After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 4

Throughout the 60s and 70s, cops hunted down key figures of the Dixie Mafia, including its enigmatic ringleader, Kirksey Nix. I'm in a rush to making money.

I'm not in a rush to hurting people. Fifteen years into Kirksey's life sentence, the Dixie Mafia was practically folklore, but that would soon change. I'm Jed Lipinski. This is Gone South, a documentary podcast from C-13 Originals, a Cadence 13 studio. Season 2, The Dixie Mafia. Available now on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. 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. I don't think so. Fighting with a lightsaber is real. The Force is with you, young Skywalker. I am a Jedi, like my father before me.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Does Carlos know me well or what? He just said in my ear, what would an anniversary show be without a little Star Wars? Oh, that's so true, because we very rarely go more than a week without mentioning Star Wars here on the show, since I am certifiably insane when it comes to Star Wars, but also proudly branded myself a Star Wars nerd. And I've turned producer Jay into a Star Wars nerd as well. We just finished watching Andor, so we finally got to the season finale of Andor, and without giving anything away, I can't believe that's how it ended. Are you kidding me? So leaving us with a major cliffhanger for season 2, which doesn't come out according to Jay. He did the Googling until 2024? How is that even possible? Anyway, so we were all captivated by the Andor series.

That was a great element of 2022. And even though he's sick, we were able to do a group watch earlier this week so that I could give him a little excitement in his kind of sad holiday week. Poor guy. He just is wanting to feel healthy again, so he's still not back to 100%, but isn't supposed to return to work until Sunday night.

We'll see whether or not he makes it. Yeah, his entire Christmas week has been, most of it's been in bed, just not feeling great, so I feel terrible for him. Had to try to talk to him a few times and remind him that this too shall pass. I think we get lost in that perspective sometimes, right? The challenges, the struggles that we face in any given moment, they can feel so enormous. And then you look up and it's been 10 years. Definitely during the pandemic, my perspective on time, just all thrown out of whack.

Where the days, the hours and the days seem to drag, and yet two years has gone by in a blur. And so here we are, final hour for me in 2022. And final hour before CBS Sports Radio marks 10 years as a network. Our milestone is Sunday. Great day for it, right? Considering everything that's happening in pro sports and certainly in college football as well.

And I remember thinking January 3rd, 2013, which was my first show here at the network. Wow, how awesome is it that we start a network and go right into the playoffs? Now the NFL has bumped back its schedule a little bit. Of course, they've added a week 18 now.

But the point remains the same. We dove right into the postseason in the NFL, which was humongous because the number of sports fans who are engaged during the NFL playoffs and even now. Did you see the ratings for Christmas Day? We're not talking about real high profile, high marquee games, and yet they dwarfed the NBA.

Dwarfed. The worst rated game for the NFL was the Bucks and the Cardinals, right? It was Bucks and Cardinals.

And it went into overtime. It was the last game of the day on Sunday, and it was still millions and millions and millions of people above what the NBA drew in. So yeah, the NFL on Sunday averaged, now this is the average for the three games, 21.9 million viewers. The NBA, which is their marquee day, right? This Christmas slate, 4.34 million.

I mean, we're essentially talking about a blip on the radar. NFL versus NBA. So yeah, here are the numbers. Packers, Dolphins, almost 26 million people watched Packers and Dolphins right around midday on Sunday, Christmas Day. Broncos and Rams, are you kidding me?

The Broncos gave out 51 points and their coach got fired the next day. Broncos and Rams, 22.5 million people. And then Bucks Cardinals, as I say, the lowest rated game on Christmas, and it was Christmas night, 17.15 million. That was their lowest rated game on Christmas Day, 17.15 million. The highest rated NBA game from Christmas Day was Bucks Celtics, just over 6 million. The NFL drives the bus, baby.

That's never been in doubt over the past 10 years. And here we are off into week 17, which will carry us into 2023 and past our one year anniversary. So I will be working here on New Year's night, Sunday night into Monday, processing all these games with their major playoff implications. And then getting ready for Monday night football, which is Bengals and Bills. Humongous. Not just because of the two teams, along with the Chiefs, who are expected to be the top contenders out of the AFC, but also because of what the Bengals did last year to get to the Super Bowl.

And the Bills, being a team that have run into a brick wall the last couple years in major disappointment, would have had one of the best teams in the league all season. So these two teams clashing is pretty incredible on Monday night. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. I promise we'll work in more calls before the end of this hour.

But you can find me on Twitter, ALawRadio. Even though I'm on the air, I've been sort of reading a lot of your comments, perusing them as quickly as I can. Thank you.

Thank you for all the kind words. It is hard to believe a decade has passed by in a flash, but my congratulations to our colleagues, not just the originals, but there are a few of us who are originals, as well as to our amazing affiliates. I know they come and go and morph and change, but there are a lot of affiliates around the country that have been with us since the beginning, and I'm so grateful for that. The Startup Network in 2013 was built to be a major market network.

So maybe not as many affiliates as ESPN Radio, but in all of the major markets. It's been pretty incredible to form relationships over these past 10 years with so many people in the markets around the country where we've hosted the show, where we've taken the show on the road. It's been awesome, and I appreciate the support of the affiliates.

I hear from a lot of you, and it's so cool to know that we're partners in this venture, now about to be 10 years in the making. So on Twitter, ALawRadio, you can also vote for the After Hours Game of the Week, and then on our Facebook page, which did not exist 10 years ago. I don't think it existed until about eight years ago, maybe two years in, and I was trying to remember earlier which producer started which social media ventures. I'm pretty sure producer Anthony, who's still with the network, just in a different capacity, he started our Facebook page.

I'm pretty sure that Isaac started our YouTube channel, I miss Isaac, and then I think it was producer Tom, the original Tom, there were two Toms, but the original Tom, who I worked with twice, I think he started our show Twitter. So yeah, we've expanded. The podcast as well, it's a lot to keep up with, which is why I'll never get Insta, and I'm not ever going to get TikTok.

Also, the Chinese are using TikTok to spy on you, so that's a bad idea. Anyway, you know me, I got to inject. So on Twitter or Facebook, and then also our phones, 855-212-4227, that's one thing that has not changed the entire 10 years we've had the same phone number. Dallas Cowboys and Tennessee Titans in Nashville kicking off week 17, and it sure looked like the Cowboys were going to run away with this one. Jason Peters has come in as an extra tight end, throw to him, straight eye formation, second and goal, hand off Elliott, burrowing, pushing, line of scrimmage, goal line, touchdown Elliott.

Another one. Now Dobbs, third and long, pressure, and you're in trouble, young man. Fumble again. At the 30-yard line, who's got this? Cowboys are certain they've got this fumble.

Nobody has set it in a striped shirt yet. Fowler appeared to get the sack strip, and we await word formally on who owns the ball. Well, I mean, the league owns the ball, but it's Dallas. Cowboys lead the league in fumble recoveries, and there's another one.

Dallas Cowboys radio with Brad Sham, Babe Laufenberg. The Cowboys race out to a 10-0 lead, but then the wheels come off, Dak Prescott with three turnovers before they get to halftime. Prescott firing right side, and it is intercepted, fired on a deflection. It bounced off the receiver and went to fired for his third INT of the year. Prescott takes the snap, has time, fires, and it's intercepted, fired, fired at the 40, fired at the 50, fired at the 45, and he's run out of bounds and tackled out of bounds by Smith. Three turnovers by the Cowboys in the first half, and how do you like that?

Mike Keith on Titans radio. Yeah, three consecutive drives, three consecutive turnovers, a fumble, and two interceptions. And so, even as the Cowboys started out like a house on fire, Jaron Kerr said after the game, they played down to the level of their competition.

I'm not sure if that's bulletin board material, maybe it's just fact. The Titans were resting, I think it was eight starters that they were not playing in last night's game, and that includes Derrick Henry, who's the NFL's second leading rusher and certainly their bell cow. But because next week's season finale decides the AFC South title, it's Jacksonville or Tennessee, well they felt like this was their only opportunity to rest. Now, the South winner will be the number four seed in the AFC, just like the South winner will be the number four seed in the NFC because those two divisions are so bad this year, collectively bad, at least they're all bad at the same time. And the Titans desperately need to try to get some guys healthier, at least the guys who are banged up, to make sure they're as prepared as possible for week 18, because that's how they're going to make the playoffs, not week 17, as much as it kind of goes against what I feel about sports all in all the time. But here's a number that you need to know about the Titans, they lead the NFL with the use of 83 different players this season, and there's still a week to go.

That includes last night's starting quarterback, Josh Dobbs, first career NFL start, stepped in after a week, so slightly longer than Baker Mayfield had before his first game with the Rams. He was excited for this opportunity, get his first start. I think something that we've always said that, since I've been here, is that it doesn't really matter how you end up here or how you get here. The only thing that matters is what you do when you're here. I think Josh wanted to try to do the best that he could. Unfortunately, we lost, and I'm sure he'd like to have the interception back, but he did some good things, just not well enough. I prepare every single week as if I'm going to start, whether I'm dressing, not dressing, starting, not starting.

As I said, there's a thing I could definitely do better out there on the field, but I love how I fought personally, I love how the team fought, took advantage of the opportunity, and I'm excited for the next one. I give everyone the analogy just like this. You know you have an algebra test every Friday, you have to prepare for the test, and you prepare, you do all the homework on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. You go through the process, you do the extra work, you go to after hours and everything, and then Friday comes, and then you just don't take the test.

Sorry, I got caught up in the after hours part again. That part is awesome. I love that he dropped a little after hours love there in his post-game press conference. So Dobbs goes 20 of 39, 232 yards in his first career start, he does have his first career touchdown, he got to keep the ball and give it to his family. But he did throw an interception, middle of the fourth quarter, and I don't know if that changed the outcome. But I do know that the Cowboys defense, along with the Titans defense, both in the business of creating takeaways last night. And as for the Cowboys now, a win is a win is a win is a win, and they've got six wins in their last seven games. They can sit back with this mini bye now, which I think is huge.

I don't love the way that they played in that second quarter, it leaves you kind of with a bad taste. But I do believe that for them to have this quick turnaround late in the season, they weren't starting everyone either. They had guys that were on and off the field to get the win, and now to have their 12th win and to still be alive for the top seed in the NFC.

That's the primary focus, or it should be with these Cowboys. This is a resilient team. Coach McCarthy made that our mantra at the beginning of the year, and obviously just taking on pain that we had from last year and using that to move us forward this year and not hiding our scars. And just you look at the season, you look at things that happened, me going down for five weeks, different guys going down for a week at a time.

And then even right there at the end, I mean, Tyler goes down, we've got to move somebody else, put Jason Peters in, and nobody blinks and just keeps moving forward. This is a great team, a great brotherhood, and resilience is just perfect workforce. We came here for the win.

I said we're not going to get into what it's supposed to be and things like that, because that's how you get yourself in trouble. We did a lot of really good things. I love the discipline of the team in the first half and everything, but the takeaways were obviously big for us. The giveaways were big for them.

There's obviously points off our board that turned into points on their board. This was a hard stretch. We knew this was going to be a hard stretch when the schedule came out, and that really held true. So I'm happy these guys got a couple days to catch a breath, because this has been a tough fourth quarter so far. It's not optimal to play a Thursday game in Week 17, but with the victory, the Cowboys can now take a breath, as Mike McCarthy points out. And as much as there have been people still who call for his firing, he's a sucky coach, he's not the right guy for the job, Jerry Jones can do better. Watch out Sean Payton, yada, yada, yada. 12 win seasons are nothing to sneeze at in the NFL, and especially not this year in the NFC Beast. So they still have the commanders on their schedule, but they do have a couple of extra days now, and they have earned it. I don't love how they played, but a win is a win, and this time of the year, man, you take it and you get the heck out of Dodge.

So they cannot fall farther than the five seed, but they could still finish as high as the one seed with the bye, though they need the Saints to beat the Eagles for starters on Sunday. What is the After Hours Game of the Week? We're going to treetop some of the big storylines for this upcoming Week 17, but our poll is up on Twitter, After HoursCBS. We've also got an open-ended question with my favorite cartoon character on our Facebook page.

Good morning to you, Happy New Year. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio. Throughout the 60s and 70s, cops hunted down key figures of the Dixie Mafia, including its enigmatic ringleader, Kirksey Nix.

I'm in a rush to making money, I'm not in a rush to hurting people. 15 years into Kirksey's life sentence, the Dixie Mafia was practically folklore, but that would soon change. I'm Jed Lipinski. This is Gone South, a documentary podcast from C-13 Originals, a Cadence 13 studio, season two, the Dixie Mafia.

Available now on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. So my biggest fear is there's going to be snakes in the toilet. We're all afraid of that one strange thing. I'm Larry Mullins, the host of a new short 10-minute podcast called Your Weirdest Fears. We unpack where these fears come from. A rat climbed into my toilet.

And learn how to manage them. Listen and subscribe to Your Weirdest Fears on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. Throughout the 60s and 70s, cops hunted down key figures of the Dixie Mafia, including its enigmatic ringleader, Kirksey Nix.

I'm in a rush to making money, I'm not in a rush to hurting people. Fifteen years into Kirksey's life sentence, the Dixie Mafia was practically folklore, but that would soon change. I'm Jed Lipinski. This is Gone South, a documentary podcast from C-13 Originals, a Cadence 13 studio, season two, the Dixie Mafia. Available now on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. You are listening to the After Hours Podcast. This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. It is a clash of the AFC Titans coming up on Monday Night Football. Prime time, baby.

John Murphy on Bill's radio. I understand they finally lifted the driving ban so that people are able to get back on the roads in western New York, in the Buffalo area. Which is good because there's a lot that they've got to get to try to clear up and clear out of a second major storm.

Oh my goodness. So thinking of you all, please be safe. You've got until Monday and then you can take a load off and watch this game.

Although, I don't know, it could be hard on the ticker too, I guess. The Bills and the Bengals. And right now, the Bengals are the hottest team in the AFC.

Now the Bills still have the nose in front for that top seed and the bye. But seven straight wins for the Cincinnati Bengals and this has got to be kind of mindful and remind people of what they did at the end of last year. Where they locked in, they were using the big plays, they were able to not only complete passes and referring to Burrow and his receivers with accuracy, with a high percentage. But also, they were able to take the more difficult and more challenging passes and deep stuff and they were able to use those as major weapons.

And so they could beat you a lot of ways. When they have a Joe Burrow who's locked in the way that he is, he distributes the football. He passes it around to a bunch of different guys and so, similar to what we've seen from the Eagles this season, they've got so many weapons they can hurt you a bunch of different ways. Now last week, the Bengals jumped out to a 22-0 lead against the Patriots only to see New England come back and nearly win that game in a crazy rally. And so they do have the seven straight wins and it comes after, remember it was an 0-2 start for Joe Burrow and the Bengals and then they were below.500 for a while. But they're trying to continue to learn from not just the early mistakes but the ones against the Pats. Our mindset has remained the same.

Nobody was worried then. We're treating every week the same and I think that's why we're so good. It's because we have veteran guys that treat every single week the same, every practice the same, they're trying to get better, picking something to work on. So we're a much better team than we were then but that's just because of how guys prepare and work. We just got to execute better the entirety of the game. The first half was great and then the second half we still moved the ball really well. We just made some critical mistakes that allowed them to get back in the game and put them in position to win.

So we just got to execute better the entire game. The dude's all ball. He loves football. Honestly, he's a heck of a talent, a heck of a player. Got a lot of respect for him as a person, as a player.

I have got the utmost respect for him, especially after his rookie year and the struggle with the injury that he had and coming back and just really kind of lighting the league on fire. It's been super impressive to watch. So you hear not just Joe Burrow about how they've learned from where they were at the beginning. And I say this a lot, no team ever starts out the season ready to win a championship. You have to go through the journey, you have to go through the adversity and the Bengals definitely did that. They were 0-2 losing to Pittsburgh and Dallas. Then they were 2-2 but then they fell to 2-3. Then they were 4-3 but then they lost to Cleveland and they were 4-4. So at that point when they lost to the Browns in Cleveland, they were 4-4 and it was, I don't want to say it was one of those situations where you were ready to bury them because that's not fair.

But it wasn't looking like they were going to be able to capture lightning in a bottle the same as they did at the end of last season and now look where they are. They've rattled off seven consecutive wins and they don't look at this game against the Bills as a gauge. That's just the next game on their schedule. And it's not just about the quarterbacks, I hate that. I would say that the Buffalo Bills have the advantage when it comes to defense. Though I like the big playability, the veteran presence on that Bengals defense and the fact that they will come up with these takeaways or these huge stops. You may not think about them as a defense first team and you may not think about them as a lockdown defense but I do like the leadership, the veteran leadership they have on that side of the ball. And they are in the top 10 when it comes to the number of points that they give up per game.

It's after hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. Elsewhere in the AFC, we know that the Patriots and the Dolphins will be squaring off in the East. We don't know if Tua will get the start. It's looking more and more like Teddy Bridgewater will start again for the Dolphins. Meanwhile for the Patriots, we're talking about must-wins here. Devin McCourty knows that and actually shares Bill Belichick's message to the team this week.

I think Bill said it the best this week. Everything you got, anytime, anything that you're thinking about doing this week to help us win. You're not saving it for anything. Put the time in, put everything into this and I think you'll like the results. You don't want to be sitting here next week saying, man, I wish I would have done this. I thought about doing this.

I wish I would have. All that's out of the window. It's definitely not a familiar position for some of these Patriots veterans. Going back to the days when Tom Brady was roaming the field, you always felt like you had an upper hand. But times have changed and now it's desperation.

That's the word that Devin used too. Desperation for both teams. I mean the Dolphins have been on their own roller coaster ride. I remember how they started and then when Tua was out, they lost three in a row. Then they won five in a row and Tua came back. Now they've dropped four in a row again. And so they have felt like it's been a slippery slope for a good portion of the season.

And this is with obvious playoff implications. Elsewhere in the AFC, you've got Mike White returning for the New York Jets, recovering from the rib injuries, able to get back out there in a game that matters for New York on the road at Seattle. It was nice.

It was cool. I mean, it's a long time coming and just excited to finally be back out there. On game day, it's especially hard when physically you feel like you could go out there, but I understand why the doctors wouldn't clear me.

It was tough, but if you make the most out of it, you'll be alright. Anytime you're named the starter, you wear that badge with honor. To be able to go out and lead these guys and just to know how hard these guys work and how important it is to them, and then you get that chance to lead them because every quarterback is a leader.

So I take that with a lot of pride and seriousness and professionalism. For sure, teams are stacking the box and expecting us or daring us to throw it and beat them that way. Usually that comes with the weather. It's a lot harder to throw the football this time of year than it is earlier in the year.

You've got to earn the right to back them off. Does Mike help that? We'll find out. But at the end of the day, we're in playoff-type football, crappy weather. You've got to be able to run the football. Robert Sala speaking about the Jets. They want to be able to run the football, but they also believe that Mike White can deliver more accurately and with more confidence than Zach Wilson. Now we don't know the final chapter of Zach Wilson. Most of the speculation is that he's done with the Jets, that that bridge cannot be fixed, and that he's a lost cause in their eyes anyway. Maybe it's different with another team, but he can take some solace in the fact that he may be in his second year facing this. But look at what's happening with Derek Carr, a decade into his NFL career. And the Raiders, with their new head coach now, have decided that Derek's somehow a distraction and that he needs to be away from the team. I don't buy it for a second. I don't buy that Derek agreed that he needs to be away from the team. I think that's total crap.

It's just the line they're selling. But you listen to the guys in the locker room and you can recognize that this is a decision the Raiders made because they know that this is not going to be popular with the locker room. Let's be fair. Derek Carr gives the Raiders the best chance to win.

I get it. There's been a disconnect there with Josh McDaniels. Derek Stidham has a history with Josh McDaniels from their time in New England. But it doesn't matter. Derek Carr still gives them the best chance to win.

And they are technically alive for the playoffs. But instead, this will be a decision that's made for the future. Believe the reports when you read or when you hear that they don't want Derek Carr to get hurt because they do want to trade him or look for another home for him as though he's a stray dog or something.

It just blows me away. But this is what happens. It's a business in the NFL. Josh Jacobs said that. And then Devante Adams, as much as Derek Carr is his best friend, you can read between the lines.

He also has a responsibility to his bosses and to the franchise. Obviously, I don't think anybody was excited about it in here. Him being one of my really good friends and the reason why I came here in the first place. I wouldn't be here right now if he wasn't here. I think everybody knows how I feel about him. With that said, there's a process of how things go.

I'm not going to sit here and go on and on, but obviously I support my guy. We've got to finish the season out the best way we can possible with all things considered at this point. Anything else that you guys got, you can leave that for Coach or Derek. Josh McDaniels mentioned that this is not a closed door on Derek Carr and that it's more about evaluating Jared Sidom. I mean seriously, raise your hand if you believe the Raiders might actually believe Jared Sidom is the answer for the future. Come on. In the AFC West?

No. It's not a knock on Jared. Maybe he goes out there and he turns into the next coming of Tom Brady because of the time that he spent behind him. And I'm glad he gets the opportunity to start.

Good for him. But this has been so woefully mismanaged by Josh and by the Raiders that I almost hope it blows up in their faces. I don't generally root against teams just because I don't care that much.

I care more about storylines, but the way they've handled this is just wrong. Derek Carr has been a constant for the Raiders over the last decade where nothing else has been constant. But yes, Jared will start this weekend against the Niners. You dream of playing in the NFL as a kid and to start a game in the NFL, it's a dream come true. But at the same time, I've been preparing since my rookie year. I've tried to prepare the same every single week, whether I was a backup or the starter. Obviously, I've gotten to learn under a bunch of really good guys, players, coaches. I've always tried to treat the weeks the same, and it's no different this week. Sometimes I get caught up listening in the background.

Usually there's the ever-present ping-pong game that's going on. Didn't happen to have one right there. So Jared Sidom will start for the Raiders. That's not one of the options for game of the week, but you know what is? Tom Brady, Tampa Bay against the Carolina Panthers. This game is taking place in Florida, and the Bucs threw everything that they have tried to throw at the division title. And I mean some of the worst performances that we've seen in Brady's career or foreign offense led by Tom Brady.

If they win against the Panthers on Sunday, they will have the NFC South title and will be hosting a playoff game come the first weekend. This is something that's earned. I don't think there's nothing given, and there's nothing you really take for granted. Every year is something different. I think obviously this year has been, for all of us, dealt with some injuries and dealt with a lot of different lineup changes and some tough games and a lot of tough calls and close calls. But we have an opportunity now to do something really positive. They lost to the Panthers in late October 21-3, as in no touchdowns going back to that other battle.

I mean, could you even call it a battle? Steve Wilks, though, he points to Week 6 against the Rams at the juncture at which he believes they really started to turn things around offensively. The physicality and the effort up front I saw was really establishing that mentality, you know, and running the ball the way we did in the first half against those guys. So I still feel it has a pretty good front, and O'Donnell is not playing anymore, but when he was in there, I mean, that was a pretty good defensive line.

So I started sensing it then, and we just wanted to continue to build on that. I saw an interview with Shaq Thompson, the linebacker for the Panthers this week, and he was talking about, and I'm pretty sure this was with the Josina Anderson show, The Crew. He was talking about why it is that they respect Steve Wilks so much because he's been in the arena, because he's an established, not only was he a player in the league, but he has been a head coach.

And he walks in a room and guys know that he understands what they're going through. And he also said they circled the wagons too because they traded away Christian, they traded Robbie, they felt like the team was attempting, management was attempting to kind of pull the plug on the season. And yet the players still had to go out there and perform, and Steve Wilks never blinked. He still believed that this was a team that had potential.

And so it was interesting to hear Shaq say that, but yeah, here they are in position to potentially grab a division title after everything they've been through. So that's just a smattering of the storylines for this weekend. Our Game of the Week poll is up on Twitter. After Hours, CBS, also on our Facebook page. Crazy but true final few minutes of 2022 for me here on the show, but also before we celebrate our 10-year anniversary coming up on Sunday. It's After Hours, CBS Sports Radio.

You are listening to the After Hours podcast. We got a different team, very different team this year than last year, so I don't get caught up in one year to the next, wipe the slate clean and try to redraw the art piece. And you start all over each year with what you got. This year's team was very different than last year's.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. That is the voice of Kirby Smart, head coach of the defending national champion Georgia Bulldogs. But it's a whole new ballgame coming up on New Year's Eve Saturday evening. Well, depending upon where you are. In Glendale, Arizona, it's only 1 o'clock in the afternoon when Michigan kicks off with TCU. That will be followed by the Atlanta half of the national semifinals, which is kind of nice if you are Georgia. The Bulldogs being in their own state, not necessarily in their own city, but it's not that far from Athens to Atlanta. Georgia and Ohio State.

And Stetson Bennett, unlikely superstar, but does have the benefit of experience. So again, Kirby Smart preaching that it doesn't matter what they did last year. They're going to be ready to prove people wrong. They've got competitors on that team and they've got good football players.

And it's going to be a dogfight. And I'm excited because you want somebody's best. And you're not going to get much better from somebody who just lost their last game and they lost to a rival. We're super proud of the team that we were last year and everything that's happened. But it's not like every day we come in and we're like, all right, so we're national championships.

But we've got to forget about that and we've got to go out there and practice. It's nice, but we're here now. And this is all that matters.

So that's the Georgia version. That's their story and they're sticking to it. Certainly for Ohio State, they've tried to milk this, hey, it's us against the world. We're underdogs. Nobody believes in us.

Don't take that line and believe it for a second. This is Ohio State. They expect to win all the time. Ryan Day knows that they will be ready to go. All the focus is just playing the fastest and most violent game we've played all season here.

Saturday night, 8 o'clock. I just think all the work that we put in this last month is going to now show. And our guys are going to play with confidence because we've had a really good month of prep.

There's been friction, there's been conflict, there's been a lot of that going on. And that's a healthy thing. And so the one good thing about this, we're going to go play. We're not going to sit there and worry about what if or anything like that.

Nobody really gives us a chance to win this game anyways. Oh, please. We're going to let it all out. We're going to play as hard as we possibly can and look up after four quarters and see where we're at. Okay, Ryan Day, Ohio versus the world.

I got you. And then, of course, TCU being kind of the new kid on the block. That's the type of step that TCU needs to become a national power. To be able to compete in terms of recruiting and in terms of having the same access, the same exposure. So I love this opportunity for Sonny Dykes and his team as they face Michigan on Saturday.

That gives you credibility if you go out and beat them. And that's our goal is, you know, we hope to someday look up and somebody says, hey, look, in the last decade, TCU is the winningest program in college football or in the top five. And that's kind of the goal for us moving forward. Here we are in the college football playoff. I think nobody anticipated any of us being here. I don't think anybody, you know, really was betting on Max Duggan to be a runner up for the Heisman Trophy. And, you know, when you go back and you look at what he's been through as a football player here, you know, from a coaching change to a heart surgery to ups and downs, you know, all the things he's been through, I think people will look back at him. And as I said earlier, he'll be on the Mount Rushmore at TCU football and he certainly deserves to be. Yeah, if you don't have a rooting interest, TCU is a fun underdog, the Cinderella, so to speak.

Thinking about maybe like Morocco in the Final Four of the World Cup, like what? But it's cool. It's cool to have fresh blood, new storylines, and college football be down to its final two by New Year's Eve. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. We'll be back on Sunday night to talk not just national championship battle. That doesn't happen until January 9th, but also week 17 of the NFL. And by that time, we will be 10 years old as a network. Thanks for all of your kind words on Twitter and Facebook. Also, you can vote for the game of the week. We're going to race through as many of these calls as we can. I've just got a few minutes left, so give it a few seconds and then get off the horn.

Pedro's in Massachusetts. Welcome to the show. Happy New Year. Happy New Year to you, Amy. It's an honor and a pleasure to speak with you. I started listening to you about nine years ago, so congratulations. Ooh! Yeah, I work at a truck driver overnight, so you keep me company. Awesome. And your stories with Cuba and your missionary work over there.

Penny, I think it was nine years of Penny. And so many other wonderful stories. Sorry! No, it's a pleasure because sometimes you go through so much.

It's almost just in your daily life and you're just listening to your story that kind of puts you in another place. So, again, congratulations. And real quick, if I can, I wanted to say about Tua. He's a young man going through these injuries now, second concussion, third concussion, I believe.

And at what point do you start to say, well, safety and just got to hang it up? Well, that's up to Tua, right? I mean, the team could say, hey, we don't believe that you're the right quarterback for us anymore, and they could move on. But it's up to Tua to determine whether or not he wants to continue his career.

And it should be. No one else should be able to make that health decision for him. Again, if a team decides they can't trust him anymore or they feel like it's not the right thing, maybe ethically, whatever, they could certainly part ways. But it's up to Tua and his doctors. And Mike McDaniel has said that multiple times this week, that this is no longer a team thing. This is Tua's medical history. It's Tua's, it's Tua's doctors. It's not us anymore.

And so that's good because the team should not be involved in that decision. Absolutely. Amy, again, I want to thank you for keeping the nights entertaining. Hope you have a blessed 2023 and off to maybe, maybe in 2023 or in the next 10 years, we'll hear about some wedding bells. What do you think? Yes, I can.

Well, I don't guarantee anything, but yes, I believe that would probably be the case. Thank you, Pedro. I appreciate it.

Happy New Year to you. Let's quick talk to Anthony, who's in Cincinnati. Welcome to After Hours. Amy Lawrence. You really kept my company tonight. I haven't listened or heard you in about two years.

I'm a big fan of overnight radio and I just happened to be off from work, plant shut down for a week. So when I heard your voice, I was like, wow, she'll be entertaining. Well, that's true. Anyway, thanks for the love for Cincinnati Bengals. How far can you see this team going in the playoffs this year? I mean, they went last year to the Super Bowl, so I feel like the sky's the limit for the Bengals. And we're seeing them.

Thank you for your phone call, Anthony. Glad you were able to tune in. We're seeing them capitalize on some of the chemistry that they were able to build last year. We're seeing them capitalize on the confidence that they were able to build last year in one another. Obviously need that defense to come up with some big plays because they're going to face some high-powered, high-octane offenses as they move forward. And this game against the Bills, whether or not they want to acknowledge it, is, I think, a huge gauge for them, especially since the Bills and Bengals. I mean, Sean McDermott was even talking about the fact that they're not familiar with Joe Burrow.

They haven't ever faced him. And so this is heavyweights, and I love it. I love the fact that we get this as a precursor to the playoffs.

And so I'm excited for it. But I do think both those teams actually could make a run to the Super Bowl and could end up winning the Super Bowl. It's about matchups. It's about how you play in the moment. It's why analytics cannot ever tell you the whole story or paint a full picture.

Because they don't measure how humans perform under pressure in the moment, heart and soul, and their decision-making. But the Bengals have shown they've got all of those qualities, as do the Bills, as do the Chiefs, if we're talking AFC. All right, Happy New Year to you. Thank you for all the kind words. Find me on Twitter, ALawRadio, our Facebook page, too. We're back here Sunday night, 2023.

It's after-hours CBS Sports Radio. Boom! Is there something really absurd that skeeves you out? Getting a paper cut on my eyeball. A fear you can't shake? I'm going to leak ocular fluid down my cheeks.

It's going to go into my mouth and I will perish. Whatever scares you, I want to talk about it. Join me, Larry Mullins, on my new podcast, Your Weirdest Fears. Listen and subscribe to Your Weirdest Fears on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcast from. What makes your skin crawl, no matter how absurd?

I want to know. Tales without fur on them, such as rats or opossums. I'm Larry Mullins, the host of a new podcast called Your Weirdest Fears. You send me your fear. I'm just so weirded out about the texture and how they can just move around and flop. And then I go to the experts to learn how to overcome them. Listen and subscribe to Your Weirdest Fears on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcast from.