Speaker 1: Each time with a Happy half Hour with your friends
Speaker 1: Christian Belboni, Will Bryan, and Darren Gan. Welcome to a
Speaker 1: week seventeen edition. We have another week after this, but
Speaker 1: we were in week seventeen this week for the Happy
Speaker 1: Half Hour. I'm joined again by Mickmix and Darren Gant.
Speaker 1: Welcome into the show. We have plenty to talk about,
Speaker 1: but as we've done the last couple of weeks, these
Speaker 1: Happy half Hours haven't been as happy, and we're going
Speaker 1: to start on a less happy note today the Modeling
Speaker 1: Half Hour. Yeah, morose. The passing of John Madden a legend.
Speaker 1: We've learned about this last night, but you guys have
Speaker 1: been around this game for a long time. UM, curious
Speaker 1: your thoughts on on John. Yeah, I mean John Madden
Speaker 1: was a Hall of Fame coach, and you he could
Speaker 1: have retired and done nothing but that and his legacy
Speaker 1: would have been cemented. I mean, he was a former player,
Speaker 1: got hurt, but he got in the game young, and
Speaker 1: he was he was this big presence on the sideline
Speaker 1: and and he kind of embodied what the Raiders were
Speaker 1: about in the seventies and they were the physically dominant,
Speaker 1: they were the swagger team. They were aggressive, they were
Speaker 1: in your face, and he he was all those things
Speaker 1: and he kind of set the stage for a lot
Speaker 1: of the stuff that they did in the years to come.
Speaker 1: And I just you know, you can admire him at
Speaker 1: that level and be done, and it's an incredible legacy.
Speaker 1: But he just kept stacking up more and more and more.
Speaker 1: And the thing about it is John Madden as a
Speaker 1: as a broadcaster, it was just so much fun. I mean,
Speaker 1: the guy walked in with no pretense, no expectations, and
Speaker 1: he's just you know, making fun of the steam coming
Speaker 1: off Nate Newton's head, saying you could grill burgers up there,
Speaker 1: and people are looking at their TV like, wait, that's
Speaker 1: not what the man on the TV is supposed to
Speaker 1: sound like. But because he was so genuine and worked,
Speaker 1: I'm one of the few people that you might ever
Speaker 1: meet that's never played one second of Madden. But in
Speaker 1: my world, and Darren touched on this, the broadcast world,
Speaker 1: the pairing of John Madden and Pat summer All was
Speaker 1: it was almost as if angels were singing. You got
Speaker 1: the decorated, minimalist past summer All, who also played pro football,
Speaker 1: who realized, to his credit, that on television the color
Speaker 1: guy is the main guy. On radio, the play by
Speaker 1: play guy tends to talk more, or play by play
Speaker 1: woman tends to talk more. And then and then the
Speaker 1: color Not that the color people aren't prominent, they are,
Speaker 1: but TV was different. And then so that the rise
Speaker 1: to prominence of the Summer All Madden broadcast team with
Speaker 1: the tellustrator enabled John Madden to just, I mean, his
Speaker 1: star just went streaking across this guy. And then when
Speaker 1: someone imitates you to to the degree that Frank Caliendo
Speaker 1: captured John Madden, so on the backs of the giants
Speaker 1: like John Madden came Frank Caliendo. And I always heard
Speaker 1: that Madden didn't like that that he have you guys
Speaker 1: heard this that Madden not like being imitated by Frank Caliendo.
Speaker 1: But yeah, the only thing cooler when I was a
Speaker 1: kid than electric football, where you plug that thing in
Speaker 1: and pull about thirty amps and create a brown out
Speaker 1: of half your hometown was was John Madden, because he
Speaker 1: looked like somebody who would have been good at electric
Speaker 1: football way before the electronic version of the Madden Game.
Speaker 1: Do do you feel like you would have liked being imitated?
Speaker 1: Did you put yourself in those shoes. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I guess. I mean, there's nothing you can do about it,
Speaker 1: so unless it's mean spirited, you might as well. But
Speaker 1: I don't think. I don't feel like it like it is.
Speaker 1: I think it's I think it in much that the
Speaker 1: the larger understanding of John Madden is with just this imitation,
Speaker 1: but with joy and flattery of just like how much
Speaker 1: it was, how much he made football fun. I don't
Speaker 1: think that it took away from him, but maybe I'm
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm not in his shoes. No, he not
Speaker 1: only made it fun, but he made it understandable. So
Speaker 1: are There's people that want to sound smart, and so
Speaker 1: we end up talking about, you know, the cover two
Speaker 1: shell and here's a China route and then bail technique,
Speaker 1: and I mean, that's all fine, but John Madden simplified it.
Speaker 1: He appealed to every person, every man, every woman. I mean,
Speaker 1: if you didn't even speak English, sure you could understand
Speaker 1: John Man. This guy comes here to boom and then
Speaker 1: this guy goes here foom, but he's drawing the squiggly lines.
Speaker 1: It was amazing. And I've watched some of that that
Speaker 1: clip or someone like the full game of the uh
Speaker 1: the divisional game against Dallas, the first playoff game here
Speaker 1: that he and Pat SRL did. Like that full clip
Speaker 1: is on YouTube, so you can watch the full game.
Speaker 1: And you know, as someone that was now older listening
Speaker 1: to him, he he simplifies it, but he's not incorrect.
Speaker 1: It's it's still a very accurate prediction and under an
Speaker 1: analysis of what is happening in the secondary and why
Speaker 1: this underneath route needed to go where it did or
Speaker 1: it didn't go where it needed to and that's why
Speaker 1: this was an incomplete pass. Like he it was still
Speaker 1: very very on point. The football was always sharp. But
Speaker 1: I mean tim me and I tweeted about this last night.
Speaker 1: The thing with John Madden was he always remembered that
Speaker 1: this was a game. He always remembered that we're supposed
Speaker 1: to be having fun here. And to mixed point, I
Speaker 1: mean a lot of people over complicate football and get
Speaker 1: caught up in the jargon to explain to you exactly
Speaker 1: how smart they are during a broadcast. But what John
Speaker 1: Madden did was, Hey, look at that sixs like a turkey. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, and it's like, yes, this is ridiculous because
Speaker 1: this is a child's game that grown men are playing
Speaker 1: and and doing, you know, physical violence, and let's have
Speaker 1: some fun with it. Ohly got look at that guy,
Speaker 1: you know. I mean, it's just making fun of Troy
Speaker 1: Aigman for not being able to grow a beard on
Speaker 1: the sideline. And it's just that's the stuff that I mean.
Speaker 1: That's why the reaction to John Madden last night across
Speaker 1: the football galaxy was so big because he was the
Speaker 1: reason we do the thing, because the thing is supposed
Speaker 1: to be fun, and he embraced it and he made
Speaker 1: it and it was genuine. And those Raider teams were
Speaker 1: I mean rock stars. They didn't care. They played to
Speaker 1: the echo of the next whistle after the next play.
Speaker 1: I mean, the guys h grew up when Darren and
Speaker 1: I did just live for those AFL games Chiefs and
Speaker 1: the Raiders. I mean, it was so much fun. And
Speaker 1: then lastly, for my part of this, it's worth a
Speaker 1: couple of minutes of your YouTube time to to google
Speaker 1: up the wind as a pirate NFL Films productions, get
Speaker 1: some idea of the Raiders and what that pirate with
Speaker 1: that I patch over it meant back in those days,
Speaker 1: did they know what I'm talking that for the Hard
Speaker 1: Knocks intro a couple of years ago. I feel like
Speaker 1: I've seen that. I'll look it up. Anyway, back to
Speaker 1: the Panthers. This past Sunday, we witnessed a seventeen minute
Speaker 1: press conference of of Cam Newton that would take us
Speaker 1: a long time to fully break down every individual element
Speaker 1: of it. So that's also worth your youtubing time. But
Speaker 1: wanted to hear, Darren, you wrote a little bit about it.
Speaker 1: What was your takeaway from Cam's thoughts after that game?
Speaker 1: Cam Newton walked into that Verton walked into that press
Speaker 1: conference and he started using past tense verbs. Everything was
Speaker 1: the game's been good to me. I've been able to
Speaker 1: walk away unscathed. And I'm sitting there like, oh god,
Speaker 1: he's gonna do it today. He's gonna say it today,
Speaker 1: and any kind of caught himself because Cam has awareness
Speaker 1: of himself when he's behind that lect and to say no,
Speaker 1: I'm not retiring. I know it might sound like it,
Speaker 1: but that ain't what today is all about. But that
Speaker 1: was what today was all about. That was I mean
Speaker 1: to me, I believe you know. And we've touched on this.
Speaker 1: The Cam Newton that we're seeing now is not the
Speaker 1: Cam Newton we remembered, and it's not the Cam Newton
Speaker 1: we want to remember. And the person who knows that
Speaker 1: more than anybody is Cam Newton. I think there's an
Speaker 1: under standing on his part that, man, all this stuff
Speaker 1: I used to be able to do, I ain't doing anymore.
Speaker 1: And I used to be able to throw the football
Speaker 1: all over the mountain in a place where people could
Speaker 1: catch it. And it's it's difficult to watch in a
Speaker 1: lot of ways because we've seen here, and I mean
Speaker 1: mix called every game of it. You've seen this bright,
Speaker 1: shining star who can do anything physically, and now physically
Speaker 1: he cannot, and it's hard to watch. When Andrew Luck
Speaker 1: decided that he wanted to go back to school for
Speaker 1: his last year to get a degree in architecture whatever
Speaker 1: it was, and it looked like the Panthers were gonna
Speaker 1: pick early in that draft. First overall, several co workers,
Speaker 1: and I don't want to mention their names, but one
Speaker 1: of them's initials is Stephen. Justin Drummond. We're just beside apoplectic, catatonic, depressed,
Speaker 1: couldn't believe the bad luck And I said, bow, there's
Speaker 1: a guy, don't worry about it. There's a guy at
Speaker 1: Auburn who will end up being one of the great
Speaker 1: dual threat quarterbacks ever to play in the NFL. Now,
Speaker 1: this is at a time when the running quarterback was
Speaker 1: This is pre Lamar Jackson, is pre Taysom Hill, that
Speaker 1: kind of thing. So with host Michael Vick, which some
Speaker 1: people regarded as an outlier, who who really wasn't that
Speaker 1: much of a pastor. At that time, Cam Newton was
Speaker 1: leading the nation in past completion percentage and wasn't afraid
Speaker 1: to throw the ball down field. And when he when
Speaker 1: we signed him, I thought, there is no way this
Speaker 1: athlete will not take us to at least one championship.
Speaker 1: If not to he just he's too talented. Rob Chadzinski
Speaker 1: is too creative. It's gonna work. I was so excited,
Speaker 1: and it almost did work. And the thing about him
Speaker 1: that's always struck me is he was always able to
Speaker 1: do this stuff by himself. He won a national championship
Speaker 1: at Auburn, and the only player from that offense other
Speaker 1: than him uh to even be drafted into the NFL
Speaker 1: was a big, old, long, lean tackle named Lee Zimba,
Speaker 1: who was drafted here to great acclaim in the seventh
Speaker 1: round and never did a thing in the NFL. Cam
Speaker 1: was not out there with great weapons. He never had
Speaker 1: the opportunity to play with a receiver like d J.
Speaker 1: Moore at Auburn or any or Steve Smith or anybody
Speaker 1: like that. And just by force of will, he carried
Speaker 1: that entire ball team to a national championship. And just
Speaker 1: seeing the way he did it, I mean, it almost
Speaker 1: didn't make sense because you look at that team and
Speaker 1: it's like, no, they don't have great receivers they but
Speaker 1: they got that guy and he's always been that guy.
Speaker 1: And that's why watching him talk about it more so
Speaker 1: than the stuff he's doing on the field, because I
Speaker 1: think we all got caught up. I mean in Arizona,
Speaker 1: when he does the thing he did in Arizona, it's like, well,
Speaker 1: of course that's what he did. He's Cam Newton. And
Speaker 1: then he played well in Washington and then the last
Speaker 1: four since then, though, it's been like, oh yeah, that's why.
Speaker 1: And it's hard to watch because we are, I believe,
Speaker 1: seeing the sunset of something tremendous um and the fact
Speaker 1: that he knows it. In the way he was talking
Speaker 1: about it, he kept talking about gratitude. He kept talking
Speaker 1: about the lessons he learned here and and learning what
Speaker 1: keep pounding means from guys like Steve Smith and Thomas
Speaker 1: Davis and Ryan Cleland Jordan and everybody. I mean hearing
Speaker 1: him rattle through those names, hearing him talk about how
Speaker 1: good Charlotte's been to him. That carried a little more
Speaker 1: weight than we just lost to the Bucks. I was
Speaker 1: six years old when Cassius Marcellis Clay from out of Louisville,
Speaker 1: Kentucky beat Sunny Charles Listen Charles Sunny Liston in Miami,
Speaker 1: Florida to win the heavyweight championship of the World. But
Speaker 1: I remember it. I was eight during the rematch in Lewiston, Maine.
Speaker 1: He changed his name to Mohammad Ali and towards the
Speaker 1: end of his and I was a huge, huge fan.
Speaker 1: Towards the end of his career, it was difficult to
Speaker 1: watch his skills erode, and he would absorb punishment and
Speaker 1: every now and again the magic would still be there.
Speaker 1: He'd throw a couple of combinations and then move away,
Speaker 1: light on his feet. Those dancers feet, Cam Newton, just
Speaker 1: bodies like that only come along every hundred million births.
Speaker 1: Or so if at that, and then with his combative, combative,
Speaker 1: competitive fire with his pride. Instead of Zimba, we got
Speaker 1: Simba and and he romped and stomped across the jungle
Speaker 1: around here for a long time. And to me one
Speaker 1: of the lasting memories I have. I mean, I did
Speaker 1: a couple of little middle school things with him where
Speaker 1: the script called for seven minutes or five minutes, and
Speaker 1: he did almost an hour with the kids. I mean,
Speaker 1: the heart for kids that he had is an underappreciated
Speaker 1: component of his personality. But I remember sitting with Charlie
Speaker 1: Dayton in the press box for fan Fest. So fan
Speaker 1: Fest was his glorified Five or six thousand people would
Speaker 1: come out, and I know, you watch a training camp practice.
Speaker 1: Then then we hitch our our cables to to this
Speaker 1: energetic energy source of Cam Newton. Now fan Fest becomes
Speaker 1: fifty people at five dollars ahead. Let's be honest, watch
Speaker 1: fireworks for show and last time, last time Darren and
Speaker 1: I checked the wave went out of style with polyester
Speaker 1: leisure suit, the pet rock and the mood ring and
Speaker 1: the chia pet. But Cam, but not with Cam Newton,
Speaker 1: the pied piper, A party was able to get the wave,
Speaker 1: the reverse wave, the silent, the slow motion wave. Who else?
Speaker 1: So this I put to you what other athletes in
Speaker 1: the modern era of sport combine that effervescent joy of
Speaker 1: playing that command of an audience. It's a short list.
Speaker 1: I can think of Ali Magic Johnson. That's tough. I
Speaker 1: mean it really is, because he he is so singular
Speaker 1: in football. I mean, there hadn't been a lot of
Speaker 1: guys in the NFL period who you point to and say, man,
Speaker 1: he can do anything. Tiger Woods had a run. Of course,
Speaker 1: Michael Jordans had runs, but it was it wasn't fan engaging.
Speaker 1: It was all deadly serious. There was yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: Steph Curry is probably the closest thing we've got among
Speaker 1: modern athletes to it. But I think it was it
Speaker 1: was hard not to see kind of the Thomas and
Speaker 1: Greg both being down there next to him, and you know,
Speaker 1: him embracing them, you know, right before he came over
Speaker 1: and took a picture of t j Olsen, right before
Speaker 1: he hit the key bounding drum. You know, you could
Speaker 1: kind of see it felt like in the back of
Speaker 1: Cam's mind of him just soaking in every moment of
Speaker 1: being on that field um and having those guys they're
Speaker 1: kind of around him saying, Okay, you know we're we're
Speaker 1: we're here. You know, we spent all this time with
Speaker 1: you and now we're we're here for this moment for you.
Speaker 1: And I think that meant that meant a lot to him.
Speaker 1: I mean it, shoot, it meant something to me just
Speaker 1: watching it from from the four hundred level. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: told you guys before, I was in a full body
Speaker 1: goose bump when he came out of that tunnel for
Speaker 1: the Washington game. I mean, just standing there in that
Speaker 1: cloud and it is incredible. I mean that that alone
Speaker 1: was worth the price of whatever. I know tickets are expensive.
Speaker 1: That that was that was such a moment, and the
Speaker 1: thing about it is, I mean, let's be honest. I
Speaker 1: mean Cam Newton was signed to come back here after
Speaker 1: sitting on his couch for nine weeks in a fit
Speaker 1: of desperation for a four and five team that had
Speaker 1: an injured quarterback who was in a period where he
Speaker 1: was sort of scuffling anyway, and it's like, what can
Speaker 1: you do to grab for the side of the pool.
Speaker 1: So you call Cam and he was willing, and they
Speaker 1: were willing and conversations were had and bridges were mended,
Speaker 1: and um, here we are. But we we got that
Speaker 1: moment out of it. We got Arizona out of it.
Speaker 1: Where you know whether I mean even if he had
Speaker 1: never played another snap after the Arizona game, seeing that
Speaker 1: Cam Newton coming in out of what amounted to retirement
Speaker 1: because nobody else in the league was trying to break
Speaker 1: down his door to get him in there, and to
Speaker 1: see him walk in days after being signed and score
Speaker 1: touchdown with relative ease, It's like, Yeah, that that guy.
Speaker 1: That's the moment, and that's kind of thing. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think while this season hadn't met anybody's expectations around here,
Speaker 1: you got to see that. And for whatever pain, for
Speaker 1: whatever gnashing of teeth, from whatever anger people have about
Speaker 1: certain elements of the process right now, you got to
Speaker 1: see that. You got to see that guy summon it
Speaker 1: one last time. Is it even fair to speculate on who?
Speaker 1: Jakel said on our radio broadcast on Sunday he does
Speaker 1: not think the starting quarterback next year is currently on
Speaker 1: the roster. Who do you think it's, Well, there ain't
Speaker 1: but one on the roster next year, and that's Sam
Speaker 1: and it's reasonable to wonder if it's not. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's you know, there's gonna be a lot of stuff
Speaker 1: going on over the next six months around here because
Speaker 1: between the top ten, draft pick, free agency, trade alternatives,
Speaker 1: I mean, the Panthers are going to get linked to
Speaker 1: all that stuff. And that's because of the way they've operated.
Speaker 1: I mean, they've rolled four quarterbacks through here in the
Speaker 1: last two years, and they're going to continue looking for
Speaker 1: answers and you know, we'll see I mean, I think
Speaker 1: they gave Sam a shot. I think they will probably
Speaker 1: continue to over the last couple of weeks, but as
Speaker 1: well as Sam played the first four weeks of the year,
Speaker 1: there's not that momentum that oh yeah, absolutely, you know,
Speaker 1: going the next year with that, I mean, they're going
Speaker 1: to add to the position, whether it's trading for somebody,
Speaker 1: bringing in another free agent, drafting one in the first round,
Speaker 1: or whenever it happens to be. There's absolutely going to
Speaker 1: be more quarterbacks in here. And they're just gonna continue
Speaker 1: to throw. I mean, that's the strategy. Just keep swinging
Speaker 1: at that position, keep hacking away until you get it right.
Speaker 1: Real briefly, we're going to see probably a good bit
Speaker 1: of Sam this coming weekend, UH down New Orleans and
Speaker 1: probably at Tampa as well. But the more pressing thing
Speaker 1: here on a Wednesday is who else will be on
Speaker 1: that field. Obviously we had a number of of COVID
Speaker 1: cases come up in the last couple of days. You
Speaker 1: know there there might be some more coming um, but
Speaker 1: you know, I it's gonna be interesting with what New
Speaker 1: Orleans went through last week, you know, on on Monday
Speaker 1: night football twenty two. So you know, I'm curious what
Speaker 1: what you know, how you can game plan for you know,
Speaker 1: as as a coach, you know that kind of thing.
Speaker 1: There is no game planning this week. I mean right
Speaker 1: now that as we sit here recording this podcast on
Speaker 1: a Wednesday morning, the Panthers are sitting there with twelve
Speaker 1: guys on the COVID list, but they don't have any
Speaker 1: centers right because Sam Techlanberg went on the list yesterday.
Speaker 1: Pat al find still on the list. He could get
Speaker 1: back this week, but we don't know that. I mean.
Speaker 1: And one of the things that bugs me about all
Speaker 1: this stuff, and it's just one of my little pet peeves,
Speaker 1: is because we watch football the way we watch and
Speaker 1: we talked about well, they don't have any centers. Well,
Speaker 1: the other thing is Pat a flyin sick. So let's
Speaker 1: hope Pat gets healthy. Let's begin in there and then
Speaker 1: start worrying about you know, and all these guys who
Speaker 1: have this disease. There's so many people around the globe
Speaker 1: have you know? Okay, get better, get your self right.
Speaker 1: But it's impossible to game plan because they have basically
Speaker 1: no defensive end. Brian Burns and Marky's Haynes out, you
Speaker 1: know as your Kamara was activated yesterday, but we don't
Speaker 1: even know who he is because he hadn't been here,
Speaker 1: he hadn't been to him practice yet. He rolled in
Speaker 1: after being claimed off waivers from Dallas and immediately tested positive.
Speaker 1: And it's like if he better be wearing a name
Speaker 1: tag today. If you see him in the building, I
Speaker 1: will be asking you what his number is and put
Speaker 1: that down there. We got we've got that information. I
Speaker 1: can journalist. I can do a journalism and find that
Speaker 1: out for you. Wheneberg when tech Lemberg got sick, I
Speaker 1: wonder what Brandon Zulstra thought, Well, Zilstra is on the list,
Speaker 1: Well I know, but he he got on the list faster.
Speaker 1: I'm just I'm just kidding the course, but Selster is
Speaker 1: probably thinking, all right, look I draw the line at
Speaker 1: kicking off. I'm not playing center in national football. I
Speaker 1: bet he'd do it. I bet. I wrote yesterday in
Speaker 1: the mail bag that he belonged snap if j J
Speaker 1: would let him. And I have no I have every
Speaker 1: confidence that Brandon zil Zilstra could competently long snap or
Speaker 1: kick off or pawn if need be. Parenthetically, watching the
Speaker 1: Saints the other night with Ian book and sacked seven
Speaker 1: or eight times. I think how many times we sat
Speaker 1: it was it nine times or eight whole bunch, and
Speaker 1: I thought, man, the Saints, and I don't really like
Speaker 1: the Saints. I admire Sean Payton and the aptitude he
Speaker 1: has for offensive football, but the Saints seem like that
Speaker 1: it's always something. It's always a tropical storm, it's a hurricane,
Speaker 1: it's just somebody getting sick. Sean Payton seemed like he
Speaker 1: was the first, the second, or third. He was almost
Speaker 1: patient zero in the NFL to get COVID and then
Speaker 1: officiating call every time you turn around. It's, oh God,
Speaker 1: the humanity that the Saints probably could have had another
Speaker 1: championship or two with a little better something something they did.
Speaker 1: They did get to enjoy that very long period of
Speaker 1: having a Hall of Fame quarterback understanding or you know,
Speaker 1: I don't begrudge those guys too much because they enjoyed
Speaker 1: the stability that a lot of people would kill for.
Speaker 1: But uh yeah, I mean and they are They were
Speaker 1: without twenty two dudes Monday night. And you know, with
Speaker 1: the way the league has adjusted these rules to follow
Speaker 1: the CDC guideline, shortening up the quarantine times and that
Speaker 1: kind of thing, I think you you're gonna see guys
Speaker 1: come and go off that list all week. It's gonna
Speaker 1: be twelve, it's gonna be fourteen, it's gonna be eleven,
Speaker 1: it's gonna be you know, eight, and then back up
Speaker 1: to eleven. That's just the way this season is gonna
Speaker 1: go for the next week and a half. So just
Speaker 1: brace yourself for that. But we could spend a lot
Speaker 1: of time talking about this game on Sunday, but it's
Speaker 1: kind of pointless because I don't know who's gonna play
Speaker 1: in it the So then we'll we'll end with this.
Speaker 1: Last night, there was a re airing of incredible documentary
Speaker 1: about John Madden, and there was a clip in it
Speaker 1: uh that we that we saw on our slack channels
Speaker 1: this morning of Lawrence Taylor going after a photographer, which
Speaker 1: of course, you know us being in the industry, you
Speaker 1: know we we have some photographers videographers around here. We
Speaker 1: like to you know, what what would you do in
Speaker 1: that situation? And Mick, you you have a story about LT. Well,
Speaker 1: LT and I almost got in a fist fight at
Speaker 1: the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. And I'll tell
Speaker 1: exactly what happened because it almost didn't go good for
Speaker 1: for LT. Lawrence Taylor. For those who do not know,
Speaker 1: was this twitchy, mad at it one off, aggressive, mean,
Speaker 1: Kodak All American Defensive lineman linebacker at u n C.
Speaker 1: Your humble correspondent was an umpire for the intermural All
Speaker 1: Campus Championships summer of nineteen seventy nine. The Dental School
Speaker 1: at Carolina back then was a perennial power they had.
Speaker 1: They were always in the All Campus Championship game. The
Speaker 1: football team featuring Bun Rams, Buddy Curry, Steve Street, or
Speaker 1: Kelvin Bryant, Lawrence Taylor, amos Lawrence. I mean, they're loaded
Speaker 1: with athletes and it's the All Campus Championship in early August.
Speaker 1: So I'm the home plate umpire. I had a whisk
Speaker 1: broom from my dad's shop to dust off home plate.
Speaker 1: I had my mom's little clickie calorie counter thing to
Speaker 1: keep track of balls and strikes. I've gone to mcguineas
Speaker 1: Sporting Goods in my hometown of Chapel Hill and got
Speaker 1: in a softball rule book and read it all and
Speaker 1: knew the rules, and I took umpiring seriously. And additionally,
Speaker 1: I had worked all summer on my called third strike
Speaker 1: in case someone took a called third strike, which almost
Speaker 1: never happens in slow pitch softball. But back then I
Speaker 1: was as limber as a rag. I can do a
Speaker 1: deny Terio dance fever split and pop back up. And
Speaker 1: so I had this dramatic home run. I mean a
Speaker 1: strike three call. I'll planned out. So the fifth ending
Speaker 1: jam Pat crowd Carmichael Auditorium field just to the after
Speaker 1: Carmichael Auditorium as you faced Carmichael, Lawrence Taylor comes to
Speaker 1: the plate with none on and two out, and the
Speaker 1: picture for the Dental School, who I remember looked exactly
Speaker 1: like Kenny Loggins, and he also had terrible teeth. I'm
Speaker 1: thinking skinny, long, stringy hair, bad teeth. Dennis to Be
Speaker 1: is the picture, and he had he knew what he
Speaker 1: knew how to pitch. I mean the ball would come
Speaker 1: in no higher than twelve feet, no lower than six.
Speaker 1: First pitch comes in Lawrence Taylor, who looks by the
Speaker 1: way like a Kodiak bear with a toothpick in his
Speaker 1: hands for the bat, left handed hitter. First pitch raises
Speaker 1: his right leg and a brand new Dudley Restricted flight
Speaker 1: blue dot softball disappears out into the sky and is
Speaker 1: gone over the pole vault pit down behind Carmichael Field.
Speaker 1: So I paid another one out to Kenny Loggins younger
Speaker 1: brother picture oh and one. Next pitch comes in, raises
Speaker 1: his right leg the same swat the same violent collision
Speaker 1: with the ball in the bat. Another exact same trajectory
Speaker 1: five hundred feet foul ball the council in two. Another
Speaker 1: ball goes out to the picture. Third pitch comes in
Speaker 1: and it's exact duplicate of mimigraph copy of the first two.
Speaker 1: No higher than twelve, no lower than six lt. Raised
Speaker 1: his right leg cocks the bat, steps into it and
Speaker 1: in an event a moment that changed my life. He
Speaker 1: did not swing. Oh my gosh, the catcher who had
Speaker 1: his glove right behind the spike of home play, he
Speaker 1: did not have to move his glove a millimeter. The
Speaker 1: ball landed right in his glove. This catcher for the
Speaker 1: Dental School, knowing that there was two out, knowing that
Speaker 1: that was strike three, and knowing that this is Lawrence
Speaker 1: Taylor at the plate, looks back at me as if
Speaker 1: to say, what do you gotta slim? But I was
Speaker 1: already into my spin move. It hadn't rained in about
Speaker 1: two months. So I spent around three or four times,
Speaker 1: kick up a mile sandstorm, hop up on one leg,
Speaker 1: do a split, pop back up, and I'm yelling the
Speaker 1: whole time Steve, and I jabbed lt in the chest
Speaker 1: with my right finger. Boom boo boo. I jabbed him
Speaker 1: right in the chest, and with my left hand, I went,
Speaker 1: strike three, Get out of here. And so the Dental
Speaker 1: School runs off. Football team runs on. I'm dusting off.
Speaker 1: I'm dusting off the plate. And as the sandstorm I
Speaker 1: created starts to clear, I see these two legs and
Speaker 1: skin the color of anthracite coal. And then I go
Speaker 1: up to this these vascular thighs that are thicker than
Speaker 1: my chest. And I look up into the eyes of
Speaker 1: Lawrence Taylor, who's still standing there, and he addressed me.
Speaker 1: I give him credit. He addressed me with great respect.
Speaker 1: He said, a white boy, do you call that pitch
Speaker 1: of strike? And I said, well, uh, LT, yes I did.
Speaker 1: But I am open to a second opinion, he said.
Speaker 1: He pointed his finger at me, and he said, if
Speaker 1: I see you on campus, if I see you at Trolls,
Speaker 1: if I see you at Kirk's, if I see you
Speaker 1: at Harrison's, I'll beat you. And I'm taking all the
Speaker 1: curse words out, but there were plenty, trust me. Now.
Speaker 1: LT's voice was not deep, but neither is the hiss
Speaker 1: of a copper head. And they both get their menacing
Speaker 1: points across quite clearly. LT, and this high pitched voice said,
Speaker 1: I will beat you two within an inch of your
Speaker 1: blank in life, I tell my buddies that when the
Speaker 1: semester begins two months later, where this little watering hole
Speaker 1: called Trolls, and LT walks in and all my friends
Speaker 1: jump up, L T LT and they start pointing. So
Speaker 1: we almost had to come to blows. But we did
Speaker 1: not tell me more about these former friends of I
Speaker 1: know with friends like that, Oh my gosh, what a story.
Speaker 1: There's nothing to be said after that. Call it a day, everybody.
Speaker 1: Thanks for coming out there. It is happy New Year's.
Speaker 1: Everyone will see you next week.