10-5-22 After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 4

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. I just want you to know I spent the last five minutes answering more of your questions on our Facebook page. So if you posted a question and did not hear it with producer Jay in the last few minutes, make sure you check it out and then I'll get to your Twitter questions as well. I try asking me anything isn't specific just to our radio show and just a hump show. I do try to accommodate you and there are times during the week when I'll answer your questions as well.

Thank you as always. For caring, for being interested. Even those of you who are completely snarky and are coming up with ridiculous questions. When your kindergarten teacher told you that there was no such thing as a stupid question, she lied. Just take my word for it.

So when you ask stupid questions on purpose, if I don't delete them, sometimes I will be snarky right back. I still have no idea what a boat car is. I think my favorite one next to, what do you think of Aaron Judge's 60 second home run? Like literally as we're spending the entire first hour on it, that was probably my favorite one tonight. This is my other favorite one. What sport did you play?

Yeah I saw that one. I love that. What sport? As in, what's your qualification for being a sports radio host?

What sport? Oh my gosh, you guys crack me up. Thank you for your interest. It is funny because I've learned that whenever someone tries to tell you they don't care, they're totally lying. And the fact that you do show up on our Facebook page and on our Twitter page on a regular basis means that you care and I appreciate you for that reason.

It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. We're live from the Rocket Mortgage Studios. Plus you make me laugh.

Do you need to know what it takes for a home to fit your budget and your family? Rocket can. So you can find us on Twitter or Facebook at any point. We're a full service operation. We have a YouTube channel.

It's been a little neglected since the start of football season. I will just admit that. But we're going to get back to it. We've got plans. We've got plans. And I'm really good at planning and then Jay gets to execute. Here Jay, I have a plan. Go do it. I'm on it.

No, that's not how it works. But I will say that one of the reasons that our partnership is so productive is because I'm a planner. Jay's got awesome ideas, creative ideas that we can brainstorm about. And then I keep us on the straight and narrow beaten path. Sometimes Jay probably thinks I should stop. I didn't say that. Okay. Well, your facial expressions sometimes indicate that. Can I just be a banana slug today and not do anything extra? I managed to fit that in sometimes. Yes. During football season, a day to be a banana slug now and then is appropriate and necessary, actually.

If your hump show slash hump day is your opportunity to be a banana slug, we get it. Everybody needs rest. Everybody needs recovery.

Everybody needs a chance to rejuvenate and re-energize. So that's good. I actually have a friend who is going on vacation starting today. Now he tells me the first day is all about drinking beer. Okay.

Plan to vacation day drink beer. Where is it? I'm not telling you. Okay.

I'm not doing it. It's a friend. Well, I think the location. Say if you go to a beach or a tropical island, yeah, maybe you start the first day with a couple cocktails or something like that. A couple cocktails. No, he's set aside an entire day to drink alcohol.

On the first day. I like the aggressiveness. I think it's appropriate.

Do you? But that could also be a rough start to the trip if you overindulge on the first day. All right.

I'll take your word for it. I just thought it was funny that he was planning a day to drink alcohol. And then it's going to be days of golf. So here it is. It's early October and people are still taking breaks and taking vacation and getting away from work and whatever floats your boat, peeps.

Whatever it is that you need, we just hope that you take us along with you. So it's After Hours with Amy Lawrence, our hump show, your hump day if you're waking up here on CBS Sports Radio. I would assume that most people know the news by now. Maybe your smartphone gave you an alert. Maybe you caught it yourself on a bottom line somewhere.

Or I actually was driving into work a few hours ago listening to the news because that's what I do for the first part of my drive into work. And I heard it on the news. Yes, in fact, we have a brand new single season home run king in the American League. Did you know that 62 is the new 61? Here's the 1-1. Swung on. There it goes. Deep left it is high. It is far.

It is gone. Number 62 to set the new American League record. Aaron Judge hits his 62nd. All the Yankees out of the dugout to greet him.

Just think of it. Three Yankee right fielders. The Babe hitting 60 and 27. The Jolly Roger hitting 61 and 61. And now Aaron Judge hits his 62nd home run. The most home runs any American leaguer has hit in a single season.

And the American League has been alive for 120 years. This is Judgment Day. Case closed. Half right ball.

Deep left. There it goes. Soaring into history. He's done it. He has done it.

62. Aaron Judge is the American League single season home run leader. The AL King.

Case closed. Aaron Judge and Wes Culpable. Aaron Judge. Roger Barris. Aaron Judge. Aaron Judge. Three different versions of the historic home run from Aaron Judge. Third pitch of game 161.

How about that? A flair for the dramatic. And he's obviously been on home run watch for weeks. But it took about the same number of at bats between 60 and 61 that it took between 61 and 62. So it was 23 at bats. If I remember correctly, it was 24 in between 60 and 61.

He was running out of real estate in the regular season. But on the third pitch that he saw in the penultimate game of the 2022 regular season, Aaron Judge goes deep. And as I say, 62 is the new 61 in the American League. It's been a fun ride so far. You know, getting a chance to do this with the team we got, the guys surrounding me, you know, the constant support, you know, from my family who's been with me there, you know, through this whole thing is it's been a great honor. There are so many things to like about Aaron Judge.

And I say this with all sincerity. The Yankees are one of those teams that are polarizing, right? Like Duke basketball or even the New England Patriots now. It generally happens with teams that do a lot of winning.

The Golden State Warriors. You either love or hate the Yankees. And I'm sure there are a lot of people who didn't want to see Aaron Judge get the record. But when you actually listen to the guy talk, when you actually understand the, and we probably can't really understand, but you at least contemplate the weight and the pressure, the spotlight, the attention that he's been carrying, you can understand why he said it was a big relief to get this home run done.

But also the grace, the class, the humility with which he carries himself. He has never, not one time this entire season, even going back to when he turned down the contract offer from the Yankees, he has not ever made this year about him. It's always been about his team. It's always been about winning.

It's always been about their championship goals. The spotlight naturally follows him. He is the star of the show. And there have been times during the season where he was the only one producing in the Yankees offense. Did he ever complain about the protection that he wasn't getting? Did he ever complain about moving around in the lineup? Did he complain about he was the only guy carrying his weight?

Nah. This is a guy who understands what it means to be part of a team and wants that team to get the attention. He actually wants people to sit down now when he is at the plate.

Ah, fat chance of that. This After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. His family, both his parents, the relief and the joy on his mom's face is priceless. But both his parents as well as his wife and the Marist family made the trip from New York to Arlington, Texas to be there for this last regular season series.

Congratulations to them too for their constant support through this whole process. I know it's a tough situation, you know, your dad's legacy and you want to uphold that. But, you know, getting a chance to meet their family, their wonderful people and, you know, getting a chance to, you know, have my name next to, you know, someone as great as Roger Marist, Babe Ruth, those guys is incredible.

Aaron did have an opportunity at one point to meet them and to take photos with them, but it was delayed until he hit 61. It was cool to hear from Roger Marist Jr. who has been the one at all of these games. He's made a point to be there just in case.

He didn't want to miss it. But he's also made a point to designate this the actual single season home run record for Major League Baseball. He uses the word clean a lot. I think taking it personally that his dad's mark was eclipsed by guys who were known or suspected steroid and PED users.

And so he's been on a bit of a soapbox about it. Let's be honest, though, this is not the new Major League Baseball single season home run record, and it shouldn't be. Maybe that's not a popular opinion, but I say this all the time.

I'm really consistent about it. We don't know how many more home runs the best sluggers of that era would have hit had they not been facing pitchers that were juicing. There's no way to separate this athlete, this athlete, and this athlete from the steroid era and say, OK, we have to erase their records because there are so many more baseball players that were using PEDs that never got caught. There were so many more baseball players that were using PEDs that were never suspected but were just as guilty as the home run hitters who bulked up and smashed baseball's 800 feet into the yard or over the stadium, whatever else.

I get it. Barry Bonds is not the one that many people want to represent the home run record, but I will say this. Baseball allowed that PED era to continue, allowed rampant steroid use for a long time.

It was a dirty secret that's not very well kept. Baseball appreciated the fact that home run balls were flying out of the park during 1998 from Mark McGuire and Sammy Sosa. This is as much on baseball the institution as it is on the guys who were using. Yes, it was cheating, but at the same time, baseball did nothing to clean up the game until it was too late and these records had already been smashed, eclipsed, and set. You cannot tell the story of Major League Baseball without the steroid era. It's an integral part, which is the reason why I believe these guys should be in the Hall of Fame. You want to tell the story of baseball?

You want to observe its history? Well, that's a couple of decades that we'll never be able to erase. Regardless, whether we like it or not, Barry Bonds has the single season mark. I hope someone erases it someday.

I do. I would love to see Aaron Judge put together a 74 home run campaign, or Bryce Harper, or Mike Trout, or Juan Soto, or give me someone else. Is there somebody else that you could see breaking the record?

Vlad Jr. Okay, that would be amazing. A second generation Major Leaguer. That would be awesome. I would love that. One of these young guns from the Atlanta Braves.

It would be fantastic. But for now, this is the bed that baseball created, and it's got to lie there. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence here on CBS Sports Radio. The most memorable part of Aaron Judge's journey? The fans. The fans at home. The fans on the road.

The constant support. Seeing Yankee Stadium on their feet for every single at-bat. They're booing pitchers for throwing balls, which I've never seen before. I think I got a base hit the other night, and I was getting booed for a single.

Tough crowd. So speaking of balls, what happened to the baseball? Not yet.

I don't know where it's at. No, no. Hold on.

I have to set that up. Producer J, you just ruined all of that. I mean, I was working on an almost perfect segment. I'm just joking. Earlier I talked about licking people. There's no such thing as a person. It was an accident. It was an accident.

There's no such thing as a perfect show or even a perfect segment. Are you kidding me? I was just totally joking. But I wasn't.

I wanted to make sure I set it up. Well, you still have the perfect segment going. I don't. I said you're still perfect. No. No. I mean, that ship sailed maybe 15 years ago. I don't know that I've ever had even a remotely close to perfect show. But friends of mine tell me that makes me real, it makes me authentic, and that people actually prefer when we mess up as hosts.

Is that the truth? I don't love factual errors. Those eat me up. I get very upset about those. But sometimes I can't help it when I make up words or words come out wrong.

What are you going to do? So you laugh at yourself. It's like a comic relief. Uh-huh. It is.

Producer J is finding that out for the last year. He has laughed at me plenty. Never. I'm going to throw this marker at the double pane glass and hope that it somehow goes right through and hits you in the head. Probably would. Or I'm going to open it up and throw it at your hat, because if I accidentally got Sharpie on your hat, you would flip out. Worse than bodily damage. Really? Probably, yeah. You would rather tear an ACL than have me right on your hat?

I can come back from the ACL. The hats? You're not getting that off. Just get a new hat! Producer J is maniacal about his hats. Little known secret about Producer J.

You think he's a nice guy until you get anywhere close to his hats. Okay, that's fair. Then he turns into the Hulk. Or the She-Hulk. The She-Hulk.

I appreciate that. Attorney at law, right? That's the show now? I have no idea.

I don't know. How did we get on this tangent? Oh, because you ruined my perfect segment. That's how we got on this tangent.

Then you called me the She-Hulk. That actually meant to do. That was not an accident.

Like earlier, which, you know, the segment that we will not repeat and not call to memory. So back to Corey. Corey is the guy who caught the home run ball that Aaron Judge hit in the first inning last night.

He's a Texas guy, actually. So this happened in Arlington. And he was getting escorted out of the stadium the last I saw him, surrounded by security. There was a video of it. And apparently he was asked what he was planning to do with the baseball. And he said he didn't know. He hadn't thought about it. Well, I think that's BS.

There's no way he hadn't thought about it. So Corey Youmans of Dallas, sitting in section 31, you are the grand prize winner. Aaron Judge obviously did not get the ball back. Not yet.

I don't know where it's at. So, you know, we'll see what happens with that. It'd be great to get it back. But, you know, that's a souvenir for a fan. So, you know, they made a great catch out there and they got every right to it.

What did I say about being gracious? He could put up a stink. He could. Now, I'm not sure that would get the ball back any quicker.

According to Corey, he'd already received an offer for $2 million. I feel like if Judge really wanted it back, it would increase the value of the ball. Because now it's like that hot of a commodity. Ooh, it's reverse psychology.

I'd like to have it back, but hey, it's his. Maybe. Maybe.

Oh, there you go. Smart guy. Pretend like you don't care. That's such a relationship strategy. You always notice how the people that you're interested in, if you pretend like you're not interested in them, all of a sudden they can't stand it.

You want the attention. So Corey, careful. Aaron Judge may be playing you.

I think we're onto something with that. All right, congratulations to Aaron. He's got the megawatt smile, the loud bat, and a brand-new American League single-season home run record. Did you know there was actually more history in last night's game between the Yankees and the Rangers? Those fans who showed up at Arlington got quite a show.

So we'll hear a little more of the reaction. But yeah, really cool night. He was almost down to his final few at bats.

Well, not almost. He was down to his final few at bats. And he was actually asked whether or not he wants to take today off, meaning Wednesday. It's the last game.

It's game 162. Does he want to take the day off? He said, ah, I'd like to play.

Okay. That's another reason to like him. The guy does not take rest days. He does not need, what are they called in basketball?

Labor. Wait, what are they called in basketball? I forgot. I'm not in basketball mode. Wow.

Why am I blowing glasses as well at the moment? Oh, I know. Exactly. People are yelling at us right now on the radio. I know.

They're called less rest, no, not rest days. What is happening? Wait, where are you when I need you? You ruined my segment, but you can't come up with that. I can't say that. The thing collide us. It's called, it's labor. No, it's shoot. What is it called?

We sound like total idiots right now. You know when stars take, oh, load management. Yeah. Load management. I win.

I got it before you did. Load management. Aaron Judge is not into load management.

Yet another reason to like him, even though baseball players log twice as many games as to basketball and hockey. Load management. At least we didn't cheat. We didn't look it up. Nope. Were you about to? No, no, no. That was, it was in there somewhere. You love Google.

Google is a good tool. It's after hours with Amy Lawrence. Just ignore us. We are wacky and I include Jay in that because I need some company in my wacky world right now. I'll join you. Good morning to you. The listening you love is on the free Odyssey app, your trusted local radio stations, coverage of your favorite teams, live news from your hometown and millions of podcasts on demand. Best of all, you can completely customize your listening experience. Follow topics you care about, like leagues and teams. Pause or rewind your local sports and news and add shows to your queue to catch up later. There's a lot to listen to.

So get started and download the free Odyssey app today. You're listening to After Hours on CBS Sports Radio. You are listening to the After Hours Podcast. Here it goes, deep left it is high, it is far, it is gone, number 62 to set the new American league record. Aaron Judge hits his 62nd. All the Yankees out of the dugout to greet him.

Just think of it. Three Yankee right fielders. The Babe hitting 60 and 27, the Jolly Roger hitting 61 and 61. And now Aaron Judge hits his 62nd home run, the most home runs any American leaguer has hit in a single season. And the American league has been alive for 120 years.

This is judgment day, case closed. The pitch is a half swing. Did he go?

He did. That's it. That's the 249th strikeout of the year for Garrett Cole. Sets a new Yankee record. Well, we just get everything out of the way in the first inning. Home run strikeout. Now it's just a breeze. It's all downhill for now. Getting you to the good half of your week.

It's the hump show on after hours. John Sterling with the call of home run number 62 in the American league. Last night in Arlington, Texas, and then right after that, first inning. We've got a brand new single season strikeout record for the Yankees as well with Garrett Cole.

And so it gets muted. The celebration over Garrett Cole's achievement certainly wasn't as loud and as attention driven as Aaron Judge. Still fairly amazing, but Garrett doesn't mind sharing that stage with his favorite slugger. What a special opportunity to share the field with this guy. He's just an unbelievable player, unbelievable talent, unbelievable human.

He's been our rock all year and we tied it together and we broke it together, so it's pretty awesome. I found myself like a little kid. Like, the excitement was overwhelming. To see the ball go, it wasn't a no-doubter.

Thought he got it, but you had to kind of see it still go. And to follow it and to see it go out, I just felt this burst of excitement. I think part of that is what we all feel about Aaron as a teammate, as a person, and how much he makes you feel really important to the feet.

And I think that's just, you saw, an outpouring of a lot of people that love and respect him. I never tried to think about it as pressure. I tried to enjoy every single moment and not really think about, hey, they're all on the feet for you, to go see you hit a home run. I tried to think about, hey, they're here to see an exciting ball game and see something special.

Just having that mindset kind of helped me stay pretty calm. Aaron Judge, Garret Cole, sharing that stage, but Aaron Casse, a pretty long shadow, larger than life, actually. And it's good to hear from Aaron Boone as well. I love the fact that he's got an iconic home run on his resume, and yet here he is, acting like a fan, like a kid, just so excited to see it. And the way that his teammates have responded all the way through, the way that Albert Poole's teammates have responded all the way through the two individual home run chases has been a lot of fun to watch. I heard someone comment about the fact that this group of Yankees is so close and so tight, and I know the season didn't quite work out the way that they wanted. They did win the American League East, but obviously faltered there in the second half. And yet, this excitement, this buzz, this energy around Aaron Judge is really contagious, and they've wanted it for him so badly, as much as his family or the Marist family. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence here on CBS Sports Radio. Hey, it's happening again.

We've heard this and seen this before. One win away from winning the division. Now they're a strike away. Kenley's been looking for that last strike for the last few pitches. Count even. Two balls, two strikes, two outs.

Grotians awaits. Travis sets up on the outside corner. 2-2. In the air to right field. Ronald Acuna back.

Ronald is under it. The Braves have won it again. For the fifth year in a row, the Braves are champions of the National League East. What a team. And what a summer as they hunted down the Mets past them, and the Braves have won 101 games, and the celebration is theirs. This was like one of our typical just grind them out games, too. I mean, you know, guys in a bullpen, boy, I'm so happy we can do this so I can give all these guys some time off now, which is going to be awesome, but I am so proud of this group, you know, where we were the first of June, happy for the organization. Like I say, it takes that whole building to make this happen. They're all special.

This is unbelievable. Brian Snitker, manager of the Atlanta Braves on Bally Sports Braves following a fifth straight division title in the NL East, and they were ten and a half back of the New York Mets at the start of June, so give them credit. We saw them surge. We saw them flex their muscles, get healthy, come together. They've got such an incredible roster.

Veterans, guys who were part of the World Series last year, but also new guys, the rookie Spencer Strider, the look on his face and the excitement for him. At the end of one of his questions in an interview, he gave a woo or something like that. It was some kind of an exalting sound. Yeah, that, right.

I mean, he could have done a Ric Flair, I suppose. Woo! I'm good at those.

I do love to do those. Every now and then to wake you all up. Okay, so one more, and we play this, and we've got Greg Caserta here in studio, too. We play this because, well, it's great.

It's Alex Anthopoulos, who is the general manager of the Braves, and has seen all five division titles in his tenure as the GM. So that's great and all, but we mostly play it because we can't figure out if there was someone at the Marlins stadium who was trying to ruin it by mowing the lawn right behind him. But I've been thinking about it, like, am I relieved? I'm excited.

I'd say relief. You know, it's just, man, you know, the fans are showing out, 50.1 million fans, ballparks packed, batteries packed, people living and dying with this team tuning into you guys day in and day out, and you feel the pressure to put a product out on the field. So, to do it, to win the division five in a row, man, snit, the players, the coaches, you know, Terry McGurk, who supports me all the time, never panics, never gets, like, especially when things aren't going well. I mean, I cannot say enough about it, so I was in there. Obviously, you guys are spraying champagne, and I just, you know, rather than being really in the middle of it, I just wanted to sit back and watch and see these guys celebrate, especially the guys that hadn't experienced it before. All right, so it's either Don Mattingly or it's a Mets fan. It's one or the other. Is it a leaf blower?

I've got it. Okay, what is it, Greg? So, all my years working in minor league baseball, what that is, that is a leaf blower. Somebody on the cleaning crew, they use leaf blowers to go through the seating bowl to blow out wrappers and peanut shells and things like that. That is 100% a leaf blower. Somebody on the cleaning crew. Now, I don't know where they got that audio from.

I don't know where he's standing. Oh, the leaf blower came closer. Whoever was manning the leaf blower did it on purpose. That is a leaf blower, 100%.

Man, the snit, the players, the coaches, you know, Terry McGurk, the support. And then after the leaf blower operator realizes that he's part of an interview, he decides to make it even more obnoxiously loud. It comes closer.

He revs the thing up. Especially when things aren't going well. I mean, I cannot say enough about it, so, you know, I was in there, obviously, you guys are spraying. I mean, the man's got a job to do. Good on Alex for keeping his composure. Well, that's what I'm saying. Do you think he's laughing or crying there?

Because he sounds like he gets emotional, but then I thought maybe he was laughing. Because the leaf blower is clearly right behind him. You would think somebody would just kind of shoo him away. Oh, no, I think someone tried.

And that's when the blower was like, screw you, I'm coming closer. You know what? Yeah, like you said, I got a job to do. I'm telling you, it was Don Mattingly.

One last act of protest. Good stuff. So congratulations to Aaron Judd. 62 is the new 61 and congratulations to the Braves who win that last division title. We do have the matchups.

I am not going to steal Greg's thunder. 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. So without further ado, you better list the matchups then I got them. Oh, you got them. You are listening to the after hours podcast, everything in tight, third and goal pick it into the end zone for his first career touchdown and the Steelers have forged ahead.

This is after hours with Amy Lawrence. It was the best of times and the worst of times for rookie quarterback Kenny Pickett. He made his entry onto the regular season stage in the second half of the Steelers lost to the Jets on Sunday and he had two rushing touchdowns. If I remember reading correctly, no rookie quarterback has ever had two rushing touchdowns in his debut.

But don't quote me on that. It was something along the lines of rookie quarterbacks and rushing touchdowns. Anyway, he also had three interceptions, Bill Hillgrove on Steelers radio. Well, it was maybe not a big surprise, but Mike Tomlin named Kenny Pickett the starter for week five ahead of mixture business. We have no reservations about what Kenny is going to be capable of in terms of Oscar Maddox. Obviously we have a level of concern about the environment we're taking them into, but you know, you have a level of concern about any quarterback that you take into that environment versus that defense in that venue.

And so that's a component of it, but not a significant component of it outside the usual in terms of respecting it. Kenny has shown us maturity at every point throughout this process. He's older than most rookies, fluid and quick decision-making, pro-like anticipation and things of that nature have proven to be true. That's why we took him when we were given the opportunity to do so. Mike Tomlin has no reservations about Kenny Pickett, though obviously it's not optimal to start him on the road in Orchard Park, New York in week number five.

That's going to be tough. So we had an opportunity to catch up with the longtime NFL writer and insider Armando Salguero. He's now with OutKick and Fox and I asked him about this opportunity for Kenny Pickett, but you're going to have to get that answer on our podcast after hours, AmyLawrence.com. What I want you to hear from Armando is our conversation about Tua and the attention, the investigation being paid to how the Miami Dolphins maybe didn't take care of their quarterback the way that they could have. Did they do anything wrong? That's part of the investigation. So I started by asking Armando about how the NFL and the Players Association might move this forward. Make sure that Tua's health and that scary moment on the field against Cincinnati is not wasted, but it can be a way to improve the process and the protocols.

Right. So clearly when people hear, Amy, that there's an investigation and a joint investigation by the NFL and the NFLPA, they're thinking someone is going to get fined, teams are in trouble, players are in trouble, team staff is in trouble. And I don't believe that to be the case, obviously. It was announced over the weekend that the unaffiliated neurotrauma consultant was fired. That's the person that is chosen by both the NFL and the PA, the Players Association, to be the independent person in the room and to have no agenda and to be the one that could say independently, you can't go back into a game because you're displaying concussion symptoms. Well, apparently that person, you know, didn't meet the requisites of whatever the PA and the NFL is looking to to accomplish, obviously, because to a tongue of eye law, went into halftime of a Buffalo game to be examined for head trauma, a head injury, and came out with a back injury and came back into the game and played.

And so that was problematic for everyone who saw the optics. The thing about it is that's it. I mean, the Miami Dolphins, from what I can see, are very comfortable with having followed, you know, all the rules and having followed the guidelines. And it's like what Mike McDaniel has said. So we follow the guidelines. We do what the doctors tell us. And you're going to somehow think that we're in the wrong.

That's not how it works. And they realize that the optics are bad and they realize that they got really bad when they play the Cincinnati Bengals and to suffered a concussion. And so he's not playing against the Jets on Sunday. I wouldn't be surprised if he misses a couple of games at least. And the investigation goes forward.

But as far as, you know, finding the team and things like that, I don't think that's going to be the result. I have a hard time believing, as much as this was the narrative, that Mike McDaniel would put his star quarterback at risk. He genuinely seems to care. Now, I can be naive sometimes and take people at their word, but it doesn't seem like this was something that he conspired to do. So then does that mean the independent neurologist did this on his own or to somehow convinced him that he was fine? That's crazy because he also stands to lose a job.

Right. And I don't think Tua was trying to convince him of anything other than, you know, go through the test. And I don't know exactly what mistakes were made by the unaffiliated consultant because the association and the NFL have not outlined those. But as far as Mike McDaniel, you know, so history has sort of a way of of predicting what's going to come in the future. The Miami Dolphins have a player on the concussion protocol. His name is Steven Carter and he's a tight end and he suffered a concussion in the first game and he hasn't played since. And so this guy, this coach has a history of when there is something tangible and medically provable that says the player has a concussion, the player is going to sit. And that's what he has done with the tight end. That's what he's going to do with the quarterback. It's not one of those situations where he's pushing anybody to get back in a game. And and and what's really weird is that what seems to be an otherwise tight fraternity of coaches and ex coaches.

A lot of these guys are coming after McDaniel for whatever reason. When their history of handling concussion and the concussion protocol is questionable in and of itself. I saw a quote in which you describe the Dolphins as having made themselves an easy target.

Right. So the reason I said that the Dolphins are an easy target is this is in fact the third investigation involving the NFL or the NFL P.A. or both in in the last, you know, like six months. They were investigated this year for tampering in in in the last six, eight months, two years as well with Tom Brady and Sean Sean Payton of the New Orleans Saints. And they were found guilty of tampering and widespread tampering to the point where the owner, Steven Ross, is suspended. They had to yield a first round draft pick as a result. And they were also investigated for tanky in twenty nineteen, which, by the way, from all visual evidence they did and some of the reporting that I did back then, they absolutely did. But they were exonerated for that by the NFL. So this concussion protocol investigation is their third in in recent memory. And oh, by the way, they're being sued by former coach Brian Flores for just, you know, racial discrimination. He's also suing multiple other teams and the NFL. The point that I'm making is when you have a new coach without a huge reputation, when you have a recent history of being investigated and maybe running afoul of some rules, you you make yourself you lose the benefit of the doubt in many respects. Yes. And I think that's what's happening to some degree with the Dolphins now.

Interesting. I still feel like that's unfair to Mike McDaniel, who seems as though he's made it very clear that he would never put a player's health at risk, specifically his franchise quarterback for the sake of a win. But obviously, the conversation has been stirred up all over the NFL. And you saw multiple guys hit concussion protocols this week, and there was no doubt that they would not be returning.

So we'll see whether or not the NFL and the NFLPA make any adjustments to their protocols and their concussion practices. Thanks so much for hanging out with us. I launch you forward. I send you out like a bird out of the nest into your hump day. You can do this. Find us on Twitter, A-LOL radio on our Facebook page, and we're back tonight. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio. We'll see you next time.