After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 1

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That's ShipStation.com slash audio. Have you ever stopped to wonder how many people in the United States of America hear American woman and think after hours with Amy Lawrence? I bet there's a fair number. We'll go with a dozen.

Okay, maybe more than a dozen. We've been using that song, this song, that song, for a really long time. Going back to, gosh, maybe the very first month that I started hosting here on CBS Sports Radio, January 2013, I believe it was a creation or a creative stroke of genius from one of the Toms who I originally work with. I don't know which one, but I'm pretty sure it might have been DeCelestino who's still with the network.

He produces Ryder Than You with Bill Ryder mornings on CBS Sports Radio. I think it was his creation and we decided we would begin every show with that song and we've never deviated from that. I think when there are different hosts filling in, I don't know how it goes now. Jay could tell me if they do a different song or if they just come in with music and nothing else. I know in the past there have been some hosts that tried to tell the producers not to use American Woman because, you know, it was their show, not my show, which is dumb because it's always my show.

But I don't know. I think over the past there have been some who have come in without it. And also a couple of times we've had fill-ins, I won't call them producers, I'll just call them fill-ins, who were not fully cognizant of the plan here, weren't paying attention when producer Jay trained them. And so they have played other music to start the show and just always start the show.

Yes. Had you heard that song or that version of the song before you started working on the show? Oh, yeah, definitely. I'm a fan of that song. I had not. I'd heard American Woman, but not his version of it.

Not Lenny Kravitz. Yeah, they're both great. Now it's become my favorite. I don't want people every now and then will say, why don't you use the other version? Because this is the one that we like. It's bold and brash, and this is the one that we like.

Absolutely. So, yes, it is After Hours with Amy Lawrence, an American woman, couldn't live, wouldn't want to live anywhere else, enjoy visiting. But within a couple of weeks, I think the longest I've ever been out of the country is three weeks. And after two, I'm pretty anxious to get home. I'll get homesick after two because there's no place like the USA. Not going internationally anytime soon. Maybe next summer. We'll see.

A lot of it depends on what happens with Miss Penny, since she does run my life and my schedule, including my travel. It's our hump show. We are dead center of the work week right now. Boom.

And we've got football, baseball, track and field. Uh huh. We've got stories, of course, because producer Jay and I, we don't know how this happens. We don't know how those little critters get into our cars, but I swear to you, every couple weeks I have to kill a spider while I'm driving. And last night's episode, meaning Monday night, I forgot to tell the story, Monday night's drive into work, it was something out of either a comedy, a comedic skit, improv, because I was trying to kill this spider missed the first time. He does a victory lap around my windshield, meaning like the entire circumference of my windshield while I'm driving through a construction zone.

And I'm trying to reach and I'm trying to get him. Oh, it was it was it's a good thing I didn't run right through the construction cones because and then I you know what happens when you're focused on something else. A lot of times you stop driving, right? You take your foot off the gas.

I don't know if it's instinctive or what. Take your foot off the gas and you forget to drive. I actually prayed that the spider would come back out of the shadows. That was the other thing. It was dark.

The shadows from the highway light. It was really hard to see the thing. So I was praying that he would climb back out of his shadowy hiding spot and that I'd be able to get him. But it took quite a while. There was much trepidation and fear in my car.

You know, they can smell fear. That probably would have scared him. So I didn't do anything like that, though. I did feel like screaming semis everywhere because it's it's the highway on a late night around New York City.

Right. It was the most uncomfortable thing. And even worse, when I the first time I tried to get him, I swiped and missed. And he, as I say, he had this giant grin on his face. He did a victory lap around my windshield. He went to the other side of the car where I couldn't reach him. Then he comes back. And the second time when I got him, of course, I was I was feeling heart palpitations. I was I was shaking almost uncontrollably.

And I get him with this. I take this wad of tissues. I couldn't find the paper towel that I always have in my bag. I'd put a paper towel on my back.

Didn't know where it was. I'd accidentally put it in a pocket so I couldn't reach it when I when I kind of, you know, went without looking into the main compartment. Anyway, when I grab this wad of tissues, I get him on the window and I hear a crunch like, oh, gross, just gross. And so it wasn't just a spider was a spider that had a crunch when you killed him.

You got him, though, I did get him. But then but then because I was afraid that maybe the crunch didn't actually kill him, I squeeze that wad of tissues so tight. You have to be sure.

I squeeze the wad of tissues so tightly and I would not let go until a good four miles or five miles down the road. Stop it while we're talking about comedies and my all time favorite comedy in film form. Speaking of comedy, there is one listener to the show. Long time listener, long time follower on social media as well, who keeps asking me whether or not I'm joking about getting married. He keeps asking me whether or not it's a hoax that I'm making it up.

Could you imagine? As if it would never be found out, I would just be engaged for the rest of my life. Like your neighbor who said no way. Well, no, he was exclaiming, but he actually did believe me. This guy keeps asking me whether or not I'm joking. Multiple days now he's still inquiring. Oh, Facebook, Twitter keeps asking, going back to last week, whether or not I'm making it up. Could you imagine?

I know there are people that lie on their resumes, but could you imagine having a national radio show and doing it? What as a bit? I'm getting married as a bit.

Quite the commitment to the bit there. Oh, my gosh. Jay, tell people what's on my finger. It's a ring. Yeah.

Did I buy myself a ring? I don't think so. Oh, my gosh.

I can't believe. And if you know me, there are many things that I joke about and kid about. This is not something I would ever joke about ever. I don't know who would know. And if I was going to, I would have done it before now.

Do you really think I want to wait this long? No. Are you kidding?

Willie is his name. I have received fifteen hundred comments on Facebook and Twitter. I would never do that.

To be the center of attention, to be self-serving. There really wouldn't be much to gain from that. No. And also, wouldn't it scare away prospective men if I did actually pull the hoax on the radio? Would it actually defeat the whole purpose of trying to find someone if everyone thought I was already engaged in getting married?

Yeah. That makes no sense to me whatsoever, has never crossed my mind. No, I would be mortified if people were congratulating me over something that wasn't true and wasn't real. I would cave under the pressure. I would never be able to pull that off. It just wouldn't really be like that good of a bit.

No, it wouldn't. It's not like funny. No, it's not funny at all because people would be saying, and my phone is not stopped since I made the news public last week, our social media hasn't either. Most people are so happy for me, which is wonderful. Some people are telling me to run for my life. Other people are telling me they're heartbroken and devastated.

I keep getting the whole, oh, another crush bites the dust thing. Well, okay. Anyway, now this, now this, is it a hoax or is this actually real? I just, I can't get over that. Maybe it's happened in the past that a radio or TV personality has decided this would be a good bit and it would be really funny, but I'm not sure that I find the humor in it at all.

It might be a reason we don't know who that was. No, no, I don't get it. Why would you? I'm not that desperate. I'm so over the moon, happy to get married.

It's an answered prayer. I've wanted to get married for a long time. I waited because it wasn't the right, wasn't the right situation. I never met the right guy until now. And I'm so happy I did. But to make it up is, yeah, that's beyond the realm of what I can do.

I'm a pretty damn good actor and I can pull off a lot of stuff, but not that. I will confirm that Amy is getting married. How can you confirm actually though?

How could you confirm? That's a good question, right? You've seen photos of Bob with me, but so it's not just him. It's him with me. Bob has not told me though. You're right.

I haven't heard it from Bob. But you've never met him. I suppose technically it could be my brother and I just make him pose. I'm trying to come up with all the ways that this would be. I tell you what, if it's a fake wedding, I've spent a heck of a lot of money on a fake wedding.

No, it's not a fake wedding. Just helping out local businesses. I would never do that.

I would never do that. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. I will say thank you again. I'm still hearing from people who did not know the news before yesterday or today, the last few hours. You're still processing. Just some of your comments crack me up. But the vast majority have been congratulations.

I'm so happy for you. Some of you have even mentioned Grammy Helen. Actually, many of you have mentioned Grammy Helen. I am, of course, very sad that she doesn't know. I can't tell her and I can't have her there.

But some of you have suggested ways to incorporate her into the wedding, which I really appreciate because I am trying to figure out the right way to do it. But yeah, it is a time to where you think about the people that you've lost, that you wish you could tell, that you wish could be there. So there's a lot of emotion wrapped up into it. None of it is fake. Absolutely none of it is fake.

It's all very authentic. Speaking of emotion, did you happen to see the emotional outburst from Alex Cora and Justin Verlander, who I'm pretty sure turned on his heel, walked away from his former, would you say, I guess he was a bench coach in Houston, right? Walked away from his former coach with an F.U. Did I hear that incorrectly? Or is that what he said to Alex Cora? He actually said, F.U., Alex, and just turned on his heel and walked back to the mound. I guess the whole trash can connection and the whole bonding over winning the 2017 World Series, that's gone by the wayside.

Cheating, it fractures groups, it fractures teams. I wish we had the audio, but you really can't hear it. Well, we do have the audio, but there's so much ambient noise and you really can't hear it without seeing it.

And so it's not worth playing, though just take my word for it. Or go watch the video, because Justin Verlander was not having it. Apparently he was struggling with his pitchcom device and it wasn't working and so he asked the umpire and then asked the ball boy to change it out, to fix it, put a new battery in it, whatever. And Alex Cora came out to investigate and said a couple of things that Verlander didn't like or maybe just stuck his nose into a situation that Verlander didn't want him to.

And Justin gave him the old heave-ho, Alex, in so many words. Otherwise, it was a night of near perfection for Justin Verlander. The pitch. And it's a shot the other way, base hit. Bregman's going to be sent to throw in from Willier. Abreu is overshot back to the screen and Tucker and Diaz will move up. 2-2.

Swing and a miss. Abreu strikes out, got him on a fastball, basically down the middle. And that is nine strikeouts for Justin Verlander, a new season high, two out. 3-2 to Singleton. And that's ripped down the right field line.

Fair ball, it is! Two runs will score. Diaz in, here comes McCormick, he scores. Another double for Singleton.

This time he drives in a pair. 7-0, the Nastros. It was a one-sided affair, both the offense and the pitching, showing up in powerful way for the Houston Astros, the World Series champions. They get this win over the Boston Red Sox and Verlander picks up his ninth victory of the season. A scoreless six innings, he allows just five hits. And as you hear with Robert Ford and Steve Sparks on Astros radio, he also has a season high nine strikeouts.

And without using the F-bomb, he was pretty open, long-winded about what was working so well for him against Boston. For the fastball and the curveball specifically, between the last start and this one, I felt like I really kind of found something mechanically that kind of answered a lot of questions for me. I've been working really hard this year. I think we've already talked about this, just kind of like a lot of mechanical tweaks. And I think I found something kind of like early in my mechanics with my load that answered a lot of questions and kind of like lined up down the mechanics path of kind of what I was looking for. So I didn't know how it was going to turn out, but I think the results were really good. The filo jumped up a little bit. I was behind the ball better.

Timing was better. All very positive things. Justin Verlander, something about his load and the fastball and the curveball and everything else.

Not load management. Let's not mistake it for something that it's not. Yeah, he's happy with his fastball. And in addition to that, what we see from Verlander is kind of this relief. He mentions it that he just didn't feel right. And this is the first game in which he felt like he had more command and had everything that he needed.

Finally feels quote unquote normal again. So we'll hear more from Verlander. The Astros, by the way, are within sniffing distance or I guess Jay calls it spitting distance. Like a camel.

A camel could spit from the Astros to the Rangers atop the AL West. Have you noticed it is getting hot in here? Well, it's already hot in Texas.

Oh, goodness. I'm so happy to head back to Houston next week. The Rangers and Astros have the same number of wins.

The same number of wins. The Rangers have essentially held the lead in the division for all of the 23 season. But now separated by just a half game in the loss column, the Rangers have dropped six straight while both the Astros and Mariners are gaining ground. And so for Bruce Bochy, there is a major sense of urgency. We're off tomorrow in Minnesota and we got to see where we're at. And it's time to pick it up.

It's go time. We worked hard to get in this position and we can't let this get away from us. It's time to play good baseball.

And so I think it's a challenge for all of us to amp it up here a little bit. The Mariners win streak extended to eight. We'll talk about that game and also what happened with the Chicago White Sox since the Mariners and White Sox did play on the south side of Chicago on Tuesday night. So we'll get to more from the baseball diamond, diamond drama, if you will. Also, the return of one Mike Trout. Welcome back after 38 games away. We've got a quarterback for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and we've got questions in New England, the Patriots. And we know we're not going to get answers from Bill Belichick.

So it's time to look elsewhere. One of my personal favorites because she has covered the Patriots since I was growing up in New England. It's really neat to have her on the show. And as a side note, when I first started my career, I never would have had back to back shows in which I had women as guests, women who covered the NFL.

And yet that's exactly what's happening this week on After Hours because it's the hump show. We want you to ask Amy anything. Although, Jay, have we decided will this we're not going to do a full on wedding version of asking me anything until we get to our next video version of the feature. OK, so that's how we're going to do it. For those of you who are listening, I know many of you have sent your questions already.

Look for the bright orange box on our show Twitter after hours, CBS or on our Facebook page. And we may mix in a wedding question. That's up to Jay.

It's his discretion. He's given you all a maybe. But we promise to do in the next month. We promise to do a wedding version of asking me anything that's on video for you to see on our YouTube channel. And we'll make it a wedding. Ask Amy with all of your FAQ is because I'm getting a lot of the same questions over and over and over again. So for now, OK, maybe he'll pick a wedding question. But for the most part, we will be we'll be saving those for asking me video version YouTube channel.

It's a really cheap way of getting you to go to our YouTube channel. If you have any good wedding questions that you haven't seen posted, still post them because I am collecting them at the moment. Oh, Jay's collecting your wedding questions. How about that?

All right. On either Twitter or Facebook, our phone number eight five five two one two four two two seven. Karen Grigian, top of the hour about the New England Patriots. We are moving and grooving through the hump show here on CBS Sports Radio.

You are listening to the After Hours podcast. We're going to play ball well into the right field going back to the winning track, looking up goodbye baseball into the White Sox bullpen. Josh Rojas with a two out two run home run here in the top of the fourth inning shot ready. Here's this pitch swung on a high chopper to third base. Moncada drops it, scoring from third base is Rojas and the bases will still be loaded. That's a break for the Mariners.

Moncada just couldn't handle the chopper. Here's the stretch and the one two on the way swing and a miss strike three and the ball game is over. The Mariners win in the final score off six to three over the White Sox here in Chicago. And once again for the second time this year, the Mariners have an eight game winning streak.

Getting you to the good half of your week, it's the Hump Show on After Hours. Since July 1st, the Mariners are 33 and 13, 20 games above 500 and they have closed the gap similar to the Astros as the Rangers are backpedaling in the AOS. But also the Mariners after having a taste of the playoffs last year could potentially put together back to back appearances in October. On Mariners radio, it's After Hours with Amy Lawrence here on CBS Sports Radio.

Eugenio Suarez, he's got his team and the fans fired up and is grateful for the way that they're supporting their team. When you get the support, although people come to watch us play, it's a lot for us. We appreciate that a lot and keep going to support us. Let's go, Mariners! Eight in a row, let's go!

Eight in a row, let's go. The Mariners, good story. Astros defending World Series champions.

The Rangers have done so much work to try to get to a position where they are a contender and it's finally paying dividends. Again, they've had the lead atop the AOS for most of the season, but as you heard from Bruce Bote before the break, the time is now. They can't keep squandering wins like this and so you've got Rangers, Astros, Mariners all separated by just one game.

One game atop the West standings. No one's concerned about the Angels anymore. Not only is Shohei Ohtani out of gas, I don't want to say he isn't going to do anything on the mound or at the plate the rest of the way, but it's clear that performing double duty for this long in a season has caught up with him.

It really has. He's skipping starts, he's going shorter when he does start, whether it's the heat, whether it's the travel, it's the constant day or night in the lineup, he really doesn't take days off unless he absolutely has to. It's catching up to him. It's a lot to do both over the length of a 162 game season. And I know when you think about starting pitchers, oh, they only go every fifth game, but they're preparing and they have bullpen sessions and he also has to try to keep up with the various pitchers he's facing as the DH. So there's a lot that goes into it, even thinking back to the All-Star break in mid-July when he was asked by Ken Rosenthal on Fox about how he prepares to do both.

How does he keep up with everything? And his answer was, I sleep a lot in between starts when he's worn out. And so, yeah, the Angels are doing what they can to preserve his effectiveness and to keep him fresh, but it's hard to imagine how they're going to be able to turn this around.

And Mike Trout, while he is back in the lineup now, it's been 38 games without the sluggers perennial All-Star, sorry, the team's perennial All-Star, the slugger who was kind of scuffling before he got hurt and then had that broken bone in his hand slash wrist, so right above his wrist. He's still not 100 percent, but he's chosen to return to the field anyway. Definitely sore. But, you know, I talked to some doctors and they told me that I can't, you know, injure it more. So, yeah, it's definitely going to be soreness up there.

But, you know, I'm just happy to be out there with the guys. 38 games away. He goes one for four. He does have a strikeout in this game against the Reds on Tuesday night. And actually, the Reds can certainly identify with a team that is scuffling because they've lost their lead in the NL Central. In fact, had faded back enough that the Cubs leapfrogged them in the NL Central and both teams still within camel-spitting distance of the Brewers. And I don't know how confident anyone is in a team atop either of the Central divisions, but the Brewers have won seven of their last ten. Cubs have played really strong baseball maybe since the beginning of June or so with a couple of stretches here or there where they had to find their footing again. But it's the Reds who have gone back to that.500 baseball, kind of that mediocre baseball. But if they can get more of the type of performance that they got from Graham Ashcraft tonight, well, then it's a big deal.

A career-high ten strikeouts in holding the Angels at bay. We're a really young team, but there's a lot of really good talent on this team. And there's, I mean, y'all have seen it. I mean, there's just been some times where we're just hitting stuff right at guys. And I mean, we're starting, you can start to see guys starting to take some better swings, starting to feel a little bit more comfortable. So, I mean, it's just, it's a matter of time until these guys start doing stuff like they did tonight.

All right. So there's a lot yet to be decided as we are closing in on the stretch run. We've got five weeks to go in baseball's regular season and a lot that we will see transpire. Diamond drama, as we call it.

We do love our diamond drama. Of course, baseball will have to compete with football within days because the season opener is, what now, eight days away. Nine, I guess nine, hmm, I'm trying to think about it. It's Thursday night.

Yeah, yeah. So nine days away or nine nights away, whichever you prefer. But when you wake up or when you hear this on podcast on Wednesday, you'll be just over a week out from the season opener, which I now know I have memorized.

I do not memorize schedules ever. I look right before it's happening. It's the Lions and it's the Chiefs. And it'll be a doozy because we've got the hype train running through Detroit with Dan Campbell.

All right. Top of the hour, we're going to talk Patriots. What's the biggest question about New England and is the criticism of Bill Belichick worth it? Also, we have a starter in Tampa. And no, it's not Tom Brady. He's not returning. No more TB for TB.

Instead, I got to find a slouch who will take the snaps. I'm just kidding. Hello. You can find our show Twitter at After Hours CBS. We're asking you to send your questions for Ask Amy anything.

Our Facebook page, too. Good to connect with you. I had Thai food for dinner tonight.

Thank you for caring. Had a few leftovers for the pre-show meal. I am fired up and ready to go.

You are listening to the After Hours podcast. I'm wired different. I don't need anybody on the outside to tell me what I can and can't do.

I know what I'm capable of. I mean, this team, you talk about skeptics and what the narrative is around this team. I think it speaks to our veterans and the people that were part of the run for the Super Bowl and the success they've had recently. More so than me. I'll always have a chip on my shoulder, but we're going to write our own story.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. That is the voice of Baker Mayfield. And oh, yes, he's always had a chip on his shoulder and confidence. Even when he had no reason to be confident, he was still confident. His introductory press conference with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

This is one of the most fascinating swaps at quarterback that you can imagine in the NFL. But as a side note here on After Hours, Jay, do you know what I did? Jay does not pay attention when I talk, so I know that to be sure. But did you not catch my big mistake last segment? I am actually not going to be here next Thursday night because I will be in Houston. It's not next Thursday night that the NFL kicks off. My sense of timing is so off because, well, for a lot of reasons, but because I'm counting days until I can be back in Houston and visit Bob and my family. And so I, yeah, my sense of timing is completely off, not to mention it's the middle of the week.

It's the hump show. And wait till I tell you what I did in my kitchen on Tuesday morning or, yeah, Tuesday morning. It's just been that kind of a week where my eyeballs are, you know, that emoji where he's got like spinning lines for eyeballs.

That's me. It's been one of those kind of weeks. Is it bad that while you were doing that in your head, was it nine days or eight? I was sitting here thinking, oh, is it eight?

I didn't even realize either. I was like, oh, yeah, it's seven days, Tuesday night. The NFL does not kick off next week.

Next weekend is Labor Day weekend. I don't know. Yeah, I don't know what's wrong with me. Well, there are many things that are wrong with me. Like I said, counting days here, there and everywhere. But even with everything on my plate and all that I have to look forward to and plan and anticipate, the NFL does not kick off for two weeks. It's not next week.

Oh, dear. Did I get you all fired up? So in other words, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have a couple more weeks. They weren't necessarily up against a clock, but they started to name their starting quarterback anyway. We go through many camp training camp and OTAs and we love everything Kyle has done. And he's gotten leaps and bounds better than he has in the spring and he's continuing to get better. And we're excited about him. Baker's our guy right now.

Experience wise and understanding the playbook just a little bit better. But Kyle's on the come. But we like both guys. We like where we're at. Baker's one, Kyle's two. The ultimate goal is always to be playing.

So, yeah, it's it's one of those things that when you look at, you know, the big picture, it's one of those things you have to check off the box. So, yeah, but now's now's the time to really ramp it up and go from here and start winning ballgames that count. Did you know that Baker Mayfield will be starting for. His third different team in three season openers. And that doesn't even include the Rams. Remember, he made his trip to L.A. and played for them for what was it, four games, five games at the end of last season and had that incredible spark for L.A. when he led what was it, two touchdown passes in the in the fourth quarter and led the crazy fourth quarter comeback.

Hey, I'm happy to be home. One of our favorite moments of the twenty two. So goofy. Anyway, he has had quite the journey. I mean, think about it. Going back to spring of twenty two.

Right. So it's been a year and a half, essentially, not even a year and a half. And his arc, his career arc is crazy, even by Ryan Fitzpatrick standards. His career arc is crazy, even by Russell Westbrook standards.

It's it's relatively nutso. He was with the Cleveland Browns member in I'm going to go through Baker Mayfield's career arc here because it like I say, it's it's uber interesting. He was with the Cleveland Browns coming off the season in which he played hurt. Remember, he had the shoulder injuries. He played all the way through it after the Browns ended their playoff drought in twenty.

He plays in twenty one, but for the most part, played hurt. Now, whether you put that on the coaches, whether you put that on Baker, Baker, the Browns were bad again. And a lot of it had to do with Baker's play, even though he was playing hurt.

No way to change that. It is what it is. So what we found out is that at the combine in February of twenty two. Baker's camp, Baker's agents were told the Browns will be investigating options at quarterback.

So they did. When they found out that Deshaun Watson's a lot of the court cases had been cleared, had been settled. Deshaun was now officially on the market again with the Houston Texans.

The Browns throw their hat in the ring. We found out once again through multiple reports that even as Deshaun was considering his options, he eliminated Cleveland as the destination. In large part because Cleveland is too cold for what Deshaun wanted. Of course, then the owners of the Cleveland Browns, they decided to go all in and I mean all freaking in at the poker table. They put everything they got into the middle of the table and they decide to offer Deshaun a fully guaranteed contract for what was it?

Two hundred thirty eight million dollars, two hundred thirty five million dollars, something along those lines. And well, all of a sudden, Deshaun Watson was, in fact, very interested in the Cleveland Browns. Even before he made his decision, though, word got back to Baker, word got around the NFL and Baker decides to do a preemptive strike with a Dear John letter.

It's not you, it's me or something along those lines. He actually said goodbye to Cleveland before Deshaun Watson ever picked the Browns. And there's rumors about. How the Browns wanted an adult in the room and it gets back to Baker and he's ticked for a lot of reasons. But he aired his dirty laundry publicly. He wore his heart on his sleeve again because that's who Baker is. He could not keep his emotions in check. He could not keep his frustration, his anger, that chip on his shoulder, couldn't keep any of that to himself. He decides to air it publicly. And in essence, even before Deshaun picked the Browns, that relationship had frayed so badly.

Who knows whether or not. Without Deshaun Watson, the Browns are still looking in a different direction to start the twenty two season. So Baker finally he gets cut or gets traded, I guess. He finally gets traded, but he was not going to be with the Browns regardless.

Traded to the Panthers. Now remember, he wanted to go to the Colts. The Colts decided they'd rather have Matt Ryan. Oh, but the Colts regret that decision. He wanted to go to Seattle. Seattle decides they're going to stick with Geno Smith.

So the only remaining destination was the Carolina Panthers. He starts for the Panthers, wins a competition with Sam Darnold, starts with the Panthers, lasted, oh, I don't know, three weeks, four weeks. I think Baker's our quarterback.

Oh, my gosh. Matt Ruhl gets fired. Baker gets cut. He ends up with the Rams. And now they're signing with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will start for his third team in three consecutive season openers.

Cleveland, Carolina, now Tampa. Oh, it's after hours with Amy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio. How did he win the job over Kyle Trask? I think during training camp, you can look at turnovers. Obviously, taking care of the ball is the main thing, but it's practice for a reason. Trying to get timing down with the receivers, trying to test certain things out, see what 50-50 balls, what guys are going to make plays.

And so when it comes down to the game, it's time to take care of the football and be the quarterback you're meant to be. I just looked up the date. If you're going by actual calendar year, it was a year ago that Baker was traded from the Browns to the Panthers. Remember, because it took a while. He was on the roster and it took months. He wasn't with them for OTAs, but they couldn't find a trade partner because seemingly all of the musical chairs had been filled around the league in terms of quarterbacks.

And even the Panthers, they had Sam Darnold and they had Matt Carell, right? So they had two quarterbacks, but they ended up trading for Baker hoping that that would give them a spark and obviously did not. So yeah, it was a year ago that Baker finally left Cleveland. Think about his career journey since then.

From Cleveland to getting cut to LA. Obviously, his contract was up. Remember, the fifth year option was not picked up. Wait, was the fifth year option picked up or was it not?

Was it, right? So they end up running out of contract with him and they were really just having him keep the seat warm until Matthew Stafford was healthy anyway. And then he gets signed in Tampa.

That was a full career in just the last year. Where, how many times did we hear at the beginning of his tenure in Tampa? Now granted, these were responses to reporter questions that he wasn't trying to fill the seat, to fill the space, to fill the shoes of Tom Brady. Okay, thanks for letting us know that you're not going to be the next Tom Brady. He actually did say that multiple times.

I'm not going to be the next Tom Brady. Guys are really understanding the objective when we call certain plays. What's the scheme we're trying to get accomplished and they're executing it. So the improvement's been unreal. And so now it's just time to go out and execute and play fast.

So we've learned the system. Now it's time to adjust on the fly based on coverages or defenses and just play fast. If you had to guess, Jay, who would you say wins the NFC South? Right now I'm taking the Saints.

Are you? Yeah, absolutely. So Dennis Allen, who we've decided is one of our new favorite quotables in the NFL. Dennis Allen, Derek Carr, who's always been a great quotable. Hmm. Alvin Kamara is suspended for three games.

Crap. The defense has got some veterans, though. I really do like their defense.

It could end up flying under the radar because of all the attention on Derek Carr. But actually, they've got veterans and experience at every position. And I like even receiver Chris Alavi is going to a second year. He had a beast rookie season. Michael Thomas, he could stay healthy. If he comes back. Exactly.

I think it'll open up more space for Alavi. I just think they're the most. I just don't.

I don't know. Not that I love the Saints. I don't think they're going to win the Super Bowl or anything. But just in that division, with all the young quarterbacks and not so great rosters, I think that they'll win that division.

Right. They've got Bryce Young in Carolina. Tampa has got Baker Mayfield now. And then. Who am I missing?

Tampa, Carolina, Atlanta, Desmond Ritter. Right. So you're talking three.

Well, I don't. Baker's not young, but three question marks at quarterback to see how this pans out. If Derek Carr and Dennis Allen and the offense can be on the same page, then they should have an advantage just because of that. Because he's been a stable quarterback and he's put up some really good numbers, even with the Raiders, put up really good numbers. Their defense has been the issue the last couple of years.

And he and Josh McDaniels were never on the same page once Josh got the job in Vegas. Saints, huh? Oh, I know I might take a flyer on the Bucks. Yeah, I don't know why that's smart at all. I'm not saying do it only that I might take a flyer on the Bucks. Huh?

Interesting. I like the Bucks defense. I know they're they've had some.

Some transition on the other side of the ball. I don't know, Jay, what do you think? Maybe if they went with Kyle Trask, I'd like them. Oh, stop it. Baker Mantle is going to prove it to you. Just I'm on I'm on board with Baker this year. It's after hours with Amy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio.