Aaron Maybin, a former NFL linebacker, author, and activist joins Dr. Kaye to share his unique insights into the factors that led to the Ravens' defeat in the AFC Championship game.
Dr. Kaye
Let me go to Aaron Maybin, to really give us some insight here as a former player who's now both an author, and an artist, and an activist. Aaron, how are you? Thank you for calling in.
Aaron Maybin
I'm alright. How about yourself? I'm doing well.
Dr. Kaye
You know, when, whenever you talk about the Ravens, it's always hot. Today, you know, it is on fire in here as people are trying to express how they're feeling, I wanted to talk to you because you have the unique perspective that the rest of us, don't. You actually played the game and now you can see it from the outside as someone who's been down on the field, have an idea of all the things that are happening. Can you talk to us from your perspective? Like what went wrong yesterday?
Aaron Maybin
I mean, a lot of things went wrong. People try to reduce it down to the lowest common denominator. So they try to find the one big thing that went wrong. But truth be told in a game like that, a whole lot of things have to go right in order to win. And whenever you lose a whole lot of things have to go wrong. You know, you can look at, a lot of the unnecessary penalties that, that they got, you know, shooting themselves in the foot, you know, the unsportsmanlike conduct penalties, the celebrations, you know, a little bit of the chips that led to flags being thrown. Sometimes, you know, people want to put that blame on the refs. But, you know, it's my experience as a player whenever, whenever you put it in the hands of the referees, you know what I mean... That's a, that's a mistake that's being made, from a personnel, a player personnel standpoint, you know, people can talk about, you know, the team, lacking discipline in certain areas, all of that kind of stuff and, you know, there's, there's some validity to that, but at the end of the day, you know, you win and you lose as a team. You know, that's the offense and the defense working in tandem, or a lack thereof, you know what I'm saying? So certain big moments in the game that they had an opportunity, to put points on the board or to keep points off of the board, that mistakes or, a lack of readiness, contributed to it not going their way.
Dr. Kaye
So, do you think what could happen is what is needed? Do you think it's a change in the coaches, is it that we need to get, is it about the team or it's just, they just have to mature a bit in being on the big stage?
Aaron Maybin
That's one of the things I kind of hate as a former player about, you know, the, the, the temperature of our society today. You know, there's so much recency bias that whenever something good or bad happens, everybody wants to jump off the cliff. You know, you'll take a team that has more wins, than just about every other team in the league and say that, you know, we need to fire coaches and we need to get rid of players when at the end of the day, 90% of the teams in the NFL would, you know what I mean, chop up their chop off their arm for either the personnel or the coaching staff that we had. You know, and I say we, because at the end of the day, you know, I'm born and bred in Baltimore, you know, so I wanted to see the team when I would love to see, Lamar get himself a super bowl win. I love to see him, silence all of the critics and all of that kind of stuff.
But at the end of the day that goes along with the territory, you know, since the league, and since the Ravens decided that they were going to construct the team, the way that they did, people have always had their fair share of criticism. But, you know, at the end of the day when you look at the results, they really do speak for themselves. You know, the Ravens just got done playing in the AFC championship game, you know what I mean?
And at the end of the day, that's something that, every team, in the, in that division works for the entire off season and the entire season to be in that position. You know, so at the end of the day, I feel like they have all of the pieces necessary, to be a championship team. But even when you have all of the pieces, even when you have a dominant, offense and a dominant defense, you still have to play like it.
You know what I mean? Nobody's gonna get out there and, and lay down for you just because you have an MVP caliber quarterback or just because you have a number one ranked defense, you know, every single game is its own chess match, so to speak and anybody can get beat. So, I don't think that it, I don't think that something drastic is necessary to, to get this team, to where it needs to be.
At the end of the day, the players themselves have to go out there and have to execute and, you know, if I'm being completely honest, you know, we didn't see a lot of players best game out there yesterday. And, when you have a situation like that, when you're playing against, not just a generational talent, but literally a potential Hall of Famer and one of the top quarterbacks that this game has ever seen, you can't afford not to play your best game. You can't afford to play undisciplined. You can't afford to leave it up to officials to make calls. You know what I mean? those things have to be done and, you know, you have to actually play the game in the way that people commentate about it and people can call them a dominant team. And I do believe that they are a dominant team. I think that the stats and their records show that, but even with that, you have to go out there and execute and they just weren't able to do that yesterday.
Dr. Kaye
I love that. I have one more question for you and then we're gonna open it up for phone calls. I was thinking, what you said about being undisciplined. So, is there a conversation to be had with, with Z Flowers? I mean, it would suggest he just has to mature.
Aaron Maybin
I mean, I don't really know what conversation there is to, to be had with him that won't expose what he's already feeling. At the end of the day, he himself knows had he gotten into the end zone, that's a completely different game. He himself knows that without his, his, personal foul pen or his celebration penalty that they have a much more, they have a much better chance to get in the end zone and to be in a position to win that game.
Of course, you know, it's the coach's job to get on players about stuff like that. It's their job to make sure that they hold each other accountable for playing to a certain standard and for carrying themselves at a certain standard and knowing as a young player that you don't have the luxury of allowing your emotions to get the better of you and say he wasn't alone in that regard.
You had several penalties that, that happened on the offensive and defensive side of the football batch, that were very costly that kept drives going on the chiefs side of the ball and that stopped drives or stalled them from the standpoint of the Ravens. So, anytime you have turnovers, anytime you have costly penalties, those things put you in a position to lose. And it's an unfortunate, it's an unfortunate thing that he had to be in a position to make those mistakes so publicly and in such a big win situation. But at the end of the day, that's something that you have to learn from, it's something that you have to, take a lesson from and, and going forward in your career improve on. I know that going forward, I doubt that you'll see him make some, make those same mistakes again. But at the end of the day, you have to take your lumps in order for those lessons to be learned.
Dr. Kaye
I love that. At the end of the day, you have to take your lumps. Alright, so I'm glad, thank you Aaron Maybin for just kind of helping us to settle down here, helping us to realize that even for me, I'm a, I'm an itty bitty flocker here. We don't need to jump off the cliff because as everyone says, is always next season.
Aaron Maybin
It hurts to hear that at the end of such a great run as the, as the Ravens made this year. But it, it truly is, it truly is the truth. Only one team is going to get a chance to host that Lombardi trophy after every season. And regardless of how painful it might be to experience that kind of loss, you know, that kind of energy, all that kind of stuff.
You gotta understand how precious those opportunities are, how few and far in between they are for so many organizations. And I think that one of the problems with the Ravens fan base is, I said it recently, from a basketball standpoint, certain people that are fans, like for example of like a right, you kind of cheat yourself because at the end of the day, you get used to seeing greatness. On a day to day game by game basis, you get used to seeing somebody do superhuman acts that nobody else should be able to to do and that becomes the standard that becomes normal, that becomes regular. So when Superman isn't able to put his cape on, you know what I mean... when, when, when the impossible isn't made possible, you kind of get that that again, that recency bias says, oh, throw the whole team out the window. No, wait a minute.
Now, you have to still remember that the whole reason you had those high expectations is because you're seeing something done that literally has never been done before in this way. And you know, all of the think pieces and the trash commentary that you'll see about Lamar and the team and the coaching staff, those stories have already been written.
People have been wanting to say I told you so about him being a running back and not a quarterback ever since he came into the league. So if you're going to listen to that kind, the talk, it's easy to get frustrated. But then when you look at what's right in front of you and you look at the, the career that he's already put up in the, the, the recent success that the team has had over the last five or six years.
You have to understand that it's been, that it's been trending upward and you have to understand that, you know, Rome wasn't built in a day, but, you know, they are well on their way to being the championship caliber team that everybody wants to see them there.
Dr. Kaye
I love it. I'm in my Ravens T-shirt today, Aaron. I'm like, I am not leaving the team. I'm all in now. Absolutely. Thank you so much for your time and I look forward to having you back on because I do want to talk about your art and your, your books and your activism. So we definitely want to have you back on for that, sir.
Aaron Maybin
Anytime, anytime.