After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 1

I'm JR of the JR Sport Reef Show on CBS Sports Radio. I'm also the host of the new podcast, Agents of Inclusion. We talk to a different Special Olympics athlete every week to learn how sports can bring us together. We're bringing both the disability and non-disability community to one community.

All one people, one family. It took me a little while, but I decided to claim autism as my superpower. When you hear the word autism, don't let that hinder you from doing whatever it is that you want to do. That's what Special Olympics tells you. You get involved in sports, but then you take it from the playing field out into real life. Family means to me community, acceptance, love, embracing a person just as they are. That's what Special Olympics did for me. It's all about family.

Subscribe to Agents of Inclusion on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm not even sure if you remember me. It's been so long. This is the longest vacation away from radio that I've taken in over a decade. I know it was only six shows. It was a week and a half.

It feels like an eternity. Now, I'm not going to lie and tell you that I missed it the whole time because I did not, but over the last 24 hours, I started to get the itch. I started to realize, oh, I miss it. I miss my little microphone. I miss my studio. I miss my producer. Hi, producer J. I miss you all. I do not miss social media.

That will never happen. You'll never hear me say that, but I miss this, and I know you miss me. Thank you. Thank you for all of your tweets, all of your Facebook posts. I did ghost you. Yes, I did on social media. Absolutely, I did.

I wanted nothing to do with social while I was gone. I still haven't even shared photos from my Grand Canyon trip, but bucket list, check. Item off the list. Can't wait to tell you the story. There's so much we have to do, but mostly, hello. I'm back, and you were waiting for me. I'm not in the main studio either.

That's the crazy part. Here I am jumping back into my schedule. From now until third week in June, you all are stuck with me, so no more time off until NBA and NHL crown their champions. But I'm not in our main studio in Lower Manhattan, CBS Sports Radio headquarters. J is there. I cannot see him. I know he's there.

I know. I have faith that he's actually there, and he's going to stay there until the show is over, but I am not there. This is a surreal moment for me. I am on the campus of my alma mater, Syracuse University, where I did shows as a grad student. I'm not going to tell you what year.

It was a long time ago. I did shows as a grad student myself. I was an intern for the campus station. I was an intern for the local commercial station, and also worked here on campus, and so this is full circle. Are you ready?

It sounds more and more, I won't say normal, it sounds more and more comfortable the more I use it. Professor Lawrence. Still, every time the students call me that, I have to, what? Oh, they're talking to me.

Yes, or when they write me emails that say Professor Lawrence. One of them is sitting with me here, so I can't dish too much on the class, but the class has been great so far. We have a lot to get to, but I am on the campus of Syracuse University and hosting a show here for the first time in more than 20 years, which is amazing, and we've got a lot to get to. I generally do not take time off in April for this reason because there's so much to talk about when I'm back, but thankfully the Kings and the Warriors provided great drama. The Sixers, they were able to find a spark early in the third quarter against Brooklyn and snuff out the Nets attempt to even that series. We've got our first night of the Stanley Cup playoffs, so four games. The Bruins say they were nervous. What? How is that possible? They're the big bads with 65 wins and 135 points.

How can they possibly be nervous? And then just a few hours ago, the first big quarterback drop or the first big quarterback domino dropped in terms of the money right in terms of and it's not Lamar Jackson. He may have missed the boat on this one in terms of this next round of quarterbacks who are about to get paid.

We were waiting to see which one would get the huge extension. The Eagles step up and reward Jalen Hurts with the fattest, richest, and I would say also precedent-setting contract in NFL history for a couple of reasons that we'll get to. But Jalen becomes that first domino that drops. So now Joe Burrow, theoretically, would be next in line.

You know how it happens. You are the richest for about 10 minutes and then someone else comes along and gets the better contract, even if it's by a few cents. That's the way they set the record. You guys remember when Bryce Harper waited and waited and waited and waited for this fattest contract and his agent Scott Boris. They waited and they negotiated and they finagled every last dime and he got the longest was tied for the longest contract in baseball history and the richest for what was 11 days. Something along those lines. Pretty ridiculous.

Maybe it was three weeks. So we'll see if the Joe Burrow domino drops quickly, but the Jalen Hurts piece has fallen into place. And not only does he capitalize on what was an MVP worthy season, but the best game in his career in the Super Bowl, even in a loss. The Eagles know they have found their man and they have oh so richly hitched their wagon to his star. So we have a lot to get to tonight and a lot.

There's even there's baseball. I'm going to try. I really am going to try. I don't know if we'll get to it or not, but I am going to try. And yes, I've got stories to sprinkle in throughout the week, throughout the week.

I can't do them all tonight because that's all we would talk about. And fine, we'll talk about sports. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio from Syracuse. They call it the hill. Campus is on a hill. And this is one of the buildings that I used to take classes in when I was here, which is kind of fun.

It's called Newhouse, too, for those of you who care. Thank you. Thank you for caring. You can find me on Twitter. I can actually access my Twitter tonight. Don't ask.

But Twitter, I can access it on my phone, I guess Twitter, a law radio and then also on Facebook. And I put a post up and already you all are bombarding us with the welcome backs and we missed you and complaining about the villain host. I have nothing to do with it. Don't blame me. Don't blame producer J. I like the fact that they get fill in hosts who remind you that you really like me. I like that.

That makes me happy. So we're going to dive in with a little basketball. We're going to get to Jalen Hurts before this hour is done.

We're keeping an eye. Actually, I think the last NHL game just wrapped up. That one was in overtime. We love sudden death overtime this time of the year.

So we're raring to go. Jay is monitoring phones. Wait, shoot. Jay, don't tell me. 8 5 5 2 1 2 4 CBS, right? 8 5 5 2 1 2 4 2 2 7. Yes.

It's only been 11 years and I actually know the phone number now. It's like riding a bike. It's just like riding a bike.

Oh, and speaking of comfortable, like riding a bike, you know, it seems so, so familiar. On Monday night is, oh, Draymond Green. It's always Draymond Green. It's always Draymond Green. Now, the Kings earned their 2-0 lead against the Warriors, but this a pivotal moment in the fourth quarter.

Here is Monk with a shovel shot that doesn't go on the wide side. Rebound. Draymond gets away and it's a technical foul on Draymond Green for stomping Sabonis as he tried to get out of the way up the floor. And Draymond might get a flagrant foul and get ejected here. Sabonis still down. Sabonis was down for quite a while, wasn't he? He was writhing in pain. I can imagine that the Draymond stomp to his chest did hurt.

He definitely played it up. I feel like, Producer J, that we should hear the Kings' version of Draymond stepping on the chest of Sabonis. Curry has the rebound.

Sabonis on the floor and he just got stomped on by Green and a foul was called and that may warrant an ejection. Oh! There was nothing subtle about that.

Oh! He went to the floor and Green in the tangle. It appeared to me like he just... I said stomped and until I see a replay, I'm going to stick with that for the moment. But Sabonis is still down.

Oh, yes. He was down there for quite a while. It took an army of eight trainers to come out and fix Demonta Sabonis and get him up off the floor. That's the Gary Gerald version on the Kings Radio Network. Tim Roy before that on Warriors Radio.

And yes, it did in fact result in a Draymond-Green ejection. So before we move on, you have got to hear Draymond because this is Draymond, right? He gets so intense. He gets so fired up and that spirit, that energy, that fire is exactly what the Warriors need.

It is. He sets a tone for them. He is heart and soul. The energy for this team, not to mention he's their best defender. And when he's on the court, everything runs more smoothly. Now, if you didn't watch the game, what you don't hear from Tim and Gary is that as they're waiting for the officials to determine whether or not this is a flagrant two, an automatic ejection, Dray is taunting the crowd. He's cupping his hand to his ear.

He's asking for more. He's running around. He's clapping.

He's exulting. I didn't love that look, but that is Dray. Dray is one of those players. You take the good, you take the bad because generally he is going to give you the Draymond-Green that is not only a highly skilled player, a very experienced player, but he's going to fire up the guys around him. We've seen this over and over with the Warriors.

The issue, of course, is that sometimes it goes too far. The issue, of course, is that sometimes his reputation precedes him and he gets hammered with these calls. Whether or not you agree that it was a flagrant two, maybe you don't.

It's up for interpretation, but it's not in a vacuum. Because these officials know Draymond-Green. They know this is the same Draymond that in an NBA Finals against the Cleveland Cavaliers a few years ago punched LeBron in the little Cavaliers. Now I say he deserved it because you don't stand over a man and not expect to get punched.

You're a clown. Dray is not shy about his feelings. He and Sabonis had kind of been jawing at each other in Game 1. It had gotten chippy and extracurricular in Game 1. And so here is this incident in Game 2. And yes, Sabonis grabbed the leg of Draymond. Draymond says he kind of lost his balance. He was trying to step.

Whoopsie! I just happened to step on his chest. So the exchange with Draymond and the reporters, it's classic. My leg got grabbed second time in two nights.

The referees just watch it. I got to land my foot somewhere. And I'm not the most flexible person, so it's not stretching that far. So you didn't really see where you were stepping? I can only step so far in pulling my leg away.

So it is what it is. The explanation was I stumped too hard. How hard was that impact? Were you surprised that he was on the ground for that long? No, I wasn't surprised that he stayed down that long. Hmm, I wasn't surprised that he stayed down that long. Now Draymond Green, speaking of staying down, is not taking this one lying down. You know that Draymond is going to fight back. You know that he's going all in here, right? Because this was fourth quarter.

There were roughly, oh, seven minutes to go maybe, maybe a few more minutes than that. The Warriors did end up tying the game. But then, without Draymond Green, the passing isn't as crisp. Obviously, he's another man in the middle who roams the paint.

He provides great defense. So without him, they're not the same team. They're not as good.

They're certainly not as competitive in terms of the fire, the energy. Yes, Steph brings it. Yes, Klay Thompson hit a couple of big shots late. But they need Dray. He's the center cog in the wheel, if you will. And so it's frustrating for him. Now he has to know.

His reputation precedes him. But you can't ask him to dial it back because this is Dray. I texted Jay right away as soon as we saw this moment, always Dray. It's always Dray. He finds himself in the middle of the fray.

It's a Dray fray, if you will. And so he's, at this point, not going to hold back. It was Monk last game, right on the baseline under the rim.

So either you're going to stop it. John Goble was looking at Monk, hold my leg the last game, and he just let it go. And Zach clearly was watching my leg. It held this game and let it go.

So I guess ankle grabbing is okay. We were competing. We hit some big shots.

Gary hits the corner, three to tie it. I think Klay hit a big one on the wing. But they played better than we did down the stretch. I thought they were more physical tonight. It was an incredibly physical game.

Really, really a lot of physicality, not much movement, not much freedom of movement out there. So they were the aggressors, and I thought they benefited from being the aggressors. As Steve Kerr said, he didn't see this moment. It was the other end of the court, and so he will watch it on tape.

I don't know whether or not he will speak up. I do know that this is a judgment call by the officials. And yes, it was an intentional movement, intentional stomp.

It was an intentional step, to be sure. Did he have the ability to step over Sabonis? Only Draymond Green knows. I thought that it wasn't equitable in terms of the officials. It was clearly an intentional grab by DeMonte Sabonis, potentially to pull Draymond down, to knock him down, to hold him from running up court. They were both intentional, and this spills over from the earlier game. And then Dray points out there was someone else who was grabbing ankles. And so I feel like if you're going to nail one guy for being an intentional, maybe a flagrant one for each guy, I don't love the idea of ejecting someone on one moment, but that's what happens with Draymond Green. You really can't quibble with how the officials interpreted this. I guess you can, but they do have the ability to interpret this the way that they want to, the way that they feel like if it applies, a flagrant two, which it's not just unnecessary, but it's hazardous, and it could potentially cause harm. So yeah, they can go flagrant two. I believe that in this moment, watching the two of them go back and forth, it felt like it was a one-two punch. It was DeMonte Sabonis first, it was Dray responding, and the technicals should have been levied equitably. But that's just my opinion.

Now Dray doesn't help himself when he's taunting, and he never lets an opportunity go by to taunt fans on the road. I'm just having fun. It's a fun game, fun atmosphere to play in.

So it's fun. Was it fun? It was fun in that moment. Not so much fun when he had to run off the court and the fans are jeering, and he's headed to the locker room in this critical stage of the game. It was fun. It was so much fun.

It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. After the Warriors were able to tie it up, and this happened most of the game, there was an early lead for the Warriors, and that was in large part because of the turnovers. And yes, Draymond Green, the rest of the Warriors were playing incredible defense, and so early on they were able to build a seven-point lead, but the hot shooting, not necessarily three-pointers, they came in spurts, but the shooting and the way that the Kings were sharing the basketball, that was something else that stood out.

It wasn't one guy. They weren't looking to just one player to take a big shot, to step up, whether three or not. They were moving the ball around, actually a page out of Golden State's book, which makes sense, right, because their head coach just came off of the Golden State bench for last year's NBA championship run.

But the Kings absolutely closed the game with their best stretch of the night. Fox with the rebound, gives it up to Malik Monk with 225 to go, long lead pass Harrison Barnes, shoulders into the lane, dumps to the corner. Davion has it. He drives. He kicks. Fox will step into a straightaway three. He's got the triple. Sacramento leads by six at 107-101.

Monk will be the initiator. He is greeted by Wiggins as he crosses the mid-short line, moves left, lost the ball, grabbed by Sibones, feeds to the corner, wide open, Davion Mitchell for three, score, the triple for Davion Mitchell, and the Kings lead is now nine with a minute 17 to go. It's 112-103, desperation three missed by the Warriors, and the horn sounds to end this second game of this seven-game series, and the Kings take a 2-0 advantage by a final score of 114-106. Gary Gerald on Kings Radio, a late 17-8 run after the Warriors had tied it, and the two huge triples that you're going to see over and over again, one by De'Aaron Fox with just over two minutes to go, and the other by Davion Mitchell with about a minute 15 to go, and those were the triples that allowed the Kings to stay out in front.

So these baby Kings, they are growing up before our eyes, and I like the idea of this is Sacramento, right? So it's 90 miles from where the Warriors play, but how many years have the Kings been operating in the shadow of the Golden State Warriors, right? How many years have they watched the success of the Warriors, not just the five straight NBA Finals, but how about the three rings?

Last year, they come back from the dead, essentially. They win with that core, different role players, but it's the Warriors' ride again. Meanwhile, the Kings have gone how many years without a playoff win, and here they are up 2-0 over the big bad Warriors.

So I kind of like it. It's not David versus Goliath necessarily, but it's this idea, a little bit like Clippers-Lakers, where they share a building and they share a city, but the Kings have been operating in anonymity and have been in essentially basketball purgatory for years while the Warriors have gotten really good, and so this is the Kings' opportunity to establish themselves, to reestablish themselves as a force to be reckoned with, and against the Warriors, it is a massive step. So they're up 2-0. Now, we know the Warriors stink.

They stink on the road. They're a completely different team at home, and at this point, what is the old adage? I'm not sure I agree with this, but it gets trotted out every playoff season. The series hasn't begun until someone wins on the road.

So I suppose by that logic, the series has yet to begin. Ah, no, it's underway, and we'll see whether or not the NBA weighs in on the Draymond flagrant two. Wouldn't it be a slap in the face to Dray and the Warriors if they I hate it when this happens send it, drop it back to a flagrant one.

Oh, well then you shouldn't have been ejected, and you would have been out there for the end of the game. But good for the Kings. This is amazing. And coming up at the top of next hour, so it'll be midnight Sacramento time, we'll have a chance to get the inside scoop and go inside this game where the fans were amazing. Bravo, Kings fans. Great to see you all enjoying this moment, this return to the postseason.

All right, you can find us on Twitter after our CBS on our Facebook page too. A little more about this game as we move forward. But the Sixers, able to able to get embarrassed in the first half of their game against the Nets because they had no business trailing at halftime the way they were. It should have been worse.

But taking that humiliation, using it as a springboard in the second half against Brooklyn. Glad to connect with you. Again, I can't see you.

I can't even see Twitter right now, so I have no idea what you're saying. However, I know you're out there. I am so thrilled to be back on the air.

I actually missed it over the last 48 hours. So away we go. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio.

You are listening to the After Hours podcast. Come on, guys. Come on. But listen. It's up to y'all what y'all want to do. I mean, look, we got to trust. Come on.

Tell us what we got to get in motion and movement. Come on. Come on. Let's go. Let's go. Come on. Hard enough to scream by a beat to the right side, to the left, to the right, to the left, to the left, to the left, to the right, to the left, to the left, to the left, to the left, to the left, to the left, hard enough to scream by a beat to the right side, switch out, Nick Claxon has him.

Eight to shoot. Hard picks it up. He goes to Maxie. Maxie, deep breathe, left perimeter in the air.

It's good. Maxie's helping to carry the Sixers. Baseline drive by Tyrese down to the corner, Tucker. And it's in the air, but he didn't get it off.

Hold on. The buzzer went off, but the Sixers did get it off. Here's Harden for three. It's in. And the Sixers go up by five.

And Harden with his first three. Harris one-on-one with Seth. Iso on the left wing, driving, spinning, through two. He gets up and lays it in.

Kirkland with a breakdown. Jalen goes to Embiid. Embiid once again with two players on him.

To the left corner, he goes. Maxie for three. Ballgame. Maxie knocking down another three. And the Sixers back in front by 11.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Before you hear that montage of Sixers highlights, you hear Doc Rivers miked up, or a mic caught him, on TNT, which is where this game was broadcast nationally. And he is exhorting his team.

He's encouraging his team. Apparently, he used different language in a timeout that he called very early in the third quarter. James Harden said, this is 60 seconds into the third quarter. The team still has not responded, even coming out of halftime. And Doc calls a timeout right away.

And according to Harden, he was cursing us out. So that changed a lot. We look for turning points. A lot of times, I look for turning points in games.

I look for moments where momentum is snatched away. Momentum is fleeting in sports, so one team can grab it or another team can lose it either way. And in this case, Doc Rivers, as a veteran coach, as a former NBA point guard himself, recognized that for whatever reason, even coming out of halftime, his team still didn't have that fire, still didn't have that energy, still didn't have that attitude that we are the team to beat in this series. We are the team that should be dominating. The Nets, I would say that this is something you might hear in the Sixers locker room. The Nets don't have any superstars.

What are they doing here? This is not a walkover. We can't not take them seriously because they all get paid. However, that team has no business competing with us in this series. That's the type of attitude that the Sixers should have, not to mention a likely MVP or at least a runner-up in Joel Embiid, and they were not playing like it. They were playing as though they were the team that had no business being there and honestly playing down to the level of their competition.

And yes, there are shooters on the Nets who can get hot. Doc Rivers had seen enough at that point, so 60 seconds into the third quarter, he calls a timeout. We talked about something at halftime. I thought we wasted the whole first half literally just running random, not trusting our sets. You know, I talked at halftime, why do we run skeleton if we're not going to run it in the game? And we drew up a play. First play, we didn't run it.

So I thought we needed to talk about it. And, you know, give them credit. From that point on, I thought our execution was unbelievable. We got guys to the right space. Joel was patient.

James was patient. We moved the ball. We got every shot we wanted. And so that was a hard game because we got outside of ourselves in the first half. I thought we were forcing it. We were trying, you know, nothing selfish, but we were trying to score, all of us, instead of they're giving you the answers with your traps. Trust your stuff, trust your spacing, move the ball, and the right guys are going to end up with the ball. And if we do it enough, eventually you're going to get one-on-ones and then you're going to dominate the game.

I thought we did that in the second half. To be fair, Doc Rivers takes a ton of criticism. Some of the collapses in Game 7s in which he was the coach for the Clippers, but not just that, the Sixers have run into a glass ceiling in the second round the last several years despite the talent they've got and the moves they've made for their roster. This was a veteran coaching move that was not only perfect timing, but that sparked his team to what was a 24-12 run that essentially put the Nets in the rearview mirror. The Sixers then played like they were the big bad. They played like they were the favorite.

They played as though they knew they should win this game. Joel Embiid ends up just shy of a triple-double, had 20 points, 19 rebounds. He was a beast in the paint, had a huge block late in the game as well.

Tyrese Maxey with 33, he was awesome. But what changed? From the player's perspective, what changed at that kind of halftime juncture but then early in the third quarter? One word, trust.

And that's really what it was about. Just trust in what we do. We know that we're going to double team.

Trust the next guy. Throw the basketball with some love. Expect him to make the shot.

And let's get out and run. Pretty cool in the first half and then the second half. You're not going to give the best three-point shooting scene that many looks without my guys making those shots.

So I hope they keep doing it and we're going to keep making the right plays and knock down those shots. I have no idea why both Doc Rivers and Joel Embiid insist on sitting way back here so they're not on the microphone. I'm sure they weren't doing that, but that's what it sounds like. Although I actually told my students earlier on Monday night and I say this a lot since the pandemic, what passes for quality audio? Oh, dear.

Quality is definitely overstating it. But at least we could hear what they had to say even if they are a couple of feet back from the microphone. So we've got Sixers taking care of business. It's first round.

Nobody get excited. Okay, the real test comes in the second round. Can they finally break through in the second round? We've got the Kings up 2-0 over the Warriors, which is huge.

And it's a great confidence boost for them that they were able to protect their home court. Those are your two games tonight. Four NHL playoff games. Top of the hour, we'll get back to hoops. But straight ahead, Jalen Hurts. What do I tell you about the NFL? What do I tell you? The NFL is a jealous lover.

Cannot stand it when you start to pay attention to anything else. So here we are. First three games of the NBA playoffs. First out of the Stanley Cup postseason. Couple of games go into overtime. And this is when the Jalen Hurts news drops.

Duh. We can send our watches by it. Anytime other sports, any other sport, starts to grab too much of the spotlight and gets too comfortable in the center ring of the circus, here comes the NFL. It's like freaking clockwork.

It's clockwork. Not just that, but the NFL actually started its voluntary offseason program. So these are voluntary OTAs. These are not the type of OTAs that Aaron Rodgers attends. Why would he?

He is a man without a country right now. But Jalen Hurts gets his deal. It's the first big domino to drop with quarterbacks getting paid this offseason. So we'll talk about that coming up next.

But for all the scores. Oh, hi Marco. How are you? Did you miss me? Of course I did. Thank you.

Did you actually work while I was gone? Uh, yeah. I know sometimes you just decide you're gonna desert us on the overnights and you just do whatever it is. It's me because I have so much control of my life. You do.

So much control over my life. Well, I missed you. It's good to hear your voice back in studio tomorrow night. I actually want to hear something crazy. When I first got to Syracuse earlier on Monday afternoon, and this happens sometimes when I've done play-by-play in the past, went to set up the Comrex, which is our piece of equipment that I'm using right now to do the show, plugged it into an Ethernet port.

Oh, no. The firewall here at the university was having none of it. And so it's 4.30. They didn't tell me there was gonna be a firewall issue. We cannot get a line or a signal out. So it's not on our end at CBS Sports Radio. It's the university. They have to call in an IT guy. He has to go through the whole process of adding our Comrex to their system, granting permission.

They need a Mac address. Oh, my gosh. It was a big thing. In the meantime, I'm supposed to be teaching a class, and I'm not where I am supposed to be, and I had no idea. I honestly thought, Marco, I was gonna have to get in my car. So this is, we'll go with Eastern Time because that's where I am in New York. I thought I was gonna get in my car at 8.30. Forget going home. I was gonna drive straight back to New York City, which would have taken four hours and probably 15 minutes, 30 minutes, and go right on the air. Like, that was gonna be my life if we couldn't get through this firewall, thankfully. Good thing you checked this early. Yes, thank you. And not, you know, I'd say 10.

So you're saying I'm a pro, and I've done this before. Yeah, but I mean, you know, that would have been a difficult scenario, but at least you would have made it on time. So my point is, if you'd have checked it at, say, 10 o'clock, you wouldn't have made it in time for the show. It would have been midnight Eastern Time because the game was just wrapping up, probably would have been later than that even.

I think the game didn't end until about 12.30, 12.40 Eastern, so 9.40 Pacific Time. If I had waited, you're right. It would have given us an hour and 20 minutes. But there's this little voice in my head, make sure you check it, make sure you check it, so... Listen to that voice. Disaster averted.

You are listening to the After Hours Podcast. Hurts again under center. He sneaks, he pushes, and he is in! Touchdown Jalen Hurts! I'm going to say this.

The Eagles are 15 minutes and 43 seconds away from the Super Bowl. I had a purpose before everybody had an opinion. It's not about anybody else. I know y'all like that one.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. It's been a while, but I now remember Jalen Hurts never does a post-game press conference or a mid-week session with reporters without offering his philosophies on life. Producer Jay, I feel as though, and we've talked about this before, that almost every Jalen Hurts press conference, you could hear those same musings, that same wisdom, and in some cases intertwine because he remains pretty steady and steadfast about his philosophies. You could almost guess what he's going to say in most of his press conferences because it's always some sort of self-prophetic or, you know, you didn't think I could do this. Speaking it into existence. Exactly, exactly. No, I like it. Well, if that's what it takes for Jalen Hurts, then more power to him.

It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. Jalen's domino has dropped, or as the kids say, actually, I don't know what the kids say because I'm so uncool, something about the bag. He's in his bag.

Oh, no, wait, that has nothing to do with this. He gets a bag. Jay, help me out here. He secured the bag. He secured the bag.

That's so dumb. A bag of what, exactly? Cash.

Yes, exactly. So, again, not that you forgot how uncool I am over the course of the last week plus when I wasn't on the air, but quick reminder there, also can't remember, it's some sort of truck that just got backed up and dumped him a ton of money. Five years, $255 million. That's the total deal, but there are elements to this and nuances to this that indicate how serious the Eagles are, but also how much, I think, they wanted to make sure Jalen got more money in total. So the bottom line of the contract is greater than Deshaun Watson's, and this is one of the first things that jumped out at me, right? Deshaun Watson with that $230 million contract from the Browns that's fully guaranteed. Now, it's not fully guaranteed for Jalen, the $255 million, but the fact that it's over and above Deshaun's and so much of it is guaranteed, and there's one other element, too, which is really cool. So Ian Rappaport's got some of the deets for us. A major day for the Philadelphia Eagles, a historic day, and for Jalen Hurts, he gets the contract that he so, so richly deserves.

Here are the details, according to colleague Tom Polacero and myself. For Jalen Hurts, it is a five-year extension worth $255 million. Let me repeat, $255 million. That is $51 million per year. Gets $110 million fully guaranteed at signing the third most ever and $126.5 million fully guaranteed before year two.

That is the second most. And also gets a massive raise, including $23.294 million at signing the Eagles' lock him in, Tom, through 2028. And oh, by the way, he has the first no-trade clause in Philadelphia Eagles history.

How about that? This is a historic franchise. Now, I know they only recently won their first Super Bowl, but it's a proud franchise. It comes from a very competitive NFC beast this year. This was another Super Bowl appearance for the Eagles, and Hurts, not only a regular season MVP candidate, but had his best game of his entire career in the Super Bowl with, what was it, more than 370 yards in total, four touchdowns. Yes, there was the turnover, but an incredible performance against the Kansas City Chiefs. Obviously, Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs end up on the winning end, but Jalen shines on the game's biggest stage. So, for that reason, the Eagles reward him.

But I like the various nuances of this contract. As I say, the big thing that jumped out to me right away is that the contract is worth more in total value than Deshaun Watson's, and it should be. Deshaun Watson, he had some really productive seasons before he sat out the year with Houston, before all of the accusations of sexual misconduct, before his suspension. The Browns, of course, give him the guaranteed money because they're not going to get him in Cleveland any other way. They go way, way out there on a limb with the $230 million, and they fully guarantee it. The Eagles don't need to do that, right? So Jalen's not asking for a fully guaranteed contract, but what they do is make sure everyone knows it's a nod to Jalen, but it's also a nod to the rest of the NFL. Our quarterback is worth more than yours. Our quarterback deserves more than yours.

Our quarterback has earned this humongous extension, and we want to make sure Deshaun Watson's is, maybe it's still as fully guaranteed, it's still one that's noteworthy, but Jalen's is over and above that, so that I love. Also the fact that it includes a no trade clause, something the Eagles have never done. Traditional franchise, established franchise, a winning franchise, right? Even with Nick Sirianni, this is their second consecutive playoff run, good playoff appearance, but they get back to a Super Bowl.

After winning it in, was it 16, 18, 17, I don't know, it was one of those years they all blend together. So after winning it five years ago, they're able to get back to another one. So right now the Eagles are a very competitive franchise.

We know what Howie Roseman has done. Jalen not only responded to their faith in him, and I love that about Jalen, they put their faith in him, despite all the chatter about how they better find someone else to compete with Jalen Hurts, or what if it doesn't work with Jalen Hurts, or Jalen Hurts is not your prototypical quarterback, Jalen's not the right guy for the job. All that chatter is happening around Jalen, a little bit like what's been happening around Tua, right? So Tua still has an opportunity to prove himself. The Dolphins are going to give him another opportunity to prove himself and stay healthy this year. Jalen rewarded the faith the Eagles had in him when over and over and over again last offseason, they said, Jalen's our quarterback. I mean that's a powerful, it's a powerful elixir, it's a powerful motivator when you know that, in this case, a team believes in you. A team is saying, you don't have to earn this job, it's already yours, we have faith in you.

And he goes out and has the best season of his career, plays his best with a contract extension looming, and so he seizes the opportunity. Carpe diem, all those different philosophies that Jalen shares with us, oh yeah, he was walking him out. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. You can find me on Twitter, ALawRadio, or on our Facebook page. By the way, if you go on our Facebook page and you trash the host who is filling in for me, it's going to get deleted. There's no point to that.

Why would you do that? So here's what else we know about Jalen's contract. $51 million makes him slightly higher than Aaron Rodgers in terms of the highest ever average annual value, and he gets over $179 million guaranteed. Other than Deshaun Watson, stupid contract, Kyler Murray, we're going to see whether or not he rewards the Cardinals for giving him that money, so coming back from injury.

Jalen is the one who right now I would have the most faith in of those three. So that's the most guaranteed money. So Deshaun, $230 million, Kyler, nearly $190, and then Jalen has the $179.3.

So that's most guaranteed money. I think right now, most people would raise their hand and say, I'll take Jalen hurt, not to mention he's not. Well, it's record salary cap hits. The salary cap numbers are astronomical, so we'll get to that, but the way that they're able to kind of break it up over the life of the contract is helpful too. So the highest average annual value now belongs to Jalen, probably not for long. I would expect that Joe Burrow's agents, that they would come along and kind of eclipse that, but Jalen Aaron Rodgers Russell Wilson.

Who would you rather have as your quarterback right now? So Jalen gets rewarded accordingly. Love it. All right, straight ahead, we're going to pivot back to basketball. The Kings take a 2-0 lead against the Warriors.

Long time since the Warriors have been in this position where they're down 0-2 in a series. From the campus of Syracuse University, oh, it's so cool to be able to say that. I'm back.

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