December 30, 2025 • 44 mins
In the show's opening hour, Kyle recaps the Falcons win over the Rams on Monday night, keeping the doomsday scenario for the Panthers to win the NFC South alive, and Kyle looks at how December has been a big month of growth for the Hornets.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You were listening to the Kyle Bailey Show powered by
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Boss like KB? Go to Victory Chevy Charlotte dot com.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
All right, I have seen your heckels, I have seen
your jokes. KB did not want to tolerate any any
concept of the Falcons beating the Rams last night. Is
there something of a reverse Matt curse going on with KB?
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Haha?
Speaker 2 (00:38):
KB said there was no chance that the Falcons would
do us a favor last night, and they did. Listen,
I think I know a lot about sports things that
have happened in the past, but you know me and
the prediction game, it's hit or missing best and I
did yesterday. At the end of the show, Smoke said,
what do you think can they do it? And I
said no. I didn't even let him finish the sentence.
I had no faith whatsoever that the Atlanta Falcons would
(00:59):
be able to do the Panthers the kind of favor
that quite frankly, they need. And that is exactly what
happened last night. And as a result of it, we
are now going into Week eighteen with Carolina having two
viable options to make the playoffs, not that you want
to risk it and have to wake up Sunday mad
about a loss to the Bucks and begging the Falcons
(01:20):
to do what you need them to do, but collectively
now a seventy eight percent chance for Carolina to make
the postseason, according to some of the odds makers, seventy
eight percent odds to make the playout, not only make
the playoffs, but host a playoff game as a result
of being the NFC South champions. It's not done, obviously,
and I think most of us are still bracing for
(01:42):
things to go wrong this weekend in some way, shape
or form. But I'm still kind of stunned waking up today,
going to bed last night, honestly that this has taken
the turn that it has. And I'll say it up front,
I don't give a singular damn about backing into the playoffs,
or that narrative of bad into the playoffs doesn't bother
me in the slightest.
Speaker 4 (02:02):
I would like to have some home.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Football playoff, our home playoff football here in the Queens City,
come hell or high water, however they can deliver it,
I will take a playoff appearance. I would just prefer
it involves them going down to Tampa and getting a
big win on Saturday afternoon. We got a bunch to
get to here on a Tuesday, it is our final
show of the week together, although again throughout the week
we'll have coverage here on wfn Z, but I'm out
(02:25):
the rest of the week. After today, final show of
twenty twenty five for me and the Smokemeister. Together, we
will celebrate twenty twenty five, talk about the biggest stories
of the year. Get your thoughts on the biggest stories
of the year, not only nationally and globally, but also
here in Charlotte and the Carolinas. So we got a
lot to get to. We got to talk to Nick
Carboni NBC Charlotte a little bit later than usual today.
(02:48):
He's coming up at four twenty five. In fact, we're
pushing him back because he's going to be in the Panthers'
locker room here in about twenty five minutes talking with
players and coaches. So we'll get a direct report following
that session with Nick Carboni coming up at four twenty five,
and at five o'clock we'll talk to former Panthers defensive
end Al Wallace back on the program at five o'clock,
(03:10):
So hit us up seven oh four, five seven oh
ninety six to ten on the FanDuel text line same
number if you want to give us a call and
chat the old fashioned way on x formerly Twitter at
Kyle Bailey Club at Kyle Bailey Club emanating live from
the Chandler Voulta Studios, the Carolina's Personal Injury Lawyers. One call,
that's all go to CV Injury law dot com. Smokie,
(03:31):
how you feeling, buddy? I mean, you saw the people
that were laughing at me on Twitter last night for
my declaration that that was not going to happen, but
it happened.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
What'd you think?
Speaker 3 (03:41):
I cannot make it as a Falcons fan. I gotta
say I can't do that.
Speaker 4 (03:47):
Man. That sucks.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
I you know, when they got up twenty one to
nothing after that big run by b John Robinson, which,
by the way, holy crap. I don't know if he's
like the best running back in the game, because Dereck
Henry still a thing, but he's right below it. I
don't I don't even know if he's generational, but whatever
he is, he is right beneath it. He was absolutely
amazing last night but holy crap, man, just I still
(04:11):
had it in the back of my head. They're gonna
blow it. They're gonna blow it. They're gonna find a
way to blow it. Yeah, they did. They did everything
they could to blow it. But then they had that
one last drive and then Troy Aikman in ESPN were
trying to blow it because they kept on saying but
because some reason, take off B John Robinson after he
gets that first down with Tyler Algier, who I like.
But when he got B John, just give it to him.
(04:33):
They kept on flashing. You know, he's never fumbled in
this situation. You know, he's never fumbled in this situation.
For down zero fumbles from Tyler Alger in twenty twenty five.
I'm like, Dad, gummy, you guys are just wanting this
to come into existence.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
But thankfully for Tyler Algier, he didn't do it. Denzay
and Gonzalez, who was a former Panther, was a good
player but had injuries at the worst possible time. He's
now stuck on in Atlanta doing a good job now
the second time he's helped us. So build a statue
or just yes, thank you very much. In Zane and
the membrane indeed. Uh and then Matt Stafford just missed
(05:08):
on two frozen Oh dude, those were two froze that
should have ended the.
Speaker 4 (05:11):
First down throw.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
I don't know that it would have gone for a touchdown,
but it could have gone twenty Yeah, that that one.
I couldn't believe he missed it. I know he couldn't
believe he missed it. Troy Yekman couldn't believe he missed
that throw. That was their chance, and that was the
one that seemingly woke up the Falcons defense. Now, of course,
there was also two other close calls, including what I
thought in the moment, like a lot of people, was
(05:34):
the single greatest catch that I had ever seen on
a football field, Like I was ready to stand on
business with that take. But by pokin na Kua. That
was at the moment, after the first three replays, I'm like,
that is the single greatest catch that I've ever seen
in my life. And then that last angle comes in
and you see the ball separate from his hand, and
(05:55):
even though he fell to the ground and finished with
the ball under control, he lost control as he was
going out of bounds. No catch, and I was bummed,
like it was weird because I wanted the ram or
wanted the Falcons to win the game at that point,
obviously to help out Carolina.
Speaker 4 (06:09):
But I'm watching that like, I really wish.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
That was a completed pass because I feel like we
all just got robbed of what was probably the greatest
catch that any of us will ever see in our lifetime.
Speaker 4 (06:18):
But it didn't count.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
So crazy ending to the game, Falcons get to win,
and now even if Carolina loses at four point thirty
on Saturday, you can wake up on Sunday and still
have some up. Nobody wants to go through this, by
the way, Just win the damn game. Nobody cares, you know,
and nobody wants to do this. But even if they
lose the game on Sunday, if the Falcons beat the Saints,
(06:40):
Carolina wins the three way tie, will win the division
and will go to the playoffs. So between these two options,
either win and get in or in Atlanta win getting
you in. Collectively a seventy eight percent chance that Carolina
makes the playoffs after this weekend, and I'm last night,
I couldn't believe it. When I went to bed, I
was there at the Spectrum Center last night covering the game,
(07:01):
and so I was watching, like everybody else, a little
bit on my phone, you know, paying attention, just on
the periphery as we're watching the Hornets battle the Bucks.
And you know, then I go downstairs with five minutes
left to go in the Spectrum Center, hanging out with
the p man last night, Willie p He's going downstairs
for postgame in the Inn Arena studio, and so they've
got TVs in there, and we're standing in the radio
(07:23):
studio in the Spectrum Center watching this take place, and
just all completely blown away that I think. Listen, the
Falcons played well. Certainly Kirk Cousins has been better for
them than Michael Pennix Junior was.
Speaker 4 (07:36):
He's definitely a game injury.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
He's that.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
Yeah, But with the weapons they have, that's okay. You know,
Bijon was big last night. But the Rams just came
out flat. Like the Rams looked like a team whose
playoff seating was you know, cemented for the most part,
and didn't have that much to play for. They came
out flat and the Falcons knocked them on their heels,
and all of a sudden, it's twenty one to nothing.
But even still, all of us are like, all right,
when's the collapse coming? Like when when is the MVP
(07:59):
gonna wake up? When one of the rams gonna win?
And sure enough they did.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
When that block kicked happened, I tweeted you something that
I can't say over to radio. Yeah, and I'm like, yeah,
smoke texted me a really bad word when that happened.
It was one of the seven words you can't say,
that's right. But when Jared Verse gave the peace sign,
which I can't believe that wasn't penalized considering how stringent
the NFL is sometimes, and when he returned to touchdown,
I'm like, there it is. They're gonna do this thing.
(08:24):
And it looked like they did when they got pookin
Akua for a touchdown. I'm like, it's done. But somehow,
by come hell or high water. Luckily for Atlanta, they
had b John Robinson and they got the job done.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Yeah. Cucumber Tim on the FanDuel text line. I don't
know why he's Cucumber Tim because he signed his U
n C Tim Tim. I will give you the option
of changing your FanDuel text line, Moniker, if you'd like to.
I got the feeling that maybe Shroppy named you here.
As of right now, you are cucumber Tim. But he
says KB there is a zero percent chance Atlanta beats
the Saints this week to help us out after we
(08:54):
beat Atlanta last year to keep them out of the playoffs.
I disagree with that. It's not as if, you know,
the Carolina is playing some non divisional opponent, like they
either get to keep the Panthers or the Buccaneers out
of the playoffs. And I don't think for one second
the Falcons fans, the Falcons players care that much about it.
They're not going to the postseason. They don't have a
first round pick, so they're not incentivized to tank. That
(09:17):
was my very first reaction to that was and it
was last night, thinking, oh god, what if Atlanta, what
if they don't want to win this game.
Speaker 4 (09:23):
Oh, that's right.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
They don't have a first round pick, so they don't
need to tank for first round pick positioning.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
Because your opponent had the first round picks. Today, Walls
was a double Landy for the Rams exactly. So you know,
I disagree with you, Tim. I think that the Falcons
are going to go out there looking to win this game.
I think Kirk Cousins is going to want to win
this game. I think that I think Raheem Morris wants
to win this game, even though I still think they
might fire him. You asked me earlier today if I
think that win for them could save his job. The
(09:49):
best I can tell you is if I was a
Falcons fan, I would still want Raheem Morris to be fired,
and i'd want a different head coach personally. But I
guess it might save his job if they win and
finish eight to nine, because he will have kept the
locker room together. And I don't know, I'm not, but
I don't agree with that take that the Falcons are
going to try to intentionally throw the game because they're
still salty at the Panthers from a year ago. Oh plus,
(10:11):
your fans would hate them for because you know who
their opponent is, h the Saints.
Speaker 4 (10:15):
Yeah, those two fan bases hate each other.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
You think there's a rivalry between Atlanta and Carolina, it's
nothing compared to the hatred between the Saints fan base
and the Falcons fan base. That stuff for a mediocres.
Those two teams have been for the majority of their history.
Those two teams have been at each other's throats for
forty nine years.
Speaker 4 (10:36):
Yeah, they hate each other.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
So I again, he says he wasn't aware of the
no first round pick, and then he says, I don't
care what y'all call me.
Speaker 4 (10:43):
Lol.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
All right, well cucumber tim it is. But yeah, no
first round pick. And I think both of these teams
are going to be looking to win the game on Sunday.
So Carolina just needs to win. They just need to win.
Meet Tampa and clintch right there. Feel a lot better
about going in with the winning record at nine and eight,
maybe a little bit of momentum, and then find out
who you're hosting for a first round playoff game the
following week. I guess likely on Monday Night Football. Very
(11:06):
possibly on on Monday Night Football. Like we we don't
we I know we can't look pat well, we can,
we can look past the weekend a little bit. But
you know, are you thinking that if they get in,
if they make the playoffs, that this will be the
Monday night game on wild card weekend?
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Uh?
Speaker 3 (11:20):
No, because I'd probably give them an advantage because I
think they'll play a.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
Saturday You think a Saturday game, Okay, because I'm trying
to think for I've seen some theories from people believing
that that Carolina would play the Monday night game. But
there's no special significance to it. No, I just didn't
know what you thought about that.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
Hang on having I gotta say, right, super wild Card week?
Speaker 4 (11:40):
Yeah, super Wildcard weekend?
Speaker 3 (11:42):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
Kyle from Maine says, I will have to disagree with
the greatest catch kb Odell Beckham Junior against Dallas is
the greatest catch I have ever seen. True, Pookahs would
have been better. Oh wait a minute, aren't we saying
the same thing? I think we're saying the same thing then, right, Yeah,
But he says he's disagreeing because he thinks Odell Beckham
(12:04):
Junior's one handed grab was the greatest he's ever seen.
But then at the end he says, true Pucas would
have been better.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
I mean again, it doesn't count as a catch, so
we can't say that now. But I think had it
worked out, I would have called it that the greatest
catch that I've ever seen. I guess it's kind of
a sidebar thing. But what do you think before last
night if I had said what's the greatest catch you've
ever seen? Would it have been the Odell Beckham junior
grab for you? Is that what you would have said?
(12:30):
Or would you have said a different maybe?
Speaker 4 (12:31):
Tyree?
Speaker 3 (12:33):
Just because of that, the face mass catch, well, the
helmet catch, well, the helmet catch, that's what I meant. Yeah, yeah,
I would maybe say there was one catch a couple
of years ago that was absolutely insane.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
Okay, we don't have to spend too much time on this,
but since he mentioned it.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
I'd also say Brad Hoover's catching the flats in two thousands,
the Vikings, well, that was top tier. And for me
to see one of Brad Hoover's last touchdowns, if not
his last touchdown in person, I mean, poor men right there, man,
poor memory.
Speaker 4 (13:01):
I tell you what.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
Man at twenty six seven window with a Vikings on
Sunday night.
Speaker 4 (13:05):
Man, that was great. That was great.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
But yeah, it's it's definitely it would have been up
there just because of how much he had to exert
his body, twist it, contort it and then catch it
and maintain to catch as well. But uh, Odell's fine,
I'm perfectly fine with that. I'm also I hate to
say this with Odell catch two. It doesn't hit the
same way for me because it's been played at nauseum.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
You know, I'd agree with that. It's kind of like
how pop radio ruined songs for people. Yes, right where
they they played that the hottest song got played at
least once every fourteen minutes, it seemed.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
Dude, dude, I hated Kenny chesneying Uncle Crackers. When the
sun goes down with a burning passion.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
You know what that would be, boy, that would make
for some great summer radio one day. Yes, the most
overplayed songs on the radio that made you hate them,
because you're right that, buddy, You just blew my mind
right there. That Kenny Chess the Cracker song has to
be on the Mount Rushmore for all time overplayed radio song.
Speaker 4 (14:04):
Holy crap by every country station here in Charlotte. You
go to me. It wasn't even really a country song.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
Was it. No, But it was mainly Kenny Chesney song
because it was off his album, so it was a
country smoke.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
That's a great reference. Man, Oh man, that made me
smile real hard when you said that. Oh now I
got it. I'm going to take the whole commercial break
coming up, and I'm going to be googling things that
compare to that song being overplayed on the radio. I
think you just struck gold with that, all right, seven
oh four five, seven oh ninety six to ten. Hit
us up on the FanDuel text line. Panthers are you know,
they're sitting pretty as well as they can be going
(14:37):
into the weekend now with a depending upon where you look,
seventy to eighty percent chance to make the playoffs.
Speaker 4 (14:43):
Now that the Falcons did.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
The hardest part by beating the Rams last night, and
so now the Panthers can either win and get in,
or the Falcons beat the Saints and Caroline is the
beneficiary of a three way tiebreaker victory that still gives
them the nfc ou Championship.
Speaker 4 (15:01):
It's it's a pretty decent spot.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
Pardon me to be in not you know, you don't
want to back in if you can avoid it, but
you know you'll also take a playoff appearance in a
home playoff game. I could guarantee you one thing. Tepper
Sports and Entertainment, David Teppering Company. They won't be looking
a gift horse in the mouth. They will not be
you know, they won't feel in any way, shape or
form guilty about hosting a home playoff game in the
NFL Playoff.
Speaker 4 (15:22):
It would be the first of the David Tepper era too,
so he doesn't it would It would suck to do it.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
Display but then again, once you finally get into the playoffs,
it doesn't really matter. Plus, you know, it's not Carolina's fault.
They swept the Falcons. That's true.
Speaker 4 (15:36):
That's true.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
That's and listen, you had to win enough games to
be in this position to begin with. So there's also
that you could People could say what they want to
about the South. You know, it feels like we're cracking
jokes about this division as often as we used to
crack jokes about the ACC Coastal once upon a time.
But it's all sicklical. Although I did have to laugh, Okay,
I did have to laugh because we are now seven
years into the David Tepper experiment, right are we have
(16:02):
seven years behind us? We are now in year eight?
Speaker 4 (16:04):
Right? Is that what that is? Right?
Speaker 2 (16:06):
But I'm saying, there was seven years of misery and
we've gotten here into year eight and they're in playoff contention.
The ACC Coastal, we had seven different champions in seven years.
So I was thinking about that earlier today, that there's
like a seven year stretch of just absolute futility and
misery and comically bad football and then all of a
sudden things change.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
You heard it here first, twenty twenty eight Super Bowl
champions Carolina Panthers.
Speaker 4 (16:27):
That's seven years after it's a seven years all right.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
We got to get you the full Panthers injury report
as well from practice today. You took a gander at
that as we were going on the air. I have
not yet seen the full length injury report from practice today.
Everything you said there was nothing alarming from what you
told me right before the start of the show today. Yes,
so the main thing is Rico Dowdell is not at
(16:54):
walk through today and Claudon Cherlis is wearing a boot.
Speaker 4 (16:59):
On his left leg.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
Okay, so you know the linebacker corp would be even
more finn than before, which is not great. But there
was some good news that Turk Wharton was practicing for
walk through, But don't know if that means he's gonna
play because this is a lighter practice, so don't know
what to expect. But the main thing is Rico Dawdle
did not practice today and Claude and cherlists is in
a boot all right?
Speaker 2 (17:22):
Well, you know, interestingly enough, in a week where Carolina
continues to be down linebackers, a former Carolina linebacker made
another big list earlier today. Last night with the Pro
Football Hall of Fame, Luke Keigley is a finalist.
Speaker 4 (17:35):
Steve Smith is not.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
We'll talk about it when we return Sports Radio ninety
two to seven wf and Z Sports Radio ninety two
seven wf n Z KB and Smoke here with you
(17:57):
on a Tuesday. It is our final show of the
week together, Smoke. What's the schedule look like tomorrow? Is
everybody off tomorrow or is it? What's going on?
Speaker 3 (18:04):
So it's a unique one because the Hornets played the
Golden State War's from twelve to four.
Speaker 4 (18:10):
We will have it's a one o'clock tips, a pregame
of twelve. Yeah, sorry about that.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
All was going by my schedule, so yeah, one o'clock tip,
and then once the postgame show ends, I believe we'll
just be going into ESPN Radio.
Speaker 4 (18:22):
With the Young Guns tomorrow morning eight to noon, right, yes,
and then on Friday.
Speaker 3 (18:26):
No shows on Thursday because New Year's Day, So just
enjoy yourselves. We'll have ESPN National Radio, and then Friday
it'll be Walker mel in your shoes in the number
one chair for the afternoon on Friday. Yes, the second
biggest export from Bunker Hill High School, only behind Darren Gant.
Speaker 4 (18:47):
Okay, all right, so there you go.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
That's the rest of the week, and then I'm back Monday,
assuming that I'm not in the infirmary. I don't know
what's gonna happen. I was just telling Hoggard the NFL
has completely screwed up my weekend. Not that anybody cares
about my personal time travel or holiday plans, but you know,
my wife's family is from way up in New England,
like the top of the country, like you know, up
next Canada. That's how that's how far north, like fourteen
(19:08):
hours drive time from here. So I drove them up.
Then I flew back this weekend for Panthers and Seahawks.
Great decision, And I'm flying back up there tomorrow to
go fetch my family and drive them back down the
East Coast to North Carolina. And I have to leave
a day earlier than intended originally because the NFL flex
the Panthers game from Sunday to Saturday, which not ideal,
(19:31):
but it's fine. It is what it is. I'm just
gonna have to watch a lot of these college football
playoff games on the road on Friday. But smoked, my
entire family has the flu, the whole family. I am
flying into a flu den tomorrow. I was joking about
this with Hoggard before the show, like not joking, but
also like, hey, buddy, I'm planning on being here Saturday,
(19:52):
but just so you know, I'm flying into a house
where literally every occupant in it has the flu. And
so I don't know what kind of shape you boys
go to be in when I make it back to
the Old North States sometime on Friday.
Speaker 4 (20:03):
So you got in a hazmat suit, Te's and p's
would be appreciated.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
So I mean, I could use a few te's and
p's because I don't really have a choice but to
go fetch the family from well a house full of
the flu virus and try to drive him back for
two straight days. So I might be in rough shape
by the time I get back to North Carolina on Saturday.
But you know what, if that's the sacrifice that I
have to make if this can be my flu game
to get the Carolina Panthers into the playoffs. And that's
(20:29):
exactly what I'm going to do, Smoke, because that's how
much I love the idea of playoff football. That's how
much it matters to me that this team makes it
into the postseason. So I'm doing this for everybody. Hopefully
your flu game goes better than t Max. That's true. Well,
you know what, he wasn't that bad though. Let's hear
he fell down once, but other than that, I didn't
think he had a terrible game. But yeah, he did
(20:49):
get kind of cuffed up a few times. So anyway,
seven oh four five, seven oh ninety six ten hit
us up on the FanDuel text line talked about last night.
Falcons got to win, did the hard part of having
to win both of their final two games to give
the Panthers another release valve or another option if you will,
to get into the playoffs. And so you go into
(21:09):
the weekend now with Carolina either being able to win
and get in, or even if they can't pull it
off on the road and Atlanta wins Sunday over, the
Saints would still thrust the Panthers into the playoffs as
NFC South champions, So it's nice to have options seventy
eight percent chance according to one odds maker, that Carolina
makes the playoffs. It's roughly in that range no matter
(21:32):
where you look. So you know, pretty good odds. I mean,
you certainly thought you'd have worse odds. I think after
the way some of these results have gone the last
two weeks. But to get to the final week, to
get to Week eighteen and have a collective seventy five
ish percent chance to make the playoffs, you feel pretty
good about that. And listen, as I talked about before
the break, staying Panthers but pivoting to former Panthers in
(21:54):
the Hall of Fame. I don't know if Luke Keithley's
got a seventy five percent chance to get in this
year or not, but.
Speaker 4 (22:00):
He's a finalist.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
He is among the fifteen finalists for the Class of
twenty twenty six Pro Football Hall of Fame class. It's
a class headlined by Drew Brees and Larry Fitzgerald and
Luke Keikley of course, but Eli Manning and guys like.
Speaker 4 (22:16):
Frank Gore and the whole list here. Oh, I do too.
I just pulled it up.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
Thank you, though, Terrell Suggs, Adam Vinattieri, Reggie Wayne, Kevin Williams,
Jason Witten, Darren Woodson, Marshall Yanda. Let's see who I
leave off here? Did I say Frank Gore, Jarry Evans,
Willie Anderson. I think that pretty much wraps up all fifteen?
Speaker 4 (22:32):
He said Tory, right?
Speaker 2 (22:33):
Did I say Tory Holt? I think I did. If not, Yeah,
he's a he's one of the fifteen finalists. I think
Luke can get in. I don't know that he will,
but I think there's a good chance that he gets in.
In fact, I probably personally Peggott at about the same
odds the Panthers make the playoffs, I'd say there's probably
a three to four chance, seventy five percent chance he
makes the Hall of Fame.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
I wouldn't just because I know how this voting process
can be sometimes in real that you, yeah, now that
you have only three modern era guys getting in every year,
I think it really hurts his chances.
Speaker 4 (23:04):
He's the only linebacker though. Yeah I know, I know,
but and he was the best at his position for
six or seven years, And I agree he should get in.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
But here's the thing we I think it's a guarantee
that the third guy is going to be a defensive
player because the list, it's no doubt Drew Brees and
Larry Fitzgerald.
Speaker 4 (23:21):
You don't leave those guys out.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
And I think everyone can agree those guys are first
ballot no if as are butts. I have no problem
with saying that. So that means you got two offensive
guys coming in. The third guy has to be a
defensive guy, right mm hm. So going by that fault process,
that eliminates a lot of people and it only leaves
you with a couple of people. It leaves you with Suggs,
ye Keikley, Kevin Williams, and Darren Woodson. So that's four.
(23:46):
What hurts Luke is he's still so young and relatively new.
I don't think they're gonna do that. I think it's
going to be Darren Woodson. You think Woodson gets in, yes,
because what their fault process is going to be, whether
it's it's right or wrong, their fault process is he
doesn't have that many years left. Because Darren Woodson last
played in January of two thousand and four, when the
Cowboys got their butts kicked twenty nine to ten in
(24:07):
the wild card game. So usually in the NFL you
have twenty five years before you get put on essentially
the player's ballot where you're the Veterans committee. He has
about three or four years left. Darren Woodson was really
the unsung hero of that Cowboys defense in the nineties,
at least their all time leading tackling. Yeah, he was
owned that. He was on all of those Super Bowl
(24:27):
teams in the nineties. Yeah, and is like the one guy,
the one mainstay guy off of that team that has
never gotten in. They're putting in Darren Woodson because of that.
And in fact, do you believe that I know that,
I believe that. I truly believe that other.
Speaker 4 (24:39):
People are telling me they think Suggs is going to
get it.
Speaker 3 (24:41):
And I wouldn't have a problem with Suggs getting in
because I think Suggs is a Hall of Famer.
Speaker 4 (24:45):
Yeah, and plus you want to tell that guy now.
But here's the thing.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
You know, I'm not as familiar with the voting process
and the principles that that you know. I can look
him up, but like I, Darren Gant's a good guy.
For this conversation too. We're putting the best of the
best into the Hall of That's that's the goal. We
want to put the absolute cream of the crop, the
best of the best to ever do it. Was Darren
Woodson the best player at his position and was he
(25:09):
that for the as long a time as Luke Keigley was.
Speaker 4 (25:12):
No. Okay, what about Terrell sucks?
Speaker 3 (25:17):
No. So to me, that's my rationale, and that's that
should be the right rationale.
Speaker 4 (25:22):
But this is not how this thing goes. You're right.
It's a lot like sometimes it doesn't. It's a lot
like oscar voting.
Speaker 3 (25:26):
You know, a lot of private example, Tom Cruise didn't
get an Oscar until earlier this year. Is a lifetime
Achievement award, Tom Bleeping Cruise. Harrison Ford does this movie?
Speaker 4 (25:35):
Do you think Tom Cruise should have gotten an oscar
for Magnolia? Really? Yeah? Like, of all of his movies,
that's the one that you think he should one of
the better ones.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
Yeah, Okay, we don't have to go on any like, really, Magnolia, God,
you really are a centophile.
Speaker 4 (25:53):
It's crazy.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
I did not of all the answers you could have
given me, I would have never thought you'd say, Magnolia
is the movie you thought has a lot of his.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
Movies in the eighties wasn't gonna get Maybe Interview with
a Vampire would be up there too.
Speaker 4 (26:05):
Wow, anyway, continue your analogy. I'm just blown away by that.
Speaker 3 (26:08):
Right, Harrison Ford never got an oscar, which is complete bs.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
He also didn't get famous until he was forty, so
there's still time for everybody. But anyway proceeds.
Speaker 3 (26:15):
But yeah, so I just wanted to point that out,
like for crying out loud. Oh there's one of my
things I've brought back just in time for this out loud.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (26:23):
Al Pacino only has one oscar and it's for so.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
Continue your football thought. We'll come back to that.
Speaker 3 (26:28):
But I'm just saying, look at a lot of these guys.
Would they get Oscars. They get it for awards for
movies that they didn't deserve it in al Pacino should
have gotten one for Super co Al Pacino should have
gotten one for like Scarface. He should have gotten it
for like ten other movies, but he gets it for
Sin of a Woman. A lot of these guys get
into years that they shouldn't get in and they have
to wait a little bit longer because of the BS uh,
(26:50):
the BS, you know, political backstage that has with all
these votes both in the oscars and in the Hall
of Fame. Now, luckily the Football Hall of Fame is
not as bad and just as annoying as the Baseball
Hall of Fame. But you get the point. It's stringent
and unnecessary at times. I look at Steve Smith, that's
a guy that should get in. He's not even a
finalist this year. Luke Keikley should be in, no questions asked.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
I was actually going through some old TV footage, right,
some old you know, but just putting together some things
that I've done over the years, going back through some
old footage that I had saved that I haven't looked
at in forever, and I found a file of me hosting.
On the TV side, I was hosting Charlotte Sports Live
a couple of nights ago, now formerly known as Carolina
Sports Live, but was hosting Charlotte Sports Live a couple
(27:35):
of years ago, was anchoring with our buddy Mike Lassett,
and I did a whole segment that night at the
anchor desk on Steve Smith not making the finalist for
the Hall of Fame Day twenty twenty three, did a
whole segment on it, and I rewatched my rant in
all the different comparisons and all the reasons why, and
they all hold up today. They all hold up today
because Steve Smith is a Hall of Famer.
Speaker 4 (27:57):
He just is. He handled it.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
I thought, well, I saw what he posted on social
media earlier today.
Speaker 4 (28:03):
Said the process, He's handled it well.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
Yeah, I mean said he wasn't going to question God's
timing and was very complimentary of the class and you know,
handled it well publicly.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
And plus I figured this year he wasn't getting in
because you stringed Larry Fitzgerald and like Larry Fitzgerald's like
one of the i'd say five to ten guys that
I see above se Smith, and like, okay.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
Just again, I've been through this before, but I'll say
it again. One of the most productive, tough and competitive
players of his era. Like his continued snubs and I'll
call him that. You know, they sting a lot of fans.
But he didn't just play wide receiver. He dominated in
spite of certain circumstances. He led the league in receptions, yards,
and touchdowns in two thousand and five, a rarity of
(28:41):
a triple crown while his team ran more than it
through Like that's that's the elite performance in a system
that was not built around him. He finished his career
with over one thousand catches fourteen seven hundred plus yards,
ranking near the top all time in both categories. Yet
he's repeatedly by contemporary passed over by others with less
(29:02):
impressive circumstances, Like he's eighth all time in receiving yards
and four of the five players behind him on that
list are already in the Hall of Fame. He's got
the triple crown. They don't. He has eleven career touchdown
receptions in eleven career playoff games. You don't get more
consistent production than that in the biggest games that exist
in professional football. So I continue to believe that it's
(29:26):
going to happen. And let's be honest about it. You know,
Steve has rubbed some people the wrong way. He was
in the headlines for reasons he didn't want to be
in the headlines months ago. I'm not foolish enough to
think that, you know, that didn't play some kind of
factor or have some kind of impact. But I mean,
look at other Hall of Fames, the guys that are
in them, the characters of some of the guys that
are in them. And you know, we can have debates
about you know, all that stuff, but as a football player,
(29:50):
as a wide receiver, he belongs in the Hall of Fame.
He did it at five foot nine, routinely drawing double teams,
press coverage the opposition's best single defender every single week.
Like that's football toughness. That's not convenience. The changes to
the Hall of Fame, the positional log jam shouldn't be
(30:11):
an excuse, especially when greatness should be objective. You know, passion, grit,
game changing plays, statistical excellence should all count. So if
your Panthers fan, this one probably really bothers you.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
Again, and it's also too Like, here's the thing. I
love Tory Holt. I've always had a lot of respect
for him. He's a North Carolina legend, NC state legend.
But I also asked, like, what are any plays that
you made if you think, oh my god, that's it.
Toy Holt's the guy he didn't catch the game winning
Super Bowl pass That was Isaac Bruce, right, and Isaac
(30:44):
Bruce is in the Hall. But toy Holt's going to
get in before Smitty because he's been waiting longer.
Speaker 4 (30:49):
Mm hm. That's not the right way to do the process,
but that's how they do it. Yeah. So, I mean, but.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
Imagine looking at and I know you know this, but
like looking at Luke, Hey, buddy, we know that you were,
you know, arguably the best linebacker in the league for
over half a decade.
Speaker 4 (31:04):
But you gotta wait your turn. They did. You gotta
wait your turn. And I'm not shocked because what is
his preschool gotta wait your turn?
Speaker 2 (31:13):
Shut up, like no, Put Luke Keigley in the Hall
of fame. Put Steve Smith in the Hall of fame.
The said in pre k waiting your turn. It's so stupid,
so stupid.
Speaker 4 (31:23):
You're right, but that's the way it works, unfortunately.
Speaker 3 (31:26):
And the reason why I'm not holding my breadth one
Luke getting in this time is because he and Patrick
Willis have almost the exact same stats. Patrick Willis played
for one of the standard barrier franchises in the NFL,
for the San Francisco forty nine ers, Yet he had
to wait a couple of years.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
All right, seven four five, seven ninety six to ten
hit us up with your thoughts on the FanDuel text line.
Right now we go to smoke on the headlines.
Speaker 4 (31:50):
Who is smoke? Where is smoked? Where there's smoke, there's fire.
Let's go.
Speaker 3 (31:57):
All right, I'm gonna start off with some sad news
we learned yesterday. Unfortunately that defired it took place in
Stanley County in North Carolina, was in fact the house
of Denny Hamblin's parents. His mom is in critical condition
but is still live. Unfortunately, Denny's dad has passed away
(32:17):
in the fire yet Sunday night.
Speaker 4 (32:20):
Yeah, No, it's tragic. You know.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
We had people text the show yesterday saying if you
guys talked about this, and we said, no, we're waiting
for confirmation because it's kind of tough to you.
Speaker 4 (32:29):
Know, talk.
Speaker 2 (32:30):
You know, you can acknowledge it, but there's nothing else
you can really say until we find out exactly what
the facts are. And that guy's been through it. Everybody
goes through things all the time. People pass away all
the time. I'm certainly not making light of or dismissing anything,
but like sometimes because people are famous in their athletes
and they might have a stand off his personality or
they might be a little bit of a heel or
(32:51):
an antagonist. You know, just human life is valuable, and
Denny's had a really tough year, you know, very emotional
down the stretch trying to win the title before or
his father passed away because he was.
Speaker 4 (33:01):
Terminally ill and he was in a lawsuit.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
What an awful way to have to go to lose
your dad, knowing you were already going to lose him anyway,
and now to face at least the possibility of losing
his mother is just awful. So our thoughts and prayers
go out to that entire family. Y's awful, man, Well
come back. We continue the conversation and a lot more
to get to Sports Radio ninety two to seven wf
and Z. Sports Radio ninety two seven wfn Z, KB
(33:42):
and Smoke having a good time here on a Tuesday,
our final show together this week.
Speaker 4 (33:46):
Do want to mention there?
Speaker 2 (33:47):
I know Smoke has already talked to a couple of
listeners that mentioned that I think there was a mistake
in the previous segment we mentioned the story of Denny
Hamlin and his parents in a house fire. That story
came out about thirty six hours ago. Smoke said, Stanley County.
He met Stanley in Gaston County. We've had a few
folks text in to correct that, and you're absolutely right.
So I just wanted to acknowledge that. But the home
(34:09):
was in Stanley, the town in Gaston County, not in
Stanley County, So thank you for your text.
Speaker 4 (34:13):
We see those For some reason.
Speaker 3 (34:15):
Stanley kind of feels like a county to me, so
I call it Stanley County.
Speaker 4 (34:18):
That's my bad. No, it's all good. I'd great town.
Love it.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
Looked at house there, almost bought a house there, so
it's great spots but it's a nice, beautiful little spot too.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to Denny Hamlin's family
first and foremost, so we appreciate the text. We do
have Nick Carboni coming up in forty minutes. He is
right now currently in the Panthers' locker room talking to
Panthers players in advance of this weekend. We'll get his
reaction to everything, including last night's lost by the Hornets
(34:42):
to the Milwaukee Bucks, a game that I thought they
were going to pull off early in the fourth quarter,
and then Bobby Portis got hot and Giannis and Tetakoompo
reminded us that he still got it.
Speaker 4 (34:54):
I continue to be in awe.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
I've seen Giannis play in person, I'd say probably five
or six times over the years, and the way that
he just bruts his way to the bucket no matter
who's defending him. His ability to put his head down
and get to the rim and finish is truly one
of the most underrated, underappreciated things that I can remember
(35:18):
in sports. And I mean that like, that's not When
that guy gets even a quarter step on his defender
and puts his head down to get to the rim,
it is over. There is nothing you're gonna do about it.
And Tjan Salon learned that the hard way once or
twice last night, as did other Hornets. Ryan Kalchbrenner didn't play,
though I don't think it would have made a ton
of difference in that game. Musa Diabate fought valiantly. Although
(35:41):
I think that Musa and I heard Hoggart talking about
this earlier today. I love Musa, I mean I do.
I love Mussa Diabate. That's a guy that you want
coming off the bench in spurts. That that's an energy Tornado.
You would like to unleash off the bench for four
to five minutes at a time, and they're just unfortunately
not able to quite use him that way. And last
night you saw loose to a Milwaukee team who is big,
(36:03):
and all the big fellas got hot at the wrong
time for the Hornets. Bobby Portis with three straight threes,
Miles Turner getting loose. He hit a big three from
the top of the key, and then was just a
force in the middle, and then Janni's doing what Jannis does.
Hornets fought valiantly. I mean no kon Kin Nipple, no
Ryan Kalchbrenner. Last night, Miles Bridges got hurt in the
second quarter and did not come out for the second half.
(36:24):
He was in street close for the entire second half
of the game. So I mean, they really did. I
thought they fought and fought. Colin Sexton gave him great minutes.
But a good veteran Milwaukee team that I think is
climbing out of the early season hole that it dug
for itself.
Speaker 4 (36:39):
They just took over in the fourth quarter.
Speaker 3 (36:41):
Well again, Jannis just came back, so that also kind
of helps him get out of the early season hole.
And even though I think this is a very flawed
Milwaukee Bucks team, I think this is one of those
games where being a veteran team helps you get over
to hump. I mean, you just mentioned to guys right there, Giannis,
he's been in the league for twelve years. Bobby Orders
has been in the league for like nine ten years.
Same thing for Ales Turner. Yeah, and they had size.
(37:04):
And unfortunately, for as much as I love Musa, there's
gonna be games where he gets got and even for
a big man, he's on the lower end of being
a big man.
Speaker 4 (37:11):
He's small compared to those guys.
Speaker 3 (37:13):
So sometimes despite all of his you know, hard work
and everything, he's gonna get taken advantage of him.
Speaker 4 (37:19):
Yesterday was one of those games. But I do love
the way they fought. You know.
Speaker 3 (37:23):
That's with eight minutes left, they still could have just
gone in and just quit, but they didn't. And then
you saw Brandon Miller got that big poster dunk on Kyle.
Speaker 2 (37:31):
Kuzma and they called him a really mean name. Yeah,
he called him bad. I don't know how he didn't
get teed up for that.
Speaker 3 (37:36):
I'm glad he didn't, me too, But you know, and
last night was just a reminder of like, all right,
this is what Brandon Miller is when he gets healthy.
And I think he's getting more and more healthy over
the last couple of weeks. We've been talking about the
team and as a whole cod kin nipple and know
how great he has been. But for the last week
or two, Brandon Miller's starting to play like the Brandon
Miller we saw his rookie year.
Speaker 2 (37:53):
Brandon Miller was mad in the post game last night.
I was there, you know, doing the postgame press conference stuff,
and Charge came in, then Brandon Miller came in. Then
we talked to Colin Sexton. Colin Sexton's just the nicest, happiest,
go lucky guy. I like Colin Sexton. But Brandon Miller
was hot. I mean, he was mad, even bristled at
my question about the game starting to slip away when
Bobby Portis hit those three consecutive threes last night. But
(38:16):
you could tell Brandon it wasn't even about you know,
his individual performance going to waste. He was really mad
that they lost that basketball game. And you could tell
if you watched him on the podium last night, he
was not happy at the way that game finished, Well,
I think we kind of forget because of him missing
pretty much his entire second season.
Speaker 4 (38:33):
Yeah, because this was around the time he got hurt
last year.
Speaker 3 (38:36):
I remember how frustrated he got as his rookie year
went on when they kept on losing and losing.
Speaker 4 (38:41):
The guy doesn't like losing at all.
Speaker 3 (38:42):
No, And it feels like when you talk about this
Hornet DNA and the Hornets Denager trying to create, he
got Conk Nipple on one side, who apparently was getting
frustrated at every single open look that a Bucks player
got yesterday on the bench, and you got Brandon Miller,
who was telling people two years ago, get him back
on defense, get back.
Speaker 4 (38:59):
On de Yeah.
Speaker 3 (39:01):
Like, we don't know what the future holds potentially for
LaMelo ball, even though I think we're starting to see
maybe keeping them around might be the right decision. But
we know at least with Brandon Miller and Kankinippele, they
have that mindset that I think people every coach would
love to have in every single player.
Speaker 2 (39:15):
I agree it was it was a hard fought game.
They led by as many as a dozen and then
you know Milwaukee just locked in and the Hornets lost
a couple of bodies, Like losing Miles Bridges was a
big deal last night because Miles Bridges, as Charles Lee
pointed out after the game, it's a big body, that's
a strong guy. Miles is a physically stout dude, and
you know you're not looking for him to lock down
(39:36):
or shut down Giannis, but you know he can physically
bang with a guy like Giannison Tatakuompo, whereas T John
Salon at twenty years old, who I love, by the way,
I love T John Salon. You know he got sunned
a couple of times last night by Jannison Tatacunmpo. But
they needed Miles out there, and quite frankly, that was
a game where you could have used Grant Williams. And
I like, I'm hoping we learned something soon about the
(39:59):
return of Grant Williams. It's been over a year at
this point. The problem was it was not just an
acl no. I know, like he had a whole knee issue,
and I think they're trying to be as careful as
they can. That was a game last night where you
really could have used Grant Williams physicality and maturity and
veteran presence out there against that team in particular.
Speaker 4 (40:16):
And I'll go ahead and say this.
Speaker 3 (40:17):
You know, people have had dispats with me about Miles Bridges,
but for Miles to get hurt in that game, that's
honestly one of the worst games he can get hurt. Yeah,
because even though you know Giannis is going to get
his because he's honest. But Miles Bridges has gone against
Jannis twenty five thirty times. He kind of knows the
routine now, he knows some of the tricks of the trade.
He knows how to stop him, compared to T John,
(40:39):
who's grown up a lot over the last year, and
a lot of people are starting to take notice of it.
But this is what his first real time going against
Giannis for an extended period of time.
Speaker 2 (40:46):
Let me just tell you, man, the game is slowing
down for T John. Salon and I really got mad
at the end of last year when there were people,
especially in the Hornets Twitter verse, that were crushing that kid,
calling him a mistake, the wrong pick, this, that and
the other, and you and I both kept yelling, guys,
he was the sixth overall pick and a project flyer
in a draft that was deemed one of the least
talented in years, and they took a dude with you
(41:08):
know physical you know, he's got good physical dimensions. He's big,
he's strong, he's got good athleticism.
Speaker 4 (41:14):
But I loved early on.
Speaker 2 (41:16):
To me, it became apparent he's got great work ethic
and it matters to him and he's willing to put
the work in. And I think you've seen a big
jump from year one to year two and he's only
twenty years old. Like, if he stays healthy, the combination
of his size and his dimensions, his athleticism and his
work ethic, they didn't miss on that player. I don't
(41:36):
know if he's ever going to reach his full potential,
if he's ever going to hit top end.
Speaker 4 (41:40):
I hope he does.
Speaker 2 (41:41):
But even if he doesn't, I truly believe they got
a good player in Tjan Salon, and he's only going
to get better over the next two or three years.
Speaker 3 (41:49):
And I just want to mention he is a weak
younger than kan Ko Nipple a whole entire. He's younger
than the first round draft pick this year. That's how
young t John was. And I also want to point
out too, you can have your complaints about Donovan Klingen
and like you should have got him. Of course, I
think their main option that year was Stefan Castle, but
he wasn't getting past san Antonio. And now san Antonio
(42:11):
has proven why they took him, but because he's playing
better than we thought he would this quickly. But look
at the number one pick that year, just to show
you how weick Thatt draft was Zachary Worcestershire Sauce.
Speaker 4 (42:23):
He's already on the trade block, Tia.
Speaker 2 (42:28):
Somebody just called him Tijuana Salami and Bebop called t
On Tijuana Salami. And now here you are with Kevin
Rocestershire Shaws or whatever. Rishache is what you were going for. Yeah,
I know, I just want to I like call him
Wilshire Sauce. Now it's a fun game, it's a fun night.
Packed house last night. I don't know if it was
a capacity crowd, but it was close to it. I
mean that place was packed and there were far fewer
(42:48):
Yannis Bucks, you know, invading fans in there last night.
And I've seen it previous times when Yannis and the
Bucks came into town, so that was nice to see.
But it was a really good crowd last night, electric atmosphere.
Shout out to Dell and EC. I got to go
see those guys at halftime. It was good to talk
to them and just a lot of fans in a
great vibe in the Spectrum Center last night.
Speaker 4 (43:08):
I've got some bad news for you, Kyle. What's that?
Speaker 3 (43:11):
You know who the next opponent is, right, I do? Yeah,
it's not gonna be like that tomorrow. No, tomorrow at
one o'clock. You know you're gonna see a lot of
kids wearing that number thirty jersey for Golden State inside
the building.
Speaker 4 (43:20):
By the way, big night.
Speaker 3 (43:22):
For Steph Curry tonight because they're honoring him at the
Davidson game against Dukine. Believe they're naming Exit thirty off
of on I seventy seven after Steph Curry because that's
the exit where Davidson College is at.
Speaker 4 (43:32):
Would coincidentally enough?
Speaker 2 (43:35):
You mean Davidson general manager Steph Curry is being honored tonight? Yes, yeah, right,
Davidson Wildcats basketball GM Steph Curry will be honored tonight
at the game against Dukane and then he plays tomorrow
with the Spectrum Center much madness, legend. I wonder whatever
happened to him? Yeah, seven oh four five, seven ninety
six to ten. Hit us up on the FanDuel text
line our number two. Next a lot to get to
(43:57):
Nick Carboni in twenty nine minutes. Stick Around Sports Radio
ninety two seven wfn Z
You were listening to the Kyle Bailey Show powered by
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Speaker 2 (00:25):
All right, I have seen your heckels, I have seen
your jokes. KB did not want to tolerate any any
concept of the Falcons beating the Rams last night. Is
there something of a reverse Matt curse going on with KB?
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Haha?
Speaker 2 (00:38):
KB said there was no chance that the Falcons would
do us a favor last night, and they did. Listen,
I think I know a lot about sports things that
have happened in the past, but you know me and
the prediction game, it's hit or missing best and I
did yesterday. At the end of the show, Smoke said,
what do you think can they do it? And I
said no. I didn't even let him finish the sentence.
I had no faith whatsoever that the Atlanta Falcons would
(00:59):
be able to do the Panthers the kind of favor
that quite frankly, they need. And that is exactly what
happened last night. And as a result of it, we
are now going into Week eighteen with Carolina having two
viable options to make the playoffs, not that you want
to risk it and have to wake up Sunday mad
about a loss to the Bucks and begging the Falcons
(01:20):
to do what you need them to do, but collectively
now a seventy eight percent chance for Carolina to make
the postseason, according to some of the odds makers, seventy
eight percent odds to make the playout, not only make
the playoffs, but host a playoff game as a result
of being the NFC South champions. It's not done, obviously,
and I think most of us are still bracing for
(01:42):
things to go wrong this weekend in some way, shape
or form. But I'm still kind of stunned waking up today,
going to bed last night, honestly that this has taken
the turn that it has. And I'll say it up front,
I don't give a singular damn about backing into the playoffs,
or that narrative of bad into the playoffs doesn't bother
me in the slightest.
Speaker 4 (02:02):
I would like to have some home.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Football playoff, our home playoff football here in the Queens City,
come hell or high water, however they can deliver it,
I will take a playoff appearance. I would just prefer
it involves them going down to Tampa and getting a
big win on Saturday afternoon. We got a bunch to
get to here on a Tuesday, it is our final
show of the week together, although again throughout the week
we'll have coverage here on wfn Z, but I'm out
(02:25):
the rest of the week. After today, final show of
twenty twenty five for me and the Smokemeister. Together, we
will celebrate twenty twenty five, talk about the biggest stories
of the year. Get your thoughts on the biggest stories
of the year, not only nationally and globally, but also
here in Charlotte and the Carolinas. So we got a
lot to get to. We got to talk to Nick
Carboni NBC Charlotte a little bit later than usual today.
(02:48):
He's coming up at four twenty five. In fact, we're
pushing him back because he's going to be in the Panthers'
locker room here in about twenty five minutes talking with
players and coaches. So we'll get a direct report following
that session with Nick Carboni coming up at four twenty five,
and at five o'clock we'll talk to former Panthers defensive
end Al Wallace back on the program at five o'clock,
(03:10):
So hit us up seven oh four, five seven oh
ninety six to ten on the FanDuel text line same
number if you want to give us a call and
chat the old fashioned way on x formerly Twitter at
Kyle Bailey Club at Kyle Bailey Club emanating live from
the Chandler Voulta Studios, the Carolina's Personal Injury Lawyers. One call,
that's all go to CV Injury law dot com. Smokie,
(03:31):
how you feeling, buddy? I mean, you saw the people
that were laughing at me on Twitter last night for
my declaration that that was not going to happen, but
it happened.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
What'd you think?
Speaker 3 (03:41):
I cannot make it as a Falcons fan. I gotta
say I can't do that.
Speaker 4 (03:47):
Man. That sucks.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
I you know, when they got up twenty one to
nothing after that big run by b John Robinson, which,
by the way, holy crap. I don't know if he's
like the best running back in the game, because Dereck
Henry still a thing, but he's right below it. I
don't I don't even know if he's generational, but whatever
he is, he is right beneath it. He was absolutely
amazing last night but holy crap, man, just I still
(04:11):
had it in the back of my head. They're gonna
blow it. They're gonna blow it. They're gonna find a
way to blow it. Yeah, they did. They did everything
they could to blow it. But then they had that
one last drive and then Troy Aikman in ESPN were
trying to blow it because they kept on saying but
because some reason, take off B John Robinson after he
gets that first down with Tyler Algier, who I like.
But when he got B John, just give it to him.
(04:33):
They kept on flashing. You know, he's never fumbled in
this situation. You know, he's never fumbled in this situation.
For down zero fumbles from Tyler Alger in twenty twenty five.
I'm like, Dad, gummy, you guys are just wanting this
to come into existence.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
But thankfully for Tyler Algier, he didn't do it. Denzay
and Gonzalez, who was a former Panther, was a good
player but had injuries at the worst possible time. He's
now stuck on in Atlanta doing a good job now
the second time he's helped us. So build a statue
or just yes, thank you very much. In Zane and
the membrane indeed. Uh and then Matt Stafford just missed
(05:08):
on two frozen Oh dude, those were two froze that
should have ended the.
Speaker 4 (05:11):
First down throw.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
I don't know that it would have gone for a touchdown,
but it could have gone twenty Yeah, that that one.
I couldn't believe he missed it. I know he couldn't
believe he missed it. Troy Yekman couldn't believe he missed
that throw. That was their chance, and that was the
one that seemingly woke up the Falcons defense. Now, of course,
there was also two other close calls, including what I
thought in the moment, like a lot of people, was
(05:34):
the single greatest catch that I had ever seen on
a football field, Like I was ready to stand on
business with that take. But by pokin na Kua. That
was at the moment, after the first three replays, I'm like,
that is the single greatest catch that I've ever seen
in my life. And then that last angle comes in
and you see the ball separate from his hand, and
(05:55):
even though he fell to the ground and finished with
the ball under control, he lost control as he was
going out of bounds. No catch, and I was bummed,
like it was weird because I wanted the ram or
wanted the Falcons to win the game at that point,
obviously to help out Carolina.
Speaker 4 (06:09):
But I'm watching that like, I really wish.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
That was a completed pass because I feel like we
all just got robbed of what was probably the greatest
catch that any of us will ever see in our lifetime.
Speaker 4 (06:18):
But it didn't count.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
So crazy ending to the game, Falcons get to win,
and now even if Carolina loses at four point thirty
on Saturday, you can wake up on Sunday and still
have some up. Nobody wants to go through this, by
the way, Just win the damn game. Nobody cares, you know,
and nobody wants to do this. But even if they
lose the game on Sunday, if the Falcons beat the Saints,
(06:40):
Carolina wins the three way tie, will win the division
and will go to the playoffs. So between these two options,
either win and get in or in Atlanta win getting
you in. Collectively a seventy eight percent chance that Carolina
makes the playoffs after this weekend, and I'm last night,
I couldn't believe it. When I went to bed, I
was there at the Spectrum Center last night covering the game,
(07:01):
and so I was watching, like everybody else, a little
bit on my phone, you know, paying attention, just on
the periphery as we're watching the Hornets battle the Bucks.
And you know, then I go downstairs with five minutes
left to go in the Spectrum Center, hanging out with
the p man last night, Willie p He's going downstairs
for postgame in the Inn Arena studio, and so they've
got TVs in there, and we're standing in the radio
(07:23):
studio in the Spectrum Center watching this take place, and
just all completely blown away that I think. Listen, the
Falcons played well. Certainly Kirk Cousins has been better for
them than Michael Pennix Junior was.
Speaker 4 (07:36):
He's definitely a game injury.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
He's that.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
Yeah, But with the weapons they have, that's okay. You know,
Bijon was big last night. But the Rams just came
out flat. Like the Rams looked like a team whose
playoff seating was you know, cemented for the most part,
and didn't have that much to play for. They came
out flat and the Falcons knocked them on their heels,
and all of a sudden, it's twenty one to nothing.
But even still, all of us are like, all right,
when's the collapse coming? Like when when is the MVP
(07:59):
gonna wake up? When one of the rams gonna win?
And sure enough they did.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
When that block kicked happened, I tweeted you something that
I can't say over to radio. Yeah, and I'm like, yeah,
smoke texted me a really bad word when that happened.
It was one of the seven words you can't say,
that's right. But when Jared Verse gave the peace sign,
which I can't believe that wasn't penalized considering how stringent
the NFL is sometimes, and when he returned to touchdown,
I'm like, there it is. They're gonna do this thing.
(08:24):
And it looked like they did when they got pookin
Akua for a touchdown. I'm like, it's done. But somehow,
by come hell or high water. Luckily for Atlanta, they
had b John Robinson and they got the job done.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Yeah. Cucumber Tim on the FanDuel text line. I don't
know why he's Cucumber Tim because he signed his U
n C Tim Tim. I will give you the option
of changing your FanDuel text line, Moniker, if you'd like to.
I got the feeling that maybe Shroppy named you here.
As of right now, you are cucumber Tim. But he
says KB there is a zero percent chance Atlanta beats
the Saints this week to help us out after we
(08:54):
beat Atlanta last year to keep them out of the playoffs.
I disagree with that. It's not as if, you know,
the Carolina is playing some non divisional opponent, like they
either get to keep the Panthers or the Buccaneers out
of the playoffs. And I don't think for one second
the Falcons fans, the Falcons players care that much about it.
They're not going to the postseason. They don't have a
first round pick, so they're not incentivized to tank. That
(09:17):
was my very first reaction to that was and it
was last night, thinking, oh god, what if Atlanta, what
if they don't want to win this game.
Speaker 4 (09:23):
Oh, that's right.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
They don't have a first round pick, so they don't
need to tank for first round pick positioning.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
Because your opponent had the first round picks. Today, Walls
was a double Landy for the Rams exactly. So you know,
I disagree with you, Tim. I think that the Falcons
are going to go out there looking to win this game.
I think Kirk Cousins is going to want to win
this game. I think that I think Raheem Morris wants
to win this game, even though I still think they
might fire him. You asked me earlier today if I
think that win for them could save his job. The
(09:49):
best I can tell you is if I was a
Falcons fan, I would still want Raheem Morris to be fired,
and i'd want a different head coach personally. But I
guess it might save his job if they win and
finish eight to nine, because he will have kept the
locker room together. And I don't know, I'm not, but
I don't agree with that take that the Falcons are
going to try to intentionally throw the game because they're
still salty at the Panthers from a year ago. Oh plus,
(10:11):
your fans would hate them for because you know who
their opponent is, h the Saints.
Speaker 4 (10:15):
Yeah, those two fan bases hate each other.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
You think there's a rivalry between Atlanta and Carolina, it's
nothing compared to the hatred between the Saints fan base
and the Falcons fan base. That stuff for a mediocres.
Those two teams have been for the majority of their history.
Those two teams have been at each other's throats for
forty nine years.
Speaker 4 (10:36):
Yeah, they hate each other.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
So I again, he says he wasn't aware of the
no first round pick, and then he says, I don't
care what y'all call me.
Speaker 4 (10:43):
Lol.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
All right, well cucumber tim it is. But yeah, no
first round pick. And I think both of these teams
are going to be looking to win the game on Sunday.
So Carolina just needs to win. They just need to win.
Meet Tampa and clintch right there. Feel a lot better
about going in with the winning record at nine and eight,
maybe a little bit of momentum, and then find out
who you're hosting for a first round playoff game the
following week. I guess likely on Monday Night Football. Very
(11:06):
possibly on on Monday Night Football. Like we we don't
we I know we can't look pat well, we can,
we can look past the weekend a little bit. But
you know, are you thinking that if they get in,
if they make the playoffs, that this will be the
Monday night game on wild card weekend?
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Uh?
Speaker 3 (11:20):
No, because I'd probably give them an advantage because I
think they'll play a.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
Saturday You think a Saturday game, Okay, because I'm trying
to think for I've seen some theories from people believing
that that Carolina would play the Monday night game. But
there's no special significance to it. No, I just didn't
know what you thought about that.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
Hang on having I gotta say, right, super wild Card week?
Speaker 4 (11:40):
Yeah, super Wildcard weekend?
Speaker 3 (11:42):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
Kyle from Maine says, I will have to disagree with
the greatest catch kb Odell Beckham Junior against Dallas is
the greatest catch I have ever seen. True, Pookahs would
have been better. Oh wait a minute, aren't we saying
the same thing? I think we're saying the same thing then, right, Yeah,
But he says he's disagreeing because he thinks Odell Beckham
(12:04):
Junior's one handed grab was the greatest he's ever seen.
But then at the end he says, true Pucas would
have been better.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
I mean again, it doesn't count as a catch, so
we can't say that now. But I think had it
worked out, I would have called it that the greatest
catch that I've ever seen. I guess it's kind of
a sidebar thing. But what do you think before last
night if I had said what's the greatest catch you've
ever seen? Would it have been the Odell Beckham junior
grab for you? Is that what you would have said?
(12:30):
Or would you have said a different maybe?
Speaker 4 (12:31):
Tyree?
Speaker 3 (12:33):
Just because of that, the face mass catch, well, the
helmet catch, well, the helmet catch, that's what I meant. Yeah, yeah,
I would maybe say there was one catch a couple
of years ago that was absolutely insane.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
Okay, we don't have to spend too much time on this,
but since he mentioned it.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
I'd also say Brad Hoover's catching the flats in two thousands,
the Vikings, well, that was top tier. And for me
to see one of Brad Hoover's last touchdowns, if not
his last touchdown in person, I mean, poor men right there, man,
poor memory.
Speaker 4 (13:01):
I tell you what.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
Man at twenty six seven window with a Vikings on
Sunday night.
Speaker 4 (13:05):
Man, that was great. That was great.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
But yeah, it's it's definitely it would have been up
there just because of how much he had to exert
his body, twist it, contort it and then catch it
and maintain to catch as well. But uh, Odell's fine,
I'm perfectly fine with that. I'm also I hate to
say this with Odell catch two. It doesn't hit the
same way for me because it's been played at nauseum.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
You know, I'd agree with that. It's kind of like
how pop radio ruined songs for people. Yes, right where
they they played that the hottest song got played at
least once every fourteen minutes, it seemed.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
Dude, dude, I hated Kenny chesneying Uncle Crackers. When the
sun goes down with a burning passion.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
You know what that would be, boy, that would make
for some great summer radio one day. Yes, the most
overplayed songs on the radio that made you hate them,
because you're right that, buddy, You just blew my mind
right there. That Kenny Chess the Cracker song has to
be on the Mount Rushmore for all time overplayed radio song.
Speaker 4 (14:04):
Holy crap by every country station here in Charlotte. You
go to me. It wasn't even really a country song.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
Was it. No, But it was mainly Kenny Chesney song
because it was off his album, so it was a
country smoke.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
That's a great reference. Man, Oh man, that made me
smile real hard when you said that. Oh now I
got it. I'm going to take the whole commercial break
coming up, and I'm going to be googling things that
compare to that song being overplayed on the radio. I
think you just struck gold with that, all right, seven
oh four five, seven oh ninety six to ten. Hit
us up on the FanDuel text line. Panthers are you know,
they're sitting pretty as well as they can be going
(14:37):
into the weekend now with a depending upon where you look,
seventy to eighty percent chance to make the playoffs.
Speaker 4 (14:43):
Now that the Falcons did.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
The hardest part by beating the Rams last night, and
so now the Panthers can either win and get in,
or the Falcons beat the Saints and Caroline is the
beneficiary of a three way tiebreaker victory that still gives
them the nfc ou Championship.
Speaker 4 (15:01):
It's it's a pretty decent spot.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
Pardon me to be in not you know, you don't
want to back in if you can avoid it, but
you know you'll also take a playoff appearance in a
home playoff game. I could guarantee you one thing. Tepper
Sports and Entertainment, David Teppering Company. They won't be looking
a gift horse in the mouth. They will not be
you know, they won't feel in any way, shape or
form guilty about hosting a home playoff game in the
NFL Playoff.
Speaker 4 (15:22):
It would be the first of the David Tepper era too,
so he doesn't it would It would suck to do it.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
Display but then again, once you finally get into the playoffs,
it doesn't really matter. Plus, you know, it's not Carolina's fault.
They swept the Falcons. That's true.
Speaker 4 (15:36):
That's true.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
That's and listen, you had to win enough games to
be in this position to begin with. So there's also
that you could People could say what they want to
about the South. You know, it feels like we're cracking
jokes about this division as often as we used to
crack jokes about the ACC Coastal once upon a time.
But it's all sicklical. Although I did have to laugh, Okay,
I did have to laugh because we are now seven
years into the David Tepper experiment, right are we have
(16:02):
seven years behind us? We are now in year eight?
Speaker 4 (16:04):
Right? Is that what that is? Right?
Speaker 2 (16:06):
But I'm saying, there was seven years of misery and
we've gotten here into year eight and they're in playoff contention.
The ACC Coastal, we had seven different champions in seven years.
So I was thinking about that earlier today, that there's
like a seven year stretch of just absolute futility and
misery and comically bad football and then all of a
sudden things change.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
You heard it here first, twenty twenty eight Super Bowl
champions Carolina Panthers.
Speaker 4 (16:27):
That's seven years after it's a seven years all right.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
We got to get you the full Panthers injury report
as well from practice today. You took a gander at
that as we were going on the air. I have
not yet seen the full length injury report from practice today.
Everything you said there was nothing alarming from what you
told me right before the start of the show today. Yes,
so the main thing is Rico Dowdell is not at
(16:54):
walk through today and Claudon Cherlis is wearing a boot.
Speaker 4 (16:59):
On his left leg.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
Okay, so you know the linebacker corp would be even
more finn than before, which is not great. But there
was some good news that Turk Wharton was practicing for
walk through, But don't know if that means he's gonna
play because this is a lighter practice, so don't know
what to expect. But the main thing is Rico Dawdle
did not practice today and Claude and cherlists is in
a boot all right?
Speaker 2 (17:22):
Well, you know, interestingly enough, in a week where Carolina
continues to be down linebackers, a former Carolina linebacker made
another big list earlier today. Last night with the Pro
Football Hall of Fame, Luke Keigley is a finalist.
Speaker 4 (17:35):
Steve Smith is not.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
We'll talk about it when we return Sports Radio ninety
two to seven wf and Z Sports Radio ninety two
seven wf n Z KB and Smoke here with you
(17:57):
on a Tuesday. It is our final show of the
week together, Smoke. What's the schedule look like tomorrow? Is
everybody off tomorrow or is it? What's going on?
Speaker 3 (18:04):
So it's a unique one because the Hornets played the
Golden State War's from twelve to four.
Speaker 4 (18:10):
We will have it's a one o'clock tips, a pregame
of twelve. Yeah, sorry about that.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
All was going by my schedule, so yeah, one o'clock tip,
and then once the postgame show ends, I believe we'll
just be going into ESPN Radio.
Speaker 4 (18:22):
With the Young Guns tomorrow morning eight to noon, right, yes,
and then on Friday.
Speaker 3 (18:26):
No shows on Thursday because New Year's Day, So just
enjoy yourselves. We'll have ESPN National Radio, and then Friday
it'll be Walker mel in your shoes in the number
one chair for the afternoon on Friday. Yes, the second
biggest export from Bunker Hill High School, only behind Darren Gant.
Speaker 4 (18:47):
Okay, all right, so there you go.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
That's the rest of the week, and then I'm back Monday,
assuming that I'm not in the infirmary. I don't know
what's gonna happen. I was just telling Hoggard the NFL
has completely screwed up my weekend. Not that anybody cares
about my personal time travel or holiday plans, but you know,
my wife's family is from way up in New England,
like the top of the country, like you know, up
next Canada. That's how that's how far north, like fourteen
(19:08):
hours drive time from here. So I drove them up.
Then I flew back this weekend for Panthers and Seahawks.
Great decision, And I'm flying back up there tomorrow to
go fetch my family and drive them back down the
East Coast to North Carolina. And I have to leave
a day earlier than intended originally because the NFL flex
the Panthers game from Sunday to Saturday, which not ideal,
(19:31):
but it's fine. It is what it is. I'm just
gonna have to watch a lot of these college football
playoff games on the road on Friday. But smoked, my
entire family has the flu, the whole family. I am
flying into a flu den tomorrow. I was joking about
this with Hoggard before the show, like not joking, but
also like, hey, buddy, I'm planning on being here Saturday,
(19:52):
but just so you know, I'm flying into a house
where literally every occupant in it has the flu. And
so I don't know what kind of shape you boys
go to be in when I make it back to
the Old North States sometime on Friday.
Speaker 4 (20:03):
So you got in a hazmat suit, Te's and p's
would be appreciated.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
So I mean, I could use a few te's and
p's because I don't really have a choice but to
go fetch the family from well a house full of
the flu virus and try to drive him back for
two straight days. So I might be in rough shape
by the time I get back to North Carolina on Saturday.
But you know what, if that's the sacrifice that I
have to make if this can be my flu game
to get the Carolina Panthers into the playoffs. And that's
(20:29):
exactly what I'm going to do, Smoke, because that's how
much I love the idea of playoff football. That's how
much it matters to me that this team makes it
into the postseason. So I'm doing this for everybody. Hopefully
your flu game goes better than t Max. That's true. Well,
you know what, he wasn't that bad though. Let's hear
he fell down once, but other than that, I didn't
think he had a terrible game. But yeah, he did
(20:49):
get kind of cuffed up a few times. So anyway,
seven oh four five, seven oh ninety six ten hit
us up on the FanDuel text line talked about last night.
Falcons got to win, did the hard part of having
to win both of their final two games to give
the Panthers another release valve or another option if you will,
to get into the playoffs. And so you go into
(21:09):
the weekend now with Carolina either being able to win
and get in, or even if they can't pull it
off on the road and Atlanta wins Sunday over, the
Saints would still thrust the Panthers into the playoffs as
NFC South champions, So it's nice to have options seventy
eight percent chance according to one odds maker, that Carolina
makes the playoffs. It's roughly in that range no matter
(21:32):
where you look. So you know, pretty good odds. I mean,
you certainly thought you'd have worse odds. I think after
the way some of these results have gone the last
two weeks. But to get to the final week, to
get to Week eighteen and have a collective seventy five
ish percent chance to make the playoffs, you feel pretty
good about that. And listen, as I talked about before
the break, staying Panthers but pivoting to former Panthers in
(21:54):
the Hall of Fame. I don't know if Luke Keithley's
got a seventy five percent chance to get in this
year or not, but.
Speaker 4 (22:00):
He's a finalist.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
He is among the fifteen finalists for the Class of
twenty twenty six Pro Football Hall of Fame class. It's
a class headlined by Drew Brees and Larry Fitzgerald and
Luke Keikley of course, but Eli Manning and guys like.
Speaker 4 (22:16):
Frank Gore and the whole list here. Oh, I do too.
I just pulled it up.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
Thank you, though, Terrell Suggs, Adam Vinattieri, Reggie Wayne, Kevin Williams,
Jason Witten, Darren Woodson, Marshall Yanda. Let's see who I
leave off here? Did I say Frank Gore, Jarry Evans,
Willie Anderson. I think that pretty much wraps up all fifteen?
Speaker 4 (22:32):
He said Tory, right?
Speaker 2 (22:33):
Did I say Tory Holt? I think I did. If not, Yeah,
he's a he's one of the fifteen finalists. I think
Luke can get in. I don't know that he will,
but I think there's a good chance that he gets in.
In fact, I probably personally Peggott at about the same
odds the Panthers make the playoffs, I'd say there's probably
a three to four chance, seventy five percent chance he
makes the Hall of Fame.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
I wouldn't just because I know how this voting process
can be sometimes in real that you, yeah, now that
you have only three modern era guys getting in every year,
I think it really hurts his chances.
Speaker 4 (23:04):
He's the only linebacker though. Yeah I know, I know,
but and he was the best at his position for
six or seven years, And I agree he should get in.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
But here's the thing we I think it's a guarantee
that the third guy is going to be a defensive
player because the list, it's no doubt Drew Brees and
Larry Fitzgerald.
Speaker 4 (23:21):
You don't leave those guys out.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
And I think everyone can agree those guys are first
ballot no if as are butts. I have no problem
with saying that. So that means you got two offensive
guys coming in. The third guy has to be a
defensive guy, right mm hm. So going by that fault process,
that eliminates a lot of people and it only leaves
you with a couple of people. It leaves you with Suggs,
ye Keikley, Kevin Williams, and Darren Woodson. So that's four.
(23:46):
What hurts Luke is he's still so young and relatively new.
I don't think they're gonna do that. I think it's
going to be Darren Woodson. You think Woodson gets in, yes,
because what their fault process is going to be, whether
it's it's right or wrong, their fault process is he
doesn't have that many years left. Because Darren Woodson last
played in January of two thousand and four, when the
Cowboys got their butts kicked twenty nine to ten in
(24:07):
the wild card game. So usually in the NFL you
have twenty five years before you get put on essentially
the player's ballot where you're the Veterans committee. He has
about three or four years left. Darren Woodson was really
the unsung hero of that Cowboys defense in the nineties,
at least their all time leading tackling. Yeah, he was
owned that. He was on all of those Super Bowl
(24:27):
teams in the nineties. Yeah, and is like the one guy,
the one mainstay guy off of that team that has
never gotten in. They're putting in Darren Woodson because of that.
And in fact, do you believe that I know that,
I believe that. I truly believe that other.
Speaker 4 (24:39):
People are telling me they think Suggs is going to
get it.
Speaker 3 (24:41):
And I wouldn't have a problem with Suggs getting in
because I think Suggs is a Hall of Famer.
Speaker 4 (24:45):
Yeah, and plus you want to tell that guy now.
But here's the thing.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
You know, I'm not as familiar with the voting process
and the principles that that you know. I can look
him up, but like I, Darren Gant's a good guy.
For this conversation too. We're putting the best of the
best into the Hall of That's that's the goal. We
want to put the absolute cream of the crop, the
best of the best to ever do it. Was Darren
Woodson the best player at his position and was he
(25:09):
that for the as long a time as Luke Keigley was.
Speaker 4 (25:12):
No. Okay, what about Terrell sucks?
Speaker 3 (25:17):
No. So to me, that's my rationale, and that's that
should be the right rationale.
Speaker 4 (25:22):
But this is not how this thing goes. You're right.
It's a lot like sometimes it doesn't. It's a lot
like oscar voting.
Speaker 3 (25:26):
You know, a lot of private example, Tom Cruise didn't
get an Oscar until earlier this year. Is a lifetime
Achievement award, Tom Bleeping Cruise. Harrison Ford does this movie?
Speaker 4 (25:35):
Do you think Tom Cruise should have gotten an oscar
for Magnolia? Really? Yeah? Like, of all of his movies,
that's the one that you think he should one of
the better ones.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
Yeah, Okay, we don't have to go on any like, really, Magnolia, God,
you really are a centophile.
Speaker 4 (25:53):
It's crazy.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
I did not of all the answers you could have
given me, I would have never thought you'd say, Magnolia
is the movie you thought has a lot of his.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
Movies in the eighties wasn't gonna get Maybe Interview with
a Vampire would be up there too.
Speaker 4 (26:05):
Wow, anyway, continue your analogy. I'm just blown away by that.
Speaker 3 (26:08):
Right, Harrison Ford never got an oscar, which is complete bs.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
He also didn't get famous until he was forty, so
there's still time for everybody. But anyway proceeds.
Speaker 3 (26:15):
But yeah, so I just wanted to point that out,
like for crying out loud. Oh there's one of my
things I've brought back just in time for this out loud.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (26:23):
Al Pacino only has one oscar and it's for so.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
Continue your football thought. We'll come back to that.
Speaker 3 (26:28):
But I'm just saying, look at a lot of these guys.
Would they get Oscars. They get it for awards for
movies that they didn't deserve it in al Pacino should
have gotten one for Super co Al Pacino should have
gotten one for like Scarface. He should have gotten it
for like ten other movies, but he gets it for
Sin of a Woman. A lot of these guys get
into years that they shouldn't get in and they have
to wait a little bit longer because of the BS uh,
(26:50):
the BS, you know, political backstage that has with all
these votes both in the oscars and in the Hall
of Fame. Now, luckily the Football Hall of Fame is
not as bad and just as annoying as the Baseball
Hall of Fame. But you get the point. It's stringent
and unnecessary at times. I look at Steve Smith, that's
a guy that should get in. He's not even a
finalist this year. Luke Keikley should be in, no questions asked.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
I was actually going through some old TV footage, right,
some old you know, but just putting together some things
that I've done over the years, going back through some
old footage that I had saved that I haven't looked
at in forever, and I found a file of me hosting.
On the TV side, I was hosting Charlotte Sports Live
a couple of nights ago, now formerly known as Carolina
Sports Live, but was hosting Charlotte Sports Live a couple
(27:35):
of years ago, was anchoring with our buddy Mike Lassett,
and I did a whole segment that night at the
anchor desk on Steve Smith not making the finalist for
the Hall of Fame Day twenty twenty three, did a
whole segment on it, and I rewatched my rant in
all the different comparisons and all the reasons why, and
they all hold up today. They all hold up today
because Steve Smith is a Hall of Famer.
Speaker 4 (27:57):
He just is. He handled it.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
I thought, well, I saw what he posted on social
media earlier today.
Speaker 4 (28:03):
Said the process, He's handled it well.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
Yeah, I mean said he wasn't going to question God's
timing and was very complimentary of the class and you know,
handled it well publicly.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
And plus I figured this year he wasn't getting in
because you stringed Larry Fitzgerald and like Larry Fitzgerald's like
one of the i'd say five to ten guys that
I see above se Smith, and like, okay.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
Just again, I've been through this before, but I'll say
it again. One of the most productive, tough and competitive
players of his era. Like his continued snubs and I'll
call him that. You know, they sting a lot of fans.
But he didn't just play wide receiver. He dominated in
spite of certain circumstances. He led the league in receptions, yards,
and touchdowns in two thousand and five, a rarity of
(28:41):
a triple crown while his team ran more than it
through Like that's that's the elite performance in a system
that was not built around him. He finished his career
with over one thousand catches fourteen seven hundred plus yards,
ranking near the top all time in both categories. Yet
he's repeatedly by contemporary passed over by others with less
(29:02):
impressive circumstances, Like he's eighth all time in receiving yards
and four of the five players behind him on that
list are already in the Hall of Fame. He's got
the triple crown. They don't. He has eleven career touchdown
receptions in eleven career playoff games. You don't get more
consistent production than that in the biggest games that exist
in professional football. So I continue to believe that it's
(29:26):
going to happen. And let's be honest about it. You know,
Steve has rubbed some people the wrong way. He was
in the headlines for reasons he didn't want to be
in the headlines months ago. I'm not foolish enough to
think that, you know, that didn't play some kind of
factor or have some kind of impact. But I mean,
look at other Hall of Fames, the guys that are
in them, the characters of some of the guys that
are in them. And you know, we can have debates
about you know, all that stuff, but as a football player,
(29:50):
as a wide receiver, he belongs in the Hall of Fame.
He did it at five foot nine, routinely drawing double teams,
press coverage the opposition's best single defender every single week.
Like that's football toughness. That's not convenience. The changes to
the Hall of Fame, the positional log jam shouldn't be
(30:11):
an excuse, especially when greatness should be objective. You know, passion, grit,
game changing plays, statistical excellence should all count. So if
your Panthers fan, this one probably really bothers you.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
Again, and it's also too Like, here's the thing. I
love Tory Holt. I've always had a lot of respect
for him. He's a North Carolina legend, NC state legend.
But I also asked, like, what are any plays that
you made if you think, oh my god, that's it.
Toy Holt's the guy he didn't catch the game winning
Super Bowl pass That was Isaac Bruce, right, and Isaac
(30:44):
Bruce is in the Hall. But toy Holt's going to
get in before Smitty because he's been waiting longer.
Speaker 4 (30:49):
Mm hm. That's not the right way to do the process,
but that's how they do it. Yeah. So, I mean, but.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
Imagine looking at and I know you know this, but
like looking at Luke, Hey, buddy, we know that you were,
you know, arguably the best linebacker in the league for
over half a decade.
Speaker 4 (31:04):
But you gotta wait your turn. They did. You gotta
wait your turn. And I'm not shocked because what is
his preschool gotta wait your turn?
Speaker 2 (31:13):
Shut up, like no, Put Luke Keigley in the Hall
of fame. Put Steve Smith in the Hall of fame.
The said in pre k waiting your turn. It's so stupid,
so stupid.
Speaker 4 (31:23):
You're right, but that's the way it works, unfortunately.
Speaker 3 (31:26):
And the reason why I'm not holding my breadth one
Luke getting in this time is because he and Patrick
Willis have almost the exact same stats. Patrick Willis played
for one of the standard barrier franchises in the NFL,
for the San Francisco forty nine ers, Yet he had
to wait a couple of years.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
All right, seven four five, seven ninety six to ten
hit us up with your thoughts on the FanDuel text line.
Right now we go to smoke on the headlines.
Speaker 4 (31:50):
Who is smoke? Where is smoked? Where there's smoke, there's fire.
Let's go.
Speaker 3 (31:57):
All right, I'm gonna start off with some sad news
we learned yesterday. Unfortunately that defired it took place in
Stanley County in North Carolina, was in fact the house
of Denny Hamblin's parents. His mom is in critical condition
but is still live. Unfortunately, Denny's dad has passed away
(32:17):
in the fire yet Sunday night.
Speaker 4 (32:20):
Yeah, No, it's tragic. You know.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
We had people text the show yesterday saying if you
guys talked about this, and we said, no, we're waiting
for confirmation because it's kind of tough to you.
Speaker 4 (32:29):
Know, talk.
Speaker 2 (32:30):
You know, you can acknowledge it, but there's nothing else
you can really say until we find out exactly what
the facts are. And that guy's been through it. Everybody
goes through things all the time. People pass away all
the time. I'm certainly not making light of or dismissing anything,
but like sometimes because people are famous in their athletes
and they might have a stand off his personality or
they might be a little bit of a heel or
(32:51):
an antagonist. You know, just human life is valuable, and
Denny's had a really tough year, you know, very emotional
down the stretch trying to win the title before or
his father passed away because he was.
Speaker 4 (33:01):
Terminally ill and he was in a lawsuit.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
What an awful way to have to go to lose
your dad, knowing you were already going to lose him anyway,
and now to face at least the possibility of losing
his mother is just awful. So our thoughts and prayers
go out to that entire family. Y's awful, man, Well
come back. We continue the conversation and a lot more
to get to Sports Radio ninety two to seven wf
and Z. Sports Radio ninety two seven wfn Z, KB
(33:42):
and Smoke having a good time here on a Tuesday,
our final show together this week.
Speaker 4 (33:46):
Do want to mention there?
Speaker 2 (33:47):
I know Smoke has already talked to a couple of
listeners that mentioned that I think there was a mistake
in the previous segment we mentioned the story of Denny
Hamlin and his parents in a house fire. That story
came out about thirty six hours ago. Smoke said, Stanley County.
He met Stanley in Gaston County. We've had a few
folks text in to correct that, and you're absolutely right.
So I just wanted to acknowledge that. But the home
(34:09):
was in Stanley, the town in Gaston County, not in
Stanley County, So thank you for your text.
Speaker 4 (34:13):
We see those For some reason.
Speaker 3 (34:15):
Stanley kind of feels like a county to me, so
I call it Stanley County.
Speaker 4 (34:18):
That's my bad. No, it's all good. I'd great town.
Love it.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
Looked at house there, almost bought a house there, so
it's great spots but it's a nice, beautiful little spot too.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to Denny Hamlin's family
first and foremost, so we appreciate the text. We do
have Nick Carboni coming up in forty minutes. He is
right now currently in the Panthers' locker room talking to
Panthers players in advance of this weekend. We'll get his
reaction to everything, including last night's lost by the Hornets
(34:42):
to the Milwaukee Bucks, a game that I thought they
were going to pull off early in the fourth quarter,
and then Bobby Portis got hot and Giannis and Tetakoompo
reminded us that he still got it.
Speaker 4 (34:54):
I continue to be in awe.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
I've seen Giannis play in person, I'd say probably five
or six times over the years, and the way that
he just bruts his way to the bucket no matter
who's defending him. His ability to put his head down
and get to the rim and finish is truly one
of the most underrated, underappreciated things that I can remember
(35:18):
in sports. And I mean that like, that's not When
that guy gets even a quarter step on his defender
and puts his head down to get to the rim,
it is over. There is nothing you're gonna do about it.
And Tjan Salon learned that the hard way once or
twice last night, as did other Hornets. Ryan Kalchbrenner didn't play,
though I don't think it would have made a ton
of difference in that game. Musa Diabate fought valiantly. Although
(35:41):
I think that Musa and I heard Hoggart talking about
this earlier today. I love Musa, I mean I do.
I love Mussa Diabate. That's a guy that you want
coming off the bench in spurts. That that's an energy Tornado.
You would like to unleash off the bench for four
to five minutes at a time, and they're just unfortunately
not able to quite use him that way. And last
night you saw loose to a Milwaukee team who is big,
(36:03):
and all the big fellas got hot at the wrong
time for the Hornets. Bobby Portis with three straight threes,
Miles Turner getting loose. He hit a big three from
the top of the key, and then was just a
force in the middle, and then Janni's doing what Jannis does.
Hornets fought valiantly. I mean no kon Kin Nipple, no
Ryan Kalchbrenner. Last night, Miles Bridges got hurt in the
second quarter and did not come out for the second half.
(36:24):
He was in street close for the entire second half
of the game. So I mean, they really did. I
thought they fought and fought. Colin Sexton gave him great minutes.
But a good veteran Milwaukee team that I think is
climbing out of the early season hole that it dug
for itself.
Speaker 4 (36:39):
They just took over in the fourth quarter.
Speaker 3 (36:41):
Well again, Jannis just came back, so that also kind
of helps him get out of the early season hole.
And even though I think this is a very flawed
Milwaukee Bucks team, I think this is one of those
games where being a veteran team helps you get over
to hump. I mean, you just mentioned to guys right there, Giannis,
he's been in the league for twelve years. Bobby Orders
has been in the league for like nine ten years.
Same thing for Ales Turner. Yeah, and they had size.
(37:04):
And unfortunately, for as much as I love Musa, there's
gonna be games where he gets got and even for
a big man, he's on the lower end of being
a big man.
Speaker 4 (37:11):
He's small compared to those guys.
Speaker 3 (37:13):
So sometimes despite all of his you know, hard work
and everything, he's gonna get taken advantage of him.
Speaker 4 (37:19):
Yesterday was one of those games. But I do love
the way they fought. You know.
Speaker 3 (37:23):
That's with eight minutes left, they still could have just
gone in and just quit, but they didn't. And then
you saw Brandon Miller got that big poster dunk on Kyle.
Speaker 2 (37:31):
Kuzma and they called him a really mean name. Yeah,
he called him bad. I don't know how he didn't
get teed up for that.
Speaker 3 (37:36):
I'm glad he didn't, me too, But you know, and
last night was just a reminder of like, all right,
this is what Brandon Miller is when he gets healthy.
And I think he's getting more and more healthy over
the last couple of weeks. We've been talking about the
team and as a whole cod kin nipple and know
how great he has been. But for the last week
or two, Brandon Miller's starting to play like the Brandon
Miller we saw his rookie year.
Speaker 2 (37:53):
Brandon Miller was mad in the post game last night.
I was there, you know, doing the postgame press conference stuff,
and Charge came in, then Brandon Miller came in. Then
we talked to Colin Sexton. Colin Sexton's just the nicest, happiest,
go lucky guy. I like Colin Sexton. But Brandon Miller
was hot. I mean, he was mad, even bristled at
my question about the game starting to slip away when
Bobby Portis hit those three consecutive threes last night. But
(38:16):
you could tell Brandon it wasn't even about you know,
his individual performance going to waste. He was really mad
that they lost that basketball game. And you could tell
if you watched him on the podium last night, he
was not happy at the way that game finished, Well,
I think we kind of forget because of him missing
pretty much his entire second season.
Speaker 4 (38:33):
Yeah, because this was around the time he got hurt
last year.
Speaker 3 (38:36):
I remember how frustrated he got as his rookie year
went on when they kept on losing and losing.
Speaker 4 (38:41):
The guy doesn't like losing at all.
Speaker 3 (38:42):
No, And it feels like when you talk about this
Hornet DNA and the Hornets Denager trying to create, he
got Conk Nipple on one side, who apparently was getting
frustrated at every single open look that a Bucks player
got yesterday on the bench, and you got Brandon Miller,
who was telling people two years ago, get him back
on defense, get back.
Speaker 4 (38:59):
On de Yeah.
Speaker 3 (39:01):
Like, we don't know what the future holds potentially for
LaMelo ball, even though I think we're starting to see
maybe keeping them around might be the right decision. But
we know at least with Brandon Miller and Kankinippele, they
have that mindset that I think people every coach would
love to have in every single player.
Speaker 2 (39:15):
I agree it was it was a hard fought game.
They led by as many as a dozen and then
you know Milwaukee just locked in and the Hornets lost
a couple of bodies, Like losing Miles Bridges was a
big deal last night because Miles Bridges, as Charles Lee
pointed out after the game, it's a big body, that's
a strong guy. Miles is a physically stout dude, and
you know you're not looking for him to lock down
(39:36):
or shut down Giannis, but you know he can physically
bang with a guy like Giannison Tatakuompo, whereas T John
Salon at twenty years old, who I love, by the way,
I love T John Salon. You know he got sunned
a couple of times last night by Jannison Tatacunmpo. But
they needed Miles out there, and quite frankly, that was
a game where you could have used Grant Williams. And
I like, I'm hoping we learned something soon about the
(39:59):
return of Grant Williams. It's been over a year at
this point. The problem was it was not just an
acl no. I know, like he had a whole knee issue,
and I think they're trying to be as careful as
they can. That was a game last night where you
really could have used Grant Williams physicality and maturity and
veteran presence out there against that team in particular.
Speaker 4 (40:16):
And I'll go ahead and say this.
Speaker 3 (40:17):
You know, people have had dispats with me about Miles Bridges,
but for Miles to get hurt in that game, that's
honestly one of the worst games he can get hurt. Yeah,
because even though you know Giannis is going to get
his because he's honest. But Miles Bridges has gone against
Jannis twenty five thirty times. He kind of knows the
routine now, he knows some of the tricks of the trade.
He knows how to stop him, compared to T John,
(40:39):
who's grown up a lot over the last year, and
a lot of people are starting to take notice of it.
But this is what his first real time going against
Giannis for an extended period of time.
Speaker 2 (40:46):
Let me just tell you, man, the game is slowing
down for T John. Salon and I really got mad
at the end of last year when there were people,
especially in the Hornets Twitter verse, that were crushing that kid,
calling him a mistake, the wrong pick, this, that and
the other, and you and I both kept yelling, guys,
he was the sixth overall pick and a project flyer
in a draft that was deemed one of the least
talented in years, and they took a dude with you
(41:08):
know physical you know, he's got good physical dimensions. He's big,
he's strong, he's got good athleticism.
Speaker 4 (41:14):
But I loved early on.
Speaker 2 (41:16):
To me, it became apparent he's got great work ethic
and it matters to him and he's willing to put
the work in. And I think you've seen a big
jump from year one to year two and he's only
twenty years old. Like, if he stays healthy, the combination
of his size and his dimensions, his athleticism and his
work ethic, they didn't miss on that player. I don't
(41:36):
know if he's ever going to reach his full potential,
if he's ever going to hit top end.
Speaker 4 (41:40):
I hope he does.
Speaker 2 (41:41):
But even if he doesn't, I truly believe they got
a good player in Tjan Salon, and he's only going
to get better over the next two or three years.
Speaker 3 (41:49):
And I just want to mention he is a weak
younger than kan Ko Nipple a whole entire. He's younger
than the first round draft pick this year. That's how
young t John was. And I also want to point
out too, you can have your complaints about Donovan Klingen
and like you should have got him. Of course, I
think their main option that year was Stefan Castle, but
he wasn't getting past san Antonio. And now san Antonio
(42:11):
has proven why they took him, but because he's playing
better than we thought he would this quickly. But look
at the number one pick that year, just to show
you how weick Thatt draft was Zachary Worcestershire Sauce.
Speaker 4 (42:23):
He's already on the trade block, Tia.
Speaker 2 (42:28):
Somebody just called him Tijuana Salami and Bebop called t
On Tijuana Salami. And now here you are with Kevin
Rocestershire Shaws or whatever. Rishache is what you were going for. Yeah,
I know, I just want to I like call him
Wilshire Sauce. Now it's a fun game, it's a fun night.
Packed house last night. I don't know if it was
a capacity crowd, but it was close to it. I
mean that place was packed and there were far fewer
(42:48):
Yannis Bucks, you know, invading fans in there last night.
And I've seen it previous times when Yannis and the
Bucks came into town, so that was nice to see.
But it was a really good crowd last night, electric atmosphere.
Shout out to Dell and EC. I got to go
see those guys at halftime. It was good to talk
to them and just a lot of fans in a
great vibe in the Spectrum Center last night.
Speaker 4 (43:08):
I've got some bad news for you, Kyle. What's that?
Speaker 3 (43:11):
You know who the next opponent is, right, I do? Yeah,
it's not gonna be like that tomorrow. No, tomorrow at
one o'clock. You know you're gonna see a lot of
kids wearing that number thirty jersey for Golden State inside
the building.
Speaker 4 (43:20):
By the way, big night.
Speaker 3 (43:22):
For Steph Curry tonight because they're honoring him at the
Davidson game against Dukine. Believe they're naming Exit thirty off
of on I seventy seven after Steph Curry because that's
the exit where Davidson College is at.
Speaker 4 (43:32):
Would coincidentally enough?
Speaker 2 (43:35):
You mean Davidson general manager Steph Curry is being honored tonight? Yes, yeah, right,
Davidson Wildcats basketball GM Steph Curry will be honored tonight
at the game against Dukane and then he plays tomorrow
with the Spectrum Center much madness, legend. I wonder whatever
happened to him? Yeah, seven oh four five, seven ninety
six to ten. Hit us up on the FanDuel text
line our number two. Next a lot to get to
(43:57):
Nick Carboni in twenty nine minutes. Stick Around Sports Radio
ninety two seven wfn Z
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