After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 4

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Shop in store or visit Ashley.com today. If in this scenario, the weekend is heaven. Yes, in fact, we are halfway to heaven. And now that the weekends feature football, yeah, there's always something to look forward to. Good morning to you. If you're waking up on your Wednesday, we're glad to have you with us.

It is the hump show, middle show, the work week. Just finished up with Ask Amy Anything. Now, we were running a little behind from the segment before because we had our surprise guest, Matt the musher, popped in from Alaska.

That was fun. Haven't talked to him in quite a while. In fact, I hadn't heard from him in quite a while. So it's cool to be able to connect with him and to hear that not only is dog season starting soon, the snow is advancing down the mountain. But his daughter will be running races again this year.

She's 16. And he, still harboring hopes even as he starts to work with a new kennel of getting back into the Iditarod himself and actually racing with his daughter, though that would be a couple more years. So he's going to be checking in with us, giving us the exclusive as always. And he's routinely invited to be on the show or to be part of the next Chubby Bunny World Championship. So because of that, we were running late on Ask Amy, though he is worth it.

It's a good sacrifice to make. I will go back and answer as many questions as I can on both Twitter and Facebook throughout the day on Wednesday. So that will be my olive branch to you because I know I didn't do as many questions. We didn't get to as many questions as we normally would. So make sure you check Twitter after our CBS or our Facebook page later on Wednesday and see if your question has been answered there.

It's funny because every week I do this, I go and I answer some of the questions on social and then people come back the next week and I can tell who they are, more frequent guests, if you will, frequent fliers to our social media. And they will accuse me of not answering their question, even though I either answered it on the air or answered it in written form once we were done. So yeah, people, they get upset even if their question's been answered. I mean, I can't help it if you're not listening.

You submit your question, then you take off, you check out. How is that my fault? Yeah, if they don't hear it, it didn't happen. Oh, is that like pics or it didn't happen? That's how that works.

Interesting. So I actually did get that type of a response from someone when I mentioned, you know, that I was engaged and that I was getting married and remember the announcement was made four months out. And one guy responded with pics or it didn't happen. Oh, it did happen. And it's going to happen in just over three months. And I don't know if there'll be pics.

I'm still trying to decide about that. We've got football to talk about. Nobody cares about the wedding. It's way down the road. I try to tell myself that. I also wish the time would go faster.

It doesn't. What is it about time, Jay? We get so excited about football. It seems like it takes forever to get here. And then when you don't want something to come quickly, like for instance, I've got a half marathon a week from Saturday. I don't want that to come any faster. I'm okay with it. Dragging time, dragging until it gets here instead. That's coming really quickly.

That's coming in hot, right? But the other events that I care about, not so much. They still feel as though they're really far off on the horizon. And yet time moves the same day in, day out. And yet it doesn't feel that way. It is odd that there's no like real explanation for that because it's, you know, it's a tale as old as time. Funny.

Pun intended. Well, how, how, yeah, you were expecting, you want, anticipating something, it comes so slow, but then like you're dreading it, it comes so fast. And like there's really no word for explanation, but it will never stop happening. It's our own perception. It's mind games, if you will.

Mind games and heart games. Yeah. It's, it's odd though.

It's definitely a human condition. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. Glad to have you with us. If you missed anything, you can always grab the podcast in its entirety.

And there are fewer commercials. That's the little known secret. We post the link to our podcast every weekday morning. It's on both Twitter as well as Facebook. Our guests get their own little segment in our podcast. So a separate link in our podcast.

All of them. And that will include Antoine Staley on this Wednesday. He joined us a couple hours ago from the New York Daily News. He told us he was inundated with interview requests.

Over 30 of them didn't realize so many people had his phone number. And yet he chose us. Among the five that he did, he chose us.

So it's been a whirlwind for the Jets, of course, but anyone who covers the Jets going back now to Monday Night Football didn't take long for them to confirm that Rogers does in fact have a ruptured Achilles, will require surgery, and will be out for this season. Beyond that, we don't know. He's invested so much into this organization, so much into this journey that he's embarked on and wanting to be a part of what we've got going here and how much he's invested in not only this organization, but his teammates, himself, this fan base, the city. So I have a lot of emotions for him, as for us. It's really all about him. It is. I don't look at it like woe is me here for the organization. I think guys are excited about being able to step up and continue the things that we've been building.

But a lot of hurt for Aaron. Robert Sala making his first comments on Tuesday afternoon. It was about 3.30 New York time.

So just after lunch on the West Coast or during your lunch hour on the West Coast. And yeah, there was definitely a somber, sober feel to it. Though if you remember, and I said this and made jokes about it going back when Zach Wilson was drafted by the Jets, and then even in year number two, Robert Sala raved about him. And kept telling us all the reasons why he believed in Zach. Now, last year, he was benched twice, and it was a major issue inside the locker room. The reports that were coming out of the locker room about how the team preferred to play for Mike White, that they didn't want to play for Zach, they didn't like Zach.

Now that may be going too far. It may have been more professional than personal, but either way, it didn't work with Zach. And the idea was Zach would be out of there when they found a replacement, a suitable replacement, except they kept him because of the relationship with Aaron Rodgers. And I have no doubt that Rodgers will continue to help, to encourage, to answer questions, maybe even to work with Zach once he has the opportunity to get back to the facilities to be around the team.

Maybe he'll work with him on game days, try to help him in his preparation. Still though, there's no ignoring the fact that the Jets were willing to move past Zach Wilson, despite the high draft pick they spent on him. Even if it wasn't Aaron Rodgers, they weren't going to start Zach Wilson this year, until they had to. And now Robert Saleh is back to raving about the young QB.

That was the next question. Well, what about adding another quarterback? We are going to look through some things, but I do want to make it very clear Zach's our quarterback. We've got a lot of faith in Zach. We're really excited about his opportunity. But we're rolling with Zach and excited for him and, like I said, this opportunity that he's going to get.

Okay, but why? Why are you more excited now than you were last year? Why is he more prepared now than he was last year?

What's changed with Zach Wilson? It's more confidence. I should say confidence in terms of just his ability from the process and the practice habits. Not that they were bad, it's just there's a confidence. Like teammates want to see each other make plays and have confidence that you can do your job to the best of your ability.

And I think just over the course of OTAs and training camp, Zach has had a lot of success. I think you guys have witnessed a lot of it. I wrote about this in my CBS Sports Minute.

Maybe you'll hear it on your affiliate or you can check it out on the website, cbssportsradio.com. This is the very essence of Next Man Up. And it feels cruel, doesn't it? Because Aaron's one of the brightest stars. Love him or hate him, he's a lightning rod. He attracts attention. And in New York with the Jets after nearly 20 years in Green Bay, he was going to attract even more attention.

We talked about that. Six months of build up and it fizzles out in four minutes and four snaps. And as big as the story is right now, week two is on the horizon. And it almost seems cruel, but it's the nature and the business of sport. And I don't just mean the Jets.

The Jets have no choice but to move forward. This is devastating. I'm sure there's some of them that are still shell shocked. Can't believe it. I still can't believe it. The story was so big that it transcended the sports world on Tuesday.

My mom sent me a text late. She watches the news in the evenings and said even the news was talking about Aaron Rodgers. Yeah, this was a story that was far bigger than just the football world. You had athletes from all over using their social media to talk about it.

It was the number one topic of conversation in football, to be sure. But week two starts tomorrow. And even though the Jets aren't on the field tomorrow, they have no choice but to move on and get ready. They've got a brutal first six weeks. We noted that even before the season kicked off. Their first six weeks, I know they got the win on Monday night. They could easily be one in five if they're not locked in and focused.

It's tough. It includes the Super Bowl champions. It includes a trip to Denver. Say what you want about the Broncos, and most of it's probably true. But Denver's a tough place to play. It includes the Patriots, this weekend the Cowboys, the Eagles, and the Giants are back to back in weeks five and six, I think.

Don't quote me on that. But this does not get any easier. It's a gauntlet for six weeks.

So yes, they snatched a victory from the jaws of defeat on Monday night, and they got the walk-off punt return TD from Xavier Gibson. But it does not get easier from now. And so if they are not facing forward, well, it's going to catch up with them really quick. But for guys like Garrett Wilson, who I'm not sure if you saw this or not, of course all these guys are talking about it hurts. They're hurt for Aaron.

He actually said that Rogers' remark to him was, sorry, kid. Oh, gosh, that feels like a stake in the heart. I'm sure Aaron feels like he let his team down. No doubt. And Robert Sola did say, as you guys can imagine, he's down. With everything that he's invested in this, he's obviously a little disappointed. I think that's understating it.

It's after hours with Amy Lawrence here on CBS Sports Radio. The Jets have to move on and watch how quickly the rest of the NFL leaves it in the rearview mirror. Again, it's not personal. But it's the nature and the business of sports, especially in the NFL, where there's only so many games and it's so competitive. The AFC is a juggernaut. And no one's going to feel sorry for the Jets. They might feel sorry for Aaron. No one is feeling sorry for the Jets.

Least of all Bill Belichick. Do you remember what Klay Thompson said about the two years of rehab? Now, his situation was extreme, right? But he had the same injury, did he not? Didn't he tear ACL and then rupture Achilles? Yeah, I swear that was the second injury that kept him out for a year.

We know Kevin Durant was among the first who took to social media after seeing Aaron Rodgers go down on Monday night saying he felt sick. But I remember Klay Thompson because he was weeks away. He had recovered from the torn ACL. He suffered in the 2019 NBA Finals. He was three weeks away from the start of the season. He was playing pickup in L.A. And he got hurt again. And so we had to go through another year of rehabbing from a devastating injury that required surgery and pain and suffering and isolation. And that is what he talked about was often the hardest part. Being away from the team. Having to go through a separate schedule, separate training.

The team is traveling. They're going back to business. And he continues in relative... relative anonymity. It sounds weird to say because he's not anonymous. We all know him, but he's no longer getting attention. Undercover of night, essentially, Klay Thompson is taking care of his business so he can get back with the team and back on the basketball court. And he now says it was all worth it.

Remember, they won another NBA championship. And he has talked about how all of those lonely days and nights made it worth it. Aaron Rodgers has only known football now for 20 plus years. And as much as the Jets were all about Aaron, he's about to go into this stretch with surgery and rehab and recovery. For a while, he's not going to be able to travel.

He can be with the Jets at the facility, but he's not going to be taking road trips with them. Most athletes will tell you what they miss the most is the locker room, the meetings, the camaraderie, that kinship and brotherhood with their teammates. But he's about to go through a pretty lonely stretch without it because the NFL has to move on. And in two days, this won't be the biggest story.

It's almost cruel, isn't it? But even for a star as big as Aaron Rodgers, life in pro sport. And that goes from being the story that transcends sports to, oh, it's week two. Even for Aaron. But yeah, I feel for him in that respect.

It's going to be a lonely road for a while. Sorry, kid. Oh, gosh.

Oh, that hurts. I'd actually seen another story. I'll have to find it again about what he said to some of his other teammates. So reporters or a reporter, maybe a columnist, was asking some of the Jets teammates about what they heard from Aaron. Because remember, he got hurt in the first half and was likely, if not in the locker room, at least around, maybe in the training facility or the training room, excuse me, at halftime.

He was gone by the end of the game, so he wasn't there when they came back from the overtime win. But yeah, I'm sure some of them, I mean, he's got buddies like Allen Lazard. Randall Cobb's one of his best friends. No doubt they've seen him and spent time with them. And, boy, we haven't heard from him yet. At some point, I suppose he gets back to interviews, right?

Does he save all of his initial reaction for his friend Pat? He might. He might. He might. I don't think he should, but he might. Did you see the ratings, by the way, for Monday Night Football?

No. He got hurt four minutes in. And the game, it's not that it wasn't a good game, it was competitive, but it was ugly at times. It wasn't great until the end.

It was pretty ugly. And the fact that the Bills, they're very popular, obviously, but the fact that the Bills had four turnovers and it was, what, 13-3 or something going into the second half. It wasn't great football. And there really wasn't a ton of great football around the NFL this weekend. It was a lot of sacks, a lot of turnovers. And it just lost all of its buzz, too.

Right, exactly. It was like, well, Antoine Staley said to us that it felt like someone had let the air out of the balloon in the stadium at MetLife on Monday night. And yet the ratings were off the charts.

They were actually, I'll have to find the numbers again, I think it was more than 22 million people watched this game. Wow. Yeah. That's a lot for a Monday night.

Let's see if I can find it. Monday night football ratings. There we go. Yeah. Week one TV ratings score big. The audience was 24% higher than last year. Wow.

Yeah. And it was 22.6. I was so close. 22.6 million viewers for Monday night football. The ESPN actually set a record for this Monday night football game, surpassing, let's see, the previous standard, previous high was 21.8 million viewers. And this was, get this, when Brett Favre and the Vikings played the Packers. Remember how huge that was because Brett had defected to the purple?

Yeah. Monday night football game record, 22.6 million viewers, even without Aaron Rodgers after the first four minutes. No doubt because people were shell shocked. They couldn't believe it. And were waiting for an update. I was just going to say that trying to figure out if they could get some other glimpse of Aaron on the cart, in the tunnel, in the locker room, anything. It's a lot though. I'm just curious, what does a Thursday night football game normally do?

The ones that are only on Amazon? Oh, not much. Not much. I'm not even sure they do over 2 million viewers. We'll see though. Maybe it's different now.

A year later, people are more trained about Amazon Prime. Alright, coming up. Well, the Braves making history. Mad Max has got, not a hammy, but a try.

Oh goodness, that's not what the Rangers need as they're on a hot streak. And even Dan Marino weighing in because the injury all too familiar. So we'll get to, well it's a little mixed bag, we'll get to a little more of a reaction from Aaron Rodgers.

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You are listening to the After Hours podcast. There's a pitch on the way from Wheeler. That'll be hit well to left field Pache back to the wall. This has got a shot and there is the tying home run for Matt Olson. That is his fifty first home run and he has tied Andrew Jones for the most homers in franchise history.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence on Braves radio. We knew that wouldn't take long, though. Didn't even take twenty four hours before Matt Olson tied the record and very soon should have that record all to his lonesome. Fifty one home runs. And the Braves signed him. And the idea was that he was a replacement for one Freddie Freeman. Right. Even before Freeman had made his choice coming out of the lockout and the work stoppage.

He ends up joining the Braves and then Freeman decides to go to the Dodgers. But I love the way Matt Olson handles his business. His bat is the loudest thing about him.

Right. He's relatively understated. He's a guy that isn't looking for a lot of attention. He's not self-promoting, if you will.

Not there's anything wrong with that. It's just not his personality. And Andrew Jones actually said going back that he thought Matt Olson would be the one to break his record. So he had his number retire recently and thought he would be the one that would break the record. And I think if you follow Matt, you follow the way that he has been such a lift and a boost to the Braves since he joined them.

I mean, he's an easy guy to root for. He was in, would you say, relative obscurity for a while, Jay, while he was in Oakland for the first part of his career? Considering how good he is, I would say yes. Yeah.

So here, he's even with Andrew Jones at 51. And this was a victory over the Phillies on Tuesday. Took extra innings, so now the team record is his with another home run.

Yeah. The Braves themselves bash the baseball. Olson is just one part of that. Soon will be a franchise record, but gosh, his teammates are also doing that same work.

They set a National League record for home runs in a season already. Those things kind of, you know, those are cool. You know, I'm here for the wins. So, you know, that was even sweeter. That's Austin Riley, who is part of the hit parade, the home run parade. There are some quotes from Matt Olson.

Love to try to get his reaction, but we couldn't find it when we started the show. But he did say it's a cool feeling. And he actually reminds people that he watched Andrew Jones when he was growing up because he was raised in Atlanta. So this was like going home for him. The way that Freddie Freeman went home to L.A., this was going home for Matt Olson. And so he said having watched Andrew Jones when he was growing up, he was a fan of the Braves then, it's cool to be mentioned with him. So that's pretty neat. Congratulations to Matt.

Also, if you missed it, this is like two degrees of separation. Freddie Freeman's birthday was on Tuesday, so that's kind of fun. And he celebrates with his newer, I mean they're not really new anymore, but his Dodgers teammates.

And also had his own kind of birthday party celebration. Walker delivers. There's a fly ball into left center field. It's a long run and it is gone.

Happy birthday to you. Freddie Freeman with his 26th home run of the year goes the other way. And the Dodgers now have a 3-0 lead. And they did rough up the Padres a night after coughing up the lead and losing to San Diego.

But for Freddie Freeman, happy birthday. On Sportsnet, L.A., couldn't be happier with the way the 2023 season has unfolded. We've been having a lot of fun as a group playing this season and obviously the fans have taken to us too. We go on the road and when we get doubles and triples, they do it right for us too on the road. So it's been fun, it's been a blast this year and hopefully we can get this division locked up soon. Yeah, I would think that's essentially a foregone conclusion for both the Dodgers and the Braves considering the leads they have. The Braves actually have a magic number that's down to two, right, to lock up the NL East title? It's an exciting time of year and everybody's aware of it and that's kind of special that you get to experience that. So heck yeah, they should enjoy that, relish it and can't wait to get a cup of coffee and get out here and play a game.

Brian Snicker, new lease on life there. The older gentleman, let's not call him old, but older gentleman is excited about being at the ballpark and yeah, there's a lot of promise. And think about the Braves from a year ago. They had 101 wins, they ended up eclipsing the Mets toward the end there and winning the division title. Mets had the same number of wins, but the Braves by their standards and considering the lineup they had, the roster they had, it was definitely an early exit and a disappointing exit for the Braves out of the playoffs. The fact that they've had to wait now a full year, they're better than they were a year ago.

Most people believe that they're better than they were a year ago. They're two away from locking up another NL East title and this year not even remotely challenged. They're up 16 games on the Phillies. That's obscene, 16 games on the Phillies who actually are 13 games above 500.

It's not like they're bad. The Marlins even are above 500, but the Phillies are 16 games back. And that's crazy that the Phillies are the top wildcard team and they're 16 games back in their own division. The Braves are a juggernaut and the Dodgers are as well. But for the Braves especially, to see it come to an abrupt end last October, that's why this has been extra motivation for them and why they're anxious to get back to the baseball postseason. Although as I've said before, I don't love the fact that neither the Braves nor the Dodgers are getting pushed at all in the final six weeks of the regular season. I do think the veteran leadership, we're talking about Olson, we're talking about Freeman, we're talking about Dave Roberts and Bryant Snitker and other veterans who know what it takes to win. Because you've got guys that are World Series champions on both rosters. So there's the saving grace in that when they get to the playoffs, these guys know what needs to be done. It's not like it's a newbie team that is going into it blind. But still, once again, without a World Series appearance, it'll be a failure for those two franchises, considering what they've done. But yay for now, the pressure starts in October.

It definitely does. All right, we have yet to anoint the After Hours TD of the Week. You still have, let's see, four minutes left to vote. So check it out on Twitter. After Hours CBS, it's pinned to the top of our show Twitter page. It's on my Twitter as well. Also on our Facebook page. You all blew up our Facebook page with hundreds of votes in this poll.

So that's kind of fun. We will do the great reveal coming up following this update. And also a little more reaction from Dan Marino. Dan Marino, who suffered the same injury.

It's an injury that happens to older athletes, as I've heard and have been doing some reading, because of blood flow and all that jazz. But the problem is, you're closer to the end of your career. It's going to require more to get back from it.

Is it really worth it? And that will be the question that people ask. Remember Aaron Rodgers said he was, was it 90% retired in the darkness retreat, or he went into it 95% retired and came out wanting to play football again? I can imagine, even though this is a different type of darkness, this will be an emotional darkness for him, no doubt. He's a very emotional guy. So it'll be more of that. There'll be some dejection, some discouragement, some disappointment, some devastation even.

Will he emerge from that emotional darkness, ready to tackle this and play again? It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence. What's up everybody? I'm Danny Parkins based out of Chicago. This is my buddy Andrew Filippone. He's based out of Pittsburgh.

You really got to check out our podcast First and Pod. Twice a week we're going to break down the NFL after Thursday Night Football and Sunday Night Football. It's every team. It's every game. It's all 32 teams. We give you a complete picture and we get into it. We don't kiss each other's fannies on this show. New episodes of First and Pod available when you wake up every Monday and Friday morning throughout the football season in the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts.

Visit Carvana.com or download the app to get an instant offer today. The people have spoken and one score stands above the rest. Here is your TD of the Week. The New York Jets. And getting away a line drive kick of Sam Martin. Gibson runs under it at the jet 35. Starts to his left, gets to the 40, turns the corner at the 45, 50. Blockers in front at the 40, at the bills 30, inside the 20.

Six stutter steps to the 10, to the 5. Touchdown. It's a jet touchdown. This game is over. What a way to end Monday Night Football. Gibson's going to take this one back 63 yards for the touchdown. I just seen a ball in there.

You know I have an opportunity. Secure the ball, secure the catch first and let the team work and after that it just happened. It just happened. Such a neat moment for the rookie out of SFU, Stephen F. Austin.

Our guest earlier in the show said that's from Texas for those of you who don't know. You overwhelmingly chose the walk off punt return TD as your TD of the Week and of course it hasn't happened in the NFL since 2011. Monday Night Football the roller coaster of emotions.

And then the thud on Tuesday for the New York Jets as they found out that yes in fact Aaron Rodgers is done for the season with the ruptured achilles. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. Thank you for your hundreds and hundreds of votes that we got for TD of the Week. It's a weekly feature obvi. And so you'll get those polls plus our Monday MVP, our After Hours Game of the Week polls. We love to kind of frame the football weekends that way. And so you can always find us on Twitter.

After Hours CBS, my Twitter is ALawRadio plus our Facebook page, our YouTube channel as well. We'll have a brand new video coming up next week. But some of you are trying to spot the jewelry in our latest video, our welcome back football.

It had nothing to do with jewelry. Robert Sala wants you to maybe give the Jets another look. I don't know why people are trying to put an obituary onto our team name. You know, Aaron is an unbelievable piece to this whole thing and we love him.

But I think there's 52 other guys in the locker room plus the 16 practice squad guys that believe that we can do a hell of a lot of good things here. The reaction was swift. It was nonstop even from guys like Dan Marino who dealt with the same injury late in his football career. Medically, now they're probably a little more advanced as far as dealing with, you know, Achilles and how to deal with it, how to rehab it. It's a very tedious rehab. From what I remember, it didn't actually heal all the way. It was elongated.

So I had to deal with not being able to get up on my toe for the rest of my career, basically. It's Dan Marino on This Is Football with Kevin Clark. Antoine Staley of the New York Daily News kind of went through the emotional roller coaster with us. He was there for Robert Sala's comments on Tuesday and asked him what did he take away. Basically, you know, at Zach Wilson, this is quarterback, you know, trying to build confidence in Zach. And I think the teammates kind of rallied around him and we kind of saw that in the locker room. I thought going in we would see kind of a bit of a somber locker room considering what we thought, you know, what might happen to Aaron, you know, touring Achilles. But I think the players are really optimistic about Zach. And we're talking about a guy that, you know, lost the confidence in the locker room last year, especially after the Patriots, you know, lost to the Patriots 10-3 in November in New England.

And he ended up losing his starting job and got benched multiple times. But coaching staff and the players say he's a different player than at this point. He's more accountable doing the things that he's supposed to be doing, you know, obviously on the field and off the field. And he's at a place where they feel like he can lead them possibly to the playoffs. I don't know if, you know, Super Bowl is going to be their aspirations now, although I'm sure, you know, they'll tell you that externally.

But internally, I still feel like they believe they are a contending team in the AFC as far as the playoffs. What have you seen in Zach Wilson that would indicate he is more prepared to step into this role than he was a year ago? Because as you mentioned, he's had multiple opportunities and it's not panned out. I wrote an article last year talking about, like, he felt like he was entitled to the starting role.

I don't feel like that anymore. Now, you know, it's easy to say that, you know, when you got bent and, you know, Aaron Rodgers comes in and things of that nature, too. But I figure in the police season, he played really particularly really well. He didn't turn the ball over.

He was efficient and he was a sound decision maker. You know, yes, he threw the one interception last night against Buffalo. But, you know, you look at third quarter on, I think he really made a lot of good plays there. You know, Allen Azar, obviously, the couple of plays to Gary Wilson there to really lead them to the victory, to help lead them to the victory. And, you know, that Wilson is not going to be Aaron Rodgers.

I don't think anybody is expecting that. But they just need him to take care of the football, you know, be efficient and then allow their defense to do their thing and also special teams to go. If he can do that, then I definitely think the Jets have an opportunity to try to sneak into the playoffs. We're spending a few minutes with Antoine Staley, who's very popular today on the day we find out that Aaron Rodgers did, in fact, rupture his Achilles and will be out for at least this coming season. Antoine covers the Jets in the NFL for the New York Daily News.

It's after hours here on CBS Sports Radio. No, it's way too early to tell. But going back to when Aaron was introduced as the new quarterback of the Jets and took the pay cut and the restructuring and all of that, it seemed like he was interested in playing more than one season.

What does this mean for the future? Yeah, Robert Salah was asked about that today. He didn't want to speak for Aaron, but they said they want him to still be in their plans and want to be part of the future. He said they had a restructure of a two year deal worth $75 million guaranteed. And I definitely think, you know, they want him to be part of the future next year.

Beyond that, I don't know. I mean, it was an article in the New York Post that said Aaron Rodgers is entertaining, that he wants to play until he's 45. I don't know if that's going to be the case, especially now, considering he suffered an Achilles injury. But, you know, I have a hard time believing he's going to want to go out like this, even though it's going to be a long rehab.

It's going to be hard. Achilles injuries are very difficult no matter what age you suffer them at. And then he's almost 40 years old. But I think the thing is, too, it's not like he's not married.

He doesn't have any children. He loves football. Obviously, he's a player at the age that he is and still playing. He played it at the high level. I think he's going to want to come back and, you know, try to rewrite this story with the Jets, too.

Whether that's at the MVP level or not, I don't know. But I will feel that if I had to bet money, I would bet that Aaron Rodgers is probably going to try to play at least in 2024. Even for people who are not fans of the Jets, what I've heard from friends all over the country, even other radio interviews that I've done, is it's better for the NFL when Aaron Rodgers is playing. But just the six months of buildup and hype to have it kind of fizzle out in the first couple minutes. I mean, Antoine, you spent the last six months talking about this guy only to have it go poof in four snaps. Yeah, I mean, it felt like an air guy lifted out of a balloon last night at the stadium. And that's just basically how it went down.

And it felt like a funeral, you know, just cut it short there. But, you know, I always gaze things like my mother is not necessarily a sports fan, but she hears things. She watches the news, but she knows what happened, like just going around the world.

And so she understands like the big news, pictures, stories. And, you know, obviously when, you know, you're not a sports fan, but you're still hearing about, you know, certain people. And Aaron Rodgers was obviously a hot button target, not only in sports, but also just around the world. Him, you know, joining the Jets, especially the media market that New York is.

And everybody had anticipation to want to see him play this upcoming year. And for that to happen, you know, it hurts a lot of Jets fans, especially considering they hadn't made the playoffs in 12 years. They hadn't won a division since 2002. And also, you know, the crazy thing about it was Vinny Testaverdi was actually in the building last night. And Vinny suffered a very similar type injury in 1999, a year after they made the AFC Championship.

Vinny goes down towards his achilles. He's out for the season and the Jets ended up finishing 8-8 after that. And Bill Parcells ended up retiring. And, you know, a lot of other things happened with that.

So, yeah, I just felt like that was kind of a bit of an irony, you know, that Vinny was in the same building. And the same thing kind of happened to him too as well. And we'll see what the ripple effects are from the injury. Antoine Staley of the New York Daily News with us here, CBS Sports Radio. What is the backup plan to the backup plan at quarterback, considering that Zach Wilson wasn't supposed to be the starter?

Who's going to back him up? Well, right now, Tim Boyle, who was on the practice squad, ended up signing him, I believe, in April. They ended up cutting him and now he's been on the practice squad. But they are looking for active veteran quarterbacks there.

Joe Flacco is obviously an option. He's familiar with the Jets and they're familiar with him. Obviously, this is a new system with the Daniel Hackett in there.

So he would have to learn a brand new system as well. They've made phone calls. They're going to, you know, test the free agent market, but also the trade market too as well. The problem is it just happens so quickly that I don't know if teams are going to be willing to give up a commodity backup quarterback this early in the year, considering that we still have 15 more games to go. And it happened to their backup quarterback too. So, yeah, they are in a bit of a pickle. It's not like we're at the trading deadline and we have guys that are established or rookie quarterbacks that have played. They might be the guy now, you know, these queens are going to try to clamor to hold on to them simply because, you know, it's the unknown.

Their starting quarterback can go down at any time. Oh, what? Just kidding. I was unprepared for the end of that. I was listening along with Antoine Staley.

He joined us earlier in the show and he said he had 30 plus interview requests in the wake of the Aaron Rodgers injury on Monday Night Football. Apparently there were 22.6 people. 22.6 people. How do we do 22.6 people, Jay?

I'm an idiot. There goes the perfect show. That was a good run.

It was so close. 22.6 million people who tuned in on Monday night. He was turning down requests left and right, but he agreed to be on our show. The rest of the interview, which has to do with some of the positives of the Jets, that's on our podcast. And also, Jay and I have to find new fantasy football quarterbacks. Both of us. It's after hours with Amy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio.