After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 4

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That's betterhelp.com slash positive. Still so many unanswered questions posted to our Twitter or Facebook. As part of asking me anything in the hump show, my commitment to you is that I will spend time on this Wednesday. In fact, I'll get a few done during the breaks this final hour of the hump show. I'm going to go back and answer what I can. Now, some of them require research.

Some of them require a little more thoughtfulness than what I can just rattle off in a couple of seconds. And actually, I do go back sometimes. I remember last week, one listener asked me what favorite military history did I read about, right? So what periods of military history are my favorite, then what types of books do I read? And I actually have just finished a book by a five-star admiral. He's US Navy retired now but was a longtime SEAL and SEAL commander. And his book, he's an incredible storyteller. His book is all about his life in special operations.

And I'm telling you, I was glued to it. So actually, I went back three days later and shared the title of that book. So I do have thoughtful answers to your questions for asking me anything. Some of them though, the ones that I respond to on Wednesday, I generally just I try to rattle off. But producer Jay is also looking for more in-depth kind of off the beaten path questions for our next video version of Ask Amy Anything. So if you haven't posted yet and you want to try to get his attention, you can do that on Twitter, after our CBS or on our Facebook page. And if you'd like to see some of the previous versions of Ask Amy, you can check them out on our YouTube channel, also named after the show.

We've got a poll up now on Twitter, same place where you can find it. What's your level of excitement? And yes, we are being somewhat tongue in cheek, but who cares?

We don't take ourselves too seriously on the show. What's your level of excitement and anticipation for the NFL schedule release? Did you know they are actually incorporating, at last count, six, seven networks as part of the schedule release? Seriously, the morning shows, it starts in the morning with morning TV on four different networks. And then it moves throughout the day across various other platforms before it ends up with the prime time viewing of the full NFL schedule. Are you kidding me?

You want to know who takes itself to way too seriously? That's the NFL. And yet it works because marketing geniuses. I hope those marketing geniuses in the NFL front office, that they get major raises every time the ratings are through the roof for one of these prime time events. It's so obscene.

The NFL has been out of the spotlight for all of, I don't know, 10 days maybe. Can't stand it. I would tell you that it's not awkward at all for me.

If it is awkward, it's brilliant. So yes, the NFL schedule release comes up tomorrow and actually starts with morning TV on Thursday and then it moves throughout the day and just takes on a life of its own. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence. It's our hump show. It's your hump day. If you're waking up on your Wednesday, let's go wild and wacky. We got this.

And then we'll be so much closer to the weekend. So yes, find us on Twitter. Mine is ALawRadio or our Facebook page. And we're thrilled to connect with you. We still hear from a lot of new listeners.

Had a spike in followers and a spike in connections over the last week or so. I suspect that's around the half marathon and some of the stories that I tell. You all are still laughing about my pre-half marathon story.

Here's the crazy thing about that. After the dog refused, refused to go back in the house. Forget the house. She refused to go back in the driveway on Sunday morning because she knew I was in a hurry. She tried to back it up and put it in reverse. This dog is so stubborn.

I had to push her back to the house. The next morning when there was no half marathon that I had to get to, when I hadn't overslept, do you know what the dog was doing? Running around the neighborhood.

Seriously. I had to run to catch up with her because she's generally off leash in the mornings. The dog was skipping, running, hopping, trotting around the neighborhood. And she knows how she knows when I have to go somewhere and when I don't. So then on Tuesday afternoon, taking her for a walk, Jay actually texted me and asked me if Penny cooperated.

I had to catch a train to get to Newark for the devil's hurricanes game five, four, game four. Of course, she knows I have to go somewhere. Oh man, taking her sweet old time. We ain't taking no s*** from nobody.

So low as molasses. Yet my dog, she has, somehow has a sixth dog sense about when I need to go somewhere. Do I give off some kind of a smell when I'm in a hurry? Maybe the dog knows. They do say, and I have ridden a horse as a bunch as an adult, but also as a kid, more as an adult, but they do, that people who are horse, horse men and women will tell you that horses can smell your fear. They can, they can really pick up on, they're very sensitive to your emotions. And I'm pretty sure my dog can read my emotions.

I guess that's what happens after you have a relationship for 11 plus years. But yeah, she is always slower when I have to go somewhere, always. But when we've got no cares in the world, no place to go, the dog is bursting with energy and running all over the place. I actually to run to catch up with her on Monday. She never runs like that.

No, no, no. She felt free. She was out of the house again. She thought, I'm going to show this mom of mine who gets to, who gets to make the rules, who gets to determine how fast I go. Actually, she probably was running from me because she didn't want me to push her.

Right. She's like this crazy woman tried to pull me the other day. Pushing the dog.

I'm not joking. I was pushing the dog. Like she, like I was, yeah. Next time I'm going to tug her, except for she was trying to duck out of her leaf.

So that wasn't going to work. Pushing the dog. I'm sure the neighbors are thrilled. They think I'm the best dog owner on the planet.

She thinks she's going out there for her Sunday morning stroll. It was a nice morning and then all of a sudden it gets all agitated and rushed. I was definitely agitated. I nearly missed the half marathon. Anyway, since then me telling embarrassing stories about myself, you all have made many more connections on our social media.

That was the entire point. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence here on CBS Sports Radio. For the first time in his career, Joel Embiid and his team, the Sixers, are within one win of busting through that glass ceiling and reaching the conference finals. Series is not over, but I got to tell you, there's not a whole lot of analysis that has to be done about game five in Boston between the Celtics and Sixers last night.

Here's what I wrote down on my page because I take notes. The Sixers were overwhelming from the outset. Crowd getting on its feet. Nine to shoot. Hard to round one man. He passes the house. House to the side. Maxie, three pointer up and good.

Tyrese, Maxie, the silencer. He nails a triple from the right side and the crowd settles back down. Top of the key, right hand dribble. Collides with the defender. Back out to Joel Embiid, shooting a three.

It's good. Joel Embiid firing from long range and he knocks down a three. Sixers 98, Boston 81. Embiid with four. He's going to have to shoot for the top of the key. Leaning over the right hand dribble. Backs up.

He lost it. Two straight on the turns. Here's Brown into the lane. Brown goes up and Embiid blocked it.

Maxie saves it. Joel with an incredible defensive play. Oh man, a layup by Jalen Brown. Swatted. Tyrese with 12 to shoot. Speed dribble behind the back. Fires for three.

Up and good. And the 76ers force Boston into a timeout. Under four minutes to go and the lead has blossomed to 21. The Celtics were overwhelmed from the outset.

I never felt like they were a threat in this game. It became pretty apparent that all the energy, all of the intensity, the aggressiveness, not to mention the shots that were dropping, the friendly rolls, that was all on the side of Philadelphia. And it wasn't just Joel Embiid, though he is MVP for a reason. 33 points, seven rebounds, four block shots, three assists. He was, he was the, the main cog in the wheel for the Sixers offensively always. Tyrese, Maxie, James Harden, Tobias Harris, these guys, they all take their cues from him and certainly he draws the yeoman share of the defense for good reason.

But on the defensive end, he's active and he's mobile and he alters shots, if not flat out blocks shots. I think it's fitting that once Joel Embiid stopped outwardly campaigning for MVP, stopped speaking about it publicly, stopped focusing on it, or maybe even obsessing over it, that his team got so much better. When he started focusing on winning, the rest of the team followed his lead. I only care about winning. One thing is winning.

We got a pretty good chance after winning this game in front of our fans. Got to jump on them just like tonight from the start. Got to send a message and got to be aggressive offensively and defensively. I'm going to give a shout out to the big fella, Joel, because the last two years, I mean, don't get me wrong, he's been focused. He's been in the MVP conversation. He's been dominant. But this year, as soon as we got to Charleston training camp, I just noticed his leadership just grow. When you're a best player, he's a great leader. Tucker has been on all about leading, of course, and it's great to have Peter Tucker as well. But when you're a best player, he's adamant about winning and adamant. He's on his teammates and he's calling his teammates out. He's leading by example.

You have to raise your level of intensity. If you're a leader, your best player is working his tail off and being aggressive and going out there and performing every single night, you have to fall in line. And I think this team, we know that and we have done that pretty well. Tyrese Maxey with 30 points. He had six three-pointers drop last night. And then James Harden, too.

You really do have a core group. And the Celtics at no juncture in this game, even if they did put a couple shots together, at no point in this game did I feel like they were ever going to be able to match what the Sixers core was doing. But actually, Doc Rivers doesn't love the way they started. He had a real problem with how they came out of the locker room. Our first three possessions were horrendous of the game. I think the first three times anybody touched, they shot it. And I was literally about to call a timeout. And then the next possession, the ball, bam, bam, bam, guy got a three and we were off to playing right. And we played right from that point on. Once they found that footing, once they played right, as he says, there was no catching them. As for the Celtics, this was a missed opportunity. I don't know how you come out of the gate that lackluster, I won't say lifeless.

I saw people on social going with the lifeless. I'm not sure it would go that extreme, but definitely lackluster. Didn't seem like they had a push. At times it almost felt like they were stuck in the mud, if you will, step slow, step late, chasing most of the time.

They weren't dictating. They were reacting to what the Sixers were doing. And they obviously didn't shoot as well from beyond the arc, which is a major staple of the game. When the Celtics, excuse me, when the Celtics are shooting hot from deep, they're a very difficult team to beat because it opens up the middle. And then you've got guys who will drive the lane. It does not help that Al Horford only took three pointers last night and missed all seven of them.

Brutal. And yes, you did have Jason Tatum, Marcus Smart, Jalen Brown in double figures, but really nothing else. And while their offense was rough, to put it mildly, what came back to bite them, and this is what stood out to me, is them playing the kind of defense that they played against the Atlanta Hawks for the most part in that first round series. I openly was worried about the Celtics defense. This is not what we saw from them in last year's run to the NBA finals. Defense was their staple. I don't love the way they play defense in this series.

They still can. They're capable of it. But in the games in which they've had an advantage, and now of course they trail 3-2, the defense has been the catalyst for the Celtics.

Defense to offense. That's not what they did last night. Philadelphia shot better than 50 percent from the floor.

And Joe Mazzulla admits, that's about as bad as it could be for them in April, April-May. That was our first really, really bad game of the playoffs, and so it doesn't come at necessarily the best time, but we just have to shift our perspective and get ready for the next game. We tried to play hard. I thought we tried to play the right way, especially on the offensive end. I thought we got a lot of good looks early that didn't fall and theirs did.

And then I think when you're in that situation, you're just trying to win it back. And so, like I said, it's the first time that we just didn't play well and we just got to regroup and get ready for the next game. Unnecessary fouls.

Gotten a little bit of foul trouble as well. And kind of just threw our rhythm off. We got to be able to get stops and guard a lot better than we did tonight.

It just seemed like the door just went open. It just seemed like we couldn't get nothing going, and every game got its own story. That's the beauty of basketball, so I believe in my guys.

So I think that we can come out and be inspired to play next game. Everything went wrong. They made every right play. They made every hustle play. Everything went wrong for us that can go wrong. Marcus Smart, everything went wrong. And Joel Missoula, he admits it was the worst game they've had in the postseason so far.

And then he says it didn't necessarily come at the best time. Ooh, that might be putting it mildly. That might be an understatement. The Celtics have now put themselves in a hole and they have to battle back or climb out of the hole, if I'm going to stick with that metaphor. They have to climb out of the hole in Philadelphia, which is not going to be easy. Not only did Joel Embiid disrupt on both ends of the court, really change how the Celtics, well, they should have adjusted defensively.

They didn't. It changes, of course, when he's playing the way that he is and when he's moving all over the offensive end of the court, really should change how opponents like the Celtics are keeping tabs on him. But in this particular case, they were slow to react. And then you have the tandem of James Harden and Tyrese Maxey, who are kind of controlling the tempo and controlling the action and making sure they're setting up the shooters, setting up the scores. And James Harden kind of gives us the duh reaction. We control what we can control. And tonight was one of the things that was our mindset coming into this game. We control our own destiny.

And whether it's the Joel coming back from game two or the game three loss, that's past us. We find things to get better at every single day. We watch film. We communicate with each other. And we go out there and try to try to be better for each other. And as a team, that's trying to compete for some special.

That's all you can ask for. You know, unselfish, like we know we are. We know obviously we have the MVP on our team. And then everybody else just kind of figure it out. And whether that's me scoring a basketball or whether that's me facilitating or whether it's me doing a little bit of both.

And then, you know, I mean, everybody just figures it out. So tonight was a prime example of that. It was. Celtics were never really a threat. This was Sixers from the outset. And so now the Celtics have work to do Thursday in Philadelphia. Or is this finally the year that the Sixers with Doc Rivers, former Celtics championship coach, that they're able to bust through that second round glass ceiling. They're so close.

This would be a major collapse, right? If they don't close this out and they have to go back to Boston for a game seven and they end up losing the series. I'm just spit balling here.

I don't know that they are. Not if they play like this, not if the Celtics play like that, but this would be, oh, this would be one that they'd have a hard time forgetting or living down. By the way, the Celtics fans actually booed the team in this game. And I know it's not the first time as Jason Tatum points out, but for heaven's sakes, this is the postseason. We've got booed before.

So this is not anything new. Where to say, but we've, we've been in that position before and you know, we didn't, we didn't play well today. You know, fans could see it.

You guys saw it and we, we know that. This is a veteran team. They're not young.

They're not going to fall apart, but they have made the task infinitely more difficult. Same thing for the Phoenix Suns. They actually were within striking distance until the third quarter when it all went horribly wrong for Phoenix. But man, Denver now one win away from the conference finals.

Same type of a situation where they just had too much too often and the Suns couldn't keep up. Also, I'm on Kevin Durant's side this morning. I just want you to know. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Our hump show.

You can take our NFL schedule release poll because who doesn't need an NFL schedule release poll in your life? It's on Twitter After Hours, CBS, or our Facebook page. Welcome everybody.

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You are listening to the After Hours podcast. Gordon has it in the front court. He's at the elbow. He drives in on Durant.

Spin move, beans in. Gets double teamed. Off to Jokic. Gets down the lane. Got fouled and made the runner. Kick out three of Kogie.

No good. Missed dunk on the put back. Leaking out his quarter. Cross court pass to Polk. Down the lane is Jokic.

Nice challenge. Nuggets lead it by 18, 75 to 57. Outlet pass off over to Durant the other way. He knocked to the floor. Nice flop, no whistle. Jamal Murray the other way for Denver. His pass is deflected, rung down over by Bruce Brown. Brown over to Jokic. Cutter green, down low. Brown, dunk.

Christian two hands. Loose ball Jeff Green. Outlet pass off over to Murray. Throws it off down low over to Jokic. One on one against Landale.

That's all day. Now gets double teamed over to Green. Reverse side layup is offered in. 21 point lead for Denver.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Jason Kosmicki on Denver Nuggets radio. The Phoenix Suns pulled into the lead in the second quarter. Weirdly enough, if you look at the box score, if you watch the game, it was this initial wave by the Nuggets out of the locker room.

This game taking place in the Mile High City. Then they seem to take their foot off the gas. Their intensity lessened. Phoenix found their footing.

Blah, blah, blah. It was just the opposite end of the spectrum in the second quarter. But then coming out of the halftime locker room, they had that same intensity and aggressiveness. So the Nuggets score 35 in the first quarter and 39 in the third quarter, but 17 in the second quarter.

Little weird. They do say the NBA is a game of runs. Well, it was the run in the third quarter that made the difference. And if you ask Michael Malone, there was a one huge discrepancy between this game five won by the Denver Nuggets handily and the two they played in Arizona. We didn't play any defense.

The two games in Phoenix. And tonight to hold on to 102 on 43 from the field. We shut down the three point line tonight. That hurt us in game four. And because we defended, because we rebounded, we got 31 fast break points. And that's who we are. And when we're not running and we're not defending, we're going nowhere. And that's what we have to do.

Game six in a couple of nights. If we're going to try to close the series out, the defense has to be great. The rebounding has to be on point and then get out and run and attack before they can get sent. A lot of what they did was to make everything tough on us. They ran two or three guys at Kevin and Book tonight.

And so that that can be hard. That means other guys got to be able to knock down shots. I thought Terrence hit a few, but we just didn't get enough production on the backside of our offense to help Kevin and Book. But they tried to bottle him up and keep him on the sideline tonight. And we just didn't respond to that well.

Monty Williams and Michael Malone, two head coaches in the series respectively. When you have a Nikola Jokic, you can do, well, you can try a variety of things, right? You can try to body him up. You can try to push him out of the lane. You can attempt to prevent him from catching the ball.

There are a lot of different strategies. It's just, he's so active. And like I was saying about Joel Embiid, he really is kind of the center cog in the wheel. He's obviously a great passing big man. We know that because of the number of triple doubles he's had. He had a dozen assists last night.

So when he attracts the attention, he is very good at finding the open man. And then when you've got multiple shooters, Michael Porter Jr. with five triples last night. We know what Jamal Murray can do though.

He's also taken on the role of distributor. How about Bruce Brown coming off the bench with 25 points? When you've got guys who are taking these passes and taking either the outlets or kind of the kick out from a double team, well then it becomes infinitely easier for a team. And it doesn't really matter what you do with Jokic because then you have to adjust and you have to clamp down on shooters.

And so what happens? Well, he's got more space to operate and only has one body on him and he's a load. I mean, he's a load really regardless of where he is on the court. He's just a big dude. And it's kind of what Monty Williams was saying is he's just unique in the NBA. He's physical. He, you know, he pushes you under the basket and he's got great touch and he can pass and he can shoot the ball. So not many seven foot 280 guys can come off of pin downs and knock down jumpers.

So that's a challenge for everybody. Well, he doesn't just push you out from underneath the basket. Nah, he likes to push owners of other clubs. No, he's going to pay his fine. He was hoping that by connecting with the Suns owner pregame that Matt Ishbia would actually offer to pay his fine.

But he said that didn't happen. He told us that on TNT. He was in a very good mood.

The Joker was jovial following the game. 29 points, 13 rebounds. I mentioned the dozen assists and a bit of a skirmish with Kevin Durant, which we'll get to. I'm on KD's side here. I really am.

I know it's not legal and blah, blah, blah, whatever. But I understand why Kevin Durant reacted the way that he did. As for Jamal Murray, yeah. 19 points with the six assists showing us a different side of him. And then as much as we could talk about, say, Draymond and Steph or James Harden and Joel Embiid, this combo is getting better and better now that Murray is healthy. Even their teammates like to watch what these two guys can do together. I don't think anybody in the league can guard those two. On their two-man action, it should be the best in the league. Yog is obviously a two-time MVP.

They thought he should have got the third. In the mall, when he's hot, nobody's guarding him. He can post up, score all three levels. Yeah, they're unstoppable two-man.

They're unstoppable. I like that from Bruce Brown on NBA TV. Yeah, for Jamal, he says he doesn't care.

Just wants to be part of the action. But if his teammates are hot, he'll set them up. And they did have plenty of guys who could score last night.

But also the defense, yes. Being able to limit the Suns' good looks from downtown and outscoring them enough in the third quarter that the Suns were waving the white flag there in the fourth. All right, so coming up, the moment that Jokic got a forearm shiver in his chest.

It's ironic. That's exactly what he did to the Suns' owner. Now, did he flop? Because I think the Suns' owner flopped. Did Jokic flop or did Kevin Durant actually knock him over? Huh, it's a mystery.

It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence. You can take our NFL schedule release poll. I love that people are upset at us for actually putting this poll out there because it's May. Who cares? I mean, he's just in a bad mood all around right now.

Anyway, yes, you can take our poll on Twitter, ALaw Radio or on our Facebook page. You guys crack me up. Remember, take everything we say here with a grain of salt. We're not being serious 95% of the time.

Also, never on the hump show because I just don't have the ability to be serious. Why do you do that to me? You do it on purpose.

You are listening to the After Hours podcast. Oh, Durant just shoved Jokic. Technical foul on Kevin Durant. Joker just popped open the skull of Kevin Durant and shoved inside his brain and went swimming around.

Ultimate bait him. What a bonehead play by Kevin Durant, a longtime veteran in the NBA. Joker baited him and Durant took it hook, line and sinker.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Such a drama from Jason Kosmicki and company on Denver Nuggets radio. Oh, my gosh, you want to talk about melodramatic.

He plays that role well. I listen to all these NBA announcers and really a lot of play by play guys and gals in every sport because it fits my hours and that's how I can keep up and sometimes out of market games I need to follow. Jason is definitely dramatic and over the top and yet can imagine the Nuggets fans eat it up.

It's After Hours here on CBS Sports Radio, so late third quarter. This moment really epitomized the frustration for the Suns, but I just think it's hysterical because of the context. The Suns were trailing by 20 at the time.

Devin Booker is on the free throw line and the rest of the team goes over to the sidelines and gathers around Monty Williams who pulls out his dry erase board. So essentially he's trying to cram in a timeout where there's no official timeout. Because there's no official timeout, the Nuggets have just as much right to that real estate as do the Suns.

They can stand right there in the middle of the huddle and no one can tell them to leave because it's not an official timeout. And that's what you hear on Nuggets radio. So Bruce Brown, who's a bit of an instigator himself, I mean, just let's be honest, he loves defense. He loves to frustrate guys. He's having a great game. He was feeling himself last night. He was in his bag as the kids say.

Right. Is that what the kids say? Jay just looked at me like, what? Am I the kids now? You are definitely the kids. Be well.

When it comes to the cool quotient, you are definitely closer to the kids than I am. And so Bruce Brown kind of sticks his nose in the huddle and Kevin Durant runs interference and he tries to box him out, kind of nudges them out of the way. Well, nudges, he kind of gives them a little shove.

I wouldn't say it was anything notable, noteworthy. Bruce Brown will not have any bruises over it. But then Jokic decides to take it next level and he just walks right into the middle of their group think. And what he does, Durant's had it. They're busy trying to dial up a 20 point play here.

Can you leave us alone? That's the part that's so funny. They're down by 20 points. And Jokic thought it'd be a good idea to play instigator. Clearly he wasn't, he couldn't have cared less what they were actually drawing up in the huddle.

Just the idea that they were trying to get a free time out and draw up a 20 point play. He thought that was amusing. So as he sticks himself, the big dude, as he sticks himself into their group, kind of makes himself part of this book club.

Well, then he gets a forearm shiver in the chest. The same exact move that Jokic delivered to the sun's owner two nights before. Well, isn't that ironic? So Nicola, what actually were you attempting to do by stepping into this sun's group think? Just to see what they're drawing, you know, just to see the play, I think that they can help us a lot. And I mean, that's what I was doing. I mean, of course, you know, there's its reaction. I don't know why Bruce reacted on that because if we didn't react, we're going to have two fittros and he reacted.

So we didn't have fittros. So I'm blaming Bruce. Because Bruce ended up getting a technical foul as well. He took exception, which I think is great. When you go after my teammate, you come after me. So Bruce had to put himself back into the conversation.

Yeah. So Jokic is looking for Intel. He's an idiot. They're up by 20 for heaven's sakes. So on both parts, it's just really ridiculous.

But I'm actually on Kevin Durant's side on this one. Get your nose out of our huddle. Go grow up. Exactly.

Thank you. Grow up. This is not a kid's game and you're up by 20. So get your nose and your ass out of our huddle. It's just such gamesmanship.

I don't know. Jay, what do you think? Are you KD or, or Jokic in this situation? I would, I would be KD.

You would give him a forearm shiver. Absolutely. There is. What are you doing? Get the hell out of here. You're up by 20. Can't that be enough? Go away.

Get off me. I mean, I appreciate it from Jokic because it technically he was in the right. Like, you know, it wasn't a real timeout. It wasn't an official timeout.

I mean, and he's allowed to stand wherever he wants to. But yeah, if I'm KD, I'm saying get the hell out of here. So Kevin Durant, what message? I hate this question. What message were you sent?

You never, you always get the same answer every time you ask this question. What message were you sending by shoving Nicole Jokic? Absolutely nothing. I don't think it was anything serious. They were excited. They were up big and we was trying to draw some stuff and you know how that goes. So I don't think it was nothing.

It was nothing. Yeah, seriously. Get out of here.

Step, step off the stage. Joker. Why are you being such a Joker?

Joker. Yeah, I'm on KD's side. I agree. Dude, scoreboard. Okay.

Leave us to lick our wounds in peace, please. Really easy to see. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence here on CBS Sports Radio. We've got our poll up on social.

What's your level of excitement for the NFL schedule release? And yes, we're being we're being completely tongue in cheek here. But Jay, what's your answer? Go. Oh, I'm a 10. I'm a sucker for it. You're a 10, but not over the top.

Yeah, no, I'm right. I'm over the top. I'll go over the top. I'm pretty excited. I have no idea why I'm looking forward to it, but I am. It's so. Just speaking of over the top, it's so over the top. Does the NFL really need to use seven or eight different networks to reveal its schedule? For heaven's sakes, that's a lot. But you know what?

I think it's going to get really good ratings on every single network that it airs on. So it's going to work. Oh, my goodness. I actually voted eight to ten. So the poll has four options. You can go one to four on the scale, four to seven. Wait, Jay, how can you go one to four and four to seven?

Those fours are tricky. I even told you what to write. And you still don't delete it because we're getting a lot of votes. So just leave it.

Maybe nobody else will notice. One's a soft four. One's a hard four to hard out.

The others are just suggestions. You goof. I said one to three. Never. Jay never listens to me. He does whatever he wants. He's like my dog. That sounded wrong.

Sorry. He reacts to me similarly as Penny does. Penny does whatever she wants. She's intentional about it. Oh, you're not. That was just an accident.

Oh, just an accident. Penny doesn't care what I say. She does whatever she wants. She pretends she can't hear me. I know now that it's totally pretending.

If I drop my phone on the sidewalk, the dog's ears perk up. I know she can hear. Totally fine.

It's totally fine. Oh my gosh. So I voted for eight to ten. Jay, did you vote?

I did. I'm over the top. Okay, you're over the top. So on Twitter, if you would like to be over the top like Jay, you can find us and cast your vote because why not?

I think I'm over the top because of our little over under wager. That's why I'm interested because we have determined, well, I have determined that the Jets are going to be on national TV at least ten times this year. That's the initial schedule. Now they could get flexed, of course, if they really suck. They could get flexed out like the Broncos. Remember how many times the Broncos got flexed out last year because the NFL did the same thing with them and their schedule release.

Also, what do we think about season openers? And remember last year how Russell Wilson? No, the Jets don't play the Packers this year.

I was thinking, no, they don't. I think that the Jets play the Cowboys this year though on Thanksgiving, if I remember correctly, which is kind of funny because Rogers will face the Dallas Cowboys again. But remember last year we had the Seahawks and Russ. Right. It was a disaster.

Right. Well, Seahawks hosting Russ and the Broncos and it was awful. It was the first primetime game, right, of the entire season. Was it Sunday night or Monday night football? I want to say that was Monday night. So it was on that first weekend.

I think it stood alone. But we also had Russ, not Russ, Baker Mayfield and the Panthers facing the Browns. Why? Because the NFL schedule makers guessed correctly. It was either Seahawks or it was Panthers and they guessed correctly. Stan found me on Twitter and says, when you are a Bears fan, the schedule release is not all that exciting.

Now, see, I disagree. The NFC North is wide open. It's wide open. I think the Bears have a ton of optimism. I do too.

I think it's super easy. Yeah, I don't have any problems with the Bears fans being excited. And I'm telling you what, the Detroit Lions fans, they're going to be over the top. Over the top.

It's after hours with Amy Lawrence here on CBS Sports Radio. One man's really mad at us. We should have zero as an option. Some guy on Facebook took the time to post yawn. Now, see, when you actually bother to respond, we know you care. There's an inkling of care in there.

I think that zero's got a one in front of it, really. So yeah, take the poll on Twitter and then also on our Facebook page after hours with Amy Lawrence. Did I need to use anything else from the NBA? Nah, we're good.

Interesting question, actually. And I looked to see whether or not Bob Huggins has in fact been fired. I have not seen any decision that has come down about Huggins after he used an anti-gay slur on a radio station in Cincinnati where he used to coach.

But one listener posted on our Facebook page showed the radio announcer, in this case on WLW in Cincinnati, an iconic station, bear any responsibility for this situation with Bob Huggins. I fully expect coach to be fired. I don't know how the university, in this case West Virginia, gets away with not firing him.

I can't imagine the backlash is going to wane until he is fired. But also he's got a bit of a track record of running his mouth and sticking his foot into his mouth. In this case it was deliberate and he said it more than once and then he decides to throw a Catholic tag onto it as well. And so the question was whether or not the radio host should be held culpable in this case. I actually think yes, but not because of the question.

Not because of the actual conversation. Because here's my thing, how did that ever go over the air? Why did the radio host or producer ever let that hit the airwaves? We have what's called a dump button in here. What you're hearing right now I said 30 seconds ago. We have a dump button that protects us from that type of language and that type of accountability. The radio host and his producer should have hit the dump button. We'll talk to you tonight. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio. Boom!