Unsolved Sports Mysteries

It is a Monday drive, where over the weekend we got MVP odds for the NFL this year. Pat Mahomes, he's the betting favorite at nearly 4 to 1, followed by Lamar. Then there's Dak, which is nuts. Then again, never underestimate how many crazy cowboy fans there are out there.

Russell Wilson and Tom Brady are at 12 to 1, you could get Josh Allen at 20 to 1, but the best value for MVP is at 25 to 1 with Cam Newton. Just remember, awards aren't generally about excellence, they are about exceeding expectations. If it was all about excellence, Bill Belichick would have won the award sometime in the last decade. He hasn't. If it was all about how truly great you were, Mike Krzyzewski would have won Coach of the Year in the ACC, you'd think, sometime over the last 20 seasons.

He hasn't. It's because people expect Belichick to be great. They expect Coach K to be awesome. So really, awards like the MVP, Coach of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year, it's not really about who the best in the sport is, it's about who's exceeded their expectations most. The last two winners, Lamar Jackson, Pat Mahomes. Lamar was coming off a season he played half the year, Ravens won the division, he had a terrible playoff game against the Chargers. Nobody was expecting him to be a top quarterback who put the Ravens in the number one seed in the AFC and had the number one offense when the year began.

No one saw that coming. In his second season doing that, he truly came off the radar screen and was awesome, took the lead by storm. Pat Mahomes the same way.

Mahomes was great in that one game he played while all the starters were resting for Kansas City in 2017. So much so, behind the scenes, Andy Reid knew what he had to move off of Alex Smith, who was a playoff quarterback. But none of us thought he'd throw 50 touchdowns.

When he did that, there was no question. He's the MVP. The expectations are criminally low for Cam this year. 25 to 1. Cam's MVP odds are behind Kyler Murray and Josh Allen's and Dak Prescott's.

Think about that. An MVP from five years ago who's with the Patriots and Bill Belichick has less MVP odds, lower MVP odds than Josh Allen and Kyler Murray. It's astounding to me. They're playing in the division that they've won every year over the last dozen seasons.

Also, don't forget this fact too. Voters are more drawn to the story than the stats. It's kind of like Johnny Cochran famously said when he was talking about the OJ case and the Michael Jackson cases he took. My goal isn't to line up all the facts for a jury to see. No, it's me trying to tell a better story than the prosecution's trying to tell. Tell a better story. That's why he got OJ Simpson off and got Michael Jackson off.

He told a better story than the prosecution did. Voters are drawn to the story more than they are the stats. It's why I think if LeBron had a few more weeks of the season, if it didn't get halted because of coronavirus, he was going to track down Giannis. Not because Giannis had poor stats. Giannis, his stats far outweigh LeBron's. He's having a far better season, but Giannis' expectations are stacked up against Giannis from last year.

And also, your age is factored into this too. There's a reason why Leo DiCaprio won the Oscar for The Revenant and not for Titanic and not for The Departed and not for Wolf of Wall Street. It's because, eh, he'll be back. You gotta wait your turn a little bit. You're gonna have your moment eventually.

Right? With Giannis, he's won an MVP. He's 24. If it's close, LeBron, we haven't given it to him in a half dozen years. You know, it's a better story that he's winning with the Lakers. Relating it back to Cam, Cam joining the Patriots is the best story in the NFL this year. It's the most compelling. Even more compelling than Brady in Tampa, whose expectations are through the roof.

You heard it. 12 to 1. The Patriots, they have a worse division and a better infrastructure than they do in Tampa. Cam coming off an injury. Belichick without Brady. If they win this year, it's going to surprise some people.

It's going to be the most compelling storyline there is. So I think that works to Cam's advantage. Plus, I think winning the division could be enough to put Cam over the top.

I expect New England to do that. Best head coach he's worked with. Best play caller he's worked with.

Best offensive line he's had in his career. And he's more motivated than ever. He's been putting out these Instagram videos, Robert. This is the latest one he put out last night, or at least the end of it.

I'm going to miss these, having to follow it with the Panthers week to week, but this was Cam on his IG. I chose to say, daddy, daddy, daddy. We're going to Charlotte.

I said, no, son. It's like, we got another place to go into. We're going north.

He's more motivated than ever. Why do you act like you're not still going to cover Cam Newton? You're acting like I'm going to miss covering this. You're going to talk about him every time he does something.

It's true. We are. But I'm going to miss being there. I'm going to miss seeing it week to week. Well, I don't think anybody's going to see anything week to week this year. So what do you mean? You think they're going to let media come and talk to these people? That's a great point.

Yeah. No one's doing anything. Well, I mean, we might be able to go to the stadium. They just might not let us to the locker room or field level.

You could probably still get into Patriots zoom calls for Cam. Honestly, don't give me any ideas. Hey, what, what's he, what you doing over there? Cam, what's going on with your drip?

How does your, how does your, uh, Massachusetts drip compared to your Carolina drip? He's like, Hey, I remember you. Hey, aren't you gosh, dram. He's more motivated than he's ever been before. I was listening to the Tyler R Tines cam Chronicles podcast series that dropped this morning and Tyler's going to join us at five 30 and it outlines every stage of his career where he was great growing up in Atlanta. He was going to Florida, seemed to be the guy who was going to succeed. Tim Tebow before obviously things went south, growing stages at JUCO, awesome at Auburn. So really this is the last, the first time he's been doubted over the last decade. So I just think he's going to come out on a revenge tour man.

And he's got Bella check. Who's won six super bowls, more motivated than he's ever been. People thinking it's all Brady and that things are going to go to crap in Foxboro. Josh McDaniel's didn't get the interview with the Panthers. He was set the interview the day after Matt rule got the job.

Didn't get the interview with the giants either. So he has something to prove all of it spells Patriots winning the division cam being the quarterback doing so. And that might be enough for him to win the MVP. The only guy I'd say I'd like as an MVP candidate more than Cam is Russell Wilson.

And it has some DiCaprio like effect to it. Same thing for Drew Brees. Those two guys haven't won it before. And they're in position where they could have special seasons make the playoffs. So I think Cam's the best value at twenty five to one. I don't think he's the favorite to win the MVP. Best value pick.

I want to take anybody for less than fifteen to one. You're just not getting your money's worth there. I want to shift things. You got the Washington Redskins announcing news that's four days old. It makes sense when you're decades behind when it comes to the tolerance of your team name. It only makes sense that you're four days behind the news cycle.

Dan Schneider is really bad at this. That's what we're learning here. Adam Schefter broke the news last Thursday where he said there's not going to be any Native American references in this new name the Redskins have. They're going to move off of the Redskins. So we thought team announcement Monday morning. Oh they're going to tell us what the new team name is.

And they just tell us that they're going to be officially changing the name which is just a remarkable thing to do. Dan Schneider he can't read a room read a room at all. He's the guy who thinks you know what.

Here's what will cheer things up at a funeral. Let's sing some karaoke. You know he doesn't know where he's where everybody else is at.

It sounds like he doesn't even watch the news. Who's up first comfortably numb. Anybody.

Grandma. Come on. Hey. You know you know. You know Pa would have loved us singing some Louis Armstrong. Yeah. That's not a good idea.

If my grandpa was here he would be really old. What's also amazing about the statement they made today it's like three paragraphs long. We all know that corporate sponsors threatening to pull money is what forced Dan Schneider's hand FedEx which has its brand on the stadium said that if they don't change the name they will pull their sponsorship money away from the from the team and Nike not selling it stuff on the website get a pull from the Washington football team as well.

That's what ultimately did it. But you don't tell people that publicly you have to be like it's for the fans. We're listening to our fans. We're doing what's right.

We were listening to Native Americans all this. That's the thing you should say in the statement. But somehow in a three paragraph statement they decided to be so obvious make it so clear where their priorities are. They listed a cup that the people that they are doing this for and they have for our sponsors comma fans which is literally Washington and Dan Schneider telling you that they put their sponsors before their fans. Do you want to read the sentence.

I did. I was looking for Shane McMahon's entrance music just to play the money money money money. That is what it's about. They put their sponsors before their fans. But amazingly that's not the most Redskins thing that Dan Schneider did as he's trying to distance himself from the name Redskins. Usually if you know you're going to be searching for a new team name you would lock down some trademarks days before David Tepper officially got the license for a Charlotte MLS team. He locked down some trademarks. We saw it was public information. Dan Schneider did not do that. Do you know who did an Alexandria realtor who now I mean she's locked down he or she I don't know why I made it a she has locked down all these names that people are suggesting Washington Red Wolves Washington tribe Washington Red Tails Washington monuments Washington veterans Washington renegades gridiron football Washington Braves professional football team Washington Red Tails Washington freedom fighters Washington freedom fighters there's multiple Washington Warthogs which Robert really likes Washington red tailed hawks Washington Potomac's and the Washington redskins his name is Philip Philip McCauley so we can say he now so we know who it is Washington redskins can you imagine tie dye unis can you imagine if the big change to appease Native American people into seem tolerant Dan Schneider comes out with a graphic that turns the E into an A redskins complete with Bill and Ted they would make like a montage for this that was so like Dan Schneider probably thinks that's what kids still say oh they're all saying rad they're gonna like our team redskins that's what we're gonna do couldn't have thought that that was is that what the Radford is that what their mascot is they should be the radskins they're the highlanders the best names red tails it just is it has red in the name the redskins one of their logos it was an R already so you can keep that branding intact if you would like keep some things consistent the military connection the patriotism tie Ron Rivera says that he wants the name to have something involving the military in it that checks that box so I know it's what everybody's saying but red tails is the best name that's available back to the drive with Josh Graham on sports hub triad Robert how quickly did you binge the unsolved mysteries Netflix series that was posted last week or launched last week I have not watched it because mostly because everyone's talking about it and I thought you told me earlier you did I watched it the original show not the unsolved mysteries that they've posted to Netflix I watched one episode and I had to watch them all on Saturday and that's what I did and what's great is usually each of these stories that were talked about in a normal sense would take up five or six episodes to talk about and break down every piece and they would really milk it for what it was worth I just love that each one had a different story and it was 45 minutes and we could move on to the next one it required me to do some reddit and some Google research after each episode to figure out some of the details some of the facts but just really interesting stuff I'm not surprised that this is something that's trending in a major way but it had me thinking what are the greatest unsolved mysteries in the North Carolina sports scene I've had people send in a ton of different examples of things including TA McClendon was he in 15 years ago but I think I got the top three here so this is what we're gonna do Robert really makes these dramas it's the music that you're about to hear like right here I mean when you think of the X-Files you think of that theme song and you start getting goosebumps or goosebumps that music was also very scary yes it was I think this qualifies too so let's dive into the first North Carolina sports unsolved mystery did Roy Williams know about the AFAM classes I think he did but he also knew it was wrong and got all those players out of the classes as soon as possible I could get about North Carolina right now you got to remember the biggest charge against him was levied by Rashad McCants because he took some of these paper classes and there were a handful of guys in 2005 that did benefit from them but that was Roy Williams second season in Chapel Hill coming from Kansas by the time the 2019 won nobody was in the paper classes so it wouldn't benefit North Carolina or Roy for it to be public knowledge that he did know about it in 2005 but there is evidence that suggests unlike Butch Davis when he learned about what was happening that the athletes got out of those classes in the next few years that's how I feel about it second unsolved mystery did Cam Newton give up in Super Bowl 50 this fumble is going to be brought up till the end of time I didn't realize until looking back and researching it this morning that it was a six-point game when he fumbled that ball did you know that did not come to mind less than five minutes left I 16 16 10 what do you believe I still think he purposely did not jump on that fumble without knowing the score or knowing it was the six I've done a number of slow-motion replays to look at this DeMarcus Ware was already on top of the football from Cam's vantage point Ryan Khalil was also at his feet as well bad that quarterbacks they're taught not to injure yourself or else a RG3 situation could happen to you plus that ball that ball squirted away from Ware and Khalil he would have had a better shot at getting the football if he was standing where he was then if he dived on it in the first place because TJ Ward ended up recovering it at the goal line so effectively in that game but for people thinking oh if cam got on that ball they would have won that game potentially it would have been with four minutes left four and 15 from your own 18-yard line against the best defense we've seen in a decade good luck with that especially right Mike Rimmer is playing right tackle I feel like cam did not quit in that spot and furthermore I think Carolina punched the ball in that spot too don't you knowing Ron Rivera they had time outs his name's riverboat Ron yeah usually on fourth and one or fourth and two but at your own 18 defensive-minded conservative coach he's punting that ball away especially against Denver's defense I'll play a little devil's advocate here one you said you don't want to RG three situation don't play devil's advocate this is what you believe large okay this is what I believe RG threes accident where he got hurt with a lota Nada was a scramble not for a loose football if he would have jumped on that football the ball changes hands whether he gets hurt or not and cam played with such a reckless abandoned for his body you can't tell me that he's worried about getting hurt on the ground when he's getting hit almost every play he plays you're thinking about the wrong RG three play I'm talking about the playoff game against Seattle okay well the one he got hurt in well he got really hurt he broke his leg a lota Nada yeah it'd been around his body and there was a good Seattle their backups hello do not I didn't play for them well I'm saying this is a playoff game they didn't play in a Super Bowl Robert this was in a playoff I understand that Josh but I'm telling you the first time he got hurt the big hurt was not scrambling for a ball it was a lota Nada cam Newton could have dove on that ball and gave them a much better chance of winning then turning it over third unsolved mystery did Tom O'Brien rush Russell Wilson out of NC State Russ claims he said this in a Wisconsin commencement address that TOB told him he'd never make it in the NFL he's too short however it seemed Tom O'Brien asked Russell Wilson after the 2000 I want to call it nine season 2009 2010 roughly hey do you want to come back or do you want to play baseball and Russ said he wants to play professional baseball he was drafted by the Colorado Rockies then right as spring practices in dig for NC State and they have Mike Glennon who went on to be a draft pick and played and started in the NFL he said you know what I feel like playing college football again TOB was like wait a minute we just went through our entire spring we molded an offense around Mike Glennon which is a lot different than an offense we'd mold around you so he said no you had your option and you chose baseball and then Russ decided the transfer to Wisconsin that is the truth but Russ has been selling something completely different those are unsolved mysteries of sports next time we should get to if Golden Tate really did hook up with Russell Wilson's wife there are a lot of them that people have thrown at me I didn't really feel like going into like Delonte West and Gloria James oh god yes that's I know that's where you want ahead that's not where I want to go that's who the Lakers should be if I'm playing LeBron James first game of the playoffs I'm signing big dog every time Delonte West yes that's who LeBron is gonna face or he's gonna have that team gets past the first round is Gloria James gonna be the one guest they're allowed to bring sure or that Delonte is allowed to invite he and once he gets cut from that team I'm gonna sign him he's gonna sit on the bench every time you get dunked on every time somebody hits a three yeah gonna be clapping Tyler R Tines did the Cam Newton podcast series he's been working on this for over a year going to his college stops at Gainesville and in Auburn even went to the community college in Texas he played at the JUCO in addition to his hometown of Atlanta there was even an instance Robert where Tyler with Cam and his children in the gallery Cecil remember is a preacher was invited on stage surprising Tyler to speak in front of the entire church if you're working on this podcast series how do you react to that that's something we will talk to Tyler about also after we get done talking to Tyler there are more numbers out there about the Panthers offense people are starting to come around national media starting to come around about what Carolina has with Joe Brady with Teddy Bridgewater there are a lot of good signs about this Panthers offense I really want to get to but I enjoyed this podcast series so much it's really good you can find it on Spotify we're gonna spend some time talking to the man who wrote it the man who did all the reporting for it the man who hosted it Tyler R Tines from the ringer is gonna join us to talk Cam Newton next on the drive want to become a real sports fan leave it right here it turns everyone it touches into raging psychotic all fake sports well sometimes on the drive with Josh Graham I've been looking forward to this podcast series for about a month now since the ringer announced it it's called the cam Chronicles and I even woke up early this morning to try and binge this thing and at six episodes documenting each stop of cam's career to this point dating back to him being from Atlanta going to Gainesville going to junior college going to Auburn the Panthers and now what's next of course him being with the New England Patriots Tyler's done great work on this he's been working on this story for over a year follow him on Twitter if you haven't already at Tyler R Tines T y n e s or Tyler Ricky Tines excuse me is where you can find him the podcast you can listen to all of them on Spotify but it's also on the NFL's ringer NFL the ringer's NFL football show that they have Tyler before we get into all the cam Newton stuff I just want to paint paint a picture here you visited Cecil Newton's church and I understand that you were asked with cam and his children in attendance before the gallery to go on stage and address Cecil Newton's church tell me exactly what that scene looked like and what was going through your mind well I mean you know it was exactly what it sounded like you know I ain't come there for that and so it just happened to be what it happened to be you know if you know anything about Cecil Newton and the Newton family you know we can get a little eccentric at times and so like father like son and so that's a church I was a guest he wanted me to come up and say a few words I obliged man and it was just one you know one moment of a very long few days what did you say I mean you heard what I said yeah make sure you go Benji I don't know if that was the full degree that's tremendous stuff I want to play for you something that Bill Voth he was he was with us not too long ago talking about cam and he's covered him his entire career in independent cases in print settings television and now he's been behind the scenes Bill Voth and this is what he had to say when we were talking about him exiting the Panthers and how cam would like to view his legacy he's most proud of and that he doesn't think I'll ever get enough credit for is how he's paved the way for future black quarterbacks who can act proudly black and of course I I can't I can't pretend to understand to know him at that level but but I understand I think I try and I tried to understand what he was saying there and I do understand that I think the black quarterbacks that came before him were expected to act how quarterbacks act and in Kim didn't want to do that especially he was very proud of being a black quarterback that's also something Jonathan Jones said on one of your podcasts as well a part of the series what do you make of that and also what cam hopes that his legacy might be up to this point well I mean I think it's a little more complicated than that right obviously cam newton is a figure you know not only in charlotte but nationally that has had complications and complexities when it comes to how we view race and racism in the nation and so cam is both a vanguard for the new class of black quarterbacks that have come through the league right now you know sharp stunning fashionable everything that you could desire as a black fan really but equally cam dropped the ball to a lot of black folks in charlotte during 2016 when keith scott was murdered by police and so you do have a complicated figure in that regard and so I can't specifically speak to if that is what cam wanted to do the only thing I can say about cam in that specific regard is that cam grew up in a very black family in a very black city and a faith that afforded him the opportunity to be fashionable in a way that a lot of black kids and children aren't able to and he got to the main stage and he never forgot that he wanted to be a trendsetter he wanted to be a cultural icon it's something that you know anyone who's worked with him has said for years about the last decade of who he is in football and so it is much more complicated than just does cam or would cam want to be an icon to this set in class of black quarterbacks I mean he's trained and coached himself I think it's a little bit easier to say and a little bit you know more accurate to say that no matter what cam does no matter what his beliefs on the matter are he is going to be one that he held a he held a position for such a long time where he was the black quarterback of note and whether you agree with how he feels about race and racism or whether you you know don't back it at all that was who he was Michael Vick was saying things Steve McNair was the same thing and so on and so forth and so no matter what he believes he just is in that regard we're being joined by Tyler R. Tynes on Twitter at Tyler Ricky Tynes the podcast series he's been working on over a year called the cam chronicles it's really good find it on Spotify six different episodes going through a lot of different things but help me understand the resentment that exists for cam within the black community stemming back to what he said two weeks before the Super Bowl where there were white fans who probably were scared or afraid of the way that he plays because of how different it looked to what was in the past and then you mentioned the violence with the the police shooting in 2016 leading up to a football game against the Vikings and cam sidestepping what seemed to be a lot of social issues how is he viewed right now I mean again blackness isn't a model if I can't speak out he's knew by now by an entire group of people all I can say is that cam is who he is and a lot of the folks I spoke with a lot of folks who still live in Charlotte and a lot of people who did interviews in the last year they didn't forget what cam did in 2016 they didn't forget the pivot from 2015 to 2016 when it came to terms of how he identifies his own blackness what I will say though is if you meet his dad if you meet that church if you've been in that family you might understand a little bit more about where he's coming from as far as that and so there's there's you know that's that's the most I can really say on the matter is that again no matter how cam's outlook toward race and racism is no matter if every black person in the country hates cam Newton he will always be an icon for what he stands for see the thing we've got to understand is that cam Newton we call this person Superman but his greatest strength wasn't his size or strength or stature it was his dissonance it was his willingness to not conform or bend to the ideals that come with the NFL ecosystem and so every time he walks out of that tunnel just like area of the black quarterback who's in primetime or wins the MVP trophy he is a walking protest nobody can take that away from him what is the biggest misperception that exists with cam because the root of your project is trying to understand understand his polarity and why he is the way he is I think one of the biggest things is that you know you got to think about how we consume professional football and sports in general if the black athlete is always seen as the moral scoreboard in our rat race toward equity in America you know a lot of white people both press fans and those in between view black people a very specific way when it comes to race and racism in America cam fits into that mode right and so we have to understand within that same acknowledgement that he's not always going to be the person that you want him to be right and it's not fair to him whether we believe or we don't believe he's going to be person you know what I'm saying so you know these different black athletes are not always going to be the most progressive people and they don't have to be they don't always have to seek upon issues and they equally don't have to be and so that's kind of where I view him at now and I say all this to say that when we think about these athletes when we think about cam specifically we think that you know the smile is fake and that he's arrogant or that he's cocky and all these different superlatives and misnomers that have really never been here to talk to the guy or talk to his family so the things you come away with when you sit with them when you go to his church when you eat with his family when you see his humanitarian work when you are around him for more than what might feel like a two and a half hour football game is that the dude is authentic he's made a lot of mistakes in his life he'll be the first to tell you that he does and that he did but he's not looking back and you can appreciate some of that right the simplicity and the appreciation of it because he is who he is he's going to grow from all the mistakes he's made which have been several by the way and he knows them and he's still going to try to kick it with you the same as he was in 2011 but he wants to grow inch by inch in between one thing that you noted in the podcast that's so true and i'm glad you hit it was that cam went into the league saying that he aspired to reach icon status celebrity status as we're being joined by tyler r times on twitter at tyler ricky tines the podcast again cam chronicles from the ringer you can find it um the ringer's nfl channel is i'm interested in what you make of what cam's next step is going to be after football because he's shown interest when it comes to being a producer being doing television shows nickelodeon being on game shows what avenue would you could you picture cam newton exploring when his football days are ultimately finished whatever one he wants every single one that's available to him as an international superstar you know this is the thing you know a person like cam newton you can't confine him to just one thing and so cam has a bevy adventurous he singularly does love football it's a devout in his face and love his family enjoys being a father more than a lot of other things that he's mentioned and so i ensure that whatever football goes over cam newton whether it be this year or 10 years from now there's a calling for him and whatever it is that he wants to do i couldn't tell you what that is only cam could i'm sure that thing changes every single year but we shouldn't limit the world to folks like cam right the entire world is out there for him to explore and he's more than willing to do whatever he wants as far as that just like his football career have you gotten feedback from cam or cecil on it haven't don't need it either i think about me i i would say is is that you know my pathos and all of this to tell my most you know transparent american truth and that's a very black one and that's why it encompasses a lot of diaspora when it comes to blackness in the united states and how we tell stories about these black folks who are very underwritten about by a lot of our press uh a lot of our press people nationally and for the history of how we do journalism and so at the end of the day i need to meet the moment i need to be true to the ideas and to the people that i i am you know writing about and keep my career about and so whether cam newton enjoyed the project or whether cam newton doesn't i won't lose a wink of sleep about as long as i know that we've done him right right on very much believed that we have well i yeah i agree with it i've we've covered his entire career and it's it's he's a very difficult person to understand to some and i think this is the best example of somebody capturing what exactly his intentions on some things might be and capturing his journey uh it's tremendous stuff it's the cam chronicles it is tyler ricky tines on twitter tyler r tines kind enough to join us from the ringer thanks for doing this and congratulations on a really long project finishing up and being something that's really great i appreciate it man thanks for having me y'all go get that thing on spotify all six episodes danger right now i need to know about it come on there you go and shoot him up shoot him a follow as well while you're at it at tyler ricky tines there he goes tyler r tines kind enough to join us here on sports hub tryant i binged it all this morning robert and there was a section of it that made me pretty emotional earlier today that i didn't expect to be a part of it as you know one of our good friends on this show is jordan rodrick carolina panthers beat reporter who now has is going out west to be la rams beat reporter there tyler here's how all-encompassing this was they even covered when jordan asked a question about route running and cam laughed it off saying it's funny to hear a girl talk about routes which then put her in the crossfire as people dug through her twitter and found something from six or seven years ago where i think she was quoting rap lyrics or laughed at a racist joke and all of a sudden she was under under fire and it's the first time i heard her speak about it and she's been a friend of this show for a long time and i know how rough that was on her hearing somebody talk about contemplating suicide who who's a friend of yours it's that that was really tough but that's just an example of something in this series that speaks to the honesty of it there are a lot of examples like that so binge it as tyler said there at the end it's just really good stuff transitioning things there is an example of national media starting to come around on this carolina panthers offense this year bill barnwell when it comes to analytics he follows it closer than anybody i think in the national sphere that is reputed so he ranked the nfl's best and worst offensive arson arsenals one through 32 and the carolina panthers come in at number five on his rankings ahead of the atlanta falcons ahead of the philadelphia eagles ahead of the arizona cardinals which just brought in the andre hopkins ahead of the buffalo bills that just brought in stefan digs ahead of the new orleans saints with michael thomas and alvin camara it makes sense doesn't it like the 2018 rank of the panthers offense was 17th last year it was ranked 22nd in the same ranking now it's ranked fifth where you have dj moore coming back robbie anderson christian mccaffrey curtis samuel upgraded quarterback play i don't think it's unrealistic at all that this panthers offense finishes finishes inside the top 10 this year the difference between carolina and the top 10 a year ago is 25 yards per game they were 19th in the nfl 19th with kyle allen playing quarterback and will greer the final month without ron rivera they were punting the entire month of the year and they still finish 19th in the league in total offense what do you think they're going to do with joe brady and teddy bridgewater i saw a video i got excited about this teddy's ig not nearly as fun as cam's ig but teddy throwing to robbie anderson starting to get some of those reps in i'm excited man do you want to guess the top five offenses in the league or the top four after carolina sure uh san francisco san francisco not in the top five uh give yourself an x there i was trying uh obviously chiefs and ravens i'm guessing are going to be on there well you got to remember these aren't the top offenses they're just the top yards arsenal like like weapons that's what this is because the niners ranked 18th on the list that's what this is it's like best receiver it's essentially best receivers and running backs okay so like offensive line isn't factored into this otherwise san francisco would be very high up at that baltimore's i don't want to guess anymore then yeah baltimore's not in the top 20 actually their 20th which is goofy but okay number four tampa bay buccaneers okay evans godwin parryman actually they just lost prashad parryman yeah he's on the jets he's a debt oj howard cameron brate bronc dallas cowboys number three you add cd lamb to michael gallop and amari cooper that's all you add that's pretty good though i mean yeah but they still have a tight end but anyway elliott number two he's pretty good yeah when when somebody wants him to be he's pretty good jason witten not playing anymore he's a raider now oh that's right cleveland browns wolf okay uh you want to know what i got him i mean there are there are a lot of weapons on cleveland jarvis langer ain't like that and o'dell beckham had a duty year last year do you want to know what this is this is officially ticked me off nick chubb they wouldn't know how to use two good running backs if that was all they had on offense austin hooper david and joku number one's the chief they have samey walkins might not play like tyree kill travis kelsey mccole hardman damian williams don't put poo on this list because the panthers are fifth this i'm not i'm not just doing it fifth is a little rich for my blood for them anyway but this is the goofiest list i've ever heard of and we do a top 10 yeah what is who is the last ranked team let me try to guess that oh this this is actually fun i'm gonna have to guess the bottom five yeah sure it i'm gonna say the jets all they have is bail they got the jets are 29th okay jets are 29th uh red skins are worst they are the worst so you're pretty good at this um okay i'm gonna say it depends how they like the dolphins because they have no running backs they have one good receiver yeah the dolphins aren't great but they're there they're higher than the ravens which is also goofy the goofiest thing i've ever heard whose offense non-quarterback would you rather have right now you would rather have the dolphin skill players or the ravens skill players who is taking that uh the actually you were right there 30th i just didn't see him okay you just like ticking me off that's what it is you just like seeing me yeah you're pretty good at this you guessed you guessed uh three of the bottom five two more uh i want to say the bears but i don't the bears are 28th and so there's one more in the bottom five that's 31st the giants no they're tanking robert i don't know who you're talking about jaguars uh see they have a lot they have more than the giants do giants have saquon who the golden tate who who stunk it up last year what are you russell wilson's hype man what do you got and take it to the house uh it's gonna bring a whole new definition to mine all right that's next on the drive sports fans often confuse talent and influence like when collin kapernick was disregarded because of how he was declining as a passer i'd constantly have to remind people of this fact talent is different than influence kapernick today has more influence than matt ryan ever had for instance when it comes to cam newton while i don't believe he's the best black quarterback to ever play in the nfl i do think he was the most influential we'll talk to tyler r tines next hour about this who had the who's worked the last year on this cam newton podcast series the cam chronicles for the ringer it's really good it outlines every single step of cam's career but i just started thinking about how we're gonna remember his legacy because we i think we take this part for granted now we no longer count how many black starting quarterbacks are playing in the league i think even when vic was playing a dozen years ago we were still doing that we were still looking at oh there's vic there's mcnabb there's there's a handful of guys and we were still counting them that's probably part of the reason i think vic is the most influential black college quarterback we were still doing that in the 90s when charlie ward was at florida state and it was andre ware at houston winning a heisman but when vic proved it wasn't a shtick it was he's a tremendous passer in addition to being a great runner he's going to carry virginia tech to a national championship game against florida state we no longer cared anymore we stopped even counting how many black quarterbacks there were across the league the way that we're now doing that with head coaches across college football and across the nfl like vic it's not hyperbole to say he single-handedly got virginia tech into the acc if it wasn't for him in the timing of it all virginia tech's not in the acc it's amazing how quickly they rose up through the ranks but think about last year in the nfl the best quarterbacks in the sport lamar jackson won the mvp i think the second most valuable player last year was russell wilson after that i'd probably say it was deshawn watson with the texans the best quarterbacks in the nfl now are african-american pat mahomes oh i forgot about that guy and he's the best of the bunch we just don't think about it anymore and we did i feel like when cam was entering the league mike vic he played in atlanta cam newton embodies black atlanta now i won't begin to understand or try to begin to understand everything there is about black atlanta but in reading constantly about it and listening to people who are from there when they see the bright suits it's not abnormal when they see his personality the showmanship the dancing that all comes with black atlanta it's a part it's a part of the culture cam wasn't afraid to take that to the most fragile and white position we had in major sports the quarterback like if cam was doing the same thing in the nba i don't think people give one rip lebron him taking the power russell westbrook what he wears kevin durant and the book bags and the fake glasses nobody gave a rip in the nba but the nfl there is a certain expectation that a quarterback acts a certain way and cam just wasn't really interested in doing any of that he railed against it because it wasn't who he was and this was intentional when cam this is something that tyler r times discussed in the podcast cam was proudly black proudly atlanta and when he scored he wanted that displayed he wanted people to know that he wanted that to be a part of his legacy bill vote covers the panthers has done so in an independent capacity a print capacity a tv capacity now he's working for the carolina panthers so we had special access to cam he was on our show a few months ago when cam left and i thought this was a really illuminating answer about him he's most proud of and that he doesn't think i'll ever get enough credit for is how he's paved the way for future black quarterbacks um who can act proudly black and of course i i can't i can't pretend to understand to know him at that level but but i understand i i think i try i i i tried to understand what he was saying there and i and i do understand understand that i think um the the black quarterbacks that came before him were expected to act how quarterbacks act and and kim didn't want to do that especially he was very proud of being a black quarterback and that's why he gets ripped and that's why there is a racial element to the tennessee titans fan writing that letter to the charwood observer there was a racial element to the way that he was criticized after the super bowl white quarterbacks they didn't receive the same scorn but since cam took a lot of this heat i feel like it opens the doors for guys coming in for pat mahomes to play freely and play differently for russell wilson to open up his personality a little bit for some of these players to speak out on what's important to them because five years ago cam was simply saying i receive a lot of this criticism because i look different than any other quarterback who's played this position and that can scare some people he said that two weeks before the super bowl lamar jackson he could do all the fun things that he does and say big trusts and all these things cam he is influential at that position in a way very few are or have been over the last few decades i think he's the most influential black quarterback in nfl history but it's something i'm interested in talking to tyler artines about we've got let's get crazy in less than 10 minutes bruce smith getting a lot of attention from family feud and rightfully so if you missed this this is the nfl hall of fame defensive lineman and former virginia takoki uh and his interaction with steve harvey if captain hook was moonlighting as a handyman he might replace his hook with what tool a hammer try again a penis tell me the age a kid is too old to sleep with what he said how do you default to that that might be better than the naked grandma response do we need to see if the answer was right depends what kind of handyman he is i mean screwdriver it's easy in hindsight though i mean when you're on there and the pressure and the lights are bright i feel like i'd be great at this game i feel like family feud speed round i'd be awesome at it you would not be awesome at pronouncing the name because it is the fast money round fast money round sorry the one that's like 30 seconds i'd be great at that yeah well i'm glad that you think you'd be so great at it because when i heard this i know how you are so i pulled a lightning round for you to play and we can see what do you what do you hear for the team to win two people go and they try to get 200 points so okay i break it up as if both partners can get a hundred that's a good round you know what i think you're right it's harder to be the second one though so if you want to score 200 it feels i feel like the first one has to do the heavy lifting so if i score over a hundred that's pretty good yeah but i'm gonna try and shoot for like 110 115 all right they give they actually give the second person a little extra time did you want extra time for this no i don't need the extra time all right 30 seconds on the clock these are tough now it's a lot of reading so i'm not going to be so strict with your time limit more about your points but let's start off with this one name an occupation a bad driver should avoid uh taxi driver name something specific that people make reservations for dinner name something that a woman never forgets about her fiance's marriage proposal uh location uh name something that a burglar's check to see if the family is out of town uh uh dog okay name something people do to corn chuck all right that's it that's it you you finished that 29 seconds yeah like i said i'm pretty good i don't feel great about the pet answer but that's the only one that i didn't feel awesome about so taxi driver dinner location pet chuck corn we'll go through it right here all right let's start off with you said taxi driver that is the number three answer and that scores you 21 points oh that's good it's a fifth of what you needed okay that's good that's good uh what answers were better uh truck driver and a bus driver okay truck and bus uh name something specific that people make reservations for you said dinner that was the number one answer yeah that gets you 35 points and right now you are sitting at 56 points two answers and you're halfway there you did pretty good to start off with name something that a woman never forgets about her fiance's marriage proposal you said the location that is the third answer that gets you 22 points still on pace still on pace number one was the way he asked her and number two was the size of the ring okay uh fourth question was name something that burglars check to see if a family is out of town you said a dog there are only a pet there are only four answers and that is not one of them number one was checking the mail number two was the lights are off number three was no car in the driveway number four was new paper piling up okay so the drama is building right now i'm at 78 i'm glad you did the math i did not do that yet you need 22 points actually 23 points because you said over 100 yeah if i get over 100 i'm feeling pretty good chuck corn i feel good about that too something people do to corn shuck is not an answer husk is i will accept husk husk is the fifth option oh no only giving you five points oh so you're a little short 83 points i actually really really enjoyed this game uh number one answer was pop with 41 points number two was uh eat number three was boil i should have thought of eat on the cob that's what i thought of too first i don't know how many people were saying pop what's something you do to corn oh i pop it no you don't canadian edition come on what are you doing uh four was cooked five was morning six was butter you finish short but i mean if you got a second teammate they're gonna come in there and you only got what one number one answer so they could come in there potentially and save you no i i make no excuses you want me to go and see if i can win us the thing yeah i think you'd do pretty well knowing the rest of the answers how about how about we get to some hot takes though oh i like that let's get crazy i actually had someone tweet me over the weekend saying i can't wait with everything that's going on right now i can't wait for the let's get crazy segment bring it if you have hot takes that are just stewing based on everything that's happening in sports and quite a bit is happening 336-777-1600 is the number you can tweet us at sports up try it if you'd like as well we get crazy next on the drive