After Hours withAmy Lawrence Hour : 1

We all belong outside. We're drawn to nature. Whether it's the recorded sounds of the ocean we doze off to, or the succulents that adorn our homes, nature makes all of our lives, well, better. Despite all this, we often go about our busy lives removed from it. But the outdoors is closer than we realize. With AllTrails, you can discover trails nearby and explore confidently with offline maps and on-trail navigation.

Download the free app today and make the most of your summer with AllTrails. Hi, I'm Angie Hicks, co-founder of Angie. When you use Angie for your home projects, you know all your jobs will be done well.

Roof repair? Done well. Kitchen sink install? Done well. Deck upgrades? Done well.

Electrical upgrade? Done well. Angie's been connecting homeowners with skilled pros for nearly 30 years, so we know the difference between done and done well.

Hire high quality certified pros at angie.com. Have you ever covered a carpet stain with a rug? Ignored a leaky faucet? Pretended your half-painted living room is supposed to look that way? Well, you're not alone. We've all got unfinished home projects.

Whether it's a door that sticks, or a disorganized closet, or an AC unit that only works half the time, it all matters. You just haven't taken care of it yet. But there's an easier way. Just download the Thumbtack app. You can search for what you need done and find tons of highly rated pros right in your neighborhood.

Check prices, reviews, and book a pro right on the spot. Plus, you'll know what to tackle next. Because Thumbtack is the app that shows you what to do, who to hire, and when. Pull out your phone and in just a few taps, say goodbye to all those unfinished home projects. And say hello to caring for your home the easier way.

Download Thumbtack and start a project today. Downy Rinse & Refresh. Break up with stinky clothes.

Removes 100% of odor in just one wash. Guaranteed. Is it really only Wednesday night? Gosh, I feel like we've packed a whole lot into this week. And it's only Wednesday night. I know, I know, we're closer to the weekend. The weekend is coming.

It is coming. Thanks for hanging out with us to make it come a little faster. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence, and I'm always glad to connect with you. We got a ton of responses to our show question 24 hours ago to rank your top five sports in order.

And some of you got cute with the question, many of you just answered it straight out. Some of you want to know my top five, which I wrestle over actually. I see the value and the beauty in all of them, except for MMA. Sorry, that's not my cup of tea.

I don't like to see humans beating up on each other and making other humans bleed. But I do see the value in many of the sports, and I've worked in so many of them, specifically tennis, NASCAR, football, basketball. And so for that reason, it's hard for me to narrow it down.

But it was a fun exercise, and I love how different and how diverse your answers. You can find me on Twix, A Law Radio, also on our Facebook page, After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Couple of new photos up on Facebook just because I'm a day late and definitely $10 short.

But I will eventually get there, still navigating the social media solo, which means that I've got to do the piecemeal effect, piecemeal effort on the social. But there are a couple of new photos up, including R2D2 and C3PO, their original costumes from Return of the Jedi. I got up close and personal with them. See, the thing is, if they weren't encased in glass, and they posted a sign that said do not touch, I probably would have anyway.

So I couldn't get any closer than the glass, but it was still sweet. Super cool. We've got a lot to talk about. Team USA now 3-0 in their run up to the Olympics in Paris, and the opening ceremonies are inside of a week. We've got the WNBA wrapping up its first half or its pre-Olympics break, if you will, with a finale featuring, of course, Kaitlyn Clark and the Indiana Fever on the road in Dallas. Dallas also the site of SEC Media Days. Four days to roll out the new look SEC in college football, and that includes Texas and Oklahoma. Coming up about an hour from now, a long-time Oklahoma football insider, and by Oklahoma I mean the state, not the university, though of course she does cover the university, both Sooners and Cowboys, but really Oklahoma-based Big 12 insider, Jenny Carlson. She will join us from Dallas, where actually she's covering her first ever SEC Media Day, so I can't wait to get her impression. She went from Big 12 in Las Vegas last week to SEC in Dallas, so I'm sure she's ready to get home soon. She's dealt with a lot of heat, not that there'll be much of a break in Oklahoma, but I'm excited to talk to her, haven't had her on the show in quite a while, what a change it is for both of those conferences, and obviously for both Texas and Oklahoma, plus the expanded college football playoff, a lot of conversation about that as well.

So yeah, good stuff that we've got in store for you on this edition of After Hours with Amy Lawrence. NFL training camps are slowly but steadily rolling out, and while I don't know that we need to do a formal QB news, I do know that we've got some QB news. Caleb Williams has signed his contract with the Bears, the number one overall pick, talking about pressure in camp, as well as Deshaun Watson with an update on his shoulder. We've got a couple of other rookie quarterbacks that may or may not be in the starting lineups when we get to week number one, and so you'll hear their head coaches on their progress. So yeah, Chiefs have already hit the ground running, which is fun, they're a couple of days into a quarterback and rookie minicamp.

Looking forward to all of it, obviously, and also connecting with you if you want to find us on social, great, or we've got the phone number 855-212-4227, that's 855-212-4227. We start though with a record night for one, Kaitlyn Clark. Now I mentioned Fever in Dallas, this was a back and forth affair.

If you were watching the game a few hours ago, it was not just a high scoring game, but it was also one that was quite a tug of war between the two teams. When you think about the Fever most recently, they've actually been able to pick up ground in the WNBA playoff chase. They've got a big break here for the Olympics, so three weeks off. For all of the players who are not participating in the Olympics, you can imagine that some of these rookies like Kaitlyn Clark, like Angel Reese, are really looking forward to the break. We had talked about this going back to the spring, but it was an absurd schedule to go from a second consecutive Final Four, and this is for the Iowa women's basketball team, second consecutive run to the national championship game.

On the heels of that, Kaitlyn, all the rage, the record breaking TV crowds, not to mention sold out arenas for the Final Four in Cleveland. She goes from that to a bunch of media interviews and a media circuit, to then a celebration at Iowa where a bunch of seniors slash players in their last year are honored by the fans. Then it's right to the WNBA draft, which took place in Brooklyn, I think. From that point, right into practicing with your new team, so trying to get set up as a pro, no time off from basketball. Not even a month after she was playing in a Final Four, she was already playing preseason games and then on into the regular season schedule, which was brutal for the Fever to start. Eight games in their first 12 days, or seven games in their first 12 days.

Not so. Ping-ponging all over the country. Games on the road, games at home. And they struggled at the beginning. The team is relatively young. They've got a few dynamic players like Kaitlyn, Aliyah Boston, last year's WNBA Rookie of the Year. Kelsey Mitchell has started to play a lot better, but it took them a while to find any kind of rhythm and they had no practice time at the beginning. All they were doing was playing games traveling, playing games traveling. It wasn't until they got through the first few weeks that they were able to get a break and actually get on the court to practice and work on their own stuff.

Now you start to see the pieces fall into place. Not only have they won games against teams who have winning records themselves, but they've also been competitive deep into games against teams that they feel like are a great gauge of where they are. Now they've also lost a couple games to teams that have losing records, like Wednesday night against the Dallas Wings. This was back and forth, back and forth until the fourth quarter when the Wings pulled away in Dallas and the fever kind of fell off the pace. They seemingly struggle early in games defensively. Not sure why, but they don't tend to come out of the gate with the same intensity and sense of urgency on defense. That's got to be something that they work on, that they change, but now they get a three week break from games. What I understand, there are reports out there, reports if you call them that, but just what it seems like is they'll have a full week off. No basketball, which is going to be great for Kaitlyn to be able to go home, take some time to rest, hang out with her family, do whatever it is that she can't do while they're keeping up this frenetic pace. I can understand why there'd be some fatigue, even though she is 22 years old, and you all listed her right away last week when we were asking you the best and brightest athletes under the age of 24. She and Paul Skeens were probably the two most popular answers.

It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence. So, Indiana Fever at the Dallas Wings, Fever jerseys everywhere, Kaitlyn Clark signs everywhere. I have a friend who works and lives in Dallas and she was at the game and it was pretty nutty. I know that my mom and her husband, they're big Fever fans now, and he actually checked into a game in Dallas, maybe this one, but trying to get tickets to this game in Dallas and they were hundreds of dollars.

So that wasn't something they decided to do, but it was sold out anyway. A lot of fans on hand. And as they're going down to the wire, Kaitlyn is breaking a record in the WNBA, not for rookies, but for the league's history. What a game.

Kaitlyn decided not to shoot. Mitchell Will hits the three. Tied again.

This is incredible. And that is the 19th assist for Kaitlyn. A new WNBA single game record.

The call there on ESPN, you can hear the laughing and almost incredulity of Monica McNutt, I think is the analyst there on TV. So yeah, Kaitlyn Clark is tearing up the league with her passing skills. Yeah, she had a bunch of threes. Yes, she had some drives to the hoop where she cut through traffic and was able to get an and one. She was able to get a couple of easy layups, 24 points, but 19 assists, not just a rookie record, a brand new WNBA record. Most assists in a single season game. Throw in six rebounds and this is quite a night for Kaitlyn Clark.

With more eyeballs and more people in the arena, this continues to bring a lot of positive coverage to the WNBA. I just try to set my teammates up for success. I think at times like I can almost overpass and that can maybe, I don't know, there probably could have been a few times where instead of passing that leads to turnover that I might have, I can probably shoot the ball. But especially with AB, like I'm just looking to set her up so much.

Like my eyes are always on our post players, whether that's this or whether that's AB or whoever's in the game at the time and then kind of look out from there. But yeah, I mean, we still didn't shoot it very good from three and I thought we finished really well around the paint. I'm sure our points in the paint were pretty good. 62 points in the paint. Her stat line with the 20 plus points and the 15 plus assists, only the second time in the WNBA any player has ever achieved that. Courtney Vandersloot, you may remember that name, she did it six years ago and only Candace Parker in 2008 as a rookie herself ever scored or assisted on 50 or more points in multiple games.

Meaning Kaitlyn had a direct hand, along with Candace, had a direct hand in at least 50 of the team's points. Either she scored them or she set up her teammates to score them in multiple games. I know a lot of people expected that her shooting would be what would light the league on fire, right, because of what we saw in Iowa and it still could and probably will in many ways.

I know we're going to see a game in which she has 40, a game in which she shoots the lights out because she knows how to create for herself. She knows how to lose the defense, but she's attracting so much attention. Alternatively, you see double teams, you see other teams attempting to prevent her from ever getting the ball. Now that's hard to do, right, when she's the point guard and takes the inbounds and dribbles it up court or sometimes doesn't even bother, just chucks it up court for a touchdown pass. But at this juncture of her pro career, we're not talking about two or three seasons under her belt, we're talking about 26 games into her pro career, she's already set the league record. A league that's been around for nearly 30 years, it's a rookie, Kaitlyn Clark, who now owns the record for most assists in a single game.

Now I know we're only going to get modesty from her, humility from her. She mentioned AB, who's Aaliyah Boston, we talked about her. She goes 11 of 14 from the floor and has a career high 28 points. So as much as that's Aaliyah Boston, she can't score if Kaitlyn doesn't give her the ball. All of her teammates are benefiting from Kaitlyn's passing, which is why she rarely comes out of the game. Another 40 minutes for her on the court tonight, did not sit down. Christy Sides is going to take every bit of time on the court, every bit of energy that Kaitlyn has. So again, the time off will be great for her. All of her teammates know now you better be looking for the ball.

Sometimes, I daresay we've seen a lot of this, so I couldn't venture a percentage. Sometimes Kaitlyn has great court vision, chucks the ball down court, finds her teammate. Tonight she even went behind the back to a teammate who was cutting to the hoop from the left side.

So she was driving down the center of the lane. There's a defender that's between her and her teammate who's coming in from the left side, so left baseline kind of level with a hoop, and Kaitlyn goes behind her back as the defender steps up to guard her. Kaitlyn goes behind her back, perfect pass to her teammate who has an easy layup. But if you're not paying attention or you're not looking for that, or maybe before the fever got used to it, they were dropping or fumbling a lot of these passes. It's a little bit like Patrick Mahomes sets up his teammates, but if they don't know to always expect the ball, or until they learn to always expect the ball, there are going to be some drops. So yeah, people point to her turnovers, and I'm not saying they aren't her fault in many cases, because they are. She's drawing such tough defense, but a lot of it had to do with early on that her teammates just weren't ready or weren't looking for the passes that she would send their way.

But I know it's the winning that she desires the most. For me, it's kind of frustrating. I feel like we've left two games out there that are very winnable for us going into the break, whether the Mystics at home, and then obviously this one, and then we've won other matchups that are really tough for us. The links on the road, Mercury on the road, Mercury at home, Liberty at home, and you lose two that probably you should have won, especially the one at home versus the Mystics. So for me, that's frustrating. For sure, but it is coming together, and the way the Fever are playing now compared to the way they were when they started the season, yeah. It's night and day. It's kind of funny, too, to see her and her teammates who sit, I don't know why they do Zoom calls, it drives me bonkers.

You're there in the arena, why are you doing a Zoom call? But the way her teammates respond to her modesty, where she really tries to deflect all the attention on her, and so it's her teammates that are left to compliment her. Like Boston, she's going to say it means nothing, but I think it's pretty cool. First rookie and ninth player overall in WNBA history with at least 400 points and 200 assists in a season. And she's played 26 games. She is living up to the hype, without a doubt. Again, it may not look like what people thought, it's more emphasis right now on the passing and setting up her teammates, but that's been the key to them winning for their last six. It's been a key to the Fever finding that rhythm, it's been a key to the team coming together, and it's kind of neat to watch her adjust to what defenses are showing her. That shows a high basketball IQ. And I think it's impressive the way that Kristi Sides and the Fever coaches have adjusted their game plans based on what she does well, which is a lot. But right now, she's averaging double figure assists, which is pretty incredible.

Remember, she led the NCAA in assists last year in women's basketball. On Twix, ALaw Radio, also on our Facebook page. Good to have you with us. Coming up, top of next hour, a peek inside SEC Media Days, which are no small circus. And straight ahead, Team USA, now 3-0, a familiar face in a warm-up in Abu Dhabi is Nikola Jokic.

Battling against Anthony Davis and Joel Embiid. Where have we seen this before? Hope you survived your hump day.

It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence. We all belong outside. We're drawn to nature. Whether it's the recorded sounds of the ocean we doze off to, or the succulents that adorn our homes. Nature makes all of our lives, well, better. Despite all this, we often go about our busy lives removed from it. But the outdoors is closer than we realize. With AllTrails, you can discover trails nearby and explore confidently with offline maps and on-trail navigation.

Download the free app today and make the most of your summer with AllTrails. Hi, I'm Angie Hicks, co-founder of Angie. When you use Angie for your home projects, you know all your jobs will be done well. Roof repair, done well. Kitchen sink install, done well. Deck upgrades, done well. Electrical upgrade, done well. Angie's been connecting homeowners with skilled pros for nearly 30 years. So we know the difference between done and done well.

Hire high quality certified pros at angie.com. Have you ever covered a carpet stain with a rug? Ignored a leaky faucet? Pretended your half painted living room is supposed to look that way?

Well, you're not alone. We've all got unfinished home projects. Whether it's a door that sticks or a disorganized closet or an AC unit that only works half the time.

It all matters. You just haven't taken care of it yet. But there's an easier way. Just download the Thumbtack app. You can search for what you need done and find tons of highly rated pros right in your neighborhood.

Check prices, reviews, and book a pro right on the spot. Plus, you'll know what to tackle next. Because Thumbtack is the app that shows you what to do, who to hire, and when. Pull out your phone and in just a few taps say goodbye to all those unfinished home projects. And say hello to caring for your home the easier way.

Download Thumbtack and start a project today. Even Adam Silver was laughing about the fact that people called it a boring free agent season for the NBA. He pushed back on that. But it was relatively tame, shall we say that? But here we are in the second half of July.

What, what, what? And we're talking about Team USA. The men right now who are in Abu Dhabi and it's this USA basketball showcase for them. Obviously a bunch of them.

Obviously a bunch of other countries there as well. But a basketball showcase as they tune up. Whereas the WNBA is going into its All-Star weekend, its All-Star festivities. And after that we'll take a three week break. Those players who are not involved in All-Star weekend, they're already on their break. The Olympic team will then get together and they will have to travel to Paris. So you can see where the preparation for the men and the women is completely different because the W is in season right now. And then we're talking about Kaitlyn Clark and a record, not just a rookie record, but an all-time assist record for a single game. 19 dimes.

That impresses anyone. That's the type of production, the type of distribution that causes defensive fits. So if you didn't already think you had to worry about a three point shooting, now you're seeing the hole she's finding and the court vision she's bringing every time she has that ball in her hand. So the team is getting better and I've not checked playoff standings. I know there's 12 teams and I haven't looked at it at this point. But I keep seeing, ah, they're getting closer to playoff standings.

So we'll see when we get into the second half. It's after hours with Amy Lawrence. 855-212-4227. Mike is in Clearwater, Florida. What do you think, Mike?

So I'm thinking about it as far as that goes. And I had like an OMG moment and I was thinking, I'm a big sports fan. I'm from Boston myself and I live in Florida. But I was starting, and I'm not a big NBA fan per se, but I'm starting to sit there and see double doubles from Angel and double doubles from, and to put the numbers up across the board. And I started thinking back across the board because I'm seeing flashbacks because the Celtics are from the championship. Now all of a sudden it's coming back to me going, it's like Larry Bird and Ervin Johnson. I was like, didn't two hot shot kids come back in like 1980 from college right off the bat and change the NBA for 10 years?

They did. I'm just thinking it's like parallel is kind of creepy, but it's pretty cool. Yeah, I don't know if creepy is the right word. I don't think people would put a whole lot of stock into that, but it's like, I'm just looking at it from the outside looking at Angel and it's like, that's pretty cool. It is.

It's the same to different, but it's the same. And there are palpable numbers too. The way that you've got people showing up to their games, right?

Amy can't not look at it. Or watching them on TV for sure. The fever who have played obviously some of their games at home, some on the road have already set a attendance record for the entire year. And they're just at the midway point. They've already attracted more fans to their home games this year than they have in any other year of their existence. And they're still half their games to go.

It's pretty incredible. They're well over 400,000 fans. Give them both a year.

Let them mature a little bit. But they're already putting up double-doubles across the board. Doesn't lessen the league talent.

It just makes them all better. Because if Kaitlyn's doing that and they're all getting double-doubles across the board on their team, that means the team's not. Angel Reese has got double-doubles in 16 of her last 17 games. And Kaitlyn, while she's not got the double-double record that Angel Reese set, she's pretty consistent in that regard as well. And he's even had the first triple-double by a rookie ever in WNBA history. Saw one listener respond to my tweet about Kaitlyn earlier with R-O-T-Y, one might say. Meaning rookie of the year, one might say.

Yeah, one might actually say that. It's pretty incredible. And we've got some other cool stories, too. If you haven't heard about Kevin Sullivan, well, just wait. 14 years old and he's already a pro, which is sometimes different in the world of soccer, the world of basketball internationally, the world of, say, golf and tennis. You've got teenagers who will often turn pro. And I know we've had a few teenagers get into the NFL.

It's a little rarer there. And you'll sometimes, like I said, get it when you're talking about NBA, NHL, players who are coming internationally. Of course, Connor Bedard is 18 years old, right, still.

So it's not unheard of, but we're talking about a 14-year-old, too. So good stuff, neat storylines around the world of sports that if we're in the middle of football season, we don't have a chance to talk about. So I enjoyed July. Mentioned last night, it's a veritable smorgasbord of not just stories and topics, but different names and different sports. And certainly we're cruising toward football season. College two-a-days are not that far away. The NFL training camps will all be in full session come this time next week. And August 1st is the Hall of Fame game in Canton. So we're weeks away. Weeks away.

Seriously. Thursday evening is two weeks from the Hall of Fame game. So it's about to get hot and heavy on the gridiron.

But for now, it's kind of neat. The Olympics will have a bunch of space and time. And then let's not forget, the Open Championship in Royal Troon, Scotland is already underway. Not sure if you know this, but because of the time change, the first golfers teed off an hour ago. So they've already got scores up on the board at Royal Troon. Early on, let's see, it looks like there's about a dozen golfers who've already gone out and hit the links course there. So round one is well underway.

Not as many Americans, though you may remember the name Justin Leonard. Looking at, let's see, some of the others who will start in our window. Justin Thomas, he starts, let's see, just before midnight Pacific time. Paging down, paging down, paging down. John Daly, he will be playing his round one at, let's see, 1230 Pacific time, roughly.

Keep going, keep going, keep going. Bryson DeChambeau, who just won the US Open after Rory McIlroy's collapse, he will also tee off in our window. So that's coming up back half of our third hour on the air. Rory himself will tee off just after the start of our final hour here on the Infinity Sports Network. I'm trying to see where, I think we mentioned that Tiger Woods is late in the first round. So he and Phil Mickelson don't start until after 9 o'clock Eastern time, which is 6 a.m. Pacific time.

So they're among some of the latest golfers to go in round one, which means they'll be early come Friday morning. And so they'll be on the course while we are here in studio. I love international events.

It'll be the same way with the Olympics in Paris. We'll be watching the events, although some of them will require streaming in order to watch them. I think a bunch of them are on Peacock, but we'll watch some of the events while we're here in studio. And we'll be able to follow along with you in real time, which is neat. All right, on Twix, ALaw Radio, also on our Facebook page, couple of new photos there. Always glad to hear from you as we navigate these overnight hours, these late night hours. Coming up, hmm, what do I want to do coming up?

You know what? How about a little bit of NFL early in this edition of the show? Came across a soundbite from Megatron, who not only is going into the Hall of Fame, but is also getting inducted into the Lions Pride Ring of Honor. And so he was gushing about Detroit, so I thought it was a neat way to kind of look at the season with so much of the pressure on the Lions to build on what they did last year.

There'll be a team that a lot of people are actually piling on expectations, so that should be fun. And then maybe a little bit more from the NFL, just to whet your appetite as training camps are off and running. Coming up at the top of the hour, an inside look at SEC media days on the heels of Big 12 media days. And we'll talk to Jenny Carlson, who has been covering Oklahoma sports, specifically OU, Oklahoma University and Oklahoma State University.

Basketball, football, really every sport that they have. It's been pretty incredible to see her career, because she was working for the newspaper back when I was there in Oklahoma in my local career, so early in my sports radio career. We cross paths then, and every now and then we cover the same event, but she's been doing it for 20 plus years.

And she's now attending her first SEC media days and will join us from Dallas after day number three. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence, 855-212-4227, plus we've got Twix, ALaw Radio, our Facebook page as well. I did try to go back and answer some of your questions for Ask Amy Anything. Thank you for helping me navigate without, well I guess solo, without going through the questions ahead of time, without having a chance to write them up or highlight them. I just kind of read them off social, but it worked okay. I'll be happy when we're back into our format where we've got a producer who is posing the questions to me, and that way I don't see them ahead of time.

I kind of think I get biased or I get slanted to or for, to or from questions, for or against some of the questions. But thank you, I did check them out and I appreciate it. Right, so as I was thinking about NFL training camps and thinking about this upcoming season, came across this conversation between Megatron and Kay Adams. So she has the Up and Atoms show, remember she left NFL Network and now she does her own morning show and they've got some real good players a lot of the time. And Colton you have the Megatron, so Megatron is getting inducted into the Lions Pride, the Ring of Honor, and this is as he goes into the Football Hall of Fame, the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and he said he was shocked. He said it's really hard to surprise him, but this was a huge deal when he finally found out that he was going to be inducted by the Lions specifically. It's going to happen during the season, and on the heels of that he tells Kay how much he loves Detroit and raves about the people in the Motor City. I've been to so many different cities and Detroit, they are, this is true, they have a true fan base. Not just for football, for baseball, for hockey, they're just Detroit fans throwing through it. If you come to the city and you put, you know, you put down and you work your tail off, they're going to love you, you know, and they pay attention.

And that's what I love about them, they pay attention. So that's what Megatron tells Kay Adams, which I think is really neat. He's a Hall of Famer himself, and now there's not just an opportunity for the fans to appreciate him, for him to be back there in Detroit.

He's only 38 years old, it's not like he's ancient, and so you get a chance to shower a living legend with your appreciation. It's a half-time show coming up in the first month of the season when the Lions had the Seahawks in town, and it's actually a Monday night game. So it should be a great crowd, a good buzz, and yes, the Lions have a lot of promise this season. So you have two things working here. First of all, to have Megatron and the Lions sort of be friendly again, if that makes sense. For the longest time, there was a rift over money. Stupid, right?

It's just dumb. But now, they seemingly have patched these things up, and Calvin Johnson, Megatron, and the Lions seem to be back in good graces, which is only good for the franchise, especially as they reach new heights. Have never been to a Super Bowl, but getting back to the conference championship, having the opportunity to play a postseason game at home is huge. And so he says he got all teary-eyed when he found out about his induction into their pride, their ring of honor. And now, as a franchise, they can hold out one of their best players in franchise history, maybe their best receiver in franchise history. And he can kind of be a spokesperson for Detroit and be front and center and be part of what they're doing. So yeah, getting inducted in 2021 to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, he holds the Lions record for catches, for receiving yards, for touchdown catches as well. And it's only good for them if it's all love with Megatron, because he's so beloved and because he can come back and be honored in a way that they haven't had a chance to do with him before. It's just perfect for this 2024 season that is upcoming, where the Lions are one of the teams to beat.

It's after hours with Amy Lawrence. It's actually kind of fun, and I never do this in July unless I'm talking about a specific team. But when I do think about a team that I want to highlight, and now that we're getting into training camp, we'll be doing more of that, probably have reporters from the different camps.

But I do like to go and look at the schedules just to kind of peruse it quickly. I'll never remember. I'll never remember what the Lions have on their schedule. But I do know that the NFC North is on the rise again because of what we saw with the Packers last year, second half of the season, specifically with Jordan Love, where it took him eight, nine games to get comfortable. And then boom, all of a sudden he starts playing like he's been around for years, which I guess technically he has, but first full year as a starter. So you've got the promise of an even better season, a full season of Jordan Love playing this way, and the Packers feeling like they're just getting started with him. So it's Lions, it's Packers. Bears have all the excitement surrounding Caleb Williams and their overall number one pick and the weapons they put around him, not to mention they feel like they've improved their defense. I mean, that's been a hallmark for Chicago for so many years, but had taken a step back. And that division, the Vikings, lots of changes, essentially a facelift for the Minnesota Vikings, but there's also a lot of excitement around J.J. McCarthy, too. We'll see how quickly he gets on a field.

And actually Kevin O'Connell, Caleb Williams, we'll hear from them a little bit later on. But the NFC North could actually be a division in that conference that could field three playoff teams. But at the very least, even if it doesn't have a couple of wildcards that come out of it, because we know the rest of the NFC is not as stacked, so not as competitive from top to bottom as what we get in the AFC. But you could see that division step up and become one of the premier divisions in the NFL this season. Bears were 7-10 last year, as bad as it was. Vikings were 7-10 as well. This is even because of Kirk Cousins' injury and then Justin Jefferson's injury.

They were just kind of derailed there. But the Packers and the Lions, both above.500, both playoff teams. It could be, maybe not as deep as the AFC North, but it could be one of the more competitive divisions in football. And I think that's only awesome and positive for not just the fans in those cities, but also for Detroit. Because right now, I guess you could say they're the team to beat in that division, so these games that will be in Detroit, they're going to be delicious.

They're going to get incredible coverage and I think just the idea of Detroit going from, what was it, two years ago? When Dan Campbell made us all laugh by saying, who says we can't get flexed? Remember, they had no games that were on national TV.

Or no games that were night games on national TV. And he's talking about them getting flexed. They finally do in week 18 of the season. Remember, that was the year Aaron Rodgers' final season in Green Bay. And all they had to do was beat the Lions at Lambeau in order to make a playoff spot. They couldn't do it. The Lions took them out and that was kind of the setup for 2023.

So yeah, Dan Campbell, he's not only one of my favorite quotes next to Mike Tomlin, but he just believes in his guys so much. And they have bought in there. There's a lot of excitement based on what they did the last couple seasons now. And so looking at their schedule, they've got a game on the road at Dallas, which will be awesome. They've got a game on the road at Green Bay early in November, so that's one that will be nationally televised on Fox.

It'll be the game of the week there. They don't play the Bears until Thanksgiving weekend and then again the weekend before Christmas. So we won't get Lions Bears until much later in the season.

But you know what? They also go to San Francisco or Santa Clara to take on the Niners. That happens just before New Year's, so week 17 of the NFL season. They've got a game against the Packers in December as well. So it can be a lot of fun to see these teams. They go to Houston. Houston of course won the AFC South last year in kind of a surprise coup. Weird.

Weird, right? To be circling the Detroit Lions as a team to watch and be looking at their schedule and circling games on their calendar. And yet that's where we are. I love the NFL because teams can go from worst to first. They do every year. Half the playoff field turns over every season.

I mean it's been tried and true and we're just getting started with training camps. But so much buzz around Detroit. And gosh, after the showing for the NFL draft with a record 750,000 people who were there just kind of milling around downtown to be close to the draft.

There couldn't be, I don't think there is, a city or a franchise in the NFL that's got more buzz and more excitement around it heading into this particular season. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Here's why April chose to vaccinate her child. I think actually meeting someone who was not vaccinated and now has a lifelong struggle with a childhood disease really cemented for me that it's super important that we as parents continue to vaccinate our children.

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