Speaker 1: It's time full Happy half Hour with your friends Kristen
Speaker 1: Belboni and Will Brian, presented by Morris Jenkins. That's right,
Speaker 1: it's that time of the week, The Happy Half Hour
Speaker 1: podcast presented by Morris Jenkins and Mr Jenkins told me
Speaker 1: his plumbers and a c text secretly where Panthers jerseys
Speaker 1: under their uniforms. So when you're plumbing or air conditioning
Speaker 1: is acting up, called Morris Jenkins or visit Morris Jenkins
Speaker 1: dot com. Kristen, Will and Matt here in the podcast studio,
Speaker 1: joined once again by the legendary Darren Gant of Panthers
Speaker 1: dot Com. Darren, we didn't scare you off last time,
Speaker 1: and now you've agreed to be here for the whole episode. Sure,
Speaker 1: why not? This is where the cool kids? Well, did
Speaker 1: you just do sound effects of the crowd going wild? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I was waiting for Matt to put it in himself,
Speaker 1: but then I just did it with that usually happens
Speaker 1: after I don't know how these things now to someone
Speaker 1: listening in headphones. It's just here and now he can
Speaker 1: he can just take it out and then he can
Speaker 1: put a better one in were talking about. But welcome
Speaker 1: Darren and that's outstanding. You're a man who's used to
Speaker 1: get an applause. I know it's the last couple of
Speaker 1: weeks have gone to my head. Let's let's be real
Speaker 1: about that here. You're a whole thing now. That's why
Speaker 1: it's cool to be here. Are we talking about your
Speaker 1: incredible turn as an actor in the schedule release video?
Speaker 1: So there's I'm working on some h some B level
Speaker 1: video with me and super like about town like this
Speaker 1: new the new dynamics to have. Yeah, buddy comedy of
Speaker 1: the centuries it is, you know, like per and stat
Speaker 1: guys take over Charlotte. I love it. I would watch
Speaker 1: I'll watch that. I would absolutely watch that. You guys
Speaker 1: were the best. It was so much fun. Ye. Also,
Speaker 1: I gotta say, like the acting chops on Will. I
Speaker 1: hope everyone who's listening has seen the schedule release video,
Speaker 1: Well you were really just thought your I thought, you're wait,
Speaker 1: how do we go big? Like? I thought that line
Speaker 1: was really good? Really really more compliments keep going. But
Speaker 1: I mean the front part of the video was, you know,
Speaker 1: it was very frontloaded with a lot of Christian and
Speaker 1: then it became a lot more Will at the end,
Speaker 1: And I mean, can we say, why, So we filmed
Speaker 1: a lot because you know, like a lot of other people,
Speaker 1: we don't know the order that the schedule will be
Speaker 1: released in, and so we filmed a lot of stuff
Speaker 1: kind of as Evergreen, and we didn't know exactly on Wednesday. Yes,
Speaker 1: we didn't know exactly when this game would happen, and
Speaker 1: so the order of things was just you know, dictated
Speaker 1: by the schedule, which we didn't know at the time.
Speaker 1: So so much fun though, um okay, but more recently
Speaker 1: so schedule released was last week and straight into Ricky Minicamp.
Speaker 1: Over the weekend, Panthers just wrapped that up. We were there,
Speaker 1: We got to see the eleven draft picks and the
Speaker 1: other hopefuls in action. So I thought we would, you know,
Speaker 1: go around the podcast studio if we will, with our
Speaker 1: are takeaways, um from what stood out to us and Darren,
Speaker 1: I mean, of course we gotta start with you. Well, yeah, thanks,
Speaker 1: it's um it was weird. After the minicamp was over,
Speaker 1: I was talking to Bill both and I said, Bill,
Speaker 1: it occurs to me that I spent a lot of
Speaker 1: this weekend writing and talking to offensive lineman. And that's
Speaker 1: probably not an accident. I think it was such an
Speaker 1: off season emphasis that to get in there and and
Speaker 1: see David Moore and to see Brady Christiansen in action
Speaker 1: and talk to Deante Brown, I mean, and those guys
Speaker 1: are are so integral to what they were trying to do.
Speaker 1: I mean, they wanted to get younger on offense in
Speaker 1: general and that position in particular, And after filling in
Speaker 1: a bunch of blanks in the off season and free agency,
Speaker 1: to see those three guys out there on the field,
Speaker 1: you know, among others, but to see those three in particular,
Speaker 1: it was like, Okay, that's what it looks like. That's
Speaker 1: that's what a plan in action, that's how it manifests itself.
Speaker 1: And and those guys. Christiansen is a different guy because
Speaker 1: he's so athletic and so explosive, and they don't know
Speaker 1: exactly where he's gonna put him. But but Brown and
Speaker 1: David Moore just so massive. I mean, I'm you know,
Speaker 1: Will knows for sure. I'm a proponent of old man football.
Speaker 1: So having these two gigantic, humongous, wide body dudes out
Speaker 1: there in the middle of the field just appeals to me.
Speaker 1: It's like, that's how you do work, That's how you
Speaker 1: run goal line offense by having just gigantic people. Absolutely.
Speaker 1: I mean, over the years, everyone wants to try to
Speaker 1: take what they can away from these things, which means
Speaker 1: it's six second videos of guys running routes and trying
Speaker 1: to I don't just say it's a little behind the scenes. Well,
Speaker 1: you suggested doing this idea, so people want to take
Speaker 1: things away. I'm gonna take all things. Meanwhile, we'll suggested
Speaker 1: we should do our takeaways from you make He's like, look,
Speaker 1: things people want to take things away. Okay, well you
Speaker 1: know so, But but I think what you can take
Speaker 1: away is size. You can there there's no denying what
Speaker 1: you're looking at out there, and you're looking at some
Speaker 1: big guys, not only just along the line. I mean J. C.
Speaker 1: Horne is a big cornerback. Like so, I think that
Speaker 1: that just jumps out is just how big these guys are,
Speaker 1: how physical they are. And yeah, you know, of course
Speaker 1: you're not gonna see you're not gonna see eleven on eleven.
Speaker 1: You're not going to see them run through plays and really,
Speaker 1: but you can see the size and you can see
Speaker 1: the energy and that just after this year that we've had,
Speaker 1: it just feels really nice to just be back out
Speaker 1: there and have everyone really you know, you know that
Speaker 1: moment when like the league memo went out and everyone
Speaker 1: took their mass off because they were vaccinated. There's just
Speaker 1: there's just such an energy. I think about that and
Speaker 1: about these guys all kind of hey, it's back to football,
Speaker 1: you know, in a real way. Fit walked over me
Speaker 1: in the middle of practice and said, Hey, just came out.
Speaker 1: You guys can take them off. And I think you
Speaker 1: probably saw like ten coaches take the mask off all
Speaker 1: at once, like, you know, because I want you to
Speaker 1: be able to see my face, you know, I wanted
Speaker 1: to see your face. I want to you know, interact.
Speaker 1: And so every one of our coaches, I believe, said
Speaker 1: for maybe one one young guy that's you know that
Speaker 1: that's going through the process, that we're all vaccinated. And
Speaker 1: we did it because for family reasons, but also because
Speaker 1: we want to make sure that we keep our players safe.
Speaker 1: And just to clarify for anyone who we assume that
Speaker 1: anyone listening to this knows exactly what that memo said,
Speaker 1: but just to clarify, it is for staff members, coaching staff,
Speaker 1: and then staff members who are vaccinated. No longer have
Speaker 1: to wear their masks inside or outside. That doesn't necessarily
Speaker 1: apply to the players, um and it and it only
Speaker 1: applies to vaccinated people. But it did happen during Rocky
Speaker 1: Minicamp while we were out on the field, and like
Speaker 1: there were some mass like being flung. It was kind
Speaker 1: of like a graduation cap situation. UM and some people,
Speaker 1: you know, we worked together for a year and a
Speaker 1: half and I have never seen their chins. So it
Speaker 1: was a whole new a whole new world. But but
Speaker 1: my take, aweight actually guys touched on on most of
Speaker 1: what I was going to say. With Brady Christiansen, his
Speaker 1: athleticism and his versatility. I mean, he just really such
Speaker 1: an athletic big guy, and talking to him right after
Speaker 1: the draft, you know about like he wakeboards, he plays
Speaker 1: all sorts of different sports. It does so much. And
Speaker 1: then I got to walk around with him while he
Speaker 1: was in the building and help him get from one
Speaker 1: place to the next, and he's just you can just
Speaker 1: see it, like the I mean he I think that
Speaker 1: that's how he describes himself, if I'm not mistaken, is
Speaker 1: like an athlete first and then alignment. And I'm excited
Speaker 1: to see just from the small bit. Like Will said,
Speaker 1: you know, you can only take away so much. But
Speaker 1: from what I saw, I'm excited to see him once
Speaker 1: the veterans get in the building too, and then you know,
Speaker 1: extrapolate that out further to the season to see what
Speaker 1: he can do. Sure. I mean, it's going to be
Speaker 1: completely different when you get to training camp and all
Speaker 1: of a sudden he's doing a one on one drill
Speaker 1: against Brian Burns. That's a whole different animal. I mean,
Speaker 1: But to see him out there, I mean, you can
Speaker 1: tell he's a large man who can move. I mean,
Speaker 1: he's extremely agile, and that's why I think they're they're
Speaker 1: so willing to experiment and see what he could do.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think a lot of people after the
Speaker 1: drafts all, okay, left tackle, here's the left tackle from
Speaker 1: b y U. That's where he's obviously going to be.
Speaker 1: I think it's a lot more complicated than that. And
Speaker 1: Matt talked about that during the weekend, is like, you know,
Speaker 1: we're just experiment now. I mean, he's probably he's not
Speaker 1: a center, he's not going to snap, but any of
Speaker 1: the other four positions he could end up at, just
Speaker 1: because he is so athletic, where would you plan I
Speaker 1: know you've seen him for like two hours and a
Speaker 1: rookie mit he camp doing trails. I think there's still
Speaker 1: so much time to try to figure out what the
Speaker 1: rist of the line looks like. I mean, it's going
Speaker 1: to be a work in progress. And I asked Matt
Speaker 1: about that. I said, at what point do you kind
Speaker 1: of start zooming in on Okay, this guy's a left guard,
Speaker 1: this guy's right tackle, et cetera. And he said, basically,
Speaker 1: you know, training camp, going into the season, you try
Speaker 1: to identify the spots people are best at and work
Speaker 1: from there. But he talked about, you know, with backups,
Speaker 1: they all have to be able to play more than
Speaker 1: one position. I think this is a time now you
Speaker 1: can through O t A s where you can move
Speaker 1: guys around, experiment with their best you know, to find
Speaker 1: out not only what's their best position, but how they
Speaker 1: can get on the field of the quickest and how
Speaker 1: they can provide the most depth for us. And then
Speaker 1: as we get you know, in training camp, you know
Speaker 1: we really had to zero in on some of those things.
Speaker 1: But you know, especially the seventeen game season, we know
Speaker 1: there's going to be some nutrition at times there will
Speaker 1: be some shuffling. Dick, I think it's still experimental now, Um,
Speaker 1: he could end up at left tackle simply because I
Speaker 1: don't think there's anybody on the roster who necessarily you
Speaker 1: point to and say, oh, yeah, it's obviously and so
Speaker 1: I mean it could be gam Irving, it could be
Speaker 1: trans God, it could be Brady. I mean, we don't know.
Speaker 1: And and that's one of those time will tail things,
Speaker 1: and it's gonna take get into training camp seeing him
Speaker 1: in pads, seeing what he looks like against a speed rusher,
Speaker 1: you know, can he get out and keep hands on
Speaker 1: a Brian Burns in practice? I mean that's that's where
Speaker 1: we'll find out, and we'll have a pretty good idea
Speaker 1: I think during camp. All right. So you know, as
Speaker 1: we said, eleven draft picks and several other guys who
Speaker 1: mentioned it, David Moore for instance, other guys who are
Speaker 1: are hoping to make an impact, a lot of new faces,
Speaker 1: So why don't we I think we take Brady Christiansen
Speaker 1: out of this one, right, But aside from Brady Christiansen,
Speaker 1: what is one name that Panthers fans ought to know
Speaker 1: from all the new faces who are here? You know who.
Speaker 1: I think people are gonna be really excited when they
Speaker 1: see him during the preseason, see him during other than him,
Speaker 1: I bet you're about to take person right now. I
Speaker 1: was gonna say, Shy Smith. I mean, he's such a
Speaker 1: different kind. I mean, they've got if you look at
Speaker 1: the Panthers receiving room, they've got a bunch of big dudes,
Speaker 1: and they've got a bunch of guys who play a
Speaker 1: completely different game. And he's a little guy, and he's
Speaker 1: doing stuff across the middle and going up and making
Speaker 1: catches and and we saw him down in Mobile. It's
Speaker 1: Senior Bowl. They really dig on the way he plays
Speaker 1: and and it's a completely different vibe than a terrorist martial.
Speaker 1: It's completely different than DJ or Robbie. And I think
Speaker 1: that difference is going to make him stand out. And
Speaker 1: you know they'll be that day during training camp and
Speaker 1: hopefully fans are able to watch it where you know,
Speaker 1: you know, somebody will make a big one handed catch
Speaker 1: over the middle and everybody goes yeah, yeah, And I
Speaker 1: think he could be that guy who does that thing
Speaker 1: and catches that kind of attention. Do you think knock
Speaker 1: on Wood? Hopefully different outcome, but is he similar to
Speaker 1: a Demere Birden out of South Carolina? Could be. I
Speaker 1: I don't know that he's a straight line speed guy
Speaker 1: the quite the way Demir is. But uh again, he's
Speaker 1: it's not like he's a little little guy. He's got
Speaker 1: a little meat on him. He's he can withstand playing
Speaker 1: across the middle. You'd think based on what he did
Speaker 1: at South Carolina, But I just think all the different
Speaker 1: things he's able to do, they're going to eventually figure out, Okay,
Speaker 1: well let's try this, and but they've got a lot
Speaker 1: of dudes to work through. And again, that traffic is
Speaker 1: gonna make it hard for him to you know, I
Speaker 1: don't people think I'm saying he's going to the Pro
Speaker 1: Bowl or anything like that, but you heard it here first. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, this offense will have to run through Christian
Speaker 1: McCaffrey and then d J. Moore and then b Anderson
Speaker 1: and then all these tight ends who were new too
Speaker 1: before you ever get down to oh and there's a
Speaker 1: play for Shy Smith. But you know, I think he's
Speaker 1: a guy. During the preseason, people are gonna be like,
Speaker 1: when we know Joe Brady likes to tinker and get creative,
Speaker 1: so I I definitely agree that's something we could see.
Speaker 1: Will was shy going to be your answer. I got
Speaker 1: really lucky. I thought Darren was gonna go with this guy,
Speaker 1: defensive tackle, dave On Nixon from Iowa. Um. Really I
Speaker 1: didn't get to see the amount of practice you guys did,
Speaker 1: but just from his media availability, I mean just so
Speaker 1: much energy. Really just an incredible personality and and everyone's
Speaker 1: time with the offensive line. They came into this saying
Speaker 1: they need to get better on both sides of the line,
Speaker 1: and so from the perspective of that interior defensive tackle
Speaker 1: kind of area, like you kind of were looking like,
Speaker 1: all right, what are they doing here? Um? And I
Speaker 1: think he's going to be someone that I know he
Speaker 1: was a later round pick, but I think he's going
Speaker 1: to have an impact early on as well. And he's
Speaker 1: just he's got a lot of energy. He's a big
Speaker 1: guy as well. He looks strong. He had some good
Speaker 1: things at Iowa. Um, you know, like some big ten
Speaker 1: awards defensive defensive defensive line in the year. I think, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, he's he's won some some accolades
Speaker 1: that you're like, oh, where was this guy in the
Speaker 1: second and third round value value value. So I I mean,
Speaker 1: I I think you know a little bit about H two.
Speaker 1: You spoke to him as well. Yeah, and and there
Speaker 1: will be a probably a rookie diary coming up, maybe
Speaker 1: with Davian Nixon on Panthers dot Com coming up, uh
Speaker 1: at some point down the road. But he he is
Speaker 1: an interesting guy, and you're right, he does have an
Speaker 1: energy about him. But he's also another one of those
Speaker 1: It's like when they went through the draft, it was
Speaker 1: like everybody needed to be some degree of physical freak,
Speaker 1: you know, somebody who could jump out of the barn
Speaker 1: like Brady Christians. And this guy's got thirty five and
Speaker 1: a half inch arms, I mean, and that sounds like,
Speaker 1: you know, you're just talking about a guy with long arms.
Speaker 1: Where that shows up is on the field goal block team.
Speaker 1: It's three ft yeah, big wingspan up there in the
Speaker 1: middle of the line. It will help. And we've seen,
Speaker 1: uh here in this building how it can matter to
Speaker 1: get a hand on an extra point or something like that.
Speaker 1: So um, yeah, I mean, he's definitely a big physical guy.
Speaker 1: So we'll see how he kind of falls into that
Speaker 1: rotation for my name to know. I mean, he's a
Speaker 1: bigger name than the guys you mentioned was drafted higher,
Speaker 1: but Tommy Tremble, I am, I'm excited to see how
Speaker 1: he develops. He was not known as a pass catcher
Speaker 1: at Notre Dame, but seeing him in practice a little bit,
Speaker 1: he does have those skills and I think, you know,
Speaker 1: he's a he's a little bit of an unknown and
Speaker 1: X factor. He's versatile as well. Um, So I'm excited
Speaker 1: to see what he does. And I thought he had
Speaker 1: some some hands on him at at Rocky Minicamp, which
Speaker 1: I was happy to see. So I think him and
Speaker 1: Dan Arnold, who um, you know, I'm just excited to
Speaker 1: see the two of them because it felt like that's
Speaker 1: what the Panthers were missing last year. One of the
Speaker 1: things that the Panthers were missing last year were, um,
Speaker 1: were those pass catching tight ends, especially in the red zone.
Speaker 1: So I'm looking forward to seeing some combination of of
Speaker 1: of those guys of course, and Thomas as well. Like
Speaker 1: you know, just I'm I'm I'm excited to like a nice,
Speaker 1: good pass catching tight end and I'm I'm looking forward
Speaker 1: to see, um, if Tommy Trumbull can be that guy
Speaker 1: and how he develops or how they're gonna, you know,
Speaker 1: how they're going to use them. Plus, he's got such
Speaker 1: a cool name. Great, I mean, it's great football name.
Speaker 1: I feel I feel like you should say it in
Speaker 1: the Monster Truck Rally ad voice Tommy gonna be at
Speaker 1: the stadium Sundays Sunday, you know. I mean that's you know,
Speaker 1: he's got a it's like a wrestler name or something.
Speaker 1: It's great and I think people are going to be
Speaker 1: into him. I think you're right, Kristen, And you can
Speaker 1: just see those little flashes where it's like, oh, that's
Speaker 1: a thing. And again, you can't read too much into
Speaker 1: routes against air or seven on seven drills. They only
Speaker 1: had thirty four guys all weekend, so they can't be
Speaker 1: out there doing team stuff. But there were a couple
Speaker 1: of moments where it's like, oh, that's neat. I'll make up.
Speaker 1: I'll make a bold prediction here. I think Tommy Tremble
Speaker 1: scores multiple touchdowns on special teams next year. I think
Speaker 1: he's a guy that is going to just go down
Speaker 1: the field and wreck some things. Like he has a
Speaker 1: physicality to him when he steps in the field that
Speaker 1: if he's on punk coverage, if he's on kickoff coverage,
Speaker 1: if he's on some sort of you know play where
Speaker 1: there's a ball to be had, he's gonna go get it,
Speaker 1: or he's gonna he's gonna force a fumble. He's gonna
Speaker 1: do something that's gonna, like really make special teams special.
Speaker 1: Not that he's not going to be a big part
Speaker 1: of the offense, not that he's not gonna be in
Speaker 1: the backfield, blocking, catching, doing all these things, you know,
Speaker 1: creating mismatches for Dan Arnold to get open, all that
Speaker 1: other stuff. But I think he's going to be someone
Speaker 1: that's gonna say, oh, I'm on special teams. Okay, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna I'm gonna embrace this and then go get the ball.
Speaker 1: You know, he's that guy. I love that you said
Speaker 1: make special teams special. It was a nice, like coach
Speaker 1: like coach speak phrase. I've been around Chase Blackburton. Yeah,
Speaker 1: all right, we're going to take a quick break and
Speaker 1: we come back. We got will Sta out of the
Speaker 1: week and Darren is telling us to get off his lawn.
Speaker 1: Mr Jenkins told me. Mr Jenkis told me. Mr Jenkis
Speaker 1: told me to always make it easy for the customer.
Speaker 1: That's you alive person will always be here to answer
Speaker 1: the phone. We're here till midnight, seven days a week,
Speaker 1: so you never have to take off work and it's
Speaker 1: the same price as in the daytime. We're the ones
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Speaker 1: All right back here on the Happy half Hour podcast,
Speaker 1: Will it's time for the stat of the week. The
Speaker 1: time of the week. So J C. Horn number eight.
Speaker 1: Obviously we've had the kind of all the stories about
Speaker 1: him honoring Kobe, the reason he picked it. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: go for more of the Okay, So what does that
Speaker 1: mean in Panthers history. Obviously the first non special teamer,
Speaker 1: non quarterback to be number eight because of the rule changes.
Speaker 1: So he's kind of like the first one to really
Speaker 1: be able to publicly embrace these rule changes for us,
Speaker 1: which I think is really cool. Um, some of my
Speaker 1: favorite number eights because I was actually number eight in
Speaker 1: high school. Got you you got Kobe J. Horn? You
Speaker 1: know the eighth overall pick. You know. I I graduated
Speaker 1: college in two thousand eight. I I embraced the eight,
Speaker 1: and so my favorite number eight. My favorite number eight
Speaker 1: Darren is from my intern year in two thousand and eight.
Speaker 1: One of the best. Only kick off He was a
Speaker 1: kickoff specialist. He didn't actually kick field goals. He just
Speaker 1: kicked the ball into the end zone every time he
Speaker 1: came to kick off. The one and only. Reese Lloyd
Speaker 1: Lloyd one of one of my favorite. There's this Twitter
Speaker 1: account now called like Random College Athletes that just tweets
Speaker 1: pictures of just random. He would be my favorite random
Speaker 1: Carolina Panther is Reese Lloyd Lloyd lots live up to J. C. Horn.
Speaker 1: Such a good dude. Wasn't David Carr number eight? Also? Yep?
Speaker 1: I wasn't going to mention him. Why, I mean, you
Speaker 1: can mention him. David Carr was a great guy. If
Speaker 1: you want the full list, it's Reese Lloyd, Brad Nortman,
Speaker 1: Jeff Lewis, Andy Lee, David Carr, and Brad Kaya. Briefly,
Speaker 1: what do you remember most about the Brad Kaya? I
Speaker 1: just remember photo shopping his head out of the Detroit
Speaker 1: Lions uniform. That's all I remember. It wasn't much of
Speaker 1: an era, was all right? Darren, uh you. I love
Speaker 1: that you've embraced this like get off my lawn mentality.
Speaker 1: I'm like the old guy, you know what. Here's the thing, though,
Speaker 1: can I say this, I think Darren has cultivated that,
Speaker 1: you know, like you said you love the old man football, like,
Speaker 1: oh I'm gonna beat kermade. I find Daring to be
Speaker 1: the loveliest person. I just and Will's nodding. We worked
Speaker 1: with I mean, we work with you every day, and
Speaker 1: I know that that's probably you know, taking your street
Speaker 1: cred down a notch. But I just, I mean, I
Speaker 1: know that your articles have that reputation for for no
Speaker 1: holds barred and holding everyone accountable and saying what you mean.
Speaker 1: But I gotta say in person, lovely guy, just a great,
Speaker 1: a good friend. You ask you know, so that you
Speaker 1: care about your co workers. This is why it's cool
Speaker 1: to work here. Look at all this young energy in
Speaker 1: this room and all these people who care about each other.
Speaker 1: It's cool. It's cool, but you know, and it's funny
Speaker 1: though when you when you mentioned something about this. I
Speaker 1: was watching the Hurricanes last night. Yeah, Stanley Cup playoffs
Speaker 1: starting and our beloved Hurricanes right up the road. Um.
Speaker 1: I don't know anything about hockey, but I enjoy watching
Speaker 1: it this time of year because it's a thing that's
Speaker 1: moving fast, and you know with bill Hornets. The Hornets
Speaker 1: are gonna play tonight in the playing game. And and
Speaker 1: one of the things that kind of bugs me is
Speaker 1: there are people who are like, oh, gods, playing game,
Speaker 1: does this really count? Wouldn't they be better off in
Speaker 1: the lottery. I hate that guy. I hate that person
Speaker 1: most of all because as a basically a lifelong Charlotte tean,
Speaker 1: uh growing up in the area. You know, when I
Speaker 1: was growing up in suburban Hickory, my brother was part
Speaker 1: of a group that had season tickets and I remember
Speaker 1: going out to Taivola and feeling the energy when things
Speaker 1: were new and the team was terrible and you win anyway,
Speaker 1: and there were twenty three thousand people in that old barn,
Speaker 1: and it's just so cool to have some kind of
Speaker 1: energy about the local professional basketball team. Now that you know,
Speaker 1: I can't imagine the people who would be bummed out that, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: well they're the nine seed or tinseed or whatever, they'd
Speaker 1: be better off in the lottery. I hate those people.
Speaker 1: I am just looking forward to seeing the game, uh, too,
Speaker 1: hopefully brighter days ahead for the basketball team here in town,
Speaker 1: because there is a certain energy about those guys too
Speaker 1: that when you're able to see them, you can you
Speaker 1: can pick it up. I mean, there's something being built
Speaker 1: over there. And as a guy who lives in Charlotte,
Speaker 1: that's pretty cool. We haven't enjoyed that in a long
Speaker 1: long time. So horn't it's negativity? Guy, get off my long.
Speaker 1: I love it. So would it be fair to say
Speaker 1: then that you would also not be in favor of
Speaker 1: let's say, just a fan hypothetically that would say, hey,
Speaker 1: you shouldn't lose a game late in the season to
Speaker 1: give you a better draft, because Washington was going to
Speaker 1: make it more hypothetical. But yes, I just think, you know,
Speaker 1: the winning is always important, and no, you don't want
Speaker 1: to be the place where you expect to lose, because
Speaker 1: that's how you end up picking in the top three
Speaker 1: routinely and taking quarterbacks who you recycle and doing things
Speaker 1: like that. I mean, bad for Betises getting those ruts,
Speaker 1: but I you know, I think you try to do
Speaker 1: everything you can every day to win that day. You
Speaker 1: try to, you know, make as many positive steps as
Speaker 1: you can. You you want to teach, and Matt Rule
Speaker 1: talks about you want to teach guys how to win.
Speaker 1: And even though it was something that might have cost
Speaker 1: you five picks of draft status or something like that,
Speaker 1: I mean, there's still lessons that can be gained. Not
Speaker 1: everybody on the roster, you know who was around for
Speaker 1: that games on this one now and and people are
Speaker 1: going to continue to change. But the wanting to win
Speaker 1: is a lot more important than temporary. You know, everybody's
Speaker 1: always looking to the future. And I'm telling you that's
Speaker 1: why I enjoy watching the playoff hockey and I look
Speaker 1: forward to watching the playoff basketball because it's the moment.
Speaker 1: This is why you do the thing, so you can
Speaker 1: get to this point. So let's see what happens and
Speaker 1: let's just embrace the moment. I love that well said
Speaker 1: this is why you do the thing? Is it is
Speaker 1: exactly the right answer to that. It's exactly the right explanation.
Speaker 1: This is why we do the thing. That's why the
Speaker 1: players do the thing, why the fans like watching the thing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean Mike, Mike Davis. Yeah, he wasn't going to
Speaker 1: go out there and be like, oh, maybe I shouldn't
Speaker 1: score this touchdown so that the team can get a
Speaker 1: top three. Can you play to win the game? I
Speaker 1: don't know where up here? All right, this is the
Speaker 1: Happy Half Hour Podcast presented by Morris Jenkins, and Mr
Speaker 1: Jenkins told me that the Panthers make him proud and
Speaker 1: he has honored to support the team. When you're plumbing
Speaker 1: your air conditioning is acting up, called Morris Jenkins or
Speaker 1: visit Morris Jenkins dot com. All Right, we usually end
Speaker 1: on a weird question of the week. This one's not
Speaker 1: so much weird as just fun and will hats off
Speaker 1: to you for for bringing this up. So as we
Speaker 1: talked about at the beginning, as we were, you know,
Speaker 1: congratulating ourselves on a job well done with the Schedule
Speaker 1: Release video. It came out last week and if if
Speaker 1: anyone listening to this hasn't seen it, I hope that
Speaker 1: you get a chance to watch it because we're really
Speaker 1: proud of it. UM. And we should say our producer
Speaker 1: cars and Smucker, who's like the genius behind Schedule Release,
Speaker 1: led the way on this one and several of the
Speaker 1: past ones that everyone has loved. Daniel Goldfarb did the graphics.
Speaker 1: UM a lot of just incredibly incredibly talented people, and
Speaker 1: Will and I were lucky enough to be involved with it,
Speaker 1: and Darren's voice was in it. But we had many,
Speaker 1: many ideas. Each week was a different idea. UM, so
Speaker 1: seventeen different ideas kind of in this um dream sequence.
Speaker 1: But with Carson, you know, when we started talking about this,
Speaker 1: he was like, let's just come up with a ton
Speaker 1: of different ideas. Nothing is too crazy. And so Will
Speaker 1: you had a great question, which is like, what are
Speaker 1: some of the ones that didn't make it for whatever
Speaker 1: reason that we wish had made it? And since you
Speaker 1: came up with with the idea, I gotta ask you first,
Speaker 1: like which one is on your mind right now? I
Speaker 1: mean obviously someone jumping out of a plane, Yeah, that's it.
Speaker 1: And then for you know, for liability reasons because also
Speaker 1: obviously there's some reasons why that didn't happen. But yeah,
Speaker 1: that would have been really cool were you but you
Speaker 1: weren't kind of chomping at I wasn't going to, but
Speaker 1: I have since I've been thinking, like I randomly because
Speaker 1: your phones listened to you when you're thinking and talking,
Speaker 1: Like I saw all these friends that posted go pro
Speaker 1: videos of them jumping out of a plane in Arizona
Speaker 1: over the weekend, and I'm like, they didn't invite you. No,
Speaker 1: I hadn't seen him in years. But I also hadn't
Speaker 1: seen anything on their Facebook in years, So that's why
Speaker 1: I thought it was odd that like, oh, now you're
Speaker 1: like seeing this person's content and it's all of them
Speaker 1: jumping out of a plane, and it looked pretty cool.
Speaker 1: You're gonna jump out of a plane? You ever? Would
Speaker 1: you ever jump out of a plane? Down? Yeah, I'm not. No,
Speaker 1: I'm if I've got a perfectly good airplane, I'm staying
Speaker 1: in that true does not do much for me, you know,
Speaker 1: I didn't. I went back and looked at the list
Speaker 1: of ideas. I mean, we had some some pretty crazy ones.
Speaker 1: I don't have one that I wish made it in
Speaker 1: because my craziest idea that I thought would never happen
Speaker 1: made it, and that was the Surper jumping through a
Speaker 1: table sprayings to I mean, that was my first idea.
Speaker 1: I was like, I got this one in the chamber,
Speaker 1: like here we got like this is what I want
Speaker 1: to do, and it happened, and you know, you're good friends.
Speaker 1: Surper was just incredible, did all the things in the video,
Speaker 1: which is you know, they jumped through a table. I
Speaker 1: wanted to see more of the ranch like we saw
Speaker 1: it in some of the You know that that's a
Speaker 1: sensitive subject for me. Yeah, I know. I had a
Speaker 1: I was covered in ranch, trying to help out do
Speaker 1: some utility, to make sure the cameras didn't get messed up.
Speaker 1: Just ranch and whole milk. And it was a hot day,
Speaker 1: hot day. Um. Lost a pair of shoes to it, Um,
Speaker 1: but so worth it. That's why I wanted to And
Speaker 1: that's what Kristin Balboni does here. She takes one for
Speaker 1: the team. I mean, she's she's the ultimate team player.
Speaker 1: She's willing to just allow herself to be covered. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because that's the thing. It's like I wouldn't just and
Speaker 1: like I wasn't in it at all. I was just
Speaker 1: trying to protect the camera protector, camera guy. And you know,
Speaker 1: look the sacrifices that we make, Darren, were there any
Speaker 1: in there that you were hoping would make I was
Speaker 1: trying to There's so many bright and talented people in
Speaker 1: that process that I was you know, I felt like
Speaker 1: I've got nothing to contribute. These people are so brilliant.
Speaker 1: The one thing I did offer. I said, well, what
Speaker 1: about for the Bucks game? We could do pirate jokes?
Speaker 1: And it was like, what do you mean? And I said, well,
Speaker 1: could you imagine if that was a primetime game, you know,
Speaker 1: Panthers versus Tom Brady. You know, they had to play
Speaker 1: this one in prime time because it's rated. All Now,
Speaker 1: did you look that up? Like, did you google pirate
Speaker 1: jokes or did you just have that one? That one
Speaker 1: was kind of in the That's good. It's a weird
Speaker 1: place up here. There's some stuff rattling around inside this
Speaker 1: head that nobody needs to know about. But yeah, I
Speaker 1: love pirate jokes. I think there's no better way to
Speaker 1: end it, right. All right, that's gonna do it for
Speaker 1: this edition of The Happy Half Hour Podcast. Thank you
Speaker 1: so much to both of you. Darren, thank you for
Speaker 1: sticking with us for the last thirty minutes. Also, Matt
Speaker 1: will and everyone who's listening. We'll see you next time.