It’s always a pleasure to welcome NFL historian and lifer sports writer Howard Balzer from the desert back to get Nestor ready for another Baltimore Ravens season with a deep conversation about the changes coming to the Pro Football Hall of Fame selection system and the long road to Canton for Lamar Jackson and any of the other current players starting another long season with Super Bowl hopes and yellow jacket dreams.
The conversation examined NFL changes, Pro Football Hall of Fame voting, and the Ravens’ outlook for the upcoming season.
Hall Of Fame
- Howard said the modern-era finalist pool will shrink from 15 players to 13, increasing competition among returning finalists and newly eligible players.
- He emphasized that first- and second-year eligibles can displace long-waiting candidates, citing Torry Holt, Reggie Wayne, Steve Smith, and Marshall Yanda as examples of debated cases.
- Howard identified Andy Russell as a deserving player who remains outside the Hall of Fame and said team representation may influence voters.
Ravens Outlook
- Howard expects Baltimore to remain competitive but rejected predictions of 13 or 14 wins, identifying Cincinnati as a serious AFC North contender.
- Both speakers stressed that offensive-line stability, injuries, and close-game execution often determine outcomes more than quarterback narratives.
- Open question: Can Jesse Minter sustain the organizational consistency associated with John Harbaugh while meeting expectations for a playoff run?
- Appear at the Ravens scratch-off event at Costas in Dundalk on Friday. (@Nestor Aparicio)
- Publish coverage of primary rock-and-roll bands and music artists at a rate of two features per week for the next 14 weeks. (@Nestor Aparicio)
NFL Landscape
- International games are expanding, creating scheduling and travel challenges.
- Howard questioned the practicality of an 18-game season with every team playing an international game.
Rams And Team Building
- The Rams’ success was attributed to strong late-round drafting, salary-cap flexibility, and personnel evaluation.
- Their roster was contrasted with teams overly dependent on star acquisitions.
Hall Of Fame Process
- The finalist pool is changing from 15 modern-era players to 13.
- New eligible players can push established finalists out of the discussion.
- Howard discussed Andy Russell, Torry Holt, Reggie Wayne, Steve Smith, and Marshall Yanda.
Ravens And Quarterbacks
- Baltimore’s outlook depends on coaching transition, offensive-line health, and execution in one-score games.
- Howard argued that team context heavily affects quarterback records, using Jacoby Brissett, Archie Manning, Steve Young, and Kyler Murray as examples.
Player Perspective
- Howard named Roman Gabriel as an early favorite and Marshall Faulk as a later favorite.
- Faulk’s preparation and quarterback-focused film study were highlighted as influences on his running instincts.
Nestor Aparicio 0:01
Welcome home. We are WNST AM 1570 Towson, Baltimore. It is Baltimore positive. It is that time that you’ve waited for. It’s football season. I have the Ravens scratch off in the Maryland Lottery on Friday at Costas in Dundalk. Don’t come to Towson looking for me. I’m gonna be in Dundalk where the crabs are, and where Congressman Johnny O is going to be stopping by. He’s on the campaign trail as well. Our friends at GBMC keeping me healthy, although I’m gonna have a fried crab cake because I’m in Dundalk on Friday. I’m just gonna do that. And our friends at Farnham and Derm are the comfort guys at 410 367777. They put us out on the road. Luke has been in Owings Mills all week. The Orioles are circling the drain, even though I’m wearing my orange farther. Zach send something purple. Season’s about to change. I’m going to change the whole motif around here. Howard Balzer is here. He’s the man, the myth, the legend. He’s been my friend for a long, long time. Back to St. Louis, even his days in Philly before this whole thing started, sort of like you’re like that Eagles song about Manifest Destiny, the last resort. You know where it sort of started in Providence and then it went, you know, across the country and got to Hawaii. You, dude, you’re one skip of California, and you’re going to be in Lahaina. I’m telling you, man, you’ve made it to Phoenix. Look at you out there. Everything good?
Howard Balzer 1:21
Everything’s good, man. Everything’s good. You know, back in the day, growing up in Philly, of course, the football wasn’t good except when I was nine years old and the Eagles won the net the NFL championship. But wasn’t that good later? But hey, yeah, like you said, hopscotched across the country. I don’t know about the Lahaina thing. Would be nice to be there, but I hear it’s a little pricey, so I’m not sure that I’d be I’d be ready for that. But loving Phoenix, it’s hot in the summer, but we’re finally through most of the bad stuff, and now getting ready for another NFL season. What could be what could be better what could be better than that?
Nestor Aparicio 1:54
You had a scorpion in your house yet in Arizona. I always wonder about this. A
8Howard Balzer 1:58
few, yeah, small ones. Yeah, I know, but nothing really. As soon as it happened the first time, it was a quick call to the exterminator, and good company that anytime you see something, they’re they’re coming out the next day. So it just weirds me out.
Nestor Aparicio 2:14
You know, I live in the woods now, and we got snakes and things, and like you know, I’m I’m tenderfoot from Dundalk, man. We just had a squirrel or two, so that’s exotic to me that you’re going out to Phoenix. Of all the things I could ask about, you know, scorpions. Um, how are you feeling about the league right now, Howard? I mean, like me, you’re a little older. They’ve sprewed around with the Hall of Fame voting now, and I know you’ve been a part of that. I had I had Mike Chappell on this week with the Colts game and and Lamar and Colts versus you know Ravens is always something on our side of the fence and somebody your age as well. But like, how are you feeling about the league? I mean, we’re playing in Brazil in three weeks. I mean, there are parts of this that if Art Modell came back tomorrow, he wouldn’t recognize it. David might not recognize some of it.
Howard Balzer 2:57
No, you’re 100 right. And this whole international deal is obviously expanding and growing a lot more. You know, Commissioner threw out a couple of weeks ago about actually having teams out there. I don’t know if that will ever be logistically truly possible, and I think the way they do it now, actually, if you’re going to have a lot of international games, is the way they do it because you go to you know different cities, the fans love that one game, right? Fans from the United States, you know, as many as can go to the game, and they they don’t have to worry about their team going four and 13, right? Because I I don’t know how much love there would really be if some of those international teams, if you had an actual team, would be that good. So, but yeah, it just plays havoc with the schedule. Obviously, yeah. Kyle Shanahan of the 40 Niners talking earlier this week. He’s trying to figure out what day it is because it’s earlier there. And then someone you’ll love this one. I don’t know if you saw it. Someone posted something about Raheem Morris, who was the 40 Niners’ defensive coordinator, and he turned 50 on the day. I think it was the day that the that the 40 Niners were in the air, right? And so when they left, it was the day before his his birthday. When they got in Australia, it was the day after his birthday. So he missed
Nestor Aparicio 4:14
the whole day. He missed it all. Yeah,
Howard Balzer 4:15
he he missed the whole day for what his birthday was. So I thought first
Nestor Aparicio 4:18
50th too. That’s not even that’s not right. Yeah, I
Howard Balzer 4:21
thought that was that was pretty interesting, and also to see the way all these. I remember in the beginning, Nestor teams would just routinely go out there for, if not the whole week, for most of it, just to get accustomed to where they were, where they are, go around the city and meet people and all that. Well, now you have the 40 Niners going out a week in advance, and the Rams are showing up a day before the game, and so they feel that’s the way we want to do it. Although I did find out this note yesterday is guess what, the Rams cheerleaders are there. The Rams cheerleaders are in Australia now, going around town making appearances and and things like that. So, but in any event, it’s it’s. Become a part of the NFL landscape, and obviously we all just have to get used to it. And if there is a team, I’m sure it’s far down the road, but you know they’re pointing to this time where you want to have 16, you know, have 16 games where every team plays an international game. And here’s the thing: I don’t get it would be in conjunction with an 18-game season, to me, that’s that that’s not logical. Stay with 17 games, and then every team has one neutral site game, and then everyone has eight home and eight away. If you had 18, then you’re going to have an imbalance in those home and away. But you know, we’ll see what develops down the road. But it is quite a change from obviously the way it used to be.
8Nestor Aparicio 5:44
Howard Balzer’s my guest. He’s the H-Man. You can find him out at SiriusXM. Where can people find you, the Lindy’s? I mean, you’re on the internet. You’re-I mean, you’ve been covering the league 50 years. How many years?
Howard Balzer 5:54
Yeah, I-I just-I just celebrated my 50th anniversary of covering the NFL.
Nestor Aparicio 5:59
Unbelievable, man. I mean, I’m stand up, man. I I’m I’m about to do 35 on the radio, and I think I’ve done something. I don’t know, dude. Wake me if I’m still here 15 years from now doing year 50. I mean, seriously.
Howard Balzer 6:10
Yeah, and you know it’s funny because you mentioned Lindy’s. I you know back in May we I finished my 34th Lindy’s Pro Football Preview magazine, and then I didn’t realize it at the time. But on the cover of this year’s magazine, they had a little thing on the on the front that said 40th anniversary. I didn’t realize it. So of all Indies going back that long, there’s only six that I didn’t do. Right, 34 of 40, and so you know you catch me on SiriusXM now and then do Hall of Fame shows for them, and then I cover the Cardinals here in the desert. Cardswire.usa USA Today.com, part of their NFL Wire network, and cover the Cardinals there. So it’s you know it’s fun being you know still being attached to a team and you know seeing what the Cardinals will potentially do this season after another change at head coach, which seems to be something the Cardinals do very frequently.
Nestor Aparicio 7:07
I love that your Emmy is in the shot here as well. L.A. Speaking of Emmy, I saw that and I’m thinking awards Hollywood. I texted with Phil Savage the other day. I don’t even. It may have been about losing O.J. I think it may have been that. No, it wasn’t. It was the 30th anniversary of Ray Lewis. September 1st was the first Ravens game. September 1st, 19. I’ve texted with Bob Costas this week because he was the broadcaster. One of your one of your St. Louis people. But Bob Trump, he’s not here anymore. But Don Donald Trump is. That day was 30 years ago last week. So I text Phil something, and he texts me back. He’s working for the Rams, and he texts me that he’s finally, finally made it back to an organization. All these years after leaving Ozzie and the Ravens, back to like this incredibly competent machine. Everybody just thinks they’re going to roll the ball out, and the Rams are just going to win. So I mean, I find it funny, and they might even lose before people hear this on Thursday or Friday or over the weekend. Right? Who knows, right? But where are you on that? Because they are-I don’t know-they’re sort of the super team, if there is such a thing, right this minute, right?
Howard Balzer 8:17
Yeah. Well, they look-they look to be. There’s no doubt about it. We all know that a lot of times the teams with the highest expectations don’t live up to them for whatever reason it might be. But you you mentioned about being a well-oiled machine. I mean, obviously, it doesn’t mean you’re going to make the Super Bowl every year. That’s virtually impossible. But they’re in the hunt. They’re they’re in the running, and and and and the thing about it is, what’s overlooked a little bit, Nestor, is that everyone concentrates on you know the trade for Mile Garrett and then trade for Jalen Ramsey a few years ago, and you know not having first round picks for so long. The thing about it is, and you know I got to know Les Snead a little a little bit in St. Louis when he became the Rams’ general manager until they moved, which was 10 years ago. Hard to believe 10 years ago that that the Rams moved back to L.A. But the one thing that he has built there in that well-oiled personnel evaluation machine is, and all you have to do is look at the roster and see how many guys they hit in the third round, the fourth round, the fifth round, all all those guys that are in a lot of respects you’re rolling the dice, right? But so many of them hit, and that enables you to then trade because you have guys on small lower contracts for several years, and so you’re able to trade for guys that can give up high draft picks, make a lot of money, but you’re able to balance your salary cap with a lot of those younger guys who just step in and play very well at later rounds in the draft, and that that’s what they’ve been able to do on a consistent basis. I mean, you look at Puka Nakoa, fifth round pick. I’m pretty sure Kyren Williams, very good running back. I think he was a fifth round pick. So. They printed up
Nestor Aparicio 10:01
shirts that said “F those picks, right? He
8Howard Balzer 10:03
did. He did, and so you know, obviously, you know the NFC’s got a lot of really good teams, and especially in the division. I mean, let’s remember, the Seahawks, the Rams, and the 40 Niners were 38 and 13 in combined in the regular season last last year, that that’s that’s phenomenal. That’s that’s just crazy stuff. And there’s no reason to think that the Rams won’t be very good, the Seahawks won’t be very good, and probably the 40 Niners. So you know those those are the teams to beat in the NFC. But you still have other teams that you know feel they can knock them off. Whether it’s the Lions, whether it’s the Cowboys, you know whether it’s the you know the the Vikings. It’d be very interesting to see with Kyler Murray at quarterback. So nothing is ever given, nothing is ever guaranteed. You got to do the work over a 17 game season, but they’ve got as good a chance, obviously, and probably a better chance than anybody.
Nestor Aparicio 10:57
Love kicking off a season is a little bit of a tradition that I my friends who are Hall of Fame voters Clark Judge a bunch of folks that I know I haven’t reached to Peter King this week but the Hall of Fame’s going through. So anything you want to say on the Hall of Fame before I get to the Ravens and other stuff because I mean I can go in a million directions with you but
Howard Balzer 11:14
yeah
Nestor Aparicio 11:15
um those of you who have for most of my career, this century, as long as the Ravens have been around for 30 years, most of you have been the same group of people, and I would even throw Garceau in on the Baltimore end for the most part. I wanted to be one of those guys 20 years ago when I was doing my 20th Super Bowl. Like, right? I mean, I did 27 Super Bowls, so you know, I’m sort of qualified. I’ve written two books on championship teams. You know, like I guess in the old vernacular, the next man up might have been me if Kevin Byrne were here and Chad Steele weren’t the guy that Chad Steele is. But I I gotta be honest, dude. My last name’s Aparicio, and I’ll go Baseball Hall of Fame for 100 or football Hall of Fame for 200 or whatever, even Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which I I love I love rock and roll music, but I mean until they put sticks in, it ain’t a thing for me. You know what I mean? Like stop. I mean you’re gonna be punitive until baseball puts Marvin Miller in. I don’t even want to hear from them, and football. I don’t know. I always kind of thought because I knew all of you, and I literally walked in on the process for a dozen years, where you guys would be out running, getting coffee and pee, and I’d see the conference rooms you guys were in right there at the Hyatt or wherever. Like, I really had respect for that, Pete Fearley, and and just all of it. Steadman’s role in that, and sports writers being in that that little tiny little area where the water fountains were, and the bathrooms when you walk into that little front part. I mean, I loved Hall of Fames. I I’m 35 years into this, Howard. I’ve talked. I’ve argued more with people like you about whether Steve Smith belongs in, or whether Marshall Yonder belongs in, or whether Terrell Suggs belongs in, in the same way that I argued that about Phil Rizzuto 35 years ago, and whether my cousin was worthy, and how Harold Baines ever got in. Like, so I’m mixing and matching here, but on the football side of things, I feel like there’s a there’s a hierarchy, and there things going up. But most of the time on the football side, they’re not running around with Barry Bonds and Kurt Schilling and a bunch of other guys that probably belonging and are not into because they’re dicks or I mean maybe not OJ. I mean I’ll leave OJ out. But in a general sense, I have always felt like the football thing’s way more on the up and up than the other ones. A little bit. Am I right or am I wrong? Am I giving you too much credit?
Howard Balzer 13:41
No, I, I, I will say this. I think there’s a yes and a no, and I think in reality, I think most, you know, we get it right virtually all the time. It doesn’t mean though that there haven’t been guys along the way that have been overlooked. I mean, Art Monk
Nestor Aparicio 13:57
had to wait forever, right? Yeah, yeah, a lot of guys at the Super Bowl, Joe DeLamuler. I mean, I I’ve interviewed lots of those guys that were in the waiting room, like Steve Smith is right now, or Marshall Yanda is right. Like that’s part of the drama. And now they run around and send celebrities and send their best pals and knock. I mean, they have a good. They turn this into like something kind of cool. I think right.
Howard Balzer 14:21
No, yeah, they definitely have. There’s no question about it. And so I think that it’s like you said, you’re always going to have, you know, the favorites in certain cities where people think that oh, how’s this guy not in already? Heck, I’ve full full disclosure. I mean, I’ve I’ve presented Tori Holt six times as a finalist, and he hasn’t been elected yet. And so, but the the thing is, just the numbers tell you you can’t put everybody in. And then what occurs too, Nestor, and here’s the thing that is kind of lost a little bit in it all is that because there’s so many. Players that play NFL football, and there’s so many players that achieve that greatness that you know they’re not all the quote elite guys where you just know you say the name and they’re definitely in. That’s why there’s discussion about them. But every year, you have new first-time eligible guys that become part of the conversation, and so the next class, for example, of 2027 will have first-time eligibles of Ben Roethlisberger, Adrian Peterson. Oh gosh, there’s another one I’m overlooking that it’s not coming to my mind. It’s
8Nestor Aparicio 15:35
okay,
Howard Balzer 15:35
Rob Gronkowski, and so now you have all these. I mean, you know, last year in the in the class that just got enshrined in August, of the 15 modern day player finalists, nine of them were in their first or second year of eligibility. And so, what is it about those guys? Well, they’re fresher on everybody’s mind. I’m talking about Torrey Holt, and
Nestor Aparicio 15:58
somebody will fall off the 15, right?
Howard Balzer 16:00
Yeah. Well, and in fact, with one of the changes now going forward, there’s only going to be 13 players instead of 15. Can you
Nestor Aparicio 16:07
explain the changes, or is it permanent, or do you? I mean, are you comfortable doing? Because it was when I had Mike Chaplin, like it was an hour old at the time, and we were all digesting it. I’m. I mean, again, you’re the first person I’ve talked to. Howard Balzer is our guest here at Baltimore Positive? Help me with it because I haven’t Googled it. I haven’t put it into the AI, and one of the reasons is Howard. I just care less. You know what I mean? Like I care less about a lot of this stuff, honestly, like literally. But I just care less. That’s one thing I don’t want to argue anymore about whether. I mean, I wouldn’t put Suggs in in the hall of shame. That’s how I don’t. I think nothing of him. I would never vote for Terrell Suggs in the of anything that honored him. Now, meanwhile, I would put Yonda in in a heartbeat, right? But I’m I’m assuming they’re both going to get in, right? And this process is going to shake itself out. It’s not going to start taking guys that are Hall of Famers and not make them Hall of Famers, right?
Howard Balzer 17:03
No, no, that won’t happen. But I think what I was alluding to is, as you have these first-time eligible guys come in, and like you said, some guys won’t be in the finals. They don’t get discussed, and it keeps guys waiting a lot longer. I mean, this year’s class had two first-time eligible guys and two second-time eligible guys, and so that means you had 11 guys who were finalists that are eligible to come back, and a bunch of them, Tory Holt and Reggie Wayne, have been waiting the longest in that. By the way, Chapel
Nestor Aparicio 17:37
went nuts on Reggie Wayne, so I guess I’ve had both of you guys on, and I’m mentioning Steve Smith, and he’s another guy that I’m like, I think he belongs in, but I wouldn’t be the guy that necessarily voted for, vouched for him on a on an integrity level.
8Howard Balzer 17:49
And one of the things that happens with with the way it is is that he was a finalist in 2024, or I’m sorry, for the 2025 class, he was a finalist for the first time, and then, along with Reggie Wayne and Torrey Holt, then in this current class, Larry Fitzgerald entered. Well, Fitzgerald ostensibly took Steve Smith’s spot in that final group, and so those are the things that happen in the voting. And the one thing we never know is that take the 15 modern day players. Now it’s going to be 13. You don’t know how many votes somebody missed by from getting into that, you know, to that spot. And I’m sure it’s very close. By the way, my
Nestor Aparicio 18:35
cousin got into the Hall of Fame on the final ballot, and that was very common back in the day that Louis Aparicio got into the pro the baseball Hall of Fame on the final, it was his final year of eligibility on the main ballot. Right, and Phil Jackman, who was one of you know one of your contemporaries and mine, he had a baseball ballot. And Phil was like a crazy uncle to me. And every year, I would you know now they put him out on the internet, whatever. But he would always say to me in his Worcester accent, “Never put him in first ballot. I make them all wait. You make them wait. They get in line. You know what I mean? Like, and that’s now now Aparicio’s up next year. I we will we’ll get him in, is the way he would say. Well, you know, like on the last year, the guys that had to get in got in, but they just didn’t rubber stamp it, and it wasn’t thought of that way in 1972, right? It wasn’t thought of of that guy just retired. It’s time to put him in a Hall of Fame. At that point, it was about putting like Rogers Hornsby in, you know what I mean, Babe Ruth. Like, yeah, same thing with the with the Pro Football Hall of Fame, right? Like at that time, was like Newt Rockney and Red Grange. Not so much can we get Joe Namath in, right? But like, it’s changed. The modern era, all of it’s changed, right? Like you being a Hall of Fame voter, me not wanting to be one. You know, if they called me and said, “Do you want to do it? I’d say, “What do I have to do? You know, but like. I don’t. I think I’m qualified to vote on it. I make an argument, but I’m, I’m too old. I, I, I’ve jumped the shark on it as someone who would run a bus trip if Marshall yawned. I just, I, I don’t, I don’t identify with it anymore because I do think it’s a little weird. All of it when everybody has to explain the rules in the trapdoors and he’s on the belt, and he’s off the bed. Like the numbers don’t change, right? You know that, and that was always my argument in 1993 about guys that got in: Phil Nekro, Burt Blylevin. I had dinner with Bly Levin one night. I swear to God, Howard, you’re going to love this. I had dinner with him. He went Sabatino’s. I know you know Baltimore, and I’m with him and Robbie and Spikowski. They were doing the Pirates games, and Bert knew me a little bit, you know, through the by the but they were doing Twins games. Sorry, Twins games, and I went to lunch with him, and he told me that day. He, I swear to God, and you know Bert’s a funny guy, especially off the air. He told me when they finally vote for me and bring me up on the podium. I’m going to be the first guy to say f all of you from the podium. He didn’t do it, but he said to me, “I mean, there were that’s the baseball Hall of Fame I’m talking about, where guys waited forever and ever and ever who had all the three under things that’ll never happen again. Football doesn’t have that, right? It just has Rob Gronkowski? He gronk, you know, like and and the championships and the pelts or whatever. But when you’re arguing Marshall Yanda versus Reggie Wayne, I don’t, you know, you’re not baseball. At least you’re talking averages and hitters and stuff. The football argument is so wildly subjective in so many ways. It’s so
Howard Balzer 21:40
disparate, like you said, because of the different positions. But there are there are those guys that that wait, you know, quite a while. I mean, a few years ago, Albert Lewis, who in my mind is one of the better cornerbacks in the NFL for a long, long time, but his teams weren’t when he when he was with the Chiefs, they weren’t that good. They weren’t getting into the playoffs, and so he wasn’t noticed as much. He became a finalist for the first time in his final year of eligibility, but didn’t get elected. Sam Mills was elected in his final year of eligibility. Roger Worley in his final year. Eric Allen, who just went in in two classes ago, it was either in his 17th or his 18th year of eligibility, where finally he he was getting he was getting noticed, and so because of you know the the one thing about the Pro Football Hall of Fame is different is you have you have different people advocating for guys. Who’s the one
Nestor Aparicio 22:36
guy you would put in, not the guy you advocate? Who who belongs in that’s not in that. If they made you commissioner for the day and you get to put one person in who’s not in, who would you put in?
Howard Balzer 22:46
There, there’s I could probably name you know several. Give me
Nestor Aparicio 22:50
several. Go ahead, give me the. But I’m going to say
Howard Balzer 22:52
this one guy because I’ve thought this for a long time, and it speaks Nestor to a certain amount of what people refer to as Steelers fatigue, or Packers fatigue, or Raiders fatigue, you know guys that were on teams that were great teams for a long time, and they had a lot of Hall of Famers, and all of a sudden, the thought gets in some people’s mind: Well, there’s enough of those guys in. I mean, look how long Jerry Kramer took to get in, you know, from the seniors. Well, a guy from the Steelers I was going to mention is Andy Russell. This this guy was an incredible linebacker for a long time, but the Steelers weren’t winners while he was in his prime. They became winners late in his career when he wasn’t playing as much. I believe that he was every bit the linebacker that Jack Hamm was, and Jack Hamm sailed into the Pro Hall Football Hall of Fame along with Jack Lambert and Mean Joe Green and Mel Blunt. Donnie Schell waited a long time and didn’t go in until they had that centennial class in 2020. Elsie Greenwood, I mean, Elsie Greenwood’s not in either, and so that happens with teams. And so the concern that Mike Chappell and I have a little bit with Tory Holt and Reggie Wayne is that each each of those guys were you know have similar Hall of Fame pedigrees, but the other part of it is the Colts already have Marvin Harrison in. They have Ezra and James in, and they have Peyton Manning in from those teams. The Rams have Edgerrin James
8Nestor Aparicio 24:29
had to wait and was upset about it, right?
Howard Balzer 24:31
You know, the Rams have Isaac Bruce and Kurt Warner and Marshall Faulk and Orlando Pace, and so in some people’s minds, is there that have thought, oh, there’s enough Rams of of that offense. There’s enough Colts, and and so that does. I believe that that does affect the candidacy of some guys, and it’s you know it’s human nature to to a degree. But I always argue, should it matter if you were a great player by yourself? I mean, and look at some of the other wide receivers that are in the Hall of Fame. Is Torrey Holt, Reggie Wayne, every bit the receiver that Andre Reed was, and Chris Carter, and Tim Brown, and even Art Monk. And so those are the things that happen. And and it’s like I said, it’s human nature. But like you said, it does happen in football, as you pointed out, has happened in baseball.
Nestor Aparicio 25:23
I love when I get Howard Balls run. I can look at him. He’s calling all the time on the bat phone around here, and I get to see how good his hair looks and his Emmy award behind him. And that no scorpions in his shot. He’s out in Phoenix, Arizona, via Philadelphia through St. Louis. Now covering things at Sirius and out on the internet. B A L Z E R. If you’re following along, we always appreciate his time. All right, let’s get on the current for me. I’m wearing my orange. It’s not for the Orioles. I know. I know you could probably do a baseball primer with me too, but Ravens and where they are in the AFC cosmos of depleted conference, thought to be the weaker conference. I have no idea what’s going in Buffalo. What I’ve realized in Buffalo is they have bad ownership. So, like, and you know, I I don’t. They might never get up the mountain. Sort of like Cincinnati. Like it just sort of there’s a curse there. The Ravens, no matter what Eric DeCosta does, no matter what they do to reporters out there, what their kicker does and hazes the community with these women, no matter getting their coach fired and all the transgressions of Harbaugh and whatever, the Ravens always smell good to guys like you and DeCosta. Even when he broke every ethical lie to be such a liar, DeCosta. Oh my God! Like all of this happened, they still are perceived as a 1213 win team. Trey Hendrickson, they’re going to get it together. Oh, Minter’s going to be the next Mike McDonald. Like I can’t find anybody that doesn’t think the Ravens are going to win the division.
Howard Balzer 26:53
I think that the one thing about the Ravens is obviously they’ve had a certain level of consistency for a long, long time, and now there is a first-year coach. I’m not in that group that says 13 or 14 wins. I would be surprised by that because I think that I think the Bengals are a team to watch in the division. Obviously, Joe Burrow has to stay healthy for the entire season, but for the most part, the Ravens are usually in the hunt, and so. But you you make a good point about overall in the conference, and like you said with Buffalo, they’ve you know they they’ve been knocking on the door year after year, and then they change the head coach, and so you don’t know how that is going to go for them. You look at you know the AFC West, Denver’s very good. Obviously, the Chargers are going to be good. The Chiefs you expect to bounce back with Patrick Mahomes. Well, they’re the most interesting
Nestor Aparicio 27:49
story in the sport, right? Yeah,
Howard Balzer 27:50
or they’re one of them. And here’s the thing about the NFL that’s so I don’t know if unique is the right word because we talk about a lot in baseball, Nestor, the teams that have the ability to win one run games, right? But over the course of 162, it gets lost in the shuffle a little bit. When you play 17 games in the NFL, and like the Chiefs last year or two years ago, I think they were 11 and 0 in one score game. 11 and 0 last year. I was
Nestor Aparicio 28:18
going to say if you’re playing 17 games, 10 of them, 10 of them are one-score games. A lot of times for most most franchises, you know, unless you really stink or you’re really crazy elite, you think the Rams are going to be good this year. Maybe they’ll, you know, win nine games by 12. I mean, the Ravens that one year were unbelievable when Lamar was just, you know, in the phone booth. So I mean, it can happen, but by and large, you’re going to be scrapping every other week, if not three out of four.
8Howard Balzer 28:46
No, no question, right? And the the numbers show it that games decide games decided by one score or less are consistently between 50 and 55% of all games, right? Games that are one score games that are one score games at some point in the fourth quarter is between 70 and 75% So who’s the good enough team to make the play that wins it for them in the fourth quarter, or which is the team that has a key penalty or whatever it might be turnover and they lose, you know, that one score game. And so that that’s the difference. The Chiefs last year, I think they were two and seven or two and eight in one score games, and all of a sudden they win only six. So that that is the separator in the NFL, and it’s it’s like it’s it’s a it’s a tried and true formula. I mean, here where I am in Arizona, bad season, bad second half, right? And they say, oh, they were terrible. The defense did this. Jacoby Brissett stinks, and you know all these things. But the Cardinals, even with only winning three games after the first two games of the season, which they both won, by the way, in one score games, after that they won one more game the rest of the year, and they were zero and eight, zero and eight in one score games. So just think of that. If they just split them, then they won seven, and all of a sudden they’re not perceived as one of the dregs of the National Football League. So that’s what separates teams, and it’s it’s year after year that that’s the case. And and so, who who are those teams that have that consistency, that confidence, whatever it might be, to find ways to win those close games, those are the ones that are going to be left standing at the end of the year. And most of the time, if you have a bunch of injuries, I mean, heck, going back to the Chiefs for a moment, they they were just decimated in the offensive line, and the guy that they drafted last year to solidify left tackle, Josh Simmons missed some games for personal reasons. Then he hurt his knee. Well, he came back this year. They were expecting him to be the starter. Guess what? He’s probably not playing on Monday night because of a back injury. And they’re going to be starting, believe it or not, Nestor, an undrafted free agent. It looks like at left tackle. So here they are. Ravens have
Nestor Aparicio 31:00
the same thing going on at center right now in front of Lamar
Howard Balzer 31:03
with Linderbaum leaving, but that left tackle spot. Obviously, you know we saw what happened to the Chiefs in the Super Bowl in the pandemic year when they were missing both their starting tackles, and the Buccaneers had Patrick Mahomes running for his life. A couple years ago, it was the Eagles when the Chiefs had issues on the offensive line, and he was running for his life in that game. So that brings great quarterbacks down to earth when they don’t have that offensive line to protect them and be consistent in those situations when you reach third down, when you’re in the red zone, when you’re in the fourth quarter, and so it’s it’s always amazing to me. I have I have a term I think you’ll like, Nestor. I call it collective amnesia, right? And as we go into a season, everyone talks about this and that about a team, and so much of the talk is about the offensive line. Well, they better have that line together. They better have some stability. Have to avoid injuries on the offensive line because that’s where it all starts on offense. And as soon as that team struggles on offense and has offensive linemen switching spots and missing games and all that, does anybody talk about the line? No. They say the offensive coordinator sucks and the quarterback sucks, right? And and that’s what everybody says, and that’s just the reality. So that’s my that’s the collective amnesia. Everybody forgets what they said about the offensive line, and I’ll give you one good example of a positive. His last year with the Bears, right? They’re winning all these close games at the end. Caleb Williams completes 56% of his passes, and everyone thinks he’s God’s gift, right? Well, what made the Bears good last year? And I’d watch these games coming down that you know they’re on national TV or whatever, and all the announcers are saying, “Oh, Caleb Williams, oh this, oh that, you know, whatever. And he was obviously a part of it, but I didn’t hear anyone mention how in the off season the Bears invested in three interior offensive linemen, two in trades and one a free agent. So they had two new guards and a and a center, and that enabled them to run the ball better. It created balance in the offense and helped them win close games. But no one ever brought it up. No one talked about it. It was all Caleb Williams and Ben Johnson. Ben Johnson’s the genius. Well, you’re not so much a genius when your offensive line can’t block. And the Rams are a good example of what happened. What happened at the year after they won the Super Bowl? And this was with God’s gift to offense, right? Sean McVay. They win the Super Bowl. They come back the next year. Andrew Whitworth, we all see on the Amazon Prime games on Thursday night, he retires. Their center retires. The guy that they have stepping in for Whitworth at left tackle is injured, and he’s out. You know how many games the Rams won the year after they won the Super Bowl? Five. And a big part of it was the offensive line. My guy
Nestor Aparicio 33:58
Havenstein, Marylanders, one of those guys, you know. It’s
Howard Balzer 34:02
been he. He was one pretty consistent, solid guy on the line. Oh, oh, and by the way, Havenstein, up until today now, and he retired after this last season. The Rams had no players left on their roster from their time in St. Louis. Havenstein was the last one. Well, guess what? Aaron Donald’s back. Now they have enough.
Nestor Aparicio 34:26
Aaron Donald played in St. Louis. There you go.
Howard Balzer 34:29
But Howard Balser
8Nestor Aparicio 34:30
would know that. They’re all about
Howard Balzer 34:31
the offensive line. And ask any coach, they’ll say it. Ask anyone in football. But yet, all anybody wants to do is point to a quarterback’s one-loss record and think that it all it was all him and had nothing to do with the other 10 guys on the field with him.
Nestor Aparicio 34:46
Well, you mentioned Ben Johnson. The protege is Declan Doyle, who’s going to run this offense. He was 29 when they hired him at Lamar’s age. He’s now 30, so I got to call him a 30 year old at this point. You’ve seen this in a lot of ways in St. Louis, where Vermeil came in and Jeff Fisher was trying to figure it out for more than five minutes there. I mean, you go back to Philadelphia with Vermeil, and you just good coaching. What John Harbaugh represented here for 18 years, and what Jesse Minter needs to be, and I put you on the spot right now and say, name the last five or six Arizona Cardinals coaches backwards, because like I’m thinking Kings Bear. I’m going through all of the one bowls. The guys that they they barely gave half a shot to some of these guys.
Howard Balzer 35:38
Yeah, that was Steve Wilk. Steve
Nestor Aparicio 35:40
Wilks, sorry about that. I’m sorry.
Howard Balzer 35:42
Backwards, going backwards. You know, they changed coaches again this year after giving Jonathan Gannon three years. Cliff Kingsbury got four years and had been showing progress, and then it was a disaster the fourth season, mostly because of a crazy string of injuries. So they fired him. Kingsbury got there after Steve Wilks was the coach for for one season, and then I’m pretty sure right before him was Bruce Arians, who had a nice nice little run. And but but they’re still
Nestor Aparicio 36:12
chasing Bruce Arians as well. I guess my point is, and here Bishady. I mean, I distinctly remember when he fired Brian, and he had this teary-eyed press conference in his voice. He said, “You know, I just fired a Super Bowl-winning coach. You know, it’s my job to find the next Hall of Fame coach. And he found John Harbaugh, right? So, 18 years later, here we are, and they’ve got this guy, and McDonald’s gone off to Seattle had already won a Super Bowl and is sort of top of class. Harbaugh’s out the side door, but they have a real protege, a Harbaugh. And in the case of Minter, Coach’s kid feels to me like he’ll survive this. It feels to me like if you and I click our heels together and come back in five years, he’ll still be the coach, right? Like this organization doesn’t do that, but you never know. I guess that’s my point. I mean, Zach Taylor’s been to a Super Bowl after Marvin couldn’t get there, and everybody wants to fire him on the spot. Tomlin, they tried firing Tomlin for 15 years, and he still never had a losing season, and they wind up getting a retread Pittsburgh guy, Mike, and they gathered McCarthy, and I’m like, they want something stable there. They don’t want Jesse Minter. They don’t want to take a chance on Mike. They want a guy that ran the Cowboys building and ran the Packers building successfully, and the job’s not going to be too big for him. Jesse Minter, the job might be too big for him, right? I mean, you’ve seen that happen a bunch of times. Sure,
8Howard Balzer 37:43
you just never know. Like you said, you never know. But if you have a good organization and you’re supplying good players, then I remember you mentioned Dick Vermeil earlier. One of his, I mean, everyone wanted him fired after he came to St. Louis, and this was right after the you know the Rams moved there, they won seven the first year, six the next year. Fired the coach, Rich Brooks, brought in Vermeil. They then won five and won four. And everyone who was hailing the arrival of Vermeil said, “Well, the games passed them by, right? Game games passed them by. Didn’t have a quarterback. Didn’t have a whole lot else. One of the first things he did as head coach made the trade to get Orlando Pace, right? And then in the third year, they get to the Super Bowl. But after you know, after that, you know, everyone wanted him fired after his two years. Game has passed him by, and all those things. But they they had a they had a good foundation of talent. Made the trade for Marshall Faulk. Had Isaac Bruce, Kurt Warner fell out of the sky. Yeah, I was gonna say the Kurt Warner
Nestor Aparicio 38:45
thing. I was there the day that happened, right? That was a Scott Mitchell game. It was Billick’s first game as coach. I was out in the dome, the TWA dome. It was still TWA then. Yeah, and like that’s still, dude. I covered Joe Flacco here, and I covered Ray Lewis here, and I covered Cal Ripken here. They didn’t win. You know that that version of the Orson win. But covering Flacco and writing a book on Flacco has how unlikely that was. Delaware, Matt Ryan, all the tentacles that allowed me to write that book and allowed Flacco to win, and now he’s still playing. He’ll never go to the Hall of Fame. We have to worry about him going Hall of Fame, but I think about how fortunate I was that that fell into my life. And Joe just being such a wonderful human, and Kurt Warner, ditto. Kurt Warner’s throwing me a pass once in my life at a charity game. So I love me some. I love Kurt Warner is the real effing deal. And every time I see him on TV, I say to my wife, he’s done my show. I know him this much, a tiny little bit, but not the way you were there. He he is the greatest story to me, even better than Brady. Brady’s really come on as something, being the sixth round pick and all that. And Brady’s so frigging weird, right? Literally by any by any. I had Bob Ryan on this week because we played the Red Sox. He called Tom Brady weird a weirdo, like so you know. But in a general sense, the Kurt Warner thing, dude, what a what a story you had there. I mean, just
Howard Balzer 40:13
well, no, it was maybe one of the great sports stories of all sports ever, ever, ever. But that year that they won the Super Bowl, and Vermeil has pointed this. So anyway, what he said afterwards, you know, I became a much better coach when I had better players, and he realized it. He also pointed out many times that the Rams weren’t on national TV in 1999. Every game except for when they were on the road to San Francisco, and every game was played at noon, St. Louis time, and that offensive line I mentioned-they had added Orlando Pace, they had signed Adam Timmerman as a free agent from the Packers, who was a very excellent right guard. But I, I would, I’ll ask people now and then name the other guys on that line, and no one can even name them. Right? They had an undrafted free agent at center, Mike Grutadoria, a six-round pick at right tackle, Fred Miller, and they had no idea who the left guard was going to be in training camp, and it turned out to be a guy named Tom Newton who had been playing in the World League like Kurt Warner had been, and they all Tom Newton missed two games that season, two, and that was the only games that anybody on the offensive line missed, and so that line was together. They played obviously like a well-oiled machine, and and turned out to be that greatest show on turf. But but again, that that just shows all the things that happened. Mike March wasn’t
Nestor Aparicio 41:37
a very good coach, right? Like exactly right. I mean, he was a genius for a minute, right? So I guess that’s my point of all of this is that when you have a new coach and you haven’t, no one would have thought that Dick Vermeil could. So these crazy stories. One thing we know: Lamar Jackson can win, right? And my letter to Jesse Minter, my dear Jesse letter that I put up at Baltimore Positive is really about, hey dude, there’s not going to be any. We want a playoff game this year. Feel good for us the way Harbaugh can play that game up in New York or out in Arizona. They want a playoff game. They can run around and say they they played into January. They did something. That’s not going to be bueno here. And this whole crop of guys, Howard, you mentioned the the Bengals and the Chiefs running around. They went and got Orlando Brown, the the little Orlando Brown, not the big one, the deceased one. That to play tackle for them, I think of him, and I go back to like when things were good around here, and when they had that early core when Yonda was still a player trying to get into your Hall of Fame. That freight train team of 1819, 20, when Flacco went out before the plague and they did what they did. A lot of those cats are here and they have won nothing. I’ve sat at the lot. I’ve been at. They’ve been thrown out four years now, and I remember sitting behind Marlon Humphrey after they lost to San Diego, after they lost to India. You know, just all the bad losses, all the bad beats. Sitting there, we choked, we choked, we choked. Mark Andrews, Ronnie Stanley, Lamar Jackson. Now put Roquan in there. Like all of those guys still have the L on their head of not being able to even get into the playoffs last year, Mark Andrews dropping the ball two years ago, and we’re still waiting for him. Showed up for the USAA commercial, but not for the podium after after dropping the season. Didn’t show up. I mean, we’re in a different level for these cats. But all of those guys are back. They’re all a year. They brought Clayus Campbell back, dude. Whom I love love you, Clay. But like, they’re trying to do this with some old horses and this young coaching thing, and trying to find the fire under Lamar and Derrick Henry and maybe Mark Andrews and certainly Zay Flowers and some others to like be something that John Harbaugh couldn’t get him to do. You know what I mean? Like literally,
Howard Balzer 44:02
yeah. And that’s that’s the challenge every year in the NFL, and we see these you know young coaches come in and and have success. Once Sean McVay has success with the Rams, every I shouldn’t say everybody, but so many teams want to copy that, and they want to get you know the next Sean McVay. I mean, the Cardinals did it this year with Mike Lafleur, who was on McVeigh’s staff for the last three years, and he seems to have a pretty good idea of what he wants to put together. And the offense, the offense might end up being pretty good and better than a lot of people expect. Kyler Murray,
Nestor Aparicio 44:35
gone right? Like yeah, he’s gone. As I’m saying, they the franchise we did that with Ruchman here on the baseball side, like there’s a bruise about all of that, right? In in a general sense, like that if Lamar sneaks out the side door next year because it doesn’t go well this year, like that’s really coaches one thing. You take Lamar away from this, we got a different thing. In your case out there, Kyler Murray smelled like the guy until he wasn’t right.
Howard Balzer 45:00
Well, no, exactly. He had a lot of great stretches, but then when things started falling, you know, people forget it most of the time that he he he got injured a bunch, which was you know problem with his durability. He was then a lot of time,
8Nestor Aparicio 45:12
but a lot of time. Yeah, what’s that? He’s tiny.
Howard Balzer 45:15
Well, yeah, he’s small, right? And a lot, but a lot of times the guys around him, you know, like when they fell when they fell apart at the end of a couple seasons, DeAndre Hopkins, their best receiver, was injured. You know, so those are the things that can really that can really hurt a team. But you know, the way people view quarterbacks, to me, there might be nothing Nestor that drives me more nuts than when I hear someone say about a quarterback, “Well, he won this, or he did this, as if there’s nobody else on the field. And I’ll tell you a little bit of me in the media. I’m rooting a little bit for Jacoby Brissett because here’s a guy who’s been a backup his entire life. Comes in last year after Tyler Murray gets hurt. They have no running game because of injuries. The defense is decimated by injury, and they go a let the team goes a one and 11, and so here’s all this debate all throughout the off season. Well, he went one and 11. Why are you having that guy start? He he went one and 11 as if there weren’t other things that you know that that had to do with. And so the guy the guy’s pretty good quarterback. Mike Lafleur believes that, and he believes that they can be competitive. They got a very difficult schedule, but I’m kind of rooting for him a little bit just because of the way you know people view him as if the only thing to talk about is a team’s record, as opposed to why the team’s record was what it was. And I use this one example all the time. I think you’ll get a kick out of this. There are many people, Nestor, who believe the best quarterback in the Manning family was Archie, first-round pick in 1971, second overall in the draft. Right, but he has the misfortune of going to the god-awful New Orleans Saints, right? And in 11 seasons with the Saints, the team’s record with him as the quarterback was 3591 and three.
Nestor Aparicio 47:14
Can’t put him in the Hall of Fame.
Howard Balzer 47:16
No, of course not. Well, but what do what what what do you say about RC Manning that shows how good a quarterback he was. He still remained the quarterback for 11 years because they knew they couldn’t get anybody better.
Nestor Aparicio 47:28
Fair enough.
Howard Balzer 47:28
And any other quarterback you put in there, the same thing was going to happen, and that was just a bad franchise and bad teams, and it it you know it sullied his entire career, and he wasn’t able to play at the level that he probably would have been. Hey, Steve Young, you know what Steve Steve Young’s record in Tampa Bay when he went there was three and 16, or not his record. I just I just violated my own rule. The team’s record was three and 16 when he was with the Buccaneers. Where does he end up? Bill Walsh, 40 Niners, succeeds Joe Montana, and the team’s record with him as quarterback in the regular season is 91 and 33. So you think the team around these guys has something to do with it? It just always amazes me how so many people dismiss all of that and think it’s all about the quarterback. Yeah, it’s not tennis, it’s not golf, it’s the ultimate team sport there is, and you have to have all the pieces working, and everybody doing their job, as Bill Belichick would always say, everyone doing their job for a team to be consistent and be successful.
Nestor Aparicio 48:37
Howard Balzer’s our guest. He’s out in the desert. Last thing for Howard is our 28th anniversary. I’m doing all my primary rock and roll bands and music artists two a week every week for the next 14 weeks. Then my 35th anniversary being on the radio’s up, and I’m gonna do a whole bunch of like fun 35 things next year with music because I don’t think there’s gonna be any baseball. I need to put you on a spot though right now on the football side. I mentioned Kurt Warner, who is your favorite football player? Who’s like? I sometimes people forget that the people like you in the media that vote on Hall of Fame and all that, how big of fans we all are. Like how much we’ve given our lives to sports, understanding, knowing not just stats but knowing all to be able to do talk shows and host on serious radio like you do, and doing this for 50 years, but do you have like like Tony Gwynn would be my favorite baseball player ever, right there with Cisto Lascano and Tom Chopey and a few others. But do you have a favorite football players like Ben Narik or something because of your youth or something or no?
8Howard Balzer 49:40
I was starting to try to think of those guys in Philadelphia as I was growing up, and one of my favorites was Roman Gabriel. Okay, and and there’s a guy who put a lot of really good years together. He was a great quarterback, played for the Rams, played for the Eagles. He was one of mine, but it was hard to have too many favorites. Because the team wasn’t, you know, wasn’t very good, and in the years with the Rams covering them, when they when they got really good, you know, Kurt Warner would be in the conversation. But a guy that I respect, I just really love to watch, and he was such a student of the game and such a smart player was Marshall Faulk, and I’ll tell you a quick story about Marshall Faulk. Because if you watch tape of Marshall Faulk’s runs, there would be time where he would be in the open field, right, and all of a sudden he would cut somewhere that it was like he had a sixth sense of who was coming from it from the his left side or whatever, who was coming for him, and he would cut away for him from him, and so I’ll never forget this, Nestor. When he retired, announced his retirement, it came right around the time was right here in Phoenix, as I recall, where the league meeting was in March, and so he was there, I think, doing some TV work, and so they had a little press conference with him on retiring, and so I asked him this question. I said, “Marshall, it’s always been said what a student of the game you were, what how smart you were on the football field. I mean, if the camera came in on him, it was like you know when the camera would come in on Mike Singletary, and you’d see that eyes looking this way and that. The same thing would be true of Marshall Faulk. And the one thing that I I saw him do on several occasions, he’d be lined up to the right of Kurt Warner, right, and Warner would be in the shotgun, and all of a sudden, as the snap came, you see Marshall Faulk slide to the left in front of Warner and pick up a guy who was blitzing because he just he just saw him and he just had a sense that he was going to blitz. So anyway, I asked him. These things have all been said about you. How you always sat in the front row and took notes and all those things at team meetings. Where did you get that from? Where did you get that student of the game? How did that develop? You know what he told me. It was amazing. No one ever asked him this, at least that I had ever seen before. That he said, “When I went to San Diego State, Sean Payton was the quarterback’s coach, and I was there at San Diego State, and I was bored during practice because in high school I played. You know, you play every. You know, you play both ways. San Diego State. You know, I wasn’t on the field half the time, so I went up to Sean Payton one day. I said, “I’d like you to teach me about being a quarterback and what it is, how a quarterback sees things, how a quarterback watches film, how a quarterback studies defenses and has a sense of what’s going to happen, and Sean Payton taught me that, and I said, “Wow! I thought that was one of the greatest answers I’ve ever gotten from a question in my career. So he was he was right there in terms of all of those other things that he brought to his game, and I can’t say unmatched. I’m sure there’s been some others, maybe just as good, but he was he was right there, right there at the top.
Nestor Aparicio 53:08
Well, you brought it full circle because Sean Payton is the Declan Doyle tree that’s going to affect the Ravens. Ravens in Indianapolis this week, easy schedule out of the gate here, Howard. I’m thinking if they’re not five or six and one ish range going into October, I’ll be worried, and by then the Orioles will be way, way asleep at that point. Howard Balzer is here; he is there. Lindy Sirius XM fighting Scorpions, waiting for the baseball playoffs, and covering the National Football League for his 50th year out there. It’s always great to visit. I’m sorry I don’t see you at owners’ meetings and combines and Super Bowls and whatever, but it is nice that we get to visit once or twice a year and talk the game we love, and especially when we could do it here at the beginning of another season where there’s hope everywhere, even in even in Cleveland, man.
Howard Balzer 53:55
I appreciate it. I will throw out you mentioned where people can find me, of course, on on X at H B A L Z E R 721, I I’ll push back on people. I’ll give some unique little perspectives on things. I believe
Nestor Aparicio 54:09
straighten them out, Howard. Straighten them out.
Howard Balzer 54:12
Well, you know, I said to someone yesterday, you know, Jacoby Brissett. I’ll go back to him just for a quick moment. He was elected a team captain, and so this guy with a grand total of 35 followers tweets vibes are low for Brissette being a captain, and so I said, “Well, I’m sure that your 35 followers are impressed with your perspective of the game, and that you know what goes beyond behind what goes on behind closed doors with teams, right? And I said, “What you’re really taking a shot at at Jacoby Brissett being a captain is his teammates voted for him. His teammates voted for him, so you’re really taking a shot at his teammates who don’t know what they want in a leader.” And that the big irony here is that no one’s talking about Jacoby Brissett’s leadership. They talked about that with Kyler Murray all the time. Oh, he’s this, he’s that. He can do this, he can do that. He’s exciting to watch, but he’s not much of a leader, even though people really didn’t know if he was or not. Well, now with Jacoby Brissett, they dismissed it being a leader because the team was one and 11 last year with them, so so anyway, follow me on Twitter, and you get some gems like that from time to time.
Nestor Aparicio 55:26
You know, Howard, I was going to say I call you and and Marvin come out there and stay in Phoenix in February and March for spring. Oh, there’s not going to be any spring training, so you’re going to have February and March free. So fight the scorpions out there, pick up the golf clubs, do some do something that they go to Sedona do some hiking and there’s some pink jeeps or something like that. But I do miss coming out to the Biltmore every other year. I got to be honest with you, I I should make an adventure out there, but it won’t be for spring training. Have a great season and and call here any time. And I hope that the Ravens are relevant enough 810, 12 weeks from now that I can bother you again during the holidays. All right.
Howard Balzer 56:00
Always be my pleasure, man. Always enjoy coming on with you. Take care.
Nestor Aparicio 56:03
Howard Balzer joining us here. You can find him out on exit 721 H Balser 721 also out of Sirius. And he’s just just look him up. He’s been doing this 50 years. He’s a very available individual. I am Nestor. We are WNSD AM 1570 Tassel Baltimore. We never stop talking. NFL. It’s football season. It’s almost the end of baseball season. We’re Baltimore positive.
