After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 3

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It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. How are you? If you're waking up on your Thursday morning, well, you are getting so close to the weekend. I don't officially call it morning until the final hour of the show, because then I feel like it's it's morning and dawning a new day.

But it's also a grocery shopping morning, which means I don't get home right away. And when I do get home, it's it's fury. Well, it's furor. It's not really fury.

It's just like sound and fury and motion and activity. The puppy, the newest addition to the pet family, at least from my perspective, the puppy is crazy. And when I come in the door, regardless of whether or not Bob has been up and he gets up even before the show is over because he starts work pretty early. And also, he's not a morning person. So he needs time to wake up time and vats of coffee anyway. So he so he's already been awake.

The dog's already freaked out over dad being awake. But then when I come in the door, oh, my gosh, she's whining. She's jumping. She's spinning like a top. She's a mini Aussie, but she's a runt. So she's much smaller than your typical mini Aussie.

She's not even 20 pounds or if she is, she's right at 20 pounds. And so she goes crazy. And then when I want to pet my own dog, you know, like hug Penny and say good morning to Penny and see how she's doing. Daisy wiggles her way. She worms and wiggles her way in between me and Penny so I can be hugging Penny and the dog worms her way somehow. And so she comes up from the bottom and pops up right between me and Penny. She's a liquid. Oh, yeah, she's gaseous form.

Yes, she is a mess. And she's afraid of snow plow. Snow plows, but also snow shovels.

How funny is that? So she's getting her first taste of the snow. She never experienced snow before in Texas, even though they do have snow in some parts of Texas, but she never experienced snow before. Really likes it, but two things she's discovered. Number one, snow shovels make a lot of noise. So people out shoveling their walks or their driveways, she gets very nervous. She does not like loud noises.

Loud noises, but Aussies actually are really sensitive to noise, so that's pretty typical of her breed. But the other thing that she doesn't like about the snow is that it's not really salt. Whatever substance people put down in their walks, I guess people call it salt, but it's not really salt.

It's that... It's sand-ish. No, no, no, it's the blue, it almost looks like crystals. Sometimes it's in blue, it makes the ice melt, so essentially that's what it's called, it's like ice melt.

And it's really painful on the paws, the pads and paws of dogs, at least my dog. Penny's always had an issue with it. In fact, Penny's so smart, she's learned how to walk in the snow and not on the sidewalk when she can actually see it.

She can see this blue crystal, and so she walks in the snow and walks around it. Well, the puppy, first time yesterday, take her out for a walk and people in the wake of the storm, in the wake of the snow, had put down this icy melt, and she's walking right through it all around, and is then picking up her paws, but if I call her and say, Daisy, come, she listens pretty well. When she comes, then she doesn't know what I'm doing, like I try to grab her paw and wipe it off, because really that's all you have to do is just wipe it off, but she gets nervous, she doesn't know what I'm doing, why am I picking up, and so she fights me, she tries to run around me, she wraps her leash around me. Oh, it's so much fun.

Right. Did I tell you that not only did I want to get married so desperately, but I also wanted to add a puppy into my life. We got dogs, you hear me? We've got so many dogs.

It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. This hour we've got a, well, we've got Spicy Baker. Our Spicy Baker is back.

I mean, I thought we lost him forever, but he's back. Oh no, he's so creepy, just so arrogant. It's not quite like that. He doesn't have that kind of creepy tone to his voice. You don't really care. Right, well, he cares, but he's become very understated in how he claps back. His tone is much more muted, and yet the message is loud and clear.

I would love to show up at somebody's cubicle and just boo the **** out of them. Yeah, so he's not doing that to a Lions cornerback who, I mean, he deserves it. Let's be honest, C.J.

Gardner-Johnson deserves anything he gets when he actually says publicly that the Buccaneers don't have a good quarterback. Ruh-roh, even if you think that, I wouldn't say it out loud if I were you the week before a playoff game. Like, why would you do that? What is the point of that?

Why would you give any sort of extra fuel or incentive? Are you hoping that he will come at you and you'll can pad your interception stats? Is that what you're hoping? Maybe.

Right, so you're thinking like, oh, maybe he'll try to prove himself to me and I will pick him off. Maybe this is like, shoot, who was it? Lance Stephenson, was that his name?

The NBA player? Yeah, who used to goad his opponents. He would blow in their ear and stuff, and he would try to get them out of their game and get them frustrated.

And then they'd try to prove to him, and he felt like he was a good defensive player, so he would take it. Yeah, maybe that's what's happening with CJ. Maybe CJ just wants Baker to attempt to throw more at him to prove him wrong or to introduce himself to CJ. Maybe the two of them have never met formally. And so for that reason, he's trying to goad Baker. But I can't think of any other reasonable or unreasonable explanation for actually speaking out loud before you face a team.

Oh, well, that team doesn't really have a quarterback. Oh, dear. I hope Dean Campbell got on his ass, was like, dude, what are you doing? Why? Why would you do that? You're back in the dumpers again. Maybe that's what he said to CJ Gardner Johnson.

You, my friend, are back in the dumpers again. I mean, seriously, could someone explain to me what would be the point of that? I'm trying to go to give CJ as much benefit as I possibly can. But why would you ever say that out loud in front of a microphone?

You're asking for it. So he actually tweeted CJ Gardner Johnson earlier this evening. This is in response again to Baker now calling him out. He says, the fact bro mentioned me, dot, dot, dot, dot.

I gave dude his props, gone somewhere else with that 100% logo. Meaning I didn't, why is he upset? I said he was good.

You did not say that. Let's find the original quote. So we'll find the original quote and we'll read it to you. But again, his remarks were that Tampa doesn't have a good quarterback. Maybe he meant other than Baker Mayfield and we just, we misquoted him. Here's the original quote. All right. If you give that Tampa group a good quarterback, that's a great group.

Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, Russell Gage, that's a great group. That's the quote. Whoopsie. I don't know how many other ways you can interpret that. Jay, how would you interpret that if you're Baker Mayfield?

That they would be a better team if they had anyone but me. Just to clarify, I like you much better than Baker Mayfield. Although I do like Baker these days, but okay, go ahead.

I'm not that big of a bar. Thank you. No, I like him a lot more now. All right, go ahead. You would do, how would you react?

What would you think? Oh, it's a slight. It's an obvious slight.

He's not being grounded. He's saying that if the team had any other starting quarterback in the league, not even starting quarterback, any other person playing the position other than you. Well, okay. That's what he's saying. That's not what he said. That's what the quote says. What he said is if they had a better quarterback than Baker or an elite quarterback. I'm trying to- It says good. It says if you give that Tampa group a good quarterback.

So he's saying Baker is trash. Or maybe, okay, let's maybe this. What was the date? Do you have the date on the quote?

It was Tuesday. Oh, shoot. Maybe he said it like last offseason and didn't realize that Baker would fit so nicely with Mike Evans. Sorry, CJ.

I got nothing for you. Although, maybe reading more, if you give that Tampa group a good quarterback, that's a great group. So maybe he's saying Baker is okay now that I read it again, but that they just would be so much better if they had a better quarterback. Right. So either way, it's still an insult. Oh, it's 100% an insult.

It's definitely a slight. Absolutely. No doubt about it.

All right. So Baker's back. The Baker that we really enjoy, he's back.

The one that can't let this go by. And shouldn't, actually. But like Todd Bowles, his head coach, who did not choose to embarrass a reporter who asked him a question about the weather in Detroit, even though the Lions play in a dome, I was very impressed with Todd Bowles' professionalism.

And that's not a new revelation. I do think that Todd Bowles plays it pretty close to the vest. He won't call out his players publicly. I mean, he keeps things in house. He's old school when it comes to that. Baker didn't embarrass CJ or blast him, he didn't put him on blast, but he did take a subtle dig at him, which I think is the new and improved Baker.

A kinder, gentler Baker, or maybe just a Baker who doesn't feel the need to defend himself every time, sort of, sort of. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. Good morning.

As I say, if you're waking up, ouch. We're glad to keep you company. So on Twitter, ALawRadio, on our Facebook page too, and then our phone number is 855-212-4227.

That's 855-212-4CBS. So Jay, I finally post a picture of Bob, and I tell people, hey, go look at some photos. They're just a few photos from our adventures in the first month, right?

As in here's to many more adventures, a lifetime of adventures. And there is in fact a picture of Bob. Many people have been clamoring to see the new hubs, so there's a picture.

Of course, there has to be one in every crowd. Post the photo, a woman responds, where's his picture? It's right there. That was posted on the photo itself?

It was posted on the actual post with the photo. It was a reply to the post with the photo. That's it. That's it. Sorry. That's the photo. That's the photo.

Here it is. Did I do something wrong? Do you think? It wasn't good enough?

Apparently not. Better photo? It's a photo. Ouch. I'm not going to tell the hubs that.

Hey, by the way. I didn't say that. We need a better photo of you. Yeah, don't say that.

No, I'm not going to say that. People get so mad at me, too, because I won't share photos for the most part. I haven't shared very many, so here, just enjoy the one you got. It's up. You got it.

Seriously, it's there. I thought it was a good one. Thank you. I do, too. I think it's very handsome.

It's very handsome. You got kayaks. You got horses.

What do you want? Well, seriously, the horses stole the show, so let's be honest, but that was one of our mini moon adventures, so I wanted to share that photo. Did you notice how I took the photo? Did you see what's directly in the, we'll call it the bottom, the bottom of the photo, what's directly in front of me as I'm taking the photo?

I do. A head. Of a horse.

Not a person's head. So you were mounted on the horseback. I was on the horse when I was taking the photo, so that was kind of fun. That was before we galloped. Oh, it was so much fun. Just like the exhilaration from the first time in a long time. It had probably been, oh gosh, 20 years since I had actually been able to ride a horse galloping, because most times when you go riding, you trot a little. You walk.

You don't even lope, much less anything else, and so this was fun. We're out on a wide open ranch with a dirt road and just ran. Free.

Like ultimate freedom. Well, I mean, there was a saddle and there were reins, but yes. I wasn't bareback like Moana. Wasn't she the one that was bareback? She's Hawaiian. I could be totally wrong.

She might have ridden a horse. That wasn't one of my favorite ones. Good to know.

All right. Speaking of favorites. Well, we know Jason Kelsey and Travis Kelsey and their New Heights podcast is a huge favorite. Jason reportedly retiring following that Eagles loss to wrap up their very brief run in the playoffs, but not so fast. Nick kind of gave me an opportunity to talk. I didn't announce what I was doing on purpose, despite, I guess, what's been leaked to the media. I just don't think you're in a position after a game like that to really make that decision. I just don't. There's too much emotion in the moment to really fully grasp that decision. I'm not trying to be dramatic and continue to draw this thing out.

Not trying to be bread. It's just something that I think when it's time to officially announce what's happening in the future, it'll be done in a way that's definitive and pays respect to a lot of people and individuals that have meant a lot to me and has led to the career I've had. I don't think that it would be respectful or even accurate to be able to do that right after a game like that.

I think there's wisdom in that. So my experience when I was a little bit younger, and maybe not quite as smart as I am now, is that you never send a text message when you're really emotional. You never make decisions when you're really emotional, and that's kind of what Jason Kelsey is saying. He's saying that I feel like it would be a disservice to my team, but also a disservice to my career. To make a decision about whether I continue playing or whether I retire when I'm miserable and upset and angry and frustrated and just sad that our season ended the way that it did.

When I've got all these roiling emotions, not a great opportunity, not a great time to decide my future. And so again, I was taught, my mom taught me, hey, when you're upset, don't pick up your phone and start texting people, right? If you're upset at a particular person, a guy, put your phone down, sleep on it. If you still feel the same way in the morning, if you still have the same emotions and you still feel strongly, well then maybe you send the text or the email or whatever else.

This works for bosses too, right? Trust me, Jane, I know. When you're upset about something, maybe don't sit down at the computer and fire it off a nasty email or an email that just, it spills your guts because you wake up the next day and you're like, oh, I wish I hadn't been quite so free flowing with my emotions, free flowing with my stream of consciousness. So I appreciate that Jason is saying, it's a bad idea to make this decision now, even if I am leaning a particular direction, well, great, but I'm not going to finalize this decision until I have some distance and some time to get away from it. But he did say that Nick Sirianni asked him to address the team after that game on Monday. Pretty much said the same thing that I just said to you, which is, you know, I got belief in every single one of you guys, you know, cherish the moment you have in this league. A lot of guys like, you know, if that is your last game, I feel sorry for you.

I'm like, don't feel sorry for me. There's always the dropping of an F bomb on the new Heights podcast with Jason and Travis Kelsey. By the way, so far to a man, as much as the reports are out there that Nick Sirianni lost the locker room. And if you missed my conversation with former NFL wide receiver, Mike Pritchard, I asked him, what does that mean? Like practically, what does that mean to say a coach has lost the locker room?

His answer was really brilliant from a guy who spent a decade in NFL locker rooms. Anyway, as much as people, I don't know, that seems to be the popular thing to say right now. Oh, the team quit. I didn't see any quit. I just didn't see great execution. I didn't see any quit in Jalen Hurts or in the team. I just saw a bunch of turnovers and mistakes and problems in the red zone.

I didn't see quit. Anyway, they right now at this point, just same thing as the Dallas Cowboys locker room in the wake of their loss to the Packers. Nick Sirianni is a great coach. It's not on him. It's not his fault, blah, blah, blah.

So yeah, but I wouldn't, if I were you, bank on a change in Philadelphia any more than I told you to bank on a change in Dallas. I would have been stunned if Jerry Jones had fired Mike McCarthy. I'm glad he did not make his decision in the throes of emotion. If you haven't seen the statement, well, it's out there and it's largely positive. It's supportive of Mike McCarthy, just as he was before the playoff game, that he was evaluating the body of work. This wasn't just about one game. As painful as that one game was, it wasn't about that one game. And I agree with him wholeheartedly. Don't throw, and I don't really understand this whole phrase, but don't throw out the baby with the bathwater, meaning the bathwater's dirty.

The game was stinky. You just want to flush it, right? But don't get rid of your, all that's positive when you're throwing out the dirty bathwater. That's just it. Okay. Explaining it. I just don't know why I should throw out the baby. Ever. All right. Clearly there's a reason why I don't still use that phrase really at all. Okay. Keep the baby out of the garbage.

Keep the baby out of the drain. Jay, what was it on Wednesday morning that I was saying, oh gosh, I couldn't stop with the, here we go. I got tweets about that all day.

Here we go. I was saying that all day too. It was my whole way home to be honest. Yeah. It was in my head.

Yeah. It's actually, I got home and when the dogs were, it was time to take the dogs for a walk. First of all, I was wearing two pairs of pants, two shirts, two pairs of wool socks.

No joke. Two pairs of gloves. I actually had two pairs of gloves on and a hat and a homemade wool scarf wrapped on my face. And I was still wrapped around my face, excuse me. And I was still cold, but when I went, so I'm looking like the abominable snowman. I can't really see.

I have no peripheral vision with a scarf wrapped around my head. And I say to the dogs, here we go. Shot gun powder to his left. Here we go.

Gun powder to his left. I guess after six months of hearing it, well, it's going to be stuck with us a little bit. It's just, it's, I find it funny how I feel like I've been noticing and hearing that honestly since week three, week four, I've been like, wow, Dak says, here we go before every single snap. But why is it just now where it's this big thing?

I feel like I've seen people tweeting about it or talking about it the last, the last half of the season. Yeah. Yeah.

And I wonder if it's because that way, if you have the same snap count every time or the same cadence every time you're trying to throw off the defense, like, Hey, there's nothing different about it. So yeah. Yeah. I get that. I mean, it's smart.

If that's the reason. I mean, he just likes it or he just likes yelling it. I've actually been really impressed that he hasn't lost his voice cause it's, it's a lot. It's after hours with Amy Lawrence. Uh, yes. Baker coming up next here on CBS porch radio. You are listening to the after hours podcast. Proud of our guys, proud of everybody in the building to sit together.

Like we did the second half of the year and, um, to get to this spot, to keep fighting, to stick together and don't listen to the outside noise, just, just trust the people next to you. It's just in my mood. Like I just woke up mad at like, I don't like birds, you know, this is after hours with Amy Lawrence.

It's a little disturbing. I don't like birds, you know, Trey Palmer, Baker Mayfield, Jean Deckerhoff on Bucks radio 56 yarder. That was one of Baker's three touchdown passes. And we know that the Buccaneers offense had kind of been MIA for about four weeks or so spotty at best against the Panthers in week 18, in order to clinch the division title, they ended up winning nine to nothing. So couldn't manage a touchdown even against the Panthers. It's after hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS sports radio, this breakout performance though against the Eagles, the brilliant game plan, uh, the, the way they were able to spread the ball around. And I mean, even early on, there were drops by Baker's receivers and then once they kind of got in sync, well, then he was able to sling it and no turnovers, which is something that Todd Bowles highlighted following the win and just all so happy for him.

And remember Baker was playing hurt to ankles and ribs and, and whoever knows what else he he's been crushed a bunch in the last month. It's after hours on CBS sports radio and on Facebook, you can find our, uh, our page or show page. If you're new to after hours, we encourage you to check out our social media, uh, on Twitter after hours, CBS. Now I just got this tweet from presumably a Lions fan though.

I don't know that for sure. He says, CJ was asked about the bucks receivers. So he was basically saying when you give them guys a good quarterback, they're a great group. And we're seeing that he's not saying Baker's not good, but that's not what got back to Baker. Thank you for your tweet.

Thank you for listening. What Baker was responding to on Wednesday certainly sound like he believed that CJ Gardner Johnson was identifying the fact that the Buccaneers did not have a good quarterback. So kind of taking it and, and looking at it from the reverse, well, they're a good group of receivers when they have a good quarterback, but Oh wait, that's not me. So I don't know if the media was presenting the question to Baker or if you heard CJ Gardner Johnson himself, but he did have his own response.

I don't think he's really watched film cause he mentioned Russell Gage. You know, we love Russell, but Russell hasn't played a snap all year for us. He must be going off the preseason stuff that the media was talking about, but he didn't play our first game. So I'm excited to see him. I think he's a really good player. He has been for awhile and he's been an impactful guy on every team he's been on.

So he's a, he's a good player, but yeah, he's got to do a little bit more film study and do a little more film study while you're at it. So yeah, as Jay points out, CJ did get on Twitter and says something about the fact bro mentioned me, meaning like this is ridiculous. Don't really care.

Right. Uh, I gave dude his props, gone somewhere else with that. It's like that CJ believes it was taken out of context. And I don't know that I would call this trash talk.

Like the fact that it's been labeled trash talk is kind of funny, but I do like that we see a sliver of the old Baker where he's, you know, he's not going to be quite so aggressive or Jay would say extra, actually my niece, Lauren, why are you so, she, she likes to use both of those. Why are you so aggressive? That's so extra. Extra aggressive. Extra aggressive.

But she'll just say extra because extra I'm supposed to know is, is too aggressive too much. Right. We're piling on too much. So that was not Baker. Baker was not extra if you will. But he was kind of standing up for himself with a little bit of that old cockiness.

So I guess he just, you know, he hasn't seen any film recently because as much as we love Russell Gage, hasn't taken a snap for us this year. So kind of refer, it sounds like he's heard the comments himself and these weren't just passed along to the media, through the media. That was snarky Baker. It was a little, it was subtle snarky. It was subtle snark. Subtle snark. Subtle snark. Sufficient snark.

If you say that too many times in a row, it might come out something weird. Subtle snark. Settle snark. Settle snark.

Settle snark. You ever watch the snorks? No.

Oh, nevermind. Is that a cartoon? It was, yeah.

It was a cartoon. It was my time, but yeah. Settle snark.

Oh, see now that's how it comes out. Settle snark. Settle snark. Settle snark. Yep.

It's, it's bad news. Now Gardner Johnson, I'm reading more of his quotes just so you know, maybe he wasn't trying to insult Baker Mayfield. This group probably is one of the better groups we faced all year besides that Tampa group. Huh.

I don't even get it. If you give that Tampa group a good quarterback, that's a great group. Evans, Godwin, Russell Gage. That's a great group.

I played against them for real. So Baker says, well, maybe he's referring to the preseason. Russ hasn't played all year. You're, you're a little bit behind the times. Maybe he just needs to watch some more film. That's what he says. See, that's just kind of subtle. It's not in your face.

It's not bulletin board material. It's just, yeah. Subtle.

It's subtle, but it's, and it's saying, Hey, like I heard that enough of that. It's a kindler, gentler Baker Mayfield. Right. It's not giving CJ really any more material to get to med.

You know what I mean? Right. I mean, now CJ did take to social, but it's not like this has become a big brouhaha. I wouldn't expect this to explode into extracurricular activity on the field. I wouldn't expect Baker to stick his finger through the helmet of CJ Gardner Johnson and give him the what for I don't think he should do that.

No, no. I'd probably not a good idea. Although Baker gets to smash his own helmet or his own head on other people's only his own teammates. He's not doing it to other people could do it to CJ. No, no, don't do it to CJ.

That's a bad idea. In fact, I see. I feel like CJ must be taller.

Well, let's, let's Google it. Let's figure out how tall Baker's not that Baker's not tall. Right. I mean, he's okay. So CJ is 26 years old and he is, I see his weight. I don't see his height.

You're going to have to go. 5'11. Oh, well, maybe not. Maybe they're about the same because Baker Mayfield now keep in mind, this is very often these are like in cleats standing on a phone book, right? They're not all accurate, but Baker's listed as what? 6'1. Right.

So I would say probably here's, he's got the high ground, he's not, not by much. Here's how I know though is because Michael Vick was listed as whatever he was listed as and over six foot. And I remember one time I walked by him in a hallway at my previous network and he was shorter than me. And I thought, okay, something's wrong. So he's, he's not, maybe they do in fact list their height in cleats, but I know in basketball very often they're listing them in the high tops with, yeah. Always with basketball. Right.

They always say, oh, he's 6'3 on whatever 7'3 on paper could be 7'1 the other way around, you know. So study some film is what he's saying, but no finger in the helmet. That sounds like a really bad idea. But a headbutt with like downward force could.

No, I would not recommend that. You're at Ford Field. You might get bum-rushed. I don't, I don't think I, those fans are, they're ready. They're ready for a fight.

Hopefully the weather doesn't get in the way. Oh no. Two days in a row we're talking about media faux pas. One from this lady who asked Todd Bowles a question about the weather at Detroit. Another one who, actually he should have known better, a former NFL tight end who advocates getting a late hit and a nasty penalty for hitting Brock Purdy just so he thinks twice the rest of the game.

I don't like playing this game. Yeah, you better watch out. Brock's very popular in the locker room. His teammates, I don't think you want his teammates coming after you. Would you want George Kittle coming after you? No. Would you want Nick Bosa coming after you? No. Would you want Fred Warner coming after you? No. No. Oh, he.

How about a combination of all three? He packs a wallop. I wouldn't want any of those dudes coming after me.

And then trying to think about some of the others that, oh, Christian McCaffrey. I know he's little, but he also packs a punch. Yeah, he wouldn't do that.

Lower center of gravity. Yeah. So anyway, watch out. Be careful what you wish for there, Mark Chamura.

Late hits could, they can be a B-I-T-C-H. All right. If you're on Twitter, on Facebook, we're glad to connect with you. If you're finding the show for the first time or the first time in a long time. You are listening to the After Hours Podcast. I've got a vision of building a winner, building a championship football team here that's exceeded my wildest dreams and expectations, the amount of success that we were able to achieve together through a lot of hard work and contributions of so many people. So I'm very proud of that and always have those great memories.

I'll carry those with me the rest of my life. This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. The voice of one Bill Belichick as he and the Patriots agree to part ways. Belichick now a free agent and according to our guests from Las Vegas last hour, Mike Pritchard, former NFL wide receiver, he is stunned that someone hasn't made Belichick an offer yet, though speculating what a lot of people are, which is maybe he's looking for more control than some teams are willing to offer. Also, as we've polled you and we've asked you, right now, at least among our listeners, NFL fans would say Mike Vrabel is the best option and then followed by Jim Harbaugh.

So a little bit surprised about that. I think I'd go Jim Harbaugh right now if I could have my pick of any of them. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. The Patriots do have a new head coach they promoted from within, which means they kind of, first of all, the timing, they can do this without having to go through some of the various hoops that the NFL mandates for interviews and kind of skipping steps, right?

Because they're promoting from within. Jared has made it very clear. First of all, he's a former linebacker himself in the NBA, sorry, in the NFL, and he was an All-Pro and a Super Bowl champion with the Patriots. He was the 2008 Defensive Player of the Year. For those of you who've been around for a long time, you know him. He grew up with Belichick, but also has been on his coaching staff. I'm not trying to be Bill. I'm not trying to be Bill. I think that Bill is his own man. If you can't tell by now, I'm a little bit different even up here. But what I will say is, you know, the more I think about, the more I think about like the lessons that I've taken from Bill, hard work works, right, hard work works.

And that's what we're all about. Jerrod Mayo is the first black head coach in Patriots history, which is significant. I do see color because I believe if you don't see color, you can't see racism. And whatever happens, black, white, disabled person, even someone with disabilities, I always, you know, for the most part, people are like, you know, don't, you know, when they're young, they kind of make the spot hot, younger people know what that means.

But what I would say is, like, no, I want you to be able to go up to those people and really understand those people. So it goes back to whatever it is, black, white, yellow, it really doesn't matter. But it does matter so we can try to fix a problem that we all know we have. Those comments from Jerrod resonating with a lot of people, I did see that quote make its way around social media. And it's true. And I would agree with him in this respect, if you don't see color, then you don't see differences.

You don't see differences in background and thought, in some cases, culture or people's various experiences. Have a really good friend. And we're such an odd couple. She grew up in the Bronx and she's in her 70s and she wears her hair in a big afro and just a beautiful elderly woman that I love so much and we've developed this incredible friendship. And we've had conversations about this and she said that to me. I don't want people to say to me, hey, I don't see color when I see you.

She said, I want people to say to me, I see your color. I recognize that you have black skin. I recognize that your background and your experience is different than mine. How can I learn from you?

How can we learn from each other? And that goes for any differences, male, female, you're from the suburbs, I'm from the city. It doesn't matter what type of difference, but you have to recognize them or I'll make it me. I have to recognize them. I don't want to recognize differences because I think the variety is what makes us more well-informed when we learn from people who are not like us, we have access to other experiences and ideas too. And yeah, there's a lot to be said for having a group of people together that are nothing like each other, right?

But as Gerard is pointing out, you have to see color to recognize that I'm not the same as you or that you're not the same as me. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence here on CBS porch radio. So that's Gerard Mayo, which means there's still seven openings in the NFL and we're just kind of sitting out, we're sitting around twiddling our thumbs, waiting for some news. Brian is in Detroit. Brian, welcome to After Hours.

Hi, Amy. Thank you for taking my call. I was just taking a nap and thinking about it and I woke up and I'm still mad. So I just want to tell you about this CJ Gardner. This guy is not as good as he thinks he is and to be able to be talking like that really irritates me and a lot of fans and I don't want him to ruin this for us. I mean, we've waited a long time for this. This guy, when he first got back off his injury, he started a fight during practice with his own teammates and he says he wanted to just fire people up. Well, we were doing pretty doggone good when you were out with your injury.

So we just waited a long time. This isn't our new team. This is not the new Lions. Chris Spielman's got to be furious with this statement that he come out and did and so is coach Campbell and so is Benja. They got to be furious with him. Well, see, here's the thing, whether or not he meant it the way that it's being interpreted, the fact is it's gone viral around the NFL and with a lot of fans and as you point out, it's not the type of thing that they want making headlines or getting back to the Buccaneers before this game. Now, I'll say this, Brian, I don't think that CJ's comment can ruin anything, but I do believe that you're right.

They're probably going to want to nip this in the bud. I know there's a lot of emotion going into this, but you got this, Brian. Thank you so much for your phone call.

Good to talk to you. Maybe go back to your nap. I'm jealous. Take a nap.

But not right now because we have one more hour to go. Can you imagine? By the way, did you see the average price of a lion's bucks ticket at Ford Field is because it's not out in the elements. Nearly twelve hundred dollars. It's after hours.

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