Happy Half Hour Episode 40: The Quarter Pounders

Morris Jenkins dot com. Kristen here with Darren and Will and Matt back together for another Happy half Hour podcast. And it's a big day. I mean, we have a lot to catch up on a lot of Panthers news, but before we do that, we got to talk about the most important life updates, which is that Will, it is your birthday to day, that's right, Happy birthday. And Darren got married less than two weeks ago. Yeah, and

gradually since Darren, Thank you very much. We're there are many many happy half hours that extend and hopefully for the rest of my life. Yeah. Yeah, it's good stuff. It absolutely is. Congrats to both of you. Will congrats on making it another year and Darren, congrats on the marriage. I know, and and Kristen, you're you're just getting younger, You're Benjamin button ng Us. Sure, well, well I'm getting older and Darren's getting married. Yeah. I like that. Thank you.

That's when you're some brownie points. I appreciate it here. So I have to say, though, are we allowed to say what happened on our Tuesday call this morning to celebrate your birthday? Well, you got to tell the story of your perspective. So we do a Tuesday call every Tuesday, every Tuesday morning, and generally it's just updates about the department, our digital department, right, and so a lot of okay, we're talking about training camp right now, all sorts of logistics.

But there was a special guest today in honor of Will's birthday. I think you gotta tell it from your perspective, right, So, all of a sudden, I start seeing these chat number things coming from this guy named Astition, and there we've we've hired some new people. So I thinking maybe this is, you know, one of the new employees that we have, and Sebastian is like, happy birthday. Well you're like, you know that this person's coming. I need to meet this

Sebastian you know friends. Yeah, and then I hear or they say, we need to put it in like preview mode or like full modes you can see everyone and not just like yourself or whatever. And then there's this goat named Sebastian is an actual goat, an actual goat on the call, just eating goat things or whatever. Goats eating English and English goat. Yeah, I don't how do you tell the difference. I saw Sebastian, I didn't know he was an English goat. Yeah. Bill was very excited

about this. He was not just any old goat, right. Our boss was very excited about putting this plane into motion for the last week, and he was like, you gotta come see this goat I found in England. His name Sebastians from oh I thought that was like I thought he was. That was just his brand, Like I thought he was like English goat American. I didn't realize he was actually joining us from across the pond. So it was time for Sebastian. Well, Sebastian had a Type five.

Sebastian was in and out from ten to ten oh five. I think he gets booked pretty heavily. So it's luckily that we got Sebastian. Yeah, I felt very honored. It's a pretty good, pretty good birthday present, right, it's a pretty memorable one. Now, when my birthday rolls around, if I get some cheap domestic goat, I'm gonna be really Salty's not gonna go I'd say, Well, is the only person I've ever seen to get a cameo like that on their birthday? So yeah, very honored to see what

what we've got up our sleep for Darren. So, Darren, how is married life? And are you excited to be taking your honeymoon in Spartanburg. That's what everybody said, You got a big honeymoon planned and I was like, yeah, I'm going to spartanburgum with all of your coworkers. Yeah, it's gonna be awesome. I mean, it's been such a blur of the last couple of months. Bought a house, get get married, do all this stuff, and then it's like okay, now what Okay? Now I have two weeks

before training camp and then football season starts. So it's it's been a lot coming at us, but it's been fantas astic. We were extremely fortunate had a lot of close friends and family there with us when it all went down. So it was it was good. It was a great day and it was great. We had people, some friends from out of town came in, made it really special weekend, really great vibes all the way around. In the studio today we got a lot of smiles

celebrating Will's birthday, talking about Darren's wedding. But you mentioned training camp. We are gonna get everyone ready for training camp in just a little bit. But I think we have to pay the due to some updates from the Panthers that have happened since the last time we talked, because there have been quite a few. So I think in news that makes literally everyone happy. Right, Taylor Malton and the Panthers agreed to a new multi year extension,

and my mind is greedness for everyone involved. It's great for Taylor, great for the offense, great for the front office, great for us, the three of us, great for the fans. They're no losers, right, Darren, Not really. I mean, if Taylor doesn't get that contract and he plays out the year on the franchise tag, it just limits you in so many ways. One, you can't make a long term plan for the offensive blind because you know you're either gonna have to tag the guy or go through this

next year. And number two, I mean, he freed up about gosh eight or nine million bucks worth a cap room right off the top, which gives them options for stuff they can do. So the reality is there may be more people who are happy about this deal in the coming weeks because it just gives them a little

more flexibility going in if somebody needs to extend. If you want to start talking to some of the guys who are going to be free agents after this year, like a Robbie Anderson, like a Dante Jackson, if you want to get a jump start on some of that stuff, you can do that now, whereas previously you could not.

So it's definitely a good deal all the way around for those guys, but especially Taylor, And I mean, my gosh, if anybody deserves an extension, you know, and I'm offensive, li I'm impartial, but that guy, he grinds, he works, he and they I have very little doubt that he's going to continue to work the exact same way now that he's got the money. I mean, he's just the

same dude, and that's what they love about him. In addition to being a great player, just the a great teammate too, like a good guy, good friends to a lot of people as I've gotten to know him more now that we're allowed to be around players, and I think you could see it. It It was one of my favorite. I mean, our social media team is just absolutely incredible.

Shout out Amy, Angela and Daniel. But I loved the post when the Taylor Morten news was announced, all of the Panthers teammates, all of the players that commented either in the Panthers DMS or the comments under the announcement of just how excited all of the Panthers players, all of his teammates were excited for him. And you can't fake that. I just think that's that's awesome he is.

I still remember his first day here. You know, he showed up and he was wearing dark jeans and a white Western Michigan polo shirt, you know, and some of the other draft picks from that class, you know, you know, had the full suits and we're all like ready to go, and you know, here's Taylor just going around and shaking the hands of everyone that's around him in his Western Michigan polo just ready to get going. Like that's just always been who he is, and I think and he's

still that way, you know, four years later. He's played every snap last year, you know, hasn't missed a start, you know, since his his rookie year when when he was a spot starter. I mean, he's he's an everyday guy, good friends with Christian McCaffrey, who we also have to talk about in our news updates. So since our last episode, CMC proved that he's incredibly talented at something else because

he played piano at his benefit concert. The Troops Benefit Concerts Starring Zach Bryan with Christian McCaffrey was the official name of that event, which happened right before fourth of July. I did ask him ahead of time. I was like, are you gonna sing? Because he told me he was like, I don't sing. I'm not a good singer. It's probably something I'm really bad at or worst at. Don't ask me. I'm not gonna do it. And so I was like,

are you gonna sing at this concert? Now? I didn't see any singing, but I mean it's just like you're you're great. You're great at football, and now you're great at piano to like, can I get one talent? Can I just get the one one thing that I'm really really good at is to be able to do all that. He's taking all the talent for he's not leaving any for the rest of us, certainly not for me. It's uh, but he was. I mean, Christian did have a little

bit of I don't know, stage fright. It's probably not the right way, but he was a little nervous because he's played in the living room, he's played in front of friends and family, but he hadn't played in front of a couple of thousand people at the film or

the way he did well. And what he told me was that, you know, it's for a good cause, Like this is not something that maybe would be in his comfort zone, even though he's very good, but it was, you know, on behalf of of his organization, twenty two troops went to a great cause. And so that's that's really incredible that he did that. Can you guys play instruments? I was thinking about that anything I'm not musical, I mean, like recorder in fourth grade when we were all in

elementary school, you learn to play the record. I can do I can do like one hand on the piano, so like I can, I can look at cheap music and no know what keys to hit. But like two hands were ones going a whole different thing on a different cleft in the other you can read music. So he took piano lessons. Then now I was just like in quired, so I could sing, so I like knew the notes, a couple of a scale, a little warm up exercise, same way that like I used to play

football twenty years ago. It doesn't mean I can go out and do it. I was gonna say, were you in an acapella group in college? I was in an acapella group in high school called the quarter Pounders. They just keeps getting better. Oh my love, oh four a M.

What was your go to song? So I was like the alternate because they want a competition to win the same the national anthem and every home e c h L Minor League hockey game, And of course one guy couldn't make most of the Tuesday nights for for whatever reason, so I always sang the base part of the national anthem on the ice with the quarter Pounders. I love that you will just admit that you were like an alternate, So I didn't. I didn't. All I sung was the

national anthem. That's the only song. They're like, well, you're in the national that's all I did. So every time during the national anthem, if you're like standing next to me at a game, I will hum the base harmony. Oh I gotta get in there. Yeah, put that on a resume the walk on for the quarter pound Wait? Why was it called the quarter path wunders? Because there are four of us? But why they liked quarter pounder hamburger?

Because together you create a whole, whole, whole big So did they let the other guy do all the other stuff? Just he made it in I I didn't actually make it through the final audition, but I was the only other guy that could sing bass. How did I go for almost a year and a half of knowing you without knowing this? That's incredible. We end it right here, right, come up? Yeah, we don't need to talk about I'm done.

Oh man? All right. In other news, it's also been announced that Steve Smith is doing preseason games along with Taylor's Arsa and someone named Kristin Balbonie. I've never heard of her. I am so excited though I got to meet him when we did the schedule release video. He came back very graciously and did a take on his ice ups, on his famous line with an ice block and a chainsaw, and I got to play the reporter who was in there, and we had a great time.

And then I've you know, gotten to hang out and chat with him as we start to plan for the preseason and Taylor as well, who's just incredibly talented, and I'm I'm thrilled. I cannot wait. And they're gonna be a training camp too, right, I think to watch some practices. Yes, yeah, we're gonna do a couple of broadcasts through there. I don't know if the details have been released, but Panthers fans are gonna get some steep, which I think, again everyone is excited about, and he is thrilled to be

doing it. He's already you know, we're already tossing around ideas. He's already said some stuff. You know how former players who are really good analysts, and certainly he is a really good analyst. At NFL Network, they put stuff in a way that you're just like like the analogies, They put stuff in away where you go, oh wow, okay, got it. That makes a lot more sense. It can really condense down these big observations. And I don't want to give any of the ones away that he was saying,

because that will of course be on the broadcast. But I just went, oh, it makes a ton of sense, you know. And and so I'm excited for him to add that perspective to to the broadcast and to get to work with him. And it's last It's cool to see Steve. And this is one of the things I always respected about him when he was a player and in his post career. Steve wants to do the work.

When he did some stuff with Taylor at local radio, he insisted on being intern Smitty for a couple of months and answering the phone and knowing how the board worked before he would go on and just be football guy talking about football. Steve Smith, he loves learning new things. His curiosity sets him apart from a lot of the guys who you encounter in this world. Not that there aren't a lot of smart guys in here, but Steve's just got that wanting to learn about the world quality

that you know, he walks in eyes wide open. It's like, okay, now, what do we get to do. Now, what do we get to do? What's next? And so he's just adding something. And when Steve gets to learn something new, he's pretty happy. The energy he brings just even to the meetings, and how excited he is about it and passionate and he is about being there to call these Panthers preseason games is infectious. Oh yeah, he's gonna sell you to ice up. He has already when we did the schedule release video,

go back and watch it. He raises everyone's level around him. Now he's that guy, Darren, what's your best Steve Smith, Marie or play or You've You've got so many great stories, I would be remiss not to ask. I mean, I'm putting you on the spot. I've always said, of the ten greatest catches I've ever seen, Steve Smith make three or four of the we're in games. I mean, he absolutely went out in practice every day with something to prove.

And early in his career, part of that was he felt it was his obligation to help the coaching staff cut the roster and tell him which cornerbacks needed to

make the team and which ones didn't. And so Steve was going out there every day like that, and there was stuff happening on a practice field where you're looking around and there's nobody there beside you, and it's like somebody else saw that, and I only one that will ever get to see that, I mean, and he's just there was one and it was just a random Wednesday in an October in the middle of the season, and he's going across the middle of the field that passes

thrown behind him and he's like in mid air twisting and reaching around behind himself with one hand and it's like, oh my god, there's video of this daring just today. I know you can't see it, but daring just to day a yoga moved really show if somebody's got some help right now. I'm a little stiff, um yeah, but I mean Steve just he's fantastic because when he puts himself into something, he puts himself all the way in. And and that's what gray ones do. I cannot wait,

canna wait, And it's it's coming up. I mean, we're counting down the days now. We all leave next week for training camp. Um, we're starting to finalize our plans, which is so exciting. So let's talk about it. Let's talk about training camp. We are gonna do a Swill's birthday. So he got to set the agenda for the podcast,

and I absolutely love this. We're going to go around the Horn style with a couple of questions about training camp, and we are going to start Will with one thing to watch, starting with you, what's your one thing to watch? So I love watching the one on ones between receivers

and corners. Not me, I like, Stretch was like, yeah, everyone loves the one on ones, right, So I mean it's it's obvious, but I do want to see I want to see DJ and j C. I want to see a J Boyer and Robbie, you know, or however these guys line up, however they match up, you know, when when they're on the island, when when you've got to make a move. I want to see kind of that physicality, and you know, some of the things they do in there you may not be able to do

in a game. So it's kind of fun to watch the way they really go at each other, you know, every day on on the one on one. So that's why I'm gonna be watching. You almost stole my thing, Sorry, yeah, because I was gonna say, also one on ones but Lineman. Yeah, and because I think one of the coolest things I ever got to do in spartan Burg was watched Jordan's Gross and Julius Pepper's practice against each other every day for about what six or seven years. I mean, the

seeing those two guys go against each other. It's like, Okay, Jordans has to be technique perfect because he's trying to block physical freak and every advantage is with the guy on the other side. So it made Jordans better working against a guy like that all the time. And I think it's gonna be it's gonna be interesting to see this year, I mean, with so much and we'll have more about this tomorrow and Panthers dot com. But um watching cam Irving watching the people who were competing for

the left tack job. Okay, congratulations over there's Brian Burns. Play hard, get after it. Let's see who's going to be this guy come and started the season. Is it going to be Cam Irving or Dennis Daley or Trent Scott or great or whoever or maybe Taylor Mountain if things don't go his planned? But whoever is going to be in that spot's gonna get him a full dose of Brian Burns and a son Reddick and Morgan Fox,

and we'll find out in a hurry. My one thing to watch is just the I want to see the chemistry um with each unit when they come in and then what it looks like by the time they leave, because this is the first traditional training camp for so they drafted eleven guys this year, seven last year, a lot of new faces, and then the staff has not had a traditional training camp at Watford, and now the

location is not necessarily as important. But last year, that's where they met each other for the first time, was getting here all of their O t A s as as all Panthers fans know and all NFL fans, everything was virtual. And I remember Coach Rule telling me that one of the things he was most looking forward to is having a more traditional offseason and being able to build the chemistry and being able to get guys comfortable with the playbook and the scheme um. And they've been

doing a lot of that. So I'm interested to see where these guys come in and how each of those three units are developing, and then also what develops like I love to watch even who's walking in together, you know, and and so much to what you guys said about the one on ones or the drills, How does that evolve, What does it look like, you know by the end of it, because really, I mean training camp was just so different last year. Like I said, people were meeting

each other for the first time. It was in August, it was here. So I'm excited to see what the benefit of a much more normal offseason does to this incredibly, incredibly young team. And a lot of guys talked about that. Durn O t a s It's like, we can actually meet these guys now, you can build relationships when you can see somebody's face and talk to them and go out to the almost still feels weird, like oh we can we can do that now, you know. It's so

it's great, all right. Next up, one player to watch during training camp Darren who you got see and again will stomped on it a little bit. But j C Horns fastening to me because he is a guy unlike they've had at that position in a long long time. They've had some good corners around here. James Bradberry was fine, Josh Norman was pretty good for a while, But really

j C is a different kind of player. I mean there's just not one that's that pedigreed, that size, that fluid, that athletic, probably since Chris Gamble, and Chris Gamble was not going to come up and hit anybody. So I mean watching j C during O T A S it's like, Okay, this guy is different. I want to see what it looks like in full pads because he's a big guy, and I think when he put shoulder pads on, people are going to be surprised because it's gonna be like, WHOA,

that guy is not supposed to be that size. Yeah, he's gonna a linebacker. And when you get to talk to him in person. I remember it was the day after he was drafted, So the Seconday of the draft, he came in met everyone in person and I was talking to Jim Scott Fitterer and I was like, oh, you know, j C was just down here. He came into an interview and he said, yeah, he just came

up and shook my hand. He was like I couldn't help but look at his reach, Like, you know, even and so even the person that probably knew the most about him when they drafted him and scouted knew everything about him, all of the measurements when you see him in person, and Darren said that, like Darren said, it's not even with pads physically, wow, and then you added everything else to it. So I think we're all excited

to watch him, But Will who's your official pick? So we did a quick like PSL fan pole for their offensive newcomer they most wanted to see your training camp um sent out through something like last week, and the guy that surprised me that was pretty high up that list was Dan Arnold. Everyone's really excited to see Dan Arnold. Fans are I think from what I've seen now, granted that's a limited sample, I think fans are kind of

like what they see. You know, it's it's been it feels so long ago that you know Greg was at full health and that this offense was really running through a tight end um with all that production, and you know, Arnold's a guy that really came on strong at the end of last year, you know, hopefully, I mean his December he had three or four touchdowns. If anyone saw that, if anyone saw the bonus clips completely and there's confidential, incredible quoting him him being pasting that. But you know,

there's he's got size, he's got hands. You have a tight end group that has blockers in it. You know, you have Ian Thomas obviously that's still working through, you know, kind of where he is in the production. But I think Arnold can be something that's really special. And all of a sudden you're looking around this offense and it's like,

who do you guard? You know, I mean, if you've got to if you've got to put someone on Christian, if you gotta put someone on Robbie d J. You know, the slot receiver, you know, Terris Marshall, David Moore, all these guys. Oh, and then here's a six or tight end running down the middle, Like okay, yeah, fun with that. He's also got the opportunity to become a little bit of a cult favorite around here. Darn's Darren's Darren's favorite, right He's but he is he's curious about his neighborhood.

I mean, he talked about when he was with the Saints and hated New Orleans because he lived out by the airport. Never got into New Orleans, he said, But I'm getting into Charlotte and he was telling me where he was living in, about restaurants in his neighborhood, where he's already figuring out where the good stuff was. And so he is in. He is into Charlotte, and so I think people are going to dig him if he's able to get out there and and make plays the

way it appears he may be able to. For my player to watch, I took the easy way out, just Sam Darnald, full stop like that. I thought for sure one of you guys were gonna say that. Yeah, someone's gonna say it. So for all the reasons that you would think, Cam Donald, that's my answer, all right. Last one, one thing you need answered before we record our next podcast, and will have specified to Darren and myself that this could be anything. The thing I need to have answered

is what times lunch know. The thing I need to have answered at training camp, I think, like everybody, I'm kind of curious to see what left tackle looks like. And when we leaned into mat a little bit at at o t as Mini camp about it, you know, the conventional wisdom's Cam irving, but he even hedged a little bit. He was like, I don't I don't know. I don't know, so I think a lot of stuffs up in the air. We'll see. It's gonna also depend on Trent Scott. I mean, he's coming off shoulder surgery.

Is he well enough to be a factor in that thing early on? So you know, that's a pretty important spot. So I think finding out who rolls out there next Tuesday with the first group is going to be a fairly important sign. So we know if you're ever looking for Darren on the field at training camp, he's going to be near the lineman. Like that's about That's what I'm hearing. Small people bore man. I'm sorry in that case except awkward. All right, Well, what is your one

thing that you need answered before our next podcast? Well, if we're looking to find where Darren is, we need to know what he's wearing courtesy of Jeremy I Go. We need to find out if Darren is gonna be wearing Jesus sandals at camp. I think there's a strong possibility that barking Stocks are returning to spartan Burg this year. Now they are, I may have to do some maintenance. They are old, they're older than my daughter. Is this

because I don't know that I've ever seen you. You typically go traditionally right, the tennis shoes, which would make sense for walking around. Is this like a training camp lower? Yeah, I've come out of training camp with tan lines on the top to my feet from birken stock straps. It's uh it's a good look for somebody, probably not me,

but it's uh, yeah, it definitely happens. I would wear down on the practice field all time, and so it's these have got some were on them, though I may need to do a little maintenance or upgrade before then. All right, Oh, now I want to know too. That's a good one. Well, that's a really really good one. Thank you for that. It's um. One of the moments that I will take away from this podcast is like, okay, gotta watch Darren's footwear and then also of course the

quarter pounders like that in the finny moment. The thing that I want answered before we record our next podcast is I feel like I'm thinking myself saying this, That's what I want to know. How hot is Spartanburg really? Because everyone has talked about I now I as as people who listen to this podcast know before coming to work here. Panthers fan right. So I've heard the stories about how hot it is. I know, you know, back in the day with two days and all of that,

certainly it was no joke. But you know, I put the weather on my phone whenever I travel somewhere, I start to look at the weather are a little bit early. I'm like, okay, practices are going to be early in the morning. And everyone is just everyone when you talk about training camp, everyone talks about the heat. So what I want to know is, I guess I want to find out one way or the other. But is it just is it really as hot as everyone says it's going to be? From any player who is this? Was

it you or Bill? I think Bill had said this, It's really not that hot, and then you know, Greg was like, well, you're not wearing paths now. I'm not okay, No, I'm not saying I want to specify. I am not saying that I've heard that from players and I am extrapolighting it out to my own experience. I'm talking about

staff members. You know, you know it's so hot. There's a time in the evening when you think it's about to start cooling down again, and then you go out maybe for for dinner or something, and you're just as soon as you step outside, you're just sweating. You're completely drenched. It's one of those places it's impossible to cool down. I mean, even if you go inside and knowing you've got to go back outside, it's just there's a dread.

I mean, it gets hot, it stays hot, it's humid, and but the good news is down in those corner practice fields, the air doesn't move at all, so it's also stagnant. Addition to hunt and human well, I will know by the next time we do this podcast. I'm sure I'm just drinking to myself it's gonna be the hottest, hottest three weeks on record ever, just because I put that out. Shout to Matt Rule though for scheduling practice

in the morning. I love it, very very excited about that, and for the fans because they'll get to be back and see some of practice, which is great. Alright, we're gonna take a quick break and when we come back, Weill's got stats and Darren's got a rant. 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 gere and see got a Morris Jenkins dot com. Welcome back to the Happy Half Hour podcast presented by Morris Jenkins. Mr Jenkins told me his plumbers and a c text secretly where Anthros Jerseys under their uniforms. When you're plumbing or air conditioning is acting up, called Morris Jenkins or

visit Morris Jenkins dot com. Certainly hope the air conditioning is fine in Spartanburg. I'm still thinking about that. I've decided to Jenks myself. All right, let's move on, Will what's the stat of the week of the week. So for this roster going down to Spartanburg, ninety players, there are only seventeen of them that have ever gone and done training camp at Wofford. You could have you could have put that set out when I was saying I'm looking forward to seeing how all the guys do down there.

I was saving it. You're saving it for your glory sure seventeen. So yeah, I mean there's it's there's a lot of new people that are going to be trying to find where to go, find where the meetings are, figure out where to you know, all this stuff. It's gonna be It's gonna be really fun, I think, because yeah, there's there's not that kind of we've done this before, we know what we're doing. Like everyone's going to have that kind of wide eyed and I think there's some

excitement about that. Yeah. And for guys like shack And and j J. Jansen who have done a lot of summers down in Spartanburg, they're gonna get called into play as like since the it's like what do I do? Where do I go? What do I need? And they're going to be sharing the truth and and it's you know, they'll find out. But it's a brand new roster. I

mean it really is. Most of the guys on this nightty Man roster have rolled in in the last couple of years since Matt was hired as head coach, and it's these guys haven't enjoyed the good life in Spartanburg. It is why it will be such a formative time for for this team. You know, I think they would

all agree that they need it. They need this opportunity to all be together, and they needed the offseason, and so I'm excited that that they're all getting it and we're all getting it all right, Darin, do you have a get off my lawn moment which the podcast? Yeah, but it's not really a negative one this week and

and this may strike to come hang out on my lawn. Yeah, this might be a come hang out on my law And in training camp because I really like training camp and it sounds weird and we're going to complain about how hot it is, and we're going to complain about work in sixteen hour days to bring you all this cool content at Panthers dot com. But training camp is cool because it focuses you, and it's and it kind of equates for us as a digital team and the

football team in the same way. It focuses you for the year to come. It gets you together with your people you know how to work with. I mean, Chris and I know each other, but we'll know each other better on the other side of Spartanburg after month and and so I just think it's a fantastic team building opportunity. And there will come a time and listen, I know

from football logistics it's going to be easier. And when the new facility opens in rock Hill, that'll, you know, probably take the place and there will be stuff there that you can do better than you can by going away to training camp. But I think there's gonna be

something you always miss. I just love the going away, the sequestering yourself in your work and you get to know in a hurry what to expect from certain people, what's what you can count on from this guy, what this person brings to the table, and you do it in that closed environment where it's just y'all and the world doesn't really exist. I remember coming home from camp and asking the kids did anything happen in the world Spartanburg, you know while I was gone, And they'll be like,

not really. You know there were wars and peace and you know, administration changes and you missed all of it because you were in Spartanburg. But uh, I enjoy it. I think it's cool. They're going to be days and nights in Spartanburg that we're gonna remember for years to come. It really does sound like Darren is talking about an actual honeymoon. You go away and it's just you. You don't know what's going on. You're able to sequester yourself away from real life. Twife didn't realize that he was

going on honeymoon with me, Yes, all of us. Katie's like, um, only if you bring the rest of the quarter pounders to the original four. All right, we have some weird questions of the week, multiple right, Matt. We'll put out the ask on social media. Yeah, so we'll reached out on social media to get some questions. And I have chat Panther Stats Guy at Panther Stats Guy or is it Panthers Pat's guy. Isn't it there's only one. We're not we're not doing that today. We've already gone over

the quarter pounders or not. And he said, he's like, I've gotta yeah. Alright. So the first question was submitted by at Miller Yoho on Twitter, and it's asking what our greatest irrational fear is. I'll go first. That came to mind. I don't even know if it's irrational because it's totally rational in my mind. Number one fear barn on roaches. I hate them. I hate them with a passion. I'd rather see a snake, a mouse, whatever it is.

Roach is in my vicinity, like in my space. If I see one outside, fine, like there's a you know, some few walk out a certain an area kind of around the building. There are you know, it's it's natural sometimes right like that, They're gonna be around certain areas outside. They don't bother me there. Do you not want them anywhere near me? In my space? What if one crawled on like your foot? I would move out. I'm not

even kidding. I would move out of my home. I've always had lived in a lived in a questionable place in college and it had a fireplace, and um that was always an adventure. Um it was a you know, a sorority house whatever. That was not a great greatly insulated. That was an ashoe. And then had an incident when I was a kid and it just scarred me for life. So he yeah, Karen, irrational fear for me would be sharks. And right here, right now, on the fourth floor Bank

of America Stadium, I'm pretty protected. I am probably not going to become a victim of a shark attack right here, right now. But I watched the movie Jaws when I was a kid, too young, and it wrecked me for the rest of my life. Now. I mean, I'm hill folk anyway, We're from the mountains. We don't go to the beach for entertainment, or I didn't for a long time. And the idea of being in the ocean, where something out there that can see me but I can't see it.

Do you get so do you get in the ocean if you were going to take if you were going to take your actual honeymoon, and say you went to a place I had a beautiful beach. Are you getting in the water. I'm like a knee deep kind of guy in the water. I don't need to get out, you know, to my next floating past the tide, past the breakers. And that's the thing that's not going to happen.

And my kids when my kids are small. One time, my daughter, she was probably five or six years old, and some little shark rolled up in a tidal pool and she stepped on it. And when I looked down and saw what it was, I was afraid I was going to dislocate her shoulder because I was like, you up here with me. But yeah, sharks are bad and I don't care. And shark week is the worst week of tilt and I just read books that week. I don't even turn on my tilt gen during shark because

I don't want to see the commercials. Yeah stepped on you earlier. You just stepped right backs. Well, just in general being having parts of my body in places where I can't see them, so like, you know, not only like ocean floors, but also how do you feel about the dark? My whole bodies in dark? But like you know those things where you stick your hand in in the little and you don't know what's in there, and

you're like, you know, what does this feel like? What's in the box, what's the what's the can't No, I don't like that at all. Very interesting. I don't like limbs going to places where I don't know where they're going. Okay, okay, makes sense that mad you got one. I was going to say the ocean, not specifically sharks, just like the

ocean in general. But to make something different, I also sometimes I'm not like afraid of them, but I try to avoid parking garages Hey, that's wait what I don't like the idea of looking up in a parking garage and just thinking about all the weight and all the sudd and then it collapsing like that, I park in a parking garage. I'm not like afraid of them, but at now you have tried to avoid. Yeah, that's fair. Yeah, alright, last question I got. It's both the birthday shout out

and a question. So happy birthday. I don't know if it's today or this week. Today Brandon Morton, I thought I thought I thought Brandon was giving you a shout out. He wanted his own. Oh sorry, happy birthday, Brandon. I'm sorry we didn't get you a goat or anything. We still hope that you have a great day. Well, you can answer this question for him that that can kind of count. So the question is who will score the first regular season touchdown for the Panthers this season? I

mean Christian McCaffrey. That's good and that's the good money. So the last two years, I'm going with the obvious. The last two years he did score the first touchdown. Well, and he's you know, he's gonna want to coming back, right he is. But I'm going I'm going with the underdog here. I'm going Robbie Anderson. Was he the first one of last season? Was eat that big one? Yes? I remember, No, Robbie, No, Christian was first. Robbie was Robbie Anderson, Sam Donald, the Jets and the opener. Come on,

this is two perfect Okay. Well, Tommy Tremble, you said you I thought you said he was going to be like a special team's machine. He's going to come in on third and one from the one yard line. Now that Alex Arma is long gone. He's gonna come in and they're gonna do the little full backhand off with Tommy great success. Yeah, he's He's just gonna rumble right on it, Tommy Trumble. All right, the birthday Christian out there right to Tommy. The birthday boy has to put

it out there. All right, we're gonna leave it here, Happy birthday. Well, thank you for spending a good chunk of your day with us, and congrats AATDT Darren. Thanks much, all right, we'll see you next time. Thanks for listening.