After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 1

Hey guys, Mike Valenny for Cash the Ticket Podcast. If you like sports betting or if you just like sports, it's the podcast for you. We try to cover all the big games and maybe some of the games you didn't even know were important.

Give you some angles, pick some winners, have a good time, and hopefully help you meander through college and pro football season. So join us a couple times a week to get all your information you need to bet the games that you watch. It's Cash the Ticket on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hey guys, Mike Valenny for Cash the Ticket Podcast. If you like sports betting or if you just like sports, it's the podcast for you. We try to cover all the big games and maybe some of the games you didn't even know were important. Give you some angles, pick some winners, have a good time, and hopefully help you meander through college and pro football season. So join us a couple times a week to get all your information you need to bet the games that you watch.

It's Cash the Ticket on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. It's the calm before the week two storm. That's how it feels. It's the calm and the chance to breathe right before the NFL takes over again. It's like the eye of the hurricane. Every week between Tuesday, Wednesday, we get the calm, sometimes the sunshine, right before the next storm. Well, the other half of the storm rolls through. So it feels that way. We're going to get set for week two, including the first ever game on Amazon Prime.

So that should be really interesting. In the meantime, we've got history for the St. Louis Cardinals. No, not that kind of history. That'll happen soon because there are 20-ish games to go and Albert Pujols only needs three more home runs, but that's not the history I'm talking about. Though I'm telling you, I am listening to every single at bat on Cardinals radio and he's still producing. On Tuesday, it was an RBI single. On Wednesday, it was an RBI double, the last run of the game for the Cardinals as they take out the Brewers just a few hours ago.

We've also got one special rookie all-star on the diamond with his own bit of history and we'll update the pennant races. And then a couple of stories that are making news for all the wrong reasons this week in sports to the point where I'm getting text messages from family members or my mom is making comments about these stories. And that's how I gauge when it's become bigger than sports, when a particular headline transcends the world of sports and my mom knows about it because she knows very little and doesn't care. And so if it gets to her ears, it's because she saw it on the news or because it popped up in her mainstream news feed on her phone. So that's how you know that it's important and that more people are paying attention to it. So we'll explain that coming up, including even hearing from one of the sports major commissioners in the last few hours.

It is After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. Hope you survived your hump day without too much damage. Producer Jay barely survived his hump day.

Earlier, it wasn't even that long ago, but earlier I was teasing Jay because he resembled none other than a banana slug. I mean that was about as much movement and energy as he had, but the funny part is that was me on Tuesday. The only thing I could manage on Tuesday was recording a conversation with Danny Warfel and feeding myself. That was pretty much it. I couldn't do anything else on Tuesday. And apparently that wave hit producer Jay on Wednesday because you were almost sedentary. Let's be honest, you were like a sloth. I was a banana slug. That's pretty much the exact way to describe my physical state.

And me, I'm so supportive as a friend and a partner. I laughed at him the entire time. Then he started whining and I thought, okay, that's it. I'm out of here now. Some noises were coming out of me involuntarily. I thought it was this bulldog and instead it's producer Jay trying to move around.

And a burrito in my bed in a blanket. A banana slug type of way. So you gotta be kind to him tonight. Not me, you. I can't. I'm not gonna baby producer Jay. He's gotta be a man here. Gotta suck it up.

I mean football's coming. You gotta get back in the groove. Also, why does your head look like a camera right now? I can't really see you. All I can see is your... Yeah. I mean, that's all right. I know what you look like. So be nice to producer Jay because he's had a hump day that he would like to forget.

It definitely, he did a face plant right into the hump. You can find me on Twitter, ALawRadio. Also on our Facebook page after hours with Amy Lawrence. We would love for you to check out our podcast that's updated every weekend, every weekday morning.

I don't work, well, that's not true. We do work weekends. We just don't update the podcast on Saturday morning or Sunday morning. And so podcast or YouTube channel.

We always have goodies on both of those different sites as well. So when people ask me, why don't you have a TikTok or why don't you have Instagram or why don't you have a, I don't know what else, things, other things. I tell them we have plenty of social media. Hey guys, check it out. Just made my first TikTok.

Also, I'm not nearly as cool as Peyton Manning, but other than that, I feel like we've got you kind of covered. It's I'm managing all the social media I can possibly handle. So there's, there's no more of that, but Jay and I do know it's been a few weeks now since we've put anything new on our YouTube channel. Every now and then plans and ideas, creative energy that we have doesn't quite work out the way that we expected. It sounds great in our brains and even talking it out, brainstorming it, it just doesn't quite come together the first try. So we had a plan. We have a plan. Would you say we have a plan or we had a plan, Jay?

We have. We have a plan, but the first, the first test run, we'll call it the dry run, just wasn't what we were looking for, quite what we were looking for. So we're going to work on that, but we also are planning to do another Stairway to Seven. So this would be episode three of Stairway to Seven. And if you don't know what I'm talking about, well, you get to check it out on our YouTube channel After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Our phone number, 855-212-4227.

That's 855-212-4CBS. We are live from the Rocket Mortgage Studios. Whether you're looking to purchase a new home or refinance yours, Rocket Mortgage can help you get there.

For home loan solutions that fit your life, Rocket can. When I say that, we still have a few weeks left in the Major League Baseball regular season. That is true. But as we talk about with football, the days are going faster and faster and the earth seems to be spinning more rapidly by the day as we get through September, which no joke. It's right now middle of September. How? How is it middle of September?

But it is. And so the days start to go a little faster and also it doesn't get light until later and it gets dark a lot earlier, so you'll feel like you're getting squeezed by the daylight. And then as we get into October, all bets are off.

I mean, sometimes I don't even manage to feed myself during the month of October because it's total and utter insanity. And so these last few days of September, these last few days of the Major League Baseball season will go quickly and we're starting to see the intensity pick up around Major League Baseball and the places where there are pennant races. But always toward the end of the season, because you're talking about nearly a full, not quite, but nearly a full 162 games, we get more and more of these record setting moments. Whether we're talking about the old dudes, whether we're talking about the rookies, you'll start to hear these types of headlines every night now from Major League Baseball. Rodriguez in the lead. Remember he's got the 24 steals. Here's the stretch.

And there he goes. Pitch on the way, a ball, the throwdown, a second on a hop, not in time and Julio Rodriguez is the third member in Major League history for a rookie to join the 25-25 club. That is stolen base number 25, 25 or more steals, 25 or more home runs.

Only Chris Young of the Diamondbacks in 2007 and Mike Trout have done that. He is number three in baseball history for a Major League rookie and he tips his helmet to the crowd here at T-Mobile Park. Welcome to the 25-25 club, Julio Rodriguez. What a rookie season.

I'm honestly just trying to take care of one day at a time. I feel like I'm just trying to put myself in the position that I can just provide for the team. I'm happy to reach that milestone, but I'm happy for the runs I can create for the team with those opportunities though. We saw him at the All-Star break. He did spend a little bit of time on the injured list, but when he's on the base paths or in the field, Julio Rodriguez is dynamic.

He's 21 years old, just the third rookie in baseball history to hit 25 home runs and steal 25 bases in the same season. So congratulations to him and no doubt because the Seattle Mariners are closing in on... Do I dare say it out loud? Jay gets mad at me sometimes because he actually believes in jinxes. I do not believe in jinxes and so I don't have any issues with saying things out loud. But are people going to get mad at me if I talk about how the Mariners are about to or on their cusp of or likely will break this longest playoff drought in the four major team sports? Did you just get mad at me for that? Am I not doing my job if I ignore it? They haven't made the playoffs since when?

2001? And so it's been two decades plus now since they've made the postseason. And I feel like if I don't say something about it then I'm not doing my job.

Seals rise. Let's get it. I'm not doing my job adequately. By the way, 21 years and Julio Rodriguez is 21. That's funny. Sorry, it's only funny to me. But the man has no idea. Sometimes it's good to be young and oblivious. So congratulations to Julio.

You hear him there on Root Sports Northwest. And the dichotomy of these two historical moments in Major League Baseball on Wednesday is not lost on me. You have Julio who's 21 and setting this record for himself and becoming one of the youngest ever to do it.

But then on the opposite end, you've got two battery mates in St. Louis. And Adam Wainwright who's 41 and Yadier Molina who's 40 who have been in baseball as long as Julio Rodriguez has been alive. I just I love the contrast of these two moments. We're all set for the historic moment right here with the fans standing at Busch Stadium. Pitch one is taken for a strike. Adam Wainwright and Yadier Molina have the record of 325 starts as a regular season Major League battery. Passing Mickey Lulich and Bill Freehand from 1963 through 1975 with the Detroit Tigers. That's John Rooney on Cardinals radio.

Really amazing. Wainwright is 41 and as I say Yadier Molina is 40. And the two of them have started 325 games together.

Not just that but Wainow is still really really good. He allows just to run on eight hits and picking up his 11th win. And I love that this happened at Busch Stadium in St. Louis where of course I hope that Albert Pujols hits home run number 700.

But as Oliver Marmol points out and and we'll hear from him in a second. This is a really good time to be around the Cardinals. It's a really good time to be watching St. Louis baseball.

So congratulations to Adam Wainwright and Yadi. It was a lot to manage honestly early on especially you know just the crowd was so awesome. And you know making me just get constant chills and tearing up and you know just trying to manage my adrenaline because it wanted to just go through the roof. One moment that was really special was when Yelich took the first pitch.

I mean I thought that was just a really classy move and you could tell he was just gonna kind of give that to us. Such a great feeling just to reach that number and to be part of that release and to be on top of that release. It's just such a great feeling. Crazy I mean I look around and then I see everybody cheering and grabbing. I mean it's just great great times. I mean just emotionally I was way on top so it was great to see that.

It's pretty unbelievable just to be a small part of it's pretty cool but 325 yeah I don't know if that's ever getting broken. And it just goes to show you how you know they you know played the game the right way. They've done it for so long and they've been such a staple in this organization that took credit to them. Credit to their hard work you know and it couldn't happen to two better guys. So again congratulations and the contrast between the two old dudes. You know that here on the show we think the old dudes rock because they don't take anything for granted.

The fact that they have achieved longevity and that they've continued to be productive and earn money at their craft is amazing in and of itself. But also because when you get older you can see the end of your journey. You're in touch with your own sports mortality. When you're 21 and you're Julio Rodriguez and you have a contract for the next 49 years. There's really no mortality staring you in the face. When you're Adam Wainwright and Yadier especially Yadi because he's already decided for sure that he will retire. Albert Pujols same situation. Well you know the end is coming and so everything matters more to you.

You're not going to do it for the rest of your life. This is it and so you cherish every moment. Even Tom Brady who hasn't technically acknowledged that he will retire at the end of the season. Has already started talking about how he's savoring the moment and how there's a little more emotion to it. And you hear that from Adam Wainwright as he reflects on this milestone. And how cool it was for Christian Yelich to take a pitch so that it wouldn't be about Yelich.

It would be about Wayno and Yadi. And I really love the fact too that neither one of them has ever played anywhere else in their careers. And that was also something that Wainwright was talking about following this moment.

When you play somewhere for a long time. I remember when John Smoltz came to play for us in 2009. As much as I loved having him a teammate because he was my one of my idols growing up. As much as I loved having him here I also felt like he looked really weird in our uniform. You know we got the best uniform going but he looked weird in it. He needed to wear that a on his on his jersey. And for me I would have feel weird going somewhere else.

I'd look at myself in the mirror and just ask myself what am I doing. You know like I belong here this is where I belong and this is where I should have been. And this is where Yadi should have been and and has been and this is just home for us. So glad to be able to do it here and you know what's cool is our young guys see that too. Lars Neubauer walked up to me the other day and said how cool is it that you got to do this with Yadi here in this state in this city.

And he's right I mean it doesn't get much better than that. Yeah we heard from Lars Neubauer before that Adam Wainwright bite because the young guys do really appreciate being part of it. And so Lars had the home run he was on Bally Sports Midwest and then Adam and Yadi both speaking to the media can't really avoid it now.

And it's kind of cool too I'm not sure if you've seen this. I mean Molina is not as productive at the plate as he has been over the course of his career. But he is productive when Wainwright pitches.

He's actually got more hits and and some RBI when Wainwright pitches. It's it's kind of cool just the way that they all support each other. Every time Pujols hits a home run now the first guy to greet him, unless there happens to be someone on the base paths who's waiting for him at home plate, the first guy to greet him out of the dugout is Yadi.

And there's a big embrace because they they all recognize what these last few days and weeks mean and how special they are that the three of them, even with Pujols having played for two other franchises, how special they are in these moments that they can see the end of their careers together and obviously play for something bigger than just individual records. The Cardinals now have an eight game lead over the Brewers in the National League Central. And more and more now when you look at the baseball standings, the Es are starting to pop up. Meaning the teams that are officially eliminated from postseason contention.

There are a handful of them now. Only one team is clinched and that's the Los Angeles Dodgers who've won the West. They actually did not take a step closer to 100 wins tonight though. Craig Kimbrel, have you heard this before? He gave up, I think it was a three-run home run in the 10th inning to the Diamondbacks and it was their walk off and so he had another blown save. But the Dodgers have made the playoffs and otherwise it's Es. The Pirates, the Reds, the Nationals, the Marlins, the A's, the Tigers all officially eliminated.

Not that that's breaking news because you pretty much knew that. All right, coming up, we have a lot to get to. A lot to get to even outside of football and baseball. Serena Williams making an appearance on Good Morning America and giving a nod to one Tom Brady, which was kind of fun. And before the hour is up, the commissioner of the NBA weighing in on the penalty and the ownership status of the Suns and why there aren't more drastic moves that were taken in the wake of the investigation that was done around him. So you will hear from the commissioner of the NBA, which is rare this time of the year because they're not quite to their training camp still about a month or so, maybe not quite a month, a few more weeks until basketball and hockey hit their training camps. You can find me on Twitter, A Law Radio, also on our Facebook page.

I did go back and answer a bunch of your questions for Ask Amy anything. Fantasy football leagues are one on the waiver wire and with trades and with savvy starter sit decisions. The Fantasy Football Today podcast will help you along the way with the best advice on how to manage your team and dominate your league with eight episodes per week. Fantasy football today is the only resource you'll need.

Start sit, grade the trade, fantasy cops to settle your league disputes and so much more. Check out Fantasy Football Today anywhere podcasts are found. Fantasy football leagues are one on the waiver wire and with trades and with savvy starter sit decisions. The Fantasy Football Today podcast will help you along the way with the best advice on how to manage your team and dominate your league with eight episodes per week. Fantasy football today is the only resource you'll need. Start sit, grade the trade, fantasy cops to settle your league disputes and so much more. Check out Fantasy Football Today anywhere podcasts are found. Fantasy football leagues are one on the waiver wire and with trades and with savvy starter sit decisions. The Fantasy Football Today podcast will help you along the way with the best advice on how to manage your team and dominate your league with eight episodes per week. Fantasy football today is the only resource you'll need. Start sit, grade the trade, fantasy cops to settle your league disputes and so much more. Check out Fantasy Football Today anywhere podcasts are found.

So check it out. Thanks for hanging out with us here on CBS Sports Radio. You are listening to the After Hours podcast. Here it comes. Runner goes. Pitch swung out and hammered high, deep to right, away, back and gone. Well, by golly, Ryan Tapera challenged Jose Ramirez and gets burned. A two-run blast to right and Jose Ramirez comes through again. And the Guardians have the lead here in the eighth by a score of five to three.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. If you aren't paying attention, those young Cleveland Guardians have won eight of nine and they do have a flair for the dramatic. They get the two ahead of the two ahead. I don't know what that word is.

I do tend to make up words sometimes. They get the go-ahead two-run homer in the eighth inning from Jose Ramirez. Tom Hamilton on Guardians Radio and starting pitcher Cal Quantrill kept them in the race there in the fight, always in the fight, just allowing three runs over seven innings. We're playing baseball the right way right now. You're not going to win every game. But I think that when we play baseball this way, we're tough to beat. It's a lot of fun to see some of these young guys embrace the opportunity.

And I go back and forth in the postseason. I think you can generally see it where veteran wisdom and experience does make a difference when you know what to expect, when you can kind of guide other guys in your locker room, your clubhouse to know what's coming. But it's not the answer to everything.

And sometimes youth and exuberance and energy and, of course, power and speed, all of those things can be enough to power a team through. But it is cool to see a group of guys who've never been through it before experience it and then kind of hope there's no deer in the headlights. But even if there is, that's where series comes in, right? Unless we're talking about the one and done type of scenario.

Well, there's a series where you can kind of dip your toe in the water and get that first bit of experience and then settle in and do what comes naturally to you. It's after hours on CBS Sports Radio and on Facebook, as well as on Twitter. I just got this tweet, which I think is really cool.

Hi, Amy. Molina and Wainwright story is awesome. I just retired from firefighting after 34 years. Sports are definitely not the only job that makes you feel emotional during your last year. I appreciate that tweet and congratulations. That's phenomenal. I thank you for your service for sure over the last 30 plus years. You're right. I have no idea when I'll retire or walk away from this particular job, though now I've been doing sports radio exclusively for 20 plus years.

Radio itself and media itself for 26 years. So it's been a while and I definitely recognize that when you've put in the not just the years in terms of the actual time invested, but you've put in the blood, the sweat, the tears over those years and nothing's come easy. Then A, you don't take it for granted and B, can you recognize that it doesn't go on forever? And dear Lord, I do not need to be doing this forever. My mom, as I point out a lot, is still teaching at 76 years old and I think she's amazing, but there is not a snowball's chance in hell that I am still doing this job, say when I'm 60 or I mean, I can't even imagine doing that.

Still keeping up the schedule. I might die a lot earlier if I don't eventually change away from what I'm doing, but there's a lot of other things that I want to do with my life too. So at some point I'll be willing to, what do you say?

Let's see in sports. In sports, you say hang up the cleats or hang up the racket or the pads or whatever else. I guess I will hang up my microphone.

That sounds so dumb. I'm not going to be hanging up my microphone. Are you going to evolve? I'm like Serena.

Are you going to evolve? Well, you refuse to ever eat any of the baked goods I bring in. You always tell me no, which I do take personally and I'll never forget that.

You rarely, okay, you rarely eat them ever. Okay. One, I've barely been working with you. This has been a short period of time. Okay.

We were two straight years together at the beginning of CBS 4. For a short period of time, my fat ass had some willpower and you hold that against me. I do. I have not had any since. I take it personally. And I haven't been offered anything since. So yeah, I just was feeling as though it was a personal attack. And I started to be, I was trying not to be the entire size of the room.

I failed miserably, but I was giving it a while for a short period of time. Okay. Well, I'll be baking, of course, around the holidays. At Halloween, I do something called pumpkin s'mores.

They are delicious. I just want you to know. But anyway, so I do have skills outside of radio. For instance, I can bake and I would love to bake for a living.

I think it'd be great. But also, do you know I can organize the heck out of anyone and anything? So I might do something along the lines of like a planning, vacation planning, that kind of thing. I'll bake for people and I'll plan their vacations.

And what more could you ask for? That sounds pretty, I was going to say for a second there, I was going to hire you to fix my garage because I could really use some, you know. Garages have spiders. I don't do well with garages. Yeah, mine, I actually had to kill a snake not too long ago.

Oh no, no, that's a negative ghost rider. Yeah. So anyway, I am probably not going to be doing manual labor when I retire. But I do think that something along those lines that, you know, I have an accounting degree for heaven's sakes. I could go do somebody's payroll.

Just this job takes so much, well, this industry takes so much out of you, especially these hours, as you know. Yeah, I just, I can't, I mean, good for you, at least you have options. I keep saying my biggest skill is I can speak English, kind of.

That's pretty much it. I really don't have a lot of skills to fall back on. Do not sell yourself short.

It's been way too long. Well, I know I'm not telling you I can start doing it today. Only that, only that I do feel like I have some other skills. Good for you.

I don't know what that feels like. Whatever, you're a dad. You're, I mean, you have other skills. That's not a skill. But when you do it well, it is. Yeah, but that's, you know, that's subjective.

So I mean, any Richard can be a father, but you actually know how to be a dad. So I hope, yeah. But again, that's, you know, we'll find out in a few years when my kids can, you know, look back and when they get older, they can evaluate you. Yeah, because I mean, now we're in that, you know, you know, they're eight and two. So one's not going to tell you anything, really.

And the other one's kind of still in that I'm in the good graces. So once I go through the hatred period and then we get through that and then he comes back and then hopefully it's kind of like, oh, I see what he was doing. Then maybe we'll see if I did a good job. That's going to take years though. Right. He's going to keep doing this forever.

No, no, no. Like I said, he's eight, so he's still, we're still cool. He hasn't, he hasn't turned on me yet. I haven't become like the, you know, the evil man in the room.

Let me just tell you a few years. When it happens, I have nieces. I don't have a nephew, but when you're, when my nieces all of a sudden realize that I wasn't cool, it was like this drastic change.

I had enough. There's no fixing that. My, my nieces no longer see me as like anything special. I'm not sure if he looks at me as cool.

He might. I'm not sure that's a mistake on his part. I'm glad I'm going through with my son first though, because I got to tell you, my daughter's probably going to hate me by what, nine? Yeah, well, it'll be good to at least, you know, kind of maybe kind of figure it out a little bit. Maybe learn some, some mistakes before she really, really doesn't like me.

Try them out on your son first and then do it better with the daughter. Well, cause you're going to make mistakes. I mean, that's what it is.

That's, it's kind of going through and yeah, figuring out which mistakes are worse and seeing if maybe I can, you know, do it a little bit better. Here's the thing though. You had parents, you have parents, right? So as much as they screw up, like we can all look back and say, okay, our parents probably could have done this differently or this differently. You turned out just fine. I turned out just fine. Again, I grew up in a dysfunctional family.

Like I wouldn't even tell you all the stories and look, I turned out okay. Yeah. And I'm screwing up in different ways. I'm going to throw this pen at you. Stop it.

Well, that's what the job is, isn't it? You're supposed to look at what your parents did and see like, you know, that was messed up. I'm not going to do it that way.

And I'm just going to screw up in a different way and realize that I messed up things that I didn't even know they were possible. But you can't break them generally unless you're doing something criminal. You can't break kids. They're pretty resilient. Let's hope they're going to be fine. Good thing they're made out of rubber. That helps. That does help.

They hit the floor a lot. All right. Coming up this mess with the Phoenix Suns and their owner and the commissioner actually doing a press conference in September to explain why the punishment isn't one that requires his removal as a member of the association. You can find me on Twitter. A law re- Fantasy football leagues are one on the waiver wire and with trades and with savvy starter sit decisions. The fantasy football today podcast will help you along the way with the best advice on how to manage your team and dominate your league with eight episodes per week. Fantasy football today is the only resource you'll need. Start sit.

Grade the trade. Fantasy cops to settle your league disputes and so much more. Check out fantasy football today anywhere podcasts are found. Fantasy football leagues are one on the waiver wire and with trades and with savvy starter sit decisions. The fantasy football today podcast will help you along the way with the best advice on how to manage your team and dominate your league with eight episodes per week. Fantasy football today is the only resource you'll need. Start sit.

Grade the trade. Fantasy cops to settle your league disputes and so much more. Check out fantasy football today anywhere podcasts are found. Fantasy football leagues are one on the waiver wire and with trades and with savvy starter sit decisions. The fantasy football today podcast will help you along the way with the best advice on how to manage your team and dominate your league with eight episodes per week. Fantasy football today is the only resource you'll need. Start sit.

Grade the trade. Fantasy cops to settle your league disputes and so much more. Check out fantasy football today anywhere podcasts are found. Video also on our Facebook page. It's after hours with Amy Lawrence. You are listening to the after hours podcast.

This is after hours with Amy Lawrence. By now maybe you have heard a little bit about the firestorm surrounding the owner of the Phoenix Suns and if you haven't I dare say that this is not the first or last investigation into an owner or a corporation in the sports industry because it started happening first outside of the world of sports and now it's happening more and more inside the sports industry where employees feel empowered to speak out about what they may term as workplace culture or workplace harassment and it's not just women though more women do feel emboldened to come forward about how they've been treated the the harassment that they've experienced because of the me too movement and the number of women who now over the past several years have opened up but the more that this happens in pro sports the more that it will happen so thinking about the Daniel Snyder investigation but that was only the second or was the second I should say in the NFL even in the last five years remember the league while it didn't force Jerry Richardson to sell the Carolina Panthers there was likely to be a push in that direction the NFL wanted him to sell the Panthers that's how David Tepper got on board as an owner because of what were the allegations of sexual harassment and again workplace conduct and workplace culture and and I know a lot of people will remember more recently the Daniel Snyder uproar and the fact that the NFL punished Daniel Snyder the owner of the Washington commanders in a way that people felt like it was light it was an easy punishment it it was a punishment that did not have teeth because he's still allowed to own the team and even though he's no longer involved in day-to-day operations his wife is now running the team theoretically but this became such a major story as people were calling for his removal as an owner that even Congress had hearings about it now in the NBA there's an investigation that lasted for gosh I think it was nine months or so and it was a five-person committee that looked into allegations against Robert Sarver who's owned the Suns for 17 years and the allegations are very similar in some ways it was about workplace culture and workplace misconduct women coming forward to indicate that they were treated inequitably or that there were comments that would constitute sexual harassment inappropriate comments on how they looked or other things and as someone who's been through that I will tell you firsthand it's demeaning it's degrading it makes you feel as though you are being evaluated only on what you look like or how you dress as opposed to what you bring to the table as an employee it's humiliating as a woman who had trained to do the job that I was hired to do thought that was the reason why I was hired and in some cases finding out that that's not really what employers were interested in I mean it's all of those things it's very real and I would say that we've gone through a period in which we've been able to I would say that we've gone through a period in the United States of America can only speak to the U.S. right because this is the only place I've ever worked where those types of comments and the treatment of women by men who didn't really care or men who are in power I mean there's a period you could ask almost any woman in the United States and she could tell you stories of a certain age or older thankfully and I say this a lot about my nieces I'm glad that they not that they won't ever go through it because they're always going to be people who discriminate or people who treat others in a demeaning way but they now have recourse and most young women these days will speak up if they feel like they're being treated a certain way and I know that for me it was a choice between speaking up against the sexual harassment and the discrimination or working that was the choice I knew that if I spoke up especially against the people who in some cases it was my boss if I spoke up I would lose the job that I had and I would lose the opportunities that I had and so again all that to say that the reason a lot of these reports or allegations come out in delayed fashion or coming out now where maybe they've been going on for years is because employees are feeling more empowered and they're feeling as though they don't have to hide anymore because you're starting to see it more and more in the corporate world and now more and more in sports that people will speak up they're not as afraid of retaliation anymore and there are strengthened there is strength excuse me in numbers so the more people speak up the more people will speak up it's after hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio the punishment for Robert Sarver is a year suspension and a hefty fine a 10 million dollar fine and the allegations against him weren't just sexual harassment or the workplace culture that was demeaning to women there were also allegations of racism and words that he used that would be offensive really to most people but specifically to black people and so as the committee went through this nine month investigation one critical piece of evidence or I guess I should say one critical finding that they returned based on the evidence is that Robert Sarver was not doing this with hostility or ill intent now it's hard to judge intent so you can scoff if you like I can't even imagine using the n-word in any way shape or form but according to the committee he was repeating it he was regurgitating it and his use of racial slurs was not motivated by racism again how do you judge that based on text messages based on interviews based on whatever else and so that plays into why Adam Silver and the NBA didn't have the authority or according to the commissioner did not have the authority to force Sarver to give up his franchise I have certain authority by virtue of this organization and that's what I exercised I don't have the right to take away his team I don't want to rest on that neat legal point because of course there could be a process to take away someone's team in this league it's very involved and I ultimately made the decision that it didn't rise to that level but to me the consequences are severe here on Mr Sarver obviously you've heard or seen the post by players like LeBron James or Chris Paul who obviously plays for the Phoenix Suns and is a very prominent member of the the players association and and their executive board but Silver went back to this conclusion that Sarver's use of offensive words and some of the allegations against him were not motivated by racism they weren't motivated by ill intent and so for that reason he as the commissioner did not believe that he could move forward with proceedings to remove Sarver as an owner like they did with Donald Sterling in Los Angeles there's no neat answer here I mean it's other other than owning property the rights that come with with with owning an NBA team um you know how that's set up within our constitution um what it would take to remove that team you know from his control is a very involved process and it's different than holding a job it just is when when when you actually um own a team it's it's just a very different proposition I appreciate that Silver is wrestling is wrestling with this and that there's no neat and tidy answer as much as I hate the actions that I have read about and the allegations and as much as I can put myself in that situation as a female obviously not as someone who's experienced racism but discrimination yes I mean discrimination takes many forms and that answer feels like a cop-out to me at the same time you and Silver said this you can't just take away a person's property you can't take away what they own for allegations like these did his actions amount to crimes maybe if they're criminal then you can get to the point where you initiate the process of removing him and we know these questions came up about Daniel Snyder which is why I'm kind of using that as an example remember the commissioner of the NFL Roger Goodell went in front of congress and said I do not have the power to remove him as an owner I do not have the power to take away his franchise and now Adam Silver is saying the same thing now you could get potentially a vote of the majority owners they can force out one of their own but it's a very rare occasion that they would do that and honestly as as bad as this sounds you know what was really Donald Sterling's downfall is the fact that there were recordings when there are videos when there are photos when there are recordings it it's a lot different I mean that's the kind of society that we are unfortunately it's after hours with Amy Lawrence CBS sports radio fantasy football leagues are one on the waiver wire and with trades and with savvy starter sit decisions the fantasy football today podcast will help you along the way with the best advice on how to manage your team and dominate your league with eight episodes per week fantasy football today is the only resource you'll need start sit grade the trade fantasy cops to settle your league disputes and so much more check out fantasy football today anywhere podcasts are found fantasy football leagues are one on the waiver wire and with trades and with savvy starter sit decisions the fantasy football today podcast will help you along the way with the best advice on how to manage your team and dominate your league with eight episodes per week fantasy football today is the only resource you'll need start sit grade the trade fantasy cops to settle your league disputes and so much more check out fantasy football today anywhere podcasts are found fantasy football leagues are one on the waiver wire and with trades and with savvy starter sit decisions the fantasy football today podcast will help you along the way with the best advice on how to manage your team and dominate your league with eight episodes per week fantasy football today is the only resource you'll need start sit grade the trade fantasy cops to settle your league disputes and so much more check out fantasy football today anywhere podcasts are found