After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 4

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That's BetterHELP.com slash positive. Prepare for a righteous reckoning in the new season of the HBO original series, The Righteous Gemstones. When the spoiled Gemstone children finally get their wish to take control of the church, they discover leadership is harder than they imagined, and that their extravagant lifestyle comes with a heavy price. Starring Danny McBride, John Goodman, Edie Patterson, and Adam Devine. Watch the all-new season of The Righteous Gemstones this Sunday at 10 p.m. Eastern on Max. Subscription required.

Visit Max.com for details. As I'm perusing the questions that are left behind on our Facebook page as part of asking me anything someone dared to ask me about mayonnaise. Oh, and here I thought you knew me well. No. No to the mayonnaise.

Oh my goodness, Bill wanted to know lobster roll hot with melted butter or cold with mayonnaise. Jay, am I imagining things or did the music fade very quickly? It seemed as though the music was there and then it was gone.

I didn't get enough of my Bon Jovi. That's not on me. That's how it is. Interesting.

Well, I'd rather have no music than mayo. I did have a chance to go back already and answer some of your questions on our Facebook page. I will do this over the course of the day on Wednesday when I wake up. So Wednesday afternoon, try to get to them Wednesday evening.

Those questions that did not get answered though, Jay wants me to be careful because he's compiling a list of questions for asking me anything. The video version, which will take place before the end of June. So you'll have it to look forward to. Maybe we'll do a July 4th version. I don't think we've done a happy birthday America version. Oh yeah, we did last year actually. Okay, this year we will not be out of the park though.

That's not happening and we're going to come up with another way to do it. But I'm pretty excited about doing another video version because we always get better questions when you believe they might be posed on video. And our YouTube channel needs a little love. So the last thing we put on our YouTube channel was the Chubby Bunny World Championship and it's time. It's time we get some new material there on our YouTube channel, which you can always check out and subscribe to.

Everything is really named after the show. We like to keep the corporate synergy that way. After hours with Amy Lawrence on here, this network, CBS Sports Radio, which started it all. Also on our Facebook page, then on our YouTube channel as well. And thank you for your tweets. A-LOL Radio is a bit of an aberration, but it works.

It works for me. And it is our hump show, middle show of the work week, which means you asked, passed tense, Amy anything. Though it goes through Jay the gatekeeper, I have nothing to do with it.

Jay is the one that poses the questions, but he'll be looking for some unique ones as we prepare for a video version. So thank you. Always appreciate that.

You care enough to ask. We have got a second consecutive champion to honor on a second consecutive morning here on After Hours. So good morning to you. It is a Wednesday and the Golden Knights and their fan base did not have to wait very long. But it doesn't mean the athletes themselves should feel any less satisfaction over what is a career achievement. Did you know there are only six guys still remaining from the original roster? Remember the expansion draft, the Vegas Golden Knights entered the NHL back in 2017. And yes, they did go to the Stanley Cup final that year, but lost to the Washington Capitals. I don't always believe in destiny, but the Caps were destined. We're the Stanley Cup champions!

There will never be a better Stanley Cup celebration than that one. But it took place in Vegas. If you remember, I was doing a show that night. It was a Thursday. I was in Atlanta for a conference and I'm doing a show that night. And even as we're getting to the third hour of our show, which is what, one o'clock Pacific time on into the last few minutes of our show, there are still videos being posted on Twitter that night of the Washington Capitals and a group of them spearheaded, of course, by Alexander Ovechkin, who would not relinquish the Cup.

He was allowing fans to touch it and take pictures with it. That celebration happened in Vegas as the Golden Knights were in their first season and they made the Stanley Cup final, but they did not win. That roster, it didn't last very long. There are six guys. They call themselves the Original Misfits. Or maybe they don't call themselves that, but they are labeled the Original Misfits. So much has changed around them and not just one season or two seasons. Now, that roster has been a revolving door except for those six. And as much as it would be easy to pooh-pooh it, they didn't have to work. There was no blood, sweat, tears element. This is too easy.

It came in year number six. But if you break down a franchise to its individual players and even its coach, how about Bruce Cassidy in his first year with the Golden Knights? After those years in Boston, this is redemption for him. It didn't come easy to the players. It didn't come easy to the coaches. Maybe the fans didn't have to wait, didn't have to suffer. No one's going to compare them to Lions fans. No one's going to compare them to Pittsburgh Pirates fans. Trying to think of some of the other franchises you all said to me that desperately need to win a championship next. No one's comparing them to Bengals fans or Browns fans.

I mean, heck, no one was comparing them to Denver Nuggets fans, right? But the players themselves, they've all got stories. The coach, he's got a path. He's got a journey. And the Stanley Cup, as one of the iconic pieces of hardware in all of sports, now belongs to those Las Vegas Golden Knights.

Whether you feel like they pay their dues or not. Mark Stone has, and boy did he save the best for last on Tuesday. Bennett looking cross-eyed. Stone intercepts. This time he sends it down. It'll waffle and go into the goal. It's a hat trick in the clincher. Mark Stone, the captain, makes it eight-three Golden Knights with six minutes to go in the third period. One in the first, one in the second, and now a goal in the third period, setting the Knights to what will be a Stanley Cup championship. They talk about dreaming. The Golden Knights are going to make that dream a reality.

A devotion to destiny. Misfits to champions. The Vegas Golden Knights win the Stanley Cup in 2023. The first Stanley Cup championship in Golden Knights history comes in their sixth season.

The Silver State is home to the greatest silver trophy in all of sports. The mob is behind Aiden Hill's goal. All the players swarming one another. Jubilee in celebration.

The fans on their feet can't stop. That's the call with Dan Duva on the Las Vegas Golden Knights Radio Network. If you don't know Mark Stone's story, he was drafted in Ottawa. He was the sixth round draft pick and spent years in Ottawa.

Not a team that has got a lot of success in its recent past. Right, so you look at what he's been through. Finally gets to Vegas and actually is traded. So he's part of, when you think of the way that this team and this roster has changed so much.

He gets there in 1819 and is part of a crew moving forward in Vegas even as all the pieces around him are changing or a lot of the pieces around him are changing. And as the captain of the Vegas Golden Knights, he gets to touch that Stanley Cup first or gets to lift it up first and the noise inside the arena was incredible. Love watching that even if there isn't audio of Gary Bettman. You can see him say, hey you can lift it up, you can take it. And then as he hoisted above his head and he takes off on skates and he kind of goes toward his team. The captain always gets the first skate with the cup. It's amazing, the noise.

It almost seems to lift him up off the ice and I can imagine it felt like he was walking on air even as he's hoisting the cup. Unbelievable. Best look in my teammates eyes when I got it. It's one of the craziest feelings I've ever had.

Just to know that I did it with my 25, 30 best friends makes it that much more special. Can't even describe the feelings in my stomach right now. It's everything you can imagine. The grind of an 82 game season, four playoff rounds. You grind and you grind and you grind and at the end of the day the last team standing, it's incredible. I'm impressed. I'm impressed that he had that much energy on the NHL on TNT.

Mark Stone. So again, not one of the original six, but one of four different Golden Knights that had at least ten goals in this postseason run. And they were so powerful.

A lot of different ways that they could beat you. Jack Eichel, his second year in Vegas, he has three assists in the clincher against the Florida Panthers. And obviously his journey, also completely different but just as meaningful. A little bit of adversity. But coming here and being with these guys every day, it really changed my outlook on a lot of things. And I started to really enjoy coming to the rink again and obviously got my health back. I can't give the entire organization enough credit for allowing me to come in here, get a surgery and get back out. We just have an unbelievable group of guys in that room that really, really care about each other. When you're going on a run like this, it's hard to process what's going on while it's happening, but when that thing comes out of there, it's a pretty special feeling.

You can hear it, of course, the party going on in the background. For Jack Eichel, he ends up with the injuries and the acrimonious departure from Buffalo, though he certainly played a part in that but finds a home in Vegas. So yeah, it's a lot of different rosters that we've seen even since 2017, but the original six, Riley Smith, William Carlson, Braden McNabb, Shea Theodore, and then Jonathan Marcheso.

And he ends up winning the con smite. Listen to this, 13 goals, 11 assists as the postseason MVP. And it does mean something to him to be one of the guys that was there from the beginning. It was a bumpy ride for sure. Definitely a lot of hard work was put in, especially through the past few years to achieve my goal.

My wife was unbelievable, to be honest. And you know what, you don't hear enough about it, how big they are in the career of a professional athlete. And so happy to do it. And there's a lot of bumps and bruises along the way. And it was just a great feeling right now to see my journey where it brought me.

And that's something that I'll cherish for the rest of my life. William Carrier, the other, who was part of the original six. And it was pretty neat to see that after Mark Stone had the cup, he passed it off to those six guys who had been there since the beginning. So maybe they didn't have to suffer very long in Las Vegas, but a lot of these guys have pretty amazing stories, as does Bruce Cassidy. This is kind of funny.

Maybe you've heard this by now. The owner of the Golden Knights, Bill Foley, had said, hey, we're going to win the cup in year number six. But apparently, Bruce Cassidy didn't know that when he took the job. What I didn't know right away when I got hired, he says he was going to win the Stanley Cup in year six.

I found it was year six after I signed. So I said, all right, there's a little bit of pressure here, but here we are. So, but like I said, I'm happy for Bill. He's a terrific owner. You know, he's no pressure.

And he comes in and, you know, just lets you do your job. And it's just wants what's best for the team. So congratulations to the Golden Knights. They end up with just 90 seconds between their third and fourth goals. And that to be really the turning point when the whole thing just opened up, they end up with four goals in the second period.

And it was more of a coronation than it was a competition. Most goals ever scored in a clincher. Nine of them. But what do we see this team do? Set offensive records throughout this postseason, right? They had 13 goals in the first two games total. And that was 12. Turned out to be the most ever scored in the first two games of a Stanley Cup final. And they continued that all the way through game number five.

It's after hours here on CBS Sports Radio. You may have heard by now that Matthew Kuchuk, who himself had 11 goals and was really the spearhead of this Florida Panthers run, a broken sternum for him. And so he did not play in game number five.

And Paul Maurice, who's the coach afterwards, as you can imagine, he's down in the dumps, really bummed out. He not only indicated, this kind of happens too, right, when the Stanley Cup final is over, then all of a sudden you hear about all these guys who are playing with broken bones and crazy injuries. But he said that Kuchuk had the broken sternum, that it actually goes back to game number three. And get this, he couldn't dress himself for game number four. Somebody actually had to tie his skates for him. And yet Matthew Kuchuk was out there. No, he didn't play the same number of minutes and he wasn't as effective. But my goodness, his commitment to be there and to try to help out, somebody else had to put his gear on him and tie his skates for him.

So yeah, the team came up short and it certainly does hurt, but he went through a laundry list of injuries after the fact, including Kuchuk, who did not play in game five. I love those guys. They gave me a great year of my life, right, at 56 you're going on.

I don't have 40 left, I don't think, based on the way I look right now. It was a wonderful gift from those players, those men to the coaching staff. We really, truly enjoyed our lives this year.

An obviously emotional Paul Maurice. But man, what a run. They barely get into the playoffs. They need a wild card. Thank you, Pittsburgh Penguins. They need a wild card. They're an eight seed. They have to go right into the big bad Bruins who had the best season in hockey history. That goes to a game seven at every step along the way. That's why it's so cool to see what they did in concert with the Heat, because both teams, they were climbing mountains that felt like Everest. And yet, step by step, they gained momentum, gained the confidence, certainly had a lot of good leadership. Matthew Kuchuk being a huge piece of that, obviously, not just for what he did in terms of his scoring, but for what he did in terms of leadership and that life and that energy. But Paul Maurice says they were just a little bit too banged up in the end. Not that it's an excuse, but it is what was happening. And let's be honest, it's a war of attrition.

It really is. Whether it's hoops, whether it's hockey, the playoffs are so long. And at the end, a lot of times it is a team that manages to keep enough healthy bodies in rotation. You think about the Miami Heat, never did have Tyler Herro back. They were without Vincent for a couple of games, without Jimmy Butler for a game. They ended up being without Victor Oladipo as well during the playoffs. So they were missing a lot of pieces and were doing the best they could to just remain standing. And for the Panthers, eventually the wheels came off. But takes nothing away from the Golden Knights. Not even sure a fully healthy Florida Panthers could stand in the way of this buzzsaw, because they were locked in and a lot of goals, a lot of goals. And the ability to rally after they fell behind initially in games.

They did that 10 times in this playoff run. So that's it. Hoops and hockey. It's done. But the draft and free agency on the horizon. I said this earlier, but last week as part of asking me anything, I saw one man write in and inquire which I would miss more.

Hoops or hockey? We didn't ask that question on the air and I didn't respond to him. Actually, I think I might have responded to him on Twitter. My honest answer, and I do try to answer honestly. If I can't answer honestly, I don't answer.

Or if I don't want to give an honest answer, I don't answer. The answer is I will miss neither. I'm OK with you going away. NFL, we're OK with you going away. Just for a week. Maybe take a week sabbatical. Nah, nah. This is the week in mid-June when the NFL has got its mandatory OTAs, which means Odell Beckham Jr. back on the field.

We'll hear from him coming up next. Good morning to you. It's Wednesday. It's your hump day.

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Take advantage of exceptional decent finance offers today. Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. You are listening to the After Hours podcast. Here comes third down and three. Spins it right side. Looking for Odell Beckham Jr. He high points the football and has the six. Touchdown OBJ. Touchdown L.A.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. That was the last time Odell Beckham Jr. caught a touchdown pass that was in the Super Bowl, remember? For the Rams.

That's a long time ago. Wasn't more than a few plays later when he tore his ACL. And though there was a lot of buzz around him getting signed last year, remember the Dallas Cowboys and a couple of other teams were at least interested enough. It turns out that they were too afraid that his knee, surgically repaired knee, was not ready. And then he was coming back too soon. There was this whole idea about whether or not he should work out and why he wouldn't work out. And ultimately he did not get signed until the Ravens gave him a contract. That was even prior to Lamar Jackson getting paid.

So Odell back on the field for the first time in nearly a year and a half with Lamar Jackson as the Ravens get into their mandatory OTAs. I've been doubted all my life. So that's really for the other people to do. That's what they got going on.

That's not what I got going on. But yeah, the time off just allowed me to grow and learn. Because when it first happened I just wasn't in the best of place to even think about playing football again after I just did that and got back on the horse.

And then it happens at the worst moment. And if you think about it, it was the longest season for me ever because it made it to the Super Bowl. I also had started training since last November consistently. So I was training. It was just a long season. I was at the end.

I remember Cooper Cupp and I looked at each other and I was like, I'm happy this is the last week because I can't do another one. So the doubts is for whoever has them to have them, but that's not what enters my mind and my body. It's just something that I've carried myself with all my life. I know what I could do. I'm just excited about, you know, it's still a process to get to August and then getting into camp.

So I still got a lot of time. But 30 does seem relatively old when you consider the number of injuries the guy's gone through, the number of teams he's played for. And now he says that there are guys in the locker room who look to him to be a leader.

So it's something he's adjusting to. Guys come up to you and it's like, oh, I remember watching you in middle school. And it's like, you know, you start to give you that make you feel old kind of thing. And I just think I know what my role will be as far as, you know, coming out and being able to show it every day and being able to feed and also feel like a good leader has to be a good follower. So just being able to be there for these guys, you know, questions that you need.

I might have questions myself. So just, you know, we're all here to learn. And I'm excited about that room. There's a lot of talent in that room. It's going to be a lot of competition for spots. So, you know, we just got to we got to all work and work together.

And it's definitely got a good feel in there. The one thing I've seen about Odell, like all of our guys, is he loves football. And the other thing that we like is guys who want to be here. And he's very excited to be here. He wants to be here.

So that combination is good. You know, any football coach loves that. But he's a highly decorated player without question, has been in all the big battles over the years. He's worked really hard to get himself back to this point where he's, you know, he's excited to go. And he's I'm sure he's a little anxious and, you know, anticipating getting back on the field for the first time. So, you know, we're not going to go crazy out here, but I think it's a good first step for him. Of course, we're excited that he's here. We're excited that all of our guys are here. John Harbaugh from Ravens OTAs about having Odell Beckham Jr.

So that's good. I'm excited to see him play again. I hope that he's able to stay healthy. He signed the one year 15 million dollar deal in April. And that's the most any wide receiver's gotten this offseason. This is not 2022 when teams were chucking money at wide receivers.

This is completely different. So he didn't participate in the voluntary workouts, but he was there for mandatory minicamp to start the week and Harbaugh calls them a quote unquote full go. So no medical restrictions, no physical restrictions. I just want him to stay healthy so that he can be part of what the Ravens are doing. And I think for him to be able to resurrect his career, maybe the year off was good for his body if he is completely healthy. You know, we we make fun of the NFL offseason a lot, or I just say I make fun of the NFL offseason a lot. The fact that it never really goes away. And we thought you might enjoy this from the Chargers.

Sebastian Joseph Day. He has one particular analogy that he prefers for the offseason. The offseason is kind of it's kind of like baking a cake, you know, like I know it's like a weird analogy, but you know, you can't skip one step. You know, each each phase, at least with me or my training, like it all kind of you need to do this. You know, you got to make sure you get the eggs and I get the yolk, you know, it's like step by step. I make sure you can't put the baking soda in and can't let it come out. You can't take the cake out too soon. You know, it's step by step now. See, here's the thing. I love to bake and I do appreciate that there are steps and it's order and you have to do it in the correct manner. You have to mix the proper ingredients in one bowl and then another bowl before you put them together. So I agree with all that.

You got to follow the steps. But, and I'm not playing, I'm just talking about it. I feel like this is the most extensive baking process that I've ever gone through.

And there's not even a cake at the end of the tunnel. It's just a lot of NFL chatter. But that is the thing, if they're going to show up for practice, the media is going to show up too, which means we are talking about it as well.

And it is good to have some access. I will admit that I do enjoy hearing about some of the quarterback competitions. I do enjoy hearing from Baker Mayfield and Kyle Trask as they're competing for the starting job in Tampa and maybe more.

What's the word I want to use? Maybe more of a wide open competition. Nah, that one's probably more wide open competition than what we see in Houston. But I'm intrigued by Houston because it's the new head coach, D'Amico Ryan.

So a little bit more football that will sprinkle in. Also, Monty Williams has resurfaced and he has a reason for kind of being off the grid for a little bit. So thinking of him on this Wednesday morning and you will hear his reason for that. On Twitter, A Law Radio, you all are still sending your comments and your compliments to the column that Peter Schwartz wrote about me for Barrett Sports Media. It's an industry Web site. Maybe you haven't heard of it. And that's OK.

It really is for industry insiders and those of us who work in the business. But Peter asked me a few questions and had an angle that he wanted to use for his column. So I remember when he only needed 10 to 15 minutes on the phone.

Actually, it might not have been 15 minutes on the phone with me. When he's asking me questions, I thought, clearly he's already got a lot of this done because he didn't really ask me some of the basic questions. I did send him a bio so he could get the intel and the info right. But he had a particular angle and a particular perspective that he wanted to pursue.

And he did. And I appreciate him. And so many of you have not only read the column, but have also responded, which means a lot to me. So thank you for that.

Both Twitter and Facebook. It's A Law Radio if you want to see it. And then also on our Facebook page, After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Thanks for joining us. It's our hump show. It's your hump day.

You are listening to the After Hour. We have a young team. We have a lot of draft capital. We're excited to add even more talent to the team that we have. And it's a dream job because we can win here and we're going to win here by collaborating, working together, building it the right way with the right people.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. You can certainly understand why there's so much interest and fascination with D'Amico Ryans taking over the Houston Texans. Man, they've been in purgatory.

You're welcome. Courtesy of Bill O'Brien, who now well, who then lands with Alabama and then moves on to New England. OK, he definitely did not pay for what he did to the Houston Texans while he was there, but they were left.

And you know what? The general manager, the ownership, they bear some responsibility as to for the hires that they made and just disingenuous way they were running the team. But D'Amico Ryans is not only respected, but is really well liked in the NFL. And there's a lot of interest and intrigue in what he will do in his first job as a head coach. So from his introductory press conference, he's got a standard. He certainly played that way and then came from the San Francisco defensive staff and we know what they've done.

It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. Now he gets to talk about quarterbacks because it's the thing with NFL coaches. Maybe Kyle Shanahan gave him some tips before he went to Houston. Interesting.

And this is cool, I think, too, as well as being interesting. The strategy for C.J. Stroud, who was selected by the Houston Texans, was it number two overall? Yeah, he's not looking for C.J. to be conservative or to be careful. Now he wants the opposite. With the quarterback is all it's all about confidence, right? We want him to rip it, right?

I want him to see it, go through your progression, you see it, make it happen. Right. We understand not every ball is going to be perfect. You're not going to protect it all the time. But I never want our quarterback playing afraid to make a mistake. I want everybody playing to their maximum potential and attacking everything that we do. Forget conservative.

Forget careful. We want confidence, which means let her rip, baby. We want him to rip it. We want him to rip it. That's great. What quarterback doesn't want to hear that from his coach?

Just let her rip. Now what about, I'm going to say this with a straight face, the quarterback competition. I can't do it.

I just feel like it's disingenuous to call it that, is it not? Between Davis Mills and C.J. Stroud. If, let's say if for the sake of argument, C.J. 's not ready.

I don't know why. I feel like they might as well throw him out there because similar to the Kenny Pickett situation. Though Kenny did not start with Pittsburgh last year.

It was Mitch Trubisky until it became so untenable that even Mike Tomlin couldn't keep a straight face, speaking of that. And so for D'Amico Ryans, he has to answer questions. This is one reason to go ahead and choose your rookie. What about splitting first team reps between C.J.

and Davis? We'll see where their process goes in training camp. And we'll see as the competition continues to grow, we'll see who separates themselves. And that decision will take care of itself. As the competition continues to grow, we'll see who separates himself.

Okay. What would it take for Davis Mills to beat up the number two pick in the draft? No, that would be not what the Houston Texans were hoping for. An unbelievable training camp.

Well, I guess sometimes though the training camp is the difference, but that's not what they have in mind. C.J. Strath will be set up with every possible opportunity to win the starting job. We want him to rip it. We want him to rip it.

Grip it and rip it, baby. It's after hours here on CBS Sports Radio. Okay, can we get serious for a second? There's something something. There's a little something something going on with the Buffalo Bills. I am going to assume, because I don't believe in curses, this is not related to the Madden curse, J. I didn't think it was.

No, it's not the start of the Madden curse. But Stefan Diggs, who is Josh Allen's top wide receiver, skipped their first mandatory mini camp on Tuesday. And he left the facility earlier in the day. So he wasn't even there, skipped practice. Sean McDermott did not want to give a whole lot of details, but feigns that he is not worried. Steph is not here.

Everybody else is here at the current time. How concerned are you about that? Very concerned. Very concerned. I'm not going to get into and listen, I respect everyone's everyone's questions and what they want to know about our team right now.

I'm just I'm not going to get into into that anymore. So we'll talk about practice. Happy to do that.

Happy to answer those questions. And we'll move forward from there. So that's what we got from Sean McDermott. Josh Allen had some comments that raised eyebrows, to be sure.

He actually said. That Diggs absence and the fact that he left the Bills facilities. Can be traced back to an issue that the team is working on internally.

And so when you hear that, of course, the questions will persist. Is this about Diggs being unhappy with the work he's getting? Maybe how he's a part of the game plan or not a part of the game plan? Or is this an issue between he and Josh? Josh seemed to accept some responsibility, at least again, very cryptic, but interesting. I've got no doubts that that we will figure out what's going on and freaking love him. I can't stress that enough.

You know, there's things that I could I could do better and, you know, to help out with this process and try to get him back here and, you know, be the Buffalo abilities that he's meant to be. According to Josh, they did talk on Tuesday. OK, so they talked on Tuesday.

And. Like Sean McDermott. Josh Allen and even Von Miller kind of poo pooed the whole thing. It's not that serious. It's not a big deal. And yet Josh kind of refers to personal stuff and. Seems to hit that there is at least a reason that he's not there. Internally, we're we're working on some things, not football related, but, you know, Steph, he's my guy. I love him. He's a brother of mine.

You know, this does not work. What we're doing here without him. You know, we wish he was in here today and was out there on the field with us. And that's that's not the case. But I've got his back no matter what. As you notice at the beginning, he kind of mentions the internal issue and then quickly pivots to he's my guy. I love him. Yeah, he's not real comfortable. You can tell.

Answering a question, but needing to be vague. It's related to an internal. Issue with the team. Things that make you go not football related, not football related to.

So we're not talking about whether or not he is physically able to play. Now we're talking about an internal team issue. I think that there are some some things that could have gone better last year and didn't. And just, you know, I think we're just as a as an organization, maybe not communicating the right way with with everything. So, again, just trying to talk and listen at the same time and hear him out. And like I said, just try to move this forward is as quickly and as respectfully as possible. So I can't imagine that a internal team issue in June matters come training camp.

But it is still something to to think about. And for those of you who are big bills fans or you remember, maybe you had Stevon Diggs and fantasy toward the second half. The production was way down. And he started the year on this this meteoric pace.

Hot, hot, hot. But the last nine games and I did not remember this, I have to look it up. The last half of the season. And numbers were way down. So only forty seven catches in the last nine games.

Which is roughly half, maybe a little more than half of what he had in the first part of the season. And yeah, I mean, they need him to be sure. I wouldn't be all freaked out about it in June, but it certainly is going to be a topic in Buffalo, in western New York.

No doubt. It's after hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. Something else that you may hear talked about on this Wednesday morning. Try to give you the info that you need to be completely informed.

I don't even know if there's a water cooler anymore. Monty Williams actually with a revelation as he is introduced as the new head coach of the Detroit Pistons. He actually took some time and waited. And so he was thanking the Pistons for their patience because of what his wife is going through. I had a situation personally in my family that needed attention. And I talked to my wife today about whether or not we should talk about that publicly. But that was a huge part of my decision making and the patience that Troy and Mr. Gores had with me and with us as we navigated that told me a lot.

My wife found out that she had breast cancer during the playoffs. And so as we navigated all of that and talking to Troy and telling him, man, I couldn't right now because I got to take care of my family. And then we got great news that we would find out about her situation a lot earlier than we thought we would. And out of the blue, I got a text from Troy after they had their powwow about me, which I thought was totally off the table. I was with my kid at a tryout. So just all of that was on my plate, you know, losing a job, family situation, and then being dad, traveling with my kids and doing a few things.

And then out of the blue, I get the text from Troy and then it just went quickly after that. There is good news about his wife, so that's a positive. But can you imagine being Monty Williams? Your team gets bounced from the playoffs. You get fired by the Suns. And then as you're thinking about what to do next, your wife is diagnosed with breast cancer.

This is a real life situation. And so I'm glad there is good news about her health. That's awesome. But you can hear for him how it was weighing on him and how much it means to him that the team was willing to wait for him. But thinking of him and actually for those of you who are longtime listeners of CBS Sports Radio, I know this is news that he shared publicly.

Our friend John Kincaid begins his chemo today as he is battling against his colon cancer. And on his Twitter, there have been updates as he's gone through this process. I know he's been working. I've been in touch with him personally. And I'm just really grateful that he's got so much support, not just family, but friends and also listeners in Philadelphia.

All right. One more thing before we send you off into your hump day. Twenty eight thousand strong show up in the Oakland Coliseum last night. It's the reverse boycott as actually the A's win their seventh game in a row, beating the Tampa Bay Rays.

And what do they do? They organize a chant that can be heard. It's echoing throughout the Coliseum. So, hey, maybe if you actually give them a reason to show up, they will. Don't be blaming the fans for why you're high tailing it to Vegas. That's on you, Oakland A's ownership. We'll talk to you tonight. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. Boom.