Studio 44, Ep. 6: Marlon Humphrey Welcomes Steve Bisciotti

Marlon Humphrey sits down with Ravens Owner Steve Bisciotti to discuss his path to becoming the Ravens owner, his views on organizational culture and whether he can borrow the private jet.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
There's under thirty eight hundred billionaires in the world. Wow,
and you're one of them. Yeah, you know. I oftentimes
we're like playing the NFL, you're in that such small percent. Yeah,
you're in a smaller percent. I think playing the NFL
school but I think being a billionaire would be really

(00:20):
cool in a way. Would you give up your career
right now? Five years? Then? No? No, I could not
do it. I was like, you're like, Wow, I ask
you if you could put it on lay away. Yeah,
I'll away. Carlin Humphrey is without a doubt in the
conversation to be the best pilliner in football. How are

(00:47):
we doing, guys? We are here with Steve Bashotti, the
Ravens owner, here in Studio forty four. Steve, thank you
for tuning to them today. You're very welcome, very welcome.
So I think it's important. When I started Studio forty or,
I had Eric to coss On here and I asked
him a question if he could relay a message to you,
which I don't think he did. So since I have
you here, I asked him what would it take for

(01:10):
me to borrow your private jet? I saw that. I
saw that question. Yes, you never relate the answer through
email attection in person. So now I got you here. Well,
I think Eric gave you a pretty good answer, didn't
you If you haven't remember correctly? He said, I I
think we could work that out if you can renegotiate
your kind o. Yeah, yeah, see what you get for

(01:31):
me actually paying attention. We'll have to talk about that
one off air. Yeah, that'll probably a better off air.
By the way, real quick, do we do you do
we charge you rent for the studio? We were still there,
still some inks in the kinks in the because you
definitely can get a you know, employee discount, okay, yeah,

(01:54):
before it becomes a salary cup violation. Yeah. So I
know we we've talked about this before. How did you
kind of get to where you are now? I know
you started a company, aarotech. I was unaware that it
started in your basement, So I want to hear when
you kind of I think it's always interesting. Everyone's always
trying to start a business, and as we know, so

(02:15):
many businesses fail, some rise. What was kind of the
idea in your mind when you first started that company? Well,
I had gotten out of college and older fell in
my neighborhood that I adored. You know. He taught me
how to play the guitar. He taught me how to
water ski U, taught me how to drive his Volkswagen Bug.

(02:35):
And he was out and he was in this industry,
in the high level placement of engineers. He got me
a job. I worked for about fifteen months, and the
company kind of imploded. We're not well financed, and so,
you know, they say sometimes you're you're you're too dumb

(02:57):
to fail. And I was, you know, figuring, oh, I
can do this. And I was twenty three years old,
but I knew I could do it. I knew I
could do it better than the company that I had
worked for. So I talked my two roommates, who were bartenders,
into letting me tear out the bar in the basement
of our townhouse that we shared, and I went to

(03:18):
Goodwill and bought a bunch of desks and a couple
old phones and started my business right like that two weeks. Notice, Wow,
did you think it would grow? Did you think it
would grow? Did you have that vision already that it
would grow that? I No, certainly not. At that time.
You know, I knew that I could do it better.
And as I got successful, it simply was the salesperson

(03:44):
that I had assigned I was handling the Baltimore market,
and the person that I assigned to the Northern Virginia
market started doing very well, and of course he'd get
caught in traffic and it would be an hour and
a half drive. And so we finally said, we've got
six or seven contract engineers working down there, bite the bullet,
open an office, and move Mike down there. And then

(04:07):
we did the same when we started cracking into Philadelphia,
and then we did the same when we cracked into Orlando.
So we grew organically knowing that we had a system
that we thought worked anywhere and we could replicate. So
that's when I started realizing that there was no stopping

(04:28):
the company and that we could become a national company.
And then we just went to work. And when you
were working that, how much did you because we've spoke
on this before in the past, you told me you
really really enjoyed you were doing that a lot. How
was it kind of when you were when you were
doing that, you know, I always I always say there's
an expression the wolf at the door, and some people

(04:49):
are scared of that wolf, and other people are motivated
by that wolf, and so I loved the fear of
the wolf. And so I woke up every morning thinking
that wolf was going to blow my house down. And
so I worked like it was the last day I
had a chance to prove myself. And when you continue

(05:12):
with that attitude, that underdog mentality, that fear of failure,
if you're willing to put the work in like that,
if that drives you, then you win. And so obviously
becomes very successful, and then you go on to buy
the Ravens minority. At first, what kind of went into Yeah,

(05:34):
it was interesting. I opened up maybe two hundred offices,
traveled an awful lot when all over the country, and
my dad died when I was almost nine. My brother
was ten and my sister was eleven. And I got
to the point where it was like nineteen ninety seven

(05:55):
and my boys were twelve and ten, and I just
went to my business partner and said, you know, he
had maybe one little baby at the time, and I said,
you know, I'm now at the stage I was only
thirty seven years old, but I said, you know, now
I'm looking at my boys and I'm realizing that I

(06:16):
was without a dad, with no choice, and they were
without a dad because I was addicted to working sixty
and seventy hour weeks, and I said, I've got to
stop that. So I promoted. He was my second employee
that I hired in nineteen eighty three, and in nineteen
ninety seven I made him the president and was able
to not be the first in the door, in the

(06:36):
last to leave, kind of took a backseat and became
his sounding board. Still worked very hard, but not you know,
twelve hour days, and then this just came along. I was,
you know, I realized once I had more time for
the boys, they didn't really want more time with me.

(06:57):
I mean, you know, I missed, I missed practices, and
I missed you know, ten year old Wednesday night basketball
games sometimes. And then when I started going to their practices,
I realized, with fifteen kids on this team, there might
be two dads there watching practice, and in my mind
there were there were fourteen and I was the only
one missing. And so I kind of realized that maybe

(07:19):
they had other interests. And you know that I'd come
they'd come home from school, and I'd say, oh, let's
do this, or let's do that, and they're like, no,
we want to play video games. After a child was
across the street. So then I found myself a little bored,
and then this really just stumbled upon me. The Bank
of America knew how big my business was. We were private,

(07:41):
we still are private, and they knew I probably had
the capacity to do it. So they came to me
and said, Art Modell's looking for a partner. And the
more we dug into it, the more I realized that
I wasn't interested in just being a minority partner forever.
So Art and I sat down with OR representatives and

(08:01):
negotiated a deal where I would do it, but I
needed an option to own the whole thing, and he
wanted five years. I wanted three. We settled on four.
I bought. He was looking for twenty five percent. He
set up, I'm giving you the option that I you
got to give me half of it. So I bought
forty nine percent in two thousand and he wasn't going
to get back. He was going to have to sell

(08:23):
the whole team right away if I didn't come up
with a pretty good deal. And it was worked out
for him, and it worked out for me because the
very next year he wanted certainly super Bowl, and so
I've been it's one of my proudest things to give
Art the opportunity to get refunded by my money. The
first thing they did was go out and get some
high priced free agents, and we won the super Bowl

(08:45):
that year, so he finally fulfilled his goal and I
got to be a fly on the wall. So because
I had no power, I didn't have to make decisions.
And so I explained it to people as it's like
going to college for four years and you have to
go to class, but you never get tested. And I
loved learning, I just didn't get I just didn't like

(09:07):
being questioned on what I had learned because maybe I
only learned seventy So I had to work to make
sure I got that C. And so that's what I got.
I got a four year apprenticeship when I did not
have to make a single decision, and by the time
I took over, I felt like I was way more
prepared than anybody else that steps in and just takes over.
So for those years, I think anything you do learning

(09:30):
is such key. What what kind of did you learn
in those years that? What did I one or two
think that you think you learned that just was well
really learning the learning the way if you know, the
the salary, free agency, salary cap all that stuff was
fairly new. That free age didn't come till ninety three,

(09:50):
and so it was learning the ins and outs, like
really trying to understand the business. But what I was
plus isn't ly surprised to learn was that the culture
that Art had built was so aligned with what I
did that I four years into it. I came in

(10:14):
here and I did not replace a single employee. They
were exactly the kind of people that I used to
pick for my company, and Art was an incredible judge
of character. And so what I learned the most, the
biggest thing was I picked the right company because Art
Model had this thing on a tee for me to

(10:36):
carry on. I didn't have to come in and teach
them culture hard work. It was just a brilliant, wonderful
thing for me. So it was very fortunate. And also
with culture, you know, I feel like something that's really
similar here as consistency when I was as more I
get to know people around the building, they'll show me
pictures of they've been there for so long, and it's

(10:59):
been hard been there for a while, Ozzie's been here
for so long, and I think all that consistency, why
why do you feel that consistency is something that obviously
you believe in so much along with culture. Continuity of
staff is the foundation of culture. If you have a
lot of turnover, you can't. Can't, there's no The culture

(11:20):
is always changing, You're always trying to catch up. You're
usually disappointed. But the minute these players step in here,
when they see somebody like Ozzie that's been here for
thirty years, and Dick cass who is my first and
only president, and John Harball was my first and only
I mean Brian Billick was here for the first seven years.

(11:42):
I was here three when I was majority, and when
I went out looking for a coach, John struck me
as the kind of guy that I could be proud
of standing up number one. He was a football family,
which helps, Like you were right, you go in knowing
what to expect. He spent his life as a ball

(12:04):
boy on the fields of University of Michigan while his
dad coached there. Um so John really spoke to me
and you know, here we are in our fifteenth year.
And you know, sometimes as as a sounding board for John,
I'm like, you don't have to be great, you have
to be consistent. Consistency is great, and being consistent is

(12:29):
the is to me, the epitome of of being great.
And John's proved that. So and so you talk about,
you know, consistent in all those things. How I think
it's interesting you see the different types of owners in
the league. You don't obviously don't know how everybody handles
their team. You're you're somebody that comes around pretty often.
The guys that you just spoke to us today, how

(12:52):
involved you get as far as during the season, you know, offseason.
I hear you really love the draft. You love the draft,
So let's we can talk about the draft. What And
I actually I remember when I got drafted. My dad
was I guess you guys had a conversation and he
was saying, you something about screens or something like nobody
ever got screens when it was on my side or something.

(13:14):
So he was like, he knew all your stats, Marlin.
I'm like they usually do, but he was raving about that.
So tell me what it is about the draft that
I mean, it's obviously you're investing in your future. What
about the draft that excites you so much? Well, the renewal.
You know, you kind of spend the you kind of
spend March losing players. And you know, because we draft, well,

(13:39):
we lose a lot of players. When you lose a
lot of players and they signed deals, then you get
compensed story draft picks. So it's a viciously positive cycle.
It's a vicious cycle, but it's a positive one. So
because we have to sign you because of your production
and Ronnie and Mark, there's some guys that deserve it,

(14:01):
but we can't afford it. And so when we let
them go, we turn around and get three third and
fourth round compics. So we have more compics than any
team in the league by a fairly good margin. I
think the Packers do that a lot too. So they're
built it. So here's the answer. They're paid for. They're

(14:24):
built into our budget. So they are it's like going
out shopping with somebody else's credit card. It's like flying
on my plane when you're on fayfoot, right, So they're
built into our budget. So I've got eleven players that
we can select, and if I it's the dead time,

(14:47):
it's the it's January through late April, and it's kind
of like the savva of the wound. When you don't
win a Super Bowl, you're disappointed at the end, you
saw you watch grudgingly the teams that advanced further in
the playoffs than you. And then then the combine starts,

(15:12):
you know, and the Senior Bowls, and Eric starts feeding
me players and then I don't ask him for our
list because he doesn't have it built yet. But you
can get all the mock drafts in the world and
look up the top fifty players. And if you look
at ten drafts and you look at the top fifty players,
about eighty to ninety or one hundred are represented. Because

(15:34):
everybody has their different opinions of who the top fifty are.
So I just start with those hundred players, and I
just start going back and I start reading stats, and
then I go on YouTube, and I'm invited when I
look at you know, when I get on the internet,
it invites me to look at his stats, and then
he invites me to look at, you know, his highlights.

(15:54):
Everybody may did you make one of those highlight tapes? Yeah?
I think everybody has, right, Yeah, and I turned down
the music most of the time because but they're fun.
And then I look at them, and then I will
look at some of the things that will say, study
these five games, best game, uh studied, worst game study,

(16:15):
and I go off and I look at those worst
games because you can't look at guys highlight tastes, look
at the whole thing. And then I read about them,
and I like reading about them in any interviews they have.
I start doing it, and I start looking for those
character guys. I'm constantly looking at what our scouts say
that I'll read the scouting reports. Um, let's face it,

(16:37):
I think people around the University of Alabama didn't like you.
Then I don't care about your tape. Why would I
waste my time. So by the time I get there,
and like I said, it's the offseason and I'm and
I can't switch off. So I just I love it.
I drive Eric crazy. I drive Eric crazy. He just
I think he makes stuff up. If I really like

(16:58):
a guy and I'm banging on him, he goes, he
got kicked out of school and he's just lying. You know.
It's just like I can't if he brings that up,
trying to end up one more time, I'm gonna scream.
Has there ever been a player that you were just
I think you know, anytime you draft round in the
first round, you always think, this guy's going to be
a guy. Has there ever been a guy that you

(17:18):
were just like, he's going to be this guy, this guy,
he's gonna be able to do everything, and he was able.
I know you've been there for a while. Has there
ever been that guy that you can think that comes
to mind that was like that, oh gosh, that you
were just for sure confident that they were just going
to be everything that's real out And then now this

(17:40):
is where I have to be honest with you. I
spend less time worrying about the first rounders because I
believe that in eighty percent of the time that my
scouts spend are on those guys. So I'm not good
enough to do that. Okay, does that make sense? Right?
In other words, I can love Ronnie, Stanley and DeForest
but and start watching them because I know we've got

(18:02):
the sixth picks, the lowest pick we had had um
and uh and I can see DeForrest Buckner because he's
a splash player and Ronnie's a offensive lineman. I can't
study offensive lineman. Right. So I wanted a pass rusher

(18:24):
at the at twenty five and we took linderbomb and
I and I was and I was teasing him. I said,
you guys are looking I'm looking for girlfriends. You're looking
for wives because I want the flashy pass rushing flashy
and you know, so I look at corners and pass
rushers and wide receivers and tight ends, and you know,

(18:45):
I like, I can, I can see them. They're out
in space. Kind of hard for me to look at
defensive tackles and offensive lineman. So are we are we?
Kind of you kind of saying a little bit You
didn't really they you basically you're you're involved, but you're
you're letting others do their jobs. Oh yeah, yeah. I've
never ever overruled anybody. I know. It's just I might

(19:10):
I might be a little forward to say to John,
take a look at this. Take a look at this
Isaiah likely you know he doesn't. He looks like he's
a little different. And I love productive people, even if
it's smaller schools. Um uh, So I might turn John
on to some people, but that's not my job to

(19:33):
pick them. That is that is very humble of you.
I also saw a quote that you did not care
to be a very known owner, you right, the low keyness,
not being too known as far as the owner. Yeah,
wise kinda well because I only say that because if
I was an owner, I don't know. I'm the owner.

(19:56):
You know, I want to be doing You've got that,
You've got the wardrobe for it. Yeah, I mean we can.
You're looking sharp, but we could. You could dress me
up just a little bit. But why is it that
you want to kind of because you know, you see
the Jerry Jones, who's really plubly, you see some guys
that you never see, and then why is it kind
of that you take the low key kind of route?

(20:18):
I can see. My personal feeling is that when when
I was running Arrowtech, I was I knew that business
better than anybody, So I felt like I should be
the leader, like I should be the one front and center.
When I got this, I knew I would never catch

(20:39):
up to the talents of the coach and the president
and the GM and so I it really wasn't humility,
it was intelligence. It was just like I don't want
to be front and center because there's always somebody in
this organization that's smarter than me in every single category.

(21:02):
And and then you know, you've you've heard the expression
that the only thing better than being rich and famous
is being rich. Yeah, you're you're you're pretty decently rich.
I think, Um, so you don't need being you don't
need fame, you don't need It doesn't really get you anything,

(21:22):
it does not. It just not. I was actually googling yesterday.
There's under thirty eight hundred billionaires in the world. Wow,
and you're one of them. Yeah, you know. I oftentimes
we're like playing the NFL, you're in that such small percent. Yeah,
you're in a smaller percent. How was like? I think

(21:45):
playing the NFL's cool, but I think being a billionaire
would be really cool in a way. Would you give
up your career right now five years in? No? No,
I could not do it. Could You would ask if
you could put it on lay Yeah, I'll have to
open it on lay away, put them lay away. But
as cool as that would be, how would be really cool?
But I have to get a Super Bowl? So what

(22:08):
kind of is? Because I know, as as an athlete,
all of us, if you're not extremely careful. There's so
many ways to get taken advantage of. I'm kindly building
a house, and it's like every steps someone's trying to
take advantage. How do you kind of I don't even
know if that even happens when your at your level
of Oh it happens, is even worse, it's worse. Sure. Recently,
someone just asked me for twenty thousand dollars to take

(22:31):
their kids to Disney. And it doesn't even cost to
one a kid to take But how does how how
does that kind of the down payment on the car? Yeah,
that's get to Disney to then pay for Disney. Yes,
So how does how kind of is that dealing with
those type of issues? Um? Instinctively, it's very very hard

(22:53):
to say now, And but I learned that I as
a salesman, I thrived on no to me. I used
to tell my salespeople, you better smile every time somebody
says no, because you're one step closer to a yes.
And if our statistics say that we get a yes
every twenty two times, then I went twenty two nose

(23:15):
by lunchtime, don't drag, don't let the nose beat you down.
So I was able to carry that over and be
on the other end of that and just say no
to people that asked. Now I'm not saying people that
I care about, but you're asked a lot. Saying reputable

(23:40):
charities is probably the hardest thing about being as wealthy
as I am, because nine of them are reputable. But
you can't spread yourself out that thin or else you
won't make the kind of impact that we're making with
the HBCUs and things like that. So you have to
pick and choose, and you have to say notice some
very worthwhile organizations. Once you're saying no to worthwhile requests,

(24:05):
comes really easy to say no to the Disney trip.
Disney trips right, and you you just spoke on it
there with HBCU, with the Foundation. You've always made it
pretty known that that's something that's a part of you
giving back and it being known. And I think you know,
in this world, there's there's so much going on, there's
so many people that need help. You can spend your

(24:27):
money in a lot of different places, but you've made
it known to always give back, what kind of what
kind of drives you to help others and be involved.
A lot of times you can throw money at anything,
but you seem to really when you throw money at something,
you have a plan for truly trying to help. Yet
the kids out there today, what kind of goes into
those decisions. Yeah, I'd like to feel like I can

(24:48):
make an impact. And that's why you gotta be. You
gotta pick and choose, so you gotta do things that
really means something to you. As I explained about, you know,
finding out that the HBCUs had been under fund for
so many years in Baltimore and quite frankly and pissed
me off. And I read that and realized that the
state was putting up a fight for years before of judge.

(25:11):
Finally and they finally agreed to a settlement, and it
was I think it was five I said it under
the tent after I talked to you, and I think
it was closer to five hundred million for these four schools.
And I just thought, you know, damn we got we
gotta make a difference here. And it just was wonderful

(25:32):
that I thought of Ozzie as to name the scholarships after,
after he shepherded this business from the day I walked
in here in two thousand and shook his hand and
watched a kind of character that he had, and so
it just worked out. It was like the timing was
perfect and the person that I admire most in this

(25:55):
organization that I could tie these scholarships to Ozzie. So
it's really fun. I probably don't give as much time
as I could. There are a lot of people out
there that are much more generous with their time than me,
And instead of being discouraged by it, I realize that

(26:16):
there's also a lot of times where there's a lot
of people that are willing to give their time that
they don't have the money. So when I'm looking at charities,
I'm trying to figure out, right, So if we're looking
at getting Christmas, you know, gifts for kids, and I

(26:38):
see you guys out at those stores with those kids
at Christmas time, it's I'll call these charities and I'll say, look,
I don't have time to build backpacks, but I'll buy
a thousand of them. And there's somebody else that doesn't
have the money, but they've got the time to go
fill those backpacks up from Christmas toys, and so I

(27:00):
do what That's how I balanced that because I really
am not available to give that time, you know, as
much as I would like to. And every time we
do it, like today with those first twenty recipients of
the ASI News some scholarship, just see it in their eyes. Yeah,
that was good. Yeah. I enjoyed taking some pictures after

(27:21):
practice that they're they're super happy. Yeah, And so I
think it's since I've been here, from Heather to all
the different things we do, there's there's always a lot
of especially around Christmas time and turkeys and giving back Thanksgiving.
It's always been a lot of different things. Takes a
lot of you guys. Yeah, I mean, especially during the season.

(27:42):
I have always told people ever since I've been in this,
they'll say what are you so shocked? What are you
most shocked about? Or other people interviewing me ask questions
or just over a beer, and I'll say that how
dedicated these players are when they're working six days a
week to give their one day off back to the community.

(28:02):
And I admire you all for it because you came
from instances a lot of you where you saw that
hurt in your communities, and it's like, I just am
marveled that you don't say, look, I've got this one
day off I'm sorry, and you do over and over again,
and my hat's off to you, and we talk about time.

(28:23):
You know. I think since I've been pretty young, my
day's dealing with football have kind of been planned out.
What is your kind of daily schedule like as being
a being an owner of a team, what kind of
do you do? You do it a little different during

(28:44):
season and after season? You know, I like we talked
about in this season, I feel like that, Um I am.
I am a consigliaire to John, and I am constantly
updated by So I'll talk to John and Eric a
couple of days a week. But I'm in Florida and

(29:04):
I golf four times a week and I catch up
with friends and I go to dinner and I you know, um,
I am sixty two, So I'm deserving of kind of
a semi retirement. So I do that during the season
if season is for more frustrating for me than the spring,
because springs springs eternal, you know, and so I, like

(29:29):
I said, I'm I'm I'm excited about the new draft
of rookies we're going to be bringing in and uh,
and then during the season it's very frustrating because I
really can't do anything right. I can't. I spend a
lot of time being nervous, maybe drinking a little too
much more wine than I should, because you don't you

(29:49):
drink when you're nervous. Do you drink at all? I
don't really get too nervous. Yeah, we'll see you're playing. Yeah,
that's what I'm saying. I can't. I get more nervous.
If I could do something to help you all, if
I could actually do it, well you'd run me over.
I mean, obviously I couldn't do anything on the field,
but I feel a little helpless during the season. Maybe

(30:10):
let you say that, did you ever do sports? I
was terrible. Oh no, basketball in high school and then
a little football. And when I transferred to Sperna Park
High School from Severn, I told him they made us
run a mile for the first you know, like run
a mile in time you and I said, I used
to play, you know dB, And the coach had Surna

(30:33):
Park High School said not with that time. And he
made me a very small d N. I was a
very enthusiastic backup. Well you could look at him say
you own a team now, so that's oh. He comes
to my suite every year. He's still Oh no, yeah,
he was just motivating. Huh, he was motivating me. I
was the first. I was the first of his players

(30:54):
to get into the NFL. He likes to say, so,
talk about vacation. You said, you're sixty two. How is
it that one time you talk about a vacation story
it was a it was a pretty cool vacation story.
But we're on a yacht and doing the whole thing.
What kind of is vacation like for you? Um, it's

(31:18):
really just to change the scenery, Like going to Europe
is really because my wife loves to travel, and I
do it for her. Give her that time. UM I
still owe her Australia. I still owe her Africa. UM
I might be getting out of the Africa trip because
she just got a bunch of girlfriends that want to

(31:39):
go with that. I think so. But I'd like to
do Australia, New Zealand and sightseeing and learning and history
and and uh yeah, going to I mean, my favorite
experience in my life was they had an opportunity. I
think they had two or three tours at the end

(31:59):
of the day Sistine Chapel, and so you didn't walk
in with a thousand people and stand and look like this,
and they had they had a guide and a security
guy and my wife and I and we got in.
When we saw ten thousand people leaving, we were one
of the two and they made a donation and we

(32:22):
got to go and go through the Vatican end up
in the Sistine Chapel in the quiet, and they pulled
out two benches and let Renee and I lay down.
So we spent forty five minutes with a guide telling
us every single panel. And it was the most moving

(32:42):
experience in my life. Wow. Wow, So that wow. So
I want to knock some of those things off, you know,
if I'm not jet skiing and landing on a you know,
on a deserted island and walking the beach and trying
to sweat off wine from the night before. Do you
have a favorite a favorite like let's I know that

(33:05):
trip was great. Do you have a favorite place and
you like to frequently travel to the outside of the states.
Capri is my wife's and my favorite. Capria is this
island in the Amalfi coast of southern Italy. I gotta
learnt I like to travel. Yeah, I like to travel.
It's a. It's a really special place. It's out by itself.

(33:28):
You fly into the mainland, you take a boat over
or a helicopter and it is old world. It hasn't
changed much. Turns winter, so when when no November comes,
every hotel closes, some of the locals stay there. Um
and Uh. It's one of the most beautiful places in

(33:51):
the world. We'll take boat days and go over um
to Sorrento or Pastano the other towns Um. But it
is so quiet, and there's artists there that are painting
all day and scenic views and it's just a really

(34:13):
low key place. And so my wife likes to try
a lot of different things. So when she finds that
I like something, then it becomes her favorite because she
knows that. That's the way they talk to me. And
to go into Europe again. So and you've talked about
you know your wife Renee a lot. I think it's
great to see couples grow old together. I think in

(34:33):
this in my generation, seems like when hit above in
the road they call it quits early. What impact has
she had in your life? And you got to stand
together in family wow, Um for her no drama, you know,
they say I mean, honestly say, she's just low maintenance.

(34:54):
Number one, she's smarter than I am, which hopefully if
you ever marry, trust me, it's very very important. The
key key you you have two choices in life, reminding
your wife that she's not as smart as you or
having your wife remind you you're not as smart as her,
and off the two. You're better off having a smart
wife telling you you're not as smart as you think

(35:16):
you are. So, Um, she's fun. She's just she's fun.
It's been it'll be thirty eight years this summer. And uh,
she's she's just low maintenance. She's just she's off on
her own. She she had to be as I when
I was working, she raised the kids. You know, it
was a it was an eighty five fifteen split. I

(35:37):
mean I was just gone. Um to the point that
I wake up in hotels and I would wouldn't remember
what city I was in. Um and and she did it,
and she did it like a champ. And she raised
two great kids. Um and so. But she was just
always comfortable in her own skin, and she didn't need

(35:59):
me for anything except companionship. And uh, and she's got
a great set of humor, so it made it easy
or then then marriages for a lot of people. No drama.
I think I'm a fan. I'm I'm a fan of
the no drama. And I want to ask you another

(36:20):
question about business. Recently, the Denver Broncos just sold for
four point five billion. Yea, when you see something like that,
what do you kind of think of you know, on
your you know, initial investment. I think NFL teams are
really great investments. Yeah, Um, what kind of goes through
your mind? Do you ever think about like I don't
want to cash out, like when I do cash out

(36:41):
one day or whatever? You Yeah, what kind of goes
through your mind when you see that? Uh? You know,
I've made the point that which you've met my sons,
they're not involved in the business. I don't think that
it's Uh, there's a lot of pressure in a high part,
you know, in a high profile business like this, And
I never wanted this to be a multi generational thing

(37:03):
like the Rooneys and the Maras and you know the
Joneses are set up Steve and I've known him so
I got into the league. I just didn't think that
was in my cards. I just didn't think that was
fair to the kids to bring them up in an
environment that said you're going to have a Baltimore Treasure
that you're going to have to be the stores of
I just didn't think that was fair to them, and

(37:25):
I think it recks a lot of families. So I
had never committed to anybody that I would continue to
run this for the rest of my life. I said,
as long as I am having fun doing it, I

(37:45):
will continue to do it. Because if I know there's
an exit, then I can then I can look at
things in a much more settled way. Nobody's tying me
to this. I didn't promise that I'm going to turn
it over to my kids when I die and things

(38:06):
like that, so it actually does take a little pressure off. So, um, honestly, uh,
the when that four years ago, I guess the Carolina
Panthers went for two point three So to say that,
I was shocked when I heard Denver was for sale,
it was gonna go over four and it went to

(38:27):
four six five. Um, yeah, it's shocking. But you know
that's like saying if you're if you're in, if your
parents are have been in their house for thirty years
and they find out their house doubled. Did it really
help them? It didn't help. It just it's just it
is what it is. So um, I'm not I'm gonna

(38:52):
I'm gonna leave. I'm gonna leave a lot of money
to charity, most of it, and I'm gonna and my
goal is to want to give it away a lot
because I enjoy the things I did today with those
twenty kids that are going on scholarship, you know, So
I don't want to wait till I'm dead to give
all the money away. And I think that's probably why
in the back of my mind I thought there could

(39:14):
come a time when I'm seventy two and I say,
you know what, enough I need to focus on sell it,
take that money, and spend the next hopeful hopefully ten
years giving all that money away. So the more of
the marry more than marry. Yeah, speaking speaking on business,
I think I didn't act you this earlier. Starting a business.

(39:39):
If I wanted to start a business for anyone that
might be watching, Yeah, I've been thinking of a business
plan and what foundations they want to kind of base
those on. What kind of would where would you start
on a road? Well, I would start by reading researching,
find something that you think you could do well better

(40:01):
than others. Some people say love. I had to spend
I had to spend my entire life explaining to people
what I did for a living. So you put engineers
to work at the fortune five hundred companies, Well, why
do they need you? Cool because they can't find them.
I'm a recruiting specialist, and I would put these people

(40:22):
and then are they know they're they're my employees there?
And so it didn't sound too sexy, but it made
a lot of money, and so I was happy making
a lot of money I didn't have to do. You know,
somebody wants to open up a flower shop. It's their
goal for their whole life. That will make them happy.

(40:44):
Well that's great. Um, I didn't have any money growing up,
so I would I would have taken on anything that
I thought that I could succeed at, and that's what
brought me happiness. What I will say to you is,
don't do a damn thing until you retire, because if

(41:04):
you try and get into most businesses doing it part time,
guys like me will eat you alive. I would love
to have part time competitors where they're distracted by other
by your career, your first career. So I would say
that do not try and make a killing in the

(41:26):
stock market. Do not try and don't let friends talk
you into investing in their business, because when the crap
hits the fan, they don't work like you would work
with your money at stake. They say they will, but
they won't because the wolf and at the door, they'll
just move on to somebody else, some other deal. Right,

(41:48):
So those would be my recommendation for you and any
of the other players is don't compete about don't compete
against people that need this for survive because you'll never
you'll never win. Right, Save your money, put it away,
invest it in in low growth stuff so that by

(42:11):
the time you get to the end, you haven't lost
money in a bunch of stupid adventures that you got
gilted into or you thought you could do part time,
because you'll fail at all of them. If you get
to the end and you have your accomplishments behind you
and all that money, then you will be really careful

(42:34):
about which one you dive one hundred percent of your
time and one hundred percent of your money into. And
then I'll believe that you'll become a pro bowler in
that industry too. Calais Campbell just told me way till
you retire, and it's all there, sure, plenty of time.
All right, we're coming up, we're coming up on the

(42:54):
tail end. Have a have a couple tressing questions. Okay,
all right, all right, so you're on island. Oh no,
you have to take one player onto an island. We
got These are two different scenarios, old school and now
you got three guys, got Ray, Lewis, Ed Reid and

(43:17):
Terrell Sucks. You're gonna be on island for a month
and you have to take one of those guys. Which
one of those guys do you take? And why? And why? Um?
I Sugs would keep me most entertained, That's what I

(43:38):
was thinking too. But then right, um, Ray, he won't
be motivated. Well I never He never met a challenge
that he didn't meet, None of those three did. Yeah. Right,
but um raise as strong as Sugs, raised, as smart

(43:58):
as Ed. I'm taking I'm taking Ray, uh so because
I can hide behind him. There we go. Okay, all right,
So that was post Ravens and raven Legends. Bringing it
to the current. It's me Lamar and Mark Andrews. I

(44:20):
know you want to say me, but don't don't let
that distractor because I'm here in front of you. Who
are you taking out of those three? Are you stronger
than Mark? He's scrappy even Mark. Mark said he could
out of ten routes, he could beat me on ninety. Obviously,
he thinks we're gonna find that out in July. But
when the pads come on, huh to keep track. I've

(44:40):
been watching the two of you for a while. I
don't think it's nither ten you said it, not me
exactly exactly. Well, I think probably you, just because I've
gotten to know you better, so I would I would
have a little faith that you would feel a little
more protective of me, you know, like the old man
there right like you, not as Biggs Ray, but I

(45:01):
think I could hide behind you, and I think that
you would feel a little more obligated since I did this,
you know, podcast that you would have to take care
of me. Okay, There's never been a lifetime contract in
the NFL for a player. Lifetime lifetime? Yeah, could I
be the first to do that? That's interesting? Lifetime Just

(45:25):
I'll be around obviously, I wouldn't be able to play
like after well, you know Ozzie's on it, yeah, azz right.
So Ozzie literally went from a Hall of Fame drafted
in the first round, Hall of Fame career, actually coached
for his first year, after coach for his first he
was a coach. They put him into coaching, and he

(45:46):
dabbled in the in the off season in personnel and
liked personnel more and went into full time personnel for
Art model because Art Modell wasn't going to let him
get out of his sight because he loved Ozzy so much.
He said, pick a job, you're not leaving me, and
so Ozzie was. Ozzie was drafted seventy eight, So that's

(46:08):
forty four years of his life. And when he was
ready to step down and give that head job to Eric,
who he had mentored right for twenty years, twenty some years,
I said, you're not going anywhere like forget it, You're

(46:30):
not like going off in the sunset. Figure out your role.
I'll reduce your pay from the top. Eric gets a bump,
you get a drop. And I've watched the two of
you work side by side forever, and I'm not going
to lose you. So I've had I felt like I
had the benefit of two GMS all these years when

(46:52):
Eric's patiently waited around to take Azzie's spot, and I said,
I'm not losing that advantage over my competition, and so
you're not going anywhere, And so Ozzie didn't want to
go anywhere. So Ozzie stayed. And Ozzie is the closest,
one of the closest things to a lifetime contract that
there is. So, um, you know you got a long

(47:13):
way to go. There's a chance. Okay, yes, you'll like this.
I know you're in the golf You're gonna play a foursome.
Who are the three golfers you're bringing with you? Anybody? Anybody?
I don't even know my golfers like that, but yeah,
all I know is about Tiger, and yeah, I certainly

(47:34):
certainly would take Tiger. Um, Tiger is one of the guys. Okay, dead,
they're alive, dead or alive. Bobby Jones, Bobby Jones, Bobby Jones.
I'll go with James, my six year old grandson, who's
starting to whack that ball pretty good, pretty good. Then

(47:55):
he'd have the opportunity to say golfed with tiger woods. Nice,
I do not. I'm going to get good at golf
one of these days. It won't won't be soon, but
it's it's going to get there. Speaking of golf, where
have you played your best round of golf at? Where
were you? Who? It's it's it's different courses. So yeah,

(48:18):
it likes my best scores. Well, it felt like you
just walked out of all you just think. I think
my best cleanest round was at Baker's Bay down in
the Bahamas, where Renee and I own a home. Um.
Tom Fazio built it. Uh, big wide fairways, big greens,
and his idea was he's one of the best dark

(48:42):
is I think the best calf architect living today. Um.
He said that he built it because the average wind
down there is fifteen miles an hour, so he had
to build the course wide enough to be safe enough
that if I'm a ten handicap, I should be able
to shoot ten over par on a day with fifteen
mile an hour. Wins because he said, if I didn't,

(49:05):
then you'd played. Everybody would play terrible and they wouldn't
love the course. So I played the course a lot.
I was playing with a couple of friends that I
play with a lot. Everything clicked and I shot at
seventy four and that's my best round ever. So that
was that was That was the best. But playing Pebble Beach,

(49:29):
getting to play Augusta, there's certain places where you're just
happy if you play to your handicap. Doesn't have to
be your best round, But to go to a place
like that and then shoot a really respectable round to
the famous ones, that's as good as it gets. All right,
This is an interesting question. I don't know when prompt bitness,

(49:53):
when were you in your best prom of shape. I'm
gray shape now, of course, believe it or not. At
was later in life. Monte Sanders. Have you met Monty
Monte Sanders? He was ed In Ray's personal trainer here
in Baltimore. He's still here guiding a lot of good people.

(50:16):
You'd love to meet him. Ray turned me onto him.
I was ready to get in better shape, and he
killed me for a year and a half. He killed me,
and I'd say, you know, like I never gave it up,

(50:38):
and I had my bursts right, And I remember when
I was like thirty years old, I was out of
shape because I had been running my business and I lost,
like went from two thirteen to one hundred and ninety
three pounds, so I was probably my leanest and muscle then.
So there's been three of them, but as far as

(50:59):
pure strength, believe it or not, it probably came at
forty five years old. Wow, all right, Well so you're
forty for your lifetime contract? Good? Good, you're forty five
years old. All right, This is a scenario. You're in
a room with every single player that has ever played
since you've been here. Everyone has on boxing gloves, including you.

(51:24):
You got to single out one of these guys that
you think you could take to get out of this room. God,
who is that punter? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, yeah, you don't
think one of those guys? Yeah, I mean, you know,
I might have to go at Mark Matt Stover. I
got to pick a you know, I guess punters are

(51:46):
the punters? Are people too? People to write? Are people
to know? I would? I'm trying to think of who
probably is. You know, some of those dbs are smaller
than that, but they're scrappier and they're probably hitting the
weights a little more and stuff like that. But you're
forty five, forty five I might have been able to
take Matt when he was thirty five from Matt with
him maybe over No, I've got I've got a couple

(52:10):
of really fun stories about that. You got a minute, Yeah,
we got a minute. We love the stories you have,
the stories I was about. I was new here. We're
at the old facility, and I was in pretty darn
good shape at forty years old, and they were I
was sitting on the tarp with Ozzie and we were

(52:30):
talking about the different guys and I said to Jeff,
the head trainer, he said, what would a forty year
old guy like me like run a forty in like
you know where we've been talking about forties And he said,
I don't know, like a five three or something like
that would probably hallowey. I said forty two or he
said I'm probably a five three, And I was like,

(52:53):
immediately taken back, kind of insulted. I was like, because
you know, you don't realize what the tenths of a
second are, right, it's only forty yards And I said
five three. I said, nah, I gotta be better than that,
and he was just kind of smiled, and I said Oz,
and OZ goes like he didn't want answer, and I
was like, yea, I said, I heard Warren Sap ran

(53:13):
like a five oh five, and he said, yeah, I did.
I said, you mean Warren Sap would could run me
like I could smack him and run away from him
and he could catch me. And they said he would
track you like a dog. And my imagination of picturing
a guy like Warren Sapp being faster than me was

(53:34):
quite a revelation. I was like, Okay, these guys are good.
Then there was another time in that same time period,
right after that happened that I was on the treadmill
at Westminster and Marquis Douglass was it. Marquis Douglass, defensive tackle,
gets on the treadmill next to me and I'm jogging.

(53:54):
We have nice glass and we're looking out over the
fields and I said, oh, Marquis. He said, how miss Mshani.
I said fine, And he starts on there like this.
So I'm like, oh no, man, Now I got to
like start comparing myself to him, right. So I'm jacking
it up a little bit, like maybe a little fat,
faster than I wanted to. And he goes over there
and he's like this, and then a minute later, he's

(54:17):
like this, and then in his third minute he's past me.
And then in the fourth minute and the fifth minute,
he's got this thing cranking up and he's flying at
three hundred and thirty pounds, and he is flying and
I'm not going to put it up that fast because
I'm going to go off the back of the dreadmill.
And that's when I realized that every one of you

(54:38):
is superior athletes. And so I hope Matt Stover will
say I would let I don't mind that you picked me.
Then I was thinking, you're gonna put some cleats on there.
I was thinking that's where that store was going. No, no, no, no, no, no,
no one. I found out that Warren Sapp was a
lot faster than me. I thought, no, I would do

(55:00):
damage to this body. I mean, it's not built for speed.
It's I've seen a lot of I feel like every
older guy once they think they still got it and
try it. If you never had it, then you don't
have to think you still got it. So it's better
to be a realist. I guess that's true. All right,
last question, Yes, sir, you're very successful, obviously owned a team,

(55:24):
started a business, it's kind of we're always trying to
get better every day. I feel like, as as personal business,
all the things you do, what is there anything next?
What is next? If you have anything for you? Just
enjoying life or you just yeah, I don't like I said,
I would like I would like the other years of

(55:46):
my life to lean more philanthropic. You have to be,
I think pretty selfishly when you're building a business and
you have a thousand people behind you that rely on you.
So no, I'm so content in life. Everybody right now

(56:10):
is healthy and happy, and so that's it, you know.
I just love spending time with my family, and I'm
enjoying finding new and better things. I've turned my family
Foundation over to my family office. Ryland runs my family office.
Who is Dick Cast, his son in law. Did you

(56:30):
know that I was at the family office though, Yeah, Well,
Ryland is Dick Cast, his son in law. He married
Dick's daughter, and so he came and we started a
family office and it runs my investments and it runs
my philanthropy. And I convinced both my sons to come
in and go to work with him, and of course

(56:53):
they're naturally like I was anchored to the business side
and love looking at opportunities to invest in and things
like that. Um, but they're good guys and they were
i'd like to say, raised well and I see them
gravitating towards the foundation and the philanthropy more so. It's

(57:17):
a great way for them to spend their time and
time for me to spend time with them. But that's it.
I would somehow like to fight off the golf aging thing.
I've been hovering around to ten. I don't think I'm
getting any better, but my goal is to keep getting
older and not get any worse. And uh and then
and spend a lot of my time giving give them

(57:40):
money away so people that deserved. Steve sounds like a
good life, not bad. It's a great thank you for
your time, appreciate it. Creeping with you. Have a nice summer.