After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 3

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Welcome to After Hours. I'm perfectly comfortable and confident in my knowledge that the Earth is spinning on its axis. That's why we have gravity, and that's why we don't fall off. The sun and moon, the sun travels just like the moon. The sun and moon are the same shape and size. Wait, wait, hold on. Did you say the sun and the moon are the same shape and size? They're about the same size. No, the sun and the moon are not the same size, man.

After about maybe eight, nine months, I was told there's a thousand percent sewers that the Earth is playing. No, no, sir, sir. This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. I can't stop watching Shohei Ohtani's backflip. I mean, he takes that bat and he chucks it. That's what you get for intentionally walking him earlier in the game and then choosing to pitch to him with a runner on.

Why don't they walk him again, Amy? And you're trailing by two runs. They even had a conference on the mound and chose to pitch to him and he teed off as in teed off on the pitch that he saw. And after he clubbed it, because the second it left his bat, it was obvious it was his thirty fifth home run. Major League leading thirty fifth home run. He took the bat by its handle and just chucked it.

I'm mesmerized by it. This was Angels against the Yankees. He was one hit shy of the cycle as well, plus had a walk and a strikeout. A lot of the bats for Shohei Ohtani. Of course, that is his job as the DH. He could absolutely be the lead story on every sports radio and TV show and program from now until the trade deadline and beyond. As much as I get it. There could be Ohtani fatigue.

I'm not there yet. I do know that if you are an avid listener of sports radio, you're going to hear it a bunch. And to be fair, the Yankees did their job in the fifth inning when they chose to walk him intentionally. They got a line out to end the inning and leave the bases loaded with Angels, so they did. It worked in the fifth when they chose to pitch around him and they got out of a jam.

But why would you pitch to him in the seventh inning? You're up by two runs. Shohei Ohtani has fourteen home runs now in the seventh inning or later. Now, not all of them have given the Angels the lead or have sealed a victory. But didn't he have a home run in the ninth inning against who was it on Sunday?

Stroh's. That's right, Astros. He had a ninth inning home run that turned out it wasn't nothing.

It was it was important, but it wasn't a game winner. The Astros had taken the lead in the top of the ninth. But they they choose to pitch around him in the fifth. They escape a jam and then they choose to pitch to him in the seventh with a runner on, knowing that if he smashes a home run, the game is tied. Why?

I don't understand why the change in strategy. Either way, if you've not seen the Ohtani bat flip, it's out there. It's real and it's spectacular.

It's I mean, it's just so much personality from him. And you know exactly what he's saying when he flips that bat up in the air dramatically. Plus the Angels walk off.

It's after hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio, if not for Shohei Ohtani. Well, then we're probably talking a little more about the trio of running backs that did not get long term deals. Will they or won't they play on the franchise tag? Well, according to industry insiders, Tony Pollard will be in camp fairly early for the Cowboys, if not right away. He is expected to play on the franchise tag. He's actually signed his tenders, so he does expect to be there for the ten point one million dollars.

Josh Jacobs and Saquon Barkley have not signed their tender. And right now, both are expected to try to make a statement and hold out. I wouldn't say it's futile.

But here here's the irony in it. I know you're trying to express your displeasure, voice your displeasure, and that is certainly your prerogative. But if you do plan to play and not hold out a la Le'Veon Bell. Then why are you giving money away by skipping training camp?

You're. Theoretically upset because you're not getting paid more money. But you are getting fined every day you miss training camp and giving away money. I'm not saying. That they don't have a point. This is the plight of running backs in the NFL.

It definitely is. There are very few who get paid a second free agent deal. So beyond their rookie contract, they get a first free agent deal, a fat free agent deal, and then they get paid again. A lot of times teams really start to devalue them, though the numbers do bear it out for the majority of running backs. Production declines fairly dramatically if they've been feature backs and they're taking a lot of pounding and a lot of mileage on their legs. It starts to decline.

The production and the productivity starts to decline once they get to twenty seven, twenty eight. Again, not every back. But you're rolling the dice and teams know that and they have other expenses and other guys they they want to pay. And these days. When you can't hit a quarterback without getting a flag and there's pass interference.

Every snap drives me insane. Well, there's other places that. You deem priorities if you're an NFL team. And it's more of a pass happy league now. Last year, it was not actually. It's much more of an emphasis on running the ball. Scoring and passing numbers were down.

Will that trend continue into twenty three? We shall see. And if you missed my conversation with Raiders insider Hondo Carpenter from Vegas last hour. We asked him about Josh Jacobs and the plan and also do the Raiders want him back.

So a lot of good intel there. Our podcast is available every weekday morning within minutes of the show being done. And the links are posted on both Twitter after our CBS and our Facebook page.

And while producer J is out. Sometimes the link isn't shared right away on social. But you can always just go to the last post that had the link or go to the individual interviews.

I post those every afternoon. Our phone numbers eight five five two one two four two two seven. That's eight five five two one two four CBS. I mentioned Le'Veon Bell. Did you all hear? I don't have Snapchat, but it is anymore. I used to have Snapchat. It became very toxic for me, so I had to get rid of it.

He was on Snapchat, but his snap got picked up all over social media. He's decided to voice his regret for the way he held out when he was a member of the Steelers and then for how he left. I never apologized to the fans for really sitting down or leaving the Steelers. I never apologized.

So I'm going to say I apologize for leaving the best damn fans there is in this damn world. I shouldn't have left. I apologize.

I should never have left. I apologize. That's my fault.

That's on me. Le'Veon Bell on Snapchat. I was thinking about it, thinking about snap and how unless you screenshot, which of course is sent back to the creator of the message or the video so they know.

I mean, I'm not cool in any way, shape or form, but I understand from my much cooler friends that it is considered kind of creepy to screenshot anything on Snapchat. The understood or the, let's see, how do I want to say it? What's that phrase? It's without being expressed. It's just understood. It's expressly understood that you do not keep snaps. That snaps are meant to be viewed and then exited stage left. And so when you screenshot a snap, you're you're breaking with etiquette. It's creepy.

It's creepy creeperton. So I was wondering for Le'Veon Bell, why use Snapchat? You make an apology and it sounds sincere. And in addition, you you're you're admitting that you should have done it a long time ago in essence, but you do it on Snapchat where the apology could theoretically disappear.

It's like Mission Impossible in 10 seconds. This message will self-destruct. But unfortunately for Le'Veon Bell or fortunately, I can't imagine he didn't want it out there.

It's just funny that he would choose Snapchat as opposed to a different social media platform. He apologizes to the fans. And he's got regrets. This goes back to 2018. He didn't.

And maybe a cautionary tale, right? For Saquon Barkley, for Josh Jacobs. He did not want to play into the franchise tag. He'd done it the year before.

He was ticked off. The team hadn't given him a long term deal. And remember, for those of you who were following either the show here or following football at the time, you may remember we got teased throughout the mid the mid middle section, the middle portion of the season when he would come back. It was going to be week seven, that it was going to be week eight, that it was going to be week nine, that it was going to be week 10. And then finally he decided, screw it, I'm not coming back at all. And so he set out the entire season because he wanted that long term deal.

But that was the end of him in Pittsburgh. And as he says, can we hear it one more time if you don't mind? He says, I never apologized, but he also has indicated that he regrets the decision. I never apologized to the fans for really sitting down or leaving the Steelers. I never apologized.

So I'm going to say I apologize for leaving the best damn fans there is in this damn world. I shouldn't have left. I apologize.

I should never have left. I apologize. That's my fault.

That's on me. You remember he was a guy who was a was either carrying or catching the ball. And touching the ball more than any other player in the NFL or non quarterback in the NFL. But once he left the Steelers, he signed with the Jets and remember the Jets kind of walked into the trap. They gave him this deal and he then felt justified.

Paraphrasing here. I knew it. I bet on myself.

I won. That was how he felt in 2019. And he also said his physical body felt better than it had in years, which I can understand. You take a year off, of course, your muscles, they're going to feel better. Your overall health is going to be improved because you're not getting pounded either in practice or in games.

Of course, you're going to feel better. Whatever lingering injuries you have, they've likely healed themselves from the time off and the rest on your body. But he was never the same. He didn't even last two years in New York. They were already looking for a trade partner in 2020 and they ultimately just released him. He was with the Chiefs, kind of spotty there as a backup. And then Ravens and Buccaneers. Just a few more carries didn't work in either place, really.

And it can't work with the Ravens where they like to run, run, run the ball, then that's a problem. He admits now he shouldn't have taken off. He shouldn't have held out. He shouldn't have left. That's my fault.

That's on me. Can these other running backs, and I know it's frustrating, I get it. They feel like they are undervalued, underappreciated, used and thrown out. And more than any other position in the NFL, they are. But while you're seeking that long-term deal and that security, you have a choice to make. I mean, you get more money this year because you're on the franchise tender, but you also don't have the signing bonus.

You don't have any type of long-term security. We know that the Giants offered Saquon Barkley a deal, and the Raiders had a deal on the table for Josh Jacobs as recently as last weekend. I understand there's such a thing as respect and wanting to be respected for, in Jacobs' case, a career year, in Barkley's case, a resurgent season in which he was healthy. But there also is a track record for these guys dealing with injuries.

So I hope that they get it worked out. It doesn't sound like either one of those guys is going to hold out for an entire season. That would be a really bad idea because NFL teams do cycle through running backs without much of a thought. Hey, quick eulogy, and then on to the next.

Oh, truly, at the running back position. It's next man up. On Twitter, A Law Radio, love to hear from you. Oh, yes, unspoken. Unspoken rules. Also, this has nothing to do with sports whatsoever, but, you know, sometimes I tweet and talk about subjects that have nothing to do with sports. Why? Because none of us is so one-dimensional that we only think and talk about one subject our entire lives.

I mean, that'd be boring anyway. I brought, I'm on a fruit kick, always on a fruit kick in the summertime. Not a fruit cake, mind you, a fruit kick. So I eat a lot of fresh fruit in the summer. Being in the Northeast, there are certain times of the year, stretches of the year, where the fruit is not as good and it costs a lot more because it's coming from other parts of the country or other countries. But this time of the year, the fruit is awesome.

So let's see. Since Sunday, I've had blueberries, blackberries, bananas, apple, and right now, my absolute favorite. Now, I do love mango and I love watermelon, but is there a better snack in the summertime than fresh cherries? I can start eating these things and before you know it, I have eaten a half a pound. But they're, not only are they great for you, they're delicious and I see no problem with it. I do, working the overnights, a lot of times crave carbs, especially when I'm tired, I crave carbs.

And fruits do have carbs, but good carbs and so tasty. But really, in the Northeast, and I'm in New Jersey, that's where I live, where I do my grocery shopping, you can only really get cherries for under $8 a pound for maybe three months out of the year. So right now, I'm on a cherry kick.

Is there a better snack in the summertime than fresh cherries? All right, so find me on Twitter, Facebook page two, pictures are out there from the Statue of Liberty climb. Coming up, you are not going to believe what I had to pick up off my driveway. Why can't I have pets who will help with these types of things?

Oh, that's kind of gross, actually. Just wait till I tell you. Glad to have you with us, as always. If you're waking up on your Tuesday, ow.

But good morning. I'm Amy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio. That's A-U-D-A-C-Y, Odyssey. You're listening to After Hours with Amy Lawrence.

Call Amy at 855-212-4CBS. Have you guys heard about this trend? And this has nothing to do with what I was going to tell you or the show. But have you heard about this trend where concert goers are throwing things on stage? Whatever it is. In some cases, it's cell phones. There have been artists who are getting hit by cell phones. Why would you throw your phone onto a stage at a concert? What are you hoping that the artist will pick it up? Record a video, take a selfie, and then, what, throw it back to you? Even Taylor Swift, as popular as she is right now, even Taylor Swift is getting hit by flying objects at concerts.

And she's not the only one. I see this headline every now and then, different genres, a lot of different artists. It's become this disturbing trend where people are chucking stuff onto the stage. Whatever happened to throwing undergarments at the stage?

Well, I think that's probably part of it, but it's become a little more hazardous. Where artists can't really dodge it, and there are a lot of different performers who are getting hit by things that come flying out of the audience. That's a thin little brick that's being thrown. Right, in fact, what did I tell you about the Statue of Liberty and being up in the crown? They keep these, they're essentially portholes, they're square, but they're real small windows.

And they do open, but they keep them closed most of the time, which is why the airflow is stagnant, and why it's so hot and steamy up there right now in July. Because if you drop your cell phone from the crown of the Statue of Liberty, you would kill someone. If it hit someone in the head at the bottom, you would kill them. Any other body part, you could severely maim them. They're not worried about, the park rangers are not worried about you dropping your phone, and oh no, your sad phone, oh no.

No, they're worried about you killing someone. And so you're not allowed to even stick your phone out to take a photo. Which is why when I could see the tablet that the Statue of Liberty is holding, that Lady Liberty is holding, I wasn't able to lean out and get a whole picture.

I could only get part of the writing on the tablet, but I did get the part that says July 4th. Pretty damn cool. But yeah, you can't even stick your phone close to the open window. And you'd rather have it open so you get a clearer shot.

So I just had to take what I could get. You can check that out on my Twitter or on Facebook. So A Law Radio or After Hours with Amy Lawrence.

Again, that has nothing to do with anything. I just happened to see another post on Twitter in which an artist is complaining about the fact that fans are acting out and throwing things at the stage. Which artist? Miranda Lambert, country music singer. Actually married to, and I don't know if he's still a New York police officer, but he was a member of the NYPD when she married him. I think they met during the pandemic.

You know, lots of crazy things happened during the pandemic. Not familiar with her work, but I recognize the name. Oh yeah, she's a really popular country artist. I think she's been an entertainer of the year.

It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence here on CBS Sports Radio. Yeah, please don't injure the artist that you pay good money to see. That makes no sense whatsoever. But whatevs, trying to think the last, oh, I go to a lot of symphony concerts. I do not throw things at the stage. Why would you do that? Throwing things at the orchestra.

Why would you do that? I just don't, I don't get it. My next concert coming up actually is the man, the myth, the legend, my favorite composer, John Williams, who has more than 100 movie scores. And I've been to tribute concerts where they play his music, but he's actually going to be conducting at Tanglewood in early August. And I managed to get a ticket. So I got a bunch of friends who were sitting on the lawn, but I got a ticket to go underneath the roof. And I'll hang out with them, but I wanted to get close enough, so I just bought a single ticket to get close enough to be able to see him. And probably going to be the only time I see him, so it's really important to me. I will not be throwing something at 91-year-old John Williams, for heaven's sakes.

That's crazy. All right, it's After Hours, CBS Sports Radio coming up. Little snippets from SEC media days where we had the likes of Brian Kelly and Jimbo Fisher, and also Greg Sankey, the commissioner of the SEC, and trying to answer some of the questions about their expansion and about why they haven't expanded more.

It's still very uncertain footing and shifting sand in college football, and really the major conferences when it comes to the top sports like basketball and football as well. But I promised you the story, and I feel as though it will be therapeutic if I share it. Over the weekend, when it was pouring down rain, I noticed that there was a dead animal in my driveway. I don't know where it came from. I try to avoid these things if I possibly can. They gross me out. My hope is always that something will come along and take it, like another animal, a scrounger. Why can't a turkey vulture land in my driveway and grab this dead animal? But for whatever reason, I happen to be in the flight path of predator birds, so birds of prey who eat small animals. Okay, so we're talking hawks, probably some vultures to be sure.

Don't ask me why, but it keeps happening. I have had a half-chewed dead squirrel in my yard. This is in my backyard. I tried mowing over him a couple times, but it didn't work, so I ultimately had to pick him up. It was so disgusting. He was half-eaten. His carcass was in my yard. Gross. That was right after I moved in.

I'm pretty sure, now I do not have, I don't know. It looked like a possum. The tail was a possum. No, no, it was a baby. It looked like a small possum or potentially a rat, though I've never seen rats in my neighborhood. I don't think we have rats in my neighborhood. But it was something that had one of those kind of nasty tails, so it could have been a possum.

Had one of those, but it was chewed up and spit out so badly that I have no idea what it actually was. I had a dead bird also in my yard last summer, and so I happened to be in the flight zone because birds keep dropping their, I guess you go on leftovers, they keep dropping their kill into my yard. It's like a graveyard. Oh, it's disgusting.

Well, no, it's not because I have to pick it up because if you don't pick those things up, they start to smell, and you can't just leave them there, although I am tempted to do that. On top of that, I had two dead squirrels in my shed that I had to shovel out. They were just, they were dead in my shed, dead in my shed.

That's a really bad horror movie. So they must have eaten poison because they climbed into their nest. They had been building nests, which I didn't realize, probably most of the wintertime, and I pulled out my lawnmower and freaked out because there were two dead squirrels in the corner of my shed, and they had curled up on their nest behind this rack that I use for my tools. I had to pull the whole thing out. Everything had to come out, and then I had to shovel them because, again, they would start to smell, and that's, ugh, no.

Anyway, latest road kill. I mean, I only say road because it was actually on my driveway, but once again, some bird dropped it or some animal dropped it. So I walked around it a couple times over the weekend because it was pouring down rain, and I just thought, okay, maybe the rain will wash it away, although I'm not sure where the rain was going to wash it. Probably just going to wash it into my yard. But then on Monday, twice, I nearly stepped on it because it's right in the driveway next to the house.

I'm talking with my hands and just hit the microphone. And when I go to the trash can, I took out the trash on Monday evening. I nearly stepped on it again. It was like, ah! So I finally had to pick it up. I thought it was a baby bird. So I was thinking maybe, because I didn't get down there and look at it on the driveway for obvious reasons, I thought it was a baby bird because it was relatively small and it had a beak, so I could see the beak.

I thought maybe it fell out of a nest or it got dropped, something like that. Yeah, I go down to pick it up. And you know how I did it? With a doggy poo bag. Not, it didn't have poo in it, but just, sorry, I never say poo on the radio, I apologize.

It's just, the whole story's gross, okay? So I'm not gonna touch it. I stick my hand in the bag. After I turn it inside out, I reach down to get it.

And as I get down there, do you know what it is, Manny? It's the head of a bird. The head of a bird. Where's the rest of it?

I don't know. Probably eaten by some other predator. But whatever it was that ate this bird body, dropped or discarded the head of the bird. It had been, so there was dried blood all around the neck. It had been chewed off. The body had been chewed off. That's gross.

Got all the good stuff before it was dropped off to you. Oh, my gosh. So bad enough that it was a bird dead in my driveway. But this was nothing but, there's a headless bird out there somewhere, probably in the other part of my yard. It was just a bird head with a really long beak and beady eyes.

And it was brittle, meaning it had obviously been dead for a while. Disgusting. But the thing was, there were starting to be flies, and I just, I had to pick it up.

So I did. For the first time in my life, I'm slurring my speech because I'm so grossed out. For the first time in my life, I picked up the head of a bird. That's something I never thought I'd say.

I need to get married fast because I'm done doing these types of things. I'm just, I'm done. There's all kinds of gross, disgusting yard animal things. I'll pick up dog poo for the rest of my life if I never have to pick up the head of a bird. Although I gotta say, I'm not sure what would be worse, the body, a headless body, or the bird behead, like the head from a beheaded bird. Gross.

I think I'd rather, I don't know, none of it. I wouldn't rather, this is four dead animals in three years. That sounds like a bad omen.

Can they just leave me alone, please? And two weeks ago, I stepped on a dead mouse. Now, it wasn't at my house. Whose house was it? It was, I don't know.

It was a house down the street. I was walking Penny, and we'd had torrential rains the day before, and so I'm assuming that these mice got washed somewhere. I missed the first one, and I was all proud of myself because I saw it and stepped directly on the second one.

Great. I was wearing flip-flops. Thankfully, no, thankfully did not, no part of my foot touched them. Thank heavens. It was a baby mouse. It was really small.

But yeah, missed the first one, all proud of myself thinking, phew, and then boom, squish right onto the second one. Seriously, I need to move. I just don't need to move.

You can't. You just got AC in your new place. I know.

The value of the house. Oh, so gross. So, so gross. Anyway, I'd rather have them outside than inside. So there's the trade-off, right? I've got no, well, I've got two animals inside, but not, not animals that I want to get rid of. Welcome, welcome to animals. I mean, I have a lot of damn hair, but I do love them. Yeah. So I have, I have my hairy Australian Shepherd cross with a golden penny.

Oh my gosh, getting close to 14. She, she sheds enough hair for a clone army every single day. And then my 15 year old cat Sugar. But at least there are no dead birds, dead squirrels, dead mice, dead anything else, dead possums. Why don't you just shovel it into the street, into the street by your house, or is that frowned upon?

Well, okay. Even if I was want to do that, it would still be sitting in front of my yard. So I didn't, I didn't really want to leave it there, but also it was at the back of my driveway, which my driveway, you can park three cars, nose to tail.

So it was at the back of my driveway by the fence. So I would have looked like a complete and total idiot, like sweeping it. Also, you never know what happens with a, with a broom. You kind of lose control. Things just go all over the place. And yeah, also I thought, I didn't realize, I thought it was a baby bird and I thought I was going to give it a proper goodbye.

And instead it was just a beady eyed, long beaked head of a bird. So gross. Just, I can't talk about it anymore. This is traumatic, but thank you for listening.

It was, it was therapeutic for a moment there. And now I'm done. I just need to move. No, I'm not moving. I love my house. I get flowers, but I also get dead birds.

What did you get for living in the Northeast? All right. On Twitter, A Law Radio, our Facebook page too.

It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence. I think my accent is pretty good. And it has gotten better, you know, throughout the recruiting process. It depends on where I'm from. If I'm in Northern Louisiana or Southern Louisiana, sometimes I get over Lake Charles. It's, it's got to change a little bit. You're listening to After Hours with Amy Lawrence.

Call Amy at 855-212-4CBS. LSU head coach Brian Kelly. He's a, he's a guy that was the subject and the butt of many jokes going back to when he took the job. As the new football coach, he trotted out his accent or was practicing, I guess, his Southern accent, his Southern drawl. And so now as he goes through another media day, right? So he, he had the Tigers last year, LSU last year, and they were a 10 win team. They actually got a victory over Alabama.

If you remember, I'm sure Crimson Tide fans do, was in overtime. But certainly for Brian Kelly, there's a lot to improve on. You'll hear him talk about that coming up.

However, it was the, the accent that made headlines. He's been working on it. So maybe you'll hear it at the perfect time in the perfect place.

I'm here with my family. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. He admits that the Tigers are not yet on the same level as the elite in the SEC, like Georgia, Alabama. We'll have a football roster that, that we'll be able to compete against Georgia. Is that right now?

No, it's not. But if we continue to do what we're doing, we're going to have a roster that can compete against Georgia. And then it's just a matter of getting it done on the playing field. Alabama and Georgia are the benchmark for what we're looking for.

And what is that in particular? It's consistency and performance year in, year out. We did it one time. So we're not in that conversation at this point. So what we're hoping that it catapults us to is a more consistent football program that is competing for championships year in and year out. At SEC Media Days, Brian Kelly, you can hear his voice is different there, but I play those cuts back to back so you can understand that that is his theme right now.

That is where he is. For the LSU Tigers, it's Georgia and it's Alabama who set the standards, but he is relentless, not just in his confidence, but in his drive to be on the same playing field as the upper echelon in the SEC. And of course that conference is expanding this year. And so Texas and Oklahoma, now members of the Southeastern Conference, and you'll hear Commissioner Greg Sankey speak about that in a moment. So how do they contend?

Brian Kelly, how do you get to that point now where you're making progress in year two and then year three? There's no question that we can contend. I think we showed that even last year and I think the roster is stronger. I think there's a confidence in the group. I think they're understanding how to prepare to be champions in this league. It's tough, but I think that they understand now what's in front of them and the challenges. And look, they're not going to sneak up on anybody. So that makes the second year a lot more difficult.

I'm here with my family. Brian Kelly says the key is consistency, and that is the case. LSU has tried a couple of different iterations there at head coach. They've obviously had some wins. They've had some success that put them on top. But now, true to roller coaster ride, they're on the bottom trying to get back up again. They're on the bottom trying to ascend back to where they are considered not just a contender in the conference, but a contender across the board in college football, right, the college football landscape. It wasn't that long ago.

I mean, really, it wasn't that long ago. Joe Burrow, right, part of a national championship. Ed Orgeron, oh my gosh, funny dude, love him. Go Tigers. Now it's Brian Kelly's job. As Texas and Oklahoma join, the conference gets stronger.

And why is that, Greg Sankey? What is it about these two programs that make them a perfect fit for the SEC? I've not been to football games in either Norman or Austin, but I've seen enough to know the answer is yes.

Actually, I take it back. I was at the Alabama-Texas game last year, and that felt like us, felt like home. And that atmosphere exists in Norman. I've had any number of chance or opportunities to watch games broadcast from Norman. I think what they bring is, from a football standpoint, historically successful programs.

I think over the history of college football, both in the top five, from a victory standpoint, when you leave football and look at what both programs have achieved. I've been to games in Norman. I was covering Oklahoma and Oklahoma State football early in my career before I broke into the network side of things and never seen anything like it. And I went to Syracuse. I got my master's degree at Syracuse, and I went to football games in the Carrier Dome. Nothing like the lifeblood that it is in the SEC or the lifeblood that it is in the Big 12.

Blown away. I say all the time that I'm so thankful I spent four years in Oklahoma because it was my introduction to the furor of college football in other parts of the country. I wouldn't be the same broadcaster now if I didn't understand that.

So Greg Sankey makes a great point. I've also been to OU Texas, which was the state fairgrounds in Dallas. Crazy stuff.

I mean, crazy stuff. One of the downsides to teams changing conferences is that we very often lose some of the rivalries that have been played over years and years, decades. Well, now that Texas is moving into the SEC and in the same conference again as Texas A&M, well, Jimbo Fisher and the Aggies get to play the Longhorns again. I think it's great. I think it's great for college football. I think it's great for Texas A&M. I mean, I think any time the old rivalries are renewed, I've been in a lot of rivalries, been fortunate to be in college football a long time and being in some of the great rivalries in college football, and this one, A&M in Texas, definitely is a great rivalry, and I think it's great for us and it's great for them and it's great for college football in general. Agreed.

Agreed. And since my significant other, Bob, is a huge Texas Longhorns fan, I'm not even allowed to talk about Oklahoma, and I don't know that I cheer for Oklahoma. It's just that I'm really familiar with it, but I also have been to a lot of games that featured Texas, too, so yeah, I don't know if I'm required. Does my relationship require me to speak highly of the Longhorns? What happens if I criticize them here on the show? He did say he's really excited to listen to the show even more when it gets to be college football season. Ruh-roh, what happens when I criticize the Longhorns? Is that the end of our relationship?

I guess I better find that out before I do it. Oh, dear. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio.