Longtime Indianapolis sportswriter Bob Kravitz joins Nestor from the friendly heart of the midwest with an update on the progress of the team that once left Baltimore. So how is Jim Irsay doing these days with an injured rookie quarterback? The Ravens will find out on Sunday at 1 p.m.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
year, colts, baltimore, peyton, indianapolis, lamar, bob kravitz, jim, write, bob, quarterback, ravens, euston, jonathan taylor, team, good, playing, franchise, thought, peyton manning
SPEAKERS
Bob Kravitz, Nestor Aparicio
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
Welcome back, W N st Towson, Baltimore. And Baltimore positive happy code sweet to all of you out there. We’re gonna be at Coco’s eating a delicious graphic not far from Memorial Stadium I might add. The Maryland lottery puts on our Maryland crab cake tour. I’ll be giving away the scratch offs. We get some lucky winners a fade. Lee’s last week as well will be a Coco’s from two of the five on Thursday in preparation for all things colts as we shape we’re not a nacho Mama’s he still have cold signs up there and all that stuff. Our friends are weathernation also put it on at 866 90 nation and our newest sponsor Jiffy Lube. I’ll be telling you more about those oil changes. You’ll find them up at the website as we drive into Jiffy Lube. MultiCare for an oil change, just minutes. We have some great sponsors. Great stuff we’re sick is going to be with us on Thursday. I thought I had John Morgan joining us but Max Weiss is going to ride shotgun for Baltimore magazine as well. Speaking of magazines, this guy was the newspaper guy. Column. This guy I like to say I make column nests off of columnists like this guy out in Indianapolis. I’ve gotten to know him over the last couple of decades through Peyton Manning and Chuck Pagano and shimmers say and Pete Ward and all things Indianapolis, I returned the Colts back to Baltimore, where they once called at home this is my belt buckle. Bob Kravitz. I got my belt buckle out for you. How are you, man? And how’s your How’s their football team looking to come into here this week and try to do a little damage to the Ravens man. Well, I
Bob Kravitz 01:27
think I’m doing better on the football team. Now they’re coming off a win, you know, a decisive win over Euston where they played extraordinarily well. You know, they lost Anthony Richardson to the concussion and Gardner Minshew comes in and doesn’t miss a beat. But I don’t this is not a good football team. I mean, they just they really are not. I think we found out just how bad Euston is, I think Euston in Indianapolis to be fighting it out for for one of the top you know two three picks next year. Colts desperately want Marvin Harrison Jr. Believe me. So, you know they’re they’re a really young team. We don’t know the status of Anthony Richardson yet. We’ll find out more hopefully today at at practice when we talk to Shane Steichen, but he’s in the protocol and we’ll we’ll just kind of go day by day.
Nestor Aparicio 02:28
Bob’s been to Indianapolis sports from back when you know, Jim Harbaugh was there even before that, I believe When did you arrive on the scene? Weren’t you?
Bob Kravitz 02:37
Yeah, I was in Denver. I got there in 2000. So I’m I’m post Harbaugh. I’m when I got there.
Nestor Aparicio 02:44
Manning had just gotten there. 99 had gotten
Bob Kravitz 02:46
there and 98. I got there in 2000. And clearly my arrival was more Harold and then Peyton’s.
Nestor Aparicio 02:54
Well, I mean, you sort of flew into this thing, 16 years after the team moved and all that we still have people here with tremendous angst, you know, overall of that right and, and I feel it out in Cleveland with the modell thing all the time, but just from a football perspective, and where the franchise is there as far as being settled in and it’s the only thing y’all know, out there in Indiana. And what’s the real prospect with Jim there and the next thing I mean, the Andrew Luck thing for that franchise was really, like a devastating difference making kind of thing that they’ve fallen and they’ve really had a hard time getting up after that.
Bob Kravitz 03:36
Yeah, I mean, it altered the trajectory of the franchise for many years. I mean, with Anthony Richardson starting the opener that made seven straight years where they started a new a new quarterback. So you know, they, they tried to bandaid this thing with the likes of Matt Ryan and Carson Wentz. They really thought Carson Wentz was going to be the dude. I mean, they really did. They thought he would be here for quite some time because Philadelphia by the way. Yeah, exactly. So did Washington. So that didn’t work out and Carson is currently playing golf at my golf course, down the street and working out quite a bit trying to stay ready. But yeah, it changed the trajectory of the of the franchise. They, you know, they got to the AFC Championship Game, the Deflate Gate year, it looked like things were were on solid ground, they were building towards something and then he gets started getting hurt. He retired and they have been wandering the desert ever since.
Nestor Aparicio 04:48
You know Lamar hit the streets back in spring for a little while you were one of the few people I reached to because it didn’t feel like Miami or Tampa or Atlanta or Newmar Nobody was kicking the tire on him right? Fascinating after the sweepstakes for Deshaun Watson last year where teams shame themselves last Matt Ryan who by the way was pretty good on the broadcast the other day we had him and Tiki Bar doing a game for colts and Lamar and I talked to you about this I think you were my only sort of call back then to say really, maybe whatever. And I thought what the Ravens want to swap that out and have Anthony Richardson in here on a rookie deal and with the Colts really want to go 52 million large into somebody like Lamar the Colts went about it a different way right I mean, the Colts as an organization striker in the general manager RC got to be in on that said now we’re gonna go the young quarterback. The Ravens went that way and jettison Flacco not knowing what Lamar was gonna be. Nobody wanted Lamar once. Nobody wanted Lamar twice. And Lars to win Oh, again.
Bob Kravitz 05:56
Right, exactly. No, they love that. I think they did their due diligence on Lamar thing. But, you know, I mean, the this really it’s almost collusive, the way that the owners just sort of unilaterally decided that one of the best players in the league wasn’t worth a guaranteed contract. You know, meanwhile, Deshaun is getting, you know, whatever he got, and it’s, it’s all guaranteed. I just think it’s the same thing with the Jonathan Taylor thing. I think Jim Irsay doesn’t want to go to cocktail parties and get the side eye from the fellow owners for overpaying for Jonathan Taylor. I think the same situation existed with Lamar Jackson, they don’t want to pay that big guaranteed money for you know, even the top players. So I thought that Lamar was a really good option for them. But that’s why I’m not the general manager. And it’s been he’s been really good. He’s been really he hadn’t played a lot, but he’s been really good. Well, let’s
Nestor Aparicio 07:06
talk about that. Because I don’t know we’re gonna see the kid this week and obviously, protocol and all of that stuff, but for being bullish on a player as much as you can be through a training camp, from the minute he showed up, got off the bus back in April, right. I mean, there was a little bit of a love affair not just with you, but with anybody that was watching practice and saying he might be a dude. Yeah,
Bob Kravitz 07:29
yeah, he very well might be, you know, the first couple of games or the first game they had no running attack. So Jacksonville was playing to deep shell safeties were way back they, he basically just DINGTONE dunk, but he looked pretty good in the process. And then he was having a breakout game and the first quarter against Euston ran for two touchdowns, then took that hit and got concussed. And that’s the big issue. That’s the big story here, as I’m sure it’s been in Baltimore, you know, what do you do with a running quarterback or a quarterback who’s capable of running in terms of him, him protecting himself? And I don’t think Anthony quite figured out just yet how to protect himself from those big hits as he was going in to the endzone the other day against usin. He throttled down just a little bit as he approached the endzone and he got walloped. So, he’s gonna learn he has learned. But, you know, he’s, he needs to be available, man. I mean, otherwise, you know, Gardner Minshew has a hell of a backup Believe me, I I think they can still win games with Gardner Minshew. But this kid’s the future and he’s got to take care of himself before anything else.
Nestor Aparicio 08:54
What do you make of the administration there and the changes because to your point, seven quarterbacks, but three head coaches now maybe four head coaches, I mean, that the Saturday experiment mean, they’ve suffered a little weird chimps? Yeah, well, it’s been a little weird being out there covering the team for you.
Bob Kravitz 09:12
Oh, last year was a complete clown show, dude. I mean, Jim or say, first, Jim, Irsay decides he doesn’t want Carson Wentz anymore. And so they go out and get Matt, you know, the, the the remains of Matt Ryan. And then he decides in the middle of the season, or early in the season, I should say, to bring in Jeff Saturday and say I don’t want I don’t want somebody with experience. Well, you know, because that brings fear experience and I like Jim kind of lost his mind a little bit last year. He was very, very involved. Jim is usually a hands on owner without being overly involved. Last year for whatever reason he got too involved and made moves that were not that Chris Ballard and Pete Ward and those guys were not on board with. They were not on board with the Jeff Saturday hiring and for very good reason.
Nestor Aparicio 10:13
Well, Bob Kravitz is with us the Colts are coming back to Baltimore, which makes me good I had to Salford Tom McCafferty. Well, the other McCafferty over at the Beaumont, who was the grandson of that McCaffrey from the 70s Absolutely, man, we put Baltimore people we all stick together around here. And especially if you go over to Nacho Mama’s, you’ll find pieces of the goalposts and some of the remaining stuff that’s gonna You didn’t steal from 33rd Street. So if it’s called sweep here, and the earth say name of being up and all that, but really Peyton Manning has been what the horseshoes all about. You covered him from the beginning sort of kind of and all the years and the amount of star power he and his brother and this Monday night football thing, and sort of the wackiness of it all. Does it shock you that Peyton wants to be in the media and hands on?
Bob Kravitz 11:06
A little bit, I thought that when he retired, he’d be looking for ownership or working in the front office of an NFL team. I am a little surprised he’s gone the route he has been I’m thrilled for him. And I think I think he’s just enjoying the hell out of it. I mean, just go
Nestor Aparicio 11:25
on the fun route, right? Like literally when I look at it. It’s like, it doesn’t look like he wants to own a team. And he’s Peyton Manning. So maybe one day they would let them own a team or we’re like Bon Jovi or whatever, right. But, but in the meantime, he doesn’t look like he wants to do anything serious. I mean, and it’s like playing off of those TV commercials. And he has this brand that I hate the Colts right I hate like I hate it right. everything you love about Peyton Manning, I can tell them not what Peyton Manning
Bob Kravitz 11:52
right and he’s, yeah, I love them. The other day was halftime, Van Pelt had him on to talk about the jets after Aaron Rodgers went down. He was asked, What can the Jets do? He goes? I don’t know. I don’t know they can do anything with Zack Wilson. So no, he’s, he is having a great time. Every time I speak to him, he’s got another project in the works. He’s doing the quarterbacks thing and now we need some people to you know, agree to do it. But yeah, he’s he’s having a good old time. He’s playing golf. He’s got his family out in Denver and life is good.
Nestor Aparicio 12:41
Every time I talk to Stokely they’re, you know, hanging out and doing random always just to house to pay and Bill is the house that he lives in, out there. So Bob Kravitz is here. I could find Stokely this week. I’m gonna talk some cold stuff here. You get the culture no chance of winning this week in Baltimore.
Bob Kravitz 12:55
No, no, not at all. I mean, no. You know, I mean, look, Gardner Minshew can make it competitive, I really believe that they have a good defensive line. The offensive line seems to have found it’s found itself after giving up 60 sacks last year. But you know, they haven’t given up any sacks in the first two games, I would suggest that that’s, that’s a little streak is going to end against Baltimore.
Nestor Aparicio 13:20
So what are you doing? You’ve been a columnist, television, you’ve been all your own substack now, give everybody the word because anybody wants to know what’s going on Indiana. They gotta they gotta follow you, man. Okay, well,
Bob Kravitz 13:32
you can read me and subscribe to me. It’s cheap. At Bob kravitz.substack.com and it’s a self publishing app platform, whatever. And basically, I write what I want when I want how I want it’s you know, it’s not doesn’t pay like the athletic I’ll tell you, but if people want to come on and subscribe or or I occasionally put out free stuff. But if you’re really into the Colts, for example, I write constantly about them. They’re they’re my number one subject, even when they’re playing poorly. So yeah, Bob kravitz.substack.com. I’m also writing for Indianapolis monthly magazine. So stay in busy.
Nestor Aparicio 14:20
Well, I’ll tell you what, I got Max Weiss coming out from the magazine business. Do you have anything you want to say about journalism at this point? You know, I’ve written at length in regard to my treatment from the teams and the Orioles are back on top of the world here again in the stadiums kind of half empty. You know, the Ravens can’t give their tickets away. Bob, I had a fascinating thing happened this week, because you know, I would have been in Cincinnati. I was there for 25 years. Bengals won’t let me in. I don’t go to Cincinnati. Turns out the kicks of the Baltimore Beatles basically had their farewell concert, so I had a chance to go and do other things. Then be at the Cincinnati Westin and getting the $7 coffee in the morning and walking across the bridge and eaten it Jelly and beer, flatulent after that and whatever. But but but part of it for me is watching what these teams are doing in regard to having press conferences with nothing but team employees that at the Colts wanted to hire you and make you their columnist now you worked for Jim, it looks like you’re Bob and but you’re really not Bob anymore. You’re Bob light, because you have to be because you work for the team or you work for nfl.com. Or even if you work for ESPN, or you’re at any of these places. I see very, very few of us left the independents is a Niedermeyer would say up on the porch, an animal house.
Bob Kravitz 15:35
I agree. And it’s, you know, I think that columnists have have taken it have been victimized in some ways. I mean, in the old days, every newspaper had two strong colonists that seemed like, now you’re lucky if you have one. And I think we’ve become so caught up in the analytics of it, that we’ve forgotten what we’re supposed to be doing. Everything. You know, it’s not enough to write a good story anymore. Now it’s got to sell. And that that to me, that’s problematic for me. You know, there were a lot of times where I wanted to cover a woman’s basketball game at down at IU. They’re a really good team. Now, you know, won’t get us any numbers. Well, shit. I mean, excuse me. Yeah, it’s not. That’s not what we do. That’s not what we do. And so I think the fact that the business is struggling as it is that we become too reliant on stuff that will bring eyeballs, and I realized that’s the idea behind doing what we do. But every once in a while, I think you need to write a good story that maybe isn’t going to bring a massive amount of subscriptions or eyeballs.
Nestor Aparicio 16:59
Well, the business is changing, obviously. And I got to go see kicks, and I’m watching from the outset. The other part about this Bob and I wrote the shotty and I wrote the hardball, and Eric d’acosta knows he’s getting his steamer soon, too. But I would say this, the fact that you would criticize Peyton, after a three interception game that they lost to the Steelers on a Monday night, bad beat whatever losing Super Bowls, losing playoff games, criticism that you level fairly, that you then have to go and talk to Peyton, you have to be in the locker room, there’s a part of the cowardly nature of him throwing me out. That seems to me to be a little perverse after all these years that I never had a problem writing about a player or a coach the organization because I’ve been doing it for three decades as you have been doing it with integrity, honesty, fairness, accountability, and showing up and showing up. And that that’s really the weird part for me is not being able to show face after I write because I’m always proud of what I do.
Bob Kravitz 18:05
Right, right. Ya know, the funny thing with Peyton and not to change the subject, but you know, when in 2011, I wrote that they needed to move on from Peyton and go to Andrew Luck. And he never held it against me. We’ve even talked about like, I’m surprised you still talk to me. You know, and he’s always been perfectly I’ve always been available and talkative and a great interviewer, even though what I wrote probably wasn’t real popular in the Manning household back in 2011, but I felt like look, you didn’t know if he could throw it from here to you know, they’re you. They owed him $28 million. You had Andrew lock available. It was the first pick in the draft. To me it was an absolute no brainer. And on this I completely agree with Jim or say, which is not a normal thing. But I agree with Jim that it was time to move on. And a lot of people around here have never forgiven Jim for letting Peyton go. I thought it was the right move. But kind of getting back to what we’re saying. Well,
Nestor Aparicio 19:15
Peyton hold it against you as the greatest thing ever happened. And yeah, he never held it
Bob Kravitz 19:19
against me. Never one time. At the end of the year I saw him he said, Hey, it’s Andrew luck’s agent. So I said what’s 0% of 100 million? I mean, I’m not getting anything out of that. But, you know, I looked there was an edge to it. But again, he never, he never mentioned it. It never seemed to bother him. And I think that’s because, like you we’ve been in these in these markets for a long time. We’ve said good things. We’ve said negative things. And I think they understand that that’s our job and that we do it, hopefully with a modicum of integrity. Yeah, my
Nestor Aparicio 19:59
letter To be shot he closed with the first thing that art modell ever said to me are modell brought me into his office up at the top of the Signet tower in downtown Baltimore. They I don’t think they barely had the name ravens at that point they were just trying to sell tickets. He had this carpet in his office and I went in, and he’s and he was still doing well at that time. And he said, Young man, never be afraid to criticize me. If all you do is praise me and they’ll never believe a word you say.
Bob Kravitz 20:29
I I had art in Cleveland. He was great. He was a guy who got too involved now. He got way too involved in with the day to day stuff.
Nestor Aparicio 20:41
That was the business. It was his only business then 40 years.
Bob Kravitz 20:44
Right, right. Absolutely. But yeah, it
Nestor Aparicio 20:47
was the Daniel Snyder Oh, that’s another story only has one business right? But to other than his autographs in the Rockstar stuff that he loves. Right? That it’s his passion and and mental health awareness. Other than that, you know, the fact that the Colts are gonna stink this year, and you know it, and he knows it. That bothers Jim. Right?
Bob Kravitz 21:08
I think it does. But I think at the same time, he’s thrilled that they’re finally off the quarterback carousel. Now. Now the big story here in Indy, is can this kid stay healthy? And it’s weird because he’s never had injury problems. He’s six, four to 44. He’s a freaking tank. And yet, he’s he’s been knocked out of both games that he’s played in. So that’s the big concern here in Indy, is Can Can a running quarterback stay healthy over the long term. And again, it’s it’s much like what you have in Baltimore with Lamar,
Nestor Aparicio 21:47
Bob, they gave the kid $200 million and 50 million guaranteed he hasn’t played a game in December and three years, let alone February. So, but I say that out loud. They take my press pass. Bob Kravitz is here. He’s out on substack. He’s out in Indianapolis. They used to play here in Baltimore. There, there used to be a little barn over 33rd Street. Bob, are you coming in for the game? Or do you are you television?
Bob Kravitz 22:11
I’m just building this, this substack business up. And so I don’t have the wherewithal to make that happen. But hopefully, hopefully next year, the year after that, when we’re all built up or making lots of cash. I’d love to come out to Baltimore and get me some crabs.
Nestor Aparicio 22:30
Well, I’ll get you a crab cake. You never pay for a crab cake in this town crab. It’s I’ll tell you that, especially after you gave me that recommendation for that pizza joint in Indianapolis around the corner where Rick machi Harris was on the wall and they brought me pizza as big as me so they took care of me in Indianapolis, and I missed the combine. I don’t get to come in anymore for any
Bob Kravitz 22:48
man. Yeah, you gotta go to prime 47.
Nestor Aparicio 22:51 Yeah, after after midnight. I know. That’s where all the deals get done. Bob, take care of yourself. It’s always good to talking to Manning, talking some Indianapolis talks versus a colts as well as talking some Gardner Minshew this week. We’re gonna be Coco’s on Thursday doing the Maryland crab cake Tour presented by the Maryland lottery conjunction with our friends when their nation as well as Jiffy Lube. We got new sponsors around you our 25th anniversary the cupcake out in front all brought to you by curio wellness and our friends at father and daughter habits of cannabis education around your Baltimore positive as well as some some memories from the barn and bringing Tony Sarah Goosen Jim Harbaugh and these old colts out back in the late 90s and purple Barney outfits But things turned out okay here so number 24. And the 25 countdown are purple live shows you’ll find all that and more. I am Nestor. We are wn St. am 1570, Towson Baltimore and we never stop talking. Baltimore positive even with Andy Mueller’s new voice doing the liners!
