Ohtani made a choice and should the Bengals be concerned with Burrow’s “injury”?

Jason Locke and Fora from 105.7 The Fan, also Sportsline. You are right in the middle of it. We're actually going to start with Baltimore Orioles baseball, if that's okay with you.

That's perfectly fine with me. Oh my gosh. Alright, so 62 and 40, best record in the American League. I know this, I'm not saying it came out of nowhere. I think you guys have been building to something, but this has been impressive. Best record in the AL, just two behind the Braves. For the best record overall in baseball, is the place going nuts? Yeah, a series starts with the Yankees tonight.

I think we'll really see the madness out there. There's always a pretty strong Yankees contingent that heads down this way. So yeah, we're expecting a really live, crazy weekend. And they're playing great ball. And yes, the attendance is up. Fan engagement is way up. They've done some cool things at the ballpark. If you've seen it, they put in this, the hecker, they call it the birdbath, where they've got a Mr. Splash out there with a water gun spraying people in certain sections.

Tonight, former Oriole All-Star Adam Jones is going to Mr. Splash. Yeah, it's a really cool vibe. It's a very young team. They kind of play with their heart. They kind of lead with their heart and they play gritty brand brand of baseball. And yeah, most of them are too young to know they're not supposed to be this good this soon. So they really came on last year from the moment Adley Westman was called up and played really pretty elite baseball without everybody noticing. And then this year they've been a juggernaut and they caught the rays. And now we'll see what they do at the trade deadline.

They try to position themselves to stay in first place. Jason Lock and four from one Oh five seven, the Phantom Baltimore and sports line. Here's the thing. I had so many conversations, including one with ACC commissioner, Jim Phillips about the Orioles at ACC. Yeah, right.

At ACC football media days where we, we just spent three days in Charlotte talking ACC football. And I am, I am a hundred percent convinced that they should have pushed for Shohei Ohtani in a trade. So the question was asked, but what if you can't sign him?

I'm like, sign him, make him an offer he can't refuse. Even if it's 60 million, Shohei Ohtani pays for himself. Any team can afford Shohei Ohtani.

It's just depending on whether or not you want to give up the prospect capital to get it. Well, I can tell you that they, they definitely were one of the teams that was most aggressively hounding the angels about Shohei Ohtani and it started far sooner than I think most people realize. And their baseball people, I got the sense were pretty engaged and interested, especially about 10 days to two weeks ago when the sky was falling there, but they were never granted authority from their owner to actually execute such trade. They told any and everybody who called like, Hey, we're perfectly fine having these discussions, but there's, you know, a strong chance that we will never have the wherewithal granted from ownership to make this trade. So look, had he been truly available, I really believe the Orioles would have come away with it. I do because of their intent and because of where they stand as an organization with so many prospects and so many redundant prospects who truly have no path to the major leagues here.

Like they, they just don't cause they're blocked by a 19 year old or they're blocked by a 22 year old or they're blocked by a 24 year old or a 25 year old. So unfortunately, they're going to do the stupid thing, which is, you know, missed the playoffs with Ohtani. Would the Orioles try to sign them?

I'd like to think so. I don't think Shelly Ohtani has any designs on playing on the East coast. I would be absolutely shocked if he did. I think he wants to have a six hour flight home, you know what I mean? Not at 13, 15, whatever our flight home. And I just think he's really accustomed to living out there.

The, the, the, the weather, the, the, the weather, everything. So I don't know what you'd have to put on the table to get him to come to a market like Baltimore. I think it's, it's probably a waste of time, you know, and you could say, well, just keep throwing money at them. Well, you know, just look at the Kellen and bop a situation, you know, when guys have enough money, you know what I mean? And they know what they want.

Like they're going to do what they want to do for a multitude of factors and you can't miss money that you could never spend anyway. So I'd love to see it happen. I was leading the charge here for two months of Ohtani. I would have done anything and everything possible to put him in black and orange for two months and see what that looked like. You know, pitching once a week and hitting six days a week.

Unfortunately, I don't think that's ever going to happen. It is unfortunate, but man, once he gets a taste of the crab cakes or he gets out the boobs, you never know what happens. And Jason Laganfora from 105.7, the fan of Baltimore and Sportsline. All right, let me run some NFL things through you. First of all, bad video for not just Bengals fans, but I think NFL fans who love good football. When Joe Burrow has a lower leg, looks like a calf strain is what I'm guessing. Those are the types of things that linger.

So your guess as to how much we don't see Burrow and what does it do for that calculus? Well, he's never had a normal training camp and he's been shot out of a rocket since he came into the league. And he came back from an ACL and, you know, led them to a Super Bowl. And he came into the league in a COVID year with a coaching staff. And everybody thought was, you know, two months from being fired mid season and that turned out to be a OK. And except for the getting hurt part in the middle of the season. And then last year, you know, his appendix is blown up and he comes back and he has a tough conduit against the Steelers and he's kind of shaky against the Cowboys.

And then, you know, what do you know, they're pushing for a Super Bowl again. So I think if you would give Mike Brown and those guys a list of possible outcomes from the moment he goes down, I think he'd take calf strain over a lot of them. You know, this isn't a ligament. This isn't, you know, tearing tendons. An Achilles, right? This isn't an Achilles. This isn't rupturing anything. This isn't, you know, even a high ankle sprain. You know, I think they can manage that pretty well. He wouldn't have played in the preseason games anyway.

Do I think it hurts him a little bit? And that I really thought he would feast on the opportunity to practice every day through July and August and that that would, you know, have them even more ready for liftoff. Yeah, again, this will be another year where he doesn't have a normal preseason, but that's also all he's ever known. So I think you see a cart come out and you're telling me whatever it ends up being, you know, even grade two calf strain, six to eight weeks, whatever, you know, I think they'd sign up for that. Yeah, six to eight weeks doesn't take you, you know, too far into the regular season. What it might cost the Bengals potentially is maybe home field advantage in a second round game or maybe even a conference championship game. Jason, lock and four.

Two more quick things. My takeaway from the Aaron Rodgers $35 million dollar pay cut, I guess, is that he's basically saying to the Jets, I'm going to be here for two years. There was speculation that it was going to be one year. That was my takeaway.

What was yours? Well, that Woody Johnson isn't, you know, I know he's a pretty feckless, pathetic owner, but he's not quite as feckless and pathetic as I thought, because I believe this is baked into the cake. I don't think he had a Eureka moment. You know, I don't buy much of what Aaron Rodgers sells that like, oh, I've been here for a minute and I love it so much.

Now I'm going to give money back. I talked to a lot of executives, did a lot of reporting on this situation for the Washington Post dating back to November, December of last year, there wasn't a GM in the league or anybody paying attention who evaluated him as more than a 25 or $30 million dollar quarterback like that. That's the reality of 40 year old Aaron Rodgers. That's who he is. That's what he is.

And he's not an ascending player. So I think, you know, the Jets do this and nobody else was interested at the $60 million dollar price point. But I have to believe that it was made pretty clear to Aaron Rodgers and his representation at athletes first that like, you know, we'll give you time and space, but, you know, we've got to all be in agreement here that for this to work, even this year, let alone the following year, we can't pay this guy $60 million.

And we can't have the cap ramifications of, you know, inheriting and just taking on what was perceived to be the worst contract in the NFL at the time. So good on them for getting that. I'm still not thoroughly convinced it's a two year thing. Cause I think he's sick of being hit, you know, like, and is the, is the risk going to meet the reward? Is the glory really going to be there? Is this still even with him?

A seven to 10 win team, which is what I think it is. And then is he going to want to go through this all again now? Mind you for less money. It's one thing if you're going through year two for another 55 mil, it's another for 30, 35, you know what I mean? And, and, and guess what they're going to fire a bunch of the people who recruited you, including the useful idiot offensive coordinator, Nathaniel Hackett, who's not really the offensive coordinator because Aaron Rodgers is the offensive coordinator. All right.

Final thing. Cause you bring up Nathaniel Hackett, Sean Payton, man, did we miss him for a year? He came out firing against Hackett against the Jets. You know what, you know, I, I did say yesterday, I'm like all the stuff he said all might be true. I didn't like the fact that Robert Salah actually snapped back at him.

I would have just swallowed it and said, well, you know what? We'll see. But I don't know that they're confident.

Yeah. Um, look, Sean knows exactly what he's doing. Sean is always prepared and he he's trying to salvage. Look, if we were to say last year, Aaron Rodgers has the worst contract in a year in the league.

A lot of people might've been saying Russell Wilson is second worst. So he, he understands the damage control situation he's in. He knows that he's got a guy who suddenly is fragile and I got to build them up and I got to take the heat away from him. And if we're going to have to re litigate the 2022 Broncos, we're going to do it over Nathaniel Hackett.

We're not going to do it over the guy who I'm here to try to, you know, rehabilitate mind, body, soul, the whole nine yards. So I'm going to blame their culture, which there was none. I'm going to blame their lack of checks and balances and their infrastructure, which there was none. I'm going to blame them having a kid who got hired because of his last name, who had no business doing it, who let, you know, any and everybody run roughshod all over him. It didn't even know how to call plays or didn't know how to decide whether to go for it on fourth down or how to bring Jerry Rosberg out of retirement to teach him how to coach in week three. Like I'm going to blame all that, but don't you, but, but I got a diamond here who I can shine up.

And the only reason he didn't look like a diamond last year is because these idiots do mud all over him. Jason lock and for a man, you're the best at Jason lock and for on Twitter, one Oh five, seven, the Phantom Baltimore. Good luck to the Orioles against the Yankees this weekend. We'll talk to you again, man. Okay. Have a good one. Thank you.