Back on the Big One seven hundred WLW twelve O. Wait, Dan Carroll in for Bill Cunningham. And you know, some days you never know how things are going to unfold. I'm preparing for the show today and I saw the news headline shortly before I headed into the station and Dave, my reaction was this hit it It's unbelievable. You know, we knew there was something going on because they summoned all the reporters to the Big Mac Bridge today and
the headline is this four seventy one southbound. All the lanes of the Big Mac Bridge are going to reopen on Sunday, Sunday, Sunday Sunday. Like Cash d Amberg he used to say at the bargain Barn, come on up Sunday. We've got a great deal for you. The main man, you know, the guy Chuck Ingram. Have you been catching all kinds of hell on this absolutely because of seventy one?
Was it was my fault?
I mean yeah, look, I mean how many years he been doing traffic in this town? This is I'm over twenty twenty. I've got about ten or eleven years on my double door. So you know we're talking about thirty plus years of traffic reporting between the two of us, Yeah, I have. I have never seen a story like this. Look, there's times when traffic stories get a lot of attention, get a lot of press, but this one on four
seventy one because it affects so many people. I mean when you talk about they did stories about when the steel beams were being manufactured, when they were getting shipped, when they were being put in place, schedules for the concrete purse, this, that and the other thing. I've never seen this kind of coverage on a traffic story ever.
No, I would agree with you.
Even so, just going back the four to five years whatever, it's over four years now with the fire on the Branch Spence, with the truck fire on the Brand Spence, the most recent disaster we had have happened traffic wise, you didn't have this kind of coverage and different things to play. Almost the play by play, although it seemed to take an offul long time to start to get some help for those folks that had to go across the bridge. Once the play the different things started happening,
It's like unfolded pretty quickly. Yeah, what so, tell me what kind of what kind of reaction you've been getting for these last several months while this thing has been closed, because it has been an absolute nightmare, not so much in the morning, but especially in the afternoon. No, afternoon has really been taking a hit. And that was the That's the thing I would get all the time with the texts and people I didn't even know had my phone number.
When is this going to open? Its three o'clock in the morning. Who else calling me? Yeah? Exactly this.
Even even though texts, you know, you don't have an emotion to it, I could read right through the words. It's like, just say, oh my god, when is this? When is this? I said, yeah, you know, I kept playing along. I said, well, I kind almost guaranteed before opening day that this is going to you know, this is kind of because the originally said mid March, but to have this almost the full mont.
You gotta think opening day was was a day they had circled on the calendar that they had to get it done.
Oh yeah before that.
So we we knew today and because there were obviously you know, with the way we do news here at seven hundred wlw uh, we knew there was going to be some sort of announcement some sort of update got reporters coming out to the bridge today. So we knew there was going to be something happening. We didn't know it was going to be this. No, no, Ill, What was your reaction when you saw when you saw this piece of news.
I love it.
They were going to O dot was going to send out a Valentine state card and say the highways are for driving, go ahead and do it, you know kind of thing by next weekend.
Yeah. I didn't think it would happen this weekend at all. And that's just wonderful.
It's going to be open before before Valentine's that's right, So what you amazing? You can take your love over to Newport and all the restaurants that have been suffering in things because of this bridge being closed and celebrate there. You'll be able to celebrate Valentine's there. You know, you still live in Mount Washington in Anderson Township. Okay, I live in well then we both live in Anderson Township. But I mean that's the thing, this thing with this
bridge being closed. There's been a couple of times and thankfully I've I've met I've managed to avoid it. But that the three or four times they got I got caught up in that afternoon traffic trying to get back to Anderson Township. I mean, I've never seen a situation because because there's so many people who go to the east side on four seventy one, I've never seen a
situation that reaches so far. And I'm talking about all the way into Anderson Township, all the way up Beachmunt Avenue, all the way out Route thirty two, and it just it screws up everything. I've never seen anything like it. No, it really, it really truly did, taking away that one element out of everything. It's just like when you got to make the adjustments to your travel and it was just like, well, wait a minute, can't handle another twenty
thousand some point or whatever the number exactly was daily. Yeah, you know, to have to make a difference like that, It's like everything was jammed at that point. What did we do before the big mac Bridge open? Wasn't that amazing? I can't remember. I can't remember either. I'm just goin to I don't know. I forget when it opened, but I think I was driving by then. But yeah, because
I remember it taking forth. I mean Columbia Parkway. But it could because I grew up on the east side and whenever we went downtown, it was always Columbia Parkway. That was really the only the best way to go was the way to go right. Yeah, and then when four seventy one open, it was like, oh my god, we can get downtown in eleven minutes. Right, it's crazy. You cut your traff and h trip in half. Yeah, right,
and then coming back the other way. But I mean, but this is this is and that's why I played the Hallelujah chorus because it's good. How rare is it though, especially when it comes to construction projects, because you know, we see it on seventy five and it's not like, you know, seventy five, okay, you're down a lane or they're going to reconfigure. There's something's going to happen. But usually there's there's at least some trickle of traffic that
can get through there. But when you've got you know, access and crossing a river, that it's a whole different ball game. And it's basically other than the one near keell Ogun and on the east side, that's the that's the biggie for seventy one was the biggie of coming into town, so you didn't have to get into more northern Kentucky traffic for seventy five. Yeah, in southbound as well, so it's like, no, take it away, and now we
know what it feels like. All right, So if only you would have known this at you know, six o'clock this morning.
At five o'clock this morning, Oh, wouldn't that have been?
Na?
I know you would have I would have looked like a yeah, yeah.
But then the I running part is is that they literally they are on the bridge and they're having this press conference and releasing the information. The other to talk about it opening up on Sunday actually came out a little bit earlier this morning. And then we have police activity on seventy five, which is going on right now at Dixie. That's slowing five Dixie.
Yeah, that's in northern Kentucky and it's backing traffic into downtown and the northbound lanes are slow from Erlanger.
You've got that going on. And then on seventy one a little bit further near Glencoe after the split, Yeah, there's a truck fire that shut shuts that down. That's going on right now southbound lane too. Yeah, Oh my god.
So it's like all the traffic guds go, oh, you've got this nice thing going on for four seventy one and good news there, hold my beer.
It has a way of balance and itself out, doesn't it. Yes, it is absolutely amazing. All right, Well, Chuck, I'll tell you what, man. I appreciate you coming in and spend a little time today, and uh, it's always great to see you, my friend.
It's good to see you too.
It's nice to be able to talk about something positive for a change.
That is the best news we've heard all day, you know, sec say it with ease, four.
Seventy one And now I'm just gonna kind of keep track. I don't know the next time i'll be driving over four to seventy one that way, but hopefully it'll be before too long. There you go, All right, Chuck, thank you very much. You'll be able to do it come Sunday. Yeah, Dave, can we hear that? Can we hear the music one more time? And you know, we we opened the segment with little Hollelujah, and I think it's as only fitting
that we close the segment as well. And Matt Reese went out there today and maybe we'll talk with him a little bit later on. But uh, I think I think the music is fitting as we close out this segment. Chuck Ingram, thank you very much thinking in and enjoy your drive and annoy the Kentucky over the Big Man the way it was meant to be opening early. I mean, that's government man. That never happens with government. Miracles do happen.
Trump is in office and four to seventy one is open. Yeah, that's the reason it's opening early.
Of course. I'm seven HUNDREDW.
I back on the Big One, seven hundred WLW twelve twenty two, Dan Carol for Bill Cunningham, and the news is huge today that the Big Mac Bridge will be opened by Sunday, Sunday evening, according to Mike Shell at Fox nineteen so reporters were some of there today. Matt Reeves. I just talked to Matt Reeves. He is still taking the tour of the bridge. He's got some photos. I think those have been posted on the social media of
seven hundred WLW, so you can see that. Might talk to about Matt Rees and his experience a little bit later on, but that's the thing. You know, you get called out to an event like this, and every once in a while it happens because you pretty much as a reporter, you pretty much have an idea of what the news is going to be before you get there.
Not this time.
This day got there and the news came out that they are ready to rock and roll on Sunday on the Big Mac Bridge. And that is absolutely huge. So this is the final weekday that we will have evening traffic backups because of four to seventy one southbound being shut down. So that is a reason to celebrate, and that news is going to be percolating all day long elsewhere today. And I reached out to Richard Jones, who I was trying to get him to join me here
on seven hundred WLW today. I saw this story posted on WCPO a little early this morning, and this is a story about a sign out front of the Butler County Sheriff's office. And there is a sign that reads this illegal aliens here, and it's got an arrow pointing towards the Sheriff's office, which is, to my way of thinking, a public service. If you're an illegal alien and you are ready to call it quits or you're ready to
come clean. Then there's a sign right there with an arrow on it, and it tells you where to go if you're in Butler County. But that's not good enough for some people in Butler County because there is a petition out there. Surprisingly, I might add, signed by sixteen hundred people. How do you find sixteen hundred people in Butler County who are opposed to a sign that reads illegal aliens here out front of the Butler County Sheriff's
office and they don't like it a bit. Apparently this sign went up in two thousand and four and now they wanted they want to take him down. Let's see what I do with that. Here's here's the petition, and this is on change dot org. So if you want to sign a petition by all means, go ahead. Actually they're up to eighteen thousand signatures. Now eighteen thousand people, I'm sorry, not eighteen thousand, eighteen hundred, eighteen hundred signing
this petition in Butler County. And here's what they write. They write, this is what the issue is. Our community is one built on love, understanding, and respect for the dignity of all persons. We take pride in the inclusive nature of our community, one that does not discriminate, but embraces all its citizens. However, a symbol of discord, division, and prejudice persists in our community. The despair uraging illegal aliens here sign displayed at the Butler County Jail. How
is that sign disparaging? How is it prejudice? How is it showing a symbol of discord? If you're in this country illegally and you are from not from the United States, you're an alien. You're in the country illegally, you're here, you're an illegal alien. And that term was good enough for Bill Clinton, It was good enough for Barack Hussein Obama, it was good enough for George W.
Bush.
But somehow, you know, people that write petitions like this, have decided that the term illegal alien is no longer you know, no longer acceptable, they write. In the United States, immigrants make up thirteen point seven percent of our population, according to Peer research from twenty nineteen. These are our neighbors, our friends, our co workers, and indeed our family members.
They enrich our community with.
Cultural diversity, adding to the fabric of our society. Yet signs like these say have to only dehumanize alienates and belittle their contributions. Well, no, it doesn't, because you want to confuse the terms. You want to confuse the term illegal alien illegal with immigration legal immigration. The immigrants who come to this country are worthy of our respect because they are the ones who do it legally, who do it the right way. They are the ones who enrich
our community. They are the ones who add to the fabric of our society. They are the ones who make America better, who pay taxes, who work hard, who raise families, who start businesses. And I am friends with many of these people. But if you're here illegally, you don't contribute to any of that. Chances are and you can do. You know, you've got the research on what immigrants do,
but what about illegals? What do you illegals do? The research shows that the majority of those who are here illegally are living in big cities and sucking up government resources. They're on welfare, they're on food stamps, they're getting free medical care. They're supposedly living in the shadows, but yet they're not in the shadows so much that the federal government hasn't been able to find them and ladel all kinds of government largess on them. Those days are coming
to an end. Read the stories about what's happening at the border.
Right now.
The border has uventually I've been shut down. There are Mexican troops ten thousand Mexican troops deployed to the border right now. Pete Hegseth was down there the other day talking to members of the National Guard who are standing side by side by customs and Border Patrol, who are standing side by side with Texas Texas Resources, and they
are shutting the border down. So I don't think Richard Jones is going to be one that's going to cave to a petition signed by eighteen hundred people, no matter how many people sign it. It's going to take down a sign that reads illegal aliens here. It is twelve twenty nine. News is about thirty seconds away. We will
do that. On the other side of that, I'm going to talk to my friend Cheryl Chumley of the Washington Times, and we'll get her take on everything that is happening in Trump Land, because that news is coming so fast and furious. Here on the home of the Reds, seven hundred wa I'm back on the Big One, seven hundred WLW. It's Stan Carroll in for Bill Cunningham today, and it
has been absolutely amazing. Ever since January twenty if the news out of Washington as it as it surrounds Donald Trump has been coming out so fast and furious, it's almost hard to keep up with it all. But here too, I don't know if we'll talk about all actually it's impossible to talk about all of it, but we'll talk about as much of it as we can with Cheryl Chumley, who is the online opinion editor at the Washington Times. And Cheryl Chumley, it is great to have you back
on the show. How are you today?
I'm doing great, and it's so great to be with you. Thank you.
You know.
I'm almost hoping that that things slow down a little bit today, just to kind of catch up and digest everything that's been coming out as far as Trump is concerned. But I dial up the Washington Times today and I see Trump calls for a balanced budget proposed as a tax cut that's going to cost at least five trillion dollars. It was I guess this happened earlier today? Is that is that right, is is this the latest thing to come out of the mind of Donald Trump?
Yeah, you know, I saw the same headlines, reading the same stories as you, and I agree completely. It is a fast and furious, you know, frenzy of motion that has come forth from this White House and just a blink of an eye, right, And this is the latest And I think part of it is driven by the savings that we're seeing Elon Musk discover in.
Many of his investigations. Right, will it goes hand in hand.
If Elon Musk can save us money and he finds all this corruption and waste, then Donald Trump steps in and turns around and says, well, why can't we pass those savings along to the American citizen?
Absolutely? Amazing?
Is there?
Can you think of anything that more encapsule, encapsulates and is emblematic of what the swamp is than us?
Aid? Is?
Absolutely? I mean you talk about peeling back the onion. Every time every layer of this gets that gets peeled back is worse than the one before. And I don't think we're done with it yet.
No, I think we're just hitting the surface.
And you know, to answer your question, is there anything that is more emblematic of the corruption that goes forth in the political world than US aid. Honestly, we don't know yet, right because Elon Musk is just getting started. Let's wait till he starts looking into some of the other agencies. You know, we have a whole batch of
un funding that goes forth. I know Donald Trump has pulled US out of some of those organizations, but there is still a lot of funding taxpayer dollars that go into the United Nations and disappear into all parts unknown. So let's just give a couple more weeks and see what's revealed.
Yeah, when you see Democrats and you see leftists reacting the way they are to what is going on with DOJE and what's going on with Elon Musk and those that are working for him, I think it really it's an indicator of how close to the target we're really getting here and how close I think we are to exposing a lot of things that these people do not want exposed.
Yeah, there really is no same reason or rationale that the Democrats can provide for their utter freak out about you know, what, honestly should be nonpartisan investigations to root out waste and corruption This should unite America if nothing else. And really, I do agree with many of these social posts that you've seen saying that all those who are protesting and opposing the investigations to government corruption and waste tax dollars are going to be out of themselves as
part of the problem, guilty of wasting tax dollars. I do think that there's some sense in that the ones who are protesting and opposing chances are they're involved somehow.
Yeah, well, because it turns out that they that they've been part of the gravy train. And I saw I saw a headline today and then and here's the bad thing about this is that there's so many headlines out there, and it turns out that the things that are true are absolutely shocking. And then I saw a headline today that said Nancy Pelosi got over one hundred million dollars from the USA. I d I have no idea if that's true. I didn't have time to research it before
I came in. But this is this is how fast and furious this is coming out of here, and then they're really there hasn't been anything to counter this, to say that this is false, to say that it's phony to say that it's made up. All they can do is complain about the messenger. Listen to what this is what they were talking about on CNN about and how they were attacking those who were over at Doaje Dave.
Let's hear cut number two.
Yeah, So this is a nineteen year old high school graduate who has used the unfortunate nickname big Balls online, so that would be one way that we could refer
to him. He is now working at Musk's behest inside Doge and we looked into his background and so we found, you know, several notable things erin, one of which is that this individual has founded multiple companies, including one with another unfortunate name, Tesla dot SEXYLLC, which he established in twenty twenty one, he would have been around sixteen years old. Now this LLC controls dozens of web domain.
So here we have Elon Musk who has gone out and found some young killers, people who are absolutely just unstoppable when it comes to working the working computers, working the internet, dig into things, finding things out. Instead of celebrating these young people, now we're somehow we're supposed to be opposed to young people having these kind of opportunities to do a lot of good for the American people.
Yeah, the left can't refute the numbers, right, I mean, it's pretty clear cut.
If you see.
A financial sheet that shows how much money taxpayers give and then where that money is spent, it's pretty clear cut.
So what they have to do is they have to go after the messengers.
They have to attack Elon Musk, right, and now they have to attack all Elon Musk's assistance with these investigations.
So that's just the playbook. Expect it.
But honestly, if you look at the polls and surveys and the response to the American people, the Americans buy and large in the majority are behind Elon Musk and Donald Trump's attempt to root out tax dollar waste.
So I don't think the Democrats on the winning side here.
Yeah.
And then last night we had Jake Tapper. I don't know if you had a chance to see the UH, the the raw video that CBS finally released with the UH with the interview of Kamala Harris, and it it exposed the the the hard the hardcore editing that they did, the attempts they did to make Kamala Harris UH not sound like such an idiot. And then you've got Jake Tapper on there talking about how dangerous it is that
that this sort of transparency is allowed. And I guess Jake Tapper is now on the side of advocating that the media be able to manipulate and conceal things from the those uh, you know, those consumers of their products.
Well, we've known for a long time now, particularly since COVID right, how the media has regarded itself as sort of the gate guards of what is acceptable speech in this country and what is not.
And that wall is crumbling. It's crumbling.
It's been crumb crumbling for a few years, but it is really ratcheting it up under this administration. And you know, Donald Trump still has that loss going against CBS. I think it was like ten billion dollars for this very interview, and yeah, let it go.
Let it go forth.
It was a it was a really biased action CBS took to cite to censor her word salad at a time when she was being criticized for word salad, and the questions were could she speak, could she communicate well enough to be commander in chief, to be the White House President?
And I mean, it's not it's not a heavy lift to connect those dots to show how this was an attempt at election interference. When you have a presidential candidate that is so unable and so ill equipped to hold her own in a as friendly an interview as you could imagine it, really it shows the deficiency. But yet CBS News and the people who put that interview together were hell bent on concealing that fact from the American people.
Well, they said it was editing for time, right right, yeah, right, which, yeah, And what's even more eye opening is that when they were confronted with the truth of their video, they still dig down, dig deep, and refuse to apologize, refuse anything.
They say it was just simply done out of time.
Well, it's just curious that all the edits they made supposedly for time just covered up the fact that Kamala Harris was could not form a sentence without you know, mumbo jembo word salad. That left all the listeners puzzled as to her message.
Right, and she's and she's out looking at some of the fire damage in California right now, and she and she did it again.
So I'm going to be playing that cut.
A little the gift that keeps giving.
I mean, Cheryl Chumley, we dodged, we dodged an unbelievable bullet by not having her in the White House, did we not?
Oh?
We did, Because you know it's not just her inability to communicate properly, it's all the policies and agendas that she would just you know, shoved down Americans throats, beginning with open borders.
We'd be overrun right now.
Yeah.
And if she, if she had been in office today, you and I would not be talking about us A A I D. We wouldn't be talking about any of that wasteful spending, the billions and billions of dollars that have gone down the drain. We'd be getting steeped in more of this DEI and uh, this extreme leftist ideology as far as the eye can see. Let me ask you about a couple of other issues I know you care a lot about. And one was at the National Prayer break Hey, what what kind of hooks?
But does it take too?
And I saw two or three different members of Congress out there denouncing Donald Trump for daring to show up at the National Prayer Breakfast because there's supposed to be a wall between church and state, and do these people. I can't think of a single president in my lifetime that has not attended the National Prayer Breakfast. So he goes out there and he calls for a task force
to eradicate anti Christian bias. And of course this is a story that's going to get zero coverage at all, because as far as the left and the media is concerned, anti Christian bias is perfectly acceptable.
Yeah, it is a little bit breathtaking the level of ignorance to make the statement that you're shocked shocked that the president would speak of the National Prayer Breakfast, because this goes on its wroughte all administrations. And I was very optimistic by the words that Donald Trum spoke at the National Prayer Breakfast. He was basically talking about that American exceptionalism is rooted in the idea of individual rights coming from God right, and that's exactly what founders put
forth the Draation of Independence. So we're not talking about some radical ideas here. We're talking about going back in time to the sounding of our nation and the fact that we have seated, tax paid politicians supposedly representing the will of the American people who don't understand that and don't know that from their own history.
It's astonishing the level of ignorance.
Well, yeah, when you talk about the aocs of the world and so many others, they will be more than happy to tell you that rights come from the legislative branch of the government. This whole notion that the rights come from our creator and that each individual is endowed with these rights. That these days, that is what, according to them, is considered a radical idea, and that's the kind of thinging that need to be done away.
With, which makes it all the more shocking to me. And this is in the first time I've found this slot. I've been thinking it for years and years since Bernie Sanders was an open socialist in Congress. But it makes it all the more shocking to me that these people can actually raise their hands and take the oath of office to uphold the Constitution, because what they stand for
is directly in conflict with the Constitution. So it's a deception from day one when they're sworn into office that they're actually going to represent the American people the Constitution and do their elected duty for America.
Yeah, and then the other thing I wanted to ask you about was that the military has broken a fifteen year recruitment records and it's amazing. A few days after Trump gets sworn into office, we have record numbers of young Americans heading to the recruitment office looking to sign up to join the United States military. And it's amazing because I mean, that's been a major problem for the military.
Is the is the them falling short of their recruiting goals year after year after year, and to the point to where they actually change their recruiting goals. And now you've got what, You've got so many people signing up, the they're probably going to have to wind up turning some of those people away.
Well, they can raise their standards.
Yeah, raise the standard absolutely be selected.
And look, this is partly because Donald Trump right away dig right by those who were booted from the military for their refusal to take an experimental shot called COVID vaccines and give them back their opportunity to do to rejoin the military.
With their rank and back pay.
And it also speaks strongly to the idea that this is a commander in chief who is not going to sell our military down. The river and force them to instead of defend the nation, which is what they sign up to do, take social justice in DEI training and learn to become a good lgbt Q warrior.
Uh So, Cheryl Chumley, if I say the name to you of Lori poe Hutsky, Lori poe Hutsky, does that name mean anything to you?
Have you? Have you heard that name?
No?
Okay, it's not a trick question. Lori po Hutsky is a Michigan state representative and she recently announced her decision that she would voluntarily undergo sterilization and blaming that on President Donald Trump. She she she wants to ensure that she would never have to navigate a pregnancy in Donald Trump's America because, according to her, uh and I think and she's from Michigan. She's from Michigan. According to her, she wouldn't have the ability to abort her baby should
she become pregnant. And I think she's also a lesbian on top of that. I mean, this is this is you know, when you talk about the left in this country and you look at stuff like this, you know they're not unhinged at all. I mean they are they are totally totally rational when it comes to to thinking and the things that they want to do.
Yeah, no doubt a great protege of Governor Whittmer.
Right, but Gretchen Whittmer.
But yeah, I.
Didn't recognize the name. But as soon as you.
Started telling me the story, I was like, yeah, I know who she is and I saw her picture. My response to this is, let the left, let them sterilize themselves, right, that's good, that's good. We we just we we wean ourselves, you know, through the generation of the lunatic fringe that has dominated under the Democrat Party for so long.
So have at it.
Uh, you know, go go for the sterilization treatments if you're a leftist and and don't like Donald Trunk, because that's only good for our nation in the end.
Yeah, you are. You are free to do as you please. And then we haven't even talked about immigration or the border yet. And it is absolutely amazing. I've been reading several stories recently about how essentially all the flood of illegals that we have seen into this country over the last four years that has really essentially come to a stop. And I mean, for all these things to happen this quickly. I think we had an idea that Trump wanted to
act quickly and get things done. But I mean, even you know, people like you and I who spend a lot of our time looking at things like this, I think a lot of us and the people you know in the business have all been surprised how quickly all this is happening.
Yeah, and it's not just Donald Trump.
I credit Tom Holman and some of the people that Trump has surrounded himself with, people with will to combat the narrative from the media and the protests industry that are largely staged by the Democrat Party. Right, And it didn't just start with Donald Trump's inauguration and actually started before it actually started. Ye, once it was clear that Donald Trump had won the election, people started self deporting, people started turning back from the southern border and going
back to their own countries. And now we're just seeing it sped up. The criminal element alone that the fact that Tom Holman is going out with those known thuggish gang members trendy are I don't trend I think you call it, Yes, the ones that took over the communities out there in the West, and they're rooting them out.
That has to be a big relief to those people who live out that way.
All right, well, Cheryl Tumley, we got to go. We haven't even talked about Pete heg Seth or Marco Rubio or Pam Bondi yet. I mean, we could spend a whole couple more hours on that. But Cheryl Tumley, always great to have you on. Thank you so much for the time, and I'll be calling you on you again before too long.
Sounds great, Thank you very much.
All right, there you go, the one and only Sheryl Chumley. It's twelve fifty five Dan Carroll for Bill Cunningham, seven hundred WLW seven hundred WLW Dan Carroll and for Bill Cunningham. Beautiful Friday afternoon and breaking news last night. When the NCAA comes out on the heels of Donald Trump signing an executive order that prohibits natural men, natural born men from competing against women in women's sports, it seems like
a common sense idea. But then on the heels of that, and unbelievably quick, the NCAA comes out and says, you know what, We're going to change our policy, and our policy is going to go along with this. I don't think I have spoken with anyone more on this particular subject than seven hundred WW legal analyst James Bogan, and James Bogan joins us this afternoon, and James, it is amazing. You know when you think about how big of an
organization the NCAA is, how quickly they moved. I mean we're talking about twenty four hours after Trump signs this executive order, the NCAAA comes out and says, you know what, we're going to go along with it.
Absolutely amazing. Well, when you're.
Facing the possibility of legal repercussions from the federal government that can light a fire under your rear end.
Of it, that tends to move to make things move sometimes, that's amazing.
And the thing is they know when President Trump wants to do something, he's going to follow through. If he says there's going to be consequences, He's not going to flinch in following up and making sure there are consequences when necessary.
Yeah, you know, back when this whole thing started, and really it was a couple of years ago when this whole Lea. Thomas thing really started coming to a head. Because this is the time of year when swimming, when the swimmings, swimmers in the NCAA start having their conference championships.
The NCAA Championships happened in March, and so you know, James, I was looking at this and I was talking about this at the time, and of course, you know, this is IVY League, and so the IVY League Championships were right around the corner, and I was thinking to myself, the IVY League needs to step up and show some leadership here. If they allow this to get to a championship meet, then this thing is really going to spiral
out of control. And there was such a lack of leadership from the University of Pennsylvania from the IVY League. Leah Thomas gets into the conference championships there And for people who don't know and you were a swimmer in the NCAA, the IVY League, outside of the Power five conferences, is one of the best conferences when it comes to swimming in the United States. I mean, there's a lot of really top notch swimmers who swim for IVY League schools and they can compete with all the big schools
on almost a one for one basis. So it's the you know, it's no small thing that this was the IVY League that allowed this to happen. And then it followed through and Leah Thomas was allowed to swim in the NCAA Championships and win the five hundred yard freestyle and so and so that you know, now we got to the point to where we had to have an executive action by the President of the United States to stop this nonsense from running any farther off than it already has.
Yeah, and the thing with Leah Thomas. When Leah Thomas was Will Thomas, he was good enough to swim for the Pennsylvania men's team and was All conference for the men's team. It's that's a like you said, that's a pretty fast conference and making top eight in any events
at that conference meet is no small accomplishment. So when you take a guy who's been able to do that stuff, who has been on female hormones and maybe blockers for a year, as you recall, when Will Thomas became Leah Thomas, her times did not change nearly by the proportional amount. That's the difference between men and women.
Men and women.
As we've talked about the difference in performances about ten to twelve percent, and Leah Thomas's time only regressed by two point sixty six percent. In the two hundred yard freestyle, for example, went from a one p thirty nine as a guy, which is a pretty fast time for a guy, to a one point forty one as a woman, went from being number four hundred and sixty two among college men to being number one among college women as a
biological male. And there's absolutely no scientific evidence to back up the NCAA's now former standard that, oh, you just have to have a year of hormones or blockers and and your testosterone level has to be at a certain level where they're completely ignoring all the permanent advantages that someone gains by going through puberty as a male.
Yeah, so the so the n c A takes this step, and uh, what what do you think, I mean, do you think, uh the will there be lawsuits on the other side of this, Uh for those who who want to uh have this notion that biological males should be able to compete against because I like what they did here.
I like what they did they said, they said, uh there when it comes to events, like like individual events, when you when you like swimming, like track and field other other events where where it's a it's one on one competition that if you're transgender and you want to participate in sports, well, the men's division is now an
open division and men. But if you're a biological woman and they and they've got this language in there that talks about sex assigned at birth, to my way of thinking, they could have done away with that, but it is what it is. But you know, I'm thinking that if they, I think they did a smart thing here by making the men's division an open division. So if you're a transgender you really don't have room. I don't think to complain that you were barred from participating or competing in sports.
Well, because any physical disadvantages they might have against men who don't get the hormone treatments are by their own choices if they choose to take female hormones or blockers. And just to show how this transje allowing transgender athletes was only adverse to women, you don't see biological women taking male hormones and becoming as good as men and
taking over men's sports. For example, there was a swimmer named Isaac Hennig who was one of the top female swimmers in the country at NCAA's when she competed for Yale, she was top eight in two or three events competed. Does start taking hormones right after twenty twenty two? NCAAs compete as a mail the following year for Yale and wasn't even competitive.
Well, that's how I mean, that's how it works.
That's why we don't see a lot of you know, men who are I said, say, women who are transitioning. I guess I'm confused when I talk about all this stuff, women who are transitioning, the men wanting to compete against the men because it it usually it does not work out very well for them. But let me ask you this, since so this was an executive order that was signed by Trump, and I guess the leverage that he has here is that any school that defies this executive order
is not going to get federal money. So when you talk about federal money not flowing to these schools, that tends to wake up the leadership at those schools and the people who have to deal with those sorts of things. So obviously, and he wants he wants Congress to move on this and enact some legislation that'll codify this executive order.
But if that doesn't happen, then the next president could come in, maybe not be of the same mind as Trump, issue an executive order that overrides this one or cancels this one, and then we could possibly see the NCAAA going back and changing their policy yet again. So they opened up a whole can of worms the first time they let this go as far as it did. Do you see a possibility that they could come back if these eventualities happened and change that policy again.
Yeah, it's completely It could be without a final decision by the Supreme Court and or legislation by Congress signed by the President. Of course, this is going to be a recurring issue, I think. And you have Riley gained his lawsuit going right now through the courts, but you also have this new lawsuit by that was filed by three former Penn swimmers again their school, you know, Penn, Harvard, the NCAA, and the Ivy League, basically alleging harassment, abuse
and violating federal laws, namely Title nine. Because for the reasons we just talked about with the differences between men and women with performance, this stuff violates allowing biological men to compete against women takes opportunities away from women, scholarships, spot on the team, spot on the travel team, because as you know, with swimming, there's a cap of eighteen on the travel squad to conference qualifying for NCAAs they
take the top twenty four. How do you like to be number twenty five because of someone like Leah Thomas or like your son's teammate it Virginia Tech. How do you like to be the one who just misses out on making the consolation final top sixteen because of Lea Thomas? Or how you would you like to be the person who plays ninth instead of making the champion ship heat by placing top eight because of Leah Thomas.
Yeah, yeah, I mean that's the part of the equation that never really gets talked about, are the ones who get who gets screwed. And you know, I think it was it was important that Trump had at the White House the people that he had there, because he turned around and there was a female volleyball player there who suffered partial paralysis because she was hit in the face by a volleyball that was spiked by some dude that she was playing against it, and then of course, yeah.
She has permanent injuries, partial paralysis on one side of her body and still has a whole bunch of problems, all because some beer crafts wanted to pap themselves on the back for being quote inclusive.
And then here's the other thing. Uh, you know the NCAA, it always talks about, you know, wanting to be progressive, wanting to be you know, I mean, they're all about the DEI and you know, the wokeness and everything else.
But when this was going on, when this Leah Thomas thing was going on, I was still in contact with a lot of different people who were in who were involved in college swimming, who were involved in club swimming, who were college athletes at that time, because you know the contacts that we have, I still had a lot
of people there. I had people who were on deck that I knew that were on the deck at that NCAA meet, and they were telling me that the NCAA was really running roughshot over into the coaches, athletes, anyone connected with these programs, that they dare not speak out or say anything about this policy, and the NCAA threatened them with their jobs, threatened them with their livelihoods, threatened athletes with loss of the scholarship or any other benefits
they might have for being a student athlete. I mean they really, they really were just be having in the most nasty and harsh ways imaginable when this whole thing was happening.
Yeah, and for example on the pen team too. Just at the school level, it was a culture of intimidation. The school administrators were basically intimidated them in the silence, and they were gaslighting the swimmers by saying, oh, if you disagree with this, you have psychological problems and you need to see a counselor Yeah.
And we saw the same thing gaslighting. And we saw the same thing at San Diego State University when with this this dude that was playing volleyball this you know this, yeah, San Jose State And the one coach who dared to speak out about it, she got fired. And as soon as the other girls of the season was over, the other girls on the team they hit the transfer portal,
they got out of there. They spoke on some of them did on anonymity, saying that you know, we did not like this being in this situation at all, and how terrible it was for them to be caught up in this mess.
So, yeah, we talked about it.
Yeah, we talked about that, and you know, we talked about how the physical differences show with volleyball, with one of the players visually estimated this trans player's spikes to be over eighty miles an hour, while your top woman in the world has been clocked at just over seventy one miles an hour, and your average college player their spikes are typically around low forties to low fifties. So basically being hit by a spike ball by that trans player would be like a guy punching a girl.
In the face.
And we talked about this how the girls at practice when that player would spike at them, instead of defending, they would tower because they were worried about their safety.
Yeah, it was. It was not a good situation. But you know, I think this gives give you know, girls that look the girls that participate in sports and to get to the level where you were an NCAA Division one or Division two athlete, or really any college athlete at all. I mean you really, it's amazing the amount of work and sacrifice and an effort that you have to put in to getting to that level, and it
was being trampled all over before. But now I think it's a new day for young girls that aspire to get to that level because, as Trump said, now you can go out and you can win those championships. Do you think there's any chance that now that the NCAA has this policy, that they go back and they strip Leah Thomas of those championships and those records that Lea.
Thomas should they should, And that lawsuit by the former Penn swimmers is actually one of the things they're asking for is for the Ivy League to vacate the records. Now, I don't see any mention in the articles I've read since the article just came out about at the NCAA to do that, But.
Yeah, that's I think they should. But given the NCAAA, I think they'd find every way they can to weeze a lot of having to do that.
Yeah, And so hopefully they've cleaned up this mess, but I think they've got another mess on their hands.
When you look at.
Anil, I mean I was looking at I came across an article this morning talking about jer Jeremiah Smith, who's a freshman at Ohio State, had an unbelievable freshman year, seventy six passes, thirteen hundred yards, five touchdowns in the college playoffs. I mean, the guy was unbelievable. They wanted someone wants to pay him five million dollars just to get in the transfer portal. Five million dollars just for that.
I mean, when you talk about that kind of money that's flying around for these college kids, and and Wes Miller talked about it on his show last night that this whole deal with that nil is completely out of control.
Yeah, And I mean one of the things I'm concerned about is you see a lot of pro athletes who have trouble managing their money, imagine younger college students. And that's one of the concerns I have. I mean, if you're gonna if you're getting that kind of money, you got to surround yourself with the right advisors. But you also have you know, the schools basically poaching other schools players with those offers like the one you just mentioned.
And I think you're gonna need this. You're gonna have the folks who pay those nil that nil money try to make the contracts so that to try to prevent them structure them in such a way. But you know that's uh like that that's basically become a whole can of worms. And right now it's the wild West with that stuff.
It really is. So we'll we'll see what happens. But James Bogan, always great talking to you, my friend. I appreciate the uh the insight on this and the the n c A A.
It's a. It's a.
It's amazing. You know, when the when the fire gets lit, that's when the movement happens. And it's amazing that this happened as fast as it did.
Yeah, because I mean the NCAA I mean, can be very blunt or useless as far as I can see.
All Right with that, James, we will let you go. Appreciate the time as always, brother, and we'll talk to you again before too long.
Thank you very much, always a privileged Dan.
All right, there you go, James Bogan. Dan Carroll in for Bill Cunningham on seven hundred w l.
About how are you going to pay for it? And I mean I truly do mean. I you know, your your plans are logical, make logical sense. The way Washington works is not logical. So how are you going to convince a divided Congress that what you say your plans are something that they should all agree to and and provide to the American people when they've shown no inclination to do that up to this point.
Is that what you needed? Yes, sir, this man, uh thirty seconds of sounds.
Fits all right, how will you?
It's gonna be taxes, it's gonna be literally if the economists, I mean they're from.
Each but I heard you're saying about the economist.
This is true.
But Congress is not the economist I know.
But oh oh hello, hello, buyet and I'm I'm broadcasting.
Yeah, damn, Jake Tapper, he quit No, he doesn't quit it.
But Jake Tapper says, Jim Luto Acosta, he's out.
Isn't he a soccer player?
He's a clown, not a soccer player.
But we got we got a different Acosta.
Hear the play soccer. I think he's going to play for some team in Argentina.
But Jake Tapper says that it's dangerous that sixty minutes had to release that audio, or that that video of Kamala Harris answering some questions and what was a friendly interview and that we see how much of an idiot she actually is. Jake Tapper says that's dangerous and that the media ought to be able to edit and conceal what these people are really like from the American people
in order in order for the leader of the nation. Yeah, in order for people like him to decide what the American people ought to be able to see here and read.
Well. I saw some video this morning of her, her and the former first man at the I guess they attended the Lakers game last night, and she was like wavned everybody and all this stuff, and he was waving nobody nobody even.
No one knows that nobody even moved.
But she's out.
She's back out in California and they're talking about her possibly running for governor out there. Could you imagine voting for Kamala Harris and here she is all on well before you before you start that, yeah, Dave, let's hear Kamala Harris out in Los Angeles a little bit. I guess this was yesterday. Cut number one.
As we think about the future, we must as a as a society, as a country, invest in adaptation and resilience, and we have to understand these extreme weather occurrences are extreme, but they are increasingly less rare.
These extreme weather occurrences are extreme. Seg that's the person who's Jennifer ketch Mark. That's the person who wants to be President of the United States.
Dan Carrol, The STOJ Reporter is the proud service of your local Tamestar Heating and air conditioning dealers. Tamestar quality you could feel in beautiful Western Hills called Derbit Heating and Cooling at five one, three, five nine, eighty four forty nine, or go to Derbit Heating and Cooling dot com. But want to thank Lear's Prime Market for the lunch today one stop shop for craft beer's best wine selection UH full catering service de Luxe Delhi, located in beautiful
downtown Milford Learsprime dot com. Lears Prime always cut above. What'd you get ham Sandwich? Nice? Bengals update NFL honors last night. Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow Comeback Player of the Year Josh Allen MVP, edging out Baltimore's Lamar Jackson wound up fourth the MVP voting.
What kind of award did Bill Belichick win?
Philadelphia Saquon Barkley the NFL Offensive Player of the Year. He had a great year. But our triple crown man number one, Jamar Chase, no first place votes and wound up third.
Patrick and Patrick talking about for the Offensive Player of the Year yep.
And Denver corner Patrick Surtain the second defensive player of the year. Now, he gave up only two touchdowns and three hundred and six yards and receiving yards against him. But our man Trey Hendrickson the sack leader, seventeen and a half second in the voting.
So you can you can go in the NFL, you can go out, you can leave all these statistical categories. But yet other people win the awards. Let's see what did Bill Belichick win? Because I google the n FELL on out and all I see is pictures of Bill Belichick. Well with this with this young woman, yeah, girlfriend gantiy klad on his arm YEP, Bill Belichick. He's rocking like eight different Super Bowl rings. She's got one that's about the size of her hand on one of her fingers.
And Bill Belichick has got has got swag like no one else.
You're not kidding. Willie Anderson doesn't make the Pro Pro Football Hall of Fame class. Neither is Luke Keigley. For God's sake. Super Bowl update brought to you by Stone Statements. Make your dream kitchen come to life Today visits Stone Statements dot Com. Super Bowl fifty nine Chiefs and Eagles Sunday coverage begins at five Sunday, right here on seven hundred WLW.
I'm gonna be talking to Meryl Hodge about the Super Bowl coming up tonight.
In college basketball VCU and Dayton d Arena. Also tomorrow BYU and the Bearcats at five point thirty on seven hundred WLW. Robert Morrison NKU on Fox Sports thirteen to sixty South Carolina, number fourteen Kentucky. The Cats have dropped two in a row and BBN is not happy. Good boy Noon Eastern on ESPN fifteen thirty, Troy takes on the Miami RedHawks Xaviers on the road Sunday, Big East
battle against Villanova. What time is that game? I think at noon because they're not playing nothing plays against the Super Bowl, I know? Will that be here on seven hundred WLW correct all right. MLS preseason action today at five FC Cincinnati and the Philadelphia Union in Florida, Cyclones will wrap up their eight game homestand tonight hosting Kansas City and Red's pitchers and catchers Dan Carroll report the
spring training camp Monday. First workout for them is next Wednesday, Monday. Monday, Monday is the truck there has the truck arrived. I think it has all.
The bad and the balls and everything else that you need to play a baseball game.
The stoves, Mark and Rick, mort j D. Chris, all the rest of the boys are out there putting all their stuff in there and ready to go. What about you. He didn't leave for until like the twentieth, the twentieth. Yeah, you know he's got to We don't want to work on his tan too long, you know, too early.
You know, got to do that. And you know, I can't wait for the Dave Armbrewster spring training reports. It's a highlight, guys, fantastic. See what happens. That's about it. Snoop Dogg said he could remember back when the back in the NFL, back when the Cowboys were good and the Chiefs were bad, and that was all before Bill Belichick's girlfriend was born.
He has some good lines. Last night. What how about that suit that the Snoop Dog had on last night. How about that nice rocking the shield? Very nice little little gold lamb may. I don't know what do you what do you call that expensive? That's what you call that expensive.
Bill Belichick's girlfriend was born in the year two thousands. Yeah, just a little bit of age difference there. He's like he's seventy two.
Yeah. I think he went to her parents' house and said, hey, how you doing? And that provescent personality of his. Maybe maybe he's not. You're her dad. What do you do?
Hate coach?
What's up? Yeah? You know what's going on doing? What are you doing here to take out your daughter? Oh? Okay, what are you doing here? Don't ask me? I don't know. Hey, you do what you can do. You do what you do these days? What the hell? Nobody does anything? True love? It can't be helped. Like Kanye West and his wife out there at the Grammy's Look what she had on and another guy had a house on his head. Yeah.
Will Smith's son, he doesn't, he doesn't have any issues. Doesn't get one of those You gonna walk around with the giant house on your head?
Yeah? I think so.
I think so, what do you where do you get one that.
It was either house or they're Carly got a castle on his head. I don't know what difference does it. I don't know where you get.
Him because it was a box. It looked like it was a box and was drawn on with, you know, with with a sharp.
And his sister was half had hardly anything on either.
Well, that's why I saw this picture of Belichick and his girlfriend. And she must have thought she was going to the Grammys last night the way she was.
Yes, I don't know. Or she came out of the Genie bottle.
She didn't have a hose. She didn't have a whole lot on either, that's for sure. That's for sure. For that that that that ring, that giant ring was covering up more than anything.
Else she had on.
Oh well, that's the coat, that's what That's what the NFL is all about.
These days, I guess.
So, yeah, what what about these what about these fools and these clowns who steal stuff from Joe Burrow and then they go out. Have you seen some of the pictures of these idiots?
I guess they don't think that nobody sees this stuff, but you know, zillions of people do. And it's like, you know, you got the stuff on, you got the necklaces and the you know, the JB nine with the swoosh and you know, hats and everything else. And you know what they tell the the Ohio State Patrol officer. They said, we're headed to Orlando. They're going They're going north.
Yeah, but I was, I was getting ready for the show today.
Maybe maybe they maybe they skipped a geography class or something that day. He's We're going to Orlando. That's that way. I don't know.
Orlando going to get a baseball team.
Barry Larkin's going to get behind it apparently, and I'm sure Junior might too. Junior he lives down there.
So does that mean if Barry Larkin does that? And I don't know, I mean, may have him. I'm in a couple of days for Cunningham next week, I have Barry Larkin on the show.
Tampa Bay, I mean Tampa Bay is going to be playing in the Al Lopez Field in the spring training facility in the Yankees this year because.
Well, yeah, well the hurricane moving to Orlando, are they Are they building a whole new place or just putting.
A new room. I don't know, I guess a whole new roof.
But is that if Orlando gets a baseball team, who else is getting a.
Baseball I don't know. I mean, you gotta have you gotta have teams. Oaklands, Oakland's moving to Sacramento till they get to Vegas. Tampa Bay is playing at the Yankees spring training site. Uh so Nashville. I guess the next one. But I mean, you know, put a stadium in on I four in between Tampa Ban Orlando.
Well, if Larkin is going to get behind this team in Orlando, what about his deal with the Reds?
I don't know.
Is he going to be at the red spring training this year?
That I don't know?
Is he going to be calling Reds baseball on TV?
Don't know? Are you gonna get it on? You know we worry about the radio. Well, we got enough problems. We have enough problems on the radio.
We know it's going to be on the radio, right with so I don't know, I mean Tommy Thralling, the Cowboy and others and others, well pretty much the rest of them, and well, I don't know, Jim Dane.
Yeah, once in a while, Cowboy takes a day off. I don't know. I mean, it's it'll be interesting to see how all this comes out. You know, put a team right there, Orlando or something, that'll.
Be a lot of baseball teams in Florida. Yeah, it's hot down there. Are they gonna have an indoor stadium?
I guess long way off there, Dan.
All right, but I want to see. I want Barry Larkin to stay with.
The Reds, though I like Verry Larkin. See what happens.
All right, Well, say go ahead and get us out of the stooge report.
Then Dan, Carol and honor of a nice day here in the Tri State, and Red's baseball right around the corner, three weeks from tomorrow, the first Cactus League game to the Guardians. Right there you go, we leave you with the immortal words of the Stood Report. I thought, that's a new intro music for Trump. You have all the Prescott.
I think so I heard I heard another song.
Of course.
I think if you say, if you if you like the chiefs in this town, you're gonna get rid song to say anything but the Chiefs. That's for Sriff, I hope. So I don't know.
My home.
Kelsey Kelley went to UC and then Katay, we won't be able to take it. Yeah, and will this America will not be able to tolerate that.
You gotta go seg Fly Eagles Fly on seven hundred WLW. Back on the Big One, seven hundred WLW. It is two o nine. I'm Dan Carroll here till three this afternoon in for the Great American Bill Cunningham. And it is the Friday before Super Bowl Sunday. And I thought to myself, you know, you can't do a show on the Friday before the super Bowl without talking about the super Bowl a little bit. And I haven't really talked
that much about sports lately, it's been a while. So I needed some help on this, and I turned my buddy Meryl Hodge, who is always good enough to give us some time. And Meryl Hodge, it is great to have you back on seven hundred W l W. And Meryl Hodge, how's life treating you?
Absolutely no complaints and just let me hopefully I can help you on this on this Friday.
Presuret a lot of pressure being here on seven hundred W l W. But uh, I'm looking at your website Meryll Hodge dot com, and uh, find a way those are the three words that inspired you to uh to live your dream and fight to live and uh and I guess you're doing a lot of motivational speaking now and and talk about that a little bit.
I know you.
I've had John before and we talked about your book and and the and those words find a Way, and I mean and really it's it's amazing how that one phrase uh not only changed your life, but is now in fact impacting a lot of lives across this country.
Uh.
You know, like here's what I've uh, you know, I've done a reboot, rebuild kind of what my message to find a Way message. And what I mean I rebuild like sometimes when you start speech and you start whittling away and you put things away and then you forget about them, and then when you go back and you bring it all back together, you're like, boys, I let that have some really important parts. Because find a Way really, I mean everybody actually is doing that. You're doing it
in your life, you're doing it in your careers. I mean, everybody is on a journey. And what find a Way is really about. What the message is about is about what's possible for people if they recognize and take ownership of their journey and use the beautiful tools that they have as a human being. Starting with and everything starts and ends with what I'm going to say next, and that is your mind. You control your mind? Does your mind control you? And that ultimately where we all want,
you know, balance ourselves on a daily basis. You know, have to feed yourself all the things you talk about, things that you visual lives, things that you the words that you use, what you choose to do every morning when you're two feet hit the ground, how you decide to deploy the day and what kind of weapons do you take that are your part of your arsenal and how do you develop them? And everybody has the greatest tool of noble man kindness and that is our mind.
And it's about learning how to train that and program it to help you in your journey. And when you do that, you know, you you really become what I have discovered.
And it's probably what I like.
I love this probably as much as anything I've ever done in my life, is that when you see it resonate with people. And I tell people all the time, how do you know if you did a good job? I go, Here's how I know if I did a good job, they're talking about me, I did a bad job.
But if they're thinking about.
Themselves and how they can do about their life's work, I'm like, d I did a good job, and we hear how people just took ownership of their journey or it was like one thing that I apply I was looking and for that, you know, like, I think I got so many people on product of I've heard things. Walter Payton's inspired me, Aristotle's inspired when Chucknles inspired me.
I mean, I have a lot of people.
Without people and different experiences, I wouldn't be who I am.
So you just try to share those.
And you know, I hadn't actually the San Diego to talk to the BMW, to the group there on the West coast, and then I go from there to call with the city bank. I just was with a bank in Harrisburg. And it doesn't matter what company you're in, I don't matter where you're doing in life. Everybody is really searching and striving for the same thing. So to be able to share that and help people to just take ownership of their journey is really something I never saw in my life.
Dan, I never saw it.
I got challenged to do this sitting in a chemote therapy chair, and all I wanted to do is live and survive. And once I did that, my buddy challenged me again. He goes, remember your promise, goes your shit, that message and so and that's it, and that's what you're doing. And I'll tell you what. That's why.
One of the reasons I love having you on is because your story is inspiring, it's uplifting, and you always have a great message. And I wanted to get that on before we talk about the super Bowl. And then again before we talk about the super Bowl. I turn on I'm going to get directed to YouTube and I see a video you on there on a on a morning television show talking about how to throw the perfect super Bowl party. I mean, a gig is a gig, man,
Are you looking pretty good? There is you know, selling some form rich products and all the rest of it.
It's fantastic. Yeah yeah, lgt DS. I mean we have cricket, we have I mean have a whole all last year.
You have painter that helps you, you know, do make your own beer or your own signer.
It was like I'd like to listen. Most people who want are going to watch the Super Bowl? Are not going to the game.
That's in fact one one percent maybe, So you know, why not make whatever wherever you are the best super Bowl at in the atmosphere you can.
And it was.
It was actually a lot of fun when asked me to do it, and I started to look at all these things, like you know what actually he had, Like the shirt that I was wearing was made from the.
Machine called a cricket and I was like, holy cow, this made that. And it did and it's like it looks so it's a very a computer like a laptop.
I was like, wow, this is incredible. So it was, it was fun. There was actually a lot of.
Fa that's I don't know where you got that shirt, but it's looking pretty good on your brother. So and again before we get to the super Bowl. I'm doing a little research today and I'm looking at stuff and I you know, because I honestly I haven't talked to sports that much very much lately, and I'm looking at stuff and I'm seeing I see so much reporting about different players, about different teams, different sports situations, and is it just me? Have I missed the boat on this?
It seems like there's so much blatantly false reporting going on out there as it relates to players and their personal lives and things that may or may not have happened. Is it just me because I haven't looked at this in a while, or is that something that's really happening now that there's just so much fake and false and phony reporting out there that you really got to wade through it to figure out what's true and what's not true.
Well, I can tell you from a personal experience from a player in the arena and then being in from immediate perspective for over twenty five years.
It's been going on forever. I mean, I've had articles written and we're like, we're lik in the.
Locker room, going what I do? Didn't even come in here? How can you write what he wrote without even coming in the locker room? He had like he came in the locker room and he discovered and this is actually after a win too, by the way, the game plan that we had without asking any questions or verifying any material. And you see, and it's just eroded in every aspect of a journalists. That's that in meetings and I'm like, okay, actually I really was like, Okay, here's the problem. It's
not really the people are on TV. It's the people that are allowing the people to be on TV that have no accountability and let the garbage go on.
It's those people.
And I would argue there's a lot of time that they are not even qualified on the subject that they're sitting in on a football meeting. I'm like, Okay, the guy doing the meeting, there's nothing about football, and there's something about television, but that's about it. And I'm so everything that's being thrown around here is nothing but guesswork and highlight reels. And it's actually even you can't there's no validation of what they're talking about. It's only guess work.
It's made up, it's not even true. So it's all gotten worse. It's unfortunate.
That's why try to counsel you people with the media and social media that.
Do not rely on it, don't depend on it. If you do, then that is your prisoner. And I will never be a prisoner of the media or social media because ninety nine point nine percent have absolutely no idea what they're doing anyway.
Yeah, now as soon as you see something you're like, oh, my gosh, we'll go where'd they get it? Well, that's just it.
I mean, I start seeing all these sensational headlines and I'm like, this can't be true. And of course if you research it a little bit, you find out that it's not true. But anyone that has access to a computer and has any you know, any ability at all to use a computer, they can put stuff out there that looks legit, and it's uh. I mean, I go through it when you know, when I'm talking about pole politics and regular news and things like that. But I had no idea that there was so much of it
going on in the sports world today. And I'm just glad I don't have to get caught up and all that kind of stuff. So let's talk about the NFL honors last night. Josh Allen got the league's MVP. Did they get that one right?
Well, if I thought actually stake one, Markley, yeah, I might have won it. But yeah, listen, I don't think you could argue here, Josh Allen lamar steak on any one of those guys or to win it. What's unfortunately has become so quarterback driven that there, you know, they just had to alienate all of the other real pivotal players and key components. Because before we get into it, this is just a fact, and it's always lost everybody talks.
I hear people go by defense win championship. Absolutely one hundred That has never happened in the history of football. No defense has played the entire game. Quarterbacks win championships. Another lie. No quarterback has ever played the entire game by himself. Teams win championships. There's three thirds to a team. There's an offense, there's a defense, and they're special teams and all thirds contribute in some fashion. Is there a strength of a team share?
Not gonna argue? Is a quarterback?
And absolutely? Are those guys? Are these one things going to win games for you?
Absolutely?
You know, Patrick Mahomes I would argue, I've always I did argue it that. You know, his two MVPs against the San Francisco forty nine ers belong to Chris Jones. Every play before Patrick mcmade a play that was significant in the game was started by Chris Jones.
You know, he forced the one fumble.
In the first Super Bowl, or the interception he created the stop in the other one.
I could go on along with all these plays that he.
He made far more great plays in the game to be significant in helping the team win the championship than Patrick Mahomes. But that's not who got it, And that's just you know, that's what's a I think what's more unfortunate for it that you know you That's why t I say, TV lies and highlights lie all the time. That's why players watch tape to get ready for an opponent. If it was if it was as easy to watch TV in a highlight reel, that's what people players are doing.
On the Cincinnati Bengals. What do you do to get ready for your opponent? What do you watch?
Everyone? I'm gonna go, well, what's tape? What do you mean?
I mean, just like duh, Well, well that's no, no, kid. So that's why I go back to being an analyst. You know you do when you do analysts work. But you're going to tell me that you're going to be a really you're gonna be a legitimate analyst, but you're only going to watch TV in a highlight reel.
Well, no, you're not.
You're you're you don't even know ninety percent of what really is going on on any even play. You are guessing at the very best, you know, and and I think that's deplorable and horriful because I can give it well. As players, you're like going back to that those articles that we would talk about when this happened in the lockerroom're like, man, just just how classless and disrespectful it is to all both professions.
Your your your writing profession.
As a journalist, you have that responsibility to go in and ask questions. I mean, if you're gonna make if you're going to write stuff about somebody versus making it up or act like you went in there and then you made it up, is disturbing.
Well, then really, you know, you're no different.
Yeah, you chose to do it the easy way, you know, because because that's why people don't do it, because it's.
Hard and it takes time, you know, Meryl.
It seems to me that this year, more than any other, I've heard so much talk during the regular season and especially during the playoffs that the officials have been favoring for whatever reason, the Kansas City Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes that they always get the benefit of the calls. That it seems like, you know, the preponderance of the calls go their ways. It is there any validity to that argument whatsoever?
I've seen them? I mean unless I watched the entire league.
And what's interesting, everybody, actually you know that the Chiefs are winning all these close games. All games were close. Take the Cincinnatibody. How many games did they lose that were close? How many games did they win that were close? By the mass majority? And I just can't remember all of the games. So like, you know, they lost two heartbreakers to the Ravens twice. You know, I'm trying to think of there's a couple other games. There's like, all
these games are close. There's very few blowouts? Is there some offside of victors?
As? Sure's very few? Very few?
Like everybody's winning close games? Okay, Philadelphia? You know, I just now do they just now? You know when Patrick Mahomes starts play and to the rules, you know, which I think will change this year. If not, it'll be unfortunate, but it needs to change. And that's how I actually was a part of the first group that helped create the new standards and rules.
For the NFL set on that panel. Now what the whole what my thought was or what.
I established that we should do to protect the quarterback and give the defender you know rules, I go just all you got to do is deploy the art of a tackle, the proper way to tackle, and then create the right target zone where you're trying to tackle. So that's why leading and launching is dead obvious. Leading with the crown of the helmet. They then they added some some lower you know, below the knee thing later on that wasn't really part of it initially, but that is
not hard to look. And they still though, you know, when you think of you know, human eyes seeing it, you know, you and I can see it.
All happens so fast.
But so my point was in the pocket, I give him some liberty that mistakes would be made because it does happen fast, and they are trying to air on the side of protecting the quarterback to give for let him listen. This is the why. This is the one police position that just can't protect itself. And you've got guys with three hundred pounds two hundred.
And sixte hundred miles an hour.
So I just I don't I don't have a problem when there's a mistake made in huddle where I have the problem when they get outside of the pocket, and we gave them a way to protect themselves, and now they've abused that. They take the defender to the very last second and then they slide and then they get up like what the heck?
Okay? And I even said it down and go.
We should penalize the quarterback if he doesn't surrender in proper time, and they're like a proper time, I'm well, listen in an off bar and it's five five yards, you know, give the defender five especially if it's full speed of coming out.
How are you get to stop at full speed? Right? You've got to surrender. And so I really do believe that they.
Should penalize a quarterback that doesn't at the very last second slides down and now as long as it's spending up on the elbow and lead with the crown helmet, but he doesn't surrender in time and he puts that defender in a bad spot. I think the cut of the quarterback should be penalized for it. And that would force that quarterback to surrender much quicker.
That's why he gave him the rule. That's why we want you to do that. Protect yourself.
But they've taken it to the limit now and they've they've put it in actually and then in a position that's not fair and it's not professional and it needs to be corrected.
All right, Meryl, we got about thirty seconds here. You've got the Chiefs, you got the Eagles. Who's got the edge headed into this game?
And who do you like? This is historically true? Okay? There's two things that help you in games consistently.
I'll give you a couple of games just so once I tell you, then you can reflect on him. Giants beat the Bills Tampa. Okay, Bill's how are they? How are they going to out the Bills aerial offense? The Giants end up beat them. Patriots come in, they got an undefeated season. The Giants beat them. Yep, here's how they beat them. And it's the most It's the thing that you have to do if you want to win consistently in the NFL.
Number One, you have to control the temple of the game. One of the best ways to do that is.
If your offensive defensive line played really well and you have a good running game. But that's the ultimately one of the easiest ways to control the temple because then you dictate the defenses. You keep the other offense off the field, say three times more than they would normally get on there. It's a huge advantage for both these teams. Whoever does that, and then you just can't turn the
ball over. And if you look at the last matchup, the one difference in that first matchup two years ago, Philly fumbled the ball.
They made one turnover difference to the game.
Change the games, never saying if they do not do that, they have the better team in the trenches. They got the better runner, they got the better skill, the better team to do what I just mentioned if they don't turn over, and if they do that, then I I'm pay with the Eagles.
All right, there you go, Meryl Hodge. We got a run. Thank you for the time today man, and continued success. Thanks great having on and we'll do it again before too long. Meryl Hodge, the one and only, thank you so much, and the website is Meryl Hodge dot com. Way late for a break here, Dan Carroll for billl coming in seven hundred WLW All right, Brandon, I.
Want you to guess here in their last eleven games in the playoffs, how many times did the Chiefs have more penalties than their opponents too, zero zero times the Chiefs had more penalties than their opponents. The total penalties across those games, it is thirty six for the Chiefs compared to their opponents sixty.
Six double, almost double.
And you know those games are in arrows two of them that are not in arrowhead right, and it's yeah.
So let's look at some specific penalties. Right, how many total roughing the passers were called on the Chiefs in eleven games four?
One? Oh my god?
One roughing the passer penalty in eleven games called against the Chiefs compared to their opponents seven. Now, that was a little bit less than I thought, but a seven to one ratio is pretty crazy. Let's look at another one. How many total defensive pass interference or holding group together were called on the Chiefs in those eleven games six three, oh my god, compared to the opponents eleven eleven?
What are we doing here?
There's data on this, just allowed I don't understand.
Broken down by EPA, the Chiefs have eighteen point eighty four expected points added as a result of these penalties.
Oh oh, now, how many.
Eight of those eleven games were decided by one score or less, So you do the math on that. This is my one question that I have out of this. Is there a safe and secure exit for officials at Arrowhead Stadium or is it a is this a tunnel thing where there's no safe way for them to go out without going by fans as Arrowhead man.
Hello.
Fuiet, I'm broadcast.
Man.
Merrill Hodge says that this stuff about the referees favoring Kansas City is a bunch of nonsense, But the NFL shows I think the broadcast sheriff may have a different opinion on it.
He got stats, so who knows stats are stats? We'll find out on We'll find out in a couple of days if there's action.
To those numbers are pretty staggering the ones we just heard there, that's for sure. It sounds like, I don't know there is Kansas City going to get some home cooking and down in New Orleans, down in the Orleans, get some gumbo, get some gumbo, gets some shrimp.
What else? What else do you eat down there? Fritz Dan Carroll, Dan Carrol, the Stoot Reporter is a proud service every local Thamestar heating and air Conditioning Dealers, Thamestar quality you can feel in Cincinnati, kus schmid Heat and Cooling five one three five three one sixty nine hundred sports and that Super Bowl update brought to you by Stone Statements. Make your dream kitchen come to life today
Stone Statements dot Com. Super Bowl fifty nine. Of course, Sunday uh in the Big Easy and Chiefs and Eagles coverage begins five o'clock Sunday right here on seven hundred WLW. You got college basketball Tonight. VCU takes on the Dayton Flyers at ud Arena tenth three to the Purdue meets Southern col Tomorrow. Busy day, sold out Fifth Third Arena. See the Bearcats win a game the place is sold out. Let's go BYU and the Cincinnata Bears five thirty on
seven hundred WLW. Robert Morris and NKU at one thirty, Fox Sports thirteen sixty South Carolina and Kentucky at noon ESPN fifteen thirty. The Wildcats have dropped two in a row, deed and is not happy, not good. Troy goes up against the Mimvy Red Hawks Sunday, Xaviers at Villanova in a Big East battle. Miami's having a good season or they are very good. You'll run the show there second in the second into Maca.
I think did I hear that Miami's going to get rid of Millet Hall. They're going to have a new arena. Yes, up there, They're going to build it on campus around theres.
Yes.
How about that?
It's about time? Well it did.
Mallett Hall has been around for a long time.
Red's Update. Reds pitchers and catchers report the spring training camp on Monday. Let's go. They go through physicals. Their first work out there for pictures and catchers will be next Wednesday.
Are there some guys already there?
I haven't heard, tell you truth, I haven't heard anything. You haven't seen anything. So I'm sure this weekend they'll probably get a few of them, will get got to get some guys there. EHL Hockey tonight, are beloved Cyclones wrap up an eight game homestand against the Mavericks of Kansas City. An MLS preseason coming up today at five in Florida FC Cincinnati against Philadelphia Union.
How many people go to MLS preseason games?
I don't. I don't. I don't think they're open to fans real down there, no, I don't think so. No.
So you're play in an empty stadium pretty much. So that the Trump the Trumpster is on TV again, you're surprised.
No, no, no, he's on the Prime Minister in the House.
Shagerro isbi or Isiba so Shagiro Ishiba, the Prime Minister of Japan.
This marks what two weeks in a row, every day's on TV.
So Trump, they walked up to the podium. Trump gave him a photo of the of those two together, and then he gave him a Trump's book that documents his his first term in the White House. So this dude from Japan is holding up this book with a giant picture of Trump with a fist in the air. There you go, smiling like a like, like like it's the greatest thing ever. There you go, You're gonna bring some Japanese steel to America.
We'll see.
But seg the Democrats are having a conniption in Washington today. Yes, they couldn't get into the Department of Energy. Uh, they're apparently I'm sorry, the e p A building. So apparently Elon Musk and as people there are looking at some of the records find out where all the money is going. And then they're at the Department of Education too. Oh oh, and you got security contractors out front, and the Maxine.
Waters is there. Yea, I saw her yelling at people. It was like yeah. The guy says like, ignore are what is she like? What she says? Open the door? It's his job not to let people in. Correct.
Here's what that sounded like, Dave. Let's hear cut number three?
Hit it?
Come on, oh you.
Look at them?
Let them city, Well, this is.
Him, look at it.
What's your name name?
Give me that idea again?
So what I showed you the idea?
You do what I showed you the don't you let.
Me see the ID again?
Will someone else ask him for the ID?
Who you ask him for?
He won't let me see it again?
You Maxine Waters is having a meltdown. Let me see that. I d go home, Let me see your papers.
Go home.
This guy's just standing there, not even looking at her. He's like, you know, you're not getting in, and it's it's hurting a bunch of other Democrats out there.
They went in, they're gonna they're.
Gonna have a little insurrection and stop and they want to stop the doge.
I don't know it's Washington.
Are things things are being exposed seg and they don't like those things being exposed, that's for sure. They don't like it hitting a little too close to home.
And the pocketbook and if you know what I'm saying.
So you gotta got a monitor of the doge's website a little bit later today and see what they're going to uncover. I don't unbelievable. And then what did I heard McConnell talking this morning about Eddie Fingers? Yeah, and I and he's on he's on a cruise right now with somewhere in the world. I mean Dev's with him right yep. And they're on a cruise right now. And and apparently everyone on the cruise ship is sick?
Nice? Nice?
Did I hear McConnell saying that that's correct?
So what the and that? And you can't go anywhere cru you can't. I mean I've never been on one, but when everybody's sick, that can't be too much fun.
I mean, what do you do.
That? I don't know. I mean, you've never been on It's not like you can get a week.
You know, you got two hundred and three hundred people sick on a cruise ship because you can get away from him.
Hey, can I get Can I get off this thing? Aren't they? Aren't they an Antarctica. I don't know where they're at. I have no idea where he went. I don't know. He didn't announce it. He's going to parts unknown. I heard maybe around the Galapagos Islands. Oh my god, he wanted to see some rare animals that live down there. I think that's where he went, the Galapagos Islands.
So he's not He's not scheduled to be on the show today, is he. No, So Rocky would be Rocky and Jason coming up at three o'clock, the Pride of Marshall and Eddie Fingers down there cruising around.
Sipping. Yeah, probably looking a little about as green as your shirt. I didn't know.
I didn't realize I was wearing eagle colors.
Say, there you go.
It was just you got green on too. Yep, So fly eagles fly.
Amen to that man.
Merril Odge says, if the Eagles don't turn the ball over, then they will win the game.
Good.
So there you go. Will you be making a sports leager? No this weekend?
Now, just watch it and see what happens.
And what do you think about the four seventy one, the big mac Bridge.
Bagel for business. I mean, I mean, you know, kudos kudos to O Dot. Kudos to the men and women that work down there so diligently over the past what a few weeks to get that thing open and and girders up and everything else. I mean, O Dot knows workers did a fabulous job. They ought to be Uh, they got to be commended for their for the for the job that they did. Every one of them.
Well, yeah, they ought to get a very nice bonus, I would say, so on top of on top of what they did already.
And uh and uh and the and the motorists when it started. When it opens on Sunday, they're gonna buy you. You know, hopefully the workers are standing right alongside the road and they can uh you know, honk their horn or something at him or whatever, because that's I mean, it's unbelievable work that they did after that devastating fire that messed up I mean melted the girders. I mean that's hot.
But I had I had Chuck Ingram and he and we were talking about it. I have never seen more in depth coverage of a road project than this had right because we knew when the girders were being fabricated correct. We knew when they were being loaded on the trucks. We knew when they arrived in town. We knew when the cranes were there to put them in place. We
knew when they were being welded. We knew when the when the concrete was being poured, and then they had to put the They had to put the enclosure around the concrete and blow heat on it to keep it warm so it could cure when it was about about ten degrees outside.
The unbelievable. There'll be thousands of motorists very happy from Sunday on.
And then Matt Reese goes down there today and they say, guess what it's open on Sunday.
Matt Reese I think has lived down there for the past two weeks. I don't think. I don't think he's left.
He's done a bunch of stories down He was talking to the people that have businesses down there.
I mean, and businesses right across the right, across the river there and everything else. I mean it's got to be I mean that in the traffic jam that's ensued over the past what month or so, it must be horrific downtown.
Well, I live in Anderson Township and that traffic reaches all the way into Anderson Township five six o'clock at night. All you know, all the people who are trying to come home down Columbia Parkway or find or find another way to get home. It's it's terrible.
So now, uh you know, now it's going to be open Sunday, and everybody's going to be happy. Sunday. It's gonna Chuck Ingram is gonna be happy too.
We're all gonna be watching the Super Bowl and the and the four seventy one will open quietly.
Amen.
And then come Monday. Everyday afternoon, I'm gonna I'm gonna go out there. I'm gonna drive one hundred miles an hour across that bridge.
So yeah, got fabulous work by the by the construction workers down there, the men and women, and they ought to be commended for their for their diligence, hard work and effort to put that back together again.
But I mean initially they were talking what April or May? Yeah, at least and this is smart. Another month, another month of that Yeah, Wow, this hard fabulous job. This is hardly this, hardly ever happens.
Well they you know they uh brand Spence got messed up what a couple of years ago, and they did that in forty five days, right, that was.
So so segue. You know, we live in interesting times, that's for sure. The meltdown, the meltdown of the Democrats and the and the Trump haters and the Libs continues the best. I mean, it's it's one of I said, I said before the the inauguration that Doge is going to it's going to be one of the great things for people like me to have to do talk shows because they are going to be just putting out so much stuff, right, and we're going to have so much great stuff to talk about during the talk shows.
It's unbelievable. Oh, he's going to be busy. He's going to go the Super Bowl here on Sunday, and then in two weeks he's mister the President's going to attend the Daytona five hundred. How about that in the place of go berserk. The Dome, the World Center of Racing will go crazy when he shows up.
Well, he's will blow the roof off the Dome down there in Louisiana, and then we'll go to the race and.
Tear that place apart. Doesn't get any better than that.
It'll be unbelievable. Andy mac seg, have a great weekend. Same to you there, Dan, have you have you made your super Bowl prediction yet? Eagles always fly? Eagles fly, Amen and get us out of the stooge or the final Stooge report before the Super Bowl.
Dan, Carol, and honor of the Super Bowl Sunday and the Eagles and Chiefs. We leave you with the immortal words of the Stude Report.
Next week's highway patrol story is a very unusual one. I hope you'll be with us until then. Remember it isn't the car that kills, it's the driver. This is Roderck Crawford saying see you next week, So.
Be careful driving across the four seventy one bridge.
It isn't the car that kills, it's the driver.
Here we go, we go again one more time. Bank did that There weren't how to spell Eagles yet.
I don't think so.
I think don E G E L E say, have a
Great week seven hundred W L W two Bay