Speaker 1: Hi, get everybody.
Speaker 2: I'm Dan Hord and thanks for downloading The Bengals Booth Podcast.
Speaker 2: The next year is gonna be better than this year's edition,
Speaker 2: as I discussed this year's schedule with one of the
Speaker 2: people most responsible for putting it together, NFL VP of
Speaker 2: Broadcast Planning, Mike North. But first a pair of five
Speaker 2: minute conversations with one of this year's third round draft picks,
Speaker 2: Jermaine Burton and last year's first round draft pick, Miles Murphy.
Speaker 2: The Bengals Booth Podcast is brought to you by pay Core,
Speaker 2: proud to be the Bengals official hr software provider, by
Speaker 2: Alta Fiber future proof fiber Internet designed to elevate your home, business,
Speaker 2: and community to a new level, and by Kettering Health
Speaker 2: the best care for the best fans. Kettering Health is
Speaker 2: the official healthcare provider of the Bengals. Now here's a
Speaker 2: quick reminder that you can have the latest edition of
Speaker 2: this podcast delivered right to your phone, tablet, or computer
Speaker 2: by subscribing wherever you get your podcasts. It's the greatest
Speaker 2: thing since a steam mop. We have a hardwood floor
Speaker 2: in our kitchen and it's always been a pain in
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Speaker 2: the water, it heats up in thirty seconds and you
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Speaker 2: It's almost like a zamboni, and it comes with a
Speaker 2: couple of reusable cloth pads, so after you clean the floor,
Speaker 2: you remove one of those disgusting looking pads and toss
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Speaker 2: with the purchase of my steam mop. I'll put it
Speaker 2: this way, the old five second rule for kids has
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Speaker 1: Now let's get to football.
Speaker 2: Since the draft, I've been having fun with this year's
Speaker 2: class by asking them five questions specifically for each player.
Speaker 2: Among other things, we've learned that first round draft pick
Speaker 2: a Marius Mims hasn't surrendered a sack since he was
Speaker 2: a junior in high school, and that second round draft
Speaker 2: pick Chris Jenkins considers himself a nerd with a comic
Speaker 2: book collection. Now time to learn about the first of
Speaker 2: two players selected in Round three. Time for five questions
Speaker 2: with rookie wide receiver Jermaine Burton. Question number one, you
Speaker 2: played for two of the greatest college football programs in
Speaker 2: the country, Georgia and Alabama. Tell me the best thing
Speaker 2: about playing for each of those schools.
Speaker 3: You know, the competitiveness and the environment, hands down, you know,
Speaker 3: plan for those you know, particular programs. You know, it
Speaker 3: comes with a lot of you know, competition, you know,
Speaker 3: passionate players, and really just overall great.
Speaker 4: Experience of the game of football from coaching wives as well.
Speaker 3: So you know, that's probably the most main thing, is
Speaker 3: the competitiveness that I had to go through, all right.
Speaker 2: Question two, is there an NFL wide receiver that you
Speaker 2: think you are most similar to?
Speaker 4: You know, it isn't so many.
Speaker 3: It's so many great receivers in the NFL that have
Speaker 3: like so many different kind of you know, uh abilities,
Speaker 3: And you know, I feel like I can you know,
Speaker 3: there's I feel like there's a lot of receivers that
Speaker 3: probably do the same thing.
Speaker 4: So if I had to pinpoint one.
Speaker 1: I probably not.
Speaker 3: But I do feel like there are, you know, probably
Speaker 3: some great receivers that do some stuff a lot.
Speaker 2: I think of you as a taller Steve Smith. Do
Speaker 2: you remember Steve Smith. He's played for the Panthers and
Speaker 2: the Ravens when I watched your highlights, that's the person
Speaker 2: that came to mind really of a player.
Speaker 4: No facts that I love that, I love that. I
Speaker 4: love that comparison.
Speaker 2: All right, Question number three for Jermaine Burke. And we
Speaker 2: learned on draft night that you've been working with former
Speaker 2: Bengals wide receiver TJ. Gushman Zada for several years and
Speaker 2: he has nothing but great things to say about you.
Speaker 2: What were some of the biggest things you learned from him,
Speaker 2: whether it was on the field or off the field.
Speaker 3: You know that no matter what, it's a business, and
Speaker 3: you know you have to do your part, you know,
Speaker 3: and it's nobody else's fault that you aren't where you
Speaker 3: are supposed to be physically and mentally. So you know
Speaker 3: that's just the main thing. You know, keep the main thing,
Speaker 3: the main thing, and keep working and you know.
Speaker 4: Have some fun with it though.
Speaker 3: Of course, you know that TJ is a real uh
Speaker 3: you know, he's a he's a real funny dude, and
Speaker 3: uh but you know he can he can turn it
Speaker 3: on that switch and you know it's time to work.
Speaker 3: So you know, I'm pretty sure that's what he means
Speaker 3: by you know, you can hit that switch and relax
Speaker 3: a little bit and you know, be yourself, but at
Speaker 3: the same time, never never get too far away from yourself.
Speaker 5: Dude.
Speaker 2: Know he holds the franchise record for most catches in
Speaker 2: a season.
Speaker 4: I did not know that.
Speaker 1: N'red and twelve.
Speaker 4: Geez, I'm gonna talk to him, so he gonna say.
Speaker 1: But he was like, oh yeah, that was nothing.
Speaker 2: On his way to a Pro Bowl. He was one
Speaker 2: hell of a player. Question number four for Jermaine Burton,
Speaker 2: who is your all time favorite athlete in any sport
Speaker 2: and why?
Speaker 4: I probably said Kobe Bryant.
Speaker 3: I would say Kobe because you know his passion and
Speaker 3: his aggression and you know the way he worked, and
Speaker 3: you know, I just feel like it's really unmatched.
Speaker 4: And uh, I love his energy.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 4: You know it's back when it was the USA, it
Speaker 4: was USA versus.
Speaker 3: I forgot what it was. Wherever Paugasa is from, they went,
Speaker 3: he went against their country. And you know, Pakastan and
Speaker 3: the Kobe are really great friends, you know, almost best friends.
Speaker 4: They played on the Lakers together, you know, real close.
Speaker 3: And I was watching a documentary and Kobe said, first play,
Speaker 3: I'm running.
Speaker 4: Through Paul his chest and like they were. Everybody was like,
Speaker 4: how are you doing?
Speaker 3: That's your homeboy, like that's your like this and that,
Speaker 3: and he was like nah, like like you set the
Speaker 3: tone and you know, first play he actually did that.
Speaker 3: So with that kind of like set up. Uh, I
Speaker 3: don't know, it just it's got different with me. And
Speaker 3: you know, I really respected that, and because you know
Speaker 3: the fact that Paul didn't even take it like oh
Speaker 3: just I mean it was like nah, he's Kobe is
Speaker 3: on like you know, so the real competition there and
Speaker 3: the competitiveness and the agression uh, with that Kobe had.
Speaker 2: You know, as a California kid, how devastating was it
Speaker 2: when Kobe passed.
Speaker 4: It's kind of crazy, honestly.
Speaker 3: Uh, you know, just looking up to him and you know,
Speaker 3: always seeing things about him, and you know, it's just
Speaker 3: it hit me. S it hit It was so random
Speaker 3: and it was just so weird that I didn't know
Speaker 3: how to react for so long. But you know, I
Speaker 3: I don't know, it was just it was something that
Speaker 3: just didn't see.
Speaker 1: It right with me.
Speaker 2: It was weird, alright. Fifth and final question for Jermaine Burton.
Speaker 2: Tell us something about you that not many people know.
Speaker 4: You know, I love space, into astrology, and I believe in.
Speaker 2: Aliens a triple crown. So how into space? I mean,
Speaker 2: they're you know, there are obviously efforts to send people
Speaker 2: to send you know, regular Joe's into space. Is that
Speaker 2: something you dream of doing someday?
Speaker 3: Yes, ultimately a bucket list, you know, cross off that
Speaker 3: I would love to you.
Speaker 4: Know, eventually hopefully have the ability to. But yeah, that's
Speaker 4: that is something I would be dout for.
Speaker 2: All right, Well, you believe in aliens. He kind of
Speaker 2: looked like one on the football field. It's great to
Speaker 2: have you in Cincinnati. Appreciate the time that's sluck going forward.
Speaker 4: Thank you, boss man. I appreciate you.
Speaker 1: For what it's worth.
Speaker 2: I think Jermaine has looked extremely impressive in his first
Speaker 2: few practices, and since Jamar Chase and t Higgins have
Speaker 2: not taken part in this voluntary phase, Burton has been
Speaker 2: one of the leading.
Speaker 1: Targets for Joe Burrow.
Speaker 2: Speaking of looking impressive, I posted some video on Twitter
Speaker 2: recently of Miles Murphy hitting a sled that got a
Speaker 2: lot of attention because he looks like a monster. It
Speaker 2: provided a reminder for why the twenty two year old
Speaker 2: was a first round pick. And when I caught up
Speaker 2: with Miles recently, we started our conversation by reminiscing about
Speaker 2: his draft experience last year.
Speaker 1: Maybe in the morning.
Speaker 5: Fifty people at my drab party, so it was and
Speaker 5: it was all like close friends, family, extended family, neighbors.
Speaker 5: So I was really I was literally just enjoying their company.
Speaker 5: It was a it was a part of the whole night,
Speaker 5: So I was, I was, I was enjoying the company.
Speaker 1: And then phone rang got around close.
Speaker 5: To midnight, so it was it was.
Speaker 2: It was a fun night because one hundred and fifty
Speaker 2: people make it more stressful for you.
Speaker 1: At one point.
Speaker 5: At one point, yeah, because I was like, this is
Speaker 5: a little bit longer than I expected. But phone, phone eventual,
Speaker 5: pune eventually rang, and I would say, but everybody was excited,
Speaker 5: called everybody on stage, So it was it was a
Speaker 5: fun night for sure.
Speaker 2: We're visiting with Miles Murphy. Tell me about your off season.
Speaker 2: What have you done for fun? What have you done
Speaker 2: to get better?
Speaker 5: Okay, right after this season, went back home to Atlanta,
Speaker 5: just to When I first went home to Atlanta for
Speaker 5: about a week or so, I did absolutely nothing. I
Speaker 5: just wanted to enjoy my family, but then again, it's
Speaker 5: hard for me to sit still.
Speaker 1: So I admitted.
Speaker 5: I immediately flew out to Arizona for all of February
Speaker 5: that's some training, and started working out, and then came
Speaker 5: back to Atlanta for March. Up until now, just really
Speaker 5: just working and putting on, putting on muscles, because about
Speaker 5: to say, I was just saying, like my routine every
Speaker 5: all season is buke up, put on muscle, and then once.
Speaker 1: We get close to the season, lean out.
Speaker 5: Because right now, right now I'm sitting at around like
Speaker 5: two seventy eight to eighty, but I always get down
Speaker 5: to about two seventy three to seventy two.
Speaker 2: Right before the season, going into the draft, you're trying
Speaker 2: to win the Olympics essentially fastest time you can have
Speaker 2: win all these tests. Now that you've had an experience
Speaker 2: of playing a season in the NFL, does it change
Speaker 2: where you say, all right, strength is what I need
Speaker 2: or whatever quality there might be.
Speaker 5: I will say there are two types of conditions. There's
Speaker 5: a combine condition and there's football condition. I was in
Speaker 5: great combined condition a year ago now, but not in
Speaker 5: good football condition for sure. So I feel like right
Speaker 5: now I'm in really good football condition.
Speaker 1: By saying endurance is great, strength is there.
Speaker 5: So I feel like my preparation for this upcoming season
Speaker 5: is much better than it was last year.
Speaker 2: How did you feel about your game and the final
Speaker 2: game of the season versus the beginning of your rookie year?
Speaker 1: How did you grow?
Speaker 5: I was a lot more comfortable, to say the least, honestly,
Speaker 5: because I knew one what to expect. The big I
Speaker 5: feel like the biggest mental difference from college now is
Speaker 5: the playbook.
Speaker 1: Is a little bit easier, but the on field.
Speaker 5: In game adjustments when the crowd is extremely loud is
Speaker 5: a lot more difficult.
Speaker 4: That's that's that's the biggest.
Speaker 1: Game change in my opinion.
Speaker 5: Towards the end of the season, I was not thinking,
Speaker 5: not thinking for a linebackers, but I was like predicting
Speaker 5: and like knowing what they.
Speaker 1: Were already going to say, what the adjustment was.
Speaker 5: So I was Ozma's definitely moving faster and just knowing
Speaker 5: wants to do, Norman to expect from from outside of
Speaker 5: the ball in the off line, and just like I
Speaker 5: always always start a playing when it came to the
Speaker 5: pass rushing, especially so to the second half of.
Speaker 2: The season, Bengals added Sheldon Rankins to your musician group.
Speaker 1: How much do you know about him? I know he
Speaker 1: played with Tray early on when he was at.
Speaker 5: The Saints and was at the well at the Texans
Speaker 5: actually did very well there. It's also it's a little
Speaker 5: bit of this film. I love the way he passed
Speaker 5: rushes just from the inside, So I feel like he's
Speaker 5: gonna add more pressure to what we already have on
Speaker 5: the inside.
Speaker 4: So I feel it'll be a good addition.
Speaker 2: When you have a guy like that that's great and
Speaker 2: rushing from the inside, How much does it help you?
Speaker 2: Coming from the edge.
Speaker 5: Helps a lot, by to say, even like even like
Speaker 5: with a big Reader last year, although all people say
Speaker 5: he's not not a pass rusher, sure he still gets
Speaker 5: double teamed and that takes a lot of pressure off
Speaker 5: of us. So really having just a really good interior
Speaker 5: force in there helps.
Speaker 4: To edge guys because that's just more one on one,
Speaker 4: one on one opportunities.
Speaker 5: Less slides to us, so it's less for us to
Speaker 5: worry about.
Speaker 2: Honestly, how will you miss DJ Reader personally?
Speaker 5: Really, just his vibe in the locker room about to
Speaker 5: say his uh, his vibles felt every every time he
Speaker 5: walked to the locker room. But uh, you know we
Speaker 5: I texted him as soon as I got the news
Speaker 5: that he was going to Detroit say congratulations, and he
Speaker 5: you know, he's just obvious, just a great guy.
Speaker 1: You guys know.
Speaker 5: Also, I'm about to say he his vibe was just
Speaker 5: felt always always had good energy, always cracking jokes. So
Speaker 5: I'm pretty sure that's how everyone will remember him.
Speaker 1: Appreciate your time. Great to say.
Speaker 4: Sure.
Speaker 2: As I mentioned, Miles is still only twenty two years old.
Speaker 2: In fact, he's younger than eight of the ten players
Speaker 2: the Bengals drafted this year. The only two picks who
Speaker 2: are younger are first rounder a Marius Mems and sixth
Speaker 2: rounder Cedric Johnson. The Bengals Booth podcast is brought to
Speaker 2: you by pay Corps, Proud to be the Bengals official
Speaker 2: HR software provider, by Alta Fiber future proof Fiber Internet
Speaker 2: designed to elevate your home, business, and community to a
Speaker 2: new level, and by Kettering Health the best care for
Speaker 2: the best fans. Kettering Health is the official healthcare provider.
Speaker 1: Of the Bengals.
Speaker 2: Mike North is the NFL's vice president of Broadcast Planning
Speaker 2: and one of the league's top executives in creating the
Speaker 2: schedule each year. He joined me this week for an
Speaker 2: in depth look at the Bengals schedule and included some
Speaker 2: possible hints for things we might expect in the near future. Mike,
Speaker 2: the NFL had some great options for the NFL Kickoff
Speaker 2: game this year, involving the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas
Speaker 2: City Chiefs. She chose a rematch of the AFC Championship game,
Speaker 2: Baltimore facing Kansas City. But I was surprised that you
Speaker 2: followed that by having the Bengals Chiefs in Week two.
Speaker 2: You can make the case that those are Kansas City's
Speaker 2: top two home games of the year. Why did you
Speaker 2: decide to start the season with those two?
Speaker 1: Yeah, let me take your second question first. We actually
Speaker 1: kind of backed in to kickoff. We actually had CINCYKSE
Speaker 1: kind of earmarked from the very beginning as a CBS
Speaker 1: four to twenty five Eastern Time doubleheader, obviously one of
Speaker 1: the biggest games in the AFC last season, probably was
Speaker 1: the biggest game in the AFC at least going in
Speaker 1: so a year ago at this time, Bengals Chiefs with
Speaker 1: the whole you know, Burrowhead and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: That was CBS's actually really their top ask of the
Speaker 1: scheduling team was cincykse tell the AFC story, you know,
Speaker 1: where the network of the AFC and the schedule makers decided,
Speaker 1: you know, it would be fun SINCYKC in Week seventeen.
Speaker 1: Wouldn't that be great? All the way at the end
Speaker 1: of the season, Burrow and mahomes for the one seed
Speaker 1: in the AFC that didn't quite work out the way
Speaker 1: we had envisioned, so kind of thought it through this
Speaker 1: year and thinking about if we are going to do
Speaker 1: Cincy case on the CBS again, and it was a
Speaker 1: candidate for Sunday Night, for Monday Night, for Thursday night,
Speaker 1: for Black Friday, for Kickoff. A lot of good homes
Speaker 1: for that game, obviously, But once we kind of came
Speaker 1: around to putting it up back on CBS in a
Speaker 1: double header window, felt like we probably should put that
Speaker 1: one in early since we ran it late last year
Speaker 1: and maybe by the time we got to it wasn't
Speaker 1: what we hoped for, So put that one in early.
Speaker 1: Then that takes Cincinnati out of the mix for Kickoff,
Speaker 1: and then you look at the rest of Kansas City's
Speaker 1: potential home opponents, and to your point, any one of
Speaker 1: them would have worked. There was a lot of conversation
Speaker 1: about Houston and kind of run on the Detroit angle back.
Speaker 1: They were kind of new on the national scene a
Speaker 1: year ago, they were frisky at the end of the
Speaker 1: previous season and had earned that national exposure. So maybe
Speaker 1: a bit of a flyer, if you will, on Detroit
Speaker 1: as kickoff for last year, maybe Houston fit that bill
Speaker 1: for this year. But when you see what we did
Speaker 1: down there at the bottom of the schedule with the
Speaker 1: Christmas round robin the Saturday to Wednesday, that's how we
Speaker 1: decided to use Houston. We decided to use Vegas for
Speaker 1: Black Friday. We decided to use the Chargers both ends
Speaker 1: of the Chargers games in National Windows doubleheader and Sunday Night,
Speaker 1: So we kind of came back all the way around
Speaker 1: to Baltimore for kickoff, and that one ended up being
Speaker 1: really the book end of It's going to be a
Speaker 1: really fun first weekend of the season.
Speaker 2: I love all these puzzle pieces. As you alluded to,
Speaker 2: the Game seven of the Week seventeen matchup between the
Speaker 2: Bengals and Chiefs last year didn't work out as intended.
Speaker 2: Because of Joe Burrow's wrist injury. How closely has the
Speaker 2: NFL been following his progress before determining how many high
Speaker 2: profile window games the Bengals get this year.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, look, we're trying to watch everybody, right,
Speaker 1: and you think about all the quarterbacks coming back from injury,
Speaker 1: and also some of the quarterbacks coming out of college, Like,
Speaker 1: what do any of us know? It's May. We'll see
Speaker 1: what happens by the time the season rolls around September.
Speaker 1: But watching closely really is the answer. And hopeful that
Speaker 1: all these quarterbacks, whether it's Aaron Rodgers or Joe Burrow
Speaker 1: or Justin Herbert or any of these guys coming back
Speaker 1: from injury, hopefully they're healthy week one. From the best
Speaker 1: of our intel, we think they're gonna be ready to
Speaker 1: go at training camp, and I know the fans are
Speaker 1: looking forward to seeing them right and early in the season.
Speaker 1: So that's why you see them in national windows early
Speaker 1: like that.
Speaker 2: So the Bengals open the season at home, the Cincinnati
Speaker 2: Reds are on the road. Historically, that lines up pretty consistently.
Speaker 2: If the Reds are home, the Bengals are on the road.
Speaker 2: If it's the opposite. The Bengals are at home. Is
Speaker 2: it that simple from the NFL's perspective, Yeah, I mean.
Speaker 1: It's not as simple as saying, because the Reds are
Speaker 1: on the road, the Bengals must be home. But if
Speaker 1: the Reds are at home, we know that putting a
Speaker 1: Bengals home game there creates a little extra tension, a
Speaker 1: little extra trouble with the parking lots, with the police,
Speaker 1: with the municipal services, with the downtown traffic. So as
Speaker 1: best we can, we try to avoid having them both
Speaker 1: play at the same time. But I know Downtown has
Speaker 1: handled multiple big events at times, and I'm pretty sure
Speaker 1: you played Bengals and Reds games at the same time,
Speaker 1: maybe one in the afternoon and one and night. So
Speaker 1: we know it can be done. But again, as we
Speaker 1: sit here in May and we start this process, our
Speaker 1: best schedule probably doesn't create those conflex unless we really
Speaker 1: need to.
Speaker 2: Our guest is Mike North, the NFL's VP of broadcast Planning.
Speaker 2: I know the NFL does what it can to try
Speaker 2: to make things as equitable as possible, but here is
Speaker 2: a small gripe from a Bengals perspective. The Bengals play
Speaker 2: a road game in Baltimore in primetime on Thursday, November seventh.
Speaker 2: It's the third straight year they've played a road game
Speaker 2: in Baltimore in primetime. It's the second straight year they've
Speaker 2: played a road game on Thursday night in Baltimore. Yeah,
Speaker 2: do you try to avoid streaks like that?
Speaker 1: You know, a streak of three years in a row.
Speaker 1: Obviously not something that's fatal to any finished schedule. I'll
Speaker 1: also tell you, like the travel right, a trip to
Speaker 1: Baltimore for a short week playing a division opponent that
Speaker 1: you know pretty well. I don't think that's one that
Speaker 1: we would say, hey, that's completely unfair, we shouldn't do that.
Speaker 1: But after conversations such as these and hearing from enough
Speaker 1: Bengals fans and coaches and general managers, yeah, I imagine
Speaker 1: that's something we'll probably keep an eye on for next season.
Speaker 1: The challenge for us, as you know, is we play
Speaker 1: all those division games down there in the final week
Speaker 1: of the season, and it felt like for years it
Speaker 1: was Bengals Ravens in Week seventeen for probably five years
Speaker 1: in a row, it felt like, so trying to move
Speaker 1: that series that's as it's become, you know, so much
Speaker 1: more impactful nationally. You know, can you get both of
Speaker 1: those games up into the middle of the season where
Speaker 1: fans can watch them, because you do run the risk
Speaker 1: wait until week eighteen of Hey, by the time we
Speaker 1: get there, as one or both teams clinched, has one
Speaker 1: or both teams been eliminated? So like the idea of
Speaker 1: playing both of those in the middle of the season
Speaker 1: so fans can catch them both with playoff implications. You're
Speaker 1: probably not wrong, probably due for the next time those
Speaker 1: two teams play each other in primetime, that game should
Speaker 1: probably be in sidency.
Speaker 2: All Right, there you go, fans, there's something to look
Speaker 2: forward to it.
Speaker 1: Well, we heard too.
Speaker 2: So the Bengals have a couple of interesting stretches in
Speaker 2: terms of how many games they play and how many days.
Speaker 2: Let's start in November, They've got a stretch where they
Speaker 2: play one game in twenty three days. Then in December
Speaker 2: they played three games and eleven days. Did the first
Speaker 2: part factor into the second part?
Speaker 1: They do kind of stack on each other, if you know.
Speaker 1: I haven't heard specifically from anybody at the Bengals, but
Speaker 1: I think that what week twelve by, I think that
Speaker 1: Week twelve by probably feels pretty good to the coaching
Speaker 1: staff because you know they're obviously thinking about playing deep
Speaker 1: into January, and you've also got the two short weeks
Speaker 1: as you mentioned, So that's two kind of mini buys,
Speaker 1: and what we're thinking about for the teams with multiple
Speaker 1: short weeks, it's spacing out those mini buys from the
Speaker 1: full by and make sure there's three good rest periods
Speaker 1: for the team over the course of the season. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the three and eleven days is tough. Not the only
Speaker 1: team to be hit with that stretch. I think there's
Speaker 1: six teams, maybe seven, that are facing a similar kind
Speaker 1: of Monday, Sunday, Thursday or at the end there, like
Speaker 1: we mentioned on the Christmas round robin Sunday, Saturday, Wednesday.
Speaker 1: That's just the nature of the beast right now is
Speaker 1: we've got more prime time games obviously everybody playing or
Speaker 1: at least more Thursday night games, if not everybody playing well,
Speaker 1: and that means some teams are playing multiples and so
Speaker 1: you do run into that stretch, and it's the kind
Speaker 1: of thing we'll keep an eye on from a player
Speaker 1: health and safety standpoint, from a players and coaches preparation standpoint,
Speaker 1: and really from a fans standpoint and adjusts moving forward
Speaker 1: if we need to.
Speaker 3: So.
Speaker 2: One of the first things that we all tend to
Speaker 2: look at when the schedule comes out, of the number
Speaker 2: of primetime games the Bengals play in five, they also
Speaker 2: have three late afternoon games on Sunday. From the NFL standpoint,
Speaker 2: are those games just as quote unquote prestigious?
Speaker 1: Yeah, very much so, very much so. In fact, you
Speaker 1: could make a case maybe even slightly more so most weekends.
Speaker 1: The Sunday four thirty Eastern time window, that's the most
Speaker 1: watched window for the NFL most weekends. So you're talking
Speaker 1: about an average of twenty five, twenty six, twenty eight
Speaker 1: million watching at four point thirty in the afternoon on
Speaker 1: a Sunday. That tells you you know what the league
Speaker 1: thinks about these teams when they put them into those windows.
Speaker 1: The prime time is special, no question about it. The
Speaker 1: fans obviously pay attention under the light, it's a little
Speaker 1: more buzz. The players love it because they know the
Speaker 1: other players in the league are watching. So primetime is
Speaker 1: still special. But we shouldn't dismiss the fact that those
Speaker 1: Sunday afternoon for twenty five Eastern time windows still the
Speaker 1: NFL's most viewed windows still our biggest windows. So as
Speaker 1: you count up primes, you really should like you to
Speaker 1: Dan count those four to twenty five games as well.
Speaker 1: They're true national games most weekends.
Speaker 2: The Bengals were a candidate for one international game this year.
Speaker 2: They were eligible at least to go to Germany to
Speaker 2: take on the Panthers. He went with the New York
Speaker 2: Giants instead. Were the Bengals a team that Carolina wanted
Speaker 2: to keep on its true home schedule.
Speaker 1: You know, you'd have to ask the Panthers that they
Speaker 1: don't get that right. They were still adjusting whether or
Speaker 1: not we should be sending division games overseas. We've done
Speaker 1: it a couple of times. I think Indian Jacksonville played.
Speaker 1: I believe the Jets and Dolphins played. But most teams
Speaker 1: are not eager to take those division games out of
Speaker 1: their home stadiums. And it's interesting because sometimes the visiting
Speaker 1: team says, yes, it's an extra long trip. Like we said,
Speaker 1: those division games are usually pretty close together. You know,
Speaker 1: nobody's volunteering for that, you know, eight hour flight for
Speaker 1: what could have been a one and a half hour flight.
Speaker 1: But to play a division on a neutral field instead
Speaker 1: of in their building. You know, there's definitely teams I
Speaker 1: think would be up for that. So each team does
Speaker 1: get to have some influence over whether or not a
Speaker 1: division game can go abroad, and then they get one
Speaker 1: game each year that they can actually you know, throw
Speaker 1: their bodies over and say that one's got to stay here.
Speaker 1: So to your point, the Bengals were a candidate. We
Speaker 1: talk to the Bengals about, hey, if you do go,
Speaker 1: how do you want to handle that in terms of
Speaker 1: the week before the week after do you want the buy?
Speaker 1: Knowing Germany always kind of falls in that mid November,
Speaker 1: most teams are eager to take their buy coming back
Speaker 1: from that trip. But you're starting to see, and I
Speaker 1: know the Bengals saw it. You know, these European trips
Speaker 1: are becoming a lot more routine. Fans you know, accept
Speaker 1: them as really just another game, and the players and
Speaker 1: the coaching staff do as well. More often than not,
Speaker 1: the teams go over kind of Friday Saturday right before,
Speaker 1: stay in their routine, come home, and then play a
Speaker 1: home game. They don't even take their buys most of
Speaker 1: the time anymore. So really it's just another game at
Speaker 1: this point, And I think our teams have gotten into
Speaker 1: a really good routine. The Bengals weren't selected this year,
Speaker 1: but they'll surely be in the mix really kind of
Speaker 1: every year moving forward. I think we've said it like
Speaker 1: we're looking at seven, maybe eight international games a year.
Speaker 1: That's half the league that's going to be playing somewhere
Speaker 1: other than domestically. It's going to fall repeatedly over and
Speaker 1: over again, you know, if not on the same teams,
Speaker 1: like all kind of bad luck. If you will, moves
Speaker 1: around a little bit and everybody will, everybody will pay
Speaker 1: their dues.
Speaker 2: Let's specifically look at next year. The Bengals have the
Speaker 2: extra home game. They've not given up a home game
Speaker 2: to play internationally since twenty sixteen. It seems to me
Speaker 2: that it's probably a pretty strong likelihood that the Bengals
Speaker 2: will play an international game somewhere.
Speaker 1: Is that safe to say? It's good deductive reasoning. I'm
Speaker 1: not sure we've locked in next year. Let's you know,
Speaker 1: still catching our breath from this year. But I've met
Speaker 1: several times with our international group and they have not
Speaker 1: just you know, a one or a two year look ahead,
Speaker 1: but they've really got you know, five, six, eight year
Speaker 1: look ahead, and they are talking about some wild places.
Speaker 1: They're talking about Dubai, they're talking about Asia there, talking
Speaker 1: about different places in South America, more countries in Europe.
Speaker 1: You know, as we build out more and more games, Yeah,
Speaker 1: everybody's gonna you know, take one of their rotation by rotation,
Speaker 1: Like you said, once every I think it was once
Speaker 1: every eight years and now we're kind of down to
Speaker 1: once every four. So the more we play, the more
Speaker 1: teams we're gonna need to go over you know, maybe
Speaker 1: multiple times. I don't know one hundred percent if the
Speaker 1: Bengals are on the list, but they're surely on the
Speaker 1: short list for twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2: The city of Cincinnati has a strong German heritage. Would
Speaker 2: that factor in at all in determining whether Cincinnati should
Speaker 2: play there?
Speaker 1: Sure? Sure, I think we're looking at, you know, not
Speaker 1: just the fans here in the States, but also the
Speaker 1: fans in those other markets. And you saw it a
Speaker 1: little bit with Kansas City last year when they had
Speaker 1: you know what, one hundred thousand fans walking to the
Speaker 1: stadium like that. If there is a fan base for
Speaker 1: the Bengals in Dubai or Germany or Brazil, we'll surely
Speaker 1: want to make sure that those fans get a chance
Speaker 1: to see the team, you know, their favorite teams. So yeah,
Speaker 1: factors into everything. It's never as simple as because of
Speaker 1: this than that. As you can imagine two hundred excuse me,
Speaker 1: two hundred and seventy two piece jigsaw puzzle can't satisfy everybody.
Speaker 1: But yeah, those are the kind of things we take
Speaker 1: into account as we're looking, like we said, four six,
Speaker 1: eight years down the road.
Speaker 2: A couple more questions from Mike North, the NFL's VP
Speaker 2: of broadcast planning. NFL games are coming to Netflix on
Speaker 2: Christmas Day. Are we reaching the saturation point with streaming
Speaker 2: platforms or is that going to continue to grow?
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a good question. I think the NFL is
Speaker 1: kind of, you know, thinking that we fish where the
Speaker 1: fish are, and you know, maybe not you and me, Dan,
Speaker 1: but our kids are certainly using those streaming platforms just
Speaker 1: like any other television station. You know, when we grew
Speaker 1: up and you were clicking through the channels, it was two, five,
Speaker 1: seven nine, And now when they flip through the channels,
Speaker 1: it's Netflix, Hulu, Apple TV paramount. Plus they don't bat
Speaker 1: an eye at the streaming services and you're starting to
Speaker 1: see as we play more of these games on these services,
Speaker 1: the viewership is approaching, you know, broadcast television levels. You
Speaker 1: think about that Wildcard game last year on Peacock that
Speaker 1: got twenty three twenty four million viewers. That's comparable to
Speaker 1: what NBC did in that window of the previous season.
Speaker 1: So as those platforms become viable outlets for our games,
Speaker 1: as those platforms are eager to get into business with
Speaker 1: the National Football League. That's probably the amazing thing about
Speaker 1: what happened with Christmas this year. It actually happened the
Speaker 1: other way. We decided to play on Christmas. We decided
Speaker 1: these four games, and they were kind of on the schedule,
Speaker 1: or at least on a mock schedule for probably a
Speaker 1: few weeks before they then went out to the partners
Speaker 1: and Hans Schroeder and the business team actually went out
Speaker 1: and started trying to find a broadcast home for these games.
Speaker 1: So we'd kind of already chosen the games, chosen the
Speaker 1: four teams in the round robin. Then they went out
Speaker 1: to the partners and said, yep, we're gonna be able
Speaker 1: to find a way to play on Wednesday. Are you interested?
Speaker 1: And thankfully everybody was, including somebody with whom we hadn't
Speaker 1: really been in business before, in Netflix, at least for
Speaker 1: live games. We've obviously got you know, some other stuff
Speaker 1: going on with them with quarterback and receivers, so they've
Speaker 1: kind of felt like they have an NFL fan base
Speaker 1: kind of already built in. And when you think about
Speaker 1: the global implication the global rights deal here one partner,
Speaker 1: one sports league, one event, truly global rights, you start
Speaker 1: thinking about, you know, how can we reach an audience
Speaker 1: that we never could reach before. So that's something that
Speaker 1: streaming services bring, whether it's Amazon or Peacocker or Netflix,
Speaker 1: and I'm sure something will continue to look at. But
Speaker 1: the overwhelming majority of the games are going to remain
Speaker 1: on over the air television. That's the you know, NFL's
Speaker 1: bread and butter. That's where we've been forever. That's where
Speaker 1: the vast majority of our fans find us. And as
Speaker 1: you know, even if you are on a streaming service
Speaker 1: for one of your games, the game is still available
Speaker 1: on free over the air television in the whole markets
Speaker 1: of the competing teams. I doubt that will ever go away.
Speaker 2: I don't know how many millions of people subscribe to Netflix,
Speaker 2: but it seems.
Speaker 1: Two hundred and sixty million world.
Speaker 2: Will go to sixty million worldwide. I was going to say,
Speaker 2: it seems to me that most of the people I
Speaker 2: know have Netflix. Did you get less pushback Netflix than
Speaker 2: Peacock or some of the other streaming services?
Speaker 1: You know for those who you know just want to
Speaker 1: kind of howl at the wind and say, how could
Speaker 1: you do this? Like the answers no. But practically speaking,
Speaker 1: you know, I always go back. I think about you know, what,
Speaker 1: was it late eighties when the NFL went to ESPN
Speaker 1: for the first time, so the first time they took
Speaker 1: games off of free over the air television put it
Speaker 1: on a pay service. We went to ESPN with a
Speaker 1: half package of Sunday night games at that time, and
Speaker 1: I think ESPN was in fifteen million homes. So talk
Speaker 1: about a risk, Talk about a calculated gamble for the NFL.
Speaker 1: Then we went to Amazon for Thursday Night Football a
Speaker 1: couple of years ago, they were in like one hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty million homes. Now you think about Netflix globally
Speaker 1: two hundred and sixty million homes. Like we said, you fish,
Speaker 1: where the fish are, that's where the people are ingesting
Speaker 1: their content. That's where the fans are interacting with the
Speaker 1: National Football League, and especially, like we said, kind of
Speaker 1: like that younger audience. You know, you and I are
Speaker 1: going to find the games if we get some help
Speaker 1: from our kids. But the kids are interacting with the
Speaker 1: games on those platforms, we've got to make sure the
Speaker 1: content is there for them there.
Speaker 2: So you shared at the beginning of this conversation that
Speaker 2: last year Bengals Chiefs coming up back to back AFC
Speaker 2: Championship games was one of the most desired games from
Speaker 2: your TV partners. How about this year, What were the
Speaker 2: games that the TV network spot over this year?
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, there's no fight, right. They all make us
Speaker 1: their list at the beginning of the process and they
Speaker 1: say here's the game we'd really love to see, and
Speaker 1: then it's up to the scheduling makers and the commissioner
Speaker 1: to really figure out how to dole out all those
Speaker 1: top games to everybody. So you know, nobody gets everything.
Speaker 1: Everybody gets something. I would tell you since CKC is
Speaker 1: still at the top of that list, you know, not
Speaker 1: that we got robbed, but you know it wasn't quite
Speaker 1: what we hoped for for last season, so kind of
Speaker 1: run it back this year. Do that one nice and
Speaker 1: early Buffalo, cac Dallas sanfran They play each other, you know,
Speaker 1: no more than you know once every three years, more
Speaker 1: often than not. And those are obviously two of our
Speaker 1: iconic brands. And certainly anytime you get a Super Bowl rematch,
Speaker 1: We've been fortunate enough with the expanded season and how
Speaker 1: you get those extra that seventeenth game and it's a
Speaker 1: one versus one. We wandered into a super Bowl rematch
Speaker 1: each of the last couple of years. So you think
Speaker 1: about that, Philly, Casey. Last year, we did it on
Speaker 1: a Monday night game, and I remember one of the
Speaker 1: ESPN executives texted us that day that afternoon telling us
Speaker 1: it felt like a Super Bowl. So any kind of
Speaker 1: Super Bowl rematch Casey Sanford this year, we're going to
Speaker 1: do it in the afternoon on Fox, like we said,
Speaker 1: probably going to be the most watched game maybe the
Speaker 1: whole season outside of Thanksgiving and Christmas. So you put
Speaker 1: that big, kind of mussy TV game four thirty in
Speaker 1: the afternoon on Sunday. With any luck, you know, you
Speaker 1: get the home team playing at one o'clock. Everybody watches
Speaker 1: like we've been doing for decades, you get the big
Speaker 1: game at four o'clock, and then if we guessed right,
Speaker 1: that Sunday night game kind of hour seven, eight to
Speaker 1: nine of NFL Football, and hopefully a good Thursday night
Speaker 1: game to start the week and a good Monday night
Speaker 1: game the end the week. That's a lot of mouths
Speaker 1: to feed every weekend of the year. But you know, thankfully,
Speaker 1: our fans have shown us that they'll find us wherever
Speaker 1: we put the games. And you know, even if our
Speaker 1: storyline anticipation wasn't right here in May, it's the beauty
Speaker 1: of this league. Right If somebody's down, that just means
Speaker 1: somebody else's up. So if we guessed wrong on a
Speaker 1: primetime game, that's where flexible scheduling kicks in and maybe
Speaker 1: another Bengals game find its way into primetime if you
Speaker 1: guys are playing for stuff down stretch.
Speaker 2: When the schedule came out, we all looked at it,
Speaker 2: specifically through a Bengals lens. From your perspective, what were
Speaker 2: some of the biggest challenges, some of the most interesting
Speaker 2: things that came about from this year's schedule.
Speaker 1: Yeah, certainly Wednesday was a new one on me, But
Speaker 1: like I said, we kind of figured it out relatively
Speaker 1: early in the process, how to at least get those
Speaker 1: four teams playing that Sunday, Saturday Wednesday cadence. The real
Speaker 1: challenge we found was week seventeen in a vacuum. You're
Speaker 1: talking about two games on a Wednesday, still, a regular
Speaker 1: Amazon game on Thursday, three games on Saturday. NFL Network
Speaker 1: we always play those late season Saturdays in December, a
Speaker 1: Sunday night and a Monday night. That's an awful lot
Speaker 1: of games that are not being played on Sunday afternoon.
Speaker 1: So I think one of the real challenges we're facing
Speaker 1: this year and really looking forward, is kind of slicing
Speaker 1: this pie thinner and thinner more games off to primetime,
Speaker 1: whether it's you know, Thursday nights or Black Friday or
Speaker 1: now Wednesdays, or nine thirty am London games or side
Speaker 1: by side Monday night games. And that's just an awful
Speaker 1: lot of places for games to go other than Sunday afternoon.
Speaker 1: And when you and I grew up watching football Sunday afternoon,
Speaker 1: there was probably ten twelve games most Sunday afternoons. You
Speaker 1: either played in the afternoon on Sunday or you played
Speaker 1: Sunday night. That was kind of it. A couple of
Speaker 1: Thanksgiving games Monday nights came about in the late seventies
Speaker 1: or early seventies, I should say, I think the real
Speaker 1: challenge for us this year and moving forward is, you know,
Speaker 1: thinning out the pool of games for Sunday afternoon for
Speaker 1: CBS and Fox and making sure you know, you can't
Speaker 1: just take all the best games, put them in primetime
Speaker 1: and not leave you know, quality and quantity behind for
Speaker 1: Sunday afternoons. So managing our way around what the Sunday
Speaker 1: afternoons look like between CBS and Fox, that's been one
Speaker 1: of the real challenges for us.
Speaker 2: Mike, I always enjoy these conversations. I know you get
Speaker 2: a lot of requests to do podcasts like this. Thanks
Speaker 2: so much for making time for us, and now look
Speaker 2: forward to doing it again next year.
Speaker 1: Good to see you Dan anytime. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2: That's going to do it for This episode of the
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Speaker 2: the Bengals Booth podcast