Happy Half Hour Episode 101: Sense of Urgency

This week on the Happy half Hour.

Frank came in this week saying the magic words, and I always WinCE a little bit when coaches go to sense of urgency, but he kind of explained yesterday it's not about now we have sense of urgency. It's always been there, but it's like this was the week where it kind of got everybody's attention.

Touchstone cow r r.

I know it's time for the Happy half Hour with your friends Kristin Balboni, Augusta Stone, and Darren Gannon. Hello, friends, Welcome to the Happy half Hour podcast. It is Thursday, September twenty eighth, and we are going to talk about many things today on purpose and some things accidentally. Welcome to the Happy half Hour. It's Augusta Stone. She's like the she's like the Taylor Swift energy to my Andy Reid. I wasn't gonna go Kelsey. That would have been weird

And here's the thing. This is gonna get me in trouble. I am not either at all. I do respect her music, her celebrity kind of.

Irks me sometimes.

So it's been a tough week for me on the social media as I can't stop seeing it pop up. But you know, I will say one thing and I'm not meeting this as like a dig. But I think both of them, both, both Travis Kelsey and Taylor Swift tend to be in the headlines anyway. I think about, like, you know, this time last fall, Travis Kelcey was, you know, rearing up for an SNL appearance. He's kind of always

And I don't know if you've seen this.

This has cropped up about last twenty four hours for me, But it's the random tweets or Instagram posts alluding to Travis Kelcey and Taylor Swift.

Either being in a relationship being in the same room. I saw one this morning.

This girl three years ago had dressed up as Taylor Swift and her husband had dressed up as Travis Kelcey for Halloween, and they were like, I can't imagine a situation in which these two would be in the same room, let alone married. And it was like a classic post from like three years ago. And that's the kind of stuff that I'm getting into. Who was out here kind of speaking this into the universe because it makes sense.

Think it's cool. I think it's cute.

The thing I like the most about it is it's brought a lot of my friends who were not interested in the NFL before this week kind of around and asking me questions and wanting to know more about what I do. Versus, Oh, that's a Gusta the sports girl. Now it's Oh, it's Augusta and she works in the same industry as Travis kelce So it's kind of like that.

But but I'm not I'm not a big Swift ye. I respect the snot out of her.

But here's the thing, too much, And I am clearly not a patron of her music as an old person. I love the fact and even my daughter, my daughter was more of that Hannah Montana genre.

Oh yeah, that was her era.

So we kind of fell in that what's the opposite of sweet spot? We fell in that dead zone between Hannah Montana and Taylor Swift where we didn't necessarily pick.

All that up.

But here's the thing I dig, I do dig about Taylor Swift. She has managed to be bigger than the NFL. Yeah, and very few people have that kind of juice to be able to do that, because listen, it takes a whole stadium full of Travis Kelcey's and Patrick mahomes and everything to sell out Airhead Stadium.

But she can turn that place.

On like that, and it's full of people screaming and hollering and paying much much, much more money than you do for a football ticket to see her sing.

So I am all into it. I don't care.

I'm rooting for young Love. This is me with the glass half full, and I'm choosing to hope.

For the best.

It's certainly not a publicity plot on the part of two people who very much like attention. But yeah, I'm just hoping for the best for those two crazy kids.

I hope they found what they're looking for in this world.

I know, I know in a popcorn machine.

Did you see that where they like escorted her out in the popcorn machine from Arrowhood?

It was the funniest little thing.

I mean it may she make popcorn.

She may or may not have actually been in it, but the rumors were and I saw the video that they put her in a popcorn machine to get her out of the suite so that she wouldn't be like attacked by fans or mobbed by people.

And I don't know.

I think she did something like that, like hiding in some sort of closet at her concerts to get on the stage so it wouldn't be completely out. That's funny, Like if that's real, that's hilarious. And I love it like a little phony, cause it was like a popcorn machine and there were like six bodyguards around it and it was coming from the Kelsey sweep.

Or we could find a small child to put on her shoulders in a trench coat like hit three raccoons in the cartoons that.

Kind of move around like they're at large person.

This would be such a tall person. Taylor Swift's already almost six feet tall. That would be yeah, oh yeah, she's already.

Because then there's also been the jokes like put her in coach, you know what I mean, see if she can run.

Her out she's five eleven, that's awesome.

But yeah, so does we have a very very tall person a child on top of Taylor Swift.

I'd be like a six seven six eight er with the baby face.

I don't I don't want to stereo type you like I did coming out of the top of this podcast, But uh, yeah, maybe we need to go to the locker room today and ask the tight ends room which one of these guys is most likely or who would be the best fit for Taylor Swift or any other popular singer.

You know who had a great quote about that this week, Georgia tight end brock Bowers tying him Alma monitor to this and he said that it was a win for tight Ends.

They asked him about it.

Monday or Tuesday, and I was like, and he was getting all the little the fodder around it, but uh and brod Bowers is also going to be a mess in the NF or a menace in the NFL, should I say?

And if he's going out with Taylor Swift, maybe he's a mess in but.

Very exciting, very exciting times.

I need to give my mind to this, I think, yeah, I mean who would you go?

Would you go? Ian Thomas, Tommy Trimble?

I don't know how many of them already have partners?

That would be a that would be an interesting situation, I think too.

I think that's like a hall pass situation.

It's like when Beyonce was here and I offered up my office as adjunct dressing room if she needed more space, oh lord, and even like a friend of the Mailbag T shirt. And my wife was like, hey, wait a minute, do I have a Friend of the mail Bag T shirt? And I was like, yeah, but if Beyonce wants one, she gets one, all right, that's just you know how we roll.

So but yeah, no, it's an interesting time to have.

I mean I saw that there's like rumors if she shows up to their game Sunday Night Football Life, then there's gonna be like crazy you know, viewership for MBC. I've seen all of it. And I think it's cool. We'll see how long it lasts. I would love for this to be. Like, you know, it makes so much sense in my brain just from knowing what I know about them.

And again it's not like I know them intimately or.

Personally, but but knowing what I know, I'm like, it makes sense. I was actually listening to WF and Z and they were talking about how he's so different than all the other guys she's dated, which we all know way too much about each other.

We all know way too much about Taylor Swift, and you.

Know, think about like, you know, she's been with the Jake Gillenhall's, John Mayer's, Joe Jonases and now she has a Travis Kelcey.

It's so different, So maybe maybe this will be the.

One that sticks because it's not the same flavor that she's usually going for, right, Yeah, not the musician sensitive type, but the Travis Kelcey.

Yeah, this is leading me straight into storytime with Uncle Darren mud Let's go, because it always comes back to storytime with Uncle Darren moude Uh. Once upon a time, the Carolina Panthers employed a young gentleman by the name of Cooper Coop was like a fifth round pick safety.

Special teams guy.

He was sort of like the Sam Franklin of his era, and Coop was a real goofball. This was back during the first Super Bowl team. Maybe they'll be an episode of Cardiac that involves Drod Cooper podcast, Matt, what do you think could be? Never know, stay tuned for more of Cardiac. But anyway, Coop was real weirdo, but in a mostly harmless way. Him and Rod Smart would go around getting into high jinks, eating raw meat with their

It was coming off by week. Coop was a decent looking fellow.

So, you know, in a weird sort of way, could we have imagined him showing up at the same.

Place we could nice.

The good news was me, as an enterprising reporter in a previous life, knew some people in the music industry, in the music writing business, and I made one phone call and I said, I need a number for Christina Aguilera's publicist, and this friend who will go nameless, obliged and I called this young lady with an office in New York and I said, good morning, so and So.

My name is Darren Dan.

I'm a reporter covering the Carolina Panthers down in Charlotte, North Carolina. Got a question for you. Is your client dating a football player named Rod Cooper? And the publicist said, and I quote, I've never heard of that person in my life.

Oh no, yikes, down to earth for jah.

So I was like, Coop busted.

And He's like, I don't know what you're talking about, but uh, anyway, So that's a story about how Girodd Cooper and Christina Aguilera are not quite like Taylor Swift and Travis Kelcey. And we have probably avoided the topic at hand for as long as we possibly could. It is Week four, Friends and the Carolina Panthers are oh and three because I'd rather light a candle than curse your darkness. Here come to Minnesota Vikings, who are also

But this, it's taken on such a life.

It's on I think people are so there's an anxiety about what's going on here. And and I don't want to turn this into a must win game because I don't really think it is. I said at oh and one and oh two, you know everybody was jumping to conclusions. The jump to conclusions, Matt was out and in full effect. And I'm just I'm in a wait and see mode

With all these brilliant coaches.

I mean, that's what we talked about a lot this offseason, was this all star team of coaches Frank Reich put together between joshn and Thomas Brown and James camp And and Jim Calwell and all these dudes, Sean Jefferson and Douce Staley. I mean, there are just so many brains on that offensive staff, and I think what I have seen through three weeks is almost the result of too many smart people in one place at one time. And if you'll pardon me the digression.

It's just it. They look a little bound up right now.

They look a little too many cooks in the kitchen. Is probably the wrong way of saying it, but it's like they're trying to do too much. The Carolina Panthers found success last year when they stripped it down and did about three things that they knew they could do very well. Well, these people got a playbook the size of a phone book, because that's a thing that people my age.

Know what is.

And it's just it feels a little like too much through three games.

Well, there's also I think the piece of it that is inevitable and is going to happen. But it has happened to the Panthers a lot this season in and it is injuries because you can say the development and everything going on, but when there's key personnel missing from about everywhere you can look, and then you could even take it a step back and think about how through the preseason and early in the season there were a

You never know what it is.

But when you're developing, which is what you mentioned, and I think the Bryce Young situation of last week is like kind of a microcosm of it all because there are focused on developing Bryce. That has been what they've said, what they've shown. I mean, you know, the second Bryce is ready to go, Bryce will be ready to go. He was practicing yesterday and that's a really good sign for his development. It's not a wait and see and

It's week four. People are gonna come back.

And I think focusing on that aspect of like, let's let everybody get healthy and try, you know, to hope that there aren't more injuries cropping up like there was at Seattle.

But I think that's a huge part of it.

When you're thinking about development, they got to be on the field of develop The.

Short answer to a long story about the Carolina Panthers through three weeks is there's a lot of stuff going on, yeah, you know, and again a lot of stuff on offense, trying to maild all these varying philosophies into one coherent whole. Injuries that have taken Bryce Young and so many defensive guys as you mentioned, off the field for stretches this year.

I mean, there's just it's been.

Hard for this to be kind of singular and about one particular thing.

And we'll see.

I mean, Frank came in this week saying the magic words, and I always I WinCE a little bit when coaches go to sense of urgency. That was one of Dom's old buzzwords back in the ninety's.

Dom said sense of urgency a lot.

Frank hasn't said it a lot so far, but he walked in this week and it's like, oh, it's week four and he's talking sense of urgency. But he kind of explained yesterday it's not about you know, now, we have sense of urgency. It's always been there, but it's like this was the week where it kind of got everybody's attention and you can tell that there was a very different Frank. That was one of the things that stood out to me the most about the Seattle game

That was Frank's way of like.

Shaking the group and saying, no, we have to be better than this, because they.

Do exactly and I think, you know, kind of looking forward. I was thinking about it as I walked in today. Isn't it nice that we're back in Charlotte this week? I mean, after Seattle's a long trip one it was.

A tough environment for him.

Obviously mentioned the eight Falalse starts, seven on offense and then the one on punt team, and.

I mean that was what I mean.

Frank Craik talked about it I can attest to it. They were pumping in the crowd noise. It's one of those things that I guess in the moment, it's hard to it's hard to understand what happened, but it's easy to be like, well, it's time to get it corrected. And like you said, he did show kind of that emotion and passion.

They will be back at Bank of America Stadium this weekend and before going on more road stretch.

If you look across the next couple of weeks, it's kind of back and forth home away, home away, but it's a good matchup. It's a good time to have that urgency to be back home, to be kind of finally we got it last week for a touch, but to be back in the groove of the normal okay, one pm, you know was one pm West Coast, but now one pm East Coast kind of routine of everything. I know Bryce has talked about that in the past,

The team, and then you know, it's different.

Hey, it's Thursday, We're got we're back in the back in mode. I kind of know what we do now, which is nice, but actually.

A month and a half of my life, I'm gonna know what day of the week it is until Thursday night football in November against the bayor exactly.

But it's a good it's a that's a good thing to think about. I think you got your West Coast trip out of the way. It was not what they.

Had hoped for.

There were good things about the offense to kind of you know, parse out, and there were I mean we wrote about it after the game, but there was there was also not so great. I mean, the fall starts the run game. Andy Dalton was able to kind of show what the offense has been, you know, wanting to look like. I think that was a really good step forward for everybody involved. And I think there's a good or good reason to think that that Bryce, if he's the one or whoever it is, is able to come

There's no way they're gonna win this game.

Right and again, I try to I cringe a little bit when people talk about must wins, especially in September, because this is such a long, long season and it's.

Going to contain multitudes, and you.

Know, are things going perfectly for the Carolina Panthers.

Know they're not.

But I think if if you get through this season and you know what you want to be about offensively, if you know what you can expect addle Bryce Young going forward, this season will have been a success no matter what the record is. So I do think they've got to get to that point.

But I am.

I am confident in the sense that there are enough smart people working on this problem who are aware that it's a problem right now. Somebody made the analogy to me, it's like when you get married, here's this new person. You love them, you're committing your life to them, but.

You've still got to learn how they do business.

You know, my wife and I have been married two plus years now, and she's still amazed that I keep the checkbook balanced by hand every day and do long hand math and stuff like that. And I'm still amazed that she thinks of financial plans fifteen and twenty years out and has strong feelings about four oh one K contribution stuff like that. So those are the kind of things.

And we shall see.

Yeah, yeah, And I think that's a reason for optimism too, I think, I mean, we've seen. I think there's a lot to think about from Seattle and to think it'll be interesting. You know, Bryce has been practicing. Frank Craig said he was on track. Let's say he doesn't have any setbacks, and he's the guy out there.

You know.

Receivers looked better last week. Adam Dealing looked great last week.

DJ Hark was getting vernical with Andy Dalton, like I mean, like we'd hoped and saw and talk about that he would do.

So I think I think, you know, you plug Bryce in that situation, he might see some good things.

I think it was one of those situations in week one and week two where he was really getting his feet wet under him, and it wasn't you know, kind of the passing game performance he wanted to see. But but I mean, I think there's there's enough to grow on, and I think if he comes back, there's gonna be something a little bit different than what we saw in the first two weeks, and at least different, you know, from from what we saw.

That's not necessarily a bad thing.

No, it would not necessarily be a bad thing to do something different. And again, if if you're looking for reasons for optimism here, you know, the best I can offer you is the Vikings have not been very good defensiveness. So, and that is probably a kind way of saying it.

Goodness? Oh my goodness. Okay, okay, So I'll say one thing. I was very disappointed when I had to miss Luke Combs. I was out of town that weekend. I love all the country artists they've been bringing here. I've had a country renaissance within myself. Was listening to Hot Country on a long drive the other day, Big fan, I wanna throw it back, And when we were talking about Taylor Swift, I was thinking about and I loved when you mentioned Christina Aguilera.

I'm a little bit maybe.

About ten or fifteen years behind because of where my interest level of music. I am one of the biggest Britney Spears fans like on this or I love Brittany. I know that she's not you know, the Brittany of the mid two thousands, early twenty ten's all of that.

If you could get her maybe right after she came.

Out with Womanizer, so that would have been like twenty ten, twenty eleven, and had her come here and I could just like relive that, cause then that has all of her, Like I really liked that new stuff, but also like the old stuff in her discography from you know.

My childhood. I was raised on Britney Spears.

My mother loved her, so that's kind of like my pulp culture. Like I still like, you know, love looking into like the Paris Hilton Lindsay Lohan drama. I'm very like two thousand centered, So Britney Spears is like my Taylor Swift and I know it's a little bit she's different now and it's a little outdated, but like I was still listening to her the other day, like I love Britney so that would be my person, but maybe not now, maybe like ten or fifteen years ago.

How about you, Darren.

If we're not going to get a Led Zeppelin reunion that I've been hoping for for years and years, and I entered the lottery to try to win tickets to a concert in London about fifteen years ago.

That didn't work out. But if we're not getting a Zeppelin.

Reunion, I really would like to see Metallica in this building right here that we're sitting in right now. I saw him at Charlotte Coliseum a couple of years ago. What was that four or five years ago when they were here pre pandemic and I just I dig a Metallica show. My wife again, is a very responsible person. She thinks about my good health, and she advised me

Floor and it was amazing.

So we should talk to our friends downstairs let's get Metallica in this building. Let's get Britney Spears in this building, and we can make a lot of people happy.

I think I love it.

I love it. You said two things. I just want to say that remind me so much of my mom. I do.

My mother still does keep her check book by hand. Big on that, so I was raised on that.

Lies woman very cool.

And then also Metallica. My parents are big fans.

Also Metallica great guitar hero band. I can play their songs and guitar here like nobody's business big fans.

So that's yeah, Metallica would be sick.

That would be a whole different atmosphere than what we've seen in the past few shows.

I'd be really cool.

My other career goal has always been backup catcher Cincinnati Reds. That's been the thing. If I could do anything, if I had athletic talent, that's what I would want to be. I would want my walk up music to be Metallica's the Four Horsemen. I just think that's the baddest ass way to walk up.

To the plate in a major league game. That could possibly be so.

And that's so cool because my walk up song would be a Britney Spears song. I'm not even joking.

I always say piece of Me about Britney Spears, so it's so funny if that kind of I'm not even joking. So that's like that loops around so perfectly. But that's always been my answer for like five years now, and I've been answering that question.

Matt can get us into all kind of copyright trouble by putting music beds under this. That's gonna get us find out the wazoo. Uh. He probably will not do that because frankly, we don't need any more problems this week, and that'll take care of us for this week.

It's the happy half hour.

We will see you next week when perhaps we have something different to talk about.

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