Speaker 1: It's time for a Happy half Hour with your friends
Speaker 1: Christen Balboni, Will Bryant and Darren Gamp. It's that time
Speaker 1: of the week. It is the Happy Half Hour podcast
Speaker 1: with your friends, Will, Darren, Kristen and producer Matt Guys.
Speaker 1: Not a lot going on this week. I'm not sure
Speaker 1: what we're going to talk about for the next half hour,
Speaker 1: any ideas, but I know it's going to be a
Speaker 1: happier half hour than if we had taped it at
Speaker 1: nine thirty yesterday morning. I know that we are taping.
Speaker 1: We're taping on a Friday morning. We usually tape Thursday mornings.
Speaker 1: But um, there's a little bit of news going on
Speaker 1: about this time yesterday. This time Thursday morning, one person
Speaker 1: by the name of Cam Newton is back on the Panthers. Um,
Speaker 1: what was that? Is that? A thing? That was? It
Speaker 1: was m That's what I always used to yell every
Speaker 1: time he touched the ball for Like, is that because
Speaker 1: you were um reserve on the Acapella group? Yes, I
Speaker 1: don't know. There's there's just the quarter pounders, quarter pound
Speaker 1: quarter pounds. Yeah, there's just something about the name Cam
Speaker 1: that just screams that it needs to be sung in
Speaker 1: a in a tenor Italian tenor voice. I've never thought that.
Speaker 1: But but he's a rock star, I mean. And that's
Speaker 1: the thing about Cam Newton, and that's what made yesterday
Speaker 1: such an interesting day, for lack of a better word,
Speaker 1: is Cam Newton moves the needle. Will could go through
Speaker 1: all the web traffic numbers and all that kind of
Speaker 1: stuff and it's amazing the amount that's what's coming up
Speaker 1: for the next ten minutes and was just out of
Speaker 1: interest in this man. Is because he's the guy you
Speaker 1: want to see. Yeah, I mean it's I have always
Speaker 1: compared quarterbacks the lead singers in rock bands, and that's
Speaker 1: what ca him is. I remember when he moved through
Speaker 1: the combine before he was ever drafted here, it was
Speaker 1: like the Beatles had walked through the r c A Dome.
Speaker 1: They're just it was just this phalanx of people behind
Speaker 1: him and it kept growing with every stick can I
Speaker 1: can I amend that for a second in my mind,
Speaker 1: I completely agree with you about quarterbacks being lead singers.
Speaker 1: I would say, I don't think every quarterback is equivalent
Speaker 1: to the lead singer of a huge band. I think
Speaker 1: there's just a few. Yeah, there's just that's true. That's true.
Speaker 1: That's true, that's true. I think you could count on
Speaker 1: two hands the number of quarterbacks who have that rock
Speaker 1: star superstar magnetism, and he's one of them. There's no
Speaker 1: doubt about it. He is absolutely one of those guys
Speaker 1: who's the who's the rock star that you're comparing him to.
Speaker 1: I've always said he's like Jim Morrison to me, because
Speaker 1: he dresses funny and he writes this weird poetry that
Speaker 1: nobody understands, and his Instagram far yea what is described
Speaker 1: it as poetry. But when Jim Morrison was on stage,
Speaker 1: even if you didn't understand it, even if he scared
Speaker 1: you a little bit, which he probably should have, and
Speaker 1: he starts talking about lizards and whatever, it's like, oh
Speaker 1: my god, I can't take my eyes off this man.
Speaker 1: And that has I mean, and whether whether he's great,
Speaker 1: whether he's old, cam. I thought it was interesting when
Speaker 1: Fitterer said it yesterday. We don't expect him to be
Speaker 1: ten years ago, Cam I. I don't think that's a
Speaker 1: fair expectation to put on the man. I don't think
Speaker 1: the human body can do that for fifteen years without
Speaker 1: some kind of effects. But he's still worth watching. And
Speaker 1: the last time we saw him, you know, Fitterer caught
Speaker 1: him in Week two last year when he was with
Speaker 1: the Seahawks. They played in the Sunday night game out there,
Speaker 1: Cam throws for four yards and a touchdown, runs for
Speaker 1: two more, and nearly dove over the goal line for
Speaker 1: a last second game winning touchdown. My god, and I
Speaker 1: know that, um that a lot of Panthers fans remember
Speaker 1: that game because I feel like last season it was
Speaker 1: like required viewing. You watch, if you're a Panthers fan,
Speaker 1: you watch the Panthers game and you watch Cam, right,
Speaker 1: I mean, and and the beginning of cam season last year, Yeah,
Speaker 1: they he played very well. They were very successful at
Speaker 1: the beginning of this year in preseason. You know, obviously
Speaker 1: snaps are liminated. They were trying to work in mac
Speaker 1: but you know, he looked good. He was completing passes.
Speaker 1: You know, it's Cam at They They also said this yesterday.
Speaker 1: Cam is healthy. You know, Cam has not been taking
Speaker 1: months and months of hits. He hasn't been you know, throwing, throwing,
Speaker 1: throwing for months and months. You know. Yeah, there's there's
Speaker 1: eight games left right now, and Cam is healthy and
Speaker 1: that's something that they valued highly when thinking about this, right,
Speaker 1: And I remember talking to people about it when he
Speaker 1: went to New England. Uslie, I don't know based on
Speaker 1: the physical status proms he had with the shoulder. Here,
Speaker 1: I said, I don't know if Cam can play sixteen
Speaker 1: games in a season, much less seven and I and
Speaker 1: I said in after you left, I said, but if
Speaker 1: he could ever get to a place where they only
Speaker 1: needed him for seven or eight games at a time, well,
Speaker 1: guess what. Well here, I was just gonna ask you,
Speaker 1: considering all that we heard yesterday and with the physical status,
Speaker 1: why then you thought he had been sitting at home
Speaker 1: and you just explained it. Yeah, I mean, and and
Speaker 1: I think a lot of people, you know, had reasonable concerns,
Speaker 1: and you know, I don't know that it's long term sustainable.
Speaker 1: But that's the thing that from talking to people on
Speaker 1: the other side of the building who were involved in
Speaker 1: the football decision over and over, the thing you kept
Speaker 1: hearing is this is not about two thousand and eleven.
Speaker 1: This is not about This is about today right now,
Speaker 1: this next eight week sprint for the rest of the season.
Speaker 1: How much he got left and how much he has
Speaker 1: left is gonna say a lot about what the Carolina
Speaker 1: Panthers do over the next two months, and just before
Speaker 1: we go forward, as we as we look at the
Speaker 1: next two months, then will you give us kind of
Speaker 1: um uh, what is it the cliffs notes of what
Speaker 1: everyone has said about when we think we'll see Cam
Speaker 1: on the field, what his role is going to be,
Speaker 1: because that's I think been overshadow just in the return.
Speaker 1: I mean, he was here at the stadium yesterday, so
Speaker 1: a lot of the attention. Yeah, a lot of the
Speaker 1: attention has been focused on that, and rightfully so for
Speaker 1: Panthers fans and and the people of the Carolinas. But
Speaker 1: but what are we hearing um in in what role
Speaker 1: he will play? You know? And bless his heart, p
Speaker 1: J Walker is going to start this week. Don't know
Speaker 1: where you're going, but I know anytime someone from North
Speaker 1: Carolina says bless his heart, I feel for PJ. Because
Speaker 1: he was so excited about bringing the juice this week
Speaker 1: and and having a change at quarterback might have done
Speaker 1: some good. And now it's completely overshadowed, I think. And
Speaker 1: they have all insisted PJ is going to start and
Speaker 1: they're going to continue down that path because He's had
Speaker 1: all the work this week after Sam's injury, so he's
Speaker 1: going to continue to start. It didn't bring Cam Newton
Speaker 1: in here to not play, and I refuse to believe.
Speaker 1: I don't think Matt Rules gonna yell at me for
Speaker 1: giving away trade secrets. But I can't imagine a situation
Speaker 1: where if they're at the goal line in Arizona on
Speaker 1: Sunday and we don't see big old number one out
Speaker 1: there on the field. I mean, it's or not necessarily
Speaker 1: even goal on. They brought him here to play, and
Speaker 1: that's what matter All has said that he said, I
Speaker 1: didn't have not bringing not signing anyone. I'm not paying
Speaker 1: anyone for them to bring energy to the locker room.
Speaker 1: We are bringing everyone here to compete and that includes
Speaker 1: ball and I can't, like I said, I just can't
Speaker 1: imagine a situation where, you know, and part of the
Speaker 1: reason Cam didn't talk last night to all the people
Speaker 1: who were here wanting to talk to Cam Newton was
Speaker 1: he was holed up in meetings Matt, with Joe Brady,
Speaker 1: with the offensive staff. And it wasn't so he could
Speaker 1: just get caught up on a playbook. It's what you know,
Speaker 1: that's one of those source my two eyes things. He
Speaker 1: gonna do something on Sunday, So well, stay tuned, get
Speaker 1: your popcorn. Two eyes like that. I've got two sources right,
Speaker 1: one on the left one. Um, So for for context purposes,
Speaker 1: how long? I mean? Now, this is this is the
Speaker 1: Panthers that he's rejoining, but it's a it's a new staff.
Speaker 1: He had a couple of months with the staff very
Speaker 1: early on before or before both sides parted ways. Um,
Speaker 1: how long do you expect the average or the talented,
Speaker 1: however you want to put a quarterback who was coming
Speaker 1: in eight weeks since this season, nine weeks into the season? Um,
Speaker 1: to take to learn the playbook? Um, the ready to
Speaker 1: be to be ready to go out. And I can
Speaker 1: see what you're saying about, you know, potential goal line
Speaker 1: situation packages. How long does that typically take when you're
Speaker 1: picking up somebody from the street. You know, the good
Speaker 1: news is it's going to be quicker than a twenty
Speaker 1: two year old quarterback off the street. And that's or
Speaker 1: a guy that can't use his legs right now. And
Speaker 1: that's the thing that was interesting too yesterday when they
Speaker 1: compared it to Stefine Gilmour. I think it was Scott
Speaker 1: who said it was like Stefine when he came in.
Speaker 1: He's thirty one years old, he's not twenty one anymore.
Speaker 1: He's not as fast as he used to be. He's
Speaker 1: coming off an injury. But because he knows where to go,
Speaker 1: he's a half step faster, because he doesn't spend time processing,
Speaker 1: it's just knowledge that's in his head that he can
Speaker 1: immediately put into play. And because Cam has I mean,
Speaker 1: I think that being in New England, a completely different
Speaker 1: kind of system is going to help him because when
Speaker 1: you learn things, your mind stays elastic, and you did
Speaker 1: things a certain way for a long time, and then
Speaker 1: you did it a completely new way, and now you're
Speaker 1: coming back and doing things in a little more you know.
Speaker 1: So I think that Cam's experience and Cam's ability to
Speaker 1: pick things up on the fly are going to be helpful.
Speaker 1: But I think mostly he's always been an instinctive player,
Speaker 1: even in the even in the Mike Schouler days, he
Speaker 1: always looked best in rhythm situations in two minute when
Speaker 1: he could improvise a little bit. And and I don't
Speaker 1: think that they are just drawing place up in the
Speaker 1: dirt for Cam. But I think there, you know, that's
Speaker 1: when he's always been at his best. And I think
Speaker 1: they recognize and and part of the thing that's cool
Speaker 1: in this situation is at least two guys we're there
Speaker 1: when he was improvising, you know, d J. Moore knows
Speaker 1: what's happening when Cam does this, and Cam knows what's
Speaker 1: happening when, you know, and the other guy and the
Speaker 1: other guy. You know, when when Christian comes to the
Speaker 1: line and he's looking at a linebacker and he's gonna
Speaker 1: go this way, that way or that way, Cam knows
Speaker 1: which way he's gonna go, and he's going to throw
Speaker 1: the ball before he makes that move. And that's something
Speaker 1: that you know, isn't in a playbook, That's not something
Speaker 1: you get from just studying film. That's because these two
Speaker 1: guys have done it before, um, and I think that
Speaker 1: has value, you know at the outset you Oh, by
Speaker 1: the way, they ran forty seven times for two D
Speaker 1: three yards in Atlanta with Chuba Hubbard, Amir Abdullah, Royce
Speaker 1: Freeman and Sam Donald. Well, you reckon they're gonna do it.
Speaker 1: Christian McCaffrey and Cam Newton. I mean, that's that's the thing.
Speaker 1: But if you want to run and if Matt's leaning
Speaker 1: into and he and he is, He's the whole rationale
Speaker 1: for this is his defense is playing too well to
Speaker 1: just offer it up. We gotta do everything we can
Speaker 1: to support a defense that's number two in the league,
Speaker 1: playing at a high level of special teams, that's really improved.
Speaker 1: Do anything you can offensibly to support it. And when
Speaker 1: he's already talked about we want to run the ball,
Speaker 1: we want to support those guys. You just brought in
Speaker 1: the best running quarterback in NFL history. You rest your case.
Speaker 1: I don't even have anything to say about I mean
Speaker 1: the weight. Tarren looked at me. He looked at me
Speaker 1: right in the eye, and he had his like his
Speaker 1: fingers steepled, And I was like, yes, what would you say? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't even you made your point. I agree, case closed?
Speaker 1: What UM. I would love to talk to you guys though,
Speaker 1: about what it looks like behind the scenes when you
Speaker 1: have historic news like this breaking. I find it fascinating. Um,
Speaker 1: even though I was here and and focused on my
Speaker 1: own stuff, and in that sense, you guys are really
Speaker 1: on um. Just the rapid response team you're publishing the news.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's going up on the web, it's going
Speaker 1: out on on social and you've got to find the
Speaker 1: right tone for it. What was yesterday? Like, well, they're
Speaker 1: obviously you're you're perfect. You're put in a situation and
Speaker 1: where you have to you have to be prepared, but
Speaker 1: you have to be prepared to have everything changed at
Speaker 1: the moment's notice. Um So, for me, once, once this
Speaker 1: became a possibility, you know, once this became a thing,
Speaker 1: I went through multiple iterations of what the thumbnail for
Speaker 1: an article that eventually was read a hundred and eighty
Speaker 1: five thousand times. And for anyone who does a thumbnail
Speaker 1: small picture, you know, just in case right, and and
Speaker 1: you know, figuring out all right, what's the you know
Speaker 1: what version of cam? You know, is it running cam,
Speaker 1: celebrating cam, throwing cam, you know, all these different things.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, well when he throws, his body is
Speaker 1: like this, so his arms are no longer in the frame.
Speaker 1: I mean, all of these things you just don't even
Speaker 1: think about that you're dealing with it, like you know,
Speaker 1: six in the morning that you're trying to work through.
Speaker 1: And and then for us, just yeah, figuring out timing
Speaker 1: and then when it happened, it's a go, go go,
Speaker 1: and you have you know, five six seven different things
Speaker 1: that are going through all these different channels. We were
Speaker 1: all sitting together and it was like, Okay, push copylink,
Speaker 1: send you know, Twitter out, you know, push notification on app,
Speaker 1: next article, uh, gallery videos, you know, and then it's
Speaker 1: what's the tag or what's the what's the copy for Twitter?
Speaker 1: You know, it's Darren working through this is how we
Speaker 1: should say this or wait, let's you know, let's tweak
Speaker 1: that a little bit. You know. All of those things
Speaker 1: were something that it was cool because some of the
Speaker 1: people we've have here are new and they were watching
Speaker 1: those of us that had done this when we release cam,
Speaker 1: when Luke retired, when when you signed stuff on Gilmour,
Speaker 1: or when you know you you hire that rule and
Speaker 1: those moments when it's so much pressure and you know
Speaker 1: the world is about to look at you and you
Speaker 1: have to do it exactly right. Um. And I think
Speaker 1: that I think it was a really cool thing to
Speaker 1: continue to go through with people that you've gone through
Speaker 1: it before, because it just continues to build those bonds
Speaker 1: that are kind of hard to describe. Yeah, everyone coming
Speaker 1: together team atmosphere. It really is. And and I remember
Speaker 1: one line it's always stuck in my head. Ted Williams,
Speaker 1: the Baseball Hall of Fame or maybe maybe the greatest
Speaker 1: hitter of all time. And I asked him how you
Speaker 1: hit a baseball and he said, it's all about wait, wait, wait, quick, quick, quick,
Speaker 1: And that's what yesterday was like. It was preparation. It
Speaker 1: was you know, and again there's no point b s
Speaker 1: and people. We had a little you know, you know
Speaker 1: the team is doing certain things. You know the team
Speaker 1: is looking in certain directions, but you have to prepare
Speaker 1: for a lot more than just one narrow thing at
Speaker 1: one narrow moment. Will and I have a content graveyard
Speaker 1: of stories that we've prepared that have never gone to press.
Speaker 1: And you can't you knew it was moving in a
Speaker 1: certain direction. You've got stuff lined up, you've got stuff prepared,
Speaker 1: but you don't know when, and you don't know how,
Speaker 1: and you don't know what the tone is going to be,
Speaker 1: and you don't know if it's the terms are too
Speaker 1: and we didn't know those things because they still didn't
Speaker 1: know all those things. I mean, this thing evolved. It
Speaker 1: went from Tuesday night and initial conversation between Matt and
Speaker 1: Camp two. Then they talked numbers, and then they get
Speaker 1: to a place and then they arranged for Cam to
Speaker 1: fly up here on Thursday morning, and then Cam's gotta
Speaker 1: sit down with Dave and work through some of the
Speaker 1: stuff from a year and a half ago and what
Speaker 1: it's gonna look like on the other side and what
Speaker 1: the expectations are for the next couple of months. So
Speaker 1: you know, all those things were happening without me and
Speaker 1: Will knowing what was being said in that room or
Speaker 1: how it was going or what the tone was. So
Speaker 1: you weren't in the room with Cam and Daves enough. No,
Speaker 1: uh yeah, Will was actually the one that took the
Speaker 1: picture of Dave and Cam in the driveway as far
Speaker 1: as you know. So I have a story just for
Speaker 1: the podcast listeners, and no one, y'all can't tell anyone
Speaker 1: got this, So don't tell anyone this. This is a
Speaker 1: fun This is Will for thirty seconds going into a
Speaker 1: very very nerdy place, and I'm just gonna do it
Speaker 1: real quick. So well they're used to it. You don't
Speaker 1: have to. Everyone knows. So when when back in one
Speaker 1: Cam was released, Um, one of the things I did,
Speaker 1: you know, obviously Cam's bio is linked in thousands and
Speaker 1: thousands of place over the world of the Internet. And
Speaker 1: when you release someone, you take your bio off the website.
Speaker 1: All of a sudden, all those links are dead for
Speaker 1: four error page cannot be found. Those aren't good for
Speaker 1: websites when you have page errors. So what I did
Speaker 1: was I set up a redirect through the league for
Speaker 1: whenever and someone clicks on this link that was Cam's bio,
Speaker 1: it just redirects to the roster, so it fired to
Speaker 1: this news you're saying, so like Africa after that happened
Speaker 1: in so the last two years, anytime that cams just redirect,
Speaker 1: will staff mean yeah, so you know, so it helps
Speaker 1: it helps your s c O. You know, all those
Speaker 1: sort of things to not have four or four you know,
Speaker 1: page errors. Well, some somewhere along the line in the
Speaker 1: last forty eight hours I remembered if we're about to
Speaker 1: republish Cam's bio, that redirect has to be taken off,
Speaker 1: and that goes through someone at the League. That goes
Speaker 1: through someone else. Obviously, you have to be careful about
Speaker 1: who you're telling or you know how before this thing
Speaker 1: really gets out. So on Thursday. Once things start going
Speaker 1: in a direction that you know, it's kind of out
Speaker 1: there in the media. I sent in the request of hey,
Speaker 1: we need to take this redirect off, and they're like, yeah, sure, great,
Speaker 1: you know, thirty minutes later, nothing, forty five minutes later, Yeah,
Speaker 1: we're still working on it. You know, as we're getting
Speaker 1: close to doing this, it should be down to the
Speaker 1: next ten minutes. I'm like, I don't know if I
Speaker 1: have ten. While this is going on, will looks like
Speaker 1: one of those cartoon thermometers where the red just keeps
Speaker 1: going up and up and up, and you see these
Speaker 1: waves of heat. I bet the glasses were on, the
Speaker 1: glasses were off it. There were stress. So they somehow
Speaker 1: it all worked out. They literally got it down minutes
Speaker 1: before we went live with everything. And they didn't know,
Speaker 1: they didn't know our timeline. They're like, yes, you know,
Speaker 1: they're just people. Yeah, sure, hold on in, Charlotte needs
Speaker 1: us to push this button. When can we do that? Well,
Speaker 1: let's see, I got a breakfast meeting and quick zoom call.
Speaker 1: I did have some people on Twitter got a kick
Speaker 1: out of seeing him back on the raw, her with
Speaker 1: his Patriots headshot in a Panthers Jersey. We do what
Speaker 1: we gotta do until until we can get that head shut.
Speaker 1: I want to close with with one thing that both
Speaker 1: Will and I got to see yesterday. Again, this is
Speaker 1: just for the podcast listeners. So, um, when Cam got
Speaker 1: to the stadium and after his meeting with Dave and
Speaker 1: before all the everything started, before the physicals and uh
Speaker 1: the you know shaking hands and the meetings with Fitterer
Speaker 1: and and everyone in rule. Um, we just kind of
Speaker 1: heard that he was going out or he was out
Speaker 1: on the field right like I'm walking past my office
Speaker 1: and also here Gams on the field. Cam's on the field,
Speaker 1: and there might have been five or six of us
Speaker 1: that saw it total, um, and Will you have much
Speaker 1: more of a historical perspective on what he did. But
Speaker 1: I got to see it too my first time in
Speaker 1: the building. Um, since he's been here, you know, working
Speaker 1: with him. Um, I mean as a fan of course,
Speaker 1: and I've I've met him several times. But you know,
Speaker 1: I think and I was looking back at sight traffic
Speaker 1: in are two biggest days where Panthers released Cam Newton
Speaker 1: and Panthers higher Kristen Balbona within like a week of
Speaker 1: each other. Quiet all right? Um, yes, yes, one free
Speaker 1: agency signing to place the other. Yeah, of course corresponding
Speaker 1: move I think, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. Yes, Um, but I
Speaker 1: don't want to. I don't want to, you know, upset
Speaker 1: Cam on his way back. So obviously I didn't wait
Speaker 1: better traffic than that, you know. Um, but but what
Speaker 1: do we see? Like? It was awesome? So I'll preface
Speaker 1: with this. Growing up, I was that kid that like
Speaker 1: imagined running out through the backyard into like the super
Speaker 1: Bowl tunnel. You know, you like put on like Eminem's
Speaker 1: lose yourself like. I played it literally for three hours
Speaker 1: on a drive up to a Panthers game in middle school. Parents. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, on on on, you know, headsets or whatever.
Speaker 1: In just like imagining like a movie of you know,
Speaker 1: highlights or magical things. You're just everything you grew up
Speaker 1: thinking about sports in that like Final five Minutes or
Speaker 1: remember the Titans or whatever movie that just moves you.
Speaker 1: Cam is the embodiment of that. In real life, it's
Speaker 1: called on TikTok. It's called the main character. There you go,
Speaker 1: ye and so Cam before every game, um, in during
Speaker 1: the warm up section before guys, put on their paths.
Speaker 1: You know, kickers are out there kicking, people are running around.
Speaker 1: There's trainers shagging balls. And Cam would go from one
Speaker 1: end zone to the other, just taking the ball and
Speaker 1: like dribbling it, and it always would bounce back in
Speaker 1: the exact same way to him, and he'd go a
Speaker 1: hundred yards all the way down the field and it
Speaker 1: was almost like, you know, kind of a movie where
Speaker 1: all these things are going around in the main character
Speaker 1: is just walking now quietly through all this stuff like
Speaker 1: things are and he's just he's just walking right through it,
Speaker 1: you know. And then he gets to the other end zone.
Speaker 1: He takes a knee and he says a prayer like
Speaker 1: into the goal post, and everyone surrounds him. You know,
Speaker 1: it's this whole big moment of of Cam's pregame. And
Speaker 1: there he was completely empty stadium, you know, I mean
Speaker 1: you could it's the it's a scene out of a movie,
Speaker 1: and no one knew, No one knew for him walking
Speaker 1: down the middle of the field looking up at all
Speaker 1: the skyscrapers and that are now in Charlotte, looking everywhere,
Speaker 1: I'm sure memories of this forty seven yard line, this play,
Speaker 1: this thirty eight yard line this play, you know, all
Speaker 1: just looking around. Also don't have to imagine what's happened
Speaker 1: in the time since he's been gone, right, all of
Speaker 1: those thoughts, you know, are just racing through his head.
Speaker 1: And then there he is, all by himself, takes a
Speaker 1: knee at the goalpost, and it just sent shivers through
Speaker 1: my spine, like walking watching it from the press box,
Speaker 1: all by himself, just takes a knee and praise and
Speaker 1: it's just like, yeah, you know it was. It was
Speaker 1: a very small, quiet moment that um, I think for
Speaker 1: fans who have been deeply affected by him coming back
Speaker 1: out a lot of responses on Twitter of of fans reactions,
Speaker 1: you could tell it means as much to him as
Speaker 1: it does to a lot of other people in Charlotte,
Speaker 1: and it's it's great and we're excited to see what happens,
Speaker 1: and everybody is Will knows. Will kind of looks at
Speaker 1: me like, that's not a new thing. I've always since
Speaker 1: I walked into this building and they talk about one
Speaker 1: Carolina and there's that logo on the wall down there,
Speaker 1: and it's not it's Carolina with a one instead of
Speaker 1: the eye, and it's and it wasn't in reference to
Speaker 1: Cam Newton, but when you see it now in this context.
Speaker 1: People saw that last night and I tweeted it out
Speaker 1: and it was like well and people were like, yes,
Speaker 1: that you know, and it was he does something visceral
Speaker 1: to people. He creates reactions that you can't explain with
Speaker 1: stats or numbers or contracts or rivals or anything like that.
Speaker 1: He's just one of those guys. When you see him,
Speaker 1: you react because he's interesting. He's visually the guy you
Speaker 1: your eyes are drawn to. So I think it's going
Speaker 1: to be Listen, well it work out. Is he gonna
Speaker 1: come back and lead the Carolina Panthers Super Bowl? I
Speaker 1: don't know. But what I do know is Sunday afternoon
Speaker 1: at one o'clock or four o'clock Eastern time, I want
Speaker 1: to be watching it. I want to see what unfolds next.
Speaker 1: And I think a lot of people around the Carolinas
Speaker 1: are the same way. Well, I think we should leave
Speaker 1: it right there, so we'll find out. We'll find out
Speaker 1: a little bit more. Um. It's it's cool because this
Speaker 1: this story is as cool as yesterday was, it as
Speaker 1: far from over. So we'll be talking about it every
Speaker 1: week on the Happy Half Hour podcast we'll see you then.