After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 2

Hey, it's Kenny Main, this is a promotion of Hey Main, the Kenny Main Talks to Famous People podcast. We got lots of famous people, Dan Patrick and Keith Olbermann. We got to weigh 99% of what we tried to do.

I'm mad at him because I know that he'll regret it, but I know that he has to leave. Sue Burd is involved, Rex Chapman, Dan Lebatard, Katie Nolan, Allison Becker. Sorry for all the others I interviewed who I left out. Oh yeah, Soledad O'Brien, she was good. Hey, it's Kenny Main, this is a promotion of Hey Main, the Kenny Main Talks to Famous People podcast. We got lots of famous people, Dan Patrick and Keith Olbermann. We got to weigh 99% of what we tried to do.

I'm mad at him because I know that he'll regret it, but I know that he has to leave. Sue Burd is involved, Rex Chapman, Dan Lebatard, Katie Nolan, Allison Becker. Sorry for all the others I interviewed who I left out.

Oh yeah, Soledad O'Brien, she was good. Get it on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. We have more NFL week eight prep. We definitely have more from the hard court in basketball and yes, we actually do have Rob Thompson, manager of the Phillies, talking about the World Series.

It feels like forever in a day since we've seen either the Phillies or the Astros on the field, but they will start the fall classic in Houston coming up on Friday. So a lot on tap as we look ahead. We're not there yet, but as we look ahead to the last full weekend in October, you can find me on Twitter, Alaw Radio, also on our Facebook page after hours with Amy Lawrence. And we've got a brand new video up in honor of pumpkins, national pumpkin day, Halloween and candy. We've got a new video, new stairway to seven episode, which does in fact center on Halloween candy.

So you can check that out on our YouTube channel. The pumpkin carving video will soon follow because we do not stick to sports around here and we love wondrous variety, a smorgasbord, if you will, which is why I love to talk to authors when we have the opportunity. But I will say this book that I'm holding in my hands captivated me just simply by the cover and the title, the last folk hero, the life and myth of Bo Jackson. It's by Jeff Pearlman, a New York times bestselling author. I reached out to him going back over two months ago because I was that anxious to have a conversation with him about Bo Jackson, an athlete that I rooted for wildly with wild abandon as a fan. And so we're pleased to welcome Jeff joining us from Orange County, California.

Now that the book is officially out and Jeff, congratulations, even before we talk about the process of putting together the book. I got to tell you this story. My first ever professional baseball game. My grandfather took me to Cleveland where the Indians at the time were hosting the Kansas City Royals and Bo Jackson belted three home runs.

My grandfather was embarrassed because I cheered so loudly. I was so crazy about the fact that I got to see Bo Jackson hit three home runs that he actually walked away and kind of left me to cheer on my own. That's one of my favorite Bo Jackson stories personally. And I can imagine as you were putting together this book, there were some memories of yours having watched him too. So what is a favorite memory or recollection as a fan of Bo Jackson's that you keep even before you decided you would write a book about him?

Yeah, I do. I would say it was when I was 17 years old, 1989, and Bo Jackson led off the all-star game with a home run. It was in Anaheim. I always fantasized about living in California. I was in New York.

I now live in California, but I always like, there's something about California. It was like everything about it was just perfect. It was, he led off, it was in California, the in the booth was a Vin Scully with Ronald Reagan. What?

Yeah. It was a perfect blue sky. And he hit this shot. It was the second pitch of the game from Rick Rushall and it was just this perfect shot to dead center. What I learned from working on this book, I did not know is the whole Bo knows ad campaign, the big ad with the Bo, you don't know if we had, um, was scheduled to premiere during the all-star game in the fourth inning. So all the Nike executives were at Mickey Mantle's restaurant in New York, watching this game, nervous about how Bo Jackson would do on the day his adverse campaign was debuting and he hits a home run and in Mickey Mantle's restaurant, all these Nike execs are jumping up and down, screaming, hugging, and one of them told me, like everyone else in the restaurant is like, what the hell is wrong with these people? Not knowing that they just hit like the jackpot.

We all waited for the next one to come out because everybody loved the Bo knows campaign for sure. Jeff, this process was extensive, hundreds and hundreds of interviews and obviously years of writing for it to come together. So now that you're actually seeing it in print, people are reading it, you're doing interviews about it. How does it feel? It feels, uh, exciting and nerve wracking at the same time and also exhausting. Like it's exciting that, you know, you finish something, you work hard on it, it comes out.

You're nauseous because you hope people like it and you hope it's received well and you just like you find yourself in a whirlwind. And the weird thing about a book release, there's a writer named Lee Mantle who I used to work with at SI and he described it perfectly. He said, you're, you live under a cave for two years.

You just live underground for two years and for two weeks you come out and you're in the sun and then you go back in your cave again. And that's exactly what it is to have a book about it. Exactly. Is it worth it when a book like this comes out and people talk about it and read it? Yeah, it is because you feel like you did something and you have a tangible sort of proof of what you did and you put it all together and you, you know, when you go through it all and you're calling people and calling people and reading and reading, all you do is obsess over Bo Jackson for two years.

It can be really draining and really hard and sort of, you know, isolating. So when it comes out and you get to make the round and you get to do stuff like this, if there is a real joy to it, for real, there is, and you want to share what you know. Like I love, like you're passionate about Bo Jackson and you have questions about Bo Jackson and I get to talk, cause my wife is like, I don't want to hear any more about Bo Jackson. My kids are like, I don't want to hear any more about Bo Jackson, but you're happy to hear about Bo Jackson. So I'm good. I'm happy to be here.

I definitely am. He's the New York Times bestselling author of 10 books, but the newest one just out this week, the last folk hero, the life and myth of Bo Jackson, Jeff Perlman is with us after hours on CBS sports radio. Why folk hero? Why is Bo Jackson the last folk hero? So the line was originally said by a great writer, Joe Poznaevsky, I agreed with it a hundred percent, which is nowadays when guys come up, picture your young, whoever your young athlete is, John Marantz, you know, or Joe Burrow, whatever, whenever they come up, we, we see and know everything about them from the time they were little or at least high school, every video, Tik TOK, Twitter, anything you name it, we see him and Bo Jackson, there are all these stories, these mythological stories of things he did, balls he hit runs he made.

Oh my God. He ran a 4 1 3 40. No, it was a 4 1 7. No, it was blah, blah, blah. He threw a ball so far.

It broke five windows, you know, all that kind of stuff. But he came along before there was any video proof of it, like a lot of them really are. They feel like you're telling a Paul Bunyan story or John Henry story. So he really even, I think what Joe was talking about specifically was his famous throw in Seattle when he got Harold Reynolds at home state, it's probably one of the most viewed throws in the history of baseball. But if you watch it, you'd be surprised even if you've seen a million times, the camera never shows him releasing the ball. Like the camera goes to Harold Reynolds around the third, so we all know both through it, but we don't actually know how he threw it. We don't know what it looked like when he released it, we have an imaginary sort of view of it.

We don't know. He's just kind of a folk hero. There's a mythological factor to him. As you were going through the research and talking to so many people who had been part of his life at various stages, did you find out that most of the stories are true or that they are myths and they're not actually founded in truth? I would say most are true.

It's funny. He wrote in his autobiography in 1990, an autobiography he wrote with Dick Shapp, and he wrote about going over his first 21 at Auburn with 21 straight strikeouts, which is crazy and really bad and kind of amazing that someone could be that bad and strike out his first 21 at Madison College. It also turns out it's not true, in his first game, they played Illinois State and he was two for five. His first ever, he had a single, now then he won one for 19, but like, so you do want to double, you triple check, you make sure things are right. Did he run a 4-1-3-40? Yeah, he did. When he went to the Raiders later on, they had him run a 40 on grass and pads and he ran a 4-1-9 and then a 4-1-7.

My God. In high school, he stole 90 out of 91 bases. He set, as a senior, he set a single season high school, national high school record with 20 home runs and in 25 games and he missed seven games because he had track minutes. He won the state decathlon championship both his junior and senior year in Alabama. He also set five state records in track and field and his senior year, he won the state decathlon championship, sprained his ankle in the process, but the day after winning it started his only game of the year for the Mactory baseball team and threw a complete game 13 strikeout gym. So he was just ridiculous. His athleticism is ridiculous and most of it obviously checks out. And yet, I think a lot of people, whether they saw him play for real or didn't, would lament the fact that it seemed like his career ended so abruptly and it ended far too soon.

And I got to tell you, Jeff, your chapter that's entitled HIP, it actually hurts me. It's the idea that he could have been even more and we could have had him longer. But this one line that resonates with me, he took pride in telling people he refused to lift weights. There were no arguments to be made against maintenance, yet he didn't run, didn't pump iron, didn't even eat healthy.

He was a notorious layabout. That blows me away because as you point out, there could have been more years to his career and yet he didn't care as much about strength training, but any idea why that is? He was naturally gifted. He just was naturally gifted and things came so easily to him that he really didn't need to.

And also, I would argue against myself a little bit. One thing I will say is the injury that actually occurred that sort of ruined his hip, it was pretty freakish. He was running down the sideline in a Raiders game against the Bengals in the playoffs. A linebacker named Kevin Walker grabs his leg.

Bo is such a strong runner that basically he keeps moving forward while Kevin Walker is pulling backwards and his hip dislodges. And the other thing I'll say, this is going to sound weird and you may totally disagree, but it's almost like instinctive of us, people in sports and sports fans to say, God, it's such a shame. God, it's such a shame what he could have been. But you can also argue his career and life is much more interesting this way. If he goes on to be Eric Dickerson in football and he goes on to be Gary Sheffield in baseball, yeah, it's amazing and it's awesome. But there is something really intriguing about the question mark and there's really something intriguing about a guy vanishing in his basically early thirties and just walking off into the sunset.

Yes. And maybe he's more interesting that way. Maybe the conversation is a lot more interesting. In the same way, like we all talk about Kennedy still, but we don't talk about Eisenhower or Woodrow Wilson. Like part of the reason is because Kenny died young, so we don't know what was to come. We talk about Tupac and Biggie all the time.

We don't talk about like Run DMC and the Beastie Boys that often because they had fulfilled career. Like there's something about the what if of a person that in a weird way adds to their legacy. My mom and I are huge fans of Jane Austen and her books as many people are. And she also died young in the middle of rotting another manuscript.

And the question often is, wow, what if she had lived to be into her sixties or seventies? So agreed with that. Jeff Pearlman is a New York Times bestselling author. His latest is The Last Folk Hero, The Life and Myth of Bo Jackson.

And it's available now. It's after hours on CBS Sports Radio. There were so many elements to his life as there are to every human who shaped him and the person, the athlete that he eventually became. As you were going through this process and writing, what were you, what would you say are some of the defining factors and elements of Bo Jackson? Well, I think one is he, you know, he was raised by a single mom, Florence Jackson, one of 10 in the house is a three room house, not a three bedroom house or three room house where kids are sleeping on the floor.

She's best for Alabama. He had a severe stutter. He was held back in her as an early age.

And his father, A.D. Adams, lived across town with his other family and had very little interaction with Bo. And I think all those sort of slights in life, poverty, hunger, the abandonment of his father, his mom really struggling to make ends meet, I think really played a very profound role when it came to him finding this escape in sports. You know, like he needed something, he needs somewhere to go.

And I think sports, it's a common tale in sports, like sports draws people who are struggling and who are looking for a way out and to do something. And I think for him, it really did like I, I'm doing it. We don't talk about these things enough, but literally his dad lived across town and had almost nothing to do with him because he was raising his own family. Now that has to have an impact on a human being.

Yes. In your book, there's a photo of him with his Heisman, his mom and his dad. And that actually jumped out at me after reading about his family and his situation with his dad and he had his dad is there in the photo.

I know it's really weird. So when he won the Heisman trophy, he invited both his parents and his dad was there. And if you watch the Heisman ceremony, which is on YouTube from 85 when he won it, they're like he gives a speech and he calls a different people.

My coach is here and my dad is here and my mom is here. And they both stand up, his mom and his dad and his mom kind of stands up real quickly and his dad silks it all in. And it's so kind of typical. Like his dad had very little to do with his upbringing in any positive way and his mom was the rock of his life and his mom was not the one who soaked it in. It was his dad who soaked it in and it's sort of BS the way that happened. He was really scarred by his father.

There's no doubt about it. What did his teammates have to say about him in football and in baseball about being part of this career that actually was so successful and all-star in two professional sports? He kind of runs all over the map like in, in baseball, there's a lot of regret or sadness over what could have been like he, when he signed with the Royals, instead of going to the NFL out of college, he was like a very, very raw Mike Trout, like he had Mike Trout talent. He truly did. He was a, could have been a five tool guy. He had this Greek God body physique. He had all the athleticism. He loved baseball and for a brief sliver of time. He got really hot.

The minor leagues his first year in 86 at Memphis came up to the major, showed all these flashes and the Royals really thought they were onto something. And then he decides to play football and you know, the team was really upset about that. The players were upset. The front office was upset because they knew he needed development in baseball. So a lot of those guys, Willie Wilson, Frank White, Brett Sabre, Hagan, really in the newspapers and to his face gave him a lot of grief and felt he was making a huge mistake. In football, initially, especially, there was a lot of resentment because when he agreed to play football, he referred to it as his hobby, I'm going to make a hobby out of football. And there's a early in the, early when he reports to the Raiders, one of their linebackers, Rod Martin, just is all over him and he's basically like, this is this, you may call this a hobby, but this is life for us.

Like this is no hobby to us. And he never, he was not a guy who made super close friends on either team. He had a couple of pals, but he just wasn't that guy. He wasn't hanging out going for beers. He wasn't hidden on women.

Like he was a guy who went home to his wife, went home to his kids and just wasn't the Raiders in the Royals. Neither team had his phone number. They didn't have his home phone number. So when it was time to reach out to him, they had to reach out to him through his agent. Interesting. What type of interaction, if at all, did you have with Beau in writing the book?

Very little. When I first started working on it, I wrote him a letter and sent him a bunch of my books. And one day he called me up and we spoke for about a half hour. It was very pleasant.

He was very nice. He said, um, this is like, I don't, I don't care if you write this book. Um, I have no interest in helping. Like I get approached all the time. I don't want to do it. And I said, that's fine.

I understand. Um, I had a real goldmine moment though, which was, um, as I mentioned, Dick Shapp wrote his autobiography in 1990. And before Dick Shapp died, he donated all his audio recordings and all his interview transcripts from that experience to the Auburn library. And for 30 years, those, those things just all basically sat in the basement at the Auburn library.

I was made aware of it. I think I sent Auburn 250 bucks to transfer the, uh, the interviews onto audio and I received this enormous file with like, I don't know how many pages, maybe 500 pages of transcribed interviews, most of which was never used before. Um, so basically like talking to a 28 year old Bo Jackson and having all this fresh material. It's one of the best finds I've ever had. I was going to say, what was that like for you? You're essentially hearing his stories in his own words. It was remarkable. It was amazing. It was almost better than interviewing him now because he was fresh in the moment of it all.

Wow. And yeah, it was great. It was great.

Like really great. And I also read an interview that you did in which you talked about going to his hometown and you had to wait through COVID because that's when you were writing this book. Why was that so important to you to get to the place that essentially created Bo?

I just think you need to see it and you need to understand it. And there's something really physical and tangible about going to the guy's old house and walking up and down the street and trying to understand and knocking on doors. I knocked on doors, talked to some old neighbors of his and people who knew him.

And um, I get made fun of for this. My wife thought it was crazy, but I, his where he lived is now abandoned. Like the house is torn down and there hasn't been a house, but there's a, uh, there's, you can still see some of the foundation under the weeds and trash. So I took a brick, I actually dug out a brick from his foundation, uh, put in my suitcase to bring home and I got stopped at TSA in Atlanta and they're like, why, what is that in your bag? And I was like, that's a brick. And they're like, why are you flying with a brick? And I'm like, do you know who Bo Jackson is? And the guy's like, yeah, I'm like, well, I'm writing a biography of Bo Jackson. His brick is from his house and he basically called Melissa over his supervisor and I'm explaining to Melissa why I'm flying with this Bo Jackson's brick. And she's like, all right, you can fly, go, go fly with Bo Jackson's brick. So it's on my desk.

Now my wife was like, why are you doing this? What are you doing? Where is he now? Uh, he lives in suburban Chicago. He's a dad. He's a grandpa.

He's got a bunch of businesses. He's, you know, he's had, what I really like about his life post sports is you'll never hear him saying like, uh, Derek Henry, he's no Bo or, you know, um, Bryce Harper. He's good, but he's not as good as I was like, never, you just never hear that from him. He sort of moved on, isn't one of those athletes who hangs on and bemoan to the way things are done now.

Um, I admire his life greatly. One thing I did not know, Jeff, until I did some reading in your book is that Bo's not his name. So where did Bo come from?

His name is Vincent Edward Jackson named after an actor, Vincent Edwards from the show, Ben Casey that his mother liked. I had no idea. None. Yeah. But yeah, there you go. Bo is, um, short for boar, which is short for boar hog, which is when he was a kid, him and a bunch of his friends, there was a neighborhood farmer who, um, who had these hogs, these big hogs and Bo and his friends, Bo was a real kind of bully as a kid, you know, like really a bully. And, uh, he and his friends went with sticks and just for three days, people living crap out of this boar hog. And um, he caught on his nickname, boar hog. And then eventually it got shortened to Bo. So that's where Bo was from. I wonder how often he tells that story.

Probably not that often. And I will say like, I read about that in the Dick Shapp notes and also in his autobiography and I went to Bessemer and I found the guy who owned the hog is dead, but I talked to his son about his dad and the land and all that stuff. So I felt pretty, I felt like I really got something there. Wow. Well, Jeff, obviously you've poured your life and your time and your effort into this book. That's just out now. What do you want people to take away from it? This is going to sound corny, but I swear it's true. Like, um, I feel like we live, we've lived through COVID.

We live in crazy political times, blah, blah, blah. I just want people to enjoy it. Like I just want people to be able to sort of revel in the exploits of the greatest athletes ever walked the earth and feel like they were part of it and feel like they have an understanding. I want, what I really want to honestly, I want my kids, my kid's age to know who Bo Jackson was and to like, he's important and he's the greatest athlete who ever lived. And the way Jim Thorpe was immortalized. I think Bo Jackson deserves that exact same treatment. It's funny because I work with producers and also speak to an audience that does include a lot of sports fans who never saw Michael Jordan, never saw Joe Montana or Jerry Rice or in my case, Larry Bird is my all time favorite athlete, magic Johnson.

Bo Jackson belongs in that category. And I just saw a great way to at least capture a piece of him and make him immortal. So the book is out. It's called the last folk hero, the life and myth of Bo Jackson.

There's so much we don't know about him. So you want to grab this book from Jeff Pearlman at Jeff Pearlman on Twitter, New York Times bestselling author. And I'm so grateful for a few minutes. I learned even more and I can't wait to finish the book, Jeff. Thank you. Oh, thanks for taking interest.

I really do appreciate it. I've read a couple chapters. I cannot wait to read the rest because there's so much about Bo that we don't know. And even just looking back at the length of his career in both football and baseball, I would have told you it was longer. He only played for the Raiders from 1987 through 1990 and he only played baseball for eight years.

That's it. And then he was done and he was gone. We think Megatron retired abruptly. Bo Jackson didn't even last a decade and didn't even last five years in pro football. And the story about his hip and the fact that he didn't condition and didn't weight train and how that could have changed things that really does hurt me. But I think Jeff makes an amazing point that if Bo Jackson's career played out the way that other long tenured athletes do, he wouldn't be the same myth. He wouldn't be the same icon.

There wouldn't be the same legend around him. So I thought that was a really insightful point from Jeff. Love talking to him. This will be part of our podcast. In fact, I may even replay part of it before the week is up because I'm just blown away by his book and by his stories. And of course, by walking down that memory lane of Bo Jackson on Twitter, Alaw Radio, also on our Facebook page after hours with Amy Lawrence. Glad to have you with us. We are headed toward week eight in the NFL and then we got some good match ups, a little bit of week eight prep and a big trade, which puts. Which puts a difference maker on a team that has yet to lose.

It's after hours on CBS for trading. Hey, it's Kenny man. This is a promotion of Hey man, the Kenny main talks to famous people podcast. We got lots of famous people, Dan Patrick and Keith Overman. We got away with 99% of what we tried to do.

I'm mad at him because I know that he'll regret it, but I know that he has to leave. Sue Bird is involved. Rex Chapman, Dan Lebatard, Katie Nolan, Alison Becker. Sorry for all the others I interviewed who I left out. Oh yeah. Soledad O'Brien.

She was good. Get it on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcast. Hey, it's Kenny man. This is a promotion of Hey man, the Kenny main talks to famous people podcast. We got lots of famous people, Dan Patrick and Keith Overman. We got away with 99% of what we tried to do.

I'm mad at him because I know that he'll regret it, but I know that he has to leave. Sue Bird is involved. Rex Chapman, Dan Lebatard, Katie Nolan, Alison Becker. Sorry for all the others I interviewed who I left out. Oh yeah. Soledad O'Brien. She was good.

Get it on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcast. Hey, it's Kenny man. This is a promotion of Hey man, the Kenny main talks to famous people podcast. We got lots of famous people. Dan Patrick and Keith Overman. We got away with 99% of what we tried to do.

I'm mad at him because I know that he'll regret it, but I know that he has to leave. Sue Bird is involved. Rex Chapman, Dan Lebatard, Katie Nolan, Alison Becker. Sorry for all the others I interviewed who I left out. Oh yeah. Soledad O'Brien.

She was good. Get it on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcast. You are listening to the After Hours Podcast. Second and 19, they need the 15, reaching the block at the left handker, lifterly darlin' now is caught up again and brought down again by Taylor and hit by Quinn. They got him in a grip and it's the third sack today by that Miami defense. They throw him for a loss of three.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Robert Quinn has been around. In fact, he is about to try another franchise.

Let's see if this is his last stop. He's been with the Bears since April of 2020, but it's now on the move to Philadelphia. The only undefeated team left in the NFL.

It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. Our friend, Kevin Harlan, going back to the vault on Westwood one, the general manager of the Bears, Ryan polls, making the decision to trade away the three time Pro Bowl defensive end. We agreed to trade Robert Quinn for a fourth round pick in 2023. I just want to start out by thanking Robert for everything that he's done. I know when I took this job, he embodied, you know, everything that we were looking for to get this thing started, the way he played and who, you know, what he stood for as a human being. I know the Eagles are really fortunate to have him.

You know, anytime you have a guy that's in the 100 sack club, that's pretty special. I've hit on this before. Obviously part of the tough thing with this job and this position are the tough decisions you have to make. And I always feel like there's the emotional side, the human part of it that you know you're not affecting not only like a man, but also his family and you're kind of shaking that all up. And I don't take that lightly at all. And I'm sensitive to that. You also know that you're tweaking the fibers of your locker room. And that's a big deal too. And he meant a lot to that locker room, but I'm fully confident that the guys, especially on the defensive side, the Jaylen Johnsons, the Eddie Jacksons, the Roquon Smiths, Justin Jones, those guys are going to continue to hold it down and be leaders on that defense and help us continue to move forward. Ryan mentions Roquon Smith and he actually found out about Robert Quinn getting traded to Philly as he was doing his press conference on Wednesday. Sucks, yeah, like, yeah, I'm going to take a second for a second if you don't mind.

Now I have a great deal of respect for that guy, you know, crazy. Marco Belletti admit it, you would be the same way and you would be in the same state if I got traded to another network. We can get traded. Okay. If I got fired.

That's more likely. I was going to say, you scared me. I didn't get traded. I didn't know that. Well, you get traded to other day parts all the time without our permission. Again, out of my control. That's above my pay grade.

You just completely dodged the question. Smart. Yeah. What can I tell you? Hey.

What can I say? Yes. And as I get older and I get sappier, yes, I get more emotional. So yeah, I'm sure I would be. I was sappy and sad and emotional when you were moved to another, I don't know, something.

I came over and started doing the overnights full time. And I got moved down the hall most of the time. Yes. And so I don't remember tears for that. I don't remember. We went here.

Oh, come on. I don't remember. Well, you were still in the building at least, but we went years without getting to work together. Did I not like essentially throw a party when you returned?

I don't remember that. Oh, you're full of it. I've been talking about how glad we are to have you back. Congratulated you for the full time gig. You definitely did.

I would offer you food, but you won't eat it. But now that that's changed, we're going to know I tell Jake, it's jealous because I tell him all the time that you're my favorite person to work with. Well, I was just about to have your back and say, I defend you.

I can confirm that you were indeed very excited when Marco hopped on, but I ruined that, huh? And all this stuff with the mics are on who knows what goes on when I'm not around. Well, when you're not here, we pretty much call you a loafer and a slacker and want to know why you're not at work. That makes sense. Yeah.

That makes sense. So that's what we're going to call you on Halloween night when you're dressed up as a what with your kids? I don't believe I'm going to be dressed as anything. Your wife's going as a banana and you're not going to dress up.

Look, if she has, it wouldn't shock me. If she's got some sort of banana costume in the house that I have to wear too, that would not shock me. And if I have to wear it, I have to wear the ghost sheet. I think, see, that's the point of me taking the day off for the first time. I'm not going to be the ghost. I'm actually going to be there.

That's the cool thing. So, um, yeah, I don't know. I don't have anything.

I can't imagine I'm going to find anything, nor was I planning on looking for anything, but it wouldn't shock me. And she has something easy. A ghost. It's easy. Just make sure you cut out the eyes so you can see. Yeah. If she, again, if it wouldn't shock me, if my wife has something, I'll put it on.

I'm not the party pooper guy, but at the same time, I'm not going to go. You can go with C.C. Sabathia.

I think C.C. 's lighter than I am now. Did you see him? He looks good. He's dropped a lot of weight. Yeah, she looks good.

As long as he's not drinking. It's all good. No, C.C.

looks awesome. I wish I knew C.C. I'd give him a call and be like, yo, tell me what you did. So I was about to ask Jay the same question. Would he also cry and get very choked up if I left? But clearly it did not go so well with you, so I'm not going to walk into that trap again with a second person on the show. So in other words, nobody would be sad or emotional if I was traded. I said I would be emotional. I was unaware we could be traded. I was a little concerned for myself. For yourself. Again, when you're the 25th guy on the roster, you get concerned when there's cuts. Oh, stop it.

You look around. You're number one in our hearts. All right. Coming up.

What do I want to do coming up? Actually, speaking of trades, we know Christian McCaffrey has already played one game with the San Francisco 49ers this week. He will be part of that rivalry between Niners and Rams.

So we'll get to that. John Lynch on making that trade and OK, I mean, sometimes I can defend Russell Wilson and sometimes they're just. Hey, it's Kenny man. This is a promotion of Hey man, the Kenny main talks to famous people podcast.

We got lots of famous people, Dan Patrick and Keith Overman. We got away with 99 percent of what we tried to do. I'm mad at him because I know that he'll regret it, but I know that he has to leave. So he started killing other people that they don't really want to defend and even if they don't speak that way. You know, it's annihilation right by B Keith Olbermann. We got to weigh 99% of what we tried to do.

I'm mad at him because I know that he'll regret it, but I know that he has to leave. Sue Bird is involved. Rex Chapman, Dan Levittard, Katie Nolan, Alison Becker. Sorry for all the others I interviewed who I left out. Oh yeah, Soledad O'Brien.

She was good. Get it on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, it's Kenny Main. This is a promotion of Hey Main, the Kenny Main Talks to Famous People podcast. We got lots of famous people, Dan Patrick and Keith Olbermann. We got to weigh 99% of what we tried to do.

I'm mad at him because I know that he'll regret it, but I know that he has to leave. Sue Bird is involved. Rex Chapman, Dan Levittard, Katie Nolan, Alison Becker. Sorry for all the others I interviewed who I left out. Oh yeah, Soledad O'Brien.

She was good. Get it on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. There's just no way to do it. You are listening to the After Hours podcast. This was a weird week for me and for them. You know, I didn't kind of know what to expect. I know that I had a certain list of plays that were up and, you know, I think for me mentally, this was just focus on everything I can, and control what I can control and get rolling.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. The voice of one Christian McCaffrey after his debut with the San Francisco 49ers and on that first drive of his going back to last weekend, he actually had a couple of carries right away and it was amazing there in the Bay Area where the fans just got really excited to see him on the field and to recognize that he was going to make an impact immediately. Now his numbers weren't off the charts, but they also did have a pitch count essentially for Christian just to make sure they could get him acclimated. And of course he doesn't know the plays, nor does he know the terminology, try to get used to the quarterback and everything else. And so there's a steep learning curve, but he's smart. He's got a very, very high football IQ and ultimately against the Chiefs.

Now think about it. The Chiefs were able to pour on there in the second half specifically. And because of that, there's less of an opportunity to run the ball. Obviously Jimmy Garoppolo struggled. He had a couple of turnovers and so it limited the nighters opportunities in the second half. But Christian had eight carries for 38 yards. He also had a couple of catches for 24 yards. And now after a week of practice under his belt and time to study the playbook, you would expect that he would be more acclimated.

It's after hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS sports radio. So yes, Christian McCaffrey, part of the Niners, I think the reaction from Sean McVeigh earlier in the week, he was being honest about what he said and how he expressed himself when he found out about the Niners acquiring Christian was oh bleep. But is it not true that the Niners are following a pattern essentially that the Rams used last year to build a Super Bowl winning team? Didn't Les Snead have a t-shirt that said something about bleeping those picks because they traded away pretty much every pick they had or at least all of their primetime picks to be able to bring in high profile difference makers on the field.

And look at what happened. They ended up winning their first Super Bowl with guys like Matthew Stafford that were brought in via trade with Odell Beckham Jr. with Vaughn Miller. And that's just a short list of transplants that ended up with the Los Angeles Rams. Well, Rams played the Niners in the NFC championship. The Niners came up short in that playoff game. And so they decided they needed to add Christian McCaffrey and lo and behold, their main competition for Christian going down to the wire. I told you there had to be another team that was offering multiple picks. That's why the Niners had to give up so much for him. It turned out the Rams were the other team that was still in the running deep. And John Lynch, of course, ended up making that move.

And now they've got him in the Bay Area. He's a lot more than just a running back. And, you know, I think he's a perfect player for the way Kyle and our offensive staff does things. I think, you know, he brings a lot more than just running back skills. He's an incredibly accomplished receiver.

He's got tremendous feel. He can play with speed. He can play with power. He can play with quickness. He can do it all. And we've seen that firsthand playing against him. You know, you've seen it right up to the last game he played. He's an excellent football player. There's no denying that. And we like adding guys like that to the mix.

Well, duh. That's the general manager, John Lynch. And he references head coach Kyle Shanahan. And in their power structure with the Niners, it's actually Shanahan who makes the final say, who makes the final call and who has final say over the roster, even though the two of them work very close together.

Ultimately, the power structure is Kyle is higher up the food chain, higher up the ladder than John Lynch after hours here on CBS Sports Radio, another trade that was made earlier in the week. The New York Jets losing Breece Hall to a torn ACL, their fantastic rookie running back who was making such an impact already. He was closing in on 500 yards rushing and really had become just this go to and it seems like every week he had some long run, typically for a touchdown on the highlight reel, they lose him and I was actually surprised the Jaguars were willing to give up James Robinson, but they did. They traded James Robinson to the New York Jets. And believe it or not, Robinson did not find out via social media. They didn't tell me about it, really, like it was just out of the blue kind of.

So I was at home kind of dozing off and get a call and that was that. He's a one-cut runner and gets downhill in a hurry. Really, really good compliment to what Ty Johnson and Michael brings to the table.

So just keep trying to keep that versatility to our room. Obviously losing Breece is a big blow, but James Robinson is a pretty good football player. Feels pretty good, I'd say that.

Five and two go from two and five. So I mean, it's pretty good to be a partisan. I can imagine that's a similar reaction for Christian and Christian played his college ball in the Bay Area at Stanford. And so he's back in that area. His dad won his first Super Bowl going back to 1994 with the San Francisco 49ers. There are, of course, the ties to the Shanahan family, the two coaches, first Mike and now Kyle. So for him, it's more than just, hey, I'm on a winning team. But yeah, when he left the Panthers, they were one and five.

And now he's on a team that has a legit chance to be a playoff contender and if not a playoff contender, then even beyond that in the Niners. So I looked it up just because I wasn't sure if he would have been born when his dad won his first Super Bowl with the Niners in 1994, Ed McCaffrey, his dad was a slot receiver and boy, the pounding that he would take. He was fearless going over the middle and he would wear this really thin flak jacket. It wasn't heavy pads the way you see a lot of guys now know he was fearless.

He felt like the heavier pads and the thicker pads restricted his movement. And so Ed would flash across the middle. He would know the hit was coming and he would hold on to the football anyway, man, the hits that he took. Um, but anyway, he was with the Broncos for their two Super Bowls in the late nineties. But before that he, he didn't play a lot, but he was on the Niners roster in 94 when they won a Super Bowl ring. And so I looked it up and Christian was, let's see, he was two years old.

He would have been two and some change two months, two years and a couple of months. So he was alive though, doubtful that he remembers his dad playing for the Niners just that one year. Uh, these are two moves with James Robinson and then with Christian McCaffrey that really could affect kind of the balance of power and the respective divisions, especially when you think about the Rams and where they are offensively and the fact that they do not even resemble the team that won the Super Bowl last year. And I know they added pieces, um, not just the Odell Beckham junior piece, though he did have seven touchdowns, including one in the Super Bowl. Once the, the Rams traded for him, but their offensive line was better. This whole Cam Ager situation is just odd. So maybe that was why they really wanted to replace him with Christian or to bring somebody else in, because it sounds like he's played his last game with the Rams and he's away from the team or was away from the team for personal reasons.

Um, so yeah, just, uh, uh, not a Rams team that we expected to see coming out of the gate. Even if you do believe in the whole Super Bowl hangover, which I don't, I really don't buy into that much. I think teams can get fat and happy. And I think athletes are less likely to take hometown discounts or to take less money. Once they've got a ring, a lot of times what happens in the NFL and, and really in a lot of professional sports, but in the NFL, your contracts are not fully guaranteed for the most part. And when you win the ring, you feel like you've poured all of your heart, soul, blood, sweat, and tears into that team goal.

You accomplish that team goal. And now a lot of guys want to get paid because the average NFL career doesn't even last four years and it can start and stop so abruptly. And so guys want to go out there and they want to sign fresh contracts. And when they get the opportunities, they're more likely to leave. That happens a lot in the NFL.

So the Rams maybe aren't a huge surprise, but no Super Bowl hangover. It's after hours, CBS Sports Radio. Oh yeah. Soledad O'Brien.

She was good. Get it on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, it's Kenny Maine. This is a promotion of Hey Maine. The Kenny Maine talks to famous people podcasts. We got lots of famous people, Dan Patrick and Keith Olbermann. We got away with 99% of what we tried to do.

I'm mad at him because I know that he'll regret it, but I know that he has to leave. Sue Bird is involved. Rex Chapman, Dan Levittard, Katie Nolan, and I have a lot of other leads to get a lot more involved.

So it's a great deal. You can get it on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, it's Kenny Maine. This is a promotion of Hey Maine. The Kenny Maine talks to famous people podcasts. We got lots of famous people, Dan Patrick and Keith Olbermann. We got away with 99% of what we tried to do. I'm mad at him because I know that he'll regret it, has to leave.