Speaker 1: Hi, This is Dewey Jenkins. When the Navy sent me
Speaker 1: to Jacksonville, Florida, I sold Salad Master cookwear door to
Speaker 1: door during my free time. One evening, I knocked on
Speaker 1: the door and met the woman I would marry. She
Speaker 1: didn't buy any cookwear, but I got her phone number.
Speaker 1: That's how we train at Morris Jenkins. Don't try to
Speaker 1: make a sale, Try to make a friend. Everyone needs
Speaker 1: a friend who knows how to fix air conditioning and plumbing.
Speaker 1: I love this podcast, don't you. It's time for the
Speaker 1: Happy Half Hour with your friends Kristen, Belbonnie and Will
Speaker 1: Brian presented by Morris Jenkins. It's that time of the week,
Speaker 1: The Happy Half Hour podcast presented by Morris Jenkins and
Speaker 1: Mr Jenkins told me his plumbers and a c text
Speaker 1: secretly where panthers Jersey's their uniforms. So when you're plumbing
Speaker 1: or air conditioning is acting up, called Morris Jenkins or
Speaker 1: visit Morris Jenkins dot com. Kristen here, Jersey right now.
Speaker 1: Did you know that, Kristen? Well, I didn't because I
Speaker 1: can't see you. You know we're being safe? Can you guess?
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say? Jeremy Chin maybe you get a new
Speaker 1: one or something. Oh, I like that. The I think
Speaker 1: that Jeremy Chiners might have sold out. We got to
Speaker 1: find like a secret stash. What if everyone's made a
Speaker 1: run on Chin jerseys? What about Matt if it's his
Speaker 1: own custom Panthers stats guy on the back absolutely double
Speaker 1: zero or something like that. How about that? Guess? That's
Speaker 1: a really good guess. And it would need to be
Speaker 1: like tats guy because in my Twitter handle there weren't
Speaker 1: enough characters to have two s's, so it's like technically
Speaker 1: Panthers Tats guy. Like, I think that would be a
Speaker 1: great jersey. That would be a good jersey. Which one
Speaker 1: is it? Kelvin Benjamin blast from the past there I
Speaker 1: heard there's a story behind that. Yeah, actually, but that
Speaker 1: happened to be the only one because we were we
Speaker 1: were we were cleaning out some some things after we
Speaker 1: were moving out for the COVID office swap stuff, and
Speaker 1: that was available to take home. So I took home
Speaker 1: with Calvin Benjamin jersey. Is that the most random jersey
Speaker 1: you have? Oh? Absolutely, I'm not a jersey guy. I
Speaker 1: don't necessarily have a lot of jerseys, So yeah, it
Speaker 1: was just kind of available, so I took it. I
Speaker 1: don't either, but I have a JaMarcus Russell Raiders jersey
Speaker 1: in my closet and really good. I like that that one.
Speaker 1: I am incredible. Now did you get that at the time,
Speaker 1: Like he's like first overall pick. You're like, this guy
Speaker 1: is going to be the best to ever do it. Yes.
Speaker 1: I was a diehard LSU fan, so are I still am.
Speaker 1: So when he was drafting, we had never had anything
Speaker 1: like that until I guess him and Joe Burrow, So
Speaker 1: that was like a big deal. And I got a
Speaker 1: jersey and I got a shirt that didn't work out.
Speaker 1: Great jersey to have some now, I don't know. It
Speaker 1: just feels cool. No, it is awesome. I enjoy having it.
Speaker 1: One of the coolest things was definitely in London last
Speaker 1: year seeing all of the most random NFL I mean
Speaker 1: even random Panthers jerseys that like you don't usually see.
Speaker 1: Give me an example, everyone had on a jersey. I
Speaker 1: think I saw a Panthers Brad Hoover next to a
Speaker 1: Oakland Raiders Jerry Rice. That's pretty cool. It's just like,
Speaker 1: how is how is that? In London in two thousand nineteen,
Speaker 1: it was it was incredible. Me and my friends have
Speaker 1: a theory that every single football game, no matter what
Speaker 1: it is, College of Pro, there's always a Pittsburgh Steelers jersey.
Speaker 1: There's always a guy wearing a Steelers jersey. I love
Speaker 1: a theory like that. That is the theory of ours.
Speaker 1: Every single sports game there's a big Ben jersey. I
Speaker 1: will look on Sunday. You know, we have a limited
Speaker 1: capacity in the stadium. I always love trying to find
Speaker 1: the most um just I don't want to say random,
Speaker 1: because if you're wearing a Panther jersey to a Panthers game,
Speaker 1: I was just like to find, like which number. I'm like, uh,
Speaker 1: I didn't see that coming. You know, good for you,
Speaker 1: whether it's uh, you know, for example, Will or someone
Speaker 1: having the Kelvin Benjamin or someone from a long time ago.
Speaker 1: Always like to see kind of know, you get you
Speaker 1: plenty of your Luke Kikles, you get plenty of your
Speaker 1: Jeremy Chins, and yeah, like I love to see that.
Speaker 1: So now I'm going to keep a special eye out
Speaker 1: for the Pittsburgh Steelers jersey and I will report back
Speaker 1: on next Wednesday. That's I love that theory. I'd be
Speaker 1: interested to see how that theory holds up in the
Speaker 1: limited capacity. But I bet you there's still on Steeler fans.
Speaker 1: They're everywhere. So speaking of Sunday, we got the Broncos
Speaker 1: coming into town to take on the Panthers. Bye week.
Speaker 1: They all had a nice, nice little time off. The
Speaker 1: players hopefully are are getting healthier on the whole, although uh,
Speaker 1: the Panthers did have to place quite a few guys
Speaker 1: on the COVID reserve list. And and will you know,
Speaker 1: it's full disclosure. It's it's Wednesday morning. We don't know
Speaker 1: exactly how this is gonna play out, how many actually
Speaker 1: tested positive for the virus, and and how many are
Speaker 1: close contact. Of course, the team cannot release that information,
Speaker 1: but we're monitoring it every day, and and and first
Speaker 1: and foremost, hope you know, anyone who is affected is
Speaker 1: healthy and doing okay right, And you know, obviously we
Speaker 1: we want, you know, everyone to be doing better, to
Speaker 1: be you know, hopefully getting better. Um potentially hopefully all
Speaker 1: available on Sunday. You know, obviously we'll see. UM. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think one good thing is you know that the
Speaker 1: Panthers in the facility, you know, all year, you know,
Speaker 1: Matt Rule has said this, you know, since April, literally
Speaker 1: they've they've done the best they can to to make
Speaker 1: the facility as as um socially distant, as spread out
Speaker 1: as possible. They've used every inch of the stadium to
Speaker 1: get players as far away from each other as possible
Speaker 1: so that there isn't as much potential for the close
Speaker 1: contact kind of stuff. So hopefully, you know, all those
Speaker 1: things will will have an impact and kind of lessen
Speaker 1: the blow of this UM. But also it's you know,
Speaker 1: it's Wednesday, and as of this morning as we're taping,
Speaker 1: the plan is to practice today. The plan is for
Speaker 1: guys to come in and practice. There haven't been UM
Speaker 1: any news reports as of right now of continuing to
Speaker 1: keep the facility closed as it was on Monday and
Speaker 1: Tuesday confirm that as we yeah, they are in the building.
Speaker 1: So yeah, so as of this morning, yeah, and will
Speaker 1: as as you mentioned and certainly is as you keep
Speaker 1: abs on with the website. The transaction wire came out
Speaker 1: last night and no new cases were added as of
Speaker 1: Tuesday night from from the Panthers side, So that's a
Speaker 1: good sign. Yeah, So hopefully you know, as of you know,
Speaker 1: we're playing Tuesday night football. We're playing Friday. I mean,
Speaker 1: it seems like eventually they're going to play a Friday game.
Speaker 1: But hopefully this came will kick off at one o'clock
Speaker 1: on Sunday as scheduled, and hopefully there will be as
Speaker 1: many of these guys um from this list, um, you know,
Speaker 1: like I mean, obviously it's it's been out there, d J. Moore, Curtis, Samuel,
Speaker 1: Derrick Brown, Zat Kerk, Jack Thompson, Greg Little, you know,
Speaker 1: all of these guys that are you know, e tour
Speaker 1: grosmatos that have been put on the COVID list, and
Speaker 1: hopefully as many as possible um of those guys will
Speaker 1: be activated back off before Sunday. Yeah, let's let's talk
Speaker 1: about this game. Um. The Broncos have very notably had
Speaker 1: their their own issues with UM with the COVID reserve list.
Speaker 1: Didn't have a quarterback a couple of weeks ago. Although
Speaker 1: Drew Luck is back now for the Panthers, they're hopeful
Speaker 1: that Christian McCaffrey Andante Jackson will be among those who
Speaker 1: are now healthy enough to play after some extended rest.
Speaker 1: For both of them, Dante Jackson's been dealing with that
Speaker 1: turf toe all season long. And just really needed a
Speaker 1: several weeks to just be off of his foot and
Speaker 1: let that heal a little bit. And then Christian McCaffrey, Um,
Speaker 1: he said he felt he feels great, and so it
Speaker 1: certainly seems like he might be taking the field for
Speaker 1: the Panthers on Sunday after dealing with that shoulder. What
Speaker 1: do you make of the Broncos. Well, I mean, they're
Speaker 1: a they're a tough team. I mean I haven't gotten
Speaker 1: to see much of them until this past week when
Speaker 1: they played the Chiefs on Sunday Night Football. And man,
Speaker 1: that that defense. You think about the Chiefs in the
Speaker 1: red zone and all of the things that Andy Reid
Speaker 1: dials up, um, all of the things that Patrick Mahomes
Speaker 1: can do, and they didn't score a red zone touchdown
Speaker 1: in four trips against this Broncos defense. Well, there was
Speaker 1: the one that everyone said, everyone said, you could he
Speaker 1: could have challenged it right right exactly. I mean, yeah,
Speaker 1: there was that one that they should have scored a
Speaker 1: touchdown that they didn't. But unfortunately the statute at the
Speaker 1: end of the day said over four on red zone opportunities. Um.
Speaker 1: Of course, the Chiefs one with you know, a kind
Speaker 1: of a late fourth quarter score. But this is the
Speaker 1: Broncos team that you know went into Kansas City and
Speaker 1: hung really tough with them. Um gave him a really
Speaker 1: good game. And that defense doesn't have Von Miller, um
Speaker 1: you know there there, They don't have a ton of
Speaker 1: names that maybe everyone would recognize nationally. Um, but Bradley Chubb,
Speaker 1: you know Nst State guy is there. Uh. He leaves
Speaker 1: the team with seven and a half sacks. They kind
Speaker 1: of have that, uh you know Ben, but then really
Speaker 1: don't break in the red zone their second in the
Speaker 1: NFL in red zone defense. UM. So I think that's
Speaker 1: gonna be a big challenge. But you know, if if
Speaker 1: he does play on Sunday, Christian McCaffrey is a great
Speaker 1: red zone weapon. UM, So we'll be interesting to see
Speaker 1: how that kind of matches up. Yeah. I I talked
Speaker 1: to to Matt Rule earlier this week and he used
Speaker 1: the word suffocating to describe that defense. And the Panthers know,
Speaker 1: I mean, everyone knows just how hard it is to
Speaker 1: stop the Chiefs offense. Anyone who's who's watched them play,
Speaker 1: um even a little bit, just knows how prolific that
Speaker 1: offense is. And and the Panthers did a pretty decent
Speaker 1: job of it earlier this year. Um, And I just
Speaker 1: thought the Broncos defense looked great um against the Chiefs
Speaker 1: on Sunday, So that will certainly be a challenge. UM.
Speaker 1: But I was just I was just looking back at
Speaker 1: the quarterbacks that the Panthers have faced lately. You know,
Speaker 1: they went through that that stretch of just former Super
Speaker 1: Bowl m v p s and league MVPs. But do
Speaker 1: you look at you know, last games they faced Kirk
Speaker 1: Cousins and then Matthew Stafford, Tom Brady, Patrick Mahomes. I'm
Speaker 1: just going back through the schedule, Matt Ryan, Drew Brees, Um,
Speaker 1: Nick Foles played in the Bears game. Sorry, I'm just
Speaker 1: I'm going through this in real time, guys, very exciting stuff.
Speaker 1: Matt Ryan again, Kyler Murray. So I just you know,
Speaker 1: Drew luck Is is young, and so I'm excited to
Speaker 1: see what the opportunities that the Panthers defense gets against
Speaker 1: a young quarterback, because they did well against Kyler Murray,
Speaker 1: and they did well against Justin Herbert earlier in the season,
Speaker 1: and and the Panthers have actually been a defense that's
Speaker 1: been really really good at forcing fumbles They're one of
Speaker 1: the top defenses in the NFL in terms of force fumbles,
Speaker 1: but they're not necessarily up there in terms of interceptions. UM.
Speaker 1: And that's something that Denver has struggled with UM, both
Speaker 1: Drew Lock and you know at times obviously Kendall Hinton
Speaker 1: when he had to come in. UM. But Lock is
Speaker 1: one of these guys that if you contain him in
Speaker 1: the pocket and you keep him in the pocket, he's
Speaker 1: he doesn't feel comfortable. UM. Like check out Like this
Speaker 1: stat he's completed eight of his passes for a one
Speaker 1: six rating on rollouts and boot plays, while just fifty
Speaker 1: seven completion rate while he's in the pocket for a
Speaker 1: sixty three point eight rating, thirteen thirteen interceptions while he's
Speaker 1: in the pocket, no interceptions when he's rolling out. So
Speaker 1: I think that will be something to watch if Denver
Speaker 1: tries to get him out on the edge. UM. You
Speaker 1: know how it's Caroline I do and kind of rolling
Speaker 1: a defense with him versus being able to use that
Speaker 1: he used that pass rush UM to kind of contain him,
Speaker 1: you know, maybe not over pursuing to let him, you know,
Speaker 1: kind of escape out the pocket. But he's gonna want
Speaker 1: to try to get outside. He feels better when he
Speaker 1: doesn't have to, you know, maybe survey the entire field.
Speaker 1: You know, he kind of sees the field in front
Speaker 1: of him, um, you know, on one side or another
Speaker 1: and and maybe you know, maybe there's something to like
Speaker 1: him feeling like he can run and throw at the
Speaker 1: same time and feels comfortable in that motion versus h
Speaker 1: kind of being in the pocket. But yeah, that'll be
Speaker 1: really interesting to see. Um, if the Panthers can kind
Speaker 1: of keep him there and then be able to create
Speaker 1: some turnovers. Um. That's been something that Denver has has
Speaker 1: struggled with the times, Like the running game has controlled
Speaker 1: the ball a lot, but if um, if he's not
Speaker 1: rolling out, they turn the ball over. Yeah, I'm I'm
Speaker 1: looking forward to see. I mean, the last time we
Speaker 1: saw Jeremy Chin out on the field, the two fum
Speaker 1: overcovery touchdowns. Of course, you know the ending of that
Speaker 1: game is is still a tough one for Panthers fans,
Speaker 1: But you know, he's gonna have that extra little swagger,
Speaker 1: that extra confidence. As you said, there's gonna be plenty
Speaker 1: of Chin jerseys in the stands along with that one
Speaker 1: Steelers jersey. So I'm excited to see that matchup the
Speaker 1: Panthers defense versus um the Broncos offense and see if
Speaker 1: if this Panthers defense can can really take advantage there.
Speaker 1: And since it is a home game, if the Panthers
Speaker 1: get a third down stop in the third quarter during
Speaker 1: a home game, one lucky fan will win a smart
Speaker 1: home smoke and carbon monoxide detector through the Morris Jenkins
Speaker 1: Protect and Check sweepstakes. If the Panther's got a fourth
Speaker 1: down stop in the fourth quarter, that same fan will
Speaker 1: also be going home with a fifteen hundred dollar gift card.
Speaker 1: To be sure to check out contest dot Panthers dot
Speaker 1: com or more details on how you can enter. Well,
Speaker 1: you've already hit us with like several stats, but none
Speaker 1: of those are the the official Panthers Stats Guy stat
Speaker 1: of the week. So what do you got at the
Speaker 1: time it picks of the week. So the last time
Speaker 1: we saw the Panthers Week twelve at Minnesota, that first
Speaker 1: half was really tight, really close, but Carolina was playing well,
Speaker 1: um and then Minnesota got this field goal like right
Speaker 1: before half, and you know the halftime score was ten seven,
Speaker 1: you know, hardly something that's just oh my god, we're
Speaker 1: in trouble, We're down ten seven, you're only down, You're
Speaker 1: down three points, and it's just a field goal right
Speaker 1: before half. But how about this stat? So since two
Speaker 1: thousand eighteen when Carolina came back from down seventeen nothing
Speaker 1: to be Philly UM in that game up in Philadelphia
Speaker 1: against the Eagles, really dramatic fourth quarter comeback. Since that time,
Speaker 1: the Panthers are owen twenty two when trailing or tied
Speaker 1: at halftime. OENO, that is that is quite the stat
Speaker 1: It's it, and it kind of defies, it defies some
Speaker 1: sort of real trend. I think you. I mean Carolina
Speaker 1: obviously they retook the lead in the third quarter. They weren't,
Speaker 1: you know, down big at Minnesota. This is you know,
Speaker 1: different coaching staffs, different offensive systems, different defenses. You know,
Speaker 1: this isn't just the same group over and over again
Speaker 1: that has this thing stuck in their head. You know,
Speaker 1: this thing is is really weird. UM. And every time
Speaker 1: we get close to half of them, I'm like, oh,
Speaker 1: please have a lead, Please have a lead. Because the
Speaker 1: other side, that is the Panthers are fifteen and four
Speaker 1: when holding the lead. UM. So they've done a good
Speaker 1: job even if they have just a small lead of
Speaker 1: being able to hold onto it throughout the second half.
Speaker 1: They haven't blown a lot of leads, so I mean, really,
Speaker 1: you know, the second quarter can say a lot about
Speaker 1: how the rest of the game's gonna go well, and
Speaker 1: it's pertinent this season because they had well documented struggles
Speaker 1: in the third quarter. As you said, it's it's not
Speaker 1: a stat that you can pinpoint over the last three
Speaker 1: seasons because there's been so much turnover um, but it
Speaker 1: is a good indicator considering that the third quarter has
Speaker 1: been their worst order statistically really, with the exception of
Speaker 1: of the Lions game, which they were just they were
Speaker 1: just phenomenal, but that has been something that they have
Speaker 1: said that they want to work on. So hopefully there's
Speaker 1: the lead at the half and and we can just
Speaker 1: throw will stat out the window. But I also think
Speaker 1: those stats are good for at some point. Uh, that's
Speaker 1: gonna change. At some point very soon, that's going to change.
Speaker 1: Of course, you hope that they have the lead at
Speaker 1: the half in every game, but it's going to change,
Speaker 1: and at that point there will be panther stats guy
Speaker 1: will tweet that out and it's kind of like the
Speaker 1: thing of you know, the first shutout in five years.
Speaker 1: There's gonna be a point where they're gonna make that
Speaker 1: big comeback, whether it's whether it is this season, whether
Speaker 1: it's next season, and they're going to show that they
Speaker 1: have that now in the arsenal, the ability to come back.
Speaker 1: And so it's a good stat to have for context
Speaker 1: about how long it's been since that has happened. Right.
Speaker 1: They need to they need to have a game like that.
Speaker 1: And I think, you know, not harping on what we
Speaker 1: talked about the past several weeks about December and the
Speaker 1: importance of of getting a guilt and caffree back, the
Speaker 1: importance of going out there and competing and winning. You know,
Speaker 1: those are the types of things where, hey, you maybe
Speaker 1: you trail to the Broncos or maybe you trail to
Speaker 1: the Packards and you come back and win in December
Speaker 1: and fans like, oh no, but we're not gonna go
Speaker 1: to the playoffs anyway. Those are the types of things
Speaker 1: that that really do carry over. And it's not just winning,
Speaker 1: it's how you win. It's uh, you know, how you play,
Speaker 1: it's how you All of these things stick with guys
Speaker 1: um and they stick with the team and they stick
Speaker 1: with the coaching staff and they stick with the way
Speaker 1: you do things, UM, and those can carry over. So
Speaker 1: you know, you want to see some second half, fourth
Speaker 1: quarter finishes, you know, like just some real things to
Speaker 1: kind of give them confidence that they do kind of
Speaker 1: have that that winning ability. Yeah, you want to see
Speaker 1: the team win, be able to win in a variety
Speaker 1: of ways. You want to see any team be able
Speaker 1: to win in a variety of ways. You don't want
Speaker 1: to look at something and go, Okay, it's half time.
Speaker 1: This is what the trend has been. We know what
Speaker 1: the outcome is going to be, UM, and they're working
Speaker 1: towards that. So I like this. I mean, I don't
Speaker 1: like the stat because it's it's a tough stat for
Speaker 1: the for the franchise right now, but I think it's
Speaker 1: gonna be great context for for some just epic back
Speaker 1: when in the future was gonna be like I got
Speaker 1: this one ready to go, I got it in the drafts.
Speaker 1: We'll have we'll have a big two weeks or a
Speaker 1: big game two weeks ago. With all the Jeremy Chin stats,
Speaker 1: I mean, he was just getting like retweets in the thousands.
Speaker 1: It was his time to shine. And since that time,
Speaker 1: I don't know if this is a coincidence or not.
Speaker 1: You have started your own official Panther's Stats Guy i
Speaker 1: G account to oh yeah, you gotta follow me, match
Speaker 1: that match that follow button on the Instagram it does
Speaker 1: say it's the official Instagram account of Panther Stats Guy,
Speaker 1: the official Instagram account. It is the official Instagram account.
Speaker 1: Because there are a lot of Instagram accounts out there
Speaker 1: that I'll post something on Twitter or I'll say something
Speaker 1: on the podcast in Boom, here's some Instagram account that
Speaker 1: is posting that same stat with fifty thousand likes. I'm like,
Speaker 1: wait a minute, I want the light. I want someone
Speaker 1: to boost my ego. This was my stat. That's a
Speaker 1: good point. So I'm trying. I'm trying to claim that
Speaker 1: territory with my own official i G. That's a good point.
Speaker 1: You know how the NFL insiders have to work now,
Speaker 1: as first reported by you know, if someone has signs
Speaker 1: a new contract or whatever, you'll see what them as
Speaker 1: first reported by Adam Schefter or as first reported by uh,
Speaker 1: you know, Tom pel Sorrow. And so maybe we need
Speaker 1: to go this way for stats. Well, I don't think
Speaker 1: that I'm gonna claim that much intellectual property over it,
Speaker 1: you know, but it would. It is nice every once
Speaker 1: in a while when you get that and you get
Speaker 1: that hat tip. But yeah, no. So if you're if
Speaker 1: you're on the i G and uh and you don't
Speaker 1: like Twitter and you'd rather get get all your information
Speaker 1: on i G, it's still panther stats guy on on
Speaker 1: the Instagram and feel free to give me a follow.
Speaker 1: I'm a little embarrassed how long it took me to
Speaker 1: realize what you guys are talking about with I G.
Speaker 1: I was like, what, you're young? What do you call it?
Speaker 1: Just like Instagram? I don't use that one very much.
Speaker 1: But I'm just dumb. I should have known that that
Speaker 1: was obviously what you guys were talking about. Do I
Speaker 1: need to do a stack guy TikTok and then I
Speaker 1: just TikTok all the stats and some sort of weird dance.
Speaker 1: I would love to see that. The people are calling
Speaker 1: for it, absolutely and I don't. I don't like social
Speaker 1: media anymore, Oh I do. I can't wait. If you've
Speaker 1: put it out there now, it's it's what it's what
Speaker 1: the fans need. They need to get their stats on
Speaker 1: TikTok with a weird dance. All right, Mr Jenkins told
Speaker 1: me that he loves football and he looks forward to
Speaker 1: the show all week. When you're plumbing her air conditioning
Speaker 1: is acting up, called Morris Jenkins or visit Morris Jenkins
Speaker 1: dot com. We are going to take a quick break
Speaker 1: and when we come back on the Happy half Hour
Speaker 1: Podcast presented by Morris Jenkins is going to do a
Speaker 1: TikTok dance. Hi, this is Dewey Jenkins. When the Navy
Speaker 1: sent me to Jacksonville, Florida, I sold Salad Master cookwear
Speaker 1: door to door during my free time. One evening, I
Speaker 1: knocked on the door and met the woman I wouldn't marry.
Speaker 1: She didn't buy any cookwear, but I got her phone number.
Speaker 1: That's how we train at Morris Jenkins. Don't try to
Speaker 1: make a sale. Try to make a friend. Everyone needs
Speaker 1: a friend who knows how to fix air conditioning and plumbing.
Speaker 1: I love this podcast, don't you. This is a I
Speaker 1: love this because this is like a a Will heavy episode,
Speaker 1: like a Panther stats guy heavy episode. Um but but well,
Speaker 1: the thing is you do so much in terms of
Speaker 1: stats and the website and the app. I mean, you
Speaker 1: were involved in it all. And one of the things
Speaker 1: you do is you edit. And we were just talking
Speaker 1: the other day about you really have to your that
Speaker 1: last line of defense. You've got to be the guy
Speaker 1: that catches anything that comes up before it gets published.
Speaker 1: And I imagine that there's got to be a sense
Speaker 1: of like how often do you hit the published button
Speaker 1: and go like, oh God, like I hope I caught everything?
Speaker 1: Does that happen? Because sometimes I'll press send on a
Speaker 1: tweet and I'm like I'm good with that, right, you know,
Speaker 1: just like no typos, know anything. Sometimes the longer the post,
Speaker 1: the longer you kind of feel like, oh well, there's
Speaker 1: just there's so much stuff in there, like it's okay,
Speaker 1: you know. But if it's a shorter post and you
Speaker 1: can kind of see the whole thing on once on
Speaker 1: one screen without scrolling, and you just think like, man,
Speaker 1: is there something in you know on that first line
Speaker 1: or that second line is the headline? Right? Uh? You know?
Speaker 1: Am I in the right week? You know? Sometimes it's
Speaker 1: like it's week is it week twelve? Week thirty? What
Speaker 1: week is it? Week fourteen? So yeah, so yeah, every
Speaker 1: every once in a while, some stuff steps by. It's
Speaker 1: the beauty of the internet, though, is that you can
Speaker 1: quickly edit and quickly repost and change something. Uh, and
Speaker 1: it doesn't have to be in in print forever and
Speaker 1: forever unless someone screenshots. I've had that happen. You know,
Speaker 1: I haven't said anything terrible like on Twitter or anything
Speaker 1: like that, but I've definitely had times where I've like
Speaker 1: you said, like missed a week or um, I just
Speaker 1: you know, said something like oh that's uh, that's so
Speaker 1: and so and it's not or you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: and someone's like, I got that screenshot? Does that make sense?
Speaker 1: Like nothing really bad, but I've just had things that
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, gosh, I misspelled something. I'm like, let
Speaker 1: me delete that. So I's like, oh, got just got
Speaker 1: that screenshot, Like alright, awesome. I want to know the
Speaker 1: people who are out there like waiting to get all
Speaker 1: these people, like a lot of people wait and different
Speaker 1: sports reporters or whatever, and it's like they're so eager
Speaker 1: to take a screenshot of it. It's like some tweets
Speaker 1: will get taken down within a minute, but for some reason,
Speaker 1: there's a hundred screenshots of it somewhere. I just don't
Speaker 1: know who's all collecting these and and keeping these around
Speaker 1: for everybody to throw in their face. And it's like
Speaker 1: old takes exposed. I guess that's like a just like
Speaker 1: a bat. That's like you buying a Jamacus Russell jersey.
Speaker 1: That's more old takes. Um. Have you guys ever had
Speaker 1: any like embarrassing bad work moments? Because I was just
Speaker 1: thinking about Twitter. I've been pretty lucky in terms of,
Speaker 1: you know, everyone's generally pretty nice, and I think I've
Speaker 1: ever said anything too too bad, I like a hot
Speaker 1: mic or anything. But you always hear these stories about
Speaker 1: just just bad moments. What's your most embarrassing work story,
Speaker 1: mat um? So most embarrassing is probably it's one of
Speaker 1: two things, one that I've told on this podcast before
Speaker 1: and another one that I haven't. But the one that
Speaker 1: you weren't here for was last year, I got to
Speaker 1: travel to the Falcons game, which actually was this past
Speaker 1: weekend a year ago, so I, uh, it was my
Speaker 1: first game with a road game with the team, and
Speaker 1: went and we went to the stadium on Sunday, obviously,
Speaker 1: but I was supposed to have brought my bags from
Speaker 1: the hotel to the game in order to take them
Speaker 1: immediately onto the bus to take the flight home. I
Speaker 1: did not know that. So we were on the bus
Speaker 1: after the game, headed towards the airport, and we pull
Speaker 1: into like, this isn't like a normal flight. Obviously you've
Speaker 1: been on a game, so you're like, you pull into
Speaker 1: like a separate part of almost like a private section
Speaker 1: of the airport. And by the time we got through
Speaker 1: the gates, I realized that we were about to fly
Speaker 1: and I didn't bring my bags. I had left them
Speaker 1: at the hotel. So luckily we had one of our engineers, uh,
Speaker 1: who was staying behind to gather equipment and whatever. He
Speaker 1: was able to bring that back on his own personal
Speaker 1: car and everything, So I got lucky there. But I
Speaker 1: almost just left my bags in Atlanta. Didn't. Wasn't the
Speaker 1: line that you like? Turned around and asked someone like, wait,
Speaker 1: aren't we going to the hotel? And then everyone just
Speaker 1: kind of looks at you with this like, oh, mad, Yes.
Speaker 1: I was in the back of the bus with Nick uh, Caroline,
Speaker 1: and David, my boss executive producer, and he uh, like
Speaker 1: I said, I kind of gathered that we weren't heading
Speaker 1: back to the hotel, so I somewhat under my breath
Speaker 1: but definitely out loud, was like, are we going to
Speaker 1: the hotel? And I think it was Caroline who was
Speaker 1: like just immediately started laughing, and David, who I'm pretty
Speaker 1: sure I was directing my who I was talking to.
Speaker 1: He was like, you, no, that's not happening, and he
Speaker 1: just kind of looked away and it was like, not
Speaker 1: my problem. And so I didn't get my bag. Two questions. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I know, like you said, you've already told the
Speaker 1: story before, but this is the first time I'm hearing it.
Speaker 1: Um number one. Before you worked out that one of
Speaker 1: the engineers could bring it back and they got all
Speaker 1: that worked out. Were you just like, did you just
Speaker 1: make the mental decision to like say goodbye to everything
Speaker 1: in that bag? Was that what was going to happen? Like, well,
Speaker 1: I guess I'll never see that stuff again. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: just bought like a bunch of new hoodies because L
Speaker 1: s U was doing so well. So I was buying like,
Speaker 1: you know, gear from because I went to the SEC
Speaker 1: Championship in Atlanta the day before the game, so I
Speaker 1: had like a hoodie from that, and so I was like, well, man,
Speaker 1: that one. I'd rather have just ordered that online. I'm
Speaker 1: going to lose that money. So you're like, well, it
Speaker 1: was nice to have those things for all of twelve hours,
Speaker 1: so that was good. What's your other one? My other
Speaker 1: one was easily the most embarrassing because I wrecked a
Speaker 1: company car. What yeah, not, did you? No? I didn't
Speaker 1: know about the car? Was that here? No? It was
Speaker 1: at my other job back in Greenville, South Carolina. Went
Speaker 1: from I worked at a radio station, and uh, it's
Speaker 1: the only car accident I've ever been in actually, Um,
Speaker 1: but yeah, I was driving the one oh six three
Speaker 1: w O r D. It's like a news talk station van,
Speaker 1: and they had a bunch offorldable chairs and tables and
Speaker 1: they kept sliding around and I turned around to like
Speaker 1: I kept getting hit by one of the chairs. I
Speaker 1: turned around to move it, and when I looked up,
Speaker 1: I was going forty into the back of somebody. But
Speaker 1: luckily I was able to avoid total total. Uh yeah,
Speaker 1: it wasn't that bad. So but thankfully I didn't die
Speaker 1: or anything. But the guy was so nice to me.
Speaker 1: He thought that the one of six three the word
Speaker 1: he thought it was like a Christian radio stations. Correct him,
Speaker 1: You're like, correct him at all? I was like, please
Speaker 1: don't sue. I'm I'm with the Lord, don't mess with me. Well,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I mean, I guess it was a
Speaker 1: mistake to start with Matt because I don't know if
Speaker 1: we can top that. Well you got anything to top
Speaker 1: either of those. Well, so here's part of the thing
Speaker 1: with Matt's is or on both of them, is that
Speaker 1: it wasn't like a until he told it, you know,
Speaker 1: on on the podcast. It wasn't something that like everybody
Speaker 1: in the whole organization knew about, at least with like
Speaker 1: the bag stuff. Um so mine probably, I mean, there's
Speaker 1: been a number that I probably I am not going
Speaker 1: to share on the podcast, But the one that stands
Speaker 1: out to me that I still always tell was back
Speaker 1: my intern year. And I feel like in your intern year,
Speaker 1: just a lot of bad things happened to someone. Um
Speaker 1: but I was in charge of the like lunchtime radio interviews,
Speaker 1: so we'd get requests all week to set up you know,
Speaker 1: this guy on this radio, this guy on this and
Speaker 1: we would have to schedule them during their lunch break,
Speaker 1: which was always and which always ended, uh promptly with meetings.
Speaker 1: So you were like kind of always up against the
Speaker 1: clock to get a guy off of the radio. By
Speaker 1: the time that meetings started, you know, one forty or
Speaker 1: whatever it was. So there was like a bank of
Speaker 1: phones that we would like get guys on, and all
Speaker 1: of them were taken. Uh. And so I had Jeff King,
Speaker 1: who was just like the nicest guy ever. He was
Speaker 1: like the tight end, more like a blocking tight end
Speaker 1: and that O a team and he's like, finally we'll
Speaker 1: just we'll go and we'll go in another room. Wait,
Speaker 1: is it relevant that he was a blocking tight end
Speaker 1: or is he about to block for you or just
Speaker 1: get some context to the what you said? He said
Speaker 1: follow me, So I just was like, is he about
Speaker 1: to sho I just say things like that. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: Jeff King. So I'm following him down the hall um
Speaker 1: and you know, again, he's nicest guy ever, completely willing
Speaker 1: to do the interview. You know. It wasn't just like no,
Speaker 1: I'm not going to do it. So we've got maybe
Speaker 1: like five minutes, so I'm like telling the station people,
Speaker 1: we gotta be quick. But of course he goes into
Speaker 1: the quarterbacks meeting room and just picks up the phone
Speaker 1: and it's like, what's the number? And I'm looking around,
Speaker 1: and at this point, I'm like, oh no, this isn't
Speaker 1: gonna be good. All right, we gotta be real quick.
Speaker 1: And but who I'm not gonna tell him, you know, Jeff,
Speaker 1: we can't be in here, get out like he was
Speaker 1: the one that went in whatever. Yeah, you're just like
Speaker 1: praying it all works out, yeah, exactly. So I tell
Speaker 1: the producer like, we got four minutes. I gotta get
Speaker 1: him in and out, you know, I'm sorry, and oh yeah, share, share, share,
Speaker 1: and then so they do the thing, and after about
Speaker 1: like three and a half minutes, they they're like, oh, so, Jeff,
Speaker 1: tell me about this story from Virginia Tech back when
Speaker 1: you were there. And I'm like, oh my god, oh
Speaker 1: my god, oh my god. And of course, as soon
Speaker 1: as that happens, you just hear like the knob on
Speaker 1: the knob on the door, and I'm like, oh no,
Speaker 1: oh no. And of course who walks in but Jake alone.
Speaker 1: And Jake just looks around and he's ready to sit
Speaker 1: down and start his film study and start work. And
Speaker 1: here's Jeff King on his phone at his desk in
Speaker 1: the quarterbacks meeting room, and he just goes nuts, and
Speaker 1: like the quarterback room is right was right near kind
Speaker 1: of like the dining room at that point. So Jake
Speaker 1: closes the ord, goes back out and you could hear
Speaker 1: him screaming just about how the intern had taken over
Speaker 1: the quarterbacks room and what what's going on? Like screaming
Speaker 1: for my boss like it was. It was incredible. So
Speaker 1: from that standpoint, like the entire team knew about this one. Um,
Speaker 1: it wasn't just it wasn't just just me. So yeah,
Speaker 1: that was that was rough. And then like when I
Speaker 1: we when we finally finished, Jeff walked out like nothing
Speaker 1: had happened, he didn't care, and I walked out behind him.
Speaker 1: In my face, I'm sure I was just like, you know,
Speaker 1: pale as a sheet. It was. It was bad. What
Speaker 1: was the aftermath about, Like have you and Jake talked
Speaker 1: about that? I'm I don't remember. I'm sure he was.
Speaker 1: Jake has this thing where he kind of like half
Speaker 1: is always like half kidding and half serious at all times,
Speaker 1: so you can never quite under like tell how mad
Speaker 1: he ever really was at any point. He was just
Speaker 1: always you know, he always kind of had the Jake
Speaker 1: history onyx um, you know, as as it were, So
Speaker 1: I don't know, like I mean, by the next day
Speaker 1: he was fine. Um, but in the moment he certainly
Speaker 1: decided to make it known to everyone within earshot what
Speaker 1: was going on. I'm absolutely going to ask him. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: we gotta ask him about this at some point. This
Speaker 1: is amazing. Yeah, So I don't have my mine is
Speaker 1: going to be a letdown. I don't have. I've been
Speaker 1: very fortunate, like I was saying earlier, to not have
Speaker 1: a bad Twitter moment or a or a hot mic situation.
Speaker 1: With as much as I've worn a microphone, either with
Speaker 1: you know, studio shows or doing sideline, I've been I've
Speaker 1: been very lucky. Um. And and try to be smart
Speaker 1: about it, of course, But um, I don't know. So
Speaker 1: I'm trying to think of like embarrassing stories. I do
Speaker 1: have an intern story. So I was an intern for ESPN.
Speaker 1: This one is not nearly as good as as either
Speaker 1: of you guys, but I just remember being like, oh man,
Speaker 1: so is an intern for ESPN, And it's just a
Speaker 1: you know, huge privilege. A lot of people applied, got
Speaker 1: very lucky to to secure that internship and then eventually
Speaker 1: go on to work there. My first job out of college,
Speaker 1: and so the first day of the internship. They have
Speaker 1: um students from from all over and they really try
Speaker 1: to make it a big day where they take you
Speaker 1: around the campus. At least this is what they did
Speaker 1: when I was there, and um, you know, really show
Speaker 1: you everything and and make it fun. And then you
Speaker 1: get to work the next day and then you have
Speaker 1: a big last day as well. And so we're all young,
Speaker 1: you know, between junior and senior and college, and we've
Speaker 1: just never seen anything like this before, and so it's
Speaker 1: almost like camp or something is before we get into
Speaker 1: actually the actual work part of it. And so we're
Speaker 1: walking around and everywhere you walk it's just you know,
Speaker 1: this person from this show and this person from that show.
Speaker 1: And so we're all like this huge group walking into
Speaker 1: the cafeteria at ESPN and at the time, Colin Calherd
Speaker 1: and Michelle Beatle we're doing Sports Nation. That's how long
Speaker 1: ago this was. But they were like the biggest, the
Speaker 1: biggest deal, right, like the coolest, and so we come
Speaker 1: almost face to face with them outside there walking out,
Speaker 1: and we're all walking in and I'm just like talking
Speaker 1: to my friends and we look up and I'm like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, that's called Cowherd and Michelle Beatle why wow,
Speaker 1: And they're standing like right in front of me, and
Speaker 1: you could just see them going. Now, since I have
Speaker 1: had uh, wonderful relationships with with both of them, they're
Speaker 1: they're wonderful people, but they just like both look like
Speaker 1: what's going on over here? And then pretty soon immediately
Speaker 1: a feel like we're just like these obnoxious kids just like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, can you believe what's going on here?
Speaker 1: And um, this is so cool and just being way
Speaker 1: too loud. I'm sure there's like fifty of us, I guess,
Speaker 1: and um, like pretty quickly after that, they had us
Speaker 1: all together and they were like, hey, look guys, it's
Speaker 1: like the number one rule of ESPN. They're like, hey,
Speaker 1: look guys, just don't like like goggle at people like
Speaker 1: they're just here doing their jobs. So just you know,
Speaker 1: like act like you've been here before. Yeah, And that
Speaker 1: was I think I learned that like my second day.
Speaker 1: It's just like very obviously you would never do that.
Speaker 1: And I just I'm pretty sure that that speech happened
Speaker 1: because of me, because it was like standing in the
Speaker 1: pointing as I was walking by, like, oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: can you believe it? It's like when you get the
Speaker 1: company email about like hey, don't do X, Y and Z,
Speaker 1: and it's like, you know it's because of you. Well,
Speaker 1: that's never happened to me, Matt, But I'm alright, like, hey,
Speaker 1: remever to pack your bags because they're not going back
Speaker 1: to back everybody exactly. It would be like getting one
Speaker 1: of those emails. All right, this is a good place
Speaker 1: to leave it. Thank you for listening to the Happy
Speaker 1: Half Hour podcast, listening to us bear our souls about
Speaker 1: our most embarrassing or stories. Um, we will see you
Speaker 1: next week.