Reflecting on the life, faith, courage and Baltimore football legacy of O.J. Brigance and the miracle of how he turned an ALS diagnosis into a source of encouragement for others.
Nestor and Luke reflected on the life, faith, courage, and Baltimore football legacy of O.J. Brigance, emphasizing how he turned an ALS diagnosis into a source of encouragement for others.
Legacy Focus
Discussion: Nestor described a 32-year connection to O.J. Brigance, recalling his early days in studio at the Lord Baltimore Hotel and his later presence in the Ravens facility hallway, where his office remained a meaningful stop for many. Luke said he regularly looked forward to seeing him around the building, including in the post-COVID era, and noted how even when Brigance could no longer speak, he still communicated recognition and warmth through his expressions.
Faith Impact
Discussion: Luke centered much of Brigance’s legacy on his Christian faith and quoted his message of asking not “Why is this happening to me?” but “What can I learn from this?” and “How can I impact someone else’s life?” Both speakers stressed that he did not appear to spend his illness feeling sorry for himself, but instead used more than two decades living with ALS after a 2007 diagnosis to mentor, encourage, and support players, colleagues, and others in the community.
Baltimore Story
Discussion: The conversation highlighted Brigance’s football significance in Baltimore: winning a Gray Cup with the Baltimore Stallions, then making the first tackle in Super Bowl 35 for the Ravens a little more than five years later. Nestor referenced his earlier writing in Purple Rain One, Purple Rain Two, and Baltimore Positive, while also noting Brigance Brigade, Drew Forrester, Mike Gathagan, and Bonnie Downing as part of the broader circle connected to his story.
Open Questions
- When was the last time O.J. Brigance was physically in the Ravens building?
- When will Nestor be ready to record additional tribute conversations or publish his full tribute at Baltimore Positive?
- Publish previously written reflections about OJ Brigance on the Baltimore Positive website after the emotional intensity of the segment allows. (@Nestor Aparicio)
- Create and publish a full tribute piece about OJ Brigance on the Baltimore Positive website once personal thoughts are fully processed. (@Nestor Aparicio)
Remembering O.J. Brigance
- Nestor opened by framing the conversation as a tribute following O.J. Brigance’s passing on Monday night.
- He described a long personal history with Brigance, from his early playing days to his later years working in the Ravens organization.
Presence and Character
- Luke said he saw Brigance regularly around the Ravens facility and made a point to greet him.
- He described how Brigance continued to connect with people even after losing the ability to speak.
Faith and ALS Journey
- Luke emphasized Brigance’s Christian faith and the way he responded to ALS with purpose rather than self-pity.
- The discussion noted his 2007 diagnosis and the extraordinary length of time he lived with the disease.
Football and Baltimore Legacy
- The speakers highlighted Brigance’s Gray Cup win with the Baltimore Stallions and his first tackle in Super Bowl 35 with the Ravens.
- They presented his career as a unique bridge between pre-Ravens Baltimore football and the city’s later championship era.
Future Tributes
- Nestor said he has published a piece and may later share more written reflections and tribute conversations.
- He mentioned possible future remembrances involving Mike Gathagan and Bonnie Downing.
Nestor Aparicio 0:02
Welcome home. We are WNST AM 1570 Tass of Baltimore. We are Baltimore positive. This is going to be a tougher segment for me. I don’t know that we’re going to go long form in this, but the passing of OJ Brigantz on Monday night has brought Luke and I together to talk about a guy that is very real to me from 32 years ago in my studio at the Lord Baltimore Hotel to walk in as a little bit of an undersized linebacker even by CFL standards and lead the life that he led, Luke. I know you want to talk about Juice. I’ve talked about him at length. I’ve written, you know, segments in two different books about him, as well as my friendship with him. And I’ll have other people on, like Mike Gathagan, who Bonnie Downing, and people that you know have known him as long as I’ve known him. Quite frankly, or knew certainly knew him better. But I want to give you some oxygen because I know it’s a they’re gonna be out. The team’s going to Minnesota. They’re coming back. They’re doing things. I don’t know the last time OJ was in the building, but before they threw me out, it was a big, big part of me walking down that hallway. And his office was there, and I saw OJ a lot after his illness, a whole lot. And he would even throw me emails to pick on me further after I left his presence, so I loved OJ, but you didn’t really know OJ, did you?
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Luke Jones 1:26
I mean, did I know him in the way that you knew him before his diagnosis and what ALS had done to his body? No, I’m not going to exaggerate that, but I looked forward to seeing him regularly. I mean, for anyone who I think most Ravens fans are even intimately familiar enough to know that O.J. McGance was around the building with regularity. I mean, the COVID era obviously made that a little bit, but even as of last year, right? Even the last couple seasons, he was still there, and you know, it it went from, you know, I I don’t know if I knew OJ when he could still speak, but you know, he had his his automated you know computer that that would allow him to rate people and say hello, things of that nature, you know, got to a point where maybe it was just a smile, but but even these last few years, you’d see his eyes get wide, right? That that would be the way that he would recognize someone. So, and I always made it a point,
Nestor Aparicio 2:33
dude. You’re gonna crush me now doing that, man. No, no, but but but I always made it
Luke Jones 2:37
a point to say hello to him, right? And it’s not easy to see anyone go through a horrible disease like ALS. But frankly, I mean, it’s it’s difficult. Nestor, if I’m being fully, you know, transparent and honest, I mean, it would be difficult for me to to talk about someone like O.J. Brigantz without my faith being part of that, OJ was a Christ follower, strong faith. Talked about this. I mean, the Ravens put out a lovely video of just him talking in the early years of his diagnosis when he still had the ability to speak. And one of the points he made is, you don’t know how strong your faith is until you sit across from a doctor, and they tell you I have ALS, and I mean that’s just chilling to hear that. But there was a quote that they cited towards the end of that, and I want to read it because I think it’s, you know, whether you’re a Christian, whether you’re someone that’s searching from a faith standpoint, whether you’re not religious, whether you you’re not someone of faith, I think it’s still a really important message because how you impact others is the most important thing you can do in in your life here on Earth. And his quote was talking about his diagnosis and just talking about people in general going through struggles, whether we’re talking about disease or losing someone else or whatever you might be going through. We all have bad days. We all have bad weeks. We all have bad months. We all have bad years at some point in time in our lives. But his quote was, “Never ask the question, ‘Why is this happening to me? But more so, what can I learn from this? How can I impact someone else’s life from the situation I’m going through, and you know I could quote I could quote scripture that would align with that. I can think of you know something that my pastor at my own church often talks about. It’s really really easy to ask God why why is this happening to me, but instead of asking that Lord, what are you trying to teach me how can I impact other people, and my goodness, O.J. Brigantz lived that mindset. I’m sure O.J. had bad days. I’m sure he had moments of weakness with his family, and you know, felt sorry for himself from time to time. I’m sure we all experience that, whether you’re. Someone who has the strongest faith that you can have, or you have all the money in the world, or all the recent, you know, whatever it might be. We all have bad days, right? So OJ undoubtedly had bad days, but I don’t get the sense from anyone who knew him intimately well how active he was, the way he impacted so many people in that building in Owings Mills, and in this community, the work that he did for ALS research and just you know the the charitable individual that he was, I don’t get the sense that he spent a whole lot of time feeling sorry for himself. And man, is that not a lesson we all can take away in terms of we all have bad days and we all have things about our lives that we wish could be different, but he lived his life in a way that my goodness, yeah, he won a Gray Cup, and we can get to that because there’s there’s a beautiful he’s a beautiful part of Baltimore football history I think, and I’ll get to that in a moment. But him being stricken with ALS, and you know, it would be really easy to just look at that and be like, “That poor guy, that poor guy. Why did he have to go through that? And he could have, that could have been the his mindset for the rest of his life. But instead, he had an incredible amount of power to influence others, to inspire others, to encourage others. You know the stories of Ravens players, former players, current players, all of that, who would get notes from O.J. You know, I mean, you just mentioned you got emails from O.J. The the way that he did not. If I open
Nestor Aparicio 6:38
my email box right now, but you’ll be ending the segment. But I’m I’m sitting here reading this this this. I mean, everything about this chapter I wrote is about God. God has prepared me. Yeah, I must find a way to help people.
Luke Jones 6:51
But but I just want to. And again, I am not I’m not trying to act like I knew Him very well. I did not. But man, see, I did, and that’s his legacy. His legacy to inspire the number of people that he inspired, and will continue to inspire long, long after this current day that we’re talking about. That’s special. That that’s man. You want to talk about strength? That’s that’s a heck of a lot more strength than anything he did on the football field, which guy played, guy won a Gray Cup with the Stallions, made the first tackle in Super Bowl 35. Which I I always will say that is such an underrated, beautiful part of Baltimore football lore that the guy that was kind of sort I don’t want to exaggerate it, but close was kind of sort of the Ray Lewis of the Stallions and what the CFL meant at that moment in time for Baltimore football fans, whetting their appetite for the Browns to come to Baltimore and become the Ravens, and being what it’s become over the last 30 years, for him to have won a Gray Cup with the Stallions, and then short a little over five years later make the first tackle in Super Bowl 35. Something really beautiful about that, and that’s long before we get to any of this that was so much bigger than football. What a! I mean, I wrote
Nestor Aparicio 8:12
about him in those terms in Purple Rain One, not to know what the rest of his life would be like, and the Purple Rain Two thing. I would encourage-it’s in the front of Baltimore Positive. I mean, I wrote it 13 years ago. It was really a biography of where he was at that point in his journey. Obviously, the Brigands Brigade. I’ve had Drew Vanille. I’m all these people. I-I’ll just-I’ll-I’ll be too soupy. I’ve written some things that I’m going to put up on personal passage because I don’t think I can sit here and talk about it. I was going to invite Mike Gaffigan out. I don’t think either one of us or Bonnie. I think there’ll come a time for that, but I don’t know. In a world looking for inspiration, there there goes.
Luke Jones 8:55
Yeah, I mean, like I said, it’s very powerful, and it would have been very easy for him and his family to not conduct themselves in the way that they have, and it’s such a testament to them. It’s a testament to their faith, and it’s just look at you just look at the impact he’s. I mean, this man was diagnosed with ALS in 2007, which means he probably had it for over 20 years. Anyone who know, I know very little about ALS, but one life expectancy there. Well, there’s that, and there’s also diagnosing ALS really involves ruling out everything else under the sun. Basically, when it when you’re talking about that line of, you know, your body breaking down, all of that. So, I mean, this is someone who lived with that for, practically speaking, more than two decades, and that’s just that’s in his life for our hearts. Oh, of course, of course, and and you know, I mean, obviously, you know, your your heartaches for them, but. Again, as as you know, considering him, I didn’t know him extremely well, but he’s a brother in Christ. I, I mean, I just I’m blown away at the witness he was and the inspiration he was to so many people in so many ways. That I mean, think about it. He played one year for the Ravens. I mean, he played one season, but you know, he he spent as long as he did in the capacity that he did to mentor players to talk to them about you know whether it’s their finances or what you’re going to do after football, going going and getting your degree still things of that. I mean, he did those things for such a long time, and again, the number of former players who would say O.J. would keep in touch with him, and you know, his mind. The the the thing that’s so awful about ALS is that your mind, you know, you’re trapped in your body basically, but your mind does not deteriorate. I mean, he was still sharp guy. Some of those clips they played about some of his one-liners that he would even come come off with with his computer speaking for him. You know, just very powerful. It’s absolutely a sad day, but at the same time, it’s important to celebrate. And boy, what a courageous fight! And you know, again, for me to sit here and to not lean into my faith-I mean, the the the glorification of him in the kingdom at this point in time now, man, we will miss him. But boy, what a journey and what an impressive witness to to his faith that that O.J. Brigantz was.
8Nestor Aparicio 11:46
The piece is up, and it I can read on about Brian Billick’s story where he came in and told Brian he had this great opportunity ahead, and it was this illness. You know, the stories are there. Go check them out at some point when I can conduct myself. I will, but in the meantime, we’re sharing the stories of O.J. Brigantz. He’s Luke. I am Nestor. We are WNSTA in 1570 Taos in Baltimore. I will have a tribute up at Baltimore Positive when when I can fully complete my thoughts.
