11-9-23 After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 4

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Your heart's in your– Uh-oh, Jay. It almost happened. Our worst fears.

Thankfully, there are a few early morning co-workers in the newsroom. And I knew that this– we always have known this is a possibility. It did not happen in the middle of our show, which would spell certain doom. And I mean, one of us would be right. One of us would be extremely upset and the other one would be extremely confused. Because for those of you who have not heard this before, overnight, once Marco Boletti is gone, it's Jay and I at the network. That's it. It's just Jay and I.

We're just hanging out, maxing and relaxing, doing your favorite radio show. The problem is– well, it's not a problem if you take your ID card, but in order to get to the bathroom or the kitchen here on our floor, you have to walk through locked doors. In fact, just to get to our lockers, we have to go through a double door that locks behind you. And without your key card, you can't get back in. So it's one of those mornings where my brain's a little fuzzy.

Wednesday was up most of the day, just a lot of stuff around the house. And so the coffee is gone and I need more coffee. But regardless, instead of taking my key card to the bathroom during our break at the top of the hour, I took my phone. And so I get into the bathroom and I'm thinking, why do I have my phone in here?

And then I go to walk back into our department. Ruh-roh, I don't have my key card. The problem is I cannot get Jay's– well, I guess I could have called you.

So there's that. I could have called you. But I can't get Jay's attention visually because he's in a control room that doesn't have windows that face– well, he's not facing the windows that look out back. I know it's your biggest fear that in the middle of the night, when I'm using a side studio and doing some work during a break, you're going to run to the bathroom or to the kitchen and try to get back in. And there's nobody in here in case you forget your car.

Car, haha, your card. Massive fear because then, like you said, there's literally not one person here to let me in. And then if I can't get into this room to get on this board, we can't go on the air. Alarms, dead air, death taxes, and someone getting fired.

Yeah, so it happened. But thankfully there was– there is a co-worker. Colton is in the newsroom, and so I was able to bang on the glass door and make quite a ruckus. Because you're not going to hear me. You're in a completely– well, it's supposed to be soundproof. It's not really, but it's supposed to be. It's also not smell-proof because when people eat in there, I can smell it in here.

Really? I don't know what is it about the ventilation. You don't do this because you don't eat overnight, but some people eat nasty meals in there, and the smells waft into my studio. It's gross. Oh, man. Yeah, it's really gross.

Or in the rare case where– and I know we've had this conversation before– one of our colleagues is in there without his shoes on. That also is wafting my direction. Chase, like, making this face as though he might throw up. Yeah, I'm going in here.

I bask in it, too. It's not great. This is why we keep Glade in our locker. Of course, going to the locker without the ID card would also be a bad idea. So yes, I did it. It finally happened.

I accidentally took my phone and not my ID, put it in my back pocket, and then tried to come back into the department and thought, oh, rut roh. Started banging on the door. I wonder how long I would have gone without you back to have been like, hmm. Well, I hope not more than 10 seconds. It would have been quick, but– What would you have done, though? I kind of– I guess I would have looked around.

I would have been like, hmm. Like Moose, you just take your sweet old time. Moose, his bulldog, does not move quickly. Unless it's dinnertime. Then, yeah, he's right down the stairs.

Instantly by his bull, he knows. But how long would it take you to have a sense of urgency, a fear that I have ditched you or that something's happened to me? Maybe like a minute– I bumped my head in the bathroom and I fell on the floor. Oh, gosh.

I have been in there before, so I would be able to go see if you were okay. Alright, let's not air all our dirty secrets on the show this morning. Well, that was the one time where I had to, remember?

That's true. It was an emergency. Anyway, we'll tell that story another time. So yes, I'm back.

I don't know that I'm better than ever, but I did make it back. But only because it's the final hour of the show and there are– there's other people in the newsroom. Otherwise, I could still be out there banging on the door. There are mornings when there isn't– there still aren't people in the newsroom at this time, so– That's true. Good point.

Let's not air all their dirty secrets. Well, I think people know that, but– It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. We are glad to have you with us. Good morning to you if it's a Thursday.

Disaster narrowly averted. We're asking you, as we get ready to go into Week 10 in the NFL, who are your midseason MVPs? Your midseason offensive and defensive players of the year? How about your rookies of the year?

I mean, it is awards season, in a manner of speaking. Kind of cool that Josh Dobbs got the nod in the NFC as Offensive Player of the Week for his rally, leading the Vikings to victory in Atlanta after he'd been on the roster for all of 10 minutes. NFC Player of the Week was a pretty cool accomplishment this week, but just– I want to give a shout out. I know we talked about it after the game, but just going back, watching the film and everything, truly was a team effort. There was a lot of plays that our defense made, especially early in the game, to keep the offense in the game.

Some efforts on my turnovers of guys, you know, rushing down, knocking a guy out of bounds at the 1-yard line to keep it a 3-point possession instead of a 7-point possession. So, tremendous effort by this team. Obviously, I'm excited to be here. I'm excited to come off a win, man.

But we've got a huge opponent, NFC opponent, coming to town this weekend, so we're excited to get back to work and get locked in and focus and get ready for Sunday. I love how much he's enjoying himself. What a trajectory. He's played for five teams in two years, and the man still goes out there and has a joy and a zest. Not just that, but the leadership's inherent, so he may not be the best quarterback in the NFL. I don't think he's fooling anyone in that regard. But what he and Kevin O'Connell were able to accomplish, I actually spoke to former NFL QB Babe Lofenberg earlier in the show from Dallas, so he's part of the Dallas Radio Network, the Cowboys Radio Network. We're going to bring back part of that before this hour is done. But what was really cool is that he said even, that's not easy to do.

That is not easy to do. And he talked about the headsets and how that certainly helps in translation, but he also gave us kind of an understanding of how complicated the play calls, too. Even going back to when he was in the NFL, which was, I think it was 90s, late 80s, early 90s, somewhere in there.

Maybe it was 90s. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. Glad to have you with us. Yes, it's a Thursday. On Twitter, ALOL Radio.

Also on our Facebook page, After Hours with Amy Lawrence. And we're getting a lot of your submissions for midseason MVP. Now, I was high on Jared Goff. I was calling him a dark horse.

I've had to change. So Jay and I will give you some of our midseason awards before the hour is done. Yeah, I've had to go a different direction because the Lions offense, well, the Lions in general have gotten steamrolled in two of their biggest games the last three weeks, right? So we'll see what they do in week number 10. We'll do another edition of QB news because apparently week 10 means a 10th rookie quarterback to start.

No, that's not what it means, but that's actually what's happening. It will be a new NFL record when Tommy DeVito, poor Tommy DeVito, starts against the Dallas Cowboys this weekend. It will be the 10th rookie quarterback. And you can tell the offense is watered down by all of these injuries to elite QBs like Aaron Rodgers. And I would say Kirk Cousins playing at an elite level the last couple years certainly has been. But the number of QB injuries that have forced rookies into duty, it's not great for the league.

C.J. Stroud's been amazing. It's not great for the league. In terms of just the offense, the potency, and just kind of the high-flying trapeze artist that we love to see. So you can see there's a definite delineation between the haves who have their quarterbacks and the have-nots who have lost them. Brian Dabel, why did you give Tommy DeVito this opportunity to start for the Giants? Well, injuries. We'll start with that.

I'm sure Tommy won't take that personally. Before we shift a little bit here and talk about some of the storylines from the NBA last night at a couple of really good games, I want to shoehorn them in. I want to take just a minute to tell you guys about something really cool that happened last week. I was sleeping and got an email from our program director.

His name is David. And he included what was essentially a contact us form to CBS Sports Radio on our website. So it's one of those generic forms where you go to a website and you don't know who is actually going to see the contact us form, but you fill it out in the hopes that someone will get back to you. Well, the deputy commissioner of the Peach Belt Conference, her name is Diana, she filled out one of these forms on our website in the hopes that she could reach me or that whoever saw it on our website would pass the message along to me. Our program director did. So Diana and I had a conversation over the weekend in which, Jay, this is really cool. She invited me to be the keynote speaker at their women in sports conference in January. And so we worked it out. We talked about it.

Thankfully, because I was really nervous when I saw her initially, you know, spoke to her and just said, hey, let's let's talk over the weekend. I thought she was going to tell me the dates were a weekend in January. And I was thinking, oh, no, there's it's not possible because the NFL playoffs, they consume the second half of January. As it turns out, they're smart. The athletes that they invite in, a lot of them have events on the weekends. And so instead they do it on a Wednesday, Thursday. So they've invited me to be part of this really cool event where and it's the first time they've done it since the pandemic. They invite hundreds, well, dozens. But, you know, they've got to I think it's a dozen schools. So it could be one hundred and fifty female athletes, not to mention administrators and commissioners that will be around. And they'll have us all together in a conference in Augusta, Georgia, home of Augusta National, home of the Masters. Anyway, that's not why I'm going. But they've invited me down to be their keynote speaker and they're paying my expenses. And they're flying me down so that I can speak to these young women. And it's awesome.

But here's the here's the the catch. I have to pick my own topic. Oh, man.

Well, we're not going to be talking about NFL playoffs. I'll tell you that I asked Diana if I could run some of my ideas by her because I mentor a lot of young women. But that's more a one on one thing. I've done a bunch of mentoring programs through my union and other opportunities. But I wanted to be dynamic. This has been my first time ever being a keynote speaker. I've taught classes. I've been a guest speaker at classes. I've never been a keynote speaker for a conference before. Congratulations.

Because the first time I'm here, I've worked on panels, that kind of thing. But I've never been the keynote speaker. Jay, I'm a little nervous already. It's not till January.

I've got a wedding between now and then. I'm nervous about the Peach Belt conference having me as a keynote speaker. So thank you to David, who is the commissioner, David Brunk.

I understand he listens to the show when he's in his car early in the morning in Augusta, Georgia. And also thank you to Diana. We struck up a friendship already on the phone, so that was cool. And I'm really looking forward to it.

It's a Division 2 conference. Do you want to know what I asked her on the phone? Yes. I said, this is going to sound crazy. Can't we drive by Augusta National? I wouldn't. If I'm in the area, I'm going to not, you know?

I wouldn't do the same thing. Well, so she said to me, this is when we became fast friends. She said to me, when I came down from my interview, I did the exact same thing.

You have to. You're in Augusta. Are you going to not go to Augusta National? But she also warned me, you blink when you drive by it and you won't even know it's there. So she said, it's crazy because there's a strip mall and there's residences all around and then there's a sign.

You drive by the entrance and it's gone. And you wouldn't have any idea that Augusta National is nestled into this area in the city. But she also said, when you're on the property, you would have no idea that there's strip malls and there's businesses and there's homes all around. Because it's so pristine and isolated. But it's not secluded.

It's only on the property that you don't know that there's this bustling city and bustling activity around you. But she said, you will be underwhelmed by the entrance because you won't even, you'll think nothing of it. She said, if we don't drive by slowly, you won't even know it's there. I thought, wow, that's awesome. I can't wait to see it.

You still got to see it. So yes, and they're feeding me too. Would you like to come? Would you like to stow away?

I'll stow away. They're feeding me. What are we getting? I don't know. Don't ask that question.

They could be listening. It doesn't matter. We like it all. David, thank you so much. Diana, thank you so much. I'm looking forward to it. And I promise I will not do a radio show as your keynote speaker. I'll do something much more interesting.

No, no, no. We like our show. Something much more inspiring than talking about the NFL. How about that? Do you have ideas? I do have a few ideas. I'm not going to share them with you right now.

No. I got to generate them. But I hope that David or Diana, this gets back to them or they have a chance to listen and know that I'm very grateful. So thank you for having me.

It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Good morning. Well, well, well. Shopping for a car? Yep. Carvana made financing a car as smooth as can be.

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This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Poor Merrill Reese, but regardless of Merrill and whether or not he could talk for days after the Eagles Cowboys game, he was able to get through it. And there were some pretty impressive moments for both the Eagles offense and defense. Cowboys come up just short game of inches is what we heard from Mike McCarthy and then Micah Parsons.

It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. Had a chance to catch up with Babe Lofenberg, who's a former Cowboys quarterback himself and longtime partner of Brad Sham on Cowboys Radio. And we're not going to replay the entire conversation, but really good stuff, especially from the mind of a quarterback. But I did want to talk to him about where the Cowboys are right now at five and three. And so going back to the loss in San Francisco, where they got plastered, I asked him how much have they improved or how different are they as a team?

Now versus then. I wouldn't say they're a different team, but I think there's there's no question they've improved. And I think that probably goes to every team in the NFL. Obviously, injuries are going to take their toll.

So you may not be as good because you've lost people. But I think with every successive week, you get more comfortable in what you're doing. Mike McCarthy, obviously the play caller here now, Kellen Moore has been the play caller for the three years before that with McCarthy here. So there's there's a little learning process on the offense.

It hasn't changed dramatically, but it's definitely changed. So I think they're all still getting their feet wet with their you obviously have new players every year. Brandon cooks at it and he hasn't really assimilated him into the offense to the extent that I thought he would be. So the season, as you well know, it's a long season. My good friend Jason Garrett, former Cowboys head coach, used to always say, and probably still does, the history of the NFL is written week to week. And it's just so true because the Cowboys, you know, as you mentioned, they get blown out by San Francisco 42 to 10. And then San Francisco clearly the cream of the NFC until they lose three straight games. Right. So, you know, at the end of the season, we're going to say, OK, how many to win?

How many to lose? OK, you, you, you, you and you are in and you're the other guys are out. So we'll see what happens when the playoffs roll around the defense for the Cowboys. It's brash. It's bold.

It's aggressive. The consistency they have with Dan Quinn sticking around and some of their stars. What impresses you the most about the defense? Well, they haven't been as good over the last four games or so.

They started out completely on fire. But it's an interesting defense from the standpoint of they really have only one play, only one linebacker. Now, Marquis Spell plays linebacker, but he was a safety and they moved him up. So it's a very fast defense. And I do think and not real big. And I do think if you look at the numbers, they are I have them and I apologize that I may be off a game or two here, but they are 16 and one now since the start of last season on turf. But they're two and seven on grass.

Now, we can put a lot of things into that. But I think it's a team that plays better on turf. We all remember, of course, the greatest show on turf, right?

St. Louis Rams. And that team played better on turf. And I just think this defense, again, predicated on speed.

Turf is obviously faster. They're a different team on turf than they are when they get on the road and play on grass. What's their Achilles heel, babe?

What's their weakness? Well, the running game right now. They have not run the ball well all season long. You can't even really point to a game. I guess Arizona Pollard had over 100.

It's the only game I think he's been over 60. So they have not run the ball well, didn't run it well against Philly, although Philly has a, as we know, very, very good run defense. But I think until they shore up that running game and I don't know if that will happen, it's going to hurt them. And Bill Parcell, again, I'll quote him because he had so many great quotes, but he would always say, just because you can identify the problem doesn't mean you can solve it. So it's like, OK, hey, they're not running the ball. It's like, OK, yeah. Yeah, we know they're not running the ball well.

How are we going to solve it? And so we'll see what happens. But they, to me, no doubt, they have to be able to run the ball a little better than they have. Is that offensive line? Is it Tony Pollard?

Is it something else? Well, Pollard is coming off a pretty horrific leg injury from last year in that playoff game at San Francisco. I can't imagine that he's back to 100 percent. He doesn't look quite the same.

The offensive line, Terence Steele, the right tackle. He's coming off an ACL from last year. Tyron Smith getting older, although let me just say this, he played great against Philly. He's not about as good a game.

But, you know, Zach Martin, great, great player, Hall of Fame player. You know, he's 32, 33 years old. He's had 10 years of NFL wear and tear. Still really, really good. But you just no player is going to be the same at 32 that they were at 25. Right after getting beat up for, again, 10 or 11 NFL seasons. But he's still been good. Don't get me wrong. OK, so I want to drop a stat on you or a piece of information.

We call them nerd alerts on my show. When Tommy DeVito starts, he will be the 10th rookie quarterback to start this season. The 10th. It's the most ever in any season and we're barely halfway through. What's your reaction to the number of rookie QBs we've seen so far through just one half of the season, babe? Well, probably two part injuries, but also there was a time when you didn't even think about playing your rookie. You know, Bryce Young wouldn't have played. Will Evers wouldn't have played.

C.J. Stroud wouldn't have played. Aaron Rodgers waited four years to get his starting, you know, and that was due to injury at that time. You know, Brett Favre didn't start a game as a rookie. He threw five passes.

He was in Atlanta. But so now they draft him and they throw him out there. Ready or not, here we come. So that's part of it. But as to why these backups are, these rookies, I mean, are coming in and playing as backups, that's a little puzzling because now you can keep three quarterbacks and typically that number two is going to be a veteran guy. Now, in the Giants case, obviously they lost Daniel Jones and they lost Tyrod Taylor.

So they're down to their third quarterback. But yeah, a lot of young guys playing and it's not easy. Even preparing last week for the Philadelphia game, Nick Ceriani said, look, I know Jalen Hurts is in his third year and you think he's a veteran, but he said he's still learning.

And they really are. I love it when a guy has like two starts under his belt and they're like, well, now he's ready. It takes years.

Oh, good. I'm glad you said that because I was going to ask you from a quarterback standpoint, how long does it take for a young guy to be comfortable with everything that's happening around him? Oh, again, years.

It's not just I get through six games or 10 games. I mean, I guarantee you that Prescott is still improving and seeing things that are different that you put into the Motorola decks, if you will, and he's eight years in the league. But I love Ceriani's comment that, hey, I know you guys think Jalen Hurts was runner up last year for the NFL MVP. So we had it. It's not like he's learning and making taking his lumps along the way. He played great. But I guarantee you Jalen Hurts will be the first to tell you, hey, I'm learning every day I come into the office.

The old saying is true knowledge comes after you know, after you think you know everything. And I think that's that's true at the quarterback position. How do you explain C.J. Stroud? Yeah, he's been phenomenal. I will say I really like C.J. Stroud best coming out of this year's class.

Now, having no idea he'd play the way he has. And, you know, the bad thing for those guys, too. The Bryce Youngs and the C.J. Strouds and even Richardson, you know, you get drafted by bad teams. There's a reason why they took you up at the top of the draft because they earned it. They were they are not good football team. So to be able to go into those environments and succeed like C.J. Stroud has is pretty remarkable.

Yeah. And last week, you know, four seventy and five touchdowns. He certainly looks like he's playing like a veteran. We'll see. Cowboys will see Bryce Young in two weeks.

They go to Carolina. So I think it's interesting that the quarterbacks, you know, you come back five years later and you say or three years later and you say, gosh, OK, now who would we have taken? And I always think of the Bears.

Right. Trading up to number three to get Trubisky and passing on Mahomes. And that's going to just kind of haunt you.

You know, every day you wake up. I remember when Kansas City played the Bears, I think last year I thought, oh, if you're a Bears fan, this is just really adding insult to injury here. You know, not only did we have a guy that isn't even on our team anymore, they have a guy that can be NFL MVP candidate virtually every year for the next 10 years. No one's going to forget that. Or very few people will forget that in the NFL circles and certainly in Chicago. They haven't forgotten. Of course, they got Justin Fields.

Now the issue is whether or not he can stay healthy. The good stuff with Babe Lofenberg did more on Dak. So Dak and C.D.

Lamb, Dak and Mike McCarthy. A little bit about the Cowboys and being on the road. So good stuff with Babe.

Hadn't had him on the show in, gosh, probably five years, maybe even longer. So really cool to be able to catch up with him from Cowboys radio. All right. On Twitter, ALawRadio, on our Facebook page, too, you're sending us your mid-season awards in the NFL. Jay and I will give you a sneak peek into ours. Well, into our brains. Scary place in there. Don't stay very long.

And also a couple of notes from basketball, including one that I bet you aren't expecting, but it's worth mentioning. You are listening to the After Hours podcast. Odyssey. That's greenlight.com slash Odyssey.

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That's BetQL.com. They came over for the double team and Jokic burned them with the pass. Denver leads it by three. Reggie Jackson to win the game for Denver with three and a half seconds to go at ball arena. Needs this free throw to do just that. Rebound they could tie it up with the three. Paul over to Thompson got to shoot it. Oh it fell out of his hands at the horn and the Denver Nuggets sweep the five game home stand and remain undefeated at home.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Jason Kosmicki in mid-season form on Denver Nuggets radio. This was actually a doozy and it was a lot of fun. It went back and forth. There were a couple of different runs there in the fourth quarter and he didn't know who was going to win till the very end. Now the ball kind of rolled off of Klay Thompson's fingers. So yeah Reggie Jackson missed the free throw and they had an outlet pass to Klay who was streaking up the right side but never really got a good grip on the basketball. So Denver remains perfect at home and even on an off night for one Nicole Jokic. They are going to be without Jamal Murray for roughly a month so Reggie Jackson becomes very critical but also they'll be relying more on Jokic and that's a big deal too.

But they'll take it. They have the best record in the NBA now at eight and one. That national TV game the timeouts are forever.

I mean so you have a lot of time during the timeouts you can use to your advantage. Couldn't be more proud of our group. I mean I think eight and one is our record and we've played with a few other teams the most games in the NBA to this point. To be undefeated at home and to get off to the start that we've gotten off to is I couldn't be more proud of that group in there.

They've haven't used anything as an excuse or a crutch. We found a way to fight through it and you know not every win is going to be pretty. But you know we gutted this one out tonight against a very good team. So they kind of start in the opposite space as do the Warriors. Now you remember the road woes for the Warriors last year. They were awful on the road barely managed 10 road wins all of last season. That's among 41 games. So here they are. They've started out with it's like the NBA is saying go back and try again.

Go back to your room and think about what you've done. Their first seven of their first nine games excuse me are on the road and actually they're five and two even with the loss last night. So it's a good opportunity for them to kind of just figure out you know what they did wrong last year but also focus on playing basketball on the road.

So they like the start. Steve Kerr is actually happy despite the loss and I don't know but it certainly sounds like Steph is chalking this up to a moral victory. Do you feel as good as you could after a loss just knowing the steps we need to take and the defending champs like at home and the schedule that we've had. We have a competitive spirit and a togetherness that is nice to see develop this early in the season. Especially since it didn't really develop at all last season because of what happened between Draymond Green and Jordan Poole and the Warriors have hitched their wagon to Draymond star. I mean they're keeping this core together as long as they can. Steph, Klay, Dre that's been the winning formula for them so Jordan Poole had to go.

But they've seen different pieces. Chris Paul has come in. He's now coming off the bench for the first time in his career and yet it's working which is pretty neat to see. So in other words beware NBA. But yeah Nuggets have the best record in the West and well best record overall. The Sixers are 6-1.

6 straight wins so they dropped their season opener but now they've won 6th in a row. They hold off a furious late rally by the Celtics last night and with James Harden playing up the road in Brooklyn, Nick Nurse, he's pretty happy with the guys he's got. We've got an interesting team. So we've got an emerging young star in Tyrese. We've got an unbelievable, unbelievable player in Joel.

And we've got a lot of athletes that are pretty talented around them that give us some depth. Nick Nurse in Philadelphia is going to be fun. Him with those fans that are so different than Toronto Raptors fans, they're much more polite in Toronto. So now it's an opportunity for him to get gritty and do the gritty maybe with the Philadelphia 76ers.

His passion will match them though which I like. As for James Harden, back in Brooklyn got booed every time he touched the ball. The Clippers are now 0-4 on the road. But all I keep hearing about is the process. The process. The process. And Harden says well I'm still getting adjusted. Everything is still a little bit fast. Still trying to figure out, you know, the role of the situation.

You know, getting to the corners, catching the shoes. So I'll live it in a hole. You know what I mean? So no excuses. I've got to be better. But like I said, during the process we like to win games. Well here's an idea. How about don't skip training camp and preseason.

How about get in shape and then maybe the game won't be so fast for you. How about not throw a hissy fit every time you don't like the situation or you don't get the contract you want. Alright, stop me if you've heard this before. Let's go on to a happier topic, shall we? I hope you figure it out, Clippers.

For Tyloo's sake. Did you all see, and for those of you who are big time college basketball fans, maybe you did, but I was excited to watch Paige Beckers back on the court again on Wednesday night. So she's the player from UConn that was, well the national player of the year in 21, but then tore her ACL in August last summer. So they're getting closer to playing in a season and she tears her ACL and obviously she's out for the entire campaign with UConn. And so when she got back on the court last night, it had been 584 days.

No, I did not count, but that's the number that's out there. She only had eight points. She didn't shoot well, but she had a handful of rebounds and assists and she's a dynamic player. She's a game changer right along the lines of what you would expect from UConn elite. But I love what she said after the game. In my opinion, it was a bad game for me, but I'm grateful to have a bad game right now. How about that?

Your perspective is so different when what you love was stripped away from you. And we heard the same kind of stuff from Klay Thompson, our buddy Klay Thompson, who loves the show, you know. Jay will give you... We're listening to one of the best shows in America. What was that? Jay, what was that? That was something in the background. That shouldn't have happened. Oh, wow.

Did Jay just make a mistake? Huh. And yet you didn't use the dump button. I would have been really mad if you jumped that because I was making a great point about Klay. And I had it right there.

Yes, you did. So Klay Thompson, we can hear from him in a second. And actually, as I look up, he's on the free throw line.

Hi, Klay. Klay Thompson talked about the two dark years of rehabbing, first the torn ACL, then the blown Achilles, and how all he wanted to do was get back and play basketball. And as bad as it was initially, just everything he'd gone through, it was all worth it to get back on the basketball court.

And that perspective, especially when you're talking about elite athletes who are not used to sitting out. And in Paige Becker's game, it'll get better because she works really hard. She now recognizes that once it's gone, there's just nothing else like it. So I'm so happy for her that she's back. She was an All-American Player of the Year, critical for UConn.

Expect them to be, once she gets back in the flow, expect them to be a tour de force yet again. Are you ready? Do we have Klay now without some chick trying to talk over him?

This is Klay Thompson, four-time champion with the Golden State Warriors. You're listening to one of the best shows in America. Yeah! After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. What do you think about that? I'm not sure what's better, I have to decide. Either Klay Thompson calling this one of the best shows in America, or Kurt Warner accusing me of stealing his gig with Southern recipe small batch pork rinds and telling me he's going to try to steal it back. And also him telling Kevin Harlan that Amy's great.

I mean, come on now. Which one's better, Jay? Would you rather have a Hall of Fame quarterback say, Amy's great, or would you rather have Klay Thompson, one of the best shows in America? Both are great. Both are tremendous, actually. Tremendous.

It gives me major street cred with my family. Kurt on the air on Westwood on Monday Night Football saying Amy Lawrence is better at it than I am. That's pretty cool.

That's true. But also he said Amy's great. She's great. Amy's great.

I didn't even know he knew my name. She's better at it than I am, so. I need to do better, but she is.

I know. That was so fun. We get him on the air once a year, and we try to make the most of it with Kurt Warner. He's the best.

He's really funny on social, too. Earlier this week, maybe it was Sunday. I think I know what you're talking about. It was Sunday. Or maybe it was Saturday.

It was one of the days over the weekend. He posts on Twitter how he's bored. He's like, I'm bored. I can't do the game in Germany. I couldn't do this game, that game, because I've got to be in New York for Monday Night Football. He's like, I'm bored. Anybody have any questions?

I think I'll watch this video with this film. There was another one that I saw of him recently. I guess it goes back to last week with the World Series. I think it was for Game 4 or 3, one of them in Arizona. They had someone throw out the first pitch. I forgot exactly who it was, but Kurt was like, oh, I guess I'm not available.

Or I guess I'm not doing anything. Yeah, he's a hoot. I like him a lot. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Couple things on our show.

Twitter, After Hours, CBS, or on my Twitter, ALawRadio, and then our Facebook page, too. We're asking you mid-season NFL awards. We'll get to some of those coming up on our next show, even as we react to the start of Week 10.

But let's be honest. Panthers Bears isn't going to be a candidate for Game of the Week. Maybe it'll be the best damn game we've seen all season, but I wouldn't bet on it. And there are some doozies this weekend. You know, we could actually do a poll of worst game of the week. Not best game of the week, but worst game of the week. How about Jets and Raiders on Sunday Night Football?

Hmm. How about, well, Colts and Patriots. At least it's in Germany, so there's that. But, Jay, would you like to throw in Atlanta, Arizona?

Oof, that might take the cake. Kyler Murray is returning, so I guess there's a storyline there. At least there's something.

There is something. I'm hoping we get Houston, Cincinnati on national TV, because that would be awesome. I mean, Giants Cowboys is probably going to be ugly. It was 40-0 with Daniel Jones.

When they were healthy. OMG. By the way, we'll get to more of this on our Thursday night show, but Tennessee has made the change at quarterback to Will Leviss, and yesterday we heard from Ryan Tannehill for the first time about getting benched in favor of the rookie. Oh, it hits hard. I mean, never been in this situation before, so, you know, it hits hard. Never a situation that anyone wants to be in.

But it's a situation I'm in, so got to walk through it. Do you remember Tannehill making waves, not this past offseason, but the last one when Malik Willis was drafted, and he was asked about being a mentor, and he was like, that's not my job. My job is to be a starting quarterback. Oh, well, now maybe a different tone only because that's how he keeps his job. He's done some good things, obviously. He came in and played really well the first game, and did some good things the last game as well. So I'm going to be here to answer any questions he has and try to help him out along the way. He's been really good throughout this whole process with keeping the relationship professional while at the same time, like, helping me out how we can. But, you know, yesterday at practice, like, doing a good job of stepping in and letting me know that, you know, the reps even in the beginning of practice with the ones, like, you know, I just didn't want to step over him. But he came to me first to be like, hey, this is you.

So it was cool to hear that. Humility. Life comes at you fast in the NFL. Will Levis, yet another rookie quarterback who has assumed the position. This portion of the show brought to you by Wesley Financial. Stuck in a timeshare and want out?

Contact Wesley Financial Group now and get a free timeshare exit information kit at wesleyfinancialgroup.com. Jay, who's your MVP candidate? Candidates at midseason?

Candidates? I mean, I want to say Tyreek Hill, but he's probably not. I'll say Lamar Jackson. I'm going to go with Lamar Jackson.

Okay. I think he's been the most consistent quarterback so far this season. So why not Tyreek Hill, though? Just because I don't think they're going to give it to a non-quarterback. The league, I mean. Have you seen who's starting these days at quarterback in the NFL? I do, and I think Lamar has been the most consistent of that group, so that's why I think he's going to win it. I mean, it's midseason, so there's a lot that could happen. I say if Tyreek Hill gets to 2,000 yards, it's his. Just because it's history.

I agree. But have you noticed? A.J. Brown's already over 1,000 yards, too, so maybe he needs to be a dark horse candidate.

Because he very well could be. Could you imagine? It's never happened in the history of the NFL, and then in one year, two wide receivers go over 1,000 yards.

Yeah, that would be pretty incredible. So there are a couple of quarterback candidates out there. What about defensive player of the year? I'm going to go with Aiden Hutchinson.

The numbers might not be there, but the eye test, to me, tells it. I watch him play. He's just a stud and a motor on every single play.

A motor! I like that. Yeah, I mean, at this point, there are a bunch of different candidates, but did you know Danneel Hunter is leading the NFL in sacks, which is impressive, too. Offensive player of the year?

I'm going Christian McCaffrey. It might be easy, but the guy literally scores a touchdown every single game he plays in. Literally. Literally. Literally. All right, we're back tonight after week 10. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio. We'll be right back. We'll be right back.