Speaker 1: It's time for the Happy Half Hour with your friends
Speaker 1: Kristen Belboni and Will Brian, presented by Morris Jenkins. That's right,
Speaker 1: it's that time of the week. Welcome to the Happy
Speaker 1: Half Hour podcast presented by Morris Jenkins and Mr Jenkins
Speaker 1: told me that his plumbers and a c text secretly
Speaker 1: wear Panthers jerseys under their uniforms. When you're plumbing or
Speaker 1: air conditioning is acting up, called Morris Jenkins or visit
Speaker 1: Morris Jenkins dot com. Will Matt, it is draft week
Speaker 1: and we have secured. When I talk about an A
Speaker 1: plus guest, it doesn't get much better than this. Am
Speaker 1: I right, Well, years of NFL insider experience, there's nothing
Speaker 1: like him. You think that, you think that schefter is
Speaker 1: the one breaking news, and I will say hard to
Speaker 1: get a hold of. We share an office sometimes. I
Speaker 1: bet I've asked. You know, the digits always got something
Speaker 1: going on. We're just kidding. No one is no one
Speaker 1: is friendly, or no one is nicer. But I was
Speaker 1: not kidding about this being an A plus guest. Darren Gant,
Speaker 1: the Panthers writer, I mean, I just saw you a
Speaker 1: few minutes ago, but it's good to see you again
Speaker 1: with the headphones on the mic in front of your face. Which,
Speaker 1: it's good to be here. It's good to finally be
Speaker 1: invited to be here. I mean, frankly, my feelings were
Speaker 1: a little hurt that I hadn't been invited until now.
Speaker 1: But now it's good. You're so busy doing all the
Speaker 1: other Charlotte media. Yeah, it's it's a real jam pack schedule. No, gosh, No,
Speaker 1: it's good to be here. This is cool. It's it's
Speaker 1: this is one of the cool little places in the
Speaker 1: stadium that a lot of people don't get to see.
Speaker 1: And it's like it's our neat, little hidy hole where
Speaker 1: we can just come and talk about stuff. It's very
Speaker 1: it's a very soothing place the podcast and radio studio. Uh,
Speaker 1: it's it's really nice. Yeah, I'll always like coming in here. Um, alright,
Speaker 1: so it's draft week. We're going to talk a lot
Speaker 1: about let's let's football. Indeed, talk a lot about that
Speaker 1: over the course of this episode. But Darren, Look, nobody
Speaker 1: knows more than Darren. Nobody is found in the pavement,
Speaker 1: walk in the halls more than Darren. So what are
Speaker 1: you hearing? What are you thinking about? What the Panthers
Speaker 1: are gonna do in the draft on on Thursday, Friday
Speaker 1: and Saturday. Well and the one thing. And we'll have
Speaker 1: more about this later this week at Panthers dot com.
Speaker 1: There it is, um. I think it's interesting they went
Speaker 1: through very deliberately this offseason trying to check off as
Speaker 1: many boxes as they could. They probably would have needed
Speaker 1: a pass rusher, except you go sign a Hassan Reddick.
Speaker 1: You know, you needed some clarity at quarterback, you make
Speaker 1: the Sam Donald deal. You needed to fill in blanks
Speaker 1: on the offensive line. They went at Boom boom Boom.
Speaker 1: Signed three guys pretty early in the process, and they've
Speaker 1: added guys at every layer. They filled in At cornerback,
Speaker 1: I think k J. Booie has the potential to be
Speaker 1: a really good piece of business. Uh, cornerback still something
Speaker 1: they're going to be looking at early, I think in
Speaker 1: this process this weekend. But if you didn't sign J. Booie,
Speaker 1: then it's oh my god, we gotta take you know,
Speaker 1: then you get pinned into that Dave Getlman positional disaster
Speaker 1: thing where you have to take and everybody in the
Speaker 1: world knows you have to take a thing. And I
Speaker 1: think you can make a reasonable case, and we kind
Speaker 1: of did this last week on the website. They're about
Speaker 1: four different, five different options that you could say, yeah,
Speaker 1: that makes sense. I mean, obviously, I think they'd like
Speaker 1: to draft an offensive tackle. If a sul's there at eight,
Speaker 1: I think he's a run don't walk to the podium guy.
Speaker 1: You just do that without asking any questions or giving
Speaker 1: anybody a chance. And it's like they're on the clock.
Speaker 1: They're off the clock. Yeah, I mean, and that's the
Speaker 1: way it was when they drafted Jordan Gross. There was
Speaker 1: a weird thing literally ran. Yeah, there was a weird
Speaker 1: thing where the Vikings actually passed and their time expired
Speaker 1: and Jackie Miles was literally running to the podium. It's like, yep,
Speaker 1: Jordan's our guy. We talked about that on the Draft
Speaker 1: show last year. Jordan was one of the hosts. Yeah,
Speaker 1: of those situations, but yeah, they It could also be corner,
Speaker 1: it could also be wide receiver, depending on what a
Speaker 1: couple of teams do in front of him. I think
Speaker 1: they've got some interesting options depending on what they want
Speaker 1: to do and how it follows in front of them.
Speaker 1: How are you feeling about Scott Fitterer. I mean, I
Speaker 1: think everyone was impressed. Certainly if you look at all
Speaker 1: the Twitter replies, the memes that were coming out of
Speaker 1: free agency were incredible, the memes and the gifts of
Speaker 1: what Fitterer is doing in free agency. But but Darren,
Speaker 1: you and I have gotten to spend some time with him,
Speaker 1: and I just you know, we said this with Rule
Speaker 1: last year too. It's like, you know, the first draft
Speaker 1: and just unfazed. He's ready to go. I mean, he
Speaker 1: succeeded so much in Seattle, um known for trading back,
Speaker 1: and it feels like he's he's ready. You know. I
Speaker 1: think Scott's an interesting guy for a lot of reasons.
Speaker 1: One of the things kind of caught my eye when
Speaker 1: he was at the b y U pro day. He
Speaker 1: goes out to look at Zach Wilson, who they're not
Speaker 1: going to have an opportunity because he will go second.
Speaker 1: But while he was out there, they end up signing
Speaker 1: anotherwide receiver. And if you look at the pictures from
Speaker 1: that pro day, when people are running forties, who's sitting
Speaker 1: right on the forty yard line with a stop watch
Speaker 1: in his hand. Scott Fitter. Scott Fitter is a he's
Speaker 1: a road guy. He's an old scout at heart. He
Speaker 1: wants to be out there clocking guys himself, making notes
Speaker 1: on his clipboard, you know, doing all the old scout stuff.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's how he grew up in the business.
Speaker 1: He told and other people told me stories about him
Speaker 1: growing up in the business. When he was with the Giants,
Speaker 1: they used to have this thing called the box. And
Speaker 1: the box was this big, heavy thing that young scouts
Speaker 1: had to carry around and it had instruments and it
Speaker 1: was basically a thing guys had to run back and
Speaker 1: forth and touch these pressure pads to measure lateral quickness
Speaker 1: stuff like that. But it was this huge honking box
Speaker 1: that he had to carry around. Scott Fitter secretly loved
Speaker 1: carrying the box. That's the kind of guy he is.
Speaker 1: He's that road scout. He wants to be out there.
Speaker 1: So that's why this process has been so weird, because
Speaker 1: he can't be everywhere he wants to be because you
Speaker 1: can only send three people to any pro day. So
Speaker 1: they dropped it up amongst him. Scouts position coaches will
Speaker 1: be at certain places, and you know, I think it
Speaker 1: will be interesting to see how Scott grows into that
Speaker 1: role and starts, you know, this is the weekend coming
Speaker 1: up when he's really going to be great at on
Speaker 1: stuff because nail in those first round picks is something
Speaker 1: I think people took for granted for a long time
Speaker 1: around here under Marty hernie Um. Say whatever you want
Speaker 1: about the rest of drafts or whatever, but that's a
Speaker 1: lot of pressure on Scott. You know, you've got the
Speaker 1: eighth pick, make it count because usually they do around
Speaker 1: here well, and as you said, it's it's not just
Speaker 1: that eighth pick, but then you got to nail those
Speaker 1: other ones too down the list. It's yeah, and it's
Speaker 1: going to be important. I think, you know, looking at
Speaker 1: last year's draft, I mean, yes, I think Derrick Brown
Speaker 1: is going to be a big time player for a
Speaker 1: long time to come. But then to come back with
Speaker 1: Jeremy Chen, it's like, whoa, all of a sudden, this
Speaker 1: is looking like a really good drip and n once
Speaker 1: he got it. But you know, he struggled with some
Speaker 1: injuries throughout the season but really had to step up
Speaker 1: as that line um was depleted, you know, further and
Speaker 1: further down the season. So yeah, last year, last year
Speaker 1: was a good draft. We're gonna see what happens this year.
Speaker 1: And you know, talking about that less less exposure to
Speaker 1: some of these guys, you know, where does that really
Speaker 1: make the impact across the league? Is it with the fourth, fifth,
Speaker 1: sixth round picks, Because it's even harder to get to
Speaker 1: some of the smaller schools or guys that maybe you
Speaker 1: don't have more access to, no question, And as a
Speaker 1: matter of fact, we just published a story about this
Speaker 1: very topic at Panthers dot com. That's sound together. Um yeah,
Speaker 1: they are going to be They will draft someone this
Speaker 1: weekend they've never spoken to in person. I mean, and
Speaker 1: you can say what you want about watching film and
Speaker 1: that's the most important thing. But Matt talked about the
Speaker 1: importance of getting to know what these guys are like
Speaker 1: as people and trying to get inside somebody's head over
Speaker 1: a zoom call. As you guys know, for all the
Speaker 1: you know, teams meetings we have and stuff like that,
Speaker 1: it's kind of hard to figure out, you know, what
Speaker 1: you're looking at sometimes much less someone's intent beyond their words.
Speaker 1: So I think it's gonna be tough. And when you
Speaker 1: get down in fourth the sixth round, um yeah, you're
Speaker 1: gonna be watching a guy that you basically have maybe
Speaker 1: not even talked to. But you've watched a lot of film,
Speaker 1: You've got the measurements on him and that kind of stuff,
Speaker 1: and that's gonna be tricky. I mean this, this year's
Speaker 1: draft is gonna be so dodgy in a sense because
Speaker 1: of so many situations like that. I think there's an
Speaker 1: opportunity for people to really miss big because you don't
Speaker 1: know because you've never talked to this guy or have
Speaker 1: any kind of relationship. And talking to some of the
Speaker 1: scouts too, it's you know, not only the combine, which
Speaker 1: we didn't touch on so last year, for everything that
Speaker 1: was going on, the combines still happened and they were
Speaker 1: still able to get those those forty times you know,
Speaker 1: we're they're clocking them and and all of that and
Speaker 1: everything that comes along with the combine. But also some
Speaker 1: of the scouts have pointed out that when you're watching film,
Speaker 1: you know, not everyone played complete seasons. Some guys either
Speaker 1: opted out, some teams, a lot of teams did not
Speaker 1: play um full seasons because of everything going on. So
Speaker 1: they're watching tape from two years ago, you know, So
Speaker 1: it's all going to be it's all going to be
Speaker 1: very interesting. Um, but I have to ask you, Darren.
Speaker 1: So you've you've done two plugs for the website. Um,
Speaker 1: we'll set you up on the last one. So what's
Speaker 1: it like working with Will? Oh? Will's the best, the best.
Speaker 1: Wills like the young wizard behind the curtain. Now do
Speaker 1: everything does? It's easy to do my part. I just
Speaker 1: talked to people in right words. Will. It's the guy
Speaker 1: who has to make them look pretty and make them
Speaker 1: appear on the internet. And that's the part that kind
Speaker 1: of Will's taking so many calls from me, like what
Speaker 1: does that button do? I would not know? How do
Speaker 1: I make this a thing that exists in the world?
Speaker 1: And Will's very patient, very calm. It's like talking to
Speaker 1: your parents, you know, trying to explain the iPhone deep
Speaker 1: Mom and dad. Darren's being overly humble. But Will is
Speaker 1: the best, that Will is really good at what he does.
Speaker 1: I couldn't do what I do without him. So I
Speaker 1: have a question for you guys. Since we talked about
Speaker 1: how matt Rule likes to get to know these guys
Speaker 1: over zoom, he plays the Desert Island song game or
Speaker 1: band game. If his choices Dave Matthews, who would y'alls
Speaker 1: be beatles? You know that already. I'm torn on this
Speaker 1: one because you've got to think about a lot of time.
Speaker 1: Somebody's gonna have to have a lot of material or
Speaker 1: you're gonna get really sick of listening to him. Um,
Speaker 1: I go back and forth. It would probably be either
Speaker 1: led Zeppelin or Johnny Cash and that's just kind of
Speaker 1: I mean, it's it's very different. You've got to have
Speaker 1: somebody who can sing rock and roll songs and also
Speaker 1: things you can chill out and listen to. And led
Speaker 1: Zeppelin's like that. M That's what my husband would say.
Speaker 1: We get into that all the time about the He's like,
Speaker 1: he says the same thing. He's like, that's why its
Speaker 1: led Zeppel. I'm like, that's why it's the Beatle. I
Speaker 1: don't know what. Well, what's yours? Um, I mean, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna get slamed for this one too. I'd go with
Speaker 1: you too, just because you have forty years worth of
Speaker 1: stuff and you can go from like really emotional to
Speaker 1: like just really just you know, a banger. You know,
Speaker 1: that's that's just fun. Matt, you got one. Uh, it's
Speaker 1: probably either Young the Giant or twenty one Pilots. I
Speaker 1: like those two. Okay, like it. All right, Darren, I
Speaker 1: know you're a busy guy. We're gonna let you out
Speaker 1: of here, yes to write your next incredible article. But
Speaker 1: before you do, I want to ask you give us
Speaker 1: give us a Darren story about the draft. So for
Speaker 1: anyone who doesn't know, and I don't know why they
Speaker 1: wouldn't know this, but just in case there's one or
Speaker 1: two people out there, how long have you been covering
Speaker 1: the Panthers in some capacity? All of them, all of
Speaker 1: the years of recorded time. Um no, I was helping
Speaker 1: out covering in ninety five, I mean the first year.
Speaker 1: Wasn't doing it full time until ninety seven. But been
Speaker 1: around a long time. It's took a little break there
Speaker 1: to go work for a now sational website. But I'm
Speaker 1: back now. And but we'll walk out to the practice
Speaker 1: field and Darren will tell me a story that happened.
Speaker 1: You know, He's like, this is when the strength coach
Speaker 1: jumped the fence, when the apartments John Fox's first meeting.
Speaker 1: Just walk anywhere with Darren and he has an incredible story. Well,
Speaker 1: and I mean honestly, two thousand two, John Fox's first
Speaker 1: meeting camp. All the reporters were sitting on the hill
Speaker 1: opposite the apartments across Cedar Street, and we see smoke,
Speaker 1: and all these people who were trained to observe things
Speaker 1: and then respond to them and describe them, set and
Speaker 1: watch these buildings burned for a good minute, and somebody said,
Speaker 1: you know, we should probably call the fire department, and
Speaker 1: so then we all started calling nine one one on
Speaker 1: these new things we had then called cell phones. Um,
Speaker 1: I think mine was a black berry at that time,
Speaker 1: but yeah, I mean Jerry Simmons, who was a strength
Speaker 1: that time, actually jumped to the fence, tore his hand open,
Speaker 1: I'm a wire over the top of the fence and
Speaker 1: ended up mule kicking down a door and helping save
Speaker 1: a guy who was asleep in a burning building. How
Speaker 1: cool is that? And so we were out there watching
Speaker 1: football practice and that happened. Yeah. Raft that, oh draft weekend, Well,
Speaker 1: I mean it's really covering a draft from inside the
Speaker 1: stadiums one of the most glamorous things you can imagine.
Speaker 1: You spend the weekend down in the bunker. They wheel
Speaker 1: catered food in occasionally, and it's you know, the lineup
Speaker 1: to traw feat the free food, and then you sit
Speaker 1: and you wait and you talk and back. I remember
Speaker 1: this was back in the nineties. This was very early
Speaker 1: newspaper career for me. Another one of our co workers,
Speaker 1: David Monroe, would always come down and there was a
Speaker 1: speaker phone in the middle of the press room, and
Speaker 1: when they draft a guy, they'd call him on the
Speaker 1: speaker phone, put him on speaker all the reporters talked
Speaker 1: to him. Well, Monroe came down with a phone number
Speaker 1: of this guy they just drafted written on a little card,
Speaker 1: and he'd come down into the room and dial it.
Speaker 1: And so I was an enterprising young reporter and I
Speaker 1: just stood over Monroe's shoulder and watched what he dialed
Speaker 1: and wrote it down in my notebook. Makes all the
Speaker 1: sense to me. That way, I had that guy's phone number,
Speaker 1: and and at a certain point in the day. That
Speaker 1: was back when the draft was rounds one through three
Speaker 1: on the first day and then four through seven on
Speaker 1: the second. At a certain point later in that draft,
Speaker 1: maybe about the third round, another one of our coworkers,
Speaker 1: Bruce Spit, caught me. He's at PR. Just to give context,
Speaker 1: Team PR. Bruce Spait the Hammer caught me and on
Speaker 1: day two of that draft, they started calling guys upstairs
Speaker 1: and transferring him down to the speaker phone in the
Speaker 1: press room. I ruined it for that. Will not peak
Speaker 1: Darren and Pete Bruce. Oh completely, It's it's protect Bruce,
Speaker 1: protecting Bruce, protecting the new guys, and Darren finding a
Speaker 1: new and different way to get into contact. I love it, Darren.
Speaker 1: This is yeah, this is this is this is so
Speaker 1: much fun. I wish you had invited me sooner. No,
Speaker 1: I'm just this is good. I'll come back. Will you
Speaker 1: come back? It's happy happy next time like happy, all right,
Speaker 1: We're gonna take you up on that next Okay, all right,
Speaker 1: thanks Darren. Mr Jenkins told me. Mr Jenkins told me.
Speaker 1: Mr Jenkis told me to always make it easy for
Speaker 1: the customer. That's you alive person will always be here
Speaker 1: to answer the phone. We're here till midnight, seven days
Speaker 1: a week, so you never have to take off work.
Speaker 1: And it's the same price as in the daytime. We're
Speaker 1: the ones you want to call. We're the ones you
Speaker 1: want to call. We're the ones you want to call.
Speaker 1: You're gonna love these people. I guarantee. Got to Morris
Speaker 1: Jenkins dot com, welcome back to the Happy half Hour.
Speaker 1: It is always great to have the incomparable Darren Gant
Speaker 1: with us. Really really enjoyed that. Here on the Happy
Speaker 1: Half Hour podcast presented by Morris Jenkins and Will Mr
Speaker 1: Jenkins told me that the Panthers make him proud and
Speaker 1: he's honored to support the team. When you're plumb, her
Speaker 1: air conditioning is acting up, called Morris Jenkins or visit
Speaker 1: Morris Jenkins dot com. All right, well it is time
Speaker 1: we heard some we heard some draft stories from from Darren.
Speaker 1: It's hard to compete with Darren, it is. It's hard
Speaker 1: to compete with Darren. Darren is an and master storyteller.
Speaker 1: But I think if anyone can compete with Darren, it
Speaker 1: will be you. Because I have heard little teases, as
Speaker 1: we say in the biz, about some of your past
Speaker 1: experiences on draft night, and I need to hear the
Speaker 1: whole story in honor of Draft week, I need to
Speaker 1: hear about a couple of these past ridiculous stories from
Speaker 1: a few years back. Yeah. So this is I mean,
Speaker 1: this really is one of my favorite weeks of the
Speaker 1: year because yeah, there's just so much going on. Um,
Speaker 1: this represents my work anniversary I think four years ago,
Speaker 1: five years ago. Now you started the week of the draft. Yes,
Speaker 1: that's why this is so incredible. So literally my first weekend,
Speaker 1: we had a meeting of UM at that point, a
Speaker 1: smaller digital team in one where we were trying for
Speaker 1: the first time to get actual footage of our draft pick.
Speaker 1: And it was going to be in Philadelphia. Gonna what year, Piladelphia, Philadelphia.
Speaker 1: The year is two thousand seventeen, and so we're going
Speaker 1: down the list of potential prospects. We were picking eighth,
Speaker 1: just like this year UM in the first round, and
Speaker 1: you know a number of them were going to be
Speaker 1: in Philadelphia, but one prospect that was a potential for
Speaker 1: us was going to be watching it from his house
Speaker 1: in h Castle Rock, Colorado, right south from Denver UM.
Speaker 1: And that was Christian McCaffrey. Never heard of him, never
Speaker 1: heard So at this point, again we had a very
Speaker 1: small team. We were going to send most of our
Speaker 1: our assets to Philly, and they're like, well, what if
Speaker 1: what if we were to take Christian then we wouldn't
Speaker 1: have any video, we wouldn't have any pictures. You know,
Speaker 1: he's out in Colorado. And everyone kind of looked at me,
Speaker 1: and I was working in the PR team at this point,
Speaker 1: but I had in a previous job, had camera work,
Speaker 1: had done all this stuff, and they're like, well, go
Speaker 1: to Colorado and this is what day two. Yeah, day
Speaker 1: two of the Yeah, I'm like, Okay, that's awesome, this
Speaker 1: is cool. So you know, I had seen like the
Speaker 1: meme of him at Stanford with like the guy yelling
Speaker 1: in the back. But I'm like looking him up on
Speaker 1: the plane like out to Colorado to like get to
Speaker 1: know more at um um Okay, but that's he was
Speaker 1: a Heisman finalist, though it's on the West Coast. I
Speaker 1: covered college football during that time, and it's I mean, gosh,
Speaker 1: he was incredible. But yes, the games were very late.
Speaker 1: I've lived in l A at that time, and I
Speaker 1: truly feel like, I don't know if I can say this,
Speaker 1: if this is a hot take, truly feel like if
Speaker 1: if his games were played on the East Coast, I
Speaker 1: think he would have been the Heisman winner. I'm just saying,
Speaker 1: all right, proceed with your story. All right, So I'm
Speaker 1: flying out day of the first round the draft Thursday morning. Um,
Speaker 1: the way we set it up, his agent knew that
Speaker 1: there's potential for for someone to be there from the
Speaker 1: digital team. But you know, didn't didn't tell anyone more
Speaker 1: than that, And I just want to be clear just
Speaker 1: in case anyone doesn't know. I love the behind the
Speaker 1: scenes stuff. As you said, the digital team, you don't
Speaker 1: know that that it's going to be Christian McCaffrey. As
Speaker 1: you said, everyone is setting up for different eventualities. But
Speaker 1: of course you know those conversations were had ahead of time.
Speaker 1: The media is talking about it. So he's in play
Speaker 1: as one of the chop picks, and that's why you're there,
Speaker 1: But you don't know that that he is going to
Speaker 1: be the pants. I just want to any camera in
Speaker 1: Philadelphia ready for potentially Leonard four net if that would
Speaker 1: have happened. Um, So this was just he was He
Speaker 1: wasn't going to be in Philly, so we needed to
Speaker 1: cover this base. And his agent is aware that one
Speaker 1: of the potential teams and maybe some other ones who knows,
Speaker 1: you know, would be around to get footage. So even
Speaker 1: saying that though, it was go to his house and
Speaker 1: sit on the street until we know, you know, don't
Speaker 1: you don't go in there. You were sitting outside. We
Speaker 1: were sitting outside a SBI steak out. Oh yeah. And
Speaker 1: the best part was so I had the address when
Speaker 1: we I pulled up. Of course it's a gated community,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, wait a minute, no one knows I'm coming.
Speaker 1: How do I get in? And so thankfully I was
Speaker 1: like wearing a suit, I had like all my gear
Speaker 1: and stuff in the car, and I was thinking, like,
Speaker 1: in the moment, I bet like ESPN or some other
Speaker 1: camera crews are probably already here, you know, to do
Speaker 1: like remote stuff with him. So I'm sure that they're
Speaker 1: used to just people coming in. I'm like, yes, I'm
Speaker 1: with the NFL here for Christian McCaffrey. And they're like, oh,
Speaker 1: come on through, come on through. I feel like that's
Speaker 1: a breach of security. I hope they've tightened things up. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So I just just talked my way in and parked
Speaker 1: at the end of the street. There are tons of
Speaker 1: cars like lined up all the way down the street,
Speaker 1: and so I'm just sitting there trying to follow the
Speaker 1: draft on my phone. There are several picks away, you know,
Speaker 1: just you know, looking at it on Twitter, and then
Speaker 1: the pick before the Panthers goes and it's not Christian,
Speaker 1: and I get a text like go go Go Go,
Speaker 1: and and does go Go Go me and like get
Speaker 1: into the house. Yeah. So I'm running down the street
Speaker 1: with a camera bag on one shoulder. No. Yeah, because
Speaker 1: if there's cameras all over I mean, if there's cars
Speaker 1: all over the street, you didn't have a prime parking spot. No,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm like a quarter of you're doing your own
Speaker 1: for dash in a suit in a suit one one
Speaker 1: bag of Panthers draft hats that they gave me, like
Speaker 1: thirty draft pack need oh for the whole family. Yeah,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, completely, And then the other was like camera equipment.
Speaker 1: So I get up to the door and you know
Speaker 1: this again, I'm four or five days on the job
Speaker 1: and uh ring the doorbell. Nothing ring it again. I
Speaker 1: think they were a little busy. Yeah. Well, so then
Speaker 1: I'm texting my contact who's back here. He's not answering
Speaker 1: the door, and all of a sudden, I hear the
Speaker 1: scream inside the house and I'm like, oh, my gosh,
Speaker 1: I just missed it. He just got drafted and I
Speaker 1: missed it. And of course, what I didn't realize was
Speaker 1: that in this process, typically the teams will call the
Speaker 1: person they're going to draft before it gets announced on
Speaker 1: NFL network in espn uh to to talk to him
Speaker 1: to say, hey, we're going to draft you. Congrats, welcome
Speaker 1: to the team. You're about to see it on TV
Speaker 1: in three minutes or whatever. So that's what that call was.
Speaker 1: They were all screaming because they saw the Charlotte area
Speaker 1: code on his phone. Um. And so then I'm texting.
Speaker 1: I think they just called him or they all just screamed.
Speaker 1: I still can't get in the door. And I get
Speaker 1: this text back to hold on. My stomach would have
Speaker 1: dropped if you because you're like, that's what I'm here
Speaker 1: for my fourth day on the job. And so then
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, I just see the silhouette come
Speaker 1: towards the door, and I'm like, oh my gosh. And
Speaker 1: of course Christian opens the door on the phone and
Speaker 1: he's like he opens the door. He opens the door,
Speaker 1: and he goes hello, and I pull out a hat
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Caroline of Panthers. So you didn't have
Speaker 1: you ever talked about this with him? Uh? Yeah? I
Speaker 1: mean like that that year we still joked about it
Speaker 1: from his perspective, or least so. And then he just
Speaker 1: kind of like looks at me like okay, and he's
Speaker 1: on the phone with the general manager for at that
Speaker 1: point was Dave Gentleman. And so then he just kind
Speaker 1: of keeps walking and then I've come in and there's
Speaker 1: some stranger at his door with a bunch of draft hats.
Speaker 1: I've got thirty draft hats. It's just like, where did
Speaker 1: he come from? So then I walk in and kind
Speaker 1: of start following him, and then uh, Lisa McCaffrey's mom
Speaker 1: comes up to me, and she starts asking questions, and
Speaker 1: so I tried to be you know, as vague but
Speaker 1: also as you know, helpful as possible. You know, hey,
Speaker 1: you know we've got people everywhere. This was you know,
Speaker 1: we were just covering all our bases, and you know,
Speaker 1: she didn't know that you were no but you know,
Speaker 1: I mean by this point, the cat's a little bit
Speaker 1: out of the bag. And so then I'm trying to
Speaker 1: but that is strange. That is strange though, whereas like
Speaker 1: if you're his mom and and and Lisa is amazing,
Speaker 1: but you're his mom, and all of a sudden he
Speaker 1: gets like the biggest phone call of his life, and
Speaker 1: then all of a sudden that there is a person
Speaker 1: that you have never seen before reading your doorbell with
Speaker 1: thirty draft hats, like oh yeah. So then so then
Speaker 1: she's like, well, do you want some food? Do you
Speaker 1: want some dinner? We have all this spread over here,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, well, I think I'm gonna trying to
Speaker 1: record this as we're about to it's about to be
Speaker 1: picked on TV. Thomas Davis is about to make the pick.
Speaker 1: She's like, oh, that's great. Um, I'm like, I had
Speaker 1: do have thirty draft hats and she's like, oh my gosh.
Speaker 1: So she starts handing out draft hats to everyone's So yeah.
Speaker 1: I get the video on my phone of of everyone
Speaker 1: celebrating and she was standing right next to me, and
Speaker 1: course Christian comes right over right up to the phone
Speaker 1: um or like right in the frame of the phone
Speaker 1: to hug her with his hat on, and its incredible um.
Speaker 1: And then they went outside, uh, and they did were
Speaker 1: doing a hit for ESPN on the remote and before
Speaker 1: he started, you know, they had like the stage lights
Speaker 1: and everything kind of set up in the back. And
Speaker 1: I asked him, um, hey, do you mind if I
Speaker 1: take a quick picture for our social channels, so then
Speaker 1: I'll show you this real quick. That picture that I
Speaker 1: took on my phone became the most shared picture of
Speaker 1: all thirty two teams on draft night of week one
Speaker 1: or of the first night of the draft. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: I know that that's a good picture for everyone. This
Speaker 1: is a podcast, so I know that's not great um podcasting,
Speaker 1: But you could just google Google. You know, Christian McCaffrey
Speaker 1: draft night, it's the picture that you see of him
Speaker 1: sitting on a couch the Panthers had on is Will's
Speaker 1: picture that came out of that from my phone. Ye
Speaker 1: got to say, I was laughing at just like the
Speaker 1: improbability of it all. But you did a great job,
Speaker 1: Like that's incredible that that was your fourth day. You
Speaker 1: go in completely unannounced, show up, talk your way into
Speaker 1: a gated community and and get all of this content
Speaker 1: like what I mean? But what do is like the
Speaker 1: week after? It looks like so then you're like, all right,
Speaker 1: so where else you guys need me to go? I
Speaker 1: get a flight back the next day and I get here,
Speaker 1: um in the McCaffrey's flight, and we were like two
Speaker 1: hours behind me flying back from Colorado. And so typically,
Speaker 1: you know, in the pre pandemic times, you know, the
Speaker 1: first round pick comes to the locker room and meets
Speaker 1: everybody in person and does all this. So we're all
Speaker 1: kind of down there welcoming him. Um and uh. Coach
Speaker 1: Ron Rivera was talking to his parents kind on the
Speaker 1: other side, and I'm kind of near them, and all
Speaker 1: of a sudden his mom pipes up, Will, how are
Speaker 1: you doing? And of course Coach Rivera doesn't know who
Speaker 1: I am on four days on the job, and she's like,
Speaker 1: He's like, who's that? How do you know him? Oh?
Speaker 1: That's Will. He was signing in our bushes yesterday. Wait,
Speaker 1: why would why why would she say you were hiding
Speaker 1: in the bushes? I don't know, because she did you
Speaker 1: hide in the bushes? Now, I was never actually in
Speaker 1: a bush, but she yeah. So then I've always became
Speaker 1: that guy for the first two years of working here.
Speaker 1: Whenever Ron Rivera saw me, he asked whose bushes I
Speaker 1: was over the weekend. That's awesome, what a what a
Speaker 1: great way to start. So that's any other draft stores
Speaker 1: so that that's the big one. The next year didn't
Speaker 1: go nearly as well as planned, because again we're still
Speaker 1: now we've got people everywhere, you know, like in over
Speaker 1: the past couple of years, we've been able to get
Speaker 1: video people from the colleges that these guys worked with,
Speaker 1: you know, we have freelancers. Um. But the next year
Speaker 1: was still kind of you know, Will has camera, will travel.
Speaker 1: I mean, you did such a great job of it
Speaker 1: last year, and so I'm sure that they were like,
Speaker 1: all right, we gotta get Will back out there, right,
Speaker 1: Except this time it didn't work out because the prospect
Speaker 1: that I went to go with was not the one
Speaker 1: that we ended up picking. Um. And this time around,
Speaker 1: rather than hiding out in the bushes, they just had
Speaker 1: they had a huge barbecue at a park in Florida
Speaker 1: and it was just tons of people. You know. I
Speaker 1: was there next to uh like the local video from
Speaker 1: like news, NFL Network, ESPN, like just they were like
Speaker 1: twenty of us. Um. But I guess as this prospect
Speaker 1: his I'll say his name in a second, but his
Speaker 1: they were No one was concerned about me because the
Speaker 1: Panthers were picking and everyone assumed that he was going
Speaker 1: to go a little bit higher in the drest. So now,
Speaker 1: but you identified yourself as a Panthers and I was
Speaker 1: just I was hanging out in the back eating chicken wings,
Speaker 1: you know, like for from the barbecue, and I was like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: as much as you want, Yeah, you know, don't. We're
Speaker 1: not worried about you. And then he started dropping and
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, it was like it was between
Speaker 1: him and the other wide receiver in this draft class,
Speaker 1: and his marketing person was like, well, you know, get close,
Speaker 1: you know, you can get a good shot. And then
Speaker 1: of course I get the text that it was the
Speaker 1: other one, and everyone kind of looked at me. You know,
Speaker 1: it's like, try to slink away really slowly before they
Speaker 1: announced it on TV that it was not him, it
Speaker 1: was d J Moore you want to say, I'm pretty
Speaker 1: sure most people know, but it was Calvin Ridley, who
Speaker 1: was then picked by the Falcons not long right after.
Speaker 1: It's like two picks later and it all worked out
Speaker 1: for the best. But I do remember when he was there.
Speaker 1: I mean I remember watching that draft when he was there.
Speaker 1: Everyone was like, oh, for surely the Panthers are gonna
Speaker 1: go for him here. Yeah, I mean, we had we
Speaker 1: had people in Feeling are up close to him. I
Speaker 1: was here to hear Oh my gosh, how did I
Speaker 1: think I think that's why he forever? Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: because we had someone in Philly. We had great video
Speaker 1: from DJ that night too. But it just so happened
Speaker 1: that person was the you know, got the winning lottery
Speaker 1: ticket and I did not. Did you? How long did
Speaker 1: you stay after that? Oh? No, I was as soon
Speaker 1: as I got the text, I slunk back behind because
Speaker 1: there's like a bunch of people and I just kind
Speaker 1: of made me and completely like ran out to get
Speaker 1: nuber out, you know, at the edge of the park
Speaker 1: and just got out of there as quickly as I could.
Speaker 1: That's incredible. Which one was your favorite? I mean, I'm kidding,
Speaker 1: I mean, but like it definitely was, Like you just
Speaker 1: these things are so crazy, you know, the nights of
Speaker 1: these drafts. And I will say the thing that I
Speaker 1: took away from both that was so incredible to see
Speaker 1: up close is just the roller coaster of emotions that
Speaker 1: these kids, their kids, their kids, you know, their kids
Speaker 1: and their family and too know, um, you know what
Speaker 1: this night is going to be for the rest of
Speaker 1: their lives. I have goose bumps right now because it
Speaker 1: is true. The draft is one of my favorite events,
Speaker 1: and it is a moment that everyone gets to see.
Speaker 1: And I think we saw it last year in their homes,
Speaker 1: maybe even more so then I'm used to seeing it
Speaker 1: when they go to. You know, if it would have
Speaker 1: been in Las Vegas, they would have been coming across
Speaker 1: a boat at the Bellaggia, which is incredible and you know,
Speaker 1: the the outfits and it's it's such a production and
Speaker 1: it's such an incredible night. But I think last year
Speaker 1: really brought it home for me because it is the
Speaker 1: time that you get to see really with any professional draft,
Speaker 1: but you get to see so many kids lives change
Speaker 1: in the blink of an eye. And I mean and
Speaker 1: it's not just where they're picked or how much money
Speaker 1: they're making, I mean, or even what team they're playing for.
Speaker 1: It's where they're going to live, who they're going to
Speaker 1: be friends with, um, who they're going to play with,
Speaker 1: and um. It's just pretty incredible. And you know, to
Speaker 1: get to see it last year and for you to
Speaker 1: get to go to the homes and be on location,
Speaker 1: which so many people don't get to do, it's it's
Speaker 1: pretty awesome. I love it. Yeah, I mean, it's so
Speaker 1: you think about that from you know, here's this like NFL.
Speaker 1: You know, oh you're thinking about, uh, you know, how
Speaker 1: you're going to fit in with this offensive system or
Speaker 1: you know, whether you like the your position coach. I mean,
Speaker 1: so many of these kids are like, oh, I wonder
Speaker 1: what you know, what it's like to live in Florida,
Speaker 1: or what it's like you know these states, you know
Speaker 1: that they've never been to before. And it literally happens
Speaker 1: in a three hour period over one night in April.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's incredible, it really is. All Right, it's
Speaker 1: time for the weird question of the week. So, mock
Speaker 1: draft season has been in full effect since last season ended, really,
Speaker 1: but it's really ramping up. We're getting versions, you know,
Speaker 1: or hearing things. So I thought we would do you know,
Speaker 1: we'd love to do a mock draft here on the
Speaker 1: Happy Half Hour podcast. But I thought for this one.
Speaker 1: You can do any mock draft of your choice. You
Speaker 1: can mock draft anything that you're passionate about. Give me
Speaker 1: your top three picks and one hard pass of a
Speaker 1: mock draft of your choosing on any subject. I thought
Speaker 1: I'd go first. All right, I'll set the tone. Let
Speaker 1: me pull up my phone here, I'm gonna get my
Speaker 1: picks out. All right, I am doing my mock draft
Speaker 1: on naps. All right, Naps, I'm mocked drafted. You're already
Speaker 1: going to win this already here we go with the
Speaker 1: first overall pick in the knaps Mock Draft. The rainy
Speaker 1: afternoon couch nap. I should say rainy weekend afternoon couchnap
Speaker 1: like that is the perfect nap in my opinion. All right,
Speaker 1: Second college football game couch nap. Now I'm specifying couch nap,
Speaker 1: so you're so say it's a it's college football game.
Speaker 1: It's the early set. It's that's CBS SEC game. It
Speaker 1: goes on for four and a half hours. Alabama. Now
Speaker 1: it's it's incredibly specific. It's my favorite, second favorite nap
Speaker 1: of just you. You kind of joes off when Alabama
Speaker 1: is up on you know, Ole miss or whoever, in
Speaker 1: the first quarter. You wake up in the fourth quarter
Speaker 1: three hours later, they've just pulled further away. It's all okay.
Speaker 1: And then you get to enjoy the night game. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the afternoon, the prime time four o'clock. You love it,
Speaker 1: love it, alright. My My third overall picked is the
Speaker 1: day drinking nap, where you go out with your friends
Speaker 1: for you know, for a couple of hours. You enjoy
Speaker 1: some mimosas, maybe a nice brunch, come home, take a nap,
Speaker 1: feel great afterwards. Either ready to just relax for the
Speaker 1: night rally. I don't know, but it's just a perfect nap,
Speaker 1: all right. So those are my top three for the
Speaker 1: naps mock draft, and then I gotta give my one
Speaker 1: hard pass, all right. My hard pass on naps is
Speaker 1: the late afternoon nap where you wake up and it's
Speaker 1: dark and you don't know where you are. I hated.
Speaker 1: It is the worst nap. And all of these are
Speaker 1: dangerous because all of the top three naps could turn
Speaker 1: into your worst on the flip of a point. That's
Speaker 1: the pressure of the draft, it is, all right. So
Speaker 1: that's mine very passionate about bonus bonus for you. The
Speaker 1: beach porch and a hammock nap. That's a great one.
Speaker 1: But that's like a once in a I mean, that's
Speaker 1: a really like a once every couple of years. You
Speaker 1: gotta get the hammock. You gotta the right location, make
Speaker 1: sure nobody's you know, do anything inside. I mean, that's
Speaker 1: like a generational talent really right there. That's a hall
Speaker 1: of fame nap. Yeah, that's like you immediately goes to
Speaker 1: number one Hall of fame. All right, Well you're turning, okay,
Speaker 1: so mine aren't nearly as good as yours, um So
Speaker 1: pizza types Okay, I like it. I'm going with three meat.
Speaker 1: That's my number one overall. Wow, this is off to
Speaker 1: a tough start. Wow. Wow, Matt, okay um barbecue chicken.
Speaker 1: Okay is number two? Not a pizza. But okay, what
Speaker 1: do you mean? It's not it is it's like a
Speaker 1: sandwich or something. It's not you know, it's like whatever.
Speaker 1: There's no tomato sauce. If he says pineapple, Matt, let's
Speaker 1: go Hawaiian number three pizza pizza. So your three picks
Speaker 1: that's terrible. Yeah, like my least three. I think those
Speaker 1: are mine too. Oh all right, what's your heart? It's
Speaker 1: going to be something traditionally. There's plenty of pepperoni on
Speaker 1: your three meats. Um, No mushroom. I don't eat mushrooms.
Speaker 1: That's a fair that's fair mushroom. That's the only one
Speaker 1: that I agree with. Yeah, that's the only one I
Speaker 1: agree with. Wow, you would get a draft like D
Speaker 1: plus um. But you know it's for you. It's if
Speaker 1: that's how you feel good for you, Matt, what's yours?
Speaker 1: Um So? I had to come up with this figger
Speaker 1: recording because I couldn't think of any, but I finally
Speaker 1: came up with one because he slandered the CBS broadcast.
Speaker 1: So I did not slander it. I just said that
Speaker 1: I actually really enjoy it. No, I said, if you
Speaker 1: if you fall asleep during it and you wake up
Speaker 1: and it's still going on, because let's be honest, on
Speaker 1: times this four and a half hours, you don't feel
Speaker 1: like you missed too much, you know, all right? Fair point.
Speaker 1: I'm still going to go with my top three sports commentators.
Speaker 1: Oh that's good. So number three would be me, I
Speaker 1: mean number one, number one. Number three is Chris Fowler
Speaker 1: for ESPN. I think he does a good job on
Speaker 1: college football. Okay, you're doing a countdown, not really a
Speaker 1: mock draft. You want to still you want to reveal
Speaker 1: at the end, Sure, okay, that's fine. Christler, great great?
Speaker 1: John jim Nance at number two, Hello friends, And Vernon
Speaker 1: Lundquist for CBS was my all time favorite. Is my
Speaker 1: all time favorite. Great line? You're happy Gilmore. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: that's a hard past. Brint Musberger. I don't like Musburger.
Speaker 1: Oh he does? You're looking live, brun Lon Quiz doesn't. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Brint Musburger does, You're looking live right, M. I think
Speaker 1: I'm always bust. That's for the people in Vegas. Pretty sure. Wow,
Speaker 1: what's what's your before the Brint Musburger? Uh, he just
Speaker 1: gets a lot well I used to get a lot
Speaker 1: of love and think he's a great. Oh he's bad.
Speaker 1: I don't know. He s all right. We are gonna
Speaker 1: leave it right there. Thanks everybody for listening to the
Speaker 1: Happy Half Hour podcast. We'll see you next time.