Speaker 1: This week on the Happy half Hour.
Speaker 2: Frank came in this week saying the magic words, and
Speaker 2: I always WinCE a little bit when coaches go to
Speaker 2: sense of urgency, but he kind of explained yesterday it's
Speaker 2: not about now we have sense of urgency. It's always
Speaker 2: been there, but it's like this was the week where
Speaker 2: it kind of got everybody's attention.
Speaker 3: Touchstone cow r r.
Speaker 2: I know it's time for the Happy half Hour with
Speaker 2: your friends Kristin Balboni, Augusta Stone, and Darren Gannon. Hello, friends,
Speaker 2: Welcome to the Happy half Hour podcast. It is Thursday,
Speaker 2: September twenty eighth, and we are going to talk about
Speaker 2: many things today on purpose and some things accidentally. Welcome
Speaker 2: to the Happy half Hour. It's Augusta Stone. She's like
Speaker 2: the she's like the Taylor Swift energy to my Andy Reid.
Speaker 2: I wasn't gonna go Kelsey. That would have been weird
Speaker 2: in a workplace environment. But I did want to introduce
Speaker 2: the topic because it's the thing everybody in the NFL
Speaker 2: appears obligated to talk about. And I am not a
Speaker 2: big swiftye so I need your thoughts on this entire situation.
Speaker 4: And here's the thing. This is gonna get me in trouble.
Speaker 4: I am not either at all. I do respect her music,
Speaker 4: her celebrity kind of.
Speaker 3: Irks me sometimes.
Speaker 4: So it's been a tough week for me on the
Speaker 4: social media as I can't stop seeing it pop up.
Speaker 4: But you know, I will say one thing and I'm
Speaker 4: not meeting this as like a dig. But I think
Speaker 4: both of them, both, both Travis Kelsey and Taylor Swift
Speaker 4: tend to be in the headlines anyway. I think about, like,
Speaker 4: you know, this time last fall, Travis Kelcey was, you know,
Speaker 4: rearing up for an SNL appearance. He's kind of always
Speaker 4: popped up on the radar. Taylor Swift kind of knows
Speaker 4: exactly what she's doing, great marketing, always in the headlines.
Speaker 4: Two people who are gonna be in the headlines anyway
Speaker 4: coming together to create one headline. It's it's sort of
Speaker 4: beautiful and it's a lot the best thing I've seen
Speaker 4: from all of this.
Speaker 3: And I don't know if you've seen this.
Speaker 4: This has cropped up about last twenty four hours for me,
Speaker 4: But it's the random tweets or Instagram posts alluding to
Speaker 4: Travis Kelcey and Taylor Swift.
Speaker 3: Either being in a relationship being in the same room.
Speaker 3: I saw one this morning.
Speaker 4: This girl three years ago had dressed up as Taylor
Speaker 4: Swift and her husband had dressed up as Travis Kelcey
Speaker 4: for Halloween, and they were like, I can't imagine a
Speaker 4: situation in which these two would be in the same room,
Speaker 4: let alone married. And it was like a classic post
Speaker 4: from like three years ago. And that's the kind of
Speaker 4: stuff that I'm getting into. Who was out here kind
Speaker 4: of speaking this into the universe because it makes sense.
Speaker 4: I think they're I mean, from what I know about
Speaker 4: what they allow us to know through their marketing teams
Speaker 4: and everything, I think it's I.
Speaker 3: Think it's cool. I think it's cute.
Speaker 4: The thing I like the most about it is it's
Speaker 4: brought a lot of my friends who were not interested
Speaker 4: in the NFL before this week kind of around and
Speaker 4: asking me questions and wanting to know more about what
Speaker 4: I do. Versus, Oh, that's a Gusta the sports girl.
Speaker 4: Now it's Oh, it's Augusta and she works in the
Speaker 4: same industry as Travis kelce So it's kind of like that.
Speaker 3: But but I'm not I'm not a big Swift ye.
Speaker 3: I respect the snot out of her.
Speaker 2: But here's the thing, too much, And I am clearly
Speaker 2: not a patron of her music as an old person.
Speaker 2: I love the fact and even my daughter, my daughter
Speaker 2: was more of that Hannah Montana genre.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, that was her era.
Speaker 2: So we kind of fell in that what's the opposite
Speaker 2: of sweet spot? We fell in that dead zone between
Speaker 2: Hannah Montana and Taylor Swift where we didn't necessarily pick.
Speaker 1: All that up.
Speaker 2: But here's the thing I dig, I do dig about
Speaker 2: Taylor Swift. She has managed to be bigger than the NFL. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and very few people have that kind of juice to
Speaker 2: be able to do that, because listen, it takes a
Speaker 2: whole stadium full of Travis Kelcey's and Patrick mahomes and
Speaker 2: everything to sell out Airhead Stadium.
Speaker 1: But she can turn that place.
Speaker 2: On like that, and it's full of people screaming and
Speaker 2: hollering and paying much much, much more money than you
Speaker 2: do for a football ticket to see her sing.
Speaker 1: So I am all into it. I don't care.
Speaker 2: I'm rooting for young Love. This is me with the
Speaker 2: glass half full, and I'm choosing to hope.
Speaker 1: For the best.
Speaker 2: It's certainly not a publicity plot on the part of
Speaker 2: two people who very much like attention. But yeah, I'm
Speaker 2: just hoping for the best for those two crazy kids.
Speaker 1: I hope they found what they're looking for in this world.
Speaker 3: I know, I know in a popcorn machine.
Speaker 4: Did you see that where they like escorted her out
Speaker 4: in the popcorn machine from Arrowhood?
Speaker 3: It was the funniest little thing.
Speaker 2: I mean it may she make popcorn.
Speaker 4: She may or may not have actually been in it,
Speaker 4: but the rumors were and I saw the video that
Speaker 4: they put her in a popcorn machine to get her
Speaker 4: out of the suite so that she wouldn't be like
Speaker 4: attacked by fans or mobbed by people.
Speaker 3: And I don't know.
Speaker 4: I think she did something like that, like hiding in
Speaker 4: some sort of closet at her concerts to get on
Speaker 4: the stage so it wouldn't be completely out. That's funny,
Speaker 4: Like if that's real, that's hilarious. And I love it
Speaker 4: like a little phony, cause it was like a popcorn
Speaker 4: machine and there were like six bodyguards around it and
Speaker 4: it was coming from the Kelsey sweep.
Speaker 2: Or we could find a small child to put on
Speaker 2: her shoulders in a trench coat like hit three raccoons
Speaker 2: in the cartoons that.
Speaker 1: Kind of move around like they're at large person.
Speaker 3: This would be such a tall person. Taylor Swift's already
Speaker 3: almost six feet tall. That would be yeah, oh yeah,
Speaker 3: she's already.
Speaker 4: Because then there's also been the jokes like put her
Speaker 4: in coach, you know what I mean, see if she
Speaker 4: can run.
Speaker 3: Her out she's five eleven, that's awesome.
Speaker 4: But yeah, so does we have a very very tall
Speaker 4: person a child on top of Taylor Swift.
Speaker 3: I'd be like a six seven six eight er with
Speaker 3: the baby face.
Speaker 2: I don't I don't want to stereo type you like
Speaker 2: I did coming out of the top of this podcast,
Speaker 2: But uh, yeah, maybe we need to go to the
Speaker 2: locker room today and ask the tight ends room which
Speaker 2: one of these guys is most likely or who would
Speaker 2: be the best fit for Taylor Swift or any other
Speaker 2: popular singer.
Speaker 4: You know who had a great quote about that this week,
Speaker 4: Georgia tight end brock Bowers tying him Alma monitor to
Speaker 4: this and he said that it was a win for
Speaker 4: tight Ends.
Speaker 3: They asked him about it.
Speaker 4: Monday or Tuesday, and I was like, and he was
Speaker 4: getting all the little the fodder around it, but uh
Speaker 4: and brod Bowers is also going to be a mess
Speaker 4: in the NF or a menace in the NFL, should
Speaker 4: I say?
Speaker 2: And if he's going out with Taylor Swift, maybe he's
Speaker 2: a mess in but.
Speaker 3: Very exciting, very exciting times.
Speaker 2: I need to give my mind to this, I think, yeah,
Speaker 2: I mean who would you go?
Speaker 1: Would you go? Ian Thomas, Tommy Trimble?
Speaker 3: I don't know how many of them already have partners?
Speaker 4: That would be a that would be an interesting situation,
Speaker 4: I think too.
Speaker 1: I think that's like a hall pass situation.
Speaker 2: It's like when Beyonce was here and I offered up
Speaker 2: my office as adjunct dressing room if she needed more space,
Speaker 2: oh lord, and even like a friend of the Mailbag
Speaker 2: T shirt. And my wife was like, hey, wait a minute,
Speaker 2: do I have a Friend of the mail Bag T shirt?
Speaker 2: And I was like, yeah, but if Beyonce wants one,
Speaker 2: she gets one, all right, that's just you know how
Speaker 2: we roll.
Speaker 3: So but yeah, no, it's an interesting time to have.
Speaker 4: I mean I saw that there's like rumors if she
Speaker 4: shows up to their game Sunday Night Football Life, then
Speaker 4: there's gonna be like crazy you know, viewership for MBC.
Speaker 4: I've seen all of it. And I think it's cool.
Speaker 4: We'll see how long it lasts. I would love for
Speaker 4: this to be. Like, you know, it makes so much
Speaker 4: sense in my brain just from knowing what I know
Speaker 4: about them.
Speaker 3: And again it's not like I know them intimately or.
Speaker 4: Personally, but but knowing what I know, I'm like, it
Speaker 4: makes sense. I was actually listening to WF and Z
Speaker 4: and they were talking about how he's so different than
Speaker 4: all the other guys she's dated, which we all know
Speaker 4: way too much about each other.
Speaker 3: We all know way too much about Taylor Swift, and you.
Speaker 4: Know, think about like, you know, she's been with the
Speaker 4: Jake Gillenhall's, John Mayer's, Joe Jonases and now she has
Speaker 4: a Travis Kelcey.
Speaker 3: It's so different, So maybe maybe this will be the.
Speaker 4: One that sticks because it's not the same flavor that
Speaker 4: she's usually going for, right, Yeah, not the musician sensitive type,
Speaker 4: but the Travis Kelcey.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is leading me straight into storytime with Uncle
Speaker 2: Darren mud Let's go, because it always comes back to
Speaker 2: storytime with Uncle Darren moude Uh. Once upon a time,
Speaker 2: the Carolina Panthers employed a young gentleman by the name
Speaker 2: of Cooper Coop was like a fifth round pick safety.
Speaker 1: Special teams guy.
Speaker 2: He was sort of like the Sam Franklin of his era,
Speaker 2: and Coop was a real goofball. This was back during
Speaker 2: the first Super Bowl team. Maybe they'll be an episode
Speaker 2: of Cardiac that involves Drod Cooper podcast, Matt, what do
Speaker 2: you think could be? Never know, stay tuned for more
Speaker 2: of Cardiac. But anyway, Coop was real weirdo, but in
Speaker 2: a mostly harmless way. Him and Rod Smart would go
Speaker 2: around getting into high jinks, eating raw meat with their
Speaker 2: hands and stuff like that. They weren't big into utensils
Speaker 2: or manners or anything like that, or even the normal
Speaker 2: mores of polite society. So anyway, one day Coop, who
Speaker 2: was always looking for attention as well, came in the
Speaker 2: locker room and told a fable about how he was
Speaker 2: dating Christina Aguilera, oh when he was the biggest thing
Speaker 2: in pop music at that point in time. And it
Speaker 2: was harmless enough, and everybody kind of got the sense
Speaker 2: that Coop was our legs a little bit, but there
Speaker 2: was enough to it.
Speaker 1: It was coming off by week. Coop was a decent
Speaker 1: looking fellow.
Speaker 2: So, you know, in a weird sort of way, could
Speaker 2: we have imagined him showing up at the same.
Speaker 1: Place we could nice.
Speaker 2: The good news was me, as an enterprising reporter in
Speaker 2: a previous life, knew some people in the music industry,
Speaker 2: in the music writing business, and I made one phone
Speaker 2: call and I said, I need a number for Christina
Speaker 2: Aguilera's publicist, and this friend who will go nameless, obliged
Speaker 2: and I called this young lady with an office in
Speaker 2: New York and I said, good morning, so and So.
Speaker 1: My name is Darren Dan.
Speaker 2: I'm a reporter covering the Carolina Panthers down in Charlotte,
Speaker 2: North Carolina. Got a question for you. Is your client
Speaker 2: dating a football player named Rod Cooper? And the publicist said,
Speaker 2: and I quote, I've never heard of that person in
Speaker 2: my life.
Speaker 4: Oh no, yikes, down to earth for jah.
Speaker 1: So I was like, Coop busted.
Speaker 2: And He's like, I don't know what you're talking about,
Speaker 2: but uh, anyway, So that's a story about how Girodd
Speaker 2: Cooper and Christina Aguilera are not quite like Taylor Swift
Speaker 2: and Travis Kelcey. And we have probably avoided the topic
Speaker 2: at hand for as long as we possibly could. It
Speaker 2: is Week four, Friends and the Carolina Panthers are oh
Speaker 2: and three because I'd rather light a candle than curse
Speaker 2: your darkness. Here come to Minnesota Vikings, who are also
Speaker 2: wait for it, oh and three. In the past, I
Speaker 2: would have probably joked about this is kind of a
Speaker 2: loser leaves town match, which is an old wrestling reference
Speaker 2: that a lot of people probably aren't gonna get.
Speaker 1: But this, it's taken on such a life.
Speaker 2: It's on I think people are so there's an anxiety
Speaker 2: about what's going on here. And and I don't want
Speaker 2: to turn this into a must win game because I
Speaker 2: don't really think it is. I said at oh and
Speaker 2: one and oh two, you know everybody was jumping to conclusions.
Speaker 2: The jump to conclusions, Matt was out and in full effect.
Speaker 2: And I'm just I'm in a wait and see mode
Speaker 2: with this entire football team right now. I don't think
Speaker 2: because this team lives in the NFC South, I think
Speaker 2: it's impossible to say, oh my god, they've got no
Speaker 2: chance at the playoffs. But I don't even know that
Speaker 2: playoffs needs to be part of the consideration. What the
Speaker 2: Carolina Panthers need to do right now at this moment
Speaker 2: is continue to develop Bryce owing and part of that's
Speaker 2: going to be a having him healthy and back on
Speaker 2: the field. And Bryce was back on the field as
Speaker 2: a full participant yesterday after missing last week's game. So
Speaker 2: the news appears to be good there. But I think
Speaker 2: beyond that, the Panthers are in a spot where they've
Speaker 2: got some work to do.
Speaker 1: With all these brilliant coaches.
Speaker 2: I mean, that's what we talked about a lot this offseason,
Speaker 2: was this all star team of coaches Frank Reich put
Speaker 2: together between joshn and Thomas Brown and James camp And and
Speaker 2: Jim Calwell and all these dudes, Sean Jefferson and Douce Staley.
Speaker 2: I mean, there are just so many brains on that
Speaker 2: offensive staff, and I think what I have seen through
Speaker 2: three weeks is almost the result of too many smart
Speaker 2: people in one place at one time. And if you'll
Speaker 2: pardon me the digression.
Speaker 1: It's just it. They look a little bound up right now.
Speaker 2: They look a little too many cooks in the kitchen.
Speaker 2: Is probably the wrong way of saying it, but it's
Speaker 2: like they're trying to do too much. The Carolina Panthers
Speaker 2: found success last year when they stripped it down and
Speaker 2: did about three things that they knew they could do
Speaker 2: very well. Well, these people got a playbook the size
Speaker 2: of a phone book, because that's a thing that people
Speaker 2: my age.
Speaker 1: Know what is.
Speaker 2: And it's just it feels a little like too much
Speaker 2: through three games.
Speaker 4: Well, there's also I think the piece of it that
Speaker 4: is inevitable and is going to happen. But it has
Speaker 4: happened to the Panthers a lot this season in and
Speaker 4: it is injuries because you can say the development and
Speaker 4: everything going on, but when there's key personnel missing from
Speaker 4: about everywhere you can look, and then you could even
Speaker 4: take it a step back and think about how through
Speaker 4: the preseason and early in the season there were a
Speaker 4: lot of receivers that were out. DJ Truck took a
Speaker 4: minute to come back, you know, feeling I think had
Speaker 4: a little bit of something at the end of the
Speaker 4: preseason period. So I mean, I'm just looking at the
Speaker 4: injury report right now, and then we've had this same
Speaker 4: narrative since Week one, and it's inevitable and sometimes it's
Speaker 4: bad luck and sometimes.
Speaker 3: You never know what it is.
Speaker 4: But when you're developing, which is what you mentioned, and
Speaker 4: I think the Bryce Young situation of last week is
Speaker 4: like kind of a microcosm of it all because there
Speaker 4: are focused on developing Bryce. That has been what they've said,
Speaker 4: what they've shown. I mean, you know, the second Bryce
Speaker 4: is ready to go, Bryce will be ready to go.
Speaker 4: He was practicing yesterday and that's a really good sign
Speaker 4: for his development. It's not a wait and see and
Speaker 4: watching Andy type deal. It was a Okay, you're not
Speaker 4: feeling well now watching Andy be this part of your
Speaker 4: development come back. And I think that's kind of a
Speaker 4: perfect kind of little bit of everything that's happened across
Speaker 4: the board. I mean, you were mentioning Sam Franklin in
Speaker 4: that story, and I thought it was a great segue
Speaker 4: because we're gonna be seeing probably quite a bit more
Speaker 4: of Sam Franklin, especially on defense. And he talked to
Speaker 4: yesterday in the locker room that he wants to be
Speaker 4: out on punt too, so so it's one of those
Speaker 4: things that he wants to be on the field pretty
Speaker 4: much always. But you know, with Xavier Woods, I mean
Speaker 4: you think about these I mean key pieces missing, Shack Thompson,
Speaker 4: JC Horn working his way back, Frankie Louvu working through
Speaker 4: the hip. Now, I mean it's just there's and that's
Speaker 4: just on the defensive side. There's just been there's been
Speaker 4: injuries and it's inevitable, but it's been a lot. It's
Speaker 4: felt like a lot, and it's it's fair to say
Speaker 4: it is a lot, and that's gonna play a role
Speaker 4: into getting everything together when it is a new staff,
Speaker 4: when it's everything together, And I think that's an important
Speaker 4: piece of perspective to remember it's they're not getting you know,
Speaker 4: the full look at everybody who worked with the ones
Speaker 4: in training camp, with the ones in the preseason. It's
Speaker 4: kind of especially along I mean on the offensive side
Speaker 4: of the offensive line, there's just a lot of different
Speaker 4: areas where they need to get healthy. And I think
Speaker 4: think it's it would be you know, it's not the
Speaker 4: end of the world.
Speaker 3: It's week four. People are gonna come back.
Speaker 4: And I think focusing on that aspect of like, let's
Speaker 4: let everybody get healthy and try, you know, to hope
Speaker 4: that there aren't more injuries cropping up like there was
Speaker 4: at Seattle.
Speaker 3: But I think that's a huge part of it.
Speaker 4: When you're thinking about development, they got to be on
Speaker 4: the field of develop The.
Speaker 2: Short answer to a long story about the Carolina Panthers
Speaker 2: through three weeks is there's a lot of stuff going on, yeah,
Speaker 2: you know, and again a lot of stuff on offense,
Speaker 2: trying to maild all these varying philosophies into one coherent whole.
Speaker 2: Injuries that have taken Bryce Young and so many defensive
Speaker 2: guys as you mentioned, off the field for stretches this year.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's just it's been.
Speaker 2: Hard for this to be kind of singular and about
Speaker 2: one particular thing.
Speaker 1: And we'll see.
Speaker 2: I mean, Frank came in this week saying the magic words,
Speaker 2: and I always I WinCE a little bit when coaches
Speaker 2: go to sense of urgency. That was one of Dom's
Speaker 2: old buzzwords back in the ninety's.
Speaker 1: Dom said sense of urgency a lot.
Speaker 2: Frank hasn't said it a lot so far, but he
Speaker 2: walked in this week and it's like, oh, it's week
Speaker 2: four and he's talking sense of urgency. But he kind
Speaker 2: of explained yesterday it's not about you know, now, we
Speaker 2: have sense of urgency. It's always been there, but it's
Speaker 2: like this was the week where it kind of got
Speaker 2: everybody's attention and you can tell that there was a
Speaker 2: very different Frank. That was one of the things that
Speaker 2: stood out to me the most about the Seattle game
Speaker 2: the other day was in the past. Frank is kind
Speaker 2: of built for the long haul, and he's not a
Speaker 2: very emotional overreactor. But on a day when a team
Speaker 2: commits eight false start penalties, Frank us the word pathetic
Speaker 2: and completely unacceptable, and it's like, WHOA, this is disappointed
Speaker 2: dad talking to the kids when they drove the car
Speaker 2: into the tree when they were supposed to be in
Speaker 2: the house studying. So you kind of got that sense
Speaker 2: of Frank's up on the balls of his feet now
Speaker 2: and in case anybody's thinking it it's okay for this
Speaker 2: to be a seventeen game process.
Speaker 1: That was Frank's way of like.
Speaker 2: Shaking the group and saying, no, we have to be
Speaker 2: better than this, because they.
Speaker 4: Do exactly and I think, you know, kind of looking forward.
Speaker 4: I was thinking about it as I walked in today.
Speaker 4: Isn't it nice that we're back in Charlotte this week?
Speaker 4: I mean, after Seattle's a long trip one it was.
Speaker 3: A tough environment for him.
Speaker 4: Obviously mentioned the eight Falalse starts, seven on offense and
Speaker 4: then the one on punt team, and.
Speaker 3: I mean that was what I mean.
Speaker 4: Frank Craik talked about it I can attest to it.
Speaker 4: They were pumping in the crowd noise. It's one of
Speaker 4: those things that I guess in the moment, it's hard
Speaker 4: to it's hard to understand what happened, but it's easy
Speaker 4: to be like, well, it's time to get it corrected.
Speaker 4: And like you said, he did show kind of that
Speaker 4: emotion and passion.
Speaker 3: They will be back at Bank of America Stadium this
Speaker 3: weekend and before going on more road stretch.
Speaker 4: If you look across the next couple of weeks, it's
Speaker 4: kind of back and forth home away, home away, but
Speaker 4: it's a good matchup. It's a good time to have
Speaker 4: that urgency to be back home, to be kind of
Speaker 4: finally we got it last week for a touch, but
Speaker 4: to be back in the groove of the normal okay,
Speaker 4: one pm, you know was one pm West Coast, but
Speaker 4: now one pm East Coast kind of routine of everything.
Speaker 4: I know Bryce has talked about that in the past,
Speaker 4: just being able to get in that routine. I think
Speaker 4: that could help the team, to be honest with you,
Speaker 4: I mean, having that week to Monday game is just
Speaker 4: kind of threw everybody off here on I mean off.
Speaker 3: The team, and then you know, it's different.
Speaker 4: Hey, it's Thursday, We're got we're back in the back
Speaker 4: in mode. I kind of know what we do now,
Speaker 4: which is nice, but actually.
Speaker 2: A month and a half of my life, I'm gonna
Speaker 2: know what day of the week it is until Thursday
Speaker 2: night football in November against the bayor exactly.
Speaker 4: But it's a good it's a that's a good thing
Speaker 4: to think about. I think you got your West Coast
Speaker 4: trip out of the way. It was not what they.
Speaker 3: Had hoped for.
Speaker 4: There were good things about the offense to kind of
Speaker 4: you know, parse out, and there were I mean we
Speaker 4: wrote about it after the game, but there was there
Speaker 4: was also not so great. I mean, the fall starts
Speaker 4: the run game. Andy Dalton was able to kind of
Speaker 4: show what the offense has been, you know, wanting to
Speaker 4: look like. I think that was a really good step
Speaker 4: forward for everybody involved. And I think there's a good
Speaker 4: or good reason to think that that Bryce, if he's
Speaker 4: the one or whoever it is, is able to come
Speaker 4: out this week and do something similar against Minnesota. They're
Speaker 4: not completely different than the Seahawks. They played two very
Speaker 4: similar defenses in the Week one and two and kind
Speaker 4: of struggle with it. I think I think the Seahawks
Speaker 4: were a good matchup for them, And I mean, I
Speaker 4: don't think there's a reason to go into this, you know,
Speaker 4: kind of like you said, it's not a must win,
Speaker 4: but it's also not a oh my goodness, the sgui's fawn.
Speaker 3: There's no way they're gonna win this game.
Speaker 2: Right and again, I try to I cringe a little
Speaker 2: bit when people talk about must wins, especially in September,
Speaker 2: because this is such a long, long season and it's.
Speaker 1: Going to contain multitudes, and you.
Speaker 2: Know, are things going perfectly for the Carolina Panthers.
Speaker 1: Know they're not.
Speaker 2: But I think if if you get through this season
Speaker 2: and you know what you want to be about offensively,
Speaker 2: if you know what you can expect addle Bryce Young
Speaker 2: going forward, this season will have been a success no
Speaker 2: matter what the record is. So I do think they've
Speaker 2: got to get to that point.
Speaker 1: But I am.
Speaker 2: I am confident in the sense that there are enough
Speaker 2: smart people working on this problem who are aware that
Speaker 2: it's a problem right now. Somebody made the analogy to me,
Speaker 2: it's like when you get married, here's this new person.
Speaker 2: You love them, you're committing your life to them, but.
Speaker 1: You've still got to learn how they do business.
Speaker 2: You know, my wife and I have been married two
Speaker 2: plus years now, and she's still amazed that I keep
Speaker 2: the checkbook balanced by hand every day and do long
Speaker 2: hand math and stuff like that. And I'm still amazed
Speaker 2: that she thinks of financial plans fifteen and twenty years
Speaker 2: out and has strong feelings about four oh one K
Speaker 2: contribution stuff like that. So those are the kind of things.
Speaker 2: And I think when Frank Craich and Thomas Brown and
Speaker 2: James Campen and Parks Frasier and Josh McCown and Jim
Speaker 2: Colwell and all these smart people are in the room together,
Speaker 2: I think they're still working through the process of figuring
Speaker 2: out what they all wanted to look like exactly.
Speaker 1: And we shall see.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, And I think that's a reason for optimism too,
Speaker 4: I think, I mean, we've seen. I think there's a
Speaker 4: lot to think about from Seattle and to think it'll
Speaker 4: be interesting. You know, Bryce has been practicing. Frank Craig
Speaker 4: said he was on track. Let's say he doesn't have
Speaker 4: any setbacks, and he's the guy out there.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: Receivers looked better last week. Adam Dealing looked great last week.
Speaker 4: DJ Hark was getting vernical with Andy Dalton, like I mean,
Speaker 4: like we'd hoped and saw and talk about that he
Speaker 4: would do.
Speaker 3: So I think I think, you know, you plug Bryce
Speaker 3: in that situation, he might see some good things.
Speaker 4: I think it was one of those situations in week
Speaker 4: one and week two where he was really getting his
Speaker 4: feet wet under him, and it wasn't you know, kind
Speaker 4: of the passing game performance he wanted to see. But
Speaker 4: but I mean, I think there's there's enough to grow on,
Speaker 4: and I think if he comes back, there's gonna be
Speaker 4: something a little bit different than what we saw in
Speaker 4: the first two weeks, and at least different, you know,
Speaker 4: from from what we saw.
Speaker 3: That's not necessarily a bad thing.
Speaker 2: No, it would not necessarily be a bad thing to
Speaker 2: do something different. And again, if if you're looking for
Speaker 2: reasons for optimism here, you know, the best I can
Speaker 2: offer you is the Vikings have not been very good defensiveness. So,
Speaker 2: and that is probably a kind way of saying it.
Speaker 2: When you look at their defensive rankings, you can just
Speaker 2: go down the list, oh, twenty seven, twenty five, twenty one,
Speaker 2: twenty two, twenty six, it's uh, They're they're allowing twenty
Speaker 2: seven point three points per game, which is slightly better
Speaker 2: than what the Panthers are allowing after giving up after
Speaker 2: getting into the thirties. The other thirty seven at Seattle
Speaker 2: the other day, So we shall see. The Vikings certainly
Speaker 2: offer more opportunities, but again it's oh and three and
Speaker 2: everybody's kind of down in the mouth, so I'd rather
Speaker 2: not spend our entire podcast talking about a game between
Speaker 2: ohero and three teams. We talked about Taylor Swift coming
Speaker 2: out of the top. You are not a swiftye. However,
Speaker 2: there must be somebody in this world that you would
Speaker 2: want to see in a stadium concert here at Bank
Speaker 2: of America Stadium, Augusta Stone, go who is it?
Speaker 4: Goodness? Oh my goodness. Okay, okay, So I'll say one thing.
Speaker 4: I was very disappointed when I had to miss Luke Combs.
Speaker 4: I was out of town that weekend. I love all
Speaker 4: the country artists they've been bringing here. I've had a
Speaker 4: country renaissance within myself. Was listening to Hot Country on
Speaker 4: a long drive the other day, Big fan, I wanna
Speaker 4: throw it back, And when we were talking about Taylor Swift,
Speaker 4: I was thinking about and I loved when you mentioned
Speaker 4: Christina Aguilera.
Speaker 3: I'm a little bit maybe.
Speaker 4: About ten or fifteen years behind because of where my
Speaker 4: interest level of music. I am one of the biggest
Speaker 4: Britney Spears fans like on this or I love Brittany.
Speaker 4: I know that she's not you know, the Brittany of
Speaker 4: the mid two thousands, early twenty ten's all of that.
Speaker 3: If you could get her maybe right after she came.
Speaker 4: Out with Womanizer, so that would have been like twenty ten,
Speaker 4: twenty eleven, and had her come here and I could
Speaker 4: just like relive that, cause then that has all of her,
Speaker 4: Like I really liked that new stuff, but also like
Speaker 4: the old stuff in her discography from you know.
Speaker 3: My childhood. I was raised on Britney Spears.
Speaker 4: My mother loved her, so that's kind of like my
Speaker 4: pulp culture. Like I still like, you know, love looking
Speaker 4: into like the Paris Hilton Lindsay Lohan drama. I'm very
Speaker 4: like two thousand centered, So Britney Spears is like my
Speaker 4: Taylor Swift and I know it's a little bit she's
Speaker 4: different now and it's a little outdated, but like I
Speaker 4: was still listening to her the other day, like I
Speaker 4: love Britney so that would be my person, but maybe
Speaker 4: not now, maybe like ten or fifteen years ago.
Speaker 3: How about you, Darren.
Speaker 2: If we're not going to get a Led Zeppelin reunion
Speaker 2: that I've been hoping for for years and years, and
Speaker 2: I entered the lottery to try to win tickets to
Speaker 2: a concert in London about fifteen years ago.
Speaker 1: That didn't work out. But if we're not getting a Zeppelin.
Speaker 2: Reunion, I really would like to see Metallica in this
Speaker 2: building right here that we're sitting in right now. I
Speaker 2: saw him at Charlotte Coliseum a couple of years ago.
Speaker 2: What was that four or five years ago when they
Speaker 2: were here pre pandemic and I just I dig a
Speaker 2: Metallica show. My wife again, is a very responsible person.
Speaker 2: She thinks about my good health, and she advised me
Speaker 2: to wear ear plugs to that concert. And those ear
Speaker 2: plugs lasted exactly to so and when they hit the
Speaker 2: first notes of Seek and Destroy, I was like, yep, out,
Speaker 2: I'm going to just do all the hearing damage here tonight.
Speaker 2: I was about four or five rows from the rail
Speaker 2: by the end of that show, down on the.
Speaker 1: Floor and it was amazing.
Speaker 2: So we should talk to our friends downstairs let's get
Speaker 2: Metallica in this building. Let's get Britney Spears in this building,
Speaker 2: and we can make a lot of people happy.
Speaker 1: I think I love it.
Speaker 3: I love it. You said two things. I just want
Speaker 3: to say that remind me so much of my mom.
Speaker 3: I do.
Speaker 4: My mother still does keep her check book by hand.
Speaker 4: Big on that, so I was raised on that.
Speaker 1: Lies woman very cool.
Speaker 3: And then also Metallica. My parents are big fans.
Speaker 4: Also Metallica great guitar hero band. I can play their
Speaker 4: songs and guitar here like nobody's business big fans.
Speaker 3: So that's yeah, Metallica would be sick.
Speaker 4: That would be a whole different atmosphere than what we've
Speaker 4: seen in the past few shows.
Speaker 3: I'd be really cool.
Speaker 2: My other career goal has always been backup catcher Cincinnati Reds.
Speaker 2: That's been the thing. If I could do anything, if
Speaker 2: I had athletic talent, that's what I would want to be.
Speaker 2: I would want my walk up music to be Metallica's
Speaker 2: the Four Horsemen. I just think that's the baddest ass
Speaker 2: way to walk up.
Speaker 1: To the plate in a major league game. That could
Speaker 1: possibly be so.
Speaker 3: And that's so cool because my walk up song would
Speaker 3: be a Britney Spears song. I'm not even joking.
Speaker 4: I always say piece of Me about Britney Spears, so
Speaker 4: it's so funny if that kind of I'm not even joking.
Speaker 4: So that's like that loops around so perfectly. But that's
Speaker 4: always been my answer for like five years now, and
Speaker 4: I've been answering that question.
Speaker 2: Matt can get us into all kind of copyright trouble
Speaker 2: by putting music beds under this. That's gonna get us
Speaker 2: find out the wazoo. Uh. He probably will not do
Speaker 2: that because frankly, we don't need any more problems this week,
Speaker 2: and that'll take care of us for this week.
Speaker 1: It's the happy half hour.
Speaker 2: We will see you next week when perhaps we have
Speaker 2: something different to talk about.
Speaker 1: See how then