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It's time for the Happy Half Hour with your friends Kristen Belboni and Will Brian, presented by Morris Jenkins. That's right, it's that time of the week, the Happy Half Hour podcast presented by Morris Jenkins, and Mr Jenkins told me that he loves football and he looks forward to this show all week when you're plumbing your air conditioning is acting up all Morris Jenkins or visit Morris Jenkins dot com. Kristen here in the studio with Will and Matt and guys.
It is good to see you. Of course we are all socially distance, but it's been a while, not only since you know, we've all been here together, but since it's just been really the three of us, because two weeks ago myself and some of the Panthers Digital staff were in Mobile, Will was skiing on vacation, which sounds amazing, and then last week we had our incredible episode with Amy and Angela Panthers Social So this is kind of
we're kind of back to the normal thing this week. Well, yeah, it feels it feels good to kind of be back. But those were those are some great episodes. I was actually listening to your report from from Mobile on the way back from skiing, because I I was kind of getting, you know, like, oh my god, there's act we could have. We could have skyped you in or zoomed you in from from skiing if you would really you know, but I to my recollection, Matt, he didn't offer. I didn't
There was no pressing. Yeah, stuff like that. You didn't say by any means necessary. If I'm at the top of a black Diamond and you guys are about to record, you even put your slack with a little so it was great, Yeah, you can't. You can't have it both ways. I was almost kind of let down a little bit by how much people respected it. I was kind of waiting for everyone to just email me and slack me and text me. And we were talking about the vacation emoji on your because I put it on you're talking
about my episode of the podcast. Was like, huh, everything like email and zoom and tea. You put it on email. Oh, I didn't have email to next time. I'll know when you're on vacation. It was like a little palm tree emotion. Right, they just left me alone. I was going, oh, you were like ready to go, Matt. Matt didn't leave me alone. Well. Fun fact on on the podcast that I recorded from
Mobile a little behind the scenes for everyone listening. So we we talked about an episode, and obviously we couldn't do it the normal way, so I had an interview with with Coach Rule and Matt and I talked about putting that out for everyone and kind of giving some behind the scenes access. So I recorded um the intro and the outro just me talking in a car in one of our company cars on the way back from
filming the TV show. We filmed it at the stadium, which is about thirty minutes away from our hotel and Mobile, right before the other team was about to practice. It was like one morning and then our um, the Panther staff and the American team were practicing later that day.
So we went out there. We shot the the open and the clothes for the huddle the TV show, and then in the car on the way back, Rob, one of our producers, said okay, well, you know, we'll close the car up and I had my TV mike and I just talked into it, so we we He was like, we could just do it, you know, we're driving back, and I was like, well, let's let's not do it while we're driving because I don't know, get a little distracted. So I recorded that from inside the company suv right
outside of the stadium. It's just kind of, yeah, knocking two things out, do a little TV show to podcast. It's amazing what you can do these days. It is algy. We could have even skyped you in from the top of the mountain if you really wanted to, but you were too busy, I don't know, taking a vacation or whatever. So how was it. We haven't had a chance to
talk about. How was the vacation? It was great. I think long time listeners might remember last year we went to I went to the same place and had a little bit more of a difficult time getting down and then getting back up the mountain. Um So I don't know this. I certainly listened to the podcast with you and Max and Caroline, but I don't know if I know this story. So you had trouble getting down and getting back up, So like going down the mountain and
also the chairlift. Yes, I fell in both scenarios, fall off the chairlift that's in front of all these snowboarders. It was like my second chair lift. But the snowboarders are always in the way, and they're always like they always they all have these backpack and I'm like, what's in the backpack? Yeah, what do you need out of that? What do you need? Like, because I've never seen anyone take anything out because it just a fact, and I
do think it's just an accessory. And maybe it's just like something that cushioned the blow and they fall down backwards. I don't know, but they all have their backpacks and you know, they just have kind of like they're loose sort of gene pant things and they're all just in the way. Um. Yeah, So that's how I felt about them. I ran in. I almost ran into them several times. The year before. This year was a lot better because
I was more ready for I can. You could kind of tell like, this person is going to be trouble. They're gonna they're gonna be a land mine over there. You're like blue backpack, here we go. You know this this person, this person, this person will be able to keep weaving. Um. And so yeah, this year I only fell like twice. Chair lift is the is the hardest part.
I mean once chairlift, yeah, once you get it, but it's uh remember when I first wanted to ski when I was young, and uh I had I was like, okay, I got it. I got it going down, Um, okay, all right, I've mastered the the rope coming up on the bunny trail and I'm pretty good going down. And then I was like, no one told me about the chair. It's gonna drop me in. And I think at one
time I think I got hit. I was, you know, a small child, but that's where it came back and hit the back of my head as it was moving on. I was it was not good. I'm imagining will falling off of the chair lift into like six ft of snow and just going into a holeboard. It was it was literally I just like I think my feet were fine. I was just bent over. I couldn't make myself upright. But like, this year was crazy. When we got to the top, there was such a big kind of snowstorm
happening that there was one. You're just moving on flat land because the wind is so strong, you're like a sail. They were just we're just getting blown around. So I almost got like blown down to black Diamond. It was crazy. Are we're going down a black Diamond? You're good at? I did not go. I am now, and I feel pretty confident in my ability to handle all greens. It's no shop, which would which I am told roughly equate to like strong blues in North Carolina. It's a good
skier and you know, like light greens in Colorado. So that's kind of where I am. Yeah, that sounds good to me, better than yeah, are you good here? I can't get the pizza French. That doesn't work. The French fries, yeah work. I don't. I don't slow down. Yeah you gotta, you gotta now start actually changing both directions. Yeah, it doesn't work. Pizza French fries. It's a it's a hoax. It doesn't work for me. Matt wants to eat pizza and French fries. I mean, don't we all? Yesterday was
National Pizza Day? Was it? I didn't know that? Did you throw? I took part? I did not. I didn't know. You didn't let me in on the holiday? Did you throw some panther stats? Guys tweet out there about Pizza Day? Um no, I keep Pizza Day to myself. That's for you, that's for me privately. It's one day to himself. Oh that's funny. So you know, there's a there's a little thing that happened earlier this week called the super Bowl.
I was gonna say it was your birthday. Well, yeah, that's but everybody already knows that, you know, come on, I can't just talk about me here. I was gonna I was gonna go on past it. I caught it. So how was it? It was good? It was good. You know. It was on a Monday. So it's the day after the Super Bowl. Um is it crazy? Does that happen a lot? But have a birthday raft a super Bowl? Yeah? So I've also had birthday on the super Bowl, so February eight. It just kind of sometimes
um lands there. You know, It's funny, uh Maria in RPR department, her birthday is on the same day as mine, and we bonded over that when I first met her. And then Brandon Todd are photographers. So anyone who was on Panthers dot com all the time or social media all of the incredible photographs. I think most people know
that Brandon's are incredible photographer. His birthday is on February seven, and so his birthday was on the Super Bowl, and we've had a lot of talks about that where he was like, you know, no one, no one's like reaching out to me as much because everyone's focused on the Super Bowl. Um, you know, no one's really concerned about, like what I'm doing for my birthday. It's a super Bowl.
Having your birthday on the Super Bowl. It's not quite like Christmas, which I imagine would kind of steal your thunder. But I do get it. I think in a normal year you could kind of, you know, go into the Super Bowl celebrate. You're like, oh, you guys are all getting together for me, and there's a football game on. You can kind of do that, but I do, I do understand the struggles of sometimes having your your day on on a day that other people are very much
concerned about the other things. So shout out to Brandon Todd. Happy belated birthday. And I still think among my holidays because I long time listeners know, I'm a very much anti Columbus Day holiday on here, but I am very much pro I mean, that's a fair day after the super Bowl holiday that should be. And now you're saying, yes, I think those are I think those are great takes. What are your thoughts on like a flag Day? I'm ambivalent about flag day interest? What is flag Day? Just
a day? It's a day of flags, DAF. I'm flag that makes sense when it may July flag Day. We did not take this into account when we drafted months of the year. We didn't know. But I like those I like this in June. June. Okay, we're all wrong when we say you said my eye said July. I mean we're we bracketed it. We're on both sides. You know it was in the summer. But anyway, moving right past my birthday and on to the super Bowl, we're gonna say a word about it. Wilson. Wilson me a
text last time. He was like, I don't want to talk to the super Bowl all right? Why did you can? I ask this? Did you have? Are you into the Super Bowl commercials? It doesn't feel like they're the same as they were, you know ten years Remember ten years ago, people would like you tube them afterwards and rank them and stuff. It's just all the same. And now it's like now, but now it's nice because you can actually take a bathroom break or like go to the fridge.
You're not that worried about it, not that worried because before Yeah, you're right, it's super weird. You're like, hey, this is going to be the Super Bowl comer. It's like, why did you pay millions of dollars if you're just gonna put it on YouTube a week out? That doesn't make any sense to me. And I wonder how much of them. I wonder, like, has the overall price gone down? I think it's gone up. It's still going up, I
think so. I think I heard that one of the super Bowl commercials, like thirty seconds was like I could be wrong, but I thought I read it was like a couple of million, which is ridiculous. It's always weird, like the ones that sneak in that are like really serious or or that are just like randomly local. The ones that, yeah, they're the local ones got me. The ones that got me. I think this started a few years ago where you could kind of tell that they weren't as crazy as they used to be because I
would see ones that I had already seen before. So it's maybe a car company or whatever, and you're like, oh, I, oh, I saw that one last week when I was watching The Bachelor whatever it is. You know, I was like, I don't know, I know that commercially, And you're like, okay, this isn't Remember when we were kids too. You had to watch all of them. Everyone talked about them the next time they would launch year long brands, the Budweiser Frog.
Wasn't that a Super Bowl commercial? Good old days? That was incredible. Also, sitting across from Will, I saw it in his eyes. He was like, I gotta hit right here, here we come. This is going to be the perfect moment to drop this. And you know what it was. It was. But now the football season is officially over. Whether you want to talk about the Super Bowl or not. It marks the end of UH seasons. So what does the spring look like? Will Brian? So it's gonna look
different than it usually has. UM we put out the official spring schedule. I tell you I need to bookmark that. It's so helpful. It's helpful for me. I was like, I need to take like a Friday, Like when should I do that? Look at it? Really, I really enjoyed that schedule and Panthers dot com. So the first thing coming up is February, which is in a couple of weeks. That is the beginning of the window to franchise tag
um one player franchise or transitional player. UM. So that means essentially, and I'm going to get this wrong, but it means that you can take one player on the team and UH, instead of resigning them to a new contract, you essentially locked them into a one year deal where it's the average of the top five salary to that position. I think sounds right as a market, right, Like those prices are set, you know what they are based on your position? Right, average of the top five sounds right
to me. Yeah, And that might be wrong, and sorry to everyone that out there that knows that that's wrong. But so many people are yelling now. But essentially you can take a player that maybe would be really really high priced on the open market. You want to keep them around. Um. You want to see what's gonna happen, um, And so that the Panthers actually haven't used it all that often, especially recently. UM. So that'll be something to watch this year, as you know, there's so many different
areas where they're looking at. You know, you have a new GM and Scott Fitterer, you have Matt Rule in a second season, you know, trying to figure out, all right, who on this roster are we building around and then doing that in concert with who you think maybe a free agent a couple of weeks later that you're bringing in as well. So that'll be really interesting to watch.
What was that when last time February and it goes to March nine is the window for it, um, So it can happen anytime in that in that period March begins the three days of legal tampering. That's always fun to see. Yes, it's it's especially on the web, especially for a guy like Panther stats guy. So it's it's fun to start hearing those reports that are coming out, you start to get a sense of Okay, these things are these things are happening, this is about this person
is interested here, you know. So essentially what that yeah, what that means is that teams can actually speak to agents. Um, they can go and start working on potential deals, um, all leading up to March seventeenth, at four pm, which is the official start of the new year, when you can officially sign someone. Um. Unrestricted and restricted free agents hit the market, um, if they haven't already been I
guess if the restricted haven't been signed already. But the thing that I think it's worth noting here, um, both in that tampering period March sevent in between now and then, if something is reported in the media and then you wonder why it's not on Panthers dot com, why we're not discussing on the podcast. Technically we can't do anything until March seventeenth. We can't say a word because that is does then will get slapped with the tampering charge. You know, he's got to go talk to Cadell and
then it's just that. So essentially, if you were to look around some specific teams in the NFL right now and look on their websites where you think that you know who they might have done something with or for,
you won't see any mention of it. I think what we can relate this back to, because I thought we had a real a discussion about this, is when the Panthers hired Scott Fitterer as GM and it started to come out on different I think Adam schefter Is had it first or one of the notable insiders that had it first, and Panthers Twitter put out we talked about this. Gosh, maybe what was it a month ago on on that podcast of we put out a tweet that's remember exactly
the wording of it. It was like an offered offered Fitterer the job, I think, and we talked about it on here and our boss Bill explained it on his Twitter of just we can't go with the same language when it comes to offering a job, specifically in that situation. But it also replies to to this window when it comes to players can't go with the exact language that people who are not affiliated with the organization can for
various reasons, and so sometimes you gotta get creative. Sometimes you can't say anything right, and those those were a little bit different compared to players because of the players are you know, there's there's like the PA and the Players Association, of course, but I guess I just meant as being an organization, you can't always break the news when outside sources are people that are not affiliated with the organization can can break the news, right, So, and
that could be you know, if we're looking at March seventeenth, and you know, you guys hear about something, we all hear about something very soon. That's a long time of of sitting on it. So um, but that's kind of where we are. And then after March seventeen, we get into um the draft in April. It's a little bit later this year, April, and it's notable. Of of course, I think most football fans know this, but it's notable. The thing that's not on the schedule, the thing that's
not listed is the combine. Combine. I think that's gonna be really interesting to see how teams, all teams adjust. And now I will say this, all teams have done nothing but adjust since about this time last year. But there was a combine last year. When we were down at the Senior Bowl, I was trying to think about talking to Darren Our writer about Okay, when did things start to change last year? And it felt like the Combine if I'm not mistaken, because this is also when
I was just starting with the Panthers. I started in April, so to make sure I have all this right, Combine felt like the last really big event, especially when it comes to assessing new players, guys coming into the league, because pro days or where things started to change. Correct. So it was the week after, because I remember this, I was in a conference in Pittsburgh, which was always the week after the combine UM and it was the middle of that conference and we were you know, this
was like an NFL APP conference. I'm sitting there with the UM the groups from like the Bucks and the Colts and you know, the Eagles and all this conference about all sorts of things with with the APP. Yeah, it was very exciting and very nerdy and very not
exciting all the same time. I think that sounds cool, So yeah, but no, we're we're out at the you know, we're out after like the day's meetings and watching and then the Rudy Gobert stuff breaks and by and by the next morning, like they were literally there were presentations by the people that run all of our apps about like all these different features and all of us are
on Twitter. You know. I hate to say, but we were kind of zoned out watching this conference basketball tournament shutdown, this one like a SEC, big ten, big yeast, like throughout the morning and by that afternoon, after lunch, we were all like, are we you know some you know, are we allowed back in our building? Like some of us were hearing that, like our companies were suspending travel, like are we gonna be able to get back on the airplane? Like it was all of that In that
same day. I was in a similar So now that you say that, I was in a similar situation watching the news. So I was doing a smaller uh conference A conference was a basketball tournament. It was there, it
was their conference tournaments. And so the day everything started to get canceled, and I think a CEC was last, right, but we started to see the bigger, the bigger inferences get canceled, and we were out on the court and then they called the game, and so then we went back similar to you went and watched the place with the TV and watched the news started to break and had the same questions of Okay, can we can we get back on the plane? Um, you know, is everything
officially canceled? What do we do? Is it safe to go back on the plane? Actually had a producer who drove we were in Texas and drove um back to back to his home in Kentucky, and so it's just it was just that kind of that uncertainty. But it's a great marker for for when all of this happened.
Was was right around all the basketball tournament. And I think and this has been talked about at nauseum everywhere, but when you really think about this entire year that encompasses every facet of life around the world, and in large part the breaking point was sports. Like in a twenty four hour period, the thing that changed wearing masks in the grocery store, the thing that changed you know, government takes on this was sports in twenty four hours.
And I think that's remarkable kind of the power of that both within the media, within pulpular culture, within you know, its ability to you know, to make really important changes in society that like COVID happened when sports shut down, well it happen, it happened, I know exactly what you're
saying that was. I think it was the time when a lot of people started to realize what the effects in the dangers of this are, because there weren't there weren't you know, there was some stuff in Seattle, you know, and people were kind of talking about that, but there weren't widespread Literally, by the end of that week, there were widespread canceled the NBA too, right, everything, but you know,
everything was shutting down because of it. I think when multibillion dollar industries shut down, I think people take notice and maybe this is not just isolated event and Seattle, this is a thing that I need to be concerned about. Agreed. I completely agree with that, But I also agree with what Will said. Not only was it a multibillion dollar company, but sports, you know, it's so many, It spans so many um different age groups and cultural groups, and you know,
every one you know is a sportsman. If you're not, then someone you know is, And so of course you're going to hear that news faster maybe than a movie production or whatever it is. So I always thought like the n C Double A Tournament was like invincible. So for them to be like, yeah, we're just not going to do it this year. That was when you go okay. That was when I personally was like, okay, I need to get toilet paper and hunker down here at the house,
remember the toilet paper shortage. But saying all of that and bringing it back to this year, there still was the combine, and so it's it's funny to think that,
you know, I kind of go okay. I was talking to Matt Rule after it was on his one year anniversary of being hired back in January, and we talked kind of went through the significant events in such a crazy year of his first year as a head coach, so that the draft from home for example, um, you know, having to leave the build being after a couple of months, which was right around the same time we're talking about
in March. But this now, they haven't quite done a full year of this, so this is still a new thing. I think we tend to think, Okay, they've done this for a year, and they have, and you know, I can't imagine how much more they know now than they did at this time last year, considering what's to come all thirty two teams. But the combine is so important.
I think that's why it was so great for them to kick down and not only just evaluate players in mobile, but coach Combine is such a benchmarker and is so important to evaluating these new um these incoming NFL players. You know, for for forty times is a big one and UM for bench marks. Now, we know that that's some you know, what do they call the underwear Olympics.
We know that there are things that are overvalued at the Combine, but there are also things that happened at the Combine that you don't always see from players in their pro day or at a Senior Bowl. Um. And and so that's gonna be a whole new twist even going forward on what is you know now getting into the second season of of covid um related football and and then you think of you know how many you think of what they're working on or what they're working with.
Is this film from the Fall where some of these guys may have played what five games? Four games? Trade lance that quarterback, I think he only played one game since you know, so like there it's it's not just
they don't get to see them in Indie. You know, they there's all sorts of things that are now and you know so then you wonder, Okay, does this year become a year where you know, the salary cap you know, reportedly is going to be lower, maybe not as low as originally you know, actually thought, but still lower for the first time. Um, you know, does the market change
in free agency? Do you maybe need to rely a little bit more on someone that is a proven veteran versus you know, a draft pick that's played one game in two years? You know where you really can't, you know, because it's always been you know, lean on the draft. Well, it's interesting that you go unproven veteran because I thought, oh, well, we'll probably see more undrafted guys, you know, with the
salary cap bang low. But you'r I mean, yeah, I think you could go any number of ways, but diamonds in the rough probably yeah, or you hope what you hope are diamonds in the rough. But there's no doubt that rosters are going to be constructed very differently this year in terms of bringing on new players. So it'll be very interesting. What do you think, in absence of the combine is the most important way to evaluate or or necessary way to evaluate considering that there is this
kind of gaping whole of information. I'd say, I'd say Matt rules elevator test. You know, just the getting getting around someone, even if it's for thirty seconds being with you know, those interviews they have in the hotel rooms where you can just look someone in the eye and get a real sense for them. That's how That's the story on Derek Brown right from last year, and it's it's the story on guys stopped going up and going down um in different ways at different times. And I
think that's a big part of it. And I think there's there's a lot that goes on in you know, in the streets of Indianapolis. There's a lot of that goes on in the streets. There are things that people just talk. A lot of people talk, and the way that those talks kind of go that week start. It's this weird momentum thing, like guys just start getting momentum
one way and other starts guys get yes. But it's certainly an effect um that's that people are used to using in the way that they go about their spring, which will no longer be there. I had a conversation with Scott Fitterer talking about some of the players he drafted in Seattle, And you know, it's funny you look back at some of those guys, the Richard Sherman's or the Russell Wilson's who are huge name is now, but you really have to take yourself back to a place
where they were not highly recruited. They were not um recruited. Sorry I was I was thinking about I was just thinking about Russell wasson't it? And he stayed but you know, not highly touted when it came to the draft and we're talking about Richard Sherman and he was like, you know, he's his his measurables, his play. They weren't, you know, uh stand out. And I said, so what was it?
Because now, of course you oh yeah, you dsted Richard Truman, But so you really have to think about what it was like to evaluate him at that time where he wasn't um the guy that we know now. And he said he refused to let himself give up, refused to let himself give up. And how do you know that if you don't get a chance to spend some time with him. But I also think that you have someone like a Scott Fitter, like a Matt Rule, who are
used to trying to find us. Matt put out those diamonds in the rough anyway, and I think that that they are hope well set up for this and have had time to think about how they're going to adjust
their plan when it comes to finding talent. And you know, uh, with Rule being a college coach for a long time and and knowing some of these guys back to when they were in high school and Fitter being a scout at heart, too good people to have when it comes to having to get creative to evaluate young talent, right, I mean, I definitely and the Panthers are in a great position both from the Senior Bowl, from the people
they have kind of looking at this right now. Um, you know, there's there's a They're not at the worst spot in terms of cap space, They're not the best, They're kind of in the middle. Um, And yeah, you know, I think I think this spring is going to be really really interesting. You know, there's, as Scott Fitter said in his press conference, they're gonna he's gonna be in
on every deal. You may not make it, um, and it may not be a good fit, but at least there's gonna be a lot of a lot of options, diligence, due diligence, right, And when you do that, then you start to you know, then you know kind of what's going on the league. You know you're very much out there,
you're very much involved. Um, and and then that that can send a message to other There's so many different things that come of that, you know that maybe an unintended consequence, but can actually be something that's helpful down the line. Yeah. I also feel like coach Roll might have a slight advantage over most because he's only you know, two years removed from being a college coach. He probably recruited or looked at film for a lot of these
guys too, So I think that's another advantage possible. Absolutely, all right, we're gonna take a quick break. We'll be right back with more. Mr Jenkins told me. Mr Jenkis told me. Mr Jenkis told me to always make it easy for the customer. That's you alive. Person will always be here to answer the phone. We're here till midnight, seven days a week, so you never have to take off work, and it's the same prices in the daytime. We're the ones you want to call. We're the ones
you want to call. We're the ones you want to call. You're gonna love these people. I guarantee see got a more Jenkins dot com back here on the Happy Half Hour podcast presented by Morris Jenkins, and Mr Jenkins told me that he loves football and he looks forward to this show all week. When you're plumbing or air conditioning is acting up? Called Morrise Jenkins or visit Morse Chickens
dot com. All right, we're gonna talk about something a little bit different and well, you were saying that you have a lot of people, younger folks that reach out to you asking, you know, how do I how do I get your job? How do I get to be at Panther Stacks, verified at the stats guy on Twitter? I get a lot of people that ask me that question. Matt. I'm sure you've gotten it as well. People who are maybe in college or high school or just starting out.
Let's say, okay, I see what you're doing and what's the path to get there? So we're going to tell them right yeah, and if you listen for the next five minutes, I will give you all the steps you need to know for a low price of five payments to get this job act now and I will throw in my five stop process. But so, how does how did you get to where you are? I think it's a great question. I mean, honestly, it was it was
being interested in college. I mean I think that's and I say that knowing now that things have changed so much from what the college experiences, especially like the last twelve months. We've already talked about that, it's so much harder. Um. But I mean, all I can really know is what I did, which was, you know, I was at a small school and Davidson and I was really involved with our student newspaper. I was involved with like our athletic
department in like marketing in their sports information. I'm sure, I know I know this. Were you there when stuff was there? So that see you know good? Yeah. And when once in all times in a lifetime player comes along with during your senior year and takes you to the Elite eight and you're one of the only ones covering the team from beginning, then yeah, that that helps
a little bit. I got I got pretty lucky. But you were already doing it before that, sure, so it's a it's a validation of your you would have been doing it had he not been there. Oh yeah, I mean I was covering Brendan Winners and Matt McKillop and Chris Clooney and Kenny Grant, you know, names lost to history. UM, but those guys were great and they won a so Con championship the year before stuff got there. So you
know it was a passion of mine. And you know I kind of looked at where things were when I graduated in two thousand and eight and um looked into potential you know, news journalism and ended up kind of thinking, you know, there was a pathway to kind of being involved in this and from a kind of a PR team standpoint, and ended up applying for an internship with the Panthers in their PR department, UM, and got that largely based off of there was someone that worked at
Davidson that did game day here that had a connection, and you know it was able to kind of start from there and then that that open doors down the road, down the road, down the road. UM, and and then when I came back, it was you know in PR. But I'll explain, just really quickly, explain what you mean
when you say when you came back. So, yeah, I had worked for eight years um in kind of the college space too with St. John's two with three with College Charleston and three with the University of Richmond, And by the end of it, I was a what you call like a sports information director, and that title had changed so much in the ten years since I graduated.
College used to be faxing box scores to the local media and for anyone who doesn't know because if we are talking about getting a job that I think this is interesting. I uh as a college sideline reporter, primarily for for college basketball football. Before I came to the Panthers, worked with sports information directors a lot s I D s and they are they are your contact when you are covering a team. They are your contact for everything there.
The PR person there, the stats person. They are the facilitator of you know, if you're doing a basketball game from a network perspective and it's shoot around, they get the coach to come over and talk to you and one of the players. They are your your contact on the field if you need anything, sometimes for injuries. They really are such an incredibly important part of the college landscape.
I think the closest thing I would relate them to as a PR person right in the NFL, and so it's very similar, I think, but for people who don't know the term sports information director, that's how you can think of them, which is an interesting certainly an interesting route. If you're looking to um get into sports, it definitely check out the college sides. I just want to explain what that was and how important it is to those organizations. Absolutely,
and there's there's you know, so many colleges. There's colleges in your communities that you know that need people to do that. You know, from Division one, you know, High Major all the way down to Division three, and so there's there's a lot of opportunity there. And for me, yeah, I mean those thirty minutes that I would spend with
the broadcast crew like those were in my mind. I got to to make the two hour broadcast, like I'm going to put my imprint on what's talked about in this broadcast about our team, because as a sideline reporter or anyone, you are looking for stories and you're looking for the story that the crew last week didn't tell you,
or the crew on Tuesday hasn't already said. And and that's where sports information director, you know, you try to do your research, but they come in they say, oh, yeah, he's uh you know, he's a four point o g p A. You're like, wow, really, what's his major? You know,
those kinds of things where you're absolutely right. They they spend so much time around the teams and around the coaching staff, and they just have this knowledge and it's it's really incredible because the best s I d s and the ones that I was the most grateful for are the ones that would just help you. I mean, they would just tell you these things because they want to make your broadcast better. They want to get their message across and highlight these these athletes, UM and the
coaching staff, and it's just it's great. I'm incredibly grateful to all the work that uh so many sports information directors and their staffs too. So if you're younger, you look into too, who is helping them do stuff? I mean, but it's everything from credentials to storylines to um you know, I had at ones that help me get into a class, Like there was a robotics class that one of the players was taking one time. I can't remember what school
it was at, but you know, things like that. It's incredible and so you know, if you look at part of what I do now, the Panthers stats guy part, you know, so much of that started when I was the baseball contact at College of Charleston. Because when you're playing oh gosh, sixty games and each one it just feels like it's the same thing over and over again. But you really try to like what is unique? You
know what. There's so many stats in baseball and there's so many different tools to kind of you know, I I was, I kind of went down this rabbit hole of you know, this guy against left handed pitchers on you know, on Friday nights against the Friday night left handed pitcher is going to be really good when he's hitting clean up, I mean like really good, and then boom there's another three for four day, and all of a sudden, this becomes this narrative that then gets taken
to ESPN Plus and you know whatever was broadcasting it and all just because you're really digging into the stats you have available and trying to translate that into something that's meaningful. You know, there's tons of I can give you any number of numbers that as we said, yeah I can, and who cares what to make them make sense,
makes me relevant. They have to and so that was kind of where I honed that and then UM, after eight years doing that, got an opportunity interview to come back here, and that was when the Panthers PR and Digital were kind of coming together and kind of doing similar things. So I got to kind of work in
both departments. Do you mind kind of giving everyone what a day looks like for you, because I think I think we can talk about, you know, my job or Matt's job another time, but my job is pretty clear. UM and I've talked about but I talked about what
I've done. But I think this is really interesting that even for the first few months, I because we were working from home and you and I talking pretty frequently and doing a podcast together, even I didn't realize all the different things that you're involved in on a daily basis. Would you talk about that a little bit? So I think now in my role, I have uh, kind of the Panthers app, Panthers dot Com. The back end is kind of all in my sphere. So I'm working a lot.
It's a lot, and but you know, I work with our marketing group, with our ticketing group, with UM, all the different people that have initiatives that need to be updated or brought to life UM on our digital platforms in some way. You know, I'm right in the middle of all the stuff going on with with you know, Darren Gant, you know, and our writers and our video team, because uh, those need to be formatted a certain way, UM, and those need to be broken a certain What time
should we put this out? You know? Well, you know I can tell you if we do it at this hour and this day, it's going to perform better than
at this hour. And if we amplify it in this way, if we do this push unification, if this is the way it looks UM, if this is the way that we are creating UM an experience on the app through like a plug in that creates a mobile experience that you know that you're getting and you can see all of the different content from this win over Detroit or whatever it might be, or go UM the virtual was it going to the stand, going to the stadium? Sorry, it was so longer. I know exactly what it is
because it was very cool, but it was a R portal. Yes, yeah, So that was something that I kind of created with that conference last year in Pittsburgh with with all of us app nerds, we were like this, uh, it had been done by the Wolves and that was my Premier League team, and so I got their app and I'm like, wait a minute, this is really cool and it's the same company that does ours. So I worked with them
and we created that for us. And you know, it's if you haven't done it, if it's on the app, now you can essentially create a portal that you can walk through with your phone and walk from your room into the stadium and then walk back and then you know, it's awesome. It's incredible. And I apologize for not knowing exactly what it was. It was just I did it a long time ago during the season and I was like, I know exactly what this is, but I can't think
of the name of it. So essentially, also, what is uh, what everyone should know is that if if you have the Panthers app and you get a push notification, just no wills on the other side of that, yep, I will wake you up early to tell you what's going on or late. But yeah, so it's it's a lot of that. I mean, it's the it's the Twitter account,
it's Panther stats guy. It's researching things. It's you know, right now I'm going through and updating all nine guys bios with you know, what what stands out about Robbie Anderson? What what's something that you know, a franchise ranking and NFL ranking? What has he done over the last four
years that makes him? Uh, something that stands out that's going to go into a note that's going to go into a tweet, that's going to go into a broadcast, that's going to be a part of a narrative that you know, hopefully I start by spending time researching it and figuring it out. And I think, what's interesting because you're never someone that would say this, But you also have a hand. What I learned pretty quickly, it's like
you have a hand. There's all the things that are forward facing, which are a lot of like you said, the stats, the notes, updating the stuff that you see, but then you also have a hand with things that we couldn't do without you. So for for National Women and Girls in Sports A you put those articles together
in mad Sure they looked great on the website. For we've done events or we're like we need how do we get this email out to everyone, and it's well, it's like I'm here, I'm doing this, I got this, and it's just your You're this person that you can kind of go okay. Not only do you do all the things that everyone sees, but you're also doing so much that only you can do to make sure that we all go okay, if we want to have this event and send an email out to our PSL owners
and do that, how does that even happen? And I was like, I got it, don't worry about it. But it's it's all these little things and I don't know sometimes how you keep it all straight. Honestly, Well thank you. But I also think, like going back to the original part of all this, I think there's a lot to be said for being really really great at a one at a specific thing, at knowing I want to be that.
I want to do that, and so I'm gonna hone my craft to be really really good at that specifically, and that's a very good opportunity to kind of move up the ranks and get a job, you know, in the NFL or wherever you wanted to be um to
be the best at that. I also think, you know, my experience shows that if you if you're if you listen, if you watch, if you see everything that goes on around you, that you can kind of be valuable in every room, in every scenario, and that when things change, when organizations change, when roles change, when things like COVID happen, and all the things that we have to do, we have to figure out a new way to do it.
You were equipped to be a valuable piece that everyone knows like, well, you know, we can count on that person because they can do so much and that they can be you know, uh, just able to do whatever you need them to do. And I think that's also a way to to find a role in this business, especially when you're young. I think that's great advice where it's you's always going to help yourself by trying to be able to do as many different things in the
avenue that that you want to go down. So if you want to be someone that's involved with statute, also, do you know how those get posted? Do you know? Do you know the web site? Can you can you help other people? Can you edit all those kinds of things? So I think that's that's great advice. Well, do you want to break the news to everybody or or no, this is our last weekly podcast for a little while. I was just looking at it. He's like, what are we gonna say? I was like, I shouldn't, don't tease.
I've only been here two years and I lost like everybody I worked out. It's all like I do this for a living or anything. I should have had a better way to go about that. Uh, this, We're gonna take a little bit of a step back with the football season ending not be doing this weekly, although we still will be doing it consistently. So it's not it's not goodbye. It's just a little bit. We'll see you in a few weeks from now, a few weeks down
the road. And yeah, and when we come back, we're gonna have plenty talk about you're gonna want to talk about it? I have. I cannot wait. We have an episode coming up. Can I say this around the draft that I can't wait. I have been dying to hear these stories from Will. That's all I'll say. And he has promised, and there our next few episodes he's gonna tell them, So you're gonna wanna look out for that. In the meantime, Hope everyone is staying safe, staying healthy.
Uh and is happy and we will see you soon. Thanks so much for listening to the Happy and four podcast. Okay,