After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 4

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BetQL.com today to start your three day free trial. I like this song Jay. What is this song? Nevermind, I don't like this song.

No, I do like it. It's a classic. It's a classic? Is it 80s music? No, this is 90s. 90s. I was gonna say 90s. Jay always reverts to 90s music.

That's his favorite. Once again, a reminder, a bit of a walk down memory lane where we've been the last almost two months now with Aaron Rogers but we now have resolution and hear this, hear me, actually listen to what I'm saying before you go off the deep end or a tangent. I've driven away many people from the show tonight apparently just because I insist on talking about Aaron Rogers and the news that we got on Wednesday.

I actually believe he came across very honest, vulnerable, open. It's clear that he's hurt and motivated by what he deems the packer's decision and while he may not be as fine as he told us that he was at every juncture, at every opportunity on Wednesday, he will be fine. He's not fine right now.

It stings a little bit. A shot to his football playing ego, no doubt, but he will be fine. Totally fine. Totally fine.

He'll be totally fine. Just as a side note, anyone who knows me knows that when I tell you I'm fine, I really mean the exact opposite. Jay learned that a long time ago. But it's not just that.

I mean that's classic passive aggressive language. Fine when applied in the appropriate situation means average. It's fine. It's okay. It's fine.

My mom and I have this debate all the time. She thinks fine means good. Fine does not mean good. It means fine. It's just it.

It's fine. Or I guess it could refer also to a type of hair or a type of comb. Grass. Comb. A fine comb. That would be going through with a fine tooth comb.

But okay. A fine comb. Not a pine cone, but a fine comb. A fine comb. Comb.

Now you got me. Oh no. Well fine can refer to hair. It can refer to, actually can refer to, you know, grass or a flower. It's a little thinner, a little more brittle.

That type of thing. Anyway, in this particular case, it's definitely passive aggressive. Coming from the queen of when I say I'm fine, I'm not fine. Trust me.

That's what he's saying. But he will be fine. Totally fine. And that's fine.

It really is. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. Jay didn't have enough time because he was busy working on other stuff, show prep.

I have no idea what could possibly be more important than this. But I tried to challenge him to go through the Aaron Rodgers interview on Pat McAfee on Wednesday and put together a montage of all of the moments in which Aaron Rodgers dropped the word fine. Because I'm telling you, halfway through the interview, and both Jay and I listened to it in its entirety. So I didn't just pull clips. I wanted to listen to the whole thing. Actually watched it because I wanted to see facial expressions and all that jazz. I was on my bike and it took nearly the entire hour that I was biking 13 miles of Aaron Rodgers.

OMG. Anyway, I felt as though he came across mature, professional, but also motivated. I got the same impression that Pat McAfee did, which is that he's building chips on his shoulders and he's going to go into this situation with the Jets whenever this trade is consummated. He did say multiple times, I'm still a member of the Packers, so he can't talk about players talk about players on other teams.

That's tampering. So he's still a member of the Packers at this point, but he's not the holdup. So we got the whole story. We got a Packers history lesson. We now know what Aaron was thinking when he went into the darkness, what he was thinking when he came out of the darkness. We get his version. He doesn't sound bitter, but he definitely is hurt by it. And I understand that as human beings, none of us wants to be replaced.

And I told you that last week, the Packers would have preferred that this was Aaron's decision or that it was portrayed as Aaron's decision. And I don't want to say they bumbled it. There's no easy way to do this.

When you have a Hall of Fame quarterback or how about Syracuse in the case of Jim Boeheim, a Hall of Fame coach, and they're hanging on and they're hanging on. There's no easy time to conduct the breakup. There's no easy time to rip off that band-aid.

You're just gonna have to do it. And so the Packers made it clear that that's what they were doing, although Aaron says they were a little bit disingenuous with him. So from the Pat McAfee show, I did not watch or listen live. I have no idea why producer Jay was still awake at that moment. He's shaking his head, but he was because I was getting text messages from him. I was asleep, so I didn't see them till after the fact. But Jay was in fact live texting me.

I was. I wake up and there's a bunch of text messages from Jay about Rogers. And what did you tell me as you're watching it? Rogers is a jet and that he sounds salty about it.

The whole thing. But salty at who? At the Packers. At the Packers. Salty at the Packers. Not the fan base, just the organization.

Yeah, just the front office. So we want you to hear what he had to say from his perspective. He spent a week in Green Bay right after the season. Everything that I was told in the week that I was in Green Bay was take as long as you want. And you know, we want you to retire. Packer, you know, you want to come back and play.

Obviously the door is wide open. So that was the information I was going. That was that was going on. Now when I came out of the darkness, something changed. I'm not exactly sure what that was, but something changed. And I got back to my phone after five days off of it, you know, because your phone's not on the entire time.

There's no Wi-Fi on that, you know, hippie mountain. And when I got back to that little shack they have where there's a, you know, one bar of Wi-Fi and got back to the, you know, 100 text messages and emails and all different things, I realized that there'd been a little bit of a shift. And that I heard from multiple people that I trust around the league players, mostly, that there was some shopping going on, that they were interested in actually moving me. So what he says is the Packers told him, take as much time as you want. If you want to come back and play, well, of course, you're a Hall of Famer.

The door is wide open for that. Whether it's them changing their minds or the fact that they just flat out lied to him and gave him one impression when they very clearly knew they were going in a different direction, I guess that's open for interpretation. But this is Aaron's side of the story.

He also says that he was 90% sure he was planning to retire when he went into the darkness, but when he came out, after the time he spent meditating, it was five days, parts of five days and four nights in the darkness, he said that he had changed his mind. And he realized he wanted to play, that more of him wanted to play, even though when he went in, after the way the season ended, he was 90% convinced he would retire. But again, he goes on to say the Packers did not tell him what they were telling teams behind his back. Although the Packers are going to say the right thing publicly, they were ready to move on. And I don't know what changed that or what moved that.

They just said, hey, you know, we need to make a decision here because he hasn't made a decision yet. Again, there's no victims here. I'm not sitting here as a victim. You know, I love Green Bay. I love the fan base.

They're incredible. I live for playing for them and for Lambeau. A lot of love for the organization. I just think I wish that in the beginning of the off season, that had been the conversation because I love direct communication.

If they had just said, listen, we think it's time to move in a different direction and we love you and you're going to be a Packer all-famer, you're going to go in the hall as a Packer, retiree number, whatever it might be, but it's time to move on. I would have said, man, thank you so much just for telling me that. I really, really appreciate that. That means the world to me that you would tell me that because I really believe that's a sentiment and that's fine. It really is. It's totally fine.

This is an incredible profession, but it's a tough business. This is Aaron's version of the story, but it's the second time in four off seasons, he's put the Packers on blast in saying that they were doing one thing, saying another, that they were disingenuous in the way that they communicated with him and that they did not give him the same story that they were feeding to other teams. Now, are they allowed to change their minds? Yes. Is it a business? Yes. Is he under contract with them?

So they do have some power and authority in the situation. Sure. But he also goes back to 2020 when they drafted Jordan Love and is indicating the writing was on the wall then. Now this is kind of funny, actually. I laughed at this and you know me, I don't take sports too seriously. Our, you know, our sports of microcosm of real life.

Sure. Do we have tragedy? Do we have pain? Do we have life lessons and moments where humans are humiliated or they're triumphant? There's redemption.

There's failure. All of those things are real in sports. The human emotion is real, but sports are, they're still entertainment for us and I try not to take them too seriously. So I do tend to look for the humor.

I tend to be pretty irreverent when I talk about situations that are not life or death, and this is not life or death. Aaron Rodgers is going to go on and play for the Jets. He's going to make a hell of a lot of money on top of the money he's already made. He's a first ballot hall of famer. He's very motivated.

The Jets fan base is supercharged, electric, and excited. We don't need to feel sorry for the guy. So I am kind of joking and fooling around with it because it's whatever, it's fun. This is what I do for a living. But so the part that I laughed at, McAfee sets him up and says, okay, so where are you? How are you feeling? What's going on?

This is at the beginning of the interview. And Aaron gives him a heads up. Well, I'm going to talk a little bit, if you don't mind.

This is where I'm going to kind of, I'm going to give you the whole story. And then he launches into a Packers history lesson of sorts. The history of this and kind of the timeline, which I think is important, that's why I'm going to go through it, is that in 2020, they dropped a Jordan to replacement. Now, there wasn't replacement right away, but as is the case with the Packers and kind of the way they do things, they like to get rid of players like a year early instead of a year late in their mind. So there's probably some people who believe that I was a descending player and that it was time to make a change, even though we're just coming off the NFC Championship game. And obviously we got blown out by San Fran, but we had a 13 and three season and we're the number two seed and made our way to the NFC Championship. And made our way to the NFC Championship.

Even farther back from that, you have to realize I was drafted in 2005 by Ted Thompson. The front office at that time looked a lot different. Front office consisted of Ted Thompson, John Schneider is now GM of Seattle, Reggie McKenzie, who went on to be GM of Oakland, John Dorsey, who went on to be GM of Cleveland, Elliot Wolfe, who'd been in front office for a number of years, whose dad obviously was an architect of the Packers often guy. That was the front office of the Packers.

So the front office now looks completely different. They give him a forum. They knew he was going to talk. So he talked and it gave him a history lesson. But ultimately what he said is the writing was on the wall. If I hadn't won back to back MVPs, they would have moved on to Jordan Love long before this point, but I really gave them no choice. And he says the Packers have a track record in this area.

Look at the track record from the guys sitting over there to what happened with Randall Cobb and Julius peppers, Clay Matthews, Brett good on and on and on. There's just a way of doing things that you don't want to bring him back. That's fine. It's a business, but there's a way of doing it that allows the man to keep the dignity. And honestly, that's some of the stuff I was fighting for a couple of years ago. How can we do this a little bit better if we want to be about family and want to be about loving and taking care of our people? Let's put our actions where our words at. Because it's really important to me.

That part is important. Now I'm the person and look, I'm not offended by any of this. I'm not a victim by any of this. I don't have that mentality and appreciation. It's been bittersweet. I come to this reality and really bittersweet because I was drafted by Green Bay. I love that city. Love that organization.

I'm fine. And always going to have love for that organization. But the facts are right now, they want to move on. Oh my God. It's right there. And now so do I. Pat McAfee actually is motioning to the chips that are building on Aaron Rodgers' shoulders. So he and AJ start making the motion. AJ Hawk making the motions of the chips building up on their shoulders. And right after that they ask him about the chips.

And it's very clear. You know Rodgers holds grudges. But I thought he handled himself maturely and professionally. He took the high road. He complimented Green Bay.

Not only the franchise, the field, the fans, over and over again. Now he did talk about the Jets. He talked about the wish list.

We'll get to that at the bottom of the hour. But really quickly before we take our break, Greg Jennings, former Green Bay wide receiver who played with Aaron Rodgers, did kind of a follow up on the 33rd team. And we found it on Twitter. He corroborates Rodgers' account of how the Packers have handled the exits of some of their longtime players. He mentioned the front office. And the front office not wanting him back. And basically understanding how the Packers organization operates. I have all too well understood this and experienced it in my own career.

This is who the Green Bay Packers are. He's exactly right. You get older and they try to get rid of you prior to you being kind of a liability for them. And more often than not, they are right. And they're doing things to make sure or to ensure that the organization continues to progress. Continues to operate under the idea of we're going to continue to retool. Never are we going to have to rebuild.

But we're just going to continue to retool while we have the opportunity. Well in this case, Aaron Rodgers obviously quarterback. You require Jordan Love. Yes, I agree with him that if it had not been for the back to back MVPs, this would have been accelerated. Greg Jennings on the 33rd team played with Aaron Rodgers going back.

He's been retired a few years. To me it sounds like good business. Again, it's not easy. You're dealing with people and you're dealing with a Hall of Famer and you're dealing with a guy who had a lot of success for you and is the longest tenured Packer they've ever had. It was never going to be easy because he didn't want to go out on their terms. He wanted to go out on his. So the Packers had to make a choice and they have to do what's best for their team. You know who else does that?

Bill Belichick. I mean it's tough to do. But in order to keep your team relevant, this is how you have to handle your business sometimes. So I understand there's hurt feelings.

I think Aaron was professional and mature and wasn't super catty unless we were talking about the wish list and Adam Schefter. But we'll get to that at the bottom of the hour. He does have plans for the Jets. Coming up, the Panthers. What are they doing this offseason? What are they doing with that overall number one pick?

Because we're hearing rumors. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. You are listening to the After Hours podcast. I just want to begin by saying thank you. Thank you to Mr Tepper and Nicole Tepper for just an incredible opportunity to come back home, to lead a team and a franchise in which we were here at the beginnings, but to take on new challenges and to take us to new heights.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Frank Reich, new head coach of the Carolina Panthers, introduced, oh gosh, couple weeks ago. And the days are all blending together now, but a lot has happened with the Panthers since we last spoke to Chris McLean, who is co-host of Mac and Bone, the Mac and Bone show on our Charlotte affiliate, WFNZ.

It's probably not fair, but I'm totally going to ambush him and I feel like he knows this is what happens when he dares to come on After Hours here on CBS Sports Radio. Good morning, Chris. How are you? What's going on, Amy? You got me terrified now.

Oh, come on. I know you can handle this. I just, I would like to be mindful of the fact that when we had you this time last year or close to this time last year, you were giddy over the fact that the Panthers had brought in Baker Mayfield. So what a difference a year makes. I just are wondering your reaction to Baker being the successor to Tom Brady. Well, now I'm giddy about that, Amy. A year has given me perspective and I would much rather be competing against Baker than actually having Baker on my side.

So I have shifted my Baker Mayfield giddy. We all learn from our mistakes, Amy. We do.

We do. I'm proud of you for admitting that and taking ownership of it. Okay, so before we go, so before we go into some of the specifics from the hiring of Frank Reich to some of the free agent moves that they've made, obviously to gaining the overall number one pick, how would you assess as a whole what the Panthers have done the last few weeks? Well, now I'm going to tell you I'm giddy and I hope that this giddiness is not brought back. Are you crying, Wolf? Is that what's happening here?

Yeah, that's what's happening. They've got me fired up. And this one, the Baker one, I might have forced Amy. I might've done some Jedi mind tricks.

I know you're a Star Wars person. I've got a little Jedi mind trick to get myself believing in Baker, but it finally feels like, you know, maybe David Tepper's learned a little bit as an owner. It feels like the hire of Frank Reich is much more solid than the risky hire of Matt Rule coming from the college game. And it also just feels like they finally figured out that maybe going after those veterans, you know, that are cast offs elsewhere is not the way to do it.

And I love the aggressive move to go up and get the quarterback you want to take it number one. And the free agency, it feels like there's more of an urgency early in free agency than there has been here lately. Getting rid of Matt Rule gave us all and then seeing what Steve Wilkes could do with his team gave us all, you know, a little bit of optimism to end the season with. So plus the division that the Panthers sit in.

Amy, how can that not make you feel good? That division that you mentioned, Brady being gone. That division is begging some team to kind of become the class of it for the next four or five years or so.

So obviously the Panthers got to take the right QB. That's a huge part of it and that's not a given. But yeah, I think I'm laughing at myself now because the way we started this interview, I feel a little paranoid about my giddiness. But yeah, I think we're excited down here in Carolina. You know, elephants never forget.

So I wouldn't be true to you or to our conversations if I did not bring that part up. But we put it to bed. It's behind us now.

And you can be giddy about something else. Chris McLean with us from WFNZ in Charlotte. It's after our CBS Sports Radio. I got to tell you, I was giggling when the Panthers made the move for the number one pick because of the fact that they usurped the Colts. And I just felt like even though Frank is not a vindictive guy, doesn't come across that way, that he was sitting around saying, oh, I'm sorry, Indy, did you also want that top pick? So just the drama of it all. But I have to ask, do you believe there are any rumors to the fact that the Panthers may trade it away actually?

We were trying to figure that out too. Is this, you know, what are they doing? There's a lot of information out there that conflicts, right? I mean, any insider you listen to, they seem to think, you know, David Tepper likes this guy. Well, Frank Reich likes this guy.

And it's all different information. So I don't know if the Panthers are attempting to, you know, maybe bait Houston into a trade up by making them feel like, hey, the Panthers are into two or three different quarterbacks. They might easily give up that number one spot. Let us make sure we get our guy.

But ultimately I think it is going to come down to younger Stroud. I think moving to two, just one spot back, honestly, my gut tells me that would be as far as they would go. I don't know if I'm buying into, hey, they might be in Anthony Richardson as well. I can't imagine they want to trade all the way up to one, give up an asset, not just picks, but give them an asset like DJ Moore, you know, your number one receiver that would have been beautiful for a rookie quarterback. Can't imagine you give all that up only to, you know, sacrifice that, you know, hey, we get our third choice of quarterback.

You know, I think two would be as far as they would go down. If you are advising the Panthers, if they come to you and they ask you what to do with that number one pick, do you have a preference Bryce Young, CJ Stroud? First of all, if that happens, I have a heart attack, Amy, before I even give them advice.

Oh no, don't do that. It's your opportunity, your chance to shine, Chris. They've been listening to me yap and misfire, so I'm sure they wouldn't, but I mean, I honestly, I think I prefer Stroud because of the size factor. You know, Bryce Young, the durability is a little concerning, although this league, right? Like quarterbacks have never been this protected, you know, and listening right now, I was like, yeah, they're over-protected probably, so I think that helps a quarterback like Bryce Young when you worry about durability. I would lean Stroud, but I honestly think both of those two guys are polished.

I think they could start right away, and that's where I would lean. Richardson is obviously tempting. The skill set and the athleticism is ridiculous, but man, he is a scary one. That's the kind of pick, if you make that high, Amy, you know, that could make a GM a legend or could put a GM on the unemployment line, you know?

Right, to be sure. What is another move that the Panthers have made on the offensive side of the ball that you really like? Hayden Hurst and Miles Sanders are both, you know, seem real solid to me.

They need weapons. Obviously, they traded away Christian McCaffrey, and one of those picks was used in the deal to get up to number one. Miles Sanders is a guy that's coming off a 1,200-yard season. I think he behind this, behind finally a good offensive line in Carolina, the way they played last year, and they're all kept together. They re-signed Bradley Bozeman, so this line is going to be together for another year, and then Hayden Hurst, I mean, this. He hung up on us.

That's it. We got ghost, well, we didn't get ghosted. We got dumped. Are you calling him back or is he calling us back?

I'll give him a sec. He'll probably call me back. It's the beauty of live radio. Chris McLean, who's host of Mac and Bone, that's WFNZ. It's their morning show, which is why he's awake now, but we always tease him because he was giddy over the Baker Mayfield situation. Now, Baker is in the division but is with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He refers to the Hayden Hurst move, and so they're giving him a contract that is serviceable. It fits. In addition, we talked about this earlier, getting Miles Sanders away from the Eagles.

He's coming off a career year with the Eagles, just 25 years old, so still in the prime in terms of his career. You tried to quit me, but you cannot. You're back, and you don't get to go until you're done. Amy, let me tell you, I am so caught in my own world. I literally, when the phone rang, I was still talking.

I was talking to nobody. This is my best answer ever, Amy, and everything I said was going to be right. It didn't even get on the air. Dang it. Any chance you can recreate the best answer that we've ever had here on the show?

Well, I don't know where you lost me. Miles Sanders, to me, they need a running back. Younte Forman is a free agent, and Sanders coming off a 1,200-yard season. They paid him more than I thought they were going to pay a running back. They paid him $6 million-plus per year, but I think he's going to be solid. And then Hayden Hurst, I was talking to myself, man.

I was really enjoying the point I made. Hayden Hurst is going to be the best pass catch at tight end this team has had since Greg Olsen. They have literally not replaced Greg Olsen.

Now, I'm not saying he's Olsen, but he's going to be a chain mover and a legitimate threat at tight end. And I just think a running game, a tight end, those things are things that can help your rookie quarterback. Problem is, they traded DJ Moore. They needed a wide receiver, Amy, when they had DJ Moore.

Now they probably need a couple of them. Okay, so a couple of times you've mentioned the rookie, the rookie starting, whether it's Bryce or whether it's CJ. What does that mean for Matt Corral, who they just drafted last year, but was injured for most of last season? Man, it's crazy. There's multiple insiders reporting that the Panthers are basically shopping or getting it out there that, hey, Matt Corral could be had for a bag of potato chips or something.

Which is interesting to me. I guess maybe the new coaching staff came in and might not really think highly of him, you know, maybe, you know, Reich and, and, and all these guys that we had at Thomas Brown, the new office coordinator, Josh McCown, maybe they, you know, aren't necessarily Corral fans like rule was, and maybe they're just kind of ready to move on. It seems kind of weird to me because it was third round pick last year. Seems to me like you'd at least want to get a look at him. You know, I feel bad for him. Amy last year could have been a year where he could have got some playing time at some point and maybe shown, you know, what he could be the injury happened in preseason. So I feel bad for him, but yeah, it doesn't, it's starting to sound like he might not be in the mix. I mean, forget that he would have been the starter maybe because Darnell was hurt. They did, they moved on from Baker quickly, at least initially he would have been the starter by like the middle of the second month.

He could have had a good opportunity. So it's, it's rough for him. So we'll see how that ends up playing out. But like one of the reports I saw from Mike Girardi, NFL network was like they're looking to shop them and they don't want much for them. So it's like they're going to take a third round pick from a year ago and like what, give up, you take a six pack or something like that. So maybe it's just the coaching staff, new staff coming in and being like, he's not our type of QB.

That's all I can think of. Life comes at you fast in the NFL. All right, Chris, so I just, I want to give you one more chance here. You say you're giddy. What makes this giddy different from last year's giddy? Cause they're doing it the right way. Like I said, Amy, I did have myself fooled.

All right. My, my Homer ism, I think got to me last year. I convinced myself Baker Mayfield was something that he wasn't, but this just feels like it's the right way. Matter of fact, Scott bitter has been saying it in multiple press conferences, his off season, he says, we want to do it the right way. And the right way is drafting your own quarterback. Like, you know, he's acknowledging that these swings they've taken at these cast off veterans is not necessarily the ideal way to do it. Anybody had seen the Panther quarterbacks play since cam was last healthy, you know, like five years ago knows it hadn't been working. So I think they're on the right path. They gave up a lot. And ultimately if they swing and miss, it's going to set us back again.

But I just like the fact that they are doing it the right way. And I think they have a great group of coaches, Amy, to be the support system for this quarterback. You got Frank Reich and head coach. I mentioned Thomas Brown who comes from that McVay tree as the new offensive coordinator, a guy like Josh McCown, who was just kind of born to coach, you know, last few years of his career, everybody was saying, oh, this guy's a player coach as a backup quarterback and working with young quarterbacks all the time.

So I think he's perfect there. Jim Caldwell is brought in as a guy that can work with the young quarterback. So I just, I like the support system they have. And I like the fact that they were aggressive and are going to go get their top choice of QB. I think they're doing it right. And as you point out, the NFC South is up for grabs.

Every team finishing below 500 last year, the Bucks needed until the end of the season to even grab that division title. So it is there for the taking and agree with you, like the leadership. Also, just to set your mind at ease, I may have been known a time or two to be on the phone with a friend telling this very long story, only to realize there was no response on the other end. And somehow we got disconnected and I had no clue. So you're not the only one, Chris. It's the radio person saying, like, I don't know if we even care if they're listening. We just got to keep talking.

So this is why you and I connect on a different level. Chris, I like it. So you can find Chris on Twitter at Mac WFNZ, our Charlotte affiliate, Chris McLean. He's got work to do.

Host of the Mac and Bone show. Have a great morning and be giddy all you want, man. Do it. I hope it doesn't come back to haunt me a year from now.

Well, you know, I'll bring it up if it does. It's a true story. I wish it wasn't a true story, but yes, there may have been a time or two or a dozen where I'm so into my story that I'm telling, you know me, I love to tell stories and someone's hung up on me or we got disconnected is what I prefer to believe and Jay knows that it's happened to him before, too, where I just keep going and he'll call back and I had no idea like, oh, wait, what happened? I thought, where were you? Did you hang up on me?

It happens. He's like the only way I could get you to stop talking. Well, I haven't gone for 20 minutes. I'll just call you back. Oh, stab right to the heart.

That's it. We're never speaking on the phone again as in ever, except I'm your BFF. What would you do without me to listen to? You already threw me out of the union and the alliance. Okay. You try to make an executive decision without consulting the executive.

I don't, I don't know. I was acting manager. That's true. You were you look what happens. I put you in charge for a day and it all goes to hell. That's what happens. That's on you.

It's my poor, poor executive decision. All right. Coming up a little more with Aaron Rogers, but this time about the jets done with the Packers moving on.

What about the J E T S jets, jets, jets. It's after hours on Facebook, on Twitter. Join us in the after hours bracket challenge. We're always glad to have you and you're running out of time. Jay you're running out of time. Amy you're running out of time. Procrastinating people unite.

You are listening to the after hours podcast. Nobody wants to be the bad guy in the situation. And honestly there isn't at this point a bad guy in the situation.

As long as everything gets resolved the right way, they want to move on. And now I want to play. And so that would obviously be me moving on as well. Let's just be honest. Like you drafted Jordan.

If I hadn't won MVP twice in a row, this would have been a conversation two years before, which is totally fine. And I get it. And Ted Thompson, you know, rest his soul is not there anymore.

He drafted me. None of those guys are, you know, who were there other than Sam CEO, who was the West coast scout, you know, who supposedly stood on the table to, you know, for me, uh, shout out to Sammy, but he's still there, but, uh, but you know, it's a different regime and every regime wants to have their guys in there. And I totally understand it. I mean, it's a business, like I'm not naive to that. It is what it is.

And I'm totally fine. You know, I just have a lot of gratitude for the time there, but now it's time to, you know, it's time to, uh, to do the right thing. Cause I don't, I don't think, you know, I don't think there's a scenario where they're like, well, you know, we want this and jets aren't willing to give it to us. So we'll take you back.

Like, you know, that's not, that's not the reality. That ship is after hours with Amy Lawrence, Aaron Rogers may not be fine at this point, but he will be fine. The jets will welcome him with open arms and he may or may not have some of his former green Bay cronies along with him. He addressed that on the Pat McAfee show, but we're closing the door in green Bay. Now he said that he was never planning on appearing Wednesday in order to break any news. No, he said he just wanted to clarify what was happening. So he tells his version of his dealings with the Packers and then he faces forward and starts talking about his next home. At this point, as I sit here, you know, I think since Friday, I made it clear that my intention was to play and my intention was to play for the New York jets.

Okay. And I haven't been holding anything up at this point. It's been compensation that the Packers are trying to get for me and kind of digging their heels in.

So I would just, I think it is interesting at this point to step back and look at the whole picture. You know, my side, love and appreciation, gratitude for everything that green Bay has done for me. Love so much love and gratitude and just heart open for the Packer fans and what it meant to be their quarterback. And also the reality of the situation, you know, like it is what it is. The Packers would like to move on. They've let me know that in so many words. Other people know that in direct words because I still have that fire and I want to play and I would like to play in New York. It's just a matter of, you know, getting that done at this point. Okay. So for at least at this particular moment, he's not quite ready to let it go, but I know I'm the queen of not letting things go and that's totally fine.

It's after hours with Amy Lawrence. So Aaron clarifies as of last Friday, he told the team, yes, my intention is to play for the Jets. I'm not retiring.

So let's get this deal done. And he's not the one who's holding it up. He still is carrying a very active grudge against the media people that he says knew nothing about what he was doing and they were jumping the gun. They were guessing they were going to sources that were not connected to him. Remember the whole thing about his inner circle. So when Adam Schefter attempted to reach out to Aaron directly, well, he had a bit of a abrupt response. As Schefter would I text him when he somehow got my number and texted me, you know, I didn't respond to Diana Rossini.

I think her name is yes. But like, I would say the same thing that I told chef chef to lose my number. Nice try. I'll speak for myself. I'm sure there'll be people that that's that, you know, have their sources. But, you know, from what I've seen, it's like, I had a sheet of paper, when I met with the Jets, and I said, sign these people. And that's not the reality.

That's so ridiculous. All right. That sounds good.

It's so stupid to think that I would do a number one. Now, did they ask me about certain guys that I play with over the years? Of course. Did I talk glowingly about teammates that I love? Yeah. Why wouldn't you?

Well, I mean, like, don't actually know. Do I love those guys in list? Of course.

Do I make demands about certain people? I mean, it's just, it's just the part about the sue me, of course, because he's getting sued by Aaron Rogers predecessor in Green Bay, Brett Favre, he's actually put the details of that out on his social. And so when he said sue me, AJ Hawke or one of the other guys on the Pat McAfee show kind of made a joke about it.

So here's, here's the interesting thing. He says there's not a wish list. But hey, did I tell them these are guys that I'm comfortable with? Okay. So I actually went back and looked for Shefti's response. Did you find it? You found it J where? Because you sent it to me, but it's not on his Twitter now. Oh, I'm not sure.

I just found it on Twitter. I just was. Yeah.

Okay. So apparently, as Schefter hears this, that Aaron Rogers kind of outs him and tells him on, you know, like, hey, lose my number. Schefter puts that exchange on social and says, I can confirm the report on the Pat McAfee show.

Actually, I remember I found it. Diana Rossini retweeted that. I saw it on her. Interesting. So I didn't see it on his. But yeah, the fact is that Schefter confirmed and showed the text messages like, hey, man, lose my number.

It's after hours with Amy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio. So if not a list of demands, well, okay. Did your wish list include Odell Beckham Jr? First of all, who wouldn't want to have Odell on their team? Like, Agreed.

Yeah, he'd be cool. What are we talking about here? I don't have demands.

Look, my only demand is for transparency. And if you say some like, you know, there's sometimes it's not even worth it. Not even worth it sometimes, but sometimes it is. And that's fine.

Worth it. And it's totally fine. It's going to be fine. I thought he represented himself well. I thought that he was mature and mostly professional. There's definitely an element of grudge. And, you know, Aaron holds grudges. It's fine.

Most of the top athletes do think Michael Jordan and the Last Dance and the revelations there. So we'll hear more from him. It's not done with the Jets, but it will. As we head up to the top of the hour, first of all, I would like you to know, most importantly, I have recruited a fourth member. Well, I've completed the foursome. Those of us who will complete in the upcoming, complete, compete in the upcoming After Hours Chubby Bunny World Championship. More details to come later in the month. But I did find us a fourth after someone dropped out last year, nearly died and dropped out.

I guess I can understand that why you're a quitter. So that's coming up later in this month. Ja Morant spoke for the first time on Wednesday in a conversation that will be released with Jalen Rose of ESPN. He's indicated that he's made mistakes and that he is going to work to make sure that doesn't happen again. I can see the image, you know, that I painted, you know, over myself, you know, with my recent mistakes. But, you know, in the future, I'm going to show everybody who Ja really is, you know, what I'm about and, you know, change this narrative. I can't wait to be back out there on the floor now, you know, knowing what my punishment is. And, you know, I accept that and I feel like I deserve, you know, that punishment for, you know, my mistakes and, you know, what I did. But when I get back out there, you know, I'm gonna be ready to go and ready, you know, push for a ring. So Ja Morant, open, candid, taking ownership of his poor choices, also said he's getting help.

My little daughter, she asked for help and it was a revelation to me that I would need to ask for help too sometimes. So those are your two top stories but also let's throw in this one and this is a blow to the New York Mets. Even as we await word on the severity of the injury for all-star closer Edwin Diaz, maybe one of the best closers in the game, he closed out the victory for Puerto Rico over the Dominican Republic in the WBC a few hours ago. But as he's celebrating, he crumbles into a heap, his teammates surround him, they're concerned, they wave out athletic trainers immediately and he had to be first carried, then helped and then wheelchaired off the field. So we'll wait to hear the news about him. Let's hope it's not a season-ender from the WBC. Talk to you tonight, it's After Hours with Amy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio. Boom!