The Daily Banter: Surviving Those That Come And Go

Apparently Cincinnati sports has lost another medium. In a "State of the Union" by C. Trent Rosecrans, he writes that Cnati.com will "be on kind of a break" while he takes a job with CBSSports.com. We have no idea if they'll return, but CNati had, I believed, the best collection of sports writers in the region and it's a shame that the site is "on kind of a break."

But not unlike Cincy Jungle, CNati I'm assuming just didn't make the money to keep it a full time operation. Thankfully I run this site while having a full time job to pay the bills so, unfortunately for some, we're not going anywhere. We survive the websites that come and go, we survive the radio personalities and we survive initiatives by the national media.

Best wishes to the guys that ran CNati.com for future, more promising endeavors.

+ HBO's series Hard Knocks featuring the Bengals will run on the NFL Network, airing "each night at 8 p.m. from July 4-8 with an encore of the entire season starting July 11 at 8 p.m."

+ Bengals linebacker Rey Maualuga hasn't just learned his lesson to not drink and drive. The dude has given up alcoholic drinks entirely.

“Nothing. No alcoholic beverages,” he said of this spring and summer. “I go out. But not as much. Sometimes I go to dinner with my family or hang out with the guys. I’ve been in situations. I have cranberry and Red Bull.”

+ On Friday we wrote that Andre Caldwell shouldn't be written off so quickly. Well, we're just relaying his words at least. Carlos Holmes expands.

“I have to increase my productivity and prove to the coaches my worth,” Caldwell said. “The bar is set high for us this season. That’s the difference from when I first arrived in Cincinnati. We’re not going to be satisfied unless we get to the Super Bowl and win it. Anything other than that is a failure for us. I’m ready to do my part.”

+ Jake weighs in on the news that before his death, Chris Henry had "chronic traumatic encephalopathy" which is a "form of degenerative brain damage caused by multiple hits to the head -- at the time of his death.'"

+ NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell weighs in on the idea of a rookie wage scale:

“I think a new rookie compensation system is critical,” Goodell said. “I think it's important that we have a system that is designed to reward players who succeed on the NFL field. And when a player is paid a lot of money and doesn't make it in the NFL, and that money leaves the system, that's not good for anybody. So I think we need to reward performance on the field.”

+ The World Cup has several controversial calls this weekend that's led some to believe that international soccer should grow with the times and institute more technology into the sport for things like replay. FIFA's solution?

FIFA will censor World Cup match action being shown on giant screens inside the stadium after replays of Argentina's disputed first goal against Mexico fueled arguments on the pitch.

+ Ravens safety Ed Reed may not be ready for the season after having offseason hip surgery, saying that he feels about 35% right now.