After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 3

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We're still being charged for water that we can't use. Listen and subscribe to Beyond Black History Month on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts from. For the last time, anything you put on that topper, burgundy will ring. If I can get even one person who harasses me on Twitter to believe that, it has been a great day. I love you, Twitter. How you like me now? How you like me now?

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. How you like me now? How you like me now? How you like me now?

How you like me now? I haven't mentioned this, actually, but by this time, the winners of the After Hours Midsummer Swag should have received their special packages in the mail. I sent them out on Wednesday of last week before I took off for my long weekend with family. So Nonny, Brian, Erin, if you're listening, if you hear me on the podcast and you have not yet received your Midsummer Swag, well, I do have the tracking numbers. So I wrote to each a personal note and sent your t-shirts, your Midsummer Swag, bright orange, a picture of Penny on the back because who doesn't need that in their lives? And so if you did not receive your Midsummer Swag, I'm sure it's on the way, but I did send it. And I appreciate that you all participated. We had hundreds of responses to try to win the swag, the After Hours CBS Sports Radio t-shirt, and we've got more. So we will continue to do that. Unfortunately, we do not have XXL sizes.

What we have are extra large, large, medium, a couple of smalls in there as well. So it's kind of a first come, first serve till we're out of that box. We'll continue to do some contests as we head through the rest of 2022. We've got some other fun stuff planned for 2022 as well.

It's hard to believe that Thursday is four weeks until the NFL season kicks off. And so to that end, once producer Jay gets back and we start working together again, which is it's touch and go for the next couple of weeks, actually, because I have two shows in the daytime next week. For those of you who want to hang out and listen at a different time slot or you can always catch the podcast of the show. But I'll be hosting the show that's normally Maggie and Perloff, which is at noon Pacific, 3 p.m. Eastern time. My mom's very excited. To my understanding, it will be on CBS Sports Network as well.

So you can watch or you can listen. So that's next week. And then I've got a long weekend because I've got family in town. So Jay and I didn't have we're barely working together for three weeks. So you'll have him for most of next week, but she will not have me for most of next week.

But you can follow along. And so we've got a lot of football planning to do whenever we do get back together, because before you know it, football is going to be here. So this hour, we're going to spend some time with our friend Russell Baxter, who is well, he's a football historian. He's got this long run of years in Canton for the Pro Football Hall of Fame inductions. He's got incredible stories on his own that he likes to share.

So looking forward to hanging out with him for a little bit about a half hour from now. We've got some QB news next hour. More from Roger Goodell with the sale of the Denver Broncos being approved by the owners.

But we're trying something new this segment. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. We're live from the Rocket Mortgage Studios.

Do you need to know what it takes for a home to fit your budget and your family? Rocket can. This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Time to ask Amy anything.

Sort of. Thank you so much for submitting your questions. This is going to be different because I'm going to run through them without printing them out or putting them in any kind of order. I'm just going to answer them as they see them. If I feel like I can answer them quickly. So we're starting on Twitter. You can always find me there.

A Law Radio. And we did get a fair number of questions that are interesting. Nothing about who's going to win the Super Bowl or the World Series or who's making the playoffs or what chances do this team have. Those are all questions you know I can't answer. I'm guessing just the way that you are.

So those are not the questions we're looking for. But we'll start with Yvonne on Twitter. Where's a hiking spot or a park that you want to visit that you haven't been to yet? Oh that's easy. Yellowstone. I am so excited to visit Yellowstone at some point. It's on my bucket list.

However, more, more, I shouldn't say more. Before that though, I will be at the Grand Canyon. I've got a plan in place to visit the Grand Canyon and go hiking in the Grand Canyon come Super Bowl week. So because the Super Bowl is in Phoenix, Glendale, but the Phoenix area. And we will be taking the show on the road for the first time since 2019 and Miami.

Well actually it was 2020 in Miami but the 2019 season. I've decided I'm not going all the way back out to Arizona for the first time in probably 7 or 8 years without going to the Grand Canyon. So Yellowstone is a park that I want to visit that I haven't been to yet.

I will at some point. But the Grand Canyon is more immediate. I already started to make some plans to go hiking on the Saturday before the Super Bowl.

Since we'll already be in the Arizona, the state of Arizona in the Phoenix area. Another tweet from Kennard. Oh no, let's see. Levi.

Levi is his first name. This is also about hiking. What's the mountain that you've hiked? Said I'm coming back and then the one that you decided to never do again. Oh that's a good question. I'm not sure I can remember the name of the mountain that I decided I'm never doing again.

I have to go back and look. So that one I don't think I can pull out of my brain right this second. But the mountain or I'll say the series of mountains that I hiked last fall in the Catskills. In order, Wittenberg, Cornell, and Slide.

Slide, Cornell, Wittenberg. Yes. So it was the opposite direction. We did, my friend and I, Jeff and I. It was my first ever hike in the Catskills that took me up three peaks that were all above 3800 feet. And that included the tallest in the Catskills above 4000 feet. And it was so challenging.

It was nine and a half miles from point to point with these three large peaks. And it was probably the toughest day I've ever had to that point. And yet it was so exhilarating. I actually said to my brother and sister-in-law who are big time hikers, come do that with me this fall. I would love to do it again. It was a beautiful day. We had such a great time.

The two of us, we made really good progress. We're actually climbing through these like actual rock formations where you had to get on your hands and knees and climb and climbing like scaling rocks. So if you have ever been to the Catskills or you would like to go to the Catskills to go hiking, I highly recommend the series Wittenberg Cornell Slide.

Amazing first Catskill experience for me. So thank you for asking, Levi. Let's see. Moving down.

This is Caleb. Where's the one place you want a vacation that you haven't already? Oh my gosh, only one?

I'm only allowed to give you one. Hawaii is on top of my vacation list. Now I'm saving it for honeymoon.

That's always been my idea. If it doesn't happen for the honeymoon, that'll happen at some other point. But yes, Hawaii is certainly on the top of the list.

One place that I want a vacation that I haven't been to already. Let's see. Stephen wants to know what a burger or In-N-Out Burger. Yeah, I'm an In-N-Out Burger person. I don't have either one of those real close to me, though. But when I'm on the road, I actually prefer, I prefer more local joints than I do prefer chains.

But I suppose if it's either one of those, I'll go with the In-N-Out Burger. Kev wants to know what toy I liked the most as a kid. Well, I had Strawberry Shortcake models when I was a kid, so I play with them a lot.

But honestly, this shouldn't surprise you if you know me or you listen to the show. I had horse figurines, so a bunch of horses, and those were my favorites to the point I play with them so much that their legs would break off and I'd have to try to super glue them back together, which didn't look so good. But yeah, I had a bunch of horses. I've always been a nut for horses, still a nut for horses.

And someday when I retire to a big old wide open space in Montana or Idaho or South Dakota, I'm going to have myself a horse or two. So that's, that's probably the number one toy. But then my brother and I also played Star Wars in our basement all the time, so we had a lot of figurines. Let's see, Jeff wants to know when it comes to chicken wings, drumsticks or flats? Oh my gosh, Jay and I had this discussion not that long ago. I'm a drumstick person, so we actually split them.

So Jay took all the flats and I took all the drumsticks. It was funny, we had, I think it was National Wing Day or something, and so we had, we had buffalo chicken wings. And I'm a blue cheese fan. Now he doesn't like the blue cheese, so he took the ranch, I took the blue cheese. And then carrot sticks or celery sticks? I can't stand celery.

It's just crunchy water. There's, ew, celery's gross. I don't love eating carrot sticks, but I will.

I more often use carrots in my stews or in salads so that I can eat them that way. But yeah, I'll go drumsticks, blue cheese, carrot sticks. All right? I feel like I knocked out a whole bunch of your questions there on Twitter.

Again, ALawRadio and I'll see if I can circle back to answer a few more. But let's shift over to Facebook. So lots of you wagging on Facebook and I want to get to as many of these as I can.

But again, I'm trying to pick the ones that are quick so that I can answer them without, yeah, without taking up all the rest of our time in this segment. Andrew on Facebook, if you could own any professional sports team, which one would you choose and why? Well, as I said to you before, any time you can get in the NFL, you're talking about tapping into a major revenue source, a cash cow. Now, I've been a Denver Broncos fan since I was 13 years old. Crazy story, didn't know anything about football, just got addicted to the adrenaline. It was a Broncos Patriots game and John Elway pulled one of his patented fourth quarter comebacks.

They were down three touchdowns in the fourth quarter and came back to beat the Patriots in New England. And I was hooked. I was watching with my stepdad.

I had no idea what I was watching. I just knew it was really exciting. And so from that point on, I was a Broncos fan and it stuck.

I am loyal to a fault, you guys. And so the Broncos aren't going to sell anytime soon. And I couldn't compete with the four point six five billion dollars that the Walton Penner family just shelled out. However, it would have to be in the NFL and certainly owning the Denver Broncos would.

I mean, that's not you can't even say that's a dream because it would never be a dream, but that would be the team that I would pick. Love the Rocky Mountains, but really more than that, love what the Broncos have meant to me in my life and the role they've played in my development as a sports fan. Let's say Eric on Facebook asking a question about my Grammy, Helen, because he just lost his grandma three weeks ago at ninety seven. Eric, I'm really sorry to hear that. He says he was always amazed by the things she witnessed or experienced during her long lifetime, including being a Pittsburgh Steelers season ticket holder for over 50 years. That's amazing. He says throughout all of Grammy, Helen's years, what is something amazing that she experienced or something she did that personally impressed you? Not necessarily sports related.

Oh, ha ha. My Grammy had really nothing to do with sports. So funny of people just assume she was a big time sports fan because I am, but she was not at all.

A couple of things that she did that always amazed me. Number one, my grandfather passed away more than 40 years before she died, and she told me once she never went on another date that she had zero desire to get married again. And while I do have the desire to get married and she did get married, they had a farm, they had four amazing kids, they've got grandkids, blah, blah, whatever. She had the family life. She was OK with knowing that the rest of her life she would be by herself.

I don't empathize with that because I can't relate. That's not something I want to do, but it was such great resolve on her part. Something else that she did that always impressed me, and I'm sure that this is one of the reasons that she lived to be 100, is that she laughed nonstop.

Always. She laughed at everything. And that laughter, we know that that releases endorphins and puts you in a better mood. I didn't know this about my Grammy Helen until this past year of her life that when she was younger, she had struggled with some depression.

I didn't know that at all. She never mentioned it, obviously, because her generation didn't talk about things like that. But you wouldn't have known for the amount of time that she spent laughing. And always when I was with her, she was joyful. She had quips. She was funny. She had a great sense of humor. And that laughter to me was very critical in her not only living to be 100, but sharp as a tack still.

She was all completely mentally with it. And in addition to that, we don't actually know why she died. I suspect it was because she had lost so much weight that her body shut down. She was below 100 pounds.

She always had trouble with her appetite and with eating. But it was a quick and relatively painless death. And so I'm thankful for that. God certainly showed her mercy.

But at 100 years old, she was still highly functional and had no problems at all with mental faculties. And I know the laughter is a big reason why I'm convinced. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence here on CBS Sports Radio. James on Facebook. Is there a sports figure you always wanted to interview but haven't had the chance to? Yes.

Larry Bird. That one's easy. Scott says do you prefer to wear hoodies or non-hoodies on any type of clothing? I'm not a huge fan of hoods, mostly because I have long hair or a ponytail. And so the hoods seem to get in the way of the hair. So yeah, I can go without hoodies. In fact, I prefer v-necks.

I don't like tight necks on anything either. Let's see. Sandy, where was your first radio job and what did you do? My first commercial radio job. I had multiple radio jobs when I was in college.

In fact, my first time ever working at a sports radio station was in Syracuse. And the very first update that I ever got assigned to do was very nervous. Turned on the radio, forgot my name. I mean, no one writes their name at the top of the page, right, because you're not going to forget your name. But I was so nervous and I was really petrified that I turned on the microphone and forgot my name. I knew I was supposed to start with my name, but I didn't know what it was. And I just stared at the hosts and they were making these motions like go, go, go, go. And I just had to start without my name because I couldn't remember it.

True story. That was a long time ago when I was in grad school. Sandy says, what was your first radio job?

I'll go with commercial. It was Rochester. WHAM, actually celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. It's a heritage radio station. You can hear it in 38 states and Canada.

My mom used to sit in the driveway of our New Hampshire home and listen to me at night. It's what they call a clear channel in the business. And I delivered overnight news updates and also produced the overnight talk radio and then produced Buffalo Bills football. So I understand the passion there in western New York for Buffalo Bills football.

I also this is the funny part. They would not pay me to do sports broadcasts or to do sports updates. So on Saturday mornings, I volunteered and I did them for free.

Those are my first commercial sports broadcasts. So thank you, Sandy, for that question. Let's see. Calvin wants to know where did I get my laugh from?

I have no idea. Try to think who laughs obnoxiously like me and my family. Mom? Nah, I'm way louder than my mom. Although she's loud.

My grandmother? I don't know. I have no idea where I got the laugh from. It's unique.

Maybe I it's a recessive gene and it doesn't pop up as much in my family line. Let's see. Chuck says new Star Wars, including Rogue One or the old Star Wars. Well, I'm George Lucas. Star Wars. I'm a disciple of the old canon, but Rogue One is top three. I just made producer Jay watch it a couple of weeks ago. It is the it's it's the best of the new movies.

It's so good. And I didn't dislike the sequels. I actually really enjoyed them, especially because they wrapped up the stories of Han Solo and Princess Leia, Carrie Fisher and Luke Skywalker. So I did enjoy the new ones and I've seen them all multiple times.

But the originals for me always because those came from the brain of George Lucas. Jim wants to know, with all these announcers on TV jumping ship, where are they getting all this money? Oh, that's easy. TV contracts. Do you know that the reason the NFL is making money hand over fist, the reason that the college football world, you see different conferences jumping and not only aligning themselves with new networks, but making a hell of a lot of money doing it. It's the reason why we're seeing more and more games on streaming services, because the money is exorbitant. Billions and billions and billions of dollars are getting paid out to leagues by these networks for the broadcasting rights.

So, yeah, when you see that Tom Brady's making twenty five million dollars a year, it's nothing compared to the billions of dollars of money, billions of dollars per year that are coming in with these broadcasting contracts. So that's actually pretty easy to answer. Let's see.

If Hollywood made a movie about your life, who would you want to play? Amy Lawrence, BK says on Facebook. Yep, I've gotten this in multiple countries.

I've gotten this from really every stop along my radio career. I do not see it. But people tell me I look like Cameron Diaz. I do not see it at all. But I suppose it would be her or Kaley Cuoco is another one that I've gotten. Let's see. What is the favorite flower in my yard?

A different gem on Facebook. Well, orange is my favorite color. And I have huge flower boxes, wooden boxes of orange day lilies, tiger lilies. They're gorgeous. So they're just about done with their summer cycle, but I still have a few left.

So I'll say those. But also the peonies. I have a peony bush in my front yard that was blooming when I signed the papers on my first house. And so the peonies every year are on my anniversary of signing the papers and becoming a homeowner. This year they got crushed by storms, though. Sucks because in the spring we got so much rain. And now in my neighborhood, we've gone almost seven weeks with one day of rain. Everything is so brown now.

So brown. Let's see. Alan wants to know my favorite old school video game. I will say Burger Time for any of you who remember Burger Time from Commodore 64.

If you don't, look it up. You want to talk about old school and epic. Absolutely. Mike says if you had to go back in time to see a band perform in their prime, who would it be? Wow.

That's a good question. Now, see, part of me wants to see the Beatles just because of the experience, but I wasn't a big Beatles fan. Not only was I not alive when they were big, but I had a college roommate who played them incessantly. And then my second college roommate loved the Beatles as well. So I was always inundated with Beatles music. That's not that's my mother's music.

That's not my music. But I will say U2, because even though you could probably still see them perform now, I remember when I was on a trip to Ireland, we were in actually Dublin and U2 was performing in Dublin and the place was electric. The whole city was buzzing. There were billboards everywhere. They're all excited.

So I think probably U2 would be a band that I'd like to see in their prime. Thank you for your questions. I know those were completely haphazard and in no particular order.

But I got in a lot of them, did I not? Even without producer Jay. So when he returns, you tell him that we killed it on the kind of twist that we had on Ask Amy Anything. So on Twitter, on Facebook, I was trying to go back and answer more of your questions. Thanks for hanging out with us on this edition of The Hump Show. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio.

You're listening to After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Amy, how you doing? OK, I cannot call you Scott Ferrell Jr. So what's your real name? John. John.

Welcome to the show, John. What's up? Shake it up. Shake it up. I like that. Do you want to be Scott Ferrell when you grow up?

No, I do not. I can only be Scott Ferrell. He talks much faster. Put all your money.

Take the offer because it is going to be a four game sweep. Shake it up. Fantastic, John. You can call or practice your Scott Ferrell voice anytime. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. No, thank you.

Scott definitely does not call me ma'am. This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Coming up, following the update, our friend Russell Baxter will join us. Fresh off yet another trip to Canton and a Pro Football Hall of Fame induction. Plus, we've got pre-season on the horizon.

Hard to believe. It's only four weeks from Thursday that the NFL season will kick off. It's After Hours on CBS Sports Radio. Thanks for your questions for Ask Amy Anything. I know it was a little bit different without producer Jay and the flow a little off.

Maybe it threw you off, but oh well. Out of our comfort zone we go on the hump show. 855-212-4227.

That's 855-212-4CBS. You may or may not have heard this or seen it or read it, but Serena Williams wrote an essay for Vogue.com and has the cover of the latest Vogue magazine and talks about retirement in a manner of speaking. So she admits that even uttering the word is emotional for her. That she gets an uncomfortable lump in her throat and she starts to cry. And she says the only person that she's really explored this idea with is her therapist. So I love that she's so open that she has her emotions out there for all of us to, in this case, read about.

But she's always been that way. And the impact of Serena Williams can't even be summarized now because it will be felt for years. The number of young women and men who play tennis because of Serena and because of her sister. She and her sister have been tops in the women's tennis circuit for two decades.

And she's battled not only multiple injuries, but even life threatening conditions. Even won a Grand Slam when she was pregnant in 2017. But started her professional career in 1995 as a 14 year old. Many people don't even know women's tennis without Venus and Serena Williams. She's not just one of the best female athletes on the planet. She is one of the best athletes on the planet going back to 95. 73 career singles titles, four Olympic gold medals, 319 weeks at number one in the world rankings.

And even though she's barely played over the last year plus, she's still the second highest paid female athlete in the world. And has 23 Grand Slam singles titles. But is suggesting that the US Open will be her final tournament. And she admits she wasn't ready to win at Wimbledon. There are a lot of people that were hoping that would be her opportunity to tie Margaret Court who has 24 Grand Slam singles titles most all time.

And that she would potentially break the record, set the new mark in New York. Regardless of how she goes out in New York, I hope there's multiple matches and I hope that American tennis fans specifically will have the chance to let her know how much she's appreciated. And that tennis will never be the same without her. And there are young tennis players who are a testament to that.

Like Coco Gauff. She actually says, like many young tennis players, and you can take the example out of golf, right? The number of young golfers or golfers in their 20s right now who would tell you Tiger Woods was their inspiration. They modeled their swings after Tiger Woods.

They're everywhere on tour. Not just the PGA but the live tour. And now you've got young women like Coco Gauff who got into the sport because of Serena.

Yeah, I knew it was coming eventually. I didn't know if it was going to be this US Open or the next one. But yeah, I mean, definitely, well, not really shocking but almost shocking news because she's just been playing forever in my whole life. And I don't know, a little bit sad because I've always wanted to play her.

So I'm hoping that my draw at Cincinnati or US Open or even here can work out so we can play each other. Because that's just one of my goals. But I think the legacy that she's left on the world just through tennis. I mean, she still has, I mean, she's not 10. People are talking about it like she's dying.

No, no. She's just moving on to different things. But the legacy that she's left through her tennis career is something that I don't think any other player can probably touch. And I think that the legacy that she'll continue to leave throughout her life is something that can inspire many more generations. I mean, I grew up watching her, I mean, that's the reason why I play tennis. And, you know, tennis being a predominantly white sport, it definitely helped a lot.

Because I saw somebody look like me dominating the game and it made me believe that I could dominate too. And then my dad, I think for her whole story, the Williams sisters story, not just Serena, with Mr. Williams and all that he's done for both of them inspired my dad to continue to coach me and help me. Even though he had not really much tennis experience, but he was like, if Mr. Williams can do it, then I can. And I think it's not so much just what Serena and Venus has left.

It's also the home Williams family in general. I love those words from Coco Gauff. She's the reason I play tennis because someone else out there looked like me. Taylor Townsend has similar sentiments. And of course, they're happy to see what Serena does next. She wants to have a sibling for her daughter. Her daughter's been asking for a sibling for quite a while. She is in fashion.

She and her sister, they have other interests to be sure. It'll just be different. Like it's been the last couple of years without her playing a full schedule. Like it is on the men's side without Roger Federer. Yeah, for Taylor Townsend, the impact of Serena. It's one of those things that you can't really measure until long after she's been gone. And even then, her impact will be felt for generations. I don't even think that I can really put it into words. I mean, growing up watching her and Venus play had always been an inspiration for me to want to play professional tennis.

And for me to actually believe that I could do it. So there were so many years before Venus and Serena where there were few and far between when it came to representation for women of color and men of color. So, you know, to have Serena showing that they can do it to dominate and kind of paving the way for someone like me to be here now.

Like, I mean, it's absolutely amazing. Like I said, you're going to hear a lot of that. And even though we knew this was coming, it's still a bit jarring to think about tennis without Serena Williams.

But at least we have New York. And you can imagine even more than usual, she will be a sentimental favorite. You are listening to the After Hours podcast. When you play for the Green Bay Packers, a lot of doors open up. When you win a Super Bowl, all doors open up. But when you make the Hall of Fame, football heaven opens up. This is After Hours on CBS Sports Radio. It was just this weekend that we inducted a brand new class into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. And our friend Russell Baxter was there, of course, because that's part of what he's been doing now for decades, covering the NFL. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. And Russ is with us this morning live. He actually requested this time.