Do you want to be an American idol?
Only seven hundred WLW the weekend of year. You can smell it, you can taste it, you can hear it coming. And thank God because we have football, football, and football and more football. As the Bengals try to get to five hundred and the Bearcats go for seven straight. On that, the voice of both Dan Horde jumps in this morning on the Big One. Danny, It's been a interesting week, to say the least, sports wise. I let me begin real quick. I'm gonna put you on the spot, as
I usually do. Your take on this NBA scandal.
Well, obviously surprised by some of the people that are involved, most notably Portland's head coach Shauncey Billups. But when you embrace gambling to the extent that professional sports leagues have, it seemed inevitable to me that at some point something like this was going to happen. So in that sense, I can't say that I'm shocked.
What strikes me is the stupidity of the bets that were being placed. Because we know, you know, if you're a professional gaveing, you know they monitor all these algorithms, watching social media, doing all this stuff is Remember the scandal that sort of involved you see Bearcat Baseball team of the guy from was It Alabama was betting on Alabama and put like one hundred thousand dollars down to sports book ATA. You know they're gonna flag that. They're
going to see that instantly. Now, the X ray poker tables, that's a different story. I got to go to Watson's to give me an X ray poker table. That's pretty cool.
That was incredible.
Yeah, so basically face down cards can be seen. Wow with an X ray table. I remember the X ray glasses in the back of comic book. When I was a kid, I never sprung for a pair. They always looked intriguing.
If I were sitting at a table, my concern would be cut in the game and it'd be like, wait a minute, you had an X ray device on where I'm sitting near my crotch for how many hours? That's a real problem. That's a different problem anyway. Uh, that's the stuff I worry about. Let's pivot to. Let's start with you see this morning break it up simply because you've got to give them love there on a heater, like we haven't seen in a long time. Good for
Sadderfield because he's been in a hot seat. Let's face it, look in a rip bof a seventh straight win. They dismantled the Cowboys in front of shirtless students with Arguably it was one of the coolest college football things I've seen because they were getting pounded and the students were
still going nuts with their shirt off shirts off. Bearcats sit at number twenty one in the AP their bowl eligible now early on in this thing, and they got homecoming against Baylor at four o'clock and you on the call.
Great opportunity for Cincinnati to keep moving toward possibly playing in the Big Twelve Championship game at the end of the year. In Dallas, they've got five games left in the regular season. Three of the five are at home, which is good, including tomorrow's four o'clock homecoming game. If you go into the brand new palatial UC indoor practice facility, there are TV monitors on the wall that list their fourteen goals and the fourth and final thing listed is
simply one word, Dallas. That's what they've been focused on, trying to get to the Big twelve Championship game in Dallas. It seems far fetched to many at the beginning of the year. Cincinnati, certainly outside of this area, is not expected to compete for the Big Twelve title. But they're legit. This is not fluky. They've got a great offense, They've got an opportunistic defense. Be nice to see the defense get off the field a little bit more frequently on
third and fourth down. But having said that, it's a legitimately good team and it should be a great game tomorrow because Baylor scores a ton of points, so it could you shoot out.
Yeah, they average like over thirty six points per game. There could be a challenge for the for the SINCD.
No doubt.
Baylor's quarterback Sawyer Robertson leads the nation in passing yards. He's tied for first and touchdown passes. Now, their defense has really struggled. They're giving up more than thirty points a game. So I would expect Cincinnati's offense to be able to go up and down the field, but defense is going to have to get some stops for the Bearcats to pull it out.
Yeah, and with Brandon Sorosby, of course, it just feels like he's going to be a you know, fifty two to forty two shootout. It's got it has a feel.
All over, maybe not quite that high.
I'm going that high. I love the score. I'm a freak for the touchdowns.
Yeah. You know, they've had a couple of games this year where both teams scored in the thirties. They beat Kansas thirty seven thirty four. They beat Iowa State thirty eight to thirty. I wouldn't be surprised if it's something like that.
Yeah, all right, So that is tomorrow homecoming at the Universe Cincinnati. Tony Pike getting entered in the Hall of Fame, which is pretty cool to see pikeer doing that.
Yeah, it's a tremendous weekend for my broadcast partners. Tony Pike goes into the UC Hall of Fame tonight, that ceremony is tonight, and of course Laugh goes into the Bengals Ring of Honor on Sunday at halftime with Leap and Lamar Parish. So I'm a crier sloany about these things. So if you hear me get choked up on either broadcast, you'll know what that's awesome.
Yeah, well, you're a good guy and you deserve now and and your day is I think at some point, I mean you're ready to U see, Hey, you're gonna be the Ring you honor next year. I'm voting Dan Hord Ring of Honor twenty twenty six.
I am not eligible and I do not belong that should be reserved for former players, coaches, or the guy who started the franchise, Paul Brown. Aside from that, I don't think any other name should be up on in the ring a bock.
Let's jump to that game on Sunday, on Dave Lapham Day. Let's talk about the three and four Bengals six and a half point favorites over the hapless Jets are to seven. But a coach will tell you, look, there's anything no more dangerous team than ANH to seven club. That said, Dan, it's just what the injuries I have. I don't know how the Jets pull this off. I really don't.
Yeah, bless the injuries for me than it is the quarterbacks. So Justin Fields and Tyrod Taylor are not about to be confused with Montana Marino and Uniteds or Flaco. Justin Fields has been or Flackoor. Justin Fields has been dreadful. They switched to Tyrod Taylor at halftime of their lost last week. Neither quarterback led the team to a touchdown. Their owner, Woody Johnson, blasted Justin Fields earlier this week, basically defending his coach by saying how lousy his quarterback is.
So that's atypical for an NFL owner to do that. So the quarterback play has been bad. I do think their defense is good. They've only given up thirteen points in each of the last two games, so it might be difficult for the Bengals to put a big offensive.
Number on the board.
But I wouldn't expect either of those quarterbacks to lead.
The Jets to a bunch of points. Yeah.
I mentioned the injuries, and we're kind of, you know, a homecoming if you will, on homecoming weekend for Sauce Gardner doesn't look like he's going. He's got a concussion and you may recall I think it was twenty twenty two, I believe, and he single handedly shut down the Chase in Higgins.
He's one of the best corners in the NFL. He's being paid like he got a huge extension prior to this season, and we all know what he's capable of from his tremendous career at uc SO. Yes, that is a gigantic loss for the Jets as they try to contend with Flacco' Higgins Chase at C.
Yeah, that's a problem. And then on the other side of the ball for them, I mentioned the injuries. Garrett Wilson has the knee. More than one in four completions have gone his way. He's twenty fifth in receivers in the league right now as a first rounder out of the Ohio date. But is he going to be interacted? We know yet, I think out.
According to a Rich Samini, who covers the Jets for ESPN, my former college classmate at Syracuse University, he says he expects Garrett Wilson to be out partly because of a knee injury, partly because they have a bye next week, so this would give him a couple of weeks. And he missed last week's game, so it would give him three weeks to recover from that injury. And if you look at the Jets receiving corps beyond Garrett Wilson, there's
no doubt it's the worst in the NFL. I mean, Alan Lazard, the former Green Bay Packer, is on that roster, but he's on the back nine. Josh Reynolds is probably their second best wide receiver and he's not very good. So this is a very poor receiving group once you remove Garrett Wilson.
Yeah, plus you have Tyrod Taylor in there too, and you just look at it and you think the Bengals can feast the area concerned. Of course, Prieze Hall, running back top twenty yards per carry, got stopped to run on Sunday.
The best player on the offense, especially with Garrett Wilson out, and you know he's a great player. Replaced David Montgomery at Iowa State as the running back, and much like David Montgomery, he's proven to be an excellent NFL player. So yeah, there's no doubt about it. Looking at that offense, that's the person that you put a gigantic circle around as the number one priority to shut down or at least,
you know, hold them to reasonable numbers. And if the Bengals do that, I think the Jets are really struggle to score.
Yeah, and I think you look at that the pass protection. Jets have given up thirty one sacks through seven games, of the worst of the NFL. The old line is terrible. You've got a less mobile Tyrod Taylor in there. You would expect it to be a really, really good day for that Bengals.
Dealon offensive line, well, let me backtrack. Stacks are not just an offensive line that. It's a quarterback stat too, and I do think one of the reasons why they've given up so many sacks is justin fields. As mobile as he is, holds onto the ball forever. Yeah, he doesn't see it like the elite quarterbacks do. So I would expect Tyrod Taylor to get rid of it quicker and that'll make it more difficult to get to him. But your point is right, it's not a great offensive line.
They haven't invested first round picks in both tackles, and I think both of those guys will eventually be good, but they're not there yet.
Dan Horde, voice of the Bengals and the Bearcats. Big weekend for both teams, of the Jets in town. We're pivoting on that right now, we're talking about that right now. I also look at the quarterback matchup too, and we'll rewind of the Steeler game. To me, and I'm sure
you're the same. The best thing about last week was how angry what was going through Mike Tomlin's head walking from the locker room to the bus and thinking how Cleveland probably should have got I don't know, like a half a win with that one for trading him to us. And right before the Steelers it was fantastic.
I would buy a ticket for the Mike Tomlin Andrew Berry fight.
Can we just put up a.
Boxing ring in the middle of an NFL stadium and that Steeler said square off against the Cleveland Browns GM, that would be very entertaining. Mike Common definitely wanted a piece of him after that game last Thursday night. And yes, thank you Cleveland for trading Joe Flacco to the Bengals. Bengals fans are chanting that, yep. After the game when Joe Flacco was interviewed by the Amazon Prime crew, thank you Cleveland. So it turned out to be a great trade,
at least so far. He's been spectacular in his last six quarters and he's hoping he keeps it up.
On a Sunday afternoon.
Yeah, the ghost of Paul Brown rising up and beating the Steelers. I absolutely love it. What was that most surprising aspect? Of that game last week with the Steeler win for you, Dan.
Really just how easy it looks for Flacco right now. I mean the simple fact that he was able to come in here on a Tuesday, hould his first practice on a Wednesday, and play well in the second half against Green Bay in Week one, and then have a short week in Week two and it looks like he's been here for five years instead of you know, at that point nine days. So the fact that he's playing at such a high level with so little time invested with the Bengals, that's what's most remarkable to me.
He had a called him the goat for two reasons, you know, the Grissmelter, but also the fact that you know, like like in in the horse racing, it is they have like a goat that hangs out in the stables to kind of keep be a but kind of calmed down the horse a little. He had that effect on the place because early on, you know, people are jumping off size the chase Brown wrapped that easy ball and
I was like, oh man, here we go. And then he just had this like I got this, it's calm, calm this holes this own the zen thing you had going on and the team like bought in and he just calmly, let drives up and down the field all night. It was to me that was at presence. He's just like, it's okay, I've seen worse. We got this. He settled everybody down. I think.
Joe Burrow is Joe cool. Joe Flacco is Joe calm. That's the effect that he's had on the team. He is unflackable. And if you prefer that as you're a lion about you know, just the presence that he's provided. But I think that's absolutely true, and they needed it. Jake Browning's confidence was shot. The coaches and players had lost confidence in him, partly because of his play, or largely because of his play, but also just because you could hear it in his voice. He had completely lost confidence.
So Joe Flacco has come in and instantly changed that vibe.
And of course he's offset and for the second week in a row, an older quarterback, certainly not to the age of the previous week, or is it, but by tyro Tap has been on a week for a long time as well. When we heard that the Jets are going with him instead, how does that change things? Relative to the game plan for Sunday.
It doesn't really change much because the Jets offense doesn't change much. But I do think it makes the Jets more of a threat, only because that's how lousy Justin Fields had been playing. You know, the Jets are struggling in every way offensively, the one that matters is points, and they haven't scored a touchdown in two weeks.
So the field.
You look at his NFL career, he's been good as a running quarterback, but he's never really been good as a passing quarterback. I think if you look it's the last five years. If you look at the three teams in the last five years that had averaged the fewest passing yards to this point of the year, I know it's kind of a wordy stat, but in any case,
those three teams were all quarterback by Justin Field. So if this year's Jets and two of the teams where he was the starting quarterback with the Bears, those three teams had the lowest passing yards per game at this point of the season in the last five years. So that tells you that Justin Fields is just not a good passing quarterback.
Period.
As bad as this team is, and we just discussed all the Jets injuries as well. The Bengals are not nearly as bang up. Obviously two be one being down. But Trey Hendrickson on that hip has been limited all week is does it just make more sense to rest him and then give Shamar Stewart more reps?
Now?
Granted, Shamar Stewart is not where he needs to be at this point in his young career, but it feels like a gamer, you should do that.
It all depends on how serious the injury is. You know, Trey reportedly wanted to play last week, so he continues to be limited practice. They're going to evaluate that based on just how serious this hip injury is. But if they determine that he's had no risk to make it worse and feels like he can play, you can't afford to lose at this point to a team that's winless at home. So if Trade thinks he can play and the medical staff says, you know what, it's ready at this point, I'd play them.
We didn't talk at all about Chase Brown, who lit up the Steelers last game. All of a sudden, it was like a light switch got flipped. Do you expect more of that this week.
Well, I don't know if the Bengals are going to rush for more than one hundred and forty yards again, but I do think that they're going to have a lot more than they had prior to the last week's game. I don't think they had top sixty if I'm not mistaken, in the previous games, So let's get that number into triple digits at least. I think they found something that the offensive line in the Pittsburgh game, and hopefully it continues because they need to have some sort of a
running threat. That's one of the reasons why Flacco is so effective. Against the Steelers, they finally had a running threat. Chase Brown average nearly ten yards of carry. He's not going to do that again, but you know, for much of this year it was under three. So I thought the running game actually showed some signs of life against the Packers. I think they averaged more than four yards to carry in that game, and then they got to a point where they had to throw it in the
second half. But it's showing signs of life. It was really good last week, and hopefully it'll at least be solid on Sunday.
Yeah, you would think so. In better blocking helps. They blocked a lot better against Pittsburgh than they have in a couple of games. Also, it's this time of year, the trade deadline coming up. The Logan Wilson thing is I don't I think it's just noise. I mean, it seems like every team or a most teams have something like that going on. Logan Wilson gets bench, he requests the trade in pretty clearly. You know, Bearck, Carter, Demetrius Night being rookies and all that. But that's the future.
And of course he was bench before the Green Bay game, so we'll see. I'm sure there's some teams where he makes a fit. There's a fit, But I know that was a big storyline this weekend. I just thought I just point that out, and there's no observation he needed there. Dan, it's that time of year, we're going to the trade.
The one thing I'd say about Logan Wilson is that I don't expect him to be a problem, even though he has requested a trade. You know, I can't blame him. He wants to start, he's lost his starting job. He's only twenty nine years old, but he's not the type of guy that is going to tank or be a headache. You know, we remember Carlos dunlap Burn bridges on his way out the door. That's not going to happen with Logan Wilson. Maybe they make a deal if the right
offer is out there, but I don't know. It kind of feels to me like it's more likely that, you know, he's part of this team for the rest of this year, and then maybe at the end of the year, with one year left on a deal, they see if they can make a trade, then all right.
He is a busy man this weekend and his partner's getting inducted in the respective well the Ring of Honor for Dave Lapham and the UC Hall of Fame for our own Tony Pike. And he is the constant between both. He is the conduit between excellence. That would be Dan Cord. It all goes through your fingers, Dan, all through, all goes through your vocal cords. Congratulations.
Don't congratulate me, but congratulate them because it's well deserved.
Looiting forward to being.
For Tony's event tonight, along with the five other former Bearcats that will go into the Cincinnati Sports Hall of Fame and then obviously lap and Lamar Parrish on Sunday.
That's going to be awesome, all right, will you enjoy it? I know you well, Danny, all the best.
Thanks Buddy, Thanks Tony, thanks for having me on you sir.
We'll do news on the Way in just minutes on the home of the Best Beangals coverage and the Bearcats seven hundred WLWD, Cincinnati.
Now.
A man who has entertainment reporting of coursing through his veins, which makes him a medical offeity.
He is ABC Will Gans from New York.
He has a few things going on a movie and music wise anyway, and Will kansons back from his ABC Good Morning America three world tour. Well, how are you doing, buddy?
I'm exhausted. The life of a celebrity has really caught up to me.
You know.
Pretty impressive though. He's talking to me and now he's doing Good Morning America and stuff, and now he's back and trying to balance both. I get it because you know, in this day in media umpires, we have to wear a lot of hats and keep a lot of balls in the air juggling. Why so I appreciate you. Let's jump in with this one because I saw the trailer.
I like Bruce Springsteen a lot. I don't think I'm a fangirl, but I love Bruce Springsteen and Jeremy Allen White of Bear Fame is starring as him in the new movie called Deliverabently from Nowhere. Saw the trailer and when I learned he's singing, because sert thing you want to find out is does he do the singing in here too? Now he sings? He also plays guitar too, doesn't he?
Yeah?
So he you know, as he pointed out, we know him from the Bear so we know he does that sort of torture artists things very very well, and he is bringing that in you.
Know, full forth to this movie.
Yes, so he is singing, he is playing instruments and stuff. They do mix in a little bit of Bruce's original vocals, which I think, you know, for fans of Bruce Springsteen, that will you know.
That goes a long way also.
But the thing with this movie is, like I was sort of anticipating, you know, a big like bold like feels like you're front row and a concert sort of movie, and it's a lot more introspective and you know, it's Bruce working on the Nebraska album, so it's after his first tour and he's sort of on the brink of becoming the superstar that we know he'll become, but he's dealing with a lot of his own like ener demons
and stuff as well. So you know, there is great stuff for fans of Bruce Springsteen, little easter eggs and stuff where you're like, oh, this is where he got the inspiration for that song that he'll.
Write, you know, twenty years later or whatever.
So it's in movie theaters this weekend.
It's and it's getting a lot of oscar buzz already for Jeremy Allen White for playing Bruce Springsteen, so you know, if you're looking to see something in theaters this week, and I think it's a pretty solid choice.
I had a good time watching.
The sound is amazing. I mean, he his vocals are really really strong.
I couldn't believe it, I know, and I guess you know he was sort of worked with and hand selected by Bruce Springsteen to some extent, So you know, I think when when you're sort of taken in the fold in that way, you better sound pretty great, right, And I think he nailed it.
Yeah, Yeah, that's pretty cool. And you know, just kind of known about Nebraska. The album itself, he like really wasn't supposed to be. I think it was a demo basically he's recording and just recording stuff on a on a simple recorder, wasn't even a studio, and he said now we're gonna, We're going to release it. Likely a
huge gamble for the record company. And if you if you know it was coming with the next album, of course in eighty four, would be born in the USA, and a number of the songs that he wrote that would have been he left off and then turned out, you know, like Glory Days, for example, is on the All Stamily one of the biggest albums of the eighties if if out All Time, and that's born in the USA, So you see the seeds of that that thinking, and it's all coming out in Nebraska.
Really neat exactly exactly.
Yeah, So it's it's a really you know, it's a good, great movie for fans of Bruce and a and a really great movie for people who.
Don't maybe know that that much about him.
How much in the is the East Street Band featured in that.
It's I would say it's more about Bruce and his like early relationships with like women and his mom and stuff, and his managers in it as well.
But the band, you know, not not so much.
It's really more of like a yeah, more I would.
Say, like personal and interpersonal, like gotcha relationship.
If you're expect to be like the Queen or the Elton John one, that's not the case.
That's exactly correct, that's exactly correct.
Yeah, gotcha.
So I don't prepare to be disappointed. Is that what you're saying.
No, no, no, no, it's just it's a different type of movie.
It's you know, it's it's yeah, well it's a.
Worth of twenty bucks or whatever it's going to cost me to go see this thing.
I would say, yes, definitely.
Is it an imax too?
I actually I don't have the answer for you there.
I yeah, yeah, good question.
Yeah, it's just to see I mean, you want to see it. It's like if you like the music, you want to see in the big screen because it's it's just so immersive. Well, gance in New York this morning, So deliver me from nowhere is a go I know that Adam Brody of course that Oscar, But Kristen Bell, nobody wants to set's on Netflix right now? What's that about?
Yeah, so this is season two.
So season one came out back in November December, and we're already at season two.
But this show sort of blew.
Up in a way that nobody thought it would.
It was nominated for a ton of Emmys this year, Kristen Bell and Adam Brody and the show itself was nominated for Best Comedy.
So this is the one.
That's based on a true story.
She played a podcaster who's not really religious at all and ends up meeting a.
Rabbi at a party and.
End up falling for each other. So season one ended basically with.
Them saying, you know what, let's try and make this happen. You know, despite not really fitting into each other's you know, personal lives or families, you know, work relationships are all sort of thrown into the air because of this relationship. And season two picks up with them trying to make it work, and each episode is only about half an hour.
It's really sweet, really funny.
The soundtrack is actually like a ton of fun as well. So this, you know, for anyone who wants to stay in and only has a little bit of time and can catch an episode here or there.
It's a lot of fun this show. Nobody wants to Yeah.
I know because when I fell in was in love with my rabbi, it was a lot more dramatic and it didn't work out right right.
Everyone can relate to falling in love with their rabbi. It's the tale as old as time.
Absolutely. Yeah, yeah, I'm a gentle I'm not even close to Jewish, but you know, I understand what else you got.
So they announced yesterday that the last episode of Stranger Things of the entire series, is going to hit theaters the same day that the episode starts streaming on Netflix.
So for anyone who maybe forgot what happened.
You know, season four of Stranger Things came out over to like about two years ago. So I am recommending rewatching. I have been rewatching from season one all of Stranger Things, because the final season will drop about a month from now. And you know, some estimates say that there they spent sixty million dollars per episode of this last season making the show, yeah yeah, come to life, and so it's
gonna be huge. It's gonna be epic and it's gonna be a movie theaters, So you know, it's I have I've had such a fun time rewatching the show and reminding myself you know, why I loved it, why it's really been boundary breaking, and why Netflix has invested so much into it. So yeah, if if you have some time to kill, uh, you know, the final season will drop right before Thanksgiving, the first part of that season, so you know, have about a month if you want to rewatch the first four seasons.
Yeah, yeah, I mean it's it's I think the reason why and we can talk about why it's so iconic. I think just because it really captured the whole eighties aesthetic really well. It wasn't like campy or anything like that. It was it's really well.
Done exactly, and even the way they fold in some sort of eighties familiar faces. Of course, Winona Ryder plays the mom, and then they have guest appearances from you know, Sean.
Aston who was in the Goonies and.
You know, things like that, and then in the last season there will be some guest appearances as well from other eighties icons.
So you know, I think it's it is it.
Really does a good job with that eighties you know aesthetic and vibe and even the music you know, pays homage to that time as well.
Plus it's so weird, right, you got horror and sci fi and mystery and it's a coming of age drama. You get like it's it's hitting all and normally it's way too they'd be way too confusing, but they make it.
Work exactly, and parts are very funny too, and and you know, heartwarming.
So so yeah, it is like it blends those.
Genres really really well. And it's well acted also.
Yeah, and if you think about it too, I mean, this was the first season. I want to say, was it twenty fourteen, twenty somewhere in there, but it really felt like this is the one, Like the Sopranos made Hbo. This felt like this is what made Netflix.
To me, I think you're right on the money with that, exactly.
This was when I was like, oh, okay, like I should be paying a subscription to watch this show.
Yep, right exactly. He is will Gans, ABC News multi platform guy in New York. He does it all. Go see him on GMA three at will Gans with two Wes's and Deliver from Nowhere looks like the hit that people are pretty I think it's gonna be pretty well the box office. And then you got options on the small screen as well. Appreciate it. Well, we'll talk next week.
Man, all right, have a great weekend.
You as well. You as well, you as well. So there you go. Stranger things got that. Nobody wants this, and it's kind of like the Jets, nobody wants us. We got that on Sunday, and you see football tomorrow. So hey man, we got sports. You got stuff to do. I think I'm gonna go to the theater. It's I don't know, maybe not this weekend. At some point, I'm gonna go see Delivered Me from Nowhere. I haven't been in the theater in a long time. Like that seems to me like the one to go see because it's
gonna sound great. And who isn't a Jeremy Allen White fan. I mean, if you saw Shameless, that that was what he made him. Let's put it that way. He's like, woh, this guy's a great actor. And then he does the Bear, which is as good in a different way. I thought the last season wasn't as good as the previous ones, but it was still pretty good. And now he's Springsteen, So those are the things you're like, I kind of gotta go see him because he is a hell of
an actor. And if he's doing the singing and the guitar, and if you've seen some of the clips on social the vocals are it's incredible. It's like you think you're watching Bruce Springsteen and a lot of the facial features and gestures. He really has him down, did a really really job with it. The storyline, I'm just curious, is it two inside Baseball? Like Nebraska is not the biggest reason why they're doing I guess it's the story behind it. But anyway, if you're a fan of music, he got that.
We got football this weekend and got movies, got it all going on. Let's get a time out in It's the Scott Sloan Show. In about four minutes here on seven hundred WLW will get into the NBA scandal and some observations about that, and particularly the day after the NBA season starts, right this is when the FBI decides that they're going to overshadow all of that with this scandal.
I think it's an interesting timing and why we'll get into and just minutes here, slowly back and forth on seven hundred WLWT, seven minutes away from news on this Friday morning. Seven hundred WLWT is so far nice and quiet, like we like it, like we like it. Steve Gooden, who is a council CANDI, former councole person and attorney, a little analysis on what the city just did relative to Terry Fiji, because it really leaves a lot of folks myself included scratching our heads going, I just I've
never seen anything like this before. You fire someone and then decide to find the reasons why you fired her in the first place. That just ahead Bengals trying to get into even five hundred Bearcats going for seven straight. We've got lots of football this weekend. Also also also
we have the scandal that just broke yesterday. So why does the FBI do this massive press conference slash purp walk yesterday afternoon the day after the well, the the as I say, at the start of the NBAC, they had twelve games on Wednesday, and of course you had you know, a night kickoff, couple games, a couple of games and then big with a big slide full slighting. Why would they do that like opening week because it totally took away from opening to the NBA basically is
what it was opening day. I guess I should say with a full slight of night games. Everyone's so excited about that, and I think it. You know, looking at you can kind of tell why. So Travel's coach, the Hall of Famer Chauncey Billups and Miami Terry Rose here thirty people among their people, thirty four in total arrested yesterday, and this investigation has been going on for a long
time in the FBI. It's Wirefrog conspiracies, money laundering. So Rosier arrested and accused of leaking confidential information about his health to people associates who used that to bet that he would underperform. So he's in a game, he said, hey, here's here's again, and you know, he winds up leaving early, faking an injury, and they bet the under onund how many points each court basically and Chauncey Billups, it's a
whole different thing. That's Tony Soprano and the Italian mob of Coosonostro, which surprises of Italian they still are still that strong. But although they have private table games backed by the New York Mob, and there's X ray poker tables, so I can see what the cards are, and it's that that's a whole different thing right there. And of course John D Porter, a former NBA bench player, also accused of disclosing confidential information about his health to a
better So those are three of the big ones. But I look at this and go, okay, why would you do this on that It's because the NBA already cleared Rose here essentially did their own internal investigation, I guess, and said, okay, yeah, nothing to see here, and the
FBI said, well hold on just a second. So they start looking at it, and then I think, what's happening, especially under Trump right doesn't like to be if you're the FBI, like, wow, the NBA said, there's nothing to see here, and clearly there's a lot to see here. So we're going to we're going to rain on their parade. We're going to destroy opening week because this is now the big story. Like nobody's paying, you know, paying somewhat attention, but no one cares. I cared about the NBA, going wow,
what the hell's going to the NBA? I mean, a huge black guy for the league could have done this weeks ago, probably before the season, preseason whatever, but they decided to drop it this week. I think that's in the message. I really really do that this is a lot bigger deal than the NBA. It's you know, hard to say that the NBA covers something up or look
the other way. And I mean pretty clearly if you say there's nothing than to see here everything's good, and the FBI says no, there isn't and you've got you know, the mob involved for crying out loud and it's all tied together. That is clearly a shot across the bow of the National Basketball Association. I think the other thing too, is looking at this because now it's on trial, is the integrity of professional sports and the legal betting era. Right,
It's like, oh, this is what happened. This is what happened. You have all these sports book and gaming sports, but see you could see this coming. Look it's not like cheating and point shaving. All this stuff is new. It just used to we'd still be doing this. It's not all like sports gambling would go away. You know when you're back in college back in the day, buddy, that what you had someone who's a bookie, you knew someone who knew somebody, okay, and you know, if there's enough money.
But it's not like we haven't had a long history of people trying to fix games and matches since sports began in the United States, which in the early days, right, I'm pretty sure like when they're playing that weird game where they got a leather ox and ball and they're throwing it through the hoop on horseback with Indians, like, I'm sure somebody was betting on that, and then somebody was like fixing game, you know, boxing and all that
stuff back in the day. So yeah, I don't know if I'm it's it's certainly more complextions a lot more money in it, because you're talking about one hundred and fifty billion dollars in legal bets just last year alone, huge amount of money, and somebody's going to skim some of that. I totally get it. But let's look at how they got caught for a second. So you had a better professional better I think, placed thirty wagers in
less than an hour and all involving Terry Rozier. Do you remember a few years ago and the U see baseball team. I think you See Baseball is called no one from you See Baseball. I think was Charger got in trouble for it. But there's a guy who was a great American ballpark at the sportsbook there and it was putting as I recall, you may remember this better than I do, but I think it was pending like
one hundred thousand dollars on an Alabama baseball game. I was like Alabama, Clemson or wherever it was, and he had inside information that the pitcher would be benched. So he's betting one hundred grand on that on college baseball. So in this case, you've got a guy betting a lot of money on Terry Rozier and that's just gonna set the algorithms go nuts. And it's not like they don't have people at all the sports books that are monitoring that behind the scenes and so obviously all electronics,
but they're social media. Who's betting on what the prop bets? And do you look at this, you go, WHOA that jumps off the I mean, it's terror's here, right, So it jumps off the page. And that's where they start the investigation. Like the NBA couldn't figure that working with the sports books. That's what tells me this is why they did it when they did it. That could be wrong about that, but this is gonna be a black
guy for the NBA for a long time. So as far as the integrity of professional sports go, I think you're this is going to be commonplace. I think maybe not happening all the time, but it's going to take an idiot like that, you know, like the the that Alabama guy with uc and at Great American Ballpark or this case, and every few years you're gonna have knuckle at doing this or somebody trying to do this. I'm gonna get cads can be a big story because they're
so good at catching this stuff. Because again, this is not good, not good for the sports books. It makes them look really, really bad. So there's a more incentive them to to make sure they're moditning this at all times. I think it goes away. I think it's just something we're gonna live with. I don't think it's the end of sports or anything like that, like some people are making it out to be, Oh, this is what happens. Yeah,
they downfalls non buying it. I really not. We'll get a news update Steve good Next, you fire the chief and then you look for the reasons to fire hers. It's making sense to you, does makes sense to him either, and he's an attorney's ready to go. We'll talk to him next after news on the Home of the Best Bengals coverage seven hundred WLWD Cincinnat. It's a Scott'sloan show on seven hundred WLW and free ever where you go with the iHeartRadio app. Take It's with You podcast after
the show streaming. We got you Covered, we got you covered on all those platforms. A mind up boggling example of ready fire aim chief Teresa Thiji placed on administrative leave, paid administrator to leave at that and an interim chief. And Adam Henny named this before the investigation into the effectiveness of our leadership as a city calls it that any of this happens. It's the city is looking for a reason to fire the chief. After they fire the chief,
it just goes from bad to worse. Too ridiculous at this point with the City of Cincinnati, and it's a leader after ad Pierre Valscher along the city manager in just more confusion and chaos. When we don't need it. Steve Goodness, here is a council candidate from a council member, attorney and charter right, and with his analysis here this morning, Steve, how are you, Steve? You there, Steve Gooden? Well wait wait, hold on, hold on, stam let's go there we go.
We got you asked you yeah, yeah, yeah, first day on the new job, first day, and the new job for me, there's an irony here because it's the executive branch, it's law enforcement. The irony is, of course, there's no due process for the chief of police. This is conviction before being charged. And on that they even't even hired a law firm.
Yet.
How does this make any sense legally?
Well it doesn't.
I mean, look, you know, I've had employees, you know, for most of my career. And look, rule number one is if you've got the goods on somebody, you just go ahead and fire them, you know. And so the idea that here they said, hey, well we want you to resign. The charter clearly says that once the chief has served more than six months, she can only be
fired for cause. So presumably, if they had any kind of cause or bad behavior on her part, that had been documented, they were just going ahead and fired her, and we wouldn't have this far.
So now they're.
Trying to create a ground, obviously, create grounds to fire her after the fact, after they've already sort of gone to her and asked her to resign. It is a morale killer. It's more politics that the rank and file see this. I talked to some officers yesterday who are just disgusted by how this is playing out. I mean, they're already short staff, morale was already bad. And I got to hand it to mayor and the council. They have done the impossible. They have taken a horrible situation
and made it yet worse. I always thinking like, there's really no way it gets any worse. We have rampant gun violence, business is downtown, is scared in town. We literally have slats standing on Fountain Square. My offices right there was there yesterday. We don't really have a police chef. How could we make it worse? And also, you know, I've never seen a situation we're bringing a bunch of lawyers in. Billing by the hour makes anything better. I not say that as a lawyer who bills by the hour.
It never makes things better.
Here's a great example.
It's terrible.
See here's a scandal, the betting of the gambling scandal. Chauncey Billups. Okay, how it works all always is always deficient. Is all of a sudden, there's a bombshell, Hey, we're on a press count. Here's what's gonna happen. It's like, we caught all these players in the gambling scheme and at the mob's involved, and you have a press conference, you lay the charges out. On the other side says, oh,
we deny, we deny, we deny. Uh. That's how you don't go, Hey, by the way, uh, Chauncey, we're going to we're gonna we're gonna do this, uh, and then go and find that we're not sure we believe they did this, and now we're gonna go and investigate it. It's it's completely backwards. You don't do that. You have
the charges that they make, the presentation. You don't present and say we're gonna let we're Chauncey Billups, We're we're gonna suspend you, We're gonna come after, we're gonna charge you, but we're not going to tell you what it is. We've got to hire a team to do that, but we know you're guilty of something. It does, It doesn't even pass a sniff test for most people. It's insane, right, right.
It's a fundamental, you know, violation of it, just even the most basic due process on her part. She can't answer the charges because she doesn't know what they are. Now we know from the mayor's comments that they're hanging all this on her quote in effectiveness.
But what she's.
Already telegraphed very strongly is I think she acknowledges she was uneffective, okay, because of the policies she was given
an instructed to do. I mean, we know that city Hall and the mayor helped elect a set of judges over in the courthouse that really didn't believe in cash bail, so they were putting gun offenders back on the streets rapidly, and that that contributed to the frustration in the police department, and that she has clearly said that she went to the mayor to try to correct the situation and he refused.
We also know that this whole bizarre compliance versus enforcement thing on lower level offenses came right from the city manager and the mayor now I fault the chief candidly for not pushing back more on that. So they stopped writing, you know, weed tickets, stopped pursuing graffiti issues, stopped dealing with the homeless situation downtown, and over time, the failure to prosecute or deal with these low level offenses created a sense of lawlessness that brought the real bad actors
with guns downtown. So we've seen that. But calling her ineffective because your policies were ineffective, I mean, that's ridiculous and this just isn't the way you do things. So ok, I used to run a big law firm and there were a couple of different instances where we had young lawyers who had who had done bad things, and we did an investigation and then we went to them and laid it out.
And so you either.
Resign or get fired, and here are your options. And here's what we found. Unless you have some answer, that's how it works. This is they're trying to make up a reason to fire her after that.
Forgets yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, And now we have a pattern of behavior, Steve Gooden, and when it's abuse of due process, let's go back to the July Street brawl where you had an individual white guy right who has started this whole thing allegedly, and then the city comes out and says, well, well, you know what, actually a minute forty six prior, they were the victim of some very extreme racial attacks and physical attacks and this was him bass So and you know, he had the ministers
crying for Whitey to be charged all this stuff, and they do that and it's actually Adam Henny now the interim chief oddly enough, so you see there's some quid pro quote at least, and I'm not demeaning Chief Henny here.
I understand it's a great cops cops cop, but again, playing the game is that now you cast dispersions on the integrity of the office, because like, if you're willing to write a ticket for something you didn't witness yourself, and the officers didn't want to get jammed up, and he said, I'll take the bullet from my officer so to speak, and write the citation that led to the charges.
It's cut from the same cloth like, Okay, we're going to wait a month to charge someone, and pretty clearly it's someone who shouldn't be charged, but we're doing it because of political correctness and political expediency, just like we're doing now we have a trend now.
Right Well yeah, I mean it's just what we've done here is just they're going to just undermines the sense of fairness and of law and order in the town. It really does look like the mayor and the city manager can say I want they charged, so they.
Go back and charge them.
Whether there's evidence or not, I don't know, but certainly you had a guy who an officer who signed the charge, who was not involved in the investigation, wasn't there, it hadn't interviewed the guy even apparently. And now you also have the scenario where they're saying, on these low level offenses, we don't want people charge.
And how do you have a city that way.
We have a charter that says our police chief and city manager is supposed to be independent above politics. They're supposed to be out there policing and do it, you know, working, going where the crime is, looking at real metrics and trying to figure out what to do. And that's what the neighborhoods are, you know, crying about, because I mean, I mean, we don't even trust I don't trust the data coming out of the police department in City Hall anymore.
I think it's clearly been manipulated to make the gun violence look less. You know, from shots Boer, we're on track for twenty three thousand shots fire, but that isn't reflected in the other data.
It's clear from the top right, I mean, the two examples. I game what you saided here too. It's like the mayor is deciding what justice looks like in I'm sorry, but I wonder about those people who would support AFTAB perval and a heartbeat who are down marching at the No Kings rally. Isn't this what you're allegedly fighting against?
Well, I mean, I mean, it could not be more perfect of an analogy between Donald Trump and AFTAB. I mean, it's exactly the same thing. It's just, you know, they're on different sides of the aisle politically, you know, but there is this sense on both sides that they are like busting through some of the norms you know that
we have out there. Is the critique people make of Donald Trump is exactly the same critique that could be made of AFTAB, which is somebody who really just doesn't plan with the rules and I would go a step further. I mean, the thing that makes me the sickest is we've had mayors in the past who have kind of lost their way, but we've always had some diversity of thought on city Council and some people with backbone that
we're willing to push back. These guys have been with maybe one exception in the last twenty four hours, no one's done anything. I mean, in the the old days, you know, Chris Smitherman or a Steve Gutten or even maybe Alassie somewhere you know, or you called someone like that would have called for a hearing right a public here to say like what happened here?
They bring the chief, and they.
Bring the city manager in and say like, hey, look, you know, with the cameras on, tell us what the hell is going on here where?
You know? And they wouldn't have.
Just accepted this nonsense day in and day out. So there's a lack of oversight from council that really really makes this even worse, because I mean, they have a role in this process. They can you know, they have the ability to shine a flashlight here and they are hiding under their desks.
But I would point out that we're being told to add at nauseam from after a peer of all in others, this is not political. She's not a political scapegoat. The election has nothing to do with the decision. The decisions we take public safetyes are number one priorities. We're taking it seriously. This is not political all. As a matter of fact, she's not even fired. She's on paid administrative leave.
And there's another part of the of the absurdity Steve Gooden, is that, all right, Thigi's on paid administrative got fired, she's had administrative leader. She's still in the paycheck while we investigate her over the next one. It's going to take months, apparently to solved this. Then why name a interim chief instead of an acting chief. If you're suspended, it's an acting chief. Like if someone's hurt. You know, Joe Flacco is the acting starting quarterback, he is not
the interim starting There's a difference in a nuance. There is interim chief not acting. They essentially have given it like, well, we're done with the old chief. This is the innermundile. We find a new one. They've already stated that, and then they go back and go, well, no, she just doesn't leave.
Well, you know what's so funny is he actually slipped up at one of his you know, he was sort of ambushed coming out of council chambers yesterday and I think it was Channel twelve or one of the other reporters asked him, you know some pretty tough questions. He said, well, whenever we move on and change leadership at a tough time. And I said, okay, so you're firing her. Oh no, I'm not saying that. You just said we're changing leadership.
And it was like, you know, you're like you can't even keep.
Your your Live Street interim in acting for god, so you don't even know what the adjectives you mean at this point. It's so comically bad in the in the sad part about this is all right, it's going to go on in for a months, okay, so put your political hat on here. A second, good and from the legal one, Okay, after the election, what happens, well.
You know after the election, I mean Louell first, unfortunately, I see this dragging into the next year.
Uh.
And I mean I think number one, what the first one we got to watch for is what law firm they choose. So if they choose one of the go to law firms that have represented AFTAB and council in the past, and they've gotten in trouble, we're going to know the fixes in you know, I we're hoping to go with someone outside the area, if you have some integrity here, who might actually push back. But I wouldn't hold my breath for that. So Number one is we
got to watch which law firm. If it's one of these like hyper connected democratic law firms, you know, then all bets are off as to what happens there. But I would expect us to drag on at least through the end of the year with us having a suspended chief and an interim chief and then some sort of a search. If there was any integrity here, they'd wait and see what the new council is going to look
like so that they could have some input. But my guess is that there's going to be like a hurry up to try to resolve all this in December before anybody can come in and shine a.
Light on it.
How much longer is she under contract? How much as you do? How long does that last?
My understanding is, and I haven't read it, but my recollection is that they renew it every two years. And that is where this gets funny from a legal standpoint, is that if you recall, we have this thing called Issue five that was passed back from two thousand and five, which is deeply unpopular with the FOP and probably is ripe.
To be revisited.
That kind of takes the chief out of some of for or most of the civil service protections. So the idea is that the Sydney Manager, with input from the mayor, actually could just fire the chief for cause. And that's in the charter and it spells it out pretty clearly that once you're in the job six months, it's kind of a probationary period. Could be fired for any reason. After six months, they have to actually prove that you've screwed something.
Up for cause.
But they are, on top of that, have apparently been issuing these two year contracts that somehow, you know, deal with compensation and so forth, and apparently there's language in there that contradicts the Charter. So that's why she's lawyered up and there's going to be some sort of a court battle about what her rights really are. And even
this is a mess. I don't know how the law department allowed this to happen where you have something in the contract that I guess the contract doesn't mention her being fired for cause, but yet the charter says she is. They're in conflict, and it's the classic sort of thing that you end up, I hate to say it, having lawyers fight out in court in the fact that we're here and that we've been kind of doing business this way for years, you know, is just terrible. And again
the taxpayers lose. I mean, this is going to cost every bit of a million dollars or about the salary and benefits of five to six police officers the time this is all said and done.
Yeah, he is a Steve Gooden counsel condidate, former councilman and a charter right Steve Gooden on the Ready Fire aim approach with Fiji. She is on paid administrative leave. They name an interim chief not acting interim, so there's confusion there. And now they're going to hire a law firm that could take months for them to investigate why they fired her in the first place. Yeah, that's that's
real life. That's really happening in the city right now with an election happening by the way, in just a couple of weeks, and of course everyone is saying, I have to have on down. This is not political. Is it time for us to blow everything up? The way it works because we have a very inofficial if you live in Cincinnati, been here long til you kind of pay attention to it. But our government is so inefficient.
And it starts the fact there's so much overlap between Hamlin County and the City of Cincinnati in fighting for their turf. Of course you see stadium issues and such, but even within the design itself. You know, you mentioned the contentious issue five, but also how council works, how the city manager in rates and all this stuff. Because
there's cover for everyone involved. Her council can go, well, we have a strong mayor in the mayor goes, well, we've got a city manager, and the city manager says, well, we've got a mayor and a council. It's like no one, there's no one. The way we've got it wired right now, it strikes the average person like myself, Steve goodin that it's wired so there's no one accountable.
Well, it's wired so that you end up with an absurd result and you know, and it would work. The current system would work. It's not perfect, but would work better if council would just step up, if we didn't have like a you know, an all a nine member politically ambitious Democratic city council who would actually step up and provide some of the oversight.
That they are allowed to do.
But I mean, to your larger point, I have always been somebody who has been pushing for at least some form of metro government so that we might actually find some of these efficiencies.
I mean, even.
Hyahoga County, even Cleveland has gone to a limited form of metro government, Indianapolis has, Louisville as I mean, it's it's ridiculous that we have all these turf battles. It's
ridiculous that our departments don't work well together. And I mean back when I was in the prosecutors obviously as a young assistant prosecutor, back in two thousand and one, post to Timothy Thomas shooting and the riots that happened, we absolutely had a level of cooperation between the city and the county then that will be unheard of now.
You know, we had Operation Vortex. You know they were doing gun and drug sweeps with CPD and Sheriff's patrols, I mean, and Ohio State Patrol and it was wonderful and it really made a difference. But now everyone is just in their silos and they don't cooperate at all, and it's really silly. And that's something that just desperately needs some fresh thought. And I can tell you this
current crew or that's not where their head is. They're just all about protecting what they have rather than trying to look at what would actually serve the public bust.
This is the maybe this is a catalyst for Steve. I don't know. I'm trying to be optimistic here.
Well, well, I'm trying to be optimistic too, and I think another part of it is and I'm hoping this is the year and the time frame where some folks in the business community who I know have been talking for some time about metro government and substance of reforms. I know there's a working group down at the Chamber. It's very quiet that they've been looking at and studying
and pushing these issues. And there's just got to come a time where we're not not just you know, the citizens, but the business community and all these other groups that kind of feed in, they have to speak up on this stuff too, I mean, because they have a right or wrong, a louder voice, and it's been very easy for them to kind of go along cynically and say, well, look, you know, I have to have very you know, he's going to win, it's a blue city, et cetera, et cetera,
and just to go along to get along, and some people are going to have to stand up. I mean, you know, we've been our little group has been pretty fearless about speaking out on these issues this year. We've paid a price for it in terms of some lost friendships and broken business relationships. But that's fine. I mean, that's what it takes. We need more people to speak up and say this isn't working, we're not happy, we're
not going to go along to get along. We need real substance of change, just at every step of the way. And it's just going to take some political courage and some personal courage, frankly, because you know, in this world of lobbyists and nonprofits and the people that really have a lot of voices at city hall, there's a lot of personal relationships and you have to be willing to just step on those at times if you're going to do the right thing.
Gotch all right, he's a consul candidate, Steve Gooden. We'll see if this enacts any change. Probably not with the mayor, but I you know, ask others about the trickle down here, and I think it's I would think it's going to be substantial that somebody's going to pay for all this ineptitude that's happening at the hand of a f tab and cheer along and forts. It's probably gonna be some decent people on console for that matter. We'll see how
it shakes out. Steve, all the best, and maybe you're part of that change, hopefully, and you can bring some of these ideas to fruition. All the best, man, have a great weekend. Thanks you two. Take care, take care. We got to get the news and we're in a return. We have fun because it's Friday. A little heavy for a Friday. I apologize. But the insanity what's happening in the city is it's unprecedented. It really really is. Austin
Elmore from ESPN fifteen thirty jumps in. Next. We'll talk football, football, and more football, plus the NBA scandal the latest on that next seven hundred WW Scott Flund show. The music needs one thing orange synthesizers in Austin Elmore. That's what I think of when I hear this sees Austin More from ESPN fifteen thirty. Since he three sixty is the show? Tony Pike not anymore. It's not since he three sixty anymore? Wait, because he was fired for a week. Now we it's
Tony Pikes since e three to sixty. Oh, Tony, what's the name of the show. How do you feel about being now relegated the fifth wheel and still the second My exact.
Words to management were, I'm pissed about this. Yeah, and they said life's not fair. That's what they told you.
Yeah, Oh okay, good, Well guess what. They're not wrong. You're You're on You're right now, You're on this show on l W. And Tony's not about that. On the other hand, he's going to be inducted to the UC Hall of Fame later today. I know. I am looking forward to that. It's before it. I'll have later out of the show to talk. It's a great weekend though, because like the Pike's doing that and you've got lap going in.
It's it's awesome. And the weather it looks like it's going to be pretty good. I love a four o'clock start at Nippert. That's going to be beautiful. I'm come up against Baylor. Yeah, it's it's gonna be a fun weekend. I have a hankering to go to the Bengals game. I don't know why, but like, I really just want to go. You know, I know why. You just expected it to be a beatdown. No, I don't, No, I don't. I don't expect that. Well, let's jump into that. Let's
start before we get into all that stuff. First of all, reaction to the NBA scandal yesterday. I'll give you my take whatever that might be on it. But I'm curious this thing holds it And I've just talked about this. To me, it's not that a broke, it's when it broke, Yeah, right after the start of the season, like the day after.
It overshadowed Opening Day basically so well.
And I think what we've learned so far already is that the NBA knew about this and swept it under the rug.
And that tells me the Trump administration said, watch this we're going to ruin opening week maybe because it's been going on for years, Why do it that day? Well, I don't know.
And obviously there's this belief that Gilbert Arenas, who was the first arrest in this, snitched on everybody back in July. And so you could say that, Okay, well, over the last couple of months, they've been getting their p's and q's in order and getting this case strong so that they can go and you know, do this whole thing. Ye, Or you can say they knew this whole time what was going to happen, and so we're going to do it to ruin the NBA.
Maybe.
So I don't know that it matters that much as much as the truth matters here, and the truth is that the NBA has a gambling problem. This is not the first time that this has happened. And you know, you don't see this issue in the NFL.
Nope.
You've started to see it a little bit in Major Baseball. You don't see it in hockey. You haven't seen it at the college level to this point. The NBA has an issue specifically with this, and I think part of it is you play eighty two games, there's so many singular prop bets. There's so many different ways to manipulate it. But the sports books know, and the sports books knew about Terry Rozier right away, and the NBA came up with this fake injury and he stopped playing, and they
knew about it and swept it under the rug. Come to find out, it goes deeper with ties to a crime family and high stakes poker games and these elite level boards and sunglasses.
And a car table X ray table. I'm going to Watson's like.
It goes so deep, and it's just it's not a good thing for the NBA.
It's not And here's that. And that's why I think is like the NBA did investigation on Rogier, right, It's like, oh, it had nothing to see here, And then the FBI is probably saying they're like, yeah, now the FB like did they were they incompetent investigation or did they just simply go, hey, man, the money's rolling in. We don't want to we don't need controversy. And I think that's why they did this the day after in an overshadowed
opening week. It took all the steam out of that engine that the big build up for the NBA season, and I think that was to send a message and politics aside.
I have no problem with that because there is no place because I love the NBA. I watched the NBA. There's no place for that, and you've got to get it buttoned up. This is one of the concerns that people had from the very beginning. So the NBA is I'm sure feeling the pressure from the sports books in and of itself, and they're probably like, Hey, aren't you gonna do anything about this? And they're like, no, we're good. Well it's like, hello, you're messing with our business. So
then you get the FBI involved. I'm sure the other leagues are not happy with the NBA two because now doubt starts to creep into everything that had Yeah.
Well, and I think the other element is people are making this is the in the integrity of sports with gambling and college like you've always had that, you're still gonna have it. And look at how he got caught right,
it was it was a professional gambler. It's putting all this money in Rogier that basically betting the under knowing that he was going to leave the game, and it set off all these signals are off of the sports books and kind of like remember the UC scandal what you see was named in it with the Alabama baseball coach. Sure that happened the summer at GABP. I was just
talking about that going It's the same thing. Were like, this guy put one hundred thousand dollars on an Alabama baseball game for the picture for them to way because they knew the starting pitcher was gonna eat pinch. It's like, it's what else is new?
Right?
So anyway, let's move on to football. You see Tony Pike Day at at Nipperts Stadium as home coming, and of course normally we talk about Baylor, we think about the NCAA tournament and basketball, not so much with football. I will say though, that you look at their record and you look it up, they're still putting up with thirty six points, so you know, and UC's defense is certainly not the best it's ever been. High scoring game.
You think on something, I think you see defenses a work in progress, and they're an entirely different defense without Dante Corleone on the field, and they have to do a better job of adjusting because teams are taking advantage of that defense when he's not on the field. And Baylor specifically as one of the best passing offenses in the NFL or in the in the country in college football, So they are going to try to air it out.
They're gonna try to use play action, They're gonna try to get those linebackers out of position, and it's not it's gonna be a challenge for you.
Six Saturday.
Brendan Sowersby is playing like one of the best quarterbacks in the country eighteen to one touchdown to interception ratio. He's been able to move the ball with his feet outside the pocket. He's finally got weapons that he can get the ball to on the outside. They're they're playing as good as they have under Scott's sadderfield altogether. I think their special teams has been pretty solid as well.
So Bearcats are favored. I expect them to win. And yeah, it's gonna be a fun weekend with Tony going into the Hall of Fame tonight and a few others and they're all being honored and there's a big parade tomorrow before the game as well that Tony's gonna be the Grand Marshagans they're taking.
It's in front of day Open giant inflatable, real size Tony Pike head. Well, I don't know if they make them that big.
Uh.
And speaking of honoring people, are Tony Pike and our Dave Lapham gets it on Sunday a ring of honor and the three and four Bengals trying to get to an even five hundred six and a half point favorites the dog of the league, the New York Football Jets are in with their oh to seven record, and you know, you look at it on page it's a it's a total mismatch, especially considering the injuries that a bad Jets team has on top of this.
Uh.
But nonetheless it's still an seven team. It's cornering an injured dog, so to speak. You gotta watch out. Yeah.
And historically the Bengals, coming off of the quote unquote many bye are not very good. I believe they've lost nine straight games following a Thursday game over the last ten seasons. Now, in their last ten Thursday games, they're six and four, So they've been good at that, but they've almost always followed it up with the loss. They
have to avoid that against the Jets. On Sunday. My biggest issue with the Bengals right now is even if the Jets are hurt, and even if they're zero and seven, and even if you don't know who their quarterback is, if you don't tackle, you will get beat. Like their defense is good enough to keep them in the game even with the injuries, but you have got to get your defense off the field. If you're the Bengals. What
are the three biggest issues with the Bengals. They have a bad offensive line, they have a bad defensive line, and they can't tackle. It doesn't matter who you play in the National Football League. Those three things will get you beat.
Got it?
So the offensive line trending in the right direction, defensive line you think will be better with Trey hendrickson coming back. You have got to tackle or you will lose. You can't overlook this game. You can't start looking ahead to Chicago. You can't have a hangover after you beat the Steelers
on a Thursday night. Hopefully a normal week with the Bengals offense and with Joe Flacco and maybe a little bit of clarity on what this defense wants to do and if they're a little healthier, can mean that the Bengals start to turn it in the right direction. But those things, especially the tackling the last two weeks nineteen misstackles against the Green Bay Packers, double digits again against the Pittsburgh Steelers. That cannot happen. That is a red
flag for the Bengals. Cray is limited with the hip. Does it make sense that you could still win this game with Shamar and there? I mean, granted, now he's not played up to where he should be or expected being even by those admission he hasn't either. But it feels to me, with the limited weapons that they have, and now Tyrod Taylor, who's going to be a pocket, it seems to me like you can win without Trey.
Being in there.
Yeah, you would think so, or if this makes sense to rest him again, I don't know that I would do that. Trey will want to play and part of his contract involves playtime, so him missing one game, he's not going to want to do that. But at the bare minimum, I would like to see him in at pass rushing downs. You know, much like the Packers at the beginning of the season with Michael Parsons, he had that back injury. He only really came out on the
field on third downs, third and five or longer. And so maybe we'll see that type of thing from Trey Hendrickson and redoce that workload a little bit, because Shamar needs more reps and I give him a little bit of grace coming off the ankle injury against the Steelers last week, but he's got to start making some noise.
Nobody else really is now.
I will say this, Joseph Osai has really ticked up over the last couple of games. He's starting to trend in the right direction. One of the league leaders in pressures right now. So if Osai can stay consistent much like he was the final five games of last year with Trey, with Shamar, you might start to have something. You're gonna have to run game. I have a run game.
Mean, Chase Brown put up ridiculous numbers last week. Didn't No one saw that comings They've been so bad all year and then just absolutely flashes. You probably don't have to put that kind of performance in simply because mentioned the injury bug. I was kind of looking forward to seeing Sauce against our number ones, right Chase on twenty twenty two, when he came in the league. It's like, here, do you see guy homecoming weekend and be a great story.
He comes in, he shut Chase down last time, while he do it again this week, so he is out. You look at their secondary, the guy I will forget what his name, other corner he's got to I think he's gonna play. They're so banged up. But the point is he's just gonna air the ball out. I mean, you can need a little run game to balance with Flacco, but yeah, he's just gonna pass them, cut them up.
I would expect the Bengals to try to keep it going with that, that run game that they found against Pittsburgh. I think they want to really double down on that and establish that because you can see how that opens up the rest of the offense. And the Bengals had a big tendency breaker against the Steelers, which is when they went under center, they did a couple I think four straight drop back passes, which means when they're under center, previously it was either they run the ball or they
play action. Now two step, three step drop ball out of the hands of Joe Flacco. Defenses had to be prepared for that. That opens up parts of the offense as well, and it especially opens up parts of that run game. I saw some creativity in that run game. I saw some execution. Dalton Reisner at left guard. Don't
know if he's going to start. Zach Taylor hasn't said going to be, but Dalton Reisner over the course of his career has played left guard more and he looked a lot more comfortable there against the Pittsburgh and good correct So I could see Zach Taylor saying, Okay, I'm gonna stick with what's working here. If we're able to run the ball effectively with this grouping, let's stick with that and see how it goes.
Now, are they do?
They have a short leash like Jalen Rivers who is struggling in pass protection, maybe especially if there's a situation where the Bengals have to throw the ball. But I think Zach will lean into that run game to try to really get some confidence and some consistency in that unit going, and then that will open up the pass game, much like you saw against.
Yea and Dylan Fairshat and always hurt coming back off that and what pieces he puts together for for this Jets game. But he has options there as they start to hopefully it looks like they're turning the corner. But the Jets, you know, as a bad team to begin with, you got you got Tyrod Taylor in there. You don't have to worry about Justin Field's running all over you. Tyrod's gonna be a pocket guy at this state of the game. Joe Flacco gets to play another old quarterback.
They were teammates fourteen years ago. It's insane in twenty eleven to Rod Taylor and Joe Flacco were teammates with the Baltimore Ravens. Isn't that crazy that they're both still doing it? Yeah, they really are. Yeah, but you don't want to look past it. They're owing seven like you should die.
And I think the message from from Zach Taylor should be this week, Hey, all the crap that we've went to went through, and we're going to getting forty year old quarterback and Joe Burrow is still hurt. We still have a chance to be five hundred and two and zero in our division at home over the next couple of weeks, and we can get the five hundred before the bye. That should be the message. Everything you want
is still right in front of you. And I think the confidence of going and beating the Pittsburgh Steelers, the way that they played in that second half against Green Bay. I think this team has more confidence now than they've had at any point since Burrow got hurt, and that I think is a good thing. But you just want to avoid that hangover and say, okay, listen, you got to get to four and four so that you have a chance to get to five and four before the bid.
Chicago is a good team. We'll talk about that next week. That could be the trap there.
But that's the thing is you're gonna play a lot of good teams between now at the end of the season. There's a stretch there with Buffalo and Baltimore twice and New England is really coming on strong. So these games are very, very very important if you're continuing to try to buy some time for Joe Burrow.
We're also heading close to the trade deadline, and I you know, bring up the Logan Wilson thing and every year you have teams at the and I get it, man, you know, here's a guy, he's what is late twenties, twenty nine, I think, and he wants to play and they got rookies in there, he's not playing, and so he had played. They sat him at Green Bay last week, and you're looking for a new home, so you know, I know that a lot has been made. I don't
think that's controversial. I think that's just the NFL and he'll end up somewhere else.
Yeah, there's a lot of guys that have asked for trades over the last couple of years with the Bengals, and none of them have gotten traded. So I don't know that it means all that much. It's a smart move for him because you're two weeks out of the trade deadline and they clearly don't plan on playing you a significant amount. And there are some linebacker needy teams out there, the Dallas Cowboys, the forty nine ers. You obviously think of the fit of him and Louen or
Rumo in Indianapolis. There are some other teams out there that, Okay, they might pick up the phone and call for Logan Wilson, But the Bengals, as far as I'm concerned, the depth at that position is still a major issue. You know, outside of Logan Wilson, it's Shaka Hayward and Orrin Burks, and you don't really want to have to turn to those guys in the biggest moments.
Austin Elmore today ESPN fifteenth thirty, Tony Pike, since E three Tony Pikes, since he three to sixty. I'm just gonna call it since E three six. Thanks man, you got it starring Austin Elmore. Yeah, today at noon, my guy, the home of the best Bengals coverage seven hundred WW Cincinnati. It's got a flum show on seven hundred WLW. The National Football League it is a monster, and that I
think really diminishes what it is. I wish I could come up with a better adjective because I think about it, you know, yea, how big soccer is in racing and tennis, and the NFL generates more revenue than any other league in the world, and it's nearly all domestic if you think about it. As far as TV shows go. NFL counted for seventy the top one hundred broadcasts in the
United States last year twenty three billion in revenue. The Bengals and the all the other thirty one teams get over four hundred and thirty million dollars a year back from the NFL from TV revenue and all everything involved there. And there are three powerful figures that got us to where we are today. Is one of them Paul Brown. Let me ask Ken ken Belson. He's a veteran NFL business reporter with the New York Times, has the book out every day is Sunday, and Ken, welcome, How are you very good?
Thanks for having me on.
Yeah, we live in Cincinnati where Paul Brown still casts the shadow. I think you know the person who is essentially one of the cornerstones in the Mount Rushmore of the early NFL. But we're not talking about that. We're talking over the last couple of decades and how it became such a revenue monster. And the three people responsible are whom.
Jerry Jones and I started the book in the early nineties. So just as a reference for it, if we're going to expand Mount Rushmore, Paul Brown would most definitely be on it. But Jerry Jones, Robert Craft and now Roger Goodell, and I'm talking dollars and sometimes common sense.
Yeah, and look at that line. Go well, Jerry Jones came in prior to Robert Craft, I believe, and Roger Goodell of course the last commissioner. So let's start with the time. Let's start with Jerry Jones.
Sure, Jerry came in eighty nine. The Cowboys, which used to be America's team self proclaimed, of course, you know, were flat on their back. They were losing a million dollars a month. And he revived what was then the premieer brand of the seventies, and all those Landry Stylebach teams, he revived them. He brought money in Glymer and Glitz back,
and of course won three Super Bowls. But his big contribution, at least from where I sick writing the book looking at the League overall, was he was the first to look at the TV kind of tracts, which back then was CBS, ABC, NBC. There were only three bidders. It was a cozy club art model of the Browns used to run the the broadcasting contract. And Jerry, you know, as an entrepreneur, said why don't we have a fourth bidder, Why don't we get an auction going, which is also
business common sense yep. So he invited in a fellow named Rupert Murdoch, who was desperate for sports, to put Fox on the map and to get affiliates to switch over to him, and it worked. He blew a CBS out of the water. CBS learned its lesson, came back four years later and paid twice as much for the AFC package. And so Jerry really brought that kind of businessman's instinct, also a bit of a wildcatter's instinct. He started marketing the cowboys every which way and that pissed
off a lot of old owners. But yeah, he, as Carmen Polosy said, he taught us how to make money. That's what Jerry goes.
He really did.
I mean, think how you monetized the cheerleaders too. Had said, hey, you know Sexel sex Adalla's cowboy chelers are a huge thing in the seventies, had a TV show and everything. So he was squeezing every possible nickel out and this precipitated the era that we're in right now with the flamboyants, the media presence, the monetization of everything. So how does that then lead into Robert Craft? How did what did he add to the mix?
Well, Robert came in very much like Jerry. He paid record amount for a really bad team. The Patriots were always at the bottom of the league financially and usually in the standings as well, and he, you know, again set out to revive it. He built a new stadium eventually and then built real estate around it and went to the Super Bowl, as we all know. But again he got very involved in league business and also on
the media side. He had owned part owned a CBS affiliate in Boston, so he already had really good contact with Les Moonbez and Melk Camisan and these guys. And you know, he was the guy who brought CBS back in nineteen ninety six and they, as I said, they did twice as much for what was considered back then. The AFC package was considered less prestigious. So Robert also had that instinct we all need to we need to lift all both. We can't just focus on our own
teams in our own markets. And you know, Jerry in various places has picked on the Browns, the Brown family, and the Bengals because they weren't carrying or he felt they weren't carrying their weight. But his argument was, look, if we juice up the marketing, you know, everybody should be able to sell in their own markets and make extra money. But you know, some of the older teams are the older owners. They this wasn't how they did business. So there was a good culture clash, and it's a good one.
But there was a culture class in the nineties that now is just taken for granted. Everybody's in it to make.
Money, yeah, and it really has. And I think Bob Kraft and he had a hand in launching NFL Network and Sunday Ticket and all those things we just take for granted. But that was largely out of the mind of Bob Craft, wasn't it.
Absolutely? And you know, Bob still called Robert. He still goes to the Allen and Company, you know confab out Idaho every summer. He's you know, shoulders with NBC. All the networks come to see and go through Bob Craft. The big Sunday ticket renewal with YouTube when they switched over to YouTube was over two billion dollars a year, more than double what had been paid. And again, Craft
was very instrumental in that in some ways. Really interestingly, Jerry and Robert compete against each other for who gets credit for all this and they so I guess their egos also put them up on the Mount rushmore.
Okay, So Paul Brown begets Jerry Jones, a big gess Robert Kraft to So where does that go?
Then?
If that that lineage, you can get Bob Kraft, Getrie Jones. Who's the next I guess revolutionary? If you will change into the NFL, strights ownership goes which owner?
Well, I feel like we're entering NFL three point zero here. You know where teams are even now like lifestyle brands, they're becoming you know, real estate play. They're becoming literally communities. You look at what's happening in Nashville. They're building townhouses next to NFL stadiums. It used to be I mean, you know this every fan does. Stadiums used to be out in the suburbs and they were just surrounded by miles of parking lots. Kansas City still has that, and
teams are realizing, Boy, our brands are so powerful. We could sell pretty much anything because fans want to be sort of close to it, and Baseball has done a good job of it over the years. You know, building stadiums in cities. You know, family was sort of grandfarthered in even my beloved vents. You know, they're now putting
a soccer stadium across the street and apartments. But football's been slow to them, partly because of the size of the stadiums and just the infrequency of the number of games.
But there there is a scary city with the NFL, right, And that's the thing is amazing part about this is they did this is a baseball or hockey or the NBA. This is like seventeen weeks. Eighteen weeks, you're beginning, ending, and done. And that's an incredibly small amount of time to generate this kind of revenue. You're right about the bomb. Mean, here in Cincinnati, you know, you can get a place
overlooking Great American Ballpark. So he's Ken Belson. He writes for the New York Times vetric Reporter every day a Sunday. How Jerry Jones, Robert Craft and Roger Goodell turned the NFL into a cultural and economic juggernaut. It's fascinating. So we get to Roger Goodell, now Ken and his target going in when he took office, I think in twenty oh six, he wanted to triple the NFL revenue to twenty five billion by twenty twenty seven. I said in
the open last year they did twenty three billion. He's not on target, he's over target.
You're absolutely right, and it was audacious when he made that prediction to the owners. He was a relatively new commissioner then, but he wanted to show the owners what he was about. He was working on behalf of them in the thirty two and you know, as he knows, he knows who pays his salary. And if you said an aggressive target, even the owners in the room that I spoke with were shaking their saying, how are we going to get there? That's up billion dollars a year
for fifteen some odd years. That's that's pretty audacious. And the league back then was maybe ten billion dollars. So he did it. He did it through TV deals, not just Roger, of course, but he sets the tone in the building, not just for the media deals that the owners negotiate, but the sponsorships. You look now, of course you got Verizon and Pepsi. There's a new official bank EA, the game company. They keep splicing, slicing it a little
thinner and finding new ways to market. And you know it used to be and have a drink, Well, now there's the official rum sponsor, the official bost sponsor. So they're finding money in new places and look, brands want to be associated with the league and many sports.
Really, yeah, Ken, how has international expansion worked? Is that the future? Because it seems they're really pushing it. It's hard to tell me. You have a lot of expats attending games in London and elsewhere, and you're trying it in different countries and in different continents. Is that the future of the NFL?
It's one future of the NFL. I think there's something of a misconception that you know, this is like gravy on top of you know, an already robust domestic market. But the reality is they need to look overseas. The growth rate in America is population growth rate is slowing. You know, the concussion issue has turned some parents away from football, and you know, many many studies have shown that what sport you play as a kid is going
to turn you into a fan later in life. So if you play grow up playing a little league baseball, you're more likely to be a baseball fan. Of course, you like many sports, but your primary sport. So the NFL needs young kids playing the game. And that's where Flag comes in obviously, because it's a cheap way to start kids out on football and also to reassure parents. But
it's also why the NFL is looking overseas. They need new fans, new markets, new media deals, new sponsors, and so they using flag because outside of North America probably Germany, really not many people play it. So they have to educate fans. So I see international as much as a necessity as a luxury, and that's why we're seeing all these extra games being added. Roger Goodell see apparently they
want to add two more international games next year. Eventually they'll get to basically one every week by the time they're done with it.
And that seems like, I think of your football fan here, it just seems like that in no way the Europeans a British state, they don't really care about American football that. But it wasn't that long ago. Mostly under Roger Goodell, we said the same thing about female fans. It's a bunch of guys watching the women go and shop and make dinner or whatever. You know. Back of the seventies, SAJ think and now just as many women is matter watching football. How do they pull that one off?
Yeah, it's been a very deliberate long term strategy. Flag is one way to teach the game to fans who aren't interested in you know, option plays and or pos and all this other stuff, but they want they see the basics. I think they've been very good the branding of the league. I'm not just talking about preast cancer awareness, but literally the fashion items. If you go on NFL dot com, there's a lot of women's uh that lean into the women's fashion as well. Uh. And trying to
make it sort of more fan friendly. The game day experience. I mean the days when you would tailgate, drink a six pack of beer and go with your buddies. They're trying to make it so you can bring your kids to the game and your wife, maybe your girlfriend, So softening the sport a little bit. Not like the old dog Pound in the municipal stadium, you know she was was It wasn't even fan friendly, but uh yeah it
was kind of a rough out there. So yeah, So I think these are all very deliberate efforts to sort of broaden the audience because the older fans, I mean not one of them, we're aging out. Younger kids want an experience. This isn't just true of football, but many sports. They're looking for the experience, not so much looking for a season package. They're by the jersey, but you need a Joe Burrow, you know, you need some star pal. And then the NFL has picked up on that.
Yeah, yeah, I think maybe still a little bit from the NBA speaking of that. Of course, you know, we have controversies right and navigating and can suck concussion lawsuits and CTE and the flight date and all that stuff. NFL is really really good about handling criseses and flare ups like that.
Yeah. One of the themes in the book is you see over and over the Ray Rice issue, the bullying scandal, the de fight, to a certain degree, deflacate the social justice protests in twenty seventeen. The NFL is kind of a deck at identifying the problem, trying to minimize the risk,
usually with lawyers. Concussion crisis another example of this, and then trying to turn the focus back to number one quote what they call solutions, say for helmets, neurologists on the sidelines, and then trying to pivot forward, you know, and rebranding the game. They know, like it's you and I would understand, anybody would understand it. It's all about
the games. Once the games start, people are hooked, particularly late in the season, and so they try and address these problems so they can quickly pivot back to the football, the action on the field.
Yeah, Ken, what do you see as the biggest threat to the NFL over the next decade? Is it health? Is in fan engagement? Something else?
You know. The players now see gambling very differently. Many of them have grown up as adults after sports legalized sports gambling. You know, sports gambling was legalized nationally, so they don't have the same Alex karras Paul Hornig, you know, Pete Rose stigma, right, and it's mean as more entertainment. And I think players are going to unwittingly walk into some of these traps and not fully grasp what's going on. The Other thing is FELP funds. This is both good
in bad. You can watch your favorite highlights to get your fantasy scores, but it also distracts you from the actual product, and gambling only accelerates that. You know, the dopamine hit of seeing your favorite player score a touchdown and maybe get you six points in a fantasy league
is now accelerated. You know, hyped up when money is on the line, and you know, so I think it's it's it's not just the NFL, but the NFL is the most gambled on sport, and I think they're going to grapple with sort of a changing fan attitude towards the league. And I don't know how you put the genie back in the bottle. That's not my expertise, but it's it's going to play out over a bunch of years now.
Also, wonder how AI is going to change all the That's that's the unforeseen. I'm the I'm sure the NFL lean into it and adapt to whatever it is. But you know, I see that from an entertainment perspective, which sports is. It's not about sports anymore, it's about entertainment. I see that as an existential threat.
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, right now AI is being used mostly in in you know, analytics departments at teams, but also to figure out a way to get you to buy an extra ticket or you know, anticipate what you're going to want to drink when you get to the stadium and send you a coupon for it. So right now it's mostly on the business side, but there could be media strategies around it. I mean, fans are using it all over the place, and you know, spoofing is
a big issue too. But I just think that the trusts. It's so hard in any brand to build up trust, and it can evaporate very quickly if there's a scandal and people stop believing what they're watching.
All right, veteran New York Times sports reporter Ken Belson. The book is Every Day Is Sunday. How Jerry Jones, Robert Craft, Roger Goodell turn the NFL into a cultural and economic juggernauts. Fantastic read, Very very interesting, and considering we are the home of the best Bengals coverage, I think pretty relevant too to see where things have gone and where they're going. Ken, all the best, good luck with the book. Thanks for jumping on this morning.
All right, and Gojo Flackham.
We need we need Joe to go and the your Jets to go down. That's what we need.
That's another former Jets quarterback elsewhere.
Yeah, you get the Jets and the Browns together with quarterbacks. It's like a it's like an insynct grinder, for God's sake, see you.
Buddy, Yeah, Okay, take care.
We'll do a news update here in just minutes on the big one seven hundred WWS afore mentioned j E T S Jets. Jets Jets are in town Sunday. We'll have the game for you here, of course, with Dan and the Ring of Honor inductee himself, Dave Lapham here on seven hundred WLW.
The weekend's coming on and you need to make the most of it. Where to go and what to do. She has the tips and inside to help you make it a super weekend, So listen up. This is the Local Loop with Ali Martin on seven hundred w l W.
Hey, what's going on your week? Everything good?
It is great. It's chrispy out.
This is cold.
Actually, I feel like it's every finance bro dream because it's puffer vest season, Buffer best season.
You know the look I know, yeah, the quarters it yeah. And if you're thick, you look like a marshmallow. It's like you got to be Paul and bony like you and you get away. You get away with that. So it's all good. Ally Martin, it's the Local Loop. We'll jump right in. It feels like it's pumpkin season, to be sure, with Halloween on the horizon.
Let's go.
Yes, it is a pumpkin season and it's time for maybe a good haunted tour or if you're going, if you're going to any haunted houses. But there's one spot in particular that they're doing it right. Honestly, they're doing it right just in general because they have an incredible line of events that we have two we're gonna talk about here, and that's Northern Row. You remember Northern Row. It's a brewery near and over the Rhine. Really cool,
a lot of awesome history. Coming up. On Thursday, October thirtieth, they're doing this pumpkin painting party and you're like, well that kind of is that really fun? And like, yeah, it is fun because they're going to bring in live music and it's all for free and you can go and they'll give you pumpkins and you give you know, they give you all of the material and everything to use it. It's an extension of what they're doing called Craft Nights. So yes, it's a pun on words in
regards to craft beer. But also they're bringing in craft artists where they're really encouraging if you're into whatever it is, maybe you like to crochet, or you do like to paint, or you like to tinker with.
Some cool stuff.
I just want to drink you.
Then come and drate the craft beer.
On top of this though, because they're doing this pupkin painting party, they're collaborating with American Legacy Tours because right down the street is the Linked Tunnels in which they do their ghost tours. So you can hang out, d some beer, and sign up and go do a tour at the same time and check out the tunnels. If you've never done it and do the full on ghost tour, it is because.
You've been out of the have you done? You have done ghost ghost Let me.
Tell you can you try to get those guys out next week sometime for Halloween.
You got it.
Randa, she'll have she's her favorite Australia stories. She has all of the stories. I have stories myself down there too because of just going down and having a good relationship with them, and every single time it's a little different. They give you different equipment, so ghost hunting equipment, and they turn off the lights and you're rolling down with just a flashlight.
What they give you, what's ghost setting equipment?
Okay, have you ever seen those copper rods that people will hold.
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, it detects m Yeah.
So they have the EMF readers, they have the copper rods.
And I'm not going to get too much into the history of our city, but the best way to put it is this city has a lot of trapped energy, yea, cholera, a lot of death sure.
Back in the day. And there are plenty of ghost stories to go around.
But we'll save that for time.
You will save that for Miranda.
But also happening at Northern Row is a new event called Low and Slow.
Write this down, put this in your calendar.
It's happening on November eighth, So it's not this week, it is November eighth, and it's all it's an event honoring firefighters while also raising money and having a barbecue, barbecue cookar. So yeah, they're launching a new beer called Roughneck Lagger. It's an American light ale. And while they're brewing this also a good portion of the proceeds are going to be going back to the Cincinnati Firefighters Union Local forty eight, which is a really great organization that
it you know, firefighters protect our community. This is an organization that protects themselves. So it helps with resources. It supplies them with access to health and wellness care. You know, taboo. Mental health is pretty taboo within that community. So being able to give them those types of resources is it goes a long way.
So it will be going back.
To the fire there and the food.
Got oh, you're bringing in pickled pig. You're bringing in Celia Joe's Brothers barbecue. I got a little scoop that the pickled pig Gary over there is incredible. He's doing a smoked lamb ragou with a creamy polent.
That probably pretty good. That's a good cold weather food right there. That is lamb night.
We're just chef's kiss run that cusp of that. So I'm sure i'll I'll mention it again in the next couple of weeks, but November eighth, write it in low and slow and give back to your firefighters.
I love it. Okay, this morning I'm driving in listening to Hawkins and for Tom Brenneman's up doing football this weekendational games, and he had someone on from the cost Coffee Festival.
Right, Okay, you're a coffee guy, like coffee. Let's go uh Yeah.
Coffee Festival is happening this Saturday and Sunday at the Cincinnati Music Call. What I do love about this festival is it's approachable. Where the tickets aren't, you know, fifty five bucks, It's like twenty.
Why would you need to have much for coffee and wine? I could see that, but it's coffee.
Yeah, I know, But you know, sometimes these festivals are like, all right, what what is.
Happening as the water and beans? Let's let's not let's sixty bucks.
Come on, man, and you're gonna have people who are running laps in that place and no time.
Like this because I'm trying to the coffee. This is really good. Any things are really good. This is really good. You think I talk fast now? Okay, talk to me after coffee Fest.
You need a depressant after fall asleep place and no time?
Cofee? This is really good. Anything that's really good, This is really good. Think I talk fast now, talk to me after coffee Fest.
You need a depressant after.
I'll fall asleep on Monday at nine adhd awful. There we go.
Michelle's gonna love it.
Yeah, So that's happening at the Society Music Hall. There's gonna be over sixty different vendors, you know, coffee roasters, tea shops, chocolate tears, pastry, pastries, and baked goods. What I really enjoy is a really good latte art throwdown. So that's one of those things that I like coffee. I would like to learn more about coffee. I'd like to invest in a fancy espresso maker and do some of that fun latte art. Never really have gotten into it, but there is a nuance and there is an art
to it which is pretty cool. And do you know what takes? What it takes to have the freshest cup of coffee?
Hot water, good water, good good water, good filtered water, filtered water. Okay, I have that.
Yeah, And I learned this the other day that in order to have like the freshest cup of coffee is just to grind the beans right on the spot, which is not always accessible and easy to do. But if you can grind the beans and then make a cup of coffee right there, that's going to be your freshest cup of coffee. And if you're going into a coffee shop, ask for the most recent because you know, usually have the they have like the big jugs that are already pre made, ask for the most recently.
Or just do a power over right, it's pour over. Yeah, and and French press.
I think if you can even again have the beans grinded there. But that's going to be your your best bet.
Yeah, I'm fine with a c at home. I'm good.
See Andrew killing and you're killing the planet.
You're one of those you're.
Too lazy to say, says the woman who has three Starbucks a day in a giant plastic cup of a huge straw.
I am offended. I am That is not me walking through these hallways in ron.
I watched I Need and I Need it now star but not making a whole pot of morning on the way in every day? What's wrong with you?
Hold on, there's a lot to unpack. I'm still offended.
I'm holding on it.
You think I'm a Starbucks screen Yeah, you seem like I'm a.
Dunk and girly.
I'm all about affordability and their coffee is really good.
You know what I'm with you?
Donkeys, thank you, thank you. Just the black dark cup and then.
What kind of cup do they served that in?
You know?
That's what if I told you I bring my own cup.
You don't, don't. I'm looking right through you. I see you raise through you.
Here's the other thing, What I do you.
Bring on shopping bag or you're not one of those people but iring champagne. I don't have to. I'm lucky. I remember to wear pants, want to go to the grocery store. I can't remember to bring where those toes?
That means this is a sign of Alzheimer's.
Probably is coffee. More like I don't Carozheimer's.
And how many guns you are at that age?
Zero?
Given when you were at when you were at the grocery store, what coffee are you reaching for? If you're making it from home? Everything is carrec you've never do you don't have like a coffee p.
I used to, but it's like you throw half of it out because you have. And like in the morning when I cut, when I get up, okay, so I'm up at arm goes up five forty five. Yeah, I get. I'm making my coffee my travel mug. Right, bring that in a couple of two pods and I'm good to go.
How do you feel about the poor over? Would you ever switch to the pace?
It's much better than the cureate. I'll give you that, and you keep it clean and stuff like that. But I don't have that kind of time. I'm not getting up an extra forty five minutes earlier to make a perfect cup of coffee. I don't care. I need a caffeine out.
I'm a poor over girl. You hear me out. You get one of those keem x for the hour glass looking thing.
You just put the funnel, wet the filter, You throw the grounds in there too.
Much time, one push squeezes the water left. Don't care.
You're not respecting all right.
On the weekend, I five times, Sure.
Don't show up?
Sure, sure, I'm gonna want to. You're right, you don't want to come up with my senka.
You know what, you can stay up in Mason because there's a new coffee shop up there.
What is it?
Ca Maria Coffee.
Okay, yeah, I didn't think you could possibly have any more coffee places, but here we go.
Hey have to admit, Cincinnati, we have a killer coffee chop scene, and we got another one right in your neck of the woods. And it's a Yemony coffee house.
So I guess it's going for like it's rich flavors, traditional brewing methods.
You know what, hump breaks to have another cup of coffee.
Good, just a coffee, a good cup of black coffee. I'm good.
And I will say they make a really great good cup of coffee. They have awesome obviously lattes ChIL Their chilatt is really good. And they have a series of different pastries. They do this like baclava cheesecake, a Dubai cookie. Have you been hearing about how this du Baie chocolate is taking here.
It's a whole thing and it's expensive as hell.
What is the deal with that?
I guess it's really good.
I guess it's really good.
And they have a by the way, the Bye cookiee chocolate.
It's chewy sweet and it's absolute perfection.
And almond croissant, different types of breads that go back to the amity culture. And I will say, I'm a stickler of a coffee shop that has the right vibes. And this Camarera, they they pretty much nailed it. It's big, there's plenty of space. They have this big booth, a lot of outlets, which is really important if you want to work.
And they have this little.
Couch area so maybe check that out if you're wanting to try.
And if I can distinguish many coffee and one of the other coffee is it's just coffee to me. I mean, unless there's like a pumpkin spice.
You've had to have had a bad cup of coffee.
Oh yeah, I've had bad cups of coffee. I just like I'd like a dark roast kind of you know what strong.
Coffee you want to Here's the other thing. If you want to save a couple of bucks, don't sleep. There's a speedway in Westchester, the Westy Chesty, and they have one of those fancy smancy coffee machines that makes the law taste. So most people who are spending seven bucks on a lot dance Starbucks.
You can go to the shout out to the speedway.
I will shout out, hell yeah, because a lot of people where they. I mean, it's a machine of grinds right there for you. It's really good. I think.
You know what, I'm going to put that to the top. You have a fancy machine.
And you don't need glass for shout out to the west Chester speed All right, what else do we have here? We have these scinety Oh, she's crabby about coffee. I remember that. That's I didn't have my coffee this mone.
Oh yeah, got it. I was on the run this morning.
Okay, anyway, the Society Comic expos in town, Superman Legacy meet and greet. All Right, Am I a comic girly? Heck no, but I feel like you would be a comic guy.
Why don't you talk?
No, you just mentioned this. I'm surprised Jack Crumley is not kicking the.
Store or Ricky Chino. I feel like he's one of those two.
I know he's more sports, but Jack Crumley's definitely our Jack Crumley definitely loves him.
So yeah, to be honest, I put this on the list.
And I really don't know a whole lot about the comic scene, but it is Friday is Sunday at the Sherfield Convention Center at Superman. I think they're really leaning into that theme. They have their normal celebrity like cud lest lineup.
That was just funny though, makes it even.
Better because you know what people still will show up and and if they're those celebrities are accessible, which is nice, and you can get your autographs and this is where the cosplay really comes out. I'm always super I think this is by those comic people will spend an entire year to make a single outfit and it is intense and I applaud that and perfect time a year because then if you were to make a cosplay outfit, you can wear it for Halloween, right right?
Perfect killed. So yeah, scene, but I know people that do it, it's like it's yeah, is it any different than someone who put where's a Joe Burrow jersey? It's the same.
Yeah.
Did you ever collect comics?
Never collected them? I mean soccer. I was never really like a comics. I read them, but I wasn't like collecting into the whole storyline and the Yeah, yeah, it's just a it's just a soap opera in print. Basically, it's a story.
So well and like animey anime sons. So I want to understand it. Yeah, I have a hard time.
But you know, there's that's a thing. It's a beautif world. There's so much things. It's just not my thing. Maybe that's not my thing, but I think that's.
Kind of the beauty behind it.
I always of comic art, I think that's kind of cool.
Well, speaking of art, came across a pretty cool concept called art Drops Cincinnati. Just learned about this yesterday and it's this new local art engagement project project. So long story short, this community is working with local artists around town and every week they collect a different piece of art.
So it could be sculpture, it could be a painting, you name it, and they're dropping it somewhere randomly in the city, all within two seventy five and they give you clues enhance on social media and if you find.
It, it's yours to keep. Oh cool, I'm like, this is actually a really cool quest.
There are some really great artists in town that deserve to have.
Number One.
It highlights the artists, It allows you to kind of explore it a little bit of a treasure hunt and a lot of the times it's in whether maybe it's like in a cool urban spot or in a park, and it allows you to explore the city. But then you also get to keep the art works like a Pokemon go of a Yeah, in real life, fine and stuff.
Actually good to keep it. How do you get in on this?
So you go to art dash drops dot com.
I signed up. Also just follow them on social media.
On Instagram is the best way to go about it, and that's where those clues happen every single week. So they highlight what the art is going to be, they highlight the artist, and then they show the little glimpse of where it's placed, and then it's on YouTube. Maybe you know it, maybe you don't, okay, and then if you can find it, it's yours to keep.
We have going here. But the obvious too is we've got uc homecoming which is gonna be huge and around Clifton, and then you've got Bengals game Day on Sunday with the Jets and town a great weekend to be downtown. Lots of stuff going on, so you know, if you're looking to do stuff before the football game, coffee after the games, get some coffee to get your art thing. We've got football all over the place this weekend. She's Ali Martin. It's a local loop this morning on seven hundred.
WA should be back next Friday. I'm sure it'll be all Halloween related on Halloween, so I can't wait for that. All right, go get some coffee, I will and rely No, I'm gonna go to Duncan get some coffee and relaxed, be DC. I like Dunk Duncan's fine, you did. I did the midnight Dunk Midnight Yeah. Yeah, that's the dark one dark so good pund Yeah. And the reason I do the Starbucks because the cure. The Starbucks are all over. They don't have the Duncan little pods and the sailors
of the Kroger. So I'm all about the value. Have a great weekend, Ali Martin at the Local Loop that's her YouTube channel, and at Ali Martina or social feed, it's the Local Loop every Friday morning. Have a great weekend. Go Cats and who Day Home of the best Bengals coverage seven hundred w Olbody's Cincinnati