Speaker 1: Winning a playoff game, period is a big deal. Winning
Speaker 1: playoff game in Cleveland or the Browns, who hadn't done
Speaker 1: that in a long time. That's a thing he did
Speaker 1: last year. When Sam comes in, there was a lot
Speaker 1: of projecting of what it could be or what he
Speaker 1: could turn into in a different situation. This guy has
Speaker 1: at least already done the thing. It's time for the
Speaker 1: Happy Half Hour with your friends. Kristen Balboni, Will Brian,
Speaker 1: and Darren Gant. Welcome to an emergency edition of the
Speaker 1: Happy Half Hour podcast. Christian Balboni here with the Panther's
Speaker 1: incredible team of writers. Everyone knows Darren Gant. Everyone who
Speaker 1: listens to this podcast or read Panthers dot com. You
Speaker 1: know Darren. He is here and Will is out this
Speaker 1: week because he is getting married. But special assignment, that's right.
Speaker 1: But in Will's place, we are introducing our newest writer.
Speaker 1: She's amazing, Augusta Stone. You may have already he read
Speaker 1: some of her work on Panthers dot Com and I
Speaker 1: know she's got great stuff coming everyone's way. Augusta, how's
Speaker 1: it going going great? Kristin, thanks so much for having me.
Speaker 1: This is so exciting. I was I was telling before
Speaker 1: we hit record. This is my first time in front
Speaker 1: of a microphone since the pandemic stuff. So I'm getting
Speaker 1: the real podcast feel right now. It's not just on Zoom.
Speaker 1: It's kind of chill, so I like it. I'm excited,
Speaker 1: very excited. Well, it's the perfect time to do it
Speaker 1: because we have big breaking news. Will is getting married
Speaker 1: now I'm just kidding. Baker Mayfield is now a Panther.
Speaker 1: So we all had to get together. And speaking of Zoom,
Speaker 1: I am at home. I plan to be at home
Speaker 1: watching my little one today. Darren is just recovering UM
Speaker 1: from COVID and is back in the swing of things UM,
Speaker 1: and we had to all get together in whatever way
Speaker 1: we could to talk about this Baker breaking news. So, Darren,
Speaker 1: without further ado, you are the man that knows everything.
Speaker 1: You've been following this and following this, so tell us more.
Speaker 1: Baker Mayfield is now a Panther. He was he was
Speaker 1: traded for what seems like a very good deal for
Speaker 1: the Panthers. What what can you tell us of? Yeah,
Speaker 1: and and and that's one of the things that I
Speaker 1: think now that this thing settled in for a few
Speaker 1: hours and we've kind of absorbed it a little bit.
Speaker 1: One of the things to me that is the biggest
Speaker 1: deal about this trade is didn't cost nothing. I mean,
Speaker 1: he Baker took a pay cut to come here. The
Speaker 1: Browns are paying part of the fright. The Panthers are
Speaker 1: on the hook for this and five million dollars worth
Speaker 1: of the salary, and only gave up a conditional fifth
Speaker 1: round pick in twenty four, not twenty five. So while
Speaker 1: there's been criticism in the past if deals they've made
Speaker 1: or this or that or cost too much or this
Speaker 1: amount of money, this one's basically a free shot at
Speaker 1: a guy who is a quarterback who has one a
Speaker 1: game in the playoffs, and if you can get one
Speaker 1: of those for no cost, you might as well give
Speaker 1: it a shot. That was one of the things I
Speaker 1: was talking to Jake Delome, who has a little knowledge
Speaker 1: about quarterback competitions in Cleveland and the Carolina Panthers, and
Speaker 1: Jake was like him, for the price, you can't you
Speaker 1: gotta do it. I mean, that's just the bottom line.
Speaker 1: And while this is going to be a competitive situation
Speaker 1: and Sam is going to have a chance to hang
Speaker 1: onto this job that he's the incumbent at Uh, they
Speaker 1: are going to go to camp and they're going to compete.
Speaker 1: And when you've added a guy, if Baker Mayfield goes
Speaker 1: back to being twenty Baker Mayfield, I think the reasonable
Speaker 1: expectation is he's inevitably going to be the guy. But
Speaker 1: it's not free and it's not being given. So I
Speaker 1: think considering you're really buying low, uh, coming off the injury,
Speaker 1: and Cleveland didn't need him anymore, and they were worried
Speaker 1: about it being a toxic situation up there because he
Speaker 1: he wanted to get out and they didn't know how
Speaker 1: that was gonna work when people go to training camp
Speaker 1: without knowing that other thing that's going on up there.
Speaker 1: And so it was an opportunity for Carolina Panthers to
Speaker 1: really buy low and add somebody to the room who's
Speaker 1: got a lot of talent and can do a lot
Speaker 1: of things. And so it's going to be a fascinating
Speaker 1: um training camp this year, no question about that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it sure is. So right now, there there are four
Speaker 1: quarterbacks that the Panthers are carrying. We'll go down the
Speaker 1: training camp will actually five. Don't forget David's cheek from Ellen.
Speaker 1: That's right, that's right. My apologies. David's five. So we
Speaker 1: go down a training camp and that is a couple
Speaker 1: of things that I wanted to to just talk about
Speaker 1: off the bat. Is that it will be a quarterback competition,
Speaker 1: which you got. I mean, I think it makes all
Speaker 1: the sense in the world right to go down. Why
Speaker 1: why would you not have a quarterback competition? Right? And
Speaker 1: and you might as well. I mean, there's no you know,
Speaker 1: the whole point of this was stabilizing the room, and
Speaker 1: that's what I wrote about yesterday on the website. Kind
Speaker 1: of the the why of this trade is you had
Speaker 1: done so much other work to stabilize every other area
Speaker 1: of the offense. They knew they needed to shore a
Speaker 1: coaching staff. They go out and hire a bunch of
Speaker 1: veteran assistance. They knew they needed to fix offensive line.
Speaker 1: They signed starters and drafted Ikya kuanu Uh. They did
Speaker 1: all this other stuff in the off season, including extending
Speaker 1: d J. Moore, But making the quarterback room better makes
Speaker 1: all that stuff matter a little bit more. So now
Speaker 1: you go to training camp and we see what these
Speaker 1: guys can do, and and we don't know, we don't
Speaker 1: know what it's gonna be like. We don't know what
Speaker 1: Baker's physical status is gonna be. How healthy is we assume,
Speaker 1: you know, based on the physical he's gonna take later
Speaker 1: this afternoon if he passes that, and everything's cordin to plan,
Speaker 1: and then he'll go into training camp ready to go.
Speaker 1: But we're dealing with a lot of unknowns from that standpoint.
Speaker 1: So it's while Baker Mayfield is good and Baker Mayfield
Speaker 1: has some credentials, it's not like they trade for Aaron Rodgers.
Speaker 1: It's not like, oh my god, this automatic, so go
Speaker 1: to camp, let him compete and listen, Baker's got a
Speaker 1: vested interest in this deal too, kind of like Sam.
Speaker 1: He's got one year left on a contract and then
Speaker 1: he's said to be a free agent. So it's worth
Speaker 1: it to Baker Mayfield to bring his best game to
Speaker 1: the Carolina Panthers. Well exactly. And it's kind of like
Speaker 1: you mentioned in your story as well, all of the
Speaker 1: pieces around him. He's not going into a bad situation necessarily,
Speaker 1: and is it an unknown situation partially. I mean there's
Speaker 1: a lot of pieces, especially with the reworked offensive line.
Speaker 1: But I think it's good that he's going into a
Speaker 1: situation where there are pieces in front of him. I
Speaker 1: think D J. Moore is a huge piece. Christian McCaffrey.
Speaker 1: I think he works well with a good running back.
Speaker 1: I think that's something that's very good for Baker. I
Speaker 1: think the way he plays, I think that's a good
Speaker 1: chance for him. Like you said, it's an opportunity for him.
Speaker 1: And I think when you have the pieces around him,
Speaker 1: he's he's stepping into a situation that could in theory,
Speaker 1: it could be way worse than I think when you
Speaker 1: have that piece. Of course, it's a bunch of unknowns,
Speaker 1: but there's just an element of that where there's a
Speaker 1: reason for optimism. And like you said, I think it
Speaker 1: was a good choice for Baker. I think it makes sense.
Speaker 1: I mean, he wanted out, but I don't think the
Speaker 1: Panthers are necessarily one of those last ditch you know,
Speaker 1: I wanted out. It's honestly, the way it's written in
Speaker 1: the stars, it's not that bad. It's it's pretty solid.
Speaker 1: I think, yeah, it could definitely be worse. And I've
Speaker 1: kind of laughed over the last twenty four hours watching
Speaker 1: the national reaction UH to this trade, and and part
Speaker 1: of one of the things people say about Baker as
Speaker 1: if it's a slur, is Baker Mayfield's a league average quarterback?
Speaker 1: A really long time since Carolina Panthers have had league
Speaker 1: average quarterback play. Nothing wrong with the league average quarter
Speaker 1: And if you're in, if you're among the fifteen to
Speaker 1: seventeen best quarterbacks in the NFL, that's okay. Uh, that's
Speaker 1: pretty good. And honestly since t J Wytt cam Newton
Speaker 1: in the shoulder, Uh, we haven't seen that level of
Speaker 1: play around here in a long time. So I think
Speaker 1: it's good. You know, it's good to add to the mix.
Speaker 1: And that's what they wanted to do. That's what they
Speaker 1: did at so many other positions. Now they did at quarterback. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and as you said, it was in your article you
Speaker 1: touched on it, and as Augusta said, there's they've improved
Speaker 1: where they have said they were going to improve. And
Speaker 1: you know the offensive line, which is what you mentioned
Speaker 1: that in great detail in your article. In addition to
Speaker 1: everyone that Augusta just talked about, if if if Baker
Speaker 1: Mayfield wants a shot, if Sam Donald wants a shot,
Speaker 1: the pieces are in place, like Augustus said, in order
Speaker 1: to to go out there and give it all you
Speaker 1: can and and try to put together a great season
Speaker 1: for the Panthers and for themselves. I think to another
Speaker 1: thing about the Baker situation is, you know, I think
Speaker 1: one it was the non shoulder throwing shoulder injury, wasn't
Speaker 1: necessarily a great year for Baker. But I think we're
Speaker 1: kind of sometimes, like you said, with like the national
Speaker 1: things I've seen, it's short term memory lossy wasn't bad
Speaker 1: for Baker. His first year wasn't bad. So it's it's
Speaker 1: almost like a back and forth sort of pendulum. We've
Speaker 1: seen ten you know, decent, really good Rickie debut twenty nineteen,
Speaker 1: a little bit down, broken offense. Good year for Baker.
Speaker 1: One he was you know, dealing with the mechanics issues
Speaker 1: with the with the broke, with the with the shoulder,
Speaker 1: with the arm non non throwing shoulder injury, which was good.
Speaker 1: But it's like I think it's a solid you know,
Speaker 1: you can go in with Baker in a competition optimistically,
Speaker 1: because it has almost been this up and down sort
Speaker 1: of flow of the ocean almost kind of thing with him,
Speaker 1: where you know, I think saying, oh he had a
Speaker 1: bad one, you know, he's average, you know, bow value
Speaker 1: mid whatever I've seen all over. I think it's almost
Speaker 1: like having this this short term memory thing where it's
Speaker 1: it's Baker wasn't that bad two years ago? Right, you know? Seven?
Speaker 1: And again seventeen months ago, there was a lot of
Speaker 1: projecting going on when the Panthers traded for Sam Donald,
Speaker 1: there was a lot of well, he hadn't been in
Speaker 1: a good situation. And frankly, Sam came here and Christian
Speaker 1: McCaffrey gets hurt and end up firing an offensive coordinator
Speaker 1: in the middle of the season and starting fourteen combinations
Speaker 1: aliment in seventeen games. Wasn't a good situation for Sam
Speaker 1: last year here either, Uh, either Sam or Baker is
Speaker 1: walking into a better place than they then Sam walked
Speaker 1: into a year ago. And also, I mean, let's be honest,
Speaker 1: what the baseline is higher on Baker Mayfield. Baker has
Speaker 1: has one a playoff game. That's a pretty big deal,
Speaker 1: and and people are going to keep going back to that.
Speaker 1: But winning a playoff game, period is a big deal.
Speaker 1: Winning playoff game in Cleveland for the Browns, who hadn't
Speaker 1: done that in a long time. That's a thing he
Speaker 1: did that's still pretty good. So I think while last
Speaker 1: year when Sam comes in, there was a lot of
Speaker 1: projecting of what it could be or what he could
Speaker 1: turn into in a different situation. This guy has at
Speaker 1: least already done the thing. Yes, yes, if he could
Speaker 1: get back to that, then Panthers would be in pretty
Speaker 1: good shape. So I want to ask you guys about
Speaker 1: what you're hearing about Baker Darren. You mentioned that he
Speaker 1: is going through a physical later today. We are recording
Speaker 1: this Thursday, right around noon. Um that aside, I know
Speaker 1: you'd like to you poke around, you call, you talk
Speaker 1: to people. UM, what have you heard about where he
Speaker 1: is physically or have you heard anything. I have not
Speaker 1: heard any indication that would suggest he's not going to
Speaker 1: be ready for training camp. That being said, I I
Speaker 1: don't know that the physicals necessarily a lay up. I mean,
Speaker 1: they do want to look at that left shoulder. They
Speaker 1: do want to know what's going on in there and
Speaker 1: how ready this guy is. So everything is pending. Physical
Speaker 1: deals not done, deals agreed to, you know, all those
Speaker 1: kind of things. And and my understanding is he's flying
Speaker 1: into Charlotte, UM later today, he will take a physical
Speaker 1: and then immediately leave. So it's not like he's gonna
Speaker 1: be hanging around town. This is also the dead time
Speaker 1: of year when he can't do stuff. One of the
Speaker 1: things I did yesterday, uh afternoon, right after we got
Speaker 1: the news out, I made a lap through the football
Speaker 1: side of the building on the second floor here and
Speaker 1: Bank of America Stadium, and there was literally no one
Speaker 1: on the side of the building where coaches and scouts
Speaker 1: and personnel people all see it. It was just a
Speaker 1: ghost town because those guys are all out on vacation.
Speaker 1: Half of them are in other countries or out with
Speaker 1: their family or doing different stuff. Scott was on the road,
Speaker 1: so um, and we should just clarify for anyone who
Speaker 1: doesn't know. Even me working in sports wouldn't know this
Speaker 1: off the top of my head. This is a designated
Speaker 1: time these up until training camp, where the players leave
Speaker 1: the building, the coaches leaked the building. Almost every NFL team,
Speaker 1: the coaching staff, front office are are out of the
Speaker 1: building at this time because it is a very small
Speaker 1: window where people get to take breaks. So that is
Speaker 1: not saying that they weren't in the building and could
Speaker 1: have been or anything like that. They probably have these
Speaker 1: vacations planned out. But six of my year in advance
Speaker 1: six months in advance. I think Augustine College. Don't they
Speaker 1: call at the dead period when you can't recruit. That's
Speaker 1: effectively what's going on right now. So there is a
Speaker 1: ceiling on what they can do. I think they can
Speaker 1: send him a playbook. But it's not like he's doing
Speaker 1: eight hours worth of zoom calls every day with Ben
Speaker 1: Macadoo or anything, because as far as I know been
Speaker 1: Macadoo could be sitting on a beach with his feet
Speaker 1: in the sand enjoying a coal one right now. I mean,
Speaker 1: so it's not like there's a lot he can do
Speaker 1: until he gets on the ground in Spartanburg. Well, it's
Speaker 1: one of those things too. I've been thinking about it myself.
Speaker 1: How much is he coming in, you know, starting up
Speaker 1: right at training camp? Is he coming in with any
Speaker 1: sort of uh, I guess behind on anything right? And then,
Speaker 1: um so I'll admit I got here toward the Tale
Speaker 1: and of O T. A. S. And I saw the
Speaker 1: three days of Mini Camp and that was kind of
Speaker 1: my start. But I did see Mini Camp and something
Speaker 1: that um I found interesting where that's weren't really participating,
Speaker 1: you know, that was like what Rule said, it was
Speaker 1: one of those things that they were doing where they
Speaker 1: were letting them rest, you know, kind of seeing where
Speaker 1: their depth was before they headed into training camp. Um.
Speaker 1: Obviously it would have been more ideal for Baker and
Speaker 1: for you know, getting to know Bien Macadoo system and
Speaker 1: everything to have been here, but at least from what
Speaker 1: I've seen. Again, like I said, I was here for
Speaker 1: four practice days when I started my job, so I'm
Speaker 1: also very fresh. But I think it's one of those
Speaker 1: things where he's not He's not coming like is the
Speaker 1: dead period. I think a lot of the quarterbacks are
Speaker 1: still getting a grasp of what's going on right now.
Speaker 1: Matt Corral was very open about that when he met
Speaker 1: with the media about how he was, you know, still learning.
Speaker 1: I think Sam Donald's still learning. Everyone's still learning, so
Speaker 1: that learning atmosphere sets him up for a more even
Speaker 1: competition than like even though he wasn't here through even
Speaker 1: though he wasn't here through many camps. It's one thing
Speaker 1: if he would have arrived in April and had all
Speaker 1: of O. T A s to work through this thing.
Speaker 1: But this thing has been lingering for a while and
Speaker 1: it could have happened practically at any time. So that
Speaker 1: I think the difference between happening on July six versus
Speaker 1: happening on June is probably pretty negligible. Yeah, completely agree,
Speaker 1: And I want to touch on that Darren, that this
Speaker 1: has kind of been out in the ether, But before
Speaker 1: we do, I just want to follow up on on
Speaker 1: what Augusta was saying. And Darren, you have been to
Speaker 1: how many training camps Ballpark? All of them, all of them,
Speaker 1: all of the training cants. You're the perfect You're the
Speaker 1: perfect person to ask about this, and I think it's
Speaker 1: something for it that that fans would want to know,
Speaker 1: and certainly I want to know. Um it will of
Speaker 1: course day one will be a big deal with Baker, Mayfield,
Speaker 1: Tim Donald competing. Day two will be a big thing,
Speaker 1: but we can already see what it's gonna look like
Speaker 1: and how everyone will cover it. Will all be looking
Speaker 1: for the tiniest things. The national media will be doing
Speaker 1: the same new offensive coordinator as Augusta was just talking about,
Speaker 1: he said a little bit longer with some of the
Speaker 1: other guys, Baker's coming in. What do you want to
Speaker 1: see from these guys, and that let's say that first
Speaker 1: week down in Spartanburg, if you're Ben Macundo. What's realistic
Speaker 1: and what might be overblown? Yeah, I I think what's
Speaker 1: going to be overblown at first, obviously is snap counts.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be oh my god, Sam. Sam took the
Speaker 1: first snap and he's out there with Taylor Molten and
Speaker 1: Pat elf Line and Austin Corbett and the you know
Speaker 1: and all that kind of stuff. That's gonna be a thing.
Speaker 1: And Okay, Sam got seven seven, seven snaps with the ones,
Speaker 1: and then Baker came in and got six snaps with
Speaker 1: the two. Yeah, that's gonna be our life for a
Speaker 1: couple of days in July for sure, and probably the
Speaker 1: entire training camp. But uh, you know, I I think
Speaker 1: it will. Early on, it's just gonna be learning the language.
Speaker 1: Baker's going to have that book, He's going to know
Speaker 1: what things are called, but he's gonna have to go
Speaker 1: into a huddle and call umn with people he's meeting
Speaker 1: on the fly. So I think it's going to be
Speaker 1: interesting to see how much he's actually doing early on,
Speaker 1: and how much he's able to do exactly, and what
Speaker 1: the progression looks like as we go through the practices
Speaker 1: down in Spartanburg up to joint practices, Um, do you
Speaker 1: think that they'll come out of the let's say, by
Speaker 1: the joint practices of New England, that will have a
Speaker 1: sense of of who this might be, which way they're leaning.
Speaker 1: I know there's no way you can answer that. Competitive situations, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think you'd like to have an idea sooner rather
Speaker 1: than later. But again, I think the fact that this
Speaker 1: is all the first insult and all these guys who
Speaker 1: have been around for O. T A s have gone
Speaker 1: through this book three times now and Baker has gone
Speaker 1: through at zero times now, So I think that's going
Speaker 1: to buy them time to make a decision. I imagine
Speaker 1: it would drag on for most of the UM, for
Speaker 1: most of the preseason leading up to the Pompompomp opener
Speaker 1: against le Brons. The NFL scheduling crew is is truly visionary,
Speaker 1: that's for sure, Um. But but I want to talk about,
Speaker 1: as you said, this has kind of been out there
Speaker 1: in in the ether a little bit, UM, what has
Speaker 1: that been like for the both of you? And how
Speaker 1: surprised were you, Darren, that it happened yesterday and that
Speaker 1: happened at all? I am not surprised that it happened
Speaker 1: at all. Uh, it was always a bit of a
Speaker 1: surprise whenever it happens. But I was a boy scout
Speaker 1: when I was a kid, and be prepared as kind
Speaker 1: of part of my life. So, uh, you should see
Speaker 1: some of the stories that I have written that I
Speaker 1: have not been published. Um now, I mean this has
Speaker 1: been kind of percolating really since the draft weekend, and
Speaker 1: it was pretty known that during the second round of
Speaker 1: the draft they were talking to Cleveland and the hang
Speaker 1: up then was compensation. It was how much of the
Speaker 1: contract are you gonna pay? How much of the contract
Speaker 1: are you gonna pay? What are we getting in return?
Speaker 1: What's going back the other direction? And so that never
Speaker 1: got worked out. So that's just kind of on me.
Speaker 1: I mean, listen, I've been around here for a minute
Speaker 1: and and know that quarterback transitions are part of the
Speaker 1: deal here and until they find the quarterback, they're gonna
Speaker 1: keep looking. So I've got a file with a lot
Speaker 1: of available quarterbacks. Um, you know, different things prepped and
Speaker 1: ready in case. But it's like, you know, it's a
Speaker 1: whole lot of premp as much as you can and
Speaker 1: then be ready for the phone to ring and say,
Speaker 1: all right, this is coming this afternoon, so it's you
Speaker 1: never really know. But I I was genuinely afraid because
Speaker 1: I am pretty obsessive about preparation and pretty obsessive about
Speaker 1: stalking my pantry with enough groceries to get me through
Speaker 1: a snowstorm even in July. But which my wife hates
Speaker 1: because some people call it clutter. I don't know. I
Speaker 1: mean to me, it's preparedness. But UM, yeah, I was
Speaker 1: afraid I had scared poor Gusta all phone or first day,
Speaker 1: I honestly did. That's what I was going to say.
Speaker 1: My very first day here, early June. I I don't
Speaker 1: remember the date, and I should I should have it,
Speaker 1: you know, committed in my heart to memory. I think
Speaker 1: it may have been June eight. I'm not sure. Um,
Speaker 1: but one of those very early June days, I walk
Speaker 1: in and I'll never forget Darren telling me the day
Speaker 1: before my first day, you know, telling me how to
Speaker 1: get to the building and everything, and then he goes,
Speaker 1: you may be walking into a fire. And I mean
Speaker 1: I felt like until yesterday, every day, you know, it's
Speaker 1: all it could happen. Maybe I don't know, maybe, um
Speaker 1: maybe not. But um, like you said, with the preparedness
Speaker 1: side of it. I mean I've known about it, you know,
Speaker 1: being a possibility since i started, which again not that
Speaker 1: long ago. But it's it's fun to be able, I
Speaker 1: will say to kind of have I know, like the
Speaker 1: burst out. You know, it's like when you shake up
Speaker 1: a can of cola and then you let it go
Speaker 1: and it bursts out. But then you don't have to
Speaker 1: worry about it. You know, it exploded. It's over like well,
Speaker 1: you know, at least the the anticipatory waiting element of it. Um.
Speaker 1: But it's fun to walk into a situation like that.
Speaker 1: I mean, I've I've had a great time. But I
Speaker 1: remember that very vividly from my first day when when
Speaker 1: Darren told me it could it could be you know,
Speaker 1: a normal day. I think it was o t a still,
Speaker 1: you know, we went out to practice. Everything was normal,
Speaker 1: or it could be an explosion. Who knows. And listen,
Speaker 1: I am a very used to that, Augusta. I am
Speaker 1: a very old person and I've been walking these halls
Speaker 1: for a minute. And when Augusta Stone and I walk
Speaker 1: into training camp, we will know Baker Mayfield exactly the
Speaker 1: same amount out. It's awesome. I'm so excited. Yeah, same
Speaker 1: here same here we all will, you know, which will
Speaker 1: be a lot of fun um and certainly will be
Speaker 1: covering all of this throughout training camp. I'm gonna have
Speaker 1: to let you guys go soon because I know that
Speaker 1: you've got articles to write, people to call halls to
Speaker 1: walk um. But before I do, I you know, it
Speaker 1: is the Happy half hour. Of course, we had to
Speaker 1: talk about Baker. But in these last couple of minutes,
Speaker 1: I want to do a little impromptu segment. I'm calling
Speaker 1: tell me more. Okay, writers, As we all know, I
Speaker 1: think everyone knows you have the best Twitter accounts, right,
Speaker 1: and so I just went back as a way to
Speaker 1: get to know Augusta a little bit better and as
Speaker 1: a way to just get to ask Darren questions like
Speaker 1: I love to do. Went back and found one tweet
Speaker 1: of each of yours from the past few days, and
Speaker 1: I just need to know more. They're fascinating, all right,
Speaker 1: So Augusta, I have yours here first. Okay, okay, this
Speaker 1: is from July five. You said today I tried cold
Speaker 1: brew with a splash of lemonade with a half off
Speaker 1: drink deal from the Starbucks app, and I can't stop
Speaker 1: thinking about it. My coffee drinking life will never be
Speaker 1: the same, Augusta tell me more. I would never put
Speaker 1: those two things together. Oh my goodness, I'm so glad
Speaker 1: you asked me about this fun fact. My mother called
Speaker 1: me yesterday asking me about that tweet, going, Oh my goodness,
Speaker 1: is it actually good? You sound out of your mind.
Speaker 1: So one of my best friends, actually we interned in
Speaker 1: Charlotte together a couple of years ago. Her name is Laurel.
Speaker 1: She works in Kentucky. Now. She told me about this
Speaker 1: thing that she had been doing with Colebrew lemonade. One
Speaker 1: of her barista friends made it at their local coffee
Speaker 1: shop in Bowling Green, Kentucky, and um, I was just
Speaker 1: so intrigued. And it tastes like iced tea when you
Speaker 1: take iced tea and you put lemon in it, but
Speaker 1: it's it's just slightly stronger. And I also got it
Speaker 1: with two pumps of the liquid cane sugar, and I've
Speaker 1: got it three days in a row. Now I love it.
Speaker 1: It's really really good. I I honestly wish I could
Speaker 1: put everybody on it just to try it, because it's
Speaker 1: not an overpower ring taste. It's not overly acidic. That's
Speaker 1: something I've heard. Is it not just heartburn in a glass? No,
Speaker 1: it's excellent and great, and I'm so glad you asked
Speaker 1: me about it, because I am quite passionate about it.
Speaker 1: So I think everyone should give a shot. I was
Speaker 1: on the fence until you made the tea lemon reference. Darren,
Speaker 1: what do you think? Are you going to try it
Speaker 1: with me? I will try it with you. I I
Speaker 1: do not leap eagerly into new things often when it
Speaker 1: comes to coffee. I'm kind of a truck stop black guy. Um,
Speaker 1: but I will give it a shot. Let's go. I
Speaker 1: love it. I love it all right. And then the
Speaker 1: last tweet from tell Me More Darren from July two,
Speaker 1: Uh feel safe saying if not for COVID, I'd never
Speaker 1: have watched The Summer I Turned Pretty, get vaccinated and
Speaker 1: boosted gang and then in parentheses, although Belly, who is
Speaker 1: the main character of that show, would be wise to
Speaker 1: steer clear of that entire Fisher family. They're all messy,
Speaker 1: she could stand to lose the Damsel in Distress bit
Speaker 1: as well, So Darren, I popped in on the Summer
Speaker 1: I Turned Pretty the other night. I only got through
Speaker 1: the first twenty minutes before my my son started crying.
Speaker 1: But for anyone who doesn't know, it is very much.
Speaker 1: We are not the target demographic. Augusta might even be
Speaker 1: a little old for the target demographic. It is like
Speaker 1: a teen show and supposedly very good. So, Darren, how
Speaker 1: long did it take you to watch this entire show?
Speaker 1: And should we be watching it? Well? Now, with the
Speaker 1: modifier that I was laid up with COVID not exactly
Speaker 1: doing a lot else, I had a lot of screen time.
Speaker 1: Last week we plowed through seven episodes of the Summer
Speaker 1: I Turned Pretty and about I don't know, a day
Speaker 1: and a half. Um, it was a lot to take
Speaker 1: in it once, but fortunately after after a couple of
Speaker 1: days when we were no longer contagious. My daughter was
Speaker 1: home from college the summer. She was hanging out with this.
Speaker 1: She was like, are you actually gonna watch this with me?
Speaker 1: And so we we started watching it and she was like,
Speaker 1: you're starting to get into this. This is a little scary.
Speaker 1: You are a little too into it. But yeah, it
Speaker 1: drove me crazy because Belly is a young woman of
Speaker 1: promise and I feel like she's self limiting by locking
Speaker 1: herself into a choice between the two Fisher Boys, which
Speaker 1: shouldn't be a choice at all. They're both bill um right. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't even get me started on Conrad. He's just way, way,
Speaker 1: way too much. UM. But yeah, I wish that young
Speaker 1: lady would lean into her agency. She's coming into her own.
Speaker 1: She got through the debutante ball phase of her life
Speaker 1: thanks to her mother's dear friend, UM, who kind of
Speaker 1: put her up to it. But now she has agencies.
Speaker 1: She's blooming in front of her very eyes, and I
Speaker 1: just want her to make better decisions with her life.
Speaker 1: Oh I love that, spoken like a dad with a
Speaker 1: heart of gold. All right, well, thank you guys for
Speaker 1: indulging me. I know we were here to talk about Baker,
Speaker 1: but I just you know, I love Writer's Twitter accounts.
Speaker 1: They're the best tweets, hands down, pound for pounds, So
Speaker 1: I had to find out more about both of those. Um,
Speaker 1: and thank you guys for doing this. Uh, this was
Speaker 1: a lot of fun, and we are going to of
Speaker 1: course be bringing you updates from training camps. So until then, everybody,
Speaker 1: thank you for listening to the Happy Up Hour. We'll
Speaker 1: catch you next time. M