After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 4

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Visit Max.com. Good morning to you. It is Memorial Day Monday.

And yes, we are here. Both me and producer Jay working this show as well as tonight's show following game seven. Well, game six in the NHL, game seven in the NBA, history potentially in basketball, and maybe we'll see history set up on the ice, too. It's a busy day in sports, always. The Coca-Cola 600 postponed from Sunday because of rain in Charlotte, and not just rain, but a washout in the entire area. It did crack me up to see the trucks, the drying trucks out on the track while they're getting poured on and using their windshield wipers.

That might have been a waste of gas. The Indy 500 we did see. The French Open is underway. Women's College World Series starts on Thursday, so the field is set. It's the two-time champion Oklahoma and seven other contenders. The College World Series getting closer and closer to Omaha.

Plenty of diamond drama in the majors. And a lot more that we could talk about and have crammed a lot in, which I love. Big fan of this time of the year where we can diversify. I love you, NFL, but it's okay to not talk about you every single night of the spring.

Though, if you missed it, our friend Tyler Drake joined us. This is the very definition of Friday news dump. This is a great example of a Friday news dump.

Nothing like a holiday weekend Friday news dump, too. The Arizona Cardinals did not trade DeAndre Hopkins. Instead, they cut him. And they had to do it before June 1st in order to take some of the sting out of their cap hit. But why this move?

Why not trade him? I talked to insider Tyler Drake, who didn't anticipate working so deep into the holiday weekend. But he joined us from AZ Sports, 98.7 in Phoenix. And we also got the latest on Kyler Murray's health, plus the Buddha Baker decision. And this blew me away.

I'll tease it a little bit, but you'll have to go and listen to it or you can check out the part that we'll replay later this hour. In hiring head coach Jonathan Gannon from the Eagles, according to Tyler, they were looking for the complete opposite of Cliff Kingsbury. I asked him why. Fascinating stuff. So we did talk football. We have talked football. Just wrapping up with Jimmy Garoppolo and his status.

Well, what we know of it, but what we know of the Raiders and their relationship. But all of that pales in comparison to the true meaning of this Memorial Day. You'll see the crosses in the cemeteries. You'll see the American flags everywhere you look. And many neighbors in my own area, my own county, my street have put out the little American flags to line their yards. You'll see a lot of flags flown in half staff. You'll see parades with American pride and spirit, but a somber tone, a sober tone. Even as we enjoy the unofficial start to summer and a lot of great weather and barbecues and get togethers. And a lot of people are traveling. A lot of people.

Taylor Swift stirring up the New York City area with a pair of concerts. Rumor has it Aaron Rodgers made it to one on Friday. But it's a holiday weekend for the purpose of honoring those men and women. Who pay the ultimate sacrifice and the ultimate price for our country and their families who did not see them come home.

So we're asking you as always on this Memorial Day weekend and we'll continue through Monday and into our show tonight. But we would be honored. It would be a privilege if you would share with us the names of the branch of the military. Even a photo of a loved one that you're honoring and remembering on this Memorial Day. Those who gave their lives to defend our country, to serve our country.

And even if they know that's a possibility doesn't make it any easier. Although we can be proud of them and respect them and honor them and say thank you. So we'll retweet those on our show Twitter after hours CBS. Whether it's names or whether it's photos. And I look forward to seeing them throughout Monday. I always wake up and there's a lot of traffic on our social media on during the daytime. But also on our Facebook page after hours with Amy Lawrence.

Our phone number is 855-212-4227 always. And what we don't get to on this edition of the show as I say we'll get to tonight though. Game seven will be front and center from Boston. The Miami Heat. They've lost all their momentum. The Miami Heat have lost their edge. They've lost their advantage. Now it truly is tables turned. Boston has faced elimination three consecutive times in this series.

Five times overall in these playoffs. They've regained their tenacity. They've regained their chemistry. Their care for one another.

Which matters. They've regained that effort that isn't just hey we'll go out there and we'll go through the motions and we'll play as individuals. No they look like a team again. They're fired up. The communication is there. The sense of urgency obviously.

And it's not great that they waited until the last second. I'm not telling you that's a quality that you love in a team. They are more talented. They have better players top to bottom than the Heat.

That's not a surprise. Now the better team doesn't always win. The team that performs better.

The team that has the not just the physical prowess. But the experience. The wisdom. The toughness.

The mental and emotional components. And those have been advantages for the Heat. Because they've been riding this wave and playing on the edge for so long. They're used to it.

I'm not sure they would know how to operate if they weren't in a game that mattered. And honestly, maybe that's what we saw these last couple days. They didn't have to win in game four. Or five.

Or even six. Though you could see the sense of urgency was there in game six. Maybe they're so used to operating on the edge of the precipice. That when they aren't playing with their backs against the wall. They're just not as good.

Except the Celtics. They're now in that same place where the Heat were. They're talking about adversity. They're talking about we had no choice.

They're talking about win or go home. Well, isn't that what Miami was doing for weeks to wrap up the regular season? They've been so inconsistent.

Yes, they were missing players. But even in a single game, you could see that quality of the Heat. How many times have we seen them rally from ten points down in the fourth quarter? How many times have we seen them wait until the last damn possible second before they come together and play their best?

They don't do things the easy way. So will we see those Miami Heat in this game seven? The problem is the fire is now lit under the Celtics. And not only have they faced elimination in three consecutive games.

They're 5-0 in elimination games this postseason. And they were down to their last second. Think about the number of different ways that final second, that final sequence could have played out.

It's stunning. I watched it live. Many of you did as well. One of those I can't believe what I just saw moments. And yet, a tip in with a tenth of a second to go will be one of those iconic Celtics moments if they end up winning this series and becoming the first NBA team ever to dig itself out of an 0-3 hole. For the longest time on Saturday, it was a rough go for Bam Adebayo and Jimmy Butler.

And it didn't actually get a lot easier. Bam ended up with a humongous block on, was it Jason Tatum? Think late in the game. So Bam was worth his weight on the defensive end. But really, never got comfortable on the offensive end. And credit the defense for that.

Credit the defense for making life difficult. But how many times did we see the Heat miss layups? Layups and bunnies. I couldn't get over the number of point blank shots they missed. That's on them. If you're aggressive and you stay aggressive, you draw the fouls.

Which they did late, but not early. And so for Bam Adebayo, who was 4 of 16 from the field, he did have 13 rebounds, 7 of them offensive, so he was working hard. But the shots were not dropping. He only had 11 points. Butler finished up with 24, and there were some critical junctures in the fourth quarter, including an and-one on an offensive rebound, as well as the 3 free throws he made to put the Heat in front. Time stopped, 3 free throws with 3 seconds on the clock. He made all 3, and the Heat were up, 103-102, with a handful of seconds left on the clock. Caleb Martin really was the best player from start to finish in this game, I felt like. 21 points, 15 rebounds. And then Duncan Robinson, he was the boost down the stretch in the second half with his big triples.

He was the aggressive one. And he was playing with foul trouble for a good portion of that second half. But once again, the Heat have to rally from 10 points down in the late stages of a game just to be relevant, just to be part of the conversation at the end. It's good and bad. It's good that they can dig down deep and that they do operate best when they have no choice or when they feel the walls closing in. But it's also bad. It's also not a great quality of a team that you don't actually have the ability, or you haven't shown the ability, to play your best basketball when you don't have to. Right? Games four, games five, they didn't necessarily have to.

They had such a cushy margin, a cushy buffer. And I don't know that they screwed around. I'm not saying that. But their offense has not been the same in games four, five, and six.

It's not. Celtics defense has a lot to do with that. But this is the Heat we saw for a good portion of the regular season. When they're up, they're up. Well, when they're down, they're one of the worst teams in the league offensively.

The stats bear that out. It's after hours here on CBS Sports Radio. Three seconds to go. Sean Grandy on Celtics Radio accurately describing the angst and the uncertainty that not only gripped the arena in Miami, but everyone who was watching or listening.

The moment will be replaying over and over and over again. It's in the hands of Derek White. Here we go. And a smart, smart turn.

Fazes three. Rims out. It was tapped up and in, but it didn't come too late. We don't know anything yet.

Of course we don't. Of course we get to triple zero and don't have the answer. The ball was tapped up and in, but was it too late? Game six and the Eastern Conference Championship is going to be decided at the scorers' table. All eyes are on Zach Zorba at the scorers' table because he holds the information in his hand right now. Good basket.

It is over, and the Boston Celtics have boldly and impossibly gone where no NBA team has gone before. Vincent was on me, and he kind of was up top denying JT, so I couldn't get hit with the ball. I did a good job of denying JB too, and smart flash hit him, and there really was nobody on me.

So I just spaced to the corner, and then when he shot it, just tried to crash. Ball came to me and made a shot. Derek White explaining the play three seconds to go. He actually is the inbounder for the Celtics on the far side across from the benches. Max Strues has got his back to him.

What they're doing is denying. So there's no Jason Tatum option because Jason Tatum's covered. There's no Jalen Brown availability because Jalen is also blanketed by the defense. And again, Strues is not guarding the inbounder. He's not waving arms. He's not jumping up and down and trying to make life difficult for Derek.

No. What they're doing is putting an extra defender out there to make sure that Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown either don't receive the ball. That's what they're trying to do is deny those two options. But whoever got the ball would have another defender in his face. So Derek White inbounds.

Marcus Smart is the third option. He comes back for the basketball. He turns and he fires. Gabe Vincent plays it straight up. Now, Gabe was on him because of a switch. So Gabe Vincent plays it straight up.

Marcus isn't even really faced up to the basket. He kind of turns and chucks it, but he's not completely square. There's too much spin on the hoop or on the ball, I should say. It rims out and it hangs up.

So that's the thing. It rims out, but it rims around probably half, maybe more than half of the rim. And so because it hangs up higher, Derek White has the opportunity. He first goes in the corner thinking that he might be available there to receive a pass. And then when the pass doesn't come because Marcus has turned and fired, he nose dives to the rim. And so as he does that, Vincent never crashes. So Gabe Vincent's still out on Marcus Smart. He doesn't crash. He's got his hands up in the air because everybody thinks, except for Derek White, that if the shot is good, it's good.

But if it's not good, time will run out. Except that it did not. There was enough time after Marcus shot that ball that Derek White, diving in from the corner, could get two fingertips on it, push it up off the glass, and it happened with a tenth of a second. So yeah, not only did Gabe Vincent not crash the boards from where he was after guarding Marcus, but Max Struse loses track of Derek White, so on the switch, technically Derek's his mark. Derek gets behind him and by him on the baseline, and Struse is behind him when he puts the ball off the glass. Butler's standing at the elbow. He doesn't dive to the hoop either. Bam Adebayo is late getting there.

He's kind of coming from the middle on the other side. Nobody puts a body on Derek White. Nobody really sees him. Struse sees him when it's too late. And as I say, nobody dives to the hoop. Not Butler, not Vincent, not Struse. They're all on the left side, which is where Derek White comes from.

And none of them track him or put a body on him. And you can imagine, they rue that. They've played that moment in their heads over and over again. But yeah, Derek White, this is the kind of play that he makes.

And so the Celtics have erased the deficit, and now they're back to even for Game 7 later tonight. I guess for us it was really, you know, saying our backs was against the wall. And you know, just like Adam in the wild, you back him up and he's back against the wall. He'll do anything, even tearing his own arm off to get out of that hole that he's in. So for us it was, we had to tear our own arm off. Our backs was against the wall and we had to dig on up out of there and we had to find a way. They're just resilient.

You know, I've said it throughout the year, that's one of the best locker rooms I've ever been a part of. It starts with them, they have a togetherness, they have a connectivity. And you know, they just, at the hardest times, they stick by each other. And they've done that for a long time.

So credit to them. Faith, love, togetherness, physicality, belief, hope, all those things combine. But it starts with the locker room.

So those guys had a choice to make and they chose to believe in each other. We didn't play well the first three games. We didn't deserve to win, whatever you want to say. And we just, we really took it one game at a time. And you know, the series is not over. We still got a big game Monday. But just the grit that we showed to get to this moment, I'm proud of that. I'm proud to be on this team. And I've never been so excited to go back to Boston in my life. That's Jason Tatum.

Before that, Joe Mazzola and Marcus Smart. I'm not the only one that can hear it. You can hear the difference in their voices.

You can hear the confidence level. You can hear, they recognize, they dug themselves out of a hole. Or as Marcus said, they tore their own arm off, collectively. Thankfully, that's hyperbole and no one's losing an arm.

But that's the point. They did whatever it took. I'm a big fan of Jalen Brown. He waxes poetic the way that Jalen Hurts does. There's always some life lesson to be learned from Jalen when he's talking about moments of adversity, which I actually think is ironic. The Celtics are talking about adversity, but that's what the Heat have been talking about for weeks. That's how they've gotten to this point because of their experience when they face adversity.

So yeah, whose life lessons matter more on Monday? It don't get too much worse than being down 0-3. We feel like we've been to hell and back. We feel like we can face any adversity that gets thrown at us in the duration of a game or duration of a season or in a postseason. So it all means nothing if we don't come out and give our best effort on our home floor on Monday night. It just takes togetherness.

Everything was going wrong. That's when you start to see the character of yourself. That's when you start to see the character of your group.

Don't measure a man when everything is going well. Measure a team or a group or an individual when adversity hits. It hit us like a storm. It can't get no worse in the playoffs than how we've been playing.

Look at how we responded. Being down three games, nobody has ever been able to come back from that as of yet. It's only four or five teams that's been able to force a game seven. That just tells you that the group that we have is unique. The group that we have is special.

And sometimes you need a little bit of luck to bring it home. And tonight was an amazing game and an incredible play at the end. You swap out the details and what Jalen is saying is the same thing we're hearing from the Heat locker room. Again, the details, the time frame is different for the Celtics versus the Heat. But they're both talking about adversity and backs against the wall and having no other choice and coming together and character and experience. You'll hear it from the Heat coming up. Also, they refuse to do things the easy way.

They absolutely refuse. On Twitter, After Hours CBS, if you want to share the names and maybe even the photos of the loved ones that you remember on this Memorial Day, we're glad to retweet those or share those on our Facebook page. Use our platform for that. It's good to have you with us After Hours with Amy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio. You are listening to The HealthONE Healthcare System is proud to have been named one of the top places to work for women in the nation by Newsweek. HealthONE is the only health care provider in Colorado and one of only six organizations in the state to be recognized with this award. Thank you to all our colleagues, physicians and volunteers for making HealthONE a great place to give and receive care. Learn more about our services, physicians and locations by visiting healthonecares.com.

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The moment will be replaying over and over and over again. It's in the hands of Derek White. Here we go. Into smart. Smart turns.

Fazes three. Rims out. It was tapped up and in. But it didn't come too late. We don't know anything yet.

Of course we don't. Of course we get to triple zero and don't have the answer. The ball was tapped up and in but was it too late? Game six and the eastern conference championship is going to be decided at the scorers table. All eyes are on Zach Zorba at the scorers table because he holds the information in his hand right now. Good basket.

It is over and the Boston Celtics have boldly and impossibly gone where no NBA team has gone before. Oh my God. That was incredible.

Man. We drew up a play. They kind of took the weight. You know, I was trying to get the ball.

Jimmy and Shrews jumped out to me. Smart came in and shot it. And we just crashed the glass.

And everything was like a blur after that. You know, D. White tipped it in. But you know, that felt like the longest ten seconds of the game. You know, D. White tipped it in. But you know, that felt like the longest ten seconds ever waiting for confirmation if he made it or not. I'm still like in disbelief. That's **** crazy.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Jason Tatum. He was crashing the glass from the other side, but it was not him that had the tip in. It was one Derek White.

Little bit... It's just perfect for sports, right? It's a little bit of a nod to those more obscure athletes. Now, if you're a Celtics fan or if you're watching a lot of these playoffs, you know Derek White, duh. He's been starting for the Celtics. But he's not a superstar. And it's not Jason Tatum. And it's not Jalen Brown. And it's not Marcus Smart.

It's Derek White. A little bit like, say, a Luis Gonzalez having the game-winning hit for the Arizona... I almost said Cardinals, sorry. The Arizona Diamondbacks in their World Series win over the Big Bad Yankees going back how many years ago? Right, like it's so much fun when you have David Freeze.

Remember David Freeze for the St. Louis Cardinals? We could go on and on. Actually, that would be fun tomorrow night, I think.

I should have done it tonight, but it didn't dawn on me. Athletes, obscure, non-superstar athletes who have had iconic moments in championship history. Or maybe dubious moments, but in this case it's Derek White who has the tip in and spares the Celtics. And now it's on the Miami Heat. It's after hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio.

Jimmy Butler? Indefatigable confidence. It never waves. It never wanes. But boy, do they need every bit of that for tonight's Game 7. As good or as bad as we played tonight, we still lost.

So we still got a job to do at the end of the day. And we will be in this thing together, home away on the road. And if, like I told the guys on the bench, I told the guys in the locker room that if I play better, we're not even in this position.

Honestly speaking. And I will be better. And that's what makes me smile because those guys follow my lead. So when I'm playing better, I think we're playing better as a whole. Put our guys, you know, against anybody, 48 minutes, you just got to be better than one team, than the other team for one night for 48 minutes.

I'm taking that group all day long. I just, I know what we're about. I know what we're capable of.

I know who's at the head of the snake for us. And I know mentally we'll come prepared. So we'll just have to do more and make sure that we come prepared and just understand, you know, the mindset we got to be in to understand how hard it's going to be at that place. But I think that's what our group of guys is about. So, you know, this is, you know, this type of stuff we want, this type of stuff we work for all summer for us. So we'll be ready. It hasn't been our going our way a lot this year.

So this is nothing new. We got to go on the road and do something special. But we got a special group.

So why not it be us? The Celtics, I don't know if they'll mention it, but Celtics fans will mention it, that the 2004 Red Sox are the only team in baseball history ever to win a series after trailing 0-3. That goes back to 2004, right before they captured their first World Series in 86 years.

I don't know. Will there be inspirational videos? Will there be pep talks that featured some of those Red Sox? Maybe some of the more iconic Celtics. Celtics have a 75% success rate in Game 7s in their franchise history. Now, it's not all this group, obviously, though this will be their second one in this postseason run. And they're 5-0 in facing elimination these last few weeks. But the Celtics as a whole, the franchise, has won its Game 7s 75% of the time. I mean, they've got a lot of experience on their side, history on their side. But the Miami Heat, they play better when they have no freaking choice. And it's infuriating. And yet there's still hope, right?

There is still hope. You hear Jimmy Butler take responsibility. He did have a big fourth quarter, or a big late stretch of the fourth quarter, right? He was the catalyst. He had the free throws. He had an offensive rebound and putback and won. But he was 5-21 in the game.

And Bam out of bio, not much better. The Heat have to get a pair of world-class performances from Jimmy and Bam in order to win this game. And then they've got to have guys who can hit the three, right? They were able to rally with some big threes on Saturday, but they're going to need more. In Boston, history's no longer on their side. They're going to need more. Celtics only the fourth team ever to even get to a Game 7 after trailing 0-3. And it hasn't happened in 20 years.

On Twitter, ALawRadio, glad to talk to you. On our Facebook page, After Hours with Amy Lawrence, why did the Arizona Cardinals cut DeAndre Hopkins? And are they tanking? It's a fair question. We've got the answer straight ahead.

You are listening to the... After Hours Podcast. An empty backfield of Curtin 2 at the 20. Shotgun snap to Murray, drops back to throw, fires left side, Hopkins. DeAndre Hopkins puts his hands up and he catches it, and it's a touchdown.

I have no idea how he caught that ball. This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. The voice of Dave Pash on Arizona Cardinals radio. Good morning to you. It's Monday, Memorial Day.

We'd love to honor your loved ones served and paid the ultimate price as part of their service for our country. So please find us on Twitter, After Hours, CBS, or on our Facebook page. And we'll continue with that later, of course through Monday, but later on tonight when we reconvene for our second show of the work week. It was a Friday news dump of a holiday weekend.

Okay, that's the description. DeAndre Hopkins, no longer a Cardinal, cut by Arizona, even though they had previously sought a trade partner for the All-Pro receiver. We had a chance to catch up with and to talk to Tyler Drake, who had to work for the holiday weekend, but covers the Cardinals for AZ Sports 98.7 in the desert. We want to bring back a chunk of that as some really impressive planning by the Cardinals. And this was one of those situations where they cut bait.

But what is the long-term vision and why? And I asked Tyler that, why was DeAndre Hopkins cut? Why couldn't or didn't the Cardinals trade him instead? For me, I think it just comes down to his contract. From the reports that I saw, from the stuff that I've heard, from the stuff that I've gotten, is really it came down to the contract. And there were some, you know, discussions.

I've heard Kansas City, Buffalo, I believe, but it really came down. The, you know, the wrench in the plan was the contract. And I heard that he didn't want to go down from his contract, which is at 19.5 this year. And I think it's 15.6 or something next year for his base salary.

But yeah, I think that was really the biggest issue there. And at the end of the day, you've got to make the decision if you want to have the, you know, before June 1st cap hit all on this season, or if you want to spread it out after June 1st. And really, I think you can see the plan now is, hey, we're going to take that hit now and look to the future. How much does the dead cap hit set them back, Tyler?

It's going to be tough. I mean, it's a $22.6 million dead money, I think, hit. If I'm correct, it might be a little off there just from maybe there's some signing bonuses or something thrown in.

But yeah, for the most part, it's like a $20 million hit. So I think you have to really look at the season for, you know, both Monty and Jonathan Gannon, general manager and head coach, is kind of a red shirt here. It's I think you just show improvement, show growth, and then really attack 2024 because now you have that contract off your books. You've got that money you can actually go spend on positions of need going into 2024 with really, really high draft picks that you're probably going to have from not only your team, but from the Houston Texans, too, after making that deal in the draft. Ultimately, why don't you think it worked between DeAndre Hopkins and the Arizona Cardinals?

You know, I think it just ran its course of they feel the need right away. And he came in and really did an amazing job in that first year. But then, you know, availability issues, I think, really, really hurt, you know, the trajectory that this team had with him on the side or with him on the field. So I think that's a big one. I think them having to kind of flip the script and, you know, reset the rebuild organization, the hard, hard, hard reset button.

I think that he's getting up there in age. I don't think he wanted to be a part of that. And I don't think you can really blame him at this point. I think it was best for both sides to really move on.

When you see, you know, Kyler Murray still coming back from that torn ACL and who knows what he's going to play. And you just have a new regime that, you know, really wants to build this culture. And I think that was one move that kind of shows and signals, hey, this is a new team. This is a new regime. This is a new culture we're trying to build here.

And that's the type of, I guess, noise we don't want to have around. Just to clarify, you believe it was mutual or that this was D Hopkins who wanted out? You know, I think it was mutual at the end of the day, just because if you look at what Monty Osborn is doing and just trying to kind of rebuild what the old regime kind of left behind. It seems like he's trying to get off these big contracts and really, you know, get the one to two to three year deals this year. And, you know, pay off that dead money this year and then have a kind of a clean plate in 2024 where you can really restock on those rookie draft picks or those rookie deals.

And then you can also spend more on free agency. So I think both sides felt that there was going to be a parting of ways at some point. I just don't know if they knew it was going to be with out of trade involved. We're pleased to welcome our friend Tyler Drake back to the show from 98.7 AZ Sports. He's the Cardinals reporter and he's willing to talk about the cards on holiday weekend, which is amazing.

It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence here on CBS Sports Radio. What is your response to these reactions that the Cardinals are tanking by making this move and some of the others that they've made? I mean, you have to look at where they're at just given the rebuild that they're in the middle of. Tyler Murray's injury, you know, it's not going to hurt if they're going into next year with a really high draft pick that they have and probably another really high draft pick that the Texans are giving them.

I can see where that conversation can come in. But I also think it's really about resetting what Steve Keim left behind because there was a lot of contracts and a lot of just a lot of stuff that Monti and the rest of this new regime have to weave through. So I really think it comes down to them looking at you hate to say it, but you've got to look to 2024 and beyond because that's really I think when you can start to see progress. I think really this year is going to be about individual growth. Let's see if these, you know, second year guys can really take that step. Let's see if these rookies who are really showing football character already can really be the next up and comers that can make an impact. Let's see if these guys we signed on minimal deals can really make an impact and go from there. So I think this is kind of a just just to prove it for improve improvement and growth for everybody on the team and try to turn the page on that really, really, really, really nasty last season that we all witnessed. What are your first impressions of the new head coach, Jonathan Gannon, who comes from the Eagles, of course, as their former coordinator?

Yeah, yeah, a lot of energy. I think that's the number one thing is the dude comes in and he makes his presence known, which is a complete 180 from what we saw last year. And really with the whole Cliff regime, I think there's just a really different energy in there. And you can tell that there's a different culture being built. I think he's a complete opposite of Cliff Kingsbury outside of, you know, being close in age.

They really couldn't be any different. So it's refreshing, I think, just to kind of see the difference in personality and just engagement and everything like that. But, you know, until we see what happens on the field, it's just really just it's off season talk until we see the X's and O's really play out. Do you understand why they went this direction instead of a different direction, maybe a veteran coach? One, I think they wanted to find the complete opposite of Cliff. And I think they found that in this guy. Two, you got to look at a defensive, offensive, all that. But two, I think they still wanted somebody that can relate to the players and really be there in the room and not be have the degrees of separation that maybe a Bill Belichick has or somebody that's really established.

I think maybe a guy that can grow with the team could really pay off in the end. But we just have to see how that's going to shape out. All right. You knew I was going to follow up on that.

Why the opposite of Cliff? What happened there? How much of that has to do with the quarterback? Yeah. You know, I think you just have to have that degree of separation, if I could talk with that, just because, you know, Cliff was really the offensive coordinator. So it was him and Kyler.

And I think if you can have a guy in between like, hey, I'm the head coach, here's your OC, you guys figure it out and I'll give you the, you know, the final say. I think that's going to go a long way in really reshaping this team. And I think we've already seen that with just Kyler, his involvement with everything.

He was there for the jersey reveal. You know, he's out there at OTAs and he's rehabbing, but he's taking time to come and see different position groups and talk with Drew Pessing, the offensive coordinator. And for me, he's showing a lot more maturity, a little more leadership. And I think that's everything this franchise has wanted him to show, everything fans have wanted him to show.

So it's a step in the right direction. Obviously, we've got to see how he, you know, bounces back off that injury. But I definitely think having that kind of separation and head coach, OC quarterback coach, Kyler, I think that's going to go a long way in the end of it. Kyler Drake, more with him about the NFC West, the strengths and weaknesses of this team projected, and a little more even about the DeAndre Hopkins deal. That was a Friday news dump going into the holiday weekend on our podcast, which will be posted in the next few minutes before we get the heck out of Dodge on this Memorial Day Monday.

It's after hours with Amy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio. So we've got a game seven and a game six. So hoops and hockey playoffs down to the nitty gritty, really some pretty stunning results to this point in both the West final of hockey and then the Eastern Conference Finals and hoops. Also, you'll see a lot of Joseph Newgarden on this Monday following the Indy 500 because after going 0 for 11 at the Brickyard, he wins. He's the first American in several years to win at Indy and an incredible celebration, a last lap pass to be able to capture that checkered flag. And so what a finish to the Indy 500. Coca-Cola 600 is today at Charlotte after a washout over the weekend for NASCAR fans.

Also, this is kind of cool. Michael Soroka will start for the Atlanta Braves tonight in Oakland. First pitching appearance for him. First opportunity for him after almost three years and two Achilles tears.

Oh, two repaired Achilles and three years. But welcome back, Michael Soroka. And speaking of welcome backs, Liam Hendrix reinstated to the active roster of the Chicago White Sox today. Remember, he missed the first two months of the season because he was going through treatments for stage four non-Hodgkin lymphoma. And maybe on Monday, we'll have a chance to show you the video to let you hear the video montage from the White Sox.

But many reasons to celebrate. We'll talk to you tonight. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio. Boom! You're rewarded for your generosity.