How important are “the fans” to Steve Bisciotti and the Baltimore Ravens?

In a conversation about leadership styles and the tone set by Baltimore Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti this week, Bill Cole and Nestor take a 30-year view on the franchise and its responsibility to the community. Will a new head coach change the culture in Owings Mills? Will Lamar Jackson win a Super Bowl? There’s plenty of interest in the local NFL franchise as it transitions from two decades of John Harbaugh to whatever is next…

Nestor Aparicio and Bill Cole discussed the leadership and tone set by Steve Bisciotti for the Baltimore Ravens. They criticized Bisciotti’s infrequent public appearances and his remote management style, which has led to a disconnected and unengaged fan base. They highlighted Bisciotti’s lack of cultural responsibility, citing past incidents like the Ray Rice scandal and the Justin Tucker controversy. Nestor expressed frustration with Bisciotti’s indifference towards fan opinions and media scrutiny. Bill suggested that Bisciotti’s wealth and distance from the team have created a culture of secrecy and disengagement, affecting the team’s overall performance and fan relations.

• [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Provide Bill Cole a show-sponsored coffee mug and confirm delivery or pickup with him
• [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Schedule and prepare the next show topic focused on politics (Venezuela) and confirm participants/format

Leadership and Coaching Changes in the Ravens

• Nestor Aparicio introduces the topic of the Ravens’ new coach and the leadership within the franchise.
• Bill Cole suggests discussing the leadership aspect, which Nestor agrees to, despite his initial reluctance.
• Nestor expresses frustration with the fans’ lack of influence and the focus on getting a new head coach.
• Bill Cole emphasizes the importance of leadership in the context of the Ravens’ current situation.

Fan Engagement and Press Conference Observations

• Nestor discusses his disinterest in attending Zoom calls with coaches and his skepticism towards fan engagement.
• Bill Cole believes Steve Bisciotti could have better addressed fan questions during the press conference.
• Nestor and Bill Cole discuss the genuineness of Bisciotti’s press conference performance and his infrequent public appearances.
• Nestor shares his personal experiences with Bisciotti and his observations on the owner’s lack of engagement with the fans.

Cultural Responsibility and Ownership Style

• Nestor criticizes Bisciotti’s remote ownership style and its impact on the team’s culture.
• Bill Cole argues that Bisciotti’s distance from the team allows other leaders to shape the culture.
• Nestor compares Bisciotti’s approach to other NFL owners and highlights the lack of cultural responsibility within the Ravens’ organization.
• Bill Cole suggests that Bisciotti’s wealth and distance from the team have led to a disconnected and unengaged culture.

Historical Context and Personal Experiences

• Nestor recounts his interactions with John Harbaugh and the impact of Harbaugh’s leadership on the team.
• Bill Cole and Nestor discuss the differences in leadership styles between Harbaugh and Bisciotti.
• Nestor shares a personal anecdote about Bisciotti’s attitude towards wealth and the benefits of being a billionaire.
• Bill Cole and Nestor reflect on Bisciotti’s evolving personality and its impact on the team’s dynamics.

Impact of Ownership on Team Culture

• Nestor argues that Bisciotti’s remote ownership style has led to a culture of hiding and denying issues within the team.
• Bill Cole discusses the importance of ownership presence in shaping the team’s culture and values.
• Nestor shares his frustration with the team’s handling of scandals like the Ray Rice incident and the lack of accountability.
• Bill Cole and Nestor agree that Bisciotti’s distance from the team has allowed for a culture of secrecy and disengagement.

Future of the Ravens and Leadership Transition

• Nestor and Bill Cole discuss the potential impact of a new head coach on the team’s culture and performance.
• Bill Cole suggests that the new head coach will likely shape the team’s culture, given Bisciotti’s remote ownership style.
• Nestor expresses skepticism about the new coach’s ability to change the team’s culture and performance.
• Bill Cole and Nestor agree that the new coach will face significant challenges in navigating the team’s existing culture.

Final Thoughts and Reflections

• Nestor and Bill Cole reflect on the broader implications of Bisciotti’s ownership style for the Ravens’ future.
• Bill Cole emphasizes the importance of ownership presence and engagement in shaping a positive team culture.
• Nestor shares his personal experiences and observations on the Ravens’ leadership and culture over the years.
• Bill Cole and Nestor conclude the discussion by acknowledging the challenges ahead for the Ravens and the need for better leadership and engagement.

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

Ravens leadership, Steve Bisciotti, fan engagement, press conference, John Harbaugh, culture, ownership, remote management, media relations, Ray Rice scandal, Justin Tucker, NFL culture, fan connection, head coach hiring, team performance.

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SPEAKERS

Nestor Aparicio, Bill Cole

Nestor Aparicio  00:01

Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T, am 1570 towels of Baltimore. We are Baltimore positive, positively into the waiting is the hardest part is Tom Petty once saying the Ravens will have a new coach soon, Luke Jones will be in Owings Mills when the purple plumes of smoke come out above the dungeon. This guy sponsors our wnst tech service. He is Bill Cole from cold roofing and Gordian energy. He is my home city here and but I haven’t had you on the show in like 10 weeks, 12 weeks last time I had you on the Ravens one and five, and then we’re five and one, and we haven’t talked a lot of sports because it sort of bores you to some degree, because you’re like, we like talking about the whole reason you became a sponsor was so I would talk about charitable things. Have a cup of Super Bowl, which we’re doing in two weeks. Talk about the world, have Johnny o on, have Republicans, Democrats, city, county, all that. I do all of that. But every 18 years, can we just focus on getting a freaking head coach around here and fixing the football team? Billy? Football team.

Bill Cole  01:03

Billy, can we? Well, no, but we can talk about the leadership that goes along with all of that stuff.

Nestor Aparicio  01:07

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Well, that’s where I focused it, and that makes me a bad guy. So let everybody know this is your idea to talk leadership, not mine. Okay, fair enough following that. All right, all right, so you’re bringing the leadership conversation in because I had Raskin on and he was doing a little fanboy out. So you’ve witnessed most of the press conference and this and that. Let’s get into it. Because I have, I slept on it, which I hadn’t when I talked to Luke about it, and I’m just sort of like, the fans don’t matter that much. I’m checked out. I’m not going to get on the Zoom calls, because I don’t, you know if I get on one, I gotta get on all, like, why would I want to talk to Jim Schwartz about football for an hour, or Matt Nagy about, like, it’s insane, but like, I looked at it and I’m like, some fans just like that. He said, oh shit. About Mike Tomlin, good. He’s one of us. He cusses like a guy from Glen Burnie, like, I don’t, I didn’t get it. I like, but where are you?

Bill Cole  02:02

So I think that he could have answered the fan question a little better, right? Like, I think that even if you know that the reality of the situation is that his people have all the data to try and make the best decision, and that us as fans, we’re just armchair quarterbacking. So what we think really doesn’t matter. I still think that that’s sort of an opportunity for you to say, like, yeah, you know, some people are going to love it, some people are going to hate it, but like, everybody’s going to fall in love with this guy, because we’re going to win another Super Bowl, right? So like, like, you have, you have a chance in there to sort of build a connection point to the fans, because we do care, right? And I mean, 18 years of John, you get pretty used to him looking around. Brian Billick probably started all that. Well, maybe Ted marchbird, I don’t know who, but like characters in that role, right? That that people connect with and then love to criticize, and, you know, whatever, and that’s just part, that’s part of the fun of the sport. So for him to maybe not have a better, sort of fake answer to me, that that just speaks to, sort of the the genuineness of how bashadi showed up, which, you know,

Nestor Aparicio  03:27

I had he was not rehearsed. I mean, there’s no question about that. I had to ask

Bill Cole  03:31

you, like, eight years since we’ve actually heard from him, like, that’s crazy to me.

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Nestor Aparicio  03:36

That’s inappropriate, and nobody’s around to tell him that that’s inappropriate, yeah, so he just decided I should only come after we lose him when the building’s on fire. I don’t know what to say, man, and especially when Sashi Brown is a zero as a leader, a zero on the streets, you know, zero in the media, zero in my life, to sit here and answer questions on his behalf, behind the scenes, in front of the scenes in front of the public at social events, when I run into these people, like, I ran into Katie Griggs last week, like, I don’t know, dude. Like, there was nothing about it that made you or me want to run back down there and give them money. And dude, we’ve given them a phone number. Like, when I think about the hundreds of 1000s of dollars that I have put into Raven’s tickets here, in a way, just the tickets, let alone the flights and the hotels and whatever money I made on road trips, and whatever money I spent on road trips and fried chicken and beer and whatever sponsorships and whatever came my way as someone who makes a living in this space, which and has been boxed out because they don’t want questions from people like me, because I put some pretty good questions up Baltimore. Pause, you might want to read them, Bill, but I looked at it and thought, like, to my I said to my wife, she came and said, How did it go? And like, my wife knows Steve. You know what I mean? Like, I know Steve. Steve’s been in my home. Like, I don’t know what this version is, but you said. Something to me, and I’m going to let you say it your way, because you and I, people know we’re friends in the real world. We even though I don’t have a damn coffee mug, you still owe me. I’m drinking out of a non sponsored coffee mug because I broke yours. By the way, Bill Cole from cold roofing series, which is why I’m being flippant. You said when we got on the line. I’m like, Hey, you want to talk about AI. You will talk about life. How about that Trump thing? Hey, how about people in the city? How about people look like me getting thrown in? How about the lady that got shot and minister? You’re like, no, no, I want to talk about bishati, you know. And I’m like, Oh, you do. And you said he comes off as I’ll let you, yeah, you’re gonna say

Bill Cole  05:43

an extremely wealthy person who is spending most of their time managing their money, which is probably totally what happens to everyone that reaches his level of wealth, the managing of the wealth becomes the job like I don’t. Number one, he gets positive points for me because he he was genuine in the press conference. So even if that genuineness is someone that I don’t want to know better or don’t like you’re still I want you to be genuine as a

Nestor Aparicio  06:17

human well, he showed up for the first time in eight years. The first question is, where the hell have you been, kind of, sort of right

Bill Cole  06:23

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out of the game. Yeah, I don’t know. I don’t think that anybody in the room, really, dude, he came in ready to fight. He he was, he was, and I’m not even in the room, he was nervous. It looked like he was nervous or, or at least to your point, preparing for a confrontation,

Nestor Aparicio  06:40

which he tapped the mic so much that I had to Google the psychology of what’s happening. I literally took a screenshot of like he was agitated before it began like I literally, and I don’t know where that we don’t want to spend this fighter in him comes out looking like he wants to swing dude. These your customers, and this is what I used to speak to his former coach about and his former coach bird up. And I saw John, you know, John get that thing going in his chin, like I said to John early on, like 2009 or 10. And I’m thinking to myself, this is Kevin Byrne’s job, and it probably pissed Kevin Byrne off, but I’m having cereal with John in the cafeteria at seven o’clock in the morning, and he got pissed off. I said something about special teams, and he lost his mind, which is what he said to Steve, in the end, I was a special teams coach, and you loved me. And that’s pretty much what I said to my breakfast. But it really pissed him off in 2009 But John, when I said to John, after watching it for like, a year, you know. And knowing Brian the way I knew Brian and Brian was about to become my partner was, was my partner at that point, nine or 10, I just remember this vivid I remember a lot of things about John Harbaugh. I remember John Hart. John Harbaugh affected me. I’ll remember John Harbaugh the rest of my life. He was the guy that came in here, lucky to get a gig and left with $200 million and with and saying that I’m not a media member, which is tells me all I need to know about John Harbaugh. But Harbaugh said to me that day breakfast, just he and I. I said, Who do you think your audience is when you’re in there with the media, like we’re in there after a game, before the game. When you’re at a press conference, who do you think your audience is, except my players. I’m talking to my players. I’m like, John, that’s what that’s for the auditorium. Like you’re talking to the fans like and sometimes I had to pull Brian would honestly tell you. And you know, Brian and I would go into Brian sometimes, and he’d say something, flip it to Mike Preston, and I would go into him after the game, and I say, Brian, that wasn’t, that wasn’t cool. Like, they’ll take it out on the media guys. I mean, I don’t like Preston either, but don’t, you know, like be above you’re talking to the fans, and Brian knew that. I mean, Brian went to school for PR. I mean, Brian’s one of the you know, I love Brian, but, but John, I don’t think, ever understood that. And I think Steve goes in there. I don’t know who he thinks his audience is. You know what I mean? Like, if he’s really thinking about who the audience is,

Bill Cole  09:15

I think it’s similar to John’s answer. So if the biggest risk in your day to day is that your players see some clip on social media and decide they don’t feel like practicing hard, or they’re going to hold out, or they’re going to start dissension in the locker room. That is a much bigger risk to the longevity of your career, then pissing the fans off. Because, as we can see, the company makes money because of the TV deal, right? And the people come. Maybe they don’t come as much as they used to, but they still come. There is a perception from the NFL that the bucket of fans is. Is endlessly deep, right? And that all focus needs to be internal, and how they get these players, because it’s such an overwhelming job to try and take a guy who’s been the best at what he does since he was seven years old, right to now, all of a sudden realize that he isn’t the best, and that he’s got to get better. So that could be that’s definitely part of the perception problem for Steve, where, where I think we, and I think we’ve talked about this in the past, like, you know, I can admit to making this mistake on a infant, infant, tiny, little level relative to bishati, but like, it sounds like a really good idea to run a parking lot for Raven’s game days and throw a tailgate party, right, and try and make a little money. I remember

Nestor Aparicio  10:58

when you called me with this idea, by the way, right? And that sounds like a great just to confirm that I really I’m your consciary Sometimes, so correct. But the

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Bill Cole  11:06

idea is that when you take something fun and you turn it into a business, it erodes the fund and it becomes work.

Nestor Aparicio  11:14

You think the fist fights I broke up in the same parking lot that I did a year, 10 years before, with Steelers and Ravens fans underneath the stony case sign that are now apartments down there. And when the landlord came out and said, I had to grade the land to get the water, like, like, yeah, no, this is no longer about chasing girls drinking beer and watching football, He winks.

Bill Cole  11:33

So for Steve, he took something that was fun, right? He was a fan, and he turned it into a business. Then he has spent. How many years has he been the owner?

Nestor Aparicio  11:44

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26 now in and out. 22 as the soul.

Bill Cole  11:48

That makes me feel really old. So

Nestor Aparicio  11:51

David left in oh, five, yeah, okay.

Bill Cole  11:53

He put all these layers in between him, right? And he wants them to just do their job. So he works remote he’s in the background. He invented remote work because he’s trying. He’s trying to get back to that fan place, right? And that fan place for him only shows up when you win the Super Bowl now, right? Because every other outcome comes with questions or press conferences or firing.

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Nestor Aparicio  12:23

It could come, but there’s 31 other places where it could come with joy and community and a sense that I live here, and then I’m not a remote owner, and then I give a damn, and I’m gonna show up more than every eight years. And you know, he looks burdened,

Bill Cole  12:37

right, because the only time they ever call you right, you’ve built this organization now, the only time they ever call him is when the video Ray Rice comes out. Well, when? Because, you know, when.

Nestor Aparicio  12:49

That’s because their culture is bad to begin with. That’s because their culture is bad to begin with. So that’s what I wrote about last week, and he doesn’t acknowledge that, because the winning masks sit and by the way, this is an amazing stat. Are you ready for this bill? I looked this one up. The team was worth in 2017 going into 18, $2.3 billion Do you know what Forbes and sportico says it’s worth now, six sticks. So he has made $4 billion since the last time he appeared in front of the fans,

Bill Cole  13:32

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which is a burden that’s really hard to hear. But like he had, there’s no joy per billion for him in this clearly my sense, that’s my sense, right, right? That’s my sense.

Nestor Aparicio  13:45

And he once told me when he was strumming guitar in my condo late at night. You remember when you know he comes to my house? It was 20 years ago. I remember, I remember every part. It was 2006 before the Kyle bowler, Indianapolis, Monday night game was after a journey concert at Rams Head, he insisted he had to pee. And I had a house with a bathroom, and he’s like, jump in, take me to your place. I need to pee. And the next thing you know, two hours later, show me the guitar on my couch. And he he said to me that night about being wealthy, he said, and this, we were looking at this literally, this is where I lived. He looked out the window. I showed him the stadium. He had never seen it from that angle. He likes glowing purple. I was kind of new at that point. He was a new owners, 2006 he was just new to it. And he said to me, the only thing I can do that you can’t do is get a plane and fly somewhere that you can’t fly right now. Every other thing you have the ability to do, you wanted a limo and go to a concert in DC. You could have it. You want to fly to California with your wife. You’ll go do it. You want to go. You just went to Australia. You like, like, he’s like, You can do anything you want to do that you really want to do in your life. You want to play around the golf and go play around the golf. You want. To go play it in Florida, like you could do everything you want to eat a steak tonight. You can have a steak tonight. Everything in the world. I’m a billionaire, but the only thing that’s really a benefit to me is I can drop a dime and get my own plane and fly somewhere other than that. He literally could not say to me 20 years ago what the benefit of having so much more money would be than you and I, like, literally, I and that’s the way he portrayed it to me, flippantly, just like, What You See Is What You Get on the press conference right. Like, I just think his personality over the more money he’s gotten, it’s very Trumpian, it’s obstinate, it’s not attractive. It’s not attractive to women at all. And I know you have some thoughts about that as well, but, but what the checked out, the remote and the burden part and the belligerent part that I talk about, like all of that, can I be really, I think it’s sad. I feel I like it’s the same way I felt about Angeles as I get older, I’m not angry with Steve, mad at Steve, I just think it’s so sad that this isn’t more joyous for him, because I’m telling you, watching it, there’s nothing about it that made it feel more joyous for me, and as someone who’s invested my life in doing it and saying it, oh, I did all of that, and this guy’s made billions of dollars, and I’m locked out, And he’s not answering questions, and I’m the village ass on on social media, because I got locked out somehow, because they don’t have any sense of cultural responsibility. Because, have you met the owner? He’s checked out. You know? He said the hardball last year, I watched this 30 minute piece that he Harbaugh and bishati. It was a year ago. It was last March at the owners meetings, they sat with Garrett downing from the website. And it’s just uncomfortable seeing them together in a general sense, knowing both of them like the way they really are on the set together, even for their own company, how awkwardly weird it was, and bishati making jokes about horrible salary and, like, just, I just signed you, you’re making more money than me, you know, like, and I watched that before it got going, and he said something to HAR ball, it’s life or death for John, it’s not life or death for me. He said that 11 months ago, and now I find a guy in the hiring cycle who feels that way, and I would even think like, I don’t know, maybe Jim Schwartz or Kevin Stefanski thinks it’s a great idea that the owner is checked out. Might not be up their ass, but if they’re one in 40 owners, going to be up your ass, and if the stadium’s emptied out and doesn’t fill in, the owner’s going to be up your ass

Bill Cole  17:39

and win a Super Bowl in five or six years? Are you getting fired like that? That was,

Nestor Aparicio  17:44

but that’s the job for every coach taking the gig here, right? You better hope it’s not one or two years and Lamar, something, something, something, and then that really and Eric, the cost is on the way out. Steve’s like, I’m done. This isn’t fun. I’m selling the team to the gypsies. You’ll be you’ll be wishing you had me. You’ll do worse than me. And maybe he’s right. I mean, I’m looking at Rubenstein versus Angelo said, I don’t, you know, like I’m looking at it, but you’ve had a masculine thought about how it looked to you,

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Bill Cole  18:11

yeah, but I want to keep like, I think what you saw in that press conference was him like it was, I think they probably are friendly, John and Steve, like, I think they after 18 years, right? And, oh,

Nestor Aparicio  18:25

I think they love each other. I don’t think there’s any question about that

Bill Cole  18:28

so well. But if they loved each other, I don’t know why sitting with him in an interview would be awkward or give off weird vibes, like, if, if you truly do care about that person, it should have, should have seemed better. But anyway, it

Nestor Aparicio  18:41

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seems like a billionaire and is $200 million coach trying to keep his job. It feels like, by the way, Luke reported to me for the first time ever at a press conference. Looks like it all the PR people had earpieces. It was like a CI. It was like cash. Patel showed up like just the whole optics of the press conference itself was uniquely unique to it, in that there it’s just all image, dude, you know what I mean?

Bill Cole  19:12

Shut it down. Shut it down. X, fill X, fill X, fill. We don’t want to answer that question. I don’t know. I think he, he went out of his way to do right by John, like the things that he said about John’s leverage in any, you know, job search conversation, like he, he, he didn’t have to say all that stuff. And I think that was his a friend doing a friend a solid like he just said, take a year off. I’ll pay you. I don’t care. You know, go enjoy it with your wife, or you have the most leverage that you’ll probably ever have in getting a job. So go get a job, like he did right by him. But you you mentioned culture and like you. So culture comes from the top right. The top is remote. The top is working on and these are all like we said, we don’t know what really gets him out of bed. So we don’t know what he’s he’s driving for. Jerry Jones is very out front with what he’s chasing. Steve seems less so, but like he’s Steve is working on building enough distance so that he can go to the game as a fan again and enjoy it. And I don’t know if that’ll ever happen, but it’s what he seems to be building. Right? If I build enough distance, I can get back to just the genuine fun of rooting for my team and watching sports, but that

Nestor Aparicio  20:41

he can’t see how powerful he is, just how differently Eric the Costa purports himself when he’s next to him on a podium, how uncomfortable Eric looks at various times. And Eric loves him, and he loves Eric, but it is very much you work for effing God. Don’t Forget it. And he walks into the room as that and that undo itself is onerous, dude, it’s heavy.

Bill Cole  21:09

That distance that Steve’s creating means that culture comes from that next tier down right, your head coach, your president and your GM. And even in that situation where let’s just, I know you’re going to disagree with this premise, oh, I’m

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Nestor Aparicio  21:32

going after you on this so go ahead. Go, come on. I’m looking over your shoulder and I’m going to go after you. But go

Bill Cole  21:37

ahead, let’s just pretend for a second that all three of those positions are filled by people with the exact same culture, mission, values. You know, all three of them, they’re still going to deliver every day in a slightly different way, which will create conflict inside the culture, right? That’s why they say culture comes from top down. Because if the boss doesn’t care about this, if the boss doesn’t care about the fans, because in this singular situation, the fans really don’t have anything useful to offer relative to the head

Nestor Aparicio  22:20

coach, other than their money, other than their money? Well, just just about the head

Bill Cole  22:23

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coach, like, I don’t need the opinion of all my fans to find the best head coach. I don’t need that. I haven’t I would agree with that, okay, but it still doesn’t matter, because the statement that was made was that their opinion doesn’t matter. So if the next three level, the next three guys, right? The head coach, the GM and the president, only hear the words that the fans don’t matter. How do you think they’re going to behave? And that, you know, so Steve isn’t responsible for the culture because he’s not there enough to actually impact the culture, but that, by default, means that he’s responsible for the culture. Because of his distance, he is allowing three other people to have impact, like Ozzy Newsome was like, culturally better than I think Eric can be right, because Ozzy Hall of Fame, you know, tight end, like came from, I don’t know the man. My perception of him is, he is like salt of the earth. He is and like that, moves throughout the organization, right? Every interaction that he has with all the people,

Nestor Aparicio  23:38

Eric comes with respect, because Ozzy is a respectful person, right?

Bill Cole  23:41

And Eric is a different person, right? Eric’s path was different. Eric wanted to be in the football business. You know what? I mean? Like he got he grew through the ranks. He learned the job from Ozzy, one of the best like, so just his whole persona and and what he gives off from a culture standpoint, is going to be different than what Ozzy was. Dashi Brown is not Dick Katz, right? Say, whatever you want, good, bad and different. They’re different people. We’re going to get a new head coach. It’s going to be different than John Harbaugh. John Harbaugh was different than Brian Billick, who was different than Ted March, Broda and blah, blah, blah, and but when the owner is not involved, then these people are left to assert their own perception or how they want the culture to be, and they hire the other people that are supportive of the way they want the culture to be. Let me ask you.

Nestor Aparicio  24:39

Let me ask you this. I’m looking over your show, by the way. Bill Koco’s here. I see your dad picture behind you, like in your on the Zoom. How many kids you got? Three, all right, so they all get together. You go in the house and something happens in the backyard, and forget their age. It doesn’t even matter. That’s not even the point. Something happens in the backyard. That’s bad do, and they know they should tell you about it. They know they should tell you about it, but do they tell you about it? Do they solve it? Do they cover it up? Do they bury it in the backyard, hide it and say we’re never going to tell dad about that? Blood finprint, right? Like that is dangerous for dad when dad has to pay the bills and the insurance and the cops knock on dad’s door, or the tax man, or whatever the thing would be that would bring accountability to dad, that the kids would have hidden something I’m telling you on the Ray Rice thing, and I’m telling you on the Justin Tucker thing, and I’m telling you on other things in the building, and I am my own God’s witness of being a customer, a fan that cannot, in any way rationally explain to you as my one of my best friends, what Chad steel is represented and what they’ve done that none of it makes any sense at all to me. Even when he tells me about it, I laugh in his face because it’s, it’s, it is so underhanded, and it’s so disingenuous, just all of it so Chad steel, I don’t know what else to say. You’d have to talk to him a little bit or ask around, but there is no going to dad when Ray Rice punches his wife in the elevator. They their whole culture is to hide it and deny it, hide it, deny it, hide it, deny it. And that’s their culture. And I don’t know whether that comes from Dick Cass. I kind of thought it came from har ball, to be really honest with you. And I don’t know, you know, I really don’t know. I don’t think it would be Aussies, and I certainly didn’t think it would be Kevin burns, thought and Dick Cass being a lawyer, I mean, the place does feel like a place has been run by a lawyer for the last 20 years, right? Like, for sure that that, that is the vibe you get, but the vibe of bashati checking in and checking out, it’s really wild to see what showed up on the podium this week and where he is in his life. To your point in mind, he’s made billions of dollars by checking out. He’s made more money by far not being around than he was in tears firing Billick and taking everything I said on the radio or anybody Mike Preston seriously. I mean for crying out loud, if you care what Mike Preston writes, you care a lot more about the upper deck unloading than you should care about Mike Preston or me, but I asked way better questions than Mike Preston and and I’ve asked real questions about their culture, which goes back to the dad thing behind you, that when something goes wrong and Sashi and John and Eric know about it. What does it take to get to Steve to get a vote? Who votes? Who’s in charge? This is the football side. By the way. I’ve had media people who have been harassed by Chad steel, have Sashi brown say I’m not in charge of Chad. And I had John Harbaugh and Eric dicost to say Chad works for Sashi doesn’t work for me. So like, the amount of bullshit that comes out of their place in a general sense, does speak to absentee owner and too big to fail. And it really speaks back to the first thing you said to me that you won’t admit on the air, in regard to he’s just a wealthy dude. He’s got a lot of money, and they work for a wealthy dude, and they can keep their gig, and money’s flowing in and wins are flowing in. Doesn’t matter what Ray Rice did or Justin Tucker did that matter if the upper deck empty, doesn’t matter anything makes daddy feel good. Daddy feels good when the kids don’t come with the problems. Daddy feels good when the when things are buried in the backyard, and the kids keep it away, as long as Daddy never finds out about it, and Daddy can at least say when the cops never on the door, I didn’t know anything about it. The kids did it in the backyard. They did it your son’s How did you not tell dad about this? Like, I, like, I can’t explain it any better than that when crazy stuff’s going on in the building, like harassing me and throwing me out of my seats and pretending I’m not a media member to this day, and it’s pretending Jeff serebeck and Jameson Endsley are local reporters, and his favorite reporters, like, just picking on Jerry Coleman, just just all of it was just sort of like, Ah, you guys are buying and like, I’ll be back on the plane. Can we get that? Can we get this over with? Geez, I’m surprised. You guys are as nice to me as you’ve been, I thought you guys would be worse, you know. But the thing that I said to Luke that shocked me a little bit about him, was that it felt like, from the first question, that he didn’t even consider the questions that were going to come his way, like that, he was ready for some sort of fight. And when the questions came, it was almost like, Let me think about that. And I thought it’s kind of weird, you know, that he didn’t know the 12 questions he was getting, in a general sense, and at least have some full idea of what he was going to disclose and not which really speaks to the fact that he’s not even listening to Chad Steele, because Chad would be coaching him up and giving him a script. It clearly wasn’t. The case, right, that they wanted the optics of real Steve? Well, we got real Steve. You know, for sure, we got real Steve.

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Bill Cole  30:06

Research that we can do is like when they went from Billick to HAR ball, like, did they have a prepared statement? Because he didn’t have a prepared statement, you know, like he could have had a prepared statement. It could have been really short, just, hey, you know, after 18 years, like, we got to move on. He instead, he’s like, Well, your questions will cover it all. So let’s just get into it. Eric, do you want to you got a statement? And Eric kind of, like, scrambled a little bit, and was like, Yeah, well, yeah, blah, blah, blah. Like, Okay, questions. So I thought that was a weird opening like when Steve was a new owner, right? Did comms and PR say, Hey, here’s how we’re going to run this press conference. Here’s the here you come with this opening statement.

Nestor Aparicio  30:55

Let’s set the rest. Kevin, listen. I’ve known Kevin from the beginning. Kevin’s first thing off the boat was, don’t lie to him, dude, just don’t we be covering that. Don’t just don’t lie to him. That’s why I could never believe that Ray Rice holding his cell phone in front of her. Like lying was, like, whose idea like, to this day, it is one of the biggest PR disasters in the history of sports. Like most people look at it as a crisis management like, what not to do, prop your player up and say he’s innocent when you got video of him in a glass elevator beating his wife like and the last thing you wanted to talk about was how male it is that in any job search to say who the guy we’re gonna hire is that that’s just unprecedented in our culture, right? Yeah, I

Bill Cole  31:36

just thought that was interesting. Like, I don’t know why my brain went off, but yes, when they talk about the next head coach, every time it was, he him, and it’s like, not even, and I just don’t think in anywhere else in America, in corporate America, is that, like the case, like you know that there might be a woman that is the best candidate. So you have to tell

Nestor Aparicio  32:01

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you, what if a woman was running the Ravens the last 10 years, it would be a lot different kind of organization. It’s just

Bill Cole  32:09

interesting that in today’s in today’s world, that that hit my brain, like I noticed that he was talking about a he as a foregone conclusion, and

Nestor Aparicio  32:25

there was nothing that was appealing to women about that press conference in regard to like he seems like he’d be a nice guy to work for.

Bill Cole  32:33

I just, I don’t even think it matters. I think he’s very overt about the fact that I am busy being a rich owner guy, and like to your story about Dad and the kids in the backyard, like, unfortunately, and this is kind of an unfair way of the world, but it’s the way it is. If dad’s in Florida and the problem’s in Maryland, yeah, there’s a real, real small chance that the kids are telling dad about what’s going on. So like being absent is always going to have you removed. And again, it’s this chasing the fun as the owner right, trying to build the distance between you and all the work that goes into it that now, if he looks at it, he probably doesn’t like the culture. He probably doesn’t like the business of it, you know, now he’s behind the curtain. Now he

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Nestor Aparicio  33:29

would say, that’s why I don’t want to work in it. I mean, that’s what he said at the NFL. He’d say, I don’t, I don’t want to be around those guys enough to like it won’t fulfill me to be hanging out with these guys, dealing with the problems they have with CTE and all the off the field stuff. Bill Cole was here. He’s called, Listen, give me a mug, not a mug shot or just a mug. All right, I got you Cole. Or Gordian energy takes care of people around here. Also sponsors our wnsd tech service, and I think we got everything in. Next time, we’ll talk about something easier, politics. All right, we’ll talk about Venezuela, and who’s running you? You the new president of Venezuela. Back for more right after this for Baltimore. Positive. Stay with us.