BmoreOpinionated Podcast—Jason La Canfora & Jerry Coleman

Jerry Coleman is one of my favorite radio personalities covering the Baltimore Ravens and Baltimore sports in general. He’s been working the Baltimore beat for about 25 years now but still has a young and enthusiastic approach to his job. He’s not shy about expressing opinion or criticism of the teams he covers—especially the Ravens. You can hear him most often these days between 6 and 10 p.m. on the CBS FM Radio affiliate 105.7 The Fan.

It just so happens that NFL analyst Jason La Canfora is a neighbor of Jerry’s, and the two get together on a regular basis to produce a smart podcast chock full of inside football talk and live interviews with NFL players.

You probably know La Canfora pretty well from his NFL Network TV takes, but he’s even more entertaining and informative in the podcast format. Coleman you may not know so well yet—let’s just say he’s an acquired taste. Imagine the voice of a young Howard Cosell coming out of the face of a young Jerry Lewis—that’s Jerry Coleman.

Anyway, these two guys had a great interview session with former Ravens safety and future HOFer Ed Reed a few days ago.

It was so informative that Sarah Ellison of the Ravens web staff covered it for the Ravens’ official site:

“There’s been plenty of speculation about whether legendary safety Ed Reed would come home to Baltimore and coach the defensive backs.

“Does he plan on staying in the coaching profession after a one-year trial run in Buffalo? Did the Ravens reach out to him after Leslie Frasier left for Buffalo’s defensive coordinator job, leaving a secondary coaching vacancy in Baltimore?

“The answer to both of those questions is, essentially, “no.” At least for now.

“Reed told the BmoreOpinionated Podcast yesterday the Ravens did “not at all” reach out to him about the coaching opening in the secondary.

Is that disappointing to him?

“No. Not at all,” Reed said. “It is what it is. What can I do? If somebody wanted to have me as a DB coach, a DB consultant to a program, or anything like that, which I’m more open to because of my family situation and because of my IQ of football, I really think I was in a good position as an assistant DB coach. But, I just know a lot more about football and business than people give me credit for.”

“So, I might not want to be on that side of things right now. But, no, I wasn’t disappointed. I wasn’t disappointed at all. It’s a business, and they have people in house that they want to hire and people in their mind that they probably want to hire that fits their mold of things right now. I’m not disappointed at that.”

The Ravens have yet to officially announce who will fill the secondary coach position, but it’s been previously reported that Chris Hewitt will be promoted after serving as the defensive backs coach under Frazier last year.

Even if the Ravens had reached out to Reed with a potential job opportunity, there’s no guarantee that he would have accepted. He said he wants to focus on his family right now, and he knows coaching demands a lot of time. He tipped his hat to all the coaches out there that work long, hard hours.

Reed is grateful to Rex Ryan for giving him his first NFL coaching shot and said the experience was “eye opening.” He said he very much enjoyed his time in Buffalo, but added it was difficult because sometimes things got more complicated than he thought they needed to be.

“I understand that for me as a coach, it’s going to take a process to get to where I want to go, but I’m like, ‘Man, it’s not complicated,’” Reed said. “I just see it a little bit different than some of the other coaches do. So, it was tough. It was a tough year from that aspect.

“But, I still want to do it. I just don’t know if it’s the time right now because I have an 8-year-old son, about to be 9, and I’m about spending that time with my family.”

“During his 12-year playing career, Reed was known as one of the best ball-hawk safeties of all time. His study habits, instincts and God-given athleticism allowed him to take risks and make plays and interceptions that most players can’t replicate.

“As such, Reed was asked if it was difficult to coach players who are talented, but not as talented as he was as a player. He said it was important to remind himself and the players that everything was a process.

“It was good relating with those guys and understanding how to coach them,” Reed said. “It was like coaching my son and his little league team. … It was good working with them, learning them and seeing what they need to work on. Helping them to work on that, but understanding that it was a process as a coach. It wasn’t going to happen overnight. For me, it didn’t happen overnight for my career.”

“Reed was asked if he thought his former teammate, Ray Lewis, would dip his toe in the coaching world. Lewis recently said he’s open to the idea, even though the time might not be right now. Reed doesn’t see it ever happening.

“Nah, nah, nah. Ray is too much more than to be a coach,” Reed said, adding that the two players still keep in contact “every so often,” but are friends for life.

For more podcast delights from La Canfora and Coleman, go to  BmoreOpinionated Podcast.