We are a week away from the tampering period of NFL free agency and Luke Jones and Nestor continue to read the purple tea leaves about Justin Tucker, Mark Andrews and Ronnie Stanley as the Baltimore Ravens try to run, hide, tuck and roll during an NFL investigation in Owings Mills.
Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones discussed the fallout from the Justin Tucker scandal, highlighting the Ravens’ ongoing investigation and the impact on the team’s brand. They reflected on the NFL’s history of handling scandals, comparing it to past incidents like Ray Rice. Jones emphasized the importance of the upcoming contract negotiations with Ronnie Stanley and Mark Andrews, noting the potential cap space issues. They also touched on the NFL Combine, expressing mixed feelings about its relevance and the media’s role in covering it. The conversation concluded with a focus on the Ravens’ roster and potential moves in the offseason.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Justin Tucker scandal, NFL investigation, Ravens roster, Ronnie Stanley contract, Mark Andrews trade, combine coverage, football integrity, media access, Ray Rice, Chad Steele, Eric DeCosta, John Harbaugh, NFL brand, sports media, fan reaction.
SPEAKERS
Nestor Aparicio, Luke Jones
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home. We are W, N, S T am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We’re gonna do some football here today. We’re gonna do some baseball before the the month is over, we’re definitely doing the Maryland lottery. I should tell you this, they, um, they have home run riches back out this year. So get involved in that. If you’re a baseball person. I will have the magic eight ball scratch offs giveaway at fadelies on Thursday the sixth. We got some great guests coming by. It’s going to be fun. Mark Viviano has threatened to come by and be a washed up media guy and a do gooder in the world and baseball head. So I’ll talk to him on Thursday at fade Lee’s, and then we’re going to be at Pizza John’s on the 21st we’re back at fade Lee’s to start the season, when the Red Sox are in town on the second of April. It’s a second day opening day. I’m too busy out drinking and farting around to have like work or anything like that. But this guy’s working 364, days a year. We give him off the day after the Super Bowl, especially when the Super Bowl is a blowout. Luke Jones joins us now. He is our intrepid reporter, and all things ravens and Orioles. And we’ve done a lot of Orioles. We’ve talked a lot about pitching and Batista, and we’re going to be in Toronto on opening day. I’m excited about that. I hope Getty’s going to be there and but it’s the football thing never stops percolating. I was at Cooper’s this I was at all of our sponsors this week. I didn’t go to Costas, but I’ve been almost everywhere else this week for our sponsors. I was over at El Guapo. I was at State Fair. I’ve been at Cooper’s twice this week, so moving around in every television Luke the underwear Olympics and, you know, and I’ve seen baldy running around out there, because baldies might, you know, my ex friend and like all of that. And I tell you what man Chad Steele trying to, you know, take away my career and my access and all that, one thing I don’t miss, and one thing that really went off the cliff for me was the combine. The Combine was like the greatest event ever, back when Phil savage and Eric the Costa would beg me to come. George Bucha, they would all be like, Dude, you got to come to the combines of cranies. I’m like, fellas, it’s in Indianapolis. It’s in February. Like, no, and it feels like now Nestor, I wouldn’t, you know, you trust me, right? I know. You know. I’m telling you, it’s the best event. You’re going to meet everyone. And certainly it was 2000 I got married, no three, and I started going right around then 3456, Hoosier dome, Rex Ryan and Rob Ryan and Marvin and wink Martindale were all out eating Shake Shack in the morning, making foot massage jokes about Rex Ryan to his face. It was fun. I don’t miss it, and watching it on TV. And what the agents, my dude, Chad weaseling, missed out on the Led Zeppelin movie with Johnny Allen and I on Sunday and IMAX because he was in. He’s an agent. He’s an NFL agent, and I’m gonna get him on. He and I are gonna get together socially, talks and rock and roll, but the combines here it’s but like you’ve been to it more than a handful of times, I haven’t even k faved you on this about whether you miss it, whether you watch it on TV, wishing we were there. I know you’re you’re not wishing we were an iled age in the Indianapolis ballroom, doing radio, radio for no one, no one, no one. So I the league effed it all up for us, but that was kind of the first clue that they really hated us when they when we were there for the radio row that was in the middle of nowhere in Indianapolis, and that was a dozen years ago. I guess I don’t, I don’t remember the last time you and I went but I watch it on TV now, and it comes to me on timelines, and everything’s measured, and everything’s rumor Rama and everything, quite frankly, is Bucha. Bucha, you know, everybody’s gonna save your franchise. And this is, it’s an important week for the Baltimore Ravens for security, because, you know, they they wouldn’t want to hire a predator and have them around for 15 years and doing anything like that, so they want to make sure that they’re secure and everything they’re doing out there when they’re checking and prodding and poking in the underwear Olympics. But the thing came and went, it’s the one thing I don’t miss anymore. And I used to love it. It became one of the highlights of the year for me. And then it became a real low light?
Luke Jones 04:20
Yeah. I mean, I’m trying to think. I think the last time we went, it wasn’t a dozen years ago, but 567, years ago, something like that. But how many times have you been? Am I hallucinating five? I haven’t been to not as many as you think I probably went to. I probably only went to three, maybe three, three or four, something like that, right?
Nestor Aparicio 04:41
And it was not your favorite event either, right? Now, I It’s funny,
Luke Jones 04:45
and this is a little bit of inside baseball here, because obviously it’s the off season. We
Nestor Aparicio 04:51
really feel 15 years into this as a card carrying pro football Writers Association America, mem, I’ll
Luke Jones 04:57
be totally honest with you. I. Think of when I was in college, 20 years ago, at this point, actually almost longer than this point. You know, my my freshman year was, what 2000 fall of 2001 and I can think back to what the Combine was then, and more specifically, the draft. I can’t ever say I was that big into the Combine coverage, because by the time it really became a television event on NFL Network, I was kind of over it at that point, you know, at least the Combine element of it. But, you know, I was the guy that, you know, I would get Mel, Mel Kuipers draft guide, or one of my buddies would get it through the mail, and you’d read about up on the prospects. I can vividly remember. I’m
Nestor Aparicio 05:41
a guy that had Joel Bush bomb on my show, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Luke Jones 05:45
I can remember being in college and venturing down to the dining hall feeling some kind of way because I was out till 2am the night before, and getting brunch and sitting there at 11 o’clock and watching that was when the draft was Saturday and Sunday. I’d sit there from 11 to whenever it was over on Saturday, and then do the same exact thing on Sunday. I mean, I was
Nestor Aparicio 06:06
now, you contribute to the R lads? Yeah, no, I do.
Luke Jones 06:12
But I dreams
Nestor Aparicio 06:13
come true. Is it? Isn’t it wonderful Luke doing this
Luke Jones 06:17
work? Yeah, but I just think about it from and again, I’m speaking more as a fan here, right? Because,
Nestor Aparicio 06:21
well, so am I. I mean, I’m a fan at first, you know. But more than anything, I’m a fan. To your
Luke Jones 06:26
point, look, combine week is important for these teams. It’s part of the process of evaluating players. You want to get what value you can out of it. You try to filter what’s important, what’s not, right, the on field workouts. I mean, you know, it’s tough when cam Ward and shadier Sanders, you know, the top two quarterbacks don’t work out, right? I mean, you’re seeing more and more of that, where guys are just foregoing working out at the combine, instead saying, hey, I’ll work out at our Pro Day. And look, that’s their prerogative. And that’s fine, right? I mean, the guys like that are at the advantage of they can dictate some of the terms to these teams and how they want to they and their agent can figure out how they want to present themselves, so to speak for the job interview so but in the process, that hurts some of the star power. But I just think the draft combine, pro days all of that, while they have value to these teams, certainly, and while there’s certainly a place for it, for fans, I almost feel there’s just so much coverage of it that I just kind of, I got to a point maybe 10 years ago, where, from a from an interest, personal interest standpoint, I kind of got sick of it, where it’s like a football friend
Nestor Aparicio 07:41
of mine who was a Redskin fan for life at Scotty P every you know, he’s been in my life forever, and back in the 90s, he would laugh at me when the when the Browns came that I was into the draft because we were four and 12 every year. So whether we’re going to take Peter bolware or Patrick sir Tan’s father, as I remember, like, you know, like remembering all of that and my friendships that are 30 years with, I mean, Marvin and I text last week. I mean, like, so these people that are in my life, it all came because of football and the nerdity and it being fresh and new here and on the outside. It was always like, Come on, dude, if you’re a real franchise, you don’t worry about you. You know you’re watching college basketball right now you’re, you’re down at Spring Training, if you like tennis, if you like auto racing, if you like something else, if you like lacrosse, which a lot of people here like lacrosse, not my thing, not your thing. We don’t talk about it here, because we don’t. We’re not expert about it at all, and it is a mile long and in short, because, like, nobody can talk lacrosse, because if they were, this would be the place they’d be doing it, from a sports radio perspective, and what is interesting to people and what is not, I think, through all of these years with the NFL, I mean, I remember our draft parties being legendary, like legendary 800 people at the fire hall. We’re the original originators of the fire hall down near the stadium. We threw the first party there ever we did an indoor, outdoor garden draft. We gave the concept for their Sunday things before the stadium was even down there and and that was the day McAllister was drafted. I have the T shirts. Draft party. D are a U, G, H, T, draft party. Get get it. Draft trap beers were two bucks. Bub, wiser sponsor, by the way. Um, so, I mean, I go back to all of that, but on those days, everybody that showed up. And I have pictures of it. I have pictures that the day that we did the 97 draft. It was a 9897 or 98 one of those two years we did a draft, maybe 98 the Starks draft, maybe underneath of this bar in Catonsville. That’s like on, uh, Wilkins Avenue. And I have pictures. And Donny Brady was there. Quentin New Year, um, Benny Thompson had a bunch of players stop by the draft party. And if you. See the picture, every nerd dude that’s there has a sporting news book and Arlen’s book and at, you know, like it was a real fun, fun, awesome. It was like a club. It was organic. I was organic nerd who would bring Phil savage and Eric the Costa and George coquinas and the and the scouts all came out on Monday night and ate ice cream, one of my all time favorite scouts, who’s now dead, and I always put his picture up. Ron marsenack Was it was an old, old timer scout in the 50s. Why a tittle? And he would come out and he would all he always wanted ice cream, vanilla ice cream, to celebrate the draft. And we would all eat vanilla ice cream, because that was Ron Marson acts thing. And Eric da Costa would have a tear in his eye if he heard that right now, because he sat next to Ron Marson act in 1997 so I mean, I was the original guy here that was way nerdy about it. And the reason I got nerdy about it is Kevin Burns said, listen to the See that guy looks like Richie Cunningham. Talk to him. He’s the one that drafted John Ogden. He’s the one that drafted Ray Lewis. He’s the one that talked art off the shelf the night before about Lawrence Phillips. Talk to Phil savage. He’s going to run a team one day. Might run two of them. He ran the Jets six weeks ago. So like knowing people who know the sport and that way of knowing it, and that to dealing with Chad Steele and everybody out there running for cover on this Justin Tucker story, which is the story, it was the story. It shall be the story. And it’s not about their kicker, it’s about their integrity and and I had Julie sharper on this week, but like, there’s football, there’s not football. And if we’re not focused on the underwear Olympics, we’re focused on Justin Tucker or, to your point, Ronnie Stanley, feels like that’s going to happen. They’re all talking Kumbaya. And then it feels like Mark Andrews is going to be gone by Draft Day, and they’re going to deal him, you know, on the Friday night for a late two or a late three, you know, on the clock to the team that didn’t get the tight end they wanted in the draft. Like, I don’t know, you tell me, but that there’s a lot going on. The kickers, the only story these people care about right now, because I’ve been out on the street. I was at the passing games Saturday. I mean, I’m moving around. I’m going to connects this week, accelerant. I’m moving around with people in big spaces and bars and everywhere. Catonsville, everybody’s talking about Justin Tucker everybody, yeah,
Luke Jones 12:28
well, when you’re talking in terms of from a brand standpoint, which obviously the Ravens care a lot about, or you know, any, any team is going to care about, in terms of their ability to make money, all those types of things, that that’s huge. One final point I wanted, wanted to make, though, when I was talking about the combine in the draft, the draft itself, I still love covering the draft. I still very much enjoy the draft itself that weekend. It’s a lot of fun. It’s it’s always there. There’s something. Look when you’re when you’ve been doing sports media a long time, you can kind of get jaded. You can kind of take some things for granted. One thing I will never take for granted is seeing when they bring in a couple of these draft picks, you know, whether it’s the first round pick or they bring in the second round, third round guy, and to see these guys hold up their jersey, to see these guys embrace their mother or their father or their brother or their best friend who came into town. That’s always cool. You know, that is cool that the draft itself. For me, it’s the three months of draft coverage leading into the draft that I have grown quite weary from, in terms of just too much. Well, I
Nestor Aparicio 13:36
remember, you know, when the station was different. You know, Glenn Clark and Ryan shell would book in six round draft picks to call in and talk to my host. And I’m like this. That’s what this radio station was for four weeks. Was agents playing the agent game of sniffing out their players, trying to get like and I don’t know that really. I’m like, you. It went from I’m really interested to in it to I’m exhausted by it a little bit. And it’s only a six week period. It’s a season, right? And in the middle of it is this free agency thing. And if you’re really unlucky, you have a scandal, right? Like, literally, sure, worst thing you can have right now. And har ball is going to find this when he gets down to the breakers. And I’m not there at the little table that they banned me from being which, by the way, they’re doing that on opening day in Baltimore. That that breakfast thing. It’s the, well, actually it’s the morning after be Tuesday morning. But the NFL owners meetings now are concurrent with March 31 April 1, whatever, April Fool’s Day, perfect day to be amongst those clowns. Um, but that is that thing, you know, if they don’t have Tucker gone by, then there’s going to be 80 media people set up with boom mics over top of John Harbaugh wanting to talk about Justin Tucker. Because, like, it’s a scandal. It’s a real scandal, and Tucker’s fighting. Back now, and he wants to keep a gig, and his wife’s got his back. And I hear all that. And then I had Julie sharper on for an hour telling me about the 16 women that she’s met. Yeah,
Luke Jones 15:11
yeah. I mean, it’s, it’s a very concerning, very terrible story, right? I mean, how, whatever your current viewpoint is on it, right now, it’s a bad story, right? I mean, you want to have the proper amount of sympathy and empathy for the 16 women and taking these accusations very, very seriously, whether you’re trying to give Justin Tucker his degree of due process, you know, understanding, you know, the statute of limitations from a legality standpoint, but understanding, there’s investigating going on. It’s like, all right, man, tell your side of the story about, you know, what? How do all these women have the same exact, you know, such a similar story in terms, in terms of the details and whatnot. So wherever you fall on the rate, on the spectrum of positions, on this, it’s a sad story, you know, even if, even if you want to talk about it from the pro Justin Tucker standpoint, of one of the great players in franchise history, a guy that’s on his way to being on the very short list of Hall of Fame kickers. And this is something that doesn’t just ruin a career, it ruins a legacy, all of that, right? I mean, it’s, it’s sad from that standpoint, if you’re trying to view it through that lens, you know, not taking sympathy and Justin Tucker, if, if he did all these things and and all that, but understanding, it’s sad all the way around. It’s unsettling. It’s despicable, however you want to describe it. But yeah, it casts the black cloud over your organization at a time where you know, not, not that things are on fire from an interest standpoint. You know, I mean, 20 million people aren’t watching the Combine over the weekend in the way that they’re watching you play on Christmas Day on Netflix, or whatever the number ended up being. But it’s still this is the time of year where you’re trying to sell the future, and you’re trying and you’re selling hope and you’re selling excitement and free agencies. Right around the corner the salary cap was just set. You’re trying to get a deal done with Ronnie Stanley, what’s going to happen with Mark Andrews? Right? You go down the list of everything and that we’ve talked about, and will continue to talk about, but when you have something like this, when it’s one of your most prominent players, a Ring of Honor player, for you, a guy that, again, is on the short list of kickers who look like, you know, he’s, you know, you thought was going to be on his way to the Hall of Fame, assuming he did this for at least a few more years at a high level. And all of that changes, right? And now you viewed Justin Tucker completely differently, and you have an organization that is says they’re going to let this invest NFL investigation play out, which, by the way, means they’re standing by him for now, right? Or they’re saying that, and they’re going through the process of evaluating kickers, and going through the process of evaluating what veteran kickers are going to be available, and maybe they’ve signed a kicker on the first day of dude, if they know
Nestor Aparicio 18:11
he did this, he should have been off the team yesterday. Sure. Sure. So, I mean, like, you know, if they know he did this now and they believe that, then, why is he on the team? That’s a legitimate question for Steve Bucha for Eric de Costa, for John horrible for anybody. Chad Steele, the people that you know really high up in the organization, they make the big decisions there. Sashi that they have to go out their sales people are on the street. It’s all people are talking to me about in baseball season. It’s all people are talking to me about. Towson’s winning, and they’re playing big games, and they’ll play their game on Sunday at noon to have their chance to get to the tournament. First time in a long time that, you know, there’s that kind of buzz going on for a basketball team here in Baltimore, long time. You know, I think about Loyola, million years ago, and Coppin and Morgan and, you know, just what local basketball has been here. The Towson team’s very exciting. And I think, and I saw it with my eyes. Saturday, people coming to it, kids and all of that. But everywhere I went, people were talking to me about Tucker, and they’re wearing Oriole hats, not Raven hats, at this time of year. A little bit of weird thing. The oral had stand out because the white panel, you know, you look around, you see eight of them. You’re like, ah, people got bird fever, good. It’s March. Maybe they should, um, but I don’t like I’ve done I’ve done scandal here. Big time, too much, too much, too much. I mean, I did Ray Lewis, did Jamal Lewis that then we went through the whole saga with rice. I mean, Suggs should have had scandals that somehow weren’t scandals here, and they’re not scandals at the door of the Hall of Fame. Um, but this is the here and now, and it keeps happening, and it’s all it’s 10 years old. I wish the few rub downs with a few massages, man, if that’s the, if that’s the way they’re viewing it serious and concerning. Well, the NFL is doing its investigation, whatever that. Is, and I found that, and you and I haven’t talked at length about this, we talked for a second after the cost and horrible Okey doke and the Costa said, No more questions, basically, after the fourth question. Because four questions is too many when there’s been 16 allegations, I would just say for them, and standing by or not standing by, or where they are there. I don’t think there’s national media descending here, because what Trump is trying to get away with in our country is disgusting all the way around. I mean, like when that, when the Ukraine things happening, there’s not going to be a whole lot of oxygen to investigate what happened 10 years ago with Justin Tucker. But I do wonder how the team scandal upon scandal, what this has meant to My Media pass and access, and the way Bucha behaves after the Ray Rice thing, the way they all none of them lost their jobs, none of them, none of them. It’s like rice, Ray Rice. Ray Rice, right? Well, and he’s employed now, and he’s back in the honor, but he lost, but he lost
Luke Jones 21:06
his NFL career. Let’s not act like, you know, Ray Rice came out of this smelling like
Nestor Aparicio 21:10
a nasty, fine, too. Did they take a bunch of his money too? Yeah? Like, I’m thinking, like, because they do take people’s money too. I mean that, you know, even Flacco pointed that out a month ago. Is like, yeah, 40 grants, 40 grand, dude, no matter how much money you have when there’s finding you and and Tucker’s gonna get fined too, I think. I mean, wasn’t that part of the deal when a couple years ago, when they take checks away from Deshaun Watson, wasn’t there like, a $5 million baked in fine that was involved in that? Oh,
Luke Jones 21:40
whatever your suspension is, I mean, you lose those game checks, you know when it’s disciplinary. So, I mean, Ray Rice, remember, he is initially had, what a two game suspension. And, you know, I I’m looking at it right now. I just pulled it up. This is your point. It’s all eyewash,
Nestor Aparicio 21:54
but it’s not when they’re taking away their money, but, but what they’re trying to do is spank the player, or the alleged, whoever it is, in front of everyone, which is what Trump tried to do last week that Zelensky right like it’s to flog the player and saying this this disc, we’re going to take games away. We’re going to take checks away from you, but you’re still going to get to play. You’re going to come in and you are what you are, and when you come back, you’re going to make a half a million dollars a week kicking footballs or whatever the a week kicking footballs or whatever the number is, and and life goes on. Life goes on after Kaepernick. Life goes on after Daniel Snyder. And I get all of that. But in the here and now for the franchise, I mean, they’re going to play a football game in September. It’s going to be a big game. It’s going to be a kickoff game. Lamar is going to be healthy, and they’re going to be zero and zero, and nobody’s going to care who the kicker is. I mean, that that’s just, that’s the news cycle. It really is. But in the in the here and now, for Tucker and for where the organization is, it’s, it’s a little bit of a thermometer into the soul of their integrity, and into what kind of place you’re running out there. And then on top of that, the NFL investigating this is literally its own punch line, because if they found anything really heinous, they cover it all they would, I mean, they would that. That’s who they are.
Luke Jones 23:17
Yeah. I mean, I’m not going to sit here and stick up for the NFL. We’ve seen the track record with these things. I mean, you just made the point, though, and I think that’s what kind of shines through here, good, bad or indifferent. It will go on, and it will go on, continuing to be very popular. And, you know, we’ve seen that, you know, you mentioned, you know, not just here in Baltimore, with things that have happened with the ravens, you know, on some of these occasions, I mean league wide type stuff, or, you know, Kaepernick, you know, right? I mean different things,
Nestor Aparicio 23:50
like chiefs right now, like, as an example, I think of them. Oh, by the way, because I you all we talk about my NFL fandom, I’ve been getting crazy collecting these belt buckles that from 1971 there’s my Kansas City Chiefs belt buckle for you. So chiefs, they’re on top of the world, right? I mean, they lost, I get all that. But like that franchise is so you know where it is transcendent, right now. Andy Reid, Kelsey, the Taylor Swift, the whole thing, right? I didn’t even mention my homes. He’s the reason, right? Mahomes and his father doing this weird thing with John Ra, like, man, me getting reminds me of the Lamar Jackson workout machine from two years ago. Like, dude, get some professionals around you. Um, but the chiefs, they had a player with a gun in a parking lot. And, like, I mean, I was there when they’re flying the plane around about Matt castle. Matt Castle crying, and and Eric Winston, I was at the Eric Winston scrum that is kind of famous on the internet about the fans in Kansas City. That was so 12 years I mean, we were winning the Super Bowl when that happened, right? Like, literally, and 12 years later, it’s just the. Boom. You know, we fixed everything. The Hunt family’s all good. And, you know, we got Taylor Swift at the game. I mean the brands. I mean Eddie de Bartolo almost went to print like 40 years ago, and then the Hall of Fame and people defend him in the 40 Niners. And everything’s good. Jimmy Haslam will be a hero in Cleveland, if they get the quarterback right, and they win a Super Bowl four and a half years from now, which is possible, like, and they will just forget all of that right, like, so no matter what the scandal is, whether it’s the boat in Minnesota, whether it’s the owner in Washington, whether it’s the linebacker, running back, other running back, kicker in Baltimore, with jurisprudence, with whatever happens. But, I mean, the chiefs had, like, one of the most horrific unspeakable things happen in their franchise. So unspeakable. You know what happened, Luke, we don’t speak about it anymore. That’s how horrible it was. But we don’t even talk about it because of their greatness, has it just makes it not talk about able anymore, in the same way that if, I guess if the if Lamar would have won three Super Bowls the last three years, the way mahomes Did, we wouldn’t talk about Ray Rice much around here, right? Like it just becomes a forgotten part of the ugly closet of bones in the back that we bury in our organization that bad, unfortunate things happened to that young linebacker a few years ago. Like It, it’s, it’s a shame, it really is, but that’s the nature of what the sport is, and it’s what makes the sport sustain so well. Is that this meant something very different to the Kansas City People 12 years ago after a player google it, Belcher google it and read up, but it does kind of get fixed. I mean, look at Washington’s football program right now. Just look down the road at how quickly that can get fumigated, right?
Luke Jones 26:59
Yeah, well, and, but I would also say, where Aren’t you going to find scandal, right? I mean, sports, Hollywood, the world of music. I mean, you’ll find scandal. Politics certainly
Nestor Aparicio 27:14
start there. I mean,
Luke Jones 27:18
I guess part of what my question to you would be like, so then, what do we expect? Then? I mean, look, Javon Belcher was absolutely a tragedy. I mean, remember, he fatally shot his girlfriend, and you know, I are the Chiefs responsible for that happening. You know what? I mean, like, I don’t know, right? I’m not smart enough to figure that out. How much is too much? I don’t want to say how much is too much attention? How little is too little attention on things? I mean, what do we just shut these institutions,
Nestor Aparicio 27:50
right? Like, I mean, we could go through scandal, I understand. But, like, full things, but these franchises overcome them all, and everybody wears the colors, and they run back out no matter what the kicker did. Like, so I understand. And I guess my question is, it’s, it is what it is, you know,
Luke Jones 28:04
sure, I mean, but I guess my question is, well, then what do we want to happen then? I mean, you know, I’ll use one just because I was familiar with it, living in southern Pennsylvania, and it was on the news every day. I mean, is on the news nationally. But, you know, you look at Penn State, you know football with Jerry Sandusky and you know, Joe Paterno being fired as a result, and him dying two months later, or whatever it was. And I mean, you know, you had the president of the university, you had the athletic director, I mean, all of that. And look, you know, there were people at the time saying Penn State shouldn’t be allowed to play football anymore. And you know, clearly that didn’t happen. You know, we can judge. People will judge Penn State the way they want to, right, regardless of whether they had anything to do with Jerry Sandusky or not. If you wear a Penn State ad in some circles, people will judge just that. At the same time that that university just raised millions and millions of dollars for pediatric cancer research with their THON event that they do at the Bryce Jordan Center. Look, all of these organizations, all of these entities, there’s good and there’s bad, and there are, there are skeletons in the closet. Look, you know me, I I’m very active at my church. There are not my church. There are churches. And you know, there are scandals within religious organizations, right? I mean, you’re not going to find any entity that passes a purity test, right? I mean, none of us as human beings are perfect in that, in any way like that. So I don’t say that to make any of that okay, but it basically comes back to, you know? And let’s make it, bring it back to entertainment, right? Whether we’re talking about sports, music, you know, Hollywood, whatever, it falls back on the consumer to basically decide what they’re going to tolerate or not, right? I mean, certain, certain individuals have been ruined, right? And certain or ruined. Themselves is the better way to put it. And you know, people won’t support them other other times. You know, we’ve kind of talked about it. We’ve talked about it through, through the lens of sports. You and I talk about it in a way, different way than two guys sitting at the bar who might not know a whole lot about football, but hey, they watch the Ravens every Sunday, or they watch the Bengals every Sunday, and it’s something they talk about in their leisure time. But they otherwise, the rest of the week they spend going about their lives, doing their jobs or having other interests, whatever. So, you know, it ultimately comes back to, you know, are people going to put up with it or not? In the NFL, specifically, to bring it little more focus, back to the discussion, I think it’s proven out that bands will will tolerate a heck of a lot, because it’s a very entertaining, popular brand, right? And it’s been able to survive a lot. And I’m not saying that’s good or bad. I’m not saying that’s good whatsoever, but it’s reality, right?
Nestor Aparicio 30:56
And literally out on the field every week, creating brain damage, and that’s a proven fact. And look, I mean to
Luke Jones 31:02
bring it, you know, because you brought him up, I mean, Javon Belcher, 12 years ago for the chiefs. I mean, you know, we’ve, we’ve seen it with professional football players, you know, you go back to WWE with Chris Benoit, with CTE, you know, with his brain being studied. And you know, you’re talking about a guy who, I think was in his late 30s at that point in time. You know, they said he had the brain that looked like an 85 year old man with advanced Alzheimer’s, right? Does, does that mean we should shut football down, or shut pro wrestling down, or anything like that? I don’t know. Well, that’s one
Nestor Aparicio 31:37
of the reasons they throw me off a radio row, is because radio row became this thing where Jim Otto and and Conrad Dobler and Ray Lucas and, you know, each and every year we would talk about all of these unspoken things that lead to problems for these young men. And I think one of the real problems is the arrogance, the ego and the money and the macho, you know, machismo that goes into it that just bakes into having a different set of rules and something to, you know, just all the way around, just a level of entire true entitlement that I saw with my very eyes, that I witnessed, that I was a part of at various points, that um, is I don’t want to say dangerous. It can be dangerous. It’s just not healthy. I’ll say that it’s not healthy, but it’s
Luke Jones 32:29
not normal. But I would also say, look at what we see, products that are advertised to us on a regular basis, on a daily basis, beer, fast foods. And
Nestor Aparicio 32:42
look, I’m wearing a cannabis shirt, which we, you know, like, I get it, yeah, but, but my point
Luke Jones 32:47
is, I mean, these all can be downfalls to society or downfalls to individuals. Pizza if you eat too much, exactly, exactly. So, so you know that, believe me, I hear what you’re saying, and I’m not. I am not trying to make light of anything with Justin Tucker or any of these scandals we can talk about in any walk of life. But ultimately, it comes back to what will people tolerate and put up with, right and a lot? Yeah, I was just gonna say it’s a commentary on racist
Nestor Aparicio 33:19
owners. You know, just whatever it is the owners get now, and cheerleaders, oh, you know, just all the way around. There’s, there’s a lot with tolerate, not just tolerate. I mean, I look at Trump getting elected and saying that’s really that style is popular with people. The lot of it in like, like, it’s not,
Luke Jones 33:43
but a lot of it also has to go back to how accomplished or how good you are, right? I mean, if Justin Tucker were a second year kicker who no one had heard of, and there was a whiff of this, he’d be gone immediately, in the same way that you and I haven’t spent more than 90 seconds talking about Ben Cleveland, who was popped for DUI in Georgia twice the legal limit. You know. Talk about the endangerment there of that situation. We haven’t talked about it because he’s a backup player. He’s gonna be a free agent. He’s gonna be gone, and he didn’t kill anybody that night. He could have, he very easily could have, including himself, right? So, but, but, because he’s not an accomplished player, we say, hey, they’re going to move on and look, I’m not going to sit here and and cast too much judgment on the Ravens for okay, maybe there was something in his character, but there are also plenty of people that you would think are fine, otherwise decent people who make a really bad choice one night, right with something like that, and they have to live with the consequences of that, and they should face consequences for that. But, you know, at some point in time, we get we again, we get back to, you know, if we’re all going to judge morally, we’re all going to fail on some, you know, on some scale, right? It hopefully, hopefully. Approaches the level of the accusations that Justin Tucker’s facing right now. You you, you pray it’s not that, because that’s something that impacts so many people in a negative way with such accusations like that, you know. But we all, you know, we’ve all jaywalked before, right? You know, we, we’ve all gone a little bit over the speed limit. And that’s not to say it’s okay it, but it’s a recognition that, yeah, we are imperfect. And as it to bring it back to the NFL, or whatever entity we’re talking about, you decide whether you’re okay with it or not. If you’re if you are, you keep watching if you’re not, then you go and watch something else. But the league certainly hasn’t learned any lesson, because, frankly, they haven’t needed to, right? I mean, it hasn’t hurt them in their wallet. And again, I’m not saying that’s right or wrong. That’s reality. You know, Penn State, 15 years later, was was just playing in the National College Football Playoff semifinal, right? I mean, you know, it’s still talked about by some, but it’s largely not talked about anymore. And again, not good or bad, it’s just a function that it’s what it is, right? And yeah, you hope, you hope, you pray, that people learn something from these experiences, whether, whether it’s the individual themselves, the guilty parties themselves, or someone else, learns from it in the same way I just mentioned Ben Cleveland. You,
Nestor Aparicio 36:25
Hey, I’ll tell you right now, Tucker’s done twice. Said he’s done nothing wrong, and, you know, he had another thing last week, so in his mind, Hey, man, I don’t even what you’re talking about me. No, you know. So that level of accountability, and I’m writing a letter to Roger Goodell this week, because the NFL is investigating so I wanted to know that I’m available to talk to these investigators if they want to know some things. But the real question is, what kind of animal house are you running out there? Steve? I mean, that’s a real question at this point for all of them, for all of them, including me, being exhibit a of you don’t throw media people out of and covering your team for 30 years and mistreat them. And when they come to you and go to your senior management, say, I’m being mistreated, you get mistreated worse. That’s been my personal experience. And I would tell anybody that you would tell them that about me, because you know what to be true. You know so you, more than anyone, know what to be true. So, like it is, what kind of animal house are they running out there? Where are their standards? Where is their integrity? They don’t walk their talk. They don’t I mean, let’s, let’s start with that. Let’s start fundamentally, with John and Deacon Jones his Christianity and walking his talk. I can promise you, he has not walked his talk with me on a personal or professional level. So I know that I can report that as a reporter, a fan, a dude, a guy who’s been in my home like, you know, we’ve come a long way from the cab rides in Indiana, you know, with him to look at all of it and say, What kind of place are you running? What kind of place are you running that that that is a very fair question for me to ask them. It’s a very fair question for anyone to ask them at this point, what are your standards? What is your zero tolerance policy? That is a joke. That’s a joke, right? So v this is where I get prickly on it, and this is where people come up to me at a Towson basketball game. Want to talk to me about it? Um, yeah, I’ll have at it, but you’re not going to like what I have to say about it. I’m not going to tell you what you want to hear while you’re wearing a raven hat. I have a whole closet full of Raven stuff, you know, like that. That does not absolve them of the way that they have chosen to operate, from an integrity level from a human level for Sashi Brown and Chad Steele and their antics, which apparently haven’t been very popular with other people in the building either, because everybody’s talking to me, Luke, you know, like everybody’s talking to me, they are, and I’m going to be writing about it because it’s My obligation to write about it, because they, they want me dead, right? They want me gone. They threw me out. They they think I have no audience. They think you’re a professional and I’m not. Some it’s, it’s insane, what I deal with getting called a clown on my own Facebook page every day because they threw me out when I’ve done my job. So I know what they’ve done to me, or what they’ve attempted to do to me professionally. I’m not the only one. You know, I’m not the only one, and what they’ve tolerated, allowed and maybe shielded could really be something despicable here.
Luke Jones 39:40
Yeah, I mean, I don’t know what you want me to say, other than and
Nestor Aparicio 39:44
they did it before with Ray Rice. So anybody shaking your head right now, dude, they would do, yes, they would and did and survived it all and got promoted in some cases.
Luke Jones 39:54
I will say this, whenever you have scandal like this. A true proves to be untrue. What somewhere in between? You know, not somewhere in between, but understanding there’s conjecture, understanding, there’s elements of it that might not necessarily be somewhere in between is one time, one place? I am sorry, I’m trying to make a point, right? Yeah, I’m trying to make a point that it invades the entire organization, right? Look, I everything you just said, the Ravens have a lot of good people that work in the organization, and I absolutely will vouch for that. I know things that they do privately, even for people that are in my world, right? There are good people that work in the organization. But when things like this happen, it impacts everybody, right? It impacts everyone in the way that you know, a decade ago with Ray Rice, you know, how do you think you know the way in the way that that was handled and mishandled? I’m sure not. I’m sure I know women that worked within the organization were bothered by that. How could they not be right in the same way that this now coming out, and again, this investigation, and now what was known, what wasn’t known, all that, right? I mean, again, that everyone is trying to sort through in some shape or fast fashion, some in less sophisticated ways than others. But, you know, it’s something that it ruins so much of the good deeds and so much of the goodwill you have built up with the community when something like this happens, and people that are doing great work in their community relations department and outreach, and things that they do from a charitable standpoint that never see the light of day, right? I mean things that they do behind the scenes that they’re just doing a nice thing for someone that’s in need, right? I mean, they get emails from people that say, Hey, so and so was a really big Ravens fan, and they passed away, or their dad passed away, or their sister passed away, and, you know, they send a care package, and you know, they don’t advertise that, right? You know. So, you know, I don’t want to sit here. I’m not going to sit here and say that the whole organization’s rotten, because it’s not far from it. But when something like this happens, and when you then question what was known, what wasn’t known, what was heard back at the time, what’s been heard since then, how are you handling this? You know, those are questions that impact everyone, and certainly people that are on the business side for the ravens, that have nothing to do with football ops, or may have never even met Justin Tucker, other than maybe saying hello at some point, right they’re dealing with the fall out of this right now. So you know, again, a lot of what you said, what you’re saying here, I’m not going to sit here and say it’s untrue or anything like that. I’m not going to sit here and defend every anyone, because I don’t know what happened, and I don’t know exactly what they might have known, but it begs a lot of questions, and at this point, as we’re sitting here for the NFL to conduct some semblance of an investigation and understanding how that’s gone in other circumstances around the league over the years, it doesn’t inspire a great degree of confidence and faith of it being a thorough, complete, truly independent process. And when you don’t have those elements, it casts doubt and it casts all kinds of questions as far as whether this is going to ultimately be dealt with appropriately or not, in the same way that Ray Rice was going to have a two game suspension until TMZ dropped a bomb the 24 hours after the season opener and and changed Ray Rice’s life and changed the Ravens organization forever from that standpoint. So you know, it’s TMZ. Do they have a video of Justin Tucker? I’m guessing not, right? So I don’t know if we’re ever going to get that level of clarity here, but you know, it’s messy, it’s uncomfortable. It’s something that no organization wants to deal with. It. No fan of an organization wants to hear about their team. But time history has proven that most people will be forgiving about it if it’s something that they enjoy enough and well, people enjoy the NFL a heck of a lot. So I don’t say this to be flippant whatsoever. I say it just as an observation that things will go on and even if the Ravens move on from Justin Tucker, you’re right, it’ll probably be fairly quickly forgotten, and that’s not good, but that’s kind of how this works, I suppose. And you know, people continue to watch the NFL no matter what unflattering information might come about come out about it. And like I said, same applies in music, Hollywood, certainly, politics, all, all those entities, and yet people will continue to consume and take part in it, and
Nestor Aparicio 44:49
there will be the tampering period next week. Imagine that. So Luke will be following all things tampering period. I am, unfortunately not going to be. Watching baseball and tamper Dunedin or Sarasota, and I’m going to hold that against you, next week as well as you’re tampering with the Ronnie Stanley. Is there anything else that you think is news? I mean, beyond Tucker Stanley, you’re not expecting a W, N, S, T, text of any magnitude before next week. Are you,
Luke Jones 45:19
um, you know, Stanley, I mean, certainly there could be a contract, you know, you think about the timing of just a matter Bucha last year that was done right before the start of free agency. Remember, they tagged them and then they signed them three days later. So that kind of cleared the deck, that was their top priority. And lo and behold, they were able to sign Derek Henry, then on the on the open a free agency. So is there a path for a Stanley contract? Even though I’ll continue to point out he he’s very much been a union guy over the years, and he’s very close to becoming a free agent for the first time. Those that those two circumstances generally make it tough to get a deal done, and he’s the top free agent left tackle hitting the market, right? You know, when you kind of look at the entire body of work, so there’s a complication there, yeah, we’ll see about Andrews. You know, you mentioned the draft. I think if something’s going to happen there, I think it happens sooner than that, because I think you kind of look at what he’s owed in terms of a burnt bonus, in terms of clearing cap space. You know, I think that could be something that happens at the start of the league, new league gear, and beyond that. I mean, it’s they gotta, they gotta create some more cap space now, which they can do that with Lamar extension, with a Marlin Humphrey extension. There are ways to do that so they can create some money. Derek Henry, I think, is a prime candidate to tackle on a year or two to his deal to make his 25 cap number look a little more tenable. So they have ways to do that. But you know, the cost of one thing he said at the combine that I buy is, you know, probably not going to see the Ravens making a massive move on pre and see, I mean, we don’t see that very often anyway, but you kind of look at how they’re built and where their cap is, and the Kyle Hamilton and Tyler Linder bomb pending situations. You know, next year, you know, you certainly want to be having a an extension by then, if not this off season. So you know, they’ve they’ve got some work to to take care of here. And the good news is they have a really good roster in place, even if they’re going to have a new kicker come the fall, which, you know, we’ll see. I mean, again, I You were very convinced right away that he was going to be gone. And I don’t know, right? I’m just at a point my life with with these teams that I just not very little surprises me anymore, but they certainly didn’t shy away from the fact that they’re talking about they’re evaluating kickers, and they’re doing all that. So, you know, maybe it’s as simple as they get their guy that to replace him, and then they cut bait at that point, I don’t know. But other than the Justin Tucker scenario that’s hanging over the organization right now, clearly we know that they have a very good roster, and it’s much more of a fine tuning and tweaking kind of scenario, rather than this team need you needing major surgery unless Ronnie Stanley does walk. And then we are talking about left tackle and right tackle if you’re going to move rose and garden over to the left side. So to me that’s, that’s the one in terms of roster building right now. That’s the big domino that that needs to fall one way or the other here to either you get Stanley locked up and then, hey, Okay, what else are you doing? Or he walks and you’re looking at, okay, what are you doing at left tackle? What? What’s that mean for right tackle? What’s that mean for the rest of your own lines? So that that’s the big one. And as I mentioned, Mark Andrews, you know that that that felt very the Costas comments felt very much like a preemptive, if not a goodbye, at least a Hey. Call us about Mark Andrews if you’re interested. That’s what that came across as to me.
Nestor Aparicio 49:00
Luke Jones is here. He is Baltimore. Luke. You can find him anywhere. Football is served out on the social medias and the internet. We are going to be on Thursday at fatales. We’re back at Pizza John’s on the 21st later on this month. All are brought to you by our friends at the Maryland lottery at the magic eight ball. Scratch also might get some monopoly scratch all sports all together in the home run riches game now up for bits and the the Orioles about back on the field. We’re going to be in Toronto later on in the month. Any breaking news happens first in the W n s t tech service that’s brought to you by Cole roofing and Gordian energy. Very easy to sign up. 410-821-9678, just send the word w n s t or join and you’re on. It’s nice and easy. Throw me a note if you need to find me Ness at Baltimore positive.com Well, we made it through baseball and football. We all know that John Cena turning heel was really the biggest news that happened this week. It was, it was, I know it was, I am Nestor. He is Luke. We’ll get back to wrestling sometime in the near future. I had to explain to somebody who’s Superstar Billy Graham was the other day. Okay, we’re born, we’re positive. Stay with us. Okay?
