Speaker 1: This week on the Happy half Hour, there are going
Speaker 1: to be a lot of guys popping up, whether it's
Speaker 1: on the waiver wire, whether it's trade talk, whether it's
Speaker 1: bringing in some veterans. I think there's an opportunity for
Speaker 1: some movement inside that group. So if you're out there
Speaker 1: trying to create your own fifty three man roster, I'm
Speaker 1: just gonna promise you you're wrong. Touchdown, cow, right up,
Speaker 1: It's time for the Happy Half Hour with your friends
Speaker 1: Kristin Balboni, Augusta Stone, and Darren Gannon. Hello, friends, Welcome
Speaker 1: to another episode of the Happy Half Hour. One hundred
Speaker 1: percent pure Anthers content for me, Darren her Agusta Stone,
Speaker 1: and even though I believe in truth and advertising, this
Speaker 1: may not actually be an entire happy half hour. It'll
Speaker 1: be entirely happy, but maybe not an entire half hour.
Speaker 1: We'll just kind of see how it goes once we
Speaker 1: start jabbering about all the latest and what's coming in
Speaker 1: the next couple of day in the world of the
Speaker 1: Carolina Panthers.
Speaker 2: I gos Hello, Darren, and hello everyone. I think I
Speaker 2: was telling Darren right before we hit record that we
Speaker 2: could probably ramble on for thirty minutes about anything. It's
Speaker 2: just a matter of whether or not we want to
Speaker 2: record it for the world to hear. I know I
Speaker 2: can talk forever about any topic. Just give it to
Speaker 2: me and I'll find a stream of consciousness to ride
Speaker 2: the wave of I fear.
Speaker 1: Where a ware.
Speaker 2: I am a chatty Cathy. Sometimes I can't lie, usually
Speaker 2: at the most inopportune moments. I'm the type of person.
Speaker 2: This kind of loops back to the last game because
Speaker 2: we got back pretty late from the New York game
Speaker 2: being a seven pm kickoff and getting on the plane
Speaker 2: immediately after. And whenever I reach a certain point of exhaustion,
Speaker 2: I get really really talkative. And that's usually the time
Speaker 2: when I'm texting my friends and they're trying to go
Speaker 2: to bed, and I'm like thinking about different ways to save,
Speaker 2: like solve world problems or you know, new ideas here
Speaker 2: in like like usually there's a point in my exhaustion
Speaker 2: where I do just continue to ramble and ramble and ramble.
Speaker 2: And that's relevant because I almost got to that point
Speaker 2: when I got home at an unforseeable hour on Friday
Speaker 2: morning or Saturday morning, I don't even know what day
Speaker 2: of the week it was.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a theme of this podcast. I think, what
Speaker 1: day is this. We're almost there, almost there, We should
Speaker 1: have a bit but it's yes, we're almost at the
Speaker 1: end of the preseason, and we're almost at the point
Speaker 1: where things normalize in terms of schedule and also the
Speaker 1: football and perhaps the expectations. This has been I think
Speaker 1: for a lot of people a really weird offseason because
Speaker 1: you go through the process of hiring a new coach,
Speaker 1: bringing in a whole new cast of characters, especially on offense,
Speaker 1: basically a brand new set of skill position talent, knowing
Speaker 1: what's to come into the draft, then trading for the
Speaker 1: number one pick, then landing Bryce Young and all the
Speaker 1: attendant excitement that came with it, and it's like, there's
Speaker 1: been this four months of anticipation, and now when we
Speaker 1: get to the preseason and Frank Craig and Bryce Young
Speaker 1: in the Carolina Panthers offense do not look like Patrick
Speaker 1: Mahomes and Andy Reid and the Kansas City Chiefs, immediately,
Speaker 1: I think people started freaking out. And I think that's
Speaker 1: probably normal considering all the build up of the last
Speaker 1: four months, but it always kind of makes me giggle
Speaker 1: for lack of a better word, and sometimes I do
Speaker 1: giggle that. You know, people get so lathered up about
Speaker 1: the preseason. I was telling somebody the story the other day.
Speaker 1: In two thousand and one, when the Panthers won the
Speaker 1: opener and proceeded to lose the next fifteen. The new coach,
Speaker 1: John Fox comes in the door and says, you know,
Speaker 1: everything's brand new, blah blah blah. John's bringing all this excitement.
Speaker 1: They lose their first preseason game and I didn't tweet
Speaker 1: out because tweeting wasn't a thing in two thousand and two,
Speaker 1: but I wrote somewhere that the Panthers hadn't won a
Speaker 1: game in three hundred and forty eight days. John took
Speaker 1: a dimn view of that. He's like, you know how
Speaker 1: unimportant these games are, don't you, Darin, And I said, yes, John,
Speaker 1: I'm aware. And then they lost the next week and
Speaker 1: it was three hundred fifty five days or whatever the
Speaker 1: math turned out to be, and he didn't He took
Speaker 1: a DM view of that as well. So anyway, the
Speaker 1: results of these games are hardly important at all, the
Speaker 1: Baltimore Ravens notwithstanding. But at the same time, there are
Speaker 1: things that I think you can draw from this, I mean,
Speaker 1: with this offense, everything is new, and frank Reich has
Speaker 1: been offered a number of opportunities to talk about kind
Speaker 1: of the goal for this offense, and he is pretty
Speaker 1: steadfastly leaned toward we don't want to show a lot
Speaker 1: more so than we need to get Bryce X, Y
Speaker 1: and Z before the start of the regular season exactly.
Speaker 2: And like you mentioned before I or during when you
Speaker 2: were speaking just then, I think it is one of
Speaker 2: the times, ironically, because the Panthers really didn't have much
Speaker 2: of an offseason, Like you mentioned, you went through kind
Speaker 2: of the laundry list of new coaches, trading up, draft,
Speaker 2: free agency, like all of the stuff that was going on.
Speaker 2: It feels like things calmed down ironically during training camp,
Speaker 2: just in terms of so much coming at us. It's
Speaker 2: like you you were able to get into some sort
Speaker 2: of rhythm, have an idea of what's going on, and
Speaker 2: the preseason frank Reich has kept it really well in perspective,
Speaker 2: I think, because like you mentioned, they really are meaningless
Speaker 2: games in terms of result, In terms of points, of course,
Speaker 2: I'll always say they want to win, but in terms
Speaker 2: of just their evaluation, I mean, they're getting more time
Speaker 2: for the guys that they're not Tuesdays. The roster cutdown
Speaker 2: day is looming, and they're getting time to look at
Speaker 2: those guys. I think too, that between when we were
Speaker 2: here last week to now, there are more things to
Speaker 2: talk about that you know happened. You know, you can say, Okay,
Speaker 2: Bryce Young and the offense hasn't haven't reached the end
Speaker 2: zone yet first teamers, but they did lead that field
Speaker 2: goal drive, and there were some mistakes and I think
Speaker 2: if you want to talk about that one drive that
Speaker 2: got you know, pretty far down and then ended up
Speaker 2: being pushed back and then ended up being a Matthew
Speaker 2: right field goal. But I think one thing you can
Speaker 2: talk about there is that, you know, it showed movement.
Speaker 2: That's good. Show very very long drive. I don't remember
Speaker 2: if it was seven minutes or ten minutes. It was
Speaker 2: really long though, and I think that's the kind of progress.
Speaker 2: But when you have those kind of things that where
Speaker 2: you push back, you want to see that in the
Speaker 2: preseason so you can go ahead and squash it. I
Speaker 2: think that's you know, they can take positives from it,
Speaker 2: and they have time before Atlanta. They'll also have you know,
Speaker 2: a relatively a fuller cast of characters. You know, Eddie
Speaker 2: Pinero talked yesterday. He sounds like he's going to be back.
Speaker 2: I think there's pieces to maybe be concerned about. But
Speaker 2: I think and I do think things have calmed down
Speaker 2: to like between the Jets and the Giants game, I
Speaker 2: think we're not as much so when you hear things
Speaker 2: on the outside, it's not as panicked, which is good.
Speaker 2: So because I remember last week we came in here
Speaker 2: and we were like ugh, and this week is not
Speaker 2: as bad.
Speaker 1: So yeah, listen, in the course of a regular season,
Speaker 1: a good old fifteen play, seventy yard ten minute field
Speaker 1: goal drive. That's a good thing, not a bad thing.
Speaker 1: I'm old enough that I appreciate that. And you know,
Speaker 1: if you think back to second half of last year,
Speaker 1: controlling the clock, keeping the ball on the ground was
Speaker 1: a pretty big element of that. And listen, here are
Speaker 1: things we've seen in the preseason. A little bit of
Speaker 1: Bryce Shong, a little bit of this, a little bit
Speaker 1: of that. Things we haven't seen. Game planning, strategy, Miles Sanders,
Speaker 1: who is going to be a really big part of
Speaker 1: this outfense. I think that as much as anything, you know,
Speaker 1: they are going to lean on him. One of the themes.
Speaker 1: I've mentioned this with different people in interviews before, on
Speaker 1: radio and podcast. If you're thinking about the overarching theme
Speaker 1: of this offseason, everything's been about protecting Bryshong, even before
Speaker 1: he walked in the door. What they do. They built
Speaker 1: his staff full of all these elders, and I'm constantly
Speaker 1: amazed when I walk in the Cafteria and Jim Calwell
Speaker 1: stand there eating breakfast. It's just a great coach, not
Speaker 1: a good coach with this extra job and ill defined responsibilities.
Speaker 1: Jim Callwell, Josh McCown, Thomas Brown, Frank Craig. Was done
Speaker 1: to protect that quarterback from a coaching standpoint. Then they
Speaker 1: go out in free agency and they find the easy targets.
Speaker 1: A tight end in Hayden Hurst, a slot receiver in
Speaker 1: Adam Thielen, a high volume back in Miles Sanders who
Speaker 1: can also catch the ball. Everything's been done to make
Speaker 1: this guy's life easier from day one before he walked
Speaker 1: in the door. So now this preseason has been about
Speaker 1: continuing to protect him by a not leaving him out
Speaker 1: there for too long, you know, not showing a lot
Speaker 1: of the cool new stuff they want to try to do,
Speaker 1: but also just kind of getting through this thing without drama.
Speaker 1: Someone asked me one of my friends, Tom Pelsero from
Speaker 1: NFL Network was in town the other day and he
Speaker 1: asked how training camp was, and he said, hadn't really
Speaker 1: been a lot of drama. I said, that's a good
Speaker 1: that's good thing. Nobody likes drama in training camp because
Speaker 1: usually training camp drama is bad. So if you get
Speaker 1: through this entire process no gigantic injuries, no big upheavals,
Speaker 1: no big contract drama or anything like that, I think
Speaker 1: that's a great thing for everybody involved. So it's you know,
Speaker 1: just mentioning the injuries. I think it's probably worth pointing out.
Speaker 1: I've seen some concern online about the numbers of guys.
Speaker 1: The one thing I know, and this isn't exactly breaking
Speaker 1: news or anything, but just from talking to people around
Speaker 1: the building, the only guy we know isn't playing in
Speaker 1: Atlanta is Austin Corbett, who's coming off in acl and
Speaker 1: wasn't expected to play in the opener anyway. None of
Speaker 1: the other of this laundry list of injuries that you
Speaker 1: see on Panthers dot Com on a daily basis, And
Speaker 1: we appreciate you doing that are considered the kind of
Speaker 1: big you know, long term, big, dramatic, miss a chunk
Speaker 1: of the regular season kind of stuff. There's a lot
Speaker 1: of things, the things that come at the end of
Speaker 1: a long and fairly physical training camp. And they've gotten
Speaker 1: after it this week, I mean the two practices Monday Tuesday,
Speaker 1: I believe it was, or Sunday Monday or whatever the sequence. Again,
Speaker 1: don't ask me what day of the week it is.
Speaker 1: Those two practices this week were pretty intense. First one
Speaker 1: in Pad's second one was long, even though it was
Speaker 1: in shorts and shells. It guys are getting after it,
Speaker 1: and there's a physical toll that comes with that. But
Speaker 1: it's almost like building up a callous You know, they're
Speaker 1: going to work them hard and then they're gonna pull back.
Speaker 1: There's gonna be some breaks in this thing, and players
Speaker 1: are about to get a three to four day break
Speaker 1: before they go into the regular season and everybody needs it.
Speaker 1: But before they got to that, they wanted to push them.
Speaker 1: They wanted them conditioned because you know, I remember opening
Speaker 1: seasons in Tampa Bay and seeing guys gassed on either
Speaker 1: side of the field. Because if you're not conditioned to
Speaker 1: go into what used to be a sixteen now seventeen
Speaker 1: game regular season. It's going to be a long one exactly.
Speaker 2: And another thing that has been mentioned, and I think
Speaker 2: this is a good segue into the next kind of
Speaker 2: big thing on the schedule after the preseason game is
Speaker 2: when the cutdown date, which is two day and it's
Speaker 2: all down to fifty three on one day versus last
Speaker 2: year and years pat prior. But just kind of like
Speaker 2: you mentioned with injuries one, they're inevitable too. They're not,
Speaker 2: like you said, like overwhelmingly serious ones like I mean,
Speaker 2: to be honest, like we saw last year at this point.
Speaker 2: I think preseason kind of dinged them up quite a
Speaker 2: bit last year. But also it gives you a chance
Speaker 2: to see some depth pieces develop the depth pieces, and
Speaker 2: then it's gonna inevitably happen, like you mentioned, with a
Speaker 2: seventeen game schedule, regardless of how condition you get, you're
Speaker 2: gonna have to look at those guys either way. And
Speaker 2: I think that it's not necessarily the most negative thing
Speaker 2: in the world to kind of be able to pull
Speaker 2: back certain guys. I mean, we've seen a lot of
Speaker 2: Chuba Hubbard and Raheem Blackshir just thinking about Miles Sanders
Speaker 2: getting back this week and just those opportunities now versus
Speaker 2: you know, week six, week seven, whenever, it'll inevitably fall
Speaker 2: that one guy might get a you know, a hamstring here,
Speaker 2: one guy might get you know, a little sprain here.
Speaker 2: Like it's gonna it's gonna happen. But I was gonna
Speaker 2: ask you, as the date kind of looms, who are
Speaker 2: you looking for in this game specifically to kind of
Speaker 2: make a splash or maybe have extra opportunities with with
Speaker 2: the guys that that you're thinking that they might you know,
Speaker 2: hold over other than your your obvious starters and your ones.
Speaker 1: I think there's a couple of guys, and again with
Speaker 1: cuts looming, there's always those guys on the bubble, and
Speaker 1: people want to hear about guys on the bubble. I
Speaker 1: think when you think about a situation where djhart Terrace
Speaker 1: Marshall probably aren't going to play tomorrow night, then you
Speaker 1: start looking down the line and Derek Wright is going
Speaker 1: to get a lot of play in time. Javon Wims
Speaker 1: is going to get a lot of play time. I
Speaker 1: know you you like a dog on the roster, so
Speaker 1: Wims is Wims has been interesting and where I think
Speaker 1: he's got an opportunity here. If you look over the
Speaker 1: scope of all these wide receivers that everybody's playing on
Speaker 1: making the team, there aren't a lot of them that
Speaker 1: you think of as a core special teams kind of guy.
Speaker 1: And Wims is a big, physical dude who, as we
Speaker 1: are aware, is not afraid of contact. So I think
Speaker 1: the opportunity for guys like that to show, Okay, Chris Tabor,
Speaker 1: you can trust me, I can be one of your
Speaker 1: guys and also contribute during the regular season, potentially some
Speaker 1: on offense. Frank's talked about, you know, guys he's had
Speaker 1: in the past who make teams that way as special
Speaker 1: teamers and end up being parts of offense. So I
Speaker 1: think Wims is a guy who's got an opportunity there.
Speaker 1: Derek Wright has always had good hands and knows how
Speaker 1: to get himself open, and he's been a little dinged
Speaker 1: up himself, but he's shooting to come back this week.
Speaker 1: You know, you see him walking around the facility and
Speaker 1: he's upbeat and ready to go after being you know,
Speaker 1: kind of on the mend a little bit. So I
Speaker 1: think there are a number of those guys, whether it's
Speaker 1: those two on the offensive line. Young guys like some
Speaker 1: of the undrafted rookies Nashins and Ricky Lee, or guys
Speaker 1: who have caught some eyes. You know, there are a
Speaker 1: couple of them out there. And with defensive linemen, whether
Speaker 1: it's Nick Thurman, Lebryan Ray, some of those guys who
Speaker 1: aren't necessarily household names are going to have opportunities to
Speaker 1: create roles for themselves with what happens this week in
Speaker 1: the game and then coupled with the body of work
Speaker 1: they presented so far in training camp.
Speaker 2: I think Grey ray Kwan Williams, Goodness gracious, his name
Speaker 2: is dificult to say sometimes, but ray Kwan Williams is
Speaker 2: one of those guys that I feel like, if he
Speaker 2: has a similar showing to he did last week in
Speaker 2: New York, that he's really going to make a good
Speaker 2: case for himself. He was all over the field, especially
Speaker 2: against the Giants second team up in New York. I
Speaker 2: was reading writing his stat line last night. I think
Speaker 2: he had two where he had a tackle for loss
Speaker 2: of sack kind of paired together, and then two quarterback pressures.
Speaker 2: I think just kind of making the day really really
Speaker 2: tough for them. And he was one of those guys
Speaker 2: that I think, at least here in camp, that I
Speaker 2: didn't pay too much attention to, and then saw him
Speaker 2: kind of flash like that. I think if he gets
Speaker 2: another preseason game flash, I mean, look, it's kind of
Speaker 2: like what Frankraik has been saying. You know, you say
Speaker 2: these preseason games and you're so concerned about the the
Speaker 2: the point totals, but in his experience won it playing
Speaker 2: in the league but also coaching in the league, he
Speaker 2: said that his memories aren't necessarily about the score. They're
Speaker 2: more or less about you know, oh, I remember this
Speaker 2: guy flashing. I remember this player. I remember this kind
Speaker 2: of thing, and he's a guy I think that could
Speaker 2: really capitalize on it and find himself some sort of role.
Speaker 2: He's been here for a minute. He was a practice
Speaker 2: squad holdover, I believe, and I think he looked really
Speaker 2: comfortable and I mean just very splashy along that defensive line. Again,
Speaker 2: like you said, on top of the Brian Rays and
Speaker 2: the Nick Thurmans of the roster, I think that there's
Speaker 2: there's a lot of opportunity there behind those guys to
Speaker 2: really see what they have to do. But I agree,
Speaker 2: I was also going to make a mention of Nashjinsen
Speaker 2: and Ricky Lee. I think this game is also really
Speaker 2: really important for them just to see what their role
Speaker 2: will end up being, especially with Caid Mays and that
Speaker 2: next thing are just now getting back to practice and
Speaker 2: you know the role that they have to fill in
Speaker 2: at right guard. There's a lot of opportunities for guys
Speaker 2: to maybe get some more plays and more looks, and
Speaker 2: they hadn't they wouldn't have had previously, so I think
Speaker 2: it's another big game for them too. I think the
Speaker 2: lines are some really good places to look at guys
Speaker 2: where oh, maybe this guy will be, like you said,
Speaker 2: a bubble guy just making it in. Those are two
Speaker 2: groups that I've kind of honed in on with opportunities, and.
Speaker 1: I think to one of my favorite malapropisms say, I
Speaker 1: think people use this time of year when cuts come
Speaker 1: down next Tuesday, people will say the final fifty three
Speaker 1: man roster. It is nothing resembling final. This thing is
Speaker 1: going to be a work in progress over the course
Speaker 1: of seasons, as we've all seen, but I get the
Speaker 1: impression that this year has the opportunity for a little
Speaker 1: more of that movement. Next Wednesday, Thursday Friday as they
Speaker 1: go into the holiday weekend break, which is the last
Speaker 1: one for a long time. But I think there is
Speaker 1: an opportunity for movement because when you're trying to put
Speaker 1: together something brand new, you know. I go back to
Speaker 1: the very start of free agency of the in the
Speaker 1: first week they go out and Seinshoy tuttle into Shawn
Speaker 1: Williams immediately because they needed lineman to be able to
Speaker 1: line up in a three four, and there's a particular
Speaker 1: body type they're looking for. They would love to find
Speaker 1: some guys who were in that six foot five, three
Speaker 1: hundred and twenty pound, long armed kind of profile. Now
Speaker 1: that's not necessarily what Shie and Sean are, but those
Speaker 1: are guys who have proven they can play this kind
Speaker 1: of football. I mean, especially to Shaun. He was out
Speaker 1: there in Denver with this coaching staff and playing pretty well.
Speaker 1: So they've got a couple of parts in those two.
Speaker 1: In Derek Brown obviously, who's going to be a big
Speaker 1: part of this defense. But they need to supplement that
Speaker 1: and that's why I mentioned Thurman and Lebrin Ray a
Speaker 1: second ago. There are going to be a lot of guys,
Speaker 1: a lot of names popping up, whether it's on the
Speaker 1: waiver wire, whether it's trade talk, whether it's bringing in
Speaker 1: some veterans who are kind of on the street for
Speaker 1: different reasons right now, I think there's an opportunity for
Speaker 1: some movement inside that group. So trying to project, if
Speaker 1: you're out there trying to create your own fifty three
Speaker 1: you may and roster, I'm just gonna promise you you're wrong,
Speaker 1: because that thing's going to be moving quite a bit
Speaker 1: between next yeah know. I mean honestly, between today or
Speaker 1: between tomorrow whenever what day is this, the day after
Speaker 1: the game and then going into Tuesday's final cuts, is
Speaker 1: thing's going to be fluid. So stay tuned to Panthers
Speaker 1: dot com for all the latest, as we like to say.
Speaker 2: And we heard that right from Dan Morgan when he
Speaker 2: spoke with the media this week. He mentioned, I think
Speaker 2: twelve hundred was his estimate of names that the scouts
Speaker 2: have put together of guys that they expect to see,
Speaker 2: you know, kind of out and ready to be taken
Speaker 2: to be evaluated, to be looked at after the fifty
Speaker 2: three man cuts across the league, and he mentioned how
Speaker 2: having one cut down day is actually pretty beneficial to
Speaker 2: his process and his staff's process. So Jah found it
Speaker 2: to be a very interesting perspective about how it kind
Speaker 2: of all happens at once and you don't have to
Speaker 2: kind of spin your wheels. You have it all happen
Speaker 2: at once. Okay, now we can look and see where
Speaker 2: we're going. But yeah, that all the indications from when
Speaker 2: we talk to him where that you know, they're always looking,
Speaker 2: like he said, to upgrade, and there's always the opportunity
Speaker 2: to kind of look and see what they've been evaluating,
Speaker 2: see what they have. But yeah, no, to call that
Speaker 2: I think a final fifty three man is a questionable term.
Speaker 2: I think we could call it a preliminary. It's the
Speaker 2: first one.
Speaker 1: Initial.
Speaker 2: I think initial is good. That's good, the first one.
Speaker 2: So don't use the final word. It's it would be
Speaker 2: you would be remiss to do.
Speaker 1: So. Yeah, and that twelve hundred number that's based on
Speaker 1: thirty seven dudes times thirty two rosters eleven eighty four
Speaker 1: if you're specific. I didn't do long multiplication here while
Speaker 1: we're recording The Happy Half Hour. I used my calculator
Speaker 1: app on my phone because that's the kind of modern
Speaker 1: person I am. So yeah, it's that time. This is
Speaker 1: a rough week. By the time we talk to you next,
Speaker 1: there will be cuts, there will be a roster, and
Speaker 1: we will be on the verge of a regular season.
Speaker 1: Then a lot of people are looking forward to for
Speaker 1: a lot of reasons. But this is a grueling week
Speaker 1: for all the human being involved because no matter what,
Speaker 1: there is a degree of relationship that's built up with
Speaker 1: guys as you've worked with him for an entire offseason.
Speaker 1: I've talked to, you know, Deshaun Williams and Frank Reich
Speaker 1: about when Frank had to cut to Shaun in Indianapolis
Speaker 1: and they end up crying together while they're, you know,
Speaker 1: having this conversation. And Deshaun was an early cut during
Speaker 1: OTAs for Frank up in Indy before he got his
Speaker 1: feet underneath him in Denver and kind of established himself.
Speaker 1: So it's an emotional time. It's hard for the human
Speaker 1: beings involved. And I know, you know a lot of
Speaker 1: times fans get excited or frustrated with certain guys, but
Speaker 1: these are human beings. Dreams are coming to an end
Speaker 1: this week, and a lot of cases, families are going
Speaker 1: to have to move based on what happens this weekend,
Speaker 1: and that has an impact on a lot of people,
Speaker 1: you know, in addition to the people here in the
Speaker 1: building who have to be the guy who go gets
Speaker 1: that guy, and so it's a hard week for everybody involved.
Speaker 1: One of the you know, one of the unpleasant realities
Speaker 1: of this business is you've got to go through that
Speaker 1: process before you get to that fifty three, before you
Speaker 1: get to the regular season. And that's the point we're at.
Speaker 1: So I would ask fans, as you're monitoring next week's
Speaker 1: cuts online on Twitter, I'm not calling it that other
Speaker 1: thing ever again or ever period. I am a traditionalist
Speaker 1: and it will always be twittered like I tweeted back
Speaker 1: in the nineties. So as you're watching Twitter next week,
Speaker 1: you know, have a little compassion for the human beings
Speaker 1: on either side of these transactions. I know everybody's excited
Speaker 1: about this, but remember the human beings on times like
Speaker 1: this too. So anyway, it is a time of transition.
Speaker 1: We're almost out of the preseason. As we go into
Speaker 1: the regular season, what are you most grateful for as
Speaker 1: you get into an actual schedule. What becomes normal for AUGUSTA.
Speaker 1: Stone Once the schedule is normal.
Speaker 2: Again, Oh my goodness, Okay, so I have to channel
Speaker 2: kind of what happens me last season because it's been
Speaker 2: so long since I've been in a regular schedule, especially
Speaker 2: like we've mentioned many times on this podcast and today,
Speaker 2: but it felt like we never really had an off
Speaker 2: season groove anyway, so I've kind of been herky jerked
Speaker 2: and all this stuff my way through. I will say
Speaker 2: I got in this nice rhythm last season of knowing
Speaker 2: the times that I could go cook meals if there
Speaker 2: was a one pm kickoff at the stadium, I could
Speaker 2: get home around seven, eight nine and cook a nice
Speaker 2: big meal while watching Sunday night football. That helped me
Speaker 2: set up my week really nicely because I'd have lunch
Speaker 2: food or dinner food set up for me. So I
Speaker 2: loved my kind of routine post game for one pm kicks.
Speaker 2: I know we don't really have a lot of home
Speaker 2: one pm kicks to start. I don't think we actually
Speaker 2: have one here until October first, because we have the
Speaker 2: Monday game, which I've never done a Monday night game,
Speaker 2: so I'm really excited about that, but also kind of
Speaker 2: being on the road a lot. But those are those
Speaker 2: are like the moments that I cherish the most I
Speaker 2: really like my time in my kitchen, my time, you know,
Speaker 2: to myself, So kind of knowing when my I'll get
Speaker 2: myself time. I'm a big self care kind of girl,
Speaker 2: and making meals and having that ritual is very special
Speaker 2: to me. So being able to kind of know that
Speaker 2: I'm going to do that on Sunday nights, you know,
Speaker 2: knowing when we get into the groove of one pm kicks,
Speaker 2: That's what I'm most excited for. How about y'all?
Speaker 1: So when you cook food on Sunday night, how long
Speaker 1: is that good for?
Speaker 2: What do you mean? Oh? I So here's the thing.
Speaker 2: I make curt anywhere from three to four servings, so
Speaker 2: it'll be gone within two days. Because I do not
Speaker 2: let things sit very long. I do eat leftovers, but
Speaker 2: they have to eat within three days or I want
Speaker 2: to eat them. I am so scared of poisoning myself.
Speaker 1: You know those dates on the groceries or just a suggestions.
Speaker 2: Oh my goodness. We talk with this all the time.
Speaker 2: I am such an advocate for food safety. I will
Speaker 2: you ask anyone who cooks with me. I'm having them
Speaker 2: scrub vegetables and I have a whole process with it.
Speaker 2: I am so scared of all the food that I eat.
Speaker 2: I want it to all be pristine.
Speaker 1: Another pawn of big grocery ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 2: It's me, don't I'm a sucker.
Speaker 1: I don't be like Augusta. Those things are just a suggestion.
Speaker 1: I'm not trying to poison you people. I care about
Speaker 1: you like you're my family. But that food's still good.
Speaker 2: No, no, no no. And the thing is, I don't
Speaker 2: throw out food. I just make sure that I eat it.
Speaker 2: I will be like, well, you know what, I'm not
Speaker 2: really in the mood for taco salad, but lord knows,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna eat this taco salad before Wednesday because I'm
Speaker 2: not going to eat it after Wednesday. Or I can
Speaker 2: give it to one of my friends in there in
Speaker 2: a kind way of letting them know I made this
Speaker 2: on Sunday. Because most of my friends are like you
Speaker 2: and normal, I just get very nervous about food preparation.
Speaker 2: I can't lie.
Speaker 1: I love the fact that I am the normal one
Speaker 1: in this situation.
Speaker 2: I would say yus, I would say yes, I was raised.
Speaker 2: I love my father's shout out Jamie, but he is
Speaker 2: he's just like me. Raise me well to be fearful
Speaker 2: of my food to make sure don't accidentally make myself sick.
Speaker 1: I struggle with portion control when I'm making it and
Speaker 1: when I'm eating it. So a lot of times, like
Speaker 1: if I make a pot of jumbalaya, there's enough for
Speaker 1: about eight servings, uh huh, and my wife will look
Speaker 1: at me and she's like, you know, there's two of
Speaker 1: us right, It's like, no, I don't care. I made
Speaker 1: this entire vat of food. We have to eat it.
Speaker 1: So I will lead the leftovers for many many days.
Speaker 1: I am not fearful in that same way. I also
Speaker 1: choose to think this is my own psychosis, but I
Speaker 1: choose to think that helps with the with the immune reaction.
Speaker 1: I think I'm building up a pretty solid defense by
Speaker 1: going with that day five, day six leftover. Usually I
Speaker 1: don't even question it un till it gets to the
Speaker 1: second week.
Speaker 2: Just be careful with rice. That's my biggest thing. Just
Speaker 2: be careful with rice. People don't google like fried rice
Speaker 2: disease or anything like it's so scary. Just be careful
Speaker 2: with rice. If I have any message for listeners of anything,
Speaker 2: when I realize that rice is actually more scary than
Speaker 2: you think, just be careful with Rice. That's my main thing.
Speaker 1: I am.
Speaker 2: Rice is always going right in the fridge as soon
Speaker 2: as it's pooled, and only lasting a day. I can't
Speaker 2: do it with Rice.
Speaker 1: There you go, And on that note, we should just
Speaker 1: sign off on this episode of The Happy Half Hour,
Speaker 1: which thank god isn't sponsored by the American Rice Counsel,
Speaker 1: if that's even a thing. At any rate, your leftovers
Speaker 1: with respect, treat each other with kindness. We'll see you
Speaker 1: next week or sometime