ESPN CINCINNATI RADIO HOST SCORCHES RP SHOW, CFL

ESPN 1530 Cincinnati sports talk host Mo Egger has an issue with comments made this week by the host of The Rod Pedersen Show regarding the new Bengals uniforms.

Sort of.

Here’s the transcript from Egger’s Friday rant with the audio posted at the bottom:

EGGER: Yesterday we spent a lot of time talking about the Bengals new uniforms. We’re getting new uni’s. The same helmets, new uniforms. I’m excited about it. The first uniform change in 16 years. I’m all in on this. Been waiting for new uniforms for the Bengals for 16 years.

This is a man by the name of Rod Pedersen. Rod Pedersen does a show in Canada. His website is RodPedersen.com where you can find episodes of The Rod Pedersen Show. He also spent a lot of time as a play-by-play man for the Canadian Football League and the World Hockey League. RodPedersen.com. He’s on Twitter at @rodpedersen. Actually he now follows me on Twitter. How bout that? So there’s everything you want to know about Rod Pedersen.

I can’t tell you anything else other than you’re about to hear Rod Pedersen … there must be nothing happening in Canada right now. The hockey season is happening, the Toronto Blue Jays are trying to get guys, I couldn’t care less about Canadian Football League football, so maybe that season’s over. I don’t have no idea. Who won the Grey Cup? Has the Grey Cup been decided? Nobody cares.

Your goofy league with three downs and guys in motion all over the place, your wide field. Anyway, forget about that. Here’s Rod Pedersen banging on the Bengals and my fear is, he might be right.

RP: The Bengals are getting new uniforms next year. Still going to suck, i.e. “lipstick on a pig”. What I love about the new platform, rather than the old platform and the fact we’re on TV now, it’s an entirely new audience so my jokes and stories are new to everybody. And opinions!

Because I’ve often said the teams that suck the most are the ones that go with the new uniform scheme, a new colour scheme. Think about that. Who hasn’t? Oh yeah, the Montreal Canadiens, the New York Yankees. The ones with the most championships, right? Now, where I was wrong was with the Montreal Alouettes and I’ll give Khari Jones and Vernon Adams Jr. a ton of credit for that. But they think, “Hey we’ve sucked so bad, let’s distract everybody with a new logo and new colour scheme!”

But the Bengals? Awful. Again. And how much could you change the new jerseys? I’d like to see what the new jerseys look like. Why would you change those? The problem’s not the jerseys. It’s the people IN the jerseys! You fix that, and then you’ll be on the road to greatness. Let’s just distract everybody.

EGGER: Rod Pedersen. How boring is the Canadian Football League that what you’re talking about on the Game+ Network in Canada … does that go to the whole country? That’s a big damn country. How boring is the CFL when you have to go out of your country to talk about the Bengals uniforms?

You know what I’ve never talked about on this show? Unless we have Zach Collaros on, Canadian football. We had Devier Posey on because he won a Grey Cup. And he’s from here. Aside from that, could not care less. I used to watch CFL games as a kid cuz that’s what they showed on ESPN and it was football on during the day.

And they had two teams named the Rough Riders. How messed up is that? For years they had two teams called the same thing. And they have a fraction of teams as the NFL!

By the way, he mentioned the Montreal Canadiens? I’m a casual hockey fan. The Montreal Canadiens haven’t even been in the Stanley Cup Final since 1993. Barry Melrose lost to them. Barry Melrose has been on TV and out of the league forever. Wayne Gretzky played in that Stanley Cup Final. Wayne Gretzky’s been retired for 20 years. The Montreal Canadiens? That’s the best you got? They don’t change their uniforms because they look cool and there’s a lot history there so there’s no reason to mess with a look that everyone thinks is cool. That team stinks! Montreal Canadiens.

Didn’t the Tampa Bay Buccaneers just change uniforms? Haven’t the Buffalo Bills gone through a uniform change? Aren’t those teams playing this weekend?

By the way I think there’s some validity to that. I don’t say this to be mean because I love some of the things the Reds do but the Reds do some things that distract you. A couple years ago, “Hey we’re not going to be very good but we’re gonna have Pete Rose Weekend. Hey, look Pete’s coming! By the time he gets here we’re gonna be 25 games out of first place.” 

That happens, I’ll admit that. But if there’s a team in sports that doesn’t do that, it’s the Bengals. In fact, we’ve been begging the Bengals to distract us! Why do you think we want a team Hall of Fame? They don’t have one. Why do you think we want a Ring of Honor? They don’t have one. Why do you think we want them to do things like get new uniforms, upgrade the stadium, put some decent concessions in it, make it look less like your grandfather’s basement. Why? Because it would be a worthwhile distraction from the on-field product.

The Bengals haven’t changed uniforms in 16 years! And their uniforms have been ugly for 16 years. This is overdue! If there’s one thing the Bengals do not do, it’s distract you. The Reds are good at it! “Hey it’s Reds Fest! It’s a caravan! Lou Piniella’s coming back. We’re bringing back Ron Oester! Yeah we know we lost 94 games last year but look over here!”

I wish they would have Bengals Fest. They do the exact opposite of what Rod Pedersen up there in Canada just accused them of. They’re not trying to distract anybody. They’re trying to re-brand.

Rod Pedersen just talked about re-branding. I guess he went from his radio show to TV, errrr, I never heard of the guy. But he referenced it. They’re re-branding! In life sometimes you gotta re-brand. One day I’ll probably have to re-brand. That’s all it is! It’s a re-brand.

They also have a player whose jersey people want but the jersey’s ugly so if you make it less ugly, you’ll sell more Joe Burrow jerseys. This isn’t distracting anybody! The Bengals never distract anybody. In fact, you could accuse them of doing everything they can to bring attention to the fact they never win.