No google necessary., as I would be incorrectly accused routinely of SS back in various Black Lodge of Bengal Asylum discussions in which I'd have assumed a Murphy's Lawyer stance in mounting some devil's advocacy defense of Mike Brown on issues such as the city never finishing the Riverfront luxury suites as they had contractually agreed and scuttling his sources of revenue. Seems more to me you were describing a Borg infestation
Stockholm Syndrome. The NFL has adopted/implemented what marketers call the “firehose effect,” in which the message becomes so ubiquitous it induces consumer overload stupor. The message is inevitable, so there is no point in resisting it, and it is ultimately just accepted. Apparently works with some politicians and their idiosyncratic messaging.
Stockholm Syndrome is when one develops inclusive feelings for those who would torment and/or control that targeted subject audience, who then in warped self defense, sympathise, identify with and defend their oppressive captors and captivity as a means to survive that oppression
I think Bobby Huggins will retire. We spoke about fishing once when I met him and I think he said he likes to fish off of St. Simons Island. Betting he goes down there and follows his dreams. And, forget the gold watch. You don't need a watch when you retire. Give me the money, I say.
I think Huggs and the Mountaineers win Thursday. I think they get Alabama round 2 and that will be an L for Huggs. I hope he doesn’t retire yet. I want to see Huggs bring his bar stool to The Shoe a few times. Will always be my favorite coach
Mar 14, 2023·edited Mar 14, 2023Liked by Paul Daugherty
When you're a 24 hour sport news channel, you're gonna have to put together lots and lots of fillers. Nature of the beast. Most of the fillers will be non-sensical worthless tripe. Doc, I'm projecting that you still have to watch ESPN, likely with only one jaded and cynical eye open, because it's sometimes a source relating to your work. As for me, I stopped watching ESPN years ago, about the time they destroyed the old Big East and gave way too much stage to clown acts like Jamelle Hill and Stephen A. ESPN can rot in hell, and probably will long before I watch it again. One of the biggest joys is I never have to see their horrible fillers any more. They're the news equivalent of fake cotton candy pulled out of a trash can, if you can picture such a thing. Yuck!
Memphis horribly underseeded? Yes! Completely agree! I might put something on that game. Where is the $1 window? Johnny BigBucks is ready to roll! I think I'll pull up in the front of the off-track betting joint in my '84 Corolla, dressed to impress, in my best G. Dead t-shirt. Memphis has been burned in the polls all year. They are good. We can take our winnings and hit the Precinct, no? lighting cigars with our piles of $50s. What??? YOU say it'll be .50 cents. Where's the bubble gum machine? I bin robbed. Just like the Bengals D-secondary. Let's let Ted of the excellent adventure paraphrase both these turns of events; "Big Bummers, Dudes and Dudettes."
Speaking of GD t-shirts, I halfway expected you to mention in passing you had once hung out with Bear Stanley when I brought him up yesterday, back one of those times once accompanying Gatewood hitchhiking across America over to summer of love environs coming of age expeditions that he writes about in his youth. You surely must be a fan of Alice D Millionaire aka Kid Charlemagne, the grandson of the only US Rep/Gov/Sen in KY history?
Familiar with Owsley and his mark on the psychedelic revolution in the 1960s, including the Dead. Owsley's acid was legendary, apparently. Never knew the fellow. His exceptional product was associated with the Electric Kool Acid tests and many Dead concerts, written about so colorfully (pun intended) by Tom Wolfe.
Did know Gatewood a bit. Always projected a larger than life personality. I found him both boring and overstated at times, but never dull and always up to something or other that was noble and worthwhile. Big fish in small ponds tend to use up all the oxygen and leave none for the rest of the crowd. I liked him, but mostly found myself tolerating him. Too much bluster, too little results.
Well you knew him before he started hanging out with Willie Nelson and Woody Harrelson and Ralph Nader and all them after he invented the whole classic 'THC positive test doesn't mean you were stoned at the time' legal defense. Did he always preach like he does in his youtube collection of sermons and stumping the stump? And UK certainly feels he's a prominent native son featured alumnus
Gate and Owsley were also both deeply hooked into the agrarian/natural consciousness you've pinpointed with Wendell Berry. Have you ever sampled Bear's Art pages and the far ahead of his times topics he 'expands' there (I wouldn't worry about the http security thing, it's a dead site that's not asking for any info input)
Gatewood looks like some demented jackass in that picture there, but damn if he and Owsley don't appear to have possibly closely branched off the same family tree
Totally agree about ESPN. They are worthless, akin to how MTV has been worthless for years when they ditched music and went with 24/7 reality programming.
Sticky Fingers and Some Girls are my favorites. But they're all great in their own way.
The NFL can be a year-round hype machine because there are plenty of fans who are exclusively football fans. I know a few of them. Grown men in their 40s--while they dabble in hoops and soccer, they have no desire for anything baseball (one is from Indy, the other from Cbus--so maybe it's a latitudinal issue). The main thing is football by far and it just gets to a numbers game. While I personally claim to love the Reds, Muskies, and Bengals all equally (and FCC more recently)--who am I kidding?
Sure I'll watch/follow all their games, but I'm not eagerly awaiting to see how Marquette fairs at Providence in November (and extrapolating from that how X might match up against both). I'm not ripping my hair out because the Columbus Crew landed that Brazilian midfielder. Since the Super Bowl, I've even reduced the hours spent watching sports simply to make up for all the football I watch from September to February. For better or worse, the NFL has created a closed system where every action has an implication. Part of it is the mechanical nature of the schedule, part is the salary cap and free agency. It's a bunch of other stuff as well. Everything becomes relevant. Pretty sure it was the ghost of Pete Rozelle on Schefter's phone-congratulating him on helping achieve his ultimate vision.
Perhaps some of it is the level of parity the NFL has vs other leagues. We're excited about our team here being in the AFCCG two years in a row so we're eager to see if they land any new impact players. The same can be said for probably every other playoff team, and then even the ones on the cusp.
I really wish MLB would take note and start incrementally addressing their revenue/parity issues. They could see a huge boost in popularity if more fans feel like their team "has a chance." Maybe not to the drama level of the NFL, but having a smaller gap between the haves and have nots would really help.
The brain chemistry of the amygdala hijack is the reason for the success of hype, whether it's the NFL or real housewives 'reality' TV. Constant, novel, intermittent outrage, shock, injustice or hairs on fire curiosity over losing/keeping/acquiring another resources-limited collectible game piece both lowers IQ in the moment and drops that dopamine dime into the neurotransmitter soup. The NFL game of aggression and acquisition both fits and sustains this kind of familiar soap opera interest better than any other sport
I was thinking about how we used to handle off topic political discussion back at the old Black Lodge of Bengal Asylum nflfans and various other discussion message boards my tailgate gang sustained circa '98 through 2o15ish, namely we kept a 2nd, off topic 'Woodshed' page where we tried to keep political talk confined. You could have an occasional or even weekly (and clearly labeled) Woodshed column for dropping not stuck to sportz nuggets. Surely you've noticed the recent outraging spleener being the first & only 2oo+ response effort?
I agree with you Paul on Beggars’Banquet. This may be heresy to the stones fans, but I just don’t like Sympathy for the Devil for several reasons.
My favorite Stones albums:
1. Let it Bleed-quintessential Stones at their very best. Several of they greatest compositions all’s one 1 record.
2. Exile-many Stones fans’ favorite. I love “Sweet Virginia”-one number that doesn’t get the acclaim it should.
3. Blue and Lonesome-this one was a huge surprise. The band of old guys played with zeal and precision. Keith said they did it in just a few days. Their inspiration was short lived and he said they were emotionally exhausted at the end because they gave it their all. It won a Grammy-I think their 1st. Keith’s response to the award? “It’s about f_____g time”. Gotta love the guy.
Exile is great, I agree. Some Girls is a hoot. I have both those albums. A brother had Ya-Yas, so we listened to it regularly back in the day. Jagger caused a big “controversy” due to the lyrics on the title track. SNL’s Garret Morris starred in one of the show’s funniest skits when he pretended to chastise Mick for his stereotypes of women. Morris said it was one of his favorites. Do you remember that one?
I'm a big fan of Some Girls, particularly Shattered, Far Away Eyes and the album cover art. I guess maybe not strangely enough, Mick Jagger is yet another of the outre sub-niche defining characters like Carl Jung, Aldous Huxley, Stanley Kubrick, GB Shaw, Darlene Love (a Doc favorite), Jason Statham, Kevin Spacey, Sandra Bullock and Kate Beckinsale (female doppelgangers of Sir Mick) as well as myself who all happened to be born on 7/26
I'd love to share some controversial point of view on the never-ending NFL hype machine, but I can't. Why? Simple really, I am in full agreement with Doc's take on the Musical Chairs With Money and all that is ... chicken or egg. ESPN: "If we air it, they will watch." Or....I just watch the games. BTW, I once scooped Adam Schefter - that on the official announcement of UM hiring of Coach Harbaugh. Of course, I didn't have his following, but my tweet beat his. Just sayin'. Talk among yourselves friends.
The constant NFL coverage is just a testament to the hegemony to the NFL itself - it dwarfs all the other sports combined. However, I just don't watch ESPN unless there's a ballgame on in the evening or weekend. Who's watching the talking head stuff anyway? I hear First Take is entertaining, but shouldn't everyone be at work at 10am?
In some ways, it's no different to me than the Tucker Carlson/Don Lemon/Rachel Maddow/etc crapola...Who watches other people just blather on for hours, eating up our precious evenings? Certainly not I, or anyone I know under 60. My evenings are too sacred, especially once the days lengthen and the weather warms. But perhaps I'm the outlier; obviously people ARE watching this stuff or I suppose it wouldn't be on.
If the line on the Vermont/Marquette game moves down into single digits, I'm going the other way...Marquette is a legit Final Four contender.
Good point comparing to 24 hour political talk. At some point there just isn't anything new to talk about, so they have to fill the gaps somehow. And good question about the daytime sports talk on TV...who is watching this stuff???
I watch ESPN on the elliptical, because otherwise the elliptical is beyond boring. Other news stuff I listen to the podcasts, usually while walking Crazy Chester.
My huskie (related) and my sanity require two daily walks and podcasts are a natural. Especially if you like longer walks like I do. Just walking and listening to the neighborhood gets old real quick so the walks end up that way too (It's different for woods hikes.). I listen to local guys on Bengals/Bearcats but my favorites are comedians talking about their craft ("Good One" and "The Last Laugh" are my current favs) or interesting history. Clears my mind from work or the news. Come back complete and smiling again everyday. At least for the early evening walk. My morning walk just brightens my mind before I get coffee.
I should have paid more attention...watching while on the elliptical, treadmill, rower, etc makes more sense to me, as does listening to podcasts while walking. There's so many ways to get this stuff anymore. I guess I just got caught up in the idea that millions of people, after working 8-10 hours, would come home, eat supper, then sit and watch 3+ hours of sports or political talking heads... that doesn't make sense to me.
Doc, today is the perfect example of enjoying good writing irrespective of the subject matter. My eyes glaze over like a Krispy Kreme when it comes to the year-round NFL. I can barely watch the games (well established I prefer college football), so this topic is about as interesting to me as a time-share pitch in Toledo. But for you... I read.
I don't pretend to understand the logic of the NFL owners. You think Hayden Hurst is next? I wonder why they would let him go? Is there something lacking in his abilities? What more do the Bengals want from a tight end? I don't know, it seems like sometimes we let a good player go, to save a few bucks, only to sign a new guy and pay them close to the same amount. I hope then Men can keep their culture together in 2023.
Brian M., big difference between "letting someone go" and him signing elsewhere for more money than the Bengals are willing to pay/budget for that position. None of these signing decisions are made in a vacuum. I am sure they would love to have him return, but prefer to have enough money under the salary cap to pay Higgins, Joe B., and Chase.
He's getting up there in TE years and also missed 3 games with lower leg injuries and also doesn't block well or much, which a better blocking option in both pass and run games could possibly be found on what looks like a fairly plentiful FA pool. This is also the 'jump the gun for the heavyweights' period of free agency so they're busy with more important negotiations and someone else may offer him stupid $$$, in which the Bengals will wish him best of luck. Most likely that won't happen and he'll still be available for another year at nearly the same rate. They will also draft at least one TE, as they need a cheap, healthy restock at the position anyway
Aging player (will turn 30 this year) that's likely looking for big money and years. Only so much cap room to go around, so it'll be interesting to see their approach to roster management moving forward. It'll become clear pretty quickly which positions/players they value and which they feel they can fill through the draft.
Von Bell is only a year younger but I wish they could have locked him up for another couple years. Definitely scary losing both starting safeties in the same year. I hope Hill is ready and they find someone worth of replacing Bates.
I think the Von Bell loss stings. He was a leader, a good safety, and he was tough. Bates was so up and down the last two years, that loss is not as a big deal to me. Probably to others, though. But, the recent track record of Duke has been pretty good, so I'll "trust the process".
I watched a 1993 Bengals-Raiders game I found on Youtube. I can't tell if Klingler was that bad or his offensive line ruined him. Either way, that was a mess. Wow. Pickens was out that game, so it was Jeff Query and some no names. Bengals win. lol
I thought Bell was kinda the heart and soul of the defense, the wise old head who rarely made mistakes and read plays really well. Huge loss. Typical of Bengals to let a guy go who was close to Pro Bowl caliber, yet affordable. As I said in the past, the Bengals will slowly dismantle this team in order to sign a few bigshots, just as the Reds did with Votto. Mike Brown has no idea, has never had any idea how to handle even the slightest amount of good fortune that falls in his lap.
Greg, most of the defense praise Mike Hilton as an unsung Guru of that unit. We will see if he can help train the new guys. I'd like to know if and how much Anarumo protested losing either of those guys. He's the mastermind behind it all, the Boss needs to listen to Lou.
I don't think Bell quite matches the fully interchangeable characteristics Loudini truly covets in his most mad scientific scheming approach. It also reflects a little that both Bell and Bates III absorbed nearly 1oo% of possible D snaps during their respective tenures and might not want to push their luck in the 3 year longterm
I agree, Von Bell was the guy to hold on too. Bates is good, but he made it very clear he wanted a bigger payday than the Bengals could offer. Not too enamored with Eli Apple, NFL players claim he is one of the worst trash talkers in the league. The Team has seen too much of that in recent years. I was hoping they’d let Apple go in order ti make a better offer to Bates. But I definitely think you nailed it-Duke Tobin has earned his credibility. Let’s see how he rebuilds the defense.
I have to go with your son on this. Nothing wrong with some periodic Mick.
Tommy Casanova,LSU,quit to be a dentist
Dr Casanova was indeed the sanctified matinee idol of Bengal safeties in the earliest of olden days
Yes. I can Google, too. Thanks for continuing to follow with clarity explaining some oddly nebulous point.
No google necessary., as I would be incorrectly accused routinely of SS back in various Black Lodge of Bengal Asylum discussions in which I'd have assumed a Murphy's Lawyer stance in mounting some devil's advocacy defense of Mike Brown on issues such as the city never finishing the Riverfront luxury suites as they had contractually agreed and scuttling his sources of revenue. Seems more to me you were describing a Borg infestation
Stockholm Syndrome. The NFL has adopted/implemented what marketers call the “firehose effect,” in which the message becomes so ubiquitous it induces consumer overload stupor. The message is inevitable, so there is no point in resisting it, and it is ultimately just accepted. Apparently works with some politicians and their idiosyncratic messaging.
Stockholm Syndrome is when one develops inclusive feelings for those who would torment and/or control that targeted subject audience, who then in warped self defense, sympathise, identify with and defend their oppressive captors and captivity as a means to survive that oppression
Eli can go.
I think Bobby Huggins will retire. We spoke about fishing once when I met him and I think he said he likes to fish off of St. Simons Island. Betting he goes down there and follows his dreams. And, forget the gold watch. You don't need a watch when you retire. Give me the money, I say.
I think Huggs and the Mountaineers win Thursday. I think they get Alabama round 2 and that will be an L for Huggs. I hope he doesn’t retire yet. I want to see Huggs bring his bar stool to The Shoe a few times. Will always be my favorite coach
When you're a 24 hour sport news channel, you're gonna have to put together lots and lots of fillers. Nature of the beast. Most of the fillers will be non-sensical worthless tripe. Doc, I'm projecting that you still have to watch ESPN, likely with only one jaded and cynical eye open, because it's sometimes a source relating to your work. As for me, I stopped watching ESPN years ago, about the time they destroyed the old Big East and gave way too much stage to clown acts like Jamelle Hill and Stephen A. ESPN can rot in hell, and probably will long before I watch it again. One of the biggest joys is I never have to see their horrible fillers any more. They're the news equivalent of fake cotton candy pulled out of a trash can, if you can picture such a thing. Yuck!
Memphis horribly underseeded? Yes! Completely agree! I might put something on that game. Where is the $1 window? Johnny BigBucks is ready to roll! I think I'll pull up in the front of the off-track betting joint in my '84 Corolla, dressed to impress, in my best G. Dead t-shirt. Memphis has been burned in the polls all year. They are good. We can take our winnings and hit the Precinct, no? lighting cigars with our piles of $50s. What??? YOU say it'll be .50 cents. Where's the bubble gum machine? I bin robbed. Just like the Bengals D-secondary. Let's let Ted of the excellent adventure paraphrase both these turns of events; "Big Bummers, Dudes and Dudettes."
Speaking of GD t-shirts, I halfway expected you to mention in passing you had once hung out with Bear Stanley when I brought him up yesterday, back one of those times once accompanying Gatewood hitchhiking across America over to summer of love environs coming of age expeditions that he writes about in his youth. You surely must be a fan of Alice D Millionaire aka Kid Charlemagne, the grandson of the only US Rep/Gov/Sen in KY history?
Familiar with Owsley and his mark on the psychedelic revolution in the 1960s, including the Dead. Owsley's acid was legendary, apparently. Never knew the fellow. His exceptional product was associated with the Electric Kool Acid tests and many Dead concerts, written about so colorfully (pun intended) by Tom Wolfe.
Did know Gatewood a bit. Always projected a larger than life personality. I found him both boring and overstated at times, but never dull and always up to something or other that was noble and worthwhile. Big fish in small ponds tend to use up all the oxygen and leave none for the rest of the crowd. I liked him, but mostly found myself tolerating him. Too much bluster, too little results.
Well you knew him before he started hanging out with Willie Nelson and Woody Harrelson and Ralph Nader and all them after he invented the whole classic 'THC positive test doesn't mean you were stoned at the time' legal defense. Did he always preach like he does in his youtube collection of sermons and stumping the stump? And UK certainly feels he's a prominent native son featured alumnus
https://uknow.uky.edu/campus-news/explore-life-and-times-gatewood-last-free-man-america
Gate and Owsley were also both deeply hooked into the agrarian/natural consciousness you've pinpointed with Wendell Berry. Have you ever sampled Bear's Art pages and the far ahead of his times topics he 'expands' there (I wouldn't worry about the http security thing, it's a dead site that's not asking for any info input)
http://www.thebear.org/essays.html
Gatewood looks like some demented jackass in that picture there, but damn if he and Owsley don't appear to have possibly closely branched off the same family tree
https://youtu.be/geRXSVuPRhU
And this is one of the better summaries of Owsley's vast contributions to both the Grateful Dead and the '6os, which Pogo undersells
https://www.rollingstone.com/feature/owsley-stanley-the-king-of-lsd-82181/
Totally agree about ESPN. They are worthless, akin to how MTV has been worthless for years when they ditched music and went with 24/7 reality programming.
Exactly.
Sticky Fingers and Some Girls are my favorites. But they're all great in their own way.
The NFL can be a year-round hype machine because there are plenty of fans who are exclusively football fans. I know a few of them. Grown men in their 40s--while they dabble in hoops and soccer, they have no desire for anything baseball (one is from Indy, the other from Cbus--so maybe it's a latitudinal issue). The main thing is football by far and it just gets to a numbers game. While I personally claim to love the Reds, Muskies, and Bengals all equally (and FCC more recently)--who am I kidding?
Sure I'll watch/follow all their games, but I'm not eagerly awaiting to see how Marquette fairs at Providence in November (and extrapolating from that how X might match up against both). I'm not ripping my hair out because the Columbus Crew landed that Brazilian midfielder. Since the Super Bowl, I've even reduced the hours spent watching sports simply to make up for all the football I watch from September to February. For better or worse, the NFL has created a closed system where every action has an implication. Part of it is the mechanical nature of the schedule, part is the salary cap and free agency. It's a bunch of other stuff as well. Everything becomes relevant. Pretty sure it was the ghost of Pete Rozelle on Schefter's phone-congratulating him on helping achieve his ultimate vision.
Perhaps some of it is the level of parity the NFL has vs other leagues. We're excited about our team here being in the AFCCG two years in a row so we're eager to see if they land any new impact players. The same can be said for probably every other playoff team, and then even the ones on the cusp.
I really wish MLB would take note and start incrementally addressing their revenue/parity issues. They could see a huge boost in popularity if more fans feel like their team "has a chance." Maybe not to the drama level of the NFL, but having a smaller gap between the haves and have nots would really help.
The brain chemistry of the amygdala hijack is the reason for the success of hype, whether it's the NFL or real housewives 'reality' TV. Constant, novel, intermittent outrage, shock, injustice or hairs on fire curiosity over losing/keeping/acquiring another resources-limited collectible game piece both lowers IQ in the moment and drops that dopamine dime into the neurotransmitter soup. The NFL game of aggression and acquisition both fits and sustains this kind of familiar soap opera interest better than any other sport
You should be a Hemingway. Who's up for 1500 Words Of Wayne? I'm serious. Show us whatcha got, Wayne-o.
I 2nd that comment! Wayne made me think, and I think he is on to something! An observant thinking man's insights.
I am doing this. My secret superpower seems to only work best when actively triggered in responses ... it's weird
I was thinking about how we used to handle off topic political discussion back at the old Black Lodge of Bengal Asylum nflfans and various other discussion message boards my tailgate gang sustained circa '98 through 2o15ish, namely we kept a 2nd, off topic 'Woodshed' page where we tried to keep political talk confined. You could have an occasional or even weekly (and clearly labeled) Woodshed column for dropping not stuck to sportz nuggets. Surely you've noticed the recent outraging spleener being the first & only 2oo+ response effort?
I just wanted to know if you'd like to be a Hemingway. A Yes or No would suffice.
I agree with you Paul on Beggars’Banquet. This may be heresy to the stones fans, but I just don’t like Sympathy for the Devil for several reasons.
My favorite Stones albums:
1. Let it Bleed-quintessential Stones at their very best. Several of they greatest compositions all’s one 1 record.
2. Exile-many Stones fans’ favorite. I love “Sweet Virginia”-one number that doesn’t get the acclaim it should.
3. Blue and Lonesome-this one was a huge surprise. The band of old guys played with zeal and precision. Keith said they did it in just a few days. Their inspiration was short lived and he said they were emotionally exhausted at the end because they gave it their all. It won a Grammy-I think their 1st. Keith’s response to the award? “It’s about f_____g time”. Gotta love the guy.
Exile.
Ya-Yas.
Some Girls.
Exile is great, I agree. Some Girls is a hoot. I have both those albums. A brother had Ya-Yas, so we listened to it regularly back in the day. Jagger caused a big “controversy” due to the lyrics on the title track. SNL’s Garret Morris starred in one of the show’s funniest skits when he pretended to chastise Mick for his stereotypes of women. Morris said it was one of his favorites. Do you remember that one?
I'm a big fan of Some Girls, particularly Shattered, Far Away Eyes and the album cover art. I guess maybe not strangely enough, Mick Jagger is yet another of the outre sub-niche defining characters like Carl Jung, Aldous Huxley, Stanley Kubrick, GB Shaw, Darlene Love (a Doc favorite), Jason Statham, Kevin Spacey, Sandra Bullock and Kate Beckinsale (female doppelgangers of Sir Mick) as well as myself who all happened to be born on 7/26
I'd love to share some controversial point of view on the never-ending NFL hype machine, but I can't. Why? Simple really, I am in full agreement with Doc's take on the Musical Chairs With Money and all that is ... chicken or egg. ESPN: "If we air it, they will watch." Or....I just watch the games. BTW, I once scooped Adam Schefter - that on the official announcement of UM hiring of Coach Harbaugh. Of course, I didn't have his following, but my tweet beat his. Just sayin'. Talk among yourselves friends.
The constant NFL coverage is just a testament to the hegemony to the NFL itself - it dwarfs all the other sports combined. However, I just don't watch ESPN unless there's a ballgame on in the evening or weekend. Who's watching the talking head stuff anyway? I hear First Take is entertaining, but shouldn't everyone be at work at 10am?
In some ways, it's no different to me than the Tucker Carlson/Don Lemon/Rachel Maddow/etc crapola...Who watches other people just blather on for hours, eating up our precious evenings? Certainly not I, or anyone I know under 60. My evenings are too sacred, especially once the days lengthen and the weather warms. But perhaps I'm the outlier; obviously people ARE watching this stuff or I suppose it wouldn't be on.
If the line on the Vermont/Marquette game moves down into single digits, I'm going the other way...Marquette is a legit Final Four contender.
Good point comparing to 24 hour political talk. At some point there just isn't anything new to talk about, so they have to fill the gaps somehow. And good question about the daytime sports talk on TV...who is watching this stuff???
Yeah, I keep going to back to a Seinfeld episode where an NBC exec asks George "well why am I watching it?" and George responds "Because it's on tv."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvnA8Vtf3rA. The line occurs at the 1:40 mark.
"Not yet" hahaha! Yeah, the nothing show is a fantastic description for the late night political talk shows without a doubt.
I watch ESPN on the elliptical, because otherwise the elliptical is beyond boring. Other news stuff I listen to the podcasts, usually while walking Crazy Chester.
My huskie (related) and my sanity require two daily walks and podcasts are a natural. Especially if you like longer walks like I do. Just walking and listening to the neighborhood gets old real quick so the walks end up that way too (It's different for woods hikes.). I listen to local guys on Bengals/Bearcats but my favorites are comedians talking about their craft ("Good One" and "The Last Laugh" are my current favs) or interesting history. Clears my mind from work or the news. Come back complete and smiling again everyday. At least for the early evening walk. My morning walk just brightens my mind before I get coffee.
Wow BEFORE Coffee! I'm impressed.
I should have paid more attention...watching while on the elliptical, treadmill, rower, etc makes more sense to me, as does listening to podcasts while walking. There's so many ways to get this stuff anymore. I guess I just got caught up in the idea that millions of people, after working 8-10 hours, would come home, eat supper, then sit and watch 3+ hours of sports or political talking heads... that doesn't make sense to me.
Doc, today is the perfect example of enjoying good writing irrespective of the subject matter. My eyes glaze over like a Krispy Kreme when it comes to the year-round NFL. I can barely watch the games (well established I prefer college football), so this topic is about as interesting to me as a time-share pitch in Toledo. But for you... I read.
I don't pretend to understand the logic of the NFL owners. You think Hayden Hurst is next? I wonder why they would let him go? Is there something lacking in his abilities? What more do the Bengals want from a tight end? I don't know, it seems like sometimes we let a good player go, to save a few bucks, only to sign a new guy and pay them close to the same amount. I hope then Men can keep their culture together in 2023.
Brian M., big difference between "letting someone go" and him signing elsewhere for more money than the Bengals are willing to pay/budget for that position. None of these signing decisions are made in a vacuum. I am sure they would love to have him return, but prefer to have enough money under the salary cap to pay Higgins, Joe B., and Chase.
edited to specify which Brian. 😊
Yea that makes sense.
He's getting up there in TE years and also missed 3 games with lower leg injuries and also doesn't block well or much, which a better blocking option in both pass and run games could possibly be found on what looks like a fairly plentiful FA pool. This is also the 'jump the gun for the heavyweights' period of free agency so they're busy with more important negotiations and someone else may offer him stupid $$$, in which the Bengals will wish him best of luck. Most likely that won't happen and he'll still be available for another year at nearly the same rate. They will also draft at least one TE, as they need a cheap, healthy restock at the position anyway
Aging player (will turn 30 this year) that's likely looking for big money and years. Only so much cap room to go around, so it'll be interesting to see their approach to roster management moving forward. It'll become clear pretty quickly which positions/players they value and which they feel they can fill through the draft.
Von Bell is only a year younger but I wish they could have locked him up for another couple years. Definitely scary losing both starting safeties in the same year. I hope Hill is ready and they find someone worth of replacing Bates.
Yeah NFL Draft and Free Agency are ridiculous but there you are writing about it so …….
Catamounts have the best name in basketball, hands down.
Don't give a hoot about NFL shuffle. Bengals generally don't make big offers to keep anybody. They like the summer yard sales too much.
I prefer nearly any cut from Beggars Banquet over that one. Longstanding dislike of the chicken hawk vibe.
You beat me to the punch on Catamounts!
What is the difference between a Catamount, Catapult, and Catatonic?
A catamount can catapult a catatonic Catalina. I saw it once on I-75.
In some jurisdictions that is called a cataclysmic catastrophe
Kelly's right and you're wr-wr-wr-wr-not right.
I think the Von Bell loss stings. He was a leader, a good safety, and he was tough. Bates was so up and down the last two years, that loss is not as a big deal to me. Probably to others, though. But, the recent track record of Duke has been pretty good, so I'll "trust the process".
I watched a 1993 Bengals-Raiders game I found on Youtube. I can't tell if Klingler was that bad or his offensive line ruined him. Either way, that was a mess. Wow. Pickens was out that game, so it was Jeff Query and some no names. Bengals win. lol
I thought Bell was kinda the heart and soul of the defense, the wise old head who rarely made mistakes and read plays really well. Huge loss. Typical of Bengals to let a guy go who was close to Pro Bowl caliber, yet affordable. As I said in the past, the Bengals will slowly dismantle this team in order to sign a few bigshots, just as the Reds did with Votto. Mike Brown has no idea, has never had any idea how to handle even the slightest amount of good fortune that falls in his lap.
Greg, most of the defense praise Mike Hilton as an unsung Guru of that unit. We will see if he can help train the new guys. I'd like to know if and how much Anarumo protested losing either of those guys. He's the mastermind behind it all, the Boss needs to listen to Lou.
I don't think Bell quite matches the fully interchangeable characteristics Loudini truly covets in his most mad scientific scheming approach. It also reflects a little that both Bell and Bates III absorbed nearly 1oo% of possible D snaps during their respective tenures and might not want to push their luck in the 3 year longterm
I agree, Von Bell was the guy to hold on too. Bates is good, but he made it very clear he wanted a bigger payday than the Bengals could offer. Not too enamored with Eli Apple, NFL players claim he is one of the worst trash talkers in the league. The Team has seen too much of that in recent years. I was hoping they’d let Apple go in order ti make a better offer to Bates. But I definitely think you nailed it-Duke Tobin has earned his credibility. Let’s see how he rebuilds the defense.