Always a pleasant and informative visit with our pal and Ravens Super Bowl XXXV legend Brandon Stokley, who does sports radio in Denver these days and opines on topics like Lamar Jackson or Josh Allen for NFL Most Valuable Player. And even though he’s now just a fan with two Super Bowl rings – and one we don’t talk about in Baltimore – the “other” Manning brother says this game in Buffalo is why everyone loves football.
Nestor Aparicio and Brandon Stokley discuss the upcoming playoff matchup between the Baltimore Ravens and Buffalo Bills, highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of both teams. Stokley praises Buffalo’s resilience and Josh Allen’s performance, noting their playoff failures. He also commends Baltimore’s offense, particularly Derrick Henry and Lamar Jackson, and the Ravens’ defense. The conversation touches on the MVP debate between Jackson and Allen, with Stokley acknowledging Jackson’s achievements but noting the pressure to win in the playoffs. They also reflect on Stokley’s career, his current role in sports radio, and the challenges of maintaining performance in the NFL.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Broncos win, Buffalo Bills, Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen, playoff pressure, Derrick Henry, Super Bowl, MVP debate, Baltimore Ravens, football matchup, home field advantage, NFL season, football teams, coaching impact, football stats
SPEAKERS
Nestor Aparicio, Brandon Stokley
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home. We are W N, S T A of 1570 Towson, Baltimore and Baltimore, positive. We are a positive. Great week here, big football game here. And every week I’ve been trying to reach back out to some alums. Mike Flynn was the legend of the game a couple of weeks ago. So I had to have him on, of course, from the Legendary Super Bowl 35 crew. This guy I thought of right around lunchtime when I’m like, Let’s Go Broncos. We’re all Broncos fans. Broncos are going to win. They’re going to beat Buffalo. And I thought I’m going to call Stokely and get him on a show this week, see what’s going on with him, 24 years after the catch and sea horn and all that stuff. And the last time I had him on, he had this great full ticket from the the away drive game that I actually attended. And since then, we’ve lost the great Phil Jackman, who I attended that game with almost 40 years ago, and the Broncos were limited. I thought who would know more about casing this Buffalo Bills team and telling me who the real MVP is, Lamar Jackson or Josh Allen then Brandon Stokely. He now does sports radio. Always wanted to be me. Now he gets to be me. I always wanted to be him, and all I got stuck with was this Baltimore Colts belt buckle. What’s going on? Stokes, how you been my brother? How’s life in Denver? Oh, it’s great.
Brandon Stokley 01:19
Everything’s great, besides the cold weather, which you know very well over there in Baltimore. So no, everything is great. It was a great year for the Broncos. Obviously, the playoff game didn’t turn out like everyone hoped around here, but overall, great year for the Broncos and man, look rocking and rolling. The playoffs football is here, and the heavyweight matchup is Baltimore, Buffalo. That’s going to be a great one. You
Nestor Aparicio 01:45
were on some teams in the playoffs where you felt like you had the best, better team and lost. You probably were on some teams we felt like, you know, maybe the oh, one team was one of those where we were not really sure of ourselves, and you wind up winning a ring. Um, both of these teams are, you know, have this pedigree, and then my homes be waiting over the hill, probably, you know, by the time the afternoon gets over on Saturday, uh, somehow, some way, Houston makes that happen, then the stakes really get high to have a home game and a championship game again, um, which you’ve only had one year ever. It was last year your ERA never had that either one of your errors never had you I had that song goes, but that was funny, this matchup and these quarterbacks and these offenses and these teams. Do you have any doubt in your mind, who the better team is?
Brandon Stokley 02:36
Wow, I do. You know, I think you look at both of these teams and and going into the year, there was a lot of question marks about buffalo. What are they going to do without Stefan Diggs? They they had to release some other guys. And there’s a transition there to more of, okay, we’re going to try to run the ball better, and we’re going to just say, get some some good receivers, maybe not an upper echelon type of number one like they had with Stefan Diggs, and you’ve seen Josh Allen Excel. You’ve seen that team take a step forward. So I was had my question marks about buffalo, especially after their playoff failures with Sean McDermott and Josh Allen that they’ve had. So here we go. I mean, they they’ve they’ve exceeded my expectations, and it’s in Buffalo, so that’s a tough place to play. And you look at Baltimore this year, I mean, they’ve kind of done what, what we expected them to do. King Derek, Henry’s been awesome, obviously, and Lamar has been awesome, and their defense is now starting to play some, some really good football. So I’m looking forward to this game. It’s going to be a great game. You got two teams that you know have underachieved in the biggest moments in the playoffs, Lamar Josh and those, those rosters have not taken that next step. So a lot of expectations, a lot of pressure on this game. Who, like you said, probably going to be the chiefs. I mean, I wouldn’t be completely shocked if, if it’s the Texans, but expecting the chiefs to be there. So who’s going to be that team buffalo or or Baltimore that’s able to maybe dethrone, you know, the chiefs for us in Indy right? When I had the four year stretch here, we had good teams. We could never take that next step right. Never could get over the hump. Never could get to the Super Bowl. Couldn’t beat New England when it mattered the most, finally, finally, when we did win the Super Bowl in oh six, had New England beat New England? So will that be one of those two teams, Baltimore, Buffalo this year? Well,
Nestor Aparicio 04:36
there is something about that failure in that part of it. You’re dealing with it in Denver right now, where you know coach with a pelt quarterback finding himself first year, optimism starts to go right? I mean, and then, and in Denver, they know, they know what you know. They know winning is all about there, and they’ve been through these dark times. We’ve never really had that in Baltimore, Pittsburgh, I mean, just destroyed the Steelers over the week. Which I know, you know, warms your fuzzies, but also the notion of what they’re doing, where they win every year. They win enough to never get a great draft pick. Tomlin has done nothing but win there, but they never win this time of the year. And then you measure yourself and say, Do I have a quarterback? You never had to worry about that when you had Peyton Manning?
Brandon Stokley 05:17
No, absolutely not. But that put more pressure on you when you have the quarterback, but you still can’t take that next step. And you’ve had great regular seasons, but you can’t take that next step. So you know, both those teams, Baltimore and buffalo, they have the quarterback, right? And Baltimore’s got the coach, I like Sean McDermott there with buffalo, but eventually you gotta figure it out and take that next step. And it’s hard. NFL is hard. These seasons are tough. They’re long. A lot of things have to go your way. I mean, you’ve seen it in Baltimore when you’ve had some terrible injuries just to plead your football team. And so when you get this far, you want to take advantage of the opportunity. And like I said, I can’t wait for the football game. You got to talk about two really good football teams. Well, coached football teams with a lot on the line. It doesn’t get any better than that.
Nestor Aparicio 06:11
Well, you saw the bills Broncos game. Brandon Stokely is our guest, the familiar voice Super Bowl 35 champion. We do forget about his era with those by the way, you collect those tickets, I started collecting the 71 NFL belt buckles. So like, and I picking these things up. I mean, look how beautiful these things are, right? And they’re all like, there are no more Baltimore cults. You know about that? There are no more San Diego Chargers, right? There are no more Oakland Raiders. And I got the St Louis Cardinals one, but I’ll leave that. But this time of the year, I went to Buffalo for back when you were a very young man in the early 80s, I was there for the K gun, 51 to three blowing out the then la Raiders, different Raiders of art, shell buffalo hasn’t won. I mean, you were in these places where we won. Here. You wanted Indianapolis being a part of all of that. There’s just something about the want of Buffalo and that organization and that thing’s really been turned around in regard to the quarterback the stadium coming online. I mean, you know what the locker rooms were like up you know, the whole vibe up there was like, hey, somebody better come in here. Bon Jovi is going to take it to Toronto, right? But all of that’s been stabilized now, and they’re at a point where, like, fan base has never been that, that this is a breakthrough moment for their city, their franchise, their region, and Stokes, you know, it’s like, I mean, you’re from sleeping New Orleans, Louisiana, LSU, and what college football represents, buffalo, the bills are Alabama. And, you know, everything, all the Yankees all wrapped into one in Western New York, and they’ve never had it that. That’s what, that’s why. I almost threw my wife and Luke in the car. Said, Come on, let’s go up there and be a part of this. Then I realized it was 18 degrees, and I was at the Mile High miracle games, I know you were, and I thought it’s nice here on TV. You know what I mean, that’s what I’m doing these days, but, but Buffalo and you played there many times, tough place
Brandon Stokley 08:04
to play. A great fan base. Obviously, they love their bills. But once again, you know, we talked a lot about this with the Broncos going to play the bills. Broncos went on the road last year in the regular season and beat the bills. Didn’t think they could do that. So you look at the playoffs against Buffalo. And what we were talking about here is keep this game close heading into the fourth quarter midway through, because all of a sudden, that fan base is going to tense up, right? They’re going to start feeling that pressure. Oh my gosh. We can’t screw this up again. I mean, this isn’t the last four or five years like the Lamar talk Baltimore’s won some Super Bowls. You look at the bills, they don’t want anything. They’ve gotten close, right? So many times it’s been heartbreak after heartbreak. Fans are just used to they expect it. Bills. Fans expect to get, you know, have a tough way to end the season, tough loss. And we’ve seen it now with Josh Allen, with Sean McDermott. So, yeah, if you ask me, okay, who’s the pressure on? Who’s gonna feel it more? It’s got to be the bills. And they’re playing at home.
Nestor Aparicio 09:08
Brandon Stokely is here. He got Sports Radio out in Denver as well as anyone. He played the game at a very, very high level. Um, I am I reach for it. I’ve worn it all week. I, um, I’m wearing my curio purple, but I I have a Derrick Henry jersey that I bought last week. It arrived on Elvis’s birthday, the King’s birthday, January 8, and I’ve been wearing it. I’ve laundered it, but it’s a Houston Oiler Derek Henry jersey that I found was my size on the internet. For $44.75 I bought it to Hall of Fame jersey and Stokes. I mean, I’ve known you a long time. 25 years I’ve been on the air. 33 years here. I have never compared a football player to Jim Brown. Jim Brown was like, there’s just Jim Brown, everybody else. OJ Dickerson, I’m an Earl Campbell guy, right? You know, any pick, any of the guys you play with, Fauci Jamal, any of these. Eyes, what Derek Henry is doing, and what I that, that what you see in the looks of the defenders wanting to tackle him on an 18 degree night, he can break you dude. Oh,
Brandon Stokley 10:11
absolutely. I mean, how great has he been this year, but how great has he been for the last four or five years? And bigger backs? Yeah, they just kind of hit the wall, and you expect him to really slow down at a certain point, and you know, kind of expected that a couple of years ago, and he just keeps doing it so impressive, but also he has the speed, and that’s still there, with the wear and tear that he’s had throughout college and the NFL now, to continue to do it at the level that he’s doing it at is so impressive. Just goes to show you about the work that he puts in during the off season, during the season, to be able to continue to play at the level that he’s played at, at that position, with the amount of carries that he’s gotten, is just remarkable. And then now you pair him with Lamar and that offense a match made in heaven. And so you know, we played Baltimore earlier in the season, here in Denver, and they just, you know, waxed us. And they’re, they’re, they’re tough to deal with offensively, with that running game. And then also, you look up and you say, Damn. I mean, you gotta cover Bateman, you gotta cover, you know, zay flowers, you know, obviously, if you can play in healthy but then you got Andrews and lively, and it’s like, wow. And then you got to change the pace. Guys coming off the bench there behind Henry, they’re tough to deal with offensively. Now you got the defense playing at a high level. Sometimes it takes some time with a new defensive coordinator to kind of get set in and and figure things out. And so who I tell you what? Nobody wants to see the Ravens right now, stocks,
Nestor Aparicio 11:40
you were a different breed. Coming out of college, the Ravens loved you. You had this relationship with Peyton from years, and then found that spot for yourself, and then continued your career enough to come back and run around in Seattle and some other places. Tell me about your speed. You weren’t the fastest guy, right? I mean, and but did it diminish by the time I had you out here doing Papa shot at the end of your career? Were you markedly slower from a 40 yard dash, because it the first thing you talked about was his speed? And I’m like, Yeah, I guess I’ve sort of taken that for granted, but a guy like you wouldn’t on a 3132 33 year old body, because you had world class speed, but not first round world class speed, but you managed to make it go a long time. And I gotta think you probably weren’t faster when you got into your 30s, and that probably is the Marvel for a guy like you who did this, right? Yeah.
Brandon Stokley 12:37
I mean, certainly I felt like I maintained my speed pretty well. You know, I wasn’t the fastest guy out there, but you were obsessed with it, right? I mean, I wasn’t the I wasn’t the slowest either. So no, I felt like, you know, as I got older, you know, obviously, wasn’t as fast as I was, but you know, it’s more zero to 10, zero to 15, maybe that top end speed in there, but do you still have the quickness and the explosiveness and for a guy like Derek Henry, you know, my last year of Baltimore is 37 years old, and I don’t know how old he is right now, but he still has that top end speed. I mean, guys still can’t catch him when he’s when he gets going, and then nobody wants to fill the box and try to take that guy on in the hole, if you’re a safety or cornerback. And so it’s, it’s been impressive what he’s been able to continue to do after, like I said, I mean, the guy’s had a ton of carries in the NFL, a lot of wear and tear. Usually you don’t see it all of a sudden. Bigger backs, they just kind of it’s done, and they fall off the face of the earth, and it’s like, wow, okay, this guy’s done, and we just haven’t seen it with him. I
Nestor Aparicio 13:47
would think the last thing a guy played the game for as long as you did at the level you did, wants to have is the the food fight on who’s the MVP? You’re not on the air in Buffalo or Baltimore to do that, but I’m sure even in Denver, there’s a little bit of that going on. And you know the value of a saquon Barkley and a Derrick Henry and a Joe burrow who didn’t win, but played great, right as an individual? Where are you on the valuable thing? And then the whole notion have been saying this about a week and a half, you’ll appreciate this, because we celebrated the life of David Modell again yesterday, because we lost him eight years ago this week. And you loved art, and there’s some great pictures of you and art, Nikki and nuts, you know, underneath the Tampa Stadium. But if art or David called me today, and they’re like, how the Ravens doing this? And I’d say, you know, they’re, they’re, they’re great. They, Mr. Riddell, they, they have a, they have a running back that’s like, Jim, Jim Brown. Why? What do you, you know, what he’s doing this. Tell me about that quarterback. What kind of quarterback? Well, he’s African American art. You always you know you were the one of the first people to bring African Americans into the league and and he’s a two time MVP. Might win this one. Tell me about his stats. Nestor, I’d say, well, he threw for 41 to. Touchdowns, how many interception? Four she run the ball, 900 yards of offense. Art like, literally, Stokes like, I don’t it’s, it’s otherworldly. It’s on unthinkable, even from your neighbor, Peyton Manning, anybody to think that this, these stats are possible, and yet we’re still making an argument. And I’m not making pro or anti John, but I do think, like on the face of it, are we really appreciating what Lamar Jackson’s doing here?
Brandon Stokley 15:33
No, you’re all over it. I think what’s hurt Well, why we’re having the conversation, why he’s not just running away with it. He’s already won a couple of them, right? And so now you take a step back and say, Well, you’ve won two MVPs. Can we give him a third? And he really hasn’t done anything in the playoffs. He hasn’t even been to a Super Bowl. That’s the talk that you run into. That’s not my
Nestor Aparicio 15:56
comment. Well, the other talk would be and if I want to be flipping, and I’m Mr. Derek Henry, around here, the running backs been the difference maker for them. This year. They got Jim Brown running the ball like literally. That’s going to make everybody smell better.
Brandon Stokley 16:09
Yeah, no, absolutely. You look at, well, you say Lamar has got more help around him than a guy like Josh Allen, obviously, right? Derrick Henry, James cooks, had a great year, and he’s and he had a great game against the Broncos. But then you look at the receivers and tight ends. I mean, Baltimore set up better offensively. And this was supposed to be expectation wise. This was supposed to be a down year for Buffalo, and it hasn’t been. So you know, you got to give some credit to Josh Allen there. I think, you know, we ran into this conversation here in Denver, the MVP conversation with Nicola jokic, and that’s what they were saying about jokic. He had won two MVPs, he never won a championship. Now, he had some success in the playoffs, but he never won a championship. So even though he was better and a couple years ago, his stats were than the previous two years, they just couldn’t give him that third MVP before you won a championship. Well, what happened that season? They won a championship. Well, then guess who won his third MVP last year? Nicola jokic, so, you know, you had that conversation. Now, that was basketball, that wasn’t football. So at some point you got to win in the playoffs. Now, how much do they hold that against you and when it comes to MVP, and should you have to have a Super Bowl or, you know, that’s a different conversation. But I’m just saying they do have that conversation, and it’s like, okay, we can’t keep giving this guy MVPs if he’s not winning when it matters the most. Brandon Stokely
Nestor Aparicio 17:33
won when it mattered the most. He’s a several time champion in the National Football League. We honor the Baltimore one. We tend to forget the other one. Then the Manning brothers show up every Monday night and try to make me laugh and have a good day. How was your life? Give me a little update on you, because it has been. Let’s see here, January 28 it’ll be 24 years. I’ve done the math on this. We’re both getting younger and and hopefully getting more wise through all of this, but enjoying your life and obviously good football team out there in Denver. Now, I mean, a real different kind of off season than, you know, who’s the coach, who’s the quarterback. It was messy there for a while, right? Yeah,
Brandon Stokley 18:09
you feel good about the quarterback here. So that’s a huge positive moving forward. It’s not who we’re going to draft. We’re going to draft a guy in the first round. Talk about so, you know, y’all hadn’t had to worry about that over in Baltimore in a while, right? Which is nice. It’s it’s not a birthright. Let me tell you, that’s a hard thing to do, and Broncos country here has found that out post Manning, but you feel good about that. So now you can start looking around and adding the pieces around the quarterback. So that’s a good thing. I’m doing radio man, been doing since 2016 I started doing the morning show. So it’s a little bit earlier for me, six to 10 in the morning. But I love it.
Nestor Aparicio 18:45
Knock it out, baby. Get it done. Get it done. The rest of the day. I could be on the
Brandon Stokley 18:49
golf course at 1010, 30, if I wanted to. So absolutely love it. And yeah, you know, kids are getting old. We’re getting old, but yeah, you say 24 years, and I just think back, and we’re at that time of the year where you think back about, you know, when we went on that run and, and
Nestor Aparicio 19:07
is that the Bengals football behind you? Is that for the Bengals game? Is that the ball there? Yes, that’s,
19:14
I just want to like, Super Bowl, Super Bowl ticket, right? I got one
Nestor Aparicio 19:18
of those, but I don’t have that football from Cincinnati that day. I do have great pictures of you and I at the barn the next day after you caught that you ended
Brandon Stokley 19:26
the trip that was my Cincinnati, Denver. Catch the one that got deflected up in the air, not, not, not the one that broke the streak, not
Nestor Aparicio 19:37
when you want all the money for breaking the streak in the last ride. I
Brandon Stokley 19:40
don’t, know if I ever saw that money, by the way. Man, I don’t know. I don’t remember that
Nestor Aparicio 19:44
well. I think Ozzy had accounted against the cap, right, right? Yeah, Fred, it’s so please here, 24 years later, when you write books on this stuff, you try to remember it. So you can go reproparin, one or two. I might be a. Purple Rain, three coming up here in a couple. Do you think you’re gonna do it? Let me, I’ll end with this with you. But like, where are we here and where are we now? You’re out in Denver. You’re removed from it. You watch this at clearly, a higher level. I think you really believe Lamar is going to win a Super Bowl at some point. And I haven’t said to my wife, who’s been in and out of town with her family and stuff, we actually, like, had breakfast this morning. I’m like, you know, like, if he’s not gonna win the Super Bowl with with, you know, Derrick Henry running at this level and this level of health that they have, but they’ve really made a tough road of this, going to Buffalo on plan, on 18 degree night, then have to go to Kansas City. This will not be an easy path. And you know that, you know, you know the home field advantage in the buy and you know, the road pass because you were part of it, yeah,
Brandon Stokley 20:42
you know. And it’s not supposed to be easy, so you got to go and you got to win some tough football games. You got to get some bounces. And here’s the hard thing about football and and winning it all, you know, it’s one game. That’s it. It’s not best of seven. If it was best of seven, guess what? Y’all wouldn’t have won in 2013 you know, the 2012 season. I mean, you know y’all, y’all win one out of 10 from us here in Denver, right? I mean, so that’s a hard thing, and I’ve lived it both sides of it. Like you said, it’s just one game. Anything can happen in one football game. So it should be fun, but I wouldn’t bet against the Ravens. No, right now, with horrible as a coach. You know, I played with him in 13, the year after that super and love him. The mentality of the ravens, it’s it hasn’t left since 2000 I mean, you know, I saw Ray Lewis coming out. He’s doing the squirrel on the TV. The place is going crazy. So, you know, definitely wouldn’t bet against the Ravens love, you know, that organization and what they’re just made of, and it stayed that way. So you talk about going on the road for the ravens, come on. I don’t think it’s a big deal.
Nestor Aparicio 21:51
You’ve been a legend of the game for the Ravens yet. If you come out and you haven’t done that one yet, no, I’m going to sponsor. I just want to put you up for that, because they brought Flynn in a couple of weeks ago, and it got his Well, juices Flynn,
Brandon Stokley 22:04
and they’re at the bottom of the barrel. I can’t be much lower. That’s what he said. That’s why we were so shocked. I can’t be I’ve, I’ve gotten the invite, just haven’t been able to make it. So, you know, maybe they’ll circle back around to, you know, the the fourth round pick in 1999 and we can get it done well, you
Nestor Aparicio 22:22
you have a proper crab cake when you come in here, and we’ll figure out some Cajun food with the crawfish and all that for you. Brandon sockley is one of my favorite dudes. He is out in Denver doing sports radio. He continues to be a raven at heart and a cult some days when he hangs out with Peyton, he’s gotta pretend he was a colt for a little while. But we still love you around here, and it’s always great to catch up talk some football with somebody who knows more than I know. And this makes it fun, right? We’re going to watch the games next couple of weeks, whether it’s the popcorn where nobody knows who’s going to win, but I know we’re going to have some great football here next couple weeks.
Brandon Stokley 22:53
Yeah, can’t wait for it, you know, and it’s, it is, we’ll see this game Baltimore, Buffalo is going to be a great one. So can’t wait to see what happens. Thanks for having me buddy. I’ve
Nestor Aparicio 23:02
been staring at Pistol Pete Maravich, over your shoulder there driving the lane, and thinking to myself, Man, you know, I love being a sports guys in old fart, when I could just look at something that’s a pin dot and say that’s Pistol Pete in the lane. Oh man. You know, once a, once a, Louisiana, always Louisiana. You gotta pay. You gotta import that stuff at the Colorado Alright, looks at noise mills. We get a big football game. We’ve been up in Buffalo this week. Crab cake tours on hiatus because of the snow, but we’re back at libs grill the day after the after the parade. That’s going to be the 12th of February. All the brought to you by the Maryland lottery. I am Nestor. We are W, N, S, D. Am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. And I love that Brandon Stokely still pissed about the Mile High miracle we’re both, come on that’s going, I think I ended our relationship.