6-5-23 After Hours with Amy Lawrence HOUR 3

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Visit Max.com. One incredibly heartwarming, timely, and inspiring performance by an athlete on Sunday. We will get to that this hour. And we have talked about him already, but in light of the challenge facing one of my closest friends in this business, in light of the challenge facing a good friend of mine from 20 years ago when I was in Oklahoma, this performance really speaks volumes to me, and I know it will to many of you who are listening as well. So that's coming up in 15 minutes here on CBS Sports Radio. Maybe a little more than 15, but we'll do it in our next segment on After Hours with Amy Lawrence. On Twitter, ALawRadio, some of you are finding me and telling me the voices of entertainers, celebrities, athletes that you would most like to give you directions on the Waze app.

Now we did this on Thursday night into Friday. Kevin wasn't here. He's now dropped a Mike Tyson on us. He believes that Mike Tyson is the voice that would make those directions most interesting.

That guidance. I'm not sure I would trust him, but okay. And now some of you are weighing in on Twitter, so I'll just repeat a few of these since they're fun. Justin says Derek Jeter.

I don't know. I suppose he would. I just never really saw Jeter as having much of a personality. He's my favorite player, but that would not be someone that I would want to hear.

He's slightly vanilla. Derek Jeter. Bruce Springsteen would be funny. Joe Namath. Now he's 80 years old, so yeah, that'd be a hoot.

Let's make sure he's sober. And then Michael Jordan, which would also be fun, but I really don't know what kind of personality he would have either unless we're talking about the guy who was in... What was the animated movie or the movie with the... not Monstars. What was the one... shoot. It's a classic. It goes back to the 90s. Space Jam, right? Yes, thank you. Space Jam.

One of the best movie soundtracks of any flick of all time. So unless he was that type of Michael Jordan, I don't know. Or The Last Dance Michael Jordan where he's all arrogant and dropping his stories about how he gets motivated by a guy not talking to him in a restaurant. Anyway, so that's Justin. He's got some interesting names.

Jeff on Twitter says, Charles Barkley as The Way's voice. And yeah, if Charles could use terrible and could tell us what he thinks of us when we get off the beaten path or potentially use the wrong names. Remember how he called Jason Tatum, Jason Taylor? And I'm one to talk, right? Because I get names and things mixed up all the time. That's why I can identify with Sir Charles.

So that would be kind of funny if he's talking smack like he does on the golf course. Let's see. Another one, Max says Helen Mirren because I love her voice. What I noted last week was there weren't a lot of women who were cited as the voices they'd most want to direct them in ways. Some of you, especially on Facebook, ask for my voice. Well, I'd be happy to. And I would make it all kinds of personality because we don't want to be boring.

No one's ever called me boring. Anyway, we did get, let's see, I'm trying to think of some of the other women. Oh, Jessica Rabbit. That was kind of funny too. Coming from Who Framed Roger Rabbit. I do think there were one or two other women, but not a whole lot.

For the most part, it was male voices. So this one I like from Mac, Helen Mirren, the queen, Sydney on Twitter. Oh, I love this one. I think John McEnroe would be awesome, especially when you consider the rerouting phrase, you cannot be serious.

Oh, that'd be amazing. Could I tell you one of my all time highlights in my career was over the course of my time working at the Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island. They held various tournaments around their Hall of Fame induction ceremonies in the summer. And I had the opportunity multiple times to be the court emcee for a John McEnroe exhibition. Now, it was on the legends tour, so they were actually competing for money. And not only did I get the chance to be the voice there at center court, I got to interview him multiple times. And I'm not kidding when I tell you that I was shaking initially because I was so nervous, it mattered so much to me. And then what they would have their their weekly dinner, so their Hall of Fame dinner with special guests and sponsors and local corporate entities and the legends would sit at the various tables and would interact with the sponsors and the donors.

Well, because the GM of the tournament knew how much I love John McEnroe, what a huge fan I was, he was one of my favorite all time tennis players. She sat me next to him at the head table. Okay, that was an experience. You know what he talked about? For the most part, I mean, we spoke about whatever mindless things, but he was worried about getting the strawberry vinaigrette dressing on his white pants. That was what he was worried about.

It was pretty incredible. And then I would interview him at the microphone, we would do different turns with the with the various legends who were there. And he, of course, always had to make jokes. That was his thing.

He was the ham in the room. So yeah, I'm telling you, one of the highlights of my entire professional career was working at two different tournaments with John McEnroe. Well, in the second tournament, he actually got kicked out of an exhibition. The organizers of the tournament were so angry that the official just didn't let him get away with it. But he had a heckler up in the stands. And the heckler would not stop and the heckler did not get removed for some reason. The tournament did not remove this guy who was pretty vulgar and would not leave McEnroe alone. And of course, McEnroe took the bait because that's what he always did when he was playing tennis. And it actually ejected him from the match and from the tournament. And the organizers were ticked.

Oh, they were so mad. Are you kidding me? People are paying money to see John McEnroe. It's a stupid exhibition tournament and you just kicked him out. I don't think that chair official, that chair umpire ever worked again at the tournament. So yeah, I've got all kinds of fun John McEnroe stories. In fact, on my Facebook page, maybe at some point, I'll grab the photo and throw it up on Twitter because it was one of the highlights of my career.

To be able to interview John McEnroe and not just that, to interact with him. As I say, he was fun. He put me at ease. He always had a good line.

He played up to the fans. And also being in Newport too, which is a beautiful city. Oh, it is. Newport, Rhode Island is right on the coast. Hellish to get to in the summertime because there's one way in and one way out.

Well, there's one way from each direction. Because it's on an island, the traffic is murderous. It's a little bit like I imagine. Let's see. Oh, maybe going to the Hamptons on summer weekends. Now, I don't know anything about the Hamptons. One time I've been to the Hamptons for the US Open.

That was it. I've never been to the Hamptons any other time. That's way out of my league.

Way out of my price range. But anyway, you hear these horror stories about people. And I'm sure it happens on the Cape too. I grew up in New England. People, summer weekends, everyone and their brother trying to make their way east to get out to their beach homes or to their beach locations. And of course there's only one or two ways to get there. And then it narrows down in traffic and there's just one or two lanes to get out to the Hamptons or out to the end of Cape Cod. Which of course I have done before.

So yeah, just hellish traffic to Newport, Rhode Island. But I highly recommend it. If you're a fan of tennis, the Tennis Hall of Fame is elegantly done. It's beautiful. So many exhibits and incredible pieces of memorabilia from tennis lore and from tennis history. So I worked there at the tournament, well at the Hall of Fame for about 12 years and was their court emcee.

And so it was pretty incredible the people that I came across. I was there when Andre Agassi got inducted into the Hall of Fame. Mostly because I love Steffi Graf and she was there as his wife.

She was previously inducted. Anyway, I only got on that tangent because of John McEnroe but I hope it was worth it for you. It's after hours here on CBS Sports Radio. Thank you Sydney for mentioning John McEnroe. And yes, he would be dynamic on the Waze app. Chris on Twitter goes with Dick Vitale would be my only choice. Oh yes, and I love the fact that Dick not only has the support of the industry but continues to work or will work as he goes through treatment for his cancer.

And that was last year, right? But the way that the industry supported him. He's so much personality but I think he means even more to people now because of the fact that he was so open and honest about his cancer treatments. And so open and honest about the fact that he was going to fight it and it was so hard for him. But yeah, he got a clean bill of health after his lymphoma went into remission.

And so now, even in his early 80s, declared cancer free and what an inspiration it is to so many people who are in the same boat or so many people who are pulling for him and praying for him. Thomas on Twitter, Marlee Matlin. That would be great too.

She's an incredible actress and also an actress who speaks with sign language because she is deaf. Let's see. If you want to continue to send us those answers, you certainly can on Twitter. That's a question that's left over from last week. But for those of you who were with us last week, and then we'll get back to Novak Djokovic and another story that is a continuation of one that we've talked about already as well. I like to kind of weave our stories in and out. When I give you a story or I tell you about an athlete who's going through something or has made history, there's redemption, whatever it is, you know that when there's an update, I like to bring it back so I can keep you abreast of what's happening.

Well, this I guess is a little bit like that. For those of you who were with us last week, we got so much traffic on our social media, specifically Twitter, over a video of a whale who was up close and personal with a couple on a paddle board. And it came from this parody account that's named Shannon Sharp's Burner. Okay, so it's got a lot of followers.

He's clearly using that as a pseudonym. He's got more than 270,000 followers, and he goes and he finds these videos and then puts them out there with some kind of cunning or clever caption. So last week, it was making the rounds, and this actually happened last week in early June, or maybe it was Memorial Day weekend.

No, I actually think it was early June. And if you haven't seen it, it's on my Twitter, A Law Radio, of this couple who are on a paddle board and they're just kind of minding their own business out there for some views. And apparently they see this whale and the woman starts filming on her cell phone. The whale comes closer and not only is using his blowhole so he's surfacing and then he's looking at them through one of his eyes, which whales do. Maybe it was a humpback whale because they're relatively curious.

They're known for that. But then he's under and around their paddle board to the point where he is right next to them. The man's face. Now I asked you, because the audio sounds very real, it looks real, then the whale's kind of hanging out as they paddle away.

He's got his fin up in the air and he's waving at him. Again, if you haven't seen it, it's really incredible. And I would say yes, I want to be in that position. I would not be afraid.

Well, there might be an adrenaline rush, but I love whales and I was so jealous. So we asked you to gauge whether or not the video was authentic. We got so many responses.

I would say 85% of you believed that it was authentic, but some of you were a little skeptical. Now, that goes back to last week. The same Twitter account, Shannon Sharp's Burner, again is a parody account, but it's got a ton of followers. Oh, and a blue checkmark if that matters anymore now. He posted a different video Saturday.

No, Saturday. And it's a video that makes it look like a whale is swallowing two people on a kayak. Now, I just want you to know it's from 2020. And it made the rounds then because everything made the rounds during the pandemic, right?

That's all we did during the pandemic was watch things on social media. And it's only the perspective of another kayaker with the video that makes it look like the whale has swallowed up two people. That's not what happened. The whale's in the foreground. He's jumping out of the water. He's like slapping his jaws together on a pair of fish, or a pair of fish, on a school of fish. But as he's doing so, because he's so close to the kayak with these two women, he knocks them over.

The kayak gets capsized and the two of them go underwater. Now, they were fine. They've since, well, they did an interview about it then. I have no idea why this video is resurfacing now, except I think this guy realized how much traffic he got from last week's whale video. And you're welcome.

We gave you a ton of traffic. But now he's decided to go back and post another one just because it was good for his business. Anyway, so I see this video. And the way that it's posted is, again, with a perspective that makes it look like the whale swallowed up two people. I'm telling you, it didn't happen.

But now, here's the thing. It makes me slightly suspicious of last week's whale video. Because if this one was, it wasn't fabricated necessarily because it did happen. But it was made to look like, from this perspective, there was no context, right? There's not another video angle. It's made to look like the whale actually ate two people.

Like we're in the Bible and this is Jonah and the whale. Okay? So I tweeted the video, ALawRadio. Again, same Twitter account.

It's not a coinkydink. I don't even believe in coincidence that this guy posted another whale video the week later. Because he's looking for more views, right?

This one comes from 2020. But I need you to go look at it. Because now, I think, oh, maybe the whale video from last week isn't authentic either.

Maybe it's made to look like something it's not. Alright, so you gotta judge for yourselves. I'm telling you, we had more fun with the whale video last week than really anything else. But yeah, check it out on my Twitter, ALawRadio. And once again, this guy who is clearly surfing for views and for likes.

He'll do anything with a whale when it comes to getting likes. Yeah, now I'm starting to wonder if maybe this is all a scam or a sham or I should be even more suspicious. This is what happens when you believe anything you see on the internet.

You get duped very often. Alright, so check it out on Twitter. Sorry Facebookers, this is just on Twitter. Now, before we get to our break, and I promise you an inspirational continuation of a story that we've been talking about.

One that is personal for me is I've got a couple of people that I really care about who are going through this same battle. I promised you that you could hear from Novak Djokovic. And I guess it fits because we were talking tennis and the Tennis Hall of Fame. And John McEnroe. Novak is into his 14th consecutive French Open Quarterfinals.

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That's BetQL.com slash hoops. Now the odds on favorite to eventually pass Rafael Nadal, as he did with Roger Federer, they both did, for most Grand Slam singles titles in men's tennis history. And this was the next step. And so he's playing great tennis. It was a straight set win at the French Open over the weekend. Well, I'm proud of it, but my attention is already in the next match. I mean, obviously, quarterfinals, Kachinov.

I know what my goal is here, so I'm trying to stay mentally the course and of course not look too far. But obviously the performance of today gives me a great deal of confidence about how I felt about how I played. So I'm looking forward to the next match. The next match will not be against the number one player in the world, Carlos Alcaraz, but that would come in the semifinals.

And so there's a lot of people anticipating that. I say don't count your tennis balls before they hatch. But he just beat a guy who's 10 years younger than him, almost 10 years younger than him, and now takes one more step toward that meeting with Alcaraz. Novak has been far more successful on other surfaces. Right, so Klay is not his best surface. But I will say this, Klay requires a ton of fitness.

It can be a slower surface. And so you have opportunities to catch up to different balls that maybe you wouldn't on faster surfaces like grass or certainly like hard court. But honestly, he's run into Rafael Nadal so many times in this tournament. Either Rafa has beaten him head to head or just Rafa has been the king of Klay.

And hardly anybody can have success. It's a little smothering when Rafa's got 14 of these himself. But Novak is a two-time champ there. He always has the experience.

Pretty much anybody he faces on the PTA. I don't know where I got that. It's ATP, you dummy. I did it backwards. It's the beauty of working overnight on the PTA.

Like it's the parent-teacher association. Anyway, Novak has the experience factor over pretty much anyone he meets on the ATP tour. And so with this experience, you would think, and his fitness, it gives him an edge. But Carlos Alcaraz is playing some incredible tennis right now. So that would be a tournament match that a lot of people would want to see. And it wouldn't be the last hurdle, but it would be a major hurdle standing between Novak and Grand Slam title number 23.

Alright, coming up. It's a story that continues to inspire. It's a sports figure that continues to inspire.

And honestly, his joy and his gratefulness, his gratitude that he's in this position, that is so appealing. Thanks for hanging out with us after hours with Amy Lawrence. Oh, yeah, check out the new whale video.

I'm telling you, you may want to reconsider last week's whale video on Twitter. A-Law Radio. It's after hours with Amy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio.

How about that? All the pieces fall into place perfectly on Sunday for the White Sox, to be sure. But narrowing our focus on reliever Liam Hendrix, his third appearance back in the big leagues since he missed the start of the season. Remember, he was diagnosed with stage four non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and he gets into the game. It's an all-star closer, so they're ready to hand him that roll back.

He gets into the game. It's tied against the Tigers on the south side. Works a perfect ninth, strikes out two, as you hear on the White Sox radio network. And then Jake Berger comes to the plate in the bottom of the ninth and ends it with a grand slam. And because it was a tie game and because Jake's grand slam happened in the bottom of the inning, Liam is the pitcher of record. And so Liam Hendrix gets the win. First win since returning to the team after his cancer is in remission.

But there's more. It's after hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. It just happened to be, from the category of you can't make this stuff up, National Cancer Survivors Day. Liam Hendrix earns his first win since returning to the White Sox on National Cancer Survivors Day. Maybe, just maybe, the White Sox were putting him out there on the mound because of the day it was, except I tend to think not.

It was a tie game. He's their all-star closer. And even though this wasn't a safe situation, if they were going to bridge the gap to get to extras, this is what they needed.

They needed him to shut down the Tigers, give them a chance in the bottom of the ninth or move into extra innings. It's perfect, is it not? This is the same Liam Hendrix who was shaky in his first appearance going back to last Monday, Memorial Day. But certainly that's to be expected.

Maybe a little nerves, a little anxiety, try to shake off the rust. But now he's got three innings under his belt, you're starting to see the Liam Hendrix that made him an all-star. Mostly, though, this is about his triumphant return. This is about his survival.

Because life is so much bigger than anything that happens on a baseball field or a football field or a basketball court, hockey arena. Even if it is his job, his life is so much more important and how many people inspired by his journey, by his success, by his beating cancer. And we get to highlight it on National Cancer Survivors Day.

It's one of those scripts. I mean, my wife takes me and was like, you know, you first win on National Cancer Survivors Day. And that's one thing that's pretty special, obviously. As soon as you get diagnosed, you're considered a survivor.

You've lived through this. And that's something that hopefully I can continue moving forward and continue being somewhat of a, at least doing the right thing on the field and give some people some hope to continue fighting. On NBC Sports Chicago, congratulations to Liam Hendrix. I love how calm he is. He's been emotional.

We've seen him getting cleared in returning. But something else that I appreciate from him is that he's been very open about his journey, recognizing how many fans he has out there. But also understanding the platform and the opportunity he has. And it may not be the same platform nationally, although I suspect there are a lot of people around the country that now know what my friend John Kincaid is going through. John, for those of you who remember, was a host here on CBS Sports Radio on the weekends for, oh gosh, eight years after the network first started. And he and I were also colleagues at our previous network.

And then John got the opportunity to move back to Philadelphia, where he's from, and to work in local radio doing a morning show. So John and I, of course, we're friends. We've remained in touch. And I would say this about John Kincaid, he is a tenacious ally of mine in this business. I have a lot of friends, acquaintances, colleagues, co-workers, the majority men, of course, because it's sports radio. Not as many will stick their neck out for me.

Not as many would I identify as allies, confidants. John has been that. There are times when I didn't even know what was happening behind the scenes and John would stand up for me.

He would go to management. He would stand up for me. He has always been a champion of women in our business. And the fact that he's been so supportive at times when it really was an uphill battle and he did it anyway. So I consider him not only to be a friend, I consider him family. And so when I found out and when he shared the news that he has stage 3 colon cancer, and he's been very open about his journey, very open. Again, like Liam Hendrix, John has chosen to share it with people so that he can also share his triumph with people. He went back to work last week, which is amazing. And every single morning, because he does a morning show on 97.5 The Fanatic, 6 to 10 Eastern Time, every single morning I thought of him and thought, you know what? I really want to text him. But I figured he would be overwhelmed and inundated with people who are reaching out to him.

So I waited until the weekend. Now, John has already shared these details on Twitter and Facebook, so I do not feel as though I'm betraying anything by sharing the details. He's having his port put in next week and he will begin chemo before the month is over.

Aggressive chemo. Again, he's revealed that he has stage 3 colon cancer. And he's told me, and I think you should take note of it, on his Twitter account, at John Kincaid, that he changed part of his bio. Now, people who use their Twitter bios for different things, his still has his ID and the show he hosts and a couple of other hashtags. But what he added at the end of his Twitter bio, which is a phrase that I've seen him use multiple times now when we text back and forth, there is only one acceptable outcome.

There is only one acceptable outcome. So he texted me, I check on him a lot. Again, I try not to be a pest, but sometimes with my friends and the people I care about, I definitely am a pest. And so I told him that I'd been thinking of him, praying for him of course, and really wanting to have joy in returning to work.

Because I know that would be the case for me. John and I share a passion for radio. We share a passion for our craft. And I know that if I were in the same boat, or if I'm ever in the same boat as John, what I would most want to do is get back to work so that I could find that joy and that passion that would give me strength.

And so I was praying that for John and mentioned that. And then I also told him, and this is in his honor, now I knew that I needed one, because they've actually changed the rules about colonoscopies. I don't know if you know this, but now instead of waiting until you're 50, you are supposed to get them at 45. And then depending upon your results, get them every either 7 years or 10 years.

Well, I never had one. And my doctor last year, when I went for a checkup, told me I was overdue to schedule my first colonoscopy. Okay, so I went last Thursday, not for the colonoscopy itself, but for a consult. Because they initially have you come in, they talk about the details with you, you meet the doctor who's going to do the colonoscopy, he gives you options about how you want to do the prep, and he answers questions, blah, blah, blah. And so I was really proud to tell John over the weekend that I did have a consult for my first ever colonoscopy. I'm not looking forward to it, but I thought of him. Because as part of his desire to not only communicate with people, but to encourage people who are going through the same thing, similar to Liam Hendrix, he said, don't wait, go get your colonoscopies.

I have friends who are 10 years older than me who've never had one. And so now I'm trying to encourage them because of John's story. And so there will be ripple effects, like Liam Hendrix being open, like Liam talking about what he's going through. People are inspired, they're encouraged, and maybe, just maybe, they will go and they'll get checked. They'll go to a doctor for the first time in a long time, right, maybe. In John's case, I have no doubt that as he's encouraging people to go have colonoscopies, maybe they put him off and recognize now that's not a good idea.

I wasn't really putting mine off, I just found out about last fall, but I did schedule it because of John. And he continues to tell me he's getting stronger, he's resting up, he's getting ready for chemo, he's going to work as much as he can. And I'm paraphrasing our text messages, but he's been very open. If you check him out on Twitter, you'll see his videos. I'm so thrilled for him that he's back at work. He said he loves being back and he'll get through this because there is only one acceptable outcome. I'm proud of John, I'm so proud of John. If you haven't heard him, I'm actually going to get the podcast so I can hear him talk this week about whatever, anything and anything.

Who cares what he's talking about, what matters is that he's actually doing his job. And so thank you to Liam Hendrix, thank you to John Kincaid. The more public they are, the more people are encouraged. And maybe there are some who are going through the throes of treatment for lymphoma, for colon cancer. And to hear them be open, be authentic, be genuine, to hear them, and I know John tries to encourage, maybe gives them hope, gives them strength. They remember they're not alone. John needs to know he's not alone. Liam needs to know he's not alone. And I love the fact that they're teammates. Now, in John's case, it's Radio Peeps and its colleagues, former coworkers.

In Liam's case, the White Sox have been behind him 150 percent. We all need that. We all need that. So these are two stories that I believe are worth telling. They're worth sharing.

They're definitely worth offering up as inspiration and as hope. So if that's you, if you need it for yourself or for someone else, there isn't a family in this country or on this planet who's not been touched by cancer. Cancer doesn't care. Cancer is no respecter of persons.

You can be perfectly healthy and have no issues, but you can get cancer. And so we all need to be in that fight together, to be sure. All right, so find John on Twitter, find me on Twitter, A Law Radio, Dumb Whale Video, also on our Facebook page. We're glad to connect with you.

Coming up, let's see, what do I want to do next? There's something else, actually, that I was thinking about. Oh, Tony. Oh, Tony fever. Oh, Tony. Oh, I know.

No, no, no, no, no, no. Actually, on the heels of being inspired, Damar Hamlin, he is out there and he's got a brand new initiative. So we will get to that because I love hearing from him. We had heard from Damar Hamlin, Bill's safety, a couple of things. Over the course of his recovery, the past few months, we knew, number one, his intent to get back on the football field. And he has been cleared to play football again. Number two, his desire to use the money that was donated to his foundation when he was in the hospital. And even after he was released from the hospital following his cardiac arrest on the field, remember, that was Monday night, early January.

Bills, Bengals, all the world to see on national TV. And for 48 hours, we held our breath waiting for some news. As he says, he died on the air, died on the air, died on the field, but died on the air, too, if you're talking about the TV broadcast. Since then, thank goodness he's had the most amazing care, top of the line, of course, the best that money can buy in both Cincinnati and Buffalo. And as he returns to football, his first initiative with all of this money that was donated is to encourage people to learn CPR. And to donate AEDs, which are automated external defibrillators, it's a hard word to say, defibrillators, defibrillators, defibrillators, see what I mean? It's the reason why I don't use that word very much on the radio. He's starting in Buffalo, of course, and working with youth tackle football teams, all of them came and got a free defibrillator.

There we go, that actually didn't sound awkward at all. Automated external defibrillator, see, I shouldn't press my luck. Thank you, Jamar. This is called the Bills Hands Only CPR event, and it's the first stop on what he's calling his CPR tour. And again, this goes back to his Chasing Ems Foundation, which I don't know how much money we stopped counting, stopped charting it at one point, but let's see, just for fun, how much money has been donated.

You remember that he had a website that was, and it's been completely changed, right? He had a website and a GoFundMe account. Now it's been beefed up, it's a charitable fund, and he says on his page, it's dedicated to the development, health, and safety of youth through sports, engagement activities, training, and programming. So no longer a GoFundMe page, actually, but this is Jamar Hamlin's toy drive that he started first, and then because of the millions and millions of dollars that poured in while he was in the hospital and while he was recovering, now he has money to chase other dreams and to inspire in different ways and to give back in different ways.

And so he starts with youth tackle football teams in the Buffalo area, plans to expand, and on Bill's YouTube, kind of explaining his perspective and why this is important. Today I'm launching our first program of the charity, which is the Chasing Ems CPR tour. Working with the American Heart Association and other partners, we will be holding events like this in cities like Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and a few other cities across the country. The tour will include CPR training, and the Chasing Ems Foundation will be giving AEDs to sports and community groups for kids to be safe while they are chasing their dreams.

I promise this is just the beginning. I'm blessed to still be here with everyone and still be able to tell my story and be able to impact people all over the country and change lives for everyone, you know, all over. So thank you. On Bill's YouTube, that's where we got the audio, but I love that he's so passionate about making a difference in a way that is connected to his life being saved, not just once but twice.

It's after hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. He's only 25 years old. Imagine the good this man's going to do as he continues moving forward with the millions of dollars that he's been given. And so what he said is that the CPR tour with his partners will stop in various places around the country, not just Cincinnati and Pittsburgh. Those are certainly important. Pittsburgh is where he's from. Cincinnati is where he needed the medical care on the field and then at the hospital, and obviously Buffalo is his franchise. But what they're going to do is train different people in CPR.

Now, I've never been officially trained in CPR, but I'm considering it because of DeMar and the distribution of this equipment. The equipment, by the way, and CPR that were used by the Bill's medical staff, the training staff, to save his life. That's why it's important to him, if not for that equipment, if not for not just the quick thinking, but the training of these medical teams, and it was both Bengals and Bills. They've been honored everywhere since, which is amazing, including the Super Bowl. But the fact that they had the equipment they needed, that they were able to rely on their training and just kick into high gear and save this man's life on the field.

That should not be overlooked. Yeah, it's an incredible story. It's a miracle. The man's gonna play football again.

It's awesome. People rallied, people prayed, but if not for this athletic training staff and the medical teams, he's not alive right now. And so you can understand why it's so important to him, but I love the way that he's moving it forward. I love the way that he's taking his miracle and he is now wanting to put other medical teams, other football teams in that same position so they are equipped and they are trained. I didn't know this, but according to the stats, CPR, especially if it's performed right away on a cardiac victim, can double or triple that victim's chance of survival.

So CPR critical, if performed immediately, the stats indicate that it can double or triple a cardiac arrest victim's chance of survival. Hamlin's mom was there. And then remember his eight-year-old brother. He's got a little brother named Amir, eight years old. And so he's hanging out with kids.

He's throwing a football. He's donating. And really, congratulations to you, those of you who donated.

I know many of you reached out during that first week in January and indicated that you were also donating, that you had gone to the GoFundMe page, no longer a GoFundMe page. But remember, it was NFL teams. It was individuals. It was coaches. It was players.

The outpouring of support and people putting their money where their mouths are, it was over the top. It was similar to J.J. Watt when he was raising money for Hurricane, was it Charlie? Hurricane, no, Hurricane, shoot, there's a lot of them, unfortunately. Harvey, for Harvey victims.

I should know this because my mom was in it. The way that sports fans step up, it always blows me away. But you should be so proud that now your money is seed money for DeMar Hamlin to change lives moving forward. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio. Take advantage of exceptional lease and finance offers today.