Speaker 1: And welcome to what is now an officially off season
Speaker 1: edition of The Happy Half Hour. And it's off season
Speaker 1: now because they just played that last football game of
Speaker 1: the year the other day, So we are now officially
Speaker 1: in that point of the year where we're everything's pointed
Speaker 1: to twenty twenty.
Speaker 2: Four New year.
Speaker 3: Everybody zero zero.
Speaker 1: Everybody zero zero, and you know what is in Are
Speaker 1: any of us really surprised at how that game worked
Speaker 1: out the other day?
Speaker 3: You know, we had to do preseason picks, and that
Speaker 3: was my preseason super Bowl. I think I did say
Speaker 3: the forty nine Ers are going to win, but as
Speaker 3: the season went on, we talked about this before you
Speaker 3: left for Vegas. I've seen that forty nine Ers team
Speaker 3: lose to that Chiefs team before. Yeah, and that's exactly
Speaker 3: how we thought it would.
Speaker 1: And that Chiefs team's just going to beat people. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's just they've reached that point. As I mentioned, I
Speaker 1: got tired of being the guy who was wrong about
Speaker 1: Tom Brady. I'm now officially tired of being the guy
Speaker 1: who ever thinks Patrick Mahomes is going to lose again.
Speaker 3: So it'll never just fund him in late in the season.
Speaker 2: Or it will happen eventually.
Speaker 1: I mean, they'll go through a run, somebody will get hurt,
Speaker 1: they'll lose their mojo, they'll be coaching changes, something will
Speaker 1: come up that'll you know, it'll be a slight hiccup.
Speaker 1: But as long as that guy's play and you know,
Speaker 1: they are going to have a chance. And I don't know,
Speaker 1: I want to ask you about this to see you're
Speaker 1: you're young and analytically minded. Right, where did you come
Speaker 1: down on coin Flipgate?
Speaker 3: I think what stood out to me most about it
Speaker 3: was the fact that the forty nine Ers players admitted
Speaker 3: that they didn't know the overtime rules. That's and then
Speaker 3: you compare that to the Chiefs who said they spent
Speaker 3: two weeks on it all the way back in training
Speaker 3: camp and then spend time on it each week in
Speaker 3: preparation during the playoffs. That comes down to coaching.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and listen.
Speaker 1: One of the things I kind of wonder about some
Speaker 1: of that sort of stuff. I think there is something
Speaker 1: to be said for compartmentalizing your information.
Speaker 2: Four in your backup.
Speaker 1: Guard doesn't really need to be well versed on the
Speaker 1: nuances of overtime rules changes. I mean, certain people, it's
Speaker 1: like point to the field, go do your job now.
Speaker 1: I mean, obviously the head coach needs no quarterback. Those
Speaker 1: kind of guys who are involved in the very granular
Speaker 1: game management part of it need to know. But I
Speaker 1: just I am still I know everybody's beaten up on
Speaker 1: Kyle for taking the taking the ball after winning the
Speaker 1: coin toss. I think you're we're beating him up for
Speaker 1: the wrong thing. I mean, I think there's still something
Speaker 1: to be said for the notion of if you keep
Speaker 1: that game tied, having the chance to be in sudden
Speaker 1: death position, have that third possession now where Kyle screwed
Speaker 1: up is fourth and fourth and nine, Yeah, and kicking
Speaker 1: there rather than going for it there, because you either
Speaker 1: keep the ball, score a touchdown, take the lead, make
Speaker 1: Patrick Mahomes score the touchdown he eventually scored, or you
Speaker 1: lead them in such an unenviable field position that that
Speaker 1: punting is an option for them on the next possession.
Speaker 1: I just think that, you know, we're beating him up
Speaker 1: for the wrong stuff. I think there is a lane.
Speaker 1: You know, we've now got a set of data that
Speaker 1: includes one outcome on these rules, and everybody's going to
Speaker 1: kill Kyle for taking the ball first I don't even
Speaker 1: know that that's the wrong play, but he certainly got
Speaker 1: too conservative too early in that situation.
Speaker 3: I think he won. He would have been better if
Speaker 3: he would have just stuck to the reasoning that a
Speaker 3: lot of people thought he originally took the ball, which
Speaker 3: was to give his defense a break. If he had
Speaker 3: just stuck with that reasoning and nobody would have questioned
Speaker 3: him about it. Two, I can understand the thinking of
Speaker 3: wanting that third possession if that second possession went to
Speaker 3: anyone besides Patrick Mahomes. Sure, and if you're facing a
Speaker 3: different quarterback, who you can I saw an insane staff
Speaker 3: this week, Darren. There have been I can't remember the
Speaker 3: exact number, but it was, you know, some odd number
Speaker 3: of drives in the fourth quarter or overtime of a
Speaker 3: Super Bowl that were considered game winning drives. And you
Speaker 3: know what quarterbacks stats were in that drives, you know
Speaker 3: whether they won or lost. Patrick Mahomes and those drives
Speaker 3: in super Bowls, it's like seven or playoffs or something
Speaker 3: is like seven of seven. Yeah, you never not put
Speaker 3: together a game winning drive when he had to in
Speaker 3: a situation like that for a champion.
Speaker 1: All of the things that's what Patrick Mahomes does. He
Speaker 1: just does all the things all the time. His team's
Speaker 1: gonna always win every game from here on out the
Speaker 1: rest of his.
Speaker 3: Career, and those little nuances. I totally get your point.
Speaker 3: You're right about, like you know your backup left guard
Speaker 3: doesn't need to know it. But those are also the
Speaker 3: things that I think can come down to you just
Speaker 3: want everyone on the same page. And I remember a
Speaker 3: few years ago there was this like obscure rule that
Speaker 3: came up in a game and even the officials had
Speaker 3: to stop and ask for clarification from New York and
Speaker 3: what the rule meant. And there were all these Patriots
Speaker 3: players that got on Twitter during that time and explained
Speaker 3: it because they all said that there is a day
Speaker 3: in training camp where Bill Belichick goes over all of
Speaker 3: the obscure rules that no one else knows sure. And
Speaker 3: so I just think there's something to be said too
Speaker 3: for everybody being on the same page, because if you're
Speaker 3: not on the same page about what the overtime rules
Speaker 3: are in the playoffs, you're probably not on the same
Speaker 3: page about other things that are going to come up
Speaker 3: in a game.
Speaker 1: You can definitely give Kyle a pass for the strategic
Speaker 1: if you choose to the operational. He clearly fell short,
Speaker 1: and I think he did in a number of ways.
Speaker 1: I think just in watching that game as a civilian,
Speaker 1: I was sitting there yelling at the TV. In the
Speaker 1: second half, it's like, your two best players are number
Speaker 1: twenty three and number seventy one. Tell the little one
Speaker 1: to follow the big one around. That was the path forward.
Speaker 1: And if you're trying to keep the ball out of
Speaker 1: Patrick Mahomes' hands.
Speaker 2: That's the way you do it.
Speaker 1: You tell Christian McCaffrey get behind Trent Williams and go
Speaker 1: where he goes because he's knocking somebody down and that
Speaker 1: creates an opening for you to do your thing. And
Speaker 1: you know, Christian had the early fumble and they very
Speaker 1: young character. Yeah, uncharacteristic for him, but he was the
Speaker 1: guy that they didn't use nearly enough in the second half.
Speaker 1: And stop me, if you've heard this one before, Kyle
Speaker 1: Shanahan stopped running when he should have kept running. So
Speaker 1: not everybody wants to believe it, but every now and
Speaker 1: then that's the sound football strategy.
Speaker 2: But it was. It was quite a game. Quite a
Speaker 2: game thoughts on halftime.
Speaker 3: I liked it from the perspective of a millennial. At first,
Speaker 3: I kind of knocked it for being too slow At times.
Speaker 3: I think if he had started with the song oh
Speaker 3: my God, if he had come out with that song,
Speaker 3: it would have instantly upped the energy of the whole show.
Speaker 3: That being said, there were still the vignettes within it
Speaker 3: that I really really enjoyed. And you know, as soon
Speaker 3: as he starts singing like love in this Club and Yeah,
Speaker 3: I could write a thesis Darren on how the song
Speaker 3: yeah is the one song in the world that will
Speaker 3: never ever ever get old. You turn it on and
Speaker 3: people instantly perk up and start singing an attempt to
Speaker 3: start dancing. And I also think that like the ludicrous
Speaker 3: part of it was every you know, millennial girls first
Speaker 3: foray and to wrap it, many of us get we
Speaker 3: can get at the drop of a hat.
Speaker 1: Well, John and Luda come out and it's like, why
Speaker 1: was this not in Atlanta the other year?
Speaker 2: Why did we not do this then?
Speaker 3: And then the whole end of it, like also it
Speaker 3: was an entirely Atlanta based crew that put on the
Speaker 3: halftime show. That was one of US's request and so yeah,
Speaker 3: it definitely should have been Atlanta. I have to ask,
Speaker 3: and I'm probably gonna make podcast Matt antsy about whether
Speaker 3: or not he has to cut this out. But you
Speaker 3: said that Christian McCaffrey and Trent Williams are the first
Speaker 3: the second best player on that team. Where do you put.
Speaker 2: Rockberty others receiving votes?
Speaker 1: I mean, listen, I don't want to go full Cam
Speaker 1: Newton here, and I'm not wearing a hat today, but
Speaker 1: use your imagination.
Speaker 2: Maybe I am.
Speaker 3: Got a feather in it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's I mean, Brock Perdy, is Jimmy Garoppolo is
Speaker 1: you know, fill in the blank. I mean any number
Speaker 1: of guys who've been in that system who aren't that guy,
Speaker 1: who aren't him as the kids say, And you know,
Speaker 1: there's not necessarily anything wrong with that. I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: Carolina Panthers went to a Super Bowl, and I tease
Speaker 1: Jake Delom all the time. I said, when we talk
Speaker 1: about you as a player, you know, yeah, you're in
Speaker 1: the Hall of Honor, all that kind of stuff. But
Speaker 1: everything seems like a slight when you start talking about
Speaker 1: Jake as if you know, he's just some mid quarterback.
Speaker 1: I mean, Jake, I always argued when he was playing
Speaker 1: in the two thousands, Jake kind of lived in that
Speaker 1: band between like the eighth and the fourteenth best quarterback
Speaker 1: in the NFL. So if you wanted to be pedanic
Speaker 1: and say top ten, could he beat maybe, but you know,
Speaker 1: kind of right there in that window, and Jake's fine
Speaker 1: with that. Jake understands that's kind of his place. You
Speaker 1: can still do a lot of damage as a team
Speaker 1: if you've got a quarterback who lives in that neighborhood.
Speaker 1: So you know Brock's line, you know, take him for
Speaker 1: what it's worth.
Speaker 3: But that's an offense that Nick Mullins wants ran to success.
Speaker 1: I mean, this is the Kyle Shanahan circle of life.
Speaker 1: You overachieve with a quarterback nobody thinks is any good.
Speaker 1: Then people start thinking he's really good, and then people
Speaker 1: slam him for not being as good as everybody thinks
Speaker 1: he is, and then you go look for another one.
Speaker 1: So I mean, I figure the shelf life of brock
Speaker 1: perty is another about year and a half before people
Speaker 1: get itchy again and start wanting to know when are
Speaker 1: they going to trade three picks for the next tray lance.
Speaker 1: Oh wait, that didn't work the last time, So I
Speaker 1: just think that they're in a funny spot. There's still
Speaker 1: a talented team. You know, there's going to be some
Speaker 1: change this offseason, a lot of guys coming and going.
Speaker 1: But I just think that their position to continue to
Speaker 1: be in that realm for the next little bit because
Speaker 1: they are so solid, they can run with anybody. They
Speaker 1: do have the kind of personnel on defense, even though
Speaker 1: they've made a change on defense and you know, offered
Speaker 1: up our old friend Steve Wilkes fairly or unfairly. That's
Speaker 1: one of those things Kyle Shanahan's good at is making
Speaker 1: sure everybody knows that's somebody else's fault.
Speaker 3: But that was a defense that held Patrick Mahomes out
Speaker 3: of the end zone for a lot of that game
Speaker 3: until a special team.
Speaker 1: Patrick Mahomes scored nineteen points in sixty minutes against that defense,
Speaker 1: and one of those touchdowns came on a short field
Speaker 1: after the aforementioned fumble. So I just you know Steve's
Speaker 1: treatment aside. I think they are always going to be
Speaker 1: positioned because it rosters so deep, so twent and so good.
Speaker 1: You know, they're also out there doing it without Dre Greenlaw,
Speaker 1: who kind of popped in Achilles waiting to run onto
Speaker 1: the field, so so weird. It was bizarre, It was unusual,
Speaker 1: and it was one for the books.
Speaker 3: It was.
Speaker 2: It was very Las Vegas. It was quite a show.
Speaker 1: All the way around, so it was it was definitely
Speaker 1: something to see. Speaking of something to see, the reason
Speaker 1: I was in Las Vegas was to see our old
Speaker 1: friend Julius Peppers get inducted into the Pro Football Hall
Speaker 1: of Fame. And I hope, I hope, if anything we
Speaker 1: sent back from Las Vegas last week, I hope the
Speaker 1: thing that came through clearly was just how giddy Julius
Speaker 1: Peppers truly was at being named to the Hall of Fame.
Speaker 1: He knew going to Las Vegas. He had found out,
Speaker 1: you know, when Bruce Smith knocked on his door a
Speaker 1: couple of weeks before, and he held that secret and
Speaker 1: he thought about it, and I just loved the fact
Speaker 1: when I'm talking to him Thursday night after the honor show,
Speaker 1: he said, I see Barry Sanders in the hotel, and
Speaker 1: I can't tell him yet because nobody knows and it's
Speaker 1: still a secret. And I'm just sitting there thinking, I'm
Speaker 1: in the Hall of Fame with Barry Sanders.
Speaker 2: What is this, guys, and.
Speaker 1: Just seeing the look on Julius's face, we're not accustomed
Speaker 1: to it because Julius is in every way, shape and form,
Speaker 1: larger than life. A he's larger, but b because he's
Speaker 1: always been up here on this level with the gods
Speaker 1: of football, we think he's impervious to human emotion or
Speaker 1: feeling any kind of way about his place in the game.
Speaker 1: Gang Julius Peppers was forward when he was walking around
Speaker 1: the Merlin Oil some luncheon the next day and Warren
Speaker 1: Sap comes over and hugs him. Julius was just like, dang,
Speaker 1: that's Warren Sap, And you know, Warren's kind of joking
Speaker 1: with him, saying, you know, telling Julius's kids, your dad
Speaker 1: was a lot better at this than me. And just
Speaker 1: the grin on Julius Pepper's face, to see that kind
Speaker 1: of not childish but child like enthusiasm in his eyes
Speaker 1: was really neat to see, for lack of a better word.
Speaker 3: And probably surprising for those of us on the outside
Speaker 3: looking in, because you know, for so many of us,
Speaker 3: we look at his game tape, we look at his resume,
Speaker 3: and of course, how could he not be a Hall
Speaker 3: of Famer and for that matter of first ballot Hall
Speaker 3: of Famer, So that just really kind of speaks to
Speaker 3: his humbleness and his personality as well. And that did
Speaker 3: definitely come through and everything that came back from Baster.
Speaker 1: And we're gonna have a lot of cool stuff coming
Speaker 1: for you over the next six months. I mean, some
Speaker 1: of the stuff we were gathering while we were down there,
Speaker 1: you may not see for several months, maybe even beyond
Speaker 1: the entriment, because we've got some special stuff planned with
Speaker 1: Julia's coming up later this year. But it was just
Speaker 1: so neat having that window into his personality and his
Speaker 1: spirit of being able to just enjoy that moment and
Speaker 1: walking around that luncheon on Friday talking to other Hall
Speaker 1: of Famers. It takes all of.
Speaker 2: Them a year. To Leroy Butler, who I love, by
Speaker 2: the way, love LaRoy Lroy.
Speaker 1: Is amazing, and he was talking about with him. It
Speaker 1: was Drew Pearson and he told this fantastic story, he said,
Speaker 1: and Laroy's just great at telling stories, which you know
Speaker 1: from your time in Green Bay. But Larroy talked about
Speaker 1: Drew Pearson and he said, when I was a kid,
Speaker 1: Drew Pearson was my guy. I had a Drew Pearson shirt.
Speaker 1: It wasn't a jersey. My sister just drew an eighty
Speaker 1: eight on a T shirt because we were in poverty.
Speaker 3: That sounds like Leroy, I hear you, Leroy.
Speaker 1: But they all have that guy for them and different guys.
Speaker 1: John Randall talked about Alan Page. They all have that
Speaker 1: touchstone for their own lives in football that they consider
Speaker 1: here's the guy I emulate, here's the guy I consider
Speaker 1: up there at the top of the mountain, and then
Speaker 1: to consider that you're suddenly appear takes a second for
Speaker 1: all of them, and I think it was cool watching
Speaker 1: Julia's process that in real time.
Speaker 2: For sure, this.
Speaker 3: Quick, very quick little side story. You know, you talk
Speaker 3: about them having guys. We all have those kind of
Speaker 3: moments too, working in this business where we think, Wow,
Speaker 3: I'm here, I'm standing here a part of this, and
Speaker 3: I get to be the person to document this. LaRoy
Speaker 3: is probably my moment because it was after he had
Speaker 3: been inducted into the Hall of Fame last year and
Speaker 3: he came back to do to get it Atlanta. If
Speaker 3: you're in the Hall of Fame, you get your name
Speaker 3: on the stadium, and so they come back to Lambeau
Speaker 3: for that ceremony this past year, and it's done at halftime. Leroy,
Speaker 3: for those that don't know, is also who invented the
Speaker 3: Lambeau leap. I mean, it's now iconic. Other teams even
Speaker 3: do it at their stadiums, but it's it's the Lambo leap,
Speaker 3: and it started with Leroy. And so after he had
Speaker 3: his little ceremony there at halftime, they had him go
Speaker 3: over to the wall to do a Lambo leap. Now
Speaker 3: that wall is actually pretty high, it's over six feet high,
Speaker 3: so he had to get up on a stool with
Speaker 3: this point to do it. But as he's walking over,
Speaker 3: he sees me and he did a lot of stuff
Speaker 3: with the paper that I worked for. So he comes
Speaker 3: over and he gives me a hug and he's like,
Speaker 3: thank you for being down here, and then I kind
Speaker 3: of follow him to film it just for our social
Speaker 3: He gets up on he gets up on the stool,
Speaker 3: but he does a Lambeau leap in his gold jacket
Speaker 3: and I'm standing there right below it, and I'm like,
Speaker 3: this is this is so cool. I'm standing here with
Speaker 3: the guy who invented the Lambeau leap doing it again
Speaker 3: in his Hall of Fame jacket, and I'm standing here
Speaker 3: getting to like document this for everybody to remember. That
Speaker 3: was one of my coolest moments.
Speaker 2: That that is cool.
Speaker 1: I mean, there are moments in this business where you're like,
Speaker 1: that's a thing that just happened right there, and that
Speaker 1: had to.
Speaker 2: Be one of them. It It is super cool, and
Speaker 2: I'm looking forward to it.
Speaker 1: And and you know what, honestly, we're going to be
Speaker 1: back in Canton probably sooner.
Speaker 2: Rather than later.
Speaker 1: Not just this year, but uh yeah, we're going to
Speaker 1: be back in Canton later this late, later this month,
Speaker 1: next month, what month is it, I don't even know,
Speaker 1: but we'll we'll be back at some point and then
Speaker 1: we'll be back in August obviously. But we're going to
Speaker 1: be back in Canton the next couple of years. I
Speaker 1: truly believe that. In this year's class. One of the
Speaker 1: big takeaways for me, uh was how close this year's
Speaker 1: class puts a couple of former Panthers to being in
Speaker 1: consideration for those same kind of honors. I mean, Patrick
Speaker 1: Willis going in this year basically provides the framework for
Speaker 1: Luke Keigley's candidacy when he becomes eligible next year, and
Speaker 1: They're the same guy. If you think Patrick Willis as
Speaker 1: a Hall of Famer, you think Luke is one too,
Speaker 1: because eight years, seven Pro Bowl, six All Pros, Defensive
Speaker 1: Rookie of the Year, boom boom boom, all the same,
Speaker 1: the exact same guy. The resumes are identical. The only
Speaker 1: real difference is Luke's got a Defensive Player of the
Speaker 1: Year award that Patrick never won. They were both all
Speaker 1: decade players. Patrick probably played on better defenses on the
Speaker 1: hole during his career in San Francisco, but basically identical
Speaker 1: players cut short by injury at just eight years, and
Speaker 1: we all sort of felt like we were robbed of
Speaker 1: extra football when we didn't see those guys anymore. So
Speaker 1: I know Luke his personality is not going to be one.
Speaker 1: I would be very surprised if he's out there campaigning
Speaker 1: or anything like that. But I think his time will
Speaker 1: be sooner rather than later. And I think Andre Johnson
Speaker 1: going in kind of clears the way for us to
Speaker 1: consider Steve Smith Canadacy in a different way too, because
Speaker 1: we talked a lot going into that meeting about the
Speaker 1: three wide receivers that were stuck in a nod between
Speaker 1: Andre Tory, Old and Reggie Wayne. We finally broke that
Speaker 1: tie and got Andre through.
Speaker 2: Well, guess what.
Speaker 1: Andre Johnson's the one most like Steve Smith in that
Speaker 1: he didn't have the benefit of playing with a Hall
Speaker 1: of Fame quarterback. He didn't have the benefit of being
Speaker 1: surrounded by stars on offense around him. I mean, no
Speaker 1: offense to the Mussin Mohammed's and Stephen Davis's and Deshaun
Speaker 1: Foster's of the world. But that's different than Edrin James
Speaker 1: and Reggie Wayne and all those guys in Indianapolis who
Speaker 1: got to play with Peyton Manning. And it's different than
Speaker 1: Marshall Falk and Isaac Bruce and Kurt Warner. So it's
Speaker 1: going to be interesting to see. I feel like I've
Speaker 1: committed those stats to memories. Steve's eighth on the all
Speaker 1: time receiving yards Liz ahead of all three of those
Speaker 1: guys league.
Speaker 2: Yeah, eighth all time in the league. The only guy
Speaker 2: ahead of.
Speaker 1: Him who's not in the Hall yet is Larry Fitzgerald,
Speaker 1: who's not eligible. So I got a feeling that now
Speaker 1: that we've got one of those receivers pushed through that pipe,
Speaker 1: there's an opening for Steve. Hopefully, Hopefully we can get
Speaker 1: to a point where we're discussing Steve in that room
Speaker 1: as a finalist, because I think his resume stacks up
Speaker 1: extremely favorably, you know, especially when you consider what he
Speaker 1: did as a returner early in his career, because he
Speaker 1: was one of the most dynamic players you know, really
Speaker 1: that I've ever seen. And going back to the first
Speaker 1: time he touched the ball he returned to kickoff for
Speaker 1: a touchdown in his very first game, that kind of
Speaker 1: set the stage for what Steve Smith was going.
Speaker 3: To be like. So Devin Hester got in this year.
Speaker 1: And Devin Hester got in so with his thirty two touchdowns,
Speaker 1: which is about fifty fewer than Steve Smith. So anyway,
Speaker 1: it was I think it was a good week all
Speaker 1: things considered for the Carolina Panthers based on those Hall
Speaker 1: of Fame discussions.
Speaker 2: And then it was Vegas.
Speaker 3: You've been to Vegas, to Vegas and the way you
Speaker 3: came back and described it was so perfect. I remember
Speaker 3: the first time I was in Vegas and I had
Speaker 3: gotten there before my family got in and my brother
Speaker 3: walked into the hotel a few hours later and he
Speaker 3: was like what is He immediately goes, what is that smell,
Speaker 3: and I said, cigarette smoke and broken dreams.
Speaker 2: That is, Yeah, it is.
Speaker 1: I went downstairs at six fifteen local time Friday morning
Speaker 1: to do some radio hits talk about Julius and stuff,
Speaker 1: and there was a young entrepreneur of about sixty years
Speaker 1: old with a cors light and a Marlboro Red in
Speaker 1: his hand, sitting it a slot machine. And I was like,
Speaker 1: I don't know if this man's polishing one off for
Speaker 1: the night or just starting on the next day's version
Speaker 1: of it, but that's a thing that's happening right there.
Speaker 1: It was. Yeah, I think I caught you off guard,
Speaker 1: I said. In Las Vegas, as a first timer in
Speaker 1: that fine city, I said, it reminded me of if
Speaker 1: New Orleans and Myrtle Beach had a baby and then
Speaker 1: got that baby implants. It was just it was just
Speaker 1: a mess. It didn't seem quite real. At any point
Speaker 1: in my visit did it seem like this was a
Speaker 1: normal place.
Speaker 3: That's the one you said that stood out the most
Speaker 3: of me, Like, this doesn't seem like it could be
Speaker 3: a real place. It's a movie set.
Speaker 2: It's a movie set.
Speaker 1: I'm going to walk up here to the Bloggio and
Speaker 1: push on a wall and it's just gonna fall over
Speaker 1: like a set piece.
Speaker 3: Did you take my advice, though, and go to the
Speaker 3: Greenhouse and the Bloggio lobby?
Speaker 2: We did.
Speaker 1: We checked out the Bologgio is lovely. We saw a
Speaker 1: couple of great shows. Saw the certain Disillert show there
Speaker 1: at the Blagio one night.
Speaker 2: It was just it was quite something. So saw my guy.
Speaker 1: I was in Vegas for the first time, so I
Speaker 1: felt compelled to see mister Las Vegas. That's right, Wayne Newton.
Speaker 1: Where's my microphone? Oh, I'm sitting in front of it.
Speaker 3: Give us a lot shame? Was it everything you dreamed of?
Speaker 1: And more?
Speaker 3: I mean, I hope Vegas gives you more.
Speaker 1: I hope that when I'm eighty two years old, I
Speaker 1: can still tell all the same old stories I've been
Speaker 1: telling for the last fifty two years. I hope that
Speaker 1: I can do it with a bounce in my step
Speaker 1: like he does.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: I mean, listen, what do you want out of a
Speaker 1: Wayne Newton show? You want to hear don Ka Shane.
Speaker 1: You want to hear Red Roses for a Blue Lady.
Speaker 1: You want to hear him tell Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin,
Speaker 1: Sammy Davis stories, you know, Elva's stories, all that great stuff,
Speaker 1: and he did it, and it's like, this is everything
Speaker 1: I expected. I mean it was a small room, a
Speaker 1: little cabaret type theater, but it was it was amazing.
Speaker 1: I will I would say, I'll be back, but I'm
Speaker 1: gonna need a really specific reason to go back to
Speaker 1: Las Vegas because the other thing I learned while I
Speaker 1: was out there is a little Las Vegas goes a
Speaker 1: little right way.
Speaker 3: Both times I've been has been for a reason, a
Speaker 3: wedding and a football game. And I don't know if
Speaker 3: I could be one of those people who were just like,
Speaker 3: let's have it, we have a free weekend, let's go
Speaker 3: to Vegas. Yeah, man, you know, no offense to those people.
Speaker 3: You go have fun, But there's about a hundred other
Speaker 3: ways I think I'd rather spend my weekend. Vegas is
Speaker 3: a good time, but I don't need to go on
Speaker 3: my own.
Speaker 2: It's it's a lot, I mean it truly is. It
Speaker 2: is just a lot.
Speaker 3: You know, the most annoying part about Vegas is that everything,
Speaker 3: all of the buildings are so big that you think, oh, okay,
Speaker 3: we're right here at the Bellagio, there's the Mirage. Let's
Speaker 3: just walk over there, and then you get because the
Speaker 3: buildings are so big, it throws everything out of proportion.
Speaker 3: And then you start walking and you realize, oh, I'm
Speaker 3: miles away from that building. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I did that one day.
Speaker 1: I walked from Andela Bay back to the Mirage and
Speaker 1: I was like, Okay, that was two miles in my life.
Speaker 2: But we will you know, we will be.
Speaker 3: Back in Vegas right lay there this year.
Speaker 2: That's correct, yea, because I've heard.
Speaker 3: I have, I have it on good authority that a
Speaker 3: lot of the Canalist family and friends are going to
Speaker 3: make the short car ride from southern California to Las
Speaker 3: Vegas for their game.
Speaker 2: There you go, there you go.
Speaker 1: It's it's going to be on and we'll see it's uh,
Speaker 1: it won't be as super Bowl setting. But that's the
Speaker 1: other thing I learned there. It's that way every week. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because if it ain't.
Speaker 3: The NFL, it's like the smallest thing on their ratio.
Speaker 1: Right. If it ain't the NFL, it's a Final four,
Speaker 1: or it's an Amway Convention or whatever.
Speaker 3: It happens to Hanley Cup final, it's.
Speaker 2: Just gigantic and the entire town shows out. They know
Speaker 2: how to entertain there. I will give them that.
Speaker 1: So, speaking of entertainment, we're about to dive full force
Speaker 1: into the next thing on the docket, which is gonna
Speaker 1: be the combine coming up in a couple of weeks.
Speaker 1: And we'll get to that. We'll have time to discuss
Speaker 1: the combine later. But it's on. I mean, it's now
Speaker 1: that the draft is here, now that football season's on,
Speaker 1: We're gonna be talking franchise tag moves, We're gonna be
Speaker 1: talking free agency, We're gonna be talking combine. It's almost
Speaker 1: like this business never stops.
Speaker 3: It purposely has something on the calendar. I'm gonna ask
Speaker 3: the question that I know every fan listening is asking. Sam.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna be the voice for the people here. Now,
Speaker 3: all that the coaching staff is more or less put together,
Speaker 3: you know, and I thos finishing touches, At what point
Speaker 3: on the timeline do you think something gets done for
Speaker 3: either dB or Brian Burns?
Speaker 2: Probably not yet.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think, honestly, most of the contract stuff
Speaker 1: happens combine and beyond, because the combine is really that
Speaker 1: place where, in addition to scouting college players, all the
Speaker 1: agents are working the hallway at Starbucks. Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: you're meeting, they're meeting with teams and boardrooms in the
Speaker 1: back and stuff like that. So I think the reasonable
Speaker 1: expectation is combine. Plus there's usually about that week between
Speaker 1: the combine and the beginning of free agency where we'll
Speaker 1: get to all that.
Speaker 3: March sixteenth this year, or somewhere.
Speaker 2: Middle of March.
Speaker 3: It's always right around the IDEs of March.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so it is.
Speaker 1: It is all coming, and we're gonna have it all
Speaker 1: for you here at Panthers dot com. So stay tuned
Speaker 1: for the latest on all that, because, as we said,
Speaker 1: it never truly stops, So keep it here. We'll catch
Speaker 1: up with you soon. We may even have a happy
Speaker 1: half hour for you next week between now and the
Speaker 1: combine to get you ready for every for all things Indianapolis.
Speaker 1: Until then, we will see you bye.