After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 3

We're halfway through our first show of the work week and I don't think we're halfway through all the subject material. Holy cannoli. Ooh cannoli. I don't even like cannolis but that one actually it sounds good right this minute.

It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence. I promise coming up we've got some photos from our weekend excursion as well as a couple more stories to share. It was pretty crazy that the old timers game overshadowed the actual major league game that was taking place. But it was the first time in nearly 30 years and you didn't have to be a Mets fan to appreciate the array of talent and stories and generations and eras and teams and the respect and the honor. I actually wore a Red Sox hat to Citi Field in honor of Pedro Martinez because he is a Mets old timer.

So we'll get to that coming up but some really neat photos and also a couple stories. Like I say, they retired the number of Willie Mays. He only played two years in New York, a final two years of his Hall of Fame career and he could not be there but his son was there so that was amazing. We've got Aaron Rodgers again talking again. My gosh, that's not part of QB news though because I don't want it to be. We do have actual QB news.

That's more ancillary. Pretty nice. Please. 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.

After hours with Amy Lawrence on Facebook, on YouTube, on Twitter, you can find me A Law Radio. Buckle up peeps, we are not even two weeks away from the start of the 2022 NFL campaign. The home fires for the end zone, caught. Touchdown Kansas City. Murray back to throw and it is. Is it caught? Is it caught?

Oh my goodness it's caught. DeAndre Hopkins caught it. He's got a man wide open, John Brown, he makes the catch. Touchdown Buffalo. John Brown from Josh Allen. Lamar Jackson in the shotgun. Blops to the five, it is caught. Touchdown Willie Snead.

Way fake by Russ. Throws deep. Man wide open. It's Lockett.

He's in. Touchdown Seahawks. Daniel rolling, throwing. Touchdown Titans. Throw back to pass. Throws into the end zone. Yeah. Contended for Tyler Floyd.

Yeah. Touchdown. Touchdown Bengals. It's time for QB News on After Hours.

Alright, strap in peeps. Do you know that we are just days away from the Bills kicking off at the Los Angeles Rams. Thursday night football from SoFi Stadium, home of the Super Bowl champions.

No joke, it's a week from Thursday so I hope you're ready. And to that end, final round of preseason games taking place over the weekend. Tom Brady did play, he looks fine.

Let's not worry about Tom Brady and whether or not he's prepared for his 47th NFL season. But it was interesting to hear from him for the first time about his 11 day hiatus, his sabbatical, his vacation, his time away right smack dab in the middle of the preseason. He keeps getting questions about where he was, what he was doing, why he was away. It's all personal, you know everyone's got different situations they're dealing with so we all have really unique challenges to our life and you know we're I'm 45 years old man. There's a lot of s*** going on so you know you just gotta try to figure out life the best you can and you know it's a continuous process. I don't know if he's being serious, we know he was on vacation.

That part's been confirmed, maybe not for the entire 11 days. But I can certainly empathize with I'm 45 years old man, I got a lot of bleep to do, I got a lot of bleep going on. It's true, some of his younger teammates are in their early 20s and their biggest concern is where to hang out on a Friday night. But their biggest concerns are where they're going to find their date.

It's not real complicated when you're in your early 20s for a lot of young men, not all. But here's Tom Brady who's got multiple kids and a wife who doesn't really want him to be playing and he's got business ventures and everything else. I understand, I spent most of the weekend stressing out over my dog and her insulin so yeah the more responsibilities you have the more bleep you have going on. But at the same time it's super funny to hear him say that, I'm 45 years old I got a lot of bleep going on.

It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. I don't know that Baker Mayfield has a lot of bleep going on but he's certainly gone through the bleep this offseason. His divorce and emotional exit from Cleveland only to land in Charlotte where he has to go through a quarterback competition with another former top draft pick.

In fact they were selected in the same round in 2018. Well we know Baker Mayfield beat out Sam Darnold and he actually showed off with a pretty impressive performance in the final tune up before his new team faces his old team to start the year. I thought Baker did a nice job of moving the football. The thing I like about Baker right now is just it plays so steady. You can't tell after every play if it was a drop, if it was a completion and then obviously the touchdown played above the X's and O's.

It wasn't there, escaped, made the play. Some good, some bad. Overall a little sloppy to be honest with you.

I felt like my feet weren't very calm. I felt like I kind of drifted in the pocket a little bit, created my own pressure. But you know room for improvement, going to look back at the tape. When you're practicing against your own defense and you're trying to game plan for a different team it's a little bit different. So each game I'm looking for improvements and adjustments within the system so yeah he's right. Obviously I'm just getting started within it but I feel completely comfortable within the knowledge of it.

Now it's just a matter of going out and seeing it and putting it into action. We did hear from both Matt Ruhl as well as I think it was Scott Fitterer the GM when they decided Baker had won the starting job. How prepared he was even when preseason kicked off, training camp started. He already knew a good portion of the playbook. That is another indication that Baker has matured as a quarterback, as a leader, as a guy who wants to be sure that in Carolina he doesn't have the same tumultuous tenure as he did in Cleveland.

Not all on him, I'm not saying it's all on him, but definitely wants it to be calmer and I like that he points out that his feet weren't as calm as they should be. I don't believe the two things are related, but after Sam Darnold finds out he has lost the starting gig to Baker Mayfield, he suffers a significant ankle injury. He does have a high ankle sprain.

In terms of the length of that, we're not sure of the exact length. We've sent those images to specialists to try to gauge it, but again that does look like a significant injury that could take some time. High ankle sprains suck.

They are the worst possible kind and there's really nothing you can do because all the healing is through rest. Because it takes longer, you can get out of shape, you can put on weight, there's just not much you can do if your ankle needs to be completely rested. So this is a tough blow and the recovery varies.

For some guys it's a little quicker, but recovery time generally takes a month or more when you're talking about a high ankle sprain. So backup quarterback Sam Darnold gone for at least a month. Remember they already lost Matt Corral. Are they going to make a quarterback move?

Well they have PJ Walker, so not an optimal situation for the Panthers now even though Baker is their actual starter. And of course you all know this, I'm starting to pay attention to week one, the schedule, but this is one that the schedule makers anticipated. Carolina hosting Cleveland at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, Sunday September 11th. It's after hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. Another injury, actually scary, to Tyrod Taylor where he gets lifted up off the ground by a defender and gets slammed down on his back. Here's Giants head coach Brian Dabel. Should be okay.

I don't think there's anything. He just landed hard and I talked to him at halftime and he said he's okay. Taylor was actually starting the Giants preseason finale against the Jets on Sunday because Daniel Jones did not play.

And so the Jets rookie defensive end Michael Clemons kind of picks him up and then slams him down even as he is rolling out of the pocket a little bit. He hits the pass for what that's worth, but yeah this was, it looked painful, he stayed on the ground until the Giants medical staff got to him. Was able to jog off the field but did not return to the game.

Though he seemed like he was okay, kind of moving around better in street clothes in the second half. Also not what you want when your backup quarterback goes down. It's certainly not as significant as when your starter gets hurt. But you know the backups are always just one snap away from being called on. They have to be ready. Stumbles down at the 15.

He could not get there. Every time the season starts I keep a running tally of the number of teams that use multiple quarterbacks because of injuries or ineptitude. Trust me it's two thirds of the league or more every single year. It's not injuries that the Patriots can point to for their offensive ineptitude in their last preseason game. They did not have a touchdown against the Raiders who by the way finished up a perfect preseason for the first time in their franchise history. Instead there were three turnovers by the Patriots offense.

The initial series run by Mac Jones were absolutely brutal. Well we didn't have a real good night tonight in any phase of the game. No. That's obvious. Might have left it on the practice field on Tuesday and Wednesday. Certainly practiced a lot better than we played out there tonight.

Obviously didn't need to clean up a lot of things here. That just didn't play well in any phase of the game. Didn't play with any kind of consistency. A couple touchdowns. Call it back.

Turn them all over. Didn't play good defense. Didn't play well in the kicking game. I obviously got to do a better job. We all wish we played better but at this point we just have to evaluate the film and see what we can do better. We're trying to get it all together and it's going to happen. It's just we want to go out there and execute better. That's all it comes down to.

I mean individually I think we all can play better and then once that happens collectively it'll look a lot better. The opening series run by Mac Jones. Three plays minus nine yards. Second series, interception. Third series, three and out. Fourth series, a field goal.

Fifth series, which wasn't Mac Jones. Another short drive with a punt. We don't have time for that.

Yeah, you better make time. And here's the thing. I know this is going to turn into the clickbait response and solution of oh if they would just name an offensive coordinator who would call plays all the time this would be a whole lot easier. It must be because now here it is they play against Josh McDaniel's right there former OC who has his Raiders looking in tip-top shape even without Derek Carr. But the idea that the Patriots must call an offensive coordinator by a specific title and that he must be calling the plays all the time. That's going to be the easy fallback excuse for why the Patriots offense sucks. I just don't believe that's the case.

No, that doesn't have anything to do with it. Bill Belichick responding already. He was prepared. He was answering those questions long before we ever brought them up. I know how interested you are on that subject.

Don't accept the social media reason. Come on, let's be smarter than that and wait to see what happens in the regular season. Now here's something scintillating. The Patriots open in Miami in week number one. To a time go below a very first series of the Dolphins final preseason game. 51 yards to Tyreek Hill.

He ends up going 6 of 7 for 121 yards and a touchdown on that first series but and he did play the whole first quarter. But what people were talking about watching was that big pass. I was going to call it a bomb but that big pass to Tyreek. When we were given the play, Mike didn't necessarily tell me who to go to with the ball. But for me, it was one of those deals that if we got a specific coverage from their defense that regardless of who was on Tyreek or not, we wanted to take that shot. And so we got the premier look of what the play consisted of and that's why we took the shot.

Before I had even seen it, producer Jay told me about it and observed what Jay? To a time go below a couldn't quite reach Tyreek Hill that he's used to. Looked like Tyreek was trying to go for like one of those classic 85 yard touchdowns that Mahomes would kind of lead him into and he walked right into the end zone. And this one he had to kind of turn around and come get which made the pass but I don't think he's going to be seeing those 85 yard bombs anymore.

It was a post route that turned into a curl route. I really play with the most accurate quarterback in the NFL. He may very well be accurate but he definitely does not have the same arm strength as Patrick Holmes.

And that's the point that Jay is making and made to me on the phone and that I've seen it since. Yeah, Tyreek had to stop and come back for the football and had to curl around the defender to make sure he caught it. He even went down to the ground so he was not on his feet to continue running. So it's not the same arm strength though he may be the most accurate quarterback on the planet. Dolphins hosting the Patriots in week number one. Justin Fields going into year two with the Chicago Bears. New head coach, new system but three touchdowns and a near perfect performance when he was on the field in the Bears final preseason outing. I think it's just execution on all parts. I think the O-line did a great job protecting today.

I told them that multiple times. The receivers did a great job with Scramblesville just running the right routes at the right depth and stuff like that. So again just protection wise running the football and that will open everything up with play action and our boot plays. Justin Fields no longer a rookie and he is the quarterback. Remember they were shocked to get him when they drafted him in Chicago last spring. Can he be the franchise QB, the face of the team that they are looking for? Malik Willis, he's a rookie. One of the most popular opinions about this upcoming season is that Malik will take over for Ryan Tannehill at some point. We know he is the heir apparent and Tannehill has no more guaranteed money. This may be the last year of his contract but Malik Willis looks fantastic in preseason to this point.

Probably like a B-. It was better than the first couple of preseason games just as far as me sitting in the pocket and just trying to take what the defense is giving me. Even though we didn't convert a couple of third downs just because they weren't giving us those third and long looks. Just checked it down a couple of times and I just took off and slid for whatever we could get and add to the punt. At the end of the day for as long as possible I want to remain a passer and that's why it was so frustrating about the first two games. I think I wasn't remaining a passer as long as I wanted to which was not allowing people to get open downfield and just having people come up early.

And that's just not what we want. So evaluating himself in the final preseason game and the Titans have given him a ton of time on the field. They've allowed him to play and to play and to work out some kinks. I guess technically he's not even still the official backup to Ryan Tannehill but I want it to be that way.

And so far the jump from Liberty to the NFL is not as precipitous as you would think. Mike Tomlin eats chicken wings. He's been very impressive. I can't wait to see Malik Willis in the NFL.

It's after hours here on CBS Sports Radio. Another popular opinion is that Kenny Pickett will take over as the starting QB for the Steelers at some point this season. We still don't have a ruling from one Mike Tomlin about who the starter will be. Depending upon who you talk to, Mitch Trubisky is best.

There are a lot of people who love what they've seen from the rookie Kenny Pickett. So that's one quarterback competition that remains open. But we do now have a ruling from Pete Carroll in Seattle. Geno's going to start. Geno is going to start is what he said. And he's earned it. He's won the job with the time and the timeframes that got messed up for us for Drew.

Drew just ran out of time in making his bid for it. So I'm clear about that. So I just want to let you know so everybody knows so you don't have to ask about it anymore.

It wasn't a major reaction. Obviously I'm thankful for the opportunity and grateful. But I have a lot of work ahead of me. That was my mindset from the start. It's getting ready to go out there and win games. So this is just step one in that process. But it's really about winning.

None of this would matter if we don't go out and win the games we're supposed to win. As a competitor you're always disappointed. And I was disappointed. You want to be out there. You want to be playing with those guys. You want to be able to step on the field and show what you can do.

And yeah, you're disappointed. But now it's my job to have his back and be the best teammate I can be. And come out every day and find ways to make this team better.

And to make myself better. The NFL set it up specifically for Russell Wilson to return to Seattle. For week number one. That is the Monday night matchup. The Broncos at, is it Lumen Field now in Seattle? With the 12th man and Geno Smith as the new quarterback for the Seahawks.

I actually have friends from New Jersey who are flying to Seattle to watch that game. Mr. Mr. Mr. Unlimited.

They're taking their 80 something year old mom because she loves Russell Wilson. Who knew? He is Mr. Unlimited.

He's got fans of all shapes and sizes and ages. So that's one of the marquee matchups. Man, there are many on the week one schedule. Have you looked at it yet, Producer J? Do you have the week one schedule memorized? Do you know it's a requirement of working here on after hours? I don't have it memorized just yet. I'm sure I will when I do a bunch of fantasy prep this week to see matchups and bi-week alignments and all that.

You know I'm lying too. I barely look at the schedule until like a few days before. This is the most I've looked at the week one schedule since it came out.

I know the Rams and the Bills on Thursday Night Football. And that's, we'll cross the other bridges when we get there. Now we have, I wouldn't say it's a surprise, you should come to expect it now. But we do have a show announcement that we'll get to.

Plus, you're never going to believe who's dad was at Mets old timers game on Saturday. This was pretty cool. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio.

You are listening to the After Hours Podcast. I think we're going to be different. I think you saw last year, defenses had started to formulate a good game plan.

At least at the beginning of the season of trying to kind of maintain, stopping Ty Reed and stopping Trav. And we had to find ways to have success other ways so we can get those guys open. I think this year will be different where you're not going to know where you're going to get the deep ball from.

You're not going to know where you're going to get the short pass from. Because we have a lot of different guys that can do it all. So I think having all those guys, I think it will help us get more of those deep throws that we've been accustomed to.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Did someone say deep throw? Oh yeah. Patrick Mahomes has for some reason been in the cross hairs of former receivers who have left and moved on to other QBs and are now raving about the situations they're in. And that includes both Tyreek Hill as well as Sammy Watkins. Though Sammy wasn't denigrating Mahomes, he was simply saying that Aaron Rodgers is on another level. However, I don't know that you really need to be poking the bear that is Patrick Mahomes II. And he talks about the possibilities, endless possibilities for this year's Chiefs offense.

It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio for a second there at Citi Field on Saturday afternoon. Producer Jay and I were hoping, maybe thinking, that Patrick Mahomes II might be in the house. Because his father, Patrick Mahomes I, the senior, was honored as one of the old timers with the Mets. It was really cool and I'll bet that the huge cheer that went up at Citi Field was in large part due to the name on his jersey. Not because all of those fans of all ages remember Pat Mahomes playing for the Mets. Jay, do you remember Patrick Mahomes playing for the Mets?

I do not. That was a little bit before my time. Right, so that's my point is that I think he got such raucous cheers because people all know who his son is. I was chilling for Patrick Mahomes II. Were you?

Yeah. So here's the cute thing that Howie Rose said. Now he's the voice of the Mets on radio, but he was also emceeing this old timer ceremony from the field. And he said, I mean he had a little blurb on every single old timer, it was really cool.

But he said that Patrick Mahomes used to be followed around by his son in the clubhouse. It was pretty cute. So that was kind of neat. And there were so many unbelievable names that were brought back to be part of this old timers day. Mike Piazza, Mookie Wilson probably got the loudest cheers.

But I'm being so honest here. I'm pretty sure that the old timers got more cheers from the fans than the actual team did when they played later in the night. It seemed like people were tired, I don't know. It's weird, I'm not a Mets fan. So I love Citi Fields, I love the old timers thing.

I gave the tickets to Jay as a thank you for the one year that he's just spent here on the show that we've worked together. And so I asked Jay this, do you feel like the old timers got more cheers than the actual Mets did in their game against the Rockies? Could it seem like the crowd got really quiet later in the game? Yeah, during that game I think that was one of those situations where kind of everyone got all their energy out early. And then the game started and it was like you were saying, it was kind of a slow first inning, second inning took like an hour.

Not like an hour, the first and second inning took exactly an hour. Yeah, so I think everyone was kind of real hyped up to be there in the beginning. You know, the booze was flowing early and then by the time the game got a little later. Booze or booze?

The alcohol, not the booze. The cheers were very loud, no booze there. But yeah, I think everyone got maybe a little bit kind of tired towards the end there, but it was amazing. Yeah, it was a really cool day. The weather was perfect, though hot, it was definitely hot. Not as hot as when we went to Boston and it was 98 degrees plus heat index at first pitch, OMG. This was warm, but it was a really nice evening. A really pretty sunset, I got some great photos of clouds, of course you know me. And an awesome moment even before they started the old timers game and Jay and I really, this was a surprise.

I didn't know this was coming, we really enjoyed this. Willie Mays, 24, will take its place in the left field corner here at Citi Field with the other greats in men's history. From this day forward, no men will ever wear Willie Mays iconic number 24. I haven't had a chance yet, I've been, well we've just been busy and I had to write my CBS Sports Minute, but I promise you before the top of the hour, photos of not just the Willie Mays retirement ceremony, but from Citi Field on both Facebook as well as on Twitter. I did post a photo though of my favorite, Pedro Martinez on the mound again at old timers day. He laughed and smiled the entire time, it was so different than that steely stare and intensity that he used to bring to the mound. He's one of my favorite baseball players of all time. It's a little bit odd to see him as an old timer with the Mets, though he had a couple of good years there. And I cheered for the Mets when Pedro was on the field and when he was on the roster. And now he's an analyst of course, well Hall of Famer, but also an analyst for MLB Network and he'll talk about baseball anytime, anywhere.

He's a great ambassador for the game. He was talking a little bit about the two aces for the Mets today, Max Scherzer and Jacob deGrom. Some of us, me in particular, I felt like I had unfinished business. So today I was quick to ask two of the most talented pitchers that we have in the team, which is Jacob deGrom and Max Scherzer. I don't normally ask for much, but this time I did. I said, can you get it done for me? Because I felt like it was unfinished business.

We didn't go out there to evaluate our talent or evaluate who was out there. I can tell you there was a huge amount of respect from the youngest to the oldest to everyone. But to have the opportunity to share my time with some of my heroes from the 80s and to be able to share with some of my teammates and ex-teammates and colleagues from the Mets and share the same uniform is a heck of an honor. And I'm extremely proud to have been part of the Mets and wear the uniform.

And I'm just praying to God that they bring it back. I mean, this is a World Series champion himself with the Red Sox and a Hall of Famer, but he clearly is emotional about the Mets and he regrets that they couldn't get it done. And so he's asked Max Scherzer and Jacob deGrom to get it done for him. And then you hear Pedro, who's always talked about history and how important history is to him and how important his idols and certainly guys who played in Major League Baseball from the DR and who pitched.

But in general, he's always had a great honor and respect for those who came before him. And so I do what I do when I go to other stadiums. I try to root for the home team so I can be part of the fun. But I was loud and a bit of a throwback fan myself there when Pedro was introduced as part of the old-timer ceremony. And even though Jay and I, well, me, I dragged producer Jay to Shake Shack because that is my favorite. It did not take much persuading.

It's my favorite part of Citi Field. Would you like to tell them why we stood in line at Shake Shack for, well, there wasn't a long line. We got up to the counter at Shake Shack and placed the order and ended up standing there for, I don't know, 10 minutes because someone had to be a diva with his order. A diva?

A diva. That was the most simplest request that I could possibly have. No, they had a bunch of Shake Shack burgers made and you had to have something special. Like my mom, whenever we go to a restaurant, she has to ask for something that's not on the menu. So it took 10 minutes for them to give you a plain burger with cheese. I just wanted just cheese on the burger. You could have given me the lettuce and the tomato off of the burger and that way my burger still would have been hot by the time we ate.

And I wouldn't have had to be eating the fries off of your container before we could like get out of there. Yeah, so we got Shake Shack right because the line was like an hour long later when the old-timers were off the field. So we got there and I got my chocolate shake but I'm just saying my burger was not hot anymore because we had to wait for Diva J to get a burger with nothing but cheese on it. The place literally pumps out how many hamburgers every five minutes. And they didn't have one ready that just wasn't... No, because they make the burgers that are on the menu. That's on them. The Shake Shack burger. No, it's not. We had to wait for you to get a special burger.

I didn't know that. It was just concerns like you're diabetic or something and you could have just given me the lettuce and tomato. It would have been fine. I just really didn't think that it would cause an issue with them. I thought that would be a normal request.

Just promise me next time you won't... Do you have to be a diva? Can you just take something on the menu and take off what you don't want? It was on the menu.

No, it wasn't. I didn't order like a chicken sandwich when they were serving hamburgers. They make the burgers and they are like generating dozens of burgers and they're on their menu. No, you should rethink it.

The customer is always right. Why is it... No. Not at Shake Shack.

Why is it so hard for you to just take the lettuce and tomato off and give it to me? It wasn't. It would not have been an issue. I just didn't think... I don't know if I can get it without it.

Sure, that's what I'm going to order it. And I thought it was easy. I hope it wasn't easy. And then you should have told the guy like, oh, don't worry about it. Well, he froze. The guy had like glitched out. I remember he was staring at the screen. I didn't even know what he was doing. He stopped talking.

He stopped communicating. Nope, I could have had extra tomato and lettuce on my burger. Crazy. I hope your burger was hot and steamy and delicious when you got it, because mine was no longer hot and steamy and delicious. It was definitely delicious.

Great. Well, at least one of us had a hot burger. Yours wasn't delicious? I'm sure it was. It was delicious. It was more delicious because you bought it. I did, I did.

So thank you for that. However, next time we are eating dinner, you just need to order something on the menu and take off what you don't want in the pizza cupcakes. Next time we go.

No, we're not getting pizza cupcakes, no pizza, pizza and cupcakes, both delightful foods, but they do not need to be combined into one package. I need to find out for myself that there was a line. There was a line.

There was a line everywhere. It was true. It was a great night. There were more than 42,000 people at Citi Field, and I swear to the old timers were far more popular than the current Mets, especially with Peter Lonzo whiffing at pretty much everything but they did win.

And so at least the crowd went home happy and I got to wear my Red Sox fan to honor Pedro Martinez. Boom. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence. You are listening to the After Hours podcast.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Hello. Thanks for listening. Miss Amy Lawrence. How are you ma'am?

I'm good. Thank you. Good morning, Amy doll. I want to take that as a compliment. Thank you.

Glad I finally got to get through to you. You do an excellent job. Good morning, Miss Amy. What do you think, Lewis? How are you doing, Amy? I love your show.

When it comes to sports, I trust your opinion more than I do mine. Amy Lawrence, how are you, girl? I'm great. Thanks. Good morning, Amy, and I'm a pleasure as always. Just keep on trucking. You're listening to After Hours with Amy Lawrence.

Call Amy at 855-212-4CBS. Yet another summer weekend in the books. There's only one left. I broke the sad news, not that my kiddos on Sunday morning needed the reminder, but I did break the sad news to my kiddos again.

They gave me dirty looks, as much as you can get dirty looks from first and second and third graders. It is that time of the year again, and that means football, so I always look at it that way. Yes, the summer is ending, but it means football and football weather, and I'll just be honest, it's been so hot and dry in my neighborhood all summer that I am more ready than usual to bid farewell to summer weather. I love the beach, I'll give you that, but I don't need it to be blazing hot to be at the beach.

In fact, I prefer the beach in the spring and the fall, actually, fall more than the spring. But yeah, it's been so hot, and I don't like humidity. Penny and I are, we are anti-summer heat and humidity. So yeah, it's been mostly dry, I guess if there was more rain it wouldn't be quite so bad, but at least Regina is still turning out tomatoes. Oh my goodness, my tomato plant, her name is Regina.

She is loaded with green tomatoes, and I pulled six ripe red tomatoes off of her last night, so she is happy as a clam, because I've been watering her like nobody's business. But yes, we are days away from the start of the NFL season, and actually, because we're at the end of August, today, Monday, is my sister-in-law's milestone birthday. She's celebrating, she and my brother are in Iceland. Here it's a very popular destination now, and so she and my brother are in Iceland, in Reykjavik, but also taking a bunch of excursions around, so Veronica, happy birthday to you. Love you! She's my sissy-poo, that's what I call her. We call each other sissy-poo. We've known each other since college, that's where she met my brother as well, so it's like, I grew up with her.

It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence, 855-212-4227 on Twitter, ALawRadio, and then also on our Facebook page, After Hours with Amy Lawrence, I promised photos by the top of the hour, I swear to you, you will have them on Facebook, as well as a couple new ones on Twitter. We had a really good time going to Citi Field on Saturday, and it's one of my favorite ballparks anyway, but to go and have the opportunity to see so many old-timers, I mean, just awesome, the cheers and the respect. But a lot of guys that maybe you had forgotten about, or just kind of surprised when they were introduced, Mike Piazza definitely got the loudest cheers.

That is the case. But he was not the only one. There were members of the 1969 World Series, members of the 1986 World Series champion, and then a bunch of guys who had really unique places in Mets history, including my favorite, Pedro Martinez.

If you haven't seen the, I snapped a really sweet photo, he was on the mound, he pitched an inning during the old-timers game, I got to see him strike somebody out, and I caught this really cool photo of his number and his wind-up on the big board, even as he's on the mound, warming up to throw, so it was really cool. But there's also more that we'll share, so I promise that's coming up on our social media. Speaking of social media, producer Jay tells me it is simple, as in much simpler than him ordering a burger with only cheese from Shake Shack on Saturday. That seems pretty simple.

Except that you had to do something different and ruin the whole system. Against the grain. Yes, that is definitely you. It's usually me, too, but I try not to make life difficult for restaurants and eateries.

They made my life difficult. I made a simple request. Oh, are you really gonna bitch right now about the fact that- I might, I might. No you're not. Or I'm never going to a game with you again.

No you're not. Stop it. That just wasn't my fault. I didn't, okay, it was your fault because you asked them to do something that wasn't on the menu, and we're talking about a fast food joint at a ballpark. It just wasn't necessary. I made their lives easier, I wanted less on my burger. Should have been easier for them.

But except no one else asked for that except you, which meant they had to do something special just for you. Cook them to order. No. Clearly not. It's an assembly line, they're pulling these burgers off and passing them out as fast as they can.

The line takes 45 years most of the time anyway. But it didn't this time. Are you really going to argue with me that we were in like the perfect position and you ruined everything? I've ruined everything, it was delicious.

It was delicious, those fries were tasty, and that shake, I had a black and white shake, it was amazing. Anyway, Jay tells me that this is unlike him ordering a burger at Shake Shack at City Field on Saturday, that instead getting you to sign up for Survivor Island and getting Survivor Island up and running again will be extremely simple. Are you confident in this fact? Very confident. So what do I tell people to do?

What are we telling people to do? Look for their email? Email, yeah, it'll be the same thing, same system as Survivor Island has always run. So if you're in the league before, once I reactivate it, you'll get an email to your email that you use for that CBS account. You'll get an email to your email? You'll get an email to your email. I like that. Email to email. The email you use for whatever you signed up with for that CBS account and you just click rejoin and it's as easy as that and you're back in. Alright, so be checking your email, whatever you use to sign up for CBS Sports because Survivor Island, which is our version of a Survivor pool for the NFL season is soon to be open. The man today tells me by Monday afternoon, should I let you sleep first?

Yeah, sure. As if I can keep you from sleeping. The man sleeps more than anyone I know. He sleeps more than his bulldog moose chunk.

That is very not true. Okay, last thing. This is how you know it's football.

Aaron Rodgers is making waves again. So he did an appearance on the Joe Rogan podcast and he was asked about telling the world that he was immunized before last season. I've been ready the entire time for this question and had thought about how I wanted to answer it. And I had come to the conclusion I'm going to say I've been immunized. And if there's a follow up, then talk about my process. But thought there's a possibility that I say I'm immunized. Maybe they understand what that means. Maybe they don't. Maybe they follow up.

They didn't follow up. So then I go the season, them thinking, some of them, that I was vaccinated, right, because they follow the only follow up they asked was basically asking me to rip on my teammates. Like what do you say to your teammates who aren't vaccinated?

Like what kind of example do you feel like you're setting, you know, to your teammates who aren't vaccinated? I said, it's everybody's own decision with their body and we're super healthy individuals. We take care of ourselves. We understand what goes in our bodies.

And I don't have any judgment on any decision that a guy makes with their own body. Oh, yes. It's time for Aaron Rodgers to wax poetic on a number of topics. He does enjoy hearing himself talk. I will say, though, regardless of how much he talks, if he's talking about football, I'm good. I cannot wait to wheat number two because I will be at Lambeau Field for a Sunday night game in the Bears rivalry. That's going to be amazing. So at least he plays football. It's After Hours, CBS Sports Radio.