American Scott Phone back on seven hundred WLW. With all the news and big news we've had in headlines recently, there's other things that are kind of important. One of those is I don't know if you saw this, but the auditor of state State of Ohio reported at least twenty three cyber attacks against government offices in the past twelve months. It's here in Ohio, including seven hundred thousand dollars in theft in Licking County. We've seen this in
Dayton and in Cincinnati and across the area. And as a result, lawmakers are working on cybersecurity legislations coming together that would acquire municipalities to develop their own policies in response to those cyber attacks and local governments. Chris Nihis is here. He's the CEO of Cincinnati based Vigilant cyber Security and Joints to show to discuss Chris.
Welcome, Thanks Scott, Thanks for having me on.
Yes, sir, Before we get to that where we this relatively new news here of this supply chain breach, and that's frightening because when it comes to user participation in the supply chain, and that is ordering stuff on Amazon or anywhere else, we have a compromise at that level. What's going on? What do we need to know?
Right?
So what's crazy about this? So MPMs are packets of data it's or it's it's software, and what developers will do is they'll go out and get the software kind of a marketplace and.
They'll pull it put it into.
Their software that they write so that they don't have to write those modules again. So what basically happened here is UH is an individual that manages these in some of these MPMs, they were fished and basically gave up access to these modules. Attack went in modified them to when they were updated, like when people update their software, and these are definitely the cyber attack went into all
of these different pieces of software out there. So the problem with this is is that developers don't always necessarily know what packages they put into these applications. Companies don't. They don't know if they take a piece of software
and they put it into their websites or whatever. In this case, it's affecting a lot of crypto wallets that are out there, and so it's a massive problem because this supply chain attack of basically a supply chain of a piece of software that gets tos tribute all kinds of places with maybe no record that's even there is it can affect the applications you use every day. And in a lot of case, what they're seeing where a
lot of these applications were affected. We're crypto wallets, So if you're transferring crypto, one of the things that's happening is malicious attacker. So it's where if you go to transfer crypto, the software actually swaps out the setting address that you're sending to with their address, So they're accumulating crypto from people trying to make legitimate transactions by just changing that out.
Wow, got it. So now every time you click buy or you add a card right now, now you've got to think about that, right.
No, it's crazy.
As we talk with HB ninety six, it's even these things can be related, right because you know, when when it's software, it's embedded in software you use, you don't necessarily know those things are happening. So like within PM, it's invisible to everybody out there, you know, but it's everywhere, right, it's the software library system that developers use to build these apps and websites, and so you know, I think It's like the plumbing behind all of your favorite apps, you know.
Right right right, We don't think about it until now we can breach that as well. And this gets back to the discussion about HB ninety six. Here cybersecurity legislature across the state. The state says, well, if you're in a municipality, you have to come up with a plan to deal with cyber attacks on local love. We've got to review your do a systems review, identify risks and mitigation and stuff like that. But I mean that'd be
okay for Cincinnati, Columbus, Cleveland. Maybe if you're a Toledo or a Dayton or a city like Youngstown for example. But you know, we have a lot, a lot of small communities just here in the lit Sting area right here in Cincinnati as well. How good are these municipalities going to be where maybe I don't know a couple dozen or ten people who administrate that municipality. Should we really be put in in their hands because I don't don't they have the resources?
Well, see, here's the thing about it is, and you know you and I've talked about cyber for a while. Here is that the commodity technology that's out there in the market just it just doesn't work. And and that's that's something that people don't like me to say, especially in this industry, but it's the truth of it. And you know, if you look at all of the reports year after year, the time it takes to detect a threat right now is seven years.
I mean that seven years starts seven months. That's grown years.
Well sometimes you know, with with the attack against Dropbox, it was four years, right so so, but average right now with seven months and and and that's where you know, the part of the issue is the cyber industry just doesn't have a significant amount of.
Time you have pivot that really is effective.
And when it is effective tech it does take teams that have high skill sets in and have a lot of time to focus on that. And unfortunately in our school districts and local governments, you know, they don't have the funding. You know, they're they're they're not giving the
funding to do it. And you know, if you watch some of these uh, you know, council meetings, you'll find where is you know, someone bring up a purchase for cybersecurity and it gets trumps because of sidewalks fixes, right, and which are both important, but but they just don't get the funding and they don't have the resources. So to your point, yes, it's going to be a problem.
Now.
You know what happens though in these organizations is they buy commodity software that is more automatic, and that's that's part of the issue, is that the automatic approach to cyberturity doesn't work, and so these school districts are going to have to spend a lot more money. Local governments
are gonna have to do the same. They're going to have to bolster their teams up, uh, and they're going to have to really be wise about the tech that they i inside the environments, you know that they that they use.
Right right, Well, that's the thing is finding the proper vendor. But it's up to the municipality though to figure out, you know, what the detection is there too. So the onus is on them is in this in this bill, Can I just go, wait a minute, I've got a bad vendor or I hired someone doesn't know what the hell they're doing. Does that cover them legally from the state perspective? What about that? Because I don't know what I don't know, you.
Know, yeah, it doesn't And That's really the thing with all of this is that you know, companies have to be extremely careful about the tech they buy. They can't just buy a brand name. And in fact, if you look at that seven months of time, that's driven by the you know, the organizations that have quoe unquote more market share. So you have to be really careful about the organizations you buy because at the end of the day, you are legally responsible because you chose where to put
the data. And in this case, you know there there's you know, the responsibility to report. I mean, you have to report an incident within seven days, you know, from when it happened. I mean right now, it's seven months to even detect it. You have to you know, you can't ransomware, which I think is a good thing in most cases because it will it will slow down the process for these attackers. I think it'll make school districts a lot less of a target in some ways because
they'll be harder to get them. But they have to get either bord approval or they have to get council approval to pay ransomware now, which is really good. But the other thing that I I'll say, I do really love about this bill, and it's something that I think Ohio did really really well and the states like California
did really really poorly. And basically in this bill, it makes all cybersecurity records and purchases confidential, and in like California, they have to report everything they do literally public record. And so why that's important is when you're when you're
fighting against cyber attacks that know what they're doing. And if you have a document that you literally just put out there right and you tell everybody all the technology you use and all the purchase you use and all your records, then they know exactly how to attack you. So I think Ohio did a really good thing. You don't normally see that from lawmakers a lot because they're not really technologically advanced when they write these laws. Ohio did an awesome job.
That's incredible. Here's California, Silicon Valley, Apple, all these big and they screw it up. Here's Ohio. We get it right.
Good for right, we get it right.
The reason I live at Ohio now California. Chris and I. Heis CEO of vigil and Cybersecurity in Cincinnati, Ohio, and the State Aunor's office and now legislation proposed coming together to require musavels to developed cybersecurity policies, which is important. Sounds boring, but important, but I mean just think about it. Just to what this month we had the City of Middletown, for example, right there, they had an attack disrupted city services,
in person operations, online functions. They're trying to resolve the issue right now, and largely these it happened to call this last year. As a matter of fact, it was a major one. I think it breached like five hundred thousand people, including names and dobs, addresses, tax accounts, socials, all that stuff that's stolen and sold in the dark web. Still have no idea who did it, where the information is.
It's just out there in the ether, and there's no catching these people, as we've talked about before, Chris, But those are two of many. I think the problem for me is, and I heard about this firsthand from a friend, Kettering Health Alliance had a ransomware malware attack shut everything down, and I don't know what the outcome was, but you know, their pr people kind of played it close to the vest, like, hey, everything's fine, we got it under control. We're working on
the problem and there's no disclosure. Now, if you're that's one thing in your company, but if it's your health records, if it's your social if it's your address, I need to know that that information has been compromised and it's transparency, so you look at it go. You know, I just don't want to be held accountable. I don't want to get voted out if I'm a Middletown City council person, if I'm the mayor of Columbus, or I'm the CEO of a healthcare operation, I don't want that on my
I'm the one that staying on my record. So we'll downplay. That's not good for the people who have been victimized.
Though it's not you know, you know, we we have to be better. You know, organizations have to be better at communicating. They have to they have to not hide it. You know, that's where a lot of these classacks are lasting against these organizations are starting to come around. The one thing I will say is that is that when it comes to these records, you know, when you when you want, you know, our records, yours of mine already stolen.
You know, the majority of the population over eighteen already stolen.
I mean, there's been so many breaches one after the.
Other that data is out there, especially as social numbers things like that. Yeah, where schools come into play in the municipalities. There's two things that are interesting here. One is every year as kids turn turns eighteen, right, it's a new group of people whose identities haven't been compromised yet. And so schools are a great place where a packer men get high value target information. And what I mean high value target is yours. My records sell for about a dollar.
Out there in the marketplace.
Some of that's turning step, you know, seventeen eighteen, their records are going to sell for a lot more out of the hacking marketplace because they haven't been used yet, whereas yours or mine, you know, if they have to prove it everything else. So schools are a major target for that. So you know, as a parent, one of the things you can do right now is make sure you get identity SEFF protection for your kids, even though
they're under eighteen, they have to have that. Make sure you lock down their credit because what happens is these you know, go to apply for their first vehicle and they realize they have apportable credit score because you know their identity. Since you know with that, when it comes to municipalities, you know, we are in an international cyber war, it already happens.
Then people in this industry know it.
We as as you know citizens United States, have to realize that that it is an it.
Is an actual border to border war.
And with that, our municipalities, our local police departments are emergencies response systems. You know, when cyber war continues to escalate, those are the places that are going to get shut down first, right and you're not going to have the services, so that there has to be accountability to make sure that these things are done right in that our identity is propected.
Yeah, and I think it's interesting you just assume your information is out there as an adult, and so you know, we have the credit monitoring thing going on and we have a lifelog or whatever the version is of it that we have, but that's a good brand. And also
make sure that our credit reports are locked down. And so we originally bought a new house and had to go remember to unlock all the credit reports for a while till they pulled your credit and then locked them back up is that the best pay is that the best you can do to prevent your information from me you just assume it's being misused. But if you have your credit the three credit viers locked down, then there's not much they can do as far as trying to get credit.
In your name, right right, I mean in that finance side of things. So yes, walking things down there, making sure you have credit holds, you know, unless you're going to purchase something, then turn the credit hold off and then turn it back on. Make sure you're working with a reputable organization will text your credit. But also make sure that you have insurance around it, you know, identity
sept protection. You know, getting your identity back can cost over a million dollars sometimes and so you know, I mean it depends you one hundred thousand million, you know wherever, how widespread that is. So make sure you have insurance, you know, with whoever you're working with. And again for your kids. You have to make sure that you do that for your kids.
If you if you.
Don't, if you haven't done it, do it today, right because right because it's it's a growing problem.
Socause you're young, you don't you're not, thank you know, you haven't pulled any credit yet, and so I don't need to lock my credit down.
I don't.
But all they need is a social security number. And you know, you can be sixteen, seventeen, eighteen and they can use that social We've seen them user for dead people and newborns. Why not teenagers? We just don't think of it right.
And the other thing too is you know what, you know, what your kids you turn eighteen, you know, help them put them on your credit card as well. And and then that way they have some if something does happen where their identity is stolen, you at least have some good credit that is built then, so they can they can bounce it off, you know, set them up for success.
But yeah, it's you know, you know this data is so widespread.
Companies just I'll just say, companies do.
Not protect data the way they're supposed to.
And and a lot of it isn't their fault in the sense.
Of what we were talking about earlier.
It's they're the ones that made the decision to choose the technology or the solutions that they put in, but they don't have the skill set to do the due diligence to it or they don't have the budget to purchase the things they need, and so it is a growing problem. It's going to keep getting worse until there's a lot more accountability in place. But then with the accountability comes regulation, and with regulation there's somethings less, less flexibility. So you know, it's a it's a fine line.
All right.
So cybersecurity legislation coming together at the Ohio level that require municipalities to develop their our own cybersecurity policies. Basically, hire a good company and that way you've kind of got like a back phone, you call someone and instead of getting caught with your pants down. And we've seen it happen in Columbus, We've seen it happen in Middletown and elsewhere, and it's going to happen every day. So at least this is a step in the right direction.
And I'll abide to you, Chris, because you're the expert here and saying this is good law. Chris n Ihei, CEO of Vigilant Cybersecurity and Cincinnati. Always enjoy the conversation, the especially the eye opening information. I appreciate you, Nik, I appreciate it. Great news update and a quarterback Joe Flacco were planning for the Bengals this weekend. We'll get into that in just minutes. Scott's Loan Show continues right after new seven hundred WW. Scott's Loan Show back on
seven hundred WW. There we go, There we go. Man, This the dirty Sentchiz gets weirder and weirder, right. Mark Sanchez, from our NFL quarterback, is now being sued by the sixteennine year old truck driver Perry Tole, the guy severely injured in the beatdown on Friday in Indianapolis. Mark Sanchez, former quarterback for Willa Jets A List, is a broadcaster now and he was in town for the game. And first, initially all the tweets coming out towards Sanchez, Oh, I
hope he's okay. It was a horrible thing that happened. Then we learned that, uh, he's the guy initiated this. So the truck drive six down truck driver is unloading his truck. He's like waiting for a shipment of cooking oiled or something. He's a loading dock. I think they said a receiving area, so I'm guessing was a loading dock.
I don't know.
Maybe it's front of the hotel, so it's late or early morning. I guess I should say he's out there doing his job. And Sanchez rolls up stinking drunk, I guess, just smelling and smelling of alcohols what they said, and tells me he's got to move his truck. He's like, oh, I'm working, man, I'm not moving my well, you got it, and he starts like getting in his face and threatening him, and at one point starts attacking and trying to take the phone of the sixte nine year old truck driver.
He pulls out Perry told us pepper spray, fires it at Sanchez fire he goes nuts and starts hitting him even harder. So he pulls out a knife and self defense and starts cutting up Sanchez, at which point I guess he stumbles away and anyway, Perry tolls in the hospital. I saw the pictures and it looks bad. He got his He got despite having the pepper spray and a knife. He's still a seven year old against a thirty something year old former NFL football player, and he got whooped on.
He's the guy's a mess and as a result, now he has foiled a lawsuit against Fox Sports as well as Mark Sanchez. So it is one of the most bizarre I don't know, off field sports related cases I think I've ever seen. It was just a craz what so, what the hell is Sanchez doing?
Tell him?
This guy's got to move his truck from a loading from a loading dock, is unless it was in front of the hotel or something. And he's like, I was waiting for a ride and thought he had, I don't know, kind of like at the airport, you know, people stand there and mark their territory when waiting for the pick up. Like it doesn't work that way. It's first come for renservatives. There's no reserving a drop up or pickoff spot. It's just people show up. Man, what are you going to do?
And why the hell does Sanchez care? Anyway? The crazy story, crazy story, all right, more federal furlough Well in this case, it'd be the furloughed workers that are concerned right now. And I for since this thing began, been talking about the feeder of it, and then you know, eventually what winds up happening is we get more and more inconvenienced. I mentioned yesterday about airports for example, not the big
although Nashville, I guess was impacted to some degree. But you know, they make it just n cut cut enough, just to make it uncomfortable for me and you to notice. So you're going to go a fly out of somewhere and go, oh my god, the tower's closed and flights are delayed, and yeah it's you know, we're not stopping are traffic completely, but we're making it uncomfortable for you. We're going to make it so you notice. But buying large, the big stuff continues. Only eight percent of the government
is shut down. It's see eight percent that would make us feel uncomfortable. You know, the big stuff is still going to get taken care of, which is why this is all nonsense in theater. And it'd be kind of amusing if it were a fact. It was costing us even more money we have to borrow, adding more and more to the federal deficit and debt every time we shut the government down for silly reasons. Nonetheless, starting Friday, this is going to be the last day Friday for
many federal workers as far as their paychecks go. And a White House memo was leaked out that argues furloughed federal workers are not until the back pay after the government shutdown lifts, and that kind of contradicts what's been said before and done in the past. And of course, as you know, everything is subject to negotiation, change and just getting out right blown up under the current administration,
that's how they roll. There's something called the twenty nineteen Government Employee Fair Treatment Act that mandates all federal employees, if your furloughed working on pay, must receive back pay after shutdown. Not quite sure how that works here. The White House thinks that law doesn't automatically cover all furlow workers. And I know which ones you pick and which ones
you wouldn't. And this is indeed engaging the Democrats to get them voted for a continuing resolution to fund the government for what seven more weeks before you do this all over again. I don't know. My gut reaction to the whole thing is. I know there's many people that will just no matter what Trump does, they agree with them. And there's a lot of people like that, for sure. I don't understand that line of thinking quite honestly. I
think that's silly. But hey, if your team Trump and somehow you think that scores you points and you're super an ultra maga and you can't drift away from the little protected group of Thompson's gazelles, away from the pond because you're afraid that I know, the liberal line is gonna come out and get you or something like that. That's on you. I don't know. It seems a sense
of propriety. It's like, if you have a job and you don't shot for your job and you don't have sick days, or you're out of sick days, you're out of vacation days, you're not gonna get paid. Okay, that's just how it works in the real world. Now, if in this case the politicians shut everything down to score some points with voters or their constituents, which is all this is, then that's not on you. You showed up
ready to work and the deal is in the past. Well, if you shut down and we may not get it this week, but at some point I'll be made whole. That seems reasonable, you go, well, Sloan, that just adds to the national the federal deaf. That's I mean literally, Now, I think people argue that are pursing in the sense that it's what the federal plays make. What the four hundred thousand, it's such such an insignificant number. I mean, it's significant, but it's not. It's the other stuff that
we continue to do that bankrupt the country. This is literally pennies, but you're not worried about the dollars. That doesn't make sense to me. And not only that, this is actual, real, live human beings, you know. Okay, they took a well that's what you get working for the federal government. You shouldn't work for the federal goal. Well, you know, that's not what they told people when they offered the job. It's not like people came to them
and demanded them to create a position for them. Someone at some point said, hey, there's federal jobs available. Here's a federal job. And some of these people may have been hired under the previous Trump administration or maybe even during the Bush administration, who knows. Nonetheless, the deal was, hey, you show up, you get paid, here's the job. Hey we have a job opening. Okay, grant, I'm gonna go into the federal government. And certainly the benefits are really
damn good. You get every of their day off on a holiday. But we know them as the rules. And when you have a mortgage to pay, when you have a family to take care of, I feel for you if you're furloughed in the sense that, okay, after Friday, I don't have any money coming, and that's a problem. But at some point in two weeks a week, whenever this thing's settled, maybe been up to what the longest one we had with thirty five days, and at some point,
all right, we'll get you your money. But you know, just to simply say, hey, you're not working, you're not getting paid, you know, just another one of those unforced errors that the Trump administration continues to commit. It doesn't really help. I mean, I can't imagine people that are routing who the hell's rooting for someone not to get
a paycheck, going hey, yeah, this is awesome. The pennies that we're saving, literally with all the with the thirty seven trillion dollars plus in debt we are, this is going to save literally fractions of cents. Yay, good, let's punish these What do they do wrong? You know, simply we're hired for a job, could have been a year ago, could have been ten, twenty thirty years ago. Who the hell knows, and now they're not getting paid, so I'm
not quite sure a vendors for that matter. It just seems kind of pad once again, one of those petty things that we continue to do. So you know, if you're cheering for someone not to get paid, I think that reflects upon you more than anything. And all in all, it's the notion that somehow we distrusted government this country for so long. That has been a cornerstone of America really since our foundation. I mean, we broke away because
we hated government. We trust it, and now all of a sudden, it's like, yay, whether if I'm on team Writer, team Blue, no matter what they do is one hundred percent right. And I'll point that out to again. If you just get government the hell out of the way and a lot of us make money and live our lives, it seems to work much better.
You know.
Another area that would be letting parents parent. Would you agree that we may not be perfect when it comes to parenting, may not be the best parents or in retrospect of God, I don't know a parent unless they're not completely honest themselves. That later in life, as they age get older and their kids grow up, you go, you know, there's some things that would done differently. I think you're open and honest with yourself and your kids.
You go, yeah, there's some things I did or I thought was right at the time that turns out in retrospect was the wrong thing. And sometimes you luck into things they're good as well. I think that's true. But they say, you know, there's no handbook, that there's no instruction, man, and when it comes to having a child. Plus you're also fairly young too, and you have a lot to learn in life. I think that's why grandparents are so good is because we've been through it. We've seen cycles,
we've seen history, we've lived it. The stuff we thought was important, we realize it's not that important. I think grandparents are much better parents than actual parents. And that's not a slight towards parents. It's just like, you know more, that's the allegedly the wisdom that comes along and maybe
I do things a little bit different. And that's why, yeah, I've got to Gramma and Grandpa's like, you know, we don't have all the strict roles and the nonsense that goes with this, and that's the balance of life and that's true for every generation. And I bring this up kind of playing off of what we just talked about, but also the fact that Supreme Court are arguments yesterday and whether this is Colorado, Colorado has a ban as I think twenty states do in America. I'm conversion therapy.
That that the argument is interesting argument. So it's a Christian therapist and she is challenging the law that prohibits licensed mental health therapists and providers from attempting to change a minor sexual orientation or gender identity, called conversion therapy. We've heard about this for years and a lot of religious groups are behind it because it's biblical to believe that it's a moral to be gay or lesbian or transgender,
whatever it might be. And it's been opposed by medical organizations because they say, now this is actually more harmful to force them into conversion therapy rather than go along with it. And you know, we've debated this when it comes to transgender issues and the like in the Buckeye State as well as Kentucky and Indiana for that matter. And so this lady is the k has the case.
Kaylee Choles is her name, and she's going after the rule of the law that prohibits therapists like yourself from attempting to change a miner's sex orientation or gender identity. She said, it's because it infringes on her ability to counsel miners within a faith based context. It's a First
Amendment argument, It's what. It's a really interesting argument, thinking, well, wow, if you believe, because of biblical teachings that you can convert someone to become straight when they're gay, then that should be allowed. Now would you draw the line the abuse and neglect and punishment and you're locking a kid in a box and some of these horror stories you hear about, I don't know for some of these re
education camps they call it. Yeah, but if you're to counsel them, I think that in a clinical setting, I think that's an entirely different thing. Do I agree with it? It doesn't matter because much like the other side of this argument would be what's happened in Ohio when it came to preventing transgender kids from accessing puberty blockers and hormone therapist therapy interest in general. And you can say, well, that's different. This is this is someone talking, This is
not a chemical you're injecting. It doesn't matter. The fact of the matter is that there is a parent and there's also a medical community to think that this is a reasonable and quite honestly not not debilitating process to
in this case try and change someone's gender. Like I don't get all of it myself, but it seems to me that if you're arguing and going, hey, listen, we should be fighting for Kaylee Childs in her First Amendment rights, in the First Amendment rights of other Christians to counsel a young person a minor into becoming straight when they're gay. I don't know if you can, actually I don't believe you can do that, but it doesn't mean you can't try.
And also either and when you look at what's going on with with we talked about the transgender thing, is that their parents have fully believe that, Yeah, you know what, I've kind of known that my son was maybe it was a girl, maybe you know, genetically speaking, certainly when it comes to the body parts and the biology that they are born a man and they're a man or a boy in this case, and you know, they may have proclivities to or just being a woman and more
womanly things. But again, I think that's up to the parent to make that tough decision or to try and do what's best at what they think at that moment based on the permission to have to simply parent. Doesn't mean it's right. Could be wrong. But I could say the same thing about what's happening with this case in Colorado. Could be wrong, maybe right. Parenting is the toughest job in the world, and I know this. We're not good at it, none of us are. Because look at the
state of the world. Most of the problems and crimes and everything else we have is why. It's because we suck as parents. We've always sucked as parents. They can talk about the old days out you know, the good old day when the good old days parents could parent and parents. Yeah, we weren't good parents back then. Either you just do the best you can. Hell wasn't that long ago. Or we just had kids because we needed cheap labor, we needed free labor. Why do you have
eleven kids all I've got to run the farm? Well, you know what, eleven kids because anything about birth control or it's against their religions. So we got all these kids, and you know somebody's got to I don't know, somebody's got to knit those sweaters. Somebody's gotta make those shoes in the sweats out. And then the kids were doing somebody's got to sit there and break up blumps of coals. That comes out of the mind, Well, well let kids
do that, so it kids is cheap labor. I wouldn't say that that's exactly nominously the greatest generation ever of parents, More like the greatest generation ever of people who produced free labor. Cheap labor. But that's what we knew at the time. They did the best they could do with what we knew at the time, and you really can't fault people for that same thing.
Here.
It just strikes me is whether it's the people that are going to be fighting for the Supreme Court to overturn this band on free speech when it comes to Christians, or in the fact, when it comes to parents who believe it's in their kids' best interests, their family's best interests,
to allow a kid to go through conversion therapy. Sexual conversion therapy, it's really not any of my business or yours, and it certainly isn't the business of the government now I'm sure I'll get all blown up and say, well, you said it's different. You're putting these poisonous chemicals and these things, and you're allowing them to inject their kid with I don't know. We alter kids' bodies all the time,
first and foremost. I mean, then if that's the case, then we don't want to alter what God did to you. Then why are we circumcising boys still? There's no reason for that. There's no reason for young babies to have ear piercings and stuff. I mean, how far do you want to go with government outlawing stuff that you think is okay. As a parent, you may cringe at it and go, yeah, I wouldn't do that to my kid. But again, that's the whole point of this thing. It's
your child now. Is it neglect? Is it abuse? And I love how they try and make this the issue of neglect or abuse either way, that you're abusing this kid because you're talking about them about Christianity and whether it's a good idea and why you shouldn't be gay. At the same time, you can apply the same thing to what we're talking about when it comes to transgender kids, and each side is going to dig their heels and
scream about why the other side's wrong. But again, it's that divisiveness if that's at that one side, and this that I'm right and you're always wrong attitude that gets us to the cringy, if not dangerous nature of life in America today, where we have political violence and everything else. You know, again, the problem is government. So you just get the hell out of the way. Let us parent now,
you and neglect abuse, You don't feed your kid. How We had a horrific story the other day, and I forgot where, but locally where you had these poor babies, three of them that were emaciated. Right, The eight year old weighed like thirty pounds, the six year old weigh like ten pounds. Horrible story. And every time I see one of those stories, I look at us. There's always at least one, if not both, of the parents that
are fat bastards. Did you ever notice that when it comes to the people who starve these poor babies and deliberately treat them, I don't know, worse than a pet for whatever reason. You know, one of them, they're always obese. It's like, are you eating all their food? I don't understand how you can allow this as a human being to happen. But people like that, to me are sub Now that's an issue we have all. Okay, that's neglect
and abuse. What we're talking about here is people just trying to get by and do the right thing, and you know we're criminalizing on either side. The sillinessess of it is there's so many people willing to go along with it because there's an hour a D next to their name and that's all that matters to them. We should not be listening to those folks. Quick time out. We've got news on the way and just minute, Sloaney continues after seven hundred WW do you want to be
an American? Slowly back on seven hundred WLW. The biggest news of the well of the week the shock Cincinnati's sending a twenty twenty six fifth round pick to Cleveland in exchange for a six round selection and forty year old Joe Flacco to SOS save our season, mainly because he was available and seemingly he is the only backup not tied up in a progressive insurance ad. We couldn't
get the Veto or Bridgewater. We got Flaco. James rapine this year from Sports Illicitris bendelstock dot Com, Lockdo on Bendel's podcast, James, welcome.
How are you? We're doing great? Are you?
I'm doing fine? Does this mean that the club is confident that that Joe Burrow is going to return in December? And I mean that because yeah, normally you look at this, it go this, Okay, are we going to win any more games? Are we going to make some deals, get a quarterback, or just right the season off, because let's face it, it's not just the quarterback and going down as a problem. There's a host of other problems as well, and we have to systematically rebuild and do everything differently
and get ready for twenty twenty six. This feels to me like, hey, you know what, maybe he's coming back in the summer.
Oh yeah. And I tried to be indirect with people as possible, because you're right, I think a lot of people have shut the door on Joe Burrow returning this season, and internally that is the expectation. Joe takes snatch to him this year. He set that standard splash expectation. You put that on himself before he had surgery, before he had surgery. He was like, all right, I'm going to be back this year, and so yeah, I think so.
But like you've seen, the Bengals haven't held up their end of the bargain Marlin three without Joe, they've been out toward one thirteen to what was it, thirteen to thirty seven. I had to count all the garbage time points right in my head with three games with Jake Browning, and so yeah, I think that that is a huge indicator of their plans. They expect Jobert to be back this year, but they have to be relevant enough for him to come back.
And you know, when this news broke, I was like, wow, the Bengals did a deal and they did a deal with the division rival, and I was like, yeah, wow, it just blew me away. And then I started thinking about, Okay, it's Joe Flacco and I you know, from the limited Browns games I've watched or saw him play. I went back and looked at and it just you know, you're looking at the other options. Okay, who else is available
out there? And we've run the list down. We run the list down on our Monday segment of quarterbacks available to take over for Jake Browning and this one now in retrospect, it just it just felt like my gut reaction was, this is like the best chance of all the worst options available right for all intents and purposes. It's like a closing time look up. You know, you're not the best pick of dudes. She seems like a really nice person. She might be an axe murderer. I
don't know. It's a temporary arrangement.
Yeah, yeah, that's exactly right. That's exactly right. The temporary arrangement is the best way to describe it, because you bring Joe in here to right the ship and to keep the ship at a spot where the other Joe can come back. And man, I wish he would have started with a two and zero start that Jake Browning had because it feels much different three weeks later and so and will it be enough, I'm not sure, but
that's very much what it is. Is, Hey, we need a guy who can get the ball to our weapons and throw the ball to the right spot right, And they believe Joe Blacker can do that clearly, Yeah.
And get up to speed quickly being in the league as long as hea spent I mean he can still as you mentioned the biggest thing with Browning is, you know, he wasn't sure he's throwing the balls. It's not as much physical with with Jake Browning as it is mental, right, And and now he's just throwing the ball all over the place. Uh, he's a scared dog. And I think also, and maybe this is a second thing, is the fact that Joe Flacco, this will be the second time in
four weeks he's played Green Bay. It's like it's almost like he's in the NFC North, he's playing for Chicago.
Yeah, that's right, that's right. I think that that is a factor though, that the up to up to speed part of it, and then the leadership part of it. Later today when we hear from Zach Taylor, I know they evaluated all these quarterback options and none of us really highlighted Flacco too much because of the division part of it. And that's what's really surprising. The Bengals trading with the Browns. That's never happened. So they made history yesterday, and so why and the why is, well, you have
the arm talent, but it's also the leadership in his football. IQ. He's seen everything in the league because he's been in the league since I was in high school. Yep, you know. And so when you can do that, you have experience. He's like a year and a half younger than Zach Taylor, and so that's a big difference from twenty eight year old Joe Burrow or Jake Browning as well as twenty nine.
So yeah, I think a bunch of factors. But his football IQ and leadership are two big reasons why they wanted him.
All right, But Flaco got bench for a reason. I mean, it's not like he was keeping the seat room for Dylan Gabriel. Like you know, Cleveland fans, Browns fans, and the dog pound it bones through it to those eight hundred pound men and women weren't screaming for Dylan Gabriel. This isn't Drake May, right, it's not Russell Wilson turning it over to Drake May. This is Dylan Gabriel. And we'll get to why. I think this is probably a
pretty good thing for Cleveland. But flack wan four starts the seasons one in three completion rate is fifty eight percent, two TV six interceptions his last full season in twenty seventeen. Since twenty seventeen, which is why seven eight years he's fourteen and twenty six. Well, okay, you look at that and you go, wow, he's our guy. Why all right?
A couple of things. One, some of those interceptions this year are not because I went back and watched, because if you look at the numbers, you're right, You're like, come on, he's been Jake Browning for the Browns. And just think back to Week one. Didn't it feel like the Browns let the Bengals off the hook because it drops that led to interception? Yep, there really wasn't you know, Jerry Judy can cash or Harold Fannings can catch that.
They were probably having a different conversation when it comes to that game. And so I think that his weapon let him down at times this year. Last year with Indy, yeah, the record was a little lost two and four, but he completed nearly sixty five percent of his passes, was
able to operate that offense. And then the year prior, he led the Browns to the playoffs and ap Comeback Player of the Year and four and one as a starter in the regular season and was a key piece and a big reason why they were able to rally with Deshaun Watson out. So I think that's what you look at is all right, Well, he's been in these weird situations, back against the wall situations. This year was weird and awkward and clunky from the get go, and
his weapons put him down. But it is valid. I mean, I think a lot of people thought Joe Blacker was done years and years ago in twenty nineteen when he joined the Denver Broncos. What's twenty twenty five? You know, how much does he have? How much can he give? Clearly he still wants to play, and in that when he sounds Cleveland in the offseason and that's a weird situation with two rookie quarterbacks. Fine, well, now you get a chance to play here and play for the playoffs.
Yeah, and that's one thing Cleveland doesn't have a shortage of his quarterbacks. He is James Rapine from bengalstock dot Com, Lockdown, Begels and breaking Down. Of course, the news that the starter, presumably on Sunday, is going to be Joe Flacco. Yes, that Joe Flacco gotten from the Browns for a six round pick. He comes over to take over for a dismal Jake Browning, although I'm looking at Flaco's numbers, we're talking about that not really all that much better, arguably
worse in some cases. But I look at this and go, okay, so what's the difference between offensive lines? It's not, isn't The problem here in Cincinnati is we've often talked about not just you know, Joe Burrow covers up a lot of mistakes. When there's no Joe Burrow, I don't know how many quarterbacks can come in and gloss that over as he has now for a number of seasons. You've got a bad offensive line, You've got questions of defense,
play calling. There's a lot of issues that's wrong with this team, or at least questionable with this team as far as Joe Flacco coming in and getting time to do what he does, and that's through the deep ball. How to the Browns line offensive line compared to the Bengals offensive line.
I think the Bengals offensive line is certainly worse at run blocking because the Bengals have really struggled in that area. And that's what I think is going to be interesting, is just Joe Flaco does his arm and his arm strength open up the deep ball, which will then in turn, give the Bengals a chance to run the ball a bit more effectively, because they certainly haven't been able to do that at any point this year. But I do think that the Bengals, from my pass blocking standpoint, might.
Have the better offensive line.
Now, can you go the Joe Burrow route and drop Joe Flacco back fifty times a game?
Like?
I don't think that's realistic, right, But in a true pass blocking situation, can they hold up? I do think so. Offensive line is a huge shot in the town Scott and rightfully so. And they had their failures the other day, and they have had their issues throughout the year, but I think the past two games they did enough to give this Bengals offense a chance and Jake Brownings simply did not make the play. Is that we're there, and that that's the difference. J is gonna get hit, you
know everyone's he's gonna get hit. But if he makes the plays that are there, I do think that this offense will be better, will be more explosive. But yeah, that the offensive line is a huge factor here moving forward.
Yeah, I look at it and go, well, the other factor that we had mentioned, James is the fact he's forty years old. I mean, you pocket passer, he can't move out of the pocket. We saw Joe be able to do that. There's another quarterbacks can do that. He is just gonna he's going to be stationary and throw the ball. He's not gonna be able to run. So I look at that and go, wow, it's not going to take much. Then if he's locked in the pocket and can't even roll out and extend the play, these
guys are going to tee off on them. And I don't want to say it's impossible that we have a sample size a decent one now and how this offensive line is blocked, and it's certainly there are plays where he's going to have a little bit more time than others, and maybe not as being gun shy and broken as Jake Browning. But that that concerns me is the fact that, all right, well, you the run game is pretty much non existent with Chase brown We're a run game in
the NFL. We don't have to worry about the run with this team. And now we're gonna now we're going to target the quarterback and try and take away everything downfield. From that seems like a fairly easy task base what I've seen for the first number of games with this team. And then on top of that, you turn the ball over to the defense and say what you will about the Bengals, you know, kind of mid defense. Brown's had one of the best defenses in the National Football League.
So they're going to get the ball back to the quarterback, their quarterback more than the Bengals are doing. What am I missing here?
I totally agree there. You're not missing anything when it comes to that, and I think it's twofold one. The Bengals they're set up to win games because of their weapons, and so they felt like obviously Jake wasn't getting in outside of their weapon to have a chance. So there's one two. You're right, their defense is not going to win them games. It's not for that there. That wasn't the expectation coming into the year. Remember how many how many times did you hear a Hawks the defense is
just average, right? I mean that was such a thought. And then Joe Burrogh goes down the offense stinct and everything feels differently, So, uh, look, this offense is going to have to score points. I also think when you talk about the time to throw. This is where Zach Taylor comes in. Pressures on Zach now because they went and they got a quarterback in mid year. And I get it. He's not the he's not the Jill everybody wants,
but he's still capable. And so now, can can he give Joe Flacco enough answers offensively, quick game offensively to set up the play action stuff and the deep pats in the explosive offense and he do what we've seen from some of these other offensive line as head coaches for their backup quarterbacks. That's that's what I look at, and that's where I say, all right, well, let's see what Dak can do with a guy that that clearly still has a live enough arm to get the ball
to their weapons. So I think that there's some some pressure on Zach Taylor here as well, following this move in this trade for Joe.
Blackouh forwards Micah Parsons, Rashan Gary go.
Yeah, that's right, and a Marius Menz Orlando Brown Jr.
You know it's uh oh boy.
Right, And and Joe Blacker had to see this first time a few weeks ago, and it was tough on the I mean they should have lost that game, and the Browns bought tooth and nail and found a way to win. And Joe Flaco made a few nice throws in that game, twenty one thirty six passes, about forty two had an interception, no touchdowns. But yeah, it's it's
a tough ask. There's a tough ask to say, Hey, Joe, we we traded for you, and five days later, we want you to go up against Micah Parsons on the road at Lambo.
And boy, here's the here's the thing, right, because you're gonna see a lot of comparisons in the broadcast, and I'm sure Dan and Lapple do the same thing. It's like, hey, you know, Cleveland goes to greenit beats him, and it was Joe Flacco orchestra and this whole thing. And if they come out and look as bad or as close to as bad as they did against the Lions and in previous games, it's going to turn towards Zach Titter pretty quickly, is it not?
It certainly could now Really one clarification that game was in Cleveland, it was not at Lambla.
Okay, okay, your.
Point's still the same, though you need to have a good showing. You've been outscored one thirteen to thirty seven over the past three games if you take out garbage time touchdowns one thirteen to nine when the game was on the line, essentially, So it's, uh, it's it's just really tough.
Plus you're gonna play with a very small playbook too. It's not like they're going to come in and you know, they got to blow everything up and go with a real fairly basic playbook, I guess for Joe Flacco, right, or maybe more than more so than a rookie quarterback. I mean, I mean, there's there's only so much you can learn in what two days, three days?
There is there is. But what I would say, sometimes simple is what makes sense. Brown. Well, I just watched Jake Brown and throw the ball and miss Chinsley when he had a wide oven Jamar Chase run across his face against the Broncos with the games still hanging in the balance, and like those those easy plays, like if Joe Flacker can make those easy leads and those easy plays, well that should lead to points on offense, we'll lead
to wins. I don't know, but there were a lot of simple and basic plays that Jake brown just was not seeing and left on the field.
Yeah, and and not to say, you know, all negative is that he's going to die. And and there's a good chance we may see Jake Browning again. James correct, there's a good chance.
I mean, you cannot lose lose Jake Browning. You got to keep him, to keep him, You've got to keep him dialed in, you got to keep him.
I agree with imagine we lose our second Joe to turf toe? Could you imagine that's two Joe's two toes? Be unbelievable, the most Bengel thing of all time. But you know, and and to not say it's the glass is completely empty at this point that the Bendal said to do is that the AFC North is a team of I mean, you can get there. At this point, it feels like it's only gonna be eight nine wins. Look at the parody, especially AFC right now, it's anyone's anyone's title to grab.
Yeah.
I think that's the other element here is we've seen how quickly it can change for the Ravens, for the Bengals. What if it changes for the Steelers. They have a forty one year old quarterback to get mood that doesn't get hit. Yep, you know, And so it can change in a hurry. You have the Steelers on the schedule coming to town next week, and so yeah, you're in the second place right now in the North, as weird
as it sounds. So let's see if you can piece together a couple of wins here and hang around and see where you're at it in a few weeks.
Hey, at least they're doing something. I mean, it may not be that good, the best, as I said, it's the best option, the best chance of all the worst options available. It's closing time, and you got to go with somebody. It's Joe Flacco. We'll go to Joe too.
Uh.
And now he's played for every team in the division except for Pittsburgh possibly, who knows what stranger things may happen. Anyway, he's James Rapine of this odd But at the end of the day, it's like, why the Bengals did something is to show you just what our expectation levels. It felt like, Okay, they went and got a name, you know what, All right, good for them?
Yeah, I agree. I hope he's hope he's fun to watch, and uh yeah, a couple of weeks ago when I mentioned quarterback, I kind of got laughed at the fact that we're here now. It says a lot about Jake Browning, says a lot about where the Bengals feel they are right.
And and not knowing Jake Browning was going to be that bad. I think that is also, you know, again, part of the narrative when you look at Zach because if this thing goes south on Sunday, then it's like, okay, well, and then you got a quarterback that's won a Super Bowl and you still can't do anything. And now that that square gets the circle, it's tighter and tighter around around Zack Town and the coaching staff.
All right.
He's James for Peen, a busy man over at Sports Illustrated Bengals Talk dot com lockdow on Bengals jumps on our show every Monday morning, Uh to chop up the game and uh, of course when quarterbacks break in, he breaks out, James, Thanks, appreciate it. Thanks, I appreciate you all the best, and we'll get to a news update here. Uh, it does make you want to watch and go Okay, I'll want to watch that. Hell yeah, gonna I'm gonna
see that. You'd watch Jake Browning or listen to Jake brown and go, Okay, well I got other stuff did I'm gonna cut the grass. I'm gonna go h yeah, Okay, I'm gonna go. I'll get some yardwork done now because this game's over and it's like, you know, midway through the first quarter now with Joe Flacco, bad different story, they did something. It's something Sloaney seven hundred ww helping you put the big P in profession. Here's our career, Sir Julie Balki.
Yeah.
Every Wednesday morning, Julie jumps in with current advice and news and what's happen in the headlines and what may be happening to you behind the scenes and the like, and she joins the show again on this beautiful Wednesday morning.
Did discuss Julie, We've on the past talked about, hey, being prepared and laying make sure your networked and getting on LinkedIn and what to do and have your resume ready and where to go and all those things and getting ready for the event you decide you've had enough and it's like you want to pivot and do something else, or go somewhere else and take your talents elsewhere across the street, or start your own thing. We talk about
that fairly regularly. Very rarely we talk about losing your employment and being completely blindsided by because that does happen. It just happened. We see companies, large, medium and small where it's like, hey, things are going great, I'm doing everything I can, I'm doing the best I can, and all of a sudden it's like, hey, you know what, It's just a line on a piece of paper and it's about keeping the light. Time just happened to my sister in law, as a matter of fact, working in
the food service sector. She was a regional running a number of I don't want to say the company, but they involved desserts and cookie fashion and everything was great until they said, hey, listen, you know what, we're upside down on the numbers. You got to go and did not see this coming out. All happens all the time, yet we don't talk about it all that much, and so in hindsight's always twenty twenty, and once it happens to you, it feels like it's too late to do anything.
About that situation. You can improve it for the future, but what about right now?
Yeah, I mean we've talked, like you said, we've talked about this often, and you've heard me say often be ready to say, be ready to go, And I think it's again, it's just it's me pleading with people to think that way. But we know that most of us don't, especially if we know we're performing well, if our results are good, if we know that we are respected, it's very easy to fall into the it's not going to happen to me, and it doesn't.
And it used to be back in the.
Nineties and all these big layoffs started happening, it was really just people who were underperforming. But we've seen the last fifteen twenty years, especially in two thousand and eight, people who are performing, who have great stories, great stats, are indeed impacted. And it's become so common that even the process of reference checking is less because it used to be if you got let go, you weren't doing a good job, your companies want to check up on you.
But now it's so many.
Really good people have been let go. And here is when I look at the danger zone, when it comes to how you might screw up your job search right away at the beginning. It's right now, because if you've been told let's say yesterday or last week, don't come back tomorrow, and it is truly a shock to your system. The first thing we want to do as humans is feel better about ourselves.
Is to believe that we were.
Not doing anything wrong.
So what do we do.
We pick up the phone, we start calling people.
Can you believe it?
And it ain't probably pretty the conversation. And so what we're doing is we're trying to make ourselves feel better. And so the what I tell people is if you've can dealt this blow, the most best thing you can do is take a step back, take a breath, process through your emotions with family or extremely close friends. You don't need and do not get out there and blast
your organization in any way, shape or form. I see that happen on social media, and I cringe because I think all you're doing is showing how you handle adversity. And so when it's so, the best thing to do when you are blindsided is acknowledge I did not see this coming. I need to process this. I need to take a breath, I need to pull the covers over
my head. You don't have to do this for a very long time, but you do have to at least do it, I would say, for a few days to get to to really catch your breath and start thinking about, Okay, how can I turn this this these lemons and lemonade. It doesn't mean that after three days of you know, binge watching stupid TV, you're you're over it and you're ready to move on.
It is a process.
Losing your job is one of the top three life stressors that we have, right up there with divorce.
And loss of a spouse.
And so I think, you know, it's easy to well, it's just work, It's just a job. Why am I self said it's just a job. No, For many of us, it's our identity, even if we hated it, even if we were miserable. Having somebody else make that decision for us feels really, really bad. And so you've got to acknowledge that and allow yourself time to process it before you put your head up and start thinking.
About what's next.
And ad is some sage advice there, because normally you want to snap me a call all your co workers can can you believe and engage in gossip and have the pity party for you because it's all about you and that's so enticing, but that goes against better judgment. Of course should win in this case, and that is, hey, listen nothing, I'll talk to you at some point, but I need a couple of days. I need some time
just to process this. And then, you know, put your phone on no notifications and silent, don't answer the phone, and just let it go to voicemail, and just kind of process stuff for a couple of days. That's some really really good advice because it's just easy to go and you know, and then you'll be empowered with all the people saying you got screwed, and then feel and go do something stupid.
Exactly exactly, and you will just know this job locks is a huge emotional rollercoaster, so you will I know people who have felt the first emotion I felt was relief. Yeah, I'm unhappy with that anyway, that after several days or a week or two, they were angry. Yeah, and then wait a minute, why am I angry?
I didn't like that job?
And then maybe you go into sadness and then release again. And so it really is the stage of the grief, experiencing it sometimes all in a day or two. And what I also see a lot of times is with your partner, your spouse, the people who are closer to you, they're angrier than you are because they can't do anything about it. They're upset that this was done to their loved ones. And so make sure that you are communicating openly with the people around you and saying, you know what, yes,
this was not this is not my choice. There's a lot of budgetary things going on, or we've been acquired by another company or whatever it is, and so it's gonna it's going to happen to someone, and it happened to me. I'll be okay and I will be ready to accept help soon.
But for now, you know, I just need events.
I need to process.
And you might vent with someone else, or you might vent with the covers pulled over your heads.
And it's different for everyone, is which And I've been through it before, not and for a long time, but I've been through it, and it is it's like a it's like stages of grief really. I mean, it's the shock initially and then it's like, well, this is stupid. They'll call me back because they can't live without me,
and then you realize, wow, they can. Then you can angry about the situation, and then you become well, maybe it's me and I'm useless and I have no one nothing to offer anyone else, and you go throw these different stages, and then complacency after a couple of weeks, and the people at work stop calling you because while they're going on with their lives, their work lives.
Uh.
And you're not part of the daily gossip chain anymore. And you may have a friend or two still that contacts you, but that'll become few and far between, and and that's what life looks like. And eventually you feel like you're in a desert island and you're kind of like, uh, you know, Tom Hanks and castaway and you're laying on a shore waiting for the for the seagulls to peck your eyeballs out. And then things turn around, and often, as I found out, things turn out for the better.
That there's opportunities out there you don't foresee, and those doors open when another closes. It's so true. But the immediacy of the shock and the horror of it all, and then I'm not even including things like healthcare and money, right. I mean, look at these furloughed federal workers that tomorrow's their last check. And then there's stories coming out of the White House that we may not pay you even when you come back and you still have a job.
So these are uncertain times. I just yesterday at eleven thirty five. Every Tuesday, I have our buddy Andy Schaffer on from all Worth Financial. I mentioned the fact that Fifth Third is acquired co America Bank out of Dallas for eleventy billion dollars, and I said, okay, they said everyone's job is safe right now. How soon before people
get started to get thrown out the window? And that's going to happen because you know, hey, will you do the same job as this person in Dallas, or the person in Dallas does the same job as a person in Cincinnati's overlap. People are gonna lose their jobs eventually. That always happens. They tell you it's not going to and you go, no, no, no, no, we need you, We need you to keep things going until we don't need you anymore, and that will happen at some point.
Yeah, in the minute, let's say, let's say in this situation. Would I tell every single Co America employee is be ready to say you're ready to go? Yes, you want to see is there a place for me? It's justif third that might feel really good and might really use my skills. But if not, or I find that it's not a culture fit or whatever it is, whatever they want me to do, I don't want to do. You have to be ready to.
Begin a job search.
And so that blind loyalty of the company is looking out for me is not only not a thing, but it's never been a thing. As much as we want to tell ourselves that it exists, it doesn't. It is in the company's interest to have you believe that they.
Are being loyal to you, and they want to play up the whole Hey, we're your family and your work family and everything else. And then I don't know, but I you know, I sometimes disagree. Fortunately for us, I've got a really good relationship with everyone in my family. You know, we may have disagreements or a little thing, and flare ups happen from time to time, but the end of the day, we love it. You don't have that your business. It's a business relationship. But conflating that with family.
I've got a real family, yes, exactly, exactly, And it can feel when even if it's a privately held business and there are family members in the company, if you don't have that last.
Name or honor in that family treat bingo, you aren't want to be treated as such. I don't care if you baby, that's the founder's kids, it's you know, it's just it's just, you know, I beat my head against the wall on this because it's just people who want to believe that they're that they're safe, that they're going to be fine, and it's I guess that's a real human nature, but we.
Have evidence it's not that way anymore.
To the contrary, you're not that subtle.
The only organization I can think that still operates that would be our football team, Julie, where there's family and there's loyalty and it's a family business. Once you're in, you're never going to get fired. She's Julie Balki our career shirt, but she pops on every Wednesday. Today we're talking about unexpected job loss. We often talk about getting ready and getting prepared and you know, making sure everything's
up to date. In your networking group, and what's the next step, and can your side hustle turned into a full time job. And that's a great dream for a lot of people, but in reality, sometimes you know what, you wind up loosening your job in these times for no reason whatsoever. And I think that's the thing. We tip so much of our self worth, Julie, because a lot of this is mental. We should talk to the
other Jewelie about the Julie hattersh your mental health. Mondays about this and that we tie a lot our self worth up in what we do for a living, and when that goes away, we're thrown in a turmoil. If you identify for what your your value and your worth and how much you make and who you what you do to make that money, I think you're setting yourself up for problems because at some point, unless you own the company, the chances are, at some point they're going
to go yesterday, we couldn't live without you. Today, we're going to start trying. When that happens, you're in for a while. The literally, the earth, the seas, and the sky have just swallowed you up.
So are we saying that Joe Blackhoe should not look into change.
I'm saying is, you know, he's forty years old, he's made a great career in the second half of his career, ought to be in a backup quarterback. I mean, he's got a super Bowl ring, he achieved the ultimate dream, he's got a got a Lombardi Trophy with the Ravens. And you know, since I think in the past what seven or eight years, it hasn't been so good for Joe Flacco. But he's still making NFL money, he's still getting signed, so good for him. Maybe it's good for Cincinnati.
I don't know, but he keeps landing on his feet. So for Joe Flacco's case, like I thought, I've played myself out of a job and then all of a sudden the Bengals come knocking. So there's some inspiration there.
Well, we think about really in major league sports, you can be on the mound one day and at the end of it and pulled off the mound and be on a bus or a plane to another team that night. So they understand. They understood that it's not personal because that's how their profession operates. It doesn't mean that trans isn't hard, because it is always hard because you build relationships. But we can take a page out of that playbook.
You will be around until it is no longer useful for us to have you around.
And you know what, that is such a great comparative, Julie Buck. This is why you're awesome about what you do.
That is so true.
Mean of all the occupations, you know, being a professional athlete, they know, hey, listen, if someone better comes along, someone younger, that that flash is better than I do. My job's over. I got to be sharp every time I get out there and perform, perform, perform, And when it happens, almost always, there's no animosity. It's like, okay, what do I need to know? Okay, well, here's your ticket. You're gonna go. We treated it to Cincinnati from Cleveland. Okay, Hey, good
luck to see you later. Thanks, Joe, take care, Okay, we'll see you great. And there's no crying and calling your friends and crying and complaining and you know, throwing. It's like they just go and they do the next thing. Now, same thing when someone gets released, you know, at crany camp, it's like, oh man, I thought I made the team, or like yeah, I made the team every year and now I don't make the team, and now I'm out of a job and I'm looking at it. But that's
the we accept. Why do we accept that in in regular business and regular work because it's been that way for a long time. It's nothing new. It's been going on the same way for a long time. And you know, professional athletes are coddled, they're treated special people. And we see this, you know, we see how they're treated much different than the rest of us. Why do we have in work? Why do we have the sense that they
can't live without it and like the world's over. When I when I realized my positions, when I when they found someone better, they go, hey, listen, we're making cuts. It's the way it is. It's not you, it's just it's a line. It's a line at them thing. Why do we have such a hard time with it?
That's a great point, you know, when when most professional athletes, we don't. We don't generally you'll see when someone gets cut, when you see the social media chatter, Oh they'll be fine, you know they're when a see same with the CEO, it loses their jobs, right. Oh, there was a big what kind of big buyout to see it they'll be fine. But those of us who don't generally have those kind of safety nets, it is a it is a.
Harder blow touch.
And we also, especially older generations were very rate and I see Gen X and Boomers were raised in a time where there was some level of expectation that you know, see I was.
I think eighteen if you think about right, so I.
Was probably in my but thirty or so when third too, when bigger layoups start happening. But up until that point, it never occurred to me really that I'd be let go unless I did something really bad. And so in a lot of it was it was what's inside of us, what we saw our parents go through, and we believe that if we're doing a decent job, that were good and if we aren't, if we and i'll tell you what being in HR there's this thing about human denial.
So I remember having to let people go where they have been warned and told a thousand times you need to stop doing A and start doing B. And they kept doing it, kept doing A, kept doing A, and then it was time to let them go. They were shocked, they tell you, shocked. I think there's just this this thing that we have that we believe.
We're going to be okay.
There's some level of delusion there too, but I don't know. It's an interesting it's interesting different.
Maybe because like in a professional sports atmosphere, you know your job's on the line. You got to be you can't be a dream you gotta be a realist. I believe in yourself. At the same time as like coach is telling you, it's like you've seen it happen other players, and uh, you know, for a professional athlete, you know,
unlike you're working stuff like us. It's a different story because they've got a cushion, right, they're making a lot of money and hopefully they've got some set aside for that because they're making a lot more bank you know, when you start talking about furloughed workers for the government, that's a different story trying to make a paycheck and meet end to end. So she is Julie Boukai, our career, shirp of this morning. Uh, and always good stuff is
always always timely stuff. And if you're looking and maybe the light went off over your head, going you know what, She's right, I'm assuming I'll have this job forever or they love me right, Well, what happens? How do I pivot's? What's good? She's the one to talk to. She and her team ready to go for you. It's the Balki Group, b a uk E, the Balki Group, dot Com, premier career coach, consultant, et cetera. Here instance that Julie will
talk next Wednesday. Have a great day. Good heavy back here you will be will let's do a quick time out. We'll get news in the picture and then we'll chat with the chair that I said, the chairperson for the Committee for Infrastructure the City Cincinnati. It's Climate Environment infratructure. She is councilmember Mika Owens. We'll be in to talk
about owed out the Brent Spence Bridge. It's rolling as a matter of fact, they're doing site work as we speak for the Brench Spence Bridge corridor and only by the way, they got about sixty percent of the bridge complete as far as the design goes, Well, what's going to go to the other forty percent, what to expect once they start digging, and what that looks like for traffic and congestion on the city streets, which only what now almost a year ago, we had the big mac
Bridge closure which led to traffic gridlock. Are we expecting more of the same downtown?
What to make of it?
Mika's next on The Scott's Loan Show seven hundred WWD Cincinnati.
You don't want to be an American Scott's.
Loan Back at the Big One seven hundred WLW. Yesterday, O doocs sitting down in front of Cincinnati City Council getting grilled on the three point only six billion I said billion of the beat Brent Spence Bridge and Brent Spence Bridge Quarter project. We're going to kick this thing off early next year. That kind of adjusted the timeline somewhat. Mika Owens is here, Council member Mika Owens who sits on the Climate, Environment and Infrastructure Committee, answering all the
tough questions. Mika, welcome back. How's life? How are you?
Life is great? Thank you Bat for having me. And it's always exciting to talk about big infrastructure projects that are going to improve our region and so odak coming to by the way, I chair the Climate, Environment and Infrastructure Committee, but it was great to have them yesterday, and I think it was a good conversation. Yes, we did ask some good questions, and so I think people will be proud, you know, a decade from now when we look at this marvel of a bridge.
Oh hell, it's a long time coming. I mean when we started complaining about I think how bad the Brent Spence Bridge was before you were born, you know what I mean. It's like it's been go going on for a long long time and it's a line overdue. So about sixty percent of the design is complete. So what's up in the air about that other forty percent?
You know?
Yeah, So the process in which they are using to design this bridge is called a design built process, and so it allows for iteration along the way. It's really a very thoughtful and methodical way of getting to the best products. And so you know, we'll continue to get to the one hundred percent soon, but this fall we're planning to have sixty percent of it complete. I will also say that, yes, thank you to you know, the Biden administration, this current administration with making sure that we
are continuing to move this project forward. I mean, this is truly an example of what collaboration amongst government looks like. No matter what the party affiliation is, this certainly couldn't happen without the federal government, both administrations, the current and the previous, the state government and so Governor the Wine has been a thoughtful partner in this and of course as a local decision maker and with ODACS.
Yeah, and to bring you up to speed on this as you listen with the Burnt Spence Bridge project, is we mentioned the three point six billion dollar total cost, which includes substantial money from the city to count Eyone else's we're gonna get a companion bridge that's west of
the existing Brunt Spence Bridge. So let's take the bridge now, the Brunt Spence Bridge that we know and hate, and they will take that from four lanes down to three, so you'll actually have emergency lane and break down lane because we've seen some while people die as a result of not having that. In this whole project's going to stretch about eight miles from the Western Hills Viaduct to Dixie Highway in northern Kentucky and take a tremendous amount
of work to get done. It's gonna take years and years and years. And that is the bird's eye view of this project here and reshaping what that quarter looks like from seventy five down the western hills, so through the viaduct, and of course a viaduct is seeing a redo as well too. It's interesting I heard some of the conversation yesterday Mika about how they're going to try to limit the impact on drivers and engage barges and bringing material in, which is a great idea.
Certainly, certainly, you know, I think the thoughtfulness around are not only the design, but also the supply in which we will have. You know, this where the still comes from. So these are all going to be good, good questions that will have answers to I think in the beginning of twenty twenty six, if not very late in this year, but certainly thinking about you know, traffic flow and impact
to drivers. You know, we're hearing the concerns around environmental impact and certainly, you know, if can you be thoughtful
about those things. But at the end of the day, moving people is better than being idle, and certainly, as this bridge continues to get built and expanded lanes on the huge bridge, you know it'll help people loose quicker, and it'll also be very thoughtful about how people make decisions from the bridge to get to downtown or to get to seventy one, and so I think it's going to be a real feat of engineering for sure.
Yeah.
I mean we're going to see a lot of cranes along the riverfront, that's for sure. And to get this thing as quickly as possible. It could be cranes and barges all over the place, but getting the barges and that's a pretty good idea. I wonder what that does with surface transportation on the Ohio River. But it's not the first project someone's done of this scale. I guess in other areas of the country they know how to
do this and navigate this. She's Mika Owen's council member, chair of Climate, Environment and Infrastructure, and yesterday met with ODT regarding the Brent Spence Bridge projects, which is set to kick off early next year. So in the cold winter months they'll get busy. Getting busy one of the things one of the things we heard too, Mika. And because also this is an addition to infrastructure, it's also
climate environment. You heard from people who showed up community input that we're concerned about I don't know, opposition from from an environmental groups and transit advocate. They worry about you increased traffic and air pollution, and this is going to disproportionately affect black and brown residents in the West End in Queens Gaden. We can't do this. To me,
that's not really a reason to stop the project. It seems to me, if you're stuck on the Brent spinch Bridge, as people often are in the morning and afternoon commute several days a week, if not every day during the week, don't we have a hell of a lot of pollution from the cars and trucks that are sitting there idly.
That is true, and so which is why moving people significantly faster and more efficiently it's going to be so important. But you know, we don't want to, you know, just throw away the concerns of people who know the climate
work that we're doing in Cincinnati. And so I think at the end of the day, this has been a thoughtful partnership between the federal government, state and here we are in Cincinnati, and if there were any major concerns about environment polution, I believe and thee would, if they believe an environmental impact statement was necessary, would definitely be working on that. So we'll continue to have thoughtful conversations but I do want to talk about the job impact of this process.
Please do, because I think that is that was gonna dovetail. I was going to ask, is okay, we're concerned about black and brown populations and air pollution which we have. If you're sitting on the bridge now and not doing anything makes it worse, not better. This is at least the pollution during construction will be temporary for a long
term fix. But one of the concerns. And as the economy gets worse and worse, and money becomes scarcer and scarcer, and inflation goes up, and you know, jobs are strong. It's not good right now. It's not awful, but it's not good and it's not trending in the right direction when it comes to employment. And like the fact, the matter is, people need jobs. And I've been a long time advocate for the construction community. We have jobs out there that will change your life, will change the trajectory
of your family. It addresses generational poverty. And all you have to do is show up. They'll pay for you to learn, they'll say for your tools. They'll get you there, they'll get you home. You can make a great life by working in the construction trades, and there's countless jobs available on this particular bridge in your backyard. I don't feel like enough is said about workforce development here.
I know, I know, this is what This is the most exciting aspect of this project. First of all, we have to recognize that almost a billion dollars worth of freight comes across the Bridgetent Bridge every single day from Miami to the Canadian border. We also have to recognize CBG is one of the largest cargo airports in North America. It's the seventh largest, and it's the twentieth largest in the world. And that connectivity just based on the moving of goods is so critical.
So this bridge, this.
Project is going to require six million work hours, seven hundred of folks that will need to be the boots on the ground using their hands to construct this bridge, sixty more than sixty sub contractor packages. And so yes, the workforce development implication is so real. And so the investments that we made are are local labor unions with the urban leagues creating that building our futures program, helping people move into apprenticeship and really get great jobs after
graduating from that. We're talking about living wage jobs, you know, Soviet six dollars an hour, and so there has to be a great movement of migrating people into this workforce infrastructure. Because when we also think about and you made great points around you know, economics and people earning money and having money in their pocket to pay for the food
on the people and a roof over their heads. You know, moving young people in these forces of professions is going to be so key for not only Cincinnati but this region. And when we think about the jobs of the future, some of which might might be more technology driven. When we think about AI, it's working with your hands that will always be valuable. And so I'm really excited about the opportunities that we can create for people and young people with justice projects alone.
And there are countless jobs available. That's part of the problem. It's not like it's going away and demand. Everyone talks about there's no good jobs and why do we have crime? Well, I can't when I'm going to work in fast food and not make any money and I can go on the street and hustle, and I know it's not good, but it's something we have. These we need to push more people into these things. And it's got to be. We got to be more vocal about demanding that Hey, listen,
we've got a job. We've got a career for over here. It's hard work. It's not like it was, you know, one hundred years ago, where you're sitting on top of a I don't know, a beam that's being swung by a crane, eating your lunch like they did during the depression. It's much safer now we have, right, we have oceans. Yeah, you're talking making like forty bucks an hour. I mean you're going to be making six figures easy with overtime. That's life changing.
That that.
You know, we talk about generation poverty all the time, meek in Cincinnati, in the community, in black and brown community. This addresses that.
This certainly does. And I will think that, you know, this is one of the things I get most excited about what you think about. Excuse me being back into city Hall and so developing those pipelines and working with partners like cps, like nonprofit philanthropy, our business community, and so many others to make sure our young people have you know, really opportunity and hope. At the end of
the day, I will tell you this too. You know, green jobs are also a part of that which the Chamber of Commerce along with the City of Cincinnati commissioned a green workforce analysis, and in that analysis, there's the opportunity to create up to forty four thousand jobs, many of which are union jobs. When we think about electricians and you know, solling eighth tracks and solar panels and all of those pieces, but that hasn't a potential of
an eleven billion dollar economic impact to the region. So you think about that coupled with the jobs at this infrastructure, this generational infrastructure project's going to bring. Workforce has to be at the top of the list for all of us over the next really five ten years.
She's Mika Owens and she is a chair as a city council person of the committee that's heading up infrastructure in Cincinnati. Met with O Dot yesterday and what's happening is we're moving forward in the Brent Spence Bridge set to begin construction early part of next year. Although I will say probably a lot of these site works being done right.
Now, correct, Yeah, that's correct, So all of the small pieces that have to significant, but the pipes running the ground, all of those pieces that have to be set right now in order to actually get to the building of what we all know as a bridge. So the work is happening. We're really grateful that after decades of trying to get this first accomplished, that we're at this moment and it took a lot of works from a lot
of people. Are of there's this community again government, and we're just happy that on both sides of the river, you know, people working cooarly to ensure that this is
a really great project. And I also want to recognize that, you know, there are some future implications in terms of greater connectivity back to the West End, back to what we've known as Queenstate, but originally the West End when we think about the Fifth Street expansion and so those are things that are being built out right now and being a part of the design and conversation right now, so that when we get to a moment of being
able to extend, you know, those things can happen. So we're thinking about the future even right now.
Is this a deal where it sounds like most people go while you just canned it over to Oda. Oda takes care all the stuff work with Kentucky Transportation Cabinet. But Oda's going to how much oversight does the City of Cincinnati. Where's the accountability I guess, and how close tabs Nika Owens do you keep on what the project is overall from the Cincinnati perspective.
Yeah, well, obviously this is uh, this is right at our heart of our city, and so certainly we want to make sure that we are continuing to be accountable results here. Our Department of Transportation Engineering has been uh with you know, working with ODAC every step of the way, and certainly this is not the first time that you know, the city and state come together to work on projects,
and so those relationships are there. I also want to recognize you know, Doublin or the line, you know, being a very a great partner, recognizing that at the local level there are some decisions that impact us directly, and so being right at the table to make sure that we are again getting all of the great benefits that
this bridge will will bring to our city. So for example, you know, we've got to into their district that's coming online, and so when people get off and accit and go through a downtown Cincinnati, I mean, it is truly going
to be a spectacle. And so that's what we want we want people to be able to not just go over the overpass for those that are maybe carrying of course certainly, but we want folks to be able to stop downtown enjoy, We want folks to be able to get to seventy one, want folks to be able to get to the West End.
That is a huge.
Opportunity in terms of what we might reimagine together there. So ultimately, yes, we want to be at the table and we want to make the decisions necessary and we're possible to make sure one this bridge is completed in a timely manner and then also you know, making sure that we're meeting the budget of this as well go out of our control.
Yeah, yeah, I guess we'll be good partners, Mika.
But one of the other things the fact that year ago, almost a year ago, we had the bridge fire, the Big Mac Bridge, remember, a head shut down for a
period of time because of the fire underneath it. And the end result is it was on going to mitigated traffic disaster on the street surface streets of Cincinnati because there's no preparation for something like that, but there was no reaction, There was no emergency plan in place to deal with something with one of the major bridges is shut down, and traffic in some areas went from a twenty or thirty minute commute to over two hours. Tempers
were flying. Fortunately, no bad things really really happen other than traffic delays. But I look at that and go, Okay, well, what's the plan now for surface streets being overwhelmed with traffic for the multi year build, for the decade long build that's the brent S Benz Bridge.
Yeah, that's that's a great question, and certainly that'll be something that we can continue to follow up on. I do know that there are you know, professional engineers who this is not the first time building a bridge and assessing traffic and you know, traffic patterns and analyzing those things, and so that's also a part of what's going into
the design process. So by the end of this year, beginning of next year, we'll have more ODAT, will have more information around these kind of traffic patterns and the way that the Playweight Belly Bailey Bridge might be impacted.
But ultimately, at the end of the day, you know, this is about moving people very smoothly, not idle, not idling sitting on sitting on a Bridge waiting to go places they certainly we want to make sure we're moving people at the end of the day, and so yeah, I look forward to the updates that we'll continue to have with Odot in my committee.
All right, I appreciate. I got to get going. She is Mika Owens, joining the show this morning. Council member Owens chairs the Climate, Environment and Infrastructure Committee and the Brent Spence Bridge Quarter project as a go. They're doing a little bit of sight work right now, but the big stuff you'll notice will start happening early part QQ Q one, early Q one, like January February of next year. Mik, all the best, thanks for coming on the show. Appreciate you.
Thanks Scott, appreciate it. Take care.
We'll talk again soon. I've got to get a news update in because we've got some pressing developing issues going on right now. We'll find out the very latest there. And of course one of the big developing issues we didn't foresee coming was the fact that we go from Joe A to Joe B, from Joe Burrow to Joe Flacco with a guy named Jake Browning Sandwich somewhere in between.
If you're any good we still be talking about him. Nonetheless, what can we expect this weekend with the Green Bay Packers and Joe Flacco getting I guess he's in town. He's gonna start practicing today today being Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. Say you don't have many times to practice, Sarah, at least a snort report next seven hundred way George is there because the pig is playing. The people demand the snort report on seven hundred W W share at least
from two seven e D in the morning show. Of course, in in arena talent, and of course there's no bigger sports fan in Cincinnati than once Sarah Elease and it's snorts.
Of all sorts of sh yeah, you know, it's it's a little challenging right now. I was at the Bengals Lions game with my dad over the weekend when I'm surrounded by blue and I'm like, you know what all you can do from this point is this kind of laugh to keep from crying. And of course the Bengals say, hold my beer because we are calling the Browns for help.
That's unreal. A franchise that has destroyed quarterbacks since the nineteen nineties, we go to them for our next quarterback in forty year old Joe Flacco. She is such a devoted Bengals fan that Nottle does she drink in the kool aid? Sarah Elise has a day off today because she's going to cook sporting goods to get a Joe Flacco Bengals jersey to be the one in person in the stadium one to Joe Flacco Bengals jersey.
That's right morning. The Bengals had tweeted out hot off the press and they were announcing that Joe Flacco will wear number sixteen, sixteen, your Cincinnati Bengals sixteen. Yeah, and as someone who's close to forty. Look, I'm not forty yet, but I just know that when you are twenty eight, you know, like one Joe Burrow versus almost forty, Well, you know, Joe being actually forty. You got to be careful with this guy, Like the old line has come
to be on high alert. Now. You can't let this forty year old man bounce around the field like that. I mean, that's elder abuse, loony.
That could be a lawsuit pending. Do you think that all of a sudden, the offensive line stair is going to go Okay, you know what, Now we're inspired to protect the forty year old statue that is Joe Flacco. I love that it and go. The worst run game in the National Football League belong to the Bengals. I can't open holes for Chase Brown can't get more than
inches when you need yards. And now you're tasking with not only creating a run game that's been not existed, but now creating, uh, creating run holes for the run game, but also protecting the leakage that's con prevent Joe Flacco but from becoming Joe Burrow. My fear is this fort of your Flacco gets in there and against By the way, I don't know you about this, but the pass rush of the Green Bay Packers with Micah Parsons is pretty
damn good, best in the NFL. If they do, if he does what he's done in the past, I'm wondering how soon we're going to see Jake Browning return.
Oh, let's not. We're not going to go back us like that.
I feel like possibility it.
Has it has to get only better from here. Unfortunately, Jake just couldn't get it done. And again you de for time. Turning to the Browns for a situation like this. So I don't know what we're going to see this weekend, but it does give me hope that the last time that Joe Flacco played the Packers was actually not that long ago, back on September twenty first with the ran he won and he managed to squeeze out a win thirteen to ten. So are they still fourteen and a
half point favorites this weekend? That being the Packers?
Yes with Joe, how are we looking?
Yes? Yes?
What does Vegas say? Vegas says Bengals lose. That's what Vegas says.
You know what.
I saw this stat the other day. Not to fast forward too much because I know we're just focused on one game at a time, but it said when the Bengals host the Steelers next week, the combined QB age is going to be eighty one years old. Of course, because they've got Aaron Rodgers. Just the battle of the elderly. I mean, what a time to be a fan team. Wow, what a roller coaster. But this is where you really
have to capitalize in the AFC. I mean, the Ravens aren't getting it done, the brown stuck as always, and really the Steelers aren't impressive, so it's like, all right, Joe Flacco to the rescue.
Eight or Nina Funny. Nine wins may get it done, Sarah.
Which is wild to say because this used to be the division to look out for and now we're just we're looking on at this division like, oh, I'm kind of concerned here.
The concern, though, is you still need a six or seven wins at this point to get to where you need to be. If that's the case, I can do that. I don't know, We'll see. I'll give I'll give the team credit, give the franchise credit. They went out and they did something right. They went out and got something, and I felt.
Like such the Bengals mentality though, the Bengals mentality, it's like, well they did is this the right something?
Well?
What other options do you have? I mean, you can stay, you know what, Jake Brown and Canning you know clearly there's pressure on Zach Taylor. Of course, there's no pressure on Duke Tobin or or the or the family. No pressure there. Everything's fine, no, not ever. But to me, it's like I when when this broke yesterday afternoon, and
it's how blow up on my phone. It struck me as Joe fla forty I know it is forty year old Joe Flacco, who, by the way, in Cleveland and four starts as one and three with the fifth eight percent completion rate, two touchdowns and six interceptions. On paper, he doesn't seem much different than Jake Browning. And this to me felt like this is the best chance of all the worst options available for what it is. It's It's like, Sarah, this is like a closing time hookup,
is what it is. You're a dude. You're not the best pick of the litter. You know, you have questionable hygiene. You're not a very good person. She seems I don't know. Her friend says she's got a great personnel, she's a nice person. I don't. I don't know. We're both desperate. Let's just hook up. That's what this is. It's a it's a it's a closing time hookup.
If this makes you feel better, Joe Flacco is the only Super Bowl winning QB that the Bengals have ever had.
Did we and when you phrase it that way, did we swipe?
Laughter?
Swipe? What?
Right?
On quarterback Tinder?
I don't know, because I've never been on Tinder to know which one.
You know which one it is? Either that, I don't know if it's a last swipe right, swipe up down. I'm not sure what's going on here.
I have no idea old for this, just like Jill FLACKO, this is the time of the elderly. But of course, yeah, he got it done with the Ravens not even ten years ago. But can you do it with the Bengals.
We'll see, But no way, let me interrupt. I saw this this morning. Okay, do you know since his last full season in twenty seventeen what his record is?
Oh, I'm curious.
Go ahead, fourteen and twenty six.
Welcome to the Bengals.
You'll fit right in, Sit right in, You'll fit right in.
You're doing great. But yeah, Zach Taylor had released a statement yesterday, very long, so i'll just sort of spark noted here he goes, Yeah, joll Flackow has the history of winning. He is a leader, a gifted pastor, and we're excited to have him on the team.
Very well, I want him to say what is he supposed to say?
He fear every time I read exact quote, I'm like I could have probably said this in my head and told you that this is what Doc Taylor said. It's very predictable at this And if Zach Taylor solve the job, if they can't beat now, if they can't, okay, say for example, they go on and they beat the Packers this weekend, and okay, and then and then they go ahead and they beat the Steelers. Does that mean that all of a sudden, back Taylor's job should be safe
and we're back on teams. Dak Taylor again to me, I don't just spit out my coffee.
Well, let's hear the winning. Winning solves a lot of problems. You know when Zach took them to the Super Bowl?
Really good?
Right?
I Mean, here's the weirdest thing I've ever seen in my lifetime, with all they hate and negativity towards this team for what they have not done and what they continue to not do. Mike Brown himself was celebrated in Washington Park by cheering crowds when they returned from losing the Super Bowl.
Use I was there, and it was a very bitter sweet celebration, like this is very Cincinnati of us. What are we doing?
Like we thought we turned the corners like, Okay, they woke up. You know, the Blackburn girls are involved and things are changing. We've got to ring up, honor. We went to the Super Bowl and now all of a sudden, it's it's gone completely back to where it was before, which makes you think with Parody and the NFL, maybe the Super Bowl year they just got lucky, Like we were bad enough that we got one of the best quarterbacks in the league. I mean generational talent and Joe Burrow.
You got Jamar Chase t Higgins was great, but you did that because you sucked for so long. You got to pick of the letter that does those things. We didn't invest in an offensive line. I mean the defense right now is mid. So I look at this this whole package. You go, well, Cleveland at least has a really really good defense that's going to turn the ball back over to Joe Flacco or in this case, Dyllan Gabriel more often than the Bengals will. That's also a concern.
Better are they on the Bengals, which is really wild to stay. I mean, I haven't seen really anything good happening with this team in the past few weeks. It's really sad, and again when I was there on Sunday out numbered by Lions Sance, I saw a lot of people wearing those paper bags over their heads, a lot of fire Dak Taylor signs. But like you said, if they start winning and turning things around, it's really amazing
what happens and how quick the fans were. You get a couple of losses and the paper bags come out. I think it's going to look like late November.
I have no idea what to expect Sunday. I really I have no idea. I have not but I'll watch, I'll listen right.
Oh, I'm so sad for this. I'm even more excited than ever. I'm like Jake Browning, but Joe Flacco, I mean, this is someone that this is someone that that you want to root for.
You always liked you. You always prefer the older men.
I'm like, Oh, Joe, Okay, this is someone.
What's his fit?
Like?
He's a zaddie.
I'm duned in well, speaking of I wonder what he wore last night and stuff rubies. Yeah, I have an inside store. That's a boy. He got into Cincinnati last night and his first stop was, of course, at Jeff Ruby's for dinner. I don't know who we went out to dinner with, if it were for Steak Browning or Jamar Stacey Higgins, whoever, But I just know that that's where she was at last night. That's the way to get welcomed into the city.
Right, I would think, like, Okay, I'm gonna get in and on the way, somebody's picking me up and they've got an iPad, and I'm gonna study the entire time to like get to Cincinnati. And then I got to get in and have team meetings and I got I'm gonna know, I'm gonna get in. I'm gonna you know what I need. I need a baked potato. I need a ribbi and some lobster mac is what I need before anything happened.
Get the playbook. Yeah, I don't need to.
I don't need to, Like nothing against Ruby's good. Could you just like I don't know, maybe get a sandwich and like have it? Kay, you know, have some food at the training because you're gonna have to study, like starting like cramming for a finals. What this is like, Like, Yeah, I'm gonna go and have a bottle. I have a bottle of wine and some sushi.
There's no way that he was doing any sort of work last night Ruby's other than working on a damn But that's where the priorities are right now. And I'm also wondering, like, how did he get to Cincinnati. Do you think that they just sent a car for him? Did he get some sort of like private plane situation? This is a pretty quick drive. Did they send an uber for him?
No?
I guess probably Like what is that the Mega bus or the Baron's Billions, the Baron's bus or whatever it is from Cleveland taking that down sitting in the back. Hey, they got free Wi Fi.
I mean, we don't have to pay for this guy.
Yeah, send the private jet. We we sent u we got Greyhound?
All right?
So does give me faith that that Joe Burrow, remember that guy? That gives me faith that he will be back, maybe sooner than expected.
I think the club is confident that Joe will be back in December because of the indication of what they did here, that they made a move, going, hey, if we can maybe get a couple of wins out of this guy who knows what happens, If it can be early December as opposed to late December, then you probably don't have a chance, but Sarah Lisa is here.
Yeah, maybe Joe Flacca will hit for the cycle and sign with the Steelers.
He's played for every team in the division except for the Steelers. And maybe Aaron Rodgers goes down, we get to Burrow back and then at December we see Flacco start for the Steelers. What about that?
Oh my gosh, I mean, the possibilities are endless that nothing surprises me anymore. Ever, Like when I saw that news about Joe Flacca, I laughed and I was like, you know what, I'm not even surprised like this, of course what happened? Pot off the press. Go check out the Bengals Twitter. They've got all the latest with all your Joe Flacco ish that you could. But you can imagine it's all there on the hilarious it is.
But you know what, I think you got to watch. You go like, okay, I got to see what happens here.
Oh yeah, yeah, I will be sat.
Got it.
I'll w haw's it because the Reds are no longer playing. Don't even get me started.
On is there any other sports? This is the only sports news we have. Sports Lady, I.
Guess, go Dodgers. If you're going to lose to the Dodgers, just go Dodgers all the way. And then FD Cincinnati, they're back for their final regular season match. That's going down next Saturday, fan Appreciation Night. And then our Cincinnati Cyclones are back the exact same night and they've got a big fan appreciation you know, first base Off special thing going on, so discounted food and beverages and free calendars,
all kind of. Saturday is where it's got to get your hockey and your soccer fixed, because, as you know, baseball is done in our city.
We're about done with baseball and the puck drop in the NHL. Last night, I was watching a little puk, was watching the Penguins and Rangers for a little bit going on there. It's good to see hockey back fall this year. And I can't wait for Sunday afternoon for twenty five to see what happens with the Bengals and the Packers, namely Micah Parsons. And right now, talk about
somebody who's having a stake. He's sitting there rubbing his hands, going all right, let's get so, let's get some let's get something done.
Here.
Uh, Sarah le surprises me back Monday morning and the Kid Chris show that's shows her off the phone. Now, even on vacation, she has to do the snort report. I love that.
I love it.
Sitting here my Bengals pajamas in case anyone wanted to know.
And no matter what, she's the paper bag waiting this afternoon, she'll be down to cook sporting goods to get the Joe Flacco what number sixteen?
Number sixteen babies.
So what you're saying is what you're saying is Joe Flacco is a touchdown better than number nine.
Yes, if you're looking at just the numbers, then yes.
He's a touchdown better than Burrow. Oh my gosh, talk to you next week. Thanks again, have a good one, Good luck all right? Who try to get dressed today? For crying out loud? Would you put some clothes on? Be productive for crying out loud? To act like you care? Anyway, News on the way just a couple of minutes, and then Willie takes over at twelve oh six. Here, I'm the home of the best Bengals coverage, I mean, the best Spangles coverage. Savanader WWT Cincinnati