Speaker 1: This week on a Happy half Hour, the question about
Speaker 1: jac was never an ability, it was availability. In this year,
Speaker 1: he's in the top ten of the league and snap's
Speaker 1: played while missing an entire game. So the fact that
Speaker 1: jc Horn has proven he's got a thousand snaps in
Speaker 1: him in a year, I think that kind of takes
Speaker 1: care of that question.
Speaker 2: What's the cow wha?
Speaker 3: It's time for the Happy Half Hour, presented by Southern Star,
Speaker 3: an official bourbon of the Carolina Panthers.
Speaker 1: Here are your hosts.
Speaker 2: Darren Gant and Cassidy Hill.
Speaker 1: Hello friends, and welcome to the Happy New Year edition
Speaker 1: of The Happy Half Hour.
Speaker 2: Oh I like what you did there, I see what
Speaker 2: she did?
Speaker 1: Yeah, all things happy only happy today, Happy New Year,
Speaker 1: Happy half Hour.
Speaker 3: You know this brings up actually a quick question I've
Speaker 3: been wanting to ask you for a while because for
Speaker 3: whatever reason, I feel like you'll know the answer to it,
Speaker 3: and I just keep.
Speaker 1: Forgetting appreciate you giving me that much.
Speaker 2: Gad, what does old Lang's song mean?
Speaker 1: Old Lang sign?
Speaker 2: Yeah? That one?
Speaker 1: Yeah, Okay, we'll get to that later. So right now,
Speaker 1: I really we've got it. We've got to be grateful
Speaker 1: for the people who bring this fine show to all
Speaker 1: our listeners, the good friends at Southern Star. The Happy
Speaker 1: Half Hours presented by Southern Star, of course, an official
Speaker 1: bourbon partner of the Carolina Panthers, celebrate the spirit of
Speaker 1: the Carolinas and there's all kind of stuff to celebrate.
Speaker 1: It's Pro Bowl Day, ladies and gentlemen. J C. Horn,
Speaker 1: how about that?
Speaker 3: Well deserved? He has had quiet a year and a
Speaker 3: year that I think the Panthers were expecting God of
Speaker 3: him when he was drafted and just has had injuries
Speaker 3: stop him every step of the way. You know, something
Speaker 3: that a gerro have ever told him when he when
Speaker 3: he found out, was you know, you've had a long
Speaker 3: row to get here, just with injuries and then with
Speaker 3: the way teams play you.
Speaker 2: So this is well deserved, and he is right.
Speaker 1: It really is amazing, And it's amazing for a couple
Speaker 1: of reasons. I mean, Number one, this football team's four
Speaker 1: and twelve. Four and twelve teams generally do not get
Speaker 1: a lot of Pro Bowl recognition. Number two played zero
Speaker 1: primetime games this year, which means the vast majority of
Speaker 1: the people in the football world didn't see a lot
Speaker 1: of J. C. Horn this year. Number three, fan voting,
Speaker 1: which is a component of this thing, included only one
Speaker 1: Panther in the top ten, and that was Raheem Blackshear
Speaker 1: and kick returns. So I mean, any of the Carolina
Speaker 1: Panthers who got recognized at all got recognized by their peers.
Speaker 1: That was player and coach voting. And it goes to
Speaker 1: show that among that subset of people out there in
Speaker 1: the world, they look at J. C. Horn and say, yep,
Speaker 1: there's that guy.
Speaker 3: Yeah. That's a good point about the fan voting too,
Speaker 3: because you know, you also you good on social media
Speaker 3: and you see stuff and you think that that is
Speaker 3: the presuming thought, and you have to remember that that's
Speaker 3: often a vacuum because you know, you get on social
Speaker 3: media and you see one or two clips of JC
Speaker 3: versus Mike Evans and the end zone giving up a touchdown,
Speaker 3: and you think that was his whole season the way
Speaker 3: it's kind of shaped, and that narrative is shaped, and
Speaker 3: it really was not. That was the anomaly, not the
Speaker 3: standard for JC this year. He locked a lot of
Speaker 3: guys up. I think Dave can Alice said this yesterday
Speaker 3: and I'm like ninety eight point five percent sure he
Speaker 3: was correct.
Speaker 2: So I'm gonna go ahead and quote him on.
Speaker 1: This, and if it's you in math, I trust it implicit.
Speaker 3: Yeah, should have seen me trying to do a subtraction,
Speaker 3: probably in the press box the other day, and I
Speaker 3: think Darren almost got me a bottle of water.
Speaker 2: I was stressing myself out so much.
Speaker 1: There was smoke coming off your head.
Speaker 3: But Dave Canellis said yesterday that j C and Mike
Speaker 3: Jackson are are like the top corner duo and their
Speaker 3: ability to shut people down as a corner duo, and
Speaker 3: a lot of that, I mean, and a lot of
Speaker 3: credit to Mike Jackson for the season he's had, but
Speaker 3: a lot of that has to do with j C.
Speaker 2: Horn too.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no doubt, no doubt. And the question about Jac
Speaker 1: was never an ability, it was availability. And this is
Speaker 1: the year he has played fifteen games. He missed last week.
Speaker 1: Here's what's amazing about JC, and it's partly because this
Speaker 1: defense hadn't been terribly good across the board this year.
Speaker 1: JAC missed last week's game and is still tenth in
Speaker 1: the league in defensive snaps. Wow, he's in the top
Speaker 1: ten of the league and snaps played while missing an
Speaker 1: entire game. That just shows you. I mean, the dude
Speaker 1: was out there ninety seven point six percent of the
Speaker 1: snaps this year, one thousand and thirty six snaps. That's
Speaker 1: a season's worth for a lot of teams. And if
Speaker 1: the Panthers can get better on defense, they won't play
Speaker 1: that many snaps in the future. So the fact that
Speaker 1: j C. Horn has proven he's got a thousand snaps
Speaker 1: in him in a year, I think that kind of
Speaker 1: takes care of that question. And I always always felt
Speaker 1: bad when j C was portrayed. You know, a lot
Speaker 1: of times when guys have injuries that are different things,
Speaker 1: it's like they get painted as injury prone. Somebody would say,
Speaker 1: Austin Corbett's injury prone. Well, he toren ACL and then
Speaker 1: he popped a biceps tenant, How are these two things
Speaker 1: related with JC Hornet was a broken foot the following year,
Speaker 1: he comes back, plays most of the year, breaks his
Speaker 1: wrist tackling somebody on his zero degree day out here
Speaker 1: against the Lions. How are those two things connected? They're not,
Speaker 1: you know, but he is able to come back from
Speaker 1: all this stuff, you know, which is just unlucky.
Speaker 2: I'm about to say it may be unlucky.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's just bad luck a lot of times. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's like with you know, if it's always one soft
Speaker 1: tissue thing over and over and over and maybe you're
Speaker 1: doing something wrong. But when it's three different things, you
Speaker 1: kind of throw up your hands and say, you can't
Speaker 1: blame somebody for that. So, you know, Dave Canal has
Speaker 1: talked about that with us. Yesterday, you got their story
Speaker 1: on Panthers dot com. Everybody ought to check out about
Speaker 1: the way JC got to this point, and you know,
Speaker 1: he talked about you could see the plan, you could
Speaker 1: see his plan, the way he worked it, the way
Speaker 1: he stayed true to it all off season, you know.
Speaker 1: And Jonathan Cooley, the cornerbacks coach passing game coordinator, talked
Speaker 1: about it too, said you could you see it on Sundays,
Speaker 1: but where you really see JC make that step is
Speaker 1: on Wednesdays. And it's the way he works and the
Speaker 1: way he shows up daily. And I think there is
Speaker 1: a common thread to what the Carolina Panthers are trying
Speaker 1: to build here. And if you look at who they've
Speaker 1: invested in this offseason, it was Derrick Brown. Was Dereck
Speaker 1: Brown known for a being great his job right, b
Speaker 1: showing up every day and being at the front of
Speaker 1: the line for work. Chewba Hubbard was Cuba.
Speaker 3: Do stays two hours more than everyone else and just
Speaker 3: keeps working.
Speaker 1: He just stays working and he puts in the time.
Speaker 1: And so I think Dave Canalis has kind of got
Speaker 1: this sort of culture of grinders going. I mean, look
Speaker 1: at the people who defined this team. It's Cuba Hubbard,
Speaker 1: it's Adam thiel and your Walter Payton Mann of the
Speaker 1: Year nominee for this team. Feeling's the patron saying of
Speaker 1: undrafted dudes. Yes, and he's got a you know new
Speaker 1: flock to shepherd now around this place, and Jalen Cochr
Speaker 1: and Dan Schas and all the you know, undrafted fling
Speaker 1: youth that's running around this place and get T shirts.
Speaker 1: And now you take j C. Horn, who is a
Speaker 1: pedigree athlete, I mean son of Joe Horn. He was
Speaker 1: born to be this guy in the NFL. And he
Speaker 1: pairs that ability, that talent, that stuff that's so easy
Speaker 1: to see with the kind of work ethic that the
Speaker 1: grinders like Chewba Hubbard and Adam Thielen in those dudes
Speaker 1: all respect. So I think he and Derek are two
Speaker 1: examples of that. Yeah, you're good at football, but you
Speaker 1: also work like a guy who.
Speaker 3: Was undrafted, right, And you mentioned Jonathan Cooley in there too.
Speaker 3: Got to throw a little credit his way to like
Speaker 3: the way he he runs those dB drills and practices
Speaker 3: is impressive and a grind as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and Cooley came from the Rams. You know, he's
Speaker 1: had Jalen Ramsey in the past. You know, he knows
Speaker 1: what it's like to coach those guys who were that guy.
Speaker 1: And I mean just to listen to him talk about
Speaker 1: JC and what he's done so far this season, it's
Speaker 1: been impressive. But uh, j C is the only Pro
Speaker 1: bowler on this roster. But there are a couple other dudes,
Speaker 1: and we and we've mentioned a few of them, but
Speaker 1: the highest I mean, and it's alternates. And now that
Speaker 1: it's Pro Bowl games and it's not an actual game
Speaker 1: that people try to get out of actively, a lot
Speaker 1: of the alternates don't go as much as they went to.
Speaker 1: But I do think it's instructed the Cats that got
Speaker 1: the alternate recognition Number one being Rob Hunt. Yeah, you
Speaker 1: know again, pedigree athlete a hundred million dollar free agent contract.
Speaker 1: You kind of expect certain things, but look at the
Speaker 1: job he's done this year.
Speaker 2: I didn't know if that was the pause for audio.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no reason, So that that was me offering you
Speaker 1: a chance to say nice things about Rob Hunt.
Speaker 3: For some reason, that seemed like the pauls you usually
Speaker 3: do for audios.
Speaker 2: If I was waiting, so.
Speaker 1: We're waiting for podcasts. Matt in the background to give
Speaker 1: that quiz a look like one of I suppose it.
Speaker 1: But here, ladies and gentlemen, we've taken you behind the
Speaker 1: curtain again. You're at the happy half hour. This is
Speaker 1: how your sausage gets made.
Speaker 3: Oh, I need to finish my coffee before I come
Speaker 3: do these things. Blame JJ Janssen for this, but I
Speaker 3: blame JJ for a lot of things.
Speaker 1: You would have been on time and prepared and ready
Speaker 1: for these quick transitions and this snappy cater and rep artel.
Speaker 2: I blame Darren Bates more than JJ. On that one.
Speaker 3: I was standing in line for the almond milk coffee
Speaker 3: machine that's the one I need, and somebody was finishing
Speaker 3: up their coffee. My hands got sticky from the syrup,
Speaker 3: and I turned around to wash it, and in the
Speaker 3: ten seconds it took me to wash my hands. I
Speaker 3: turned back around. Darren Bates, it snuck into the almond
Speaker 3: milk goofee machine.
Speaker 1: You people in your fancy coffee, Darren Bates deserves preferential treatment. Well,
Speaker 1: we'll get our coffee in when we can. And if
Speaker 1: you just drink trucks out black like I do you
Speaker 1: want ever have a life, you can just get out
Speaker 1: of the pot. So Robert Hunt, Rob Hunt.
Speaker 3: Everybody like you said about JC with the fan voting
Speaker 3: and it being more his peers, I think a lot
Speaker 3: of peers look around and they see Robert Hunt as
Speaker 3: one of the better tackles, I mean guards in this league.
Speaker 3: And they would be right. I want to say, no
Speaker 3: Sacks giving up this year. That was heading in that No,
Speaker 3: that was even after the Bucks game.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean he's put up how much stock you
Speaker 1: choose to put into PFF, you know, pressure ratings and
Speaker 1: all that kind of stuff. Rob's rated really highly my
Speaker 1: PFF and it's well learned. But I think one of
Speaker 1: the things he's done is len a personality to this team.
Speaker 1: I mean, if you think back to that Vegas game
Speaker 1: when he got out on the screen and just flattened
Speaker 1: something threw him out of the club. That was that
Speaker 1: moment when it's like, oh God, that guy's different. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we ain't seen one like that. I mean last year
Speaker 1: was the year of the revolving door at guards seven
Speaker 1: on the left, eight on the right, and instead of that,
Speaker 1: you get big old Robert Hunt running down the field
Speaker 1: throwing dudes out of the club.
Speaker 3: He is everything you want in an offensive lineman. He
Speaker 3: can flatten guys, He can flatten them at will. He's tenacious,
Speaker 3: he won't he won't give up on a block, and uh,
Speaker 3: that's what you want when you have somebody protecting your
Speaker 3: quarterback and then as soon as the helmet comes off,
Speaker 3: sometimes a little earlier.
Speaker 2: Than it might need to.
Speaker 3: As we picked on him about recently, he's one of
Speaker 3: the most you said, he's lend a personality to this team.
Speaker 3: He's also lent a personality to this locker room. And
Speaker 3: I know that has nothing to do with Pro Bowl holding,
Speaker 3: Pro Bowl voting, but it is why his teammates love him,
Speaker 3: and probably why teammates around the league, you know when
Speaker 3: he was with the Dolphins, love him as well. But yeah,
Speaker 3: he's you go and just watch the film sometimes of
Speaker 3: Robert Hunt, and he doesn't stop, and he'll We had
Speaker 3: him micd up for a game and you go watch
Speaker 3: that miked up. It's so funny because it's like he's
Speaker 3: talking to the defensive lineman he's blocking them, and he's like, no, no, no,
Speaker 3: you're not gonna get in. You're not gonna get in.
Speaker 3: I'm stopping you this like you ain't. Oh you thought
Speaker 3: you got me, but you didn't. Like he's like teasing
Speaker 3: him as he does it. Yeah, and that you know
Speaker 3: you can't help but love that. It's probably even if
Speaker 3: you're a defensive line, but it's probably fun to play
Speaker 3: against a guy like that.
Speaker 1: Rob's good people, He's uh, he has you know. Like
Speaker 1: I said, he's shown up and he's done the thing.
Speaker 1: And he's been good at football for a long period
Speaker 1: of time. Again, nine hundred and sixty seven snaps this
Speaker 1: year and he's played every single one of them.
Speaker 2: He's the impressive.
Speaker 1: He's the only dude on offense who's played every snap
Speaker 1: this season. So it's it's been good. I mean Panthers.
Speaker 1: You know again, last year's offensive line was kind of
Speaker 1: a mess, the way guys were getting hurt and it
Speaker 1: was just this guy or after this guy, I mean
Speaker 1: a constant procession of dudes through that room. This year,
Speaker 1: they've gone from sixty five snap our sacks allowed to
Speaker 1: thirty six I think thirty six for the you know,
Speaker 1: basically cut your sacks in half, and again you'll spend
Speaker 1: one hundred and fifty million bucks on Rob hunting, Damian Lewis,
Speaker 1: you expect that to get better. But I do think
Speaker 1: there's a carryover effect that when you stabilize the middle
Speaker 1: at you know, all of a sudden, nobody's yelling about
Speaker 1: ikey Akwanu nearly as much as they used to. You know,
Speaker 1: you realize how good Taylor Moten is on Sundays when
Speaker 1: he's got big Rob stand next to him.
Speaker 3: Makes it that really more than almost any other unit
Speaker 3: on the field is required of a full unit. I
Speaker 3: wonder what those sack numbers are if you take out
Speaker 3: the two Tampa Bay games where they just blitz Bama
Speaker 3: blitz the whole time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I mean thirty six thirty six on the season.
Speaker 1: Eleven of them come in two games against Dallas and Tampa. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that kind of got away from him in a lot
Speaker 1: of ways. But but you know, I think it's the
Speaker 1: thing you want to build on going into next year,
Speaker 1: when you've kind of figured out over the course of
Speaker 1: this year that Bryce you Young, can in fact play football.
Speaker 1: He's pretty good at quarterbacking. You found out that this
Speaker 1: year that that next Pro Bowl alternate, Cuba Hubbard, pretty
Speaker 1: good at football, almost twelve hundred yards ten touchdowns this year.
Speaker 1: You know he's a fourth alternate. But again, this is
Speaker 1: Chewba Hubbard, a fourth round pick who was a backup
Speaker 1: and then a backup, and then they bring people in
Speaker 1: left and right around him, and all he's done is
Speaker 1: turn himself into that guy.
Speaker 3: Who was ahead of him. Because on one hand, you're
Speaker 3: sentting here going fourth alternate Chewbo Hubbard after the year
Speaker 3: he's had. But on the other hand, he plays in
Speaker 3: the NFC where Saquon Barkley plays, where Bucky Irving plays. Sure, uh,
Speaker 3: who else would have been ahead of him?
Speaker 1: Bah blah blah. I'm trying to I'm pulling up the
Speaker 1: rosters while you.
Speaker 2: Pulled us up. Let me ask you a philosophical question.
Speaker 1: It'll hit me.
Speaker 2: Do you think Saquon Barkley should be allowed to play
Speaker 2: on Sunday?
Speaker 1: I think if Saquon Barkley wants to play you know,
Speaker 1: here's the thing, They've got bigger goals. So I'm okay
Speaker 1: with teams doing what's best for the entire team. I
Speaker 1: appreciate Saquan wanting to pursue his individual blah blah blah,
Speaker 1: But at the same time, I mean, there's a team
Speaker 1: thing happening here. And if he goes out and gets
Speaker 1: stinged up this week and in available to the Philadelphia Eagles.
Speaker 1: I think we've seen over the course of the year,
Speaker 1: we've seen, specifically in a game against Carolina Panthers, that
Speaker 1: the Eagles can only run the ball and beat somebody, right,
Speaker 1: that they don't have to pass. So you know, I
Speaker 1: would put the team goals ahead of his individual. But
Speaker 1: you know that's just me. I understand him being a
Speaker 1: little salty about it too.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I completely understand what you're saying and do agree.
Speaker 3: That's got to be a tough one to swallow it though,
Speaker 3: when you realize how long that's been standing and that
Speaker 3: nobody's really sniffed it, or at least not this close. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and he's what two hundred away? Yeah, I mean that
Speaker 3: would be tough to get in a game.
Speaker 1: Right if he was thirty yards away from some Milestone.
Speaker 1: I could see letting him play the first quarter and
Speaker 1: then get him on out of there doing the cam
Speaker 1: Ord thing. But at the same time, I mean, when
Speaker 1: it's two hundred, come on, But that would be tough, great,
Speaker 1: great year anyway, your NFC running backs or Sakwon Barkley,
Speaker 1: jamiir Gibbs, Josh Jacob so we.
Speaker 2: Can okay, does make sense, So we can.
Speaker 1: Reasonably assume that Bucky Irving is somewhere in there after
Speaker 1: a pretty brilliant.
Speaker 3: He's recentcy biased on my mind, you know, and that's fine.
Speaker 1: I mean the fact that Chewba Hubbard's getting recognized at
Speaker 1: all because again, this guy is the grinders, grinder, I
Speaker 1: you know, I perhaps overvalue work ethic guys and overachievers
Speaker 1: and stuff like that.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's kind of good thing to overvaluate.
Speaker 1: It's kind of My personality always lends itself to seeking
Speaker 1: out those kind of people, and that's why it's cool.
Speaker 1: Teams need to have a lot of grinders and a
Speaker 1: lot of overachievers. They also need to have talent, so
Speaker 1: it's good when you're talented. Players like Derrick Brown, like
Speaker 1: j C. Horn also happen to hang with the with
Speaker 1: the grinders. But Cuba is just anything he's gotten as
Speaker 1: a player, from a starting job to a bunch of
Speaker 1: yards to a contract extension, he has earned and he
Speaker 1: is earned just by staying late and showing up early
Speaker 1: and doing all those little things right to find out, Oh,
Speaker 1: by the way, he happens to be good at football.
Speaker 3: This is going back to something we were saying just
Speaker 3: a second ago. Eight of the top ten rushers in
Speaker 3: the league. Really, nine of the top eleven are all
Speaker 3: in the NFC. Yeah, so that was gonna be a
Speaker 3: tough one to break through this year. The other two
Speaker 3: are are Derrick Henry and Taylor India.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so you go Sakwon, Kiren Williams, Bijon, Josh Jacobs,
Speaker 1: Demir Gibbs. Yeah, it stacks up on that one side
Speaker 1: pretty good. And then you got Bucky Arvin, James Connor,
Speaker 1: I mean, different dudes. So it's tough. But again, to
Speaker 1: be on a four and twelve team that never shows
Speaker 1: up on primetime, no love in the fan voting, I
Speaker 1: think speaks to the fact that people around the league
Speaker 1: recognize him. The other the other alternate, Johnny Hecker, is
Speaker 1: this a lifetime achievement? Alternate Award maybe, but that's okay
Speaker 1: because Johnny Hecker has been the punter of a generation.
Speaker 1: When you get all decade honors for the twenty tens,
Speaker 1: you know, people are gonna remember that is Johnny the
Speaker 1: same guy he was when he was in his early twenties. No,
Speaker 1: I mean he's almost JJ Jansen's a well, not quite,
Speaker 1: but he's getting up there and he's not Johnny Hecker anymore.
Speaker 1: But we've seen this year. I mean he keeps stacking
Speaker 1: up punts inside the twenty and I mean I can
Speaker 1: think off the top of my head or two or
Speaker 1: three immediately where he lays one down at the twobe
Speaker 1: in San.
Speaker 2: Franco lemannic John Washington, Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know there was one against the Chargers where
Speaker 1: it's like Boom lays it on the one and he's
Speaker 1: you know, he's still got that ability. Does he still
Speaker 1: have the same physical leg strength he used to have?
Speaker 1: Maybe not, But at the same time, he he's good
Speaker 1: for the room because a he's still good at punting.
Speaker 1: He's also got an arm.
Speaker 2: I had to say. He also presents the threat.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he creates opportunities for the special teams. I mean,
Speaker 1: you have to honor his ability to pass. And that's
Speaker 1: something you say about exactly one punter in the NFL,
Speaker 1: and it's John Hecker. So good for Johnny for getting
Speaker 1: a little of the fifth alternates hunters people too. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't know that there's any bonus
Speaker 1: money or any even a plaque for fifth alternate. But
Speaker 1: we should go by and give Johnny laurel and hearty handshake.
Speaker 2: Laurel. That's funny, and that's a good one. Derek.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's blazing Saddles. That should be required watching for
Speaker 1: you in the off season.
Speaker 2: You also don't want to rest on your laurels.
Speaker 1: You never do. You never do, and we do not.
Speaker 2: And I have seen blazing saddles.
Speaker 1: There you go. Well, it's uh, there's one week of
Speaker 1: football left. We get to go to Atlanta on Sunday
Speaker 1: to see our friends in Atlanta, and let's go ahead
Speaker 1: and get that one wrapped up. I mean, I don't
Speaker 1: mean to minimize it. And listen, Dave Canalis is right.
Speaker 1: I love the fact, as someone who appreciates the work
Speaker 1: ethic part of this thing, I love the fact that
Speaker 1: Dave's like, Hey, whoever's ready to play is going to play.
Speaker 1: If that's Miles Sanders coming back off I r. You know,
Speaker 1: after a what six week absence to get back on
Speaker 1: the field, you need running backs, so go play. And
Speaker 1: I think that's part of the larger culture Dave's trying
Speaker 1: to build there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, eight weeks right week.
Speaker 1: Ten, we were in Germany the last time we saw
Speaker 1: Miles on the field, and Miles one of those dude.
Speaker 1: He's a good dude. He's come into it. He came
Speaker 1: here as part of a weird situation. I mean, he
Speaker 1: was part of the plan of a previous administration that
Speaker 1: didn't necessarily fit with a lot of other parts and
Speaker 1: found himself in a weird spot. But you know, Miles
Speaker 1: has never really publicly been a pain, right. He's always
Speaker 1: in a locker room, always shown up, been a good
Speaker 1: locker room guy. And that's not easy when you get
Speaker 1: one of those guys who's kind of crossed up in
Speaker 1: the timeline with coaches and gms.
Speaker 3: And Miles was a little bit of a victim this
Speaker 3: year of a really, really good Chuba Hubbard season, and
Speaker 3: that happens at times. But someone that coaches have always
Speaker 3: admired that Dave Canaliss has always mentioned is wanting to
Speaker 3: be involved when he can be, so you know, he
Speaker 3: gets he gets one week to kind of be the
Speaker 3: guy if he's back out there. That's something that we
Speaker 3: do have to temper expectations with because they do want
Speaker 3: to get him on the practice field again today, which
Speaker 3: is Thursday. That's kind of their high intensity day of
Speaker 3: the week. We use those terms loosely at this time
Speaker 3: of year, but to just kind of see what he
Speaker 3: can do, because you know, with the high ankle sprain
Speaker 3: when you're running back, you need to kind of see
Speaker 3: if they can cut, what they can turn things like that.
Speaker 3: He'll be on turf and a dome this weekend. I'm
Speaker 3: sure that's taken into account. But you know, a team
Speaker 3: that you can feasibly run against. So it's it's gonna
Speaker 3: be interesting in this game for all intentsive purposes. Does
Speaker 3: still matter in terms of you know, the Falcons have
Speaker 3: to win if they want to be able to get
Speaker 3: to the playoffs. Yep, Panthers win, it effects seating for
Speaker 3: next year, right, and so you know it's it's not
Speaker 3: just a complete wash of a game. And of course
Speaker 3: you want to keep building something I.
Speaker 1: Should and listen, I mean all the things the Panthers
Speaker 1: are trying to do are more cultural than you know, tangible.
Speaker 1: I mean, there is no playoff. As you mentioned, they
Speaker 1: could still be the third place team in the NFC South,
Speaker 1: depending on the way some tiebreakers go. If they win
Speaker 1: Saints Louse, they could still be the number three. That
Speaker 1: means some difference in schedule. That means you get Dallas
Speaker 1: instead of the Giants. That means tripp to Green Bay
Speaker 1: instead of trip to Chicago next year, stuff like that
Speaker 1: draft position. Obviously, there are nine teams stuck with three
Speaker 1: or four wins right now, so draft order could change
Speaker 1: dramatically in the next couple of days. So we'll have
Speaker 1: all that for you at Panthers dot com. But you know,
Speaker 1: mostly they just want to finish this thing on a
Speaker 1: high note and avoid some really ugly records.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: The Panthers defense this year, as you might be aware,
Speaker 1: has struggled and they were sitting in some pretty unfortunate
Speaker 1: spots on the all time list for yards rushing, yards
Speaker 1: and points allowed. Right now, they're the seventh highest on
Speaker 1: the points allowed to list with a game to play,
Speaker 1: so you know, hopefully those guys are able to avoid
Speaker 1: a lot of that stuff. Hopefully everybody stays healthy and
Speaker 1: then we can get on into the offseason part of
Speaker 1: the program.
Speaker 3: And I think too, they just want to leave fans
Speaker 3: with a good taste in their mouth.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: That was something that can Alice talked about before the
Speaker 3: final home game, was we want to leave the Charlotte
Speaker 3: crowd with something good to remember. And then they did
Speaker 3: that with that overtime win versus the Cardinals. You know,
Speaker 3: because you look at some of the games this season,
Speaker 3: even that were losses, but you can come out of
Speaker 3: them feeling good. You don't really go into the off
Speaker 3: season feeling good after that Tampa Bay game, No, So
Speaker 3: you want to leave with a better on a better.
Speaker 1: Note, right, And again I think thematically, if we draw
Speaker 1: the curtain on the twenty twenty four season after the
Speaker 1: Cardinals game, I think that would suit most. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: we'll get through that one and we'll get on to
Speaker 1: the off season next week. And it is it crawled
Speaker 1: up on us. We got through almost eighteen of these things, now, didn't.
Speaker 2: We I don't know if we're through them yet, but
Speaker 2: we're close.
Speaker 1: We're close. I can I can see it at the
Speaker 1: end of the tunnel.
Speaker 3: Well, you can see that my Netflix series or meaning
Speaker 3: like you know, whenever I'll sit down after the season.
Speaker 1: Yeah, when it's over and it's close, so it is.
Speaker 1: It's it's weird. I wish the schedule lined up so
Speaker 1: like at the end of a calendar year was also
Speaker 1: the end of a football season that kind of stuff. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but anyway, it's New Year's It's what day is this?
Speaker 1: This is January? Second. Second, I always laugh around the
Speaker 1: holidays and like with New Years, I mean, because people
Speaker 1: go out and celebrate and stuff, and I'm like, it's Tuesday. Yeah,
Speaker 1: i gotta be at work tomorrow at a reasonably early hour,
Speaker 1: so I'm not gonna go out and do all that
Speaker 1: kind of stuff. Anyway. I'm also a very very old person,
Speaker 1: so it's.
Speaker 2: Uh, you're not that old.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but yeah, know, here we are, it's Thursday. We're
Speaker 1: recording the Happy Half Hour. Oh we got jukebox being
Speaker 1: a jukebox.
Speaker 2: You didn't give me a song last week?
Speaker 1: Yeah, no I didn't. I neglected to, but you had
Speaker 1: me listening to Taylor Swift's New Year's Eve, New Year's Day,
Speaker 1: New Year's Day, Yes, New Year's Day. You described that
Speaker 1: as your favorite Taylor Swift song.
Speaker 2: Tael me no no, no, no no no.
Speaker 3: I said, it's my favorite of her love songs. Okay,
Speaker 3: because not all of her songs are love song.
Speaker 1: That's fair. That's fair.
Speaker 3: I like it because you said, tell me why. I
Speaker 3: like it because it's more of the so many of
Speaker 3: her songs are like big, and it's a little bit simpler.
Speaker 3: It's just the piano and then there's like a guitar
Speaker 3: at the end, and it's just kind of like, even
Speaker 3: when everything, even when all the fun stuff is over,
Speaker 3: I'm still gonna be here with you. And there's like
Speaker 3: one line in it that's like, don't read the last page,
Speaker 3: which I do in a book. So it's like kind
Speaker 3: of funny, and it's like, but I'll stay when it's hard,
Speaker 3: or it's wrong, or we're making mistakes, and it just
Speaker 3: kind of sounds like a vow to me. It also
Speaker 3: has what I think is maybe one of the saddest
Speaker 3: lines she's ever written, which is funny to throw the
Speaker 3: saddest line she's ever written into a love song. Do
Speaker 3: you know what's one I'm thinking of? Go ahead, it's
Speaker 3: the please don't become a stranger? Who's laugh I could
Speaker 3: recognize anywhere.
Speaker 1: Right, And here's where I got hung up on this song.
Speaker 1: Listening to it, I was like, one of the things
Speaker 1: that weirds me out about a lot of Taylor Swift
Speaker 1: songs is she approaches a lot of her songs almost
Speaker 1: pleading with dudes. Yeah, or you know, or somebody who
Speaker 1: is an international boss lady who has made more money
Speaker 1: than probably anybody in the world in the last couple
Speaker 1: of years. On this era's tour, it's like, claim your agency, girl,
Speaker 1: you are the one in charge. You decide if you
Speaker 1: want to date Travis kelce or whoever. You shouldn't be
Speaker 1: asking dudes to please, don't go please days.
Speaker 2: A lot of Swifties.
Speaker 3: Like her and Travis Kelcey because it felt like the
Speaker 3: first relationship where the guy realized like, holy crap, I'm
Speaker 3: dating Taylor Swift right, and appreciated the person and the
Speaker 3: superstar because that wasn't because you know, for that, it
Speaker 3: was all tortured artists who were like, so what, You're
Speaker 3: the biggest pop star who cares?
Speaker 1: Yeah, there you go. That's that's the way I am.
Speaker 1: When I go home, I look at my wife and
Speaker 1: I'm like, how could I possibly attained this? You know?
Speaker 1: And I'm I'm fortunate to Taylor. I wish Taylor would
Speaker 1: embrace her.
Speaker 3: So many people, especially like women, will like the songs
Speaker 3: and identify with them because we're not the world's biggest
Speaker 3: pop star and so there is a little bit of
Speaker 3: like feeling and connected to it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but you're a star in your own right.
Speaker 3: Ca.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Darren.
Speaker 1: And I tell as father of a daughter, I try
Speaker 1: to tell him all the time. You are you deserve
Speaker 1: exactly what you deserve. So don't make my daddy. Don't
Speaker 1: settle for something you know, don't don't just attach her
Speaker 1: somebody just to be attached. To make sure it's good
Speaker 1: for you, and make sure they treat.
Speaker 2: It a therapy session really quickly.
Speaker 1: Oh, it's like, come on, Taylor, get it together girl.
Speaker 2: See this is what Taylor does. She brings out feelings.
Speaker 1: Yeah we can you talk about things? Yeah we we
Speaker 1: don't do we want to talk about things on the
Speaker 1: Happy half hour talk about feelings or would we? Would
Speaker 1: we rather talk about football and eggnog and cool stuff
Speaker 1: like that?
Speaker 2: Football is feelings. I don't know, I don't know. It
Speaker 2: just sounded good.
Speaker 1: I feel some kind of way. We'll have to uh,
Speaker 1: We'll have to get to the bottom of that next week,
Speaker 1: but we will. The Falcons first, the Falcons first, the Falcons,
Speaker 1: and we'll be back next week to wrap up a
Speaker 1: Falcons game, wrap up a twenty twenty four twenty twenty
Speaker 1: five season, and get on to what's next here on
Speaker 1: the Happy hap Out