Speaker 1: This week on the Happy Half Hour. The home results
Speaker 1: have not been good the last few years, and the
Speaker 1: fact that the last couple of weeks fans have seemed
Speaker 1: a little more engaged, and maybe it's not an accident
Speaker 1: that they won a couple of games at home, and
Speaker 1: I think people are starting to remember what that feels like.
Speaker 1: It's time for the Happy Half Hour with your friends
Speaker 1: Kristin Balboni, Augusta Stone and Darren Gannon. All Right, everybody,
Speaker 1: welcome to the Happy Half Hour. We are thirty three
Speaker 1: percent less happy this week because Kristin Balboni special assignment.
Speaker 1: But I'm Darren Gant, she's Augusta Stone, and we are
Speaker 1: here to give you your midweek fix of Carolina Panthers
Speaker 1: football and Augusta. One of the things I think sometimes
Speaker 1: we get caught up in the day today of what
Speaker 1: we do and what's going on and in that moment,
Speaker 1: and sometimes it's hard to remember what you've actually seen
Speaker 1: here in your first NFL season. I mean again, we
Speaker 1: got caught up the other day and there's news and
Speaker 1: there's another quarterback change and Baker Mayfield's back under center
Speaker 1: and all this. But I think it's worth recapping since
Speaker 1: the start of the season. This is now four quarterback injuries,
Speaker 1: three quarterbacks who have played, one of whom is not
Speaker 1: even here anymore, and at least one more who is
Speaker 1: probably going to get his first action here coming soon
Speaker 1: in the way in the next little bit. Oh by
Speaker 1: the way, a coaching change and a couple of star
Speaker 1: offensive players traded. Other than that, totally normal, exactly exactly.
Speaker 1: I mean it was we were talking about it yesterday.
Speaker 1: Is like sometimes and I appreciate this compliment coming from you, truly,
Speaker 1: it's like sometimes I have to sit back and be like,
Speaker 1: wait a minute, like you've never been through this normally,
Speaker 1: and this is about as abnormal as it gets. But
Speaker 1: I will say the fun part about that is it
Speaker 1: keeps you on your toes, like, well, it's hard to
Speaker 1: slip into monotony whenever you don't really know what's going
Speaker 1: to come up. And you know, some days I'll be
Speaker 1: driving over and I'll see a Slack message. I'll be like, oh, okay,
Speaker 1: that's happening today, got it, and it's I've you know,
Speaker 1: it's still exciting, right, but you almost become numb to
Speaker 1: the crazy news. I think there was a point probably
Speaker 1: in October where I was just like, you know what,
Speaker 1: like nothing really surprises me anymore. And I think that's
Speaker 1: awesome for like the first year, you know, you get
Speaker 1: rugged in that way. It's almost like a rugged nous.
Speaker 1: But um no, absolutely chaotic. It's funny. I want to
Speaker 1: sit back. I wish there was a way to like
Speaker 1: close my eyes and replay my life, go back to
Speaker 1: training camp, and to see what we see now when
Speaker 1: we walk out on the practice field versus what we
Speaker 1: saw over there, just in terms of personnel, and be like,
Speaker 1: this is normal and you will react to this and
Speaker 1: you will survive with everything intact. It's crazy. And I
Speaker 1: mean when we were in Spartanburg and Baker Mayfield was
Speaker 1: in the midst of winning a competition for a starting job.
Speaker 1: If you would have said, all right, Baker Mayfield starting
Speaker 1: and week eleven, you would have said, of course he is. Yeah,
Speaker 1: sure he won the competition. That's you know, normal, right,
Speaker 1: But nothing is normal around here lately, and it's interesting
Speaker 1: and I think it's gonna be fascinating see how the
Speaker 1: guy responds. I mean I I have told and I
Speaker 1: told people around Baker during the preseason. I worked very
Speaker 1: hard to not get caught up in what I heard
Speaker 1: about Baker or what other people said about Baker, and
Speaker 1: I said, you know, I'm just gonna take this guy
Speaker 1: based on what I see here in Charlotte and what
Speaker 1: he does. And and listen, Baker knows that everybody's watching him.
Speaker 1: You aren't on commercials as often as he is. By
Speaker 1: the way, the elephant one is really funny. The elephant
Speaker 1: one is that the Heisman House, in the Heisman House,
Speaker 1: where he says the elephant in the room, Oh yes, yes, yes, yes,
Speaker 1: Well I was gonna say too. It's like the celebrity
Speaker 1: of Baker Mayfield. It's when you actually get to know him,
Speaker 1: when you talk to him, he is He is just
Speaker 1: a guy. And that's something that when he came here.
Speaker 1: You know, I wasn't sure how that would how that
Speaker 1: would emerge either. But the way he's handled, you know,
Speaker 1: being behind p J. Walker because you said, oh yeah,
Speaker 1: he's starting in week eleven. He's starting in week eleven
Speaker 1: because p J Walker got hurt. Sure, who thought we'd
Speaker 1: be saying that and not anywhere? Um so you know
Speaker 1: that's that's why we see him. But um no, I
Speaker 1: and I wanted to highlight too. He has been a
Speaker 1: really good teammate, like he really has. He watching him
Speaker 1: in practice, he was always engaged. I mean, you know
Speaker 1: whatever the headbudding thing, how engaged you want to say
Speaker 1: that is. I mean, that's a whole I I see
Speaker 1: both sides of that where it's like, oh my goodness, Baker,
Speaker 1: what are you doing? But he he's like, I do it.
Speaker 1: And what was in the press conference yesterday? I was
Speaker 1: watching it, Uh he said, you know, they're gonna get
Speaker 1: it either way. I love it. It's just that he's
Speaker 1: he's a very engaged teammate and at that point he
Speaker 1: could have never started again and and that didn't matter.
Speaker 1: So I think that's like something to be to be
Speaker 1: said about a guy who comes in is on TV,
Speaker 1: is Baker Mayfield, former number one overall pick and and
Speaker 1: he's over here behind then XTFL guy. You know, I
Speaker 1: think that's kind of cool. And listen. Baker Mayfield is
Speaker 1: a smart guy. Baker has an awareness about him, uh
Speaker 1: that you don't often see. I mean, and and part
Speaker 1: of that comes from You're you're a Heisman winner, You've
Speaker 1: been on an national stage at Oklahoma. People been looking
Speaker 1: at you for a long time. And he does not.
Speaker 1: He does not rebuke the attention. He enjoys it. Uh,
Speaker 1: He's used to being in the focus of the camera.
Speaker 1: And I think he also knows, whether he talks about
Speaker 1: it or not, that how he handles this year, whether
Speaker 1: he's playing or not, it's going to go a long
Speaker 1: way toward um his career future. I mean, it's the
Speaker 1: first five weeks did not go the way anybody wanted
Speaker 1: it to, not Baker Mayfield, not the Carolina Panthers, not
Speaker 1: people who are no longer employed here. And you know,
Speaker 1: because of that, I think there's been a big reset
Speaker 1: and Baker is smart enough to know that, based on
Speaker 1: the film he's put out so far, if he's going
Speaker 1: to play in the NFL next year, it's probably gonna
Speaker 1: be as somebody's backup. And so I think behaving as
Speaker 1: a mature adult, you know, healthy backup quarterback is something
Speaker 1: he needed show people because again, the perception of football
Speaker 1: players take route and they take hold in every front
Speaker 1: office in the NFL, and people think they know him
Speaker 1: based on what they see on TV. And I think
Speaker 1: it was important for him to show, hey, I am
Speaker 1: a good teammate too, and he has been. I mean,
Speaker 1: just in talking to guys talking to cade May's about
Speaker 1: the way he you know, reacts after the headbuts and
Speaker 1: what he's doing on the sideline and stuff. He does
Speaker 1: have a genuine appreciation for those guys in that locker
Speaker 1: room when he and I don't want to present this
Speaker 1: as Baker's trying to sell something. He kind of is
Speaker 1: um but the affection within that locker room is genuine.
Speaker 1: I mean, they do like the fact that he's got
Speaker 1: an energy about him. Deante Foreman was laughing. They teased
Speaker 1: each other about Texas Oklahoma games when Baker first got
Speaker 1: here and and Baker's like, it's okay, now we can
Speaker 1: be cool. Well, it's also like you said, like, I mean,
Speaker 1: Baker's smart. The guys in the locker anymore smart too.
Speaker 1: If they if they sense that it was a job
Speaker 1: to him or it was we're I'm, you know, putting
Speaker 1: on this space so that you know, I can project
Speaker 1: some sort of image like there's a genuineness to it.
Speaker 1: They would see right through and you would see it
Speaker 1: in the locker room that they see right through it.
Speaker 1: I think these last few weeks, whenever he was behind
Speaker 1: p J fully healthy backing up, was it to three
Speaker 1: weeks there. I think that was a pivotal moment, if
Speaker 1: as any, when it comes to just you know, be
Speaker 1: creating that atmosphere, creating that trust with your teammates. Because
Speaker 1: because that that was a there was a there was
Speaker 1: an opportunity for him to be miffed about that situation.
Speaker 1: Sure he could be frustrated if I'm healthy now. And
Speaker 1: we saw how hard he fought back from that angle,
Speaker 1: you know, I mean he was out there running around
Speaker 1: at practice wanting to be like like please, you know,
Speaker 1: let me play, let me play. So I think that
Speaker 1: those three weeks were as pivotal as any when it
Speaker 1: comes to just behaving. And I mean he's a grown man.
Speaker 1: But you know what I mean. And I always tell people,
Speaker 1: I mean, you and I are reporters. We are classically
Speaker 1: trained to sniff out a phony. The but we we
Speaker 1: also don't know these people. We see them for forty
Speaker 1: five minutes three or four times a week, and then
Speaker 1: out on the practice field during games, we don't know them.
Speaker 1: A locker room will sniff out of phony, the guys
Speaker 1: in that room will. If you're not genuine, you don't
Speaker 1: get the same kind of reaction. And and I will
Speaker 1: say to Baker's credit, I believe, based on the reaction
Speaker 1: of others around him, that that stuff on the sidelines
Speaker 1: of him wanting to be supportive, of him wanting to
Speaker 1: uh kind of fit in, is real. And and I've
Speaker 1: talked to players in there who believe. They're like, no,
Speaker 1: it's it's not an act. It's pretty legit. So, you know,
Speaker 1: good for Baker for being a mature adult. Uh. Now
Speaker 1: it is time for Baker Mayfield to actually play some
Speaker 1: more football. And you know, I think it's incumbent on
Speaker 1: him to play it pretty well or else. The Sam
Speaker 1: Donald there, I probably will end up starting sooner rather
Speaker 1: than later. I said the other day in the mail bag,
Speaker 1: I just feel like Sam's going to play, whether it's
Speaker 1: by accident or design, because that's just how this year
Speaker 1: is going. But Steve Wilkes said yesterday, you know, hey,
Speaker 1: they do want to see saying him at some point.
Speaker 1: They do want to mix him in. And you know,
Speaker 1: Sam's another one of those guys. Would he have preferred
Speaker 1: to have been playing the whole time, of course he would,
Speaker 1: everybody would, but Sam has you know, Sam doesn't have
Speaker 1: the same personality. He's not a big head butt guy. Um,
Speaker 1: as Paul Blart said, nobody wins with a head butt,
Speaker 1: and I think Sam has taken that to heart. But
Speaker 1: um yeah, I mean Sam's going to get an opportunity
Speaker 1: there soon. But I I do think it's interesting and
Speaker 1: watching the way Steve Wilkes has handled this team, He's
Speaker 1: just like, listen, we're trying to win a game. And
Speaker 1: so I don't think he's beholden to any of these
Speaker 1: quarterbacks necessarily. I mean, he's an interim coach and he's
Speaker 1: basically got three interim quarterbacks on his roster right now.
Speaker 1: It's true, It's true. I mean I think about I
Speaker 1: think back to Cincinnati, which, granted that was a special situation,
Speaker 1: because when you're down by five touchdowns coming out of half,
Speaker 1: why not make a switch with how PJ have been playing?
Speaker 1: And I'm not over here speaking into existence or manifesting
Speaker 1: anything like that happening in Baltimore. However, if that happens
Speaker 1: and you're you're running off the wheels essentially, I mean
Speaker 1: knowing that you have a guy like Steve Wilkes who
Speaker 1: is kind of, you know, very fluid with that situation.
Speaker 1: I mean I asked him before we even knew about
Speaker 1: the PJ Walker injury. Whenever he told us that Walker
Speaker 1: would be starting, what was this Friday? My week is
Speaker 1: all messed up. We played on Thursday. But when I
Speaker 1: asked some on Friday, you know, I was like, okay,
Speaker 1: so you're thinking week by week with the starting quarterbacks.
Speaker 1: What you know, like, is that going to be something
Speaker 1: moving forward? You know, like, oh, it's PJ this week,
Speaker 1: but maybe you know blah blah blah, and he's he's
Speaker 1: shown it in practice and in his words that it's
Speaker 1: just you know, opponent by opponent, week by week. This
Speaker 1: is the guy I'm going to send out here here here.
Speaker 1: It's kind of an interesting philosophy on it. But when
Speaker 1: you are an interim coach with three quarterbacks that I mean,
Speaker 1: we've seen them all in different ways. We haven't seen
Speaker 1: Sam Donald this year. That's something that for some reason
Speaker 1: in my head did not click. I think I'm having
Speaker 1: issues splitting the regular season with the preseason. But I
Speaker 1: was like, dang, Sam Donald really hasn't played regular season
Speaker 1: ball since last year. That hit me. I was like, man,
Speaker 1: because the time flies. So that's something also to put
Speaker 1: into into perspective. It's like, we bring Sam Donald out
Speaker 1: it's what week O leven he hasn't played since. That's
Speaker 1: something to think about. But there's there's just so many
Speaker 1: different factors, and I think that's something advantageous to him
Speaker 1: as an interim coach, the way that he is being
Speaker 1: able to be fluid. I mean, he just wants to win,
Speaker 1: doesn't matter who's out there, and it's going to use
Speaker 1: all the tools in his arsenal, regardless of how sharp
Speaker 1: they are, well where they are, as long as they're healthy,
Speaker 1: which is the key there because the ankles he getting
Speaker 1: hurt here in Charlotte's Uh, that's definitely a thing. And
Speaker 1: I think no matter which one of those guys is
Speaker 1: in there, one of the more important factors for this
Speaker 1: team as a whole, and probably the reason they've been
Speaker 1: able to get a couple of wins here at home
Speaker 1: lately is affected Everything around the quarterback is a little
Speaker 1: more settled, which you don't expect when you trade Christian McCaffrey. Um,
Speaker 1: Robbie was a different sort of deal. Robbie wouldn't produce
Speaker 1: him before he was traded, and he was unhappy. So
Speaker 1: that's just kind of cleared the way and I did
Speaker 1: a good job the other day augusta breaking down kind
Speaker 1: of where they were and where they are and the
Speaker 1: first five and the next five are pretty different exactly,
Speaker 1: Thank you, first of all. And also, I mean it's
Speaker 1: it's and again one of those things where you're missing
Speaker 1: Christian McCaffrey. Whatever anyone thinks about pat Elfly, I'm missing
Speaker 1: us or losing a center, and Bradley Bowseman is no
Speaker 1: you know, drop off, but that's still you know, a
Speaker 1: difference in chemistry and and there were some things about
Speaker 1: training camp and that was a really contested battle anyway
Speaker 1: before Bradley Boseman got her um week two of the preseason.
Speaker 1: So it's one of those things where I mean, it
Speaker 1: was kind of a toss up, but but you switch
Speaker 1: those pivotal positions and you're just kind of like, you
Speaker 1: wouldn't expect the offense to be performing better in general
Speaker 1: around a quarterback, and yet with Deonte Foreman, Bradley Bowseman
Speaker 1: versus Christian McCaffrey pat Elfine, the numbers are there for
Speaker 1: the running game. And then then that could also be
Speaker 1: a testament to Steve Wilkes when he came in, that
Speaker 1: was the first thing he said. He was like we're
Speaker 1: establishing the run, we're defending the run. That is like
Speaker 1: the proorities under Wilkes, and he's really put his money
Speaker 1: where his mouth is. The thing is about the Panthers
Speaker 1: when they've had success recently in the last was it
Speaker 1: four or five games, whichever I wrote about, it's always
Speaker 1: it's been through running, and it's been through Deonta Foreman,
Speaker 1: who hidden Jim that we didn't really even know we
Speaker 1: had here in care of the team, didn't know they
Speaker 1: had in Carolina until until Christian McCaffrey left. And it
Speaker 1: was because you know, when you have a guy like
Speaker 1: Christian McCaffrey on the roster, you're gonna want to play
Speaker 1: him a lot. And then you just don't see a
Speaker 1: lot of For me, you don't see a lot of Cuba.
Speaker 1: You didn't see a lot of raheem Blacks here who
Speaker 1: came in week three. I think. So you have these
Speaker 1: guys who can do the thing, especially with Deonte Foreman,
Speaker 1: I mean, goodness, gracious, he just runs over Atlanta like
Speaker 1: his Atlanta stats are insane. Three hundred yard games in
Speaker 1: the last four weeks, four touchdowns and and it's not complicated.
Speaker 1: I uh, it kind of reminds me and we'll see.
Speaker 1: I mean, one of the things I constantly have to
Speaker 1: remind myself is there's seven more of these. Um, this
Speaker 1: thing is only a little over halfway finished, so there's
Speaker 1: still a lot of football to be played. But right now,
Speaker 1: you know me, it goes to I'm contract actually obligated
Speaker 1: to talk about something that happened fifteen or twenty years ago. Um,
Speaker 1: once upon a time there was a guy named Nick Goings,
Speaker 1: and Nick Goings was about the third or fourth running
Speaker 1: back or option in the backfield, and everybody else got hurt.
Speaker 1: And I remember having conversations with then offensive coordinator Dan
Speaker 1: Henning because when Stephen Davison, Deshaun Foster gets hurt, that's
Speaker 1: that's big time. That's you know, high level stuff. And
Speaker 1: you're down to Nick Goings and it's sort of like, oh,
Speaker 1: what can you possibly expect? And Hittings like Nick Goings
Speaker 1: is really good. You're going to see that Nick Goings
Speaker 1: is really good. And Nick Goings ripped off four hundred
Speaker 1: yard games in a five game span and it was
Speaker 1: his career highlight. Okay, I mean that was outside the
Speaker 1: norm for Nick Going's career. He was a serviceable ve,
Speaker 1: of course, but we're gonna find out in the next
Speaker 1: seven weeks if Deonte Foreman is Nick Going's version two
Speaker 1: point oh or he's a guy you count on. And
Speaker 1: I think there are certain guys. There aren't a lot
Speaker 1: of free agents on this team other than all the quarterbacks,
Speaker 1: and it's going to be interesting to see over the
Speaker 1: next seven weeks how they handle like a Bozeman or
Speaker 1: a Foreman and what those guys do, because they are
Speaker 1: absolutely playing for the their future as well as his team,
Speaker 1: So it's always interesting to do one of the other things.
Speaker 1: There were a couple of other things I wanted to
Speaker 1: ask you about why we had this time in the
Speaker 1: absence of Kristen. Yeah, I think she always does such
Speaker 1: an amazing job of pulling back and maintaining a proper perspective.
Speaker 1: We we get caught up in the week to week
Speaker 1: so much that I don't think we ever stopped. And
Speaker 1: remember what we actually just saw last Thursday night was
Speaker 1: among all the first it was your first primetime game,
Speaker 1: it was first time in all black uniforms, first time
Speaker 1: in black helmets, and it rained. Yes, you go out
Speaker 1: during pre game, you watch pre game, you're you're down
Speaker 1: there absorbing the atmosphere, both of the crowd and the
Speaker 1: players and all the elements. What was that like for you? Oh,
Speaker 1: it's so cool. First of all, I there there definitely
Speaker 1: was a different sense of energy. I mean we talked
Speaker 1: about it last week, but just the whole week here
Speaker 1: with everybody buzzing around constantly, all the Amazon folks and
Speaker 1: all of the trucks and so so it felt different
Speaker 1: from the second I stepped on the field. I think
Speaker 1: the biggest difference was as as like basic as it sounds,
Speaker 1: but it's just something that I wanted to talk about.
Speaker 1: Every game I've covered, right, it's been during the day,
Speaker 1: so everything is lit up in the way, like the
Speaker 1: sunlights lighting it up, so so literally seeing the way
Speaker 1: the lights hit and then the way the rain looked
Speaker 1: in the lights. I love to look straight up and
Speaker 1: watch how the rainfall was. It looked like little crystals
Speaker 1: falling from the sky. I mean, this is the this
Speaker 1: is the Augusta analysis, because that's like the thing I noticed.
Speaker 1: I look up and I'm like, whoa, this is so cool.
Speaker 1: Freezing cold. That's another thing I noticed. Um, But really, honestly,
Speaker 1: the energy, you could tell that the it was the
Speaker 1: black helmets and that black jersey combo and everything hyped
Speaker 1: the guys up so much. They were just so excited.
Speaker 1: It's who the whole you know, you look good, feel good,
Speaker 1: perform good kind of thing. I mean that was terrible grammar,
Speaker 1: but you know what I mean. It's like they just
Speaker 1: they really did kind of lean into the whole welcome
Speaker 1: to the dark Side sort of thing that I thought.
Speaker 1: I thought that our digital team branded extremely well. I
Speaker 1: have a friend that's a Falcons fan who said it
Speaker 1: was awesome and loved the branding and thought it was
Speaker 1: spooky and great. But um no, the whole thing was
Speaker 1: super duper sick, and I think it really added some
Speaker 1: extra extra mojo. I mean, you really, you to have
Speaker 1: the night game, rain game, and Black Helmet game, I'll
Speaker 1: be the same game. It was like, Okay, you can
Speaker 1: have one of these things independent of the other. You
Speaker 1: can have a rain game that would be kind of cool,
Speaker 1: you can have a black helmet game, you can have
Speaker 1: a problem tonge game. But to have them all together
Speaker 1: and then play the way that they did it was
Speaker 1: an exciting game. I think. Um one of the things
Speaker 1: I realized stepping back from that game was how close
Speaker 1: it got at the end, and I hadn't really registered
Speaker 1: that in my brain. You know. I was like, as
Speaker 1: sports writers, I know you can relate to this because
Speaker 1: you write the rapid we sit there, we're like, okay,
Speaker 1: roughly mid third quarter, fourth quarter, kind of have an
Speaker 1: idea of the direction it might go. And obviously last
Speaker 1: time we played Atlanta or Caroline Plane Atlanta didn't do that.
Speaker 1: But um it uh, I didn't realize how close it
Speaker 1: got there at the end. Roe. I'm just like I felt,
Speaker 1: you know, I that I had an idea what was going.
Speaker 1: And then I was like, oh, put my rewatch. I
Speaker 1: was like that that got tighter than I thought it did. Um,
Speaker 1: but it was it was an atmosphere for sure. I
Speaker 1: mean it was. It was really really cool. And like
Speaker 1: I said, I liked all the elements of it. So
Speaker 1: if we can like, have you know, maybe another really
Speaker 1: cool jersey game or yeah, I think ring games are cool.
Speaker 1: I think I know that. Like you know, my my
Speaker 1: photographer friends and videographer friends probably wouldn't agree with me,
Speaker 1: but they look sick and you have beautiful art come
Speaker 1: from them. Yeah, I mean the photos in the video
Speaker 1: from that, I mean it just adds a cinematic element
Speaker 1: to the whole thing. But I the one thing I
Speaker 1: wanted to mention is I was actually surprised by the fans.
Speaker 1: And I try not to get into fan business too
Speaker 1: much because the results of games EBB and flow that
Speaker 1: happens we got no control over that. I was actually
Speaker 1: surprised at the energy in this place. There were two things.
Speaker 1: Number One, that they showed up in the rain to
Speaker 1: watch a game between a two and seven and four
Speaker 1: and five team on a Thursday night in a city
Speaker 1: where everybody has to go to work in the morning. Um.
Speaker 1: They came and they stayed, which is not nothing when
Speaker 1: a game is pushing up eleven o'clock finishing time and beyond. Um,
Speaker 1: and they were into it. There is a very real
Speaker 1: and tangible energy happening in this building the last couple
Speaker 1: of weeks. And listen, the home results have not been
Speaker 1: good the last few years, even going back to the
Speaker 1: end of the Ron Rivera era throughout that rule. But
Speaker 1: the last two games it has just felt a little
Speaker 1: bit different in here. And while the story of this
Speaker 1: season will be told over the next seven weeks and
Speaker 1: we'll see what it all means, the fact that the
Speaker 1: last couple of weeks, fans have seemed a little more engaged,
Speaker 1: a little more into it. And maybe it's not an
Speaker 1: accident that they've won a couple of games at home,
Speaker 1: and I think people are starting to remember what that
Speaker 1: feels like and it's a reminder and Steve Wilkes has
Speaker 1: said that since day one, Hey, it's been good here. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I've seen it with my own two eyes. I've lived it.
Speaker 1: And I think a lot of people are starting to
Speaker 1: remember that too. Because the atmosphere in this building. And
Speaker 1: I don't say this as someone who works in this building,
Speaker 1: but I say this as someone who's seen most of
Speaker 1: the games played in this building. I'm not gonna try
Speaker 1: to turn this into Chad Cota making a goal line
Speaker 1: stop to seal a division title against Pittsburgh. I'm not
Speaker 1: trying to turn this into the nineties seven playoff win
Speaker 1: over Dallas where the fans players came out in high
Speaker 1: fived everybody after the game. It wasn't that, but this
Speaker 1: was not an ordinary setting for regular season football. There
Speaker 1: was something about it, and I think people are tapping
Speaker 1: into where this team is right now, and I think
Speaker 1: the fans were a non zero component of that special
Speaker 1: atmosphere on Thursday Night. So it's gonna be interesting to
Speaker 1: see how it how it plays out over the next
Speaker 1: couple of weeks, because there is a lot up in
Speaker 1: the air. I mean, Steve Wilkes's future is up in
Speaker 1: the air, a lot of players is up in the air.
Speaker 1: But I think it's kind of it's kind of neat
Speaker 1: to see the fans react the way they have And
Speaker 1: there was one little moment and again you were You've
Speaker 1: been in on this deal from the very beginning. Um
Speaker 1: Eddie Pinero was not a particularly popular man coming into
Speaker 1: that game, after the way the first Atlanta game went
Speaker 1: missing a couple of kicks late, and with fourteen fifteen
Speaker 1: seconds left in the game, he comes on to kick
Speaker 1: what could have been the field goal. That ice is
Speaker 1: it and nobody knew whether he was going to hit
Speaker 1: it or not based on Atlanta, and you could hear
Speaker 1: it through the glass in the press box. There was
Speaker 1: this real low and J. J. Jansen looks at me
Speaker 1: the day after and he said, we're the fans chanting Eddie,
Speaker 1: and I said they were and it was and it
Speaker 1: was something I did not expect based on I didn't
Speaker 1: think he was going to get that reaction from the fans,
Speaker 1: or that the situation was going to play out the
Speaker 1: way he did. Eddie is suddenly popular again. But you've
Speaker 1: talked to him a lot over the course of this season,
Speaker 1: before and after, I mean, and and just what did
Speaker 1: that mean to him? Oh? My goodness. Well, first of all,
Speaker 1: I remember when I called him the next day, and
Speaker 1: my first question was, just did you hear it? You know,
Speaker 1: because I always wonder, I'm like, do these players actually
Speaker 1: hear the stuff? Do they block it out? You know,
Speaker 1: especially you know, knowing what had happened to him in
Speaker 1: the last couple of games, you know, is it one
Speaker 1: of those things where he's just so zoned in? He
Speaker 1: did hear it? Um, he told me. I didn't get
Speaker 1: to include this in the story, but he told me
Speaker 1: that they to do it at Florida back whenever he
Speaker 1: was in college. Um, and he was he was really
Speaker 1: you know, money down there, and he's he's generally money here,
Speaker 1: which is why the Atlanta thing was such a weird,
Speaker 1: you know, kind of outlier there. But Um, the thing
Speaker 1: about that game, when I talked with Eddie about it,
Speaker 1: was he told me, even when he was in Chicago,
Speaker 1: which he loves to talk about how awful the weather
Speaker 1: was in Chicago. He's a Miami guy, and he's like,
Speaker 1: kicking in that weather is just awful. Like when he
Speaker 1: got here, the first thing he told me was, I'm
Speaker 1: just so happy to be here. The weather is so
Speaker 1: much better. However, he's at home and it's the Atlanta
Speaker 1: Redemption game, and he told me it was the worst
Speaker 1: weather he had ever kicked in by like a mile.
Speaker 1: He was like, it was windy in a way where
Speaker 1: like I didn't know where the winds were going. He
Speaker 1: and Johnny like to pick out points, you know, in
Speaker 1: the crowd to aim for, and he was like, we
Speaker 1: were having to change it every single time because the
Speaker 1: wind gusts were constantly changing, like the directions weren't making sense,
Speaker 1: and the rain was just that level of annoying where
Speaker 1: it wasn't really hard, but it also wasn't really light,
Speaker 1: and and he just went into all this detail. And
Speaker 1: then he has that game versus when they were in
Speaker 1: Atlanta and they were in Dome and he just doesn't
Speaker 1: get it right, you know. It's it was fascinating to
Speaker 1: me to hear him talk about how the it was
Speaker 1: a terrible weather game. You know, it could have been
Speaker 1: in his head. And and the thing was, he kept
Speaker 1: such a good even keel about him throughout that because
Speaker 1: I would go up to him in the locker room.
Speaker 1: I just talked to him and be like, man, you
Speaker 1: know how you doing? What's going on? He goes, this
Speaker 1: is just part of it. He's like, I've had terrible
Speaker 1: games before, I've messed up on these huge scales. I'll
Speaker 1: bounce back, like I know I will. He's been He's like,
Speaker 1: I've been doing all right. In practice. He had the
Speaker 1: support of his teammates, which I think played a huge
Speaker 1: role in it. And he had his support of his teammates,
Speaker 1: Like I said on a tweet in an article on
Speaker 1: this podcast, I mean from the jump, there were guys
Speaker 1: supporting him, like, hey, we're wrapping our arms around Eddie.
Speaker 1: We're not getting rid of Eddie. Eddie's our guy. He
Speaker 1: felt that connection. And I mean, to hear that from
Speaker 1: the fans, it was almost like the last thing, right.
Speaker 1: He had the support from his teammates, he had the
Speaker 1: support from his coaches. He had that self belief, I believe,
Speaker 1: and then to hear it from the fans, I mean
Speaker 1: it was. It was special for Eddie and and he's
Speaker 1: he's a grateful guy. I I've enjoyed, you know, getting
Speaker 1: to work all inside him, and I was happy for
Speaker 1: him in his moment. I really was. It's been one
Speaker 1: of the neat uh scenes of this whole year is
Speaker 1: seeing the way you know, Eddie's come in performed. You know,
Speaker 1: there's the career arc. He had a bad game in
Speaker 1: Atlanta the first time, comes back, does what he needs
Speaker 1: to hear, and to have that support was just part
Speaker 1: of a kind of a wild night all the way around.
Speaker 1: It's one of those things you have to step back
Speaker 1: from every now and then and think, WHOA all those
Speaker 1: things just happened here in front of me, all right.
Speaker 1: Wouldn't be the happy half hour if we didn't go
Speaker 1: non football to close this thing out. We are coming
Speaker 1: up on Thanksgiving, and everyone's holiday experience is always different.
Speaker 1: I never try to take them for granted that my
Speaker 1: experience is shared by everybody's. But the one thing I
Speaker 1: believe is that the second greatest holiday film and or
Speaker 1: special of all time is the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving Special,
Speaker 1: trailing only the Charlie Brown Christmas Special. Because later in
Speaker 1: the year in this podcast will break down the correct
Speaker 1: Charlie Brown Christmas Special dance styles. Um, but if you
Speaker 1: were a guest at Charlie Brown and Snoopy's Thanksgiving extravaganza,
Speaker 1: what is your favorite dish toast? Pretzels, popcorn or jelly beans?
Speaker 1: Oh that's so tough. I M gonna say popcorn. I
Speaker 1: really am. I I love I love popcorn, big popcorn. Gow. Also,
Speaker 1: the fact that you mentioned Charlie Brown shout out to
Speaker 1: my entire childhood, both sides of my family. My great
Speaker 1: grandmother rest in peace. She's amazing. My mama. We watched
Speaker 1: it all the time with them. They deserve it. I
Speaker 1: loved it. Charlie Brown. Charlie Brown is one of those
Speaker 1: things you need. I have, uh in my life. I
Speaker 1: have walked into uh watering holes before where nothing in
Speaker 1: particular was on TV and looked at the bartender and said, hey,
Speaker 1: can you put the Charlie Brown Christmas Special on? And
Speaker 1: he just looked at me and he was like, no,
Speaker 1: why not? Come on? Who doesn't who doesn't love Charlie Brown?
Speaker 1: So what's your side, Darren? I I am. I would
Speaker 1: probably go toast. I like the way Snoopy was really
Speaker 1: committed to the craft. Uh perfectly golden brown. Uh so
Speaker 1: he had a lot of toasters going. I worry about
Speaker 1: the electricity burden on the Brown house when you've got
Speaker 1: a dog running multiple toasters at one time. But uh
Speaker 1: Snoopie's got control of this thing, and somehow or another,
Speaker 1: we've maintained control of this thing even without Kristen. So
Speaker 1: it's uh, we did it. I feel pretty good about
Speaker 1: the effort. And we will see you soon on the
Speaker 1: Happy half Hour. Hope everyone's Thanksgiving and holiday journey is
Speaker 1: a joyous one, and we will talk to you soon.