After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 3

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That's BetterHelp H-E-L-P dot com slash positive. We are hours away from the U.S. women's national team making its debut in the 2023 Women's World Cup taking place down under in Australia and New Zealand. Got a match on TV in front of me on FS1. Was really neat to watch one of the home nation's New Zealand win its first ever World Cup game 24 hours ago. And all the emotion associated with that piece of history for that nation.

Well it's different for Team USA chasing a third consecutive World Cup. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence here on CBS Sports Radio. We're really excited to welcome Stephen Goff from Auckland, New Zealand. First guest ever on After Hours and probably the first guest in my career I've ever had from down under.

Stephen with the Washington Post covering the Women's World Cup. So what's it like to be there in New Zealand for this event Stephen? Well first of all it's quite refreshing because it's winter here in the southern hemisphere.

So for instance the game last night the New Zealand game was a 7 p.m. local kickoff time. It was cold. I mean it was probably low 50s windy. I had a winter hat on by midway through the match. It's interesting that you say that because as we were watching New Zealand celebrate we noticed that a bunch of people were wearing winter coats even some of the reserves that were not on the field. But then in the stands everybody was wearing winter knit hats.

So it kind of dawned on us yeah yeah it's southern hemisphere not what we're experiencing here. Were you at the match where New Zealand won that beat Norway won nothing? Yeah yeah I was there. It was a great scene. The largest crowd by far in New Zealand's home history.

You know you can it's one of the one of the ways you can measure programs are and how they've grown. And you know New Zealand's previous record crowd was twelve thousand earlier this year when they played the U.S. and are friendly. And last night they had forty two thousand. Obviously this is a World Cup so it's a little bit different but still it's you know I think people were excited and you know New Zealand and never won a World Cup game in their history in 15 matches until last night. So yeah it was a nice moment especially after the shooting in Auckland early day it really brought some joy and some smiles to a place that's not accustomed to such violence. Not just that but there were a lot of tears from the players the coaches I think there were tears of joy but just the fact that they had finally been able to break through is pretty incredible because in the United States as much as we do love our history. There's so many different sports we can follow we're kind of used to success even if it's not the type of World Cup success for the men that other countries experience. It was just really refreshing to see how emotional they were over getting this first win in their nation's history with all the fans that were there too so that was pretty incredible. Yeah and this is the rugby country you know the all blacks the famous rugby team in New Zealand is the dominance sports figure here and you know soccer on the men's side has gained ground over the years but the women until now have really been in the shadows.

What type of spirit have you felt what type of energy so far at the games that you've attended the matches you've attended for what's an incredible global event? Yeah I mean there's only been one game here in Auckland so far the second game obviously will be the US Saturday here Friday night in the United States. Yeah like I said I mean this is a rugby country so it's not you know I don't think the public is caught up in it as much as it is in Australia but you know the success of the New Zealand team last night certainly helps and they should have another big crowd when they play in Wellington next week. Have you run into a bunch of Americans? Oh yeah there'll be thousands of them here you know typically whether it's a men's World Cup or a women's World Cup Americans travel like no other country I mean part of its economics you know you can afford to go but it's you know they'll be they'll be yeah no the stadium tomorrow will have a huge US fan presence as it did four years ago in France as it did eight years ago in Canada. Obviously those places are much easier to reach than the New Zealand but yeah it'll be a good scene.

Stephen Goff is with us from Auckland New Zealand which is where Team USA will take on Vietnam coming up in its World Cup opener as he says Saturday New Zealand time Friday night for those of us here in the US it's after hours here on CBS Sports Radio. This seems a little different one of the the characteristics of Team USA is a bunch of newcomers how have you seen them kind of blend in all of these new women who are taking on the World Cup stage for the first time? Yeah that's one of the big questions surrounding this team I mean there's still an awful lot of experience here when you're talking about Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe, Julie Ertz, Rose Lavelle you know these are names we know from the past World Cup and through the years but certainly there's 14 newcomers to this team with when I say newcomers I mean this is their first World Cup and it's a very talented group but you know if they're in a tight spot pressure situation that's when that's when we will see how they how they react.

You know Sophia Smith 22 years old one of the best players in the world Trinity Rodman she's 21 an up-and-coming player and an 18 year old Alyssa Thompson from Los Angeles just graduated from high school made the World Cup roster of the deepest national team in the world. So that shows what kind of talent she has so there's definitely a blend a few veteran players were not available for this World Cup because of injury including the captain Becky Sauerbrunn so yeah we'll see how this plays out. Are we seeing a bit of a changing of the guard thinking about Megan Rapinoe who's going to retire you mentioned Becky she's older too is this kind of a signaling the start of something new a new era of women's soccer in the United States? I wouldn't say that I think you know there's there's there's a constant evolution of the program you know players players age out so to speak you know we saw Carly Lloyd play in her last World Cup you know four years ago before that Abby Wambach said goodbye. You know this time it's Rapinoe's final turn Becky Sauerbrunn you know we will not see her again in a major tournament given her given her age. Alex Morgan's getting a little older but still very effective and she's younger than Rapinoe so you know some players will phase out others will rise it's a deep pool too so it's hard to predict how it will look at major tournaments in the coming years.

It is it was a little jarring to see Carly sitting at a desk when I saw that last night for the first time like oh my gosh yes it's happening and I know it's good because she can provide such incredible analysis and perspective of having been there and been a star but yeah it was a little weird because I'm used to seeing her in a uniform. Yeah no I mean it's it's the progression of all athletes and including players on national teams and you know major major tournaments come and they go and along the way players of great stature move on and you know they are they're pushed by up and coming players and in this program there's always someone on your heels and you're seeing that with this group. Certainly certainly the experience and leadership of players like Alex Morgan and Lindsey Horan and others remains in place but you also see some exciting young players on the big stage for the first time who provides the main competition our main impediment to Team USA winning a third straight World Cup Stephen. Yeah I mean I'd say you know I'd say U.S. is the favorite because they've won the past two. They're ranked number one. I'd say England. England's defending European champion. There's a sense that their time has come it's it's it's been a program that's obviously been far far behind the men in England and it's grown it's matured and it has the mentality that it can win big tournaments now. It showed that at the European Championships last year and they'll go into this tournament with with very high hopes but I'd say England and then you have you know perennial teams like you know France Germany Sweden Brazil Canada is defending the Olympic gold medalist Netherlands which finished second to the U.S. four years ago. There's some good competition. You know there's probably four or five teams that could that could win it.

And you know I think the U.S. is a is a is the favorite until you know until someone proves it otherwise. How have you seen the sport of women's soccer grow on the global stage because a lot of people would point to Team USA and say well the competition is not nearly as steep as it is on the men's side. Maybe that's true but it's it's definitely getting to be a deeper pool. Yeah I think the biggest change you are seeing is finally after dragging their feet for decades soccer federations in major European soccer playing countries are investing in their women. You know they're putting the money into it. I mean it's still not perfect it's still far behind but they recognize the importance of the women's game and you know it doesn't take that much effort. And so so the result of that is you're seeing countries like Spain you know Portugal Netherlands has proven you know that they're they're an elite team now.

So you know you're starting to see the results from from from investment and believing in the in the women's game. So certainly some areas of the world where it's still far behind notably you know South South America and in Africa. But the European countries are are getting their act together. Stephen Goff of the Washington Post is with us from Auckland New Zealand.

I need to keep saying that so cool. Sight of the women's World Cup games coming up Friday night our time but Saturday for New Zealand and Team USA will take on Vietnam it's after hours here on CBS Sports Radio. I had a chance to talk to Becky Sauerbrunn right after the U.S. women won their fight for equal pay. And I just remember how emotional she was even as I was speaking with her and she was out of country I can't remember where they were but I know she was not on U.S. soil.

She was with the team somewhere where they were playing and that news broke and I just remember she was so emotional about it and was so there was relief. There was happiness and joy of course but also this man this just this overwhelming exhale as they had finally won a protracted fight. This is their first World Cup in which this is a factor which it comes into play. What did they have to say about finally getting to that point where they've won this fight? Yeah I mean compared to four years ago you know there just isn't that distraction going into this World Cup. You know four years ago that labor dispute overshadowed in a way their World Cup preparations and the World Cup itself. They still weren't distracted enough not to win the championship but it was a big part of the narrative and the storyline.

And you just don't have that going into this and so it's one big element that is not discussed here. They won, they have a collective bargaining agreement, they have their bonus pay in place, things are settled. And what it has done too it's inspired other countries and players from other teams to fight for their own rights and their own share of what they believe they should be receiving from the Federation. Awesome it's an incredible inspiration not just I think for women in the United States and for young women who would seek to play soccer themselves as this program always does inspire young women here. But to know that it's making waves and ripple effects around the world is pretty amazing too. Steven if you don't mind before I let you go I know you've covered MLS in your past too.

And so you're someone that I was really interested to get your opinion about. Messi now being part of MLS what does that mean for the sport here in the United States? Yeah it's a massive signing. I mean you're talking about arguably the greatest player in the history of the sport and still playing at a very high level.

You know this is not a guy who's broken down and just here for the paycheck and the marketing opportunities. You know he just won a World Cup and he was sensational at the World Cup and he could have stayed in Europe and played at a high level there. He chose to come to MLS. It will certainly bring enormous attention everywhere he goes particularly in Miami where he's going to be based. Yeah no I think it's in the global soccer landscape this is huge.

Everyone's going to know enter Miami now and certainly bring more attention to MLS just as Beckham brought it to the galaxy and to MLS 15 years ago. So I see on your Twitter that you've covered 14 World Cups. Is this your first time down under or have you been there before? No this is my first time.

I've never been here. This is my last inhabited continent on assignment. I don't count Antarctica unless FIFA decides to put a World Cup in Antarctica which is not out of the realm of possibility if there's money to be made there. Of course. Yeah so no it's cool. It's cool to be here. The U.S. will be based in New Zealand for the most part.

They will play as many as two games in Australia starting with around a 16 game but New Zealand is their home for most of the next three four weeks. Wow that's pretty incredible and I know you need your winter coat and your winter hat but small price to pay. No no no complaints getting out of the U.S. heat. For sure. All right you can find Stephen on Twitter at soccer insider covers the beautiful game for the Washington Post adding another World Cup to his resume another continent to his resume. Always enjoy following and always enjoy your insights. Have fun. Thank you so much for a couple of minutes Stephen.

My pleasure Amy anytime. That's neat that he's checking another continent off his list. What. I want to be able to say that. I'm trying to think how many continents have I been on one two three. I guess I've been on three.

I have a long way to go. Jay how many continents have you been on. Hmm.

Let's see. Five I think. Five? Oh wait I forgot I've been in Africa.

That's four. Africa. South Africa. North Africa. Europe. Wait did you say South Africa. South America.

South America. Yes. That's not a different continent. So four including all seven. Yeah. Wait what'd you say four including all seven. Yeah.

Antarctica as well. Gotcha. OK. But you've not been there. You've been to four of the seven.

I have not. I would love to go to Antarctica. Me too. Me too. So we've been to the same.

Me too. North and South America. Europe.

And then also Africa. Have not been to Asia. Nope.

That would probably be the. I can't imagine. Well I may end up in Australia at some point but. I'm dying to. Yeah that'd be pretty awesome.

It just seems like it would be fairly far fetched. You just need like I feel at least for me I feel like I would need to go I would need at least like two weeks minimum to spend or else it's just it takes so long to get there and the jet lag. Like by the time you would adjust the week would like a week or a couple days would be over. That's how it was just to get to the east coast of Africa where we were in the plane for 20 hours on the way there and 24 on the way back. That'll do it. Yeah no it took it took days to try to get adjusted there. We didn't have days because we hit the ground running.

We came back it took about three weeks before I was okay again. We'll say though that in my family brother sister-in-law and I and I guess we'll see who else is involved in it. We're planning to go visit Israel in some time in the next year year and a half and so that would be another continent off the list. Yeah. Oh it was super cool. All right well that was really neat.

First time ever a guest from Auckland New Zealand and live even. So find Stephen on Twitter because he's great at Soccer Insider. I'm really excited for him. Little jealous but really excited for him.

Good to have you with us as we round into a Friday morning. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence CBS Sports Radio. You are listening to the After Hours Podcast. As he hit first Michael Harris at second the bat in the hands of Austin Riley. Now the 1-2 pitch and he barrels one high in the air deep left center field Austin Riley on a rampage. With a bat of flames he has given the Braves the lead here in the eighth inning. 2-2 from Nelson that's launched high in the air way up in the air to deep right field back to the wall and watching it sail out of here Jake McCarthy. Here's a little bit of insurance back to back home runs by Riley and Olson and for Matt one of the highest homers he's ever hit at his 32nd homer of the year.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. On Braves Radio Atlanta came out of the All-Star break dropping four of five games and ran into Arizona right but now trying to find a different groove here as they get a couple of wins. So let's see back to back to back in the eighth that's those are the highlights that you hear 20 home runs now for Austin Riley while Matt Olson ends up with a couple home runs.

It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence here on CBS Sports Radio. So for the Braves there's no need to worry in case you hadn't checked out the NL East lately. The Phillies have actually taken a step back where they've dropped two in a row for the Braves to be able to get this last win or this win over the Diamondbacks is huge because they're slipping you know. Their lead in the east is only ten and a half games over Philadelphia and Miami so Miami is falling off a cliff. The Marlins have dropped six in a row and eight of their last ten my goodness it's like you blink and shuffle the deck in Major League Baseball but the NL East is one that is firmly in the grasp of the Braves. They were the best team at the All-Star break and even having dropped four of their five coming out of the break they're still one of only two teams that has 60 wins. And they still are sporting the best record in Major League Baseball and of course I don't know if this is Jay and how he wrote it up or whether or not the word was actually used for Austin Riley but no no one's panicking. Obviously things haven't gone our way the last couple days but this is a I believe in you know each each and every one of those guys in that clubhouse so you know just a little bump in the road good one to get out of the way today and then you know build that momentum going into Milwaukee tomorrow. Valley Sports South with that audio I would think it would just be annoying to lose two games to the White Sox so that's what happened they ended up dropping two of three to the White Sox then they lose two of three to the Diamondbacks so they drop back to back series now coming out of the break. But they do end up with a win over Arizona who was for a time briefly on top of the NL West and now it's a series against the Brewers but still Braves have the best record in Major League Baseball they are stacked. And while Spencer Strider didn't have his typical lockdown performance, he did have 13 strikeouts even as so he gave up four runs on four hits but the 13 K's important for them to get him on the mound whenever they need a stopper. I certainly wouldn't ride home into the subset sunset with the credit on my shoulders but you know I think it just shows the fight this team has and you know I mean Austin had a phenomenal series and and it's just that's that's come to expect that we're going to flip the turn the page when something bad happens and there's a lot of confidence that comes from that so there's never any panic you know come back from the All-Star break that momentum had to restart and you gotta give credit to everybody in here for figuring out how to get a win today.

It's the stash. Jay you were not here the night that Arizona and Atlanta played to a 16-13 final. Okay, they had I think it was seven RBI from Austin Riley in that game and lost.

They gave up three runs three runs three runs to the Diamondbacks in the ninth inning so top of the ninth inning and lost that game but yes 16-13 was the final score and it wasn't a night. Are you ready for this? You ready for a baseball? Nerd alert! It was the first time since the 1890s someone was actually keeping track. Don't ask me who.

Probably not someone who's still alive but maybe they hand wrote it on a piece of parchment paper. Anyway back in the 1890s it was the first time since then that on the same day of the baseball schedule a dozen teams had scored at least 10 runs. It was crazy. Yeah there were multiple teams that scored 10 runs and lost or 10 plus runs and lost including Atlanta so yeah they gave up they gave up 16 runs on a night that Austin Riley had seven RBI.

What a waste. I saw actually because I wasn't in that night but I saw the next day and next morning I think it might have been a headline on Twitter or someone tweeted was that Braves Diamondbacks game one of the best games of all time and I didn't see it so I'm not sure but I did see that. I was like what did I miss? Did I miss one of the best games of all time? I don't know. It was that 16-13 game. Not up there?

How could that be one of the best games of all time? I don't know right I mean I'm more of a pitcher dual guy myself but. Well even if we're going to have a happy medium we don't need 29 runs. That's way too many. That's a lot of runs. That's a lot of runs.

That's a lot of pitching changes is what it is. Speaking of Twitter Jay says to me on the phone on Thursday afternoon. Well Threads died. It flamed out.

That was quick. You said something to that effect. Is that what you think? Now I didn't join it but why do you believe that Threads is not a threat to Twitter? So I haven't joined it either. Threads is a non-threat.

It's kind of funny actually. So I haven't joined it either and you haven't joined it and what was that? Two weeks ago? Three weeks ago where that was threatening to take over? But there were 100 million subscribers right off the top. Exactly and now no one's really been talking about it. So the fact that everyone jumped to it right away and the fact that no one's talking about it just two and a half three weeks later. It's dead.

It didn't work. Maybe we're just oblivious. Maybe we're just not in touch with what makes the cool kids tick.

Maybe but. Have you heard complaints about it? Let's Google it.

I think I have. From what I've seen just I can't name any like sources or anything. Just general I feel like the word on the street is that the interface is bad and the app just isn't good. It's just like Twitter. It's just not as good as Twitter and if you're on Twitter already anyway people just seem to be going back to Twitter. Because when it first started this Thread things everyone was like oh find me on Threads.

Find me on Threads. I'm not seeing that anywhere anymore. That's true.

That's true. I'm going to Google Threads is dead and see what happens. Threads is dead. Oh it pops up though. The first thing when I you know how well it depends on how your your computer settings are but.

At least here in the studio when you type a particular word or phrase into Google it will do the auto fill and give you options. Yes the very first line on the option list was Threads is dead. I think it's gone.

This comes from YouTube. Meta's Threads app is already dying because it sucks. Exactly. I think the fact that it had so many users right away and it's and there's not and no one's using it or no one's talking about it anymore. It just means that it's gone because it can't even gain steam anymore.

I mean it's not going to come back because everyone's already tried it already and they didn't like it. I mean in a world in which you have to choose between an Elon Musk run company and a company run by I mean I pretty much think Mark Zuckerberg is the devil a company run by Mark Zuckerberg who who is not just satisfied with social. He's legit trying to take over the world.

That's what Mark Zuckerberg wants. He wants to be the king of the world. He's not even trying to take over the world. He's trying to take over like the meta world like the other realities. But in doing so he wants to take over the world.

He wants to poison our minds with something called a metaverse. Anyway that number one reason why I would not jump to Threads because I'm not giving Mark Zuckerberg any more of my business than I have to. But you were pretty ticked about Twitter on Thursday afternoon for another reason though. You're pretty angry about it still. You were ranting. You said you needed a rant sesh. So gave you a rant sesh.

What happened? Well Elon I go into log into Twitter. Elon like you guys are tight. You're like this.

You're BFFs. Elon he's I don't know what he's doing out here with Twitter. So apparently while I was away the bylaws of Twitter changed again and now you can't DM somebody unless they follow you and you follow them. So are you trying to slide into someone's DMs? I was absolutely trying to slide into someone's DMs. It wasn't a personal thing.

It was a work related slide. But I wasn't able to do it. So and then I thought it was maybe I just got a new phone. I was like oh maybe it's just something with the account doesn't recognize my phone yet. Let me try it on my old phone. Let me try it on my computer. Both times the same thing it goes.

Oh then here's the kicker. It goes oh you want to do this? You want to DM this person?

All you got to do is sign up for Twitter blue and pay to be verified and then you could do whatever you want. You could do it many times. That is sneaky.

That is wrong. Making you pay for DMs? That's it. Although maybe those people who are verified don't want to be receiving direct messages from people who are not verified. That's what it seems like?

No it seems like it's a money making scheme for Elon Musk. Yeah I mean it's just what's next you know? It was oh if you want to pay now you can write more characters. Oh you can make longer videos. Now I can't even do the basic functions of Twitter which is a DM unless I pay for it. But see I feel like there was a time when you only could DM people that followed you and you followed them. But we changed that and we all adapted to the new way. Did we? I did.

So as a I would say a semi-public figure on social media on Twitter specifically. First of all on Facebook I never check the messages. I do not check DMs because they're no. I can't. First of all there's thousands of them.

Second of all they're creepy creepers and no. I know not all of them are but I can't handle I can't even handle my own Facebook messenger. I go weeks at a time without checking it.

Oh I hate that. I don't go on there. I don't trust Facebook messenger. And so the one for our show I've never checked not even once. I've turned it off.

We don't have access to it or won't access it. But on Twitter I feel like there was a mechanism where if I sent a DM to someone who I don't follow but who follows me they could then respond. And maybe that's not the case anymore because I've stopped receiving those type of DMs. But you're saying the rules for DMs have changed.

The rules have been altered. All I know is that if I go to DM somebody and they don't follow my account or our show account I can't DM them anymore. So if I don't have someone's phone number say for a possible guest inquiry or anything I can't DM them to get their information. It doesn't let me unless we pay for it. If we pay for it we could do whatever we want.

And my suggestion was ask the company to pay for it. I just might have to do it. Are you really going to? It's a feature. I don't know. I'm not sure if we can do that. Please do it just so we can use it as a thing here on the air. But I don't want the blue checkmark as the thing either. Can we pay for it?

We'll just politely decline the checkmark. Politely. I did hear this on a business report on Thursday that Elon and his takeover of Twitter have not yielded the financial results that he was hoping. Apparently ad sales are way down for Twitter since he took over. As in way down and he's acknowledged it that their ad revenue is way off projections. So he's trying to make it up somehow.

Yes, that's what I'm saying. He's trying to make it up by making it possible for you to send DMs only if you pay. Fork over the $8 a month. That's crazy. What are the chances it actually stays $8 a month?

I don't think that's probably the case. It's probably going to go up. Like I'm saying, as the time goes on, it's going to be, oh, now you got to pay to do a hashtag. Oh, you want to do hashtags?

Sure. Hashtags? Where do we stop? Well, I love hashtags. Where do we stop? What if they make us pay to post photos?

I could already see that. No, no, that's it. I'll get out. I'm out. I'm out.

I'm not paying. Are we going threads? No.

No, we're just not going anywhere. I don't need social media. I'd be happy without it. Happy you're without it. We might just have to go back to Snapchat. We'll just do all of our communications over Snapchat. I like Myspace.

Can we bring it back? Is that still up and running? Myspace? The guy Tom who created it. I'm not sure if he's- Tom?

Yeah. Everyone was friends with him. His name was Tom. He was your first friend instantly on Myspace.

I never had Myspace. Apparently I wasn't that cool. Alright, coming up, next hour we'll do a little QB news with one Aaron Rodgers as the centerpiece. We have to let you hear from Lane Kiffin though. First of all, if you haven't seen him, you might enjoy a photo of Lane Kiffin from SEC Media Days.

He was large and in charge and he was very animated in both how he appeared as well as how he sounded. So, Lane Kiffin coming up next along with a little more Nick Saban just because they're so opposite. It's After Hours here on CBS Sports Radio. You are listening to the After Hours Podcast. Most players have a go-to song or artist to kind of get them locked into the game. I'm curious, what is on a Nick Saban pregame hype playlist for you? I don't understand this question.

Say that again. What's like your go-to music choice? What are you listening to? What are you and Terry listening to?

Next question. Well, you know, we don't- I don't really listen to music before the game. You know, we always play Gimme Shelter going home, you know, after the game.

But I don't listen to music before the game. I'm kind of thinking about, you know, have we covered everything we need to cover? This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. No doubt that reporter is so glad that he asked that question. No doubt he thought it was a clever, different, unique, fun, maybe a little bit sporty. And instead, it was Awkward Hour with Nick Saban.

He birthed that poor guy's bubble. What are you and Terry listening to? As though Terry, now I know he calls her Miss Terry, but as though he can address Nick Saban's wife as Terry. Maybe they are real good friends. I don't understand this question. So the thing is, he's a very smart guy.

Of course he understands the question. It's a little bit like Bill Belichick. And I know a lot of times I come back to Nick Saban when I'm talking about Belichick or the opposite. Because the two of them are so similar and there's this mutual respect, a mutual admiration society between these two.

I really can't control that. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. Nick Saban can be animated.

We know that is true. He just chooses not to do it as much with the media unless the media is asking about how they can possibly lose over the course of a season, right? Because he gets so angry when the media will crown them champions long before they've earned it. He gets really mad when he feels like the media is blowing smoke up the rear ends of his players.

He can't stand that either. He really wants them to have to earn it. However, he does secretly get motivated by what he hears from media people as well, which is just the unique way that Nick Saban's brain works. Weird to think about how Lane Kiffin was on his staff. I don't want to say it didn't work out because it certainly did work out for Lane specifically, who's now the head coach at Ole Miss. But Lane Kiffin and Nick Saban couldn't be more opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of their personalities.

Just such an odd couple in sports. Well, Lane is now on his own again, and he was holding court at SEC Media Days. And one of the first topics that he was addressing with a lot of passion was, well, it's relatively new twist in college sports.

I'm going to address the portal NIL, what I kind of call disaster that we're in. And I'm not complaining about it because we take advantage, obviously, of free agency. But I don't think that's really good for college football. These massive overhauls, rosters every year really is not in the best interest of college football. I'm not sure if you all heard it, but he actually called college football in 2023 a disaster.

That's his word. Lane Kiffin called college football a disaster. Now, he did what Nick Saban has done, which is say, I'm happy that you've got players getting paid. They should be paid.

They deserve to be compensated. But, he said, the system that has evolved from this new NIL and transfer portal culture is that players are hopping from team to team and program to program and following the money. And this is similar to what, so maybe some of what Nick Saban had to say and how he coached rubbed off on Lane Kiffin.

You wouldn't think so, but maybe. But Saban says the same thing. The teams with the deepest pockets, the boosters who have the most money, those are the teams that are able to lure some of the top players in college football. And he actually goes on to say that the transfer portal has set up free agency of sorts in college football. I was just thinking on a plane ride over here, what if you had that in other sports, Tom Brady, Asia Wilson, Lionel Messi, LeBron James, what if every year those guys can opt into free agency twice a year, really, and they had no long-term contracts? Basically everybody's not even on a one-month contract because they can leave in two windows. Well, there are some contracts that are structured that way. You've got players who opt in and opt out every few years or every other year, depending upon the age, right?

There are some contracts that are structured for older players where it's one year with an option for a second. I understand why NIL is important and why it's opened up college football and college basketball, too. What I've said since the beginning, though, is that it creates this wild, wild west. The problem is there's really no policing it. And who's to stop it from turning into a pay-for-play system? And that's the part that bothers me because pay-for-play is still supposed to be off the table and outlawed, and yet essentially this is what it turns into.

When you have boosters or corporations who support a particular university, a particular sport, all they have to do is say, like, oh, we're paying you to endorse a car, but it's really pay-for-play. It's after hours, CBS Sports Radio. Being a baseball play-by-play broadcaster demands a blend of learned mechanics, intense preparation, and a calm sense of entertainment. How hard is it to do this job?

Let's talk to the ones who'd do it. This is Matt Spiegel. My new podcast, The PBP Voices of Baseball, will bring those conversations to you as the best working and former broadcasters tell you why and how they do it. New episodes come every Thursday all summer long. Follow The PBP Voices of Baseball on the Odyssey app or wherever you find your podcasts.