Happy Half Hour Episode 49: Cold Front

one week span. Yeah, since we recorded this podcast a week ago. Mick Jagger found the Thirsty Beaver. The Rolling Stones played a concert in Bank of America Stadium, which was amazing. The Panthers went to Dallas and kind of got knocked around pretty good down there, and oh, by the way, they came home and traded for Stefine Gilmore, the former NFL Defensive Player of the Year. Other than that,

not too much. We're gonna tell all Panthers in just a second, but only because Darren has been scooting around Bank of America Stadium NonStop the last week covering all those stories. Did the Rolling Stones play any of your favorite songs, your deep cuts. They have not had a chance to ask you did. Actually, the old, the old Keith Richard's classic Before They Make Me Run was part of the Keith section in the middle of the concert there.

So that was great and it and as it turns out, one of the the internet, it's an amazing place full of all kind of neat stuff and many terrible things. But there's a website I go to a lot called cent list dot fm, and it had the cent list from the ninety four concert I saw in Columbia, South Carolina with the Rolling Stones. And as it turns out,

they played twenty three songs that night. In four twenty seven years later they played nineteen so four or fewer songs from twenty three to nineteen and twenty seven years. Those old guys are really slowing down. So I have a I have a scoop for you. I've heard from an inside source that before the concert, when they were going over you know, oh yeah, we you know we played here in um in ninety seven, you know, the

first concert here. Uh, the Mick Jagger was the one that remembered that they played here in nineteen sixty five. Nobody else on the crew or the people working here had any idea that they were here in sixty five. And he's like, oh yeah, I remember the old Charlotte colisseum down independence, No, no, no, no, don't give me shelter, and that's all I gonna get. But anyway, we should take the thirsty beaver. Now I founded a little German. If I'm not, I can't do any accents at all.

I really outside of Darren. I can do Darren's act. No, don't know, Well, well, we'll save that for later. I'll do the I'll do the um special things to do in Darren's accent at the end of the show. Well, okay, no one knows what that means except for well's got a segment coming and he'll do all right, I'm holding you to that map. Please clip off the well Mick

Jagger impression. Let's all right. So now that we've gotten to the important news that everyone came here for, which was Darren's review of the Rolling Stones concert, let's let's

talk about Stefan Gilmore. I mean, yeah, what a whirlwind last couple of days, at least for us, you know, as we started to find out about it, and Darren especially for you, What have you gleaned from from walking around the building making your rounds, Like when you see Darren on a mission, like I said, at the stadium, you see him headed down to the second floor. You know what's on. He's going down to get some really good information. So what have you gathered? Well, I mean

this thing came together fairly quickly. They had been interested in Stefan over the course of the summer. I mean, at different points had made calls and it was kind of, you know, exploratory at that point. But this thing ramped up in a hurry. And and the short version is as after the Patriots put out word that they were going to cut him. You know, that's like dogs flushing

birds out of the underbrush. I mean they you know, they weren't they were going to try to do exactly what they did, and put out word that they were going to cut him, and got a bunch of phone calls, and rather than wait and hope that Stefan we just want to sign with his hometown team, they went ahead and gave up that sixth round pick in three, which is as close to nothing as you can actually give

someone to, you know, acquire a player of this caliber. Now, you know, I think there are reasons to be interested in how Stefine comes in. I mean, obviously hadn't played this year, he had the quad injury last year. But in two thousand nineteen, not seven years ago, not ten

years ago. Two years ago, this man was the NFL defensive Player of the Year and you got him for a sixth round pick in Yeah, and just in case any Panthers fans, which I'm sure you have if you're listening to the podcast, you're obviously dialed in with you know, the best information, But just in case anyone um isn't up to date, the Patriots cut him from everything that we're hearing or wanted to cut him, uh for for cap purposes and for contract purposes, not because they think

anything is Um is wrong with him or they don't want him to contribute. It was they were what like fifty thousand dollars under the salary cap, needed to make some moves, and he couldn't come to an agreement contract and he and he won't be able to play until Week seven, and he was going into the final year

of his contract, so they wanted to extend. They wanted to do something to spread out cap Hit couldn't come to any kind of agreement on that because he still wants to get paid at the level commensurate with his abilities, and they weren't able to reach common ground on that. I would love to know he's a hometown guy. How much does that matter to Panthers fans? I think it's

amazing he's a rock Hill guy. He lives in the Charlotte area when he's uh, when he's not in seas And what does it mean to to Panthers fans or especially you know, the South Carolina portion of Panthers fans to have a guy like this joining the Panthers. I think it's huge And and having spent fourteen years of my life working for the rock Hill Herald, I can tell you the other hometown guy in Football City, USA is pretty excited about this, and they should be. I mean,

he's one of their own. And rock Hill has a long history of of pumping guys into the NFL. I mean, Stefens far from the only you know, first round pick to ever come from such a small town, but they've got a culture of it down there, and and it matters, and it's a huge deal. And I remember I was looking back through my files and I sent Will a copy of the story this morning before I put it on Twitter, before Stefan was drafted. That was right before

I left the newspaper in two thousand twelve. Um before he was drafted by Buffalo in twelve. I talked to him in a bunch of the other rock Hill NFL people and just about this latest link in the chain, the guy eyes from that town who we're gonna make good. A lot of defensive backs, great names, I mean, from Rick Sanford to Jeff Burrows to Sheldon Brown, I mean

so many guys. Jear Old, Gerald Dixon, Ernest Dixon. Ernest Dixon was actually here briefly, I think in ninety eight, maybe in training camp from Fort Mill, but at you know, never been a guy from York County on this roster prior to now. And you asked what does it mean to Panthers fans? I mean, also what does it mean to him? You know, I think that's important to be especially as you know this year goes on and you know what sort of contract negotiations go on for the future.

You know, how how much does that factor into uh, you know, what he can do to stay here versus, you know, go somewhere else as a free agent. So I mean yeah, I mean he lives right next to Scott Fitterer and w Will I wasn't I wasn't going to say it, and we'll just put that out on the podcast and Dan Morgan. Apparently they all live on the same block. Their their car pool and work. I think, you know, from now, that'll be fun during contract negotiations, right,

we need we need video of that. I wonder if they'll sing when they car pool. I think they might. I think they received sources close to me tell me, but uh, we'll see. I mean it's gonna be interesting. I think it obviously matters. One of the things I thought was kind of funny. There's a perception outside of Charlotte that no one would want to come here, and that the Patriots had somehow done this man a disservice by trading him to a place rather than allowing him

to choose his next destination. It's like, listen, he might have chosen this anyway. This is home. And it's not like the team's awful or anything. I mean, they're they're playing okay right now. They could certainly use somebody likes to find Gilmore, but every team in the league could do.

Somebody likes to find Gilmore. Let's not kid ourselves. Um, but I thought it was kind of funny when they said they did this man wrong, and he might have actually preferred it come down this way than get in a situation where a place not Charlotte was going to be calling and and making the offer to bring him in. Yeah, there are worse places to be, That's darned sure. I want to just go back to Darren talking about the article he wrote on Stefan Gilmour in two thousand twelve.

I saw it on Twitter, he said it to Will It didn't send it to me beforehand, but that's okay. I just thought I saw it on Twitter, and you know what I thought. I was like, gosh, how good do you have to be to just dig up an article from almost ten years ago and be like, this is good. I'm going to post it. I would hope nobody sees my stuff from two thousand twelve. That's all I'm saying. Laron strikes again. I was at the peak of my game. So now you're on a team friendly

deal here, you know your career m guy veteran present. Now, well, let's let's talk about some of the impetus for signings to find Gilmore and clearly, as we said, cannot play until week seven because he's on the publist. But that Cowboys game, you know they're they are looking ahead at at help in this secondary um and I think when you look at the way that the Cowboys game went, UM could use it. Yeah. I mean, well you could use the help stop in the run. That's the first

thing everybody's been talking about this week. But yeah, I just think in the way they play defense and the way they want to play defense, you've got to have multiple guys who can cover. They've been really clear that C. J. Henderson was a trade for long term, not short term. J C. Horn cover. So this gives c. J. Henderson a chance to learn this defense which is new to him, and get acclimated and get his feet underneath him a little bit so he can be more comfortable. Now you

can put starting in week seven. Now you can put Dante Jackson, who speaking of guys at the top of his game right now, he's playing his best football right now. Dante Stefan, Gilmore and A. J. Boy A and that's a lot better than and okay, where are we gonna And this is nothing against any of these guys, but Rashaan Melvin is a is an old vet who's a

journeyman who's been on a lot of different teams. Started this season on the practice started season on the practice squad and got caught up a couple of weeks and then they put him on the active roster. He's he's good, he's somebody they want. But other than that, it's Keith Taylor, who's a rookie at Stanley, Thomas Oliver, who was a seventh round pick a year ago. None of those guys

are Stefan Gilmore. And I just think that the chance to add a pedigreed corner so that right now, I mean, I thought it was so telling last night that when somebody asked fitter or about j. C. Horne and his injury got the broken foot. It's gonna be two or three months probably, it's what most people think. And somebody asked Scott if it was absolutely season ending, and he said, no, no, not necessarily. We'll see how he comes back, but you know, we're playing on, going to the playoffs. And it was

so casual the way Scott said it. I mean, and it's gone from a month ago no one knew what to expect from this team to now they're thinking about going to the playoffs. And if you're going to be that kind of team, you need that kind of secondary. Absolutely. And if you talk to to Dan Morgan, who I mean, he will say it you. He can't go a few sentences without saying the goal is to win a Super Bowl. And I love it. I mean, he's staying it multiple times. Um uh, you know a sentence when he when you're

talking to him, which which I love to hear. And it needs someone that understands the gravity of what that takes from from all levels. So I like it. I like the aggressiveness. I was talking to Matt Rule about that yesterday and we saw in the in the Cowboys game. You know you've got like fourth and eight and Brennan Zilstrick converts. Um. He's not afraid to go for it.

And it really feels like this front office matches him in that sense that that they are gonna do whatever they can to get this roster in the right place in order to push for games beyond the red their season. It's So it's an interesting thing when you know, the news of the morning, you know, shakes the NFL world, and then the news by lunch includes the Panthers in it like that. Those just those aren't necessarily the things that have been happening around here for you know. I mean,

it's just a kind of a different reality. That's that's a lot of fun to be a part of. Right And oh, by the way, the big news yesterday morning was going to be Christian McCaffrey's back on the practice field. Right by the end of the day, that was about the fourth most important thing that was going on. So I mean, that's yeah, I mean, that's the personality they've taken on. And and credit to Will for helping dig

this up. When they traded for Darryl Johnson right before the start of the regular season, the Bill's defensive end. They trade for him. That was their eleventh trade since Scott took over his g M in January, which matched what they made in the three previous years. They've since tacked two more onto that, so we're at thirteen trades and counting for Scott Fitter in this calendar year. And it's just that's that's the m oh now, that's the

way they operate. And and Scott admitted yesterday he's out working the phones, trying to see if there's offensive line help available, you know, seeing what else is available, you know, as they go through some stuff where they're a little thin a linebacker and different things. I mean, Scott's out there working the phones. And and he admitted he said, when you get the reputation for making all these deals, you hear stuff that other people don't because people know

you're open for business, it can only help. I mean, they're not all gonna work out. Not every trade is going to be a home run. You know, sometimes things just aren't gonna work. But right now, I mean the excitement they're creating with this, I think it's got a

lot of people fired up. And and neither here nor there, but you know, it's something that I think Panthers fans should to take a lot of comfort in scoff fit or despite being busier than like pretty much any other, GM always has time to be a lovely human when you talk to him. I mean, really, it just it's it's awesome. Scott's easy people to get along, and it doesn't ever feel like he's overwhelmed by any more. I

talked to him before the draft, after the draft. You know, if you see him right now, you wouldn't know anything was going on. It's just real calm um on the surface. And I mean he could be it could be negotiations with like three different teams right now, and you just you know, and he's just, hey, how's it going, how's everyone doing? You know, let me let me stop and talk to you about this, which is which is awesome.

And it also feels like if Stefan Gilmore walked over a couple of doors down and knocked on Scott's door and said, hey, Mike Lalmower is out of gas, I would be like, oh, here's here's a tank. You can have mine. Just bring it back whenever you feel well. For multiple reasons, I think any GM would do that if signed nineteen or traded for defensive Player of the Year. But yes, he would do that no matter who the neighbor was. That's right. Let's talk about the Cowboys game. Obviously,

the run defense was a was a big issue. A line is something that a lot of other people are talking about. So starting with that run defense, that was really the strength of this team. In the first three games, and then both Tony Pollard and Ezekiel Elliott just I mean just gash the run defense um, like the screeching tire sound effect goes here. You're averaging forty five yards a game and Dallas runs for two. And then you look at the Eagles and Jalen Hurts is their leading rusher.

So what do you think if you're this coaching staff, what are you telling these guys who are clearly incredibly talented but just got knocked down a peg in order to get that confidence. We talked about this momentum versus confidence. What do these guys need to do, uh, in order to to be ready aside from film study right um for these Eagles game and Jalen Hurts And you know what, We'll have a story about this very topics dot com that I've heard in a while on this po I thought, really,

it's like right off the top. Yeah, I thought it was interesting. When Jermaine Carter was talking the other day, he used the phrase we put blood in the water twice during about a seven minute interview on Monday. And they know that everybody's watching that tape now and and they put out the blueprint. I mean, you want to run at the Carolina Panthers, here's what you gotta do. Load it up, put an extra linement on the field, bring all your tight ends to the party, and just

go straight at them. And and until they stop it, that's going to be Philadelphia is not built the same way as Dallas. Not many people are, but and not everybody's gonna be able to pull it off. But they know they're marked now and people are gonna try them. So they've got to get it fixed. And they've got to get it fixed hurry, in a hurry. I mean, de KWin talked, de Kuan Johns talked about you know, technique and everybody being in the right gap and all

those little bitty things. But mostly it got their attention, and I think those guys, you know, they've got pride in their work, just like everybody else. And when it doesn't go the way you're expecting, you know, that kind of caught everybody. And they knew walking in this week they were in store for. And this one may feel

a little different because of you know, Ezekiel Elliott. There were times when everything looked correct, the gap integrity was there that everyone stepped up and they made the contact exactly as they've made the three weeks before, and then Zeke tacks four to five four yards onto it. I mean, that's just who Zeke is right now. And you know you could tell he was playing with a chip on his shoulder. You know, he was tired of kind of

being written off. Um, you know the way he was a little Oh you know that it's a two back system now and Tony Pollard may be better and all this. You know, Zeke was running with with fire. But this week, you know, it hurts as a guy. He's not trying to run through you. He's gonna trying to run by you or make you fall down and miss. So that is gonna be you know, how do these corners do out in the edge? You know, how did guys do

in space? It may not be you know, people that are getting knocked back and just a huge pile of dust that's moving five yards down the field. It's gonna feel a little bit different, but it's still gonna be very dangerous. Yeah, And it's also a little bit out of necessity that they might have to play along the edges anyway, because with Shack Thompson out this week. I mean, you know, Rule mentioned stuff yesterday about one linebacker defenses,

and you know, it's a good thing. You've got a guy like Jeremy Chen who's got some linebacker background that you can move around and do different stuff and they'll, you know, they'll have different ways to play this thing. But right now, I mean, they were they were pretty thin at inside linebacker anyway when it was Jermaine and Shack. And now there's no shock at least for this week, maybe for Negs, probably for Eggs, but um, that's another issue.

But they you're gonna have to be fast on defense, and you're gonna have to be correct. I mean that front four has got to get their gap covered, you know, and they've got to do as much contained as they can to keep this thing from getting to the edges and getting away from them like it did last week. And there's some things in the NFL where if you do the right things and you kind of give the effort and put yourself in the right position, a lot of times the ball will start bouncing back your way.

It felt like the last couple of weeks, you know, out in Texas, just like I mean, let's be real, the Jeremy Chinn. Thing was a fumble, that was a mistake. Ref messed it up period, you know, no forward progress, that's b S. You know, sorry, but when you get home, apologize for saying b S. Yeah, okay, alright, just checking you can. You get home and you keep doing you know,

it's kind of just the way of football. You keep putting in the effort and the ball kind of starts going back your way, you know, especially when when you're at home and you do the right things and hopefully things kind of turned back for you. Because there's been a lot of things, especially on that I mean on that one drive. I mean that it was just an

absurdity of of what is going on here? The drive with the right and then the two point conversion that wasn't one, you know, all of those, you know that they finally corrected after twenty minutes of looking at it. The review had a couple of plays before the chair, you know, and there, you know, and guys were getting their helmets taken off of the line and blah blah blah.

So you know, I think you get home and you kind of like you want to get out to a good start and kind of get right in feeling like, Okay, you know it's not everyone against us, you know, and that takes some character building to be able to keep playing when you know that things are going against You want a few good plays under your belt right after having a game that you just kind of want to wash away, and it'll be good to feel like you know you're both supported and you know, amped up by

the people out here, you know. I I think that especially this week, you know, Charlotte's a place where they can get up when you get them up, and with Gilmore coming in and you know, there's still some a lot of excitement in the city. Can I say this, and I'm not saying this just because we're talking on a podcast to Panthers fans who will be listening to this. I've said it on air, I've said it off the air to to Rule and others. The last two home games,

that crowd has been great. There have been some some big third down you know potential like where the defense needs the crowd to fire up on third down and it sounds good, it sounds loud, you can tell that it's bothering people. Um and I remember I think it was in the Saints game there was a There was a big third down for the Saints. They were trying to you know, defense is getting the crowd fired up.

They sounded great, and the Saints called the time out, and I was like, I wonder what it's going to sound like when they come out of the time out and the crowd picked it back up, and I was just I was really proud. You know, it's great, and that is what you're looking for at home, and I know that they're excited to be here for for two more games. I want to talk about old line quickly. Darren put you on the hot speed. Yeah. Yeah, well you know, when you host, you just pass off the

tough stuff to somebody else. What would you tell fans right now? Yeah, that was because that's what they're asking about. I mean, listen, it was not great, Bob, it was. It was kind of great, Bob. It was kind of bad last week. And you know, I think they're I think there's by a natural means, going to be a different look out there this week. We'll see. I mean, Cam Irving didn't practice yesterday and left tackle, so you start wondering how they're gonna put guys on the field.

You know, during training camp Rule always said that Taylor Moten was his backup left tackle. Now we'll see if he's hesitant to move him from the right. We'll see how the week goes off cam practices or not, or what they end up doing. But whether regardless of personnel, they've got to fix that because that was a big problem and that was the other blueprint thing and Sam

said it after the game the other day. We know people are gonna bring it now to try to create that kind of confusion, and yeah, I think being on the roads part of it, because Dallas was loud as well, and that causes some confusion. But they just got to play better and they've got to settle into some degree of routine, whether that's Trent Scott, whether that's Brady Christiansen, whether that's Taylor Moten on this side, or that's how I just gotta play better and we'll see if they can.

But we knew going into the season that that was going to be one of the weaknesses of a roster. As they put this thing together, that was almost like the last thing they're working on. And yeah, between ailf Line getting hurt now Irving's hurt, they don't have the first choice line. But I would say to John Miller, they weren't sure last week how much he was gonna

play was questionable. He'd also, you know, come back from COVID protocol and week two against the Saints, they said, we think he might play like sixty of the snaps. He ended up playing a hundred percent of them because of because of Pat Elfne's injury. Um and he played the whole game. And we knew Camerving was banged up going into that Cowboys game. So, like you said, it's you're starting at a certain point and then you add injuries into it. I mean, there was there was one.

I mean, they've they've kept Sam very clean through the first three games, but I mean he did have to go change his jersey in the third quarter because it was it was ripped after the fourth or fifth stack. Was the wardrobe malfunction that they all of Twitter was

so terrified for those like five minutes. Executive producer was is Is in the podcast studio with us, and I did, especially after the Thursday night game, where the majority of my reports on the radio sideline were very tough injury related reports, and you're you're watching these guys and hoping

everything's okay. I saw him run in there with the with our you know, equipment team, and I told our producer David Lincoln immediately, I was like, I just want to let you know it's it's a jersey related like no ones, no one when they when they go in with the equipment guy rather than the athletic training staff, that's a that's usually a good sign. And your your tweet that you know back in the day, Jake just pulled his pants off in front of everyone with some towels.

Like I did bring that up when I did my report on Sam changing his jersey. I said, you know, Jake does know a little something about having to do a quick change on the sideline. So you had a good time with that. Um. But speaking of Sam, I mean, he's despite did always scoring touchdowns a lot with his feet. There's no doubt about that. And will you have a

stut of the week that relates to this right the week? Yeah, So last week was kind of scary in my world because after that second touchdown I kind of went into, you know, my computer thing and looked up first four games total rushing touchdowns and I'm seeing five and I'm like, wait a minute, Wait a minute, no one's ever done this as a quarterback, and I'm like, I am terrified. I am terrified. Am I about Tom? I am I about? Are you about to just have the best at ever

you setting yourself up to before? Just like, oh, but what about? As a former ESPN researcher, I know that feeling when you come across something very good and you're like, yeah, what is wrong here? What am I missing? Yeah? So I waited and I waited, and I looked at I looked at and he's just like, I mean, if you're right. I'm like, I don't know if I am. He's like, just just go and so I went with it. In a minute later, it's up on Fox, you know, like on the lower third, and like that was one of

those That was one of those moments. Anyway, moving forward, the trust your process, well, right, trust the process. You had it right. So two straight games with at least two rushing touchdowns, if he makes it three straight games this weekend, that would be an NFL record for a quarterback. No one's ever done that, and it would tie a name that everybody in Panther fandom knows. That's the only player that's ever done as a Panther. He was a

running back that had three straight games with two rushing touchdowns. Naturally, it's it's go ahead, Lamar Smith legend. Everyone remembers Lamar Smith of the Lamar Smith days in in Panther. I think it was two thousand, the Lamar Smith Moms. But he had three really good games. He had a hot streak, you know to oh too, Okay, there you go. So Lamar Smith would be would be the one that uh, Sam Donald could tie this weekend. It's you know, it's but it's moving past being a curiosity to actually a

thing they do. And the fact that Sam how many quarterbacks teats have we seen? The fact that Sam can run a little The fact that Sam can make a decision I think keeps things open. I mean if you saw the the d J Moore touchdown where he's kind of running around a little bit and he buys some time and finds DJ. I mean I think part of that. It's not that opposing defensive coordinators are like, oh god, how do we slow down Sam Donald on the run.

But it's a factor. Well, it has to be look at how many touchdowns he scored, Look at how many times he's able to hes. Yeah, it's a thing. I mean, all the NFL notes this week said the battle of dual threat quarterbacks. I mean what we were in the game. We're in the game, and our incredible executive producer, David LinkedIn was keeping me updated on the rushing touchdown leaderboard. It was bouncing between Ezekiel Elliott and Sam Donald throughout

the game. And by the way Sam, I mean, they did not come away with the wind, but Sam came out on top at the end. Incredible. If you're Joe Brady, do you like do you like that he's I mean, you like the touchdowns, but do you like that he's scoring on with his feet? I think you're okay with it. I mean, especially in a situation where you're without Christian McCaffrey, having one more option in the red zonner at the goal line can't hurt. And I mean Sam's big enough

that sneaks are are viable. He's athletic enough that he can get out and make a play every now and then. I don't know that you want to turn him into mar Jackson or anything, but as long as he's not flipping, yeah, no flips, no flips. Speaking of Christian McCaffrey, Darren and what are you what are you hearing? Um, we'll see, how do you know? I thought it was interesting the

way Matt Rule Mr. Process talked about it yesterday. It was almost like he goes out Wednesday, he's limited, Thursday, he'll probably be limited again, and you give him a little bit more each day, and that's kind of what it's going to be for Christian and you know, we'll see. He said that if Christians able to go a hundred percent on Sunday, they'll play him. But I mean that would be ahead of pace for what they initially thought, So we'll see how the next couple of days ago.

I mean it's like he does a little bit of a time, a little bit more, a little bit more, ramp him up and if you get to Sunday, we'll see. But uh, you know, I think they probably described that as a two or three week injury to begin with, so you know, one might be on the outside edge of possibility. Stay tuned well. And and the last point on that is that I think you feel good about Chuba Hubbard after seeing what he did in the Cowboys game. And look and Bryce Freeman did some good things, and

so did Rodger Smith. So I think you you feel confident in in what you've got on the roster, who you've got on the roster, I should say, Um, if Christian can't play, rather than rushing enough to not rush him back, you don't feel compelled to, oh my god, I gotta put nine percent Christian McCaffrey out there. They don't want to do that, not for this week, not at all, and they just want to do right by him, do right by the team, and have a Christian McCaffrey

hopefully in a few weeks, which is a good thing. Yeah. Um, all right, Well so you I I've heard that you caused quite a stir on the internet again, not just you know, not just these incredible stats, but also what you tweeted something last night that got a ton of responses that you're going to share with us. Yeah. I just want to know what people wanted us to talk about,

and apparently none of it was football or start. We did start this entire podcast out with Darren's week old review of The Rolling Stones, and that's what I think. That's what the people want to make no apologies, that's what the people want to hear but they got their gill more too. So we're gonna do We're gonna do some rapid fire. I'm gonna I'm gonna lay it out for you, guys. No descriptions, no analysis. Just give me

a quick answer. We'll go around the board. You say that for me, But is all my stories are too long? You can do a story at the end. All right, top Halloween? Candy, Matt, anything but candy corn. It's Reese's. Reese Is always tastes better around Halloween. Pye Eminem's just like the regular ones. Peanut Okay, yeah, alright? What color pants are they wearing with the black jerseys this weekend? We don't know the answer. This, this is just what

we want, aren't you the jersey? Matt go. It is nice, isn't it when you get to tell other people like this? I like this power. It feels good. I want to see blue pants, blue pants, Kristen black pants, black pants. Okay, I'm a traditional as silver pants, silver pants. I want to see the white pants. I think that'd be fun. You gonna go black and white? Yeah, black and white, let's see it. Let's do it. Okay, nicknames for the defense, Matt, I got nothing, Okay, I like it. That's just letting

us know. Um, I'm stealing this one from Darren, but I'm going first, so that's fine. I like Darren said cold for not too long ago, Phil snow. I like cold front. It feels intimidating. Also, I would love a cold front to come through Charlotte. Just unrelated, it's too hot the blizzard. Can we get Brad Panoviage to guest host that would be awesome. Yeah, pull pull some strings.

I mean yeah, I mean it's snow storm. I mean it's all it's all kind of the same one and one and one in the same there you had, so you had all night to think about that, and you're coming out with snowstorm. Fine, I'm moving on. What do we think Stefan Gilmore's number is going to wear? And I we don't know the answer to this as of recording on Thursday morning. You may know by the time

this comes out. Matt, whatever single digit number is available now, Matt just took my answer, whereas I took Darren's answer. I want to see a single digit number. I guess what nine is left? Is nine is left? I mean in the number that shall not be named it also left right, you know what? You know what to find Gilmore War five at South Point High School. And I think there's probably some room for negotiation with saying Gonza it's fair, I will would he negotiate with boy for

I don't know? Probably not. I think there there's a certain honor among veterans, so you don't want to mess with that part of it. But I also don't know how married is. I have not admittedly kept up with other teams. Are we seeing other defenses with as many single digit numbers? Like? Because I mean I've seen the teams we've played, but are there embracing the single digits? Yeah, it looks weird as much as the Panthers. It does look weird. Yeah, Okay, next, best places in North Carolina

for leaf peeping one more time? What's what's it called leaf peeping? Find that that's not vulgar, Christen, It just sounds funny. Leaf. Once we get the snowstorm come through, we'll have some leaf peeping. I mean, you gotta s Matt, Matt, I guess my yard because I don't have to leave my house. Like a great answer. That's an answer that I feel like Darren approves of UM. I like, you

gotta go to the mountains. Just anywhere. Anywherewhere in the mountains is um, I'll say blowing rock Okay, yeah, specifically the Lynn cove Via ducts come with it on Therus, the Lynn Viaduct. These are my people. I changed my answer to the Blue Dge Parkway. I forgot about that, oh man, right after I mean, does hick does Hickory have um have good leaf peeping? We're moving in that direction. Okay, it's not bad leaf pie. Since you've already referenced Brad once.

Brad actually has a leaf peeping forecast model that he puts out there on Twitter. Yeah, it's great. What's your answer? Well, um, I was gonna say Hickory. I like, I want to I want to go to the foothills just because I can say it that way. UM. And and finally, you know, because the points don't matter, but points are good. UM. There it is. There is the um who would be This is just for Darren who would be your wrestler if you were a wrestler, Because there was a picture

that's there's a picture out there on Twitter. There was a picture I was at Waho. McDaniels, Guy when I was a kid. Whoa who? McDaniels was the Indian Chief former NFL football player who became the champion of the nub A. But he was the king of the Indian strap match, which is probably looking back on it, maybe a little racist, but um, you know, it was the seventies and it was wrestling. Everything was kind of that way. But I do have another wrestling story. Do we have

time for a story? Mixed waiting over here to to do Mick things. So Mix waiting for my story? Well, Mike me need to hop on for this one. As as I was on my way to cover a college pro day in two thousand eleven of a certain quarterback who happened to play at Auburn University, I drove down for the pro day. We stopped in Atlanta. I am moving over because Mick has now indeed joined for Darren's story. So I just want to make that clear that Mick

Mixon is now listening. Yeah. So two thousand eleven, we're on the way to Cam Newton's pro day in Auburn, Alabama. Tom Sorenson and the Charlotte Observer and I get in the car, get on the road. We stopped in Atlanta, go at to Cam's hometown, talked some folks there, and while we were on the outskirts of Atlanta, we we felt it was our obligation to visit Abdullah the Butcher's house of ribs and Chinese food right outside the Atlanta

Airport area. And we walked in the door and they're sitting at a table enjoying a grape soda and or possibly a bottle of wine. Was Abdulla the Butcher himself. So Sarnson and I sat and had an enjoyable evening telling wrestling stories with Abdula the Butcher. Mick, do you know Abdullah Butcher? Of course, what do you know about him? Um?

Not as much? UM, My I'm older. So Abdullah the Butcher came into prominence a little after I started to stop practicing wrestling holes on my sister, who was feisty. I got her in the sleeper hold and I was doing it just like Rip Hawk and Johnny Weaver, but she never even really got drowsy. So then I got her in the Boston Crab the Russian Sickle, which was Ivan Coloff's submission, moved the corkscrew made popular by Bronco

Lubich and Aldobodny. One time I suplexed her cowboy bob Roup, and I had cushions laid out, but she went past the cushions and hit the coffee table. Oops. I've been there too as a as a little sister. But Abdul the butcher, whose nickname was the Madman from Sudan, he's actually from Candle's submission. It wasn't It wasn't the claw now, that was Baron von Rashki and also the Super Destroyer had that for a while. But Abdulla would stick a fork in a man's head until he bled leader. That

was his gimmick. So here's a picture. You can't see it on the podcast, but Theater of the Mind, here's the Abduel the butcher, sticking a plastic fork in my head. He looks like he's used that fork a lot. So yeah, I was how was the food after hearing that trap? Everything you dreamed it would be and more. I mean, when a place is called Abdullah the Butcher's House of ribs and Chinese Food, I walked in and they said why don't you have And I said the ribs and

the Chinese food. But I'm not leaving until he puts a plastic fork through my head. When I was listening to you, guys were talking about nicknames. Had we kept that prior kicker um he looked. In fact, I even called him Abdullah the Butcher, I think on the air one time, because he had that mustache and that kind of mad Hungarian al ruby. I couldn't quite bring it into focus, but there was something not of this world about him. Oh, I've got to look up Abdullah the Butcher, now,

don't you. Yeah. I mean I've seen the picture of Darren with with him, but yeah, I had no idea what's happening on Twitter last night? When that came through, I was like, I don't know what. Well I'm glad it did because we got to hear an amazing story and we had Mick make I guess I like cold Front by the way, I think I could have Cold Front. That's good. That's good. Well, thank you Mick. This has been way more enjoyable, and hopefully Twitter enjoyed this. Thank

you Twitter. Twitter has definitely enjoyed it, as did Will and I. Thanks everyone for listening. We'll see you next week on The Happy Half Hour Podcast