Balzer: Always expect the unexpected in the theater of the National Football League

From ownership dynamics to the history of the sport, no one is more conversant in the NFL than longtime Pro Football Hall of Fame voter Howard Balzer, who discussed the deep historical hole of Ravens and difficulty for quarterbacks to function without tools and a stout offensive line.

Nestor Aparicio and Howard Balzer discuss the Baltimore Ravens’ current struggles, noting their 1-5 start and the absence of key players like Lamar Jackson. Balzer highlights the fragility of NFL success, citing the Ravens’ 1-5 record and the league’s tendency for close games. They also touch on the broader NFL landscape, including the unexpected success of the Buccaneers and Colts, and the challenges faced by quarterbacks like Baker Mayfield and Daniel Jones. Balzer emphasizes the importance of offensive lines and the impact of rule changes on kicking. The conversation also covers the business dynamics of NFL ownership and the potential for international expansion.

Ravens’ Current Struggles and Personal Updates

• Nestor Aparicio discusses his recent travels, including a surprise trip to Albuquerque and a bucket list tour with his wife.
• Nestor mentions his Maryland crab cake tour and the Maryland lottery scratch offs he received.
• Nestor shares his experiences eating at various places, including Pappy’s Barbecue in St. Louis and Ted Drew’s frozen custard.
• Nestor introduces Howard Balzer, a longtime pro football insider and Hall of Fame voter, and reminisces about their past interactions.

Reflections on NFL History and Time

• Howard Balzer recalls a conversation with Warren Sapp about the passage of time in the NFL.
• Nestor and Howard discuss the rapid aging of players and the fleeting nature of NFL careers.
• Howard reflects on his move to Phoenix and the process of sorting through his football memorabilia.
• Nestor and Howard reminisce about their time in St. Louis and the changes in the NFL landscape over the years.

Ravens’ Season Performance and Fan Reactions

• Nestor expresses frustration over the Ravens’ current 1-5 record and the team’s lack of direction.
• Howard Balzer discusses the fragility of NFL teams and the impact of close games on standings.
• Nestor and Howard analyze the Ravens’ struggles, including issues with the offensive line and the absence of key players like Lamar Jackson.
• Nestor mentions the impact of accountability issues within the Ravens’ organization, including players like Mark Andrews and Justin Tucker.

NFL Dynamics and Quarterback Performance

• Nestor and Howard discuss the performance of various NFL teams and the unexpected success of the Buccaneers and Colts.
• Howard highlights the importance of offensive lines and the collective amnesia that often leads to blame being placed on other factors.
• Nestor and Howard talk about the resurrection of quarterbacks like Baker Mayfield and Daniel Jones, who have found success after being written off.
• Howard emphasizes the team aspect of football and the importance of all players doing their jobs.

Impact of Kicking and Rule Changes

• Nestor and Howard discuss the significant changes in the kicking game, including the use of new kicking balls and the impact on field goal accuracy.
• Howard explains how the new rules have made it easier for kickers to achieve longer distances and maintain accuracy.
• Nestor mentions the importance of the kicking game and the potential impact of Justin Tucker’s future availability.
• Howard highlights the changes in the kickoff rules and their effect on starting field position and game strategy.

Ravens’ Future and Ownership Dynamics

• Nestor expresses concern about the Ravens’ future and the potential for changes in ownership and management.
• Howard Balzer discusses the financial implications of firing coaches and the challenges of finding replacements.
• Nestor and Howard reflect on the history of NFL relocations and the impact of billionaire owners on team decisions.
• Howard shares insights into the dynamics of NFL ownership and the influence of figures like Stan Kroenke and Jerry Jones.

NFL’s Global Reach and International Games

• Nestor and Howard discuss the NFL’s expansion into international markets and the logistical challenges of hosting games overseas.
• Howard explains the benefits of the current model, which allows teams to play games in different countries without the need for permanent relocation.
• Nestor and Howard talk about the potential for future expansion and the challenges of maintaining team performance in unfamiliar environments.
• Howard highlights the importance of the international games as events and the potential for future growth in global markets.

Personal Reflections and Future Plans

• Nestor and Howard share personal anecdotes and reflections on their careers and experiences in the NFL.
• Howard talks about his ongoing work as a pro football insider and his involvement in various media outlets.
• Nestor mentions his interest in collecting NFL memorabilia and his appreciation for the history of the league.
• Howard expresses his commitment to continuing his work and contributing to the NFL community.

Final Thoughts and Farewell

• Nestor and Howard wrap up their conversation with reflections on the current state of the NFL and the Ravens’ future.
• Howard shares his excitement about the upcoming Hall of Fame process and the challenges of selecting inductees.
• Nestor thanks Howard for his insights and expresses his appreciation for their ongoing discussions.
• Howard wishes Nestor a happy birthday and looks forward to future conversations about the NFL and the Ravens.

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

Ravens, NFL history, Howard Balzer, Hall of Fame, Lamar Jackson, offensive line, playoff path, accountability, quarterback issues, franchise quarterbacks, team performance, fan reaction, international games, ownership dynamics, league expansion.

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SPEAKERS

Nestor Aparicio, Howard Balzer

Nestor Aparicio  00:01

Welcome home. We are W, N, S T am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We are Baltimore positive. We are getting our Maryland crab cake tour out on the road. I’m putting together my Costas birthday show and my pizza John’s thing. I went away on like, sort of a weird surprise trip to Albuquerque with my wife, and I’ve been on the road doing bucket list stuff, and the Ravens keep losing. But I do have Raven scratch offs, and you can be a winner. The Maryland lottery gives me these for our Maryland crab cake tour, our friends a Curia wellness put me out on the tastiness tour. We’ve been eating good things, and every time I’m in St Louis, I wind up in like, pappy’s Barbecue, and I wind up getting Ted Drew’s frozen custard, which I recommend in the Lambert airport. If you’re stopping in St Louis, look for the yellow thing. Put your credit card in even if it’s eight in the morning, eat frozen custard at eight in the morning, because you’re in St Louis and you should this guy gave me one of the great gastronomic gifts, but he’s now in Phoenix, and I was in Phoenix couple weeks ago, and I didn’t bother him, and I didn’t think of him, because some people think of you as a Philadelphian Howard Balser, longtime pro football insider, Hall of Fame, voter, historian, uncle Howard to me. And if you follow him on the Sirius XM radio, you know the great work of Howard Balser. And every time I’m in an antique shop or an old joint that has a football Digester. I’m always looking through those in the baseball for you and Barry bloom and all you old schoolers who must have been really young guys when you were writing in those publications when I was a kid.

Howard Balzer  01:32

Al, Barry bloom also lives in Phoenix. I don’t know if you I know where that and so, yeah, I mean, you look back at some of those things from the day. And of course, I did a lot of that when I moved out here five years ago. Hard to believe it’s been five years, but going through things in my basement and deciding what to keep and what not to and the things that I came across, oh, my goodness, I remember that. I remember that. So, yeah, the years, the years fly by. And who know? I couldn’t even guess how many years ago it was when you came to Saint Louis, we did some radio and and you were doing, you were doing some things there. But I’ll say this quickly before we get into all the subjects we want to discuss. It was about, I don’t remember seven, eight years ago that I’m in Canton for the Hall of Fame weekend and doing a radio show for serious and we’re interviewing Warren Sapp. And I said to him, I said, and I always look at it when we’re interviewing a guy, when did they go into the hall and all those little different nuggets. I said, Can you believe it’s been seven years since you were in shrine? Time really flies, doesn’t it? And so Warren Sapp folds his arm, sits back, and says, Well, I always say that days drag, years fly and decades zoom, and we laughed about it, but then as you sit back and think of it, you go, boy, is that true? Well, it’s

Nestor Aparicio  02:57

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been a decade since I sat in your studio in St Louis with my wife and we did our swabbing at Bush Stadium in St Louis. And, yeah, I figured

Howard Balzer  03:05

it probably was, it probably was a decade. And so, yeah, it decades, definitely zoom and just, just happy to be still, you know, happy to be, you know, doing what I’m doing in my eighth year, eighth decade of life.

Nestor Aparicio  03:25

You know the for the ravens and for being a sports fan. First off, I’m in Baltimore, where the baseball team began the season with hope, and I know what a sports fan you are like around the clock. You’re a sports fan, not just a football insider, but the hope here was, we had a baseball and a football team. They’re both good at the same time, and they were coming up, the baseball team has gone to hell in a hand basket. And it was unthinkable six weeks ago. And I didn’t reach to you, but I had the rest of the mafia on, you know, I reached to my Peter kings and my Clark judges, and I had John McClane I, you know, had a whole bunch of you voters on and everybody’s like, hey, great year. 14 wins, 13 wins, 15 wins. This is the year. This is the year. This is the year mahomes is down. The Chiefs are down. This is the year they’re one in five at the by Howard. And it is just, I don’t know, you’re watching it from the outside, on the inside here. It’s really spooky weird, because it’s it’s a weird, rudderless time that the Ravens aren’t accustomed to in the fan base here has been so spoiled that we’re talking about where our playoff path is going to be in June and July and August, not how we’re going to get to the playoffs.

Howard Balzer  04:41

And Nestor, it shows, especially in the NFL, more so than any other sport, because there’s so few games, it shows how fragile things can be when you’re expecting excellent things and there’s no reason to think otherwise, and then all of a sudden, you’re looking up and. And, like you said, one in five. And knowing that, just to even get back to 500 if you’re if, if the Ravens were to go on a winning streak, it would take a month just to get back to one in five to 500 and so but the fragility of it is with close games, there’s always so many close games the course the ravens are in a thing now where they’re not even playing close games. You know, early in the season, Derrick Henry is having fumbling issues, and that’s leading to close losses, and now, without Lamar Jackson and a defense that is very troubled, they can’t score. I mean, heck, one field goal against the Rams at home. I mean that that’s like you said. It’s kind of unthinkable, just as it is. This is off you. I know you’re the one asking the questions, but I’ll ask you this question. If someone had told you before the season started, that after week six, the teams with the best record in each conference would be the Buccaneers in the NFC and the Colts in the AFC, what would you have said? Then probably you’re out of your

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Nestor Aparicio  06:04

mind. And I’m still not sure they’re super bowl contenders, either one of them, right? Because we

Howard Balzer  06:10

there’s a bunch of teams right now. I’m counting it up. There’s, there’s 10 teams in the league, five in East Conference, that are four and two, so they’re only one game behind, behind. And the Steelers, having had the buyer ready, are four and one. So you’re right. You never know what’s going to happen the rest of the way, but it just shows what the NFL is. It’s a reason why every year they have at least five and sometimes more teams that are in the playoffs that weren’t in the playoffs the season before. It’s just, it’s just, as you can always predict that. That’s the case. Sometimes you can’t predict the teams that it’ll be but you know it’s going to happen. Howard

Nestor Aparicio  06:48

Balzer is my guest. He is in Phoenix, Arizona, where his, yeah, he’s done the whole Manifest Destiny thing. It’s like an eagle song, you know, from Philly to St Louis to to feed. You know, all you need to do is make it to Lahaina, and you will have been have made the whole eagle song happen from Hotel California. I would say this. Feelings are really bruised here and in Cincinnati and in some places where it’s really kind of gone off the rails early and bad with quarterbacks. And you know your franchise quarterback goes, you go, right? We learned that with Cooper rush here this week, and all of a sudden, Tyler Huntley is the one giving us a chance to win, I would say, for Detroit, for Kansas City, for Buffalo. There’s been some humbling there, not only in the Las Vegas community in regard to, like, what are they in regard to, can they win this week or not, but just in regard to maybe 11 and six is going to look a little bit more the way this is going to be than 15 and two for a lot of these teams, because it doesn’t feel like there’s any powerhouse. I mean, I’ll throw the Eagles in there too. So, you know, teams that really thought that we looked at and said that that could be a 14 or 15, that can be an elite team that and the Ravens being one of them, they’re not, you know, they’re not gonna be 12 and five, I promise you that, at one in five. So I look at it and say, you know, readjust where all of it’s going to be, and readjust where you are in December. And look, I wrote a dear John Harbaugh letter that I’ll send you, that you clearly haven’t read, because you probably want to talk to me about it. If you had this week about accountability for these guys running out the back door, and you’re an old school reporter, I mean Mark Andrews running off the podium after dropping the ball in Buffalo out the back door. You know, no speaky and Ravens have had a lot of that going on. A lot of accountability things. The Justin Tucker thing here that just evaporated, and he’s going to be kicking for somebody in six weeks in the playoffs, I would think as well, not here, but and the scandal that really wasn’t, because this is small town, and nobody talks here, Howard, as you can imagine. And I just think for them at this point, I’ve said all along, and Harbaugh wrote me a note two weeks ago telling me he thinks that I hate him. I said, Dude, I picked you to win the Super Bowl. A, B, I’m gonna sit here right now. Today’s my birthday, by the way. How I’m gonna say that on Christmas day there’ll be seven and seven, you know what I mean? Like, I think they’re gonna figure out a way to win, because they’re the ravens, and they always do. I’m wondering on the outside, you probably say the same thing all of you who cover the league would look at to say, well, they get Lamar back, roquan this, and Marlon that, and Ronnie Stanley, this, and they got Derek Henry, and they got smart coaches, and they can X amount, and Jimmy and Joe him. Do they get killed on the offensive and defensive lines like and I’ve never seen anything like it, because metabike going down, Stanley not being and we’ve all had questions about him. It’s really affected Linda bond, that the guards are no good, and it’s affected everything that they haven’t been able to run the ball.

Howard Balzer  09:49

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It’s a it’s a app. It’s a great observation. And most of the time, when you look at a team that struggles, and the fingers always point, I mean, there’s. Kind of almost this everywhere in the NFL, when things are struggling on offense. It’s funny because I have a term Nestor that I call it collective amnesia. And before the season, everyone’s saying, Well, you know the line, the offensive line is looking pretty good, and the key is the line, and the games are one in the trenches, and the eagles were a classic example of that in the Super Bowl against Kansas City and then, especially on offense, when things start to go, you know, go bad. Most of the time it’s because of the offensive line. There’s other issues, obviously, but a lot of times it’s the offensive line. But no one says that. It’s the offensive coordinator, it’s the play calling, it’s this and that. But if you don’t, if you’re an off a game plan guy, and you’re putting in a plan for the week, and you have questions about what your offensive line is capable of, then that affects what you do in the game plan, because you’re trying to devise something that will give you the best chance to win. And when you look at the bucks, you look at the Colts, I talked about them earlier, two really good offensive lines. The Eagles, they’ve had some trouble on the offensive line, with some guys getting injured, and all of a sudden, saquon Barkley, who was all world last year, is average at best this season, running the football. So those are the keys, and winning in the trenches will always be what’s important, and yet that’s forgotten when a lot of the analysis gets out there during the season to see why a team is doing what it’s doing. And again, I’ll go back to those two teams now with the best records, look at the resurrections, if you will, that they have at quarterback with Baker Mayfield and Daniel Jones, guys that the outside noise, and even teams would say,

Nestor Aparicio  11:46

oh, Sam darnold in there too, who was kicked around and on another team, right, like these guys that were that smelled so good in Indianapolis and smelled so good on draft day. To most of these franchises, there’s a lot of guys that flame out. I mean, you know the Jamarcus Russell, the road is long with the Todd man. You know Marinovich is and you know you’ve been at this a long time. But then there’s the resurrection cases for not even just a Geno Smith or, you know, Trent Dilfer to win later on in his career, or whatever. But these guys that were lottery picks were franchise quarterbacks that died because they went to the jets or went some awful place and Cleveland, my God, you know, we Baker Mayfield, right? Like, what could eat you up quicker than Cleveland? Right? So I, I don’t know that we should be shocked by this, given what all the experts thought these guys could do in being able to throw the football through a peanut.

Howard Balzer  12:41

No, I’m not shocked. And, and I’ve always been a proponent of the term, it’s all 11. I mean, there’s a certain, you know, there’s a certain mindset among many that says when the offense is struggling, or the defense to say, well, the defense isn’t good, or the offense isn’t good, whatever it might be when, when actually on the plays that even on the plays that fail, when all of us and key situations, whether it’s third down, whether it’s red zone, whether it’s fourth quarter, whatever it might be, it’s not like every all 11 guys are doing the wrong thing on a play. All it takes is one. All it takes is one to either get beat by a better guy, or to miss his assignment, or be just not lined up perfectly the way you should be, and all of a sudden you don’t win the play. And you have enough of those, and you’re going to lose the game. But it’s never like one guy that’s making all the bad you know, one guy’s making all the bad plays. It’s a combination. So it comes down to all 11. That’s why football is the ultimate team sport. With every player that’s on the field at one time, there’s an individual assignment that each of them have. And it’s why the old cliche, which is boring, that Bill Belichick and the Patriots always used to say, do your job. And when you have a team where most of the guys do your job, then you’ve got a chance. But if there’s plays when this guy doesn’t, or that guy doesn’t, something’s going to go wrong somewhere, most of the time. And in the league where there’s so many close games in the first six weeks, Nestor, 93 games, I believe it’s been that have been played. 53 have been decided by one score or less, and 28 of them have been decided by a field goal or less. And look at all the games that are that are decided right at the end of the game, like, like, like, the game we alluded to earlier, with, with, with the bears winning on Monday night. I mean, the Cardinals had a streak, and they were two and, oh, and they lost. This was unbelievable. It’s the first time it ever happened in NFL history. They lost three games in a row on field goals as time expired in the game. And of course, the reaction of the fan base is the team stocks sucks. They’re horrible. They got to start over again and all these. Things once you’re losing by, you know, four games by a total of nine points. And also everybody think says everything is bad and and that’s, that’s the perception many times that’s out there when the reality is much, much

Nestor Aparicio  15:14

different. Which is why I think the Justin Tucker story is going to come back to roost in soon, because he will be the best kicker available soon, and so that story will happen. And that just speaks to how important the kicking is. You know, I had Marvin Lewis on the other day, who’s also out in Scottsdale with you smart guys, especially as the weather changes here, no place to be that if your football team sucks, just go to Phoenix for a little while in this time of year. But I was talking about the kicking game and how much it’s changed, and how I think the coaches are trying to figure it out. The kickers are trying to figure it out, guys with big legs trying to figure out that that doesn’t you know, they’ve marginalized that on behalf of safety and all year all that. But it’s really kind of changed the game.

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Howard Balzer  16:00

It’s, oh, it totally has. And the new rule with the K ball, the kicking balls that they use, were now they give the team all the I mean, I can remember, I don’t know, 1015, years ago, whatever it is longer, longer ago than I remember when they they made it illegal. You couldn’t, you couldn’t touch the balls at all before the game. Then they went back to being, you were allowed to do it then this year, but it only was during the week of the game. I mean, now they give each team a whole bunch of balls before the season starts, and they can pick, and, you know, pick the ones they want to use each week. And it’s definitely added to the distance. But the main thing, though, is the accuracy. I mean, the you still have to be accurate. You know, it was like, Nestor is like, during the whole steroids era, when everyone said, Oh, the ball’s going further and all that. And, yeah, it probably was, but you still had to hit the ball in the sweet spot of the bat for it to, you know, for it to even have a chance to get out. And that’s the thing with these kickers, the number of kicks that are right down the middle. So the accuracy is there, the distance is obviously there. There’s no There’s hardly any hesitation anymore to put guys out there for 55 yard field goals, and even 60 yard field goals, depending on the situation. And so yes, that’s changed it, and the rules have changed it. Also with with the whole kickoff deal, where now most of the time, teams are starting their possessions at the 35 yard line or better. Sometimes it’s within you know. Let you know, shorter than that. Well, especially

Nestor Aparicio  17:32

when the kicker is screwing up in any way. Kicker screws up too long, too short, too east to west. So think

Howard Balzer  17:38

of it this way. So you’re at the 35 yard line, and if you have to get to the 40 just for a 58 yard field goal, well, what’s that? You know, that’s, that’s 25 yards through first downs. Yeah, that’s all you need is to get into field goal range. And so all of that has changed the game, and it’s led to a lot of what we’re seeing here in the first six weeks of the season.

Nestor Aparicio  18:01

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Howard Balser is here. He is a pro football insider. You can read his work and listen to him out Sirius XM. He’s he’s kind of everywhere, and cover as much Cardinals and you’re out in that part of the world. But from the Ravens perspective, in this division, where Pittsburgh is and trying to turn it around. I mean, you were in Philly, I think during the Randall Cunningham era. I think of these eras, the Jim Kelly era, the Dan burrito eras. Were these great quarterbacks, Philip Rivers being a guy. I think of more modern terms. After, you know, roethsberger got his breeze, got, you know, Eli that, you know, they all won one, and even though Tom Brady had a handful of them. But for great quarterbacks, and for where Lamar is and Josh Allen, I’ll throw all the guys who haven’t won that are still at this. But it feels like this is slipping away a little bit in Baltimore, and that’s the weirdest part of this is because the Ravens have had this excellence that’s gone on for a period of time that when I put on the television and see Arizona or Jacksonville or other places where it’s really been challenged, even Denver after the Manning era, just places where things have gotten sour. It’s never gotten sour here, and it’s gotten a little sour. And here Howard, this is my, not just my Baltimore soul, but this goes back to my dented childhood, and seeing Marty Dahmer is trying to beat Joe Namath in 1973 as a kid, and wondering why everybody hated the Colts because of Johnny you my dad was pissed and all that. Then Burt Jones came and we had the 75 Colts. We had a reunion here for them a couple weeks ago, and then the stadium emptied out all over again. As a kid, you know, when the earthy era and I compared the last two weeks, and this is a very unkind reference, and especially now that gambling is legal, this name will come to you. I said it reminded me of the art schleister. Era here in Baltimore, where this and I was a 1314, year old kid going out for I remember seeing Jim Hart play, and remember seeing Chris Collins, where, every time I see Collins, where they said, I remember seeing you in those zebra uniforms out there running around with the Bengals when you finally went for the logos to the to the thing, right? And 8182 that period of time, Memorial Stadium was empty. All the blue seats, the gold it looked like, looked like an April baseball game. To be in a Colts game at that time and to see, I’ve never Howard other than covid. I’ve never seen our stadium empty. I remember going and bitching after the knee and the Wembley knee and everything that happened here in the end of the Flacco era, where the stadium would be emptier than I wanted it to be, and it was a little embarrassing. But I mean empty, empty, empty, people booing, people yelling about Harbaugh. If I took calls this week, they’d all be fire, Zach or fire. I did. I don’t do that here. I’m realistic. I think John, the adopted son of Steve Basti, is not firing John Harbaugh. And I don’t think John Harbaugh’s firing Zach Gore, and I don’t think he’s installing Chuck pagano or any of that. But if you’re doing sports radio here this week and we’re taking phone calls, you and me Howard in a one in five thing after everything that’s happened here, and players are running out the back door and everybody’s discontented, and the stadium was empty and empty arch least are empty. I’ve just never seen I don’t see morale lower, but John’s losing. John lost me a long time ago, as did Chad steel when they lost my press pass somehow along the way, in my 30th year of covering the team, and they’ve been really unprofessional a lot of things they’ve done. The Justin Tucker thing didn’t go well, the Wembley knee thing didn’t go well. I would just say, man, they better be careful. You know, they’ve added a lot of premium this and premium that. And the only thing Tom Brady wanted to talk about the broadcast on Sunday was premium place, and how to get into them, and how to kick Zach or his ass with them. And he got into a lot of premium place, and I just, I’m worried here, I sit here, and I’m worried about it on the inside, because the fans have never seen it be bad here. It’s weird. Yeah,

Howard Balzer  22:09

it really is. I’ll get back to it in a second, because I just want to refer to something you said back at the beginning of of that, saying that I was in Philly during the Randall Cunningham era, which I was not. I was actually in Philly during the Roman Gabriel era. And it goes back so far that I remember when the Eagles acquired a quarterback named King Hill in a trade where they traded norm Sneed, and I thought it was the coolest thing to get a guy on the team named King, because my father’s name was king. So that’s just a little personal stuff there in terms of that, but that’s how far back all that goes, but in terms of where you weren’t out? Yeah, that goes back to that word I used earlier. No one ever realizes how fragile things can be. And I do recall, I don’t remember what season it was in the last five eight, whenever it was where the Ravens didn’t make the playoffs and they ended up having a very, very disappointing record, but there was still the confidence that they knew what they were doing, and Ozzie Newsome was running things, and you knew they’d bounce back, and they certainly did. So I think that’s still probably the reality of what will happen here, because despite some of the other things you’re talking about, it’s still, I think, a football savvy organization in terms of the things that they do, whether it’s enough to, you know, read, you know, to get it going this year or not. Who knows. There are cases where teams have come back from from bad starts, but I think in the long run, they’ll probably be all right. But in again, you never know. You never know what’s going to lead to, you know, a few years of, you know, disappointment. I mean, heck, look at, you know, look at the Patriots with Mike Vrabel as the head coach. And he had things going in Tennessee. Had a couple of tough seasons, mainly because of the players that he was given, and they fired him, hired Brian Callahan as the head coach. Now he’s fired six weeks into the season, and guess, guess who the Titans are playing this week, Mike Vrabel and the Patriots, the the coach that they ridiculously fired a couple of years ago. But you know, that’s what we see happen and and all you have to do as a owner or whoever, when making the decisions about these coaches, do we really think, and do we really think we’re going to find somebody better than John Harbaugh, much less as good as as the head coach? I mean, you might, but there’s never a guarantee. And these teams that go one and done or two and done or don’t even make make it through their second season, to me, is just, it’s just the definition of insanity. And so that’s where we are, and that’s but that that happens in the NFL every year, with coaches that are fired when they haven’t been there that long, and then they get. Into that routine of another two years. Let’s change it again and change the you know, change what we’re doing on offense or defense, which means the player is getting accustomed to new systems, and it’s very difficult to get consistency when that’s the way an organization is being run. Well, I

Nestor Aparicio  25:19

would even say this, and this is where I’m going to ask you to be an old guy and and I’ll be older than you for we’ll just play that on the radio and let me get cranky for a minute. You’re in Phoenix, Arizona now, not because you wanted to be or it was your life’s mission to go. There you were covering a football team in St Louis that literally a guy from Missouri took out of the state of Missouri. This would be beshadi moving the team to Bimini, because that’s where he is, you know, like, it’s, it’s, it’s an amazing thing because all of this, we’re dancing around. It’s like people that dance around Trump, you know, screwing up America. You’re dancing around these billionaires who are nuts, and in many, many, many, many cases, they’re nuts in whatever way that made them billionaires, that made them nuts. I’m dealing with this here with the baseball owner. We had a baseball owner come here, Howard, after 30 years of Angelos. I’m praying that we get something better, because my last name is Aparicio, and as much as we talk football, baseball been better, better go to me and my family. And so I’m a baseball first guy. My last name is Aparicio. It’s why I built the radio station before the Ravens existed and had a career here, never thinking when I lost the Baltimore Colts that there would ever be a Baltimore Ravens, right? But you were covering the St Louis Rams when they thought there would never not be a St Louis Cardinals. And now you’re in Arizona where this is the thing that used to be, the thing that was in a place that you used to be. And you know at heart, I was an all or fan, anyway, this was my team, and they’re long gone and forgotten about when they put their jerseys on, and I buy the Derrick Henry Jersey and I have John McClane or pastorini or whatever. But the bottom line is the business part of this in the amount of money would be inconceivable to Pete Rozelle or to even art modell, or even David Modell, to say how much money is flowing around that if the Ravens want to fire John Harbaugh, that’s a $60 million proposition. The same way it was a $60 million proposition for the state of Pennsylvania students in State College to get rid of James Franklin over the weekend. There’s just so much money here, and the lack of accountability from the old guy way of the way you and I used to cover owners and John steamon would sit at the pool with Joe Nestor. It’s Super Bowl three, and that’s the way they communicated. The communication now is money. Money, more money, sponsorship, media, money. Pay us for access. We have our own hard knocks channel, that in our own team website, that everything’s going to be sanitized. And I would just say for the modern part of this kind of what you see is what you get in regard to crazy decisions being made and franchises that, quite frankly, can’t get out of their own way. I mean, take the Browns as an example. I remember how angry bashati was when they gave Deshaun Watson all of that money. They can’t even get along with each other about all of this in the salary cap era and cheating, and who’s doing? What did the coach walk into the tent? Let’s suspend them and take draft picks all the nonsense that goes on behind all this. But this is 32 Vince McMahon’s for better or worse, and I got belton’s book over here, and I always tell Leibovich that big game book was the best book ever written on the NFL, because the circus, part of the ownership, and how all of this sort of works, once you’ve been in on it, it really is something to behold how successful this league has become, so successful that there really isn’t a whole lot of accountability, even for Daniel Snyder,

Howard Balzer  28:57

no, it’s a great point. And I’ll say this about the books going way back. I don’t know if you ever read the book The league which was a tremendous book, and I believe it was published around the 80s, and my memory is a very long book, and I remember reading most of it on a flight home to St Louis from Hawaii at a League meeting because there’s nothing else to do for all those hours. But yeah, you’re right. You use the two words more money, and no matter what they’re making, there’s always that, that push and that to make more and to get more and bring in, whether it’s TV with whatever it might be, and that is the name of the game. And you have owners like you talk about accountability. That’s

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Nestor Aparicio  29:41

a David Harris book, by the way, David Harris, yeah, because my dude, John Eisenberg, wrote a book of the league, how five rivals created so I, you know. So, you know what? I John’s down in Texas. I tried to get him on this weekend, and John said, God, John’s family to me. He’s like, He is my uncle, you know, so, but the rise, the kind of NFL. Even Harris, because I love this, because with the baseball stuff going on, I keep telling people, go read Lords of the Realm. Just go read Lords of the Realm, and you’ll understand baseball. Football had such a book in the 80s, and I never knew that. So this is why you’re a gift to me. Ballser, you know, $4.19 I can buy this book right now. Professional Football is more than America’s game. It’s America’s obsession. There it is, right there, man, violent spectacle staged by the NFL each year. 40 years old.

Howard Balzer  30:27

Wow, impressive. And then, of course, you can go back to the great book by, you know, Pete Jent, North Dallas, 40 with, with the with the famous line that was also in the movie. You know, every time that I say it’s a business, you say it’s a game. But then every time I say it’s a game, you say it’s a business. And so that that’s kind of the essence of it all. And so it’s, you know, it’s all about the dollar and doing this and putting it, I mean, heck, in the Cardinal Stadium, they made a big deal of putting in they call them Casitas, that they have in the end zone and different things. And then they did something on the sidelines low that the cheerleaders hardly can be on the field because it blocks the view of the people that are paying all that money to sit that close to the field and basically have no good view of what’s going on on the field, but they don’t care. I mean, they don’t care. And that’s anybody that wants

Nestor Aparicio  31:24

to watch a football game on the field doesn’t like football. You can’t see the game there

Howard Balzer  31:28

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exactly, exactly. So, yes, and that, but that’s, that’s sport, and that’s been, that’s big business, and that’s what it is. And then you have an owner like Jerry Jones, who can flip a bird, flip the bird to the fans and get fined $250,000

Nestor Aparicio  31:45

and then deny that he did it, and then to say, I didn’t mean to do it. I didn’t

Howard Balzer  31:50

mean to do it, but 250 grand, which is the cost for the season of a practice squad player. Wow, that’s that’s really gonna hurt Jerry Jones, and say, Boy, I better not do that again. You know,

Nestor Aparicio  32:01

what Jerry would do is he would go like Johnny Cash and give him the other one. Well, I mean, he is his own. You know, when you talk about the circus, right? I mean, there have been books written about Jerry, and, you know, there’d be more written about him. I’ve met him. He’s been magnanimous with me in many occasions the big game book. There was a lot of great Jerry stuff about his bus and all of that. But it really it does speak to what the league has become. When they’re waking up in Brazil and I’m waking up in Munich and we’re going to Madrid and we’re going to Dublin and and it’s actually work. That’s the thing that’s amazing, is when I’ve been in Europe, it’s not fake. I’ve been on those trains going through London, going to games and seeing 32 jerseys, 35 or 36 if you count the Oilers and a couple of teams that are defunct.

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Howard Balzer  32:49

And the thing about overseas is they’ve hit on the right formula, but they still throw out that little carrot. Oh yeah, we can envision a team over there and all that. Well, they have the perfect formula, because they just send over a couple of teams, and the fan, you know, and fans here will travel, but local people will go, because it’s an event when they have that game. But if there was a team there, and that team was, you know, was in a three and 14 season, or four and 13, whatever it is, how many people would be going then, and how many players are going to want to go there. So I don’t, who knows. I’ll never say it’ll never happen. But the way they’re doing the real the real thing is they’re talking about, you know, every team will play an international game every year, and there’ll be 16 of them, and that that’s what they’re pushing towards, because they can make each individual game a separate event. Having a team is a whole different, you know, story and so, I mean, hey,

Nestor Aparicio  33:44

Jacksonville is still figuring that out, right? Literally.

Howard Balzer  33:47

Give you a perfect example, the car. And this happened to other teams, obviously, but the Cardinals had their punter wake up last Thursday with a with a issue with his back. So the Cardinals quickly got a punter in three of them actually, for tryouts, and then sign one of them, Pat O’Donnell, who had to kick in Sunday’s game against the Colts. Well, imagine you were in London playing a game, and that happened to your kicker, right? And all and yet, and all these teams bring in a lot of people don’t pay attention to it. I get it. But you know, today, Tuesday is tryout day in the NFL, and there’ll be 80 100 guys getting tryouts with teams, whether it’s for the future, whether it’s for a practice squad spot because someone got hurt, and all those things. Well, imagine on a Thursday or Friday. But can you imagine a team in London bringing in all these guys for a tryout? Seriously? Is that going to be realistic? But suppose it happens later in the week, and you’ve got to find a kicker or punter fast, oh, boy, hey, hey, you want to, you want to come to London and try out? I’m not so sure about that. So, so those are the little intricacies that will probably, you know, it, probably it will make it very difficult to work. But. But that’s, it’s like, like you said, it’s all about the money with these events. And they know that they’re always going to get those big crowds there, wherever they play, whether it’s Wembley, where they say that they already asked for playing a game in Australia next season. I want to go, Yeah, I’d like to go to all this is headed Howard

Nestor Aparicio  35:20

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Balser is here. He covers the National Football League. He used to cover this team. This is the LA Rams, 71 small like Fred dryer, Deacon Jones, sort of rams, not quite the White Helmets. You know they are. As we speak, Howard, it’s my birthday. Today it’s my birthday. But as we speak, they’ve realigned. Camden Yards, the baseball stadium. And Matthew Stafford, after kicking the Ravens ass, is hanging out here eating crab cakes all week, and they’re practicing here. So the LA Rams moved by Stan cronky, that have greatly affected your life and moved you to Chandler, Arizona. They play in LA, and they built a billion dollar Stadium in LA that I went through about two weeks ago out there, and they played a game here, and they’re practicing in our billion dollar Baseball Stadium, where the Jim Henneman press box has been displaced to left field. And they’re practicing some football, some American football, and they’re getting on a plane, and they’re flying out of BWI over to London to play this weekend, which is nine time zones away, right? I’m doing my doing the math, right? I think you’re like, you’re, we’re in the middle of it. It’s just high it’s like being boiled in the middle of the you know, like the lobster being in the water. Just warned you, like you’re in the middle of it. And rams fans don’t care. And the Jaguars thing. I bring that up, jaguars probably Jackson will, probably never. Should have had a franchise if you’re gonna play a couple of your games over in London and rent the team out. It’s like the devil race thinking they were gonna rent half their team to the Expos or something like that. Yeah, it’s, let’s share our team. You know what? I mean, Buffalo could have been doing that with Toronto all along. Right? It really we’re in a weird spot here where I think the Raiders have become this team. They don’t really belong to Vegas. They belong to anybody that wants them to have them for a while, you know?

Howard Balzer  37:15

And what’s interesting, and you mentioned the with Jacksonville. And of course, Jacksonville got the team when there would never have been a Rams in St Louis had St Louis got the expansion team for 1995 and the two teams, and I know Baltimore was right in the running for it then also. And instead, the league picked Charlotte for the Panthers and then Jacksonville for the Jaguars, but they put off the League meeting where they were going to pick two teams. They only picked one, and that was the Panthers. Well,

Nestor Aparicio  37:49

that’s when we thought we were going to be the other team too. Well, the

Howard Balzer  37:53

thing was, it was truly going to be St Louis because they had issues with ownership, and the league said you’ve got to get your ownership situation clarified for the next meeting that we’re going to have in a month. And here’s the funny thing that a lot of people don’t remember Nestor riding in on his white horse. Everyone thought was going to save the day for St Louis was Stan cronky. He was going to be the owner of the expansion team, right? And so, but there was a little glitch. There was a beer distributor in St Louis named Jerry Clinton who was part of the effort that got the dome built for an expansion team. And he had, and he didn’t have the money, but he was going to be a part owner of the team. He didn’t have a big money, but he was, he was, but what he did was he struck this deal with the dome that for two years he would be the he would own the LEA, he would own the lease. He would own the rights to be the to be who plays games there. Well, Stan crockey didn’t want to deal with some beer distributor, right? He’s, he does things on his own. I mean, there’s a lot philanthropist in St Louis named Michael Steinberg, who he was a partner with at one time, who left him because he just got tired of what Stan crock he did. Well, anyway, make a long story short, they go to Chicago for this League meeting. Everyone’s wondering what’s going to happen. What are the what is St Louis going to propose here? And they figured it was a done deal. Well, cronky wouldn’t work with Jerry Clinton, and so what he what, what they proposed at the League meeting was that we will play in Bush stadium for two years, two seasons, until Clinton’s ownership of the lease expired, and then we’ll move into the dome. Well, the guy at the guy at the time who was the liaison in the league with the teams that were vying for expansion. Guess who? Roger Goodell. He was the guy dealing with all these teams. He had gotten to know, Jerry Clinton. He saw all the things that St Louis had done and he had done. To get the dome built, and he said to the owners, that’s not right. That’s not right to push Jerry Clinton out. And so they voted for Jacksonville as the team, because St

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Nestor Aparicio  40:10

Louis didn’t have its act together well,

Howard Balzer  40:13

but, but, well, he the ownership didn’t. But here’s the funny thing with Goodell, then he became part of the lie 20 years later, when the when Kranti was angling to go to Los Angeles and be the savior to bring football back to that area, and all of a sudden, go Goodell loves him, knowing what he had done and been against it 20 years before. But was all in on the Rams being there, and he was part of the lie of that was told to St Louis all along in terms of what was going on with the land out in Hollywood Park and where they built the stadium and, you know, in Inglewood. So anyway, those are some of those little intricacies that go on behind closed doors that most people don’t know about. And and that’s why, that’s why coffee wanted to go. But they said, Hey, we’re still going to work with St Louis. I mean, you know, well, we’re, I’m gonna do, I’m gonna do my damnedest to keep this team here. Well, no, he led the charge out, obviously, and he wanted to be the Savior. And that was, that was the thing that got that done because of his personal money. And, you know, LA, how many different opportunities did they have? People forget when you know the league had an uneven number of teams for a while, right? And the league voted a team for Los Angeles one year to League meeting in May, was around 99 2000 somewhere in there, they voted a team for Los Angeles, right? If you could get your stadium,

Nestor Aparicio  41:38

yeah? Lee Steinberg was in on that, right? Yeah, yeah,

Howard Balzer  41:42

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if you get a stadium done by October, well, they couldn’t. And then that’s when Houston came in, into the league. And that was all in the same amount of time when that when the Browns left, and then, you know, ended up with a team in Baltimore, right? Well, and Crocky capitalized on that, because then, you know, for all those years, they could not get anything done in terms of stadium, because there was never going to be public money there. Just like there was no public money for the Raiders to get a stadium, there was no public money for the 40 Niners. You just can’t get that done in California. Stan crockey wanted to be the Savior, and that’s what he ended up being but they had a lie to get there, which is why they had to pay $790 billion to St Louis for not following the league guidelines about relocation. So, you know, those are the things that happen, and you just live with it and move on. But that’s the that’s the real Stan cronky. You

Nestor Aparicio  42:41

know, it’s amazing, because I was out in LA with my wife, and we had a little bit of time to kill before we went to LAX and we wound up near the Chargers facility, because I went down there to get a taco, and I look up and there’s the chargers in in El Segundo, and they practice maybe five miles from the stadium. I’ve been to Inglewood. Inglewood up to no good from I saw, you know, the Lakers play back in the 90s there, and to see what that that footprint is, and the scene at landing at the airport over the last decade, having seen a Super Bowl now there, and all of that. Yeah, it still doesn’t feel like a thing. It still feels like the Chargers are going to wind up to me in London before it’s all over with, and so are the Jaguars and a bunch of other because there’s going to be more money somewhere else and more interest. There’s another arena built on that footprint. I looked up like, there’s an arena here. Who plays here? It’s like, the clippers. I’m like, Oh, all right, so the Clippers play here, and the old Lakers play there, but the real Lakers play over there’s just a lot of money. And again, this goes back to billionaires and toys, where our baseball owner comes in. The first thing he did here was made a bobblehead of himself.

Howard Balzer  43:48

I’m sure there’s a lot of bobbleheads of Jerry Jones too. But the reason, I don’t think the charges will move, and there was a lot of rumors when, when it all went down 10 years ago, like you said, and that was a big reason why they could never get a stadium in San Diego, not the only reason, but a big one, was in terms of public money, but to to play in that stadium. Do you know what the Chargers pay in rent a year to play in that stadium? Zero, $1 they you had to pay something. So they pay $1 and yet they share in signage and marketing and luxury suites and all that with the Rams. And so cronky was forced to agree to that when the whole deal went down, that allowed him to move. And so, there again, there, there it is about so so to move somewhere else up there’d be another relocation fee, and there would be all whatever it would take in terms to get it done. So again, I’m never one to say never, say never, but I think the Chargers like where they are, at least for the near future, and they have a sweetheart deal in terms of where they play.

Nestor Aparicio  45:00

Howard Balzer is always great guests here. He gives me a chance. I’m trying to see if I have any other old logo helmets I could. I got Patriot Pat over there as well. I started collecting these 1971 belt buckles. I clicked my rock and roll belt buckles, but this is my original childhood cold spell buckle from Sears Roebuck, 1973 74 I have pictures of me wearing when I’m like, five, six years old, and I still had it. And then I realized that they made a set for the whole league, and I’ve just been slowly. I need the saints, I need the Broncos, and I need the bills. And the bills is that old, you know, OJ Simpson, the helmet they wore the other night. And my wife and I having fun with some of these throwbacks. Some of them are throw ups. I mean, I’ll be honest with you, and I got Todd Radom coming on here, but the throwbacks are nice When, when, when they look real, right? When they’re when they’re to the detail. It makes you look up and say, Hey, that looks, it looks like a game from 1974 you know?

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Howard Balzer  45:57

Oh, that’s, that’s what they love to do. And of course, they don’t do this to sell uniforms, to sell jerseys, right? That’s not the reason,

Nestor Aparicio  46:06

not at all, not at all. They do it to tug at my heart strings and make me want to grab old football digest and read the work of Howard Balzer. Tell me what you’re doing so I can catch up with you and get you out of here and you go back doing what you do best, which is worry about who’s getting in the Hall of Fame.

Howard Balzer  46:22

There we go, and that process is ongoing. Here we are in October, and it’s going to be coming up pretty darn, you know, pretty darn soon. We could, we could talk a whole hour about the whole hall of fame process and how

Nestor Aparicio  46:34

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we’ll do that. We’ll do that with the Ravens. Are two and seven. I’ll call you in a couple weeks.

Howard Balzer  46:39

They change the process, which is making it even harder to get in. But cards wire, dot USA today.com, I know that the Cardinals are certainly not the definition of an of a national team, but I write about the Cardinals there, doing some stuff here and there for serious not as much as in the past. Of course, through lindy’s foot pro football magazine every year, but doing that, believe it or not, for 33 years. And you know some local radio and podcasts that you know, that I do just, you know, to keep, to keep in the game. So I’ll keep, you know, my wife always says, You’ll never retire, will you? And I said, well, as long as I can write and talk and edit and do it reasonably well. I’m going to keep doing it

Nestor Aparicio  47:23

well. You’re doing it better than reasonably well. And the next time I get out to Phoenix, I promise you, you could have been our breakfast mates in Tempe at snooze. Am My wife and I took one of those waymos. You know, you get in the car and there’s no driver. We did that in Phoenix, but we went out to go to the Celebrity Theater. I saw a meatloaf tribute there with the Caleb Johnson, who won the won the American Idol. Was little rocky R, but I’m a meatloaf guy and and meat was a friend of mine, a late, great meatloaf, but it had Celebrity Theater there, right by the airport. It has a revolving stage, and it’s the exact replica of painters mill, which was a theater that burned down here 40 years ago that I went and saw Frankie valley in the four seasons when I was a kid, as well as kicks and crack the sky and a few others but, but it reminded me of that, and I’ve always wanted to go there, so I checked it off the bucket list. And honestly, how I went there, had the greatest experience ever. They had this incredible lounge downstairs with all of this rock and roll memorabilia. It’s awesome. Alice Cooper does his figgy pudding there every year. But I walked out, I looked, and I’m like, it’s on the National Historic Register thing, thing with a plaque and everything. And I’m thinking, you put your old rock and roll guy, you have to see Chicago or something there, right?

Howard Balzer  48:33

Well, I was just thinking, I’ve been there, and I was considering going to that meatloaf tribute. And they do a bunch of those at little theaters around town. There’s one coming up close to where I live, in Chandler and Gilbert, called the Hale theater that they just it’s a small building, but they’re having, like a Beach Boys tribute coming up at the end of this month and into November. So the one that, the one that stands out, that I remember going to Celebrity Theater, not a bad seat in the house, was Justin Hayward of the Moody Blues and that.

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Nestor Aparicio  49:04

And by the way, today’s his birthday too. I share his birthday. So you’ve mentioned the guy I share a birthday with

Howard Balzer  49:11

that was phenomenal. That was phenomenal. So, yeah, they do a lot of that stuff and and so those tribute things are normally, you know, pretty good. You never know what you’re going to get. But I always figure, if these guys are on tour and people are booking them, they must do a pretty darn good job.

Nestor Aparicio  49:28

Tuesday afternoon, all right? Howard Balzers, my dude,

Howard Balzer  49:34

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cold hearted orb that rules the night.

Nestor Aparicio  49:37

You know, nights in white Saturn. We just lost John lodge earlier this week too. So Moody Blues, you know, let’s hear it for them. Howard,

Howard Balzer  49:47

you’re supposed to be here coming up, and he, he just passed.

Nestor Aparicio  49:51

We lost him this weekend. Yes, absolutely, yeah. You know, rock and roll. This is why I went and saw McCartney in Albuquerque late. Speak. This is why my wife and I went and saw the Eagles at the sphere. This is why we went and saw the who and Joe Perry at the Hollywood Bowl. Howard, I spent the last six weeks being bucket list Chasey. I don’t want to think anything’s chasing up on me, but I just felt like it was my time. And I feel like this because I got to go see some rock stars. So Howard, I appreciate you. Man, I’ll grab you again, especially if the Ravens season goes the wrong way, because we got to talk some football here. But I always love talking Hall of Fame, and I always love visiting with you.

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Howard Balzer  50:30

Man, my pleasure. Always enjoy it too. Nestor, take care the H man.

Nestor Aparicio  50:33

Howard Balzer, he’s got awards up on his shelf. He’s written books, he’s written pieces, he’s been in places, and he’s a Hall of Fame voter for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. So if you got any complaints about Steve Smith or whatever Terrell Suggs, give them to him. Not me. I am Nestor. We are W N st AM, 1570 Towson, Baltimore, and we never stop talking Baltimore positive. I.