Longtime sports media executive and Baltimore native David Katz joins Nestor to discuss the high hopes for Orioles new ownership and goals for a Ravens’ offseason with salary cap limitations.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
year, baltimore, feel, game, super bowl, talk, win, happen, team, lamar, ravens, franchise, people, coach, put, figured, orioles, media, play, city
SPEAKERS
David Katz, Nestor J. Aparicio
Nestor J. Aparicio 00:02
We are wn st Towson, Baltimore and Baltimore positive we’re positively getting America crabcake tore back out on the road and April I will have Maryland lottery scratch offs to tell me you might have some homerun Richard’s gonna be 10 times the cash because I still have these. And we’re doing something really special baseball season this year for folks who’ve called me and said, Hey, don’t live no more pay don’t do live radio anymore. I’ll be on from two to five live each and every Friday that the Orioles are home, we’re gonna be fatal. He’s doing a fake lease Friday turn Luke’s gonna come down and hang out from two until three sign autographs, take pictures, probably eat crab cakes and shrimp salad if he knows what’s good for him. We’re going to be Costas, we’re going to be Coco’s next month as well. And moving it around, I’m gonna get some new places. I have a few sort of beads in on places we haven’t been and other places that I want to go back to, that aren’t necessarily sponsors, but a great places with great crab cakes and cool people. And I will be inviting some locals out especially in this political season. Big thanks to wind donation, as well as Jiffy Lube and our newest sponsor, liberty, pure solutions, keeping our water clean. I’ll be educating you about water. This guy educates me about media. He is a longtime media executive. But the best part is, well, the best part would be if you’ve done dog, but he’s actually from Pikesville. So that means it’s still good because he’s from Baltimore. David cats are defending champion cats, man do if you’re following him out there. Don’t follow him next month or two. He’s in love. It’s mushy. He’s getting married. It’s beautiful. He’s in Miami. He’s missing opening day. All of that good stuff. But it is always good to have you back on. You know, I wanted to like, just dive back in with you. Because I think the last time we got together it was oh my god, the ravens are going to the Super Bowl. It’s the AFC Championship Game. Hold on, hold on, here we go. And then like, that thing didn’t go well. And I didn’t call you I haven’t talked to you. I saw you on Facebook after that. And then two days later, the baseball team gets sold. And I don’t know that I’ve known you a long time. David Katz I don’t and I’ve said this to a million people. There’s never been a point where I’ve ever over a beer in Manhattan Beach with you. Or over some curry in London with you all of these things we’ve done together over a beer in Rocky Mountain Oysters in Denver together. We’ve been out we’ve we spent time together in the real world. You and I have I ever said to you, one day the Orioles are going to not be owned by the Angelo’s family. And we’re all going to I just thought it was like Castro’s Cuba. Do you know I don’t think this was going to end?
David Katz 02:29
No, I think you were you and I were both of the belief that this thing was going to stay in the family for far too long had already had stayed in the family for far too long, and that we would not be liberated. But I had been hearing rumors over the last two years that something like this was possible. Something like this was likely and and Rubinstein’s name had surfaced many times over there and I, I had a bit of a tip a few months ago that this thing had been done or was close to being done. And I was so I was hopeful and optimistic. But obviously there was nothing to report on nor am I in the business of reporting on this stuff at this point. But I’m certainly in the business of enjoying the results of it. And and I think we are incredibly fortunate to see a torch being passed. Even though I think from a from an estate standpoint, you’re not going to have the majority ownership transfer until Peter dies. But you really have a change of control, which is the key term here. And Rubenstein and the other gentlemen are really going to take over and take what is the foundation, a fertile foundation and hopefully take these seeds and let them grow. And not only let them grow, but let them grow here. I think we have a chance to really keep the talent and add to the talent in a way that I think you and I were we’re looking at what appeared to be hopeful. And just waiting for when is the mike Mussina move going to happen where all these guys are going to end up playing for the Yankees. And we’re basically the farm system for the Yankees. And I think we now have not just the hope for a consistency over the next couple of years. But the chance to kind of keep this and turn it into whatever a quote unquote dynasty could look like here in Baltimore.
Nestor J. Aparicio 04:21
I’ll ask you the same question. I’ve asked her about that. A lot of talking this week. You said you’re not the guy that broke the story. I John Randall and so we got him on. I mean, I’m just going around to everyone who has been tortured and will feel liberated, you know, and people have called me and said, I’m the one that fought the loudest longest, fair enough, and I feel I’m gonna feel great about it, especially if they let me back in. I mean, there’ll be nothing for me like sitting in that press box and having a hot dog next to Luke Jones. So if that happens, I will feel professionally liberated you know, but that’s me, right? Like that’s, that’s my personal thing. And I mean, most professional people like you We’re like, you should have been in there the whole time. They never should have done that we haven’t been dealing with anything normal here the last 30 years with these creeps, but I keep saying if Rubenstein called me tomorrow and said, Hey, I’ve heard about your thing. Let’s meet off the record. Let’s have a crabcake. No tweeting No, no, that’s want to get to know you. Right. Okay, great. Somebody like you might set that up might know him. Right? That’ll be fine. And at some point on the meeting, and I hope he’s nice to me. And I hope he’s just funny as Steve Martin, because he looks like Steve Martin little bit. I’m expecting him to be funny somehow, because he looks like the mark. But I’ve seen his television and this and that he seems like a good person and everybody. So I’m expecting. And it’s not shouldn’t be a large expectation, but I’m expecting to be able to do my job again. If that happens, I will then be on the inside to ask questions of people, whatever. And I will know there’s a transparency that as a journalist, and you being a journalist, and in the space of doing nothing but hiring journalists most of your life. That That alone that I can ask questions and get answers, and I can judge Was he lying to me? Is he honest? They’ve been truthful, have they not? I mean, the Angelus thing was so far off the chain, that even the governor of the state last year bought into he might be an honest guy. Like, it’s like Trump this year. Really, really, really stop. So I would just say with Ruben said, I’m going to feel it on my inside. When do you feel it being a displaced fan of Miami watching games? Maybe you feel it with Kevin Brown doesn’t give us a kid sitting the kids chair for a month off the television rug. But I’m being really honest with you, we all expect something different. We know the team’s gonna be good. That would have been the first thing I said five years ago, we fix the team. Hold on, teams fine. So I know signing one of the players will be one of the big we give up we extend Henderson extend rutschman Whatever, that will be something well, the old guys wouldn’t have done that. But on a daily basis, what do you expect from them to make this better? Because there’s so many things that I could say to him? It was awful. This was awful. This was awful. This was awful. This was awful. But I don’t know what what the sign is going to be that it’s under new management.
David Katz 07:08
Before I answer that question, I am going to say I think the number one signings slash extension, the Orioles can do is signing Mike Elias and keeping Mike Elias and SIG here in Baltimore, what those guys have done their ability to identify talent at all levels. Look, you get number one picks, people don’t necessarily think they think that’s easy. There’s a consensus typically among the top five, or whatever you want to say. But they’ve nailed the picks. And then they’ve nailed the later picks. And then they’ve nailed the pickups of the picks. Aaron Hicks, let’s pull him out. And let’s plug him in. Oh, I
Nestor J. Aparicio 07:43
don’t think they nailed these guys. I think what they do is that they teach them, you know, they identify well, but they train Well, you know, like that they really they have special sauce about taking a troubled hitter, a pitcher with an angle issue or spin rate issue or not in command of his best pitches. I mean, they are true. Scientists that Martin Lewis always told me that I’m not a coach, I’m a teacher, I teach them how to do this better. And baseball didn’t have that. And I always say that the loop back when I was at a locker, it was a bunch of old piano to back at you and buddies. You hung around. I mean, that’s, that’s what the system was in baseball.
David Katz 08:26
You’re 100% Right. I mean, Cole Irvin coming in with more NPH on his fastball, and all of these tweaks that they do to these pitchers seem to be working. So anyway, the system they’ve built, it’s taken time, but it has worked to your previous point. And I think you’re kind of getting also to the media side. One, I do want to see ownership that is willing to meet with the media ownership that is willing to be more forward facing and not hide behind the veil of secrecy and barely show their face. Because when they don’t show their face, and they’re not present, they don’t feel engaged. They don’t feel connected to the community. So I think just the presence of these folks, I think is going to make a big difference. I do want to temper your expectations, a little bit around media. And I don’t know David Rubenstein. I don’t know what type of system he’s going to put in. I am hopeful and optimistic. I love the the idea of a Baltimore born self made billionaire who cares about the sport, who is at a stage in his life where there’s nothing left, but to win. And to put it all out there and go for it. Right? He’s not going to build a 40 year legacy in ownership, the guy is going to go for it and try to win right now. So I love all those elements. And from what I’ve heard, he’s a wonderful person. And I’ve seen his his TV show and his podcasts and all that stuff. And I love what he does, because he asked he asks hard questions of the people he’s sitting down with and gets them to tell their story. So I’m sure that There’s a little bit of back and forth that might be expected. But I do want to temper your expectations because the world we live in today is a different world than 2025 30 years ago when when you’ve been doing it, and I started doing this, and there’s an expectation that journalists go in, even in sports and hold leadership to account, because back then, the teams in the leagues were not media companies. The teams in the leagues today, are media companies, first and foremost, they’re basically real estate companies, and media companies, and the anchor tenant of both of these institutions is the team. But the business is far beyond just what happens on the field of play. And the record, what does that mean? That means that very often the breaking news that used to come from the journalist covering the team, who are trying to get in there and get their sources and find out who’s traded, who signed whose extended, etc, that’s now coming from the team or the league itself. The the idea of controlling the media and making players available, where do they make them available? Well, first and foremost, they make them available on their own platforms. So we have to live in the real world where the NFL and MLB, maybe not college quite as much yet, but it will get there as it becomes more professionalized. They control they control the media, in the sense that they are going to one take care of themselves first, and then to decide who else gets to play. And it’s unfortunate. And it’s not the way that it was the era that you and I grew up reading the stories and what made the sun and all these other publications, valuable to us as consumers is there was real news in there. And I think these teams are in a place where they’re trying to put the quote unquote, news on their platforms. And it’s not really news. It’s their version of the story. And it makes it challenging for for media, especially local media that cares as passionately as you do about the teams that you cover and follow and discuss on a daily basis.
Nestor J. Aparicio 12:11
I like your front facing idea for ownership. Just remember that when the shotty blows off the local media in three weeks, and a question for him would be how connected are you to the community as well? And that’s a fair question for him. He just got $600 million due and the Orioles are about to get this money. And we talked about Rubenstein and and his his age and his wealth. It’s pretty Bloomberg in on this. He’s bringing people in on this that, to me, feels like for him. It’s not just the legacy play about the baseball team having a parade or winning. It’s about the stability of downtown, and about the sports teams being the most revered, the most financially supported, heart supported that when players punch their wives and glass elevators, we forgive them and honor them and bring them out as player of the game years late. Like there’s all sorts of free passes that they get, and they’ve gotten through all of this. But the biggest thing is downtown struggling, and the baseball team plays 81 times a year and maybe more downtown. And that was really the thing that got me sideways with Angelo’s 20 years ago when I moved downtown, which was he just doesn’t care that the place is emptied out. And I think Rubinstein’s play at $1.8 billion isn’t I need to win a title to feel like a real man, it’s, I get a chance to make a difference in my community. That’s where I feel like a stupid little am radio station owner, that I feel like that’s what I do on a daily basis, which is I’m not a hype man for the city. I’m not an apologist for the city. But I’m a defender and a supporter of the city. And I’m not necessarily an optimist are a pragmatist for the city. But I do see when a $2 billion investment is brought into the city by someone who has probably a bigger vision, then I’m going to put a casino in the parking lot. I hope he has a vision beyond that. I think he does. I think he’s a deeper guy than that.
David Katz 14:10
He is. And he’s also he’s a philanthropist. And he’s a businessman. And when you combine those two pedigrees, you’re going to try to find a system that doesn’t just give money and put money back into the community because that stuff is not self sustaining, giving money to people, these things tend to be one time to time things. They don’t create long term change. Investing in a community where there are returns along the way, allow these things to be self sustaining over longer periods of time. Well, the
Nestor J. Aparicio 14:47
Detroit model being a great example, I was just going to say I was just
David Katz 14:51
going to say exactly that. Dan, Gilbert’s legacy is not going to be winning a title for the Cleveland Cavaliers and blah blah blah. Ah, his legacy is going to be what he has done to the city of Detroit in his hometown, and how he’s built that up. And even in the place where he didn’t own the team, he has invested with those owners and put a whole system in place to gentrify and kind of create a resurgence in the downtown community.
Nestor J. Aparicio 15:20
And nobody believed Detroit was fixable, by the way,
David Katz 15:22
correct. By the way, you and I think went to that Super Bowl. I don’t know, if you went to six, I was at that game. And it was a far cry from what I’m told Detroit is like today, back then you didn’t want to go down there. They were being you know, that was the gift to the Ford family for putting, you know, having the the new Silverdome type experience and you get the Super Bowl. But that city seemed unfixable You’re right. And especially with the decay of the American car industry, you thought there’s no chance? Well, Dan Gilbert has proven that that is not the case. And I do think that the younger generation, if given a choice would rather live in a city than in a suburb, there’s more community and conductivity, and walkability and all the things that that generation wants to do. So Baltimore, and by like Pittsburgh has had a bit of this as well. Baltimore needs it and deserves it. I can’t speak to the weather, the politics, in the political infrastructure that will allow this to happen. But certainly these quasi public private partnerships that these baseball and NFL franchises have become, allow these types of things to take hold. And I have to believe that a David Rubenstein is going to look at Camden Yards as a place not just to have baseball games, but to do more of what the Angelus started to do at the end, more concerts, more events, more festivals, more things in and around that, you know, beautiful structure that we have down there. And then the real estate play, which the city seems willing to in the state seems willing to open up for them, I think could be just tremendous. You’ve seen it, you know, in San Diego around Petco. These are great places to live, work and spend time. So hopefully Baltimore can get there. And I am. There’s just a sense of, of optimism for the first time in more than two decades as to what this can be. And it’s not going to be easy. And there’s a lot of a lot of hurdles, and it’s going to take time. But man, it feels like we’ve got the right pieces in place to see some change.
Nestor J. Aparicio 17:28
David Katz is here he is Kathmandu, a longtime insider in the sports media industry, first at Yahoo. And most recently at Fox and of course, you you still are operating your own website. Correct. You could give a give a plug there, you should.
David Katz 17:42
Yeah, we are. I still manage the postgame. And we have moved from being a website that you would have gone on to see our content on a regular basis. When we were partners with Yahoo Sports to an agency, we now build content, marketing, social media services, for leagues, teams, athletes, brands and media companies. So
Nestor J. Aparicio 18:06
I can call you for Baltimore positive now you can call us
David Katz 18:09
absolutely. By the way we take cash or crabs. Are you
Nestor J. Aparicio 18:12
one of those consultant guys? Are you wondering we would have them come out of town consultants that let me warn me about let
David Katz 18:18
me tell you something. I started as a consultant. Way back in the day I got out of it after a year and a half at McKinsey and Company. It was a great finishing school, but it was not where I wanted to finish my career. So I got out of there fast.
Nestor J. Aparicio 18:32
Oh yeah, I want to I want to retire to being a consultant. That’s what I want to be catches your eye.
David Katz 18:38
You don’t want to be a consultant. There’s too much work and being a consultant. You want to be vice chairman. It doesn’t matter of what you want to be vice chairman. You want the title and the compensation with zero responsibility. That’s who’s figured it all out. VC
Nestor J. Aparicio 18:53
baby. All right. I got it. I got it’s where I want to be. David Katz is down in Miami. He is up Pikesville he is taking his family down to Miami to son themselves. He’s getting nationalized on 420, which I hear it’s a high holy holiday. And you know by then we’ll be in the baseball season. I guess. The draft will be a couple days out after your your nuptials next month. I usually talk football with you like like most of the time, it’s football, football, football. That was a weird week, dude. Right? I mean, not just because I wasn’t going to the Super Bowl no matter what and Vegas and I had Luke going and we were doing this and that and I did my charity thing and a cup of Super Bowl. And then Sunday. They don’t show up. They get their ass kicked Monday, everybody’s morose. And then Tuesday night, the baseball team sold and since then. I don’t know that anybody really feels that bad about the football team. Although it was kind of like this is the worst beat in the history of the franchise. Right like I well. Yeah.
David Katz 19:51
I gotta tell you. Yeah. The selling of the Orioles as wonderful news as it is. was not enough to console All, every single person I spoke to at the Superbowl and beyond, I am not over it. Everyone I talked to is not over it. I harken back to the last time I felt this bad. Look, 14 and 214. And two. And, you know, losing to the Titans was bad, especially the way it happened. But there was still a sense of optimism with the young Lamar and what this could be. The last time I felt this bad about a sporting event was Billy Cundiff and Lee Evans, and what happened there, and I don’t think the city would have overcome that moment of despair, if we hadn’t gone out and won it the next year. And in New Orleans, by the way, which is where next year’s Super Bowl is. And we have got to resurrect ourselves. The resurrection has to come here. And we’ve got to do it next year. Because that was the opportunity that you look back and you’re like after 20 years of Brady, and we played them tough. You know, I think we were two and two against Brady in the playoffs. We were his toughest out. I have not seen the dynasty, Docu series that’s airing now everyone tells me it’s great. And there’s should be a bunch of Baltimore in there because we were really his toughest AFC opponent for all those years. But it feels like it could get away from us. If mahomes can win it in a year where his receivers are dropping all the passes. And the team didn’t even have it. And they can put it together and beat us at our seemingly best with what has to go down as one of the worst game plans in NFL playoff history. We panicked early on, we just panic in that game. I think the the city the team makes
Nestor J. Aparicio 21:48
me wonder about if I were the print columnist, when you say something like that, I’m like, well, let’s see Bella check beat him on a trick play. You know, he he is the one who didn’t call the timeout with condis. They blew a huge lead in the Superbowl that they actually won. They came for plays in a yard away from losing that game. After that. The Chargers the Titans these terrible game plans and like, at some point, Harper was the coach. You know, I’m saying like, at some point, the criticism for him would be if you’re not any how many playoff games as if they won since the Super Bowl to in 12 years or whatever, right? So like, Lamar is going to get that criticism because he’s the quarterback and he’s will make it all the money. But there really is, you know, one of the constants here and you’ve seen your Weaver video, I encourage you to go watch it again. But you know, when Allah says to him, I’m going to the Hall of Fame for one for ethanol World Series. And like with hardball now, if you hated the game plan, let’s let’s talk about the head coach because I haven’t talked a lot about this dude. I went to Charity Week, I haven’t sat even beaten anybody up or held him accountable for it. I feel like they just didn’t play well. It was you know, like, I, I’ve watched enough football. But then you go back, you say how many times did they run the football? What did they do? And I would say they’ve been a panic franchise since Lamar got here when they’re losing, you know, when they’re losing they, they are a different franchise. They win a lot. And they’re ahead a lot. But when they’re losing, they tend to not and then that Cleveland game aside a couple years ago with the comeback and getting the phone booth but when they’re losing they play unorthodox football, and I got to put that on. John.
David Katz 23:38
I agree with you. As much as I’d like to say no, here’s where you’re wrong. That’s there. I don’t think you’re wrong. I would say this, the NFL is two seasons. And you got to give credit where credit is due. It is hard consistently to be in that top tier top four top five franchise and and make the playoffs virtually every year and have a chance have a shot, which is what Ozzie used to always say is you just gotta get it, you gotta win your division. If you can get to get in the game, then anything can happen and horrible the end to cost the by the way, they do a phenomenal job of keeping this franchise relevant on a year to year basis. And that little switcheroo from Flacco to Lamar whether it was Kismet luck or vision, whatever has allowed us to avoid what the Steelers are doing which is the Steelers don’t have a quarterback don’t really it feels like they’re a loss franchise yet they still finish nine and eight every year. Maybe they can squeeze out an extra winner so they’re always there to make the playoffs or be the first team out and and they’re doing that without a quarterback since Big Ben left and we figured out a lot of stuff. And to do that in a league that is set up to reward the losers and hard Um, the winners is pretty remarkable. So I’m thrilled from an entertainment value perspective that every Sunday is meaningful for us. And that’s a blessing. And you got to give Harbaugh and staff a heck of a lot of credit for that. That said, you hit the nail on the head, our worst losses have come down to moments of panic, that in retrospect, did not need to be moments of panic. When you get behind a score or two or more that early in the game. You see it with great franchises, they chip away, they don’t try to get it all back at once. They flip the script the they make adjustments on defense. So I think the panic, there was actually less offensive panic. It was defensively he didn’t think we could stop them. And this was getting away. And if we weren’t putting sevens up every time we were going to lose this thing. And Mike McDonald made some adjustments in that game that were remarkable. Like, I don’t know, I don’t remember exactly. But I don’t think they scored in the second half. The Chiefs or maybe three points. I don’t remember what it was, but they neutralized mahomes. In the second half of that game. It was remarkable. And if we had simply run the ball, short passes, built some momentum, take a shot or two, we would have been just fine. We would have won that game. But what was it six rushes from my running backs in the entire game. Getting
Nestor J. Aparicio 26:34
behind and it was it was it was 17 to seven at halftime. So you know, it was a 10 point game, and the Chiefs did not score the second half. But a little while since we talked about the game at the poll the box were up because I literally haven’t sat here and thought about it much because I haven’t talked about it much. Because there wasn’t a whole lot of talking about it. There was oh my god for a day. And then there was, oh my god, the baseball team. And I don’t really want to talk about that loss. I mean, I wouldn’t win. A day of that was plenty, two months later. I think the real thing you talk about now is how do you get back up? Right? And how do you get back up when Bullock would always say to me, I’m not gonna let somebody come and bring a truck to the back door, take all my coaches out. Well, that just happened. And whether John wanted it to happen or not. Well, John took a lot of criticism about your man Madison and hiring coaches that might not be on the fast track to be head coaches, Trestman some other guys that they would be here for a while. And I think from a management perspective, and I manage people, I’ve hired a fire to have done all that. That’s a good idea. But then there’s your hotshot kid that you’ve groomed as a political word for he groomed to be your guy, and he’s your five minutes. He’s great. It works out awesome. You go to the championship game, but you lose it, and you don’t get the ring and then and then they bring the truck and everybody out the back door. But not just that Lamar salary. And I know they got a little bit of help from the salary cap bumping up but they knew that was coming that that that $10 million, that’s all amortized and they know where the caps go. And they know they know the revenues in the NFL, but they they don’t know anything, they know their revenue. They know their top number for sure. But for me with this offseason, this is going to be an attrition unlike anything we’ve seen here since Bella called it a rebuild year 20 years ago right after the deal for when goose and all those guys left. We had that when when Flacco when we won and Ed Reed and Ray Lewis and that happened and never really picked ourselves up from that. This is going to be the weirdest couple of weeks. I mean, all we’re going to have in free agencies losses, we’re not going to have any gains because I don’t need money to have any gains. This is going to have to be done through the draft. And it’s going to have to be done with the guys they’ve already drafted that they have in line, you know, replacements for Patrick Queen replacements for Kevin Zeitler potential replacement for Ronnie Stanley, they better figure this out and do it in a hurry because, you know, 13 and four becomes nine and eight real quick if you’re not careful.
David Katz 29:01
You’re 100% right. I’m really upset about McDonald. That guy seemed to be the future of the franchise and a lot of ways. And he had something figured out with this talent that his ability to move pieces around and get the most out of these guys. He really think of how many of our defensive players had their best season under McDonald. So you talk about coaching up in baseball, I think his ability to coach up and put these guys in positions to succeed is very important. We’ve got some if you look at our cap pits and you look at what the players that are consuming the majority of our money over the next year. So these are guys that are no longer productive. And we’re going to be sitting there eating, you know, uh, Marcus Williams and Ronnie Stanley and there’s some big and Marlon Humphrey and guys who are on the downside Oh, it’s
Nestor J. Aparicio 29:56
got a hell of a podcast now you know, I mean Bad Alabama mouth and Vanderbilt trophy case right now. So like, I would just say, for all of the Bluster of how good they’ve been and how good Lamar has been, it, this has been, you know, not nearly as fulfilling as to the Joe Flacco era at this point. Right. And I you wonder, is there a window opening window closing and, you know, the cost is always well, there is no window opening closing. But there is the fact that this is going to be a diminished team this year. This is going to now the chief just won a Super Bowl with a diminished team, right. So that can happen. But and the Patriots had all sorts of diminished teams that they won with, because they had a genius quarterback and a genius coach, right. Like, and they figured that part of it out. You know, I mean, hardball. And Lamar have gonna have to figure this out because they’re adding up some disappointments. You know, they’re the story of this era has been much like the Peyton Manning era, the beginning. disappointments,
David Katz 30:58
right? Look, the big question mark for me, when we lost that Cundiff, Lee Evans game, I don’t know if you recall, but Ray Lewis his speech in the locker room, I was standing in his locker. Yeah, remember, when it was an all time? moment for me in sports?
Nestor J. Aparicio 31:14
I put a smile on someone’s face. That’s exactly,
David Katz 31:16
yeah. So I have that speech printed out.
Nestor J. Aparicio 31:21
It is right here. Oh, wow. Okay. Okay,
David Katz 31:24
is that black thing right there that is raised speech. And that made me feel okay about what happened because there was perspective. And there was leadership coming out of that. And we don’t win a Super Bowl the next year without Ray Lewis being there, even though he went out with the torn tricep and somehow miraculously comes back. We don’t win that. We don’t beat the Colts and we don’t beat Denver. And we don’t go through that without Re and that started the day that we lost that game the year before. So I asked you like, where is that? Leadership? You know, Ro Quan seems to be a guy who galvanizes people and people love them and all that stuff. But like, where is it coming from? Is it coming from Lamar? Is it coming from Kyle Hamilton, he’s young, but he’s, he’s tremendous. Well, it’s got to come from the team, as much as it comes from the coach, coaches. And that’s where I’m wondering. That’s what I’m looking for. And that’s what made the next year possible. But I hope now is that you and I are back in New Orleans next year. The purpose will
Nestor J. Aparicio 32:42
be in New Orleans. I’m doing a cup of Super Bowl. I’m doing my charity event next year. So I’ll be unless Chad Steele is no longer the the public relations director and I get my legitimate press pass back then maybe I considered and we do a cup of Super Bowl maybe the following week or something like that. But yeah, I’m committed to my charity at this point. So that’s, that’s my plan next year.
David Katz 33:00
I want ravens nation to be in New Orleans next year,
Nestor J. Aparicio 33:04
they some king cake after they win the Super Bowl. When you do that, we’ll
David Katz 33:06
bring you back a king cake.
Nestor J. Aparicio 33:08
I hate King Cake. But I’ll eat one with you because it’s got purple on it anyway, right? Usually.
David Katz 33:14
I’m hopeful. And look, I’d rather be us over 90% of the franchises in the NFL. I like our management. I like our stability. You know, you made a comment about the shotty before when I was talking about transparency with ownership and stepping forward. But I do want to make another comment because there’s leadership comes in a lot of different forms. Some leadership is you got to be forward facing. And you have to kind of, you know, the Jerry Jones model of like, I’m here, the buck stops with me, I’m going to take responsibility, I’m also going to take credit. And then there’s another form of leadership, where you hire the best people that you feel can do the job. And you empower them, and you give them the resources to do it. And you get out of their way. That has been Bashaud his model. It has worked for us. I think he’s one of the best owners in professional sports. And I’m going to put all the stuff that you’ve dealt with on this to the side and I’m just going to look at stability and success. You know, Steve’s not putting the game plan together on the for the AFC champ game, and, you know, tweaking things at halftime, but he has given the team every opportunity to succeed. And I think he has been a tremendous owner and the juxtaposition of his ownership against Angelo’s in the same city, to me also shows us how great of a leader he has been for us. So I think we’re blessed. I think we’re blessed with the ravens, I think top to bottom. There are a lot of people who’d like to be where we are, but I have the same questions and concerns you do about what is this team going to look like when we step on the field in September. And a lot needs to happen now do we get there to have a
Nestor J. Aparicio 34:59
level of confidence Derrick d’acosta That they’re not. They’re going to be a diminished team, but by week 16, they won’t be. And if I were sitting in front of hardball and Acosta, as I did the first 25 years of the franchise in the offseason, especially this time of year, I mean, Eric and I would always get together for a three hour coffee, right around this time of the year talk, draft talk, who’s, who’s in who’s out what’s going on? And I would say at this point, there’s no panic out there. They’ve been through this before. I mean, this a team that went and got van Noy and clowny. And like, Yeah, they’ll figure it out. And it’s not going to get figured out in March. It’s not going to get figured out on free agency. I don’t think I could figure it out on draft day, because it’s all speculative. What they need to do is identify players that come next November, December when Marlin Humphrey can’t do it. They have somebody that can the same thing with Ronnie Stanley, because they know that you know that I know that we know that we all know some of these guys are their cat numbers wrong. And I’m shocked they let Zeitler get out. I mean, that’s one more problem they have now one more hole to fill. But you know, when you have salary cap issues, and it does harken back to and I know you want to talk about the Flacco air and race speech and all that harkens back to the year after that, and the year after that. And year after that, where it was all Flacco his problem because he made all the money didn’t have any wide receivers and the ray was gone. And every was going to Matt Burke was gone and pyramid didn’t work out. And you know, all of a sudden, you draft a couple of guys where it doesn’t work. And you find yourself in a situation where you really can’t win the Super Bowl. And the Ravens aren’t that team next year. But I do think that they do draft up to be a better team in week 10 than they are in week one. I’m not concerned about the Ravens. There’ll be a competitive team in November, December. I have no doubt about that. Now whether they’re going to be the best team again, I have. I’m very skeptical of that. Look, I
David Katz 36:49
don’t disagree with what you’re saying. Oh, going back to what you just said though, before about Flacco. I think the ravens and I think if you ask Ozzy in retrospect, did they make a mistake in one area? I think there is one thing that cost us an opportunity to really run it back for a second year. And that was not bringing back Anquan Boldin over, I think what was like a $4 million payment that he felt owed or whatever that the salary was at that moment. And that guy earned it. That guy was the heart and soul he played beyond his cap number. And I know you go to these guys expecting them to take a cut. And at a pride when they don’t take a cut you’re left with, you have to get rid of them. Because otherwise the message doesn’t work for all the next guys down. And I think they kind of bluffed him and Antoine called them on it. And they were stuck getting rid of them. And I think that was the death knell of that offense. And they had an opportunity one more year to kind of come back and do something special. But anyway,
Nestor J. Aparicio 37:54
all right. Well, it was a decade ago. At some point we’ll all get over the AFC Championship Game loss and they’ll play football again this year. But in the meantime, the Orioles are under new management David Katz. David Katz is here, man dude, you can follow him out on the internet, longtime sports executive of Baltimore, and Pikesville never Dundalk but we’ll meet halfway halfway be like Loch Raven, somewhere around there. Probably right at wn St. Probably halfway Right. Right. Providence, Rhode. So yeah, absolutely. I’ll get lunch with you anytime. Congratulations on the nuptials. I don’t have you want superduper frequently every three months or so. So but the next time I get together you’ll have the wedding ring. You’ll have a nice tan, and happiness and all that. I just want to wish you and your bride well. You waited a long time for love in your life. And I want you to go and whip it up and have a good time. We’re here for you to like July. All right.
David Katz 38:44
Thank you Next I told Christina I don’t need a wedding band. I already got one. I just want to wear this. Just raise your
Nestor J. Aparicio 38:50
head. Yeah go big as your head it’s a paperweight. David Katz Katmandu always consulting with me and I need to call your new consulting company have some social media questions. I am Nestor. We are wn St. am 1570, Towson, Baltimore and we never stop talking Baltimore positive
