After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 2

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It's one of the things I miss about the all-season hearing from Mike Tomlin on a regular basis. Update on the pizza slice. It is still sitting in the box. No one has eaten it. I did not touch it. In fact, I didn't even touch the box. I used my pen to lift the lid of the box to see whether or not the lone slice of pizza is still there in habitation.

It absolutely is. Producer J, it appears as though it has tomatoes on it. I'm not sure that's you. It's either tomatoes or slices of ham. I didn't get close enough to tell what was on the pizza slice, but it's sitting out there if you dare to eat it.

That is a big difference, which will sway me in one direction or the other. Well, then you'll have to go smell it. Stick your schnoz down there and see what it is.

Ham or tomato. It's so old, though. How do you know? Maybe it was just brought in a couple hours ago.

I don't know. Just knowing this place and how long pizza can sit out there. J, you have absolutely eaten old food that's been sitting on that same counter since I've known you. Yeah, you're right. I mean, I have, but normally just like the plain, you know, regular cheese pizza, there's like stuff on it. That's when we start to get into dangerous grounds. Meats have been sitting out for long. Yeah.

Two of J's four food groups are pizza and candy, so he is a connoisseur of both. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. On Twitter, ALawRadio, also on our Facebook page. Love to hear from you.

Thank you for all of the kind words, again, about International Women's Day, but also you've enjoyed looking at the photos that I've posted from vacation. The fishy tail, that seemed to be the biggest hit of the week was the fishy tail. One more thought about Kyrie. He's starting to remind me a lot of another athlete who I mentioned is no longer in pro sports and the way that he carried himself and some of his actions off of the field are the reason why. So, and also a lot of people were worried about him and I think people are starting to worry a little bit about Kyrie as well. So we'll get back to that coming up, but we promised you little bit of attention to the QB chessboard because we're getting closer to free agency. There are now rumors that Matthew Stafford could be available via trade from the Los Angeles Rams.

So there's a lot that we need to look at. It's After Hours on CBS Sports Radio and yay, Sean King making his second appearance here on the show from Beezin Live. His show is 3 to 6 Pacific, 6 to 9 Eastern Time on that network based in Vegas, but Sean, obviously a former NFL QB, a Super Bowl champ from his time with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Sean, why don't we start with Les Snead who says that Matthew Stafford is not available, in fact calls him a pillar of their franchise moving forward and yet we're hearing reports that the Rams are shopping him to other teams. Why would they do that? Well, I think they're in a position that not a lot of organizations have been in. Like they made a conscientious decision to not build their team through the draft to sacrifice draft capital to acquire veteran free agents to make a run at a Super Bowl.

They accomplished that and won a Super Bowl, but now the bill is due. So they're trying to figure out how do we reconfigure our roster to make ourselves relevant moving forward? So I'm assuming that they are exhausting every avenue to try and make that happen because they don't have draft capital, but they have a roster that's devoid in certain areas, yet they are maxed out salary cap wise because they've acquired all these high priced veterans.

So I think they're trying to make a decision. It would be interesting for me, how much football does Matthew Stafford have left? I mean, he was the number one pick before the draft changed from a compensation standpoint. So he came into the National Football League with a huge deal, got paid again by Detroit, traded to LA, another big deal. I mean, coming off of a year where he really battled injuries, he's already won a Super Bowl.

How much football does he have left? So if they can move him with the understanding that he's probably not going to play too much longer and get some of their draft capital back, it makes sense. It's a supply and demand problem for those teams that desperately need QBs. I feel like there would be a market for him even if it's only for a couple of years.

Well, absolutely. I mean, Daniel Jones just got paid what? Derek Carr just got paid what? Like no offense to either one of those young men and I'm glad that they got the bag. But I mean, the market has created this cash windfall for starting quarterbacks. Like even if you're not elite, I wake up every day and like, damn, I wish my draft class was like born like 15 years later.

Like this is crazy. Well, then thinking about the highest paid quarterback currently, who is Aaron Rodgers and we don't know exactly what his decision will be. But let's just say for the sake of argument that the Jets do get their man in Rodgers.

How do you like that marriage? From a business standpoint for New York, it makes sense. But let me put context on what I'm about to say. Winning a Super Bowl is difficult. The National Football League has the most parity of any professional sports league in the world. It's the only league where every fan base legitimately has an opportunity from one offseason to the next to go from a not even in the conversation to a Super Bowl champ. Look at the Tamalee Buccaneers, the team that I grew up rooting for. Think about pre-Brady and then with Brady.

And so I get what the Jets are doing. The difference was Brady was motivated. He was going to try and put everything he had into winning a Super Bowl without Bill Belichick, because that would separate him legacy wise. I don't know that Aaron Rodgers has that same motivation.

Like when you listen to Aaron talk, when you really focus in on what he's saying, he seems more like an athlete that's accomplished a whole lot individually. Who knows he's going to be in the Hall of Fame who doesn't really care about the hierarchy of his legacy. Five, six years ago, people were talking about Aaron Rodgers, maybe the best quarterback ever.

Now nobody has him in that conversation. So I just don't know for what the Jets would have to give up. Is it worth it to ascertain a what will be 40 year old Aaron Rodgers who's talked about retiring the last three years? But what else is there if you're a team that feels like you're a quarterback away? Well, if I was Woody Johnson's right hand man, and trust me, I think Woody is leading this cavalry. Yes, he wants Aaron Rodgers. He has not had a legit elite quarterback since Brett Favre. He wants Rodgers. He feels like in the AFC in order to go up against Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow, Josh Allen, Justin Herbert, all those guys, you have to have an Aaron Rodgers type player.

My thing would be Woody. Lamar Jackson is 26 and Rogers is 39. We're going to have to give up basically the same thing because I'm assuming the Green Bay, New York Jets deal for Rogers is going to mimic in a lot of ways the Seattle Seahawks and Denver Broncos trade last season for Russell Wilson, which included multiple players going back to Seattle. So if you're Green Bay, how do you give up Aaron Rodgers and it not include sauce Gardner or breeze Hall or Garrett Wilson. So you can get Lamar Jackson at the same price point and give up two first round picks. Like that would be the avenue that I would be going down if I was a Jax. Sean King is a former NFL QB, a Super Bowl champion from his time in Tampa and now part of Visa Live based in Vegas and he's on prime time, which is three to six Pacific.

It's after hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. All right, let's talk about Lamar Jackson. I understand why teams and in this case is the Ravens would balk at a fully guaranteed deal.

If you're Lamar or if you're advising Lamar, are you sticking to that Sean or at some point do you have to come back off it a little bit for a comfortable position for your future at this point? I don't think you can compromise. Now I don't advocate professional athletes not having representation.

Once you get into corporate America and you get into business ownership and different things, you understand negotiations are volatile because both sides are trying to do what's best for them. So to be personally involved as a professional athlete, I don't know that you ever would feel your current boss is the same because they're going to offer you things that you think are disrespectful, but that is the art of negotiation. How does Lamar Jackson ever walk back in that building after not getting on the plane with the Ravens and attending the playoff game versus the Bengals? Like that was when I felt like, okay, he's played his last snap with the Ravens.

I don't know how you walk back and take back and rework that relationship. Do you sign the franchise tender or do you say heck no? Absolutely not. I mean, you've basically gotten what you wanted, which is if there was a team willing to pay Deshaun Watson, he hadn't played for a year and you knew he wasn't going to be able to play for the majority of the years they signed him. You've got to think that at 26, a team will be willing to give Lamar Jackson the same thing, right?

He's already won an NFL MVP. I know the NFL is moving away from it, but they're currently the only professional sports league in America that doesn't regularly offer guaranteed contracts. So we find in life, everything's about evolving. Everything's about pivoting. There's a time in America where people were like, nobody's going to use a cell phone. Nobody wants to drive and talk on the phone. Nobody wants to be right.

So I mean, things have changed like that we thought would never happen. So what's the issue with not having guaranteed contracts? Like that's the question I always have for the league side of this debate.

What's the issue? Explain that to me, like, give me something rational in 2023. That is a legitimate argument about why contracts in that league should not be guaranteed. Especially with the quarterback position, you're talking about guys that are taking a lot of hits.

And if someone suffers an injury, it isn't the same. Again, you're talking about a league in which you can go from worst to first in one season. It's because of the salary cap. It kind of changes a whole lot if you are paying a quarterback or any player who is not able to play or isn't the same guy anymore.

Yeah, but the New York Giants just extended Daniel Jones. They can't get out of that deal. When Dallas gave Dak Prescott that deal, they can't get out of that deal. Like those deals, even if the money's not guaranteed, aren't easily set off.

You can't like easily get out of those deals. Yeah, Russell Wilson in Denver, same thing. Interesting debate.

Sean King is with us here after hours on CBS Sports Radio. So we'll see whether or not Lamar gets a guaranteed offer from another team. Obviously, then the Ravens have to determine if they want to match or if they want to allow him to walk. What did Kyler Murray just get guaranteed from the Cardinals?

$180 million, I think? Right. It was pretty close to Watson. Not quite Watson, but it was up there. It's like, what are we talking about with Lamar? Come on. Like, Lamar is 5X Kyler Murray currently. True. Until like this contract thing became like the main topic of every national platform.

This happened probably about a year and a half ago. You had never heard anything negative about Lamar. I mean, Lamar is from Florida.

Like, Florida boys like play football, like for the love of the game. You know, this isn't Aaron Rodgers who talks about retiring at the end of the last three years. This isn't Aaron Rodgers who's, what is it, Hayabusa, Amaya Watsi or whatever it is that he's doing.

Like, this isn't somebody who's going to sit in a dark room for four days. Like, Lamar hasn't been on any podcast. Like, Aaron's on, and I love Pat McAfee, he's doing a great job, by the way. He's on Pat McAfee's podcast during the year.

Like, this isn't the same thing. Nobody's ever questioned Lamar's desire to pursue a championship and do everything necessary for his team to win that championship. Why the hesitancy to pay him, but yet no hesitancy to pay Derek Carr, who's had multiple coaches with the Raiders, Oakland, and Las Vegas. He's had Amari Cooper, he's had Devontae Adams, he's had Darren Wallace. Like, he's had multiple players that are better than anything that Lamar Jackson ever had in Baltimore. But again, I ask you, if you're Lamar in his camp, do you take $180 million guaranteed or do you draw the hard line and go, no way, we are not taking anything less than fully guaranteed?

It's interesting because you want to be a martyr. Lamar could be the player that changes how the NFL does business. He really could. You're talking about a guy that's 26 years old that plays the premium position in this league that's already won an NFL regular season MVP. Who doesn't want that? And if nobody wants that, then there's definitely collusion involved in this situation. This is definitely the owners getting together, trying to push back on one, there's more than one rogue owner, but Haslam's one of the rogue owners from what I've been told in the National Football League, Daniel Snyder being another. This is them pushing back on what they thought was a bad business decision by Cleveland. Because you can't tell me that if I'm the New York Giants owner, paying Daniel Jones that amount of money is better for us than pursuing Lamar Jackson.

Like, there's no way that you can justify that. The only thing I can say that I feel like would potentially justify is that if you are left without a quarterback right now, you're in a dire situation because there just aren't enough to go around. So if the Giants lose Daniel Jones, what the hell do you bring in instead? Sometimes teams are worried about losing their guy, even if it means they have to pay more because there's just not anybody else out there.

I guess I would only push back like, what is their guy? What does that mean? Because I have the best current available option in the big scheme of things, where does that place us? If I sign Daniel Jones to this long-term deal, the Kid Dallas Cowboys, if I signed Dak Prescott to this long-term deal, the Minnesota Vikings, if I signed Kirk Cousins to this long-term deal, does that really give us an opportunity to win a championship? Or did we just pay for what was the best available option at the time? Well, a lot of times that is what happens though, right? I'm kind of upset that I'm 45 instead of 25, because I'll be in the market and probably get one of these deals and I'll be great. But I'm just saying like, there's a separation in this league between the elite quarterbacks and everybody else.

And if you don't have one of the elite ones, then I think you're definitely operating at a deficit. Like, let's be honest about Aaron Rodgers, as great of a talent as we thought he was in 2010, what has he accomplished team-wise since 2010 or 2015? Like the last three years, they've lost at home in Green Bay because Aaron Rodgers played bad.

If they beat the Lions, they go to the playoffs. Who played bad in that game? Aaron Rodgers. The year before, they had the Niners at Lambeau.

They scored what, seven points? Who played bad? Aaron Rodgers. Amy, the year before that in the NFC Championship game, they had the Bucks at Lambeau. Who played bad? Aaron Rodgers.

Well, Tom Brady did too, actually, and they still couldn't beat him. Right. So my point is for the last three years, when it really mattered, Aaron Rodgers wasn't Aaron Rodgers. So like, my thing is, to whom much is given, much is required.

Agreed. Like, we hold our superstars to a higher level. It's why Charles Barkley is never in the conversation with Michael Jordan. That's when you expect the guy that makes the most money, that allocates the most or the largest portion of salary cap to be the dude.

And yet in those three games, he hasn't been, and they were at home. So I'll be very worried if I was the Jets. Okay, on the surface, and from a business standpoint, this makes sense. We're going to sell more jerseys.

We can raise ticket prices. I mean, we can do everything that makes us money, but does it really make us viable in the AFC to win a championship? Yeah, that's my big question about the Jets, is does it make them one of the best teams in the AFC, because the AFC is stacked.

And I don't know that it does. It's a good question, although I'm not sure Woody Johnson is buying it. I think he's kind of all in, as you point out. Absolutely, and I get it, because it makes business sense.

Yeah. Like, it makes that brand much bigger than it would be without Aaron Rodgers. Like, if Aaron Rodgers goes to the Jets, they'll be at the forefront and the lead topic on every platform nationally available that covers the National Football League, and people will be talking about them. And guess what? At the end of next year, they won't have done anything different than they did with Zach Wilson. That's just my opinion. If Aaron is sensitive in Green Bay, think about what it's going to be like in New York.

So Sean, as we hear you, you don't have high hopes even if Aaron Rodgers does end up in Green Bay, and still wondering about the Lamar Jackson situation and why there aren't teams out there trying to pry him away by offering a contract with a ton of guaranteed money, if not fully guaranteed. So that's one conversation. Love that debate. But I've got other questions for you, actually, because this is a question I posed to the audience last night. Once you get past these couple dominoes, then what do you do if you're a team that needs a quarterback?

So hang on. From Beeson Live in Las Vegas, former NFL QB and Super Bowl champion Sean King is with us for a couple more minutes. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio.

You are listening to the After Hours podcast. There is life and then there is football. And the reason I set it up like that was because I never wanted to be just a football player because I'm a smart guy who went on Jeopardy! and won and hosted Jeopardy! and I'm interested in all these other things and look how, don't pigeonhole me as just a football player.

I'm not a dumb jock. This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Aaron Rodgers on the Aubrey Marcus podcast and our guest Sean King, not the only one who questions whether Aaron would be all in if he made the move to the Jets. Now, Woody Johnson, the Jets contingent, reportedly very high on Aaron Rodgers and they believe that all the momentum is leaning toward a deal between the Jets and the Packers that would bring Rodgers to their franchise.

So we'll see how that develops or unfolds over the next couple of days. We still haven't heard from Aaron himself. But even as we spend a few more minutes with Sean King, Rodgers is a domino. The Lamar Jackson conversation continues on as well. But Sean, there are other teams out there that desperately need quarterbacks. The Carolina Panthers, the Washington Commanders, think about the Colts and the Texans, maybe even Arizona if Kyler's not ready to start the season.

And what do we have? Baker Mayfield, Sam Darnold, Carson Wentz, Marcus Mariota, Annie Dalton, Maynia Jamis-Winston. I asked my audience, now I'm asking you, after the top few QBs, where do you go if you're one of those teams? Well, I think Jimmy Garoppolo will be the most sought after quarterback once the agency opens. But I also think that there are two legitimate quarterbacks in this draft, Bryce Young and C.J.

Stroup. I mean, guys that have actual game film that says they're really, really good players. And with the new salary situation involving drafted players, you now get a very team-friendly deal at a position that in a lot of areas or a lot of other situations takes up a lot of your cap. So I think there'll be a lot of trade conversation with Chicago about moving up, conversation with Arizona about moving up, trying to get in front of Indy at four.

And we'll see how it plays out. But at the end of the day, like, paying a quarterback that you know can't win a Super Bowl for you is just like not having one. What about the Geno Smith going back to the Seahawks?

Because it was a reasonable amount. I mean, they may draft a quarterback as well, but they decided that they're good with what Geno brings to the table, even though he's not an elite quarterback. He's played really well last year. Yeah, and I think he knows the perfect example of what happens when patience and talent intersect. So Geno was a super talented player coming out of West Virginia, but he went to the Jets. There was an immaturity there. He never got any patience. He was expected to be elite right from the beginning. He wasn't emotionally. He wasn't as mature as he is now. This is what I think Carson Wentz has done. It's hard for a guy like Carson Wentz, who was a first round draft pick, to continually get cut after one year.

That means they don't like you. And I think Geno came to Seattle, humbled himself, looked in the mirror, said, okay, the situation in New York didn't work. Let me fix what I'm looking at. Let me not blame anybody.

Let me not seek comfort, but let me address the issues that are dealing that involve me. And he sat behind Wilson Wilson. He got himself prepared for if he ever got another opportunity that he would excel. And that's what he did.

He went out and played his way into this job. If you would have asked anybody, and this is me included, when Denver and Seattle made that deal, if you would have asked anybody which team would be in the playoffs, nobody would have said Seattle. And yet Geno went out and led them in the playoffs. And they were actually ahead at halftime at San Francisco in the wildcard game.

Yes. So Geno earned this deal. And I fully anticipate that if Anthony Richardson is available, I think Seattle is picking fifth, that they'll select Anthony Richardson. And they'll do what San Francisco didn't understand, which was when you take a quarterback that's physically gifted, but hasn't been productive. You can't expect him to produce early in his career in the National Football League. So Anthony Richardson, by the time he plays and Seattle takes him at five, people would have forgot about the combine.

People would have forgot about everything except the fact what the Seahawks have done. And he'll get to learn behind Geno. And then whenever he's ready to play, whether it's two years from now or three years, we have a lot more experience and reps than he does currently.

Yeah, really interesting to see how this will play out. But it is always advantageous, especially if a player is a project or is raw talent, but not ready to be able to sit behind another quarterback because you throw them into the fire too soon and it can blow up in not just his face, but in your team's face. That's why I thought Trey Lance never had a chance. I mean, Trey Lance played one year at North Dakota State, right? How are you going to go to a team that has Super Bowl aspirations?

Like what is he going to get like a six game stretch when nobody cares and he messes up? Like that was almost impossible. And as smart as John Lynch is, who I played with and Kyle Shanahan, who's one of the best offensive wizards in the game, it always baffled me that they didn't understand that those two were never going to mesh.

And I know Trey has been hurt, but you can't put an inexperienced quarterback in that situation where if you tell him, if you don't mess up, we win. How does he ever develop and grow? Like Peyton Manning threw 20, what? Four 26 interceptions in year one? Like even, like he's one of the greatest ever. Even he had to go through the growing pains of figuring out what he can and can't do. And you know, how is this league and what are we looking at defensively and how do I make adjustments? So the things that are Trey Lance or Anthony Richardson, these guys that have only played one year of football in college are going to come into this league and be successful.

That's ludicrous. You were talking about Gino taking ownership of needing to grow up and needing to mature and taking care of himself and turning that into a positive situation. I thought instantly of Calvin Ridley. I was very impressed by the way that he took ownership of his mistakes. Whether or not we agree that a year suspension is appropriate for what he did. He didn't blame anybody else. He's come out, he's talked about it. He said, I screwed up.

This was on me. I'm so excited for another opportunity. And maybe the year away will turn out to be a great blessing for him as hard as it was. Hearing what you heard from him and now putting him on that Jaguars roster. What do you think, Sean? I love everything that Calvin really has done. And I'm really hoping that this time next year, Amy, when you have me on, we're talking about the same thing about Kyler Murray. And I know Calvin got suspended and Kyler's injured, but hopefully Kyler looks at Calvin and uses as an example of how to take something that was a negative and turn it into a positive.

If you're a Jaguar fan, you got to be excited. Trevor Lawrence looks like the real deal. The thing I love about him is that he screwed it up and didn't fold. He didn't blame anybody else.

He didn't seek comfort. He came back in that playoff game against the Chargers when he was terrible early, but he was great late. That's a sign of a real dude because we see so much bad body language in professional sports.

And we see so many of these athletes who want to blame and displace the responsibility of their own performance. To see Trevor handle that situation at that elite level, that has to be encouraging. Hats off to Trevor, man, because I really felt like this was his rookie year because obviously, and I said this when the Jaguars hired Urban Meyer, that might've been the worst hire in NFL history.

Pretty close. That's terrible. Outside of Nathanio Hackett not being able to make it to the end of one year, that's a terrible hire by the Jaguars. And yet he didn't fold. Good point.

He managed to stay in there, be a leader, and then look what happened when he got a real coach who could speak his language and get him ready. Absolutely. You never heard him say anything bad about Urban.

No. That's why I respect Trevor Lawrence and that's the maturity it takes in professional sports to really become a real elite player. Hey, man, hats off to Trevor. And listen, I'm super happy with Calvin Ridley.

He owned it and he's willing to move forward. And I think that the Arrow's definitely pointing out for that Jaguars organization. Agreed. Agreed.

This year, winning the division, kind of giving them a step up and helping them build that winning foundation with Doug. Yeah. Awesome stuff.

And we're not even to the actual start of the new league year yet, but it's coming. So you can find Sean on Twitter at Real Sean King, former NFL quarterback, Super Bowl champion, part of Vison Live and has got prime time from three to six P Pacific, but six to nine Eastern. Great to catch up with you. Really cool discussion.

So we'll do it again next time. All right, Amy, thanks for having me. Always appreciate we have guests on the show that want to engage in a back and forth. And I don't always do that with my guests because I want to give them a platform, but with Sean just now really need to hear his thoughts on the Lamar Jackson situation versus the Aaron Rodgers deal, because there are a lot of people that think it would be a slam dunk for the New York Jets. My biggest concern is about it being the AFC and the, the number of teams in the AFC that are championship contenders. Does Aaron Rodgers make the Jets a championship contender? Woody Johnson seems to think so. And obviously if you're Robert Sala and Nathaniel Hackett, really anybody on the Jets like Sauce Gardner and friends now actually burning their cheese head, they believe that he is a step up and he makes them a lot better.

And of course, if you don't have him, I don't know where you go. I don't know if, I mean, there is a preexisting relationship between Sala and Jimmy Garoppolo, but I don't, he wasn't to the, he wasn't on the offensive side of the ball when he was in San Francisco, but I don't know what you do if you don't get Aaron Rodgers. So it makes sense to me why he's a good business decision and why you'd be all in. We'll see what happens with Lamar Jackson and then what, and that's why I believe the Giants were okay paying Daniel Jones. Yes, they like what they saw from him this year with Brian Deball.

They made significant progress. He was the right man for the job and sure, maybe they overpaid. I get, whatever that is. The QB market is just strange anyway, but the fact is that if you don't have Daniel Jones, who do you have?

And that's what I come back to. If you don't pay your own guy, where are you going? You're starting fresh or you're paying a middling quarterback. So to me, that's why it's a good time to get paid as a QB for Derek Carr, for maybe even Lamar Jackson.

We'll see what happens, but definitely for Daniel Jones as well. All right, on Twitter, a law radio on our Facebook page too. We're morphing our way into a Friday. Yeehaw.

You are listening to the after hours podcast. A jam-packed Tokyo Dome, full and buzzing for Shohei Ohtani. Shohei's got now a 1-2. 0-2 pitch to Chen Chen.

Called strike three. Shot to left center field. Shohei Ohtani off the wall. New bar scores. Kondo rounds third and heads home. Welcome home Shohei Ohtani. Whoops, a single in the right.

He reaches for the fourth time tonight. This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Courtesy of FS1. It was quite a scene. Electric atmosphere for Shohei Ohtani and Team Japan, obviously with Shohei. One of the favorites in the World Baseball Classic, which is now underway. Team USA begins coming up on Saturday night.

So it's Saturday night, Saturday evening, I guess depending on which time zone you're in against Great Britain. But this was Shohei in Team Japan against Team China. He had four innings shutout ball, so he was pitching, but also drove in two runs at the plate. Got on base four different times and the atmosphere there as you hear it is pretty raucous. Pretty cool. He had his stuff working right off the top and so I think it's this is neat for not only baseball across the globe, but for Ohtani to be in front of his own fans in in his own part of the world where he hails from. Certainly there are a lot of people that follow his Major League Baseball career, but I just love the fact that he can be hailed as one of their sports heroes and gets to hear that love from people who speak the same language and people who he had to leave to be able to play in Major League Baseball. So kind of cool. I think in his case it's just a neat way to start out another season, especially when there is some uncertainty in his future.

Though he will have a say in his future. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. This is kind of fun from the Yaku Cosmopolitan. So I don't know what they're saying. If there's someone out there who speaks Japanese, great. Lars Neubauer definitely does not speak Japanese and was just kind of hanging out while his teammates were doing their pregame huddle. That's the best.

Yeah, for once you're not in the minority. I did hear though that it's a dream come true for Lars to be able to play for Team Japan. He's really excited about it again being at the Tokyo Dome. They're on their feet for Shohei Ohitani. They're on their feet for Team Japan. You can imagine that it's really neat for Lars to be part of it.

What's going on? You could tell there was some type of pregame cry or a pregame chant there, right? A pregame what would you like? Go team or ready, set, go. Everybody needs to teach him the cheer at the beginning so that he can at least be participating in that. So yeah, we'll talk more about the WBC.

I like the fact that we've got country lines and we've got a little bit of national pride here. Team USA is led by Mark DeRosa. He is the manager and Jay. Okay, good. We got it.

I didn't have the numbers, but now I got the numbers. So he was actually doing a press conference in advance of the debut for Team USA and it's kind of interesting to hear that he had a conversation with Coach Zashevsky, former Duke coach, Hall of Famer to be sure, and he wanted to know what Coach K might tell him about leading a team of players when you're wearing red, white, and blue. So Coach K working for Team USA basketball for years and years, won gold medals, yada, yada. So how can he give advice to Mark about putting a group together that doesn't normally play together but has a lot on the line? I talked to Mike Zashevsky before I came out here because he had that dream team and did that Redeem team on Netflix and I watched it and I got in touch with him and he said you know what, just get them to understand that you're not playing for the United States so I thought that was a powerful message for these guys. I didn't hear what he said.

Can you play it again at the end? He said just get them to understand that you're not playing for the United States so I thought that was a powerful message for these guys. Sounds like he said get them to understand that you're not playing for the United States. Yeah he said that you're not playing for the United States, you are the United States. Oh, that's hard to hear.

I'm so sorry. I didn't understand what he was saying. So the background noise from BP and whatever else is going on behind him.

So yeah, that's really neat if I could have heard it or you could have heard it. So you're not playing for the United States. You are the United States.

I like that sound advice from Coach K. So what about leading Team USA, leading the United States into the WBC? I just wanted them to understand this is different. This is not an exhibition.

This is a competition. It's quick. You're coming out of two weeks of spring training where you can kind of ease into things.

Man, there's going to be 45,000, 50,000 people in the stands when we play Mexico. It's on. And that was kind of my message. I just wanted them to understand, you know, the rah-rah stuff over 162 falls kind of flat at times. Seven games in 11 days, it doesn't fall flat. It's a sprint. So like we have to become a team quick. You are not playing for the United States. You are the United States. An awesome roster for Team USA.

I'm excited to watch these games because not only do we have the red, white and blue and the pride for the whatever country it is that you root for, but for me, for the Americans. But it's also a who's who when you look at the roster. So Pete Alonso, Nolan Granato, also Mookie Betts, who's one of my favorite players in Major League Baseball, Paul Goldschmidt.

And who else is on the list that I love? It would be fun to see Kyle Schwarber, obviously Mike Trout, Kyle Tucker and Trey Turner. And how neat for Adam Wainwright to be a part of this roster at 40 plus years old. So yeah, this should be really neat.

I hope that you'll check out Team USA and Great Britain on Saturday. It's been a while since we've had one of these to sink our teeth into in the springtime. We've got more to come in Major League Baseball like Albert Pujols popping in to Cardinals training camp. But Bryce Harper speaking out on Thursday, doing multiple interviews, including NBC Sports Philadelphia after having his Tommy John surgery in November. What's the timeline?

Not right now. No, I think today we'll probably go over that a little bit more and get a sense of where they're at, where I'm at. Had a great offseason, you know, after I had surgery. Felt really good. I still feel good now. So I don't want to put timelines on anything because I just I don't know. I've never dealt with anything like an elbow.

So it's definitely different waters for me. So really just trying to take it day by day and see how I feel. So Bryce Harper again speaking out on Thursday and good to hear from him. But what a bummer coming off of that appearance in the World Series, the excitement for Philadelphia and the team to not. Well, at this point, there's no way he's starting this season. We know that to be sure, but to not even know whether he'll be able to play this year at all. It is a long season, obviously, but a lot of times when it comes to Tommy John, you're looking at a year plus before athletes are back to, I don't want to say full strength, but back to the point at which they can participate.

Now, a lot of times, at least with pitchers, what do we hear? The Tommy John surgery actually strengthened the ligament. And so they pitch better. They've got a little more velocity. They feel as though they've got a live arm again. Could that be the same for Bryce?

Yeah, but does that cost him an entire season? So it's kind of scary to think about that. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. I'm JR of CBS Sports Radio and I want to introduce you to a new podcast titled Agents of Inclusion, brought to you by Special Olympics, Odyssey and JR Sport Reproductions. Every Wednesday we'll be speaking with a different Special Olympics athlete to share their stories of perseverance, accomplishment and path towards inclusion. We don't want you to just listen. We want you to become an active agent of inclusion as well. Special Olympics Agents of Inclusion funded on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts.