After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 2

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That's BetterHELP.com slash positive. Evan Matt talks with Matt Hardy. There's nothing like a wrestling fan, you know, for better or for worse. How do you handle that, though? We're talking about people talking about your family, what they don't know about your family or your brother or you. How does one handle that from a day to day basis?

Something I joke about with the young bucks all the time. I said, if you would Vanity Search Matt Hardy on Twitter, I said, after you got through 100 replies, you'd want to quit the business and never never be seen again. It's just you just learn to deal with it. You know what I mean? in my yard. It's tall and it's ugly.

You are very ugly. The orange on the sign reflects on the inside of my living room. Can't you shut the shades?

They are shut. The work's been done for a month and the sign still sits there. I'm going to call the police department to ask them about the giant sign in my yard.

Aren't they going to laugh at me? Why can't I take it out? It's driving me crazy. I got myself crazy.

So here's what I'm asking. Will I go to jail if I take it out myself? My property manager was tired of hearing me ask about it, and she started reaching out to the public works department. The public works department said, we want our citizens to be happy, so we'll come remove the sign for you. Woo!

Yeah! The sign is gone. Thank you, public works department in my town. So what I believe you were trying to say is thank you. Thank you! Thank you! You're welcome.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. I saw the sign. It opened up my eyes. I saw the sign. That was a true story. It actually did happen, and it was a source of great consternation for me for a long time. My living room was orange.

The inside of my living room was orange. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. We'll get back to your calls. 855-212-4227. Some of you are finding me on Twitter, ALawRadio, and I like it when you disagree with me.

That is fantastic. As long as we're talking about sports, I have zero problems with people. You don't even have to apologize. So many people apologize for disagreeing with me. You don't have to do that.

Just share your opinions, because if we all shared the same opinions and thought with the same brain, life would be extremely boring. So yes, find me on Twitter, ALawRadio, or on our Facebook page. After Hours with Amy Lawrence at our phone number. Toll-free 855-212-4CBS. 855-212-4CBS.

Though you're going to have to wait. It is the one race every year that I love to break down extensively. I was watching Daytona 500 with many of you on Sunday, though I wasn't here on Sunday night. I really enjoyed watching. I really enjoyed the drama of it all.

But man, it was wild. You had more than 50 lead changes in the race, which was top three all-time. And then we get to the end. There's not one big one, but two, but three, but four big ones. And so it also became the longest Daytona 500 in history. I know, it's a bit of a riddle. It was won by Ricky Stenhouse, who actually had no gasoline left, no fuel left, so he couldn't do victory burnouts on the field.

So they generally have the privilege of doing donuts and tearing up the infield, but Ricky wasn't able to do that after winning this Daytona 500 that changes everything. This is unbelievable. This is the sight of my last win back in 2017. We worked really hard. We had a couple shots last year to get a win and fell short.

It was a tough season, but man, we got it done. Daytona 500. Woo!

What follows that is woo! And the co-owner of his team is Brad Doherty. For those of you who are familiar with Brad from his days as an NBA All-Star center, it's a huge opportunity for owners as well. It helps you to get sponsorships and you can get more funding that way, but also it's significant because he is the first African-American owner to be part of a Daytona 500 victory. What a big day for my bunch, you know, winning the Daytona 500. We're so excited.

My head doesn't hurt too bad, but it's a little tender, a little tender and just what a great day. A great opportunity to show up and we've got a really good super speedway racer Ricky Stenhouse driving our race car. Man, to win the Daytona 500 is a dream come true. Been doing this, been around this sport for almost 40 years.

Go back to 1988, 1989. One of the first guys as a rookie owner to win an Xfinity Series race. Race through the truck series for a number of years.

Had a lot of fun. And in 09 go cup series racing and man, we've come close so many times to winning at Daytona and Talladega. Finally in 2014, get a win at a road course with AJ. But to win the biggest race of them all, the Daytona 500, I'm over the moon, man.

This is as good as it gets and I'm elated. And what a great, great day for a small little race team over in Harrisburg, North Carolina to be standing here Daytona 500 champion. Brad Doherty, even during his days in the NBA, has always been a race fan.

And similar to a say of Joe Gibbs, who was doing both, right? Was part of the Washington Redskins, the coach for years, but also has been a team owner in NASCAR. Brad Doherty has always had a love for racing. The other stages, the other levels, and now in NASCAR finally has a Daytona 500 checkered flag. And that, courtesy of NBC Sports.

It's after hours on CBS Sports Radio and we head to Chicago now to welcome our friend who never sleeps and never stops working. At least this time of the year as the NASCAR Cup season is getting underway, Bob Pockrass is a long time insider for Fox Sports. And we saw 50 plus lead changes in the 500 on Sunday and then it really bogged down at the end where you weren't sure exactly what was going to happen, Bob. So how would you describe what we saw to start the season? Much like it always is at Daytona, the racing was unpredictable.

Unless you consider knowing that somebody is going to spin predictable. But in Daytona, and especially on Sunday, it was hard to know who. Cars seem to be handling well and then you get one tap at the wrong time, the wrong push.

And around you went and often when you went around, that meant that other cars were going to be collected in the mess. Well then you say unpredictable and certainly the outcome of the race itself is one that we don't see as much in NASCAR anymore. The fact that it was a small family owned team that ends up grabbing the checkered flag. Brad Doherty is the co-owner, so former NBA All-Star, and Ricky Stenhouse getting his first win in years. What does this mean for Ricky first of all, Bob? For Ricky Stenhouse Jr., a Daytona 500 win can mean, you know, add years to his career. But maybe even more importantly than that, really, your place in NASCAR history. He will always be introduced as a Daytona 500 winner and nothing against Fontana, where NASCAR will head this weekend. But you win that race, it's not like you're introduced years later as, oh, he's won at Fontana in such and such a year. But you win the Daytona 500, it's a signature event, it's a signature win, it's a career win in a lot of ways.

And it will follow you for years and years to come because that is the way people are going to know you. What do you think it means for him in terms of being part of that fraternity that is? I know you said that he has haters, I won't use that word, but you can use that word. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. followed, you know, a path to NASCAR where he was a sprint car driver. And he wasn't just a sprint car driver, he drove for Tony Stewart. So, he had a lot of fans when he got here because if Tony Stewart believed in how good you are and the talent that you have, then you probably have a lot of talent.

And you probably have a lot of potential to race stock cars. And while he did win two championships in what's now the Xfinity Series, he's just never shown it in Cup. His only wins came during the 2017 season and yet he's still been around for 10 years. So, what people already knew about Stenhouse is that teams have always felt that he has potential, they felt that he has talent.

But it just hasn't, you know, things just either haven't clicked or it just hasn't shown it. He obviously has a lot of people who, you know, believe he caused too many wrecks, but Brad Doherty and the co-owners, the guest directors of that team believed in Ricky. They believed in his talent and now he has the crew chief back to the one that he had when he won those Xfinity Championships, Mike Kelly, and they're clicking again, or at least they did for Daytona this year. We're spending a few minutes with Bob Potgrass, who is the NASCAR reporter for Fox Sports, fresh off Daytona, now in Chicago.

We'll ask him about that coming up. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence here on CBS Sports Radio. How challenging is it, Bob, for a single car team like this one to win a race at all, much less the Daytona 500? Well, I'll put it this way, since 2009, this organization has run in the NASCAR Cup Series and they have one win, just one, 2014 at Watkins Glen with A.J.

Allmendinger. This is a team that has decent funding for one car, but every week you go to the track, the big teams, the three car teams, the four car teams can try different things because, hey, let's do this in this car and this in that car and let's see what happens. Well, when you're a single car team, you can't do any of that.

They haven't always had the most manufacturer support. They haven't had the most time in the simulator to get ready for an event. So right now they have a little bit of a Hendrick alliance and Chevrolet is giving them more time in the simulator.

That started last year and they think they're starting to see the results of that extra time. So it's just, you know, it's very difficult for a single car team to make it and to continue to do it and to run up front consistently and that's kind of the challenge for this team going forward to try to do this more often on a more consistent basis. We know that Michael Jordan is now part of NASCAR and is a team owner. Bubba Wallace is breaking ground and is trying to increase the diversity. What does it mean for the sport to have its first ever victory for an African American owner? Yeah, the first Daytona 500 victory for an African American owner and Brad Doherty, it's very significant. NASCAR needs a diverse fan base and the only way to get that is to have its driver core, to have its ownership core, to have its crew chief core, also to be diverse. And Brad Doherty, he wore 43 as a player in the NBA in college for a reason and that's because of Richard Petty. This is a guy who loved racing all his life and for him to be part of this ownership group and to win the Daytona 500 is huge. I think the NASCAR fan base has known Brad Doherty for years and years. He does work on the NBC side of the schedule. He worked for ESPN before that. So people have seen him around for decades and they know that his love and his passion for the sport is incredibly genuine. Awesome.

Good to hear. Bob Potgrass is with us on After Hours, CBS Sports Radio and as I mentioned, he's in Chicago. Why the trip from Daytona so quickly to the Windy City, Bob? Well, because NASCAR is going to try something they haven't done in their 75-year history when later this year they come to Chicago to run on the street to Chicago on a temporary street course. They're going to shut down the streets for a couple weeks, put up a temporary course and try to race.

This is something they've never tried to do. It's done in other cities with other types of cars, but it's never been done in NASCAR and so Ricky Stenhouse Jr. will be up here taking a look at some things and trying to do some appearances and create some buzz. This is NASCAR's attempt to bring the race to people who maybe wouldn't drive two hours to a race and they're pairing it with a weekend festival atmosphere with a Chainsmokers concert and a Miranda Lambert concert. NASCAR is looking to see, hey, it's come to the festival and enjoy a race. That's the way NASCAR hopes to expand the sport, not just looking for some of their fans to come for a unique event, but they're trying to create new fans. When you talk about diversity and Brad Doherty being a winning owner, this is where that can be a really big deal. You have Brad Doherty come out at some point during the weekend and people recognize Brad Doherty. They say, oh, he's involved in this. Why is he interested in this? He feels comfortable being at the racetrack.

Maybe I can be comfortable too. Do you think we'll see more of the road races and the atypical courses? It seems like NASCAR is trying to find some of the tracks that don't quite fit the mold. They're trying to do different things. Obviously, this year was the second year they put a temporary track in the LA Memorial Coliseum for their annual preseason race called The Clash. They're going to continue to look at places and try to do things that they think create excitement and buzz and brings their product to a fan base. It encourages people to be interested in a sport that maybe wouldn't be otherwise. They're going to continue to try to have different, unique events. Is there a guarantee that every one of them will work?

No, but that doesn't mean they're going to try. They went decades going through all the same racetrack at the same time, year after year after year, and they realize they've got to change up the schedule to keep this work fresh. One draw this season may be the limited return of Jimmy Johnson after a couple of years of, I don't know if that was retirement or just taking a break, but what's it like to have him back? It's great to have Jimmy Johnson back because he has tons and tons of fans. He's not just back as a driver, but he's back as a co-owner of a race team. He's back in this different role where not only is he driving, but he's also driving knowing that if he wrecks, he's going to have to pay for the car. You want your stars of the sport to remain involved if they can and if they want to. Jimmy Johnson obviously can and obviously wants to.

It's great to have him there and especially seeing he's running this well for his own team, how is he going to better, and maybe more importantly, how is he going to get that organization better? Similar to what his mentor did, Jeff Gordon, right? So Jeff was still driving, but he was a co-owner of Jimmy's team toward the end of his career.

Absolutely. It's Jeff Gordon who is the one who said he thinks that Jimmy Johnson can win races even though he didn't have a proven track record of winning races in stock cars. So now can Jimmy Johnson do the same?

It's not only just trying to choose a driver, but it's also trying to choose crew members. You look at Tony Stewart, co-owner of Stewart Haas Racing, there was a time where it was just Haas Racing and they weren't very good. And they give half the team to Tony Stewart and he brings in people and people want to work for him. And now that team has championships and wins races and is considered one of the elite teams. Question is, can Jimmy do that over the rebranded Peddi GMS into what they're now calling Legacy Motor Club? Bob Pockrass is with us from Chicago for Fox Sports, fresh off the Daytona 500 and following champion Ricky Stenhouse around after hours here on CBS Sports Radio.

What are a couple of top storylines for the season ahead in addition to Chicago? When you talk about the new next gen car, I think the main storyline is, will there be as much parity this year as there was last year? You talk about 19 winners last year and 36 races. And you have a guy who won a race, who won since 2017. So what does that tell you how many winners there could be this year? And then the other one is that they did make some changes to the car for rear impacts, where the driver hopefully isn't absorbing as much of the energy in the crash, which you saw last year.

They certainly were. You had two drivers who missed races because of the concussions. Kurt Busch still is not able to race. He hopes to be able to race some events on a part-time schedule once he gets cleared, but he's not cleared yet. And so time will tell whether these changes that NASCAR made will prove to keep their drivers safe. The drivers feel good about the changes.

They feel that from what they've seen from the crash tests that NASCAR has done, that they will help, but obviously won't know until it happens. But he wants to return though. He's still intent on returning to driving. I think Kurt Busch would like to still race again. He'd love to be able to go out a little bit more on his own terms, but he can't do it until he's cleared. And he says that he is, you know, everyday life is fine.

It's just when he gets his heart rate up to a point like where he would be in a race car that he still has some issues. Alright, we're off and running after Daytona and Bob Pockrass now in Chicago because that's where the champ is as we get set for history there later in the season. You can find him on Twitter at P-O-C-K-R-A-S-S. Covers NASCAR for Fox Sports. It's always good to catch up with you, Bob. Thank you so much for a couple of minutes. Yeah, thank you, Amy. Always enjoy talking to Bob with the perspective not only on the history of NASCAR, but also the major issues and making it appealing to fans who maybe don't watch it day in and day out.

He's great at that and we love having him. So yeah, now that they've transitioned to the next gen car, trying to make it safer, of course, which is always a challenge when you're talking about cars traveling at excesses of 175 and 180 miles per hour. Even at Daytona, with the restrictor plates, they still can get up upwards of 200 miles per hour and the tight, tight racing on the restarts late and everything that's on the line, you know there are going to be wrecks because of the very tight spaces, the bump drafting, which is when they're actually making contact with cars in front and behind. One little mistake or one little tap of the brakes or even taking your foot off the gas and it can cause a chain reaction.

So of course they need the cars and the drivers to be as safe as possible. So good stuff with Bob. Alright, you can find me on Twitter, ALawRadio, also on our Facebook page, After Hours with Amy Lawrence, if you have any bright ideas about how to tweak the NBA All-Star game the way that many other All-Star festivities are being tweaked and are going through a transformation to make them more appealing to mass fans across the board. So we heard from Kareem in Atlanta earlier, last segment or last hour I guess, and he was saying that he really enjoyed it, but the numbers, the ratings are showing that fewer and fewer people are watching All-Star festivities now. Is there a way that the NBA can make it more appealing to keep fans engaged through the course of the weekend?

855-212-4227. Also this hour, a little baseball because we're starting to see all the stars show up at spring training and get prepared for the 2023 season. And I promise you, top of next hour, my story, my amazing Monday story.

I can't wait to share it with you. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. You are listening to the After Hours Podcast. Hey, Laura, what is up?

Um, nothing. I love your show, by the way. You're welcome. Amy, thank you for taking my call. I really appreciate the work you do. Hello, Amy. I just love your show. I've been listening for about three months. My first time calling in. I love your enthusiasm and your whole staff. Y'all keep me laughing and smiling. I don't get sleepy. That is the point. This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence.

24 karat magic in the air. Hope you enjoyed your holiday weekend. If you had a holiday weekend. I didn't really have a holiday weekend, but I was not here on Sunday night. I had quite the Monday. It was the opposite of a manic Monday, which generally my Mondays are fairly manic and moody and sometimes just moving is a big deal on a Monday.

I make myself work out on Mondays generally because it gets the blood pumping and helps me shake out the cobwebs. But this was a completely different Monday. And I don't suppose it gives anything away to tell you that I went to bed at 10 o'clock on Sunday night. It was the best thing ever.

The bets were already snoring. It was the best thing ever. I do love my job. I love what I do.

I haven't wanted to change time slots for 10 years, but man, going to bed at 10 o'clock on a Sunday night was delicious. All right, promised that we would work another call here. Michael is listening in Las Vegas. Michael, welcome to After Hours. Hi, Ayla. Hello. Hi. I just, if I could, I want to talk about the NBA and the MLB All-Star game. We got the MLB is going to be next.

I want to start with that. You know, the worst three days of my summer are those Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. It's so boring.

Well, hold on, hold on. It's the summertime. There's a bazillion things that you can do outside, inside, take a vacation, whatever. Your entire three days are ruined because there's no sports? Absolutely.

Oh, dear Lord. You might need to get a hobby, Michael. Amy, is it, seriously, I'm watching, okay, you're not going to understand it because I know you don't gamble, right?

It depends on what we're talking about. I play fantasy football. Okay, so that's not gambling in my opinion. But anyways, I don't want to get in that argument tonight. Those are the worst three days of my summer, okay? If you could just take that. I'll just take that for, yes. It's like you not being able to go hiking, okay? In my opinion.

Listen, those are the worst three days. My point is they finally made something good and made the MLB All-Star game worth something and the winning team got the home four games in the World Series. I thought that was amazing. It made it interesting. It made it worth watching and then they took it away. It's like you guys, I'm saying all the TV and radio hosts, they all complained when they made it worth something and now they're complaining when it's not worth something.

I think that's called a hypocrite. I mean, it was so great when they made it worth. Wait, what was the difference?

Just out of curiosity. Because for Major League Baseball, hold on, for Major League Baseball they still have to play the actual game. What was the difference if there was something riding on it or not? Because the games were still played the same way. It makes it interesting. I don't want to watch something. It's like having a pre-season football game in the middle of the season. Yeah, no, it's an exhibition for sure. Well, I don't like it. I'm one of the 50 million people who gamble in America and to have those three days off, it's really awful.

And to be able to gamble on that game, it makes it fun. Those three days are really hard. Sorry, Michael, since I'm not familiar. Carlos, Carlos, can you please pay attention?

Thank you. Tim, just, wait, you hung up on him? I just wanted you to pot him down. Okay, so Carlos and I had a little miscommunication there.

Maybe because you weren't looking at me. What are you doing in there? What are you doing in there? I was trying to multitask, be a good producer, podcast at the same time. I shouldn't be doing that. Oh, no, you should not be podcasting during the show.

That would be a no-no. So anyway, I believe what Michael is trying to say is that that game is now boring because there's nothing riding on it. But I feel like Major League Baseball All-Star Game is still a game. I'm pretty sure you can gamble on the Major League Baseball All-Star Game anyway, even if it is an exhibition. You can gamble on everything. You can gamble on that. You can gamble on the Home Run Derby. You can gamble on all of it. Oh, the Home Run Derby, for sure.

People love it. Right, he just may not like it. Yeah, he may not find it interesting. Well, no, he also doesn't want to, I mean, those are hard to predict and go by and the odds necessarily.

It may not be smart gambling if you're a big gambler. I like the All-Star breaks because they feel like vacations to me. Well, there's that. So the weekend in between Championship Sunday and the Super Bowl, to me, well, it's a lot of prep always for Super Bowl week, but to me, it's so nice not to have to be attached to the TV for the first time in six months on a Sunday afternoon. Though I admit I had it on TV in front of me, but I was working on other things on my laptop, so I wasn't really paying attention to it that much. And the Major League Baseball All-Star game is the only one I actually watch, so I enjoy those times.

They're refreshing because you don't have to be attached to a game or an event as much. Yeah, but I mean, it's different for you as opposed to other people because that's their, it's not work, it's their outlet. Well, it sounds like his livelihood. Right, but that's also, I would imagine, the outside stuff that he enjoys from work.

That gets him away from the stuff that he does all day long and it clears his mind. I'm not a big gambler, but I understand the idea of if this is what you do to get away from life, to watch the game, I get it. If when you take that away, then yeah, it is tough for the day.

Take your lifeline away. Look, there's a lot of times, and I've been through this because I've done a lot of different jobs, man. When you're working, you know, a double shift or whatever it is, 10 hours, 12 hours, 8 hours, whatever it is, in a job that you don't like and you don't enjoy, and you go home, you just want to put the game on to get your mind away from everything else that you got going on, I get it if you take that away. See, that's Star Wars for me, or crime dramas. I love, they're mindless.

They all follow the same formula, but I love them. Everybody's got a different outlet for that, and we all have different things, so whatever it is, it's a game, it's a show, it's a movie, it's a book. Whatever it is, it's cooking dinner, it's, you know, whatever you do to get away from the grind of whatever's going on in your life, all the things that you have and the responsibilities, it's different for all of us. I get it. If somebody takes that away from you, it's hard to recover, however many days it is. Three. It's three days for Michael. The worst three days of his year.

That's actually not true, because it's not three either. Because, I mean, they play Sunday, they don't come back until like Thursday or Friday, so it's actually more than... No, the All-Star game is a Tuesday. Tuesday. They do a home run derby Monday, All-Star game's Tuesday, everybody's off Wednesday, maybe there's like a game or two on Thursday, most teams come back Friday. So it's basically the whole week, if he doesn't like the All-Star game itself.

So nice. Yes, but again, everybody's got different things. Everybody's got different outlets. I look forward to those times when it's a little quieter, but I get it, because sports has worked for me now, so as much as I enjoy what I do for work, it's still work. And so people say to me all the time, like, hey, this weekend you're off, or on your vacation you're off, are you going to watch this or this?

I'm like, no. On my vacations, I do not watch sports. In fact, when I'm with my family, we do not watch sports. My mother's husband's the only other real sports fan in the family, and he'll start to talk to me about the game, and I'll just wander away somewhere.

I don't want to hear anything about the game when I'm on vacation. That makes sense, but like I said, everybody's outlet's a little bit different. It would be the concept of, you know, if you're working in a factory line and people talk about the factory, when you're home, you don't want to hear it. You don't want to fix toilets if you're a plumber. That's what I mean. There's all kinds of different things.

Whatever it is that we do, we all have some sort of outlet that we need to have, and if you start talking about all the stuff that we've got, that we've got to do 8 to 10 to 12 hours a day, we don't want to hear it. Agreed. Alright, coming up, we've got the introduction of Jonathan Gannon in the desert. What is his opinion on Kyler Murray?

Trust me, it's vanilla. And also, what Hall of Famer is not giving Gannon a ringing endorsement? In fact, it's the opposite of a ringing endorsement. Our phone number is 855-212-4227, on Twitter, ALawRadio, our Facebook page too, always open, available for you. Thanks for hanging up on us. That's what we're going to say.

I'm going to hang up on you. You are listening to the After Hours Podcast. Two receivers left, shotgun set for Murray, flanked to his right by Conner, snapped to Kyler, back to throw, now backing up, moving to his left, going to tuck and run at the 5, and Murray into the endzone, touchdown. Again, Kyler Murray using his legs to escape the pocket, and the Cardinals retake the lead with 12 seconds to go in the first half.

You're listening to After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. Oh, those were the days. It seems like forever since we've seen Kyler Murray on a football field.

Maybe because it's been quite a while. And, man, this was a year to forget for Kyler, if not for the massive contract that he signed. Therein lies the highlight of the last 12 months for Kyler Murray, not so much on the football field, but the fact that the team finally caved, gave him the contract extension that he wanted, and then look how it played out for the team. It didn't get them any closer to where they wanted to go. The friction between he and Cliff Kingsbury was evident, it was obvious, potentially resulting in the franchise moving on from Kingsbury, and the fact that they hadn't been able to really advance past making a playoff spot, right?

But it seemed like three consecutive years, they, in the second half of the season, went so steadily downhill, they could not sustain any type of early success. Is that all on Kingsbury? No. Has their quarterback been injured? A bunch?

Yes. And then with the torn ACL, you definitely can't put that on Cliff Kingsbury, but it's clear that there was a disconnect, and it was getting worse between the quarterback and the head coach. It's after hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio, now the Cardinals have the new guy, they've got a new guy, Jonathan Gannon, formerly the D.C., the defensive coordinator for the Philadelphia Eagles, fresh off the Super Bowl. He was announced as the head coach right away, as soon as the Chiefs had won the Super Bowl, and they're changing a lot there, right?

The general manager, the new general manager, Monty Osenfort, he was in charge of this coaching search, and he has a lot of very specific reasons for choosing Gannon. Ultimately, our process led us to Jonathan. Jonathan's energy when he entered our room, it was nonstop from the beginning.

All the more impressive coming off the Super Bowl just hours before he stepped into our room. Jonathan's vision for our organization matched up well with the vision that we envisioned for the Cardinals organization. His reputation as a leader, his ability to connect to players, to staff, to the rest of his coaches, his ability to work with the personnel department and provide a vision for the type of players that we're going to go out and seek.

It was apparent that Jonathan shared a lot of the same values that I value and that Michael values. I look forward to working with the players. That was very appealing to me, some of the guys that we have on board right now.

Not too many times do you take over a team and you have a franchise quarterback, so that was very appealing. I'll head some of this stuff off right now as we talk before we get to questions and things like that, but just know this. We're going to be very adaptable. I'm talking to the Arizona Cardinals, this is what our team is going to be. We're going to be adaptable, we're going to be violent, we're going to be explosive and we're going to be smart.

All three phases go into that. We will maximize the talents of the players that we have and that's how we're going to win games. Don't get it twisted, we're going to win games. Jonathan Gannon making those comments in the last few days as he was introduced as the Cardinals head coach and is now working to put his staff together. He has pulled one of the coaches from Philadelphia, a guy that he's worked with the last couple of seasons, Nick Rallis. He was the linebackers coach in Philly and will be the Cardinals DC and also pulling the former Cleveland Browns quarterbacks coach Drew Petzing to be the team's offensive coordinator.

So we're talking about a brand new brain trust here. Three guys who have never been in this position before, their respective positions before, but will have an opportunity to work with Kyler Murray. So you're not going to get Gannon to say anything negative obviously or even constructive criticism at this point about Kyler Murray. No, on NFL Now it was all sunshine and roses about Murray. Just that he's a great dude and his skill set and just having to defend him, I know what type of problem that he presents for defenses.

So we're going to look to maximize his skill sets and build the offense around them. Alright, see what I mean? Vanilla. What wasn't vanilla, Brian Dawkins telling you why he would have hated playing under Jonathan Gannon in Philadelphia. Alright, so we're talking about Brian Dawkins, one of the most beloved Philadelphia Eagles of all time.

What he says carries a lot of weight. He accidentally more than once calls Jonathan Gannon rich Gannon, which I'm sorry it's funny because I do stupid stuff like that all the time when I get the wrong name in my head or I'm thinking about a different Gannon blah blah blah. Brian played in a different era with Rich Gannon.

So this Hall of Fame safety, who was a four-time All-Pro, a nine-time Pro Bowler, he was part of the All 2000s team for the Hall of Fame. As I say, beloved as an Eagle, when he weighs in, people listen. And he is laying down the law when it comes to Jonathan Gannon, who's the brand new head coach with the Cardinals. The only thing that I kept saying the whole year is that when your fastball is not working, you have to have a change up. And you have to be used to throwing that change up. You know, for us, we're going to blitz, right?

We're going to disguise, we're going to move around. And so, you know, just like I know, Hugh, that how many times we walk through blitzes, we walk through specific angles. This is the trajectory, this is the angle you want to take, so as one offensive lineman can't block two, those type of things. And so for a team that does not blitz, and when you ask them to blitz, it's a foreign subject to them. So that's why for me, and people were getting on me, well, they're getting sacks. Well, I love the sacks. Continue to get the sacks. But also mix in the blitz so that those guys know what to do when Plan A is not working and you have to go to Plan B. Plan B happened this past Sunday because you weren't winning your one-on-one battles.

Why? Because the field was jacked up. So that's one of the things that neutralizes speed rushers, right? It's a sloppy field. That was a sloppy field.

So you have to do other things. And Rich did not do a good job of adjusting to that, to getting away from his fastball, going through change ups or different blitz packages. And as for me playing under this defensive coordinator, me personally, I would have hated it.

Because none of the things that I was blessed to do blitzing and all of those things would have been added to this defense under Rich Gannon. Okay, he did call him Rich, but we know who he's talking about. And he said it multiple times and Hugh Douglas on 94 WIP in Philadelphia didn't correct him, which I understand. I don't always step in. In fact, I very rarely step in and correct my guess because I don't want to be rude, number one.

Number two, we all make mistakes and I think we can figure out who it was that he was talking about. But yeah, an interesting opinion and perspective from a Hall of Fame safety who essentially has indicated that, and we know this about the Eagles, right? They had a front four that were able to anchor the defense, get pressure on opposing O-lines, 10 plus sacks for four different guys.

It's never happened before. It's history for the Eagles defense. But the problem is when they weren't getting pressure in the Super Bowl, especially in that second half, they weren't able to get to a Patrick Mahomes who was on an ankle and a half. They weren't able to slow down the run. They were getting pushed around by the offensive line. So for that reason, the pass rush was almost nonexistent. They had zero sacks. So you need to incorporate the blitz. There needs to be a Plan B or a Plan C or a Plan D. And Doc is saying he took the blitzing out of the game plan. They didn't have a blitzing backup option or a Plan B to blitz. And so when they were getting negated in the trenches and when they were failing to get any type of a rush against that Chiefs offensive line, they really had nothing else to try. So that was an interesting perspective. Would have hated playing under that guy. What a message that sends to the Arizona Cardinals defense. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio.