Things you maybe didn’t know about the NC Governor

Here to join us to talk a little bit about hockey, and we may even put them on the spot and try and talk prognosticating animals. It is Jeremy Markovich from the NC Rabbit Hole.

Follow him at Definitely a Name and at NC Rabbit Hole. Jeremy, what's going on, man? Not much. How are you?

I'm doing well. I don't know if you caught this trend yesterday, but all of our groundhogs and other animals who may or may not predict weather are like peacing out. I don't know if they're unionizing for better benefits, but they're not working. There was only one, Sned or somebody down in Garner, and I feel like the rabbit hole needs to look into this.

Yeah, I mean, there must have been some kind of buyout where they all just took the buyout. They've all retired or something like that at the same time. I don't know what happened, but there's far fewer groundhogs that are doing it. Maybe the Groundhog Corporation is going through some downsizing and they've got to get rid of a lot of them. And apparently there's an armadillo somewhere that predicts.

I want you to use your sources to look into the animals that are supposed to do things for weather. We've got ones on New Year's Eve that I know you've written about, and now we've got groundhogs that apparently are retiring. I don't know what's happening. You watched hockey with the governor. I know you joined the OG on 9999 The Fan, so I'm going to ask you some different questions than they asked you. First, how do you watch a hockey game with the governor? Do you just hang out around the mansion on Blunt Street around 6 o'clock on game day and hope he's gone? How do you make that happen? You asked.

You never know what you're going to get unless you ask. I had been curious for a very long time about what it would be like to watch a game with Governor Roy Cooper. If only because he seems like in public a straight-laced, not super emotional, low-key, not going to surprise you with a soundbite kind of a person. The only place where he seems to be peaked, where he kind of turns up to 11, is when he's watching Carolina Hurricanes games. He tweets about the Hurricanes a lot. He would wear a Carolina Hurricanes mask during COVID. He trash-talked Brad Marchand from the Boston Bruins. Is this a thing where he's going to watch hockey and just come totally unglued during the game?

I genuinely didn't know what it would be like to watch a game with him. I just thought it would be very, very interesting. I started asking and I asked.

Eventually, once I convinced them that I was a legitimate reporter who was interested in this from that standpoint, then they were like, yeah, let's do it. Why don't you come to the arena? He's going to be actually on the air.

Last Friday night, he was on the air with Mike and Tripp, part of the first period of the game. You can be there for that. You can talk with him. You can sit in a box for a little bit. Then you can go on your way. You can see what that's like.

That is exactly what's happened. Jeremy Markovich joins us from the NC Rabbit Hole. Was there any security clearance?

I know he's not the president, but he's a governor. There seems to be some security around him. Did you get patted down or did they have to call anybody on background on you? He knew about me. He was asking. He's like, hey, what's it like to be a whitewater rafting guy?

I haven't done that for 12 years. Somebody had told him something that was in my background. They had vetted me. I knew that. He was surrounded also by his two bodyguards were very nice. They had very large hands, as you might expect bodyguards to do.

They did this. Also, I had a photographer that came with me as well to take some pictures, which I thought were great. You just see on his face the joy and the agony of watching a Canes game. It was really evident.

We both went in, but once we'd already done that. The funny thing was, if you're a longtime Canes fan, you probably may remember Ron the ref. Ron Viscotti, who was the in-game host for many, many, many years. Ron is now working. He does security for the arena. He was actually the guide that took us where we needed to go.

We came to the entrance, went up to the broadcast booth, and then went down to a private box. Ron is there. Of course, Governor Cooper is like, hey, Ron. Hey, buddy. He's like, Ron the ref. Hey, how's it going, buddy? You going to rep that alumni game?

He has recall for everything. You can just tell Ron's face just lit up. He's like, oh, yeah.

This is cool. A couple other questions. Did he go off the record with you at all? Obviously, I won't make you tell me, but at any point did he say, hey, either I want to cuss at a player or I just want to tell you something, but I don't want a part of the interview. Did he go off the record at all with you? He did not.

He did not cuss. He never lost it during the game. I was there when the Cane scored the first goal and he was in the middle of saying something and just like, yeah, yeah. He jumped up and he's on his feet.

He's clapping and he's excited. And he would lose his train of thought quite a bit. He'd be talking about one thing and then something on the ice would happen and he would just stop and just react to it. He genuinely wanted to watch the game and talk hockey. It wasn't like he was like, hey, so while I got you here, let me tell you about this initiative that we have going on.

And I got to push this through the General Assembly like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. He genuinely just wants to talk about like the salary cap and the trade deadline and like the Martinook line and all of this stuff that is that is around the Canes. And the only thing that he told me that at least I wasn't off the record, but it was I was just verifying that he wasn't doing other things off the record. As I asked him, I'm like, hey, you know, he had just told me the story about how he his daughter a long time ago wanted to bring the sign into the arena. And the sign said, Ref, you suck. And and he's like, maybe maybe instead of focusing on the person, focus on the action. And so she's like, oh, OK. And then she made another sign that said bad call ref.

And then she brought that to the arena and it worked. He's like, that's good parenting. And I said, yeah, that's all fine and dandy. But then you tweeted at Brad Marshawn, you know, from the Boston ruins. And, you know, said some you trash talked him on Twitter chirped him and he started laughing really, really, really hard.

He's like, yeah, well, he deserved it. And I do it again. And I asked him, like, Governor, do you have a burner Twitter account that you like are like make like, you know, tweeting out like hot takes about the canes that you would never say.

No, no, no, no, no. He said, I only have he's like, I have my Roy Cooper and see account. That's my personal account.

I type everything is anything I'm going to say. I'm going to say it there. So so at least I have asked him on the record if the governor has a burner account they use to to tweet out hot sports takes during Canes games. And the answer from him is no.

Well, you may have qualified to you should just start with. Do you have a burner account? Maybe. Yeah. Let's say, no, I do not have a burner account for Canes takes anyway.

It's a rabbit hole. Last two questions. One, did you bone up on your hockey for like sitting with them? We were like, oh, man, I got to sound like I know what I'm talking about. I did. I did. I try. So I really was like, OK, I need to learn what's going on with them.

I read, you know, I read the athletic. I'm aware of what the canes are doing, but I just can't watch them every single night. So I'm sorry. Can you act like I really I want to be with you. But also, can you are accepting?

Can you are accepting they'll take you on at the playoffs midseason, whatever game you can watch. They're fine with that. Yeah. You know, I'm sorry.

The ESPN black plus black is real. So I apologize for that. But I you know, I've watched a lot. I've been there. I know. I know the movers and shakers. I know what's going on.

I knew I was not going to be like an expert, so I just didn't even try. But he very much is like he is talking about like high level stuff. And one of the things that he says is, you know, I'm the governor, I'm very busy.

I would hope that he's very busy if he's the governor. I got nothing but free time. But he says, like, I have to like watch the game. I have to speed it up.

Like I have to, you know, do the thing where I'm fast forwarding it through all the commercial to the icing calls and that sort of thing. And so. But yeah, I mean, I will gladly admit that the governor knows much, much more about the canes than I do. He is he is into it. He is.

He really, really cares. All right. Then final question for you.

And Mick Mixon used to always tell me he hates it when I ask him questions that ask, you know, to say what another person thinks. I totally believe that Roy Cooper is a Canes fan. Now, I do not think this is an act.

Right. But at some point, is there any part of you that wonders, was this a political decision to avoid? He knows his UNC grad living in Raleigh to avoid playing the I love ACC basketball tap dance or whatever. Picking the canes as to be a let me let me kind of. Yeah, I'll show up at the Final Four, but I'm not going to really be a UNC fan.

I'm going to be a Canes fan. Do you think that was a political decision that he made from the start? I don't I don't think so.

I just think it became this like thing that happens when you find something that's really interesting that you've never heard of before. Like he grew up in Rocky, Rocky Mount sixty five years ago. Yeah. There has never been and is no ice rink in Rocky. Sure.

You know, maybe there should be one, but there is not. He did never played hockey. And even when the canes came to Greensboro, he's like he didn't go. He wasn't like, oh, yeah, this new hockey team.

I'm totally in. He was a state senator, I believe, back then before he became attorney general. I I think it is genuine. And I also think that he basically like it. It's not one of these things where, like, OK, like like the Super Bowl is going to come up. And so inevitably what's going to happen is you're going to have two mayors that are going to make some really cheesy bet. You know, like, you know, well, I'm the mayor of Kansas City and I will agree to send barbecue to. Right. Like like whatever.

Oh, my team is definitely the best. And I think Andy Reid is going to be like, no, like like that's not real fandom. Like he genuinely cares. He does not want to go there to do business.

He does not want to do any of the other stuff. He really, really cares about the team. And the only thing that he said about you and see. So he is a UNC grad. And, you know, I I was talking about Wake Forest and and he said, OK, well, you know, my my my my my father went to Wake Forest back in the day.

Like back. Like it's either like right before or right after the university moved from actual Wake Forest to Salem. He says so he's like he went back like a 50th reunion. His dad did. And there's all these long winded speeches. And his dad gets up and he said, he's like, I hate to admit. That my two sons graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and I hang my head in shame. And he sat back down and got a standing ovation from the the Wake Forest crowd. It was the shortest speech that just dissed UNC.

And and he brought the house down. So obviously, Roy Cooper went to UNC. I'm sure he has feelings there. I'm sure he's not going to wade into what is the best team in North Carolina. But his his father is on record of saying that, you know, obviously Wake Forest is the superior university. And apparently trash talking runs in Roy Cooper's family.

His dad really does. Jeremy Markovich, check out his whole article on watching hockey with the governor and all the great things he does at the N.C. Rabbit Hole. One of the coolest storytelling platforms you'll find if you are a North Carolinian. Long time. Just moved here. You'll find cool stuff. Check out his site.