Speaker 1: It's time for the Happy Half Hour with your friends
Speaker 1: Christin Balboni, Will Brian and Darren Gant. Welcome to a
Speaker 1: special Christmas edition of The Happy Half Hour. We're back
Speaker 1: with your friends Darren Gant, mcmixon and I'm Will Brian
Speaker 1: once again sitting in the host chair for Kristen Balboni,
Speaker 1: who we've seen updates on little Jack this week. Jack
Speaker 1: is the most beautiful baby I think that has ever existed.
Speaker 1: When you agree, he's gonna be right up there. I
Speaker 1: you know, I told kristin the other day. My wife's
Speaker 1: a pediatrician, and and she says, as an industry, you know,
Speaker 1: everybody says, oh, what a beautiful baby. Well, they ain't
Speaker 1: all beautiful babies necessarily, but my wife walked by and
Speaker 1: saw the pictures and she said, empirically speaking, that's a
Speaker 1: good looking baby. This boy child favors his mother, which
Speaker 1: is why we're able to speak about him in such
Speaker 1: glowing terms right now with his physical appearance. I was
Speaker 1: I was wondering aloud the other day if when he
Speaker 1: grew up, anyone would make any sort of jokes about
Speaker 1: space on the on the door, in the water. But
Speaker 1: I guess that generation just doesn't know anything about Titanic,
Speaker 1: do they now, Jack? Oh that what a depressing film. Jeez.
Speaker 1: I saw that movie on that afternoon when the time changed,
Speaker 1: when the days got shorter. So I can't come out
Speaker 1: of the theater and people have just drowned, and it's
Speaker 1: dark and it's raining. Oh my gosh, terrible. So speaking
Speaker 1: of and so the living we're in being the day
Speaker 1: at that point has a great man exactly, speaking of
Speaker 1: uplifting things. How about Buffalo. Hey, I've got a crush
Speaker 1: on Buffalo a little bit. Not their team, but there's
Speaker 1: something about this city. And I guess maybe Cleveland could
Speaker 1: say the same thing some some other. I grew up
Speaker 1: in an Atlantic Coast Conference dominated state, so a SEC
Speaker 1: basketball was great. Loved it on fire Ford as a kid.
Speaker 1: But in Buffalo football is important to them. So we
Speaker 1: get in a little late. We have I want bore
Speaker 1: you with all the details, but Jim's okie and I
Speaker 1: we have to drive a rental car from Pittsburgh to Buffalo.
Speaker 1: So we go through Erie, we go through Meadsville, we
Speaker 1: go through Upton, Thorndyke, all these other towns that I
Speaker 1: make in maybe possibly, and we get to Buffalo. About
Speaker 1: seven o'clock. We end up going to a little sports
Speaker 1: bar across the street. The Patriots game is on versus
Speaker 1: the Colts, and every time Indianapolis got a first down,
Speaker 1: the whole bar erupted. So so the Buffalo fans hate
Speaker 1: New England and root for misery to befall them. Best
Speaker 1: chicken caesar salad I've ever had. It looked like a
Speaker 1: basketball sized mound of meticulously prepared and the presentation was beautiful,
Speaker 1: ice cold, domestic light beer. Jake's in rare form. People
Speaker 1: recognize him, cheers kind of thing. What do you think
Speaker 1: I mean, I wouldn't want to live there, but I
Speaker 1: just love how football means so much to him. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I tell you what, it is a town with
Speaker 1: a certain industrial charm about it. And they're, you know,
Speaker 1: bringing back the waterfront district, downtown and really doing a
Speaker 1: lot to make that city look a lot more like
Speaker 1: a city. But there's some cool old architecture. We were
Speaker 1: fortunate to have a tour guide are one of our
Speaker 1: guys in the video department, Cayle Tutor the Tutor or
Speaker 1: Kyle tut The Tutor spent three years up in Buffalo,
Speaker 1: so he knows, knows his way around, took some local
Speaker 1: spots um and I got a little defensive at the Southerners.
Speaker 1: I eat me constantly complaining about how cold it was.
Speaker 1: And I told him, I said, I really enjoy your
Speaker 1: fair city. I there's I appreciate you taking me around
Speaker 1: and showing me all the sites, and you know, introducing
Speaker 1: me to some stuff I wouldn't not have known otherwise.
Speaker 1: And when I come back to Buffalo with you someday,
Speaker 1: there's only one more thing I really feel like I
Speaker 1: haven't seen yet. And he said, what's that? And that's
Speaker 1: said the sun the Pierce the Pierced Arrow Museum is there,
Speaker 1: unbelievable because Buffalo is at the head of the Niagara River.
Speaker 1: They harnessed electricity. They were little ahead of their time
Speaker 1: with h in the hydro electric thing, so things were
Speaker 1: invented in Buffalo. Electric blankets and some cool things came
Speaker 1: out of there. Earl. It's also the home of Rick James,
Speaker 1: the hometown of Rick James. Did not know that. Neither
Speaker 1: did I, who dated Linda Blair for a while. By
Speaker 1: the way, there are many things I've learned already in
Speaker 1: this podcast. There's nothing I can add to this at
Speaker 1: all outside of I lived in New York for two years,
Speaker 1: not in Buffalo, and it just feels like things don't
Speaker 1: need to be that hard on a day to day
Speaker 1: basis for six seven months a year, you know, like
Speaker 1: having lived in North and South Carolina, when you can
Speaker 1: wake up and you can get in your car and
Speaker 1: you can just drive and park and then that's all
Speaker 1: you have to do to get to work, other than
Speaker 1: scraping and shoveling in deep fusting and worrying that things
Speaker 1: are dead or not dead. Like it just doesn't need
Speaker 1: to be that hard on a Tuesday, No, it really doesn't.
Speaker 1: I remember my my first wife was from Albany, New York,
Speaker 1: and the first time I went up there met her parents,
Speaker 1: there was about a foot of snow in the ground.
Speaker 1: And being the chivalrous young suitor I was, I said,
Speaker 1: I'll shovel the driveway off. It seemed like a charming
Speaker 1: thing to do. I had never done it before. I
Speaker 1: was no stranger manual labor growing up on a farm.
Speaker 1: So I said, I'll go out here, I'll shove the
Speaker 1: drive way. Don't worry about it. I got this Mr Elliott,
Speaker 1: and he uh, he sat there and laughed, and he said,
Speaker 1: all right, and have fun. I went out there about
Speaker 1: an hour later, and it was about halfway through that driveway,
Speaker 1: and I said, I'm never living up your day in
Speaker 1: my life. I don't need this in my life. So,
Speaker 1: speaking of interesting things that happened in Buffalo, you guys
Speaker 1: were had a firsthand account of the pregame kicker fiasco.
Speaker 1: He'll talk us through that. What do you see what happened? Well,
Speaker 1: I mean I had just finished talking or was the
Speaker 1: late stages of talking to Jim's Oki on the pregame
Speaker 1: show on the Panthers Radio network, and there was a
Speaker 1: bunch of hubbub down on the field and people moving
Speaker 1: in areas they don't normally move, And you get off
Speaker 1: the phone with Zok and you start to figure out
Speaker 1: what's going on talking to our people down on the field,
Speaker 1: and poor Zing Gonzalas hurts himself during pregame warm ups.
Speaker 1: And here's a funny thing about NFL rosters. There's only
Speaker 1: fifty three players on them. They don't keep two kickers.
Speaker 1: And in the peculiar instance, the Carolina Panthers are in
Speaker 1: their punter, who's their third punter of the year by
Speaker 1: the way is an Australian gentleman named Lachland Edwards, and
Speaker 1: Australian punters are great at many things. They can put
Speaker 1: a funny spin on the ball that will make it
Speaker 1: backspin on, you know, hard to catch, harder to see
Speaker 1: coming down, but they've never kicked from a placement in
Speaker 1: their life. In five years of NFL career, Lachland Edwards
Speaker 1: has only kicked off five times, and not with any
Speaker 1: particular distinction, and he's never kicked a field goal or
Speaker 1: extra point and all this time, so they are literally
Speaker 1: standing around like what do we do now? And Rule
Speaker 1: tells us that Scott Fitterer runs into the locker room
Speaker 1: and says, hey, guess what Coach Zane just heard himself.
Speaker 1: And then they start looking for volunteers, and as the
Speaker 1: story is told, Chase Blackburn's running around asking guys you
Speaker 1: ever kicked before, And there were a handful of volunteers
Speaker 1: at that point. Now, Brandon Zilstra, who ended up kicking,
Speaker 1: had served as an emergency kicker much in the same
Speaker 1: way in high school. But Brandon Zilstra is just kind
Speaker 1: of guy who volunteer for anything, and he's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'll give a shot. But you had Frankie Luvu out
Speaker 1: there trying kickoffs in pregame, You had Reggie Bonafine trying
Speaker 1: kickoffs in pregame. P J Walker goes down and attempts
Speaker 1: what would have in an old school extra point, really
Speaker 1: short kick, and all I could think of after p
Speaker 1: J kick that kick was bless his heart, Bear get
Speaker 1: him back over there and make sure he didn't get
Speaker 1: hurt in case they need him at quarterback today. So it, uh,
Speaker 1: everything got scrambled all at once, and there were a
Speaker 1: bunch of people looking around like, oh God, what do
Speaker 1: we do now? Darren called it a hub of It
Speaker 1: was more than that. It was a brujajas a rigamarole.
Speaker 1: It was mucky muck. I mean, it was a bunch
Speaker 1: of mess down there. Yeah. Zoki described it on the
Speaker 1: air the pregame show as it looked like a punt
Speaker 1: passing kick competition was going on down there for those
Speaker 1: of you old enough to remember the old PP and
Speaker 1: K days. But I mean Zilstra steps into the breach
Speaker 1: and really did a good job with it as as
Speaker 1: well as could be expected. Considers himself, as he said
Speaker 1: many times, an athlete, not just a receiver or special
Speaker 1: teams demon and for a hot minute, this is the
Speaker 1: psychosis of Carolina at their season. I looked at Jake
Speaker 1: and and Jim and said, guys, guys, this could work.
Speaker 1: We're gonna go for it on all four downs. We're
Speaker 1: gonna make some, We're gonna go for two. We're gonna
Speaker 1: not gonna kick any field goals because we can't, but
Speaker 1: it's gonna result in more points. And we're gonna squib
Speaker 1: the kickoff down there, and Buffalo is gonna mess it
Speaker 1: up and we're gonna recover it. Survey says not quite.
Speaker 1: No One one for five on fourth down. UM. I
Speaker 1: looked it up. So a couple of stats. Since I've
Speaker 1: sat in this year, I haven't been doing the will
Speaker 1: stat of the week for the last couple of weeks.
Speaker 1: But I'm just gonna go ahead and do it right now.
Speaker 1: Go on with your bad selicks of the week. It
Speaker 1: was the first time that an NFL wide receiver ever
Speaker 1: kicked off three times in the game in NFL history.
Speaker 1: Brandon zill story. He averaged forty eight point seven yards
Speaker 1: per kickoff, which wasn't bad. Their average drive start on
Speaker 1: the first two was like the twenty six and a half. Yeah,
Speaker 1: now Buffalo, Buffalo gotta return. They figured out the third
Speaker 1: one and made it pay a little bit, got on
Speaker 1: the other side of the forty, which is good. But
Speaker 1: you know, really, I mean, his average draft start after
Speaker 1: two kickoffs was like a yard and a half past
Speaker 1: a touchback. You can work with that, that'll be okay.
Speaker 1: And and this other one that I I looked up recently,
Speaker 1: and this one was surprising to me because you would
Speaker 1: have think, out of all the course of the history
Speaker 1: of Panthers football, Yeah, this was just the sixth time
Speaker 1: in franchise history they hadn't attempted an extra point or
Speaker 1: field goal. The last time it happened was two thousand four.
Speaker 1: That's a long time that they haven't ever attempted a
Speaker 1: field goal or an extra point in the game. The
Speaker 1: other thing is that is a long time well, and
Speaker 1: that's a great stat What is the name they call
Speaker 1: the score the people that look at score up score, Ye,
Speaker 1: that have never been How could a halftime score never
Speaker 1: been seventeen to eight before? You know, that's incredible. It
Speaker 1: was strange and unusual. And we're into the hard analytical mind.
Speaker 1: Who really cares about these types of things Twitter, because
Speaker 1: because up the Happy Half. I mean, it's incredible, Like
Speaker 1: I put that out there and that was one of
Speaker 1: my most engaged tweets all day. Everyone loves to score
Speaker 1: a GMMI tweet. I guess it's a thing. The strange
Speaker 1: and unusual can always find purchase on the internet. It's
Speaker 1: a thing. I love that that that expression has risen
Speaker 1: to promise. It's a thing. This is a kind of thing. Guys.
Speaker 1: We got a situation on our hands here, so looking
Speaker 1: forward now, quite briefly, we have Tom Brady Tampa Bay
Speaker 1: coming in. It's the last home game of the season.
Speaker 1: What are you guys looking to see? Um? I am
Speaker 1: looking to see if Tom Brady is gonna be throwing
Speaker 1: it to Jocquez Green. Uh. They are having a hard
Speaker 1: time finding people to catch footballs for him right now
Speaker 1: or for him to hand it to Leonard for Nette's hurt.
Speaker 1: Probably going on ir Chris Godwin eight towards a c L.
Speaker 1: They're not in a spot that you would think a
Speaker 1: playoff contender would ordinarily be in, and then they're kind
Speaker 1: of disgracing themselves frankly by bringing Antonio Brown back into
Speaker 1: the building after he false suspended three games for falsifying
Speaker 1: a vaccine card. But you know, it's football and everybody
Speaker 1: wants to win and business is good, so he's back
Speaker 1: and Bruce Arians basically doesn't care because the job is
Speaker 1: to win and they're gonna let him back in. So um,
Speaker 1: we'll see how that goes with a b after three
Speaker 1: weeks off. But it's still Tom Brady. And as unusual
Speaker 1: as it was seeing him get shut out the other night,
Speaker 1: you just immediately think, oh God, what's coming next? Because
Speaker 1: he is not a man who cares for being embarrassed.
Speaker 1: Doing the depth chart for Tampa Bay on started on Monday,
Speaker 1: and will and and Darren just putting the numbers in.
Speaker 1: You don't see numbers like this very often. And I'm
Speaker 1: not talking about his stats, but he's forty four years
Speaker 1: old in his twenty second year. He just don't write
Speaker 1: those numbers of forty four and twenty two next to
Speaker 1: a quarterback very often, if at all. And the other
Speaker 1: thing I think is interesting, and I asked coach rule
Speaker 1: we asked him about on Panther Talk this week, is
Speaker 1: that Chris Collinsworth is just all what's the correct word
Speaker 1: A titter? Is that the right word a Twitter Twitter.
Speaker 1: I hate cliche, so I don't want to say he
Speaker 1: was beside himself. He was very, very over the top
Speaker 1: on how the Saints have the formula. Look at what
Speaker 1: they're doing. They're dropping backers and say and moving safeties up,
Speaker 1: but mainly dropping backers into the underneath shallow middle and
Speaker 1: taking away all the in brakes, all the slants, all
Speaker 1: those checkdowns that Brady has victimized people with over time.
Speaker 1: Now that works, I guess it did work. That works
Speaker 1: if you've got corners that can stay in phase with
Speaker 1: their receivers. They're dinged up at receiver. But so I
Speaker 1: asked coach rule on Panther Talk, Coach, when you watch
Speaker 1: a game, do you watch the TV copy or do
Speaker 1: you assign someone to do it? And if so, with
Speaker 1: the sound up or down? What would your guess bs
Speaker 1: to his response, I imagine he's got somebody listening to
Speaker 1: the game. Yeah, I think he's listening to it. Correct.
Speaker 1: He he likes to do it with the sound turned up,
Speaker 1: and then he has someone do it because and it
Speaker 1: makes sense but in the intelligence counterintelligence, so he knows
Speaker 1: as all coaches do that. Say Buck and Eateman come
Speaker 1: into town. They get an audience with coaches. Coaches like
Speaker 1: to talk. They like to say, Troy Tony, here's what
Speaker 1: we're here's what we think, here's what we're gonna do.
Speaker 1: Here's so some intel can be gained. And so I'm
Speaker 1: sure that Matt Rule is aware of what collins Worth said.
Speaker 1: Whether it can work, we shall see. Yeah. I mean,
Speaker 1: and you talked about the corners. I mean that the
Speaker 1: personnel has to be there. You've got to be able
Speaker 1: to to do what you need to do on the front.
Speaker 1: I mean in Tampa Bay right now, is not able
Speaker 1: to really run the ball like there, I looked that up.
Speaker 1: They're averaging less than a hundred yards rushing a game,
Speaker 1: and four nets now hurt. So for for them, you know,
Speaker 1: being able to drop those linebackers if the front can
Speaker 1: do their responsibility and the corners can stay in man coverage.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, But the Bucks are almost like a fantasy
Speaker 1: camp situation. I mean, when one old guy goes down,
Speaker 1: they bringing another one of main lay who you know,
Speaker 1: a couple of years ago was the most dangerous two
Speaker 1: way back in the NFL A couple of years ago, okay,
Speaker 1: five years ago, and he's still hanging around he was
Speaker 1: on a practice squad earlier this year, and now all
Speaker 1: of a sudden he's back. And you know, because we've
Speaker 1: seen Tom Brady do this so many times, you sort
Speaker 1: of fully expect him to have a hundred yard game
Speaker 1: at some point along the way with Tom Brady throwing
Speaker 1: it to him and and carrying the ball, you know,
Speaker 1: twelve times for fifty yards or something like that, but
Speaker 1: you just kind of expected it. Is why don't running
Speaker 1: backs last life? They do used to, with the exception
Speaker 1: of Adrian Peterson who was the back a few years ago.
Speaker 1: Was Chris Henry the Titans back, So you had to
Speaker 1: thank for a minute, right, two thousand yards season Chris Johnson,
Speaker 1: John Chris Johnson, Yeah, well, no one do. You had
Speaker 1: to think I had Chris Johnson, that's right, Derrick and
Speaker 1: then um, you know, Shady McCoy. Levy on Bell looked
Speaker 1: for a while like and let us Murray um Bell
Speaker 1: looked for a while like he you just could not
Speaker 1: tackle him. I mean, the decision making it the point
Speaker 1: of attack incredible, incredibly slippery. But it's it's not for long,
Speaker 1: like the NFL stands for. So we're gonna transition real quick.
Speaker 1: We had some big news last week. Mick, I don't
Speaker 1: know if you heard about it. The Panthers are going
Speaker 1: to Germany. We're gonna take all this, We're gonna pick
Speaker 1: it up. We're gonna go to Germany. There are probably
Speaker 1: some fans of our team that would be in favor
Speaker 1: of that. That's what they've seen this year, so real. Briefly,
Speaker 1: the league announced last week that they're essentially assigning NFL
Speaker 1: teams to different marketing areas around the world Mexico, Germany, Spain, France, England,
Speaker 1: and the Panthers are one of four teams that are
Speaker 1: going to be able to market to ends in Germany
Speaker 1: allowed to uh sell merchandise, uh target things online. So essentially,
Speaker 1: in the United States we can't put digital ads or
Speaker 1: target things to fans in other states. We can't go
Speaker 1: to Georgia and say, hey, by this Panther ticket or
Speaker 1: you know, sign up for this contest. So what they're
Speaker 1: doing is allowing us to go to Germany to to
Speaker 1: build a market there um and to try to you know,
Speaker 1: have new fans in that area. So we have been
Speaker 1: given a charter. We Germans are literal people, some people
Speaker 1: say that are humorless I do not subscribe to that theory.
Speaker 1: Haven't been over there a time or two. Literal, but
Speaker 1: they are literal people. And what I mean by that is,
Speaker 1: if this show plays in Germany, someone will say Hans
Speaker 1: would say too, just so fun Warner. This this is
Speaker 1: supposed this. They called us a happy half hour. We
Speaker 1: have two people are not happy they had half hour.
Speaker 1: It is thirty seven minutes. Well, that's why I want
Speaker 1: to I wanna click here. I gotta make this exactly
Speaker 1: thirty minutes. So I spoke to the chapter president of
Speaker 1: the German Rowing Riot, Tobias Dorf. You did not, I did,
Speaker 1: and we're about to listen to him right now. So
Speaker 1: we're here with Tobias from Germany. How about this? I
Speaker 1: think this is our first international guest here on the
Speaker 1: Happy Half Hour to Bias, welcome in, Thanks a lot,
Speaker 1: Thanks a lot. High So what exactly you were with
Speaker 1: the German chapter of the Panthers Roaring Riot. Tell us
Speaker 1: about your your role with that? Yes, so I'm the
Speaker 1: chapter leader of the German Rights or the German Rights,
Speaker 1: the official chapter here in Germany of the Rowing Riot.
Speaker 1: And yeah, so I have the leading part. I'm yeah.
Speaker 1: How long has there been a chapter in Germany. It's
Speaker 1: about two too and half, yeah, I think. So how
Speaker 1: did you initially become involved with it? So it started
Speaker 1: with a Facebook group, So we we have a Facebook
Speaker 1: group of all Panthers Fantasy in Germany. And then we
Speaker 1: thought about to do our own seeing a little club,
Speaker 1: a little fan club. So and Zach, the ring leader
Speaker 1: of the Rolling Riot, see that and he said, hey, guys,
Speaker 1: if you want, you can join the Rowing Riot and
Speaker 1: to become an official chapter of the Rowing Riot. And
Speaker 1: so we were very excited and decided to go to
Speaker 1: the wrong rights for sure. So what is better to
Speaker 1: be at the official fan club of the Panthers? So excellent, excellent. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we're we're quite familiar with with Zach and in the
Speaker 1: rowing right here in Charlotte. So they do incredible work.
Speaker 1: You're you're in Cologne in Germany. Are there other members
Speaker 1: of the Riot there with you? Or is everyone really
Speaker 1: spread out? Yeah, it's spread it, but we have a
Speaker 1: big community here in Cologne and nearby Cologne, so we
Speaker 1: have another community in Berlin it's it's it's a little
Speaker 1: bit bigger, and in Munich in Hamburg. So in the
Speaker 1: big cities we were there, but I think the most
Speaker 1: the most of them are nearby Cologne and this area here.
Speaker 1: How did you, in guess others in the group around you,
Speaker 1: how did you guys become Carolina Panthers fans. I think
Speaker 1: it's most of them become Panthers fans with a two
Speaker 1: thousand fifteen season. So football is not so big here
Speaker 1: in Germany right now, so it's become bigger and bigger
Speaker 1: every year. But two thousand and fifteen with the incredible
Speaker 1: Panthers here with the fifteen and one record, so most
Speaker 1: of the Panthers games were shown in German television, and
Speaker 1: because you cannot see so many games here in Germany
Speaker 1: like you do in in in the States. Um, yeah,
Speaker 1: you see the Panthers. You see Ken Newton and his
Speaker 1: his style this year, and yeah, I think most most
Speaker 1: of the of the Carolina Panthers fans become real Panthers
Speaker 1: fans in two thousand and fifteen. Sure, there are many
Speaker 1: or some people who are Panthers fans since tense nineties,
Speaker 1: so since the beginning, but I think most of them
Speaker 1: starts with this incredible season. I know when we traveled
Speaker 1: to London the first time, the there's ever played a
Speaker 1: game internationally. Just just being there, you could see so
Speaker 1: many different jerseys of different individual players. Have you found
Speaker 1: in Germany that many of the fans of the NFL
Speaker 1: are more fans of individual players or or teams themselves.
Speaker 1: I think it's the team. So German fans are very,
Speaker 1: very loyal. So it doesn't matter if your team is
Speaker 1: successful or it. It's not. When you fell in love
Speaker 1: with a team, you stay there. It doesn't matter which
Speaker 1: player there is and some so all the Panthers fans
Speaker 1: bleeding bleeding blue and black bloods, so I think we
Speaker 1: will be Panthers fans forever. It doesn't matter which player
Speaker 1: they play or not. That's awesome. Take me through a
Speaker 1: game day for you. Obviously there's a is it six hours?
Speaker 1: Is at the time difference? Yeah? Yeah? What is that like?
Speaker 1: What is that like for you? And do you all
Speaker 1: have any pregame traditions or where do you go to
Speaker 1: to to have game day? I think it's it's quite
Speaker 1: different than in the States because the games were shown
Speaker 1: lately in the television, so this year it was very
Speaker 1: comfortable for us here in Germany because it was six
Speaker 1: pm or seven pm when we begin to to um,
Speaker 1: to see the games. And so normally, I think you
Speaker 1: have a normal game day. So you start your Sunday
Speaker 1: with breakfast and something like this, you do familiar familiar
Speaker 1: stuff and um, nearly four to five in the afternoon, Um,
Speaker 1: you come together and yeah, you drink some beer, you
Speaker 1: eat some chicken wings. So nearly the same that you
Speaker 1: do in in the States, and that we go to
Speaker 1: watch parties or watch by ourselves. So it's it's it's
Speaker 1: not as big as the big tailgating that you have
Speaker 1: in in in the States. Um, so I think we
Speaker 1: are groups too, about ten to twenty people that comes
Speaker 1: together to to watch the game. And um, yeah, cheerful
Speaker 1: the Panthers are there? Are there any special chance or
Speaker 1: or German phrases that you guys have. Jerry Vitchin is
Speaker 1: very popular in Germany, Okay, And you know the chant
Speaker 1: post or cheers when you when you when you cheer
Speaker 1: with your with the drinks. And in German there's there's
Speaker 1: a cheer that you say chin chin so when you're
Speaker 1: so it's not only post so we say chinchin every
Speaker 1: time when when Jeremy chin do a tackle or I
Speaker 1: have a seck or something like that. That's awesome. I
Speaker 1: think we may need to bring that here now. I
Speaker 1: like that a lot. We need to do that. Chinchin,
Speaker 1: I like it. Are there speaking of Jeremy Chin, are
Speaker 1: there other players on this current team that are that
Speaker 1: are fan favorites over there? You ask the number one
Speaker 1: fan boy of DJMA, So I love DA most of
Speaker 1: all in Germany now, I think DJ is very popular
Speaker 1: for sure. Cam Newton is very popular as well, so
Speaker 1: the German fan base get incredible. So it was so
Speaker 1: insane when when Kem came back. Yeah, and Brian Burns
Speaker 1: is very very popular over here. I think Brown, so
Speaker 1: we we like the defense player a lot, so I
Speaker 1: seem C is a superstar. We don't have to talk
Speaker 1: about it, so every everyone likes and and loves him seed.
Speaker 1: But I think the who are very popular as Jerry Mitchin,
Speaker 1: it's uh so we liked ethel Obada last year a lot,
Speaker 1: so we were we were very very um so it
Speaker 1: was we was said because he left us, so he
Speaker 1: was very popular in Germany because of the of the
Speaker 1: distance to to to England. So this was very nice. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but Jerry Mitchin, Brian Burns, d J. Moore, for sure
Speaker 1: for me especially and Cam Newton do you follow Are
Speaker 1: you a big soccer fan as well the Buddhist Yeah,
Speaker 1: most of the Germans do. I don't because I'm so
Speaker 1: big in love with with the NFL football, so I'm
Speaker 1: not very interested in soccer anymore. Okay, most of the time.
Speaker 1: I take everything what I can get, what I can read,
Speaker 1: what I can watch about football, and yeah, a little
Speaker 1: bit soccer for sure. Every German love soccer, sure, sure,
Speaker 1: So obviously this past week there is the NFL announcement
Speaker 1: of the expansion of NFL kind of marketing over to
Speaker 1: two different countries around the world. Um, and the Panthers
Speaker 1: coming to Germany. What what do you think is some
Speaker 1: of the most important aspects of uh expanding fandom? Um
Speaker 1: among among Germans. For for the Carolina Panthers. That's hard
Speaker 1: because we don't know exactly what it means to us.
Speaker 1: So it's it's it's very difficult in Germany to get
Speaker 1: really really good fans stuff. So so much I hope
Speaker 1: or we hope that this will be much better in
Speaker 1: the future, especially for the Panthers. So in Germany, will
Speaker 1: you you you you get much of the radars of Patriots.
Speaker 1: So the so it's it's it's like a cliche, you know,
Speaker 1: and uh, the Panthers is a little different. Uh. And
Speaker 1: we hope that we can get all the stuff from
Speaker 1: the Panthers in the future. And I think the biggest
Speaker 1: thing is to see the Panthers even Germany. So we
Speaker 1: hope so much that the Panthers will come to Germany
Speaker 1: and we will give you the warmest welcome that we
Speaker 1: ever had done to anybody. So I think this would
Speaker 1: be a very very big party if you come here
Speaker 1: to Germany. If we if we were to come, which
Speaker 1: city should we be playing a game in? What would
Speaker 1: be your favorite? Yeah, the spew cities in the in
Speaker 1: the in the closer decision, so it's Munich, It's Frankfort,
Speaker 1: and it's Distledorf. So for the community, Distledorff would be
Speaker 1: nice because it's it's in the middle of the biggest
Speaker 1: our community. Um. For me, I think Frankfort will be
Speaker 1: the best, the best place to be. But Munich is
Speaker 1: the most famous city. So in the States you have
Speaker 1: Bayern Munich the soccer club. This stadium is awesome, but
Speaker 1: I don't know if the stadium has the right um,
Speaker 1: the right size for football field because the seats are
Speaker 1: very near to the to the soccer field, and I
Speaker 1: don't know if it's big enough, but that's not my decision.
Speaker 1: Yeah alright, so so do so door. If it is,
Speaker 1: I should put that in a note to someone and
Speaker 1: make sure we get there. So this would off is
Speaker 1: the place to be for the for the game. But
Speaker 1: I think the biggest city for for for party, for
Speaker 1: for everything would be here in Clone. So okay, excellent,
Speaker 1: Well if we if we come over, we're certainly coming
Speaker 1: to Clone. That that's for sure. I will be there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I will be there. Well, thank you for taking some
Speaker 1: time today to talk to us. We really appreciate you
Speaker 1: coming on. Welcome. So it's it's such a big honor
Speaker 1: for me to be here. Thank you very much. Thank you,
Speaker 1: and hopefully hopefully all of our German articles on on
Speaker 1: Panthers dot com are are good. I I do my
Speaker 1: best to try to make them correct. Yeah, it's very good.
Speaker 1: So I I like it. I like it a lot.
Speaker 1: So we appreciate it that that you do this this
Speaker 1: German account. So it's it's such a big thing for us. Excellent, excellent,
Speaker 1: thanks to Bias. Appreciate you having you welcome? Thank you
Speaker 1: very much. So what did you guys think? I like
Speaker 1: the comment chin Chin is what they say every time
Speaker 1: Jeremy Chin makes a tackle, because that's the cheers in
Speaker 1: Germany that I love that guy. I mean, we need
Speaker 1: to send a plane ticket to him, bring him over here,
Speaker 1: let him get a big face full of panther football.
Speaker 1: Let's have him on the show, Tobias doorf We we
Speaker 1: need to take the show on the road and just
Speaker 1: go do it in Cologne. You know he's from Cologne.
Speaker 1: I mean, have you guys been to Cologne. Well, we'll
Speaker 1: go to Cologne unlike Buffalo. So we we mentioned Tom
Speaker 1: Brady this weekend, but there's some potential final things happening
Speaker 1: in the stadium. The Goat Tom Brady could be playing
Speaker 1: his final game here. Cam Newton, the Goat could be
Speaker 1: playing his final game here. What we do know is
Speaker 1: that the goadiest of goats, the greatest of all greats
Speaker 1: mc mixon, we'll be calling his final game in the
Speaker 1: press box here at Bank America Stadium on Sunday. When
Speaker 1: you think about that, I mean, really, you've got the
Speaker 1: greatest quarterback of all time, six rings, You've got the
Speaker 1: gray just run past threat quarterback of all time in
Speaker 1: Cam Newton, more touchdowns rushing than any quarterback in league history,
Speaker 1: most games with a touchdown rushing and passing than any
Speaker 1: quarterback in NFL history, ahead of a guy named Steve Young.
Speaker 1: So of course it only makes sense that that game
Speaker 1: should be called by this guy right here, who's really
Speaker 1: kind of a sex symbol in his own right. I mean,
Speaker 1: when you talk about the very handsome men Tom Brady
Speaker 1: and Cam Newton, you know who better to describe it to?
Speaker 1: Mick Mixon. As I've gotten older, I've become an easy crier.
Speaker 1: I don't know why this is, but things affect me
Speaker 1: in ways that they used to. Not songs, movie scenes,
Speaker 1: and I like to run the upper deck stairs. It's
Speaker 1: one of my hobbies to try to keep old age away.
Speaker 1: And on Monday, before Panther Talk, I went and did
Speaker 1: the upper deck and really, for the first time, it
Speaker 1: hit me as I looked down on the field from
Speaker 1: section five whatever thirty, I thought, damn it, man, I've
Speaker 1: spent a lot of time in this building and in
Speaker 1: the press box down below me, and uh yeah, it's
Speaker 1: gonna be I mean, I'm looking forward to it. I'm
Speaker 1: excited about retirement, but I hadn't really considered what it'll
Speaker 1: be like to walk out of this booth for the
Speaker 1: last time until until Monday afternoon, So I don't know.
Speaker 1: It's been a joy, been an honor, and I hope,
Speaker 1: I hope people either way, my colleagues and I call
Speaker 1: the games. I don't think there's any doubt about that.
Speaker 1: And you know the reception you've gotten over the years.
Speaker 1: I mean, the thing about that I think is it
Speaker 1: creates a connection here is you are what people in
Speaker 1: the Carolinas expect to hear coming through the radio. You're
Speaker 1: one of us. You you have roots in this state,
Speaker 1: You've grown up here, You've honed your craft throughout North
Speaker 1: and South Carolina, never strayed too far from home. And
Speaker 1: that's what people here. It's authentic when it comes through
Speaker 1: the radio. You're what we sound like. Okay, my god. Well,
Speaker 1: I appreciate that Darren and Darren wrote a nice piece
Speaker 1: back in the summer. Uh And and I I hear
Speaker 1: people mentioned people mentioned that to me that they read that.
Speaker 1: And I appreciate that and respect both of you guys
Speaker 1: more than you can know. I've always believed that radio
Speaker 1: is magical. I believe that it is a an incredible
Speaker 1: theater where all your dreams can come true. Listeners are
Speaker 1: all site challenge. They can't see, so they depend on
Speaker 1: us to describe not only what we can see, but
Speaker 1: also what we can smell, and what we can sense
Speaker 1: and what we can feel. And I've always believed that
Speaker 1: when it's done well, and I'm not saying that we
Speaker 1: do it well, but I'm saying that when we when
Speaker 1: it is done well, it can do things that TV
Speaker 1: cannot do. It can create a meeting place where people
Speaker 1: hopefully feel comfortable with the group of people that they're
Speaker 1: listening to, and they if they feel like these people
Speaker 1: have the gift of humility, that they care for each other,
Speaker 1: that they love the game, that they're well prepared, that
Speaker 1: they might say something off script, that they might disagree
Speaker 1: with one another, that they might we know that you
Speaker 1: tune in to hear the game, but that we might
Speaker 1: tell a story or give each other a hard time,
Speaker 1: or maybe drop a pop culture reference in a time
Speaker 1: or two when it is appropriate. If we can keep
Speaker 1: you just a half a beat longer, if we could
Speaker 1: keep you after you've gotten back from the church house
Speaker 1: and maybe you're in your driveway and you want to
Speaker 1: hear the last part of a driver. You want to
Speaker 1: hear us come back from the first quarter to the second.
Speaker 1: If we can keep you around the water cooler, the
Speaker 1: radio just a half of a bit longer to spend
Speaker 1: time with us after you've heard what you tuned into here,
Speaker 1: then that, that, to me, is is what it's all about.
Speaker 1: And I really hope that my success or, whoever that
Speaker 1: man or woman is, will view the gig the same way.
Speaker 1: It's not about it's not about you, it's not about today.
Speaker 1: Marks might one thout, I mean, that's just offensively stupid.
Speaker 1: But if you can just be the conduit through which
Speaker 1: the deeds of these athletes and coaches travel, then kind
Speaker 1: of carry on the tradition a little bit. Maybe, then
Speaker 1: definitely we'll celebrate that from the seat of a John
Speaker 1: Deer tractor at Stony Creek Church Road. And on that note,
Speaker 1: Merry Christmas everyone. M