Biscuit Justice Is Served

This is The Drive with Josh Graham Podcast.

We're internet sensations guys! Tune into The Drive weekday afternoons 3 to 7 on WSJS. Welcome to a Wednesday Drive. You are listening to WSJS News Talk Sports for the Triad. Where we are one day away from the start of the Open Championship at Royal Liverpool. And one week out from the Carolina Panthers training camp opening up at Wofford College in Spartanburg.

We'll get to the golf shortly because there's a pretty significant Bryce Young update we need to talk about right now. While Bryce Young has for some reason not signed the dotted line yet on his first professional contract with the Panthers. It was announced today he has agreed to a partnership with Bojangles. Which tells me Bryce has his priorities in the right place and he's officially one of us.

Or as Matt Rule would say, OOU, the way of the panther, something like that. It doesn't even matter so much that Bryce is from California and probably had never heard of Bojangles until about a couple of months ago. It doesn't really matter that... does he even eat fried food? Does he eat fast food at all? Do we think the guy even eats meat? Now, I'm typecasting because yes, he's slender, he's small. He looks like somebody who will tell you tomorrow that he's vegan.

Doesn't eat anything dairy or anything of the sort. Like TB12 diet, I don't know if Bojangles fits into that whatsoever. But none of that is relevant because in the state of North Carolina, people love the Panthers and the people love Bojangles.

I just don't know what order they love them in. Bryce, he's handled the PR portions of the job perfectly. He's handled the off-field stuff that comes along with being the quarterback and being the number one overall pick beautifully. He says all the right things. He says those right things the right way. He stays out of sight mostly. He stays out of the headlines.

All of this is not really... I think it's all related. It's not a coincidence that this all coincides with the guy who happens to be the first star quarterback we've seen drafted in the NIL era. In other words, he was making millions prior to arriving. Making millions legally prior to arriving in the NFL. I would say prior to signing his first pro contract. But again, he still hasn't done that. Not a concern.

That'll get done before training camp starts in a week. But he has already been down these roads before. He knows how to do business. He knows how to handle pressure. He knows what he needs to do publicly.

He grew up in the age of social media too, constantly with a camera in front of him. You could make the argument he faced more exposure and more pressure as Alabama's quarterback. Where it is a nuclear crisis any time Bama ever loses a football game ever for that fan base. And now that he's with the Panthers, he's not going to be in prime time every single game. It's not going to be a nuclear crisis if he loses ever.

So you can make an argument this is a relief for Bryce. He's ready for this. He knows what to do.

He's handling things perfectly. But now that he's a Bojangles spokesman, he's stepping into pretty big shoes now, W.D. Jake Delome not only is a Panthers Hall of Honor inductee, he is the greatest Bo's spokesman. A Bo's man, maybe. That was terrible. Yeah.

Sorry about that. The greatest Bo's man. I'm going to go with it. We've ever seen Bryce Young.

He has a lot to live up to if he's going to overtake Jake for that crown. Like you just think of some of the great commercials they used to do where it was Smitty and Delome and a Dukes of Hazzard spoof riding in the car. You got the Jerry Maguire spoof. I think Steve Smith went to the door at the end and said, you complete me.

Show me the chicken. I think was Jake Delome's line in that. I think there was a Field of Dreams spoof where he's in the ad, like, if you build it, they will come. And he builds a Bojangles out in a field. That's fantastic.

But none of the ads tops this one where Jake Delome saves a lady in a dark alleyway. Let's listen. Hey, lady, you looking for some biscuits? Are they made from scratch?

Just as fresh? Come on, just have a little taste. Those are not made from scratch biscuits. Jake Delome, Bojangles defender of the fresh biscuit. Oh, you just hit him in the biscuits. Now, this is a made from scratch biscuit. Biscuit justice is served.

Next time we have Jake Delome on, I'm not going to use him as I'm not going to say former Panthers quarterback, Panthers analyst on the radio network, Hall of Honor inductee. I'm going to his title is going to be defender of the fresh biscuit. Biscuit justice is served. That guy, defender of the fresh biscuit, going to join us. I don't even know if that's the funniest part. What you can't see if you're just listening is the the fact that he's standing in front of an American flag, like in the full Superman pose as that happens. The funniest part of that.

Neither the lady nor Jake Delome. It's the guy opening up his trench coat with biscuits inside. And what a great opening line to the lady lady looking for some biscuits. Hey, lady, it kind of sounds like you a little bit like when you're like imitating somebody you looking for some biscuits.

It does. It kind of reminded me of that. Maybe this was formative for me. Hey, lady, you looking for some biscuits? That was me in Greenville. I was I was my pickup line back in the day before I met Sarah Bradford. How did that work for you?

Does that success rate on dogs? Two in the morning, walk up to a lady and be like, hey, was a hey. Hey, lady, you looking for some biscuits? And what did they say? I don't have a witty line to come up with. Uh huh.

But yeah, I doubt those biscuits were fresh. So a great, great call on Jake Delome's part to come save the day there. Will Dalton is the executive producer of the show. The show streaming on YouTube, Twitch, Twitter, search WSJS radio on Twitter.

That's where you could chime in on the show. W.D. shield me from Orioles. The Orioles matinee score today. They're facing the Dodgers trying to avoid a sweep. The O's haven't been swept since May of last year.

Last I checked, they were up six to two. I don't want to be distracted today. Oh, this is the kind of show it's going to be. You'll watch it.

No, you'll pull it up at some point. Connor O'Neill's coming in. Yeah. You guys will be watching when Connor comes in later this hour. Fellow O's fan Connor. That's probably going to be harder to ignore when that time comes. Shifting to golf rather than being long winded or trying to be eloquent about the open championship tomorrow. I'm just going to be direct about my prediction here. Brooks Koepka is the correct choice to win at Royal Liverpool this week. And no, his U.S. open performance does not concern me one bit. It's funny.

People say something enough that you can just accept it at face value. And every piece of analysis I've read is, well, I don't know if Koepka is a real contender this week because he wasn't great the last major. And then you look at what he did at L.A. Country Club. He still finished top 20. I think he finished tied for 17th in that tournament. Plus, before they even teed it off at L.A. Country Club. Koepka, not a fan of the course. And a lot of the guys on tour, not a big fan of that U.S. open.

And it was weird. It felt like nobody was there the entire time. It did not feel like a major championship. And we know that when things do feel like major championships, Brooks Koepka generally delivers. In fact, nobody in golf right now is better in majors than Brooks is. He has five major wins. And one of those includes this year at the PGA. And even though he's never won the Masters, he had a runner-up finish this year. That's the guy that's worth betting on.

He is, I think, plus 1,800. Fifth best odds that's out there. Brooks Koepka, also when you're talking about majors, I'm interested in what your best is.

Who's best is better? Brooks Koepka versus whomever. Oh, were you going to hit the JC horn there because I talked about Brooks Koepka's odds? I was. I was kind of waiting for an opening there. Sorry about that.

Cash app. Brooks Koepka, his best, in my opinion, could be better than anybody else's too. Better than Rom's on some days. Better than, depending on the course, better than Scottie Scheffler's. I certainly think better than Rory's. It's hard to imagine that he's flying under the radar this week. But for his standard, it feels like that he is. So Koepka, he is the correct choice.

Koepka is my pick to win the Open Championship. Send me that cash out, family. Ready, set, forge. This is The Drive with Josh Graham. Josh Graham, five years. Congratulations, my man. When you get to be my age, five years goes by like about three weeks. So again, congratulations, Josh. Here's to another five years. And as you get older, time goes by faster.

Good luck, man. I was John Dell, Winston-Salem Journal, former colleague of Connor O'Neill, who joins us in studio now sporting a glorious four more years Bobby Portis T-shirt. When I think John Dell, I think golf. That's what I think of in terms of his expertise. We're a couple of weeks away from the Wyndham Championship, where we'll be broadcasting live the first two rounds.

It's live action, Tracy. You're a big Rory guy, aren't you? Love Rory. Do you love Rory this week as the betting favorite? No, probably not, because there's no money in betting the favorite, is there?

There is not. Yeah. Especially with him, anytime he's a favorite in a major, we saw in Augusta earlier this year when he missed the cut, it doesn't generally go well for one Rory McIlroy. It is Victor Hovland's time.

I don't know if it's this week, but it feels like sometime in the next year or two, he's going to win one, and might as well be his. Jillio yesterday all in on Mr. Victor Hovland. He's also in on Denny McCarthy, who I like as a long shot.

But you know the other long shot I really like? I got four players written down here. Usually I get three or four that I write down for a tournament, and I have four for this week, and you just let me know what you think. The best value that you're going to find. People need to learn, especially when betting becomes legal in North Carolina, what good value looks like and what bad value is. You should not bet on anything smaller than 25 to 1, like when you're talking about odds to win a tournament.

So when I look at value, it has to be bigger than 25. Patrick Cantlay is at 30 to 1 in some books, and he had top 15 finishes in the last five majors, top 10s. He was a top 10 finisher in the Open last year, seven top 10s in his last 12 starts. That's a lot of success and major success for somebody that you get 30 to 1 odds at. The long shots, Denny McCarthy's won just because I'm trusting my guy Jillio, and also you've got to be able to putt on these courses, and Denny McCarthy's actually a really good putter. 85 to 1 as well as Patrick Reed. That reaction's why it's good value, because people hate Patrick Reed. No one wants to bet him so you can get good odds for him. However, he's good in majors, man, and he can putt too. So I like winning more than I dislike Patrick Reed, and the guy I actually picked to win the tournament is Brooks Koepka.

Not great value. It's 18 to 1. I could have used the fifth best odds, but that's the guy I actually like to win. You violated your own rules.

What do you mean? Don't bet anybody less than 25. I didn't say I would bet on him. I'm saying that's my actual pick to win the guys that are worth betting on starting January 8th, wink, wink, or if you're riding up to Danville or wherever. Patrick Cantlay, Patrick Reed, and Denny McCarthy. Thoughts? I can't stand the Patricks.

I would rather lose money than see them win and win money myself, honestly. And Cantlay has nothing to do with his personality. It's all to do with he is glacially slow on the golf course. Brooks Koepka had a near meltdown.

Was it the Masters? Yeah. Just so slow. Just makes you want to take a drill to your temple.

Yeah. That's probably why his value is where it currently is. But you know, if he's in there on Sunday, whoever's playing with him is going to be driven crazy. It's hard to play golf when you're crazy. Connor O'Neill, that's great advice.

That's a great point. Great analysis that you would expect from a longtime sports writer. Covers Duke. Covers Wake Forest.

Covers many other things too, or has. Hard to play golf when you're going crazy. I'm proud. I'm proud, W.D., that we have not turned the Oriel game on at all. It's kind of impressive. Even though I just got a text that Gunnar Henderson went yard.

So I think it might be eight to five. I don't know, though. I haven't checked anything. We'll see if that lasts. We'll see.

Ten minutes. The Orioles have not been swept since May of 2021. So we'll see if they keep that streak alive. The big thing is that they start a four game series with the Rays tomorrow.

But go, birds, go. It's May of 21, not May of 22. Wow. Is it May of 21? Did they get? You said May of 21. I think it's May of 22. Oh, May of 22. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's been a year and two months. Yeah. We have a line of demarcation here for time before Adley and time after Adley. That's right. And it's time after Adley. That's right.

That's well said. It's also Barbieheimer week. Put out a poll question. Which movie are you more excited for? Eighty two percent of that poll said Oppenheimer.

W.D. 's among the 18 percent for Barbie. I don't know which I prefer. I just said don't sleep on Barbie. Which is just a dumb cliche that means nothing.

Yeah. Don't sleep on Barbie. What does that mean?

It means just because you might be a dude. I'm not going to go see, but it might be a good movie. Then say that.

I did yesterday. Right. Well, rather than say don't sleep on Barbie. Don't sleep on Barbie.

No one knows what that means. You're like the athlete that says the cliches and you just don't. You're like Bryce Young. You say all these cliches that are boring and mean nothing. Sorry.

I know a quarterback like that. And by the way, for the record, I'm on Oppenheimer. Yeah. We're going Friday night.

We are. IMAX. I'm intrigued by it.

That's the move. Connor, do you have a preference? Are you going to watch any of these films?

I honestly don't. Man, I'm so far behind the times. Me and the wife watched the first season of Ted Lasso this week or I guess like we started over the weekend, I think, and finished it Monday night. I loved it. It was a great show.

I think I'm going to watch seasons two and three. I don't know if you have to be behind or ahead of the times to like lack understanding of up who Robert Oppenheimer is talking about Barbie. I understand that part of it. Right.

It's like, whoa, who are these guys you're talking about? Did I see some trailer where Will Ferrell is in Barbie? He is.

That might swing my vote. Will Ferrell's in it. Apparently John Cena makes an appearance. I mean, stars in it. Look, if you tell me it is like other female centric movies, like was Mean Girls on the docket for at the movies with W.D. a couple of weeks ago?

He watched Mean Girls for the first time. Yeah, good. That's right. Enjoyed that. Good.

Very quotable. On Wednesdays we wear pink, but just not today. We do. We've got to get bridesmaids in the mix. Watch that last Friday with my bride. I didn't. W.D.? W.D., this is just the part where. Oh, yeah.

Probably have to watch bridesmaids and then get a wife. Well. Yeah. Anytime he hasn't seen a movie, Steve Forbes makes an appearance.

Barbie can wait this weekend, though. Oppenheimer's the movie you need to see, and I'll tell you why. It's directed by Christopher Nolan.

We're talking Dark Knight and those Batman series. My favorite movie ever, so you're you're selling me. I mean, and in a lot of his movies, he's talked about Oppenheimer kind of loosely saying he believes Robert Oppenheimer is the most important person to live in the last 100 years. So he wanted to make a movie about the guy who created the nuclear bomb.

So that is an interesting idea. Just seems like an interesting movie. And also, they just don't make movies like this anymore. And because it's not you know, it's not a superhero franchise. It's not one of those. It's like, hey, here's a historical original story. There's not going to be a sequel to Oppenheimer.

It's not going to be anything like that. And the cast is spectacular. And you have a director with enough pull that you can get Robert Downey Jr. and Matt Damon in this movie and Emily Blunt. And they're all playing supporting roles to the guy who played B-rolls in Christopher Nolan movies for 20 years, Killian Murphy, who was the scarecrow in the first Batman movie. And apparently there's no special effects in this movie. That's the thing. Well, a movie about the atomic or nuclear bomb.

Yeah. No special effects. No CG. No CGI.

So I don't know how they did that. I watched Dunkirk last night, which is another Christopher Nolan movie. Kind of impressed how he didn't do that with that movie either. But this is a movie made for a movie theater.

It's made to be in a theater, watch it on the biggest screen possible. And that's my pitch. That's my pitch for Oppenheimer. I hope it was an effective one, Connor. I hear you.

You resonate on a lot of different levels. The main one there you just hit me with was I had a good professor at Elon who swore up and down, don't watch movies at home. Stop watching movies at home. They're meant to be seen in theaters, on projector screens, stop watching movies on your phones, on your iPads, all that stuff.

Just watch them. And this was 12 years ago. Yeah.

So she's she probably that's a losing battle now more than it was back then. Prescient. This is a movie that you need to watch at the theater.

So W.D. and I, Friday night, first night, maybe Connor O'Neill, too. We'll try to sell them on it during the commercial break. Going to be watching Oppenheimer. Josh, congrats, man. Five years. That is quite the accomplishment. Very cool to see your evolution from interning around the same time with The David Glenn Show to you now establishing this show, this presence in the city, Winston-Salem, that's near and dear to my old hometown.

So cheers to five more years and to many more defeats. God precise, the guys. Ah, I love it when Brian Geisinger talks smack because he's the nicest guy ever and he's such a nerd and that's coming from an ultimate nerd.

Look at these big frames. If you're watching on YouTube and company, Connor O'Neill also hanging out in studio, but very nice there from probably the smartest hoop guy among media people, not folks who actually play the game or coach in the game that we bring on on a regular basis. That guy does the work and every time I'm in touch with him, he's cutting up G League tape and watching a prospect for Murray State that's playing that's not named John Moran.

Nowhere close to being as good as John Moran is. That's Brian Geisinger for you. Yeah, I stole a couple minutes of his time in the media room at Cameron before a game last season and he ran through what he was doing and the film he was cutting up and the process and it was just like, God, God. I could not process how much he processes and how quickly he turns it all around into these clips and everything that he pours it into. Yeah. It's fascinating.

And then the application piece of it. When you sit next to somebody that knows hoop to that level, I wish I could sit next to him every game because he'll just tell me, up this horn set, look what this variation they're about to do. He knows what's coming right before it's about to happen and it's very cool to watch. This might be very cool to watch or listen to.

It might not be. It's one of my favorite segments. It's our five-year anniversary.

Let us have this one, why don't you? It's Oppenheimer week or I guess Barbieheimer week. That's the way it's being framed. So we're going to bring back the movie game. Connor O'Neill is my opponent this week and we've got imaging for this. W.D.

said he worked really hard to bring this one back. Let's hear how it sounds. I've just been handed an urgent and horrifying news story. It's time for some kind of movie game. Alright, alright, alright.

With Josh Graham and old Connor O'Neill. Show me the money. That's right, it used to say Karen Vaught but seamlessly edited by W.D. there. For those who don't know the rules of the movie game, this is how it goes.

W.D. pulls three movies and we have to try and guess what the Rotten Tomatoes score is. Zero to one hundred. Hundred being good, zero being bad. And however many points you're off on your prediction, it is your score. You add up your scores cumulatively. Golf style, whoever has the lower score wins. If we're within ten going into or after three movies we will have a golden fourth movie to choose. Or that W.D. will have prepared for us.

And if you get one right on the nose, you subtract your score by five. There you go. We ready? Let's do it. Do you have a theme for this week?

I do. So because there's a new Killian Murphy movie coming out. There's a new Margot Robbie movie coming out. There's a new Ryan Gosling, he's in Barbie. And then you also have Tom Cruise. I'm not the movie guy.

Clearly. You could just say that it's Barbieheimer week. It's Barbieheimer week. So it's gonna be movies that involve these people. There you go. That could have been done in a sentence. Sorry. There you go.

So what happened? Did you just say a Killian Murphy movie? Yes. I get he's starring in it but it's not. It's a Christopher Nolan movie. Come on.

What's the first movie you have to rock? So let's start off with, said Killian Murphy movie, Dark Knight. Killian Murphy's not into Dark Knight. Oh but he is. Scarecrow. See?

Nerd. Connor knows. He makes an appearance like in the first five minutes of this movie. So it's a Killian Murphy movie.

Still makes an appearance. That's right. Killian Murphy movie. Okay. The Dark Knight turned 15 years old yesterday. Yep. Connor says this is his favorite movie ever.

He's one of like three that I've seen in theaters twice. Wow. Okay.

Yeah. So zero to 100. Trying to guess what the score might be on it.

Okay. I got one written down. I got one written down.

Connor, what's the score you have for The Dark Knight? I wrote 97. I got 94 written down.

It is 94. Hey! Hey hey hey! Oh wow. Okay. But still you were pretty close to it too. So it's like negative five to three. That's right.

What a way to get started. I'll say. Whew!

Negative five to three. I'm going to step the game up here. Yeah. The Dark Knight. Let's move on to a Ryan Gosling film. Remember the Titans. Oh.

He was a defensive liability. And Remember the Titans. Do you like Remember the Titans? I like it the less I learn about it. That's very true. The more you learn about it. Yeah. That's right. The more I learn about like. If you think about it for more than five minutes it's not good.

It's like wait a minute. When was this season set? 1972?

Virginia's. Has it been integrated in 1972? Oh they've been integrated for like six or seven years at that point. Turns out every team they played had black players.

I think Herman Boone was in reality. Terrible person. Yeah. Awful. Yeah. Pretty tough. Remember the Titans.

That affects the score of this movie though. Do you have something written down? I do. I have 80. A hearty 80 written down. I went 89. And the score for Remember the Titans is?

It is 93. Oh. Connor might have done enough to just take the lead there with that nine point difference. See how this game can just swing? I like that. I like that. It seems like such a close game that we have so far. So, Remember the Titans is a... What did you say the score for that was again?

A 93? That's unbelievable. It's undeserving. There's a lot of people that think that's the best sports movie ever. What? I've never heard someone say that.

You want to do Bobby Portisize. It's always on those lists of this is the greatest sports movie. It's a Disney movie. Only because they're not good football movies. Right.

That's it. You need to have a football movie in the mix and there aren't good football movies. There's North Dallas 40, there's Bad News Bears, the old one, not the Adam Sandler version. Friday Night Lights is a good movie.

Yep. I'm not a big fan of Varsity Blues. I know that's not popular to say, but oh well. For my money, the best football movie is... Why am I blanking on it? Blindsized? Let's watch Al Pacino's speech this morning. Oh, any given Sunday. Yeah.

That's great. Okay, what are the scores through two movies going into the third? It is eight to seven. Eight to seven.

Eight to seven. So Connor, closing in on you a bit. But I still lead by a point. I think I'm in the lead. Oh, you do him by a point. That's right, lowest score.

Okay. I'm in the lead. Golf scores here. So he's got you by a point. So Connor leads seven to eight.

He does. Going into the final movie, what is it? It's Margot Robbie, Wolf of Wall Street. Yeah. She's quite memorable in this movie, I would say. I'll say.

I've seen that one. My wife, she does not like Margot Robbie anymore, anymore, because I said that Margot Robbie in this movie might be the most attractive woman in any movie ever. Good job saying that to your wife. Does she disagree? Well, I said it on my radio show that she happened to be listening to. Oh.

Your wife. I'm not even that dumb, Connor. That's the problem, chief. Well, you are and you aren't if you said it on the show. You know, what I sacrificed for the show.

There's a reason why we made it to five years, Connor. There's a reason why. Okay. I got a score written down.

I'm going against my better judgment because I do not like the Wolf of Wall Street. Okay. What do you got? I got a ninety one. I got eighty eight.

And it is an eighty three. That's still within ten, I believe, though. I think so. Maybe.

Maybe. How many were you? I'm off by eight. My score is fifteen.

Yeah. And I'm off by five. So we're talking about thirteen to fifteen here within two.

Thirteen to fifteen. That might have been a little loud. I'm sorry about that.

Wow. So we have a fourth golden movie that is going to decide the movie game this week. What is the fourth movie? We've already done one for Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, who are in Barbie.

We already did one. A Christopher Nolan, Killian Murphy movie, as you called it. What's the fourth movie? Jerry Maguire.

Okay. Well, Tom Cruise. Mission Impossible in the news.

That makes sense. Jerry Maguire. Well, I forgot to show you the old Jake the Loam ads with Bojangles, including the one where he was yelling, show me the chicken. And Steve Smith shows up with some chicken saying, you complete me.

Jerry Maguire. Okay. I don't feel good about this at all. I don't either. All right.

He wants the first crack at it. Eighty two. I said eighty six. Is there enough difference? There's a two point difference here. What is the score for Jerry Maguire?

Who's going to win? Seventy nine. I'd like you like me.

You really like me. And that's been the Rotten Tomatoes movie. I'm disappointed myself because I really don't like Wolf of Wall Street or Jerry Maguire. And I overshot on those two.

I should have just trusted my gut, known that they're not really that good of movies and docked them for it. Yeah. You sound like one of these players in the postgame press conference immediately going into that mode of like, yeah, I'm just disappointed with my effort, didn't trust my judgment. I mean, I got nobody to blame but myself. I'm not going to blame W.D., that's for sure. Yeah, it's not his fault. I would ask if I asked you another question, would you storm out like Sam Hartman? Oh, boy. He's got some things to get ready for. Yeah.

South Bend. Eleven to twelve years of doing this. That's the only time that's ever happened to me. I do remember that.

It was the Clemson game, wasn't it? Yep. Oh, that happened. Oh, yeah. I'm making new things up now.

Mm hmm. Connor, thanks for being here, buddy. Thanks for having me. That's Connor O'Neill.

I'll try to I'll probably wear my sunglasses next time because it's so bright in here. Whoa. Love coming in. Whoa. Connor O'Neill firing some shots. Whoa. Amazing. Whoa.

Where is that whoa from? That's tell them that's Brett Musburger ogling at Katharine Webb during the national championship game. OK. You're on the drive with Josh Graham WSJS. It's really been five years. It seems like you've been here 20 or something. That could be either good or bad. I think it's good in this case. Josh, congratulations on reaching the milestone. One of these days you'll be an old guy like me.

Maybe not. But I always enjoy the conversations. Good show keeps everybody on their toes. We never know quite what's coming and you have learned the number one the number one rule in life.

Always go see the show. I respect that about you. Congratulations, buddy. Salute to Darren Gantt Panthers dot com for that nice message. Five year anniversary of the show this week during unusual questions will be given away tickets to go see Thomas Rhett and Sam Hunt. All of country shows in Charlotte is the Sam Hunt show on Saturday. Thomas Rhett's here tomorrow.

Tomorrow. You can go see Thomas Rhett and that's in Greensboro. So save the phone number now.

Three three six seven seven seven one six hundred. Ask us an unusual question with Darren Vaught and you'll get tickets to either of those shows in just a little bit. Darren Vaught joins us now. Darren, you're one of the longest standing regular guests that we've had on this show over the last five years. So I wanted to give you an opportunity to reflect on this show. I'm going to step away and let you ice ball here.

Take it away. Oh, man, I didn't expect this. Well, first of all, congrats, like look, like we have both been around the area, the state, the markets within it long enough to know that keeping a show in the triad is not something that's like happened a lot. Yeah, OK. We had we had to bring oh, I wasn't prepared for this blaring for Darren had to bring that back blaring with Darren, an old segment that we used to do. But don't worry, Darren, we're never going to do that again. I'm sure I'm sure of it.

My confidence is very high in that. Yeah. So we did blaring with Darren. How many different iterations of that did we do? We had comparing, which was baby. I made eye contact with WD. That was a mistake. I think he thought that I had to interrupt you there, but I was genuinely interested.

So, yeah, compare him. We had we had staring at Darren staring. That was your former producer, Robert W. What do we say the most unbeaten content on this show is? It's when you get bothered when I get bothered.

What's not bad? You're Darren. Uh huh. OK, we're done with the blaring with Darren. Done with that. OK. We're cool. See, now I don't know whether I don't need you.

I don't know. I know. Genuinely, we need to say for genuinely, it's I think I think I'd like to hear what Darren has to say. Seriously.

All right. Being serious. Being serial. Uh, am I missing anything? Scare him with Darren. That was one Halloween edition, but comparing blaring, staring, scaring.

Which one do you miss? I thought comparing. Can you cut it out? Can I? Yes, please.

We can we do this radio segment now? OK. Got it. Sorry about that. All good. I gave him a new toy and he did.

He's just running away with it that he's not sure how to use yet. Yeah. Well. Well, were you into Paramore? Was that was this on your radar, this song? I do like this song.

I love that riff. I mean, I mean, like when it came out, though, it's on everybody's radar now when it came out. Now, when it came out, I don't think I was because of NHL 09. Great soundtracks.

NHL games. I was because I was and still am madly in love with Hayley Williams. That's that's my truth. Yeah.

When did this song come out? Is that a lot of people are daring. Is that actually accurate? That it would have been that time period. Yeah.

Two thousand seven. So, yeah, NHL 09 Eric Stahl on the cover Paramore misery business. I was like ranked one like top one hundred in the world in that video game, like online. That was like the best I've ever been at any singular video game was.

That seems like it would require a lot. I know a big you were a big nerd, undoubtedly. There's no doubt I didn't have a girlfriend. No way. Like no chance. Like I was playing to like two in the morning during the summer. It was.

Yeah, it was a full or deal. OK. Darren, have you looked at the standings lately? Yeah, it's in the last 30 minutes, though, as of the last 30 minutes, it's the first time basically all year the Rays haven't been stand alone number one since opening day.

Incredible, let's go, oh, Baltimore Orioles are in first place tied for first place as they begin a four game series with the Rays tomorrow at the drop. How about we get to unusual questions, give people an opportunity to get in here and ask us some unusual questions. Again, if you want to go see Thomas Rhett in Greensboro tomorrow or see Sam Hunt body like a back road Saturday in Charlotte, three, three, six, seven, seven, seven one six hundred.

The phone number. Let's play the game. Last week, guys, everybody made it out that I got mad at Josh and I left the press conference.

That's not right. I thought it was an unusual question and it's OK. It's time for unusual questions with Josh Graham and my and I just quickly interject as we reflect on five years, please. One of one of the all time moments in the history of you in this show and it's given us gold. It's it's the gift that keeps on giving Roy Williams storming out of the press conference and then it being broken down by all the shows the next day and Charles Barkley calling me an idiot on television.

Yeah. And then it coming full circle with you meeting Chuck with my wife, my wife. So that's a wonderful moment in show history.

I'm glad you pointed that out. Related to the five year anniversary. This is a question I'm genuinely interested in for both W.D. and for Darren. We'll start with you, Darren. What is the most unusual thing to happen to you related to this show? Like either directly or indirectly, hey, I met this person that heard me do this thing. Hey, because of this show, I did this thing.

Where does your brain go first for that question? I mean, like being accosted with a fat head of your Boston College face. Pretty great.

Go Eagles in an unusual way. The Nick, the Nickelbacks game has turned into some really great stuff over the years because I, in turn in my role with USA Baseball and otherwise have just like happened to come across a lot of Nickelbacks. So I've gotten so I've gotten to explain it to people over the years, like a Jeff Francore, like a Michael Caddire. And here's the thing. Given Immaculate Grid is so popular now, I feel like people who are good at that and listen to those segments on this show probably really good at the the Immaculate Grid. There's overlap a hundred percent. Heck, I co-host an ACC baseball podcast with one of them now, Danny Graves.

That is a Nickelback, if I've ever heard Danny Graves, former Tar Heel. So that is weird. I'm glad to hear there were some weird good things that have come out explaining it, explaining the concept in the segment to Michael Caddire was just awkward. Did he like it?

And funny. He came around to it. He what he doesn't like better. No.

What made it better is that I, I told him that I typically push back when it comes to his name specifically because I think he was too good to be a Nickelback, and that's always been the thing when we bring up Michael Caddire. That's right. Because he made like one all star game, two all star games. What a batting title.

A batting title. Too good. Remember that for your Immaculate Grid. Let's go to let's try Bo in Kernersville first. Bo in Kernersville, if you want to go see Sam Hunt on Saturday or Thomas Rhett tomorrow in Greensboro, ask us an unusual question, why don't you? An unusual question. Yeah, Bo.

What do you have? Ask us anything. Name a MLB player that graduated from Glenn High School that played for the St. Louis Cardinals. Oh, so it's trivia. Oh, Glenn High School. What what era are we talking? We're talking he graduated in the early.

Let's go because there's several there is actually three. But let's go with a late early 2000s. So we're talking St. Louis Cardinals graduated early 2000s. Hmm, was I noticed earlier, East Carolina announced their Seth Manis. It was Seth Manis said, I don't know where he was from originally. Seth Manis is a good guess.

What do you what's the answer, Bill? Let's go with Glenn Groomer. Glenn Groomer. He was a catcher.

Huh? There you go. And the Texas Rangers, Texas Rangers graduated from Glenn High School. There you go. So Glenn from Glenn.

Glenn from Glenn. There you go. You just earned some tickets with some trivia there.

And I got somebody I can write down and get a one percenter on my immaculate grid. So Glenn Groomer for Texas Rangers and St. Louis Cardinals got that written down. Let's go to Kyle, the Amazon driver. Hey, Kyle. Hey, Josh. Would you like to bombard Darren again verbally the way that you bombarded them with your Josh Graham fathead? No I've got to give him some props, man, on Haley Williams, I feel the same way, dude.

Them yellow pants at the VMAs back in the days did funny things to me back in the day. I'm just letting you know. My man. My man. Yeah, I got to say it. But she's only gotten better with age, right? Oh my gosh.

What age? One hundred percent. Anyway, I played for a legendary, my usual question, I played for a legendary coach, Sam Storey. He's a Hall of Fame high school coach in North Carolina. And one time he made us run an extra five times on the stairs because, quote, a championship team does not smell like what he was smelling when he walked into our locker room that day. So I have to ask you guys, what's the funniest thing that you ever got in trouble for from a coach as a team or individually while playing for said coach? Very good.

Thank you for the call, Kyle, the Amazon driver. My answer would be that when I was a freshman on a soccer team, I got like there was real hazing in the sense of, hey, you're being like wedgied and grabbed by like your underwear and dragged like on the field and stuff. It wasn't great. But the team got punished for that, including me.

I had to run for being hazed. So dumb. Everybody does this together. What? Yeah. It's a unity thing. Why? I don't know.

I, I didn't do that. I have to myself. I have a similar story. Yeah. So I was in JUCO baseball sophomore year up at Surrey Community College. By the way, the head coach was Pat Fitzgerald. Too soon?

Maybe maybe. So apparently up at Surrey Community College, a lot of our teammates were having parties with the softball players at one particular one of their houses, I don't know. And it was getting out of hand. There was a lot of damage being caused to this house. The landlord was calling our coach and basically he, I mean, Darren, you're, you're D3.

I was D3. JUCO. You, you know, like, I know the life, yeah, exactly. So it's, it starts to get to a point where our coach and our coach was kind of, kind of like what you're describing here. Like one does it, we all have to be punished. And he gave us one more warning, said, this cannot happen again. It happens again. And it actually happened on a weekend that I was visiting back here. I was back home at my parents for the weekend. And so he made us run on a Monday morning at 6 a.m. and I'm an hour away in High Point. And I'm not a part of this party at all.

I don't even know who all was there, but I had to go run at 6 a.m. and I got up at four o'clock in the morning to do it. Cause you're backup catchers laying on your head though. Absolutely. Gotta teach a lesson. Discipline. Darren, do you have an unusual question?

I do. Have you guys ever won a championship? So at USA Baseball this week, we've got the 13U national team championships and the U.S. national team at the 12U level last year won the World Cup. So they got rings shipped to them.

Those who are returning to the complex for this 13U tournament. So like there's this whole thing for a bunch of 12 year olds and they got these rocks, man. I mean, it is a legit championship ring. And I was envious of these 12 and 13 year olds. I've never won anything like that in my life.

Yet. I wouldn't say anything I'd be proud to claim. I don't want to talk about like yak soccer, like when I'm like a young person or I'm not going to want to talk about my NHL 09 dominance anymore. You know, W.D., did you ever win a championship, Papa Champagne winning championship games? I didn't do all of that, but I won an AAU tournament when I was, I want to see 14 in Apex, North Carolina. Nice. Big AAU tournament. We won the chip. We did not get these rings, though. That was before they started giving the massive rocks to 13 year olds.

That was ahead of my time. Now, I mean, granted, this is it's deserving. It's a World Cup. There are some players who walk around the complex because they just came from this perfect game event and, you know, perfect game is just hosting this tournament that all you got to do to play in it is pay a certain fee. And they're given away like some cheapy rings or whatever, just rather than medals or trophies or whatever.

I'm not that doesn't count. Like these are legit, legit rings. And when I was in summer collegiate ball, the team's owner used to say, if we want it, everybody was getting rings, staff included, like everybody was going to get rings. I've got friends in minor league baseball who have rings. I want a ring. I want to I never even got a T-shirt for intramural sports. We got a shirt there and bought. Appreciate you, buddy. Last five years.

The whole deal. Appreciate you as always playing along with our hijinks. We'll talk to you next week in Charlotte for ACC kickoff, ACC kickoff. We'll see you guys there.