Speaker 1: Get tonight.
Speaker 2: One of the games scheduled tonight was circled by the
Speaker 2: Great American in August. I said, it's going to be exciting.
Speaker 2: There'll be in Dallas Monday night football. Dallas will be
Speaker 2: poting for the lead in the NFC East, and of
Speaker 2: course the Bengals will be right there and the AFC
Speaker 2: North and away we go. But things didn't turn out
Speaker 2: that way. But Mo, Hagar, welcome again to the Bill
Speaker 2: Cunningham Show.
Speaker 1: Mo, how are you? I'm great, Willie, how are you well?
Speaker 1: I'm all upset. I'm angry.
Speaker 2: Why because tonight's game doesn't have the significance it should it.
Speaker 1: But before we get to that, you.
Speaker 3: Know, mathematically, mathematically, this is a possible Super Bowl preview.
Speaker 1: What year? I mean now?
Speaker 3: Mathematically, yes, both these teams are still alive for the postseason.
Speaker 2: So if Dallas wins the rest of their games, Bengals
Speaker 2: win the rest of their games, and all the opponents
Speaker 2: possibly they match up against loose the rest of their games.
Speaker 2: It's possible. It's mathematically, I said, possible. Let's talk about
Speaker 2: Dave Parker. Yes, the Cobra tell me great news for him,
Speaker 2: and we have a lot of cuts coming up later,
Speaker 2: But tell me about Dave Parker's worthiness for the Hall
Speaker 2: of Fame.
Speaker 3: Well, to me, two players got induction that made me
Speaker 3: push for his candidacy. One was Harold Bains. Harold Bain's
Speaker 3: terrific player, got to three thousand hits, was a D
Speaker 3: eight starting the twenty seven years old. Dave Parker was
Speaker 3: a better baseball player than Harold Baines. Dave Parker was
Speaker 3: the ultimate five tool guy. Could hit, could hit for power,
Speaker 3: could run despite his knees, could go get it in
Speaker 3: right field. And I'm not sure I've seen a better
Speaker 3: throwing arm. Go put on YouTube the nineteen seventy nine
Speaker 3: All Star Game. It's it's majestic. So that was number one.
Speaker 1: Number two.
Speaker 3: One of the arguments against Dave Parker was he was
Speaker 3: included in the group of players who was involved in
Speaker 3: the Pittsburgh drug trials.
Speaker 1: I was there. Nobody knows what that those trials were
Speaker 1: actually about. I was there the players, and I didn't
Speaker 1: know what.
Speaker 3: The players themselves were not on trial, but a number
Speaker 3: of them had to testify. One of them was Dave Parker,
Speaker 3: the other was Tim rays Or. One of the others
Speaker 3: was Tim Rains. Tim got inducted a few years ago.
Speaker 3: On are the arguments against Dave Parker was, well, the
Speaker 3: cocaine thing, Well Tim Rains had the cocaine thing.
Speaker 1: That didn't preclude him.
Speaker 3: So once those two men got in and by the way,
Speaker 3: both deserving Tim Rains especially, I started to rethink Dave
Speaker 3: Parker's candidacy. One of the things that was held against
Speaker 3: him is if you look at what should have been
Speaker 3: some of his prime seasons, I believe his age thirty
Speaker 3: and thirty one years he started to deal with injury,
Speaker 3: so his peak was relatively short. But in the mid
Speaker 3: to late seventies, I'm not sure there was a better
Speaker 3: baseball player. Two time batting champion, arguably the best player
Speaker 3: on the nineteen seventy nine Pirates which won the World
Speaker 3: Series and then dealt with health issues, comes to Cincinnati
Speaker 3: and enjoys a career revival nineteen eighty five, number two
Speaker 3: in the MVP voting. One may argue he should have
Speaker 3: won over Willie McGee. I think the MVP that year
Speaker 3: should have been Dwight Gooden. That's neither here nor there.
Speaker 3: But Dave Parker has this career resurgence in Cincinnati, and
Speaker 3: there's an MLB Network special on Dave Parker that aired
Speaker 3: two to two and a half years ago, and on
Speaker 3: it you have men like Barry Larkin and Eric Davis
Speaker 3: who talk about, Look, I was a young player, Dave
Speaker 3: Parker was my teammate. This guy showed me the ways.
Speaker 3: He then goes to Oakland, wins a World Series with
Speaker 3: the A's in nineteen eighty nine, hits three postseason home runs,
Speaker 3: plays through nineteen ninety one. So had a long career
Speaker 3: and for a stretch of time in the late seventies
Speaker 3: was arguably the best player in baseball.
Speaker 1: So this was a guy.
Speaker 3: You know, I think we have I think we have
Speaker 3: smarter people looking at this now. Dave Parker's the highest
Speaker 3: number of votes he or percentage of votes he got
Speaker 3: from the writers I believe.
Speaker 1: Was twenty four and a half percent, ridiculous.
Speaker 3: But we run these guys through a series of committees,
Speaker 3: and I think this is good because I think it
Speaker 3: provides the system of checks and balances. And the people
Speaker 3: of Dave Parker's era knew that this was a guy
Speaker 3: from Cincinnati who at his peak there was nobody better.
Speaker 3: Plus he was one of the coolest players of all time.
Speaker 3: He smoked in the dugout. He wore Adjasent's mask on
Speaker 3: the field. When he broke his jaw, he stood over
Speaker 3: the plate with that hulking frame. I'm not sure I've
Speaker 3: seen anybody his size tower over the inside part of
Speaker 3: the plate like Dave Parker.
Speaker 1: So you're a picture on the mountain. You want to
Speaker 1: come inside, right? No? I want to hit him. No.
Speaker 3: So just I'm thrilled for him, and you and I
Speaker 3: have both had him on our respective shows often over
Speaker 3: the years. His Parkinson's diagnosis has you know, it's taken
Speaker 3: somebody who was kind of defined by size and strength
Speaker 3: and might, and it's wilton him down a little bit.
Speaker 3: But he still has that handshake, and he has worked
Speaker 3: tirelessly to help people also dealing with and living with Parker,
Speaker 3: and I think that's admirable. So I am very, very
Speaker 3: happy for the Colbert today.
Speaker 2: In the mid eighties, when you talk to those in
Speaker 2: the locker room, there was no one more dominating in
Speaker 2: the locker room and in the dugout than Dave park
Speaker 2: Oh wait, now, let's move on to tonight's game.
Speaker 3: And by the way, twenty seven hundred hits, three hundred
Speaker 3: and thirty nine homers a career two ninety batting average.
Speaker 3: I mean people talk about counting stats. I mentioned he
Speaker 3: led the league in ops. He legallygan slugging percentage twice.
Speaker 3: He was a two time batting champion. This was a
Speaker 3: hillaciously good player. Led the league in doubles, had a
Speaker 3: thirty four homer season, a thirty homer season, and by
Speaker 3: the way, at the age of thirty eight in nineteen
Speaker 3: eighty nine, he drives in ninety seven and hits twenty
Speaker 3: two homers for a team that won the World Series.
Speaker 2: Not bad, pretty good, and that curt as strong stuff
Speaker 2: to Caterer and Pittsburgh. I was president for the trial,
Speaker 2: and I'm thinking, you know what, Dale Barra was there
Speaker 2: and I'm thinking, what is this about?
Speaker 1: Tell me, tell me what this is about.
Speaker 2: And the prosecutor there wanted to prosecute the Caterer because
Speaker 2: it allowed him to bring to Pittsburgh all these famous
Speaker 2: guys and cross examined them when they were not directly
Speaker 2: charged at all.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's a great book about that. And the players
Speaker 3: were lied to because they were told. And it's Tim
Speaker 3: Rains Dave Parker. I think, uh, Dale Barra, Dale Barra,
Speaker 3: Keith Hernandez, five or six players, well known players, and
Speaker 3: they were told, all right, you'll testify, but we're gonna
Speaker 3: sneak in the back of the courthouse.
Speaker 1: They all got the Pittsburgh what do they do?
Speaker 3: Raided them in front of all these television people, and
Speaker 3: they all got fined. They serve deferred suspensions, they had
Speaker 3: to do community work as assigned by Peter Youberroth. But
Speaker 3: I you know, forty years later, we know those players
Speaker 3: did cocaine, but we don't know why they were, why
Speaker 3: they were in the courtroom.
Speaker 2: Nobody knows about it because who they were, that's why
Speaker 2: they were in the court room.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: Secondly, yeah, you know the facts a little better than
Speaker 2: I do. When it comes to sports, would you agree, no,
Speaker 2: Lamar Jackson, you have to benchmark the Bengals against like Baltimore.
Speaker 2: I think against the last ten or twelve games, Lamar
Speaker 2: Jackson's like ten and one or eleven to one to
Speaker 2: the positive side, something like that. And I think with
Speaker 2: Pittsburgh this century, the Bengals are like four and twenty
Speaker 2: one at home against Pittsburgh not good. And against Cleveland
Speaker 2: they have a losing record the past five years. So
Speaker 2: in tonight's game should have been like unbelievable, Joe Burrows
Speaker 2: having the best year any Bengals quarterbacks ever had, and
Speaker 2: you're talking about the possibility. But of all the things
Speaker 2: that might have been, this year's team was three or
Speaker 2: four plays from being leading the division. How sad are
Speaker 2: you tonight to listen to the game tonight? Right here,
Speaker 2: it's said suppressing.
Speaker 3: They've scored ninety nine points over their last three games
Speaker 3: and they haven't won any of them.
Speaker 1: Let me just think about that.
Speaker 3: If they win two of them, If they win two
Speaker 3: of those games, they're going into this game tonight six
Speaker 3: and six in it, and you're looking at him, going,
Speaker 3: you know what, if this team can just get in offensively,
Speaker 3: they've got a chance against anybody. But instead, because they
Speaker 3: can't make a play on defense, so they don't make
Speaker 3: a kick on special teams, or they keep wasting greatness
Speaker 3: by Joe Burrow in this offense, and Joe hasn't been perfect,
Speaker 3: but he's played at an MVP caliber level. Instead, they're
Speaker 3: essentially playing out the string, and we should be talking
Speaker 3: about them again. Just make it six and six. Take
Speaker 3: any one of these games, or any two of these
Speaker 3: games where they've scored a bunch of points, they win them.
Speaker 3: They're six and six, Your five and a half point
Speaker 3: favorite tonight against Dallas. I believe your favorite next week
Speaker 3: against the Tennessee Titans. You're gonna be favorite at home
Speaker 3: against the Browns, who have already been eliminated, right, And
Speaker 3: you're probably gonna be favorite at home against the Denver Broncos.
Speaker 3: And you go to Pittsburgh, a team that you at
Speaker 3: times scored out, will on. We should be talking about
Speaker 3: the home stretch here we go. Just get in and
Speaker 3: you've got a chance against anybody. But because they have
Speaker 3: built a historically bad defense, because they have failed in
Speaker 3: so many areas to kind of take what they did
Speaker 3: on defense in twenty twenty one and translated to a
Speaker 3: better unit with younger players this year, this team is
Speaker 3: four and eight and an avatar for wasting greatness.
Speaker 2: Chuck Ledwick kind of went after you and the Rock.
Speaker 2: You and the Rock say it'll take years, Chuck says,
Speaker 2: a couple players away. They're back next year. They're real close.
Speaker 2: Who's right, Chuck? Are you and the Rock? Chuck or
Speaker 2: chick Chick? I mean chick or Chuck? Well, I call
Speaker 2: him Chuck like.
Speaker 1: We can can they can. They be a playoff team
Speaker 1: next year.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, but we're talking about like competing for a championship, right.
Speaker 3: That's the whole idea behind drafting Joe Burrow was he
Speaker 3: is going to lead them to a title, and he's
Speaker 3: come close. In order to do that, they need a
Speaker 3: better team. How do they get a better team? Look
Speaker 3: at all the areas they have to address. This is
Speaker 3: the longest off season to do list they've had in
Speaker 3: quite a while. Now, the good news is, regardless of
Speaker 3: what the coaching staff looks like next year, regardless of
Speaker 3: how you feel about the draft, what they do in
Speaker 3: free agency, they've got this one amazing piece to build
Speaker 3: everything around.
Speaker 1: And that's number nine.
Speaker 3: First of all, you've got to have a resolution to
Speaker 3: the Jamar Chase thing, which is gonna cost them more
Speaker 3: money now because he's having a great year. They need
Speaker 3: help on the offensive line. They need help out wide receiver.
Speaker 3: Have they replaced t Higgins yet they're gonna lose in
Speaker 3: this offseason? No? So those two areas, I'd argue. They
Speaker 3: could use help at running back. Okay, now let's look
Speaker 3: at the defense. Need help on the edge, need help
Speaker 3: on the inside, need help at linebacker, need help at corner,
Speaker 3: need help a safety.
Speaker 1: There's eight positions.
Speaker 2: There's eight positions, Lodwig says, quickly turn around next year.
Speaker 3: Now, can they address each of those positions? Yes, well,
Speaker 3: they successfully address all of them enough to take this
Speaker 3: team from four and eight through twelve games too.
Speaker 1: I don't know, ten and two, nine.
Speaker 2: In three Baltimore when they don't beat Baltimore, they don't
Speaker 2: beat Pittsburgh, they don't beat the Browns well.
Speaker 1: And they also get off to slow starts. How's that possible?
Speaker 3: And so you know, think of all these things they've
Speaker 3: they've got a switch. You've got to be better in
Speaker 3: your division, right, which they've struggled for a while, even
Speaker 3: two years ago, and they ran away with the division. Essentially,
Speaker 3: they were bad against the AFC North. Their slow starts
Speaker 3: are an organizational narrative that you cannot avoid. Oh to
Speaker 3: three this year, oh and two the year before, oh
Speaker 3: and tow the year before that. How does Zach Taylor
Speaker 3: balance keeping our players healthy during the offseason but getting
Speaker 3: them more ready to start the season right next year?
Speaker 3: Cannot be oh and two, oh and three?
Speaker 1: But like that's that's the thing we could talk about.
Speaker 1: A banded schedule next year, we too, we can.
Speaker 3: They had a bad schedule this year, right, They were
Speaker 3: big favorites against the Patriots. They should have beaten the Commanders.
Speaker 3: They should have won that game against Kansas City. They
Speaker 3: did not, So we could talk about what they haven't
Speaker 3: done in recent weeks. Losing to Pittsburgh, losing to the Chargers,
Speaker 3: losing to the Baltimore Ravens. Those losses sting more because you're
Speaker 3: trying to make up for a ground that you lost
Speaker 3: back in September, So all these things have to get changed.
Speaker 3: I would be more than willing to bet the Bengals
Speaker 3: are a playoff team next year. Joe Burrow plays seventeen games,
Speaker 3: but are the championship caliber team to go from where
Speaker 3: they are defensively to what they're gonna have to be
Speaker 3: I think is going to take more than one offseason.
Speaker 2: What causes me excitement if you live in this area,
Speaker 2: you got the Cleveland Browns and stink the Buckeyes. I
Speaker 2: talk to a very high place source really in politics, oh,
Speaker 2: the highest, almost the highest, who said the wine can't
Speaker 2: say day is done, okay, can't happen?
Speaker 3: Well, I think it's going to be really hard for
Speaker 3: Ryan Day. If they lose this game to Tennessee.
Speaker 1: And they're favored by eight and a half.
Speaker 3: Now, now, are we really going to let's say Ohio
Speaker 3: State plays for the national championship.
Speaker 1: Oh, that's different. Like, so here's my question.
Speaker 3: How far does he have to advance Ohio State football
Speaker 3: in the playoff in order.
Speaker 2: To get people in the championship game? Because okay o,
Speaker 2: Higo States headed up to here with Ryan.
Speaker 3: Dew so they could conceivably win the national championship. Course,
Speaker 3: by the way, it could happen. They're favored against Tennessee.
Speaker 3: They almost beat Oregon in their building. If I'm an
Speaker 3: Ohio State fan, I don't feel like that game. I
Speaker 3: don't feel like that game is impossible to win.
Speaker 1: I'm in the middle of my question, by the way, Well.
Speaker 3: But here's my thing. Let's say they win the national title.
Speaker 3: Does the conversation instantly become that's cool, but you're on
Speaker 3: the hot seat.
Speaker 1: Because you haven't beat Michigan in four years. Well, here's
Speaker 1: my issue with that.
Speaker 3: We have deflated the value of regular season games in
Speaker 3: college football. Right now, you can lose three times and
Speaker 3: still make almost So we have said these individual games
Speaker 3: in the regular season matter less. You no longer have
Speaker 3: to go undefeated to play for a championship. You no
Speaker 3: longer have to go eleven and one to play for
Speaker 3: a championship. You no longer have to win a conference
Speaker 3: championship to play for a championship. So we have deflated
Speaker 3: the value of individual games. Yet in this one game,
Speaker 3: one game made it so it has never mattered more.
Speaker 1: I'm in the middle of my two things. Don't mesh.
Speaker 2: Go ahead, I'm in the middle of my questions. I
Speaker 2: haven't gotten to close ask your question. I'm just looking regionally.
Speaker 2: The brown stink correct, Buck guys in trouble, Uh huh,
Speaker 2: Bengals not good.
Speaker 1: What do we care about the Browns Because I'm doing regional.
Speaker 1: I haven't got South yet.
Speaker 2: I'm done to the Bees, the Browns, the Buck guys,
Speaker 2: the Bengals. And then you got the Cincinnati Reds, who
Speaker 2: I love deeply. Not good stuff. And then you got
Speaker 2: Kentucky football with stoops not good. And then you got
Speaker 2: the Muller High School. Then you got Anderson. Everywhere I look,
Speaker 2: I see nothing but well they lost. And then you
Speaker 2: throw in FC when they're up two goals against Columbus
Speaker 2: a year or two ago. And is there any sense
Speaker 2: that in this region we're blessed with so many positive things,
Speaker 2: but professional sports, which I include the buck Guys.
Speaker 1: Professor, this morning, buck guys are playing for a national title.
Speaker 1: They're in the playoff. You talk to Buck Eye Nation
Speaker 1: as I do. I take their pulse. It's not good.
Speaker 1: That's it's not good.
Speaker 3: That's a reflection on them, not a reflection on the program.
Speaker 3: Ryan Day runs a good program.
Speaker 1: And then the bear Cats, He's.
Speaker 3: Beaten multiple playoff teams this year. The Bearcat football team. Look,
Speaker 3: Scott Saderfield's got his hands full. Man, there's no getting
Speaker 3: around the.
Speaker 2: Arizona State was picked and finish sixteenth. They're in the playoffs.
Speaker 2: Bear Cats beat the Bearcats.
Speaker 1: Beat him and now was playing for so everywhere I.
Speaker 2: Look, Browns, Buck Guys, Bengals, Bearcats, Kentucky High School except
Speaker 2: for Scott Tackett Beechwood did unbullieing.
Speaker 1: So do I have hope? Give me hope? Mo I
Speaker 1: need hope? I think you see and Xavier are both
Speaker 1: going to make the NCAA tournament. Who wins this weekend
Speaker 1: cross time shootout? Let's talk about that later this week.
Speaker 1: Xavier will win Okay, fine, they win. I have no hope.
Speaker 3: So Xavier going to be n CUBA tournament teams. I
Speaker 3: think Kentucky's going to be an NCAA tournament team. How
Speaker 3: about their comeback on Saturday night down eighteen against Kenzaga
Speaker 3: and Seattle and Mark Pope coached his brains out and
Speaker 3: one and one. So there's a short handed too short handed.
Speaker 3: There's a lot to like there. The Miami Radhawks are
Speaker 3: in the Snoop Dogg Arizona Bowl. Huh sponsored by Gin
Speaker 3: and Juice the Miami RedHawks, so things to like?
Speaker 2: Oh you, the Bobcats won for the first time in decades.
Speaker 1: Good for them, Ken, Bruce, happy and Brew. We gotta run.
Speaker 2: But Mo, everywhere I look, I see nothing but opportunities tonight.
Speaker 1: Its until you look at me.
Speaker 2: Wasted opportunity, Mo eager, Thank you very much, thank you.
Speaker 2: Let's continue have hope, I say, Moke. All we have,
Speaker 2: MO is hope, keep hope alive.
Speaker 1: I have hope. All we have is hope. That's all.
Speaker 1: Do you have hope? Are we going to wager on
Speaker 1: the shootout? Absolutely? I'm taking Zager by the way, straight up,
Speaker 1: no points. Whatever Xavier gets I get on seven hundred
Speaker 1: w l W mean, Why