After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 2

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That's betterhelp.com slash positive. That's where we are. We're at the hump show. Oh, sometimes it hurts, but it's absolutely worth the effort to get over the hump so that we can head downhill toward the weekend. And goodness, aren't the weekends so much more valuable this time of the year because it's, well, it's days from the official start of summer.

We already unofficially kicked off summer with Memorial Day weekend, but it's the official start of summer next week, next Wednesday. And more and more now, I've got friends, family members, even who are going on vacation post Memorial Day. My brother and sister-in-law, my nieces, they just got back from a trip to Hawaii.

A friend of mine named Amy because Amy's are cool. She just got back from North Carolina. I'm actually going to be on vacation for part of next week. Not all of it, but looking forward to some hiking with Bob in Virginia and West Virginia and also seeing my brother's family. So more and more now people will take vacations, which means those weekends, they can symbolize not just a couple days of a break from the work routine, but potentially even the start of a vacation.

Though it is kind of funny. Am I the only one who needs time to recover from vacation or at the very least needs time to get back into the routine? So I asked my sister-in-law and my youngest niece about finding the routine and settling back in. And they both said, oh, take some time to recover from vacation. And I know a bunch of my friends too. It seems like when I asked them how they're doing ice cream seems to be a part of their text messages and their replies more this time of the year. It's after hours with Amy Lawrence where you scream and I scream and we all scream for ice cream. It's our hump show.

Do you have questions for me? I know that you do because I see them every day. So you can find us on Twitter after our CBS. There's a big bright orange post. It's got the yellow thought bubble in the middle because who doesn't love yellow and orange? Actually right now I have a petunia that is a combination of yellow and neon orange. It's beautiful.

Maybe I'll share the photo because I've never seen a petunia of this color before, but it is striking. And that's what we think about our Ask Amy Anything box. So on Twitter after hours, CBS or my Twitter, ALawRadio. Again, thank you to so many of you who sent me kind words over the past 24 hours about the column.

Peter Schwartz wrote about my winding career path. And then on our Facebook page too, I know a lot of you are weighing in. I haven't even had a chance to look at Facebook yet. We've been real busy here pre-show and during the first hour. Golden Knights now are in possession of Lord Stanley's Cup on the heels of the Denver Nuggets winning the Larry O'Brien trophy, which means it's Denver and Vegas who will have the ticker tape parades. First ticker tape parade for Las Vegas.

How about that? And Vegas is in the center of another controversy in sports. Right after the Golden Knights grab their first Stanley Cup in franchise history, there is potentially a fight that could be protracted.

Now, if you ask the owner of the Oakland A's, well, no, it's not going to be a protracted fight. But after what we saw at the Coliseum on Tuesday night. If the Oakland front office would field a competitive team, it's clear there are fans who would show up. 27, nearly 28,000 fans who were part of the reverse boycott. This is more than triple the number of fans showing up on a nightly basis on average.

Why? Because the team sucks. And I'm not saying those players don't try.

Those players aren't doing what they can. And actually, the funny part is they've won seven in a row. I don't know if they're emboldened by the fact that the fans are starting to rumble and really want to create a movement where it's possible that they retain their team in the Bay Area or retain their team in Oakland specifically. Of course, we have the San Francisco Giants in the Bay Area, but now they've won seven straight.

Unfortunately, they put themselves in such a humongous hole that they could win every game from now until mid July, maybe until the All-Star break, and they still wouldn't be the best team in their division. But they're competitive. They can be competitive. Can they be competitive on a nightly basis? Can they keep up with the rest of the West?

Well, no. But most people believe that's not on the players themselves. That's on the front office, who's put together a team that maybe wouldn't even be starters or starting on another roster.

Not all of them. Right? And to this challenge, Mark Katze is assigned. Get the most out of this group, even though there are not a lot of superstars, and these are not guys that would be finding homes elsewhere, at least in starting lineups or in starting rotations. It's tough.

You do what you can. But it's clear the talent level is not the same as it is for what we've got in the teams that are competitive around Major League Baseball. If I'm a fan, I don't pay the money to show up at the Coliseum, which, by the way, is a bit of a dump. It desperately needs renovations. It's one of the reasons why the football team left or why the ownership of, I don't know where, I almost said Golden Knights. There's so many Vegas references going around in my head right now. The ownership of the Raiders, Mark Davis, it's one of the reasons why he bolted, he said, is because the facility itself was a mess.

So I'm not saying it's perfect. And Oakland fans, you know it well. It's been kind of the bane of the existence of Oakland A's fans, but even before that, Raiders fans.

We do hear stories about the Coliseum. And so it's been this fight and this cycle of frustration for the team and for the fans because they want to be able to come up with the funding to create a new home, to build a new home and keep the team in Oakland. But ownership wants to move. And so this reverse boycott is really about proving to the franchise, and by franchise I mean front office ownership, that they will show up if they're motivated.

They will show up and buy tickets if there is a product on the field worth paying to see. In the United States of America in the last few years, financial situations have changed a ton. A lot of us either lost jobs, took pay cuts, have had to change jobs. We've seen inflation increase astronomically the cost of necessities like gas and groceries and rent still in my neighborhood. And I know my neighborhood is not unique, but in my neighborhood there are so few homes for sale because people can't afford to move. If they lose their home or they sell their home, rents are even more than mortgages and there's nothing available. And the mortgage rates are through the roof. There's a crisis in many homes in the United States when it comes to finances and choosing what to pay for and how to support your families.

A lot of families, a lot of individuals have made tough choices about how they spend their money. So when your team sucks, you're not going to be forking over a bunch of money to go watch them in person. Why? Just so you can be faced with the recognition, the realization that you threw money down the drain?

Nah. And it's not fun, is it? Isn't sports supposed to be fun, especially when we go in person? It's supposed to be a great experience, maybe a release, an escape from the pressures of real life.

Except when you throw your money at a product that's not worthy of it, it's not any fun at all. And that's where Oakland fans have been, not just this season, but in recent years. So they, if I remember correctly, they made the playoffs in 2019. They had a real good season in 2019.

And then in 2020, now 2020 was the weird aberration, right? With the different, well, we had the break in the season, obviously, but the different wildcard format. But after that, the A's front office started reducing payroll, right?

They wanted it to be cheap. Not only did they reduce payroll and divest themselves of young pieces that would attract fans to the ballpark, but they raised ticket prices. So yeah, put a team on the field that can't compete or isn't likely to compete for the postseason and a World Series, but raise ticket prices. And at the same time, no improvements at the Coliseum, which means the fan experience is not worth going for. So they're not winning.

It's going to cost you more. And the place is still a dump. Again, why would fans pay money to show up? But it's become a bit of a catch-22 and I would say a bit devious because then A's ownership turned around and said, look, we don't get fan support here. Look, the ballpark sucks.

We should move. This is wrong, isn't it? You put a product on the field that isn't worth paying to see and you do it on purpose. But then you blame the fans for not showing up and say, well, we should move because we're not getting the support here that we deserve.

It's gross and it's manipulative and it's wrong. It's after hours here on CBS Sports Radio. And then the kick in the ass is that under cover of night, they start to negotiate with Nevada officials and with Las Vegas officials. And there's this stunning announcement about an agreement, at least a preliminary agreement to move the team to Vegas.

I didn't know this until I was reading in prep for the show. But as the Nevada Senate was voting to give this public money, nearly $400 million for a stadium that they would build on the strip, remember we talked about it, our friend, what's our friend, Johnny Avello, who joined us, gosh, from Vegas. He's been there 40 years, part of DraftKings Sportsbook.

Thank you, Jay. He joined us right on the heels of the announcement about this site on the strip and the money they were seeking. So right on the heels of that, as I was reading, there are fans and even Oakland officials still who are kind of sharing this news that they were pretty close. The city of Oakland and the team were, now this is the quote, days away from an agreement on their own project that would have meant a new ballpark on the waterfront in Oakland.

So that's the other piece of this that maybe you're not hearing as much about. That there has been movement, there has been progress toward an agreement that would keep the A's in Oakland but would do so with the new facilities, which is what ownership wants. And so even as there's this kind of negotiating to try to figure out if it's feasible or how it's feasible, the Oakland mayor even said that they were working toward this real estate agreement and that as she is kind of going through this process, whether it's an informational process, whether it's pre-negotiating, I'm not exactly sure, but as they're trying to figure out how to make this work, and she said they were days away, that's the quote, she hears about the agreement and the land deal in Vegas.

Again, devious. I'm not sure I would trust the ownership of the Oakland A's farther than I could throw them. So again, and I'll read you her quote, we were so close.

This is the mayor of Oakland. We secured $1 billion for outside infrastructure and I truly believe the city of Oakland was being leveraged in the move to go to Las Vegas. It started to feel a little bit abusive in that sense and that's why we walked away. So she's saying we feel like we were just a ploy. We were essentially, if you've ever gone out and looked for a new job and then brought a job offer to your current employer to say, hey, look what, I got another offer. You either pay me what I'm worth, give me a new deal, or I'm going over there. Raise your hand if you've ever done that. Of course, it's a negotiating tactic. And sometimes it's not even true, right? Agents do it all the time with athletes.

They say, oh yeah, I've got an offer for my client over here. Can you match it? If you don't match it, we're going to leave. If we're talking free agency. It may not even be true. But the mayor is saying she believes the A's were only dealing with her and with the city of Oakland so that they could take the offer or the paperwork or the groundwork of this agreement, or the framework of this agreement, excuse me, to Las Vegas to say, look, here's what Oakland's going to give us.

What are you going to give us? Ew. And so the fans have had enough. I can understand why they feel like their voices are not being heard and why they're being used as pawns as well. I saw one quote from a fan who said they have literally repelled the fan base. And yet the team has used the lack of fan support as a reason why they have to move. Not only is it devious, but it's sucky.

It's twisting the truth to make it fit your narrative so that you can get what you want. And so for that reason, Oakland fans decided they were going to prove that they could and would show up to support the team if it was worth it. Now here's what Mark Kotse, the manager, had to say pregame, now even before he saw and heard the 28,000 fans. The loyalty of the fan base is always going to be here. It's been here for 50 plus years and I don't see that fading. You know, you take your heritage with you. They brought it from Philly, they took it to Kansas City, took it from Kansas City, brought it to Oakland. It's been here a long time and they're going to come out and show that support.

And I think it's going to be an exciting night for the players in terms of just feeling that energy and that support. Sell the team! Sell the team! Sell the team!

Sell the team! Okay, what's the number one reason you should try Instacart? Shopping over 1.5 million unique products from over 1,000 retailers. And get everything delivered right to your door in as fast as one hour, all in one app. So you can spend more time with the ones who matter most. Visit Instacart.com to get free delivery on your first three orders.

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Find out more at T-Mobile.com slash C-Y. That's S-E-E-W-H-Y. Hey guys, this is Keenan Thompson. I have a problem with you. Yes, you. None of y'all told me that Auto Trader has millions of new and used cars that I can shop from home. I thought we were friends. I put smiles on your face.

But I'm not smiling. No one told me that with Auto Trader, a dealer can deliver cars to my home, or that I could shop by price on Auto Trader. No one.

Consider this friendship, that you just learned we had, officially over. Finally, it's easy. Auto Trader. Go T-Mobile! Wow. Apparently, there were thousands of fans wearing sell t-shirts as in S-E-L-L. They had a ton of money donated by the community and they produced these green sell t-shirts.

You can see the photos on social and very clearly, that's courtesy of our affiliate in the Bay Area, KNBR, and it's Twitter. Very clearly you can hear the A's fans, 28,000 strong, in the coliseum chanting sell the team, sell the team. In fact it was so loud that Hogan Harris, who was pitching, said when he was on the mound he couldn't hear a damn thing. I tell you what, words really can't describe it at all. Obviously they got wildly loud at one point, I couldn't even hear my pitch calm, I didn't know what was going on. I was like, hey I'm going to be honest Blue, I can hear it, it's on, but I just can't hear it.

You have a backup plan, I was like, no we're going to have to figure something out really quick, aren't we? I thought these guys kept their poise, they used the energy, you know, and I think I made the comment tonight was as close to a playoff crowd as I think I've experienced managing a game and the energy, the atmosphere was, you know, everything that this stadium can be. For that to happen tonight, for us to go out and play a good game all around to execute, to pitch, to play defense and do the fundamentals of the game that we talk about and take care of the details in front of that crowd, you know, I couldn't be happier.

Mark Kotse pregame and then Mark Kotse postgame. That is the potential of the fans. That is what the fan base can bring. Now he stopped short of criticizing the team, he stopped short of criticizing ownership, his bosses, right, that write his checks by saying, see you dumbasses, if you would give us a team, if you would put money into the team and the roster, look what the potential can be.

He stopped short of saying that. And I will also tell you this, I have a friend who is employed by the team. I asked my friend to come on the show and talk about the situation.

My friend told me we are not allowed to. So again, my friend works for the team. Mark Kotse works for the team.

You can hear him being very careful about what he says. I would not be surprised if anyone who spoke out against the team, including my friend, would potentially be fired for saying anything negative against this move or against management. But it is dirty and it is wrong. To blame your fans for the reason that you are moving the team, when that's not the case. Oakland fans are no different than any other fan base. And actually they've been through some kind of hell lately in terms of their teams. Put a product on the field that is worthy of seeing, put a product on the field that's exciting and competitive, they don't have to win every single game. Put a product on the field that can compete, that brings it, that has the potential and fans will show up.

Why? Because hope springs eternal. That's who we are as sports fans.

Even Lions fans would say that. Hope springs eternal. We want to believe.

Give us a reason to believe and we will show up. Who says we can't get flexed? Don't turn around and strip all the competitiveness away from the team, reduce payroll, raise ticket prices and then say, now look, the fans won't show up. It's like a boyfriend cheating on me and then saying, oh, now look, see, I knew you wouldn't stay. It's wrong. And I hope Oakland, the front office and the ownership at least takes notice. And I really honestly, even if it doesn't change a thing about the move to Vegas and whether or not that gets approved, I think there are going to be some legal challenges.

Even if it doesn't change a thing, at least the world knows when you blame the fans, you're lying through your teeth. It is as American as apple pie. It's as American as what?

Social media. Sorry, it's as American as being a sports fan. We support our teams when they're winners. We love winners in the United States of America, period. If you build it, they will come and they showed up tonight.

And I know it went really long. I'm passionate about this. Don't blame the fans. Own your choice. You're an owner. Own your bad choices.

Don't try to blame them on somebody else. On Twitter, a law radio on our Facebook page, too. I'd love to hear from Oakland fans.

I know we do have a couple of affiliates in the Bay Area, so we'd love to hear from you if you have any thoughts. Dan says, thank you. That's that's what he writes us on Twitter.

All right, so send your questions for Ask Amy anything, either Twitter or Facebook. Coming up, you want salty? Well, some of the golfers to get ready for the U.S. Open there salty and top of the hour really excited our friend Jesse Bradley, former pro soccer goalie who knew he had so many other talents he will join us. He's got a brand new book that I think will be an encouragement to fathers as we get set for Father's Day weekend. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio.

You are listening to the After Hours podcast. I think today is a it's a historical day for the PGA Tour and the game of golf. And, you know, there's been a lot of tension in our sport over the last couple of years. And what we're talking about today is coming together to unify the game of golf. It's less about how people respond today and it's all about how people respond in 10 years. And when they see the impact that we're having on this game together, there'll be a lot of smiles on people's faces and there'll be a lot more people playing this game all over the world.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. I don't actually believe in karma, but I bet there are people who do and think that PGA Commissioner Jay Monahan is receiving a bit of the bad juju and karma that he dealt out by keeping this PGA live merger a secret and then dropping it on the golfers at the RBC Canadian Open in Toronto last week. Because now he is recovering from an undisclosed medical situation. And so he's not available to run the PGA right now. Is it possible that the merger could be undone in Monahan's medical absence? Not sure.

I don't mean to stir the pot. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. This deal was done under cover of night and the PGA Tour members, which is the golfers, did not know, including the Player Advisory Council, including the leadership of the PGA Tour. And now that the U.S. Open is on the horizon and will begin on Thursday, members of the PGA are speaking out more and more. So we know Rory McIlroy, he had some strong words to say about the way this all went down. And now Jon Rahm, who's coming off a win at the Masters, is admitting that they got blindsided. It's a lot of not answering questions. And it's tough when it's, you know, it's a week before a major, I mean, trying not to think about it as much as possible. I think it gets to a point where you want to have faith in management.

And I want to have faith that this is the best thing for all of us. But it's clear that that's not the consensus, right? I think the general feeling is that a lot of people feel a bit of betrayal from management. The B word from Jon Rahm. And right now, not only is he one of the best golfers in the world, he's well known in the United States and internationally.

So his opinions carry a lot of weight. We feel betrayed by management. And as much as the PGA members may feel like they were blindsided, Bruce Koepka says on the live side, there was just as much surprise. We didn't hear anything about it. That's kind of, I think the one thing that shocked everybody the most, I think I ran into Ricky and JT about after watching the whole thing and they were asked if they knew and they said they didn't know either. So they were kind of learning about it. They were on the back of the range.

So I probably saw them 30 minutes after I guess the news broke. Yeah, so this is, it's been a mess from the way that it was orchestrated to now the way that it's being received. And yet the opinion of our golf insider, Matt Adams, when he joined us from, actually he joined us from Ireland when the news broke, works for the Golf Channel and Fairways of Life, his own radio show, what he said was he believes Jay Monahan is willing to take all of this. He's willing to be the punching bag because when the dust settles and when the emotions die down a bit, he'll be able to say to the golfers, oh, but there's so much more money coming your way. So Jon Rahm won the Masters. Remember Brooks Koepka had a really tough final round, but he and Phil Mickelson tied for second.

Phil had an incredible Sunday at the Masters. So two Liv guys who finished behind Jon Rahm at the Masters and then it's Brooks Koepka who wins the PGA Championship. We know that Rory McIlroy wants Liv to die and shrivel up. Hit Liv. I mean like I really hate Liv. Like I hate Liv. But it's according to the Liv officials, it's not going away and so for now, nothing is changing except everything is changing.

Jon Rahm, one more from him. Okay, yeah, news leaks. I get it, but that doesn't make it okay. I understand why they had to keep it so secret. I understand we couldn't make it through a packed meeting with more than ten minutes after people spilling the beans right away and some article about you guys already being out there.

You're welcome. So I get it. I get the secrecy. It's just it's not easy as a player that's been involved like many others to wake up one day and see this bombshell, right? So that's where we're all in a bit of a state of limbo because we don't know what's going on and I don't think how much is finalized and how much they can talk about either, right? So it's a state of uncertainty that we don't love, but at the end of the day, I'm not a business expert. Some of those guys on the board and involved in this are. So I like to think they're going to make a better decision than I would, but I don't know.

We don't. We'll see. There's still too many questions to be answered. Got to say, as much as the deal itself may not be going away and it may be something these guys have to adjust to and live with, I'm not sure Jay Monahan survives this. I don't know how much confidence the PGA Tour members have in him, and there have been some reports even speculation out there that he may end up being the fall guy when it's all said and done. But there is golf on the horizon, so the U.S. Open starts coming up in the next couple of days.

That's Thursday when they first tee off. We don't make you wait that long for Ask Amy Anything. You just got to wait another hour, but you do have an hour to come up with creative questions. So on Twitter, After Hours, CBS, on our Facebook page too, look for the bright orange box, that orange and yellow color scheme.

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But then just read the words. You are listening to the After Hours podcast. This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. That is the voice of our friend Paul Allen, Vikings Radio. Ooh, that makes me miss football just a little bit. But then I realized that it's been nonstop since the Super Bowl and I miss it a little bit less. It was quite a season for the Vikings last year. 13 wins, a four game lead atop the NFC North. When it was all said and done, that's how far back the rest of the North division from the champion Vikings, except it did not translate in the postseason. The defense came back to bite them in the rear, thinking about that Giants game and the way that they were eliminated from the postseason.

So what did they do? Well, they hired Brian Flores as their defensive coordinator, which is huge. Remember, he spent last year as kind of an interim job, getting let go by the Dolphins. Hired, even as he's suing the NFL and a few different teams, hired by Mike Tomlin and the Steelers to serve as a consultant or I think he kind of created a position for him as on the defensive side as a coach, and then he gets the D coordinator job Minnesota to whip that defense into shape. OK, that's one major move. Another major change for 23 is that Dalvin Cook is no longer part of the team.

They're going to go with Alexander Madison. We just spoke to Luke Braun this week. He's got the locked on Vikings podcast. If you want to hear more about this move and their plans for the run game moving forward, I highly suggest you get it.

The link is on both Twitter, After Hours, CBS and my Twitter, ALawRadio, as well as on our Facebook page. Dalvin Cook hadn't said much other than he made it pretty clear he wants to go to the Dolphins. That hasn't happened yet. So when, as he was a guest with Tom Pelissero hosting the Rich Eisen Show, when would he like to get signed up and join a team? It's a waiting game right now at this point, just trying to find that right situation. I don't think it's a rush for anything. Like as far as me picking up plays and going to play football, that's the easy part about the game. But, you know, I just think me feeling great, which I am, and I think me just being in the right shape and stuff like that, just going to play for a football team. I think that's going to be the best thing, but I'm not in a rush to go to go sign with nobody.

I'm just trying to find the right fit for me and my family. So Dalvin got released on Friday, and he said it's been pretty crazy about the number of people that have reached out to him, that have made contact with him, and I like this too. He says, I play Madden a lot. I do create a GM in Madden with my son. He says going through this process in real life, it kind of feels like that game to me.

Oh gosh. Yeah, he spent his entire career with the Minnesota Vikings. And he wanted the Vikings to honor his contract. He wanted the Vikings, after four straight 1,100 yards plus rushing in each of those seasons at least 1,100 yards for four consecutive years, he wanted the Vikings to pay him like he's a weapon. You look around at what the wide receivers are getting, or got last year specifically, but there's always been a block with teams when it comes to running backs. It seems like the teams who do pay their running backs get burned, like the Cowboys with Ezekiel Elliott. Dalvin is not even 28 yet.

He'll be 28 before the season starts. He was on the field for every game in 22, but we heard about his shoulder injury that he's been dealing with all of last year and really the last three years that came from Luke, that confirmation, but Dalvin recognizes that he's not unique, that his position he believes is not valued in the NFL. To me, honestly, it's kind of sad because it's the running back position. Like I think people overlooking this position, not thinking they are overlooking this position. They don't think, you know, the game don't start and stop with the ball being on the ground.

You know, you control the ground. I think the game is controlled. So I think the running back position is, is at a point to, we don't know. We don't know the certainty of a running back position. Like I think people think it's just, you know, it is about the quarterback position, but you know, I think it started to start with the running back position. I think we got to get back to that just playing good football, man. I talked to a lot of them guys that, you know, it's a sad situation to where people just don't value the running back position, but you know, that don't stop us from going to play good football and I think that's what it's all going to come down to, just keep playing good football.

And I think that's the best. So we'll get back to where we need to be. Dalvin Cook speaking for the first time with Tom Pelissero on the Rich Eisen Show.

It's after hours here on CBS Sports Radio. One more from him, essentially making his case why he should be paid like one of the best in the league. I think I'm all fixed up now. You know, my shoulder is feeling great. And like you said, man, you know what you're getting out of Dalvin Cook. As soon as I step foot in the locker room or on the football field, you know, I'm going to be the best teammate, be the best leader you can get. And I'm going to show that by my actions and, you know, how I carry myself and the things I do on the field.

You know, you cut the tape on that, speak for yourself. But I think mostly what's important for me is the off the field stuff, you know, being the right figure in the community, you know, just doing all the right stuff off the field, on the field is going to come. I just want to be the best teammate I could be, you know, you know what you're going to get out of Dalvin Cook once I step in that locker room. Four consecutive 1,100-yard seasons and four consecutive Pro Bowl selections.

But the Vikings didn't want to pay him the 14-mil, they didn't want to take the cap hit. Nadja Harris, another running back, speaking out about how the league and those who run the league and run teams don't give enough credit to their position. Obviously, you know, they say what they say about the running back, you know, it's kind of the position's kind of going downwards.

But, you know, if you look at some of the offenses, you know, the running back is featured a lot, you know. So just kind of what the guys were saying, you know, just show a little bit more appreciation, you know, because obviously it's a rough position. You know, what we go through is probably one of the roughest positions. So, you know, I'm just advocating and I'm, you know, joining that team of, you know, I agree with pretty much what those guys are saying. You know, I'm just, anyway, you know, because I'm a running back myself and I'm pretty sure any running backs who want to come in the league are just even people going around and telling them, you know, if you want to get paid, you know, don't be a running back.

You know what I mean? So it was just, the position is an art to me. I'll always love the position.

You know, you could do so much. It's almost as if, like, you're a queen in chess, you know, because you could do a lot of things, line up out wide, run the ball, protection, you know, it could be an implemented offense so much. It's like, you know, for them to say it's a position is, you know, it's not as valued as, it's kind of crazy, so. That's Najee Harris of the Steelers. Before that, Dalvin Cook, who's a free agent, we know Ezekiel Elliott still doesn't have a team.

Now, he's had a lot of pounding on his body, though he's 27. Saquon Barkley, he's kind of in the same situation, right, where he feels like his position and his contributions are not valued, as the New York Giants have tagged him. What I think needs to happen to get the deal done, at the end of the day, I would like to address that. I feel like there's been some things out there that's been misleading, you know, obviously the sources or the stories that have been out there.

But I've been public, I came out public, I've been open about it, I said I want to be a giant for life, this is where I want to be. And at the end of the day, it's all about, you know, something that's respectable, it's all about respect, and that's really what it is. I'm sure that Dalvin Cook and Najee Harris, even Ezekiel Elliott, would echo something similar. If you respect what the run game can mean for your offense, if you respect how some of these running backs are versatile and will give you multiple looks, will do anything you ask of them, well then you've got to pay them that way.

Remember last year, passing yards were down, running yards were up, actually, and points were down too, but we saw a lot of teams value the run game, including the Giants, with Saquon. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. Do you hear that? That is the sound of BMW performance without a single piston or cylinder, a generation of all-electric vehicles designed and built like no other. The BMW iX, i7, and i4 revolutionize every drive into a thrilling opportunity to feel the pure rush of BMW 100% electric. But isn't that what you'd expect from the ultimate electric driving machine? Take advantage of exceptional lease and finance offers today.