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Speaker 1: It's time for a Happy half Hour with your friends
Speaker 1: Kristin Balboni, Miles Simmons, and Will Brian. Hey, everybody, welcome
Speaker 1: to the Happy Half Hour Podcast presented by Morris Jenkins.
Speaker 1: That's right, you've got Miles Simmons here on the mic.
Speaker 1: I am starting this thing off today because we're doing
Speaker 1: a little something different. We wanted to do the more
Speaker 1: you can do, and I think that melds well into
Speaker 1: what is the last week of the preseason here, and
Speaker 1: so because of that, you've got all kinds of guys
Speaker 1: trying to fight for their last spot on the fifty
Speaker 1: three man roster. So we're maybe doing a couple of
Speaker 1: things differently this week. So I'm gonna be hosting at
Speaker 1: least for right now until maybe I mess something up.
Speaker 1: But we've also got Will behind the board as the producer. Will,
Speaker 1: how are you today? I'm great? How's your levels right now?
Speaker 1: You know what? I think that they're pretty good. But
Speaker 1: also we got to go to Kristen now, who is
Speaker 1: in the booth of shame, And honestly, I think I
Speaker 1: should always probably be there, but this week, miss Belboni,
Speaker 1: Mrs excuse me. I don't want to insult your husband.
Speaker 1: How are you? It was good until you insulted my husband. No,
Speaker 1: I am great. I am taking one for the team.
Speaker 1: I'm in the booth of shame. I've handed over my
Speaker 1: podcast hosting duties to you, Miles, because look, I'm a
Speaker 1: team player. I'm trying to be versatile, you know. So
Speaker 1: if it's if it's me taken second, Mike and Will producing, Um,
Speaker 1: I might throw a little analysis and who knows. We're
Speaker 1: all just trying to be Corey Vedvick, right, We're all
Speaker 1: just trying to be Jeremy Chin. We're trying to make
Speaker 1: that fifty three man roster and show off what we
Speaker 1: can do. I would actually say Myles Heartfield. You know,
Speaker 1: he does have a Hall of Fame caliber. First name,
Speaker 1: isn't that right? Matt, who is usually our producer. But
Speaker 1: today you're at the mike, aren't you. I am, I
Speaker 1: met the mike, and uh, I don't I still feel
Speaker 1: like I have the same type of involvement. He got
Speaker 1: upgraded to the table and he's he's still just you know,
Speaker 1: I'm just sitting here. Yes, but that is Here's the
Speaker 1: thing though, as we go through this, I think that
Speaker 1: all we want to do is just make sure that
Speaker 1: everybody knows that we can be as versatile as anybody else,
Speaker 1: because we're professionals, aren't we aren't we all professionals speak
Speaker 1: for yourself. I mean, I have I get paid. I
Speaker 1: don't know what that means. I don't know if it's
Speaker 1: get paid to do this. Do I need to have
Speaker 1: like stats? Do I need to be will should I
Speaker 1: have to sticks? Yeah? I mean, just make sure make
Speaker 1: sure make sure they're not wrong. Because I got called
Speaker 1: out on something this morning. Wait, what was that? So?
Speaker 1: I was looking through the media guide and I thought
Speaker 1: that this year's Thursday night home game against the Falcons
Speaker 1: was the first time we've ever hosted them in primetime.
Speaker 1: Someone on Twitter reminded me that it happened in in
Speaker 1: October the one other time. Well, can I just say,
Speaker 1: how dare you? How dare you go on Twitter without
Speaker 1: remembering that game? Wow? I feel very ashamed. You should
Speaker 1: be very ashamed, you know. And that's okay, though, Will,
Speaker 1: because again, it's the more you can do, right I mean, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think I'm doing a great job producing right now.
Speaker 1: I think you are too. And every everybody's audio goes
Speaker 1: out every time Miles says that. I think of that
Speaker 1: NBC commercial where it was like the more you know,
Speaker 1: and it was thought I thought we were doing the basketball.
Speaker 1: Now we lost. Your podcast is going off the rails here.
Speaker 1: I'm checking in from the booth of shame over here. Well,
Speaker 1: you know what, Kristen, I think that because it's going
Speaker 1: off the rules, you should probably take back over because
Speaker 1: I don't know how to get this back on the
Speaker 1: rules from being Matt. I'm gonna switch with you. Is
Speaker 1: that okay? That would be perfect? I want my I
Speaker 1: want my seat back. You come do this thing, do
Speaker 1: this thing, produce our podcast, Come do this thing. That
Speaker 1: was fun while it lasted, it I'm still in the
Speaker 1: booth of shame over here. But that's okay, that's okay. Um,
Speaker 1: that was that was fun of fun exercise in versatility.
Speaker 1: But we do want to get to everything that's been
Speaker 1: going on here this week. Um. It's officially not training
Speaker 1: camp anymore. Going by the schedule, we are now in
Speaker 1: regular season mode. Miles stop, Yeah, what do you mean? Why?
Speaker 1: Why stop? I'm not ready yet. I'm not ready. You
Speaker 1: better get ready? Wait? What are you not ready for?
Speaker 1: Everything that? I'm not ready at all. We're supposed to
Speaker 1: have games where we like test things out and make
Speaker 1: things like break and then we fix them because they
Speaker 1: don't count, you know, Like you know, it's it's just
Speaker 1: as much of a preseason for us as it is
Speaker 1: for the players. You want that preseason for everybody. Thing.
Speaker 1: Need I need a game three? I need a game four.
Speaker 1: Game four was a nice relaxing sort you wear the
Speaker 1: polo shirt to the press box, started a game. Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: well here do you guys? I mean usually when you
Speaker 1: go through preseason, like is for one of those games
Speaker 1: where you're going on the road, Like, how far do
Speaker 1: you usually have to go in game four? Okay, it's
Speaker 1: always Pittsburgh every single year. Actually I should know that.
Speaker 1: I remember reading that on the schedule now, but since
Speaker 1: it's not happening and this is my first year, I'm
Speaker 1: going to give myself a pass. But like in the
Speaker 1: past when I was with l A with the Rams,
Speaker 1: we would have to go to like far away places
Speaker 1: like we go to Green Bay, we go to Minnesota,
Speaker 1: we went to one year. I think that sounds those
Speaker 1: sound like nice trips to take in the preseason versus
Speaker 1: the regular season. Yes and no. In the Minnesota's obviously,
Speaker 1: there was one year we went to New Orleans and
Speaker 1: that obviously was fun going to Bourbon Street Um the
Speaker 1: night before the fourth preseason game. But at the same time,
Speaker 1: I think the last place you want to be on
Speaker 1: the preseason is on the road in week four because
Speaker 1: it's just like it's this slog and all you want
Speaker 1: is for the clock to keep running and running and
Speaker 1: running so you can go home. All I do in
Speaker 1: the week four the preseason is just eat hot dogs
Speaker 1: the entire second half, and I do it obviously with Okay,
Speaker 1: well the right choice. Well, Miles, you're in luck because
Speaker 1: there's certainly no traveling this preseason. We will be home.
Speaker 1: You got your wish here. I know, yeah that the
Speaker 1: last for the last preseason game tomorrow in the Bizarro universe,
Speaker 1: that is true. True. But let's let's talk about a
Speaker 1: training camp, and I do want to hear starting with you, Miles,
Speaker 1: what have you taken away from this very unique, strange
Speaker 1: training camp. Well, honestly, I think it's a lot of
Speaker 1: it is how we started. The more you can do,
Speaker 1: and we've seen that from so many different players, including
Speaker 1: a guy like Myles Hartsfeld, who you know, plays both
Speaker 1: defense and offense. And I think we mentioned this on
Speaker 1: the podcast before, but I don't know that I've ever
Speaker 1: seen that at the pro level at all. You when
Speaker 1: you think of two way players, you think of high
Speaker 1: school and sometimes you see that in college occasionally with
Speaker 1: a guy who's a super good athlete, but you don't
Speaker 1: really ever see that at the professional level. And I
Speaker 1: think it's been kind of funny to see um Miles,
Speaker 1: who I just like using this first name. Usually I
Speaker 1: won't do that for for players, but when you see him,
Speaker 1: sometimes he's going literally on the same drive from playing
Speaker 1: defense to playing offense. That's kind of ridiculous, and you know,
Speaker 1: sometimes they've changed his jersey in the middle of practice.
Speaker 1: Other times he's put on a penny to UH to
Speaker 1: signify that he's gone from being a defensive player to
Speaker 1: an offensive player. So when you get guys like that,
Speaker 1: when you get guys like Jeremy Chen who've been playing
Speaker 1: all over the defense, UM, I think that once you
Speaker 1: see that versatility, that's gonna have to be something that
Speaker 1: is really important for these Panthers in Well, how hard
Speaker 1: do you think it is UH to do what Mile
Speaker 1: Hartsfield is doing, not only physically, but also you gotta
Speaker 1: be in more meetings, you gotta you gotta learn different schemes.
Speaker 1: I just can't imagine, um, the mental capacity that would
Speaker 1: take to to not just be good and competent at
Speaker 1: one position, but but multiple. But I also think yes,
Speaker 1: but this current coaching staff, this current group is trying
Speaker 1: to make that a possibility in the NFL. I think
Speaker 1: they're looking down the road. They're seeing, you know, the
Speaker 1: uncertainty of this season of guys you know, potentially you know,
Speaker 1: being put on you know, maybe a COVID list at
Speaker 1: some point, you know, and who knows and saying, you know,
Speaker 1: Coach Roll has said this all the time. He wants
Speaker 1: to make this thing quick and fast, and you're playing
Speaker 1: with you know, with your instincts and not with your head.
Speaker 1: You know, you're going out there and you're playing football
Speaker 1: as well as you can and you're not being slowed
Speaker 1: down by having to think about it. And so I
Speaker 1: think they're trying to set up a guy like Miles,
Speaker 1: set up these these players that are young that just say, hey,
Speaker 1: here's a here's a framework, you just go play. We're
Speaker 1: going to try to create a system that makes that
Speaker 1: as as easy as possible for you so you can
Speaker 1: have success, so we can have success. So yes, I
Speaker 1: think that it's very difficult, but I think that this
Speaker 1: particular group is trying to lean into it rather than
Speaker 1: seeing it as you know, a hindrance. That's a great point, Yeah,
Speaker 1: setting setting these versatile players up for success as much
Speaker 1: as possible because it is such a focus. Well, I
Speaker 1: do want to know, since um, you're the only one
Speaker 1: of us that have been to normal training camps with
Speaker 1: the Panthers as we say goodbye to it, what's the
Speaker 1: biggest thing that you missed out on this season? Was
Speaker 1: it stand in a dorm? Was it the bucket hat
Speaker 1: look all the time? Was it. Yeah, I mean obviously,
Speaker 1: I think that's that's for all of us. I mean,
Speaker 1: that's for fans, that's for all of the staff. I mean,
Speaker 1: so many people were used to being at practice UM
Speaker 1: and just being around you know, you there's a certain
Speaker 1: sense when you go down to Spartanburg you can can
Speaker 1: just kind of like leave your world behind and just
Speaker 1: you know, I've into football, UM. And I think that
Speaker 1: a lot of us missed that. And I think sometimes
Speaker 1: you know, even you know, coaches, players, you know, they
Speaker 1: kind of missed that too to an extent um. But
Speaker 1: I think that they did a good job here of
Speaker 1: trying to keep it light, you know, doing all those
Speaker 1: things on Fridays, to kind of keep the guys really engaged,
Speaker 1: having fun, making it feel like this is something different
Speaker 1: rather than just an extended four more weeks of regular
Speaker 1: season practice here in the stadium. UM. So, I think
Speaker 1: they did a good job from the player perspective of
Speaker 1: really trying to instill that difference in camp UM. And
Speaker 1: I think that the guys aren't burned out. It doesn't
Speaker 1: feel like you know, it feels like they everyone keeps
Speaker 1: asking them in these media conference calls like hey, are
Speaker 1: you burned out yet, are you tired of playing against
Speaker 1: your own people? You know, are you tired of this?
Speaker 1: You know you used to play four preseason games against
Speaker 1: other teams. You didn't get do that? You know, do
Speaker 1: you hate this? And they're like no, like word, we
Speaker 1: there's a different energy and we're not worn out. You know.
Speaker 1: One thing that we didn't hear about. And I don't
Speaker 1: think I heard about this from any training camp at
Speaker 1: all is training camp, right, And I think I didn't
Speaker 1: see one here, And I thought I remember thinking for
Speaker 1: a couple of days when watching practice, like you know,
Speaker 1: on a regular uh schedule, this might be a place
Speaker 1: where you're in the middle of August, it's hot, is
Speaker 1: all get out, it's humid, and all these different things,
Speaker 1: and this is probably a place where guys might want
Speaker 1: to start fighting, and you just didn't see it. And
Speaker 1: you know, I scanned Twitter as much as anybody for
Speaker 1: news all along the league, and I don't recall really
Speaker 1: hearing about any training camp fights anywhere. And I think
Speaker 1: that's a credit to a lot of different things. But
Speaker 1: I think people are so very singularly focused on how
Speaker 1: do we actually just even make it to week one?
Speaker 1: And how do we make it to week one safely
Speaker 1: and with everybody healthy, and like getting in a fight
Speaker 1: right now would just be one of the dumbest things
Speaker 1: you can do. It's a good point. Yeah, I haven't.
Speaker 1: I haven't heard of any either. So talking about making
Speaker 1: it to to week one, you gotta cut down the
Speaker 1: roster before we can get to that and start focusing
Speaker 1: on the first real game that we're gonna see. So, Miles,
Speaker 1: how hard do you think it's gonna be this season
Speaker 1: to cut down to fifty three as opposed to other
Speaker 1: years where you get to see, you know, how the
Speaker 1: preseason games look, you get to evaluate in a different way. Um,
Speaker 1: what do you think this is gonna be like on Saturday?
Speaker 1: I think it's gonna be unique. I think in some
Speaker 1: ways it might be easier, and in some ways it's
Speaker 1: probably harder. Easier in the sense that you've only got
Speaker 1: to go from eight down to fifty three, but also
Speaker 1: you've got to think about the fact that you're gonna
Speaker 1: have a sixteen man practice squad and a lot of
Speaker 1: those guys get to be veterans who don't have the
Speaker 1: restrictions that you usually would on what a practice squad
Speaker 1: player can be. So really, instead of thinking of it
Speaker 1: is you're cutting down to fifty three, you're almost cutting
Speaker 1: it down to sixty nine, because that's what fifty three
Speaker 1: plus sixteen is. So it's it's yes, it is for it.
Speaker 1: I'm glad you made that the joke, fright. I wasn't
Speaker 1: going to do it. I didn't make a joke. I
Speaker 1: just said, no, it's it's a nice number. So you
Speaker 1: really you need to get rid of eleven guys, right,
Speaker 1: And I think if you're one of those eleven, it's
Speaker 1: gonna stink. It is because you're not necessarily going to
Speaker 1: know what your future holds. But then there are those
Speaker 1: other sixteen in there where maybe you're not on the
Speaker 1: active roster. But I think at a certain point you
Speaker 1: gotta figure I have a good chance of being elevated
Speaker 1: at some point this year. And there are some other
Speaker 1: rules this year to where you can bring up guys
Speaker 1: and send them back from the practice squad without them
Speaker 1: being exposed to waivers. So it's gonna be different this year.
Speaker 1: But I think just from the standpoint of trying to
Speaker 1: craft a roster, it's not necessarily easy when you've only
Speaker 1: had so much about a month, really a month and
Speaker 1: a couple of days worth the practice time for this
Speaker 1: coaching staff, this new coaching staff to be around these guys. Well,
Speaker 1: I got a question for you. How many of both
Speaker 1: this fifty three? You know, let's say there's a fifty
Speaker 1: three on Saturday, there might be a different one on Tuesday,
Speaker 1: almost certainly will be a different one. Yes, So how
Speaker 1: much of that and probably this practice squad is guys
Speaker 1: that aren't currently out there right now? You know, how
Speaker 1: much is based on what happens around the league over
Speaker 1: this weekend? Of guys that all of a sudden, in
Speaker 1: that twenty four hour period after you have to cut
Speaker 1: down and before you can sign someone back to your
Speaker 1: practice squad, are they going out and finding maybe you know,
Speaker 1: I don't know. Maybe part of it is, these are
Speaker 1: these sixteen guys that we all feel really good with.
Speaker 1: They've been working with us for three weeks. We want
Speaker 1: to keep all of them. You know, how much is
Speaker 1: you know, someone that all of a sudden becomes available
Speaker 1: out there that uh, you know, Marty Herney feels like
Speaker 1: he can make a move for Yeah, I think that's
Speaker 1: always huge. And this is why it's sort of annoys
Speaker 1: me when people call the fifty three man roster, the
Speaker 1: final fifty three. It's not final anything, because odds are
Speaker 1: within twenty four to forty eight hours, it's gonna change,
Speaker 1: and based on the way that things happen around the league,
Speaker 1: as you were just saying, well, so to me, it's
Speaker 1: always the initial fifty three. And from that standpoint, it's
Speaker 1: always like you want to if you're gonna try to
Speaker 1: profile a guy, you want to make sure that that
Speaker 1: guy that you're profiling is gonna be there in another
Speaker 1: day or two because sometimes when you know, guys don't
Speaker 1: usually get a call that they've made the roster. They
Speaker 1: just don't get called that they didn't get cut, right,
Speaker 1: So you don't want to necessarily be like, wow, congratulations,
Speaker 1: you've made the roster, and then you know twenty four
Speaker 1: hours later it's sorry, my guy, you're out. Like that's
Speaker 1: sad in some ways, But I think what you said
Speaker 1: is true. Will There's gonna be some movements somewhere along
Speaker 1: the bottom end of this roster, and I think over
Speaker 1: the past few weeks we've seen that they are not
Speaker 1: afraid to churn guys in and churn guys out, and
Speaker 1: that also creates a much larger base. There's guys out
Speaker 1: there right now that are or you know, on reserve
Speaker 1: list or in various different spots that have some familiarity
Speaker 1: here that we have some tape on that coach Rule
Speaker 1: has you know, has a relationship with So you know,
Speaker 1: there's there's more than just meets the eye in terms
Speaker 1: of how this thing gets played out. And you know
Speaker 1: how the practice squad and in the fifty three get
Speaker 1: you know, created no doubt. Yeah, and and Rule has
Speaker 1: spoken to that, as you said, you know, bringing guys
Speaker 1: in he said, it's almost I think he said something
Speaker 1: like it's almost our duty to get as many guys
Speaker 1: as we can in front of us and see how
Speaker 1: they do. Because our goal is to build the best team,
Speaker 1: and that's how we think we should go about it,
Speaker 1: is to get them in front of us. So I
Speaker 1: certainly think that that carries over um. Speaking of Rule,
Speaker 1: he actually spoke about the cutdown to fifty three. We're
Speaker 1: gonna start with that in our segment called Overheard Overheard.
Speaker 1: Rule said, you know, on Saturday, our fifty three man
Speaker 1: roster is going to look a lot different from last
Speaker 1: year when our three comes out on Saturday and you
Speaker 1: go back and look at last year's fifty three, I
Speaker 1: don't you know, you'll see a lot of turnover. And
Speaker 1: I don't know if you see that much turnover in
Speaker 1: a lot of NFL teams. And that's for a lot
Speaker 1: of reasons, and that I'm not bragging about that. I'm
Speaker 1: just saying we have had a lot of players leave
Speaker 1: and we had to We had to rebuild UM with
Speaker 1: good players and a good draft, and I think Marty
Speaker 1: and his staff have done a great job, and I
Speaker 1: think our coaches have helped UM supplement that. So we
Speaker 1: got a good team. It's a young team, UM, and
Speaker 1: I want them to I want them to fight to overachieve,
Speaker 1: fight to overachieve. I really like that phrase, because this
Speaker 1: is going to be a tough year, I think from
Speaker 1: any standpoint, especially when we were just talking about it. Look,
Speaker 1: coaching staff is still getting familiar with their players, and
Speaker 1: they're still getting familiar with everybody's strengths. And I think
Speaker 1: Matt Rule has talked about how they don't necessarily know
Speaker 1: how this team is going to stack up against others.
Speaker 1: You can't necessarily compare this team to any other team
Speaker 1: quite yet. So it's it's about, you know, the me
Speaker 1: against me thing that we heard Will Greer talk about,
Speaker 1: how can these guys continue to try to improve over
Speaker 1: the course of the season so that they're playing their
Speaker 1: best football in December and building on something not just
Speaker 1: for this year, but for the years to come. And
Speaker 1: I think it's it's both a corporate sense in an
Speaker 1: individual sense. It's how does this team as a group,
Speaker 1: you know, whatever their final record is, how is that
Speaker 1: record better than maybe what they are on paper? You know,
Speaker 1: they want that record to be better than what they
Speaker 1: actually are overachieved there? And how do they as into
Speaker 1: visuals that are fighting for spots on this team, that
Speaker 1: are fighting for their careers, you know, to be better
Speaker 1: to to land, to get to take the next step
Speaker 1: at whatever that is. How do they do better than
Speaker 1: what they are on paper? I mean Christian McCaffrey, you know,
Speaker 1: consensus number one overall fantasy draft pick, you know, best
Speaker 1: running back in the NFL, probably maybe one of the
Speaker 1: best offensive players in the NFL period. He's like, how
Speaker 1: do I overachieved? How is it possible for him to overachieve?
Speaker 1: But that's his mindset, that's the mindset up and down
Speaker 1: the roster. How do I over it? The mindset of
Speaker 1: all great players. And I spent a lot of time
Speaker 1: around Aaron Donald, and you know, you get a guy
Speaker 1: that reached twenty sex as an interior linement that just
Speaker 1: doesn't ever happen. Now, how does he try to get better?
Speaker 1: It's this. It's a mindset and mentality of guys that
Speaker 1: are at this or that are easy for me to say,
Speaker 1: my god, you can overachieve on this one mile us
Speaker 1: I could. I would ask you to edit that out, Matt,
Speaker 1: but you know what, yeah, sometimes more than that anyway,
Speaker 1: it's a mindset and the mentality of guys that are
Speaker 1: elite in this game that they always want to make
Speaker 1: sure that they're getting better with whatever they're doing. That's
Speaker 1: what I was trying to say, Well thanks, Well yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's going to be even harder for everyone, just
Speaker 1: considering all of the obstacles that everyone has face to
Speaker 1: get to this point. And I I'm so excited that
Speaker 1: we're here. I'm so excited that we're talking about week one.
Speaker 1: But you know, there's no denying that it's gonna look
Speaker 1: a lot different this season. And a big part of that,
Speaker 1: at least for us at first um, is that there
Speaker 1: won't be any fans for for the first little bit,
Speaker 1: which is which is tough. Yeah, so we we we
Speaker 1: informed fans this week, um, both on our social you know,
Speaker 1: an email everywhere that no fans in week one, And
Speaker 1: I think this was something that you know, it was
Speaker 1: pretty disappointing across the board because I know, and you
Speaker 1: guys know how much work they put into making this
Speaker 1: stadium safe, making protocols, making rules, making all sorts of
Speaker 1: things safe and ready for fans to come. Um, And
Speaker 1: just as it played out, the rules for where we
Speaker 1: live just didn't allow it. Um. And so I think
Speaker 1: that there there's some obviously disappointment, and obviously the players
Speaker 1: are prepared for that, I think, But you know, we
Speaker 1: talked to Troy Pride this week about how hard that's
Speaker 1: going to be to literally go your your debut in
Speaker 1: your home stadium, in your home state, first time putting
Speaker 1: on an NFL jersey and there's nobody there, um, and
Speaker 1: how hard that's gonna be. I think they've done a
Speaker 1: good job of trying to really get their minds wrapped
Speaker 1: around it. But I mean, let's be real, like, there's
Speaker 1: no real way to prepare for what that's gonna be like, no,
Speaker 1: probably not. But I think there's just been so much
Speaker 1: strangeness around this offseason, this training camp. Um talking to
Speaker 1: Derrick Brown, He's a guy that always says that he
Speaker 1: likes to be where his feet are. So I asked
Speaker 1: him a week or two ago when we were talking
Speaker 1: about something and and he I asked him, you know,
Speaker 1: how did it feel to come into this building for
Speaker 1: the first time? Was it strange? And he said, you know,
Speaker 1: I just don't think of it that way because I
Speaker 1: feel like I have so many different responsibilities, whether it's
Speaker 1: you know, when I'm at home, I gotta be the
Speaker 1: best fiance, best father I can be. When I'm here,
Speaker 1: I have to be the best defensive tackle I can be.
Speaker 1: So my focus is always what can I do today
Speaker 1: to be the best me I can be? So that's
Speaker 1: is be where my feet are mentality, and I think
Speaker 1: that that's going to serve him well, especially going into
Speaker 1: a rookie debut where look much as expected from a
Speaker 1: guy who's picked number seven overall and he's going to
Speaker 1: be the starting defensive tackle out there. I think the
Speaker 1: one thing that I will put money on predicting for
Speaker 1: is that it's going to be unpredictable. Is that a
Speaker 1: loser game show sounds? Oh my gosh, I needed one.
Speaker 1: I was due for one of those. It it's back
Speaker 1: to the fans, though. I think obviously there's disappointment, but
Speaker 1: I obviously I think that they're trying really hard to
Speaker 1: change that. The next home game isn't until week four
Speaker 1: in October. Obviously there's another six home games after that,
Speaker 1: um into the end of December. I think that they're
Speaker 1: gonna work really really hard to do their best to
Speaker 1: try to get some fans in here before this season's out.
Speaker 1: So I wouldn't say, man, no fans week one, well,
Speaker 1: you know, packing it in, you know, no one's gonna
Speaker 1: be able to get in here. I think there's we
Speaker 1: don't know what's going to happen, and you know, I
Speaker 1: would stay prepared that, you know, we can get some
Speaker 1: fans in at some point. Yeah, we think about how
Speaker 1: much things change from week to week when we come
Speaker 1: in here and record this podcast every single week. So
Speaker 1: I definitely don't think just because we don't have fans
Speaker 1: week one, that means that it's going to be that
Speaker 1: way all season. There's so much that can change, as
Speaker 1: we all know, in just a few days. So hopefully
Speaker 1: we can we can make that happen in a safe
Speaker 1: way at some point the season. So another big thing
Speaker 1: that's going on with the Panthers, specifically with the team,
Speaker 1: UM is the team is trying to formulate a response
Speaker 1: and appropriate and um active response to the social unrest
Speaker 1: and trying to to make an imp act as a
Speaker 1: group of men. And Trey Boston spoke this week about
Speaker 1: why the players decided to cancel practice on Saturday and
Speaker 1: meet instead. Yeah, I think sometimes, you know, it takes us,
Speaker 1: you know, having to take a step back breathing, coming
Speaker 1: together collectively because there's a lot of people who have
Speaker 1: a lot of great uh you know, propositions, plans, different
Speaker 1: priorities that they feel, um, we should attack. And if
Speaker 1: you don't get everybody's input, uh, it allows for the
Speaker 1: links to to be a little looser. And we wanted
Speaker 1: to be able to take everybody's input, everybody's mindset, and
Speaker 1: put it on paper and see again, what are the priorities?
Speaker 1: What what? How can we make this impact? Um? You
Speaker 1: know soon but lasts forever. UM. And that's the thing,
Speaker 1: you know, we we a lot of people always talk
Speaker 1: about change, change, change, but um, they attack it so
Speaker 1: fast that others are on the same pages. And I
Speaker 1: thought we wanted to be on the same page. Really
Speaker 1: listen to a lot of educated men in cibus building
Speaker 1: and taking each of everybody's word and researching it, you know,
Speaker 1: having time to actually uh you know, get everything in
Speaker 1: the nuances ironed out. I thought it was important never
Speaker 1: did that. I thought it was great that not only
Speaker 1: were the players able to do something to express themselves
Speaker 1: and how they were feeling, because look, I talked about
Speaker 1: it on last week's podcast that last week was hard, UM.
Speaker 1: But I also thought it was great that Matt Rule
Speaker 1: said that he was a hundred percent supportive of the
Speaker 1: players to take that time, um and to have those conversations.
Speaker 1: And so I think it's really encouraging to see that
Speaker 1: those players seem to be on the same page. You know,
Speaker 1: they want to keep exactly what was said in house.
Speaker 1: I respect that, and they also want to make sure
Speaker 1: that when they do speak on what it was that
Speaker 1: was said, there is a clear message that resonates um.
Speaker 1: And it's not just something piecemeal that somebody can say,
Speaker 1: oh was this and the it was that. No, they
Speaker 1: want to have one clear cohesive vision and one cohesive
Speaker 1: line UM for taking action, and so I respect that
Speaker 1: a lot. Yeah. One thing that I think I've learned
Speaker 1: about this team and the time that I've been covering
Speaker 1: them is although we don't know what they have planned
Speaker 1: right now UM and they will announce that in time,
Speaker 1: I think it's they really are putting a big priority
Speaker 1: on this and and UH coach Rule and and Mr
Speaker 1: Tepper everyone is supporting them in this, and I think
Speaker 1: that they are going to when they are ready to
Speaker 1: announce whatever it is, it's going to be well thought out,
Speaker 1: it's going to be actionable, and it's going to be
Speaker 1: something that they really hope can have an impact UM
Speaker 1: in the community and I think in the country at large.
Speaker 1: So I've been really impressed with the commitment to listening
Speaker 1: to the players, to talking things out UM, and I'm
Speaker 1: excited to see what these players come up with when
Speaker 1: they're ready to share it with us. I think they
Speaker 1: have a really good understanding of who they are. UM.
Speaker 1: You know that that that that piece about Zach Kerr,
Speaker 1: you know that that you wrote, and just his understanding
Speaker 1: of who he is. But what responsibility is on him
Speaker 1: is you know, I think that's up and down. Everybody
Speaker 1: out on this team that understands. Like I think someone asked,
Speaker 1: you know, is it fair that you guys have to
Speaker 1: be juggling this while try and prepare for week one
Speaker 1: and that's not even in their minds? Is it fair?
Speaker 1: This is this is life? You know, this is this
Speaker 1: is everything. So of of course it's important and we're
Speaker 1: going to spend time and devote energy to it. And
Speaker 1: you know it's not it's not just something that, man,
Speaker 1: this is getting the way of me studying my playbook, Like, no,
Speaker 1: this is this is life. This is important. So I
Speaker 1: I think that that's an incredible message already, just just
Speaker 1: in that. Yeah, it's um, it's bigger than football, and
Speaker 1: it's great to see teams come together to try to
Speaker 1: make an impact and to feel the support from the
Speaker 1: organization as they try to do. So. All right, we
Speaker 1: are going to take a quick break, but we'll be
Speaker 1: right back. Mr Jenkins told me. Mr Jenkins told me.
Speaker 1: Mr Jenks told me to always make it easy for
Speaker 1: the customer. That's you alive person will always be here
Speaker 1: to answer the phone. We're here till midnight, seven days
Speaker 1: a week, so you never have to take off work,
Speaker 1: and it's the same prices in the daytime. We're the
Speaker 1: ones you want to call. We're the ones you want
Speaker 1: to call. We're the ones you want to call. You're
Speaker 1: gonna love these people. I guarantee see gotta Morris Jenkins
Speaker 1: dot com. Alright, Next up on Overheard, we got Chris
Speaker 1: man hurts Um talking to the media and he got asked,
Speaker 1: you know, he was a basketball player, and he got asked,
Speaker 1: you know, who would you pick for your starting five
Speaker 1: if you if the Panthers were forming a team. Here's
Speaker 1: what he said, starting five, Um kk, I'll probably throw
Speaker 1: me in there. I'll probably throw Christian in there. I'll
Speaker 1: probably throw Mike Davis and uh Ian as a sleeper too.
Speaker 1: We've gotten all these guys talking about like different teams,
Speaker 1: you know, yeah, the four by one relays. Now we
Speaker 1: got starting fives in basket ball. Everybody wants to talk about.
Speaker 1: You know, Oh my gosh, I'm such a good athlete.
Speaker 1: I could play all these different sports and like they are,
Speaker 1: they're very good. Okay, Well, to be fair, Chris Man
Speaker 1: hurts didn't come into the media availability like, hey guys,
Speaker 1: what's up. I'm all I'm great at this person was
Speaker 1: asked with a question or a guy he gets asked
Speaker 1: the question every single year. It's just like, hey, Chris
Speaker 1: man Hurts, remember that time you got a lot of
Speaker 1: rebounds and Knisius talk about that and he's like, Okay,
Speaker 1: we are definitely you know, well you said that we were.
Speaker 1: You know, it's hard to think that we were about
Speaker 1: a week away from football, Like when you start to
Speaker 1: get this and then we get the backup quarterback conversations
Speaker 1: that you know, and the questions that go to the
Speaker 1: Matt RULEB and that's kind of stuff that to me
Speaker 1: signals fourth week of preseason and I think we're all
Speaker 1: ready to start talking about real things and matchups. Wow. Okay,
Speaker 1: so you don't like my sound bite, Um, that's what
Speaker 1: I was saying. Gonna stick out. I'm gonna stay here
Speaker 1: in the booth of shame. I'm not gonna come out
Speaker 1: when we finished recording. Yeah, you know what I should?
Speaker 1: I should just take over the hosting duties again. I
Speaker 1: was kidding. I mean, it does. It does make me wonder,
Speaker 1: you know we you know you asked about what did
Speaker 1: I miss from training camp? Well, every year there's some
Speaker 1: pretty epic staff basketball games down there, and you'd be
Speaker 1: surprised who on this staff is actually pretty good at basketball.
Speaker 1: So I don't want to know how good Miles is
Speaker 1: a basketball. But Miles, what, what are you really good at?
Speaker 1: Like sneaking? This is the weird question of the week. Yes,
Speaker 1: the weird question of the week. Uh. You know, so
Speaker 1: I'm not good at basketball. I'm very bad at basketball.
Speaker 1: When I was a child, um, I like it wasn't
Speaker 1: six or seven years old, and my mom signed me
Speaker 1: up for this wreck basketball league, right, and you know,
Speaker 1: kids they do, they do basketball, they do whatever. And
Speaker 1: I was the kid that like just stood under the
Speaker 1: basket and I was like, I hate this. This is terrible.
Speaker 1: And my mom was like I singly remember sure, being
Speaker 1: like you cannot quit because we don't quit things and
Speaker 1: this is something that you need to do. And I'm like, uh,
Speaker 1: but I think in retrospect you might have let me quit. Um.
Speaker 1: But to answer your question, what am I eeky good at? Uh?
Speaker 1: If it's not a sport, let's call it like a game.
Speaker 1: I'm sneaky good at flip cup. I am the Lebron
Speaker 1: James of flip cup. Wow, those are big words. I'm
Speaker 1: not even kidding. I'm gonna have to get this on
Speaker 1: tape at some point. Yeah, and we only throw out
Speaker 1: I'm the Lebron James of flip cup. I only play
Speaker 1: with water, obviously. But obviously, of course, Christen, what do
Speaker 1: you stinky good at? Not much? Um? Yeah, sports were
Speaker 1: never my thing. As I told you guys, a career
Speaker 1: high in church basketball. I played for like five years
Speaker 1: of career high four points. Um, So definitely not that.
Speaker 1: I I was a competitive cheerleader in high school. We
Speaker 1: went to all the competitions and all that kind of stuff,
Speaker 1: and it was a full year round thing. So I
Speaker 1: you know, I certainly wouldn't want to try any backflips
Speaker 1: right now. I think I could seriously hurt myself. So
Speaker 1: if I take sports off the table, guys, I don't
Speaker 1: want to brag here, but I'm pretty great a crossword puzzles,
Speaker 1: like I could tie. I could beat you at a
Speaker 1: time a crossword puzzle. Matt knows that because he was
Speaker 1: my my secret Santa. I got me a crossword puzzle book,
Speaker 1: which is awesome. Can you do a crossroad puzzle faster
Speaker 1: than Stephen Weatherley can do a rub escube? No? He
Speaker 1: did it in a minute and a half. That's that
Speaker 1: was ridiculous. Guys. By the way, I tried to. I
Speaker 1: bought a rubiscube after he did it. I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: maybe I'll, you know, get into this, maybe I can,
Speaker 1: you know, figure it out and stuff. It took me
Speaker 1: an hour to get one face done, the white face,
Speaker 1: and I had to read the instructions. I read the
Speaker 1: I hadn read about um the algorithms and stuff, so um,
Speaker 1: definitely not that either. But I can. I can tear
Speaker 1: up across Rod puzzle Mario Kart. I am the best
Speaker 1: Mario Kart player period. Do you have an in six?
Speaker 1: I have a switch, and so I played the newest one.
Speaker 1: I dominate at the newest Mario Kart. Like I'm not
Speaker 1: even that good at video games, but I will beat anybody.
Speaker 1: And I can play the N sixty four version. I'd
Speaker 1: love to get one in here. We would be I'm
Speaker 1: Maria Carton Beast. I was pretty good on the GameCube
Speaker 1: version Double Dash. Yeah. I never progressed past N six four. Yeah, alright,
Speaker 1: we'll get smoked. Love. I love the confidence coming from
Speaker 1: Matt right now. I can I could. I can feel
Speaker 1: it all the way over here in the booth of shame.
Speaker 1: You guys are all the way there, but he's just
Speaker 1: radiating confidence. Um, all right, well, what's what's yours? He
Speaker 1: has been some pretty good one so far. So what's
Speaker 1: your sneaky good if not sport sport adjacent thing? Ping pong?
Speaker 1: Really yeah, I can see that. Now. Are you? Are
Speaker 1: you so good at ping pong that you call it
Speaker 1: table tennis? No, I'm not. I'm not. I'm not that good,
Speaker 1: but I'm good enough to take on Preston and Bill
Speaker 1: at ping pong and they consider themselves masters. So we
Speaker 1: would we would just every day at the end of
Speaker 1: camp there was a big ping pong table Danna Wofford,
Speaker 1: and we would just stop whatever we were doing and
Speaker 1: go play. I love that. It's all about the serf, right,
Speaker 1: you gotta get you gotta get there with a s. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean I have a pretty decent serve I have.
Speaker 1: I can return kills pretty reasonably in kind of like
Speaker 1: and kind of play the edges, you know, you play
Speaker 1: the edge of the table like I would always try
Speaker 1: to kind of place so where it falls off so
Speaker 1: you can't get it, um, which I know is kind
Speaker 1: of like dirty pool play or whatever. But you gotta win.
Speaker 1: I used to work at the Salvation Army after school
Speaker 1: program and kids in like fourth and fifth grade would
Speaker 1: consistently beat me at ping pong. I'm not good at that.
Speaker 1: Was like, but I'll take you and Mario Kart hold
Speaker 1: on back. Yeah pretty much? All right. Well, I feel
Speaker 1: like we've all learned something um about each other. I
Speaker 1: think so too, Yeah, which was great. But Miles, you
Speaker 1: started this thing, let's have you ended? Do you wanna?
Speaker 1: You want to show us one more time? The more
Speaker 1: you can do and uh and close out the show
Speaker 1: down on the plane, I think I can do. So
Speaker 1: all right, got this? Thank you so much everybody for
Speaker 1: listening to this edition at the Happy Half Hour podcast,
Speaker 1: presented by Morris Jenkins for our producer, Matt from Will
Speaker 1: Bryan for Christ and Boboni on Miles Simmons. We'll see
Speaker 1: you next time. Four