Speaker 1: Hi, this is Dewey Jenkins. After my four years in
Speaker 1: the Navy, you're an A and I moved to Charlotte,
Speaker 1: even though neither of us were from here. I was
Speaker 1: from the Mountains of Virginia and she was from Florida,
Speaker 1: but we agreed that Charlotte was where we wanted to
Speaker 1: build our future together. I was a full time student
Speaker 1: at U n c C by day and ran a
Speaker 1: janitorial business that night. And a few years later I
Speaker 1: bought a little air conditioning company and that's how I
Speaker 1: met you, and I'm really glad I did. It's time
Speaker 1: for the Happy Half Hour with your friends Kristen Belboni
Speaker 1: and Will Brian presented by Morris Jenkins. That's right, it's
Speaker 1: that time of the week, the Happy Half Hour podcast
Speaker 1: presented by Morris Jenkins, and Mr Jenkins told me that
Speaker 1: he loves football and he looks forward to the show
Speaker 1: all week. When you're plumbing her air conditioning is after up.
Speaker 1: Called Morris Jenkins or visit Morris Jenkins dot com. Kristen
Speaker 1: here with Will and Matt and Uh. It's been quite
Speaker 1: an interesting week here in Charlotte. It started on Saturday
Speaker 1: night the Panthers going up to Green Bay, playing the
Speaker 1: Packers close, but ultimately not getting it done. Another one
Speaker 1: score loss for this young team. Then on Monday, the
Speaker 1: team parted ways with general manager Marty Hernie and now
Speaker 1: they are getting ready to face the Washington Football team
Speaker 1: and former head coach Ron Rivera. So many what a week? Many?
Speaker 1: Where do we start? Where do we start? Let's start
Speaker 1: with the Marty Hernie news. It was the end of
Speaker 1: his contract coming up um last year on his contract,
Speaker 1: and it just seemed like from everything that owner Dave
Speaker 1: Pepper said, it was time. It was you know, his
Speaker 1: contracts was not going to be renewed at the end
Speaker 1: of the season, and maybe in both parties interests um
Speaker 1: to go ahead and let it happen now when he
Speaker 1: had made the decision, so that they could both start
Speaker 1: to look elsewhere. I think that many people expected something
Speaker 1: like this maybe to have happened last year. You know,
Speaker 1: a new owner comes in, you know, he gets a
Speaker 1: new head coach. You you kind of think that he's
Speaker 1: going to just do everything new. And I think one
Speaker 1: of the things that I give uh Dave Tepper a
Speaker 1: lot of credit for was that he understood kind of
Speaker 1: this is a long game. This is a long process,
Speaker 1: and it can make things that much more difficult if
Speaker 1: everyone's new, if everyone's coming in and there really isn't
Speaker 1: any sort of expertise or knowledge of you know, here
Speaker 1: he is. This is an NFL owner, has only been
Speaker 1: in one or two years as a you know, full
Speaker 1: fledged owner, you know, a college head coach that's only
Speaker 1: spent you know, a couple of years with the Giants
Speaker 1: as an assistant. You know, Marty Hernie knows how this works,
Speaker 1: and especially in a year with you know, a pandemic,
Speaker 1: with all the things that we're going on. You know,
Speaker 1: I thought that his words about that in the last
Speaker 1: couple of days we're really telling of how much he actually,
Speaker 1: I mean, I think those are sincere. He really did
Speaker 1: value um the experience and the ex artist that that
Speaker 1: Marty Herney had this year to help this group. But
Speaker 1: now I think, you know, he still wanted to bring
Speaker 1: in and to develop you know, kind of a scouting
Speaker 1: in general manager and operations system department. That really kind
Speaker 1: of reflected the way that both he and Matt and
Speaker 1: in this whole kind of group kind of wanted to
Speaker 1: see going forward. Yeah, I agree, I thought the the
Speaker 1: things he said about Marty Herney were very sincere and
Speaker 1: Coach Rule as well. You know, I talked to him
Speaker 1: and he spoke to the media, and he said he's
Speaker 1: learned a lot from him and really has I think,
Speaker 1: really a lot of regard for for Marty and their
Speaker 1: time together and helping him get settled, and he said
Speaker 1: he's taught him a lot. And so I think it's
Speaker 1: you know, I think everyone is gonna part ways, um
Speaker 1: with good memories and good experiences and certainly, you know,
Speaker 1: wish the best to Marty, and I think it's it
Speaker 1: sounds to me like he and Coach Rule will keep
Speaker 1: in contact and that's a good relationship that they can
Speaker 1: leave on. But um, it just seemed as as Dave
Speaker 1: Tepper said, it was said, we learned a lot, you know,
Speaker 1: Matt Rule and I learned a lot. But it was
Speaker 1: a time to graduate. And it's very hard to get
Speaker 1: first round draft picks right. It is very difficult. And
Speaker 1: you look at these drafts that that um, Marty Hernie
Speaker 1: has been in charge of. There's been a lot of
Speaker 1: really really good first round draft picks that were exactly right,
Speaker 1: you know, exactly it. But I think, you know, we
Speaker 1: were talking about before. There's there's more to this job,
Speaker 1: and there's especially more to this job now. I think
Speaker 1: maybe you know, maybe than ten years ago or fifteen
Speaker 1: years ago, than the NFL Draft, than seven picks. There's
Speaker 1: there's so much more in terms of running an organization
Speaker 1: and running a part of an organization, running departments, running
Speaker 1: all these things that that take more than just scouts,
Speaker 1: scouting reports and picking some players in April UM. And
Speaker 1: I think that's part of of what this decision is.
Speaker 1: It's really kind of building a foundation and building an
Speaker 1: entire top to bottom organizational group that really kind of
Speaker 1: reflects you know, and and a letics and day and
Speaker 1: all that stuff kind of gets thrown around. I think
Speaker 1: it's tools. It's those are just more tools. There's more
Speaker 1: tools that need to be in the toolbox and need
Speaker 1: to be integrated. UM in a more specific way, I
Speaker 1: think is what it is. It's not just I think
Speaker 1: people were asking, all right, what what what what analytic number?
Speaker 1: Like is there like a number that says like this
Speaker 1: player is really good? And then old panther stats guy
Speaker 1: over here is like, please come on, there's not there
Speaker 1: not there was one number everyone would use it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's it's just more tools, and it doesn't mean
Speaker 1: that there's an answer. It just means that there's more
Speaker 1: at your disposal. Yea more holistic approach, considering a lot
Speaker 1: more things as you make any decision. But you mentioned
Speaker 1: the draft and and those first round picks that he's
Speaker 1: brought in here and has gotten, right, I thought it
Speaker 1: would be a good time to talk about this past draft, um,
Speaker 1: because it kind of matches up we're talking about what
Speaker 1: Marty Hernie does so well with UM that game in
Speaker 1: green Bay, you know, I was looking at that D
Speaker 1: line and you had to aggress Monto's Derek Brown, braveon
Speaker 1: Roy and then Brian Burns out there for almost the
Speaker 1: entire game with a very young, thin D line and
Speaker 1: they had five stacks on Aaron Rodgers after UM. You know,
Speaker 1: green Bay had only given up fourteen on the season,
Speaker 1: and that's you know, that's not the whole picture. There's
Speaker 1: certainly things that that these young guys can improve on,
Speaker 1: and this defense can improve on as a whole. But
Speaker 1: then you know, you look back and there's there's Jeremy
Speaker 1: Chin out there as well, and Matt Rule talked about
Speaker 1: that and Marty trading up for him, and he's in
Speaker 1: contention to be the defensive rookie of the year. I
Speaker 1: think this defense, UM, especially those guys that were drafted,
Speaker 1: really you know, Matt Rule said, he said they're going
Speaker 1: to be called on early. I wish that wasn't the case.
Speaker 1: This was in April when he said this. I wish
Speaker 1: that wasn't the case. But that's the way things are
Speaker 1: right now, and every single one of them has been
Speaker 1: and you know, braveon Roy out there, six rounder looks good,
Speaker 1: and I just I think this young defense is really
Speaker 1: coming on, and I think those draft picks, those seven
Speaker 1: guys are a part of it. UM. But I've been
Speaker 1: I've been impressed with the growth that these young guys
Speaker 1: have shown over the last three or four games. Again,
Speaker 1: still far from perfect, still a lot of work to do,
Speaker 1: but I think it is heartening, Will and I wanted
Speaker 1: to know what you think, to see the improvement, to
Speaker 1: see them starting to settle in UM and be able
Speaker 1: to make big plays. Back in I think it was
Speaker 1: November we were talking about, you know, what are we
Speaker 1: looking for here? I think it was, you know, after
Speaker 1: the Panthers were maybe officially eliminated from the playoffs, right,
Speaker 1: So what are we playing for? What do we what
Speaker 1: do we look to see in the next four games?
Speaker 1: And you know, I was like, you want to win,
Speaker 1: you want to play well, you want to set a
Speaker 1: tone for next year. And I think you know, the
Speaker 1: winds haven't necessarily come and there's a there isn't Well
Speaker 1: we can talk about later. There's an upside there close
Speaker 1: to picking third in the draft. I mean, there's an
Speaker 1: upside to that. But there are specific areas of play
Speaker 1: that you are seeing momentum being built. You know, this defense,
Speaker 1: it went from giving up third down conversions what of
Speaker 1: the time for most of the season, it's down to
Speaker 1: thirty percent. It was the last couple of weeks over
Speaker 1: the last three or four weeks, yeah, four weeks I think,
Speaker 1: and you know, going into the Green Bay game. So
Speaker 1: their third down numbers over the last three weeks going
Speaker 1: into the Green Bay game, where like you said, around
Speaker 1: the quality of opponent was not quite to the level
Speaker 1: as some of the other teams that they had played,
Speaker 1: the Chiefs, the Buccaneer, So you go, okay, well, but
Speaker 1: then they were going up against the second best third
Speaker 1: down offense and the potential NFL m v P UM
Speaker 1: in this game, and they after those first few what
Speaker 1: was it they started out after that? Yeah, it was,
Speaker 1: and I think I think it was the total. The
Speaker 1: last numbers were five for twelve. I'm just we're saying
Speaker 1: random stats right now. It's great, great well researched here
Speaker 1: on the Happy Half Hour podcast presented My worst Jackens.
Speaker 1: But that is that's improvement. And I think that also
Speaker 1: gives those guys confidence and being able to get to
Speaker 1: UM get to the quarterback as well, which is something
Speaker 1: that they struggled with early on this year. I think
Speaker 1: we're starting to see consistent improvements in those areas. And
Speaker 1: one thing I will shout out shout out to that
Speaker 1: group is they did it the five sacks on six blitzes,
Speaker 1: which was the best like sacked to blitz ratio in
Speaker 1: the NFL last week. And that speaks to a what
Speaker 1: Phil Snow has always said, you have to be able
Speaker 1: to get home with four. You've got to be able
Speaker 1: to get home with four and I have to send
Speaker 1: six or seven. And it means that against Aaron Rodgers
Speaker 1: and Davante Adams in this you know vaunted pass, Dante
Speaker 1: Jackson played really well. Those guys back there you know
Speaker 1: there are result Douglass. Those guys had a lot of
Speaker 1: pressure on them and they were able to hold it
Speaker 1: down until Brian Burns and f A and Derek Brown
Speaker 1: could get there. And I think that's it takes all
Speaker 1: of that. You know, it's not just the pass rush.
Speaker 1: If you if you give up something on the back end,
Speaker 1: you can be a half second away every time. But
Speaker 1: someone's open and they get the pass off. So good
Speaker 1: for them too. You know, they came up, they made hits,
Speaker 1: they were physical. Um, they had really good coverage against
Speaker 1: a really really really good passing offense. Okay, so now
Speaker 1: what do we do you know this next week? How
Speaker 1: do you continue to carry that on? I think that's
Speaker 1: that's the challenge and that's the uh, the thing we
Speaker 1: want to see. Yeah. I was talking to Matt Rule
Speaker 1: earlier this week and I asked him about this defense.
Speaker 1: I said, are you seeing the things that that I'm seeing, Um,
Speaker 1: you know, the consistent improvement, guys starting to get comfortable
Speaker 1: and he said yeah. He said, I think some of
Speaker 1: our young players are playing the best that they ever
Speaker 1: have And I think that's great. Um, but you're right
Speaker 1: in terms of it's got to carry over. I think
Speaker 1: it has been building, but you want to see them
Speaker 1: finish out the season strong. And I think that was
Speaker 1: where Um, when you talk to Matt Rule earlier in
Speaker 1: the season, if it you know, if it was penalties
Speaker 1: in one game, it was third downs in another game.
Speaker 1: And I'm not just talking defense, but you know, with
Speaker 1: a young team and with implement in this new way
Speaker 1: of playing and not having those preseason games or O
Speaker 1: t A s, you know, they'd have a good showing
Speaker 1: in one category and then it'd be something else situationally,
Speaker 1: and it feels like they're starting to move toward well,
Speaker 1: certainly not perfect, um, more consistency. And he said this
Speaker 1: a lot they when you've lost this many what is it,
Speaker 1: eight nine in a row, you know, four and four
Speaker 1: and ten. Now we haven't lost well the Lions. Sorry, hey,
Speaker 1: that was that was a shutout in the NFL. Sorry,
Speaker 1: sorry about that. Mean, but when when you've lost like this,
Speaker 1: it is really hard to kind of keep bringing it,
Speaker 1: to keep coming. And that's the thing that while there
Speaker 1: have been mistakes, there have been penalties, there have been
Speaker 1: um miss assignments or that there have been things like that,
Speaker 1: but there hasn't been hasn't been a lack of effort,
Speaker 1: I think on defense and and especially when you see
Speaker 1: those guys show up in Lambeau in they're flying around
Speaker 1: and they're hitting people hard, and they're you know, they're
Speaker 1: really engaged with us, which is exactly what you need.
Speaker 1: Like you just you have to stay engaged. You have
Speaker 1: to stay really amped to to do this job at
Speaker 1: the highest level. Well, one of those guys that is
Speaker 1: doing this job at the highest level for a rookie
Speaker 1: is Jeremy Chin. Um, he's gonna be I mean they're
Speaker 1: not playing against each other, of course, but you know,
Speaker 1: he and Chase Young the two front runners for a
Speaker 1: defensive Rookie of the Year. They know that they're playing
Speaker 1: against each other this week in this game, and you've
Speaker 1: got to think that it's it's on their minds and
Speaker 1: they're still both trying to make their last push. Where
Speaker 1: do you think it stands right now? I know it's
Speaker 1: hard for us to say because because we're on you know,
Speaker 1: we're Panthers employees. But but just objectively, Panther stats guy,
Speaker 1: what do you think I was a little worried this week,
Speaker 1: not because of chin but because Chase Young made the
Speaker 1: Pro Bowl over Brian Burns. And I think to me
Speaker 1: that shows kind of you know, it's obviously there's some
Speaker 1: different elements that go into this. There's Pro Bowls more
Speaker 1: of a popularity contest. You know, the voters for defensive Player,
Speaker 1: the Rookie of the Year are a little bit more
Speaker 1: engaged with the sport, you know, a little bit more informed. Um.
Speaker 1: But yeah, the fact that like Burns had such better
Speaker 1: stats and they're playing the same position, it's like these
Speaker 1: are directly comparable. Um. And but I feel like people
Speaker 1: are they know about Chase Young, he's kind of been
Speaker 1: very flashy this year, you know, and us someone people
Speaker 1: knew about in college. You know, he came out, you know,
Speaker 1: he was a you know, no one knew about Chin.
Speaker 1: It's taken it's taken the second half of the season
Speaker 1: for Chinn to really get on people's right. Really the
Speaker 1: Minnesota game for kind of a national audience, you know,
Speaker 1: with the two touchdowns, so it's kind of been it's
Speaker 1: kind of been late. And the fact that Washington is
Speaker 1: winning there, you know, they if they go to the playoffs,
Speaker 1: you know, that could be a deciding factor if they're
Speaker 1: similar enough. Because the problem is those two. They play
Speaker 1: different positions, so you can't compare tackles to tackles. You
Speaker 1: can't compare you know, interception. It's just a little bit different. Well,
Speaker 1: we'll see what happens. I mean, regardless they're both having
Speaker 1: great seasons, um, and and whether you know one of
Speaker 1: them takes it away over the other, I mean they
Speaker 1: should both still just be incredibly proud and it's exciting
Speaker 1: to see both of their careers UM developed at this
Speaker 1: next level for both of them. But I know they
Speaker 1: both wanted of course you you wanted UM, all right,
Speaker 1: But let's talk about this game as a whole here
Speaker 1: on the Happy Half Hour podcast presented by Morris Jenkins.
Speaker 1: But quickly Mr Jenkins told me his plumbers in a
Speaker 1: c text secretly where Panthers jerseys under their uniforms. When
Speaker 1: you're plumbing or air conditioning is acting up, called Morris
Speaker 1: Jenkins or visit Morris Jenkins dot com. So, um, Panthers
Speaker 1: facing the Washington football team, facing Ron Rivera, facing Thomas Davis. Well,
Speaker 1: you know I wasn't here for that era. I was
Speaker 1: a fan UM during that time and have have great
Speaker 1: respect certainly for both of them. UM, But I know
Speaker 1: you have been here for for quite a while, and
Speaker 1: I just was wondering what kind of personal stories, um,
Speaker 1: do you have about either one of those guys or
Speaker 1: what does this mean you know that that they're facing
Speaker 1: them right now. I think that Thomas Davis will always
Speaker 1: continue to kind of be this, um, this kind of
Speaker 1: bedrock of what Panther football really was. Uh. He's someone
Speaker 1: that you know, I over the course of all of
Speaker 1: these last several years, of all of these big time
Speaker 1: names and faces leaving the organization at different points, that
Speaker 1: one really hurt. That one hit really hard, UM, and
Speaker 1: you know this one, this one is gonna be it
Speaker 1: was it was. I was glad we didn't have to
Speaker 1: face the Chargers last year when he was playing for them.
Speaker 1: But this this one's gonna be tough. I'm not sure
Speaker 1: how much he hasn't played in every game this year, um,
Speaker 1: but just seeing him on the field talking to our guys,
Speaker 1: it's gonna mean a lot. You know, Thomas was someone
Speaker 1: that you know, he was he was he was mature
Speaker 1: when he was young. He was the old man in
Speaker 1: the locker room when he was like twenty two, and
Speaker 1: he kind of always carried himself that way and you
Speaker 1: just you know, you immediately he's the guy right there.
Speaker 1: He kind of always had that to him and when
Speaker 1: he walked in the room, very mature beyond his years, right,
Speaker 1: But I mean that that was what Thomas was for.
Speaker 1: I mean, two thousand five to two thousand and eighteen,
Speaker 1: that's a long time to be the face of you know,
Speaker 1: there's there were a lot of faces, but I think
Speaker 1: Thomas really represented that for me. And of course, you know,
Speaker 1: Ron Rivera, he ingratiated himself in this community. You know,
Speaker 1: like he was out everywhere. He was, um, he was
Speaker 1: someone that for all of the tough times when you
Speaker 1: know he had to uh not battle, but you know
Speaker 1: he had to go at it with reporters at different times.
Speaker 1: You know, like his last press conference, long time gritty
Speaker 1: sports reporters had tears in their eyes, you know. And
Speaker 1: I think that that speaks to that speaks to all
Speaker 1: of it, um of kind of the impact and the
Speaker 1: relationships that that someone can have in a community and
Speaker 1: everything he's been through and and just his fight and
Speaker 1: hearing people around the office who have checked in with him,
Speaker 1: it's it's great to hear that that he's doing well.
Speaker 1: It's just been quite a year for him. But I
Speaker 1: will say, as I said, I was not here with
Speaker 1: the organization UM to work with either of those guys.
Speaker 1: But two things stand out to me. Number One, I've
Speaker 1: never heard anyone here say a bad word about Ron Rivera,
Speaker 1: people that have worked with him for for years and years,
Speaker 1: And I just think that's that that right there is it?
Speaker 1: You know, that's the mark of who he is. And um,
Speaker 1: I just think that's incredible, what a what a great
Speaker 1: person to have led the Panthers for as long as
Speaker 1: he did and now to lead the Washington football team
Speaker 1: and happy for their success that they're having this season.
Speaker 1: And then with Thomas Davis, UM I I got to
Speaker 1: talk to him once. It was during the schedule release show,
Speaker 1: did the digital show, and he came on this show.
Speaker 1: We had people from from different teams and he came
Speaker 1: on and did the Panthers schedule release show. I just
Speaker 1: thought that was the coolest, you know, and just couldn't
Speaker 1: have been nicer and more gracious. But then also I
Speaker 1: can't remember, I want to say, maybe it was KK
Speaker 1: that was on at the time. We paired up different players.
Speaker 1: Um we had um Christian McCaffrey and Tyron Matthew to
Speaker 1: talk about the Chiefs game, and then I want to
Speaker 1: say it was Thomas Davison and KK, but I can't
Speaker 1: quite remember off the top of my head with us
Speaker 1: being so long ago. But you know, he was also
Speaker 1: just like, oh, I got this one circled, like don't
Speaker 1: you don't you worry, Like this one's gonna be fun.
Speaker 1: Can't wait for you guys to come up here. But
Speaker 1: I just thought that was a mark of just a
Speaker 1: very classy guy. And you could tell how excited that
Speaker 1: um that KK was to talk to him, and the
Speaker 1: other guys that were on with me, you know, Jake
Speaker 1: and people that knew him well were excited to talk
Speaker 1: to him. Um, don't know, good memories. It'll be nice
Speaker 1: to get to see all of the interactions and see,
Speaker 1: you know, old friends get to to say hello. He
Speaker 1: is a guy that I think very few people in
Speaker 1: any organization can really say this, but he's someone that
Speaker 1: he spans generations of of a team, of an organization,
Speaker 1: of a fan base, of of all of it. You know,
Speaker 1: he's he's like the pre Twitter guy, you know, like
Speaker 1: he's he's you know you talked to like you think
Speaker 1: about the Hall of honor guys like he's Jake's class.
Speaker 1: I mean he came in two years after Jake was here.
Speaker 1: I he played with Jake for like four years, and
Speaker 1: then he's playing with Cam and then he's playing in
Speaker 1: almost you know this kind of like after that. It
Speaker 1: was he just spans all of these iterations of what
Speaker 1: this franchise has been. Um, and I think, I think
Speaker 1: that's really cool. That's that's a great point. I hadn't
Speaker 1: thought about it that way. But you're absolutely right, all right,
Speaker 1: Is it is it that time of the week for
Speaker 1: Will's stat at the week? I think it's that time?
Speaker 1: All right? What do you got for us? The time
Speaker 1: picks instead of the week? So last week we talked
Speaker 1: about Robby Anderson d J. Moore. Both of them became
Speaker 1: one thousand yard receivers in the same game at Green Bay,
Speaker 1: just the second time in franchise history that we had
Speaker 1: a pair of wide receivers that both had a thousand
Speaker 1: receiving yards in the same season. It's really really special
Speaker 1: for those guys. This week, Mike Davis is thirteen scrimmage
Speaker 1: yards away from one thousand scrimmage yards, so rushing and receiving.
Speaker 1: But you know that might seem okay, but we've only
Speaker 1: ever had three guys with a thousand scrimmage yards in
Speaker 1: this season once before. Yes, it's only ever been to
Speaker 1: except for two thousand nine. We're in Jonson Stewart, Dangel Williamson,
Speaker 1: Steve Smith all had a thousand. So this could be
Speaker 1: a really like a really special year from that standpoint
Speaker 1: in terms of Robby Anderson, DJ Moore, Mike Davis, the
Speaker 1: trio of one thousand yard players one K club. That's
Speaker 1: great and that's great for Mike Davis too, and what, um,
Speaker 1: what a what's the right word? I was gonna say,
Speaker 1: just like what a surprise? Surprise doesn't feel like the
Speaker 1: right word, because yeah, just what a gift that he's
Speaker 1: been to the Panthers in the absence of Christian McCaffrey,
Speaker 1: which is something you know, Christian McCaffrey's never had to
Speaker 1: deal with injury before, and we didn't know a lot
Speaker 1: about Mike Davis. And I remember at training camp, um,
Speaker 1: you know, the he had people standing on the table
Speaker 1: for him saying like this is gonna be He was
Speaker 1: one of those training camp guys that they were like, oh,
Speaker 1: we're really impressed. And as you know, sometimes those those
Speaker 1: guys pan out or sometimes they just end up having
Speaker 1: a good training camp. And I just think it's it's
Speaker 1: all due to his hard work and the way that
Speaker 1: he plays, and um, but I just think it's that's great.
Speaker 1: I hope I think he will get there, of course,
Speaker 1: but um, I hope he gets recognized for that because
Speaker 1: he's just been, um, a great player for this team
Speaker 1: all year long when they needed it most. All Right,
Speaker 1: something to keep an eye on for next week. If
Speaker 1: the Panthers get a third down stop in the third
Speaker 1: quarter during a home game, so that'll be the game
Speaker 1: against the Saints, last game of the season, one lucky
Speaker 1: fan will win a smart home smoke and carbon monoxide
Speaker 1: detector the Morris Jenkins protect and Check sweepsticks. If the
Speaker 1: Panthers get a fourth down stop in the fourth quarter,
Speaker 1: that same fan will also be going home with a
Speaker 1: fifteen hundred dollar gift card. And as we've been saying,
Speaker 1: those third down stops are are happening, So make sure
Speaker 1: you go to UH contest dot Panthers dot com for
Speaker 1: more details on how you can enter. All Right, we'ren
Speaker 1: take a quick break and we're coming right back with
Speaker 1: our Weird Question of the Week Holiday edition. Hi, this
Speaker 1: is Dewey Jenkins. After my four years in the Navy,
Speaker 1: Renee and I moved to Charlotte, even though neither of
Speaker 1: us were from here. I was from the Mountains of
Speaker 1: Virginia and she was from Florida, but we agreed that
Speaker 1: Charlotte was where we wanted to build our future together.
Speaker 1: I was a full time student at U n c
Speaker 1: C by day and ran a janitorial business that night,
Speaker 1: and a few years later I a little air conditioning company.
Speaker 1: And that's how I'm met you, and I'm really glad
Speaker 1: I did. Alright. Back here on the Happy Half Hour podcast,
Speaker 1: it's time as always for the Weird Question of the Week,
Speaker 1: and we were like, look, we gotta do it. We
Speaker 1: gotta go holiday style. You have a question for us, So,
Speaker 1: best and worst Christmas presents you've received over your lifetime,
Speaker 1: something that really stands out. Now, this is gonna sound weird.
Speaker 1: I'm not a big gift person like we typically do.
Speaker 1: My husband I experiences well before when we could have experiences. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm not a big like little gifts person.
Speaker 1: I don't you know, care about getting them. You know
Speaker 1: that kind of thing. Um, we'll typically do something maybe
Speaker 1: a trip or a weekend away or something like that,
Speaker 1: and that's what we'll give to each other. Um. So
Speaker 1: I'm sure I'm missing some stuff, but I was racking
Speaker 1: my brain. I'll start. How about we all start with best.
Speaker 1: That sound good? Okay? So one year when I was
Speaker 1: a kid, I want to say, it's like I was
Speaker 1: maybe five or six, and this is not I don't
Speaker 1: know if this qualifies as best. I'm sure I've gotten
Speaker 1: something way cooler, but it just stands out to me.
Speaker 1: So I, um, I had just one for whatever reason,
Speaker 1: I had won a contest and received a new bike.
Speaker 1: Like it was just like you enter your name and
Speaker 1: you get a bike, and I was like, this is awesome.
Speaker 1: It came like two days before Christmas. But then my
Speaker 1: parents had already gotten me a bike. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: like with the little tassels and the handlebar. It was
Speaker 1: like my first because I wanted to learn how to
Speaker 1: ride a bike. And they were like, you know, they
Speaker 1: put it out there on Christmas Day. They were like
Speaker 1: we know that you just want a bike, but we
Speaker 1: you were so excited and we had this for you.
Speaker 1: And I was like, this is great. I've got two bikes. Um.
Speaker 1: I would go after school to where my dad worked.
Speaker 1: I was like, we'll put one there, and you know
Speaker 1: when there, And then we went to my grandmother's house
Speaker 1: a little bit later that day and my mom comes
Speaker 1: up to me and she's like, when you see your aunt,
Speaker 1: she's gonna give you something like just act surprised. And
Speaker 1: my cousin had out grown her bike, so then they
Speaker 1: roll this other bike up. I got three bikes in one.
Speaker 1: It was also I wrote every single one of them.
Speaker 1: I was. It was like I was on crips, like
Speaker 1: I just like, which one do I want to take
Speaker 1: out today? Um. So that's the thing that stands out
Speaker 1: to me, Matt, what's yours? Um? The thing that first
Speaker 1: comes to mind is I guess it was two thousand five.
Speaker 1: L s U was playing Georgia in the SEC Championship
Speaker 1: in l s U got cream. D J. Shockley was
Speaker 1: a quarterback for Georgia. They're very good. Uh so, yeah,
Speaker 1: they beat us really badly and it was like a
Speaker 1: couple of weeks before Christmas. And when I was a kid,
Speaker 1: I would get like I would cry when ls you
Speaker 1: would lose. It would like ruin my weekend, like I
Speaker 1: would get really invested. And my dad felt so bad
Speaker 1: for me that he went and got my present early
Speaker 1: and it was um an L s U helmet like
Speaker 1: a game warn helmets, and he gave that to me.
Speaker 1: And so that's the one that I still have it
Speaker 1: on my bookshelf at home. So that would probably be
Speaker 1: the gift that I've kept the longest, and I think
Speaker 1: about the most. I suppose did it smell sweaty when
Speaker 1: you got it? Yeah? You know it's authentic right there,
Speaker 1: So let me make sure it's game more all right? Um? Okay,
Speaker 1: so my mine can't compare to that, but it's in
Speaker 1: a similar vein. So this is more because of the
Speaker 1: age that I was that I thought it was the
Speaker 1: coolest thing ever. So I think this was two, so
Speaker 1: I was six and obviously is kind of the heyday
Speaker 1: of the Dallas Cowboys, um pre Carolina Panthers. So I
Speaker 1: got the I can't remember who made it, but you know,
Speaker 1: like the full uniform, the helmet, the shoulder pads like
Speaker 1: the plastic helmets, the plastic helmet, the plastic shoulder pads
Speaker 1: like the knee pads, the thigh pads in the pants,
Speaker 1: the whole Dallas Cowboy number eight uniform. That is pretty sweet.
Speaker 1: And yeah, I worred around all day on Christmas. I
Speaker 1: think at one point I got in trouble because I
Speaker 1: went outside and had all of the pads and helmet
Speaker 1: on and decide it to run into a tree to
Speaker 1: see how it would because I didn't have anyone to hit,
Speaker 1: so I kept running. My My mom binally like saw
Speaker 1: me out the widow and came and like screamed to
Speaker 1: get me. But yeah, I had the whole thing, just
Speaker 1: like running around because I was like an only child,
Speaker 1: so I didn't have people to play with. So here
Speaker 1: I am in my Troy Aigman uniform just running into things.
Speaker 1: We have pictures of these. I was to say, it's
Speaker 1: it's because all your neighbors thought you were crazy just
Speaker 1: running into tree. Yeah that tree kid? Again, do not
Speaker 1: still have that? I don't have that one. I will
Speaker 1: say that hasn't lasted the test. That's funny that both
Speaker 1: of yours were football related. Alright, worst, um, I guess
Speaker 1: i'll since we're going around in a circle, I will
Speaker 1: go first. Again. This is not this is why I
Speaker 1: said my little caveat which is I don't think this
Speaker 1: is probably the worst president I've ever gotten, but again
Speaker 1: this is like memorable. So my now husband we started
Speaker 1: dating in college and I so I grew this just
Speaker 1: when we had to have like a like a conversation
Speaker 1: about how we're gonna handle Christmas gifts for now. And
Speaker 1: so I grew up in a house I don't know
Speaker 1: about you guys where my mom was like, if you
Speaker 1: don't like something, please tell me, because I would hate
Speaker 1: for you to keep it and pretend that you like it.
Speaker 1: Let's put that like, let's get you something that you love, um,
Speaker 1: rather than like spend that money towards something that you're
Speaker 1: never going to use or that you didn't want. You know.
Speaker 1: So just like honesty was always the best policy, Like
Speaker 1: that's how you showed um, like love in the family
Speaker 1: around Christmas was just like being honest so that everyone
Speaker 1: knew that you were really happy with the thing that
Speaker 1: they put their hard earned money into kind of thing. Um. So,
Speaker 1: my um boyfriend at the time now husband got me
Speaker 1: this perfume and it was just like it smelled, I
Speaker 1: mean it was I think it was like very expensive
Speaker 1: and he had gone to the trouble of going to
Speaker 1: to get it and um, I think he really liked it,
Speaker 1: and you know, went to the counter and spent spent
Speaker 1: a good amount of money on it, and I was like,
Speaker 1: this is really It was like one of those you know,
Speaker 1: expensive like a Gucci or a wi Is it like
Speaker 1: it's something and I was like, this is really expensive.
Speaker 1: He spent a lot of money on this, and I
Speaker 1: just couldn't. I did not like the smell. I was like,
Speaker 1: I I'm gonna have to do I say something, do
Speaker 1: I not like, you know, And so I tried to
Speaker 1: wear it a couple of times and I just was like,
Speaker 1: oh no, I can't do like I can't. This is
Speaker 1: a big bottle of perfume, Like I can't, you know.
Speaker 1: And so that was just the time where we had
Speaker 1: to have the conversation of like I have to tell
Speaker 1: you I don't like this, Like I don't know how
Speaker 1: you're gonna take it. We're just starting to date. But
Speaker 1: if you yeah, I I know you like it, but
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna be wearing this. So it's either gonna go,
Speaker 1: you know, back behind the medicine cabinet or you know,
Speaker 1: you're gonna ask me about it. And so that was
Speaker 1: just I just remember that being like I did not
Speaker 1: know how it was going to go. Um, and it
Speaker 1: was fine. I mean, it was all fine. But now
Speaker 1: he just knows. Now we have learned to check with
Speaker 1: each other in terms of things. But I don't think
Speaker 1: he grew up in a house old where you were
Speaker 1: just like honesty was the best policy, you know. It
Speaker 1: was um that was just like not. It was just
Speaker 1: very different. And so we had to, you know, figure
Speaker 1: those things out, like you gotta figure out where you
Speaker 1: go for the holidays. You had to figure out how
Speaker 1: you're going to handle when someone gets you something that
Speaker 1: you don't like. So that's the one I remember. I
Speaker 1: don't know if I have a worst gift that at
Speaker 1: least I have had plenty of boring gifts, but um,
Speaker 1: nothing that that sticks out or anything like that. Will
Speaker 1: you go first? Maybe I'll think of something, but I
Speaker 1: don't know. Yeah, so mine isn't like bad bad, It's
Speaker 1: more kind of funny. So you know, obviously, Uh, in
Speaker 1: the last ten years have been living around the country,
Speaker 1: and so it would just come home um for Christmas
Speaker 1: for like two days to see my parents and um
Speaker 1: in some family. So we would do like opening gifts
Speaker 1: like in the evening after dinner, and um, I think
Speaker 1: one year. So I came back and like some of
Speaker 1: the guests had left. It was just kind of like
Speaker 1: immediate family, and so I'm going to like change out
Speaker 1: of like my more dress, your clothes that we wore
Speaker 1: for lunch. So I go back into like the room
Speaker 1: that had and I guess I realized I had left
Speaker 1: the previous year's gift, which was, um, like pajama pants
Speaker 1: are kind of like lounge pants in the room in
Speaker 1: Charleston the entire year. I'm like, oh, well, you know,
Speaker 1: perfect time to wear them and you'll come back out
Speaker 1: it's nice and cozy. So I put on the pants,
Speaker 1: come back out. What is the first gift? They give
Speaker 1: me the exact same pair of lounge pants because they
Speaker 1: forgot that they did it the year before. Because it's
Speaker 1: always it's every year. It was always just kind of
Speaker 1: like the thing to give and kind of the family
Speaker 1: and extended family was like warm socks and pajama pants.
Speaker 1: I don't know why I was. I mean, I was
Speaker 1: just like, well, look, I guess I'm wearing them, and
Speaker 1: everyone just thought it was hilarious. I'm like, yeah, I
Speaker 1: can bet what I'm getting next year, did you did
Speaker 1: you take them back with you? There's still just like
Speaker 1: every year, there's just an extra pair of there's just
Speaker 1: an extra tire down there. Yeah. I think I think
Speaker 1: I kept one out of like the six years that
Speaker 1: I've gotten pajama pants still, And I bet I know
Speaker 1: what you're getting this year. All Right, this was a blast,
Speaker 1: Thank you guys, and uh, happy holidays everybody. We'll see
Speaker 1: you next week.