After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 1

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Listen on your Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. You'll be glad you did. I am about to do a really cruel thing.

I'll just apologize ahead of time, but I can't keep it to myself. Extra movie theater butter popcorn. Oh, so good. So good. That is for the second time this week, my pregame meal.

I might have a problem, but you know, the first step in fixing your problem and your issues is to admit that you have them. It's so good. And then salt on top of it. I actually try to share my food with producer Jay. And to be honest, I was planning on giving him half of the bag of popcorn. I did open up the bag, pour a bunch of popcorn onto a plate for Jay. He got the first dibs on the popcorn. And then I took my plate full of popcorn and I took the bag and I went into my side studio where I was prepping. Well, maybe it was mindless.

I wasn't really doing it on purpose. But before I knew it, the entire bag was gone other than what Jay had gotten initially. And so he only got a first plate of popcorn and then I ate the rest. Oh, it's so good. It's so good. And it's actually not super fattening. I do treat myself with the extra movie theater butter, but so good. So now I know there are those of you out there who want movie theater butter popcorn, and it's perfectly all right for a late night snack. I am with you. You and I, we are in lockstep on this. Plus, it's almost Friday.

So happy almost Friday. It's after hours with Amy Lawrence here on CBS Sports Radio. Earlier on Thursday evening, I hopped on a Zoom call with a new group of graduate students at Newhouse School on the campus of Syracuse University. It's maybe standard at other schools, though I have no idea.

I just know how Syracuse does their grad program in the broadcast journalism department at Newhouse, which is public communications. The grad students start in the summer. So I remember when I started, I had had just three weeks since my undergrad graduation. So I had three weeks off and then I went right to Syracuse and boom, right into a new academic year.

It was tough, but I was pretty excited. Anyway, we did a month in the summertime. Then we had a couple of weeks off. We started the fall semester.

We had our holiday break. We did the spring semester another week off and then right into the summer semester, the summer session before we took our comp exams and then we were done. Instead of paying for two full years on campus, they put essentially a two year grad program into one calendar year. They condensed it down and it saves you time. It saves you money.

Theoretically, it was good. In one year, one calendar year I was done. And so here is this new group of graduate students that are on campus already at Syracuse. And to help them get acclimated and get prepared for the upcoming academic year. We have had, by we, I mean the Newhouse faculty, which I'm just a part timer, but we've had the series of Zoom calls or in-person appearances with the students.

So various professors teaching all different types of classes. And it was my turn on Thursday evening. And so I hop on the Zoom call. Yeah, a little bit odd for me to have to be slightly dressed.

I wasn't going to wear a T-shirt on my Zoom call and actually fix my hair and put on a little bit of makeup and some earrings, blah, blah. Anyway, so I'm sitting in my living room, I'm doing my Zoom call and all I got for instruction was talk about your class. That's it.

That's all I got. So I talk a little bit about the class that I'll be teaching again at Syracuse next spring. So, yay. They have asked me to teach again, which is awesome. I think, cool validation. And I start talking about my class.

I share a little bit about how I designed it and why and kind of put in a few tidbits there from my time at Syracuse. And then that was it. I was done. And at that point, the students are sitting there staring at me on a Zoom call. And I'm on this big screen, like as in a big, big screen in front of them because someone took a photo from the back of the room and put it up on Twitter. Of course, the photo they took is me making this hideous face, right?

Like I'm in the middle of saying a word and my face is all scrunched up and I look like an ogre. Anyway, that's the picture that is up on Twitter, so I'm not going to tell you how to find it. Anyway, I'm done talking about my class and I don't hear anything. No one says anything. It's kind of hard to hear when it's a big auditorium anyway, right? I kind of hear the, I think he was MC or he's probably a professor, in the background. I can't see him.

He's not on camera. And I kind of hear him talking, but not really. And so it was one of those really awkward exchanges. Don't you love those where whether it's on the phone or a Zoom call or even maybe it's a FaceTime where you both keep talking at the same time?

So I waited. I say, oh, you know, would you like me to talk about anything else? But he's talking at the same time, so I can't hear him. And then we both pause.

I start talking again, you know, anything else you'd like to know from me? And he starts talking at the same time. And it happened three times that we both take a pause and then start talking at the same time.

And so neither one of us could hear each other. And the only reason I knew is because the students started laughing, really. And I was like, oh, great.

Now they're really going to want to take my class. I work in radio and yet somehow cannot seem to figure out this exchange here with the professor or the faculty member who's there running this session. So, yeah, that was pretty awkward. Finally, I said, you go. And he asked me to talk a little bit about my career, which I did. And I said, OK, just want me to talk. And he was like, yeah, talk about your career.

I'm like, all right. So I did a good 15 minutes, just straight talking, told my story, going back to how I got into this business and my education at Syracuse, and then kind of moving forward and would put in little tidbits and recommendations and advice, but mostly told my story. And then I thought, well, that was easy because I talked for four hours a night and that was only 15 minutes. But they just sat there and looked at me.

So it's yeah, it was I don't know. I don't know if I drummed up any business for my my new class. But then the faculty member opened up for questions and there were a couple of questions which which went well in the 30 minutes was over. But I don't know, Jay, I'm not sure after that anyone is going to be flocking to my class. Oh, I think they will. I think word of mouth around the campus is going to be strong enough just based on the last semester. Let's hope so. I hope that you are correct, because I really did enjoy teaching.

And yeah, it's tough to do on the overnight schedule. I don't think I'll do more than just this one class until I'm not on the overnight schedule. But I really enjoyed it. It was a lot of fun to connect with students and to kind of try this new hat on for size. So, yes, I appreciate that Syracuse has invited me back for this upcoming academic year to teach my class again.

We've changed the name of it. So I'm very artsy. I believe in the art and the creative process of radio. So I initially pitched the class as the art of radio.

Well, the director of of Newhouse and the grad students, she's the sports director of the department. Anyway, she said, I think we should change the name. And I was OK with that. I am OK with that.

It's just. I'm sad that they have dropped the radio from the name. So instead, it's now the art of sports talk. You see my face.

I know no one else can see my face. I don't love it because the whole reason for pitching the class, the whole reason that I'm teaching the class is because I believe that radio in and of itself is a creative and fun. And I still think medium that requires investment and that if you do it right, you don't just sit down and talk. You don't have a TV education then. Oh, well, radio is the same. No, I mean, just because you know TV doesn't mean, you know, radio.

It's a completely different animal. And so I'm kind of bummed that they've changed the name to the art of sports talk when it's really not that. Now, I can teach whatever I want, but I feel as though it's a sell out.

I'm selling out and I didn't pick the name. You know, you know, some writers, they submit their columns, their articles to whether it's their Web site or their actual print outlet. And someone else writes the headline. And at times it can the headline can really be misleading. And it's not exactly what the column is about.

It's more click bait and it's maybe someone who didn't even read the column. So, yes, my boss. But she's my boss.

So I got to have to go with what she says. The art of sports talk. But I'm really sad because I wanted radio to be in the title. It's a little click baity. I do like it. I don't.

It's a good title. Like, I would probably take that class. But you see, like you just said, I'd probably be scrolling by and just be like, oh, that sounds cool and just take it. Exactly. And you don't know that it's radio. Yeah.

I was like, oh, yeah, that looks like a cool course. And then just click it and then move on. Yeah. But I am not going to bite the hand that feeds me. So on this particular point, I will concede. People ask me sometimes, what's the best advice you've ever received? One piece of advice that I always go back to choose your battles. Not every battle is worth fighting. Not every battle is worth your time and your effort. In this case, I'm not going to battle because Syracuse is giving me the chance to teach a class that I love and that I designed on my own.

They're bringing me back for year number two. So probably there's no need to quibble over the name of the class. It is a cool name. Well, I know, but it's not exactly what I'm teaching. Yeah, I know. Do they give you a specific reason for changing it or just that? Oh, no, I know why they're changing it. They're changing it because they want more students to be attracted by the catchy title. Yeah, they want it to be clickbaitier. It's the bling bling. Yes, if they want it to be clickbaitier so that more people will be in the class as opposed to the art of radio, because apparently that's not sexy enough. That's a very sophisticated name.

Thank you, Jay. But also it's very artsy and it's creative and I love it. And apparently it wasn't sexy or, you know, appealing enough.

Do we really need to dress it up? I didn't think so. I mean, it filled up the first time, right? Well, it didn't fill up, but that wasn't part. We would have taken up to 20, which, oh my gosh, would have been way too much. I don't think I could have handled 20 students in my first class. We had nine, which was great.

And I was fine with it. Now, the department would like to have more than that. And so part of the reason is because it didn't get added until late last year.

And so a lot of students had already filled up their class schedule with other offerings, other opportunities. And so it was really about the timing more than anything, but also getting the word out. So now that the word is out a little bit, I'm hoping, plus she's giving me a chance to promote it with students, right? So that's, that's good. So I'm not going to be upset about the fact that the name has been changed to, you know, to something clicky, clicky and baby. It's clicky and baby.

Maybe it'll come back eventually. The art of radio. Yeah. I wouldn't have mind the art of sports radio. Yeah. See, that would have been a little bit, you know, a little bit sexier, but, but still arty. Just something to...

Still me. Yeah. Something just to show that this is a radio course. Thank you.

Yes. Or couldn't we do the art of sports talk radio? That's a good name.

But apparently in their minds, the radio part is the part that's not all that interesting. See, I like the art of sports talk radio. That sounds, I like that. Thank you, Jay.

I like that more. I need to start a petition. I'll sign it. Just me and you.

It'll just be our petition. How was your popcorn? Oh, it was delicious. Thank you.

Okay. Always the best. And how's the smell in there? Not, not bad.

It could use popcorn just because like popcorn just would make anything smell better. So that would have been a good move, but yeah, it's not, it's, it's, it's better than yesterday. I'll say that. I got much reaction to the segment.

Well, Bob calls it the Glade show. Yeah. The segment in which you, I think it was intentional.

It looked pretty intentional to me. You actually shot Glade spray directly up your nostril as though you were doing a nasal spray of some sort directly up your nostrils. But did it work?

If nothing else, you can no longer use your sense of smell because the Glade took that away, burned it out of your nostrils. Yeah. The drive home was interesting. I was a little woozy.

I was a little afraid to go to bed yesterday, but we're here. You thought you had a concussion via Glade spray? I wasn't sure. I lost all my appetite. I was spitting a little bit.

Wow. Something really must have been wrong. The smell wasn't fine. I mean, at least I wasn't smelling that anymore. So it was worth it.

Drastic times call for drastic measures. That's right. Oh my goodness. By the way, to answer our question yesterday, this was kind of a rhetorical question, but for those of you who follow along, when Bob's mom said something about bunny games at Thanksgiving, apparently she went back and watched the video again. And now she's got the name correct because on Thursday morning, I got a text about Chubby Bunny. Of course we have to play Chubby Bunny at Thanksgiving. Oh no. I think I might mysteriously come down with an illness at Thanksgiving. I think this is officially happening.

Oh no. What have I done? Any chance it's a Star Wars weekend? What have I done?

I'll be honest. Earlier tonight, I did check. Who can you check? Not for the weekend. I checked for tonight. I was like, I wonder if Star Wars is on or something.

It wasn't, but hopefully this weekend. You have Disney Plus, Dodo. You can watch it whenever you like. It's not the same though.

When you're just in the mood and you catch it on TV at a random scene. Yes. Maybe it's Lord of the Rings marathon instead. That'd be cool. It feels like forever. What is generally on TNT and TBS now are the Marvel movie marathons.

Over and over and over again. Yeah, those aren't really for me. Nah, that's not my thing. I do like the Thor movies, but yeah. I like Spider-Man. That's about the only one I get into. Well, they might have a Spider-Man marathon this weekend.

You could be in luck. Okay, we are just getting started. Final show of the work week. Oh, and next week, if you haven't heard, it's a bit of an atypical week, so I'll have to let you know.

I will be off the show a couple times. So we'll get to everything that we did not get to earlier this week. And the start of week one in the NFL preseason. Just week one. Hall of Fame game doesn't count. We got the debut of the number two overall pick in the NFL draft. Welcome to the NFL, CJ Stroud. Also the debut of D'Amico Ryans as a head coach. We did not see Mac Jones with the Patriots. Instead it was Bailey Zappi. Also, interesting revelations from, well, what is joint practice between the San Francisco 49ers and the Raiders?

That makes sense, right? That used to be Bay Area Mates. Not anymore, but easy to get together for practices.

And it's Jimmy G's old team, Jimmy G's new team. So a lot of football. Can we call it a football Friday that we're heading into or no? Is it too early to do that, producer J? A freaky, almost football Friday? I think it's fair for the first one of the preseason, for week one. Even though it's probably the worst of the games. Yeah, the buzz is there, a little bit, maybe.

Oh, and wait until you hear the latest buzz on the PGA Tour. Oh dear. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence. You can find me on Twitter, ALawRadio. If it's not Extra Movie Theater Butter Popcorn, then what is it?

That's all I put out there is my tweet. Extra Movie Theater Butter Popcorn. Our Facebook page, too. We're glad to have you as we usher in the weekend here on CBS Sports Radio. You are listening to the After Hours Podcast.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Welcome to the NFL, C.J. Stroud. Welcome to the NFL rookie. Preseason, might as well get it out of your system now.

On Patriots Radio, Bob Socey and Scott Zoellick, they were airing the feed or they were airing the Patriots broadcast on NFL Network for what was the start of week one in the NFL preseason slate. And it was the first opportunity for C.J. Stroud to get out there and face some live game action that was not against his own defense. It was actually against other guys who really do want to make him look bad.

So C.J. did not, he didn't play wonderfully. This is not some type of preseason debut that all of a sudden, you know, is going to take the NFL world by storm and he's a can't miss prospect and the Texans are going to the Super Bowl.

No, it wasn't that. And I hope that you weren't putting that type of stock in a preseason debut. He did have the pick.

He looked hesitant. He took a sack. I mean, he's a rookie quarterback getting his first few snaps. So rookies giveth and rookies taketh away. And you know what? D'Amico Ryans, he's also a rookie head coach, so they're going to be learning together on the job.

It reminds me a little bit of the situation in Arizona when they drafted Kyler Murray, number one overall, and also brought Cliff Kingsbury in at the same time. So, yeah, first chance, first taste. Get your feet wet. Welcome, C.J.

Stroud. Kind of a crazy opportunity to be able to go out my first NFL stadium, first NFL game, and just a lot of things that I've been through to just get to that moment. So it was just special. I just wish I didn't do one mistake on one certain play. But other than that, I thought I played solid. It felt good to get hit again and just get back in the groove.

I just think that's what preseason is for. It's important just to get back and put your feet back in the water. So, of course, I'm not super excited how I played. I didn't get to play a lot.

But just get my feet in the water, learn from my mistakes, and just keep growing. I thought he moved around well. He went to the right place with the ball a couple of times, and it was good to see him move out of the pocket and try to make some things happen there. We know we have some things to clean up up front. I don't want him having to move as much, but we all have things to clean up and get better at.

But I thought it was a good first outing, good look at live action. So I thought it was good for him. D'Amico Ryans and C.J. Stroud growing up together on the job.

And, yeah, you can always take away positives. The point of the preseason, especially with new guys, is to just throw them out there and allow them to get acclimated to the speed. I've spoken to so many NFL players over the course of my career, and a common denominator, when you're talking about new guys coming out of college, even if they played at the highest level at college, is the speed of the game. Yes, the size, especially the size of the defenders. It's much bigger and faster across the board.

But the speed of the game as a whole, it moves so much faster. Producer J, do you remember when Peyton Manning was talking about his quarterback show on Pat McAfee? So he was doing an appearance on Pat McAfee going back maybe a month ago or something. And he was talking about all the challenges of playing quarterback in the NFL. And I know we joke because he started with, you've got the weather.

You've got weather. Right, I don't know if he was being tongue-in-cheek. But is it possible that we have that whole bite?

I don't know if you have it or not. If you don't, it's okay. But one of the things that I loved about Peyton is that he listed all the various factors and the variables that an NFL quarterback has to deal with in a few seconds, right? It's not split second. We're not talking about, you know, a nanosecond.

No, you've got three or four or five. And in the case of Tom Brady, now he was experienced last year, but he, obviously, he made his killing getting rid of the ball early. That's how he stayed so effective in the NFL, even into his 40s, is that he just didn't get hit. And last year, he was releasing the ball more quickly than he ever had in his career. It was like under, just a tick under two and a half seconds. That's how quickly he was releasing the football.

And so even if that's the extreme, which it is, let's say they have five seconds or seven seconds, which is a lot. I mean, that's only if your offensive line is doing yeoman's work. In the case of CJ Stroud, the Texans offensive line didn't give him a lot to work with. And so here he is seeing NFL action for the first time. Little tentative, as you can imagine.

It's faster. He's trying to read the defense. Bill Belichick and coaching staff are masters at that. And also, the Patriots defense is missing just one guy from last year.

One guy. The second McCordie twin retired from the secondary. And so otherwise, this Patriots defense, they're returning everyone. So couple, the veteran leadership and the veteran presence, plus they're in New England and it's CJ Stroud, not deer in the headlights.

I'm not telling you that. But it's, actually, did I say they were in, maybe they were in Houston. No, they were in New England, weren't they? Shoot, now I can't remember.

I think they were in New England. But I have to look at the scores now to be sure. Don't.

They were a few. Okay, always go with your first answer. Always. Anyway, the game is up on NFL Network in front of me.

All I had to do was look up, you dummy. But the idea, though, is that any reps that you get, those are positive reps. This time of the year, any reps that you get, especially as a rookie, whether it's quarterback or any other position, you might as well throw the guy into the fire. Worst case scenario, you don't want injuries.

But otherwise, you might as well get him out there and get him some reps. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence here on CBS Sports Radio. So what did CJ Stroud learn from his first official NFL pick? Trust my eyes. I've seen a certain look to where I knew in film that they could run that to where the safety, if his man blocks, that he'll come off and really be locked into my eyes. Just lost track of that and just forced it. Should have just checked it down to Dalton. But it was a great play by two by kind of just hiding out. He kind of was ducking low, so I didn't really see him. Thought I threw a good pass, but of course it wasn't.

So I had to play by number two and just put that in my back pocket and learn from it. With the interception there, I think Mills made a really nice play. Veteran player made a nice play. Probably were a little late there with the ball.

And it was a good learning lesson. And that's why we do preseason. That's why it's important to get live game reps so you can see how can you come out and improve? Where can you improve?

What do I need to do different next time on those certain plays? There's a lot of buzz around the Houston Texans, in large part because of D'Amico Ryans. He's so highly thought of. But there's also a lot of people that love, love, love what CJ Stroud brings to the table. Remember Trevor Lawrence couldn't have been a more hyped up quarterback prospect for three full years. We waited for Trevor Lawrence. And there was no way that he was going to do anything except for completely rewrite history in his first year in the NFL.

But that's not what happened. Partly because of Urban Meyer, but also because he struggled. Trevor Lawrence struggled. Even if CJ Stroud has a rough season, there's a lot of promise there. Same thing for Bryce Young. I mean, goodness, while we're talking about Peyton Manning, how about his first year in the NFL with the Colts?

It was a disaster. But that's how you learn. And in the case of these young quarterbacks, we're going to see a bunch of them on the field this very first month of the season, which will kick off in under a month actually. So yeah, there's a tough learning curve. It's a really difficult and challenging position to learn, to grasp. A lot of the guys, veteran QBs or retired QBs, say that it takes into your year number three before you get fully comfortable. And you're really acclimated to what's happening there behind the line with defenses. Certainly you have to know that the defenses are the best in the world. They get paid a lot of money too.

And so they're doing everything they can to make life miserable for you. Deep breath, exhale. C.J. Stroud, first NFL action, did not get hurt and had his taste of the New England Patriots and their defense. All right, coming up, we had a game between Seattle and Minnesota. Actually, top of the hour, we're going to head to Seattle and do a little pregame training camp deep dive. There we go.

That's the phrase I wanted. Pregame training camp deep dive for the Seattle Seahawks because this will be Geno Smith's second year. What else has changed as Pete Carroll just continues to be the star of the show there?

Such a big fan of Pete. And then the Vikings, how can they stay on top of the NFC North? And so those are the other two teams that met in the later preseason game.

Also some fun interaction between Jimmy Garoppolo and Brock Purdy and joint practices between the Niners and the Raiders. You know what just dawns on me, J? You might have to go back and check the podcast. Did I accidentally call them the San Francisco Giants earlier in the show and not the Niners? I might have. Oh, no, I think I might have.

If anybody heard me say that, please reach out to me on Twitter, A Law Radio. This time of the year is when it gets, the overlapping, when it gets challenging because I'm trying to reinstall the football programming in my brain and yet I've been immersed in baseball for months now and sometimes this happens. You've got the New York Giants. How often do I say World Series when I mean Super Bowl? Or I start to say Super Bowl when I mean World Series.

Anyway, I might have said San Francisco Giants earlier when I was talking about the Niners and the Raiders joint practice. I didn't hear it. I might have missed it, but I'll go back. I mean, you don't listen, but you do need to go back and check it out. I did not get any type of a tweet, so maybe I didn't, but why does it feel like that's what I said?

It might actually feel like that. All right. Clayton Kershaw returned for the Los Angeles Dodgers tonight as they were gunning for a fifth consecutive win. We also have a concerning moment for the Philadelphia Phillies who are right now first place in the NL wild card. So we're going to get to as much as we can in these next three and a half hours. We're almost to the weekend, you guys, almost to the weekend. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. You are listening to the After Hours Podcast. To get closer to game speed as much as possible is what gets you prepared the best. And the leadership, really the standard that is set by the guys that have been around and know what we expect here, as well as what the coaches are doing, is we're hitting it off right now.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Always nice to hear from Pete Carroll, and top of the hour we'll do a deep dive into the Seattle Seahawks. Remember last year they made the playoffs, and it was an opportunity for them to really figure out if they wanted to invest in Geno Smith long term or if he was just a stopgap measure. Not only did he earn that job, but the fans are now embracing Geno, as he has mentioned.

He's talked about it, how cool it is to finally feel as though the fans themselves are on board with him, even though last year was a bit of a surprise. Yeah, here they go into year number two. Could they potentially be one of the strong teams coming out of the NFC? It kind of feels like that whole conference is wide open again, specifically the NFC North, right, because there's no Aaron Rodgers there anymore last year. The Lions finished strong. They're on the hype train, if you will. The hype train.

Exactly. But the Vikings too, they had double figure wins last year. They grabbed the division title going away.

What will the Packers do with Jordan Love? I mean, there's a lot of question marks about the NFC North. The NFC West, I think, because of the Niners' back-to-back championship games, they are the team to beat. But Matthew Stafford, healthy again.

Cooper Cupp is going to be healthy again. The Rams are rejuvenated. The Seahawks made the playoffs last year. And then you think about just the way like the NFC Beast had three teams make the postseason.

The problem is that division changes from year to year so drastically, it seems like. Can the Eagles have an encore performance? So they made the playoffs slash Super Bowl now. The first two years of Nick Sirianni's tenure there in Philadelphia.

And so he's obviously had a great impact. We've seen Jalen Hurts' game take off, but they're also not a surprise to anyone anymore. So I think the NFC is wide open the South. Well, we know no team finished above.500 in the South last year. So is there a possibility that the Seahawks could kind of step in and fill a void there?

Drew Locke was the one who started the game tonight against the Minnesota Vikings. To be playing football again, gosh, you know, it's weird when you go a whole year without taking a snap and no props to G for doing that last year and rallying this team and getting us to the playoffs. But, man, it felt good to finally be back out there. Whether it's preseason, whether it's regular season, it's been an offseason, right? And these guys are chomping at the bit, even after training camp where they're facing their own defenses or vice versa, right?

And so how do you make sure that you're ready to go when the season starts? With these three preseason games now, we do see more starters. But also, have you noticed the theme, right, is that we're seeing more and more of the starters play. And I think it is because there's a lot of new quarterbacks, a lot of new pieces, new coordinators, new coaches, and this is a chance for them to get out there and just get their feet wet. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio.

Thanks so much for hanging out with us. Top of the hour, we've got the Seattle Seahawks under the spotlight, and then we'll also get to some of the latest in Major League Baseball, the Dodgers with Clayton Kershaw's return, last game between the Orioles and the Astros of this current series, an injury that may mar what the Phillies have done over the last few weeks as they've ascended to that number one wild card in the National League. As you know, they're a season high, 12 games above.500 now as well. What I think is really neat is that in addition to getting these joint practices, we are seeing some of, sometimes it's brawling, but we are seeing some of these teams that have connections get back on a field together without brawling, it would be nice. But one of these cool ones, sometimes it's about coaches who set up these joint practices, maybe they have a preexisting relationship, they've worked together before, they felt like the value in joint practices in the past was something that they wanted to build on.

Well, in the case of the Raiders and the Niners, they shared the Bay Area, of course, for a while, and also shared Jimmy Garoppolo because his old team and his current team, they got together on the practice field and, yeah, for Garoppolo who, he always seems so easygoing, does he not? He really never has a bad day except for when he gets injured and he really wants to be out there. But he was all smiles, he's got a new gig, he's got a new job, and he's ready to go and so he can be generous about the Niners. It was fun, just first play, Dre was talking, I mean, he's got things going right away, but those are my brothers, I love those guys, so we had a good time out there.

Now remember, he started a handful of games and took over for Trey Lance in Week 2, but then he got hurt as well with a foot injury, so both he and Trey had a foot injury before Brock Purdy kind of grabbed the opportunity. It was one of the cooler stories of last season. But yeah, tough, tough to see that potential, that team that was so good and have to watch it from the sidelines for Garoppolo, and yet it was a second consecutive NFC Championship game appearance. It was wild, man.

I was doing my thing, trying to get my foot ready. It didn't work out how I wished it would have, but those guys going through three quarterbacks and still making it to the NFC Championship game, that's damn impressive for a team. So I know Niners, they've got a great team and everything. We had a great time. It's on to Vegas now, but yeah, I treasure those times.

Those were good times. What about his relationship with Brock Purdy, who is, as long as he's healthy, QB 1 for the Niners moving forward and awesome. Can't wait to see him healthy, but also as the starter coming out in Week 1, not taking the job from someone else because of injury. No, it's important for him, like it is for any of the other rookie quarterbacks, or quarterbacks are moving to a new place, or even in the case of the Packers and Jordan Love, it's finally his job.

When you know it's your job, you're not fighting for the job, it's an extra confidence boost. And while Brock Purdy did take over for Jimmy Garoppolo last year, he had the help of Jimmy. Brock was a cool dude, on and off the field. As a rookie, he was pretty quiet off the get-go, but he started to open up towards the end, especially once he started playing. We got to talk it up a little bit out there today, so it sounded like he was doing good. Obviously, he's a pro. He was professional at everything that he did, coming into the meetings, how he was in the meeting room, in the huddle, before he's about to break a huddle and say a play.

Everything was crisp. So I learned a lot from Jim and just how a professional NFL quarterback is supposed to look and act at practice and his leadership and talking to guys. He did a lot of great things here, and so just my little time that I had with him this past season, it was a lot for me to learn, and it was a blessing. Man, hearing these guys talk, watching even a little bit of the preseason, it's got my juices flowing. It's got my juices flowing.

I'm looking forward to it. I'm torn, as I said earlier this week, because I really, really love the slower pace of summer. It's an opportunity to just kind of veg out a little more, not a ton, but you know, we take vacations.

We take long weekends. It's a chance to enjoy some of our favorite activities in the summertime, but also the sports world is a little slower. Now, I love the shows, of course, because we can be creative. We can get off the beaten path.

But at the same time, there is such an energy, and there is such a compelling nature. It's such great theater during the NFL season that I'm really excited about getting back to football. It's just that I don't want to wish the rest of the summer away.

But here we are. We're going into August 11th, second full weekend in August. The preseason's underway, and yeah, we're inside of a month until week number one. It's After Hours on CBS Sports Radio.

Whether it's on Twitter, ALaw Radio, our show Twitter, After Hours, CBS, and then our Facebook page, it's great to connect with you. The Raiders need to show something different in year number two under Josh McDaniels. Mark Davis says he's committed.

Of course, he was committed to Jon Gruden before that and did stick with that until Gruden stepped away. But you know what? They got to win something. Max Crosby, he's had it with the sucking. He's had it with the losing. Every single day I come in here, I think about winning. You know, I don't do this year round to come in and not make the playoffs. I'm sick of that shit, and I want to keep winning. I want to get back to the playoffs.

I want to be in Cincinnati on the road in a hostile environment. That's why I play the game. That's why I work the way I work.

I come here, and I do this all year. Like I said, I want to win championships. I want to be at the top of the game. I want to be the number one guy regardless of position. I work for that every single day. I'm fired up for this organization. I love all the people in here.

I'm really just trying to be my best version of myself and lead by example. Tired of losing. Yeah, the AFC West was supposed to be so much more competitive last year. Remember? It was supposed to be from top to bottom one of the best divisions in football. It was supposed to be the year in which the Chiefs were unseated as not just the Super Bowl champs. I shouldn't say Super Bowl champs. I should say one of the top teams in the AFC because they weren't the reigning champs before that. But they were supposed to be unseated atop the AFC West, and it never really materialized for a lot of reasons.

And the Raiders didn't make that push, so can they do it this year? I'm telling you, it's compelling. After hours with Amy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio. The official Winning Time podcast from HBO is back. I'm Rodney Barnes, executive producer on the show. Magic and the Lakers are back to defend their title. Join me as I break down each new episode with sportswriter Jeff Perelman and the actors, directors and key collaborators who brought the 1980s Showtime Lakers to life. It's not about basketball. It's about winning. Listen to HBO's official Winning Time podcast on Sundays after the show airs on Max.