Luke Jones and Nestor discuss the absence of Lamar Jackson at Ravens’ Organized Team Activities and why it bothers John Harbaugh and the Ravens front office. (You can’t run a legitimate offensive practice without your starting franchise quarterback…)

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

lamar, quarterback, otas, talking, week, lamar jackson, voluntary, players, cba, years, john harbaugh, care, football, people, team, money, point, contract, ravens, coaches

SPEAKERS

Luke Jones, Nestor J. Aparicio

Nestor J. Aparicio  00:01

Welcome home we are W n s t, Towson, Baltimore, Baltimore positive. If you’re out there in the YouTube sphere, click on us, like, share us, brag on us, criticize us dislike us do whatever you need to do. Luke Jones is here we’re gonna be doing the Maryland crabcake tour has nothing to dislike about that will be Coco’s have to Coco’s shirt on. We’ll be there next Wednesday. With Marcel. I’ve already got like guests lined up, Max Weiss won some big shot Award. She didn’t win the award for eating the royal farms, Western fries, I have to have it out with her. You know what I wear the CoCo shirt. When I talk about giving away the Pac Man scratch offs, and by next week, it might be the Lucky seven. So we’re working on new tickets for next week as well. But But it sounds like it there looks missing out on this. He’s going to be out and ravens mandatory. And Lord knows you better be at the mandatories. Right. But you’re missing out on the cocoa shrimp. And usually like if it was a sponsor you hadn’t been to I’d be like, well, you just don’t know how good it is. But I brought you to Coco’s and now you know what you’re missing out on next Wednesday, but with all of this oxygen for pitchers and means and wells and Orioles being on the road and all that you got football in the brain this week. I mean, you’ve been more assigned to football the last week or two and certainly next week, then you have been in the last couple of months.

Luke Jones  01:26

Yeah, and it’s interesting to see the reaction to it now compared to a couple years ago. And you and I, we haven’t even brought up that Lamar Jackson has not has been at one OTA out of five possible going into this week

Nestor J. Aparicio  01:40

and daily outrage if the Orioles weren’t winning 80% of their games, right?

Luke Jones  01:43

I mean, I just I have a flashback to a couple years ago when it obviously was no contract related. You and I scrimmage that probably the nicest way we could put it at times, you know, never yelled at each other but certainly had differences of opinion and all that but you know, it’s barely been a headline and I’m not even saying that’s good or bad per se but I think it just speaks to where the Orioles are I think it speaks to where the ravens are and we’ve kind of said where everything that happens between now and I don’t know the second week of January, you know kind of feels like okay, it’s gonna happen and we’ll pay attention and it’ll be fun and you hope more way more wins and losses expected way more wins and losses. But you know, for this team, it’s all about January. So I don’t know how much of that plays into this. But you know, it is very unusual for a quarterback who does not have a contract issue. Lamar Jackson signed a year ago. Even as my as Mike Florio PFT reporter over the weekend and confirmed over the weekend $750,000 offseason workout bonus that Lamar has not participated enough to earn you know, so it’s unusual. I’m not gonna sit here, everything about the kids

Nestor J. Aparicio  03:05

been unusual the way he plays the game representing himself. This is what you signed up for. And if he shook your hand and told you he was coming to the OTAs and didn’t, then, you know, you didn’t get your money’s worth. But like if you never said that and listen. As you know, I was a real media member for a long time 30 years and one of the last acts of John Harbaugh when he was pretending to be like when he was pretending I was told real media member let’s just say that for the 20th year in a row. One of his last communications to me, attacks was being pissed off that Lamar was in a camp and was popping off on a Friday afternoon with Chris Simms. I remember it vividly. I was doing a crab cake tour stop. I was up in the Timonium. I was at Nick’s grandstand with my friend Tom each Aghoris lead Rascon was there that day it rained awful. There’s a terrible, awful big storm that blew me underneath and John Harbaugh was texting me about how pissed off he is that his quarterback isn’t showing up. And being a leader. And that like that would speak to the hardball Leadership Academy, which begins with throwing media members out. And but from the quarterback standpoint, I can’t imagine much of Piscis John off more than not having his quarterback around when they’re trying to win a Super Bowl. Like I just I can’t imagine that John was and where else would you rather be than right here, right? You know who’s got it better than us and like all of that, but that’s part of signing up for Gianna and I thought that was part of the deal. And I haven’t popped off about this. I’ve made one tweet about it. But like, should I say, are you surprised? Are you shocked? will it matter? Lamar doesn’t think it matters, even if John does. I think it matters for optics. And if I still talk to the brand manager out there, I would tell them it’s bad optics it’s bad. It’s bad. It’s it’s not good. They did they’re not, they don’t have to do much in the offseason, show up brief collector 50 million be the leader of the team. These are the things that, you know, I’d like to ask the owner about, but he’s unavailable. Right. But when you ask the coach, he sort of sneers enough. And I have enough history with Coach hard ball to know that he didn’t like this like this at all. Yeah,

Luke Jones  05:22

I mean, look, I’m gonna start off with what I said to you two years ago, obviously, the situation is different. We’re not talking about a contract situation, which is typically the one scenario that leads to a quarterback not being at OTAs. He has a contract, you know, it’s an but it’s voluntary. And I would be disingenuous, Nestor. I’m gonna say what I said to you two years ago, if I think any of these voluntary workouts right now in isolation, are all that consequential to the big picture of what their record is going to be, how far they’re going to go in the playoffs, I’d be lying to you. If

Nestor J. Aparicio  06:01

I were horrible. After two drinks, I’d say, look, you’re the quarterback, you’re the leader of the team. Everyone around here is looking for you, not just the media, or Luke Jones, or Jeff’s Rebeck, or what that bad guy who used to be in the media is gonna say on the radio about you being the reigning MVP, this is about what it means to a rookie wide receiver trying to make the team. This is what it’s about to the offensive line that we’re trying to figure out. And some kid we drafted from the West Coast, that’s gonna be protecting your ass in the mud in Cleveland in November, and he’s here. And if you’re a boy, and you’re 25, and you’re around football a little bit, come on, dude. Come on, dude. That’s what I would say. So there’s my dad, there’s my that’s what my dad would say. It’s what your dad would say. And that’s, and if you got 50 million, or I got 50 million for the quarterback of the team, we would look at it at some level and we didn’t win a Super Bowl last year, we would be looking at it to get our new Tesla truck and drive it up in front and be there that just be there. That’s all I Where else do you have to be? That’s more important than helping your football team win a championship? Ah,

Luke Jones  07:15

that’s fair enough. You’ve

Nestor J. Aparicio  07:16

been a ball coach, but but I know you’re gonna do the CBA. It’s voluntary. The Allen Iverson and that’s generational to something. We got NBA guys taking real games off because of load management. And then you and I are told that elbows fallen off for an hour this morning, right? Sure. Pitchers. But this is a this is window dressing. It really is you guys are out there counting bodies and all that. But it is perception becoming reality. And I would also say when Flacco didn’t do it, he wasn’t right, right. I mean, what did your flat like we got that going on too. But more than that, I would just say they’re about to change this dramatically. And that opened the door for you Pandora’s box for you on the CBA. And what they’re trying to rammed down the throats of the owners and the coaches and whatever they want for this 18th game. And this is part of the meeting call. Part of the meeting call that you’re gonna give me is the look for the Union let you know you’re gonna give me the DeMaurice Smith lay dude, it’s voluntary. You know, you got you up here. When the game’s mad, don’t worry about to go go go hang out with the boys go have a good time. Go go with the girl, go with your family, whatever it is. But the football side of me and the Business Leader in Me and the leadership guy and me and the John Wooden me and the piss and vinegar from old man getting up and going to the point every day is Come on. Come on, dude, come on to look. And I’m glad I get to say that, by the way, because I’m thankful for a week, but like I’m not sitting, you’re ready to blast Lamar. But I’m here to blast. All the modernists have to who much is given much as expected. And, and this is this is a bare minimum to be in your hometown that’s paying you $50 million a year to like, kind of hang out, sign some autographs, do something that’s fun to hang out with your boys. They take him out for steak dinner. That’s what this is for. This is the time for you to be a team a couple of days a month. Sure, sure. Look,

Luke Jones  09:15

some of that. And you mentioned the generational thing that that’s there. And part of my argument that I’m it’s not really been an argument. I’m gonna point out a few things that I hear that I’m going to call BS on quite frankly, I’m not you. I’m just saying some things I’ve heard as far as the discourse that you see on Twitter, Facebook, all that, but it is voluntary. Do I think that these workouts in isolation are all that consequential? No, I don’t not not even a little bit. But quarterbacks there have always been a different expectation for quarterbacks. Yes, I agree. Ray Lewis was not there for OTAs Ed Reed was not there for OTAs quarterbacks are different. It is and you mentioned Joe Flacco. No Joe Flacco never missed OTA. There was criticism for Joe Flacco because he wouldn’t get his receivers together in Delaware or wherever and throw off campus. So you know and Lamar was so there was social media video clips on inside of Joe would argue that

Nestor J. Aparicio  10:16

that didn’t really wouldn’t really help them getting together on a playground. Fair. Okay, so Joe would make that argument very rationally, not about his money, your time with his kids, even when he had kids, he would just say, How helpful is it? And Lamar would probably say that How helpful is me showing up in Owings Mills this week? And John would say, probably pretty helpful, just on the fact that you’re here, just on the fact that we’re in this together. Sure. You know, like, sure. Yeah.

Luke Jones  10:43

So few things I’m gonna throw out there. One, I’ve seen the sentiment even from some people who aren’t necessarily in the media, but ravens Twitter has film analysts and people that have podcasts and all that. I’ve seen some people say the Ravens don’t really care. Well, that’s BS. They have a $750,000 workout bonus in his contract that he has not gone to enough workouts to qualify for. You don’t have those things in someone’s contract unless you would like them to be there. So do I think that that fractures a relationship, or it’s anything that’s

Nestor J. Aparicio  11:17

a contract unless they weren’t there before? Probably

Luke Jones  11:21

Pro? Sure. But the point is, they want them there. Now. Does that mean JennaMarbles not speaking to Lamar Jackson or Eric Acosta isn’t speaking to Lamar Jackson or that the relationship is fractured or anything like that? No, of course not. Okay. Again, at the end of the day, this is not that big a deal. So calling, I’m calling for you on that. I have some I’ve seen some people compare to Tom Brady. Putting aside the Tom Brady’s the great greatest of all time, and has what Seven Super Bowls and all that Tom Brady did not skip OTAs until very late in his career, at a point where his marriage was failing at a point where his relationship with the Patriots was starting to run its course. So that’s bad, calm. Same with Aaron Rodgers in Green Bay, bad calm. Aaron Rodgers at that point was not on the same page with Packer. So different point in his career hasn’t a comp, you know, hasn’t been to the top of the mountain, all that. I’ve seen people say that other quarterbacks around the league are missing OTAs Well, that doesn’t mean not saying that all have a 100% Perfect Attendance. At the same time, tell me which quarterbacks are missing more OTAs than or being there for. So again, if you want to just say

Nestor J. Aparicio  12:28

particular offense, you can’t run your offense without him. Well, that’s well, that’s,

Luke Jones  12:33

that’s every team. If you have a franchise quarterback, you want your quarterback there,

Nestor J. Aparicio  12:38

you know what, how much offense during OTAs? You can’t run it without I mean, you can

Luke Jones  12:42

but you’re doing it with a backup. Right? So so there’s that. And you know, look, if it doesn’t matter to you and look, anything you say anything I say whether people agree with us or disagree with us listening right now or watching on YouTube, we’re not changing their mind. Everyone has their opinion on this. We saw this two years ago and everyone’s dug in on it. So if it doesn’t matter, fine, then I don’t care at all then about seeing him throat ze flowers and Nelson Aguilar in Florida either that I care about that even less, because that’s off campus. Your coaches aren’t there. Other players aren’t there. So so there’s that for me, Nestor everything I just threw out there. I’m just kind of citing. I have one point to make about this. Patrick mahomes is at OTAs. Period, end of discussion. Patrick mahomes Is that OTAs? One back to back Super Bowls. It’s one three out of five. He is the one contemporary quarterback that Lamar Jackson is chasing, we can debate burrow, we can debate Josh Allen like, you know, we know there are other great young quarterbacks in the league, and we can talk about that. But there’s one that’s clearly ahead of Lamar, Patrick mahomes If he thinks OTAs are important enough to be there, then. Okay. And again, do I think it’s that big of a deal? No. Do I think that this in isolation is all that consequential to the success or lack thereof of the team come September through January now. But as with any player, if they’re not in the building, if they’re not there, the simple question is okay, well, what else? What are you doing or what else are you not doing to get ready for the season and that’s, that’s that I’ll leave it at that. Look, Omar’s two time MVP. It’s a great, phenomenal football player. You know, he was at OTAs. Last year other than I think he missed the first one. Two years ago, he wasn’t there, you know, two years ago. You know, it sounds as though he was having a bad season until he got hurt. So, you know, it is what it is. But, you know, some of the reasons that I’ve heard people give defending it, other than just it’s voluntary insurance. Literally, you don’t have to be there. It’s voluntary. But don’t get me the Tom Brady comp. Don’t tell me the Ravens don’t care. That’s fully I mean, to your point, you know, that’s not true. They’d like them there. Don’t tell me other quarterbacks around On the league are skipping out on OTAs because I don’t see evidence of that, again, missing one. I’m not saying he has to be there 100% of the time. But, you know, the expectation for a long time has been quarterbacks are there, he’s not there, that’s fine. But Patrick mahomes Is that I mean, that’s the only real point for me that really, you know, that you can sink your teeth into the Patrick mahomes thinks it’s important enough to be there then. Okay. Well,

Nestor J. Aparicio  15:25

you give me the the pitching term is max effort, right Max every room every pitch. The the sigma del would be the growth mindset. The horrible hardball thing would be you know, who’s got it better than us? Where else would you rather be the you know, Marv leave? Where would you rather be, you know, than right here right now. You’re doing this. You love football. This is where you want to be? You can’t wait to be here. I sound like John, this is what I spent so much time around him. I know. I know a lot about John, which probably should really scare him even more than Chet steel threw me out. But But I know what we thinks. And for real, not even in front of the camera, like the way he really thinks. And you know, there’s never buyer’s remorse with Lamar because he makes his own. I mean, dude, how to sign up telling me on national television telling the team to pay him while he’s playing me like, like this, there’s

16:24

no, but there’s no buyer’s remorse, because he’s simply pay the league.

Nestor J. Aparicio  16:30

But there’s no exact operation with this. You know what I mean, there really is it exasperates, these coaches that they spent five months trying to get these guys ready, and they get five minutes with them. And this would be the lead in it, because it’s not all about hardball, and this and that, it really is about the bigger picture of where the next generation of all of this is going. You know, and I will be writing at length about modern athletes versus Tony Siragusa and how comparing one to the others apples and, you know, vegetables. But I would say from the, from the beginning of all of this, and for as many guys that I’ve seen, that I’ve known that have died, been suicidal or committed suicide, been hitting the head too much going to find out later in life, they were hitting the head too much CTE, I have a buddy of mine who’s an accountant and a financial advisor by trade, he played like high school football, and he’s like, in getting his back repaired and you play high school football, whatever. I think it for these guys that that carried on another decade. I mean, I ran to the Dallas Thomas last week in Vegas at the Maryland party. And he looks like he could still play and feels good and running the business very short, you know, all of that. And I have other guys of his era that are not doing nearly as well or gone, right? So I think about all of this, what we’re really fighting for, because I spent time with Sylvia Mackay. And you know, I mean, and I’ve seen this tragedy through all of this goose dying early in life, and seeing his family. So I see what these men have been put through. You know, I’m I’m 55 I’m the contemporary for all of them. So this 18 game thing. And when Peter King was writing about it, 1012 years ago, and Peter King did right by his people this week, I saw that and I’ve been using our Twitter as a mouthpiece for the good people, the really good people that I’ve met and doing this, and I’ve met some good people in football to nobody’s looking out for the players. And we could sit here and push our way through all of this from the movie that came out now 10 years ago that that was going to slow things down. And mommy wasn’t going to allow daddy to put chip into football practice when he’s seven or eight we talked about arms falling off and baseball and concussions and soccer and lacrosse sticks and like all of that, but this is a different level of when I think MMA and I see the violence of it. Footballs like that half a step down. And what you want the CBA to represent for safety and what you want the union to represent for players and where the money line is because we know the owners there is no conscience. Steve shoddy has I am living proof that they let you in and ban me next week is proof Steve shoddy, didn’t care about anything. And certainly didn’t care anything about what they’re doing to players Thursday night football. All the sports science we give all the injuries. I mean, this time two years ago, the coach is crying the blues you have too many injured players, but he wants them there and he wants them there six more weeks if he could, because that’s John right. That’s not everybody. That’s that’s coaches. No, that’s that’s coaches coaches want coaches the Academy would begin with if you can get your players 366 days a year. Good. You know, like Yeah, like they that’s the you know, but because we only get them 28 days and three hours a day and we can’t we can’t we can’t sneak practices the way Ozzy used to do. You know, like, so, all of this being said, this really is you being a prick and spinning Back end me insane. CPA says it’s voluntary. It goes back to the original sin of players fighting for money. Lamar being as Duggan and MF as there has ever been digging in on money. Nobody dug in, like Lamar dug in, in the history of the league with his mother and got it. And so there’s all of this extra scrutiny on any one at one and MVP after doing that, right. So like the fact that we’re even talking about it’s a little bit laughable. But the bigger picture, the bigger picture is what I’m getting at, which is, this is awesome them this is players versus management. This is, if I ain’t got to be there. I’d rather be at the beach. I’ll be there. I’ll be there when you need this, the Allen Iverson for talking practice, I’ll be there. I’ll be there when you need me to hit the three, like I’ll be there. And in large case, we know that true in a 55 year old Hispanic business leaders case who’s employed people and had teams before and worked on teams, and his study teams had written about teams at the highest level for all of my professional life. It’s not good optics, and it’s not what you want. But this is what they’ve negotiated, right? I

Luke Jones  21:11

mean, it’s just, he’s their quarterback. I mean, it’s that simple. And when they

Nestor J. Aparicio  21:15

teach game three years, now he’ll have to play it. Yeah.

Luke Jones  21:18

I mean, if it’s coming that quickly, I mean, whenever it’s going up, whether it’s three years from now, or whenever,

Nestor J. Aparicio  21:23

all their pay up, when that happens by the game, they have to well, they’re gonna

Luke Jones  21:27

have to, they will have to negotiate it because there’s not a mechanism in the current CBA to go to 18. Gay, I’m just saying I’m saying.

Nestor J. Aparicio  21:35

So Lamar says we’ll add another 7% to that, or whatever the number of works for

Luke Jones  21:41

sure. So but but, you know, I mean, it’s, look, it’s voluntary. I just wanted to push back on some of what I’m hearing to defend Lamar not being there. Other quarterbacks in the league aren’t doing this. So look, if he said, If he feels he’s setting a precedent for quarterbacks, then God bless them good. You know, fine, that’s fine. But you know, I’m just gonna, I’m not going to push, or I’m not gonna sit here and not push back. Or when I see fans say, well, the Ravens don’t care if he’s, they care. They do. That? Is it the biggest thing

Nestor J. Aparicio  22:17

in the worst fashion of fans, and if it just comes out of a microphone out there, it’s true. And my guy and it’s our job to the SEC, what is it? Is it based on facts and evidence as journalists, that’s what men notice. And not bartenders. Literally, that literally is a delineation. And there is, and this has been going on for 2530 years of my career where wound said the Gupta constituted the wide receivers. Yeah. And then they go out and they just, you learn that to read eyes. It’s like playing poker for crying out loud. I mean, all I do is read Eric, the cost his eyes now because I know them so well. I can tell him when he’s lying when he’s not. And

Luke Jones  22:56

even what John Harbaugh said, because he was asked about it on Thursday. I mean, he said, it’s just this time of year, it’s voluntary time, it’s really not something that we can comment on. And

Nestor J. Aparicio  23:06

he could, and if we didn’t have him, instead of just, ya know, like, I wish conference, it might be the like, you know, laugh out loud, because that is,

Luke Jones  23:17

but in fairness, and fairness, that’s, he can’t dress the player down, because then that is violating the CBA and everything. So it’s kind of what he got. But what he didn’t say, and this is where you know that he minds in the same way that any other coach would mind if his quarterbacks not going to be there, even for voluntary workouts because like I said, quarterback, it’s why they’re paid 50 plus million dollars, you know, the best ones in football today. It is a different standard. But if he truly didn’t care, he would have gone on to say, after he said that. We’re not worried at all about Lamar Wright sent

Nestor J. Aparicio  23:52

me a text to Disney World with the kids. He sat on his bow now he wanted to say

Luke Jones  23:59

I’m saying he would have told you if he truly didn’t care, he would have told you. He’s working his butt off right now. We talk all the time. He’s working really hard. He’s going to have zay and Nelson and Bateman down there next week in Florida and they’re gonna get together and John didn’t say that. So what he didn’t say is then what you interpret. Again, we’ve already

Nestor J. Aparicio  24:21

stated that he texted me two years ago, he was more pissed that Lamar showed himself online in the middle of practice on Okay, I think it was more like Dude, if you’re gonna go away, stay away. Don’t be on social media when your teammates are because Chad didn’t just blindly text me I had tweeted out that that probably using going over well with guys that are sweating. You guys that are out there sweating their asses off putting their ankles at risk and all of their whatever they had hold sacred time with their family, off time injury contract, whatever it is my point was you’re gonna fight with Chris Simms on Twitter, in the middle of your practice when your guys are out here about whether you should be there or not when those guys are, they’re trying to get better than when you were Superbowl and get you a contract at the time. That was sort of my snarky tweet. And I got an inbound from John Harbaugh concurring. So, you know, I would just say that he’s the leader of the team, and if he’s it, but but he’s such a, he’s a different cat. And you knew that when you signed him. I’m wondering what the gentleman’s agreement was about these, when Eric put the pen in front of him? Well,

Luke Jones  25:38

and that’s where you go back to you don’t put a $750,000 bonus in his contract for offseason workouts if if you truly didn’t care if he’s going to show up, because then you would say, well, we’re not gonna offer you that, you know, so.

Nestor J. Aparicio  25:52

It costs money, dude. I

Luke Jones  25:54

mean, you know, well, relative to a salary, though, not so much. But, but it’s yeah, it’s real. Seven or 50 grand, so

Nestor J. Aparicio  26:00

No, tell you how lost this kid is then if $750,000 as a means, oh, I don’t know about that. And we were detached from but for if you if you believe $750,000 to show up in shorts and walk around is not with your teammates is not worth your time. Okay. I mean, then you have lost the ball. I don’t know. I mean, a lot of money, dude, it’s not a $25,000 like I saw the other day, because this gives me a chance to talk about the biggest story in sports this weekend, which was the body tackle and the WNBA. Right. I saw their fines. There was five grand and a grand. Like, I’ve never seen a fall professional fine. That’s five grand or grand, you know, right about those anymore. You know, but $750,000 is a lot of money. Dude, I didn’t you know, I didn’t know about that till last week. Right? Yeah, well,

Luke Jones  26:55

WNBA, what’s the average WNBA salary?

Nestor J. Aparicio  26:58

Well, I’m just saying it when you’re saying seven or $50,000 doesn’t mean anything. I’m saying I, that’s a lot of money, man. I mean, that, that that’s a that’s the same time at a casino to put in to just show up and hang out in shorts. And it’s a big chip at the casino to put in for Eric the cost to say, I want you here, right?

Luke Jones  27:20

I mean, to your point, like, we’re gonna give you a lot of money just to show up. At the same time, please show up. Lamar Lamar says we know he’s, and I don’t even say this as a criticism. He’s, he’s a different guy. Look at the money he’s left on the table endorsement wise, we’ve talked about this, you know, the lack of the

Nestor J. Aparicio  27:37

endorsement he did a year ago for that sling machine. But

Luke Jones  27:40

I’m talking about, there are real big client, you know, big company endorsements that he could have had. I’ve heard through backchannels. And, you know, other people have talked about this. I mean, you know, he he’s very, very recognizable, one of the very best players in the NFL. And when you look at what he’s made from an endorsement standpoint, it’s next to nothing. You know, that’s, that’s a choice at the end of the day, you know, in terms of representation, and, you know, agent, business people all that. And look, I’m not even criticizing that. That’s just, I’m observing that, you know, I mean, look at endorsements of other big name players compared to what it’s

Nestor J. Aparicio  28:23

so weird, because money’s all that matter when he was negotiating his contract. And so he tracked and, you know, I wonder when he put this in the contract, if he would say, it’s not, it’s not a really a lot of money, I

Luke Jones  28:36

got better things to do. So So, and look, we’ve already for what this actually is, for what the actual importance of OTAs and voluntary workouts are. We’ve already devoted too much time to this. Do I think it’s going to be a big storyline?

Nestor J. Aparicio  28:51

Super Bowl down the line, we’ll talk about it because it’ll be something where we will say, it’s one thing you didn’t do. Joe Flacco won a Super Bowl around here. And that’s, you know, the detractors. It’s all they talk about is he didn’t throw that’s why it was in Florida, to you know, pick pick, pick your B list receiver.

Luke Jones  29:09

That’s why I said to you, for me all the other talking points or noise other than I just go back to if Patrick mahomes thinks they’re important enough, then that makes me take pause. Like if I were Lamar, Jackson luck, two time MVP and five years, making all this money, Pro Bowls. Great. Coming off of a phenomenal season. I mean, had a great season. But the only thing that would make me take pause is a guy in Kansas City’s think he thinks they’re important enough to be there. So, you know, now is Patrick mahomes. Taking part in late May, early June OTAs. The difference between him and Lamar Jackson now, I don’t think but it would make me take pause as far as not being there. If the guy that I’m trying to get over the hump against the guy that I’m trying to be better than is doing it and I’ll But at that, like I said, other points, I mean, veteran players, Ray Lewis, Ed Reed, some of the greatest players in the history of the franchise, skip these at different points in their career. And I probably criticize them too. Instead, they’re making a lot of money. They were criticized at the time. Yeah, they should. They weren’t criticized at the time and blocked because I don’t

Nestor J. Aparicio  30:17

think the that the CBA, quarterback, bare minimum, the CBA is like participating in that shows that you care enough that you’re there. And any employer would want to have that. And I know that that’s not the situation with the CBA. And how the agents lube them all up in many cases. Yeah.

Luke Jones  30:34

So you know, but at the end of the day, and this the one one final point, because, you know, we’ve been talking about this for a while. You know, people say it’s meaningless. I never will sit here and say that OTAs are that important. Let’s be very clear, because I don’t think they’re that important. But to say they’re meaningless. You know, that’s a slap in the face to row Quan Smith, who’s been there for everyone that’s been open. I mean, I don’t know if he’s been there every day for the entire spring. I mean, not everything’s open and that’s why I tried to tread countless

Nestor J. Aparicio  31:06

for a lot of these guys when I’ve been to OTAs like over the course of my lifetime, the marcher bro to Billick era, when I was out there a whole lot more. They kind of like each other and they did a couple of the guys will go fishing hunting fed their bed plate, just go drinking it, get some wings get a steak, and they got kids in there of that era, you know, like, hey, let’s get together or they leave their wives wherever they live. And they get to come here and be boys for a couple of days just to hang out with their guys. You know, like that’s I don’t want to be romantic about it. But when the sports over for you. Those are the things every guy always talks about. Every guy I’ve ever met, has ever has always talked about the time spent with teammates, and this is the time where like, you’re not bleeding hurt and grind in into the playbook. The only time the year you really can relax with your with your dudes, where you don’t have the Eagles this week in the in the Cowboys. I mean, I don’t know, man, I just, that’s me being like, that’s the Wiz. That’s the wise markets wisdom that I have here at 55. And the perspective of being Gray, you know? Yep.

Luke Jones  32:12

And you know, what, you haven’t convinced a single person listening to change their whatever their opinion is, I haven’t convinced the single person listening to change their opinion on it. You know, I think they’re some of this is a generational thing. And when we’re seeing this, and look, the player should fight. And I hope and I said this, I alluded to this last week when we mentioned it in passing. If I’m the NFLPA or if I’m someone that’s a member of the NFLPA, this idea of revamping the offseason, That better not be what the lead is, in order to agree to an 18 game schedule. If that’s the best thing they get, then shame on them. And I’ll continue to say, well, you know, you guys, don’t do yourself any favors. Because, you know, I think the 18 game schedule to the league, how much they’re talking about it, that tells you just how valuable it is in their mind, and how lucrative that will be in their mind. So the union dig in on it might really get some major concessions, you know, and mainly in the form of a heck of a lot more money. So because it’s their lot to your point earlier in our conversation, it’s their livelihood, and they’re the ones that are going to be dealing with potential health problems. You know, and that’s, you know, that’s on the lighter side of the consequences. You know, if you’re just dealing with aches and pains and knee replacements and things like that, we know, it can be way darker and way more, you know, can be fatal. But, you know, I mean, it’s this, this is the age old question of management versus players and Lamar Jackson is not required to be there. He’s not there. And it’s unusual for quarterbacks to not be there, unless it’s a contract situation. And that’s why I defended Lamar, way more than you did two years ago, as it pertains to that. This, you know, it just, it’s not that important for him to be there, I guess. And, look, do I think it’s gonna matter come September? No. Do I think it’s gonna matter come December? No. But everything this team does between now, and January is about getting over the hump. And that’s where I’ll continue to go back to that one point that matters to me. Patrick mahomes is at OTAs. So if he thinks they’re important enough, then if I’m Lamar, which I’m not, well, my heart is way better. Athlete, all the all those different things, right. I mean, his success speaks for itself. That would be the one point if I were Lamar Jackson, that would make me take some pause. If mahomes is there, you know, am I missing something here is it’s something that I could be getting out of this that maybe he isn’t apparent to me right now. And you know, if he says no, that’s his prerogative, that’s fine. You know, he goes out and has another great season. No one’s gonna be talking about this come September, let alone talking about later in the season. Look,

Nestor J. Aparicio  35:01

I’ll be there to chronicle at all. And next week, I’m here this week next week. The week after that my wife just broke her ankle. I’m gonna be here all summer long. Trying to get her better. I will bring her home crabcakes I have plenty of that to bring home as well as plenty of other goodies. Tuesday we’re going to be at Cooper’s North it makes chapel. We’re gonna be talking with Patrick Russell and his team over there about the Indus launch team. One of my favorite places about the big Fleet Week down in Fells Point. Next weekend, we’ll be down at the Cooper’s and Fells Point on the Friday instead of the families on Thursday. We’re gonna be at State Fair in the morning have chicken and waffles and shrimp and grits awaiting the Orioles taking on the Blue Jays. I hope Getty shows up at some point. You’re the next four days behind home plate and bad luck to his blue jays. And then this weekend in Tampa. We’re gonna be a Coco’s next Wednesday. And at the CoCo shrimp, and my co host, Mike Rusik. Leon O is gonna be coming over. So I’m looking forward to that Maxwell is just stopping by so Coco is gonna be late next Wednesday. Then the following week, we are at costus on the 20th that is before the Orioles Yankees game at Yankee Stadium. We’ll be there all afternoon for that. And then on the 25th we’re going to be at Pappas in Parkville no karaoke that day, but I’ll do my best to bring my Engelbert Humperdinck over we’ll have scratch awesome Maryland lottery could be PAC man’s could be lucky sevens, our friends at Liberty pure solutions keeping our water crystal clear and safe. I’m appreciative of that. And last but never least Jiffy Lube, multi care. We talked about them a lot, and their sponsorship and all the things we’re doing around here. So get out get your oil change. We had our oil change last week, little orange light comes on. Let’s go get the oil change. Jiffy Lube, multi care. Here’s Luke I am Nestor. football, baseball lots and lots of good stuff and crab cakes and great conversation. It’s almost summertime around here we are wn st am 1570, Towson Baltimore. And we never stop talking Baltimore positive