The Drive with Josh Graham - Live at Kickback Jack's

Attention, please. This is The Drive with Josh Tram Podcast. Tune into The Drive 3 until 6 p.m. weekdays on the Sports Hub. I love it.

It's brilliant. We're live at the Kickback Jacks, New Garden Road location in Greensboro. Two big North Carolina sports media headlines from today. It starts with the Carolina Panthers.

Joe Person first reported this a few months ago from The Athletic. Jake Delome and Jordan Gross will be a part of the Carolina Panthers radio network. Broadcasting, it seems to be 14 of the 16 regular season games. Delome will do all 8 regular season home games, then go on the road for a game in Atlanta and a game at New Orleans, or make it in Houston and in New Orleans. Then Jordan Gross will do 4 road games in addition to that, but we still don't know who's going to be doing the game in London.

It didn't specify that. Also, we still don't know who's going to do the last road game of the year, the Panthers playing December 22nd in Indianapolis. Jake Delome, in my mind, is one of the most beloved Carolina Panthers ever. I think Steve Smith probably is at the very top of the list, but after that, I think Jake is number 2. Luke Kuechly flying up the rankings a little bit. Cam Newton is so polarizing, I doubt he's in the top 5. Thomas Davis was so beloved and a great ambassador, wonderful in the community, so I'd put him after Luke. And then Julius Peppers is 5. And even though Peppers probably is the most talented player to ever wear a Panthers uniform, there are still some who remember him choosing to leave Carolina to become a Chicago Bear before returning for his final 2 seasons of his career. Jake Delome, I think, is one of the most popular Panthers ever. That being said, part of me is still going to miss Eugene Robinson on the radio. Des, I loved Eugene Robinson. I used to have a really good impression. It's usually just him saying the last name of somebody and then having the suffix Mr. in front of it. Mr. Newton!

Something of that sort. Yeah, I mean, he was with the Panthers radio network for 17 years. They decided not to renew his contract. I'm going to miss Eugene. He seemed like he brought a bit of color to the color commentary. I'm going to miss him just reacting to big hits. That was kind of the signature thing for Eugene. He'd be like, Ooh! Oh my goodness! Or something like that.

That's pretty good. Did you really say he added color to color commentary? He did. Did you just do a race thing there? Did he bring the color in color commentary?

I didn't bring race into it. Are we at the point, is that going to be something we can't say 10 years from now? The same way there are already people saying you can't say team owners are owners anymore, even though they own the team. Is that going to be the next thing? They're not color commentators anymore?

They're just game analysts? I hope not. Because somebody's going to get mad because woke. I hope not. I hope we get to a point, a breaking point in the next couple of years where we realize we may have gone too far with the political correctness and not necessarily go backwards, but we're just more cognizant of what we're saying. I hope that we have a way to go back.

Stay woke. Eugene Robinson, he's going to still be around the Panthers facility though. He's doing Panther talk once a week on television with Jim Zocchi and Mick Mixon. So he's still going to be around the building.

He just wasn't renewed as the color commentator on the radio broadcast. But I'm fascinated to see how this all works out. I know it's probably going to be hard for Mick Mixon working with multiple analysts and a different one on given weeks. So much of that job is chemistry and it takes years to develop that.

So when you have two and sometimes you'll be mismatching every other week, that could just be very tough. So that's one North Carolina sports headline from today. And we'll continue talking Carolina Panthers with Brendan Marks when he joins us in ten minutes from Charlottesville, South Carolina. He might be back in Charlotte by now. Now that practice has ended, the final practice of training camp, it might be the final training camp practice for the Carolina Panthers in Wofford.

It's the final year they're contractually obligated to be at Wofford College for training camp. The other big North Carolina sports media headline. It's finally happened with the ACC Network. With eight days to spare, the biggest television operation in the state provider, cable provider, Charter Spectrum has come to an agreement with the ACC Network. It's something that we've all had circled. We knew was going to get done eventually, but they've come to an agreement which adds Charter Spectrum to the list of DirecTV, Hulu Live, PlayStation Vue, YouTube TV, all of them having agreements with the network.

It's massive as they get set to launch a week from the network. That's the defending champion facing Georgia Tech. Hard knock. Episode two was last night, the Oakland Raiders center stage. I expected a lot of Antonio Brown and quite frankly, I didn't get enough of it. Not enough of AB.

We had some gross looks at his foot, which essentially has been frosted off or burned off because of the cryogenic chamber he was in or the cryotherapy session that he had. I didn't really like the episode and I don't really like the direction it's going in because it's very obvious John Gruden is involved in the final cut. There's just so much Gruden.

So much of it. The highlight, oh I love John Gruden, but I wanted a lot of Antonio Brown last night. Nobody was following AB when he left the facility. We just got gross looks of his feet and a tease at the end saying he was going to be back in action after his grievance was denied by the league on Monday. The highlight of the episode was this. Gruden is yelling at backup quarterback and former NC State Wolfback quarterback Mike Glennon and he mispronounced his name. He said, come on Glennon.

I thought he did it on purpose. You heard this. Glennon, he said.

Direct quote. Come on Glennon. When I heard him, when I watched the show last night too and I thought he did it intentionally on purpose. Like you've never had a coach that like to get your attention, they know your name, but they say it differently because they know it's going to drive you nuts. You thought he was trying to rhyme?

Yeah, well no, not rhyme. I think he was just trying to get in his head. Like, oh gosh, the head coach doesn't even know my last name.

It's bad. That was a bad moment for Gruden messing up Glennon, mispronouncing it, Glennon. Derek Carr clearly has no idea who Hunter Renfro is.

So they are warming up before scrimmage and they're throwing ball back and forth. And if you don't know who Hunter Renfro is, you're not going to look at that guy and say, oh, this is a great football player. He just doesn't look the part. He's the player that could show up at parties at Clemson and say that he's a football player and nobody's going to believe him, even though he had a game winning catch in the final second of a college football playoff national title game against Alabama.

That guy. Derek Carr clearly didn't know who he was because he asked Renfro if he was nervous, then went on to talk about the fact that he had played in much bigger games than a training camp scrimmage. I was just waiting for Renfro to snap back.

I caught a game winning touchdown against Bama and a national title game. It wasn't a great Renfro look. Renfro, he was the one called on by Carr to the front of the room to sing a song as rookies have to do.

He chooses lean on me and you got to do better. Renfro had to do better than that, Des. He just didn't. He didn't bring it.

It was disappointing. But then the next guy, Max Crosby, that lineman, the crazy mother bleeper that broke his hand in the game and immediately was asking to get back in. He sings T-Pain, buy you a drink, and all is well. So I can respect that a little bit. You can tweet the show at Sports Hub Triad 336-777-1600 is the phone number. The drive is brought to you in part by our friends at Pie Guys Pizza and More.

Try a pizza that's named after this show, the Gram Slam Pizza. And you can only find it in Clemens at Pie Guys Pizza and More right off of Lewisville Clemens Road inside the Kinnaman Village Commons, a terrific sponsor of this program. Was today the final training camp practice at Wofford for the Carolina Panthers? Beat rider, Brendan Marks is in Spartanburg and will answer that question for us next. We're talking Panthers on a Wednesday drive, broadcasting live from Kickback Jackson, Greensboro. We'll get to Brendan Marks, locate him in a second from the Charlotte Observer, Panthers beat rider. We were talking about the fact that Jake Delone is one of the most beloved Panthers of all time. He is going to be officially broadcasting 10 games in the regular season this year on the Panthers Radio Network, replacing Eugene Robinson. Jordan Gross has four others.

And then we don't know what's going to happen for the London game and a road game at Indianapolis per the press release, but I'm sure that'll get hashed out as time goes on. Let's go to Tim and Clemens very quickly, who wants in on the Panthers radio team. Tim, what do you got? I miss Bill Rzyski myself. That was just a horrendous firing in my opinion.

He's truly a professional, Nick Nixon. I don't know about you guys, but he's not very well prepared every week. I'm just not a big fan of his. I would like to see Zote move over if they couldn't get Bill Rzyski back. I'm still missing Bill Rzyski. I thought that was an unwarranted firing just because he, you know, lamented the fact they didn't give him an NFC championship ring in the Observer.

I don't really get that, but Nixon, I'm just not a big fan. Very ill prepared, misses plays. Rzyski's a true professional, and Shooki is too.

Tim, appreciate the phone call. You do bring up the Bill Rzyski rumor that was first reported by the Charlotte Observer all those years ago about the championship ring and there being some problems underneath, but I will dispute one thing flatly. As a friend of Nick Mixon's, that guy is more prepared than anybody else, and if you talk about his style, some love it, some don't. That guy's been doing Carolina games, or did Carolina, Tar Heel Games football and basketball for 15 years before he went to become a Carolina Panther radio broadcaster. Jim Zokey's been there since the beginning. You can like his style or dislike it.

The man is very prepared, I know that, first and foremost, but to each their own when it comes to the broadcasting industry. Let's go to Brendan Marks now. Brendan, it's good to have you here. Are you in Charlotte or still in Spartanburg? I am actually in neither right now, Josh. I left Spartanburg earlier today. It's actually my girlfriend's birthday in Durham, so I am going to see her for the evening and then I'll be back in Charlotte on Friday for the Panthers preseason game against the Bills. Right down the road from us here in Greensboro, Brendan Marks is on Twitter at Brendan R. Marks, Carolina Panthers beat reporter. So how big of a crowd was it today from what you were hearing, what you saw, because it was the final day of the Panthers contractually agreed appearance in Wofford College.

They've been there since the beginning, since they arrived in the Carolinas as an expansion team. Today was the last day of camp. How big was the crowd?

It was the last day. I would say it was a sizable crowd. Definitely not the biggest day that we've had so far, and you can blame some of that. It was pretty dang hot out there. I think the more impressive thing in terms of crowding, and you can ask Marcel about this in a little bit when you get him on the line, God does the Bills mafia travel.

I mean, that is not a joke. There were so many Bills fans, you know, heckling the Panthers defense yesterday. One of the fans and Dante Jackson were joking around. So the Bills fans almost, you know, I hate to say it, there might've been more Bills supporters out there than Panthers lovers.

Okay. Tell me this though. What's the craziest thing you saw a Bills fan do? The Bills mafia is known to jump off things and set things on fire.

And the rumor is they liked the sauce. What did you see? There was one guy, unfortunately, who I was standing right in front of. And if you've ever seen that SpongeBob meme where he's just yelling hoopla over and over again, this guy was the human version of that. I mean, I think he must've been yelling for two and a half hours straight. It was painful to stand in front of, but hey, I mean, respect. If you love your team that much, go out and show it.

But man, my eardrums certainly could have used a little bit of a rest. Are Spartanburg residents feeling, from ones that you dealt with, ones that you talked to down there, are they feeling like this might be the last training camp the Panthers spin there? Yeah, I think there's still somewhat a sense of uncertainty. You know, when we talked to David Tepper earlier in camp, I think it was during the first week, the days sort of run together. But one of the things that Tepper said was, you know, he didn't come out and flatly say, no, we're never going back to Wafford, you know. He basically left it open to the possibility that the Panthers will either be back at Wafford or they'll just have camp in Charlotte until their facility in Rock Hill is finished. So as far as where I'm looking at the picture, it doesn't make sense for them to have built this bubble in Charlotte for them to consistently be touting the facilities in Charlotte if they're not going to use them. I wouldn't be shocked if you saw something of a tour where maybe there's a couple of days in Charlotte, a couple of days in Spartanburg, maybe there's a day or two somewhere else.

Who knows? I think that could be a really cool thing, and obviously Tepper wants to get across the Carolinas, but I definitely don't think that we're going to have any full-time Panthers training camp at Wafford in the next few years or maybe never again. Aside from Cam Dooten's shoulder, Curtis Samuel's easily been the story of camp. Is Curtis Cam's the number one wide receiver right now, you'd say? You know, it's hard to say, and this is something that somebody asked Ron Rivera about today after practice. The thing about the Panthers offense is there really isn't a number one receiver, and that's by design.

I mean, you have a lot of different weapons. You have Curtis Samuel, like you mentioned, but you've got DJ Moore, you've got Greg Olsen, you've got Ian Thomas, Christian McCaffrey, Jarius Wright, Chris Ogan. I mean, there really are just a ton of guys out there that Cam is going to have as his disposal, excuse me.

And it's designed that way to keep the defense off balance so that you can't necessarily key in on a Leo Jones or Michael Thomas type guy who's going to get 15 targets every single game. Curtis has definitely been the most impressive, not just receiver, but player in all of kid training camp. I mean, the guy's been electric every single day. He makes the play that takes your breath away. I'd be shocked if Cam doesn't look to him early and often, but there are going to be games when he's a little bit quieter and DJ Moore is a little more explosive.

I think it's just going to be a game-by-game basis and taking what the defense gives them. What's the craziest athletic feat you've seen him accomplish at practice or training camp the last few weeks? Oh, man.

I mean, that's a hard one. The thing is, you know, the thing about Curtis and for anyone who hasn't seen him in person, when he's running, it doesn't actually look like he's running. I mean, it looks like he's accelerating. It's almost like when you're at the airport and you've got the moving stairways and you can be walking at a normal pace, but it looks like you're one of those... May have been that very first one at training camp, the very first practice with Cam Newton. He just goes on a line, gets right behind James Badbury. Boom. Touchdown.

Other than that, probably when he did the exact same thing at FanFest. I mean, the guys, carbon copy, big play every single day. Last thing for you, Brendan, before we let you off to, you know, try and do boyfriend things in Durham. How much might we see Cam Newton on Friday, you think? Yeah, we asked Ron Rivera about that after the game today and said, you know, is the plan already set for the starters and whatnot? Obviously, none of the team starters other than Trey Boston played in the first preseason game against Chicago. And Ron said, no, we don't technically have a plan that's squared away yet, but a number of the players said that they expect the starters to get them burned. And Ron did say that he anticipated everyone, including Cam Newton and Luke Eakley, getting a chance to get on the field. So I know the team would like to get a couple of reps in for those guys. Obviously, they had two joint practices with Buffalo, but the game's a little bit different. I would be surprised if Cam does not play.

But again, Cam was supposed to play against the Bears and nobody ended up playing. So take that for what it's worth, I guess. Follow Brendan on Twitter, at Brendan R. Marks, charlotteobserver.com, in the pages of The Observer. It's good to hear your voice, Brendan. We'll be chatting sometime soon, I'm sure. Yes, I hope so. And now I need to go off and make sure I make this dinner reservation.

Smart guy. That's Brendan Marks from The Observer. There's also something afoot that I think needs addressing. I need to get out in front of something before it becomes a massive deal. There is a photo that has surfaced on social media. Aaron Gabriel has done me no favors in blowing this up on social as well.

And I believe it's already on the Sports Hub page as well here. It's a photo of me when I was once upon a time an intern, Aaron, six or seven years ago. And it doesn't look great. How would you best characterize this photo? I like to spin it by saying you aged well, Josh. You know, time did you some favors there.

Trying to describe exactly what it looks like. I look like a Beatle if no women were interested in talking to this particular one. Like if Ringo seemed to be the one that's least attractive among Paul, George, John and Ringo.

If I was the fifth Beatle, no one would pay me any mind. Let's just put it that way. The long hair. Oh, my God. It's a disaster. What's going on with the hair here?

You got like a bang. Yeah, it's like a like a Ringo star kind of thing going on. This is bad. Even if I was in the 60s, this would be bad. Ringo star.

This was 2013. Chris Lee from WXII Sports Reporter has dropped by, too. He has it on his phone. He's smiling ear to ear. Nobody thinks that this is good for me. It's good to have you here, buddy. By the way, I'm glad to be here. And this picture just made it all worth it. I love this picture on Twitter at sports.

I'll try it. See, I did this all intentionally. You know, this photo gets out there.

I didn't post it, but I played a role in posting it so I could get people to go to our social media pages. That's how it works, right? Smart. That's exactly what what happens here.

I defy you to not want to go to our Twitter page at sports up, try out and check out this photo. That's embarrassing of me. Kind of got an Austin Powers thing.

You know what I want to do? Yes. Yes.

I couldn't find a person. But yes, that's awesome. I want to turn my shame into content and also turn this into potential prize opportunities here. We're at Kickback Jacks. How about we put this photo up and Des, find a way to dress this up on Twitter and Facebook.

I'm going to completely steer into this. Whoever can come up with the best caption will get a $20 gift card to Kickback Jacks. How about that?

Okay. I think we can pull this off. $20 gift voucher to Kickback Jacks. This photo, put it on our Twitter and Facebook.

Whoever has the best caption for it will win that gift voucher. But since Chris Lee is here, there's a number of things I want to talk about. Up next. How about this in regards to college game day and college football being near?

I think the first college game day is going to be a massive bummer. What's next on the drive? Get ready for action. This is the Sports Hub.

Okay, it's on at AM 600, AM 920. Now back to the drive with Josh Graham. Chris Lee, sports reporter from WXII with us here at Kickback Jacks and Greensboro. Don't look now, but we are closing in on about 10 days away until college football season kicks off with week zero games highlighted by Miami, Florida facing off the Hurricanes and the Gators. Magic Kingdom and Orlando will be hosting college game day for week zero games.

So a neutral sight between those two teams that don't play each other very often. But it sounds like a good idea to have college game day at the Disney Kingdom. To me though, when you read into the details, it's kind of a bummer because Chris, when you think of what makes college game day great, what's the first thing? Rivalries. College game day, the show? Yeah. Okay, so yeah, the rivalries are good. That's a pretty good rivalry.

So I guess I could talk myself into that. Oh, you're talking about like actually being at a college campus. The show, college game day. It's not at a campus, but here's the part.

So that is a major element. The other pieces that disappoint me, you can't bring signs or flags into the Disney park. So that when you watch college game day, you're not going to have any of the signs or the flags. That's my favorite part of watching.

Yeah, that's horrible. So usually when they're talking, you love college football, you'll watch the show, you'll like the characters. What I do when they talk about a topic I'm not very interested in, I just look at the signs and I look at the flags and then by the time I'm done looking at that, I'm going to start listening to what they're talking about more times than not. But according to rules, they can't have flags. They can't have signs. They better find a way to get that Washington state flag in there because they have a long streak that's gone over 20 years I think where the Washington state flag has been at every single college game day broadcast.

But missing the campus element of this, the signs and the flags, I think it might hurt it. Also, when Lee Corso puts the head on, it's leading right into a game at noon. There is no noon game in week zero. The only games, Miami and Florida, seven o'clock. And then the late game is Arizona and Hawaii after that.

So it's going to be Corso throwing it to bowling. Yeah, it doesn't sound like a good idea at all, but I'm hoping that maybe Disney can say like, hey, just for this week, maybe you guys can bring in some signs just for this. Hopefully they'll allow them to do that. It's kind of, it reminds me of the old Des might appreciate this, how T and A used to tape at Universal Studios. And so like maybe if you had a separate entrance for it and you knew you're going to that specifically, maybe you can bring in signs for that and you're just not allowed into the park with the signs.

You have to go back and put it back in your car. Old T and A references here. The only thing I think that could save this, Disney needs a great guest picker. Like if you're going all Disney characters who you can bring out to sit next to Lee Corso and pick the games, who might it be? Mickey Mouse? Maybe Minnie Mouse? Do they talk? Yeah, they talk. Okay, so Mickey can talk and you can have him pick games.

Is he the guy? I need Maui to do it. I think that'll be cool. From Alana, you know what I'm saying?

Sing a song, maybe do some magical powers with his hook. Here's the only problem though. If they're picking games that means they have to pick against somebody. Which might make some people mad if their favorite character is picking against their team. So what if it was a villain?

So if you had a villain sit up there. Jafar. Jafar from Aladdin? Oh my god, he has the scepter? Yes. And then you get also maybe Gilbert Gottfried up there too doing the Tiago voice. Well what happened wise? You do that very well.

Thank you! The best Gilbert Gottfried I have. If they can't afford Gilbert Gottfried they should just bring you in. It's not as good as my John Gruden. We learned recently with Hard Knocks happening that I have an above average Gruden. I don't want to sell it as being a good Gruden. I want to keep the bar pretty low here.

It's slightly above average but it's a work in progress. Let me find some quotes from last night cause I have my notes like on my phone. No cursing.

Taking notes of everything the guy's saying. This one's pretty good from John Gruden. The Los Angeles Rams were a bad team two years ago. It's time to wake up as a football team man.

I tell you what, that team's gonna come in and want to kick your ass. That was good. Okay. It was okay. It's better than the Gilbert Gottfried that I just did a few moments ago. I don't know.

Do you want me to try and read that same line like Gilbert Gottfried even at the expense of all these people sitting in a restaurant? Okay. The Los Angeles Rams were a bad football team two years ago. It's time to wake up as a football team man.

I think they're tied. That's just my opinion. I think you're just as good of a Gilbert Gottfried as you are a John Gruden. My question with the Gilbert Gottfried though, are you squinting your eyes and cheesing as hard as you can?

Because I think that helps the impression a little bit. Let me try that one more time to see if it gets better. The Rams are coming in here to kick your ass. That was great, Des. You should see this.

On Twitter, at Sports Hub Triad, that probably wasn't working the way I wanted to at all. Maybe you can even go into the Marvel characters. Like since it is a Disney property or do the Marvel characters have any representation at the Disney parks? I thought the Marvel characters over at Universal Studios.

I just went on Doctor Doom. Well I know there's a Star Wars ride at Disney. Okay. Vader.

Oh. Yeah, as I say, maybe Vader, Darth Maul, somebody from Star Wars. John Earl Jones' voice picking games. Can you do James Earl Jones? Nah, that ain't it.

Florida. No. That ain't it, bud. No. That ain't nothing. No. They all can't be winners. Does, Aaron has a deeper voice than all of us here. Can you give us some Darth Vader, give us your pick.

Miami, Florida, week zero in Orlando. You don't understand the power of the U. Whoa. It's pretty darn good. I like it. That was not bad. Wow. I like it. Do you have any impressions or is Chris Lee, see you're somebody who's skilled in so many different ways.

Quite the performer on television who have to deliver news and interviews but before you were a wrestler as well, did you ever have an impression of a wrestler maybe or somebody else? I don't think I have anything. Okay. I don't think I have it. I'm not good. If one comes to mind, let us know.

Okay, I'll let you know. But actually since we couldn't get information out of you there, we need to get some information out of you now because during basketball season, Chris revealed that he's a Duke fan and he has superstitions. Yeah. When he is around and about in the triad and he sees that Duke is in trouble, he will go to a specific location and sit in his car because he believes that will help Duke basketball win.

Do I have this information right? That's something I did this past year. Okay. Because I noticed something. So I had to go to a particular place to shoot a story. Duke played Virginia, Duke ended up winning.

I went to the same place for another story. Duke ended up winning against Virginia again, second Virginia game. So then the night of Louisville, I had to work get off work a little bit early. I saw they were down like let me just sit here in the parking lot just for a bit.

I drove drive back home. I turn on the TV and as I turn on TV, Cam Reddish is making some free throws. Duke wins.

We know that type that come back to head against Louisville. That's right. Before before you tell us the spot where it is, you've agreed to tell us after the season ends what the location is. The magical spot for Chris Lee that he superstitious about Dez. It sounds I want to try and guess where it is. It sounds like he's talking about a place he has to go and covering sports. I don't think it's a college location. I'm betting it's high school. What high school parking lot do you think he was at where he would go to try and root on his blue devil? Hmm. High school.

I'm not. That's what I think. What do you think? Is that where you would go? I think he is at a high school parking lot. I think it's actually some sort of dining establishment along the path of where he normally travels. So it's either something over by WXI or something towards his house. And that's probably some sort of restaurant. Can you tell us if it's Greensboro, Winston Salem or Kernersville? Winston Salem?

Yeah. Um, I'm trying I know I know that Chris rarely eats meat. So it's got to be some sort of like vegetarian type spot or I know you like like Jamaican type food like stuff from the islands like Caribbean type stuff. So I was I was thinking it might be some sort of Caribbean joint.

Were you going to pick up a plate after you're at work or something that you're bringing home? So you're guessing a Caribbean joint. I'm going to go Glenn High School parking lot. Glenn? Really? So I'll say this. Glenn Reynolds. Josh is a lot warmer than what Dez is.

Dez is completely off. Okay, what is the school? I had to go to Atkins High School. Wait a minute. You were going to Atkins High School and listening to Duke games?

Listen, this is what happened. There had an athlete of the week. His name is Arrington Jones. He just transferred to another school though. I noticed I was there doing that athlete of the week. Duke played Virginia that night. Duke won. Then there was like some some conference games or some type of basketball. Or was it MLK Day games? It was some game.

Southwest Gilbert played at Atkins and it wasn't against Atkins. And Duke played against Virginia again. And they won. Tight game. So Duke goes against Virginia. I'm sorry, Louisville.

They're getting their butts kicked. And so on the way home, I was like, let me just take Linville Road exit and just go up there really quick. Wow. See what happens.

And that's that's what happens. So now we're going to we're going to retire that spot and we're not going to do it again for the 2019 2020 season because I have to find something. You got to find a new spot. But Atkins High School really helped me out in 2019 in this past season. Did you go over there during tournament time? Did not get a chance to because I was on the road during tournament time.

I wish I could. That's why Duke lost in the Elite Eight by one point to Michigan State. Because he wasn't in Atkins High School. It's such a ridiculous, such a ridiculous superstition. But it's why I love sports so much. I'm sorry, Kobe White.

Kobe, what do you have an issue with here? Wow, bro. On Twitter at Sports Hub Triad. Thank you Atkins High School.

Go Camels. However, wherever you're listening. Appreciate that. You can follow Chris Lee on the Twitter at Chris Lee LEA TV on Twitter. If you miss any of the show, Best of Podcasts, SoundCloud, iTunes, Apple Podcasts, Google Play, where it kicked back Jack's New Garden Road location. If you're around, stop by and say hello.

We'll be out here till about seven o'clock. But also the drive is brought to you by another restaurant here in the Triad as well. Twin Peaks, Haynes Mall Boulevard in Winston-Salem, a good friend of the show. You can find them Haynes Mall Boulevard again.

Twin Peaks Eats Drinks Scenic Views. That's the place to find them. We also have this challenge where the best caption wins. It's a photo of me when I was an intern or something six or seven years ago. It looks embarrassing. It's on our Twitter at Sports Hub Triad. The best caption will get you a kickback Jack's gift card.

Already getting a tweet in here saying that they should have the $20 gift card for having that haircut. Somebody says it looks like pre-puberty. Sorry.

Stephen Hawking. Gosh, this is awful. Do better. That's all I got to say.

Do better than this. You are listening to WSJS Winston-Salem, WCOG Greensboro, WPCM Berlin to WMFR High Point. All of those signals making up the Triad Sports Hub. Get ready for action. This is the Sports Hub. Okay, it's on.

At AM 600, AM 920. Now back to the drive with Josh Graham. Chris Lee, sports reporter from WXII with us here at Kickback Jack's in Greensboro. Don't look now, but we are closing in on about 10 days away until college football season kicks off with week zero games highlighted by Miami, Florida facing off the Hurricanes and the Gators. Magic Kingdom in Orlando will be hosting college game day for week zero games.

So a neutral sight between those two teams that don't play each other very often. But it sounds like a good idea to have college game day at the Disney Kingdom. To me though, when you read into the details, it's kind of a bummer because Chris, when you think of what makes college game day great, what's the first thing? Rivalries. College game day, the show? Yeah. Okay, so yeah, the rivalries are good. That's a pretty good rivalry.

So I guess I could talk myself into that. Oh, you're talking about like actually being at a college camp. The show, college game day. It's not at the campus, but here's the part.

So that is a major element. The other pieces that disappoint me, you can't bring signs or flags into the Disney park. So when you watch college game day, you're not going to have any of the signs or the flags.

That's my favorite part of watching. So usually when they're talking, you love college football, you'll watch the show, you'll like the characters. What I do when they talk about a topic I'm not very interested in, I just look at the signs and I look at the flags and then by the time I'm done looking at that, I'm going to start listening to what they're talking about more times than not. But according to rules, they can't have flags. They can't have signs. They better find a way to get that Washington state flag in there because they have a long streak that's gone over 20 years, I think, where the Washington state flag has been at every single college game day broadcast.

But missing the campus element of this, the signs and the flags, I think it might hurt it. Also, when Lee Corso puts the head on, it's leading right into a game at noon. There is no noon game in week zero. The only games, Miami and Florida, seven o'clock.

And then the late game is Arizona and Hawaii after that. So it's going to be Corso throwing it to bowling? Yeah, it doesn't sound like a good idea at all, but I'm hoping that maybe Disney can say like, hey, just for this week, maybe you guys can bring in some signs just for this. Hopefully they'll allow them to do that. It's kind of, it reminds me of the old, Des might appreciate this, how TNA used to tape at Universal Studios. And so like maybe if you had a separate entrance for it and you knew you're going to that specifically, maybe you can bring in signs for that and you're just not allowed into the park with the signs.

You have to go back and put it back in your car. Old TNA references here. The only thing I think that could save this, Disney needs a great guest picker. Like if you're going all Disney characters who you can bring out to sit next to Lee Corso and pick the games, who might it be? Mickey Mouse? Maybe Minnie Mouse? Do they talk? Yeah, they talk. Okay. So Mickey can talk and you can have him pick games.

Is he the guy? I need Maui to do it. I think that'll be cool.

From Alanna, you know what I'm saying? Sing a song, maybe do some powers with his hook. Here's the only problem though.

If they're picking games, that means they have to pick against somebody, which might make some people mad if their favorite character is picking against their team. So what if it was a villain? So if you had a villain sit up there. Jafar. Jafar from Aladdin? Oh my gosh, he has the scepter?

Yes. And then you get also maybe Gilbert Gottfried up there too, doing the Tiago one. Well, what happened was... You do that very well.

Thank you! If they can't afford Gilbert Gottfried, they should just bring you in. It's not as good as my John Gruden. We learned recently with Hard Knocks happening that I have an above average Gruden. I don't want to sell it as being a good Gruden. I want to keep the bar pretty low here.

It's slightly above average, but it's a work in progress. Let me find some quotes from last night, because I have my notes on my phone, taking notes of everything the guy's saying. This one's pretty good from John Gruden. The Los Angeles Rams were a bad team two years ago. It's time to wake up as a football team, men.

I tell you what, that team's going to come in and want to kick your ass. That was good. Okay. I like it. It was okay. It's better than the Gilbert Gottfried that I just did a few moments ago. I don't know. Actually, yeah, that's kind of on par.

Do you want me to try and read that same line like Gilbert Gottfried, even at the expense of all these people sitting in a restaurant? Okay. The Los Angeles Rams were a bad football team two years ago. It's time to wake up as a football team, men.

I think they're tied. That's just my opinion. I think you're just as good of a Gilbert Gottfried as you are a John Gruden. My question with the Gilbert Gottfried, though, are you squinting your eyes and cheesing as hard as you can?

Because I think that helps the impression a little bit. Let me try that one more time and see if it gets better. The Rams are coming in here to kick your ass!

Oh, that was great, guys. You just see this. On Twitter, at sportsubtriad, that probably wasn't working the way I wanted to at all. Maybe you can even go into the Marvel characters. Like, since it is a Disney property, or do the Marvel characters have any representation at the Disney parks? I thought the Marvel characters were over at Universal Studios.

I just went on Doctor Doom. Well, I know there's a Star Wars ride at Disney. Okay. Vader.

Oh. Yeah, as I say, maybe Vader, Darth Maul, somebody from Star Wars. John Earl Jones' voice, picking games.

Can you do James Earl Jones? Nah. That ain't it.

Florida. No. Nah. That ain't it, bud. No. That ain't it.

No. They all can't be winners. Aaron has a deeper voice than all of us here. Can you give us some Darth Vader? Give us your pick.

Miami, Florida, week zero in Orlando. Yeah. You don't understand the power of the U. Yo. Whoa! It's pretty darn good. I like it. That was not bad. Wow. I like it. Do you have any impressions? See, you're somebody who's skilled in so many different ways.

Quite the performer on television who had to deliver news and interviews, but before you were a wrestler as well, did you ever have an impression of a wrestler maybe or somebody else? I don't think I have anything. Okay. I don't think I have it. I'm not good. That's fair. If one comes to mind, let us know. Okay.

I'll let you know. But actually, since we couldn't get information out of you there, we need to get some information out of you now because during basketball season, Chris revealed that he's a Duke fan and he has superstitions. When he is around and about in the triad and he sees that Duke is in trouble, he will go to a specific location and sit in his car because he believes that will help Duke basketball win.

Do I have this information right? That's something I did this past year because I noticed something. So I had to go to a particular place to shoot a story. Duke played Virginia Duke ended up winning. I went to the same place for another story. Duke ended up winning against Virginia again for the second Virginia game. So then the night of Louisville, I had to work, get off work a little bit early. I saw they were down. I was like, let me just sit here in the parking lot just for a bit.

I drove, drive back home. I turn on the TV and as I turn on the TV, Cam Reddish is making some free throws. Duke wins.

We know that type, that comeback they had against Louisville. That's right. Before, before you tell us the spot where it is, you've agreed to tell us after the season ends, what the location is, the magical spot for Chris Lee that he's superstitious about. Des, it sounds, I want to try and guess where it is. It sounds like he's talking about a place he has to go and covering sports. I don't think it's a college location. I'm betting it's high school.

What high school parking lot do you think he was at where he would go to try and root on his Blue Devil? Hmm. High school? I'm not necessarily sure. That's what I think.

What do you think? Is that where you would go? I think he was at a high school parking lot. I think it's actually some sort of a dining establishment along the path of where he normally travels. So it's either something over by WXII or it's something towards his house.

And it's probably some sort of restaurant. Can you tell us if it's Greensboro, Winston-Salem or Kernersville? It's Winston-Salem. Winston-Salem.

I know that Chris rarely eats meat. So it's got to be some sort of like vegetarian type spot or I know you like Jamaican type food, like stuff from the islands, like Caribbean type stuff. So I was thinking it might be some sort of Caribbean joint where you go in and pick up a plate after you're at work or something that you're bringing home. So you're guessing a Caribbean joint. I'm going to go Glenn High School parking lot. Where? Glenn? Really? So I'll say this. Glenn Reynolds. Josh is a lot warmer than what Dez is.

Dez is completely off. Okay, what is the school? I had to go to Atkins High School.

Ah! Wait a minute, you were going to Atkins High School and listening to Duke games? Listen, this is what happened. I had an athlete of the week. His name is Arrington Jones. He just transferred to another school though. I noticed I was there doing that athlete of the week. Duke played Virginia that night. Duke won. Then there was like some conference games or some type of basketball. Or was it MLK Day games? It was some game. Southwest Gilbert played at Atkins and it wasn't against Atkins. And Duke played against Virginia again and they won. Tight game. So Duke goes against Virginia. I'm sorry, Louisville.

And they're getting their butts kicked. And so on the way home I was like let me just take Linville Road exit and just go up there really quick to see what happens. And that's what happens. So now we're going to retire that spot and we're not going to do it again for the 2019-2020 season because I have to find something there. You've got to find a new spot. But Atkins High School really helped me out in 2019 and this past season. Did you go over there during tournament time? Did not get a chance to because I was on the road during tournament time.

Wish I could. That's why Duke lost in the Elite 8 by one point to Michigan State. Because he wasn't in Atkins High School. It's such a ridiculous, such a ridiculous superstition. But it's why I love sports so much. I'm sorry, Kobe White.

Kobe, what do you have an issue with here? Wow, bro. On Twitter at Sports Hub Tryon. Thank you Atkins High School.

Go Camels. However and wherever you're listening. Appreciate that. You can follow Chris Lee on the Twitter. At Chris Lee L-E-A TV on Twitter.

If you miss any of the show, Best of Podcasts, SoundCloud, iTunes, Apple Podcasts, Google Play. We're at Kickback Jack's New Garden Road location. If you're around, stop by and say hello.

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Already getting a tweet in here saying that they should have the $20 gift card for having that haircut. Somebody says it looks like pre-puberty. Sorry.

Stephen Hawking. Gosh, this is awful. Do better. That's all I gotta say.

Do better than this. You are listening to WSJS Winston-Salem, WCOG Greensboro, WPCM Burlington, WMFR High Point. All of those signals making up the Triad Sports Hub. This is the Sports Hub.

At AM 600, AM 920. Now back to the drive with Josh Graham. Marcel Louis-Jacques making his return to North Carolina Sports Radio. Former Carolina Panthers beat Ryder before that covered the Clemson Tigers in South Carolina. Now has recently taken a job in Buffalo, New York covering the Bills for ESPN Nation.

The Bills practicing with the Panthers the last few days and the Panthers facing the Buffalo Bills in preseason game number two. We are broadcasting live from the Kickback Jack on New Garden Road in Greensboro so feel free to drop by and say hello. Marcel, how's Buffalo treating you? It's treating me well, man.

I definitely wish I was, I wish I was out there. But tell you what, I had to, I had to look at the phone. My phone it rang for a few extra seconds, man. It felt good getting a call from that number again.

Yeah, North Carolina area code the 336 giving you a phone call. Before we get to some of the specific football topics at hand, Eric Reid was somebody you got to know pretty well when you were in Charlotte. You covered a lot of his stories very closely with the Observer. Now he's taking aim at this partnership between Jay-Z, Roc Nation, and the NFL calling it Players Coalition 2.0. How much of a point do you think Eric Reid has here? I mean, I get, I understand the skepticism. I would like to see more out of this partnership.

I need to know more about this partnership. I feel like Jay-Z is somebody who's not going to sell out like that. I don't think that money's the issue for him.

Just, I mean, that family, that Carter family's got a ton of it. So it would be surprising to me for him to just take money from the NFL in an attempt to kind of appeal to an audience that is distrustful of the league. But I get his skepticism because that's essentially what the Players Coalition was found to do, or found it to do, was put a black figurehead atop of movement and say, look, see, we're okay with the issues that you are bringing up. We just don't want you kneeling during the national anthem. So here's $100 million.

I hope this helps. And it came off as disingenuous. It is the reason why Eric came at Malcolm Jenkins during the Eagles game last year, because in his words, he sold them out. So I think this is a wait and see, but don't be so quick to jump on Eric's skepticism of this agreement. Who has more to gain, Jay-Z or the NFL, with this partnership? Who? Oh, the NFL.

The NFL. Jay-Z is Jay-Z. Who he is, how he's perceived, his legacy is cemented.

What he's done is cemented. The NFL, on the other hand, does have something to prove. They do have a market to, I don't want to say tap into, but they do have trust to rebuild, and they do have trust to rebuild within a community for kind of where a lot of its most powerful figures, the team owners, have actively spoken out against kneeling during the national anthem. And how it comes off is that you're against really what Eric and what Colin Kaepernick and what Kenny Stills are even kneeling for to begin with. And so I think this is more beneficial for the NFL than it is Jay-Z. But what I'd expect Jay-Z to do here is legitimize the movement. I don't think it was legitimate.

I don't think it was sincere with the Players' Coalition. I do think that Sean Carter here has a, I think he's got a better chance at accomplishing what needs to be accomplished. Marcel Louis-Jacques with us here. Buffalo Bills reporter for ESPN's NFL Nation. The Bills facing the Panthers in a few days, and Marcel covered the Panthers this past year. Whether it's a Panthers angle or a Bills angle, what storyline interests you the most Friday night? I really want to see what the Bills offensive line can do against a speedy and a revamped Panthers pass rush. And you've seen a couple videos, you see a couple reports out of joint practices that this front seven's been kind of having its way with kind of a beat-up Bills offensive line that's missing its high-priced center, Mitch Morse, who's in concussion protocol.

I don't know about Lotz, but he didn't practice today. There's been a few others who have been banged up, and they're just kind of, they're mixing and matching across the line to find five that fit. But how they stand up to this pass rush will be, it'll be telling for how, it'll be telling for how far this o-line's come. And from the Panthers' perspective, I think it's going to be a little bit more of a for how far this o-line's come. And from the Panthers' perspective, whether or not Cam plays, I haven't seen any news regarding that, wouldn't really expect him to, but how these playmakers can break free and get open and make plays against the NFL's best pass defense from last season that returns essentially, essentially 10 of the 11 starters from last year, minus Kyle Williams, who retired. I think guys like going up against a speedy corner like Tredavious White is going to be, it's going to set a great benchmark for Curtis Samuel, who's gotten, you know, a ton of hype individually coming out of training camp. For DJ Moore as well, how Christian McCaffrey deals with linebackers like Tremaine Edmonds, like Matt Milano, who are, you know, who are gifted in pass coverage.

Although it kind of sounds like Christian's had his way over the past couple days, but it'll be once again, good benchmark to see where you're at at this point in the preseason. In addition to doubling as a, in addition to being a football writer, Marcel Louis Jacque, who you can follow on Twitter at Marcel underscore LJ, doubles as a music enthusiast as well. And in the vein of Jay-Z and Roc Nation partnering with the NFL and seemingly having input on what the halftime shows or whatever benchmark events the NFL is throwing, who the artists might be, I just want to get your thoughts on a couple of artists that I've thrown out there. You let me know if this would be a good halftime show, awful halftime show, or just interesting.

Ready? All right, we're talking Super Bowl or just Super Bowl halftime show. Gotcha. Drake. Oh, that'd be excellent halftime show. Taylor Swift. Not a big Taylor Swift fan. I'm not sticking around for that. Eminem. Ooh, that depends, man. I don't want to hear recent Eminem at all.

Like at all. If he does like all of his early 2000s stuff, then maybe we'll talk. Give me an artist you've listened to lately that you would suggest to our listeners. It's something that grew in popularity during football season last year. People really took a liking to your music taste. Give me something.

I don't even have to think about this one. YBN Cordae, The Lost Boy. It is, and I don't say this lightly, it is the best rap album I have heard since Good Kid, Mad City. Since Good Kid, Mad City and To Pimp A Butterfly, those classic Kendrick albums.

It's something, I believe it just dropped a couple of weeks ago. I was up at St. John Fisher College for Bill's training camp, staying in a dorm. After practice, I would run that album through front to back three, four times before the night is over.

I mean, you can basically put your phone down. No skip. No skip. This kid is, I mean, he's not very old.

I can't tell you exactly how old he is, but he's young and he's just so lyrically talented and his lyrics have such depth to him. Especially, there's a song, Family Matters, I think was arguably my favorite song on there. It's one you're probably going to repeat. That's the only time you have to touch your phone is when you want to start a song over.

So YBN Cordae, Y-B-N-C-O-R-D-A-E and you won't regret it. If you do, let me know and I'll apologize for the wreck. On Twitter, at Marcelle underscore LJ. Before we let you go, we always enjoyed the stories involving your dog, Morty, who I remember after, I've told this story on the air, it was right after a Pittsburgh Steeler Thursday night game you were on the road for. The day after you get home, you described your apartment as looking like a dive bar bathroom because of Morty the dog who was figuring out his surroundings.

Well, you've done changed the surroundings again as he is in Buffalo. How is Morty the dog treating or taking to Buffalo, New York? Oh man, he loves it out here.

We got on, we got a walk, we got a routine national neighborhood nearby the apartment. Found him a sitter who also has two beagles and she sent me a photo a few weeks ago of three of them together and I made them look like they're about to drop the album of the summer. It was the, I think he loves it. Doesn't really trust the car anymore.

I don't blame him there. Like before this recent stretch where I haven't left town in a week or so, I mean every time we got in the car it was either, you know, a two-hour drive toward Buffalo or dropping them off at the sitter or taking them somewhere. So now he gets a little anxious when we get in the car. I gotta bring his bed, gotta bring a toy or something to chill him out, but no messes, you know, no destruction.

He's, he's doing great out here. He loves the stairs. I got stairs in the place now and so he'll, when we get back inside, you know, I'll take his little harness off and he'll sprint up the stairs and I'll hear the, the thump stop, the footprint stop and I'll look up and he's poking his head around the corner waiting for me to come after him. I'm like, oh man, this is, this is my guy right here. This is my dude. That's excellent. Marcel, it's good to hear your voice, man. We'll chat, I'm sure, sometime down the line. Absolutely, man. Thanks for having me on. So great. You got it. That's Marcel Louis-Jacques, ESPN Nation Buffalo Bills writer on Twitter at Marcel underscore LJ.