Full Transcript for The Mo Egger Radio Show -- 11/10/26

Speaker 4: 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 4: 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 4: For those who don't know who Nick is, Nick Court. 00:06:26 Speaker 5: Yeah. 00:06:26 Speaker 4: 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 4: 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 4: I have so many questions. Okay. 00:08:12 Speaker 5: I don't know if I have all the answers, by the way. 00:08:14 Speaker 4: 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 4: 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 4: So, they make the trade. 00:09:05 Speaker 7: 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 2: Yeah. 00:09:19 Speaker 5: 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 4: That seems like an incredible asset to not be aware of. 00:09:34 Speaker 5: Yeah, it does. 00:09:36 Speaker 8: 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 4: 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. AJ McCarron? 00:11:37 Speaker 2: Right. 00:11:37 Speaker 5: So that's when we learned about how by 4 o'clock. 00:11:41 Speaker 4: Are we still using a fax machine? 00:11:42 Speaker 5: No, back then there was a fax machine. 00:11:44 Speaker 4: 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. 00:12:34 Speaker 4: Yeah, but I mean like... No, no, no. But like, I just... Look, we've credited Duke for 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 6: Yes. 00:12:53 Speaker 5: 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. 00:13:14 Speaker 2: Yes. 00:13:15 Speaker 5: Because what's happening out there is just the look of ineptitude getting beat up by the same old Keystone Cops storylines. 00:13:24 Speaker 4: It's the same, but it is. 00:13:29 Speaker 5: 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 4: 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. 00:14:17 Speaker 4: Right, yeah. 00:14:17 Speaker 5: 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. Could this be the 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 with the Bengals? 00:15:09 Speaker 6: No. 00:15:10 Speaker 4: No? 00:15:10 Speaker 2: No. 00:15:10 Speaker 5: I don't think so. 00:15:11 Speaker 4: Would the Eagles go? I think this is... 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? 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 4: Right. 00:16:14 Speaker 5: You know what I'm saying? 00:16:15 Speaker 4: You could get a dude for a three and a six. 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. Okay, fine. 00:16:41 Speaker 5: Edge. 00:16:42 Speaker 4: 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 6: 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? 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. 00:18:47 Speaker 6: Yeah. 00:18:47 Speaker 4: Correct? Correct. 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. 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. from The Athletic and The Growler podcast. I'm Mo Egger. We're broadcasting from the transept today. This is ESPN 1530 Cincinnati Sports Station. 00:20:38 Speaker 9: Cincinnati's ESPN 1530. Traffic. 00:20:43 Speaker 8: 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. 00:20:57 Speaker 4: Okay. 00:20:58 Speaker 5: 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 4: 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 2: 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 4: 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 4: 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 4: 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. 00:22:55 Speaker 2: Green. 00:22:55 Speaker 4: 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 4: 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. I love A.J. But oh. 00:23:15 Speaker 5: Yeah. 00:23:16 Speaker 4: 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 4: There's really no. 00:23:24 Speaker 5: Nobody else? Nobody. 00:23:26 Speaker 4: The Pittsburgh Steelers. 00:23:27 Speaker 5: Nobody who's like a real person. 00:23:28 Speaker 6: 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 4: Yeah. 00:23:35 Speaker 5: But how about a Bengal? 00:23:38 Speaker 4: There's a few of them. Yes. Just me. 00:23:41 Speaker 5: Just me. 00:23:42 Speaker 4: All right. 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 9: 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. We'll see. 20 minutes away from 4 o'clock. 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. 1360. 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. 00:26:18 Speaker 2: Yeah. 00:26:19 Speaker 5: 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 4: Does Sunday's winner win the AFC North? No. Not necessarily. I agree. 00:28:09 Speaker 5: I don't feel that way. 00:28:10 Speaker 4: 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 4: And I don't know. 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 4: 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 4: 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 4: 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 4: 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 2: 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. 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 10: 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 8: 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 4: Tony lost. 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 4: 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 4: 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 4: Apparently, you're just going to fill it. 00:34:25 Speaker 5: 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. It felt like a big game. 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. 00:35:10 Speaker 2: Yeah. 00:35:10 Speaker 5: It was true. It felt like it. 00:35:12 Speaker 6: Yeah. 00:35:13 Speaker 4: 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 4: One a year. 00:35:44 Speaker 5: One a year? 00:35:44 Speaker 4: Yeah, why not? 00:35:45 Speaker 5: Why not? We've talked about this before, but it's one of my wife's great theories, great ideas. 00:35:52 Speaker 2: 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. 00:36:02 Speaker 5: Colts, Chargers gets deflexed to 9.30 a.m. 00:36:06 Speaker 4: 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 4: 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. 00:36:28 Speaker 4: We've got to go here. 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 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 very close attention. I was in the hospital for the Tennessee game. Oh, no. And hospital remote control, not exactly easy to bounce around. You can't build a multi-view. 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? 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 6: 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. 00:38:45 Speaker 4: This is great. Also, can you get me out of here? 00:38:47 Speaker 5: It took a. 00:38:49 Speaker 4: 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. 00:38:58 Speaker 6: No. 00:38:58 Speaker 5: All right. 00:38:58 Speaker 4: 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 4: 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. 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 9: Cincinnati's ESPN 1530. Traffic. 00:39:27 Speaker 8: 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. 00:39:59 Speaker 1: This week, Sunday Night Football in America arrives in Cincinnati as the Bengals renew their AFC North feud with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Rivalry so bitter it makes black coffee taste like a milkshake. It's four quarters of hard hits, high drama, and plenty of

divisional disdain. Catch every snap, every collision, and every moment of AFC North chaos. The game kicks off at 8.20 p.m. with coverage starting at 4 p.m. 00:40:28 Speaker 2: Sunday. 00:40:28 Speaker 1: Stream for free on the new and improved iHeartRadio app or on ESPN 1530, the official home of the Cincinnati Bengals. 00:40:38 Speaker 4: What's up, Moe Wenger? This is ESPN 1530. I'm Moe Wenger. I just said that. We have a lot going on here. We are broadcasting from the transept downtown Cincinnati. So maybe you're looking to book a holiday party. Maybe you're in charge of booking, you know, an anniversary, a birthday party, a wedding reception, a rehearsal dinner, some sort of gathering. Maybe it's something for your work. Maybe it's corporate, whatever it is. The transept here right on Elm Street. downtown, just down the street from Music Hall. This is an unbelievable venue. It's one of the Delightmore venues they operate for right now with a fifth coming as they relaunch the Phoenix early in 2027. We did our show from The View in Mount Adams last week. We love that place. We have broadcast from Carnegie Hall. In Newport, that is an unbelievable venue as well. And Mercantile Immersive, too. This place here, Transept, very easy to get to. It is awesome. Got to come check it out. Learn more at delightmore.com. The NFL trade deadline has come and gone. And there is what the Bengals tried to do, trying to execute a trade for Arnold Etiketi. They didn't get that done. I'm going to dive into why it did or didn't happen, whether it should or shouldn't have happened, and how the Bengals right now, at least for the moment, kind of have egg on their face. But beyond that, the Cincinnati Bengals as currently constructed are the same team that was on the field in Madrid. They haven't gotten any better. They haven't added any upgrades. They haven't, unless we're finding something out after the fact, and you, I guess, do have to allow for that, at least for a few minutes. The Cincinnati Bengals haven't used the trade deadline to get better. That obviously doesn't mean they're a bad football team. I think most of us agree this is a pretty good football team, and they played like a great football team, at least on offense, against the Atlanta Falcons. There are tons of reasons for optimism. There are tons of reasons to believe that this team is in it for the long haul, can win the AFC North, and can legitimately contend for a title. That said, you have to admit, It's at least a little disappointing that the final mechanism that you could use to go get established players, go get really anybody who can make an impact on your team has come and gone and the Bengals haven't done anything. Meanwhile, like their competitors for the AFC title, the Jacksonville Jaguars have gotten better. The Buffalo Bills went and got Imani Hooker, who intercepted Joe Burrow three times nine days ago. The Buffalo Bills, with all sorts of secondary issues, are better. The Kansas City Chiefs, I don't know how much Josh Downs solves their wide receiver issue, but they've been pretty thin at that position for a while now, certainly have been this year. The Chiefs, the Bills, the Jaguars, understandably so, view themselves as bona fide contenders in And Plugged Holes added, got better. Are any of those teams, did they add players that have dramatically changed the trajectory of their team or their roster? I think in Kansas City's case, the answer is probably not. I think in Buffalo's case, the answer, maybe, maybe. But with the Jacksonville Jaguars... Getting Jordan Davis, you know, it's funny. ESPN gave that deal an F. What you can't argue is that the Jacksonville Jaguars aren't going all in. Lots of people in that front office have Rams ties, and we all know what the Rams do to build their teams and something similar involved there with the Jacksonville Jaguars, even if you don't want to play the comparison game. Even if you don't want to say, well, you know, you can't compare what the Bengals have done and are not doing to the other teams that are bona fide contenders in the AFC. Isn't it at least a little disheartening that the linebacker core is the same today at 410 in the afternoon than it's been all season long? Isn't it a little disheartening? that with sudden questions at edge, Bengals have questions at edge. If they didn't, they wouldn't be trying to get a guy from the Philadelphia Eagles. Between Cassius Howell's injury and Miles Murphy's relatively disappointing season and Shamar Stewart just not showing any capability of really being able to make an impact this season, they haven't gotten better there. They haven't gotten better at nickel. They haven't gotten better at safety. They haven't gotten better at linebacker. This team is currently constructed that we've watched consistently weave its way through eight games, successfully, by the way, I think most of us agreed could use some help. They didn't get it. Does that doom them to not winning an AFC title? Does that doom them to secondary status? Does that mean this team has no hopes of winning a championship? Not really, but wouldn't it have been nice to see them at a player? We have gone through over the last week and a half or so a long list of linebackers that A long list of defensive players. We've talked about safeties. Nickel corners have come up. Bengals didn't add any of them. That's a little disappointing. Now, I'll hedge my bet a little bit here because there are still some trades coming through. Atlanta's trading their center to the Ravens in exchange for Andrew Voorhees in the 2028 six-round pick. And so sometimes... News of deals will come out after four o'clock. But so far as it relates to the Bengals, 12 minutes after four o'clock relative silence. And so they were all in in April, all in. They were all in in March. They spent the offseason, you know, acting with a sense of urgency and acting with a real sense of like, it's our time. We're

going to go for it. Why couldn't that continue into November? And doesn't this team as currently constructed deserve that? Doesn't Joe Burrow deserve that? Tee Higgins, Jamar Chase, the offensive line, for what it's worth, Zach Taylor. So it's, and you can tell me if you disagree, 5-1-3, 7-4-9, 15-30. It's not that the Bengals are a bad team that needed a whole bunch of new players. They're a good team that, like every other good team, probably could use a little bit more depth or maybe one guy or a replacement for a starter. The Chiefs thought as much about themselves. Jacksonville Jaguars thought as much about themselves. Buffalo Bills have thought as much about themselves, not the Cincinnati Bengals. How all-in are they if they took a look at their team and pretty much said at 6-2, a good record, we're good? Fair question. 5-1-3, 7-4-9, 15-30. Then there's what happened with the Philadelphia Eagles and the trade that the Bengals, we thought late this morning, were going to make. Arnold Edikaiti. let's be honest, not a deal that would have lit up the NFL, would not have been one of the more talked about deals. But I guess there's a few different things here. One is, this is why the Bengals get laughed at. And I think a lot of criticism the Bengals get organizationally. Some of it's very fair. Some of it I think is a little bit off base. They still get criticized for being frugal and cheap. I think those labels are well, well, well expired. I, I think that's, that's unfair, but you know, they are relatively speaking a mom and pop team and, uh, the overall, you know, staff in the front office is smaller compared to a lot of teams. They're still viewed as kind of being a little bit outdated. I don't know, man, this just feeds that this just feeds that this just feeds the, the, the perception that the Bengals are out of date, out of touch, outmoded, um, kind of fueled by incompetence. And again, like you may not agree with that. I don't really agree with that, but that's, that's part of their brand. If you go around the country, you go around the league and ask people who cover this league or talk about this league, who are the teams to most likely not understand that they have a third-round compensatory pick that they would have to relinquish if they execute this trade? Got to be honest with you, the Bengals would be one of those teams named. This doesn't help with that. Tomorrow, Zach Taylor is going to talk. And that's custom. Head coach of the team talks every Monday, talks every Wednesday. And he's got a big game to talk about. He's got a lot on his plate. Zach Taylor, you know, the time to do that was yesterday. But Zach Taylor deserves the opportunity to take a victory lap because of how prepared and buttoned up his team looked in Madrid. Now he's got a massive game on Sunday. And there's lots to talk about and lots that he's going to be asked about. Zach Taylor is not in charge of ensuring that everybody knows that the team has a compensatory pick in the third round next year. He's not in charge of executing trades. He's not in charge of backing out of trades. But he is effectively the team spokesperson. Now, Duke Tobin, to his credit, to the organization's credit at least, he's been more available. We were lucky enough to have him on our show when we broadcast from the stadium back in early August, and we sat down for 25 minutes, and Duke was phenomenal to talk to. He did the mega press conference. He has been around a little bit more. But relatively famously so, Duke Tobin doesn't talk during the season. There's no regularly scheduled press conference. I think if I'm Duke Tobin tomorrow, I got to come downstairs and at least explain my side of the story and maybe fall on my sword and maybe take the criticism that comes with it. Zach Taylor should not be the person who has to answer questions about something that Duke Tobin or the people that work for Duke Tobin screwed up. Zach Taylor should be completely, completely responsible for for answering questions about game strategy, play calling, personnel decisions within a game, preparation of the team, how certain players are used, like all that makes sense. What he shouldn't be forced to answer are questions about something that he really doesn't have anything to do with. And so I know I've gone down this road before, but like, I think if I'm Duke Tobin, tomorrow's the day where I go, okay, no, Zach's going to talk at, I think it's one o'clock tomorrow. I'll get there first. And at the very least, I'm going to explain my side of the story. I might have to take full responsibility for something we thought was going to get done but didn't. I might come up with a story that I believe helps me to spin it. But that's what Duke Tobin should do tomorrow. There's also this. So I had Paul explain this a little bit over an hour ago, and I said, let's explain this like I'm nine years old, which as a general rule when it comes to explaining stuff to me, like, It makes a lot of sense. I was at a luncheon early this afternoon, and it was a Bengals-based luncheon. The deal had just been pulled off the table, and I was having to explain to some folks, like, well, here's what happened. Here's why the Bengals backed out of the deal. Here's what a compensatory pick is. Here's the formula that's used to determine whether or not a team gets a compensatory pick. or what the compensatory pick should be, which round. Why does that have to be so complex? And again, I'm not making an excuse for the Bengals or for Duke Toe, but I'm not doing any of that. They don't deserve that. But why does it have to be some sort of advanced chemical formula to determine which teams get which compensatory picks and the things that would have to happen for a compensatory pick It feels a little unnecessarily complicated. So there's a few different things here. There's what the Bengals haven't done at the trade deadline, haven't made their team better. There's

whether or not the Bengals can win with the team that they have and the deficiencies that it has. There's what went wrong today and ultimately what the explanation is going to be and who should be tasked with explaining it. Frankly, I think we could uncomplicate the compensatory pick formula. Lots on the table, 513-749-1530, 866-702-3776. Bengals and Steelers on Sunday, live on ESPN 1530. Pre-game coverage is going to begin at 3 o'clock on Sunday afternoon from the Holy Grail. We are here until 6, broadcasting from the transept, downtown Cincinnati. Our sports legal expert, attorney Stuart W. Penrose, We'll join us coming up in about 15 minutes. Yes, we've got the UC basketball game from last night to talk about. At fifth, third arena, Cincinnati's team acted like it had never seen a zone before. They missed some crucial free throws at the end. They hold Minnesota to 63 points and lose at home. We'll spend some time on that. Bunch of area college basketball teams in action tonight. Sal Stewart is our National League Rookie of the Year. Let's spend a few minutes on him. Next, ESPN 1530 Cincinnati Sports Station. 00:54:33 Speaker 9: Cincinnati's ESPN. 00:54:34 Speaker 7: All in the natty. Brought to you by Modern Office Methods on ESPN 1530. The official home of the Cincinnati Bengals. 00:54:45 Speaker 4: Trying to run through as many of the trades as possible. I mentioned this. Atlanta trading their center, Ryan Neusel, to the Ravens in exchange for Andrew Voorhees at a 20-28 six-round pick. The Kirk Cousins deal, by the way, Vikings are sending to Vegas their original third round pick. They still have a third round pick they got from the Philadelphia Eagles in the Jonathan Greener trade. Tennessee hangs on to Tony Pollard. The Colts, who asked for a first round pick from Jonathan Taylor, are going to hang on to him. Kansas City gets help at wide receiver Josh Downs in a trade from the Indianapolis Colts. KC sends a fourth and a fifth to Indian exchange for Downs and a seventh Round pick, Deion Henley, who's a guy that a lot of us thought would make sense for the Bengals. He gets traded by the Chargers, who are the worst NFL team I think I've ever watched. That's maybe an exaggeration, but not much. Anyway, LA sends him to Denver. Malik Hooker, or I'm sorry, Amani Hooker, traded by the Tennessee Titans to the Buffalo Bills. Safety, who had spent his entire eight years with Tennessee, goes to the Bills. They badly have needed Safety help Keenan Allen. His stay in India is over. Traded to the San Francisco 49ers. San Fran's wide receiver group has been an absolute mess. That is the latest. Trade deadline came and went at 4 o'clock 28 minutes ago. Our sports legal expert, attorney Stewart W. Penrose, in a few minutes. But right now, let's talk to Randy in Middletown. Randy, you're on ESPN 1530. Randy, good afternoon. How are you? 00:56:19 Speaker 6: Oh, man, I'm doing good, kind of. But, man, I'm so upset. I'm so upset. I just can't get sense out of

this. You know, you spend millions, hundreds of millions of dollars on these fires. And it's like, why not spend just a little bit more to get a warranty to go with it, you know? It's like buying a $ 100 million home and saying, you know, should we get some plumbing? You know, I just don't understand that. And real quick, it brings back all kinds of memories of things they've done in the past, like when Andy Dalton set a record for being sacked the most. And so what they do after that, instead of improving, I'm like, man, I hope they get Zeitler and Wentworth some help. I can't believe it. They turn around and let both of them go. I mean, and I'm like, you expect them to do just the opposite, man. And I just, you know, spending $ 5 million to could possibly save the players' athletic. 00:57:31 Speaker 5: Ability at their peak. 00:57:33 Speaker 6: You know, it could be missing that championship thing. And, I mean, I'm just, I can't help it. It just gets to me. You know what I mean? 00:57:41 Speaker 4: No, sure. I think there are a lot of us who feel different things about this team one is teams in a position where they can can be pretty special but also could have used a little bit more help and and not getting more help doesn't necessarily disqualify them from contention but you you've watched an imperfect team win six of its first eight games especially at certain positions that we have spent a lot of time talking about The Bengals acknowledged a need for an edge rusher by trying to make the trade that ultimately wasn't completed. Was there a plan B? Was it in the offing? I don't know if we're ever going to get an answer. The strategy at linebacker, Randy, I go back to the last time Tony and I did a show at the end of the season last year where we talked about how the priority has got to be linebacker. Now, Barrett Carter, who had a pick on Sunday, and Demetrius Knight have certainly had their moments, but I don't know anybody who has watched the Bengals who hasn't watched that position and thought they could use some help. They could use some help at safety. They could use some help at nickel corner. But again, I come back to linebacker. And if you just, if you sifted through some of the names that were out there, Zach Bond of the Philadelphia Eagles, Jordan Brooks with Miami, you know, Dayon Henley got traded today by the Chargers to the Denver Broncos. That is a name that a lot of people mentioned as as somebody who would make sense. Jamie and Sherwood of the jets, uh, Cody Barton, who's with the, uh, the Tennessee Titans tech, uh, Troy die is another linebacker LA chargers. There were, there were names out there, just like there were names in free agency and the Bengals in free agency decided to not address the position. They decided in the draft to not address the position, and they've decided here at the trade deadline to not address the position. And that, among other places, you can't help but wonder, is that ultimately going to come back to bite them? I hope the answer is no. I fear the answer is going to be yes. Randy, I've got to move on. I appreciate the phone call. Phone lines are open, 513-749-1530. We'll get you in, 866-702-7000. 3776. I got a lot of stuff to ask our sports legal expert attorney, Stuart W. Penrose. He joins us next. We're broadcasting from the transept downtown ESPN, 1530 Cincinnati sports station. 01:00:00 Speaker 7: You've been listening to football in the natty brought to you by red key express on ESPN, 1530, the official home of the Cincinnati Bengals. 01:00:13 Speaker 11: Brian Gray here at Red Key Express. When greater Cincinnati businesses need freight delivered, they can count on Red Key Express. From a small package to a full truckload, we have the equipment and the drivers to get the job done. Red Key Express keeps your business moving with responsive delivery service and transportation solutions tailored to your needs. At Red Key Express, our team is driven by excellence. So schedule your next shipment today at RedKeyExpress.com. 01:00:42 Speaker 9: Cincinnati's ESPN 1530. Traffic from the ESPN 1530. All right. 01:00:51 Speaker 4: Very quickly here. Sports headlines are a service of Kelsey Chevrolet, home of Lifetime Powertrain Protection and Guarantee Credit Approval from their family to yours for life. KelseyChev.com NFL trade deadline comes and goes. And without diving into all the specifics of the deal, the Bengals head to Nick's. They didn't do anything at the trade deadline. Chiefs did. They get Indy wide receiver Josh Downs. The Bills, AOC contender, acquire Tennessee safety Imani Hooker. San Francisco acquires wide receiver Keenan Allen. Kirk Cousins on his way back to Minnesota. Dayon Henley, the linebacker, traded by the Chargers to the Denver Broncos. Bob Boone, who had a terrific career behind the plate for Among other teams, the Philadelphia Phillies and California Angels then later on went on to manage the Reds in 2001, 2, and 3. Passes away at the age of 78. College basketball tonight. Xavier hosts Detroit Mercy at 7 on 700 WLW. Kentucky battles Kansas and Chicago. Champions Classic tip off roughly 9.30 on ESPN 1530. NKU is on the road against St. Louis tonight. That game is on the project. 01:01:59 Speaker 5: 100.7, 106.3. 01:01:59 Speaker 4: Also tonight, the Dayton Flyers Take on Siena. It's Tuesday, which means we talk sports and the law with our sports legal expert, the man, attorney Stuart W. Penrose. It's awesome to have you, sir. How are you? 01:02:16 Speaker 6: Awesome to be back, Mo. 01:02:17 Speaker 5: I'm doing great. 01:02:18 Speaker 10: I got to say, though, last night, and I'm optimistic about Bearcat basketball. 01:02:22 Speaker 5: Don't get me wrong. I think we're going to do well. 01:02:24 Speaker 6: With this coach, but for one night only, I. 01:02:28 Speaker 10: Left Fifth Third Arena thinking we were in the Wes Miller era, and I was thinking of some lawsuits I wanted to file myself, but that's beside the

point. 01:02:37 Speaker 4: Can I sue for years of accumulated restlessness at night as I agonize over Cincinnati Bearcats' missed free throws? 01:02:48 Speaker 5: Mo, I'm right there with you. I'm right there with you. 01:02:52 Speaker 4: Frustrating. All right. Well, hopefully it gets better. Only the third game. 01:02:57 Speaker 5: We'll see. Only the third game. 01:02:59 Speaker 10: Optimism runs high. 01:03:02 Speaker 4: It does. Just as long as the other teams never play zone defense, we'll be fine. All right. We've talked about the Protect College Sports Act, which, you know, even for those who don't follow politics, they understand, like, we now have a lame duck Congress, a significant shift in who's going to be controlling both branches of Congress. And so are we now considering the Protect College Sports Act dead? 01:03:30 Speaker 10: It's a long shot that it's going to get passed at this point, at least as it is right now. I mean, but we knew this going into the midterms anyways. And, you know, it's pretty obvious Democrats would likely at least take the House. 01:03:42 Speaker 6: And, you know, here we are. 01:03:43 Speaker 10: And, you know, how motivated is a lame duck Congress going to be to pass this as is right now? I mean, Republicans already have a razor thin majority there. You know, is Mike Johnson going to be that motivated to whip up votes to get this through? I mean, there's already Republicans in the House that are skeptical. 01:04:02 Speaker 5: Of the bills as is. 01:04:04 Speaker 10: There's plenty of Democrats that want it to be more player friendly. Yeah, I think the odds that it's going to get passed between now and the new Congress in January are very, very, very slim. 01:04:16 Speaker 4: Without diving too much into red versus blue, is there a possibility that the Democrats go, okay, now it's our turn at this legislation, and so we want to craft something that helps create some guardrails for college sports, but it's going to look a lot different and have a lot more different stuff in it, for lack of a better way of putting it, than the legislation that has already been kicked around? 01:04:40 Speaker 10: Well, certainly it's possible, but it's not going to look exactly like it is now. But, you know, it had pretty heavy bipartisan support in the Senate. It got, you know, quite a few votes, you know, above 50. That said, I mean, you'd expect it to be a lot more player friendly. And, you know, perhaps they, you know, come up with a bill that President Trump doesn't like. He's got to sign it into law at the end of the day. So there still needs to be, you know, some level of bipartisanship there. And, We know how good Congress is at getting things done in general. So, you know, we could be looking at the Wild West and, you know, college sports being held up by patchwork litigation and, you know, injunction here, no injunction there. And, you know, maybe a lot more of the same for the, you know, for the years to come. 01:05:26 Speaker 4: I hope not. 01:05:26 Speaker 10: But, you know, it seems that that's more likely than not from. 01:05:30 Speaker 4: What I see. Our sports legal expert is attorney Stuart W. Penrose from the Manila Law Group. We've talked about the two Cleveland pitchers who are being accused of pitch rigging as a part of a sports gambling scandal. Their trials are underway. The defense is actually introducing things like scouting reports. and hot and cold zones that we see when we follow baseball as evidence to prove that the pitches that are in question here made tactical sense. And so how do you explain baseball strategy? And I'm like complex baseball strategy to a jury of people who might not be baseball fans, might not know the difference between a fastball and a slider. 01:06:16 Speaker 6: Well, here's the thing. 01:06:17 Speaker 10: I mean, they don't need to turn the jurors into baseball scouts, Mo. 01:06:20 Speaker 3: They just have to show. 01:06:21 Speaker 10: Them that there's legitimate reasons why a pitcher might make a particular decision to throw a particular pitch. They're going to argue the standard of prosecution here, which is beyond a reasonable doubt. You know, the reality is the defense technically doesn't have to prove anything. They just have to create enough reasonable doubt, you know, for him to get for these two men to get acquitted of the charges. we're not talking a lot of pitches either. Uh, my understanding is for class, they were talking 18 pitches over 17 games over a course of two years. And Ortiz, apparently we're only talking about two pitches over two games, one pitch in each game. 01:07:01 Speaker 6: Um, so I'm. 01:07:02 Speaker 10: Really interested to see what the prosecution has to bring forward here. You think there has to be some, you know, concrete communications, you know, text emails, something to, to tie them to this. Um, Otherwise, there's a lot the defense can bring forward here to try to poke holes in this. 01:07:22 Speaker 4: If there's evidence of manipulation, how hard is that to combat if you're the defense? 01:07:30 Speaker 10: Well, again, I mean, you're going to come back to standard, a reasonable doubt. And I think what you're talking about, you know, what they're bringing forward, you know, scouts on hitters, you know, patterns of pitches, you know, whatever is the best. 01:07:44 Speaker 5: Way to do it. 01:07:45 Speaker 10: That's what I would do if I were their counsel. You know, my understanding is that they're attacking the credibility of one of the conspirators as well, too, and saying that, you know, this person manipulated these men and, you know, they weren't involved in this scheme. 01:08:00 Speaker 4: All right, let me ask you about Live Golf, which is ceasing operations. It's liquidating. They're going into Chapter 11 bankruptcy. When this idea was first hatched, what you heard about more than anything else was the funding behind it, the Saudi Public Investment Fund,

seemingly infinite amounts of money. So how does a league backed by infinite amounts of money end up in Chapter 11? 01:08:25 Speaker 10: Well, I will say, Mo, it's one of my life dreams to meet and be connected with the powers that be of Saudi Arabia and have them pay me for some discernible or indiscernible skill. It still hasn't happened yet, but if anybody knows any of these folks, please introduce me. I'd be very, very appreciative of that. 01:08:44 Speaker 6: And I'm sorry, I lost track of your question. 01:08:48 Speaker 4: How does a league backed by seemingly infinite amounts of money, endless amounts of money, how does something like that end up in Chapter 11? 01:08:55 Speaker 5: Well, the Saudis pulled their funding. 01:08:58 Speaker 3: Simple as that. 01:08:59 Speaker 10: It seems like they had enough of funding a league that wasn't making any money and didn't seem to have much. 01:09:05 Speaker 3: Fan support, and they pulled it. So, yeah, that's what happened. 01:09:12 Speaker 10: It seems like the money is endless over there, but it doesn't mean that they're going to spend needlessly forever. 01:09:20 Speaker 4: Players who signed up for Liv, you know, they chase the money. Massive guaranteed contracts. What happens to those guarantees when there's liquidation? 01:09:28 Speaker 10: Well, your contract's only as good as, you know, who the other person signing it is and what they have to bring forward. You know, on the face of it, they're likely not secured creditors. I mean, they're not, you know, banks or lenders that are going to have... you know, collateral against the assets of the company, they would likely be unsecured creditors unless they were given some sort of other, you know, collateral against their assets. That said, I mean, we've all heard that a lot of these folks, especially the big guys, got big money up front. You would think that most of these folks knew what they were getting into and knew that something like this was always going to eventually happen or is likely to eventually happen, but yeah. 01:10:14 Speaker 4: Yeah, the end seemed inevitable. It was a matter, I think, for a lot of folks of when and not if. For the players who want to jump back to the PGA Tour legally, can the PGA keep them out on the outside looking in? 01:10:27 Speaker 6: Legally, yes. 01:10:28 Speaker 10: I mean, they're a private employer. They certainly can do that. I mean, my understanding is that you can play your way into PGA based upon your results on other circuits. So certainly they could do that. And there would be some... You know, some controversy about, you know, with whether they would go in or not. And, you know, certainly there could be some legal fights there. That said, you know, Moe, they let Brooks Koepka back, you know, a year or two ago and, you know, set aside a path for him to do so. And, you know, he paid certain financial penalties to do it. You know, the people that run the PGA Tour aren't stupid. They know that there's star power in a Bryson DeChambeau and a Jon Rahm. You would think that at some point, cooler heads would prevail. It's to everybody's benefit, financially as well, for the top players. 01:11:16 Speaker 3: To be back on the PGA Tour. 01:11:18 Speaker 10: And you have to think that cooler heads would eventually prevail, even if they've got to pay penalties to come back. 01:11:24 Speaker 4: All right, if I need somebody to ensure that I get my endless amounts of money from the Saudi Public Investment Fund, or if I need legal representation for another matter, how do I get a hold of you? 01:11:36 Speaker 10: I have no serious litigation against the Saudis, Moe, and I hope to never be in that situation. But if somebody's in a car accident, if they're in a slip and fall, if they have a bankruptcy issue, a criminal issue, I want them to call my firm, the Manila Law Group, at 513-723-1600. We can help you out. If it's their fault, it's our fight. 01:11:55 Speaker 1: 513-723-1600. 01:11:57 Speaker 4: Our sports legal expert attorney, Stuart W. Penrose, the best there is. You're the man. Thanks so much. 01:12:03 Speaker 10: Thank you, Moe. 01:12:04 Speaker 4: 12 away from 5 o'clock. NFL trade deadline comes and goes. Bengals do nothing. How do we feel about it? We'll get to that. We've got to talk about Sal Stewart, man. We'll do that next ESPN 1530. 01:12:16 Speaker 9: Cincinnati's ESPN 1530. 01:12:21 Speaker 2: Traffic. 01:12:22 Speaker 4: From the UC Health traffic sign is they tried to make a deal. That's acknowledgement that they knew they had some areas where they could take some guys. They could use some guys. So this whole thing about, well, hey, you know, Zach likes his team and they like their team and Burrow has what he needs. Like, dude, Duke Tobin tried to make a trade. There's a few different topics as it relates to this. We'll get to it. We have a lot of ground to cover between now and six o'clock and no guests. So we'll take your phone calls if you want to jump in at 513-749-1530. We got to spend a few minutes. Hat tip to Sal Stewart. I had a lengthy social media post last night. I'm not going to read it verbatim. This past Reds season was unenjoyable. I don't have a way of sugarcoating that. This was not a fun baseball season at all because anything shy of contending for something meaningful in 2026 was going to be unenjoyable. The Reds were out of it by July 4th. It was not an extraordinarily entertaining team. I don't want to say it was an unlikable team, but the season just took on a a slog kind of feel to it. But there were reasons to still watch. Chase Burns, obviously, Eli De La Cruz, obviously, and Sal Stewart, obviously. And I was so stoked for him that he won the National League Rookie of the Year award. He won it going away. Nothing against J.J. Weatherholt, nothing against Carson Bench, who had an awesome second half of the year for the Mets. Sal Stewart was the best National League rookie for the entirety of the season.

And had he not won the award, I would have felt the same way about him I do today. But in what was an otherwise miserable six months, Sal Stewart made you not hate yourself for still watching. And there was such, to me at least, so many reasons to admire what he did this year. It's hard to go through your first full big league season. It's really hard to go through your first full big league season. And your team basically asking you to help carry the offense. he had no help in the batting order except for Eli De La Cruz. He was asked to bat fourth on opening day. He was asked to improve defensively. He was asked to make the team in spring training, and he had a killer spring. He obviously put up great numbers, but watching him on a nightly basis, Jeff Brantley on TV and radio talked about this often during the season. Sal Stewart, I think it's a good thing that we don't emphasize RBIs anymore. Statistically, because there are better ways to determine and accurately judge how good or bad a hitter is. But I do think there's a skill to being able to drive in a run. And what I love most about Sal Stewart is, yes, he could hit the ball out of the ballpark. 32 homers. Most by a rookie in Reds history. But he also knew how to hit to the scoreboard. Get a guy in from third base with less than two outs. Shorten his stroke with two strikes. I loved watching him this year. And the guys, he played all 162. So as a Reds fan, yes, it's cool the Reds have the National League Rookie of the Year. And by the way, like there was this, I hate that this is what it turned into. There was like this preemptive anger at what it's going to feel like if Sal doesn't win it. That never made a lot of sense to me because all summer long, Sal stayed hot. He had a rough September, which is why Carson Bench, you know, was a factor because Sal Stewart's September was his worst month. Benj really turned it on for the Mets in September. But I think by then this was decided. Sal was going to be the rookie of the year. You know, and I'd engage with people on social media who were like, ah, they're just never going to vote for a Red. It's like, come on, man. The last time they had guys who were up for postseason awards, they won them. Jonathan India, Trevor Bauer. People weren't going to hold against Sal Stewart, some sort of anti-Reds bias grow up. So congratulations to him. He made... an otherwise miserable season worth paying attention to. And Ellie did as well, but Ellie wasn't up for rookie of the year. And Chase Burns did as well. Chase not up for rookie of the year. 01:16:38 Speaker 5: I am. 01:16:40 Speaker 4: I was thrilled for Sal that he won the award. You could tell it meant a lot to him. And, you know, regardless of what happens with the 2027 baseball season, regardless of what happens with the Reds, I can't wait to see what Sal Stewart has for an encore. Congratulations to him. He was awesome to watch this year, and I was stoked for him last night because I think you could tell that award meant a lot to him, and he was the best rookie over the course of the entire season in the National League. Bengals didn't get better today. We'll discuss next at the Transept, ESPN 1530 Cincinnati Sports Station. 01:17:15 Speaker 10: I can't take this. 01:17:15 Speaker 5: That's us. 01:17:16 Speaker 4: Good afternoon, Mo Egger, ESPN 1530. Thank you for listening today. Hope you're having just an unbelievable weekend. Tuesday afternoon. 01:17:24 Speaker 3: It has been gorgeous out. 01:17:25 Speaker 4: I know that's about to change. I'll take every one of these days we can get as we get to mid-November. NFL trade deadline came and went 66 minutes ago. And the Bengals ended up doing nothing. And if you've not been following the Bengals and their trade deadline attempts or their trade deadline activity, I'll do the best I can to sort of outline that. what happened today, but the net result is on a day where a lot of NFL teams got better, the Cincinnati Bengals did not. Austin Elmore puts on social media something that I think is, well, it's factual. The Jacksonville Jaguars have added multiple defensive pieces. Many are accusing them of overpaying for Jordan Davis. I think it's a fair criticism. ESPN gave him an F. I don't know that I would do that, but added multiple defensive pieces. The Jacksonville Jaguars are a playoff team. The Denver Broncos have added a linebacker, Dayon Henley, who is a guy that a lot of us thought would look great in an orange and black striped helmet. Instead, he's going to wear an orange helmet with the Denver Broncos. Denver adds to an already terrific defense. Imani Hooker, I think arguably the best available safety, added to the Buffalo Bills and their defense, which last night notwithstanding against the Minnesota Vikings, They've had major issues on the back end of that. defense. The Kansas City Chiefs have had wide receiver issues all year. They go get Josh Downs. I'm not sure that dramatically helps them overhaul their offense, but... They needed somebody. They went and got them. Those are good teams. Those are, in all likelihood, playoff teams. Denver and KC will fight it out in the AFC West. Jacksonville's a playoff team. I think it's a good argument. Jacksonville is 15-3 in their last 18 regular season games, and none of those wins have come by 14 points or more. They throttle people, but they didn't look at their team and go, heck, we're good. Kansas City didn't. Denver didn't. Buffalo didn't. I would say... And I don't quite put the Steelers there yet. Sunday could change my mind. If you are looking at who the Bengals' primary competitors are in the AFC, those are the four teams. Now, what about the Patriots? Eh, we'll see. Those four teams right there, though, I think it's fair to say those are primary competitors to win the AFC. They've added pieces. How much better are they? It's debatable. I'm sure in their front offices, they feel like we've gotten better. Bengals did nothing. And,

like, you can build up a lot of goodwill, right? Like, in life, nobody's all great. Nobody's all awful. Bengals have built a good team. They're 6-2. They played really well in Madrid. They dominated the second half against the Baltimore Ravens. Had to survive against Tennessee, but they've built a good team, right? Whether it's the offense they've assembled, the offensive line that has been assembled, a good offensive line. They have built a good team. Dexter Lawrence is one of the great acquisitions in the NFL this year. It's one of the great acquisitions in Bengals history. Boy, a mafia has been worth every penny. Brian Cook hasn't been awesome, but he played well against Atlanta. I think that the net sum of Brian Cook coming to Cincinnati has been a positive, right? Jonathan Allen, they've built a good team. They've got good special teams. They have found dudes from the fringes of the league and gotten them to play important roles like Dante Myers. They have a good team. They have a team that's good enough and deserving enough for the front office to make it even better. And so, like, this isn't, well, beat up on the Bengals because it's easy to beat up on the Bengals and it's fun to beat up on the Bengals. No, like, give them their props, give them their flowers, as the kids say, for building a team that right now I think many consider to be bona fide title contenders. But the idea is to win the title. The idea is all in. It's frustrating. I think you have to admit, you could be the most, the biggest Bengals homer there is. It's frustrating, but... that the Bengals haven't used this last mechanism to make the team better by adding an established player. And what's doubly frustrating is they tried to make a deal. Like, we're going to dive into what happened with this trade that fell through today. But at 10.45 this morning, 11 o'clock this morning, heck, I stopped up at the radio station before I had to go to UC for some UC football stuff. Audie is the one that tells me, hey, Bengals added an edge. Arnold and a Katie played at Penn state. Didn't have an overly productive season so far with the Philadelphia Eagles guy who has been a little bit of a second round bust, but they added an edge and like, okay, I was kind of thinking linebacker, but maybe they're not done, but yeah. Okay. Pass rush is King. You're adding a body. You're adding a piece as good as mafia has been. Unfortunately, cash is how is injured. And that may be a while before he plays again. Miles Murphy's having an underwhelming season. Shamar Stewart's had an underwhelming career. Okay. Like the Bengals agreed to that trade. That is a thing that happened. Now we're going to get to why the trade didn't happen. But the fact that the trade was made is an acknowledgement like, yeah, we could use another guy. Because the trade went through, there's still not the need for another guy. And you could say, well, you know, the trade fell through and then they only had about four hours. Like, seriously? Seriously? So the trade falls through and then Duke Tobin's incapable of executing another one? Doesn't have enough contacts around the league? Doesn't have the capability to multitask? Hasn't been spending recent weeks working the phones and working other front office execs for any number of possible deals that he could revisit now that this one fell through? This deal falling through is not an excuse for doing the other deals. It should not be an excuse for not doing any other deals. especially when it feels like there were players that would have made sense for this team to add at a lot of different levels of the defense. Now, if you haven't been following all day, and I'll try to make this as uncomplicated as possible. Paul Daner Jr. was with us in the first hour, and I think did a great job of explaining it like we're. 01:23:57 Speaker 5: Nine years old. 01:23:58 Speaker 4: But there were reports once the deal was announced, once some of the NFL scoop masters reported the deal, that the Bengals would have lost by making this trade a 2027 compensatory third round draft pick. Overthecap.com was the first to sort of point out the fact that if they do this, not only are the Bengals giving up the sixth round pick they've agreed to send to Philadelphia, but the compensatory pick evaporates. This is a result of the offset in free agency that benefited Cincinnati largely because of the deal that Trey Hendrickson signed with the Baltimore Ravens. So this comes to light that if the Bengals execute this trade, they're going to lose a compensatory third round pick. And that's a high value pick. That's a day two pick. Like, you know, the sixth round pick, who cares? The fifth, sixth, seventh rounds of the draft in the NIL age in college football stink. Third round compensatory pick? That's hefty. That's not worth just throwing around. So the Bengals rescind the trade. So then there's this angle to it. The Bengals brand organizationally isn't awesome. I think a lot of criticisms that people level against the Bengals are very unfair. I think they're very outdated. They get accused of being cheap and behind the times and this like uber frugal mom and pop operation. And I just, I don't think that those criticisms for the most part are really based on reality. I don't think they're cheap. I think in many ways they have modernized. And this season they've built a 6-2 football team by using some forward, more modern methods of team building. Embracing trades and stuff like that. But this won't help. Because it makes the Bengals look inept. Makes them look incompetent. Makes them look like they're ill-prepared. It makes them look like, dude, you didn't know you had a A third round compensatory pick? Or you knew you'd had it, but you didn't know you'd lose it if you made this deal? Like, I mean, let's be honest. If you were to sort of outline, hey, here's the scenario. Team A is going to make a trade with Team B. Team A is going to back out of

the trade because they find out via a third party that they would lose a third round compensatory pick. The Bengals might not be the first team you expect to be Team A. but they're not going to be the 32nd. So this just, the optics of it are awful. Now, is it going to go away? If the Bengals beat the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday night, and spoiler alert, I believe they will, no one's going to care. But let's say that the season comes, it goes, Bengals don't realize their goals, and we look back on the missed opportunity to add a piece at the trade deadline, you're going to go, were they too preoccupied with a deal that they had to back out of because they didn't know that they would lose a compensatory third-round pick. 01:27:12 Speaker 5: If they did it? 01:27:13 Speaker 4: That's not going to help. That's not going to help the brand. That's not going to soften any criticism Bengals get for how they operate. It's a really, really bad look. And so there's a few different angles here. There's what they didn't do at the deadline. And Zach Taylor said the right thing yesterday. Like, Zach said, like, I like my team. Of course the coach is going to say that. I'm sure he does like his team. By the way, I like his team. But you could like your team and still want it to be better. I mean, in the history of sports, has there ever been a team that you were like, you know what, couldn't use a guy? Like, dude, come on. So there's what they didn't do, which is they didn't get better. That is inarguable. There's what happened around them. Denver feels like it's better. Jacksonville feels like it's better. Buffalo feels like it's better. The Chiefs, KC, feels like it's better. Then there's the Bengals. They're going to say they like their team, but isn't it at least a little disappointing, especially on the heels of hearing about how all-in they are, that they didn't go make one more move? By the way, I think we all agreed when training camp started, great offseason. but we all kind of wish they would have made one more move. If that was the case in July, I don't think 6-2 changes that. I don't think 6-2 changes that when you know what's happened with Cassius Howell, when you look at some of the other pieces at edge, when you see the deficiencies they have at linebacker, when you see how thin they are in the secondary, when you see the need for a slot corner, which by the way, another need that goes back to the beginning of the off season, it just, and you could tell me if I'm wrong, it, it feels disappointing. It's not disqualifying. Nobody is crossing the Bengals off the list of AFC contenders. But wouldn't you have felt at least a little bit better about their chances had they done something? And wasn't the fact that they nearly made a trade with the Eagles acknowledgement that they knew they needed to do something? But they didn't. So now what? I also believe this, man. For years, one of my biggest criticisms of Duke Tobin has been not so much what he does or doesn't do with the roster. He's had his successes. He's had his failures. it's that nobody knows who he is. I'm exaggerating here, but for years, I've talked about how NFL head coach, part of his job is press secretary. He's the only person who has an obligation to speak to the media during the season three days a week, after games on Sunday, on Mondays, on Wednesdays, and at times has to answer questions that he has very little to do with. So, You know, last year we talked about this a lot, like Duke's got to talk. And to his credit, he did. And it was OK. Like he didn't love everything that he said. He talked a lot about how he traded for Joe Flacco. But it's like this is the sort of thing that should happen with a little bit more regularity. Doesn't have to happen on a monthly basis. Doesn't have to happen every week during the season. But tomorrow, Zach Taylor is going to meet with the media, which he does every Wednesday. And invariably, I'm sure someone's going to ask about the trade that didn't happen. Zach Taylor is not responsible for the trade not happening. He wouldn't have been responsible for the trade happening. Nothing to do with it. Guy's got his hands full game planning for the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday. Duke Tobin should do the right thing tomorrow and show up and answer questions. And maybe it's a simple admission. You know what? I screwed up. I think most of us will move on. Maybe it's an explanation that we go. 01:30:47 Speaker 5: Yeah. 01:30:48 Speaker 6: Okay. 01:30:48 Speaker 4: It makes sense. Maybe he makes, I don't know, but I, I think it's a pretty crummy thing to do to tell Zach Taylor, like, hey, these questions are going to come about something you have nothing to do with, but I'm not going to step in for you. I think Duke Tobin owes it to Zach. And frankly, I think he owes it to people who care about this team. Like, all right, Duke, what happened? And you might have to wear some egg on your face. You might have to subject yourself to ridicule for a while. But look, dude, you're the personnel director of an NFL team. That comes with the territory. That should not preclude you from stepping in for 10, 15 minutes and just offering an explanation or your side of the story as to what happened. I'm not going to hold my breath, but I am, I'm really curious as to what the Bengals perspective on this is. And the head coach of the team is not, I think the right person to offer perspective on what exactly happened 20 minutes after five o'clock. So call it what it is. Sunday was exhilarating. And I think the Bengals deserve a lot of credit for how they played. This team is 6-2. Sunday is going to be awesome. This team has a chance to jump into the driver's seat in the AFC North. They have a chance in front of a large national audience to make a statement about their championship bona fides. But today, wouldn't it have been awesome had they taken a weakness and fortified it just a little bit? whether it's edge

depth, linebacker, safety, slot corner, hell, if you want, outside corner. Today, admit it, you would have been a little bit more bullish about the Bengals had they done something. Instead, they did nothing. Buffalo, Jacksonville, Kansas City, and Denver did. 513-749-1530 is our number. We'll open the lines. Add Mo Egger on Twitter, by the way. I've got to throw out a poll question. It'll probably be NFL trade deadline related. I've done two hours and 21 minutes of radio. I've not talked about the Bearcat game from last night because, well, there's been other stuff. I don't want to overreact to a November loss, but I thought a lot about last night. I thought about last year, which is maybe not fair. I thought a lot about free throws. I thought a lot about offense against the zone. We'll get to all that a little bit later on. My name is Mo Egger. We're broadcasting from the Transept today, downtown Cincinnati, part of the Delightmore Group. It's 22 after 5. This is ESPN 1530, Cincinnati Sports Station. 01:33:20 Speaker 9: Cincinnati's ESPN 1530. Traffic. 01:33:25 Speaker 8: From the UCF. 01:33:26 Speaker 7: This is Football in the Natty. Brought to you in part by Skyline Chili. On ESPN 1530, the official home of the Cincinnati Bengals. 01:33:40 Speaker 4: It is 29 minutes after 5 o'clock. This is ESPN 1530 Broadcasting. From the transept, poll questions on this show come your way thanks to United Heartland Insurance. Save money on insurance. Go to uhins.com. It's a question about the Bengals at the trade deadline. How do you feel? Vote now. At Mo Egger on Twitter. Let's talk to folks who have been waiting, beginning with Lou. Lou, you're on ESPN 1530. 01:34:05 Speaker 5: Lou, good afternoon. How are you? 01:34:07 Speaker 6: Well, thanks for taking my call. 01:34:10 Speaker 2: An observation and a question, and then I'll hang up and listen. 01:34:13 Speaker 6: To your response. 01:34:15 Speaker 3: Okay. 01:34:17 Speaker 6: At what point do we. 01:34:18 Speaker 2: Start talking about players versus our coaches? Because I feel there's no sport that relies more on coaching than football. So at what point do we start saying, why aren't we looking at our coaches for developing the talent we have or putting together the schemes we need? I look at our team this year, and I feel like the first four, three, four, five games, we came out flat. It's almost like Burrow and Chase said, we're going to take this team over, and we're going to start playing different. So my question there is, at what point do we start saying we need to look at our coaches and ask a little bit more of them rather than just saying we need to buy a better team? 01:35:06 Speaker 4: My second question is... Let me answer the first, then we'll go with your second, okay? 01:35:11 Speaker 6: Sure. 01:35:12 Speaker 4: I think this entire season is a referendum on Zach Taylor. So if the question is at what point, I think it's 2026. No, I think Zach... Look, I was uber impressed by how they played on Sunday because I felt like they had a plan for the weirdness of Madrid and logistics, and it felt like a well-executed plan. I think that's a good reflection on the head coach. I also thought they looked wholly unprepared against the Baltimore Ravens. I thought they looked often unprepared against the Tennessee Titans. That's a reflection of the coach. I think at the end of this season, whether it results in a championship or them missing the postseason or something in between, this is going to be a year where more than at any point during his time in Cincinnati, the results are going to be used as a reflection of the head coach and will drive the conversation about what should happen with him. Beyond that, it's not like they haven't swapped out assistant coaches. Al Golden wasn't here two years ago. Now he is. There's a whole bunch of position coaches who weren't here a couple of years ago. Now they are. But I think because of that, now the arrow is being pointed very, very squarely at Zach Taylor. 01:36:18 Speaker 2: I would agree with that. I also think we need to look at our coordinators. But responding to that comment, we haven't beat a team with a winning record yet. 01:36:33 Speaker 4: Uh, true. 01:36:33 Speaker 5: Yeah. 01:36:34 Speaker 3: I could, I could be wrong. 01:36:36 Speaker 2: I could be wrong on that, but I, I, I'm almost positive. We have not beat a team with a winning record and we're six and two. 01:36:46 Speaker 4: Yes. 01:36:46 Speaker 2: And the teams that we have that beat, many of them were not resounding wins. I mean, it was like you said, you know, Tennessee and we, we had a scrape to get the wind. So I guess my only comment is, um, I look, you know, we've got first-round draft picks sitting on the bench. Murphy isn't doing any good on defense. So I'm just wondering, you know, where does scheme start to fit in, and why aren't we asking more of, so are we over-evaluating the talent we have, or are we not getting what we need out of the talent we've got? 01:37:30 Speaker 4: I wonder that about some of the guys on defense, right? And that's a front office question and it's a coaching question. Why has Miles Murphy regressed? Why is Shamar Stewart incapable of getting on the field? Why do these linebackers, you know, should there be more development with them or did the front office, you know, mishandle the evaluation of them? Now, at the same time, DJ Turner's come along nicely. He's one of the better corners in the NFL. That's somebody they drafted. That's somebody they've developed. On the other side of the football, you can look at some of the offensive linemen they have. But yeah, I think at the end of this season, more than anybody else, whether they are really good and have a great year with a satisfactory outcome or finish well short of what we all hope, I think we're going to talk about how this season was a reflection of Zach Taylor, good or bad, and that'll drive the conversation about him. But you can

have those conversations about coaching and still wish they would make the team better, right? Oh, I agree. You could still wish that you would use the opportunity to acquire players from other teams to fortify your roster, and you could do that, and that doesn't absolve Zach Taylor of any criticism or scrutiny or anything like that. 01:38:50 Speaker 2: Yeah, I guess I'll let you go after this comment. How did we ever let Jesse Bates go? 01:38:58 Speaker 4: They didn't value safety enough. I mean, the answer is they didn't value, they valued the player, but they didn't value the position enough. And they spent years paying for it. 01:39:12 Speaker 2: Yeah, and you're right. And we're paying for it. And boy, I just hated to see him go to Jacksonville. 01:39:19 Speaker 4: Um, yeah. 01:39:21 Speaker 2: So at any rate, thank you for taking my call. I'm really, really hoping we come out strong Sunday. If we lose the Pittsburgh, I don't know that I agree that, that we don't lose the division and end up in a wild card at best. 01:39:37 Speaker 4: Maybe, you know, I mean, it's, it's effectively then a two game lead. I still Berg schedule. They're about to walk into a gauntlet, but look, it's, it's undeniable. They're in the driver's seat. That head-to-head tiebreaker matters. 01:39:48 Speaker 5: We'll see. 01:39:48 Speaker 4: Lou, thank you for the phone call. 01:39:50 Speaker 2: All right, man. 01:39:51 Speaker 10: Talk to you later. Bye. 01:39:53 Speaker 4: 25 from 6, we're broadcasting from the Transcept Sports Headlines and just a second on the UC basketball game last night. This is ESPN 1530 Cincinnati Sports Station. 01:40:03 Speaker 7: You've been listening to Football in the Natty on ESPN 1530, the official home of the Cincinnati Bengals. Cincinnati's ESPN 1530. 01:40:17 Speaker 9: Traffic from the uc. 01:40:19 Speaker 4: Health traffic deadlines from the transept our service to kelsey chevrolet home of lifetime powertrain protection and guaranteed credit approval from their family the yours for life kelseychev.com bunch of nfl teams have made trades at the deadline the bengals not among them they uh had a deal in place for arnold and akabi ed dresser from the philadelphia eagles Then it was brought to their attention they would have to basically relinquish a third-round compensatory pick next year. And so then the Bengals said, no, we're not going to do that. So Imani Hooker dealt to the Bills. Josh Downs dealt to the Kansas City Chiefs. Kirk Cousins is on his way back to Minnesota. Dan Henley traded by the Chargers to the Denver Broncos among some of the deals that have commenced. Former Reds manager Bob Boone. Bob Boone is still third all-time in games caught. Bob managed the Reds during some pretty bleak years, 2001, 2002, and 2003, and he got mocked because once after a game he referred to runs as points. What I remember about Bob Boone was back in the late 90s, early 2000s, I would do what we call stringing. I was a freelance stringer. where basically you would get hired by other radio stations in other parts of the country and get audio. So I had a whole bunch of radio stations I would do stuff for. So if the Astros were in town, my job was to get sound after the game and send it to the station in Houston using very primitive methods. In 2001, in the aftermath of the 9-11 attacks, when baseball came back, the Reds were home and 700 WLW is an ABC, ABC affiliate wanted sound from ballparks around the country. And so they wanted me to go get the, the, the managers, the two managers of, of the teams, the Reds played the Cubs. I have no recollection of who the Cubs manager was, but I went into Bob Boone's office and I will never forget. He gave this like stirring, impassioned, like, I think, off-the-cuff address about what had happened in New York and Washington and Pennsylvania. And I remember looking at all these hardened baseball writers and reporters, and I was like 23, 24 years old, and they all had tears in their eyes. And Bob talked about patriotism and how he feared for his grandkids. And I just remember thinking, this is a good, decent man. His teams were terrible, but When I saw that news today, I thought of that day. Also, a lot of folks, the iconic play in the 80 World Series, where Frank White hits a pop-up, Royals-Phillies, Bob Boone goes to catch it, drops it, and then there's Pete Rose to catch it. That's an iconic World Series moment. College basketball tonight, Xavier will host Detroit Mercy at 7 on 700 WLW. Kentucky and Kansas, and what I think is college basketball's official opening night. The Champions Classic, that game is going to tip off about 9.30 on ESPN 1530. Pre-game coverage starts at 8 o'clock. NKU is on the road against St. 01:43:35 Speaker 2: Louis. 01:43:36 Speaker 4: That game is going to tip off at 8 o'clock. You can listen to it on The Project, 100.7 and 106.3. Jim Kelch, I think Jim is flying solo because we've got to say congratulations to our friend Rick Broering, musketeerreport.com, NKU Radio. He posted just a short while ago A photo of his brand new newborn daughter, Mackenzie Louise, who looks gorgeous. So congratulations to Rick and his wife. Hopefully everybody is healthy and resting. And I don't know if we're going to have Rick on tomorrow. You could certainly understand if he would bypass the opportunity to talk to me. But most importantly, congratulations to Rick and his family. Date and play Sienna tonight. College Football Playoff Rankings Part 2 out this evening and the Scott Satterfield Radio Show, if you're looking for it, it's on Fox Sports 1360 from the original Montgomery Inn at 8 p.m. Very quickly on the Bearcat game last night. Frustrating, disappointing, familiar, I think is the word that comes to mind. It just, the two things that sort of stood out to me, number one, it's the free throws. And I've joked about this with a lot of people as a longtime Bearcat fan. And I would say this about some of the best teams they've had

Players change, coaches change. You see missing key free throws late stays the same. They did last night with some good, good, at least percentage-wise, free throw shooters at the line with a chance to help salt the game away. The real frustrating thing for me was for a team that is supposed to function at such a high level on offense and do when the opposing team is playing man-to-man against Minnesota's own last night, it looked like the Bearcats had never even encountered the concept of of his own defense. And 12 turnovers at face value isn't a lot. 12 turnovers in a 65 possession game. That's, that puts you at about an 18% clip in terms of turnover percentage. You add to it a couple of empty trips, missing the front end of one and ones. It just, it was a real frustrating night. Now, game three, there's plenty of time to sort of move on from that and make it just a small blip on your resume. But go back to last year, man. Cincinnati lost five games before Christmas. Their NCAA tournament chances were cooked before they played a conference game. Cincinnati still has some tough ones. The game on Saturday at UD Arena, I know the Flyers lost to Northern Illinois. That ain't going to be easy by any stretch. They still have an MTE with a couple of high majors. They still have the Xavier game. They still have the Clemson game. They weren't going to win them all. You don't have to win all of them You got to win most because you don't want to put yourself at the mercy of having to play catch up in the Big 12. And what happened with last year's team is evidence as to why you don't want to do that. They're going to get better. I'm a big believer in Jared Calhoun. But to lose the way they did and have the final two minutes when they let a seven-point lead evaporate with about two and a half minutes to go, frustrating on a thousand different levels, not the least of which was it just, the entire thing felt familiar. Steven, you're on ESPN 1530. Thank you for hanging on. Good afternoon. 01:46:55 Speaker 3: What's up, man? How you doing, man? 01:46:57 Speaker 4: I'm good. 01:46:57 Speaker 8: You? 01:46:59 Speaker 3: Oh, just, I think I, I think I told myself last night, I'm not going to watch a Bearcat basketball game until the crossout shootout, man. 01:47:10 Speaker 6: I just, oh my gosh, man. 01:47:13 Speaker 3: I sat there and watched the game. So I'm watching the game, and my son, he's 10, he plays basketball, trying to get into it. He goes, did the Bears catch him? I said, no, he goes, of course. 01:47:28 Speaker 6: They lost, Dad. 01:47:29 Speaker 3: I'm like, come on, man, you're killing me. And usually after a game like that, I'm just like, man, right? I just turned it off and went in and I think I helped my son study for a science test. But it's like, like, I just, I don't get it. Like do, do kids not understand? Like, do they like go into basketball and they're just like, I don't know how to play basketball. Like I was watching the second half of the game and it's like you just said, it's like they've never seen a zone in their whole entire life. To break the zone, you've got to, you've got to get to the middle. Like, you don't even have to, like, I remember my dad, he goes, just make a flash, just flash to the plate and just bring attention to your, to that person. And then like, I just, it's mind boggling, man. Like it really is mind boggling. 01:48:26 Speaker 6: I feel like I'll watch Wes Miller again. 01:48:29 Speaker 4: They, they tried to throw the ball into the middle of the zone one time and two guys were standing there and they turned it over. I get it to the middle, get it to the short corner and, make the defense move, throw a skip pass, like none of that. It was Minnesota didn't play zone exclusively, but the more they employed it, the more just confused Cincinnati seemed to be. And it's exacerbated by not being able to make outside shots. They were 24% from behind the arc. You could bust a zone by being great from the perimeter. They were not. But in the absence of that, Zones have openings. It is remarkable to me when I see a team like that that can't find openings in a 2-3 zone. 01:49:13 Speaker 3: Right. And my thing, too, it's like, at some point in your career, you have been taught to beat the zone. And it's not. 01:49:24 Speaker 10: I. 01:49:26 Speaker 3: Always say, like, the one thing I got to say about Jared Calhoun is he's calling his players out at the pressure, in the middle of an interview. Like, Wes always would just say, oh, I'm pissed. 01:49:39 Speaker 4: Like, no. 01:49:40 Speaker 3: Call your players out. Make them see, like, we're not messing around here. Like, it's just mine. It really is. I couldn't believe... And they can't make a free throw. You have two front-end one-and-ones, and you can't make any of them? 01:49:58 Speaker 4: With guys who historically have been good free throw shooters, beyond frustrating. I can hear it in your voice, and I feel the same. Steve, I've got to run, man. 01:50:06 Speaker 5: Thank you. 01:50:07 Speaker 4: All right, we've got to thank the folks at Delightmoor. for having us here at the Trancept. If you have not checked out this place, go to delightmore.com, look it up. You will love it. Back in studio tomorrow, thanks to Mike Mills for producing on site. And thanks, of course, to Taryn for producing back in Kenwood. We've got UK basketball coming up at 8 o'clock tonight. The Wildcats taking on Kansas in what should be a good one. Have a great night. We'll talk to you tomorrow at 3.05. This is ESPN 1530 Cincinnati Sports Station. 01:50:45 Speaker 9: Cincinnati's ESPN 1530. Traffic. 01:50:49 Speaker 8: From the UC Health Traffic Center with