Football historian Vic Carucci checks in from Buffalo where the play of Josh Allen through three weeks has Bills shouting “Super Bowl contender” along with the chorus to Mr. Brightside. And the Hall of Fame voter weighs in on candidacies of Terrell Suggs and Marshal Yanda.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
buffalo, ravens, vic, great, lamar, fame, play, tasker, football, josh allen, game, voter, win, bills, hall, baltimore, team, years, player, running
SPEAKERS
Vic Carucci, Nestor Aparicio
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T, AM, 1570 Towson, Baltimore and Baltimore. Positive. It’s a big week around here. We’ve had some champagne at Yankee Stadium Orioles go play some really meaningful games next Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Back here in our house, Camden Yards, there’s a football game on Sunday night. And if you’ve seen our team play, and if you’ve seen their team play, you would know there’s a tall task in order. And we will be the spotlight of all spotlights in the other parking up the other parking lot on this side, as the spotlights of NBC come to town, and we’ll have all the collingsworths and the toricos and all the fun stuff here. The bills are on their way in. You know, I’m doing so much baseball this week, we’ve had crab cake tours, oyster tours, Marilyn lottery sending me on Friday down to Costas, and I’m going to eat crab cakes. Talk about the capital center maybe. I mean, get my favorite buffalonian Mike resigns and bills as well. It’s all brought to you by the mayor on the lottery in conjunction with our friends at Liberty. Pure solutions. We are doing this crazy 26 oysters in 26 days, one 800 clean water. They keep my water clean, and the oysters keep the the bay clean, which is why I’m getting them out and eating them. Rockefeller roasted, grilled. I don’t know what buffalo saw. Somebody offered me some hot sauce on a on a oyster the other day. I don’t know if it was quite what I would get there with the Frank and Teresa at the anchor. Bear no relation to Mulligan’s brick bar or any of the other place where I had labats up in Buffalo. Vic, Carucci, you know, I was trying to figure this out, Vic, because you’re like Sirius XM channel 88 you’re like doing TV in Buffalo, which I think you probably done for million years. You spent a spell in Cleveland. Don’t tell the people in Cleveland, but I like buffalo better of all places. I think I read you when I was a very young man. And maybe football digest, or maybe, like, is that possible? You are nodding your head, so I’m not nuts to say that you and balls are really the old farts around here that I read when I was a Barry bloom on the baseball side. But like, when I see your name, it means something to me that I think was before, way before I knew you. I felt like I knew your byline.
Vic Carucci 02:18
Well, first of all, that’s I I’ll take that as a very nice compliment. I love your acumen of Buffalo and your and your accent, too. You do that well. But
Nestor Aparicio 02:30
wife’s accent, by the way, her wife is from, she’s from Depew and chick deba in Lancaster. So like, Yeah, I think it’s Terry versigliano’s accent for me. Oh yeah, no, you name me nasty Nestor, by the way. And
Vic Carucci 02:44
and resig, one of the all time, you know, all time greats when it came to Buffalo media. His career Express, career Express. And when I was hired back in the day, 1982 is when I arrived here from South Jersey. I was covering the the first NFL team I covered was the Eagles for the courier post across the river. What year is that? That would have been 79 uh, Bergy, Bergy, or Bergy was right at the tail end. But Jaworski at quarterback, Vermeil and head coach, Herman Edwards at cornerback, quick and Wilbur Montgomery at running back. So it was, it was a fun, fun time, but a real that was my indoctrination and my reality check of what covering the NFL, that first taste of what it was all about. And it’s never, you know, I just never stopped from there. But that all said when you mentioned courier express in Buffalo so they they bring me aboard in 82 the Buffalo News. It was the evening news at the time, and this was when there was true pm evening newspaper, and you had a true morning newspaper. The courier was the morning so the competition was intense, and the courier was kind of teetering, and the buffalo Evening News, Warren Buffett owned it at the time, making this big push to put the courier basically out of business, because they knew they wanted to take 100% of the market, you know, just one of The principles of business and become a more Buffalo’s morning and afternoon paper. That eventually happened, but I was, it was fierce competition. I respected all those guys so well, a guy named Eric Brady, who was a columnist for USA Today. Yeah, you know Eric well. He’s one of my dearest friends, resig and his carte. I mean, the quality of what we were facing every day was really something at the buff and I I felt as at our best, we still might not be better than what they were doing, or we could be on an even scale, but I knew this, you had every day. You had to bring it. You had to bring it. You. And
Nestor Aparicio 05:00
you have Marv levy there, you’re about to get Jim Kelly, like all of that, Vic Carucci, by the way, if Mike Belani, if there’s a message, my love to him and his family, what they’ve gone through. I got so many friends in Western New York, Vic and and I would just say this, the wanting, the waiting. I was in resig living room, and Tasker was going to come on this week, and he got busy. And I love Steve. I love you, you know that. And I said, I want to bring this up, but I was in their living room when the Norwood moment happened. And to think all of these years later, I was in the stadium with rasig when they beat the salt out of Jay Schrader in art shell. It was 51 to three. The bills make me want to shout, you know, so and you know all of that, that era and thinking all these years later. And this is my ode to the Orioles, and my little kiss to them, my chef’s kiss to them, is that the Orioles won the World Series in 83 the bills have never won. You go back to all of these years and all of that waiting and wanting that the Chiefs had for a long time. We’ve had a couple of parades here, you know, I mean, we’re, you know, the browns, your other team, you covered, never tasted. A lot of places haven’t had it your place. Forget the mafia diving from the tables and everything that’s going to go on down here in Sunday night football this team, when it starts three and oh, and your market, of all places, it is a family heirloom and treasure. And this is rarefied air. You’ve been there before, but all of you in Buffalo want to believe. And do believe, really believe like Santa Claus, believe that that it’s going to happen. And when you get this kind of a start, I think it, it’s one of the really cool fan bases in the league, because you haven’t won in some way. Well, you’re right,
Vic Carucci 06:42
Nestor, in terms of the mindset of the fan base, the desire, the want, the continued belief, even through that stretch that 17 years of darkness, no playoffs, and how they how that was really handled, and the way it was handled. Things like you mentioned, diving on tables and all the crazy stuff that happens in the parking lot. Fans found other ways to entertain themselves, because what was happening in the stadium wasn’t doing it for them. Well,
Nestor Aparicio 07:13
there was also, we’re going to play in Toronto, and John like, there
Vic Carucci 07:16
was a lot. There was a lot going on. And then, yes, then the passing of Ralph Wilson, the founder, the original owner, certainly that that opened the door to, well,
Nestor Aparicio 07:28
I had my Baltimore Colts belt buckle when I was a kid. So that’s real. When your franchise is teetering in that way, and you’re saying, we’re a small market. We don’t have money like your. Every fan went through that moment thinking, what we could, could be and not now, but I think that that’s also rooted in we fought to keep this team. You know what? I
Vic Carucci 07:48
mean, it was no there was a palpable sense. But look, it’s a small here’s the other constant, though, and it’s different for Baltimore. It’s different for most of the 32 I mean, of the where the these teams are located, 32 to what is it, 30 markets, the sense that, okay, it’s small. This is right at the bottom and price wise. And look, they’re building a new stadium right across street from the current one. The cost of that being built, the PSLs that are going to be involved. For those who want to have tickets, they’re smaller venue, so fewer seats, higher price on the demand they they’re hoping the current team is, is what not hoping they that’s what they are using as their best sales pitch, current success to sell future investment, excuse me. And then there’s this. And you said it this, this belief that they’re going to be, or someday, someday, be this Super Bowl champion. But it’s like the the old Peanuts cartoon, that they worry that, you know, they’re, getting ready to kick the ball. Charlie Brown’s kicking the ball, and Lucy’s going to pull it out and there’s going to be a splat, always, even at three and oh, that’s the sense, yes, the three and Oh, playing arguably the best football of the entire league. But it’s, it’s still September, and they’ve seen these dreams blow up in January, and that’s the question. The question any isn’t anymore, are they going to win the division? Are they going to be in the playoffs? Question is, what are they going to do in January? Well,
Nestor Aparicio 09:36
Lamar Jackson has that certainly, and so does John Harbaugh. At this point. It’s been 12 years this championship, Lamar hasn’t had great success in January. There’s the health of him. And I’ve said about Josh Allen, and I say this about Lamar because Lamar runs into linebackers, and Luke hates when I say that, but it’s true, man, 22 point lead. He’s running the draw play in the third quarter. And I’m like, I don’t, but Josh Allen has that mindset that he’ll run. Over rope on Smith, if he has to one Sunday night in game for the season, or at least had that for a long period of time. I want you to tell me about what you’re seeing with Josh Allen, because like MVP of the league through three weeks, clearly what we saw against Jacksonville feels like that thing is has come into its own at this point, and we’re all waiting for that light for Lamar, and you’ve seen it in 19 you saw it last year. He’s a two time MVP, but Josh Allen’s that other guy who’s needs a cast of characters, like they all do, but he plays the game sort of in a way that it always frightens me when Lamar plays that way.
Vic Carucci 10:33
Yeah, and it’s the only way Josh Allen’s going to play, the only way Lamar is going to play, their secret weapon, their superpower. It’s not a secret. It’s superpower is what they can do with their legs as well as their arms, and then how they incorporate them, either separately or together, and and, and with Josh, it’s, it’s, it’s more size. It’s the idea of how to how he defies the sort of the the you know, the physics that say a man six, five and almost 240, and, you know, as thick, as strong as he is, can can fly and not just run fly, but fly through the air and leap on a single bound and do these Superman things that he does that are that are real. But there is, it’s football. There is contact. Yes, he has a lot of body armor, but there is that foreboding sense that it’s only a matter of time, like, like with Lamar and others, who take a lot of hits when they’re running. When is, when are those hits going to, you know, result in putting him on the sideline. Well,
Nestor Aparicio 11:43
the thing I can’t preach is, dude, you can slide through the quarterback. They can’t. Peyton Manning made a five the last five years his career, after his neck went sideways, he won a Super Bowl by fetal positioning, literally and just saying, you know, I get my two yards, my three yards, you know.
Vic Carucci 11:59
But that’s a skill, but that’s a skill that not every quarterback either has or wants to adhere to. And there’s a difference, because the slide means when at the point at which you give yourself up but touches ground, that’s, that’s the marking point of the end of the run. It’s not where the slide totally ends, because slide is just that, right? You’re still moving. And if you slide and you’re near the line to gain, great, but if you’re short of it, and depending on the circumstance, you’ve created a situation of problem. That’s why, in so many instances, these guys want to run like running backs. Want to want to show power as well as that ability to protect themselves, and they’re just not good at look. The bills have talked about this with Josh Sean McDermott Brandon being the GM, protect yourself. You know, be aware of that, excuse me, and it’s not been his greatest strength is protecting himself well,
Nestor Aparicio 13:05
and that’s problematic when you are the franchise at this point. Vic Carucci is here. Long time Buffalo News. Long time buffalonian. I didn’t even know he’s from Jersey, but has a jersey guy getting to Buffalo Hall of Fame? Oh
Vic Carucci 13:18
no, no. Not from, not from Jersey from Central, Central New York, went
Nestor Aparicio 13:23
down there to work. That was a Utica guy, right? Yeah,
Vic Carucci 13:27
yeah. So jersey was my first big, big, big boy job, so to speak. And, you know, just an opportunity that came out of nowhere to be able to cover an NFL team. I actually was hired down there to cover college sports, but I ended up on the NFL beat. Would
Nestor Aparicio 13:42
put you into buffalo Hall of Fame here. What is that? Yeah, get a chicken dinner out of that. What happens?
Vic Carucci 13:48
I don’t know what they’re serving, greater buffalo Sports Hall of Fame. It’ll be November 12, the induction ceremony buffalo chicken, if it is absolutely and one of my but the here’s the best part. One of my classmates of the class of 2024 is none other than Rob Gronkowski, who, of course, is from the area. Went to school here. I know him well. He spent time where, I mean, at this house and in this my office here, many a time because he went to school with my younger daughter, and they were, they were in the same circle of friends. And what you’re looking at behind me, this, this case of a lot of memorabilia, I’ll tell you. I’ll share a story, a fun story, Rob, who even at he was about eighth grade. He was eighth grade, and they’re here. They were here for something, if it was a birthday party, whatever. And at one point, my my daughter, Lindsey, my younger daughter, says, Dad, would you, would you show rob your stuff? Because he’s, you know, you know, he’s into sports, blah, blah, blah. I said, Sure.
Nestor Aparicio 14:49
And was he six, seven then, like, big money, I’m
Vic Carucci 14:52
telling you, I whatever I was he was about here, yeah, he was taller than me in eighth grade. Now, I had seen him play foot. Ball, basketball, hockey, baseball, he did it all. He had the thing, right? He’s right. He’s a he’s the natural, which we would say is true with almost all these less than one percenters who who get to play in the NFL or any other major sport. He’s in here, and he studies, looking at all this stuff, and he and he’s taken and it’s like, it feels like a minute or so, and he’s kind of like doing this. Then he turns to me, he goes, Mr. Carucci, one of these days, you’re going to write a paper about me. And I looked at him, and I said, You know what? Pretty good Gronkowski, too.
Nestor Aparicio 15:36
You thought I did a good buffalo Well, yeah, I was
Vic Carucci 15:38
around him a lot. I said, Rob, I and I know what he meant. You know, I’m, he’s going to achieve these heights of NFL greatness, whatever. And I said, Yeah. I said, I believe that. I said, you I’ve seen him. I had seen him play. So I said, I believe it. I said, you’re, you’re on that path. And again, it wasn’t a realization of something it was well understood at that point of his life, in the football family, sports family that the gronkowskis are, that he was a chosen one for sure. Well, fast forward to him playing for the Patriots and playing, of course, you know, the bills, and then early on one of these games, you know, and he had, he had a typically great game with Brady and and coming up the tunnel at the stadium, Highmark stadium, and he sees me, and I’m, I’m waiting to go into the press conference area, but he sees me as he’s coming off, and he throws those big arms around me and, like, lifts me up, like, and he could have lift, lifted me and tossed me like a like a grocery bag, and I thought my ribs were going to crush. And he goes, he goes, You see, you believed in me. You believed in me. And I’m looking at him, and I didn’t say it, but in my head, who didn’t believe in you. You were like, oh, you know, second round pick that you and you clearly, because he had told me before that draft, when we were at the combine in Indianapolis, he we were talking on the field, and he said, You know, I he goes, I’m the best one in this draft. And when I heard best one, I said, Yeah, best tight end. Absolutely. He goes, No, no, no, I’m the best player in this draft. He knew it, and he was right, obviously.
Nestor Aparicio 17:26
Well, you all the Hall of Fame card, which is probably going to lead me to Terrell Suggs and Marshall yante here momentarily, and we’ll get back on to the bills. Vic Carucci is our guest here at Baltimore positive. Uh, follow his work out at Sirius XM channel 88 real historian of the game. I’m sorry I called you a jersey guy. I’ll never do that again. I’ve been there.
Vic Carucci 17:46
I own, you know, that time was a great listen without that time in Jersey, four seasons of covering the Eagles, Ron Jaworski and, you know, and Dick Vermeil, the head coach. And to this day, you know, two of them, two of the dearest friends I have Wilbert Montgomery. Worked with him in Cleveland for a while. A buffalo guy, JAWS is Lackawanna New York buffalo. But that team was, you know, was a great for me, especially jaws. I of course, believe that every player you dealt with would be like that would give you everything you need. Quote, wise, whatever. It was quite an awakening when, when I started covering other teams, when I got to Buffalo and realized not everybody’s jaws and not every coach is like Vermeil and that, you know it would but anyway,
Nestor Aparicio 18:35
I’m that way with Billick and Flacco and the good people, the Marvin Lewis is the really good people that I’ve met in the sport, and I think that that as we get older, that’s what you take. And by the way, I love your Gronkowski story, and I know you’re going to be buffing that up from when you go into the buffalo Hall of Fame greater buffalo. He won as well.
Vic Carucci 18:52
Real quick, we texted. So we texted when we both the day we were both informed, this was April, that we were informed that we were in this same class, and I texted him, and he was, like, really fired up. And I’m thinking, you know, obviously it’s, I think it’s a tremendous honor. I’m still pinching myself, but he’s, you know, he’s a guy who is going to see as a Hall of Fame voter. And I told him this, I already have my ballot filled out for your first year, obviously, as do the other voters, I’m sure, as as a first ballot guy, but for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. But he responded how happy he was and how that would be, the two of us kind of going in together, that there was something right about that.
Nestor Aparicio 19:34
Are you making the case for Gronkowski at the Pro Football Hall of Fame?
Vic Carucci 19:39
I’m sure it’ll, I’m sure it’ll be a Boston, you know, from the Patriots. But he one of the,
19:48
it’s okay, Vic,
Vic Carucci 19:49
yeah, one of the things he said was, can we tell that story about the eighth grade, about this, this office? And I and I texted him. I said, Absolutely, it’s your show, buddy. It’s You’re the star. I said, I’ll do whatever the heck you need. We need to do on that stage. Vic, you
Nestor Aparicio 20:08
could still give a better speech than him. I mean, you could. I mean, you know what I mean? I that. Listen, if I went into a Hall of Fame and I had to do it with Ray Lewis, I’d really have to work on my speech. You know what I mean. So vicarucci is up in Buffalo. They’re coming down here to break tables and bring their mafia and buy our tickets and leave their red, white and blue and their Zubaz behind. How are you feeling about the Ravens right now? Vic, you cover the whole league at Sirius X. I mean, you’re not just just a buffalo guy, although I called you specifically for that purpose. But Well, the Ravens have really been a disappointment as a collective not just being one and two, but just the way they’ve played football. And the word John keeps using in these press conferences that I’m no longer a part of is consistency. Consistency. Well, that’s really what’s been missing. And this feels like a tall task, because the one thing that feels like the bills have been over three weeks is cardinals were good, but pretty good. I mean, the bills have been top of class for the whole league the first three weeks. Yeah,
Vic Carucci 21:05
well, I like how you began that question, how you’re feeling. I’m feeling better than I sound, and I apologize. But look, I mean, they’re one and two. I bought into the logic, or the, you know, the consensus. Thought that they were in our I guess, but were, before the season, a legit contender that you had to make your we make your short list. Ravens are on it. I voted for Lamar, by the way, for MVP during the season, I mean, he was and the way that vote goes is you rank, you know, you rank the MVPs candidates. So there’s a scoring system. Whoever gets the most first place, second place, etc. I had given my first place to him, and I thought he deserved it based on his regular excuse me season. Those who have been critical or said, you know, how can you give that, especially buffalo fans who are upset that, you know, well, why wasn’t it Josh based on, you know, the postseason comparison? But even at that, you could argue neither one of them has gotten where they want to be. One two. It’s not a postseason award. That’s the structure of the award. Our ballots are finished when the season ends. That said they need to, you know, I need to see something better than what they’ve shown. Whatever this consistency talk is, I don’t know when I when I watch the ravens, I’m at a point now where I don’t believe in their ability to hold the lead, and obviously the numbers back that. And I’m sure there’s any number of Ravens fans who feel that, you know, never feel a sense of comfort. And we were why, I was what with my wife, we’re watching the Dallas game, and I said, they’re going to find a way to lose this game. They shouldn’t, but they’re gonna, it’s gonna come apart, and it happens defensively, and it happens with penalties, and it happens with sloppiness. And I think it’s a focus thing or concentration thing. I don’t know what it is. I mean, that is on John Harbaugh to figure that out. I always had given him high marks for his ability, and you know, the consistency of the organization with Eric, the Costa and so forth, is legitimate, but there are troubling trends that this team has, and I think that’s what you know can can undo, has undid them, and will continue To undo them, because they just don’t have that collective lockdown feeling. They don’t know how to really consistently close out games. And even though they want enough to and maybe they’ll win enough to be Division champions, I don’t know, but, but they’re in a one and two should be perhaps, oh and three hole right now, and I don’t think it’s getting any better when they face a buffalo team that has figured out how to overcome its and by the way, I think the ravens are are certainly in many ways, you could argue, more stacked have have more elements that could give them the ability to to to win this. I know the the odds makers have them favored by a bit, what, two and a half, or something like that. But buffalo losing Stefan Diggs, Gabe Davis, remake on their own line with a couple of positions, center and a guard spot. Remake on the back end of their defense. Injuries at linebacker, Matt Milano, you know, big time linebacker, nickel corner, Taryn Johnson, out, I think what we’ve seen the last three, and I’m going to also throw in the caveat that they’re playing, you know, each opponent gives you a little different sense. Maybe. I underestimated what Arizona was. I didn’t think it should have been that hard against Arizona for the bills, but it was. But maybe that’s because I sold Arizona short Miami’s, it’s over for them, obviously, even before to his injury, I think they’re just, you know, they’re, they are a disheveled organization, period. And then we saw Jacksonville, which, you know, they’ve got a disaster. I mean, they’re a disaster. It starts at quarterback, ad coach and whatever. Well,
Nestor Aparicio 25:28
the Ravens will look like a disaster if they lose like a by a field goal Sunday, because they’ll be one in three. One in three is a disaster, yeah, one, if it’s not, it’s Cincinnati right now, disaster.
Vic Carucci 25:37
Disaster, Cincinnati. So, so, I guess the question is, who is is and what is Buffalo doing? Yes, they won in dominant fashion, these last two in different ways, because the defense led the way against Miami, the offense did it. And that’s really what should be so troubling for ravens and every opponent going forward. They found now what it is that they can do with you know, 10 different guys caught passes from Josh Allen, ball comes out faster. Joe the protection was remarkable. Joe Brady in his first, now full time season as an offensive coordinator in Buffalo, doing spectacular work with this group far better than I think what Ken Dorsey did, because Joe understands you got to have a basis of a running game to set up other things. So James Cook running the football, and then defensively. Bobby Babbage, the new defensive coordinator. I was with Bobby in Baltimore. I watched his career rise there and then when he came to Buffalo as an assistant, and again, is with his dad, who’s now retired, Bob Babbage, linebacker coach and Bobby coach, the back end coach, Lineback. He’s been groomed. He’s going to be a head coach in this league someday. He’s running this, this scheme, this, this Sean McDermott scheme, to perfection, frankly, with a lot of and here’s the thing, the backup players believe they’re being they they are being put in a good position, but they believe that they can step up. And this is the Sean McDermott way too. He He has a way of getting everybody ready to feel like a starter, even if they’re not with the first group, and that’s showing up.
Nestor Aparicio 27:24
Well, I mean, they’re the questions about McDermott and about Josh Allen and and exit digs exit several players the whole situation with the Mara Hamlin, you know, they’ve been through a lot of transition. I mean, I think people look at the ravens and say, Well, you know, it’s been Stanley and Humphrey and and Lamar roquan’s been a great heart transplant into the middle of this. But, but the rate, neither one of these teams have gotten anywhere near where they want to go in January, even Cincinnati got to the Super Bowl, there’s a point where you start to throw out other elements of the team, and buffalo did that in the off season. I thought maybe they’re nearing the end, you know, when you start to get rid of pieces, and then they come out, and they got the right pieces. And that’s the part, I think, a month into this, because the Ravens talked about their offensive line all off season, letting guys go. They talked about, we’ll be able to get rid of Patrick queen and other players, and we’ll be able to and we’re going to draft the kid on the back end, the cornerback Wiggins and Mark Andrews is a rumor right now, right? I mean, the passing game still a rumor that Derek Henry edition was supposed to be incredible, except when there’s no holes and there’s no line, and these guys really aren’t great at pass blocking, because they got us six foot, eight, 340 pound guard, you know, playing right guard. So I don’t know what they are. I’m watching it and saying, John’s really smart. He’s been doing that. To your point, Eric, all this, they built this thing around Lamar, and it feels like Lamar is very vulnerable. With an offensive line, they can’t get it done. And
Vic Carucci 28:56
no, I You’re spot on. What are they? And I don’t think they know, by the way, and I think that’s the frustration. I mean, John Harbaugh is never going to and nor should he ever admit that or acknowledge that, that we’re even close to being correct to that, because as a head coach, he’s got to keep that belief there and work with what he has. But it is a team that doesn’t have a true identity at all, and it’s Lamar magic time or bust. And Lamar magic time can get you a lead. It can get you some big plays, obviously dynamic, Game Changing plays, but those don’t serve as knockout punches in this league as even as the competition is, I mean, there might have been a point when it did, but I think that’s an older school approach to football. And you look at a team like buffalo, are you kidding me? I mean, again, if they, if they, if the, if the Ravens come up with a couple of quick early plays and take an early lead, I’m going to say. Sit back there, and when I say early, like, say two touch Ellie, I’m going to sit back and say that those against Buffalo and against a raven defense that just doesn’t know its own way when it comes to protecting leads and the game flow and all of that. It, it’s, it’s very unlikely to stand and that buffalo would come right. It might be the worst position for the ravens to find themselves. Maybe the best thing would be get it back and forth the chief formula, which is, you know, keep it tight. Keep it tight. I know the Chiefs want to be winning by landslides, but what is their formula? Set it up so mahomes can win it at the end. Figure it out that way. And even at that, with both of these quarterbacks, Jackson and Allen, you’re, you’re still looking at teams that are, I mean that, yeah, at teams that can find either one can find that last possession ability.
Nestor Aparicio 30:59
But Carucci is been finding the National Football League for five decades. He is a Hall of Fame voter. He’s about to go into the greater buffalo Sports Hall of Fame. And I hope they serve buffalo chicken at that dinner for you as well. And man a tall task. We saw the schedule come out. Vic, and I said, Watch this schedule. Kansas City out of the gate. Offensive line. Who knows, Raiders was an easy win, and then it wasn’t cowboys. 22 point leads, not good enough, you know, at some point, and then the best team on the planet shows up on Sunday night, and you got to go heavyweight here, or go to one and three. Well, if you have the Orioles on Tuesday, and no matter what, I’ve told people that like, no matter what, no matter what happens, the Orioles are at least gonna play two games on Tuesday and Wednesday. Vic. I know you like baseball too. I will do that on next week’s edition. We’ll find out at Sirius XM. I know you’re doing TV in Buffalo. You’re always doing great work up there. You know, if we have it our way, you’re in Baltimore, I guess the Ravens will see the bills again in January? I told Tasker that,
Vic Carucci 32:02
yeah, oh, I think there’s no question, the trajectory for both teams is to be in the postseason. Little better for the bills right now, but yeah, at one and three, let’s let’s just talk. Go back to the Ravens. They lose this game, and again, it’s a home loss. The internal belief, disbelief, or whatever you want to call it, or belief, is going to be shattered. John Harbaugh’s job has just gotten so much tougher, and then the questions are going to be intensified as to what is wrong with this team, and it’s in a division now where you know the best news for him, the the team that’s in the top is, who Pittsburgh Steelers? Are they at three and Oh, like this on, you know, unbeatable? No. I mean, nobody’s unbeatable, but Justin fields and the Steelers, yeah, the Steelers defense legit. But are you looking at them to sustain that? And I’ve, I’ve got real questions about that.
Nestor Aparicio 33:00
Well, they’d also have lost tiebreakers to Kansas City and Buffalo, and they’d be three games or two and a half four, whatever it was a Pittsburgh you feel like we can win the Pittsburgh games and catch up. They’re not going to, you know, the notion that there’s going to be home cooking and buys when you’re one in three now, wake up after a Justin Tucker 51 yard old school field goal to, you know, to beat the bills. And you feel good. They beat the bills now all of a sudden, you know, they finally got a pelt on their wall this year. And I would agree there’d be no better pelt than that, and that’s a big one. This is, this is the big, bigger game than maybe we thought it was, even when it came out on the calendar. Clearly, our friends at NBC, new, new little something about it on Sunday night. So Sunday night football here in Baltimore, we’re gonna Tuesday and Wednesday. Baseball, maybe Thursday baseball here in Baltimore, big, big week. Vic, you know, pack your lunch pail. Pack your buffalo wings. Come on down here. We’re gonna have a good football game on Sunday night. I always love time. Hey, before you go, yanden subs, Hall of Fame, anything on that,
Vic Carucci 34:01
you know, excuse me, yeah, anyway, hope it didn’t blow out. The speaker, both very deserving of conversation, but in terms of their pure worthiness, we’ll see. I think, I think there’s going to be a discussion. I’m leaning more in the direction of believing yonder’s case in just in my mind, but I know what Terrell Suggs, you know, certainly been capable of, and what he’s done. But I need to hear both cases laid out, laid out, as thoroughly as they can be when we get into that. Me, you know those meetings and discuss their candidacy, these are going to be discussions. I don’t think either falls into necessarily a slam dunk category. It gets a little easier for lineman o lineman sometimes, just because you can, you can get the. Advocacy built for their you know, play and you’re not measuring numbers and you’re not measuring, I mean, those come into play, but less so when you’re looking at the skill set, if that makes sense, well, in the longevity.
Nestor Aparicio 35:15
And listen, you know, there was a point in my life before they threw me out, where I could have been the Hall of Fame voter, because I’ve seen more football than anybody, you know, traveling their locker rooms, writing books, all of that stuff. That if it were ever to have come to my doorstep to be a voter, and I had a vote, I would put yonda ahead of Suggs. Um, because I watched it, I watched it to the end, and I also, you know, Suggs always had a character issue for me. Um, there’s only one guy that ever took his finger like this and stuck it in my ear in a locker room that was Terrell Suggs, um, the bleach incident, seen his ass hanging out in the locker room. Just crazy stuff that he did and the
Vic Carucci 35:54
WWE but I will, I will hasten, I will hasten that. None of that, none of that matters into none of that matters. It’s a football discussion. We aren’t the moral police, nor should we be. None of us in that room. Men and women would never be taken out. We got, we got, no we’ve got when the when those votes are made and those cases are made, and it’s, it’s spelled out as clearly as could be in the bylaws. That’s why they won’t be that is all. That is all we consider. So the character issues that you referenced mean nothing. Mean zero. So you, I mean, you could have him in the back of your mind as a person who’s had that, that experience with a player, or whatever. But if it
Nestor Aparicio 36:38
intangibles Vic, I would there would be a category for me that just says, What are the intangibles, leadership skills, what what kind, what kind of person are we putting a boss and a jacket on to honor?
Vic Carucci 36:49
And so tell me what kind of, tell me what kind of player he is. Because let me tell you, there’s a lot of quality Nestor. There’s a lot of quality human beings, lot of quality human beings, and when I say quality, I mean they are the best examples in life of how to lead your life who don’t play as well as those who don’t have those, quote, great qualities. And therefore they’re not great players. They’re not in the Hall of Fame, and whatever that Hall of Fame may be, but I’m talking about the one that I vote for. So trust me, if they happen to be, you know that quote, good guy, we’re not. We are not in order. You know, the Pro Football Hall of Fame, by its existence, is not a place where it’s a it’s the character Hall of Fame. It’s the, let’s look at those bronze busses. Oh, great guy, Greg. Hey, you know what? He’s a great guy. Why? Because, oh, he played great. No, it doesn’t go that way. Never having a word for
Nestor Aparicio 37:43
that. It’s Walter Payton. Is what you’re saying.
Vic Carucci 37:45
I’m saying that. That’s right. No, we know there’s, we know there are some tremendous human beings in the hall, absolutely, who carried themselves. But we also know there’s the opposite of that. And
Nestor Aparicio 37:58
I sit here talk to Baseball Hall of Fame with my last name, about everything from Clemente and Ty Cobb to Pete Rose and Kurt Schilling and to steroids and a rod and Clements, the Football Hall of Fame. To me, I listen. I think they’re both Hall of Famers. Okay, so if I had to make a vote, but I think yonder will get in first, I said, and listen, this is part of the rhetoric. And Luke and I went back and forth last week on the air, because Luke tends to be a little bit more, you know, like you the grown up in the room, and I tend to be the guy with the long hair, you know. I said somewhere, go ahead. Horrible. Like I get my hair is longer. I like the guy in the Tesla song took off the hat. Imagine that I said to Luke. I said, you know, Harbaugh takes the podium and says they’re both first ballot Hall of Famers. I’m like, Well, there’s a little hyperbole there. I’m like, first off, they’re both going to struggle to get in, because all these kind of guys struggle to get in because there’s five guys in line in front of them, and there’s some guy in Cleveland doesn’t like them, and there’s something, whatever it is, right? And so I said they’re neither one of first bat so let’s, let’s speak in real terms here. When I talk to you and Balzer and King and all the people that have the votes, what constitutes a first ballot versus wherever yondan subs are going to be? But I would say to me, they’re both Hall of Famers. I think yonder will get in first, not because of personal issues, just because there were, I don’t see subs or a dime a dozen, but there were more pass rushers in line, usually waiting, than there are just these road greater guards. Who were, you know, generational players?
Vic Carucci 39:29
Yeah, I mean, I that term, and it’s okay the first ballot thing I earlier in our discussion, I was talking about Rob Gronkowski. To me, that’s, you know that I would have no you know that that is i He all the qualifications are there. Your mind is set. You know, the mic drop presentations in the meeting rooms, in the meeting room for, you know, Pete Manning for event. Actually for Tom Brady for, you know, where those are. Those are the Jerry Rice. I’ve seen it and lived it during my time as a voter, and I understand that that’s, those are your quote, you know, your your undeniables when it comes to and I’d say we’re seeing this a little more and again, until Brady comes up and some of the others maybe that you’ll see at other positions. It’s you’re like a Larry Fitzgerald, whatever. But as you’re seeing it right now, with the specific players, you’re talking about yanda and Suggs, more times than not, it’s that discussion, and I’m telling you, those are healthy, great discussions. Those are, they’re thorough. We are, you know, as a group, we are tasked with, you know, doing our homework, with with pulling out the books, making the calls and contacts with our advisors throughout the league, lot of coaches, you know, current former coaches, current former GMs, current former players, to get perspectives and weave together. You know, your base of opinion that sound, I think I want to believe soundly research. I’m not going to speak for the entire panel, but I know when I’m in those conversations, people have done their homework. It’s you. If you don’t walk into that meeting, prepared for that discussion, then you don’t belong in the meeting. And I will tell you, we will, you know, the group will always the decisions will get second guessed by the the outsiders who believe it’s, you know, it’s just as simple as, look at the computer, look at the numbers. What? No, it isn’t. That’s why you know you because if it was, then you you could just punch in numbers and make it an AI thing, maybe one day, maybe in my lifetime, or not. That’s how it’ll those will be determined. But as of right now, there’s still a human discussion involved, and it’s a, it’s an enormous, I mean, you know, enormous responsibility, to the point where the worst night of sleep I have, the worst night of sleep I have, is the night before that final you all are
Nestor Aparicio 42:15
tortured by it. I mean, I know so many I’ve no more than half of that room real well, and all of you, it’s, I’ve said it as a kid, you dream wanting to do it now, not so much. You know what I mean, like I feel like, and the the responsibility on your own backs in communities where the Steve taskers and the people that you know are sort of outside the box in some way, trying to get in, who’s out that needs to be in in your mind. Give me two or three names that like you’re like, I’m I’m upset that that guy’s not in.
Vic Carucci 42:49
I don’t know about upset. I try to keep, I try to keep the emotion out of it. I really do, because I think if I color it with emotion, then I’m doing a bad job as a voter. I try to keep my mind open to everybody. Frankly, I think there are more difficult challenges. Certainly you mentioned Tasker, because there’ll be more discussion being the voter from Buffalo about his worthiness and whether or not you know he should be. There are, there are a bunch of people in that senior go. Look at the senior pool, which is really an ocean. It’s almost 200 names that have been nominated. And I, you know, nominated a bunch that that are in there, from a couple from from Buffalo that weren’t originally on the list, going all the way back to Jack Kemp in the 1960s on that America, those back to back American Football League championship teams. But, you know, I think of a, of course, Steve Tasker, and, you know, Does, does it help that Devin Hester return guy, granted, not a cover guy like Tasker, goes in in the in the class that we just celebrated in August? Does that help Steve’s chances going forward maybe, I mean, I don’t know. I in my own mind. I hope it does, but I also know that, and like other voters, I do the same thing. Okay, how much did he play? You know, how many stamps are we talking about? Does a position player? Are you going to penalize a position player, so to speak, keep him out, to put in a guy who’s played a whole lot less, but
Nestor Aparicio 44:23
are you going to put Tasker in ahead of Suggs or ahead of and literally and positionally, right? I mean, that’s why it’s so tough to get in. That’s why I don’t think yond and Suggs are just going to, I mean, the Baltimore people put them in. No, okay, I think they’ll get there, and I think they’re worthy both of them, but I just it’s not, yeah,
Vic Carucci 44:41
eventually, you know, you get there, and that’s, but anyway, it’s, it’s, it’s a lot of stuff. And by the way, I am never going to say that the voters have all the answers, that they’re the smartest people in the world, because they pick these we are usually. You know, held in low esteem by a lot of critics. They never praise us for the size, you know, for who got in. It’s usually the who didn’t get in, and why did you dumb asses miss on all these people? So I get that, and you’re when you’re in this position, you’re there to be flogged, you’re rarely there to be hugged. So
Nestor Aparicio 45:23
I still give Grossie a hard time about the art modell thing. But you know, that’s it’s put yondan Suggs in at some point. You know what I mean? That’s all. I mean, I’m not lobbying for anybody. I’m lobbying for the best candidates, is what and but I am lobbying for Tasker, just so you know, Vic Carucci is here. He is up in Buffalo, doing it for uh, Sirius XM, as well as W, G, G,
Vic Carucci 45:44
R, Z,
Nestor Aparicio 45:45
Grz. We’ll make sure I get it
Vic Carucci 45:46
right. Hey, it’s the NBC affiliate. So Sunday night’s game is on our air, which is, which is obviously a great thing. Yeah,
Nestor Aparicio 45:53
you know what Vic I’ll be waiting all day for Sunday night on Sunday night football, and then Tuesday, Wednesday, maybe Thursday, we’re gonna have some baseball around here, just the biggest sports week of the year. Lots of great stuff. By the way, you told the story of the buffalo curry express that begat our friends at sports first, I did a 40 year retrospective of a failed newspaper this week. We’ve had crab cakes. We’ve had oysters all over the area. It’s all brought to my friends the Maryland lottery. Have some Raven scratch offs to give away on Friday at Costas. And we’ve got football on Sunday night. It’s a big one. I am Nestor, my thanks to Vic Carucci up in Buffalo. Not gonna have a whole lot of Buffalonians on here this week, but we got a hell of a football game on Sunday night. Stay with us here at Baltimore. Positive. You.
