I Don't Know Any Keishas

He's amused Cam Newton. He's been insulted by Charles Barkley. When some idiot in the press asked him, if you know what you know now, what you have scheduled this game. He's interviewed Matthew McConaughey.

I do sing the ukulele. And he's taken on Big Blue Nation. He's just completely taking the wind out of my sails. It's time for The Drive with Josh Graham. Welcome to a Wednesday Drive. You are listening to WSJS News Talk Sports for The Drive, where the Carolina Panthers wrapped up mandatory mini camp this afternoon, which means the next time we see the Panthers on the field, it's going to be for training camp in Spartanburg next month.

It really isn't that far away. Bryce Young hasn't even been a Carolina Panther for 50 days, yet it seems like he's already won over his teammates. And not in an easy to detect phony way like, yeah, he should be able to help us when players are asked about him or saying something like, he's going to be a great player one day. No, not to go all Sally Field about it, but his teammates really seem to like him.

They really like him. That was an ancient reference. WD, do you even know who Sally Field is?

Didn't she play Forrest Gump's mom? Yeah, there you go. See, we know something today. Proud of you.

That's great. Over the last month, though, Bryce has been confident, but not entitled, which can be a hard line to walk sometimes when you're the number one pick in the draft and every day people are following his every step. Fans, media, it's all anybody's talking about related to the Carolina Panthers. It could be hard not to be entitled in that situation and Bryce doesn't seem to be, which means he's just gone out there and earned things out on the field. He's earning respect from his teammates. He's not expecting that to be granted.

Apparently, he's loose. You got some of the receivers saying that Bryce cracks jokes in the locker room. We haven't seen that side of Bryce yet in the media. What a Bryce Young joke might sound like.

Jonathan Mingo is the one that pointed that out. And then you got the Panthers best player, Brian Burns, speaking to the media. And he's already sold on Bryce. It seems it's hard not to like that kid.

I don't know. He put he put quite a stamp on on the locker room. He walks around with this kind of kind of humble. Excuse my language, like humble, but I know I'm like type of type of swag, you know, saying like he know he got it, but he's humble with it. And he's always like, he's always happy.

I don't know. I mean, nothing to be mad about. But that's hard not to like that kid. He's a good kid.

Good guy. It's almost like he's not the number one pick. He's like Eminem shady at the end of 8 Mile. When he's doing the rap acapella. Taking everything and Papa Doc is the media where Eminem is taking every all the ammunition that Papa Doc might have to jab him.

Taking all the ammunition away where Papa Doc has no other choice but to hand the microphone back to the DJ or to the emcee. It's the only choice he has because the media loves to knock people down, especially if you're the number one pick in the draft and you're a star and people know who you are. But Bryce has done everything you can possibly ask a player in his position to do thus far. There's nothing, what's the media going to knock?

He says all the right things, often in a way that's not very interesting and not creating headlines. He's getting first team reps already. He's sharp on his reps. You're not hearing stories about how he's throwing a ton of picks or that a ton of balls are being batted down.

There's no off field mishap to talk about. You don't see TMZ catching up with Bryce Young. And because of this, there's almost no doubt that this guy is going to start right away game one.

At this point, it would be surprising if he doesn't. But the piece that's most impressive about Bryce Young is the preparation piece. He's arriving at practice two hours before it starts most days. He's correcting wrong tags, according to Andy Dalton, on play sheets. He was doing that a couple weeks after he picked up the playbook for the first time.

Again, he hasn't been a Panther for 50 days. Listen to Adam Phelan using Bryce as a vehicle to talk about just how impressive this rookie class has been. Honestly, I would say Bryce and really all these young guys have impressed me probably the best rookie group I've ever been around as far as just coming in here and not missing a beat. They haven't had as many reps as we have. We've had a couple more weeks of practicing and being around each other. And they came in and really didn't miss a beat.

So I thought in my time in the 11 years in the league, I've never seen a group that just hasn't looked like rookies. Bryce Young has already begun winning over the locker room and winning over his teammates and winning over the coaching staff. Incrementally, he's done this.

And when the Panthers start training camp, the next time we see them next month, I suspect he's going to be the starter either day one or pretty soon after that. On Twitter at WSJS radio, if you want in, that's where we're streaming video. In addition to Twitch and YouTube, don't know why Paul's there for a second. Well, Dalton, he's the executive producer of this show. Did you see the Gov finally signed the sports wagering bill today, W.D.?

Yes, I did. More on that in a bit. And don't forget Roy Cooper going to join us on tomorrow's show. But in the spirit of sports betting soon becoming legal in North Carolina and the U.S. Open set to start tomorrow, LA Country Club is the site of this year's U.S. Open. I've got three bets to hand out right now, starting with my pick to win the tournament. It's not, you know, that it's not a dark horse.

It's not really a stab in the dark. It's Jon Rahm. It's 9 to 1 odds, second best odds of the tournament. It's not great value, but he's the king of California. He has played in twenty five tournaments in the state of California and won five of them, a fifth of those tournaments.

He's won. He's the defending U.S. Open champion. It feels like we're due a U.S. Open champion. I think we've only since Curtis Strange did it in the late 80s.

I think we only had one other guy who's and it might have been Koepcke who has won back to back U.S. Opens in the last, what, thirty five years or so. He ranks. This is key for this golf course, apparently.

I say apparently because it's a golf course that has never hosted a U.S. Open before. He ranks top 40 in all strokes gained categories. Going to be a big deal for Jon Rahm playing good golf and having a very strong year, one of the best guys in the world. That's my first pick.

The best value pick? Xander Shafley at twenty to one. It's not a major championship unless I pick Xander Shafley. Love the dude's game. He's going to win a major eventually.

It might be this weekend. I'll tell you what, he's not going to win without Josh Graham having something on him. Top ten finishes in five of the last six U.S.

Opens that he has played in. Xander Shafley has gotten very close. Don't be surprised if he's holding up the trophy after this weekend. And the last pick. So we got a great value pick, twenty to one. We got one of the front runners in Jon Rahm at nine to one. How about a long shot that is longer than fifty to one odds to win this weekend's U.S. Open. This is my long shot pick. Rickie Fowler at fifty five to one.

For years the story has been this. Everybody loves Rickie Fowler and everybody kind of says the same thing. One day this guy's going to win a major championship. It's going to happen for Rickie. The stars are going to align and he's going to win.

But at this point in the game, it's not going to be, it's not going to be favorable whenever it happens. In other words, he will have to surprise some folks whenever he wins his major championship. He's not going to be the guy like Shafley with twenty to one odds or certainly not Rahm or Rory, one of those guys at the very top. It's going to be long odds but it's going to happen. That's what golf experts have said for a long time and golf fans have been rooting for.

So why not now? He's entering the tournament, coming off back to back top tens. That's my long shot. Fifty five to one. Rickie Fowler. So in review, John Rahm I picked to win. Cool hot take Josh at nine to one odds.

The best value pick is Xander Shafley at twenty to one and Rickie Fowler, the long shot at fifty to one. For those who are watching on YouTube, Twitch and on Twitter, I didn't wear my six man shirt today for nothing. Six man of Tar Heel Basketball, B Dot joins us now. And speaking of Carolina Basketball, you're in route or you're about to be in route to Carolina Basketball Camp.

Every summer they have it. What's your role going to be at Carolina's Basketball Camps? Oh, you know, I'll be there getting the folks teed up. Josh Graham, you know, they have all those kids there, man. There's a couple hundred kids in the stands. Some kind of way the fans find out.

So there's a couple of scragglers that have peaked in because the door be open type joint and they'll get in there. But we're just being teed up, man. I'll just be, you know, doing the play by play like we at the Rucker. I mean, just walking up and down the court talking junk. I don't know who's going to be playing against who.

But I like the one V one matchups and they don't go too hard. Of course, we don't want anybody to get hurt, but it is bragging rights. And they do take this serious from summer to summer, Jack. OK, Armando Bacot's returning for another season.

We know that. I need ideas for what we need to do with this drop, because the first couple of years it was the actual Italian thing. And then for a couple of years after that, it's been Mr. Bacot himself voicing it. He made it known to us he doesn't like it. He even offered to pay us NIL money to get rid of it. I might see if he has a figure in mind to try and make that happen. Are you willing to ask Armando where he stands on the drop? What we need to do with this moving forward? Are you willing to be that guy for us?

Absolutely. You know, I always love being a correspondent for The Josh Graham Show, so I definitely don't mind standing 10 toes down and hold my boy down, you know, and heading on over there. And when I see Mondo, I'm asking like, bro, you know, they're still playing that horrible arm. Whispering in the closet or whatever the hell you were doing. They're still playing that every single day. Any time your name is five years for five years.

Armando do. I did it three times just so they could play it three times today. That's what I'm going to tell them. Yeah. I mean, so you could either get a figure from him to get us to stop playing it or you can get video yourself of him doing it on your phone. You can get video of him doing an updated version of this so that we have that for his final season in Chapel Hill.

Like you, you can be the guy. I love it when you give me homework, Josh Graham. That's what this that's what this friendship has always been about. Us giving each other their homework and then laughing at the fruits of it.

You know what I'm saying? Like, so I definitely will take great pride in handling my homework assignments. I can't think of a better transition to grammar school than that.

Speaking of homework, let's go to grammar school. Josh Graham has his own way of speaking. I want to love a love a love a love a love a love.

And just when you think it can't get any worse. Josh is going to attempt to learn B Dot's vernacular. I'm going to put one in the air.

It's time for B Dots grammar school. Nobody better than B Dot free game during game postgame brought to you by Heritage Hardwood Floors. When it comes to flooring, they have no ceiling. Heritage Hardwood Floors.

Man put one in the air for Heritage Hardwood Floors, man. Like Josh Graham does. For those who know, you know, that's for those who know. All right, man, welcome to grammar school. You know how it goes down. This is a segment where I attempt to educate Josh Graham on the urban vernacular, the urban lexicon, the way we talk in our community.

You did what I'm saying. If Josh gets two out of three correct, he gets a satisfactory grade. Now this is the one on season four at this point, season four.

And at this time, Josh kicks off with a question of the caustic persuasion. Yes, this week we are giving away tickets to not one, not two, but three top billing country concerts. Brooks and Dunn in Greensboro, Clint Black in Winston-Salem, Dirk Spently in the Queen City.

Name one song by either Brooks and Dunn, Clint Black or Dirk Spently. Or tell me something about them. Yeah, I can't tell you something about them.

They're country singers and they have shows in North Carolina coming up. They're white guys. Yeah, they are. They are that.

Yeah. I don't know one song I've never heard of any band, but I will say they all have bad ass names. Like, especially Dirk Spently.

Yeah, Dirk Spently. That is just a bad ass name. I'm not familiar with any of them. I guess I get a failing grade, even though I did tell you things about them, but I don't know any of their music, Josh Brown. Okay. Here's what I want you to do on your way into Carolina basketball practice. When we get off of this call, I just want you to fire up on YouTube or Spotify or whatever you have. Red Dirt Road by Brooks and Dunn. And just enjoy that. Red Dirt Road is the name of the song.

Red Dirt Road. That's right. Enjoy that piece of magic. All right.

What do you have for me? All right, man. Today, Josh, we're going to do one of your favorites that I haven't done in months. Oh, no. We're going to fill in the blank, good buddy. At least it's not acronyms. We're going to fill in the blank.

Yeah, we got to fill in the blank and then we have a song for you up first in the urban demographic. Your mom would give you a spanking and then she would tell you to stop crying before what? Stop crying.

I'm not going to use WD as a lifeline on this one. Okay. Stop crying before I come over there. Is that your final answer? That is.

That is incorrect. I guess she already came over there. If you've already gotten spanked, but it's still just as ridiculous. She would say, stop crying before I give you something to cry for. Oh, I thought she had just given us something to cry for Josh Graham. Before I give you something to cry about is what my mom used to say. Before I give you something to cry about.

Same thing, same exact thing right there, Josh Graham. Did you used to get spanked as a kid? Oh man.

Yeah. What'd you get hit with? I got hit with like a, like a, not like a two by four.

It was longer than that, but it was called Mr. Stick and it had a frowny face written on it and pen that I had to go grab. Yeah, well we have to forget our own switches, which is just sticks off the bush.

They would get you a, they would go and get their own big switch. Oh boy. That's tough. All right. I'm over one.

What's next? I don't know if I broke up. Can you hear me? I can hear you. I can hear you just fine. I got you.

What's next? Oh, hello. Hey, maybe I'm right here. I could see you.

He has no idea. Hey, now we can hear, we can hear you the entire time. Are you serious?

That was a great song. I'd like a WD to isolate that for us to use later. Okay. What's the, what's the second, uh, grammar school question you have?

All right. You would be in the car, you would be hungry. You would say, mommy, can I have some McDonald's?

And she would ask you a question. Hmm. So it's specific to McDonald's specific to McDonald's WD.

Should I go to you on this? Give it to me one more time. Dot you're in the car. You said, mommy, I want some McDonald's. And she turns around and says, do you have some, do you have some blank?

That's what we're looking for. Oh, and they both start with the same letter. Since it's specific to McDonald's, it's gotta be Mickey.

Something like Mick, do you have some fill in the blank? Two words. He said, man, this is going to kill me. I don't know. I'm kind of at a loss on this one. It's gonna he's laughing. He knows that it's gonna be something we kick ourselves about here. Yep. Well, we got to guess WD got to guess something. Do you have some like dollars?

It's up. Mick money. Do you have any Mick money? That's what I'm going to go with alliteration. Is that your final answer? Yeah. Just hit me with it. Josh Graham. I'm going to give you that. Oh, whoa. Whoa.

I'm going to give you that Josh Graham. The phrase goes like this. Mommy, can I have some McDonald's? Do you have some McDonald's money? Yeah, I definitely deserve that.

No doubt. Let's go. I'm still in this.

Do you got some McDonald's money? I like it. I like it.

All right. Last but not least, DMX has a song that he did with Cisco. And the song is called What Do They Really Want? Now in this song, Josh Graham, DMX list in verse two, he lists all the women he's fornicated with. Oh, boy. All you have to do is tell me one name that he mentioned. And you will satisfactory in today's episode of Grammar School.

And you're great. I think they all rhyme with Isha. I think if memory serves correct, I don't want to do the most basic guests and say Shaniqua is one of the ones that might have been mentioned.

I don't know if Tisha was involved in this. I'm going to go Shaniqua. That's what I'm going to go with. Shaniqua is your final answer. That's right.

Let's see. I don't think I got it. I don't think he didn't say Shaniqua, but he said every other word that rhymes with Shaniqua. There's about 30 names that rhyme with Shaniqua, but he didn't say Shaniqua. How does this happen where I get the right I get the right thing to rhyme with, but I don't. I should have just gone with Brenda. First of all, you skipped on Tisha and LaTisha was like the first. I know the song you did that.

You said you wanted to go. It had the Isha cadence, but you didn't say Keisha, which really upset me. I've never met a Keisha. For them for you to jump on a name that rhymes with every name you said and still be wrong.

Chef's kiss to your inaccuracy. I never met. Do you know a Keisha? I don't know any Keisha's. You don't know any Keisha's. I know like 15 Keisha's. Yeah, I don't know any Keisha's when you don't know a Keisha. That is hilarious. You don't know a Keisha.

I don't know a Keisha on the way out. Yeah, we need to make that happen. OK, so next week the Hornets are going to pick number two in the draft.

We're eight days out from that. I just have two quick questions to ask you on the way out. Would you be willing to trade the number two pick for this player? First player. Bradley Beal.

Yes. Because there are the rumors that they would work with. There's the report they would work with him to find a trade if they decide to blow it up. But you would trade number two for Bradley Beal.

I would give number two for Bradley Beal because you're going to get a couple of things. You're going to get the shooter that they need in Charlotte, but you're also going to get some experience on Mellow. And I think that's really what Mellow needs right now. I saw a video they just put on Instagram or Twitter and they were like, who's the class clown on the Hornets? And like everybody was the class clown.

Everybody like they're all young, funny, having fun. Just they need some tutelage. They need some direction from somebody who is a capable All-Star. And I think that would be Bradley Beal.

You might have just answered my next question. Then there are the hottest rumor for the number two pick right now. The New Orleans Pelicans apparently love Scoot Henderson. And the rumor is Brandon Ingram might be the guy they're willing to give up to get the number two pick.

What would you say if you were Mitch Kupchak? Nope. Nope.

Whoa. Nope. Yes to Bradley Beal, but no to Brandon Ingram? Is that the Duke hate in me? I don't know what it is, but I don't know. I don't see, I don't, I don't see. And I know BI had a great year last year.

He's treading upward. Like we work out at the same facility when it comes to North Carolina, but I would rather have Bradley Beal at that cemented two spot. I don't really know what BI is. Like Bradley Beal is 30. Brandon Ingram I think is like 25. I mean, that's fair. And for some reason, everybody likes to hate on the older players, whether it's that on college or NBA, but I'm telling you, I would prefer Bradley Beal over BI. Personal opinion.

Don't really have a stat book in front of me to give you the reason why, but just off my eye test. And I would like to defend myself with saying, I do have a stigmatism, but based on my eye test, I will go Bradley Beal. Dot, next week, hopefully we got some stories about this Carolina team playing with some of the former Carolina players that you could share with us a week from now. And maybe we'll have an update on Mr. Armando Baycott, where things stand in terms of our drop. Thanks for making the time as always, though. No doubt, bro.

Love you, man. It's so funny to me that folks have written off the Clemson Tigers. You know what? Put a pin in that for a second.

If you would like tickets to go see Brooks and Dunn in Greensboro this weekend, or Dierks Bentley in Charlotte this weekend, or Clint Black in Winston-Salem next week, give us a call now at 336-777-1600. All you have to do is call in and tell us something good. Weekly positivity, we will do it in a second. Taking the pin out of the Clemson topic for a second. They just signed the number one running back in America today. That's for the 2025 class. And this comes a week after they signed one of the five best recruits in America.

I forget what position that was at. But it's funny to me. A lot of people were writing off Dabo. I hear all this talk about Florida State and the Seminoles, even though they haven't won the division since Seamus Winston was in school in 2014. It's been a long time. Now I know divisions don't exist anymore, but don't write off Dabo yet.

They're my ACC pick this year. Don't even really have to think that much about it. Now let's get to, to lift morale across the triad on this hump day. It's time for weekly positivity.

Yeah. On Wednesdays, we wear pink. W.D., we ended yesterday's show saying you were going to watch old school. You're going to watch old school. You're going to watch old school. You're going to watch old school. You're going to watch old school. W.D., we ended yesterday's show saying you were going to watch old school, but because of some guerrilla campaigning by Connor O'Neill. Let's go Connor. At the last minute in the 11th hour, he has summoned enough votes on this Twitter poll to flip old school to Mean Girls being your movie for next week.

Connor coming up in the clutch, game seven when it mattered. Both those movies are great, so I don't have great issue with it. Let's go to the phones, why don't we? 336-777-1600 for the concert tickets and also to tell us something good. Jeff and I points up first. Hi, Jeff. Hi, how y'all doing today?

We're doing great. Which concert are you wanting to go to? Brooks and Dunn. Oh, I love Brooks and Dunn. W.D., play for Jeff how much I love Brooks and Dunn, if you have a minute to do so. Oh, this is in Greensboro for this weekend at the Coliseum. Can't wait for that.

While we're waiting for that, tell me something good. Well, the Denver Nuggets won their first NBA title, and I'm an old ABA fan, so I'm showing my age, so I just love it. Did you watch Carolina Cougars basketball back in the day? Absolutely. Who was your guy? Did you have a guy?

Started with a C, but it's Caldwell maybe. Okay. It's so long ago. I don't remember.

I'm trying to think. The first company wasn't Larry Brown. I think it was Bones McKinney, wasn't it?

I believe it was, yes. That is good. Enjoy the Brooks and Dunn concert, and real quickly, enjoy this cut of Brooks and Dunn real quick. That's where I first saw Mary, home that roadside pickin' Blackberry.

So good. There goes Jeff and Hi-Point going to the Brooks and Dunn show. I think that's the last of our Brooks and Dunn tickets, too. That's a popular show. That's all, folks.

That's a popular show. So we have Dierks Bentley and Clint Black tickets to give away now. I hope Scott in Greensboro's okay with that. Scott, tell me something good.

After a year of severe depression, I'm still alive. That is good. I'm glad to hear it, Scott. Yeah. I mean, that feels pretty good, I bet, right?

It does. Feels a lot better than it did last year. Who are your sports teams, Scott? You got any sports teams? I'm the Demon Deacons all the way through. Okay. Commanders, Dodgers, and don't really have anybody in baseball, and of course, the Canes and the High Seals.

I could see where some of the depression might come from with the Wake Forest deal, but no, the Deaks go into the College World Series. That's very exciting. And you're going to a concert. That's pretty good, too, Scott. Thanks for listening. Thank you.

You're very welcome. Stay on hold. WD can get your information. If you'd like to go see Dirk Spently or Clint Black, 336-777-1600, telling us something good.

WD. Hi. Hello.

Hello. What do you have? So this weekend, I went to Whole Foods, and you know I'm a big cough. It always seems your weekly positivities and your unusual questions are always food and Whole Foods shopping related. I think last week you were talking about what ice cream flavor you were going to grab or something. Anyway, what do you have?

It might have been. I don't know. So I found this. I work out. I like to stay fit. Do you even lift, bro? Oh, I lift, bro.

Yes, you do. So this weekend, I found this new protein. It's called Vega. So I guess it's vegan. It's got like greens and good stuff in it.

Sure. It was on sale. Typically, this stuff runs like 40-some dollars, and it was on sale for like 25. So I bought it. It was peanut butter cup flavored, chocolate peanut butter cup.

Wow. I'd never seen that flavor before, so I wanted to try it. So what I did is yesterday morning, I mixed it with my coffee. You know, usually you put water in there.

I put coffee instead, put ice in there, and I made a frappuccino out of it, and it was delicious. Wow. So good. That is good. Wow. Three, three, six, seven, seven, seven, one, six hundred if you would like to play along. I'll tell you something good.

The sports wagering bill has passed. That's something. W.D., how long have we been talking about that? Maybe a year, because remember, we started talking about it, and then it didn't get voted in. Yeah.

I think this might even precede you being the producer of this show. Send me that cash app. Yeah. Send me that cash app, fam. The sports wagering bill passed today. The Gov is going to join us tomorrow. The Gov. Wow. The Gov.

Dot Gov. Also, the NSMA Hall of Fame weekend is less than two weeks away. Wow.

Yeah. And Winston-Salem, Lee Corso. Lee Corso and Bill Plaschke and Ian Eagle.

The Eagle. They're all going to be showing up. I got to talk to him about a thinking man's picture. He might recommend a thinking man's picture for W.D.

in person. That's good. The man who runs the NSMA, Dave Gordon, is going to be in studio with us tomorrow.

So huge show with the Gov and Dave Gordon joining us. And that's been Weekly Positivity. Oh, shoot.

There's one more thing I had that was positive that I wanted to mention. Oh, yeah. How about them birds?

Yeah, I figured that's what it was going to be. The Carolina Panthers wrapped up pretty much off season workouts today with mandatory minicamp closing. You already got through with the rookie minicamp and OTAs. The next time we see the Panthers, it's going to be training camp in Spartanburg, which is Czech's watch next month.

Crazy to think. So we figured we check in with our state's Hall of Fame voter, Darren Gamp from Panthers.com, who's been out there for every moment of excitement during these off season practices. Darren, what has impressed you more when it comes to Bryce Young, how he's handled himself out on the field or the way he's handled himself off of it, where he seems to have the media thing down, and I haven't seen a TMZ video up to date yet in Uptown Charlotte? Well, before we get to Bryce, I'd like to say thank you. It took you less than two hours from the end of OTAs to completely harsh my off season break mellow by referring to Spartanburg.

Thank you very much for that. I was feeling pretty good. You're playing me in with some George Benson. I was digging on that, feeling pretty good. And then you had to go bring up Spartanburg and ruin everything. You are like the opposite of Bryce Young.

How about that? We're about to publish a story momentarily on Panthers.com, where you can find all the latest news about Bryce Young and all your favorite football players, just about the way he's handled this thing. And part of the story, part of what I'm trying to explain to people here is there's not one throw, there's not one moment, there's not one, oh my gosh, can you believe this play he made? There's just an overwhelming sense with Bryce that he's fitting in and guys like Adam Thielen and guys like Brian Burns. I mean, obviously, nobody's going to trash the rookie or say this guy's got a lot to learn or anything like that, but there's been a very tacit acceptance of this rookie by everybody in the building because of the way he's gone about his business.

I mean, we can do the old cliche, shows up early, stays late, does extra work, watches all the film, all that kind of stuff. But there is just an inherent respect when these guys, including a lot of veterans like Adam Thielen, who's 100 years old, and Burns, who's come off a couple of Pro Bowls. And, you know, is as good at studying quarterbacks and trying to sack them as anyone, the way they've kind of embraced him is a pretty good sign for the way he's ingratiating himself on a new bunch of people. You coined a phrase that was one of my favorites during the Cam Newton era of Cam Newton makes people stupid. And every time I had a cut of the t-shirt rights for that one.

Yeah, missed opportunity. Bryce Young, every time a ball is batted at practice, if you go and look at YouTube, like people who put out these videos, you see they have like tens of thousands of views. Like, oh, we got to see a ball get batted down, even though pass rushers aren't even allowed to hit the quarterback. They kind of just stay in there and bat down balls. That's what they do.

But that's what happens every single time. And you have the people who are so fixated on his height and his frame. They're just not letting it go. Has it approached Bryce Young is making people stupid territory? Is it is it close to the dumbness we saw when Cam Newton was first breaking into the league?

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Not even we're not even approaching Cam Newton levels of, you know, somebody making people stupid online. No, it's been fairly calm so far.

I think, you know, our mission is civilized over here. One of the things we try to explain is, hey, at the time of year when offensive linemen aren't allowed to punch a defensive lineman in the solar plexus to get his hands down that, yeah, some balls are going to get knocked down at the line of scrimmage. So, you know, if people are still having Baker Mayfield flashbacks and PTSD from that, I get it.

But no, I think it again, there hasn't been that level of hysteria. I mean, Cam Newton brought a little bit of that with him because when you walk in the door to the NFL telling Peter King you want to be an entertainer and an icon, when you have that celebrity quality about it, I mean, again, to me, I think what stands out about Bryce is the way he doesn't stand out. It's just all he is is a competent young football player, and it's not a gigantic personality thing with him yet. Obviously, I'm sure a lot of that will change. I mean, one of the things people always I think football people always worry about expectations being too high when you're picked first.

Overall, the expectations are going to exist whether I write a word about you or not. So that part of it's kind of natural, but it is. He's just got an easy way of kind of diffusing a lot of the panic, of diffusing a lot of the, oh, my God, look how little he is or whatever people want to do online when they see these kind of videos.

You know why that is, though? I mean, this is a compliment. He's boring. Bryce is very boring.

In all the best ways, yeah. I mean, listen, I told people from the days Kerry Collins was a rookie, exciting ain't nearly the same thing is good or good for the team. And, you know, it's that ability again, that ability to be boring, say all the right stuff. But I mean, he's not just even when he's saying his price on platitudes, there's a little something in there. He's got a little gravity about him that even when he's saying cliches, they seem to matter. And everybody kind of leaves the scrum nod in their head saying, yeah, he's got a point. Give me something that he said in the last couple of hours since I've been on air.

I hadn't had a chance to listen. Somebody asked him today if he had anything fun planned for the five weeks between now and Spartanburg. And he is like, well, you know, mostly going to be working out, but I think that's fun. So, you know, that's about as good a pithy sound bite as you're going to get from Bryce on a day like today. How do you suspect he'd answer the question if I said over the summer he was going to go to Busch Gardens and try to ride all the rides? Would he be able to ride all of the rides there again?

See, that's that's just pandering to the least common denominator. You're trying to make cheap, short jokes and I won't be a party to it. OK. See, do you have any summer plans between now and Spartanburg? Any summer concerts that you're going to be going to?

I'm trying to think. There's some stuff coming up I'm trying to buy. I did buy tickets the other week to go see the nude party.

That's probably a fall thing. The Boone rock and roll band, very kinks inspired. Going to be going to see them with some friends. I want to go see some baseball, man. Ellie De La Cruz has got me excited to watch the Cincinnati Reds again. See, I'm a Baltimore Orioles fan. They haven't made the playoffs in seven years.

And right now they have the second best record in baseball. So that's good. And also, I mean, you work for the Carolina Panthers, David Tepper. He's Mr. Concerts. He's the guy bringing Beyonce and Luke Combs to town in the next concert.

Yeah, that guy. That's that's exciting, too. There's a lovely little bit. We've got an institution here in town called Charlotte Squawks. It's like a Saturday Night Live meets Broadway kind of send up of local news and events. And and they did a bit about Dave Tepper and bringing music to Charlotte and had some fun with it.

So it's good to be able to laugh along with the jokes like that. And yeah, we're grateful for it. Luke Combs is coming yet at a second night, perhaps you've heard.

Yeah, I'm quite the jokester today. We've given out tickets to this is pretty cool. So right here in the Triad, but I guess this is up to Charlotte and Raleigh, too. We've got Clint Black tickets for Winston-Salem next week. We've got Dierks Bentley in Charlotte this weekend. And you got Brooks and Dunn in Greensboro this weekend. If you could go to one of those shows teleportation style, so like take travel out of it, you're going to go see Brooks and Dunn, Clint Black or Dierks Bentley?

Well, I don't know who Dierks Bentley is, so I'm probably going to cross him off the list first, I guess, Clint Black. There's probably a Clint Black cassette tape somewhere in the basement of my home from the 1980s when I was driving around a beat up Toyota Starlet with a tape deck and an eight track player in it. Yeah, that that sounds pretty that sounds like a wondrous time in Darren Gant's life. Was that was he the one who's saying killing time?

Yes, that's him. Making myself blind, hoping I can't see. Man, you got bars.

Yeah, I wish I could remember where my keys were, but, you know, I remember Clint Black lyrics from the 80s. Thank you. It's good to see you. And I look forward to seeing you in person sometime soon.

Yeah, come to Spartanburg. Sweat your brains out with us. One, three. You're on the air. Wake up with Jeffrey Griffin and Triad today.

Weekday mornings at seven. Now back to the drive with Josh Graham. The Stefan Diggs story just got even stranger. The Buffalo Bills just canceled their final day of mandatory minicamp. Whoa. Don't know what's happening in Buffalo, but that seems to be noteworthy and probably related to what's going on with Stefan Diggs.

One could only presume. If you missed any of today's show, six mandatory basketballs, B-Dot, Darren Gant, those wonderful guests dropping by, you can find that on our best of podcast search the driver, Josh Graham, iTunes, Apple podcast, by clicking the link in the description below. Apple podcast, Spotify, and anchor. We'll have some YouTube content up tonight. If you haven't already, make sure you subscribe to our channel, search the drive with Josh Graham as well.

That's also where you can watch the show streaming live too. What are you laughing about? They just just take it to the house. All right, let's take it to the house.

Pass the 15, pass the 10, pass the five for the drive. We'll take it to the house. One, two, three, it's served up by East coast wings and grill, East coast wings and grill right down the street from our studio in Kernersville. You can find them off North main street, country club road. There's one in Winston. I'm sure there's one in Greensboro too. They're all over the place.

And they're fantastic. What do you got? So I'm actually going to have to call an audible on this story because I have actually reached the, I have, I have received a message from the six man of the Tar Heels B dot.

Oh, wait, he got to work. No, let's just, let's just take a look. No, you don't. I'm just going to, let's take a look. No, you don't. All right. Now Josh Graham is still using it.

He's still using it. He says that y'all can talk about terms to financially buy it, but he doesn't want that. I think I got to buy it out. I'm so embarrassed. Why don't, why don't you just do a 10? I got 10, 10, we wipe it out.

Just do it different. Armando. He said, give you 10 K. Why don't you just say Armando?

I can't, I can't do it if I do it, he'd rather pay 10,000 and I assume we can do that cash out. I assume we could give that to a charity, like parts of that. I'm going to pocket some of that.

B dot didn't waste any time. Wow. How about that? I'm going to have to think about this. He really wants to go $10,000.

I'm still thinking about keeping it $10,000. Yeah. Cause the audience, well, that doesn't mean we, does that mean we get rid of the bit altogether or just that piece of sound? See, that's the question. Like there, there might have to be a negotiation that happens here.

Like where you're on one side of the table, Armando's on another and B dot's in the middle. Can we get them on the show? Like we just talk this out and figure it out. We're going to have to negotiate live on air.

10 K. It's unbelievable. Yeah, because if it means we can't play the, the drop with somebody else saying it, then I'm definitely turning it down. I'm not, I'm not accept that. Can't be bought, but I am willing to get rid of that specific Armando drop.

Wow. We'll have to negotiate. This is going to be a stiff negotiation. This could be a really tough decision. Hey, governor Roy Cooper is going to join us tomorrow. I hope you're with us on a Thursday drive.