It’ll be another two weeks before anyone with the Baltimore Ravens will be asked their first questions after the shameful departure of Justin Tucker. Luke Jones and Nestor discuss what happens next for Tyler Loop and all of the rookies on campus in Owings Mills as the team goes to work on improving – and avoiding any scent of their maligned former “Hall of Fame” kicker.
Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones discussed the aftermath of Justin Tucker’s departure from the Baltimore Ravens, noting the media’s ongoing interest despite the team’s attempts to move on. They highlighted the current offseason activities, including the installation of playbooks and the acclimation of rookies. The conversation also covered potential interest in Jadeveon Clowney and the evaluation of young players like David Ojabo and Mike Green. They previewed the upcoming NFL schedule release and the impact of Tucker’s departure on the team’s kicking game, expressing concerns about the team’s handling of the situation and its PR strategy.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Justin Tucker, Ravens, rookies, Owings Mills, NFL investigation, schedule release, Tyler Locket, kicker competition, training camp, roster spots, Jadeveon Clowney, Mike Green, David Ojabo, Patrick Ricard, Lamar Jackson.
SPEAKERS
Luke Jones, Nestor Aparicio
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home. We are W N, S, T. Am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We are Baltimore positive. I am wearing my COVID state 125 shirt because it looks good, feels nice, and a little bit of a chilly morning, we have some nice weather this week, I’m headed out to Las Vegas, Nevada. We’ll be doing Baltimore positive poolside at Steve Wynn’s billion dollar resort. We’re going to be at the Encore all courtesy of my pal, Howard Perlow, who’s invited me out Bill Cole from cole roofing and Gordian energy. I’m always a guest. He calls me an ambassador, huh? I better shave and get something nice to wear. We’re going to be on Vegas all weekend doing that, and we will be back on the Maryland crab cake Tour presented by the Maryland lottery on the 28th at fadelies The later on in the month, the Cardinals in town. We have talked baseball a lot. Luke and I will be monitoring all things baseball this week as the twins come into town. Nationals coming to town as well. But we talk some football here. It has been. It has been a week since Justin Tucker was excommunicated from the purple kingdom. I know the Ravens would love for us to not talk about this. I’ve talked to lots of media people. I’ve had a lot of national people reach to me, because as much as the Ravens think they’re running away from this fire, the fire is going to come back to their own building as to how this happened for 10 years, and they’re going to deny it. It was a football and like all that, it’s only the beginning of where the journalism is going on, Steve Bucha and John Harbaugh and Eric the Costa and how they’re building is run, I’ll make sure that. But on the football side of things, this is the calm period, right? This is the installation of playbooks for rookies. This is how do we do things around here? This is some veterans banging around, sometimes showing up, lifting weights. Some of the guys that live here and have family, whatnot, I don’t know. I haven’t been in locker room in three years, you know, speak to me about what is going on out there, because I don’t have the heartbeat the way I once did where, you know, they would allow real media members to come out and ask them questions they don’t like, that sort of thing lately. And Justin Tucker would be very indicative of why. Well, we’re
Luke Jones 02:03
kind of into the second phase of the off season program. We’re still a couple weeks out from OTAs, and obviously we’re about a month out from mandatory mini camp, and then they’ll go away for another five weeks after that, and then it’ll be training camp. I mean, it’ll be here before you know it. But this is the time of year where the rookies, of course, have already completed rookie camp. You’re still you’re getting those guys acclimated, whether you’re talking about the draft picks or undrafted, you know, rookie free agents. You’re still shaping your roster. You still do have some open roster spots. I’ll throw a name out there just to stir the pot a little bit today, beyond clowning was just released by the Carolina Panthers. Is there interest in a reunion there? Guessing it won’t be anytime soon, because Clowney doesn’t like going through training camp. And I
Nestor Aparicio 02:49
must say, Terry Beck, I had dinner at Cooper’s pub in Coopers north and may travel. First thing he said to me on Sunday, Mother’s Day. It wasn’t happy. Mother’s Day wasn’t a Genevieve Clowney, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So, you know, it never rests. No, it never does. It
Luke Jones 03:04
never does. And look what we’ll see. What happens on that front I think some of the typical
Nestor Aparicio 03:07
of what they would do that that is that makes all the sense in the world, right? Question,
Luke Jones 03:11
if it happens, I won’t be surprised. At the same time, you have these young guys, you know, if you’ve added Mike Green to that picture off field, questions aside, he’s a really talented player, so I think we’ll see, look, I don’t think clowning signing with anyone right now. So you go through, you evaluate how your young guys look, and you see where he is. You see where, what his timetable is for a decision. Does he want to come in, wherever he’s going to play? Is he thinking like, mid August, you know? Is he thinking the first day of training camp or, I mean, Hey, Carolina gave him a two year deal. That’s why he signed as early as he did with the Panthers last off season. So, but, but those are the kind of players you’re still talking about at this point. We know that the roster for any team, the heaviest lifting, has been completed. It doesn’t mean it’s finished, but free agency, you know, you’ve had your first, second, third, waves of free agency that’s calmed down at this point in time, even if there’s still interesting veteran players out there, like today, beyond Clowney, you know, we you, I guess a trade is always possible, as we saw with George Pickens. Now, being a Dallas Cowboy as I think, I actually think that trade went down as you and I were, were finishing up a segment last week, you know, kind of in real time. But so, so there’s that, but really a lot of what’s going on in terms of on the field, in Owings, Mills, or wherever teams train. This is kind of football school. This is kind of where you’re really bringing guys up to speed, whether you’re talking about young guys, whether you’re talking about some veteran players and mainly depth guys we’re talking about, certainly it’s a big part of what teams that have new coaching staffs are doing this time of year. But you’re kind of this sounds a little silly saying this, and this is something we often have said. Rookie camp, you’re kind of teaching your guys how to practice at this point in time. You know, you’re kind of teaching them, okay, this is how. You know, it’s not as simplistic as Okay, here’s the huddle, but you are showing guys how it’s going to work. You know what your philosophies are. You’re teaching the offense, you’re teaching the defense, what tweaks, what changes. You’re making all of that, but also understanding that not all of your veteran players are going to be in the building every single day of every single week, you know, until mandatory mini camp. So you know, you’re it’s mainly for the younger guys. It’s mainly for fringe roster guys. It’s mainly for guys that you hope are ascending players, or veteran players that are barely hanging on, that might feel like, hey, I need to be there because I don’t have a, I’m not a roster lock at this point in my career. So well,
Nestor Aparicio 05:46
who are those guys? Because, I mean, historically, you know, that would have been a Brent urban type, right? That would have been a Patrick Ricard type, right? Like, guys that are here and have been here, maybe part of the furniture a little bit,
Luke Jones 05:59
yeah. I mean, I’ll give you a couple names that just come to mind right now. I mean, he’s not a veteran in the way that you think of a brand or urban, but I’ll tell you who this spring and summer is big for. Look at someone like David ajabo. I mean, all the injuries, right? But a second round pick, guy that, you know, it stinks for him that he tore his Achilles at his pro day. He was, you know, some people mocked him to the Ravens in the first round. It hasn’t happened for him, and that’s not to say that he can’t contribute this year, but look at the reality of their roster before we even talk about potentially adding Genevieve on Clowney or another veteran. But you have Mike creen, who was just drafted, has four years on a rookie deal. You have a decent Isaac who was drafted in the third round last year, still has three years left on his rookie deal. You have tavius Robinson, who still has two years left on his rookie deal. All of these guys are even if they’re on similar footing as a Jabo, from a performance standpoint, standpoint to this point in their NFL careers, a job I was in the last year of his rookie deal. I mean, that’s the kind of guy where you say you might be expendable if, if the team feels that they have five other edge guys that that are at least as good, if not better, than you, and they also have team control. So I think he’s interesting. I think someone like Jalen armor Davis, who, you know, has shown talent, but can’t stay on the field. Well, the Ravens drafted two corners in this draft. They added a woozy a as far as a veteran. Number three corner, you know, is someone like armor Davis, who you know has never really been on the roster bubble. He I think he’s on the roster bubble at this point in time. So these aren’t necessarily established veterans that you think of in terms of guys that have been here seven or eight years, you know, you mentioned Patrick Ricard. I mean, Patrick Ricard is never on the bubble during camp. The question for him is, more are you going to resign him? You know, are you going to and they did that. They signed him to a one year deal. They brought him back for another year, and we’ll see how that plays out. But, you know, in terms of guys that are maybe well known names that are on the roster bubble. I don’t know if there are too many guys like that. I mean, I’ll say this the DUI part of it aside. I mean, Ben Cleveland’s not a roster lock. If they if they like a couple of these rookie linemen, or if there’s an undrafted lineman, they bring in, where they say, man, we really like this guy. I mean, Ben Cleveland’s on a one year vet minimum deal. They’ll cut him. I mean, it’s so, so, so there’s always some of that going on, but, but, yeah, this time of year is it’s for the young guys. It’s for the fringe veteran players. I mean, everyone’s trying to make their mark. They’re trying to make good on their attendance, to impress the coaches that way, but in terms of anything high stakes, in terms of anything meaningful. I mean, I said this to you last week when we were recapping rookie camp, where I said, here’s here’s my takeaway from rookie camp, Malachi Starks and Mike Green look better than everyone else, which is what you want from your first and second round pick. Otherwise, what else is there really to say, right? I mean, it’s a bunch of guys out there practicing who they have a story to tell their grandkids one day, but many of those guys will never be heard from a bit again in NFL terms, because they tried out for rookie camp and they didn’t make it so and good for them, like, like, I’m not being disrespectful. That’s just the truth. So, so that’s where we are. But you know, kind of the headline this week. You know, beyond the residue of Justin Tucker, and we’ll, we can certainly get into that. But schedule comes out this week. You know, we finally have the schedule. If you’re listening to our segment in real time, you’ve probably already heard some games leaked around the league. There’s a, it’s hilarious. Nestor, we get the full
Nestor Aparicio 09:36
are there real leaks or fake leaks? Because these are real. Them all. Yeah. So
Luke Jones 09:41
what we’re going to see, and this is straight from the NFL, the NFL is broadcast partners, will announce the following games on Monday. The Today Show is going to announce some Sunday night football. I don’t think the, I don’t think it’s the whole schedule. I think it’s, you know, the season opening game, I suppose maybe another game. I
Nestor Aparicio 09:58
remember how much. Pissed off Dick Cass and Kevin Byrne when I used to get this first ever, no doubt. And they never understood, like, people travel, they build, you know, weddings, bar mitzvahs, parties, birthday celebrations, family celebrations, Thanksgiving. And by the way, they’re only playing three games on Christmas. I’m just thinking, okay,
Luke Jones 10:17
is this the year where the Ravens play at home on Christmas, and then it’s, you know, so we’ll see they’re going to
Nestor Aparicio 10:23
play in Buffalo. That’s going to screw up our buffalo trip, because you and I have a buffalo thing. We have a whole, yeah, we got a thing, and they’re going to screw it up. I’m sure they’re screwed up, but yeah,
Luke Jones 10:32
NBC and Fox will announce games Monday. Prime will, you know, Amazon will announce something Monday. ESPN on Tuesday, CBS on Wednesday, Netflix will be on Wednesday. So I guess, you know, during the day, Wednesday, we’re going to find out the Christmas schedule, because Netflix
Nestor Aparicio 10:47
carries Nickelodeon doing anything just they do. I mean, I don’t think they want a lot of Nickelodeon, you know, I’m a kid at heart. Yeah, I don’t think Nickelodeon gets
Luke Jones 10:55
anything exclusive, but they get those kid broadcasts, which, you know, have the graphics and animation and stuff like that, which kids love, not something that,
Nestor Aparicio 11:02
hey, the fifth grade school teacher in you, I can just,
Luke Jones 11:06
we talk about it all the time with baseball, right? Different things that are done. We always say, Man, this isn’t for us, for me, right? Yeah, exactly so. And then, of course, we’re also going to get the international schedule. I mean, it’s no secret the international schedule has grown what? There’s two games in London, there’s a game in Berlin, there’s a game in Spain. This year they’re gonna have a game in Dublin. You know, the Steelers are involved in that game. So we’ll see if and when the Ravens might be playing overseas. So, so, a lot going on this week, but Wednesday night will be the the full schedule release. And to your point. I mean, not just obviously you and me, we talk about this as our livelihood, but you know, you mentioned a wedding. I have a cousin who’s getting married in late September. I’m guessing I probably will not be able to because it’s out of town, but if the Ravens happen to play a Monday night game that week, maybe I can make it to us, maybe I
Nestor Aparicio 12:01
can cover the game for you, for my own company. Maybe I’d be allowed to do that if I weren’t Hispanic. Well, I don’t know what I am that I can’t cover the games anymore, but nonetheless, that’s another story altogether. Maybe it’s because I would report on things like Justin Tucker being a serial predator if I knew that. But
Luke Jones 12:18
those are the kind of things we’re all waiting on, right? Whether you’re a fan, whether you’re looking to travel, whether you’re just looking to see, hey, what games am I going to go to this year? You know, I may not have season tickets, but I want to go to three or four games. I mean, we you see more and more people that are like that, or they have season tickets and they’re going to sell half of them. Which half are they going to sell? Right? So we know the ravens are going to play the NFC North. They’re going to play the AFC East. They’ve got that, you know, that we have that stray NFC, AFC game that’s added into the schedule, like play the Rams at home. We remember the game those two teams played a couple years ago, absolute classic with tylen Wallace, with the punt return. And of course, they’ll play the chiefs and the Texans. You know first place schedule. So you know, it’s
Nestor Aparicio 13:00
but when you look at their schedule, strength of schedule, we always get like, whoo. They have a tough straight you know, it never works out that way, but it kind of does a little bit too in regard to nobody wants to play the Ravens either. Nobody wants to
Luke Jones 13:11
see Lamar. No question. I mean, they want to. Fans want to see him from an entertainment standpoint, but yeah, if it’s your team, you don’t want to see Lamar. I mean, that’s why I’ve kind of every time I hear like off season storylines, like, what do the Ravens need to do to get over the hump? Do they need this? Do they need that? And no, it’s they need to not turn the ball over three times in Buffalo, right? They need to not turn the fumble the ball over the goal line like they did two years ago against KC. I mean, this teams is as formidable as anyone in football, and has been from the time Lamar took over, you know, when he’s healthy, they’ve been that as formidable as anyone in the regular season. That’s a matter of matter of January. I I don’t know if you were muted, but my I went out. Oh, that’s
Nestor Aparicio 14:43
me. Okay. I just wanted to make sure, yeah, my bad, because
Luke Jones 14:46
every once in a while, the audio go out for a couple seconds, you know, the kicking
Nestor Aparicio 14:50
part of this for Justin Tucker, and the notion that he’s not here anymore, and the notion that it’s going to be different, and the notion. That the whole program is going to change a little bit, because 65 yard field goals might not be a thing with Tyler loop, especially early on, and 48 yard field goals are just an automatic thing around here, and have been for a decade. There’s going to be a little bit of a change in the program with Lamar and fourth downs and going forward, all the things that they would do once they would get to the 4550 45, yard line to say we have a special kicker. We have a different thing here. Remains to be seen if that will ever happen again for the program here, I know they’ve tried that with Tyler loop, but in their hard hearts, I don’t think they wanted the curbside Justin Tucker. It was not a football decision at all. If it was a football decision, they’d have him kicking, they’d have him competing. Because I still think deep down, they believe in Justin Tucker off the field. Aside all of that, I don’t think they wanted to junk him. Yeah, and look, I
Luke Jones 15:51
think there was, I think it’s very reasonable to suggest that the Ravens could have brought in a young kicker that they liked to push Tucker a little bit to compete with them, right? I mean, I don’t think that. I don’t think we need to view it in such black and white terms that there was no because, because I’ll say this at the season ending press conference, which was what days before the banners. Original reporting came out, initial reporting came out. The Costa was asked about Justin Tucker and the possibility of competition and all that. So I don’t think that part of it, but yes, let’s not, you know, Let’s call a spade a spade. They wouldn’t have just released him, right? They but because you released him with the post June 1 designation anyway. So it’s not as though a post June 1 designation, like you can release the guy in August, and it’s going to have the same impact as giving that designation. So, yeah, they could have had him do that, but, but I think to go back to the football element of this, you know, the reality of life in the post Justin Tucker world, they kind of had to do it last year, right? He had a bad season. They were at a point where, not that they were completely playing differently because they were trying to get him back on track, but you certainly weren’t trusting him to the same degree. I mean, the last couple years, him from beyond 50 yards had become spotty at best. So from that standpoint, maybe things aren’t quite as drastically changed, but you don’t have all that institutional established confidence in your kicker, in the way that you do when you have Justin Tucker for 13 years. And I mean, let’s, let’s think about this. And I think this is wild for this team up. This team has had basically two kickers handle all but what three years of their 30 years of history, or 29 seasons of ravens football, you know Matt Stover from 96 through oh eight, and then they had a few years where, you know, housekeeff, Shane, Graham, like, go through the list. Well
Nestor Aparicio 17:52
I and yeah, and Graham Gano, throw him in there too. So I would just say, you know that that that’s more normal than what they had? That’s horrible question. Yeah, no, I was around when Steve houseke was missing those kicks, and it was, you know, it wasn’t good. It was and, and he went on to have a hell of a career. Won a Super Bowl. Graham Gano, ditto, you know, they both won Super Bowls. They both, they both had great careers, but it just didn’t work out early on here, right? Like, so, you always say it’s not linear. It’s not linear with kickers, especially, I mean, kickers, they’re kind of like relievers in baseball, right? I mean, it’s like the stock market guys will be great, and then they’re not anymore. I mean, that’s really what you have. But it’s wild. I looked at it, you know, just as this was more of a look at Tyler loop and now the Ravens in this post, Justin Tucker world. You think about this, as I mentioned, Justin Tucker, Matt Stover, handled the kicking 26 of 29 seasons. Those two account for roughly 90%
Luke Jones 18:50
of the field goals made and tried in this team’s history. For some perspective, some context, the Washington commanders great season last year, right? They got to the NFC Championship. They had four different guys try field goals for them last year. So it speaks to even a good team can have issues like that. So it can be the biggest issue on your team. It can be no question. Now I will say this much, if you’re an offense that’s going to be as equipped as I expect the ravens to be, once again, you feel more conviction and confidence going I mean, this team still went on fourth. I mean, they went on fourth and inches from their own, what 18 yard line last year, one time. And they’re
Nestor Aparicio 19:27
also the most dangerous two point conversion team in the league because of the quarterback. So of course, you know, they don’t need to kick as much as they used to, but, but you really wanted a nice set. It was nice having 63 yard field goals be, you know, a thing you’re for a decade, and
Luke Jones 19:41
that’s, that’s why, hey, you had Randy Brown do his homework. They really liked Tyler loop. In fact, I even heard Tyler loop his at Arizona. I believe he’s a defensive coordinator. Now, his name off the top of my head, I don’t have it in front of me. I watched this last week, though he was our special teams coach last year, and. And he was talking about Tyler loop, talking about the fact that they didn’t have a lot of experience with their long snapper or their holder, their operation was sloppy. And he estimated that out of the I think he went 18 of 23 last year for for Arizona, his last year in college. He said one of those was an actual miss. He said, the others going back and look at it. There was some, some issue with the snap, some issue with the hold, something like that that messed up. Where you say, okay, Tyler loop coming to the next level. This is where Jordan stout, your holds need to be on point. Nick Moore, your long snapping needs to be perfect, because you are going to have a rookie kicker who is very talented. He has a very strong leg. I mean, he made a 62 yard I mean, he set the school record at Arizona, made a 62 yarder last year. So this isn’t a, I mean, it’s the first kicker they’ve ever drafted. You know, the ravens, if there’s one thing that, yeah, I don’t, I don’t want to even say that, because it kind of sounds like a backhanded compliment. It’s not but they’ve always been very good from a special team standpoint, like, at least in the John Harbaugh era, with a couple seasons as exceptions. It’s something they exhaust, you know, and use a lot of resources. They exhaust a lot of energy into their kicking game and their special teams. So for them to know the reality of where they were with Tucker, regardless of what the timing was going to be of when he was going to be released or if he was going to be released, they had to do their homework on kickers. So this is the kid they liked. Now I’ll say you can like a kicker as much as you want, and he can look as great as you want him to look in May practices and June OTAs and mini camp and training camp and even preseason games, or, you know what? I’ll even go as far as saying he can look good kicking against the browns in your week three game in Baltimore. And I’ve that’s not a schedule leak, that’s a hypothetical. That’s not the same as making a big kick in Pittsburgh or a big kick in Cincinnati in December, certainly not the same as making a big kick in January. So that’s where there there will be some unknown. But as we pointed out, Justin Tucker’s coming off the worst year of his career, even though he finished on a higher note, there was certainly some questions about him long before the banner reporting came out and the scandal and everything, where you say, look, I mean this, you know what’s going to happen here. You know, there were questions even before that. So that’s where you look at this thing, and you say, Tyler Lou we’re not going to just hand you the job. They’re going to bring in another kicker. You know, they haven’t made it official, but they’re all signs point to them bringing in the Wyoming kicker that they had as a tryout in rookie camp. His name’s John Hoyland, whether it’s him or some other veteran, they add at some point during training camp, they’re going to push loop. They’re not just going to hand him the gig in the same way that when they signed Graham Gano way back when there was competition for him and and he ended up getting, you know, he was beat out ultimately. So, you know, Steve House Cup beat him out. What was that 2009 I guess it was off the top of my head. So, you know, we’re gonna have to see how this goes. It could be fine, and Tyler loop could be the next great ravens kicker, in the same way that Matt stover and Justin Tucker were that those guys for a decade plus, or, heaven forbid, they could be in a situation where they’ve got three different guys kicking for them this year because they can’t quite get it right. I mean, it’s, it’s, it’s very much a, you know, it’s a finicky, mental kind of gig where you get in your head. I mean, we saw this with Tucker last year it got in his head, and boy, he struggled big time. And we had never seen that from him before. So it was jarring, but it was a reminder. And like I said, I use the commanders, you know, Washington, as an example last year that, yeah, sometimes it can be that way. And if it’s going to have to, if it ends up that way for the ravens, you certainly don’t like it. But what’s that going to mean? They’re going to be going for it more on fourth down and things of that nature. So and hey, the argument can be made that sometimes that’s not a bad thing, but because you can do better now in terms of scoring points, but if you need to make a big kick, if you’re in a spot where you need a 57 yarder to win it with one second to go. Yeah, there’s going to be a big question about Tyler loop. But as I said, in fairness, considering where Justin Tucker was trending, there was going to be questions about him, even, you know, even taking away all the off field stuff that you know that certainly brought his legacy to a scandalous end. Anything
Nestor Aparicio 24:41
you want to say about this, the NFL sham investigation, and when that’s going to come out? Because there’s no question that the Ravens timing on this. And I was asked last week, and I’ll let you speak to this, as to why John Harbaugh would get in front of you and continue to lie, because he has no accountability. Why he lies? Because there’s no price to be paid for his lies at all, ever. No one even calls him a liar. He gets more car deals, but Sunday, later this and the next day cut four o’clock on a Monday. Why? People have asked me why I have and again, I’m trying to get in the head of Chad Steele, and I’ve been trying to do that for 20 years. The idea would be they don’t have to base anybody for three weeks. And the idea would be like, Y’all are just going to forget that Justin Tucker was just here, and they’re going to say, hey, we don’t want any more questions about him. He’s not our kicker anymore. Like they’re going to say that. They’re going to say he’s not our kicker anymore, don’t we have no questions, no speaking, no, he’s he’s not our guy. Sorry, we cut him. We cut him. We cut him for football reason. You see the kicks he missed. So I can see horrible burring up on all of this, and I can see the pressing for what this organization knew when they knew it about this legendary good looking, romantic Christian singing, Dr peppering, chicken eating, coffee drinking, kicker who is beloved in the community, one beloved by me, but apparently women dug Justin Tucker, and this is they’re trying to backpedal from this in a PR way. And I they have a PR director doesn’t understand public relations, by the way, a brand manager who can’t manage his own brand. But this notion that there’s going to be 23 days before they have to face you and that tough Jamison Hensley and the Jeff’s rebacks With those tough questions about the kickers potential sexual predatory behavior and what the team would know that they’re done answering questions on it. They’re going to they’re going to poo poo you and anyone else that asks any questions, they’re going to burr up because they have plenty to hide out there. They don’t want any questions about any of this. So for me, this was a performative cut of him in regard to not having media sniffing around the next three weeks. Because I would say all of us, they kicked me out of the building a long time ago. They’ve kicked you out of the building for the next three weeks, and that’s probably what the timing was about last Monday. Yeah,
Luke Jones 27:03
I mean, and you and I even talked about it that that morning, you know, as we were coming out of rookie camp, and I had noted to you our balls comments where. And I’m, believe me, this is not me suggesting whatsoever that I knew it was coming later that day, but it very much to me, it, it at least threw up the sensors of, I don’t think this guy’s making it to OTAs and taking the practice field with cameras there, reporters there. So why it was last Monday as opposed to this week, or say, the Friday before Memorial Day, you know, where that would have been a few days before the first OTA. The first OTA, it’s about two and a half weeks out. You know, at two weeks, roughly two weeks away, may 28 I think it is off the top of my head, you know, so I you could sense that, you know, as far as specifically why Monday, May 5, I don’t know, other than they had every intention to draft a kicker, Whether it was going to be Tyler loop or someone else that they liked that, you know, maybe it was the kicker that the Patriots took right before them. Maybe it was someone else they would have taken had loop been gone, but they did that. Perhaps they wanted to see him in their building take part in rookie camp to make sure it wasn’t like this guy has the yips and rookie camp, and we can’t even go that far. But, I mean, they, they obviously wanted to move on in terms of the wording, look, Justin Tucker has attorneys. You know, if you call it a football decision, teams have coverage, right? I mean, the NFL doesn’t have guaranteed deals. You know, were they? Was that done to cover them in the possibility of any kind of a grievance, you know where
Nestor Aparicio 28:49
Well, the fact that the issue that the press release is issued as I mean, how many press releases ever have they said, we’ve caught a guy because of football? We want to make sure it was because of football, because it was only because of football. Every cut they’ve ever made been about football, right? I mean, but they specified it because clearly, Justin Tucker has lawyers going after the banner going out. I mean, that’s the thing, right? The issue here is 10 fold for them, and they’re swept up in it. After Ray Rice, they drafted this kid, Mike Green, they can’t get us to stop talking about their bad behavior, because they have positioned themselves through their Johnny Bravo and Michelle Andres and ravens.com as the perfect organization, and they have standards, and they’re zero, they’re of the community, and they’re just like you, and they’re Yeah, like all of that, that they’re running a different road kind of operation out there that I’m aware of, that, including kicking people like me out, which is just on it’s unheard of, but they’ve done this. I’ve seen the people who manage it. Sashi Brown is. Not popular anywhere, really. He’s got a job for life. Chad steals got a job for life. The owners checked out. The owner has no accountability at all in any of this, and the coach will lie and run from it, and the general manager, when’s the next time Eric the cost is going to get in front of the media? Is that August? When does that happen next, after final cuts and the lead Eric da Costa gets to hide from May 5 until August 28 before he has to comment on Justin Tucker. That’s disgraceful, Eric, You’re a disgrace. And if anybody sees you, I want to tell you that all of it, that the fact that they as an organization that used to recruit the community. I wrote a book. I got purple rain, one with David Modell. The first thing the coach was supposed to do is recruit the community that they they are going to run from all of this and hide from all of this and deflect from all of this, because their legal departments telling them that, and this is what Chad Steele wants, is what the owner wants, is then the run from all of this. So this is, this is the running period for them. Is what I would call this the hiding period.
Luke Jones 31:09
And that’s why, you know the timing be. That’s why I thought they were going to move on from him before OTAs, you know that. And they also didn’t want the image of Justin Tucker taking the practice field for them again. I suppose that. I suppose that was a big I guess the thing that, and look that acknowledging everything you just said, the thing that’s just curious to me is you repeatedly deferred to the NFL investigation, whether any, regardless of what any individual thinks about the NFL conducting an invest investigation. It’s still occurring. We don’t know when it’ll be completed. We don’t know exactly what they’ll put out about it, other than assuming Justin Tucker is going to have some semblance of a suspension, you know, I assuming he’s not, they’re not going to find evidence that completely exonerates him or anything. Oh, do they find evidence that convicts him? Though, sure, but, but my, but, the point I’m trying to make is they deferred to that repeatedly. You know, whether it was the combine, the pre draft press conference, our ball speaking at the owners at the owners meetings, you know, in late March. So why did it change? You know, you kept saying you were going to wait for the NFL to play out its investigation, but then when you draft his replacement, you say it’s a football decision, you know, I guess I’m just, you could have said it was going to be a football decision all along. You know, even, even after that came out and said, look, I mean, we’re, we’re looking at kickers anyway. I mean, you guys asked about the possibility of Justin Tucker having competition against him. So, so that’s the part, I think is interesting, but also understanding the reality of, we know it’s not a football decision, you know? I mean, I don’t, I’m not excusing them for that, but I also understand why they’re why any team would hide behind that, because Justin Tucker has attorneys, and who knows what potential grievance could be fired if, if you would say that it’s because of that yet you haven’t allowed an investigation that you said you were going to allow play out, and then you don’t let it play out. So I don’t know. I mean, it’s
Nestor Aparicio 33:18
well this, it goes back to what they say and what they do, they’re sure, unbelievably dastardly. I’ve called them sleazy. Sleazy is the word I would use, and I’ve gone through the definitions of what sleazy is. Sleazy is the exact word. It’s the perfect word for how the Baltimore Ravens operate. To say that we’re not down with women being abused here. We don’t want that, but we’re going to cut them for football reason, but we’re not going to let the investigation. We’re not gonna take any questions, and then we’re gonna draft a kid that they got himself thrown out of Virginia on a zero tolerance policy. But our power policy is not really zero it’s a little different. Well, he was different than and in the middle of all of this, I mean, it’s tone deaf, it but they can afford to be tone deaf. I mean, they they just don’t care. And once you get through the fact that they don’t care, then then you’re then you’re where you need to be ethically, logically, when you’re buying the tickets and investing your time and thinking that they have some ethics that they don’t have, they just don’t. So knowing that, you know, cheer for them, root for them. They’re the bag, and they led the league of penalties last year. You know all of that, but they’ll lie at the drop of a hat, they will, and they’ll cover it up, and they’ll send their legal department out. They’ll send that six foot eight good looking brand manager there is out in front of it. He’s never in front of anything because he doesn’t talk, but they’re not gonna have to talk for three weeks. And that’s they like it that way, that that’s so anybody ask why? So they don’t have to talk about it for three weeks, and they think you’re gonna forget about it and and almost probably by the end of the month, that this investigation will become whatever public the NFL. Is going to release on this is going to be a joke, but whatever it’s going to be, it’s either going to check the box of pass fail as far as what he did or didn’t do, and whether you know the negotiation of a four game or six game suspension, and whether he can work again in the league, and where that’s going to be, it’s fascinating, it’s unprecedented, and the Ravens want to run from it, and they’re going to, and they’re going to, and when you ask a question about it, they’re going to say, he doesn’t work here anymore. I’ve already gotten that answer for them, right? That’s easy for them. They will never speak about this again, right? Unless they get dragged into court, and that’ll never happen, right?
Luke Jones 35:38
Yeah. I mean, look at will. They wish him, well, something along those lines. But yeah, to address any anything real about it, yeah, they’re done
Nestor Aparicio 35:48
answering questions. That’s why they cut him last Monday, so they wouldn’t have to answer any questions, and they can say he doesn’t work here anymore. That’s the reason. And
Luke Jones 35:56
like I said, like I said, I had opine that, you know, I had noted, I had noticed that their first OTA opened the media, which is the next time that they have a scheduled media availability where reporters will be out. There was, what, three days after two days after Memorial Day. So that’s why I had opined that maybe that Friday, and then come, come to think about it more. Well, the sooner you do it, the more dead time there is. And
Nestor Aparicio 36:25
you had said something in the segment last week. Well, if they come to many time in the next three weeks, you said, you know, you you had given that they won’t have to have a press like and they did it, yeah, five o’clock the next day, 501,
Luke Jones 36:37
yeah. So you know, and and the truth
Nestor Aparicio 36:41
was their strategy, and now we’re trying to get the rationale.
Luke Jones 36:44
And the truth is, in their minds, a lot of people will move on from from that point in time. And, I mean, there’s no question about it. I mean, it’s the NFL, right? And we’ve talked about it. We all know the NFL is gross, like as an entire entity. We’ve seen that over and over, yet, it’s the most popular form of entertainment, short of Taylor Swift in this country, you know, like, I mean, that’s what you’re talking about here. So, you know, it’s going to go on. And for a lot of people, you know, I’ve even, I’ve had these conversations, not necessarily even about Justin Tucker, just, you know, entertainment, you know, we’ve talked about it, how they’re bad characters. I mean, there’s bad characters I mean, there’s bad characters everywhere, right? I mean, the world’s not a perfect place. None of us are perfect on some level, right? We all have our flaws. But you know what? When these types of things happen, whether it’s football, whether it’s move the movie industry, whether it’s music, you know, go through the list, you know, there is that trying to separate the art from the artist, so to speak, you know, because, you know, there might be a musician that you don’t think of very much as a human being, but you really love their music, or an actor, or obviously athletes as we, you know, are talking about Justin Tucker, specifically here Talking about the fact that Justin Tucker was very much beloved in this community by a lot of people. I mean, you know, you make the kick to send the team to the AFC Championship as a rookie in double overtime, and everything that happened after that, you know, the opera commercials, the fact that he was the best, most accurate kicker in NFL history. He was the last player left from their last Super Bowl team. So I get all that, but yeah, you that when you’re talking about being a consumer, when you’re talking about free market and capitalism and just how dirty that can be, you know, you do have to make a decision as a consumer, as a fan, as a watcher of movies as a patron, and you kind of have to make a decision what’s going to be okay for you. And I can’t sit here and tell anyone what, what that threshold needs to be. You know, I have private thoughts about individuals or entities out there, but I also understand, like regardless. I mean, the NFL is wildly popular. You know, I’ve talked about this a lot. I hate that the NFL plays games on Christmas, personally speaking, but I also understand that plenty of people don’t even celebrate Christmas, and the ones who do still want to watch football, and I respect that, right? But at the same time, all things being equal, if, if I weren’t covering the NFL for a living, would I be sitting there watching three full games on Christmas Day, not saying I wouldn’t have it on in the background, maybe at some point, but I’m going to be way more interested in playing with my nieces and their new toys that they got from Santa Claus that morning. You know, like that. So we all have things that we prioritize. We all have things that we value. We all have things that we would consider to be deal breakers or things that we say. You know what? I don’t really like that, but I still love going to games. I still love the team. I may not love that player, or I may not love the way the organization handles that element of things, but I still enjoy it because I love going with my dad or my. Brother or my sister or my grandmother, you know, taught me everything I know about baseball or football or whatever. So, you know that’s these are the decisions, and these are the things that we all have to weigh, and that’s not to make it. It’d be a cop out for when an organization has missteps and doesn’t do things well, or when a player has shameful behavior off the field, but people are going to feel a certain way about it. And even if they feel a certain way about it, it doesn’t mean that they’re necessarily going to stop watching. You know, I suspect the Ravens consider all of that, or any organization is going to consider all that and say, what’s the path of least resistance here, in terms of business standpoint? I mean, ultimately, it’s a business at the end of the day, and they moved on from Justin Tucker, you and I don’t have to agree or like, how they handled elements of it, but is that going to drastically,
Nestor Aparicio 40:57
I think, is they think it’s done right now, and they want it to be done. It shouldn’t be done. It shouldn’t from a from a journalism standpoint, it shouldn’t be done. There are a lot of questions that that they should have to answer for as an organization through this, that’s fine,
Luke Jones 41:10
and then that’s fine. I, I don’t disagree with you, but at the same time, there are also a lot of people out there that will think it’s done. You know, it’s our wealth,
Nestor Aparicio 41:18
misogyny, just all, you know, predatory, just all the way I understand all of this is gross. I
Luke Jones 41:25
do not disagree. You know, the there’s certainly questions I have just like you. But at the same time, the machines going to go on, you know, the NFL is going to put out their schedule and their bleak games. And Wednesday, I mean, what other what other league I mean, baseball puts out their schedule randomly on, like, a Wednesday afternoon in August. You know what? I mean? Like, there’s no announcement. They just put it out. Whereas the league has, has now the system where they bread crumb, you know, the the schedule for four days leading into the release and and people eat it up. I like, that sounds silly to me. Like, to me, it’s like, we know the 17 games. Just put it out. Like, I want to know, just for planning purposes, but I’m not, like, on the edge of my seat, like, Oh my gosh. Like, what Sunday night game? Or, like, just put it out. They’re gonna get, they’re gonna get five prime time games, or six Prime Time games, because of the ravens are one of the best teams in the league. They got the two of the, you know, one of the best two or three quarterbacks in football year in and year out. So they’re going to have that but, but for a lot of people, I mean, this week is like, it’s a 10 in terms of how excited they are about the schedule release and, and I don’t say that to kill anyone’s joy, to be clear, but that’s the NFL. That’s what, in terms of what you mentioned, as far as accountability and questions and disdain that you might feel for how things are handled, what they’re what you’re up against, or what anyone’s up against with those feelings, what they’re up against is just the insatiable enthusiasm and and just how pop, wildly popular the NFL is that, yeah, they can get away with not handling things well, when things of this nature come up and and, you know, calling a spade a spade, not needing to have a whole lot of accountability, quite frankly, whether that’s right,
Nestor Aparicio 43:15
that’s how he got away with it to begin with, sure, yeah, yeah, that’s how, that’s how they all get away with it. Luke Jones is here. He is here. He is Baltimore, Luke, he’s not getting away with it. We’re gonna make him cover football, even in the off season, whether he wants to or not. Schedule, schedule, schedule. Wednesday night we’ll be here. You’ll get it first on the wnst tech service. All that brought to you by Bill Cole and Cole roofing and Gordian energy, who I’m be traveling with this week. We’re heading west after Las Vegas. Will be doing the show from the pool at the Encore in Las Vegas. It is the Maryland party. You can look it up, the Maryland party.com, pretty cool business event for lots and lots folks. A lot of business gets done. A lot of things happen out in Vegas. We’ll be coming back on the 28th we’ll be at Faith lease for the first time since opening day week. The Cardinals will be in town. The Orioles will still be below 500 at that point. I don’t know if there’ll be a point where there’ll be over 500 if they are, we’re going to have some really happy radio here. The next couple of weeks, they’re going to go 10 games over 500 to get to that point before the all star break. But the Luke and I are watching baseball, monitoring football, waiting on the schedule, waiting on Memorial Day. We are W, N, S T am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We never stop talking Baltimore positive, even when it’s not so positive you.
