What happened to all of the purple lights and flamingos on the lawns of Baltimore? Have the Ravens lost their January mojo with the people of the Charm City? Bill Cole and Nestor discuss the most unusual Festivus in Baltimore football history.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
lamar, week, play, game, ravens, money, unrepresented, team, roofing, purple, speak, dude, cincinnati, maryland, weekend, smith, people, point, agent, playoffs
Nestor Aparicio 00:00
What about W en st Towson, Baltimore and Baltimore positive we are positively taking the Maryland crabcake tour back out on the road. We’re so excited about that. It is our 25th anniversary this year here wn S T or 32nd. Going into our 32nd year now me being on the radio here every day, big appreciation of Fred’s to Maryland lottery for another year. More fun, more giveaways. If you’re out in the White Marsh area, no longer an island town. So we’re going to tell Andy story, as well as my buddy Mike shoes gonna come out from WJC big Ravens fan, we’re gonna eat some hotdogs the right way with Andy. And we’re going to also celebrate the fact that our friends at window nation are supporting the Maryland crabcake tour this year 8669 donation if you need Windows, they took care of me. Great job, it’s 27 degrees this morning. I’m not gonna lie, I’m a little chilly, but I’m not frozen the way I used to be big appreciation, my friends window nation, five years 0% financing on that you buy to you get to free. It is an absolute wonderful thing and good people that support what we do here, including this guy and Justin Tucker, I hope he’s got the proper caffeine that he’s going to need from His royal farms. In the coal roofing mug, we welcome Bill Cole back on to the program, our defending champion. I was gonna use the word constantly airing this week. And then I saw it was like completely mafia related. And then I thought, Man, I’m just gonna keep that for me. And Bill at this point, I’m not gonna let I’m not gonna use that for anybody else. How are you? Man? Not happy? Festivus right. I mean,
Bill Cole 01:34
that’s so funny. You said that I wanted to know whether we retired that word like, do we not use that word anymore? Because I haven’t really heard it. And because last week was such a train wreck, you know, into the finish of the season. I don’t even think that there’s like this opportunity for an exciting build up to the playoffs. It’s more like we’re limping in, and
Nestor Aparicio 01:55
Harbaugh looks morbid, right. I mean, this week, like he and I had a little back and forth a couple of weeks ago on attacks, where I indicated that Mike Tomlin has more integrity than anybody in his building, and he didn’t like that. And that’s okay. Because I’ve now been denied a credential this week to see you know, just on the record, because you are the constantly area here. I did apply, I’ve been denied. I had I had a flight I have I have a seat on a flight. I was telling the story. The other day, I had Solomon wilcots Because he’s in Cincinnati. I’m like, dude, all I can picture is the Bengals PR giving me a past me going out there then losing 41 to 14 or something hideous happening. And me eating a bowl of chili and all night chilly join at about 2:21am in the morning after leaving the stadium, killing time before my 5:40am flight back on Monday morning. To get back home that I was this I had it all figured out that if they just credentialed me, I could have this whole Kerouac tale about the Ravens season ending but I can’t find anybody. And you can bet on this bet bet bet you could do it at all was free. And you could have broken the bank last week signing up for all these things, you just betting against the Ravens. It really is amazing that nobody believes the team can win right like that. They really do. If they were to win. It would shock the world for everybody here who formally would believe almost anything in regard to the ravens, right?
Bill Cole 03:32
Yeah, I mean, is Lamar playing. Does Lamar wanna play to the Ravens want Lamar to play? I know we wanted a linebacker because we managed to do that deal. And you know, there’s some there’s some of the quarterback money, right? Like, we know what we know what pays the bills around this part of town. So it’s really, I mean, it doesn’t help when you have what is a virtual preseason game the week before the playoffs? Not because you’re sitting there in first place with a buy. But because
Nestor Aparicio 04:05
you’re surrendering
Bill Cole 04:06
decisions were made and champion conference champions were anointed and you know, it’s just such a mess. Like,
Nestor Aparicio 04:15
everybody in Cincinnati still pissed off, by the way. Like all that right. No chance to be the one on
Bill Cole 04:21
that. Yeah, it’s such a mass. It’s such an you know, it’s just, I don’t know, it really speaks to the institutional and this is not a word, but like, we expect the NFL season like we just did COVID We just did a tour. Right? Yeah, we just did a totally crazy period of time where the NFL was messed up and college basketball went away. You know, like we went through all that. But here we are, again, just on the back end of that. And one thing happens, and the whole set of dominoes goes falling down and and pretty much everyone is annoyed with the outcome that the NFL came up with. There’s no one that says oh, that was that was perfect.
Nestor Aparicio 05:07
Like the championship game in Nashville. How’s that gonna go?
Bill Cole 05:12
It’s so bizarre I you know? I don’t know, man. Like somebody said there has never been a time in JK Dobbins career where him Lamar and Gus Edwards whoever in the backfield all at the same time. Like it’s been impossible for the three of them to be on the field at the same time. And it’s like, yeah, okay, that I mean, that really does sum up kind of like the last two, three years. And I don’t think football is very fun. When there are more discussions about the quarterbacks contract and health and his you know, knuckle headedness or his lack of knucklehead like, like, that’s not, that’s not really what we’re tuning in for that isn’t really what the juices get gallon. Like, we want them to go out. And we want them to, like, make amazing plays and do things that we’ve ever seen before. And but he came out on a Wednesday night, I guess. Yeah, I don’t know. I don’t know. It’s very bizarre. It’s very anticlimactic. Yeah. Like, I’m me and everyone else are tuning in Sunday night to watch for about an hour before the outcome is known. And I can go to bed because I you know, I got to work the next day. So we’re clear,
Nestor Aparicio 06:30
you just call the bizarre so when I call it bizarre, it has nothing to do with Chad steel. Or, you know, this is bizarre. Like, I mean, I’ve been a purple Flamingo on the lawn guy from the beginning and all of that. And I have no idea how this is gonna work out on Sunday night, right? Like, I really don’t. And I’m going to talk to people all week, Lamar is gonna play he’s not gonna play he’s gonna play how well will he play? Even if he can play? Who’s he throwing the ball to Sammy Watkins like I like has he met him yet again? The second time around. I don’t
Bill Cole 07:01
really met him long enough for the dude to Pfizer catch. Charlie Kohler. I
Nestor Aparicio 07:05
mean, you know what I mean? Like for me? I don’t have very low expectations, right. So they’ve lowered the bar, which, in so many ways, is been my experience over the last 10 years. Now that we’re up on the 10 year anniversary of the last ride of the Mile High miracle this week, right 10 year anniversary that next week, it’ll be beating Tom Brady and, you know, hardball grabbing Flacco and pointing to him up in Gillette Stadium and us all having a celebration to this, whatever this is, right. I don’t know. I don’t know what it is. But I know whenever they lose, whenever they lose, and like this week, they get to go play Patrick mahomes Next week, I’m wearing red and white. So for cruiseport They’re not going to win the Super Bowl. And then they have a situation one situation they eliminated which there these are savvy people this is not the Angelo’s family right got it. They got they got ro Quan Smith done because they’re like, we’re not he’s not CJ Mosley to them. Right. And that you know what I mean? Like CJ was banged up, right? I saw CJ still making plays and missing a couple plays last week. But I liked CJ Mosley more than they did. Right and and they like Marcus Peters and Marlon Humphrey more than I do right? So
Bill Cole 08:27
I’m definitely like Sammy Watkins more than I do. And we
Nestor Aparicio 08:29
equally love clays Campbell Right You know what I mean? So but I would say for them all of the talking you and I do and me and Dennis do and me and Luke do and everybody you and your buddies and the guys on roofs and doing solar with Gordon and all all the talking we’ll do an accelerant this week and out at the zoo with Kirby this week and doing good things in the community and all networking and all that everywhere. I’ll go it’ll be What do you think what do you think I have a purple tie on this week for you Billy. They speak in two ways. They speak on draft weekend and then they speak when they give money to a player that really oh and the coaches speak when they draw the plays up and put you in on third down and say your first string your second string your third string and they speak when on third night they back shoulder to you Anquan but they speak on the field right and then they speak with as a franchise they speak with their money and their draft picks. And row Quan Smith is is a perfect example this from a leadership standpoint, right? You run a company you speak with money insurance, love attaboys trophies on the wall I don’t you know we all get we all get compensated in the way we are, but for the way we judge them and the Monopoly money they play with right like literally sure that we give them up DSL is media money all that stuff that we do buying tickets buying swag, all of that, that they decided ro Quan Smith was a must have, at the highest level, paying him at a level that they wouldn’t even let him think about going and playing somewhere else. Right. overpaid him by its very nature. They every guy they’ve ever signed they’ve they pay the most for otherwise the guy be playing in Miami and getting a tax break, right? This opens the door for all of your Well, that’s less money for Lamar, they’ve got 50 million budgeted for a quarterback right? I mean, right
Bill Cole 10:34
there. Yeah, there are outcomes that keep him here. I think just to go back to the the game for a second. The only hope I can find is that football remains this, the what I believe is like the only sport where there actually is work that can be done Monday to Friday, you know, where you can break down the other team, find a weakness, find a match up, change up what you’re doing, and actually create better outcomes right? Now,
Nestor Aparicio 11:13
five plays to go after that cornerback here, five plays, we’re going to put this one in on second and long when we’re on, you know, and down into that all of that is so much more measured than maybe the guy in the upper deck drinking his third beer.
Bill Cole 11:29
Right. And I mean, that was where my brain went to on on Monday night for the College Football Championship was like, Jim, um, John Harbaugh has to be sitting around looking at his coaching staff saying, Why didn’t we do any of that? Against TCU, like Georgia in a short week, not only were they probably a superior athletic football team to TCU, but they also did all that work to figure out how to take advantage of the things that TCU did so and I think that’s more likely in the college game than in the pro game. And at the end, like the pro game will, the better players will make plays. But you know, weird stuff happens to the ball is not round. So it bounces in weird ways. So there are
Nestor Aparicio 12:20
returns in ankle in the first quarter everything. League, that’s the way the games played, you know. So the fact that they’re here and playing like that needs to be celebrated. But it will not be the minute this is over with this will be not good enough. And Lamar, Lamar, Lamar, and then Lamar is holding cards. And I I can go up and down the river this week as to whether he should play or shouldn’t play, that he’s not even in salary. Right? Like he’s been paid his whole salary, because they get paid in season, not out of season, right? So all of this conjecture about his ankle and how hardball has portrayed this at the podium has left speculation, because this has not been a transparent process, right? Like in any way. It feels very, very, behind the curtain, all of this is felt and if he comes out and plays like Lamar Sunday night, and they when 28 to 24, somehow, even more so. But his value, no longer to them no longer needs to be portrayed in any other way other than what they’ve been with him and what they’ve been without him and what they would look like without him because we’ve seen them for almost a season now what they look like without him, right?
Bill Cole 13:43
Yeah, I don’t know. I mean, Shame on him for putting himself into this position. But if he wants Max contract, he needs to go out and play this weekend. And he needs to look like an MVP.
Nestor Aparicio 14:01
The real CEO that says, you know, you want to work Call Roofing, you got to do roofs, you know, like, it’s what we do. It’s not
Bill Cole 14:07
it’s not even just us. I mean, how many people now or where they were? Oh, my gosh, I wonder if there’s a chance we could talk to the Ravens about Lamar? No way they’re gonna keep him. I don’t know. Like all those teams. If it was a dozen teams who were sitting there wondering if there was a chance they could talk to him. Half of those teams have gone like, look, thank God, we didn’t do that. Because the dude can’t stay on the field. And it appears that he’s kind of like, he’s not able to manage the business side, to get that out of the way so that they can just focus on football. So now, if he doesn’t play this weekend, it’s just question marks. It’s just things that erode value, whether they’re big question marks or little question marks, they erode value. Well, the
Nestor Aparicio 14:53
Ravens do not want to do anything to piss on him and erode his value and say he’s been shaken and he’s been Dog and he’s, they will never do it because they want to get three number ones for him. Right? Right. I mean, they they need to go get three number ones for him in February and have the dolphins fall in love with him or the owner, literally the owner, fall in love with the concept of Lamar and selling tickets and bye bye Tom Brady and hey, by the way, you know, Lamar, $250 million, and we sold 10,000 season tickets the minute you walked in, it’s just it’s it’s Monopoly money, dude. No shoddy lessons. The last time we got together last week, Steve shot he got $600 million from you and me from all of us. Last time we built the stadium with 300 million. And they asked every one of us for a couple of grand for PSL money toward it right now. We just give the money away. There’s no PSLs and just do whatever you want with the money they’re gonna blow up the the press box, believe it or not, and I know you find that hard to believe, but they’re gonna quit. There’s never been anybody in there anyway. Right? They’re gonna put it right. They’ve kicked it. They’re gonna Yeah, they’ll have their employees watch the game on television, called the auxilary. Second stage is what they’ll call it. So the he gets $600 million. Here we pay 575 for the team. So the state of Maryland has rebated him the entire purchase price of the franchise in stadium goodwill over the next 15 years just for keeping the team here. They’ve rebated him his entire investment. That’s now worth 5 billion. Dude, it is good cooking when you can kick the media out, never have to have a press conference. Never talk to anybody. And at the end of the day, this too shall pass with Lamar Jackson. He’s just a guy. He’s just a player. Right? I mean, he doesn’t even take this guy to like turps games and hang out with him courtside like he did the previous generation you know I’m
Bill Cole 17:00
I’m deathly afraid of like the Stoney case era. Like, Hey, I hear you brother. Like that’s what’s coming like losing socks. Yeah, well, and even if you manage to win 12 to six right 12 to nine like, like, it just is a horrible way to watch football. And I would rather Okay, so we know that their desire to remain competitive or competitive is not that high on the priority list like there are other things that are higher priority. But I think if you just accept the fact that you’re going to franchise him for two years and at that time begin building another football team for the time without Lamar like if my job
Nestor Aparicio 17:54
or has to do at $48 million is walk into their office and say I’m not playing do me quietly I have no agent I have no by the way I’ve talked a lot this week and Chris pike on right I had sound a wilcots on in Cincinnati I’m gonna have Dave lap on and and some other people on and your C level by the way a bill Cole was here Cole roofing and Gordy and energy. Tell me what you do real quick. So I can go to my sea level conversation on
Bill Cole 18:25
this commercial roofing and solar, but lighting, we don’t really have playoffs and I mean, we go through free agent experiences. You know, but we spend a lot of time trying to help everybody understand and help everybody realize that, you know, it’s 150 families and that we’re all supporting one another and you got to be fair, and you gotta you gotta you have to celebrate the guys that that are really your rockstars that are showing up every day. And you have to make an example out of them because that makes those other guys want to do that. So you know, I there’s so much
Nestor Aparicio 19:10
people you manage a lot of people you know, you’re right. And so I wanted to bring this up because Lamar being unrepresented, right at this point, you can say whatever it is about him going into Eric and that’s how they negotiate like, I know that to be a fact right. Before the Ravens broke up with me. I knew that to be a fact that Lamar is mother that that I had been told that has been way over portrayed that it really is Lamar that is involved in this.
Bill Cole 19:41
I’ve heard the other but Okay,
Nestor Aparicio 19:43
fair enough. So, Lamar being unrepresented from the minute this injury happened, the team and Chad Steele, who I don’t even need to go through the integrity issue. Is that I have with Chad steel, right? Just on a straight integrity issue of what he tells me the truth or what do you lie to me, right? Or is it his job to lie to me, right? Or what is his job in his mind? Because I don’t even know what his job is. But I know what he thinks his job is right. So the fact that the team takes a stance that he’s going to come back and play against the Falcons, tells NFL Network, this Rich Eisen, all of them are a little egg face because they went on national TV and said, We’re hearing the Mars back, Stacy do they’re all there, Lamar is back. Lamar doesn’t come back. Now the pressures on Well, what’s wrong with Lamar? Or are they lying to me? Well, it certainly felt like John Arbol felt like he was gonna get him back. Is that pressure on the kid? The kids not speaking, he’s gone code silent on all of these media that he’s never had any problems speaking on? At any point, right. He can just open his phone and a million people will know, whatever he’s thinking, right? And he goes unrepresented, where a real agent would a have signed a deal for 134 million guarantee long time ago and said, dude, settle down, you’ll get to 250, you get that you earn that part. Like, like, fair enough, or he’d have an agent saying, My guy’s Deshaun. Watson, I want 195. Or I get, let’s make it look like 232. So we can go to the media, which you control anyway. So whatever we tell the media is what it is, right? So all of this happens. And now, from the beginning, he would have had insurance, which he may or may not have, who knows, right? I don’t know if he has $200 million worth of insurance, but it’s pretty expensive insurance wherever that is. Right? Right? He would have had a rep the minute his knee was screwed up saying, well, well, well, we’re getting a second opinion. Let’s fly you down to see Dr. Andrews doctor, you know, do little whomever, right. Then we would say well, one to three weeks. Eric, what do you John, stop? Chad, stop. Right. You know, our guys. He’s got a PCL thing here. He’s got a contract. Like, he’s not gonna go out and play it. 80% Because he doesn’t want that. And you don’t want that. And he can’t win that way. And settle down. Now behind closed doors, the agent saying, Hey, dude, don’t go out there. We decided as a family to not do a deal. We got some insurance on you. Don’t go out there and rip your knee up. Don’t play don’t play. They have no wide receivers. You can’t beat Joe burrow. You’re not 100% Wink wink, you’re not 100 Get back in the tub. Get back get go get another massage. Not good enough. Sorry, started didn’t feel good to the end of January. Like, right, they’re pissed. Let the agent be pissed at Eric and let them fight during the holidays. Like not you not your mother, not whatever, when you got a bad leg anyway, and have all this conjecture, because he goes code silent because he has no PR team. No a PR team, he really has his check steel. And that’s on the other side. Right, right, you know, so I’m just saying at this point, Billy, from a management standpoint, the lack of sophistication and teamwork and him having Jerry Maguire, or at least Steinberg in this case, who comes on the show all the time. To say, let let’s have a strategy here for all of this, and not let the team tell NFL Network and tell the media and get it out in the world that you’re going to be able to play and then when you’re not able to play, they’re gonna use that against you and say, Oh, you weren’t ready at primetime when they knew you were hurt. Right last year.
Bill Cole 23:53
You don’t think you don’t think that the NFLPA you know, is like talked about that, and has talked about that and talks about that to all the players. Like, if he goes down, and he’s under a long term contract, it’s really easy to say, Guys, you just signed me to a long term deal. Like, you need me to sit, I gotta get better. Otherwise, I’m jeopardizing the rest of the contract that you just gave me like to your point, that Ronnie
Nestor Aparicio 24:23
Stanley method, which is having to play and then Ronnie Stanley showed that he wanted to play that he wanted to earn this money he got back on the field and lo and behold, he’s mostly Ronnie Stam. Right.
Bill Cole 24:34
Yeah. I mean, everything. Yeah. I mean, you don’t really need to add much to all of that. Like, when you make one decision. Sort of there’s a snowball effect. And, you know, the one thing that you knew was the worst thing was like, get hurt. You have major exposure. Well, it’s not even just like, the major injury that we you know, like you break your leg in You’re okay. It’s not even that. It’s even the little nagging injuries here. That now it’s a really hard decision. Do I go back out there this Sunday or whatever and play with the sort of ragtag bunch that we put together or? I mean, part of me wonders like how much of this is like Marvel subterfuge, and like we’re going to see almost an entirely new team come out this weekend, because everyone is
Nestor Aparicio 25:30
out of the phone booth. I mean, that’s why dude, I am not kicking back if they somehow win, right 30 to 28 on a last second Tucker 48 yard field goal to break everybody’s hearts at 1115 on Sunday night. I’m not saying they’re not capable. Do they went out the first 11 games and had double digit leads in every single game?
Bill Cole 25:51
Yeah,
Nestor Aparicio 25:52
I mean, they’re they’re good enough and any given we haven’t seen it a long time it certainly hasn’t been practiced on the backfield. I don’t think this has been a big ruse to say Lamar, we’re gonna park you in the in the garage and dust you off like a red bar chatter on Sunday night and you’re just gonna go out and do all of this and we’re gonna we’re gonna leave little stink bombs that your nice wall and we’re gonna leave little stink bombs that you’re lazy like like all of this stuff that’s come out the last month our coach is gonna look he will do the press conferences and gonna be speechless about anything not like hey Lamar is really trying like oh no has not in any way up sold this to any point to think like that things feel copacetic it does not feel copacetic
Bill Cole 26:41
look, I mean, Dobbins rested. Coleus Campbell, I think is ready. I don’t know where Mark is. Peters is like, I still don’t think there’s any wide receivers but I’m not sure that really matters because
Nestor Aparicio 26:56
Smith’s look at like the guy and Fast Times at Ridgemont High, right? I mean, we’re just straight.
Bill Cole 27:00
We’re just straight running the ball and throwing it to Andrews. You know, I mean, like everybody knows what we’re gonna do, but I don’t know. You know, I mean, maybe the look every season you know, is weird in its own way and unique in its own way and they pop
Nestor Aparicio 27:18
to fumbles. They sack burrow, right like things happen, you know, like I don’t I Vegas only had about six and a half to start with which says to me Vegas fully believes Lamar Jackson’s place. This sure does, and it but also that they’re gonna get beaten by touchdown anyway, right? Like, so that’s, that’s kind of where Vegas has it. And I don’t the coyness and paranoia of John Harbaugh throughout all of this, like, if you’re sitting Lamar and saying, You know what, Lamar is gonna be ready for the playoff game, but we’re gonna chill him out. He could have played two weeks ago. We don’t want to get new Nubank up against the Steelers. Did you see our cheap shoddy the Bengals game was, by the way, in red, like adult social media in the 48 hours after the game this week. Both teams, I mean, Ro Quan Smith, it’s in 30 stuff. Eli Apple did some 30 I mean, just like there was just 30 stuff going on that I didn’t really on television. When I watched Yeah, I feel like they’re setting bad blood. Like, I’ve watched a lot of playoff hockey, like, seen how that percolates, you know,
Bill Cole 28:27
I mean, that is that game was the perfect example where a coach comes into the locker room and puts the bounty up, right, like, hey, practice squad guys. Like there’s no boundaries in the NFL Sean Payton. I’m just saying, like, we’re gonna play these guys again next week. Sure wouldn’t hurt us. If you know a couple of them are so sore that they can’t go next week.
Nestor Aparicio 28:49
Did they come after borough late in the game and borough braced himself with his right arm? And I was like, there was oh my god, like, get you? Do you know what I mean? What do you guys tweet? This coin flip thing? You’re taking this a little too? Seriously? I mean, so
Bill Cole 29:03
well, and you could look at the scoreboard and see Buffalo was seemingly in control. So I mean, what are you really doing?
Nestor Aparicio 29:10
Right? A lot of teams pulled at halftime it did stuff like that, Billy, I’ll tell you what, man, we will talk about the state of the world and life and business and commerce and roofing and Gordian energy and all that good stuff you do, as well as helping us put our ROFO coffee in the cold roofing mug around here, but it’s playoff week, man, I mean, get the purple flamingos out, you know good if they win. The city will become a purple Tent City next week.
Bill Cole 29:35
I agree. I think it will only take this one and then it’s on and then you know, I don’t know if it goes any farther but but you know, look, despite all of that our true nature in Baltimore, Baltimore positive the whole thing is that when it comes time to like go to battle, we were gonna bleed purple and when we’re gonna root for our team, so that’s just how it goes.
Nestor Aparicio 29:57
All right, kick off Sunday night. We got football weekend. Village super wildcard weekend we got going on. We’re gonna have a super Maryland crab cake tour stop at TNA Coney Island hot dog. I’m gonna have some ravens scratch offs to give away as well as so holiday cast drops to leftovers. John Martin tells me they’re still good so we’re gonna be giving away on Thursday I got some great guests joining us could have my pal Mike shoe from WJC. There’s rumors that Tony dela rose because I’m in the White Marsh area is going to stop by and we’re gonna put the family back together. Tell some old purple war stories of jumping on the bar at the avenue and Whitemarsh Oh, those are some late nights back last century. I am Nestor. We are wn st am 1570, Towson Baltimore. You never stop talking Baltimore. Positive
