Speaker 1: It's time for the Happy half Hour with your friends
Speaker 1: Kristen Balboni, Will Brian and Darren Gamp. Welcome to the
Speaker 1: Happy half Hour. It's your host again, Will Brian Panthers
Speaker 1: Pats Guy. I'm back. I'm back baby, Kristen Balboni. Speaking
Speaker 1: of babies, she's she's out on special assignment for a
Speaker 1: longer time and she is a new mother. How about
Speaker 1: that's awesome. We got John Ashley Harrold now in the world.
Speaker 1: Jack Harold Jack born December night to Alex Harold and
Speaker 1: Kristen Balboni. Mother and child, healthy and resting well. Dad
Speaker 1: still a little shell shocked, as one is, as one is.
Speaker 1: The it's awesome. The pictures are great. It's a beautiful baby, boy,
Speaker 1: I mean it's and it's a great family. Kristen is
Speaker 1: gonna be an awesome mom. And I told her that
Speaker 1: about a year and a half ago, before anybody knew
Speaker 1: she was even thinking about it. But I was like,
Speaker 1: whenever you do it, you're gonna be great at it.
Speaker 1: She's just got that, she's just got that vibe about
Speaker 1: her that, uh, Jack's gonna be in a lifetime of
Speaker 1: smiles and happiness. So the Dot com staff around here
Speaker 1: looks everywhere, under every rock, so to speak, for stories
Speaker 1: and story ideas and feature ideas. Is it true that
Speaker 1: Kristen declined your offer to have life streaming of her
Speaker 1: delivery on Panthers dot com. It was. It was a
Speaker 1: group decision that we came to. You know, we we
Speaker 1: wanted to provide as much coverage as possible, but but
Speaker 1: also you know, we we had to talk to a
Speaker 1: couple of people in the room, and you know, we
Speaker 1: weren't sure of the technology hook up in there. You know,
Speaker 1: we didn't want it to When I was approached about
Speaker 1: doing the play by play a bit, I thought, okay, what,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, I use for this kind of thing.
Speaker 1: But anyway, so since pure class man, this is great, fantastic.
Speaker 1: So we're looking forward to having her back here and
Speaker 1: here in a couple of months, and hopefully she gets
Speaker 1: some well deserved rest. Maybe maybe we'll see I don't know.
Speaker 1: I hope jackson good. I think Jack's gonna be a
Speaker 1: good boy. Yeah, he's got the look I was going
Speaker 1: for Jake, But Jack works too. Sometimes you can look
Speaker 1: at a baby and say that one right there, he's trouble.
Speaker 1: He's got that Glinton is not this one. So the
Speaker 1: biggest news that we'll start off with on this beautiful Wednesday,
Speaker 1: that the greatest three point shooter in NBA history is
Speaker 1: from Charlotte Davidson, Wildcat and a Carolina Panther fan. How
Speaker 1: about that? There you go. When I was a kid,
Speaker 1: young broadcaster, just starting out in the mid eighties. I
Speaker 1: started out before that, but it was the mid eight
Speaker 1: it became the mid eighties, and this picture for Virginia
Speaker 1: Tech named del Curry. He obviously was had a beautiful
Speaker 1: three point stroke, a willowy six five forward swingman, but
Speaker 1: on the baseball diamond, this effortless deliver and then the
Speaker 1: bologists exploded out of his hand. I mean, just an
Speaker 1: incredible athlete. And of course Steph Curry is whom you're
Speaker 1: you're speaking of. And Darren, I don't know how this.
Speaker 1: I don't know how he does it. Really, what I'm
Speaker 1: speaking of is the without altering his motion he can
Speaker 1: he can hold perfect form from thirty five ft. I mean,
Speaker 1: just to get the ball, it's just a he just
Speaker 1: flicks it up there. And the thing about it is,
Speaker 1: and I think most people have shot basketballs in the
Speaker 1: driveway and stuff like that. It's hard for most normal
Speaker 1: human beings to throw a basketball, you know, I mean
Speaker 1: basketball big and it's not a natural motion to it.
Speaker 1: A lot of people will shoot as hard as they can,
Speaker 1: and and he can stand out at half court and
Speaker 1: just shoot form jumpers and look like it's something he's
Speaker 1: been doing all his life, which you know he has been.
Speaker 1: And it has been neat watching him in in this
Speaker 1: business and being at old Hornets games in the old
Speaker 1: Coliseum and seeing little staff running around with dad and
Speaker 1: being at games and stuff. It You've literally watched this
Speaker 1: kid grow up into the greatest shooter of all time
Speaker 1: in NBA history, and and having his dad around the
Speaker 1: whole time and being part of the Hornets organization. Now,
Speaker 1: I was just sitting there last night watching it, and
Speaker 1: I'm just hoping against all hope, and I can't imagine
Speaker 1: it would ever happen other than maybe some playing career cameo.
Speaker 1: But I would love one day, one day to see
Speaker 1: this man walk back into that building as a home
Speaker 1: player and as a member of the team his dad
Speaker 1: played for from the expansion days and you know, became
Speaker 1: a fixture in this city. You know, I would just
Speaker 1: look one day, even if he's thirty nine years old.
Speaker 1: I can't run anymore. If you can't play defense, don't cares.
Speaker 1: Daddy never played that much defense anyway. Just come home.
Speaker 1: Isn't there a brother or brothers? Yes? He plays for
Speaker 1: the Sixers now. Um? And how about this? His sister
Speaker 1: Saddel played at Elon with our very own photographer, Chanelle Chanel. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they're they're they're good friends. I did not know that.
Speaker 1: The world shrinks down again? How about that? That's good
Speaker 1: until christ and abub Bunny's gonna have a hard time
Speaker 1: getting her gig back. Will Brian much more than just
Speaker 1: an egghead statman? I don't know about that. I I
Speaker 1: have some more stats, but that's later in the show.
Speaker 1: We had some big news at practice today Wednesday practice
Speaker 1: the Panthers. Right before practice, Darren Gant might have sent
Speaker 1: out a tweet that the Panthers are designating for return
Speaker 1: quarterback Sam Donald. New people on the field, new people,
Speaker 1: new quarterback on the field on the practice field. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and and we'll see what it's all about. I mean,
Speaker 1: he's not on the roster yet, he's not gonna play
Speaker 1: this week or anything like that. But I think after
Speaker 1: the shoulder injury. He's healed up. I mean, I've seen
Speaker 1: him out there working out. I mean in the bubble
Speaker 1: during practices. He'll be out there working out and stuff.
Speaker 1: And Sam has been itching to get back on the field,
Speaker 1: and we'll see I mean he's just out there kind
Speaker 1: of doing some light through and now obviously not in
Speaker 1: contact or anything like that. But um, yeah, Sam back
Speaker 1: on the field. We'll see what it means. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think because you've got such an investment in him
Speaker 1: for next year, one way or another, you you'd like
Speaker 1: to see what he's got left. You'd like to see,
Speaker 1: you know, in a system where Jeff Nixon's calling plays
Speaker 1: and maybe some things are getting streamlined and simplified a
Speaker 1: little bit, can he get back and have a better result?
Speaker 1: I mean I I will always be confounded by the
Speaker 1: way this season has gone for Sam because you know,
Speaker 1: all off season it was like what are they doing
Speaker 1: training for Sam Donald? And then you see him in minicamp.
Speaker 1: You see him in training camping it looks all right,
Speaker 1: and he's running two minute drills and he's putting teams
Speaker 1: in position for field goals and stuff. And then the
Speaker 1: seasons arts team plays really well. I mean Sam was
Speaker 1: good the first three or four weeks, and even in
Speaker 1: Dallas when they lost, he threw a couple of picks,
Speaker 1: but he played all right. And then just it was
Speaker 1: like when Christian got hurt, the wheels fell off of
Speaker 1: everything all at once, including Sam, Darnald and things. He
Speaker 1: was doing well. He stopped doing well. And he's got
Speaker 1: it in him, and I think that talent that they
Speaker 1: talked about all offseason is still there. It's just a
Speaker 1: matter of how to tap into it and where they can.
Speaker 1: I mean, we'll see what happens, but it was definitely
Speaker 1: interesting having an extra quarterback out there, for sure. I
Speaker 1: like this a lot on a variety of levels. Level
Speaker 1: number one, to Darren's point earlier, he himself, Sam Donald
Speaker 1: himself wants to get back out there, so he's itching,
Speaker 1: to use Darren's words, that speaks well. He's a prideful athlete.
Speaker 1: He wants another shot. Number two. You need depth of
Speaker 1: that position. Number three. When things started to go poorly
Speaker 1: after the three and no start, some of what happened
Speaker 1: to Sam Donald was his fault. Someone was not his fault.
Speaker 1: The Panthers during this time lad the free world in
Speaker 1: drop passes number four. I think I'm up to number four.
Speaker 1: The things that some of the things that went wrong
Speaker 1: are fixable. It should be black letter law. Just don't
Speaker 1: hold the ball, just get rid of it, get it snapped.
Speaker 1: In twenty thousand, one thousand, two thous three, Bengo do
Speaker 1: something either, run, which we've seen he's a nimble runner
Speaker 1: of the football. Number two of course throw it so um,
Speaker 1: I don't know. That's that's four things I said that
Speaker 1: that I like it. And you could I mean, you
Speaker 1: could put it for sales, sign on it. You could
Speaker 1: wash wax at arm or all the tires, park it
Speaker 1: out front of your driveways. See if you know a
Speaker 1: willing buyer comes along. But he's he's our guy for
Speaker 1: he's under contract for another year and it is possible
Speaker 1: that he could be a meaningful member of this ups
Speaker 1: and we'll we'll see how it all works out. I
Speaker 1: mean I was looking earlier at some numbers, and I
Speaker 1: mean of the three quarterbacks who have played for the
Speaker 1: Carolina Panthers this year, all nely enough, Sam's got the
Speaker 1: highest passer rating of the three of them. I mean,
Speaker 1: Cam has come in and played acceptably well at times. Um,
Speaker 1: but he hadn't thrown the ball particularly well, and it's
Speaker 1: been a it's been a struggle for him. So I
Speaker 1: don't know, it's weird to see. I mean, Rules said
Speaker 1: earlier in the week he was planning on using Cam
Speaker 1: and p J Walker a little bit and having roles
Speaker 1: for both of them, and you know, maybe you do
Speaker 1: some kind of platoon and and I don't know how
Speaker 1: that's all gonna work. And again, I don't believe Sam's
Speaker 1: gonna be out there on the field this week necessarily,
Speaker 1: but he's probably a couple of weeks away, just to
Speaker 1: get him ready and healthy and grease back up again.
Speaker 1: But I'll be curious to see how they do it.
Speaker 1: I mean, do you try to turn it into a
Speaker 1: salmon cam platoon? I don't know. We'll see Will the
Speaker 1: stat guy, so he would be expert at this. But
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure that going into last week's game, the
Speaker 1: Panthers had thrown more picks fifteen than any other team
Speaker 1: in the NFL except for the Jets twenty. It's not
Speaker 1: like Sam Donald is replacing a quarterback right that has
Speaker 1: demonstrated great decision making an exceptional ball security. They've all
Speaker 1: made poor decisions. They've all thrown it up for grabs
Speaker 1: and times, and and as you said, a lot of
Speaker 1: that is, you know, if you if you can get
Speaker 1: just another second of protection, if you can get you know,
Speaker 1: one side or the other side, not to break down
Speaker 1: if you don't have third and longs because you got
Speaker 1: a holding on the first time. I mean, I think
Speaker 1: there's a lot of and then obviously the drop balls,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of things that go into it. Obviously
Speaker 1: you still need a quarterback that can that can do
Speaker 1: well in tough situations, you know, when when his backs
Speaker 1: against the wall, when it's when there's pressure coming, when
Speaker 1: you know the defense knows what to do. He needs
Speaker 1: to be able to handle those situations. But you're right,
Speaker 1: it's been a factor of a lot of things, and
Speaker 1: Sam Donald's far been not the worst out there for sure.
Speaker 1: One thing it's irritated me greatly for a good chunk
Speaker 1: of my adult life, having grown up in an Atlantic
Speaker 1: Coast Conference dominated state. But yet with enough Washington Redskins,
Speaker 1: Baltimore Colts, Atlanta Falcons, and of course I love the
Speaker 1: Chiefs and the Raiders and and the Jets and the
Speaker 1: old AFL, is that this notion, this crazy notion that
Speaker 1: if you don't that if you play two quarterbacks is
Speaker 1: because you don't have one. That sounds like a sentence
Speaker 1: that has some balance to it, and probably an old, crusty,
Speaker 1: old ball coach said it forty years ago. But in
Speaker 1: the modern NFL it should not make sense. And it
Speaker 1: does not make sense. What defenses are capable of these twitchy,
Speaker 1: angry pass rushers that are snorting and pawing the earth,
Speaker 1: ready to rush in with X marks the spot Darren
Speaker 1: again right here here, here's the pocket. All you gotta
Speaker 1: do is get here. And you've got an immobile quarterback.
Speaker 1: The whole pyramid, a two and a half billion dollar pyramid,
Speaker 1: is set on its tip. And if that quarterback gets hurt,
Speaker 1: oh sorry guys, sorry, sponsors, sorry fans, well and especially
Speaker 1: I mean, listen, if you've got the reality is in
Speaker 1: the NFL, most teams, when you're starting quarterback gets hurt.
Speaker 1: That team is a lot of bad words, um, but
Speaker 1: most teams are gonna go through that. I mean, just
Speaker 1: because seventeen game season is mix says it is so
Speaker 1: physically challenging, and it's getting more physically challenging, and just
Speaker 1: the simple breakdown of a body. Over the course of
Speaker 1: a four month plus season, most teams are going to
Speaker 1: go through a couple of these guys or need a
Speaker 1: couple of these guys for sure. And and again, I mean,
Speaker 1: is the situation here ideal for any of these quarterbacks. No,
Speaker 1: it's not, not necessarily. But I think everything over the
Speaker 1: last four weeks. You know, they're still gonna be trying
Speaker 1: to game plan it up in scheme and win games,
Speaker 1: you know, each and every week, go one and oh
Speaker 1: every week. But the reality is a lot of this
Speaker 1: is geared towards seeing what you got for two with
Speaker 1: the rise to prominence. Two of the shotgun formation, the
Speaker 1: one the two back pistol centers are are good. Now
Speaker 1: it's snapping the ball. Teen years ago I told John
Speaker 1: Fox we had a break shooting the TV show. I said, Foxy,
Speaker 1: why not play two quarterbacks? And he said, oh, Mick,
Speaker 1: you know you only played two if you don't have one.
Speaker 1: So just hear me out. These quarterbacks that are playing
Speaker 1: high school football right now in Texas, Florida, Philadelphia, that
Speaker 1: are the starting point guard on their basketball team, they're
Speaker 1: the starting pitcher on their baseball team, and they can
Speaker 1: sling it. But the NFL is too stupid to make
Speaker 1: those athletes quarterbacks. It wants to convert. If they don't
Speaker 1: get converted in college, they get converted to dbs and
Speaker 1: receivers in the NFL. Ty Murray and Sean Payton has
Speaker 1: done is close to what I told John Fox to
Speaker 1: do in two thousand six or seven, which is played
Speaker 1: two quarterbacks in the game and have them both in
Speaker 1: the game at the same time. Now, he hadn't done
Speaker 1: it in the way that I've envisioned because with Drew
Speaker 1: Brees you got a more traditional pocket who can make
Speaker 1: place from the pocket, and then Taysom Hill. But imagine
Speaker 1: if you had Lamar Jackson and Taysom Hill or Kim
Speaker 1: Newton and p J Walker in the game at the
Speaker 1: same time, both in the shotgun flexed out. Now, those
Speaker 1: d lineman rushing in, they don't know where. They don't
Speaker 1: know where to rush in because they don't know if
Speaker 1: the ball is gonna be snapped at this quarterback for
Speaker 1: this quarterback in the mixing hybrid attack. And but it
Speaker 1: is the the The NFL doesn't, you know, doesn't want to.
Speaker 1: No one wants to be the one that does it.
Speaker 1: And it doesn't work. No one wants to be the
Speaker 1: one that that goes just a little bit too far
Speaker 1: outside of the norm of what NFL teams do until
Speaker 1: everyone kind of does it together. I mean, right, I mean,
Speaker 1: isn't that kind of what this league is. It'll be
Speaker 1: like that cat at Presbyterian who never punted. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: it's gonna take some renegade to try this, and and
Speaker 1: Matt flag the tape when that happens. You know, we
Speaker 1: can go back to the time capsule twenty years ago,
Speaker 1: to the Happy half hour on December one and say
Speaker 1: Mick called it um, Alexander Graham Bell they laughed at
Speaker 1: him right over the telephone. Well, we've certainly spoken a
Speaker 1: little bit about Donald today after practice, head coach Matt
Speaker 1: Rule spoke to the media. Um, and we'll hear his
Speaker 1: thoughts right now. Yeah, I mean, he can't really practice yet.
Speaker 1: He's throwing, he's able, he's clear, but he's not he's
Speaker 1: not clear. He's not clear to play. Um, So I'm
Speaker 1: not sure when that will be. Um, you'll have to
Speaker 1: make sure that he's gonna have to throw move around.
Speaker 1: We can't take contact yet, so that'll come down to
Speaker 1: a CT scan probably in the coming weeks, so he's
Speaker 1: still the ways. So Donald may not be part of
Speaker 1: the game plan, but Darren Ganton mcmixon certainly are. We
Speaker 1: talked about this a little bit last week, but heading
Speaker 1: to Buffalo, New York this weekend, I have on my
Speaker 1: phone the top ten list of coldest games in Panthers history.
Speaker 1: This one would have to get down under thirty two
Speaker 1: degrees just to crack that list. I think, Mick, you
Speaker 1: talked about that Minnesota game where that one's number three
Speaker 1: was the number one Green Bay NT Championship three degrees fahrenheit,
Speaker 1: a kickoff, a whole three, and then I think it
Speaker 1: got much lower after that. It got colder as the
Speaker 1: day went on, and once it got dark, you did
Speaker 1: not want to be outside. It was it was like Hoth.
Speaker 1: It was the frozen ice planet that I never thought
Speaker 1: I was gonna escape from. I I don't know that
Speaker 1: I've ever been that cold in my life. I recall
Speaker 1: one camping trip I went on with my father and
Speaker 1: some friends when I was a young scout, and we
Speaker 1: had coolers and the eggs inside the coolers froze. It
Speaker 1: was so cold on that trip, and I don't remember
Speaker 1: what it was that was before we carried around cell
Speaker 1: phones new to the temperature every minute of every day.
Speaker 1: But that Green Day game was as cold as I've
Speaker 1: ever been in my life. Do you I don't think
Speaker 1: we've told it on on this medium before, But the
Speaker 1: Mark Carrier story from that game? Have you told that one?
Speaker 1: Wasn't it? Mark? Which one? I'm trying to remember? I mean,
Speaker 1: there were there were so many, I mean guys were
Speaker 1: just guys were freezing, and guys were trying to There
Speaker 1: were a couple of them who ran out and wanted
Speaker 1: to be tough guys and sleeves and everything, and some
Speaker 1: of them just turned right round and went back in
Speaker 1: the locker room, like nope, what was it him that
Speaker 1: put I don't remember the substance, but put it on
Speaker 1: his feet and then it didn't take until that is right?
Speaker 1: That is right, Mark Carry, or thank you for jogging
Speaker 1: my memory. This happens with age. Mark Carry put chayenne
Speaker 1: pepper in his socks. They thought that was gonna help
Speaker 1: keep his toes warm during the game, and it apparently
Speaker 1: didn't fully activate until after the game and when he
Speaker 1: had changed into his dress shoes for the flight home
Speaker 1: to Charlotte, and he was rather uncomfortable for the entire flight.
Speaker 1: I could just imagine steward us, Can I get some
Speaker 1: bucket of ice back here? Have you boys not had
Speaker 1: enough of that already? Um? But yeah, Mark tried putting
Speaker 1: Kayenne pepper in his socks and that didn't quite work out.
Speaker 1: So we will remembers my material. Better not remember my material.
Speaker 1: I remember that paragraph from that story he did. It
Speaker 1: was fantastic. I mean, I'm just trying to think of
Speaker 1: what it was, the pepper still in like in between
Speaker 1: his toes, or like he was he wearing the same socks,
Speaker 1: or he just didn't watch at all. I guess when
Speaker 1: he I guess when he showered off. You know, I
Speaker 1: wouldn't linger in a shower in a situation like that,
Speaker 1: uh so I would be trying to get in and out.
Speaker 1: But apparently it stayed on his skin and became more
Speaker 1: and more uncomfortable as day went on. Something to google up.
Speaker 1: We won't do it now, but something to google up
Speaker 1: is a scientist named Jane Gustator. She wondered years ago
Speaker 1: why some people sweat, why they perspire when they eat
Speaker 1: spicy foods, and so there's a type of perspiration known
Speaker 1: as gustatory sweating that can occur when you eat hot
Speaker 1: peppers and things. Yeah, haven't your wondered about that? I
Speaker 1: think it's fascinating. Do you sweat when you eat hot peppers? Back? Well, no,
Speaker 1: because I solve that problem by not I don't. I
Speaker 1: don't sweat a lot in general. But I'm not cold tolerant.
Speaker 1: I love hot weather, love hot weather, and can I
Speaker 1: stand cold with cold weather? Just it just hurts. And
Speaker 1: that Minnesota game, so the Ice Bowl was thirteen below
Speaker 1: right Green Bay, Dallas. Yeah, I got no interest in it.
Speaker 1: I have these cats on the YouTube and all the Facebook.
Speaker 1: They throw the boiling water, the kettle of boiling water
Speaker 1: up into the air and it just becomes snowflakes. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's it's pretty amazing. I there there is something you
Speaker 1: know in this very nice, pleasant southern town of Charlotte,
Speaker 1: where you know, people think we're too soft for cold
Speaker 1: NFL football? Did they have the Iron night? Maybe it's true.
Speaker 1: The little packets, the handwarmer, a little hand warm packet.
Speaker 1: They load up on those things and and listen, Donny
Speaker 1: Toner and his guys are gonna have every device, knowing
Speaker 1: the man to keep these guys warm and just glancing
Speaker 1: at the forecast, I think it's going to be cold,
Speaker 1: but not necessarily heroically cold, just regular garden variety cold,
Speaker 1: which there's no fun in that, Like, if you can't
Speaker 1: set a record, what's the point of being cold? Well,
Speaker 1: I mean, I used to you talk about that list
Speaker 1: of top ten games. I used to giggle with David Monroe. Uh,
Speaker 1: there was a time in this franchise's history where one
Speaker 1: of the tin coldest aimes was forty degrees at kickoff.
Speaker 1: Years ago working for the Atarhol Sports Network, North Carolina
Speaker 1: had a night game at Keenan Stadium and I had
Speaker 1: this and it was gonna be cold night, and I
Speaker 1: don't like cold weather, and I can't stay warm, and
Speaker 1: I'm ectomorphic and not a lot of body fat and
Speaker 1: just don't like cold. I got so. I had this
Speaker 1: heating pad that my parents got for a wedding present,
Speaker 1: and this heating pad got hot. I plugged that thing
Speaker 1: in about an hour before kickoff, and I see this
Speaker 1: little lightning bolt and this puff of smoke it's arked
Speaker 1: against this aluminum power strip in the press box at
Speaker 1: Keenan Stadium. And then I hear this while I saw that.
Speaker 1: I hear this, and the whole bank of lights on
Speaker 1: the other side of Keenan Stadium went out and I
Speaker 1: created a brown out over half a Chapel Hill plugging
Speaker 1: this heating pad in never told anybody. I'm telling this
Speaker 1: now for the first time. I almost had to delay
Speaker 1: kickoff trying to get the power back on because she
Speaker 1: blew the breaker on Chapel Hill that night. So you're
Speaker 1: saying that the Super Bowl with the Niners and the
Speaker 1: Ravens was really because someone got a little chili up
Speaker 1: in the press box and the super Dome and plugged
Speaker 1: in a eating path could happen. I wish I had
Speaker 1: a story that good, because I was in that press
Speaker 1: box when that place went dark, and that was concerning
Speaker 1: because Superdome being what it is, you can't see out,
Speaker 1: you don't know what's happening outside, you don't know what
Speaker 1: calls it. All I know is there a bunch of
Speaker 1: people in a press box who no longer had electricity
Speaker 1: or the internet. Yeah, because when the WiFi went out,
Speaker 1: we were all literally in the dark. So we're trying
Speaker 1: to everybody's trying to text home and see what's going on.
Speaker 1: But uh, yeah, hopefully, hopefully Mick is able to stay warm,
Speaker 1: and we don't short out the We don't short out
Speaker 1: the lovely people of Brown County, Wisconsin. And congratulations you
Speaker 1: use literally correctly, unlike will generation. Yeah, what what did
Speaker 1: I do? I just woke up this morning. Well, your
Speaker 1: generation has crushed the English language in a variety of ways.
Speaker 1: I don't even think it's my generation. Okay, I generation
Speaker 1: under you. Thank you. There you go where I'm engaged now. Kids,
Speaker 1: these days literally like driving by the seat of my
Speaker 1: pass and stuff. And I mean because it was literally
Speaker 1: like raining cats and dogs. You never know, there could
Speaker 1: have been some some dogs animal from Yeah, you gotta
Speaker 1: be careful on days like that. You can step in
Speaker 1: a poodle. So finally, Mick, we used to do this
Speaker 1: thing called like the crazy question of the week. I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry. I wasn't ready for it ready and I'm
Speaker 1: trying to do my best year. I'm no Kristen and
Speaker 1: you you just do that, And now I'm I'm the
Speaker 1: guy that just stomped all over it. Yes, that was funny.
Speaker 1: It was the year all week. It was good. I
Speaker 1: can't even do it now. Last night, Charlotte F's the
Speaker 1: MLS team ready to kick here in February and in
Speaker 1: our our fine uptown Charlotte Bank of America Stadium, they
Speaker 1: had an expansion draft to help build out their roster.
Speaker 1: Unlike the Panthers, they were only drafting themselves, so they
Speaker 1: didn't have anyone to really draft against. But I wanted
Speaker 1: to kick it back to you guys for any Darren
Speaker 1: has some memories of covering the very first draft. It was.
Speaker 1: It was quite a day. I mean, the Jaguars and
Speaker 1: the Panthers kind of going back and forth at each other,
Speaker 1: and there were different philosophies at play. Bill Pollion wanted
Speaker 1: to build this thing from the bottom up and and
Speaker 1: he used a lot of those picks on special teams
Speaker 1: guys and people who were going to fill in the roles.
Speaker 1: The jack Quires wanted some names, and they go out,
Speaker 1: they had the first pick. They take Steve Burlin, you know,
Speaker 1: and find them a quarterback with their first pick, and
Speaker 1: that's how they were gonna do business. Well, I think
Speaker 1: Bill had in mind that the draft was gonna be
Speaker 1: where he found his and build with a young quarterback
Speaker 1: that way. Um, So he started filling in around the
Speaker 1: edges of roster. Rod Smith, cornerback from Notre Dame, and
Speaker 1: uh longtime Charlottina. I don't know if Rod's still in
Speaker 1: town or not, but uh, I used to do some
Speaker 1: radio with him. Great guy, um and a pretty good
Speaker 1: cornerback for a while. Was the first pick. But there
Speaker 1: were all kinds of guys through that process who became,
Speaker 1: you know, not necessarily household names, but staples of the Panthers.
Speaker 1: Mark Carrier was an expansion draft pick, Howard Bob Christian,
Speaker 1: a couple of fullbacks who were key parts on some
Speaker 1: of those early teams, you know, all the way down
Speaker 1: to Paul Butcher, who was like the Frankie Luvu of
Speaker 1: his day. He was special teams guy, lineback or running
Speaker 1: around with his hair on fire all the time. But
Speaker 1: it didn't was literally like on fire, literally like on fire.
Speaker 1: Have this, have this in front of me right now,
Speaker 1: and you're doing a fantastic job. All I know is
Speaker 1: the Panthers had eleven draft picks this past year. In April, yes,
Speaker 1: and that felt overwhelming to me. Trying to update all
Speaker 1: of I was just I was dead. By the end
Speaker 1: of the weekend, there were thirty five picks. Thirty five picks.
Speaker 1: I can't imagine that. And there got to a point
Speaker 1: in the draft where if you look at the list,
Speaker 1: you'll see him going back and forth, back and forth. Jacksonville,
Speaker 1: Carolina got to the point where the Jags were like, yeah,
Speaker 1: we're good, Well, we don't need anybody else in Panthers
Speaker 1: took another four or five dudes, and one of those
Speaker 1: last four picks was a gentleman named Bill Goldberg who
Speaker 1: stopped going by Bill, shaved his head and started wrestling
Speaker 1: for a living and turned out to be all right
Speaker 1: at it. How did it work back then? Didn't other
Speaker 1: teams have to open their rosters? Yeah? Basically, other teams
Speaker 1: left an unprotected list of five or eight guys that
Speaker 1: you had to pick from, and the list never got
Speaker 1: completely necessarily out there. But every team had to make
Speaker 1: so many guys, and most teams tried to get rid
Speaker 1: of bad contracts or you know stuff. You know, one
Speaker 1: of the one of the guys the Jacks took Desmond Howard,
Speaker 1: you know, the old Heisman winner who never really turned
Speaker 1: out to be much of an NFL player and bounced
Speaker 1: around and got paid and never really did all that much.
Speaker 1: But you know, and they you know, people wanted you
Speaker 1: to take their bad contracts or old dudes on the
Speaker 1: fringes their roster, and and Paulian largely avoided that and
Speaker 1: took a bunch of guys, you know again like Carrier
Speaker 1: and Griffin and Christian and Tim mccaire, Tim mccuire, t
Speaker 1: mac um. Wasn't gonna be a backup to a bunch
Speaker 1: of backups. And um, I'm trying to think who Mark Rodenhauser.
Speaker 1: I believe the original long snapper was an expansion Draft pick.
Speaker 1: How about this? The former Super Bowl winning coach of
Speaker 1: the Eagles, Doug Peterson. Peterson's right, pretty amazing that the
Speaker 1: Panthers had success so quickly to turn all that around
Speaker 1: into that season. Yeah, I mean, and and that was
Speaker 1: you know, like I said, Bill wanted to use the
Speaker 1: expansion Draft to kind of fill in the blanks on
Speaker 1: a roster because early on he was going to draft
Speaker 1: his quarterback and got one in Carry Collins with the
Speaker 1: fifth overall pick after trading down, and you know, really
Speaker 1: comes in in nineties six in free agency and brings
Speaker 1: in so many guys. I mean, he already had a
Speaker 1: base with Sam Mills and Lamar Lathan and then you
Speaker 1: add a Kevin Green to the mix, you add Eric
Speaker 1: Davis at cornerback to the mix, and and really filled
Speaker 1: that team in in free agency and made it something,
Speaker 1: you know, something pretty special. Caught a bunch of people
Speaker 1: off card and and that was a team that started
Speaker 1: a little slow and caught hot at the end of
Speaker 1: the year and just went and got on a roll.
Speaker 1: And it was very It was very back to basics football.
Speaker 1: They weren't carry wasn't slinging it all over the yard.
Speaker 1: I remember there were stats from that time that if
Speaker 1: carried through for three hundred yards it was a bad thing,
Speaker 1: not a good thing. But if he could manage the game,
Speaker 1: run a good bit, throw for two yards and not
Speaker 1: turn it over, they had a pretty good chance of
Speaker 1: winning because they were playing some hard defense back in
Speaker 1: those days. Was Dom Caper's a good head coach? Yeah,
Speaker 1: he was. I think you know, Dom, like a lot
Speaker 1: of guys, when he got more on his plate than
Speaker 1: he can handle, and then he ended up being GM
Speaker 1: that's where some mistakes were made. But Dom as a
Speaker 1: coach was the kind of guy. Don was very detail oriented,
Speaker 1: very uh precise. I mean, he couldn't lay out notebooks
Speaker 1: and show you what his plan. I mean in September.
Speaker 1: He could tell you what the practice schedule was gonna
Speaker 1: be in December, and and he knew in his mind
Speaker 1: exactly what it was gonna look like. And and I
Speaker 1: think he was a good He was a strategist. I
Speaker 1: mean he was an old um zone blitz guy Dicklebo,
Speaker 1: this disciple uh from Pittsburgh played that defense and knew
Speaker 1: how to press your guys from a lot of different angles.
Speaker 1: Don's a Don was a good coach. Don was a
Speaker 1: good man. Uh Dom got undone when he got asked
Speaker 1: to be g M two and things got away from
Speaker 1: them a little bit. Well, this week, I now have
Speaker 1: in my possession one of the most prized T shirts
Speaker 1: that I've ever owned. Mick, do you have a Friend
Speaker 1: of the mail Bag shirt? No? Do you have any
Speaker 1: in athletic cut? Actually there, we may be out of
Speaker 1: exhales honestly, because we have sent these out to the
Speaker 1: Friends of the mail Bag. We did hit get some
Speaker 1: custom T shirts made. H Were they caught with the Yah?
Speaker 1: Yeah of course, yeah, Okay, I'm in right there. We
Speaker 1: can make this happen. Yeah, we can make this happen.
Speaker 1: I've got a secret vault near my office where these
Speaker 1: things are safely stored, because you know, the the thieves
Speaker 1: in this office don't look at me. Don't look at me. Well,
Speaker 1: maybe at some point we'll have to have some friends
Speaker 1: of the podcast too, but I think they're largely some
Speaker 1: of the same people. Since I'm retiring and heading to
Speaker 1: my golden years in four more games, I would not
Speaker 1: be too proud to have one of these shirts and
Speaker 1: have both YouTube joders sign it for me. Oh my goodness.
Speaker 1: I I really hope that. I would love if you
Speaker 1: were friends of the Mailbag shirt for the final Happy
Speaker 1: half hour, and we'll get Kristin Bobbo. We'll get Jack
Speaker 1: Harrold to do a footprint or a handprint on it.
Speaker 1: Fantasistic and two guys too. That'd be great. Well, before
Speaker 1: we get there, we've got to go to Buffalo first,
Speaker 1: So everyone will be watching Sunday one o'clock and listening,
Speaker 1: listening on Panthers Dotter, Panthers dot com, mcmisten, listen to
Speaker 1: that's where it is front page, just to see if
Speaker 1: Mick calls is another blackout could happen. On that note.
Speaker 1: On that note, thanks for listening to the happy half hour.
Speaker 1: We'll see you next week.