Now leading the NFL in penalties through three weeks, Luke Jones and Nestor discuss the 1-2 Ravens’ consistency, discipline and the all-important offensive line after a narrow win over the Dallas Cowboys.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
lamar, dallas, played, ravens, week, talk, offensive line, point, years, football, sunday, running, buffalo, luke, ball, pass, win, football team, cowboys, game
SPEAKERS
Luke Jones, Nestor Aparicio
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
8
Welcome home. We are W N, S T Towson, Baltimore, Baltimore, positive. I am enjoying my royal farms coffee today. We got plenty of things on our mind and a, really a sports week ahead. I mean crazy, crazy sports week. I mean the ravens are the centerpiece of Sunday Night Football. Buffalo Bills coming in, interesting matchup, interesting fans, all of that. And then, of course, orals in the Yankees all week in Minnesota and where the Orioles are going to be, come next Tuesday, come next Wednesday and Thursday. As the Ravens prepare for Cincinnati, Luke’s preparing for another birthday. My kid just turned 40. My birthday is coming up. We’re taking the Maryland crab cake tour on the road this week to Costas. I was wearing my Costas gear. I am wearing my state fair in Catonsville shirt right now because we had a cancelation, second cancelation with Angela also Brooks, Prince, George’s county executive, were going to be there this week, not going to be there this week. So apologies for anybody who may plans to join us on Tuesday, but on Friday we will be acostas. I will have Maryland crab cake tour. People fun. Dundalk, homeland. I got Teresa Gutierrez coming over, so it’s going to be fun. Marilyn lottery, scratch offs from the Ravens. The Ravens two times we had a $20 winner at fadelies last Friday when John Sarbanes and James Bond and Damian Hahn join me for the oyster recovery partnership. I’m out on the road doing that on behalf of our friends at Liberty, pure solutions, one 800 clean water. I keep holding the water up here because they keep my water clean. Well water clean. Make sure you’re finding them at Liberty, pure solutions and Jiffy Lube. Multi care who powers Luca just like royal farms powers my coffee up at this point, and I want to have a wise conversation right now, Luke and sometimes in the aftermath of these crazy football games, were these crazy endings. And it feels like every week 22 point lead crazy ending. You called it, and I hope you you coined this with the Baltimore Ravens. Would you say? Experience what was your your line? I
Luke Jones 02:02
think it was the Baltimore Ravens football experience
Nestor Aparicio 02:04
which define that for me, Luke, please. For everyone,
Luke Jones 02:08
it’s what we’ve seen now the last few years. I mean, this is a great football team in the regular season, or has been, I’m not saying they are at this moment, right? They’ve got things to clean up, but the numbers speak for themselves, right? I mean, over the last few years, when Lamar Jackson’s healthy, they’re really, really good in the regular season, but we also find that they have a few too many of performances like this, where it looks like they’re on their way to dominating a team, but they get to the fourth quarter or the second half, and Things start to go sideways. And the problem is, and the concern is, that two weeks in a row, now specifically, but even going back the last few years, when things go sideways, when things start to go turn on their head, it happens across the board, like to the point where it almost feels like they’re bracing for something bad to happen. What’s going to happen next? Who’s going to get called for a penalty, who’s going to shank a kick, who’s going to blow a coverage, you know, whatever now, who’s going to throw an interception, who’s going to fumble a football, like, whatever it might be. It’s just like it starts going in the opposite direction, and then you’re doing everything you can to stop it, but you can’t. That’s why I do give them credit, albeit not emphatically, because it shouldn’t have come to this. But that Lamar Jackson completion is a flowers. You know, if you squint and you kind of move away from the screen, looked a little bit like Joe Flacco to Anquan Boldin or Derek Mason on the outside in a big moment. I mean, you know, that’s not what the Ravens do consistently. You know Lamar much better throwing to the middle of the field. But hey, for all the talk about him not being able to throw out outside the numbers, at least earlier in his career, made a big throw there against tight coverage, so but, but that’s the experience, right? I mean, it’s we all know the graphic by now, and Fox put it up on the screen where you know looking at the Ravens most losses since 2021 with having at least a seven point lead in the fourth quarter. I mean, you get fired if
8Nestor Aparicio 04:08
you put that on the screen in massen, right. Literally, right. So,
Luke Jones 04:11
sure, sure. But I mean, it’s, it’s there, and it keeps happening. And fortunately, they won. You hope that they’ve learned their lesson. Because, I mean, the reality is, every team is different. Every season is different. Those losses that they had in 2022 look at the roster. There’s a lot of turnover that’s happened since then, but for the guys who remain, you know, whether you’re talking about players or coaches, just happens too much. But that’s part of the Baltimore Ravens football experience, and for good or bad, that that is what it is. But you just hope that two weeks in a row this happening, you hope the message gets through that you got to play 60 minutes. And you know, they didn’t do that, but at least Lamar Jackson and zay flowers that that play there, that, I mean, that saved them. And then, of course, they were in victory for. Information after Lamar has run a couple plays later. But it shouldn’t have come to that. For anyone who watched his team over the first, oh, you know, 47 minutes of that football game. No way it should have come to that the Baltimore Ravens football
Nestor Aparicio 05:14
experience, the brfe, I’m b, r, F, E, Baltimore. Luke, September 23 2024 for me, what you write as the Baltimore Ravens football experience, which is the roller coaster. I, as I pointed out, I said it, it’s almost like, you know, a Sunday theme park ride, sort of the house of mirrors, the tilt a world, or whatever it is, consistency, the C word, right? Like that, that when you’re consistent, you’re up 22 points. Lamar is wearing sunglasses and the Hattie bought in Fort Worth the night before, on the sidelines and smoking a cigar like Joe burrow with his there’s called grills. Am I still calling up by the right is that the right term? Grills that Lamar, yes,
Luke Jones 06:06
8whatever, asking a 41 year old guy, I don’t know well, 41
Nestor Aparicio 06:09
whatever it is, the victory grills, the victory 10 gallon, had the handshake with Dak Prescott and say, you got all the endorsements, but I beat your ass like all of that. Should to me 22 point lead. I’m nuts about Lamar running the ball there like I’m just that’s insane to me. Insane to me that he’s running with a 22 point lead on the road in the middle of third quarter, that they don’t have a better play than that at that point in the game. That, being said, the fact that he’s running up the middle at the two minute warning in the same game is in way further insane to me, because even when he did it, I thought, well though, yeah, he won’t be doing that later, because they’ll score again. It’ll be 35 like and this, they’ll laugh and go home. That’s what consistent teams do. That’s not what this football team did this week. Certainly, you know, they weren’t capable of beating Kansas City two weeks ago, even by tippy tippy toe, they weren’t capable of beating the Raiders last week, and they squandered a game. Now they have Buffalo and Cincinnati. They’re getting measured on all of this, but the consistency is the problem, and then that Lee and we can talk about the offensive line. We played better hardball. Hi, John, nice to hear from you. Last week, the fire horrible stuff in the aftermath of all of this and the fact that that graphic comes up, I literally thought to myself, like when this thing was starting to go the other way and they needed that zay flowers pass, because the they were in quicksand, and if the defense had to come back out on the field again, I have a feeling it wouldn’t have gone well, right? Like, literally, if there’s a flowers pass sales on Lamar, or something goes wrong there, they probably punked the ball, right? I mean, like, and we got a real situation on our hands to tie the game at the very least, right? So, like, I’m thinking to myself, I’m watching hardball sort of freak out on the sidelines, and I’m thinking, Oh, my God. I mean, you talk about it a franchise earthquake that’s never happened before, because they’re always pissing away games like this when they’re seven and two or, you know, Lamar throws a pick against the Giants late in the game, and they blow it, they still wake up five and two the next day, or they they don’t wake up oh and two all week, so much so that I’m hearing from the head coach and thinking about potentially going oh and three in front of Tom Brady after blowing A 22 point lead like that thing was teetering in a way that I’m like, Oh my God, I’ve not seen this from this fourth loss in a row. They went so far. See Lamar has never lost three games in a row, but they missed the championship game. They’ve lost. They were, had lost three games in a row, and were teetering with a 22 point lead that was down to three and needing to make a Flacco bold and back shoulder pass and and still needing Lamar to go sleight of hand to run to get a first down at the end of a football game. The C word consistency coaching, what I mean like, I don’t know. I mean, I don’t know, but you could praise the offense, but this fire, horrible thing that I get on Twitter, or whatever it’s, hahaha, whatever, but he’s closer to the end in the beginning, and an OH and three or one in three next Monday, or a one in four, it’s starting to get like this. Starts to feel sloggy, even when they win like I don’t know what I expect out of them Sunday night against buffalo. I really don’t. I know buffalo is decent, right? I mean, they’re good, you know, they’re fine. I shorter rest wherever it would be with them, and you could say, but I don’t expect them to just go freight train buffalo or since. Natty two weeks from now, out there, despite all of their turmoil, injuries, wherever we find, the Bengals a week from now, I’m these are really tough games, and if there’s three and Two Harbors going back to the Hall of Fame again, and Lamar is on MVP track, and it means Derek Henry’s running the ball, it means the defense is doing defensive things. Probably means Tucker’s making a couple of kicks the next two weeks, and it probably means our biggest problem, and I know you want to talk about this with the offensive line, right? Like all the rest of it, I feel like Hamilton’s banged up. Roquan will figure it out. The pass rush was decent. Van noise playing with two holes in his head. Um, Henry ran the ball like there’s signs of life here all the way through when you are up 22 points in the third quarter on the road against Dallas. But then there’s the what are we going to get next? And where’s the coaching and where’s the consistency in all of this? And I really think this offensive line, if you take anything bright out of the victory, like it awakened, and maybe these are the five guys that’ll be here for the next couple of weeks,
Luke Jones 11:00
we’ll see. I mean, it’s a week to week League, right? I mean, we can try to, you know what happened against Kansas City, and then what happened against Vegas, and then you see what happens to the Raiders The following week, and Dallas gets blown out by the saints, and then the saints look so incredibly average against Philadelphia at home. I mean, you don’t know, right? I mean, you’re still trying to figure this out, and that’s part of this. I think the elements are there for this team to be very good. I still think that. But, yeah, I’ll look at the offensive line, and this is where they deserve some praise, you know, for as much as we were beaten up, and not just when I say we, not just you and me, everyone you know, fans, other and I mean national analysts looking at this offensive line and, you know, people questioning, why isn’t Roger Rosengarten playing, and where’s Ben Cleveland? And are they really going to stick with file Lele at right guard? You know, they went out and played and played well. Now I will stress, and we’ve talked about this, Lamar Jackson threw a career low number of passes on Sunday for games that he started and finished.
Nestor Aparicio 12:01
One of the reasons file a they look so good, I sure, and
8Luke Jones 12:05
look, and I don’t want to just pick on him individually, because, hey, he
Nestor Aparicio 12:08
did a nice job. Like, for as much as I’m going to crush, you know, people will crush somebody. Well, you’re like, why is he out there? Because they want a six foot, eight, 340, pound guy make making things happen for Derek Henry, so he can run for 25 yard, right? Like my gas. I mean, that’s I don’t, I guess,
Luke Jones 12:23
right at the same time, I’m not sure you’re not going to convince me that the way that they played on Sunday, first of all, they’re not gonna be able to win like that every week. And we, you know, we’re six years into this. You gotta be able to throw the ball and and have a functional passing game and things like that. And they did that last year. I mean, Lamar Jackson won MVP this, you know, he didn’t run for 1200 yards last year, right? So they did that. You know, they took steps forward in that way much more. So, you know, I think what we saw Sunday specifically was very much dependent on Micah Parsons, but also Dallas’s front just being really soft, not very physical. Clearly, didn’t want to tackle. We saw that. I mean, Derek, whether it’s Derek, Henry or Nelson, Aguilar or Lamar or Justice Hill, they didn’t want to tackle. I mean, they just did it that. And that’s something that I will say, because I made this comparison last week. And again, I want to be fair here. As much as we’re criticizing elements of this that warrant criticism, I also want to be fair here, because I made a comparison, and I said, not that I thought it was a carbon copy, let’s be very clear, but in some ways, the Cowboys in recent years, in some ways, have been a little bit like the Ravens in the sense that they’ve had a lot of regular season success, but they’ve gotten to January and they’ve fallen on their face now the Cowboys have been more extreme in that regard. For example, look how they played at home against the Packers last January. So I don’t want to say this was a carbon copy, but Sunday really illustrated the stark contrast in these two organizations in the sense that they both had their backs against the wall. The Ravens were owing to cowboys. Were one and one. I get that. You know, they weren’t owing two, but they had just been embarrassed by the New Orleans Saints in their home building. And you see how they came out and played compared to how the Ravens came out and played fourth quarter aside how they played the first three quarters, that, to me, was the biggest, you know, such an indictment on Dallas, and a contrast in these two organizations, that as much as, yes, you are 1,000% correct in the sense that they need to find more consistency, there’s no doubt about that, if this team wants to be 12 and five and having a chance to be the number one seed and playing deep into January and finally breaking through and getting to a Super Bowl. We all, we all know that at the same time, you can’t do all that in September anyway. No matter how great you might look right now, or how mediocre you might look, or how inconsistent you might look, it’s a long ways away. But you know to see that. From Dallas, but also to the Ravens credit, crediting their offensive line and how much those guys heard. And I mean, Derek Henry mentioned it. Lamar Jackson mentioned it. I mean, those guys were shouting out Daniel fowlele, do I think this means Daniel fall Lele is going to be fine moving forward, far from it. I have no idea. I But, because it’s not as though this game is now, okay, this is who you are in the first two weeks. Didn’t matter, right? Let’s
Nestor Aparicio 15:23
8see pass block 32 attempts, and that’s Lamar gets blown up three times because of it, and replace them. We’re
Luke Jones 15:30
back to talking about it the way we did two weeks ago, right?
Nestor Aparicio 15:33
And that’s about playing from not playing from behind, right? Because you’re up, they’re only going to pass when they’re behind. I don’t think they’re going to be a primary pass first offense in any way, based on the way they’ve constructed the offensive line, based on the money they’ve spent in the running game, based on the fact that they want Lamar running the ball, because he’s running the ball like a running back. You know, he’s touching the ball a lot, moving around, and design plays. And I don’t want to say Greg Roman’s back, but certainly the game plan on Sunday was a lot more Greg Roman than it was Todd Monken, we’re going to distribute the ball and move it around. I don’t know where the tight ends are in this if you’re not going to pass the ball, or if you don’t want to pass the ball, or you don’t need to pass the ball second, you know, second and one hand the ball to Derrick Henry, 12 more yards, right? Like, maybe you don’t need to pass the ball, and they didn’t. They got a 22 point lead without passing the ball and on the road. By the way, that NFC thing’s weird, right? That it’s uncanny, isn’t it?
Luke Jones 16:32
I mean, I mean Dallas specifically considering what happened to them the week before against the saints. I wasn’t surprised by that, but we’ve talked about this Lamar let Lamar Jackson led offense. I think first of all, the Ravens have had plenty of games like that against AFC opponents as well. Let’s be clear. One, you have to have the personnel. Two, you have to, you have to have some familiarity with it. And if you don’t, and if you can have the best scout team look in the world, in your mind, it’s not Lamar Jackson, it just isn’t. So that’s just such a different element. But you know, I mean, I hear everything you’re saying. First of all, they’re going to have to throw the football this year. You’re not going to do this every week. I mean, you’re just not. And I don’t say that to be disparaging about what they did specifically Sunday, like I said, with the way Dallas had, the way their front had looked, the way their front seven had played the previous week, absolutely run all over them and neutralize Micah Parsons rushing the passer and DeMarcus Lawrence rushing the passer. I there was a good plan. I don’t think that’s the plan every week moving forward. So that’s, that’s where we still come back to, okay, how does this offensive line build on what they’re what they did? How do they build on this? You know, the run blocking looked better. You know, I think you saw a lot of zone. You saw them running to the edges, a lot that I think that’s going to be, I have that absolutely, I think is going to be the key. That’s what Derrick Henry’s always done best. You know, so much of Derek Henry is a misconception. As far as what he truly does best, it’s not really running between the tackles stretch and getting him to the perimeter, right? Yeah, yeah. So that’s not to say you can’t do it at all, or that you shouldn’t be able to do that at all. I mean, that’s still something that I have a concern about against more talented defensive fronts, but for what, guys always have to take a side
8Nestor Aparicio 18:24
angle. I’m seeing this. You know that when he cuts like that, it’s not about him Earl campbelling and carrying linebackers, it’s about him slashing with those thighs and you having to come at him from the side. And if you don’t have the right angle, even if you have the right angle, you might not have leverage. And he’s got that stiff arm right. And so, hey, dude, my love affair with Derek. I loved him first. Tell Chad, tell John, tell them all. Tell Derek, tell King Henry that I I called him His Highness when I was shopping Houston Oilers jerseys in the off season. So, I mean, I’m a believer in what they’re putting down and how to do it. I’m just not a believer that Lamar needs to be this whole idea was for Lamar not to be doing that as much. And to your point, in the month in offense, distributing the ball as the MVP of the league. I’m just not sure they have the right chops for that on the offensive line to do both the way Marshall yonda Could, or Kevin Zeitler, or, you know, name anyone that’s not six, eight and 340, pounds, which is his body’s not built to do that.
Luke Jones 19:38
Well, they’ve got to figure out how to do that, because you’re going to have to do that to have to do that to win a Super Bowl. You’re going to have to do all it’s got to be balanced, right? You got to be able to do you got to be able to play different ways. I mean, we saw this, right? I mean, Kansas City was able to shut down their running game, not entirely because Lamar scrambling became their running game, but, you know, you’re handing it to Derrick. Henry didn’t work it quite as well. That. Game, right? It didn’t work as well between the tackles against the Raiders, until they finally got outside on a couple plays as the second half went on. So you’ve got to be able to do it. You’ve got to be able to have balance that they’re still needing to figure out this offensive line. I’m still not remotely convinced that the group that we saw starting on Sunday is going to be the group that’s starting the second weekend of January or the third weekend of January, but for what they needed to do Sunday, which was they were in a desperate spot. To your point, the idea of falling to zero and three, the idea of being in a position now where everyone’s questioning you between the years, and everyone’s questioning what’s under the hood, and everyone’s questioning, you know all those questions then about who’s getting the football and all the different things you want to talk about, right? That that can create dissension within a locker room. You avoided that by winning on Sunday, and you did it the way you needed to do it, and the way the smartest way to do it against that Dallas front that, again, soft, that’s a soft football team. And I could even speak to Cowboys fans about that. One of my cousins, who’s in his early 50s, and one of the oldest Cowboys fans I know, last 30 years, I’ve been hearing him say the Cowboys are soft, right? I mean, even when they’ve been good under Dak Prescott. So that was absolutely the right approach for Sunday, but it’s a week to week league in the next challenge, Buffalo coming in into town, you got to figure out a way to play 60 minutes. And yeah, Derek Henry and running the ball is going to be a part of that, but I’m guessing they’re going to need to make more plays in the passing game on Sunday. Look, Lamar Jackson, again, is prepared to do that. You know, he’s coming off of a season where he set career highs and passing yards and yards per pass attempt and completion percentage, but to your point, their offensive line’s got to raise their level to be able to do that at a more consistent level, across the board with the operations. So it’s still an incomplete football team. We know that very, very evident come the fourth quarter that not everything is perfect for this team, but the offensive line at the very least, yes, it was a step in the right direction. We’ll see what happens against buffalo. We’ll see what happens against Cincinnati. But they’ve got to, they’ve got to find more consistency. You said it. I mean consistency is key at this point. And you know the difference here, and I know you, you took some shots at him earlier in the game, and I give him credit for how he played as the game went on, specifically the fourth quarter. But Josh Allen and Joe burrow, they’re a step up from Dak Prescott. I mean, they just are, and Dak Prescott doesn’t stink or anything like that. But you know, Josh Allen coming into town, your defense better be ready to play 60 minutes, or you might not have, you know, we’ve, we’ve seen that. We saw this play out a couple years ago with a buffalo come back in Baltimore, in the slop, and it was rainy, and
Nestor Aparicio 22:55
I talk about Lamar running up the middle too much and running into linebackers. Josh Allen will run into roquan Smith if he wants to. I mean, not that he’ll win the battle or whatever, but roquan doesn’t see that either. Much either, right? Roquan doesn’t see a quarterback saying, I’ll run into your ass. You know what? I mean, like, so this is a different fourth quarter in a four point game on Sunday night. And Luke, I want to say one more thing before, because I will get the Buffalo, and I definitely want to talk about all that, and I’ll be at Costas on Friday, and we’re gonna be doing the pizza John’s thing. We got baseball all week, but, and I don’t want to let this pass, because you and I aren’t getting on a plane to go to Arlington to sit at the kids table next year well, where your clubhouse badge gets threatened and all. I’m not going to do any of that today. I’m just going to write a letter to Mr. Rubenstein. I’m sure he’ll fix things for me, because he’s big fan of Luis, oldest living Hall of Famer, by the way, Dallas soft. You know, I didn’t do a lot of Dallas last week. I didn’t even call Shireen, right? You know, Hall of Famer Shireen, I didn’t talk a lot of cowboys. Mark Messina is my cowboy buddy, my buddy. Dave Muir, you mentioned they’re like cockroaches. We all got one, the late great Saul Schwartz from hollowbird sports, who was my friend forever. Just guys from Pikesville. He lived and died Dallas. Messina is up in the middle of nowhere. I get it. Mura grew up in in Hillendale, and it was, I mean, the Cowboys people there, damn one much in 30 years. So if you have one in your life somewhere, they, you know what? I mean, send a prayer there. When? For next Sunday, and for Mike McCarthy. So I was gonna write, he’s a lame duck coach. He’s always, you know, he’ll be lame duck to leagues, not anymore, but you and I went to that complex last year, and I want you to speak to this, because I had Michael Galkin on last week. Michael retired from the industry after 15 years. He’s younger than you. He’s 38 and he did this. All he ever wanted to do was cover football, and I’ve known him for 50. Years, nobody was a kid, covering the chargers, covering the Raiders. He moved around franchises that moved he told the whole story. He lives in silver spring now. He’s gonna have a normal life. He’s got a daughter, a wife like all like being a normal guy, unlike you and me, having Chad Steele tell us where to stand and what time to be here, and having John decide what time practice is, and living your life around the whims of, you know, literally, sports teams and all of that. You and I took a day down in Arlington. We had some good barbecue, by the way, Zach, or there’s a reason we were at heart a barbecue in his hometown. They didn’t say it on the broadcast. It was Zach or his hometown too. Zach’s a Dallas guy. Unfortunate. Same thing with Brian rousse, very unfortunate. Get the hell out of there, and we went to the complex dude. I’ve been doing this my whole life, even though it’s not acknowledged by Chad Steele and Greg Bader, but acknowledged by everybody in the audience. I’ve been in hockey rinks in Columbia, watching guys trying to go play with Mario Lemieux. All my life I’ve been in I was in the dump out in Owings Mills when Tess endorsed trying to figure out where to put helmets. Literally, you know, police thing. I’ve been out when they build the training facility in Owings Mills, which you go in every day, and they’ve had two or three remodels out there. I’ve been thrown out for three years. I probably won’t recognize the building if I went in there at this point and everything’s Johnny Bravo to made for television now that Dallas experience down there, and what we saw in the two hours we walked around there, you say they’re soft. So first thing I thought of in the middle of the game, when they get their ass kicked, and all the players that leave there and go other places, and they’re like, Oh yeah, when I go to Owings Mills, it’s like, even though John’s a hard ass, and he’s, you know, his integrity is, you know, skinny, um, I they’re all about football out there, you know, I mean, like they’re just all about football. And I talked last week even about, like, getting rid of Westminster this week, by the way, you Luke, you want to listen to this? Okay? Because we’re friends in the real world. I sat for an hour with Reverend Al Hathaway and with Martin Knott on their podcast back in May like literally at the pool, 100 degrees early in the morning, cup of coffee in sandals, literally at a this beautiful pool in Vegas, and did an hour with them talking about the experience of being in this business and like, good things, bad things, things that have changed through the course of time. And I met, not just our treatment, but like that thing in Dallas, it’s a different world for football players. And I don’t know, like I was in Oakland five, six years ago when Del Rio was there, and it was, it was crappier than the old Owings Mills ever was. I mean, the blast had better facilities because at Hale mandated not the Orioles in spring training in 97 down in Florida, where, you know, Scott Erickson’s making milkshakes and they’re lifting dumbbells on the on the parking lot pavement, Cal Ripken and Roberto Alomar were doing that in 1997 like, what’s going on in Dallas is a whole training thing that to me when I watched it as a reporter, as somebody that’s done this for 40 years in every sport, everywhere. I’ve been in all of these facilities, and I’ve seen how they’ve all grown up and become, you know, the Nebraska football gym. And like all the sports, like all of it, all of it, but what Dallas has is a different level of Dubai. And I don’t it needs to be said the morning after we play them, because you and I did take a day to tour it. Now, I don’t even talk about it at all last week, but in the aftermath, you’re like, soft in Dallas. My uncle knows that. Everybody knows that go down there. Just I told Ravens fans, if you went down there and didn’t tour that thing, you really kind of missed out. I’m glad we did it. Yeah,
Luke Jones 28:50
8I mean, look, I you know, it’s not like I spent a full week there and got to see how the team actually functions and operates. We walked in the locker room
Nestor Aparicio 29:02
on a practice day. We did we come on, don’t act like we didn’t get the backstage. We had a backstage tour. We saw we saw the guts.
Luke Jones 29:10
We peaked in for three seconds. I mean, I guess my point, I don’t know how much of it’s that, and how much of it is like, Are you tough? Are you building a team the way you need to? I mean, the entire focus of their off season was, Oh, you got to sign CD lamb Oh, you got to sign Dak Prescott. What improvements did they make to their football team? Sure as heck, wasn’t it running back. I mean, took me wrong. I wouldn’t have given Tony Pollard a big deal, but you brought Zeke Elliott back, the guy you got rid of a couple years earlier because he was washed then. So, I mean, I think, if anything else about that facility, and look, it was beautiful. I mean, it’s a campus. It’s not just a training facility. It’s like, basically like a little town, like a village. Edge. It’s It’s remarkable, but that that franchise has such an aura of what they used to be, rather than what they’ve been, calling it a spade a spade, for what they’ve been for 30 years now, call a kid. I was a kid. I was a kid the last time they were in the championship game. The last time they won the Super Bowl, I was what that was, January of 96 I guess I was 12 years old. Can
Nestor Aparicio 30:30
I make a shameful admission next week? Can I make a shameful admission? I’m willing to do this. I
8Luke Jones 30:35
was never rooted for the Steelers, didn’t you?
Nestor Aparicio 30:39
I not only rooted for the Steelers. Let me say this, all right, I’m just, are you a priest? You know, you’re just a deacon, right? You’re not really a
Luke Jones 30:52
priest. I’m a deacon, yeah? Which is not, you know, I don’t preach.
Nestor Aparicio 30:56
8Can I confess sins to you?
Luke Jones 31:01
I mean, you could sure that’s not what we really do with my denomination, but sure you
Nestor Aparicio 31:11
I waved a Terrible Towel that day. My goodness, I’m never going to say that again. There. There is a picture of it. Dave pie, chat,
Luke Jones 31:22
just saw a purple lightning bolt strike right behind you.
8Nestor Aparicio 31:26
I better talk. Luke Jones is here. We will get serious about the baseball team, the Dallas thing. I just wanted to bring that up because we really did see it. And I’m telling you, dude, when the doors are 14 feet high and everything in there is made a marble and cherry wood and oak and all I could think about. I’ll leave you with this. Alright. Have you ever watched the the the football exploitation movies of the 70s? Have you seen semi tough? Have you seen North Dallas 40? I’m being serious. Not well. I mean, I could throw the the remake movie Burt Reynolds, The Longest Yard I could throw that in. But I’m not going to, because that was more like late I’m just talking about, like, North Dallas 40 with Nick Nolte and and Mac Davis in the hot tubs, right? You know, with the peeing in the hot tubs and they’re smoking weed, imagine that all those years ago, and semi tough. They went into a room to do s, and they got this German massage, toughness, toughness, toughness of the 70s. And take these pills I’ll make you feel better. And raiding the drug cabinets, all of the 70s stuff about toughness and the sealers and Jack Lambert and all those, John festa and football is a rare game, and then you show up in Dallas, and it’s like, Dude, I’ve stayed at the Four Seasons. I’m not bragging. I’ve been at some Fritz carltons. I’ve been in some really nice places in my life. I’m blessed. Those weren’t the places where I built wnst. You know what I mean? Those weren’t the places where the shit gets done real, the hard work gets done. And when I was down there looking around, I’m thinking there’d be some special people to come in here and work here and win a championship here. Because I think the idea of being there and walking around as, oh, man, I want to live at the Four Seasons all day. I don’t know. I don’t know. Dude, I’m just saying, I mean, and I’m a poor kid from Dundalk who appreciates those places when I, you know, when I do visit, but there’s a point where, if you live there, I wouldn’t want to do this every day. Wouldn’t be as important to me. So just That’s, yeah, we call these wise conversations. That’s just my wisdom, and that’s how I feel about the Cowboys. And I’m not saying that North Dallas 40 is the way to go, or what the way the Ravens threw it away. Other people do it. I’m just saying like I walked in there and it, it’s, it smelled like old money and it smelled like my bread was going to get butted, and it didn’t. It didn’t smell like hard work to me, that that I’ll drop the mic on, that you can respond however you wish.
Luke Jones 34:11
That brand Trumps what that brand was originally built on, which was winning. And go back to the 90s, go back to Roger stalbach, all that. That’s
Nestor Aparicio 34:18
an interesting for they are they? They are they
Luke Jones 34:21
8are they are living off of that. And living off of that trumps actually adding to that legacy. Did
Nestor Aparicio 34:31
I just admit from a farm? Did I admit that? I
Luke Jones 34:34
think you did. I You’re never gonna live that down, by the way. I mean that that’s even and I know you. You know you, you like Mike Tomlin, you’ve done existed the Ravens. That’s what I’m saying. I mean,
Nestor Aparicio 34:47
it’s just that’s wild. That’s how much I hate the Cowboys. Dude. That’s really a reflection. Neil O’Donnell played for the Terps. I try, yeah, I tried, I tried and more. And you know what? Marvin was there. So. Can. Oh, you know what? Rod, my favorite football player, Rod Woodson, was there. So there, all right, I’m gonna admit it to Woodson next time He comes on the show, after he’s done working for the ravens, when I can go back to being his friend again. Luke Jones is here. He’s Baltimore, Luca. I am Nestor. We’re gonna get some baseball in. I promise. We’re going to be on Friday at Costas. I am wearing my state fair shirt. We postpone the State Fair show with Angela also Brooks, hoping to make that right before the election. Larry Hogan has an offer out as well. I am non denominational about all things, including football. We’ll come back talk some baseball. Luke and I are with it. It’s Baltimore positive. We’re playing the Yankees in their big games this week too. I.
