And welcome to the Happy half hour again, my friends. I am Darren Gant. We are going to talk many things Carolina Panthers, less about the football, more about the news of the week, which, obviously, if you're following Panthers dot Com in this theme, you are well aware by this point that training camp is going to be in Charlotte next year. So long to our friends in Spartanburg.
They have been delightful. I am reminded of a time when Eric Davis, former Panthers cornerback, once looked at me and said, no offense to the Spartanburgians and the Wafferdites, but it's time to go home, and it's been lovely. I have always been a proponent of the idea of training camp and the idea of getting away, getting to know your staff, having a bonding experience, sequestering yourself away from the world and doing the football or doing the
content as we do. But at the same time, I don't have to move all the stuff, so I think when you think about the Panthers heading to spartan Berg, that was a monumental effort. The equipment staff, the it, the training room, all the stuff that has to go with a football team to a place for two and a half weeks in the summer is a mammoth undertaking, and I think just in terms of streamlining the football operation, you know, some of this is going to be helpful.
You know, Chris Taber was asked about it. I laughed. When Tabes, as an interim head coach, gets asked about long term franchise decisions like moving training camp, Tabes are like, well, I don't know, I kind of like Spartanburg. But at the same time, I understand there's advantage just doing it here. So that's kind of all an interim coach can say
on that point. But the thing I can tell you is that as a you know, from an organizational standpoint, this puts the Panthers in line with most of the league. They were one of only six teams last year to go away from their facility to train for a training camp, and training camp lasted about two and a half weeks. You're talking about twelve practices, including the back to football
practice and the fan fest which was back here. And if you read our report on Panthers dot com about the transition, you will know that FanFest is now going to live somewhere in the state of South Carolina. Details to be announced at a later date, but I think it's a thing that people you know down there will still have a lot of access to this team, and there's going to be an opportunity for a lot of
South Carolinians to participate in this thing. But you know, reality is the business of the NFL is such that camps go back to team facilities, and that is how you know the business is getting done this time of year. So at any rate camp is no longer in Spartanburg.
I will miss taking pictures of the giant peach I know Podcast Matt is a big fan of the Peachoid in Gafney, South Carolina, And you know, let's be honest, I'm probably still going to drive down there the night before training camp, take a picture of it posted on the social medias, and then go to training camp anyway,
just as I've always done. So you know, I know the people have gotten used to that kind of stuff, and I know you know I do it for the people, so I will make sure to continue to post the content that people want when it's time for training camp. Speaking of things people have gotten used to, the last couple of weeks here on the Happy half Hour, we have gone off menu a little bit. Instead of just me yelling at the sky for thirty minutes because nobody
needs that, I have taken my portable recorder. I feel like Al Franklin in the Saturday Night Live Days had the two point three meters parabolic dish that he would do live satellite interviews. I have a portable recorder that I've been entrusted with by the fine broadcast staff here, and I am walking around the building talking to people
support staffers who make this train keep rolling. And this week I visited with someone who has been among the busiest of the staffers with the Carolina Panthers this year. I stopped and talked to assistant athletic trainer Karen Oshwea, and Karen has an interesting backstory of her own, and given all the injuries the Carolina Panthers have dealt with this season, has been among the busiest people in the building. So I was very grateful that she took a couple
of minutes and allowed us to catch up. Here's our conversation with Karen. All Right, as promised, I am here with Carolina Panthers assistant athletic trainer Karen ASHUEA. Karen, thank
you for joining us, Thanks for having me. Absolutely. I've told people through the three weeks we've been doing this as kind of a feature inside the Happy Half Hour that I wanted to kind of go around the build and take people behind the scenes that some of the people who not only have important functions here for the football team, but also breathe a little life into the building and keep things up when things are tough as
they are this year. So I wanted to come talk to you in particular because I think the training room with everything that's going on, and it's just first and foremost, let me say, this is all bad luck. And you know a lot of these injuries I know people worry about, but it's like some of these things you can't control. And you, guys, in your role of taking care of these football players, are dealing with bad luck and all
these circumstances. But you manage to keep these guys afloat too, in addition to keeping them well, How do you do that one.
Day at a time. I think that's maybe a cop out.
But you know, we establish relationships with these players and even before they're injured. You know, we're talking to them, we're getting to know them and work on routines and establishing you know, maintenance care so that they can stay on the field.
And obviously that doesn't always happen. It's football.
There's a reason there's so many of us. There's a reason that athletic training is kind of known for football because injuries are going to happen. There's not an injury list team out injury list team out there, right and so but when that injury happens, it's also helpful to
know the guy. And it's hard when a guy comes in and gets injured right away, but quite often maybe they we've known them, they've been around, so we have that you know that bond already want to help them get better, and you know then again see them consistently to get them back on the field.
Right, if you had in your capacity in this job, if you had to divide it, oh, what percentage of your job is medical professional and what part of it is counsel or confess or you know, someone who's talking these guys through this as much as treating them for these injuries.
Probably seventy five twenty five. I mean, it's definitely more.
The nuance of you know, what exercises do we need to do, what treatments do we need to do?
You know, what do we do.
Want to do in the pool and things like that, and then we have resources here that we lean on if it goes beyond our you know, expertise, if you will you know, I'm not a clinical psychologist.
We have one.
We have one in the building and she's great, and so we lean on her when it goes beyond that you know, normal conversation, right, But it absolutely is you know, the time of injury is hard, dealing with needing to go on to injury reserve or even missing a game or missing a practice. Every situation is different and every you know guy you respond to differently too.
Kevin King, our head athletic trainer here, has told me that even though the high profile guys and the stars of the team tend to get the most attention outside of the building, a lot of times for you guys, it's more rewarding to see some of the practice squad guys or are guys who aren't household names kind of make those recoveries and get well because a lot of times for them being well is the difference between being employed and unemployed, isn't it.
Yes, availability is important and being able to do their job, and their job is being on the field, and so helping those guys if they are injured, getting back onto the field and taking that next step for them in.
Their career, if it's here or elsewhere, it's really important.
All Right, We're gonna talk a little bit about you and how long you've been here. You've been with the Carolina Panthers since twenty one. And since you've been here, probably what's the most unusual thing you've learned about this situation or this city, or this team, or or what's the thing that's kind of jumped out at you about this operation.
Hmm, that's a tough question.
I think I worked football in grad school and then I left football and did a new some other sports for a while, and so getting back into football and just remind remembering how big of.
A team sport it is, and it takes all.
Different guys from all different walks of life and all different body types even right to be effective and to do the job. And just that room, you know, seeing that again being back in it and how they work together and how you know, it's the common goal to put the best product right, to push the best plays on the field and perform and how they all kind of all the puzzle pieces have to go together.
Right now. You mentioned different body sizes. It's a completely different science for a three hundred and twenty five pound offensive lineman then for one hundred and eighty five pound receiver, isn't it?
Yes? Absolutely?
And it requires you know, different exercises, different techniques, different field work, all of it, from from when the injury happens to when they get back onto the field again.
To which one's easier.
It's just different.
I mean physically, it's easier for me to lift a running back's leg than a lineman's leg. But you just like, luckily we have these tables that go up and down. So figure it out, all.
Right, who's the most difficult guy you have to work with on a daily basis? And it's okay for you to say that the correct answer is Shaq Thompson.
I don't work with Shack that much. It's kind of a bummer.
See, Shack gives everybody a hard time. So I walk past this room and he's like, what are you doing there? You know? So I'm used to. I feel like Shaq gives that to everybody, so I was I was giving you the opportunity to just make him the scapegoat for that right now. But in all serious though, are there guys who you've worked with closely who you're really gratified by seeing them well or who make your job easier?
Absolutely?
I think that when a guy shows up with a positive attitude, it makes our job a little bit easier. But we can't expect them to always show up happy to be here, especially if they're injured. And that's where you know you alluded to it, right, but we have to, you know, kind of be that bright spot encouragement. And you know, I think about, you know, what can I do. I can't make your injury go away. I don't have a magic bullet or magic farragun or anything like that,
right like to make it instantly better. But if through our interaction, you know your mood gets a little bit better, then you know, maybe your stress level goes down, and so we take those steps towards towards healing and getting back onto the field. Yes, I think that there are
players that struggle being injured more than others. For whatever reason, and they're all coming from different you know, experiences, either being injured before or not injured before, and that that shades how they respond to a new.
Injury, right, because if a guy comes to see you, it's because something's gone wrong. Very few people just stop by the athletic training room because it's a cool place to hang out, although it is a very cool place to hang out.
Well, we tell them they can come visit us even when they're not injured, and some do.
Some take us up on it.
You know, we do recovery treatments and again that maintenance care to help keep guys on the field.
But yes, typically they're injured.
Yeah, which color is the entire process I mean, And that's why I think I'm fascinated by the way you guys have to talk these guys through stuff while rehabbing them. Also because you know they are walking in the door with something pretty heavy on their mind. Their bodies are their livelihood, so if they're in here, it's usually because something's gone wrong and they're working on it. So I respect completely the way you guys have to work on
both sides of these guys every day. So you mentioned working in another sport, prior to football, you were working in.
Most recently US speed skating, So short track speed skating, all right, So what's a short short track speed skating injury?
I mean, I feel like that's a big chafing sport. What what are we dealing with here? In short track speed.
Skating a lot more overuse, So if you're familiar with the sport, it's kind of in this hunched over position and they're going as fast as they can on the ice, right, so knees, low backs, wear and tear. And then it's also a little bit of a collision sport when they crash, so you get concussions, you get fractures, you get lacerations, just not as common.
So I'm sitting here making chafing jokes. There's a lot of serious stuff. I mean, I see this during the Olympics every four years. That is the extent of my knowledge of short track speed skating. I think Apollo on I was on a commercial or two, and I'm aware of him. But beyond that, it's something we see every four years. But that's serious stuff, it.
Is, and it can be they go thirty plus miles per hour and right next to each other and sometimes they make contact and go into the boards together and it can be dangerous.
All right. I'm not trying to violate anybody's hippo writes or anything, but do people ever get cut with those blades? I mean, the blades have to be super sharp. Laceration has to be a pretty big risk here too, right.
Absolutely, So, I've seen a few when I was working the sport. Probably the most significant was when a blade broke and got kicked up into another skater's face and cut her chin.
So ah, that was not awesome.
They wear cut resistant suits, so that helps with the lacerations and things like that, but they're not cut.
Proof, cut resistant suits, so that they're wearing kevlar out there. Yes, I did not know that. How would would a how would one know that? But you know, the suits they are also basically the materials are designed to make the i don't know, friction less for lack of a better word.
Yes, so aerodynamic.
You know, they don't want a lot of drag from the suit, so it's it's you know, close to the skin, not a lot of extra material and so dialing that in takes some engineering and not something I.
Had to deal with at all.
But yeah, I'm still kind of cringing at the thought of blade breaking and flying into someone's face. I mean, that's a.
Luckily that only happened the one time that I saw. But they're very very sharp.
Now in general, are speed skaters tougher than football players or less tougher? Don't worry, I want to shack Thompson the answer to this.
They're just different sports.
Yeah, you know, they hurt, I think differently, but they both hurt, right, Like, in speed skating you have your lactic acid, the thigh burn, the puke and rallies because you're putting out those efforts, right, and then in.
Football you have the necessity of football.
You're wearing pads, you're wearing, you know, a helmet all the time.
Your you know, your hands are hurting, your body's hurting.
Your collision. It's a collision sport. So I can't I can't compare it. Find someone that did both, and maybe they'd have a better option to tell you.
I don't know about you, podcast, Matt, but the idea of a broken skate blade stuck in somebody's face a little unnerving to me. Not gonna lie, Yeah, that doesn't sound great at all. Yeah, I mean, of all the painful football injuries we've seen, at least no one's been impaled on anything this year. So we've got that going for us, which is nice. But anyway, it's cool to catch up with Karen because those guys in the athletic
training are often overlooked or underappreciated. I know a lot of people are like, oh, what's happening with all these injuries. I promise you it's nothing they're they're doing wrong. It's nothing sinister going on. Some years, it is not your year. And with the injury luck the Carolina Panthers have had this season, it's amazing that they're able to keep their heads above water down there. But they've they've done a
great job. And the guys you talk to, guys like Austin Corbett who have been in that room, you know, and they know that they go in there not just for the physical care, but they know the people there care about them because it's you develop relationships, as she said, when you're in there dealing with these guys on a day to day basis, and when you're working with a
guy when he is not at his peak. So I am grateful to Karen and Kevin King and Katy Rodgers and the whole staff down there for letting us tell those stories a little bit this year. Speaking of stories, your Carolina Panthers head to New New Orleans this weekend. What are they gonna see there? God only knows. Derek Carr.
I almost called him David Carr, Panthers legend, David Carr, who once suffered a compression fracture of his back in the New Orleans super Dome against the Saints, and that was one of the most memorable postgame press conferences I've ever seen, because David basically admitted he was full of paying killers and didn't know what he was saying to us at the moment. But his brother, Derek is the Saints quarterback now and is in the concussion protocol. We'll
see what the injury report says about his status. But Chris Taber was talking yesterday and he basically said they have to prepare for everybody because he doesn't know if Carr is gonna play, doesn't know if Jameis Winston's gonna play, doesn't know if he's gonna see an even heavier dose of Taysom Hills. So a lot of stuff up in the air for the Carolina Panthers as they head down the stretch this season. Obviously things have not gone well
for the team. We will do our best to keep you updated on the latest with the team as they bring this thing home and head into a pretty pivotal stretch of the offseason again with yet another coaching search and all the changes that are going to come with that. So until we gather up next week to discuss the New Orleans game, to discuss whatever else might happen between now and then, and you never know, I may just spend next week's podcast interviewing podcast Matt. You know it,
Crazier things have happened. We could talk Godzilla movies, we could talk any number of things next week. Tune in then to see what we've got in store for you on the Happy Half Hour