1-5-23 After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 3

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 willing to say, this ain't working for me. I don't care that I just gave him extensions. 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 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 Ozzy app or wherever you get your podcasts. I haven't yet mentioned it tonight, but it's been on my mind and I have continued to look at DeMar Hamlin's GoFundMe page, the Chasing M's Foundation Community Toy Drive. Are you ready for the updated numbers? Now remember, as we were getting off the air at just shy of 6am Eastern Time on Wednesday morning, which would have been just before 3am Pacific Time, he was rapidly approaching or the GoFundMe page was rapidly approaching $6 million. Here we are, 22 hours later, well over $7 million. In fact, now $7,021,000 for this Chasing M's Foundation Community Toy Drive, which obviously will be funding more than toy drives in the near future.

I had mentioned that there was an update on his page from his team and now there is another one and I think this is worth passing along as well. We're simply awestruck by the level of support and generosity we've seen over the past two days. With over $6 million raised, this fundraiser has become an overnight reminder of the incredible nature of humankind. Your actions directly reflect the type of human DeMar is himself. As representatives of DeMar, the team at Jaster Athletes posted the fundraiser updates and will work with the Hamlin family, the Chasing M's Foundation and the GoFundMe team to ensure the safe delivery of funds.

Yeah, think about it. I'm not a GoFundMe connoisseur. I've never used a page like this. I've never actually donated to a GoFundMe page.

Oh, that's not true. I did once with Nate Boyer, you know, Nate, the former Green Beret in Seattle, Seahawk, Texas Longhorn. He was running his first marathon, injured actually, and he was running for a particular cause. Please forgive me, I don't remember what it was, but his was through a GoFundMe page. So I donated to his GoFundMe. It was a particular charity in Austin, which is a city that's near and dear to his heart, Austin, Texas.

And so I did once do it. I get a little leery when people ask me to share GoFundMe pages for this reason, because you don't always know who's running them. You don't always know exactly where the money is going. And so for that reason, I tend to go to more 501c3s to legitimate charitable organizations where I know exactly what's happening with the money. And also I don't feel right sharing on my social media a GoFundMe page if I don't know its origin. But in this case, DeMar's team is working to make sure that people know this money will be used for what it was intended.

And so I just am thinking about the GoFundMe organization, but also the people on DeMar's team who now have to navigate an unthinkable amount of money. And it's amazing, right? It's an incredible, phenomenal outpouring of support.

And what I've said to you over the course of the last couple of days, I think rings so true. We as Americans, we want to do something. We want to fix it.

We want to help. And yes, there are millions of people praying for DeMar. I can't wait until he wakes up and he recognizes how much he was supported and lifted up and how much people cared about him.

The majority of whom never met him and will never meet him in person. And now $7 million later, this is what people are doing because they want to pitch in, because they want to show support. And if you go to the page, not only do you see top donations listed, the most recent one is Jim Irsay and the Indianapolis Colts, over $25,000. We told you about Bob Kraft and the Patriots and Matthew Stafford. And now the New Era Cap Foundation, $10,000. The Houston Texans, $10,000. Sean McVeigh, $10,000. We mentioned Tom Brady and others. Sauce Gardner, who, I don't know if you saw this, this was making its rounds on social media Wednesday. And I really hope that someone saw his tweet and reached out to help him. Sauce is the rookie cornerback for the New York Jets.

And he's definitely in line for a rookie defensive player of the year. But he's a guy who wanted so desperately to wear a DeMar Hamlin jersey this weekend. But he ordered one through a particular organization, and it wasn't going to get to him on time. And so he was reaching out on Twitter to find out if anybody had one so that he could borrow it, so he could wear it to the game on Sunday.

So I think that's amazing. So yeah, Sauce Gardner donating $5,000. Mike Evans and his family foundation, $5,000.

The Washington commanders, $5,000. And then I told you about Devante Adams, and I'm not sure if it's his wife or his girlfriend, but their family donating $5,000. And he was asked about that.

Now, Devante's got a lot of questions that are peppering him now with everything happening around the Raiders and Derek Carr. But I appreciate what he had to say about why he donated to this toy drive. For me, it's just a way to help in any way that I can. As of now, I don't know him personally, so I can't call his family.

I can't do all the things that I wish I could do. So to be able to help with a charity or to anything that can help, and if nothing else, to show other people that I did that. That way, that'll encourage other people because I saw Tom Brady, a couple other guys too, and their families decided to make some donations. So when I see that, I'm like, okay, well, that got me to jump on the boat as well. I think that's really cool. Generosity is contagious. Giving, compassion, joy, it's all contagious. Just want to finish a few more words from this update by DeMar's team.

And even as I refresh again, the number has climbed again. Because the situation is evolving, we'll continue to communicate any updates on the fundraiser. We'll also work with GoFundMe to email all donors with more specifics regarding the use of the funds as those details are available.

As you can imagine, this has been a challenging time for the family. We appreciate your understanding as we give them the time and space they need to focus on DeMar's health first. And then this poignant final paragraph from DeMar's team on his GoFundMe page. We are hopeful about DeMar's future involvement in dispersing the incredibly generous contributions.

We thank you again for your support and look forward to updating you along the way. So his team has been putting updates on the page. So you know the page is active and they do fully intend to use this money the way that DeMar intended, which is to help kiddos, toy drive being one way, but also coaching clinics and school supplies disbursements in both Pittsburgh, the area where he went to high school and college, as well as Buffalo where he plays for the Bills now.

It's after hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. All around the league on Wednesday, players and coaches were speaking out about DeMar, whether they know him personally or whether they don't. So Devante mentioned, I've never met him. I don't feel like I can call up the family and offer my support.

So donating was the way that I could do it. But there are various players around the league who either passed through Buffalo and played with DeMar over the first year and a half of his career or guys who knew him from Pitt and played with him at Pitt. He was a captain there, as was Kenny Pickett. Now Kenny's a rookie. DeMar was done the year before, but Kenny was speaking out about his relationship with DeMar on Wednesday. DeMar, you know, he's an unbelievable person.

Does so much for the community. A guy from Pittsburgh stayed home. Couldn't went anywhere he wanted to. You know, stayed home and we had, you know, a great run together and he had an unbelievable career at Pitt.

You know, captains together in 2020. Just an all-around, you know, great person, great family. You know, his brother was always around the facility. You know, so they're just like Pitt family, you know, to all of us, you know, and myself included. So, you know, prayers, thoughts and prayers are with him and, you know, just trying to keep in touch with his family through Coach Narduzzi.

I'm sure they're getting swamped with messages, but trying to stay up to date on how he's doing and, you know, it seems like everything's going the right direction and, you know, just hoping up for the best for him, just wanting to get better. So that's Kenny Pickett at the Pittsburgh facilities on Wednesday. In Minneapolis, Patrick Jones was also a teammate for multiple years with DeMar at Pitt and he was asked about not just his emotions, his feelings, but also about his former teammate. In my mind, I ain't never really seen nothing like that happen before.

So initially, it just really caught me off guard. I didn't really know what was going on, but I just kept sitting on mine like, he's going to get up, he's going to get up, he's going to get up and then I just saw how the whole thing played out and then I just started praying for him and just thinking of his family and just keeping everybody in my prayers, just hoping that it wasn't anything like it was and just that it would just be better, but I just kept keeping them in my prayers and his family too. And at this point, he is still in the hospital in critical condition and he is receiving oxygen, though the family indicated during the day on Wednesday and there was also a statement from the bills on Wednesday that there are improvements. He's still in ICU, he's still sedated, he has not been awake since Monday, but they are seeing signs of improvement and the oxygen is a big deal. The reports were that there is damage to his lungs, I don't know how extensive at this point, but that he needed help breathing. He had a pulse initially, but he needed help breathing, so he was intubated and had a breathing tube and the oxygen levels have come up, meaning his natural oxygen levels, his natural ability to produce and to manufacture oxygen, but he at the same time is still needing the help of machines and so there's a lot of concern there.

The family is hopeful, but knows that he will have a long recovery regardless of what happens from this point forward, but now at this juncture it's still about saving his life, it's about him being able to wake up and breathe on his own and then he can start what will be a long healing and recovery process once he's off the machines. As for Patrick, he is trying to answer the question of how do I move forward, how do I play coming up this weekend and I think that's a it's not just a question that was posed to men in the NFL who know DeMar or who play with DeMar in college or now alongside him in Buffalo, but really anybody who watched it and was shaken, but for Patrick he knows DeMar personally. It's hard like I said like that's like my brother I mean when you spend every day with someone for five years and you're doing everything together even during COVID when everything's shut down we working out together the whole time like it's hard like just seeing something like that like it's really hard like all you could do is just stay strong and like whenever I go out there like I gotta remember like like I'm playing for a lot of reasons and I'm playing for another one like I'm playing for my brother like it's it's tough for real.

I'm playing for a lot of reasons and now I'm playing for another one playing for my brother. Rodney Thomas is with the Colts he's a high school teammate of DeMar's and he left Indianapolis on Monday. The second he realized what was going on he decided he had to drive to Cincinnati which he did and he was able to visit DeMar in the hospital when he got there. For me like it calmed me down just so I can just being able to get eyes on him just because you know like being away it's just all like what's going on like I just wanted to go there I just wanted to be there and I just wanted to just get an understanding of what was going on really just being able to just like just see him and just see his people like it just it calmed me way down and it just made it made that trip home like a lot easier I could just I could just go home and I could just know that like he's gonna be straight like I got him the world got him everybody behind him you see what's going on like everywhere else like everybody's behind him and like when he when he walks out of there and like he sees the support that he has it's gonna be real real real special thing. It's not just the teammates the Buffalo Bills teammates or even the Bengals who are impacted.

This young man has only been in the league for a year and a half and yet there are people all over the league who know him personally and who either played with him in high school or college or have played alongside him in the NFL even if briefly. It's after hours here on CBS Sports Radio Joe Burrow was speaking for the first time on Wednesday and he was asked about Josh Allen and standing next to Josh on the field and you may remember the video he goes over he gives Josh a hug. Josh's eyes are red he's clearly been crying and then later we heard from multiple reporters including Mike Petralia who joined us from Cincinnati that Burrow had gotten together the captains of the Bengals and they had gone over to the visitors locker room to visit Josh and the Bills and just to see how they were doing before the game was officially postponed.

Try to do all we could you know we went over there and saw him and just tried to 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 in a situation like that. I think it's important to hear what Joe had to say and also what Zach Taylor said and we'll hear from him a little bit later on but he did he indicated so did Joe they were not going back on the field to play this game. So as much as people have criticized the NFL and I even saw a listener on our Facebook page accused the NFL of being hypocritical in this situation.

I'm not exactly sure why she said that or what she means because I know 35 minutes felt like an eternity for us as we were watching but it wasn't an eternity. The NFL was on the phone right away with the the officials that were on site and by the NFL I mean the commissioner he actually has the power to suspend postpone cancel games reschedule games that's part of his job responsibilities. So Roger Goodell was on the phone with his officials that were there on site they were passing the phone back and forth underneath the stadium between Sean McDermott and Zach Taylor and to hear Zach say everyone deserves credit for the way they handled this incident the way they handled something that was unprecedented. I think the NFL does deserve credit it's a large organization there's a lot of people that have to be consulted even if there are no precedents there are certainly protocols and not to mention you have broadcast partners and you have other people on site there that you you have to consult you've got thousands of people who are in the stands I mean there's a lot that has to be considered but within 40 minutes of the ambulance leaving the stadium they had already made the decision that they were not going to resume the game and the guys had already been in the locker room at that point for over a half an hour. So I think the NFL does deserve credit for seeing what was happening Troy Vincent indicated right away that he was shaken emotionally as a player he he was right back there in that spot where he remembers being on the field and that they never intended to resume the game.

I know that ESPN was giving us the five-minute warm-up I don't know where it came from the network is standing by that but the NFL is saying that's ridiculous we never gave them a five-minute window to get back on the field so at this point I guess it's moot right you can believe whoever it is that you choose to believe but ultimately the right thing was done and the game was postponed. Now what about moving forward we'll answer that question coming up following the break but a few more from athletes around the NFL who were speaking about DeMar on Wednesday even though they were not in Cincinnati and don't know him personally. I think it affects everyone in this league in a way where it really puts things in perspective we go out there every week and I'm not gonna say we take it for granted but you go out there and you play a game that you love and you just enjoy it you don't think about things like that happening and whenever something like this happens I think it impacts everybody I mean obviously my prayers are with DeMar his DeMar his family I mean it sent chills through through my body when I was watching it and all I did was just sit there and pray for him because that's all you can do when you when you feel like you can't help at the end of the day we're people we're not just players and I think I think everybody understands that even more now. We addressed the issue right away this is real and it's we didn't tiptoe around it we addressed it with the team and talked to them and they know they have counsel there if they need it the league's got counsel for them if they need it you know that's that's how we went about it I mean they saw it like we did so just to know that there's help for them if they need to talk to somebody that were available whether it's religiously psychologically we've got we have all the tools plus the league has tools to help you through that yeah we're here the same way so if a player were to need help or the coach needs help it's there for them too. I know a lot of guys probably shook up by it you know I was a whole NFL you know community and you know all the players and things like that I don't know everybody around just praying for tomorrow but I mean I think we still have to play this game set so but any day I think everybody's just praying for everybody's safety and want to be as safe as possible. The recognizable voices of Patrick Mahomes the compassion there Andy Reid as well who says hey it's not just the players it's also the coaches and we're setting up availability with counselors and with anyone who needs to talk about it before they would get back to playing on the field then you hear Derek Henry who plays the most physical position on the field and himself again you can hear the compassion in his voice and how it can be challenging now to move forward and think about football and there are others Bobby Wagner I really appreciated what he had to say now Bobby is also talking about facing his former team the Seahawks so this is kind of strange two halves of the same person right because he's fired up to take on the Seahawks he believes they didn't treat him well or the way that he deserved to be treated but at the same time he's also worried about mental health and his fellow NFL athletes and believing that we they all need to open up following what they saw with Demar. I think the best way to deal with them is expressing those feelings I think the the the thing that we kind of taught to do in this sport because it's such a quote-unquote manly sport is to hide your feelings hide your emotions and any expression of these feelings or emotions makes you less of a man or demasculates you so I think that's a myth like talking about your feelings and talking about things that affects you mentally physically are more manly than anything you know because it takes a lot of courage to to talk about those things. I appreciate that from Bobby and as I tweeted on Wednesday afternoon as I was waking up and seeing all of these athletes in in their vulnerability in their honesty in their anxiety and their compassion their support for one another I thought it was really incredible to hear really to a man them start with Demar and also many of them say hey this is not easy Joe Burrow even went on to say if you took a poll of our locker room there's a bunch of guys in there who don't want to play but I think ultimately even as they move forward it's different at least in this moment because they are face to face with their own mortality that's what Aaron Rodgers said when he was with the Pat McAfee show on Tuesday they are human beings first and this has driven the point home for us as fans but also for them in their locker rooms. All right coming up the latest options for the NFL it seems like it's come down to two different choices about how they will handle not just this game but the playoff implications since we're so near the end of the regular season on Twitter A-LOL radio also on our Facebook page after hours with Amy Lawrence if you missed it we do have five swag winners from the Christmas Mason M&M jar contest producer Jay is going to be reaching out to you but the number was 272 272 M&M's that's the note. 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 it's 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 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 when you need to know what's happening it's it's it's 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 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 it's after hours with amy lawrence cbs sports radio you are listening to the after hours podcast i think that would be tough uh just just scheduling wise i think you know i think whatever buffalo would want to do would be what we would want to do as well we're you know behind them 100 support them in whatever they would decide to do going forward this is after hours with amy lawrence bangles quarterback joe burrow deferring to the buffalo bills whatever it is that they want to do now it's not entirely up to the buffalo bills according to the nfl bylaws the bylaws the commissioner has sole discretion i know you love hearing that the commissioner has sole discretion over if this game between the bills and the bangles is to resume when and how and where so that that's all a huge challenge and what we're hearing uh troy vincent as well as some other nfl officials did another conference call i think this time it was a zoom call though we haven't been able to find it but it was a call on wednesday in which they were going over the options the possibilities and it seems as though there are now two possibilities that are the most likely but one really appears to be uh the i don't want to say the easiest but the simpler time is of the essence which is the major problem here this is not week four if it was week four week five they certainly would figure out a way to shoehorn the bills and bangles into the schedule the problem is now you don't have the time unless you're going to push back the entire playoff schedule and the logistics involved in that are fairly complicated because you've got multiple stadiums and personnel you've got schedules when it comes to broadcast schedules when it comes to uh fans and tickets and everything else and so it's not as easy as it sounds to just bump the entire schedule back and i know it's inconvenient for tv networks and tv partners but that's life i mean that's reality when you've got business partners and so it's not easy to just bump everything back a week and hope that those who are inconvenienced and this is just one example let's give you one example what if there's a concert scheduled the following weekend right so are you going to to cancel that concert force the cancellation of that concert so a team can have its stadium back and then all of those tickets have to be refunded and and yada yada yada so they're these stadiums get used for other things but also it's a lot of manpower and a and a lot of tv partners and a lot of money so yes there are those practical logistics that maybe are not as fun to consider but they do come into play so while the nfl is considering all its options right now the likeliest scenario i'm not telling you this is 100 or it's set in stone but it appears to be the nfl is leaning toward not finishing the game between the bills and the bangles instead declaring no contest or a tie regardless whatever it would be a game that never does resume buffalo is still going to face new england on sunday cincinnati is wrapping up its regular season with baltimore at least it's week 18 slate those games matter for playoff implications right so the patriots are in a win and get in win and earn the last wild card scenario so they need this game cincinnati and baltimore haven't yet determined the winner of the afc north so that game matters too when it comes to the number one okay just really quickly when it comes to the seven seed the bills bangles game doesn't matter for either the nfc or the afc obviously for the nfc but for the afc the seven seed this last wild card spot that will go to either new england miami or pittsburgh the bills bangles game has nothing to do with it there's zero impact at least impact at least we know that to be sure but what this game does is impact the number one seed so right now if you look at the standings and we've talked about this a little bit because the chiefs finished their game last week they have 13 wins the bills have 12 the bangles have 11 so if they don't end up finishing the game from monday well then the nfl would go by winning percentage it's not perfect it's not optimal but they feel like that's the fairest way to do it as opposed to going by record because not every one of the teams would have played the same number of games they would fall back on winning percentage i thought it was really interesting too to hear what troy vincent had to say about the covid year and 2020 and how this is really kind of pushing them back in that space where they were having to navigate these types of questions what if a game gets cancelled what if we can't make it up but also how do we schedule a game that might cause our two teams to then have a very quick turnaround to the next game on their schedule and not put them at such an unfair competitive disadvantage that it throws the whole thing off and that's really the question now about when would you reschedule this game if you don't delay the start of the playoffs and you're asking the bills and bangles to play not just sunday but to play what but to play what again on wednesday well then one of those teams maybe even both of those teams would have to turn around and play saturday but that's unlikely but sunday or monday and actually i guess saturday wouldn't be out of the equation because a lot of times the games are determined by which teams are there which teams are which conferences and which teams because they have specific relationships with the networks right so depending upon which network uh which network is carrying the games on saturday you might end up having one of these games uh one of these teams that have to play on saturday and that's just not fees it's not fair it's not feasible you can't ask two teams to play on wednesday and then a playoff game coming up on you know the saturday three days later or the sunday and so they want a level playing field especially for the postseason so again what appears to be the most likely option is a no contest or a tie they wouldn't finish the game the two teams would go on to their week 18 games and then they would use winning percentage to determine the top seed and at this point if the chiefs if that's what happens and the chiefs beat the raiders on saturday they would have the best winning percentage i know it's not perfect right if you're a bills fan well you know what's happened in kansas city the last couple of years if you in the playoffs if you're a bangles fan then you feel like maybe you missed out on an opportunity it's tough to go to arrowhead it's not impossible to win there we know that but it's tough to go to arrowhead in the playoffs but given the circumstances to me that's fairer it's it's a more level playing field than asking those two teams to play sunday maybe wednesday and then again three or four days later that doesn't feel like they start off the postseason on that same fair and balanced ground so that's what we have at this point though nothing definitive from the nfl only that they're considering all of the options and they are kind of going back to the covid year where they had to have a lot of contingencies available for them in case this stuff happened you can find me on twitter alaw radio we'll do the afc version of qb news uh we'll do it to get you set up for week 18 we've got quarterback changes we've obviously got playoff implications as we're talking about good to have you with us on what is quickly becoming a thursday morning though no thursday night football so it starts to change here the schedule starts to morph into something different for the rest of the month it's after hours with amy lawrence 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 it's it's time to get yet 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 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 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 you are listening to the after hours podcast the holmes fires for the end zone touch down kansas city no herbert keeps it in so touchdown charges herbert with his second of the day here's the snap josh 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 we are getting set for week 18 in the nfl and it starts off with a double header on saturday so no thursday night football this week as they get set for playoff format so amazon prime how did you like that first year of amazon prime instead we skip ahead to saturday and we've got a pair of games that do impact playoff seeding and in fact a play-in game between jacksonville and tennessee it is your saturday night under the lights and the winner grabs the afc south title and will host a playoff game come wildcard weekend and for trevor lawrence it's his first big meaningful game a lot riding on this one going back to his days at clemson where he was in these games all the time feels good you know it feels good knowing you know what we had to do to get here but also jobs not finished you know we have we have we have to win this game to get in and then moving forward we kind of we kind of get what we earn every week so you know we're embracing that i think that's kind of how it's been for us like i said before it's been like that for us for the past month really so the team's responded well to that and you know i'm proud of the situation we put ourselves in it wasn't easy to get in this spot especially the way we started the season and here we are with an opportunity to win the division and this is the only game that matters right now and we we're just putting everything we have into just scoring one more point than them that's all that matters is winning the game and how cool is it that jacksonville gets to host this critical game against the titans who are in a free fall but we'll talk about the jags first they had five straight losses in the first half of the season and the refrain was same old jags but they're not doug peterson has established a new culture some credibility they've had some confidence building wins now they've won five of their last six they're sitting in first place in the afc south and trevor says hey i knew this was always the direction we were headed i've always thought this group was was really really good just obviously like on the field with talent wise but also just the way we work the way just how resilient everyone is and that was really tested earlier in the year you know after that after those those games without a win whatever five five game losing streak and nobody nobody panicked nobody pointed to the finger and i think that's something where and we talked about it too after you know three probably three or four of those games just this is where a lot of teams start to divide and you start pointing the finger and people start looking for ways out and we never did that you know we knew how close we were you look at all those games one score games um and really just a lot of them it was our own mistakes where we gave away the game so we knew how close we were and that that rock would eventually break and it did so trevor lawrence and the jacksonville jaguars are sitting in first place having won four in a row they're at 500 now they're eight and eight but if the titans win in jacksonville on saturday night they will have the division crown instead so tennessee has dropped six consecutive games and it is crazy to think but it's not ryan tannahill who i think has an ankle injury so he's on ir the rest of the way it's not the rookie malik willis instead it's a quarterback who's been with the team oh about two weeks or so joshua dobbs will be getting his second career nfl starts saturday night just another week in the nfl right um no it's um it's a tremendous opportunity i think it starts there i'm thankful to be here a part of this team and i'm just the way the guys have welcomed me in um and allowed me to just come and be myself i'm excited to leave this weekend i know it's a big game obviously i haven't been here the entire year but um anytime you have a chance to go to the playoffs is a tremendous opportunity i'm excited for so joshua dobbs just another week in the nfl which he's kind of right the best reality show on tv from the category of you can't make this stuff up but yeah this is a guy who probably still doesn't know all of his teammates and definitely doesn't know the playbook and here he is he's going into a game where everything is on the line for a titans in free fall well i've been on playoff team so i mean you're always a leader at the quarterback position and whether you're the starting quarterback or you're the two there's just much pressure right because when you're the backup now it's like hey you have to really emulate the offense that we're seeing perfectly because we need to see as many good reps as we can before the game comes so at the quarterback position the pressure is already there always there it's always on your shoulder you're always a leader you're always viewed um in the leadership role so for me i just be myself take it one day at a time you've spent a couple of years in pittsburgh we know that uh and then was with tennessee or is with tennessee now but only for a couple of weeks uh so yeah it's definitely been uh kind of tumultuous end of the season for the titans at the quarterback position but this is what you're groomed for as dobbs points out it's after hours with amy lawrence on cbs sports radio patrick mahomes has been in these situations enough that he could probably do this in his sleep except this is an atypical week for not just the bills and the bangles but every team that was watching monday night football and and recognizes that a man's life hangs in the balance and so he's got to navigate those emotions for saturday we're going to be the first game back um and so it's hard to say i mean you know there's a job you have to do um you put all this work in for months to try to go out there and play your best football um but when you get on that field i'm sure it'll be a a little bit of a weird feeling because it was such a scary incident um that was terrifying i think everybody saw um and so um we will see when we get out there but uh i know our guys will just get out there and hopefully we get to play in the game again it can be fun and everybody can enjoy it um like uh we have uh our whole lives now the chiefs still have seating on the line though it could come down to a winning percentage but that means it's important that they would win against the raiders on saturday as he points out they are the first game back uh this one is taking place at uh at allegiance stadium in vegas and so it's a 1 30 local time start the chiefs are playing for the top seed the raiders are already playing for the future and the that's where the majority of the questions were directed uh we talked a little bit about devante adams and his relationship with derek carr of course he said going back to last year that that's why uh he so desperately wanted to play with the raiders but he's wanted to be a raider his whole life even with or without derek carr and he reiterated that on wednesday the question essentially is hey derek carr appears to be on his way out the door the team's got him the team has got him isolated in bubble wrap what does that mean for you do you still want to be a raider yeah absolutely i mean like i said uh i came here you know i wouldn't have been here or ended up here um originally probably you know if derek wasn't here but it doesn't necessarily mean that i won't be here you know in the event that he's not here um he's that's my boy obviously i got his back or anything i think i've made that more than clear at this point and i support him and support everything that he has um you know moving forward as well but um you know my dream was to play for this team before he was a raider obviously and at this point i want to you know obviously try to make this thing work and and continue on doing what i'm doing here and um you know myself get better and obviously see the team grow and get better as well he signed a five-year extension after he was traded from the packers to the raiders it's 67 and a half million dollars guaranteed but 28 and a half million dollars per season so the raiders uh you know they can't have derek carr get injured because they'd be on the hook for 40 million they obviously have to be careful what they do with their money moving forward uh but yeah they're already talking about the future it's after hours here on cbs sports radio john harbaugh continues to field questions about the future with his quarterback lamar jackson not being available for week 18 in what is a game that matters for the afc north what about the playoffs coach i just can't think about that you know i'm just gonna listen to the doctors and to lamar and we're prepared you know the offense is not going to change dramatically between lamar and and tyler so um you know how they play their styles certainly that they they apply that you know what i mean the way the way lamar plays and the way tyler plays the way a player plays they apply that to the to the to our system and the way we play our plays are are built for those types of quarterbacks are built for lamar i mean our offense is built for lamar around lamar and to take care of them to play with lamar's talents and abilities that's what we're built for now lamar has not practiced in a couple of weeks uh is an injured knee going back to early december something that's unique though the ravens are actually cheering for the game between the bills and bangles to be replayed because if it's not with winning percentage they would have no shot at winning the afc north so it's kind of a unique situation one more mike mcdaniel why did you sign mike glennon as your newest qb it was just his first name oh dear i thought there was some someone good there and and it it reminded me a lot of myself and and um his physical appearance i'm going to say you should take that with a grain of salt too and just assume sarcasm you know how sometimes uh sarcasm is lost on social media there's no sarcasm font i wish there was because sarcasm is my love language mike mcdaniel deadpan tells you he signed mike glennon as a backup quarterback to right now skylar thompson because his first name is mike and because they resemble one another in physical stature i was like hey oh gosh i hope two is okay one hour to go it's after hours with amy lawrence on cbs sports radio when you need to know what's happening it's it's it's 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 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