Luke Jones and Nestor discuss the Ravens preseason loss in Washington, the ESPN television D.C. loveathon with Josh Harris and what’s next for the purple birds in Tampa and cut down day next week.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
ravens, talking, preseason games, years, preseason, roster, play, watching, game, week, football, team, put, joe buck, john harbaugh, practice squad, people, point, starters, marlon humphrey
SPEAKERS
Nestor Aparicio, Luke Jones
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
What about w n? S? T, Towson, Baltimore and Baltimore positive we’re gonna positively try to keep sets Huber bat thanks here in this segment because we’re talking about fake football. It’s all brought to you by our friends at the Maryland lottery. The new ravens scratch offs are coming. I’m going to have those out. This is this is the 50th anniversary. I’ll still have these. When I gather at Pappas in Glen Burnie next Tuesday, the 29th There is a rumor that Ray Bachman may be joining me for a 25th anniversary reunion. So I’m looking forward to that as well as county executive Steuart Pittman. I gotta tell Stuart Pittman. I’m looking forward more to Ray Bachman and actually him that would that would be very, very offensive, probably not to Stuart Pittman who’s got a good sense of humor. I’m also going to be joined by a new friend of mine on Thursday, trying to get my act together to be more organized and have my mind and my business mind more organized. So all of that will be happening. So I have a mystery guest that’ll happen on Tuesday, who Craig guests around here all week Tyler Kepner from the New York Times joining us to talk about the wacky theory of a John Angelo Osen. But this segment is not about that at all. This segment is about Luke Jones, attending football in Roush on the Governor’s Cup in the preseason, Luke Jones and the Josh Johnson Athan, I don’t know, I don’t know. Dude, you were down there into the night. A lot of people fell asleep on it. The Ravens lost. The streak is over. I don’t know what we’re gonna do. We don’t have this to talk about for the next 11 pre seasons. How are you? Did you survive Raoul John. And did they park you somewhere in montgomery county?
Luke Jones 01:40
Oh, yeah, it was I got my stepson on Monday. There’s no doubt about that. But as preseason games go, and look, we’ve called it fake football for years. And people take offense to that. We understand there are lots of guys out there. It’s their livelihood on the line. Guys that are trying to make the team guys that are trying to make the practice squad so when we call it fake football, it stick the outcome doesn’t mean anything. The the end result doesn’t mean anything. That’s what’s made this 24 game preseason winning streak. So hilarious, because if it meant anything, Lamar Jackson would have been out there and all their starters would have been out there. But we know how that’s gone. And by the way, I’m fine with that. I’m fine with the starters not playing. But that’s when it becomes even silly. You know why you’re fine with not buying the tickets? Oh, sure. No, no, but my point is I’m talking about just understanding the context of what it is and for what it was. It was an entertaining football game. I think ESPN had to be thrilled that they got what they got in the fourth quarter of a preseason game, which was something that was at least entertaining, you know, even if it’s hilarious to see Washington as excited as they were to end the Ravens preseason.
Nestor Aparicio 02:56
I saw those Tiktok videos in the endzone after the game after like, it looked like it was right up there. In the Nationals winning.
Luke Jones 03:06
Yeah, I don’t know if I go that far. But the people who were still there, they were into it. And the commanders were certainly into it. If you saw some of the postgame comments. John Dotson said it was the I think he said it was the biggest preseason when ever or something like that, which I just had to laugh.
Nestor Aparicio 03:23
In the past. I used to attend these games all the time. And then Chad threw me out. And here we are, and you’re stuck there and I’m stuck here. I’m telling you what, watching the game on television and watching the new owner show up in I don’t know what that was. It was weird and awkward. He kept trying to shake Joe bucks. I don’t know if you catch any of this, because like you’re trying to figure out who’s lining up a you know, in the secondary in the second quarter of the game. And the Redskins owner is there and just a complete weirdo. And of all, like, it was just freaky dude, like the whole part of it. And I kept thinking, are they going to rename them again? And are these jerseys really any good? And you know what? Command and like, I’m watching all of us because the football is not really all that interesting. I mean, it really isn’t.
Luke Jones 04:14
I mean, it is on an individual by individual basis. I mean, seen ze flowers do what he did in the in the first quarter on the first drive. That was good to see. You know, when you’re looking at individual cases, I think you can find some intrigue or you can find some things you like, some things you don’t like, but I mean that’s what’s so funny about preseason football at this point is you had Washington with their offensive starters save for what their left tackle when I believe their tight end. Were out there. And they were playing right off the bat, the Ravens second team and then a couple drives in it started to be a mix of second and third team guys. So from that standpoint, Washington’s offense in the first half, Is it anything that’s all that impressive? That’s
Nestor Aparicio 04:57
just looking at it and saying like they’re complaining certain 16, against whom, you know, like the defense couldn’t get off the field. And I’m like, why? I don’t know what it means. I’m literally watching it.
Luke Jones 05:08
Exactly. And that’s why you’re really looking for individual performances. I mean, I saw some people talking about how you Kelly, the Ravens fifth round, rookie. And look, I would have told you before that game on Monday night that he’s not ready to play. And I don’t mean that in the sense that he won’t develop and become a guy that’s eventually some depth for them. But as it stands right now, assuming he’s going to be on the 53 man roster, he’s gonna be the last corner on the roster. So what does that mean? He’s going to be on special teams, or he’s going to be an active on game day. So that means you shouldn’t be matched up with Terry Maclaurin. Exactly, exactly. So that’s where you look at this. And, and on the flip side, I mean, the Ravens had their second offense out there. It was good to see Josh Johnson look better than he did against Philadelphia, which was not good whatsoever, really save for a couple plays. So that was good, but it’s backups against backups. What do you really glean from that? And again, I
Nestor Aparicio 06:01
learned from Thailand Wallace, who’s in the postgame comments, what do we learn about that Thailand,
Luke Jones 06:05
Wallace, he’s had a really nice summer, he already has been a core special teams player for them over the last couple of years, even if he hasn’t developed as a wide receiver in the way that I would have liked. To me, he’s their six wide receiver, assuming they’re going to keep six wide receivers. He’s on the roster. And I would have told you that before Monday night, but he had to me strengthen his case to be that. So again, you look at individual cases, you look at individuals out there, our Darius Washington who had to come back out on the field for the final drive, because the Ravens were out of corners, because they had a couple guys get nicked up. And obviously they had so many hurt already. He had, he had a really nice night, I think he’s made an excellent case for himself to certainly be on the roster. And to be in the mix as the nickel or someone who could be at the nickel spot. And certainly though that’ll be matchup determined by matchup on a week by week basis. So that’s, that’s how you, for any for anyone that gets mad at us talking about fake football on the stick of the winning streak and all that if you want to be you know, if you want me to give my serious take on it. That’s how you approach it now, because the Ravens lost 2928 Because Jake, Fromm went down the field and commanders kicked a game winning field goal against third in some cases, a couple of positions, probably even fourth string. I mean, guys that are probably not even gonna be on the practice squad, let alone talking about them being on the 53 man roster. So that’s how you really, if you want me to take preseason, seriously, that’s what I’m looking at. So from that standpoint, yeah. The preseason winning streak was one of the quirkiest things I’ve seen. I mean, think about it. 2015 was the last time they’ve lost a preseason game. Marc Trestman was their offensive coordinator. Ronnie Stanley wasn’t even on this football team. I mean, literally the only guys that are still around, beyond the coaches, some of the coaches, Justin talker, and Brent urban, who had since left and has since come back, you know, that’s what you’re talking about here. So
Nestor Aparicio 08:10
I want to find some degenerate that, you know, started betting on this and 15 and was flipping it forward and doubling down because the Ravens never lose in the preseason. And, you know, I mean, the odds of winning 24 preseason games in a row gotta be right up there with you know, with Powerball and Mega Millions, I would think
Luke Jones 08:27
it’s crazy crazy, especially when you consider the variables at work. Who are you playing? Who are your opponents playing in terms of first team second team
Nestor Aparicio 08:37
for second hard won played starters in years and years and years, for the most part, at any point. So it’s always been sort of trash time. And to your point, the beginning of the game, and one of the reasons it is fake football is their first team should be able to convert third and six teams against our third team. You know what I mean? Like it’s not even, it’s not competitive football in that way. It really isn’t. It’s a value in football. It’s it’s like it would be like somebody reading your work or my work and we’re halfway through a draft. Like it’s it doesn’t. I, you know, for years they’ve made this is something that people come and buy popcorn and drive to Hershey to see the Redskins in the Colts and they spent, you know, they bake it into ticket packages that pastebin off in the 70s. And it just got away with it. They get away with a lot of things including banning media members, so but getting away with charging for these games and putting it on TV. It only has so much value and the most value it had for me was watching it on TV and seeing what Aikman and Buck were gonna say about lots of things. What they spend the whole pregame with Lamar, Lamar, Lamar and Robert Griffin It was horrible. And then like, the game starts and there is no, the stars aren’t there. So and most of it’s about really an infomercial for Josh Allen versus Aaron raw. They couldn’t get enough of that. I mean, like So knowing the Kevin Brown situation and knowing the way we do media and why people come to our YouTube channel, why people come in and consume our media, all of it gets devalued even more when I heard Joe Buck say this, and I’m probably going to use this one a little bit more. So here’s the owner who spent 6 billion and 05. Who is either I don’t know, people thought he was a nice created, I don’t know, I just thought he was kind of weird, and awkward. And like all of that. And Joe Buck is saying, we have this very significant, important person with us. And I’m like, oh, it’s like Kevin Brown interviewing John Angeles at this point, you know, it’s, it’s, it’s weird. And so all of it feels a little weird to me being on the outside watching on TV as to where the rub is, and where the real entertainment value is. And that to your point, for those of us who really care who the 51st and 52nd guys are and what the future pipeline might be for a guy they’re trying to hide on developmental, and, you know, IR, all the things that they’re gonna wind up doing here, Hokey Pokey, they’re gonna play between now and whenever they play Houston, in addition to trying to get these veteran guys, they signed Darby they signed. How are these guys ramping up for September 10? And that’s for you on the backfield? Because that’s the real question is what’s going to be on the field? September 10? Not what was what crap Joe Buck was talking about in the fourth quarter? You know,
Luke Jones 11:31
yeah, no question about a couple things. Very clearly the NFL and ESPN for that matter. They wanted to make it clear that Daniel Snyder is no longer the owner of the Washington commander. So that’s why you see Joshua Harris there. That’s why they came into a Monday night to begin. Sure. Sure. Right. And to be clear, you know, your point about TV, look at what the ratings will be. I mean, that’s, you’ll see what the ratings are compared to any baseball game that was on Monday night, and it will absolutely smashed it. So
Nestor Aparicio 12:00
that is the entertainment value of Buck and Aikman talking about football and learned about things. It isn’t what’s going on the field. It just isn’t. Yeah, I
Luke Jones 12:08
mean, that when you get to that, and you even see that to a point. I mean, not that I’m watching a ton of the Ravens local preseason telecast, because I’m at the game, but it isn’t an infomercial, you’re talking much more about the guys that are on the sideline, who didn’t suit up at all, or they played the first couple of series. You know, I mean, it’s just the last couple years where the Ravens have gotten to the point where they don’t play any of their starters, even though
Nestor Aparicio 12:30
by the way, Rod and Jerry when they do the games with Evan or whatever. It is a backdrop I mean, it’s a Ravens production right out of the Michelle Andras Chad steel brand playbook branding brand. I mean, they never stopped branding to the point where it’s gross. I mean, the social media, like all of it, it is their social media now brought to life through the voice of Jerry Sandusky, who brings credibility and integrity to the process. And then Rob’s there. And for me, it’s back, Robbie. But it’s it’s informative, because rods Balka, and you and I, we have a special relationship with rod. So like, I love that rods doing it because I feel like there’s less BS involved because rods less BS and Rod than care. And so there is a point where rod will talk about, you know, good luck and player but he’s got a little ways to go and talk about things that are football things that don’t feel back, Robbie, they don’t feel like Ryan mink who’s worried about getting fired if he criticizes anything or anybody, like all of that rod has a little more latitude. So I find I felt a little cheated that I didn’t get raw, you know what I mean? Like, I was almost like, should I put the radio on to hear kind of what they’re, they’re doing? And I’m thinking, Oh, Jerry does radio every week. Like they’re never they don’t really do the TV. But in the preseason. It’s helpful. It really is helpful because they have a lot of information and they have to work. If I mean, Jerry is not lazy and Rod certainly not lazy. They have to work really hard to make those broadcasts at least in the third and fourth quarter on Saturday night. They have to know something about all these Thailand Wallaces that you hopefully know on the backfield because you’re nerded up about it. But they get to vomited a little bit in a way that is helpful for me as a fan and as a reporter. Yeah.
Luke Jones 14:22
And keep in mind, I mean, they have a production meeting where they have a little more access to John hardball to you know, select members of the coaching staff select players, and that’s where you’re gonna hear information about okay, so and so is on the roster bubble and probably has a decent path to the roster. And you have that, you know, Rod Woodson, he’s more detached in the sense that he’s not around the team on a regular basis, you know, but he gives you that professional perspective where he’ll see you know, especially talking about a defensive back now is techniques not good or whatever it might be, so you’ll get that discerning eye from him. That is a little more removed from that. You know, like what you just said people that, you know, whether their team website or flagship, whatever it is. So yeah, I mean, you get that. And again, it’s all big commercial for the regular season. I mean, that’s what it is we know that whether it’s ESPN or whether it’s, you know, a local broadcast in any of the 30, NFL markets, I mean, that’s just what you’re going to get. So, from that standpoint, if you understand what you’re watching, you’ll get what you want to get out of a preseason game. And again, I think you’ll find lots of fans excited about someone like Keith Mitchell, who is going to be at best their fourth string running back. But what he’s fast and you see him understanding where the ravens are with JK Dobbins beyond this year, which is he’s in a contract here. Same with Gus Edwards, Keith Mitchell, if he can run around on special teams, and be a gunner on the punt team, maybe or be your backup kick returner, behind you, Renee, who’s also a free agent, mind you after this year, then yeah, there’s a guy that makes a lot of sense to keep on the 53 man roster if you can, if you can make room for him. So you know that you’ll get some of that over the course of a game and you’ll get some special insights on that. And, you know, if I’m Jerry Sandusky, I’m mentioning that John Harbaugh has brought brought up Keaton Mitchell on a few occasions unprovoked over the course of the summer, that’s typically something that, you know, puts up your sensors a little bit in terms of that guy might make the team so sound like you
Nestor Aparicio 16:25
guys been covering these press conferences for 16 years, right? Yeah,
Luke Jones 16:28
I mean, you know, I mean, you know, most of what is said is doesn’t mean a whole lot, but a lot of times you listen for what’s volunteered, you listen to what isn’t said about a player. And, you know, that doesn’t mean it’s foolproof, but you try to read the tea leaves a little bit in that way.
Nestor Aparicio 16:43
You understand that when you were like a teacher up in Pennsylvania watching all this? Or is the as doing this, especially through these preseason sort of honed your BS detector?
Luke Jones 16:56
Oh, I mean, you have to, you have to learn that and a lot of that is just, you know, I’ve covered John Harbaugh for 15 training camps. Now, the first few you know how I would have taken a press conference or what he might say about something or lecturing people about making fun of the preseason winning streak, I’d probably take that more to heart. Now. It’s just you know, I’m more amused by it more than anything, a lot of times it ends up being kind of theatrical. Yeah. When you really think about it.
Nestor Aparicio 17:21
Oh, it’s all like professional wrestling, right? On the presidency in that way, but it is, it is a Vince McMahon to Mean Gene Okerlund production. And you know, it is when St dusty gets together with hardball. It’s it that’s what it is. And like I view it as such I view it is a Championship Wrestling our bot on channel 45 and 45 just brought to light in a different hour. I literally like and I and I can’t see it any other way. But from what we do, evaluative, critical. braise tried to be informative, enlightening entertaining in our own way in our own space. I’m just looking for information, especially being locked out for the first time in my life. Right, right. This is this is where that I have to keep my radar up as to what Jerry Sandusky really be asked me, or is he telling me the truth? And I have to wonder it because I sometimes I don’t know, I sometimes I have to figure out and guess because they don’t answer questions anymore as to where the line is to truth as I need to serve it up as as a journalist.
Luke Jones 18:39
Yeah. And that’s where you kind of go through what are the various filters of information, right? I mean, Jerry Sandusky might tell you something that he was told by someone in the organization or a coach or a player. And that’s not always truthful, or that’s not always 100% truthful, if we want to try to be Yep, frame it in a kinder way. So So you have that filter, and then anyone who’s listening, whether it’s you or me, or whether it’s just a you know, a fan, watching it on TV or listening on the radio, you kind of make up your mind whether that jives or not, you know, we talked about that with injury information that they’ll give out. That’s very vague, or well, the narrative
Nestor Aparicio 19:16
right now on Marlon Humphrey that you and I are sitting here and saying, he’ll be back October 1. Right. Right. You know, like, we’re carrying that water. Right. Kind of, I mean, Lamar was gonna come back and play both years. Right. Right. Sure. I mean, picked up the last time, right, like literally. Well, and
Luke Jones 19:38
and there have been times where they think something will happen and it ends up not happening that way. Right. I mean, I always think back to it because fans will bring up the Rashad Perriman injury, you know, first day of training camp his rookie year and John Harbaugh initially called it a knee bruise. The Ravens didn’t think he was going to miss the whole year at that point in time when that happened, but you get more information. Some players heal faster than others. Some guys have setbacks. I mean, there are in fairness to John Harbaugh, and this is where I’ll stick up for him a little bit when it comes to injury information, because there are plenty of times when he’s clearly trying to be evasive or trying to deflect or, or blur the line. But there is a lot of gray area with injuries, you know, it’s not as though a player hurts his hamstring. And, you know, you enter in information into a computer, and it spits out that, oh, he’ll be out for 17 days, and he’ll return on September 14th. To practice you know, it’s not that specific. So there is some gray area times, however, they use that to their advantage or to, to, to be vague and try to gain a competitive advantage against teams that they’re playing. I mean, right now, it’s very well possible that Marlon Humphrey, maybe he misses the first four games of the year. If that were the case, it would make sense to put him on injured reserve. And then you can return after a minimum of four games. However, if you’re the ravens, and you’re looking at the early season schedule, where you play Houston, you play Cincinnati and week two, there’s a big one, home against Indianapolis at Cleveland. If you put Marlon Humphrey on IR the day after cut down day, those four teams automatically know that Marlon Humphrey is not playing against them. So there’s a case where if you have the roster room, if he has a chance to return in three games, even if it’s not a great chance, or there’s a 1% chance that he can return in week three, then you don’t put them on IR and then you can leave that you know that that some amount of doubt in that opponent’s head. So these are all games and I’m like you said, it is very WWE, like, what do you what do you look at it? It’s
Nestor Aparicio 21:49
all a sport. Yeah, it’s the same thing when Melanie Newman sitting there talking, I mean, you know, we’re in the bird outfit. I mean, it’s it’s, I don’t know what else to say. The way I’m consuming it. As a fan these days. You can’t even consume the baseball team half the time you get the games, but I mean, if really, it’s been a curve, I mean, like I’m watching Scott Van Pelt yellow with these three guys before the game it was awful. And I was begging for Suzy Kolber to come back and I like Ryan Clark fine I’m not an RG three guy at all. You know not in the locker room not out of the locker room you know not even Dave Shannon’s book I love your date. But yeah, I I just give me something to hold on to you know what I mean? Like give me something good. Give me something I hope we’re creating something good because I’m more inspired than ever to make this good because I honestly I like look for good. And you and I talked for years about the difference your major league baseball network in the NFL Network in regard to and again I watched the draft coverage wall the wall cup draft coverage Excuse me. trade deadline coverage three weeks ago, wall the wall was really good on major league baseball network it was you felt like you were inside of something as opposed to the way the NFL where it feels like you know Rogers in his million dollar couch drinking cocoa and you’re somewhere else. And you’re outside the fence looking in you know, it, it’s it’s just different. And the way people love the NFL to your point, like putting the game on. Like, I don’t know, what would possess somebody in Topeka, Kansas to want to watch the fourth quarter of that game other than they like Joe Buck, and they’d like Troy Aikman, or they may say something interesting. And I think they tried, you know, to some degree, but this Saturday, let’s get to Luke Jones is here. Ravens lost it’s over. Boohoo, we got to pick ourselves back up and get the four squad back out there. What what are you expecting next week? Because I mean, we’re not going to get together every minute about everything that happens here. Lamar se throwing the ball there. Nobody’s gonna play this week. The cut down thing next week. This is always an awkward time as we learned on hard knocks.
Luke Jones 24:11
Yeah, I mean, this is an intense time of year for as much as we poke fun about the preseason games and fake football and all that we understand that there are a lot of individuals that this is a very difficult week to 10 days as you get down to these last couple preseason games. Look Saturday night at Tampa. Are there going to be is there going to be a roster spot or two still up for grabs? Maybe maybe one or two at most? For the most part, coaches at this point over these these last few days. They’re gonna be making their decisions. And we know that they’re occasionally like Michael Pierce is a great example of this. He pretty famously at this point, made the 53 man roster I believe they were playing. It’s either New Orleans or Atlanta. You know, one of the domes that they went down for the last preseason game, and he was an undrafted rookie. I mean, He really hadn’t been on my radar that much until about a week prior to that, you know, started hearing a little bit of chatter and, you know, had played well in some of the previous preseason games. But he had a big performance, and he made the 53 man roster. But, you know, compared to what you’ll hear on the telecast on Saturday night, you know, you’ll, you’ll hear them talk about 14 Bubble guys, maybe one or two of them at that point might still have a chance to rest are either in or out at that point, and probably, the performance in that game against the Buccaneers is not going to change anything. So final cuts are or next Tuesday, and, you know, certainly they’ll formulate the practice squad after that, which we know, the practice squad is what 16 players, as has been the case for a few years now. So yeah, there’s still plenty plenty on the line. And for even guys who aren’t going to be on the 53 man roster, maybe will be on the practice squad, they’re looking to put out great tape, but because they’re gonna be 31 other teams watching, including the team across the field from them on Saturday night, where they can make, you know, they can win themselves a job elsewhere, you know, whether it’s a, you know, a waiver claim, or maybe being on someone else’s practice squad. So it’s not a whole lot of skin in the game in terms of that to your point. I mean, the starters didn’t play in week one and week two for the ravens are certainly not going to play in week three. So from that standpoint, there’s not a whole lot of intrigue. And, you know, I’m gonna be covered the Orioles game and watching it on my laptop, you know, from you know, because it’s in Tampa, as it is So, but, you know, this is an intense, tough, difficult week for a lot of players. Even some guys who’ve been around for a couple years, we know that guys that are in the final year of their rookie contract. You know, guys like Ben Cleveland, for example, who’s absolutely on the bubble, because he was drafted two years ago with thoughts that he’d be a starter for them by now. And it hasn’t happened. So is he going to hang around on the roster as a reserve? Or do we see him potentially, I don’t know, traded to another team that liked him coming out of the draft. That’s a possibility. Or is he let go and we saw this week
Nestor Aparicio 27:05
to fleece a couple of draft picks. I mean, he threw that punter that got most out the Minnesota magic. Yeah, yeah. I mean, my God, like, he this is a week where Eric thinks about that stuff. Right, literally. Yeah.
Luke Jones 27:19
I mean, and that’s the reality. I mean, I mentioned how you Kelly, a little bit earlier in our conversation, I mean, he struggled against the Washington starters as you’d expect a fifth round rookie to do. But you know, it’s just a couple years ago, Shawn Wade was a fifth round corner that they drafted out of Ohio State and wasn’t good enough. And guess what they did? They ended up trading them to New England, you know, so you’ll have a little bit of that here. And there. I don’t think anyone should be expecting that to happen. But certainly that can happen. And, you know, as we talked about, even before the game, Ronald Darby Davey on clowny, two guys that are going to be on this defense. Now. I think it’s gonna be intriguing to see where Darby is physically, because he had a torn ACL last October. So he’s still not quite even 10 months removed from that. So that’s, that’s a big question, especially at the cornerback position. And
Nestor Aparicio 28:11
he’s the shining cornerbacks on August 15. Right. Yeah.
Luke Jones 28:15
I mean, that’s the reality. And I mean, Darby had worked out for I think it was three or four other teams and hadn’t been signed. Now, that doesn’t mean he can’t play but whatever he was asking financially wasn’t aligned with whatever those teams were offering. And then ultimately, the Ravens signed them and for not a whole lot of money. So there’s no problem on that front. But how close is he to being his quote, normal self, because when he’s his normal self, he’s uh, you know, he’s a legitimate NFL starter. He’s a quality NFL starter and has been in his career, but he’s had injuries and specifically up an ACL in the last year. So that’s something where you take pause to Davey on clowny is this year’s Justin Houston, you hope he works out as well as Justin Houston did the last couple years but that’s also in concert with expecting more out of adopt AOA expecting more out of David a job. Oh, so this is all about how your roster fits, and they’re going to formulate their initial 53 man roster. And what we also know Nestor is that’s going to change a lot, not just between now and week one, but certainly, as you get deeper into the season, because you know, there will be attrition and more injuries, and some guys will come back from injury and, you know, we’ll see how it shakes out. But we are we are at the point now where the light is at the end of the tunnel. We’re only a couple of weeks away from the start of the season. So but in the meantime, some difficult roster decisions, certainly difficult on the player side where you know, you have a lot of young men who you know, and this is again, we make fun of preseason football. Saturday night will be the final time some of these guys take the field, you know, playing football, something they’ve done since they were eight years old or 10 years old. So we’re recognizing that at the same time, we also are going to call a spade a spade and say look, preseason football when you’re not playing your starters. It’s not the most entertaining product but what’s amazing about it and ESPN will tell you this and we’ll see what the ratings are for that game on Monday night. People watch. And that’s what’s kind of amazing because they’re elements of it. You wouldn’t think people would watch it but they still are. And it just speaks to the lucrative popularity that the NFL has
Nestor Aparicio 30:19
Bappa Luke Johnson will be in Owings Mills. He’ll be Camden Yards up Camden Yards, he’ll be in Owings Mills, because they don’t let me in. I’ll be writing about that two weeks as well as we get ready for a football season that this is the strangest of emotions in regard to John angelos, his New York Times. piece, the least me being in Ocean City and everybody talking baseball with me and not football. The weirdness is still having 20 baseball games left before we even play a football game. And then there’ll be train wrecks happening in the middle of the week because we’re going to play baseball here in October for the first time in a long time. So great things happening a friend window nation remind you 866 90 nation, they’re putting me out on the road of the Maryland crabcake tour, including our friends at the Maryland lottery. We’re gonna be at Pappas and Glen Burnie on the 29th. That’s Tuesday, and then we’re going to be a fade these on the 15th of September. I’m putting things together. Kids are going back to school football starting I got baseball playoffs. I’m trying to figure out the tour into the fall. But this whole baseball in the place almost like earthquakes and hurricanes in Los Angeles. It just doesn’t happen. So I’m trying to prepare for all of this. Luke is doing double duty and he’ll be following baseball all week long from Camden Yards. I am Nestor. We are wn st am 5070, Towson, Baltimore and we never stop talking Baltimore positive
