9-7-23 After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 3

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For important information, visit Principle dot com slash disclosures. Hey, you guys, football's back. Mike Tomlin's back. Dan Campbell. Oh, who doesn't want a healthy dose of Dan on this Thursday morning where we are counting down a kickoff? Pete's were counting down to kick off. I really have no reservations about that.

It's the prudent thing to do. It's after hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. Good morning to you.

If you are waking up on your Thursday, it should feel different. By the way, producer Jay is choking on some Teddy Graham's. I'm a little bit nervous he's not going to make it to kick off. In light of my recent choking incident at Cheesecake Factory, where a piece of chicken was lodged in my throat for a good two minutes and no one noticed, except for the friend with whom I was eating, I just want you to know, Jay, that I've got my eye on you. And if you do need me to ditch this microphone and run in there and give you the Heimlich, I will do it.

Forget radio. The alarm will go off. The hotline will ring.

It doesn't matter because. Get me some oxygen. Excuse me. Because I need you to be alive for football season.

I think I'll be all right. I thought Teddy Graham's were made for like children and babies and I'm choking on one specifically. The reason I'm eating Teddy Graham's during the break, of course, is because I've got nothing in my house to eat. Nothing. No fruit. Maybe two blueberries. No fruit.

That's not frozen. I had to make pasta. Well, it was delicious pasta with peas and Italian sausage, free Diablo sauce on Wednesday evening after I biked, I was feeling good and I was starving. But other than that, I have a couple pieces of cheese, no fruit, no vegetables. Oh, I might have two stray radishes.

That's pretty much it. My fridge is empty. And here we go into the season opener and I got nothing to make a scrumptious football meal.

That's a problem. I'm thinking chili except. Well, I would be thinking chili if it wasn't going to be 100 degrees on Thursday. Yeah. The New York area. And I know this is the case for a lot of places. So it's not as though I'm saying it's hotter in the New York City area than anywhere else. But since this is where we're located, the New York City area is in an official heat wave, which is at least three days of temps above 90 and real feels approaching triple digits.

Oh, yes. It's a scorcher out there. And you keep hearing about it at the U.S. Open.

Right. Novak Djokovic, Coco Gauff, Ben Shelton, Francis Tifo, even Madison Keys. I mean, they're all talking about the fact that it is scorching on the court. And in fact, Daniel Medvedev, who's into the semifinals on the men's side, was caught on camera. Honestly, I think he was speaking directly to the camera to get his point across. He and his opponent.

I forgot who it was now. They were playing in the day session. And again, if you're paying attention, you see the graphics that go up on screen. 103 degrees on the court. It's always steamier and hotter. Forget the temps, but the humidity is thicker when you're down on the court because the air is still there. The court itself, the hard court absorbs the heat. And just like the Australian Open, it makes it feel a lot hotter on the court.

I've heard some liken it to playing on a stove. That's what it's like to be down there on a hard court that's holding in all of that heat and making it so much more challenging. Daniel Medvedev was getting treatment from the athletic trainers.

Both guys were dumping ice water down their backs, which I know helps and can cool your body temps slightly and for a short time. But they're out there for hours playing tennis, right? And Medvedev issues this warning to the camera. One player gonna die and they're gonna see. One player gonna die and they're gonna see. Presumably talking about the organizers, the USTA, which is the US Tennis Association.

But I don't know what else you do. Short of closing the roof over Arthur Ashe Stadium court and playing all of your matches indoors. Now you get to this point, the semifinals, the quarterfinals, the semifinals are played for the most part on Arthur Ashe. Maybe he's referring to the fact that the roof was partially open still so the heat was allowed to shine through to get in, of course. The sunshine, baking people, actually was listening to the news on my drive into work and there was a reporter from a local news station in New York who was at the US Open interviewing fans who had purchased tickets for the day session and left early because they couldn't stay in the heat anymore.

When they started out, they were underneath an awning but the way the sun moved across the sky as the hour grew later, they were in direct sun and decided it wasn't worth it. They go all the way to Flushing, Queens, all the way to the US Open and don't even last through the entire day session. It's expensive ticket too.

Expensive ticket. So the heat is definitely an issue and it will be for college football this weekend. It will be in Alabama where it's supposed to be 90 plus in Tuscaloosa. This is at kickoff, six o'clock local time for the Crimson Tide versus the Longhorns. But it's not just there. It'll be NFL games as well. It's that time of the year.

It's still summer and it's just hot. You worry about athletes cramping up, athletes getting dehydrated, maybe a heat stroke, something like that. That's where athletic trainers and coaches, medical staff come in. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence here on CBS Sports Radio.

Please find me on Twitter, ALawRadio, on our Facebook page too. We're asking you the question that we answered. Now see, we're not asking you to do anything we haven't done. We're asking you to tell us which teams you believe will make the playoffs after the 23 campaign. We're just getting underway on Thursday. 2023 season will likely feature seven, eight, okay maybe six, roughly half the NFL playoff bracket turns over every year. So which new teams will make the playoffs in 23 that didn't make it last season?

Again you can find us on Twitter or Facebook if you would like to know our teams because we gave you three and a half each. You got to check out the YouTube channel, brand new video for you After Hours with Amy Lawrence on YouTube. It does in fact feature me waving my arms. It features incredible graphics by producer Jay.

He put a lot of effort into it. So even if you think I'm the worst radio host in the history of the world and you think I look ridiculous on camera, I actually think I look ridiculous on camera so that wouldn't be anything new. I do not love video but Jay is great at it and we know that you all enjoy seeing us act like total idiots or okay me I won't include Jay in that. Stairway to 7 episode 5 welcome back football. We tell you which teams we think will make the playoffs after they missed out last season and maybe it's been an even longer drought. We have made one glaring omission. It wasn't on purpose.

It really wasn't. A lot of you sending your answers already to Twitter and Facebook and as I say you can check out our responses. Our top seven teams likely to make the playoffs in 23 that did not make the playoffs a year ago. I'm so proud of us Jay. We actually spoke it and we did it. We promised to have a new YouTube video available before the season kicked off and did it and did it well. We waited until 24 hours ahead of time but it's perfect timing. I think it's perfect timing.

Yeah all right we're gonna get to a little more baseball plus we've got some QB news coming at the back of the hour because it's almost that time. Oh it's almost that time but I've been talking about the US Open. Coco Goff the 19 year old into the semi-finals at the US Open for the first time in her career. She's never won a major so this is a big deal for Coco.

It's also a huge deal for Madison Keys another American. She's the one that took out Jessica Pegula. She's playing some great tennis and has now advanced to the semi-finals where she makes it two American women still standing. I knew that she would probably raise her level so just really focusing on trying to keep doing what was working and not get rattled if there's longer points or she comes up with some really good shots and just you know try to keep going keep the momentum going and not panic. Yeah she actually made quick work of the reigning Wimbledon champion Marquetta Vondrasova.

That was Wednesday evening and it was a 6-1 6-4 final score. Madison didn't even get broken so didn't even lose her serve in this match. She faced I think it was 8-9 break points but in no case did she give up the break of serve. She's playing exceptionally well and kind of flying under the radar. Now she was in the U.S. Open Finals going back six years ago. This is one of her favorite tournaments. She plays extremely well on Arthur Ashe Stadium Court.

Can she actually capitalize and win her first ever major? A lot of it at this point is handling pressure. A lot of it is not allowing your emotions to get the best of you. She didn't face a ton of challenges in this quarterfinal match but it gets harder from this point forward. So instead of allowing her emotions to get the best of her she's using those emotions to fuel her run at the U.S. Open. I've had just really good mindset going into the matches and have been trying to be maybe just a little bit more emotionally balanced. I think in the past just having kind of more of the highs and lows leading into the matches and getting a lot more nervous and things like that has ultimately led to either being more tired the next round or things like that. But I think you know the last couple of months I've been just pretty even-keeled and being able to consistently do that day in and day out I think leads to good things. It also helps that she's home so to speak. A lot of the Americans consider this to be the home tournament right our national championship if you will and the home crowds the U.S. Open crowds are passionate they're loud sometimes they're rude to be honest sometimes they're a little over the top a little over the top you're not surprised to hear that when you're a U.S. sports fan very often you either have people to your left or your right at events who will take it a little bit too far heckling huge deal and when it comes to rooting for Americans at the U.S. Open I know because I've been there many different times the red white and blue who hasn't been well represented outside of Serena and Venus Williams for the last 20 years the American fans not only do they show up for the stars but will make it such a decided home court advantage that you can feel it you can hear it it's one of the things that Novak Djokovic has said for years now it wasn't always against Americans but he felt like Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal got so much more support than him now that he is a champion and the I mean if you want to call him the best he's got 23 grand slam singles titles more than any other men well yeah he's a fan favorite but when he was an up-and-comer he used to get frustrated by the fact that the fans were always against him even recently saying that in New York you just got to deal with what are raucous crowds who don't always follow the rules and the etiquette of tennis but that provides a decided advantage for Americans like Coco and now Madison though Madison says the fact that she's not getting as much attention as Coco Gauff or even Ben Shelton who's this upstart who just went ahead and upset Francis Tfoe she actually prefers that nobody pays attention to her honestly it's been great I love that none of you talk about me anymore it's I don't have press requests it's a lot off of my plate I kind of just come in and leave and no complaints so if you guys want to keep not talking about me more than happy good for Madison Keys her sixth major semi-final only Venus Williams among active women if you can you can still consider Venus active she did in fact play in the U.S. Open initially but she's the only other active American woman American woman who has five or more semifinals in the majors so again it's been Venus and Serena for years waving the American flag on the women's side and on the men's side it's been a bunch of also Rams right not in 20 years has an American man won a grand slam and I don't just mean the U.S. Open I mean any of them right Roger Rafa Novak now Carlos Alcaraz who also won on Wednesday evening cool storylines I'd have to go back and look it up but it's been a while since we've had three Americans still standing in the semi-finals at the U.S. Open well or any grand slam as I mentioned this will be a lot of fun over the weekend but the U.S. Open semi-finals at least for Coco Gauff for Novak Djokovic they got competition for Ben Shelton Madison Keys competition with football this weekend that's the dealio yo once football is back on a Thursday Saturday Sunday Monday oh splitting eyeballs splitting viewers and not evenly either there's a lot more attention on these tournaments both golf and tennis maybe even MLS when football is not playing games that count but that is no longer the case oh step aside shove aside the big bads re-entering the center ring of the circus it's time to have some fun oh yeah well we take the good we take the bad and we take awkward Roger Goodell because it is the start of the NFL season thank you all right on twitter a law radio on our facebook page too hey if you have not yet signed up for survivor island I'm not joking you're running out of time so when you weigh in and tell us which teams will make the playoffs this season that didn't last year you can go up to seven well then you can also join us on survivor island and put your monopoly money where your mouth is don't forget to save your picks what are the chances actually Jay have you figured out how many people are on survivor islands yet we have the archipelago I have it right here I can get that number quickly oh all right I made my pick I don't like it but I'll just tell you what I went with I did not pick a winner on thursday night football I did not feel comfortable with that instead now see I hate it but I'm doing it anyway Washington over Arizona we still don't know who the starting quarterback for Arizona will be though it's expected to be Joshua Dobbs but we don't have an answer yet from head coach Jonathan Gannon so I'm thinking the quarterback conundrum well the lack thereof brand new head coach Arizona in general has been a bit of a mess I might just hop on pop and go with Washington there's no chance Washington loses in week number one right uh we're not supposed to be speaking it into existence now you got to change your pick don't spit no don't speak it into existence all right so let us know who makes the playoffs this year who are new entries into the NFL postseason and then join us on survivor islands how many jay um then it's I gotta find it it's like I just see the names and not the official no there's a lot of names so I just there's a lot of names I gotta get them there's a lot of names all right let's see what do we want to do next why don't we dabble a little bit on the diamond again Cubs are still hot to trot so are the Orioles we'll look at those two baseball well baseball heat seeker heat seeking missiles would that be too strong probably do I need to use war analogies for everything in sports probably not uh you you are welcome to take this next break and check out our latest video on youtube because I am in fact waving my arms for some unknown reason it happens involuntarily I don't know why I'm Italian but also we've made some pretty outlandish picks no one says outlandish except for people who live on the prairie like little house on the prairie but I just used it outlandish picks it's a little bit like my fantasy football team I don't like my I don't like my picks and I don't like my team guys it's no secret that classic dress shirts suck that's why our friends at and collar created something different no more tight collars loose fabric or stubborn stains just outrageously comfortable shirts that are breathable stain resistant and perfect for all occasions blending the comfort of athletic wear with the style of dress shirts you'll never feel better being dressed up discover their versatile collection at hand collar.com and save 20% with code radio shop shirts and more at and collar.com discount code available for a limited time terms and conditions apply proven winners color choice shrubs are the landscaping plants that have been trialed and tested by expert horticulturists to ensure your success whether you're looking for the hottest hydrangea a re-blooming rose or an elegant evergreen you can count on the shrubs in the white containers for easy care curb appeal for years 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companies count on lands and business go to business dot lands end dot com slash le 2023 and use promo code le 2023 for 20 off your first order that's business dot lands end dot com slash le 2023 promo code le 2023 for 20 off your first order it's after hours with amy lawrence on cbs sports radio you are listening to the after hours podcast so there is a swing deep fly ball right field looking at back is cabbage a two-run homer for anthony santander a frozen rope just beyond the led board in right field and anthony santander has got number 27 to make it a 9-3 ball game here's a pitch hays rips it deep left field on a low line does it have enough it does it's gone back to back home runs for the orioles piling it on in the eighth inning in anaheim it is now 10 to three this is after hours with amy lawrence that's another five wins in a row for the baltimore orioles you hear the call there on orioles radio in anaheim i was listening to this game on the radio as i was getting ready for work and this is how you know that the angels have given up so i was listening to angels radio at the time as i do enjoy terry smith they were actually having a discussion on angels radio about the starting rotation for the orioles in the playoffs and whether or not gibson would be their number one referring to kyle gibson the righty who did start on wednesday evening he's now 14 and eight and and while maybe he doesn't blow you away you don't think oh ace for the playoffs like a justin berlander that type of thing what the orioles are doing right now is refusing to give up any ground atop the al east and that is a prime it's a prime test it's a prime proving a spot for playoffs because the teams in that division have been so good and so competitive for most of this series or the season season and the series actually uh three and a half games right now over the rays and next up boston but this has been a sweet road trip for the o's and if they continue on their current trajectory they might have an even bigger cushion by the time they get back to baltimore yes it is against the angels and their pitching is a disaster right now they just lost their ninth game in 10 tries no shohayotani again also did you hear the would we call it a report j that in the team photo the angels used a body double for shohayotani it's bizarre to me considering that the man wants to be all in on everything he doesn't want to take a day off he wants to both pitch and hit even when he has a torn ucl he doesn't want to miss a game right now it's only because of all the fatigue and the wear and tear that he's not playing i mean they've been out of it for quite a while and yet he insists on still playing whenever he possibly can but according to multiple reports they used a front office member to replace otani in the team photo a body double because of his oblique injury he couldn't be there for the team photo so instead they used a member of their front office who the fuck is that guy exactly come on how did that get out people pouring over the team photo to find otani and he's not in it instead they faked it they tried to he's only one of the most popular athletes on the planet this would be like faking messy in the miami team photo for mls yeah it's pretty on as if nobody was going to recognize that otani was not actually in the photo how about reschedule the photo for when otani is available couldn't have been that hard to do right i mean the guy literally like you said is there almost every single day it's this one two-day stretch in the season where he hasn't played back to back and they're gonna do they have to do this photo today there's no they photographer can't come back they can't get him it's free in september why are you doing a photo in september i was thinking that also like the team's been assembled for a while well and they've lost pieces too that remember they put guys on waivers here's the kicker to this story the team plans to photoshop otani into the photo before it's released they can't do that anymore right you gotta retake the photo at this point because everyone will know that's not even it's a photoshop right yeah it'll always be the photoshop otani here's the funny part it's probably happening with other angels too or other teams around the country too but nobody's paying attention until it's otani and now we know it's a body double phil nevin actually said this shohei will be in the photo when you see it oh okay that's just wrong that's cheating big fat cheaters they won't be in the team photo next year maybe forget about this year it's already september what about next year it's after hours with amy lawrence cbs sports radio brian hide likes the tests that the oreos are facing right now every series is important right now so uh it doesn't matter who we play it's every series every series is important we only have 20 something games to go and whoa and now they all mean something stop it only 20 something games to go yeah we are in the stretch run and we know the cubs are playing their best baseball of the year they finish off a sweep of the giants here's the pitch line drive right center field base hit in the alley it's gonna go out near the warning track this is going to clear the bases three run score on a double by seya suzuki cubs lead three to nothing cubs lead seven to two batting in the bottom of the seventh inning yeah here's the drive to right off the bat at bellinger it's got a chance gone home run to straight away right bellyball and the cubs lead eight to two a line drive i wasn't sure if he got all of it run but he got enough of it and bellinger with his 24th home run if the oreos are the hottest team in baseball with well along with the marlins the oreos have won five in a row the marlins six in a row so they're not giving up yet but cubs four in a row and they are now 12 games above 500 a season high for them against the giants who are fighting for the same real estate in the nl wild card race cubs have three runs in the first they set the tone they're able to sweep the giants and yeah this young cubs team which does feature some veterans they're figuring it out at just the right time there's a lot of young talent around here that's very very good and getting to experience a winning environment and around a bunch of winners and contributing and so that's just like i think it it just is a good sign of the health of our organization and hopefully that continues you get a lot of guys that are really hungry really want to win really want to you know help contribute um but you can't say it doesn't happen without the leadership that we have in that locker room you know from guys like haper to swanson to nico um guys like hendrix and the rotation you know those guys we get to come in every day and see how they work and see how it's truly done um they do an outstanding job of setting the example that's the voice of jordan wicks after david ross if you hadn't heard about jordan his major league debut has been pretty special so far he's the lefty starter his era in his first three starts as a big leaguer 2.16 and so he's perfect in his debut uh gave up just two runs pitching into the seventh inning yesterday in chicago and yeah so here he is inserted into the rotation for the cubbies doesn't make his first start until late august so his debut comes in late august and right smack dab in the middle of a playoff race so take that and yeah in case you had eliminated the cubs as a possible nl central champion i would encourage you to take it back take it back retract they're only a game and a half behind the brewers now in the central division race and uh when it comes to the wildcards of course keeping our eyes there just because there's a lot of nl teams that are part of the mix the phillies are still up on top they're the number one team in that race but only a game and a half ahead of the cubbies now so it's getting serious here a little something something hey speaking of serious i mean not serious xm just speaking of the other serious the attitude we're getting serious now about the nfl with kickoff just over 14 hours from now oh what are the chances that nfl network does a i don't know eight hour pre-game show on thursday oh eight i was thinking they're probably just gonna start from already going now just keep going it's time peeps it is time can you feel the buzz can you hear the cheering it's coming from the bay area we'll get to some qb news straight ahead it's after hours with amy lawrence you are you are listening to the after hours podcast the homes fires for the end zone caught touchdown cans out city murray back to throw and it is is it caught is it caught oh my goodness it's hot the andre hopkins caught it he's got a man wide open john brown he makes the catch touchdown buffalo john brown from josh allen lamar jackson in the shotgun flop to the five it is caught touchdown willie sneed play fake by russ throws the man wide open it's like it he's in touchdown seahawks daniel rolling throwing burrow back to pass throws into the end zone yeah intended for tyler touchdown touchdown bangles it's time for qb news on after hours it feels different to bring you the qb news when it's actually a game day oh it's after hours with amy lawrence on cbs sports radio of course if we're starting qb news on thursday night football season opener chiefs and lions we got to hear from patrick mahomes actually talking about jared golf so yeah this is not about pat himself the reigning mvp the reigning super bowl mvp yeah this is about how jared golf does not get enough credit as a quarterback who's accomplished a lot in his career already he's a great football player i mean um no matter if it was at the rams or last year with the lions i mean he's always put up stats he's always won games um and and that that takes something i mean be able to win a game whenever everything might not be going perfect um you have to have a something inside of you that says like i can go out there and find a way to win and he's done that his entire career obviously talented thrower a big guy um that can go around and make make a lot of big time throws um but he's won everywhere he's been so i know it's gonna be a great challenge for us now see it's not just the hype train from the media dan campbell it's also the hype train from patrick mahomes about your qb jared golf i remember last year when there was supposed to be a bunch of challengers to the chiefs atop the afc west huh let's see if they can try try again in 2023 will russell wilson have a resurgent season with sean payton you may have heard some of the comments or seen some of the comments that sean payton made about how rus essentially needs to focus on football stop kissing babies stop worrying about your brand stop worrying about your platform instead go play football and rus will agree to this point he wants to win i'm gonna come out on the other side of the world and we're gonna do that together and we're all gonna battle together and it's just the beginning of the journey and every year you you know it's uh every year the goal is to win the whole thing just to be honest with you and uh and so anytime you're you're you're not in first you feel like you're last so um we just got to come out here and play a great game it's got a long journey ahead of us and we're all going to do it together it just seems like a bunch of cliches sometimes i i don't know that we get the authentic ruff i know he can be goofy uh a little bit strange little odd mr unlimited but that is just spewing a bunch of phrases to to put to put together a press conference but he does recognize the criticism is ongoing until he plays better i'm used to the uh i'm used to uh some of those some of those who believe in some of those who doubt i think that when you're um you know you're playing high stakes and playing um and you you know dream to be the the best that you can possibly be every day um there's always going to be people that question whether you can do it or not and i think i've proven that you know throughout my career what i can do and i gotta do it again and that's just that's just the name of the game every time i step into the white lines there's always something to to show something to prove but more importantly um you know you know god gave me a gift and i just want to prove them right russell wilson facts are facts last season was his worst in the nfl by far and the broncos were last in the league in scoring now could he get better with sean paton sure i have no doubt one of the issues though is who did he throw to because the broncos have had so many injuries at wide receiver including both jerry judy and tim patrick who's out for the year it's after hours with amy lawrence here on cbs sports radio all right marching through qb news joe burrow well he's practicing he didn't spend the entire training camp at preseason out there on the field with his guys um but football is the focus not his financial situation this is where i want to be this is where i want to be my whole career we're working towards making that happen you know you've seen what what the front office has done and what zach has done in their time here and you know i'm a i'm a small part of that and you know i'm excited to be a part of that and we have great people in the locker room that grind every day that you know are excited to go and showcase their talents and excited to do it in the city of cincinnati you know we have the best fans and so this is this is where i want to be i love it i love to hear from him but what about the calf injury because that's what kept him off the field for the majority of the preseason yeah i'm ready to go i think i mean we're gonna see how these next couple days play out because you never know these things but uh i'm expecting to play uh like i said we'll see how these next couple days go cincinnati would be on the road at cleveland or will be on the road at cleveland come sunday week one and the afc north is roundly expected to be one of the toughest divisions in football if you're wondering about teams that jade i think could be back in the playoffs after the 23 season well we both went afc north but for different teams check out the video on our youtube channel after hours with amy lawrence lamar jackson he's got a brand new deal and a brand new offensive coordinator new system how's it feel lamar jackson feel lamar i feel very comfortable i feel great actually um just uh just the explosiveness to get the ball out my hand faster um getting guys open it's just can't wait to see it you know in a regular game so we can actually talk about it more in depth i've noticed this is a very popular pick on survivor island and in survivor pools baltimore hosting houston in week number one it's after hours here on cbs sports radio derek carr getting a fresh start after a decade with the raiders now he's the saint's quarterback and for better or for worse hey we're just getting started it's a long season don't judge based on week one there's one thing about me uh i will never lose confidence whether it goes really great or doesn't go so great you know i you know always believe in myself and believe what i can do but we've put a lot of work in since you know phase one in april and all the way through until now and uh i'm you know very confident but you know that only that doesn't always equal wins you know i just want to go out there compete play good football play the type of football i know that i'm capable of type football i've been playing all off season um you know through training camp in the preseason and hopefully be able to continue that in the regular season but it's going to be tough because we got a good matchup this week can you please please please target michael thomas that's all i'm asking uh tennessee on the road at new orleans for week number one well that leaves the cardinals as the only team without a starting quarterback or do you actually have one jonathan gannon you're starting cuban you just plan on rolling it out on sunday or might you tell us friday could you sign saturday no guys i ain't telling you anything oh okay taking a page out of kyle shanahan's book remember what shanahan said to us it should be obvious if you're paying attention it should be obvious who we're starting at quarterback well most people believe that jonathan gannon will go with joshua dobbs the former steelers well he's been all over the place but steelers uh one place that you may know him and this is until kyler murray is healthy but he's on the pup list so he will not play at the very least for the first month of the season all right staying in the nfc west you may have heard matthew stafford's wife kelly using her podcast to talk about how matt's struggling to connect with a younger ram's locker room what was matt's reaction to his wife putting his stuff all out there i was going to come out here with a newspaper under my arm and some spectacles just kind of set the mood but it turns out you can't even find a newspaper around here so uh i couldn't do that so i was gonna try to have some fun with it but no it's been great to i love coming to work i love working with these guys and they all know that how about that he does not care that his wife kelly made a comment like that he does not care that his wife is using her podcast to expose him in a manner of speaking uh the the fact that he's playing up this old this old title this old dude kind of branding it's okay with him he's joking about it so yeah his wife kelly made some comments on her podcast the morning after with kelly stafford but she did talk about how matthew felt like there was a major disconnect so did he have to then talk to the team after these comments went viral i think those guys uh you know understand where i'm coming from they see me come in this building every single day um and uh know how i go to work know how to interact with everybody and and uh we didn't really think too much about it to be honest with you the rams are they a team that will get back into the playoffs after missing out last season remember they were decimated by injuries and cooper cup still not a part of the rams at least at this point is unable to play i wouldn't say that the nfc west is wide open could there be wildcards from strange places in the nfc yes absolutely because the conference itself is not as stacked not as competitive from top to bottom as is the afc but without cooper cup things look decidedly different from matt stafford and the offense so as they open up sunday against the seahawks cooper is unavailable because of that hamstring injury he injured it actually going back to early august during a training camp practice and then even as he's getting set to return to the field um he had a setback and so now been seeking second opinions don't know if he'll end up on the ir which would put him out for at least the first month but it's tough for cooper because he desperately wants to be out there on the field former triple crown winner mvp all of that jazz it's after hours with amy lawrence and our qb news on game day is brought to you by wesley financial are you stuck in a timeshare and want out contact wesley financial group now and get a free time share exit information kit at wesleyfinancialgroup.com so we'll give you a proper chiefs and lions preview we've got matchup of hall of famers future hall of famers in major league baseball nick boza himself addressing niners fans late last night as he rejoined his teammates it's all happening happy game day it's after hours with amy lawrence tbs sports radio