Little Glasses That Blink

This is The Drive with Josh Graham Podcast. We are killing it online. Tune into The Drive weekday afternoons, 3 to 7 on WSJS.

So glad to have you on this Wednesday Drive. You are listening or watching WSJS News Talk Sports for the Triad. Yes, over the last week, there have been a lot of discussions and debates in the ACC about both the immediate future of the league and the long term. In the end, however, the ACC decided not to expand by adding Cal and Stanford, and yesterday was the deadline for Florida State to formally exit the league in the next year and that deadline came and went.

Both are very positive developments for the league. Thanks in large part to a deep dive story by Andrea Adelson and David Hale at ESPN today, we now know the role that our state's schools played in protecting the ACC. Our schools from expanding needlessly out west and or an example of not caving into Florida State's toothless threats and demands, our state schools pushed back starting with expansion. North Carolina and NC State represented half of the four votes that said no against expansion. There needed to be four nos. North Carolina and NC State were two of the four.

The Wolfpack were seen to be the fourth no. They were the swing vote. Some of the ones that wanted expansion, like Notre Dame, they might have felt that NC State was on their side, but they turned out to be on the other end, aligned with North Carolina.

And what was most interesting about this in the story that Andrea and David wrote, this excerpt here. So why was NC State not in favor of expansion? The dynamics in the state of North Carolina provide a fascinating window into the North Carolina NC State relationship. North Carolina is one of the most attractive schools in the country to both the SEC and the Big Ten should those conferences decide to expand further. So NC State holds power within the University of North Carolina system in the state legislature and feels siding with North Carolina essentially signals the Wolfpack to believe their future is tied with UNC. In other words, we're going to side on issues like this with North Carolina and view ourselves as a block vote if one day the ACC falls apart, it disintegrates and North Carolina gets poached to the Big Ten or the SEC, we come along with them. And we've got local politicians on our side, we've got the state legislature on our side, we've got the North Carolina system, the University of North Carolina collegiate system that will push for both of them going together for the same reason UCLA had to come along with USC. NC State is going to be a pair with North Carolina, which runs counter to the way most of the country views the dynamics in our state that Duke is more important to North Carolina than NC State is when the reality in the state, it's NC State. North Carolina does not go anywhere without NC State and NC State is acting accordingly. NC State and North Carolina, not the only schools, though, that are pushing back on things.

You have all this Florida State stuff that's out there. Stuff that Bubba Cunningham, North Carolina's AD called barking and bad for the ACC, what they've been doing. Just another example of how North Carolina has pushed back. But Wake Forest has been rebuking FSU's position too. In the story that ESPN published again, citing it directly, Wake Forest, for example, has taken time over the last month to push back on FSU. John Curry has noted several times Wake Forest has been the fastest growing brand in the power five with 115% growth in its fan base during the span of August 2019 to now.

That falls in line with something John Curry told us a couple of weeks ago when he joined us in studio. He wanted to spend time talking about Wake Forest's brand. At a time, FSU was talking about how brand reach, how many people watch you on television, the type of ratings you demand should factor into the type of ratings you demand.

Should factor into the type of revenue you draw. It's not a coincidence now, when you hear John Curry speak about branding with Wake Forest the way that he did, that he did so as FSU were making these arguments. Here was John Curry on the show. Wake Forest website, national website, the top nine brands in terms of hits in the month of June in America. The top five brands. Florida Gators, Texas, Alabama, Michigan, Stanford, Texas A&M, Tennessee, Wake Forest. Number one brand in the ACC. Being good on the field helps with that.

Absolutely. And guess what Wake Forest is? Really good on the field in everything. They are good on the field. And that's why when the ACC decided we're not going to share our revenue equally like we've always had, Wake Forest was in favor of doing so, just not the way that FSU wanted it to be about your brand.

To be based on your television ratings. Wake was in favor of it if it was based on team performance, because if that were the case, Wake Forest would make more than Florida State has over the last five years because Wake's beaten the Seminoles on the football field. More times than not. Wake's been to an ACC championship game, won the Atlantic division. FSU hasn't done that since Jameis Winston's been playing quarterback. So Wake, they've been a public opponent of FSU's nonsense that they've put out.

Then there were other mini revelations. Some not very shocking, like the presidents wanted Cal and Stanford more than the AD's did. Notre Dame not caring about the ACC all that much and looking for its own interests. That shouldn't shock you either.

Here's the excerpt on that. Not only did the Irish like the idea of bringing two elite academic schools with stellar Olympic sports programs to the league, one source noted there was also a football perspective to all this. There was a fear among college administrators that if Stanford gets left out of the power five conference, it will drop football to a non FPS level. That of course would affect the long standing Notre Dame Stanford football series, which has been played every year since 1988, excluding the COVID year of 2020. Oh, that's why you wanted Stanford to make sure that you get your, you know, your match up and is it best for the ACC? Well, that doesn't really matter to us, especially as the story spells out that the Big Ten's had discussions about the schools out West, but now its top priority is Notre Dame, not FSU. They they're focusing on Notre Dame, which means Notre Dame would never consider joining the ACC. If they were to join a league, it's going to be the Big Ten. Yet here they are with a full vote and receiving revenue each year from the ACC. Our state school played a key role in protecting the league from itself because the pack, if they said yes, Stanford and Cal joined and that would be a disaster for the week. Logistically, from an athletic and competitive perspective, from a football perspective, that would not have gone well. Wake Forest and North Carolina clapping back at FSU the way that more schools in the conference probably should have.

It's our schools showing leadership. On Twitter at WSJS Radio, if you want in, that's where we're streaming video in addition to YouTube and Twitch. Well, Dalton, we had a chance to catch up with Bryce Young today. Where are the two places people can find that conversation? So if you go on our best of podcast, you can get it there or you can go to our YouTube channel where you may be watching us already right now. Just search the drive with Josh Graham. That's it. Yeah. And make sure you're subscribed to any of those places.

If you already listen or watch that way, two thumbs up to you. Speaking of Bryce Young, the Carolina Panthers were co-stars of Hard Knocks with the New York Jets last night. And even though at times the Panthers made the Jets look pretty good. Quinnen Williams running around the Spartanburg practice field got 11 sacks, 11.

Saturday shout out made a lot more sense after watching last night's episode because Robert Salah, he was livid after the joint practice a week ago. The offense struggled and it led to a coming to Jesus meeting. There wasn't a second joint practice, but apparently the Jets practice later that afternoon. I don't think the Panthers did. It shouldn't surprise you after that type of meeting that the Jets play with their hair on fire, even as reserves were out there against the Panthers, who Frank Reich had a bit of a critique after the fact saying, yeah, we didn't have the same energy. The energy wasn't there. The effort wasn't where it needed to be.

So that made more sense. The Panthers probably going to play with more effort and more energy against the Giants this week, I would guess. Even though HBO focused a lot on Quinnen Williams dominance of the Panthers line, when you looked at what the Panthers were doing to stymie the Jets and struggling in that joint practice, it was a lot of Brian Burns getting into that backfield.

He was getting home quite a bit, which explains why Aaron Rodgers after the preseason game sought out Burns. And this is what Aaron had to say to the Panthers number zero. You're an incredible player. Thanks for not playing today.

Good luck with your contract. Rodgers has made the hard knocks season all the more interesting. He was at the center of the magic show that they had. He's talking movies, making fun of Zach Wilson for not having seen the Naked Gun. W.D., have you seen Naked Gun?

Well, you'll watch Dodgeball later on tonight. We're making progress. Here he was, you know, ribbing Panthers offensive line coach James Campin, who was with Rodgers in Green Bay to catch up with an especially close friend he knew in Green Bay.

James Campin, now a coach for the Panthers. What are you doing? What are you doing, huh?

You look fat as shit. You said 260. No, I did not. Yes, we said 260. No, 79. What are you at?

Five over. You're what? Yeah. You have to be pretty tight with somebody to run up on somebody from behind with your first line being, what's up, you little B? What are you doing, huh? You look fat as shit.

You look fat as bleep. Yeah, very instructive episode of Hard Knocks. There is a story to be told about sports ownership in our state when it comes to David Tepper and Tom Dundon. They both took over their teams in 2018. Tepper bought a team with an MVP quarterback fresh off a playoff appearance, then proceeded to have losing seasons in all five of the years after, and now is rebuilding again with a new quarterback and a new coach. Meanwhile, Tom Dundon bought a team that hadn't been to the playoffs since 2009, and since then, been to the playoffs every year, and turned them into a franchise that right now, according to DraftKings, the betting favorite to win the Stanley Cup next year, plus yesterday's news about the new lease at PNC Arena and development around the building, another All-Star game, another outdoor game.

So we welcome in Luke Tkach, the award-winning columnist from the Raleigh News and Observer, to talk about that. What is Tom Dundon most gotten right as the Canes owner, and perhaps something he's gotten right that David Tepper hasn't in Charlotte? I mean, this isn't a direct answer to your question, but I'll tell you what the difference is between those two guys as owners and the time I spent around, obviously more around the Hurricanes than the Panthers. And I guess true to my words, I haven't been around the Panthers since I wrote that they weren't worth watching anymore, although that's not entirely my choice, but that's a whole different interview. I think the difference between the two guys as owners is Tom Dundon came in full of ideas, full of energy. There was a lot of low-hanging fruit to pick with the Hurricanes.

I mean, a fan base that was not dead, but very dormant and had very little positive reinforcement really for seven or eight years. But he also acknowledged that he didn't know everything about hockey. I mean, he's much more educated now and will not say that he doesn't know anything about hockey now, but he took the time to learn. He talked to everybody. He talked to the equipment managers. He talked to the PR guys. He talked to players. He talked to coaches. He talked to assistant coaches. He talked to people in the media.

He talked to agents. I mean, he was a sponge. He basically looked at it like he was taking over the field.

He was a sponge. He basically looked at it like he was taking over a failing business, which is one of the things that he does and one of the ways he makes money, and tried to figure out why it was broken and what he could do to fix it. That meant doing things other hockey teams don't do and cutting spending in some places and spending more in others. It meant spending to the cap, which the Hurricanes hadn't done in 20 years or in 15 years really since the second year the cap was instituted.

All those things. Whereas David Tepper, having been a part owner of the Steelers, came in, he knew everything. He wasn't afraid to tell you he knew everything. He has an ego the size of Saturn, and he made all of these decisions that have been terrible for the Panthers. The difference between Tom Dundon and David Tepper is Tom Dundon was not afraid to admit he didn't know things, and David Tepper, since he bought the team, has been too afraid to admit he didn't know everything. And that's the root of every problem the Panthers have, from the practice facility disaster, to the mishandling of the team, to hiring a clown like Matt Ruhle.

David Tepper refuses to admit he doesn't know everything. And until he does, and I think he has a really good GM in Scott Fritter, I think he now has a really good coach in Frank Reich. But he's got a really good coach now. I think he's got a better coaching staff.

I think he had a really good coach in Steve Wilks, but that's a different story. Now they have a chance to sort of start over, but it shouldn't have taken five years. It should have taken five months if David Tepper, A, could admit he doesn't know everything, or B, admit a mistake.

I mean, that's a part of this, too. Tom Dundon's made mistakes, paid the price, and moved on. When he bought the team, he thought Bill Peters was a good coach. That obviously was an error in judgment, and he didn't last very long, and then he brings in Rod Burnamore, who is a good coach. So I think that's the big difference between the two of them as owners, and I think it's why their franchises have had very different trajectories since both of them bought those teams.

Luke DeCock, Raleigh News & Observer, joining us here on WSJS. Getting to the column you wrote yesterday about the renovation at PNC Arena. You described it as a win for all parties involved, but with that said, what's the biggest question mark or concern you have about the project? Well, the devil is always in the details, and these are very broad strokes we've talked about.

I want to be clear here, this is a multi-fold transformational project. It's not just $300 million in renovations to PNC, which, look, the building very badly needs. It's 24 years old, it's showing its age, it has great bones, it's been maintained very well, but when you go to these other places, I mean, the Islanders Arena at Belmont is a great example.

We were there for the playoffs last spring, or this spring. That building is completely different than PNC. The fan experience is completely different than PNC. The concourses, the entries, all of those things outside the arena bowl. There's no comparison anymore between PNC and these modern arenas. And inside the bowl, the experience at PNC hasn't changed since 1999. You walk in there, other than the new scoreboard and the ribbon boards, it looks the same.

And that's just, it's dated, everyone knows it, they've known it for 10 years, they've been trying for 10 years, they finally can do it, but that's just one piece of this. The far bigger piece of this is the development around the arena. Those 80 acres of parking lots that have been there since the arena opened, those are going to become, you know, for us in Raleigh, like North Hills, it's going to be housing, it's going to be retail, it's going to be restaurants, it's going to be offices, there's going to be a hotel, there's going to be a music venue, it's going to be a destination on days that there are not games at the arena.

And that's what it was originally intended to be back at the turn of the century. The problem was, Peter Carmanos brought the Hurricanes here, he didn't have the interest, he certainly didn't have the money in being a land developer, he had the right in the arena lease to do that, he never wanted to do it, so it never happened. Tom Dundon bought the team, and as he told me yesterday, he didn't buy it as a real estate play, but after he kind of got to know things and went to a few games at PNC, you know, started to wonder why there was no place to get a beer or watch a late game.

You could come and tailgate, but when the game was over, you left, and that was it. So that's going to change. And, you know, in this environment, you know, it's tough to make the kind of money you used to be able to make developing a big plot of land like that, obviously there's money in it, you know, you wouldn't be doing it if there weren't. But he's also a guy who can invest his money anywhere, and it's a lot easier to build big developments in Texas, where there are fewer regulations and certainly fewer cooks in the kitchen than there are here on state-owned land, with the city and the county and the state all kind of having a say in this, which is why it's taken so long to get here. But he's doing it because he owns the team and it's fun and it'll be cool, and I think it will be.

I mean, as I wrote, as a columnist, there are very few things that you can sort of wholeheartedly endorse without reservations. And this really, it's a win for the Hurricanes. They signed an arena lease through 2044. The ground lease on the development runs through 2096, which is the same as the arenas lease with the state, so that ties those two things together. It's a win for the city and county, which get this, you know, potentially $2 billion development in an area of Wake County that's been largely overlooked and is just now kind of starting to come together.

And the gateway from the west on Wade Avenue, if you're coming from the airport, if you're coming from Greensboro on I-40, this is how you enter Raleigh, typically. So now you're going to have a showpiece there around the arena. And it's a win for NC State, because there's preservations in there to protect tailgating for football games, and NC State gets a brand new, basically brand new arena without putting a nickel in. I think that's the thing people overlook. NC State's getting all these renovations, NC State gets a say in these reservations.

They don't have to put a nickel into this. It's a big win for everybody. City, county, state, Hurricanes, Dundon, NC State, I mean, it's just something that should have happened a long time ago. Your mention of NC State we'll use as a transition.

Luke Tkach with us here. Read his column about the renovation at PNC Arena, newsobserver.com. NC State, according to ESPN today, was the fourth school to emerge as an opposition against the expansion of Cal and Stanford. Florida State, Clemson, and North Carolina had already had their positions known. NC State became that firm fourth no, according to Andrea Adelson and David Hale today. So as expected, Florida State, they're going to remain in the league.

Their deadline passed. The ACC chose not to expand out west like the Big 12 and the Big 10 did in recent weeks. But you did have those double-digit university presidents that were for expansion, and Florida State is still clearly upset. So even as the dust seems to have settled for this summer, Luke, what should be ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips' big takeaway from the last few weeks moving forward? Number one, that there are three presidents who still have a brain in their heads because the idea of adding Cal and Stanford was ludicrous. I mean, it was an absolute disaster in the making. Obviously, Florida State, we lost them a long time ago.

They've gone bye-bye in terms of being coherent or sensible. But I think NC State and UNC did the league a big favor by standing in the way of this. I think it was going to be a disaster. It was going to be bad for the athletes.

It was reactive, not proactive. Josh, if you look back at the other two big ACC expansions, they were proactive. They had goals. The first one was designed to get to a 12-team league with football powerhouses. Didn't work because Miami sucks and Florida State sucks and have for the entire tenure of this agreement almost. But that was the goal.

It was clearly laid out. We're going to get to 12. We're going to have divisions. We're going to have a title game. We're going to improve football. The second big expansion, we're going to add basketball schools because we need to upgrade our basketball. We need to get back to what built this league and made it great. Again, have Pitt and Syracuse and others lived up to that?

No, of course they haven't. But still, there were defined goals and there was an endpoint. That's important because you start expanding and adding schools without having a reason to do it other than everybody else is. It puts your league in a terrible position. I think the Big Ten is going to come to regret adding USC and UCLA. I think USC and UCLA are absolutely going to come to regret it and so are Oregon and Washington. But we won't know that for a long time and so that's my takeaway here. The ACC dodged a bullet.

It was a dumb idea to begin with. I think they have UNC and NC State to thank for not putting themselves in a words position. I don't know what Duke's thinking.

I mean, come on, get a grip. But the ACC is not going to save itself by adding two schools that are terrible at football. That's not the answer to this. You've got to bring in schools that add value. Cal and Stanford are peer institutions. I get why some of the presidents would get excited about adding two academically distinguished institutions. It does not make sense.

It never made sense. ACC dodged a bullet. Yeah, I'm with you on that and it'll be interesting to see if conversations resurface surrounding those schools about what's going to happen next with them. Jim Phillips, speaking of him though, he told us when we visited with him in Charlotte that he wanted to announce four or five ACC tournament sites at one time this year.

So that's leading up to the 75 year anniversary, which I know has been a topic that you've been fascinated with. When that happens, what do you expect the next cycle of the ACC tournament to look like? So not just Greensboro where they have to be twice over the next decade and Charlotte obviously where their new home is. What do you suspect that might look like hypothetically?

Based on everything I've heard, it's going to look a lot like what it has. Greensboro, Charlotte, Washington, D.C., Brooklyn. My question is, is there a wild card in there? If they go out to 2028 or whichever year it is, 2029, I've lost track. It was my idea to hold the 75th tournament in Raleigh.

Certainly part of it at Reynolds. I know that's been discussed. I don't know whether that's going to work or not or be in this cycle. I certainly hope that the ACC will do whatever it takes to do that. Not just because it's my idea, but I think it's a great idea. I think it makes a lot of sense. To stop you real quick though, would you be surprised if Brooklyn was not part of the next cycle or do you think if you do go elsewhere with the wild card city, it's Brooklyn and somewhere else?

I think it's an and. There are school presidents who really like being in Brooklyn. I think even though it's a financial drain on the league to go there compared to some of these other cities, I do think that the people who make these decisions, Phillips, Paul Brazo, some of the presidents who have power in this area, they get something extrinsic about going to Brooklyn that they like being in New York.

They like who it puts them in contact with. I would not say that Brooklyn is sort of relegated to that second tier of potential tournament cities. Who would be in that potential second tier that I've heard? I think there's some interest in going back to Atlanta now that that building has been renovated. I think there's been some interest in going to Pittsburgh, that that's a city that they would like to go to. They need Pittsburgh and I don't know whether or not this has happened. They need Pittsburgh to want it.

Pittsburgh has got to make a push for that, but I think if Pittsburgh were to make a push, the ACC has receptive to that. And the other city that not many people have talked about that I wrote about last summer is Boston. I think there's a sense that playing at Boston, the new garden, Fleet Center, TD Garden, whatever. Yeah, that there's a sense that going there would be good for the league as well.

I don't agree with that one. I don't think that would make a lot of sense, especially when you've got to deal with Celtics and Bruins. That's a big lift to go there. And I don't know that you would get a ton out of it, but I do know that that's an option that's been discussed as a potential wildcard. Yeah, I just think you run into the same problems you did with Brooklyn that you do with the Celtics, given that they have teams that play there. Pittsburgh, it's like other than the Penguins, it's, hey, they love basketball. There's a lot of basketball pedigree and all the hotels are centralized in Pittsburgh, too. Pittsburgh makes a lot of sense for me.

It really does. Yeah. I mean, I was there for the NCAA tournament in 2018 with Duke. Rhode Island was there.

Oklahoma was there. There were a lot of big fan bases there, and it was great. As you said, the hotels are all near the arena. The arena is gorgeous. They've just renovated again. It's only a few years old.

It's already been reskinned. It's a terrific building. It's a terrific city.

As my friend Craig Meyer said when I brought this up with him when he was still working in Pittsburgh, hey, it would be the only ACC tournament city where you can get drunk for 20 bucks. And that's, hey, that's something we should be looking at. Hey, Luke DeCock, thanks for making the time. I really do appreciate you making the time for us, as always, and keep up the great work.

Newsobserver.com. You can read them, and I hope to see you sometime soon. All right. Thank you, Josh.

This is it. You ready? All right, hold on.

All right, do it, do it, do it. All right, listen up. This is The Drive with Josh Graham. Maybe you don't see it, but he has a really good sense of humor. I mean, he says some funny stuff now.

I mean, it's just like, where did that come from, you know? You almost slipped there, James Campin. The same way Icky Iquanu was slipping in coverage. In pass, bro, against the Jets last Saturday. That's the Panthers offensive line coach talking about offensive coordinator Thomas Brown, who had some funny stuff to say, apparently, that none of us have heard.

None of us have heard him be funny yet, which matters to us because we're still waiting to see some humor from him. He's replacing Ben McAdoo, who was a rich, deep reservoir for us. Every week, whenever Ben McAdoo spoke, we listen. That's true.

Well played. So, Thomas Brown, if we're going to listen to you every week, are you going to bring it for us? In fact, it kind of reminds us, W.D., of Bryce Young. We've been waiting for Bryce Young to show us some of that humor. We hear it. Jonathan Mingo saying that Bryce is cracking jokes in the locker room, even in the huddle.

We haven't heard that side of it yet. We tried to get some of it out of him when Bryce joined us earlier in the show. Well, we heard slightly some of it when DJ Chark had a hot mic on him in practice. All it was was Bryce saying, you're on a hot mic? That bleep slaps or whatever he said about the music. That's it. That's all we got. You got a little peek of some of it. We're trying to find that personality. If you want to listen back to that conversation, it's up on YouTube.

Search The Drive With Josh Grant on YouTube and be sure to subscribe. Speaking of Bryce and Thomas Brown, here was Thomas Brown's assessment of Bryce Young's performance in the three series we saw him. Every day, I mean, there's two to three highlight plays, whether it be pocket movement, throwing off balance, whether it be the sky, what our defense is doing from a pass protection standpoint. It gets into the right looks to everything and how he handles just overall.

Like I said before, just the pressure, like down and down, which is rare for a guy his age because he's, you know, he's still a young, young dude, for sure. But he acts like he's probably 45 years old at times, maybe older than me. But the way he operates is kind of just fun to be around. Thomas Brown spoke for 15 minutes and that was the closest thing to anything funny he had to say. Because that wasn't funny then. But I guess that's the point. Ben McAdoo is funny. That's true. Well played.

Which leads to the question. This is an important question we need to ask all Panther fans who are listening to this right now. Do you prefer your offensive coordinator to be good at coaching football or being entertaining on the show?

3-3-6, 7-7-7, 1-600. Because Thomas Brown is probably better at the football coaching than Ben McAdoo is. Yeah. But Ben McAdoo is a lot more fun. That's true. Well played. Which do you prefer?

3-3-6, 7-7-7, 1-600. You might not be conflicted in your answer. I'm very conflicted. We need to find somebody who's entertaining. DJ Chark, he might be the man for us to seek out.

He might be the new when this guy speaks, we listen type. We learned what his pregame rituals were yesterday when DJ spoke and here they are. I got little glasses that blink and I got a tennis ball and I just find a room and I throw the tennis ball at the wall and I'm sitting there catching, focusing, getting my eyes right before the game. So if you're walking through and you see me, I look probably silly, crazy to you, but I'm really getting ready for the game. What did he describe these glasses as?

Again, can I hear just the beginning of that? I got little glasses that blink. Okay. I've seen these. I got big glasses that blink.

I know exactly what he's talking about. I have no idea. Can you describe it with more words?

You work in a medium that allows for you to use more descriptive language that actually requires it and paint pretty pictures with your words. Help me see these glasses because this description again from DJ. I got little glasses that blink. Isn't exactly popping a ton of pictures in my head. Well, I've seen Steph Curry use these and the tennis ball.

Still not helping. Essentially what it is, is it, I don't know what they look like in there, but it's like it helps with your coordination. What do they look like on the outside? I don't know what they look like. That's what I'm struggling with.

Help me paint the picture. I'm walking past DJ Chark in the bowels of Bank of America Stadium. I'm seeing him do this tennis ball thing, which I've seen Steph do too. I just haven't focused on the eyewear. What are they wearing? I got little glasses that blink. What is on his face? Where's the blinking happen? Do we see the blinking on the outside? Do these things glow in the dark on the outside or is he the only person that sees it? He's the only person that sees it. So it looks like he's wearing shades.

Yeah, like here's Steph doing his thing. Okay, so they're like goggles. They're like goggles. They look like sunglasses or sunglasses.

Like what Oppenheimer wore. More than oculus? Does it look more like an oculus?

No. Like just regular sunglasses? It looks like sunglasses. I mean oculus is like a full on headset over your face. Okay, see your screen was a little bit far.

I'm just trying to paint the picture. So it does look like glasses. I got little glasses that blink. Which confirms that. Yeah, but he sees the blink because it's like works on coordination and the tennis ball and all that. That's not as weird then.

No. I was picturing the Kanye West circa mid 2000s shutter shade situation. I had some. Those were really stupid but very cool at the time when flashing lights by Kanye came out.

Or I guess he just wants to be referred to as yay nowadays. I got little glasses that blink. And they did.

Mine didn't. Those super rad. Did people say rad anymore?

I was listening to an interview Bill Hader did recently because Barry's a show that I like. One of the few shows that I like and he used the word rad a lot. So it's empowered me to use the word rad. And you know what rad is? Do you know what's rad? I got little glasses that blink. They are.

Those are rad. DJ chart again, he gives us the content. That's what he does. Did you ever have a pregame routine when you played like anything weird that you used to do? Nothing weird. Like I would warm up and go through my warm up maybe in a certain order.

Like I would jog to centerfield. Specific songs you would listen to? Forever by Drake.

That was in the list. For me it was, I had one that made sense, Loser's Health by Eminem. The second one was Clocks by Coldplay.

It would be Coldplay. Some might find weird but for some reason Clocks by Coldplay got me where I needed to go and something that recently crept into the gym playlist was Let It Go by Idina Menzel. Yeah, we had to listen to it on the way to Charlotte.

Okay, well be honest. Just my playlist, it was on the radio. It wasn't on my playlist.

It just turned on. But we kept it on. We could have skipped it, but you criticized it at first. I criticized the fact it was on my playlist.

How did this sneak in there? But then once you got to the end of the song, when Idina Menzel was getting it, you knew that you were in the wrong for knocking it. That song is a banger. The Frozen song, Let It Go by Idina Menzel. When it's, let it go, the past is in the past. When that happens, you know it's about to go down.

It makes me want to go to a special place where I'm styling and I'm putting on some glasses or I don't know, something like... It's a long road. One thing I learned. That's not the right color. Sometimes you tee it up.

I got little glasses that blink. Oh, we were moving on. Thought I was too.

I was ready. Just keeps going back to it. But that happened on our trip to Charlotte.

You want to do a quick roundup of Fantasy Suites episode? What was Homeboy's name that basically admitted to cheating in his last relationship? Thought it was going to work out and then somehow got out of it. Then the question that was asked before she was going to ask him if you'd like to spend the night was, do you think you could be in a place where you are faithful and that you do propose? And he's like, in my heart, I know I can. But in my mind, not great.

And he thought he was going to pull himself out of that hole too. It was terrible. Not so much.

It was tough. Team Joey, the tennis player. That's what we're riding with. Yes.

We'll see how Joey does when the finale arrives. To raise morale across the Triad and give away tickets to go see Diamond, Rio and Morris Day in the news. Not the news, the time.

Huey Lewis has the news. Yeah. We're going to play Weekly Positivity. How about that?

Next. It's The Drive with Josh Graham WSJS It's about time for Weekly Positivity. If you call in and tell us something good, you can win tickets to go see Diamond, Rio and Morris Day in the time. You get tickets to two shows, a pair of tickets to both shows at the Winston, Salem fairgrounds to close the summer series that they have each and every year.

So those are two pretty good shows. 336-777-1600. Call and tell us something good if you'd like to win tickets. We haven't talked about Leo Messi being at it again last night. He had a rocket from about 30 yards it seemed like, sending one pass to keeper.

Sending one pass to keeper. And if you're wanting an updated figure on the demolition he's had on MLS competition since playing in the MLS Leagues Cup, which now he's in the championship match for, they're going to face Nashville this weekend for the championship of the Leagues Cup before MLS play resumes. He's started in five matches and come in as a reserve and won where he played the final 30 minutes or so in his debut. He has nine goals. Five starts and then played a third of one match. And in that time, so in five and one third matches, he has nine goals. Close to two goals a match. He had one against Charlotte, which was the first time he started a match that didn't have multiple goals. But in every single match that he's played in, they've had, well I guess with the exception of one, which was the one that he arrived in two quarters, two thirds of the way in, he's had, or Inter Miami has had at least three goals in every single one of these matches. And in all but one have had four.

Hard to lose matches when you're scoring four goals in each one as a team and Lionel Messi has not been held off the score sheet quite yet. Kind of amazing stuff. Now let's get to weekly positivity. Oh, yeah.

Nobody makes me bleed my own blood. Give us a call and tell us something good. 336-777-1600 is the phone number. I'll start when it comes to the telling, the sharing of good things. I've had almost a perfect day at work today. I got here, everybody in our building and our new Winston-Salem offices is super nice and they had PDQ catered in the office. And that was good. Shout out to Jim Crenshaw and Winston-Salem for helping provide us with some PDQ that we enjoyed greatly.

And then we just had Bryce Young join the show today. YouTube and on our podcast channel, those are the two places you can find that interview by searching the drive of Josh Graham. And if you do subscribe on our podcast channel, say something good. We have a five-star review and those types of things.

What are some of the cheesy things people say about YouTube? Like if I was going to be the typical YouTuber, smash that like button. You should like, like and subscribe. Hit the bell for notifications. Do that.

All those things. That's all very good. Let's go to William who's in Winston-Salem. William, tell me something good. Well, I don't sound as relaxed as you, but I am glad that you had some PDQ. That is awesome. Awesome is one word to use. Another word I'd use is good. Yeah, good.

That's right. Good. So my kind of good is a good by way of exciting because I'm on my way to Charlotte right now to see 50 Cent perform his 20-year anniversary of his original, his debut album. And I'm going to relive some of my childhood and I'm pumped.

Hold on a second. Is Get Rich or Die Tryin 20 years old? It's 20 years old. It's the final lap tour for 50 Cent. And Busta Rhymes is going to be there. I keep forgetting that. What song are you most excited to hear off that album? It's got a lot of bangers on it.

Many men, probably. Wow. Thank you, William.

Enjoy that concert. More wanksta. Wanksta. Wanksta's a good one. Obviously, wanksta.

William from Winston-Salem. A great choice. Hope you enjoy going to see Morris Day and the Time or even going to go see... Diamond Rio. You get tickets to both.

Stay on the line and WD will get your information. Tell me something good, WD. Well, with our trip to Charlotte on Saturday to cover the Panthers game, that officially kicked off football season as far as like us going out and covering games. Yeah, we have high school football this week and a big game.

Mount Tabor and Grimsley on Friday night. That's right. And that's actually what was going to be my good thing because I'll be on the sticks.

I'll be producing it. So... On the stick? Yeah. I've never heard somebody say that about producing a radio show. Being on the sticks, that's like a video game expression. You're on the sticks. I don't think I've ever heard that when it comes to producing high school football broadcast.

You can use that expression, though. So it's already time. We'll get Dave Pulaski. He's going to be coming on with us soon.

We haven't heard from him lately. And then you sent me my schedule of college football games I'll be covering. And the first one is getting really close. September 2nd, Elon at Wake Forest. That's on August 31st.

August 31st. Well, you said you have September 2nd written down. Well, that's the Saturday where we're going to North Carolina, South Carolina. We're going to two games. Week one. Because there's a Thursday night game in there, which is on August 31st.

Calendars are good. Oh, I'm going to the beach this week. Going to Dirty Myrtle.

Myrtle Beach. First time for Willow going to the beach. Oh, she's going to get dirty in that sand.

Yeah. She's going to love it. She's going to find big sticks. I am interested to see a reaction to see in the water for the first time. Do you think she's going to be overwhelmed or is she going to run right to it?

I don't know. We're excited for it. Can't wait to get out that way. And also, that'll be the longest car ride for her.

About a three hour, 45 minute car ride. But I ride at night. So, you know. You do.

I think she'll be fine. You ride and you sing at night when you're driving. I do. It's a good way to stay awake. Fun fact. You can't fall asleep if your mouth is moving.

So sunflower seeds. Or if you have to go to the bathroom. That's another pro tip. Like if you just drink a lot of fluids while you're driving late at night.

So you get to the position where you have to go to the bathroom and since you're holding that, that feeling of having to go to the bathroom will prevent you from falling asleep too. There are a lot of pro tips. Late driving tips that I'm sure people who drive a lot and drive at night listening understand and probably have their own tips. Those are just a few of mine. And all of them are good. That's been Weekly Positivity.