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. Alright, you guys are cracking me up. Your comments in the wake of Ask Amy Anything. Uh-huh, I see you. I will go back and answer as many of the questions as I can succinctly, concisely. I don't write novels, so when people ask me the highlight of my broadcasting career, actually that's a pretty easy answer. When people ask me reflective questions, what makes me happy?

So I don't go back and answer all of them, but the ones that I can fire off in a few words or two, I generally do that. I spend some time on Wednesday afternoon going back to our Twitter and Facebook and the posts and answering the quick questions. So if your question did not get answered a few moments ago here on the air, it may be answered on our social media sites or producer Jay is always on the lookout for great creative questions, unique questions that he can bring back for our next video version of Ask Amy Anything, which we will at some point do. I know our YouTube channel has been relatively dormant since the holidays just because we've had a lot going on getting back and didn't work together for two weeks and then try to dive right into week 18 in NFL postseason. But we do have some big plans around Super Bowl week to get back into our YouTube channel and kind of get you guys engaged. So make sure you find it on YouTube After Hours with Amy Lawrence on Facebook.

Same thing name of the show. And then my Twitter is a law radio just got this from William on Twitter in Halifax, Nova Scotia listening on the radio to a law radio and the broadcast here on city news HFX. That's awesome. Thank you, William.

Good to hear from you. We do have many friends to the north who tune into our show, whenever and however they can. I feel like I saw a post from Australia not that long ago, actually someone who was listening as well, which is super cool, completely different time of the day, which is evidenced by the Australian Open.

It's going on in Melbourne down under and if you haven't heard the news, you're just waking up to it. Rafael Nadal is injured and out, though he did try to continue his match against an American was a second round match and he suffered an injury in the second set. He did use a medical time out before he continued.

Not the same guy. If you know anything about Rafa's career, you know that he is one of those guys that a little bit like a Ken Griffey Jr. I use this analogy sometimes, never takes it easy. Every single play, 110 miles per hour, throws his body around, has no thought for repercussions or injuries. He does not hold back.

A lot of people think that if Ken Griffey Jr. hadn't always been diving for every ball in the outfield, that his career would have been extended a little bit or he wouldn't have had to deal with injuries. Well, Rafa doesn't know any other way. He dives on the court, he runs around at breakneck speed or as much as he can now. He commits his body, life and limb, to every shot.

He's all in 100% of the time and that has taken a physical toll on him. And so he's dealing with more injuries later in life. So the fact that we get him healthy in stretches, he's been able to win now more Grand Slam singles titles than any male in tennis history. But it will not be at the Australian Open because he's done. So we're not going to get the Novak Nadal final that people were hoping for. But on the other side, so I think it's cool, as much as Rafa is injured, I mean that's not his opponent's fault. His opponent is out there attempting to pursue the same prize as he is.

And so you can get to know the name, you'll hear the name today, Mackenzie McDonald. He is an American who came through UCLA, so a UCLA product, former NCAA singles and doubles champion, started the tournament ranked 65th in the world, is likely to see an increase and a bounce in his world rankings after taking out Rafa in straight sets. His fourth career appearance in the third round of a major, but this is obviously the biggest victory of his career. Now he was pretty muted in his celebration. Again, I understand in tennis there's this etiquette, you don't celebrate like crazy when you win in either a walkover, which is when your opponent pulls out because of injury, or when your opponent is clearly hobbled, as Rafa was a little bit.

Though again, he chose to continue. So you didn't see this exulting from Mackenzie McDonald, but congratulations to him because it's still a huge win, a confidence builder, and I was talking about it to start the show. How we're watching a lot of these younger American players try to break through into the elite, the upper echelon. It's been a while since we've had Andy Roddick.

I mean John Isner was a top 10 player, so was Marty Fish, but not the same caliber as Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi, even going back to Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe. It's been a while since we've had the best of the best represent the red, white, and blue on the men's side because we've had Rafa and Roger and Novak and Andy Murray in there as well. On the women's side, we've had Serena and Venus for years. Serena the greatest, maybe one of the greatest players of all time, regardless of gender.

And the fact that she is now bowing out, at least on a full time basis, means that there's a void on the women's side too with the Americans. Jessica Pagula, who is the daughter of the Pagulas who own the Buffalo Bills, she is through to the third round, so there's something there. I know we're not going to see Naomi Osaka this year, but at 25 years old she's still one of the top Americans too.

We've seen Coco, Coco Goff a little bit as well. So yeah, there are some Americans, we need one of them to break through and get to the championship and kind of establish himself or herself as a force to be reckoned with, but that's a process. American tennis has been going through it for quite a while. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence here on CBS Sports Radio. So speaking of process, we are in the process of seeing a lot of the jobs filled around the NFL, whether it be coordinators, whether it be GM jobs. The Cardinals have hired their new GM, a guy who's got more than two decades of experience in the NFL, the majority of them with the New England Patriots. Most recently though with the Tennessee Titans, and he is expecting that there will be a huge change in what we've seen from the Cardinals organization.

Monty Osenfort, I believe is how you pronounce his name. I meant to check that and did not have an opportunity, so forgive me on that, but he's taking over and wants to establish a new regime and a new practice, a new culture in Arizona. I'm excited to embark on this next stage in Cardinals football. We're going to focus on a completely unified message across the general manager, the head coach, and ownership to what exactly we want to be as a football organization. We're going to institute a thorough and exhaustive scouting process. We are going to turn over every stone to find the right players for this team. We are not just collecting talent, we're going to build a team. We're going to look for the right type of players. Ego will not be tolerated in this organization.

We are going to look for focused, driven, and people that are willing to put the team first at every step of the way. Okay, Blind Squirrel finds a nut. Good for you Monty, congratulations.

And yes, we got it right, Monty Osenfort. So, after his time in New England, you know he's got the training. He was also part of the Titans organization in a great run for them because they were the number one seed a year ago. Now they're also going through a bunch of transition now as well, but this is his chance to take everything he's learned and put it to work with the Cardinals who definitely have some major challenges moving forward. Their quarterback is out for at least part of next season with the torn ACL even though they just gave the huge contract to Kyler Murray.

It's not been smooth sailing with him for now two plus years. Cliff Kingsbury, he's had enough and part of it is, according to the reports, the reason why he's off in Thailand and is not interested in working again next season is because the relationship, the friction with Kyler weighed on him. The burden and the late season collapses that the Cardinals suffered through, it's been tough on him too mentally and physically and obviously being an NFL head coach, it's all consuming. We know a lot of coaches deal with health problems and we don't want to see that for any of them, it's just they put so much into it.

They a lot of times forsake every other part of their lives, so good for Cliff for taking a mental health break. It worked for Mike McCarthy, did it not to be able to take a year off before he got back with the Dallas Cowboys. What about the Cardinals new head coach though?

What is Monte looking for? I think there's a lot of important characteristics there and I think the key is that we find the head coach that is right for this team. There's many ways of doing things and I think finding a head coach that aligns with the way I see building a team, the way Michael sees building an organization. And then I think there's the specifics in terms of leadership in developing players and coaches, in being a teacher of fundamentals, details and techniques.

Those are all things and this is not a, we're trying to build a sustainable program here, this is not a short term fix. So we want a coach that sees the big picture and understands that we're not happy with just the results of 2023. We're building this for extended championship teams as we move forward. But what do those championship teams look like?

He certainly was part of some of them with the Patriots, so one more with Monty Osenfort, the new general manager of the Cardinals. It's definitely a project. These traits are not all present there, though you do have some athletes, some elements that have come from winning organizations. Still though, it's going to be up to him to start this and to see it through. A complete organizational alignment in what exactly it is that we're trying to do. And that goes through all levels of football operations. That's a clear definition of not only what we're looking for in players, but what we're looking for in staff.

What is asked of each individual person, what their role contributes to us winning games. And that permeates all levels of the organization if your job is to catch touchdown passes or if your job is to tape ankles or to scout players or to prepare the food. Every job is important and getting everybody on the same page, moving in those directions, moving in that direction is the key of what I believe was a huge part of those successful New England teams. Right, so the Cardinals have filled at least one of their critical jobs. We also had talked about earlier the Chargers now needing an offensive coordinator as well as a quarterbacks coach. But it appears as though Brandon Staley's job is safe because he is expected to meet with the media on Wednesday as part of the Chargers exit interviews. Notice they needed a little more time to get their ducks in a row.

But yes, there are people paying for that large collapse against the Jacksonville Jaguars. One of the names that maybe you've heard in terms of coaching circles, Ben Johnson. This carousel, he's been right on it and spinning around and around. The Lions offensive coordinator, he has at least been requested as an interview for multiple jobs. In fact, did interview for the Texans and the Colts.

Both those teams actually shared that news, so it didn't come from him, it came from them. He was supposed to meet with the Panthers on Wednesday in Charlotte, but get this. He has informed his team that he will return to the Lions for 2023. So he's decided to stick with Dan Campbell as well as Jared Goff and some of the other tools they have. Jamal Williams has indicated he wants to stay in Detroit.

They've got an Ahmed Rase Brown who had a great season. So yeah, they're building something and had a lot of points put up. Once Jared Goff stopped turning the ball over, that offense looked a whole lot different. Much more streamlined. So yeah, he says he is staying in Detroit because he believes the Lions are on the cusp of building something special.

Hell yeah. He didn't want to leave one year into the job according to multiple sources. So I love that about Ben Johnson. It's not that dissimilar from what Dan Quinn did, right? I'm assuming, we can assume, that Jerry Jones paid him handsomely to stay in Dallas as opposed to take a head coaching gig with the Broncos last year.

And I don't know if that'll work this year. We had a conversation with John Machoda, a long-time Cowboys insider who's now with the athletic, and I asked him about Dan Quinn. We're going to let you hear his answer coming up. So for now, he's with the Cowboys and they've got a huge challenge going into this game against the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday afternoon. It's still a lot of excitement around their first road playoff win in 30 years. Mike McCarthy was in a jovial mood on Tuesday.

He was asked about that video of him dancing in the locker room. What was I doing? Still what I always do, celebrate a victory. Glad you enjoyed it. It was just a teaser. I was kind of stuck in between a break dance and a gritty.

If there weren't so many damn cameras in there, I need a little more room. I love his personality, his sense of humor, and I'm so happy. We're not talking about whether or not he should be fired because the Cowboys lost that wildcard gig. And actually, that was part of my conversation with John as well. So again, we'll bring back a portion of that, the whole conversation with John about the Cowboys. We did a little extra for their milestone win. It's on our podcast after hours.

AmyLawrence.com. A little bit about Brett Maher too. We'll get to that before this hour is up. Yeah, we're closing in on divisional weekend.

It's going to be huge, a doubleheader on Saturday. But even so, the business of the NFL continues to rage. The Browns will hire Jim Schwartz as their new defensive coordinator. Jim Schwartz, he's crazy. And I mean that as a compliment. I actually kind of feel like he also could use Dan Campbell's line of, I swear I'm not a lunatic.

I swear to God I'm not a lunatic. Remember, Schwartz was the head coach of the Lions from 2009 to 2013. He did guide the Lions to the playoffs in 2011. Also part of the Super Bowl winner in Philadelphia as their defensive coordinator. So that seems to be his niche in the NFL. He will join the Browns as their DC.

Last two years, a defensive assistant with the Titans. So that job has been filled. Gosh, it's like musical chairs. You know how it goes this time of the year. Either you're preparing for a playoff clash and there's a ton of attention on you.

Or the opposite is true. You're part of the head coaching carousel. We're seeing all the speculation about who, what, where, when, why, and how. And so a lot of the business is taking place. I feel like Sean Payton is interviewing pretty much every team that has a head coaching job except for the Colts. I haven't heard him mention the Colts, but I feel like otherwise he is going to take his sweet old time and see what's out there. In the meantime, some of the numbers are coming in from Wild Card Weekend.

And I'll just give you this one. At its peak, which was late in the second quarter as the Cowboys were putting up multiple touchdowns before the half against the Buccaneers on Monday night. 35.6 million viewers at its peak. Now it averaged 30.6 million in viewership across ESPN and ABC and the family of networks. Now these are not numbers that were adjusted for streaming so we'll have to wait and see if they're inflated. 30 million. 30.6 million actually for a game that was a blowout once they got to the second quarter and yet that was the average number.

So pretty impressive there. The numbers are out for the 22-23 NFL season as well. If I don't get to them tonight, we'll try to get to them at some point before the end of the week. But yeah, the time is of the essence. We're starting to feel the time crunch because it's our third show of the work week. Our hump show, middle show of the work week to get us toward the weekend. But these weekends are a little more fiery.

A little more buzz around these weekends as they approach. Yeah, if the Giants mansplainer had asked me for a coffee date on Saturday, the answer would have been sorry. I've got a football date. I'm already engaged.

I've got something else going on. As it is, he asked me on Friday so I only had Penny as an excuse after an hour. Hell no. I would never say.

Well, I might say that but I wouldn't say that to someone who is bold enough to ask and it's a first time thing. Maybe by the time I get back here on Sunday night with all the football excitement, you all will have forgotten and no one will ask me. No one's going to ask me. It's going to be fine. It'll be fine. I'll be fine.

Hell no. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Good morning to you.

It's our hump show. It's Wednesday morning here on CBS Sports Radio. 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. 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.

There's a lot to listen to, so get started and download the free Odyssey app today. It's a great place to be and thank you everybody for welcoming me. All you regulars and just very grateful for the respect and hope I gave the same thing back to you guys. So thank you very much. Appreciate it.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Definitely sounded like a goodbye or at the very least a preemptive strike in case he doesn't have an opportunity to address that room again. If he doesn't stand in front of that room at the Buccaneers facility one more time, well then he at least has known that he's already given a cordial goodbye and a thank you to those who were covering him. And also let it be known that the three years in Tampa have meant the world to him and he won a Super Bowl ring there and they even got their first back to back division titles in franchise history. All of that to say, if it's a preemptive strike, maybe he already knows what he's doing, at least to the point where he believes he won't be back in Tampa. He's a free agent for just the second time in his career, which is fairly astounding, and he may know that Tampa's not the right fit for him moving forward. I tell you again, like I told you 24 hours ago, every single NFL insider or member of the NFL fraternity, so former players, every single one of them who's connected and has an opinion on this believes 100% that Brady is playing next season.

Take it for what it's worth. They could be wrong, Brady may change his mind, but that seems to be the indication. And I think a lot of people believe it will not be in Tampa, though there's less of a consensus on that question. Only Brady knows, and maybe he doesn't know yet.

It's after hours with Amy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio. If you took our poll and we had hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of comments about our Tom Brady scenario and it wasn't, do you think he will play again? It was, do you want him to play again next season?

The responses on Facebook are hysterical, some inappropriate, so I had to delete them. But overwhelmingly, I would say 65% of you, 65 to 70% of you do not want to see him play again. Kind of funny, some of the responses were let the young guys play, let the young guys have a chance.

You guys know that's not how pro sports work, right? And there's no age limit. Somebody also told me football has an age limit. What age limit is that exactly? And some of the comments were asinine, really.

Go home to your family, try to fix your marriage. I mean, that's just people being snarky, as if you know everything that's happening behind the scenes. I remember him saying that one of the reasons he decided to play football again is because his kids really wanted him to. His kids wanted to be involved in it and they wanted to be a part of it when they were old enough to enjoy it. And so he clearly spent a lot of time with his kids. The two younger ones are in Florida where his ex-wife has a home nearby. So they are working on custody in that arrangement. It appears to be amicable. So come on, don't jump to conclusions about Brady and his personal life. That's not fair. However, he does have a job waiting for him if he decides to go to broadcasting in 2023.

All of these same questions, I guess minus the broadcasting element. Do we want to see Aaron Rodgers in a... No. I don't want to see Aaron Rodgers in a broadcast booth.

I don't think he fits the mold. Anyway, he's still talking. And a lot of the same questions for Aaron are the ones being posed around Tom Brady. Are you going to play again? What's the timetable for your decision?

Well, he was answering himself on the Pat McAfee show on Tuesday. I think you have a feeling where you're leaning, but there's a lot of things coming to play. I think, just on my side, it's the physical part, it's the emotional part, it's the spiritual part. It's the ability to go back out there and give it 100%. It's also the situation and where the team is at and the focus moving forward, short term, long term. And then it just comes down to the intuition of what it feels like in your body and what it feels like in your mind. Once you commit, then you commit and you move forward, whatever the decision is. I just need some time right now. I don't need to ask anybody to respect my time or whatever.

That's going to be the answer until I'm ready. And when I'm ready to give my opinion like I was last year, I'm either all in or I'm out. So this is kind of interesting. And I'm feeling like this is more and more of a theme or a groundswell, if you will. On Twitter, A Law Radio, I got this tweet.

And this is just an isolated example, but it's happening more and more now. Morning, A Law. Long time listener, long time Raider fan, no matter what city. Good for you. Who makes for a better fit? Aaron Rodgers or Tom Brady for the Raiders job? I'm starting to see that more and more.

Now, I will say this. I believe that is a better question or at least a more appropriate question than Brady to the Niners. That I do not see. I've even seen some Rodgers to the Niners.

I also don't see it there. I understand Brady's from the Bay Area. I know that Aaron Rodgers went to Cal.

He's a Northern California guy, too. But they're set at quarterback. Not only do they have Brock Purdy, who is now not only relevant, but is their starter regardless of what happens with Jimmy Garoppolo. He's setting rookie records left and right. Great for him. I'm so excited for him and his family. What a cool storyline to the NFL season. But he's cheap.

You know that, right? He's super cheap. The going rate for quarterbacks these days is $50 million a year. That's what Aaron Rodgers is scheduled to make in 23 and 24. Why would, and Tom Brady's a free agent, which means you have to sign him to a new contract. At the very least, we're talking $30 million. Why would the Niners, who love what they've gotten from Brock Purdy, go out and get a veteran quarterback to start all over again, when, first of all, they've won 11 in a row.

I guess six of those with six, right, with Brock Purdy as their starter. And he's dirt cheap. He wasn't even a first rounder.

He's that cheap. Trey Lance, also cheap, as quarterbacks go. So let's just say, for the sake of argument, they trade Jimmy Garoppolo this year, and they're able to go with Trey Lance and Brock Purdy. Maybe they bring in a veteran just to kind of compliment the quarterback room, but a veteran that comes in on a one-year deal or a two-year deal who's cheap. That means you can spend more money on the rest of your roster, because you've got a lot of superstars that you need to keep happy.

Think about that. You can get Purdy and Trey Lance for, well, I guess Purdy would be a four-year deal, right? He's not a first rounder, so there's no option for a fifth year, but Purdy's four years.

Trey Lance is another four years. And you're paying them a whole lot less money than you would if you had to bring in a free agent veteran who commands, what, $40 million at least? I feel like the Niners is a dead end there.

I could be wrong. They could decide that Brady's an upgrade. They could decide that Aaron Rodgers is worth the $50 million. But I say if they continue on this path, maybe they get to a Super Bowl. I'm not predicting just spitballing.

Why would you change that position when you can spend the money addressing other parts of your roster? So I think the Niners is not part of this equation. Raiders, absolutely.

Wouldn't it be funny if Rodgers followed Devante Adams two more seconds? There do seem to be a fair number of insiders who believe that Brady will be the Raiders' target. That they're fine with bringing in a veteran QB, essentially a stopgap, which is not something you'd hear about Brady, but they want to go for broke and they make Brady the object of their desire.

Interesting, though, right? Because you had a veteran quarterback in Derek Carr who was a little more mobile than Brady, but you got a lot of veterans around him, great pieces. Josh Jacobs, Darren Waller, Devante. I mean, there's some good pieces of the defense too, so it is food for thought anyway. Coming up, the Cowboys are not worried about the offseason. They've got a game, as do the Niners. They've got a game in front of them. What a challenge. And yet, I'm not ready to put to bed their victory in Tampa.

When is a win more than just a win? I talked to John Machoda, who is back in Dallas, covers the Cowboys for the Athletics. Some good stuff. We'll bring back just a little bit of that. Also, Brett Maher, his mental health.

Anyone concerned? 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. 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. Here's Maher for the extra point. The kick's away.

The kick is perfect. Maher lives again. I think the biggest thing for us is not to pretend like it didn't happen and just kind of move on. So we addressed it from a, you know, kind of what happened perspective, and mentally and physically, and then we talked about our plan this week.

So we'll go through with the normal plan. You know, he was distraught. Like I am, I share in all the players' agony. So, like he should be, he's a competitor.

You know, he knows that it's just a bad day at the office, and I have full confidence he'll rebound. This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. That is the voice of Jon Fossil, who is the special teams coach for the Dallas Cowboys. Before that, Kevin Coogler, the record fourth miss of a consecutive extra point in a playoff game. And then Brad Sham with the triumphant fifth attempt and the make. I asked our guest on this edition of the show about Brett Maher's mental and whether or not he'll be good to go against the Niners. You'll have to check out that part of the podcast to get his answer, but Fossil said we didn't ignore it. I was in pain for him.

He was distraught. But I believe in him, and we're going to have to move forward. Cowboys have a major challenge on their hands. It's the ninth playoff meeting between the Cowboys and the Niners.

Most recently, San Francisco eliminated Dallas from the playoffs in the wild card game at AT&T Stadium just about 12 months ago. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio. All of our show is podcasted every weekday morning.

Our interviews, our guests are podcasted separately for your convenience. Wanted to bring back part of my conversation with Jon, though, because let's face it, the NFL world is buzzing about the Cowboys and their victory in Tampa. And for Mike McCarthy personally, it seemed like this was extra special to him. The dancing with the bling, the locker room, the jokes, all of that.

So I asked Jon, what did he see with McCarthy in the wake of this victory? I mean, after the game, he's obviously in good spirits now, but the video that got out of Trayvon Diggs putting the Cowboys chain on him and Mike did a little dance in front of the team. You can just tell, I mean, that spoke volumes of just, you know, how much he was enjoying himself because he isn't the type of guy that, you know, he's not a coach to really put himself first. He kind of, you know, and especially the coaching organization that has such a big face and name and Jerry Jones, you know, it's not a job for everyone, that's for sure.

But they would have had to play like they did in Washington last night for his job to be in jeopardy. Jerry Jones really likes everything that Mike McCarthy has built. And understandably so, I mean, to win back to back 12-1 season, that hasn't happened since those early 90s Cowboys, to go to the playoffs back to back years, that hasn't happened since the mid-2000s. So there's no question now, I mean, he's got 23 wins now in the last two seasons.

And my big thing in all of that was if you were going to move on from him, who were you going to get? And I know everyone points to Sean Payton, but this is an organization that this roster has been built heavily through the draft. So I really didn't see them giving up a first round pick and possibly more and then having to go make Sean Payton, you know, the highest paid coach, which isn't something Jerry Jones has necessarily done. So no, I mean, this win is obviously huge for everyone, but as big as for anyone, it's Mike McCarthy and what this does for him and continuing to build on what he's had here now in year three. Gosh, I'm so happy for him considering his exit in Green Bay and the time that he took away before he started coaching at Dallas in the narrative, losing his quarterback multiple times for multiple game stretches.

Really cool to see him happy and kind of let loose like that, even if it was only for five seconds. For us on the side of covering the team, it'd be difficult for you to find someone that doesn't enjoy interacting with him on a day to day. I mean, it's one of those things that, you know, as a reporter and you're covering this team, let's be honest, the Cowboys 365, like you don't mind when you have a coach and someone you're going to deal with all the time that you really enjoy being around all the time. And we are very fortunate in Dallas to have Mike McCarthy as the coach. Obviously, Jerry Jones is very media friendly, but then also with the franchise quarterback and Dak Prescott, like we're very fortunate.

And that's another thing that's set into if they lose that first round, it's like, who knows what the future holds exactly? You know, with winning that game, it kind of shows you this nucleus is probably going to stay together for a little bit. And so selfishly, even though we shouldn't care about those things at reporters, you enjoy that. It's funny that you say that because I heard the same exact thing from a reporter and insider with the Lions recently about how much more pleasant it is to cover the team when Dan Campbell is so kind and so generous with his time and so clearly enjoys what he's doing. John Michauda is with us from the athletic covering the Dallas Cowboys, and we're excited to talk to him in the wake of a big win since it's not been that way for a while in the postseason. It's after hours on CBS Sports Radio.

The word nucleus just sprang to mind. What about Dan Quinn? Because he was highly sought after last year. Any chance that he ends up getting other head coaching opportunities?

Absolutely. You know, Broncos for sure. They had interest last year and they have interest again. He's going to meet with them. I don't know if it's going to be in person, but sometime this week, obviously, he has a very busy schedule this week with the Cowboys in general. I thought for sure he was going to get the Broncos job. You know, things happen and he didn't end up getting it, but I would imagine he's got to be one of the front runners for that.

And then other jobs as well. There are going to be other teams are obviously going to have interest in him with all the head coaching openings, but for me, I do think there's a very good chance he gets one of these head coaching jobs. Right now I'm at about 75 percent chance.

I think he's gone. That bumps up to about 99 percent to me if he puts together some type of defensive game plan and they shut down the San Francisco offense and somehow get a win there and send the Cowboys to an NSC championship game for the first time since the mid-nineties. It's one thing to have postseason success and as a coordinator, and obviously that's going to make you a very attractive candidate, but to do that with the Dallas Cowboys, to be the defensive coordinator, this defense has been such a huge part of the success of this team the last two years. If they were able to get over that hump, get back to the NSC championship game to beat that 49ers team and he has a game plan that's anywhere close to being as successful as that one was against the Bucks, I don't know how he would be back and not a head coach somewhere else. You wonder how different things might have been with the Broncos this year had it been Dan Quinn. Not sure if that would have changed anything with Russell Wilson, but it is an interesting question considering that Nathaniel Hackett's lack of experience was part of the problem with him.

It's after hours here on CBS Sports Radio. John Michauda with us back in Dallas following the Monday night win over the Buccaneers. Man, there have been compliments pouring in from all corners of the NFL universe for Dak Prescott. And as you point out, the week before, he's the first one to say that he played a really crappy game. He even mentioned it again following the victory in Tampa. How much pressure was on Dak in this game?

As much as there could be because of the fact of this is year 7. It's one of those things. He had so much success early in his career and then things just, I don't know, maybe just covering the team, but also the fact that it's the Dallas Cowboys, things fly by so quickly it seems like. And before you know it, you're like, man, Deacon Decker in year 7, where did that time go? And so when you are in year 7, you're just sitting there like, you're not the young guy anymore that everyone's like, well, he's still developing.

No, this is your time. You have to show up now, especially on this stage, especially for this organization. Whether it's fair or not, you're with an organization that, hey, they've had Roger Staubach, they've had Troy Aikman, they've had the ultimate success at that position. And it's a difficult position with the stress and all the scrutiny and all eyeballs are on you.

It might be the most difficult position in all of sports. One, you can make the case that that Washington game is the worst game of his career. And to have that year 7 going into the playoffs, I mean, there was still the chance that they could have won the division. It wasn't like there was nothing to play for in that game. It wasn't like he just played the first quarter, the first half. I mean, he played almost that entire game and just to struggle the way he did, to throw another pick 6, which was his third in their final four games the regular season, it was not headed in a good direction. And he threw interceptions in every one of their last seven games. But to come into this game, obviously everyone's going to look at the touchdown passes, the rushing touchdown, the passer rating, whatever, having better numbers than Brady. But the key was the fact that he went through that entire game, never turned the ball over, really was never close to turning the ball over and just being as clean as he was in that game on the road, which the Cowboys haven't been that great at this year and obviously in the playoffs. Yeah, he needed a big game and I don't think anybody expected him to rebound quite like that. I don't know that he could have had a better performance than he did last night.

Oh, five total touchdowns, the best QB rating of any Cowboys quarterback in playoff history. It's after hours here on CBS Sports Radio, more of that conversation with John, lots of buzz around the Cowboys as they head into San Francisco. And yes, we did talk about the matchup and the challenge ahead. We got a lot still to do when we think about the games that are coming up this weekend. So we'll get into previews. Every night I sit here in this chair and I think, oh, I've got so much time, four hours and it flies by so quickly. So seriously, there's a bunch of topics on my list that I never did get to, but I always try to leave you with something that will make you smile or laugh out loud or grimace or whatever.

When we wrap up our hump show, our middle show of the work week. So I want to compare the comments of two different quarterbacks from Tuesday. Aaron Rodgers, who right now is considering what he wants to do moving forward. He certainly gave us an emotional walk off the field in Green Bay after they were eliminated by the Detroit Lions in Week 18 Sunday Night Football last game of the year.

However, he has no qualms, even though his numbers were down this year, completion percentage under 65%, a QB rating of 91.9, 32 sacks. He wants you to know that if he does walk away, it's not because he can't play the game. Do I still think I can play? Of course, of course. Can I play at a high level? Yeah, the highest. I think I can win MVP again. Right situation, right situation is that Green Bay or is that somewhere else? I'm not sure.

So he's got plenty of confidence, plenty moving forward. This is one quarterback I can't imagine in the broadcast booth, so you hear Pat McAfee in the background. Anyway, compare that to Trevor Lawrence, who tells you about going to Waffle House after their victory on Saturday night. I was talking to Brandon, and I can't remember, Brandon Sheriff and someone else, maybe E.J., hadn't ever been to Waffle House in their life. So that was like a week or two ago, and I was saying, we've got to go one day after the game. And then last week I told them, once we win on Sunday, we're going to Waffle House. So Marissa actually called, and I talked to Waffle House about reserving part of it. And they were like, well, if you give us a heads up, we can kind of like clear some people out of one area and have you guys some spots saved.

So they did that, and it was great. We had like 20 guys there. I love that from Trevor Lawrence. His wife called, he talked to Waffle House himself. Do you wonder if he said, hey, this is Trevor Lawrence, quarterback for the Jacksonville Jaguars, or he's just like, hey, this is Trevor. Do you have some room for us? It's going to be about 20 of us.

Because clearly the Waffle House employee either doesn't follow football or had no idea who they were. She's like, yeah, we'll try to make room. Just get here, please. I love that.

He's so likable. It's after hours, CBS Sports Radio. Boom! 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. 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.