The bright shiny object of OBJ in purple

Nestor Aparicio and Dennis Koulatsos discuss the newest toy in the offense of new coordinator Todd Monken and how Odell Beckham Jr. has taken the spotlight off Lamar Jackson, if only for a minute. But is it really one less need on NFL draft night for the Ravens?

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

lamar jackson, elias, lamar, years, people, money, play, ravens, odell beckham, agent, baltimore, question, steve, felt, week, quarterback, book, throw, talking, peter

SPEAKERS

Nestor Aparicio, Dennis Koulatsos

Dennis Koulatsos  00:01

Welcome back. My next guest is Nestor, J aparece. Here here always bringing the heat and the noise and all the good news here at 1570 Am wn St. Nestor. Welcome in.

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00:11

Hey, how are you?

Dennis Koulatsos  00:12

Doing? Fantastic. How about you? In the air and great weather here in Baltimore got crabcakes we got baseball, all kinds of great stuff happening.

Nestor Aparicio  00:20

Well, sort of a weird time of the year. Right. I mean, we’re waiting on the draft. It’s been the weirdest ravens offseason since Ray Rice. I mean, at the very least, right, we could say that. And the obj thing happens, and we still have no clue on Lamar. I mean, I sense that the ravens are not in any way, motivated to give him more than 32 point, whatever that was. And the Lamar things sort of back burnered Right. They’re gonna welcome Odell Beckham to town. They’re not gonna have any questions about Lamar, because we can’t have that. How the hell are they gonna have a press conference? I mean, I’m just, I’m being honest with you.

Dennis Koulatsos  00:59

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They’re gonna, you know, based on the last press conference, they had the one you had named many years ago, the liars luncheon. Maybe they’ll qualify the questions again, they’ll tell the press. Look, you can ask anything you want, as long as not about the quarterback position, and Lamar Jackson. So looking forward to see what the rhetoric is going to be today?

Nestor Aparicio  01:18

Well, I mean, there’s rhetoric, and then there’s the reality, right? The reality is this kid’s pinch now, and that’s to go play for $32 million a year after we told him not to play for $23 million, right, like so. As days go by, and the amazing thing about this, and I keep going back to this, and I sort of realized this at some point three, four weeks ago, when you know, when you’ve already bought the ticket, and you’re inside and you realize, oh, I got taken advantage of I bought the buffet and you know, I didn’t get and there’s an upcharge or whatever the deal would be. But in the case of Lamar Jackson, not having an agent, not having this plotted out, not having someone professional next day. He won the MVP a couple of years ago, so did he’d have 120 million in the bank already, and he’d be where Rivas was, or were Sam Bradford was there any of the quite frankly, were Odell Beckham Jr. is, which is getting fresh money every year off of a reputation from three years ago, which the National Football League is willing to do. I mean, Eric Acosta and Steve shot he gave this guy $15 million when no one else was everybody else was wait and see. And we’ll see let’s wait for the draft. This kind of an astonishing decision this week. And if this guy doesn’t catch 80 balls, and they’re not playing ball in January, then why did they spend $50 million on it?

Dennis Koulatsos  02:37

Because he knows Todd Monken is offense from 2019. When he had a great year, great season, he caught 1000 yards worth of balls, right? Great Year in 2019.

Nestor Aparicio  02:46

It was a plague and two back in, you know injuries ago And

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Dennis Koulatsos  02:54

what’s fascinating to me is I have friends of mine who were like, well, you know, the, the outfox the Jets. And also, Beckham says a condition of him coming to Baltimore, or that Lamar Jackson would be his quarterback. That’s ridiculous. The Jets. Were sniffing around, they weren’t going to pay him 15 million guaranteed. He came to Baltimore, he’s coming to Baltimore because of one thing. Money. I don’t think he cares who the quarterback is now. He may be tweeting out on social media. He may be hugging Lamar Jackson. But you know what? There are 15 million reasons why Odell Beckham Jr. came to Baltimore and nothing else.

Nestor Aparicio  03:30

And what what? What about the shotty getting on the phone with him make make this happen? I mean, like I I cannot fathom these larger than life personalities that Harbaugh’s never really wanted a part of,

Dennis Koulatsos  03:46

but I don’t think he needed to 15 minutes hours we’ve got the man’s attention. Listen, Odell Beckham, I’m his agent. You can play with Aaron Rodgers, you know, in New York for 4 million a year or maybe 5 million a year or you go to Baltimore regardless of who the quarterback is and make 15 million I don’t know about you but I

Nestor Aparicio  04:04

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do this deal because they had to is this really get Lamar to play for 32 million?

Dennis Koulatsos  04:11

It may get him look he’s a unique guy. He it may get them to show up about that. It may get him to show up in September maybe this is fascinating stuff best they have what OTAs the 17th of the month I mean, come on. It’s a few days away from now. You got the draft coming up? I think we may have some clarity here going forward. Maybe maybe not I

Nestor Aparicio  04:32

don’t know. But while I’m waiting on the wn St. texts from critics Baltimore for Luke to you know, like de papel smoke, you know what I mean? I’m waiting for whatever to happen. Okay. Certainly was not. I been waiting

Dennis Koulatsos  04:45

for two years we’ve been waiting for is the smoke to the need to refresh the smoke box. I mean, there’s there’s a has a damp right will actually work or we’re going to get more of the sameness.

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Nestor Aparicio  04:56

I’ve been doing this a long time. I just I don’t really Understand what the Ravens were doing with this, you know, I mean, if this is if they’re trying to kiss the kids and make him play football they can pay him money, right? Like it Do they really love Lamar, because he hasn’t felt what to you and me. Like they love Lamar, like

Dennis Koulatsos  05:17

but why but why leaked out the stupid shoddy angle for what? For what reason?

Nestor Aparicio  05:21

I don’t know. That was Odell Beckham and leaked that out. Now he leaked that to Josefina Anderson. Oh god. Justin Anderson is not talking to Steve shotty she’s talking Odell Beckham.

Dennis Koulatsos  05:31

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Gotcha. So Steven, quiet all along. Still. Nothing from Steve

Nestor Aparicio  05:35

was not going to be anything from Steve, if you met his PR director.

Dennis Koulatsos  05:39

I’m not promising the way to you. That’s enough for me. Well,

Nestor Aparicio  05:42

you see the whole room.

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Dennis Koulatsos  05:44

I don’t need to meet him. I don’t need to meet him. I just don’t need to meet him. How about that.

Nestor Aparicio  05:47

But if you’re asking where Steve Ashati is you have to ask. Unless you have Steve’s number, which I do and Chad didn’t realize I did. But you have to go through Chad steel to get to Steve shoddy. There’s so Steve Ashati talking is someone saying they talk to Steve Bushati. It’s not Steve talk. And in the case of Odell Beckham, Jr. What would? Why would Steve be on the phone with I just And why would John and Eric say, Steve, if we want to win the Super Bowl this year? We need Odell Beckham and 15 million. And why would Todd Monken who’s new in the building, walk down the hallway and say, Yeah, I need obj that guy is gonna wake our room up. That guy’s gonna be a difference maker. I don’t know if he can play it’s 31 years old, but he’s going to be the right guy for us. We need to invest $15 million pay him like he’s gonna catch 90 balls in this offense. i All of it’s curious, because I’m not convinced that Lamar Jackson’s ever going to throw the ball 450 times in a season. I’m not convinced that he’s ever not going to run the ball 200 times in a season for them to be successful. I’m really not I’m not convinced that he’s going to be a drop back quarterback that runs four to six times a game. I I don’t think he wants to be that guy. And I don’t think that that plays to his skill set. And I don’t think that’s his path to getting $200 million is thrown at chucking the ball around. Alright, of

Dennis Koulatsos  07:12

course, we all recall what Steve was shot, he made a statement that he’s not sure that Deshaun Watson should have been the first player in NFL history to be given a fully guaranteed contract. In that vein, I’m not so sure that Odell Beckham Jr. is the wide receiver, the Ravens should have given that kind of a contract to either, with all due respect to the handful of receivers that are still out there. But it was a splash move, it was indication that they’re willing to invest in the wide receiver room. It’s an effort to get better. It’s a high risk, high reward type of moodiness. And I also think it takes a spotlight and the heat off of the Lamar Jackson situations like they took a laser pointer, a very expensive laser pointer and shot it in the opposite direction. But none of

Nestor Aparicio  07:52

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that means anything if they feel good on the field play in September. I mean, all of this me talking and Chad Steele not talking and Jeff’s Rebeck being told he can’t ask questions. And like all of that none of that matters. They have to go out and play football in September. And what’s going to be on the field? What’s it going to look like? How’s the cake going to bake? Who’s going to be motivated? who’s actually going to be here? And how motivated is Lamar Jackson going to be probably part of this to Lamar and again, man? No offense to Lamar, but like whatever they’re pitching to Him must be pretty sophomore IQ. You know what I mean? They’re not, they’re not playing chess with him. They’re playing checkers with him because he’s playing checkers with him. I don’t think he knows that he is, right. He needs an agent to change to to Lamar, hey, we got your bright, shiny object here. This is your path to get paid, pal. We’re gonna throw the ball, we’re gonna throw everything you want to do. You’re under contract. You can’t go anywhere. So you’re indenture come on in and play for your 2 million a week and throw the ball to him. And then once you throw the ball to him, that’s how you’re gonna get you under 50 million. Because we know you don’t want to be here because you asked for a trade. So if you want to be next year, if you don’t want to be here, and you’re 26 and you want that five year $300 million deal. Oh, BJ is the guy that’s going to bring you the parade, Lamar. So come on back. You know, we didn’t give you the money. You gave him the money. So you get the money?

Dennis Koulatsos  09:10

Well, because they can I mean, they, they’ve taken advantage of him. And he’s allowed to be taken advantage of the last five years. They’ve had him on a cheap. They’ve had an MVP quarterback, a guy who had MVP seasons back in 2019. They had him on the cheap, they haven’t had to pay him. And it’s his fault, because he’s allowed that not a quarter century goat Nestor, I realize and recognize that I need to get great people around me. I need a great accountant, a great lawyer, a great doctor, right? My team people smarter than me in different fields. Lamar Jackson hadn’t recognized that his group hasn’t. The people around him haven’t recognized the need for an NFL agent. Because if he gets an agent, this whole thing comes together one way or another very quickly.

Nestor Aparicio  09:49

It would have been done. He would be enjoying his offseason, getting ready to play. He’d have an 85 or $95 million in the bank he’d be playing for A $46 million contract this year, nobody would be talking about money he would be attaboy in them for going and getting them a wide receiver like and this thing would smell better than smells.

Dennis Koulatsos  10:14

He had a brand new car it was brand new smell new look new. And now he’s driven down that road and rocks have come up and he hit the car on the side. It’s got dents and scratches and this is where we are today. And so it’s a mess. It’s a hot mess. And

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Nestor Aparicio  10:27

again, I think you’re right, it’s been in the shop two years during the playoffs. That’s the

Dennis Koulatsos  10:31

other piece too. Now whether they signed him or not whether he shows up or not. They need a capable backup. Quarterback capable beating the Cincinnati Bengals on the road because Tyler Huntley showed us he’s not the guy if he was a guy, he would have made that play on the goal line. Instead, he contributed to a 14 point swing so they still need a quarterback not named Tyler Huntley to backup Lamar Jackson or perhaps even start in the case whether Lamar is there or not in December, because like you said he hadn’t been over the last few years. Why didn’t check

Nestor Aparicio  11:01

steel felt like they needed a happy press conference. So they’re having this happy press conference with Obj. i This is almost misguided to some degree, right, like coming out with a happy face unless Lamar signed. And I’m waiting on that text. And but the obj Lamar love Hassan on Instagram, and

Dennis Koulatsos  11:21

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you just told that you just you just crashed and burned. The head coach’s press conference. You just crashed and burned and said I demanded a trade March 2, and you’re on social media having a love fest with Obj. Why is a question I have if you’re negotiating with the ravens and other NFL teams, why would you do that?

Nestor Aparicio  11:41

I guess if you

Dennis Koulatsos  11:42

and I were the agent he wouldn’t. We want to say listen, this is great for the Ravens but it doesn’t move the needle for us. Weird Moore’s law, Moore’s money. It does. It’s not impressive for Lamar Jackson’s great. You may have improved your team. And by the way, you gave him you talk about his injury. You just gave a guy a boatload of money that’s had to ACLs the Morris had one ACL so or PCL, whatever you want to call it. So what’s the difference? Why why is he going his back? Why can’t my my play that that would have? I would have I would have stuck it right back at him. I wouldn’t have used this to squeeze them for more money giving him my money. You given him my money. Thank you. So right again, this young man needs somebody other whoever’s advising him

Nestor Aparicio  12:26

saying that, but you’ve met this kid, right? And you’ve never met this kid, this kid’s got $30 million in the bank. He’s not some troubled young kid who is not thinking he just, he’s never had life experience. And he’s never had quality people around him. It’s never been allowed. And I keep going back to this thing with his mother and him that and listen, I’m from the streets of Dundalk. I don’t trust anybody either. But there comes a point where you put 12 DREW Rosenhaus is in front of you. And you find the right situation or you meet all 12 of them and you decide agents are scumbags. I don’t want any of them. And I’ve done that in my life too, right. I mean, I’ve I’ve had bad financial advisors. I’ve had bad people sell me cars back when I was a young guy, right? Like, we’ve all had bad experiences through life. But then there comes a point where you’re like, alright, because I had a bad experience with the dentist on Eastern Avenue in 1975. I’m never going to have a dentist again. Right? Like, I don’t that that is a that’s a life trap real is and what’s your 26 years old? You got $30 million. Nobody we’re talking to in this audience has as much money as Lamar Jackson. today. He’s already smarter than all of us. He’s already won life. He’s got more money than any of us. And he would say that, and he would say, I did it my way. And I’ll show you I’ll do it the other way, because he’s been doing it this way. So I don’t think there’s any dentists I want to let Can I change topics on to the Orioles? For this one. I thought about this the other day, when I did free the bird, by the way I met Mike Elias this week. So I want you to ask me about that. Because I haven’t talked about that on the air all weekend. Raskin had an event. But I met Mike Elias this weekend. I’m thinking more baseball this week, right? And thinking about because I’m watching baseball, there’s more than the Ravens because they’re not playing this week. Right? I started thinking about my feelings because I’m releasing the Peter principles next week. So if you haven’t read it, and it’s long and chunky, it’s the Peter Angelos story. It’s not first person. It’s not my story. It’s a third person. It’s after a purple rain to Adam Jones and I ran into each other and he asked me, What’s the story with the old man, he asked me that. I read the book. And I wrote a book for him. I went to Tahiti. I started to write a book in the summer 13 And my wife got cancer, and I stopped writing the book six months later, but for six months from July of 13, because the Ravens book was out until February of 14. I was immersed. I wasn’t on the radio yet. I wasn’t back on there. Radio. So the staff and all that my wife had neck cancer, we had won the Super Bowl, and we’re pimping the books, right? We’re going, we’re going to Denver to open a season. That’s why instead of open the season here, so it was 10 years ago, and Adam Jones said to me was Was Your Man hate you so much. That’s what he said to me. And he’s playing catch out on the field at Citi Field, and I’m at the All Star game. And he literally wanted me in 45 seconds. So I wrote this Peter principles for him. And I really thought about my background, and I was 37 years, 38 years old, when I did free the birds, I was a grown ass man, this was not a pig trick. This wasn’t a kid trick. This wasn’t, you know, a skit, this wasn’t me running through the streets in my underwear for the free, the birch thing was a very, very literal way of me, telling Peter angelos, you’re wrong. And I’m going to put people together to tell you that the way you’re doing things is wrong. Dennis, I was a fool, right? Like not just not about getting thrown. I don’t care about any of that. But I really thought that I could sway a nasty, angry, 75 year old, old Greek, you know, old world billionaire, to be to think about things maybe a little different civically, in regard to the city, and in regard to his children, and in regard to his legacy, and in regard to happiness, and in regard to him being able to walk the streets a hero, which is he bought the team wanting to be here when his own mind, he’s a hero, because when he talks him, when he talked about himself, he talked and he died a hero He’s eating putting a hero right now in his mind, but not in reality, right. And I thought in oh six, there could be some sort of a wake up in doing it that I could sway like, like an Ebenezer Scrooge thing like that you could like in the movies, changing man’s heart,

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Dennis Koulatsos  16:55

cuz it’s gonna save you some time.

Nestor Aparicio  16:58

I didn’t, I didn’t know you well enough, then. And I felt like I needed to do it. And I still one of the most proud things I’ve ever done is try to recruit a city did do something important, you know. And here we are. 17 years later, I’m still bagged out. They’ve made a billion dollars since then. Everybody has just given them money. And all they’ve done is taken. And they and now John boys out doing his thing parading around waving during the Pappa wave. And they’ve won nothing. And they’re 500 again this week, right? So like,

Dennis Koulatsos  17:29

at least he’s visible at least at least he’s getting out. At least you see him at the stadium. He’s schmoozing with people. At least there’s a face now with the Oreos in terms of ownership.

Nestor Aparicio  17:38

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And he’s the first words out of his mouth realize lack of accountability, but at least he’s out there. Okay.

Dennis Koulatsos  17:45

I’m trying to give him a little credit. I’m giving them a little credit.

Nestor Aparicio  17:50

TJ Brightman fist bump me the other day, and I didn’t say a word to him. But I’m gonna be out loud now about how there were 4000 people at the ballpark on Wednesday night. There were only 12,000 they announced 12,000 with grace and look more like nine or 10. But like, there is hopeless as they’ve ever been in regard to selling what they’ve got. Like, I mean, literally date they had an opening day

Dennis Koulatsos  18:12

was nice. I mean, I was part

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Nestor Aparicio  18:14

of the biggest. What are you going back?

Dennis Koulatsos  18:18

soon? I hope Yeah, I’d like to go back soon.

Nestor Aparicio  18:21

If you when I start. Then Then they’ve done the right thing. Right.

Dennis Koulatsos  18:25

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I had a great time. I like all the new changes. With the with baseball with all the new rules. I liked the players. But tell me about Mike Elias, I want to know about your meat. I don’t

Nestor Aparicio  18:34

know I but I want to bring this Angelo’s thing to look ahead. So here I was as a 38 year old man believing that I could use a radio station and 50,000 people to tell Peter and all he did was call the SWAT team who was trying to put me in jail. Right? So 17 years later, they have a billion I’ve learned my lesson, right? But my lesson in this is my lesson to you, which is you think Mr. Jackson is going to change now. He’s got $30 million in the bank. He’s right as he’s online to make 32 million more this year, the fact that he doesn’t have 150 million in the bank. That’s not his fault, that Steve’s fault for not recognizing his talents.

Dennis Koulatsos  19:12

He wants to be a billionaire. And he’s got a plan of getting there. I would think I don’t know

Nestor Aparicio  19:17

not a very good plan. According to leaving money on the table, leaving money

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Dennis Koulatsos  19:21

on the table, at the at the peak of your career is not a good strategy for becoming a billionaire. That’s what I can tell you.

Nestor Aparicio  19:30

I just don’t think that that people change much, which they say the hardest thing in the world is changing people, right? It’s changing. Once they’re comfortable. It’s hard

Dennis Koulatsos  19:39

to change yourself. But at some point, you need professionals around you. I get people all the time that come here and they’re the referrals and like okay, sell me a car and I tell them you don’t want me selling your car. I have people in the front line who know more about the car. It’s like I feel like I’m the owner of airplane company. But you don’t want me flying the plane. I have a different skill set. And that’s what I tell folks and Everybody’s got a different skill set. And so Lamar Jackson skills like

Nestor Aparicio  20:03

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Dennis doesn’t clean my teeth. He’s not he right. He’s not a dental hygienist,

Dennis Koulatsos  20:07

right. That’s not his skill set, got a different skill set. And he will probably do it if you needed to. But he doesn’t have to that that skill sets out to get paid for. So in life, we need the best professionals to take care of us. You surround yourself with your team that helps you get through life people have asked you not take away from you.

Nestor Aparicio  20:25

But I my point on the Angelus thing was it’s hard to change people. So Mike Elias,

Dennis Koulatsos  20:30

yourself, nevermind, we can’t say it yourself. But you can’t say the stubborn old Greek. I’m 59 you could have a 38 You couldn’t have changed me.

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Nestor Aparicio  20:38

Okay. I mean, I understand that. So what’s gonna change

Dennis Koulatsos  20:42

your movies? Look at the movie 300. Right. Give me your weapons. Lee and I just said, come get him. You know, you said to Angeles seller team. He said, Come get it. I mean, that’s, that’s the way it goes. It’s the culture, man, that blood is very hot back. And I first have to tell you that it’s the hottest blood in the world. If you haven’t seen

Nestor Aparicio  21:00

17 years later, his boys are fighting while he’s getting over his money. You haven’t seen world airing their laundry. So, you know, you have been a successful operation financially, but legacy wise, it hasn’t been a successful operation. And I guess for Lamar Jackson. It’s been a successful operation. He’s got $30 million. He’s got he’s got a statue. Oh, glistening. You got right.

Dennis Koulatsos  21:22

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He’ll have 60 at the end of this year 66. Maybe. Whereas Josh Allen will have about a buck 53. That’s excluding endorsements for other player and I can guarantee you that Josh Allen’s endorsements and buffalo particularly, are through the roof. First of all, Lamar Jackson.

Nestor Aparicio  21:40

I know they are because I landed at the buffalo airport. I went to Toronto back in November. He’s on every billboard. He’s selling cheese, pasta, cars, bars, tours, he’s selling it all.

Dennis Koulatsos  21:50

Glad you share that. So the difference between those two right now it’s $100 million. And we’re both first round draft picks now that we know the market traveling 32nd Overall, but Memorial. He’s played them. He played them initially. Class couple years, Josh has bridged the gap. And then some but my point is, he’s not worth $100 million, the first five years than the more taxes.

Nestor Aparicio  22:12

There’s no question about that. And this is again, Steve and Eric have gotten over on him. I think so the idea of him not having an agent was that he was afraid drew Rosenhaus was going to rip him off, right. And in the end, he got ripped off. He got ripped

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Dennis Koulatsos  22:29

off he ripped himself off. You know, it’s it’s he ripped himself off. He had a full for client as a self proclaimed agent. He really did. And he left a ton of money on the table. And this latest thing of the latest signing with Odell Beckham Jr. The ray was potentially made, they made a wide receiver room better potentially.

Nestor Aparicio  22:49

What Wow, is it that we’re a month into this, and you and I are now now we’re convinced he’s gonna play for 32 million and come back with his tail between his legs. And just say I asked for a trade but I didn’t really want to trade. I’m Raven. I’m purple. You know what I mean? Like, how does he come back after? After asking after I come back and play for what would be league minimum really the entire

Dennis Koulatsos  23:13

gem sales are up he sold for this week. So he’s doing well, at 699 apiece. So net profit was about you know, $800, whatever you want to call it.

Nestor Aparicio  23:21

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Likewise, I gotta give you the mic license, because I’m gonna forget it because we’re good. So I got invited to the CEO. Lunch in Baltimore CEO club. It’s up in hayfields Monday. Elias did this, like five years ago when he first got the job. And I was gonna go that day. And for whatever reason I didn’t go it was years ago. And he showed up on the docket a month ago. And I kind of wanted to go and hear him out, whatever. And I went, and he was actually very polite to me. Absolutely knew who I was. You know, I knew he knew who I was. He said to me, Oh, I know who you are.

Dennis Koulatsos  23:57

That was your first clue. You are smart guys. He that us the East Baltimore guys are pretty quick on our feet.

Nestor Aparicio  24:03

We’ll never forget me because I gave him two copies of Purple Rain wanting to. And I said to him, these are the I wrote this book with Eric. I wrote this book with Marvin and with with Brian. And with David Modell. I said these are the last two championships in the city. They’re really about how the championships were built. They’re not football books. They’re business books. And he said, thank you very much. And I shook my hand he and he said Aparicio. Are you? Are you related to Louis? And I’m like, yeah, he’s like, I remember when we were at the Red Sox. And I said, Oh really wants that. He was with the Orioles at 66. That’s how I got here. He’s like, he played for the Orioles. And I’m like, yeah, he was on the 60s. There was Boog and, and Brooks and Louis and Palmer. And he’s like, Oh, it’s still before my time. And he was polite about it. But like not. He didn’t want me to be offended in any way and I wasn’t I’m like you don’t need to know the 66 hours but you’re on the Orioles. And I’m thinking so he was very polite to me and I said Peter as anatomy around 17 years I let a wall cuz he’s like, Oh, I know who you are. And he gave me a big smile. And he took my books and he threw me an email. And he’s very polite, and I was very, very impressed with him in the room. I was impressed with him on the stage. I’m impressed with his intellect. I felt like he had authenticity about him. I felt like he wasn’t full of ish. I felt like I felt like he’s a really smart guy. Obviously, Yale like all that running the team, but I feel like there’s some humanity in him that I have seen lacking from other and I’ve been around all 32 of the football guys every year, right? Like Eric doesn’t have this anymore. If Eric walked into a room with me, Eric’s a different human being than he was the first like, literally, like it is the money, the job, the privacy, the scrutiny has changed. Eric d’acosta, Eric, the constancy different human, he treats me differently before I was thrown out. When he got the job. It’s I don’t know, when you’re the parts manager or the system manager, become the manager, you become the sales guy that you really treat people differently. I don’t know, Elias, for me, struck me as authentic. And that’s a good thing, because this is my first entree. And like, you know, my DNA, all of my radar said, that’s a good guy, though. We’re so lucky to get that guy. They must have paid him a lot of money. And I asked him a question. And they didn’t want to give me a question. Because they were afraid I was gonna be BNA hole, which I’m 55 years old. I’m out at lunch. I’m with CEOs. Why am I going to accost Mike Elias? By the way, the questions in the room? Were the nasty questions that I would have been thrown out for asking. He got asked five or six? Like, is the team moving? Stuff that I never would have asked him? He got asked, Why didn’t you spend more money and you’re like, flat? Like not nice, not fanboy. Colin, Rex, Barney, this is everybody in a suit and tie saying you guys played well, last year? Why don’t you buy some pictures? You know what I mean? And some of it was? Why just saying Kyle stout and down today, you know, real baseball call stuff. My question for him. And this, I wanted him to speak about it as a leader like the way you and I talk about leading things. And so it was a sea level event. And I said to him, you took this gig five years ago, you could have had a job. And if you mean, you could have held on for a Yankee job or a job where you had a $200 million payroll, I said, it seems to me like you were seeking out a an opportunity where they didn’t have a scouting system, they didn’t have Latin, they didn’t have internet, they didn’t have any of that, that you could literally almost like an expansion team start your own thing. And he took off on that and talked about that. And I thought that that’s what I wanted to know about, which was building something, right? I mean, Mr. Koontz comes to you and says, we’re going to put a new dealership somewhere else and we’re going to put our name on it, we’re gonna start with the bricks, you’d have a hell of an idea how to build it up, as opposed to, hey, we got this place in security Boulevard. It’s been there. 50 years, come take it over. It’s old bricks. It’s arguably you have your own people like all of that. I say to everybody in the room, I said a turn around. We were all old. And everybody in there was silver. Here. I was one of the younger guys in the room, said everybody in this room, has turned their business, flip their business, rethought their business, had to restructure their business had to regroup and redo something, have a 2.0 3.0 Whatever it is, this guy signed up to do it in the worst place ever, right? Against the toughest competition. That to me says these a hell charger, no matter what they’re paying. I mean, I’m sure they paid on top of class. But you know, Mike Elias won me over as a human being. By being in the room with me. Once he’s been here five years, they’ve denied me the opportunity to be in the room with him and go on the air and say good things about him. Right. I can still say good things about people too, when I believe them. And I can say bad things about people like Eric d’acosta, when I see over 25 years that they go from treating me like, like a human, not like a family member or friend, like a human, and then going in treating me like I’m one of them. Whatever them is, and that’s, it’s offensive to me. And Mike Elias was polite to me and didn’t have to be Oh, and wrote me a thank you note. And I don’t need any more from him. You know, literally,

Dennis Koulatsos  29:12

that was nice. That was very classy of him. At least there’s somebody in organization and I just showed you the flavor fare of a person you are when things are going well, you’re going to you’re going to give them credit and when things aren’t going well, you’re going to call them out that I think that’s fair and loud abilities when my job here, you know, and I’m glad that you had you had your time with Elias and it’s great to hear such positive feedback.

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Nestor Aparicio  29:32

I didn’t have time with him time with the NAMA professional dentists, he should be having coffee with me twice a year and talking about things and he should

Dennis Koulatsos  29:38

be but again, you do have a history with orals here so that I can invite you out for coffee. They have

Nestor Aparicio  29:43

4000 people in their bowl the other night. You know, I mean, like could still here, the ones that hate me come longer and write nasty things about me and say they saw a cockroach in my restaurants and you know, like they’re all still there. Nobody’s I’m still here and you’re playing Mt. I help me help you. Yeah, you know, I hear you it is what it is the bad guy down. We all know that

Dennis Koulatsos  30:08

8

a son, we gotta wear the black hat around here. But let’s have a troublemaker. I appreciate you and your your insight and your thoughts and your intellect. Appreciate the time on our show.

Nestor Aparicio  30:19

By the way, last thing I never said to Elias and I do want to say this out loud. And I didn’t say this to Him, but I did say it to do cat at one point, which was the reason I did the walk out is so that they would get somebody competent like you and here to run the place. There you go. You’re gonna mean that’s the truth. I did that walk out. So that’s so we could win again. That that was the idea. The idea wasn’t to burn Peter’s house, or Johnny Boy or Lou. The idea was the city is struggling. Are you vet Are you a part of this? And 17 years later, I would still ask that question. I really

Dennis Koulatsos  30:50

the city struggling now more than it was 17 years ago.

Nestor Aparicio  30:54

So that that’s really at the heart of it. That’s that’s the Baltimore positive part that when they do well and do right, when they do well and do right. They’re making money even when they do poorly and do wrong. tutorials have done a lot of poor and a lot of wrong, and they’ve made money. But the greater good is the 4000 people in an 80 degree night down at the ballpark. And that’s that’s not good.

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Dennis Koulatsos  31:17

That’s they left they left a lot more money on the table than Lamar Jackson has.

Nestor Aparicio  31:21

I’m here to help them. I’ve been here to help them for 31 years. They can see it as constructive criticism. You know what I mean? Like literally that’s, I feel like that’s what I’ve been the whole time. I don’t think I’ve been unfair ever. And yeah, so from Mike Elias, I’ve had more conversations than like allies this week with the Orioles this week than the Ravens. So go figure that out. Well, that we’ll

Dennis Koulatsos  31:43

we’ll take our next break here. There he goes. That’s your jam. presyo 50 7am WNS TV back right after this