10-6-23 After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 2

Is that the new iPhone 15 Pro?

Oh yeah, it's made with titanium and the Pro camera is epic. Just got it at T-Mobile. Nice. Yeah, and I got their Go 5G Next plan so now I have the freedom to upgrade my phone every year. I gotta get to T-Mobile. Take charge of your upgrades at T-Mobile.com. Phone now via 24 monthly bill credits plus tax for well qualified customers.

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For important information, visit principle.com slash disclosures. Oh, happy almost Friday. And happy Twitter anniversary to me. Not sure that's happy.

I'm just gonna focus on the Friday instead. If you didn't hear that earlier, it was 12 years ago Friday that I registered, signed up, created an account for Twitter. And I can't say that I feel smarter or more accomplished. I can't say that I feel as though my career has been more successful.

In some cases, even outside the United States, Canada and across the pond. And yeah, it's it's been a mixed bag for me. And there are any number of women that you could talk to in the sports radio industry or let's brought it out sports broadcasting industry. Who could tell you similar tales?

It's, it's rough. Forget criticisms, just vitriol that a lot of times is flowing at women in sports media. And I've learned, I'll say this. Because of my social media sites, both Twitter and Facebook, and that's pretty much it.

We have a YouTube channel. It gets a lot of traffic, but it's not the same type of feedback. But because of the reaction, the responses, in some cases, just the access that people have to me through social media. And the fact that when people believe they are anonymous, and there's no accountability, very often they are undisciplined and uninhibited in what they will say. And then there's the element of sports fandom where it's always the media's fault.

The number of times that I've been blamed or just been the punching bag for an angry fan because his team has just spit the bed or he's really he or she is really emotional over the way the team's played. It's just we're easy targets. According to social media, but it's taught me how to respond. And I've said this before. In fact, I'm sure I've actually tweeted it. Every day, social media reminds me who and what I never want to be.

It really does. And so I've got very specific rules for myself on social. I don't call people names. I don't use inappropriate language.

It's not so much that I try not to offend people, but I want to use it to be positive and uplifting and to promote our show and to connect with people. Do I still get SHIT every day? Oh, yeah, I do. But I've learned that there's so much of it now. If I just read it, process it for a second, let it go in one eyeball and out the other.

It's gone. And I forget all about it. And I tell young people that I mentor in this business, especially young women who can get so caught up in and I understand it because I was a young woman at one point too. I can get so caught up in feeling like they're targets and they're being lambasted and just wanting to respond. That was the hard thing for me is recognizing that public figures on social media, it's not a fair fight.

It's not a fight you can win. The rules are different for you versus Tom, Dick and Harry, Judy, Jane and Justin who have two followers. And so I remind young people who I work with and who I mentor, who ask me for advice about social media, and it's a question I get a lot. Remember, the only way that they know if you've read it is if you respond. I think most people out there who connect with me are surprised a lot of times when I respond. They don't actually know if I read what they write. Mute button, greatest invention. That's why I stay on social media. That's why I stay on Twitter. Because of the mute button. Because then people have no idea if you're seeing what they sent or not. You're not.

It's gone. So I just, I tell them don't respond. First of all, never respond to an emotion. Ever.

It's like sending a text message when you're really tired or you're really emotional. Don't do that either. How many of those I've regretted?

When I was younger. Don't ever respond to an emotion on social, but also don't give that person your platform. If you don't, it just stops with their two followers or their eight followers.

Okay, they're 80 followers. It's taught me how to navigate criticism, and some of it's so ridiculous, but just to kind of keep it in perspective. I read it all, and then it's, most of it's gone. And yet there have been some really cool connections, both on Twitter and Facebook. We figured out ways to navigate. We figured out ways to filter. We figured out ways to use it to our advantage to promote the show and to connect with you all. And a lot of what we do is mindless fun. Not meant to be serious. Every now and then.

80% of it is just goofy. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. Yes, I would love to connect with you. We do have a couple polls up, so check those out on our show Twitter. I don't know if our show Twitter has an anniversary or not. It wasn't started by me.

Well, it was started for me. Going back to, I think, Anthony. Gosh, that's been eight or nine years, 10 years maybe. What do you think, Jay?

It's a date. Did you say the year? Yeah, I see July 2015. July 2015. Okay, so that would have been six months into me hosting After Hours in this time slot. So, I think, well not I think, it was producer Tom and Isaac who were working the show then.

So the three of us started together in January of 2015. So it would have been either Tom or Isaac. Actually, I think it was Isaac.

Didn't we have to get the password from him or something like that? No, it was for the YouTube channel originally. Oh, okay.

Yeah. Isaac was the technical director, audio and video coordinator before Jay really took over all those jobs. But Isaac was in charge of it, so I think Isaac started both our show Twitter as well as our YouTube channel. He was real good at that.

So thank you, Isaac. Yeah, so on our show Twitter we start all of our polls and we've got two right now running concurrently. One is the After Hours game of the week. Do you know what Mark Andrews wants you to feel and to hear and to consider about the After Hours game of the week? Well, you may think that Cowboys Niners is the runaway and last week it was the same.

Dolphins Bill is supposed to be the runaway. It wasn't even the best game of the week. He says you are missing out if you don't at least consider voting for Ravens and Steelers. The Ravens-Sealers game is one of the best rivalries in the world.

If you're not ready for a game like this, what are you doing? Anytime you join this organization and they talk about this game, it's the game that defines you and makes you a Raven. When I was on their sideline, my rookie year, Mike Tomlue was looking at me, yelling at me, you're not a Raven. You're not a Raven. You're not supposed to be there.

You're not one of them. So every time I play them, it's something personal. How about that? Patrick Queen telling a tale of Mike Tomlin. Maybe trying to get under his skin. Mike Tomlin? It's put up and shut up time.

Uh-huh. He was hoping the rookie would urinate down his leg. That's what he was hoping would happen. He was heckling a Ravens rookie, hoping that he would pee on himself.

That's hysterical. It is our job. Fat and sassy and something.

We want them to be fat and sassy and spoiled. There you go. Well, the Ravens right now have the upper hand. They are 3-1. They're on top of the AFC North. The Steelers. Is it all that different from what the Bears have been hearing this week?

There's been a lot of talk about whether or not Mike Tomlin needs to be replaced as head coach of the Steelers. Okay, it's not happening in the middle of the season. It's not happening today, week 5. It's not happening in week 10. It's not happening in week 15. If, and that's a big fat I-F. Oh, well, that sounded wrong. It's a big fat if. If the Rooney family would decide to make a change with Mike Tomlin, it will not be middle of the season.

That is not how the Rooney's do business. It would have to be something that Mike Tomlin did that was either severely offensive or criminally wrong, which isn't going to happen. Although he is razzing Ravens rookies.

You're not a Raven. I wish we had that on NFL Films audio. That'd be amazing. So yes, it's different for Ravens and Steelers. And this game is in Pittsburgh. This game is, see, Joe Burrell called the Bengals must win.

And I kind of balked at that a little bit. The Bengals are on the road at Arizona. But for the Pittsburgh Steelers, this might be as close to a must win as you can get.

And there's a reason for that. They've already lost one game at home. This game against the Ravens is their home game with Baltimore in their own building. It's not called Heinz field anymore. I forgot. I can't keep up with the namings.

I still have a hard time with Highmark Stadium at Chris. Sure. That's right. I knew it was a word that I'd never heard before. Google it.

You do love Google. I'm sure some Steelers fans can can help us out. But yeah, I don't want the Steelers to lose two home games early in the year, especially when you think about the number of AFC North games they still have to go. You don't want to lose one on your own field. You can't really afford to if you want to stay in the fight. Stay in the fight. It's after hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio.

So take our poll. Mark Andrews, Patrick Queen. Well, it's different for Ravens Steelers. Oh, and Joey Porter Jr. By the way, his dad certainly was involved in many a Steelers Ravens Scrumble. It's a regular season game, but it's not played like a regular season game. Like Coach T always say, this is a big game for everybody. It's a division game.

It's robbery that goes deep, deep, deep in the past. So we just gotta bring that energy and play. Hmm. Consider Ravens Steelers as the after hours game of the week. Anyone? Anyone? Okay, I'll just tell you, I voted for it.

I always vote for the game that gets the fewest number of votes. Don't ask me how that happens. It's not that I don't care about Cowboys Niners. I do. But come on, that's too easy.

You gotta fight. Ravens and Steelers, my choice for after hours game of the week. What about Jaguars and Bills in London? Now the Jaguars have been there since last week. I think they flew over last Friday, so it'd be a week ago Friday. They demolished the Falcons.

That was fun. Now they have the Bills in town. And so Josh Allen and the Bills, they don't travel, and I think again, they travel on Friday. They don't, a lot of times actually, when these teams are forced to play in London, they wait till the last second. They want the week to be as normal, quote unquote, as possible.

And so Josh Allen and the Bills were still practicing in western New York and answering questions about this game overseas that they will play in. The idea, whether or not the players buy into it, the idea is to continue to expand the NFL fan base, aka its earnings power, right? It's about selling more jerseys.

It's about introducing more people to the game. But certainly it's about ticket sales and it's about the bottom line, the revenue, which is why the NFL is still trying to figure out a way to send a team over there, like as in move a team across the pond. That's just dumb. It will never work. Even if you send an entire division over there, it's unfair. The NFL cannot give me some line about how the level playing field, the parity, the competitiveness, that's their goal if they move a division to London. No, it won't work.

It will be such a huge disparity when it comes to travel and that type of thing. Plus, where in the world are you going to put four teams? You'd have to move the entire division. And then all of their other non-divisional games would have to be on the East Coast. I mean, think about how far you have to travel for a West Coast game. There's a good sign there as a free agent. Good point.

Maybe someone whose family is British. All those in the NFL, right? But that's kind of the idea.

There's no way to do it and make it competitive. And I know sometimes the NFL is supremely hypocritical, but don't give me some lines about how it's about the level playing field. We've got to keep it all level when you try to send a team to London.

Even with the Concord breaking speed records, it's still not right. Anyway, Josh Allen, do you feel the responsibility to help grow football across the pond? I'm not sure if I'm liked, loved or hated there.

I guess we'll find out on Sunday. But in terms of just being, you know, we're all ambassadors of this game, you know, especially when we travel abroad and play. So the best way that we can help support this game is just put as good a product on the field as we can and play at as high level as we can. I would say my favorite British phrase is pretty common. Everyone knows what it is. Jay, would you like to tell people what my favorite British phrase is?

Across the pond? No, you have to say it with the accent. It's your phrase. Oh, it's my thing? You can't steal your trademark.

You don't want it to be your thing? Are you afraid that when you say it, it won't come out Britishly? Across the pond? See? Not bad. That was perfect. So Josh Allen wants to teach you a new one. What's your favorite British phrase? Mind the gap. Okay.

He sounds like me trying to imitate Roy McElroy. Mind the gap. Across the pond. Mind the gap. Mind the gap. Fantastic.

Hey, guess what? We could actually see Von Miller this weekend. Maybe, just maybe. If I was a better man, I would say, yeah, you can expect to see Von Miller in London. This is my first time playing in London and, you know, who knows how many chances I get to play in London. So I want this to happen.

I'm pushing for it to happen. Can I entice anyone with a game in London as the after hours game of the week? Jacksonville Buffalo. Mind the gap. Is that the gap between the United States and England or? That's for the, what do they call it there? The tube. The underground, excuse me. The underground. Like the subway in London. When you're going on there, there's like, there's a voice that comes over and goes, mind the gap.

Mind the gap. I've been to the British Isles, but not to England. I've been to Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man. So I've not been to England and used the tube. So I didn't know that.

Oh, Jay, look at you with the lesson from the British Isles. Mind the gap. It gets stuck in your head. It really does.

But is that how they say it on their recording? That's pretty good. Mind the gap. It's pretty good. Oh my gosh, Jay. After I built up Raven Steelers, it got a bunch of votes. How about that?

Now I'm asking you to vote for Jaguar's Bills in London. Uh huh. Mind the gap. You know, if you're not ready for a game like this, you know, what are you doing? What are you doing?

That's a good question, Marc Andrews. Thank you. OK, so the poll is up on Twitter, either our show Twitter or mine, A-Law Radio. And if you haven't yet voted for the division series, you've got 42 minutes according to X marks the spot. You have 42 minutes left to vote for the division series that you.

The division series that makes you want to throw up jazz. You know, I'm an idiot. I laugh at that every time. Why?

Why is that so funny to me? That's right. Let's go. Jazz hands, spirit fingers. Y'all ready for this? OK. It's a good thing Jay doesn't ever try to pull out his cell phone and take video because you all would never listen to me on the radio again if you knew what I looked like. Any time he fires up the music and I start bouncing around with the jazz hands.

Now, I don't trust you now. Mind the guy. Mind the guy. Mind the guy.

I don't trust Jay now that he's got some bright ideas about how he's going to pull out the cell phone and take some video. So I can no longer wave jazz hands around when we have techno pop. You would never. I might. You would never work again on the show if you did that. See that that would result in the loss of many listeners because you, of course, as we all know, are the most popular person on the show.

Debatable. Just wait till you get married. Maybe someday. Ask Jay anything.

Ask Jay walks down the aisle. That's it. Nice.

Nice. The work in progress. Is it? Is it? Is there something? I mean, I guess it's not not in progress. Is there something that I don't know?

No. Seriously, I told you about my news. You can't be holding out at me. There is no news. In the words of Aaron Rodgers.

No news. In the words of Aaron Rodgers. In the words of Aaron Rodgers. I was going to say, oh, that's actually Robert Sala.

He glows in the dark. Oh, my goodness. Are you ready for this tweet? See, this is one reason baby animals is one reason that I love social media. OK, baby animals and baby animal videos and this, Matt says, listening from across the pond this morning and the underground impressions are pretty good. Thank you for the morning laugh. Mind the gap.

That's all Josh Allen, Matt. But thank you so much for listening. That's amazing. All right.

On Twitter, on Facebook, on our YouTube channel as well. You guys are cracking us up. It's my X anniversary.

That just sounds odd. It's my Twitter anniversary. What do I win?

That's that's what I want to know. I've survived 12 years of the cesspool. What do I win? Some more baby animal videos. My favorite is Fiona, the hippo at the Cincinnati Zoo. She loves watermelon. I might share that in honor of my 12th anniversary. They should feed her another one soon.

Yeah, well, I have the video liked on my I don't like a lot, but I do like that. OK, coming up, Ron Rivera, harsh words for the commandos locker room and Terry McLaurin not holding back either. It's time after three consecutive losses.

Still ahead, defense wins championships. And we'll get you started with your week five prep because, you know, we're obsessed with our quarterbacks. QB news, baby, all the time, every day. Mind the gap.

Actually, if you're a quarterback, you better hope they're minding the gap right in front of your face because otherwise they're minding the gap. You are in for it. It's after hours with Amy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio.

You are listening to the After Hours podcast. Here is Howell in trouble as he's trying to race from pressure and down he goes. Sack for Demarcus Walker. So now the gates are opening up under four minutes to go and Howell is whacked. Second and twenty one coming up.

Three nineteen to go. Sam Howell again, drifts back to pass. And he's sacked again.

That a boy. That's what you do in the fourth quarter when you've got a team on the ropes, you bring the pressure and put an end to this baloney. This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Did Jeff Joniak just drop a baloney reference on the Bears radio network? Put an end to this baloney.

Baloney. Hey, if you are a fan of the Chicago Bears, you don't want to miss the final hour of the show. In fact, the final segment of the show. We're really excited to welcome a member of our Chicago affiliate. A.M. 670 the score. Big ratings book, by the way.

I just posted the numbers in the last couple of days for those of you who care about those types of things. But David Hoff, he'll join us. David, he's so kind of fun. He listens to the show on his way into work and he gets ready for his show about the time that we're kind of wrapping up our last hour plus or so. We connected not that long ago when I was hosting in the afternoons on CBS Sports Radio. And he joined us from Chicago then to talk about what was the Cubs surging toward potentially a playoff spot in Major League Baseball.

It didn't happen, but now we'll have David back with us this morning in the final segment. So he's agreed to join us live to talk not just Chicago Bears, but also Dick Butkus. Because that news of his passing, that dropped not long before kickoff on Thursday Night Football in Washington.

It's after hours with Amy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio, Ian Eagle on Westwood One, and then Jeff Joniak on Bears Radio. And as much as this is a huge relief as the Bears end a 14-game losing skid that stretched back to last year, the commanders are now sitting on a three-game losing skid and Ron Rivera, he's not sugarcoating with his team. Can't repeat exactly what I said, but for the most part, it's just not good enough. It's not good enough.

It starts with me and wanting to go back and look at a lot of things and we're going to get some things corrected and we'll go out and we'll play football. If you could see his facial expressions, he's very serious. I don't know much about the new owners except, you know, Josh Harris is also owner of, is it the Sixers, a previous owner of the Sixers or owner of the Sixers, part owner, and the New Jersey Devils. He's got some experience.

This is his ownership group along with Magic Johnson, right, who's been pretty vocal since they took over as ownership of the commanders. And they're aggressive in that they want to win. And I'm not saying that's what Ron Rivera is thinking about, but anyone who watches the commanders recognizes that they've kind of been stuck in this black hole type of space. Every now and then it looks like they're getting better. One side of the ball will get better and then the other side of the ball will suffer. And it's pretty obvious that one major issue for the commanders has been their lack of a consistent quarterback.

That's not a secret. Going back to when Kirk Cousins was the starter, that's how long it's been since they've had a consistent starter. They've used, well, they've used draft picks to try to find the answer at quarterback. They've brought in free agents. They've tried a variety of different options and it hasn't worked.

Nothing stuck. I mean, you go back now to 2017, Kirk Cousins started every game actually in 15, 16, 17. He is, he's certainly battle tested, but also a guy who's extremely tough, does not get injured a lot. And even when he does, if you watch the series quarterback on Netflix, he's constantly playing hurt. So he started every game in 15, 16, 17. A lot of fans wanted him gone.

You don't know what you got till it's gone. Because since then, Alex Smith obviously suffered a brutal injury. Josh Johnson, Colt McCoy, Mark Sanchez started a game in 2018. Case Keenum, Dwayne Haskins, he was their draft pick in the top 15.

That was a bit of a surprise. Alex Smith returned then. Kyle Allen came in with Ron Rivera as a backup quarterback and he started four games in 2020. Then we saw Taylor Heinecke, two years in a row, a bunch of Taylor.

Ryan Fitzpatrick, Garrett Gilbert started the game in 21, if you remember. Carson Wentz last season until, well, he got hurt and then Taylor Heinecke took over again. Sam Howell was anointed at the end of the year and he started all five games, but there have been some rocky moments now. I would say it's way too early, way too early, to deliver an edict on Sam Howell. He's only started six, six, seven games total, but there have been some rough ones lately.

I like his toughness, I like his grit. He's aggressive, he's confident, he can deliver the throws, but he's still a young QB and sometimes I think he's going for broke a little bit too often. They've lost three games in a row now and whether or not Ron Rivera is feeling the heat, at some point you've got to think this new ownership group, they might want to make a change. Think about all the young, up-and-coming coordinators like the Mike McDaniel situation, right, and coming out of the Kyle Shanahan coaching tree. Young coordinators who have these offensive minds or have trained under bright young coaches. Sean McVeigh's launched how many guys into the rest of the NFL, the NFL Stratosphere, Kyle Shanahan, Andy Reid as well, though I think the NFL's a copycat league and so now it's all about these guys who are young coordinators in their 30s seems to be one of the most popular trends for hiring new head coaches.

Shane Steichen, Jonathan Gannon, both coming off that Eagles staff last year. And so Ron Rivera may, I don't even think this is a stretch, is likely being evaluated by this new ownership group, not to mention Sam Howell. This new ownership group may decide they want to go in a completely different direction, but because they took over, so I don't, don't quote me, I could be wrong about this, but I think it was right before training camp or not that long before training camp, you can't be making changes right before training camp.

That's detrimental to your team and to your progress. But I wouldn't be surprised if right now this ownership group is evaluating everything, which includes coaching, which includes whether or not they go in a different direction at quarterback. Do they rebuild? Do they blow it up?

What do they do? And so Ron Rivera and the commanders, maybe the entire, everybody is on the hot seat. The entire team is playing for jobs. The entire team, not to mention the coaching staff, under scrutiny. And so what about Sam Howell?

This is largely on the commander's defense, so I will say that. But, gosh, the one step forward, two steps back with the turnovers and some of the missed opportunities. I thought he had his moments. You know, it was unfortunate we didn't get anything going early on in the first quarter. It was kind of tough to get into a rhythm for him. And then we got a nice little rhythm going, and we didn't sustain it. We turned the ball over twice. That's a tough thing.

It's tough. It definitely felt like it was a game that we were capable of winning. And it just didn't come off to a good start. We kind of put ourselves in a hole there in the first half and tried to fight our way back in the second half. But we came up short. Everyone just needs to look in the mirror, and I think everyone came out of the game knowing that they can do something better.

And I think as long as we make the improvements we need to make, we'll be fine. You know what I don't love about this game, and I understand they were in a deep hole, but this is the issue. You fall into a 17-0 hole early in the game, well then you have to try to pass your way out of it. They're not that good at a passing attack. You don't want Sam Howell throwing the ball 51 times.

That's ridiculous. You don't even want Tom Brady throwing the ball 51 times. That makes your offense so one-dimensional.

And yeah, Terry McLaurin, one of those, I mean, he's probably the top receiver. One of those guys who just recognizes this is a mess right now. They're in a tough spot. That's as bad as it gets, honestly. The last two times we've been at home it hasn't been good.

So a lot of people, myself included, we all got to get better. The commanders have dropped three in a row. It's not 14 straight, but in the NFC East you can't really afford to fall behind the top two teams in the Eagles and the Cowboys. Alright, we're taking your votes for after hours game of the week. I'm seeing Ravens and Steelers, they got a bump. I've convinced a few people. So check that poll out. Also, I'll retweet our baseball poll because you've got about 20 minutes left or so. So if you want to check that out, you can let us know which of the division series you're most geeked up about. And those don't start until Saturday. Weirdly enough, first Friday in October, we've got no baseball.

Great. Thanks MLB for messing up what was a good thing. I mean, why not just have the one game format?

At least it's exciting then. Jay and I are all about it. We want to go back to single game wildcards. Winner take all. Let's go. Sign me up.

855-212-4227. We're glad to have you with us. Happy almost Friday.

You are listening to the After Hours Podcast. Here's a handoff left side to Taylor. He's going to cut out left side. He's at the ten. Looking for the five.

Looking for the pylon. He's in. Jonathan Taylor touchdown. And as a 21-yard touchdown run, Jonathan Taylor does it again.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Jonathan Taylor has not practiced or played in a game with the Indianapolis Colts since December. And despite that, despite the fact that he didn't work out with the team in the preseason or training camp because he was reportedly nursing an ankle injury, in spite of the fact that they're starting a rookie quarterback who does have the ability to get around with his legs too, in spite of the fact that the offensive line for the Colts is really their Achilles heel, their weak link, if you will, the Colts are two and two. So Anthony Richardson, he's been out there for three games, right? He missed one game.

But there have been flashes, raw talent, but flashes of strong leadership, good decision making. And they've won two games on the road, which I think is interesting. So the Colts have started out with two home losses, but two road wins. And one of those came against the Ravens.

What? It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. I could say, and it would be misleading, but it would be true, that the Colts are tied for first in the division. But every team in the division is two and two.

So yeah, when we told you the AFC South was wide open, that was accurate, at least for the first month of the season. Now, because they're through the first month, Jonathan Taylor is eligible to practice again. He's with the Colts this week, don't know what his future holds, not even sure when he will play again. So the way that the injured reserve works for the first month, once they get through four games, which they have, players are activated from this pup list, this physically, I guess I called it IR, it's physically unable to perform list. And now the Colts have three weeks to let him practice, to let him work out with the team, and then to ultimately either put him on the active roster or not. But he's with the team.

He's not on the active roster yet, but he's with the team, and they have to decide when to activate him and how to incorporate him back into the roster, into the game plan. Feels really good to finally be healthy. I mean, number one, the whole time, the main goal was to be healthy. Everyone in this whole thing, the main goal was to be healthy, to go out there, to be able to do what I love, which is play football. So just going through that journey throughout this whole time, been a lot of things said and done. But at the end of the day, the number one overall goal for everybody was for me to get healthy.

And I think everybody was on the same page with that one. Now, again, this is an ankle injury that goes back to December. It actually was a re-injury of an ankle mess or an ankle problem that he'd had in December. And while there was another teammate who had the same surgery and he returned, Taylor has not. And the question was asked, and we asked the question here, he wants a new contract or he wants to be traded, both of which he expressed, but if he's not healthy, why would the team do that? Why would the team sink a ton of money into a guy who's not healthy, especially at the running back position? So when exactly did he get healthy? Over the course of this whole offseason. There's never a specific date because there's always progressions. There's always, hey, we've got to break through this wall, then we've got to break through that next wall.

So just being able to maintain that perseverance until you get the achieved goal that you want. There were certainly rumors, speculation, questions about whether or not he was using the injury as a reason to stay away from the team, as a way that he could stay away from the team and not lose money, right, for holding out, quote unquote. This was the way he would do it without getting penalized. Maybe to show the team that they weren't as good without him, to show the team that they needed him. But it was always under the guise of the ankle.

So was there anything else that kept him out? Number one thing was, was me getting healthy. At the end of the day, if you're not healthy, you can't be on the field.

The number one ability is availability. And I pride myself on that. So, you know, especially battling through last year, my number one goal was to make sure I eliminated all of that. I'm just not a guy that doesn't want to be on the field and off the field. Now, of course, if you can't go, you can't go.

But, you know, I didn't want to be a kind of guy where we're dealing with this, we're dealing with that. I just wanted to make sure I got 100 percent healthy and everyone did. All right. So he says he's healthy now.

It's taken a while since he had the surgery in January. What about next year? What about being all in?

What about staying with the Colts? I don't think it matters on if I'm saying I'm committed or not because I'm here. I mean, if somebody wasn't committed, they wouldn't be here. And right now I'm here and my my number one goal is to really attack this first practice. It's been over two hundred and ninety days, I believe.

I mean, I mean, when you're you're not doing what you love, you're going to you're going to notice it. So it's been over two hundred and ninety days. So my main goal has been to attack this first day. Yesterday was a walk through. So today is the second first day. Second first day. I like that.

It's the second first day of school. I am encouraged by hearing Jonathan say that he loves it if you're not able to do what you love, because I was starting to wonder about the commitment. Now, I certainly understand contract disputes.

I would never have the leverage to be able to hold out in a contract dispute. He thought he did, but it didn't work. So now does he go all in? It's after hours with Amy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio. It's debate throws in more right now at pom pom at home dot com. Easy to use, easy to love luxury bedding.

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