This is The Drive with Josh Graham Podcast.
Tune into The Drive weekday afternoons 3 to 7 on Sports Hub Triad. When you're skeptical or curious, it's very possible you overanalyze things. If you think your partner's been unfaithful, you might overthink text messages you've received. Hey, why did she only say K in that text? Or, it's been 38 minutes and she's responded to me. How about my personal favorite one here?
No exclamation points or emojis? Clearly, he's not having it. Robert, true story. That led to an argument that led to a relationship ending in my past. Really? Yeah.
Somebody said that I don't use enough exclamation points or emojis. I knew that's when I had to parachute out of that relationship. What age? I gotta know the age. I was in college. Okay. Yeah.
So, I was having none of that. I'm a guy who's good with grammar via text. Put a lot of periods in there. Not a big exclamation point guy. Similarly, though, I think we might be overthinking Cam Newton's future because the most legible signs we can see point to the Panthers preparing for him to return. Everybody I've talked to in college football and those who have dealt with Matt Rule in the last few months since he became the Panthers head coach have said, he's a stand up, no spin kind of guy.
Very straightforward. And what has he told us since the very beginning? He said the day he got the job, one of his first phone calls was to Cam Newton. And he said he had a great conversation with Cam and his opening press conference. The next time we saw him at a press conference was at the combine. And what did he tell us? He absolutely wanted to coach Cam.
It was a very strong approval from Rule, which was in stark contrast to what David Tepper gave us or didn't give us a couple of weeks prior to that in the Panthers locker room at Bank of America Stadium. His answer seemed genuine too. It's not the same regurgitated pre-packaged company line that you can tell some coaches have when they're trying to hide something. They deal with PR people who say, just answer the question this way. I'm here to tell you, I've been in sports a very long time. I love entertainment. I follow comedians and have talked to many of them, dealt with some actors and people in entertainment in Hollywood.
My brother, he works for Disney out in LA. And coaches, most of them I've dealt with, pretty much all of them I dealt with, are not actors. Usually you can tell when somebody's being genuine or disingenuous. Matt Rule seems to be genuine with his answers. Like this week, he's doing a podcast with Peter King. And he's asked about Joe Brady. And in a spot where maybe you're trying to hide something about Cam in a hypothetical sense, maybe you don't want to talk about him as much because you don't want to let people know that you might want to move off of the guy. You might not mention Cam. He wasn't asked about Cam here. He volunteered talking about Newton.
This was that response from the Peter King podcast. Here's Joe having tremendous success at LSU with a college version of what he learned in New Orleans. And at that, I wanted that.
I had studied and thought about, hey, if I do this, how am I going to do it? I thought about Cam and what he needed. And I thought he needed a quarterback friendly offense that's really going to allow him to stay upright and be a great quarterback.
This is more from Matt Rule. This is on with Mike Florio, with Chris Simms. This is pro football talk. And again, he's asked about the offense and in this case, specifically about what he's seen from Cam. And then I think you go back and look at him on third down, you look at the ability for him to throw the ball. You know, even last year playing on a hurt foot, he's doing 18-yard comebacks to the right sideline. So he coming off that shoulder, he still got the arm. You can tell he's watched every snap that Cam's played the last few years.
This guy has done his homework. And I believe it's a lot more convenient. It's a lot less exhausting to take what the Panthers are telling you and at least give it a chance. I've been on record saying I, if I had to guess, would say the Panthers are moving off of Cam. I've said that.
I still believe it. However, this might be me over-analyzing, overthinking the way you might, looking at a text message and thinking there's not enough emojis in there or exclamation points. Maybe I'm trying to look at things that aren't there, like a David Tepper press release or letter sent to PSL owners or Cam Newton's cryptic Instagram page and some of the comments he has there that we're always trying to tie the football. Maybe if he says he's hungry, he's not talking about hungry to try and win a championship somewhere else. Maybe he actually just wants to eat some food in Noda.
I don't know. On Twitter, at sportsubtryit, if you want to chime in, 336-777-1600 is the phone number. This brings me to the Panthers' decision yesterday to trade Trey Turner, a Pro Bowler, to the LA Chargers in exchange for another Pro Bowl left tackle in Russell Okun. This could be a signal to Cam that they're not quitting on him, that they're committing to him.
This is maybe a way for Matt Rule to show Cam it's not just talk with him. Hey, we're going to improve the offensive line. And if you're doubting that the offensive line really was an improvement, it really is an improvement adding Okun and losing Trey Turner, I would say this to you. There's a reason why tackle, and specifically left tackle, is the most expensive position on the offensive line. It's the second most expensive position on offense altogether. There's a reason why you don't see many guards being taken in the first ten picks of a draft.
Tackle, it's the most important spot. So even though Okun only has one year left on his deal and he's five years older than Trey Turner, it is an upgrade and much like Okun, Cam only has one year on his deal as well. So who knows, maybe this makes Cam more comfortable playing for a new coach and playing more importantly on a one-year contract with one year remaining. If you are welcoming the idea of the Panthers playing the 2020 season with Cam at quarterback, I think it makes sense when you start exploring alternatives and think, okay, who can you get that's better than Cam at the price Cam's contract currently costs you?
$22 million this year. I don't think there's anybody in this free agency market you can find that is a better value than Cam. Teddy Bridgewater, he's going to want four or five years. When you're trying to tank, and I believe the Panthers are trying to rebuild, tank, rebuild, almost synonymous terms, what you want to avoid are long, expensive contracts, and you want to pursue youth. And while Cam isn't exactly youthful at soon-to-be 32 years old here, while that's not the case, he only has a one-year deal. Teddy Bridgewater is going to want four or five years. Ryan Tannehill, he just did a short-term contract and made it to the AFC Championship. You think that guy's signing a one-year contract with the Panthers? Zero percent chance. Philip Rivers, yeah, you can get him for one or two years, but it's going to cost you more than $22.5.
I can guarantee you that. So it seems to me Cam might be the best value at his price. It's short. It is inexpensive for starting quarterback value in the NFL. And lastly, if you don't get a second-round pick, at least that, and according to Jonathan Jones, we're talking about third- or fourth-round picks for Cam, they really should consider bringing him back. Because if Carolina is trying to build for the future, you have a Jalen Hurts fall to you in the second round, you pick him.
Or you select maybe even a quarterback number seven. We talked about this yesterday, Justin Herbert, Jordan Love, maybe in that spot if Carolina falls in love with one of those two. It would be a great position for one of those rookies to not have to play in their first year to learn under Cam. Also, if the Panthers are selling the idea and the rest of the NFL believes Cam's going to be a Panther heading into the 2020 season, I think that enhances his value. So what makes you think a team in the summer isn't going to need a quarterback? Somebody is going to get hurt during training camp and think, oh, maybe we can try and get Cam. I don't think you accept anything less than a second-round pick for Cam Newton.
That's my general feeling on it. I want to shift things to Virginia basketball. Virginia, they've been an amazing story this season. After last night, the Hoos have won seven in a row, six of those by a margin of three points or fewer, and without cracking 60 points, in the last four Ws.
And it gets crazier. If Virginia wins it home Saturday against Louisville and Florida State loses to BC, the Hoos win at least a share of the ACC regular season title for the fifth time, five times in seven years. However, when I see Virginia, this Virginia team, I don't quite see a national title contender. I see what this North Carolina team could have been. I see these two teams as mirroring each other.
They're almost heir apparents. Both teams last year lost three draft picks off their roster. Both teams were number one seeds in the NCAA tournament, lost four starters from their team. The draft picks, North Carolina, Kobe White, Cam Johnson, Nasir Little, Virginia, Kyle Guy, Ty Jerome, DeAndre Hunter. This year, when I look at these rosters, look how similar they are. You rely on the older big man, and I probably would prefer Mamadi Diakite to Garrison Brooks at power forward. In the backcourt, I probably prefer Cole Anthony to Kihei Clark.
It's a slight advantage, though. You had a shooting guard come on in the second half of the conference season. For Virginia, it was Thomas Woldentensae. For North Carolina, it's Christian Keeling. I think it's a push at shooting guard.
It's a push at coach. Tony Bennett, four of the last six ACC regular season titles. A chance he could be coach of the year this year, a national champion last year. He's going to be a future Hall of Famer.
Roy Williams, he's already a Hall of Famer. The biggest difference between the two is this. Virginia has caught the brakes, North Carolina hasn't. This is specifically late in games. North Carolina is 1-6 in one possession games this year. Virginia, 8-1. North Carolina isn't having Cole Anthony fouled in the final ten seconds of a game because a Miami guard didn't know that they had six fouls instead of five. That's what happened last night. Kihei Clark goes to the line with ten seconds and he hits a free throw.
Hits two free throws to make it 46-44 and they end up winning that game. Virginia, I'll give them this. They are more reliable. And the reason they're more reliable is because of the system. Players are more comfortable in it. They were recruited to play in it.
They're confident in it. Meanwhile, North Carolina, they chase a different kind of recruit. A higher talented recruit. A more talented recruit, I should say. So when that happens, you're trying to bring in the Cole Anthony's and the one-and-done type of player. And Roy Williams does recruit those types.
You have to tailor a style to your personnel. Coach K, he plays different styles every single year. That's what makes him a great coach. You can have one-year Seth Curry playing with Austin Rivers, which warrants a completely different style than Zion Williamson playing next to RJ Barrett. Or Vernon Carey playing with this Duke group. The styles vary year to year.
Not with Virginia. So the players who are stepping into roles know exactly what they have to do because the guys who were there before them did the same exact thing. That is the difference. The talent is similar. The personnel is similar. The situations are similar. The reason why Virginia is winning the close games and Virginia is going into the final weekend of the year right there for potentially being first in the ACC standings, or at least in a tie for first place, is because they are reliable and they are confident in their system.
The system is the difference. One of my favorites, Adam Amin of ESPN now with us. He's in Memphis.
Wichita State's facing the Tigers tonight, 9 o'clock ESPN. And I've told someone recently, my approach when I have guests on this show is to treat them like a houseguest. You want to entertain them, make sure they have a good time, make sure it's thought-provoking, it's an enjoyable experience.
That's what I say about coaches. They ask, hey, why don't you ask hard questions when you have guests on your show versus the hard questions you might ask in a press conference? And I'm like, they're obligated to do the press conference. They're not obligated to come on this radio show.
That's why I'm regretting coming out of the box with this question to Adam Amin, but he's the most qualified person, I think, to answer it. This radio show is based in North Carolina. Adam, you are in Memphis. What is your preferred barbecue? I hope you heard the heaviest of sighs because I knew that question was coming.
I knew that question was coming. My preference is I like Memphis barbecue. That's my personal preference, and that doesn't mean I don't like North Carolina barbecue.
This isn't a binary thing. Listen, Josh, I know you're a hot take specialist. Of all the hot take specialists I know, but here's a hot take. I like both. If I had to choose one, I would choose Memphis barbecue.
That's just my personal opinion. I love – rendezvous is great out here. I think some Memphis locals look down on rendezvous as kind of a tourist trip.
That's fine. I would never disparage anybody for eating at rendezvous. I think rendezvous does a great job. I think the food is fantastic. Central barbecue is my place of choice here in Memphis. If I'm going specifically just for barbecue, I'd go to Central.
There's probably four or five different places, and everybody swears by their own, but that's my personal favorite here in Memphis. And then obviously when I'm in Memphis, I try as often as possible. I flew in this morning. I had a game last night in Minneapolis.
So I flew in this morning. Otherwise, if I had been here last night, I would have joined my producer, Joe McCoy, for dinner at Gus's Fried Chicken because that's still, to me, my favorite place in Memphis just in general to go to. Even though there's one in Chicago, it just feels different when you come to Memphis to eat here.
Adam Amin, the purveyor of the hot take, saying he likes both Memphis barbecue and North Carolina barbecue. How dare I? How dare I? How dare I?
How dare I bring such heat? It's as hot of a take as somebody who's as smart and measured as anybody I know. Last week, Darren Gant saying to me, the Panthers don't know what's happening with Cam Newton. They don't know until they get an actual physical because his Instagram videos, they don't really qualify as medical physical that somebody has to take this time of year.
So give me the national perspective. What seems like the most likely outcome for Cam Newton? You know, I like when Matt Ruhl came out and said, he's like, I want to coach the guy. I want Cam Newton.
I expect him to be there when he's ready to go. Here's the one thing about the quarterback carousel. Like how much are you going to say or decide you're going to go all in on Kyle Allen?
Do you feel like that's 100% the option to go with? I mean, he certainly earned himself some run last year. I thought, you know, we had a couple of the Panther games. I thought he was certainly a viable option to run that offense with some help, you know, given some help. For Cam, I mean, I've already heard rumors that, you know, there could be another NFC team going after him, like could the Redskins trade for Cam Newton? And I think if they're willing to trade for Cam Newton, you have to listen to what options are out there. Can you get help on the offensive line?
Because that was a spot where I felt like help was an issue, which I know a lot of teams deal with. Can you bolster the offensive line? Can you bolster the line back in Cornell with the retirement of Luke Kuechly?
Can you get a couple of guys on the defensive side that might be able to help you out? But I feel like if I had to bank on it, I still feel like Cam Newton's going to end up in Carolina. I don't know how much of an option he'd be in other spots. You know, the Redskins rumors are interesting, but you've also decided that Dwayne Haskett you were going to spend a first round pick on Dwayne Haskett last year. So, in my estimation, I feel like when it's all said and done, I would probably prefer to see Cam Newton stay in Carolina. I think it'd be an interesting experiment with Matt Rule to see what he could muster up together. He's a small offensive line guy, so I know that he's going to want to improve the offensive line play, maybe help keep somebody like a Cam Newton healthier, because that's obviously been a big issue with the foot, the shoulder over the last couple of years.
I would love to see him stay. Adam Ameem with us on Twitter. At Adam Ameem, watch him tonight. It is Wichita State at Memphis.
Nine o'clock tip on ESPN. I was reminded last night of something. One of your colleagues, Dick Vital asked us on this show about a year ago when I saw Zion going head to head with Luka Doncic. He said in the emergence of Luka in the NBA, his rookie year, and Zion tearing it up at Duke, he said he was torn on who he might want in the future if he was building his team around just one of those two guys.
And that was a year ago. Now we're seeing Zion do things that no teenager's ever done in the NBA. And Luka was just tremendous last night. So when you look at it from an analyst standpoint, since you cover the NBA, Zion or Luka, who do you feel more sure saying this guy's going to be the next star of the next decade? You do not.
I don't even have the question. If you're asking to start a franchise and I pick one of those two players, I'm taking Luka Doncic in a hard seat. Now, I do know that Luka can be a little bit tough to play with at times. That seems to be kind of a thing that you hear around some NBA circles, the Mavericks were just in Chicago playing the Bulls on Monday night.
So I was watching in preparation for my game last night. I just watched Luka and I think he gets on his guys a little bit. He pouts a little bit for the referees because remember, for two years in Europe, he was a star. He got star treatment in Europe. So naturally, his assumption when he comes to the United States, comes to the NBA, that he should get that same treatment.
He's going to earn that treatment at some point in the next few years. He is a star. If I have to start a franchise with one of those two guys, as explosive as Zion is, and he is explosive, and he's putting up a significant level of production, I just feel like Luka makes so many other guys better.
The elevation of play is what I'm looking at. When I look at transcendent players, when I'm looking at the Lebron James' of the NBA, when I'm looking at the guys who are going to fill in that role in the future, when I'm looking at the next Lebron James type, and not necessarily he's got to be a Hall of Fame player or a top five all-time player, but when I'm looking at somebody that elevates the people around him, Doncic does that. He's got the ability to score on his own. He gets a lot of other guys involved. I feel like he's doing things that nobody... Listen, what does he have? He had 21 triple-doubles before he turned 21 years old? Magic and Lebron were the next two guys on the list.
They combined for like 14. He's also doing things that people his age have never done before. If that's the only argument, I just feel like I'm looking at a guy who elevates the others around him, and I think Luka's that guy. Adam, you're the absolute best, man. Thanks for doing this on a game day. It's good to hear your voice, and keep crushing it. I appreciate you, brother.
Got it. That is Adam Amin. Of ESPN, calling Memphis, Wichita State, 9 o'clock tonight on ESPN. Robert, I've been watching two things on Netflix that have made me deeply uncomfortable this week. The new Pokemon movie. Yes, it's getting me too. I can't get over it. It's the exact same, and they're just all so shiny. Am I supposed to feel... What am I supposed to feel?
It's the exact same movie that came out. Just made it all polished, and made all the Pokemon look nice and shiny. They're not nice and shiny. They're Pokemon.
They're these little balls of disaster. And you want me to think that I'm supposed to go and rush and buy a bunch of Plushes? I'm just supposed to want to love Mewtwo now? He's a villain.
He has a change of heart at the end of the movie. That's why we love it. But now it's just supposed to be some Cabbage Patch Kids, My Little Pony love fest.
No. Don't desecrate that. Honestly, I've written multiple emails about them taking it down. I got my Netflix account cancelled. Because I'm not watching some fake Pokemon.
If I want to watch the real thing, I'm going to pop in that VHS, be kind, rewind, watch it from the beginning. And I'm not going to waste my breath on this. God, you're going to be so fired up over this. I was going to say, love is blind at the Unabomber. Oh yeah. Me too. Documentary.
That's what I was talking about. Up next, a blockbuster trade including Peyton Manning. Yes, this is a headline in 2020. That's where we're going to begin Sharon with Darren Vaught. Keep it here on the drive. We handle our microphones slightly better than the Patriots Bill Belichick. This is The Drive with Josh Graham. We are now sharing with Darren Vaught from the David Glenn Show. Several reports point to ESPN pursuing a deal that would acquire Al Michaels' contract from NBC Sports to pair him with Peyton Manning on Monday Night Football. Some are laughing at this.
I don't think this is that crazy Darren. When I look at this, it is the perfect ideal situation for Monday Night Football. And even though the obvious question you could ask if you're NBC, why should we do this? Is a good one where in a negotiating year where all the networks that are involved with the NFL are trying to re-up. Which is why I think Tony Romo got the amount of money he did in that negotiation with CBS.
Reportedly $17 million a year, the biggest contract a color analyst has ever gotten. That is a signal to the NFL that once Romo on their games, hey we need to re-up with CBS to get Romo. And NBC might be thinking, no we're not going to give you Al Michaels in an important year when we're trying to re-negotiate.
Also, when we're talking about the potential of Super Bowls potentially being granted to ESPN, a place it hasn't been yet. I get that, but let's not forget, Al Michaels was involved in a swap between these two companies back in 2006. Al wanted to join John Madden at NBC and that's exactly what happened when he left ABC in 2006. Peyton and Al Michaels are apparently close. So it seems like to me, if Al wants this to happen, NBC, they hired Mike Torrico a few years ago from ESPN to replace Al Michaels. He has two years left on his contract by the way, Al does.
So I don't think this is that far-fetched. In fact, I think it would be the most beneficial thing for all parties to have Mike Torrico no longer be in this awkward place of limbo, but also to have Al Michaels back on the place he was once before Monday Night Football and getting Peyton Manning finally into a broadcast booth. Yeah, I think it's pretty obvious why ESPN would do this and why ESPN would want to do this. Now, the question, the bounce back, the pushback from NBC is valid, but in their defense, they've built a bench of potential NFL play-by-play guys. Whereas that's been ESPN's problem pretty much since Torrico left is that they don't have that, not specifically for the NFL. I think we all agree Sean McDonough is one of the best to do it, but it was just a weird spot to put him on Monday Night Football.
They paired him with Gruden, which was awkward as well. Also, ESPN has been dying for Peyton Manning to have interest in doing Monday Night Football. And Peyton Manning last year, he turned him away apparently because he didn't want to be in that spot while his brother was still playing. Now Eli's retired.
Sure, and that was a convenient excuse. At the end of the day, Manning's only going to do it under perfect circumstances. He's just not, he knows that his, not that he's necessarily somebody that concerns himself with this, but the people around him that do know that Peyton Manning's brand doesn't need for him to be that big of an option or the mantlepiece of ESPN's NFL broadcast coverage. But if he's tight with Michaels, this is a strategy that ESPN has used as recently as earlier this week when they signed Chipper Jones to do Major League Baseball games with his good friend, Boog Shambi.
Wednesday Night Baseball. Yeah, so Chipper is on the books for 20 games this regular season. He's going to do opening day, and it's because of his relationship with Boog Shambi from when Shambi was the Atlanta Braves guy. Otherwise, Chipper's not going to want to do this. So finally, in trying to cure their woes and finding these play-by-play guys for their premier shows, their premier productions, Sunday Night Baseball, Monday Night Football, really the go-to things, and I think that's ultimately what they're trying to build up to with Shambi and Chipper.
It would surprise me if that's not at least a thought of an eventual outcome. They just haven't been able to figure out Monday Night Football, and if this is what's going to do it and get Peyton Manning over there, Al Michaels is one of the best. They've worked with him before. Most of the people that are producing on Monday Night Football probably still have relationships with him. It just makes sense when, for the past five years, nothing they've done has made sense.
And I'll go a step further. It's not just getting Monday Night Football back on track. It's getting ESPN and ABC a Super Bowl. That's what's at stake here. ESPN, they're lobbying for that, but they're not going to give a Super Bowl to Joe Tessitore and Booger McFarland.
And to your point, that's where the big money is. Getting one Super Bowl in the next five years is way more important than not having Booger McFarland or Jason Witten. And it enhances every year what games you get. I don't think it's a coincidence the quality of the game has gone down when you look at the quality of the broadcast booth going down.
It's ESPN, or excuse me, the NFL, they want their best games to be broadcasted by the best broadcasters out there. But while we're talking about the media, Darren Vaught, you'll appreciate this because you're a producer. This segment, what we're doing right now, is so heavily perpetuated by Robert Walsh behind the scenes. He is the puppeteer for this segment because apparently there is audio that I haven't seen or haven't heard, excuse me. Oh, is this from earlier in the show? Doug got from earlier in the show.
I haven't heard this yet. You and Darren are producing behind my back a show that I'm supposed to engineer the content for. In addition to that, last week we did blaring with Darren, before that we did staring at Darren. We have the newest iteration, rhyming iteration, of a Darren-related segment that we'll get to in moments as well. But first, let me hear what audio you've dug up, Robert.
The women's tournament, of course, underway already, but it's going to be the end of the five-year drought. What do you hear here? Just this last one. Are you alleging I said tournament wrong again? No.
No, no, no, no. I was off on the other side of the studio, obviously, and tying some things up for the DG show today. And now that I hear it a second time, Robert, I'm not 100% sure, but we'll have to play it back. We're already deep in it.
What do you got? I don't hear it. I texted Robert and said, did he just say five-year trout? The end of the five-year drought.
Oh, I said drought. You guys can all bleep off. It's like the white dress, blue dress. You should also know this. Imagine this is the place you're working in. Like, imagine this is the hellscape, where I say drought and you're accusing me of saying the fish. And on top of that, five or ten seconds before the microphones come on, and I'm speaking to Adam Amin, Robert says in my ear, hey, there was a caller who said he didn't know who the Panthers were trying to put at guard. They didn't know who Greg Whittle was. I'm glad you guys found that so funny.
I'm glad you guys found that funny. Five-year drought. Five-year drought.
If you think about it, you can hear it. Let's get to the latest Darren Vaught related game we're going to play. It's Sharon with Darren, Brian Formico, who's now just living in Arizona. Prior to that, he was the WXII sports director. Just living his best life out there.
What an attractive human being. Yeah, that dude. He created the Sharon with Darren moniker. Robert wanted to revamp it with some ideas. So we did just staring at Darren, which I thought was a great success.
Blaring with Darren, I think was really good, too. Now we got. Comparing with Darren. Correct.
How is this going to work? Robert, I'm going to list two things and Darren will just have to compare them. I feel like that should be easy enough. He's a very he's an intelligent guy. He can find the comparisons or lack thereof. OK, Darren, are you ready to play comparing with Darren? I guess I don't have a choice. Let's. Sure. All right, Darren, like I said before. Oh, you've got to get some fun music.
It's the Wii Weather Channel. You got to. I blatantly stole this.
Don't come get me. I'm going to list two things and you just got to compare them for us. Easy enough.
Starting off, we're going to go pretty easy. Water and sparkling water. Water and sparkling water.
Well, are you looking for like what I prefer? No, just how would you compare the two? What the similarities or the lack of similarities? Well, the water is the word you're looking for there, Robert.
Water. Differences. Yeah, differences. Well, the differences between the two is that one type of water is sparkling and the other is not. One is flat and the other is not. The other is like the essential thing in its purest form. And the other has been adultered in some way.
And I prefer the more natural version. Very nice, Darren. My girlfriend's Sarah Bradford. She's gotten me into like sparkling and flavored water. Are you still going to Italy?
Is that a thing or is coronavirus preventing that? I'm glad you asked. Right now, I'm still set to go to Italy next month. Okay. I don't know for sure. Because when you go to restaurants there, it's a much more, I mean, obviously some places you go here in the States, it's, you know, would you like water?
Sure. Sparkling or flat? It's a, you're not going to go anywhere where that's not the two options in Italy. I booked this flight about a month ago and it cost probably between $1,200 and $1,300. And I'm scared to look at what the flights cost now because I keep reading headlines that flights are dirt cheap.
What a sucker. But since we're talking about the coronavirus, I'd like you to compare these two things, Darren. Compare the coronavirus to Michael Jordan's flu game. This makes it.
I told you they were going to get a little harder. Well, it's little known that the coronavirus is actually a somewhat pedestrian virus. It's true.
As a matter of fact, if you look at, if you've got it like a can of Lysol disinfectant near you or when you get home, if you're driving, that sort of thing, look on the back and it explicitly says Lysol prevents coronavirus. Oh, wow. Particularly. So I'm not writing it out entirely and not to diminish the significance of this outbreak at all. But I'm not writing off the idea that there's some overlap in what Michael Jordan had.
Oh, I like that. And the coronavirus. Like there's if there's probably little bits and pieces of coronavirus in what is assumed to be a pretty standard flu.
I've got something for you to protect yourself, though, to absolve you of any hot take like you comparing the coronavirus to what Michael Jordan may have. It's this sound. Yes, that's it. You're absolved.
That protects me. All right. Give me one more of these.
This is comparing with Dan. I like these. For each one, I've taken a few seconds. So this is these are good.
It's like the S.A.T., but for nonsense. OK, I'd like you to compare. Will fail.
Will you? Will Farrell's relationship with baseball to Drake's relationship with the Raptors? How did the A's do in the preseason when Farrell was there? I mean, does it matter? Those were games that didn't matter. Yeah, I don't think they mattered. Well, Drake.
The Raptors really ended the Drake curse. Correct. And I don't think that that was there. There's a distinct parallel with Will Farrell and baseball. Did any of the teams win that Will Farrell suited up for? I don't think so. The Angels didn't make the playoffs. No, but he did it in the spring, so it's just like he does have his own baseball reference page.
And Drake, I'm sure, in his deepest of consciousness, just lives for the idea of someday having a basketball reference page. See, there you go. You touched on what I wanted from you. I'm going to have to fail you for that part, Darren, but two out of three is not bad.
There's a right answer? Look, I'm the proctor for this exam. Will Farrell, why can I not say his name? Will Farrell's relationship with baseball is similar to what Drake wishes he had with basketball. He wishes he could be out on their court airballing those threes, but he can't. No, I think he's fine with the hats and looking like a Van Gogh painting.
Yeah, he's perfectly fine with that. One of the greatest photos I've ever seen just a few weeks ago. Follow Darren on Twitter, at Darren Vaught. I like this. I like comparing with Darren. I want more of these.
That's what I want to do. If you have ideas of things that Darren could compare, tweet us at Sports Hub Triad. You are listening to WSJS Winston-Salem, WCOG Greensboro, WMFR High Point, and WPCM Burlington. Those signals making up Sports Hub Triad. I do like the idea of comparing with Darren, just people shooting us things to compare left and right.
It's not bad. We'll play the movie game. Brian Geisinger will be in with Darren Vaught. And myself, 30 minutes from now, from ACCSports.com.
It is time for our weekly movie game. We are sharing with Darren Vaught. We're going to do compare with Darren Vaught.
One more edition of that in just a bit. Brian Geisinger is now being added to the proceedings. You know him from ACCSports.com, one of our favorites to catch up with.
His story yesterday, a report with some inside knowledge saying that Danny Manning and his agent have begun conversations, negotiations in terms of a buyout with Wake Forest. So I'd imagine it's been a very busy time. How are you doing, BG? Yes, it has been busy.
I'm good and looking forward to the tournament next week in Greensboro, man. Yes, we have plenty of time to talk about basketball, limited time to talk about movies. So let's dive right into the movie game, which has way too much imaging than it needs.
I've just been handed an urgent and horrifying news story. It's time for some kind of movie game. All right, all right, all right.
With Josh Graham and Darren Vaught. Show me the money. All right, what's going on, guys? Brian, glad you can play with us today.
Good to have you here. We are playing the Rotten Tomatoes movie game. As you guys are familiar, you're going to shoot for the audience score of these movies. The closer you get, the better chance you have to win. It's golf score. So the lower the score, the better you are. That's first place. That's what you're shooting for. Today, in honor of Carolina and Duke playing this weekend, I have picked movies that prominently show someone blue or about someone blue. You'll see. Everybody ready to go?
They got their pens and papers. We all good? Characters named blue? It could be someone named blue.
It could be someone that is blue. There aren't a lot of good movies. There's a Frankie Muniz appearance coming somewhere in here, I think. Oh, you can feel it. Paul Giamatti, right? Yeah, I'm envisioning a solid blue Paul Giamatti. Alright guys, look. That's our first movie now since you guys want to play that game. Since you guys want to play that game, here's a clip from Big Fat Liar. I love Paul Giamatti.
I really do. If you get it right on the nose, it's five or ten points that get deducted. Ten. Ten points. For my math sake.
Yeah, three movies and then the fourth would be the golden movie. Correct. And make sure you write down your score beforehand. Because we don't do no cheating around here.
That's right. We don't want you to base your score off the other player's score. For some reason, I always have to go first.
Yes, because I despise you in this game. I'm going to go with this movie being terrible. Thirty-seven percent. Seven percent?
Thirty-seven percent. That's what I said. I got it written down.
Gooby. Alright, Darren. What you got? I have sixty-one, but I also did not really like this. Okay, sixty-one.
Not in terms of cinematic value. Brian, what you got? I'm going with... Well, I already wrote it down, so I can't deviate. We're going with seventy-seven, although I feel like I have... You like Big Fat Liar. You love Big Fat Liar. I've never seen the movie, but I do love Paul Giamatti. Shout out Chuck Rhodes. I love Sideways too. He's a good flick guy. He's awesome. He was great in... Not Bad Boys, but Straight Outta Compton. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Also Amanda Bynes pre-psychotic break. Anyway, Big Fat Liar scores in at forty-four. Yeah, let's go. Let's go. Yeah, that's a good start. Let's go.
Good on you, Josh. That's what I'm talking about. What's the second movie?
I default too much to the fifty-sixty range. I'm not as willing to take a leap on something like that. Your second movie is an old cartoon that has been popularized and redone. Here's a clip.
Each and every Smurf plays their own special part. Wow! Nelly! Sorry, Andy. No problem.
Plumsie, you keep me employed! Alright, so it's the Smurf movie. Yeah! There's only one of these? No, there's like five.
No, there are several, right? But it is the first. When did this come out? They turned this into a whole, like, franchise. I think this came out in 2015? I could be wrong, though. There's been four since then?
Yes, they cranked these bad boys out. It's, uh, who's the dude off How I Met Your Mother? He's the voice of one of them, the main one. Oh, Neil Patrick Harris. There you go. Huh.
The more you know. Loved the original cartoon. Alright, you guys ready? Everybody ready to go? I was done there. Oh, okay, cool.
Just writing things down. If you can name the bad guy's name, I'll give you five points off. Gargamel. Just kidding. Uh, Josh. But I was right.
You were right, correct. I'll give you a ding for that. Alright, Josh, what you got? 59%. Coming in with 59.
Darren. I have 48. 48. Brian. 40.
Smurfs, oddly enough, also comes in at 44. Ugh. Alright, I feel good about that. Oh, man. So after two movies, in last place you got Brian with 37, Josh is in second with 22.
What? And Darren is in first with 21. I'm one off. This is a pretty close game.
You did well on one movie, Josh. Don't act surprised. Like, BG is only off by 15 or 16 points here. This is a pretty close game. Pretty close game indeed. Looks like we might have a golden movie, which Robert hates because his Microsoft Excel spreadsheet for some reason doesn't work for the fourth movie.
I don't know why that is, so somebody win this game. Here's your clip of your final regular movie. Oh, wow. My boy, Blue! That's right, it's everybody's favorite old school. This is the first one I would have thought of as soon as I say character's name Blue. I'm surprised no one screamed it out.
You're my boy, Blue! There you go. I used to have a shirt. Did you not cut that?
What do you mean? Did you not bring that audio prepared? I did bring that audio prepared.
I got it labeled as old school. No, no, no. I mean, you're my boy, Blue. That's what we just heard. Oh, no. That wasn't... No, that was at his funeral. I don't have him scream. Oh, nobody's in there with you. Sorry, I thought that was somebody in the production room screaming that. Yeah, I forgot.
No one left us here. Oh, I think he was saying that you're a good singer, Robert. Okay. No, not the singing. He was talking about you saying you're Blue. You're my boy, Blue. Did you just say that, Josh?
Josh screamed it. That was me. Oh.
Thank you. It's crowded in here. You're my boy, Blue. Josh, what you got? Everybody got one written down looking at you, BG. Got to make sure everybody has something written down here. Yeah, we're good.
All right. Eighty-seven percent. Going high. Eighty-seven. Eighty-seven. What you got, Darren? I have 78, but I do love this movie. All right. Your last, Brian. What you got?
I'm in the same neighborhood as Darren here. I've got 75. 75. 75.
Old school comes in at 86. Woo! But the thing is, Josh does not win on that. We are going to a final golden movie.
A blue golden movie. God bless America. Thanks a lot, guys. Which means I'm in the lead, though, now. You are in the lead. Brian, you're pretty far back, but I'll let you play anyway.
Brian's in last with 48 points. Darren, you're not too far. Let's go, baby.
Let's go. You're not too far behind. Darren's got 29. And, Josh, you are currently in first with 23. There is a six-point separation.
That's within 10 points. That means we go to a final golden movie. And, lucky for you guys, I have no audio for this movie because it was absolutely terrible. Into the Blue with Jessica Alba. I like that movie.
And R.I.P. Paul Walker. Yeah. I love... Yeah.
No, actually, nothing about this movie. You don't like Jessica Alba? I mean, she was fine. She was like all the rage. Jessica bleep off.
2008, probably. Right? Jessica Alba. For sure. When that Fantastic Four movie came out, all the rage. Also, a terrible movie. Yeah. Also, not good.
But it put... Is it Chris Evans that was the Human Torch? Put him on the map. There you go. Also, when you guys are giving me the golden movie ticket numbers or however we're saying this, just give me a little bit because I got to do some math. Yeah, Robert has to do a little math.
He doesn't like this. No, you're good. We're just, you know. You're good. Everybody got a score written down. Got it. I'm going with 52%.
52% for Into the Blue. Did you really just shake your paper in the air? That's what I do. Why? To buy Robert time so he can do some math? That's right. I appreciate it. I've done math.
No, that's not why you did it, but I'm making up your reason and making you more reasonable. Give me a number. You get what you got, Darren?
I've got 67. Ooh. That's enough of a difference. That is enough of a difference. Brian, humor me. What you got? I raise you.
As opposed to shaking my paper, I am full on crumpling it. I had 38 is what the score that I had written down before. He could actually win this thing if it's less than 38. I think he can win it if it's less than 38.
Look, I hate math. It's not less than 38. Into the blue comes in at 57.
Yes. Darren, you're in second place with 39. Josh, you're in first with 28. Josh wins your movie game. We're back in the winner's chair, baby.
And I'm here to tell you, Love is Blind is the worst thing Netflix has put out there until I watched Unabomber. How are they gonna glorify the Unabomber? By having people on this show who are actually saying, You know what? This guy's not crazy.
He has great ideas. Look at today's society. What are we endorsing, Netflix? This guy kills people, has killed people. Let's not celebrate people who commit murder. I'm talking to the people that make Ted Bundy movies and decide to have Zac Efron playing them in movies, and I'm talking to all the people that love the true crime stuff. Please, please give it a rest.
Thank y'all. One moment is in there. You don't enjoy any of that stuff? Do not. Except the Ray Carruth stories that Scott Fowler did. Alright, what's the difference?
Well, the difference is I don't think there's any type of celebration of it. I think you have to do a lot of it now. Yeah, that's true. I know Scott. But the acknowledgement of the victims, I feel like I learned a big part of that story was Chancellor Lee and his grandmother, and we learned more about the victim than anyone else. I don't know any of the Unabomber's victims, none of them, but I know a lot about the Unabomber now.
Can only victims have the beautiful stories? Is that what you're... Robert's trying to take this to a brighter place. Let's go ahead. Thank you for being here, by the way, BG, it's appreciated. Brian Geissinger's way too smart for this show and all the stuff that we do around here. Thank you, BG. That was easy, guys. Yeah, that's Brian Geissinger. Do me a favor, Darren, after that riveting movie game, I'd like you to compare a couple things for me, if that's no big deal.
Yeah, absolutely. Can you compare Spike Lee being reprimanded using the wrong elevator to the fall of Cat Williams? I wish I knew more, like, universally known Cat Williams jokes. You don't look a lot like a tiger. Do you know that I can see you? Listen to your pimping. I love his sports dance in the Pimp Chronicles. All right, give me the next one.
No, Cat Williams is a miss with me. Sorry, I respect him, but I'm just not familiar. He fought a teenager. Anyway, compare these two things. Zion's busted shoe to the shoes in Like Mike. Which were very busted. Both were.
So we'll do that. They were both Nikes in both cases, right, if I'm not mistaken. Calvin Knight was the name of the young man Bow Wow was portraying and was even more heralded at a younger age than Zion Williamson himself, although he only dunked in the movie, I think, once. And was it the ginger bully that referred to the shoes as Snickers?
I hate to correct you. It was Calvin Cambridge. He played for the Nikes.
He played for the LA Knights. Calvin Cambridge, well done. Anyways, I have a couple of distinct memories from watching this movie with my brothers, one of which is the way the ginger bully pronounces the word sneakers. And I was going to say, Josh, it's funny that he was a ginger because he just botched a word, much like you do on a daily basis. It's so funny that you bring Josh up because the last things I'd like you to compare would be Josh Graham to Josh Ham. John Ham. Who's Josh Ham? John Ham. Yeah, this is going to be a great comparison.
I'm interested now. Me to John Ham. Have you ever tried to pull off like a fedora?
1920s party that my girlfriend threw. Yeah, he pulled it off better. He did it better, way better. Darren, thanks for being here, buddy. You got it. All right, that's Darren Vaught. And that's been another edition of Sharing with Darren and also Comparing with Darren. Coming up, clear signs we might be ignoring when it comes to Cam Newton's future with the Panthers. This is a Thursday Drive.
Whisper: medium.en / 2023-02-11 07:29:00 / 2023-02-11 07:50:58 / 22