This week on the Happy half Hour.
This one carried a little emotional freight or frank because hey, it was his first one to b It was because it was a week after he had empowered Thomas Frown to call his plays. He kind of yielded that part of the job and become more the head coach, more the CEO of this operation, which I think, honestly, in a lot of ways you can look at and say that's what he needed to be.
Tut's I know.
It's time for the Happy half Hour with your friends Kristin Balboni, Augusta Stone and Darren Gannon.
And welcome to the Happy half Hour.
It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas or something.
It's cold outside all of a sudden, when did that happen?
The day after Halloween, which means it's Christmas time. I will go ahead and say I'm not one of those people who skips Thanksgiving except when it's going to be thirty five degrees. Then I can tell myself mentally, Okay, Santa's coming, and then I'm not as upset. But I'm wearing my joys to the Carolinas hoodie from last year
fun event, and I am in the festive spirit. I haven't listened to any songs yet, but jingle bells husband in my head, so I might be pulling the November second Christmas time vibes here.
I can't lie.
Yeah. I am also not one to skip over Thanksgiving.
It is my favorite holiday and is loyal listeners of The Happy Half Hour know well from listening to this podcast. I never digress. I always stay right on topic, and I want to talk about something that's bothering me for the last little bit.
Let's go.
I was watching the World Series the other night.
Congratulations to Bruce Bochie and the Texas Rangers, by the way, on a job well done. Today is not the day I'm going to tell my Bruce Bochie story on the podcast, but that day may sometime come. The thing I wanted to talk about was there was a commercial for a Thanksgiving horror movie. No one in the world needed this.
There was some mass murderer who's killing people in and stabbing them with the little corn holders, which would be the slowest and most ridiculous way to be killed by a mass murderer.
You know, those little things you poke into the end of you're talking about.
You know, unless you're one of those weirdos who eats corn long ways. Everybody has a set of those, and it's like, what do we do with those? We bring them out at Thanksgiving and they apparently are a tool for murder in the hands of this madman. But I was asking myself, who was really asking for the Thanksgiving horror movie?
I am not in favor. That is really, really, really odd.
I guess it's the people I do know, people who are Halloween year round types. Maybe I don't know. I will say not to bring Christmas back. But I saw on Twitter that Grandma got worn over by a reindeer was celebrating anniversary. That movie came out on Halloween when it came out, I know, which is also kind of like, is that a well? The song, there's a everyone's like, what's a Thanksgiving song? The Thanksgiving song? It's like that Grandma's House over the River and through the woods.
No, the Thanksgiving song is Alice's Restaurant by our Low God, don't make.
Me do don't make me do this again.
It's nineteen and a half minutes of American heritage that everybody should listen to on Thanksgiving Day when you're driving to wherever you're driving. So a lot of times I'll put my headphones in and I'll listen to it two or three times through while I'm running in the Turkey trot or something on Thanksgiving morning. But there will be a day when we play Alice's Restaurant as the music bad under this entire podcast?
Can we do that, Matt? Would that be a copyright issue?
Matt's giving us the thumbs up thereby saving our listeners from nineteen and a half minutes of Darren talking about what Alice's Restaurant means to him. That's a different podcast and exclusive if you will. Anyway, the Thanksgiving Murder movie is really bothersome to me. I mean, if you think about it, the only real niche of people who should
fear Thanksgiving are the turkeys of the world. The turkey population I can see being a little paranoid this time of year, being a little looking over their little turkey shoulders, wondering what's coming next and around the corner. But for the rest of us, I did not realize Thanksgiving was something to be dreaded or terrified of.
No, I don't think so. That's wild though. I actually was not.
Watching the world series, because once the Braves were out, I was no longer interested. Although I will say I love that the team that beat the Phillies did not win because the Phillies beat the Braves and the Phillies were upset. Not I will always pull for whatever's against the Phillies. But no, I'll have to check out that trailer. Do you remember what the movie was called.
I think it was just called Thanksgiving, but there was like a knife instead of the eyes or something like that Thanksgiving.
That's so odd.
The budget for this movie must have been about twenty bucks, so I don't know, and I got a real problem with that. We won't even get into what the Gusta Stone Spencer Strider Thanksgiving meal would be another day perhaps, But anyway, it is feeling a lot like Christmas. There's a little nip in the air. There's a little breeze blowing that's brought some frigid temperatures here to our beloved Carolinas.
And there's also a win.
So people were happy again after last week's game, and we could talk. I feel like we could talk for three hours about the multitudes that last Sunday contained. But I think probably if we were going to be organized of thought and mind. You probably got to bring this back to about five things, five people or five groups of people.
Okay, five things, five groups.
I'm ready.
First of all, Hall of Honor weekend, Absolutely Musim Mohammad and Julius Pepper's come back to be adored by fans who loved them.
It was an amazing weekend. The Hall of Honor dinner.
I got to experience that from right behind the table where Steven Jake and Jordan and Wesley Wallace were sitting and watching watching the guys come back, watching the reverence.
You know everybody has for Pep Jordan in some of our pre production stuff we did in advanced some of our Hall of Honor videos, I asked him what adding these two guys into the Hall of Honor means, and specifically as it pertains to Julius, who he's had so many battles with over the years, He's like, well, honestly, it puts a lot more shine on the Hall of Honor. It makes a Hall of Honor a little more legitimate because it's got Julius.
Peppers in it.
So it was just such a neat event, and I think one of the things the organization has been very mindful of the last couple of years, is to bring those veterans back home, to bring the legends back into the building, re engage with the former players, because you know, I know things have not been outstanding on and off
the field for the Carolina Panthers always. But when you start thinking about Jake and Jordan and Steve and Wesley and Sam Mills and now Moose and Pep and one of these days Luke and TD and Greg and Ryan Khalil and who knows else in maybe one day camp,
there's a lot of stuff here to celebrate. Gang this franchise really should be mindful of how fortunate it has been to have such a cavalcade of stars, if you will, to kind of bring people back, bring the nostalgia back, get people feeling good about this franchise no matter what's happening on the field in the current moment.
Absolutely, it was exciting moments. I think the whole celebration. I got to see the halftime bit of it. It was absolutely awesome hearing those guys talk, and we had talked about it so much.
But I think it's a really exciting thing.
And I also agree the Legends Affairs department that we have here just deserves all of the parties in the world.
For all the things that they do. I mean, there's guys walking around all the time. You see him. I know, we had a bunch on hand.
I saw the roster. I mean it was long of just people here to help celebrate the weekend and have the Legends Weekend. It was really exciting and it's awesome hundred dudes. They're so engaged and I think it's really great to see and I think it's awesome for the current players to just kind of see, you know, the history. We talk about the Nostalgic franchise and the Young franchise and it's really really really cool to see kind of
the living history aspects of it. And I know it's awesome for the guys in the locker room too.
Yep, no doubt about that. And you could just tell.
We were talking to Frankie Luvu last week and he was like, I hope I get to meet Julius Pepper.
That video was awesome on social.
And just seeing, you know, the way guys.
Julius Moose is almost an abstract concept for most of these guys because as we wrote about last week. There are cats on this roster who were born into two thousands, so they don't really have a concept of what nineteen ninety six moves in Mohammed was about on the field.
So Julius is a little more present.
He was just on the field last, you know, a few years ago, so he's a little more accessible to a lot of these guys. But because he's this larger than life figure literally and figuratively, he just kind of creates an awe in people in other large people in other people who play at a high level and are adored by thousands every week. So it was very cool to see all those guys come home and to just be able to honor those guys. I mean seeing the names around the rim of that stadium. You do a
lot of times. I'll come into the press box and work during the week and you kind of look out over the top of that stadium and you do realize this team has been incredibly fortunate to have that level of star power at every iteration of this team.
Very cool, very cool.
It was a beautiful weekend and a great way to start off what happened in the game, which was.
Very exciting because they got to win in front of all those legends.
I know, right, Frank Number two is Frank Reich. Frank Reich gets his first win. A guy who knows a little something about comeback says, finally the seen a team come back to win a game in the fourth quarter for the first time in this franchise's.
History since twenty eighteen. Don't tell anybody I said that, but it's been a minute since they've had one like that.
And I think you know, this one carried a little emotional freight for Frank because A it was his first one, but b it was because it was a week after he had empowered Thomas Brown to call his plays. You know, he kind of yielded that part of the job and become more of the head coach, more of the CEO of this operation, which I think, honestly, in a lot of ways you can look at and say that's what
he needed to be. After giving the play calling to Thomas, the offdense didn't look markedly different, but there were moments where it's like, Okay, you can see Frank working on other stuff. There were some of the things, I think some of the game operation stuff cleaned up. I think you know, Frank talked about after the game fewer pre snap penalties. I think there were only three penalties on the entire day, which was tied for a season low.
That kind of stuff is all helpful and good, but you could kind of see it in his eyes, and especially in that locker room after the game, just the there was a mix of relief and joy because if they lose that game in arrow and seven, you know, then all of a sudden, the Avalanche is right back going again. After a bye week, you come back, hit reset, you win that game.
Now it's like, okay, what's next.
If the bad thing had happened, Lord only knows what it would have been like around here this week.
But that's why there was that mix.
I mean, for every bit of just unbridled joy, it was also a who we're in?
Not a one seven exactly, And there were some amazing snapshots and videos taken. I mean you can just see him all over the website, all over the Twitter and Instagram. One of my favorite ones was the video where you can see Frank Craig putting his arms up when he realized that the kick sailed through and that.
It was finally true.
Even though it had been true before because he got to kick it three times, so you know, whenever, Like, I love what you said about the relief because I think you could see that wash over him. And then my favorite locker room moment was when he get the game ball to Thomas Brown and I don't know the whole time he's like, was he gonna get choked up? And then the way they're like a little handoff, it was just so cool, so so awesome to see kind of I guess the first of the labor finally come together.
And I mean we saw a lot of good things from Bryce, which I'm sure we'll be mentioned at some point of this. You know, it's like we've been talking, okay, the developments there, they're putting it together. That last drive was exactly what they wanted to happen for a million reasons, and it's big. I think it's really big for momentum. I think it's really big for Frank, and it's exciting to see kind of what will be ahead because the energy is really good right.
Now, right And you mentioned that if you look at that locker room video, Frank gives that game ball to Thomas Brown, he's literally handing off if Frank Capra was making this movie, we'd have all said, yeah, it's a little on the nose, Frank, I don't know, maybe a little bit over the top, but it was a genuine moment. And you talked about that game winning drive, and that
leads us directly to number three three, Bryce Young. We have talked since Bryce Young got here about his poise, his calm, his composure, his being in big situations and never letting it rattle him. Sunday kind of became that first real evidence that Bryce was that guy.
We've kind of joked here.
Internally at Panthers dot Com and in our digital department about when you see all these cute Bryce moments, like the fist bumping training camp and stuff like that.
I mean, he just looked so young and so cute.
And we kind of joke one of my coworkers had said, one of these days, we're gonna have to start stop treating him like a puppy, and it kind of is, because we're watching him grow up before our very eyes. But on Sunday, Sunday was like the first disobedience class, that puppy started turning into a dog right before our eyes. Instead, and you saw that cold eyed killer that Bryce Young,
you know, in the fourth quarter leading the drive. Again, it's been since twenty eighteen in the Philadelphia game since his team's come from behind in the fourth quarter to win a game.
So I think it carried a lot of emotional.
Freight for him, for them, for everybody to see him do it.
That's why they drafted this kid.
That's the one they kept talking about all March, in April and May after they take him first.
Overall, I was exciting too, because it felt like for one of the first times he was kind of stepping out of his Adam Felen Shell.
I mean, we saw other guys get involved in the passing game.
Jonathan Mingo caught Bryce's longest completion in that game. And then I also wanted to give a shout out on that last drive to Chuba Hubbard, who absolutely just I mean did everything he needed to do and just completely whittled away at the Texans timeouts, kept the clock going exactly how the Panthers wanted to do, just kept that so methodical, and that's what he does. That's the type of runner he is, and they're kind of using that in this Thomas Brown led offense, and he was.
Doing exactly what he needed to do. It's really cool.
The story that I got Tray yesterday about his relationship with Tommy Trimble, who also caught the games loan at touchdown or the Panthers loan touchdown of the game. But how Tommy said that whenever Cuba converted, I think it was a third and two that kind of helps set them up for that field goal, keep the clock going down.
He said he felt because they're so close Tommy and Chuba.
I mean, they've been working out together since they were rookies, Like they talk about each other like they're brothers, like literally brothers. And he said, you know, I felt his joy like it was my joy, Like it was equal as like when I succeed he succeeds. It was so sweet and they both were like, I'm so thankful for him.
It was awesome.
And so I mean just the genuine bond, but also just on that drive. I mean, this team one hundred percent place for each other. They play for their coach, and you could see all that. Not to be too corny, but that togetherness and that sweetness and hearing them talk about it was really real. So for that drive specifically, Tuba deserves his flowers and you know, and not like he lit up the score sheet or anything, but or the stat sheet rather, but but he absolutely.
Did what he needed to do.
And yeah, if you look back, we have some great photos of their kind of I asked Tommy.
I was like, we have some photos we all celebrate. Was that at your touchdown? He was like, I think it was after that third down? So just just big deals. I mean it was.
It's really sweet and you know, catching the joy where they can. They've talked about all the things that they've been through since they've been here, and it's really cool to kind of see that.
So shout out to boll Awes someone.
And as loyal Risks, as loyal listeners of the Happy Half Hour, note, we never digress here. So you been, Tommy, are like number five and a half. Yes, you know these two guys and we talked about this, Agusta. Those two cats are the buddy cop movie we didn't think we needed, but we do. I mean they are attached at the hip. I mean from day one they've been and I thought you did a good job of capturing that. I mean, they've been out there on the jugs machine.
Every day after practice, they do extra stuff together, and they have since coming in in the same draft class, you know, and it's hard to imagine Tommy and Chuba being three year guys. I mean, it's just it feels like yesterday when they walked in the door. But those two are connected at the hit Man.
It's so cool.
It's so cool, and it's even funnier because, I mean, you kind of know their dynamics were around the team a lot, but they kind of admitted that Tommy's more of the goofball tuobas like the serious guys. If you think about like the buddy cop aspect of it, like who would be you know. I think Tuba himself said it's like good cop, bad cop, and he called himself the bad cop and Tommy the good cop. So I feel like, if you want to like create a movie poster in your head, think about that Tommy is like
the kind of happy, go lucky type. Tuba He's like he can be more goofy, but I can totally see it. He's more of the straight lace serious one.
It's funny. So it's a cool little dynamic though, something to something to look out for, for sure.
No doubt about that.
And as we work down our list in this well structured, well organized, happy half hour, we get to the fourth guy I wanted to talk about, and this is your guy, Eddie Pinero. Eddie Eddie is he is a guy who has been kind of this emotional touchdown for a lot of people because you know, there was the Atlanta game last year and then he forgets how to miss kick for the second half of last year, and then you know he's had his ups and downs over the course of the year.
For that last.
Sequence to come down to Eddie and to see Eddie be that steely eyed missileman. Also, it's just it's so cool to see, I mean, because that created that moment of unbridled joy where Eddie's riding Johnny Hecker downfield piggyback, which is something they planned out in advance apparently, but it was such a cool moment for Eddie and he really has Chris Taber tells us this every week. He you know, everybody remembers the misses, but he remembers all
them aches and he's like, Eddie's that guy. So and you've probably gotten to know Eddie as well as anybody on this roster over the last couple of years.
Absolutely know and Eddie got here. We just we have like very similar spirits. I think I love talking to him about pretty much anything.
He's always a joy to be around.
One of the first big stories I wrote last regular season was about him and his dad, and we just had a really good talk then and ever since then it's been really good. So, you know, I will say one thing we talked about kind of casually during the bye was his miskick at Miami and how like that kind of like stuck with them a little bit. I'm not saying that that, you know, it was. It was just something he was talking about because it was in
front of his families from Miami. And he also missed that extra point at the beginning of the Texans game, so he had to kind of overcome a lot of maybe something going on in the head or you know, oh goodness, But he's not that type. I gotta get down by that kind of stuff. I mean, we saw
it after Atlanta and the comeback that he had. I mean, after those kicks in Atlanta, like you mentioned, he literally forgot how to miss kicks for like the whole last chunk of last season and a decent chunk into this season. But yeah, no, it was so exciting to kind of see that for him. And I love his relationship with Johnny and then their relationship, you know, the three specialists, JJ, Johnny and Eddie. They are truly the odd trio. I guess you could call not an odd couple, but an
odd trio. They're so fun to kind of see together. They're always messing around with each other, making these plans, and yeah it was. Johnny campletely mentioned that they had written together from the team hotel that they stayed out before this game, and they were like, okay, so game winning kick, jump on my back.
So it wasn't the kind of it looked like a plan moment.
It's because it was, but I mean execute perfection, I must say, And yeah it was.
They were joking with Johnny and.
In the locker room afterward, they were asking him how many piggyback rides has he given recently or is that the first one, while he said he had tons of practice with his young children, which was very sweet.
So just a good group of people you want to root for.
And it was an awesome moment for Eddie and like I mentioned before, he had to do it a bunch because of all those penalties and all those jumping off sides and unabated to the kicker and all that stuff. I mean, it was it was one of those games where we saw a bunch of calls we were like, oh, yeah, that's a rule, you know what I mean. But yeah, he had to make it twice and he did, and heck there was a penalty on the last one too, but it wasn't the cop that's going to make him
kick it for a fourth thumb. But just awesome for Eddie in a great moment for the locker room. And I know, I mean, I think I think he deserves it because you know, kicking is one of those things I think where you, like you mentioned, you'll remember the misses, and there's gonna be misses, but to see him get
that moment. And he also kind of mentioned that the game winner last season, which granted, in that Saints game, it was kind of you know, last game wasn't any playoff hopes on the line or anything, but he did sell the game winner in that and so for him, he was like, you know, it was our first game winner since then he got to kick that one too. So he has last two Panthers wins were game winning kicks from Eddie Pinero, and he remembered that, so I wanted to give that some shine.
He has won the game the last two Panthers wins, no.
Doubt about that. And here's the other thing that was neat about Sunday.
And I don't mind using a corny, innocent kind of word like neat about this guy. But Austin Corbett is back, everybody. I mean, we had him miked up and it turned into some video gold. I encourage everybody to check out the video on Panthers dot com and the written component to that store if you choose. But I've written a lot about this cat over the last ten months from coming back from his ACL.
Austin was generous enough with his time through the off season to.
Kind of walk us through that process and to show fans and readers what it's like to, you know, have doubt cast on your professional career. And you know, even though Austin's still a young guy at the top of his game, he's now in peak physical condition. But he had to rebuild that knee from the ground up basically and start over and to see him and to see
the emotion in his face. I mean, when that kick is going through once, twice, third time, Austin's down on one knee on the sidelines, not knowing how this thing's gonna go, and everybody was sort of giving him some space. And when it went through the third time and everybody kind of realized it done, he wasn't jumping up and down. He was like head down, because he admitted after the game, it all started pouring out of him. I mean, it's
it's rare to see. It's rare to see a football player get that carried away with that kind of emotion on the field in that moment, especially in a regular season game that got you to one and six. If it's after the super Bowl or something like that, understandable, but I think it kind of encapsulated. That became the moment of everything he's been pushing toward for the last nine plus months, not only to get back on the field, but to get back and be such a part of
this thing. Because Austin has become, in his own way, one of the real leaders around here because of the way he does his business and telling the story. Over the course of the offseason, you talk to the athletic training staff and they're like, Austin's always on time. He's always doing everything the right way. He's very meticulous in his rehab. He's always asking if there's anything more that can be done, is he doing it the right way?
Just very careful about every step he takes in that process. You go to the weight room, they say the same thing. He lives weights the right way. You go to nutrition, he eats the right way. I mean they talked about, you know, over the course of this rehab that Austin
Corbett sleeps the way you're supposed to sleep. So to see someone who is that meticulous and when he's well and you see him on the field, he's the guy in OTAs who's out there sprinting and leading the offensive line from group to group, from drill to drill kind of thing.
He's always out in front.
So to see that moment and to see Bradley Boseman come up and hug him, and then you know, bless her heart, Katie Rogers, the assistant athletic trainer who's kind
of been his guardian angel. That picture was one of my favorite things we've had on this website in a long time because you know, Austin's down on one knee and Katie is the one with the red ponytail right over his shoulder, and that's literally where she's been since the day flew to LA for his surgery in January, you know, and she's been shepherding him through this entire moment.
So to see that hit, that field goal hit, to see Austin kind of overcome with emotion and he stands up and he just kind of hugs Katie and all he can get out is thank you.
It's like, are you kidding me? Again?
With the Frank Capra, this is a little I mean, if this was a script, you would not have believed it.
I know, I know, And I feel like you've you've just done such a good job encapsulating kind of his journey from you know, one of my favorite introgies since we can kind of do a look back on the Austin Corbett series now that he's he's better and he's out there, I mean, encapsulating everything from you know, first surgery and you know, learning to stand again, walk again, work out again, but even the boredom phases, and I think about the picture that we needed to use at
the top there where he was chewing gum and blowing a bubble and it was genius, and like everyone was working out and he couldn't do nothing at that point. It was like June or July, Darren OTAs or mini camp or something, and he was just sitting there and he was just blowing a bubble because I mean there was boredom involved, you know, and there was him making these little milestones and almost like, you know, entertaining himself.
One of the things that I found so entertaining throughout his entire rehab process where his question on social media, what's your favorite sauce?
You know, what's your favorite thing to do in a hotel? Like things like that.
I mean, it was just so fun and he really found a way to keep himself entertained. But Darren, you did a great job entertaining the Panthers fan base with.
His story and appreciate it.
It's all there.
It's a rare kind of thing, and I tell people all the time about what we can do here at Panthers dot com. We can take fans where nobody else can take them, and I hope fans appreciate those little peaks behind the scenes, and that's what you try to do, and I really did. It's you know, I try not to get too corny and choked up at moments like this because Sunday reminded me so much of the Arizona game two years ago. Cam Newton comes back, he does
see I'm back. Think everybody's feeling good again about life because Cam was back and smiling and it reminded him of the old times.
And that lasted exactly eight days until.
The following week when Ron Rivera comes in here with Washington beats him and it kind of dashed some water on.
A little bit of that party.
But man, those eight days were a cool eight days of making content that made people happy. And Sunday with Frank, with Bryce, with Eddie, with the Hall of Honor, guys with Austin, the whole nine yards.
I mean, the people who play music in.
This stadium were like, man, it's been a while since we played Sweet Caroline after one of these, so it was just a moment.
I think that was cool for a lot of people to bring that all together.
So now the only challenge is yo it again because the Colts are coming to town, and you know, Frank being Frank he ain't getting all wrapped up in the Colts revenge game storylines that kind of stuff, because he's so dead level and moving on.
But this is an.
Important stretch, as we talked about prior to the first win. You know, the Colts coming in without their number one pick quarterback, you know, Anthony Richardson unfortunately lost for the year to a shoulder injury, and Gardner Minshew is bringing kind of a runs hot and cold offense in here, followed up by the Bears in Chicago the following week, and then it's almost like a reset. I mean, those three games, I think in a lot of people's mind sort of operated as a unit.
So we'll see how it goes. But it's going to certainly be an interesting stretch of games.
Yeah, but it's a stretch I think that they've kind of been waiting for. We've talked about it, but you know, you get through the Detroit game, the Miami game, and then on the other side of it, you do have you know, the Texans and the Colts and the Anthony richards Unless Colts nonetheless, and then going up to the Bears on Thursday night, which I think you know, Thursday
night football. We're not till too far ahead, but always kind of always kind of wild in and of itself, and then up in Chicago and all things going on there. I mean, it's a decent stretch I think for this team to feel not more confident, but you know what I mean, feel like, you know, Okay, we're not going against the top five offense. We talked about it before the Texans game, but I think it's a I think it's a good time to kind of start these good feelings.
And who knows what will happen, but I mean, this is a matchup I think that they like, so we'll see.
Yep.
But that game and this stuff that's coming up, it's just like the holidays. You appreciate it while you got it because you never know how long it's gonna last. On that On that note, we will see you again soon on the happy half hour. And who knows what's coming next.
Mmmmmmm