But we're gonna find out here pretty
quickly and see how they play against Detroit. Hopefully, you know,
it's not another great Brewers was where it just seems

(01:52:09):
like they hit a brick wall.

Speaker 1 (01:52:10):
I know, real quick. I know you couldn't get in
the indoor practice facility last night, but driving by campus,
I'm kidding. I tried, George, I don't have enough. I
don't have the type of juice I thought I did.
It's incredible, I'll get it.

Speaker 10 (01:52:26):
Don't worry, don't worry.

Speaker 1 (01:52:27):
I'm i know, I know, all right, man, I got
to get out of here. Tarren is playing me off.
So uh, Every Tuesday night, nine o'clock, Bearcat Journal YouTube channel,
YouTube dot com slash Bearcat Journal, George in the Jungle, George,
thank you good, my good friend. And keep them swinging.
And eighteen. You don't need to do twenty seven.

Speaker 10 (01:52:50):
It'll be eighteen tomorrow and I'm gonna cut it off there. Man,
I appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (01:52:54):
Just be the designated cart driver. You can still have
the beers, and you just don't put the tax on
your body. Thanks, brother, appreciate it all right, man, there
you go, that's the show. I'll see you next week.
I got three days next week, can't wait, Taran, have

(01:53:14):
a wonderful Thursday Friday weekend and I'll see you soon

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