The Drive with Josh Graham - Best Denzel Movies - 08/5/19

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It's brilliant. The Wyndham Championship got exactly what it wanted. A North Carolina born player who went to a North Carolina school, who held on to win the tournament at the very end, needing every last stroke to do so. They just didn't have this North Carolina boy pictured in their storybook finished. The guy they imagined winning was Webb Simpson, who was the favorite coming in, one of our favorite sons here in the state of North Carolina regardless on who you have claiming him. The city of Raleigh, where he lives right now in Charlotte. And of course here in the Triad, he's a part of that Wake Forest golfing tree. He finished second for the second consecutive year in this tournament. He finished second in back to back weeks on the PGA Tour. He earned himself a little bit of cash in doing so. Somebody who has to feel pretty awful this weekend, someone who decided to take the week off, hoping that Webb Simpson wouldn't climb into the top 10 and bump him out, that being Justin Rose. He lost about a half million dollars because Webb Simpson climbed into the top 10, which made Justin Rose 11th. Thus not in.

Then wouldn't have rewards. Top 10. That has to get some folks thinking moving forward. But Webb Simpson, aside from Brooks Koepka, he's probably swinging the hottest club on tour right now. He didn't look good off the first tee and if he didn't have the poor finish or poor start, I should say, that he did yesterday, he's probably the one holding up the Sam Snead Cup at the end of the day.

If he starts better, he probably wins. But now he had a lot on the line, as I mentioned, earned himself a nice little payday yesterday for cracking the top 10 of the FedEx Cup standings. He's also number six now in the President's Cup standings. Tiger Woods is the captain of the President's Cup team. The top eight Americans automatically qualify, which means Webb now climbing from 10 to six is automatically qualified if it ended today to being on the President's Cup team with Tiger. So it was a big weekend for Webb Simpson, but an even bigger weekend, of course, for JT Poston. It was almost a perfect weekend for the Wyndham Championship. It probably would have been picture perfect if it was Webb Simpson. But since it was JT Poston, we got just another taste of sports not having a script.

Sports, why I love it, you never really know what you're going to get on a given weekend. It's not scripted. There were dozens upon dozens upon dozens of players this weekend who all envisioned themselves holding up the trophy at the end of the weekend.

One of those was Poston who did it for the first time. I thought that was an even better story than if Webb Simpson would have won. This tournament had everything but bad weather. This might be a hot take. I don't know if it qualifies as a hot take.

You can let me know maybe with audio accompaniment whether or not this qualifies. In the summer, overcast days are better than sunny days. I would take an overcast day over a sunny day any day of the week. Yesterday was absolutely perfect. There wasn't any rain throughout the entire round, just overcast skies, so we weren't all dying.

We weren't all burning. Just walking the course yesterday, it was terrific. It was the perfect summer weather. I will take an overcast day over a sunny day any day of the week. See, this might be one of those cultural things that always pop up on the drop with Josh Graham because the sun doesn't really bother me. I don't really get sunburned. I get darker, but I don't get to the point where I'm hurting. I'm not worried about getting burned. I just think it's more refreshing to be out when it's 65, 67 degrees versus 85, 90 degrees.

Oh, well, that's a different conversation. You're saying you prefer fall over summer, basically, because normally you're not going to get to that degree in the summer. Yesterday felt like the fall. It felt like the fall yesterday walking the course. Overcast makes me feel like emotionally tired. 336-777-1600 during the summer, hot day or overcast day, which would you prefer?

On Twitter at sportsubtriad as well. Aaron, what say you? Got to get you some vitamin D, man. There you go.

Soak up those rays. Good for you. I think you're wrong on this one. I think most people will agree with what I'm saying here. So we'll get to that.

We'll revisit that at a later point. Next year, it might even be better. The field.

Mark Brazel seems to think so. That extra week off will improve the field. Get even bigger names than Jordan Spieth a part of things.

It was the best field that the Windhams had in 20 years. You had big names like Jordan Spieth who completely fell apart on Saturday. And he was cut. The secondary cut.

Didn't play on Sunday. Also, you had big names there at the end. Webb Simpson, probably the biggest of the bunch. Paul Casey was in competition in the final round. Very high up on the leaderboard. A lot of terrific golf shots were made.

There were a ton of local ties. J.T. Poston holding up the trophy at the end. Jim Nance making his return to Greensboro. He hasn't been the last few years. So even something as small as that, having the voice of golf from CBS going to the Windham Championship.

I think all of those things matter. Richard Petty, the king. The king was racing before the Windham began against our good friend Mark Brazel. There was drama. It came down to the very last shot. Deciding who was going to win the trophy. So it almost was a picture perfect weekend for the Windham Championship. It was well ran.

It was a lot of fun. The Carolina Panthers have been in training camp for over a week now. It's game week for the Panthers. Thursday night they're going to be facing the Chicago Bears. The Panthers, they've been putting out a lot of their own content. They had this Camp Confidential, which is a team distributed, hard knocks type of show that's on their YouTube channel.

It's also online. Brian Burns highlighted the first episode when he channeled his inner Denzel Washington in front of his teammates in a way that I think serves as rookie hazing. It used to be that you would be harmed physically. Maybe you'll get tied to a goal post.

You might get run down. But now rookie hazing has become you pay for the snacks that we have during meetings. You pay for dinners and you perform in front of your teammates during camp.

You get on stage in the meeting room you sing a Celine Dion song or you sing whatever you need to to impress your teammates. Brian Burns went a different direction, showed us some of the performance arts and his repertoire channeling a little Denzel. What? Oh, no, you did. Wait, wait, wait a minute. No, you did. Jerk!

I need my money. Jerk! Jerk! You think you can do this to me? You will be playing basketball and pelican bang when I get finished with you. Stronger man up in this piece. You ain't never seen like you. You think you can do this to me? You just live here. Yeah, that's right.

Go walk away. Excellent work. Well done, Brian Burns. That probably is the most iconic Denzel Washington scene of all time, yes?

Uh, I don't know. Just iconic. Denzel's got some scenes, man.

He's got a resume. That could be the top iconic. The next one I'm thinking about is his scene in John Q.

When the sun is sick and all that jazz. Oh, yeah. I haven't seen that movie in a while.

That's a good movie. Here's what I want to do. Radio shows, we often do this by the seat of our pants. We fly by the seat of our pants. We try to do this on the fly. We try to be spontaneous.

That makes things fun. Next segment, I want you guys, Aaron and Dez, I want you guys to give me a Denzel Washington scene. I don't know what movie you would choose. Surprise us. Surprise us with what movie you're going to select.

I don't care if it's Training Day, Remember the Titans, John Q, or whatever. He got game. Take a pick. Oh, that ain't no problem.

Yeah, we'll hook it up. All right, Denzel. A Denzel movie going to be channeled by Dez and Aaron in just a bit. Now they're scrambling a little bit in the control room. Wolf writes in.

You still get vitamin D if it's overcast. How about that? Really? Is that so?

Who was that that gave you that? Wolf. Wolf. Is that correct, Wolf? Did you still get sunshine when it's overcast?

It seems so. Maybe you get more vitamin D if it's sunny, but you do, in fact, get vitamin D. So how about that? That's how you wind up with a deficiency. That's right. That's how you do it. You get that powerful vitamin D. Oh, is that how you're responding when somebody calls you out?

You say something that isn't false? I mean, I'm cool with overcast days. I just don't want them in the summer like all the time. You don't feel like down when you come outside of your house and it's overcast and it's like a chance of rain? I'm a happy dude. I'm not influenced by the weather. Me personally.

I am not deterred. If your happiness is dictated on whether or not it's sunny or overcast, you're already a sad dude. Or woman. It's not necessarily a mood thing for me. It's just a vanity thing. I look better in the sunlight. I get this nice caramel glow to me. Girls like that.

They see that I'm well moisturized. Going back to Brian Burns, it seems like Florida State, they always produce the showman. It was Deion Sanders in the late 80s wearing a top hat rolling up to games in a limousine. Jalen Ramsey showing up to camp in a bricks truck.

He shows up and has a hype man with a megaphone. Then you got Brian Burns here channeling a little Denzel Washington. So it's all very good stuff. So we're going to work on this. Des and Aaron reenact a famous Denzel movie scene.

Plus, I'll rank my five favorite Denzel Washington movies next. Listen up, everybody. There has been a lot of talk. This is the sports hub at AM 600 AM 920. Now back to the drive with Josh Graham. There's an awful lot of self-serious in sports media.

That's why we tend to go the other way and veer towards people who are a lot more fun and have a more fun approach to sports. Marty Smith, a guest on today's show from ESPN with a new book out on college football and NASCAR. But going out to Spartanburg and Carolina Panthers campus, the team's getting set for a Thursday night preseason opener against the bears. We now go to one of the new reporters that the Panthers has. It is Karen can on Twitter at in Caroline can and somebody I'd qualify like Marty Smith and others who has fun around sports quite a bit.

As I saw her Friday night facilitating a dance off at Panthers fan fest between Cam Newton and Curtis Samuel. Welcome on in the Triad, Caroline. How are you? I'm great.

Thank you so much. So aside from the state of Cam Newton shoulder, has Curtis Samuel been the story of Panthers training camp thus far? He really has. And I think it was started in the offseason of knowing that him and DJ Moore and those kind of young receivers needed to take a big step. And Curtis has definitely emerged as kind of that lead receiver of he's a heck of a route runner making some big catches down the field. So he's definitely made a name for himself this year in training camp. What's been more surprising, his emergence out on the field or the dancing ability at Panthers fact? I think they kind of go hand in hand because I think maybe if his play wasn't as high as it is, I don't think he would see as many dance moves out of him.

So I'm excited that we're seeing both. Speaking of performance, Brian Burns did his best Denzel Washington impression on the the series that you guys put out on YouTube and also at Panthers dot com. Do you have a favorite Denzel Washington movie, Carol?

Oh, gosh. Are you allowed to have like a favorite one of his movies or do you have to like equally love them all? It's a great point.

It's a great point that Caroline brings up here, like picking a favorite Denzel movie might be like trying to ask a mom who her favorite child is. Exactly. All right. So she's staying away from that one.

Doesn't want doesn't want anybody to be offended by it. OK, I'll play the game. I'll play the game. I'll say remember the tight when I was growing up, my dad was a high school football coach. And so I mean, that was seeing, you know, Denzel and his daughters and Coach Boone and all those with that was my life. And a lot of people said that I was Hayden Pinatira out of that movie running around with my dad, like yelling in the stands and asking why they're playing this coverage.

So I'll say remember the tight. So you were covering the Indianapolis Colts before coming to Charlotte to work with the Carolina Panthers. I wonder what what's been the biggest what makes what Ron Rivera does unique or what's been the thing that stood out to you at training camp the first couple of weeks you've been working with the team? Yeah, I think it's just how regimented they're going to be with the reps that these players are getting in training camp. You know, I think that obviously happened in Indianapolis and it happens to a lot of teams across the league that, you know, their quarterback's going to throw this many balls and the second team is going to get this many reps in the third team.

But I just think here it's a little bit more aware. They're telling these players you have this many plays to capitalize on it. And if you choose to not capitalize on it in the sense of you're not you know, you're going to end on a bad play, then so be it.

You need to capitalize on the reps that we're giving you. And I just something that's like out to me, you know, it'll be a kind of a lackluster play that will end the period. And it's a little bit unfulfilling, but they're going by the script so much to make sure that their players are getting enough rest and recovery and getting ready for these games. But it's also teaching the players that you have, you know, four quarters to really make an impact and to make the outcome what you want it to be.

So we're going to go ahead and get in that routine of of making sure you can get done what you need to get done any amount of time or reps that you have. Caroline Cans on Twitter at in Carolina can on Twitter from Panthers dot com. You were with the Colts before the Panthers. Do you have a good Jacoby Bressett story you can share with us?

Oh, you are wolfpack country. He is just he's a righty, such a jokester. He had a really tough situation when he came in. Indianapolis is coming into a situation. I don't think anyone really understood the full severity of Angelou shoulder than him being forced into that starting role very early and having to take out. I mean, he was on the roster. I think probably this is my favorite story about him. He was on the roster for three days before he went out and started a football game for the Colts, like not knowing the playbook.

I mean, can you imagine just here's the playbook, learn it and, you know, three days and then you need to go out there and we need to win this ballgame. So I think it was just seeing the way that he handled that situation and was still able to gain the respect of the team and see how hard he worked. And that's why he's still there and he's still a really big leader on that team, even though he's not that starting quarterback.

On top of that, space. Dave Doran, he was telling us, I mean, he just likes liking all of Jacoby Brissett's tweets, because the guy will talk about space and ask how things aren't, why things are so cold in space, even though it's closer to the sun. I mean, the guy, he's an interesting cat, yes?

Yes, he is very interesting. And we actually would get into a pretty big debate. He's on the train that the earth is flat. And so when we would be sitting, you know, getting to know him and the receivers, that's what they would debate all the time of like, no, Jacoby, there's like no way that the earth is flat. But the funny part is he is so smart that he can just continue the conversation. He can get people all riled up about this topic. That's a really good, like funny debate.

Nothing serious. We're all just having fun. But he was so smart and articulate people listened to him that he would have some fun with those off-the-wall questions. But to have it straight, these conversations are happening on the field like, hey, you're sitting here at Lincoln to practice and the guys are discussing whether or not the earth is flat. Do I have that right? No, no, no, no, no. These are happening like, you know, over dinner or, you know, walking around.

The amount of time that they spend together in between meetings is when these are happening. No, when it's out there on the field, it's all football. It would be one of the greatest things ever. Hey, what's your thoughts on the earth, whether or not it's flat?

Well, I don't think it is. Hey, what play are we running here? Hey, Coach, let's get in here and get ready to go.

Caroline Kam with us here. Before we let you go, Thursday, it's the Chicago Bears. What's the number one thing you're looking for in preseason game number one, which we're expected to see probably the fewest amount of snaps for starters? Yeah, I think what I'm looking for is just what is the depth of this team? I mean, the team feels good and the coaches feel good about where they are with the depth at a lot of different positions, but we haven't really seen them get live, full-blown reps, you know, outside of going against one another. So I'm really interested to see the depth on this team go up against someone that's trying to take their head off or trying to fight for a roster spot because those are the teams that, as we all know, you know, later on in the season, week 10 through 17, if you can have depth and they can seamlessly step in when injuries are going to happen or guys need to take a couple of snaps off in this long season, those are the teams that are going to be pushing for the Lombardi at the end of the season. So the team feels good about where they are, but there's still a lot of question marks of, well, there's bodies there that we feel are talented for the depth, but who fills out that official depth chart?

And I think that's what we'll see start to take shape in Chicago. Caroline, it's good to have you on. Welcome back to the Carolinas. Thanks for doing this. Yeah, thanks so much.

You got it. That's Caroline Cannell on Twitter at incarolinecann, with two N, I should add, from panthers.com, has daily reports out at practice with Bill Voth, our good friend also with panthers.com. I'm getting crushed right now on social media. I put the question out that you can vote on at our Twitter page at sportsubtriad is remember the Titans overrated. And what I'm getting back to the tune of 85 percent of people is no, it's not overrated. Don't question it.

Sam tweeted, this hurts. What are the greatest sports movies? Of course, this is my opinion, but I don't want to read any taking suggestions that remember the Titans. Just because you're emotionally attached to the movie doesn't mean the movie is great. But that's the definition, isn't it? I don't think it makes you emotionally attached to it and makes the movie greater.

Anchorman is the movie I might be most emotionally attached to, but I'm not going to put it up there against Godfather in Casablanca. Nor should you. I mean, just because I mean, that's I don't even understand. Right.

But that speaks to the point. Just because people emotionally identify with the movie doesn't mean it's an all time great Oscar worthy type of movie. But remember, the Titans is a better overall movie than Anchorman. Like it. Oh, it has Denzel. Washington's was won an Oscar as best actor. Easy.

It had I forgot who directed that movie. It's all perception, you know, easy. It just depends on you. You're going to come out here. See, I think there's a significant faction who would say Anchorman over remember the Titans. You want to go for two today because you can put that up. I don't think that's going to work either. I'm not taking an L when it comes to opinion.

Three, three, six, seven, seven, six hundred on Twitter at sports. I'm just giving you my opinion. And even though it might be one you dislike, it's what I believe. It's a strange opinion.

I don't know how you I'm trying to figure out how you landed there. But that remember the Titans, what makes it overrated? But I understand you don't like everybody loves the movie this way that they won't even question it. When I think the movie's a little hokey, it's a little cliche. It's based on a true story.

What were they supposed to do? Well, no, I'm talking about the way they told the story, not necessarily the notes that they played. It's a Disney movie. Like, I mean, it's formulaic. But but that's part of the charm.

Like, you kind of know where it's going as you as you, you know, as you watch the movie. But Denzel and Wood Harris. I mean, there's a lot of good actors in that movie, too. Like, it's just strange to me that you think it's not overrated.

You don't think it's bad, though, right? It's a good movie, not a great movie. I don't think there is a great football movie. I don't think it exists. The director's cut of Remember the Titans is fantastic.

I'm sure I'm sure it's just as good as the regular, which is just good. It's fine. It's not great.

It's fine. They don't like any given Sunday or I like it or you don't consider it a great movie because it's football. Yeah, there hasn't been a great football movie yet.

It's not in the same ballpark as Bull Durham or Field of Dreams in my mind. That's a bold take. You are listening.

That's what I'm here for. You are listening to WSJS Winston-Salem, WCOG Greensboro, WPCM Burlington and WMFR Highpoint. Those signals making up the Dryad Sports Hub. It's that time of the week.

Hot takes welcome only. It's a segment that the callers are very good at. Aaron Gabriel is pretty good at. I'd like to think I'm pretty good at it. Desmond Johnson's not. You're great at a lot of things. This is not one of them.

Oh, I got you all today. Every week, Desmond tries to figure out what we're doing. And we all know what we're doing and we know how this segment should go, except for Des.

He hasn't quite figured it out yet. But then again, my blind spots are very clear when I'm wrong. Like, look at this poll right now that's on Twitter where I said that I would have some allies on the Remember the Titans being overrated front. Right now, 78 percent of you are saying that it's not, in fact, overrated. So I can admit when I'm off at points, Des is usually spot on, like with that sound you just heard.

But we'll see if he gets better as we go on here. It is let's get crazy. Hot takes only. If it's not hot, we'll kind of just be like, nah.

If it is, you'll be rewarded with the best possible sound we can give you as a means of reward. Three, three, six, seven, seven, seven, one, six hundred to get started with a little bit of Prince. Crazy. Crazy. Crazy. Crazy. Crazy.

All right. Usually I like firing things off right out of the gate, but let's shake it up a little bit. Let's go to the phones. Brian and Greensboro's up first. Brian, let's get crazy.

Are you ready? Yeah. Go. All right. You said that it's not just sports. It could be other this time.

I'm going with the other. And my take is that you cannot be racist, sexist, homophobic and still be a good person. Racist, sexist, homophobic and not be a good person. Well, I'm not going to question it, but a hundred years ago, I'm sure there's a lot of people we deem as being good people who were probably all of those things.

Yes. Well, if they were those things, I don't think technically they could be a good person. But back then. No, that doesn't.

OK. OK. What about the founding fathers? It just means more people are wrong. Yeah. Right. Well, we're holding them to a standard that's different, that didn't have as much information. OK, let's just move on.

I don't want to be able to do this every week. I don't want to be on the front of defending homophobic, sexist, racist people. Let's climb up that hole. That's a smart take on the part of Brian. You either agree with it and give me the horn. If you don't, you're racist, sexist and homophobic. A bad person.

I've got two back to back right here. Oh, the town is Ben Affleck's best performance. He's not as prominent in goodwill hunting. So give me the town over that. I like him more in the town than in Argo. It's just a little bit more believable, his role in the town versus Argo. It's perfectly Boston. The Batman movie was awful. Pearl Harbor was a damn shame.

The town is best performance. Back up take. Andy McDowell is more perfectly 90s than Alicia Silverstone. Andy McDowell?

Really? Oh, yeah. I watched four weddings and a funeral this weekend. Then I had to watch Caddyshack and get my Andy McDowell fix. I don't know who that is.

Perfectly 90s. Oh, shit. I just said four weddings and a funeral. Caddyshack.

No, no. You don't know both of those movies? Caddyshack's 80s. Well, no, Caddyshack is 1989, 90. No, Caddyshack came out like. Oh, not Caddyshack. I mean, Groundhog Day. There you go. OK. All right. Groundhog Day. I like them in a change lanes, but. Oh, yeah. Some of all fears. Andy McDowell more perfectly 90s than Alicia Silverstone.

Alicia Silverstone just had that one movie. Let's go to Desmond first time. Desmond, give us a hot take. The North Carolina Tar Heels football program, led by Mack Brown, will win eight games this year. They won, I think, two last year and almost got to one AA squad. They're going to win eight. All right. Well, walk us through it.

They're going to play 12 games and win eight of them. Arithmetic. Yeah. I got that. How?

With a lot of grit and determination. Oh, no. Give 110 percent. He has the take down now. Something that qualifies as a hot take. But he doesn't know any Tar Heel players.

He doesn't even know what's on the schedule. He knew he was going to get the hot take, but he doesn't have anything to back it up with. Not not not not never, not never in the history of this segment. You got required. Now, have we been required to explain our hot take? We could either explain it or leave it on the table.

What do you mean? We've never had to sit here and go through this, too. I just did. You didn't have to do that. We didn't ask for that. You could just let him have a hot take. Now, I got to say it.

I got to sit here and be like, well, Carolina's going to beat Duke and then they're going to beat Wake Forest, but then they're going to lose to South Carolina. And that's not what this is. Do I have to explain to you how radio works where these segments, they're 10 to 15 minutes long? If it was just us saying one sentence and moving on, that wouldn't be great radio.

Let me help you dance. And also, you're a Tar Heel fan and you can't name Tar Heel football player. That doesn't matter for this segment. The segment is the segment is let's get crazy to come up with the hottest, craziest takes we can. And for the past two months, I've been in here giving takes and you two have been like, that's not good.

That's cold. That was a hot take. OK, then I don't need to have a disclaimer with it explaining why it's a hot take. I was just hoping I wasn't trying to get you. Yes, you were. I was trying to get you to elaborate.

OK, what's the path? How does it happen? They're going to come together as a team underneath Mac Brown and they're going to just do it. They're going to come out and beat South Carolina. They're going to beat Miami.

They're going to beat Wake Forest, Nap State, and then they're going to lose to Clifton and then they're going to beat Georgia Tech. I just assumed since you're a Tar Heel fan and you're a producer on a sports radio show and you had that take that I was setting you up for a slam dunk. But I didn't it would be like throwing an alley-oop for somebody in a wheelchair. It doesn't matter who's on the schedule. Oh, I know.

It doesn't matter who they play. I wasn't trying to get you. I thought I was setting you up to spike a volleyball down. You just asked Dan for your other five points.

He brought home a 95 and you were like, why didn't you get a hundred? Wayne in Greensboro. Wayne, let's get crazy. I've got my World Series predictions in early August.

Bring it. The National League championship will be the Atlanta Braves over the Dodgers. And in the American League, Houston will roll over the Yankees. In the World Series, the Astros over the Braves in a four-game sweep with a run differential of 20.

Wow! OK, you brought it home. If he was coming in with the Astros or winning the World Series as a hot take, I'd say no. But a sweep and a 20-run differential, we'll write that one down. Yeah, that was pretty hard.

And revisit that at a later point. 3-3-6-7-7-7-1-600. Tiger Woods, he's going to play in next year's Wyndham championship. He did a couple years ago, right?

Four years ago. Next year's field's going to be great. You get the week off. I really feel like Tiger might be someone trying to get into the FedEx Cup rankings, get high up. And if you're close to the top 10, you don't want to be somebody missing out on $500,000, whether you're Tiger Woods or J.T. Poston.

So I think it's going to be a situation where we'll be playing in the Wyndham championship. Somebody on the internet who we have no idea who released a top 50 greatest record of all time list. Why did you bring that up? I'd just forgotten about it. It's important.

It's important. It includes names like Andre 3000 and Tupac and Fabolous. So Black Thought of the Roots is the greatest rapper alive right now.

Whoa! Kenneth, real quick, please name an iconic Black Thought verse. Turn the music down. Can you name one Black Thought iconic verse that everybody knows? Yeah.

He just spit a 10-minute freestyle on Funk Flex last year. Didn't anybody know that? Let's stop questioning the takes. Only Josh is allowed to question takes. Well, no, it's the rules.

That is one of the only stipulations, Des. Come at me, bro. Close us out.

Come at me, bro. Close us out strong. The Carolina Panthers last year finished number 15th in overall total defense.

You're such a homer. It's always Carolina. This year, the Carolina Panthers will lead the NFL in total defense and scoring defense. Coming all the way from number 15, which I don't think has happened before in a year where someone outside the top 10 the year prior leapt all the way to number one.

The Panthers are going to do it. What, Josh? You got something to say? You got something to say about my take?

What's going on here? It's a hot take. You got something on your mind? You going to say something about it? It's a hot take.

Even gave you why, how, everything. But has there ever been a time we've ever done this segment where the take hasn't involved something positive in the way of the Panthers, Hornets, Tar Heels, or the Lakers? Let's water the seed here. Let's water the seed, Josh. Let's take a cultivating approach to what Desmond has brought to the table this afternoon.

He did a lot better. Somebody ask me if I care. Any one of y'all ask me if I care which ones I'm... I'm trying to encourage you, Des.

I want you to continue this hot streak that's around. Just ask me, Des, do you care about someone? Des, do you care? No. No, I don't.

No, no, no. No. No.

No. That actually checks out. Coming up, the three funniest pieces of audio from the weekend. This is the Sports Hub. You're on the drive. Let's get started.

This is the Sports Hub at AM600, AM920. Now back to the drive with Josh Graham. We're now being joined by ESPN's Marty Smith, one of the most fun rednecks in the history of sports media, joining us here now. The last time we did this, Marty, we were talking about sad movies for some reason, and we asked you about it, and you said, you revealed to us that you had been crying just earlier that day in the conversation because you had literally just finished your book that afternoon, the book being Never Settle, Sports Family, and the American Soul that you can find where books are sold. Now that the book is out, how much can you tell us about writing the book, how much it takes out of you emotionally? It was a lot because I made myself pretty vulnerable, and thank you for asking. The writing process and the creative process was interesting. I mean, the book's largely about my life and the experiences that I've had, so anything worth its salt is vulnerable, so I had to kind of go to those places, whether it was losing my parents really young or taking that moment as a parent. So many of us are going so hard professionally and in our lives that our children's lives speed by, and the next thing you do, we look up and they're 13, and then we look up again and all they want is your money and your keys. I have this line that I wrote that a lot of people have posted to me that long days become short years, and it's so true. And so putting all that in there, and of course the lessons that I learned from folks like Tiger Woods or Michael Vick or Nick Saban or Brandon Marshall, that I've had the great opportunity to interview, they've all molded me into this man that I am currently, which I hope is the best husband and father, the best version yet. And so I think it's going to be really relatable to folks who read it on a lot of levels.

The book again, Never Settle. Follow Marty Smith on Twitter at Marty Smith. We have sound that I think college football season's almost here, and we have sound that I think captures the passion of SEC fans in a nutshell. This comes from a CBS TV station in Knoxville, and this is sound specifically of a young Tennessee football fan. What did you want to see out there? I wanted to see somebody get ran over.

Yes, America! I love it. Do you remember what got you hooked on college football, Marty? Probably the time with Dad.

It was, I didn't get a ton of time with my father when I was a kid because he was working his tail off to make sure that we had food in our bellies. But man, when we were doing Virginia Tech games, I was within his aura, and he had quite an aura. He was this mythical figure for me because I just, I went around him a ton.

And to be there and to see him disarmed and to have a fountain of coke and to feel his love and hope he felt fine while we were pulling in the same passionate direction, watching the Hokies play, it was amazing, it was just, I felt so full as a little boy. And I said before, I lost Daddy in 08. When he died, there was this void that I still haven't seen. It's this compass in your life, no matter what your relationship is with your father, when you lose them, you lose this compass. You could always call Daddy and he'd have the answer.

And then that's gone. And to this very second, I feel closer to my Daddy in Lane Stadium in Blacksburg, Virginia than I do anywhere on the planet. And it's very difficult to describe what that feeling is, but it's a beautiful feeling for me. That relationship you're describing between you and your dad, it reminds me a lot of reading Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s book, the relationship Dale Jr. had with his dad and what got him into racing cars and NASCAR. You became good friends with Dale Jr. in the past few decades. Did you guys connect in that way too?

Sure. We connected over the loss of our parents. I wrote all this in the book as well, brother.

I wrote an entire chapter about sharing with your dad everything that he managed when he went through the concussion scenario where it was extremely difficult. And I then kind of meandered through our relationship. He's one of my best friends. I don't talk to him every day, but I know that he knows I love him and I know he loves me. And we've walked through some spots together, man. When his father died, when my father died, and the conversations that stem from that, that's not something that you have with some of these buddies. That's something that you have with the people that you trust to the utmost. That's something that you have with people that can see you in a broken state. And I've seen him that way and he's seen me that way, and we've held each other up.

And we've had the highest of highs. I mean, one of my favorite moments of my career was after he got out of that race car in Homestead, Florida, in 2017. And he was in one piece, and he was fellowshipping with his crew guys, standing there beside that race car, drinking beers. And I got the chance to interview him and learn in that moment his perspective on this career that was now coming to a halt. And he asked me, now what are you going to do with this? And I said, we're going to take one of them damn beers, something on the beers.

And right there on the television, we pound you a beer. Who knows that? It's just a beautiful soul, man. Here's a way to articulate things, a way to give of himself that way.

It makes millions and millions of people believe like they know him. That is a gift. Marty Smith of ESPN with us here on the Sports Hub. You mentioned your time in Blacksburg and your ties to Virginia Tech football. Bud Foster announced he's going to be spending one more year on the Hokie sideline as the defensive coordinator. Do you have a good Bud Foster story? He's a hero to me. He's a guy.

I was standing. I'll never get used to the fact that he and Coach Beamer know my name. There are institutions where I grew up, the Les Pale Defense and Beamer Ball and special teams and revolutionizing the game.

That's what those guys did. And Coach Bud is every bit as much a part of that as Coach Beamer is. And I was standing on the field at Florida State before the season last year, and he walks out of the tunnel and he's got on a suit and they're just kind of checking out the field. And he comes over and he's coming up and laughing with me by going fish in and having some beers. And I'm just like, what kind of dimension am I in that Bud Foster, this titan in my nostalgic mind, is talking to me this way? Like I can't, I'll never get used to that and I can't wait to invite him. I'm going to call him in a couple days and I can't wait to invite him down to the house to the show.

And I'm buying the cold ones because that man is a fixture of my childhood nostalgia. The book is Never Settle, Sports Family and the American Soul. It's Marty Smith of ESPN with us here. Your voice is so unique, quite literally, but also in just the way you approach sports. It's a lot of fun.

It's genuine as well. Did anybody along the way ever try to change you? No. No. Nobody. Not the way you speak any of that.

No. I was. Remember, I came in covering NASCAR. I never aspired to make television.

It was never my path. I'm a writer by trade. I studied print journalism in school. I was a sports writer until early 2006. And that's when ESPN called and asked me if I'd like to make television. So when they wanted me to come there, I was going to be their NASCAR news person. So there was some authenticity in the way I sound.

And for the record, you can be Southern and articulate at the same time. So no one ever said a word to me about that. I was doing a report standing on top of the media center at Bristol Motor Speedway in the summer of 2007 telling the world that Dale Earnhardt Jr. was going to leave the company his father founded to go race for the New York Yankees and NASCAR in their motor sports. And I got done with the report. My heart was beating 700 trillion miles an hour. And I was walking back to another media room.

And my phone rang. And it was Wendy Nix. Wendy now hosts NFL Live for us every day on the network.

And Wendy is from the Pee Dee region of South Carolina near Darlington. And she went to school to lose her accent. And she said to me that she thought it was so cool that I sounded like I sound and never, ever, ever change. And I said to her, hey, I really appreciate that.

I don't know how to change. That's awesome. Marty Smith of ESPN. Before we let you go, the book once again, Never Settle, Sports Family and the American Soul. Brian Burns, formerly a Florida state in the ACC, is a Carolina panther. And there was video of him. See, rookie hazing's changed over the years.

But one thing that now happens is you have to sing or perform in front of your teammates. And Brian Burns decided to take a scene straight out of training day. Just going all King Kong ain't got nothing on me.

All that stuff in front of all of his teammates. It had us talking about Denzel Washington movies. Do you have a favorite? I mean, I hate to be that guy, but it's easy. It's Remember the Titans. I mean, that's one of the greatest movies ever made, man.

So, yeah, why is that like the most popular answer or something? Well, you know, Remember the Titans. See, I'm somebody who puts the Spike Lee movies a little bit higher. But where does that fall in football movies for you, Remember the Titans? It's really high.

Really, really high. I mean, yeah, I don't know one that's better. I love the Friday Night Lights television series that Peter Bird did with Coach Taylor and Tammy and all that. I mean, for me, the Friday Night Lights television series is the greatest that I've seen. There is no appointment television for me, really.

I'm not a huge TV guy. But Friday Night Lights was must watch for me. It was so brilliantly written. The character development was phenomenal. And I grew up in that bubble.

I grew up in a town where college, excuse me, high school football is a religious experience. All that is in the book, too. I wrote a whole chapter called Forever Friday for a reason. And so my wife will call me Buddy Garrity half the time.

She's like, do your Buddy Garrity. Marty, congratulations on the book. Thank you for squeezing us in. Appreciate you guys having me and championing my book.

I just very humbling. Have a great day, guys. Thank you. That's Marty Smith of ESPN. All around good guy. Great guy in the business. Marty Smith. The book once again is never settle sports family in the American soul.

Yes, does. I'll take that as him dunking on me there. I remember the Titans. Not one of my top five favorite Denzel Washington movies. It isn't. I don't think there's many great football movies out there. I want to consider.

I remember the Titans that. But Marty Smith's word carries a lot of weight in football communities. And if he says it's very good, I welcome that side of the argument. At any rate, we've got to take it to the house to do. We will take it to the house next on the drive.