Happy Half Hour Episode 54: 1 Carolina

We're taping on a Friday morning. We usually tape Thursday mornings. But um, there's a little bit of news going on about this time yesterday. This time Thursday morning, one person by the name of Cam Newton is back on the Panthers. Um, what was that? Is that? A thing? That was? It was m That's what I always used to yell every time he touched the ball for Like, is that because you were um reserve on the Acapella group? Yes, I don't know. There's there's just the quarter pounders, quarter pound

quarter pounds. Yeah, there's just something about the name Cam that just screams that it needs to be sung in a in a tenor Italian tenor voice. I've never thought that. But but he's a rock star, I mean. And that's the thing about Cam Newton, and that's what made yesterday such an interesting day, for lack of a better word,

is Cam Newton moves the needle. Will could go through all the web traffic numbers and all that kind of stuff and it's amazing the amount that's what's coming up for the next ten minutes and was just out of interest in this man. Is because he's the guy you want to see. Yeah, I mean it's I have always compared quarterbacks the lead singers in rock bands, and that's

what ca him is. I remember when he moved through the combine before he was ever drafted here, it was like the Beatles had walked through the r c A Dome. They're just it was just this phalanx of people behind him and it kept growing with every stick can I can I amend that for a second in my mind, I completely agree with you about quarterbacks being lead singers. I would say, I don't think every quarterback is equivalent to the lead singer of a huge band. I think

there's just a few. Yeah, there's just that's true. That's true. That's true, that's true. I think you could count on two hands the number of quarterbacks who have that rock star superstar magnetism, and he's one of them. There's no doubt about it. He is absolutely one of those guys who's the who's the rock star that you're comparing him to.

I've always said he's like Jim Morrison to me, because he dresses funny and he writes this weird poetry that nobody understands, and his Instagram far yea what is described it as poetry. But when Jim Morrison was on stage, even if you didn't understand it, even if he scared you a little bit, which he probably should have, and he starts talking about lizards and whatever, it's like, oh my god, I can't take my eyes off this man. And that has I mean, and whether whether he's great,

whether he's old, cam. I thought it was interesting when Fitterer said it yesterday. We don't expect him to be ten years ago, Cam I. I don't think that's a fair expectation to put on the man. I don't think the human body can do that for fifteen years without some kind of effects. But he's still worth watching. And the last time we saw him, you know, Fitterer caught him in Week two last year when he was with

the Seahawks. They played in the Sunday night game out there, Cam throws for four yards and a touchdown, runs for two more, and nearly dove over the goal line for a last second game winning touchdown. My god, and I know that, um that a lot of Panthers fans remember that game because I feel like last season it was like required viewing. You watch, if you're a Panthers fan, you watch the Panthers game and you watch Cam, right, I mean, and and the beginning of cam season last year, Yeah,

they he played very well. They were very successful at the beginning of this year in preseason. You know, obviously snaps are liminated. They were trying to work in mac but you know, he looked good. He was completing passes. You know, it's Cam at They They also said this yesterday. Cam is healthy. You know, Cam has not been taking months and months of hits. He hasn't been you know, throwing, throwing,

throwing for months and months. You know. Yeah, there's there's eight games left right now, and Cam is healthy and that's something that they valued highly when thinking about this, right, And I remember talking to people about it when he went to New England. Uslie, I don't know based on

the physical status proms he had with the shoulder. Here, I said, I don't know if Cam can play sixteen games in a season, much less seven and I and I said in after you left, I said, but if he could ever get to a place where they only needed him for seven or eight games at a time, well, guess what. Well here, I was just gonna ask you, considering all that we heard yesterday and with the physical status, why then you thought he had been sitting at home

and you just explained it. Yeah, I mean, and and I think a lot of people, you know, had reasonable concerns, and you know, I don't know that it's long term sustainable. But that's the thing that from talking to people on the other side of the building who were involved in the football decision over and over, the thing you kept hearing is this is not about two thousand and eleven. This is not about This is about today right now, this next eight week sprint for the rest of the season.

How much he got left and how much he has left is gonna say a lot about what the Carolina Panthers do over the next two months, and just before we go forward, as we as we look at the next two months, then will you give us kind of um uh, what is it the cliffs notes of what everyone has said about when we think we'll see Cam on the field, what his role is going to be, because that's I think been overshadow just in the return. I mean, he was here at the stadium yesterday, so

a lot of the attention. Yeah, a lot of the attention has been focused on that, and rightfully so for Panthers fans and and the people of the Carolinas. But but what are we hearing um in in what role he will play? You know? And bless his heart, p J Walker is going to start this week. Don't know where you're going, but I know anytime someone from North

Carolina says bless his heart, I feel for PJ. Because he was so excited about bringing the juice this week and and having a change at quarterback might have done some good. And now it's completely overshadowed, I think. And they have all insisted PJ is going to start and they're going to continue down that path because He's had all the work this week after Sam's injury, so he's going to continue to start. It didn't bring Cam Newton in here to not play, and I refuse to believe.

I don't think Matt Rules gonna yell at me for giving away trade secrets. But I can't imagine a situation where if they're at the goal line in Arizona on Sunday and we don't see big old number one out there on the field. I mean, it's or not necessarily even goal on. They brought him here to play, and that's what matter All has said that he said, I didn't have not bringing not signing anyone. I'm not paying anyone for them to bring energy to the locker room.

We are bringing everyone here to compete and that includes ball and I can't, like I said, I just can't imagine a situation where, you know, and part of the reason Cam didn't talk last night to all the people who were here wanting to talk to Cam Newton was he was holed up in meetings Matt, with Joe Brady, with the offensive staff. And it wasn't so he could just get caught up on a playbook. It's what you know,

that's one of those source my two eyes things. He gonna do something on Sunday, So well, stay tuned, get your popcorn. Two eyes like that. I've got two sources right, one on the left one. Um, So for for context purposes, how long? I mean? Now, this is this is the Panthers that he's rejoining, but it's a it's a new staff. He had a couple of months with the staff very

early on before or before both sides parted ways. Um, how long do you expect the average or the talented, however you want to put a quarterback who was coming in eight weeks since this season, nine weeks into the season? Um, to take to learn the playbook? Um, the ready to be to be ready to go out. And I can see what you're saying about, you know, potential goal line situation packages. How long does that typically take when you're

picking up somebody from the street. You know, the good news is it's going to be quicker than a twenty two year old quarterback off the street. And that's or a guy that can't use his legs right now. And that's the thing that was interesting too yesterday when they compared it to Stefine Gilmour. I think it was Scott who said it was like Stefine when he came in. He's thirty one years old, he's not twenty one anymore. He's not as fast as he used to be. He's

coming off an injury. But because he knows where to go, he's a half step faster, because he doesn't spend time processing, it's just knowledge that's in his head that he can

immediately put into play. And because Cam has I mean, I think that being in New England, a completely different kind of system is going to help him because when you learn things, your mind stays elastic, and you did things a certain way for a long time, and then you did it a completely new way, and now you're coming back and doing things in a little more you know. So I think that Cam's experience and Cam's ability to pick things up on the fly are going to be helpful.

But I think mostly he's always been an instinctive player, even in the even in the Mike Schouler days, he always looked best in rhythm situations in two minute when he could improvise a little bit. And and I don't think that they are just drawing place up in the dirt for Cam. But I think there, you know, that's

when he's always been at his best. And I think they recognize and and part of the thing that's cool in this situation is at least two guys we're there when he was improvising, you know, d J. Moore knows what's happening when Cam does this, and Cam knows what's happening when, you know, and the other guy and the

other guy. You know, when when Christian comes to the line and he's looking at a linebacker and he's gonna go this way, that way or that way, Cam knows which way he's gonna go, and he's going to throw the ball before he makes that move. And that's something that you know, isn't in a playbook, That's not something

you get from just studying film. That's because these two guys have done it before, um, and I think that has value, you know at the outset you Oh, by the way, they ran forty seven times for two D three yards in Atlanta with Chuba Hubbard, Amir Abdullah, Royce Freeman and Sam Donald. Well, you reckon they're gonna do it. Christian McCaffrey and Cam Newton. I mean, that's that's the thing.

But if you want to run and if Matt's leaning into and he and he is, He's the whole rationale for this is his defense is playing too well to just offer it up. We gotta do everything we can to support a defense that's number two in the league, playing at a high level of special teams, that's really improved. Do anything you can offensibly to support it. And when he's already talked about we want to run the ball, we want to support those guys. You just brought in

the best running quarterback in NFL history. You rest your case. I don't even have anything to say about I mean the weight. Tarren looked at me. He looked at me right in the eye, and he had his like his fingers steepled, And I was like, yes, what would you say? Yeah, I don't even you made your point. I agree, case closed? What UM. I would love to talk to you guys though, about what it looks like behind the scenes when you

have historic news like this breaking. I find it fascinating. Um, even though I was here and and focused on my own stuff, and in that sense, you guys are really on um. Just the rapid response team you're publishing the news. I mean, it's going up on the web, it's going out on on social and you've got to find the right tone for it. What was yesterday? Like, well, they're

obviously you're you're perfect. You're put in a situation and where you have to you have to be prepared, but you have to be prepared to have everything changed at the moment's notice. Um So, for me, once, once this became a possibility, you know, once this became a thing, I went through multiple iterations of what the thumbnail for an article that eventually was read a hundred and eighty

five thousand times. And for anyone who does a thumbnail small picture, you know, just in case right, and and you know, figuring out all right, what's the you know what version of cam? You know, is it running cam, celebrating cam, throwing cam, you know, all these different things. Oh my god, well when he throws, his body is like this, so his arms are no longer in the frame.

I mean, all of these things you just don't even think about that you're dealing with it, like you know, six in the morning that you're trying to work through. And and then for us, just yeah, figuring out timing and then when it happened, it's a go, go go, and you have you know, five six seven different things

that are going through all these different channels. We were all sitting together and it was like, Okay, push copylink, send you know, Twitter out, you know, push notification on app, next article, uh, gallery videos, you know, and then it's what's the tag or what's the what's the copy for Twitter? You know, it's Darren working through this is how we should say this or wait, let's you know, let's tweak

that a little bit. You know. All of those things were something that it was cool because some of the people we've have here are new and they were watching those of us that had done this when we release cam, when Luke retired, when when you signed stuff on Gilmour, or when you know you you hire that rule and those moments when it's so much pressure and you know the world is about to look at you and you

have to do it exactly right. Um. And I think that I think it was a really cool thing to continue to go through with people that you've gone through it before, because it just continues to build those bonds that are kind of hard to describe. Yeah, everyone coming together team atmosphere. It really is. And and I remember one line it's always stuck in my head. Ted Williams, the Baseball Hall of Fame or maybe maybe the greatest

hitter of all time. And I asked him how you hit a baseball and he said, it's all about wait, wait, wait, quick, quick, quick, And that's what yesterday was like. It was preparation. It was you know, and again there's no point b s and people. We had a little you know, you know the team is doing certain things. You know the team is looking in certain directions, but you have to prepare for a lot more than just one narrow thing at

one narrow moment. Will and I have a content graveyard of stories that we've prepared that have never gone to press. And you can't you knew it was moving in a certain direction. You've got stuff lined up, you've got stuff prepared, but you don't know when, and you don't know how, and you don't know what the tone is going to be, and you don't know if it's the terms are too and we didn't know those things because they still didn't

know all those things. I mean, this thing evolved. It went from Tuesday night and initial conversation between Matt and Camp two. Then they talked numbers, and then they get to a place and then they arranged for Cam to fly up here on Thursday morning, and then Cam's gotta sit down with Dave and work through some of the stuff from a year and a half ago and what it's gonna look like on the other side and what

the expectations are for the next couple of months. So you know, all those things were happening without me and Will knowing what was being said in that room or how it was going or what the tone was. So you weren't in the room with Cam and Daves enough. No, uh yeah, Will was actually the one that took the picture of Dave and Cam in the driveway as far as you know. So I have a story just for the podcast listeners, and no one, y'all can't tell anyone

got this, So don't tell anyone this. This is a fun This is Will for thirty seconds going into a very very nerdy place, and I'm just gonna do it real quick. So well they're used to it. You don't have to. Everyone knows. So when when back in one Cam was released, Um, one of the things I did, you know, obviously Cam's bio is linked in thousands and thousands of place over the world of the Internet. And when you release someone, you take your bio off the website.

All of a sudden, all those links are dead for four error page cannot be found. Those aren't good for

websites when you have page errors. So what I did was I set up a redirect through the league for whenever and someone clicks on this link that was Cam's bio, it just redirects to the roster, so it fired to this news you're saying, so like Africa after that happened in so the last two years, anytime that cams just redirect, will staff mean yeah, so you know, so it helps it helps your s c O. You know, all those sort of things to not have four or four you know,

page errors. Well, some somewhere along the line in the last forty eight hours I remembered if we're about to republish Cam's bio, that redirect has to be taken off, and that goes through someone at the League. That goes through someone else. Obviously, you have to be careful about who you're telling or you know how before this thing really gets out. So on Thursday. Once things start going in a direction that you know, it's kind of out

there in the media. I sent in the request of hey, we need to take this redirect off, and they're like, yeah, sure, great, you know, thirty minutes later, nothing, forty five minutes later, Yeah, we're still working on it. You know, as we're getting close to doing this, it should be down to the next ten minutes. I'm like, I don't know if I have ten. While this is going on, will looks like one of those cartoon thermometers where the red just keeps going up and up and up, and you see these

waves of heat. I bet the glasses were on, the glasses were off it. There were stress. So they somehow it all worked out. They literally got it down minutes before we went live with everything. And they didn't know, they didn't know our timeline. They're like, yes, you know, they're just people. Yeah, sure, hold on in, Charlotte needs us to push this button. When can we do that? Well, let's see, I got a breakfast meeting and quick zoom call.

I did have some people on Twitter got a kick out of seeing him back on the raw, her with his Patriots headshot in a Panthers Jersey. We do what we gotta do until until we can get that head shut. I want to close with with one thing that both Will and I got to see yesterday. Again, this is

just for the podcast listeners. So, um, when Cam got to the stadium and after his meeting with Dave and before all the everything started, before the physicals and uh the you know shaking hands and the meetings with Fitterer and and everyone in rule. Um, we just kind of heard that he was going out or he was out on the field right like I'm walking past my office

and also here Gams on the field. Cam's on the field, and there might have been five or six of us that saw it total, um, and Will you have much more of a historical perspective on what he did. But I got to see it too my first time in the building. Um, since he's been here, you know, working with him. Um, I mean as a fan of course,

and I've I've met him several times. But you know, I think and I was looking back at sight traffic in are two biggest days where Panthers released Cam Newton and Panthers higher Kristen Balbona within like a week of each other. Quiet all right? Um, yes, yes, one free agency signing to place the other. Yeah, of course corresponding move I think, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. Yes, Um, but I don't want to. I don't want to, you know, upset Cam on his way back. So obviously I didn't wait

better traffic than that, you know. Um, but but what do we see? Like? It was awesome? So I'll preface with this. Growing up, I was that kid that like imagined running out through the backyard into like the super Bowl tunnel. You know, you like put on like Eminem's lose yourself like. I played it literally for three hours on a drive up to a Panthers game in middle school. Parents. Yeah, I mean, on on on, you know, headsets or whatever. In just like imagining like a movie of you know,

highlights or magical things. You're just everything you grew up thinking about sports in that like Final five Minutes or remember the Titans or whatever movie that just moves you. Cam is the embodiment of that. In real life, it's called on TikTok. It's called the main character. There you go, ye and so Cam before every game, um, in during the warm up section before guys, put on their paths. You know, kickers are out there kicking, people are running around.

There's trainers shagging balls. And Cam would go from one end zone to the other, just taking the ball and like dribbling it, and it always would bounce back in the exact same way to him, and he'd go a hundred yards all the way down the field and it was almost like, you know, kind of a movie where all these things are going around in the main character is just walking now quietly through all this stuff like things are and he's just he's just walking right through it,

you know. And then he gets to the other end zone. He takes a knee and he says a prayer like into the goal post, and everyone surrounds him. You know,

it's this whole big moment of of Cam's pregame. And there he was completely empty stadium, you know, I mean you could it's the it's a scene out of a movie, and no one knew, No one knew for him walking down the middle of the field looking up at all the skyscrapers and that are now in Charlotte, looking everywhere, I'm sure memories of this forty seven yard line, this play, this thirty eight yard line this play, you know, all

just looking around. Also don't have to imagine what's happened in the time since he's been gone, right, all of those thoughts, you know, are just racing through his head. And then there he is, all by himself, takes a knee at the goalpost, and it just sent shivers through my spine, like walking watching it from the press box, all by himself, just takes a knee and praise and

it's just like, yeah, you know it was. It was a very small, quiet moment that um, I think for fans who have been deeply affected by him coming back out a lot of responses on Twitter of of fans reactions, you could tell it means as much to him as it does to a lot of other people in Charlotte, and it's it's great and we're excited to see what happens, and everybody is Will knows. Will kind of looks at

me like, that's not a new thing. I've always since I walked into this building and they talk about one Carolina and there's that logo on the wall down there, and it's not it's Carolina with a one instead of the eye, and it's and it wasn't in reference to Cam Newton, but when you see it now in this context. People saw that last night and I tweeted it out and it was like well and people were like, yes, that you know, and it was he does something visceral

to people. He creates reactions that you can't explain with stats or numbers or contracts or rivals or anything like that. He's just one of those guys. When you see him, you react because he's interesting. He's visually the guy you your eyes are drawn to. So I think it's going to be Listen, well it work out. Is he gonna come back and lead the Carolina Panthers Super Bowl? I don't know. But what I do know is Sunday afternoon at one o'clock or four o'clock Eastern time, I want

to be watching it. I want to see what unfolds next. And I think a lot of people around the Carolinas are the same way. Well, I think we should leave it right there, so we'll find out. We'll find out a little bit more. Um. It's it's cool because this this story is as cool as yesterday was, it as far from over. So we'll be talking about it every week on the Happy Half Hour podcast we'll see you then.