Happy Half Hour Episode 61: Open To A Second Opinion

Half Hour. Yeah, morose. The passing of John Madden a legend. We've learned about this last night, but you guys have been around this game for a long time. UM, curious your thoughts on on John. Yeah, I mean John Madden was a Hall of Fame coach, and you he could have retired and done nothing but that and his legacy

would have been cemented. I mean, he was a former player, got hurt, but he got in the game young, and he was he was this big presence on the sideline and and he kind of embodied what the Raiders were about in the seventies and they were the physically dominant, they were the swagger team. They were aggressive, they were in your face, and he he was all those things and he kind of set the stage for a lot of the stuff that they did in the years to come.

And I just you know, you can admire him at that level and be done, and it's an incredible legacy. But he just kept stacking up more and more and more. And the thing about it is John Madden as a

as a broadcaster, it was just so much fun. I mean, the guy walked in with no pretense, no expectations, and he's just you know, making fun of the steam coming off Nate Newton's head, saying you could grill burgers up there, and people are looking at their TV like, wait, that's not what the man on the TV is supposed to sound like. But because he was so genuine and worked, I'm one of the few people that you might ever

meet that's never played one second of Madden. But in my world, and Darren touched on this, the broadcast world, the pairing of John Madden and Pat summer All was it was almost as if angels were singing. You got the decorated, minimalist past summer All, who also played pro football, who realized, to his credit, that on television the color guy is the main guy. On radio, the play by play guy tends to talk more, or play by play

woman tends to talk more. And then and then the color Not that the color people aren't prominent, they are, but TV was different. And then so that the rise to prominence of the Summer All Madden broadcast team with the tellustrator enabled John Madden to just, I mean, his star just went streaking across this guy. And then when someone imitates you to to the degree that Frank Caliendo captured John Madden, so on the backs of the giants

like John Madden came Frank Caliendo. And I always heard that Madden didn't like that that he have you guys heard this that Madden not like being imitated by Frank Caliendo. But yeah, the only thing cooler when I was a kid than electric football, where you plug that thing in and pull about thirty amps and create a brown out of half your hometown was was John Madden, because he looked like somebody who would have been good at electric football way before the electronic version of the Madden Game.

Do do you feel like you would have liked being imitated? Did you put yourself in those shoes. I don't know. I guess. I mean, there's nothing you can do about it, so unless it's mean spirited, you might as well. But I don't think. I don't feel like it like it is. I think it's I think it in much that the the larger understanding of John Madden is with just this imitation, but with joy and flattery of just like how much

it was, how much he made football fun. I don't think that it took away from him, but maybe I'm I mean, I'm not in his shoes. No, he not only made it fun, but he made it understandable. So are There's people that want to sound smart, and so we end up talking about, you know, the cover two shell and here's a China route and then bail technique, and I mean, that's all fine, but John Madden simplified it.

He appealed to every person, every man, every woman. I mean, if you didn't even speak English, sure you could understand John Man. This guy comes here to boom and then this guy goes here foom, but he's drawing the squiggly lines. It was amazing. And I've watched some of that that clip or someone like the full game of the uh the divisional game against Dallas, the first playoff game here that he and Pat SRL did. Like that full clip is on YouTube, so you can watch the full game.

And you know, as someone that was now older listening to him, he he simplifies it, but he's not incorrect. It's it's still a very accurate prediction and under an analysis of what is happening in the secondary and why this underneath route needed to go where it did or it didn't go where it needed to and that's why this was an incomplete pass. Like he it was still very very on point. The football was always sharp. But I mean tim me and I tweeted about this last night.

The thing with John Madden was he always remembered that this was a game. He always remembered that we're supposed to be having fun here. And to mixed point, I mean a lot of people over complicate football and get caught up in the jargon to explain to you exactly how smart they are during a broadcast. But what John

Madden did was, Hey, look at that sixs like a turkey. Yeah, I mean, and it's like, yes, this is ridiculous because this is a child's game that grown men are playing and and doing, you know, physical violence, and let's have some fun with it. Ohly got look at that guy, you know. I mean, it's just making fun of Troy Aigman for not being able to grow a beard on the sideline. And it's just that's the stuff that I mean.

That's why the reaction to John Madden last night across the football galaxy was so big because he was the reason we do the thing, because the thing is supposed to be fun, and he embraced it and he made it and it was genuine. And those Raider teams were I mean rock stars. They didn't care. They played to the echo of the next whistle after the next play. I mean, the guys h grew up when Darren and I did just live for those AFL games Chiefs and

the Raiders. I mean, it was so much fun. And then lastly, for my part of this, it's worth a couple of minutes of your YouTube time to to google up the wind as a pirate NFL Films productions, get some idea of the Raiders and what that pirate with that I patch over it meant back in those days, did they know what I'm talking that for the Hard Knocks intro a couple of years ago. I feel like I've seen that. I'll look it up. Anyway, back to

the Panthers. This past Sunday, we witnessed a seventeen minute press conference of of Cam Newton that would take us a long time to fully break down every individual element of it. So that's also worth your youtubing time. But wanted to hear, Darren, you wrote a little bit about it. What was your takeaway from Cam's thoughts after that game? Cam Newton walked into that Verton walked into that press conference and he started using past tense verbs. Everything was

the game's been good to me. I've been able to walk away unscathed. And I'm sitting there like, oh god, he's gonna do it today. He's gonna say it today, and any kind of caught himself because Cam has awareness of himself when he's behind that lect and to say no, I'm not retiring. I know it might sound like it, but that ain't what today is all about. But that was what today was all about. That was I mean to me, I believe you know. And we've touched on this.

The Cam Newton that we're seeing now is not the Cam Newton we remembered, and it's not the Cam Newton we want to remember. And the person who knows that more than anybody is Cam Newton. I think there's an under standing on his part that, man, all this stuff I used to be able to do, I ain't doing anymore. And I used to be able to throw the football all over the mountain in a place where people could catch it. And it's it's difficult to watch in a lot of ways because we've seen here, and I mean

mix called every game of it. You've seen this bright, shining star who can do anything physically, and now physically he cannot, and it's hard to watch. When Andrew Luck decided that he wanted to go back to school for his last year to get a degree in architecture whatever it was, and it looked like the Panthers were gonna pick early in that draft. First overall, several co workers, and I don't want to mention their names, but one

of them's initials is Stephen. Justin Drummond. We're just beside apoplectic, catatonic, depressed, couldn't believe the bad luck And I said, bow, there's a guy, don't worry about it. There's a guy at Auburn who will end up being one of the great dual threat quarterbacks ever to play in the NFL. Now, this is at a time when the running quarterback was This is pre Lamar Jackson, is pre Taysom Hill, that

kind of thing. So with host Michael Vick, which some people regarded as an outlier, who who really wasn't that much of a pastor. At that time, Cam Newton was leading the nation in past completion percentage and wasn't afraid to throw the ball down field. And when he when we signed him, I thought, there is no way this athlete will not take us to at least one championship. If not to he just he's too talented. Rob Chadzinski is too creative. It's gonna work. I was so excited,

and it almost did work. And the thing about him that's always struck me is he was always able to do this stuff by himself. He won a national championship at Auburn, and the only player from that offense other than him uh to even be drafted into the NFL was a big, old, long, lean tackle named Lee Zimba, who was drafted here to great acclaim in the seventh round and never did a thing in the NFL. Cam

was not out there with great weapons. He never had the opportunity to play with a receiver like d J. Moore at Auburn or any or Steve Smith or anybody like that. And just by force of will, he carried that entire ball team to a national championship. And just seeing the way he did it, I mean, it almost didn't make sense because you look at that team and it's like, no, they don't have great receivers they but they got that guy and he's always been that guy.

And that's why watching him talk about it more so than the stuff he's doing on the field, because I think we all got caught up. I mean in Arizona, when he does the thing he did in Arizona, it's like, well, of course that's what he did. He's Cam Newton. And then he played well in Washington and then the last four since then, though, it's been like, oh yeah, that's why. And it's hard to watch because we are, I believe, seeing the sunset of something tremendous um and the fact

that he knows it. In the way he was talking about it, he kept talking about gratitude. He kept talking about the lessons he learned here and and learning what keep pounding means from guys like Steve Smith and Thomas Davis and Ryan Cleland Jordan and everybody. I mean hearing him rattle through those names, hearing him talk about how good Charlotte's been to him. That carried a little more

weight than we just lost to the Bucks. I was six years old when Cassius Marcellis Clay from out of Louisville, Kentucky beat Sunny Charles Listen Charles Sunny Liston in Miami, Florida to win the heavyweight championship of the World. But I remember it. I was eight during the rematch in Lewiston, Maine. He changed his name to Mohammad Ali and towards the end of his and I was a huge, huge fan.

Towards the end of his career, it was difficult to watch his skills erode, and he would absorb punishment and every now and again the magic would still be there. He'd throw a couple of combinations and then move away, light on his feet. Those dancers feet, Cam Newton, just bodies like that only come along every hundred million births. Or so if at that, and then with his combative, combative,

competitive fire with his pride. Instead of Zimba, we got Simba and and he romped and stomped across the jungle around here for a long time. And to me one of the lasting memories I have. I mean, I did a couple of little middle school things with him where the script called for seven minutes or five minutes, and he did almost an hour with the kids. I mean, the heart for kids that he had is an underappreciated component of his personality. But I remember sitting with Charlie

Dayton in the press box for fan Fest. So fan Fest was his glorified Five or six thousand people would come out, and I know, you watch a training camp practice. Then then we hitch our our cables to to this energetic energy source of Cam Newton. Now fan Fest becomes fifty people at five dollars ahead. Let's be honest, watch fireworks for show and last time, last time Darren and I checked the wave went out of style with polyester leisure suit, the pet rock and the mood ring and

the chia pet. But Cam, but not with Cam Newton, the pied piper, A party was able to get the wave, the reverse wave, the silent, the slow motion wave. Who else? So this I put to you what other athletes in the modern era of sport combine that effervescent joy of playing that command of an audience. It's a short list. I can think of Ali Magic Johnson. That's tough. I mean it really is, because he he is so singular

in football. I mean, there hadn't been a lot of guys in the NFL period who you point to and say, man, he can do anything. Tiger Woods had a run. Of course, Michael Jordans had runs, but it was it wasn't fan engaging. It was all deadly serious. There was yeah, I mean, Steph Curry is probably the closest thing we've got among

modern athletes to it. But I think it was it was hard not to see kind of the Thomas and Greg both being down there next to him, and you know, him embracing them, you know, right before he came over and took a picture of t j Olsen, right before he hit the key bounding drum. You know, you could kind of see it felt like in the back of Cam's mind of him just soaking in every moment of being on that field um and having those guys they're kind of around him saying, Okay, you know we're we're

we're here. You know, we spent all this time with you and now we're we're here for this moment for you. And I think that meant that meant a lot to him. I mean it, shoot, it meant something to me just watching it from from the four hundred level. Yeah. I told you guys before, I was in a full body goose bump when he came out of that tunnel for the Washington game. I mean, just standing there in that cloud and it is incredible. I mean that that alone

was worth the price of whatever. I know tickets are expensive. That that was that was such a moment, and the thing about it is, I mean, let's be honest. I mean Cam Newton was signed to come back here after sitting on his couch for nine weeks in a fit of desperation for a four and five team that had an injured quarterback who was in a period where he was sort of scuffling anyway, and it's like, what can you do to grab for the side of the pool.

So you call Cam and he was willing, and they were willing and conversations were had and bridges were mended, and um, here we are. But we we got that moment out of it. We got Arizona out of it.

Where you know whether I mean even if he had never played another snap after the Arizona game, seeing that Cam Newton coming in out of what amounted to retirement because nobody else in the league was trying to break down his door to get him in there, and to see him walk in days after being signed and score touchdown with relative ease, It's like, Yeah, that that guy. That's the moment, and that's kind of thing. I mean, I think while this season hadn't met anybody's expectations around here,

you got to see that. And for whatever pain, for whatever gnashing of teeth, from whatever anger people have about certain elements of the process right now, you got to see that. You got to see that guy summon it one last time. Is it even fair to speculate on who? Jakel said on our radio broadcast on Sunday he does not think the starting quarterback next year is currently on the roster. Who do you think it's, Well, there ain't but one on the roster next year, and that's Sam

and it's reasonable to wonder if it's not. I mean, it's you know, there's gonna be a lot of stuff going on over the next six months around here because between the top ten, draft pick, free agency, trade alternatives, I mean, the Panthers are going to get linked to all that stuff. And that's because of the way they've operated. I mean, they've rolled four quarterbacks through here in the last two years, and they're going to continue looking for answers and you know, we'll see I mean, I think

they gave Sam a shot. I think they will probably continue to over the last couple of weeks, but as well as Sam played the first four weeks of the year, there's not that momentum that oh yeah, absolutely, you know, going the next year with that, I mean, they're going to add to the position, whether it's trading for somebody, bringing in another free agent, drafting one in the first round, or whenever it happens to be. There's absolutely going to

be more quarterbacks in here. And they're just gonna continue to throw. I mean, that's the strategy. Just keep swinging at that position, keep hacking away until you get it right. Real briefly, we're going to see probably a good bit of Sam this coming weekend, UH down New Orleans and probably at Tampa as well. But the more pressing thing here on a Wednesday is who else will be on that field. Obviously we had a number of of COVID

cases come up in the last couple of days. You know there there might be some more coming um, but you know, I it's gonna be interesting with what New Orleans went through last week, you know, on on Monday night football twenty two. So you know, I'm curious what what you know, how you can game plan for you know, as as a coach, you know that kind of thing.

There is no game planning this week. I mean right now that as we sit here recording this podcast on a Wednesday morning, the Panthers are sitting there with twelve guys on the COVID list, but they don't have any centers right because Sam Techlanberg went on the list yesterday. Pat al find still on the list. He could get back this week, but we don't know that. I mean.

And one of the things that bugs me about all this stuff, and it's just one of my little pet peeves, is because we watch football the way we watch and we talked about well, they don't have any centers. Well, the other thing is Pat a flyin sick. So let's hope Pat gets healthy. Let's begin in there and then start worrying about you know, and all these guys who have this disease. There's so many people around the globe have you know? Okay, get better, get your self right.

But it's impossible to game plan because they have basically no defensive end. Brian Burns and Marky's Haynes out, you know as your Kamara was activated yesterday, but we don't even know who he is because he hadn't been here, he hadn't been to him practice yet. He rolled in after being claimed off waivers from Dallas and immediately tested positive. And it's like if he better be wearing a name tag today. If you see him in the building, I will be asking you what his number is and put

that down there. We got we've got that information. I can journalist. I can do a journalism and find that out for you. Wheneberg when tech Lemberg got sick, I wonder what Brandon Zulstra thought, Well, Zilstra is on the list, Well I know, but he he got on the list faster. I'm just I'm just kidding the course, but Selster is probably thinking, all right, look I draw the line at kicking off. I'm not playing center in national football. I

bet he'd do it. I bet. I wrote yesterday in the mail bag that he belonged snap if j J would let him. And I have no I have every confidence that Brandon zil Zilstra could competently long snap or kick off or pawn if need be. Parenthetically, watching the Saints the other night with Ian book and sacked seven or eight times. I think how many times we sat it was it nine times or eight whole bunch, and I thought, man, the Saints, and I don't really like

the Saints. I admire Sean Payton and the aptitude he has for offensive football, but the Saints seem like that it's always something. It's always a tropical storm, it's a hurricane, it's just somebody getting sick. Sean Payton seemed like he was the first, the second, or third. He was almost patient zero in the NFL to get COVID and then

officiating call every time you turn around. It's, oh God, the humanity that the Saints probably could have had another championship or two with a little better something something they did. They did get to enjoy that very long period of having a Hall of Fame quarterback understanding or you know, I don't begrudge those guys too much because they enjoyed the stability that a lot of people would kill for. But uh yeah, I mean and they are They were

without twenty two dudes Monday night. And you know, with the way the league has adjusted these rules to follow the CDC guideline, shortening up the quarantine times and that kind of thing, I think you you're gonna see guys come and go off that list all week. It's gonna be twelve, it's gonna be fourteen, it's gonna be eleven, it's gonna be you know, eight, and then back up to eleven. That's just the way this season is gonna go for the next week and a half. So just

brace yourself for that. But we could spend a lot of time talking about this game on Sunday, but it's kind of pointless because I don't know who's gonna play in it the So then we'll we'll end with this. Last night, there was a re airing of incredible documentary about John Madden, and there was a clip in it uh that we that we saw on our slack channels this morning of Lawrence Taylor going after a photographer, which of course, you know us being in the industry, you

know we we have some photographers videographers around here. We like to you know, what what would you do in that situation? And Mick, you you have a story about LT. Well, LT and I almost got in a fist fight at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. And I'll tell exactly what happened because it almost didn't go good for

for LT. Lawrence Taylor. For those who do not know, was this twitchy, mad at it one off, aggressive, mean, Kodak All American Defensive lineman linebacker at u n C. Your humble correspondent was an umpire for the intermural All Campus Championships summer of nineteen seventy nine. The Dental School at Carolina back then was a perennial power they had. They were always in the All Campus Championship game. The football team featuring Bun Rams, Buddy Curry, Steve Street, or

Kelvin Bryant, Lawrence Taylor, amos Lawrence. I mean, they're loaded with athletes and it's the All Campus Championship in early August. So I'm the home plate umpire. I had a whisk broom from my dad's shop to dust off home plate. I had my mom's little clickie calorie counter thing to keep track of balls and strikes. I've gone to mcguineas Sporting Goods in my hometown of Chapel Hill and got in a softball rule book and read it all and

knew the rules, and I took umpiring seriously. And additionally, I had worked all summer on my called third strike in case someone took a called third strike, which almost never happens in slow pitch softball. But back then I was as limber as a rag. I can do a deny Terio dance fever split and pop back up. And so I had this dramatic home run. I mean a

strike three call. I'll planned out. So the fifth ending jam Pat crowd Carmichael Auditorium field just to the after Carmichael Auditorium as you faced Carmichael, Lawrence Taylor comes to the plate with none on and two out, and the picture for the Dental School, who I remember looked exactly like Kenny Loggins, and he also had terrible teeth. I'm thinking skinny, long, stringy hair, bad teeth. Dennis to Be is the picture, and he had he knew what he

knew how to pitch. I mean the ball would come in no higher than twelve feet, no lower than six. First pitch comes in Lawrence Taylor, who looks by the way like a Kodiak bear with a toothpick in his hands for the bat, left handed hitter. First pitch raises his right leg and a brand new Dudley Restricted flight blue dot softball disappears out into the sky and is gone over the pole vault pit down behind Carmichael Field. So I paid another one out to Kenny Loggins younger

brother picture oh and one. Next pitch comes in, raises his right leg the same swat the same violent collision with the ball in the bat. Another exact same trajectory five hundred feet foul ball the council in two. Another ball goes out to the picture. Third pitch comes in and it's exact duplicate of mimigraph copy of the first two. No higher than twelve, no lower than six lt. Raised his right leg cocks the bat, steps into it and in an event a moment that changed my life. He

did not swing. Oh my gosh, the catcher who had his glove right behind the spike of home play, he did not have to move his glove a millimeter. The ball landed right in his glove. This catcher for the Dental School, knowing that there was two out, knowing that that was strike three, and knowing that this is Lawrence Taylor at the plate, looks back at me as if to say, what do you gotta slim? But I was already into my spin move. It hadn't rained in about

two months. So I spent around three or four times, kick up a mile sandstorm, hop up on one leg, do a split, pop back up, and I'm yelling the whole time Steve, and I jabbed lt in the chest with my right finger. Boom boo boo. I jabbed him right in the chest, and with my left hand, I went, strike three, Get out of here. And so the Dental School runs off. Football team runs on. I'm dusting off. I'm dusting off the plate. And as the sandstorm I created starts to clear, I see these two legs and

skin the color of anthracite coal. And then I go up to this these vascular thighs that are thicker than my chest. And I look up into the eyes of Lawrence Taylor, who's still standing there, and he addressed me. I give him credit. He addressed me with great respect. He said, a white boy, do you call that pitch of strike? And I said, well, uh, LT, yes I did. But I am open to a second opinion, he said.

He pointed his finger at me, and he said, if I see you on campus, if I see you at Trolls, if I see you at Kirk's, if I see you at Harrison's, I'll beat you. And I'm taking all the curse words out, but there were plenty, trust me. Now. LT's voice was not deep, but neither is the hiss of a copper head. And they both get their menacing

points across quite clearly. LT, and this high pitched voice said, I will beat you two within an inch of your blank in life, I tell my buddies that when the semester begins two months later, where this little watering hole called Trolls, and LT walks in and all my friends jump up, L T LT and they start pointing. So we almost had to come to blows. But we did not tell me more about these former friends of I know with friends like that, Oh my gosh, what a story.

There's nothing to be said after that. Call it a day, everybody. Thanks for coming out there. It is happy New Year's. Everyone will see you next week.