Jalen Ramsey Show – 029: Influence

Welcome to The Jalen Ramsey Show. We are here today to talk about your life and your money. We have open lines at 412-432-7800. We are starting off today on line one with Tim in Paradise Valley, Arizona. Timbo, welcome to The Jalen Ramsey Show.

Chef.

You are on the air, Tim. Go ahead.

I prefer to be called Chef. I believe I’ve earned the title.

What the –….Oh! Cause you’re cooking something up? Something big with your finances? Something innovative with your investments? Something all around HOT? Lay it on us here at The Jalen Ramsey Show.

Field Laborer! I mean, Jalen. I am the Vice President of Craft Culinary Concepts. I believe I’ve earned the title. Now, please, don’t make me go all Gordon Ramsey here. “Yes, Chef” and “No, Chef” are acceptable ways to address me.

Well I have to say, Tim, you look like a cross between lurch and a closeted homosexual NFL team owner. And your culinary business is headquartered at the Arizona Cardinals Stadium on 0 Championship Drive in Glendale. So I’m gonna take a shot in the dark and guess you’ve never actually cooked anything in your life and this business is just another nepobaby deal to keep NFL wealth in the ownership family at all costs.

Yessir, Jalen! Chef Tim Bidwill, Master Palette here at CCC! You seen all the recent upgrades for fan seating? Casitas and executive suites galore! And it’s all possible because our team at Craft is able to mass produce gameday concessions for these hungry NFL fans! Yessir. People love the NFL because of the in-stadium dining experiences available and — to put it simply — you’re welcome.

What’s your question today, Gay Lurch?

So I work all week, right? Then Sundays are basically work days for me too. Just like you, Jalen. So Saturdays are important to me and my neighbors. We didn’t purchase properties in a premier zip code to deal with riff raff all the time. But that’s the bullshit I’m getting as digital observation and Chinese interference bring caravans of families — yes, many of mexican or black! — right to our neighborhood. So we fought back! And we won!

Fought back against what?

The Youth Communist Movement! Sure, they hide behind the name The Brigade Flag Football League but we all see what they’re doing! So they’re coming to our community — a Nice Community, not some suburban hellhole our in Mesa or Glendale — and they’re loud! My neighbor, Peggy Minard, recorded the crowd noise from the games at nearby Cherokee Elementary School in May and, well damn it Jalen, the results made her, TO QUOTE, “sad”!

So, you don’t like the noise of a weekend flag football league at a school in your neighborhood? And so you and your rich complainy old lady neighbor had the games moved. Is that right?

Jalen – it’s 2026. Those of us who have been investing for decades versus those who have been eating avocado toast, rolling over leases, and renting for that same period — well, the results are in. So why act like having the Scottsdale Unified School District — this was my first time ever dealing with the public schools actually. I found them supportive, helpful, and adequately staffed for my needs — move the football games to a higher-density neighborhood wasn’t always the solution? You say we need to be able to speak candidly about the present in order to set a course for the future. I’m just being candid.

Oh I see. Candid is more for the sidelines, not the airwaves. But I’m sure you’ve been in enough huddles to appreciate the difference. Please continue.

So the question is, Jalen, how do we protect our public schools? If this were a charter or private school campus, I’m not so sure we’d have been able to secure such prompt resolution. And it got me to thinking — like, with all these public resources going private, it feels like we’re losing control of our local communities. Guess it isn’t a money question exactly but that’s what I’ve been….cooking up.

You know how to save public schools. They’re just like any other institution – fund them, keep great leaders at the top who stack wins, and listen to your customers.

Hmmm…maybe you’re right, Jalen. We operate Craft with the same institutional structure: have your family football franchise inflate concession costs when securing a stadium lease; then start a concession company and put your super awesome brother who loves The Addams Family at the helm to pacify the out-of-town secondary market ticket-buyers who larger fill the stands for a one-time NFL experience in the nice winter weather of Glendale, Arizona!

But don’t let me sound like a guy who hasn’t given a million bucks to support a charter school that targets underserved black communities that have been largely ignored by the public school system for decades. In fact, as far as high school sports goes, private schools overperform across the board. In Michigan, private schools field 8% of the football teams but have won 40% of the state titles since 2000. Across all 28 high school sports, in only 4 sports (Girl’s Bowling; Competitive Cheer; Boys Skiing; Wrestling) did private school performance underachieve, proportionally.

No shit. Our family values are indoctrined through Georgetown Preparatory Academy and Old School Catholic Boarding School for Young Men. That’s why we don’t have a sister running the Cardinals cheer program — it don’t cost us nothing, it don’t make no money, and there’s nothing to siphon off. Did you know I rolled this thing off to be the concession stand guy for the Reid Park Zoo down in Tucson? Never even been to that place! 

Call it values. Call it reading the writing on the wall that your brother is pinned against while some rando shivers crescendo. The script is written and, is sad that we’re losing our the places we always thought we be ours by virtue of practiced communal ownership? Sure. But what will come in its place? Great sports. And with the coming era being void of many trivial working matters, the callings of art and sport ring eternal to young men and women of all generations.

I don’t know. I don’t like it and I think someone needs to do something. You don’t give very good advice, Jalen.

As we say, the call is free and some say the advice is worth exactly what you pay for it! Hopping over to line two we have Pete Crow from Armstrong, Illinois. Welcome to the show, young man.

Good afternoon Jalen. Thank you taking my call. How are you doing today?

Better than the Jaguars under Tom Coughlin. How can I help?

Guess what’s old is new again, as they say, huh Jalen? Yessiree, I spent a lifetime building myself to be The Budding Young Star of Major League Baseball and, it seems, on December 1, Major League Baseball shall cease. My question, Jalen – I’ve been doing the right things. I’ve put my head down and mastered my craft. I am a professional. I even joined the union. And now everyone who has made their millions is telling me that it’s time to shut off the spigot?

Man, if I were a baseball player, I’d be praying these unprecedented times to drag World Series Game 1 to 12/2/2026. And for those at home who aren’t familiar, December is the end of the MLB collective bargaining agreement and, some say, a work stoppage seems definite.

I don’t mean to sound short-sighted. I appreciate the need for serious reform in the sport. But, also, this is a gift. To be a professional in a field where I can control my own destiny — my God, isn’t that America? And I appreciate the value of the players here but I’ve learned from bussing across the great country based from my home in the City of Big Shoulders that most of these guys are good for one thing and one thing only – playing baseball. You ask them to put on deodorant or read a magazine, they glaze over. You all should be lucky you’re guaranteed $788,000 for doing the only thing you’ll ever be considered good at. I’d offer $7.25/hour for your ass.

My man, I feel your frustration. But I caution you underestimating men who are really good at something. Especially when they got a war chest.

When they got a war chest, exactly. I’m 24 years old Jalen. Since I could drive, I’ve been competing with old fucks who ‘got a war chest’. I wanted to buy a car during COVID — veteran walked in and paid $20k over sticker for the only model on the floor. I want to land a chick, first thing she checks is if I make more than her and, second, do I make substantially more than her? No tax breaks for little Pete either. Not like I’ve spent my entire life cowardly dogging wars during my fighting years just to sign up everyone else to die in the Middle East. Live on a credit card then pass the liability off to me, right? Fuck you Verlander, you dinosaur.

Even if you had enough money, you would never have enough time, young cub.

My time is supposed to be playing baseball. Not worrying about how to pay for shitty players. Fuck it. Why not go play for a Saudi league? Or ball out in Russia like Lindsey Griner?

MLB player contracts uniformly control your rights during a stoppage. The contract is just suspended during a stoppage, not dissolved. And it’s Britney – Britney Griner. And who the fuck wants to go to Russia?

Well I think it’s fucking bullshit, Jalen. What am I supposed to be doing now? I get paid shit today and I’m supposed to be preparing my war chest for a work stoppage I don’t even agree with? That’s going to fuck me in the long term anyways, I bet.

Fill your long-term prescriptions early. Reach out to any creditors before you start missing payments. Plan to go into emergency mode — because that’s what this is. We’re going to focus on preserving cash rather than debt reduction here, temporarily. Great time to cancel your app subscriptions and plan some meals at home. Be it a strike, a lockout, or the simple fact that the economy doesn’t bear fruit for everyone in 2026, you’re not in unchartered waters at all.

Jalen, I’ve got an offseason coming up. I’m supposed to invest this money to be in top competitive shape for play in April — with no expectation those games are even coming. I’m sitting here today hearing that ‘the pain of missed paychecks’ will be the only way to move this forward.

Look man, this has been coming. I’m not saying you should like it. You could consider than you aren’t missing peak earning years, like some older dudes are facing. But this is also why you do endorsements and camps.

I do endorsements and camps because I play baseball! You’re not getting it, Jalen. This is a straight injustice.

It is. You’re 24. You get it better than me. The world is a gross place and we run young professionals to the ground. I hope you can use this forced work stoppage to enjoy some forced life experiences you otherwise wouldn’t find available during the season.

Reminding our listeners that we can all only face what’s ahead of us. Win or lose, baseball is just a game. Not even a sport, really. Anyways, we’ll see you next time, right here, on The Jalen Ramsey Show.