The Drive with Josh Graham - Panthers Last Week at Wofford

Attention, please. This is the Drive with Josh Graham Podcast. Tune into the Drive 3 until 6 p.m. weekdays on the Sports Hub. I love it. It's brilliant. What is going on?

What is going on? You're on the Drive with Josh Graham, the Sports Hub, at a.m. 600, a.m. 920. I'm so proud of this guy. Hayes Permar of Sports Channel 8 with us here. He used to be the producer of The David Glenn Show right here on the Triad Sports Hub.

But then he went and ventured out, created his own platform with a couple of his friends. Sports Channel 8 now will have its own radio show in Raleigh. 10 a.m. to noon starting next week. I'm very happy for my friend Hayes Permar, who you can follow on Twitter, at DHPIV. Congrats on the show. How are you doing? Thanks, man.

I really appreciate that. I'm just trying to be like Josh Graham when I grow up and get me a radio show. See, you're somebody we go to on a lot of different things, topics that involve music, the state of North Carolina and whatever nonsense that you're always game to play around with us on. But something I presented I think might actually have legs to it if members of the Carolina Panthers administration, marketing staff and, of course, ownership think that this might be a good business proposition. In 2020, next year, training camp, will they be in Wofford or it will be in Charlotte? So it's going to be in Charlotte. 2021, we don't know. 2022, the Rock Hill headquarters is probably going to be done by then. I think that the Panthers should consider maybe, since the Tar Heels, Blue Devils and Wolfpack all have indoor practice facilities, doing something where you visit the Triangle and bring training camp to the 919 area code. What do you think? I'm totally down for that.

We talked about this on our Saturday show not too long ago. Is training camp an excuse to sort of market yourself in a different neck of the woods? I know the Washington Redskins go down to Richmond and try and tap into the fan base that's not in Northern Virginia, the sort of more central Virginia. And we throw that as a perfect destination like Wilmington, something like that, something on the East Coast. The players are happy. They can go to the beach in their time off.

It's still fun. But look, I'm all about bringing it to the Triangle. I don't know, practically speaking, if the players are going to be down with switching facilities between State, Duke and Carolina, as neighborly as that would seem. But we already know that we've seen them hang out in the Triangle. I think Greg Olson brought a crew up here and went to a concert one time. And they ate at Brewery, Bafana, Duke of North Carolina.

Yeah, all kinds of award-winning places. These guys go out to eat and stuff like that. So I do, speaking because I'm a guy on the Triangle, obviously I'd love to see them here. But I do think it's a chance for them to, you know, instead of... When you're at Wofford, you're basically just bringing to Charlotte Media the same people that are following you anyway.

You're just making them drive farther to follow you. But yeah, if they dropped in the middle of the Triad or the middle of the Triangle in late July, early August, it'd be a whole other media crowd. And they would get shown the love for being the story of whatever they are for that week.

So I think they should use the opportunity to sort of increase the brand and go somewhere cool. On a lesser level, we saw it when the Carolina Hurricanes made the playoffs. You saw Christian McCaffrey, Ron Rivera, Greg Olson, DJ Moore, and many others present there. I saw Devin Funchess and Greg Olson last year at the Duke North Carolina game inside Cameron Indoor Stadium. So it might be a neat opportunity for the players and a chance to tap into a market and maybe reach some fans that you wanted in either Spartanburg or in Charlotte. Gritty this weekend is the mascot for the Philadelphia Flyers.

He got after it on the dance floor at a wedding reception. And this mascot has really grown in prominence, this Gritty. But it had me thinking about wedding reception songs and mascots all together, starting with the mascots here in the state.

Where do you go when you think the best mascot in the state of North Carolina? Let me skip answering your question first and revisit Gritty. Who is the genius that came up with Gritty? I hope it was some random third string intern for the Flyers that has since been elevated to marketing director. Because he came on the scene hot and it was like one of those where we know we're making it ugly, but it's so ugly that it's cute and it's so ugly that it's funny.

Everyone's going to be talking about it. And Gritty, I feel like, because he came in on the scene kind of like a, okay, for all the kids who are scared of mascots or my friend Lauren Brownlow talks about mascots being nightmare fuel, they just leaned into it. Let's make the most annoying, frightening thing we can to just make it big and hairy and a loud color and we'll have that be our mascot. And the board wonders, I mean, how many cameos did Gritty get on late night, you know, references, all kinds of stuff.

So that's off to whoever did that. To answer your question, it's tricky, you know, before the Hornets moved, and I know this shouldn't make a difference because he's still just back and they changed the name back, but Cuba the Hornet was cool. I mean, I don't know if he was wearing the same basketball shoes as Larry Johnson or just Charlotte the Hornets in general. The first iteration just had sort of a cool vibe to it, but I think maybe Cuba the Hornet still gets my vote.

It just, he's been through a lot, you know, he got dragged to New Orleans, then he got dropped for a while, and then he got brought back and they try to like modernize and stuff so he's a little less cartoony. And I feel for the guy, but I think ultimately, Hugo, for as long as his reign has been here, he has been the coolest mascot. I will say that the thing that they're doing now that people need to figure out a way to sort of, not buck this trend, but augment this trend, is now it's cool to have a second mascot. Sort of like, you know, Mr. and Mrs. Wolf have been trendsetters. For 50 years, the Wolfpack has had multiple wolf mascots.

One dressed as a male and one dressed as a female. And only recently have we started to see, like I know, and I forget what the bear's name is, but Stormy has like a female that hangs out at hurricanes games now. There's a Junior Ram at UNC.

I don't know if the devil has picked up on it. I haven't seen a secondary female Sir Purr. But I feel like somebody should come up with some cool idea of a secondary mascot, almost like a Gritty, like have your regular person and have just your weird mascot. The Carolina Mudcats, I know that's a little out of your area, but I know there's a lot of big modern league baseball fans too in the Triad with the Dash and the Grasshoppers there. The Mudcats for years have had many muddies.

They've got a little pint-sized person that looks just like, you know, Muddy the Mudcat, and it's another fish just running around there. So I think we can do more with these secondary mascots. But overall, I think Hugo is the number one mascot in North Carolina still for me. And here's a fun fact about Hugo. When the name was created, they gave it to him in September of 1988. But then in 89, a year later... No, a year later, that's when Hugo hit, which led to some people wanting the name changed, and they actually presented two names, Hoser and Hank, to change it to, but they stuck to their guns and stuck to Hugo back in 1989. Even doing your mascot research.

I think if they kept the name, if the name was there before the hurricane, I think you're on good ground to say, hey, you know, that's just a thing that happened. A lot of fun left here for Hayes Permar on Twitter at DHPIV, new radio show starting next week, in the Triangle Sports Channel 8, the radio show. When you think about the best crowd-pleasing wedding reception songs, what tops your list? Alright, well first of all, let's get a couple things out of the way that I don't want to hear at a wedding, okay?

There's some songs that have become popular, and they're more like sing-along songs, they're popular in arenas, but they don't make for good wedding songs because you can't dance to them. Number one is, don't stop believing. Do stop playing, don't stop believing by journey. They think it's cool because they start playing it, and everybody shouts out, just a city boy! And you're like, alright, the crowd's into it.

But then like six minutes later, you still haven't gotten to the don't stop believing part. Maybe you've got some drunk former frat guys that are out there belting out the lyrics on the floor. But if that song is the life of your party, that's a bad party, okay? I don't need sing-along songs for this. Same with Sweet Caroline, leave it at the baseball field, do not need Sweet Caroline at my wedding. The ones that get it going the best, I think, keep it in the Motown soul music range, right? I'll give you two great ones, and then one that's a little kitschy, but still, it's a go-to and it's good. Soul Man, and Hold On, I'm Coming by Sam and Dave.

You can play them back to back, and it's a good one to come out of a break. You could have done some slow songs, but if you come out of a break with And a good, like, drunk week to it, people are putting down their plates of finger foods, and they're getting up to make their way to the dance floor, and all rebels can get into that. Not big dancers, of course the guys who like to drink too much and shine, they're going to be like, oh, I'm the Soul Man, this is my song.

But everybody can do it. Also, it gives the groom a chance if he wants to have a little solo dance to be the Soul Man, he can do that too. So, Sam and Dave bringing it with Hold On, I'm Coming, and Soul Man, those are two. Another one, again, is a little cheesy, a little kitschy, but it's wedding night, you gotta give her a do, you gotta do I Will Survive. I Will Survive, clear the floor, but the bride and the bridesmaid started out, and then everyone could sort of join in, because it's a great song anyway, but I Will Survive is a good one to get the ladies sort of going. And all the bridesmaids that are there that are a little sad, that they're not the ones getting married, and maybe it's been them a couple times in the bridesmaid, they're like really a I Will Survive, they're like, I'm going to survive, even though I'm not the one getting married. And when you see that girl, Josh Graham, that's who you go to at the end of I Will Survive.

You're like, pick up the bridesmaid that looks a little too into I Will Survive and the I Don't Need a Man, because she's probably looking for a man for that night. That's good producing work by Dez on the fly. I'm going to survive, it's good stuff. Very quickly on the way out, Hayes, it's on our Twitter poll at Sports of Triad, do you know all the steps to the electric slide? Oh, absolutely. I know I'm so well that I can like throw in little extra steps, you know what I mean? Like shuffle, shuffle, shuffle right, shuffle, shuffle, shuffle left, back, back, back, back, forward touch, back touch, forward heel click, and we shift. But like in the forward touch and the back touch, you can like roll forward with some hands, do like an almost down to the ground step touch, back touch, lean way back, throw that shoulder back. So yeah, I got the electric slide down, baby.

We can turn that thing up to 11. You're the best, man. Thanks for doing this. Anytime.

And listen to Sports Channel 8 radio show when you people from the Triad are coming through the triangle, 10 to noon, by 99.9 of fans. Thanks, John. You know, we had many conversations and he said, you know what? It was a Steve Harvey clip I think he was talking about where he was referring to, it was a viral clip in the spring of, it had to be 2016 probably, him saying that, you know, sometimes in order to get to where you want to go, you have to take a leap of faith. And Hayes, he bet on himself with something that people doubted, like an internet property, Sports Channel 8, and he did such a good job to get on the air over there in the triangle. And that led to him getting this opportunity, an opportunity not many people in the state of North Carolina have, a daily show and being able to talk into a microphone Monday through Friday for a living.

It's not a bad place to be. Hayes, he busted his ass to get there. So a guy I really respect and he's very entertaining in his own right, as you could hear there.

You could vote on our Twitter poll, by the way, on Twitter, at Sports Hub Dryad. Do you know all the steps to the electric slide, the early returns, 80% of people saying, no, they don't know that. Coming up, why this week is essential for the state of Cam Newton. This is The Drive. What is going on?

What is going on? You're on The Drive with Josh Graham, the Sports Hub, at AM 600, AM 920. I'm so proud of this guy. Hayes Permar of Sports Channel 8 with us here. He used to be the producer of The David Glenn Show right here on the Triad Sports Hub, but then he went and ventured out, created his own platform with a couple of his friends.

Sports Channel 8 now will have its own radio show in Raleigh, 10 AM to noon, starting next week. I'm very happy for my friend Hayes Permar, who you can follow on Twitter at DHPIV. Congrats on the show. How are you doing? Thanks, man.

I really appreciate that. I'm just trying to be like Josh Graham when I grow up and get me a radio show. See, you're somebody we go to on a lot of different things, topics that involve music, the state of North Carolina and whatever nonsense that you're always game to play around with us on. But something I presented I think might actually have legs to it if members of the Carolina Panthers administration, marketing staff and, of course, ownership think that this might be a good business proposition. In 2020 next year, training camp, will there be in Wofford or it will be in Charlotte? So it's going to be in Charlotte. 2021, we don't know. 2022, the Rock Hill headquarters is probably going to be done by then. I think that the Panthers should consider maybe, since the Tar Heels, Blue Devils and Wolfpack all have indoor practice facilities, doing something where you visit the Triangle and bring training camp to the 919 area code.

What do you think? I'm totally down for that. We talked about this on our Saturday show not too long ago, is training camp is an excuse to sort of market yourself in a different neck of the woods. I know the Washington Redskins go down to Richmond and try and tap into the fan base that's not in Northern Virginia, the sort of more central Virginia. And we put it out as a perfect destination like Wilmington, something like that, something on the East Coast. The players are happy, then go to the beach and their time off.

It's still fun. But look, I'm all about bringing it to the Triangle. I don't know, practically speaking, if the players are going to be down with switching facilities between State, Duke and Carolina, as neighborly as that would seem. But, we already know, we've seen them hang out in the Triangle. I think Greg Olson brought a crew up here and went to a concert one time, and they ate a brewery, Bafana, all kinds of award-winning places.

These guys go out to eat and stuff like that. So I do, personally, because I'm a guy in the Triangle, I'd love to see them here. But I do think it's a chance for them to, you know, instead of, when you're at Wofford, you're basically just bringing the show on the media, the same people that are following you anyway, you're just making them drive farther to follow you. But yeah, if they dropped in the middle of the Triad and the middle of the Triangle in late July, early August, it'd be a whole other media crowd, and they would get shown the love for being the story of whatever they are for that week.

So I don't think they, I think they should use the opportunity to sort of increase the brand and go somewhere cool. On a lesser level, we saw it when the Carolina Hurricanes made the playoffs. You saw Christian McCaffrey, Ron Rivera, Greg Olson, DJ Moore, and many others present there.

I saw Devin Funches and Greg Olson last year at the Duke-North Carolina game inside Cameron Indoor Stadium, so it might be a neat opportunity for the players and a chance to tap into a market and maybe reach some fans that you wanted in either Spartanburg or in Charlotte. Gritty this weekend is the mascot for the Philadelphia Flyers. He got after it on the dance floor at a wedding reception, and this mascot has really grown in prominence, this Gritty. But it had me thinking about wedding reception songs and mascots all together, starting with the mascots here in the state.

Where do you go when you think the best mascot in the state of North Carolina? Let me skip answering your question first and revisit Gritty. Who is the genius that came up with Gritty? I hope it was like some random third string intern for the Flyers that has since been elevated to marketing director because he came on the scene hot and it was like one of those where we know we're making it ugly, but it's so ugly that it's cute and it's so ugly that it's funny.

Everyone's going to be talking about it. And Gritty, I feel like, because he came in on the scene kind of like a, okay, for all the kids who are scared of mascots, or my friend Lauren Brownlow talks about mascots being nightmare fuel, they just leaned into it. They said, let's make the most annoying, frightening thing we can to just make it big and hairy and a loud color, and we'll have that be our mascot.

And it worked wonders. I mean, how many cameos did Gritty get on late night, on references, all kinds of stuff. So hats off to whoever did that.

To answer your question, it's tricky. Before the Hornets moved, and I know this shouldn't make a difference because he's still just back and they changed the name back, but Hugo the Hornet was cool. I mean, I don't know if he was wearing the same basketball shoes as Larry Johnson or just Charlotte the Hornets in general.

The first iteration just had sort of a cool vibe to it. But I think maybe Hugo the Hornet still gets my vote. He's been through a lot. He got dragged to New Orleans, then he got dropped for a while, and then he got brought back and they try to modernize and stuff so he's a little less cartoony. And I feel for the guy, but I think ultimately Hugo, for as long as his reign has been here, he has been the coolest mascot. I will say that the thing that they're doing now that people need to figure out a way to sort of, not buck this trend but augment this trend, is now it's cool to have a second mascot. Sort of like Mr. and Mrs. Wolf have been trendsetters. For 50 years, the Wolf Pack has had multiple wolf mascots.

One dressed as a male and one dressed as a female. And only recently have we started to see, and I forget what the Bears name is, but Stormy has a female that hangs out at the Hurricanes games now. There's a Junior Ram at UNC.

I don't know if the devil has picked up on it. I haven't seen a secondary female so-called. But I feel like somebody should come up with some cool idea of a secondary mascot, almost like a Gritty, like have your regular person and have just your weird mascot. The Carolina Mudcats, I know that's a little out of your area, but I know there's a lot of big model league baseball fans too in the Triad with the Dash and the Grasshoppers there. The Mudcats for years have had many Muddy.

They've got a little pint-sized person that looks just like Muddy the Mudcat, and it's another fish just running around there. So I think we can do more with these secondary mascots. But overall, I think Hugo is the number one mascot in North Carolina still for me. And here's a fun fact about Hugo. When the name was created, they gave it to him in September of 1988, but then in 89 a year later... No, a year later, that's when Hugo hit, which led to some people wanting the name changed, and they actually presented two names, Hoser and Hank, to change it to, but they stuck to their guns and stuck to Hugo back in 1989.

A little bit. I think if they kept the name, if the name was there before the hurricane, I think you're on good ground to say, hey, that's just a thing that happened. A lot of fun left here for Hayes Permar on Twitter at DHPIV, new radio show starting next week, in the Triangle Sports Channel 8, the radio show. When you think about the best crowd-pleasing wedding reception songs, what tops your list? Alright, well first of all, let's get a couple things out of the way that I don't want to hear at a wedding, okay?

There's some songs that have become popular, and they're more like sing-along songs, they're popular in arenas, but they don't make for good wedding songs because you can't dance to them. Number one is, don't stop believing. Do stop playing, don't stop believing by journey. They think it's cool because they start playing it, and everybody shouts out, Just a city boy! And you're like, alright, the crowd's into it.

But then like six minutes later, you still haven't gotten to the don't stop believing part. Maybe you've got some drunk former frat guys out there belting out the lyrics on the floor. But if that song is the life of your party, that's a bad party, okay? I don't need sing-along songs for this. Same with Sweet Caroline, leave it at the baseball field, do not need Sweet Caroline at my wedding. The ones that get it going the best, I think, keep it in the Motown soul music range, right? I'll give you two great ones, and then one that's a little kitschy, but still, it's a go-to and it's good. Soul Man, and Hold On, I'm Coming by Sam and Dave.

You can play them back to back, and it's a good one to come out of a break. You could have done some slow songs, but if you come out of a break with... And a good drum beat to it, people are putting down their plates of finger foods, and they're getting up to make their way to the dance floor, and all levels can get into that. Not big dancers, of course the guys who like to drink too much and shine, they're going to be like, oh, I'm the Soul Man, this is my song.

But everybody can do it. Also, it gives the groove a chance if he wants to have a little solo dance and be the Soul Man, he can do that too. So Sam and Dave bringing it with Hold On, I'm Coming, and Soul Man, those are two. Another one, again, is a little cheesy, a little kitschy, but it's wedding night, you gotta give her a do. You gotta do I Will Survive. I Will Survive, clear the floor, let the bride and the bridesmaid start it out, and then everyone can sort of join in because it's a great song anyway. But I Will Survive is a good one to get the ladies sort of going, and all the bridesmaids that are there that are a little sad, that they're not the ones getting married, and maybe it's been them a couple times in the bridesmaids. They're like, really, a I Will Survive. They're like, I'm going to survive even though I'm not the one getting married. And when you see that girl, Jaspam, that's who you go to at the end of I Will Survive.

You're like, pick up the bridesmaid that looks a little too into I Will Survive and the I Don't Need A Man because she's probably looking for a man for that night. That's good producing work by Dez on the fly. I'm going to survive, it's good stuff. Very quickly on the way out, Hayes, it's on our Twitter poll at SportsOfTriad, do you know all the steps to the electric slide?

Oh, absolutely. I know them so well that I can throw in little extra steps. Shuffle, shuffle, shuffle right, shuffle, shuffle, shuffle left, back, back, back, back, forward, touch, back, touch, forward, heel click, and we shift. But like in the forward touch and the back touch, you can roll forward with some hands, do it almost down to the ground, step touch, back touch, lean way back, throw that shoulder back. Yeah, I got the electric slide down, baby.

We can turn that thing up to 11. You're the best, man. Thanks for doing this. Anytime.

And listen to Sports Channel 8 radio show when you people from the Triad are coming through the triangle 10 to noon on 99.9 to Fan. Thanks, John. A guy I'm just super happy for. I hope I'm not doing too much chatting out of school here, but I remember when he left, David Glenn producing the show, we had many conversations and he said, you know what, it was a Steve Harvey clip I think he was talking about, where he was referring to it was a viral clip in the spring of it had to be 2016, probably him saying that, you know, sometimes in order to get to where you want to go, you have to take a leap of faith. And Hayes, he bet on himself with something that people doubted, like an internet property, Sports Channel 8, and he did such a good job to get on the air over there in the triangle. And that led to him getting this opportunity, an opportunity not many people in the state of North Carolina have. A daily show and being able to talk into a microphone Monday through Friday for a living.

It's not a bad place to be. Hayes, he busted his ass to get there. So a guy I really respect and he's very entertaining in his own right, as you could hear there. You can vote on our Twitter poll, by the way, on Twitter at Sports Hub Triad.

Do you know all the steps to the electric slide, the early returns, 80% of people saying no, they don't know that. Coming up, why this week is essential for the state of Cam Newton. This is The Drive. I expect trash talking, pushing, shoving, and emotions being high when the Buffalo Bills arrive in Spartanburg tomorrow. There's just so much familiarity between these two teams for there to be just nothing when they're on the field. Let's start with the head coach. Sean McDermott is in the Ron Rivera coaching tree. Former defensive coordinator, his first year with Buffalo, took them to the playoffs. Last year they were pretty bad.

And this year they're not expected to be very good. But in the front office, Brandon Bean, he was seen to be the next in line to Dave Gettleman. But just months before Jerry Richardson decided to part ways with Gettleman, Brandon Bean was offered the job with the Bills and got it. Opening the door for Marty Hurney on an interim basis, then that interim tag was removed the following February.

Dan Morgan is in that front office with the Bills. Captain Mutterlin was signed over the weekend for Buffalo. He was a Panther last year.

Starla Tulale is running around. I just realized Kirk Coleman is a Buffalo Bill. Zay Jones, who I got to know at East Carolina, some were thinking he could be back into the first round, second round wide receiver. The Panthers were picking 40th. Had a chance to pick Zay Jones. They wanted a wide receiver and they had him very high up on their board. Ron Rivera told me this when the Bills visited Charlotte later that fall. They were dead set, probably going to take Zay Jones there.

But there was some internal turnover. A lot of people that were in Charlotte went with Brandon Bean to Buffalo. The Bills had a good idea that they were going to take Zay Jones, so they traded up and got Zay.

Now, I'm not saying there's any animosity between the two as a result of that, but that just gives you a sense for how much familiarity there is. Remember last year, they opened up the preseason against Buffalo. Kelvin Benjamin was on the sideline. He's just talking to Thomas Davis, here comes Cam, and you got a gif that is still being used today where Kelvin Benjamin was not cool with Cam.

I doubt they're still cool today. Now, that was a little bit more premeditated than anything that we're seeing that's probably going to happen the next few days. Remember, the reason why we were all following an interaction between Cam and Kelvin was because Kelvin went talking to Tim Graham and that athletic piece said that he wished he had Eli Manning or Ben Roethlisberger or Tom Brady throwing him passes instead of Cam Newton.

That's where the attention came, and it wasn't just an isolated incident when it came to Kelvin. There's nobody that left with bad blood being there to become a Buffalo Bill. But the reason I expect there to be high emotion and maybe some fights, training camp is perfect grounds for that. Training camp fights are common. Now, I get Ron Rivera and Sean McDermott both today going up to their teams and expected to go up to the other team and say, we're not going to accept fighting. We don't want fighting.

We don't expect it. We'll pull guys out of practice if they end up fighting. But here's the thing. It's hot. It's longer stretches of time that you're together. You're in closer quarters.

Less people are watching you. If you're also hitting somebody and playing football against somebody else other than your teammates for the first time since December or January, if you're lucky enough to go to the playoffs. Also, there's almost next to no punishment for it. Like if you get in a fight, the league more than likely isn't going to intervene and suspend anybody. It would have to be self-induced and the teams aren't going to say, oh, yeah, for fighting at practice, we're going to suspend you game one. You get pulled out of practice. OK, it's 105 degrees anyway. Oh, that might hurt some of your reps on Friday. Preseason game number two, worth it. Kind of like the Mighty Ducks movie where you had those goons. You got a five minute major.

Worth it. Might be some of that this week. If anything were to happen, I think it has to involve Captain Monowin, doesn't it? Captain Monowin, I always enjoyed talking to him. He was one of my favorites in the locker room.

You always knew you would get good stuff out of him. He doesn't mind talking trash to Cam at practice. I expect it's going to be a lot louder now that he's wearing a different helmet, practicing against Cam.

Trash talker. He wanted to return to Carolina. The Panthers, not because of his age, I don't think. I think he's 29, 30, 31.

Around that age. End of his prime. The reason they parted ways with him was because he was playing the nickel.

And he was too expensive as a nickel back when they had Korn Elder in place and there were cheaper options on the market than Captain. So I don't know if he's better. If he is, that might be the source of any contentiousness that happens over the next few days.

I could be wrong. There's a reason why the Bills and Panthers, they are doing this and it's because there's familiarity there and there might be some very good relationships between Ron Rivera, Sean McDermott, Brandon Bean, the Panthers all together. So I see both sides of it, but would I be surprised if there was a fight at practice the next few days? Not in the slightest. Philadelphia Flyers mascot Gritty is in the headlines doing some dancing, crashing the wedding as if he's Owen Wilson or Vince Vaughn.

Just showing up and breaking it down. A mascot that is just elevated in a way unlike any mascot I've seen over the last decade. When you think iconic mascots in sports right now, nationally speaking, I think that's the guy you go to first. In the past, you'd think maybe the Philadelphia Philly, whatever the hell that thing is.

Or maybe you might go to the San Diego Chicken. Right now it's Gritty. Social media presence, just how ridiculous it looks, it sticks in your mind and he's funny. So Gritty has been elevated very high up the top, but I have my list here of my five best North Carolina mascots.

Would you like to hear them? Number five, my number five North Carolina mascot, college or pro? The Blue Devil. Number four, Hugo the Hornet. Number three, I'm getting a double package here, Mr. and Mrs. Wolf.

That's why you have them over all the other college ones because you get two for one there. Number two, Stormy the Icehog. And number one, I think we've discussed this on the show, it's Woolly Bull. Real tough outs leaving Bull out. Bull with the Winston-Salem dash. The thing's just a little too terrifying.

Scary. And also I went to a game two weeks ago and he wasn't there. And I was really upset about that. So I'm leaving Bull outside my top five.

I need you to bring it every night. And he didn't. Yes, Des? Some glaring admissions here.

Well, it's not really an admission. There's just a lot of there's a lot of mascots. There are very good ones. The Deacon mascot or the Mountain Man at Appalachian State. We've both discussed if there was a drug bust story involving a mascot, they would be the first culprits you think of, which I think takes you out of the top five. Like they just look like I mean, can you trust somebody who has a bow tie stapled to his chin? I mean, he's a demon deacon.

Like just think about what that name means for a second. He is a deacon of a church that's a demon. And he's got a bow tie stapled to his chin.

I can't trust anybody like that. Also, you know my stance on beards, Mountain Man's out. Where's Sir Purr? Sir Purr couldn't make your top five?

Really? Never been in on Sir Purr. Never been in on Sir Purr. He might be one of the most recognizable mascots in the league. I mean, Stormy the Icehog's more recognizable. I don't even know what team he represents. Who's Stormy the Icehog? Carolina Hurricanes.

Oh. It's a pig. On skates. I love barbecue. He got in before Sir Purr?

I love barbecue, yeah. Stormy the Icehog, it's a pig on skates. Why is it a pig on skates? Because we like eating pigs.

That's a good reason. Whether or not they're on skates. Let's put them on skates.

Make it a little harder for us to catch. It's brilliant. It's a brilliant mascot. The Panthers, it just doesn't make sense, Sir Purr.

No Tar Heel? I don't know what his name is. Ramses? Not the actual goat. The Blue Devil actually tapes expressions, talks trash with his forehead.

And he surfs on student. The Duke Blue Devil mascot's a badass. The guy or gal from UNC that wears the Ram outfit, I've seen him crowd surfing and stuff before. I've always felt crazy was in the Blue Devil uniform. I always figured it was a Cameron Crazy that graduated up to mascot status. We'll never know. I don't know if it's a Cameron Crazy that's in that uniform.

That's a story you should pursue this year. Who is in the Blue Devil uniform? Like, I want to know. Mr. and Mrs. Wolf, as Hayes Permar pointed out, they revolutionize things. You get two mascots for one, and it's good to have a man and a woman to meet the demographic. There's a lot of women sports fans out there, so you want a Mrs. Wolf in addition to a Mr. Wolf. See, you know, that's crazy that you even mention that because my entire life I've known there's a Mrs. Wolf, but it's like kind of subconsciously in the back of your head because they don't really show her that often on TV.

You don't really see her. Hugo's just cooler than Sir Purr, so that's why Hugo's on the list. The original Hugo? Like, not the one today? All forms of Hugo are cooler than Sir Purr. I gotta agree with Hayes. The original Hugo with the cartoon hands. It's fine, but even this Hugo, cooler than Sir Purr. He's meaner, I would say.

Yeah, he looks like he wants to do something. If anybody disagrees with this list, it's fine. 336-777-1600, that's what I gotta say here. That's the list. It is. Wooly Bull number one. I love that you're not disputing that one. Wooly Bull.

That guy just brings it, man. Actually, I did dispute that one. That's when I was like, Sir Purr's not on the list.

He should be number one, probably. It's our NFL franchise. I know, but it's not a good mascot. It's more... A panther?

No! It's not scary at all? It isn't. It's not a good mascot. Stormy's not scary.

I'll tell you what's not gonna be on this list. That Charlotte Knight mascot. The one that stared right into my soul at the Hurricanes game. Remember this? I was sitting next to David Glenn.

I was talking trash about it. Hey, look how ugly that mascot is. He was 100 feet or so away. And then, next second I know, D.G. taps on my shoulder. He said, Hey man, look. And the Knight mascot is pointing at me. And I pointed to myself. Me? Yeah.

You. And then I was sitting right next to where it was two seats off the ice. The Zamboni comes in.

Humble flex. And then I'm watching the game. I get a tap on my shoulder and I turn right and it's the Knight's mascot's there. He's there. And if you just look at this thing, his name's Homer.

Aaron, do a quick bit of homework for me very quickly. There was an incident where the mascot's outfit was stolen. The uniform was stolen. The Charlotte Knight outfit. I want the details on what he did in Charlotte that night. When the outfit was stolen, somebody at the Charlotte Knight's baseball game.

Because there is a story there. The mascot is crazy. He is terrifying.

He's not in my top five. But it might be the best mascot story of them all if we can bring that to you momentarily. But while we're doing that, very quickly let's go to Johnny and Durham on mascots.

Johnny, what do you got? Wooly Bull is absolutely an astute point on your behalf. Wooly Bull is the greatest by far.

He can ride a unicycle, juggle, great with kids and sign autographs at the same time. Hands down, by far the best. Very, very, very astute nomination on your behalf, sir. Well done. Thank you, Johnny. And great adjectives used on your part.

He came with a fire. Astute. He threw us off.

Very astute, that observation you make there, Mr. Graham. He made very good points, though. He did. He changed my mind.

I was like, okay. He rides around. He can run very fast. He's nimble. Nimble. This bull.

Nimble. Aaron, give me the details on that crazy knight that the Charlotte Knight's mascot had. First thing I noticed is this guy's mullet.

It is legendary. The guy inside the outfit. Frost tipped at the back. The person who stole this outfit. Tell me what he did that night. Said he stole the outfit, but not necessarily by breaking into the stadium. He passed out drunk at a beer fest they had the previous day. Woke up, found out he was stood in the stadium and found a mascot.

A quote from him says, I was raging, dude. So he went on a spree. Went to Hooters immediately.

Found a dump button here. I'm so scared. He went to Hooters immediately. Started partying and drinking. In the outfit.

In the outfit. I left Hooters. There was a big line at Tilt next door. I just said, yo, man, can I go in? The guy said no. And I was like, dude, you're not going to let Homer the bleeping mascot into your bar right now. Then he said I could go in.

There was nobody on the dance floor. I come sliding in and start getting it. I was doing all the moves you always wanted to try, but were too embarrassed to. Said he got busted with weed on him. He added like 20 chicks on Facebook according to him that night. He just went out and lived his best life as a mascot.

I changed my mind. He's the number one mascot of all time. All right, we got hot takes that we need to establish. Every week we do. Let's get crazy. Hot takes only. Dez was better last week. Let's see if he continues to improve upon his bounce back effort from a week ago.

Three, three, six, seven, seven, six hundred. If you want to play along, we get crazy next on the drive. Back to the drive with Josh Graham. Scott Fowler from the Charlotte Observer joins us now on Twitter at Scott underscore Fowler. You can read his stuff in the Charlotte Observer and it's Charlotte observer dot com. The Buffalo Bills are in town.

That's going to bring up some stories. I'm sure the next few days considering all the familiarity there, but I'm more interested in the more overarching story of this week and this camp. And I think it centers on where camp is being held, that being Wofford, where it's been the last 25 years. But this is the last year the Panthers are contractually obligated to be there. Do you believe, Scott, that this is the final week the Panthers will ever visit Wofford for training camp?

If I had to bet, Josh, yes, I would say most likely it is. That's certainly not for sure, but they have not started renegotiating anything and they have a bubble that is basically complete at their home facility. And so I think that doing it in Charlotte would be the logical alternative for the next two years until they build this palace that they're working on or about to start working on in Rock Hill, South Carolina. As somebody who has been going to Wofford for two decades or so now covering the Panthers, when you think about the Panthers and Wofford, the experience of being there in Spartanburg, for those who haven't done it, what do you first go to? Well, it's just a great, intimate, small college experience. I grew up in Spartanburg, went to high school here as well, so certainly personally I have some deep roots in Sparkle City, as we call it.

Down here Zion Williamson's hometown is more what it's known for these days. But the Panthers and Wofford, it's honestly kind of beginning to be the end of an era. It used to be every NFL team did something like this, now two-thirds of them basically stick around their own facilities because it's easier, right? I mean it's easier not to have to move. But I would miss it because I think the fan experience, a lot of the fans will miss it. There's a bank to sit here, there's a shaved ice place, there's a little touch football field.

It's just kind of a cool setting and something will be lost if they just do everything in Charlotte. Cam Newton has taught us how important a first impression can be. The first practice he throws that pass 35 to 40 yards.

Now, you've been to Spartanburg, I haven't, but I haven't seen many more 35 to 40 yard passes. But we still hear fans and media members draw off that first pass as evidence of Cam being fine and everything being A-OK, even though Cam Newton himself has said in times that, you know what, people are assuming I'm just going to be Superman again, but I'm not quite there yet. What has Cam already shown Scott Fowler at camp? Well, he's matured and he's really trying to be careful. I think the injury bug biting two of the last three years with Cam has really shown him that this is nothing to be tripled with. He's 30 years old now. He's not young Cam anymore at 24 who can run 70 yards and do a somersault into the end zone and all that stuff. He's, you know, athletically not quite the same guy.

I mean, the arm is not quite the same as it was when he came into the league at 22, but he's a smarter player. He knows how to diagnose the defense better and I think he's going to be a very good player, but that is again to be determined and that is the big reason, Josh, that I just don't know about this team. If Cam is healthy and plays relatively well, they got a lot of pieces here. If he doesn't and they end up starting Kyle Allen or Will Greer for five or six games because he gets hurt again, then things could go south in a hurry. Would you agree with the assessment that you would just like to see things return to normalcy and that Cam Newton, you take the bubble wrap off of him this week and just say, hey, if you're going to be our guy, part of being a quarterback and being normal again is participating fully at practice and also playing in some of the preseason games. Is that what you want to see this week?

No, not really. I want to see him not play a snap, honestly, in four preseason games. I don't think he gets a lot out of that. I've seen him throw far more than that one pass you're referring to. I've seen him probably air it out 20 times over the past three weeks. That's still not that much per day, but I don't think the bubble wrap should be really removed until that September 8th game.

I've even written saying that I wish they would keep him out, but what you're saying, that's what's going to happen. Cam will play some on Friday. I'm sure he'll be able to throw the ball wherever he wants to. Wherever it's dictated, they're not going to say you can only throw 10-yard passes. Same with Kuechly and same with most of the starters. I think we'll probably play 10 plays, 15 plays maybe at the most in this coming game, but I think they need to be super careful. This guy remains the franchise.

This is a story that has been discussed about a month ago or two months ago, but you just made me think about it. Preseason as a function altogether. Coaches say that they like these scrimmages where you can bring a team in like the Panthers are bringing the Bills in. They would prefer less preseason games, but the owners hear that and they hear less money, so they want to extend the regular season.

If Scott Fowler had it his way, where would he put it? Probably at that 18-2 place that I think the NFL wants it. Not the players, but the league. 18 regular season games, two preseason games at the most. I really think you could get away with one if they want to have fewer weeks of any playing. The way teams do the preseason now to me, Josh, is a joke. The Panthers didn't play a single starter in this game. They won't do it again in the fourth game. That basically leaves two games and really not much of those two games where you're getting your top half of your roster ready. And I understand the bottom half of the roster, those guys, they need some time to prove themselves or not, but to me two games is plenty. Even if they didn't extend the regular season to 18, I'd just like it to be 16-2. You do not need four preseason games.

That is an antiquated relic. Do you expect things to be contentious between the Panthers and the Bills the next few days, even though Ron Rivera and Sean McDermott have made it clear that they do not want to see any fighting? Yeah. Well, here's what's interesting about that, Josh. Rivera is going to talk to the Bills before the practices start, and McDermott's going to talk to the Panthers. And each coach is going to tell the other team, look, we have told our guys not to hurt each other. We're doing no life tackling.

I mean, conceivably, no one's really supposed to hit the ground, although that will happen a few times, I'm sure, but they're trying, trying not for that to happen. And the fighting, they're going to be very strict about, they say. Nevertheless, it's hot. The practice, you know, one of the practices here, the temperature may reach close to 98 degrees.

They're in full pads two days in a row, and especially with the rookies and the young guys, they are trying so hard to make a team. That naturally brings some contentiousness. That's a good word.

That brings some of that into play. Scott Fowler with us here from the Observer. Follow his coverage, charwoodobserver.com, on Twitter, at Scott underscore Fowler. I'm not sure if you're familiar with the Philadelphia Flyers mascot Gritty, but he went to a wedding this past weekend. He started dancing out on the floor at a wedding reception, and it was well received. It had us thinking about wedding reception songs, and the question that most people have been responding to today is whether or not they know the moves to the electric slide. Neither me or Desmond know the moves.

Aaron, our intern, formerly now just works in our control room and behind the scenes. He claims that everybody knows the electric slide. Does Scott Fowler?

No. I'd be riding your, I'm one of those at the wedding that I'm enjoying other people doing the electric slide, but I've got a couple of left feet. Is there a wedding reception song that will get Scott Fowler out on the dance floor? For me, it's Shout, Mambo No. 5, Uptown Funk. Heck, even the Cupid Shuffle. It'll get me out on the dance floor. Is there a song that comes to the top of your head? Uh, you know, let me think.

I was going to say Shout, and you already took that, but I would say, you know, the Beatles version of Twist and Shout, I think. Wow. That's excellent stuff. Scott, thank you for playing along with our nonsense and also for the insight. It's appreciated, my friend. Absolutely.

Anytime. You got it. That's Scott Fowler.

On Twitter, it's Scott underscore Fowler. See, Aaron is still convinced that every person that doesn't know the moves to this song can't simply have a groove that you can't dance. And also, is it okay that I said a groove? It's fine that you said a groove, but... Say it with your chest next time. I mean, goodness gracious.

I don't know what to think about listening public that just don't know the electric side. It was my guess. If I had to guess, 7 out of every 10 people would not know it. And right now, 74% of people said no. He also admitted he had two left feet.

It's fine. But the Twist and Shout submission, the Beatles version of that song, that is excellent stuff. That will get me out on the dance floor. I'm ready to go.

I'm ready to cut a rug. This is how I knew the majority of people did not know the actual steps to the electric slide. Next time you go to a wedding and you see people doing the electric slide, look at their faces. They're so proud that they know the steps to the electric slide that they can't help but smile and point and laugh at those of us on the wall that are watching them do the electric slide helplessly. That's how I knew because I've been in that corner before.

I don't know what I'm doing. Ned writes in, I would pay money to see an intoxicated Josh Graham on the dance floor. Any wedding, man! You don't have to pay money to do that. You just gotta follow Josh around a couple weeks.

You're bound to get that eventually, right? Karaoke? Yeah, where are you going to do some karaoke at this week? I don't go every week. But I did go last week.

Oh, there you go. I sang some karaoke last week. I don't even remember what I sang. I was gonna say, what's your fallback? Did you use your fallback? I don't have a fallback!

I don't have a fallback. I sang a different song every single time I go. I sang a different song.

I went up there and I did... Friday I'm in Love by The Cure. Oh, okay. That seems like a... I guess that would work as a karaoke song. That seems pretty good. Oh, and I did The Man Who Can't Be Moved by The Script. I have no idea what that is.

Do you know what that is? Sounds really solemn and depressing. It is! Great song for karaoke in a bar. It's from that Irish band The Script. I like The Script. There are some people out there who know exactly what I'm talking about. That's a nice song.

That's really nice. You just kill the mood in the room, huh? Not if you knock it out of the park.

It's kind of like if somebody sings Faithfully by Journey. If you can do that, more power to you. But good luck. Sounds like a lot of work. A lot of work.

Trying to sing that song. So, we haven't even gotten... Aaron actually has performed weddings. How many weddings have you performed? Three. Three weddings. Are most people nowadays doing bands or DJs?

What's more common? You see a lot of DJs. I've actually done gigs where there's a DJ present with the band.

Wow! We had a DJ at my wedding. We couldn't afford a band. That's the thing. The DJ is more economical. I understand that. You didn't even tell me what your favorite wedding reception song is.

If you're going to please the most people, where do you go? Because I believe Shout is number one. I don't know what Gritty was dancing to. See if you can find the video. I'm telling you guys the video, but I doubt any of you guys have even seen it. Gritty, it was the funniest thing I saw this weekend.

Gritty just breaking it down. And people chanting his name. I forget what song it is, but it's recognizable what song it is. But Shout's number one for me.

What would be it for you? If I'm doing a wedding reception, we try to stick to what I guess said earlier about Motown and Soul. People love that. But we did Stevie Wonder's Isn't She Lovely.

Wow. Stevie Wonder. Justin Timberlake and Bruno, those are two that I feel like across generations it will be well received by everybody.

Stevie Wonder. This is good stuff. But no, if you saw me at a wedding, are you guys pointers, snappers, or clappers when you dance? You point. There's some snapping. Definitely not a pointer. Yeah, I'm not a pointer. Yeah, pointing's probably the worst of three.

God, I wish I could see this right now. Run through those three again? What were those three? Snappers. You know, you're just jiving doing the hitch. Side to side.

Kevin James. That ain't it. And then you do some finger pointing. The wink and the gun. You do the wink and the gun. The finger gun.

Damn right I do. And then you also got the clappers. I think I might actually clap on certain beats of the song. Oh, I'm definitely the clapper. Usually if the one comes around and there's a certain beat that you clap on, but not a continuous clap.

I'm a clapper. But man, when I'm at a wedding reception, I really cut the rug. I'm somebody who doesn't mind dancing with the grandma as a way to get to the granddaughter.

Or excuse me, the daughter. That's advanced technique there, Josh Green. That's right.

It is. Wedding Crashers, the movie. What I'm typically doing at a wedding or a club at least or anything like that, I'm usually doing this.

I can't dance. I've owned up to it. At my wedding, I'm going to play Nuck if you buck.

If you have an issue with it. I'm sure the bride will be delighted. She'll be delighted. I need one song. Hey, you can pick the entire playlist.

I need this one here. I was going to say that Beyonce is someone who is universally approved on. Then I went to a wedding with cops and apparently it was a no Beyonce policy. Well, she had that whole formation thing. Oh, we played that earlier. But then they played with no irony at all, F the police. And everybody loved it.

Yeah. And there's grandparents sitting there as F the police is playing at this wedding. That's that's probably one of my favorite memories of my wedding. You played F the police at your wedding?

No, but we had a very eclectic mix of songs that I put together for the DJ to play like over 400 different songs from all kind of genres. And my wife's family, bless their hearts, they came in from Cleveland and they had no idea what to expect. So when some of these songs came on, I'd kind of look around, see her grandmother or grandpa. They're just kind of like not like scared. They're just shocked and just taking in like what they're seeing.

So they got their first exposure to Cha Cha Slide. At my wedding, you could expect Coldplay and the Crime Mob. How's that for eclectic? All right.

All right. Let's what do you got and take it to the house? Someone is getting a MTV Video Vanguard Award, and this person definitely deserves it. My question was, I didn't realize they still had the MTV Music Awards still. So I'll tell you who's winning that Vanguard Award when you can expect them to receive it. We take it to the house next.