You've been added to the group chat with your friends Caroline, can, Max Sensen, and Will Brian. You guys were almost about to say Happy New Year, you know in March. Isn't that what people normally do in marked Happy New Year or have a great summer hags? We should tell people hags. How many of you wrote that? And did you guys write that in any new books? Yes, of course, I've never heard haggs. Really, do you know what it's hands for? Well, you just said it. I'd never heard that, you know
what we say on here. I'm shocked you've never never heard hags have a great summer. That's everyone used to write in the yearbooks. Yeah, wow, I'm shocked that you never heard of that. Well, we are going to say that, but it's not because of any reason. A great season, have a great go back X, Yes, that is we That was good Max, good job on that. But we are doing this end of the year, end of the new well not new the new league year is coming. So this is the end of the season officially for
the NFL. Every March. It bounces around on some dates, but every March, a new league year begins, fresh start, a clean slate, all the things that you want to say with it. But as a new league year begins, it's a good time to reflect back on just this calendar year, some things that happen for the Panthers, for your life, for anything. So that's what we're gonna do in this podcast is just look back. I got a little nostalgic last last night. I posted on Instagram it
was this what made me think of doing this? I was looking back at photos of the year. It's just oh the mims, you know. Yeah, well, I mean obviously and especially for you coming to this organization, I guess let's start at the beginning. What a kind of your What are your What are your first memories? I guess the good ones, but feel free to share of like when you first got in the door and sort of get started to get a feel for what this place was like and getting to learn the team and all that.
What like sticks out to you think, Well, my very first memory is I stayed at a hotel right beside the stadium when I first moved here for four weeks and I would walk to work. It was super close, the weather was great. I just remember being so joyful walking to work because you would pass the Big Panthers, and I had grown up watching this team and now I was getting to work for them. It was warm. It was just such a great time, and it really did feel like a new beginning. And then how nice
Panther fans were of welcoming me. I didn't feel like there was a get to know period with this fan base. I feel like maybe that was day one when it was posted that I was taking this job, but then from from that point on, I was a part of the family. Um getting to know the team was really cool and interesting. It was an interesting year to get to know this team, though. And I tell a lot of people that and they're like, oh, like, how's the
locker room. I'm like, I don't think I got a true sense of what a Panther's locker room is like because the big players in this past year's locker room they were new guys. You didn't have Cam really running that locker room like you normally. What if he was starting, uh, you know Christian of course, but he's an under the radar guy in the locker room. You don't see much of him when we are in there. So it was good to get to know this roster but I do feel like I don't have a true sense of what
I see. What you're saying a real you know, when when this team is rolling, what that locker room is like. Yeah, I mean because for so long the locker room was run by guys like Thomas Davis, Charles Johnson, Ryan khalil Um and those urban legends. Yeah, and I think there were, you know, obviously guys like Greg Olsen this past year, Christian Luke, they kind of carried the torch, but it
was different. There were remnants of kind of what that everyone I think has looked at this that there's that photo from the NFC Championship game of all these captains with the trophy, and that I think is what you're saying. What you're talking about this this decade of Panthers football is kind of defined by that group and like what the locker room became with them steering the ship. And
it's changed a lot. I mean this year, like I said, there were pieces of it still and obviously in the off season some of those pieces have now left as well, with with Olsen now a Seattle Seahawk, which is so weird to say, Um and Luke, Keikley retiring, So I see what you're saying. It was. It was definitely a transition year for just what this locker room and the team's identity certainly was. It was different, but it was It was fun to get to know another organization and
it was fun. I think we have a really great group of content producers and we're fun. We're fun, dang it, We're a fun group. And I thought that was a lot of fun of just traveling around and getting to know that the staff was fun um and the content we were able to put out. I thought it was really awesome and I'm super proud out of So it was a great year for like personally. I mean, I know the football wasn't that great, but I think that's what I mean with the locker room. It was. It
was just weird. It was a weird year for Carolina football. And moving on now you have this new, fresh, clean slate that's coming and it it truly does feel that way because a lot of the pieces have gone. Um, I'm sure more changes are coming this offseason of of adding pieces and maybe other other pieces leaving. So it is it has been a wild year. I tell people
that I feel like I didn't. I got to know Charlotte once this season started to end, because that's when you can actually have your weekends and go and explore. So it was it was a wild year that for me started in May. Yeah. Crazy. How about how about you?
What do you think back to the beginning of Yeah, I mean, I mean from a personal standpoint, like it was, it wasn't nearly as wild as as Carolines, But you know, I transition a little bit from more of a kind of the pr side too, you know, now joining the podcast and then a training camp, you know, working with Max too, kind of right Stories, which was kind of a new experience for me. Like I was in huddles you know, or like interview scrums and everyone was like,
wait a minute, Will's will interviewing people? Well, what's happening over here? So that was that was kind of a cool exercise and in doing something different for me. And I mean, I I still think, you know, the memory for me from this year is kind of, you know,
is London. I think that really it felt like the kind of there was that month long period where things were really good and Kyle Allen was five and oh and and you go to London, and it's like this is this is really fun seeing how Panthers fans kind of dominated the bucks in the city and then in the game, and just really getting to spend time with you guys. I mean, I'll remember that that morning with with Paul mcgouan and that group chat that was that
was quite a group chat. Yeah, the London experience almost makes it feel like, well, this was a lost season
in many ways. It was like there was that you know, like and I feel like that was like a winning that game in the fashion they did this, the fan experience and the way it seems that just seemed like a really big moment for the organization and a proud moment to show for a fan base that that's whatever you want to say about small market, it's always seemed to be a bit of an underdog and kind of relished that feeling that doesn't maybe get the respect it deserves to put on a show like it did, and
you know, we were at the events and to see the fan base show up the way they did for for that moment, to me, that's what I'll remember from was like and I'm glad that I was able to be a part of that. It looked. The way the season ended was was really really difficult, um. And to see so many good people leave in the in the that was hard. But that moment in London, I think is something that it's cool to be able to have
that from this twenty nineteen season. And I think fans would feel the same way, especially the ones who were out there. Oh, I know that was that was a memory you'll always keep. Yeah, just you know, being on the you know, I was on the commercial flight that was packed to the gills with with Panther fans. That are you know channing keep pounding at two am the morning.
I mean a little annoying at the moment when you look back at it, I mean it was really very cool, um, to to kind of see that outpouring of support in a big way. Yeah, and you know the fa whether it was getting becoming a captain before and then after the game as he's blowing kisses to the fans, I mean, that was that was special. It's a shame that that didn't catapult this team forward in the way we may be hoped, um, But still just as an isolated moment,
that was that was pretty darn cool. I'm tired just thinking of that week. I'd be onto a couple of times during those stories because that week was it was awesome because you wanted to take every bit of it in. So you're you're going all in on the football and the work, but then you're going all in on just being in London and taking the tube to go, you know, forty minutes or however long it was to get downtown. It was that feels like it was like two or
three years, right, it really does. Ever. I was thinking about that another memory when I was talking about this year and talking of the locker room, I will miss the the defensive line row. Who knows what it's going to look like, you know next year in that locker room. I think there is going to be some retooling and you know, new faces and maybe some familiar faces, but that whole you know, Gerald McCoy defensive line row was
absurd last year in the locker room. They were always fun and welcoming to the media and you know, talking and being very honest and just the energy was unreal
from that group. And when I when I think about this locker room, I didn't get the normal Painthers experience, but that defensive line this group was absurd interesting characters, Like the whole McCoy recruitment was a big memory and landing him, um, such a big personality, and you know him in training camp and we you know, all this stuff with carrying the guy's helmets and having the ice
cream truck coming, Like the whole McCoy experience was pretty cool. Um. It's a real shame that he and kay K didn't get to play together. And I think that that was one of a real bummer um. And you just wonder, you know, how things maybe would have been different if k K didn't get hurt. But you know, Bruce Irvin another guy who a unique personality. Bruce is just um there everyone said there was there's an edge to him. There's also yeah, there's like and there's like a there's
like a sense of humor. I think he's trying to be funny at times there. I don't know, maybe not, but Bruce was certainly interesting guy to get a chance to know. Um. So yeah, I agree, And even the young guys like Burns again another one where it's like, what a shame that he got hurt because he was off to such a great start, and you wonder how his rookie season maybe would have gone differently if not for punching the turf in Houston. Um. But uh, but
I'm I'm really excited about Brian in his future. I mean, I think that guy showed to everybody that you know, he's he's got the juice off the edge and if he can just kind of harness things a little bit and become a little bit more of a technician, I mean, that guy has has the makings of a double digit sack pressure in this league, and so it was it was cool to get a chance to know him as well.
So so young, I mean, that's the thing about us, Like, isn't it crazy to think that we're all older than most guys in the locker room now, Like Brian Burns is significantly younger than us. I remember my first year in the league, I was my first year, my rookie year. That sounded like I was playing, But my first year working in the NFL I was. I just turned three,
So I still felt very twenty two. Coming out of college was the very first job, and it did blow my mind that even then I was older than the rookie that we're coming in of Like this is my first job. This is their first job. Wow, the pay differences, yeah's mind boggling. Yes, and then now every time, I mean we're getting I at least this is my first time. I'm twenty seven of when people talk about oh, thirty thirty and year old in the NFL, might hold up now,
yah's not getting crazy. I mean I can't run two miles without hurting. But it is that's it is crazy to think a lot of these guys in the locker room. Yeah. It hit me when Luke retired. Yeah, I mean when when you're still when I'm still like trying to like find your career path and this guy is that much younger than you and he's retired, like what, Well he was probably trying to find his career paths. Sure, but still it makes you feel better. Yeah, you definitely start
feeling that's really old in there. Yeah. I remember Quincy Wilson was drafted by the Colts at twenty. Yeah, I think Curtis Samuel came to the team. It's it's just and you know, I look, every year goes by, I'm finding that I um more and more. Just like I don't really know what these guys like. I just feel out of touch with you know, because because you know,
like I started, like you, Caroline, I was. I got into the league as an intern with the Broncos when I was three, and a lot of changes in seven years, and all of a sudden, it's like, man, I'm I'm not cool. That is confirmed. Um, well, Matt is not here to defend himself. He's having to miss this because he's recovering from the flu. Matt, we miss you. We hope you're feeling better. But Matt just went to the combine with us, and we mentioned this on the last
group chat. But it was fun to see his enthusiasm for his job because this is a job and it does get to the point where you know you're you're going through and you've done it before, so you're not as in awe of things. And I think that's when I look back at my first year of working in the NFL, I was just wide eyed and just wow, like that all the time. Wow, I see them, And now I'm complaining about a late bus leaving the hotel. Right,
stop it. That's what happens. You have to you have to, you know, get out and be thankful for a little bit. So sorry if you think I'm complaining out there, but that was a that was a fun part of the combine was seeing his enthusiasm. So then we can remind ourselves. Yeah, and you know, I think our other memories of and even though I not really but this league year before this next one starts, is a massive change that happened here in Carolina with this coaching staff, right, I mean,
um defining moment. Yeah, they've yet to really you know, get started in earnest with you know, obviously I haven't been on the practice field yet, but um, getting themselves in the building, this whole new staff and really just starting a culture change and and really it's it's it's a huge shift in philosophy and just going about their business. I don't know we've all I think experienced that. And just being in this building is you're you're starting to feel it and see it just out and not right
or wrong. How one guy did it, how the next guy does it. It's just different. Um, and that's very new to this place. After going through nine years with with Round rivera the Matt Rule era beginning, it will always I think, you know, be another big memory and that press conference and kind of kicking that thing off the way it did. And in the atrium domes it's another one you were on, you know, your way back from from Waco. I mean that that that whole stretch
of time, I would say it was pretty memorable. It was very memorable. I think the funny part about that piece of content that we did in his house and what we turned her out from there when we go places, now you know, oh what you guys did with Matt Rule. That really pushed the needle and that was awesome. That was great content. And I laughed though, because they have
no idea who went. And I love that, like they know that I went because we did an interview and you see my face, but they have no idea how any of it happened. And that it really did remind me the magic of what we get to do of you just go and you turn this content and then you come back and you move on to the next thing. So it can become a bit of a grind and
you're just kind of Okay, what's next, What's next. It's been fun to hear people respond to that, because it does it just makes you sit back and be like, wow, you know, and we will take something to do, and we recounted the story of that day kind of here, you know, on the group chat. But I mean just you know, yeah, the excitement of those mornings where it's like, all right, what are we gonna do? Go get a suitcase?
You have forty five minutes. I mean just like literally, those those moments that are you know, that is kind of the the adrenaline and the lifeblood of this. And you know what this is both on our end and you know on their end. You know a lot of these coaches they picked up and just got here. You know, these players they pick up and they get here and all of a sudden it's they're starting a new life. And you know kind of what what that's like is very I think unique to too sports in certain ways.
I would also like to say that our office game of pig from the league here if you haven't heard out there. I don't even know what week this started, but we bought a remember I can go look back at my receipts, but it's a it's a little, you know, little basketball goal that you hang on the back of a door. Only in our office there's no door to hang it on. That makes sense because this is still a place of work and employment. So we don't want to put it on our office door and just be
banging around all day. So it hangs on a half wall, like a partition for um, what you would maybe see in an office with cubicles. It hangs on that wall. It's maybe three and a half feet off the ground. Four it might be four ft off the ground. But this game of pig that was supposed to be just a way for creatives to get up and you know, do something different, maybe shoot the ball while you're thinking about some ideas, turned into a full fledged war. Yeah. Yeah.
At its peak, there was a website created with player profiles and standing rules. Oh yeah, we have rules. We had a commissioner. Yeah, it was. It was intense. It's kind of faded. I think it was a little bit because no one It was a little bit difficult when everything with the coaching, and I think, honestly, I think the players just needed a bit of an off season. It was well, we were trying to go for the playoffs.
We set a forty game minimum, which is a lot to thank you, which is a lot, okay, And I felt like forty game minimum. There are players currently on our board that have three hundred games played. There is one player that has almost three losses. He will go on remain nameless. He knows who he knows we and we know. But he also that same player also has the most wins, which just means that he just plays slightly too much, little too much, but not like too
much in a great way. You know, we're not hating on him. But yes, Pig, this year was we'll go down. I don't know if another office could do that. We got some people to stop in and play pick. Maybe you wouldn't expect appearances. Yes, mcmixon has come by and shot a little KK short came in yesterday like just just cleaned house. He beat two of us, and then I do believe he got beat on. Maybe he was victims. But here's the thing. He's a much bigger man lengthwise,
so he really played to his advantage. He was, you know, okay, you have to be touching this and make the shot. Well to him, he was touching, you know, a knob and could just drop the ball in. I was touching the knob and having to you know, really stretched the final The final shot is actually on TikTok on Panthers. TikTok if you would like to go see that and you'll understand how I lost because it's a ridiculous shot. Um yeah pick. We also David Tepper caught us in
the middle of a game one time. It was my often, our lead photographer. It was stressful. It was the day where the broom would stand up on its own. So we were playing with the broom, which is every day, but you know this day on social media where everyone thought it was just that it was a big day and we had set the broom up and so every the last shot had to do with the broom. That
was our rule. So it was my last shot and he happened to open the door mid I was just about to bounce the ball over the broom and both of us. Freeze were was like Hi, He's like, what is this like, pig you want to play? And he was like, no, but go and so he stood there and it was so nerve wracking. He didn't actually I did not hit the shot, but he stayed and watched for a little while until I did end up winning. I did end up winning that game, but I didn't
make that particular shot. But he stood for a little while and watched and laughed and said said, this is what the this is what we used to do in college. That's some flavor. He added a bit more flavor to that, but that is what yeah, in a much more Pittsburgh anyway. He did say, that's true. Yeah, the two season pig will always it will go down and pure. You can't. You cannot recreate the organic magic of that pig. You can't.
We also got an air hockey table. So I don't know if you guys remember we I did the gift guide at Christmas, which is a great way apparently to get free things, because I got a wine tumbler out of it and a full size air hockey table. Is that why you did it? Because I did it? So Originally the air hockey table was supposed to be a tabletop air hockey table, but at the time they did not have that in stores. Academy they didn't have it, and so they just gave us a full size and
we were like, well, we can't. I don't know what, I'm not sure what to do with this. No, oh no, you don't need to bring it back, like just thanks for you know, putting us on this gift guide. So we have a full size air hockey table. What you actually see in the box if you go look at the video that was posted on TikTok of playing. Yeah, so I was gonna say we never moved that act. We've never moved it. We've never because that's a bit
loud for the office. So we've were trying, but there's construction going on and so we just haven't put it anywhere yet. But yeah, the pig. The pig will go down in history anymore memories or or we we can move on to the next which will bring I know this next one will bring up more memories. So we good anything that I'm missing here, all right? So the next one is so every league year brings free agents. This is the big talk right now. Who's going to be a free agent? Where are they going to? Land?
Of course we're hearing a lot about Tom Brady right now, so he I would say he's probably the front runner in the free agent talks. Correct, Not for the Panthers. I'm just saying in general in the NFL. So we're going to go through and give you our front runners a free agents from this year, and we will not name a single player. So if that's what you're looking
for in this podcast. Just sorry about that. We're not going to do that, but we're just gonna do thanks from this year that are still out there lingering maybe things we said on the podcast or you know, little segments we had that we don't have answers to yet. So they're going to be free agents heading into the NFL season. Does anyone want to go first? Yes? Okay, Southern Mama. Where Southern Mama gonna land? Did she go? Where'd she go? She hasn't been mad about things in
a minute. Normally I hear from her when she's mad, But what about when she's really excited about something she doesn't really know. She's only she's only she's only after the people with the haters. She she had some run ins with with some famous people. She did, she did. She did come to the combine just briefly. She was yeah, yeah, what did happen to Southern Mama? She might come back. I'll call her this week and see if she'd like
to come back next week. Maybe just to be nice, let's not do anything this week to make her mad, but let's yeah, I'll call her only Wednesday. There's still a couple of days left. There are a couple of days left of what we could do to make her mad. What do you have, Caroline? I have a couple. So the holiday suggestions. Just a couple of weeks ago, we came up with holidays that we believe should not exist and that should I also went back and was listening
to some old group chats. On August seven, Will brought up we did a segment of things that exists but have no rhyme of reason Columbus Day. He brought up Columbus Day in August. He was still on the Columbus Day train a couple of weeks ago when we did holidays where I need answers of? Is Columbus Day just gonna always be a thing? That's what I want for everyone? I think. I think there's a great case being made of we could celebrate other things. Yeah, well, where are
other answers to that question of things that exists? Um? I just call him to say it was the best one. I mean it was because the preseason game. Oh, you said any any preseason poll doesn't exist, but they do not matter? Right? Um? I had I'm not gonna be oh, any any food that you eat between two am and four am. I think there was like some like that food does ad advice you get? Yes, that was one, and then I think we tagged on we tagged on
food to that as well that food. So really nothing in between the hours of about you know, two to five, they don't it doesn't count really one thirties We're going to get real about it. Um. I'm also curious of Matt rules fix er Upper. So if you remember a few weeks ago, Max gave us the great rundown. I just want to know when when is the house gonna be done? What are we gonna I also want to know our Chip and Joanna Panther fans like they are. Are they still on the market? Are they free agents?
And NFL fandom? We know they're Baylor fans, but I wonder what that that signing bonus is going to be to get them. Yeah, you have to imagine they're gonna they're gonna jump on board, right. They should come and do the new facility, ship lap everywhere, Magnolia, Yes, styled by get them to come in and do everything. Can
you imagine? Um? Also a free agent thing. I guess this kind of came we we know the answer to this, but just in the effort to poke fund in myself more, is Curtis Samuel ever going to get for four hundred yards? I thought you were four thousands? Yeah, I was like four thousand. Mean is he ever going to get you fourteen hundred yards? Yeah? I need to know, I need I need it. Actually I would like to change that
next year. I'll go ahead and I would like I didn't say Curtis, I said DJ, Well didn't or didn't we say total yards? I did say rushing into it? So DJ, total fourteen? Is that that's I definitely said Curtis, Okay, is he ever going to do it? Prove me right? Just one year? Please? That was my free agent. Also Will's calves, my calves. I just can't calves, calves, calves. Are they on the market? Are they looking for a new home? Well, the boots. The boots were a big deal,
he said, they heard a couple of times. So I think it's more of just what else can Will's is this is this my first group chat since the ski trip. Yeah, we haven't really, Yeah, we haven't had you really reflect on that. I think I think the calves survived. The ankles, the ankles were we're struggling for a bit. Okay, well that's good. We can close that book. Then. Yeah, I think I think the Calves went they went on a visit, you know, they went on a visit to West Virginia.
I think they found out what they wanted to and they're going to resign. Okay, are going to resign with their original team? Oh, the original team. Yeah, they're not going to stay in now. They made a visit though, Okay, next year, I feel like it might be the same story. This is just a yeah, you just always make a one one year. Yeah, I think I've signed a lifelong contract. Right. But they're they're they're asking, they're asking for more money. Problem.
They want to renegotiate and get get a higher base. So, you know, I'll have to take a look at their stats and see if they're worth it. I wanted Matt Hogan to forget something at the combine. He didn't, but I really wanted him to so that we could say something about, you know, Matt Hogan's possessions. They're just always out there roaming around doing what they want. There was a dinner where he was about to leave his credit card and he says like he's done that all the time.
I do believe in saying I believe he did say that. He at least admits his Oh yeah, he's very forthcoming with almost two for coming. Oh yeah, very very forthcoming. Any other free agents we need to be looking for, we need answers to. There are certainly players that everyone wants to know. There are some players, but unfortunately we don't have anything for you. But you can look. What are the dates. The dates that are coming up. There's
a tampering period in the new league year. Tampion period starts March sixteen, and then March eighteenth, at four o'clock is the start of the official start of the new league year free agent frenzy as it's become so yeah, well, it's always fascinating and it will certainly be, especially for this team with the new direction it's taking to see what happens and what doesn't. I think it's a big year just in the terms of not so much. You know,
there's so many questions. Is it the volume that they're going for, is it specific players, is it the big name players? I mean, this is where I think what Matt Roy kind of said at the combine is it is there to their advantage that no one knows what they're going to do. And I think this is you know, we're talking yest on the field stuff and it's off the field. You used to have Marty Herney and his staff, but you have Matt Rule and his staff who want
a certain type of player. They want, you know, to approach this roster maybe differently than it has been in years past. So I'm fascinated on what will happen because we hear things. You know, it might be this, might be that. But even those things that we hear in the building are conflicting. So I'm ready to see how it plays out, to see if if you know, is it volume, is it big splash players? Is it guys we've never heard of? Is it? You know? How is
this going to play out? And how does Matt Rule want? Yeah, you know, how are they going to start building this thing? Um? You know? And free agency is there our first real chance to see that plan in action. Obviously you'll have the draft coming after that. Everyone will be very curious to see what direction they go in that regard picking seventh. Overall, they're gonna get a really good player. I think that's one thing we came away from the combine. Sure of
it's like, okay, there there are some high, high level talents. Um, they're gonna gonna be on the board. Uh, in that top ten, certainly in that top seven. Um. So yeah, all the all these things again before this team actually get a chance ends to you know, really be on the field and we see that plan in action. We we get to see kind of how the roster takes shape and free agency in the draft and we'll find
out you know, we just don't know. And I think that's part of that, that's part of the fun of it. With a brand new kind of feel to this thing is whereas before with Ron you kind of maybe knew, um, you know, what kind of players they would be looking for, and had more of a feel for, you know, how things were gonna go, this one feels a lot just
more open ended, and there's some excitement to that. I mean, you always kind of felt like there there would be these connections to coach Rivera, to the Panthers or you know, to the system and all that kind of stuff, and now you know, it feels very wide open, which which can be exciting. And I think there's there's a lot of still kind of fear, and you know there's some you know, kind of sadness for these these names and these personalities that we've gotten to know, um kind of
moving on. But at the same time, you know, there's I think it's it's worth celebrating those those times and those moments and those memories we had and in you know, realizing that the Anthers aren't going anywhere, you know this this franchise is going to be here, and you know it's building a new now and those are new stories that we get to kind of learning new people, we get to embrace. Well, look for the dates coming up. March sixteen is when that tampering period begins the new
league year on March. And also we have a very very big episode coming up. We don't normally tease upcoming episodes, but you need to stick around because we've got some big plans, big news, some breaking news on this upcoming podcast. So make sure you know what turn on your notifications of when they're posted, because this is it's gonna be a fun one. We're getting some things together to make the next episode a really really big, blown out, fun
news breaking episode. Is that Is that a good way today? Is that a good way to describe what we've got coming up? Would you agree? I'd be listening. I would be listening. Guys, we hope you enjoyed this week of the Group Chat. This one really was for the groupies because we pulled a lot of memories from this past league year. But thank you so much for listening, and we will talk to you next week when the big episode Jobs