NFL agent Wiestling pouring his heart into his players and the Orioles

Local NFL agent and former Terps football player Chad Wiestling tells Nestor about his passion for sports, his players at heart of his work and why he loves the Baltimore Orioles so much on the Maryland Crab Cake Tour at Kooper’s Tavern in Fells Point at Oyster Fest.

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

players, nfl, years, kids, gambling, orioles, pearl jam, league, agent, week, chad, game, baseball, win, quarterback, people, team, pete rose, reporter, represent

SPEAKERS

Chad Wiestling, Nestor Aparicio

Nestor Aparicio  00:00

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Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T, toss of Baltimore, Baltimore, positive. We are positively down here in beautiful Fells Point. Sun’s trying to come out. We got rock and roll bands everywhere. Springsteen’s in town. Sticks is in town. Lake Street dives in town. Pearl Jam still hung over. I thought I’d be hung over today, but just a little rock and roll hung over. Great set list with Pearl Jam on Thursday night, ravens taking on Raiders. If you listening to this on the other end of that, we will not be talking about that game in its entirety. We had Dave shining here for about two hours talking Olympics, baseball, football, rock and roll. Chad was links here. He is a Black Label sports, which he is an NFL agent to the stars. Give me your current roster and name the players that people would know, other than Josh Jacobs. You’re kind of famous for him, but who are the other players you represent

Chad Wiestling  00:46

right now? I have Anthony ever he’s with Pittsburgh Steelers, okay? Anthony Jennings, linebacker for the New England Patriots, all right. Mitch for brony with the Denver Broncos. Long snapper extraordinaire, so and then yadney could just, he just got, he’s on injured reserve right now. Get a bunch of guys that are injured, you know. So, you know, Josh Jacobs right now, currently is my biggest one. I had Mohamed Wilkerson, obviously, a few years ago, another franchise player with the New York Jets. So, you know, he just, sometimes I gotta remember who else,

Nestor Aparicio  01:24

why ask you, you know, you 1012, players, 15 players, like there’s a stable that you have is a really small boutique agent, and then there’s the Jerry Maguire. And then, you know, I’ve been privy to Lee Steinberg’s operation in Dawn and back in the day, where it felt like they had the quarterbacks, or they had a bigger stable, 2000 players in the league, 1800 players

Chad Wiestling  01:47

in the league. How many like that? Yeah. I

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Nestor Aparicio  01:49

know Lamar famously went up represented, but 98% of them represented by a guy like you. 99 oh yeah, 100% and like a lot of guys like you just said, after all these years with silver hair, like, I’m just going to take on 10 guys at a time, not an agency where I’m trying to get 60 and having 15 representatives, because at the end of the day, when you meet these kids and their mommies and their daddies and their wives and their families, they want to have you on the back that Jerry Maguire thing’s important, and you can only be Jerry Maguire for so many People, right 100% and, you

Chad Wiestling  02:22

know, being in this business, as long as I have it’s I’ve had the luxury of kind of learning, going through ups and downs, and figuring out, okay, getting to a point, I’ve had some big players, obviously have done pretty well. So I’ve had the luxury of being able, now, at this point in my 50s, to be able to say, what do I really want to deal with, you know, do I want to, you know, everybody is, you know, there’s good people out there, obviously, good players that want to play football, and that’s important to them. And then, of course, then there’s the players that, you know, want to do the other stuff off the field, and they’re more interested in, you know, maybe some of the partying and all the other stuff, the social aspect, social aspect of it, and not really, you know. And I

Nestor Aparicio  03:02

haven’t said they’re interested in being a player, not in playing. Yeah,

Chad Wiestling  03:06

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I just had to sit for this discussion last night with a family in person here in Baltimore, where it was like, you know, a lot of these players are always listen. They’re in the NFL there, or have a chance that the big man on campus in college, they’ve always been the superstar. They they’ve always, everything’s always been given to them, you know, as far as not just, you know, the opportunity, but whether it’s free food, free whatever, because everything’s been given to them. Now, they get to the NFL and they think they can still cruise like that. They’re still, you know, going to get everything for free and, and now you’re playing with some men, you know, you get up in the NFL, and there’s some men up there, and, you know, that’s why the mental aspect of it is very important for players. Because, you know, if you’re, if you got to change this level, you got the physical ability, you know, you got the athletic the God given athletic ability. It’s the one, the mental toughness that, hey, are the guy who the guy’s going to fight, who the guy’s going to keep, you know, want to be there. Want to, you know, want to do the extra to stay healthy, stay stay in the league as long as possible. And you see, some of the guys are just, you know, they’re, they’re drafted or high or whatever, just because of their ability. But then, you know, they can’t handle it mentally. You know, they want to get knocked down. And they’re like, oh, you know, this is a little bit too tough for me. Or, you know, you know what they’re thinking. So the point of that is, is, you know, I’ve, I’ve tried to kind of be more selective on who you know, I work with, because not I’m not for everybody, and everybody’s not for me, you know. And that’s I’ve learned that Exactly, exactly, exactly. So, you know, you kind of do your best you’re not, you know, do your best to kind of weed out, you know, the ones that aren’t right for me, and vice versa, and, and be more selective, and who I work with, and, and, you know, listen, like, as I said earlier, if I had one superstar quarterback, that’s all, you know, that’s all I need, right? Well, I mean, like Josh, especially, especially with, with the money they’re making nowadays, when

Nestor Aparicio  04:58

the Packers are playing on a. One day you got three, four kids playing at various times. I mean, there’s a piece of your soul involved in this, right? I mean, when, when your kid gets hurt, it’s the worst. It’s, this is your brother,

Chad Wiestling  05:10

literally, right? 100% Yeah. These are, yeah. These are, this is my family, right? Yeah. You know we’ve been through. You know when you, you know when you’re recruiting them since college now, nowadays, I mean, as you were talking about NHL stuff, I mean, that’s changed the whole game. So, I mean, now people are, you know, you can represent high school kids. Now, if you want to,

Nestor Aparicio  05:28

what, what? How has it changed and how are, how could you make money on it? How could you dive into it if you wanted to deal with 16 and 17 year old kids transfer? I mean, it seems to me to be even a greasier, more difficult business than ever, even the AAU money bag part of the basketball side of it. I don’t understand the football side of how Alabama and these big programs would handle young players, but it freaked me out a little bit during preseason, they were trying to help the Terp sell tickets. Your Terps Loxley was on the pregame with Sandusky, whatever. He’s like, we’re paying these kids straight cash now, homie, we’re paying him straight cash. And I’m thinking, that’s just weird, right? He’s there in a turtle outfit with kids in Under Armor gear on the field in an NFL game, saying we’re paying these kids cash, cash money for the it was like a wrestling shoot to me, like, I look like, literally, and I’m like, and I like Loxley and whatever, and I used comments last week and all that. No, you, you got a turf part and all that. But I’m thinking, I don’t even know, as a journalist, I don’t understand it, and I’m trying to, so maybe you could bring me up, yeah, I

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Chad Wiestling  06:35

mean, it’s basically, that’s exactly what I was gonna say. It’s the Wild Wild West, soon as it got passed. And I, you know, everyone kind of knew it was coming, but not necessarily how it was going to work. And as soon as got passed, it’s like, hey, you know the you know, that’s why all these schools that are starting their own initiatives and raise fundraisers and getting all this money, because so they have to get the top players. And with the transfer portal, way it is, you’re buying these, but also

Nestor Aparicio  06:58

put putting some railings in to say, whose money where? What’s the expectation this sub shops giving this kid five grand and he’s flunking out of class? I mean, like, there’s just the unintended consequences. I don’t even know what they are. Where to even begin. The unintended consequences is, everybody in this bar, including you, who loves the Terps, is like, Who’s that kid? Who’s that kid? What’s the transfer portal? How do I latch on to anybody? How long is this kid gonna be here? Whether it’s football, basketball, lacrosse, boys, girls, men’s, women, whatever. Like, I’m blown away by the fact that it’s unmarketable to me, unless you just love Alabama, like trying to market the young people, when there’s no promise they’re going to be here tomorrow, and then they got to go to class too. They’re serving a lot of masters, dude, you know, 17 year old, 18 year old kids. It’s,

Chad Wiestling  07:50

well, these, these college sports. Now it’s professional because, I mean, it used to be, you know, just you had the eight coaches, or whatever it is. Now you have a recruiting coordinator, transfer guy. You have a whole scouting department with all these, you know universities, the bag man on campus, right, right? So you know they’re following the transfer portal and they’re reaching out. You know, whether they’re supposed to or not, I don’t know, but you know they’re reaching out these others, you know, these other schools or these players, because the train, it’s free agency every year. It’s free agency every year in college, you

Nestor Aparicio  08:20

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know. But if you’re a kid, who’s your agent, your parents, or do they find a guy like you? Well, you

Chad Wiestling  08:25

know, I haven’t, I don’t know if they’re, I mean, we can work with them, and I l only so we can, I mean, we can actually sign players in college, high school, and it’s n, i l only that we’re supposed to be able to work with them. But come on, you know, it’s, you know, you know that’s kind of the wild wild west. Well,

Nestor Aparicio  08:41

the same Josh Jacobs is the same kid that it’s 16 or 17 was going to be Josh Jacobs this time around, he’s going to Alabama, and Alabama’s willing to pay him, right? Literally, yeah, yeah. And that’s happened in a minute, yeah, yeah. Just think, from a financial standpoint, being you’re in the space of representing players, there’s an opportunity there for you. If you see it, you’re already saying, like, I’m having a hard enough time with 2122 23 year old adults trying to keep them healthy, get them to work, identify them. Doing that for 16 or 70 year olds, feels like a whole different level of a guy like you or a gal like you that would want to represent those

Chad Wiestling  09:17

people, right? Oh, yeah, no. It’s, it’s, you know, it’s always been a part of the game, you know, like, when you the top players, you know, I’m talking about being the agent here, getting, you know, recruiting the college players. It’s always been a part of the game. Or, you know, you had in the back of your mind the top players, okay, whether they were, there was stuff going on, you know, beforehand. Or, you know, once they signed, then you have to, like, said, You have to train them, you know, once you sign, if you’re fortunate enough to sign the players, you have to basically support them for up until the draft, and sometimes more than that. And you know, so you have to have be able to, okay, is this the right player? Are you we sure? You know, are

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Nestor Aparicio  09:51

you sure he’s going to make you’re making a true financial investment. Yeah,

Chad Wiestling  09:55

I’m investing. You know, 50, 6070, may sometimes depend more than that. 100. $1,000 into one guy, you know, hoping that he’s gonna first off. You gotta hope he stays with you, right? He could fire you, you know. And then, you know, that’s why there’s, there’s protections, but you know, then you gotta take him to court. That’s more, you know, that’s all that other stuff. So you gotta be really selective and and do the best you can to, like I said, you know, learn the family. Learn the kid, you know. See, what you know, what you know, what they really need, and really they don’t need anything. I mean, I mean, it’s other than the training and stuff. But, you know, I always tell them, like, listen, you’ve made it this far, you know, I’m gonna, I’m gonna help you. You know, you’re gonna be, you’re gonna be fine, you know. But you know, but you know, nowadays, these kids are like, Oh, I gotta go to this academy. Oh, yeah. And it used to be, you know, this, back in the day, it used to be just a few, you know, few spots throughout the country, and, you know, where the top players went to train. And it was pretty, you know, Atlanta, Scottsdale, they went to this basically, you know, now, of course, there’s these big, mega complexes, and you gotta have the juice bar, you gotta have the massage therapist, you gotta have the acupuncturist. You got, you got to have all this stuff, and who’s paying for it? The agents, yeah, so it’s, you know, you had, like I said, that’s why I wonder he

Nestor Aparicio  11:09

likes baseball, and you just take your mind off. I mean, while this aggravation you you guys deal with Chad I, I hope the Orioles win for you, yeah, or Iron Maiden shows up.

Chad Wiestling  11:19

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I saw there, got me. I’ll be there. I’ll be there.

Nestor Aparicio  11:21

What shows you seen lately? Your music? Man, yeah, I’m

Chad Wiestling  11:24

trying to say lately I’ve been going a lot of

Nestor Aparicio  11:27

shows this summer. Man, yeah, see Brian Adamson. Who do the blowfish? I’ve seen it just I saw the stones this summer, right? I know I’ve seen, saw Bruce last week, saw Pearl Jam last night. I saw Pearl Jam earlier in the summer. So I’ll be getting out a little. I

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Chad Wiestling  11:39

mean, I saw all, I went, I did a, I did a guy’s trip with some executives in the NFL, actually, because I know Steven Piercy. So, okay, yeah, so we went out to Tulsa, out of all places in May, it was like, hey, you know, was like, Hey, let’s

Nestor Aparicio  11:53

go rat fest. Yeah,

Chad Wiestling  11:54

what was it? Was he’s playing, you know, it’s like, the 4/30, 35th, year of the seller. So he’s playing so,

Nestor Aparicio  12:01

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loving journey job.

Chad Wiestling  12:03

So him saw Pantera when he when they were in town here, all right, you know, it’s, I’m trying to, I

Nestor Aparicio  12:10

peg you on Pantera. I had that, yeah, yeah, you know, Green Day, no, 311 you’re not, you’re not young. I can, I

Chad Wiestling  12:17

can. I can deal with it. I can deal with it. But I’m, you know, more of a, you know, kind of the old school, heavier stuff. You know that that’s, that’s me. I mean, I, you know, I’ll travel to go see Guns and Roses, of course, and Metallica that, you know, the usuals, which I have. I went to Montana a couple years ago, out of the blue, just to see Guns and Roses. I was like, Guys, go to Montana. I

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Nestor Aparicio  12:37

saw him in her, she can’t sing, dude. I know I left, I like, it felt like Axel was killing. He was murdering, you know, Guns and Roses music to me, like I said to my wife, I we gotta go. Yeah, it’s just, this is, and that’s the only time I’ve ever really left the show early,

Chad Wiestling  12:54

right? Yeah, no, it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s tough, you know, I give him credit because he’s still out there, but, you know, trying. But then again, it’s like some of their songs, or some of those notes, like, yeah, you know,

Nestor Aparicio  13:06

it’s just not good enough, yeah, yeah.

Chad Wiestling  13:08

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Then you look like, like, Bon Jovi, what do you think about that situation? Like, you know, there’s

Nestor Aparicio  13:12

a document he can’t, yeah, he

Chad Wiestling  13:14

can’t sing anymore. I mean, hit those notes like, we had to have, you know, throat surgery. So it’s kind of, you know, it’s not the same. Well, I

Nestor Aparicio  13:21

was talking to shining about this, like, because I called Pearl Jam the greatest rock band in the world today, and so that’s the stones. I’m like, no, no, no. That would be like saying Cal Ripken stole the great, you know, like, there’s a time, but Pearl Jam’s still in their prime to me, you know, like, if you saw the glass, that they’re young enough and vibrant enough that you’re getting their best version. No offense, that knows Lofgren or little Steven or Bruce, it was better 20 years ago. They’re 80 years old, you know? I mean, it just is what it is. It’s not not good, but they’ve learned a different way to do it right. And it’s, it’s great. I mean, it’s worth going to. I went and saw it last week, but, but guns, no, dude, no, no. I just I like, I love slash. I love Chad wastelings. Here, he is an NFL agent to the stars. But more importantly, we’re gonna move from our NFL portion of the programming to the baseball side, because he wants talk Orio baseball. All

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Chad Wiestling  14:13

right, can we do it?

Nestor Aparicio  14:14

Well, do you ask me this? Of course, they can do it. I I’m confident that they’re gonna get some semblance of health, right? I think Rodriguez could pitch a little bit. I think cologne will pitch a little bit. Webb’s already throwing. He might be back by the time people hear this next week. So I’m feeling like, however the Yankee thing goes next week, we’ll judge that, and there might be a brawl for all I know, right? I’m sure. But boys

Chad Wiestling  14:39

will be boys, the first inside pitch is gonna come. You missed my

Nestor Aparicio  14:44

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status after the bench is clear. Two months ago, I wrote the boys of dumber. I thought that was good, because you are pretty dumb if you’re trying to get hurt before the playoffs, over your fifis. You know what I mean? Like, same thing with you in the NFL. You don’t punch the guy. You’re out next week, you lose. To check. Don’t do that. You know, we don’t hurt the team. Don’t do that. Right for me, with the Orioles, you’re hitting a

Chad Wiestling  15:05

guy with a helmet. I

Nestor Aparicio  15:05

don’t care what right with your hand. I don’t care what happens the next three weeks. I mean, they can be five and 12 down the stretch. Game one burns goes out, gives you six innings. Henderson, it’s a home run. They don’t kick the ball, but kicking the ball around and swinging the bad pitches in general, not getting on base over the last 60 days. It’s just a different team than it was in May. You know, when Kobe mayo and Jackson holiday are out there, it’s not what it was in May. It’s a different cast of characters, yeah? And I think you’ve given me this with your energy, you have a different expectation. You thought they were winning the World Series June 1. Now all of a sudden, you’re like, it’ll be a miracle if they win, because they’ve been so injured, right? Well, yeah,

Chad Wiestling  15:54

it’s, you know, the injuries, the injuries are brutal. Obviously, it’s part of the game and, and that’s what baffles me, is like, how are all these, you know, with all these analytics now and Nestor, it’s like, you know, the spin rate, you know, they would measure how hard every pitch, like, how hard, how hard the ball comes off the bat, the angle, it’s crazy, but something like, how, why are all these pitchers tearing you know, they’re

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Nestor Aparicio  16:17

not doing the science of the physiology, of what A human body can and can’t do, right? And what? Torque? Spin rate, spin rate, spin rate. They’re not, they’re not doing what it’s doing to arms and elbows. And there are people that are really smart that aren’t changing this. You know, we put seat belts on in cars because people were dying. You change the technique, right? You know? Yeah, you have to change something to slow down the speed limit, especially for kids. I mean, my wife’s got a friend whose kids, 16 years old, got Tommy John surgery, and when you’re 16, apparently it’s like, like a sissy test, like being a rock star and having long hair. So it was like, well, everybody gets it. So now I’m a real pitcher, if I’ve had time, oh yeah. What? You’re 16,

Chad Wiestling  16:57

right? Right? Yeah. Well, I’ve actually, unfortunately, you know, I just had shoulder replacement four weeks ago, and that my doctor, I’ve always picked his brain about it, but you were football player, yeah, this is football injury, football Yeah, yeah. It’s, I’m getting surgeries now to fix the surgeries I had 35 years ago, okay, but they’re less invasive, right? Oh, yeah, great. It’s great, right? I don’t know why I waited so long, but anyhow, he told me. He’s like, I won’t do it unless it’s a legitimate, like, you know, draftable guy that’s going, you know, in the being drafted, going into minors and have a chance. He said he won’t. He won’t do Tommy John surgery on high school kids. He’s like, it’s ridiculous. Because every kid, every parent, now wants, hey, you know, how about you

Nestor Aparicio  17:36

stop throwing the ball? How about we do that for a year? How about you get healthy? How about you fix your arm? Yeah, because you’re going to want to pick it up over your you over your head when you’re 40, right?

Chad Wiestling  17:44

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Oh, yeah. 100% Yeah. And it’s just like, you know, like, that’s why I brought the analytics. Like, you know, got to get the spin rate and throw the sweeper and all these new pitchers and stuff. It’s like, I don’t know, you know, I just like going to game watching. What

Nestor Aparicio  17:56

do you love about baseball, man? Because you’re in the business of football. You’re in the business of these players. And you really are emotional about the base,

Chad Wiestling  18:08

you know, it’s one of those, you know, listen, there’s, it’s such a long season. But just, you know, was, and I’ll speak for the Orioles man, it’s been being a lifelong fan, been up and down and down and down, and then, you know, kind of start climbing up, climbing up. So, you know, you stick with them. You know, at least I have you just, you know, wherever I’ve lived, whether I’ve lived, I lived in Chicago, I lived in, you know, Houston, and when the bad years and I’d be wearing

Nestor Aparicio  18:31

my ownership, I mean, you’re really smart guy. You know what awful leadership looks like. I mean, you’ve had players sign with bad teams in the NFL where you’re like, look, that’s a that’s an ish show. It’s terrible, but this is where you’re gonna make 600 grand this year. You’re gonna go play football there, right? Be it backup safety or whatever you represent. The baseball sign for me is, as a thinking, sentient human, I can’t process things like Donald Trump that don’t make any sense to me, but things like the Orioles and Peter Angelo’s over 30 years, and how the community was treated, and how not just me. I mean, I go and not just Mike Flanagan. I’m just talking like players, agents, people, businesses. I mean, the Angelos thing was just so awful for the city, for in every way that I I’ve detached myself from that part of it as a journalist, and I have a closet full of Orioles stuff, and I want him to win. I need him to win. Good for everybody. Terrell Sugg said to me a couple years ago, you know, you like when we lose, I’m like, Dude, you clearly you have a lousy PR director, and I would tell him that if he were here, because they shouldn’t be telling you that your agent shouldn’t be the Baltimore media does not in any way ever root against the Orioles of the rave. I’m almost not allowed to, even though they squatted on me. But there’s a point for you being smart about it in realizing they weren’t even trying for a long time. You know what? I mean? Like being that frustrating part of being a fan is one thing. You’re on a different level, where you know payroll, you know personnel, you know intentions, you know good leadership, quality leadership. The Orioles really lacked all of that in many, many ways, for

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Chad Wiestling  20:13

most of our Oh, yeah, yeah, it’s hard, you know, it’s hard, usually, like, from the NFL standpoint, you know, it can go it all starts from the top. You know, that, you know. And so that’s why the teams that always have the turnover every two, three years. I mean, they’re the, it’s the same usual suspects. It’s the same teams, you know. And they’re the, you know, they’re not. They’re the ones that are don’t have the good organization. So the good friend, he

Nestor Aparicio  20:35

can’t say he’s talking about the browns, but I can’t. But anyway, right? You

Chad Wiestling  20:38

know. But you know, when it’s the owner, you know, like, fix that. You can’t fix it. So, you know, I’ll speak for myself, it was just like, you know, hey, you just take it. They just taking shots to the face every year. Like, ah, here comes another year. Like, because, you know, they’re not spending money, or they’re making bad decisions, or, you know, just putting a bad product out on the field and treating the fans or whatever, like crap. It’s like, man, but it’s coming from the owner, you know. So, you know, that’s tough, you know.

Nestor Aparicio  21:05

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So we’re trying to figure who this guy is, right now, right? And I think he’s such a slippery chameleon of a human that I think you’ll be able to be whatever you want him to be, right? You know, if you like the guy throwing the hats out and the Mr. Magoo look, and that whole, you know, Steve Martin thing, that’s good. I think for most fans, you just want to see him win. And part of that when they raised the ticket price a couple weeks ago, that that that got to my doorstep, that they were cutting rewards off of people and stuff. And not everybody’s an NFL agent, you just write the check and you say, okay, I’m good. I have friends that are hard pressed to make 13 game plans in Dundalk, and they love the Orioles more than you, right? And they’ve been going long. But longer than you’ve been going. And they’re getting priced, you know what I mean? And they’re gonna get, they already know they can’t go to the playoff games, right? So they already know they’re not gonna drink

Chad Wiestling  21:50

the wine. Same thing with the, as we said earlier, about, like, the NFL, like, how about the prices of those games? You know, I’ll go to games, and I’m just going by myself and use my tickets for free for my player. And I’ll be, I’ll be watching, you know, kids, you know, like parents walking in with their three, four kids, $1,200 night. Yeah, I’m just like, you got to pay 100 you know, 50 bucks for parking, and, you know, all, and I’ve said it for years,

Nestor Aparicio  22:11

I’m like, How does, where’s the end? Where is it, right? And then not now, I

Chad Wiestling  22:16

got to pay, you know, now we got to pay an extra, you know, whatever, eight bucks a month to watch a game, you know, on each each platform, you know, whatever, whether it’s YouTube, prime, Amazon Prime, whatever, peacock, peacock, yeah, whatever it is. I’m like, I mean, not gonna pay some more to watch a game. I mean, it’s like, well, that’s

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Nestor Aparicio  22:33

where it’s going, because the media model’s gone away. So the fans, right this last couple of weeks are getting that first taste of, yeah, you want the game on television, you can almost have to pay, like you used to pay to go, right? It’s going to be $500 a year just to have NFL games, right, you know. And then they’re going to charge 1999 for the Super Bowl too, you know, yeah?

Chad Wiestling  22:52

Like, the good thing about baseball is there’s so many games. It’s like, yeah, you know, you can, sometimes you can get some

Nestor Aparicio  22:58

cheap tickets to see the ALI fight was go to the closed circuit, right? You know, they restricted all that. And the only way to get the mike tyson fight was to pay HBO and to buy the 5999 Wrestlemania. Get everybody over to the house. We all chip in 10 bucks, right? Get a kegger. Like, I don’t know how that model is going to work, because, to my point, earlier, the NFL went away from me on Thursday night. I forgot they were playing because I had $212 because I had $212 into a Pearl Jam ticket. And I just really didn’t care about the dolphins and the bills. And I saw Bills fan back here. I gave a lottery ticket to a couple minutes ago, and I’m like, didn’t even know it was happening, because, like, my schedule, my cadence, isn’t on Friday night football or Thursday night football. And you know, Sundays is a there’s a lot of investment in Sundays for people to take the whole day. I’m down. I love the league. I love the game. I’m an expert on the game. I’m historian. All of that I’m watching, but I am wondering, like, where, where does it jump the shark? Where does it get too much that, and the gambling part of it is just, yeah, how about that? That’s a whole new thing for Yeah, yeah. I see your frustration on that, right? But it

Chad Wiestling  24:02

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says, well, it’s just kind of, you know, the league is, they always are hypocritical, and a lot of stuff, it’s like, for so long, it was taboo. We’re never going to be in Vegas all the legs, all the legs. And now it’s like, oh, okay, it got passed. And now they, you know, welcome it. And you know, it’s just a free for all out there. And then, you know, then now they got worried about players, you know, gambling and all. I always joked

Nestor Aparicio  24:22

that if I was gambling on sports all those years, they would have taken my press pass. But they did anyway, and I never get that would have been the ultimate if Chad Steele would have caught me running numbers in the locker room. That would have been a scar. That would have been a reason to throw me, yeah, would have been a reason to throw me out. Is if I was trying to figure out if Joe Flacco was hurt or not, so I could bet on it. And the notion that anything like that chicanery would have been going on would have been a death knell to my it would have been like being Bub wiser sponsored to get into DUI. Just would have been the end of my career. Oh, yeah, like literally and now. All time they have literally players in on it. I mean, I’m seeing LeBron James doing gambling ads. I’m like, is he still playing right? Like, I’m like, remember, you couldn’t do beer ads, smoking, they couldn’t do anything. Cannabis is another thing, right? Yeah,

Chad Wiestling  25:12

yeah, that’ll be next right now. I mean, at least for the NFL, they can’t promote CBD or like or cannabis, but

Nestor Aparicio  25:21

what else, can’t they do that? I mean, you’re an agent. I mean, they can’t gamble on the games, obviously, right? Well, they

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Chad Wiestling  25:26

know that, you know, they can’t gamble anywhere, like on, you know, on, on the grounds at the facility, so, but they can, they can gamble

Nestor Aparicio  25:35

off the, you know, they can be a horseshoe tonight, a good Hollywood casino, okay, right? Yeah, they

Chad Wiestling  25:39

just, they can’t the guys that are, and they

Nestor Aparicio  25:40

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could own basketball, baseball, right? Yeah, just not on the National Football. He’s better college football, if

Chad Wiestling  25:45

they want, right? Yeah. But not on, not on the NFL. And that’s the guys that have gotten caught, you know, made the mistake of doing it from the locker room, you know, so that you know they’re following all that stuff and tracking all that stuff.

Nestor Aparicio  25:56

I hope none of those are your, your I mean, I just just the general, and I’ve met these players my whole life. 23 year old kids that you represent. Some have scruples and some right. And to your point, most of the players have been coddled enough that they’ve had a special set of rules in most places in life, right to be able to work the edge of that. You know that the gambling things just right? Horrif,

Chad Wiestling  26:21

let me ask you, if you don’t mind me, could I ask you about Pete Rose? What’s your what’s your thoughts on that with the whole now that get you know gambling. I watched that thing on HBO about Charlie hustle, pretty good as a dog. I

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Nestor Aparicio  26:32

haven’t seen it yet. I

Chad Wiestling  26:33

heard a good Yeah, so that kind of I just saw maybe a week ago. And I’m not a guy

Nestor Aparicio  26:37

who’s Auntie Pete. I’m a guy that was a reporter that couldn’t gamble on sports. When I was there, there was rules everywhere about bribery and gambling on baseball and payola and all that stuff that went on. I think it’s very obviously cheated. I think they kept him out of the hall of fame because he lied. I think he’s made it was the greatest thing that ever happened to him, not being in the Hall of Fame. It’s I have people saying to me, and you might be one. I’m saying you’ve been martyred by Greg Bader and Chad Steele. You’re never getting back in and having a press pass. You should use that to your advantage. You know, me, you should be the guy Pete Rose has signed autographs and Cooperstown has been everywhere. Has made so much more money not being in right than if you were Steve Carlton and they just put him in, put him in right? Or, you know, or Joe Morgan, and they just put him in, or Johnny Bench, and they just put him in, or any of his teammates who all went in, right? I mean, he was kept out for being a scumbag, which is the same reason they’ve kept McGuire and Sosa and bonds and Schilling and Clemens that there is a moral part of that that doesn’t apply to big Poppy like the Hall of Fame’s a freaking joke. It’s a joke. The Football Hall of Fame is a joke. The Oriole Hall of Fame is a joke. I mean, Larry Latinos not in the oral Hall of Fame because Peter hated it. Janet Marie Smith’s not New York Hall of Fame. She built Camden yarn because they like so it’s now in politics or whatever. But how do I feel about Pete Rose if I took over the Hall of Fame, I put the best players in and put that they cheated, right, right? I put a scarlet baseball on their plaque, just say, Yeah, this guy was a great player, but he cheated, right? And we know he cheated. He went to jail. He went to the jail of cheating, and they’d have a better Hall of Fame. Like I don’t my cousin’s in the Hall of Fame, other than it being a museum that I would drive through that’s in the middle of nowhere, and I’ve been there a handful. I have no intention of going back to Cooperstown ever in my life, because I just don’t think it’s an honorable institution, right? Not because of Pete Rose, because all of it, just all of it. I mean, make a set of rules. Honor the best players and do it with Don’t be Kay Fabe, your wrestling guy. I mean, why could be Kay Fabe about this is in, this is out. He’s been a bad boy, and we’re gonna let this guy in and just let in the right people. And, you know, put up the markings. I mean, literally,

Chad Wiestling  29:13

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yeah, yeah, no. I was just curious because we were talking about gambling, and I just saw that documentary not that long ago. Like, that’s the always, the long debate is, should he be in? Should he not be in? But I agree with you, and they document that. They show it, that he’s done. He’s more valuable not being in than he is being in. Oh, you guys making a kill it,

Nestor Aparicio  29:31

yeah. I mean, like for him, for his life, it, you know, better to be out. I mean, maybe there’s an example that you’ve given me about being because they’re I’m never getting. I mean, I’ve been mistreated by these people, and I don’t deserve it, you know? I mean, I’ve done nothing to David Rubenstein or any of his people, for his people to call me and scream at me and tell me to shut up and treat me like trash. I’m 55 years old. I’m not gonna be treated like that, right? I’m not. I’m just not, you know? I’m a Cooper’s eating crab cakes. Have an oyster so that being. Said I will analyze them at the expert level that you know I’m capable. I’ve watched more baseball and football than anybody, so I but there is a point where all of it is a work, right? Like a K Fabe work, whether it’s Colin Kaepernick, he wasn’t one of the best 64 quarterbacks. No, you blackballed him. You blackballed that’s what you did. You can run any ads you want, talk about whatever you wanted. You wrecked that man’s life, yeah, and that’s what you sought to do, and that’s what you did on purpose. So, and you know, 100%

Chad Wiestling  30:30

there was a guy that didn’t deserve that, that’s for sure, you know, and still, just still with, what, where, what’s going on. Now it’s like

Nestor Aparicio  30:38

they blackballed him in the middle of the room, yeah, I asked Goodell that. Goodell visited the stadium during a preseason game. I want to say it was, it was an evening game, and he was in the back of the press box. He was in with Steve Bisciotti. He did like a little press conference. I remember, it was years ago, and I got him in the back of the press and I said, Hey, is the league blackballing. He gave me that Roger Goodell look. It was a scrum. It wasn’t like there weren’t cameras. It was a media scrum in the back of the press box. And I found it fascinating how quickly they wanted to move off of that, but not let it back in the league, right?

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Chad Wiestling  31:15

You know, here’s a guy that lost his career because he took a knee for something. And then you have, we’ll keep it the same position. You have a quarterback in Cleveland, yeah. I mean, come on, one one after another, another lawsuit just came out, and you know, you know, the other day, as we all know, and it’s like, and this guy’s got the, you know, most guaranteed in NFL history to start, you know, he’s playing in the league. And this other guy got, not Well, no, yeah, not well at all, but you know another and then you know Colin got blackballed from the league for taking the knee. So you

Nestor Aparicio  31:46

need to know about the NFL, they blackballed a Super Bowl quarterback in front of you in plain sight over the last 10 years. What else are they capable of? Yeah. So my question Eric DECOs and John Harbaugh, if you can look at me and say, I’m not a media member, you can say that to anybody. Oh, yeah. Then you’re just, it’s K Fabe, now, now, now, now, you’re just gaslighting me. You know, as to what the qualifications are to be a quarterback in the league, or to be a media member in the league, or to be an agent in the league, I, I don’t know, so I’m just going to divorce myself and eat oysters and crab cakes and talk about it from over here. Yeah, they weren’t answering my questions anyway, right? Yeah, yeah, horrible Monday. I’m paying a reporter to go out there, spend the whole day out there on Monday, the quarterback’s not on the field. You ask a question, you can’t even get a straight answer about nothing, but literally, about being difficult, just to be difficult, not not for any strategic purpose at all, but the injury thing for you as an agent, when your players are injured, how sensitive to that are you from a HIPAA and from uh, yeah, vulnerability standpoint, from an information standpoint, yeah. I

Chad Wiestling  32:54

mean, just with what you said. I mean, if the, if the if the organization is not going to disclose what the issue is to the reporters. Guess who’s who the reporters are calling next. They’re calling the agent, right? Sure, those times more than none. I don’t even know if my guy is hurt, but I’m getting calls, you know, that, from from a reporter or something. Sound like, Hey, how come your player, your player, didn’t practice today? Is he okay? I’m like, Hey, I have nothing. No idea. I don’t know what’s going on. You know, unless I talk to my player, or I’ll get a call from the you know, or more

Nestor Aparicio  33:24

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than that, if your players got a back eight, whatever, whatever, whatever. If the coach is Belichick or hardball or one of those guys, they don’t want it out. No matter what they they’re gonna get pissed at the player. They’re gonna punish your player, oh yeah, for they’re gonna call them and say your back shirt. We don’t want the Raiders knowing that this week. So why, you know, why is your agent got a big match? Why do you have like, oh, they’ll

Chad Wiestling  33:47

tell you. I mean, these teams, and not one specific, but the teams will tell you, like, Hey, make sure the player doesn’t tweet anything, or, actually, whatever you call it nowadays, or put it out there, or make sure you that put it out there.

Nestor Aparicio  34:00

Yeah, tell him, if you could let him know that don’t put that out there. Yeah, so though literally tell I’m a reporter, you many times I’ve heard, don’t put that out there. You know, like literally and from a strategic advantage, I get it you’re in a season, but, but may being difficult just for the sake of being difficult, it’s sort of a hardball tradition of late, right? That people should know about that and me being here instead of a practice today, that that should be very clear, but it becomes clear with the signs, we’re on a Monday, he doesn’t practice, and the coach can’t even just come out, so he’s fine, like a day off, yeah. I mean, as the agent, you would want that, the player should want that. Come on, coach, don’t. Don’t make people think I might be

Chad Wiestling  34:40

right, that when that player has to face the media on Wednesday or whatever, he’s got to answer these questions. So you didn’t practice on Monday. You know what you’re you’re a good Western

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Nestor Aparicio  34:49

Maryland, Pennsylvania, boy, I know you had good mother, because I didn’t know your mother, but you had a good mother. Your mother would just say, Just tell the truth. Just tell the truth, that’s all. Yeah, he’s just tell the truth. And we figure. Yeah, right. That’s the journalist in me is figuring out, well, you know, is it raining outside or not? Whatever you say, I gotta go check, right? I gotta go look and say, Is it raining or is it not? That’s my job. Well, how

Chad Wiestling  35:10

about the other night with the running back for San Francisco, you know? So you know that he was told, come on. He was told on Friday that McCaffrey wasn’t playing, that he was going to start. So he did, you don’t keep going? Yeah. So, so after the game, he said, I guess the reporter asked him, Hey, when did you know you want to start? Oh, the coach told me, on Friday, which, that’s a big no no, because they didn’t disclose it to the gambling. Yeah, right. So the gambling McCaffrey is going to play. Then someone must have grabbed him, you know, the PR person,

Nestor Aparicio  35:39

but she can’t say that, yeah.

Chad Wiestling  35:40

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So then when he was up at the podium, because he had a great game, when he’s up at the podium, like I get mad, you know, you guys are asking me, put me in bad you know? And he denied, put me in a

Nestor Aparicio  35:47

bad situation, because my organization’s been lying right, right, right. So now I have to keep the lie right. That’s the case. Yeah, that’s what I’m talking about. And that’s, I guess, having a real NFL agent here, it falls to you too, and the kids family and the teammates and the gamblers, when you start to be dishonest, they set all these rules up so that Belichick and Harbaugh can’t be dishonest, and yet they still find a way to try to out of paranoia or whatever they believe is to be a competitive advantage. Want to then dupe the gamblers. You’re duping the public. You’re duping the gamblers, right? You’re duping the line. And I And to your point, it’s also new. Who’s policing this Congress, right? I’ll leave you with this, because we’ll take a break, and I think James Bond here, yet I think he’s coming by. I just wanna make sure I’m not making my guess. Wait, at 115 but if you and I, right now on the radio, said we’re gonna create a new game, we’re gonna create a new sport, break dancing with balls, I don’t know. Okay, we’re gonna have a sport, and we’re gonna create it, you and I are gonna be the commissioner of the league, and then we’re gonna put the sport out there. We’re gonna sign players, we’re gonna have agents, we’re gonna put it on TV, and the game is going to get popular pickleball. There you go, pickleball. So TV now, like, what the game’s going to get popular pickleball, and we’re going to have a league, and we’re going to be the commissioner, and we’re just going to set up rules, and we’re going to open a gambling line for it, and you’re going to say, well, who adjudicates, who wins the bets? Well, we do that starts to sound like a dice game down a little Italy in the 40s, right? We’re going to start a game in the alley. We’re going to hold the dice, we’re going to blow on the dice, we’re going to decide who wins and loses, and cut the money up. That’s what the referees do in the NFL. This is a sanctioned game that’s not like casino gambling or like the lottery, where this ticket’s a winner and this ticket’s a loser and it’s predetermined. This is like picking winners and losers. Who wins and loses a bet is a guy in a white shirt that says flag on pass interference or not. I can’t fathom anywhere else in the world where they’re running a game, running a dice game, saying we’re gonna pick the winners and losers bet handle it. Must have won the lottery there. I’m getting pats on the back. It’s really amazing how they’ve institutionalized the gambling part of this over the last three or four years, and they’re deciding who wins and loses bets, right, right? That’s crazy, you know? And

Chad Wiestling  38:16

one of the things we’re talking football here, speaking of referees, you know, when are we going to hold the referees accountable? You know, they can, as you said, they can determine games and blown calls, whatever, and they just move on. You know, they just move on. And no, like, it’s just even with, with player fines, okay, player fines, which, that just drives me nuts. You know, there’ll be a person you know, like rough in the pass or something. You know, how ridiculous that has become, you know, so rough. And if you even touch the, you know, touch the quarterback, it’s a flag. Well, that player is getting fined, you know, 40 grand, you know, for the first offense. And it keeps going up, you know, up and 40

Nestor Aparicio  38:53

grand for a player that might be making 600 grand,

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Chad Wiestling  38:55

right? Yeah. Oh, absolutely, absolutely. So it’s like, you know, it’s kind of a catch 22 because it’s like, well, the that’s a horrible call. Now we have, well, you have the right to appeal it, yeah, yeah, we appeal it. But it’s, I call the I call them the keystone cops, the NFL, because it’s like, you know, you can appeal. You can have proof of that the play’s hard, you know, it wasn’t a personal foul or whatever, and they’re gonna make a decision. I

Nestor Aparicio  39:16

have proof that. I’m a media member, but not today, right? I mean, literally. I mean, you know, they, that’s who they are, right? That’s, that’s the case. That’s the gaslighting that you have to be cafe to get in on it. To your point, like you were talking to shine and like reporters get the information, the team decides the reporter they and they give the information.

Chad Wiestling  39:35

Yeah, they’re leaking the team. No matter who, what team it is, they’re, you know, it’s just tough. I heard you guys talking about how tough it is nowadays to be, you know, to be a reporter and cover teams. And I’m speaking for the NFL, you know, the each team has a if you don’t, if you’re not on, you know, on on side with them, if you’re not, if you’re not favorable to them, if you write anything bad about them, they’ll cut you off, you know. And. Yeah, yeah, you know. So you know. Then you’ll see the, it’s obvious. Then you’ll see, you know, the one, the one reporter that gets all the information it’s leaking. It’s all pro team, you know, pro organization. And from you know, I’ll just speak from my experience, so from the age standpoint, it’s like, I know, you know, but the teams will call us be like, don’t put anything out there. We keep this between us or whatever. And I’m like, well, you’re leaking, you know, yeah, right, you know, you know. And then players will tell me, I mean, I have stories, you know, like players

Nestor Aparicio  40:30

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sensitivity to all that’s amazing. You know, I wrote in that Eric Decosta letter that I hope you read, Dick Cass got pissed at me 15 years ago for having the schedule I got. I’m a reporter. I mean, where did I get it? I got it I got it. I mean, it’s, you know, and it’s always right. And I would text it out to the whole world, and they, they hated that because they, they wanted, the more, you know, the the moratorium on that till six o’clock for Bal. And I would, and when they threw me out, I’m sure it was like, Well, you know, that’s more retaliation, you know, saying for doing your job well, you do your job well, as reporter, you will be retaliated against, right? And it never used to be that way, right? It never, yeah, if it’s, if it’s yeah, if you’re doing, they’re never doing your job that wasn’t considered to be good business, good,

Chad Wiestling  41:13

bad, right? And good, bad, whatever, right? In the truth, you know, yeah, they’re gonna, they’re gonna kick you, just

Nestor Aparicio  41:18

like your mom and I told you we had good mother’s mother said, Just tell the truth. Tell the truth. Chad weasley’s here. He’s black label agency. He is here in Canton, Baltimore, Maryland. He represents Josh Jacobs and a handful of other NFL players. Terps. You got any Terps? I didn’t even know they played Michigan State.

Chad Wiestling  41:39

I did. I did. I watched the Michigan State game. So I know we got Villanova. I’m sorry we got going over this week. So hopefully we bounce right. Yeah, good point, but we should, yeah, should bounce back. Hopefully bounce back and get back on the winning, winning road. So alright, yeah, he’s Chad. I’m

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Nestor Aparicio  41:57

Nestor. We’re here courtesy the Maryland lottery. I have scratch. All these beautiful ladies behind me are getting in the getting them. They don’t know it yet, wanting under clean water. Get you Liberty pure solutions. They keep your water clean, my water clean. They are well water specialists as well as good plumbers. And the oysters in the bay keep the bay clean. We’re having an oyster a day every day this month, 26 days for 26 years at wnst gonna have my new logo out soon with the oyster and the crab. I don’t know if I’m signing off here. I think James Piper bonds gonna come by. We’re gonna do some maritime magic and living classrooms, but I’m gonna let you get back to take care of your players. Iron this jersey. Get this jersey ready for the game in Detroit tonight. You go up to Yankee Stadium next

Chad Wiestling  42:37

week. Thinking about it, arguing about it. I’m thinking about taking the train I may and depending where we’re at, I’m already planning on going to Minnesota for the last, if it’s comes down to the last, have

Nestor Aparicio  42:47

you been to Target Field yet? It’s great, great ballpark.

Chad Wiestling  42:50

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Love that city.

Nestor Aparicio  42:51

Yeah, only ballpark I haven’t been to the new Atlanta ballpark because it happened after my tour, right? Yeah, I did the 30 ballparks in 15 Yes, it’s been nine years since I did that crazy tour, right? So, yeah,

Chad Wiestling  43:01

yeah. So I’m thinking about going to New York. Obviously, training up would be surprised by just spur of a moment ago. But if we’re, if we have a chance to win at the end, I’m definitely going to Minnesota for the whole, the whole weekend. Love NFL weekend. I should be working, you know, NFL, but I’ll be

Nestor Aparicio  43:17

stuck with a playoff ticket, you know. I’ll come down and buy you some beers, you know? I will have a letter to David Rubenstein as well as Chad Steele. Is a great letter to Eric DaCosta I put out, as well as my declaration of independence, which really is not playing K faith anymore. I’m just like, I’m just, I’m too old to hide behind lockers. This is a Lou Baker once said Major League, you know. So Chad’s out in front. If you see a guy looks like him at the ballpark, ask him about his football players. I’m Nestor. We’re Coopers. We’re down here in Fells Point for the Fells Point oyster festival, slurping and shucking just the way I like it. We’re Baltimore positive. Stay with us. You.