 in North Carolina today as the Falcons head up there to take on the Carolina Panthers for the second time this season and it's been a long time since these two saw each other way back in week one. So much has changed since then especially for this Carolina Panthers team but one thing that we know is the more things change for this Panthers team the more they seem to stay the same. We're going to talk about all those changes coming up on the Atlanta Falcons pregame show presented by Ticketmaster of course Taylor Vismore Derek Rockley I've introduced us 15 times and like I say every week lost to talk about today. Yeah and I know we had some yucky conditions for the Jets game but this might be the worst that we've seen the entire season. I pulled up the forecast this morning because I heard that the weather was not going to be too kind in Charlotte North Carolina. You know how you pull up the weather map and you pull up the actual like radar and all I saw was green going across the entire map and then it says rain expected until three o'clock was as late as my app would go 3 p.m. It's supposed to be raining the entire course of this game so it's going to be a wet one it's going to be sloppy some of those old traditionalist Taylor would say this is how football is supposed to be played. For me I'd rather play in sun and dry conditions but there's going to be some adjustments made to the game plans today because of the weather conditions. Yeah I mean it's close to miserable it's raining so much there like it's just non-stopper and let me ask you this as a former player would you rather play in a rain game or a snow game snow game all the way snow game really yes because the snow is going to fall and it's just going to hit the ground but the rain comes and the rain just sits and soaks in the football the entire game this is coming from a guy that was a long snapper that my grip on the football was extremely important to the success the performance at my position so you think about guys like myself holders quarterbacks centers the grip on the football is vitally important to their success so yes I'd rather play in snow now granted I don't want I'd like I'm talking 25 degrees snow not like minus five snow okay there's a big difference there you go that's why Minnesota has a dome it's too cold up there and we're playing outside in the snow all day but it's week 15 it's been a long time since we've seen this Carolina Panthers team and something that I love about getting into these teen weeks is talking to the rookies at this point because they've never seen this many games they've never played this many games consistently and they're always like I'm ready to go home like I am ready for another bye weekend only in the NFL do you have one bye week for all 17 games but earlier in the week Zach Harrison are one of our rookies sat down with Kaleas Campbell and Bud DePri to talk about what it's like to be a rookie and all the things that come up in rookie and traveling with a lot of veterans take a look to the fans man was one rookie moment that Kaleas has done to you made you grab the first time my bro wings on the plane he was like he was like those what Saturday we had to walk through in the morning and I'm hearing like make sure you get the wings make sure you get the wings makes you ask everybody what they want so I'm asking around great over the one day we don't want none so want so you and you're too want some so I'm like all right I'm getting a hundred wings a hundred wings for three people no no no I need a hundred wings well I'm like all right all right all right so I go home I'm rushing to get the wings I'm trying to figure out who got wings and Liam say it's a wing spot down the street so I'm like back call them up and like give me a hundred wings they give me a hundred wings this giant tray you remember this big tray so I'm lugging my luggage to trade my book bag my other bag I'm hobbling on the plane with the wings I walk in the plane I walk into Kaleas I'm like wings you talk about what I'm gonna do with that you post a guy here early had the fire to listen to them up it brought it to me I'm like all right I put the wings down grab my food and set my seat I'm like you won't wait you come back here real talk though who brings a hundred wings this one's like bro what are you asking for you asked for a hundred wings I think I'm on Zach's side like what do you do with a hundred wings what is he supposed to do how was he supposed to know let me ask you this though you were working for a rookie one yeah did you have anything like this happen to you every week okay give me a story let me know well I mean when I was playing things have changed a little bit I guess now they're asking guys to bring wings but when we were playing it was always Popeyes like you had to bring Popeyes right so seems like Popeyes would be a whole lot easier to manage when you're dealing with the chicken tender than chicken wings on an airplane okay number one who wants to smell chicken wings on an airplane I guess you could probably make the same argument about Popeyes but it's a little bit more mainstream fried chicken tenders number two what do you do with all the bones when you're on an airplane and you polish off a hundred wings now granted I'm sure they didn't eat the hundred wings that was kind of one of those Kalaeus veteran tricks that he played on Zach Harrison but seriously when you walk on a plane with a platter of a hundred wings I can only imagine all the expressions of the guys that you're walking by the people from the front office that are on the airplane like what are they gonna do with that tree right there but Kalaeus told him bring a hundred wings so you do what the veterans tell you to do and honestly when you watch him I've seen him on the arrivals videos of him carrying these hundred wings I just can't imagine walking up the stairs with all your luggage and you're trying to hold these 100 wings up I mean it's a mess but he does bring Popeyes still to this day okay so the some things don't change which is good don't change now they were talking about a hundred wings for like three guys like Taylor I don't know about you but I'm waiting for somebody to come in the door could you imagine us doing this pregame show just sitting here wow let me tell you about that's the writer okay it wouldn't be pretty so we're not gonna do it but okay we said things don't change especially for rookies and hopefully Zach Harrison will end his Popeyes Ryan in a few weeks but like we said things have changed for this Carolina Panthers team a lot since we last saw them head coach is no longer there they have an interim they've been on the road for three weeks now they lost all three of those games I mean what do you make of this Carolina Panthers team because it's totally different than what we thought they would be in week one yeah I mean when we saw them week one you're thinking about okay they got a number one overall pick they got one of the most successful college quarterbacks that we've seen in recent memory of Bryce Young coming over from the Alabama Crimson Tide and what he was been able to do throughout his college career you're saying okay he's gonna be the guy that helps revive this offense well that has not been the case as we know that the Carolina Panthers sit right now at one and 12 on the season they have a minus 144 point differential okay that means they're getting outscored handedly there's you see the record that they stand in the NFC South they've lost six straight games you mentioned they lost their head coach earlier in the season Frank Reich doesn't make it through the first season things have been a mess in Carolina I think you could point to a lot of different things you could say okay the team ended up making a lot of moves in order to get Bryce Young so they didn't necessarily get all the playmakers around him that they needed to so there's some somewhat still in a rebuilding mode but they've had issues on the offensive line they've had issues at the playmaker position and Bryce Young just has not settled into his groove as the guy that they thought that they were bringing in granted it's his rookie year but you kind of look at what Bryce Young did even last year when he was at Alabama you see the column on the left 3300 yards passing 36 touchdown passes and five interceptions okay yeah we know that the game changes when you go to the National Football League but his completion percent in his has dropped quite a bit and he has nine touchdown passes against nine interceptions and these are apples to apples numbers here through 12 games so Carolina is not necessarily getting the quarterback the gunslinger that Bryce Young showed in college you know there's been a lot of things said about Desmond Ritter he's not necessarily been the quarterback that he was in college there is a process that these guys have to go through but especially in the offensive side of the ball if you don't have continuity in the offensive line and you don't have really talented skill position players on the outside to get the football to and you don't have that balance with a dominant run game with play action and down the field throwing you're gonna have some struggles so unfortunately for the Carolina Panthers they're seeing some really big struggles especially in the offensive side of the ball this year not able to score not able to sustain drives a lot of three and outs and Bryce Young has just not proven to be that quarterback yet that they what they drafted in let me ask you this because I think this happens a lot with quarterbacks within the national football league they come in they had a great time in college they had a great resume coming out of college too and then they come to the NFL and they really struggled those that first year a lot that happens all that time why is it so hard to find a quarterback that comes in maybe like a CJ Stroud and just goes on a tear and they're automatically great why is that such a hard position to fill I mean I would say that it's easy to point to the situations like the CJ Stroud but there's been a lot of other quarterbacks that have come in that have been highly regarded that have either not played early on in the career look at a guy like Aaron Rodgers I mean he sat behind Brett Farve when he came into the league didn't even really have a chance and now look where Aaron Rogers is now he's a first ballot Hall of Famer when he decides to retire from the game Trey Lance is another guy that came out as a first round pick couldn't even get on the field for the San Francisco 49ers and now they have a quarterback in Brock Purdy who was a seventh rounder quarterback to me in the NFL is one of the biggest gambles from a drafting position that because so many teams decide to mortgage away the future because they feel like this is the guy that's going to change the organization and then it doesn't happen that way and then you get a guy like Brock Purdy in San Francisco who gets taken the very last pick in the seventh round and he is quarterbacking one of the most explosive offenses in the National Football League how did 31 other teams not see Brock Purdy as well and how did nobody see him coming out and being what he is in the seventh round Mr. irrelevant so there's not really an easy explanation and it's gonna battle your mental toughness as a young quarterback Bryce Young is going through it right now Desmond Ritter is going through it and to some extent as well is how much are you gonna fight through the adversity the bad times in order to see the good times because it wasn't always that way with Peyton Manning wasn't always that way with Ben Rathausberger in Josh Allen and all these other quarterbacks that have had great careers they had their stumbling blocks how do you fight through it as a young quarterback that's what they're trying to find out with Bryce Young that Brock Purdy that's what I call the Kyle Shanahan effect man just sees it he just knows it but let's talk about this Carolina team a little in a broader sense because while Bryce Young is struggling and while the offense is struggling they're fourth in the NFL in total defense I mean they have a pretty good defense but when you look at the stats when you break it down how are they fourth in the NFL with total defense can you break that down yeah I mean they've got a couple really good players on that side of the ball I mean you think about the Brian Burns of the world the Derek Browns I mean Derek Brown defense of interior defensive linemen is second on their team in tackles with 74 generally your interior defensive linemen are not tackling people like that they're the ones that are eating up blocks and allowing the linebackers to go make plays Brian Burns has proven to be one of the better pass rushers in the National Football League he was a guy that you kind of circled when we played him week one even though he came off of what was it two or three days of practice when we played him back in week one because he is a upper level pass rusher Frankie Louvre the linebackers having a great season as far as tackled 94 tackles and four and a half sacks this year so he's causing some some havoc at the second level as well they've got some good playmakers on the second on the second level on the defensive side of the ball the difference has been the defense is struggling because of the struggles of the offense right you could look at yes the total defensive number is pretty good but the scoring defense number is not very good the takeaways number they actually have nine takeaways this year Taylor which is the only team in the NFL that has single digit takeaways okay so they're not taking the football away and creating extra possessions for their offense so again the offense we talked about that they're struggling but because of the struggles of the offense it's starting to affect the defense late in the games all of the three and outs for the Carolina offense is starting to wear the defense out late in the games right and then when Carolina gets to the point to where they have to throw all the football time all the all the time that's now putting the defense back on the field and then the opposing offense is just going for the jugular because they have the lead in the game so they can pound away at the defensive line they can run the football now all the the rest of the offense opens up for the opposing teams that's where things are starting to get lopsided so still really good person on the defensive side of the ball they've shown that they've got the ability to be stingy but in a four-quarter game 60 minutes is where they've been struggling yeah Brian Burns we're gonna talk about him a little bit later maybe in this next segment about if he's gonna be playing or not today but when you look at the defense I want to break it down a little bit more for you there are third in the NFL and past defense so if you're passing the ball there they're hard they're stingy yeah but they're 22nd in the NFL and rushing defense meaning it's raining today yes how much are we gonna see the ball being right especially by the stalking that's a great point and I would imagine all week long the Atlanta Falcons coaches the players have been watching that especially the offensive side of the ball they've been watching the run defense for Carolina and they look ahead they know what the forecast is gonna be for the game and it kind of plays into the strengths of Atlanta as you could say right now is they're a running run first football team they want to beat you on the on the offensive line and they want to use these the combination of these two running backs and Bajon Robinson Tyler Algier to wear you out with the run game and then have that set up some of the play action and downfield throws so yes it's gonna set up well for Atlanta because you have to be able to run the football in these conditions if you get into a game where you're gonna have to throw it 30 to 35 times in that weather chances are you're going to struggle because something is gonna happen the ball's gonna slip you're gonna get dropped passes you're gonna get tips at the line of scrimmage that generally turn into interceptions so this is one of those games where for Desmond Ritter in the Falcons offense if he can throw it less than 20 times in this game that's probably a good thing that means they're running the football they're staying on schedule and they're taking what Carolina gives them what should be the ability to run the football so in these conditions that's why we said when we open up the show you're gonna have to adjust your game plan a little bit because this is not one of those games where you want to be airing the ball out multiple times well and they're gonna have to adjust their game plan for both teams because of their inactive list and their irs let's say their eye their injured reserve excuse me they both have changed those lists this week if we can go ahead and get to the Carolina Panthers an active list today Brian Burns was questionable coming into the game today he will be playing he's gonna be suiting up but I see over here two wide receivers that will be sitting out for the game today obviously we just mentioned how the past you might not be as big of a deal as their run game is today but when you look at this inactive team what do you see in well Deshawn Jameson in the corner he's inactive and here's what's interesting about this just Jameson and the entire Carolina Panthers is they've been dealing with an illness going through the locker room this week so Deshawn Jameson is inactive but a number of other players on the Carolina Panthers are dealing with an illness now I'm not going to go into details about that but if anybody has kind of been paying attention to you have family members I do my wife was sick with the flu all this past week there is something going around the country right now and just because you play in a national football league doesn't make you immune to illnesses I remember many times that I was dealing with that having to go into the trainers to get cold medicine to try to battle through it throughout the week and then having to go out and play in a very physical football game where your conditioning is so important to your success on the field so yes the Carolina Panthers are dealing with it Atlanta is dealing with it a little bit as well but not as much as the Panthers I believe their entire secondary their defensive back room was dealing with this illness that was kind of making its way through the room and it's unfortunate at this time of the year and then you talk about those conditions Taylor think about that if you're dealing with the sickness do you want to go play where the expected high is supposed to be 47 to 48 degrees in a driving rain all day long do you think it's going to be hard for them to focus on putting that illness aside yes you want to be a professional you want to be an nfl player as much as you want but i can tell you dealing with an illness while you're playing in the nfl playing in a game is extremely difficult yeah and Hayden Hurst was placed on ire earlier this week and Justin McCrae both on ire this week so lots of holes to fill and you're in nasty mucky weather if you're sick I want to be at home I want to be soup I don't want to be playing I don't want to be hitting people like that's the last thing I want to do but um speaking of Justin McCrae the left guard starting left guard for the Carolina Panthers lots of players on the falcons offensive line are out they were out last week as well Drew Dalman was out Chris Lindstrom came out last week Jake Matthews came out last week as well and Caleb McGarry also was out last week and you're seeing that happen and flow over into this game today Caleb McGarry will be out again uh David Anyamata did not even make the trip up to Carolina today but DePri is out Chris Lindstrom is out as well Matt Collins still with that ankle injury lots of players that you know these things you probably even bought a jersey with the back with their last name on the back of it you know these players these are huge huge players to be missing today what do you make of this yeah I mean I think obviously when you go to the lines of scrimmage the offensive line the fact that they're not having two starters in this game is definitely something that's going to hurt especially again going back to what this game plan should turn out to be which is running the football I would say the positive behind it though is last week they had to deal with the same issue not only going into the game but as that game transpired a bunch of offensive linemen got nicked up so they had to move guys in and out of the lineup so what does that do it get some experience it kind of wipes away a little bit of that moment of oh my gosh I haven't played much this year well now some of these backups have played and Arthur Smith talked about the depth that they've built throughout the course of the off season and leading out through the season is now where you end up benefiting from that depth that you've gotten so yes you never want to go into a game when you're not don't have two of your offensive line starters but they've got guys that have played this year in backup roles so they're going to have to do it again flipping to the defensive side not having David Anyamata definitely hurts and then of course Contavia Street goes on IR this week a guy that they picked up and he ended up filling a really important role for Atlanta with the injury to Grady Jarrett earlier this season but I guess there is a little bit of silver lining that they get Nate Lambin back because I felt like not having Anyamata and Lambin in the lineup was hurting Atlanta because they didn't have this the middle of their defense strong still Anyamata out Lambin back in the lineup Jeff Okuda back in the lineup helps the defensive side of the ball but there's not too many teams that you can look at in the national football league that aren't dealing with stuff like both of these teams are right now as we're in the week 15 yeah two things first of all I want to shout out one player Matthew Bergeron he was the only player on that offense when I played the entire game last week he held it down held strong and he's a rookie the guy's killing it right now I mean talk about getting guy in the second round and him showing up in big moments yeah I mean not only has did he get the start early in the season but he has been there the entire year he's been a fixture at the guard position gotten off to his career at a great start and he's kind of been one of those guys that you could depend on I'm sure he's had his issues he's had his learning moments just like any other rookie has but he's been kind of one of those consistent forces on the offensive line yeah second thing I want to mention on the defensive side of the ball I mean last week you saw it against Tampa yeah Baker likes to throw the ball a little bit more obviously and so you don't need all those guys up on the line if he's going to air the ball out so you had Kaleas basically by himself with like but on the other side of him when why is that number one and number two how do you think they're they're going to structure this defensive line this week against the run so Ryan Nielsen's going to have to get creative on what you do with on the defensive line because they're down with some interior defensive linemen right now LaKale London who'd been dealing with an injury he is back and he got elevated so he's another guy that they can rotate through there we know to Kwan Graham Kaleas Campbell probably going to have to slide in and play some more defensive tackle positions just out of necessity because they feel confident that he can get the job done and as we know he's still a really big body to play that defensive tackle position but now you're going to probably start to put some more defensive ends in the game and you're just going to have to hope that they can hold up against the run as well because we know that guys like Lorenzo Carter Arnold and Kady aren't the biggest most stout guys on the defensive end so a lot of times what teams do is they like to run the football at pass rushers okay when you get to see a guy that's aggressive getting up the field how do you slow him down you run the football directly at him so you're going to have to see guys like Lorenzo Carter and Arnold and Kady with Bud Dupri being out they're going to have to stand up to the run game because they're going to see it in these conditions so you got to get creative as a defensive coordinator with your personnel packages you got to try to keep these guys fresh and sometimes in the NFL you got to play a little bit out of position what that's what they ask you to do now you got to go in there and you got to succeed you got to produce yeah you saw Kaleas do that a little bit last week as well against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers but let's go ahead and get to the keys to the game today presented by Wells Fargo it's going to be four quarters of rain so what do we need to do to make sure the Falcons come home with the win well we just kind of talked about the defensive side and i'm going to say control the run game and it's it's one of those deals where carolina is starting to feel a little bit of confidence in the running game they ran for over 200 yards last week they had like 130 something yards the week before so they're averaging like 168 yards over the last two games on the ground likely going to see a heavy dose of chuba hovered obviously Miles Sanders as well coming over in free agency he kind of got his feet underneath him a little bit last week in his one of his best games since when the Atlanta Falcons played carolina in week one so that's going to be the one two punch for carolina they're going to try to establish the run game because throwing the football with Bryce young has not been very good and the weather conditions just lend themselves to running the ball so you're going to have to control the run game force carolina into the situation where bryce young has to throw the football because it's not been a strength for them this year and even though adam felons having a really good season it's kind of that number one option for bryce young it's not been a strength for them this year so they've got to control the run game do not let chuba hovered miles sanders continue to chew up yards because i think taylor if you go back to that game last week against tampa especially in the second half fourth quarter tampa was able to run the football they kind of marched down the field and again to me i think that was a little bit of a function of not having on your modern landman in the middle of the defense they've got to make sure they shore that up control the run game force the carolina panthers to throw the football yeah when you look at the rush defense at the falcons have they've only allowed five rushing touch johns all season long and their opponents are averaging four yards per carry that's not a lot but when you get to the fourth quarter and you've had a lot of three and now it's like the carolina panthers have struggled with this season they start chipping away at you that those four yards become eight they become maybe ten and the law the here's the thing if you can keep that off that falcons offense out on the field longer then it gives your defense the ability and that nasty weather to be able to keep them at bay at that four yards per carry yeah i mean this is where the off complementary football is what you want offense needs to stay on the field they need to get first downs let the defense rest and then when the defense comes out they play fresh they play fast they get three and outs and they force the carolina offense back off the field again that's going to be the kind of the recipe for success here for atlanta yeah we got a schedule for these guys we want to stay on it that's our second key to the game so explain to this one yeah staying on schedule and offense and again all three of my keys today you can tell are going to kind of relate back to the conditions but staying on schedule means you can't have those pre snap penalties that are backing you up five yards setting you back at first or second in 15 the the tackles for loss or the sacks obviously so stay on schedule well how do you do that you run the football successfully on first down you pick up three four five yards keep yourself in second and medium to short situations if you throw the football try to find those easy completions desmond ritter has to understand that if they're giving you a five-yard flat route that and you want to take the shot down field take the five-yard flat route in this game because if you can stay on schedule get to second in one third in one i like my chances with a guy like tyler algear to pick up the first down stay on schedule stay out of second and long stay out of third and 12 situations but a lot of that has to do with pre snap penalties or even in in play penalties like you're holding penalties that's and you're sitting you behind the chains this game in particular is going to be so important because you don't want to be sitting back there at third and 14 knowing that you got to throw the football in these conditions yeah i noticed what we saw a lot of drake london last week with um 11 attempts and 10 catches for like 172 yards something nuts is his best game he's had in the nfl and he said it was like the most fun i mean obviously it wasn't the most fun because they didn't win but he said it was the most fun that he had had of all on the field and obviously that game didn't turn out the way that they wanted to but we might be seeing a big game from tyler or a big game from bejean even maybe cordial patterson can have a big game he likes the angry runs he's won that angry run stick a couple of times so we'll be able to see what they are able to do and hopefully keep that offense on schedule as well but speaking of the offense and the offensive line the defensive line let's just ask you yeah just win the line of scrimmage yeah because i think that that's what this game is going to come down to is which team is able to win the line of scrimmage and i this is not just offense this is both sides so even though we're going to play with a couple of backups in the offensive line you got to go in and you got to handle the offense you got to handle the line of scrimmage obviously we talked about the two guys derrick brown and brian burns those are the guys that have to be circled on every single play you got to make sure they're accounted for or they're going to cause havoc on your offense and the success that you have because of their ability to make place frankie louvre as well i mentioned he's been a tackling machine this year but flipping over to the defensive side of the ball even though we talked about it might look a little bit um awkward as if you will as far as who the defensive tackles in or what type of formations they're going to be in because of some of the injuries just win up front and i would say that's even an extension to the linebackers guys like kaden ellis nat landman those guys help winning at the line of scrimmage because they're aggressive coming downhill north and south stop the run game force them into situations where they have to win where they have to throw if they can win at the line of scrimmage on both sides they're going to make this game so much more manageable shorten the game a little bit continue to run the football and offense get him off the field when we're on defense but that starts with winning at the line of scrimmage can't see guys getting into the backfield immediately when we're trying to run the what we're trying to throw the football that's going to end up being problems for desmond ridder win it went up front yeah so key two key three kind of coincide with each other because if you can stay on schedule if you can win up front you're probably going to stay on schedule look there's a lot of guys for this offensive line and defensive line that are going to get their opportunity to maybe play their first game or maybe start their first game in the nfl these are big moments for them and if they can seize the moment if they can slow the field down a little bit and stay on schedule they might maybe see more reps throughout the season um as we look into the post season here falcon still have a chance to make the post season as well it's thought we're not done yet everything is in front of them but this game even though there's there's three more after this one this game is is vitally important just because of the state of the carolina panthers you just you have to win this with ballgame even though it's on the road it's going to be in bad conditions it's going to be cold and chilly you got to be able to fight through all that and come away with a victory here carolina is reeling there's a lot of people that are already kind of got their minds thought of thinking about next year but if the alana falcons take care of their business they put themselves right back into the conversation that we need to tampa is going on the road they got to play the green bay packers and this one never know what's going to happen over these last four weeks of the season but this has to be a win remember taylor when we were sitting here when the alana falcons went on the road and they faced the arizona cardinals in a very similar situation arizona was one and eight at that time okay thinking that we should be able to win this game well what happens kyler murray comes back infuses a little bit of spark into their offense alana comes home with a loss can't underestimate anybody in the national football league but this has to be a playoff game type attitude for the alana falcons like win or you go home yeah right and they got to win this game got to win this game and they're going to come back to it later next week and take on the indianapolis close it's going to be a christmas eve game we'll be here in all of our jolly cheer next week but um university's been stadiumed not very far away as a church that means a lot to one of our players and the city of atlanta as a whole his name is mica abernathy and he has a family story that is rich and is incredible not just to the state of georgia but to the united states as a whole i grew up 10 minutes from here 10 minutes from uh what the old georgia dome was at the time and i'm Mercedes Benz i'm couldn't have imagined it the the people that i might not even have met that just know my family that i'm running through the tunnel and people are telling me that they admire me because of what my family did from the time that i was little my mom has been working she she worked at turn broadcasting for 30 30 so years i can't remember the exact number but when she retired from there she took on another role and that was that was the restoration of this church your grandfather came here specifically by request this church became the think tank the strategic planning facility for anything that was related to the civil rights movement once they moved back to atlanta and there's the roofing more roofing you can see how dirty the stone was as compared to what it looks like today i see the hard work that my mom has put into a name that she married into and it's i feel like it's it's what i'm supposed to do and it's what i want to do for my cause my cleats i'm wearing cleats representing my family foundation the Ralph David Abernathy third foundation honoring the Abernathy Center and i wanted to do this because this is the legacy that my family has built and i'm now carrying that torch i love the athlete i love the football in him but the the giving and the understanding and the the life lessons that that individualism has afforded him it means that the work that was put in paid off and that work goes beyond him that work goes back to his grandfather and people before his grandfather who struggled for equal rights to be able to be included and be inclusive in in anything that they do oh some stories that just are bigger than football right and we got like Abernathy from Green Bay this year and like how cool is it that you're coming to atlanta where your grandfather was a monumental person not just for the city of atlanta not just for georgia but for the united states as a whole i mean that's incredible quick story so as as i travel around the country doing college games i remember when i was calling in the tennessee game when he was in school and i remember seeing the name and i was like abernathy hold on is there any relation and of course you find out really quickly that there is relation there and you just think about the power of his family and what he was able to do for this country and and i'll never forget because i started my career here with the land of falcons i was here from 2000 2005 i made it a point taylor that i was going to go visit the martin luther king jr memorial in the city of atlanta just because i knew how important that was to how it changed our country and to know that that micah and abernathy's grandfather played a vital role in that walking hand in hand with martin luther king jr is just awesome and these are the stories that you love to hear about my cause my cleats because it's like wow you find out about guys that you see them on the football field a great player but there's more to the player there's that for him there's even more power of what's behind him and the family yeah and what's so cool that full feature is on youtube now if you want to watch the rest of that it's a fantastic story and what i loved so much about that feature was his mom talking about how they used to tell it and like watch him at green bay and cheermon but now when they go to the baptist church you can see mercedes-benz stadium from there how cool is that and obviously the falcons will be back there next week my baby's playing right there i mean it's so cool so cool and obviously the falcons will be back in mercedes-benz stadium next week for christmas eve against the indianapolis quotes but for right now they have a divisional matchup coming your way against the carolina panthers thank you guys for watching