1-2-24 After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 3

Nobody wants a surprise in their jelly donut.

It's toothpaste? That's because the middle is the most important part. At Graybar, we're at the middle of electrical and datacom jobs across the country. Connecting installers, facility managers, and business owners with smart solutions for their most challenging projects. Which means stocking and delivering crucial products on time and on budget with no surprises thanks to our nationwide logistics network.

Yep, Graybar does that. Hello listeners and welcome to the end of the year edition of the Hey Did You Know Podcast. So year end means holidays. Hey, did you know Americans eat 1.4 billion pounds of turkey every Thanksgiving? Well, year end also means the Hyundai getaway sales event. Hey, did you know it's the best deals of the season on Hyundai's most popular vehicles? Well, isn't that interesting?

And since we were talking turkey, hey, did you know only male turkeys gobble? Hey, did you know every new Hyundai comes with America's best warranty and three years or 36,000 miles of complimentary maintenance? Hey, did you know the Statue of Liberty is the largest holiday gift ever given? Hey, did you know when the year ends, so do the deals? December 30th is national bacon day, you know.

It's your journey. Own every mile at the Hyundai getaway sales event. Sign and drive a 2024 Hyundai Palisade with zero down, zero first month's payment, and zero security deposit. Now during the Hyundai getaway sales event. Offer ends January 2nd.

Call 562-314-4603 for details. No one's shooting a hostage. That's proverbial. That's not literal, but much more figurative. It's a metaphor, if you will, Mike Tomlin.

Oh, that was catastrophic, really. Fat and sassy and spoiled. Do we have sports fans in the country who are fat and sassy and spoiled? We want them to be fat and sassy and spoiled.

I don't know. It is our job. It might be your job, but certainly Steelers fans are not that right now. In fact, we get to this point where once again, the Steelers are on the cusp of a playoff spot, though they do not control their own path to the postseason. And even as Mike Tomlin has guided the Steelers to yet another season in which they will not have a losing record, in fact, could end up with the 10 wins, right? So the Bengals are officially eliminated from the playoffs. That happened with their loss to the Chiefs on Sunday. As I say, Steelers need help, but they do have the possibility of a 10-win season. They could end up 10-7. But as some Steelers fans have informed me, just because Mike Tomlin hasn't had a losing season doesn't mean he should remain the coach, or doesn't mean that it's successful.

I don't know. I can look around the NFL and think about all the other teams out there who would be thrilled just to be in position the way that the Steelers have been with these, what is it now, 16 consecutive seasons, which they haven't had a losing record. But a 10-win season is nothing to sneeze at. Those are not something I think that you can turn your nose up at if that's where the Steelers finish up, taking care of their own business. 17 is what Jay informs me. So I think Mike Tomlin, and we did hear the reports a couple of weeks ago that he'd been offered a contract extension by the Rooney family, but I think Mike Tomlin's deserved, or he's earned the right and he does deserve the chance to determine his own exit, barring any crazy unforeseen circumstances like poor decisions that reflect badly on the team or that just, that's not Mike Tomlin.

He's as professional as they come. But to sneeze at or turn your nose up at a 10-win season and still being part of the playoff equation into week 18 to me is silly. Again, I understand the expectations are high for the Steelers, but you got to be in the playoffs to have a chance to win a Super Bowl. And here they are yet again, could end up with a three-game winning streak. And this is despite an injured quarterback who may or may not be available to play next weekend, but won't be starting anyway. We'll get to that coming up on QB News in 15 minutes.

It's after hours with Amy Lawrence here on CBS Sports Radio. Producer Jay and I are finally back together. It seems like forever. He still has not given me any Christmas gift, which you know is unacceptable in this business. I'm just kidding. I have a good one.

It's worth the wait. I am so teasing. I don't care if you give me a Christmas gift. In fact, I did get a few really cool Christmas gifts from mom and her husband and a couple of others from my nieces and my brother's family. Got a couple of nice gifts from Bob, but if you missed it, Producer Jay, I opened up a gift on a gift on Christmas morning from my new husband and had no idea why he would give me this. In fact, I couldn't. I was a bit flummoxed by the whole thing.

Does he not really know me at all? Would you like to guess? You'll never guess because it's not something that you would ever give me or that anyone would ever give me. Is it like something you use daily? Something you use never.

Would it be intended to be used daily? No. Well, if you're a seven-year-old girl, maybe. Interesting. Yeah. Is it like a stuffed animal? Oh no, I love those. In fact, he gave my mom a stuffed squishmallow hippo for Christmas.

That's a good one. And yeah, it's really cute. She or her hand of the hippo, a squishmallow, she's purple, which was purple for our wedding. But also the fact that my mom loves hippos and the whole hippopotamus for Christmas and loves stuffed animals. I get it from her.

So I do have a few stuffed animals that I adore and he knows that, that they will remain on the bed and on the spare bed. So that's not what he got me. He got my mom that. So I opened up the box and he was so excited for me to open up this box.

You thought it was a can't miss. Right. Well, yes. But my reaction, he had to tell me why. So, okay. You're ready for this?

Yeah. I did tell the story last week, but I know our audience is very different. Plus you weren't around, which is why I have not told the wedding weekend story yet. Top 10 moments from wedding weekend.

We have to do that before the week is over. Here's what I opened up the box and saw, a Barbie doll. A Barbie doll? I swear it was a Barbie. But do you want to know which Barbie it is? Of course. See now you're smarter than me.

You'll figure it out. But I didn't see that right away. I just, I saw a Barbie and thought, what? It's kayaking Barbie. Did you know there's a kayaking Barbie? She does it all. Actually, I might give you a kayaking Barbie since you love kayaking. Take her with me.

Yeah. I do a lot of kayaking whenever I can. In fact, I think I went four or five times this year, the summer with friends and once out on Long Island, once in the Lancaster, Pennsylvania area, once in my own area in Western New Jersey, went up in the mountains and went kayaking.

So I did. In fact, we went kayaking on our mini moon as well on Lake Conroe in Texas. So I love to kayak, but didn't see right away that there was a kayak with the Barbie. Only just saw Barbie and thought, what? Why is he giving me a Barbie?

But right away he said, that's, what did he say? It's, oh, it's a sign or it's a promise. It's a promise of things to come in the spring. And then said to me, you'll get a real one in the spring. That's your Christmas present.

That's awesome. No, it's very awesome. And once I got it, I was thrilled. If you open it and you're like, oh, thanks.

You shouldn't have. Right. So anyway, that was kind of a funny moment. My mom got a really cool stuffed animal and I got a Barbie.

I could see the confusion at first. And do you remember on our last video version of asking me anything right before the year was done? Of course we answered wedding questions, pre-wedding questions, but we also answered some holiday questions. And you asked me for one listener, what am I getting Bob for Christmas? Correct.

Right. So my answer was a bicycle, which I will be getting him again, also in the spring, since both of us want these pieces of equipment for outdoor activities. But I also gave him, are you ready for this? This is the gift that I couldn't tell you about in the video, because I didn't want Bob to be, to be cheating and finding out because we have big plans to hike. And because he's big into hiking, I gave him spikes to put on his hiking shoes. Because last year, when I hiked the Grand Canyon with my friend Casey, we had to have spikes because the first mile was over snow and ice. And this is in April, right?

In mid-April. So we're planning on doing some hiking in the Northeast. And it felt like he would need some spikes for his hiking boots. That's perfect. I don't know if I mentioned this last week, but his oldest son got him these really fancy hiking poles.

Oh, you told me that, I think, off air. For Christmas. So now he is ready to go. The poles, spikes. Yeah. Now that you get to the, you hike to a lake and start kayaking, you're ready to rock.

Probably not the winter. Let's not do that. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. Our phone number is 855-212-4227. For CBS is how you can reach us here on the network as this is the first week of year 12 on CBS Sports Radio. And I was talking about it. My mom asked me how many people are left from the inception of the network, a fledgling radio network that went on the air January 1st, 2013. And I was thinking about it. Now, we had some part-timers who are now full-timers.

So if you count those, we're half a dozen, maybe. I'm the only original host who's been here the whole time. So Maggie, Maggie Gray, who is part of Maggie and Perloff, the show that follows me here on CBS Sports Radio, she was doing a Saturday morning show, but then she left and worked in local radio for a bunch of years before she and Perloff teamed up to do a show, I guess now starting two plus years ago. So Maggie was here, but then she was gone.

So she hasn't been here the whole time. Pete, who works on Maggie and Perloff, he's been part of the network as a producer and a technical director and now is a part-time manager as well. So Pete has been part of the network the whole time. We have a couple of producers like Mike Samter. You may know him from the Afternoon Show on CBS Sports Radio.

A lot of the producers also will crack the mic now and then. Andrew Bogusz has been here since the beginning. He does updates. I'm not sure if he's back this morning. In fact, I have no idea who worked on the holidays and who didn't because I was gone for quite a while.

I was actually gone from the area for 18 days. So Andrew Bogusz and then Rich Ackerman, for those of you who listen mid-days or even early afternoons on CBS Sports Radio, he also does updates and has done some hosting on the weekends. Who else? Tom DeCelestino was a part-timer with me on the weekends when I started and he's now a producer during, well he produces Writer, Writer Than You.

So there's another one. Billy was a part-timer when the network started, I think. Maybe Anthony, who's also a part-timer when the network started.

These are guys that work behind the scenes. David Shepherd, who hosts on the weekends, was here and then left and came back. But he was also here at the beginning, though not the whole time.

Gosh, there's not very many of us. Other than Jim Rome, who is really in a stratosphere all by himself, we don't generally count Jim Rome when we're doing headcounts just because, again, he's an entity in and of himself. But for the rest of us here, I mean, I think we're talking about six, maybe seven, that are left from January 1st, 2013. And I'm the only original host other than Jim.

Again, Jim just does what Jim wants to do. Man, think about the various iterations and changes here on the network since then. We had a newsroom, now we have no newsroom.

We used to have chairs, now we have a chair graveyard. Oh, here's the thing, though, the computers are still the same. Those haven't changed. Those haven't changed.

And probably won't. We were promised our own studio. Nope, still working out of the same studio.

Gosh, a kid, because I can. My congratulations to the other colleagues and co-workers who have shared this space over the last 11-plus years now, whether they're here anymore or they're gone, whether they were weekends or they were part-timers and now they're not, whether they started here and then left all played very vital roles in not just the network carving out its own niche, but establishing itself. And then, of course, our corporate partner is Westwood One, which we really appreciate.

A lot of different sponsors and business partners, people behind the scenes, not just producers, but also programming. So one of our bosses has been here since the beginning, or he's not my boss, but he is a manager. And then the two bosses who hired me, I always take an opportunity every year about this time to thank the two guys who not only came after me and pursued me when I was working at a previous network and let me know that they really wanted me to be here and to help kick off CBS Sports Radio, but they also encouraged me to be who I am. They didn't want to change me. They didn't want me to sound more like the guys in the business. They didn't tell me to do anything but be exactly who I am and to be comfortable and confident in who I am as a host. And it wasn't long before colleagues of mine in my previous network would reach out to me and after hearing me on the radio would say, wow, you sound so much more confident and comfortable.

You just sound like you're comfortable in your own skin. And that was because of Mark Chernoff and Eric Spitz, who are still in the business, just in different roles. Eric is with Sirius XM and Mark is now consulting. He's now in the Hall of Fame, actually the Radio Hall of Fame, but consulting and doing some on-air shifts in the music realm because that's his background.

He really enjoys it. So I miss them tremendously almost every day here in the office, but I will forever be grateful to them for not only giving me this opportunity, but giving me a soft place to land when I took the best leap of faith and made the best move of my career to join this startup network on January 1st, 2013. And it was scary because I picked up my entire life and started over in a place where I never wanted to be. New York City was never on my radar. As a girl who grew up in New England, I was familiar with New York.

I'd spent plenty of time in New York, but never had any desire to work here. And while we're not a New York station, we're a national network. In fact, we're an international network and we only rarely have New York as part of our listening audience. I know some people who are in the New York metro will listen on a New Jersey station or a Connecticut station. And many of you also listen with apps or on Sirius XM, so I'm not saying we don't have listeners from the New York metro, but only that that's not our focus.

We share studios here in lower Manhattan with our New York affiliate WFAN, but we're a national slash international network. So I never wanted to navigate the whole New York City commute and all that jazz, but gosh, now I know I can, if I can drive in this city, I can drive anywhere. In fact, between navigating New York City for 11 plus years and all the craziness that comes with driving in this city and driving on the other side of the road with a stick shift on the other side of the car in Ireland, I feel like I can do anything. There is no vehicle and nowhere I can't drive that vehicle.

I'm telling you, that was the weirdest experience of all time. Driving through, you want to talk about maddening traffic in Dublin, scary as heck. And not only was I driving on the other side of the road, so all of the patterns, like the way you look when you're turning and just all of that, the perspective is so different when you're driving on the outside. I would turn right into oncoming traffic, no doubt about it. So yeah, you're driving on the right side of the road, so you're driving in the right lane.

Well, whatever, it depends on your perspective, right? But you're driving, not only you're driving on the other side of the road, but you're driving on the other side of the car. So you're on the right side of the car, but where you're driving, I guess you're actually driving in the left-hand lane going forward, whatever, you know what I mean. But you're in the middle of the road, right, when you're driving, which is crazy. You're just not used to that a lot of times, or at least I'm not because I usually drive in the left-hand lane as a passing lane. It's very weird, but it was so much fun to get used to that.

And so between that and New York, there isn't any place I won't drive. I did not explain that well, just you drive on the other side of the road and on the opposite side of the car. So when you're shifting, you're shifting with your left hand. Now for lefties, that's no big deal, but for me, it was, yeah, I was driving a stick shift in Ireland and I was doing it, yeah, shifting with my left hand.

That's insane, thinking about it, just trying to do that without ever having to practice before. So the driver's side is on the right side of the car. Does that make more sense?

I didn't do a great job explaining it before. The driver's side is on the right side of the car, yeah. But when you're driving on a two-lane road, you're going forward on the left side.

So that means the driver's side is actually in the middle of the road, right? Does that make better sense? Okay. For those of you who are Irish or you're from the UK or you've spent time there, you know exactly what I'm talking about. It was surreal. Now try and do that in New York.

No, thank you. Don't let some people drive around here, I feel like they are. Yeah, probably are. Not to mention, you frequently smell weed or pot emanating from vehicles. I don't think I smell air. Yeah, it's true.

Oh, it's so gross. All right, on Twitter, A Law Radio, also on our Facebook page, coming up some QB news and then back half of the hour, Detroit head coach Dan Cable has turned a corner. He is, well, he's angry, but his fury is controlled, whatever that means.

We'll hear from him too. Oh, good stuff. Enjoy the sunlight. I know it's at night, but you know what I mean. I know it's at night, but... It's after hours with... Nobody wants a surprise in their jelly donut.

It's toothpaste? That's because the middle is the most important part. At Graybar, we're at the middle of electrical and datacom jobs across the country, connecting installers, facility managers, and business owners with smart solutions for their most challenging projects, which means stocking and delivering crucial products on time and on budget with no surprises, thanks to our nationwide logistics network.

Yep, Graybar does that. Hello, listeners, and welcome to the end of the year edition of the Hey Did You Know podcast. So year end means holidays. Hey, did you know Americans eat 1.4 billion pounds of turkey every Thanksgiving? Well, year end also means the Hyundai getaway sales event. Hey, did you know it's the best deals of the season on Hyundai's most popular vehicles? Well, isn't that interesting?

And since we were talking turkey, hey, did you know only male turkeys gobble? Hey, did you know every new Hyundai comes with America's best warranty and three years or 36,000 miles of complimentary maintenance? Hey, did you know the Statue of Liberty is the largest holiday gift ever given? Hey, did you know when the year ends, so do the deals? December 30th is National Bacon Day, you know.

It's your journey. Own every mile at the Hyundai getaway sales event. Sign and drive a 2024 Hyundai Palisade with zero down, zero first month's payment, and zero security deposit now during the Hyundai getaway sales event. Offer ends January 2nd. Call 562-314-4603 for details.

An Odyssey podcast available now on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. Overdraft fees are just the worst. Get up to $200 in fee-free overdraft with a Chime checking account. Sign up today at chime.com slash goals 24 banking services and debit card provided by the Bancorp Bank NA or Stride Bank NA members FDIC.

Spot me eligibility requirements and overdraft limits apply. Jimmy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio. You are listening to the After Hours podcast. All right, back to throw and it is.

Is it lost? Oh my goodness. DeAndre Hopkins called it. Back from under center. Steps back. Throws the fake. Cooper cuts guy. Touchdown L.A. Burrow back to throw.

Looking. Firing deeper. Chase in the end zone. He's got it. Touchdown. Joe Burrow and the Bengals. The Holmes fires for the end zone.

Taught. Touchdown. Kansas City. No, Herbert keeps it in zone. Touchdown charges. Herbert with his second of the day.

Here's the snap. Josh going to keep it himself and run it again inside the five into the end zone. Touchdown Buffalo. Josh Allen nine yard touchdown run.

The Bills respond and then some. It's time for QB News on After Hours. In Pittsburgh, there is still a chance that the Steelers make the playoffs and right now seems as though Mike Tomlin is most comfortable with a different quarterback than the one who started the season.

It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. Of course, we knew that second year quarterback Kenny Pickett was dealing with surgery on his ankle and it was going to be touch and go through the end of the regular season. As it turns out, he's about to get back on the field. I think Kenny's availability is less in question this week. I anticipate him being available to practice.

That being said, we're going to leave the ball in Mason Rudolph's hands. He's done a good job and we've done a good job in the most recent two weeks. Like I mentioned when we inserted him, he's got a great deal of confidence in himself and it is real. I think it's contagious. He's aggressive in style of play and I think that's helpful, particularly when you're up against it. The calculated risk taking associated with the pursuit of victory is important. I like how he says he's confident and it is real.

Like a Seinfeld sketch, they're real and spectacular. So Mason Rudolph replaced Mitch Trabisky going back to week 15. That was a loss against the Colts but then he took over the starting job against the Bengals and now the Steelers offense actually looks like it can move the ball and you would even call it productive. The last couple weeks, 32 points on average and more than 430 yards of offense per game. Now it's a smaller sample size but you can understand why Mike Tomlin is anxious to stick with the hot hand in Mason Rudolph.

Against the Seahawks, which was a victory the Steelers had to have to stay alive for the playoffs, he was 18 of 24, 274 yards, no interceptions. And so Mike Tomlin is saying right now we gotta dance with the one who got us here and if they can win against Baltimore on Sunday, now we don't know what type of strategy the Ravens will employ with their starters, but if the Steelers beat Baltimore, the road becomes, did I say Sunday? It's actually a Saturday game, becomes decidedly easier though they do still need help from other teams.

Right now they're sitting in the nine spot. What does this mean for Kenny Pickett? That's the question for Mike Tomlin moving forward. I know Kenny is very capable and particularly as it pertains to this matchup, Kenny has led us to victory late in the game the last two times we played Baltimore and so we feel like we got two capable guys. We'll proceed into the week the same way that we did last week but just knowing that his availability is less in question. So it's not about health is what Mike Tomlin is saying and yes the Steelers this weekend taking on the Baltimore Ravens who've already clinched the top seed and have the best record in the NFL.

It's like reality television. It's after hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio, a little QB news to even whet your appetite before we go into the final weekend of the NFL regular season. Lots of questions surrounding the AFC South which we'll talk about here momentarily because you've got the Jaguars, the Colts and the Texans all sitting at nine and seven. Jaguars trying to defend their division crown but will they have Trevor Lawrence available on Sunday? He is progressing. He was in today getting his treatment and rehab all that. We'll see. It's kind of day-to-day right now so we'll see how he is on Wednesday.

See you know what his limitations or whatever might be but he is definitely you know improving. He does have a sprained shoulder muscle or sprained AC joint and so he wasn't able to play against Carolina. CJ Beathard actually led the Jaguars to victory against the Panthers. Now becomes decidedly more challenging without Trevor Lawrence in week 18 just simply because of the fact that you know they still while they've had back-to-back winning seasons for the first time in gosh nearly 20 years. They have to beat the Titans coming up this weekend so they have to win to claim another AFC South title and so you're much more comfortable with Trevor Lawrence out there. Not that CJ isn't an NFL veteran but Trevor Lawrence gives you the best chance to win when healthy. The same could be said for the leaders of the NFC South.

If the Buccaneers can win in week 18 they are the champions repeat champions of the division. So Baker Mayfield they love him already there in Tampa Bay or Tampa and Todd Bowles was also fielding questions about the status of his quarterback for week 18. He'll be ready to go on Sunday.

Short and sweet succinct if you will. Yeah right now he took a pop to the ribs so he's sore but according to Todd Bowles he is ready to go for week 18 or he will be ready to go. Yeah Tyrone Matthew the honey badger gave him a nice little pop in the ribs so the two-point conversion try was late and the Buccaneers did not play well. The offense was very disjointed in week 17. Today we suck today it was awful.

Yeah and he was wincing in pain just when his teammates were hugging him. He didn't leave the game but he was kneeling down and he tried to catch his breath because of the pain and he really was moving gingerly like an old man if you will during the postgame locker room media availability but according to Todd Bowles he will be out there. Now here's the thing if the the Baker Mayfield Buccaneers can beat the Panthers in week 18 they are the champions of the NFC South it's must win for them. If they do not win well then the winner of the Saints don't tell me Saints Falcons game ends up as the champions of the NFC South. How about that one of those teams is going to end up in the playoffs right now they're the Bucks and Saints are eight and eight the Falcons are seven and nine this could be right before Arthur Smith gets fired that's really the the rumor out there that the Atlanta head coach isn't going to survive another year and I'm not I don't it's not all on him it's not that simple but it feels very stagnant there in Atlanta yet again so yeah the NFC South and the AFC South can still be won by three different teams how about that and there's just the one playoff position available in each of those divisions it's after hours here on CBS Sports Radio all right speaking of being out of the playoff picture looking in because of course the majority of those teams we just talked about will be the Broncos have seen their playoff drought extended right so it'll be eight years not since Super Bowl 50 which they won with Peyton Manning and DeMarcus Ware now Hall of Famers I mean that's how long it's been those two guys are now in the Hall of Fame for multiple years Broncos did not have a losing season in fact have a chance to be a winning team if they can finish with a victory and go nine and eight but it will not be Russell Wilson at the helm Sean Payton confirming on Monday that Jared Stidham will remain the starting quarterback now they they beat the Chargers over the weekend it's not like the offense was great but Jared didn't turn the ball over so congratulations to him he's now going to double you next to his name but the question was asked of Sean Payton whether or not this is Jared's audition for 2024. We're constantly evaluating how they play and then it would it would definitely carry over to how we feel about next year relative to their role um but but the answer would be yes I mean I think these are important snaps and games for him in other words we're not telling you a darn thing you're on a need to know basis and you don't need to know it's weird though because part of the quarterback equation is not just the devil you know but the devil you don't know is how I put it if you don't have Russell Wilson and I'm not sure if they're going to find a trade partner I think that's highly unlikely this reminds me again of the Derek Carr situation last year with the Raiders although he had a no trade clause and didn't want to waive it he wanted to pick his next destination well in the case of Russell Wilson the Broncos would love to trade him because then theoretically they wouldn't be picking up all that salary or the cap it wouldn't be nearly as significant but there isn't a team who's going to want to take on that contract even if they want Russell Wilson they don't want that contract and so instead he's likely to get released in early March if not before well the whole thing is crazy because all right I get it Russ hasn't been the guy they paid for but the free agent crop is eh it's meh are the Broncos drafting high enough to get one of the top quarterbacks in the first round probably not unless they move up so Jarrett's to them that's how you end your playoff drought if you haven't heard it Russell Wilson essentially put the team on blast going back to last Friday the microphones were in front of his face after the news broke that he got benched on Wednesday he told his side of the story he confirmed the reports out there about what the Broncos asked him to do they came up to me during the bye week and began the bye week on Monday or Tuesday and they told me that if I didn't change my contract my injury guaranteed that I'd be you know that I'd be benched for the rest of the year and for I don't know I think we had nine games left to show I was definitely disappointed about it and it was a process throughout the whole week for a whole bye week and you know it was you know we just came off beating the Chiefs played a pretty good game as the Chiefs we just came off of that so I was excited obviously for us fighting for the playoffs and get on a hot streak and you know and then you know NFL PA and NFL got involved or whatever I think but at some point as the reports go he was so taken aback after the big victory over the Chiefs not only was he not going to accept renegotiation to his contract or interchange his injury guarantees but he couldn't believe the team was asking him and actually threatening to bench him at that point in the season of course the Broncos go on to win five in a row in six of seven which meant that they were right there in the playoff picture ultimately they don't make it even if they end up with a winning record but for the front office and for Sean Payton what they most wanted to do was protect him meaning they didn't want him to get injured right so it's it's always about the bottom line but I said this last week and I'll say it again if what you're trying to do is end a playoff drought finish the season with a winning record put your team back on the right path after you know a few years well it's been eight years now of just emptiness then undermining your quarterback by threatening to bench him is a counterproductive strategy how in the world does that help your quarterback if you threaten to bench him in the first half of the season for no other reason then you don't like the contract you gave him you gave him the contract you signed the contract he signed the contract so you're going to threaten to bench him because he won't change the contract that you gave him how often do we hear football fans say oh that athlete signed the contract he should have to play under it well in this case the Broncos gave Russell Wilson that contract and until he's no longer one of their employees they should have to abide by it to ask him to change a contract that you agreed to in the middle of the season or he's going to get benched is just it's ridiculous and I'm glad the Broncos got outed I'm glad that Russell Wilson and reporters told the world what they were doing talk about completely undermining and sabotaging your own QB all right on Twitter a law radio also on our Facebook page after hours with Amy Lawrence good to hang out with you coming up the Miami Dolphins find themselves in a fight for the AFC East and again with the two south divisions it's a little nutso but not just that the Packers are in exactly the same position as they were a year ago which is ironic to me we'll set you up just a little bit of preliminary setup for week 18 but in addition Dan Campbell's got a new perspective it's called controlled fury I swear to god I'm not a lunatic you are listening to the after-hours podcast golf takes turns fakes the gift the Montgomery sets the pocket throws it's a wide open it is caught Taylor Decker two points oh my goodness are you kidding me Ben Johnson Ben Johnson Ben Johnson oh baby Jared Goff to Taylor Decker the lions at the lead what a play what a playbook this is after hours with Amy Lawrence nothing wrong with the play necessarily we love Dan Miller here on CBS Sports Radio the play-by-play voice of the Detroit Lions losing his mind over what was theoretically a successful two-point conversion against the Dallas Cowboys they decide not to go for the PAT and the tie instead wanting to go for the win and on the first attempt well they get in oh my goodness are you kidding me Taylor Decker an offensive lineman was supposed to tell the official that he was an eligible receiver he was supposed to report as an eligible receiver why do they do that well because the NFL mandates that if you're an offensive lineman and generally you don't get to receive the football that's why we get all excited about big man touchdowns you have to report because it's only fair to the defense if the defense doesn't know that you're an eligible receiver when the defense isn't likely to guard against you receiving a pass so the NFL rules stipulate that if you are going to be eligible you have to report and the officials then communicate that to the opposing defense it's after hours with Amy Lawrence here on CBS Sports Radio now the confusion comes in because as you've seen on video there are multiple offensive linemen that go over to the officials the the Lions say that they only had Decker report well and you can only have one guy report as eligible if he's not an actual receiver and so the Lions say that Decker reported the official though thought it was his teammate who reported I've heard a lot of different analysis of this moment obviously Dan Campbell thinks that the officials got it wrong that particular officiating crew actually missed a tripping call that the NFL flagged on the the Dallas drive before so they charged Dallas with the penalty instead of Detroit so there were multiple mistakes in this case though according to former head of officials Dean Blandino this is a joint effort or it should be a joint effort when it comes to making sure that everybody's on the same page about the eligible receiver when 70 is coming out as if he's going to report then Brad Allen is assuming okay 70 you're reporting he's got 58 and 68 in front of him look responsibility the players have to write normally that's a swipe I'm eligible so there's some responsibility on the players but there's also a responsibility on the referee it's a two-point try for the game there's no reason to rush slow it down make sure hey who's eligible who isn't you go to the defense you let the defense know and maybe we could have avoided some of this so what the officials have you've got Taylor Decker on the end of the line that's an eligible position they throw him a pass he has to report Penay Sewell was on the other end of the line he also has to report if neither of them report then you've got an illegal formation Decker goes down field that's ineligible down field and then if he catches the pass that's illegal touching so they had 70 reporting not 58 and 68 and that was the issue right so the issue is that however it got lost in translation it's not like the official did this on purpose of course but however it got lost in translation either he heard the wrong guy reporting or didn't hear anything and just saw the number in front of him remember this is AT&T stadium it's really loud the Lions are trying to go for the win in hostile territory something gets lost like a game of telephone where it gets changed before it gets to its actual target the actual receiver and so here's what I've heard from former front office execs and actually the NFL is now accusing the lions of being deceitful by sending two guys over to the official to not only confuse the Cowboys but to try to pull a fast one before the Cowboys could get organized and so by sending two guys over and that's what I've heard from some former front office execs is that it's unheard of to send two guys why are you sending two guys over there only one guy can report now according to Dean Campbell he had spoken to the officials ahead of time interesting to hear what Mike McCarthy has to say about communicating with the officials ahead of time and letting them know what you're planning to do I've always been very open and and feel like you you know sometimes may tell them too much you know and I've also felt that sometimes you talk about things in the pregame and they end up calling on your team too so yeah be careful what you say because if you call the officials attention to a particular moment or a particular situation it may end up backfiring as for Dan Campbell he's moving on now I'm good I woke up yesterday I'm ready man I've got controlled fury and I'm ready to go I am I'm absolutely ready to go I don't go the other way so and the team won't either we're on a mission and we're not going to we're going to feel sorry for ourselves and Walter and everything we had plays to make we didn't make them and it's a tight game a good opponent playoff type atmosphere and you got to make that that one extra play that we didn't and so we will use this as fuel I got pure octane right now I woke up I'm ready so we're moving forward what just happened man we were in it we're in a tight tight game had a chance to win it we weren't able to and so now you you know what that's like you know what that feels like and you can't let that opportunity slip man you don't know when that play is going to be made could be the first quarter second quarter right before halftime so that's why that's why he also goes on to say the nfl is not out to get anybody the nfl is not out to get the lions um honestly I feel like if the first two times you get flagged for penalties just go for the pat I mean maybe that's an indication that this is not your two-point conversion anyway and I said this last night no game ever comes down to one play one snap one call one miss call one moment that's it's that's far too myopic there's no way that these guys can't look at the body of the game the whole thing and say oh there's a missed opportunity how about jared golf don't throw an interception in the final four minutes of the game that leads to the cowboys tacking on an extra field goal yeah the lines of the cowboys determine this not the officials it's after hours cbs sports radio says here that graybar is a distributor yeah we support electrical and datacom projects all over the country so you can get me the products I need where and when I need them yeah thanks to our national logistics network any industry yeah construction industrial plants schools hospitals so you could say graybar is much more than a distributor yeah you could say that when you need a hand powering connecting or maintaining your operations doing the thousands of professionals rely on graybar to help keep them up and running yeah graybar does that hello listeners and welcome to the end of the year edition of the hey did you know podcast so year end means holidays hey did you know americans eat 1.4 billion pounds of turkey every thanksgiving well year end also means the hunday getaway sales event hey did you know it's the best deals of the season on hunday's most popular vehicles well isn't that interesting and since we're talking turkey hey did you know only male turkeys gobble hey did you know every new hunday comes with america's best warranty and three years or 36 000 miles of complimentary maintenance hey did you know the statue of liberty is the largest holiday gift ever given hey did you know when the year ends so do the deals december 30th is national bacon day you know it's your journey own every mile at the hunday getaway sales event sign and drive a 2024 hunday palisade with zero down zero first month's payment and zero security deposit now during the hunday getaway sales event offer ends january 2nd call 562-314-4603 for details i'm tony kornheiser and this is my show my friends come on and you know them we talk about the sports you care about football now basketball too though we don't really pay attention until later in the year and the absurdity that is our lives line etiquette at your local pharmacy the current phase of the moon the importance of talking to a human being on the phone and most importantly the power of a box of that listen on the odyssey apple wherever you get your podcast