Hear You Smile

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You are on a Tuesday drive. It is WSJS, News Talk Sports for the Triad. We're almost right out of the chute. We're going to be joined by App State Director of Athletics, Doug Gillen. He'll be here in a little more than 10 minutes from now. However, sadly, we must get to the Carolina Panthers first, because every day it just seems to get worse and worse. Over there, it just continues to get worse. For the first time since draft night, Panthers owner David Tepper answered questions from reporters.

You know, with concerts. Which makes sense, considering for the second time in as many years, he fired a football coach yesterday. But despite making himself available, Tepper did himself no favors and actually found a way to make an already angry fan base angrier. Here's the first mistake that he made.

He had absolutely no interest in sharing any insight on why he fired Frank Reich, which was the whole point for having the press conference in the first place. Here he was earlier, saying as much. And, you know, quite frankly, if I had my druthers, I'd like to have a coach here for 20 years or 30 years. You know, if I can do that. You know, I'm not going to get into the individual sort of things. You guys can just speculate as to that. But, you know, we just moved on yesterday and that's that. That's that. We just decided to move on.

That's that. You guys can speculate if you want to. This is the same guy when he was interested in potentially getting a new stadium that said, I view the city of Charlotte as being a partner.

The community is being a partner with this football team. Yet won't explain now why he fired Frank Reich. Won't give any insight why he did that.

None. When fans don't want to go to your games, that's just that. I suppose. You can just speculate why that might be.

He didn't want to talk about the firing at all. Do you know what he did want to talk about, though? You know, with concerts. Oh, you betcha. He wanted to talk about them concerts, them events.

Here he was again going to that same well that he did a year ago after firing rule. You know, when we came here, there were 10 events a year in this stadium. Basically, probably one or two more, maybe. I think we did 42 events last year in this field, not counting high school football that we brought back for the first time in the stadium and other things like that, other type charity things.

So they're not even counting those sort of things, but major type events. Brought soccer to Charlotte. The stands are full. If you were at that last game with Miami, I mean, it was a joyful sort of experience when Messi came to town, and I think the fans were elated.

Yes, still no Taylor Swift, though. Just pointing that out. Did he just take credit for the stands being full and Messi being there?

Oh, yeah. Stands are full at these games. Were you at that last game? He brought Messi to Charlotte. That's what he did. With concerts.

That's the new one. He brought Messi to Charlotte. He brought concerts to Charlotte.

This is our guy. So that's what he wanted to talk about. He didn't want to talk about why Frank Reich was fired, even though that's the reason why he had the press conference. And then he just wanted to talk about concerts again and how he is the guy who brought Leo Messi to Charlotte.

Wanted to take credit for that as well. He came off looking very small. He had his PR staff call on reporters, which is his way of picking which guys he specifically does not want to be called on. Namely, Scott Fowler, who has covered the Panthers longer than anybody else. The last time David Tepper had one of these press conferences, he even said that he read Scott Fowler's columns and had respect for Scott Fowler. It seemed like it was a bit of an icy exchange though. Scott was pretty critical of Tepper in the column yesterday and apparently had his hand up sitting in the front row.

He was never called on. That's just small. And he got the press conference to less than 15 minutes. And the reason why it was over 10 minutes is because they allowed for one last question to be asked after they initially called it. Six questions overall were asked of David Tepper, who again has not spoken in more than six months. It would have been better for him not to do this press conference at all. He made it worse today. He didn't want to do it. It seemed like that he was asked to do it by his PR staff because that's what they did a year ago. He didn't want to talk about the thing, which was the reason why this press conference was being called for in the first place. He cut it short 15 minutes. He made himself seem worse. And when you avoid questions, it leads to people, using his word again, speculating and makes things seem a lot worse in your building than they might be. So when you don't address the Scott Fitterer question, which was not asked, then your next head coach who might be watching that, who might be considering the job, is left to speculate whether or not it's going to be another arranged marriage, a head coach and a general manager when the job comes free. Lot of unanswered questions. He came off worse than he did yesterday.

And I didn't think that was possible going into the day. 336-777-1600 is the number if you want in. Will Dalton, the executive producer of this show, we are streaming video on X on Twitter on, or X's Twitter on YouTube, on Twitch. W.D. real quickly, when we play weekly positivity later this hour, what tickets will we be giving away? So we're going to have a pair of Sebastian Maniscalco tickets. He's going to be coming to Charlotte. Then you're going to have a Vinge Sevenfold. They're coming.

And then Jason Aldean getting in on the action. Great shows. So make sure you're around for that. We have one more pair of Wake Florida basketball tickets as well for tomorrow night.

So stick around for that. Let's go to Dave and Clemons who wants to start us off. Dave and Clemons, what fired you up most about what Tepper said today? What's up, JG? You know, about five or six weeks ago, I called in and I compared us to the Oakland Raiders, mid-2000s, early 2000s, just the dumpster fire. Yeah, you compared Jamarcus Russell to Bryce Young, I remember. Josh, we are trending in that direction more and more.

It's just firing me up even more. Let me tell you something, David Tepper. Dave and Clemons doesn't care about Beyonce. Dave and Clemons doesn't care about Lionel Messi.

Whenever you come to Bank of America Stadium, Sundays at one o'clock between September and January, and you line up across the line of scrimmage against the blue, the white, and the black of the Carolina Panthers, I want the other team to know what's hitting them in the face and what's smacking them in the mouth. And when he's that owner, none of that is happening, Josh. We are trending in the wrong direction ever since he has taken over. It all goes to him. It all points back to him.

He's the common denominator. And I'm not supporting it anymore. I hope other Panthers fans, season ticket holders, give their tickets like I have to other fan bases to show up or show up with bags on their heads because you can't support this guy, this franchise, any longer. It makes no sense. And the only way he can save that is by bringing in a guy like Jim Harbaugh. That's the only way to spend this positively.

And I'd like to see what you think about all that. Yeah, I don't blame that position at all just because of the 30 and 61 record. You don't want to support it, don't support it. Jim Harbaugh, you can call all you want. Doesn't mean he'll take the job.

It's not going to be among the most appealing, but it is an appealing enough job to get somebody good to take it. I just don't know if you're going to get the top candidates on the market, Ben Johnson or a Jim Harbaugh in that matter. Before we get to App State AD Doug Gillen who's going to join us, let's get to college football real quick. Are you noticing how crazy the transfer portal's already getting?

Starting to heat up. It's understandable if you aren't that locked in on it yet with conference championships happening this week and you got the next to last playoff rankings dropping tonight, but even though the portal doesn't officially open until Monday, it's already become a zoo. Top quarterbacks have already announced they're jumping in. Cameron Ward at Washington State who owns a degree at Wazoo already, which means he can transfer as a grad transfer even though he's already on his second school.

Doesn't have to worry about the one time transfer. Tyler Van Dyke is in from Miami. Will Rogers from Mississippi State. Will Howard from Kansas State. And the regular season only ended three days ago.

So expect that to continue to accelerate hour to hour, day to day until next Monday. And we're already seeing local players go. A few Tar Heels, including Elijah Green and Kamari Morales, Mitch Griffiths. If the final few games gave you the indication that Wake was gonna move on from him anyway, it's now official Mitch Griffiths will not be Wake Forest quarterback. Next year, the Deacs will have a new guy. The question is, will he be in the portal or is it somebody right now that's on campus like a Michael Kern or Marucci, whatever it's gonna be. We still haven't heard about MJ Morris's future. And how about this?

Again, the portal hasn't officially opened yet. And according to the 24-7 Sports, North Carolina already has identified, it seems, Drake May's successor in Max Johnson. That's the son of Brad Johnson, the Super Bowl winner with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Third school, but he is a grad transfer. So he can, like Cam Ward, transfer immediately. One good year at LSU, banged up at A&M the last couple of years. It seems they're preparing for life without Drake May and it could be Max Johnson and Conner Harrell competing for a job for North Carolina. All that's already happened, which is kind of nuts when you really think about it. Let's go, baby.

What, kind of like this? Let's go, go! The Drive with Josh Graham. Tomorrow, we're gonna be doing our show from Joel Coliseum, Wake Forest, facing Florida. So Steve Forbes and company will be dropping by our set. ACC SEC Challenge starting tonight, but three of our locals play tomorrow, including Wake Forest. On Friday, we're gonna be traveling up the mountain as it is quite the weekend to be an App State Mountaineer as on Saturday, it is the Sunbelt Championship game, App State playing at Troy.

If you can't get to Alabama, you can watch the game four o'clock on ESPN. And on Sunday, we're gonna be broadcasting the show from the home center. We're gonna be doing basketball, App State hosting Auburn, Bruce Pearl and company going up the mountain, speaking of SEC basketball, playing some of our locals, going up the mountain, Dustin Kern's program having a ton of success. So we welcome in App State's AD, Doug Gillen kind enough to join us.

Unlike David Tepper earlier today, he will answer all of our questions. And there's a lot for us to get to, let's start here. How big is this weekend for you and your friends on the mountain? I think it's huge. I mean, and thank you for having us on and talking with us and putting us on with you.

It's great. Last year, you missed the bowl game, go six and six, and four out of six Sunbelt Championships, we've been in them. One of them that wasn't was last year. So we were super excited. We were humble. And now we're like, yeah, winning college football games is really, really hard. The fact that you're playing for what I think is one of the best conferences in America right now is with 12 bowl teams, we're playing in the championship is really a big deal for our university. And then basketball, you talk about an SEC program coming to Boone, how much precedent is there for that?

None, zero. I mean, I think, you know, in the history of Boone, you've had Davidson come and play, you've had, that was from a big crowd standpoint, and then certainly at the University of North Carolina come up here, you know, when we opened up the home center, but, you know, all the credit to Dustin Kearns, getting that game scheduled, all the credit to Auburn for coming up here and playing at what we think is gonna be a great venue for college basketball on Sunday on national television. So a huge weekend, but these are the type of things, Josh, that you and I have talked about is these are good for college athletics, you know, in a time when, you know, folks want to take shots at college athletics with some of the things that happen, even when you see some coaching changes, et cetera, you see some negativity, but when you can bring fans together, 8,000, we're gonna have 41% of the house is gonna be students here at Appalachia. So we're super excited to have both of these events going on this weekend.

App State AD, Doug Gillen joining us here. There was a lot of negativity. Whenever you have a lot of success, there are high standards. And there was a point where at football lost a couple of games in a row, and people are talking about, oh, are we gonna miss ball games and back to back years? And since then, what a turnaround and what a comeuppance we've seen to get to the Sunbelt Championship game.

And it really culminated with getting that win against James Madison with college game day and Harrisonburg, the whole deal. What has impressed you the most behind the scenes about what we've all seen, you know, in such a public way on television, on the field, this turnaround with App State? What have you seen behind the scenes that's impressed you the most about what Sean Clark's accomplished?

Yeah, I think it's a great question. You mentioned Sean Clark. I think resilience, never quitting, never wavering. You know, Sean Clark and I have been meeting every week, you know, and, you know, as we started, which have been at a consistent time, and then, you know, we started getting superstitious.

You don't want to mess around. But it's been like, if you looked at, you know, where we were, you know, whether it's double overtime against North Carolina, or it's winning the last two minutes against Wyoming, and just like the perfect storm had to happen. Same with the Coastal game here. You know, we're going to score fumble eight. You know, we were right there. So we knew, and Sean knew, he had a good football team. He told me that from the beginning of the year.

He's like, we're going to be good. And so we just had to be patient, which we were. And our student athletes, to their credit, they never quit. They never wavered.

They just kept playing. And we, you know, it's kind of the Mountaineer way. You know, you play with a chip on your shoulder and you're never done, and you never quit. And so we see that throughout all of our athletic programs here, but certainly that's what I saw behind the scenes. Your question was, was the fact that they knew they were going to break through when we just needed that break. And then, you know, and then we, you know, you go ahead and win five straight, you know, and we've, and quite frankly, in pretty dominant fashion, other than the overtime winning against James Madison, you know, the other four were in dominant fashion. We've come out and really taken care of business.

Make sure you're locked in on Friday when we're doing the show from the home center in Boone, Doug Gill and App State AD joining us here on the drive. How does, we were just talking about how crazy the transfer portal is already, and it doesn't even open until Monday. How do you, Sean and the staff, prepare for Saturday and what you need to do on the field while also making sure you're covered, you're ready for what Monday's going to entail once the portal officially opens?

It's not like, you know, it's, that's a great question. Cause it's busy, you know, you're trying to get ready for the logistics of playing in a conference championship, getting to Troy, getting a bunch of people to Troy, all of our university leadership's coming, which is so, so outstanding, the support that we're getting across our campus, across all of our fan bases. So you're trying to get all those logistics figured out. Oh, by the way, you still got, you know, the biggest basketball game that's ever been played here, at least in 20 years. So that's coming up on Sunday. And at the same time, to your point, like you have this nuance that's a transfer portal that we've all already seen, you know, some of the announcements over the last 24 hours of folks in the portal. This is going to be like nothing we've ever seen. I think in college athletics, I don't mean to make it like some big, huge, we'll figure it out, but we are adding that onto the plate of everything else we're talking about. You know, we got to figure out, okay, what does this mean? What's the plan for, you know, certain things that we're doing here? Who, what's the outside noise that we're hearing? And there's a lot of it, you know, you can imagine when your championship caliber team, there's a lot of noise about our student athletes.

So long-winded answer of saying it's crazy. You guys are an example of how important the portal can be though, when you talk about the addition of Joey Aguilar. Fortunately, he's already been to a couple of schools.

So there are guys that you're like, okay, we don't have to worry as much because they're probably not gonna wanna sit out. Doug Gillen joining us here. One more on football. How many bowl games are you considering right now now that you guys are bowl eligible?

You don't have to give me the bowls unless you want to, but you could tell me how many that you've been in touch with. Well, all of that runs through the conference office. And so conference office handles all of that. You know, we know, you know, cause we've been to Myrtle Beach or we've been to New Orleans, or we've certainly always had an interest in going to CURE if that interest became available to us in Orlando. That's a great spot for our student athletes and fans. So we know that, you know, the interesting part is when you have 12 in a conference that really only has five tie-ins, then you gotta find some other tie-ins. The call I had today with the conference, I felt really good that our commissioner's doing a great job of getting all 12 of us hopefully placed somewhere. We know playing in a conference championship, whether you win it or lose it, you know, you're gonna be one of the top two teams that are gonna be looked at from a bowl standpoint. So I think that for us, we're probably, you know, we'll probably stay in our footprint. We won't have to go out West.

Hopefully we'll end up in, whether it's New Orleans or Myrtle or Orlando or the state of Alabama, you know, there's, we'll be in one of those areas and certainly have an eye on a couple that we'd be interested in playing in. Sean Clark, you probably don't know this, cut a deal with our producer, Will Dalton last week, saying that if he by next, by this Friday watched Ace Ventura, which he had not seen. Apparently that was the movie that was on on the bus on the ride back from JMU, that he would send us some gear. Have you watched Ace Ventura yet? It's still on the to-do list. We did Home Alone last night, or I did. We're going to see Napoleon tonight. That's right.

And Ace Ventura. You're busy. You're busy. Tell him. We're trying.

What science? Because if you're not gonna watch it, I'll just go see if Sean will give me the gear. That's what I'm saying. See, we got the, we're gonna figure it out. You're gonna watch this movie by the end of the week, or else Sean's gonna have, he has enough app state here. Next time you're, if you guys win the Sunbelt Championship this weekend, or I should say when you win the Sunbelt Championship, you're gonna, next year when you visit our studio, you and Sean, you're gonna bring that Sunbelt trophy to our studio, right?

Is that how that works? We'll bring the trophy. Yes, for sure. Doug Gillen, thank you for squeezing time in for us. Given the busy week, we look forward to being up the mountain on Friday, and best of luck this week.

Yes. Thank you. We appreciate y'all. Thanks for covering us, and then we look forward to seeing you down the mountain.

Your attention, please, is your turn. This is The Drive with Josh Cramb. We have three shows that we're giving away tickets to before you even have the chance to buy them. If you like comedy, Sebastian Maniscalco gonna be coming to Charlotte. If you like rock, how about a Vinge Sevenfold?

Country, Jason Aldean. We have tickets right now, 336-777-1600. All you have to do is call in, and amid all the negativity surrounding the Carolina Panthers right now, tell us something good that's gonna lift up the Piedmont Triad. That's the function of this segment. Brought to you by our friends at Biscuit King, it is time for weekly positivity.

["O Fortuna"] Oh. Yeah. Fuller. Go easy on the Pepsi.

W.D., watching Home Alone for the first time, will tell us what he thought about it. Tomorrow, when we're doing our show from Joel Coliseum, The Drive, and specifically weekly positivity, brought to you by our friends at Biscuit King, home of the ah, Normous Biscuit. Four locations, three in Lexington, one in High Point. Open tomorrow morning. Get yourself some breakfast, maybe some lunch. Biscuit King, there. Good. Let's start with the phones, actually. Should I go to Steve that's in Pufftown?

Yes, we shall. Hi, Steve. Hey, how are you today?

Let me think about that for a second. I'm doing good. How are you?

I'm doing great. Tell me something good with you. Something good with me or with the Panthers? Well, given the latter of the two would be pretty difficult to find something good. Something good?

You can go off the board if you like. Well, I think there's several good things with the Panthers. Number one, we still have one of the best quarterbacks in the country. He hasn't reached his potential yet. We've just gotta surround him with the right team members that can help him reach his potential.

Number two, about the only place we can go is up. Number three, we can look forward to a new coach who hopefully, Tepper has learned some lessons from this last hiring and that should come out positive. And then some of the most loyal fans in the country. A lot of good things going on with the Panthers.

This is a down year, every team has a down year, but we can be looking up. Steve, you forgot concerts too. They've got concerts, have you heard, at Bank of America Stadium?

Oh yeah, I've seen some. That's good, and you're gonna go to a concert as well, so that's, I think, perfectly fitting. Thank you, Steve. Let's go to Jerry, who's in Greensboro. Hey, Jerry. Hey, Jerry. Hey, how you doing today? You know, Steve asked me that question and I thought about it for a second and I think I'm doing good. Tell me something good with you.

I'm glad to hear that, it's good. I think the Panthers made the right move getting where they're right, it wasn't working. So, better days are gonna be in the future. So, hopefully the owner is not gonna be another Dan Snyder and have 18 coaches in 10 years. So, hopefully we can get some stability in the coaching ranks of the Panthers, as well as all those concerts that they're putting on at the stadium down there instead. Those concerts.

Yeah, that's all good. I mean, he's not Dan Snyder. I don't know what his thoughts on cheerleaders or anything like that is. I hope I don't ever learn out, but Jerry, congratulations.

You've won yourself some tickets. Oh, what a delightful smile and what a delightful laugh that Jerry has, W.D. You can't see his smile, he's on the phone. You can hear it. You can hear a smile, W.D.

I just heard it there. Let's go to Will in Winston. I'm sure he has a delightful smile. Hi, Will. Hey, Josh. You know, you're a Will in Winston. W.D. is a Will in Winston.

If I've said it once, I've said it a million times. As many Wills and Winstons that we can have, the better. Tell me something good. I agree, Josh. And I'm usually the Will in Winston that gives you a hard time on Twitter for being mean to the Heels. And something that's good this week is I don't have to. You've been very kind to the Heels after the Bahamas.

So thank you, Josh. I, you know, it's, I really liked what I saw from Elliot Godot. Give that guy more playing time and I think good things are gonna happen. We'll see, I saw Hubert Davis was talking today and they don't know if Cormac Ryan's gonna play tomorrow and that's not good, but he would not rule them out. So we'll see what happens between now and then. Will, that might be the nicest thing you've ever said to me.

I think so. And another thing that's good is I'm the only person that didn't drop Zach Moss in fantasy football and I get to play in this week. Wow, wow.

That's good. Congratulations, Will. Thanks, Josh.

There goes Will in Winston. One more caller. Let's go to Bo. Bo and Clemons with this. Hey Bo, does Bo know? Hi, Bo. Does Bo know?

Is that how this works? Bo is ready for Friday night at eight o'clock. What's Friday night at eight o'clock? Bo Nix and the Oregon Ducks will be playing the Washington Huskies and are gonna win the Pac-12 championship. Do you have, do you like Oregon because their quarterback's name is Bo? Oh, I love me the Ducks and I tell you what, Dan Lannon has turned to me and I'm gonna win and Dan Lannon has turned the Oregon Ducks into the Georgia Bulldogs of Out West. They are physical on both lines of the scrimmage and they just play winning football and I see a lot of Georgia Bulldogs in them Oregon Ducks. I love it.

I do love that Oregon team and I'm gonna take that as a yes that he likes the Oregon Ducks because their quarterback's name is Bo. W.D., real quickly, tell me something good. You know, I got a new wax maker. My aunt over the Thanksgiving holiday got me a wax maker because she knows I love candles and so I've got a balsamic fur scent. Smells like a Christmas tree.

And then I've got espresso roast and it makes it smell like a coffee Starbucks shop. Yeah. And snickerdoodles. I got some candy that I'm gonna sneak into the movie tonight. That's so edgy.

Nerd clusters. Wow, that's crazy. So good. So we're gonna watch Napoleon tonight. We are. It's a long movie, it's like two and a half hours.

Not as long as Oppenheimer's. No, and we watched that twice. And that's all good. Yeah. Sponsored by Biscuit King. This has been Weekly Positivity. Doesn't that make you feel better? Oh, I feel so good. Makes me feel good. Yeah. It's The Drive with Josh Graham. W-S-J-S. You know, when we came here, there were 10 events a year in this stadium.

Basically, you play across one or two more. We do, I think we did 42 events last year. Brought soccer to Charlotte. I mean, it was a joyful sort of experience when Messi came to town and I think the fans were elated. All hail King Tepper. If it wasn't for him, we would not have any concerts in the city of Charlotte. If it wasn't for him, Inter Miami would never have signed Leo Messi, bringing him to Charlotte.

None of that would have happened without the ever so patient, the ever so kind of a business owner that no one would ever leave him. So we welcome in Hayes Permar of Sports Channel 8 that feels the same exact way as we do about David Tepper. So let me start with the most obvious place, the most newsworthy thing from the press conference. What do you think is David Tepper's best trait?

And I've got four options. His patience, his retention rate as a businessman, bringing Leo Messi to MLS, or yes, concerts. That he, of course, brought to the Queen City.

He went there so quickly, I've only heard parts of it. My only disappointment is that you weren't there in person, Josh Graham, and I'm not sure why, because you've been proving yourself to be the only immediate member of the tag, so he will stand up to a coach. Cut through Mac Brown's word gobble, and ask for a clarifying, are you gonna be back next year, Mac?

So, yeah. I'm disappointed you are there, and- I would have never done that to David Tepper. I would have gotten lost in those eyes. I mean, did you see- I will say- Dude, dude, his first presser, he wore like the three or four button down. That was hard to handle. He came out with the tie, and like a buttoned up shirt, and a tie with the jacket.

Oh! I didn't like this guy. I didn't like him from the jump, dude.

Hot, hot, with an A-W. I didn't like him from the jump. He had the vibe of, he didn't go so far as being like, well, I just love being in the land of sweet tea. You know, he didn't go like Brian Kelly, and like pretend he was a southerner or something.

Family. But he just seemed like he was like trying too hard to be like, oh, look at me, I'm a fun guy. I'm a, you know, like, that's the way he acts. The way he acted when he was becoming the owner is not the way that he carries himself when he was becoming a billionaire, right? Like, I don't know what it takes to be a billionaire. Like, I don't know what it takes to become a billionaire many times over like he is, but I guarantee it's not the way he was acting like he would be as like the fun owner.

Maybe he thought secretly he could be like the cutting billionaire behind the scenes. But if anything, that's one of my favorite parts is that you ready for a perma or like rant or diatribe, Josh Graham, I think you'll feel me on this. I'm ready. Let's say it together on three. One, two, three.

David Tepper's a misunderstood but great owner. Was that it? It was two answers. Did I guess right? It's this, it's this. When you grow up, whatever it is, like whether it's in your field or in other fields, you believe that the people who are the number one, absolute most talented, best singers will be the one who later are the award-winning and Grammy-winning singers, right? And the people that are the best athletes around you are going to be the whatever. And the people that are the smartest, you think the world works up to a certain age, that the smartest people around you are going to be the richest.

They're going to make the most money, right? And so I love, and of course, obviously, billionaires would love you to think that as well. It's like, yes, I am this because I am some combination of work the hardest and the smartest. And darn it, I love it when billionaires look like idiots.

And David Tepper certainly looks like one. And it reminds you that like, no, he's not some super genius. Maybe he just happened to get in whatever business he made his billions in at the right time and he had a billion dollars to turn into five. He was smart enough to bet on distressed assets, like the banks to get bailed out in 2008. And that's how he made most of his money.

Or the Carolina Panthers. I mean, he's smart enough to like, he could sell the team now and probably make a profit. Just, you know, every year he gets to exist. He'd double what he paid for it.

He'd double what he paid for it. I just saw the ratings for Thanksgiving were a record high. I mean, like, I'm not so arrogant as to say the NFL is never going away ever, but we're reaching close to the not in my lifetime. As I get older and maybe don't treat my body as well, we get close to saying the NFL isn't going anywhere in my lifetime.

I'm not so arrogant to think that there are trickle down effects of fewer kids playing it. On the counter of that, if here's how I know somebody is patient, they will tell you how patient they are and then probably cut a press conference short because they have other things to do patiently. And with concerts. Speaking of that, by the way, we have a theme, a David Tepper theme, skips or plays with Hayes. I'm not sure if you've heard, but they have a lot of events at Bank of America Stadium. He went there so fast, and it was concerts. 42 specifically when they only had 10, and that doesn't even count. Soccer, Messi. Football doesn't even count any of the charitable events or anything like that.

So WD apparently has pulled some of the concerts that are coming up at Bank of America Stadium that more people will attend than Panther football games. That's what we do now and skips or plays with Hayes. Hayes Permar is somewhat of a Renaissance man, an expert in the finer things, but he hangs his hat on music.

Loves this God and he's the friend of Satan. And he was like oh six, getting busy with the sticks, been watching Big Mike and Lil' Trick and Trip. I just need a Zion and someone he can dunk on. Today Hayes will decide if this music is smash or trash, blows or blows. It's time for skips or plays with Hayes. Take it away, WD. Okay, so Mr. Concerts has some things lined up for us here.

So in April, Kenny Chesney's coming. So because of that, we've pulled No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problem. No shoes, no shirt, no problem. Now you just got me imagining David Tepper without a shirt, ooh. You know, I love this song, but maybe it's cold and it's dark outside and it made me feel beachy all of a sudden and it just hit me in the right way.

So I'm gonna give that a play. Hayes Permar. David Tepper, such a snack. What I wanted you to do was I wanted the theme to be bands that David Tepper hasn't gotten to Charlotte yet. Well that's just me and Taylor Swift. It's just me and Taylor Swift. Did we get Beyonce? Yes, last year they got Beyonce. I'll bet there's others we missed. Or this year. That was this summer that they had Beyonce.

I'm sure they've missed out on some acts, but no Taylor Swift and nobody asked that question. I'm sure that would have been the next question. I'm sure that would have been the next question asked.

I'm sure, if they didn't cut that thing short. So something else that Mr. Tepper has done. Mr. Tepper. Mr. Tepper. We've got Morgan Wallen.

Thank you. Put respect on his name. We've got Morgan Wallen coming in July.

So you're probably gonna hear 98 Braves. Do you like Morgan Wallen? Do you know his music?

A little bit. I like, is there a Seven Summers? Did any of you sing that song? I don't know. I think, go look up Seven Summers and tell me if Morgan Wallen sings that.

I think he's got a song I like, but. Is it Last Summer? Last Night.

Or Last Night. By him. What's it called? Summer something?

Seven Summers Ago. Yes, by Morgan Wallen. There it is. That's a good song.

This is a skill. Get this song out of here. Yeah, 98. Did you choose 98 Braves because of baseball? Is that what it's about?

It's a nice little twist there. Did the Braves win the title in 98? I don't think they did. No, but I think they got close and lost.

That's the whole premise of the song there. I think the Yankees won the title in 98 because I was living in New York and had tickets. W2, darn right they did. I had tickets for game six, but they swept and won in San Diego. But I saw the clenchy game of the ALCS. That was 99. No.

No? That was the 99 World Series? 98 Yankees over Padres. I'll bet you any amount of money.

I will not bet you on that. I think you're probably right. Let's get to the last Skips or Plays song.

It was, you're right, 98 between the Braves or part of the Padres and the Yankees. In June, George Strait, our first Stapletoner comment. And it is now the Christmas season, as we know. So I got a little Christmas flavor in here early with George Strait's Christmas cookies. I sure do like those Christmas cookies, sugar. I sure do like those Christmas cookies, babe. Yeah. The ones that look like Santa Claus, the Christmas trees and bells and stars. And Hayes likes it.

I sure do like those Christmas cookies, babe. I've got a feeling it. Yeah, it's good. I'm gonna play that.

I'm playing it. It's George, baby. George Strait won me over. I've never heard that song before.

Hayes Permar. I'm scared to ask WD if he could name one or two George Strait songs off the top of his head. I can't. That's him.

I can't name that many off the top of my head, but I would know some. Does he do Carrie and Your Love With Me? That's right. Check yes or no. I don't even have to. I love King George so much. Do you love me?

Do you love me? X is in Texas. Amarillo by morning.

Like, I mean, he's got so many. Amarillo by morning. Amarillo by morning. Excellent. He's the king, King George, for real. I mean, not as good as King Tipper.

No, no. It was concerts. No, I think I was about to get him mixed up with Clint Black, so I won't go there. I was thinking of a cameo that they made on a sitcom, but I think I'm thinking about Clint Black.

Yeah, I get those mixed up a little bit too. Like, who did I Can Still Make Cheyenne? Was that George Strait? I think it was. I don't know, but you can't do Amarillo by morning and I Can Still Make Cheyenne. No, I'm pretty sure he did both those songs.

Is one a sequel? Oceanfront Property, because I was like at a criminally old age to realize that there was not actually Oceanfront Property in Arizona, and that was the point of the song. Like, I was probably out of college. I was out of college when I learned that that was not, oh, wait a minute, there's not Oceanfront Property in Arizona, and that's the point of the song. That's the joke. That is the joke. I didn't understand that until I was, I went to East Carolina, give me a break.

Yeah. You know who didn't go to East Carolina because he's such a smart man? David Tapper.

He did it with concerts. Mr. Tapper. Mr. Tapper. Where did he go to college? You want to take a guess?

ACC Legend. Really? Hit? Yes. Okay.

That makes sense. Pitt Panther, David Tapper, ACC Legend. You know, with concerts. That would be so funny if at Bank of America Stadium, like, ACC Championship this weekend, like, they do the ACC Legends, they bring people back, and the owner of your Carolina Panthers, David Tapper, and all the Florida State Louisville fans would be like, hey!

I can truly say this. I truly hope he turns it around. It'll be really cool if he does. Okay, if we're being honest about it, at least he cares. Like, if I'm going to put the shtick away for a second, at least he cares, and you're not, this isn't an ownership situation where a guy never spins, and you're just, you root for a revenue, like, collecting team. Like, he cares, he's trying, but he's doing so poorly. Get out of the way. But man, it is, it is not going well. And also, like, Charlotte should not want a baseball team, because the fact that they only have two pro teams is what keeps them out of the conversation of being, like, Losersville.

Like, if you start having three and four pro teams, and you still don't win championships, what? Charlotte FC. Come on.

By the way, LaMelo Ball is going to miss extensive time. We just learned in the last 15 minutes with an ankle sprain. Loserville. Loserville, North Carolina. Raleigh got Dreamville.

Charlotte's got Loserville. We got Stanley, we got a Stanley Cup, too. And like, you know, couple other deep playoff runs. I'm just saying that the Hornets are just a miserable franchise record. They have, I love the Hornets, and they have very little to speak of. The Panthers have, the Jake Delone felt like a plucky season. The Cam Newton season was fun to be like, oh my gosh, this is what it's like to be a dominant NFL team. My life is like enhanced by this.

I walk around happier. But like, that's it. That is it. A lot of bad in there. Smitty with some highlights, but a lot of bad in there. Hayes Permar, a lot of good when you join the show. Thanks for doing this, my friend. We'll talk next week. See you, guys.