1-5-23 After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 4

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. 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 do tend to have those moments weekly where I feel like it's better not to share my name with you on the off chance that you might be listening and don't know who I am. It's totally fine, I don't care. I say, give me two weeks. Two weeks and you'll be hooked.

Either you will love the show and you'll enjoy the entertainment and hanging out with us and how I make up words and I'm relatively goofy. Earlier in the show, I stumbled over my words and did it at the top of the hour when we were going into what we call a hard out, meaning the computer was about to cut me off. So I finished the hour like this and I quote, blah, blah, blah, blah. That was it. That was how I finished the hour. Jay, don't even think about replaying it.

Jay Lasso Hardy cried. And so, well, I admit I was laughing too, but it was one of my finer moments. I just want you to know. So either you will enjoy those types of ridiculous radio displays or you will hate me and hate the product, but you can't help but tune in. You're addicted because you need to fuel your anger and your obsession. So, you know, somewhere in there. Or you just are bored on your way to work and need someone to keep you awake, I suppose.

There's all kinds of reasons. But yes, the show is after hours with Amy Lawrence. Now and then I won't say my name because I feel like it's, you know, it's not necessary. Thanks for hanging out with us. Good morning to you. It is a Thursday. I have frequently received the question over the last couple of days. When are you taking down your Christmas decorations or did you take down your Christmas decorations already?

Well, the answer 24 hours ago would have been no. All of my Christmas decorations are still up. And then my dog decided that she was going to do something about that. I have a 70, well, 69 pound dog now. She's losing a little bit of weight. But Penny sits hard. And by that I mean the dog is dealing probably with some type of arthritis. But when she sits down, I have hardwood floors and so she kind of slides halfway down and then drops. And always there's a bit of a crashing noise. There's also some type of grunting. The poor dog then has to kind of settle into a spot where she's comfortable. So she's making other kinds of noises. I guess kind of like my grandmother would do when she would stand up or sit down. And so Penny does that. So on Wednesday morning, I'm getting ready for bed, brushing my teeth, whatever else.

And the dog usually sleeps in between my bed and the window. And so I hear this crash. Well, crash. It's more like a hard landing. I hear a hard landing and all of a sudden I could tell something falls down and hits the floor, not just the dog. And I go into the bedroom and she had plopped down. And as I say, she plops down hard.

She's not light on her feet anymore. So she plops down on the end of the Christmas lights where you plug in. So it's dangling down by the window. She sits down on the strand of Christmas lights on the dangling end and promptly yanks the whole thing down off the window. I guess it's better than pulling down the curtains. But yeah, that set of Christmas lights, that strand of Christmas lights is not going back up.

It's down. So Penny has already begun to disassemble the Christmas decorations. And then I tried to get the Christmas lights out from under her. Nah, she wasn't moving. Somehow she had one. She had it wrapped around her back leg. I mean, that dog is a clodhopper. She's not got a whole lot of grace, especially not anymore when she is 13 plus. It's just crazy.

We think about 10 years here at CBS Sports Radio. Do you know that I had only adopted Penny eight months before I got this job? And then I had to pick up my whole life and move it. I left my condo, my neighborhood, my job, my church, my friends, my routine. And I moved, essentially sight unseen, to the New York City area, managed to come down one afternoon, find an apartment. I knew nothing about the area. And I say this frequently, I tell her sometimes, if I had known what was coming, if I had known that I was going to pack up my whole life and move it and start over brand new and fresh, I wouldn't have adopted a dog because it was really challenging.

I was going back and forth between New Jersey and Connecticut. I was working crazy hours. I didn't have anyone to help me with the dog. I had to hire a dog walker for a few months before I could get acclimated to the routine. Oh, the best part. I was living in an in-laws apartment, not even 450 square feet with three pets.

Oh, it was insane. And so I tell her sometimes if I had known what was coming, I wouldn't have adopted you. But I'm so glad I did. And now she's not three, she's 13 plus and still running my life and running my schedule and still the most important thing I got going on a daily basis. And call him George.

Oh, Penny's so grateful that I did not name her George. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. Thanks so much for hanging out with us. You can find me on Twitter, ALawRadio. I do frequently tweet photos of my dog and actually have one of my cat that I thought about sharing. Well, we'll see. She looks kind of cute and then you all will love her.

And trust me, she's a huge pain in the butt. So either Twitter or Facebook. And we've been letting you know the latest on DeMar Hamlin, which is that he is making improvement according to his family and a family spokesperson. But he is still in ICU in critical condition on a ventilator to help him breathe, though his oxygen levels, we understand, are increasing and they are hopeful and they are positive.

But this is going to be a long haul. And now we're starting to hear players as well as coaches in the NFL wrestle with this idea of moving forward. Now, it's more poignant and it's more of a challenge for the Bills and the Bengals. The Bills are the only NFL team that has not spoken since this happened. They did get back to practice, I understand, on Wednesday, but it was a walkthrough and it was meetings.

It wasn't a full pad practice. Right now, I guess they're starting to install their game plan against the Patriots for Sunday's game. But they have not yet spoken to the media, not even Sean McDermott.

Instead, what we got on Wednesday was the first opportunity to hear from the Bengals. Now, this was relatively limited availability, but Zach Taylor was the first one at the microphone and, of course, his thoughts, like every other player and coach, start with DeMar Hamlin. Our thoughts and prayers are with DeMar Hamlin and his family and his loved ones and his teammates, the coaches, the entire Bills organization. We've always had a great deal of respect for them. I think that's grown much deeper, obviously, with what we've all seen transpire.

So, certainly, we're pulling for DeMar, hoping for the most positive outlook. He was asked a lot of questions about Monday, about what it was like to be there in that moment, about the thought process following, about the decision to postpone the game. And really, the Bengals and the Bills don't have a whole lot of control over the situation now. I'm not sure if you know this.

I learned this in doing my research. It's the sole discretion of the commissioner, Roger Goodell, whether or not this game is resumed, whether or not it's rescheduled, whether or not they declare no contest or a tie and decide not to finish it. That is ultimately the commissioner's decision. Now, is he consulting with the two teams? That's what the NFL indicates.

And there are other league officials who are involved, like Troy Vincent, like Jeff Miller. You've got other guys that are trying to answer questions now, but they haven't made a decision. They don't know if this game is moving forward.

It's not, though, the choice of the Bills and the Bengals. I suppose they could choose not to play. That doesn't seem like something that they would do, considering what's on the line, but not this weekend.

They're moving forward with their other games, their week 18 games. But Zach was asked about the way everything was handled once DeMar had gone to the hospital. Everyone that was on the field could feel the seriousness of the situation, and they did a great job of stepping back and asking the Bills what they needed, us what we needed, giving us the space to process. I thought that they just did a tremendous job of allowing all that to unfold and everybody getting to the decision that ultimately was to get to. But I thought that Sean and his crew really managed a difficult situation in which there's really not much precedence that I've ever been a part of.

I thought that they handled that really well. One of the lasting images from Monday night certainly will be the players who were so shaken, some of them in tears, others just shocked and devastated, really terrified for their teammate. But also Zach Taylor walking across the field. We never see this in the middle of a game.

One head coach walking across the field to meet with the other. But he did that and he had a conversation with Sean McDermott even as his players and the Bills are trying to figure out what to do next. When I got over there, the first thing he said was, I need to be at the hospital with DeMar and I shouldn't be coaching this game.

And so that to me provides all the clarity because there was no unprecedented is the word that gets thrown out a lot about this situation because that's what it is. But in that moment, he really showed who he was, that all his focus was just on DeMar and being there for him, being there for his family, at the hospital. The right decisions were made there. But again, I really felt Sean McDermott led in that moment for his players. He was there for his players.

He processed the right way, which is incredibly difficult and really helped us get to the solution that we needed to get to. So then, as you know, the two teams went to the locker rooms. We were waiting on a definitive word from the NFL. It didn't take as long as it might have seemed in that moment on Monday.

And I think partly it's because you had the broadcast teams on ESPN as well as NFL Network. They were kind of stepping into trying to to offer updates when they could. It seemed like an eternity because they didn't know what to say. They couldn't speculate.

They really had not any new information. And all we could see was what was happening on the field. So the two teams go to their locker rooms. There were cameras that were back in the bowels of the stadium. And so we we periodically saw the group of officials standing together. We then saw the two coaches come together and speak again. We now know that the Commissioner Goodell was on the phone and a phone was being passed back and forth between the two coaches to speak to them. And then eventually a statement from the league about how the game would be suspended. So, yeah, there was a lot that had to go into them putting their statement out. But as Zach Taylor says, the right decisions were made.

And he believes that Sean McDermott wanted to head to the hospital anyway and no longer felt like he could stay there at the stadium. Joe Burrow spoke about his captains. Remember, he got his captains together and went to the Bills locker room as they were waiting for some definition from the league. We tried to do all we could.

You know, we went over there and saw them and just tried to give, like you said, give as much support as you can in a situation like that. Nobody wanted to continue to play the game in a situation like that. He, as well as his teammates, were out there with the Bills. And the Bills were first to surround DeMar and the ambulance and the first responders there. But ultimately the Bengals came and joined them. And so it was really emotional for them, too.

Just a lot of shell shock. That's what it looked like on the field. And ultimately now the Bengals have to think about moving forward and trying to play a game again. But it's not as easy as it sounds. We have a game to play on Sunday. And it's a short week and it's going to be tough. Just like I'm sure it's going to be tough for everybody around the league to go out there and play on Sunday after what happened on Monday night.

I think playing would be, is going to be tough. But, you know, there's people that want to play, too. And there's people that don't.

And so personally I probably want to play. You know, I think getting back to, you know, as normal as you can, as fast as you can is personally how I deal with these kind of things. Yeah, everybody's different.

And I would say the majority of professional athletes, this is in fact their haven, their safe haven. Even though this is where DeMar got hurt and we all watched it, a lot of us then revert back to what we're used to doing. I know that even in the wake of losing my grandmother last year, it really astounds me, even as I think back on it, how I was able to step into the studio and somehow stop crying and stop thinking about her for a few hours and be able to host a radio show and even laugh. And yeah, it felt foreign and it didn't feel real.

It wasn't authentic. In my own mind it sounded strange. And yet I was able to do that because I've done this for 25 years. This is more muscle memory than anything. And we know professional athletes a lot of times dealing with incredible stresses and pain and loss, even their own lives, but they're able to step on the field and they're able to play a game because that's what they're trained to do. And I think by week 18 or by the time the games kick off on Saturday and Sunday, you will see them able to focus in between the white lines. It's not up to the Bills and Bengals whether or not this game gets replayed, but Joe, still sensitive of what the Bills are going through, thinking about whether or not they'll resume Monday night. I think that would be tough, just scheduling-wise.

I think whatever Buffalo would want to do would be what we would want to do as well. We're behind them 100% and support them in whatever they would decide to do going forward. To a man, and really producer Jay and I kind of listened to as much as we could between the two of us, different athletes, different coaches, Monday is really a day, I'm sorry, Wednesday is really a day where these guys are supposed to step up in front of the microphones and do availability. Whether it's a Zoom call, most often it's in person now, and every single one of them mentioned DeMar. Every single one of them either started their press comments or their media comments with saying they're praying for him or bringing him up.

It seemed like to me almost every single one of them answered questions about how do you move forward, how do you play, how is it going to feel when you step out there on the field and try to focus on football. We heard it just last hour from Patrick Mahomes, they're the first game back and he does think it will be a little bit strange. We heard from Devante Adams why he donated to DeMar Hamlin's toy drive and seeing the number of other NFL coaches and owners and players who are donated and he wanted to keep that going.

And then you have people like Kenny Pickett who know DeMar Hamlin personally. Now Pittsburgh's got a game that matters this weekend, right? They still do have their playoff hopes and he's thinking about his former Pitt teammate, as is Patrick Jones. So Patrick Jones is now a member of the Minnesota Vikings.

He spent five years at Pitt with DeMar Hamlin and he's not sure how it's going to be when he gets back on the field. It's hard. Like I said, that's like my brother. I mean, when you spend every day with someone for five years and you're doing everything together, even doing COVID, when everything's shut down, we're working out together the whole time. It's hard just seeing something like that. It's really hard.

All you could do is just stay strong. Whenever I go out there, I remember I'm playing for a lot of reasons and I'm playing for another one. I'm playing for my brother. It's tough for him. So Patrick Jones is with the Vikings and as they move forward, they know they have playoffs. His thoughts obviously are with his teammate. And that also goes for Rodney Thomas. Now the Colts don't really have anything to play for in terms of postseason or the future, but they still have individual contracts and they don't have a coach for next year. And so there's still a lot on the line in terms of their individual jobs and potentially playing time moving forward. And Rodney Thomas, he's a high school friend of DeMar Hamlin's.

He actually left Indianapolis on Monday and drove to Cincinnati so that he could see his friend at the hospital. And he said it helped him to be able to talk to him, to speak to him, to spend time with him. Ultimately, he believes that will help him get back to football. The most genuine person that you could ever come across. No hidden motives, no nothing. He just wants to see the people that care about him, he wants to see them succeed.

The people that don't care about him, he wants to see them succeed. He's just that type of guy and he lives his life like that. What did that do for you personally to get a chance to see? Definitely for me, it calmed me down just being able to get eyes on him. Just because being away, it's just all what's going on. Like he says, I just wanted to go there, I just wanted to be there. And I just wanted to get an understanding of what was going on. Really just being able to see him and just see his people, it calmed me way down.

And it just made that trip home a lot easier. I could just go home and I could just know that he's going to be straight. I got him, the world got him, everybody behind him. You see what's going on everywhere else. Everybody's behind him. And when he walks out of there and he sees the support that he has, it's going to be a real special thing. The numbers for his GoFundMe page are astronomical. And even as we've been here in the last four hours, we've seen the numbers, the donations go over $7 million.

We've been tracking them and reading some of the comments. And so as Rodney Thomas is talking about it, he's referencing how this is bringing so many people together and so many people care about DeMar. And I just continue to think about not only his family, who right now is overwhelmed by the support and really can't believe how many people are reaching out via this GoFundMe page. But also when DeMar wakes up, how it will feel to know when he becomes cognizant of the fact that really the sports world stopped for more than 48 hours and is praying for him and believing for him and lifting him up and supporting him and caring about him. That's got to mean something to him whenever he really understands it and can grasp it. We'll do a little more week 18 prep through the eyes of the NFC and the NFC QBs.

And man, we're going to have to drop some Dean Campbell into your Thursday morning because it will just make the whole thing brighter. But straight ahead, the NBA is really trying to grab the spotlight in the center ring of the circus with some wild finishes, one that you had to see to believe. A little bit like Luca scoring.

What do you have? 60 points the other night. And a lot of it came in the late stages where you never even would have thought it possible.

Well, the Raptors pulled a little bit of that Luca magic themselves against the Bucks on Wednesday night. I wish I had those bunnies. It's after out. When you need to know what's happening, it's time to get you in the huddle. You're fraudulent. You're not in the business of winning football games. You're in the business of trying to prove your own asinine decisions correct. We can talk about the Earth Day thing. Do I think the Saturday thing is the biggest joke in the history of the NFL? I do. But at least he was going to say this ain't working for me.

I don't care that I just gave him extensions. Listen to in the huddle available on the Aussie app or wherever you get your podcast. 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. When you need to know what's happening, it's time to get in the huddle. This sham with Steve Keim out there in the desert. I mean, it's like no accountability. Never my fault. It's never his fault. Stuff just happens.

Losses just fall from the sky. It's not his fault. It's not Kyler's fault. It's not my fault. It's not the owner's fault. We just have really bad luck. Just hang in there and keep throwing money at us and we'll figure it out.

Shut up. Listen to In the Huddle, available on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcast. Of course, with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio.

You are listening to the After Hours Podcast. I'm creating with a handoff to Vuj to DeMar DeRozan. Four minutes remaining here in the fourth quarter. DeRozan with a spin on Royce O'Neal.

Turn around, number 19. And DeMar DeRozan with back-to-back hopes. And it's a 115-102 ballgame. Bulls, 15 on the clock, and this crowd loves it. They are on their feet after a tough, tough loss at Cleveland.

They have bounced back and answered the call tonight, and the Bulls are about to snap a 12-game win streak by the Brooklyn Nets. We play extremely good against them, and we bring that attention to detail every single game. I think our record's different, but obviously we know we can do it. We just got to keep going out there and do it consistently. But, you know, you take the win, it's a good win, and, you know, you don't hang your head for that.

The game you step into is the biggest one, and you move on to the next one. And I think we're prepared coming into this one. We've had two hard losses versus Cleveland where we thought, you know, it could have went either way at the end. So I think this is a very good win for us to, you know, keep moving forward.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Zach Levine and the Chicago Bulls take another step toward.500. They had all five starters in double figures, a very balanced attack. They shot better than 53 percent in ending the Nets' 12-game win streak.

But ain't no big thing to Kevin Durant because, you know, win streaks pshaw. It's good to have winning streaks, but we're more concerned with how we're playing and what we're doing to produce the wins. And I think, you know, we're walking in the right direction when it comes to that. We're building some solid habits.

That's the great thing about this thing. We have shown how to respond after a win, and we just kept winning. Now, how do we respond after a loss?

That's why you don't get too high or too low in this thing and you get ready to play the next game. We've never mentioned anything about the streak along the way. I think the point was, and it'll continue to be, what's important is that day's game. So I'm looking forward to that piece of our guys kind of learning a lesson from this game and then moving on and responding on Friday. Jacques Vaughn following KD. Yeah, it's been a while since they've tasted defeat. Twelve consecutive wins and now they've put themselves near the top of the Eastern Conference.

It's after hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. Thanks to Giannis and what's been an incredible stretch for him. Now five games, another triple-double last night.

The Bucks are also right there neck and neck with the Nets and the Sixers and the Celtics among the top teams in the East. But his triple-double wasn't quite enough to prevent what was a collapse of near historic proportions. The Bucks in Toronto up 21 points with under four minutes to go and yet somehow this game went into overtime. Freddy against Carter. Up top straight away, over the shoulder to Scottie. Step back, thought about the three, goes over far wing to Gary. Shot clock, game clock down to five, three. Trent to tie the game.

It's good! Gary Trent with.8 remaining has tied the game at 97. Onions from Trent and the Toronto Raptors have come back from down 16, down 12 with only 60 seconds to play. They have locked the game at 97.

I don't believe it. Giannis drifts to his right. He's being pressured on the outside by Aninobi. Spins in, into a crowd, passes to the corner, catch and shoot three for the lead. Grayson Allen sticks it with a cold-blooded three with the nerve of a cat burglar. It's a three-point lead for Milwaukee. 104 to 101 with 10.8 seconds to go and a hush descends again over Scotia Bank Arena. For a while those Raptors fans and the Raptors themselves were showing all kinds of energy.

You hear with Eric Smith on Raptors radio and then Bucs radio as well. It was a 28-7 run in under four minutes. 28-7. They erased a 21-point deficit in four minutes. That has never happened before at the late stages of a game. And the Bucs were nearly licking their wounds and thinking about how they let this one slip away.

I can't believe it. Took their foot off the gas but Grayson Allen gets a big three. It actually was a very low scoring overtime. But they were able to preserve that win.

It just took a little extra oomph. Grayson even said we had to win this game twice. It's after hours here on CBS Sports Radio. It appeared as though the Golden State Warriors were going to see another overtime game. Remember the last time we saw them, I forgot who they were playing. I don't remember who they were playing in their last game that went into double overtime. But it was a Kavon Looney offensive rebound in double OT that allowed them to survive against the Hawks.

Thank you Jay. And that was a game in which Klay Thompson had 54 points. So that one was dramatic.

Well, it was pretty much the same. More of this kind of heart stopping palpitations at the end of a game against Detroit. Looney up top. Klay comes back. They throw it for Lamb on the right side.

The Klay who relocates for a three look. He got it! With one second to go! There's a lot to listen to.

So get started and download the free Odyssey app today. When you need to know what's happening, it's time to get hit. In the huddle. You're fraudulent. You're not in the business of winning football games. You're in the business of trying to prove your own asinine decisions correct. We can talk about the Ursay thing. Do I think the Saturday thing is the biggest joke in the history of the NFL? I do. But at least he was on the site. This ain't working for me.

I don't care that I just gave him extensions. Listen to In the Huddle available on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcast. 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. What a play! Steve Kerr and his staff drew up an unbelievable play there. Klay Thompson got a wide open look. We're tied with one second to go.

Tied at 119. The game is not over. Detroit calls their final time out.

Hayes gets it in. Sadiq fires. Oh! Oh!

Oh! Sadiq just hit it if it's good. He nailed it. Eddie Malloy is going to look at it. Hayes waiting. Trying to throw it in. Trying to throw it in. Gets it into Bay. Turns and fires. It's up.

It's good! He hit it at the buzzer. A three point shot falling backwards. Went up and in. The Pistons mob him as they head to the locker room and Detroit has won. My goodness.

You hear both versions there. First the Pistons radio call and then Tim Roy on Warriors radio. A second to go and somehow Sadiq Bay is able to can that last second triple. He does it and the Pistons end up winning this game at Golden State.

But yeah this is after a bunch of twists and turns in the final few seconds. Jordan Poole. He commits a turnover which leads to a couple of free throws for the Pistons. That then puts the Warriors down by three only to have Klay come around this impeccable screen. Square. Catch the ball.

Nail a triple himself. But they were still at that point thinking overtime until Sadiq Bay to the rescue. So yeah.

Mark Champion and Rick Mahorn. Lots of yelling as you can imagine. Though Sadiq Bay he wasn't yelling in that moment. I don't even really remember. I kind of blacked out a little bit but I think I just turned around. And you know I had one second so I didn't have that much time to think so I had to shoot it. So I'm just grateful. He blacked out a little bit. That seems to be a popular answer. Just close your eyes and let it fly.

But it works every now and then. Wraps up the streak for the Warriors. Their season high five in a row. So they're above five hundred expecting to get Steph Curry back on the thirteenth. That's the target date after his partially dislocated shoulder. He's missed now ten games I believe. So yeah the Warriors are playing some of their best basketball and will soon be able to insert Steph back into that equation.

Curry! Alright we've got the NFC version of QB News to get you set for Week 18. There is no Thursday Night Football but there is Saturday Football and then Sunday of course. And still no decision by the NFL about that Bill's Bengals game. But it appears as though the most likely choice is a no contest or a tie. And they will not make that game up.

Instead they'll determine the top seed by winning percentage though. So we'll wait to get some word from the league. Touchdown Kansas City! No, Herbert keeps it in. Touchdown Chargers! Herbert with his second of the day.

Here's the snap. Gosh going to keep it himself and run it again inside the five into the end zone. Touchdown Buffalo! Josh Allen nine yard touchdown run. The Bills respond and then some. It's time for QB News on After Hours.

Good morning to you if you're waking up on your Thursday. There is no Thursday Night Football. We have to wait until Saturday and then it's the AFC. But Sunday there are games with playoff implications in the NFC. You may recall that the Philadelphia Eagles have not yet locked up the number one seed. And it's still very much up for grabs as they take on the Giants this weekend. Now the Giants are already locked into their wild card.

They cannot change seeds. They are number five. That's where they are. Wait, number five, number six. Number six.

Excuse me. Duh. They're number six.

That's where they are. Strike that from the record. And so the Giants don't necessarily have anything to play for. But the Eagles are still trying to get that by in the home field advantage. What about Jalen Hurts?

Will we see him in week 18, Nick Ceriani? We'll still keep that day by day. We don't have to make a decision yet. And we're going to see how this week goes. And we'll see how today's walkthrough goes of everything. And then tomorrow we'll see a little bit more because we'll be more than a walkthrough. We'll be practicing. And so we'll get a better idea here within the next couple days. There are other potential quarterback changes, other situations that are in flux, though not necessarily impacting the postseason.

In Washington, Ron Rivera has named Sam Howell his starting quarterback for the final game of the regular season. I was excited. I've been working hard all year. And I was kind of waiting for an opportunity to go out there. I kind of assumed that what the circumstances are, I might have an option to go out there and play this weekend. So I'm excited for it. I spoke with the coaches, talked to some of the team leaders.

And talked with some others about it. And I feel that this is an opportunity for us to give Sam a chance to show us what he's capable of. The opportunity is going to be a good one for him to go out and play football and just kind of show us. We're not going to judge everything on Sam based on just one game.

We are going to get an opportunity to see him and see how he prepares and gives himself the opportunity to play. If you're wondering who is Sam Howell, he's a rookie quarterback. And it wasn't until Wednesday that the commanders, their coaching staff, started leaning toward giving Sam the start.

And do you know why? According to multiple sources, it was Taylor Heineke who said to the coaches, Sam deserves a chance to start. Give Sam an opportunity.

And I guess there were other players, too, inside the commander's locker room. I don't know if this is quarterbacked by committee or we're taking a vote on who our... That's how you know that you are no longer part of the playoff equation when you're voting about who the starting quarterback should be to wrap up your regular season. So, yes, rookie Sam Howell instead of Taylor Heineke, Carson Wentz will be inactive. I don't know what that means about his future in Washington or his future in the NFL.

That remains to be seen. Also, we will not see the Bears with their starting quarterback on Sunday. Justin Fields came in on Monday morning with a sore hip, which many times happens to players. They come in with soreness that they didn't anticipate to be like that. And so we sent him to get an MRI on his hip, and that showed that he had a strain in his hip. So he's not going to be at full speed this week, and the medical staff has ruled him out for this week. This is not a long-term injury, so just so we know that. It is one of the dangers of allowing your quarterback to run as much as Justin Fields has.

Now, certainly you can get smashed on the hip in the pocket as well, but it's more likely when you're running as much as he is. So Fields will not get the single-season quarterback rushing record. He'll finish second and 64 yards shy.

Lamar Jackson still owns the record then, going back to the 2019 season, in which he was just over 1,200 yards. So Justin will sit out this last game of the year. Instead, it will be Nathan Peterman against the Vikings coming up on Sunday.

It's after hours with Amy Lawrence here on CBS Sports Radio. So the Vikings have got their own NFC North battle. It does not have any playoff implications.

But the other two teams in this division are the final game of the regular season. They've been flexed. Dan Campbell got his wish. The Lions got flexed. Who says we can't get flexed? Oh, you did get flexed. They get their first primetime game in what essentially is a playoff game for them. We'll hear from him coming up, even if it's not quarterback news. Aaron Rodgers talking to Jim Rome on Wednesday.

He says actually, crump, limping would be the right word. Crawling, limping to a 4-8 start was a good thing for Green Bay. We didn't fold.

We didn't point fingers. We just actually played a little bit looser, I think. It kind of helped being 4-8 where everybody wrote us off and we said, all right, well, let's play loose out there. Let's have a little bit more fun during the week and let's enjoy this because who knows, we lose one, we're probably out.

So let's see how far we can take this thing and what kind of runner we can go on. Aaron goes on to say that against the Lions, you're talking playoff atmosphere here, but looking forward to it, right, because they are in the driver's seat. Win and they become the final NFC wild card. It's a real good football team. They won seven out of nine games coming in and there will be something that happens in the 325 slot in the Seattle game that is going to affect their opportunity to get in or not. But either way, I'm sure they'd love to play spoiler and they play really, really hard.

That is true. Against an NFC North opponent, it's even more notable how hard these teams play against each other. This is a long-time rivalry. However, this is Dan Campbell's team and they will go out there and give it everything they have. And the offense has been playing extremely well.

Jared Goff, he wasn't injured last year, but I still say he has to be part of the conversation for comeback player of the year. I think we're excited for it. I think it's something we've earned and we're playing for a playoff spot. We've been through a lot this year and we're ready for a game that will be fun in front of everybody. When you were a young player, how important were these types of games the first time you had a playoff atmosphere, playoff-type games, and did they go a long way to help you become a more mature, better player? Yeah, sure.

When you're young, absolutely. Just playing in these situations where it really matters late in the year and hopefully we get some playoff games where it's truly big. But these games matter and they're big and they mean more. It's on the road, it's in Lambeau, and all that goes into it. We'll be ready.

We'll be ready to have some fun and hopefully get out. Am I the only one who thinks that's an odd question considering that Jared Goff started a Super Bowl? Wouldn't you say that? Hey, how much does it matter that you've played in a Super Bowl on the grandest stage in sports?

Maybe the guy just forgot that part. I guess considering what Jared Goff did last year, how he got traded. So just dumped unceremoniously to Detroit in exchange for Matt Stafford that maybe people have forgotten that or that reporters knew on the beat.

It's after hours with Amy Lawrence. So yes, here we go, Dan Campbell. You got your word. You got flexed. It's Lambeau Field. It's Lions and Packers for a playoff spot coming up on Sunday night. The intensity of this game will go up. It will be played like a playoff game. We will bite kneecaps. Because it is win and get in or you don't win and you go home one way or another. They're looking at it that way. We're looking at it that way. Excited to see him in this atmosphere. He swears he's not a lunatic.

On the way up, we're going to bite a kneecap off. But I know his secret, and I'm divulging it to everyone who will listen. Honestly, my motto in life is find people who are your kind of crazy. I saw it on a sign in some shop.

Actually, it was a breakfast place, but it had a bunch of little knickknacks that you could buy or look at when you were waiting for your breakfast on the beach, the Jersey Shore. Find people in life who are your kind of crazy. I should have bought it, but I'll never forget what it said.

It's now my motto to live by. So this will be kind of fun. So here's where it stands in the NFC. Packers win and they're in. And the reason this game is the last game is not just for that specific purpose, but because the NFL knows if the Seahawks win earlier in the day against the Rams, then they stand poised to grab a playoff spot if the Lions beat the Packers. Wait, yes, if the Lions beat the Packers.

So that's how it goes. Packers win and they're in. If the Packers lose and the Seahawks win, Seattle goes. But if the Seahawks lose to the Rams and the Lions beat the Packers, then it's Detroit.

So Detroit is kind of the third rung on the ladder, but still really exciting for them to even be in this position. As for the Rams, and we'll talk about this a little bit more, they're the defending Super Bowl champions and they can only play the role of spoiler now, but they do have one player, Bobby Wagner, who did not have an amicable parting with the Seahawks and so he's got a little extra motivation. So again, we'll talk more about the Week 18 slate as we get closer to it.

But one more. Do we have time for Brian Daball? Just because he was on the Bills coaching staff last year and so when he spoke to the media on Wednesday, he was asked about the Bills and what they're going through right now. They mean a lot to both of us. I know there's a lot of people in the building that the players, the staff, the trainers, thank God for them. You build relationships, been there for four years, have a ton of respect for the people in that building, just really a call for support.

When something like that happens to people that mean a lot to you, or even if you don't know them, you have just a great amount of respect for, it doesn't really matter what job you do, but having been around a young man, know him, know the type of person he is, that's tough. Brian Daball, along with Joe Shane, who is the general manager of the Giants, they were both with Buffalo last year, and of course it was the rookie season for DeMar Hamlin, so they were instrumental in, well Shane was, in bringing him on board. So thinking about them and the Bills who have not yet spoken to the media, they did not on Wednesday, though they did return to the facilities for walkthrough and also meetings. If you missed my conversation with Dennis Dodd, we talked about the national championship coming up on Monday, Georgia TCU, the Cinderella Plus, the future of Jim Harbaugh, so check that out on our podcast. We'll talk to you tonight After Hours with Amy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio.

Boom! When you need to know what's happening, it's time to get hit in the huddle. This sham with Steve Keim out there in the desert, I mean, it's like no accountability, never my fault, it's never his fault, stuff just happens. Losses just fall from the sky, it's not Cliff's fault, it's not Kyler's fault, it's not my fault, it's not the owner's fault, we just have really bad luck. Just hang in there and keep throwing money at us and we'll figure it out.

Shut up! Listen to In the Huddle, available on the Odyssey app, or wherever you get your podcast. 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. When you need to know what's happening, it's time to get hit in the huddle. You're fraudulent, you're not in the business of winning football games, you're in the business of trying to prove your own asinine decisions correct. We can talk about the Ursay thing. Do I think the Saturday thing is the biggest joke in the history of the NFL? I do, but at least he was on the site. This ain't working for me, I don't care that I just gave him extensions. Listen to In the Huddle, available on the Odyssey app, or wherever you get your podcasts.