After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 3

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No long-term commitments or contracts. That's stamps.com code PROGRAM. I'm not a big conspiracy theorist. Sometimes I wonder though, if we really knew everything about everything, would we be astounded to know how we're being led around by the nose? Noses, I guess. We don't all share one nose. How we're being led around by the noses. And so every now and then I can get, I can get immersed in a good conspiracy theory. No, I'm not going to give you an example.

Not, not going to wade into that cesspool. But it is fun every now and then to encounter someone who's big into conspiracy theories and how they can get so deep into them that they see the world through completely different eyes and nothing is authentic and nothing is real and nothing is as it seems. Everything is just a sham and a show. I ran into one of those heavy conspiracy theorists in Texas as I was celebrating the holidays with Bob's extended family. I ran like the hills. This family member tried to rope me and I'm like, no, I'm out. Have you ever like gone into a wormhole of a conspiracy theory, any, any given one, and like gotten so deep and you don't believe it, you know, it's not true, but you're like, maybe.

No, stop it. The ones that blow me away are the ones that are based on people not believing history because they didn't know, or they, they didn't see it with their own eyes, right? They didn't know what happened because they weren't alive or they, they didn't witness it themselves and so they don't believe it. Did you know there's an entire faction of people out there who do not believe that Titanic is real? They just think it's a movie. Forget the fact that there are, were, as recently as a few years ago, people that were still, that had been part of the Titanic or that, obviously there's still people that remember.

Artifacts all over. Yeah, just, I mean, I mean, yeah, that's crazy. But I didn't see it didn't happen. Right. So anyway, I'm not a big conspiracy theorist. Generally, how could you possibly say that?

Don't even want to hear that most of the time, but there are some that are really amusing and people when they believe them and they're passionate and convicted now, and then I can think, huh, what if I'm just wrong and everything you think you know is completely inaccurate and you are in fact being duped. Is that a conspiracy in itself? By the powers that be. A conspiracy to make you believe you're being duped. Maybe this is not real. Our sports radio is actually controlled by the Chinese and it's not real.

Would it surprise me at this point? I can't even come up with a good conspiracy theorist theory. I'm not, that's just not my area of expertise, but I do believe that Facebook is selling our information to the Chinese and that the Chinese are behind TikTok and they're spying on you. And that Alexa is always spying on you as is, what's the other one? Siri.

Yeah. Well, I told you it happened to me recently where I was just having a conversation with my family, didn't enter anything on Twitter, nothing on my internet browser. I forgot exactly what it was, but there it is. I go on Twitter, on Instagram the next time. TSA pre-check. I don't think it was that, but I have been looking at that, so that'll probably pop up soon too.

Or like airline trips because I'm looking at those too, like Expedia, Kayak, all that stuff. But how does it happen in here? Because sometimes you and I are, maybe it's because our phones are listening. That's what I'm saying, where I'm not even typing anything in and it just hears, like it's just, I'm just having a conversation with like my dad or my sister and there it is. It's an ad for what exactly we were talking about.

That's scary. Happens all the time. Because it does happen when you and I are having conversations that I'll then go into a browser, open up a particular site, and there are ads for that product or at least something that's related to what we were talking about. Always.

Just because my phone is sitting here listening to me. Coffee creamer, Twinkie coffee creamer. Now you're going to get it after coffee creamer. If they can tell us where to find it again, I'd be really happy about that.

It could be used for good if they wanted it to, but. So funny. So I'll tell you this. When I was searching for a wedding dress, before I found a wedding dress, I was looking for styles online. And this happens with Google. You can look on one computer and when you are logged into another computer and Google figures out that it's you based on your email or whatever else is happening. Well, then you see the ads that are related to your searches elsewhere. And so I would search for wedding dresses and wedding dress styles on my home computer where my email was open.

And then I would come into work and I would log into my Gmail because now our work email is Gmail. I would log into our Gmail and there would be wedding dress ads and pictures all over the site. And I'm thinking, oh, I wonder if when the guys come in and they search on Google if they're going to see all of these wedding dress photos pop up or if they're going to be all over whatever, whatever, cbssports.com website that I use and they're going to wonder who the heck. And then my immediate next thought was, well, of course they're going to know who it is because who else would be searching for wedding dresses? So that was kind of funny.

It was all over our work computer when I was looking, going back to last summer. So they're following us, following us, spying on us, keeping tabs on us, tracking us, our every move. See, I don't think listening to our every word. This is just like fact is fact.

It is. I don't think there's a whole lot of people that would dispute that phones are in fact used as listening devices. We just go back to landlines. I still have a landline. Do you? I wish I did.

Uh huh. I use it for interviews when people ask me to do interviews on their shows. And the reason I have it is because going back to my conversations with Grammy Helen, because of her hearing aids, she really had interference on a cell phone.

She couldn't hear very well. When I call her on a cell phone, I'd have to yell and she just couldn't get the whole thing. And so instead I kept a landline for that reason, but also it's a clearer signal. So I generally do like to use it for my interviews that I do. And I give it the number out to companies when they ask me for a number.

Smart, very smart. It does not have an answering machine on it. So the phone will just ring and half the time the phone's unplugged anyway. I don't always use it, right?

So it's not even, I guess I could get rid of it and it wouldn't be that big of a deal. Because I don't really use it a lot, especially now that Grammy is gone. I really, for the most part, use my cell phone anyway. So you're not just home and it'll just ring and you'll be, oh, who's that? When it's plugged in, it will just ring. And since there's no voicemail or message answering machine on it, it just keeps ringing until the people hang up. It doesn't ever stop ringing. So that can be kind of annoying. So actually I've been thinking about getting rid of it anyway, just because it's about 25 bucks a month and I like to start out the new year with trimming expenses where I can.

So yeah, I probably could get rid of it, but I still have one. Do you remember answering phones before you knew who it was? Because I know you know this about me. I don't answer the phone call, but I don't know who it is.

I don't either. On my cell, if I don't know the number, if your number is not saved into my phone, then that means I don't need to pick up on the first ring. Now there are a couple businesses that I recognize their numbers now.

For instance, the vet where I've been taking Penny for the last 11 years. I know their number by heart. They call me, I call them. I know everybody who works at the front desk.

I know all the doctors. Yeah. So there are some businesses that I know, but for the most part, I don't answer any number that I don't recognize or that isn't saved into my phone. Because if it's so important, they'll either call back again right away or another time or text you saying, hey, it's blank, blank. You don't have voicemail. No. So people can't leave you a message.

No. You'd have to text me and say, it's me trying to reach you or pick up now it's me. But if I don't know who it is. Pick up now it's me. But if you don't know the number saved, then you wouldn't know who that person is anyway. Pick up now it's me. And it's a number you don't recognize.

Would you actually pick it up? They'd have to say like their name. Like I need a first and last name before I'd say, or if it was like, Hey, pick up it's bill. I'd be, Hmm, bill who I wouldn't just call back. I go, okay, it's bill.

So it gives me some clarification. You know, what happened so many times around the wedding and even after the fact as congratulations numbers that I didn't recognize sending me, Hey, congrats in order. I heard you're getting married. That's so awesome. I'm so happy for you.

And in some cases they were the nicest messages. I'm unbelievably happy and proud for you. I know you've waited a long time.

What a great celebration it will be. And I had no clue who the person was happy for our friendship. Exactly. Well, no, I wouldn't go that far, but yes, I was thinking, Holy cow, it's people that are probably from work, right? That not this particular work, but previous jobs and former colleagues who are reaching out to me and I don't have their numbers saved because I don't use them on a regular basis. And plus I remember I had the phone death two summers ago. I lost a lot of numbers there.

So there's people that I'm sure. So I had to write back with a generic type of response. Thank you so much. Thank you for sharing. I think my standard was thank you so much for sharing my joy and excitement. That was pretty much.

Yeah. And in some cases they would write back and in some cases they weren't some cases I could figure out who they were eventually, but in some cases I couldn't. So I just went with thank you. That's a tough situation because you can't ask, right? If someone reaches out, who are you? By the way, I don't have your number. Or you can say maybe new phone, just now you can't new phone who dis right.

If you want to pull one of those. Okay. I feel like I can't do that because if they're reaching me with my number, then how do you say I have no idea who this is? You can't.

Yeah, there's really no coming back. You have to just kind of fake and be like, Oh, like you did just, that's a, that was a perfect answer. I've been in that situation on birthdays. Oh really? People text you.

You don't know who they are. Not often, but it was one I remember specifically. It was like a very nice message. It was happy birthday. Like hope you have the greatest day. Oh, how do you, how do you respond?

That's crazy. Uh, something else though that happened is, well, at another time that it happened in my life is when Grammy passed away and I heard from even more numbers that I didn't recognize. Um, and hopefully they would identify themselves. See if it's me and I think the person might not know my number, I will say Amy or this is Amy. Uh, but if it's someone who, who is sure that you know who they are, then of course they're not going to identify themselves. Oh my gosh.

Yeah. So if we get a number, let's pretend it's Nick Saban and thanks Nick. Or imagine how many people he's getting texting him now, numbers that he does not know because in the war and the world of sports, especially high profile, an agent can get a number from another agent. And so players, athletes, coaches, celebrities, entertainers, that's how they reach each other is agents can get a hold of other agents.

If you know who Nick Saban's agent is, or you know who blah, blah, blah his agent is, well then you can generally get ahold of them that route. That's how it happens a lot of the time. And so it's a little bit different because if let's say it's Tom Brady reach, they probably have each other's numbers saved, but it's Tom Brady reaching out to Nick Saban. Well, then it's likely that they were connected via friends or agents.

Yeah. So I was watching a Brooklyn Nets game recently and the pregame, they had this like this feature of, and they asked everyone on the team, how many messages on their phone they had left on red and minimum, like the lowest number of player had was 230. It was, everyone was like, Oh no, 800,000, 2,900. They all just have all these messages that they, this was the Brooklyn Nets. It was, they asked every player on the team.

It was just kind of like a pregame, like, you know, just like a segment, like a funny thing. And they just asked, Oh, how many messages do you have on red on your phone? And all of them were like, Oh my gosh, 800, not that many. The guy says a thousand. How many do you have unread on your phone?

Zero. Me too. I guess I'm not that popular, which actually that makes me want to break out in hives to think about a thousand messages I haven't read.

Imagine just getting blown up like that. No wonder you don't hear back from people when you text them sometimes. No, I can't imagine. I have a hard enough time just keeping up with the people that I know personally, as well as some colleagues. And I was just saying that to my mom on Wednesday. I'm struggling just to figure out when to text and call like I used to be able to, but now with another peep in the house, I can't do that as much.

And I feel like I need my attention to be on what's right in front of me. So it's very different. Even now, a thousand, I might throw the phone away. Just throw it in the pool somewhere.

I forgot the plan. Some of them were like 6,000. They just get messages and don't even, they just don't look at them.

I guess it's just kind of at this point they just come and I don't know. And if it's a number they don't recognize and they definitely aren't going to read it. If they're not reading the majority of their messages anyway, who gets 6,000 messages? I don't know.

Blew my mind. How could you navigate that? Even if you do read some of them, how can you like navigate all of those threads? Right. Up and down your scroll of text messages and find the ones that are important.

I guess you favorite all of those? I guess. I mean, why do you even have a phone?

It's not going to answer any of the messages anyone ever sends you. Wow. That's crazy. Ben says there are people who think birds aren't real. They're government drones to spy on us. Heard that. Stop it. Pigeons really specifically I think is the big one. There are a lot of pigeons out there they could easily blend in. Wow.

I'd never heard that one before. See this is not, it's not healthy. It's not healthy to believe that you're being spied on all the time. I hope birds aren't drones.

Yeah. I like birds. I have a bunch of birds in my backyard. Cardinals, Blue Jays, all kinds of morning doves and why in the world would it, no.

Why would they be spying on me? They're not. It's not.

They're not. Not yet. Micah Parsons. He's got a new MVP choice because he likes to change his mind and it's okay. Also, his keys to victory against the Packers and why he believes his season was at least a little disappointing which is crazy, right? It's after hours with Amy Lawrence on Facebook with Nick Saban retiring. Is that a more attractive job than any of the NFL openings? And bottom of the hour we'll hear from one of Nick Saban's former QBs. His reaction to his coach finally stepping away at 72 years old. College football will not be the same. It's after hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio.

You are listening to the After Hours Podcast. You never want to start losing confidence in your teammates and your coaches around this time. This is when you're supposed to come together. You're supposed to build your team chemistry. You're supposed to lock in just a little bit more because you know how important playoffs is.

You know how important everyone needs to be locked in. This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Micah Parsons doesn't hold back on his podcast called The Edge with Micah Parsons and in his last episode before week 18. So coming out of their win in which they had put them so another loss by the Eagles, another win for the Cowboys in week 17 and they were then in position to claim the NFC East with another victory in week 18. So he did that podcast after the victory over the Lions. The one with the controversial ending. Who reported? Who didn't report?

By the way, did you guys see last weekend? I bet Lions fans did. That every single play almost Dan Campbell had an offensive lineman reporting in as eligible just to be a total goof.

I've got control fury. And that's how he channeled it. He made a joke of reporting his offensive lineman.

Anyway, I digress. So Micah Parsons was talking about going into this time of the year January with everything you want on the horizon and he was really talking about how the Eagles had been backpedaling and were not playing their best football. Well, winning the NFC East it was a product of not just the Eagles sinking but the Cowboys surging. Obviously that's a big win becoming number two seed and being able to play at home. People know how well we've been able to play at home. So I think that's very important for the Dallas Cowboys and very important to obviously the energy.

Everything changed. Everyone's like, Oh, we're home. We get to play at home for at least two games. Obviously if we win on Sunday, hopefully we win. Y'all know how much is important.

Green Bay Dallas doesn't get any bigger, but we're going to get into that later to show. But let's just wrap it up. Got my 14th sack of the season. Big career high for me. I said I wasn't going to be a 13 guy no more.

Just speaking to existence, I thought I was going to be a 17, 18 guy, but we won't get into that. We all know we could have, should have, would have, but we have 14 this year. Obviously next year we're trying to go bigger and better and just keep raising the bar every year. Raising the bar, raising the bar, raising the bar. TJ Watt ended up with 19 sacks this season to lead the NFL, but he will not be available to play for the Steelers against the Bills on Sunday.

So there's a blow. Behind him, Trey Hendrickson of the Bengals and Josh Allen, the other one, of the Jaguars were at 17 and a half and Khalil Mack of the Chargers. Who knew? Quite as 17 sacks in the history of the NFL. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence here on CBS Sports Radio. Micah goes on to talk about Sunday afternoon and this victory.

No, I'm not speaking to existence. Sorry. This, this battle, this challenge against the Packers. It's going to be super, super, super dope matchup.

Super exciting. I mean, man, oh man, this is going to be a close one. Uh, this is going to be a good one at that, but we're at home. Uh, man, it's going to be a great game.

Uh, I can't wait. Uh, obviously we'll afford one of the best coaches. Um, and you know, Mike McCarthy's one of the best coaches is going to be, it's going to be a heated matchup on Sunday. Great game. And obviously they got agent Aaron Jones and Dylan, AJ Dylan. I mean, super great matchup. Can't wait to play out there Sunday. Super, super, super dope.

Is that what he said? There were four supers, super, super, super. Oh, that's three super, super, super dope. It's going to be super, super, super dope matchup.

Super, super, super dope. I like it. He cracks me up.

All right. We've been asking and he finally answered again, the bell about the MVP. Now he had flip-flopped first. I think the first time I heard him talk about it was going back mid season. Maybe when he said Dak Prescott should be the MVP. Then he switched to Tyree kill at some point and Tyree kill should be the MVP. Then he decided Lamar Jackson should be the MVP.

Well, now that the regular season is over, Micah, who you got? Oh, Dak Prescott called his shot, said he wasn't gonna have 10 pigs, but not only did he not have 10 pigs, but he led the league in touchdowns. He's my vote for MVP. He had a hell of a year passing rating, completion percentage. I mean, Dak, he just had a terrific year. Couldn't be more proud of him. It was the bounce back year. A lot of people, he dealt with the hand injury, probably rushed back earlier than he had to midway through the season last year, just trying to get rid of them things. But he made no excuses.

He made no excuses. He just got better. I knew it was going to be a special year for Dak coming into training camp.

I know y'all saw the training camp. When Dak's talking trash bag, everything's intense between Trayvon and Dak. And Dak just had that swagger, man. He had that composure. He said, I'm gonna keep getting better. I'm gonna keep going. And man, number four, hell of a year, brother. I actually agree with Micah Parsons.

Crazy enough. I know this is not going to be a popular opinion and I'm okay with that. They finished up with the NFC East title, 12 wins. Now the Ravens finished up with 13. So I understand why Lamar Jackson would get a bunch of nods and, and the way that he plays. But Dak is no less valuable to the Cowboys than Lamar is to the Ravens. Both teams are division champs.

The Ravens have one more win, yes, but he didn't play in week 18. And I understand why. I do get it. You don't want him to get hurt.

That makes perfect sense to me. But if we're going on stats as a way to measure value and potentially split hairs between the two, Dak Prescott is a guy who just had his best season as a pro. And as Micah points out on the edge with Micah Parsons, he led the league in touchdown passes, 36 to go along with only nine interceptions. His QB rating is 36 to go along with only nine interceptions.

And he's going to be the best season of the year. He led the league in touchdown passes, 36 to go along with only nine interceptions. His QB rating was just shy of 106.

Let me see if I can find Lamar's. Lamar's was 103. Lamar had 12 fewer touchdown passes, but of course he had, I have to look at the rushing. Will you see if you can figure out how many rushing touchdowns Lamar Jackson had?

Lamar didn't have two fewer interceptions. Completion rate for Lamar, 67 percent. For Dak, 69 and a half percent. 4,500 yards for Dak. About 3,700 yards for Lamar, though again Lamar using his feet as well. Let's see, looking for rushing, rushing, rushing. Only five rushing touchdowns, huh?

Again, the stats don't tell the whole story, so I'm not saying you should base it just on stats. But he didn't have nearly as much real estate to rush this year. And Dak Prescott, he raised his level of play.

Yes, Lamar Jackson is extremely valuable. One of the best combos in the league though, quarterback wide receiver, is Dak with CD Lamb. And I think Dak deserves a ton of credit for that, for developing that relationship with CD. Ravens have much more of a run game, as it turned out, consistently than do the Cowboys. The change from Kellen Moore to Mike McCarthy calling plays, and Lamar also changed the offensive coordinator. Both of them had to take more ownership of the offenses, but I like the fact that each of them had a little bit of extra autonomy, a little bit of extra opportunity to put their own stamp on the offense.

It's hard to split hairs. I know Dak played in week 18 because the Cowboys wanted that win in the NFC East title. Maybe he doesn't play if it's already in the bag, but that mattered to me too.

Last chance to make an impression on the MVP voters. And boy did he, with the four touchdowns on the road even. Micah answers the question of why Dak over Lamar. 4,500 yards, 36 touchdowns, these are the NFL, has nine interceptions, less overall turnovers, and QBR, 72.6 second QBR.

Without a doubt, I think Dak Proskout had the better year. Look at the Ravens defense, they just won the triple crown. They had the best defense in the NFL this year, without a doubt.

There's back and forth, there's balance to it. Lamar played great. Obviously he's going to win MVP because of how the media looks at it, but Dak played the best football in the NFL. As a quarterback, no one can tell me differently. The stats, the film, the place he's been to extend, what he did this year, he is by far my MVP. Okay, Micah reserves the right, reserves the prerogatives that change his mind.

And I would bet there are a lot of voters who did the same thing. This is not an easy call. Producer J, who else would you put in the ring, so to speak? Who else would you put in the conversation for MVP? Brock Purdy? Christian McCaffrey, I was going to say. Christian McCaffrey. But Purdy, I'm sure people would put him in there.

I think McCaffrey, if I'm going with a niner, I'd say him over Purdy at this point for the last month of the year. But see the issue is they'll probably, they would split votes. Yeah, they would. If there are guys out there, sorry, voters, not guys, guys or gals out there, who are going that route, you're talking about potentially splitting the votes between two niners.

They could cannibalize each other, yeah. Tyreek Hill, I'm sure people will say him. He fell off at the end. And he missed a game, right?

Yeah. I said this on Sunday, and I'm going to stick with it. I think Dak should be the NFL MVP this season.

The way they finished, how they played at home. Again, his ownership, his stamp on the offense, making it his own. I love what Lamar Jackson did with Todd Bunkin. And obviously, how can you quibble with 13 wins most in the NFL? But I think I'm going Dak.

I think I'm going Dak. Not that anyone asked me, but that's my opinion for free. It's hard to argue it.

You can make an argument either way, I guess is kind of the point. But I love that Micah flip-flopped. All right, on Twitter, A-LOL Radio. Also on our Facebook page, AJ McCarron played for Nick Saban Alabama. His reaction to his coach, I don't want to say stunning retirement, but a bit of a surprise announcement. Some of the details about how Nick Saban broke the news to his team. And also I'll tell you which job I think is most attractive or which jobs I think are most attractive.

And this is before we know if there are any more openings. Our phone number 855-212-4227. That's 855-212-4CBS. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence. You are listening to the After Hours podcast. Grandma Saban used to bake the best cakes in the world. And I used to stand by the oven when I was a kid and say, when's this cake going to be done? When's this cake going to be done?

And she said, if I don't let it go through and take it out of the oven too soon, it's going to turn to mush. So it won't be a really good cake. Favorite cake. Want to know your favorite cake since you mentioned that? Yeah, well carrot cake.

That's easy. This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. I can't wait to hear him in a broadcast booth or on his own weekly podcast. He does do a radio show. He's got his own radio show as many of these coaches do. It's usually with the play-by-play announcer or maybe it's a local radio station in Tuscaloosa. I have done a bunch of play-by-play for various college teams and one of the responsibilities was always hosting the coaches show.

But he doesn't need anyone to co-host with him. He could just go on and on with stories and insight and goodness. His tales about his wife Terry and some of their family, the family members and just the various elements of their family life.

I've heard those before from friends of mine who are either Bama grads or who still live in Tuscaloosa in the area. He's got a great sense of humor. I think about him a lot like a Bill Belichick. Belichick has a personality obviously. He just doesn't choose to share it when he's working or talking about the Patriots very often. Now every now and then you'll get him to laugh or crack a smile. He'll make a Taylor Swift Travis Kelsey joke. I mean he's got a great sense of humor. We know he loves Bon Jovi. He's got some real rock and roll affinity and loves to travel.

Remember the the draft that was done virtually in 2020? He had I think it was his then girlfriend. They're married now.

Her fiancee. But his significant other's dog was sitting in the chair at the computer when he would be up and and Nike was making the picks. I mean he's got a great sense of humor and so does Nick Saban.

He tells funny stories. He just gets to the point where he's no nonsense and doesn't want to deal with the stupid, what he considers to be the, not that he would use the word stupid, but the questions, the narratives, the rhetoric because he thinks it's detrimental to his team's development in one way or another. Either the kids are believing their own press where they're unbeatable, they're this, they're that, they're kings of the world, or it's the opposite where it's him constantly having to deal with questions about his coaching and not his coaching sorry his coaching decisions. I don't know if you guys remember when it was Jalen Hurts and it was Tua and there was a quarterback competition and how exasperated he would get. He made Kyle Shanahan look like a small fry. The way that he would get so exasperated about the non-stop questions over his coaching and in his decisions and so he just got to the point where he would be no nonsense and kind of shut it down with curt answers or you know answers that didn't give you any information. I don't understand this question. And that's Bill Belichick just just done with the constant stupid questions.

That's not my job. Anyway, his players love him. I've heard from so many Alabama grads who are now in the NFL that not only is his program all about hard work, if you work hard there's a place for you at Alabama and he embodies that. Nick himself works like nobody's business and so that was really the hallmark of Alabama but also because it was so rigorous and because it was so full of expectation it was the kind of preparation that made the transition to the NFL that much easier for Bama players. Again, heard it from multiple Bama grads. Some of them even told me that it was harder to play under Nick Saban and more rigorous and there were more rules and it was more disciplined.

You had to be more accountable than you do in the NFL which is interesting. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence here on CBS Sports Radio. AJ McCarron, former Alabama quarterback and he weighed in on this is called the rally.

It's a Twitter handle or a radio show but it's a it's a media entity and AJ McCarron was making his comment about Nick Saban's retirement and his reaction. There was times where I'd said on our show with T-Bob that coach looked tired right. He had talked about done multiple interviews about how he hated the NIL and the transfer portal all being there at the same time and how it was making college football, not college football anymore. It was starting to be just a another level of pro football and I don't think he was a huge fan of being in that. Did he come out and complain all the time about it like Dabo? No, but behind closed doors it was something that he did not like, something he talked about and I think him just also having grandkids now wanting to spend time with his grandkids and take a step away from football and just enjoy life. I mean hell he's 72 years old and listen he's accomplished everything he he set out to do and I don't know what else he could do other than just keep winning but at some point there's a time where I'm sure Miss Terry wants him around. His kids you know want him to be around his grandkids so listen I mean what other time to step away than now and you know I'm happy for him.

I wish him nothing but the best. Former Bama quarterback AJ McCarron on the rally and here are the details that we've gotten from various sources. The next day but actually was still interviewing potential coaching candidates. So assistant coaching candidates on Tuesday and then he he made the announcement to his players and to his own coaching staff on Wednesday. Spoke to them for about 15 minutes let him know he was retiring and then allowed the athletic director to go ahead and make some comments to them after he left the room and so he was insistent that no one know until he told his players himself and I appreciate that so much that this did not leak ahead of time but somebody told Chris Lowe right away he's the ESPN college football insider there's probably a text message it was going to him even before Saban was done addressing the team maybe an assistant coach who was in the room who's connected something like that but yeah Chris had the story and right away as soon as Saban told his players it was out. So yes Nick Saban had been doing coaching activities and continuing forward right up until the moment at which he told the team and some and this has been reported in different places too so not a surprise when I say this but because he'd expressed some of it himself he really didn't like where college football was going. More and more frustrated with and I call it the wild wild west but more and more frustrated with transfer portal and with NIL which essentially is a front for pay for play you can say whatever you want it's a front for pay for play and so Nick Saban expressed some of that frustration and not feeling like it was actually leveling the playing field but that it was really just creating kind of this free-for-all and and we'd heard that from him over the years of the last couple years. There's a lot of traditions that we've had for a long time in college football and I think we're in a time of evolution for whatever reasons and some of those traditions are going to get sort of pushed by the wayside I think.

He was about building a team from the ground up so to speak building and developing players and it stood in stark contrast with the NIL and the transfer portal and I'm not saying that players shouldn't have more authority and autonomy over their own careers right I hated the fact that players lost a year of eligibility because they changed schools but the transfer portal it's an easy way for coaches to recruit because they're all in one spot and a lot of times it comes down to how much will you pay me who will give me the biggest deal and and I understand why that's frustrating for coaches who have tried to do it a different way kind of a grassroots coaching and teaching method and that's how you build a winner as opposed to poaching or paying players who will show up on your campus because you've given them the best offer. It's after hours with Amy Lawrence here on CBS Sports Radio so who could replace Nick Saban at Alabama. This is more with AJ McCarron. I think it has to be somebody that one has been involved with the university right has been involved in his process and seen throughout the years of the amount of work it took to get to that point where he leaves it now but for me it would be Lane Kiffin.

I think it needs to be an offensive-minded guy. Lane is a guy that has been in the SEC for a while. He knows the type of athletes that it takes to win in the SEC and I'm a fan of Dan Lanning. I'm not saying Dan Lanning would be a horrible selection but I'm also hearing from my sources that Dan Lanning could be the top choice that they lean towards but it's a different type of recruit from the SEC to the the Big Ten to the Pac-12 especially like it's just different. You're playing different athletes week in and week out on a consistent basis so Lane's done that for years in the SEC. He's recruited well at Ole Miss which is a hard place to recruit at. Lane Kiffin seems to be a popular choice. Dan Lanning right now is the coach at Oregon and he was previously with Georgia on the defensive side of the ball so there's another name that's being floated out there. I agree with AJ McCarron on the rally. It needs to be someone who knows the Alabama tradition. It's after hours CBS Sports Radio.