Do you have your own “Dear Steve Bisciotti” list of questions? We do. And we will, as Luke Jones will be in The Castle on Tuesday afternoon as the Baltimore Ravens owner and general manager Eric DeCosta will address (some of) the local media and take some questions about the search for a new coach after the firing of John Harbaugh this week. Plenty of depth here about the culture of the building in Owings Mills and the future leadership of the football operation.
Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones discussed the Baltimore Ravens’ ownership and media access issues, focusing on Steve Bisciotti’s lack of communication. Nestor highlighted his “Dear Steve Bisciotti” letter, which questioned Bisciotti’s transparency and accountability, particularly regarding stadium funding and the team’s culture. Luke emphasized the importance of annual state-of-the-team press conferences for fan engagement. They also debated the impact of Bisciotti’s absence on the team’s culture and the upcoming coaching search, noting the potential changes in power dynamics with John Harbaugh’s departure.
- [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Compile the Dear Steve questions into a chart and prepare it for Tuesday press availability so reporters can attempt to ask one of the questions
- [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Organize and run a week-long Maryland Food Bank drive (cup/bowl soup drive) to collect and send donations approximately three weeks from now
- [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Get the Maryland craft gate tour (presented by Maryland Lottery, GBMC) back out on the road (restart the tour)
- [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Finalize and submit the ‘Dear Steve Bashati’ letter (turn it in as prepared, including crayon formatting reference)
Dear Steve Bisciotti Letter and Media Access
- Nestor Aparicio discusses his Dear Steve Bisciotti letter, emphasizing the importance of holding power accountable.
- Nestor recounts his experience of being locked out of media access after witnessing Steve Bisciotti at a veranda in Florida.
- He mentions the significance of his letter and the questions he has for the owner, despite potential criticism.
- Nestor highlights the importance of media access and the challenges he faces in getting questions answered by Steve Bisciotti.
Historical Context and Media Access Challenges
- Nestor reflects on the historical context of media access and the changes over the years.
- He mentions the previous state of the Ravens press conferences and the decline in media access.
- Nestor discusses the impact of the Ray Rice incident on media access and the owner’s communication strategy.
- He expresses frustration over the lack of transparency and the challenges in getting questions answered.
Impact of Media Access on Fan Engagement
- Nestor emphasizes the importance of media access for fan engagement and accountability.
- He discusses the role of media in holding power accountable and the challenges faced by journalists.
- Nestor reflects on his personal experiences and the impact of media access on his ability to cover the team.
- He highlights the need for better communication and transparency from the team’s management.
The Role of Media in Holding Power Accountable
- Nestor discusses the role of media in holding power accountable and the challenges faced by journalists.
- He reflects on his personal experiences and the impact of media access on his ability to cover the team.
- Nestor emphasizes the importance of media access for fan engagement and accountability.
- He highlights the need for better communication and transparency from the team’s management.
The Importance of Media Access for Fan Engagement
- Nestor emphasizes the importance of media access for fan engagement and accountability.
- He discusses the role of media in holding power accountable and the challenges faced by journalists.
- Nestor reflects on his personal experiences and the impact of media access on his ability to cover the team.
- He highlights the need for better communication and transparency from the team’s management.
The Impact of Media Access on Team Culture
- Nestor discusses the impact of media access on team culture and the challenges faced by journalists.
- He reflects on his personal experiences and the impact of media access on his ability to cover the team.
- Nestor emphasizes the importance of media access for fan engagement and accountability.
- He highlights the need for better communication and transparency from the team’s management.
The Role of Media in Fan Engagement
- Nestor discusses the role of media in fan engagement and the challenges faced by journalists.
- He reflects on his personal experiences and the impact of media access on his ability to cover the team.
- Nestor emphasizes the importance of media access for fan engagement and accountability.
- He highlights the need for better communication and transparency from the team’s management.
The Importance of Media Access for Accountability
- Nestor emphasizes the importance of media access for accountability and the challenges faced by journalists.
- He discusses the role of media in holding power accountable and the impact of media access on team culture.
- Nestor reflects on his personal experiences and the impact of media access on his ability to cover the team.
- He highlights the need for better communication and transparency from the team’s management.
The Role of Media in Team Culture
- Nestor discusses the role of media in team culture and the challenges faced by journalists.
- He reflects on his personal experiences and the impact of media access on his ability to cover the team.
- Nestor emphasizes the importance of media access for fan engagement and accountability.
- He highlights the need for better communication and transparency from the team’s management.
The Importance of Media Access for Fan Engagement
- Nestor emphasizes the importance of media access for fan engagement and accountability.
- He discusses the role of media in holding power accountable and the challenges faced by journalists.
- Nestor reflects on his personal experiences and the impact of media access on his ability to cover the team.
- He highlights the need for better communication and transparency from the team’s management.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Baltimore Ravens, Steve Bisciotti, Dear Steve letter, media access, head coaching search, John Harbaugh, communication strategy, fan engagement, ownership transparency, Ray Rice incident, Justin Tucker, Lamar Jackson, Eric De Costa, press conference, fan accountability.
8
SPEAKERS
Luke Jones, Nestor Aparicio
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T. Am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We are Baltimore, positive. We’re not talking about baseball right now, but we shall, because it’s almost baseball season. I was always going to put my Camden Yards thing behind me, but we get to pick a football coach. And before we do that, we’re gonna get the Maryland craft gate tour, presented by the Maryland lottery, GBMC, back out on the road. We’re doing a cup of soup or bowl. We’re gonna send it all out to the Maryland Food Bank. We’re gonna be doing a week long drive during the week that you think it is a cup of Super Bowl. So maybe about three weeks from now, I don’t know which teams are gonna be there. Look, it’s amazing how we’re not gonna talk any football, right? Like we’re not going to talk at all about these games, about who’s winning who’s losing, other than the fact that if the bill’s losing, the Steelers lose their coaches might get fired. But as we go into this, I inked a Dear Steve bashati letter, and I wanted to give some oxygen, not necessarily just to my letter, but to the contents of my letter, which were pretty significant in regarding questions for the owner. And I wrote that at a point where I saw the Baltimore Sun says he hasn’t spoken since 2022 well, you know, I was down on the veranda in Florida, which is what sort of began the sideways part where they locked me out of the last time that he spoke to the media. It wasn’t that was three people on a deck by the Atlantic Ocean, where I why I witnessed it from 50 feet away. And that begat problems. That begat my first Dear Steve, letters, which were text to him that weekend, saying, What are you doing? Like, what are you doing? So I knew it emanated from him down I have since had all the history I’ve had, and John Harbaugh’s had the history he’s had, and I’ve written this Dear Steve letter that some may say is me being an a hole. Whatever you think, it’s fine. I do this job holding power accountable, which is what when Chad Steele asked me what my job was after I asked him what his job was, I said I hold power accountable, and that’s what I think I do, Luke. I hope you read the Dear Steve letter, and I feel like that’s my role in holding power accountable in a way that some other cowards aren’t willing to do, and in a way that I’ve witnessed it from the inside the outside. I witnessed the inside and the outside through your eyes. I dropped you off at the front door in Pittsburgh and went in on Mike Tomlin the four days ago, five like, whatever it is. So if I have angst about it professionally, I probably should, just like the women from the massage places with Justin Tucker, should have angst about watching the royal farms commercials all those years and saying, Boy, I have a story I could tell you. And Steve’s going to appear for selected media you’ve been selected so far. Um, to ask questions. If I remember correctly, Chad will point at you once, and you’ll get one, maybe eighth, 10th, 12th, something like that. Maybe third, fourth. I don’t know if there’s a pecking order for all of this, because that’s the way these things work. Fans might, may or may not know that, but that’s really the way that. That’s the way it’s been working. I don’t know they threw me out three years ago, so you’d have to report on that, but I put these questions together because I think they’re significant. And for the people who hate me and don’t want to read it, Dear Steve bashati, letter, I’m going to call it and turn it in. I’ll be doing crayons, because all questions should come in crayons for a billionaire. And I’ll put the questions together in a chart for Tuesday, that if you can get one of them in, or somebody wants to get any of them in, but they, to me, they they start with the coach, but the Justin Tuckers. I mean, it’s what happens when you’ll sit in front of the media for eight years. A lot of questions that could be asked about all the money with the stadium. There’s a lot of really important things that have transpired since then, but the head coaching thing is going to take the whole oxygen, and that should, because it’s going to change, as I wrote, the culture of the building, because I think the culture of the building stinks
Luke Jones 03:54
Well, I mean, it’s going to change because you’re going to have a different head coach for from the One you had for the last 18 years, which you think about that tenure, it began with Jonathan Ogden being a couple months away from retiring. And you know, Lamar Jackson was, what, 11 years old at that point in time, right? And he’s, he just turned 29 I mean, that’s a long time. You know that that’s an entire generation of Ravens fans who have no recollection of anything but John Harbaugh coaching the Baltimore Ravens. I mean, they’re when Lamar met John Harbaugh. John Harbaugh was a celebrity to Lamar, sure, sure. Right? I mean, that that’s a whole different dynamic that we’re not aware. You know what? I mean, just that growing into a man thing that we all or woman, that we all did you know when we were young, and who you admire and who you aspire to be, and what suit you’re going to wear, and what job you’re going to have, and, like all of that, Lamar has made every dream come true, except not yet, right? Like, literally not yet, sure. But I mean you, so this is obviously, I mean you, you referenced tectonic plates, you know, before the all, any of this happened, the possibility of something like that, whether. It was in Baltimore or Pittsburgh or both, right? To your point, I mean, depending on what happens Monday night for Pittsburgh and Mike tomlin’s future, who knows, right? But to bring it back to to the ravens and Steve bashati. Mean, you mentioned this is the first time since early February of 2018 that Steve bashati taken part in a press conference in his building. Yes, he spoke at the owners meetings four years ago on four years ago at this time. But that was a very select few yourself, doesn’t
Nestor Aparicio 05:32
8it’s such a you know, Steve, why don’t you talk to the people more? That’s the first question. I mean, I got so many questions, dog, you know what I mean, which is why they don’t want me anywhere near him, literally.
Luke Jones 05:43
I mean, it’s for me, and I, you know, this isn’t anything new. It’s disappointing because he used to talk every year, and the insights that he would provide, no whether it made Kevin Byrne kind of burr up off to the side. You know, if Steve wasn’t quite as polished saying whatever he was talking about at the time or not. It was, it was the owner speaking to the fan base, speaking to the season ticket holders, speaking to the media, who were the, ultimately, the liaison. You know, the best
Nestor Aparicio 06:16
communication strategy you can have, honestly, is the one that doesn’t feel like a communication strategy.
Luke Jones 06:25
Okay, yeah. I mean, I was just gonna say the best strategy would be to communicate, like, actually do
8Nestor Aparicio 06:31
it in a way that doesn’t feel like a communication strategy. But, I
Luke Jones 06:35
mean, look, I mean press conferences are what they are, right? I mean, there’s, there’s always,
Nestor Aparicio 06:39
again, you just lowered the bar. But, okay, I mean, I’ve been,
Luke Jones 06:43
8I’m speaking in reality that press conferences has all have always, to some degree, and I don’t mean the ravens, I mean in general, are always, there is a certain element of performative nature to them, as opposed to, if you’re talking to Steve bishodi or anyone, anyone you know, when cameras and microphones are over coffee, yes, exactly, and that’s what, that’s what I mean by that. But you know, for me, it’s just been disappointing in the sense that, you know, we there, there used to be this state of the Ravens every year, you know, going back before John even where it was going to be either, you know, go back to art modell, right? And then it was going to be the owner, is going to be the team president, is going to be the head coach and the general manager, and starting in 2018 that stopped, and that’s disappointing. And look, in a general sense, I don’t think anyone has an expectation or nor even thinks that it’s necessarily healthy and constructive that the owner speaks after every game like Jerry Jones does in Dallas, right? I don’t know if that’s necessarily constructive or healthy for their brand. That how that fan base feels any of that, but to be in the complete opposite direction, where you’re never speaking. You might get away with it when you’re when things are going really well. Doesn’t mean it’s right, let’s be clear, you might get away with it when things aren’t going well. But you know the idea that we were waiting and fans were hoping to to see that the Ravens were going to make Steve Basti available after firing his longtime head coach. The fact that that were there was even any doubt whatsoever whether it would happen speaks to a problem there, by the way.
Nestor Aparicio 08:30
And as an addendum to my dearest, because it’s pissing me off on burn I’m burn up now. The reason I got thrown out was him at the pool in 2022 and I demanded access to him, and he decided he didn’t want to have questions from me personally on our phones. And when I think about answering questions or not answering questions, or who gets to pick it? That’s kind of why I bird up to begin with, to say they told me, Chad steel told me, If you had sent Luke, I would have let Luke ask him questions, but he wasn’t going to let me ask questions. And I thought to myself, you were in on all this. I was down at the breakers. Or, by the way, apparently Tiger Woods is going to throw a hell of a party with John Bond. A party with Jon Bon Jovi. I read that. Yeah, been a little while since I’ve been to the Tigers. Tiger turning 50, right? Yeah, it’s lovely down there. It backs up to the ocean. Crazy. He’s 50 years old, by the way. But go ahead, you just don’t want to get the $24 Caesar salad there, but, but nonetheless, or the $12 muffins, but it is a really lovely place. The whole notion of what pissed Chad steel off that night, at that party, when I was standing with Mike Tomlin and and Jameson Hensley and like, oh, they were all there. Was reback Jonas was there. They were all there. The thing that pissed them off the most is that I. Wanted to ask questions literally. And the last time Steve bashati looked into the whites of my eyes was on the veranda in the middle of Florida, in Orlando. I had to go to Florida to chase him down. I’m out on a veranda, and I wasn’t looking to chase Steve bashati down, by the way, I was there doing what I did for 15 years, which is go to the owners meetings. You had a pass. I didn’t. I walked. I hung out with Duke Tobin and Mike McDonald at the bar. I mean, I was just like, fine doing that, not really, but I had a chance to talk to them. They saw me, and in the darkness, they evaporated. It was like something out of a movie. So that’s how little Steve bashati wants to give a guy like me questions, and how pissed off it made them that How dare, how dare I want to ask questions, and how dare I not send you to ask them. And as I remember, Sashi Brown did a little turn in the in the Italian restaurant that you you were a part to a couple years ago. I it’s amazing how rarefied their air is. And the end why I would call them arrogant, and why I would call them evasive, and why I would call them dishonest, and like, on and on and on and on and on and on and just my these are my experiences. I didn’t put this in the letter. This is just me. Like telling the story because it is germane to why I was thrown out, how I got thrown out, because I wanted the owner to answer some questions, as he had done, forever, respectfully, forever. I went to Florida to do it twice and to follow up, because he has a heavy he has a security guard around him. And how am I getting to Steve? I’ve text him. The last time I text him, he told me we’re going to have to agree to disagree on whether this is a media entity and whether I’m a human being, and whether I’ve ever been a reporter, and whether I should have access to ask him questions. That was the last text. I’m like, okay, he’s a billionaire. That’s an F you to me, right? I got it. I get it. Same guy that was asking about my wife’s health 12 years ago. So, like, things have changed around there after Ray Rice, because it didn’t used to have to be that way. Steve a shot, he came to my home. He elected to come to my home one night, sit on my couch, strum my guitar, watch the NFL Network and talk about things like, I don’t I don’t get it. I don’t understand it. I don’t understand the paranoia. Although you as a media guy in and me as a media guy out, we both, and a lot of people in the space, we’re always led to believe it was John’s ethos that made the place paranoid, not necessarily Steve, that that that maybe that will it won’t be that way with another coach, that that was the coach putting his stamp on the building, as Kevin Byrne would tell me from when They hired Brian Billick that the coach creates the culture of the building. That’s just the How can Steve bishati Create the culture in the building when he’s not in the building? So John’s out of the building? Now, I don’t know if the cultures of John is out of the building and how much that is, and we could talk about that in the relation to coaching, but as it relates to questions for Steve bati, there’s many questions as there are coaching candidates at this point. For me,
Luke Jones 13:27
yeah, I think that’s fair and just to not to rehash everything you just said, but to respond to it. Access and transparency are good things. You can’t have too much of that. Now, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t guardrails. And that’s not to say that I would ever expect a team or any entity to just let the media just 24/7 like always have access. You know what I mean? Like, there’s obviously balance to that, but I’m never going to sit here and say that access and accountability and transparency, or are anything but really good things. I mean, that’s just the truth, right? And it’s not just not to hold, what did your mother tell you? The truth will come out in the end. I mean, it’s not to hold any, any business, team, individual, to a standard where I expect them to be perfect, I’m not perfect. I have flaws. We all have flaws. But, yeah, I mean, you want, I mean, it was one thing that I always had great respect for the organization that long predate, you know, predates my media career, is the fact that they would have a state of the Ravens every year and where the owner would
Nestor Aparicio 14:45
they be proud to be a fan, they may be proud to be a PSO. So, I mean, let’s not talk about Nestor the prick on the radio. Let’s talk about little Nestor, the guy who willed the team back, got a radio station, bought tickets, went around the world, run road trips, had their players. Out, had their humans out like I, you know, no one loved the Ravens more than me, and part of the fight was having a better seat, because I had a great seat at the game that I had no problem paying for, because I saw the game better for my seat, certainly, than I did with Mike Tomlin seats the other night in Pittsburgh, where you can’t sit in the lower deck see the game so like, the love of the team is the respect of the team. And this goes to the United States of America too. I got into a Venezuela debut debate the other day, being a Venezuelan, of course, with somebody who doesn’t know Venezuela from Colombia on a map, like literally, and there was this notion of of power, and it being right, and the messaging being right. And I’m thinking to myself, the messaging isn’t that’s not what this is about. That goes back to the communication strategy. What’s really happening here, and why aren’t you answering it, and how do you want me to be proud of it. You know, I’m like, Are you proud of America? We’re bombing Venezuela and pulling people out like you want me to stand proud of that, like the Ravens out on the veranda that night. It broke my heart. Honestly, it broke my heart. What happened at the breakers to say you’re not, not only you’re not answering questions, you stop doing all of this and now you don’t want questions anymore. How do I go sit in my seats? How do I how do I support this anymore? I can’t. I have to. I have to protest this, this, this. We’re going to have a press conference every eight years. We’re going to send the coach out. I’m going to go on the radio and have to answer questions like I did with the Orioles 30 years ago. It’s just dishonest, and I don’t want to be a party to that, and I can’t pitch that. And when I got back from Florida three years ago, four years ago now, I guess it was the last time Steve bashati spoke, I literally witnessed it from 50 feet away. And they told me, If you were there, they would let you do it, that that’s absolutely absurd, and I didn’t have any hard questions. The questions I had from at the time were about getting stadium money, honestly, because I knew the other guys wouldn’t ask about it. I Dude, that’s the media in me. I only get one or two questions in a strum like that anyway. I mean, come on, let’s, let’s peel back the onion. I’m only getting a question or two anyway, in that environment, make it a good one. Make it something different. Make it something nobody else is asking. That’s kind of, you know, who taught me that? Phil Jackman. Phil Jackman taught me that, like, how to do this. Ah, don’t ask the question everybody’s asking. Ask. Think of something clever. Think of something different. Think it’s something that you want to write about. For me, it’s the stadium money. Because, you know why that’s holding power accountable they got, you know, I mean to me, he could pick whatever head coach he wants, like, you know what I mean? And I’ve already said in the previous segment, whoever they pick, I’ll probably be great with it, because they’re, they’re putting a lot of effort into it. They’re really good at that. They’re good at, I mean, clearly, right? So I mean, I have a lot of respect for them. I have respect for the way he’s built his business, made his money and all that. I have no respect for being lied to. I have no respect for anything revolving around Ray Rice. I have no respect for what he and the organization did to me on the veranda four years ago and has done ever since, including this week, that they did when Chad steel picked up the phone and called Pittsburgh and said, I had incidents. Yeah, incidents like, you’re trying to ask the owner a question in Florida, when I flew down there, it’s insane. And I just want people to know how insane it is, and then they can go read my letter, do whatever they want. But the real the crux of this is I had, I have questions to ask of the owner, which is all I’ve ever done all of my life, going back to Tom Ebright, owning the skip jacks, for crying out loud. You know what? I mean, like, it’s insane. Ed Hale. How do you think I know Ed Hale? He owned a soccer team. He talked to me whenever I wanted to talk to him about anything, come to my office trying to sell tickets. You know, I mean, we’ve come a long way here, Luke, but you know, good luck on Tuesday. I hope you get to ask the question that you want to ask, but there are a lot of questions to be asked, and I think that that’s really what this is about, above and beyond football. And who the next head coach is, because that’ll be 80% of the press conference. Shouldn’t be Justin Tucker. Should be the lead story, because that’s the last time he got together. Nobody’s ever answered a question about that. Last I checked, half the audience is female, including your mother and your sister, my wife and so that’s where I would be. If you ask a question about Justin Tucker in there on Tuesday, they’ll throw you out. And that’s unfortunate, but that’s the truth. So I’m interested to hear what’s going to happen, because the last time he did this in the castle under duress, I wasn’t there on that weird my wife was battling cancer. Sorry about that, but in the middle of the whole Ray Rice fiasco, I didn’t have a whole lot to say about it, but the day he showed up in loafers, really pissed off. I watched that on television. Shit in my wife’s hospital room. So I remember that pretty good. And I wasn’t a part of that, you know, I and, and that was, like, thrown together. Were you at that?
8Luke Jones 20:11
I was they? I’m trying. Man, that was hard to believe. Hard to believe. That’s 11 and a half years ago at this point in time, because what the ESPN The Magazine had put out, you know, with Kevin van Valkenburg, and, you know, I, I know there were some others that worked with him on that story. So they put out that story, Steve talked, and they put out, like a packet of responses to different items of reporting, you know, rebuttals, if you will, to different items of reporting, but they put it out through legal five or 10 minutes before, I mean, and then maybe it wasn’t five or 10 minutes, but it was not a very long period of time to prepare where the press conference started that they put that out. And he kept referencing to that. This was their communication so this is their crisis management strategy. Yeah. So, I mean, you know, put me on the spot a little bit trying to just no but yeah, I was there.
Nestor Aparicio 21:08
How many times have you been in one How many times have you attended this thing? Or like, 10 times, maybe the first eight or nine, and then it went away
Luke Jones 21:16
or six. I mean, what? 2000 probably for me, because I didn’t start working full time in the media till the August of 2011 so probably would have been the most Billy Cundiff state of the Ravens. I would think it’s probably the first one I attended. Billy Cundiff, miss. So, so that was January, slash February of 2012 1314, 1516, 17, 18, and then the Ray Rice, you know, the Ray Rice press conference that they you’ve
Nestor Aparicio 21:47
8been in a room with Steve eight times where you could allegedly ask a question, yeah, that sounds about right. And you’ve been to beat writer 16 years for me, right?
Luke Jones 21:56
So, yeah, I guess fifth, yeah, I guess, 1516, yeah, something like that. So, yeah. How do you feel about that? What that specifically? I mean, I’ll go back to what I said. Look, I also don’t have the expectation that he needs to be Jerry Jones either. I don’t think Jerry Jones talking running his mouth after every game is remotely
Nestor Aparicio 22:16
and I remember asking him this, and he may have burned up. You can go watch it on YouTube. You can go get his real I sat on the veranda and I asked him, What do you owe the Baltimore Ravens fans? And he said something like, I owe them the Ravens. Now he just said something like, and you can go watch it. I don’t want to even put words in it, but go watch it. It’s only YouTube. But like, I’ve asked him tough questions sitting next to him before, and I don’t understand why tough questions are out of bounds. Well, it does. I nobody in power wants to speak, and I speak to power, and that’s why they threw me out. I mean, I at the root when I told Chad, Chad steel, I hold power accountable. That’s it. I just I don’t understand the dynamic of this guy who went to see Johnny Unitas, like all of that built this thing from nothing. Thought enough of me at one point to come sit in my home and show up my guitar that would the Ray Rice thing would be this defining thing that completely changed everything about his accountability and his availability and his ability or inability to, you know, when I was going to run for mayor, my wife and I were in a car. We left the zoo one night. And you know, you know I was going to run for mayor. I mean, I have a 41 page. I was good. I wouldn’t have done a good job as Brandon has done. So I want to say that Brandon’s done a great job. So there you go. Hats off to Brandon. I give credit. I I don’t have game, but I respect game. Murders are down. Come back to the city. I want to say that went through the bad part of the city right? A rough challenge, a place, you would say, challenged. We took a turn, like on purpose, kind of a wrong turn at Sun, at the sun was going down, and we went sort of through an area we wouldn’t have normally have driven in West Baltimore. And my wife said to me, you get to be the mayor of this too, dude, you’re ready for that? You okay with that? I said, Yeah, like, I am, you know, at that point, like, I said, I think I’d be okay with that, you know, like, and that means you’re ready to be okay with that. So I’ll leave it there, because that speaks for what it is. So when Ray Rice happens, you lose a player in the offseason, maybe in a way you didn’t want to lose him in a part of town, you didn’t want to lose him, or maybe you lose him on a dirt bike in Florida. Maybe whatever you know coming. Forward, being out in front, taking a picture on the field with the like what I saw Mr. Rooney doing last week. Because, you know, I’m not a comparison guy. Now that Har ball’s gone, we can compare and contrast again, right? We’re loud. We’re allowed to compare. But I was in Pittsburgh the other night, and I saw Rooney on the field with fans. He has his fan consortium that he meets with, sort of, it’s sponsored by something. You know, I haven’t seen, seen Steve at a rubber chicken dinner, by the way, can I give one minute of respect here to the Orioles? I shook Katie Griggs hand on Thursday morning and spoke with her. I spoke with Mark fine. I spoke with Don Roback. They were literally the three biggest executives the Orioles have were in a ballroom in Cockeysville at 7am on Thursday with a smaller group. I mean, maybe about 200 people. WB, L’s involved in this? Mike Tish, they do a great job. So the Orioles are out trying really hard. I just want to point that out. You know what? I mean, like, I saw the Orioles, trying hard for the first time, and really good. And I participated in, I came out. I don’t see Chad steel and Sashi brown out doing that right now. And, and the, you know, the brass, although I think Brad did do it last year, I should my this. I don’t want to be disrespect. I think Brad downs did it last, last year. So, but that’s different than Sasha or like whatever. But that being said, the competition part of where the Orioles are and the Ravens are and coming forth, and I still go back to Justin Tucker and Ray Rice and the bad news. And when you lose, you know, Lamar has lost all of these games. How many big games has Lamar lost since the last time? Steve spoke a lot, and Steve used to sit there and feel the pain of the fans in front of the fans, right? And there was something as a PSL holder, as a guy that would run into him in the team lobby in New Orleans, and he’d say, Hey, sit down. How you doing? How’s your wife? Hey, Jen, how you doing? Like he was that guy for a long, long time, dude. And that’s the part that really rubs at me, like it’s wrong with you, dude, just disappearing. You’re gonna have to drive through the bad side of town sometimes. And you get to be the owner of that too. You get to be the owner eight and nine. You get to be the you don’t just get to be the owner when the trophy comes. And I think that that’s what this has become. And respectfully, I’ve talked to several other people, grown ups from his building, who have said he’s disappeared over the last day, like all of that. And when I got thrown out a couple years ago, a couple of people who’ve, I’m very close to, said he doesn’t care anymore. And that’s a shame. They said that to me three years ago. And I tell you, showing up shows you care, right? Like, so he’s coming out here at this point. And the first question is, where you been like for me? So that’s, and that’s not piss and vinegar. That’s PSL holder. You know, that’s the guy that traveled around the world, painted the town purple, like where you been, dude, come on, man, you’ve made $2 billion on the team since the last time you got in front of Luke. I mean, come on, man, be better, all the way around. Be better. That’s my challenge to them. Change the culture, including your own. Heal thyself. You know,
Luke Jones 28:21
I’ll just, I’ll say this, and really goes in line with what I said several minutes ago. I don’t think it’s too much to ask to make a requisite once a year press conference participation for yourself, like you did for so many years, like art modell did before that. And if there’s some kind of crisis to your point, whether we’re talking about Ray Rice or Justin Tucker, or anything you know, anything that you know you talk you talked about mortality, you know, you alluded to Jalen when Jalen Ferguson died several years ago. I mean, not saying specifically for that, but anything along those lines that calls for the owner to be present and in front of cameras and to speak to their fan base. I don’t think that’s too much to ask. I don’t think it win or lose, good or bad a once a year. You know, even though the league doesn’t require it, that was, to me, always something that I think was, presence is a requirement. It earned them a lot of grace.
8Nestor Aparicio 29:30
That’s what makes you different than being owned by some money group. You know what I mean? I mean Rubenstein and Eric Getty are faking it, right? They’re showing up and faking it till they make it. They’re showing a presence. What you know, made a bobble head of himself, for crying out loud, right? Like, like he wants to say, Peter Angelos isn’t here anymore. He just isn’t very good at saying it yet. First thing he’s done signed to Pete Alonso, who says, Peter Angelo says, I mean, like I pointed that out to Katie Griggs and Don Roy. I pointed. On the air, off the air, any bar stole it cost us wherever you want to talk about things, you’re going to get the real deal with me. I don’t need to make things up to shine it up for Steve bishati or Michael era Getty and Dave like it’s it just speaks to a communication strategy versus communicating. And it speaks to when you have a communication strategy, it looks like a communication I can’t imagine how tight the sphincters are going to be on Tuesday, because Steve bashati knows their questions coming about Justin Tucker, and he’s got his script, his football decision, sure it was prove that you know like, like, and there’ll be no follow ups. I know I That’s why Chad didn’t want to let me lose to them at the pool four years ago, when all I wanted to do is ask about the $650 million that we gave him. What is he going to do with it? Well, we’re going to throw you out of the press box, and we’re going to take your buddy Luke and stick him up in the corner. We’re going to put Kevin burns name on it, and we’re gonna line this thing in gold, and we’re gonna charge a lot of money, because that’s really what happened with the money. So we could pay Lamar 70 million next year instead of 60.
Luke Jones 31:16
I mean, that’s really generally pub me. It’s why
Nestor Aparicio 31:18
the chief said, that’s why the chiefs are moving to Kansas, you know? I mean, yeah. I mean, the bears achieve the bills. We get it through the list here the browns. I mean, what if the Browns done to deserve any piece of concrete that isn’t a tombstone? Literally, these
Luke Jones 31:33
8pub dome now, they’re gonna get a Final Four there. They’re gonna
Nestor Aparicio 31:36
get a Super Bowl. Yeah. I mean,
Luke Jones 31:39
who wants to go to Cleveland in early February, they’re gonna
Nestor Aparicio 31:42
hold the draft inside the Cleveland dome. Like, literally, right? Like, like, and that’s cool, and that’s great. And I’m glad you’re making money, Steve, and I’m glad you’re like, and I hope your health is okay. Literally, I mean, show up, be present, like Mr. Rooney was last week in Pittsburgh. And I’m not just saying kissing his ass because he left me tickets. I’m a Steeler fan. I already admitted this week I had a Terrible Towel. It’s pink. They gave it to me when I came in crucial catch. Couldn’t throw it away. But yeah, people think I’m a Steelers fan. It’s like, man, you throw some ish at me.
8Luke Jones 32:17
But that’s, that’s,
Nestor Aparicio 32:20
that’s funny. What’s next? They go say, I root for Notre Dame. Come on, man. You know better than that. Refer to Yankees, the flyers. I thought about being a flyer fan for a minute. I really did. I mean, the mascot’s cute. I’ll let you wrap up. People can go read my I mean, I want to have a sense of humor about it, but I don’t really have a sense of humor about I really, I just, I love the Ravens too much. I love the city too much. I’ve dedicated too much of my life to football, to have this go down the way it’s gone down on bar stools around town the last four years. For me. I mean,
Luke Jones 32:50
you know, to bring the focus to what we’re going to hear Tuesday afternoon. You know, what are you looking for in a head coach? You know? What? What values are you prioritizing? You know, I’m, I’m interested to see because of what you didn’t allude to. I mean, you flat out said that he’s not as hands on and in the building and present as much as he is. So how will this coaching search go compared to 18 years ago? I mean, will Eric be doing more than what Ozzy did 18 years ago in that process, right? Will the power structure remain the same? Will it continue to be general manager and head coach side by side, and each individually answers to the owner? Or do you adopt a different you know? Do you adopt a model where the coach answers to the General Manager. More. So what this would actually, if you were ever going to do that, this would be the time to do it with Eric being as long established as he is, not just as a general manager, but being in the building in general, and especially if you hire a very young head coach, right? I mean, Eric is 54 I think, I believe, off the top of my head, and if you hire a 38 year old head coach, does that individual answer more to di Costa? You know, do you? Do you tweak your, you know, your power structure in a way that fans have kind of thought that it was that at different times. But no, it’s always been. Head coach and general manager are side by side, and they each answer to the owner. These are the questions I’m curious about. Are we going to get full blown clarity on all of it? I don’t expect them to to pigeonhole themselves in terms of, like, what kind of coach specifically?
Nestor Aparicio 34:28
8I hope it’s more honest than most of the cost is press conferences have been late and horrible. Again, once you start getting lied to, it’s like any other relationship. They have been so incredibly dishonest to me as a fan, as a stakeholder, as a PSL holder, as a media member, on the inside, on the outside, they’ve just been really dishonest. And part of that, I called it institutional dishonesty, and I as I wrote in my dear Steve a shotty letter. The lead story is, you got to be honest with yourself. And they clearly were this week that John Harbaugh was no longer the fit here, right. Like the owner’s been honest about that. John was honest about that. This is not the right place for us anymore, together, in this, in this circumstance that and people are gonna be lining up. I mean, they’re gonna get a, really, they’re gonna, they’re gonna get a great candidate within reason. They’re gonna get a great candidate within reason. They’re gonna get whoever they want. It’s just gonna be a matter of, is that going to be? And I will always reject the notion that there is one right guy for the job. I think there’s in any amazing thing. You just said they’re going to get whoever they want within reason, because all these like this
Luke Jones 35:44
is the best. You’re not going to hire away Sean McVay from the Rams, but in terms of anyone that’s available, you’re, I can’t fathom unless there would happen to be just a real big personality clash that like whoever that person is, like he and Eric are oil and water when they’re going through the interview process or something like that. But be, you know, putting aside that within reason they’re going to get whoever they’re going to be able to hire whoever they want. So that doesn’t mean that there’s one, only one guy that’s the right guy to hire. There might be two or three different guys that they could hire in this hiring cycle that would work out really well. There, the challenge is making sure who you pick is one of those two or three that will work, because there are also plenty of guys that you can hire that won’t work out, and we know how that works as well, and it’s not easy to do. That’s why, I think that’s one reason why Steve held on to John as long as he did. Because, yeah, I mean, he acknowledged it when, when Tyler Boyd happened, you know, when the Bengals did that back in at the end of 17, Steve acknowledged at the time that he gave thought. Now, it might have been little more than a passing thought, but he gave some thought, wondering if it was time to move on from John then. So, I mean, that was nine years ago at this point in time, so, or, you know, eight years ago. So, you know, I mean, it’s, it’s gonna be interesting to see what he has to say, what criteria they express as being important to them. What if any role Lamar Jackson will have, you know, as far as consideration with, you know who you’re hiring as your head coach. I mean, you’re talking about a two time MVP quarterback, not to say he’s going to sit in on
Nestor Aparicio 37:26
the go back to they’ll be hiring the right now coach or the right coach. And if the right coach is the right coach and the right now coach, he’ll survive Lamar, win or lose, but he won’t, because if Lamar doesn’t win a championship here in next couple of years, they hired the wrong coach like the day, the window is three years here. If it doesn’t happen, maybe they love the coach so much that he stays on. And that would be a younger coach, or a Kubiak, or, you know, that kind of thing. Knows, yeah. I mean, you never, you never
Luke Jones 37:53
really know. And again. I mean, we always, we try to, we try not to, but we tend to view these things through binary lenses, where, like, good or bad, right or wrong, right? I mean, it’s, it’s gonna, we’re gonna see, like, is Lamar gonna stay healthy over the next couple years, or was this the unfortunate precursor to more health challenges? And the same applies for anyone Kyle Hamilton Could, could suffer a career ending injury next year, like, and I’m certainly not putting that on Kyle, I love Kyle Hamilton, but you don’t know what’s going to happen, right? You don’t know where you’re going to be. You don’t know who’s going to develop. You don’t know if your first round picks going to work out. You don’t know if that that long term contract like now be mad at BK, two years ago, they changed him to $100 million contract. And you know we’re thinking until we hear otherwise his career might be over.
8Nestor Aparicio 38:42
You know what? I’ll leave it on this because we’ve been at it a long time here, and Luke’s here, I’m here. We’re going to be any breaking news we’ll get. I was having this conversation with the Orioles people at the connects event. And, you know, Katie Griggs is here, and Don roback’s there, and Mark fine, the Orioles people were there. I was having a baseball conversation, believe it or not, with Jim Schwartz’s cousin, Marty Schwartz, who runs Vehicles for Change. I’m going to have him on as a guest. We were talking about Jimmy and football and and all that. And we the conversation was a baseball conversation, believe it or not, even though I’m with a football guy. He loves the Orioles we do. And it was like it was Rubenstein going to sign out of that pitching and bitching and I’m thinking, there’s nothing in sports more volatile than signing a pitcher to a big deal, right? And I’m thinking, but in football, it’s car crashes all the time. And I was sitting behind somebody kind of gave me a little shiver. I was sitting in the stands in Pittsburgh the other night, and I saw Ryan shizzy or jersey, you know what I mean, and I thought, wow, they’re for the grace of God. That’s, you know, these guys are playing, and not see the just amongst the roethlisbergers and the palomalus and everything else, I’m thinking to myself, it really is the Matta BK and, like, what happens? But we think of pitchers, arms falling off and, like, all the investment made in that football. I mean, it’s amazing. It doesn’t happen way more often. You know what? I mean, given the. Game that this would Zach or and non de Matta BK, that guy’s careers, I mean, and then Colleen Campbell, by the grace of God, so Aaron Rodgers trying to win game. Joe Flacco, sure, sure. It’s just not that kind of game, you know, you don’t know. I mean,
Luke Jones 40:13
you just sparked something, you know, when you mentioned Ryan, she’s here, and we just talked about namdi matabique, I vividly, I wasn’t there that day. I vividly remember back in 1997 when Ray Lewis was, like, had had a had a bad Stinger with with his neck, and there was, I know, there was a lot of fear that, like, you know, even in 1997 you knew Ray Lewis is going to be something like, really important for this franchise. I mean, what if that was a Matta BK situation? I mean,
Nestor Aparicio 40:44
think he got medevaced, and John Ogden got, got carted off in Atlanta. He was my guest the next night that year. Like, I’m just saying, like, these are Hall of Fame players that, like, think how that alters the course of your franchise, right? So, like, and I don’t say that to be like, fatalistic, talking about these things you just don’t know, and nothing’s going wrong. And that’s back to Steve and asking about that. To me, I’m not like this tremendously over the top this. Guys drop footballs. That happened last year with market. Guys Miss field goals. It’s happened a couple to like, I wasn’t all John’s fault. I’m not the guy coming home punching the hole in the wall from mistakes of effort or mistakes of integrity, you know, or doing it with people with integrity, right? Like, literally, I’m good with all of that. That’s my expectation. I mean, Papa Joe used to write a Bill of Rights at one on one sports 30 years ago, you know? I mean, I sort of have my bill of rights in the things that I’m willing to accept and not accept. One of them’s the owner disappearing for 10 years. One of them is the kicker, being a serial predator around the others, having a having a running back punch his wife in the face and have everybody just deny everything like and having a coach lie just brazenly at various points, especially during the end, when he was wearing the crown that he couldn’t be fired, and he didn’t get fired for a long time, through a lot of warts and problems. And he fought his way through, and he won his way through, and they drafted their way through, and he quarterbacked his way through, and he revolutions his way through, and all of that. And he’s going to go get a job that’s bigger and better and make more money next week, you know? So Baltimore was good to Jim, John Harbaugh. And Jim Harbaugh for a minute, but not so good that day in 2013 but, you know, John Harbaugh made $200 million here. Steve bashati made $2 billion since the last time he talked to you. Come on. Man, come on, man. You know just you can do this and have integrity. You can do this and be secretive without being duplicitous. You know, you can be a great owner and be out in front of it and and drive through the bad neighborhoods once in a while too, come to Dundalk and have a beer once in a while, too. You can do that. And that’s what the promise was of, what we were sold 25 years ago, and that’s what David Modell promised me, and I bought in and that’s why I’m writing about it. Because I’m like, I bought into a PSL in 1996 what’s the what’s the promise in 2026 what are the Ravens now, this secretive organization that throws people like me out for asking questions, is that what they are? Because that’s what they are. Maybe that’s not what they aspired to be. That wasn’t the kind of fan or radio station or radio host or columnist or in the honor of John Steadman and Johnny Unitas and art Donovan and all the Lenny Moore and the people my dad, it’s disgraceful, like what they’ve become for me and what I have to answer for. And I called it disgraceful because it is Pittsburgh Steelers. People thought it was disgraceful, too, quite frankly, like they’re doing what to you? Why? Incidents? Yeah, incidents so, and I don’t get to ask questions about that. I just get to whine about it on the internet. But you know, I hope you get a good question in, and I hope that Steve purports himself in some way that makes me think he wants to port born himself in a way that impresses me, let me in and give me my one question. Point to me, and if you’re doing it on seniority, I get the first question, unless Garcia’s there, maybe, but yeah, so I gave the first question art modell, he’d be rolling over right now, David too. It’s just, I can hear David calling down right now. See, Steve’s not what. He isn’t at a press conference that was wrong with him. You got anything else?
Luke Jones 44:38
8No, yeah, to me, that’s what the PSO
Nestor Aparicio 44:41
or me say.
Luke Jones 44:42
My my last point that I’ll continue to say is I don’t think it is unreasonable whatsoever to minimum once a year, get in front of your fan base, get in front of your local media and answer questions, good or bad and and obviously, if there’s anything. Thing that calls for, you know, that’s crisis oriented, or, like, like a big thing, like, if you win the Super Bowl, like an additional one, you know, stuff like that, where I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect a minimum once a year, which is what the standard was in Baltimore for a long, long time. And if you recall once upon a time, fans love that and praise them for that on an annual basis. He is Luke Jones.
Nestor Aparicio 45:25
He’ll be there Tuesday. I’m Nestor. I will not we are W, N, S T A 1570 Towson, Baltimore. Hope you read everything we’re doing and enjoy everything we’re doing as we enter the new year. Here we’re Baltimore positive. Stay with us.
