The Gladiator Times

Just as we were getting off the air yesterday, the Carolina Panthers signed Eli Apple. And while I don't want to make the mistake of thinking my Twitter timeline somehow represents the majority opinion, I was still surprised with how many people dislike the signing. I don't see any downside to it or any risk with it, yet I continue to read about how he once tweeted during a game on the sidelines, how he led the Saints in penalty yards the last few years, and was a bit of a hothead. If he was a quarterback and those were the concerns, I might be more worried about that.

But not corner. There have been several Hall of Fame, Diva, and hothead corners. However, in the case of Apple, I believe Matt Rule's culture will be good for him. Let's look at the three coaches he's played for in the NFL. Sean McAdoo, fired very quickly. Funny looking guy, not very funny to Giants fans when you talk about what actually transpired those years. Pat Shermer, fired after two years.

Traded away just months into his tenure. Then you got Sean Bountygate-Payton, who's been his coach the last two years. So, it's easy to point at the penalty yardage and say, oh, it's because he's not a great corner that he keeps getting penalty yardage and that he's a bit of a hothead. But let's not forget, the Saints, they have been in the bottom half of NFL penalty yardage among teams, six of the last eight years. Bottom seven in two of those years, including a year ago.

Carolina, it's a different deal. Matt Rule isn't just some coordinator becoming a head coach for the first time. He's a culture builder. He was at Baylor when that was the worst football job to take college or pro. Temple wasn't a lot better. And he turned those places into winners.

Here's what we do know about Eli Apple. He thrived under the structure of a college coach. Urban Meyer, when you think about Coach Meyer, what he brought to Utah, Florida, and Ohio State. He brought structure.

It was strict. It was culture. Rule, while he's not quite Urban Meyer in personality, he does bring his process, to use the buzzword. And he does bring this culture. That is his M.O. So I think it's going to be a better fit for Apple to step into that rather than being in New York City or under Sean Payton.

It's the least amount of pressure you can agree, Robert, that Apple's faced as a pro. He was a first round pick, not even just that. He was a top 10 pick. In New York City, playing for the Giants, the spotlight, it's hot on any first round pick.

But in New York City, top 10? While the team's struggling, people are going to openly criticize you. Then he gets traded to the Saints. You're thrust into being a starter on a playoff team. And he did start for both playoff runs in 18 and 19. You have to go up against Matt Ryan.

You got to go up against Cam Newton. Compare that to what he's stepping into right now. The contract details have been released. He's making $3 million a year.

You want to talk about risk? That's the 50th highest paid corner in the NFL. That's $11.5 million less than what James Bradbury's making with the Giants. And Bradbury's getting that in each of the next three seasons.

It's low risk. And that benefits both sides. Carolina, who gets a 24-year-old corner who's going to turn 25 with all this experience and top 10 talent in athleticism. Apple gets to be around structure, a place, be around something that mimics what he succeeded in last. The college environment, college culture, college coach. And he's going to be asked not to be the primary corner, but the second corner to Dante Jackson. It's an evaluation season. He gets to step here, where they're not expected to win, and prove how good he is. And do so without breaking the team's cap, without having large expectations placed upon him. So I really do like the signing in almost every single way. If you're a Panthers fan and you have thoughts on Eli Apple's signing, on Twitter, at sportsubtriad, you can chime in.

336-777-1600 is the phone number. Robert Walsh is the producer of this show taking your calls today. Jordan Rodriguez, who I'm sad to say isn't going to be a Panthers beat writer much longer. In fact, I think she's already started as an LA Rams beat writer for The Athletic.

She's going to join us as she wrote about Eli Apple with her colleague Joe Person yesterday. That's going to be at the bottom of the hour. Now I'm going to admit this, and this is the only time we're going to get to this today. It's a really tough day to be doing sports radio.

There's a lot of things going on in our country right now that you're not really interested in hearing about if you're choosing to listen to this platform. I understand sports radio, it's a bit of a distraction, but I'm feeling for the city of Minneapolis right now because it's a great sports city. It's a deprived sports city when you think about the last time they had a champion. You've got to go back to the early 90s Minnesota Twins to find the last champion they've had, but while their sports teams haven't won, that city is significant to many teams that surround us. That city is going to mean something forever to Virginia Cavalier fans who saw the Hoos win a championship in 2019 for the first time in program history, beating Texas Tech in that OT classic. It's forever going to mean something to Duke Blue Devil fans.

So it hurts to see what we saw last night, it was very surreal, but I'll also add this. The events in Minnesota exemplify why I never had an issue with what Colin Kaepernick did. That doesn't mean I agree with everything he said. Full disclosure, my dad's a police officer, and he does a great job, and it bothers me when people suggest that all cops are somehow bad. I have two cousins in law enforcement as well, in dangerous areas they've worked. I have many friends who are in law enforcement.

Every time I see a police officer, I'm sure Robert can attest to this, I thank them for what they do every single time I see them. So this is something that does mean a lot to me, and when I see Kaepernick wearing the socks and the Castro shirt, I understand he's an imperfect messenger. But the way I've always felt about it, as long as the demonstrations that people participate in are legal and peaceful, I'm never going to tell somebody how to protest.

Never. This was a really touchy issue when I think members of a band in eastern North Carolina, at ECU, protested. It was right around the time where Kaepernick started all this, and I was asked to go on TV because they couldn't find anybody that would even mirror having an opinion in a largely red area saying that they backed what the band and Kaepernick were doing.

And this is all I said, and somehow it was incredibly controversial. I don't agree with everything he represented, but I understand after seeing how violent things got last night and how destructive it was, and instances in Baltimore and in Dallas where it was similar, dangerous, scary, you can't get me to get charged up about somebody peacefully protesting. If it makes you uncomfortable, well, sometimes that's what protest is intended to do. But if it's not hurting anybody, if it's not illegal, if it's a peaceful protest, I'm never going to have an issue with it.

It's a hallmark of American freedom. And last I checked, again, correct me if I'm wrong, Robert, how many Panther fans did you see last year burning jerseys? How many Panther fans did you see having issue with what Eric Reid did before every single game last year? It was an issue at first, when he got signed, everybody paid attention to it, then people stopped caring. So while the messenger might be flawed, I do think Kaepernick has proven his motivations were pure.

He never sold out. We don't see him on TV often, talking to reporters, trying to push a book, trying to push a movie, anything like that. And it's been, what, three years. His football career is over.

Like, I'm not the guy who tries to perpetuate something just to get interest and make it a lightning rod, all that stuff. His football career is over. But I do think he's going to be remembered for a very long time.

Probably as long as we live. Not like Ali was, because he wasn't nearly that good. Not Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, not even LeBron James. Can't have that type of impact when you're not the absolute best in your field. But I don't think anybody thinks that Tommy Smith and John Carlos were the best at what they did. And we still remember them. They still had an impact.

And it's been 50 years since they were standing on that medal stand all those years ago, and I forget, 68 or 69. So, this is the only time we're going to be doing this today. But I wanted to get that off my chest, because man, probably for a lot of you, for me especially, it's been a really rough day.

And it's tough to see all that. And this radio show doesn't do well with that being the backdrop, so I promise you, this show's going to be what you wanted to come to it for. It's going to be a distraction, it's going to be fun, it's a Friday drive. We have a lot to do, and we're so glad that you're along with us. Coming up, I have ways for sports television networks to amplify games whenever they return, if they can't have fans inside the building. That's next on The Drive.

This is going to be a little bit of a bittersweet segment for us, as I just remember it like it was yesterday, four years ago or so. I was Googling to check how to pronounce our next guest's last name. It's our good friend Jordan Rodriguez. We have our football and food segment that we like to do.

I don't know why I put him out of order. We'll order food and football with Jordan Rodriguez, and this might be the last time we get to do it for a long time because you are now not Carolina Panthers beat writer Jordan Rodriguez. You have recently accepted an opportunity to go back out west where you're from and be LA Rams beat writer for the athletic Jordan Rodriguez. Congratulations on that, Jordan. And if I'm not mistaken, I might have been one of your first radio interviews you had when you took the opportunity, right? Yeah.

You know, you are always you are always working and you are always hustling. And so I remember for about four years ago, I got a I think you emailed me the first time. And you were so nice and you're really, really polite and such a warm welcome. And then we ended up talking. And then, you know, as our segments continued over the last few years, we realized, oh, my goodness, we can talk about food, too. That's been great. Yeah.

And I want to there's a couple of things I want to get to about West Coast cuisine versus East Coast cuisine and other things related to that. But we actually have Panthers news to talk about. Eli Apple signed by the Panthers yesterday. We know they've been looking for a corner so they don't have to rush Troy Pride Junior along the fourth round draft pick.

What do you think most intrigued Carolina about Apple of Apple versus the other options that were available? I mean, to be blunt, they just needed a corner. So you have to get a guy who's young but has experience starting.

He kind of fits that Venn diagram. I don't think he is as bad of a player as he kind of has had the reputation of being over the last few years. I think that there's still he still has the tools toward toward being a good player. I think they really they that role really, really like his secondary coach and some of his assistant coaches in that position. So if you can kind of correct some bad habits, great.

And you have a guy who was taken in the first round and you have him for a one year deal sort of for chief. I saw some stuff yesterday. First of all, I saw people were mad at it.

That's fine. But I saw some some stuff yesterday that said it shows that her knee. This means that her knee believes the Panthers will contend.

That's nonsense to me. I think that they desperately needed a corner. I mean, that's all there is to this move. They desperately, desperately I don't think people understand how dire their situation was even after drafting Troy Pride, which is a great pick, in my opinion. Their situation was absolutely dire at corner going against other NFC South teams that have done nothing but add resources. And you're going to go out there without a true starting experience.

Number one corner. I mean, it's just silly. So no, Eli Apple does not make them a contender suddenly overnight or double down on their contention suddenly overnight. What he what he does do is he fills a hole that they would have been embarrassed by if they would have started the season without a player at that position that has starting experience.

And so to me, that's that's all this is. And it also fits with what Caroline has done the rest of the offseason offense and defense, where you only see just a couple of guys who get even more than a two year contract. It's a short contract.

It's a cheap one. I think you'd be the 50th highest paid corner this year with a three million deal, a three million dollar deal. Ian Rappaport announced earlier today. But do you know, I just looked at the calendar and you know, you have the time hop app where you can look at what happened five years ago, three years ago, even further than that, and see where anniversaries lie. I realized that this week marked the two year anniversary of David Tepper becoming the Panthers owner officially. And we've learned a lot about Tepper over the last two years.

You're a lot closer to it than I am. What do you think after his first two years, the early reputation is for Tepper among NFL owners? Among owners, I don't know that I could say that definitively. I think that they're cautious about the way that he can move markets. So that's something that they're I wouldn't say people are like necessarily tiptoeing around the guy, but he hasn't really shown his hand yet. And to me, he hasn't really shown what kind of an owner he's going to be yet. He hasn't really shown what the identity of a football team with his name sort of on the paycheck is going to look like yet. We've seen a lot of breakdown and start to rebuild, but he has not really shown what his identity is going to be as an owner. We haven't really heard him rattle the table too much inside owners meetings.

He's kind of accumulating his information. And I think we're going to hear a lot more from him at these owners meetings later on. But there was an early interview that I did with him back when he first went to his initial owners meetings where it was like he wasn't interested. He had this reputation in the financial world of being like this mover and shaker and pounding the table and really doing the bold, daring, risky moves that that worked out for him and then being very vocal about it. He did not want to take that same approach as he entered NFL ownership. Instead, he's been sort of sitting back the last couple of years and gathering information, really analyzing the direction of the league, really understanding what these other owners are, because to David Tepper, not only are these his colleagues, but he's in competition with all of these guys at this point and he wants to be better than all of them. So I think this has been a very much an analysis period for him. And I'm interested to see sort of what his identity becomes over the next five years or so as as an owner.

Jordan Rodriguez, the athletic with us here on sports. I'm trying its food and football with Jordan. And let's get to the food part of this where lawmakers in North Carolina, the North Carolina Senate voted to reopen bars despite the governor's order from last Friday and us being in phase two.

Restaurants were opening up at 50 percent. I tried to go to one on Sunday. I sat inside and it just felt really strange. I was the only person there at around 1130.

And then there were two parties that came in around 1215. And it just felt very far from normal. Have you sat in a restaurant yet? And if not, when do you feel comfortable doing so, you think?

No, I haven't. I have done a lot of work trying to support local businesses. I am still in Charlotte with my I still don't know when I'm moving because of the pandemic. So I'm covering the Rams from afar and trying to do a lot to support the local businesses in Charlotte. And I just I'm not comfortable yet going anywhere.

There's a lot of high populated areas, especially in the part of Charlotte where I live. And so I'm just not comfortable going to a restaurant. I want to do everything I can in order to take out and carry out. And I think a lot of restaurants here should be commended for the job that they're doing in terms of trying to keep things safe for their employees, as well as for other people. So I've been doing a lot of takeout.

I've really enjoyed copper, Indian food, takeout. And also, of course, I've gotten loosehead takeout several times, but I don't know when I'm going to feel comfortable in a restaurant again. And I don't know that I'll feel truly comfortable being anywhere in a heavily populated area until there's a vaccine for this. And that's even even saying, you know, I'm not a high risk in a high risk population, but I don't want to put anyone else at risk. And that's the kind of thing that kind of keeps me awake at night is what if I have put someone else at risk or what if I would do that?

And so for me, I just, you know, I want to make sure that I'm kind of eliminating that possibility. Luckily for me, I've been really exploring every possibility of my own kitchen. We'll see how that goes once I move because I'm known for their food. But yeah, it's just such a strange time and I really want to support restaurants like you did, Josh.

And I really want to make sure that, you know, we're maybe trying to get back to normal, but it's just to me something I can't I just can't wrap my head around yet. Yeah, I think the last time we did this, we were talking about things being locked down and we said it's important to support local business and hey, buy some gift cards. Let me let me add on top of that now, though, I got about a half dozen gift cards in my pocket and my wallet.

This is not the time to use those like save those probably because those businesses are still struggling. Pro tip. Probably wait till the fall at the earliest to maybe pull out the rainy day gift card. Just a pro tip before we get things to I think East Cuisine versus Western, where you're going to be headed to cover the Rams whenever it's safe to do so. What's the southern regional chain you're going to miss the most around here? That's so difficult because I was actually thinking about this before we got on. I know for sure I'm going to miss all the various barbecue spots.

And I know that's not necessarily that doesn't necessarily include a chain, but I am very much going to miss all that. I keep thinking and I don't remember the name, but you would know this. One of the best sandwiches I ever had was at a barbecue spot. I was doing that story on Todd Gurley out in Tarboro.

Robert might actually know better than I would Tarboro Barbecue. Let's see if we can find what that joint is, because I know exactly what you're talking about. Hole in the wall. It is a chain, but a hole in the wall for sure in Tarboro, North Carolina. It's like famous cheddar biscuit. Abrams. Yeah, that was one of the best sandwiches I've ever had.

So I missed that. You're on the road to some of these stories in the Carolinas. And you pull over and you have one of the best sandwiches of your life just randomly.

I really will miss that about this region. In-N-Out or Whataburger? In-N-Out. Why?

But you can't really compare them because they're just different. When you're in Texas, you really want a Whataburger, right? When you're in the West and you have kind of that salty air, you really want an In-N-Out burger. Jordan, I hope to see you before you head out. Thanks so much for everything you've done for this show the last few years.

And hopefully one time the Panthers will be playing the Rams and we can reconnect at a later point. Thanks so much for doing this. Thanks, Josh. Really appreciate you, man.

You got it. That is Jordan Rodriguez. She's on Twitter. At Jordan Rodriguez, shoot her a follow. If you have food recommendations for her on the way out, that might be a good place to go.

I know she'll appreciate that. One of the best doing it. All right. We have a side-by-side comparison of Eli Apple versus other corners the Panthers potentially could have signed. And get this, we have another SportsHub time machine that we need to explore. Another entry there. And we'll get to both of those next on The Drive. Make some noise. Make some noise. Let's go. You're on The Drive with Josh Graham on SportsHub Triad.

All right. I might be higher on the Eli Apple hire or signing, excuse me, than most Carolina Panthers fans. But most Panther fans have to agree. They needed a corner. There's no doubt that needed to happen. Jordan Rodriguez was just with us a short while ago and she said, Don't look much deeper into this than, okay, he's young. There's some promise there. He's a body.

It's not going to be very expensive for us. Go ahead and sign him. I'd make the argument, though, Apple, he's got more upside than pretty much any of the other options that were available to Carolina yesterday. First off, pretty much all the other free agent corners who have started at least one game in the league that were available, over 30 years old or close to 30. Dennard at Cincinnati, 28. Ross Cockrell, who was with the Panthers, started some last year, 28. Logan Ryan, you might remember him with Tennessee. He was 29 or is 29.

You look at some of the more known commodities, they're ancient. Tremon Williams, 37. Aqib Daleeb, 34. Brandon Carr, 34.

These were the guys that Carolina was looking at. Apple right now is 24 and he's going to be 25 in August. Also, Apple doesn't have an injury history at all. Cockrell, significant injury in camp in 2018. It cost him a full year, banged up at Duke as well, remember covering him. Really good player, maybe even a first round draft pick if he doesn't get hurt, but the injuries have to be factored in, the age has to be factored in. Apple, first round talent, first round athleticism, playoff experience with the Saints last year and the year before that. 25 starts with a really good team. I think we might be giving this guy a bit of a bad rep because expectations were just maybe a bit too high for a corner that it's taken a little bit more time for him to develop than most top 10 picks develop.

But it's cheap, it's one year, it's $3 million. So I'm all in on what Carolina is doing here. I think they needed a corner and they got a corner. Okay, Robert, we got another entry into the sports hub time machine to do. And this one is going to be unlike any of the others we've done in the past. Earlier in the week, we were talking about great sports movies of the last 20 years. I thought Moneyball is the greatest sports movie and then somebody wrecked my world by tweeting me asking, is Gladiator a sports movie? And I thought, well, I don't think so. But then again, that was sport and Russell Crowe was competing in Gladiatorism.

I think it might have been an actual sports movie. So I don't know what time period we're going back to. It's just going to be a lot further back than the 90s, the 80s, the 70s, the 60s. We're going to go back to what this radio show might have sounded like after Maximus went head to head with Commodus in that fateful scene at the end of Gladiator. Let's enter the sports of times.

It doesn't matter when you get here, just what time. What would it sound like if the drive with Josh Graham were here for some of the greatest moments in sports history? Today, we find out. Let's fire up the sports hub time machine. Gladiator.

Whenever the hell the gladiators were around. So give me a. Robert, I just have one question for you. Are you not entertained? Oh, my God. Are you not entertained? Yeah, I was entertained. I guess you could say that.

Oh, my gosh. I can't wait to see what the ratings going to look like for that fight yesterday. Are we going to get more fights? Like, I felt like that was very the speech at the end of it. I was like, come on.

I can enjoy the fight. Two dudes died in the middle of the Coliseum, the Coliseum, though. I don't think I've ever seen it pop in that way. Oh, it was popping. Oh, my gosh. Like crazy. Like you probably have to go to B.C. Times, you know, just a few decades ago to figure out the last time the Coliseum was popping that way.

I don't think I've never been a comedy guy. Let me just make that clear. I'm always repping Maximus. That's my dude. I'm all about Max. This is a Max radio show. They should not have let Maximus fight.

Like, what are we doing here? He barely could have moved his he barely moved his left arm during the fight. He was clearly hurt. Robert, he was injured. How was he not on the injured list? How does this not happen?

They already signed the fight. And I think what they were saying is that there were so many incurable diseases that like it was just he had spent so much time in the winch cave with all the winches. I mean, I've heard so many.

So my buddies work down there. Did he have the cold? Oh, probably.

I did hear that he had a sniffly nose. So that could have played a part in it. At least it wasn't the plague.

Ugh, the plague. That would have been brutal. Unless it got my mother-in-law.

Then it would not be so brutal. Hey! Mother-in-law joke. Still around when the Gladiators were here.

Hey! That's right. That's what I'm talking about. He could barely move his left arm, man. How does how does Commodus lose this fight? Oh, I mean, how does he not lose this fight? He's like a little manchild. Who's going to wear a full white outfit to fight in the Coliseum?

It was very bold. Like there's dirt everywhere, blood. You know you're going to bleed.

I mean, what are we doing? He should have wore a brown brown pants, honestly. Yeah, he probably should have. That would have helped.

Also, after the fight's over, Commodus is laying there. Somebody going to scoop up the leader? Are we going to scoop him up?

Maybe just pick him up? I don't think he's the leader anymore. I think he's done now. Yeah, well, we don't know for sure because the guy who might have been leading, he fell out, too. How about all these people surrounding? If you have all these rose petals that are being thrown in the middle of the ring, how about somebody after the fight's over give this guy a medic?

Or maybe some smelling salt. Something. Clearly, too, he's standing there for three or four minutes easily muttering things that I can't hear. Yeah, and how long did it take, oh girl, to get down from the balcony all the way down there? And something has still not been done.

She's the only one that's trying to help? Let me tell you something. We're taking phone calls, by the way, on this great gladiator fight yesterday. Recapping the fight, man, if you missed it, Maximus beat... Can we even say Maximus beat Commodus? They both fell out. I mean, he got him first. I mean, it was kind of like the first one down. He didn't get back up. Well, they both died.

I mean, he died first, though. 3-3-6-7-7-7-1-600, was it a draw, or did Maximus win? I'm still getting paid out my bet.

I don't care. Maximus won. I took Maximus in the first two rounds. Who's your guy?

Who's your bookie? You know it's Ma- oh, uh, Clea something other. I don't know how names work in gladiator times.

Estrabredon, who knows? Why do you keep referring as today gladiator times? That's actually my favorite newspaper. I just figured that was the... Oh, the gladiator times!

Yeah, I know. I love it. Okay, I didn't know you read the times. I can't read. I kind of just look at it.

I read the gladiator post. I like the pictures, mostly, and the crosswords. They do have great... did she just say crosswords? Crosswords.

Crosswords. That's pretty good. Yeah, somebody probably should have helped him. Maybe the lady that's sitting in the third deck shouldn't be the first person to get to him to make sure he's okay.

Somebody might need to help them out there. Also, I was in the lower bowels of the Colosseum watching this in real time. Very awkward post-fight press conference. Oh my god. Okay, I did not hear this. I was actually, I got caught up, a bunch of my goats got out, so I missed this. Like, we're just sitting there, like I didn't see, I had to go and watch the replay to see that, you know, he fell out and all this. I'm just waiting, oh man, what's taking the guy so long? Then we learn, oh, he died. Oh great. So what are we going to do?

Like, how am I going to get this, get my work done for this radio show here? So we don't have any sound today from the actual press conference because both Maximus and Commodus are dead. This isn't great.

I just want to know if we're still having fights, because I cannot spend Saturday at my... Yeah, how can we still have fights after this? It's kind of brutal, Robert. Like, somebody needs to think about the protection of these players, or of these gladiators. Like, are these helmets doing more damage than they're actually helping? Like, are they leading with the helmet when they're fighting with the sword? Should spearing be an illegal front? If you target somebody above the chest, should you be disqualified from the fight? I think as long as you're showing intent to kill, it should not be a penalty.

As soon as your intent is to, like, maim, or just take someone's option to walk away, that's not cool. I think we should illegalize nets. No more nets, no more tridents, no more, what is this, Poseidon?

We're not doing that anymore. It's just, I think there needs to be significant change. Needs significant change, because this fight, I think it's going to be talked about for quite some time.

It's that big. Alright, a lot of stuff happening in the world right now. A lot of things. So much. Coming up, I have an idea that's going to blow your mind.

I think we're going to be thousands of years ahead of where people thought we'd be at as a society. I think I have a plan to get people, Robert, in the air. Are we doing a sports show or are we doing a fiction show?

I'll stick to sports. Next on the drive. Oh, what's happening? My body's being ripped in pieces, Josh!

Wow! Why are you scaring people? You might actually be scaring people.

Ah, it hurts again! Stop, okay. You might actually be scaring people in their car, Robert. Like, you might actually be scaring people in their car. Oh my gosh, we're never going back in time again. in time like i'd like to imagine somebody driving in their car on 40 and hearing you scream for no reason whatsoever it hurt coming back in this time machine it was a long and drawn out process i don't know what happened there yeah our radio show sounded pretty good back then oh yeah yeah one of these times we need to get like one of the guest interviews that we did at that time who would who would we be talking to i mean not maximus nah or comedus yeah neither one of those guys i don't think i'd be able to get caesar like trying to get caesar would be trying to like get michael jordan and honestly i would just be prone to stab him you know we should just all stab caesar nah you're you're too big of a wuss you would never stab caver caesar we know that looking at some other news happening north carolina kind of being a leader when it comes to the coronavirus front they have announced a road map to return to campus bubba cunningham was sitting with jones angel breaking things down going over the timeline to return june 1st that's when facility staff members could return june 8th sports medicine june 12th the staffs coaching staffs football men's and women's basketball and then student athletes can return the following week they could start to come in june 12th through july the first football student athletes basketball isn't going to come in until the following month on july the 6th so north carolina announced that and then the ncaa announced returned to campus plan soon after you are listening to wsgs winston-salem wcog greensboro wpc and burlington wmfr highpoint those signals making up sports hub tryout eli apple signed with the panthers yesterday in honor of that we pay homage the only way we know how on fridays it's with our weekly top 10 list i want as much help i can get from the audience to come up with the creative name here it's my top 10 athletes with fruit names you can tweet me at josh graham radio at sports hub triad what do you make of the ones i've gotten so far robert mark tweeting in coconut crisp okay i can take that jake plumber that comes from bethany you can do better than that how about cleo lemon okay remember cleo lemon played for the miami dolphins a few years ago darryl strawberry kelsey plum oj simpson not making the cut that's unfortunate oj's not on the list but thanks for playing if you have any more submissions on twitter at sports hub triad at josh graham radio let's dive right in it's my top 10 athletes with fruit names with fruit names top 10 athletes of fruit names number 10 robert number 10 on the list metallark lemon fruits are a go go flutes did you just now learn who metallark lemon was i still don't know who metallark lemon is oh those who know know shout to the globetrotters number nine number nine number nine athlete with a fruit name barquevious mango well i got a number how do you like them that is one of my favorite lines in the history of film every time i hear it i just hear you doing a your rendition of it hey you like apples well i got a number how do you like them apples not terrible number eight number eight top 10 athletes with fruit name jello orange some angry member of the kitchen staff did you not tip them away it was a run by fruiting another example of those who know know and that's an all-time name right there number seven by number seven athlete with a fruit name bart starfish i'd like to have a lot of fresh fruit around wouldn't it be star fruit oh shoot i actually had star fruit written down i read it as fish let's do this again we'll just edit it out in post it's okay yeah number seven my number seven athlete with a fruit name part star fruit i'd like to have a lot of fresh fruit around including part star fruit including part star fruit i didn't think star fruit was a real thing like i played video games and there was the star fruit in kingdom hearts yep where you ate them with somebody your souls were bound together and that's right nerdy stuff i didn't think it was real it was it is real part star fruit make it the cut number six by number six athlete with a fruit name joel barry well accidentally played this one twice so i like to have a lot of fresh fruit around more like three times either way you got it again joel barry friend of the show number five number five on my list corn elderberry for me and cage you're hungry we're hungry for some fruit if you can name that uh pick of destiny song i'll give you a hundred dollars i have never seen what pick of destiny i remember a guy who now works at serious i used to do radio an ex radio wife of mine i don't like you bringing up your exes he he once tried to get me to watch pick of destiny and i thought it was the stupidest movie i've ever seen oh my god about it anymore it's the songs though are good i think the movie's good what's your favorite position number four my number four what was the name for people playing at home name of that song uh low-hanging fruit ah i see what you did there number four on the list plum phillips it's just a boring old orange maybe to you but not to me guys some of these are so obscure if you can tell me what that's from don't care plum phillips though i just love my favorite fact about plum phillips is that he would never wear a hat in a dome like his mom told him never wear hats indoors and that even applied for football games he's head coaching the oilers and he's not wearing his big 10-ton cowboy hat 10 gallon cowboy hat not 10 tons don't know what i was going for there um i love that about plum phillips number three my number three athlete with a fruit name the grape bambino rip r.i.p little richard number two i'm proud of this one number two top 10 athletes of fruit names raspberry barrego have you ever tried to drink a raw carrot gordy it can't be done raspberry barrego number one on my list top 10 athletes with fruit names pear bryant fruit salad yummy yummy i know you're really upset at me for not having uh shout out all the pair in there for number one oh i'm talking about rick ross being interviewed he's shirtless because oh and he's being asked about his diet i don't know was he losing weight i don't know for sure yeah he's losing weight yeah and he said they got me eating vegetables pears and bleep shout out to all the pair you can find that on the internet this it's there it is documented it's one of my favorite pieces of sound if you just type in on your youtube channel or on your youtube search bar rick ross shout out to all the pair shout out pear it'll come up and your day will be better for it i think we all can learn from the boss rick ross and shout out to all the payer it's a lesson that we all can carry with us here i found myself staying up for the nascar race last night the story going in was chase elliott versus kyle bush neither were starting in the top 15 and what a week it's been what a seven day stretch what a week it's been what a seven day stretch it was for chase elliott or i guess an eight day stretch because he had a week of being close at darlington top five finish for sure until kyle bush spun him out in a race that i'm surprised even happened in south carolina then on monday or excuse me last this past sunday he's leading at the very end one of his teammates wreck and all of a sudden his team says hey you need to pit as we go into the overtime laps it hurt him he didn't win he wins the truck race snapping kyle bush's seven race winning streak does the bow collects the bounty from kevin harvick who put it up ticked off bush and we thought that was going to be the headline going into wednesday that race gets washed out last night you get lightning 30 laps in and you're just thinking man mother nature just doesn't want nascar to get these midweek races off the ground but then you had chase elliott merge from the middle of the pack and there was a lot of separation there i was just thinking oh man last six laps when he has over two seconds of distance between him and i think it might have been bowman or blaney in second place you're just thinking oh not again let's let's hope he doesn't there isn't a wreck and he gets held up but everything stayed true everything stayed true down the stretch and he ended up winning the race felt pretty good for chase elliott to finally break through in the cup series as things transition to bristol this weekend t-bone tweets in coconut crisp would really like a word right now i mean it's my list antrell fruit roll-up didn't make it either or apple juicy oakenen i'm glad that did not make it in houston nut didn't make it did you know that i don't think nuts are fruits i think they're a legume anyway nuts are fruits i was about to say did you know that nuts were a fruit i think it's a legume dr jerry pomegranate fig newton eric berry this is a good one this isn't an athlete but i think it's fun fruity pebble beach you're just having a little fun oh my gosh it's a friday drive you were like oh man you know what i'm just gonna toss these around i am lowering my head into a bathtub filled with cheese sunglasses on feeling cool as ever with the top 10 list friday shows man better than the rest at least how it feels around here coming up why matt rule and the panthers are just what eli apple needs right now keep it here on the drive everybody listen up you're on the drive you're on the drive with josh graham i can't believe this this is insane i don't know if robert knows this but this is stan cotton's introduction i don't know a bigger seinfeld fan out there maybe other than my girlfriend i don't know a bigger clint eastwood fan in the triad than the voice of the demon deacons all i gotta say to you right now stan is howdy partner i reckon so good deal you you've got me pegged if your girlfriend is a uh seinfeld fan then you have chosen very wisely good for you in the last three months i've won i've watched eight seasons of seinfeld i'm on season nine right now so i'm making up a lot of ground in a short amount of time i'm sure you're happy to know that i also should say congratulations as well because in the last week and change you were inducted into the greater knoxville sports hall of fame congrats on that well i appreciate that that i was very surprised to get that phone call and and and flattered so uh i guess maybe you can go home again but i'm honored uh and looking forward to heading back home here in a couple of months to uh to get that but that was uh that means a lot really does thank you before we get to steve forbs we haven't talked to you since that hire was made i think we need to stop procrastinating on something it's the middle of the summer it's it's a pandemic i mean there's not games to distract us i still need to watch with clint eastwood on mind i need to watch the outlaw josie wales what's the earliest what's the earliest we can make this happen because i feel like i could either stream it this weekend or next weekend or i could even god forbid make a trip out to the to the radio ranch i need to watch this movie you've got me very excited well i mean talk to to any clint eastwood fan and and uh they'll be excited that you're going to watch this movie i as a matter of fact up upstairs i'm downstairs right now in my house but upstairs uh in my office my home office i have a a clear top on my desk i've got a small i don't know if you call it movie poster or playbill whatever but it's of uh the movie outlaw josie wales i'll take a photo of it and send it to you after we're through here but you know we need to get it done you need to get it done whether it's with me or not it's gonna happen and you'll see what real cinema is like especially the scene with 10 bears 10 bears robert you love semi-pro there's one bear and that's a lot 10 bears 10 bears robert you're blowing my mind yeah so if it's not if it's not the radio ranch the next two weeks i'll stream it we'll make it happen and then we'll bring you back and do a review of the outlaw josie wales um steve forbes saw video of him earlier this week just casually dropping that he spent one day trying to sell his house and did so the guy he's he's hitting in a lot of ways they don't get the transfer from georgetown they're not able to bring olivier sar back but those are the only two things you could really knock him for it seems to me that he's got this very magnetic personality it's it's he's not afraid of the big boys he doesn't mind talking about the big boys that was made clear on this show a few weeks ago for you i i don't think the personality strikes me as like skip who would drop a poem and uh and uh reference like deep literature and a post game interview i don't think that's what forbes is it's very everyman it's very outgoing it's very magnetic do you remember wake football or basketball having a personality like this well i you know i think your uh your your comparison with with skip crossers is is pretty true but but i think in a lot of ways that they will be alike in that they will tell you what they think they they won't be afraid to speak their mind and and they'll they'll be kind of magnetic uh magnetic rather in different ways i've spoken once to coach forbes on the phone we spent i don't know this was a couple of weeks ago about 15 20 minutes he's got a lot more important things to do right now than speak to me on the phone but uh we got together just had a little chat and i just i left that conversation josh is feeling really really good about him being in charge because of his personality but but also just i don't know there's something about him that i think the wake forest fan base is just going to eat up and i think they for the most part have already and i just i don't know i've contacted a lot of a lot of folks in in knoxville and in johnson city and other parts of east tennessee checking in with you know trying to get a report card on him and to a person they said look when he gets players in there he can certainly coach him up and so i'm just i'm excited uh about the opportunity that he's got and i've talked to coach mackie a little bit and uh good to see randolph children's coming back so i think they're going to have a really good blend on the staff and again i just think he's he's hit the ground running and and just gave me every indication uh that he's the right guy at the right time so i'm certainly looking oh i'm looking forward to football first but can't wait till basketball gets here and actually see you know what he puts on the court how he makes up his team right now i think he's got you mentioned sar and you know a couple other transfers maybe but the kids that he does have coming back and the new blood coming in i'm anxious to see how he puts all that together and then what kind of product he puts on the court i'm really really looking forward to that but i'm i'm uh i'm anxious that it's going to be good i just like that he shoots high like the olivier sar thing i don't view that as a really negative thing for wake forest because he i mean when when he jabs kentucky it's coming from a guy who was at tennessee and won just as much as kentucky did in the four years he was in the sec and you're talking about a guy who was higher seeded than kentucky the times he faced them in the ncaa tournament on greg marshall's staff at wichita state so he's not he's been around long enough that he's not afraid of of the big guys and he's not afraid today he's reportedly on the phone with the five-star recruit he's not afraid to get into the mix with mack mclung who he recruited in gate city virginia which is 30 minutes away from johnson city i i think all that's good and also it's very public wake forest uh even though it wasn't them getting sar back that they're being talked about on part of the interruption they're being talked about highly questionable wake forest is a part of the discussion and i don't think we ever saw that really with danny manning and jeff bizdelic so i think that could be a positive thing well i i just think again steve is going to be willing to do whatever it takes to get weight back in the conversation you know uh and not just locally as you mentioned some of those uh those national programs and folks around the country i think are anxious from afar to look at uh you know wake forest basketball with someone else in charge now and see what happens and you mentioned not being afraid of the big boys he's been with them i mean he's been at tennessee he's been at wichita state he's uh you know been at texas a.m and we got his own shop at east tennessee historic uh runs there for the bucks so i just i don't know i just i i think you've got to feel confident in the fact that he can coach basketball right and and now he's in the acc i think he's going to have a shot to get a lot of high quality basketball players in here to winston-salem and then it'll be really fun uh once he's had his hand on on the wheel for two three years to see what uh he brings to the table but i again i just think most of the wake forest fans are are ready for him they they love the hire by john curry and they're they're excited to see what what he brings to the table again i'm interested in what you make of the hype of jamie newman that we're seeing at georgia it's stan cotton with us here the voice of the deeks because i i loved watching jamie at wake forest and he's a kid that i mean developed in the state of north carolina was under recruited a bit and we saw what he did against in-state teams i'm not diminishing that at all but then the sec has a different hype machine for football than i think the acc does and that's not necessarily a slight to the acc it's just a different deal for the sec and all of a sudden i'm seeing shows talk about oh he's he's kind of like a mix of jaylen hurts and cam newton and i'm like okay that was on fine bomb and i'm thinking i mean i cover the panthers and i watched cam newton the last few years and i cover wake forest and i've watched jamie the last few years at no point and this is no disrespect to jamie did i think this guy is cam newton so what what do you think is a realistic expectation as he tries to make this transition from the acc which was down this past year to the sec and trying to compete against the alabamas the auburns and the top of the top notch in college football well look i'm a jamie newman fan and i i was a fan of jamie's from from day one when he walked onto the wake forest campus just when i looked at him physically i fell in love with him and he was a big quarterback something that wake had not had in in so so long at least not as big as is he was and and now is and and i was anxious to see him get his chance and i think he he did a ton with it i don't think you could argue against that i was was there anyone hotter than jamie newman the first months of this past season i'm not sure i mean he was completing passes at what north of 70 percent yeah and to some great receivers now i'll get i'll give you that but look you got to stand back there and throw the football you got to get your team into the right play and he was doing that he was also asked to run a lot he ran almost 200 times this year and that's not because he had a bad offensive line there were plays designed for jamie newman to run the ball so is he cam new cam newton that's not that's not fair and that's you know those comments i think made by his coaches were just look coaches trying to to uh to to beef up their their player and i i've got no problem with that but look he he's got one more year of college eligibility to to to gobble up so let's see what the kid can do uh at georgia and in the sec i'll tell you what josh i wouldn't bet against him because he can throw he's got a good arm he throws the ball downfield very well and he can run the ball i mean he can so that combination i think's why georgia signed him in the first place you know so i'm not into comparisons of other players i just know this i like him i wouldn't bet against him and i'm anxious to see him uh play one more year look i wish like all wake fans i wish he were in winston-salem uh it surprised me a little bit more than a little bit quite honestly when he when he left but uh look that that was his choice and so uh good for him uh he he's where he wants to be right now so let's see what happens but i can't i wouldn't bet i would not bet against that guy i promise you that all right let's get to the contentious stuff we might have fist fights on the radio it's good that you're not in studio it's good you're on the phone for this who's your favorite who's your favorite main character on seinfeld jerry elaine george or kramer oh i tweeted it out today it's kramer you got to go with the k-man we're actually all in line robert agrees i agree the audience doesn't 42 of the poll says it's george well look you first of all it's a it's a genius ensemble i think right um and you couldn't have seinfeld without george castanjes you couldn't but kramer is so physically funny to me uh that i just i don't know i love his physical humor i just i don't know uh he's the guy who's hardest to replace right like if you i get the show is called seinfeld but in terms of character trying to play someone to play a role kramer's the one that's the most difficult to replace i think i would i think you're exactly right on that i would agree with you 100 and that's we don't do that often but with that you get my vote outlaw jose whales we need to make it happen i'm going to text you when we get done with this and we'll see if we can line up the time over the next few weeks because i'm now starting to commit to these things ed hardin invited me on his boat to go fishing sometime i got to commit to that and i haven't done it and i said for months heck it's probably been years stan that we've been saying we're gonna watch this damn movie and i haven't done it yet we'll make it happen we'll make it we will make that happen one way or the other i hope you've been well hope the dogs are well as well in the radio ranch thanks for doing this buddy you bet they're all good you got it that's uh stan cotton voice of the demon deacon