11-8-23 After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 2

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That's betterhelp.com slash positive. Dead center of the work week. Here we are. It's our home show.

Glad to have you with us. It was a quieter night in sports. There was hockey, but every other sport taking the night off or taking the day off because of election day, and it's become a thing with the NBA where they don't play games because they want their athletes to be able to vote.

They don't want their athletes on the road, although I'm sure there are some teams that are away from home, but they are encouraging not just athletes but fans to make sure they cast their ballots on election day. So it was a quieter night, but we've got plenty to talk about even as we're in this fun space heading into week 10 in the NFL. We had asked you the good, the bad, the ugly on our last show, and we've seen a lot of responses, so I want to get to some of those tonight. We've also got some fun stuff from Major League Baseball, too. If you like Joey Votto, you will love what he has to say. The Cubs explaining why they pilfered Craig Council. Just kidding.

They're more. He was a he was a free agent. They were more than welcome to try to take a run at him, and it worked, but also some prep for week 10, some QB news, all kinds of good stuff on this edition of the show because we've got time.

Time is our friend, and Ask Amy anything which comes up next hour, so send your questions to our show Twitter after our CBS and then our Facebook page as well. Our friend Jesse Bradley. He is amazing. He's a former pro soccer goalie internationally, of course, and now based in Seattle with his family. He and his wife have four teenagers.

He leads the church. He does all kinds of speaking engagements, and he is an author, which blows me away because I have no idea how he would ever have time to write books along with everything else he's juggling, but he's always got something new that he's working on, and whenever we have you on the show, Jesse, it seems like you have another book or another project that we get to talk about. This is a brand new book, and how many is this now for you? Amy, books don't come naturally for me, so this is a stretch. It's a labor of love. If anyone's written a book, you know how many edits there are, and then once you bring the book and you rethink it, and if you have a book in you, I encourage you to keep moving forward because there's so many ways. Self-publishing, publishers. If you have a book in you, it's going to bring value.

It's going to change people's lives. Keep going with the process. Don't give up.

That's my encouragement. But how many have you written so far? Because it feels like every time I talk to you, you have a new book.

This is probably five. How? How with four teenagers, a church that you lead, all types of media appearances, how do you have time to write another book? When there's a burning passion in your soul, you just can't sleep on it, and you can't contain it, and I look at what's happening in the world today and the challenges we're facing and where we are as a nation. We need hope, and this is a practical roadmap for hope. These are habits you can cultivate for hope. Hope is also relational, so talking about relationships, but I wanted to give a book where people could pick it up and say, yes, I didn't just read the book, but now I'm starting to do things each day. I'm cultivating hope, and my life's changing, and that's what the book's all about, and that's the message.

It just couldn't stay quiet. It's titled The Power of the Second Thought. What does that mean? All of us have thousands of first thoughts every day. Our minds are active.

Our minds are wonderful. The question is, what do you do with all of those thoughts? It's good to think about what you're thinking about, and when those first thoughts that come in, if they're not true, they're not good.

If they're mean, resentful, if they're selfish, all those impure thoughts that come into our mind during the day, first step, recognize them. Pay attention to what's coming in, and is it good? Second, you're going to reject them because the majority of them, the National Science Foundation says, are not actually helpful, so you're rejecting thoughts. I was a goalkeeper, professional goalkeeper, right? After Dartmouth, I got to play overseas.

Scotland, Africa, I was paid to keep the ball out of the back of the net. First thoughts that come in, they want to lodge like in the back of the net, and you don't have to believe, harbor, or entertain those. I call those hope thieves. We have thoughts. Sometimes it's the old tapes of failures, and we keep replaying them. There's guilt and shame.

Our mistakes were so hard on ourselves, and it's like, no, you have to say, not in my house, because if a hope thief is coming in, and if a thief showed up at your house today, you wouldn't open the front door and say, come on in. So nice to see you. Have a seat. Stay for the night. Here's the guest bedroom. What would you like for dinner?

Hey, here's my credit card if you want to buy anything. Do you know where our safe is? You wouldn't go down that road. You would say, not in my house, and you would lock the door. Well, you're the real estate between your ears. This battle of the mind is even more valuable than your home, and there's a lot of negative thoughts that want to come in and take over, and you either take your thoughts captive, or your thoughts take you captive, and you have a choice. Encourage and empower you, and as you're kind of like that air traffic controller, all right, what gets to land, what doesn't, you intentionally replace it.

So that's the third part. Recognize, reject, and then replace. Replace it with an intentional second thought.

Second thoughts are better than first thoughts, and when you do that, there's a renewing of the mind. You're in a lot of situations in sports. You're in situations all the time. As a goalkeeper, I make one mistake. We might lose the game because of that one mistake, but if I can keep my head in the game, and instead of continuing to think failure, failure, instead I'm like, my second thought is, I'm looking for the next opportunity because I can make a play that can still make a difference. The game's not over. We can still win.

I've got to bounce back because that's going to inspire my team. Now I've got, I'm winning the mental game, and in sports, it's so much a mental game. Same is true in life, whether you're at work, at home, in conflict, whatever it is, it's the habit that you start to form where you quickly recognize your thought. Then you reject it.

Then you replace it. Intentional second thought. Now you've got a renewed mind.

Now you're ready to go. It's interesting that you say that about sports because more and more, I would say over the last 10 years, Jesse, so maybe even since you played professionally, teams employ mental health coaches. They employ even psychological coaches, trained professionals who work with athletes on how to control their minds and how to become more mentally tough, not just more physically strong. And athletes are using that to gain an edge.

Absolutely. And you see it in baseball time. People go into slumps. Then you see it in other sports where you see an athlete who you know has so much potential, and they're only performing at a fraction of that. And what's really happening is, and that's why they invest. Teams, it's business.

They know if they're going to invest, there's going to be change in the player, change in their performance. We all have an outer story and inner story. In sports, we see the outer story.

How are they playing? But the inner story is what drives the outer story. The inner story is more important. And so how do you have health? And then you think about mental health and wellness right now in our country. And American Psychological Association says we've never been more stressed. We've got anxiety, depression. See, I went through this, and it's a longer story, but my career ended. I took a medication to prevent malaria, fighting for my life for a year, 10 years to fully recover. Well, part of the side effects, not only with my heart and all kinds of serious symptoms, but also psychologically. And it was that anxiety, the panic attacks, the depression I never experienced before, and I had no idea how to cope with it. A lot of people don't have the tools, and they don't teach you in school how do you handle your mental game. I went to Dartmouth, Ivy League college. I never had this training. I didn't really get interested until I had to learn, until I hit those depths.

And fruit comes in the valley, not the mountaintops. So for athletes, for everyday people, what are the tools? What's your practical roadmap? What's your plan? Like every day you're going to face temptation. Every day you're going to face challenges. What's your plan in terms of your mind to overcome, to refocus, to be inspired? Because if you're weighed down, if you're brought down low in terms of your thinking, you have all the stinking thinking going on, and you're not managing it, you know what? Everything else is going to fall down with it.

So as you think, that's going to be the trajectory of your life in many cases. It's great to have Jesse Bradley back on the show with us. He always comes with some type of hopeful message and inspiring words. And the new book is called The Power of the Second Thought, How to Live with Indestructible Hope.

It's after hours with Amy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio. I'm thinking about our society, especially young people, since the pandemic and how story after story after story and the studies that are done about young people who are struggling more and more because they were isolated, they were separated, but also because of social media, because of the internet. You have four teenagers. How important is this message for them about taking thoughts captive?

I think about my kids all the time. I think about the next generation. The world is so different. They're facing challenges that we never faced in terms of, you know, peer interaction, comments, gossip, like it's 24 seven through their phones. And a lot of them just feel stuck. UCLA came out with a research recently and said a quarter of high school students are seriously contemplating suicide.

And I had a cousin who died by suicide during the pandemic, and it caught us all off guard. And it's such a tragedy and my heart goes out to those who just feel hopeless. And one of the things about hope that's not true is that many people feel like hope randomly comes and goes. It's just a feeling or hopes not available to me or because of my past mistakes. I'm not going to the same levels of hope as everyone else. But actually, hope involves a choice. Hope is available to everyone in abundance. Hope is a confident and joyful trust in someone or something. So a lot of it depends on where you put your hope and where you're going to drop that anchor.

Now, hope is available. Hope is relational. You know, what changed my life is a relationship with God.

You know, I never saw that coming. But at Dartmouth, I learned about Jesus and I ended up following him. But knowing I'm loved by God, we all need each other. We, I know, value our independence. But the truth is we need family.

We need friends. We need to give and receive love. All of us were designed to give and receive love, to give and receive hope.

And that's when we come alive. So the relationships, the quality of our relationships is significant. And investing in those, making wise choices with your friends, people who bring out the best in you, people who inspire you. Then also the habits you can cultivate. A gritty gratitude. Giving thanks every day. Make a gratitude list. Ten things. For a lot of people, prayer, meditation.

You know, I know when I pray, I start out anxious and then I give God burdens and then I have peace. The habits we have, when I was a goalkeeper, working all the time on habits. And it's skills. Skills and habits.

Tools. How do I dive? And then how do I distribute the ball? How do I kick the ball? How much in terms of my punches?

Am I clearing the 18 yard box? You know, just down to the details. And habits take time. So I like to say there's four stages to a habit in terms of developing it. So you don't get discouraged. Because if you're hearing about power of the second thought, I think I can do this.

What is that? The first stage is you don't know anything about the habit. You've never heard about the power of the second thought. Before I was a goalkeeper, I had no idea that as a goalkeeper, you catch the ball with a W. You got your thumbs together, you got the W. I had no idea. That's how you catch a soccer ball. So that was the first stage.

Now I got some information. Then fast shots would come in, I'd try to catch the ball, I would catch it not very well. And then look at my hands and it didn't look like a W. It wasn't even close. You know what the right thing to do is, but you don't have the skills yet. It's not flowing. The third stage is when you can do it. But now it's a little forced.

It's a little stiff. And during the game, I'm thinking w w w w w. And I'm holding my thumbs together. It's like no, no, no, the goal. You can't over focus on the W. But that's all I knew to try to catch it properly. And eventually that fourth stage is when it feels natural.

It feels fun. Now I'm diving in the corner. I'm thinking w and I'm it's sticking because I've got the W there. Same with tying your shoes as an infant, you have no idea even what shoes were. And then you know, your parents kind of show you just like, oh, you can tie shoes, you try it, you can't get it, then you can get it. But you're so careful.

You're really making that bow and you're trying to get it tight and you got it, but it took a long time. And then finally, now you don't even think about tying your shoes, every habits like that. And we need to cultivate habits because habits are powerful. And the habits you cultivate, they shape your future. And if you form the wrong habits, you get into a negative pattern, you get into addiction, you get into despair. If you are intentional about your habits, and you pick a few habits, and I can't think of one more important in my recovery, 10 years to fully recover, then the power of the second thought. And I started, for me, it was, you know, taking Bible verses, like perfect love drives out fear, because I had so much anxiety, I believe, you know, the lies that my life's never gonna get better, I'm never gonna recover.

The doctors said I they have no guarantees, it's gonna get any better. I would just start to think I don't have a second career, how am I gonna make friends when I'm in such a low place, like just bombarded waves of it. So I needed to have phrases like perfect love drives out fear. And I would literally say that, for you, it might be a poem, it could be a lyric from a verse in a song you really like, like, it could be whatever that quote is that second thought, you get a few, they're situation specific.

And you'd be amazed. If I'm talking to any parents, there's going to be moments during the week where you feel like your first thought is, my kids are frustrating me so much, like, you know, I'm just feeling so annoyed right now. And then when you shift, and you say, my kids are a gift, my kids are truly a gift, it changes the way you see them. And then it changes the way you respond to them. And I'm telling you, a gentle answer. It drives out wrath. And you might be in a conflict with your spouse, your boyfriend and girlfriend, and things are getting heated. And then you remember a gentle answer.

What does it do? It pacifies it drives away a wrath. And so instead of retaliating, and like screaming at somebody, you come up with a gentle answer, because you had that thought, thoughts lead to action. And then as you do that, the quality of your relationship changes. Thoughts are so powerful, habits are so powerful.

I'm just trying to get real and specific. So it's not just like, oh, the power of second thought sounds kind of nice. No, this is like for every day, this is, this is a game changer. My thought or my phrase, my verse that I try to remember is speak the truth in love.

When I'm angry, or when I'm frustrated, speak the truth, but do it in love. Jesse Bradley here on After Hours, CBS Sports Radio, even as you're talking about habits for me, and this is so important as we get close to Thanksgiving. A lot of times my second thought is, where can I be thankful? This part sucks, or this is something that's tough to deal with, but where can I be thankful? Because what I found is that negative and thankfulness don't coexist. And so I can drive out those negative thoughts, the fear, the anxiety, the insecurity, by remembering reasons I have to be thankful.

Absolutely. Gratitude is so powerful. And there's studies done, what happens physically, when we start to give thanks and have gratitude, it activates so many different parts of our brain, our immune system, like it's incredibly powerful. It also drives away complaining. It's really hard to complain and be thankful.

It protects us from over focusing on what we don't have. You know, I thought I'd be married in my 20s. It's like, no, that didn't happen.

And it's like, wow, single way longer than I thought. Well, I can complain. I'm still single, isn't this? Or I can just be, I'm thankful. I'm thankful for my friends. I'm thankful for the freedoms I have that I'm single. I'm thankful that I'm growing. I'm thankful that I'm getting ready, you know, to be married at some point. I'm thankful I'm waiting for the right person.

I'm not getting desperate and dating the wrong people. Like you start to do that stuff. And it really makes a difference. And that gratitude is contagious. If you're around someone that's thankful, pretty soon it starts to rub off on you.

This is what I'd have to do is literally make a list of 10 things. Because gritty gratitude is when you feel thankful, you choose to give thanks. When you know, the feelings aren't there, the blessings haven't come in.

And it's like, no, this is what I'm going to do. Because you always have a choice. No one can take away the most important things in your life. They can never stop you from loving other people, from being a good listener. They can't stop you from praying, from being thankful, like your relationships and loving one another, family. No one can just take that away. Love by God.

Like there's things about you, your attitude, where you get to choose. And that's empowering. And if you're going through a season where you've lost a lot, job change, finances are down, you moved, you're starting over. You got to remember what you still have. In gratitude, you build on the islands of strength. And it's a choice. It's a habit. And when you do that, doors start to open and your perspective gets right. It's a paradigm shift. So choose gratitude today. If you're hanging around with a bunch of grumblers, gossipers, complainers, slanderers, like to say, Hey, y'all, let's do this instead.

And start to shift, redirect the people, redirect the conversations. What is your favorite Thanksgiving tradition with your family? I just love everyone at our big long table.

And then also thinking who are you gonna invite this year? Oh, we just we bring different people, you know, we have a lot of international students where we live. And it's so fun that they get to celebrate kind of an American home and American Thanksgiving, a lot of international students never come in someone's house, like they would love to be in someone's house. So if you know people from other countries, international students, you have a chance to invite them in for Thanksgiving. It's a special memory.

And that's one thing that stands out. But what beats, of course, the assuming families can get spicy, families can get interesting, you might put some limits on some politics and religion and whatever topics go the wrong direction. But overall, like when you're sitting together at a table, and you're just enjoying each other, you're laughing, and you're eating together as a great meal. There's just something about that day where life slows down. I mean, don't we live in such a fast paced, hurried, chase the next thing culture, what's trendy, we can barely wait for the sales to start up at the end of Thanksgiving, right? We're back out again, you can make that fun. But overall, for things to slow down for a day, and be thankful, and just enjoy the food and enjoy the people that should maybe remind us to do that once a week, you know, just just slow the thing down, enjoy the people, let your body and mind rest and recover.

That for me is is what makes it just so refreshing. Like it, you just look forward to Thanksgiving because it's just like, yes, that's what I get to enjoy. Family, friends, faith, food, football, fun. Those are the F's that I use for Thanksgiving. Alright, so then before I let you go, Jesse, what's your favorite Thanksgiving dish?

This is one of our favorite conversations on the air, by the way. Oh, nice, nice. You know, pecan pie with vanilla ice cream. I know that comes afterwards, but I'll wait for it. Otherwise, I usually go for the white meat. So I'm gonna say gonna go for the turkey breast and then the pecan pie. That's it right there. Now see, I pronounce it pecan, pecan and people yell at me.

Let's just get Twitter going, right? How do you really pronounce it? Let's hear from everybody tonight. What's proper?

Put YouTube links, we want to know what's the proper way to do it. It's regional too, isn't it? Different people in different parts of the country. Yeah, it's good though.

Taste good. Powerthought.org. It's a brand new book from Jesse Bradley and he's doing the media blitz. So he's been awake for a long time in the Seattle area, having done TV earlier this morning. The power of the second thought, how to live with indestructible hope.

And in my opinion, it coincides perfectly with Thanksgiving. And you can find him on Twitter at Jesse J Bradley. We've actually got conversations with Jesse on our YouTube channel about his career as a professional goalie going back to the World Cup. Jesse, it's always great to catch up with you. Thank you so much. Thank you, Amy.

Love what you do and we appreciate how you blend stories, life, sports. And you know, for people who are listening today, just say no to the status quo. If you've got a pattern of negative thinking, get out of that get out of that ditch. It doesn't take that much. It's a power of a second thought. And the renewing of your mind is going to change all parts of your life. So let's do it together. It's my daily habit. And listen, let's not only receive hope, but give hope in America right now.

Let's change the culture together. Gosh, Jesse. Indefatigable. Though he did warn me before we talked to him here on the air. So he sent me a text that he might be a little delirious. When I'm delirious, I talk a lot and I talk really fast.

You can always tell. Goodness. Awesome to catch up with Jesse again. He always inspires. And I am so impressed with the fact that he doesn't stay in his own lane, if you will. He doesn't just deal in his own small circles.

He's got grand designs and grand ideas and wants to impact as many people as possible. Thus, a new book. If you want to find the book or if you want to find the link to the book or the link to Jesse, it's on my show Twitter. Well, it's on my Twitter and our show Twitter. ALaw Radio or After Hours CBS. And I can put it up on our Facebook page too when we share that conversation with you coming up later on Wednesday. So it will be podcasted. All right. Gosh, the show is going fast, even though it's a bit of a hodgepodge.

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Find it wherever you buy laundry products. Radio. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio. You are listening to the After Hours podcast.

You're listening to After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Well, make the most of our time together, aight? Pleasure to speak with you. I always have a great time. Huge fan. So glad to have a female voice on sports radio. I love you. I love listening to yourself.

Girl makes the rules around here. You are absolutely right, Amy. I listen to you every morning on my way to work.

And I appreciate, as do millions of others, that you report like you do. Love it when chicks call the show. Boom. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence.

Amy's taking your calls at 855-212-4CBS. Hey, hey, it's the Hump Show. Who doesn't need a little Bon Jovi pick-me-up in the middle of your drive or maybe you're trying to study, you're up late and you need an inspiration, you need a jolt. Coffee's not working anymore.

I've certainly been in that space. Or if you have insomnia, just can't sleep. I've actually got family members who tune into the show when they have trouble sleeping. A cousin specifically that tunes in what seems like multiple times per week because she just can't stay asleep. So she reaches over, turns on her little clock radio, and hears the show for a bit. Sometimes I go to text from her and then she's back to sleep.

It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. So I have three goals between now and the end of the year, Producer J. Is it possible? Three goals. Now I'm actually not gonna be here for a good week and a half in December because I'll be gone not only with the wedding but also with, gosh, the wedding, then the holidays, then a move. So yeah, it's a lot. Anyway, between now and say mid-December.

So we're talking about a month. I have three goals and you tell me if they're realistic. Three goals and I promise you if we get all three, if we do all three, we go check, check, check.

You can order whatever candy you want with our $50 gift certificate. Whoa. Yeah. These are serious. These are serious. But it certainly requires a lot of effort and I would think creative finagling on our parts.

But it also requires you using your skills. Are you ready? I'm ready. I would like to do the second ever After Hours Zoom Room. Yeah, I agree. Okay.

I agree. So around the holidays, maybe between Thanksgiving, maybe the last week of November, how should we determine who is involved in the After Hours Zoom Room? So last time we did one, we did it based around the NBA All-Star Game, I believe it was. Was it or was it MLB? It was either number of pitches or total points.

It might've been the MLB, might've been the most number of, the total number of pitches thrown. So is there any sort of... Do we need, let's not do All-Star. Let's do something as simple as Touchdowns thrown on, is that too easy maybe?

Is that too general of an answer? It might be too, there's only, it's just only so many numbers that you can guess. Maybe it's not that. Maybe it's... Total yards through the entire week. Oh, you want to do a number thing.

Because it gives so many options. Who's going to add all that up? Whoever wants to be in the Zoom Room. No, but we would have to add it up to determine the number of yards.

Eventually, yeah. Nah, let's not do that. Let's just do something random. Like I'll write down a number and you'll all give it to you.

That way we know it's not cheating. And the first five people to come up with the number between one and a hundred. Or the closest five people between one and a hundred. How about that? We might need, I like it.

Between one and a thousand? Maybe, yeah. Are you serious? Because last time we had a couple hundred guesses. Let's do that. I'm going to write down a number right now, okay?

I'm not joking. I'm writing down a number right this second. I'm observing this number being written. Okay, and I'm going to tear off this piece of paper and we're going to ask you if you would like to be part of the After Hours Zoom Room. I'm even tearing the paper right now. The number is now official.

Yeah, it's official. No, Jay hasn't seen it. He can't see it from here.

Listen. Tearing off the number. Seeing it. Well, you can't see it from there because you can barely see me from there.

Actually, you have glasses now, so maybe you can. I know you can't see the number, but I'm telling you it's on a piece of paper. It's right in front of me. Oh, I just dropped it. Whoopsie. Hold on.

Okay, I got it. It's on the piece of paper. And so what we're going to do is we're going to have, we'll put up a post.

If you would like to participate in a Zoom Room with Jay and I, the last week of November or first week in December, we'll try to be flexible. Then send your guesses. You can send your guesses between one in the thousand and the, what do we say, five or ten. Ten's a lot. What do we have, four in our last one? I believe we had four. Yeah.

Okay. The After Hours Zoom Room had four peeps and it was great because we spent almost an hour and we were able to answer everyone's questions and get to know people. And so After Hours Zoom Room will take five because always there are people that either can't make it or don't respond. Five's a good number. And all you have to do is guess the number between one in a thousand and the closest five get to be in the Zoom Room.

So you don't have to hit it directly. All right. So that's one goal. Check. Oh, check. Well, we haven't done it yet. You don't get the candy till after we accomplish these things. Trying to rush it. Yes.

Check though would be a yes. Number two, I want to give away some more After Hours swag. Not that anyone would want this as a holiday gift.

All right. We need to give it away because it's been sitting in a box forgotten in a spare room up near the boss's office. And we have so much swag to give away. And we just get busy with everything else that's going on.

It's hard with just the two of us to manage all these things. But we do have After Hours swag. So I don't know. I was thinking something along the lines of a donation to a particular charity or cause.

Or I don't know. There's so many ways to help families this time of the year. Whether it's providing a Thanksgiving meal. Whether it's giving coats. Have you ever heard of those types of coat drives in cold weather areas where kiddos that don't have coats or families that don't have coats or can't afford them?

I've done that before. I actually think our company does a coat drive. They put a couple boxes out and people put coats in.

I know I brought a couple in before there. So maybe it's a coat drive. But the problem is is we wouldn't be able to to take it. We would have to do it through, I don't know, some other mechanism. We'd have to partner with another organization. But is there a way that we could tie it to being charitable around the holidays? And if you're charitable around the holidays and you can show us that you are, then we will give you some After Hours swag.

So we're not benefiting from it, but you're benefiting from it. Hmm. That's a little more complicated. I love the idea. What about something as easy as the Red Cross?

Well, but we don't even have to team up with it. We can just say we're designating this organization or maybe it's a food bank or a place that, you know, will, as we talk about, give coats for kiddos or toys for kiddos. Maybe it's something like that, a Toys for Tots type of an organization at around the holidays. And we could send us a photo or send us a receipt of a photo or a photo of a receipt.

Excuse me. And if you do that, we'll give you the swag until it's gone so we can pick one that we would like to partner with. The Red Cross is really active, of course, around Salvation Army is another one that's really popular around the holidays.

They've got the kettles, the kettle drums, the bells. Yeah. Or something, but something along the lines of giving gifts to kiddos or giving coats to families or something like that. Does that sound like something we could get away with? I think so. Do we have to run that by the company is my question. Or can we?

No, I wouldn't think so. Plus nobody listens to our show from the company Brass, so it doesn't matter. They would never have any idea what we were doing. I mean, we're just giving away shirts, you know, it's really. Yeah, we're just giving away shirts. Exactly.

So I don't know, would that fly? I think it sounds good. You give a little bit, you get a shirt. Right. Okay. And so I would say we could open it up and you just pick a charity or an organization of your choice. But what if people are making it up?

Then I get a little nervous. It would have to be something official. Yeah, it's got to be official. The point here is to do good. Yeah. For instance, I have this organization that I work with every now and then they do backpack campaigns for kiddos before school starts. But they also do what they call boxes of love for Thanksgiving. So I just sponsored two families and gave two boxes of love and they provide all the meal, the trimmings plus the turkey for Thanksgiving.

And so I was able to do that. And yeah, it's a good way, an easy way to help out this time of the year. So if we did something like that, and then we just give away the swag until it's gone, we need to get rid of it. By the end of 23, we need to get rid of it, Jay. We've had it in there for two years now. Wasn't it early last year when it was given to us as a gift?

It's been some time. If you don't know what After Hours swag we're talking about, there's a YouTube video where we open up the mystery box. So check it out on our YouTube channel and you can, in fact, we can use that video again when we go and we make this official. All right. So you think that could be our second check check? I think so. We can go check check? Yeah. All right.

And then the last one, you've already suggested it, but it would be a challenge. It's just that we think it would also be fun for you guys. A combination holiday and wedding, because it is a holiday wedding, a combination holiday and wedding video edition of Ask Amy Anything to wrap up the year, especially since I won't be here for a week and a half easily.

It's the longest I've ever missed my own radio show. I'm actually a little nervous about it because I told Bob that by the time we got done with holidays with the family, holidays with the families. So we're doing wedding and then family stuff in, you know, the course of about seven, eight days. By the time we get done with that, he would be begging me to go back to work. Just go, go talk about football, go. Anyway, so yeah, we're, we're going to be off for quite a while.

I might be breaking out in hives. So we want to put up a new video for you all to be able to enjoy while I'm gone. And Jay's probably going to take time off too.

In fact, Jay's previously mentioned to me, he may take off the entire time I'm gone. Okay, so do you think we can do those three things before the end of the year? I believe we can. I know we can. How about that? All right, let's come up with some deadlines.

If we get started, I'll let you order the candy, but we got, we got to get started. We can't wait. I'm gonna need that in writing. Like the number sitting right in front of me?

Exactly like the number. Okay, we're going to put this up by, by, is it a Wednesday? By Wednesday morning, we're going to put this up.

Brand new after-hour Zoom room. All you're going to do is guess the number between one and a thousand. It's right here. It's in my hand.

It's so official. I'll even take a photo of it and send it to you so there's no way that I could possibly put a date on it. Okay, there's no way that I could change the number.

It's not a goalpost that's moving. What is the date? 11, so Wednesday is 11-8-23. Okay. Sign it. I'm not going to sign it. Who else is going to give you a piece of paper with a date and a number on it? I get a lot of things. You don't get anything. Okay. So, but then you are going to be allowed then to order the candy. All right.

I'm sending it to you right now. Really? Any candy? Yes. Oh no. Yes.

Is it going to be black licorice? No. Oh, gross.

That's disgusting. Okay. You better save that. You better screenshot that photo.

Did it show up? Check out the number. What do you think of my number?

I haven't gotten it yet. That's cause your phone stinks. Oh, actually it's a new phone.

So it doesn't stink anymore. That's a great number. Thanks. That's a really, really good number.

It's random and it's unique and it came from my brain and see the date is right there. Okay guys, you hear it. We are going in fact, that sounds ridiculous. We are going to in fact do a new after hours zoom room and all you have to do is guess the numbers. I think that sounds fun. Someone else would like us to do a video of throwing a pillow as far as we can. Really?

I'm interested. Only if we can wear pajamas. I mean, yeah. Oh my gosh. It's after hours with Amy Lawrence.

You are listening to the after hours podcast. Feels great. I think the energy is good. The mindset was really good the last couple of weeks, especially following a couple tough losses. I think we're heading in the right direction.

You just have to keep with it. This is after hours with Amy Lawrence. On a weekly basis, you're going to get that the good, the bad and the ugly or in the case of Baker Mayfield, the sucky. All right. We're taking your questions for ask Amy anything that's on Twitter after hours CBS.

You can also find the link on my Twitter, a law radio, and then as well on our Facebook page. And we'd asked you about 24 hours ago, the good, the bad, the ugly, because the first half of the NFL season is now in the books. And actually, if you would like to know the ugly, it's the Thursday night football game that the NFL assigned us to begin the second half.

Are you ready for this? Why? Why NFL?

Why? I think it might be Jay and I have determined it might be punishment to Al Michaels for being so snarky about some of the bad games that he's had to call an Amazon prime. Carolina at Chicago.

That can't be an accident. Yikes. I don't think I need to tell you, but these are two of the worst teams in the NFL. And if you look at records, they have a combined three wins and 14 losses. So that should be fun.

The last I checked, Justin Fields not returning. Let's hope that changes between now and Thursday night. But it actually, if you go on Amazon, they have a countdown to when the game kicks off.

No joke. We're now at 39 hours, one minute and 56 seconds. They have a countdown to Panthers and bears.

Should have a countdown to when it ends. Oh my gosh. So we're asking you good, bad, ugly. Now what we've discovered on our Facebook page is that if you use the term ugly, you get blocked. It's really weird.

Your comment gets hidden. Yeah, I don't know why. Anyway, some of you have weighed in. We wanted to use a few of these. Jim on Facebook, the good, the Steelers defense, the bad, the Steelers offense the less than attractive.

So he avoided using UGLY because I gave you guys a heads up on the last show and so some of you got really creative. The less than attractive Matt Canada as the offensive coordinator and we certainly know that he is under fire, much maligned. Mark just said the Patriots. I don't know if that's good, bad or ugly. I have no idea. And then Elmer said the Chiefs. Again, is that good, bad or ugly?

Not really sure. Johnny says the Browns are all three year over and over or all three year over and over. Every year, essentially all three that they're the good, the bad and the ugly. Mike says the good is the Ravens defense, the bad the Niners losing three straight and the U-word Steelers offense under Matt Canada. Alex says the good is our Sunday Night Football show.

Boom! The bad Arizona Cardinals. The U space space Y.

The fact that the site forced me to write U space space Y. You guys are funny. Doug says the good is Monday Night Football with Peyton and Eli. Do you know I haven't even watched it one time this year?

Oh my gosh, Jay. I miss it but it just seems like there's so much going on. I can't afford to spend time sitting and watching them. I've got to actually have the real game on. I really haven't watched it much either but I forgot about it last night or Monday night this week and I saw Arnold Schwarzenegger was on it and he was petting a goat.

So was Trevor Lawrence and they took Trevor's hair and put Peyton's face superimposed over Trevor's and it was pretty scary to see Peyton with Trevor Lawrence's hair. That's funny. Let's see. Ben says the good is CJ Stroud, the bad is the Cardinals, the U ampersand exclamation point Y. Mike McCarthy coaching in big games.

Ouch. It's after hours CBS Sports Radio. This episode is brought to you by FX's A Murder at the End of the World. Starring Emma Corrin, Clive Owen and Britt Marling. Emma plays Darby Hart, a sleuth and tech savvy hacker. She joins an exclusive group invited to a retreat when one of the guests is found dead. Darby must prove it was murder before the killer takes another life. FX's A Murder at the End of the World now streaming only on Hulu.