Chasing quarterbacks and catching up with Marvin Lewis

It’s always time well spent with our favorite former Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinator and now “semi-retired” head coach Marvin Lewis. From his college work at Arizona State and his son’s career at UNLV and his weekly NFL radio calls for Sports USA, he’s staying busy and always ready to talk defense, the importance of a pass rush and what to do when you’re 1-5 and your franchise quarterback is hurt.

Nestor Aparicio interviews Marvin Lewis about his current activities and thoughts on football. Lewis, now working with Sports USA, discusses his role in NFL broadcasting and his semi-retirement from coaching. He reflects on his time with the Raiders, ASU, and the Bengals, emphasizing the importance of defense and the challenges of injuries. Lewis also touches on the NFL’s rule changes, the impact of injuries on team performance, and the evolving landscape of college sports. Additionally, he shares updates on his family, including his son Marcus’s coaching role at UNLV and his grandchildren’s activities.

Marvin Lewis’ Current Activities and Personal Life

• Nestor Aparicio welcomes Marvin Lewis to the show and mentions the Maryland crab cake tour.
• Marvin Lewis discusses his current work with Sports USA, where he does color commentary for NFL games.
• Nestor and Marvin reminisce about Marvin’s time coaching the Raiders and his current life in Scottsdale.
• Marvin mentions that he is mostly done coaching and enjoys spending time with his family.

Marvin’s Role at ASU and Coaching Philosophy

• Marvin talks about his ongoing involvement with Arizona State University (ASU), where he spends time watching practice and helping out the coaches.
• He shares his love for the preparation and work involved in coaching, even if it means long hours.
• Marvin reflects on his time with the Raiders and the challenges faced by the team, including injuries and quarterback issues.
• Nestor and Marvin discuss the importance of having a strong defense and the impact of injuries on a team’s performance.

NFL Injuries and Team Performance

• Nestor and Marvin discuss the current state of various NFL teams, including the Ravens, Bengals, and Steelers.
• Marvin highlights the importance of having key players like Roquan Smith and Kyle Hamilton for the Ravens’ defense.
• They talk about the challenges of dealing with injuries and the impact on team performance.
• Marvin emphasizes the need for a balanced approach to coaching, including both offense and defense.

Marvin’s Insights on NFL Coaching and Player Development

• Marvin shares his thoughts on the evolution of coaching and player development in the NFL.
• He discusses the importance of having a good quarterback and the challenges faced by teams without a reliable one.
• Marvin reflects on his experiences with different teams and the lessons learned from each.
• Nestor and Marvin talk about the importance of having a strong coaching staff and the role of assistants in team success.

College Football and Coaching at ASU

• Marvin talks about his involvement with college football at ASU and the changes he has seen over the years.
• He discusses the impact of NIL (Name, Image, Likeness) deals on college athletes and the benefits they bring.
• Marvin shares his experiences with coaching at the college level and the differences compared to the NFL.
• They talk about the challenges of recruiting and developing talent at the college level.

Marvin’s Family and Personal Life

• Marvin updates Nestor on his family, including his son Marcus, who is coaching at UNLV.
• He shares stories about his grandchildren and their interests in sports and activities.
• Marvin reflects on the importance of family and the balance between work and personal life.
• Nestor and Marvin discuss their shared experiences and the joy of spending time with family.

Marvin’s Future Plans and Retirement

• Marvin talks about his future plans and whether he will continue to work in football.
• He reflects on his decision to step back from coaching and the reasons behind it.
• Nestor and Marvin discuss the challenges of retirement and the importance of staying active and engaged.
• Marvin shares his thoughts on the future of football and the changes he expects to see in the sport.

Nestor’s Personal Experiences and Bucket List

• Nestor shares his personal experiences, including his recent trip to the Albuquerque Hot Air Balloon Fiesta.
• They discuss the importance of setting goals and achieving personal milestones.
• Nestor reflects on the joy of traveling and experiencing new things.
• Marvin and Nestor talk about their shared love for football and the impact of the sport on their lives.

Reflections on Coaching and Football

• Marvin reflects on his career and the lessons learned from coaching various teams.
• He discusses the importance of preparation, hard work, and dedication in coaching.
• Nestor and Marvin talk about the challenges of coaching and the rewards of seeing players succeed.
• They share their thoughts on the future of football and the changes they expect to see in the sport.

Final Thoughts and Farewell

• Nestor and Marvin wrap up their conversation with final thoughts on football and coaching.
• They express their appreciation for each other and the opportunity to share their experiences.
• Nestor thanks Marvin for joining the show and wishes him the best in his future endeavors.
• The conversation ends with a light-hearted exchange about future plans and personal interests.

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

NFL, Marvin Lewis, defense, injuries, pass rush, coaching, ASU, Raiders, Bengals, quarterback, injuries, leadership, college football, UNLV, Marcus Arroyo.

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SPEAKERS

Speaker 1, Marvin Lewis, Nestor Aparicio

Nestor Aparicio  00:01

Welcome home. We are W, N, S T. Am 1570 tassel, Baltimore. We are Baltimore. Positive. I’m getting the Maryland crab cake tour out on the road. And my guest, my defending champion of all things honor and defense and football and super 35 would love to come out and have a real crab cake. You know, I was out in Albuquerque last week, and place I was had Maryland style crab cakes, but Marvin Lewis is going to be my guest, and I’m doing the crab cake tour. I will be doing Raven scratch offs at Costas. We’re going to be a Cocos. We’re going to be at Pizza John’s honoring the late great Craig heist as well. So I’ll be doing all that. And bye week allows me to call old friends new friends, people that still put up with me and like me all these years later, even decorated, honored individuals like my friend Marvin Lewis, 30 years into this watching football. First things first, man, what are you doing? I mean, you you were here like a minute ago, coaching Raiders again, and me and I, are you happy? That’s the I love you so much. I just want you to be happy.

Marvin Lewis  01:01

Marv, I’m good but, but before we get to that, you know, you mentioned Coco’s just happened, and we keep the keep the freezer stock with Cocos around here now, even in Scottsdale. So that’s all good. See,

Nestor Aparicio  01:13

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Marcella is going to be so pleased about this that all it’s almost like a crab cake tour stop here at Coco. So I hope you do you drink wine with that? Is that, like you go white wine with that? Or what do you do? We don’t drink and

Marvin Lewis  01:27

much wine anymore. You’re not allowed to do that. No, not as much anymore. But

Nestor Aparicio  01:32

I’m a raid your seller. What’s left of it? Then, you know, I need to do that, but, but you get, you know, um, how are you? What do you do when you were doing the raiders and you were there with your protege,

Marvin Lewis  01:42

I’m working for Sports USA that do that carries two NFL football games each Sunday, and so I do the color on one of the broadcasts. I guess I’ve done this four games so far this season, and have like, three or four upcoming I was hoping to get to come to Baltimore couple weeks ago to do the Texans game, but they kind of bumped me for Brandon noble. But, you know, that’s the way it goes. You know, he could get on a train. They have to put me on a plane, so, but no, I have enjoyed it.

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Nestor Aparicio  02:16

You’re at Phoenix, right? You’re at the Phoenix area and where your daughter was and where you coached, Arizona state and all that give. Are you done? Are you done coaching? Or do you start you still, you still want the phone to ring. Do something.

Marvin Lewis  02:28

I would say, I’m pretty much done coaching. And Peggy’s not even here to give me shit about it.

Nestor Aparicio  02:34

I’ve never heard you say. Do you sound pretty much done coaching? Did you say that? Yeah, well, it’s Cincinnati yet or, I mean, is this first, are you letting the cat out the bag here? Because

Marvin Lewis  02:47

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we’re No, it’s, it’s, it’s, I had been done, and then they drug me back in last year. You know? I mean, I, I do appreciate, I appreciate the opportunity to help, try to help somebody out, help a friend, and people reach out that way. And then you think about it, that’s the thing, but, but to, you know, but, but that’s the thing. It’s just, you know, if I could support and help somebody, I still stay really in touch with the guys here at ASU. I spend, if I’m in town, I spend one day a week down there at ASU watching tape with the coaches, watching practice, sit with the head coach, talk to him. You know, he has questions to bounce off. And you know, a couple of the players, they have a really good wide receiver who kind of wants to know what’s up next. And so I try to help talk to him, although he’s got a really good mentor in Heinz ward there now, so that’s a good thing.

Nestor Aparicio  03:43

Well, what did you love about it, like at the I mean, at the end with the Raiders there, what’s the essence of it that you love? Oh,

Marvin Lewis  03:52

I you love the preparation. You love the work and the preparation. And, you know, people don’t understand this, but you actually do relish the hours and, you know, the get home at 1am and I was, I only rented a home. It was three lights from the office, so it was really cool. But there were a couple of days where I had to act like I was home and call my wife and say, I’m home, and I really wasn’t.

Nestor Aparicio  04:17

But are you getting any golf in? Like this, man?

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Marvin Lewis  04:20

Well, I didn’t get any golf in you know, it’s Golf was secondary to that. And you know, so but you know, I really enjoyed last year, and unfortunately they pulled the rug from under us, which wasn’t fair, in my opinion, and how Antonio was treated. It wasn’t fair. Nothing got done that needed to be done to help us win football games. And and then the injuries just start to mount, and then you’re in trouble. Gave me to beat the Ravens at a game, right? Literally? Well, we had a little bit we lost. We had lost one starter then, and but Devonte had a very good game that day. You. You know, and then he got hurt two weeks later, and we when he then we trade. He was hurt, and then we traded him so but, you know, we just struggled at quarterback all year, and we had a bunch of guys get hurt on defense. And it just makes a difference when you don’t have your guys. You begin the season, you have the 53 man roster, and you just hope and pray, fingers crossed that you can weather the storms of injuries and you don’t get decimated at one position. And when that happens, I mean, really, you’re it’s really hard,

Nestor Aparicio  05:32

well, and I guess that brings me to where we are here with the buy, right? Like, I mean, you know, good, bad, ugly. You have playoff teams. You had bad teams. You have hurt quarterbacks. Yet, second string, third string yet, brothers of quarterbacks, of first string quarterbacks in your day, the Raven circumstance, if you’re calling the Ravens game this week, I mean, if you and I got together privately, might be a different conversation, but just from a general and I’ve gone after John about accountability and these guys going out the back door and the injuries. They had $150 million worth of football player that wasn’t on the field. Had you been in here for that Houston

Marvin Lewis  06:05

game? Yeah, well, and that’s there you go. You kind of just stay literally, I’m hearing from a lot of people in Cincinnati regarding the same kind of things, you know, because when you lose your quarterback, it’s hard. And then you have other you know, if other guys are hurt at other positions, I think Dan Noy has been out for a while, from what I understand, and you know, so you lead Roque ones out, you lose a lot of the leadership. Kyle Hamilton, I think, was out. I mean, you lose a lot of leadership on defense. And, I mean, that’s hard to replace. So that’s, unfortunately, the part of the NFL that’s you can’t Gage. There’s no way you can look at a crystal ball going into the season. You know, you just hold your breath and you hope these things happen, and we can continue to play with the same guys. Because when you when you can it’s even, you know, the what’s the word I want to say? You play the other side of the ball. Plays so tight because they know they have such a thin margin of error.

Nestor Aparicio  07:10

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Marvin Lewis is my guest. He is golfing, calling games, doing all this stuff on the radio and being a grand pop and finally, after all these years, making me feel good that you might live a longer life, just getting the hell out of the business. You know what I mean, but for the ravens and for injuries and for defense, and, you know, your name gets brought up in all sorts of ways about how awful the 96 defense was and how great the legendary I mean, you’ve been on both sides of this. I sat in offices with you and Jim Schwartz and Mike Smith looking at film of how bad it was and how great it got and and how you survived it and through all that period of time, and it got you a gig. And you survived all sorts of gigs in Cincinnati with good teams, bad teams, and you don’t even know what you have. I mean, Harbaugh thinks I hate him. I picked him to win the Super Bowl seven weeks ago. So did a lot of other people, and now at one in five trying to pick this thing up and bye week. I mean, what does this represent for the organization at this point, trying to get Lamar healthy and trying to get uprighted where, you know, Cincinnati, Cleveland probably aren’t coming, but wow. I mean, Tomlins got him playing in Pittsburgh. Rogers looks at me, I mean, they’re out in front on this thing, trying to catch up and trying to get through the buy, get motivated and say, All right, let’s get to two and five. Let’s get to three and five. Let’s get to four and five. Because, certainly, from the from my perspective as a media guy looking at the schedule, looking at the quarterbacks they’re going to be facing the next few weeks, they got a chance. You know, I’m not joking with John when I write a nasty letter to him for the public to see where I say, I think you’ll be seven and seven, I wouldn’t bet against them winning some games here and getting it to the point where, when they get to December, they’re going to have to go win some big games. But I don’t feel like it’s over for them. And I don’t know many, one in five teams you could say that about Marv.

Marvin Lewis  09:06

No. I think when you got you know, you have the quarterback they have. And those, those guys I mentioned on defense, you know, particularly roquan and Kyle. I mean, what great players they are. The versatility. I think the corner has been out also, and, you know, it’s just hard, but I think if those guys can they this week in the buy gives them another week to get healthy and get an opportunity to get back out there and win games. I don’t think they played the Steelers yet. Have they?

Nestor Aparicio  09:34

No, they played twice late and the bank, you know, Bengals late.

Marvin Lewis  09:39

And they haven’t played the Steelers. You know, they’ve obviously played Cleveland, right once, but and they haven’t played Cincinnati yet. So I think you know, both Cincinnati and them are both looking up, saying, Hey, we just got to get going. But you know, you got to take your hat off to Mike Tomlin and the Steelers and what Aaron Rodgers is doing. I mean, I. Uh, you know, they’re, they’re surprising everybody. And, you know, I got to see some before the game I did yesterday. Got to see come some of the highlights or of that game with him. And it’s, you know, he’s doing a great job. Speak to

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Nestor Aparicio  10:16

job security and your role. I sat with you a couple times thinking it might be your last swan song in Cincinnati. You survived several cycles of hiring John’s at a point where it’s amazing. Mike Tomlin, you reference all you know Tomlin has been fired by the Pittsburgh people, as much as you were fired by the people in Cincinnati, as much as fire John today, fire Zach or bring in Chuck Pagano. You just all sorts of nonsense that you taught me 30 years ago. Don’t listen to that. That’s not what’s really going on in here. I don’t think anyone’s getting fired, knowings Mills, I don’t think that they are an upheaval kind of franchise, in the same way that the family in Cincinnati didn’t want upheaval with you, and in Pittsburgh and the Rooney family that these long tenured coaches, you always say to me, you do get smarter as you get older. This is your chance to convince me that John’s getting smarter here.

Marvin Lewis  11:08

Yeah, well, you do. And you mentioned Zach, and you know, Zach took over a really good situation. There’s probably it was a lot left from a year ago, and now this year, they’re dealing with the injuries, so it’s a different situation. And I think isn’t Chuck already there helping?

Nestor Aparicio  11:25

Chuck? Is there? Yeah, Chuck’s doing secondary. Yeah, yeah, so, but

Marvin Lewis  11:29

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you know it is. It’s just hard, it’s it’s hard to patch all the holes when you’ve had injuries like that, and but if they get the offense back going with Lamar, you know? I mean, the one thing that is different in the past, they’ve kind of have kept a quarterback and more and Lamar style, and I think, in the past, and this year, they chose not to do that. And, you know, so you have to change a little bit offense. So monk’s got to change. He’s he’s having the change and adjust to the new style of quarterback that he’s playing with. Months of great you know, he has some really good football coaches there, and they didn’t get, all of a sudden,

Nestor Aparicio  12:11

get done. Well, there’s not having Ricard in the offense all year long, the Henry Lamar sleight of hand, the Aparicio, the misdirections, the things that would give either one of them five yards of space to get a head start and to find holes that the the operating in second and one and second and two all day long, never seeing third down, not even knowing who your punter is, like all of these things that when they’re freight training, these NFC teams that really had matchup problems and identification problems and speed problems with the Lamar purple revolution, we just haven’t seen it this year, since the first half of Buffalo, This thing hasn’t looked or felt right, and when the offensive line is at moving bodies, and your guards are losing every battle and every play, and now Ronnie Stanley is out, and you don’t have that big fat back and Ricard that you want to operate with, and it never, it hasn’t, doesn’t feel like Lamar wanted to run the ball pre hamstring injury, that he wanted to be that takeoff. I’m gonna go 30 yards on you if you give me some space. It hasn’t felt like that engine to me, Marvin and I, I don’t know that. Listen, I’m not betting against Lamar and I’m not betting against John. I’m not betting against them and their talent for all the reasons we’ve discussed. But man, I’m not seeing it with my eyes, and I haven’t seen it yet and and the line plays problematic on both sides of the ball for them.

Marvin Lewis  13:44

Marf, yeah, well, I haven’t seen it. As I said, I saw a little bit of Buffalo game, and I really haven’t seen, you know, much of their game. I just know what I read about the injuries, and just knowing, having been on the coaching side of that, you know, you know how you’re having to dig a little deeper and find a different way, and that’s the most difficult part, you know, so and, you know, and you need, you need one side of the ball, in the case of that, to make some explosive plays, whether it’s a turnover that’s in down deep, somebody else territory, to give the offense a short field or an explosive play On offense, and then it gets, you know, kind of gets the juices for everybody going, and maybe you play a little better than you are, you know, you play a little bit above your necks. And so, you know, I hopefully this by will help them get the ship righted and move forward and and get right back in the race, because a lot of football left. It’s

Nestor Aparicio  14:41

so problematic when you can’t get after the quarterback. And they’ve had that problem, they traded o way, and now Robinson gets hurt. I mean, Van Noy was, you know, out the back door, not playing a lot, and kind of long in the tooth, and was injured himself, from your perspective, with no pass rush. Rush. What do you do? Cover your ass off, right,

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Marvin Lewis  15:03

right? You mentioned 96

Nestor Aparicio  15:06

Well, that’s why I’m bringing that up. I’ve seen you with the little red pointer and schwarzy in the corner with a sandwich. I can’t

Marvin Lewis  15:13

draw good players. I can doodle all I want, but I can’t doodle the guys that can knock the quarterback down, you know? Well, that

Nestor Aparicio  15:22

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changed for you here. Let’s talk about let’s talk about things everybody hears familiar, but Marvin Lewis is my guest. Is always the man, the myth, the legend. I remember you and I added Petrucci. I tell people this, we would go into portucci and they would have those crayons, and we’d order pizza, and you’d be drawing up X’s and O’s that, if I have McCrary, if I had goose do this, if we got Sam Adams to come play, hey, Woodson, we can move Woodson over to safety. He can play like you had all of these conceptual things, but a lot of it really was like McCrary, bullware rush to quarterback is bullware. Linebacker is in Edge rusher. Can he put his hand in the dirt? Does he want to does he want to drop back and cover? He didn’t like all of those things that going after the quarterback is where the money is and where the glory is, and where the sack dances and all that. But it really is getting the getting the offense off the field. And if you can’t pressure the quarterback, you’re done. Yeah.

Marvin Lewis  16:13

If you want to affect the other sideline, you knock quarterback down. You want to get the other sidelines attention, you knock their quarterback down, and that’s what you got to you know, that you got to try to do. And when you can’t get there, you’re trying other things, but it’s kind of a double to double edged sword of when you can’t get pressure. Now, the guys in the back end have to cover so much longer, and that’s a hard job. You know, I tell these cornerbacks all the time, you you have the second hardest job in football, other than the guy under center, because you have to cover somebody who is probably faster than you, he might be bigger than you, and he’s knows where he’s going, and you know what, you can’t touch him. But other than that, it’s an easy job, you know? So that’s a hard job back there when when the quarterback’s not getting affected with

Nestor Aparicio  16:59

pressure. Marvin Lewis is here trying to educate me about football, about all that I’ve known or forgotten. You know, from our first chance meeting, for the league’s perspective, and you going around the league trends and different things that you see, the kickoff thing so screwy, right? Like, I mean, I think the fans are trying to understand the kickers are trying to pooch. It reminds me and my friend Rob the biggest backyard, his his fence. We played wiffle ball when we were little. Hitting it over the fence was like, hard to do, and then all of a sudden, like it wasn’t and hitting the fence was a home run. Hitting it over the fence became an out. And reminds me of my wiffle ball, my backyard in the 1970s I’m like competition committee and listen a lot about safety. I’m all for safety, especially as we all get older, and I’ve seen too many guys get it in the head, but it is a little strange, and I don’t think we’ve mastered it in any way, right?

Marvin Lewis  17:55

No, you know, I, you know, if I, if we backed up and talked about, you know, the kickoff and, oh, supposedly it was causing the higher rate of concussions, so we adjusted those things. And then all of a sudden, somebody gets upset in a bar in New York City, and that guy at Park Avenue hears it. Now he wants to adjust it and make it so there’s more returns again. But it’s still kind of a funky thing to have guys have their back turned. And you know that that’s not how football was intended, that you got my got my back turned, and now I’m trying to block a guy with my back turned, and they’re moving, and I don’t, I can’t move till they move. And I don’t know when you know, it’s really weird and you know, but it is causing more returns until you get an advantage, and then you’re going to kick it for the touchback and say, Hey, make them go to the field, you know, because you don’t want to give up plays. And that’s the most difficult thing for me, was I didn’t want to risk guys getting hurt having to cover too many kicks. And I know the field position thing has changed. The go forward attitude because of analytics has changed. But it also has to become a feel for your football team and their health in that particular point of the game you’ve

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Nestor Aparicio  19:13

been around a college campuses a little bit. I mean, if you and I were having a glass of wine together and having a meal talking about this stuff, the nil part of this, and how the college campuses have changed and how the sport has changed. You’ve been on both sides of it, as a as a player, as a young man and a coach and a recruiter, Idaho State, you know all your background and then making your chops in the NFL and trying to deal with agents and players and wives and families and the differences of all of it, I can’t imagine anything paradigm shift quite like college sports, male, female, black, white, every sport across across the country, rich schools, poor schools. Just I don’t understand it. It confuses me. And I was on your campus out in Tempe a couple weeks ago having some pancakes. At the snooze am right there in Tempe, downtown Tempe. We took one of those crazy waymos that don’t have a driver. It was the best man. I can’t wait to come back to Phoenix. I’m taking a Waymo to your house from Sky Harbor, nice and silent, but like just being on the campus and feeling college life for athletes, it just has to be amazing over these years, from when you started coaching ASU, when you left the Bengals, to whatever it is now. Because whenever I talk to any coach in any sport, it really is the wild wild west.

Marvin Lewis  20:38

It’s it’s been a it’s been a real evolution, but a lot of it’s been really positive. And I think for some families, it’s been game changing, and that’s great if they are counseled and directed that this money isn’t forever and but can it give it? Can give somebody a jumpstart, because they’re not all going to make it to the National Football League. That’s the number one thing. They’re not all going to make it to the National Football League. Less than, I don’t know, three or 4% is all going to make it. Because when you’re in the NFL, like when you’re in junior high, people graduate and they move on when you’re in high school, people graduate and they move on when you’re in the NFL, you hold on to your chair. You like that seat. And so the attrition rate is not as big, the graduation rate, or whatever you want to call it out of the NFL, because guys want to play. But like this, just going back to ASU, there’s no more talk about, man, I got to pay for a parking pass. That’s part of what’s what they get. And I out wise, so they get a parking pass. Those kind of sounds like a small thing, but that’s not a small thing to an 18 not a small thing that it is. You can’t kid you know what I mean, because it was, I don’t know, five, $600 a semester. So most of them didn’t do it. You know, a lot of them didn’t do it because it wasn’t included in a scholarship. So one of the first things they did was, okay, we’re putting money into that. So you all get a parking pass. We don’t have to fool with the tickets. The guy’s not out there with the boot every other day when I look out the window in my office, can you imagine the guy out there kids are

Nestor Aparicio  22:22

trying to go to school, meet girls, have fun, play football, be NFL player. Like, just all of it, right? Like, it’s I spent five minutes in a bar in Scottsdale there with all young people, and I’m like this. This is a world that

Marvin Lewis  22:36

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I’m not. It’s a different world. And I can remember during covid, looking out my window, and coach, Coach Edwards coming in my office. Herm, come in my office, and I said, Coach, we’ve got no shot. And he goes, What do you mean? I see, you see, look out there, because the stairs the Sun Devil Stadium became the aerobics gym for the CO EDS who had made it back to campus. I said, we’ve got no shot, you know, because we’re telling the players you need to stay kind of quarantined in your own groups and everything. And you know, it’s college life, man, it’s college life, and it’s ASU life, more importantly, and when it’s 115 and there’s not a lot of jackets being

Nestor Aparicio  23:21

worn. The misters are on for sure. Marvin Lewis is here. He is still loving football, talking about football, calling football weekly. And per his wife, his kids, how’s Marcus? What’s he doing?

Marvin Lewis  23:39

Marcus is is helping out at UNLV. So he’s still living over there in Henderson, Nevada, and helping out at UNLV. And they’re six and, oh, right now. And I don’t know how, but they’re doing it. They’re finding a way to win. Rebels are running, are they? Yeah, running. Rebs are doing it. They had a quarterback who makes plays. He’s like, he’s like, the Caucasian version of Lamar Jackson. I mean, the kid is amazing. And I don’t think he I don’t know. I’m not. I he might be 511 okay, but he is amazing.

Nestor Aparicio  24:15

I like guys that are built like me, that can actually do it. I tell Mugsy that

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Marvin Lewis  24:19

he makes plays all the time. And he just, you know, they beat Air Force. I don’t know. Is it either 4851 or 51 four or 5551 or something? On Saturday, I couldn’t stay for the whole end, because I was flying to Chicago to get to Green Bay to do the game on Sunday to get the game yesterday. So, but it’s an amazing thing, so they gotta go to Boise this week. So again, they got another they got a tough road trip to a team that, you know, has a great history, great tradition, was in the playoffs last year, you know, so, but. Man, they’re doing it, and it’s, it’s been fun to go to the games, and it’s a little different atmosphere than the Raider games at Allegiant stadium.

Nestor Aparicio  25:08

But, yeah, I saw somebody post a picture. It looks like they get like, 8000 people in the lower deck.

Marvin Lewis  25:13

That’s probably a little more than that. But, you know, it’s it. There’s a great tradition of football at UNLV, and we were Kenny

Nestor Aparicio  25:21

8

Maine tells me that every time I talk to him,

Marvin Lewis  25:25

we were standing in line to go into the stadium the other day because the Gates didn’t open till 11 o’clock, and these two older men, gentlemen were standing there, and they were talking to us and explaining everything I say, you guys, these guys aren’t you guys aren’t first timers. Here are you? He’s, oh, no, we’ve been to a few games.

Speaker 1  25:44

Cunningham, probably. And, I mean, he looked

Marvin Lewis  25:46

at my, my, he sold my, he looked over my shoulder and saw my ticket. And so, yeah, you’re my, you’re you’re in my section. And I said, That’s alright, yeah, we’re in a good section. We get, you know, we get free beer, we get free food. We get, but I didn’t have that wristband. He had so but anyway, but no, it’s been good. And it’s, it is amazing, you know. And they’ve done good, you know, Marcus Arroyo did well. There, the kid that Odom, who’s at Purdue now, he did well. They’ve had coaches the last three years, you know, Dan Mullen now that have done good jobs their last five I guess it’s been five years since Marcus was there, so because he’s been at ASU, now, this is third year at ASU. So, you know, they’re, they’ve done a nice job.

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Nestor Aparicio  26:30

Well, again, just Marcus coaching and having a kid that is now a coach I, you know, I couldn’t say I saw that coming.

Marvin Lewis  26:36

He’s actually in the guy he’s coaching is leading the country in interceptions. He’s coaching the Nickelback number nine Brown. And it was funny because on the sideline there was a guy who is kind of one of those talent brokers in the Las Vegas area, and him and Marcus have have jived pretty good, I guess, together, you know. And he was, you know, his first time I met him, and he was like, Oh, I just love Marcus. We talk all the time. And, and he had a couple kids with him, you know, visiting for the game. And, and he says, Man, it’s just in his blood. I said, Well, shoot, he said he spent the he spent his first night at Westminster College when he was six years old,

Nestor Aparicio  27:21

on a cot.

Marvin Lewis  27:23

8

No, no. He had a bed in the room. It wasn’t

Nestor Aparicio  27:27

even a bed. I saw the beds there. I’m back in a day. Marv, I love you. You know, we’ll talk some football down the line. I don’t feel so bad about calling you now, because I feel like I’m just I’m keeping you out of trouble, keeping you off the golf course, keeping you away from football, you know, in the way that you know, Peggy can have you back after all of these years. But does it? Does it feel fulfilling to be like it reservation?

Marvin Lewis  27:51

I get bored earlier in the week, until I start getting prepared to do a game like I didn’t have, like that week of the Baltimore Texans game. I didn’t have a game so I had anything to do

Nestor Aparicio  28:00

earlier in the week. Now, more often?

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Marvin Lewis  28:04

Yeah, I looked, and now I’ve got already the the the clips from the chargers and in the Colts, you know, already by email, so I can start reading this afternoon. And because our golf course has been closed since second week of April, so we’ve had to travel around the reciprocals and so forth, so. And I think we’re supposed to open up till November 18. So, so, no, no, no, no. Golf over, you know, local golf right here, where I live for a bit, but, but no, it keeps me busy. I enjoy watching the tape. That’s why I spend time with the coaches at ASU. And you know, they want me to, you know, literally I was, I was, when we did the game, I did the Raiders game in Foxboro. So on my Surface tablet, I was looking at the defensive tackle the Patriots got from the Eagles. I think I can’t remember his name now and then. On my iPad, I had the

Speaker 1  28:59

UNLV game Okay, cheers for Marcus. Okay. And

Marvin Lewis  29:04

on this the screen in the room, ASU was on, I think, playing Iowa State. So, you know, I had three things going on at once in my hotel room that evening when we came back from dinner, you know, and I was still, you know, trying to get prepared to call the game the next day and know a little bit more about the guy that was playing defensive tackle, because I wasn’t familiar with him.

Nestor Aparicio  29:26

8

We got all that wisdom, all that football going on. You got to stay engaged here over the weekend. It’s like The Godfather. They’ll never going to pull you out before it’s all over with. So hopefully one day you and I will get a meal again together and be in the same place, the same time. Ravens game here.

Marvin Lewis  29:41

Yeah, yeah. I was thinking about your you, well, you like that taco place here too, you know the mission? And, you know, you got a lot of places.

Nestor Aparicio  29:49

I got spots. I mean, here’s what I did. So I’ve done a couple bucket list things. I hit you to come to Phoenix. You weren’t there, you’re golfing or something. But I went to the Celebrity Theater in Phoenix. Which is a little circle theater that’s just like painters mill was here in the 70s, with the stage that revolves. And the other bucket list thing I did, and this was on my bucket list when I met you, because I have the notes from my Tony Robbins fire walk in the summer 1994 that I wrote down that I wanted to do the Albuquerque Hot Air Balloon Fiesta. And I don’t know anybody who loves New Mexico more than your wife, and who has talked about Albuquerque and New Mexico more than Peggy, and I don’t know that I’ve ever talked to you about the hot air balloons or any of that stuff, but I finally did it because it’s my birthday week this week, it’s in the middle of football season, so I can never, kind of break away to do it. And I want to tell you that was one of the greatest things I’ve ever done. And I know you have a you have a place in Santa Fe and your wife loves Albuquerque, but that hot air balloon thing on a bucket list basis, for anybody, I know it was one of the greatest things I’ve ever done.

Marvin Lewis  30:54

It is it’s cool. And it’s like everybody walks around with a smile, because it’s the coolest thing. And, you know, like, you know, Peggy was there? Was it? Yeah, Monday morning, she was there, and she sent me pictures. But the balloon I loved was when, when pigs fly. That was my favorite balloon. She sent me a picture.

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Nestor Aparicio  31:16

On Wednesday, I want to say, I we were there Wednesday morning, and it couldn’t have been any more glorious. I mean, just perfect weather, perfect trip, perfect place, everything’s perfect. I’m not hanging with you and your grandkids so well, maybe we’ll do that. Have your grandkids done the balloon chat. They haven’t done that. How old are they now? Give me the ages.

Marvin Lewis  31:34

Grayson turned nine. Camden turns seven, November 1, and a little dude will be five in January, a little dude. So Grayson came here for his birthday, Camden. I think he was maybe he couldn’t decide, because he’s such a hockey fan, is

Nestor Aparicio  31:48

that Camden after New Jersey, or Camden after Camden Yards? Because your daughter was

Marvin Lewis  31:52

8

raised here? No, just, just, all right, just Camden and then, and not cam just Camden. We call him CJ, because Camden James, because she did get both his his grandfather’s name from my son in law and Peggy’s father’s name. So Camden James. And then Collins. Collins said he wants to go Santa Fe. He said, Pop, I want to go Santa Fe for my birthday. And I said, Well, we’ll have to go skiing. He’s okay. How was this kid? He’ll be five in January. Just

Nestor Aparicio  32:28

fine. Okay. All right, so it sounds like he’s running since we got leadership, you’re Oh yeah, leaders Marf, he’s

Marvin Lewis  32:34

got Yeah, well, he keeps up with his big brothers, and that’s a good thing.

Nestor Aparicio  32:38

All right. Well, here’s what I want to do. This is my new bucket list is to do this with wit you the kids they like do all that and go back to Albuquerque and then go to Santa Fe and raid your wine cabinet. All right. All right. I got it all figured out. I got it all got

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Marvin Lewis  32:52

it do that. You got it figured out.

Speaker 1  32:54

I love you. Marv, see you soon. Good to see

Nestor Aparicio  32:56

you. Marvin Lewis, head coach of the Cincinnati Bengals defense, coordinator of our 2000 Super Bowl 35 champions. And Marvin be happy to know when I was in Albuquerque, five in the morning, getting the getting the Uber, and I looked up and I swear, in the lobby, Brian billicks face pops up from that Baltimore bullies thing Rob Burnett’s grabbing Spurgeon win and breaking him in two. So the legend never dies, even at five in the morning at the courtyard in Albuquerque. I am Nestor. We are W NSD. Am 1570 Towson, Baltimore, bullying no one but talking Baltimore football with Marv.