The Press Box - Gov. Wes Moore on ICE and Minneapolis, Democrats in 2026, the Next Black President, Jay-Z Power Rankings, and the End of the John Harbaugh Era.

Episode Date: January 29, 2026

Hello, media consumers! Bryan and Joel are joined today for a bonus episode by Maryland Gov. Wes Moore. The governor discusses his feelings on ICE and the shooting of Alex Pretti (02:31), whether Kristi Noem should resign as head of Homeland Security (05:43), and how Democrats can convince voters of their plan on immigration (08:49). The interview continues with a conversation about Jay-Z songs and lyrics (13:30), today’s political climate (21:19), and whether Gov. Moore is running for president in 2028 (23:49). The show ends with some talk about Gov. Moore’s college football career (30:09), and if it was time for John Harbaugh to go (34:05). All that and more, here on The Press Box. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello media consumers. Welcome to Pressbox. Brian Curtis. Joel Anderson. Producer Bruce Baldwin. Joel, we got another very special guest at the press box. It's Governor West Moore of Maryland. Are we just going to get the Democratic depth chart on the whole show this year?

Is that what it is? Well, we're about halfway down the depth chart now. We got to start mixing in. What are we going to get Vance on? We got to get, you know, Vice President Vance. Oh, you're saying we need a heavy. time. Yeah, I mean, you know, we're going to get, you know, let's put, let's put the calls out.

You know, who else is up? I don't, Jeff Landry, I don't know. Greg Abbott, let's put them out. You can come on the press box too, please. We got into so much today. We got into ICE in Minnesota. We got into the future of the Democratic Party. We talked about the next black president of the United States.

Yeah. We talked about West Moore's football career. John Hopkins. He, he, I mean, he's average. 25.2 yards per reception in college and did not start out as a football player when he went to college. That's pretty crazy. Joel might have even asked Wes Moore the question he always asked me. Oh yeah. That's right. A couple of them. Well, I haven't asked you your 40 time yet. Here's Governor Westmore. Joel, let's bring on a special guest. He is the 63rd governor of

Maryland running for re-election this fall. My governor too, by the way. Your governor too. That's right. He was in the Army. He was a Rhodes Scholar. And when he played college football, he once averaged 25.2 yards per reception. Okay. All right. That's some.

I mean, what even deep threat makes that puts up those kind of numbers? I've never even seen that kind of numbers before. Who would that even be? Kevin Williams or something like that? A deep threat known as Governor West Moore. That's right. Welcome to the press box. Before people said that someone got moused,

they said they got more. Okay. All right. I believe. It's good to be with y'all, man. Thank you so much for being here. We do have some football questions for you, but let's start with the news of the day because you saw the videos of federal agents shooting Alex Preti just like we did.

What did you feel when you saw those videos? I mean, this is our worst fears come to reality. We said when, when, you are deploying a group of people into neighborhoods that are untrained, that are unqualified, that are unaccountable, that we're talking. Many of these people were literally playing video games on their couch months ago. And now they're walking around our communities with weapons. You know, ISIS now the 13th largest funded military force in the world. And there was no accountability when they were deployed into these communities. And so we unfortunately,

you know, for many of us as governors, I'm actually vice chair of the National Governors Association. So this is a bipartisan group of all of America's governors, Democrats and Republicans. And we said when this happens, there is going to be tragedy that will follow and it has. And so the lack of responsibility, the gaslighting that's come from the federal administration, the idea that they did not foresee this or maybe even more unfortunate, maybe they did and they did not care, has just been deeply, deeply troubling to,

you know, to everyone around the country. And I think they're recognizing that now. You know, speaking of terrible video footage, it was earlier this week, something came from downtown Baltimore, the field office for ICE,

and they had this video that went viral and it showed about, you know, side of a holding room and it's rooms with no beds or bathrooms, foil blankets all over the ground. Your spokesperson governor said that it was deeply disturbing and completely unacceptable. But at this point, what does your administration know about what's going on at that facility and what, if anything, can you do for the Marylanders who are being detained in there? Well, that's the problem is that, you know, when you're looking at these federal facilities, you know, there's an expectation about certain guidelines that are going to be followed.

There's an expectation about certain humane conditions that should be followed because what people have to remember is whether regardless of a person's immigration status, they still fall under the Constitution, right? There's still certain laws that and there's still certain rights that they have. That is the U.S. Constitution. And this administration does not seem to care. And so, you know, when we saw our, when we saw our U.S. senators actually trying to gain access to the facility and being denied access to the facility, that is breaking the law. They have, they have permission as U.S. senators, as council representatives members, as members of the U.S. Congress, they should have the authority to be able to do wellness checks in these facilities. And so the fact that they're being denied just continues to highlight, you know, highlight the, you know, the idea that this administration's eye on it. and they've been doing it since they first got inaugurated. Governor Christie Nome accused Alex Pready of being a domestic terrorist.

There's a story in the New York Times today that she is back in Donald Trump's good graces. Do you think Christy Nome should still be running Homeland Security? Well, I didn't think Christy Nome should be running Homeland Security when she denied federal assistance to my people in Western Maryland. She showed me at that point that she's not qualified. She showed me at that point when we had our people in Western Maryland who had historic flooding and who I was we were some of the first boots on the ground there and there were literally boats that had to go to the second floor of the schoolhouse to save children because that was the only

way the kids because the first floor is washed out and when we went when we put in for federal disaster relief from FEMA which falls under under DHS because we knew we qualified for it we literally received the note from secretary gnome saying support for Maryland is not warranted. And by the way, not a single state that did not vote for Donald Trump has received a dollar of federal aid from FEMA since the Trump administration's come on board. So frankly, while this has been heartbreaking, I didn't need to see this to think that Secretary Norm was not qualified. She's been unqualified. And she should have been out of that seat. You know, Governor, when, you know, if you're looking at threads or next door, you know,

every now and again, I'll get these updates from people saying, oh, man, there's ICE agents, you know, at the Home Depot right up the street here in Colesville or whatever. They'll, and they're giving out warnings. And so ICE is here in some ways, but they haven't done this sort of operation here that they did in Minneapolis. But assuming that they do, like let's say that they decide to turn their attentions here, what would you advise people to do, like to try to handle that for the people that oppose these sorts of operations?

Well, we're actively working right now with the members of our General Assembly to ensure that we are going to aggressively and be on our front foot when it comes to dealing with these ICE agents. And like I said before, many of whom are who are unqualified, untrained, and unaccountable. And so we are going to do everything on our part to be able to help deal with that. And I do think that's the importance of states right now. There's never been a time when governors and attorney generals and state legislatures and mayors have been more important than what we're seeing right now when we have this massive overreach that's happening from your federal partners. But at the same time, the thing that we would ask the people of Maryland to do is

exactly that, is that continue looking out for each other, continue notifying each other, understanding that videotaping is not against the law. In fact, that's actually protected by the law. And do not let anyone tell you anything different. And so that's the thing that we would ask for Marylanders is that continue taking care of each other, continue sharing information, and continue to know that this administration and our administration and our General Assembly and our local leaders that we're working together to make sure you're protecting. Polls show that the public does not like ICE operations like what we're seeing in Minneapolis. But part of the reason we're here is that Donald Trump's message about immigration in 2024 was more popular than the Democrats' message about immigration. What do Democrats need to say to convince voters that their approach is better than Trump's?

Well, I mean, what I know is, you know, when I think about immigration, it's, it's a very, it's a very personal issue for me because, you know, I come from an immigrant family. You know, I was, I was raised by an immigrant single mom. And, and so I know that not only is this issue personal, I know that we've had a broken immigration system in this country for a very long time. You know, this is, this is not something new. And I think that there needed to be a focus that could do a couple different things. And when we're talking about, real immigration reform. Yes. Do you need to make sure you have a secure border? Absolutely. And we, and we for a long period of time did not have that. And there needs to be a measure of honesty about that. Do we need to make sure that we have real pathways to citizenship for people who are here and knowing people who have been, you know, who have, you know, been contributors to our society and people who, you know, have continued to raise families here, et cetera? Yes, we do need to come over real pathways of citizenship. Do we need to make sure that we're dealing with the issue of violent criminals and violent offenders inside of our neighborhoods, absolutely. And frankly,

you know, there is no state that has had the drop in violent crime over the past two and a half years like the state of Maryland. We've got the fastest drops of violent crime anywhere in the United States of America. So no one needs to educate me or us on how to do that work. But I do think it needs to be a holistic approach in the way we're thinking about immigration reform. It's the reason that Congress needs to help take the lead on this because part of the reason that we are watching this overreach from the Trump administration is because Congress continues to fail to act. That Donald Trump right now could fix our immigration system right now if that was his goal because he could call Congress together and say, I want a comprehensive immigration bill on my desk

in two weeks. And they'd have it on his desk in two weeks, but they're not doing it. And you know, why? Because he's not calling it. He's not calling for it because he just thinks that doing these executive actions, many of which are illegal, just makes more sense for him. So we need Congress to actually do their job and to really say, if we're going to focus on comprehensive immigration reform, then let's actually do the work instead of letting ourselves continually get rolled by an administration who does not seem to think that the rules apply to them. You know, I'm glad you mentioned the crime issue here in Maryland, in Baltimore in particular, because that's a back and forth that you had with President Trump last year, right? Like, he is insistent that Baltimore has a crime problem,

and I've seen a number of interviews where you've talked about, hey, look, you know, The data shows that we've had a drop in crime and violent crime that we've not seen him within my lifetime. So, and you've invited him to walk the streets of Baltimore with you, not an offer he's accepted, right? What kind of, when's the last time that you've had any interaction with him or his administration? Is there any lines of communication with you guys? Or is it pretty much, you know, I'll see you into tweets, basically. No, listen, no, I do interrupt. My team interacts with the members of the administration.

I have had interactions with the President of the United States. And ironically, every time I interact with the President of the United States, they're always nice conversations and he's very complimentary about the job that I'm doing. And then he turns around on Twitter and then, you know, begins to, you know, begins to bash me. So it's like, but, you know, especially when I look at the issue of violent crime, I'm just, you know, as Jay-Z said, you know, men lie, women lie and the numbers don't. And the reality is the numbers don't, is that we have seen since our administration has come on board, the violent crime rate in the state of Maryland, we've cut it by nearly half, by half, that the last time the homicide rate was at this level in the state of Maryland was 40 years ago. In Baltimore City, the last time the homicide rate was this low, I wasn't born yet.

So it's like, so the reality is that we have more work to do, but we're showing that you can actually make progress by working together, by working together with the mayor and our state's attorneys and local law enforcement and community groups and using technology and also by focusing on both increasing accountability for violent offenders and increasing opportunity for people who are coming back home from incarceration. And so by doing all those things, you can have a strategy that makes a real market impact on our people's lives instead of as the president of the United States continues to do just continue throwing out tropes from the oval office you know before we move on governor uh i'm sorry to pull you into our bullshit but anytime you bring up a artist

we had to ask the question and so brian you get to go first okay what's your favorite j z song well i'm going to defer to the governor oh come on Brian we're interviewing him that's you got to ask it It's almost like what's your favorite JZ song of which of which album? But Brian, I'll let you go first. No, no, please, Governor, I defer. This is, this is about you. This is not about me, sir. You're going to say feeling it. It's feeling it, Governor Moore.

That's, I assume it's probably that. Feeling it's, it's a, it's a good choice. Never change. Ooh. We don't know. You don't actually, because that beat on you don't know is just bananas. Yeah, is it. Gosh, man.

Allure? You're not an allure fan. A lure is my joint. A lure is hot. A lure is hot. I was still probably put you don't know over a lore, but lore is hot. I mean, listen, you know, um. Lucifer's dope.

American Gangsa was dope, even though that was probably one of the only good songs on that album. Yeah. Oh. Controversial. No, it's just real. It's just real. But I'm, but I'm, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a, I actually think that, you know, one of the most beautiful things,

is that I think Jay-Z gave such a great answer when the whole question about would you take, you know, $500,000 or... Oh, yeah, yeah. Jay-Z actually, I think, gave the best answer where he said, take the money. Right. And he was like, because if you actually want to hear, you know, the insights,

he's like, you know, you just buy my albums. And the beautiful thing about Jay-Z is he's right. if you just listen to Jay Z's album, the amount of just knowledge that he drops in 16 bars is just actually crazy. And I don't know if there's been an artist that's been able to do that.

Or even anything about Pock, right? Like, Pac was great because Pock just did an amazing job of putting you into a space that you might not have understood, right? Big was great because Big was just an absolute lyricist. Yep, great storytelling. He was a great storyteller, right? Raqam was someone who just, like, blew your mind in terms of how wild his rhymes and his thinking

and how he just brought you into a cypher every time he picked up a microphone. But Jay Z, well, I think Jay is unique, is Jay is just like he's a person you can just sit there and just get life advice from. Yep. That's realizing that's exactly what he's did, but he's just giving you life advice over a beat. We're going to put, Brian, 444. We'll start you there. And when you come back next week,

to give us a review of the 4-44-4-4 album, okay? That's a bananas album. You don't know what I was going to say, actually, but he took the words right out of my mouth. Put me anywhere on God's green earth. I will triple my worth. Let's ask a few questions about the Democrats governor. We talked about immigration.

What else do you think the party did wrong in 2024, as we sit here nine months before the midterms, that they need to do a better job of in November? You know, it's interesting because I'm probably not the best person to ask about where the Democrats are because I'm going to be very honest. Like when I ran for governor, this is the first officer I've ran for in my life. I'm not a political guy.

I don't come from a political family. And I remember when I first started running for governor, I wasn't the Democrats' choice. you know what I mean like you know I mean listen and the truth is like and and Joel is one of us so like you know he's in Maryland so he knows when I was running for governor there were like 12 people running for governor and all of them were like statewide elected officials and county executives and and cabinet secretaries and the former head of the Democratic Party and then me the guy who never run for office in my life a guy who wasn't connected and the guy who was like listen I don't

know any of the political talk but I can tell you what I know from my neighborhood I can tell you what I know from my community. I can tell you what I know from my background. And we ended up winning. And the Democratic Party literally put millions of dollars to try to beat me. And we ended up winning with more votes than anyone who ever run for governor in the history of the state of Maryland. And so I, so I am never one who's going to defend the, the history of the Democratic Party, A, because I wasn't really a part of it. And B, I don't defend the indefensible. But what I do know is this, is that when I think about the Democrats, that the Democrats in many ways don't have a messaging problem,

I think there's been a results problem. Because that was what allowed Donald Trump to get to climb back in the window. The Democrats opened the window. And Donald Trump just crawl right back in. Where I think that there's been a challenge where everything is like a case study or a research report or a 12-year analysis. without understanding how people's, how fast people's lives are devolving right now. And so if I'm telling you that, listen, I don't feel safe in my neighborhood.

I don't want to hear you tell me, okay, so let me do a five-year study on that. If I'm telling you, I cannot find a job that can pay me a fair wage. So now I'm having to work multiple jobs and I'm still living below a poverty line. No one wants to hear me say, okay, let me do a four-year commission on that. Like, what are you going to do right now to fix it? And so that's why I think the focus that we've had within our administration is, is like, listen, we're going to stop being the place of no and slow and start being the place of yes and now. Get it done. When I sign the largest mass pardoned in the history of the United States of America, I pardoned 175,000 misdemeanor cannabis convictions

in the stroke of a pen, the largest mass pardon in the history of this country. And there are a lot of people said, well, shouldn't you take time to really evaluate? I said, no, because here's what I know. I have people who cannot get a barber's license, even though we now have a new billion dollar industry. And I got people who are now making money hand over a fist and people who still, and people on the other side who cannot get a home loan. So no, I'm not going to do a multi-year study on it. And so I signed the largest mass pardon in this country's history, that when we talk about things like housing. When we talk about things like raising a minimum wage and people are like, well, shouldn't we take a year to figure it out? No, I said no, because for the person who's working

that job right now, they need the money now. So my first year, we raised the minimum wage in the state of Maryland and saying gone should be the days when you have people who are working not just one job, but in some cases, multiple jobs and still living at or below a poverty line. So I just think that there needs to be a speed in the way that we are impacting positively impacting people's lives because I think if people see that that your speed is actually matching the speed in which their lives are falling apart, the way they're being attacked right now by the federal government, I think that you will never have an election problem again or you will never have a messaging problem again. You will be able to show that people will appreciate it and people will make sure

they show up and show out when it comes to election time as well. Governor, in just the past week, I mean, even just, you know, a couple of days yesterday, a man attempted to attack Representative Ilhan Omar, the town hall, you know, Representative Maxwell Frost was punched in the face in Utah. And previously, you know, you've condemned political violence, but particularly the alleged assassination attempt on Trump last year. But what do you think of the climate and the rhetoric when you're on the road these days. Like, are you afraid of being impacted by the same violence?

Well, I mean, I think the level of political violence that we've continued to see and the threats that we have, they're real. You know, I, you know, when, when I was inaugurated in January of 2023, you know, that, you know, I became the first black governor in the history of the state in Maryland and only the third African American ever elected governor in the history of this country. And, you know, it is also not lost on anybody that not everybody was happy about that. Yeah. And you saw how threat levels increased. You saw how, you know, how, you know, the level of ignorance that people are feeling.

And frankly, you know, every single week, I get intelligence reports from the FBI and our intelligence agencies and the threat level that not just elected officials, but like what we're seeing. with anti-Muslim, anti-Semitic, anti-Black, the type of threats and hate crimes that we're seeing have just exploded over these past years. So it is something that's real. The thing that I also lean on, though, is I also know the history of this country. And the reason that I can sit here as a 63rd governor of the state of Maryland is because there were people who fought and who sacrificed on my behalf.

That there are people who knew that every single day it was not going to be easy. But if you're fighting for what's right, it was going to be worth it. And so I try to move every day. And I ask the people of my state to move every day with the remembrance of those who came before us. and with an acknowledgement of those who will come after us and just know that this is a place that's worth fighting for and our values are worth fighting for and our democracy is worth fighting for.

So I appreciate the fact that, you know, again, I'm not really, I don't have a history being a politician. My history is being a soldier. So I do move different. But I also remember my history. And I remember all the shoulders that I stand on. Let's talk about your future of being a politician. you're going to run for president in two years, Governor?

I am not going to run for president. I'm running for election in re-election in November, and I'm asking Joel for his support. Ah, well, you know, I got to hear your platform, you know. That's going to be a hard one to win over. Right, I know, yeah, you know me. But just so I understand, running for governor right now, but not running for president at all, that will not,

you're taking that off the table completely in two years. Yeah, I mean, I'm not, I'm not, because I don't even think about it. You know what I mean? Like, like, here. Here's the thing to remember, and this is real. And I know that for a lot of people, they're like, well, politics say this, policies say that. I was like, you'll have to remember, just four years ago, I wasn't going to run for governor. You know what I mean?

Like, I ran because I was very clear on what I wanted to do. And I was very clear that governor was a unique role in order to accomplish the things that I wanted to accomplish. Because I was like, if you really want to focus on this issue of child poverty, which I would live if someone could tell me if you could snap your fingers in end child poverty I told them I could rest in eternal peace after that because the issue gets me that much that we allow children to grow up in poverty in the way that we do in our society right so I was I was very clear about my thesis and why I wanted to do this and frankly when there are a lot of people who were telling me when I was thinking of run for governor they're like what are you doing

you're not going to win, you're polling at 1%. Like literally, our first poll, I'm not voting, was polling higher than Westmore. You know what I mean? Like, this was not looking good when we first started. And there was nothing anyone could tell me to get me not to run because I was locked in. And so I'm not, I appreciate the fact that people are, you know, that I think people around the country are noticing what is happening in Maryland. We've gone from 43rd in the country in unemployment to now having an unemployment rate that's significantly lower than the national employment rate, despite having more federal workers fired in Maryland by Donald Trump and J.D. Vans than any place in this country, that we've had the fastest drop in violent crime anywhere in the United States of America. That since I've been governor, we've added over 35,000 new businesses, 100,000 new jobs.

I appreciate the fact that people around the country notice the work this happened in here. but I'm pretty, you know, I'm a person who, what moves me and what grabs me, when I see the thing that I'm locked in on, and I am so focused on continuing this mission to ending child poverty in the state of Maryland, to making sure that we can make our state more competitive, to making sure that we can protect our people. I know where I'm supposed to be, and I want to make sure that I complete my mission. I feel like you might be considered it.

Two years is a long time. But let me follow up along those lines. Because look up, man, as you can see, you can look, I'm a black man. If I was old enough to vote for Jesse Jackson in 84 and 88, I would have done it. I have so much respect for black public servants, you know, Senator Warnack, Eddie Bernice Johnson, who's, you know, TCU along, Bobby Rush, I believe strongly in black political leadership. That's one of the reasons I moved to Maryland last year. But I want to ask you a question.

question. I'm scarred, okay, by the last 20 years of politics and the response to the Obama presidency, you know, Vice President Harris has lost. And I feel like America is telling us that they don't want and can't handle a black president again. Do you think I'm wrong? It's, well, first let me tell you about black leadership. And it's actually one of the reasons that I'm so involved in this, in this redistricting fight. Because I think what we are seeing right now in this country is one of the greatest attacks on black leadership that this country is seen. You know, when Donald Trump is picking and choosing which states to go through mid-decade redistricting, let's be clear about who and what districts are being targeted. When they're talking about getting rid of the Voting Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act can be

one of the greatest attacks on the congressional black caucus that our country has ever seen. And so what we are seeing right now is essentially political redlining. And it's one of the reasons that I have said if the rest of the country is going to go through this mid-decade conversation about, about, you know, do we have fair maps? There is no way that I'm going to let Maryland sit on our hands. And it's the same reason why I'm thankful that the Maryland House led by our first Afro-Latina speaker, Jocelyn Pena, Melnick, now has legislation up to be able to adjust the maps. And at the same time, we need to make sure that as the House continues to move it, that the Senate then should be able to put it to a vote and figure out where our senators are. But in terms of where the country is, you know, I actually think that the country, what I hope is that this is a country that is going to understand and think about what are the values that this country actually holds true. and do I understand kind of the history of this country? Absolutely. Like you can't look at the history of Maryland. I mean, literally, you look at our flag. Our flag is a is a contradiction because our flag is literally a Confederate symbol mixed with a union symbol. Like Maryland is this northernmost southern state in this country. The bloodiest battles of the civil war were fought in the state of Maryland. And despite that, I stand here as

the governor of that same state. So do I think that our state and do I think that our country has the ability to heal itself? I do. But I think it doesn't happen by accident. And I don't think it happens just because I think change doesn't just happen. Change is made to happen. And I think we need people who are going to make that change happen.

Before you go, we've got to get in some football questions. Oh, yeah, we've got to do that. Of course. receiver for Johns Hopkins in 1999 and 2000, six foot one and a half inches tall. What wide receiver did you model your game after? Oh, that's a really good question. So first, I have to tell you, you know, I didn't play football until I got to college. So it's funny you say that because what, do you want to say it, Brian?

Well, we heard you came as a basketball player. Is that right? That's exactly right. And blew out your knee? Yeah, well, it's so, man, y'all are good. So that's exactly right. So midnight madness. In midnight madness, I actually went for a dunk in midnight madness and I came down wrong

and I plowed my knee. That's the worst way to blow out your knee, by the way. Yeah, that's sad. It was a very bad story. It was a very bad. And it's, you know, it's crazy is that I actually made the paper and there's a picture of me coming down. And that they little, I don't know if they realized it,

the picture that they, caught was literally the picture where I blew my knee out. Oh, man. Crazy. So, but, but, but actually, I didn't start playing football until the, the, the, the football coach came to watch me play basketball. And he comes up to me afterwards. It's an amazing guy named Jim Margraff, who by the way, is going to be inducted into

the college football Hall of Fame this year, an amazing human being. Um, but he comes up to me and he says, have you ever played football? And I said, and I said, no, so I haven't. And he's like, you know, you. You got good hands, good speed. And he's like, can you do me a favor? After practice tomorrow, can you come to the football field? So he had me run the 40.

He had me do a vertical lead test, and he had me run a couple patterns. And when I finished that up, he said to me, he said, what do you think about being a wide receiver? That was how I first got introduced to football. And so, but I, but and because of that experience, I have fallen in love with football. Like, I mean, I have fallen all head over heels in love for football. But that really began in college because of my experience with, you know, with John Soap University in the football team. Wait. It's okay.

What was your 40 time? I'm a speed guy. You know, I got a note. So I went, what was that 40 time? Do you remember? I was, I think I was at a four, four, four, six, four, four, seven. I was cooking. Okay.

All right. I mean, I wasn't like some of these dudes is up later like four, three, or whatever like that. but, you know, I can move. 4-4-6 is rare. That's rare. Yeah. It wasn't too bad. It wasn't too bad.

Pride and poise. We were told to ask you about that. Pride and poise. Knock them back. That's the Hopkins motto where, where Coach Margrave always told us that, you know, when we move, you know, it's pride and poise. That you're prideful for who you are and for that Hopkins that you got in your jersey.

But it's poised. You never lose who you are. pride and poise, and then when you say, when someone says pride and boys, you say knock them back. And that was the whole thing where it's like someone's in there, you knock them back. That's what we do. So pride and poise, knock them back. Last month before Hopkins played their NCAA quarterfinal game, you were brought in to give the fire him up speech. Now here's a bunch of football players that have heard fire them up speeches for their entire sports careers.

Can you recreate a little bit of that to tell us how you got their attention? I you know I'm trying to I'm I'm I'm let me tell you some first of all let's be clear we were good these boys are better like I am I am so serious like they are this is a legit legit squad I mean they were I mean they're in the final four uh cross the nation so I kind of just told them I said uh you know I want you to I want you to hit this of a team in such a way that they are going to tell their grandkids stories about what you're doing. That's what I want you to do. Make sure you send a message. Send a message. Last question. Was it time for John Harbaugh to go? It was. And listen,

and I, you know, every coach in the NFL would dream of having a career like John Harbaugh, right? Every coach in the NFL would dream that their first head coaching job. And by the way, remember, let's not forget his job before that was he coached a special team. He went from a special teams coach to an NFL head coach. And then he then spent, what, 18 years with the same squad and won a Super Bowl. Tell me a single coach in the NFL who would not want a career like that. Right. So mad respect to Harbaugh.

I also know that the window for Lamar Jackson, we've got three to five years left with maybe one of the most generational talent. that the NFL has seen, a person who's transformed the position, a person who is absolutely impossible to prepare for. When you're preparing for to play the Ravens, what do you have a wide receiver, sliding a quarterback to demonstrate the speed? So it's like he's impossible to prepare for.

And I think we've continued to see that there's something going on when you have maybe the most talented team on paper in the NFL, right? Your running back is Derek Henry. You've got both likely and Andrews as your tight ends. Your wide receivers are Zay Flowers and D.Hop. And you have an offense that doesn't score? So I think while I have a lot of love and respect for Harbaugh and the team that he built, and frankly, the GM, how they draft,

I don't think there's a team in the NFL that drafts like the Ravens have drafted. I mean, when you're picking up people like Kyle Hamilton and the job, I'm like, you have done a great job of just finding talent. There's no excuse for a team of that talent to finish 500. And don't talk to him about injuries. This is the NFL. People get injured. It's next man up.

And so I think that that was the final straw. And I'm looking forward to, I'm looking forward to, you know, to having mentor come on board because he really is. I've been looking at a lot of the schemes he's pulled together. This dude really is a defensive mastermind, and that's exactly what I think the Ravens need. I think we need to get back to Smash Mountain football. I think we need to get back into football

that shows people when you play us, someone's going to get hurt. I don't know who, but someone's getting hurt. That's the mentality that we need to be able to bring back to Ravens football. Governor Westmore, come back. We'll do our JZ power rankings. You and I, Joel can tell us who's right.

Tell us who's right. Thanks so much for coming on the press box. Appreciate y'all. Thanks, Gossack, man. All right, back with Brian and Joel. There was so much there. Yeah, man. I mean, you know, I was trying to think about, you know, the JZ albums that I want to kind of throw at you.

How dare you ask him that question? Bring a governor of an American state into. Hey, he had strong opinions about that. He really did. But that and the Ravens. But he was fired up above both subjects. He's fired above by everything. Like he's very, it's really easy to get cynical about politicians who is enthusiastic and polished as he is.

Right. Like I could imagine that people would get cynical. But, you know, like, it's good to see people that have enthusiasm and, like, are coming in a really bleak time, somebody who has, like, the enthusiasm of somebody who's been in a locker room before. I felt like maybe that could be a. rallying point for a lot of people possibly. You think he was really ruling out running for president? Come, come.

I mean, this is like, I mean, you know. It's still on the table. Yeah, come on, man. I mean, you can easily flip that. Well, the American people have spoken loud and clear. People kept asking me over the last two years. And now I feel like I've got, you know, you can envision the speech that he'll be given from, you know, the steps of Baltimore, the Baltimore courthouse or something. He's Joel Anderson.

I'm Brian Curtis. But thanks a magic. By Bruce Baldwin. Follow us on Instagram at Pressbox Ringer. We got all kinds of stuff up there. Clips from Senator Mark Kelly, one of the many maybe presidential candidates

who's coming through the smoke-filled room with the press box. David Shoemaker's fantastic magazine cover for the January issue of the press box is going to be up there shortly. He's so good at that. He is so good at that. He really is.

Treasures from the Curtis, physical media archives, all kinds of reasons to follow us there. and we ask you, retweet us. Resqueed us. Re-up us in any way possible. Again, this is a year about being shameless at the press press press.

Re-thread us. We'll take it anyway. Just go do it once. See how you feel about us. And then who knows, you might be in the every week club right after that. We got bunch of stuff coming up next week for Super Bowl week. Joel, I cannot wait to have more lukewarm takes

about the media with you. See you that. We'll see you do that.