Panthers, Canes back from a break, and gift giving in the NFL

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See Amazon.com slash Amazon Prime for details. Let's get it started. So as I mentioned mere moments ago, I had some Panthers takes that yesterday that didn't quite sit well with fans. They didn't felt it was strong enough. And I, I think I want to apologize.

Not just think, I want to apologize. And it wasn't because I was just totally just taking a dump on the Panthers because they lost 33 to 30. It was a competitive football game. The offense played incredibly well, but I think what I didn't articulate well enough was the idea that I think Bryce young had a very good football game and the offense seemed to do the things that needed to do. The challenge was for me as someone who watches football from, from my cheap seat, so to speak, is that they gave up 33 points to the Packers. And the Packers are not world beaters by any means, but I see, and I hear the fans out there going, well, man, clearly you didn't watch the game.

And, and he, you know, that wasn't a man. Was it? I watched the game.

I saw what happened. The offense, this team was down two scores in that fourth quarter and they came back and grinded out a couple of drives. The second drive wasn't really a grind. I mean, they made some very good plays that first drive to get within the one touchdown, you know, there was a, uh, unnecessary roughness penalty. There was a PI penalty on it, but DJ chart, you know, maybe showed up, made it play.

I was so proud of him. And along with making those plays, Bryce young made plays and he made plays again on that next drive. They just gave Jordan love a little bit too much extra time to get the Packers back down the field. Again, you gave up 33 points, but I do believe that there is improvement. The issue I have with believing in improvement in the NFL is you've lost 12 games up until that pant.

And now you've lost 13 games. And so where you're at is, are we looking for signs of improvement or are we looking for a win? There are no moral victories.

There's not, they are losses and they are wins. No matter how much we want to see them through the rose colored glasses, or as I like to say, find the silver linings. And I really tried to find the silver linings. And I think I was successful on day two here.

As I, as I say this stuff out loud, there is hope. We saw the glimmers of the quarterback that was drafted by this team and introduced officially to the league three months ago, the things you expected him to do, the things you wanted him to do, the things we all said, this is what he's capable of doing. He did those things.

Yeah. And I don't question the drafting of Bryce young. I don't question that at all.

I don't question the guy himself. We all questioned whether the spark was there. He may have found the spark. The unfortunate part about finding the spark this late in the season is it only counts for personal growth, not for team growth. You don't own a pick in the first round next year. You're going to have a brand new coaching staff next year. Hopefully. Yes, but yes, we will.

This is where I sit. So I do apologize for being a little bit soft and kind of going, eh, it's another loss. It's a loss for the Panthers for that. I apologize. There are no easy losses in this league, but it is still an L and you got to roll to Jacksonville.

And hopefully you can give them some of those lumps back and take what momentum you feel you had this past Sunday into this next game. Yeah. And it was very fresh. I don't know if you talked about this yesterday. It was very frustrating to watch that they actually did show spark. It did look promising. They did look good. They were showing some grit on the field, but then we're still making dumb calls. Why did you make that challenge? Because you have to think we lost that time out that they could have used to potentially tie up the game. I don't know if you talked about that yesterday.

That was my biggest like grief with that whole, I was so excited. I'm like, look at us. Go look at us.

Show some fight. They got that dog in them. And then they ran out of time. One, one tick, one clock, one second fall down, get a field goal. Yep. That is, those are the breaks of the NFL. Yep. The goodness and the badness. You take all of it with you.

It's just how unfortunately it works. And by the way, for those of you, again, I did apologize. I am wearing a white hat today because I'm waving the white flag. I do surrender to those of you who called me out on some of the garbage yesterday. I wasn't my strongest on that.

Hopefully that made up for it just a little teeny bit. I'm not trying to make you happy. I can't make everybody happy. I can't be everything to everybody. I can only do that as a dad.

And that's really hard too. And you just did Christmas. Like you're tapped out for a second. You just got to, I have more family coming in this week.

Like it's not even over yet. And I left my, I left my poor wife at home to clean up the house and I apologize. So two apologies this morning.

Honey, I'm sorry. I left you with a little bit more work than I thought I was going to leave you before my family shows up. They appreciate it. And I appreciate it. There you go.

I do. Okay. There we go. I'm gonna take off the white hat now. Here. Hold on a second. Take the hat off. There you go. And we're gonna move on to the next thing here. All right. Holiday break is over for the Carolina hurricanes.

Yes. The Carolina hurricanes who have been struggling in the month of December four and nine. Unfortunately, if you just cut down to the brass tacks, so to speak, they have come back from a break. They have back-to-back games. They start tonight in Nashville and are back at home in Raleigh against the Montreal Canadians. The Canadians. Canadians. They had a informal skate this morning before they hopped on a flight to Nashville because of the silly NHL rules.

Because of the actual break, you can't travel until you're officially in business. So weird. It is what it is. I hate, hate's a strong word. I dislike this NHL policy.

I truly dislike, seriously, just let them fly out the night before they can get a good night's sleep. There's plenty of ice in Nashville or wherever they happen to be headed to go do their things. Anyway, Rod Brind'Amour, head coach, talking about having a couple of days off here.

Well, I don't know. I think it's such a grind. It's nice for the guys to, you know, I'm sure just get away from hockey for a little while. Obviously, it hasn't gone exactly how we'd like to have gone here this, so far this year.

But, you know, it's a chance to get on a refresh and hopefully come up with, you know, spirited effort. We've talked a bit about puck luck when it comes to the Carolina hurricanes. And if you just review recent history with this team and this really rough stretch of one and four, the blowout game that they had in the win, they scored six goals in. In the losses, it's either been overtime, shootout, or one goal losses. The puck luck just hasn't been there. Not for them. And to go even deeper into this, when you look back at the wins that this team has as they come out of the break here, and there's another break coming up at the beginning of February with the All-Star break as well, and there's a ton of home games, which is fortunate for them. This is the makeup from the State Fair trip when the season started. They're only on the road one game between January 7th and February 10th. Thankfully.

Yeah, so there's a lot of home cooking on the way. This team, if you look back at all the wins, and it's something that Rod Brind'Amour complained about while on the Canadian road trip, was that the Stars weren't performing. And when you see the wins, it is those Stars.

And it's the same consistent names. And yes, you want to believe that everybody on this 20 currently 22 person roster is carrying their weight, but really you are paying guys to be superstars. You're paying Sebastian Ajo to be a superstar. You weren't expecting to be paying Peter Kuchetkov to be a superstar, yet this is where we are at. Seth Jarvis, not getting paid like a superstar, but getting treated like that. And also one of those guys that is performing, doing very well in the areas where he needs to be.

Goal scoring, power play, power play assist, doing the simple things. Those are the Stars. When you see this team's losses, it's like everybody else on the roster.

The names you aren't thinking of and associating with, like when this team is truly successful, yes, you want all cylinders clicking, but I don't necessarily need Jesper Faust being my first Star of the game. Right. No. Like three nights out of the year. And unfortunately, when he is the Star, you are not winning those games.

Not at all. So this team needs a little bit of puck luck. It would be as simple as a couple of goals in the last five games. This team is not looking at 17 and 13. This team is looking at 21 and nine, and it's a much different outlook for this team.

But yet again, here we are. We're also having to deal with the Mentals or the physicals or something with Ante Ronta, who is right now considered the backup goalie who was sent down to Chicago for two games, gave up six goals and two appearances in Chicago, and now he's back up. After the skate this morning, again, Rod Brindivore talking about bringing Ante back up. Yeah, that's a managerial more discussion than me, so I'm kind of out of it on that side of things. But like I said, I think it's the most important position, clearly. I mean, we've seen it when it's goalies are good, what it does for us, and when they're kind of iffy, what it does for us. So we need to be, we talk about being consistent, I think, in general with our group, but it starts with those guys, I think.

And we need to get that going here the second half of the year. It's hard to be consistent when you have no clear consistency in the crease as it is right now. You're waiting for Freddie Anderson to come back in terms of being, like, healthy and ready to go and take the net again. Ante Ronta's taken his short stint in the minors to try to get the mojo vibe back or get the mojo going. I'm not sure if it worked, but there's a back-to-back coming up again tonight and Thursday night, so we're dealing with, he's going to play.

It's going to happen. Piotr Kuchetkov, not necessarily. This year, if you all remember, if you roll back the clock one year, this is when Piotr was getting hot.

He was. This is where he was rolling and rolling and rolling, but he accepted pretty much a number one every night goalie kind of thing, and you have to go back, like, to. It's been a while since you've had to call it a goalie to be kind of the clear number one starter. Like, and there are so very few of those. Most of them are Hockey Hall of Famers. Let's be honest.

Piotr Kuchetkov thrown into the fire, no safety net. Do what you can do, kid. We will support you as much as we can. The Pack Therapy podcast is in session. Tim Donnelly here, host of The Drive-In, your guide for Pack Therapy. Every episode is your chance to score inside information on The Pack. We set you up for Wolf Pack games all season long, and we break down the ACC competition. What to watch for as we roll towards the tournament madness. Plus special guests to keep your Wolf Pack hope alive.

Follow Pack Therapy wherever you discover your favorite podcasts or watch it on YouTube. Oh, bummer. The holidays are over. But yay, your weird relatives left. But no more presents. But yay, you have your freedom again. But there are no more desserts. But there's also no more holiday music.

The new year is full of ups and downs. But however you're feeling, you can always be happy with all the content on Prime Video. Catch the new season of Reacher included with Prime. Why'd you hit him so hard?

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See amazon.com slash amazon prime for details. And hopefully Rod, as he mentioned, they can get hot here in this second half. I expect something to change though. Yeah, it'll be nice for them to be home for a little while. Home cooking will help.

Yes. Home cooking will help. West Coast tours and Canadian tours have not been kind. There are still a few more games on the road though. They've got to get through those and they need dubs like they need. I don't care if they're close. I don't care if they're blowouts or wherever it is. The Vegas game was not a turning point. We all thought it was going to be. It was just a very good win.

We all walked it back immediately a couple nights later and then in the game right before the Christmas break. Canes tonight in Nashville. Peter Kaczetkow was in net tonight.

No major changes for the Canes as we saw after Morning Skate. All right, it is bowl season's only appearance inside North Carolina. Officially the Duke's Mayo Bowl. Don't not to be confused with the Duke's Mayo Classic. Yes, which is the kickoff game. This is the Mayo Bowl of which the Duke's Mayo people are trying to up kind of outdo the Pop-Tarts people, right? The NC State Kansas State game coming up tomorrow on Thursday night where the Duke's Mayo people have been very active in promoting the fact that they are singing Take Me Home Country Roads and bars across Charlotte right now. They are eating mayonnaise in the stands and somebody will apparently be eating mayonnaise with a giant ladle. Of course, in the stands at some point.

And everyone around them will be gagging. And all this coming on today where Sam Howell got benched in Washington in favor of a Jacoby Brissette. Yes, that happened within the past hour.

Wow. But Carolina is in fact playing West Virginia. Carolina is an underdog in this game. But it is a bowl game and it means to show up and show out for a lot of Carolina blue. Mac Brown during the press are talking about what it means for his heels to play in this game. It's really important that you, I think there's 38 bowl games.

It's really important you're one of them. It's the minimum standard that you have for your team. You get to practice like a spring practice extra, which is really important for next year's team. Now you, anybody on your team who has played in four games but couldn't play in a fifth because they would redshirt gets to play in the bowl game. So it's a new opportunity for them. You get to bring in your, you get to bring in your you get to bring in your early enrollees out of high school. So we've had like 15 guys practicing that'll get 10 practices before they go to spring practice. You get to bring in your graduate transfers and watch them and your guys get to play one last time together.

So it's really, really important to play. And then Duke's Mayo Bowl has done a great job for these guys and families. They've had a wonderful week. Danny Morrison, the Sports Foundation, Charlotte Sports Foundation really puts on a show for these guys. So just sitting down there talking about their shopping spree and going to the racetrack and all the things they've done. And these are wonderful experiences for these guys.

We had a great Christmas dinner last night. Had a lot of fun and had games and they were laughing and cutting up and I'm just sitting there watching them and thinking how blessed we are because a lot of teams would like to be sitting here. It's a stark contrast of what he was talking about when it came to defense and talking about how he owes nothing to the degenerate Saturday night better who is chasing bets. But hey look, Max seems to be in a jovial move when he comes to talking about Charlotte and that's a good thing.

That's a good representation of the state. Charlotte rolling out the red carpet for both teams very clearly. The Drake-Maylis North Carolina Tar Heels taking on and both coaches are named Brown by the way.

So some Brown, Coach Brown will be dumped mayonnaise will be dumped on a Coach Brown after tonight's game. But Carolina you know of course will be previewing this game coming up in the next hour a little bit deeper as we go straight to Charlotte. But Omarion Hampton of course, the third leading rusher in the United States when it comes to college carrying the rock will be playing in this football game and I do have him as one of the bets also later on as well as I'm trying to stick to all local athletes playing tonight. So there is a theme when it comes to placing bets coming up later on in the program. But it will be a fight. I don't know if it's going to be a rock fight by any means but it will be a fight in Charlotte between these two teams and both taking it seriously which is helpful too.

It is helpful. You know you have a handful of opt-outs but for the most part it's still a college football game. I'm a sucker for bowl games.

I'm a sucker for holiday classics and things like that. It's the same way the Pop-Tarts Bowl that's happening in Orlando where NC State will be taking on K-State. That seems to be a much closer game in terms of where things are. K-State's going to lean on a rookie, not a rookie, I hate saying rookie, NFL and NCAA, a freshman quarterback who is a dual threat quarterback. So their starter opted out, went to the portal and they have a freshman quarterback who's dual threat, run, pass, throw and that's going to be the threat that the defense of NC State's going to have to deal with.

He also, much like Mac Brown as he is in Orlando, thankful that they get to play in a said bowl. You know two similar football programs that really believe in fundamentals and toughness, togetherness and I think you know when you watch both our teams play they play hard. They're teams that play until the end.

They fight, they're physical. I know our guys are excited to play not just because we're playing a great opponent but just an opportunity to go out and compete one more time with a group of young men for us that really came together in the middle of a season and won five straight games. Want to elevate our program into the top 20 and kind of out of a real tough middle of the season into a great finish and so an opportunity to continue to do that and like coach said you know there's gonna be some players out there that are getting you know expanded roles. Some of them their first time being in some of the roles they have and so excited for them you know they've served our team in other ways and now they get a chance to be in that role with you know Kayden Wilson not playing so to get to see now Kayden Fordham play a lot more for us young men we're really excited to see out there and you know for this team a chance to really play one more game together and for the seniors that we have that are playing and not an opportunity to honor them and do it on a great stage so we do appreciate you know the opportunity to hospitality and obviously everything you've all done for us down here. Poptarts, Poptarts, Poptarts Bowl and to emphasize this game is tomorrow night not tonight so Dukes Mayo ball tonight in Charlotte Poptarts Bowl say that 85 times fast. NC State, Kansas State, Kansas State was a ranked team up until the last poll and then they fell out so it was actually going to be a matchup of ranked teams but State is actually the underdog in this one which seems to be kind of a weird bit it's odd it's like two and a half points yeah but what is at stake for the pack not just to be able to eat out of the Poptarts trophy but and to eat the mascot but also a 10-win season only the second time State would have a 10-win season in its entire history and that is very significant to have those 10 wins there are a lot of college football programs that have 10 wins and you celebrate those and for some it becomes like happens to just like all right another 10 wins another 10 wins this one what this getting 10 wins for State this season would be an incredibly special way to get 10 wins considering how the first half of the season went and the quarterback changes and the early red shirting and the opt-outs from players and then the second half of the season which led them to where they are all the good happy things that happened in the postseason to Peyton Wilson is as Dorn mentioned and then leading into this game to where it is a swan song it is a last hurrah for a lot of these seniors and 10 wins would be an amazing kind of icing on the cake for this team if they can pull it off so yep Poptarts Bowl tomorrow night that is tomorrow night K-State and NC State so in another case a team State will win yeah much like a Coach Brown will have Mayo dumped on them too bad they're not reversed in the Coach Browns or at the Poptar Bowl because then you know what the mascot's going to be brown sugar right like you know that's what it would be we're all going to be tuning in for that absolutely that's the real question the one thing about these food bowls is we're always what usually makes the highlights outside of like a long interception or a strip sack or something along those lines is the post game celebration right as we all know we've all been conditioned through many movies starting with Ferris Bueller's Day off stay through the credits wait for the end part it's just as good as the regular part of the game part of the movie and Marvel movies same kind of deal here with the Poptarts Bowl we want to see him eat the mascot same with the Duke's Mayo Bowl it's going to be full slime time for a Coach Brown all right so what makes a good teammate as we close out the things that we need to get started here so we're starting to see the gifts we are in the midst of the holiday season or in the sports season it's called crossover season so we have college basketball we have college football we have the NFL the NHL is finally back the NBA started playing uh played its Christmas Day game so that has been ongoing but now we're seeing the leaks of gifts that were given by athletes to teammates fellow players and whatnot Luca Doncic the Dallas Mavericks star who dropped 50 points on Christmas Day oh bummer the holidays are over but yay your weird relatives left but no more presents but yay you have your freedom again but there are no more desserts but there's also no more holiday music huh the new year is full of ups and downs but however you're feeling you can always be happy with all the content on prime video catch the new season of reacher included with prime why'd you hit him so hard i don't hit soft rent or buy new releases like the hunger games the ballad of song birds and snakes you can even add on hundreds of streamers all in one app with one password no bummers here just lots of yay prime video find your happy place restrictions apply prime membership not required to rent or buy see amazon.com slash amazon prime for details thinking about starting a new fitness or weight loss program i've got a story you have to hear i'm lacy green a super trainer with body i had a client who came to me because she was really frustrated that every gym or trainer she tried made her feel bad because she was a beginner she had tried it all but she just felt humiliated and that's when we started working together and i took her through my three-week program called four beginners only once she realized that she wasn't the problem and that she just needed the right program she started to get results and now she's completely unstoppable and feeling so confident and i can do the same for you on the body app subscribers lose five to ten pounds consistently in their first month and i bet you will too and right now i'm inviting you to sign up for a one year subscription to body and i'll give you a hundred dollars of in-home fitness equipment for free but this is a limited time offer for the next 500 beginners who want to get started so to get your hundred dollars in free gear right now just go to body.com that's body with an i.com again b-o-d-i.com later revealed at least the dallas mammox revealed that his gift to not only the entire team but to coaching staff and support staff wow mercedes ev bikes what and there's there's footage of these guys and i say guys remember basketball players are tall they are uh six foot eight six foot ten guys sitting on these ev bikes rolling around this locker room right of which these are not cheap no mercedes alone just means expensive luka doncic bought everyone again i played teammates coaches and support staff all got an ev bike he laid them all out in the room he gave everyone kind of a little dap up and moved on wow so if gift giving is the deciding factor of being a good teammate luka doncic probably a good teammate yeah yeah right okay jaylen hurts found this out about 10 15 minutes ago tweeted out jaylen hurts for his offensive line remember the old uh you know they've been they've been scoring a lot goal line situations fourth down and one getting the old tush push yeah the tush push the brotherly shove right he bought his entire offensive line rolex watches oh wow well that's fancy rolex watches i've i've never owned a rolex watch me either i have never owned a folex or as the uh kids call it a rollie rollie i've never had a rollie but i can only imagine that when you go shopping i mean let's be honest he probably has a personal assistant of course hey listen i need to get my guys something what should i get rolex done points at it i want one two three four five how many backups do we have four guys all right they all get rolex watches wow jaylen hurts the philadelphia eagles quarterback uh was an mvp candidate for a while not so much anymore uh but he is the eagles are winning football games uh gave his entire offensive line rolex watches now to a tagovailoa got called out on the x as i got called out on the socials oh no uh for his gift by one of the guys who actually got one of the gifts uh tyreek hill all speedster the cheetah right the cheetah tyreek hill and miami dolphins uh complained on twitter uh that while the quarterback room got golf simulators the wide receiving core got ipods is like and there was a little sad face emoji wow but do you you shouldn't complain about a gift is it the thought that counts it should be right because that's now you're rude now he's rude for complaining about a gift you know a personal playlist a personal playlist from tua golf simulators for the quarterback room ipods for the wide receivers wow that's sad well look i mean yeah it's not a roly or a mercedes whatever but it's not but still honestly what makes a good teammate the gift of giving and being and thinking of others right i think you've got some good teammates what did he get to us that's what i want to know that's what i want to know he gave him attitude that's what he gave him he gave him some sass he gave him sass yes hey guess what it's not as hard to start a fitness or weight loss program as you think and i'm going to give you a hundred dollars in free home gym equipment to prove it i'm carl the co-founder of body that's body with an eye the health and fitness app with thousands of five-star 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