The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Nestor Aparicio Gives A Baltimore Perspective of Texans v Ravens

Episode Date: November 15, 2019

Long Time Sports Radio Host in Baltimore, Nestor Aparicio , joins Matt to give the Baltimore view of Texans v Ravens

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Nestor Apparicio is a radio legend, WNST in Baltimore. Nestor is the appropriate way to introduce you, yes or no? Oh, I don't know, 29 years next month or whatever that entails, you know. McLean and I, he still got me beat by a good decade, you know. Yeah, but you got more hair than he does, I'm assuming, correct? Well, he loves this part of the country, so, you know, this is a great game now. I mean, you guys, we've been at this a long time, and I don't know if your audience knows, but I'm an old school aller fan.

So, you know, I love the Houston Oilers and the Steelers and the rivalries and all that stuff. And now this is finally a pretty big football game here. We don't have a whole lot of seven and two in our history. You know, we had a lot of chasing the Steelers and them losing and all the mess on Thursday night with Miles Garrett. But to be out in front is a little weird and sort of be chasing the Patriots and chasing, and chasing a buy and really having a heck of a stretch in next four weeks with Lamar Jackson and the teams we're going to be facing here. I want you to be honest with me, Nestor, when Lamar Jackson was drafted by the Baltimore Ravens,

what was your first thought, what was the initial game plan of how much he was going to play, how he was going to play, and tell me, are you honestly surprised at his development, or are you like, you know what, just give the kid time, John Harbaugh devise a strategy for him offensively, and he was going to thrive. So take me where he is now to what you thought he was going to be originally. Well, what I thought originally was they drafted Hayden Hurst very late into that evening after 11 p.m. Eastern night dozed off and woke up and saw Lamar Jackson and a green jacket standing next to Roger Goodell with a purple bird on the screen. So I said I fell asleep on him that night.

I haven't fallen asleep since. Look, this is the transition for anyone to see the Joe Flacco offense and to see a guy who won a Super Bowl here. And obviously a bit of a shell of his former self now out in Denver and physically and all of that. The Ravens needed an option. I was kind of shocked they traded back, not shocked at the deafness of what has happened over the last 18 months, which is this is an organization with a real plan, a real strategy. Eric DeCostas sat around a dozen years now behind Ozzy Newsom turning down every team in the league, knowing that this turn would come.

and the last draft of Ozzie Newsom was the tradeaway one of Eric's first picks, quite frankly, to get an extra year out of a quarterback, which is what you get when you draft him in the first round. So it was a developmental year last year that turned into something when Flacco got injured. I remember the first night he ran the ball, was out in the Canton, Ohio Hall of Fame, that goofy game they play out there. Ray Lewis went into the Hall of Fame that weekend, and I watched him run into linebackers, and every time it happened, I just sort of shivered and said, how long is this? going to last. And then he went away for eight weeks other than a few gadget plays. And then he came back and the offensive this time last year, Harbaugh was under fire. He was going to get fired, right? The team was losing. Flacco was on the bench. Here comes Lamar Jackson. How are they going to do it with this rookie quarterback and this completely different office? I said it looked like

the magnet game we played back in the 70s, the little, you turn the thing on and everybody just sort of moved in one direction. And yet they kept winning and they kept putting defenses in second and two. I mean, they just kept getting six, seven, eight yards on first down, and it really tilted the field and changed everything. Now, that being said, he wasn't accurate last year. They didn't throw the ball a whole lot. He looked to run first last year. And then this year, all offseason, everyone was in full praise,

which is you'd expect of any organization. You guys have been through that with five or six different quarterbacks in your 20 years, right? So, but everybody got behind it. But more than that, it's when Marshall Yandah's buying in. And when you start to see from the minute at training camp, He looks like a different dude. Like his body's a little different. His sets a little different.

His dates different. Certainly his release and his footwork. I mean, all of the technical things that you would want a quarterback coach to work on, James Urban's work on. So, you know, that's where we are right now. But this is an organization that has, you're going to see, Pat Ricard playing both sides of the ball, Nick Boyle running around like an H-back tight end and really like a sixth lineman.

And the way the communication now and the ball handling, I mean, Lamar was a little sloppy with the football last year. You know, Matt Scuro, who did my show this week, the center, I mean, the ball security, when you're flipping the ball around and nobody really knows where the ball's going until the minute it goes there, you know, you usually put the ball on the ground, and they haven't done that. And, you know, that's really where it's at. So at any point, could old habits happen to the ball hit the ground? Sure. Can he get hurt? Absolutely. but he's been better at that. He really has been better at that.

So, you know, we crossed our fingers around here like you guys do. You've got a quarterback that occasionally runs into the linebackers as well, right? Right. Well, yeah, we're all saying a small prayer before every time he takes a snap, especially with the Texans' offensive line, which actually has performed better than I think people would have thought it would. Nester Asperishio with us from WNST Radio, a Baltimore radio ledger with us here on the Matt Thomas show. Earl Thomas's impact, as much on the field as in the locker, or are you seeing some things that you were even surprised at, but now that he's worn your team's gear?

Well, I mean, let's start with this. Earl's known as a rugged individualist, right? And, you know, the Ravens have imported, quote-unquote, mercenary players that sign up and come in for six months and play. And, you know, some more guys like Steve Smith that have hung around and Derek Mason. They've always, you know, they've always imported players, you know, in their 30s to come in here. They imported another one in DeMont-Pecca this week. to come in and sort of bolster them, and they brought in Marcus Peters, again, back to Eric Dacosta.

But it wasn't good enough, right? Like, I mean, Earl Thomas, the first month when they were struggling, they were struggling in all sorts of ways. I mean, Jimmy Smith's not on the field. Tavon Young, who they gave a big contract to be their nickel, not on the field. Tony Jefferson's on crutches right now, who's a guy they gave a lot of money to two years ago to be a safety. So, I mean, the back end, they drafted and they replaced and they signed guys and gained Brandon Car money. and, you know, went out and dealt draft pitch to get Marcus Peters. They've done everything they can do on the back end.

I think Earl's getting more comfortable, and I think part of it is just getting the no guys. And Marlon Humphrey's the first round draft pitch from two years ago, who's their best player? I mean, Lamar Jackson aside, okay, I should say that. If you would ask me six weeks ago, I would have told you Lamar Humphrey's their best player, not Lamar Jackson. Obviously, sort of otherworldly now with Lamar being an MVP candidate. I mean, our best player's been our kicker the last five years, and he comes from Texas, as you guys know. We know Justin Tucker very well. Yeah, I mean, he's been our literally the MVP of the team during the whole 8-and-8 Flacco era, right?

You know, sort of this struggle that we've had with 54-yard field goals six times a week, right? That hasn't been the case here. But I would say that defense is, it really struggles when the D-lines a mess. I mean, giving up the run. and this Michael Pierce injuries this is this is going to be a test

for the Ravens this week to stop the run to contain the Sean Watson the pass rush hasn't been so great but they play great on the back end and quite frankly

Lamar keeps them off the field to some degree you know yep what is your gut to you about a final score this week? You know I keep waiting

and you guys ask me about my level of confidence I keep waiting for them to kick the ball around literally you know at some point when you play this style, things happen and the ball gets cold or wet or icy in Buffalo or whatever. It's going to be a very cold, chilly sort of 30-something semi-wintry afternoon here.

I'm interested to see how they work in those elements and I'm working at home this week. I mean, I just think they're due for a game that doesn't look like the Patriots or 40-point victories over the Bengals and the Dolphins. I see a tight game, and I know there's real concern here about Deshawn Watson and whether they're going to be able to contain that. this week. So 24-21, I'll give the Ravens a nod on it by a shield goal. But I, you know, I see this being a really good football game. Nestafar let you go. You've always called me once a year when the Astros and Orioles have played to kind of give me your audience a perspective of what's happening with the Astros. So I know that you enjoy baseball. I know you have enjoyed much baseball because of the Orioles futility. Just, and again, you don't have to

pull punches, you don't have to embellish. Just kind of tell me from the heart, when you hear of the Astros and all the problems that they are potentially in right now with the video cameras and the stealing of signs from a man that's 1,000 miles away who enjoys baseball. What do you not necessarily who do you believe, but when you hear of these stories, what's going through your mind? All right. So first off, I got thrown out of Major League Baseball 13 years ago after having a press credential for 21 years.

So, you know, from 1986 through 2007, I covered Major League Baseball. I traveled. I've been to 50 or 60 World Series games and all-star games, all that stuff. So my last thing's Aparicio, so I got a cousin in the Hall of Fame. So, I mean, I'm very, very near and dear to baseball. I mean, we're 23 months out on the least in my town, right? We're losing 110 games a year where we're – you guys are very familiar with that. The thought that anybody's cheating in Major League Baseball, I mean, it's as nefarious as it gets in regard to sign stealing

and, you know, brushback pitches and police self-policing and all of that. and cork bats and Albert Bell and, you know, steroid milkshakes and Brady Anderson hitting 50 home runs. And, I mean, come on, you guys have been through all of that. If you're a baseball fan as long as we've been baseball fans, we just had a parade down the street for a franchise that, quite frankly, we built Camden Yards, so that never existed, right? So from my town, any of you Springsteen fans, you know, it's brought a death to my hometown. The Orioles losing 110 games and what it's meant to my community, I live two blocks away, what it's meant to every brick here, the violence and the problems.

We've had 300 murders in our city. We've got corrupt leadership. Our former mayor stole $800,000 and she's going to prison. So, I mean, we've got an election next year, and the baseball team's going to lose 100 games. So in that environment and knowing that the guys that they have said are going to steward this thing are now somehow connected to a systemic Belichickian sort of operation that,

everyone apparently was in on and they thought that players were just going to keep K-Fave and keep the code when they left. You know, it was kind of like thinking that all these guys are going to be sticking needles in their butts back in the 90s and no one was ever going to out them. And Ken Kham and Nitti was never going to say something. And Kansako was never going to say something. You know, whatever the code is, whatever the fine is, whatever Sigmidel and Mike Elias' role in it, shame on all of them.

You know, I mean, shame on them for cheating. but, you know, we've had impeachment trials all day that I've been sitting here until you guys called me. So, you know, you're lying up until the point where they can convict you. So, you know, good luck to whoever forensics, all this MLB stuff. But the internet, the first three days with trash cans and banging and codes, you know, I would think that Mike Elias and Sig My Dell are going to be asked, you know, a few questions. You have some explaining to do, Matt. All right, just to confirm for my audience, I mean, a lot of people,

people on Twitter are asking me, you've had less than 12 cups of coffee today, correct? Oh, no, dude. I'm decapped, man. Listen, brother, I'll be honest with you, man. I do 40 hours a week of my own radio at the end of the week. I haven't done radio in two days. You know, there's a lot going on here, right? You know, we got a first place football team.

It's exciting. And, I mean, if you're not excited about seven and two, you know, go back to bed. You know, I don't need, I don't need to be a cat on seven and two, bro. Perfect. Come on. Nest, you're great hearing your voice. Again, please call me next year when the Astros and Orioles play, and I hope this is not a huge topic of conversation, but I'm afraid it might be.

Thank you for the time, as always, my friend. I'm going to call you after the game, Matt. See you, Buck. All right. See you later. Esther Asperishio with us, WNST Radio, one of the most demonstrative sports radio hosts you will find in the country, always breaks great insight, and really loves and represents his Baltimore area very well.

And I thought it would be a good guy to get on to talk up of the game, but the seven and two Ravens. Texans win the game. They would have the potential tie break if the two teams ended the top second set to a top spot in the AFC. Thanks again, Nestor, for joining us from WNST.