Actually, I didn't have a love thing with John, but many women did. I just loved watching him grow into the player he became as he started out struggling with pay calling, etc. I was proud of what he accomplished.
Hey Doc, wait a minute . . . I sent in the $80 annual subscription fee to TML via the channel you advised. I do appreciate the commentary you provide us. I read it daily.
I started a small, part time business 18 months after retiring during the depth of the pandemic (June 2020). 2 years and 9 months later it’s going very well. Don’t be shy about asking for some compensation for your work. It’s good stuff.
Maybe, just maybe Mikey Boy feels the slight shred of guiltiness for bleeding the county dry all these years with the insufferably bad lease deal the Bengal have been fleecing the local taxpayers with, and doesn't wanna bleed the county for improvements right now, his years of tightwad-ness having elevated him on many lists to the worst owner in all of pro sports. Maybe just maybe Mikey has finally has a heart transplanted into his chest where previously there was none. Maybe?
Nahhhhh.
The Bengals will forever be the cheapest of cheapskates. They lucked into Burrow and Chase. Mike admitted it was like finding a lucky penny in a pitch black alley in a thunder storm. The current little run of luck will run out soon enough. Guys will jump ship when it starts to go down. It's the historic pattern of the Bengals. Tigers do not change their stripes.
Colby Jones had to go 9-10 in FG attempts last night for X to win. Impressive, yes, but hardly sustainable. X has to stay sharp and balanced on offense to go deep in both tourneys coming up. They're very good, but they have to continue to close games out like last night. They could do some real damage in the NCAAs. That's obvious. The close losses should have shown them their late game weaknesses, which they can fix. It's always fun to watch an unselfish team pass the ball and share the ball. That's X to a tee this year.
Well, yeah, of course he should fork out for some upgrades. He's got a championship level team. Let's keep 'em happy and here. He can afford to spend some of the extra millions and millions he's gotten from his semi-ill-gotten gains. Totally agree. But considering the Bengals finally put in a Ring of Honor and it only took 50 years, we both know glaciers melt faster than Mike opens his wallet.
Part of this is nature but nurture plays an extensive role here too. PB and his righthand Harvard trained lawyer attack beast started with the Old Man's cachet as a HOF football coach and less than 8 million 1967 dollars to have now gained near total control of a $3B asset through some truly bare knuckle steel balls machinations along the way. Old habits die hard, especially in the OCD oligarchal type mentalities it requires to pull something like that off
I love the Eagles. Saw my first concert around 1972 at Assembly Hall in Bloomington, Indiana. I have never heard this song. Lovely. Thanks for sharing.
I've always wondered if there's much crossover or internal conflict between Eagles' fans and the Dudist Priest subculture stemming from The Big Lebowski? TML vs TBL so to speak in this space
Not surprised about the locker room situation especially with toilets not working. Why is it that all of the stadiums along the riverfront have bad plumbing. The Coliseum (being renovated this year) doesn't have a toilet that flushes in any of the mens rooms. You pee and it runs out on the floor. GABP still has an odor problem in the seat along 1st base. It doesn't drain properly and they have to put deoderent in the pipes so it doesn't smell so bad. Won't go to a Bengals game (root for them ) but not surprised that the toilets don't work. I know these are building issues (Ham. County) but the cafeteria? Cmon Mike open the wallet a little.
How much of the facility related complaints are due to the fact that their stadium was opened 23 years ago? Was it common place in 2000 to have power outlets everywhere because people can't stay off their phones? I still don't see "family restrooms" every place I go, but my bigger question about that is...who is bringing a child young enough to breast feed to a cold, loud NFL game??? To each their own, but if you're going to do that you can't spring for your own club/suite tickets??? We're talking about players' families, right?
Idk...this whole thing just seems like a way the NFLPA can try to gain leverage over teams. The grading system is laughable (wth is an F minus?). And then making the results public? Not trying to defend teams/ownership who clearly have tons of money, but I find the existence of this survey odd, and its availability to the general public to be suspicious at best.
Routine upgrades and maintenance should be done as a matter of course regardless who’s paying. Remember what a dump Riverfront was, years before it was blown up?
What's that old mantra? Is it "Happy employees are productive employees"?
That's what this boils down to. The Men need to have happy employees, as happy employees will be productive and successful employees (and in this case, hopefully lead to more division titles, playoff victories and a Super Bowl championship.)
If they aren't happy, they'll go somewhere else -- much like many of us would if our employer wasn't treating us with the courtesy or respect we felt we deserved, or attending to what we feel will make us happy and productive employees.
In this survey by the NFLPA -- something no different than the employer survey many of us get annually at our jobs -- it shows that the Bengals main employees, the players, aren't happy with some things, but they're happy with others. These things they aren't happy with might sound trivial, due to the salaries many of those "employees" receive, but it's no different than many of us complaining in our surveys that the building's heat is on too high, or there need to be healthier options in the vending machines besides Whatchamacallits, or why smokers get more breaks than non-smokers.
I don't think Mike Brown purposely does this out of spite, or because he doesn't gives two squats about the players. It's likely because the issues highlighted in this survey either never crossed his mind before -- the man is in his 80s, after all, and most 80-year-olds aren't worrying about an outlet to charge their device or where a mother is going to change her child's diaper -- or, they've not been properly brought to his attention. Now that it has been, along with Katie's attention, I'm sure it will be addressed sooner rather than later.
One really nice thing, though ... if this is all we have to nitpick the Men about in the offseason, then by golly, we've got it better than we ever have in Bengaldom.
Is there any reason to believe the Bengals ownership treats themselves any differently in regards to their own professional lives than they do the staff and players? Why is it a bad thing to be resourceful with money no matter how much you have? Last I heard, Warren Buffet and Mike Brown both drive General Motors cars. Anyone want to call Buffet a cheapskate? Buffet is attracted to companies that have meaningful levels of austerity just like he has. There’s is nothing wrong with the Browns doing the same.
C’mon people. There is no free lunch. Never will be.
I think they are beyond that now. In an incredibly bold move for almost any son to make, Pop sold the naming rights to a stadium with his dad’s name on it. If they were as Brown-centric as some think they are, that would have never happened. Tobin saying this week that they plan to “spend up to the salary cap” is also telling. So is the new indoor practice facility., which, by the way, could have been named Paul Brown Practice Facility but the Brown’s sold those rights away too.
None of that says mom and pop to me. Men making 500k and up can afford to pay for their own Grub Hub delivered dinner of anything they want to eat. They are well paid professionals. They don’t need to be coddled with free cod and cobbler.
They've always spent the entire salary cap every year since PBS opened. Any unspent cap at EOY is routinely rolled over into the next cap year, every year. Around $2.5m '22 leftover cap (all of the leftover) resides now in the current '23 cap. Every year it's rolled forward, it's not pocketed
One of MFB's favorite things has to be 'negotiations' ... seems this is just the Union mission statement asking for the moon in search of a bigger slice of the 🧀 cheese
I agree. Why are we focusing on how the Bengals treat player families when we should be looking at how the PLAYERS treat their families?
Players can purchase club seat tickets where everyone there has access to climate controlled indoor common areas, great food, great bathrooms, and shelter from storms both weather and surly fan related.
Who has the higher average yearly income? Club seat fans or NFL players? If a fan can drop 300 to 400 a ticket to sit in luxury, surely an NFL player can do the same for the family he says is being disrespected. Who’s diss’ing whom? It ain’t the Bengals, mobsters.
Why are you focusing on the Real Housewives type WAG demographic? If the Bengals are serious about cultivating a non gangster culture, being attractive to a sub-millionaire stable young families type demographic seems a prudent decision. A wife and 2 or 3 kids in the club seats sounds like a nightmare nobody needs including the surrounding green seat patrons
Also works for building the loyalty and continuity aspects within the sub superstar supporting cast. Beggars can't always be choosers when it comes to hitching your wagon to these high dollar marquee types
If I’m a player and my wife had to change a diaper on the floor of a PBS common bathroom I know one thing; I’m a horrible person for not buying her and my profusely pooping mini me a ticket where they can be comfortable watching a game or glove handling the spent Gerbers. ;)
Gametime isn't the only time a daycare room would become necessary. The families show up for training camp sessions and weekly practices too. Allowing the players to fully focus on their preparations as well as GameDay assignments w/o worry secure in the knowledge the wife and kids can rely on peer group support in a special facility can't be a bad thing
The player treatment issue is not frugality, it's some weird sort of generational pathology. It reminds me of my mother-in-law. She's very generous. Anytime she visits she has new clothes for the kids. She'll send my wife and I (both gainfully employed in our mid-40s) checks for non gift holidays like Valentine's Day and the 4th of July. It's all very nice and completely unnecessary. Yet, when Christmas rolls around she never gets anyone something that they really want-much less the A-list gift that the kids will remember forever. Anything top shelf or possibly extravagant is avoided like the plague. It's not frugality (she wastes money all the time)--but something beyond that. It's the same with the Bengals. PB's comment about the TV was part of an over-arching value structure that has been passed on. Hopefully the kids in the family can gradually turn the tide. The Bengals are a premier team these days, and its time to act like it.
X just impresses. I really thought they were going to let that one slip away last night-what with all the fouls. Boum has been such a treat. Hope he can make the most of the single year he spends here. Never know!
Related to this, I was just perusing NFL franchise values. Bengals are 32nd. The two teams in front of them are the Cardinals and Lions both which play in far larger markets than our little burgh. What do all three teams have in common? Longstanding family ownership - Browns, Bidwells, and Fords. Also none of them have won a Super Bowl.
Maybe the insularity of family ownership is a detriment to success both on the field, in the Forbes rankings, and the way the teams are perceived by players (Cards are 31st there, too).
Not trying to be argumentative here, but I believe the Steelers and Giants are long time family-owned and -run outfits. I think your point to insularity is very accurate when it comes to badly-run organizations; e.g. the Bengals historically. They are too inbred to grow out of a long term funk in a healthy, organic way. They block themselves with stale, outmoded, same-old same-old thinking. Fresh, out of the box energy is often a god-send to struggling organizations, football and elsewise. Infiltrating family ownership with a little bit of smart, outside management can open jaded, dumbed down eyes to better choices. The Reds are stuck in a similar bubble.
Pogo not being argumentative? I thought you sought it out.
I hear you re the Steelers and Giants being family run and successful (and much more valuable than the Bengals). I do not have a ready answer other than to agree that badly run organizations might not realize how badly run they are and then double down on the stuff that makes them bad. Bengals took pride in being an island of irrelevance.
Your point about fresh, out of the box energy is well made. With the successful family legacy teams, the Steelers were the dregs of the NFL until they stumbled into Bradshaw and Mean Joe Green, then brought in Dick Haley as GM who compiled their SB teams. The Giants were irrelevant for 15 years until Pete Rozelle suggested the feuding owners hire George Young as GM which changed their trajectory.
The Bears are almost like the Bengals except for their SB title and 2x value per Forbes. One Super Bowl title (a memorable one, though) and not much else to brag about since 1963. Certainly no QBs. 😊
I thought it was funny the AFCN family amenities grades. C+ for the rat birds and C for the clowntown clowns who both issued forth from the legacy of one Art F ##### (4 letter word). Next comes the D- stillers with the local gang's F covering the rear. Maybe it's just something about this inbred cluster of old harbor/lakefront/riverfront megalopolises?
I work out at a gym with fringe Bengals players and guys trying to make it. In 2021 we asked a backup D lineman what Thanksgiving was like, when did you practice, etc. He said they got Wednesday off but had to practice on Thanksgiving. We asked if they provided a proper meal and he said, I swear, grilled cheese was the entree that day. I told him about the Gatorade and jock straps, he purses his lips, and shook his head in familiarity.
Although I think NFL players expect too much from some owners, the Bengals really need to up their game especially in providing facilities for wives and family members attending games. I agree they need to keep the cafeteria open and assume players pay for their own meals there. I'm curious regarding dinner expectations. Are they only talking about game day and travel dinners? I doubt that restaurant workers would want Mike Brown to pay the tab because players probably tip better.
What really amazed me about Xavier's win was that they did it despite the one-sided officiating: 34 foul shots vs 20. East coast Big East teams have a huge home team advantage in terms of foul calls.
You picked another great song from the Eagles. I think they have so many good songs because the had multiple writers and four legitimate lead singers.
In more ways than one. The 'critics' never liked them either. It seems that Xavier only loses when one of the key scorers has a cold night, but they still have him take the last second shot.
I wonder if the players (or local taxpayers) know about the quarter of a million being donated to the city of Louisville for a new park and turf fields, etc. Hmmmm???
I've always thought that Mike Brown is more petty than cheap. But this goes beyond that. It's interesting in an unpleasant way that this man whose manners are so perfect, and whose loyalty to troubled players suggests sensitivity, is so nearly tyrannical in wielding his power.
Well spoken, oh wise one! I would love to give you 5 Hearts on the "Heart" review button, but you might interpret it romantically, and I don't want to break your heart into pieces. Suffice it to say, my love for you and your wit, your wisdom, your grouchiness shall forever remain platonic. I'm afraid the only loves I might possibly share safely with you will have to be our mutual love of golf, TML, and good beers. With that, I must bid you adieu, mon Cheri.
All kidding aside, I think that is the best 2 sentence summation of Mikey I have ever seen. Brilliant work. Perhaps you should start your own blog. The Evening Summation. I like it.
Sean Miller has put Xavier Basketball back on the tracks! To watch X go from underdog Xavier (OH) a school happy to make the NCAA tournament in the 1980s to where they are now is truly remarkable.
What I'd like to know is why basketball still adheres to the archaic and analytically meaningless "shooting from the field" statistic? The 21/3o combined shooting citation says practically nothing about how supernaturally impressive was these guards' marksmanship in this game. 14/18 in 2pt shots for guards is just astonishing and I'd like to know how SM is teaching these guys in shot selection. The points/shot eFG ratio of their 3s 1o.5/12 is likewise the more appropriate comparison template for appreciating just what a stunning shooting performance this was for them, especially after me having watched Cal's 'Cats last night and some of the clueless inside the arc bricks they characteristically let fly ... and they're #1 in SEC play shooting 3s coupled with being dead last in the amount taken. Just what are they feeding these guards at X?
87.5% is the eFG 2pt scoring equivalency for 3s here but then you can shoot 15o% eFG if you hit them all. OTOH 77.8% 2pt shooting for the guard position is much more rarely and seldom seen. Fabled aircraft carrier Wilt Chamberlain only once barely shot over 6o% 2pt FGs for a season in his entire pro career
That is embarrassing for a team that has been vying for the Super Bowl the past few years I suspect Katie, will as usual, come to the rescue. I guess they are not the worst franchise overall in this poll, so that is something.
Actually, I didn't have a love thing with John, but many women did. I just loved watching him grow into the player he became as he started out struggling with pay calling, etc. I was proud of what he accomplished.
Hey Doc, wait a minute . . . I sent in the $80 annual subscription fee to TML via the channel you advised. I do appreciate the commentary you provide us. I read it daily.
I started a small, part time business 18 months after retiring during the depth of the pandemic (June 2020). 2 years and 9 months later it’s going very well. Don’t be shy about asking for some compensation for your work. It’s good stuff.
Maybe, just maybe Mikey Boy feels the slight shred of guiltiness for bleeding the county dry all these years with the insufferably bad lease deal the Bengal have been fleecing the local taxpayers with, and doesn't wanna bleed the county for improvements right now, his years of tightwad-ness having elevated him on many lists to the worst owner in all of pro sports. Maybe just maybe Mikey has finally has a heart transplanted into his chest where previously there was none. Maybe?
Nahhhhh.
The Bengals will forever be the cheapest of cheapskates. They lucked into Burrow and Chase. Mike admitted it was like finding a lucky penny in a pitch black alley in a thunder storm. The current little run of luck will run out soon enough. Guys will jump ship when it starts to go down. It's the historic pattern of the Bengals. Tigers do not change their stripes.
Colby Jones had to go 9-10 in FG attempts last night for X to win. Impressive, yes, but hardly sustainable. X has to stay sharp and balanced on offense to go deep in both tourneys coming up. They're very good, but they have to continue to close games out like last night. They could do some real damage in the NCAAs. That's obvious. The close losses should have shown them their late game weaknesses, which they can fix. It's always fun to watch an unselfish team pass the ball and share the ball. That's X to a tee this year.
Or maybe The Fam can for the upgrades themselves. The players aren’t asking for much.
Pay for ...
Well, yeah, of course he should fork out for some upgrades. He's got a championship level team. Let's keep 'em happy and here. He can afford to spend some of the extra millions and millions he's gotten from his semi-ill-gotten gains. Totally agree. But considering the Bengals finally put in a Ring of Honor and it only took 50 years, we both know glaciers melt faster than Mike opens his wallet.
Part of this is nature but nurture plays an extensive role here too. PB and his righthand Harvard trained lawyer attack beast started with the Old Man's cachet as a HOF football coach and less than 8 million 1967 dollars to have now gained near total control of a $3B asset through some truly bare knuckle steel balls machinations along the way. Old habits die hard, especially in the OCD oligarchal type mentalities it requires to pull something like that off
I love the Eagles. Saw my first concert around 1972 at Assembly Hall in Bloomington, Indiana. I have never heard this song. Lovely. Thanks for sharing.
I've always wondered if there's much crossover or internal conflict between Eagles' fans and the Dudist Priest subculture stemming from The Big Lebowski? TML vs TBL so to speak in this space
https://youtu.be/-JlmvtAHhnc
Not surprised about the locker room situation especially with toilets not working. Why is it that all of the stadiums along the riverfront have bad plumbing. The Coliseum (being renovated this year) doesn't have a toilet that flushes in any of the mens rooms. You pee and it runs out on the floor. GABP still has an odor problem in the seat along 1st base. It doesn't drain properly and they have to put deoderent in the pipes so it doesn't smell so bad. Won't go to a Bengals game (root for them ) but not surprised that the toilets don't work. I know these are building issues (Ham. County) but the cafeteria? Cmon Mike open the wallet a little.
How much of the facility related complaints are due to the fact that their stadium was opened 23 years ago? Was it common place in 2000 to have power outlets everywhere because people can't stay off their phones? I still don't see "family restrooms" every place I go, but my bigger question about that is...who is bringing a child young enough to breast feed to a cold, loud NFL game??? To each their own, but if you're going to do that you can't spring for your own club/suite tickets??? We're talking about players' families, right?
Idk...this whole thing just seems like a way the NFLPA can try to gain leverage over teams. The grading system is laughable (wth is an F minus?). And then making the results public? Not trying to defend teams/ownership who clearly have tons of money, but I find the existence of this survey odd, and its availability to the general public to be suspicious at best.
Routine upgrades and maintenance should be done as a matter of course regardless who’s paying. Remember what a dump Riverfront was, years before it was blown up?
What's that old mantra? Is it "Happy employees are productive employees"?
That's what this boils down to. The Men need to have happy employees, as happy employees will be productive and successful employees (and in this case, hopefully lead to more division titles, playoff victories and a Super Bowl championship.)
If they aren't happy, they'll go somewhere else -- much like many of us would if our employer wasn't treating us with the courtesy or respect we felt we deserved, or attending to what we feel will make us happy and productive employees.
In this survey by the NFLPA -- something no different than the employer survey many of us get annually at our jobs -- it shows that the Bengals main employees, the players, aren't happy with some things, but they're happy with others. These things they aren't happy with might sound trivial, due to the salaries many of those "employees" receive, but it's no different than many of us complaining in our surveys that the building's heat is on too high, or there need to be healthier options in the vending machines besides Whatchamacallits, or why smokers get more breaks than non-smokers.
I don't think Mike Brown purposely does this out of spite, or because he doesn't gives two squats about the players. It's likely because the issues highlighted in this survey either never crossed his mind before -- the man is in his 80s, after all, and most 80-year-olds aren't worrying about an outlet to charge their device or where a mother is going to change her child's diaper -- or, they've not been properly brought to his attention. Now that it has been, along with Katie's attention, I'm sure it will be addressed sooner rather than later.
One really nice thing, though ... if this is all we have to nitpick the Men about in the offseason, then by golly, we've got it better than we ever have in Bengaldom.
Is there any reason to believe the Bengals ownership treats themselves any differently in regards to their own professional lives than they do the staff and players? Why is it a bad thing to be resourceful with money no matter how much you have? Last I heard, Warren Buffet and Mike Brown both drive General Motors cars. Anyone want to call Buffet a cheapskate? Buffet is attracted to companies that have meaningful levels of austerity just like he has. There’s is nothing wrong with the Browns doing the same.
C’mon people. There is no free lunch. Never will be.
Agreed, sort of. But mom-n-pop thinking has never served the Men well. The Bengals org should be beyond that now.
I think they are beyond that now. In an incredibly bold move for almost any son to make, Pop sold the naming rights to a stadium with his dad’s name on it. If they were as Brown-centric as some think they are, that would have never happened. Tobin saying this week that they plan to “spend up to the salary cap” is also telling. So is the new indoor practice facility., which, by the way, could have been named Paul Brown Practice Facility but the Brown’s sold those rights away too.
None of that says mom and pop to me. Men making 500k and up can afford to pay for their own Grub Hub delivered dinner of anything they want to eat. They are well paid professionals. They don’t need to be coddled with free cod and cobbler.
They've always spent the entire salary cap every year since PBS opened. Any unspent cap at EOY is routinely rolled over into the next cap year, every year. Around $2.5m '22 leftover cap (all of the leftover) resides now in the current '23 cap. Every year it's rolled forward, it's not pocketed
One of MFB's favorite things has to be 'negotiations' ... seems this is just the Union mission statement asking for the moon in search of a bigger slice of the 🧀 cheese
https://nflpa.com/nfl-player-team-report-cards
I agree. Why are we focusing on how the Bengals treat player families when we should be looking at how the PLAYERS treat their families?
Players can purchase club seat tickets where everyone there has access to climate controlled indoor common areas, great food, great bathrooms, and shelter from storms both weather and surly fan related.
Who has the higher average yearly income? Club seat fans or NFL players? If a fan can drop 300 to 400 a ticket to sit in luxury, surely an NFL player can do the same for the family he says is being disrespected. Who’s diss’ing whom? It ain’t the Bengals, mobsters.
Why are you focusing on the Real Housewives type WAG demographic? If the Bengals are serious about cultivating a non gangster culture, being attractive to a sub-millionaire stable young families type demographic seems a prudent decision. A wife and 2 or 3 kids in the club seats sounds like a nightmare nobody needs including the surrounding green seat patrons
Also works for building the loyalty and continuity aspects within the sub superstar supporting cast. Beggars can't always be choosers when it comes to hitching your wagon to these high dollar marquee types
If I’m a player and my wife had to change a diaper on the floor of a PBS common bathroom I know one thing; I’m a horrible person for not buying her and my profusely pooping mini me a ticket where they can be comfortable watching a game or glove handling the spent Gerbers. ;)
Gametime isn't the only time a daycare room would become necessary. The families show up for training camp sessions and weekly practices too. Allowing the players to fully focus on their preparations as well as GameDay assignments w/o worry secure in the knowledge the wife and kids can rely on peer group support in a special facility can't be a bad thing
The player treatment issue is not frugality, it's some weird sort of generational pathology. It reminds me of my mother-in-law. She's very generous. Anytime she visits she has new clothes for the kids. She'll send my wife and I (both gainfully employed in our mid-40s) checks for non gift holidays like Valentine's Day and the 4th of July. It's all very nice and completely unnecessary. Yet, when Christmas rolls around she never gets anyone something that they really want-much less the A-list gift that the kids will remember forever. Anything top shelf or possibly extravagant is avoided like the plague. It's not frugality (she wastes money all the time)--but something beyond that. It's the same with the Bengals. PB's comment about the TV was part of an over-arching value structure that has been passed on. Hopefully the kids in the family can gradually turn the tide. The Bengals are a premier team these days, and its time to act like it.
X just impresses. I really thought they were going to let that one slip away last night-what with all the fouls. Boum has been such a treat. Hope he can make the most of the single year he spends here. Never know!
Related to this, I was just perusing NFL franchise values. Bengals are 32nd. The two teams in front of them are the Cardinals and Lions both which play in far larger markets than our little burgh. What do all three teams have in common? Longstanding family ownership - Browns, Bidwells, and Fords. Also none of them have won a Super Bowl.
Maybe the insularity of family ownership is a detriment to success both on the field, in the Forbes rankings, and the way the teams are perceived by players (Cards are 31st there, too).
Not trying to be argumentative here, but I believe the Steelers and Giants are long time family-owned and -run outfits. I think your point to insularity is very accurate when it comes to badly-run organizations; e.g. the Bengals historically. They are too inbred to grow out of a long term funk in a healthy, organic way. They block themselves with stale, outmoded, same-old same-old thinking. Fresh, out of the box energy is often a god-send to struggling organizations, football and elsewise. Infiltrating family ownership with a little bit of smart, outside management can open jaded, dumbed down eyes to better choices. The Reds are stuck in a similar bubble.
Pogo not being argumentative? I thought you sought it out.
I hear you re the Steelers and Giants being family run and successful (and much more valuable than the Bengals). I do not have a ready answer other than to agree that badly run organizations might not realize how badly run they are and then double down on the stuff that makes them bad. Bengals took pride in being an island of irrelevance.
Your point about fresh, out of the box energy is well made. With the successful family legacy teams, the Steelers were the dregs of the NFL until they stumbled into Bradshaw and Mean Joe Green, then brought in Dick Haley as GM who compiled their SB teams. The Giants were irrelevant for 15 years until Pete Rozelle suggested the feuding owners hire George Young as GM which changed their trajectory.
The Bears are almost like the Bengals except for their SB title and 2x value per Forbes. One Super Bowl title (a memorable one, though) and not much else to brag about since 1963. Certainly no QBs. 😊
I thought it was funny the AFCN family amenities grades. C+ for the rat birds and C for the clowntown clowns who both issued forth from the legacy of one Art F ##### (4 letter word). Next comes the D- stillers with the local gang's F covering the rear. Maybe it's just something about this inbred cluster of old harbor/lakefront/riverfront megalopolises?
Truer words were never spoken...
I work out at a gym with fringe Bengals players and guys trying to make it. In 2021 we asked a backup D lineman what Thanksgiving was like, when did you practice, etc. He said they got Wednesday off but had to practice on Thanksgiving. We asked if they provided a proper meal and he said, I swear, grilled cheese was the entree that day. I told him about the Gatorade and jock straps, he purses his lips, and shook his head in familiarity.
Although I think NFL players expect too much from some owners, the Bengals really need to up their game especially in providing facilities for wives and family members attending games. I agree they need to keep the cafeteria open and assume players pay for their own meals there. I'm curious regarding dinner expectations. Are they only talking about game day and travel dinners? I doubt that restaurant workers would want Mike Brown to pay the tab because players probably tip better.
What really amazed me about Xavier's win was that they did it despite the one-sided officiating: 34 foul shots vs 20. East coast Big East teams have a huge home team advantage in terms of foul calls.
You picked another great song from the Eagles. I think they have so many good songs because the had multiple writers and four legitimate lead singers.
Is there a Xavier offense analogy there, in your Eagles comments?
The only one I can see is the shoe money deal that Glen Frey used to buy roadies but was never found guilty of.
In more ways than one. The 'critics' never liked them either. It seems that Xavier only loses when one of the key scorers has a cold night, but they still have him take the last second shot.
I wonder if the players (or local taxpayers) know about the quarter of a million being donated to the city of Louisville for a new park and turf fields, etc. Hmmmm???
By 'The Men'....
I've always thought that Mike Brown is more petty than cheap. But this goes beyond that. It's interesting in an unpleasant way that this man whose manners are so perfect, and whose loyalty to troubled players suggests sensitivity, is so nearly tyrannical in wielding his power.
Well spoken, oh wise one! I would love to give you 5 Hearts on the "Heart" review button, but you might interpret it romantically, and I don't want to break your heart into pieces. Suffice it to say, my love for you and your wit, your wisdom, your grouchiness shall forever remain platonic. I'm afraid the only loves I might possibly share safely with you will have to be our mutual love of golf, TML, and good beers. With that, I must bid you adieu, mon Cheri.
All kidding aside, I think that is the best 2 sentence summation of Mikey I have ever seen. Brilliant work. Perhaps you should start your own blog. The Evening Summation. I like it.
Boy did that box of chocolates ever pay off! Kidding aside, thanks a billion, Pogo. That almost knocked the grouch out of me :)
I await the next box, trembling with anticipation. 😊
"quivering" would have been a better word choice
By the way, anything with nougats will work. I'm easy.
I'll skip on down to Confection Corner in a jiffy. I am, after all, the Candy man.
Sean Miller has put Xavier Basketball back on the tracks! To watch X go from underdog Xavier (OH) a school happy to make the NCAA tournament in the 1980s to where they are now is truly remarkable.
What I'd like to know is why basketball still adheres to the archaic and analytically meaningless "shooting from the field" statistic? The 21/3o combined shooting citation says practically nothing about how supernaturally impressive was these guards' marksmanship in this game. 14/18 in 2pt shots for guards is just astonishing and I'd like to know how SM is teaching these guys in shot selection. The points/shot eFG ratio of their 3s 1o.5/12 is likewise the more appropriate comparison template for appreciating just what a stunning shooting performance this was for them, especially after me having watched Cal's 'Cats last night and some of the clueless inside the arc bricks they characteristically let fly ... and they're #1 in SEC play shooting 3s coupled with being dead last in the amount taken. Just what are they feeding these guards at X?
87.5% is the eFG 2pt scoring equivalency for 3s here but then you can shoot 15o% eFG if you hit them all. OTOH 77.8% 2pt shooting for the guard position is much more rarely and seldom seen. Fabled aircraft carrier Wilt Chamberlain only once barely shot over 6o% 2pt FGs for a season in his entire pro career
That is embarrassing for a team that has been vying for the Super Bowl the past few years I suspect Katie, will as usual, come to the rescue. I guess they are not the worst franchise overall in this poll, so that is something.