It's time for The Happy Half Hour with your friends Christine Balboni, Will Bryant and Darren Gaham. Welcome to a special Week eighteen edition of The Happy Half Hour. That's the first time that's ever been said in the studio or anywhere. What do we think about Week eighteen in the NFL? What do you think Eighteen weeks is a lot of weeks of football. It's uh yeah, and when it's going the way this one's gone, it feels like you're kind of crawling to the end of a marathon.
You're that guy who's sort of knee walk into the finish line trying to get across. But you know, in a lot of precincts, people are very excited about Week eight teen. I don't know. I think personally, if you're going to play seventeen games or even more in the future, because it's the NFL and Moore's always on the docket, you know, we all have spread this saying out a little bit. I think if there was another bye week built in to the system, if you're gonna play seventeen
scattering extra buy in there. Um. I know some television partners are wary about watering down the content, but based on the offensive content. I saw Sunday in New Orleans and then again Monday night on my television with the Manning Brothers as the Browns and Steelers, Pillow fought to the end. Um it's uh yeah, and I think everybody could use a little extra space. One thing you learn in athletics is let's not cloud the issue with facts. So Thursday night football maybe bad football. It may be,
it may be corrosive into player health. But yet as we all know that it is the money, you follow the dollars. I've always looked at it, Darren and Will in terms of I mean, I know we keep score. We stopped keeping score at the preseason, and we start when the regular season begins, but I've always looked at it as a twenty game season before preseason game sixteen regular season, then you hope you play more. So I hadn't had a problem with taking one pre away and
one adding one regular season game. To me, that's a pretty good deal to do. We still got to do our depth charts, we still get interviews, we still prepare
to do these broadcasts. But I think Darren makes a great point, as you would expect since he is after all noted uh sage, old guy and veteran corresponding in words, Smith Darren Ghant expand the right if you really want, if you get when we get serious about player safety, expand the rosters and and then build two by weeks in and creep a little bit into who's gonna get upset? The bowl games? Do we college basketball? Do we creep backwards or forwards? Do we creep back into August or
more into February. I think the league's long time dream. You know, one of those you hear Roger Goodell. You know, people say his goal is twenty five billion dollars in revenue or whatever it happens to be. But one of the goals I've always believed for the NFL is President's Day weekend super Bowl. So everybody's got Monday off to talk about it and it and just occupy the national consciousness for one more week and one more day. Um.
But yeah, I think we're pushing towards that anyway. I mean, we're creeping into that mid February timeline for Super bowls now and um, I realized that this year it's a February super Bowl, so we don't even have to make Valentine's Day plans. Just invite the girl to the super Bowl party and call it even. See, here's this party for you. You know it's a day early. You know we'll keep it going into midnight. Here about in your
life where that's no longer gonna work. Guys like Podcast Matt who used to invite their girls to his rotisserie league a draft for their first day. Now he can just just do a full on Super Bowl party. But you know, if if the NFL is gonna play games in Europe Mexico, these are gonna be longer flights, more of a travel nut to turn. So it makes sense to me just expand the roster, spread the contact out over a larger group of players, and then build that
extra by weekend. Over the course of this year, um obviously more weeks, so more stories. We've had more players who have been some of your favorite players, player favorite moments, favorite stories to cover over the course of the season. You know, I I think one of the really uh, kind of off the beaten path guys who I didn't know quite what to expect from the day he walked into the door to every Sunday you see and play
was Frankie Luvu. Uh, Frankie Luvu was signed and he was just a spare part depth guy, special teams Jets linebacker. The Jets didn't want him, so he rolls in here for a minimum wage deal and I go downstairs to meet him the day he signed, and Frankie somebody warned me. They were like, I don't know, Frankie's got all that much to say. And so I walk in and and Frankie is kind of downcast. He is soft spoken guy,
kind of quiet, and uh. And I noticed he's wearing a big button on his shirt with a picture of what appears to be a relative, and so I asked him about it, and as it turns out, it was his brother who had just passed away. And I was like, you know, here, I walked downstairs to write a quick story about a guy who's going to be a special teamer and run down some kid X and maybe be a backup linebacker, and all of a sudden, you get
Frankie Luvu's tale of heartbreak about his brother Frasier. And Frankie has really been one of the bright spots on this team. And share I mean beyond the stars, I mean beyond Dj Moore, beyond Brian Burns, Hassan Reddick, guys like that, you know, the Frankie Luvu's of the world or what makes the NFL go round, and and the kind of energy he brings to his job. You know, he is always out there and you saw him Sunday.
I mean, he just he makes plays at key times and I don't know, you know, people always love him and I and I fear that if you ever got too much Frankie Luvu in a game, it would dilute the intensity of what you get when he's out there. But man, that guy brings energy to whatever he does. He runs down punts, he plays defense. Basically, he's the defensive Brandon Zilstra. He'll do whatever it is you need him to do, and do it at a pretty high
level of energy. Matt Rule has said about Frankie Luvu, he plays the game the way is meant to be played. It has crossed my mind that what we really need around here's some guys who play game the way it wasn't meant to be played. But I get the you know, I get the reference and it is the ultimate compliment from from coach to Frankie Luvue worker and and and a big personality if you can get him to trust in the the process of an interview, like like Darren
has done. I got just two real short ones. One is Zenegn Zalice. When we signed Zenegn Zalie May, I was talking to him on the practice field and we have no access, So it just happened to be after practice that I was allowed to be down there and and and in that soupy undertow the foamy Bryan of players going this direction. In that direction, I start talking
to Zane Gonzalice. I asked him about end up, asking about how he was parented, and he mentioned growing up in Texas that he and his mom were not close. His mom had some substance abuse problems throughout much of his young adulthood and adolescence and childhood. And then she was able to get those uh bracketed and and corralled and the boundaries around those and the two have reconnected. I just thought that was kind of a cool human story, was AGNs was. The other one is a mere Abdullah
talking to Amir Abdullah. I'm not a broadcaster that assigns nicknames. You know, the Chris bermanization of of our industry. But if I, if I was going to do that, a mirror would be something like the governor or the mayor, because he has got that thing, that confidence, that communication skill, that ability. In fact, he's almost he stands almost uncomfortably close to you when you're interviewing him. Have you experienced this, Darren? He just gets right, you know, Mick, thanks for having
me on your show. And and he just he doesn't just as Darren says, he doesn't just say words. Uh. He's he has thoughts and their cogent and they have a beginning of middle and an end. He grew up in Georgia, played at Nebraska, the only big school that really recruited him. So he drove a nineteen Ford Mustang to Nebraska, nineteen hour drive. It broke down in St. Louis.
I just love I love stories like that, if you can get a player to tell you a little bit about their life and how they got here and what makes them scared and what makes them happy and what motivates them. So those are a couple of my favorites. I like Dai Kwan Jones a lot. He's a guy that when he speaks to the media Darren. Darren has asked him this a couple of times of his experience in Tennessee and what he's learned from being a part
of that culture and what he's brought here. But I feel like he's a guy that quietly, you know, while Reddick was very much kind of like the face of that defensive line along with Burns and then obviously have Derek Brown, but I feel like Da Kuan was someone that could speak for them as well, um, and had some big moments at times. I think probably fans would have maybe wanted a little bit more production out of
him at at different times. But I liked him a lot in terms of what he also brought, uh kind of to the veterans of that defensive side. Um, as we move forward, obviously a little programming note next week, Darren, Now we're back, we'll talk about free agents and draft and all of the nuts and bolts of the next five of My king. So we're not gonna do that now. UM, what are but what are some things looking back that
you can take with you into these next months. What are the things you feel that you can build upon, take, you know, to to use moving forward. I mean there are individual pieces on this football team that any football team in the NFL would want. I mean, there are guys. DJ Moore is kind of lost in the morass of this offense right now. But DJ Moore is a brilliant wide receiver. I don't think he's just very good. I
think he's great. I think in the right setting, he has the opportunity to be a major star in the NFL. I mean, if you look back, you know, I got in this conversation yesterday in the mail bag about Steve Smith comparing him to guys like Reggie Wayne or whatever. Could you imagine the numbers eighty nine would have put up if he got to play with Peyton Manning and d J Moore had competent quarterback play around him. Imagine what that guy could do. Because he's tough, he's he's
grace fowl, he's got good hands. Um. You go back to the early part of this season, when the offense was offensing at a high level, or at least a reasonably capable level, DJ was the reason it was moving. I mean, and and he's not just making plays downfield. That section of the Dallas game where he's getting downfield blocking on big run plays and stuff like that. I mean, that's kind of who that guy is. And he's one of those guys going into the offseason it's like, all right,
you you got one of those. You don't have to worry about that, and you know eventually he'll have to get paid. Um, they're they've got guys like Jeremy chen I. I think Derek Brown still a guy who's got a lot of ability. Um, you know, obviously burns and we'll see how some of the other stuff goes. But you know, j C. Horns another one of those guys. We saw him for a very brief time during August and September
before he got hurt in that game in Houston. That was just kind of the bell weather for the rest of the Sea. Reason that was, you know, you won that day. But um, but the games we saw of j. C. Horne, it's like, whoa, that's what one's supposed to look like right there. He knows how to do this thing. And so there are a bunch of free agents and we don't know what all the other parts are gonna look like around him. But the idea of starting a secondary going into two with Jeremy chen and j C. Horne
in the back of it. It's a pretty decent place to start. Proud of you for mentioning j. C. Horn is glad you did so easy to be forgotten about when you get hurt, and especially with people looking in the rear view mirror saying, oh my gosh. You know, you could have had Mac Jones, You could have had justin Fields, you could have had Liamba being green from out of Texas or what you know, whoever, just put your player in here. But J. C. Horne is not his fault. He got hurt at Houston and he is
gonna be a handful in the back. So I think I think that's a good, good pull by you, Darren. I think Brady Christensen might have turned a corner into Orleans. I saw him battle pretty hard. Really hadn't seen a lot of suddenness from him for a player that has all these measurables, and it was fantastic in terms of his combine. I think it was a ten for uh long jump or no broad jump. And he was mad because he thought he'd got cheated out of two inches
four six forty pounds. That's unheard of, but yet in that that short area, quickness that small space quickness. I just saw him fight pretty good against US State. Didn't win every time, but I thought that was a big moment. And I don't know. I mean, I think that so many issues confront this team that I cannot wait to see how it shakes out. What do you do? Who coordinates your offense? Is that? Is it Jeff Nixon? Or do you are you now shopping for an offensive coordinator?
If so, what kind of offense do you want to run? Do you do you hire a coordinator to fit the stated goal of being a run to pass football team, or do you go get a coordinator to say, here, here, here's our You tell us what we should be. You look at our personnel, then you tell us what we should do. How many more years for j J. Jansen? Will you need a snapper? What about a punder? I think all of this thought Joe Charlton was gonna be the pot, thought Joe Charlton would be the punter here
for uh the next ten years? Of course, offensive line. But there's this guy. There's this guy's name, Christian McCaffrey CMC. There's no reason to believe that his injury history is chronic. He could come back and be the player that he has been. So I think that I think he'll be a big building block. And people are friends of mine are saying, you know, what could you get from McCaffrey said,
that's asinine. Just because this this miserati needs a tune up doesn't mean you should trade it for a Nissan ultimont. You were about to go for the Toyota. Cameras slaying it again. I could only sing the song of the camera. I want to change, uh, change roads here a little bit, golf on and off ramp just a second. People ask me a lot um are they more just kind of say to me when I say I worked for the Panthers, like, oh my gosh, that must be the greatest thing in
the world. You know, must be a dream job. And I think it is in a way, but not in the way that people think. Um so much of I think, what is its been awesome to me over the last several years, I mean, and especially the last two years in in COVID was being able to walk in that room over there. And for people that don't know, these two that I'm looking at right now, Darren and Mick sit right next to each other. Uh, and right outside
the door of Bill, both Panthers Bill. In that room, there's years and years and years and years of stories of Panther knowledge of just experiences in this world. And I kind of get to be this, as Darren called a young but not quite a young in his mind, you know that I'm I'm the oldest of the young. So I get to kind of be this bridge of understanding a little bit where the young people are coming from,
but also being able to connect to these guys. And for me, that's that's been such a special experience to be a part of this organization, to be around people like Darren and Mick, and I think it also is for a lot of others too, and I want them to be able to say that. I love doing broadcast with Nick. He makes it so easy from one transition to the next, it's like seamless. But I love his
intro every single week. You know, if it's a one o'clock game at twelve fifty, when we put the headsets on and we're going on air for the duration, he welcomes the Panther crowd and he just starts to describe the week, who we're playing, what it's like a franchise record sixteen wins have brought the Carolina Panthers to the
doorstep of Super Bowl fifty. All season long, the Panthers have co mingled the bloodthirsty stare of a top predator with a childlike passion for the game and for one another. That boid. That excitement is contagious, and our little big town is on fire with it. So tonight, welcome to the most important game in the history of Bank of America Stadium. Welcome to the NFC Championship Game, Arizona at Carolina. Are you ready ready? Can you feel it? It's a
pepperable old My goodness, let's bring it home. I'm gonna miss that. I don't think there's any doubt I'm gonna miss that. Trem me in this week when I sit next to Mick, I think these are the good old days, you know what I mean? Like things are moving in a different direction with streaming and the tension span of the audience and who knows where radio broadcast will eventually evolve.
To Mick Mixon is a piece of broadcasting history and his ability to paint the picture and tell the story and the detail that he just throws out you know, the towel fluttering in a light southeastern breeze of five miles and he'll say that like right before the staff. You're like, I'll be damn it. You know, hey, Mack max Henson here otherwise known to you is Maximilian Jay Henson.
But I think about Nick Mixon like anybody. You think about the comically large clothing and those trademarks sneakers, uh, And you also think about the humility and the humor that was always on display. Mick just has an incredible ability to weave a story. I always just had a tremendous amount of respect for that, and really a tremendous amount of respect for the way, Mick, you were such
a steward of this organization. I really just wish you all the best, nothing but the best, and really congrats on a job well done. Mick. We're gonna miss your voice. Your voice of the Carolina Panthers has been legendary. It has moved so many people and provided so much entertainment and entertainment for so many people here in the Caroliners.
I enjoyed what working with you, Mick, learning from you, learning that even half a house needs a full show, Learning to be prepared at all times, learning to ask questions and how to ask questions so that you elicit responses. I apply alud you. You are absolutely incredible. I wish you the best as you move on from the Carolina Panthers. Maybe you've tinkering in your garage, or maybe you back to playing drums and whatever it is, I wish you
so much success. My friend, Nick. This is Caroline can Fraser, and I just want to say congratulations on a truly historic career. You have been so good at your job for so many years. And I don't say so many years to make you feel old. I say that because what you have accomplished as a broadcaster is legendary. You gave us fans so many memories through your gift of communication and storytelling. But what I want to celebrate and make sure that everyone knows about your career are all
the moments that you created off air. I'll never forget passing you in the hallway when you were on your way out to a speaking engagement where you never once accepted a fee because you truly enjoyed getting to know the Panther community. But even more personally, to me, what I love about your career is that you spent time getting to know those that you worked with. I know that our time together in Carolina was short, but you truly changed my life. Mick. You listened to me and
poured wisdom into my career and my personal life. Congratulations on an incredible career, Mick, and enjoy the farm with your bride. Byron Putland, studio producer for the Carolina Panthers Radio network. Since Mick joined the Panthers, it has been an absolute pleasure of getting to know him and his family, and I would like to do nothing more than to wish Mike a very, very healthy, happy and relaxed retirement.
And I look forward to the book that I am hoping he will pin to give us all the great stories he's told us over the years, as well as the ones that we do not know about it at this time. So Mick, God Bless, will definitely miss you. Enjoy your time. Forrest Orian Mixon the Third. I grew up at listening to him on the radio, you know, being a tar Hill fan. There was no better broadcast than a Woody and Nick broadcast, and just his voice is synonymous with so many happy memories for me and
my dad would always listen to the games together. And then I moved away and became a broadcaster after going to un C Chapel Hill, and someone put me in touch with him, and I asked him to watch my real and he wrote back the most thoughtful email and gave me some some great pointers and complimented me on certain things, and it meant so much. It was so personal and um so constructive and just so kind. I have learned just an incredible amount from him, and I
enjoy listening to him. One of my favorite things is being on the broadcast because I get to listen to him the entire time. But I just I think the world of him, and I still pinched myself that I get to call him a coworker and a friend. All Right, Mick,
I guess you're really gonna do this. So here we go seventeen years of just this part of our lives together, working together, and so much of what I would say to you isn't really worthy of being on a broadcast or a podcast because they only make sense to you and me. That could be a voice which only you would know if I said mc mc mick, you're the greatest Mick or if I said mix and let me tell you something, you would know what these means. But nobody else would get these things. I have no one
else to share these things too. And I will miss having you on countless road trips in the backup buses, hotels, dinners in the booth, sharing our stories together. But we did it, man, We did seventeen years together. Can I miss having year round? We got to go to a super Bowl together, didn't get a win, but we had a great trip. We had big games, we had little games, we had TV shows, we had podcasts, and gave you
my cheese wheels on the plane. Of course, we promised to make sure that you won't be stuck on a train in New York for your radio interview. Did not accomplish that for you as well. Your quest to find dates for our engineering staff did not go unnoticed. Just too many stories that you have that you've shared with us through the years that entertained us. If I say Socrates, if I say eyeball story your glory days in Bellm Radio, many of which I cannot speak of those stories in
great detail, I'll come flooding back to my mind. But we're gonna miss having that on a constant basis. But this is just so long. Not goodbye, of course, because as we know, Sandra and Donnie would never allow us to be separated as a force of a very long soil road trip to Burlington. Get you off your tractor, get you a grilled chicken salad, nice glass of red wine, and get to hang out some more. I'm sure you'll be back down to Charlotte to come visit us as well,
But can I miss your partner? Has been great fun and could not be more pleased that you got to pick your date, your timing, your circumstances of your departure. And in this business, that's saying something we don't all get to do that very often. So God bless you and we'll see you soon. Second down in nineteen and for the Carolina Panthers pro land motion, it's effake to the right and throw a long outfield to the left. Steve Smith. Smith is there. Smith's got a tots down
Carolina Panthers hand off up the middle. McCaffrey running free, unbelievable, thirty thirty five forty forty across midfield. Can someone drag him down? Funny to the fifteen, the ten to five free ta head home, Chick Along has the snap, fades back, rolls out, pumps once now throws into touch down in the middle of the end zone. Pads have done it,
dude and keeps it himself and it's wide open. Thirty thirty five, forty forty five, fifty forty five, forty thirty five, thirty twenty five, twenty ten five dives for the piline. It's a touchdown. Cam Newton has taken it home and Wilson in trouble flicks it out the black field pick off, quickly tangling right ten five touch out. You know, I have never liked any of you people. It's all been in act. I actually have accepted fees to go speak. What in the world? What is wrong with you? Will?
Why did you? Why are you doing this to me? I enjoyed it. Well, hey, the short answer is because you deserve it, and the longer answer is one of the really cool things and and piggyback and off. What Will said early on is he introduced his segment one of the cool things about being in stadiums and living this life and being around other writers and other broadcasters.
The focus of the public has always on that three hours that the football games being played, they're about twelve hours on either end of it that you end up in stadiums or in transit or getting ready for a game,
that you spend around these people. And one of the really cool things for all the ball games I've seen in my life, some of the really cool moments you spend in stadiums are sitting around five hours before kickoff in Atlanta with mcmixon when he tells you a story about Doug Bear or you know, and those are the
kind of things that you're gonna miss. Those are the kind of things that you know, I think definds me because a person, because the things that came through through all those tributes is this man is a storyteller, this man cares about his craft. But this man is a good friend. And we're all gonna miss at Well, I'm mad at you both for making me um My allergies
kind of kicked in during that a little bit. And uh here's some of the Yeah, so many good friends and and the honor of all these relationships has been mine. Of course, I can't follow this up. I have nothing left to say. Make do you want to sign us off? Well, my colleagues, and I hope you've enjoyed the way we've called the games and got one more left, another panther talking beyond that. If you need me, on and I'll be at the farm.