8-4-23 After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 3

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We got two hours to go. So if you're waking up on your Friday morning, maybe your Eastern time zone, I would suspect you didn't stay up for the entirety of the first NFL preseason game, the Hall of Fame game in Canton, Ohio. Which is all right because you didn't miss a whole lot in terms of actual football or position battles for either the Jets or the Browns. Maybe you missed the interview with Aaron Rodgers, or maybe you missed the lights going out at the end of the third quarter. But if you saw the beginning, well, you saw Demarcus Ware singing the national anthem.

Actually, Jay, that'd be kind of fun if you wanted to bring that back. Hall of Famer Demarcus Ware. At some point, we maybe can hear his rendition of the national anthem. He is a man of many talents. O say does that star spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave And the home of the brave Let's be fair, it takes boldness to stand in front of that many people. It takes boldness to stand in front of your mirror and sing the national anthem. It is not an easy song, especially for a man who has a lower voice. So Demarcus Ware, he belts out the national anthem.

He's careful with it, which is kind of what you have to do. So I loved it. I absolutely love that he would be bold enough to stand there. He, of course, with the Cowboys and then won a Super Bowl in his final season with the Denver Broncos.

And I thought it was special. Hall of Fame weekend, his own Hall of Fame weekend. I wouldn't have expected that, but good for him.

He had a big smile on his face. It's after hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. We talked a little bit about the Hall of Famers. I thought it was neat that NBC captured footage of the Browns and Jets in the Hall of Fame, but kind of a just kind of a unique moment. How often do you see a player who's still active walking through the Hall of Fame, understanding that he'll be a first ballot inductee? And so the Jets flew in and apparently as soon as they got off the plane in Canton, they went straight through the Hall of Fame. And there's these different exhibits where you can try on old helmets, yada, yada, yada. But to see Aaron Rodgers walking through the hall with the actual bus where the Hall of Famers are enshrined with their bus and to know that he will have one of those as soon as he retires.

He'll have to wait the five years and he'll be a first ballot Hall of Famer, no doubt. Can you imagine what was going through his mind as he's walking through that area where all the busts, not bus, but like busts, it does not roll off the tongue, with all the statue heads, with all the heads. He's walking through the part of the hall with all the heads, the Hall of Heads. I just ruined the whole like nostalgia thing.

And he's realizing that he'll be there in a few short years. That had to be powerful. I think it would be for me if I was a Hall of Famer to walk through there. So that was kind of cool. But yes, if you didn't stay up the entire time, well you maybe missed the long and extended interview that NBC did with Aaron Rodgers, as well as Joe Thomas, who of course being celebrated there in Ohio is awesome. Kevin Stefanski referred to it as a hometown atmosphere, really. And when Joe Thomas did his interview on NBC with Melissa Stark, it was kind of cool talking about the 10,363 consecutive snaps and what that number and that banner, so to speak, means to him.

It means resiliency. It means to me everything that I wanted to be as a player. It was just a great teammate that you could always count on me.

That's what I always said. You can count on me. When things get hard, when it's snowing and sleeting and it's minus 10 degrees on the shores of Lake Erie, count on me. I'll be there. I'll be there and I'll be at my best.

If it's 90 degrees and we're in Tampa, Florida in September, I'll be there. And so for me, when I look up in the stadium at Cleveland-Brown Stadium, I see that number. To me, that's the thing I'm the most proud of because that's me being the best teammate because I was there for other people serving my teammates in my city.

Ooh, I love, love, love that. First of all, he claims Cleveland as his city. And I said this earlier in our conversation with Jonathan Peterland, who joined us from 92.3, our Cleveland affiliate last hour, that he is unabashedly and proudly a Cleveland Brown. Not just because he played there his entire career. He never actually played in a postseason game. Yet he claims Cleveland as his own. He's a Cleveland dude. He's proud to have spent his Hall of Fame career with the Browns. I love it.

I get it. He could have asked for a trade. He could have gone somewhere else. He could have said, I want to end on a high note. I want to win a Super Bowl.

Send me somewhere that has a chance to win and to be on top at the end of my career. But no, what mattered most to him was reliability. What mattered most to him was accountability. What mattered most to him was stability for the offensive line, but for his team. What mattered most to him was that the Browns and their fans never had to question if he would play.

If he was healthy, which he was for 10,363 consecutive snaps, he was going to be out there on the field. Go Browns! So congratulations to Joe Thomas and the others who will have their moment in the sun in Canton this weekend. That includes Demarcus Ware.

It's after hours with Amy Lawrence. Now, when we talked to Jonathan last hour, he dropped this little nugget in there. The AFC North is the most competitive division. It's the toughest division in football.

You may or may not agree, so we put the post up on Twitter and on Facebook. What is the toughest division in the NFL as presently constituted? So it's August.

It's early August. We've seen one preseason game, and it wasn't a real notable one. At least not for what was happening on the field.

So what division would you say is the toughest in the NFL right now? The Browns went 7 and 10 last season. They did not have their starting quarterback, their franchise QB, for more than a handful of games.

And he'd been out of football for two years. Could he then lead them from worst to first? You've got the Bengals, who right now are among the top competitors to the Chiefs supremacy. You've got Lamar Jackson with his brand new deal and a brand new offensive coordinator. And then you've got the Steelers who, under Mike Tomlin, have never had a losing campaign.

Plus Kenny Pickett with his rookie year behind him. So is the AFC North the toughest division in football, or is there another? Could I interest anyone in the AFC East now that Aaron Rodgers is part of the New York Jets? All smiles, by the way.

Tan, happy, rejuvenated, ready to go. I love our team. I love the guys we've got.

I love the men and women that work for the organization. It's a really fun environment. I think that's what you've got to do when there's just a big time change in your life.

You can resist it, or you can just jump in and surrender to the process and all the newness of it. Just the excitement. It's been a lot of fun just being around these young guys and being around a team that's really hungry, that had some success last year, obviously finished rough, but the pieces are in place. And Robert has done an incredible job of putting a staff together that encourages these guys and pushes these guys and holds them accountable.

I'm just a cog in that wheel, and I know my role, and it's an important one, but I'm excited to get the live ones going. This is fun. Football is back. It's August.

It's training camp, but it's an exciting time of the year. He definitely seems to believe what he's saying. He's not just spewing garbage because you've got to put something relatively optimistic on a TV interview, and you hear him there on NBC.

No, he seems genuine to me. He seems like he really is enjoying this change, this career move later in his NFL tenure. And I will say that kind of speaks to me.

It speaks to, I'm sure you, if you were in one place for a long time and then boldly tried something new, you can be rejuvenated, re-energized by different teammates or coworkers that you really appreciate by a new challenge. It's not that Aaron Rodgers accomplished everything you possibly can in Green Bay. He never did get back to the Super Bowl, and I'm sure that irks him, considering they had, what, three consecutive seasons of at least 13 wins. So I'm sure it bothers him that they came so close but did not return to the Super Bowl.

They had some awful flame outs in January. But he gets to start fresh, and you can see it on his face. You can hear it in his voice. I was searching for a deeper level of self-love.

Even as he says, I'm just one part of that, you know that there's definitely more self-love hiding under the surface. Also, he gets to throw to a dynamic young receiver, the Offensive Rookie of the Year for last season, Garrett Wilson. Garrett, what an amazing kid. I have so much love and respect for Devante and feel like he's the best receiver in the league.

So I don't say this lightly, but there are definitely traits that this 17 has that that special 17 has as well. I'm not going to put him in that category yet because Devante is in the category by himself. Alright, so a little bit with Aaron Rodgers. Zach Wilson, by the way, is the quarterback who started and played the chunk of the game early. If we see Zach Wilson on the field this season in a regular season game, it's either garbage time or something went horribly wrong with the Aaron Rodgers experiment. But yeah, he was out there, he was chucking and ducking, and he's talked about how Rodgers is having a positive impact on him. Even right now I'm looking up at NFL Network and they're showing the footage of Rodgers walking through the the Hall of Heads in Canton.

It's after hours with Amy Lawrence. So on Facebook, getting a few of your responses, what is the toughest division in football is currently constituted? Roland on Facebook, the AFC East has great starting QBs. The exemption is the Patriots.

The defenses have improved. Tom Brady would have a tough time here in 2023. So he is saying that the AFC East is the toughest division in football. Let's see, Ben goes AFC North hands down. Scott, another vote for the AFC East.

When your worst team on paper is coached by Bill Belichick, it's a tough group. Mark Paul also agree with the AFC East and then Guy says the AFC North. So far nobody outside of the AFC East or North.

That's on Facebook. So you can also find us on Twitter, ALawRadio or our show Twitter just getting a comment here from Ken who goes with the NFC North. I don't think it's the best division in football, but I would say it's likely to be competitive. The way the Lions finished up last season, Dan Campbell calls it the hype train.

Right. So he's referring to what they win seven of eight, something like that eight of nine to end up the season. They finally got flexed. They knocked the Packers out of the playoffs. So the Lions finished the season on a high note. Not that that carries through at all, but they did. The Packers are starting with a brand new QB in Jordan Love, though they do have a lot of other returning guys.

But there's a ton of question marks there. They lost a bunch of their veterans, the wide receiver side, especially the wide receiver core, especially. You've got the Vikings who had a phenomenal regular season last year and they do return a bunch of the same guys. I mean, Justin Jefferson is your star.

He's your your must see TV. And so they flamed out the postseason, but they absolutely won the division going away. They did lose Dalvin Cook, though they have an offer on the table for him if he decides to return there.

What is it? Seven million dollars is the reported offer on the table for Dalvin, who doesn't yet have a job anywhere else. And then you think about the Bears and Justin Fields and the pieces they put around him. He thinks the defense is going to be amazing. So it could be competitive only because it's wide open.

Right. The NFC South is also wide open. I would not say that that's going to be the best division in football.

So, yeah, find us on Twitter or Facebook. Now, coming up a little bit on conference realignment in college football, even as your NFL answers come in. I'm not sure if you heard the late breaking news last night. Arizona is about to bolt to the Big 12 following Colorado. Dennis Dodd of CBS believes that Arizona State will be right on the heels of Arizona.

And those two may or may not be a package deal. But those three teams, if you include Colorado, would be Big 12 in a couple of years. We know the Big 10 is investigating Washington and Oregon.

Not sure what that means for Washington State, Wazoo or Oregon State. But then what happens to the Pac-12? I mean, this is a precarious position right now for the Pac-12. Even worse than the Big 12 a couple of years ago when I mean, I know Oklahoma and Texas are still there, but they've declared their intent to leave. They're already signed up for the SEC coming in 24. And so the Big 12 is now trying to refill out its divisions and to get competitive again.

It's scary. It's scary for some of these conferences and certainly for the Pac-12 who are left with all kinds of instability and uncertainty. And you can understand why teams or schools are bailing. It's not teams, it's schools that are bailing. And then you look at the Big 10 and the SEC and the Big 12 and what they're trying to do is hoard as much revenue as they possibly can, right? And they're looking at new cities, new fan bases, new locales where they've got brand new revenue potential.

But they're also trying to insulate themselves against this exact type of thing happening. The defections, the poaching. It's not just happening with athletes, it's happening with schools again, right? We saw a round of conference realignment going back a few years ago and now look at what's happening, kind of this round two or maybe round three. This latest iteration that could leave one of the power conferences defunct.

So we'll hear from Washington State, not the entire school, but a member of Washington State on, you know, where he kind of points the finger, but also the latest from Dennis Dodd. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. You are listening to the BETTUS.COM is back for our 20th year of NFL action. With the industry's biggest signup bonus of up to 20 percent, BETTUS offers our members the chance to cash in on all your favorite sports.

Sign up at BETTUS.COM or call 1-800-79-BETTUS where the game begins. After Hours Podcast. Especially after the Regent meeting where we had a unanimous vote, we certainly have received many, many positive comments from our alumni, from our parents, from individuals across the country.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Colorado Chancellor Phil DeStefano talking about the reaction to the buffaloes or to the school departing soon for the Big 12. Going back to the Big 12, really.

It's so crazy. It's about as crazy as Justin Verlander going back to the Houston Astros. This is the only place I wanted to be after signing with the New York Mets. I guess it helps when you have the money and the Mets are still paying your contract and you don't have to worry about giving any of that back.

Well then of course you'd rather join a contender, one where you are familiar. Colorado, the first to declare its intent or to decide it will bolt from the Pac-12 to the Big 12, but not going to be the last. According to reports all over social media and the sports world, and we're going to give Dennis Dodd of CBS the credit.

He was the first I saw. Arizona is deep down the road in its discussions, really its negotiations to jump to the Big 12. He says likely other dominoes will drop. So we wanted to pull just a little bit of his analysis of this latest news, this latest development for the Pac-12. They would backfill with the likes of San Diego State, perhaps Fresno State. I know what you're going to say next. I had this vision of Stanford in the same conference as Fresno State.

Yeah, that's kind of weird to begin with. But look, if Washington and Oregon leave, I think we're talking about the dissolution of the Pac-12, where it becomes a hybrid with the Mountain West, call it the Pac-Mountain or Mountain Pack or something like that, where all you'd have left viable would be Washington State and Oregon State to matriculate over to the Mountain West. So we're really looking right now, Hakeem, at the dissolution of a power conference for the first time since the Big East in 2007. It's been called a power five for years now.

By the end of the night, it might be a power four. So that's Dennis Dodd to CBS Sports HQ, and it goes back a few hours, but kind of thinking about the dominoes that could fall in the wake of Arizona departing. So again, deep down the road in its negotiations to bolt to the Big 12, which would be the same as what Colorado has decided to do. And so does that also mean then Arizona State would go with its arch rival? All right, so you've got Colorado, Arizona, potentially Arizona State. But even without ASU, the Pac-12 would drop to just eight schools. And this happens at the same time that the Big 10 presidents have authorized their commissioner to try to negotiate an exit strategy for Oregon and Washington from the Pac-12 to the Big 10.

Oh, my goodness. Well, then what happens with Utah? What happens with Stanford? I mean, we know USC and UCLA are going to leave soon. What about Wazoo and Oregon State? Maybe those aren't coveted markets in terms of revenues and new fan bases, but are they going to stay in a conference where their rivals are gone? And as Dennis points out, you could be talking about new members, Fresno State and San Diego State. And so, yeah, we're looking at the possibility of a collapse or maybe a fold, if you will, of one of the longtime Power Five schools.

It's after hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio 855-212-4227. Scott is in Michigan. Scott, what's your reaction? You know, it's going to be weird because I'm a youth Michigan fan and this is going to benefit me as a spoiled fan because I'm going to be able to see teams like USC and UCLA and newer teams.

But I hate this. I think this is, they have not thought it out because this is going to have such major repercussions. Those smaller schools that go and typically get beat pretty bad by the big Power Five schools, they need that revenue. So now what's going to happen to all the smaller schools? You're talking about tens of thousands of scholarships. Many kids can't even afford to go to college because of how much it is without a scholarship.

It's like no one even thought about them. Meaning you don't think they'll be able to afford to go to a school that's part of this bloated Big Ten? Well, if they're good enough to get into one of the Power conferences, I guess specifically the one conference by me would be like the MAC. Now, we play MAC schools. MAC schools need to play Big Ten schools because like for the big house, you'll get half the tickets.

So there's 55,000 seats at the big house. They need that money not just to pay for their football program, every sport in their athletic department. They need that. They can't survive without that money.

I mean, I love Michigan, but I think this is such a level of greed. I wish they would have, you know, just listen. Uh oh. Did we lose them? Sorry, Scott.

Thank you for your phone call. We appreciate your input and I can hear the passion there. I'm not sure everybody in the Big Ten is on board. It does mess with the traditions, of course. It messes with schedules and it meshes with divisions and it does, I think, water down the competition. Now, I could be wrong, but the SEC has kind of followed suit. We've seen the biggies have to pivot and come up with something different where their focus is no longer football, right?

It's completely different now. You've got the Big 12 who kind of went through this downturn where they lost a few of their members and fell below the required. Well, they didn't have 12 anymore. Fell below the required number for conference championships. And so they were kind of behind the eight ball. Now they're trying to build back up.

It's A, hard to keep track. B, it definitely does change the scheduling for sure, but also really the tenor of the division rivalries. And that's part, I think, what fans really miss. So, for instance, when I was in Texas last weekend and I was meeting Bob's family, his oldest brother wanted to talk about conference realignment, wanted to talk about Texas versus Texas A&M again.

And so I do think we're kind of missing some of the old traditions as we see the realignment, but it's not going to stop because of what comes with it. Money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, ka-ching, ka-ching, ka-ching, ka-ching, ka-ching. It's not just the humongous TV deals that now reach into other markets, new TV markets. It's also the money that the conference gets from the incoming schools.

It's about being able to sell to Apple TV or other streamers or, you know, whoever the broadcast networks are that are interested in carrying games. Hey, we can put you in this market. We can put you in this city. We can put you here.

We can put you there. The Big Ten, let's say it does end up attracting a couple of these Pac-12 schools and then also is trying to poach a couple of the ACC members. They would go coast to coast and be able to say to any potential broadcast partners as well as corporate sponsors or corporate partners, we've got schools in pretty much every time zone in most of the major cities around the country. I mean, it's hard to compete when you're talking about a Big Ten or an SEC that can reach so many fans and potential buyers, right, potential consumers. Not only when it comes to TV viewership and ratings, but when it comes to selling the advertising dollars or selling the advertising potential to sponsors.

It's a rich get richer. We've seen it for sure since the NIL, since the advent of the transfer portal. I guess theoretically it could work the other way where you have more of the talent dispersed around college football because athletes can leave without having to give up a year of eligibility. When you've got some of the biggest schools in these humongous conferences and their boosters being able to promise a million dollars in NIL when an athlete walks on the campus or even before he or she walks on the campus, how do smaller schools compete with that? And honestly, how do some of the smaller schools have the entry fees to be able to get into these conferences?

Yeah. Even as we think about the college football playoff expanding, could we see a time where there are six teams from the Big Ten, which won't have ten. It could have closer to twenty. Six teams. Seven teams.

Eight teams. The SEC had a down year last season, but could it then beef back up with the addition of Oklahoma and Texas? And so the college football playoff, while it may be expanded, could end up being more of the same. Power conferences. And they cast such a major shadow.

And I don't love that you have these power conferences who are making all the important decisions for college football either. Just simply because they can out vote. They can overpower. They can outbid.

Right? Money speaks volumes. And the Big Ten, the SEC, the Big Twelve, even the ACC, they've still got some real good schools at the top. You think about it, they can bully the other schools, well the other conferences, because they've got the most money and they've got the most votes and they've got the most clout.

The stability. Yeah, there's a definite undertone of fear in college football or major college sports because of the realignment and look at what's happening to the Pac-12. It nearly happened to the Big Twelve. It happened to the Big East. It's like this undertone of scrambling and a grab, a money grab, but not just that, a real estate grab. A territorial grab as much as you possibly can so that you are maybe insulated from this type of a collapse.

Yeah. Maybe it is competitive and maybe on the field fans don't care as much, but I don't like it. It seems a little bit like it would violate antitrust rules if those applied in college sports. And where is the NCAA exactly? Nowhere.

They're not in a position, the officials are no longer in a position of power when it comes to this type of stuff. It's the conference commissioners. Alright, on Twitter, ALawRadio.

Our Facebook page too. Good Friday morning. If you are waking up or maybe you've been up, we're asking you the toughest division, the most competitive division in the NFL. Our guest earlier on the show said it's the AFC North.

Do you quibble? I'm actually going in a different conference entirely. Producer Jay and I haven't yet answered the question, but we'd love to hear from you.

ALawRadio or our Facebook page? You are listening to the After Hours podcast. The old question, how long would it take TV money to destroy college football? Maybe we're here. Maybe we're here.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Are we here? Is this the TV money destroying college football? That's the opinion or the rhetorical question, I suppose, of Jake Dickert, who is the head coach of Washington State. And what happens to Washington State or Wazoo if Washington departs and its arch rival is left behind?

What about the Apple Cup? I mean, Oregon, Oregon State, Arizona, Arizona State. I wouldn't say they're a package deal, but things change. And it's maybe more nostalgia, traditions. That probably doesn't matter to everyone, but it's clear that it matters to a lot of people. And that college football is, in the opinion of many, becoming watered down because you're missing some of these long standing rivalries and traditions that have sucked people in in the first place.

They've really been part of family heritage in many cases. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. One more from the Wazoo coach talking about the realignment and these rivalries and how they're following by the wayside. You know, to think even remotely five years ago, the Pac-12 would be in this position. It's unthinkable to think that we're here today and to think that local rivalries are at risk and fans driving four hours to watch their team play in a road game and rivalries is at risk to me is unbelievable. So Arizona, the latest to have one foot out the door.

That's been widely reported now late last night. Big 10 is exploring Oregon and Washington and extending invites to those two schools. And you can imagine that if Arizona and Arizona State leave for the Big 12 that Oregon and Washington would want to get out while the getting's good. It's this latest iteration of conference realignment that just kind of forces fans to readjust. But as long as the money is there from the TV deals and the corporate sponsors, fans take a backseat.

That's just how it is. Fans will show up. They will buy tickets. They are going to spend the money as long as the broadcast deals continue to increase in value. And they're worth billions and billions of dollars to the broadcast networks streaming, of course, getting in on that as well. As long as that broadcast money is there and as long as the money, the revenue comes in from the corporate sponsors, the advertisers, fans really don't have much of a say. That's just how it is.

The bottom line is the bottom line. It's after hours with Amy Lawrence. Thinking about the NFL, though, too, because it's also on the horizon. Preseason officially underway. Our guest believes the AFC North is the toughest division in the NFL.

What do you think? You can find us on Twitter, After Hours, CBS, or on our Facebook page. And our phone number 855-212-4227 stumbled across this gem, actually, from a friend of mine, former colleague of mine, Mark Schlerath, who is a three-time Super Bowl champion with the Denver Broncos. He was an offensive lineman, so blocked for some of the biggest names in his day at the running back position. TD, Terrell Davis, Hall of Famer. So Terrell, part of the reason why the Broncos won those back-to-back Super Bowls in the late 90s, helping John Elway to end his career on a high note. If you don't remember, sad saps, you never got to see John Elway play. I pity the fool. Same thing with those who never got to see Michael Jordan play.

Anyway, I digress. Mark Schlerath was part of that era. He now is an analyst for Fox, of course, a game analyst, and because I know Mark personally, he never holds back.

When it comes to his opinions, he doesn't sugarcoat, and he's not worried about hurting people's feelings. He was a guest on the Rich Eisen Show, and Rich was asking him about the plight, I'm using my air quotations, of running backs these days, and the fact that they're not getting paid. They're not seeing the money that they believe they're worth, or the money that they think is commensurate with their value and what they do on the field. And furthermore, they've taken to social media and group Zoom calls to complain about it, to stump for it. They don't love the franchise tag. Why are we making less money on average with the franchise tag?

It goes on and on and on. Now, I'm not sure it's helping, but they're making a lot of noise, and this is the response of an offensive lineman, Mark Schlerath. Frankly, I don't have a lot of sympathy. You know what? You signed the collective bargaining agreement. You gave the franchise tag. You negotiate things like less practice time. And you negotiate stupid stuff. Hey, I'm part of that. I'm guilty.

I was a player, too. So, understand it. You negotiate stupid stuff. They know you're going to negotiate stupid stuff.

It doesn't really matter. And that's your own fault. And as far as the running backs having a stupid Zoom meeting and complaining and whining about it, it is what it is. That's the market, and that's how market economics work. So, quit complaining about it.

I don't remember any of the star running backs at the time standing up on their podiums complaining about how unfair it is that the fullbacks were becoming extinct, as long as they were getting there. I don't really want to hear it. It's the market. Take the money that's available to you.

Go out there and play great. Whatever. I don't have any sympathy, empathy, any of the a-fees.

None of the a-fees bother me. I don't care. Harsh words for the running backs for whom he blocked. Now, the beginning part of that exchange with Rich Eisen, he does talk about how prominent the running backs were and how, for the Broncos, because of their O-line and because of their system, this is really Mike Shanahan, right? They would see a guy, well, TD would go for 2,000 yards, and then when he was hurt, the next guy would step up and have 1,500 yards. And so he played in a system for a coach that valued the running backs, but because of the way that the NFL has gone more and more toward pass-happy and high-flying potent air attacks, running backs are not as valued.

That's not the only thing. I mean, he points out, hey, you're the ones who gave up in negotiations on franchise tag issues because you cared more, at least in the moment, about not having to practice in pads as much. Alright, well, if that's what matters to you, as Mark Schlerath calls it on the Rich Eisen show, stupid stuff, if that's what matters to you, well, you got what you wanted, but you left your six wide open, and the owners knew this was going to happen. I thought that was so insightful from Mark. They knew you were going to take the bait with the stupid stuff, as he calls it. I'm not calling it stupid stuff, but Mark was part of that. He was part of the NFL Players Association, and he said, we took the bait with the stupid stuff. In the immediate, it felt like less practice time in the heat of summer, shorter training camp practices. That was what was important.

But you left your rear end exposed, meaning the owners knew that you would be distracted by stupid stuff. And they got you on the back end with things like franchise tags and the money that you make and or don't make, and that you really have no leg to stand on now. All of that was insightful. Producer Jay and I were listening to this earlier, and we were both kind of floored by just the lack of the athes, as he calls them, sympathy, empathy, but also the fact that he really does point out the players left themselves in this position.

They did ratify this deal, and it's 10 years of labor peace, if you will, and they don't have any room to negotiate or complain now. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio, again on Twitter, A Law Radio, or on our Facebook page. So we'll do a little bit QB news later in the show, next hour, but yeah, Austin Eckler, he's being kind of positioned.

You know what it reminds me of? Rory McIlroy, how he became the self-described defender of the PGA Tour. Now it's Austin Eckler who's the voice of the running backs. I think it goes deeper than just being a leader for the running backs. Yes, I hope I am that, but just for our union in general, we need leadership throughout our players union. There's many players across the league that are leaders in our players union, but we really have to step up when things maybe are a little weary.

We have guys that are feeling some type of way. That's when leadership really needs to make sure we step into that role, and that's really what I've been. I'm not there to make the decisions. I'm there to really just get everyone together so we can have discussions, which is where those decisions and things come from.

But I don't yet, sure I might be seen as a leader of this who organized it, but it's all of us. Us as a union are a collective, and we don't make decisions as individuals, but we do have each other's backs. And so that's exactly why we have those conversations, and they've been going on.

We'll continue to have more of those in the future just as a union. Maybe more often when things are a little, we have guys that are maybe feeling some type of way or something's going on. But just in general, I feel like my progression in the league has been always lead by example, leads by example.

Now I'm getting to a point where I've been doing that for a while, and now I've become more vocal because of that. I appreciate that Eckler is willing to speak up, and he does that on Sirius XM NFL radio. But I kind of think about what Mark Schleras said, what good does it do? The owners don't have to do a darn thing, and they won't, why would they? They're in the business of making money, yes they want to win, and sure there is some loyalty or some gratefulness I guess, but not at the detriment, not to the detriment of their club, not to the detriment of their salary cap. Nah, they like the system. It's After Hours, CBS Sports Radio.