Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh indicated that the future of the kicking position in Baltimore would be based on football, not the NFL investigation into the 16 women who have alleged improprieties during massage sessions. Luke Jones and Nestor discuss the Justin Tucker saga and the team’s eschewing of a “zero tolerance” policy when drafting edge rusher Mike Green, who had two sexual assault allegations while in college.
Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones discussed the Ravens’ situation with Justin Tucker and Mike Green. Tucker, a talented kicker, is under investigation for alleged misconduct, with no resolution expected soon. The team drafted Tyler Lop, a sixth-round kicker, raising questions about Tucker’s future. Jones noted that Harbaugh’s statement indicated a decision would be based on football, not the investigation. They also discussed Green, a second-round draft pick with past allegations, and the team’s history of drafting players with issues. The conversation highlighted the Ravens’ perceived lack of accountability and the community’s mixed reactions to the team’s actions.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Justin Tucker, Mike Green, Ravens, zero tolerance, NFL investigation, Tyler Lop, salary cap, football decision, sexual assault allegations, community pride, fan accountability, team strategy, draft pick, player conduct, media scrutiny.
SPEAKERS
Luke Jones, Speaker 1, Nestor Aparicio
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T, am 1570 task Baltimore. We are Baltimore positive, but we are positively into Greek. This two weeks we have the alibi breakfast. Next week we have the big race sovereignty and journalists. I like it. It’s pretty decent. Luke Jones is here. We’re not gonna talk any horses. We’re gonna talk Ravens. We had a we’re sick, and I had a long chat last week on Wednesday, and I had no idea was gonna go into zero tolerance, but that’s where we’re sick, dragged me into zero tolerance. So I will bring Luke Jones in now to say he spent some time out at the castle over the weekend. Better with that, there was seven home runs by the Kansas City Royals against the Orioles on Sunday afternoon. It’s, you know, you always say football so much more important than all of it. And the Ravens own the city, and the Orioles stink, and nobody’s going to the games, and they’re going to play in Minnesota in the middle of the night. Nanaim This week, give me something out of the ravens, dude. I mean, you were there for draft a week and a half ago. Now, they tend to bring the rookies in the first week and run them around and do all of the first day of school that used to do. Professor Jones. Give me a state of the ravens, because I don’t know much. All I know is Justin Tucker still on the team, right?
Luke Jones 01:18
Yeah, well, and you kind of stole my thunder there. I mean, John Harbaugh was asked about Justin Tucker, and I’m going to read the quote verbatim to you. I found it interesting. You know, the question was, look, Eric’s gotten questions about Tucker. I mean, we asked him about Tucker after they drafted Tyler loop last weekend. And you know, the question was, there’s going to be a lot of attention on the dynamic if Justin Tucker still on the team, come OTAs, come training camp, whenever and Tyler loops there are, how do you, how do you kind of view this thing in terms of both guys being in the building, both guys potentially being on the team at the same time, all that? And John Harbaugh started off by saying, great question. And then, yeah, this was not my question, if someone else in the media, just to clarify, was it patting myself on the back there,
Nestor Aparicio 02:06
anytime he says, Great question, that means he’s pissed off and trying to figure out how he’s going to answer it. That’s not honest, but the answer he wants to
Luke Jones 02:18
give you so it can be. There are other times where,
Nestor Aparicio 02:21
whenever he says great question to me, I see I get paid to do this, and I got flipping with him toward the end. Yeah, great question. That’s what I do. I’m paid to give you great questions, since you don’t take many of them, but go ahead.
Luke Jones 02:31
So the So, the the quote, then the answer, then was, as you know, Justin has been in the building the last couple of weeks, kicking and everything, and I’ve had a chance to talk to talk to him a little bit, and he’s been working hard, I would just say, from the standpoint of the investigation and all that, we don’t know anything. We haven’t been given any information as it should be. It’s all done the way it’s done. So we don’t know anything along those lines. So you can’t make any decisions based on that. Every decision we make has to be based on football. There’s a lot of layers to that. You’ve got a rookie kicker in here. We took him in the sixth round, early in the sixth round. He’s a talented guy, just from a football standpoint, salary cap, all the different things that you just take into consideration, whatever we decide to do over the next few weeks would be based on football. I found that last part that the last part of
Nestor Aparicio 03:18
that statement interesting, that Justin Tucker can still kick. My wife is right. He is a really good kicker.
Speaker 1 03:25
Okay, you can take it that way. I The fact that he said, over the next few weeks, I mean, he was, he was not asked, is there going to be a resolution in the next few weeks? He was not asked, you know, in terms of, do they need to make a decision in the next few weeks. He for him to say over the next few weeks. I thought that was interesting. Does that mean way that there might be a resolution in the next few weeks? I mean that statement to me wasn’t a shock to me. I thought there would be a resolution. The resolution will be the league will come and say he did this. He didn’t do that. He did this, but we’re not admitting it, and he’s got a four game suspension for being a bad boy, even though he wasn’t really a bad boy, and he said it was his journalists that were the bad
Nestor Aparicio 04:05
guys, because it’s always the journalist like and then they have another kicker that get kicked for a couple weeks, if they wanted to. But if Justin Tucker’s kicking 72 year old field goals on May 10, out on their fields, and they see he can kick that way. I don’t know that they’re getting rid of Justin Tucker and and he’s under contract, it’s gonna cause, I guess, one either way. First of all, I don’t
Luke Jones 04:29
care what Justin Tucker does on the practice field. I mean, if you need to see what he does on the practice field, that’s that’s a farce. You know that that part of it, I wouldn’t buy whatsoever. But
Nestor Aparicio 04:37
if he’s still their best kicker, that’s a football decision. Football. Decision is Tucker is a better kicker than a six round kid that we took who may or may not be able to do this, because some can and some can’t. I, I don’t know if they were done with Tucker, they’d be done with Tucker, and they would worry about him being somebody else, if they were really convinced these 16 women. We’re honest, as the Baltimore banner was, and we’ll find out. By the way, I’ve got a report on the investigation. Can I give you what I know? I know a little bit because I’ve talked to some lawyers, and I’ve talked to people around town. The NFL has sent, I believe her name is Lisa Friel fri she was a sexual trafficking investigator in New York State. She’s legit. She works for the league. They brought her and another woman in to talk to all of the victims, claimants, massage therapists, the the women who went to the banner or that didn’t go to the banner the banner found them. Some of them went to the banner. I want to be by all means. Please go watch the Julie sharper hour long, because it’s her work. It’s not my work. And she and I asked her a lot of questions, and she gave it all to me, but the NFL investigation, part of this is the NFL came in and started finding the ladies, and from all accounts that I have, they’re getting the same stories that those shocker and all the same evidence, all the same here’s the email, here’s the email I sent my boss, here’s what happened, here’s the date it happened. Here’s the guy I was dating at the time. Here’s what I told him, here’s what I told my sister, here’s what I told my family, here’s what everybody’s known for 10 years in my world about that guy. When he comes on the royal farms chicken commercials, it pisses me off, all of those kinds of things. And I’m glad that this is that somebody’s doing something. That’s the kind of verbiage from the massage therapist. The NFL is hearing all of that. The NFL investigators, who are employees, they have no jurisdiction to do anything legally, and I, like the women, do either. So while Ray Rice had a videotape that came out, they played him and made him lie all the way through until the videotape came out. And then you saw for sure that he had a left cross. He’s left handed, punching his wife in the mouth. And you know, of course, if you talk to people in the Ravens organization to this day, they say, well, she started the fight. Swear to God. Swear to God. Swear to God. Swear to God. So I think if he’s still on the team, and he’s still around, and they don’t hate him out there, and he’s won a lot of ball games for them, and he has a big leg, why are they going to turn their kicking job over to a six round draft pick that may or may not be able to do this? I would, I think they’ll make him kick for his supper, unless the suspensions a year long, and the NFL wants to take him out and hang him, which I don’t think the NFL is going to have enough, unless the at the end, unless the NFL wants to bring the 16 women out to Owings Mills, to do a Dateline style interrogation of Justin Tucker, to really embarrass him and get rid of him. And what that? None of that’s happening. So there’ll be a statement these women will walk around mad royal farms. Will get rid of Justin Tucker, and I think, I believe, he’s going to wind up kicking around here for a little while, because he’s still here, and he and John Still talking about him, like if it were a football decision, and they just didn’t want him on the team anymore for football reasons, or for what he may or may not have done, they’ve had ample opportunity to just say we’re zero tolerance. Instead, they drafted Mike Green, and I’ll be getting to you with you about that in a minute. But the Tucker thing, I he’s still their kicker, and he’s still probably, probably a better kicker than this kid. And if this kid comes out and kicks and he kicks, and the kid kicks and he kicks, he’s probably still a better kicker. Okay, I’m just gonna say that I
Luke Jones 08:22
you took, you know, I just because he says whatever we decide to do over the next few weeks. There’s no decision to be made if Justin, Justin Tucker’s on the roster, you don’t have to sign them, you don’t have to activate them. I thought for him to say what we decide to do over the next few weeks. I just found that to be interesting, because what’s there to decide to do,
Nestor Aparicio 08:43
wait for the NFL investigation, see if it’s two games or six or eight.
Luke Jones 08:48
Waiting isn’t deciding, is my point. And look, i Nothing surprises me with the NFL. Let me be clear, so
Nestor Aparicio 08:56
sleazy dude that on a Monday morning, this is what we’re discussing. Shame on all of them, because plenty,
Luke Jones 09:02
there’s plenty to talk about. You know, we, we’re we’re choosing
Nestor Aparicio 09:06
dude. I was wearing a costa shirt. I was at the new Costa and simonium on Saturday. Three people asked me about it. I was there for five minutes. You know, I’ve been out all I was at Coco’s doing the show the other day. I’ve been out around town, and when I go out, people want to talk to me about Justin talker and the Orioles pitching. That’s what they want to talk to me about. If I had phone calls here, we’ll be taking phone calls on today. How bad the Orioles are, I guess. Could go down the dial and figure that out. But nobody has any questions about Lamar or Derek Henry or, you know, whether the wide receiver they signed is washed up or not, was gonna catch 32 balls or 45 balls like this is, it’s a salacious story about a guy who’s been Eat chicken and doing psychiatric, you know, commercial work on his own greatness. And allegedly, this. Is an awful power, male, misogynistic, scandalous, terrible thing that people want to talk to me about because he stole on the team. If they cut him February 15, said he’s not a good kicker anymore. We’re going to draft a kicker. This would just be so somebody else’s problem, and it’s not, it’s theirs. So John has to address it, and I have to address it. You have to address it. But fans are coming up about a kicker, and he’s not just a kicker. Hall of Fame kicker won Super Bowl, been here 15 years, been on television, 15 years. He made himself a celebrity. So now, now he can live with the other side of that, yeah, yeah. And calling the me and calling the journalist who reported his scumbags. I got it. I got a flying middle finger for Justin Tucker when it’s time for him to go, because that’s the sleaziest of sleazy that and getting the lawyers to do that sleazy. So back to sleazy. Go ahead. Warren always
Luke Jones 10:51
mills. Well, I just, I keep going back to the last part of that statement. That’s, you know, again, what’s the decision over the next few weeks? So, I mean, if you’re saying you’re you know that you haven’t heard anything from the NFL investigation, but we also know that this organization isn’t in the business of throwing away six round picks either. They didn’t draft the kicker for nothing they could have, they could have, just as easily if they truly intended to work to move forward with Justin Tucker. Why wouldn’t you just sign an undrafted kicker and say, Well, we really like this guy. And Justin Tucker was on draft.
Nestor Aparicio 11:23
Well, what would be wrong with John Harbaugh doing a, you know, putting the hardball man pants on and having an old fashioned kicking competition, you know, like kick kick for your supper, and Justin will cut you on Labor Day weekend when you can’t get a job, unless they’re going
Luke Jones 11:37
to cut them before then. And that’s why I just found the the next few weeks comment to be in if
Nestor Aparicio 11:43
they gotta cut him before then, they better sing with their supper with this kid. This kid better be able to
Luke Jones 11:47
kick Well, let me be very clear. You could have cut Justin Tucker back in February and you’d still be having the same questions about this kid, or whoever you bring in. He’s a six reason. I
Nestor Aparicio 11:58
don’t think they’re cutting Justin Tucker because they know he can do it okay.
Luke Jones 12:01
I mean, I’ll say this John Harbaugh saying what he did on Sunday that did not to me. That did not sound like greasing the rails for Justin Tucker sticking around for you speak
Nestor Aparicio 12:11
hardball ease, but you speak liar better than I do. Like, what about that?
Luke Jones 12:16
Because he becomes differently, because I don’t understand the quote. Whatever we decide to do over the next few weeks, like, what’s the next few weeks? What’s there’s no artificial deadline here. That sounds like that, almost to me, sounds like you might be thinking of cutting them right before OTAs to avoid the distraction of having both guys on the field. Well,
Nestor Aparicio 12:35
that would be Chad Steele. I mean that. Well, I’m just but I’m just saying trading. I don’t know that they could have exited him at any point, if they’re if he’s gone, and they know he’s not kicking then is it a June 1 number, Cap number? Well, that would all that
Luke Jones 12:48
was always going to be part of this. I mean, the the from the salary cap standpoint, for post June 1. Now you can announce that ahead of time. You can do that ahead of time, sure. So, you know, I, I’ve said, you know, from the time that they didn’t cut him right after the initial reports came out, you know, I thought draft time was was going to kind of be the really interesting time, because it’s, you know, I didn’t necessarily see this team going out and signing a kicker the first day of free agency. I
Nestor Aparicio 13:16
would have been a lot of money that they would have drafted a kicker. If you’d given me that bet on Saturday morning, I would have bet. I would have gone all in on everyone thought that. And I’m not that kind of bet you better. But I also, but I also don’t get kicker so they have a strategy for it. And whatever that is, whatever they baked up back in February, I guess, is whatever the brand strategists are all working on, that’s what they’re doing. But it is a little bizarre that he’s still fielding questions if they have no intention to keeping them around, right? Well, that’s why I’m I’m thinking easier for a competition, or at least to check this young kid out and make sure that you’re going to hold water with him, because once you get rid of Justin Tucker, you don’t have that kicker ready. You don’t have the top five kicker anymore. And you would say he wasn’t a top five he wasn’t he wasn’t close to
Luke Jones 13:59
he was one of the worst kickers in the league last year, as far as guys that played seven. Played 17 games. I mean, he was he was bad last year. Now he was better after the bye week. Sure. I mean, we’ll see again all we’re doing, whether it’s you or me or anyone else reading tea leaves. I mean, we’re trying to figure out what exactly they’re going to do here. I mean, look, is there a scenario if you tell me right now you can see into the future, and Justin Tucker is kicking for them this fall. Wouldn’t be completely shocked, I suppose. At the same time, I also know that this organization is so careful, so deliberate with every roster move they make that I don’t think they necessarily are in the business of just drafting a kicker in the sixth round if you don’t have every intention of him being your kicker moving forward now, that doesn’t mean they’re handing Tyler loop the job, and if he what, whether Tucker’s they’re in training camp, or whether they cut him tomorrow. You know whether someone’s listening to this right now and they’ve cut him in real time as you and I are talking right now. They’re they’re. Not just going to hand Tyler loop the job if he struggles. And I could see a scenario where, if they cut Justin Tucker now that they would still sign another kicker to come in and compete with Tyler loop, right, whether it’s an undrafted rookie or whether it’s the next Shane Graham or Steve house killer or Billy cundieff, or, you know, whoever, in terms of, like, some vet that you’re at least going to push your young guy with, or another young kicker that they may have liked. I mean, keep in mind, Justin Tucker was undrafted and became what he became, as far as one of the all time great kickers. So well, this
Nestor Aparicio 15:30
team thinks it’s going to win a Super Bowl. So whoever you think can make a 52 yard field goal in Kansas City or Buffalo on a cold night to send you to a Super Bowl, you better have that guy and and that’s John Harbaugh, and the cost is straight down. They better have that guy. That’s all. And I don’t know that a six round draft pick. You know that kids get taken all the time in the draft, and some candidates, some we’ve been through the Vedic, all the names you gave the house kids, the Graham ganos, all those guys that we went through here at various points. Tucker is was undrafted and wildly unique as the greatest kicker in the history of the game, right? So we’re not just talking about a dude, we’re talking about the greatest kicker in the history of
Luke Jones 16:10
the game. Yeah, we’ll see. We’ll see. I mean, again, I mean, until he’s off the team, he’s on the team. And, you know, we’ll certainly look at that. But, the but again, just my final thought on the few weeks thing, their first OTA, now that’s open to the media, may 28 so you know, may 28 is right around, what Memorial Day? When is there a time that’s considered kind of a softer time from a new Friday at four, I’d be looking at your 441 and again, I have not heard this. I’m just looking at this in terms of you did draft a kicker? You like your six round picks? I mean, you took five guys in the sixth round and and you’re championing all these guys. You know, they’re not in the business of just wasting a draft pick either. If you have every intention of Justin Tucker remaining your kicker. So do we see something on May 23 two and a half weeks away, maybe, or maybe he is kicking, and you’re completely
Nestor Aparicio 17:12
point is a competition this summer. They don’t, I don’t think they care about the smoke, right? I mean, at all they, they don’t care about throwing media members out. They don’t care about signing Ben Cleveland. They don’t care about Lamar telling fans to perform falacio on it. They don’t care about anything. So like the mike green thing. Where are you with that? Because rasig, who is getting to be young, old time, or six in his 70s now, but I mean recig wrote the ink the most biting sports cartoons, editorially. RACI was mean. I mean recig was a mean cartoonist. I mean, I you know, funny, you know, poignant sometimes, but resig went after Bob, or say reci went after Peter. Rasig did all the things that every other coward was afraid to do with his art and his cartooning. And he sort of jumped the boat on me with Cocos the other day about the mike green thing. He’s like, What are they doing out there? Why is Justin Tucker still on this team? This is where I am sitting on bar stools, saying, What are they waiting for? He didn’t even kick Well, let like, why are they drafting, you know, a guy who had two sexual assault allegations again, like, what are they doing out there? So you went out on Sunday with Mike Green, too, and that’s something that I’m out on the street. People are talking to me about it.
Luke Jones 18:33
Yeah, I mean, I mean, I’ll, I’ll echo what I said last week. And I mean, Mike Green was asked about it, was asked about it multiple times. And, you know, very much gave the moving forward kind of thing. I asked him point blank, how much did the Ravens ask you about these allegations? Because, you know, if you’re going to say you’re comfortable with drafting them, if you’re going to say that, you talk to a lot of people, but then the kid says, Oh, it didn’t really come up that much, then that’s a major red flag. And he acknowledged that the ravens and everyone else asked him plenty about it. You know, did, did I expect him to, to go into the details of what the accusations involved? No, of course, he wasn’t going to do that. And I’m not even, you know, from his standpoint, probably wouldn’t behoove him to do that. But, you know, he gave definitely
Nestor Aparicio 19:15
cost him, right? I mean, he was asked because of that,
Luke Jones 19:20
and to answer your question, to go back to rasigan, look, I love Rasi again. We know why they did this. I mean, this guy’s a top 10 or 15 talent in the draft, and this was their an opportunity for them to take advantage of how other teams perceive this. Now, do did they know? Do they know more about this situation than other teams did that they felt more comfortable. That’s why I wrote at Baltimore positive.com you better be right about this, because if information comes out that is very damn what
Nestor Aparicio 19:47
or what, we all cancel our season tickets. I mean, that’s where bashati is. He’s such an arrogant man to begin with. But if they’re down, so what we play with criminals, we all do. So what? So. What we’ll say zero tolerance. The coach will come up and lie. He’ll he’ll emcee the Fellowship of Christian Athletes thing. He’ll do his commercials, and he’ll tell you whatever the hell he wants to tell you in the podium. And they’ll block people out, lock people out, and they’ll win with kickers who have sexual allegations or lose with them. They don’t care. They just they don’t care. And I would say that’s okay. It’s not okay with me. Might not be okay with your mother or my mother or my wife, for sure, but they don’t care. They don’t care. That’s really what Mike Green says, is they don’t care. And there’ll be a couple of awkward questions, and he’ll have to answer them, and then he’ll go play football and sack the quarterback, and everybody go buy his jersey. They weigh the the way they did with Terrell Suggs. You saw with our boy Steve Smith’s going through down in North Carolina now. So like, I mean, they can’t all be choir boys. Luke once said, Eric the Costa. So I just, I think the more flippant I can be about it. In regard to they’re just liars. They lied to me about, they lying to everybody listening to me about whether I’m a media member or not. They can’t make up their mind. You’re a media member. I’m not. They lie about, start with that, and then work your way down to what they’re willing to lie about to win football games. The owners off on a boat. He doesn’t answer questions anymore. The coach did enough to make you dance away in Owings Mills the other day, about the kicker and about Mike Green, and they’re just gonna have OTAs. And it’s Coach said it all. It’s about winning football games. It’s about what, you know, if we can keep mad at jail and keep mad at the newspapers, and there ain’t no more newspapers anymore, we don’t have that long hair guy from Dundalk asking questions and sniffing around. And if they do sniff around and they find out that our kicker has been sterili predatorially looking for tug arounds from massage therapists all over the city, and a decade later, has gotten away with it, he can still be our kicker. Dude, I’m not that’s not two minutes of Nestor being mean, that’s just who they are. They don’t care. And the mike green thing says they don’t care. And they care about one thing, sacking the quarterback. That’s how they keep their job, one way of thinking about it, but they don’t care. I mean, if they’re wrong about Mike Green, what happens? Just
Luke Jones 22:21
just kind of answered your own question. Then, who is Cole holding them accountable? Or are they going to have 35,000 compared to 70,000 at games suddenly? I mean, you know, they know that. But I think I talk about this a lot with the NFL in general. I mean, for as much as anyone complains about Thursday night football or how they’ve handled domestic violence, you know, going all the way, way back, even before Ray Rice. I mean, so you’re talking, you know, 15, if not 20 years
Nestor Aparicio 22:49
the Christian league that plays three games on Christmas Day now on Wednesdays.
Luke Jones 22:52
Well, it’s, I don’t know if I’d say it’s a Christian League, but yeah, they, they play on Christmas Sure,
Nestor Aparicio 22:58
um, but Oh, it’s a they all bow at the 50 yard line and say a prayer every week. It’s, you
Luke Jones 23:03
know, hey, wait, wait, wait, but that’s, but that’s not a league sanctioned thing. Let’s not, why are we?
Nestor Aparicio 23:09
No, no, I’m not attacking that believes in Christianity as much as hold on or Judaism. They had a problem playing on Rosh Hashanah and playing on holidays as well. I just don’t
Luke Jones 23:21
understand why you’re going in that direction. Because you’re talking about players and coaches
Nestor Aparicio 23:26
saying they go ahead, I just make money, and they’re, you know, the things they say and the things they do are not aligned. They really aren’t in regard to gambling, in regard to even settling the bets and getting the officiating right. So the league itself, it’s so powerful, right? It’s just so powerful that none of this matters. The only thing that matters is, are they going to win 12 games or 14 games, and now they’re going to play in January, and they know that, and a large segment
Luke Jones 23:56
of fans would tell you, that’s all they care about. I mean, in truth. Now I’m not saying that’s right or wrong. It’s an observation. I mean, you will have plenty of people tell you they don’t care about what a player does off the field, which to a point I understand that. And look, I am also not going to sit here and say that I’m a perfect person. You’re not a perfect person. No one is a perfect person in the sense that I expect individuals to be choir boys, to use your terminology at the same time. Should there be a acceptable standard of how you treat women, how you conduct yourselves, how you know, getting behind the wheel? DUI, whatever. Sure. Yeah. But are there a lot of fans out there who don’t really care. That’s been my observation. And look, I’m not picking on fans, you know, in general, saying that either. I mean, at the same time, you could have the best behaved team in the league, and if you go six and 11, no one’s going to like that, right? So, so I mean a lot of what you just said, I mean. And I suppose teams can get away with a lot of that because people continue to watch it’s my Thursday night football example that I’ve used for years and years and years. Everyone complains about it, yet everyone still watches it so
Nestor Aparicio 25:12
well. That’s why I brought Christmas in, just to be clear, just there was a separation of all of that. And they’ve the family holiday on Thanksgiving, but that’s the way that they have that and gambling and violence, and the fact that kids play it in Texas and Florida, in different places. And there’s a real hero worship part of being a football hero. You know, go back to Napoleon Dynamite. Go throw that ball over that their mount. And I just what they say and what they do is, is that that’s that’s the problem with Justin Tucker, that’s the problem with Mike Green, that’s the problem with Ben Cleveland. That’s the problem with accountability. That’s the problem with poor suckers licenses and all the other things that are endemically baked into them, waking up on January one and making $200 million in profit. Every franchise in the league is they’re getting $400 million in all of their expenses are paid the day they wake up every year. You operate a whole lot differently as a business when you do that, and especially when you have the power that they have to ban Colin Kaepernick, throw the media out that they don’t want throw the coaches out, that they don’t want be impervious to being sued for anything that they’re going to lose, that they can’t get an NDA and, you know, write it, write a check, because they’re all billionaires. I don’t know if the Justin Tucker thing has just been the latest sort of sludge to come up to the top of the water, after Ray Rice, after Ray Lewis after Arch schliester, was his own sludge here for a long time, and I just it. It only matters that we speak about it and then in our lives, that you wouldn’t go into a massage parlor and do that to someone like your sister or like my wife, and that we wouldn’t tolerate that, that that is our we have a different standard than they have. Their standard is, can he show up on Sunday and do something no one else can do? I once had a coach say to me, they’re all crazy. You’ve been out here at practice, they hit each other in the head all day. There’s something they’re they’re not. These aren’t normal people that play this game. I’ve had coaches say that to me, so we don’t want them to be thinking too much because, like, they’re hitting each other in the head. I had Lee Steinberg on this week talking about concussion and talking about shadoor Sanders, and why shadoor Sanders sunk like that. And I mean, Lee almost laughed at me. He’s like, Look, I’m not trying to be arrogant here or anything, but if they thought he could play, they would have drafted him. I mean, we’ve been doing this a long time. He he went in the fifth round because that’s where they think he belongs, and that’s that. And there’s all these lessons that the NFL tries to teach. And I watched the WWE ification of draft weekend, and they’re helping the homeless, and they’re helping the military. They’re helping Hispanic people, because they’re going to have Hispanic Heritage Week, like it’s just they’re everything to everybody, and they’re really nothing to nobody. They’re just a place to bet and go get drunk and do your rah rah and do your fake civic pride thing and bet on the games. At this point, I what I got, and I said this to got kind of sad, because we’re talking I’m like, I think they’re so sleazy. In my own personal travels, when I speak to my wife in the privacy my home, or when I speak to you in our privacy, or even on the air, it’s the same thing, like, let’s, let’s start seeing it for what it is, because I sold it for something it wasn’t when it came here in 1996 and David and art had me in their office, and they were trying to make money and trying to recruit a community. And when I wrote Purple Rain one, which I gave out to a fan over the weekend, you know, David modells, whole thing is, recruit the community. Recruit the community. Recruit the community. The Orioles are exhibit a of not recruiting the community for 30 years, and they have an empty stadium now and still locking me out. Because you know, what kind of recruiter would I be, picking who they want in, picking what their message is, shaming the people like me who have an honest message about their pitching stinking, and them having a lot of work to do to sell tickets. And when I point out that the football tickets are $10 on game day and the stadium has swaths of empty seats, and it does during the Lamar era, even when tickets are really cheap on the internet. I mean, you can go to ravens game three, four times a year for 1020, bucks every year for the last 10 years, and people don’t do it because the game’s good on TV, and I like my hot dogs at home, and it cost a lot to go and I’m afraid of the city and the boogeyman downtown, and like I hear it all, but the football thing was pitched to us as this Civic endeavor, this community thing. It’s pitched to Green Bay that way in the draft. Two weeks ago, and when Justin Tucker’s running around maybe, or maybe not, doing really awful power shit, like I’m better than you, I’m bigger than you, I’m more important than you, I’m a raven. You can’t come get me. I have more money than you. I’m more famous than you. I’m more arrogant than you. That’s what I have smelled in my time in Owings Mills in the last 15 years, since hardball took over, specifically. But just that, you know, Eric da Costa used to be a different human. He’s caught the flu, so they’ve all got it out there, and that’s why, if Justin Tucker stole their kicker, Mike Green is going to be rushing the quarterback and and, you know, they they have no problem. They had no problem with Terrell Suggs. They had no problem with Ray Lewis. They had no problem with Jamal Lewis. They had no problem with guys who had jurisprudence issues coming back and playing football historically, Ray Rice, they had a problem with because they were caught up in and they were part of the lie, and they sanctioned it all. And they made an example of him, so much so that they can now bring him back, put him on their payroll, run him around, have him be a featured star of the game. And it all got washed out, but nobody said anything about it. And I still have missed that press conference where Ray came in front of the media, in front of their place, and said, we’ve here’s what happened here. Instead, we’re just here. Like, Hey, how did Ray Rice get back? I don’t know. I always liked Ray Rice, so I’m fully on record with that. So I’ve been soliloquy here, but like, I’ve been thinking about this a lot, and this Justin Tucker thing, that he’s still here, and that they’re not married to the breakup, or any of that stuff. I don’t, they just don’t care. I care more than they care, and most of the fans don’t care.
Luke Jones 31:48
You know, hearing you speak about this, I mean, I think it’s still a point of community pride. I think, I think it’s still a point of civic pride, but I think it, you know, it’s the fans doing that themselves, right? It’s, it’s who you tailgate with. It’s, it’s who you go out to the, your favorite local establishment to watch the game with. In a way, it’s almost, you know, and this is just off the top of my head. This isn’t something, this just kind of came to me now, as you’re as you’re kind of stripping down the perception versus reality there. I mean, it’s kind of like Santa Claus, right? And it’s fun to believe, well, but, but my point with that is, even if, even if you get to a point where you find out the truth, you can still enjoy that it’s just you make, you make your own magic, so to speak. And this is where it kind of goes back to, you know, as a fan, you make up your mind whether it’s gonna be worth it to you
Nestor Aparicio 32:42
or not. When the Orioles needed pitching last summer, the guy from the Dodgers that was off, you know, doing all sorts of hard, you know, it should in Mexico. Hey, let’s get him. Well. Trevor Bauer, yeah, well, we said, well, we would. We not with the relief pitcher that’s that’s still running around, who’s done all sorts of Chapman, just, you know, like it’s, they’re Justin Tucker’s going to kick in this league. He, he’s one of the 32 best kickers. So he’s going to kick in this league, and the NFL is going to sanction it, and they’re going to slap him on the whatever they can slap him on. They might not be able to slap him with anything because they can’t prove anything. So I don’t, I don’t know what they’re going to do, but that will be the defining issue of whether he’s on this football team or not. It’ll be because Tyler Luke get kicked the ball to the moon, and we really think he’s the next five to 10 years of our kicker. And if he’s not, you know, hey, we know a guy, and I just don’t think they care. And okay, as much as it won’t stop me from talking about it. It won’t stop me from shaming it and all that, because if I did it, or you did it, or anybody else did it, we’d expect, the very least, to have our ass kicked in the middle of Owings Mills outside of a massage parlor, at the very least, yeah, by a group of women that if somebody, if I were to pull that in the Chinese massage parlor that I go to in Manhattan, I’m assuming there would be six Chinese women beating the snot out of me out on Canal Street, like, literally in the same like, it’s, it’s, it’s unthinkable that it could happen once, or that it could be alleged, or that it could be covered up for a decade, or that He could still be out there kicking footballs this week if he did it, and if everybody knows he did it, it wouldn’t be all that hard. If the Ravens really wanted to investigate this, or the league, it wouldn’t be all that hard. Call them all, invite them out, put them in a room with Justin Tucker, had him, let him look at him, figure it out. You know, that’s the way they do it in America, in the courtrooms, he but he’s not going to be in a courtroom. And I think that that’s the hardest part of the bar stool culture of the city, is when I’m out, they’re like, what did he do? What didn’t he do? Well, talk to one of the 16 women, except that you can’t talk to them because they don’t want to be outed, because they don’t want to have Ravens fans throwing eggs at their house. Forgetting Justin Tucker fired. I. I, I mean, I’ve been talking about this for three months, and he’s still on the teams, Luke. I mean, that’s the thing that I keep saying. He’s stolen the team, and as long as he’s on the team, and if he could kick the ball 75 yards, they’d have him kick it. And if, and the Houston Texans will, or the Jacksonville, somebody else will take him and bring him in, and he’s going to kick,
Luke Jones 35:20
okay. I mean, you know, we’ve talked about this 40 times at this point. I mean, I you know, what about
Nestor Aparicio 35:27
Mike Green? What do you make of him and bringing him in? I talked about it last weekend. I
Luke Jones 35:31
mean, look, guys, a heck of a player that. That’s why he was selected late in the second round after a pretty, you know, precipitous fall. Look, we know next to nothing about these accusations. I mean, this is not like there’s some, you know, Baltimore banner in his hometown in Virginia that details all, you know, all this that allegedly happened or not. I mean, there’s nothing known about this. And look, that doesn’t mean that that won’t change. And that’s why I said, you know, for the ravens to say they’re, quote, comfortable taking him, it’s like you better know exactly what you’re getting. Then if you’re going to say that. But to your point, will anyone hold them truly accountable or not? I mean, but you know, I mean, it’s if it were one accusation, you would say, okay, you know, did this happen in high school? What exactly happened was alcohol involved, all the different things that you would ask, right? But for there to be two separate accusations, you certainly can’t brush it off as nothing and ignore it either. So, you know, he’s a heck of a football player from from a talent standpoint, I said to you last weekend, I wrote this, I mean, might be the best on paper, of course, because you never really know until you see them on the field at the next level, might be the best edge rusher prospect that they’ve taken since Terrell stuggs. I mean, that’s what you’re talking about here. One part of that is they haven’t exactly invested a ton of early round picks on outside linebackers and defensive ends in the last 20 years. I mean, you know, you can count on one hand the number of guys they’ve drafted early that fit that description, and so way would be one of them away, right? I mean, no way. I mean, you know, Courtney up Shaw was kind of that, but never, was never regarded as like, Oh, he’s this big pass rushing thread. He was more of an edge setter, which is what he ended he ended up being so so you know, from that standpoint, and seeing him out on the field, seeing Malachi Starks out on the field, rookie look, rookie camp, I gotta sit here and say that I have any meaningful accusation or accusations there. There’s a Freudian slip for you. There observations for what I saw at rookie camp, other than Malachi Starks and Mike Green, moved at a different pace than everyone else, and that’s what you want to see out of your first and second round pick. So, but, you know, in the case of Mike Green, we’re going to see right? I mean, I mean Virginia made him sign a zero tolerance when he went there. So whatever, whatever the details were, unless this was Virginia trying to really take a stand more so than other teams, and if they are good for them, I don’t know. I’m not intimately familiar with the Cavaliers football program. I’m not, not, you know, it’s not exactly on my radar on an annual basis, but clearly, whatever it was, you know, it prompted his departure from the program. So, you know, it’s like I said, they’re clearly making a bet here. Did they do their homework? They say they did. They said they talked to a lot of people. That’s why I asked Mike Green, how much did the Ravens ask you about this? And he said they asked a lot if he had said it didn’t really come up a whole lot with
Nestor Aparicio 38:41
Mike Green turns out to be Aaron Hernandez, the owner and the general manager and the coach won’t be heard from anyway, like that’s just the truth. They just no one will ever talk to Steve Bucha about it, who’s not employed by him. And Harbaugh will say, Well, you know, that’s a HIPAA legal to talk to down the down the street. And Eric will just come out of hiding four times a year, as he does. Is that a football question? And like that’s, I’ve witnessed this for 15 years. Why do you think they don’t let me in? You know? I yeah, I the fact that a week after the draft, we’re sitting here talking about a guy who fell that they drafted at a need position. Have you seen his tape? You know we do need to rush the quarterback. They can’t all be quiet boys. We just keep going back to that again with that’s where we are 10 days after the draft, after Justin Tucker after Ray Rice, after zero tolerance, after signing Ben Cleveland. It’s just obvious. It is what it is. I’m not fighting City Hall. I’m sure speaking, I’m spitting, spitting truth, as I’ve been known to do around here. But it is
Luke Jones 39:45
interesting, from the standpoint of, when was the last time the Ravens drafted someone like that? Meaning, not not so much whatever got in trouble, but in terms of a player that you knew had a rap. I mean, I. Uh, Sergio Kindle had some, some questions about him, regard before even him falling down the stairs and, and what, what that made of his career. But, you know, you kind of go back to the last 15 years or so. I mean, that’s why this was so surprising, from the standpoint of, you know, they haven’t really drafted a guy that you would put into that category. Now, drafted players, and then guys get in trouble down the road or sometime after the fact. I mean, sure, right. I mean, every team is going to have some of that. No, no team has a full roster of guys that are perfect by any stretch of the imagination. But, but it was interesting. I mean, that’s why, you know, and I said this more so about the Ben Cleveland thing, and this will be my last thought, because, you know, we’ve talked about this over and over. This is football
Nestor Aparicio 40:47
in Maine. If they didn’t take, you know, people allegations, we wouldn’t be talking about but, but it has
Luke Jones 40:54
been interesting. It has been, you know, I talked about this a lot with the Benton Cleveland signing. How illuminating that felt in the wake, in the midst of all the Justin Tucker, you know, the saga, you know, that whole situation, as far as what’s going to happen, but for them to resign Ben Cleveland, I get it. It’s a one year deal that minimum, you know, they probably, probably viewed it through the lens of, well, you know, it’s a DUI. He’s probably going to get, you know, he’ll get a one game suspension, maybe, you know, something along those lines. And we think he’s a quality backup guard, and we probably got him for half the price that we could have otherwise with this. So we’ll, we’ll take advantage of an opportunity. I suppose that’s what they’re thinking. I don’t know, but I thought that was illuminating, that they did that when, you know, he blew twice the legal limit. I mean, this wasn’t point oh, oh nine. When the legal limits point oh eight, right? I mean, he was
Nestor Aparicio 41:47
twice illegal. This isn’t me having a second beer. Sure pulled over. So, so between that
Luke Jones 41:52
and then drafting Mike Green, you know, you made the comment that they just don’t care in terms of the perception, and very difficult to argue. There’s nobody, there’s
Nestor Aparicio 42:01
nobody that’s going to hold him accountable, especially the owner. He’s gone and the general manager’s gone. I mean, how many times?
Luke Jones 42:09
But ultimately, ultimately, who, who’s going to hold them the most accountable? It’s not the media. It would be fans. It would be having an empty stadium. It would be your ratings cratering. Well,
Nestor Aparicio 42:21
Ray Rice in the line to burn his jerseys down there. But
Luke Jones 42:24
my point with that, I mean, and I don’t, and I’m not saying that to take a shot at the fans, let me be clear. But you know, the NFL is the machine. You know, all these different things that happen. You know, not even a spoke in the you know, it’s not even a cog in the wheel. It’s like, you know, a tiny little speck of it’s a grain of sand
Nestor Aparicio 42:44
their own a team 10 years longer than they should. But, but the
Luke Jones 42:47
point with that, you kind of view it through that lens, and it sounds cynical, and that’s why I kind of say, Look, you know, this is why maybe my Luke Jones, the person don’t, don’t take our morality cues from professional sports or musicians or actors who are in trouble with you know, every, every form and shape of entertainment has bad characters in it, right? I mean, we know that. Does that mean we don’t consume it? Well, that’s up to the individual. There are. There are absolutely singers and musicians out there that some people won’t support
Nestor Aparicio 43:21
dude, every time I hear Michael Jackson or a Ted Nugent song, it’s different than just hearing the song, to me, right?
Luke Jones 43:29
Sure, sure, but some people might just hear the song, and I’m not saying that that’s, you know, if, if you like Matt, Michael Jackson or whoever, like just Person A but you know that they were, at best, the flawed person, or someone was accused of certain things. Again, entertainment is entertainment, right? And it’s a little bit different for you and me talking about it, because we’re in it. You know, have a closer, you know, closer. We’ve got
Nestor Aparicio 43:58
a guy who is a convicted felon running the country who 75 million people don’t see the crime period. I can drop the mic on that and say it’s really easy to play K Fabe and just, I mean, you’re a wrestling fan. I mean, Vince McMahon’s one of the worst humans ever, like just a horrible human doing horrible things. There. There are whole networks built to the dead wrestlers that were used up and spit out in so many ways, insurance on down, drugs on down, misogyny on down, just all the way through, mental health, all the way through. And you can’t wait to get done with me right now to go watch the next raw taping, because you like wrestling. And I and, dude, I get it. I like Ron. And
Luke Jones 44:45
I would also, right? And I would also say, you know, depending on this, and look, that’s not to say we don’t hold anyone to any standard. Let me be very clear about that. At the same time, depending on the standard, there might not be anything out there you could support, yeah, because you. Nothing’s perfect, but
Nestor Aparicio 45:02
you’d like to think that you would have some standard of accountability. And when I was pimping the Baltimore and selling it, and everybody buy PSL, everybody again, it’s be great for the community. Great for the community. It’s great for Steve Bucha and it’s great for Lamar Jackson. It’s still million dollars. It’s not as great for the communities. It couldn’t should be when they don’t stand up do the right thing, and they don’t walk their talk, and they are sleazy. They are there. That’s the word. I’m all I’ll go to death with that. John Harbaugh, Eric the Costa. Steve Bucha, sleaze. Chad Steele, sleazy. Sashi Brown, sleazy. And that should not drafting. Mike Green, signing, bank, Cleveland, hanging whether they knew or didn’t know any of the allegations about Justin Tucker, as my wife said he’s really good kicker.
Luke Jones 45:51
That’s all you need to know. Yeah, but, but you know, to go back to the community thing, and I’ll leave you with this, regardless of the forum, regardless of the medium, regardless of what we think about certain individuals, certain franchises, certain sports, a father and son get together who don’t agree on anything else, but they like the ravens, or they like WWE or they like going to so and so’s concerts, you know, and that’s where I kind of say the community, part of that, it’s still there. It just might not be, you know, it gets messy. It and that’s the that’s the nicest way I can describe it. And I don’t say that. I
Nestor Aparicio 46:31
say pick better heroes. You know what I mean? Like, like people that he worshiped Cal Ripken for, you know, all the time he was here, or Ray Lewis because it admires football abilities or whoever your favorite rock star is, right? I mean, I don’t I just as I get older, I do it does come more in the focus of the alignment of the message and the reality of it, and seeing through whatever this Raven thing is, when they zero tolerance, I just dropped the mic on that 00 tolerance is it’s a joke, you know what I mean. So for they care about winning football games, if we take it, if we discuss it that way, at least I can judge it the other way, but I’m never in question as to what they’re doing and why Justin Tucker’s on the team. Because he is on the team right now. He’s on the team because he’s a great kicker,
Luke Jones 47:25
and he’s on the team until he’s not anymore. I mean, we’ll, we’ll find out, right? So, I mean, it’s, believe me, I it’s one of those things that you can drive yourself crazy, you know, as a fan, in terms of whether it’s a sports team, a musician, an actor, whatever it is that you find out about that person in real life, that it’s not
Nestor Aparicio 47:47
I’m really, really, really disappointed, but I can’t wait for your next album. Here’s my credit card. What are you going on tour?
Luke Jones 47:53
And enough people have that mindset that nothing changes, and that’s where I kind of just, you know, you take it for what it is, and
Nestor Aparicio 48:02
meanwhile, you go out one night, you get a bad cheeseburger somewhere. You never go back.
Luke Jones 48:08
It’s funny, yeah, that was kind of off the top rope right there. But, yeah, well, yeah,
Nestor Aparicio 48:12
but I’m writing this week. You’re writing this week. We got Preakness this week. The Orioles pitching will still be bad this week there in Minnesota and Anaheim and and from a football perspective, I mean, if I’m making people cry or laugh or whatever, with all of this, there’s nothing happening in their off season. But the things that are happening are, it’s disturbing that this is what we’re talking about, that they drafted another kid who had a problem, and they talk zero tolerance, and then I this is holding them accountable. So you get frustrated with me. Listeners can get I’m holding them accountable. I’m doing what I said I was going to do when they are associating themselves with people they shouldn’t be and polishing it up and serving it up like they serve a bunch of other sleazy stuff up. And I’ll just leave it at that. And I, you know, I love football. I built my life around football, I am. I’m disappointed as in what this has become in a lot of ways. And I said that to rasig, and he kind of got a little sad, but I’m like, it is what it is. I’m not going to polish it up and say it’s not something it isn’t. You know, too much is given, much is expected in and I’d say that one day I’ll run into John Harbaugh and Eric the cost of the street, and I’m Street, and I’ll get a word with them. But in the meantime, you keep the press badge. They’ll lock you after May 28 is the next time
Luke Jones 49:29
you get to walk in out. There it is. Let me double check, yes, Wednesday, May 28 so will Justin Tucker be on the team then or not? We’ll see.
Nestor Aparicio 49:37
Will the Orioles be closer to 10 games under 500 or at 500 What do you think at this point? Closer to 10? I’m just checking until they start. You know, listen, the worst the baseball team is, the more we have to talk about the football team.
Luke Jones 49:52
Yeah, hey, they got us to the draft, right?
Nestor Aparicio 49:56
Oh, my God, I can’t believe that the baseball season’s like over. It just
Luke Jones 50:02
started, not good, not good.
Nestor Aparicio 50:05
They don’t have crappy, but they have Shi uh. He is a Baltimore Luke. I am Nestor. We are W N, S T am 1570 I’m gonna do comedy. I swear to God, I’m gonna talk to Mickey Coachella. He’s gonna turn me into a comedian. By the way, we have Howie Mandela on this week. Stay tuned. Bye.
