The debacle of Maxx Crosby deal for DeCosta and Ravens

By Wednesday morning before the NFL free agency deadline, Eric DeCosta opted to sign Trey Hendrickson but it was four days with the thoughts of having Maxx Crosby that energized the Baltimore Ravens’ fan base right up until an Owings Mills medical nixed the deal. Luke Jones and Nestor discuss the debacle of Maxx Crosby deal for trust amongst players and agents and teams with the Ravens and DeCosta.

Maxx Crosby Deal Fallout and Initial Reactions

• Nestor Aparicio introduces the topic of the Maxx Crosby deal and its impact on the Baltimore Ravens.
• Nestor mentions his recent activities, including the Maryland crab cake tour and interviews with Marvin Lewis and JT the Brick.
• Luke Jones humorously describes the frustration among Ravens fans and the line from a Twitter user that sums up the situation perfectly.
• Luke recounts the events leading up to the deal falling through, including the Raiders’ statement and the Ravens’ decision to back out.

Historical Context and Precedents

• Nestor and Luke discuss past incidents where deals fell through, such as Brock Marion in 1997 and Ryan Grant in 2018.
• They mention the impact of COVID-19 on free agency and the challenges of evaluating players without in-person visits.
• Nestor questions the integrity of the Ravens’ decision, suggesting that there might be more to the story than just medical concerns.
• Luke emphasizes the optics of the situation and the potential damage to the Ravens’ reputation in the league.

Potential Benefits and Alternatives

• Nestor and Luke debate the potential benefits of the Ravens backing out of the deal, including the possibility of signing Trey Hendrickson.
• Luke argues that Hendrickson is not as impactful as Crosby and questions the long-term viability of Crosby’s career due to his injury history.
• Nestor points out the financial benefits of getting draft picks and cap space back, but acknowledges the need to address Lamar Jackson’s contract.
• They discuss the possibility of the Ravens having second thoughts or buyer’s remorse, and the impact on future trades and player acquisitions.

Medical Concerns and Recovery

• Luke explains the details of Maxx Crosby’s knee injury, including the type of surgery he underwent and the expected recovery timeline.
• They discuss the role of Dr. Neil ElAttrache in Crosby’s recovery and the positive statements from his agent.
• Nestor questions the timing of the announcement and the decision to proceed with the physical examination.
• Luke highlights the challenges of evaluating a player’s medical condition and the potential risks involved in such a high-profile trade.

Trust and Reputation

• Nestor expresses his frustration with the Ravens’ lack of transparency and the impact on their reputation.
• He recalls past incidents where the Ravens were perceived as untrustworthy, such as the Brock Marion debacle.
• Luke acknowledges the optics of the situation and the potential long-term damage to the Ravens’ standing in the league.
• They discuss the importance of trust in the NFL and the potential fallout from the Maxx Crosby deal.

Potential Scenarios and Future Moves

• Nestor and Luke speculate on the potential scenarios that led to the deal falling through, including medical concerns and second thoughts.
• They discuss the possibility of the Ravens signing Trey Hendrickson or other players to fill the void left by Crosby.
• Luke emphasizes the importance of the Ravens’ upcoming moves and the need to address their salary cap issues.
• They conclude by acknowledging the complexity of the situation and the potential long-term implications for the Ravens.

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SUMMARY KEYWORDS

Maxx Crosby, Baltimore Ravens, DeCosta, free agency, salary cap, medical concerns, trade deal, optics, trust issues, Trey Hendrickson, Lamar Jackson, draft picks, Raiders, offseason, buyer’s remorse.

SPEAKERS

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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 got my planet fitness gear on here today, and I am wearing team purple, and we’ve done the Maryland crab cake tour the last week. We’ve done three excellent shows at gertrude’s at Costas and Dundalk. Had a beautiful Tuesday afternoon with a bunch of old friends over at missones and Perry Hall. So I hope you enjoy all of that. Everything we’re doing, getting up on opening day, you’re going to hear some old interviews, some new interviews, and I tell you what, I spent some great time with two dear friends of mine. I mean, Marvin Lewis and I, we did 45 minutes talking football, and then I did JT the brick. We did 35 minutes on Linder Baum and raid as and Tom Brady and Max Crosby. And Luke and I spent the weekend talking about Max Crosby, and we’re about to talk about Max Crosby not being a Baltimore Raven. Luke, I was, where am I playing a fitness gear I was on a yoga mat. Like, when I’m working out, I just, you know, I’m not on my phone when I’m working out. I just, like, I get off the grid. It’s something I like about it. It’s one of the things I like a lot about it. And got off the mat, and, you know, my wife took one look at me. She’s like, well, you can have some work ahead here on Wednesday, so let’s take soup to nuts. I mean, you thought it was an April Fool’s joke. It’s a little early for that, right?

Luke Jones  01:27

Yeah, and I want to start off because in times like this, and fans are frustrated, ticked, devastated, in some circles, and I get all that, but I would have give Jeremiah on Twitter. He’s a Ravens fan on Twitter. I don’t know him. I’ve never interacted with him, but he had the line that summed it up perfectly for the Baltimore Ravens in their current state, we really found a way to choke a lead in the offseason. And I just thought, oh my gosh,

Nestor Aparicio  01:55

that is perfect. Drop the mic. I can go away now. I mean, it

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Luke Jones  01:59

just sums it up perfectly. But, yeah, I mean, it was literally five to 10 minutes prior to the the news that the Raiders had put out this statement, that the Ravens had called off the deal, that Patrick Ricard had become the latest to leave and the latest to join the New York Giants. So we sent out the wnst text alert on that, and I saw the Raider, well, I saw, I guess it was Adam Schefter, a Rappaport, or one of the national talking, you know, national reporters putting out that the Raiders had released a statement saying the deal was off. And right away, I’m like, Okay, this is a fake Adam Shafter account, right? I mean, we’ve seen that off and on, on Twitter and social.

Nestor Aparicio  02:43

Well, no doubt, the night before free agency opens, like, that’s, this is when fake schedules come out and, you know, like, All right,

Luke Jones  02:53

so, so I’m looking, I probably looked at it five different times. I looked at it on my phone. I looked at it on my laptop. You know, I had the tech service software still pulled up on my web browser, and then I see directly that the Raiders put it out, and my jaw just dropped. I mean, it’s look, we’ll get into it. We can remember. I mean, I don’t need to tell you Brock Marion back in 1997 I mean, reporters were literally in the building ready to have a press conference. I was there. Yeah, yeah. So it’s not unprecedented. We remember Ryan grant back the door never opened, literally, yeah. We remember Ryan grant back in 2018 we remember Michael brockers in 2020 which I’ll give both sides a little more grace on that one, just because the world had shut down, covid made free agency so bizarre in terms of, you know, you weren’t able to take visits. You were meeting guys over the phone or virtually. I mean, Zoom was just becoming a household thing.

Nestor Aparicio  03:53

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I would just say this in that case, right? That’s a misunderstanding. That’s an honest situation. The issue here, and again, I beat on their integrity harshly. The question here is whether there, there’s the Ravens really are backing out because they found something, or backing out because they got itchy trigger finger, or somebody inside didn’t like something that did like, like, the real reason that this got nixed, and the repercussions of that, across salary caps, across roster makeup, across who’s available, who’s not, that’s the part of it from i, from my perspective, not just as a dirt ball reporter, one of those journalists, media guys trying to stir it up, get clicks. Something went awry here, and whatever went awry here, to insiders, feels like less than honest in some way, in whatever way that is, that this isn’t, this isn’t the Pro. This isn’t like. You can make a case one way or another in the league, you deal for injured players, everybody’s a little beaten up. You get a you get a an evaluation, but for the salary cap and for all the ramifications of this to think that they weren’t clear on this Friday and by before the deadline, by the way, they rug it. It’s um, in the gentleman circle inside the game. It’s, it’s not cool. What happened? Let me just say that I I don’t know what happened, but whatever was not cool, obviously.

Luke Jones  05:32

I mean, the optics are bad for all parties because of and let me start right off the bat. I hear everything you’re saying, but I’ll also ask the question right off the bat, what do the Ravens stand to gain from this happening? I mean, okay, they could go sign Trey Hendrickson. Trey hendrickson’s Two years older, is coming off of surgery himself, and is not max Crosby. I don’t think, I think Trey Hendrickson. Hendrickson is a really good

Nestor Aparicio  06:01

pass rusher, and that would be bringing Clowney in at the end, that he’d be contributor. I mean, it’d be better than clowny or van Noy.

Luke Jones  06:07

Like, I don’t want to make it sound like I don’t think Trey Hendrickson is if

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Nestor Aparicio  06:12

he gets on the field, if he gets on the field, this other guy, Crosby, never misses games.

Luke Jones  06:17

Well, there’s that, but I don’t view Trey Hendrickson. And no one around the league is going to view Trey Hendrick. Hendrickson as the kind of force multiplier that Max Crosby we thought was going to be for the Baltimore Ravens. Doesn’t play the run particularly well. You know, I’m not saying he’s not going to, you know, be an every down player, but he’s not put it this way or like that. I understand that they’re both Five Time Pro Bowl players. Again, I’m not saying this to be disparaging to Trey Hendrickson. I’m trying to make the point that even if you sit here and say, okay, the Ravens pivot, maybe they signed Trey Hendrickson, and maybe he ends up having a couple really excellent seasons for them to sit here and say that, like this was not a premeditated thing.

Nestor Aparicio  06:58

But they get their draft picks back, though they do, but and they get the salary cap space back, and where’s Lamar and all of this as well. I’m less moved by about the Lamar Park. You don’t think the cap space would have anything to do with $30 million for that making that space, they

Luke Jones  07:15

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have to, they have to do something with lamar’s contract. Regardless, they were always going to, unless they weren’t going to sign, unless, unless they literally were going to sign. John Simpson and no one else.

Nestor Aparicio  07:23

Is there a benefit for them not to announce that when, when, if it’s really done, if it’s done as we sit here, they were always going to have to the sure that we’ve been talking about that forever. We’re sitting here, you know, at the deadline, like the fact that there’s been no announcement I, you know, I have no idea. Well, they clearly the way they want to communicate to people like us, to communicate to the fans. I have no idea, but because it is shrouded in secrecy. But it is also like Not, not a lot of people understand the salary cap in regard to taking on $30 million of money when you have a $75 million you know, like pushing that money around is something that they’re intimately familiar with. And the first thing I thought is, you know, is there, is there a hiccup here over getting lamar’s number from 75 down to something that they could work this? That’s all. I’m wrong. Then that’s fine, too. They were going

Luke Jones  08:17

to have to do it either way. I mean, whether, whether they were getting Max Crosby or not. They need, they need cap space, and they can restructure his they don’t need his blessing to do that like a simple restructure. I mean, there are clauses, and there are mechanisms built into, especially the bigger contracts, where you can automatically do these things. So look, I’m not saying that in some scenario, there’s not some kind of trickle down effect where that’s a variable. But look, the Ravens have signed John Simpson. They, yeah, they’re going to get their draft picks back, and yeah, they’ll get $30 million in cap space back. But I’m really struggling to see where this how this makes the Ravens better. If this is something where the Ravens were being nefarious, I think we need to pump the brakes on that and look perception that agents are going to have. Agents are pro player other the Raiders are clearly going to be ticked. And I completely understand that, right? That said the raiders were a team that nixed a deal with Roger sapphould About a decade ago, and he ended up going back to the St Louis Rams. Point is, this does happen, right? This does happen. It’s happened with the Ravens before. It happens around the league. It’s, I don’t know how often, once, once in off season, somewhere, once every other off season, somewhere, once, one, every 1.5 offseason, somewhere like, it’s not I said the Gen

Nestor Aparicio  09:41

Terrell Owens here, that was a reminder for me, sure, because it was a player of this magnitude, you know,

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Luke Jones  09:47

and that’s the thing so fully acknowledging that it happens and it’s not unprecedented. It is unprecedented, from the standpoint of the magnitude of this player and the magnitude of the term. Here, and there’s no doubt about the opportunity cost that’s considered here with the raiders who have spent an obscene amount of money early on in free agency. Now, in the same way that we pointed to max Crosby’s contract being easy for the ravens to inherit, from a cap standpoint, the Raiders very easily can take his $30 million base salary, convert it, as much of that as they want, into a signing bonus, and it’s pretty easy to get max Crosby back on your cap, in addition to everything else you’ve done. And by the way, you know, Fernando Mendoza ends up being really, really good. I mean, the Raiders could end up being a really interesting team if Max Crosby comes back and is healthy. But let’s,

Nestor Aparicio  10:41

let’s let’s go. Let me say he didn’t want to be there anymore. I mean, okay, I mean, I mean, that was the premise of him leaving the beginner because he was under contract, they didn’t need to

Luke Jones  10:49

deal him. I mean, he requested a trade, yes, but if you also watched his 11 minute video, saying goodbye to the raiders and saying hello to Baltimore, he didn’t burn bridges. He didn’t go scorched earth on them. So, and he even said that he still hopes to finish his career with the Raiders one well, he’s got that wish, at least for now. I mean, the way it looks, but, but I think this is where we need to go back to this and kind of look at the very beginning, right? And I think it was the week of the Super Bowl NFL Network. It was Rappaport. I don’t know who wrote the article, but you can go back and find it. I linked it in my article, but there was reporting right around the Super Bowl, and as everyone knew, he had a knee issue that he was playing through. The Raiders wanted to shut him down the last couple of weeks. He balked at that. He got ticked. He left the facility. He did not play the last couple games of the season, and then, you know, that’s when the ball got rolling in terms of him wanting to be traded and wanting to be out.

Nestor Aparicio  11:49

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I didn’t ask brick about this, but, like, was that about him making more money playing? No, no, just about him wanting to play.

Luke Jones  11:57

I don’t. I could be wrong on that. I don’t think it was about that. I think it was about the fact that he was hurt, and I think they wanted the first overall pick. And I think I’m not going to sit here and be naive and not think that there were some considerations for number one overall. Well, they do

Nestor Aparicio  12:14

have $100 million into him get, you know, get your knee cleaned up and get, get, get, get healthy, right?

Luke Jones  12:19

Absolutely, is that factor, right? And this is where I will say, in early January, it was expected he was going to have a knee surgery, you know, for a meniscus injury. And there are basically, and bear with me here. I’m not Dr David Chow, but I’ve covered sports long enough that I have some level of familiarity with a lot of sports injuries and football injuries and surgeries that players

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Nestor Aparicio  12:42

have now here, Dr Luke Jones brought to you by farnander, go ahead when

Luke Jones  12:46

you have but when you have a torn meniscus, in a very general sense, there’s kind of two ways that that they go about doing that. If there’s going to be a surgical procedure, you can have a meniscus trim, which literally means they cut out the little portion of the meniscus that’s been damaged that typically constitutes a much, a much more expedited return to play. Players have had meniscus trims and they’re fine in a month or six weeks or eight weeks. You know, guys will have a meniscus trim in season, and they’re back that season depending on the timing of the schedule. However, if it’s a more substantial tear, they have a meniscus repair. Now, the details of that I’m not very familiar with, in terms of like, what exactly that that involves, but that is a much more substantial recovery. Now, it’s not 12 months in the way that you think of an ACL injury, but typically, when a player has to have a meniscus repair, even I know ravens players who had to have that done during training camp, very often, it means you’re out for the season. Point is it’s a 345, maybe six month recovery. Max Crosby had a meniscus repair that’s been reported, that was reported and was common knowledge. So point is, with that, and now this is where we get into the language and the nuance and the range of opinions that are involved with a physical, for a contract for a player. We think of it. We tend to think of these things as just language that’s thrown out there. When a team announces a trade an agreement, right? It always has what at the end, pending the passing of a physical.

Nestor Aparicio  14:30

And I would say, on Friday, dude’s on crutches. Brick was on and said he saw him last week. He’s on crutches. If you have any thought about it at all, why the hell are you announcing the trade at 930 once you keep your mouth shut, send your doctor out there, him here, you know, do whatever you need to do, but, like you didn’t need to go announcing a trade if dude’s on crutches and you’re worried about him, right?

Luke Jones  14:52

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Well, and this is where I’ll I will say, technically speaking, neither side announced a trade, right? It was reported by everyone. Them. Now, who exactly the sources are for those I mean, you have a player you have a player agent, and you have two teams, right? And you have one team that’s really excited to acquire one of the best defensive players in the league, and you have another team that, albeit is rebuilding and has been lousy for a long time, but they’re acquiring the two first round picks that they wanted. They were excited about that. So there is, there is an abundance of people that potentially can leak a deal coming up, but your point’s well taken. But to go back to the physical, like a physical isn’t a standardized test, right? A physical has is something that one of 32 teams has a medical staff. Sometimes they will have other doctors that they solicit feedback from. In the case of Max Crosby, Neil, Ella trash, who we just mentioned, who was someone that gave a second opinion on Jordan westberg’s UCL injury, he’s widely known. He’s based out of California. He’s not some quack, if you’re anyone who follows sports and sports medicine, to even

Nestor Aparicio  16:00

the motto Frank Joby and James, and he’s one,

Luke Jones  16:03

he’s one of those, like he, you would lump him into that group, right, into that sphere. So, but So, so the point is this was never going to be a physical in the way that you would view a perfectly healthy player, right? Max Crosby was not going to pass a physical in the way that you would clear him to be ready to play a football game on March 12 or March 13, right? He was still recovering, so, yeah, he’s

Nestor Aparicio  16:30

going to fail the can you play football test today?

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Luke Jones  16:33

So that’s where, you know, I very clearly in the Ravens assessing this in if we’re putting aside the conspiracy theory, nefarious,

Nestor Aparicio  16:45

I don’t mean nefarious. I just mean like, like, Dak Prescott’s girlfriend. I just second thoughts, literally, second thoughts. That’s all, and that happens all the time. Steve Machado, when he fires coaches, you know what he says, I changed my mind. That’s all, you know. Like, literally, and they have to four o’clock on Wednesday to change their mind, right?

Luke Jones  17:04

Not, it literally couldn’t become official until 4pm Wednesday. We’re probably going to see a couple deals. This happens this, I would say, happens every year. One or two of the deals that we hear reported on even over the weekend, Monday, day, right? Tuesday, a player, a player, can have a change of heart as well. In that case, when we’re talking about a free agent, right? So zadarius Smith, we thought he was on his way back to the ravens, what, four years ago, and it turns out, he had a change of heart. And that was also a little bit of remorse on his side, where he kind of heard and looked around and saw some of the other deals that contemporaries, you know, some of his peers, were getting, Eric was ripping him off. And he kind of felt like, wait, I’m not getting what I could be getting here. So point is, this always, this happens a lot, and to answer questions, the ravens are completely even if the Ravens were simply having more of a case of buyer’s remorse, and they’re hiding behind a physical there’s no like, there’s no action to be taken here, by the by the League, right? There’s the deal. There was no official deal. There was no signed agreement, right? There was no transaction that took place.

Nestor Aparicio  18:16

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Now, the next time somebody calls Eric dicostal with a deal that that’s where trust, I mean, I learned about what there’s trust from

Luke Jones  18:24

that, but that said that’s where I look at this thing. The Ravens obviously knew that he had a meniscus repair. But this is also someone and go, go Google it right now. How many surgeries Max Crosby’s had? He’s had surgeries one a year, every year, I remember vividly Buck Showalter years ago, and he was talking about pitchers, and he said, if you go and have an MRI or whatever scan, you want to give a pitcher to look at his elbow and his shoulder, if you want to find something, you’re absolutely going to find something. So that’s where the skepticism does come in. There’s no doubt about it. However, what’s not to say that the ravens, when they made the trade, you know, when they have an agreement in place, they’re expecting the need to look a certain way two months out from meniscus repair, but then when they get to take a closer look, and he’s in, he was in town. I mean, you saw on his Instagram. I mean, he was downtown, and you could see He zoomed in on Mt Bank Stadium and all that. Right? It’s not like he never made it to town, but they do scans, they do testing, they do imaging, and not necessarily that the surgery is botched or anything like that, but they discovered that the knee is really degenerative or, I mean, he had an ankle injury a couple years ago. He’s got an arthritic ankle. What teams the whole point of having a physical is to protect yourself with those things. So they may have discovered something that said, Look, we don’t know if this guy’s going to have much more than a year or two like. Left. We’re not trading like our original expectation of what we thought this was going to look like and what we were comfortable with accepting in terms of risk is not what we’re seeing when we’re going through this process. Well, the first

Nestor Aparicio  20:14

question is, will he be ready to play football September? 1 he should be.

Luke Jones  20:19

And I saw and this was, it wasn’t overnight. It was very early in the morning Wednesday that Adam Schefter got a lengthy statement from Neil Ella trash. And you know it, it wasn’t in any way that implied inflammatory, like, you know that, that he had this strong opinion about the Ravens being unethical or anything like that, but it said that his recovery is going well. He’s on track, right? I mean, Crosby’s agent put out something like that, which you’d expect the agent. I mean, the agent’s going to be pro player. We know that. But put it, put something out which very much indicated that, you know, Max Crosby’s on his way to making a full recovery and and playing football. But that said, I mean, you know, you’re still talking about someone who’s eight weeks out. Let me just read it for you, because I you know, this is straight from Neil, Ella trash, you know, a renowned sports surgeon, to ESPN. Early Wednesday morning, Max Crosby is doing very well in the early part of his rehab and recovery from surgery to treat a significant meniscus tear and

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Nestor Aparicio  21:26

the significant that’s a big word, oh, and that’s a big word. I like it. It is, and that’s where

Luke Jones  21:32

I recall at the time of the reporting from Ian Rappaport. And I’m not picking on him. I guarantee someone used this language. They called it a minor meniscus repair. When a meniscus is repaired, as opposed to a trim, like I described a little bit earlier. That’s not minor, right? I mean, and then we’re getting into semantics, right? But the point is, Neil albertash called it a significant meniscus tear, and the related stress injury to the bone and cartilage in his knee. He is certainly on track in his planned program. He feels very well and is already much improved compared to before the surgery. We truly respect the work of the Raven staff with backs regarding the contract physical exam. We also understand the challenge the staff faces when tasked to provide a future risk assessment based on an evaluation early in the recovery process. This is especially challenging when dealing with an elite player like Max, considering the level of commitment necessary for a team to obtain him. In other words, give up two first round picks. The timing of this assessment is unfortunate, because the apparent apparent risk will lessen as his recovery progresses and his return to performance over the next few months becomes clear at this point, Max is doing an excellent job attacking his rehab, and his knee is responding very well. We look forward to max returning to his elite level of performance this season, as planned, and for several more

Nestor Aparicio  22:52

not his first rodeo with recovery, either, right? Like dudes in recovery for six to eight weeks every off season. That’s being a football player for him, right?

Luke Jones  22:59

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Sure. So, so that’s, that’s from Neil Ella trash, who performed the surgery. You know, I’m not sure what exactly,

Nestor Aparicio  23:08

the Ravens bring him in. They bring him to the hospital. They poke him around up at the facility. What? When, when a visit is medical, and they come in, what he go out and have an oyster, and he walked around.

Luke Jones  23:18

I mean, he was, he met with the coaches. I mean, he was in the building. They’re talking football, but there is the medical side to that and and I think I even mentioned it to you in passing. I know I mentioned it, you know, in the sense of just talking about the fact that this was a risky move to begin with. I wasn’t really talking in terms of the surgery itself, but understanding that this guy’s going to be 29 years old, you’re giving up not just one first round pick for the first time in franchise history, but two. And yes, he was coming off of a knee surgery. And 29 is not a spring chicken when you’re talking about someone who plays that position.

Nestor Aparicio  23:54

Well, look at Micah Parsons had this awful injury, right? Like at the end of the year he had a would you take him on? Now I don’t know you know what I mean, would you take on? I mean, the angels took on Grayson Rodriguez after like, like, it is really, it’s, it’s, it’s risk, reward, and for whatever this is, in discussing it as grown ups here, um, there’s a leap of faith that was caused here with the Ravens that has, they’ve screwed themselves, right? If they’re out on max Crosby, what are they in on? And where are they on money and they got their draft picks, or maybe they didn’t screw themselves, but they don’t have a pass rush all of a sudden

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Luke Jones  24:31

again, and well, and you just, and you just said they screwed themselves. I mean, at the very least, even even if they had completely, they’re completely comfortable with the decision that they had to make based on what they saw. They understand the optics of this and what they look like, and the fallout that can occur and the lack of trust that can you know, you know, the lack of trust that could persist then in future trades, not just with the Raiders, but with any team, right there’s fallout. To this happening, whether you have completely pure, legitimate, honest intentions or not, there’s absolutely Fallout to this happening.

Nestor Aparicio  25:08

Let me be an old man here. Back when Brock Marion happened, the Ravens were perceived as being bumbling idiots, right? They just arrived in town. I Luke. I was at that press conference. It was downstairs in the same room where they enter, where they introduced Shannon sharp a couple years later, like it was a little interview room in the old facility underneath Marvin’s office, literally almost underneath Brian’s office. What was Ted’s office was really Matt Simon’s office later on, but nonetheless, it was this little interview room and it didn’t happen. And here’s the difference with trust. Nobody in Cleveland trusted Kevin Byrne, right? Kevin Byrne came here and couldn’t afford to lie to me and Scott Garcia and Bruce Cunningham and Mark Viviano, right? So at that and the Orioles, 1997 Luke, how you think the Orioles were doing pretty good, right? 4 million they didn’t have enough seats to sell the tickets that they had, sure, and that’s where the city was. So the Ravens were trying to build trust. So this is a little sit back and let, let me be a prick for a minute, because 30 years later, you’re now asking me to take a leap of faith with the honor of Eric Decosta and the organization in totality, Steele, bishati, Sashi Brown, just just the decisions they make. The front facing that if Chad steel were a real PR person, real PR person, not a bouncer guy with press passes and grudges, but there would be a front face for the organization to have already had a statement on this that would be believable, trusted by me to sell it on the air, which I can’t do anymore, because I don’t trust them, trusted by other teams, to say, no, no, the Ravens don’t do this. The Ravens don’t do business like this. Now that really makes Max Crosby. They’ve slimed him, right? They’ve already slimed him, kind of sort of physically, right for another team to take it on now and tell their fans, we’re taking $100 million with 29 year old player that said nine, all the things we’ve said, the trust part of this, with the franchise, the League, the gamblers, the you know, just all of it. We’ve moved to a point now from Brock Marion to here where, like, I don’t know what to believe. But if whatever they say, I can’t believe it, I’ll only believe what my intellect tells me about, knowing all this about agents, the leagues, doctors, two different everything we’ve talked about here for 40 minutes, I think it does provide color more so than people calling the fan and yelling and, you know, mad as hell like I’m I’m trying to understand it at a big boy level, at $100 million level, at a we screwed ourselves at a free agency level for the Ravens out of maybe we wanted to keep at Ricard, or keep somebody, any of These guys are there, any of these guys? And we looked at it like $30 million of sunk money that we 10% of our cap there. Lamar is going to be 20% of our cap. It’s a third of and we got roquan And we got a flowers is coming up next year. We don’t have draft picks anymore, you know. So that vibe over the weekend, and the knee and the he’s on crutches and the weekend, back out of it. And even if we’re bad guys, we’re going to back out of it, because we don’t care about you. We’re the ravens, you know what? I mean, we only care about the Ravens so that. But they’ve lived their life like that for a long time, you know. And by the way, Ozzy was really unpopular in the circles of negotiation because he was perceived as being a hard ass, not perceived as lacking integrity, perceived as a hard ass, but not his word. Was his word. Keep in mind, he was the one guy that sort of winked on the Ray Rice thing and said, I’m not gonna lie. He told the truth. Yeah, yeah, I’m not gonna lie. So if he’s the only guy in the building to this day that I could find who didn’t lie, this is a lying I’ve called them sleazy. I’ve, you know, you have a press pass. I don’t dude. I mean, like it, this is, this is where they don’t get the benefit of the doubt with big trusts and all of that being said, I don’t know if it’s the fairish or not. Maybe I mean whatever it is to the letter of the law, they didn’t break any rules, right? It’s like the press credential form I found from 2017 the other day. You know, like telling you broke the Willy Wonka rules when the rules weren’t stated. Or this is four o’clock Big Boy poker, we pull out. We’re done. We’re out. And if you don’t do business with us anymore, Hey, you’re the Raiders will slime you. You’re the journalist on the Justin tuck will slime you. So, like there’s no they don’t have a conscience in Owings Mills. They just want to win a Super Bowl, and they don’t really care about the Raiders or the optics. I mean literally. So to me, it must have found so. Something medically they didn’t like, I guess, but it certainly has not been a great plan for the strategy of the of making the team better by four o’clock on Wednesday. So I’ll leave it at that. They, you know, when I say they screwed themselves, they get their draft picks back, but they didn’t participate in free agency, in in the full color that because of what happened on Friday night, right? I mean,

Luke Jones  30:20

I mean, and that’s, that’s what I keep coming back to, look, I’m not going to defend the organization. I mean, everything you just laid out there is there, right? And people can, people can take that the way they want to, right, as an

Nestor Aparicio  30:30

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individual person, and they can tell me, I don’t deserve a press pass, and you do for saying, and they’re speaking the obvious. I mean, it’s insane. They’re going to have an opinion, right? Everyone’s going to have me trust. Eric dicostal. I mean, like, You got to be kidding me. So, like, that’s

Luke Jones  30:45

like, I’m hearing you on, yeah, but I come back to this. How does this make them better if, if this was something that, you know, I don’t want to say premeditated would be too strong. But if this was more in the line of, like, they’re trying to pull a fast one, right?

Nestor Aparicio  31:02

Because, I mean, there’s no fast when the pole it’s Dak Prescott’s girlfriend. I’m just, I don’t want to do it. I don’t feel the same way about it that I felt four days ago. And like, when you charge your credit card, they tell you get 48 hours.

Luke Jones  31:15

Like, but that said, but that’s also something that that ego can be a big part of something like that happening, right? The Ravens have been universally praised for the max Crosby trade. I mean, like, okay, not saying that there hasn’t been a stray fan that, you know, every fan base has fans got

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Nestor Aparicio  31:32

up at six in the morning on Saturday to praise they worked all right? I mean, I worked all day Saturday. I talked about, I’m not taking those videos down. You can go watch all that.

Luke Jones  31:41

But that’s where I come back to this and look Ryan grant, that deal was panned instantly. I mean, go back and look at what Ryan Grant’s career numbers were were compared to what the Ravens wanted to pay him in free agency. There is there is one where I will absolutely questioned, to the day I go to my grave, whether that was really about concerns about his ankle or they were getting killed across the board, of why they threw real money at a reserve wide receiver, which is what he was,

Nestor Aparicio  32:17

maybe internally, Steve went at had it, had a bottle of Wine on Saturday night and called Eric and said, We shouldn’t be giving those draft picks away. Yeah, like I, you know? I mean that could happen, you know? I mean I could,

Luke Jones  32:29

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but I don’t know. I look at much more looking at the temperature of this offseason on the heels of firing an 18th year head coach, if you were going to ask me who was more of the driving force to make this deal to begin with, this kind of a deal to begin with, I’d be more inclined to say that Steve bashati was pushing for this kind of a splash. If I’m and I don’t know that, but I’m just saying, like, if we’re, we’re weighing hypotheticals.

Nestor Aparicio  32:55

I vary between whether he gives a shit or whether he doesn’t at this. You know what I mean? Like whether any of this means

Luke Jones  33:02

they had their summit down in Florida this past week. I mean, like that, so, like that was,

Nestor Aparicio  33:07

but if he’s on the phone with doctors and Eric Decosta, and they’re like, Steve, we don’t feel good about his medical or, Hey, Steve, we just, you know, he was in here this weekend, and you know

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Luke Jones  33:17

it was he was in the building. Like, it wasn’t over the weekend, it was, he was in the building Tuesday. I mean, that’s what

Nestor Aparicio  33:23

I meant, a weekend. I know, oh no doubt I had one long weekend, yes, but I

Luke Jones  33:27

guess I just keep coming back to look. Skepticism is warranted. The optics are bad all the way around. The opportunity cost. Here is something that I look at and say, if this is something that’s more questionable, that’s where I look at it and say, Let’s not because something happened that that’s unprecedented. We there’s a part of the human condition or a part of society that immediately wants to think of more in conspiracy theorist terms. Recently, I was watching a 911 documentary that just was going through some of the conspiracies, right, and debunking them, and talking about, okay, well, this, this thing is a fair question, but this not so much, right? But the whole point was they were kind of talking about it from a psychological standpoint. Then when something happens that is completely unexpected, and this was very unexpected on Tuesday night. And I think a lot of people tend you want an explanation for something that you weren’t.

Nestor Aparicio  34:29

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That’s what I mean about communicating. Sure when that Brock Marion thing happened, Kevin Byrne came out. Vito stilino, Gary Adam, not Gary Adorno, Gary lambrick. I’m telling you, I know the P, I mean the Washington Post. Bill Gilday was there, like I remember the beat writers. Preston was there, and Kevin came out and said, This is what happened. And we reported it. And Ken Rosenthal was beating the Ravens up every day. And Angelo’s up too, but purple Barney uniforms, modell stole the team, kicking the dogs all that. But I put it on the radio and I spoke it to be true. And then Kevin Byrne spent another at least a decade before he lied to me, and he had to start lying to me, because the new owner kind of mandated that sort of thing when he fired Brian and but, I mean, I want a good dozen years with Kevin Byrne, on the air, off the air, back two in the morning, three in the morning, Jamal’s arrested. Ray Lewis has got hand caught. Like this was not, it wasn’t all, let’s, you know, have kocoa nuts down with Devin mullatalo in the in locker room in Tampa and party with, you know, Steven Tyler. Like it wasn’t that way. There was scandal, there was, I mean, there was all of that. So the trust of the media that when Viviano is on the news reading what he believed to be true, and Cunningham was saying what he believed to be true, we don’t have nine out of 10 people just making stuff up or in fear of whatever they say. And now here we are. They really said anything. And the first thing I said to you when I text you on Tuesday night was, well, this is HIPAA, secrecy. We can’t talk about it. It’s an, it’s medical, you know, it’s an upper body, lower body extremity thing, you know, you know. And they and they can. It’s like my dear John Harbaugh, the fu, the fraud, you that I wrote to him in my columnist, it’s sort of like, whatever the spin is, get out in front of the spin. But this organization and these people have been involved in spin for a long time, and it wasn’t that way. And when something like this happens, I can’t open the mic and say that I believe anything at this point, because they’ve compromised me to that point, like, if they came out and had a statement, but they’re not that kind of an organization anymore, for all the above reasons, and you can hide behind it’s HIPAA. It was a football decision. It would, you know, whatever. It was never an official deal, right? I mean, like, yeah, yeah. I mean, we didn’t break any rules, you know, we’re us cheat, not us. I mean, we, this was on the up and up, dude, you know, and you can only sell me, this is on the up and up so many times after you’ve lied to me. And that goes back to my childhood, and just who I am as a human, as a reporter, in a person that searches for truth, I find it less and less. The truth is he’s not coming here and playing. The truth is the Raiders are pissed. The truth is the Ravens have a significant amount of egg on their face. And if Max Crosby never turns out to be a great player again, then

Luke Jones  37:28

this years, two years from now, they’ll look really smart. If he plays 12 games over the next two years and he’s got an arthritic knee, or degenerative knee, or or whatever, then yeah, we can

Nestor Aparicio  37:39

go through a whole litany of baseball injuries from Xavier Hernandez and Angelos history. And like all of these guys that

Luke Jones  37:48

you met, but you brought up guys the Orioles ended up being right on most of them, most of them, right. And again, Aaron Sealy being an exception, right, but, but grant Balfour was one that was a little. That was what that was the buck era. That was 2012

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Nestor Aparicio  38:02

I think anybody in our audience remembers these people. I often wonder that like I feel like you and I know so much about sports, and then I meet people they know or they don’t, but I say Aaron Seely and Xavier Hernandez might as well be talking about Kurt bleffery At this point, you know,

Luke Jones  38:16

but I made a Brock Marion reference, and there were people who responded to

Nestor Aparicio  38:20

good so thank you for being here, all of you, the educated ones. Yeah, but, but

Luke Jones  38:26

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that said, I mean, that’s where. And look, everything you just said about questioning this and not knowing what to believe and missteps and the way they’ve handled past situations. Look, I’m not going to sit here and push back on that. Where I where I do look at this, though, is, you know, a little bit of Occam’s Razor where, like, what’s the most rational you know, what the most rational explanation tends to be? The right one? I think the medicals ended up being way worse than they were anticipating, whether it was the knee, whether it was something else, right? We don’t know for sure. Because, to your point, the Ravens haven’t spoken on this. And because of HIPPA, because of the fact that it’s another team’s player at this point in time, I’m guessing we’re not going to hear any too much publicly.

Nestor Aparicio  39:09

Well, you know, I know Eric Well, and I can think that if I’m sitting on an airplane trap with Eric and we’re talking about this, he would say something to the effect of, we have to look at him like a free agent, right? Yeah, so we’re going to bring him in like a free agent, and we’re going to poke and prod, and then he’s going to get in his limo and leave and go to the airport, and we’re going to turn to our doctors and our football people, we’re going to say, what would we offer him? Yeah, what’s it? What this is the Ozzie deal, right? What? What? He’s 29 great, great guy, great player, gonna you know, he’s worth more money. Is he worth this to us now and the draft picks? Because I kept saying, you well, they traded Linder bomb for him and just money for money. You’re like, yeah, two number ones, yeah. And you know, FM picks was not something that this organization has ever done, ever been comfortable with. And there undo itself is the bachelor who’s. Left the bride at the altar a dozen times, sleeping on it over the weekend, and then waking up and saying, I don’t like giving up picks. And this guy’s hurt, and he’s 30, and we’re getting 223 year olds, and I’m still going to be the general manager here three years from now, and hendrickson’s out there, and we’re going to look bad, and Nestor is going to go on the radio and call us sleazy and all that, but we’re out. We’re just good because in Eric, and this is me being Eric here for a second, because if he came in, he was a free agent, we’d be excited about having Max Crosby get after the quarterback, and then we would be rational about we’re trading two number ones for this. If we were just signing him for the money, would we give him the money? Do we believe he’s going to get on the field? Do we believe he’s going to play to $30 million $30 million level? Do we like the person? I mean, I don’t think there’s anything about that. I mean, there’s a guy there that, if he had one gin and tonic on the flight in and he peed, they could look at that and say, we’re out, like, because he says he doesn’t drink, right? So I’m just saying, like, there’s all and they’ll never say that. So like, there’s all sorts of things. He got in the building and cried about the rate raiders and really didn’t like it here so much, and said to them, you know, like, there’s also that probably didn’t happen, but maybe they want to come here either. Maybe from the minute he got there, it didn’t feel right. I mean, I thought I was going to adopt two cats eight years ago. I adopted a different cat, you know, like, I and I don’t feel guilty about it, and neither does Eric Costa, by the way. But I keep thinking, if they brought him in and they were going to give him free agent money, would they do it, and they would have a number on it, they would have a price on it and say, this is the value of this foot. That’s what they do with everybody. They have a science for all that. I mean, that’s Eric’s thing, right? And then the two number one draft picks, which is an off the chart value giveaway that we’ve never discussed, because Maine even ever thought about giving up two number ones for anybody, let alone a contract, let a guy that shows up out there on crutches?

Luke Jones  41:52

You know, that’s no doubt, no doubt. And that’s fair to point that out, but I will say there were quite a few dopamine hits over the weekend, though, with how much praise they were getting, with how excited this fan base was, right? I mean, this, this was

Nestor Aparicio  42:06

not even if they’re wrong, go through with it, because it right. I mean, I mean, this is why I was saying, that’s

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Luke Jones  42:10

why I tried to make the comparison with Ryan grant. And by the way, like Ryan grant did have ankle issues over the next year or two. I mean, wasn’t a very good player to begin with. That’s why I said, like, that deal from Jump Street made zero sense to me. I It’s one of the if

Nestor Aparicio  42:22

Eric could have woken up the morning after Earl Thomas or Marcus Williams, and that’s pub dude. I just gave I just we’re now, we’re into this. But like, Eric signed deals that he later regretted of this magnitude. And if he has any, I can hear Steve in the middle of like Eric, if you have any, that little piece of doubt down there. Yeah, if it’s a $30 million 10% of our cap, this is your few this is really gonna win this deal, or we’re not. This is a big, big you know, if you have even a modicum of doubt, and this is where Eric, if it were honest, and I had a relationship, he would have been texting me last night saying, Nestor, when you open the microphone with Luke, here’s how I really feel, and I could trust that, and I couldn’t tell Chad steel bridged that relationship and wrecked it for me. But that used to be the relationship I have with Eric. He lied to me about Marty Jenkins in 1998 or 1999 about them drafting him, and we laughed about it, for it’s in all my Pearl Jam letter, but he used to, and you know this dude, you’ve been here a long time. Eric dicostia used to text Eric to Costa helped me write Purple Rain too. So getting Steve didn’t like that so much, but, but Eric used to provide insight so that I could provide it to the fans, sure, and Kevin Byrne would provide insight that I could provide to the fans, and there was a point where I even trusted Harbaugh to involve him to make sure that we were all singing the same song make sure they weren’t lying to me, because I’m a reporter, and I get sources, and I back them up, and I have to trust people, big trusts, and so does 31 other General Managers in dealing with Eric Decosta

Luke Jones  44:02

and many more agents, right? I mean, agents are looking at this too. This wasn’t a signing, it was a trade. But if an agent

Nestor Aparicio  44:08

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called me and said, Can you trust Eric Decosta, I would say, Absolutely not, absolutely not. That’s what I would say. Can you trust the Baltimore Ravens? No, ask Justin Tucker’s Messiah like so therefore, whatever they say, we’ll parrot it. We’ll say it, whatever. And to your point, Crosby will go play in Dallas, or he’ll go play in Vegas. He’s going to play. He’s probably going to play well for a period of time. And there will be a time in week eight when he has four sacks and poor Jesse Mitter is getting his ass kicked or something, and Lamar is hurt or whatever, we’ll say we wish we had him or not, and that’s sports. I mean, because we can go back on Aaron Sealy, on Brock Marion, to your point on Ryan grant, you know, like we can go through all of these names and all of these people, there will be a history of this moving forward as to how all of this goes. But Eric, in that circle of doing business, this is real. Be it doesn’t look good. It’s bad for family business. It really is. It is,

Luke Jones  45:05

it is, and that’s not, you know, it’s not to be like fatalistic, that they’re going to be doomed moving forward because of it. But when things like this happen, yeah, other teams don’t trust as much. Other teams are more reluctant, right? Like I said, even if the Ravens did everything right here, even if you want to buy take it at face value that they looked at the knee, it wasn’t what they thought it was going to be. It wasn’t what they were initially projecting. Maybe they found something with his ankle too. Maybe they found something with his shoulder. I mean, like, like I said, he’s a football player who’s played football his whole life, right? The injury rates 100% for the longest the longer you play the game, the injury rates 100% we talked he was trying

Nestor Aparicio  45:47

to go out there and play with one leg in week seven, sure, right? So, so,

Luke Jones  45:52

yes, you can find things if you want, but that said, that doesn’t mean that that’s what happened here. It very well could be exactly what the simplest explanation would be, which is their medicals were. His medicals ended up being way worse than they thought it was going to be, and they decided they couldn’t go through and that’s their right. David Chow, you know, I saw he did a little, you know, he did a little video on social media late Tuesday night. He compared it to when you’re buying a house, you buy a house, it goes into escrow, right?

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Nestor Aparicio  46:24

Whether it’s buying termites, you go home to, yeah,

Luke Jones  46:27

something with the foundation, you know, and it can be, it could be something little like, it doesn’t have to be like, the foundation is doomed, right? It doesn’t have to be that, that it’s, you know, some major thing. It could be something relatively minor, and you can walk out of it, and you know what happens the homeowner, the one that’s trying to sell, is pissed. They’re ticked. Because, especially depending on the time the home was off the market, for X number of days, depending on the timing, it could take families that have kids in school, depending on the timing of the calendar. So it

Nestor Aparicio  47:01

has, well, there are a lot of unintended consequences of this that I haven’t even fully processed, right?

Luke Jones  47:06

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I mean, we, you know, we look at it in terms of, like, Okay, well, maybe they pivot to Trey Hendrickson, but like, what other moves could the Ravens have made if the max Crosby thing was never happening? Right?

Nestor Aparicio  47:15

The other part of this is Lamar pivoting into this as to what the real cap number is and what their what tolerance would be for bringing in new players?

Luke Jones  47:23

How they get there, sure, right? I mean, they’re going to, whether it’s a new whether it’s a new contract, or whether it’s a restructure, they’re clear. They’re going to clear space. They have to, I guess, technically, now they don’t. They would be under the cap to start the new league year, technically, but assuming they’re going to make some moves at some point, right? They’re going to need cap space. But, yeah, I mean, you question everything. And I saw some people say all the Ravens lost nine free agents. I’m guessing that list wouldn’t have changed very much. But I don’t know if you’re not bringing in Max Crosby. Do you say, well, we’ll give our Darius Washington $3 million to come back, or we’ll give Charlie Kohler $8 million a year to stay. You know, so Could there have been a couple moves from that list

Nestor Aparicio  48:07

card was always going to the Giants book on that dog,

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Luke Jones  48:11

well, and apparently I saw one of the giants reporters even said that the Ravens weren’t really in on that. It was actually the Browns monk and was trying to bring them to Cleveland. So, so you have that as well. So point is, I don’t like, let me say this, do I think if the Crosby deal is never agreed upon, does that mean the ravens are giving Tyler Linder bomb $26 million or $25 million to stay? I don’t think so. Right? I mean, I I think the Raiders probably, you know, yes, they’ve made eight or nine signings, or whatever it is, or agreements, right? Because signings don’t become official until 4pm Wednesday, right? So, but it’s clear that Linder bomb was their priority and, and they could have done that even with Max Crosby, right? And they will, I mean, they’ll, you know, at this point, it looks like Crosby’s gonna stay because, and the Ravens

Nestor Aparicio  48:59

are fine with that. The Ravens weren’t gonna give Linder bomb 27 that’s my 27 that’s

Luke Jones  49:03

my point like so, so I want to be clear what we’re talking about here. And all

Nestor Aparicio  49:07

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of a sudden we got our draft picks back. So you know too. I mean, so much for your free meal on the draft night. You get that right, right? Yeah, pick at 915

Luke Jones  49:16

Well, I prefer that to 1115 right? I’ll take the earlier pick, but, yeah, but there is an opportunity cost at work here, right? What else could you have possibly done over these first couple days? Could you have been in a better, a bigger market at guard than John Simpson, for example? Right? Could you have gone out and signed someone better for more money? Could you have been in the market for, I don’t know. Maybe there was a wide receiver they wanted to bring in to kind of replace DeAndre Hopkins, and then maybe they’re trading Rashad Bateman, right? I mean, there’s all kinds of different scenarios here. Let me be clear there. There are ways that the Ravens can salvage this offseason. As I said, they turn around if. Life. And, you know, apologies if people are listening to this in real time, and Trey Hendrickson has found a job elsewhere, but I’m just going to use him as an example of someone who is still out there, or was as of very early Wednesday morning. You know, if they if they do that, then no, he’s not max Crosby, but they do that, and assuming he’s not getting quite as much money as Max Crosby, which is an assumption at this point, sounds like part of the issue for Hendrickson has been the market hasn’t been as hot for him as he had hoped it would be over the first couple days. So we’ll see what happens there. But yeah, they’re going to have their cup their first round picks back. That said, this is where I go back to even if, even if, we want to entertain the idea of this being a cold feet scenario or a buyer’s remorse scenario. That’s where I look at this thing and say, Man, your fan base is crushed by this. Your fan base is ticked by this. Your fan base is really disappointed by this. And that’s why I said in terms of, you know, your scenario, of, you know, Dak Prescott and his fiance breaking it off, right, and getting cold feet, the Ravens were getting universally praised. I mean, all you heard even two days into

Nestor Aparicio  51:12

and now they’re getting universally beaten up because they’re back out of it. And to your point, it’s gonna take two years to know whether Max Crosby’s any good or not. And either way, the 14th pick will be out running around on the field. We’ll be like, Oh, we got a guard, we got a center, whatever, you know, whatever they’re gonna get, right?

Luke Jones  51:26

We’ll be scrutinizing that player. We’ll be scrutinizing who they take next year in the first round, right? We’ll be scrutinizing what they do with that $30 million we’ll be scrutinizing everything Max Crosby does, assuming he’s whether he’s with the Raiders or whether the Cowboys reignite trade talks. I mean,

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Nestor Aparicio  51:42

this stuff happened. Remember when Minnesota didn’t go out and put the pick in, we wound up with

Luke Jones  51:46

Suggs, and that turned out pretty well. And I say that as someone who absolutely wanted Byron left, which so sometimes the best deals you can make are the ones you don’t make, right? I mean, if that makes sense so

Nestor Aparicio  51:58

well, and that’s what that we’re gonna learn selling you. That’s what he’s saying when he’s in front of you, that

Luke Jones  52:03

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they’re saying, I’m not, I’m presenting. We’re presenting all sides to this, right? I say we did, I think we were very fair in all of this. I will continue to say, regardless if, even if the Ravens had full integrity and how they handled this, full good intentions, they they’ve and if that’s the case, they feel horrible right now. They feel absolutely sick right now because of everything I just mentioned, as far as the perception, the opportunity cost, what else you could have done? What this means? I mean, even if you want to try to sign Trey Hendrickson, by the way, his agent’s looking at this and saying, Well, Baltimore, is it deal? A deal with you there, when I shake hands with you, there’s that, but there’s also, are we running up and up? There’s also, you guys are really desperate right now, aren’t you? Right? The cost yesterday isn’t what it is today, right? Two, can play that game so, so point is, look, it’s, this is a lousy development, and whether the Ravens had purest intentions and honest intention, intentions and and all that, or if it was something that was a little more the buyer’s remorse, cold feet, all you know, all the different scenarios which they’re allowed to do, right? Technically they’re allowed to do, this is still something that, from an optic standpoint, it makes everyone look bad, right? It makes everyone look bad.

Nestor Aparicio  53:23

I mean, they do a lot of things that are optically not great, and you know that, you know, like, I just in a general sense, and I they don’t care about optics. They just don’t like they don’t if they thought that that he was gonna help them win, they I guess they’d have him. And if whatever second thought is, doesn’t matter what the second thought is, it’s, it’s business, baby. You know, I agree with

Luke Jones  53:41

you, but they also recognize, though, that it’s generally not good business to be in a position then when the 31 other teams aren’t going to trust you as much as they did four days ago, and aren’t going to be as eager to deal with you as they might have been four days ago, and the same goes for agents too. So look, that doesn’t doesn’t mean they’re doomed. This doesn’t mean the franchise is going to be ruined moving forward. But, I mean, dude, we were you and you know me, I’m not missing Super Bowl favorite. I mean this, this is a devastating thing to happen on so many different levels, beginning with the fact that we thought the Ravens were acquiring a Hall of Fame player. They’re not now, if they get Trey Hendrickson, then hey, that ends up being a really nice consolation prize. And who knows, maybe ends up being better, even though he’s two years older and not as good against the run, if, if Max Crosby’s career is in major decline.

Nestor Aparicio  54:35

But if you’re on the wnst tech service, you get it first, right? You will,

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Luke Jones  54:39

you will, we will still be busy, they will make other moves, whether it’s Trey Hendrickson or others that aren’t, as you know, the same household names. But I think at this point, you know, if someone asked me late Tuesday night whether they could still do a that ship sailed, I think the Raiders are done with the Baltimore Ravens, as it pertains to Mike Max Crosby,

Nestor Aparicio  54:59

based on the state. Statement that when I got off the yoga mat, was pretty upset. My thanks to my friends at Planet Fitness for trying to keep me healthy. Here, Luke is holding down the Ford. If you’re on the wnst tech service, you’ll get it first. It’s all brought to you by Cole roofing and Gordian energy bill. Cole and I had a great conversation. He joined me at missone. He’s over in Perry Hall. It’s had a great time at missone. He’s caught up with some old friends. We were Costas. We were gertrudes. You’ll hear it all this week for those you holding tickets for the Dan Roderick show, you’re gonna love it, dude, if, if I can get you tickets for the Roderick show, you should go this weekend, because it’s that good. But, and it’s got a baseball theme too. It’s got a Baltimore theme, you’ll love it. There’s even Brooks and Frank are in it. I am Nestor. We are W NST am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. Cancel the max Crosby jerseys. He ain’t coming here. You.