The Group Chat Episode 6: Dress Rehearsal

do karaoke, I take it kind of seriously. So I've had those times where you think that you know the song and then you get up there and you don't know the songs. All of this and so much more on the group chat, including the biggest topics from social media this week. You've been added to the group chat with your friends Caroline, can Max Sensen, and Will Brian. I feel like no sports podcast can start without talking about the fact that Antonio Brown wore a helmet at

practice that is allowed in the NFL. We did it. We can move on now. But we're now going to move on to a more hot topic for the three of us. Must let the people know what chicken sandwich are we going to eat? If presented with Wendy's Popeye's Chick fil A or Bojangles are lovely sponsored bo j Angles boys, what are you doing so here? This is this came up today actually because Popeye's has this new spicy chicken sandwich that I'm dying to try. I don't

know Popeyes. I've never had. Yeah, I think Popeye's is outstanding. What do you what's your Popeyes? I've never had Popeyes either Angles Loyal? Matt have you ever had Popeyes? Matts had Popeyes? How have you guys? Never had Popeyes? Loyal? Yes? So Bojangles isn't around as much as Popeye's is in other parts of the country, So I guess that's that's reasonable. Well, they're doing it wrong. But Popeyes? And now where's the

Stasia when you needed? So? She was obviously, you know, leading the Popeye's train, being from New Orleans and she was beating down so much about Popeye she had to go to d C shout out to a Stasia getting a job with DC United. But this also, this like social media thing happened after Popeye's like revealed their new spicy chicken sandwich, right, well, Phillison and like what happened? Then the problem come to the chat? Yeah, no, no, no,

I don't know the chronology of it. I just saw kind of the twelve hours later or the ten hours later. I only saw the graphics once they were made. Yeah, I just know that that. I guess it started with popeye'es and then Wendy's jumped in, and then Bojangles tried. Wendy's is always very sassy on two right, of course they always win, and so bo j Angles tried with like the biscuit, and then Wendy's was like that biscuit looks pretty dry there, just like your sense of humor.

It was just like I will say, like it is hard to sports. Twitter is king. I think we can say that, like they're the ones that they have the most accounts. They have the most, you know, at least all my feed because that's all I follow. But the fast food Twitter is Twitter is quickly becoming a favorite, and this was one of the reasons why. But here at the Carolina Panthers, we love bo j Angles, so we're just gonna roll with that. But I'm glad we

could get that off of our chicks. That Antonio Brown showed up with a helmet he has allowed to play and apparently Max likes pop up. The number six at Wendy's is a stable. If you've never gotten through Wendy's and had yourself a number six, you're doing it wrong. Let's just let's just be honest. Uh, spicy chicken sandwich. I haven't done that, and I still I still go with the one from Chick fil A number one and

is great to beat up. But I'm being steer. This isn't because boj was a sponsor, but Bojangles Chicken biscuit for breakfast. At me, it's the best. Matt shaking his head, He's with me on that. Let's go all right, guys, welcome to the group chat. I'm glad we got the big discussions out of the way. It sounds like producer Matt just cracked up in a beer, but that was that was right. We just want to put that out there. But we are going to talk football because the Panthers.

It's dress rehearsal time. It's week three of the preseason, and we're gonna see some starters. Can we get excited about that? Because every single week we're sitting down. Are we gonna see Cam Newton? Are we going to see c mc? The answer is Yes, get excited. This is the week you're one and only time to see him in the preseason too. Enjoy it. Greg Olsen had a great quote. I was asking him about this sense of urgency.

There's two weeks left until the regular season. So all these questions we've been having about this position, that position, how are they working together? Else? Is there a sense of urgency now with two weeks left? And he said there is because after this game, like the prec sends over for this roster, there's still guys that young guys that are fighting for that roster spot and their super Bowl is that week four. But for a majority of the players that we are going to watch this season,

the regular season starts Friday. For them, they're already being handed stuff. You know about the Rams, this is what we need to know. This is how we're gonna game plan. So um, it's here. But this dress rehearsal is the last time for them to really fine tune a game situation, because Luke kick Ley has said it. You can simulate all you want to, but it's really the game that is going to allow them, and he's getting the first chance to to get out there on the field I'm

excited to see it. He did, he did play a little bit. This is the first time with the full defense. They're gonna get multiple series. I'm excited to see what they look like. I have to admit there's there's a part of me that like, I'm gonna be watching Greg nervously, like every step that he takes every year. Um, literally, you know it's you're just you're just waiting for something.

You're It's so like because they asked they asked Ron that today during during the postgame press commence, like are you nervous like to watch cam like every hit? He's like, I'm nervous every time came want walks in the field. But this is this is what this is. It's football. You know, when you go out there, it's football, and you're gonna you take hits and you deliver hits, and that's what it is. But I do think there's or

you take a step and you step wrong. I mean like it's literally sometimes like Greg stepped on a guy's cleat, you know. I mean I think Ron also said it's crazy out there. Anything can happen, and I think that's why they've been so cautious up until this point, right, mean, I think they need they know, they need to get the guys out there for a little bit of taste of game action. But clearly this year has been a

bit of a different approach. We haven't seen them at all in the first game, hadn't seen him at all in the second game. This is the one and all the time we're going to see them. That's a that's different than what Ron had typically done in the past. And some people even say, you know, do we need to see him in this game? And someone argue, yes, I mean, I think they've got to have You've got to have some live game action. You can't just you know,

roll out week one. And I feel like practices were enough to get you at you know, where you need to be. But don't you wish you could say that about other things, like, Hey, before I go on this first date, I need a dress rehearsal of what's this, what's going to happen? Like what what do I need to know about this first date before I actually go on the first day. Don't you wish you could do that? I wish I could do that. Feel like this is

what dating profiles are trying to do. It's like, Hey, I like this, my interest is this, I'm this tall, I'm from this part of the country, and all all of these things, but you don't really know until you walk on that door. I wish first dates how to dress rehearsal. Agreed. I feel like I've been on enough of them. Will, if you ever get to know Charles Will McFadden, Brian, I've never heard first date stories like this man right here, he's got some good ones. You're

not going to hear him on this podcast. That's the different a podcast. Yeah, yeah, that's that's the one where that's sprite act Like, that's that's the one, Like, oh my gosh, we're all sweating in here because his stories are fantastic. But I do wish that I can have a dress rehearsal just a life. Sometimes it would be nice to have a dress rehearsal applied to a lot of different things in life, like well, what else? What

else would be a good thing? All of Will's first dates and aside from the first date, I mean, what else? Think that the first dates are never mind? No? Like so I'm one of those people. Much too many people's chagrined that I when I do karaoke. I take it kind of seriously. So I've had those times where you know, you think that you know the song and then you get up there and you don't know the song and

you're already into the song. And it's that's why you have the monitor with the will to Uh No, you've got to you've got to hear it. You've gotta tempo, yeah, you know, you gotta you gotta get everything right, you know. I wish I could. I wish you could just have like a dress wrostal where you know, you go through it, you remember all the parts, you remember how high it goes in the chorus. You know, like everything, everything is ready, and then you can go up there and do it.

Not to mention, I feel like when you do karaoke, unless you're that special breed of human that decides to do it sober, you are going to forget how high that chorus gets. Oh no, it gets high. What's your good to karaoke? So it's changed over time. You see how he's so ready for that. Of course, like I had a list used it used to be wonder wall and go ahead and grown collective, collectively grown um and then and then it just kind of. I did some Mumford and Sons there for a while, went through a

Mumford and Mumford and Sun's face. Yeah really yeah. Now I think it's just whatever. I feel like people can sing too, because that is that that is a rule that I will adhere to. No one wants to do a song that people can't sing too. That's the worst. Max. You don't do karaoke, do do? I seem like a karaoke not at all. But you could surprise me. I would. Yeah, I think I have it in me if the moment

is right. But I'm not the will type who's like if karaoke is going on, like I'm on that stage, I could see like a good like Josh Turner, like you know the country saying that has a really deep voice. For me, I think I can Actually, you have a really you could do something. Generally, when you're told you have a good radio voice, it means people think you're not very good looking in this studio. We're in the radio studio right now, where people are around you. You

just called everyone in this room ugly. No, you do TV. But I'm just saying, yeah, that's generally, like it's a compliment but not really. M Mine is friends in low places. Granted I haven't done karaoke that often, but when I don't, it is I just feel like friends in low places. Like everyone gets into that. What about wagon wheel? Everyone knows it. I mean that's little fast for me up there, like I need something slower to like. Really you just

have to yell Johnson City, Tennessee. Really all right, you're right. I also wish um like wedding speeches. See, now that's the thing we were talking about this. There are dress rehearsals for a wedding literally like maid of honor, best man speech. They don't get, they don't get. I've never been to one where there's like those happen at the rehearsal. But that's still speech, Like that's it. I I say this more for myself because I'm I speak for a living.

We all do like that. We get paid to say things and to mean them and to be concise about them and to be accurate. You put me in front of a group talking about one of my friends. Nope, no one's paying me to do that because I'm terrible, and it's a different deal. I awful. How many times have you done it? Four or five and just not good. I mean the first couple of ones, I was like, oh, like this shouldn't be hard. I have so much content here. I can talk about it because you get emotional. Yeah,

I get emotional about it too. And I can talk about football. We can sit here and talk about what chicken sandwich we like because you know, it's it's entertainment, it's fun. But you sent me down to be emotional about a friend of mine and how much they mean to me. And yeah, if the friends starts like crying a little bit and you see that, and then have you guys? Have you guys brought tears to people like I just I just did that at my sister's wedding tears,

which was it was just a struggle for me. Yeah, like the voice is cracking and you're trying to like did you make other people cry? Yeah, which was what you want to do. Like that knows that lets you know you're you've done a good job. But it's tough. It's tough. My dress rehearsal one. I took this as like the dress rehearsal for the Panthers. Right now, it's like you get to go through a game, but it

doesn't really count. So I took it as like what if you could like get a haircut and it doesn't count, because that's one of those things like you can't go back right Like, so if I really wanted to try something crazy, it's like, well, you're stuck with it. But in this scenario we're presenting, it's like no dress rehearsal, Like this was just we're just practicing here right now, right now, I'm trying to find a hairdresser in Charlotte. Yeah,

I'm plugging it. We were literally talking about this to practice today. I want this. You can just if you you know, if you like it, okay, then and when the game start counting for real, let's run the same play. If you don't like it. Dress rehearsal, We're good doesn't count. Being Max, You're always good at the know. He always wins. He told me this one today. I'm like, oh, Man wins again, that's a good one. Really. I had someone on Instagram tell me that really anything that had them

result in an injury. And his example was when he was ten, he was on a roller on on roller skits and put the leash to his dog around his wrist and the dog took off and hurt him, as he felt, and he was like, I wish maybe just in my head as a ten year old, I would have put myself through a rehearsal of like what could happen? And that was pretty I'm like, if you don't think about the consequences, yeah, like you're probably gonna want more

dress rehearsals. But that sounded like a pretty awesome idea. I'm gonna super fast. This is gonna be so cool. No, not really, that's probably like a couple of plays that these teams draw up. This is gonna be awesome. Yeah, we're not doing that one ever. Ever again, Yes, dress rehearsals. Anyone out there, have you had something happened when you're like, dang, you know, I wish I could have run through that first. The haircut wins, I wish we had a like a score like Max is like four now or I'd be

I'd be off to a good start, right. I feel like there's one that you can see to that you didn't win. Um, the first one where it was the dating show, I'm taking I'm taking a win on that one. So it's for one mcfadd I thought I won one of them. McFadden just wins because his name is McFadden. I thought I won one. We're all winners here, Okay, so we're not. We are not sure when the regular season starts. We need to get a white board in here.

Can we get one of those? We got a thumbs up, So if it's close, does producer Matt get to choose as he takes a swig of beer? Just kidding, gets right? All right, but let's talk football game. We'll bring it back. I'll really back in here. What do you guys want to see how this dress rehearsal from the Panthers? Let me go, yeah, I mean, look, I want to see the guys we haven't seen before cam Christian, I mean you mentioned Caroline, Luke, Greg, those four. We haven't seen

it all in the preseason. Um. Obviously the Pants have been very cautious with him, and and so yeah, look cam Ron said today was gonna be maybe three or four series, depending on things, how how things go. We all want to see him get out there in a game situation and see how that arm looks, you know,

the throwing motion looks with the bullets flying. Um. And then yeah, Christian is another one that I think, you know, entering year three, especially for running backs, you know, we never get to see them get tackled or try to break tackles in training camp, right Like everyone looks at the wire sivers, you can see them make plays on the ball the dB same thing the running backs kind of like the place stops every time they're getting close to being touched. Uh So I'm curious to see how

Christian himself looks. And I mean, do we want to hear from Christian? Why don't we hear from Christian himself? Right? YEA caught up with Christian after practice. Here's Christian talking about getting ready for his preseason debut. You like being out there, obviously it's been it's been tough to like, I just have to watch you get dressed or in uniform. You're ready to go, but then you're not playing in the preseason games. Has that's been tough for? Do you

fully unders fan? It's like, well, yeah, I mean I I definitely understand. Uh you know, obviously I want to be out there as much as possible, but completely understand. And our coaches do such a good job taking care of us, and uh, you know, for me, it's just when they tell me I'm up, I'll be ready to go. Yeah, especially for running back. You know, you go, you go through camp, but you guys, you guys get thudded up and whatnot. What are you looking forward to just like

getting hit? Is that something that after a while away from it, you kind of like want to just feel again to get yourself sort of ready for the season. Yeah, I think, you know, I don't know if I'm looking forward to getting him looking forward to yeah, trying to not get hit now. But it's uh, definitely you know different once it's live contacts, live bullets against another team. Uh, you know, you really start to get that a journal and gone and you start to you know, get get

back in your comfort zone. So I'm definitely really excited for it. Have you felt just about your your camp individually through this point as we're getting ready for those things to really kick into high here, I felt really good. I think, you know. For me, it's it's just been about trying to get better every day, you know, focusing on my details, uh you know, at all times, every single play, and controlling what I can control, and stepping up as a leader. North has said that in his experience.

A year two in a system, you generally start to see it pay dividends and guys are more comfortable. You start to see it day in and day out. You feel like that's been the case. It's not just for you, but across the board with this whole scheme and this system. Definitely yeah, I mean, you think you've seen guys step up all the time, and are you? Are you? I think I think it's uh, you know, it's been good

to watch all of us development. I'll just see this system last year and getting more comfortable, and you know, this year, it's still been such a learning for for all of us because we've got such a hungry group. But I think that's you know, I'm gonna pay off. So but it's definitely been a lot of fun. There's been so much song about guy. It's like Curtis and DJ Cam but even like you know, Greg is out there,

good and healthy. I haven't just excited, are you? Just for the wealth of weapons that you guys have and going into a season with everybody feeling good and knowing what you guys can do. When everybody's feeling that way, I'm really excited. At the end of the day. It's about executing and making plays, and we've got the guys to do it. So for us, there's really no excuse. We've gotta come out every single day and and and do do what we know how to do, you know

what the weapons that we have. Yeah, you mentioned before one of the things for you at this camp, which is kind of stepping up as a leader a little bit. Uh, how's that been. Obviously you've got like some young running backs in your room in particular, and yet going into your three now, I mean you're you're an established guy and everyone's gonna be sort of looking to you it a little bit. Um, what's that kind of process just been like as in your third season? Not a whole lot,

you know. I think it's just, uh, you know, we have such a great team and we've got so many great leaders on the team, and so for me, it's it's upholding the standard individually by myself and and then bringing guys along. You know. It's it's it's a lot of fun though, when you've got guys who are bother and you don't have to do as much as talking and uh so for me, I just control what I can control, go as hard as I can all the time.

And you know from there, uh, you know, if you see any corrections here there, you gotta let somebody know. But at the same time, I'm always looking for looking for advice from some of these guys too. Yeah, it's been uh, it's been a fun fun dynamics. It's good to hear because everything in training him, like you mentioned, has been like two hand touched football for these guys, and I think that's where Ron Rivera has said. What CMC is very good at is you know, turning away

from the hit or doing that. But that's a feel, that's something you have to get a feel for. And yes he's been good at it in the past, but in this you know when it's the focus is longevity in his career. So let's make sure he's not getting as you know, as many hits and all these things. Maybe it's in his mind to him just I'm interested to see him out there. How does he the tackles

and actually play FOA. We haven't really got to see Christian do that, you know, like it's been since the last time they played a game where like you've actually seen Christian take a hand off. Okay, now, there's eleven guys trying to tackle him. We haven't seen that a long time, and I think we're all looking forward to see he hasn't touched the ground. We haven't seen him on the ground, and he's going to try to. He's been very clean all preseason. McFadden. I mean, I want

to look at the defense again. We only saw I think eighteen snaps out of most of that starting group, but even then they had Andre Smith and Jermaine Carter out there in the inside linebacker spot. But you know, you're now you're going against Tom Brady. You know you're going against this Patriots offense um and I think a lot of what uh Ron and coach Eric Washington would say is that a lot of this defense is based

off of the calls they're given. And you know the secondary is going to be successful when they can pressure the quarterback. So how much pressure they gonna apply with you know, blitzes. And one of the things that was asked today is is there is there kind of an unwritten rule in preseason that you don't blitz that just everybody doesn't blitz and you just kind of run a

base off or based defense. And he said, no, I mean, you you played the defense you want to play, and the offense has to play the offense that they need to play. They used to, Yeah, I mean stuff is coming. So I I'd be curious to see kind of what sort of calls get dialed up in this one. They they said against Buffalo they're a little too vanilla that they really didn't see a lot of looks because they didn't get creative with it. So how much more creative

do you get? And how do you respond against Tom Brady? You know, how do you do do you get Tom Brady doesn't get hit? You know, we all know Tom Brady doesn't get stacked. How do you apply that pressure to him? And then how did the secondary respond the defense? Is is a good point, especially because there was so much talk about how the backup quarterbacks performed against Buffalo and it was a rough night, but the first team defense was not at all pleased with how they performed either.

It was it was points on both drives to start for Buffalo, and KK short after the game was like, did I give us an fight? So there was a little bit of pride I think at stick coming into this next game against Belichick and Brady and the Patriots. This is the last chance before the regular season for that starting unit on defense, and I think they fully expect to look a lot better than they did against Buffalo.

And you know, KK said, it was like, look, that was the first time people got to see the starting unit out there together and we didn't show them what we wanted to show. Well, here's another opportunity. I'm curious to see how they take advantage of that. Yeah, it's definitely gonna be another big test for this Panthers starting offense in defense, the first look that we're going to see from them in the preseason and the only look we're going to see them from the preseason. So be

sure to tune in on Thursday night. We appreciate you joining us for another group chat. I hope you enjoyed it and you will talk to you next week now