Speaker 1: Nestor Apparratio is one of the long time voices of
Baltimore's sports. When you want to get I mean the
know how know what's going on? We say hi to
Nester WNST Radio. Now, my partner Nestor wants to know
how you got the name Naster Nasty Nester, so please
explain to him how you got such a nickname.
Speaker 2: It's a long story, but there's an artist the sports
cartoon is to your name, resig R. C Ig is
a bit of a legend here and drawing Bob Ersay
cartoons back in the eighties, back when we lost the Colts.
And I do remember George Bland to believe it or not,
I'm kind of old, but so I lost the bet
about Eddie Murray in the Philadelphia Phillies and I volunteered
the babysit his kids who were six and four and
my kid was like four at the time, and I
sent them all to bed early, and they started calling
me Nasty Nester instead of Uncle Nestor. And when I
went on I'm the Radio in nineteen ninety two, you know,
I'm a sports writer from the Sun. In the eighties
is what I did. I was a music critic and
hockey writer. When I went on the radio, I had
a guy he said to me, a you know, like
a radio guy. He's like, you should have a nickname.
You should do you know, you should be something. And
I'm like, well, you know, these kids call me nasty
nest so I star calling myself that and he said,
you better damn well be nasty. So thirty five years later,
here I am. And it's not even something I use.
You know, get Nasty was on billboards here in the
nineties around the city. But you know that kind of
has a different kind of connotation. I mean when I
took it on, it was like Janet Jackson Nasty Boys,
you know, to be like the Beastie Boys had, you know,
he had an album, right, So it was just sort
of a name. But now it's you know, given to
certain that the political ramifications of that. I'm nice nester.
Speaker 1: Now you are, and they call me mister Texas down here,
inst you're the only one stopping right now, all right,
So Naston, let me ask you this. The Texans have
blanked the bed multiple times in Baltimore over the years.
I have told my audience, oh yeah, think you appreciate it.
Let's he brings facts and that's gonna conversate. That was nasty.
So my partner and I argue about the definition of
a must win. How is either you're definitively a must
win or it's a relative must win. I'm telling my audience,
nest if you if the Texans cannot beat the Ravens
this Sunday, it's never going to happen. First of all,
how banged up are the Ravens besides what you're seeing
on the injury port And on top of that, how
just desperate is this squad going? Oh my god, Cooper
Rush is gonna try to beat one of the best
defenses in the NFL coming up on Sunday.
Speaker 2: Well, I've been covered hardball from the beginning, right, so,
you know eighteen years of watching him come out, you know,
be a glowy sort of when they're you know, beaten
teams fifty to ten as they've done, and you know,
run NFC team's ragged. Here they're twenty four two against
NFC team since Lamar came and defenses couldn't stop them.
You know, when Lamar's in peril, there's a whole different
feeling in the building, right I mean, Cooper Russian Lamar.
It's just, you know, it's like Tom Moore used to
say with the Colts, if Peyton gets hurt, were f
you know, that's it. Whoever the backup is, it doesn't matter.
But then you get into this one and three and
you know Lamar's gonna come back at some point. It
might even be Sunday for crying out last with the hamstring.
But how bad a shape are they going to be in?
I mean, Cleveland's terrible, Cincinnati's terrible. Pittsburgh has a forty
one year old quarterback and their defense hasn't been good.
But pittsburghs Pittsburgh, right, So you know, I don't know
if they can. If the Ravens win the division at
nine and eight or ten and seven, it's a far
cry from thirteen and four, fourteen and three, Like they
thought they were gonna be in hosting THEFC Championship game,
but you know they're they're piling up the losses and
injury wise, I've never seen anything like it. I mean,
it's the thirtieth year for the Ravens. This year, I
can't remember a time where there's been more promise, and
we just came off a baseball season here where you know,
they were supposed to win ninety games and they were
dog meat because everybody got hurt and they weren't very good.
So the fan base here's a little reeling on that
in a general sense, although the Turfs are winning in
football for the first time like ever, but for the
raven sans to think playoff, playoffs, playoffs, Lamar super Bowl,
getting knocked out in Buffalo, Andrews dropping a pass, losing
an AFC Championship game with Taylor Swift on the field
two years ago to the Chiefs, like all the bad
vibes of that were well. Rokwan's getting better, Kyle Hamilton's great,
Marlin can still do, Marlon Humfrey can still good. Ronnie
Stanley got signed to a contract this offseason. Three or
four teams. You're gonna chase him down and give him
twenty million dollars a year. And he was thought, I
don't know a year or two ago, to just be
damaged good because you've been injured. Now, Stanley's hurt, Lamar's
hurt on the offense defensively, everybody, all their twenty million
plus dollar players, Marlon Humphrey, Rokwan Smith Justin Mattabikee is
now out for the year. He has a neck injury,
which is concerned the whole building that you know, he
might not play again. I mean, there's some real career
concern about his neck injury. And then Kyle Hamilton showed
up on the injury report the other day and he's
he's their best player on defense for sure, and they
haven't figured out how to use him. You know, they'd
like to have him up on the line and be
sort of that eleventh guy to do whatever he can do,
because he's built a little bit like a linebacker, a
little bit like a gigantic safety, but he's quick as
a cat and he's the smartest guy on the field.
I mean, Kyle Hamilton is a Hall of Fame prospect
for them, and they've had to move him back to
a traditional safety role because their inside linebackers have been garbage,
their pass rush has been non existent, and their defensive
lines decimated. I mean, this is a mess. You're right,
I mean, it's not one and eight on Sunday afternoon.
I'll be shocked, guys.
Speaker 3: Nester Apparicio with us here on a Sports Talk seven
ninety and we here in Houston have had nightmares. And
Derrick Henry, he has owned the Texans, especially when he
was a member of the Tennessee Titans. What do you
make of his season? Obviously the fumbles have been an issue.
Yards per carrier still pretty good, and especially knowing that
with Cooper Rush with the reins that the Ravens are
going to try to establish the run on Sunday.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I could sit here and go all
day about Lamar and Derrick Henry and what's been wrong
with it? So I mean ill to start with that.
I mean that the offensive line hasn't been great and
they have not put a lot of resources into the
offensive line. I just gave you a whole bunch of guys.
They are given twenty million dollars to do it. Booting
line Stanley Tyler, Linderbaum is there is there center and
the right tackle. They drafted in Rosengarten last year. They
were expecting better at them all at but the guard
play has just been awful. And really the offense and
Monkin and the things he wants to do with Lamar
with sleight of hand and RPOs and getting day Flowers
into mismatch situations and getting bateman down the field, and
you know, they have your guyd Hop who's had one
of those crazy aerial catches that you all are so
familiar with. He have won every week here in four weeks.
He's straight Hall of Famers. So they've got a crowded room,
Mark Andrews at tight end and Isaiah like that. They
have all these weapons. They've really missed Pat McCard, who
is there sort of a uniquely you know, cannon ball
sort of blocking back that has really been effected for
them over a number of years. He was a defensive
lineman out of Maine, and he was Hardball's project, like
seven years ago to make him a fullback or make
him a sort of an h back blocking back, gigantic
tight end when they want to go heavy. And when
they were going heavy with crappy running backs or banged
up running backs, it wasn't very good. But once they
brought Derek Henry and I thought they were a championship outfit.
You know, I lobbied for that Derek Henry thing for
two years when it was obvious that the Titans him out.
Almost helt him at the trading deadline at one point,
and the Ravens could have used him in their running
game a couple of years ago in play time, and
when they got him, I thought, this is a game changer.
And other people like he's these old you know, other
side of thirty whatever. Last year he was unbelievable. But
it really was scheme, and it really was you know,
I was taught football thirty years ago by Marvin Lewis alignment,
assignment technique. I mean, those guys held their blocks last year,
they pulled guards, they did athletic things. They had pat Riccard,
They have the best quarterback and the fastest guy on
the field in Lamar, and then they had this bowling
ball with Derrick Henry, who would go the other way
because you're scared that Lamar is gonna get loose on
the right side. Next thing you know, Dereck Henry's running
and you've got a safety trying to bring it down.
It was a brutal offense last year to deal with
this year. I don't know your defensive side, Tamiko Rans.
Everybody's gonna, you know, look at this and say, Cooper
rush Derek Henry, who could stop Derrick Henry. Great, but
it's really about losing blocks at the front line because
Henry's had no place to run. The scheme has been
a little weird. You know. They haven't really wanted to
run Lamar much really over the first five weeks. And
now he's hurt with the amstring. When he comes back,
what's the burst of speed gonna be like? Weapons wise
for Cooper rush, like you can throw the ball a
little bit. These tight ends got to wake up here.
I mean they gotta be. They've got to win that
five to twelve yard range, especially on first down. And
this offense over seven years with Lamar, it's been astonishing.
They're in second and two second and one second and
three more than any outfit I've ever seen until this year.
And that was really their benefit is first down getting six, seven, eight,
nine yard or twelve yards and getting fresh sticks and
never going into third down, and when they do, it's
short distance. And then on fourth down they would just
go for it, you know, any distance, any place on
the field, they would do that. All those things are
gone now. I mean I don't feel that mojo even
with Labar coming back, because the offense hasn't been very
good in general.
Speaker 1: Ran Let's get the crystal ball up four o'clock Eastern time.
When you're talking to your folks post gaming, youtubing, whatever
you do, how's this going to play out in your mind?
Speaker 2: Well, I mean it's to me. If Cooper Rush is
gonna play, it's a different team. And I don't even
know what it looks like. I watched it in the preseason.
He wasn't very good. He wasn't very accurate. And again,
he's not gonna have a lot of time. If I mean,
you guys have edge rushers, it's a different it's a
different gaming. They really struggled against Cleveland. You know, Cleveland's
a good defense, Mileth Garrett, all of that. Really good
players have overwhelmed the offensive line here even before Lamar came.
And Derrick Henry he's sort of the savior this week, right,
I mean, if he can run and get him four
or five yards and they can maintain the ball a
little bit with Cooper Rush, maybe they can win the
game by field goal twenty to sixteen or something. But
I expect a low scoring game, and honestly, I expect
the Texas to win. I expect the Texas to win
twenty seven to seventeen something like that.
Speaker 1: Okay, I think it's that may be too high. To
be honest with you, question thirty seconds the obligatory. Hey,
the crab cakes from Baltimore are great. You've brought that
up many a time. What's the second best food in
your city?
Speaker 2: Oh, well, we're seafood city, so I would have to
say something with rock fish or you know like that. Yeah, well,
the second best food in our city is there is
a place called Ekkabin here that makes brocolis and poorer.
That's unbelievable. But we have a pretty interesting cuisine palette here.
But locally, you know, go with the rockfish.
Speaker 1: Kay, very good, Nestor, you are a star. Thank you
for coming on the show. I would say we'll talk
to you come playoff time, but I think one of
us will not be in that situation, so we'll just
see who that is later this year.
Speaker 2: Team can still make the playoffs, guys.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, fine, but we'll be in the three thirty
Netflix game on Saturday, no matter what the case may be.
Speaker 2: You know this, right, man, You guys are really really
You're like the second city in Texas. Don't be that way.
You're a way better city than the other place.
Speaker 3: You know, a better city, but have you seen in
the football history.
Speaker 1: Come on, please, we're out football.
Speaker 2: Here we come a.
Speaker 1: This is what we don't need.
Speaker 3: We don't need this from you, nasty nester. Yeah they
suck too.
Speaker 1: We need nice nester.
Speaker 2: Thank you. I love the Oiler with my life and
you know that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's what I'm saying. That's why I was went
on the show. He's like, we talked, we talked more honors,
Earl Campbell, Timmy Smith, uh, Kenny Burrow, all that, Nester.
Thank you for the time, my friend. Repression