November 13, 2024 • 22 mins
This week on the Happy Half Hour, Darin and Kassidy recap their time in Germany covering the Panthers win over the Giants, preview what is next for the Panthers and so much more!
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
This week on a Happy half Hour.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
I love many of the things you do. Your cars amazing,
your Schnitzel terrific. It's a really short step from Schnitzel
to Bojangles beer. Yes, your work with non potato and
cabbage vegetables. No but coffee, definitely.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
No totsop cow. It's time for the Happy Half Hour,
presented by Southern Star, an official bourbon of the Carolina Panthers.
Here are your hosts, Darren Gant and Cassidy Hill.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Hello friends, and welcome to the Happy Half Hour. We're
coming to you live from Charlotte somewhere some day, yeah sometime.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
I'm still kind of sorting all that out. We have
seen some things, you and I.
Speaker 4 (00:59):
Cassidy melt some things, heard some things.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
It's been a lot in the last little bit, jamming
an eighty one hour dashed back and forth to Munich
for a little football game, gave us a lot to
talk about, and we're gonna get to it all in
this episode of the Happy Half Hour, which as always
is brought to you by our friends at Southern Star,
an official bourbon partner of the Carolina Panthers. Celebrate the
spirit of the Carolinas and we have.
Speaker 5 (01:23):
You did that off script, and we have plenty.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
To celebrate since we're back home in our own place
where we know the things.
Speaker 4 (01:30):
Back home offul win, back to back wins going into
the bye week. That's about as good of a feeling
as you can ask for this time of year.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
It really is, And I mean it's a nice break.
It's a good time for everybody.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
Listen.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
I don't think and I'm in the middle of writing
a mail bag which will be on the website later
on today.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
I don't think it's appropriate to think, oh God, they've
figured it out or anything like that. But there are little.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Things you're seeing that suggest an identity the Carolina Panthers.
Right now, Chuba Hubbard gets an extension and continues to
run like he was broke. They step up and play
good defense at the time they need it with some
of those guys. I mean, you think about Dan Morgan's
first off season. He signs Derek Brown, who unfortunately is injured,
(02:18):
but he goes out and he signs a bunch of
these old heads on defense because they needed to stabilize
that thing. And then all of a sudden, you see
Josie Jewell make him plays, Ayshawn Robinson, make him plays.
You see DJ Wantam getting in there for the first time,
so you can certainly see the path for the Carolina
Panthers at this moment.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
You know.
Speaker 4 (02:37):
The Vegas game, they played well. They also got some
help by Gardner Minshew.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
Do you need to call for mat? Can you cut
this out?
Speaker 5 (02:45):
I'm sorry, I'll.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Just keep talking. Do you are we okay? Did you
bring something back from Germany?
Speaker 4 (02:52):
Didn't you do the math the other day? That like
of the eighty one hours like nineteen he.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
Spent eighty one hours going back and forth with Munich
nineteen them more on airplanes.
Speaker 4 (03:01):
Somebody I got the airplane crud.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
Yeah, somebody took a picture of me.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Somebody who works with me took a picture of me
sleeping like a dead man on the plane, wearing the eyemask,
bundled up in the comfort.
Speaker 4 (03:13):
I passed by you at one point and didn't realize
it was you until the last second.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
Yeah I was. I was just trying to cover myself up.
Speaker 4 (03:19):
But anyways, what I was gonna say was Vegas, they
made the plays they needed to make to win, got
a lot of help by the offense, jumping out ahead
so much. And then the Saints sort of the same thing,
you know, made the plays when they needed to make them.
The Giants game again got some help by Daniel Jones, absolutely,
(03:40):
and the run defense still has some holes that need
to be addressed. A lot of that probably could be
addressed next year by Derek Brown just being back on
the field and healthy again. But you started to see
what this defense is supposed to look like and what
they had in mind with you know, with DJ Wantam
on one side and Clowney on the other.
Speaker 5 (03:59):
You know, one of.
Speaker 4 (04:00):
Them was able to get the pressure and the other
one the sack or vice versa. And I think one
of them is actually the only one who got the
sack between the two of those, but still you saw
them both. You saw Clowny play a little freer by
having DJ Wanham on the other side. And then you
saw Josie Jewels start to just kind of become that
outlaw taking things from people that he was previously in Denver.
Speaker 5 (04:23):
You there, you go, do we have to pay for
the copyright of that?
Speaker 3 (04:28):
I hope not.
Speaker 4 (04:29):
And then with a Shawn Robinson in the middle, and
again you know, Shy Tuttle all the credit to him
for stepping up, and Derek browns apsis and kind of
taking that over as well. But you're starting to see
what this defense is supposed to look like. And I
think you could probably foresee the rest of this season
them taking those steps and putting it together. And if
(04:52):
a lot of these people return next year, I think
you can really see what Dan Morgan had in mind.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Yeah, I think you And that's the thing you're seeing.
You're seeing the things coming into play. I mean, you
see what the plan was supposed to look like. Now again,
you saw it for the first time in week ten, right,
and that's not ideal, and you're already missing a couple
of really key pieces.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
But at the same time, you're getting there.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
You're getting there, and I think that's okay. I think
progress is okay. That's Dave Canal just keeps talking about that,
building off progress, building off you know, little things you're
doing well, and that's how you build something that's valuable
and lasting.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
So it was a good it was a great week.
Speaker 4 (05:33):
And credit to j want them yep Man for stepping
out there in his first game. Usually in your first
game back, you got to shake the rust off. He
came out like a missile ready to go. I think
he had six tackles, a sack, two tackles for lost,
two quarterback curries. I don't even know how many pressures
he had.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
He was all over the place.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
The amazing thing to me was that he played fifty
snaps period, because the dude who hadn't played football in
almost eleven months to come in. Usually you want to
pitch count those guys and keep them in some kind
of with some kind of restraint, but there was not
really a lot of that, and and he just he
was out there balling, and that that makes a huge
(06:11):
difference for those guys.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
The thing in Avero talks about this all the time.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
To play the defense the way they want to play it,
you've got to have a guy outside, and it gets
even better if you've got two guys, right, And now
they finally got the two guys they were counting on
on the field together. And I don't think it's an
accident that that's when you saw that step up in
the entire defensive level, because you know, no disrespect to
(06:37):
Charles Harris, DJ Johnson, any of the other dudes who've
been out there on the other side, but it's just different.
You know, DJ Wantam was the guy they went out
and got in March, you know, weeks weeks before Clowney
was even an opportunity, So to get him on the
field was a huge step.
Speaker 4 (06:54):
Yeah, it was fun to watch, and like we said,
there's still things to fix, but they're always a little
bit more fun to fix after a win than a lost.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
Yeah, and we'll get to that.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
I mean, we'll have time when we get back next week,
we'll talk more. Next week will be more footballie. I
think it's worth visiting for a moment here on the podcast,
just with the fact that we were just in Germany.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
That was wild.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
I mean, the the atmosphere. We were joking about it.
It's a completely different vibe. For one thing for us,
because I know we are the most important part of
this production. It's an open air press box in Germany.
That's kind of the European standard. This closed in glass
press seeding area is not something they do in big
European soccer stadium.
Speaker 5 (07:37):
Deal with it.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Yeah, And so we were dressed for the elements and
we were out there in them. But being in that,
being in that vibe was just a really neat thing
because the German fans are super into it. Hey, it's
not just a curiosity. There are a lot of people
who really dig on football and are super into it.
So they're all into the rhythms of the game at
(08:00):
the right time.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
Sprice talked about that.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
He so like they were being loud, you know, when
the other team had the ball on third down, so
in their job, it was like a home field advantage
for us, even though we were you know however many
miles away from that only.
Speaker 5 (08:13):
Tried to do the wave once.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
Yeah, and it's good.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
And maybe my favorite thing about the German fans is
they love to sing. Oh my god, even when the
music goes off, they continued to sing. And I just
find this charming and adorable.
Speaker 4 (08:27):
It was so cool when they played Country Roads, something
that the German fans apparently have latched onto from the
NFL being there. It was very much like that soccer
atmosphere where they just keep going and it's sort of
a sing along. When they played Country Roads and the
music cut out because the Giants went back over offense,
went back on offense, and the Giants were running a
(08:50):
play and the crowd kept singing. That may have been
one of the top five coolest sports moments I've ever
experienced life. It gave me chills in the moment. It
gives me chills thinking about it. It gives me chills when
I go back and watch the video. You know, I
wanted to be in the moment, but I'm so glad
I ended up taking a video of that because it's
something to go back and listen to it and realize
(09:10):
just how special it was to be there in that moment.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Yeah, it really was a super cool thing for me.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
And I was sitting there even before the game when
they pull out the big flags start doing two national
anthems and stuff, and I just kind of caught myself.
I'm old and jaded and cynical and all that, and
I've been doing this for a million years, but I
was sitting there thinking, man, the first thing you ever
covered in exchange for money was in East Burke McDowell
girls high school basketball. And now you're sitting in Munich, Germany,
(09:39):
where Harry Kane plays his professional football and you're watching
this unfolding. So it was really a neat moment. But
I was utterly charmed by the entire experience.
Speaker 4 (09:50):
I mean, you know what, the most charming moment of
the game was I'm surprised you haven't brought this up
yet because you loved it.
Speaker 5 (09:56):
When it happened.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
What's that?
Speaker 4 (09:57):
So they gave all the fans like placards to hold
up so that they could make the German and American
flags in the NFL symbols. They then took those those
pieces of what I assuming are glossy cardboard, yep or
something of the sort, like strong card stock, and turn
them into paper airplanes.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
And they were.
Speaker 4 (10:17):
Throwing them on the field and throwing them around. I
think at one point it hit Johnny Hecker.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
Maybe it was Tommy Tremble at Tommy Tremble, Yeah, Tommy
was standing over there next to I in Thomas and
the guys the rest of the tight ends, and one
of them pegged him in the head. So it was great.
I'm all for German engineering, but it's cool. I those
guys had it figured out. And every time the paper
airplane would get near the field, you'd hear the crowd
start to lean into it.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
They'd be like, come on, one landed.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
In the end zone, and every bay start they say
come on in German, Yeah, said you know. The one
thing I figured out is that there's certain things that
transcend the barriers of language.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
We're all one people.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
I walked whatever day of the week it was when
we got there. I just needed a little refreshment. So
I wandered down the street from our hotel found a
little neighborhood pub and I walked in and looked. The
guy looked at me, and I said, pilsner. Sure, And
so he said words that I assume indicated the amount
of money he wanted his exchange for the pilsner. So
(11:14):
I just held up my credit card and handed it
to him and he went, no card, minimum twenty.
Speaker 5 (11:20):
Get another pills there.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
I said, two pilsners, and he just kind of looked
at me and he went three.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
And I said, okay, fine, three.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
So I stood there in this little bar as the
only English speaker in the place, and it was amazing
because it was a very small.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
Space ab outside of this podcast studio.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
They had a little train going around the top of
the bar that delivered shots of schnops to people, and
the jukebox was just full of eighties classic rock. I
mean it was it was Rick Springfield, it was Toto,
it was Journey, it was def Leppard and I was like,
this is amazing. This must be what Reagan felt like
in eighty nine.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
I have breached the cultural gap. Here we are one
people finally.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Uh oh, this was a good This was a good thing.
But I put a picture the coasters. I put a
picture of it on Twitter the other day and it's
written in German and it's got a man just kind
of collapsed with his head down on the bar, and
I said, I don't really know what this says, but
I feel this right now because it was It was
a good time, but it was a it was a
long time.
Speaker 4 (12:26):
It was something else just wanted to point out too,
because it was a lot of fun. It is The
Panther's put on a lot of different events around Old
Town Munich and got to go hang out at some
of those on Friday and Saturdayay.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
You saw Steve Smith almost create an international.
Speaker 4 (12:41):
I did see Germany is going to put out a
travel warning next time Steve Smith crosses into the country lines.
But that was a lot of fun. I think I
texted you at one point because I was in the
van with Steve Smith, Julius Peppers, Luke Keigley and John
Beeson and we were driving down to Old Towns, a
twenty minute ride, and just in that twenty minutes to
(13:02):
kind of hear some of the stories they were telling,
and you know, just it was a bunch of old
friends back together again in a car. The first time
I got to meet Pep. So that was that was
really cool. And I got to hang out with him
a little bit. He's you have said this in everything
you have written. He is very quiet, but once he
does kind of open up a little bit, he's he's
such an interesting guy.
Speaker 5 (13:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (13:23):
So it was a lot of fun just to hang
out with those legends for two days and kind of
hear their stories and and really understand why they are
so special to the Panthers fan base. Yeah, and get
that experience firsthand.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
And I think our new friends in Germany are picking
up on that too. I mean they're kind of you know,
we got a product to sell. They you know, people
were digging on Luke Keekley tapping the keg.
Speaker 5 (13:46):
Was lots of beers flooding.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
There were there were beers. There were At one.
Speaker 4 (13:50):
Point I walked into the Panthers Pub, like the Panthers
had an official pub set up, and that's where they
were handing out the beers every day, and I walked
in with them and they kind of like created a
path for him because we had to go through to
the back. Felt a little like walking in with the
Beatles to their concert. Sure, and people were going crazy.
And I walked past one guy and I heard him
(14:11):
say to his wife, Oh my god, that was Steve Smith,
like just like shocked, like, oh my god, look at
these people walking through here. So that was really really
cool just to kind of be a part of that
and experience that too.
Speaker 3 (14:23):
It definitely was.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
It was an experience to remember, to be sure, it
is also an experience to be endured.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
Yeah, I'm still catching.
Speaker 5 (14:33):
We all came back sick.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
Yeah, we're all still a little dragging. I love our
German friends. They're great at so many things. Coffees not
one of them.
Speaker 4 (14:42):
No, Oh my gosh, Darren. Everybody on our team made
fun of me because I was like, get thee to
a Starbucks. And I found a Starbucks finally, after we
had been there for about thirty six hours. It was
like it was like somebody crawling through a desert looking
for water. I was just like vanilla latte.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
See, and I have remarkably low standards for coffee.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
I usually I don't.
Speaker 4 (15:05):
Even need the coffee to taste good. I just need
it to like have something to it.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
I usually begin the day with a starter cup of
whatever's left over in the pot from the previous day,
and I just warm it up, because it takes less
time to nuke that one cup of coffee than it
does to make an entire pot. So I come in
Monday when I finally woke up at like, you know,
we get in at three ish. You know, it was
like eight forty five when I woke up ish, and
(15:29):
I just poured whatever was in the pot and drank,
warmed it up and drank it. And daughter walks through
and I said, hey, I appreciate you making a pot
of coffee earlier.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
Today.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
I didn't make a coffee while I was here, and
I was like, so that's the coffee I left here
on Thursday. And I guess that cup of coffee was
better than any coffee I had in the entire country
of Germany. So I love many of the things you do.
Your car's amazing, Your schnitzel terrific. It's a really short
(15:57):
step from schnitzel to bojangle beer.
Speaker 3 (16:01):
Yes, engineering, of course, small talk.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
No coffee, your work with non potato and cabbage vegetables, No,
but coffee definitely.
Speaker 4 (16:12):
Know, you know, everybody knows what they do well and
knows what they don't do well. And Germany knows they
don't do coffee well.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
If they don't care, yeah, I guess so. But cool experience.
I'm ready to go back. I want to go somewhere
else cool. Where can we go?
Speaker 4 (16:26):
Oh my gosh, where would you like? Where else would
you like to see an international NFL game?
Speaker 3 (16:30):
I would?
Speaker 2 (16:30):
I would get down in South America. I kind of
envy those guys who got to go to Brazil this year.
That's a new experience, and I just want to go
see more stuff.
Speaker 3 (16:40):
One of the things and I didn't even I got
to do something with this.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
At some point I talked to a bunch of guys
leading into the trip about the theory of travel, and
one of the things I believe is once you've done
it once, you just want to do it over and
over and over again. Like I left the country for
the first time about a year and a half ago.
Oh really, wife and I took an extended you know,
delayed honeymoon. We did Paris, Amsterdam, London and it was amazing.
(17:08):
And now I'm like, I want to go somewhere else.
I want to get on a train, I want to
go to a different country. Let's go see some more stuff.
Speaker 4 (17:13):
There's nothing quite like the rush of walking up to
a counter with your passport and being like, I'm going somewhere.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
Yeah, exactly, and I just like, you know, there's a
curiosity of I wonder what we're going to see here,
and you're going to see something you've never experienced before.
That's the way it was for me in Munich. I mean,
Munich is a very old center city. You know, it's
very historic. It's got a lot of stuff that's been
there for centuries. And despite the fact that wars have
(17:42):
happened and knocked a lot of it down, but it's
just such a cool cultural experience. And I think once
you see a different part of the world. And again,
I am extremely fortunate to be able to do that.
I acknowledge my privilege in being able to say that.
I know not everybody can, but I think if you've
got the opportun t unity to see stuff outside your borders,
it just opens your eyes to what the rest of
(18:04):
the people are doing.
Speaker 4 (18:05):
Absolutely, that was something that I was very very fortunate
to be kind of raised with that mindset too, and
fortunate to get to do it my first out of
the country trip. I was eleven years old and we
went to the Philippines that at one point meant twenty
two hours straight on a plane that was the Detroit
to Tokyo Hall.
Speaker 5 (18:27):
Yeah, so after that, any flight seems doable.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
And there was probably no Wi Fi or n seat
entertainment on that one either were there.
Speaker 5 (18:35):
It was a lot of like playing tic tac toe
with my memo. But that was.
Speaker 4 (18:42):
A big trip at a young age that you know,
had some culture shocked to it, but also kind of
sparked that love of traveling, like you said, and going
to see what you can see in other parts of
the world.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
Yeah, no doubt.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
And now that we're spreading the message of the Carolina Panthers,
I would be remiss if I did not say there
are some real heroes on this trip besides Juba Hubbard
and dj Wanam and Ashawn Robinson and Josie Jewel, all
of our folks in marketing who've been making this trip
for the last year and a half to kind of
set the stage for this trip or one thing. But
(19:15):
the the ops people in this building, the people who
do logistics, you know. And I don't want to start
saying names because I will inevitably leave some out.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
You know.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
Dave kind of did this a little bit during his
press conference the other day. But the people who pack
the bus, the people who arrange the bus, the people
who arrange you know, international transport, and how to get
a football team through customs, how to feed a football
team when they're over there, how to secure a hotel
that a football state team is staying in in a
(19:44):
different country.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
There are so many people.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
It's a small circus moving to town to town, and
it's complicated enough when we're going to Atlanta and Philadelphia
and Tampa Bay, as we'll be doing in the back
half of the season, but to do it overseas just
adds a layer. And so many many people in this
building did such an incredible job making that all come together.
Speaker 4 (20:04):
Everything went off flawlessly, and that's not something you can
usually say. And to your point, to do it in
another country was impressive. From the pub keg taps to
the pep rallies they had at the FanFest. Simply getting
from the hotel to practice on Friday. Everything went flawlessly
and so yes, and like you said, Dave mentioned a
(20:25):
few names, but credit to everyone that was a part
of that. I think the only thing was is Tuba
would say where was my drugs machine? But other than that,
it was it was just as smooth as if we
were here in Charlotte.
Speaker 3 (20:37):
Yeah, and I got to the bottom of that one too.
It was wild.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
I mean, Tuba is such a creature of habit. He
has to catch balls from the jugs machine three hours
before kickoff every single week, and his jugs machine wasn't
there on Sunday morning, so he was looking around. Thankfully,
Mac Whitehurst and Greg Almond from the equipment staff were
able to.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
Keep him hooking.
Speaker 5 (20:55):
His name is Greg Almond.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
Yeah, his name is Greg. That's awesome, like the nut,
not like the.
Speaker 5 (21:00):
Oh, not like the Brothers.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
Yeah, not like no, but he they were able to
get him taken care of. Tuba had a career high game,
so obviously everything went well.
Speaker 5 (21:11):
He may never use the jugs machine again.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
I suspect Tube is going to be right back on
that jugs machine as soon as he can. It was
actually at practice on Friday at the Bayron, Munich facility.
It just never made the trip across town to the stadium.
So that was an NFL provided jugs machine. They told
us we didn't have to bring our own, and so
we relied on them and it got almost there, but
(21:34):
not all the way to.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
The Staateum, so Cuba had improvise.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
But again, as I wrote on Panthers dot com, it
worked out right, and everything.
Speaker 3 (21:42):
Worked out that entire trip. I mean, it was just
it was fantastic.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
I mean, the team won, everybody's feeling good, fans are
singing the songs despite a little hypothermia.
Speaker 3 (21:54):
I was able to make it.
Speaker 4 (21:55):
Through hypothermia in forty seven degrees.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
Yeah you know, I told you while we were sitting
in the breast box, I'm a delicate flower. I need
to be preserved from the element. So at any rate, listen,
it's the bye week. We've all got a chance to
take a breath, and I intend to do it. We'll
get back to our normal high jinks. We'll get back
to the jukebox next week.
Speaker 4 (22:17):
Well, we have to wait till next week because someone
didn't do their homework.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
No he didn't. I was.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
I was too busy listening to eighties classic rock with
my new German friends. Yeah, so we'll get we'll get
back to all that normal stuff next week.
Speaker 3 (22:31):
We'll get back to football next week.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
Oh, by the way, some cat named Patrick Mahomes is
on his way here, so we'll get to all that
when we check in with you again on the Happy
half Hour.
Speaker 4 (22:41):
Bye.
This week on a Happy half Hour.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
I love many of the things you do. Your cars amazing,
your Schnitzel terrific. It's a really short step from Schnitzel
to Bojangles beer. Yes, your work with non potato and
cabbage vegetables. No but coffee, definitely.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
No totsop cow. It's time for the Happy Half Hour,
presented by Southern Star, an official bourbon of the Carolina Panthers.
Here are your hosts, Darren Gant and Cassidy Hill.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Hello friends, and welcome to the Happy Half Hour. We're
coming to you live from Charlotte somewhere some day, yeah sometime.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
I'm still kind of sorting all that out. We have
seen some things, you and I.
Speaker 4 (00:59):
Cassidy melt some things, heard some things.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
It's been a lot in the last little bit, jamming
an eighty one hour dashed back and forth to Munich
for a little football game, gave us a lot to
talk about, and we're gonna get to it all in
this episode of the Happy Half Hour, which as always
is brought to you by our friends at Southern Star,
an official bourbon partner of the Carolina Panthers. Celebrate the
spirit of the Carolinas and we have.
Speaker 5 (01:23):
You did that off script, and we have plenty.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
To celebrate since we're back home in our own place
where we know the things.
Speaker 4 (01:30):
Back home offul win, back to back wins going into
the bye week. That's about as good of a feeling
as you can ask for this time of year.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
It really is, And I mean it's a nice break.
It's a good time for everybody.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
Listen.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
I don't think and I'm in the middle of writing
a mail bag which will be on the website later
on today.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
I don't think it's appropriate to think, oh God, they've
figured it out or anything like that. But there are little.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Things you're seeing that suggest an identity the Carolina Panthers.
Right now, Chuba Hubbard gets an extension and continues to
run like he was broke. They step up and play
good defense at the time they need it with some
of those guys. I mean, you think about Dan Morgan's
first off season. He signs Derek Brown, who unfortunately is injured,
(02:18):
but he goes out and he signs a bunch of
these old heads on defense because they needed to stabilize
that thing. And then all of a sudden, you see
Josie Jewell make him plays, Ayshawn Robinson, make him plays.
You see DJ Wantam getting in there for the first time,
so you can certainly see the path for the Carolina
Panthers at this moment.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
You know.
Speaker 4 (02:37):
The Vegas game, they played well. They also got some
help by Gardner Minshew.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
Do you need to call for mat? Can you cut
this out?
Speaker 5 (02:45):
I'm sorry, I'll.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Just keep talking. Do you are we okay? Did you
bring something back from Germany?
Speaker 4 (02:52):
Didn't you do the math the other day? That like
of the eighty one hours like nineteen he.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
Spent eighty one hours going back and forth with Munich
nineteen them more on airplanes.
Speaker 4 (03:01):
Somebody I got the airplane crud.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
Yeah, somebody took a picture of me.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Somebody who works with me took a picture of me
sleeping like a dead man on the plane, wearing the eyemask,
bundled up in the comfort.
Speaker 4 (03:13):
I passed by you at one point and didn't realize
it was you until the last second.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
Yeah I was. I was just trying to cover myself up.
Speaker 4 (03:19):
But anyways, what I was gonna say was Vegas, they
made the plays they needed to make to win, got
a lot of help by the offense, jumping out ahead
so much. And then the Saints sort of the same thing,
you know, made the plays when they needed to make them.
The Giants game again got some help by Daniel Jones, absolutely,
(03:40):
and the run defense still has some holes that need
to be addressed. A lot of that probably could be
addressed next year by Derek Brown just being back on
the field and healthy again. But you started to see
what this defense is supposed to look like and what
they had in mind with you know, with DJ Wantam
on one side and Clowney on the other.
Speaker 5 (03:59):
You know, one of.
Speaker 4 (04:00):
Them was able to get the pressure and the other
one the sack or vice versa. And I think one
of them is actually the only one who got the
sack between the two of those, but still you saw
them both. You saw Clowny play a little freer by
having DJ Wanham on the other side. And then you
saw Josie Jewels start to just kind of become that
outlaw taking things from people that he was previously in Denver.
Speaker 5 (04:23):
You there, you go, do we have to pay for
the copyright of that?
Speaker 3 (04:28):
I hope not.
Speaker 4 (04:29):
And then with a Shawn Robinson in the middle, and
again you know, Shy Tuttle all the credit to him
for stepping up, and Derek browns apsis and kind of
taking that over as well. But you're starting to see
what this defense is supposed to look like. And I
think you could probably foresee the rest of this season
them taking those steps and putting it together. And if
(04:52):
a lot of these people return next year, I think
you can really see what Dan Morgan had in mind.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Yeah, I think you And that's the thing you're seeing.
You're seeing the things coming into play. I mean, you
see what the plan was supposed to look like. Now again,
you saw it for the first time in week ten, right,
and that's not ideal, and you're already missing a couple
of really key pieces.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
But at the same time, you're getting there.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
You're getting there, and I think that's okay. I think
progress is okay. That's Dave Canal just keeps talking about that,
building off progress, building off you know, little things you're
doing well, and that's how you build something that's valuable
and lasting.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
So it was a good it was a great week.
Speaker 4 (05:33):
And credit to j want them yep Man for stepping
out there in his first game. Usually in your first
game back, you got to shake the rust off. He
came out like a missile ready to go. I think
he had six tackles, a sack, two tackles for lost,
two quarterback curries. I don't even know how many pressures
he had.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
He was all over the place.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
The amazing thing to me was that he played fifty
snaps period, because the dude who hadn't played football in
almost eleven months to come in. Usually you want to
pitch count those guys and keep them in some kind
of with some kind of restraint, but there was not
really a lot of that, and and he just he
was out there balling, and that that makes a huge
(06:11):
difference for those guys.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
The thing in Avero talks about this all the time.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
To play the defense the way they want to play it,
you've got to have a guy outside, and it gets
even better if you've got two guys, right, And now
they finally got the two guys they were counting on
on the field together. And I don't think it's an
accident that that's when you saw that step up in
the entire defensive level, because you know, no disrespect to
(06:37):
Charles Harris, DJ Johnson, any of the other dudes who've
been out there on the other side, but it's just different.
You know, DJ Wantam was the guy they went out
and got in March, you know, weeks weeks before Clowney
was even an opportunity, So to get him on the
field was a huge step.
Speaker 4 (06:54):
Yeah, it was fun to watch, and like we said,
there's still things to fix, but they're always a little
bit more fun to fix after a win than a lost.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
Yeah, and we'll get to that.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
I mean, we'll have time when we get back next week,
we'll talk more. Next week will be more footballie. I
think it's worth visiting for a moment here on the podcast,
just with the fact that we were just in Germany.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
That was wild.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
I mean, the the atmosphere. We were joking about it.
It's a completely different vibe. For one thing for us,
because I know we are the most important part of
this production. It's an open air press box in Germany.
That's kind of the European standard. This closed in glass
press seeding area is not something they do in big
European soccer stadium.
Speaker 5 (07:37):
Deal with it.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Yeah, And so we were dressed for the elements and
we were out there in them. But being in that,
being in that vibe was just a really neat thing
because the German fans are super into it. Hey, it's
not just a curiosity. There are a lot of people
who really dig on football and are super into it.
So they're all into the rhythms of the game at
(08:00):
the right time.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
Sprice talked about that.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
He so like they were being loud, you know, when
the other team had the ball on third down, so
in their job, it was like a home field advantage
for us, even though we were you know however many
miles away from that only.
Speaker 5 (08:13):
Tried to do the wave once.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
Yeah, and it's good.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
And maybe my favorite thing about the German fans is
they love to sing. Oh my god, even when the
music goes off, they continued to sing. And I just
find this charming and adorable.
Speaker 4 (08:27):
It was so cool when they played Country Roads, something
that the German fans apparently have latched onto from the
NFL being there. It was very much like that soccer
atmosphere where they just keep going and it's sort of
a sing along. When they played Country Roads and the
music cut out because the Giants went back over offense,
went back on offense, and the Giants were running a
(08:50):
play and the crowd kept singing. That may have been
one of the top five coolest sports moments I've ever
experienced life. It gave me chills in the moment. It
gives me chills thinking about it. It gives me chills when
I go back and watch the video. You know, I
wanted to be in the moment, but I'm so glad
I ended up taking a video of that because it's
something to go back and listen to it and realize
(09:10):
just how special it was to be there in that moment.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Yeah, it really was a super cool thing for me.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
And I was sitting there even before the game when
they pull out the big flags start doing two national
anthems and stuff, and I just kind of caught myself.
I'm old and jaded and cynical and all that, and
I've been doing this for a million years, but I
was sitting there thinking, man, the first thing you ever
covered in exchange for money was in East Burke McDowell
girls high school basketball. And now you're sitting in Munich, Germany,
(09:39):
where Harry Kane plays his professional football and you're watching
this unfolding. So it was really a neat moment. But
I was utterly charmed by the entire experience.
Speaker 4 (09:50):
I mean, you know what, the most charming moment of
the game was I'm surprised you haven't brought this up
yet because you loved it.
Speaker 5 (09:56):
When it happened.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
What's that?
Speaker 4 (09:57):
So they gave all the fans like placards to hold
up so that they could make the German and American
flags in the NFL symbols. They then took those those
pieces of what I assuming are glossy cardboard, yep or
something of the sort, like strong card stock, and turn
them into paper airplanes.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
And they were.
Speaker 4 (10:17):
Throwing them on the field and throwing them around. I
think at one point it hit Johnny Hecker.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
Maybe it was Tommy Tremble at Tommy Tremble, Yeah, Tommy
was standing over there next to I in Thomas and
the guys the rest of the tight ends, and one
of them pegged him in the head. So it was great.
I'm all for German engineering, but it's cool. I those
guys had it figured out. And every time the paper
airplane would get near the field, you'd hear the crowd
start to lean into it.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
They'd be like, come on, one landed.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
In the end zone, and every bay start they say
come on in German, Yeah, said you know. The one
thing I figured out is that there's certain things that
transcend the barriers of language.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
We're all one people.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
I walked whatever day of the week it was when
we got there. I just needed a little refreshment. So
I wandered down the street from our hotel found a
little neighborhood pub and I walked in and looked. The
guy looked at me, and I said, pilsner. Sure, And
so he said words that I assume indicated the amount
of money he wanted his exchange for the pilsner. So
(11:14):
I just held up my credit card and handed it
to him and he went, no card, minimum twenty.
Speaker 5 (11:20):
Get another pills there.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
I said, two pilsners, and he just kind of looked
at me and he went three.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
And I said, okay, fine, three.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
So I stood there in this little bar as the
only English speaker in the place, and it was amazing
because it was a very small.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
Space ab outside of this podcast studio.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
They had a little train going around the top of
the bar that delivered shots of schnops to people, and
the jukebox was just full of eighties classic rock. I
mean it was it was Rick Springfield, it was Toto,
it was Journey, it was def Leppard and I was like,
this is amazing. This must be what Reagan felt like
in eighty nine.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
I have breached the cultural gap. Here we are one
people finally.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Uh oh, this was a good This was a good thing.
But I put a picture the coasters. I put a
picture of it on Twitter the other day and it's
written in German and it's got a man just kind
of collapsed with his head down on the bar, and
I said, I don't really know what this says, but
I feel this right now because it was It was
a good time, but it was a it was a
long time.
Speaker 4 (12:26):
It was something else just wanted to point out too,
because it was a lot of fun. It is The
Panther's put on a lot of different events around Old
Town Munich and got to go hang out at some
of those on Friday and Saturdayay.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
You saw Steve Smith almost create an international.
Speaker 4 (12:41):
I did see Germany is going to put out a
travel warning next time Steve Smith crosses into the country lines.
But that was a lot of fun. I think I
texted you at one point because I was in the
van with Steve Smith, Julius Peppers, Luke Keigley and John
Beeson and we were driving down to Old Towns, a
twenty minute ride, and just in that twenty minutes to
(13:02):
kind of hear some of the stories they were telling,
and you know, just it was a bunch of old
friends back together again in a car. The first time
I got to meet Pep. So that was that was
really cool. And I got to hang out with him
a little bit. He's you have said this in everything
you have written. He is very quiet, but once he
does kind of open up a little bit, he's he's
such an interesting guy.
Speaker 5 (13:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (13:23):
So it was a lot of fun just to hang
out with those legends for two days and kind of
hear their stories and and really understand why they are
so special to the Panthers fan base. Yeah, and get
that experience firsthand.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
And I think our new friends in Germany are picking
up on that too. I mean they're kind of you know,
we got a product to sell. They you know, people
were digging on Luke Keekley tapping the keg.
Speaker 5 (13:46):
Was lots of beers flooding.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
There were there were beers. There were At one.
Speaker 4 (13:50):
Point I walked into the Panthers Pub, like the Panthers
had an official pub set up, and that's where they
were handing out the beers every day, and I walked
in with them and they kind of like created a
path for him because we had to go through to
the back. Felt a little like walking in with the
Beatles to their concert. Sure, and people were going crazy.
And I walked past one guy and I heard him
(14:11):
say to his wife, Oh my god, that was Steve Smith,
like just like shocked, like, oh my god, look at
these people walking through here. So that was really really
cool just to kind of be a part of that
and experience that too.
Speaker 3 (14:23):
It definitely was.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
It was an experience to remember, to be sure, it
is also an experience to be endured.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
Yeah, I'm still catching.
Speaker 5 (14:33):
We all came back sick.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
Yeah, we're all still a little dragging. I love our
German friends. They're great at so many things. Coffees not
one of them.
Speaker 4 (14:42):
No, Oh my gosh, Darren. Everybody on our team made
fun of me because I was like, get thee to
a Starbucks. And I found a Starbucks finally, after we
had been there for about thirty six hours. It was
like it was like somebody crawling through a desert looking
for water. I was just like vanilla latte.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
See, and I have remarkably low standards for coffee.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
I usually I don't.
Speaker 4 (15:05):
Even need the coffee to taste good. I just need
it to like have something to it.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
I usually begin the day with a starter cup of
whatever's left over in the pot from the previous day,
and I just warm it up, because it takes less
time to nuke that one cup of coffee than it
does to make an entire pot. So I come in
Monday when I finally woke up at like, you know,
we get in at three ish. You know, it was
like eight forty five when I woke up ish, and
(15:29):
I just poured whatever was in the pot and drank,
warmed it up and drank it. And daughter walks through
and I said, hey, I appreciate you making a pot
of coffee earlier.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
Today.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
I didn't make a coffee while I was here, and
I was like, so that's the coffee I left here
on Thursday. And I guess that cup of coffee was
better than any coffee I had in the entire country
of Germany. So I love many of the things you do.
Your car's amazing, Your schnitzel terrific. It's a really short
(15:57):
step from schnitzel to bojangle beer.
Speaker 3 (16:01):
Yes, engineering, of course, small talk.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
No coffee, your work with non potato and cabbage vegetables, No,
but coffee definitely.
Speaker 4 (16:12):
Know, you know, everybody knows what they do well and
knows what they don't do well. And Germany knows they
don't do coffee well.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
If they don't care, yeah, I guess so. But cool experience.
I'm ready to go back. I want to go somewhere
else cool. Where can we go?
Speaker 4 (16:26):
Oh my gosh, where would you like? Where else would
you like to see an international NFL game?
Speaker 3 (16:30):
I would?
Speaker 2 (16:30):
I would get down in South America. I kind of
envy those guys who got to go to Brazil this year.
That's a new experience, and I just want to go
see more stuff.
Speaker 3 (16:40):
One of the things and I didn't even I got
to do something with this.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
At some point I talked to a bunch of guys
leading into the trip about the theory of travel, and
one of the things I believe is once you've done
it once, you just want to do it over and
over and over again. Like I left the country for
the first time about a year and a half ago.
Oh really, wife and I took an extended you know,
delayed honeymoon. We did Paris, Amsterdam, London and it was amazing.
(17:08):
And now I'm like, I want to go somewhere else.
I want to get on a train, I want to
go to a different country. Let's go see some more stuff.
Speaker 4 (17:13):
There's nothing quite like the rush of walking up to
a counter with your passport and being like, I'm going somewhere.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
Yeah, exactly, and I just like, you know, there's a
curiosity of I wonder what we're going to see here,
and you're going to see something you've never experienced before.
That's the way it was for me in Munich. I mean,
Munich is a very old center city. You know, it's
very historic. It's got a lot of stuff that's been
there for centuries. And despite the fact that wars have
(17:42):
happened and knocked a lot of it down, but it's
just such a cool cultural experience. And I think once
you see a different part of the world. And again,
I am extremely fortunate to be able to do that.
I acknowledge my privilege in being able to say that.
I know not everybody can, but I think if you've
got the opportun t unity to see stuff outside your borders,
it just opens your eyes to what the rest of
(18:04):
the people are doing.
Speaker 4 (18:05):
Absolutely, that was something that I was very very fortunate
to be kind of raised with that mindset too, and
fortunate to get to do it my first out of
the country trip. I was eleven years old and we
went to the Philippines that at one point meant twenty
two hours straight on a plane that was the Detroit
to Tokyo Hall.
Speaker 5 (18:27):
Yeah, so after that, any flight seems doable.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
And there was probably no Wi Fi or n seat
entertainment on that one either were there.
Speaker 5 (18:35):
It was a lot of like playing tic tac toe
with my memo. But that was.
Speaker 4 (18:42):
A big trip at a young age that you know,
had some culture shocked to it, but also kind of
sparked that love of traveling, like you said, and going
to see what you can see in other parts of
the world.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
Yeah, no doubt.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
And now that we're spreading the message of the Carolina Panthers,
I would be remiss if I did not say there
are some real heroes on this trip besides Juba Hubbard
and dj Wanam and Ashawn Robinson and Josie Jewel, all
of our folks in marketing who've been making this trip
for the last year and a half to kind of
set the stage for this trip or one thing. But
(19:15):
the the ops people in this building, the people who
do logistics, you know. And I don't want to start
saying names because I will inevitably leave some out.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
You know.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
Dave kind of did this a little bit during his
press conference the other day. But the people who pack
the bus, the people who arrange the bus, the people
who arrange you know, international transport, and how to get
a football team through customs, how to feed a football
team when they're over there, how to secure a hotel
that a football state team is staying in in a
(19:44):
different country.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
There are so many people.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
It's a small circus moving to town to town, and
it's complicated enough when we're going to Atlanta and Philadelphia
and Tampa Bay, as we'll be doing in the back
half of the season, but to do it overseas just
adds a layer. And so many many people in this
building did such an incredible job making that all come together.
Speaker 4 (20:04):
Everything went off flawlessly, and that's not something you can
usually say. And to your point, to do it in
another country was impressive. From the pub keg taps to
the pep rallies they had at the FanFest. Simply getting
from the hotel to practice on Friday. Everything went flawlessly
and so yes, and like you said, Dave mentioned a
(20:25):
few names, but credit to everyone that was a part
of that. I think the only thing was is Tuba
would say where was my drugs machine? But other than that,
it was it was just as smooth as if we
were here in Charlotte.
Speaker 3 (20:37):
Yeah, and I got to the bottom of that one too.
It was wild.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
I mean, Tuba is such a creature of habit. He
has to catch balls from the jugs machine three hours
before kickoff every single week, and his jugs machine wasn't
there on Sunday morning, so he was looking around. Thankfully,
Mac Whitehurst and Greg Almond from the equipment staff were
able to.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
Keep him hooking.
Speaker 5 (20:55):
His name is Greg Almond.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
Yeah, his name is Greg. That's awesome, like the nut,
not like the.
Speaker 5 (21:00):
Oh, not like the Brothers.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
Yeah, not like no, but he they were able to
get him taken care of. Tuba had a career high game,
so obviously everything went well.
Speaker 5 (21:11):
He may never use the jugs machine again.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
I suspect Tube is going to be right back on
that jugs machine as soon as he can. It was
actually at practice on Friday at the Bayron, Munich facility.
It just never made the trip across town to the stadium.
So that was an NFL provided jugs machine. They told
us we didn't have to bring our own, and so
we relied on them and it got almost there, but
(21:34):
not all the way to.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
The Staateum, so Cuba had improvise.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
But again, as I wrote on Panthers dot com, it
worked out right, and everything.
Speaker 3 (21:42):
Worked out that entire trip. I mean, it was just
it was fantastic.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
I mean, the team won, everybody's feeling good, fans are
singing the songs despite a little hypothermia.
Speaker 3 (21:54):
I was able to make it.
Speaker 4 (21:55):
Through hypothermia in forty seven degrees.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
Yeah you know, I told you while we were sitting
in the breast box, I'm a delicate flower. I need
to be preserved from the element. So at any rate, listen,
it's the bye week. We've all got a chance to
take a breath, and I intend to do it. We'll
get back to our normal high jinks. We'll get back
to the jukebox next week.
Speaker 4 (22:17):
Well, we have to wait till next week because someone
didn't do their homework.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
No he didn't. I was.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
I was too busy listening to eighties classic rock with
my new German friends. Yeah, so we'll get we'll get
back to all that normal stuff next week.
Speaker 3 (22:31):
We'll get back to football next week.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
Oh, by the way, some cat named Patrick Mahomes is
on his way here, so we'll get to all that
when we check in with you again on the Happy
half Hour.
Speaker 4 (22:41):
Bye.
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Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!