After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 2

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That's BetterHelpHELP.com slash positive. I'm joined by Hall of Famer John Smoltz. Smoltz, tell me this. What's harder, winning a Cy Young or an Emmy Award? Oh man, winning a Cy Young takes a lot longer to happen. You know, it's funny when you mention something like that, I just go back to all those years of being predicted to win and just feeling like a failure.

But in 96, fortunately, I was able to at least get that off my back because that was starting to bother me. Download the Brett Boone Podcast available on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcast. We will have more with Kyler Murray from the Cardinals Flight Plan, their own website. This extensive conversation with the Cardinals quarterback, even as he prepares and holds on to the hope that he might be able to kick off the season week one, which is September 10th.

OMG, it's not that far away. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence here on CBS Sports Radio. Kyler plus Brad Holmes and I know the Lions have got a lot of buzz around them as they head into the 23 season considering how they finished last year and the way that they were able to eliminate the Packers from postseason contention on their own field at Lambeau. There is so much hope and promise starting to pay off the young talent but also they're a team to watch because of Dan Campbell.

How about that? So their general manager as he has retooled the backfield. Dalvin Cook, a little message to Minnesota fans but also what he's waiting for before he signs a free agent deal and then some baseball and basketball mixed in too.

Oh and Rory, he's never going to let it go ever. So whether you find us on Twitter or Facebook, our YouTube channel After Hours with Amy Lawrence, we've got a brand new summer video edition of Ask Amy Anything. It's always good to connect with you. I hope you got big plans this weekend.

I do. This is the weekend that I'm, oh no you're gonna have to wait because instead we're gonna talk some football. We are days away from the first training camps opening up and the first rookies officially reporting.

Imagine how they feel. So to Las Vegas we go now. It's the home of Visa Network. It's also the home of Mike Pritchard, former NFL wide receiver. He was a top 15 draft pick. Now he is the lead NFL analyst for Visa and part of the Lombardi line where he's often filling in for Mike Lombardi.

Let's start with something fun, shall we Mike? I hear people talk about how hard knocks is a negative. Aaron Rodgers not thrilled about it.

Why? Why would hard knocks be a negative? It won't be a negative. I mean, I think what people need to realize is hard knocks and the Jets, they're going to have to create some storylines. You know, I think they potentially had a big storyline, but it got resolved with the Quinn Williams signing and the big deal for him. So, you know, they're not going to have to deal with that much like Rex Ryan had to deal with Darrell Rebus back in the day when the hard knocks was participating with the Jets. So that storyline is out the way.

Aaron Rodgers is a storyline himself. There's a lot of characters on that roster too. So, you know, it's going to be interesting because I think players, today's players are all about branding and it's going to be a great opportunity for a lot of those players on that team and that market to be able to brand themselves a little bit.

So I'm looking forward to it. I think it's going to be very interesting, a hard knocks situation this coming season. I think with the personalities like Sauce Gardner, Garrett Wilson, they've got some real personalities there, not to mention Robert Sala and of course Aaron Rodgers, plus the Zach Wilson component of the whole thing.

Yeah, it feels like they got plenty for the cameras to focus on. Absolutely, and the focus is not going to be all on Aaron Rodgers too, right? Because, I mean, I know he is the Hall of Famer and waiting. He is supposed to be the difference maker as a quarterback for that franchise now. But like you just mentioned, I mean, there are so many different ways that hard knocks can go.

The interesting stories, the interesting backgrounds, you know, just the interesting characters like you mentioned. I think the whole situation is right. I mean, that market too, back in New York with that team, a lot of people are excited from a betting standpoint about the Jets as well as from a fandom standpoint as well. Well, I'm glad you bring that up because I'm wondering, how do you see this new look Jets team impacting the division, the AFC East as a whole?

They're a complete team. I think Coach Sala did what has not been done in a lot of years. You know, you can go back to Bill Parcells when you can change a culture and that's what needed to happen. I mean, the Jets routinely was picking at the top of the draft. They were drafting excellent player, a lot of talent, but their culture was not at a level where it needed to be. And I think Robert Sala coming into the organization and kind of changing that.

You remember the, I'm taking receipts comments at the podium. I mean, that right there is something that as a player, one, you respect the fact that your coach, your head coach put that out there and now we've got to back them up. But then also the willingness for head coaches to do that, knowing that his players will back them up. So that spoke volumes to me about the Jets and now assimilating the talent that they've had over the last few years in that you add in this type of quarterback.

I think it has the makings of being very, very special. I did something on BCN in which I did track record of quarterbacks that are hall of fame in waiting. In other words, these are quarterbacks that are hall of famers already, but they're just still playing.

Uh, and their track record has been outstanding in terms of being to the playoffs and even winning super bowls. I mean, that's Tom Brady, that's Pete Manning, that's Warren Moon. It's Joe Montana, you know, quarterbacks that left their other, uh, situation or other team, uh, for whatever reason, Brett far for whatever reason. And yet they go on and have success with their new team, uh, even though they're in the twilight of their career. So I think Aaron Rogers fits that description as well.

And, you know, I think he's going to incorporate himself and be very comfortable with that culture up there in New York as well. Mike Pritchard's a former NFL wide receiver and spent years both in Denver, as well as in Seattle and Atlanta. As you talk about hall of famers, you cross paths with one when you were in Denver, how much does that change the depth of the offense? How much does it change the knowledge and just the way that the offense is approached when you have a guy who is of that caliber like an Aaron Rogers?

Oh yeah, it is outstanding. I mean, I got the privilege to play with Brett Farve at the beginning of his career, not quite hall of famer at that point, but we all know how that story ended. And then, you know, my journey continued with John Elway and Warren Moon. Um, these guys are just on a different level. I mean, uh, I, I was going into my fourth year in the national football league when I linked up with John Elway and I thought I knew a lot, uh, at the receiver position, but I didn't know half as much as I needed to know.

Uh, and John Elway kind of brought that out for me and same thing, similar to Warren Moon, or, you know, I'm going into, uh, the latter years of my career, but yet I'm still learning from these great quarterbacks. It just, they're so meticulous. They want to strive for perfection on each and every play each and every competitive situation.

Uh, and not everybody's wired that way. Right. But I think when you get to that level, when you're, when you've had that much success, you have to find ways to motivate yourself. You have to find flaws so you can still get better.

All right. And I think, uh, you know, the fact that Aaron Rogers is still playing, there's something out there that he's chasing and as a better, um, focused and on that, I really want to know, and I think it's another Superbowl, uh, because he could hang it up. He could just walk away and he could have hosted jeopardy jeopardy, right? I mean, he could have done, he can still do a lot of things, but he's still playing this game that he loves and something's motivating him.

And if you give me a great player that's motivated, then usually a positive things will happen. Did you also cross paths with Mike Shanahan when you were in Denver? Because he's is now a semifinalist for the hall of fame.

Yeah, I did. Uh, so I started with Wade Phillips. Uh, he was the head coach when I got traded to Denver and then, um, uh, Pat Boland moved on from Wade Phillips to Mike Shanahan. So I was able to get coached by Mike Shanahan, Gary Kubiak as well. And uh, that, that was the beginning, uh, or the new beginning of coach Shanahan as a head coach. And that led to what I believe is the hall of fame career.

He absolutely should be in all of things. What made him a special coach? Attention to detail, uh, meticulous.

It's the same qualities as a player, uh, that the competitiveness too, you know, uh, you were not going to out coach or out scheme Mike Shanahan. He was going to have an answer for something. He was going to know, uh, exactly what you were trying to do against his offense. And, uh, we had a thing, you know, when, when somebody, you know, that, that person, it could be a family member, it could be a friend, but they come over to your house and, you know, they get into your kitchen, right? They, they start opening up your refrigerator. They start going through your covers and seeing what you got. We all know some people like that.

Well, that there was a term that we use with Mike Shanahan, coach Shanahan, that he would get into the kitchen of the defensive coordinator on the opposing team. And, uh, he would know their schemes. He would know their tendencies. He would know them inside and out.

And that would just make the game so much easier for everybody. So yeah, absolutely well deserving as a finalist, but I hope he gets into the hall of fame. We're excited to have Mike Pritchard back on the show. Former NFL wide receiver is also now part of Visa.

As he's mentioned, he's their lead NFL analyst after hours on CBS sports radio. So here we are, we're just days away from the start of training camps, which blows me away. Cause I feel like the summer just began, Mike, what goes on with a player, what type of emotions, what type of last second preparation before you get to camp?

Well, you know, Amy, I think at this point, everybody, you know, they had their vacation after the mandatory many caps and everything. And so you had about a good, um, a good mental break, at least in terms of about four or five, maybe even six weeks, but you also needed to stay in shape because you have these conditioning tests, uh, that you have to pass because you want to get off on the right foot and make that impression impression once you get back in and certainly be in shape too. And, you know, there was a time where training camp actually helped you as a player get into shape, but with three preseason games and the rapid nature and the veteran players, they're not going to play that much as we know. Uh, so it's important and it's vital, uh, that these guys, even though they had a break, uh, still stayed in tip-top shape. So you want to make sure that once you get to camp, that you're going to pass these conditioning tests and, uh, and you're really going to hit the ground running and, and also avoid injury if you can't. Right.

I mean, that's, that's the nature of the beast. Uh, I think for a lot of players, uh, you don't want to get nicked up. You don't want to have a pulled muscle. You don't want to have anything that could, um, handcuff you for the beginning of the year. So, uh, absolutely. I think everybody's excited, uh, but at the same time, making sure that, uh, everything is kosher when it comes to being in shape for your team.

All right. I need to know for real, Mike, what was the attitude among veterans about training camp? Cause we hear all these jokes about how guys have been in the league a few years that don't really want to go back to dorms. If that's the case, they don't really want to be there at the beginning of camp, but it's a lot of conditioning and it's freaking hot.

So when you were a veteran, how did you actually feel about camp? Well, I mean, back in the day, back in my day, I mean, you know, way back when, I mean, it was really two days, right? I mean, we, we had, but we called it hell hell week. And then we would go out there 10 days in a row with double practices, pad it up. Uh, and then we would get physical, we would hit in both of those practices. So, uh, it was hell week. I mean, it was, uh, it was grueling, uh, now because of player safety, uh, and, and, uh, you know, better minds are prevailing here in terms of we don't need to have that type of punishment on our bodies and get ready for the season. So it is grueling because you are away from your families. But I think too, when you look at certain teams and the facilities that they have, like for instance, the Las Vegas Raiders, I would love to go to training camp for the Las Vegas Raiders because you have everything virtual reality.

You have every equipment. Um, I would spend the night actually in the facility. I wouldn't go back to the hotel if I didn't have to, because it's so exquisite. Uh, so it's so different than, you know, staying in the best Western, not to knock a best Western or dorm, but, but yeah, I mean, I think today's players, they have it so much better, so much more comfortable. Do you think that is the, the better route or it better prepares them for what's to come in?

Which style do you prefer, Mike? For myself, the injuries that I had, uh, during my career, it was a lacerated kidney. That was something flukish. Uh, and then I tore up my meniscus, which can happen. I think certainly, you know, during the course of the career.

Yeah. I think iron sharpens iron, to be honest with you. I think you need to have padded up practices. You need to get in condition, uh, in order for the rigors of the season, but now they're at 17 games and it's all about load management now. So, uh, I think from a soft tissue standpoint, being a saint and being a shape is vital.

You cannot afford to pull a bus or have a strain. Uh, but you know, those other injuries in a contact sport, a lot of times those are unavoidable anyway. So, uh, I like it because it is addressing players safely and I can appreciate that. I can respect that.

Uh, but at the same time, yeah, I mean, I'm, I'm old school in terms of iron sharpening iron, and there has to be a certain level of contact in order to get ready to understand the contact that you're going to have each and every game day. Mike Pritchard is with us from Las Vegas, where of course the Raiders make their home. Pretty soon the A's will likely make their home. Uh, the WNBA is there about to host its all-star game. We know that there's been talk about an NBA team landing in Las Vegas.

So Mike, you're there. How is Vegas doing with this mass influx of not just events, but actual leagues making their home there? Vegas is handling it all like a champ. I mean, don't forget UFC too. We just had this major UFC events and, you know, if anything about Vegas and what people are understanding or realizing, and certainly if you own a franchise or if you want to partner up, uh, in terms of a major sports league, uh, this is a city to do it with because it's a global city. You know, there's very few cities like that. New York, uh, you can think of Atlanta, certainly LA, uh, and then Las Vegas, Las Vegas attracts people from all over the world, uh, from a market standpoint.

And, uh, I think you want to get your product in front of those eyes because that's branding, you know, your people from across the pond or, you know, they're taking back gear from the Raiders or they're taking back gear from the aces or, or the Knights. Uh, there's an attraction. There's an affinity certainly for Vegas. We've got Formula One coming here and that's going to be spectacular.

Uh, later on, uh, this year, then the Superbowl, uh, beginning of next year, certainly. So, uh, Vegas can handle it all. I mean, we have the hotel rooms, we're a hospitality industry.

We know how to entertain, uh, and certainly people will not be disappointed once they get to Las Vegas. So as a guy who grew up here and could not even imagine professional sports being in my city, the way that they, they are now, I mean, it's incredible. We got a Stanley cup championship, we got a WNBA championship and we'll see what the Raiders can do. The pressure is on, uh, for, for the next sports, the major sports franchise to win championship. Yeah. People are going to yell at me because I did not mention the golden Knights first, of course, just having their, their ticker tape parade in honor of the Stanley cup.

So yes, the golden Knights were the first pro sports franchise there of the major teams. And yes, they deserve all of their props. So Mike, you talk about the Raiders, obviously they're going through transition, uh, as they've changed quarterbacks again, and we know in Josh McDaniel second year, there's a little more pressure, but they're in the same division as the Superbowl champions, Patrick Mahomes on one and a half legs is still dynamic. Who has the best chance, even though it's not yet training camp at making inroads at Kansas city? I think the Bengals, you know, I am so high on Cincinnati and the Bengals and, uh, you know, that young core group of players that they have offensively, uh, this is the best offensive line that Joe Burrow, uh, had in front of them in his brief career.

I mean, to bring him back Orlando Brown into that division, once again, uh, we started obviously with the Ravens and now, so he's got familiarity and, and I think they have quality depth on that offensive line. The playmakers, uh, are outstanding, uh, for the Bengals as well. And they've had this Superbowl window cracked open after their appearance in the Superbowl. Uh, they just have come up short with a few plays.

Think about it. The game against the Rams, they came up short off of just a couple plays away from winning a championship, you know, with Kansas city and, and certainly what my homes is able to do and capable of, uh, the Bengals are just a couple of plays short couple of plays away. And I know that's driving that locker room that they're just literally a couple of plays away, uh, from a championship. So I'm all for that.

I'm, I'm backing them the team that I think, uh, really has it together to, uh, knock off the teeth and get to the Superbowl and perhaps win the Superbowl as well. I cannot believe it's about time for the rat race to begin again. I know.

I know it's incredible. I, you know, you think you'd think about mandatory mini camps and then, Oh, it's weeks away. They got plenty of time.

You blink. And then all of a sudden, Nope, training camps right around the corner. So I think everybody's ready for it. It's, we're anticipating an outstanding year once again, the national football league. Oh yes. They certainly are the cash cow. Uh, they're the league every other league wants to be when it grows up. I mean, I could ask you a million more questions. So let's do this again.

As we get closer to the season. How about that? Anytime. Anytime. My pleasure. You can find Mike on Twitter at MI Pritchard retired NFL wide receivers cross paths with some of the greats in his own career.

Now you can hear him on visa as their lead NFL analyst, as well as part of Michael Lombardi show the Lombardi line in Vegas, his hometown. Again, thank you for your time. It's great to catch up with you. Absolutely enjoyed it.

Thank you so much, Amy. No negatives to hard knocks Aaron Rogers. What are you talking about? I like it. A lot of people still high on the bangles. They've got some unfinished business, but boy, are there plenty of contenders in the AFC, maybe even in the AFC West with those chargers. We'll see. I know that a couple of weeks ago, maybe even a month ago now, we did a topic here on the show where we asked you about the teams who routinely disappoint you to the point where you actually expect it. Now you expect them to set you up and then drop you like you're hot, set you up and then lower the boom.

They come up with new ways to lose and to break your heart, come up with new ways to stumble, crumble, bumble, and ultimately crush you. The chargers are one of those. So maybe not the chargers yet.

We'll see. Love to hear from you on Twitter, A Law Radio, and then our Facebook page too. Happy almost summer weekend. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio.

You are listening to the After Hours podcast. What are you up to this weekend? Actually, I was texting your friend on, I guess it was Thursday evening, right? And before I came into work and asked her what she was doing for the weekend. Now she's my beach date for next weekend. So yeah, it seems like all the Saturdays are full, but that's what the summer is supposed to be about. The summer is supposed to be about Saturdays that are full, especially when the weather is hot and I want to be on the water.

Especially when the weather is hot and I want to be on the water or near the water. So yes, this is my beach date for next weekend. But I asked her, what are you doing? She said, I have no plans.

LOL. She's a big LOL girl. I love her anyway. So I said to her, well, it's still the weekend. It's still the summertime. Of course, you don't have to work.

And that's just a, that's a plus. Anyway, a lot of people get out of town early. If the traffic in New York City is any indication, it's buzzing because of people are coming in from all over the place and not just coming into the city from local areas where they can drive in for shows and events and that kind of stuff. Just sightseeing even, but also people who are coming in from out of state, out of country. So yes, the tourism industry is back everywhere, but it's been nutso for the past three, three, four weeks, I think even before July 4th really got underway.

So it's definitely vacation season. I've had friends actually, it's really funny. This happens to me a bunch where I see friends post on Facebook photos of New York City and they're here. And I wouldn't say these are my closest friends obviously, but I had a college friend who was here for gosh, for a week on vacation and she and her family were taken to the sites and I saw on Facebook that she was here and didn't have a chance to catch up with her because she waited till the last second to ask me. But yeah, it is kind of funny.

That's how I find out that acquaintances are here. Anyway, I'm just thrilled there's no commute for the next couple of nights. That's my favorite thing about the weekend and also not having to stay up all night.

I do sleep pretty well at night, better at night than I do in the daytime. I'll say that to be sure. Uh, and this weekend, even as I say, I don't have to commute and it's not a commute, but I am turning around with my college roommate who will be driving down from Maine on Friday morning. So yeah, I'm getting up way earlier than I normally would on Friday for her, but it'll be worth it.

We're doing just a movie and Thai food night on Friday. Um, but on Saturday we're getting up bright and early and we're driving into New York City because she, for her milestone birthday, we just both had milestone birthdays for her milestone birthday gift, she wanted to go up to the crown of the Statue of Liberty and you have to get these tickets months in advance. They sell out. They only allow a certain number of people to go up into the crown and they sell out months in advance.

I've never been able to get them. Now great that I haven't been sitting on the website and looking every, every couple of months, but I've tried in the past with other friends and family members to get tickets to go up to the crown because I've never been and I never could. So she actually planned her entire trip around when she could get the tickets. And I remember she was looking for them in March or April.

I can't remember which one it was. It was early spring. And she told me, yeah, they're sold out on pretty much every weekend except for this one. And there's, there's a couple of tickets left for this time of the day. So they really do keep a tight, a tight hold on the number of tickets.

They only allow so many. We have to hike a lot of steps, but we're really looking forward to it. Although it's supposed to be 86 degrees with a heat index over 90. So that's going to be a lot of fun hiking up all those steps and winding our way around the top of the Statue of Liberty to get up to the crown. But Ooh, it's going to be amazing.

And as it turns out, this is actually kind of funny. Bob, my significant other is jealous because it's not my fault. He wants to go up to the crown as well. And so I got tickets for when he's going to be back in New Jersey.

So he's here in New Jersey in late June and he's not coming back until September. So I got tickets for his birthday gift to go up in the crown, but it's not my fault that Colleen had already bought tickets. So he's kind of mad that I'm going up into the crown without him. I mean, what do you want me to do? Tell her? No, no, I can't. She already bought the tickets, but I can't. I can't help it, Bob. She predated you.

So what are you going to do? And she's my college roommate. So I got to have some loyalty to my college roommate. Actually, Colleen and I played high school basketball against each other. So we both grew up in New Hampshire.

We went to rival high schools and we played high school hoops against each other. And then we also went to the same college, Messiah College for undergrad. And she and I ended up rooming together for our junior and senior years, actually sophomore, junior and senior years. So she was my college roommate for three years and we've remained tight. And last year was my trip to Maine.

She lives in Portland. So it was my trip to Maine to visit her. We did the lighthouse tour and, oh, we did a friendsgiving, actually. It was right before Thanksgiving.

It was the weekend before. So we had fun putting together a menu and cooking and baking together and did a lot of walking, a lot of hiking so that we could eat all of our good food. And now it's Colleen's return trip to my house and to New Jersey.

I got to be honest. As excited as she is about the crown, that's probably the most important thing to her on this trip. She's also way too excited for my cat and my dog and the time she gets with my cat and my dog. There's a chance, now I don't know that she would ever tell me this, but maybe lie detector test. There's a chance that she is more excited about the cat and the dog than she is about me. Maybe, just maybe.

Although neither Penny nor Sugar can take her into New York City and make sure that she gets in the right place at the right time for our, our ferry over to, to Liberty Island. So, all right. I'm really excited about it. That'll be not just a great photo op.

Oh my gosh. It's going to be an amazing photo op to be in the crown, on the crown, in the crown, at the crown, in the crown. I think in the crown sounds right. We're in the crown.

Yes. We're going to be one of the jewels in the crown. We're going to be jewels in the crown. That's what we're going to do. It'll be so cool to take photos from up there in the crown.

But also, if you're not familiar, the Statue of Liberty is on an island that's right in the middle of the Hudson River directly across from lower Manhattan, which is where the Freedom Tower is located. And that's what we're doing in the afternoon. So we're doing the crown tour, the crown extravaganza in the morning.

And then we have tickets to go up in the Freedom Tower in the afternoon. So it's a good thing neither one of us is afraid of heights. That's the only thing I'm worried about with Bob is that he's afraid of heights.

How do you think he's going to play with the crown? What do you think, Ryan? All I know is that if you are afraid of heights, I don't know why you do it. It was like 100, 200 stories. I'm going to like, I'm Googling Statue of Liberty height. It's got to be up there.

It's got to be. It's 305 feet. So the statue itself is 151 feet. Lady Liberty stands on a pedestal that is actually three feet taller than that. So the entire structure is 305 feet. How high can you walk up? Let's see. The crown is located 162 steps above the top of the pedestal and 377 steps above the ground. So it's obviously, I mean, you could find pictures that people have ever posted from the crown.

Oh my gosh, I can't wait. It could be a lot worse. Yeah, 305 feet. So the problem is when we went hiking, we went hiking in West Virginia, we were much farther up than 305 feet.

But you're looking down at not just an island, but the water, right? So we did do some hiking and he would not go very close to the edge. We were up on some rock formations at the top and he was really nervous. He did take some pictures from up there. He took some pictures of me, but he was very careful to leave me between him and the edge of the cliff so that he was okay with me going over, but not him. Don't risk death.

Don't do anything stupid. Yeah, no one's hanging off the crown. Could you imagine? I'm sure people have tried it. I'm sure people have tried it.

That's my weekend. The statue. Have you ever been to the crown?

I've seen it, not in it. Okay, well this is a first for me too. I've been in the New York City area now 11 years, almost a full 11 years and this was my first time.

Cannot wait. Lady Liberty, she is an awesome landmark, but also I always feel patriotic when I'm there. So from there to the Freedom Tower we will go, which is also incredible and much higher. That with the Spire is the tallest building in New York City, but it's just an incredible individual, well incredible feat, engineering feat that they were able to build there on the site of the Twin Towers, but more beyond that, more than that, it's the spirit.

It's again the patriotism. It's the significance of that building going up where one of our, you know, worst tragedies, worst days took place. So in Lower Manhattan now I always gaze at the Freedom Tower and her blue glass. I really enjoy taking people up to the top there because it's a 360 view and you can get on a clear day, you can get views of multiple states and the water looks real pretty. So that's it, we're doing the Heights tour on Saturday. I cannot wait, that's gonna be so much fun.

If you have summer plans you can let me know. On Twitter, A Law Radio, then on our Facebook page After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Also it's official now, the Screen Actors Guild and also the American Film and TV and Radio Association, we, and I say we because this is my union, we are officially on strike. I'm not getting up and walking out, in fact I'm hoping that I don't have to cross a picket line, but SAG-AFTRA, and this is the actors, are on strike. They could not come up with a new deal with their producers and so now they're on strike.

It's the first time since 1960 that Hollywood's actors and writers are on strike at the same time. If you love your TV, if you love your crime dramas, that's me, I love crime dramas. If you're still into the some of the medical shows, oh my gosh, if you love the Chicago Fire PD and Chicago Med, I love Chicago PD. It's one of my favorite shows and I'm actually mostly nervous about Seal Team because that is my all-time, well not my all-time favorite, it's my favorite show right now. I love Seal Team and I even got Paramount Plus just so I could watch Seal Team.

I know you can laugh at me, right? So this makes me pretty nervous if they're messing with my fall TV schedule because TV is my escape, does that make sense? I think it probably is for a lot of people. Oh yeah, I know a ton of people including my parents that love like NCIS. I love those shows. My mom loves the 911.

Oh yeah, does she? Uh-huh, there's three of them now or there were three of them, maybe there's just two now. So all of these shows are in jeopardy. Not only do they not have scripts right now but they don't have actors, not that you want them to ad-lib, but all of your fall favorites, all of the TV shows that you watch, all in jeopardy right now. So when will it start to bother you? When will you notice, do you think? Maybe in mid-September when your shows don't return or when it's reruns where your shows are supposed to be or when it's, oh no, we're gonna get a mad influx of reality TV. That's what's gonna happen. Reality TV, unscripted, I'm using my air quotations because I think some of it's scripted but that's what's gonna happen. Reruns and reality TV, oh that sounds terrible, good thing we have football.

I'm gonna, I have actually a queue, I don't know if you do Ryan, but I have a queue of TV shows that I need to get to, movies that I haven't watched, I think okay that's on the list, that's on the list and I haven't done it yet so this could be the fall where that's all I do other than football of course. Your parents, you may have to recommend that to your parents. They don't, they can barely figure out how to use a fire stick, it's hopeless. It's embarrassing. It's bad. That's cute. All right so on Twitter, ALawRadio and then our Facebook page, our YouTube channel, glad to have you with us as we hurdle our way toward the weekend.

Happy almost Friday. You are listening to the After Hours Podcast. You know when you see somebody get hurt on TV and like you see everybody come dap them up and like get their love and like it was like all that happened in a blur but it was all like the trainers came up to me, I'm on the ground, I wasn't in shock, I was just more so like I've been hurt before but not like this and I knew something was wrong, you know what I'm saying, I knew something had to be real.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. The first extensive conversation we've had from Kyler Murray discussing his tour in ACL on December 12th, that was in a game against the Patriots and it was kind of a rough go before that anyway. He got the big contract, the 230 million dollars right before they started the season. It was this, I wouldn't say it was a huge surprise necessarily but it was a struggle all of the off season between the Cardinals, the front office and Kyler and what he wanted and it was tension.

Unfortunately, the contract didn't fix the tension, at least not the tension with his then head coach Cliff Kingsbury. Now that continued all the way through the year and it was a rough go for Kyler and for the Cardinals pretty much from the get-go and a lot of people blamed him. It's never that easy, it's a team sport with a lot of peeps on the field and I know everyone wants, not everyone, I'll take that back, a lot of people reduce it to hey if your quarterback's really good, well then you're a winner.

It's not that simple, it's really not. We love our QB news here, we're obsessed with our quarterbacks but it's never just about the QB. Although the QB and the coach and certainly their relationship set a tone for the rest of the team, a lot of times they can and it felt like the tone from Kyler, even going back to the beginning, gets the contract, this is it, gonna sail forward, gonna build on what happened and instead year four was a dud, year four for Kyler.

It's after hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. Yeah, the whole idea was to take the steps forward to win, not just with the contract, that wasn't all, it was about win on the field and yet the back and forth, the push and pull, it really, until his injury, it really never played out the way that the Cardinals hoped. My whole career like football, baseball, a little bit of basketball played growing up, never really lost.

I mean football especially, never really lost. You know, playing at Allen, A&M, going to OU, yeah it's frustrating, it's frustrating, especially when, you know, I feel like since I've been in the league all we've done is go up, you know, I got better every year and then to take like a, you know, hit a wall year four after, especially after going through the whole contract thing, like I got COVID in camp, I hurt my wrist in camp, so I missed a lot of those reps and then trying to play catch up during the season it was just like, it was just kind of like a compilation of things going on, but you work your whole life to kind of, I've done everything right as far as off the field, on the field, you know what I'm saying, I try to, try to treat people the right way, but it is what it is, you know what I'm saying, I think winning, winning cures all and it's been tough to do that, you know what I'm saying, with some of the circumstances that we had to deal with, but like I said, I think we're heading the right direction. Kyler Murray on Cardinals flight plan, so this is the actual Cardinals website. If you remember, his entrance into the NFL coincided with Kliff Kingsbury getting hired. Kliff got hired and then they drafted. Kyler Murray, number one overall and it was a surprise because just the year before they had drafted Josh Rosen in the top 10.

I think it was the top 10. Now Rosen never really got a fair shake, that was a mess. Steve Wilks, he's an incredible defensive guy, wasn't ready to be a head coach and so they threw Josh Rosen into the fire and kind of ruined him. No way to know if he would have ever become a viable NFL QB because of how it started there and what a mess it was after that.

They get rid of Wilks, they hire Kingsbury out of Texas Tech. Was he at Tech? I think he was at Tech and then they draft Kyler and the two of them come in together and the relationship was supposed to be this revelatory relationship. Speak the same language, have the same goals, start together and yet last year we know that it was not that way. Kliff was frustrated, there were times when Kyler was yelling at him on the field and I know that's not the indication that oh it's a terrible relationship. Temperatures and the temperature is hot on the sidelines, tempers can be hot on the sidelines, emotions are running high, there's a lot happening there especially when you're losing. As Kyler said, winning cures everything in sport but they were dead last in the NFC West last year. There were four and thirteen and that's not all after Kyler got hurt. Kingsbury ends up getting fired and to the point where he didn't even want to think about coaching again.

Remember he went to Thailand to see his girlfriend and did not book a return ticket. Promptly said I'm not interested politely but promptly thank you for your interest other teams but I am not interested now he did return but at the time he had soured so badly he wanted nothing to do with coaching. Now Kyler doesn't talk about Kliff but he does talk about their new head coach Jonathan Gannon and the connection with Gannon so far. You know me and JG hit it off, you know he sees things the way I see things. He can relate to the guys and he you know genuinely feels like he believes in the guys and trying to get the guys better, me better. I feel like you know you run through a wall for that type of guy you know what I'm saying and that's the type of energy that he brings so it's been good. I know he doesn't mention Kliff Kingsbury by name but it does feel as though he's making a point about the differences between Jonathan Gannon who comes from the Eagles system remember was their offensive coordinator I'm sorry defensive, defensive coordinator and Kliff Kingsbury. Again doesn't explicitly say it but you can almost read between the lines there and I like how he starts out and says he thinks he sees things the way that I do as if that's the precursor for all success with coaches and quarterbacks he sees things the way that I do not we see things the same way nope he sees them the way that I do gosh all right we'll have more from Kyler Murray as he's still targeting week one to return from that torn ACL. Top of the hour an update from Dalvin Cook himself he's got one require well one that he's going to share with us requirement of the team where he ends up next plus Rory still hot it's after hours CBS Sports Radio.