A Pair Of Dan Quinn's (2-1-24)

This is the DRIVE Podcast with Josh Graham. Now you're talking my language. You can hear the DRIVE weekday afternoons 3 till 6 on WSJS.

You are on a Thursday DRIVE. It is WSJS News Talk Sports for the Triad. Where the Washington commanders did it, they hired Dan Quinn, putting a bow on this crazy coaching carousel that we've seen in the NFL really over the last month. It is the month of February.

Happy February to everyone. There are strong feelings being expressed about the Dan Quinn hire, which we'll get to shortly. But first, the Panthers finally introduced Dave Canales and Dan Morgan this morning. See, whenever a coach is introduced in the NFL, this question comes up of, did he win the press conference? As if maybe with the exception of Adam Gase with the Jets five years ago, looking at the ceiling, looking like he was on drugs. Maybe would that be in the exception? Have many coaches actually lost the press conference?

How often does that happen? But nonetheless, it's still a talking point whenever a coach is hired. And when Dave Canales met with the local media for the first time today, it wasn't just him that won the press conference.

The Carolina Panthers as an organization emphatically won the press conference today. And here's why. Whenever Dave Canales showcase that energetic personality we've been hearing about over the last week, he's got the juice. He's excited. Oh, he's somebody who's handsome and young. And as W.D.

's put it a few times, has swag. But does that win you football games? No. Do you know what does win you football games? You're keeping a Giro Evaro as your defensive coordinator, which was a pretty big news drop today when our guy, Joe Person from the Athletic, was asking, do you plan on the defensive staff remaining together? And his words were, yeah, that's a pretty big piece of the puzzle.

And then Canales expanded on why he has so much respect for a Giro. I just know it was really difficult on me for years, whether it was in Seattle going against the Rams in that family or this year just going against E.J. twice. So and this is this is really important for me, especially as a as a first time head coach who's like, I'm here to make sure we get our football right, especially on the offensive side, that we have that continuity with the players, with with E.J. You know, just being able to have the mentality that I saw that was really challenging to play against. It's a pretty big feather in your cap when you get to sit down and talk about your vision for what the organization is going to be and winning on the field, then you get to say. And then everybody gets the news from you.

Oh, yeah. The guy who had a top five defense this past year and interviewed for head coaching jobs, he's going to be on my staff and remain as the defensive coordinator. At that moment, from a football standpoint, Dave Canales won the press conference and then you had some icing on it. The cake was there.

This was the icing on the cake. GM Dan Morgan, also introduced today, he fed Panthers fans nostalgic catnip. What you're about to hear is just purely catnip from Dan Morgan talking about the types of players that they need and then referencing some of the greatest Panthers of all time. You know, we want players like Steve Smith, you know, play with a chip on your shoulder. No holds bar.

He's not taking any prisoners. We need those type of guys instincts and tenacity of Thomas Davis and Luke Keithley guys like that that can make plays. We need playmakers out there. We need competitors of like Jake the loan guys that they're going to compete in everything they do and they're going to be pissed off and they're not going to they're not going to stop until they win.

Those are the type of guys we need. So what was this combination of new and Dave Canales, his energy and youth. It's exotic, it's new, it's interesting. It has you optimistic. And then Dan Morgan comes in with the hard nose, keep pounding mantra, old school referencing Panther greats and it doesn't sound hokey because he played with many of those guys, and he himself is a Panther great. It's okay to admit as a Panther fan.

It's pretty freaking cool to see one of your great players in charge of personnel now as your general manager. And he referenced his dream was to recreate the playoff run that he experienced to 2003. He talked about the white towels waving in the 2003 home playoff game against the Dallas Cowboys.

He wants to recreate that. And another reason that the Panthers won this press conference big today, David Tepper was willing to get out of the way with concerts. He spoke. I timed it for two minutes.

That's it. He was approached by reporters just like he was last year when he met with reporters after the hire of Frank, Frank Reich for about 1520 minutes. And instead, according to the reporters in the room. He said, I'm not talking today. I'm in the background now. That's his quote.

I'm in the background now. Let's hope that's true. The buzzword at the presser all day today was alignment. The coaches aligned with the GM, that clearly was not the case this past football season aligned with ownership. David Tepper seems to have gotten the message.

Time for me to get out of the way. Let's see if he can resist the urge to medal when football season gets near. But the Panthers, they won the press conference today. Not just Dave Canales.

The organization did. Will Dalton, what did you enjoy the most about this presser? Did Dan Morgan blink one time during this press conference?

Because I'm telling you, this guy. What's amazing is they they are aligned in that they spent eight years together and they mentioned multiple times that they were a couple of doors down from each other in Seattle for a few years. They're working in the same hall out west, but they're totally different dudes.

They are Dave Canale, similar age, but Dan Morgan. You're right. Didn't blink. Looks like the type of guy you'd see in the program.

See it at the table. Yeah, he had the neck roll and the eye black, probably inspired by that guy a little bit like once the slam his forehead against the wall. And then Dave Canales is this seems like laid back West Coast. Cool. You want to be surprised if you learned he was a surfer?

No. Has that positive vibes. So it's a interesting mix and it's an exciting new mix. We are make sure Will Dalton's the executive producer of the show. Make sure you're subscribed to the podcast. Shout out to you guys. We wanted to hit a thousand by the end of January subscribers and we were well over that by the time we got to December, you know, which is exciting. And then by the end of January, we're over thirteen hundred subscribers on YouTube. Really do appreciate that. If you haven't yet, make sure to subscribe to drive with Josh Graham.

You can watch on YouTube in addition to Twitch and X. The podcast goes without saying to. OK, we are two days away from Duke Carolina. Duke Carolina round one.

Saturday night inside the Smith Center. And the biggest story regarding this game. Is the rivalry itself this week?

Or at least it should be. Both programs survived the recent retirements of all time legends. Hubert Davis made a final four in his first year as Carolina's coach. Extinguished Coach K in his final game at Cameron and then beat him in the final four. First time those two schools ever met in the tournament. John Gire in year one beat Carolina twice. John Gire won the ACC tournament in Greensboro.

Not bad for first years on the job. Both programs are back in the top 10 again. First time they are meeting in the regular season as ranked teams in five years. First time meeting in the top 10 as well since that epic Zion, RJ Barrett, Cam Reddish team facing Kobe White, Cam Johnson, Luke May.

All those dudes from Carolina in an epic game that was played in Charlotte. This was not a guarantee. That both programs would be in this place after the retirements of Roy Williams and Coach K. Even the blue blood sometimes need saving.

Even the blue blood sometimes can get it wrong and fall off. Just ask Kentucky pre John Calipari. Just ask UConn before hiring Dan Hurley. Ask Matt Doherty in Chapel Hill.

John Gire. He actually opened up about this a little bit. Meeting with the media today about what comes along with the jobs both he and Hubert Davis hold. We probably have a lot of empathy for each other, taking over two programs that are as good as any program in the country. And with that comes a lot of exciting things, right? You get to coach great players and you have people that care about your program and the success of it also comes a lot of scrutiny. This is the best way I can put it about what this game is here in the state of North Carolina. The Duke Carolina basketball rivalry is our state's crown jewel for sports. It is the thing that happens every year that will attract presidents.

It'll attract celebrities. The Smith Center is one of the five biggest college basketball arenas in the country. Over twenty one thousand people watch games at the Smith Center. This game will sell out if you go on StubHub right now. The cheapest ticket you can find in the upper deck is for over four hundred dollars.

Twenty one thousand people. This rivalry and what makes it great proceeded all of us and it's going to live long after us. These teams being in the top 10 again with these two coaches being on the bench, not Coach K, not John Gire or pardon me, not Roy Williams or Dean Smith. That is what makes the rivalry special. And it's something that us collectively looking at this thing that's so great that we get to enjoy each year locally being the center of the sports universe a few times a year because of it. I think we should not take for granted that this could have gone wrong.

And it doesn't seem that either Duke or North Carolina got it wrong with picking out the successors to all time great. It's dot com slash tickets. We'll see you at the Joel on February 3rd as the Diggs continue ACC play against Syracuse.

Go Diggs. The Drive with Josh Graham, only on WSJS. When we play unusual questions with our buddy Darren Vaught, your choice of three shows to win tickets to Boogie with a Hoodie. REO Speedwagon paired with Train, seen Train a couple of times. Great act.

Alice Cooper and Rob Zombie. Save the phone number now when we play unusual questions. All you have to do is call in and ask us a question, sports or otherwise.

Usually it's more fun when it's otherwise at 336-777-1600. Duke and Carolina face each other in a couple of days. Before I started covering the rivalry and we've been blessed. Then it pretty much COVID disallowed us from being one or two. But then at every Duke Carolina game since 2019, the Zion shoe game.

We've been pretty lucky to be at some cool events. But prior to actually covering the games in person, we used to put together these bingo cards that you could appreciate on the broadcast. And more people, it felt like in North Carolina, would watch the Raycom feed rather than watch the one on ESPN. Listen to Tim Brando's call on it rather than Schulman and Billis.

You don't have that option anymore, of course. And you'd get the old cliches, throw the record books out eight miles apart. But as Hayes Permar points out, it seems that the mileage has varied from year to year.

And it always seems that the campuses are getting closer and closer together. You'd always count on at some point in the broadcast, Jerry Stackhouse appearing or Jeff Capel hitting the half court shot for Duke to force overtime in that same game. This year, I'm sure they're going to, I would hope, do something to honor Walter Davis.

This year is the 50 year anniversary of the shot he hit against Duke and he passed away right as the season was starting. So that was something you could have. But if you're looking for modern day points, you can put on the bingo card. Caleb Love's obviously there. At some point, if you're watching on television during the broadcast, you will have Caleb Love being brought up, I think, now that they've met in the final four. But we'll see what gets added to the bingo card if we do that.

Maybe we can do that for tomorrow's show. Oh, here's another staple. The graphic that always comes up for Duke Carolina. Permar was talking about this, too. You always have a long stretch of games that these two teams have gone head to head with.

And it has to be split directly down the middle some way, shape or form. So this week it's this is the forty ninth matchup. Duke Carolina meeting his top 10 teams. Twenty four wins for the Tar Heels. Twenty four wins for the Blue Devils.

Darren Lott now joining us. Darren, like if we were putting together the bingo card, you've been to so many Duke Carolina games. Like what's your favorite part of the presentation if you're watching on television versus your favorite part of being actually in the building for it? I like the hype of the presentation. I saw Dan Schulman tweet about it earlier this week about of he said something along the lines of of all the games he does. It's his favorite. And I think I think that shows like he Billis, the people in studio who whomever may be reporting at that game.

You can tell it means a good deal to them. And it's just cool, especially now, having covered it and been in the area myself to see that. It's just cool to see it get sort of that nod to second that, by the way, when I went down to New Orleans for the final four, had a chance to spend some time with Jim Nance, Tracy Wilson and Bill Raftery. And Nance said it's the single thing that he missed the most the last decade, not getting to do this game because it used to be every other year they'd get the game in Chapel Hill. And they hadn't had it now for 10 years until the final four game. Nance got to do that his second to last final four. And Tracy Wilson was saying, this is one of the most exciting assignments I've ever had because I've never had a chance to work this game.

Tracy Wilson, who is going to do her umpteenth Super Bowl next weekend. It's cool. It's cool that the network people give it the due that it gets. And then you mentioned being there. You never know who's going to show up. That's one of the most fun elements. Obviously, at Cameron is is special. It's great at the Smith Center as well.

But but at Cameron, it's just it's more intimate. It's loud. It's hot.

Like you're you're a sweaty mess. I'll wear I'll wear a suit. I usually wear a suit to the Smith Center game. I do not wear a suit to camera because I would never wear that suit again. You just like golf shirt or whatever that you don't mind if it gets ruined. W.D., I hope you're taking notes over there. I want to wear. Yeah. If you go to the Cameron Duke Carolina game, I hope you intend to wear something you never intend to wear again. I don't know what that would be. You'll probably be safe. But just in case there's a chance like I used to when I would sit on on media row in front of the Cameron crazies.

I would make sure it's an old sport coat, like if this gets ruined because of glitter or paint. Yeah. Or whatever. Yeah.

Or I just sweat too much in it or whatever. Like if it gets ruined, I'm not going to mind. It's not going to be. The end of the world can always go to Goodwill and get something. There you go.

Get something good. What to wear to the Duke Carolina game. Connor O'Neill was in here yesterday saying this is the one basketball game where we actually get to talk about the X's and O's and people want to talk about matchups and stuff.

That's great. The fans standing out. I remember the Trey Jones game. For some reason, a I was on press row and a Carolina fan picked me out. They're like, Josh Graham. Oh, Josh Graham. Tell tell Trey Jones he's scared. Like that was just his thing the entire game. And not once did I acknowledge him.

I never turned around like the entire game. It was all Trey Jones sucks. Trey Jones is scared.

Josh Graham, tell him on Twitter, like right behind us yelling. And then Trey Jones made the play where he banked it off the front of the iron and then hit the shot to tie it. And the first time I acknowledged him, I just turned around and stared at him.

And he had the surrender cobra going where he had his hands on his head and had nothing to say at that point. You could imagine. That comes to mind. You ready to answer unusual questions, Darren? Always.

Let's do it. 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 Gray. Austin writes, it's a must watch game in the entire state. So I'm going to be at Syracuse Wake paying attention to that game. Come on, ACC and ESPN.

How does it happen where state and wake are both at home and you schedule them to play during the Duke Carolina game? Have a great day and go, ACC. Come on. What are we doing here? All right, Darren. But here's my unusual question. This is what I've got for you.

I asked this question to Jordan Serenkamp last hour. Duke Carolina is a bucket list item for many. What is your top sports bucket list item?

Top is tough. There's a chance your boy checks off Omaha this year for the College World Series. If he's going, I'll be there. That I mean, that's high up there. What else would what else would be on that list?

I mean, a lot of things would be great. Can I say WrestleMania? I want to go to a WrestleMania. Is there a specific venue you want to go to WrestleMania at?

No, not particularly. WrestleMania it is. There you go. But I mean, you know, Omaha College World Series. We'll put that number one.

WD, what is it for you? I mean, I feel like a very stereotypical but true answer for me would be the Super Bowl. However, I would love to go to a Yankee Red Sox game in Yankee Stadium. That's fun. Yeah, I did it at Fenway. But yeah, for me, it's probably I'd love to go to a Super Bowl with my dad too.

But that that part's key. I want to go to the Super Bowl with my dad. 3 3 6 7 7 7 1 600. I'm reminded we have tickets to go see Boogie with a hoodie. REO Speedwagon slash train Alice Cooper and Rob Zombie. Your pick of one of those three shows. What? Oh, okay. Speedwagon and train. It doesn't matter.

Yeah. Speedwagon and train. Alice Cooper and Rob Zombie. Boogie with a hoodie. Those are the three shows.

Well, this is it doesn't matter. I'm going to see Speedwagon. It does not matter who they're there with. REO Speedwagon is a personal favorite.

Train is one of my personal favorites. That sounds like a great show altogether. Let's let's go to Elizabeth, who's in Greensboro, has an unusual question for us. Elizabeth. Hello. Go right ahead. Hey there.

I just wanted to share a bucket list athletic event that I want to do is an Army-Navy football game. That's an excellent one, Elizabeth. Great answer. Thank you so much for the call and get that lady some concert tickets. Why don't you, W.D.?

Even though it wasn't a question. It's good to bring that one up because that is certainly high up on my list, too. I went to Fenway for my bachelor party and never been there before. Shout out to Bob Ryan for the tickets. I'm trying to think what I'd never been to a game at Hinkle Fieldhouse. I've never seen a game at Allen Fieldhouse. I might be there next year when Carolina goes to Allen Fieldhouse. That'll be pretty cool.

So, yeah, going back to that one. Pretty neat. What's your unusual question, Darren? You guys ever taken the train? I got to go to Charlotte tomorrow. Did you say she rides from 9 till 5? Isn't that what she does? She works.

What does anyone do from 9 to 5? Sorry, she works. That's my bad.

Sorry, I got most of the lyrics right. This reminded me, by the way, you know the scene in It's a Eurotrip where the guys get caught in the hooligan group for the Manchester United fan club? Yeah.

And they're like threatening to beat them if they don't sing the Man U song? Yeah. He just breaks out into that and the guy's like, pretty good. Pretty good, right boys?

Like, it's incredible. Scotty doesn't know. Okay, I'm trying to think.

Okay. Yeah, so I've never done the track. I've heard like our friend Brett Friedlander raves about it whenever the ACC Baseball Championship is in Charlotte. He says, you know, he gets to get some work done because there's Wi-Fi on the train. You don't have to deal with the traffic going in and I would do the same route as him from like from Durham to to Charlotte.

So I've got high school basketball tomorrow night. Do you count like if you're in DC or Baltimore like riding the light rail? Does that count as the train? Yeah, I mean sort of like I think the public transit system in Chicago is of like the most well organized of any in the United States. I love like I love taking the rail and in Chicago because it's smart and and really well laid out.

Good luck on the train. Let's go to Andrew in Greensboro. Andrew. What's your unusual question? Hey, I was wondering do you guys have a starting five basketball team made up of wrestlers?

Love it. Okay. Darren's better to ask this than myself because he has on his bucket list go into a WrestleMania. My dad knows wrestlers. This is me filibustering for you.

By the way, so get the work. I might my dad was legit friends with Macho Man Randy Savage, which blows people's minds. Like they were legit friends his brother Lanny Poffo and has met all the great ones went to WrestleMania 3 with Andre the Giant against Hulkster. Okay, what comes to mind basketball team starting five wrestlers? I hope I almost it's hard to determine what you want to make the criteria for this Andre the Giants the center. No, but see like diesel or Kevin Nash as he was also come on could be the center. Okay, my team. This is my team. Okay guards the genius or no.

No small forward is Jimmy Superfly snooker point guard Ray Mysterio. Excellent. Yeah at the to we got to find somebody who's like a little more dynamic but can can hold his own with like heavy weights. Yeah. Make that could be like a like the rock.

Yeah, especially in that day. So like we'll go with Rocky it. I mean, he is the people's elbow. Maybe it's a bunch of elbows jumpers. Oh, yeah. No, he keeps the elbow in if he keeps the people's elbow in tight hits.

He loves a pull-up elbow jumper. That's what he's about. Yep. That's it. That's it at the three. We got to go with Scott Hall slash Razor Ramon.

Hey, yo, hey, yo. Power forward Roman Reigns. Reigns could play a mean stretch for Brock Lester that I believe that I'm going to go. Yeah, we'll go reigns at the for Kevin Nash at the five pretty good on the fly and that's been unusual questions. All right, here's a question I have for Darren on the way out. How excited should I be about this Oriel sale?

Oh, so excited. Have you seen the names on this ownership group list? I told Connor O'Neill yesterday. I've never once with all the celebrities that we've talked about who go to Cameron. Ever thought to ask for a photo not with Kyler Murray last year or Dirk or whoever. I if I see David Rubenstein the new owner of the Orioles Duke grad at Cameron. I'm getting a picture with David Rubenstein being Connor ordinance there is unmatched, right? If you get a picture with him at this particular time when he said essentially he's saving your franchise.

It's addition by subtraction anyway, revoke my credential. I don't care. I'm getting the picture with David Rubenstein. Rubenstein asking Cal Ripken Jr. To be part of this ownership group. Yeah is so monumental for that franchise. Like I said addition by subtraction no matter who's in there because you get you're no longer controlled by the Angelos is like I don't know that it's going to become a public public utility, but the ownership group is going to care if this team is good or not. Like hey, you're already really good. They're the young dudes are going to get paid they might even go out of their way to bring in some some external help like it's going to be good.

Ding ding boys schools in session. You're on the drive with Josh Graham. We have more from the Panthers press conference today that we'll get to in about 15 minutes. But since there are a lot of Washington commanders fans out there still here as pre Panthers holdovers who are probably upset today at the hire of Dan Quinn.

I just want to let you know that I hear you. In fact 336-777-1600 if you want in on the Panthers press conference on Dan Quinn on Duke Carolina even Wake Forest last night that was a bummer 336-777-1600 Dan Quinn caps this coaching carousel eight jobs opened up. And this was the last of the eight hires and it was the most underwhelming of the eight. And it's not even Dan Quinn's fault.

That's probably where we need to start. It's not Dan Quinn's fault that this is so underwhelming and he doesn't deserve to get the backlash that he's getting today from Washington fans. Think about it. He was a Super Bowl winning defensive coordinator Legion of Boom in Seattle. He should have won a Super Bowl as a head coach in Atlanta. He's been a killer defensive coordinator with Dallas too. But it's the circumstances surrounding this hire that make it disappointing including how bad that Cowboy playoff game against the Green Bay Packers went. Washington was sold on Ben Johnson. They were telling everyone that Ben Johnson was coming that he was their target that they had this thing locked down. We got Adam Peters as our GM the top exec on the market. And now we're going to get the top assistant coach to start things off with our new ownership. They had no problem with that being leaked everywhere. No one really refuting that hard against it. So that was sold to the fan base offensive guru. Wow. Look at the Lions.

They probably should have been in the Super Bowl. This is the guy that we're getting if he can make Jared Goff this type of a quarterback. What's he going to do with either Caleb Williams or Drake May number two in the draft? You know what? It's like it's like a few weeks before Christmas WD and you get some Intel that your wife or somebody in your family. They're going to go big for Christmas. You're going to get a new car. That's what you're going to get. And so two weeks before Christmas, you are picturing I'm going to act surprised. What's my face going to look like when she puts the car out there and there's the bow on it. You're told you're going to get a new car and then Christmas Day rolls around and you get a pair of nice slacks. Yeah, we've all been there at least one year.

Really? With cars? This happened to you? Not with a car, but like where you thought you were getting something. You thought you were going to get Xbox and then it turned out to be socks. Yeah.

That's what this is. Like there's nothing wrong with the pair of slacks. I could use a new pair of slacks, but there's plenty wrong with the pair of slacks when you thought you were getting your car. And that's what Washington fans are feeling today. They thought they were getting a nice brand new right off the lot Ben Johnson.

Like one of those cars you'd find at Crossroads Ford off of Highway 66 in Kernersville. And instead what they got khakis. Dan Quinn. Nice pair of Dan Quinn's. So they got fits nicely. Could do the job.

It's not bad, but not a new car. Dan Quinn. The other thing is this. I often say this when people are fired and you're looking to hire a new coach or, you know, GM or whatever. You usually want to hire the inverse of what you fired. So when the Panthers moved off of Ron Rivera. They didn't want to retread college coach or NFL coach, so they decided to hire from college. When they fired Matt Rule, we need somebody who's in the pros, who has plenty of NFL experience. Frank Reich turned out to be too old. So they hire somebody young when Danny Manning was let go. Oh, he was a retread coach. He was a name bit older.

Let's get someone who is from the G5 circuit that's not a name with a bunch of energy named Steve Forbes. Well, right. Dan Quinn feels a lot like Ron Rivera.

That's a big part of the problem, too. Retread. Defensive guy. Players coach. And with new ownership, the Washington fans were sold again that things were going to be different. It's going to be a different start. It's going to look a lot different.

And this feels a lot of the same. So that's what makes it the most underwhelming hire. Of this cycle, because it is the only hire this cycle that pretty much throughout you thought you were getting the best assistant on the market. And then you had to settle for the coach that any team could have hired. Who's Dan Quinn saying no to? I don't think anybody. That's the coach you got. And you might say, oh, well, Josh, who is Dave Canales saying no to? Well, the Panthers.

They never really sold us a false bill of goods. I don't think most people thought they were getting Ben Johnson. Like some thought, oh, maybe it's going to be Bobby Slowik. And then you got a young offensive guy that fit that brand.

Right. Washington didn't get that at all. So I feel for Washington fans today. W.D. two options for tonight. Looking at tonight's slate. You can watch the NBA.

Hey, this sounds like a great game, doesn't it? Lakers Celtics. You excited for that? You excited?

How many are sitting out? No, LeBron, no Anthony Davis. There you have it. No, Evan Mobley. I knew you were going somewhere with that. So is this just going to be the Jason Tatum show?

If you like watching Chris stops persingus. Come on. Give it to us.

Come on now. That's the NBA for you. Primetime Lakers Celtics. We don't have any college basketball.

The NFL is off this weekend and the NHL is going into the All-Star break. Big rivalry matchup. And who do we got? No, LeBron. No, Anthony Davis. That's that's that's the NBA for you. Last night was great because Dame went back to Portland.

KD went back to Brooklyn. So that was pretty cool. So you have that tonight with the NBA or. You can read a book. Yeah, we might read a book.

I might play Fortnite. What is the last book that Will Dalton read? You know what? I think it was this book about the 06 Yankees call. I forget what it was called. Why the 06 Yankees? Well, because that's what the story was about, because they I think that was the first year of Johnny Damon, A-Rod and all them.

So they had all these big names and then they got beaten by the Tigers and like the divisional round. You know, Yankees doing Yankees things. Oh, yeah, I was with we have one person in our family. I have a bunch of cousins who are all Orioles fans. And then one cousin just decided I'm going to be a Yankee fan. And so we were at a wedding during that playoff run when A-Rod was just horrific. And oh, yeah, we enjoyed piling on top of him.

We did. So that was the last book you read. Yeah. Sarah Bradford has an idea for Valentine's Day.

She wants to go to a bookstore and she pick a book out for me and I pick a book out for her. Huh. How do you feel about that? Feels like a trap. I think I like it. I think I think I'm going to go through that. I think I like it. But to quote your favorite movie.

Feels like a trap. Or. I guess you could watch the new True Detective. Catch up on that. I've watched the first three episodes of that. I'm not a big show person, but some of the HBO series I've watched.

True Detective, Barry, I've watched and Jodie Foster. It's slow developing, but I think I'm going to stick around with it. I think I am. You should stick around with this because if you didn't watch the Panthers press conference, introducing Dave Canales and Dan Morgan today, we'll play for you the highlights and react to it. Next on the drive. Three segments from the Carolina Panthers introductory press conference today really stood out. Introducing new head coach Dave Canales and general manager Dan Morgan. This answer by Dave Canales when asked about the attractiveness of this job. Is as good of an answer as you'll ever hear a coach give. This is not an exaggeration. This clip a little bit longer than clips we normally play because it's just that good of an answer. When people say he is incredibly well-spoken, great at communicating.

This is what they mean. He literally hits on everything. First and foremost in Seattle, like we never were anywhere close to touching the first overall pick. And the more that I got ready for this interview and start watching Bryce looking at my notes from his eval. I mean, that's just a year ago. You know, we're evaluating him as a player, as a person with all the information that we could. I just got more and more fired up about the opportunity to have this amazing talent. And he's the guy.

He's the right guy that we all talk about when we have that quarterback, that franchise, face of the franchise type of player. And that got me really excited. And then I played against the Panthers twice. And the job that E.J.

Evero did with the defense was really hard, really hard to deal with. And then as I got to, you know, Dan and I have some history. So then I thought, shoot, if you look at some of the successful organizations, there's a dynamic relationship between the head coach and the GM. And then, of course, as I've gotten to meet the Teppers to to feel their their competitive nature, their passion for what they want here, what they want to see when they come out to the practice field and just kind of knowing I can be that without faking anything.

I just felt more and more like this was going to be a great home. And I was really hoping, you know, as as they were sorting through the names that I would I would come out on as one of the top candidates. You can almost picture he's sitting at a table with David Tepper and Dan Morgan and they ask why you want this job. And he lays all that out and they're like, yeah, we're going to hire you. That just seems let's unpack that long answer. A lot of people would say, you don't have the first overall pick. Why would you want this job? Well, I never came close to having the first overall pick in Seattle.

Never had that. Then he starts talking about Bryce Young and how all in he is on him. He's the right guy.

He's a dude. He has an amazing talent. Then he starts talking about Dan Morgan and the dynamic relationship he wants at the top front office and head coach. Then he praises the Teppers because you got to kiss the ring a little bit with concerts. That's that's as good of an answer as you can expect a coach to give. He won me over when I heard him say that. Well, he won me over when he said a Giro Evaro was coming back, but he won me over even more when he said that. Dan Morgan. He wants to be viewed as a hard nosed talent evaluating GM.

Well, mission accomplished. That's how he came off, especially when talking about the kinds of players they hope to get into the building. Off Mint Street in uptown Charlotte, it starts with competitors, guys that are passionate about football. We want to we want to draft guys and sign guys and free agency that are passionate about football, that love football. We have a lot of guys in the locker room right now that love football and are passionate, but we need to get more.

And, you know, the dog part of it. We need guys that are hungry to go out there and inflict pain on their opponents. We need we need guys toughness. We need physicality. We need those type of things.

I mean, just to put it plainly, we haven't had enough of that. And that's going to be our DNA to where when people drive up to Bank of America Stadium, they know they're in for a dogfight. Dogs that they want. Dogs.

Some dogs that are going to bite you. By the way, during that entire answer, didn't blink one time. He didn't. Dan Morgan. He's locked in. Dave Canales, active on social media. What did he say in the last hour?

So he basically, quote, tweeted that clip we just played. And he said this wanted dot dot dot pissed off dog dog tag. Keep pounding dogs. Love it. That's what he wants. Dogs.

D.A.W.G.S. Georgia Bulldogs. Bring him in unless you're Thomas Brown, which case we don't want those dogs. I think he's heading to the Bears, isn't he? He is.

But he's a Georgia Bulldog. See what I did there? I do. Is he calling out somebody in the locker room?

Who doesn't love football? I don't know. I'm interested. I don't know.

Hmm. Dave Canales, though, very easy to like on social media. At one point, he dropped a boo this man, which I appreciated. Sometimes you might be calling a play and you're like, boo this man. I feel I felt seen in that moment and he's energetic.

It's a lot different than anything we've seen. A handsome Panthers coach. Matt Rule, not exactly a sex object. No, although we did.

He leaned up a little bit in the end, but still not great. Or Ron Rivera. John Fox.

Dom Capers, though. Ha ha ha. Even his Lego haircut. Snacks. Yeah. Snacks. Well-dressed. W.D. says he has swag.

Does. Here he was speaking about the journey he and his wife had been on, and he got a little choked up when she came up. My wife, Lizzie.

It's really her fault. 20 years ago, I'm the head JV coach at Carson High School. Fired up.

I'm so excited. We go to play Venice High School. It's my first game coaching.

She's sitting up in the stands with about 35 crazy parents. And we got smoked 34 to 13 that day. It was the greatest day of my life because I had found it. I found my passion. And after two years of doing that, she comes to me and she knew all I wanted to do was be the head coach at Carson High School. That's what I wanted to do.

Take it. Get us back on top. And she worked three jobs at times. And she told me the hard truths. And she's just been everything to me. This is our journey. This is our dream. And we've been so excited and prepared for this opportunity. So thank you and I love you, babe.

Really cool stuff from new Panthers coach Dave Canales. We also got stuff from YMCA here in the month of February. If you didn't take advantage of the zero dollar joining fee, well, there's a way that you can give some love, share some love in the community. Refer your friends to the Y before February the 14th, Valentine's Day, and they will pay a zero dollar initiation cost.

And if you do so, what's in it for you? You and your guests also get fifty dollars in Y cash and are automatically entered to win a five hundred dollar visa gift card. That's in February. Refer your friends before February the 14th.

Go to YMCA and WNC dot org. A lot of people were mad in the comments during the Panthers press conference because the Panthers page didn't have the greatest. Oh, it was terrible.

Audio, which was tough. Give them a break. Come on now. Be polite in here. I wish I could read a lot of the comments that were said.

You can't, though. During the press conference from Panther fans. But largely, I think they like what they heard from Dan Morgan and Dave Canales. It's the things that we wanted to hear.

Did you address the ownership situation? Well, considering David Taver only spoke for two minutes and seems Dan Morgan got to hire his coach. And there was no dictation to keep Chris Tabor or James Camp and around, unlike a year ago. And Tepper's not meeting with the media after the press conference. And he's telling reporters, I'm in the background now. And he hired a search firm.

That seems believable. And alignment was the million dollar word during the presser today. We wanted to hear Canales talk about Bryce. He did. Very enthusiastic. Yeah, like the things that we were looking for from Dave Canales, I think we got and some.