Full Transcript for 11-10-26 - Mo Egger with Paul Dehner Jr

Evaporates. 00:05:53 Speaker 3: Okay, so it goes away. Now, but Philly takes that off their books. 00:05:57 Speaker 5: I think they would have added, because it would have changed their formula. I'd have to double-check on that. But it essentially moves that off of Philly's books to the Bengals' books, and so it changes each team's formula, however that affects it. For the Bengals, it would have affected it by losing the third-round tray pick. It's not given. 00:06:17 Speaker 3: Okay. 00:06:17 Speaker 5: It's just all of a sudden the Bengals evaporate. They now don't get anything for losing Trey Hendricks. 00:06:23 Speaker 3: For those who don't know who Nick is, Nick Court. 00:06:26 Speaker 5: Yeah. 00:06:26 Speaker 3: Who is that? 00:06:27 Speaker 5: He works for over the cap. Okay. And he basically just does this. Like he tracks every transaction, especially obviously the ones in March for how they impact the compensatory pick formula. He has all the charts. He updates them immediately at any time there's a transaction. He has been on the money about this stuff for years. To reference the Bates thing before, the last time was the Bengals when they lost Jesse Bates. The league put out the comp pick formula, and he said, this doesn't make sense. The Bengals should be getting a third for Jesse Bates. They have it as a sixth, and it was something with a miscalculation in the formula that And he writes about it, puts it out there. It's put to the NFL's attention. The Bengals are like, how about this? And next thing you know, the league reissues their compensatory picks and is like, you're right. Bengals now get a third. Of course, they didn't do anything with it, but they got a third. They got a third for it. And he was at the one of making that miscalculation public. That's who he is. He just does this stuff. And he did it today. Here's a good one. He did it today from a plane. So I'm talking to him later. He's like, we're going to talk after the deadline's over. And he's like, I'm in the air right now, so I can't. 00:07:57 Speaker 1: Right. 00:07:57 Speaker 5: I'm like, wait, you're in the air? Starlink is responsible for this? So unbelievable turn of events. 00:08:09 Speaker 3: I have so many questions. 00:08:10 Speaker 4: Okay. 00:08:12 Speaker 5: I don't know if I have all the answers, by the way. 00:08:14 Speaker 3: Why don't the Bengals or some other team just hire him? 00:08:18 Speaker 5: I've said this for a long time. Yeah. Like, I would 100%. I think most teams have this formula, have this themselves. Yeah. 00:08:30 Speaker 3: Like, they have their version of Nick. 00:08:32 Speaker 5: Their version of Nick or, hell, I mean, AI, some version of a … something that does it, or updates automatically within their systems. 00:08:41 Speaker 4: Do the Bengals have somebody who is supposed to be their version of Nick? 00:08:46 Speaker 5: Not specifically, but yeah, that falls under... Compensatory picks are under... I mean, essentially, it's under everybody in the front office, Duke Tobin on down, to know the compensatory pick formula when you're making deals. I mean, that's on everybody's plate, really. 00:09:01 Speaker 3: So, they make the trade. 00:09:05 Speaker 4: Is. 00:09:07 Speaker 4: Is it possible, and maybe even likely, that they made the trade completely unaware of the fact that making it was going to cause them to relinquish a compensatory third-round pick? 00:09:18 Speaker 5: Yeah. I mean, it has to be. Otherwise, how would you go from accepting it to being like, oh, no, we got to pull back on this. 00:09:29 Speaker 3: That seems like an incredible asset to not be aware of. 00:09:34 Speaker 5: Yeah, it does. 00:09:36 Speaker 6: I mean.... 00:09:38 Speaker 5: Maybe there's a couple of different ways that you have. Cordell Volson is involved in this. So you have Cordell Volson who signed with the Titans. And so if, if, if Cordell was counting, you would have two spots to, so because you'd still be up you're up two then you'd only be up when you're still good you still keep the trey hendrickson he never played for them right which changes changes changes it and changes that so if you were thinking that potentially you had that Or maybe you were viewing it differently. It might not be that you didn't know it, or just your calculation was that this was going to be involved in this Open, though maybe Cordell Volson wasn't counting. He ended up on Green Bay's practice squad and whatever, but that could be part of it. If Cordell Volson, you thought you had two spots, you only had one. That could absolutely be The point of reason. We don't know. They're obviously not issuing any statements on this or anything like that in terms of exactly how it went down or what their thinking was about it. But there's ways. The formula is murky to the point that you have to have one person who just, this is all he does is track it. There is a murkiness to it. 00:10:55 Speaker 3: Yeah. 00:10:57 Speaker 5: That said, probably should be a little bit more aware of exactly what the impact would be. 00:11:06 Speaker 4: So you make a trade. Now, teams have to back out of trades. A player fails a physical. Most famously recently, Max Crosby, right? Bengals and Eagles agreed to a deal. What has to happen for the deal to be done where a team can't back out of it? 00:11:21 Speaker 5: Filed to the league. Officially signed off on by both sides. Filed to the league. It's sadly bringing back memories of one of the great moments in Bengals trade deadline history, which was the fax machine incident. 00:11:35 Speaker 4: Yes. 00:11:36 Speaker 3: AJ McCarron? 00:11:37 Speaker 5: Right. So that's when we learned about how by 4 o'clock. 00:11:41 Speaker 3: Are we still using a fax machine? 00:11:42 Speaker 5: No, back then there was a fax machine. 00:11:44 Speaker 3: No, I think the fax machine's out now. 00:11:46 Speaker 5: But there was a lot of talk about, no, it has to be filed to the league and signed off on

both sides by 4 o'clock. Like that's. That's when it becomes official. So until any of this stuff is fully signed off on, filed to the league, it's not official. 00:12:03 Speaker 4: Now, Duke Tobin has been more publicly available than at any point during his time, but he's never made available during the season itself. He did the big mega press conference. He was kind enough to come on with me and Tony. I mean, you saw and heard a little bit more Duke than usual. I would imagine the in-season no one's talking to Duke policy is not going to change, which means tomorrow Zach Taylor's going to have to answer questions about this, which doesn't strike me as fair. 00:12:32 Speaker 5: Or surprising. Yeah, but I mean like. 00:12:35 Speaker 3: No, no, no. But like, I just... Look, we've credited Duke for. 00:12:40 Speaker 4: A lot of cool things, and maybe he pulls off a cool trade in the next 43 minutes, but if I'm him, I'm not pushing my coach out there tomorrow to answer questions for something that at least my department screwed up. 00:12:52 Speaker 5: Yes. At the very least at this point, and we've been told at this point the expectation is that we're not going to talk to him. That could change. At the very least at this point, I would want my side of the story out there. Even if I'm just going to go out there and spin it. It's spin time. Yes. Because what's happening out there is just the look of ineptitude getting beat up by the same old Keystone Cops storylines. It's the same, but it is. It's the same old type of stuff. Oh, bumbling, they don't have this, they don't have that. They should hire the Twitter guy. 00:13:38 Speaker 3: It's on brand. Fair or not, it's on brand. 00:13:42 Speaker 5: You're getting beat up for that. Maybe you're like, you know what, let the cycle go through. I would want that out there. I would want to sit up there and be like, look, here's the deal, and at least be able to explain away your point of view or your side or have some sort of... Or maybe it's like, look, it's just so bad, it's better to just not say anything. I don't know. I don't know, but it does seem like this would be the time to stand up or come out there at Zach Taylor's press conference on Wednesday and Duke comes up first before Zach talks. Right, yeah. I would like to just address what happened yesterday and then he can do it. Take a couple of questions and walk off and we move on with our lives. 00:14:26 Speaker 4: And if the team ends up being as good as I think a lot of us think he can be, we'll forget about it. But I, on a, on a human level, if, if, if I work with Zach Taylor and he's got to go answer questions, I don't, I'm not going to make him answer questions about something that I or my department screwed up. So I just think as a, As a human, go take your medicine for 10 minutes and spin it however you want, and it's probably going to go away no matter what. Or between now and then, go and trade for Jonathan Taylor or something. 00:15:01 Speaker 3: Could this be the. 00:15:02 Speaker 4: Sort of thing that impacts their standing around the NFL where teams would say, I'm going to be a little bit more reluctant to do a deal. 00:15:08 Speaker 3: With the Bengals? 00:15:09 Speaker 4: No. No? 00:15:10 Speaker 5: No. I don't think so. 00:15:11 Speaker 3: Would the Eagles go? I think this is. 00:15:14 Speaker 4: Howie Roseman's like, I'll do deals with anybody, but the guy in Cincinnati? 00:15:19 Speaker 5: No, I mean, I'm going to guess he was aware that they must not know about this, right? And it's just like, let's do it. I don't think... I think that there is a... There's a level of embarrassment that comes along with all of this, but I don't think it's much more than that. In terms of actual... like impact on business and getting done in the future. I mean, I don't, I don't see that affecting anything. 00:15:48 Speaker 4: We're talking about an edge rusher with no sacks this year. Is there an argument that could be made? Hey, if you wanted the guy and you're trying to win right now, who cares about the compensatory pick next year? 00:15:58 Speaker 3: No, no. Okay. 00:16:00 Speaker 5: That's a big pick, right? It is a big pick. Yeah. And it's, and it's a marginal player. It's a marginal player. Who's worth a six, right? It's not worth a three and a six. Okay. Um, I mean, you could maybe get Jonathan Taylor for that. 00:16:13 Speaker 3: Right. 00:16:14 Speaker 5: You know what I'm saying? 00:16:15 Speaker 3: You could get a dude for a three and a six. 00:16:19 Speaker 4: Before the ins and outs of the compensatory pick, and we are going to talk about the game on Sunday in a second, but before the ins and outs of the compensatory pick became public, I think there's a lot of fans who saw what they did and understood what cash is how and Relatively disappointing season for Miles Murphy and the sort of uncertainty around Shamar Stewart. 00:16:40 Speaker 3: Okay, fine. 00:16:41 Speaker 5: Edge. 00:16:42 Speaker 3: But underwhelming. 00:16:45 Speaker 5: I think here's what it is. It was a continuation of the same strategy from all offseason. Pass rush is king. The best way to cover up. everything that are where our warts are on this team is to assure that we absolutely have a dominant, deep pass rush that can be good all season long, that comes in waves, that has closing DPRs. So, like, these dudes that can come in when they're up late and when you know it's pass rush situations and they're great at win rate and they can come off the edge, and that's what... Ebba Katie is. He's really a Cassius Howe replica type. And so that's another version of let's try to fix the back end by making sure the front end is always dominant. Because they can't. I don't think there's not one player that's going to make you feel great about this back seven tomorrow. 00:17:54 Speaker 4: Right. 00:17:56 Speaker 5: The only thing you can do is keep trying to cover it up, and I think they felt like they really lost

a lot with losing Cassius. He was playing an important role in the way that they're structured as an entire team. I think that's the impetus of where that came from, just making sure that they were going to be dominant in the pass rush. It is surprising, but I think it's that being the answer to the bigger picture on defense that we've heard all year. I think it was just a continuation of that. 00:18:24 Speaker 4: Could you have imagined that you would have to spend part of your day referencing Cordell Volson when you woke up this morning? 00:18:29 Speaker 5: I did not. 00:18:31 Speaker 4: Huh? 00:18:31 Speaker 3: I did not. I mean, I always think it's possible every day when I wake up. 00:18:35 Speaker 5: Sure, sure. But no, I did not anticipate that. You never know what the NFL entry does. I feel for you because you got back late last night. Yeah. 00:18:47 Speaker 3: Correct? Correct. 00:18:49 Speaker 4: I'm appreciative of the fact that you're here and did the growler this morning, but I'm thinking, like, Paul needs an easy day. Even if they make a trade, just, all right, here's the player. Here's what they gave up. Here's why they got that player. Here's how he could. 00:19:01 Speaker 3: Instead, you have this. 00:19:02 Speaker 5: I thought I had an easy day when it was just that trade. I did, too. 00:19:06 Speaker 4: I was like, okay, I get it. I put that on the piece of paper. Like, all right, well, I guess I got to start by asking about this guy with Paul. And instead, Cordell Volson, a guy flying around and using Starlink. 00:19:19 Speaker 5: The bottom line is the damage was not done. the worst part would have been if it didn't get discovered until afterwards. Imagine that. If you've got to be like, how come you guys decided to bail on him? You know what I mean? Or they're going around trying to unload him. Now, one more question real quick. 00:19:39 Speaker 4: Because the last time, and we're way late, and we have the game itself to talk about, but the last time the Bengals played overseas, trade deadline, and everybody goes skiing. in the Swiss Alps or something. I mean, was there maybe, you know, they went on a gondola somewhere? I don't know. 00:20:00 Speaker 5: Maybe they had spotty Wi-Fi. 00:20:02 Speaker 4: Did they stay over there in Europe, and were they sort of snookered by, I don't know. 00:20:08 Speaker 5: Maybe the compensatory formula they thought was in, like, euros instead of dollars. I've been dealing with that world for a while, so maybe that's the only thing that's on my head. 00:20:18 Speaker 4: I do want to talk about your experience in Madrid. We have to get to the game itself. Obviously, look ahead to Sunday. We are way late, 25 minutes after 3 o'clock. Paul Daner, Jr. 00:20:28 Speaker 3: From The Athletic and The Growler podcast. I'm Mo Egger. 00:20:32 Speaker 4: We're broadcasting from the transept today. This is ESPN 1530 Cincinnati Sports Station. 00:20:38 Speaker 7: Cincinnati's ESPN 1530. Traffic. 00:20:43 Speaker 6: From the UC Health Traffic Center. 00:20:45 Speaker 4: 1530, Mo Egger with Paul Daner, Jr. It's 3.31. Trade deadline is 29 minutes away. So since the Bengals didn't make one trade, they're not going to make any, we expect? 00:20:53 Speaker 5: I don't think it's out of the question. Okay. I mean, we'll see. I think the door's open. Even earlier today, if that would have gone through, I still think that there was conversations about stuff going on. So we'll see. If it goes down or not. 00:21:10 Speaker 3: Is there a name that I should like? 00:21:12 Speaker 5: Well, they're not part of the comp pick formula now, I can tell you that much. So you can cross those guys off. Okay. I don't, you know, another edge. 00:21:22 Speaker 4: Okay. 00:21:24 Speaker 5: I mean, if we're just following the very clear breadcrumbs at this point, who that would be, I don't know exactly if we're, I know, I don't know exactly who it would be. McDonald, maybe, from the Jets. They're poking around there. I still think trading for a nickel is the move. It should be the move. It doesn't appear that it is. Maybe something happens, but that would have been where I would have started. I feel like you're Back seven falls so much better into place if you have somebody there who could do that for. 00:22:08 Speaker 3: You. 00:22:08 Speaker 5: Or if you're not going to go and make the move and do what the Jags and Bills did and go get Jesse Bates or Imani Hooker because they're, you know, Jordan and Brian Cook kind of being similar type of safeties. You could use somebody who's a little bit more of a deep safety and put them next to Brian Cook if they're at a Bates or a Hooker level, but You know, that's where it's at. 00:22:33 Speaker 3: Here's an idea. Where's the draft next year? 00:22:36 Speaker 5: Where's the draft next year? Where is the draft next year? 00:22:38 Speaker 4: When that pick, when that compensatory pick is announced, Nick Court should be at the podium for the Bengals. 00:22:42 Speaker 5: I think so. 00:22:43 Speaker 3: Announce the pick. 00:22:44 Speaker 5: I loved the, someone had to tweet that he should be the ruler of the jungle. 00:22:49 Speaker 3: And how about this happening on the same day as there's an A.J. 00:22:51 Speaker 5: Green, A.J. Green thing happening? And no one's ever heard of this A.J. Green. 00:22:55 Speaker 3: So I had that too. Can you explain to me? 00:22:58 Speaker 5: I don't know who the A.J. Green with an E is. 00:23:00 Speaker 3: Okay. 00:23:01 Speaker 5: So I can't explain that. 00:23:02 Speaker 4: So I said you to explain to me what happened with the trade like I was nine years old. I need you to explain this A.J. Green guy like I'm 49 years old. Because I saw that today and I'm like, cool. 00:23:13 Speaker 3: I love A.J. But oh. 00:23:15 Speaker 5: Yeah. 00:23:16 Speaker 3: I don't know what that is. 00:23:17 Speaker 5: I don't know. I don't know who he is. And for this game, I mean, I'm not here to, who cares? It's the

Pittsburgh Steelers game. It's the rule of the jungle. 00:23:23 Speaker 3: There's really no. 00:23:24 Speaker 5: Nobody else? Nobody. The Pittsburgh Steelers. Nobody who's like a real person. 00:23:28 Speaker 3: Right. 00:23:28 Speaker 5: Like, no, I'm sure it's A.J. Green's real. I'm sure he's done nice things. I'm sure he's very popular. He's definitely got more followers than me, I'm sure. 00:23:34 Speaker 3: Yeah. 00:23:35 Speaker 5: But how about a Bengal? 00:23:38 Speaker 3: There's a few of them. 00:23:39 Speaker 4: Yes. 00:23:41 Speaker 5: Just me. Just me. 00:23:42 Speaker 3: All right. 00:23:43 Speaker 4: It's 26 from 4 o'clock. We're broadcasting from the transept downtown. Paul Daner Jr. with us till 4 from the Athletic and the Growler podcast. This is ESPN 1530 Cincinnati Sports Station. 00:23:54 Speaker 7: Cincinnati's ESPN 1530. Traffic. 00:23:59 Speaker 4: From the UC home of Lifetime Powertrain Protection. and guarantee credit approval from their family to yours for life, KelseyChev.com. NFL trade deadline is 21 minutes away. Bengals didn't make a trade, but then they didn't, so status quo. A lot of NFL teams are making deals. Imani Hooker traded to the Buffalo Bills. San Francisco acquires Keenan Allen. Dan Henley, the Chargers linebacker, is now the Denver Broncos linebacker. Josh Downs, the wide receiver, traded to Kansas City. Kirk Cousins being acquired by the Minnesota Vikings. 00:24:35 Speaker 5: We'll see. 00:24:36 Speaker 3: 20 minutes away from 4 o'clock. 00:24:38 Speaker 4: Bob Boone, who managed the Reds in 2001, 2002, and 2003 before getting fired, passes away at the age of 78. College basketball tonight. Xavier hosts Detroit Mercy at 7 on 700 WLW. NKU is at St. Louis tonight. That game is on the project. 100.7 and 106.3. Kentucky basketball against Kansas tonight in Chicago. That game is scheduled to tip roughly around 9.30. Pre-game coverage starts at 8 on ESPN 1530. The Dayton Flyers take on Siena. The latest college football playoff rankings come out this evening and the Scott Satterfield radio show from the original Montgomery Inn will be at 8 o'clock tonight on Fox Sports. 00:25:18 Speaker 3: 1360. 00:25:19 Speaker 4: Paul Daner Jr. from The Athletic and The Growler Podcast. There was a football game that you were at on Sunday. 00:25:24 Speaker 5: Yeah, it was a pretty fun one. Remember that? And like. 00:25:28 Speaker 4: For me at least, and I think for a lot of fans, it took simmering enthusiasm, and it kicked it into hyperdrive. And I said this to you in your podcast, and I want folks to listen to it. Those games you never know, man. Who's going to handle the travel better? There's tons of weird logistics to it. They look like they had a plan, and it was extraordinarily well executed. And the proof of that is the ease with which they won. 00:25:56 Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, the approach to the week. One thing, I'm a big believer in, you know, every team in the NFL has a similar level of talent, but those that

know how to kind of really create that team, the energy, are really the ones that end up making the big runs, that and quarterbacks. Yeah. The Bengals have a chance. I feel like they created one of these weeks where, like, all the talent, something that they talked a lot about before the season started about– really needing to find a way to make it all come together. It hasn't come together in recent years. That part of it, and embracing that part of it, and that part of having fun with it, and every single player, it seemed like everybody we were talking to was talking about how much the hanging out with teammates and the bonding part, and that being a point of emphasis from the team, very intentional, to make sure that's a part of your experience over there, went a long way to just kind of helping bring the team together, and then the focus was, was evident, was very clear. Yeah. And that, that starts as well with, with Burrow, who I found him really fascinating last week. Like this was just kind of his whole personality in Spain. Like he's, he's there. He's talking about the museums. He's been at the forefront of wanting to help grow the game and internationally. And he's always wanted this. And, you know, he's, he's a star. We have like a hundred international media at the practice. And, he's really embracing this as a huge moment, this stage in the Bernabeu and like everything he wanted that to be about and how seriously he was taking it, you know, T and Jamar talking pregame about how, I mean, you could tell like he was in its burrow rising to the big stage and everything about that just set a whole tone for the team throughout the week. That was, um, as perfectly executed as you possibly could do it on all facets. Yeah. Um, On, off the field, top of the organization to the bottom. A perfect week, pretty much, over there. 00:28:01 Speaker 3: Does Sunday's winner win the AFC North? 00:28:07 Speaker 4: No. 00:28:08 Speaker 3: Not necessarily. I agree. 00:28:09 Speaker 5: I don't feel that way. 00:28:10 Speaker 3: I agree. 00:28:11 Speaker 5: I feel like the Steelers have a... This is the beginning of a much bigger test for them. Yep. They have a run of games... that are going to be extraordinarily challenging. Resurgent Texans, Jags are in it. They've got a run, a tough run of schedule coming up. And are they real? I don't know. 00:28:35 Speaker 3: And I don't know. 00:28:36 Speaker 4: Look, with the way the Bengals have played for the most part over the last four weeks, I know the Tennessee game was a little bit too touch and go. That's an impressive win if you come here and get one. I don't know that it's going to make me feel like I should take the Steelers seriously as genuine AFC contenders. Whereas if the Bengals win, I now take them seriously as AFC contenders. I don't think losing the game is going to make me feel that much differently. And if they win, it's just, okay, now they're contenders with. 00:29:11 Speaker 5: A lead in the division. If the Bengals lose this, there's a world where they still roll through their bad schedule, beat the Chiefs at home in December, and you're like, they're right where, in the same place. But I think if they can, you know, going into last week, you had the Steelers and the Browns that game. It was very much like, okay, what's this going to be? These two, the Browns, are they real? Are they not? And Pittsburgh very much beat them to a tier level below. They're not on everyone else's level yet, and it felt that way. I think the Bengals can in some ways do that to the Steelers a little bit if they could have a game where they play like they've been playing. If their offense can continue to do what it's done in primetime, execute this, and now have won five in a row and it will feel like exposing the Steelers a little bit into a time where they've got a tough run of their schedule coming up and the Bengals should be able to keep it rolling. I mean, they've shown offensively with all these guys healthy what they can do to teams that have deficiencies, and there's a bunch of those in their future. 00:30:12 Speaker 3: What was your favorite part of Madrid? 00:30:15 Speaker 5: I love that city. I liked kind of wandering through the back alleys of Madrid. It's incredibly walkable and crazy affordable. I was stunned by that. 00:30:27 Speaker 4: Yeah. 00:30:29 Speaker 5: But, like, I would just walk a different direction and go and just see what you found. And, you know, one night you stumble into one of the best little hole-in-the-wall places with great food and drink and a cool, fun atmosphere. And then you go a different direction. We literally, like, stumbled into a Michelin star restaurant and ended up... I guess this is where we're going to eat. This is great. And you go in there and it's all this... you have that experience and then you have all the history when you go one direction. If you go another one, you're on one of the best shopping streets probably in the world. It just had everything. The rooftops are incredible there. It's just such a cool vibe of a city. I loved the ability to just walk around and see what you'd find. You just find all kinds of fascinating, interesting stuff and Just a great energy there. 00:31:26 Speaker 3: So you had a better culinary experience than my colleague, Tony Pike. 00:31:30 Speaker 5: I saw some of Tony's experiences. 00:31:34 Speaker 3: Lost seven pounds. He says. Well, he first got there, he went to McDonald's. 00:31:39 Speaker 5: Yeah. 00:31:40 Speaker 3: And it wasn't as good as the McDonald's here. He eventually, later in the week, found a Five Guys. 00:31:45 Speaker 5: Yeah. 00:31:45 Speaker 4: And he said that was okay. He tried some of the local fare and didn't like any of it. 00:31:51 Speaker 3: That's fair. I. 00:31:52 Speaker 5: I do like that type of food, and I was more into getting out and trying all of it. And so, I mean, between tapas, the Michelin restaurant had incredible duck.

00:32:07 Speaker 3: Okay. 00:32:07 Speaker 5: I had a duck on a great, it was a serving platter shaped like a duck, which I also liked. 00:32:11 Speaker 6: Okay. 00:32:12 Speaker 5: Yeah. But I was like, I just enjoyed trying it all. I don't think, I had pizza the last night. Just because we needed something. But that was, for the most part, I was all about trying it. I didn't lose any weight. You didn't lose any weight? I didn't lose any weight, no. 00:32:27 Speaker 3: Tony lost. 00:32:28 Speaker 4: I lost nine when I went to London because I hated the food. But I loved everything else about it, so I wanted to go back. But what was the stadium, that experience like? 00:32:39 Speaker 5: Okay, so I have, and I still am, vehemently. against holding the Super Bowl overseas, which is discussed every now and then. 00:32:49 Speaker 3: Don't do it. It's unfair for this reason. 00:32:52 Speaker 5: The taxpayer money that's going into building these monstrosities needs to be paid off in American cities. You need to pay that back. 00:33:00 Speaker 3: And it's already hard enough to go to a Super Bowl. Let's add overseas travel to it. 00:33:03 Speaker 5: That said, I have changed my opinion on how cool it would be. Because that would truly be the place to do it. That stadium... there in that city is an insane experience. It is as state-of-the-art as it gets. Everything about it, it probably doesn't come across because I feel like a lot of times from here, you say, oh, there's just a game on early in the morning. Okay, whatever. Over there, it really did sort of have a Super Bowl feel all week. Just everything. I've been to Super Bowls. I've been to a bunch of them. That's exactly what it feels like. The juice in there before the game felt like that, too. Everything about it and that facility makes it feel like that. It feels like you're in a place that's deserving of a huge event. And the history there. But why is New Orleans awesome as a Super Bowl city? The walkability, the culture of the city, how great is it? Madrid's the same way. The walkability around the stadium, the incredible venue, everything. But again, I could see it. I could support it and understand why it would be really awesome over there. Those games are so corporate anyway. They are. And, hell, the way the Bengals fans traveled, you should be wanting it. 00:34:23 Speaker 3: Apparently, you're just going to fill it. And every third down, it's going to sound like Paycourse Stadium. 00:34:28 Speaker 4: For the reasons you outlined, A, here we have taxpayer-funded stadiums. B, your team goes to the Super Bowl. It's already going to cost a lot. It's already a really hard ticket. now let's send it over to Madrid or an international city. Like it's, it's tougher, but it, every photo that I saw, everything that I saw from people who went talking to you, talking to Tony, it looked, it looked awesome on television. 00:34:53 Speaker 3: It felt like a big game. 00:34:54 Speaker 4: It felt like a, you

know, real, more than just, you know, week nine in the NFL felt like. 00:34:58 Speaker 5: A big game. It felt very much like I, I had heard it earlier in the week when they did the stadium tour over there for people that were there. They had talked about the NFL. People were like, we want it to be like a mini Super Bowl. Yeah. It was true. It felt like it. Yeah. 00:35:13 Speaker 3: It really did. 00:35:13 Speaker 5: And very much so when you were there. And so I loved everything about it. And I think the experience was really cool. I'm excited to see where they go next year and be on board with wherever that is, I guess. 00:35:27 Speaker 4: I do support 9.30 a.m. football with your favorite team. 00:35:31 Speaker 5: Yes. 00:35:32 Speaker 4: And then, like, I got the whole day. I could do some stuff. I could watch the Red Zone. I was a supporter of that. 00:35:40 Speaker 5: Should we start having more 9.30 a.m. local games? 00:35:43 Speaker 3: One a year. 00:35:44 Speaker 5: One a year? Yeah, why not? Why not? We've talked about this before, but it's one of my wife's great theories, great ideas. 00:35:52 Speaker 3: Yeah? 00:35:53 Speaker 5: Like, you have a flex game. You should have a deflex game every week. So instead of watching those stupid pregame shows, like... Colts, Chargers gets deflexed to 9.30 a.m. 00:36:06 Speaker 3: So it gives you football on. 00:36:08 Speaker 5: It's kind of like it basically becomes minor league football, but there's a game on, rather than having to watch Terry Bradshaw get mad at some people in the audience. 00:36:16 Speaker 3: I'll tell you what, those NFL pregame shows are rough. Those are not a good watch. 00:36:20 Speaker 5: It's way better just to have a bad game on. And so if your team stinks so bad, Sorry, you've been deflexing at 38. We've got to go here. 00:36:29 Speaker 4: But those pregame shows are such a relic from the 70s and 80s where it was like we didn't have as much content during the week. And so for a half hour before the game, tell me what's going on in the game between the Vikings and Packers. Now by the time we get to 12 o'clock on Sunday, I'm. 00:36:49 Speaker 3: Intimately familiar with everything, with every game. 00:36:52 Speaker 5: Earlier this year, ESPN on a pregame of a pregame show had like a bangles feature on who day or something from like 2021 because all these old players were on it and stuff was like wow what is happening like at what point is this what you're running there but i mean if anything has proven that that whole thing is bad it's how good the amazon post game show is is terrific it's so good minus minus tony gonzalez you don't like tony gonzalez no he's better there than he's been on other things okay but Their ability to kind of open up the thinking about what that show is and should sound like a little bit has shown, like, all you've got to do is just try something different. 00:37:34 Speaker 4: So I, if the Bengals are at home, we're broadcasting from the Holy Grail. If the Bengals are on the road, I go to an establishment and get there kind of right when the pregame shows are beginning, and I don't pay. 00:37:46 Speaker 3: Very close attention. I was in the hospital for the Tennessee game. 00:37:50 Speaker 6: Oh, no. 00:37:50 Speaker 4: And hospital remote control, not exactly easy to bounce around. You can't build a multi-view. 00:37:55 Speaker 3: So I was stuck watching the CBS NFL pregame show. 00:37:58 Speaker 5: In case your experience could be any worse. Wretched television. 00:38:01 Speaker 4: First of all, like, what I hate about those shows, the fake camaraderie, where they all pretend like, you know, that everything that each guy says is the funniest thing of all time. Like, I mean, and then I'd flip over to Fox. And I mean, it's like, does anybody under the age of 50 know who Terry Bradshaw is? Does anybody under the age of 45 know who Howie Long is? 00:38:20 Speaker 3: Like... there's gotta be a better way. Those shows are dreadful. 00:38:24 Speaker 5: Absolutely. 00:38:25 Speaker 4: And so, um, you know, it bad enough. I'm in the hospital, but on a Sunday, it's either that or political shows. God knows I wasn't watching that or infomercials. 00:38:33 Speaker 2: Yeah. 00:38:34 Speaker 4: So even like the nurse comes in, she's like, what is this? I'm like, it's Russell Wilson, Kyle Long, Bill Cower, and James Brown. And she's like, why don't they shut up? And I'm like, thank you. 00:38:45 Speaker 5: Thank you. This is great. 00:38:46 Speaker 3: Also, can you get me out of here? 00:38:47 Speaker 5: It took a. 00:38:49 Speaker 3: Day and a half for that to happen. All right. Well, we're five minutes to the deadline. Anything? 00:38:55 Speaker 5: Not at this exact second. I do not. No. All right. 00:38:58 Speaker 3: Have you written about today's trade, non-trade debacle? 00:39:02 Speaker 5: Yeah, it's up on The Athletic. Myself and Daniel Popper. 00:39:05 Speaker 3: So you make sense of everything that happened. 00:39:07 Speaker 5: I don't know about make sense, but I tried to explain where it's at. 00:39:10 Speaker 4: Go read that at TheAthletic.com on top of all the dispatches from Madrid, the Growler podcast as well. 00:39:16 Speaker 3: We'll see you next week. 00:39:17 Speaker 5: Yep, sounds great. 00:39:17 Speaker 4: By the way, from 4 o'clock on Moegger, this is ESPN 1530 Cincinnati Sports Station. 00:39:23 Speaker 7: Cincinnati's ESPN 1530. Traffic. 00:39:27 Speaker 6: From the UCHealth Traffic Center, with 40 years of expertise, trust UCHealth for epilepsy care built around you. Visit uchealth.com slash epilepsy. One accident now cleared out on Springdale Road that was over at Menominee Drive. Westbound 275, there's an accident that's on the off-ramp to southbound 7175. Shoulders blocked on the ramp. And southbound 75, some slow traffic from Shepherd Lane down towards Paddock Road. I'm Eddie Zellick with traffic.