Luke Jones and Nestor discuss Lamar vs. Mahomes in AFC Championship Game on Baltimore Ravens soil.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
lamar, week, great, played, super bowl, ravens, win, years, quarterback, lamar jackson, food bank, baltimore, give, january, talk, patrick, team, sunday, luke, wayne
SPEAKERS
Luke Jones, Nestor J. Aparicio
Nestor J. Aparicio 00:01
Looking back at W N S, T, Towson, Baltimore and Baltimore positive.com. We are these are the good days this if this isn’t one of the best weeks radio I’ve done in 32 years and a couple of months. My my 39 years into journalism here and doing this, watching the Mayflower I look my churn journalism career began eight weeks before the Mayflower like six different times as a kid with Chris pica before the Mayflower is moved, and we have an AFC Championship game here. This week, Luke Jones is our guest, he will maybe not be with us at all two weeks from now he might be out in Las Vegas, but we’re doing one of the greatest things that I’ve concocted in my concoctions. Look, this is better than running through the streets in my underwear. It is honestly I don’t know that it’ll really be better than whiskey Joe’s or then the parade was in the march down in New Orleans. But we’re looking to start something special this year. With me being extracted from radio row and from a Super Bowl coverage and from the career that I built here over four decades by by Chad Steele we’ve decided to do something different this year. So we’re gonna do something called crab cake row. And we’re gonna offer everyone in our community a free cup of soup or bowl, a free cup for Super Bowl and we’re going to do this in five different locations all with the Maryland lottery. We’re gonna have some Oh snaps to give away some rabid scratch offs to give away all day long. Our friends are window nation our friends at Jiffy Lube multi care all of our sponsors were in on this wise markets royal farms. They all do for the Maryland Food Bank and every single year is a guy named Wayne Ostrowski. Luke, I don’t know. Did you ever meet Wayne from tasted the NFL? Was he I won’t say I’m sure
8
Luke Jones 01:56
I’m sure I did. At some point in time you meet a lot of people on radio row. So it’s tough to put faces with names all the time, but I definitely remember that name. That’s for sure. I waited
Nestor J. Aparicio 02:06
I got together two weeks ago on a zoom and I haven’t seen Wayne and a number of years Wayne, Google him que OSTROSKI Wayne Ostrovsky. He was the founder of taste of the NFL. And he dreamed up this idea back in the 80s and took it the tagline of booths people. And so we’re going to do this party the night before the Super Bowl, and it’s going to be like a ball for those who aren’t in the league or have this or whatever. But we’re going to Miss America. Every year we’re going to have a player and a representative from every team. And a chef Nancy Longo, my dear friend love Nancy purepoint restaurant was the chef every single year. They always had a celebrity every year with somebody sort of different Matt Stover settled in for a little while. But over the course of time everybody’s done it. Marty bass and I did it and sat in for Ernest Byner, who was coaching on the team who had agreed to do and then the Ravens made the Super Bowl and he couldn’t do it smartly. bassinet were the celebrities in Tampa at the convention center. So it’s a party and 1000s of people great food, lots of celebrities, always celebrity chefs, Andrew Zimmern has been on my show many times, if you remember him sitting in So Wayne, did all of this for hunger. And by the end had had Coca Cola and airlines and all sorts of people involved in it. And very much like what enbloc is here. It was a Super Bowl oriented night before in a awesome location every year, Jacksonville, Miami wherever it was, it was a great party. Indianapolis inspired me Luke and I had to tell him this. And we had there were some tears involved in this and I know you have some spirituality about you, Deacon Jones. So we got to talk about being inspired by all these years of me going to this party and eating, sometimes having an upset stomach on Superbowl Sunday because I mix too many oysters with too many steaks with too many wines with too many REO Speedwagon ‘s and Hootie and the Blowfish. I mean, all these great bands would play that gig. Barenaked Ladies played that gig one year. So I mean, just amazing acts a Brooks and Dunn played one year as I remember Country X they do it all. So Wayne inspired me because it’s all of this was giving hundreds of millions of dollars to hunger and Luke the year in Indianapolis and I and I do speak of that Super Bowl very fondly, as you know, like, that was probably my favorite Super Bowl for a lot of reasons. It was very well contained. The city was it was like a state fair. It made me not hate those people anymore. So that was there was some spirituality for that for me. And I know what Jim Irsay has been through with overdose last month, the whole deal, right. So that year, Wayne did the event at the food bank at the Indianapolis at the food bank, at the warehouse in the middle of East Jesus. I mean, it was like in the middle of nowhere and 1000s of people got in and nobody can Leave, because cabs didn’t want to come find us on Saturday night’s Super Bowl. When Indianapolis there was there was no transportation. And we all got stuck at the food bank. We were there the whole night. By the way, this was a very spiritual night for me, Luke, I took a camera up to aL Baba Baker, your historian. Do you know who our Bubba Baker’s
05:24
tell me, he
Nestor J. Aparicio 05:25
8is the Tony Siragusa to the rich Gannon, he is the guy who landed on Bert Jones and hurt Bert Jones. Okay, forever, which really changed the franchise because that oh, yeah, moved the franchise. I mean, had Bert won a Super Bowl and 79 or 80 NRSA in the city. And who knows, right? We might still be wearing poor shoes here, you know, but it’s in Boston candies and nuts and all that. But from a historical perspective. He was the Cleveland Browns celebrity that night at their Chef’s Table. And I had a camera with me just starting 2009 Whatever it was 10 whatever year that was 11 You remember better than me? 11 I think, but the Indianapolis year, I went up to him with camera and I told him who I was. And he told me he meant to hurt Burt Jones and he did it on purpose. And he would do it again. I’m like, Wow. That was but you seem as honest. I guess as we were in the middle of the food bank in Indianapolis. So I told Wayne that I am indebted to him inspired by him. And where he stuck me in a food bank in Indianapolis and I got stranded a little too in the morning, that Super Bowl. We ate well, we had a lot of wine. And in the end, it all worked out great. It was actually phenomenally great. We got a great cab ride as it worked out. But nonetheless, it worked out to inspire me for Carmen del Cueto in the folks, the Maryland food bank here. And John maroon who has been very, very helpful throughout the course of my life and career works with those folks as well. So we’re going to be doing every single day, a free soup for you, your mom, your sister, even your niece, we got to bring her out, get her some crackers. And so you get crab soup or cream crab soup, and come on out free soup all of our places are offering it all week. In exchange for you bring in some good stuff for the Maryland Food Bank and hang out do the show it’s gonna be and we’re gonna get into this with injuries and all this stuff look as to, um, this close to making it a giant purple pep rally. It’s gonna be live radio stuffs gonna go wrong, we’re gonna get kicked off the air. It’s gonna snow a foot on Tuesday, I’m gonna be overcast. It’s like the goof on the roof. I’m gonna pull my purple Santa hat out again, like, but they got to be Patrick mahomes. Right, like now here we are. And we’ll get into the sports part of this. But I just want to give everybody I’m very, very excited about this. And what we’re doing for the Maryland Food Bank that week and we’re featuring 100 charities. So nests at Baltimore positive.com. If you have a charity, please get it to me this week because I’m trying to get all this organized by Sunday, because next week might get a little kooky around here. I have a feeling right around like five o’clock Friday this weekend. We go on a purple Bender unlike anything we’ve ever seen, and we can talk about that celebration and what we missed out when Keith Urban played down at the harbor and we got our ass kicked out of Mile High Stadium by Peyton Manning who showed up he wasn’t bad luck this week. He was for the first half LUCAM I guess so much on the minds for people this week with the game and injuries and John will be coy Marlon Humphrey huge Right. Mark Andrews could be huge would be huge. I mean nice to have the real Mark Andrews whatever we get, but I’ll take mine against there’s three and a half point favorites. You got to beat mahomes to get there you didn’t have to beat Allen. They tap danced around with the Texans the other day and we went through that and but but the Chiefs a little beaten up to and but I keep saying heavyweight fight man. This is thrilling Manila Rumble in the Jungle. Yeah, this is this is epic, as we would say here, man.
Luke Jones 09:10
No question about it. I mean to be the man, you gotta beat the man, right? I mean, you’re an old school wrestling guy. But yeah, I think one of the underrated storylines coming out of Saturday’s win over Houston in the divisional round was the Ravens didn’t report any new injuries. Now that doesn’t mean there won’t be a couple guys on the injury report that were banged up over the course of Saturday’s win, but they did not go through they did not lose anyone to a concussion at least during the game. You know, there’s always the possibility of a concussion protocol situation but you know, they they appeared to get out of that game. Healthy, you know, really healthy as it pertains to late January now. So that was good to see. I mean, you just really nailed the two questions for the week. It’s going to be where as Marlon Humphrey I mean, he hasn’t played since New Year’s Eve when he heard his calf so I would think if we don’t see him at the beginning of the practice week, then it’s probably not happening for him this week, you know that you’re talking about a three plus week layoff and I think what was I mentioned this last week in passing, but, you know, we saw him doing some running and some agility work during the bye week when they had a few practices. I saw him out there two different days. So did he have a setback? Was it just a case where the calf just wasn’t responding? Well, you know, did it tighten up whatever but they didn’t have them out there. Now. I think we’ve seen over the course of the year and I say this with as Noah knocked on Marlon Humphrey, he was a three time Pro Bowl corner. Their defense has done fine without him. You know, he’s missed what seven games over the course of the season, so they’re not strangers to him being hurt this this year anyway, so you’d love to have them you’d much rather have them than not as is the case with any player you’re
Nestor J. Aparicio 10:51
starting to get almost you know, I love Jimmy Smith. You did not text me back this weekend. Jimmy I’m looking for you. Looking for you. Where are you better behind in line you someplace your island and Maui or kawaii wherever it is? No, I love Jimmy but I mean, he got banged up at the end. And it’s like, we felt this way about Ronnie Stanley for a period of time. And now they’re spelling him, which is an interesting concept offensive line was kind of a revolutional concept. I mean, I remember when the relief pitcher came in sometime between you know, 60 and 73, where it became essential and then agents leverage it into thing and then the running backs aren’t a thing now to jab weaseling we you gotta we gotta get a crabcake you me and Chad we sling we’re gonna get we’re doing we’re gonna get a crabcake sometime around combine to talk about running backs and value and all of that. But you start to talk about what’s valued and what’s not valued. And we’re how you build the roster and how you lose players. But we there’s so much that goes into the balance of the money for these teams and the investment on these teams. And what you know, Orlando Browns played on both of these teams, right, like who you count on who you don’t Terrell Suggs I wonder who he’s reading for this week, right? It’s gonna ring right you gotta change train, guys, right? He doesn’t know so you think about these things. And I do love that. I’m celebrating these 25 stories of glory we’re doing with curio and foreign daughter and we’re counting them down and there’s a picture of the AFC Championship Game and me and David Modell holding the Lamar Hunt trophy do the old big old trick. Now the newer ones like more like a football and it’s like a space age looks like a war kind of thing. Right? I have a picture of me with that and Foxborough then years ago, like the hell’s that give me the trophy that look like it look like a bowling trophy or like the trophy that would be hanging at the roll arena. He escaped land for winning the skating. It was just long wooden thing. And it’s me and David Modell. Hold
Luke Jones 12:47
the little AFC logo on it. Yeah,
8Nestor J. Aparicio 12:50
we’re on the dais at the A in the black hole. You know, in Oakland, Oakland, dia, and we’re holding the trophy and arts in the background. And you know, and it’s the Lamar Hunt trophy and I’m picking Lamar What a weird name. I don’t know any of them ours. I didn’t grow up with anything Lars Yeah, you know what the Dundalk know the Morris I don’t remember the Mars and then like Lamar was like Lamar Hunt was one of the more famous lone Lamar Hoyt your pitcher you’d like but like there were a lot of them ours you know, and now like we have a Lamar looking to win the Lamar this week. So I sort of like love that as well. It’s sort of a throwback when you get to be older but what you know what a beautiful quarterback story and the two best and we want this Manning Brady thing we want this you know, I guess Johnny you had peers, you know across the sport at that time, but we would say Joe Nemeth when he came in and you’d see stole back and Bradshaw and like all of that through the course of time. We’re in the middle of one of those and the rivalry was always Ray Lewis in the Steelers right like that’s the it was Steelers Ravens. But behind that there was a Manning Brady thing going on for a long, long time. Remaining couldn’t get through. And this is really the the pathway for Lamar is greatness, forget his contract his money, whatever anything about him but for championships and from what you do when and how you do it. And I have Joe Flacco on the show this week and he can be talked to him and Brian Billick and other people that have actually done it. Lamar needs to do it. And this is the here and now and best chance in so many ways. And I liked that. The testicles got shrunk. Big time at halftime. You don’t I mean for them to have gone through that last week at 1010 at halftime to have everybody on TV questioning. We’re going back up to Joe Buck and Aikman it’s 1010 here we you know, like, and for everybody in the locker room and again, my locker room access has been taken away after 39 years doing this tell me about that, because like, how much it seems to me that people must have something to say about that afterward because Lamar must have had fire. And at some point, somebody has taped that, that’ll that’ll surface on the 30 for 30. When Lamar is Michael Jordan wins his fifth chain, you know, like literally, whatever happened at halftime while I was sitting here watching the Ravens circle the drain in the, in the conversation, at least on the field, to the booth, every social media everywhere. And he did something in there that apparently mean something that would be a lead story in Purple Rain three, maybe? Yeah,
Luke Jones 15:41
I mean, I mean, they weren’t circling the drain. I mean, but it was unnerving, right? I mean, they were in a position that they didn’t want to be in, or it’s 1010. And you’re not planning your best. You have a Houston team who hadn’t done a whole lot. But hey, it’s tied. And it’s like, Okay, how much can you keep asking your defense to keep completely shut them down? You know, hey, let’s go. Come on. Okay. We’re rusty in the first half. Let’s go. Let’s
Nestor J. Aparicio 16:04
go to the kid doesn’t miss the kick. They’re losing. Yeah, yeah.
Luke Jones 16:07
8I mean, sure. But you know, I think at the same time, we look, Lamar is not the most vocal guy. I think that’s evident. But at the same time, the sense I’ve gotten this year, is that he has been more vocal than in the past. And I think he is one of those guys, that while he’s not going to stand up and give a Ray Lewis speech to the team every single week, he is someone that when he does speak up, I think his words do carry a little more weight, where you kind of say, hey, whoa, you know, it’s kind of like, you know, if you grew up in a family where
Nestor J. Aparicio 16:45
dad
Luke Jones 16:46
didn’t raise his voice, but when he did, it’s like, whoa, hey, it gets your attention really quick. I think that’s, that’s the general sense I got from what happened on Saturday night night, you know, I don’t think it was anything overly profound. It was just like, Hey, come on, we’re better than this. Let’s, let’s go take care of business. You know, and I think, again, a lot of that did have to do with adjusting to the Houston blitzes. So there was some substance to it, but I think a lot of it was, you know, specifically speaking from the offensive side, which obviously Lamar plays on the offensive side of the ball was, hey, our defense is playing great, we need to need to pick it up, you know, we can’t keep asking our defense to all but shut them out, you know, they’d given up three points, you know, understanding the touchdown came on the punt return. So, I think it was just one of those situations. So, you know, I don’t I don’t know if it’s this transformation kind of moment, as much as just the evolution of Lamar Jackson, you know, we’ve talked a lot about it in terms of him on the field this year, and where he was as a rookie, to where he is now, you know, in terms of how he plays, but also just the maturation of a young player, the maturation of a quarterback. I mean, this is a guy who experienced a lot of failure. You know, what, when you’re in the midst of that failure, yeah, that’s all people want to focus on. And, look, your legacy is defined by January, we understand that I mean, Peyton Manning, is viewed differently now than he was in 2003. But I think if you go back to that point in time, understanding it was pre social media, but still the internet. There’s all kinds of talk about Peyton Manning not been able to win the big one. And you know that you mentioned the Brady Manning factor, even though this this current era, it’s been a little more mahomes. Alan, because Alan has, you know, they faced off with the Chiefs more frequently in the postseason. But buffalo hasn’t broken through that. And Josh Allen right now is kind of playing that Peyton Manning role in that in that light, you know, not that they’re similar players. So, you know, for Lamar, this is a unique opportunity, because he’s finally facing mahomes and the chiefs in January, so, you know, I think you just look at it through that lens. I mean, what more can you ask for? It’s it. You said it, for all the greatness we’ve seen in the regular season. The fact that it did translate and carry over to last Saturday against Houston. Okay, we can stop talking about the Titans right, we can stop talking about when is Lamar going to play at a high level in a playoff game, he did it. Now, this just becomes much more of the run of the mill. Hey, this is an opportunity to build your legacy. This is a chance to break through you’re facing you’re you grew up watching Tom Brady went all those Super Bowls you’re facing this generation is Tom Brady and you have a chance now to one up him, you have a chance now to unseat the chiefs and get to your
Nestor J. Aparicio 19:36
first super chance and maybe your best chance to ever given the talent around you and where you are in the home game and, and the rest and just sure and the fact that mungkin may be gone next week as well as that. I mean, like there’s a real movement here that the band is going to get broken up in a pretty significant way. Now you would always say we got Lamar, they got it they got guys under contract. They got good football players here, no doubt about that. But there is going to be a changing of the guard and probably a massive way for the scale of football and what John would want, in the end what Eric would want the offseason. But they know this is coming. I mean,
8Luke Jones 20:18
Ryan, and look, I mean, there’s only so many chairs at the table. It’s not a guarantee that Mike McDonald and Todd Monken are gone, but you know, that you’re gonna at least lose some guys from your coaching staff, whether it’s your coordinators, or whether it’s some really key assistants who become coordinators elsewhere. So nature of the business, you’re gonna have free agents all that, by the way, kids, the cities deal with the same thing. Buffalo in a big way is going to be dealing with that. That’s why the disappointment for the bills to not get to an AFC Championship, considering where their
Nestor J. Aparicio 20:45
cap is, hang on a second, let’s say Kubiak nobody ever came and called for him. Let’s say Manning’s done, his neck screwed up. He doesn’t go to Denver and play Kubiak loved it here didn’t want to leave. He loved Joe. And it all went away after that. Right? Like to some degree. And you know, I mean, coaching to reason they pay all these guys all this money. And it’s a reason that Tomiko Ryan’s entered to for all of his faults and watch John Harbaugh can survive this all these years as well as Mike Tomlin. They they adjust through every mech Canada and every Bruce Arians. I mean, Tomlin said, I mean, John fired his offensive coordinator in week 13, and then won the Super Bowl eight weeks later. I mean, you think he doesn’t think he’s a genius? You know what I mean? His owner tells him he’s a genius. Everybody tells me to genius. You get some feeling that you can’t do much wrong, especially when you do all this right? And to say, well, you know, I got another guy, they always have a shortlist of who next up is anyway, right. But this is for a limited time. They have two hours of football and they got to earn the second hour by winning the first hour right now. And as it’s comprised back to Lamar, this is his best shot. And I do want to you were rambling on about quarterbacks and Josh Allen not making How about Phillip rivers, or even like Dan Marino, but let’s go through a whole bunch of Warren moons. And I’m trying to think Randall Cunningham’s and just tons of guys that were really Matt Ryan. Oh, my God, Matt Ryan, right? Like, I’d add three touchdown Lee. Like, all of the gym, Kelly. None of these guys won. You know what I mean? And they all played in all these big games. They won a couple they lost a couple. I mean, Jared Goff, got to a Super Bowl. And he’s yesterday’s trash, right? Like, and now he’s on the cusp of doing it again. And so yeah, Garoppolo got to a Super Bowl. Now, you know, Brian always twist his ring, man, he stands are all six, seven of them. And he comes out and gives a speech in his suit. I’ve seen him do it. 100 times. Brian’s Gonna be honest way too, by the way. And he would all and I’m gonna give him some issue about this. He’d always say, you know, when you win a Super Bowl ring, they say that they’ll never take it away from you. But that won’t stop them from trying. And you know, the greatness of all of these players that I’ve laid out who didn’t win who didn’t have a chance to win and weren’t in the right position, Cal Ripken after the first year, right, second year, two years and never got a chance to be on this stage again. And it’s not just about the quarterback to your point. I mean, it’s special teams, put the Texans in a position to talk ish about Lamar at halftime because the defense was played the story would have been the defense and they’re struggling, but they’re doing okay. Had the special teams not made it a tie game? Right. Yeah, yeah.
Luke Jones 23:42
I mean, look, what you just laid out. And this is why I think it was so important for Lamar, for him where he is at this point in his career, understanding that there’s no guarantee you’re going to win Sunday. And look, if the Ravens don’t win Sunday, it’s gonna be very disappointing because they were the best team in the league this year. But we also know the best team doesn’t always win. But I think what was so critical because of what you just laid out, you just laid out all these different quarterbacks, including some Hall of Fame quarterbacks that you just mentioned, who did not win a Super Bowl. But for Lamar, his win and his performance against Houston. For me it normalizes the conversation about Lamar Jackson in the way that all right. Yeah, he’s not this guy that’s played terrible football in his first three or four, even though he wasn’t that bad in that second Titans. You know, the game that they had won in Tennessee, go back and look, he played better than he gets credit for. But the point is, he had struggled, right? That had been the narrative. Lamar is this great player in the regular season? It hadn’t translated and carried over to January, it did on Saturday night. So for me, I put to rest the past games. Now. It’s just all right. You’re in the hearing now. You and believe me, you just laid out and we’ve talked about what lies ahead. Potential coaching, departures, free agency, the salary cap Same things Kansas City’s dealing with same things buffalo is going to deal with same thing Cincinnati is going to deal with in the coming years. When you have a high price quarterback, that’s the cost of doing business. It makes your roster building challenging. It makes your coaches more attractive, more appealing to other organizations. That’s just why
Nestor J. Aparicio 25:16
8you mentioned those teams. The bills have have sort of had that but haven’t won. The Bengals took their fans out to LA they had a party they almost won the Super Bowl. They did it with a ragtag offensively like so, you know, they squeezed the juice so to speak, and the Chiefs have won championship, you know, so like, there is a point where like for our fans to just get the Las Vegas next week and to not lose this significant home monumental first time in 53 years, kind of game. You know, Lamar goes out and doesn’t play well, and the team doesn’t play well and they lose this week. It’ll you know, he’ll carry whatever Peyton Manning carry hurt and carry it. You know what I mean? Like, it’ll hurt. It’ll burn my point about Matt Ryan and that whole litany of guys was that burn that burn that fire to your short, you were pissed at Lamar Lamar is pounding the ground. Lamar is a kid, he’s 21 years old at the time, they’re about the showering with money. He went into a firestorm with this organization during injury times where he’s hurting in a room and they’re saying you’re a $35 million quarterback here taking limited tag, go find the market, the market said nothing to him. And you know, so like, and he said to them, get me some real wide receivers and they brought him a bom bom with Obj. Like all of this happen. Get me an offensive coordinator where I get to call the shots meet Mr. Monken, you’ll get you’ll get the check out of plays, because that’s what you feel like you need if we’re gonna give you $50 million. All this wasn’t spoken through agents, but I promise you all this were the conversations right?
Luke Jones 26:59
Yeah, yeah. I mean, I guess the point I was trying to make is, you know, losing the Houston that would have been, I shudder to think what the offseason would have been like I, I mean, it would have been unbearable. Let’s face it, and it would have been, I think it would have been a case of you’re kind of at a loss for words as far as where you go from here. Well, if the
Nestor J. Aparicio 27:22
Orioles do what they did last year, the next three years and take a phaser will be you know that that’s kind of where we’re getting with the ravens, it with a generational player. I mean, a player’s a Michael Jordan player. Well,
Luke Jones 27:35
I guess the point I’m trying to make is not that Saturday was the game they had to win, no questions asked no negotiating whatsoever. It would have been oh my gosh, what’s the disconnect here? Why is this not translating? How are you the number one seed two times in five years and you don’t get out of the divisional round? They did that. They won. They advanced. Now you’re going up against the guy that is the standard. You know, this team has been the standard over the last five years since Tom Brady said goodbye and Foxborough and went down to Tampa Bay. It’s been Kansas City. They’ve been the three Super Bowls in four years. I mean, that’s just speaks for itself. So from that standpoint, it’s not this Herculean task for the ravens to win on Sunday. The ravens are better on paper, but they know that they’re playing a team. That’s been the standard in the same way that Joe Flacco when they went up to Foxborough they knew that they’re gonna be underdogs. Now, they’re not underdogs on Sunday, but they know that they’re an underdog from a pedigree standpoint, right? Because Kansas City has been there. So yeah, the pressure is there. And as much as we’ve talked about this through the lens of everything setting up for the ravens to make this run. I’m guessing Lamar Jackson’s not thinking in those terms. You know what Lamar Jackson is thinking right now. He’s tired of hearing about Patrick mahomes. being better than Lamar Jackson thinks he’s the best in the world. And look, Joe Flacco thought he was the best in the world a decade ago, famously on our airwaves, and created all this fuss and that’s still talked about today. 11 years later,
8Nestor J. Aparicio 29:09
giving me fodder now, keep going. You’re giving me notes. But the
Luke Jones 29:12
point is Lamar Jackson, right now he wants to prove he’s the best. And guess what, you can’t prove you’re the best until you beat Patrick mahomes and get to a Super Bowl and win a Super Bowl, and then you know what he’s gonna say then if he does that over the course of the next three weeks. He’s gonna say I need to go win another one. But you can’t win two until you win one. And you can’t win one, until you beat Patrick mahomes and the chiefs on Sunday. So that’s how Lamar Jackson is thinking about this. Now he might. He might not state that explicitly. You know, he’s not going to be disrespectful. He has a lot of respect for Patrick mahomes. He knows mahomes has been at the top of the mountain twice already in his young career. But Lamar is chasing that. And Lamar has his best chance yet to do something about that. So I think that’s how Lamar Jackson is viewing this now. That’s not in his I can’t Yeah, that’s not in the forefront of his thinking this week. No, he’s focused on how’s he going to beat the Kansas City defense? You know, and what are they going to do offensively to move the ball more consistently for 60 minutes? Not just rely on a big second half. But yeah, I think that’s how Lamar, you know, if you had the truth serum, and you were just talking to Lamar off the record, and just having a conversation with them, you’d say, Yeah, you know, what I think I think I can be, I think I’m as good and can be better than Patrick mahomes. But until I beat him on this stage, and until I get to a Super Bowl and win that one, and then I need to do it again, then I don’t have much of an argument other than just how I feel internally about it. So I think that’s where it is for Lamar. But again, this is his first great opportunity. Now, they had a great opportunity in 19. But they squandered it. So it was over, you know, the moments over you move on at that point in time. But for him, it was so important. It was the biggest moment of his career on Saturday night, that second half that he had, because we hadn’t seen that before. We’ve seen it now we can put that extreme narrative to bed. But now it’s just the run of the mill. Just like any other quarterback, you’re going up against another great quarterback, you’re going up against another great team, Joe Flacco and the Ravens and in oh nine, they went to Foxborough and they won. And 11. They went up there and lost in heartbreaking fashion. And then in 12, they finally broke through two years later, they went back there, and they lost. So you know, this isn’t for Lamar Jackson, I don’t think this is as a combination, as much as he’s trying to view it as the beginning of building an even more amazing legacy than he already has built to this point in the regular season. So I think
Nestor J. Aparicio 31:39
that can’t prove anything on the road because he’s never had an opportunity, right like to say he can or can’t win on the road. He was very vocal in the aftermath on Sunday, United saying, we can win anywhere we can, you know, he’s got a chip on his shoulder saying, Oh, you think I can’t go into Baltimore and win and go to a break there as far as right to go in and break their hearts. You know, he he’s looking forward to being the NWO and coming in here, you know? Yeah.
Luke Jones 32:04
8I mean, that’s what makes these guys great. You know, the, we’ve talked about this for years. I mean, for years, the debate, and I know you’re not a big NBA guy, but LeBron James and Michael Jordan, and all that. I mean, Michael Jordan, I mean, the things that he would use, as motivation as what what’s perceived as slight, I mean, even the documentary that ESPN did during the pandemic, remember that the number of times he’s sitting in the chair, and I took that personally, and, you know, it might be the most innocuous comment that he would take exception to. But that’s how the absolute greatest work. I mean, they will take any little morsel of information, any little, tiny event that occurs. And they’ll use that as motivation. I mean, Mr. Jackson’s been using for five years, the fact that every team in the NFL, including the Baltimore Ravens earlier in that first round, passed over him. I said, No, we’re good. And this past offseason, all 31 teams and even count the ravens, because they placed the nonexclusive tag on him, all said, We don’t want you know, he’s used, he’s using that as motivation now, perception versus reality, whatever. I mean, that, you know, we went over all that we don’t need to rehash that. But Lamar Jackson, the competitor, the competitive individual, the drive that he has to be great. He’s used all of that. I mean, that. That’s how anyone you know, to be great, you, you’re motivated. It’s either intrinsic, or it comes from the outside, or in most cases, both use a combination. So, you know, that’s where Lamar is at this point. But this is his first time being on the stage and having this opportunity. And as much as he internally wants to be the absolute best. He knows that going through Kansas City is the next step in doing that. So I’m sure he’s embracing that, I’m sure. And it’s not just him. It’s this entire team. Right on down the Justin Tucker, who’s back in the AFC Championship for the first time in 11 years after winning a Super Bowl as a rookie. You know, you mentioned Cal Ripken a few minutes ago. I mean, Justin Tucker is not Cal Ripken. And you know, in
Nestor J. Aparicio 34:05
Well, Justin Tucker is gonna get called on he’s gonna be a factor in the game. On Sunday, he’s going to get called on to kick a hard field goal, extra points, all of that.
Luke Jones 34:14
And that’s what you want. Right? And
Nestor J. Aparicio 34:16
there’s your insurance, you know, you feel like, well, he’s not going to screw it up. Right. I mean, you feel that way. And especially, to, to my point, Texans go in UP 1310. The conversations even worse than it is. And it feels even differently, not to say the second half when to play it out identically. But there is a point where you saw a guy missed a field goal that might have made a difference in whether their season went on or not on the road on a cold day in Baltimore. Yeah,
8Luke Jones 34:42
well, take it a step further look, buffalo, I mean, that they, they could have gone to overtime and when you know so yeah, that’s some the utmost importance. And I think for as much as Justin Tucker did not have the best season of his career. I think he’d be the first to tell you that and had a few more issues than Normal with some long distance kicks. Keep in mind a couple of those were blocked and some weird things happen as well wasn’t just him missing outright all the time, but hit a 53 yarder and I can tell you Look watching pregame warmups. I mean, that when was a challenge? You know, there were, I saw him on that side of the field trying from about 50. And he kind of made, you know, had his normal kick is conventional approach. And he came up a little short and he was having to kick more of a line drive. So, you know, both kickers were having their issues and pregame so that was not needless to say not an easy day to kick given the temperature and the windchill factor, you know, the winds and and that factors. So it’s another big factor. Kansas City has a good kicker as well, who’s had success and did a terrific job for them in the insane cold against Miami. But you’re asking me which kicker I wanted to Justin Tucker every day of the week. So that’s another edge for the Ravens but you know, they’re they’re all trying this is. This is where legacies are defined. Odell Beckham said it last week, you know, he was asked about ze flowers and gave an answer that might as well have applied to Lamar Jackson, and every single guy on the team coaches and players said, Look regular seasons fun, you know, and that’s great. But this is just when history begins, so to speak, in terms of how they view you and for Lamar, I mean, this is Saturday was such an important step for him against Houston kind of put to bed the extreme nature of that narrative of why can’t you play like this in January, when you’re so great in the regular season, he did that. So now it’s just much more run of the mill pressure of January, and it’s time to break through. And quarterbacks, like you mentioned, Peyton Manning, there’s a great example Peyton Manning eventually broke through but you know what? He was still up and down over the course of his career. And the reason why it’s really, really hard to do this. And that’s why Tom Brady, is viewed as the greatest of all time, not because of his Pro Bowls, not because of the 2007, historic 50 touchdown passes. It’s because of what he did in January and February. And Patrick mahomes is at this point, on his way to maybe being somewhere in that stratosphere. But Lamar has other ideas, right? Josh Allen has tried to have other ideas that hasn’t worked out for him in January, going up against mahomes. But Lamar finally gets his first shot on Sunday. So get the popcorn ready. I mean, I can’t wait for this, because you’re talking about two of the for my money right now in 2024. Two best quarterbacks on the planet right now. Lamar has been the best this season. mahomes has been clearly the best over the last five years. So can’t ask for any more than that. You know, I mean, that’s to your point. You know, this feels in that way this feels more like the true Superbowl. Even though if the ravens are fortunate enough to get through and play in Vegas. They’ll still have to deal with San Francisco or Detroit.
Nestor J. Aparicio 38:04
Look, John’s will be dealing with all things ravens out in Owings Mills all week long. I have just such an incredible litany of guests here all week. At some point I’m going to shave, we’re doing crabcake row. A cup of soup or bowl is our promotion for the Maryland Food Bank. I listened to beginning part of this segment I told a story about winks Trotsky and hunger. We’re going to be featuring 100 charities that week I got about 30 books so far Ness at Baltimore positive.com If you have a charity to recommend that’s local that can make it out that week. We have 124 I’ve done the math on the segments and we’re gonna feature 100 different charities that week. We’re gonna start the week and Lex in the market if at least Tuesday we’re going to be a Costas and established in 1971 at Dundalk, MD come on out NorthPoint Boulevard. We’ll be there all day Tuesday. We’re doing live radio for the first time in 10 years nine to five live from all these locations Wednesday. Coco’s Thursday. We’re going to be at State Fair in Catonsville. And then on Friday at Pappas in cockys. Will and one hour one victory, slaying the giants of calcium mahomes and Reid and even Taylor Swift will be here, I’m sure having a crabcake at some point this week, as well. It’s going to be a big big week. We’ve got covered Peter King Brian Billick, Brandon Stokely Kim herring Joe Flacco, Marvin Lewis invite SEC Jamal Lewis is coming on so all the Louis’s maybe get your main Lewis onto as well. So we’re gonna be doing it, maybe get Louis black on it talks Morial baseball, but we’ll do that when it’s baseball season. The AFC Championship game is to Baltimore, the Kansas City Chiefs are coming to town. And we got full coverage. Any breaking news happens first and the WNS D text service Luke has that handled as well. Man I’m gonna stop with Sunday get get a big basket of chicken. I’m gonna bring it home with some Western fries and some ketchup but put some Beer out, and I’m just gonna sit and watch football all day. I’ve attended about a dozen of these championship games in the in the low 40s. From what I’m understanding here, there was some rain in the forecast. We don’t know. But it’s going to be very, very civil. And from a from a weather standpoint, and I think this is going to be one of the great days in Baltimore sports history. So I’m looking forward to watching it all unfold and being a part of it. I’m Nestor he’s Luke we are wn SDA and 1570, Towson Baltimore, and we never stopped talking a cup of Super Bowl at Baltimore positive
