WEBVTT - Happy Half Hour Episode 61: Open To A Second Opinion 0:00:07.520 --> 0:00:11.800 Each time with a Happy half Hour with your friends 0:00:12.000 --> 0:00:23.119 Christian Belboni, Will Bryan, and Darren Gan. Welcome to a 0:00:23.160 --> 0:00:27.400 week seventeen edition. We have another week after this, but 0:00:27.400 --> 0:00:29.320 we were in week seventeen this week for the Happy 0:00:29.360 --> 0:00:31.880 Half Hour. I'm joined again by Mickmix and Darren Gant. 0:00:32.400 --> 0:00:34.720 Welcome into the show. We have plenty to talk about, 0:00:35.240 --> 0:00:38.160 but as we've done the last couple of weeks, these 0:00:38.200 --> 0:00:40.519 Happy half Hours haven't been as happy, and we're going 0:00:40.560 --> 0:00:42.800 to start on a less happy note today the Modeling 0:00:42.880 --> 0:00:48.199 Half Hour. Yeah, morose. The passing of John Madden a legend. 0:00:48.520 --> 0:00:51.159 We've learned about this last night, but you guys have 0:00:51.240 --> 0:00:53.800 been around this game for a long time. UM, curious 0:00:53.880 --> 0:00:56.720 your thoughts on on John. Yeah, I mean John Madden 0:00:56.920 --> 0:00:59.280 was a Hall of Fame coach, and you he could 0:00:59.320 --> 0:01:02.400 have retired and done nothing but that and his legacy 0:01:02.400 --> 0:01:04.640 would have been cemented. I mean, he was a former player, 0:01:05.480 --> 0:01:08.040 got hurt, but he got in the game young, and 0:01:08.080 --> 0:01:11.360 he was he was this big presence on the sideline 0:01:11.400 --> 0:01:13.640 and and he kind of embodied what the Raiders were 0:01:13.640 --> 0:01:16.759 about in the seventies and they were the physically dominant, 0:01:16.760 --> 0:01:20.039 they were the swagger team. They were aggressive, they were 0:01:20.040 --> 0:01:22.440 in your face, and he he was all those things 0:01:22.560 --> 0:01:25.399 and he kind of set the stage for a lot 0:01:25.440 --> 0:01:27.400 of the stuff that they did in the years to come. 0:01:27.680 --> 0:01:31.520 And I just you know, you can admire him at 0:01:31.600 --> 0:01:35.800 that level and be done, and it's an incredible legacy. 0:01:35.959 --> 0:01:38.800 But he just kept stacking up more and more and more. 0:01:39.000 --> 0:01:41.679 And the thing about it is John Madden as a 0:01:41.680 --> 0:01:44.280 as a broadcaster, it was just so much fun. I mean, 0:01:44.319 --> 0:01:47.240 the guy walked in with no pretense, no expectations, and 0:01:47.280 --> 0:01:49.680 he's just you know, making fun of the steam coming 0:01:49.720 --> 0:01:52.600 off Nate Newton's head, saying you could grill burgers up there, 0:01:52.920 --> 0:01:56.280 and people are looking at their TV like, wait, that's 0:01:56.280 --> 0:01:58.080 not what the man on the TV is supposed to 0:01:58.120 --> 0:02:00.600 sound like. But because he was so genuine and worked, 0:02:00.880 --> 0:02:02.880 I'm one of the few people that you might ever 0:02:02.920 --> 0:02:05.840 meet that's never played one second of Madden. But in 0:02:06.160 --> 0:02:08.720 my world, and Darren touched on this, the broadcast world, 0:02:08.760 --> 0:02:11.800 the pairing of John Madden and Pat summer All was 0:02:12.520 --> 0:02:15.400 it was almost as if angels were singing. You got 0:02:15.440 --> 0:02:19.680 the decorated, minimalist past summer All, who also played pro football, 0:02:20.360 --> 0:02:24.960 who realized, to his credit, that on television the color 0:02:25.040 --> 0:02:28.120 guy is the main guy. On radio, the play by 0:02:28.120 --> 0:02:30.040 play guy tends to talk more, or play by play 0:02:30.080 --> 0:02:32.080 woman tends to talk more. And then and then the 0:02:32.120 --> 0:02:34.600 color Not that the color people aren't prominent, they are, 0:02:34.639 --> 0:02:37.280 but TV was different. And then so that the rise 0:02:37.320 --> 0:02:41.400 to prominence of the Summer All Madden broadcast team with 0:02:41.639 --> 0:02:45.960 the tellustrator enabled John Madden to just, I mean, his 0:02:46.000 --> 0:02:49.359 star just went streaking across this guy. And then when 0:02:49.360 --> 0:02:52.760 someone imitates you to to the degree that Frank Caliendo 0:02:52.880 --> 0:02:55.679 captured John Madden, so on the backs of the giants 0:02:55.720 --> 0:02:58.440 like John Madden came Frank Caliendo. And I always heard 0:02:58.480 --> 0:03:01.640 that Madden didn't like that that he have you guys 0:03:01.639 --> 0:03:05.880 heard this that Madden not like being imitated by Frank Caliendo. 0:03:05.960 --> 0:03:08.000 But yeah, the only thing cooler when I was a 0:03:08.080 --> 0:03:10.440 kid than electric football, where you plug that thing in 0:03:10.520 --> 0:03:12.560 and pull about thirty amps and create a brown out 0:03:12.600 --> 0:03:15.760 of half your hometown was was John Madden, because he 0:03:15.840 --> 0:03:18.240 looked like somebody who would have been good at electric 0:03:18.280 --> 0:03:21.400 football way before the electronic version of the Madden Game. 0:03:21.800 --> 0:03:24.920 Do do you feel like you would have liked being imitated? 0:03:27.080 --> 0:03:29.440 Did you put yourself in those shoes. I don't know. 0:03:29.760 --> 0:03:32.120 I guess. I mean, there's nothing you can do about it, 0:03:32.160 --> 0:03:34.840 so unless it's mean spirited, you might as well. But 0:03:34.920 --> 0:03:36.920 I don't think. I don't feel like it like it is. 0:03:36.960 --> 0:03:40.240 I think it's I think it in much that the 0:03:40.240 --> 0:03:44.880 the larger understanding of John Madden is with just this imitation, 0:03:44.960 --> 0:03:47.600 but with joy and flattery of just like how much 0:03:47.720 --> 0:03:50.280 it was, how much he made football fun. I don't 0:03:50.280 --> 0:03:52.680 think that it took away from him, but maybe I'm 0:03:52.720 --> 0:03:54.520 I mean, I'm not in his shoes. No, he not 0:03:54.600 --> 0:03:56.560 only made it fun, but he made it understandable. So 0:03:56.760 --> 0:04:00.480 are There's people that want to sound smart, and so 0:04:00.560 --> 0:04:02.800 we end up talking about, you know, the cover two 0:04:02.880 --> 0:04:05.280 shell and here's a China route and then bail technique, 0:04:05.280 --> 0:04:08.680 and I mean, that's all fine, but John Madden simplified it. 0:04:08.800 --> 0:04:12.200 He appealed to every person, every man, every woman. I mean, 0:04:12.240 --> 0:04:14.680 if you didn't even speak English, sure you could understand 0:04:14.760 --> 0:04:16.320 John Man. This guy comes here to boom and then 0:04:16.360 --> 0:04:18.839 this guy goes here foom, but he's drawing the squiggly lines. 0:04:18.880 --> 0:04:21.200 It was amazing. And I've watched some of that that 0:04:21.240 --> 0:04:24.839 clip or someone like the full game of the uh 0:04:25.000 --> 0:04:27.400 the divisional game against Dallas, the first playoff game here 0:04:27.440 --> 0:04:30.080 that he and Pat SRL did. Like that full clip 0:04:30.200 --> 0:04:32.560 is on YouTube, so you can watch the full game. 0:04:33.000 --> 0:04:35.919 And you know, as someone that was now older listening 0:04:35.920 --> 0:04:40.240 to him, he he simplifies it, but he's not incorrect. 0:04:41.080 --> 0:04:44.880 It's it's still a very accurate prediction and under an 0:04:44.920 --> 0:04:48.360 analysis of what is happening in the secondary and why 0:04:48.400 --> 0:04:51.120 this underneath route needed to go where it did or 0:04:51.160 --> 0:04:53.240 it didn't go where it needed to and that's why 0:04:53.279 --> 0:04:55.640 this was an incomplete pass. Like he it was still 0:04:55.760 --> 0:04:58.960 very very on point. The football was always sharp. But 0:04:59.440 --> 0:05:01.760 I mean tim me and I tweeted about this last night. 0:05:02.240 --> 0:05:04.760 The thing with John Madden was he always remembered that 0:05:04.839 --> 0:05:07.760 this was a game. He always remembered that we're supposed 0:05:07.760 --> 0:05:10.880 to be having fun here. And to mixed point, I 0:05:10.880 --> 0:05:13.880 mean a lot of people over complicate football and get 0:05:13.960 --> 0:05:16.520 caught up in the jargon to explain to you exactly 0:05:16.520 --> 0:05:19.320 how smart they are during a broadcast. But what John 0:05:19.360 --> 0:05:24.520 Madden did was, Hey, look at that sixs like a turkey. Yeah, 0:05:24.720 --> 0:05:28.360 I mean, and it's like, yes, this is ridiculous because 0:05:28.440 --> 0:05:31.400 this is a child's game that grown men are playing 0:05:31.680 --> 0:05:35.960 and and doing, you know, physical violence, and let's have 0:05:36.080 --> 0:05:39.040 some fun with it. Ohly got look at that guy, 0:05:39.240 --> 0:05:41.200 you know. I mean, it's just making fun of Troy 0:05:41.240 --> 0:05:43.279 Aigman for not being able to grow a beard on 0:05:43.320 --> 0:05:46.800 the sideline. And it's just that's the stuff that I mean. 0:05:46.880 --> 0:05:50.120 That's why the reaction to John Madden last night across 0:05:50.160 --> 0:05:54.760 the football galaxy was so big because he was the 0:05:54.839 --> 0:05:57.880 reason we do the thing, because the thing is supposed 0:05:57.920 --> 0:05:59.720 to be fun, and he embraced it and he made 0:05:59.760 --> 0:06:02.760 it and it was genuine. And those Raider teams were 0:06:03.279 --> 0:06:08.640 I mean rock stars. They didn't care. They played to 0:06:09.279 --> 0:06:11.880 the echo of the next whistle after the next play. 0:06:11.960 --> 0:06:16.000 I mean, the guys h grew up when Darren and 0:06:16.040 --> 0:06:19.920 I did just live for those AFL games Chiefs and 0:06:19.960 --> 0:06:22.440 the Raiders. I mean, it was so much fun. And 0:06:22.480 --> 0:06:25.560 then lastly, for my part of this, it's worth a 0:06:25.560 --> 0:06:28.040 couple of minutes of your YouTube time to to google 0:06:28.120 --> 0:06:32.760 up the wind as a pirate NFL Films productions, get 0:06:32.839 --> 0:06:35.960 some idea of the Raiders and what that pirate with 0:06:36.040 --> 0:06:38.760 that I patch over it meant back in those days, 0:06:39.240 --> 0:06:41.200 did they know what I'm talking that for the Hard 0:06:41.240 --> 0:06:44.240 Knocks intro a couple of years ago. I feel like 0:06:44.279 --> 0:06:48.320 I've seen that. I'll look it up. Anyway, back to 0:06:48.360 --> 0:06:53.800 the Panthers. This past Sunday, we witnessed a seventeen minute 0:06:54.120 --> 0:06:57.280 press conference of of Cam Newton that would take us 0:06:57.279 --> 0:07:01.159 a long time to fully break down every individual element 0:07:01.240 --> 0:07:04.720 of it. So that's also worth your youtubing time. But 0:07:05.200 --> 0:07:08.000 wanted to hear, Darren, you wrote a little bit about it. 0:07:08.240 --> 0:07:11.920 What was your takeaway from Cam's thoughts after that game? 0:07:12.960 --> 0:07:16.160 Cam Newton walked into that Verton walked into that press 0:07:16.160 --> 0:07:20.360 conference and he started using past tense verbs. Everything was 0:07:20.440 --> 0:07:22.840 the game's been good to me. I've been able to 0:07:22.880 --> 0:07:26.280 walk away unscathed. And I'm sitting there like, oh god, 0:07:26.400 --> 0:07:30.080 he's gonna do it today. He's gonna say it today, 0:07:30.160 --> 0:07:33.040 and any kind of caught himself because Cam has awareness 0:07:33.040 --> 0:07:36.480 of himself when he's behind that lect and to say no, 0:07:36.800 --> 0:07:39.080 I'm not retiring. I know it might sound like it, 0:07:39.120 --> 0:07:41.680 but that ain't what today is all about. But that 0:07:41.800 --> 0:07:44.120 was what today was all about. That was I mean 0:07:44.200 --> 0:07:48.200 to me, I believe you know. And we've touched on this. 0:07:48.600 --> 0:07:51.080 The Cam Newton that we're seeing now is not the 0:07:51.120 --> 0:07:53.559 Cam Newton we remembered, and it's not the Cam Newton 0:07:53.600 --> 0:07:56.200 we want to remember. And the person who knows that 0:07:56.360 --> 0:07:59.720 more than anybody is Cam Newton. I think there's an 0:07:59.800 --> 0:08:02.840 under standing on his part that, man, all this stuff 0:08:02.880 --> 0:08:05.040 I used to be able to do, I ain't doing anymore. 0:08:05.320 --> 0:08:06.840 And I used to be able to throw the football 0:08:06.840 --> 0:08:09.360 all over the mountain in a place where people could 0:08:09.360 --> 0:08:13.040 catch it. And it's it's difficult to watch in a 0:08:13.040 --> 0:08:15.880 lot of ways because we've seen here, and I mean 0:08:16.000 --> 0:08:19.720 mix called every game of it. You've seen this bright, 0:08:19.760 --> 0:08:25.200 shining star who can do anything physically, and now physically 0:08:25.280 --> 0:08:29.560 he cannot, and it's hard to watch. When Andrew Luck 0:08:29.640 --> 0:08:33.600 decided that he wanted to go back to school for 0:08:33.760 --> 0:08:37.000 his last year to get a degree in architecture whatever 0:08:37.040 --> 0:08:39.520 it was, and it looked like the Panthers were gonna 0:08:39.520 --> 0:08:43.560 pick early in that draft. First overall, several co workers, 0:08:43.559 --> 0:08:45.200 and I don't want to mention their names, but one 0:08:45.240 --> 0:08:51.800 of them's initials is Stephen. Justin Drummond. We're just beside apoplectic, catatonic, depressed, 0:08:51.960 --> 0:08:55.720 couldn't believe the bad luck And I said, bow, there's 0:08:55.760 --> 0:08:57.640 a guy, don't worry about it. There's a guy at 0:08:57.640 --> 0:09:00.199 Auburn who will end up being one of the great 0:09:00.280 --> 0:09:02.439 dual threat quarterbacks ever to play in the NFL. Now, 0:09:02.440 --> 0:09:06.400 this is at a time when the running quarterback was 0:09:06.520 --> 0:09:10.680 This is pre Lamar Jackson, is pre Taysom Hill, that 0:09:10.800 --> 0:09:13.600 kind of thing. So with host Michael Vick, which some 0:09:13.679 --> 0:09:17.120 people regarded as an outlier, who who really wasn't that 0:09:17.240 --> 0:09:19.160 much of a pastor. At that time, Cam Newton was 0:09:19.280 --> 0:09:23.679 leading the nation in past completion percentage and wasn't afraid 0:09:23.679 --> 0:09:26.360 to throw the ball down field. And when he when 0:09:26.440 --> 0:09:29.800 we signed him, I thought, there is no way this 0:09:29.880 --> 0:09:33.600 athlete will not take us to at least one championship. 0:09:33.640 --> 0:09:37.640 If not to he just he's too talented. Rob Chadzinski 0:09:38.120 --> 0:09:41.000 is too creative. It's gonna work. I was so excited, 0:09:41.480 --> 0:09:44.559 and it almost did work. And the thing about him 0:09:44.640 --> 0:09:47.480 that's always struck me is he was always able to 0:09:47.600 --> 0:09:50.719 do this stuff by himself. He won a national championship 0:09:50.840 --> 0:09:54.760 at Auburn, and the only player from that offense other 0:09:54.840 --> 0:09:58.800 than him uh to even be drafted into the NFL 0:09:59.040 --> 0:10:03.480 was a big, old, long, lean tackle named Lee Zimba, 0:10:03.559 --> 0:10:06.760 who was drafted here to great acclaim in the seventh 0:10:06.840 --> 0:10:10.280 round and never did a thing in the NFL. Cam 0:10:10.360 --> 0:10:13.120 was not out there with great weapons. He never had 0:10:13.160 --> 0:10:15.280 the opportunity to play with a receiver like d J. 0:10:15.440 --> 0:10:19.120 Moore at Auburn or any or Steve Smith or anybody 0:10:19.160 --> 0:10:23.160 like that. And just by force of will, he carried 0:10:23.240 --> 0:10:28.240 that entire ball team to a national championship. And just 0:10:28.360 --> 0:10:31.040 seeing the way he did it, I mean, it almost 0:10:31.040 --> 0:10:33.320 didn't make sense because you look at that team and 0:10:33.320 --> 0:10:35.800 it's like, no, they don't have great receivers they but 0:10:35.880 --> 0:10:38.959 they got that guy and he's always been that guy. 0:10:39.200 --> 0:10:42.199 And that's why watching him talk about it more so 0:10:42.240 --> 0:10:45.080 than the stuff he's doing on the field, because I 0:10:45.080 --> 0:10:47.840 think we all got caught up. I mean in Arizona, 0:10:48.200 --> 0:10:50.960 when he does the thing he did in Arizona, it's like, well, 0:10:51.000 --> 0:10:54.680 of course that's what he did. He's Cam Newton. And 0:10:54.679 --> 0:10:57.160 then he played well in Washington and then the last 0:10:57.200 --> 0:11:02.199 four since then, though, it's been like, oh yeah, that's why. 0:11:02.360 --> 0:11:06.320 And it's hard to watch because we are, I believe, 0:11:06.400 --> 0:11:11.199 seeing the sunset of something tremendous um and the fact 0:11:11.200 --> 0:11:13.080 that he knows it. In the way he was talking 0:11:13.080 --> 0:11:15.800 about it, he kept talking about gratitude. He kept talking 0:11:15.800 --> 0:11:19.160 about the lessons he learned here and and learning what 0:11:19.400 --> 0:11:22.440 keep pounding means from guys like Steve Smith and Thomas 0:11:22.520 --> 0:11:26.640 Davis and Ryan Cleland Jordan and everybody. I mean hearing 0:11:26.720 --> 0:11:29.960 him rattle through those names, hearing him talk about how 0:11:30.000 --> 0:11:34.280 good Charlotte's been to him. That carried a little more 0:11:34.360 --> 0:11:38.280 weight than we just lost to the Bucks. I was 0:11:38.400 --> 0:11:42.840 six years old when Cassius Marcellis Clay from out of Louisville, 0:11:42.920 --> 0:11:46.680 Kentucky beat Sunny Charles Listen Charles Sunny Liston in Miami, 0:11:46.720 --> 0:11:48.800 Florida to win the heavyweight championship of the World. But 0:11:48.840 --> 0:11:52.280 I remember it. I was eight during the rematch in Lewiston, Maine. 0:11:53.040 --> 0:11:56.080 He changed his name to Mohammad Ali and towards the 0:11:56.160 --> 0:11:57.840 end of his and I was a huge, huge fan. 0:11:58.480 --> 0:12:01.160 Towards the end of his career, it was difficult to 0:12:01.200 --> 0:12:04.520 watch his skills erode, and he would absorb punishment and 0:12:04.559 --> 0:12:06.640 every now and again the magic would still be there. 0:12:06.640 --> 0:12:08.920 He'd throw a couple of combinations and then move away, 0:12:09.440 --> 0:12:14.199 light on his feet. Those dancers feet, Cam Newton, just 0:12:14.400 --> 0:12:18.439 bodies like that only come along every hundred million births. 0:12:18.559 --> 0:12:23.640 Or so if at that, and then with his combative, combative, 0:12:24.000 --> 0:12:28.160 competitive fire with his pride. Instead of Zimba, we got 0:12:28.240 --> 0:12:32.000 Simba and and he romped and stomped across the jungle 0:12:32.080 --> 0:12:35.000 around here for a long time. And to me one 0:12:35.040 --> 0:12:36.640 of the lasting memories I have. I mean, I did 0:12:36.679 --> 0:12:38.480 a couple of little middle school things with him where 0:12:38.480 --> 0:12:40.760 the script called for seven minutes or five minutes, and 0:12:40.800 --> 0:12:42.920 he did almost an hour with the kids. I mean, 0:12:42.920 --> 0:12:45.640 the heart for kids that he had is an underappreciated 0:12:45.640 --> 0:12:48.240 component of his personality. But I remember sitting with Charlie 0:12:48.280 --> 0:12:50.600 Dayton in the press box for fan Fest. So fan 0:12:50.679 --> 0:12:53.360 Fest was his glorified Five or six thousand people would 0:12:53.400 --> 0:12:58.400 come out, and I know, you watch a training camp practice. 0:12:58.800 --> 0:13:04.640 Then then we hitch our our cables to to this 0:13:05.440 --> 0:13:09.840 energetic energy source of Cam Newton. Now fan Fest becomes 0:13:09.840 --> 0:13:14.439 fifty people at five dollars ahead. Let's be honest, watch 0:13:15.200 --> 0:13:21.120 fireworks for show and last time, last time Darren and 0:13:21.160 --> 0:13:24.760 I checked the wave went out of style with polyester 0:13:24.920 --> 0:13:27.640 leisure suit, the pet rock and the mood ring and 0:13:27.679 --> 0:13:30.319 the chia pet. But Cam, but not with Cam Newton, 0:13:30.360 --> 0:13:33.040 the pied piper, A party was able to get the wave, 0:13:33.320 --> 0:13:37.680 the reverse wave, the silent, the slow motion wave. Who else? 0:13:37.920 --> 0:13:41.280 So this I put to you what other athletes in 0:13:41.520 --> 0:13:45.640 the modern era of sport combine that effervescent joy of 0:13:45.679 --> 0:13:49.600 playing that command of an audience. It's a short list. 0:13:49.679 --> 0:13:54.760 I can think of Ali Magic Johnson. That's tough. I 0:13:54.760 --> 0:13:57.600 mean it really is, because he he is so singular 0:13:57.640 --> 0:13:59.440 in football. I mean, there hadn't been a lot of 0:13:59.440 --> 0:14:03.120 guys in the NFL period who you point to and say, man, 0:14:03.240 --> 0:14:06.600 he can do anything. Tiger Woods had a run. Of course, 0:14:06.760 --> 0:14:10.520 Michael Jordans had runs, but it was it wasn't fan engaging. 0:14:10.600 --> 0:14:15.560 It was all deadly serious. There was yeah, I mean, 0:14:15.600 --> 0:14:18.079 Steph Curry is probably the closest thing we've got among 0:14:18.160 --> 0:14:21.960 modern athletes to it. But I think it was it 0:14:22.720 --> 0:14:25.880 was hard not to see kind of the Thomas and 0:14:25.960 --> 0:14:29.200 Greg both being down there next to him, and you know, 0:14:29.280 --> 0:14:31.400 him embracing them, you know, right before he came over 0:14:31.440 --> 0:14:33.560 and took a picture of t j Olsen, right before 0:14:33.560 --> 0:14:35.280 he hit the key bounding drum. You know, you could 0:14:35.360 --> 0:14:38.040 kind of see it felt like in the back of 0:14:38.160 --> 0:14:41.560 Cam's mind of him just soaking in every moment of 0:14:41.680 --> 0:14:44.840 being on that field um and having those guys they're 0:14:44.920 --> 0:14:47.960 kind of around him saying, Okay, you know we're we're 0:14:48.360 --> 0:14:50.640 we're here. You know, we spent all this time with 0:14:50.680 --> 0:14:52.600 you and now we're we're here for this moment for you. 0:14:52.640 --> 0:14:55.280 And I think that meant that meant a lot to him. 0:14:55.280 --> 0:14:56.960 I mean it, shoot, it meant something to me just 0:14:57.040 --> 0:15:00.120 watching it from from the four hundred level. Yeah. I 0:15:00.200 --> 0:15:03.040 told you guys before, I was in a full body 0:15:03.160 --> 0:15:06.960 goose bump when he came out of that tunnel for 0:15:07.000 --> 0:15:09.560 the Washington game. I mean, just standing there in that 0:15:09.600 --> 0:15:12.320 cloud and it is incredible. I mean that that alone 0:15:12.360 --> 0:15:14.760 was worth the price of whatever. I know tickets are expensive. 0:15:15.040 --> 0:15:17.600 That that was that was such a moment, and the 0:15:17.640 --> 0:15:19.600 thing about it is, I mean, let's be honest. I 0:15:19.640 --> 0:15:23.120 mean Cam Newton was signed to come back here after 0:15:23.160 --> 0:15:25.400 sitting on his couch for nine weeks in a fit 0:15:25.480 --> 0:15:28.240 of desperation for a four and five team that had 0:15:28.280 --> 0:15:31.320 an injured quarterback who was in a period where he 0:15:31.360 --> 0:15:34.720 was sort of scuffling anyway, and it's like, what can 0:15:34.760 --> 0:15:36.800 you do to grab for the side of the pool. 0:15:37.360 --> 0:15:39.880 So you call Cam and he was willing, and they 0:15:39.880 --> 0:15:43.840 were willing and conversations were had and bridges were mended, 0:15:43.880 --> 0:15:48.680 and um, here we are. But we we got that 0:15:48.800 --> 0:15:52.280 moment out of it. We got Arizona out of it. 0:15:52.400 --> 0:15:55.280 Where you know whether I mean even if he had 0:15:55.320 --> 0:15:58.920 never played another snap after the Arizona game, seeing that 0:15:59.120 --> 0:16:02.320 Cam Newton coming in out of what amounted to retirement 0:16:02.320 --> 0:16:04.720 because nobody else in the league was trying to break 0:16:04.760 --> 0:16:06.960 down his door to get him in there, and to 0:16:07.040 --> 0:16:10.720 see him walk in days after being signed and score 0:16:10.760 --> 0:16:15.200 touchdown with relative ease, It's like, Yeah, that that guy. 0:16:15.360 --> 0:16:17.760 That's the moment, and that's kind of thing. I mean, 0:16:17.800 --> 0:16:21.760 I think while this season hadn't met anybody's expectations around here, 0:16:22.280 --> 0:16:25.360 you got to see that. And for whatever pain, for 0:16:25.480 --> 0:16:28.720 whatever gnashing of teeth, from whatever anger people have about 0:16:28.720 --> 0:16:31.840 certain elements of the process right now, you got to 0:16:31.880 --> 0:16:35.040 see that. You got to see that guy summon it 0:16:35.160 --> 0:16:40.040 one last time. Is it even fair to speculate on who? 0:16:40.200 --> 0:16:43.320 Jakel said on our radio broadcast on Sunday he does 0:16:43.360 --> 0:16:46.160 not think the starting quarterback next year is currently on 0:16:46.200 --> 0:16:48.240 the roster. Who do you think it's, Well, there ain't 0:16:48.280 --> 0:16:50.400 but one on the roster next year, and that's Sam 0:16:50.480 --> 0:16:52.600 and it's reasonable to wonder if it's not. I mean, 0:16:52.720 --> 0:16:55.760 it's you know, there's gonna be a lot of stuff 0:16:55.800 --> 0:16:59.200 going on over the next six months around here because 0:16:59.640 --> 0:17:03.320 between the top ten, draft pick, free agency, trade alternatives, 0:17:03.360 --> 0:17:05.040 I mean, the Panthers are going to get linked to 0:17:05.080 --> 0:17:08.480 all that stuff. And that's because of the way they've operated. 0:17:08.520 --> 0:17:11.520 I mean, they've rolled four quarterbacks through here in the 0:17:11.600 --> 0:17:14.240 last two years, and they're going to continue looking for 0:17:14.280 --> 0:17:17.160 answers and you know, we'll see I mean, I think 0:17:17.200 --> 0:17:20.680 they gave Sam a shot. I think they will probably 0:17:20.760 --> 0:17:24.840 continue to over the last couple of weeks, but as 0:17:24.880 --> 0:17:27.440 well as Sam played the first four weeks of the year, 0:17:28.280 --> 0:17:31.479 there's not that momentum that oh yeah, absolutely, you know, 0:17:31.560 --> 0:17:33.440 going the next year with that, I mean, they're going 0:17:33.480 --> 0:17:36.879 to add to the position, whether it's trading for somebody, 0:17:36.880 --> 0:17:40.400 bringing in another free agent, drafting one in the first round, 0:17:40.840 --> 0:17:43.320 or whenever it happens to be. There's absolutely going to 0:17:43.400 --> 0:17:45.760 be more quarterbacks in here. And they're just gonna continue 0:17:45.760 --> 0:17:48.879 to throw. I mean, that's the strategy. Just keep swinging 0:17:48.920 --> 0:17:51.680 at that position, keep hacking away until you get it right. 0:17:52.640 --> 0:17:55.280 Real briefly, we're going to see probably a good bit 0:17:55.320 --> 0:17:58.919 of Sam this coming weekend, UH down New Orleans and 0:17:59.000 --> 0:18:02.520 probably at Tampa as well. But the more pressing thing 0:18:02.600 --> 0:18:05.439 here on a Wednesday is who else will be on 0:18:05.480 --> 0:18:09.399 that field. Obviously we had a number of of COVID 0:18:09.440 --> 0:18:11.240 cases come up in the last couple of days. You 0:18:11.240 --> 0:18:13.960 know there there might be some more coming um, but 0:18:14.080 --> 0:18:16.719 you know, I it's gonna be interesting with what New 0:18:16.880 --> 0:18:19.720 Orleans went through last week, you know, on on Monday 0:18:19.760 --> 0:18:23.320 night football twenty two. So you know, I'm curious what 0:18:23.320 --> 0:18:25.960 what you know, how you can game plan for you know, 0:18:26.000 --> 0:18:27.840 as as a coach, you know that kind of thing. 0:18:27.880 --> 0:18:30.080 There is no game planning this week. I mean right 0:18:30.080 --> 0:18:33.320 now that as we sit here recording this podcast on 0:18:33.320 --> 0:18:35.960 a Wednesday morning, the Panthers are sitting there with twelve 0:18:35.960 --> 0:18:37.760 guys on the COVID list, but they don't have any 0:18:37.800 --> 0:18:40.920 centers right because Sam Techlanberg went on the list yesterday. 0:18:40.960 --> 0:18:43.640 Pat al find still on the list. He could get 0:18:43.680 --> 0:18:45.640 back this week, but we don't know that. I mean. 0:18:45.880 --> 0:18:47.600 And one of the things that bugs me about all 0:18:47.640 --> 0:18:49.960 this stuff, and it's just one of my little pet peeves, 0:18:50.040 --> 0:18:53.000 is because we watch football the way we watch and 0:18:53.000 --> 0:18:55.000 we talked about well, they don't have any centers. Well, 0:18:55.280 --> 0:18:57.960 the other thing is Pat a flyin sick. So let's 0:18:58.000 --> 0:19:00.960 hope Pat gets healthy. Let's begin in there and then 0:19:01.000 --> 0:19:04.120 start worrying about you know, and all these guys who 0:19:04.200 --> 0:19:06.800 have this disease. There's so many people around the globe 0:19:06.880 --> 0:19:10.280 have you know? Okay, get better, get your self right. 0:19:10.440 --> 0:19:15.160 But it's impossible to game plan because they have basically 0:19:15.200 --> 0:19:18.879 no defensive end. Brian Burns and Marky's Haynes out, you 0:19:18.920 --> 0:19:21.760 know as your Kamara was activated yesterday, but we don't 0:19:21.760 --> 0:19:24.239 even know who he is because he hadn't been here, 0:19:24.280 --> 0:19:26.440 he hadn't been to him practice yet. He rolled in 0:19:26.480 --> 0:19:29.560 after being claimed off waivers from Dallas and immediately tested positive. 0:19:29.600 --> 0:19:32.320 And it's like if he better be wearing a name 0:19:32.359 --> 0:19:34.080 tag today. If you see him in the building, I 0:19:34.080 --> 0:19:36.200 will be asking you what his number is and put 0:19:36.240 --> 0:19:38.600 that down there. We got we've got that information. I 0:19:38.640 --> 0:19:41.359 can journalist. I can do a journalism and find that 0:19:41.440 --> 0:19:44.680 out for you. Wheneberg when tech Lemberg got sick, I 0:19:44.720 --> 0:19:47.760 wonder what Brandon Zulstra thought, Well, Zilstra is on the list, 0:19:47.760 --> 0:19:50.040 Well I know, but he he got on the list faster. 0:19:50.200 --> 0:19:52.000 I'm just I'm just kidding the course, but Selster is 0:19:52.000 --> 0:19:54.080 probably thinking, all right, look I draw the line at 0:19:54.160 --> 0:19:57.119 kicking off. I'm not playing center in national football. I 0:19:57.119 --> 0:20:00.680 bet he'd do it. I bet. I wrote yesterday in 0:20:00.680 --> 0:20:02.600 the mail bag that he belonged snap if j J 0:20:02.720 --> 0:20:05.960 would let him. And I have no I have every 0:20:06.000 --> 0:20:11.520 confidence that Brandon zil Zilstra could competently long snap or 0:20:11.600 --> 0:20:15.119 kick off or pawn if need be. Parenthetically, watching the 0:20:15.119 --> 0:20:19.080 Saints the other night with Ian book and sacked seven 0:20:19.200 --> 0:20:20.960 or eight times. I think how many times we sat 0:20:20.960 --> 0:20:23.879 it was it nine times or eight whole bunch, and 0:20:24.040 --> 0:20:26.639 I thought, man, the Saints, and I don't really like 0:20:26.720 --> 0:20:29.800 the Saints. I admire Sean Payton and the aptitude he 0:20:29.800 --> 0:20:33.119 has for offensive football, but the Saints seem like that 0:20:33.320 --> 0:20:37.520 it's always something. It's always a tropical storm, it's a hurricane, 0:20:37.920 --> 0:20:40.760 it's just somebody getting sick. Sean Payton seemed like he 0:20:40.800 --> 0:20:43.119 was the first, the second, or third. He was almost 0:20:43.119 --> 0:20:46.080 patient zero in the NFL to get COVID and then 0:20:47.080 --> 0:20:50.000 officiating call every time you turn around. It's, oh God, 0:20:50.040 --> 0:20:53.480 the humanity that the Saints probably could have had another 0:20:53.560 --> 0:20:59.040 championship or two with a little better something something they did. 0:20:59.240 --> 0:21:02.280 They did get to enjoy that very long period of 0:21:02.320 --> 0:21:05.480 having a Hall of Fame quarterback understanding or you know, 0:21:05.880 --> 0:21:09.320 I don't begrudge those guys too much because they enjoyed 0:21:09.320 --> 0:21:11.280 the stability that a lot of people would kill for. 0:21:11.520 --> 0:21:15.000 But uh yeah, I mean and they are They were 0:21:15.200 --> 0:21:18.800 without twenty two dudes Monday night. And you know, with 0:21:18.880 --> 0:21:21.520 the way the league has adjusted these rules to follow 0:21:21.520 --> 0:21:24.479 the CDC guideline, shortening up the quarantine times and that 0:21:24.560 --> 0:21:27.520 kind of thing, I think you you're gonna see guys 0:21:27.600 --> 0:21:30.160 come and go off that list all week. It's gonna 0:21:30.160 --> 0:21:33.000