Speaker 1: It's time for a Happy Half Hour with your friends
Speaker 1: Kristen Balboni, Will Bryant and Darren gamb It's that time
Speaker 1: of the week. It's the Happy Half Hour podcast with
Speaker 1: your friends, Will, Darren, Kristen and producer Matt Guys First
Speaker 1: and foremost, Happy Thanksgiving Eve. Yeah, I mean yeah, the
Speaker 1: food eating is about to commence tomorrow, but we got
Speaker 1: a little podcasting to do before that. It's all about
Speaker 1: the work half. We got to get this thing in
Speaker 1: on Wednesday. I had to do the push ups last
Speaker 1: night in order to make way for all the food
Speaker 1: that's come. Are you the kind of person that's like,
Speaker 1: all right, just one set and then I'm good to go, Like,
Speaker 1: are you did? I'm saying two sets, but I'm saying
Speaker 1: are you are? Are you now set for Thanksgiving? You're
Speaker 1: like today, what are the sets? What's the number? So
Speaker 1: it was dumbbells. Really I was exaggerating. It wasn't push ups.
Speaker 1: It was why was she live about that? I don't
Speaker 1: push ups sounded better? And now I'm having to explain it.
Speaker 1: I mean it was yea, So it was dumbbells. It
Speaker 1: was flies. It was like an investigative journalists you're not
Speaker 1: getting away. It was it was like whatever the crunches
Speaker 1: with the weight that you're twisting, you know all those things.
Speaker 1: First Happy Half Hour Podcast Poll of the week. Who
Speaker 1: wins a push up contest? Phil snow sixty five year
Speaker 1: old defensive coordinator the Carolina Panthers or young will on
Speaker 1: Phil snow And that's not not even gonna try. That
Speaker 1: is by no means meant to to count Will out.
Speaker 1: I have seen coach snow though um at a at
Speaker 1: an away game in the team hotel. One morning. I
Speaker 1: had to get up really early to print something off.
Speaker 1: It might have been our preseason game. You get up
Speaker 1: really early print something off, like six am. And I
Speaker 1: walk past the g him and he's doing planks and
Speaker 1: then he's talking to me. He's like, hey, how's it going,
Speaker 1: you know, having a good morning? He had been up
Speaker 1: for hours. He was holding a plank way longer than
Speaker 1: I ever could have. And so I just I would
Speaker 1: give it to Phil snow Over, and I'd give it
Speaker 1: to Phil snow Over. Son Reddick maybe like that. That's
Speaker 1: o MS. That's what we call a m S right,
Speaker 1: old man strength. You could say it. I'm not saying
Speaker 1: it all right. So, aside from Will's new Thanksgiving related
Speaker 1: exercise routine, we got some stuff to talk about this week.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about Sunday's game, the Return of Cam Newton.
Speaker 1: It was kind of a roller coaster guys, right, I
Speaker 1: mean that from from the atmosphere the beginning, the game
Speaker 1: went back and forth, and ultimately Washington came away with
Speaker 1: the win. Darren, what do you think in in five
Speaker 1: ten years, you know you like to pull your your clips. Um,
Speaker 1: what do you think if you're going to look back
Speaker 1: on this game and look at the articles that you
Speaker 1: wrote and say, oh, yes, the return to Cam Newton.
Speaker 1: What do you think you're gonna remember the most? You know?
Speaker 1: I always say in reference to music concerts, I was
Speaker 1: if if you're ever wondering should I go do this
Speaker 1: or should I always go see the show? Always go
Speaker 1: see the show? And Sunday was the show. I mean
Speaker 1: you got Matt Rule said the other week he didn't
Speaker 1: want cam light, he wanted the full cam. Well that's
Speaker 1: what everybody in the building got. I mean from the
Speaker 1: pregame warm ups and he's doing his thing with the
Speaker 1: arms outstretched as he runs through the field. The entrance,
Speaker 1: the smoke the people coming on glued. There were more
Speaker 1: people in this building for pregame introductions than I've seen
Speaker 1: in a long long time, and they were here to
Speaker 1: see that guy. And that guy didn't disappoint. I mean,
Speaker 1: he put on the show and he looked like, you know,
Speaker 1: we don't know. I've I've said throughout this thing. I
Speaker 1: don't know how it's gonna end. I don't know how
Speaker 1: it's gonna fold. I don't know how well he's going
Speaker 1: to be able to keep himself together and keep looking
Speaker 1: like Cam Newton. But again, Darren, I say, how dare
Speaker 1: you not know? Well right now that dude can play.
Speaker 1: And you know, in addition to the show, and in
Speaker 1: addition to the showmanship, he's doing pretty good with the
Speaker 1: limited amount of football he's got to work with. And
Speaker 1: he's out there probably knowing of the playbook at the
Speaker 1: moment or of the game plan maybe, but a limited
Speaker 1: amount at any rate. And he was able to go
Speaker 1: out and throw a couple of touchdown passes the past
Speaker 1: a Christian was just an adult NFL quarterback pass and oh,
Speaker 1: by the way, ran for a touchdown too, And you know,
Speaker 1: just out there doing Cam stuff. That is that pass
Speaker 1: I was breaking down film with with Thomas Davis for
Speaker 1: a t TV segment yesterday, and we looked at that one.
Speaker 1: That's one of those passes that you go, those are
Speaker 1: two guys who are really great at their job, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. You know when you see that
Speaker 1: like veteran quarterback pass to either you know, running back
Speaker 1: or watching on TV like Sunday night football game, do
Speaker 1: you know what I mean? Like you see Aaron Rodgers
Speaker 1: passed to subway, see Tom Brady need to gronk, and
Speaker 1: you're like, those are two professionals who know exactly what
Speaker 1: they're doing and have a ton of chemistry, and it's
Speaker 1: just it's Jeff's kiss. You know. It almost felt like
Speaker 1: one of those oh no, no, no, no, oh yes
Speaker 1: sort of moments for me, just based on the based
Speaker 1: on what we've seen for a while, and then to
Speaker 1: see that and the ball comes out and you're like,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, there's a lot of defenders around this guy,
Speaker 1: and oh my gosh, that we placed it exactly where
Speaker 1: it should have gone, you know, a little bit behind
Speaker 1: him to get him out of that traffic. It was great. Well,
Speaker 1: what do you think you're going to remember? Obviously I
Speaker 1: think the the pregame, the crowd, you know, the way
Speaker 1: the city felt leading up to it, you know all
Speaker 1: of that stuff. You know everything online about how fans felt.
Speaker 1: But at the same time, I also I'm not sure
Speaker 1: that I'm willing to make that game a referendum on everything,
Speaker 1: you know. I for me, it felt like just a
Speaker 1: really exciting, good football game. But I think in that
Speaker 1: I guess my point. But I don't think it's a
Speaker 1: referendum at all. But I guess my point being in
Speaker 1: ten years, whatever happens, like Darren said, we don't know,
Speaker 1: the ending cam's return to Bank of America Stadium will
Speaker 1: be something that you'll probably get asked about in ten years,
Speaker 1: and Darren will probably get asked about I'll probably get
Speaker 1: asked about, right, I think it. I think it goes
Speaker 1: down alongside And I was going to post these three
Speaker 1: pictures kind of side by side with each other, but
Speaker 1: it goes down alongside the Buffalo game of, the Jacksonville
Speaker 1: game of and none of those had anything to do
Speaker 1: with what happened in the game. No one quite remembers
Speaker 1: what the final score was or who really won. But
Speaker 1: that was the time that Julius Peppers came back to
Speaker 1: Carolina and he said later that he was nervous running
Speaker 1: out of the tunnel because he didn't know what people
Speaker 1: were going to do. He didn't know whether he'd be
Speaker 1: welcomed back, and of course he absolutely was, absolutely was.
Speaker 1: And then the moment when Steve Smith at halftime took
Speaker 1: off his shirt and there's his jersey one last time,
Speaker 1: eight nine, and just all of the moments those are
Speaker 1: those are the things. You know, who cares what the
Speaker 1: score was, you know, nintenu is You're going to remember
Speaker 1: the way that this organization, the way that this fan base,
Speaker 1: this team, they welcomed their guys back, and they were
Speaker 1: back in the fold and they were, you know, back
Speaker 1: a part of our hearts and who we are. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think I'll remember. I'm very lucky that I can
Speaker 1: go into the tunnel um pregame, watch the players come out,
Speaker 1: and I always tried to get in there to see
Speaker 1: what the mood is like. There are games that you
Speaker 1: wouldn't think everyone would be hyped up, and everyone is
Speaker 1: hyped up their games where they're they look laser focused,
Speaker 1: and so doing radio sideline, it's always good to see,
Speaker 1: you know, who's talking to each other. There was a
Speaker 1: lot of stuff early on in the season about Sam
Speaker 1: and Robbie, and if you see them in the tunnel,
Speaker 1: they're giving each other hugs and secret handshakes. It's not
Speaker 1: you know, there was no lack of chemistry or friendship
Speaker 1: from them off the field, so little things like that.
Speaker 1: I'm very lucky to get to go in there and
Speaker 1: see kind of where everyone's mind is at before the
Speaker 1: game starts. But I think that I'll remember seeing that
Speaker 1: tunnel and and seeing that you know, I've never worked
Speaker 1: here for a CAM gamer or really that anyone from
Speaker 1: that old regime, right, So I got here around the
Speaker 1: same time as this new staff and a lot of
Speaker 1: the new players, So it was really cool for me
Speaker 1: to to get to see what that looks like for
Speaker 1: so many years. I get to see, you know, they
Speaker 1: have some exclusive fan spots in there, and also see
Speaker 1: what what Cam's mentality was, how the team um really
Speaker 1: kind of put that energy out as well. So I
Speaker 1: think I'll remember that because it's a it's a view
Speaker 1: that very few people get to see, so I feel
Speaker 1: very lucky for that. Yeah, and I think in time,
Speaker 1: you know, people will forget to Will's point, you know,
Speaker 1: five years from now, people will forget that was the
Speaker 1: day the Carolina Panthers stopped being good at defense for
Speaker 1: a day, and you know, some of those details will fade,
Speaker 1: but they will remember what he looked like, what you know,
Speaker 1: how they felt. I mean, again, it was just a
Speaker 1: scene you want to be a part of. And I think,
Speaker 1: you know, that's one of the things about Cam. There
Speaker 1: was this overarching concern of can you be a Matt
Speaker 1: rule guy? And it was reasonable. I mean, Matt was
Speaker 1: trying to install a program and a certain ethos and
Speaker 1: you know what he calls the brand, and you know,
Speaker 1: a lot of people I think it was fair to
Speaker 1: wonder if Cam was going to fit in. But I
Speaker 1: think the neat thing to me, and talking to guys
Speaker 1: around the team, talking to coaches about the way he
Speaker 1: approached it, is Cam's bought in. He's trying to be
Speaker 1: a part of this. He's keep saying it's about winning,
Speaker 1: It's not about me, it's not about all this other stuff.
Speaker 1: And the coaches who were working with him after hours,
Speaker 1: and he's spending a lot of those you know, when
Speaker 1: everybody else is out of the building, he's coming back
Speaker 1: in kind of hours to try to pick this thing up.
Speaker 1: I mean, he is invested in this thing. So that's
Speaker 1: what to me, regardless of all the other stuff, makes
Speaker 1: these last six games of the season fascinating because you
Speaker 1: don't know how it's going to unfold, and it could
Speaker 1: be way over here, and it could be way over
Speaker 1: here on one end of the spectrum or the other.
Speaker 1: But it's going to be interesting. That's and that's always
Speaker 1: what you want, right So, in keeping Darren with that theme,
Speaker 1: um of the actual football. That's what Matt rules is
Speaker 1: if you focus on the show or the energy that
Speaker 1: he's bringing, I think we're allowed to for a few
Speaker 1: minutes wax poetic about about the the return. But he said,
Speaker 1: you know, if you if you focus on all that stuff,
Speaker 1: then you kind of are undermining what Cam actually is
Speaker 1: doing right on the football side. And as we said,
Speaker 1: I think we all thought he looked very good for
Speaker 1: for the limited amount of time ten days, um that
Speaker 1: he's been in the building. I thought, you know, throwing
Speaker 1: motion looked good. Of course we know he can run it, um.
Speaker 1: So but let's talk about the actual game. As you said, Darren, um,
Speaker 1: the defense, how did you put it? Forgot how to
Speaker 1: be good? For a day or play football, or everybody
Speaker 1: forgot they were good at defense from all men. And
Speaker 1: and that's what made it so peculiar, because defense is
Speaker 1: so good. Every single game point, the thing you trust
Speaker 1: went away, and the thing you've been unsure about all
Speaker 1: year was suddenly, all right, we're not worried about that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: twenty one points, that's good. And and most weeks, you know,
Speaker 1: you stake Matt Rule and the Carolina Panthers to twenty
Speaker 1: one points, and I think they'd take that bargain. I
Speaker 1: think most weeks they'd say, yeah, the little sign our
Speaker 1: names for that right now. Um. But it was just weird.
Speaker 1: And part of it is, you know, I go back
Speaker 1: and I hear the voice of John fox He's like
Speaker 1: the ghost of Christmas past in my head. But I
Speaker 1: hear John Foxy and the other team practices too. And
Speaker 1: Taylor Honeke came in and had a day, and Terry
Speaker 1: McLarin came in and had a day, and Ron Rivera
Speaker 1: came in and had a day. And but it wasn't
Speaker 1: that oh my god, these guys are terrible at their jobs.
Speaker 1: It was just, dang, look at look at Taylor Heinekey.
Speaker 1: I didn't know he had that in him, and he's
Speaker 1: had it in him a couple of weeks in a row.
Speaker 1: Now he's beating Tom Brady and he's beating Carolina Panthers
Speaker 1: on the road. So I um again, we do this
Speaker 1: film breakdown with with Thomas Davis every single week, and
Speaker 1: we were looking at Washington last week. He was like
Speaker 1: scouting the opponent and picked a couple of plays and
Speaker 1: he picked this, um. He picked some plays from the
Speaker 1: Washington football team versus the Bucks game because that's what
Speaker 1: they had just come off of that big win. And
Speaker 1: it was like a Taylor Heineke dime, Like it was
Speaker 1: just a great and he said and I just I
Speaker 1: didn't think that we'd be hearing this, but he was
Speaker 1: so right. He was like, don't don't let Taylor Heneke,
Speaker 1: you know, get comfortable half time, like he's gonna he's
Speaker 1: gonna throw it and it's gonna be good, and you
Speaker 1: cannot give him time. You have to get pressure on him.
Speaker 1: And like in the moment, I was like, well, yeah,
Speaker 1: and that one game, yeah, and that game okay, sure,
Speaker 1: you know, but Tomas played with him and we saw
Speaker 1: what he could do in the second half against the
Speaker 1: Panthers last year. And I mean it's just he's really
Speaker 1: having cool a stretch. If he could stay healthy, he
Speaker 1: could avoid getting hit really hard over and over and
Speaker 1: over again. When he's a great quarterback, I think he
Speaker 1: really can be an NFL starting caliber, like a guy
Speaker 1: in this league. And I think that it was always
Speaker 1: just that he couldn't stay on the field. I mean
Speaker 1: that one the one game he started in uh at
Speaker 1: the end of that season for Carolina, Like he got
Speaker 1: hit so many times. He had like he couldn't get
Speaker 1: out of his shoulder pads. Like at the end of
Speaker 1: the game, he couldn't move his his arm um. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean, and and give credit to to that running
Speaker 1: scheme too. I mean the way that they moved left
Speaker 1: and right, the way that they had you know, the
Speaker 1: play action, like the bootleg reverses or like the bootlegs
Speaker 1: for Heineke on fourth down when there's nobody. I mean
Speaker 1: that was like a cam run back in the day.
Speaker 1: Boy when he when he scrambled for the first popped
Speaker 1: up and so he's just dounting on you. Now, that's
Speaker 1: not good. So Darren, we all know it's a combination
Speaker 1: of of everything, right, there's there's usually not just one
Speaker 1: thing that leads to a performance like that. But if
Speaker 1: you had to say between you know, the other side
Speaker 1: just schemed better, played better. It was the matchup, it
Speaker 1: was the coaching, it was the miscommunication. Where where would
Speaker 1: you be worried about or are you just like, look,
Speaker 1: it was it was a day that they had. They're
Speaker 1: allowed one game. I'm not worried about it. We'll see
Speaker 1: this normal defense back in my name. Well, the big
Speaker 1: flashing red light now for the Carolina Panthers is run defense.
Speaker 1: And you know, in the six losses they're giving up
Speaker 1: a hundred sixty three a game. In the five wins,
Speaker 1: it's four. And it was a huge deal last year. Now,
Speaker 1: granted they've added they added a ton of pieces, this
Speaker 1: defense does not look the same, but they've improved in
Speaker 1: so many categories. There was almost like there was no
Speaker 1: holdover at first from last year's issues the third down,
Speaker 1: the run defense, and we're starting to see a little
Speaker 1: bit of it re emerging. And listen to books out
Speaker 1: people around the league. No, the Dolphins know everybody on
Speaker 1: the schedule coming down the stretch knows you want to
Speaker 1: run on the Carolina Panthers put big people on the
Speaker 1: field and and lean on them a little bit and
Speaker 1: muscle them up, and you know, until it's one of
Speaker 1: those things people are gonna punch you until you make
Speaker 1: them stop punching you. And you know, we'll see what
Speaker 1: Miami is able to do. I don't know that they're
Speaker 1: built to um necessarily go off that platform the way
Speaker 1: other teams are. But Dallas, Minnesota, New England, Washington kind
Speaker 1: of all got after him, you know, with different runs,
Speaker 1: but with the same philosophy, and it's we're gonna muscle
Speaker 1: you up and we're gonna lean on you until you
Speaker 1: push back. And and they didn't in those games, I believe,
Speaker 1: you know. They everybody talks about and it's one of
Speaker 1: those coach cliches, but it's also happens to be true.
Speaker 1: You can to stop the run. All eleven dudes have
Speaker 1: to be in the right spot. And it almost doesn't
Speaker 1: matter which eleven, but they've all got to be in
Speaker 1: the right spot. All the spots get accounted for. But
Speaker 1: if a guy gets knocked off his feet, if a
Speaker 1: guy is not where he's supposed to be, that creates
Speaker 1: a lane and makes everybody look like idiots, So uh it,
Speaker 1: you know, listening to Hassan Reddick on Monday basically saying
Speaker 1: we can't be friends now we've got two point fingers
Speaker 1: that dudes and say you're in the wrong spot. You've
Speaker 1: got to tighten this up. You've got to be better.
Speaker 1: You know, all that talk about accountability. It would surprise
Speaker 1: me if they didn't get some people's attention with some
Speaker 1: of that this week. And so we'll see what it
Speaker 1: looks like on Sunday, Miami. But it's it's definitely the
Speaker 1: thing you've got to worry about with that defense right now,
Speaker 1: because we know they can cover, we know they can
Speaker 1: play man, we know they've got enough corners to match
Speaker 1: up with anybody in a passing game. It's the number
Speaker 1: one past defense in the NFL. We know they can
Speaker 1: rush passers and get sacks. Hassan and Brian have been
Speaker 1: playing well. What they've got to do is fix the
Speaker 1: stuff up the middle. And until they do, it's gonna
Speaker 1: be a little suspect. I mean, obviously, all the all
Speaker 1: the numbers that are all contained in in all the
Speaker 1: things that that Darren just said, for sure, and I
Speaker 1: think that they they've got to do it. Early, and
Speaker 1: they've got to they've got to get people off that trajectory.
Speaker 1: It's so easy to shut down a run game in
Speaker 1: the first half because if you if you allow a
Speaker 1: team to kind of get some life and to get
Speaker 1: going in the first half a little bit, they feel
Speaker 1: more and more able to do that, especially if the
Speaker 1: game's close, you know, in the second half. And I
Speaker 1: think that's what you saw against Arizona, Like Arizona could
Speaker 1: have run way more in the second half, but they
Speaker 1: couldn't because of the way that that avalanche just came
Speaker 1: at them, and then it became a whole lot easier
Speaker 1: for that defense. That defense was just sitting back at
Speaker 1: that point because of the way Arizona had to play.
Speaker 1: So I think a lot of it comes down to,
Speaker 1: you know, the offense got to continue to do what
Speaker 1: they're doing, which is score early, be be efficient. You know, Carolina,
Speaker 1: after that beginning, they couldn't convert on third down, and
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, you kind of start letting Washing,
Speaker 1: you start letting Washington get the ball right back, and
Speaker 1: then here's a play to McLaurin and then all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, now they're on the plus side of the
Speaker 1: fifty and now they can run a little bit, and
Speaker 1: you know that that's kind of that's kind of how
Speaker 1: that game started to go in against Miami, they've only
Speaker 1: averaged seventy seven point three rush yards a game. They're
Speaker 1: not good statistically at running the ball. Doesn't mean they
Speaker 1: can't and doesn't mean they won't try, but over the
Speaker 1: course of a season, they haven't been good at this.
Speaker 1: It's been to a and tour. Right now is playing
Speaker 1: like some of his best ball like eight percent completion rating.
Speaker 1: I'm just doing my stats the way now. I mean
Speaker 1: last week percent like that is really really high for
Speaker 1: a guy that you know, let's be real, there's been
Speaker 1: a lot of question marks around, you know, in the league,
Speaker 1: in the media, is two of the guy? Can he
Speaker 1: be the guy? I don't know that he will be
Speaker 1: the guy forever, but right now he's playing winning football.
Speaker 1: So this matchup, it's fair to say against Miami the
Speaker 1: week before the bye week is set up so that
Speaker 1: Carolina can get right if they if they do the
Speaker 1: things that they are capable of doing and execute, it
Speaker 1: feels like a favorable game to go into feeling pretty
Speaker 1: good about um before the bye week. Right I'm should
Speaker 1: I be knocking on something. I mean the way and
Speaker 1: if it and if it doesn't work out that way,
Speaker 1: it's not ours. But you feel like you want that
Speaker 1: term get right. It feels like it's been on the
Speaker 1: other sideline a lot this year, Like the Giants kind
Speaker 1: of got right against the Panthers in a way, like
Speaker 1: the Eagles, did you know, all of a sudden, they
Speaker 1: don't look so bad. Right, there's there that's kind of
Speaker 1: been happening to Carolina. I'd like to see that go
Speaker 1: the other direction, you know, to have a get right
Speaker 1: and just put it into somebody on the other sideline.
Speaker 1: And and again, it would be great to have right
Speaker 1: before the bye week. This is one of the latest
Speaker 1: bye weeks in the NFL. Right, that's the or the latest,
Speaker 1: but there's some other teams that also share this by week.
Speaker 1: I have to look at Will just to make sure. Right,
Speaker 1: it's been a long time since those dudes have had
Speaker 1: a Sunday off Yeah, slash us had a Sunday offense
Speaker 1: and the story yeah, um, but yeah, I'm excited for
Speaker 1: this game in Miami. Um, it will be the first
Speaker 1: game that I'm not traveling to, which is a little
Speaker 1: a little sad for me. They yes, they they put
Speaker 1: me on the no fly list. And when you get
Speaker 1: to a certain point in your pregnancy, you can't be
Speaker 1: too far from your hospital. So um, it'll be interesting,
Speaker 1: you know, to to be watching it on TV rather
Speaker 1: than being there. But um, I'm I'm looking forward to
Speaker 1: seeing it in whatever capacity that is. It's not going
Speaker 1: to be the same without you, Christos, Thank you, Darren.
Speaker 1: I appreciate you saying that. Uh, let's talk about Thanksgiving
Speaker 1: really quick for me? All right, what is we just
Speaker 1: need definitive answers here. I know that everyone does this
Speaker 1: on podcast right around this time, but you know it's
Speaker 1: I love Thanksgiving food, I said the agenda. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: do it anyway. What is the best Thanksgiving side? Right now?
Speaker 1: Will Brian? I actually kind of like stuffing, kind of
Speaker 1: like stuffing is not a definitive this is the best side,
Speaker 1: because I mean it's it's it's macarone macar But everyone's like, oh,
Speaker 1: macaroni and cheese, you have that all the time. Like
Speaker 1: I still like it the best, Like I enjoyed that
Speaker 1: part of my meal the most. But I think stuffing
Speaker 1: is unique to Thanksgiving, and I think it's that it's
Speaker 1: a very versatile side. Do you go, is it in
Speaker 1: the bird? Er out of the burden your family? It's out,
Speaker 1: it's out. But I think that it's a it can
Speaker 1: be a meal on Saturday. Oh, absolutely no. And I
Speaker 1: like that there's some versatility to it. High starch content, savory.
Speaker 1: It carries a lot of weight literally on your plate,
Speaker 1: just it's weighed down on that. So among my people,
Speaker 1: when it's not inside the bird, it's dressing. You make
Speaker 1: it in the in the pan, in the big sheet pan.
Speaker 1: H I have a My dad's family is from up
Speaker 1: north and my mom's family is from down south, so
Speaker 1: I got two different Thanksgivings when I was growing up.
Speaker 1: So of course down here it's definitely not in the bird.
Speaker 1: But my my Massachusetts grandmother, it was going in the bird.
Speaker 1: Is it bad that I call it stuffing? When it's
Speaker 1: not in the bird, we call it stuffing anyway, where
Speaker 1: it's it's Thanksgiving, We're all in a pretty good movie,
Speaker 1: totally judging absolutely, question like this is gonna be a
Speaker 1: long answer. Surprised. Um, I like the contrast between sweet
Speaker 1: savory salty. You know otherwise, so on my plate, I
Speaker 1: mean my plate looks very colorful when I get there,
Speaker 1: because you need My sister in law makes this crazy
Speaker 1: wild rice thing that's full of sausage and green peppers
Speaker 1: and cream of something soup um, and you sit that
Speaker 1: next to the cole slaw, and you put the stuffing
Speaker 1: or the dressing next to the cranberry. And now the
Speaker 1: can's fine with me. I mean I even cut it
Speaker 1: halfway in long ways and then slice it so you
Speaker 1: get little half moon shapes, and that just makes it
Speaker 1: a little more festive rather than just the tube straight
Speaker 1: coming out of the can. But I need that contrast
Speaker 1: on my plate. I need a little bit of this,
Speaker 1: a little bit of that, a little bit of this,
Speaker 1: a little bit of that. So Darren's answer is every side.
Speaker 1: It's not answer. The turkey doesn't. I mean, the turkey
Speaker 1: is there, and the turkey's a component. But I like
Speaker 1: creating the plate. And there's probably years worth of pictures
Speaker 1: in my phone of a plate of Thanksgiving that's just
Speaker 1: eight different Tomorrow, will you send us the perfect plate
Speaker 1: arrangement whenever we see you. Yes, you don't have to
Speaker 1: stop what you're doing, and I will try to. I
Speaker 1: always try to put that together. I wish you could
Speaker 1: see Darren's face right now, so proud of I. Um,
Speaker 1: I'm going to go with something that I you know,
Speaker 1: I thought what I might have been mentioned by now,
Speaker 1: just sweet potatoes in any form, Like I'll take it
Speaker 1: as a casserole. I'll take it, you know, a half
Speaker 1: of a sweet potato. I just think it's it's like,
Speaker 1: it's like putting a bit of dessert on your plate
Speaker 1: a few minutes. The best, Matt, what about you? Probably
Speaker 1: cinnamon glaze honey by tam. That's that's like my tradition
Speaker 1: in my family. So that's like the one twice a
Speaker 1: year I get it, and this is the first of two.
Speaker 1: So I'm excited. It's really good. And Christmas all right,
Speaker 1: and then finally best Thanksgiving dessert. I mean it's I
Speaker 1: mean it's it's I don't even like pumpkin pie all
Speaker 1: that much, but you've got to eat a piece on
Speaker 1: Thanksgiving because gosh Darnett, it's Thanksgiving. Yeah. I always like
Speaker 1: to go with very thin slices of many pies. We
Speaker 1: have a huge family, and the dessert table is a
Speaker 1: separate table than the food table, and it's almost as
Speaker 1: laiden down and you could really you want to talk
Speaker 1: about putting together a plate, you could really put together
Speaker 1: a regular plate at my family's Thanksgiving, and then you
Speaker 1: put together your own dessert plate, like full size plate
Speaker 1: if you want to sample everything, apple, pecan, pumpkin, all
Speaker 1: kind of right in there together. Yeah, I I don't really,
Speaker 1: I'm not a huge pie person. Like I'll do who
Speaker 1: hurt you? I know. The quick explanation is that so
Speaker 1: when you grow up, and there's always like the kids
Speaker 1: generation of Thanksgiving, so like I never grew out of
Speaker 1: that that dessert so it's always like brownies, chocolate brownies
Speaker 1: and lemon squares and apple pie. So like I didn't
Speaker 1: get to like the mature adult pies, you know, like
Speaker 1: pumpkin pie and you know all the other types kind
Speaker 1: of pies that go with bourbon. I will eat. I
Speaker 1: will eat peacans just like a here's a here's a nut,
Speaker 1: But I don't like pecan pie. At what age is
Speaker 1: that appropriate to eat pecan pie? And in the age, well,
Speaker 1: you said you have to be older, So I'm curious.
Speaker 1: Table too tall for you know, I think some people
Speaker 1: just have more mature palettes and I haven't gotten there yet.
Speaker 1: There's still hope. There's still hope. It's self awareness though,
Speaker 1: But if you're not eating peacampire or pecompie, I mean,
Speaker 1: that's a few less push ups for you, which is
Speaker 1: I'm filling it with chocolate brownie. All right, Well, I
Speaker 1: know you wanted to end with something um a little different, ye,
Speaker 1: So if you read you know we're gonna start with
Speaker 1: a plug. If you read Darren's mail bag on Panthers
Speaker 1: dot com. First of all, we're getting everyone here shirts.
Speaker 1: I just need shirt. I did send a very thinly
Speaker 1: veiled message to Darren on Twitter public public just it
Speaker 1: could not have been more obvious. The shirts are awesome,
Speaker 1: and they say friend of the mail bag, and I
Speaker 1: just was reminding Darren that I am indeed a friend
Speaker 1: of the mail bag. So that's all I'm saying. You
Speaker 1: guys are all O G friends of the mail bag. Scott, right, yeah, Scott.
Speaker 1: Scott wants in on it. We also had a request
Speaker 1: from another player who will go nameless, who wants to
Speaker 1: be a part of the community. So we're we're definitely
Speaker 1: gonna have to get some more shirts, some question in
Speaker 1: order to get in on this. I want to guess
Speaker 1: after ask better questions if you want to be in fot.
Speaker 1: But so one of Darren's early on in the mailbag
Speaker 1: entreaties was for people that obviously to give thanks, but
Speaker 1: to be with your people. And as someone that spent
Speaker 1: a lot of my life, you know, doing this sports
Speaker 1: thing in you know, far flung places, away from family,
Speaker 1: away from loved ones, um it, it has meant a
Speaker 1: lot when your people are new people and when they
Speaker 1: welcome you into their homes. And I just think that,
Speaker 1: you know, this time of year, it's it can be
Speaker 1: so hard for so many people that just don't quite
Speaker 1: have someone close or just don't have what the kind
Speaker 1: of stereotypical big family is. And you know, I just
Speaker 1: think it's really important for us to like look around
Speaker 1: at at our our universe and our sphere and find
Speaker 1: that person or those people and say, hey, come have
Speaker 1: a meal, you know, and break bread with me. And
Speaker 1: I think that just means a lot, especially in this
Speaker 1: day and age. It was really beautiful. But this was
Speaker 1: Darren's original thoughts. So I'm just stealing, and I mean honestly,
Speaker 1: I mean, this ain't no week to be alone. So yeah,
Speaker 1: invite the strays to your house, having been the stray
Speaker 1: it does. I I spent almost ten years, my now
Speaker 1: husband and I away from our families, you know, going
Speaker 1: from Connecticut to l A to Chicago, always doing the
Speaker 1: next sportscasting job. And it's funny because we wanted to
Speaker 1: move back to North Carolina, where both of our families
Speaker 1: are too, to be with our families on holidays like this,
Speaker 1: and last year was the pandemic and there was a
Speaker 1: practice and all that, so we we stayed home, just
Speaker 1: the two of us, um and then this year, because
Speaker 1: I am getting very close to my due date, we
Speaker 1: are also staying home. But just knowing that our families
Speaker 1: are there is you know, even though it maybe hasn't
Speaker 1: gone exactly the way that we would ideally like it
Speaker 1: to the last two years, just knowing that our families
Speaker 1: are there, um is is huge because for so many
Speaker 1: years it wasn't. You know, in sports, you typically work
Speaker 1: on on Thanksgiving um as we maybe too, but you know,
Speaker 1: as you said, trying to to make time for the
Speaker 1: people that matter. That's really really beautiful, both of you.
Speaker 1: All Right, everybody, everybody's got their weird coworker that nobody
Speaker 1: really knows what to do. We're sitting right here here well,
Speaker 1: I was gonna say, will, why don't you come over
Speaker 1: to that we have adult pie after you know. Oh,
Speaker 1: this was lovely guys. We hope everyone has a wonderful
Speaker 1: Thanksgiving and we will talk to you next week on
Speaker 1: the Happy After