After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 4

The Sultan of Sizzle. The Titan of Toastiness. The Kingpin of Kindling.

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If anyone needs anything, they can just redirect their questions to that one perfect coworker of yours. One hour to go in this work week. It's been a strange, upside-down week with travel and an all-dayer after an all-nighter.

Does that make sense? Most of you would be extraordinary to pull an all-nighter. For me, it's extraordinary to pull an all-dayer. But I was on the way to Augusta, Georgia, got to see Augusta National, got to participate in the Peach Belt Women's Sports Seminar slash conference, which was really cool.

It was an honor to be included among so many accomplished women in all walks of the sports industry, as well as young women and coaches and administrators. And then to fly back here, somehow make my connection in Atlanta, even though a two-hour layover went down to about a 40-minute layover, I had to hoof it. Only to sit on the plane for quite a while, hear the pilots say, Just wanted to give you an update, travelers.

We have 17 planes ahead of us for takeoff. Oh no! Yeah. I can't really adequately describe the mood inside the plane, other than to say it was a collective groan. Oh my goodness! Well, no, not that. It was more of a ugh. And then, and then, this is the best part.

This has never happened to me in my entire life as a traveler, and I have flown a lot. Five minutes later. I mean, we've all got our phones out.

People are looking for snacks. I mean, we're just, that's it. We were settling in for the long haul. I'm thinking, I'm going to get off the plane and come straight to work.

Like, that's how it's going to happen. Even though I didn't have a car there, the hubs was on his way to pick me up. He was going to have to bring me straight to work. Anyway, five minutes later, we have an update for you. ATC, meaning Air Traffic Control, has allowed us to cut the line. We're going to take off momentarily.

Flight attendants, prepare for departure. And, no joke, the plane pulls out, bypasses. It's like we were passing in the left-hand lane.

That was sweet. Bypasses this entire queue of planes. They must have been so mad. Were they aware of this? So mad. Well, I'm sure they were.

No one tried to block us, though. That's how you really lose your flying privileges. Imagine being a passenger in one of those other planes and just seeing yours.

I'd be like, what are they doing? Come back. We decided not to wait in this line.

See ya, wouldn't want to be ya. Anyway, we actually got to take off within 30 seconds after that. I've never heard of that before. ATC has allowed us to cut the line.

He actually used those words, cut the line. That guy's the real MVP. I mean, normally when you say 17 planes ahead, or even if you put in an hour's time, like, oh, we'll be here for about, you know, another 40 minutes, then you know it's at least an hour and a half until you get an update. So, that's amazing. I mean, it was the coolest thing ever. And so I'm very thankful for the air traffic controller in charge, the agent in charge at the Atlanta airport on Thursday evening. Though I will say, if Delta could come through and return my personal item, I'll be, like, overjoyed. The trip would have been amazing if not for the fact that I lost something. I left, it's my own fault. I left it on the plane. I was in a hurry.

I thought I was going to miss my connection, and I was in a hurry. It's not your fault. It is my fault.

I'm an idiot. Anyway, I think I was sitting on it. Like, that's the only way I could have lost it, because everything else I had next to me, so I had the only empty seat next to me on the whole plane, which is kind of cool.

Oh, right. That's good. Yeah, except my stuff was right there.

I have everything else. I have no idea how I left this one small personal item, except that when I moved over to get from my window seat to the aisle and grab my bags, I must have sat on it and just didn't even... I was in a rush. And you know what happened, Jay?

This is the worst. When a still small voice in your brain says, do something, do it. Something in my brain said, you should turn around and look and make sure you didn't forget anything. I didn't. I get it. I was hurrying. I was nervous.

Because there's nothing worse. And then if you miss your connection, you're stuck in Atlanta for how long? Right. I know.

If you're trying to make a connection and it's running late, which it seems to be every time, there's probably no... That's the only thing on your mind. It would have taken five seconds to turn around and see it. I know. But you're not even thinking about it, though.

I know. I guess you kind of subconsciously did for a second, where next time act on that impulse, I suppose. Yes, I will. I will. I'm telling you, it was the still small voice you're not supposed to ignore. I get it, though. I filled out the form. I did it virtually before we even took off, before we even cut the line. But now I'm kind of bummed.

It was a gift from my mom, too, which makes it even worse. I feel like... Do we have anybody listening who works for Delta? That'd be good. I was going to say I feel like the return rate on finding those things is good, but I have no idea. Yeah, you have no idea. Not a clue. You're just guessing. You're just trying to be nice. A little bit.

But I would imagine it would be not that bad. No, somebody else could have picked it up. Somebody could have just said, oh, look, I like this. I think I'll take this. Yeah.

But I think there's a chance, because you reported it right away, right? Right, within minutes. So people were still... Cleaning the plane. Not everyone was off the plane, so maybe they could have like... Oh, they were still cleaning the plane. Right there bum-rushed and got it. Bum-rushed. Yeah, like, everyone sit down. We have a missing item.

I don't know. Delta's got like, I don't know, 400,000 employees, so I don't know about that. And there were a lot of planes in Atlanta. There was already. So we had to wait to get refueled, to get extra fuel, because we had to take a detour around a storm.

So we had to wait for that, which put us 18th in line, but only... So I'm trying to be positive about the experience. It was a great conference. Everything went well. I met a lot of really neat people.

I communicated with a lot of awesome people. I just, I'm sad that I am an idiot. That's the only thing. It's not gone yet.

I have hope that it's going to return. Okay. But other question, do we know if that air traffic controller still has his job? Like, was he allowed to do that? Was his pilot... He's in charge. Was his buddy the pilot? Oh, no, no, he's in charge. He's the Bill Belichick of the airport.

He can do whatever the hell he wants to do. When you're in the seat, you're in the chair, and you've got the mic, you can do whatever you want to do. So I hear, you see it in the movies, air traffic controllers in charge, they're in charge. Buzz the tower?

Except for when you want to buzz the tower. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. This hour donated to... donated. It's going to be dedicated to football, but if you would like to donate some of your knowledge, you can do that too.

On Twitter, ALaw Radio, or our Facebook page. If you work for Delta, I mean, any advice would be greatly appreciated. This actually worked for the U.S. Postal Service. Do you remember when my flowers, the wedding flowers were lost? It worked. Several USPS employees reached out to me and offered to help, which was really nice.

So any help at all from Delta, I really appreciate it. Okay, so, the only non-football note this hour is that Novak Djokovic is out at the Australian Open. He lost in four sets to an upstart.

Well, he's the fourth seed, but he's never been to a Grand Slam final, and he's lost to Novak before. 22-year-old Yannick Sinner, who's Italian, and as Jay points out, does not look Italian, so the other half of his family is, we're thinking, some other type of European country, because he does not look Italian at all. Looks like anything but. Yeah, he looks more like Eastern Europeanian. Like, very light skin. Not that Italians give you light skin. I'm fairly light skinned for an Italian. I'm blonde, but I'm the only blonde in my family. You're not blonde. Light skin. Fair skin.

It comes from living in the Northeast. I used to be blonde. You did not.

Until I was like six years old, and my hair changed. I swear, I have pictures. Oh, I need to see those. They exist.

You were a toad head? Yes. Yes.

Sweet. So, the tennis, that's going to be your big headline, is the fact that the run of Novak Djokovic is over for now. He will not win his 11th Australian Open.

He will not win Grand Slam title number 25. Otherwise, football, baby. It's a football Friday morning, after hours here on CBS Sports Radio. The coaching dominoes are dropping, so if you didn't hear, Raheem Morris will be the next head coach in Atlanta.

Interesting. They hired 14 candidates. Hired. They interviewed 14 candidates, including Mike Rabel and Bill Belichick, among a bunch of other coordinators. Belichick got a second interview. I don't believe Rabel had a second interview, but Belichick had a second interview. Harbaugh had a second interview, though he took the job in LA. Instead, they go with Raheem. Now, Raheem is well known in the NFL.

He was a head coach in the same division going back, meaning he was hired as the head coach by the Bucks from 09 to 11. I have a friend who is personal family friends with his family, and she raves about him. She just says, he's a quality guy.

She was so excited for him to get that opportunity. It did not go well. And so, for that reason, he ended up getting fired. He was on the Dan Quinn staff in 2020 when Dan Quinn got fired by Atlanta. And so he took over as the interim, but it was never his job. He didn't get the full-time gig after that, and so they went with Arthur Smith.

We know how that turned out. And so anyway, they go back to Raheem, the only head coach that Arthur Blank has ever hired with previous head coaching experience. And yet Bill Belichick still does not have a job. We also found out that Dave Canales will leave Tampa and will work with Bryce Young and the Panthers. So he's the next head coach with the Panthers. It's crazy the turnover in the NFC South. I mean, I know Dennis Allen and Derek Carr are staying put, but they're relatively new to the division, and the rest of the Saints roster has got some major changes coming.

They need to make changes. In Carolina, they're on their fourth head coach in two seasons. So Matt Ruhle and then Steve Wilks, right?

He finished out last year. And then Frank Reich, and now, oh, well, we forgot about, who was the interim? Shoot, I don't even know his name.

It didn't even matter. Wasn't he the special teams coach? Yeah. His name's totally escaping me well.

Right. Chris or something. Mike. Steve. John. Anyway, he was apparently never really up for the job either.

And so this is the fifth, if you count interims, the fifth head coach in three seasons. Chris Tabor. I knew it. I knew it was Chris.

Always go with your first answer. Those Chrises. Don't doubt me, you Chris hater. And so this is a situation where you can imagine there were some veteran head coaches who saw what happened to Frank Reich and were not thrilled. So Dave Canales becomes another head coach for the Panthers. They've got a brand new quarterback still, a lot of work to do with Bryce Young. And then Tampa, who loses its OC but obviously has to be considered the class of that division still as the reigning division champion now for a couple of years.

So that's the latest news. Seattle and Washington are still open. I can't imagine Belichick goes to Seattle. If you wanted a veteran coach with a ton of experience, you had one.

And he was Seattle football, Pete Carroll. So there's no, I just can't imagine they would ever go to Belichick. They're clearly looking for something different.

Well then what about Washington? Except I haven't heard that he's even interviewed there. And right now they are reportedly leaning toward Ben Johnson, the OC of the Lions.

Wow. What does this mean for Bill Belichick? That's the interesting question. Ian Rappaport is trying to figure it out. Let's talk about Bill Belichick potentially joining TV because certainly that would be a possibility. Will he win another Emmy?

I don't know, but he would be very good at it. Also could serve as a consultant, which is something that coaches taking a year off do. What this also sets up is Bill Belichick waiting. I know he's going to be 75 by next year, but the greatest coach of all time does not act his age.

It seems like he has a lot of energy, could come back in 2025. It sets up for the possibility that any team that struggles, what if the Dallas Cowboys don't get it done with Mike McCarthy? What if Nick Sirianni with the Philadelphia Eagles just do not have the kind of year that they want? There is Bill Belichick looming. The amount of TV time we are going to fill with Will Belichick eventually take over for X insert name of coach is going to be epic and I'm here for all of it. So what Ian Rappaport is saying on NFL Network is that the entire next year in the NFL is going to be dominated by where does Bill Belichick coach next. It's interesting too because when Mike McCarthy took that year off, not only that he was planning to take a year off, I do recall that he interviewed in a couple places after he lost the job in Green Bay. And then it became apparent that the right job, the right fit, it wasn't going to be won. But he decided to take a year off and kind of reinvent himself as a coach. And it turns out that he was hired in Dallas, which is one of the best jobs in the country. If you, I mean he and Jerry Jones seem to have a great relationship. I know that Jerry's not for everyone, but he and Mike McCarthy seem to get along just fine. And it's working. Three consecutive seasons of at least 12 wins, two division titles, Dak's best year, he's an MVP candidate, CeeDee Lamb is an offensive player of the year candidate, Micah Parsons is a defensive player of the year candidate, isn't, who else on that, oh Daron Bland. So they've got four guys who are up for player of the year awards, not to mention they ended up as the two seed. And I know they got blown out by Green Bay, but I still think it's a great fit.

So you can at me if you like. But if Belichick is the elephant in the room, the elephant in all the coaching rooms, you lose your job and guess what, you could be replaced by Bill Belichick or more to the point, owners and general managers know he's available and think, okay, well if this doesn't work out or we've had enough or our coach is in the hot seat and he doesn't do enough to prove himself this year, guess what, we could have ourselves a shot at Bill Belichick. Wow, I understand where Ian's coming from.

I really do. Nick Sirianni is keeping his job in Philadelphia, though he's changing both coordinators again. Vic Fangio, who was he let go in Miami, it was a mutual parting of ways, anyway. He's supposed to end up as the DC in Philadelphia, but there were a lot of problems on offense this year too, Nick Sirianni. To me, we got a little bit stale on offense by the end, you know, at the end of the year and these ideas and this new person coming in is meant to, you know, take away the staleness and add the value of what they're adding to the offense.

We just need to bring some ideas in from the outside, right? And we need to bring a guy in with new ideas that's not part of this family of coaches. I think that's an important thing or even if it is a family of the coaches that has been somewhere else and then it could be any of that. And so, that's important.

You know, that's important because that's important that you're making sure you always evolve. An important thing for us to look at is before the stretch, which was, you know, a difficult stretch, you know, not diminishing the one and six stretch at the end, we were 26 and five over the last 31 games. I mean, that's four times the amount of games that we played over this stretch. That is hard to do in the National Football League. That is hard to find a head coach in this league who has that record of success. I think we're 33 and 11 up until that point. With Nick, we've made the playoffs three straight years again.

Not okay finishing one and six, I'm not sitting up here saying that, but it is hard to find somebody who can do those sort of things. And I think as we go forward, you know, doing this together in a way that continues to get the best possible people we can on and off the field for me. That's my job to try to make sure that we have that on the field and my group is as strong as we possibly can get, and I know Nick's committed to that in his group.

Howie Roseman publicly affirming, vote of confidence for Nick Sirianni. And we'll see what they end up doing as OC. But honestly, it felt like the defense was a bigger problem most of the season. It's not as easy to change coordinators, right? He changed them both for this season when he lost them to head coaching jobs. And so think about, say, Sean McVay, who continues to lose coordinators, or Kyle Shanahan and the Niners who lose people all the time.

It's not easy to find that same chemistry and the same quality coaches, so that's also a challenge for the Eagles organization. All right, coming up, we are going to go deep dive on the AFC Championship. Ravens and Chiefs, will the defending Super Bowl champs get back to the grandest stage in sports or will this be a Baltimore victory?

Haven't hosted it in decades. Looking forward to this AFC Championship. Is that your game of the week? You can take our poll on Twitter after hours CBS.

Let's see. Oh, phone number 855-212-4227 on Facebook too. Good Friday morning to you here on CBS Sports Radio. You are listening to the after hours podcast. The Sultan of sizzle, the Titan of toastiness, the kingpin of kindling. These are the admired ones. Those who've created the prime place together. They don't just have a backyard, they have the backyard because they know a solo stove fire pit is more than just the ultimate smokeless fire pit. It's a place where friendships are forged, football is revered, and food is enjoyed. Solo stove, the perfect flame for the big game. Listen up.

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Instacart for the win. A peanut butter M&M's production. In a world where Super Bowl winners get the world's admiration and a fancy ring, but the runners up get nothing, one retired cop returns. That's one retired quarterback. Read the script.

Oh, sorry. One retired quarterback returns to claim what's his. That's claim a ring with diamonds made from M&M's peanut butter, but you're on a roll. The Ring of Comfort, coming soon to a Super Bowl new you. Hands it off. Runs hard.

Pushes, pushes, pushes. First down at his own 45 yard line and a minute 28 to go, gaining just enough to move the chains and Mahomes is high-fiving everybody on the sideline and Pacheco runs hard. Jersey tough to get a first down. Hakun Bawali will carry between the hash marks, gets it to the 46 yard line and we are down to the final seconds as the players converge at midfield and it is all over in Baltimore. The Ravens are heading to the AFC championship game.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Jerry Sandusky on Ravens radio, Mitch Holtus on Chiefs radio and yeah, these two teams are coming into the AFC championship from different trajectories where you've got the Chiefs six in a row, six championship games in a row, but the first five have been at Arrowhead Stadium. The Ravens are hosting it for the first time at home, which is amazing and there are so many different players to watch, of course.

There's a lot of storylines here. For instance, John Harbaugh came from the Andy Reid coaching tree long, long time ago. You obviously know about the Ravens and Lamar Jackson, but what about their defense? The fact that they've been one of the stingiest and nastiest defenses across the board in every category in the NFL this season, but the Chiefs defense has also been sneaky good in a way that it has covered for a lot of the mistakes and miscues. It dropped passes and lower production, so a down year for the Chiefs offense with Patrick Mahomes, but he's still Patrick Mahomes and it's still Travis Kelce and it's still the Andy Reid offense and there's always that potential, not to mention Isaiah Pacheco.

He's been fantastic since about halfway through his rookie year. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence here on CBS Sports Radio, so why don't we start with the coaches? It's fun to hear John Harbaugh talk about his brother, right, Jim, who got the job in L.A., but he raves just as much about his former mentor, Andy Reid.

I think it's pretty cool. I look back to those years and you think about all the great coaches that run that staff, the staff that Andy assembled and mentored, as you said, and taught us all so much. We were a close group of guys, kind of a staff that loved each other.

I see a lot of that in this staff, too. I can give you all the names, I mean, Steve Spagnola is on their staff now, he was a big part of that. We became close friends and Dave Tobe and Tom Melvin, but also all the other guys, you know, Ron Rivera and Brad Childress and Leslie Frazier and Pat Shurmur, you go down the line, so many amazing coaches. I think I'm a football team, very well coached, John does a phenomenal job there as a head football coach and he knows the whole game. He was a great special teams coach, great secondary coach, and he's been a great head coach. Every now and then it's fun to think about the Andy Reid coaching tree.

It is extremely prosperous and productive. It's got many branches, deep roots, and they all rave about the man, they really do. And he continues to have coach. We haven't heard Eric B. Enemy's name at all in this latest round, but the coaches that leave Andy Reid generally go on to become pretty successful.

I mean, the numbers of guys that John listed that are either former or current head coaches or coordinators is astounding. I've used that word a bunch tonight, I don't know why all of a sudden it's in my head. I'll try for a different one.

Astounding how many times you've used it. Alright, don't encourage me. So then let's talk about quarterbacks because we know you want to. Lamar Jackson and Patrick Mahomes keep getting asked the same question.

What do you like about facing the other one? I don't like competing against him at all. But yeah, I mean, he's a great quarterback. Definitely a Hall of Famer. It's not even, it's a no brainer.

He's definitely a Hall of Famer. But it's just, I believe it's just two, two, two greats, up and coming greats just going toe to toe, you know, like a heavyweight fight. It's challenging. The way he's able to just be a competitor and score the football, obviously, and then their entire team. I mean, it's a tall task. You got to go out there and play your best football. And if you make any mistakes, it seems like the game's going to go the other way. So we've been able to play in a couple of games, not in a few years now. But I've admired watching him from afar and know that it's going to be a great challenge for us every time we go up against him. We can't overshadow what's in front of us right now.

Not at all. You know, those guys are the former Super Bowl champions. And to be a champion, you got to go through a champion, you know, so that's pretty much the mindset. Trying to find a way to get to the Super Bowl and obviously try to win it. But I do have an appreciation for where I ended up, the players that I have around me, the coaches that I have around me, and the organization that I'm in and that we're lucky enough to be in this position. But that's stuff that you want to look at when you're done playing.

So right now I'm just focused on today and how I can get better. It is going to be a lot of fun to see these two guys in the same stadium, not on the field at the same time. And no, wins are not a QB stat that goes against my religion.

I cannot, no. But still super cool. And we could be talking or hearing from talking about the reigning NFL MVP and the soon to be crowned NFL MVP. Lamar Jackson is the favorite.

Now we know the finalists. They include Dak Prescott. They include Josh Allen. They include two guys from San Francisco.

We'll talk about them before the top of the hour. But speaking of Josh, I think it's kind of fun to think about the AFC Championship game through the eyes of the defense because it's going to be maybe even more important or as important as those quarterbacks. But Nick Bolton, part of that Chiefs D, first they had to prepare for the challenge of Josh Allen, the load that is Josh. And now it's the elusive and speedy and so fleet and quick. And everything he does, he doesn't just move quick.

He thinks quick. Lamar Jackson. It's a little carry over for sure. Those guys are both electric with the ball out in space. They're able to look down the field and still make passes while still escaping. Both guys like to go out to their right man and rightfully so, right-handed quarterback. So I was about to do limit that as much as we can, man, and a place to keep coverage in the back end when he scrambles. And then you think about the addition or the element of Roquan Smith to Baltimore and their defense and how critical he's been. They rave about him with the Ravens.

That was not intended. But a lot of people will tell you he's the piece that has been the glue for this defense that has taken it to the next level. That includes Mike McDonald, the DC, talking about his leadership.

Tough to find a place to start. He's the guy we look to when we need something to be said. He knows what to say and when. I think what's unique about him is what shows up on the field is backed up all the talk.

When you play the style of football that he plays, it's contagious. And the guys see it and it pops off off the screen. We talk about expectations and playing like a Raven, that's what it is.

So you don't need to explain it, you just show it and the guys understand it. Now in terms of defense, what did we see last week from Houston? The Texans tried to get to Lamar Jackson with the blitzing. Well, the Ravens figured it out pretty quickly. Second half, right? The game was tied at halftime if I remember. But second half, no trouble with it. He just showed his butt.

For that reason. We know that Kansas City has a strong pass rush. Chris Jones, great year. How often have we heard George Karlovtus being singled out in these playoffs even? But can they put pressure on Lamar and contain him without blitzing him and leaving other areas exposed? It's hard to blitz him because of his quick thinking and his quick movements, how athletic he is. I mean, we've seen him how many times stop on a dime and you think you got him and he's going the other direction. He can make 10 yards out of 70, if that makes sense.

Just back and forth across the field laterally until he finds a seam. I mean, the kind of stuff he does, we've rarely seen it on a football field. But Patrick Mahomes, also extremely elusive. The fact that he can extend plays as well.

They both can run, but it's a completely different style of running. No one would call Patrick Mahomes fast. And yet he's so cunning.

I think he's the most underrated rushing quarterback in football. Yeah, he's so crafty. He runs at the absolute perfect time every time. It's always with a purpose, too. It's never just a run.

Nope. It's always when it's third and 22 and he'll get it every time. And the coverage is so good everywhere else and he waits till the last possible second. He doesn't just take off. I mean, he wants to throw the ball, but he can sidestep. He's got a sixth sense almost. His fakes. Like the pump fake last week. Oh my gosh.

Underhand. He's the smartest running quarterback. He's very smart, but really crafty, too. And I think sometimes he must surprise himself.

So that'll be a lot of fun. But again, these defenses are so good. And they also, they can create turnovers, but the Ravens are a lot better at it. Maybe that's one area where the Ravens have an advantage. Plus the home, the hometown fans, the purple people leaders, if you will.

Except Chiefs have this experience, and man, they are a tough out. By the way, Deebo Samuel has practiced, though we don't yet know if he'll be playing in this game. They need him. They need all hands on deck.

All the weapons. By the way, did you hear? This is funny. Travis Kelsey and his brother Jason, they do the New Heights podcast. We played some of the stuff with Jason in the shirtless antics.

Just whatever. That was funny earlier in the show. But also, you may have seen on NFL films or even the end of the game in Buffalo that Travis and Josh Allen were running into the tunnel. And so they showed that video a lot. Maybe it was at halftime. But they showed the two of them in the tunnel at the same time, talking to each other. And Travis finally revealed what he said to him.

You might have asked me how I'm getting so open, and I just told him, baby, I'm blending the trees with the best of them. Stealth mode. You might have stealth mode as a skill set, man, to get you out of anything. Stealth mode. There's nothing stealthy about Travis Kelsey. Or Jason. No.

Neither one of them. Stealthy is not a thing. Stealthy and subtle.

Not a thing. Though Travis seems to be open, with no one within yards or miles of him, for... It's amazing.

Now, I think that's about the designs, the schemes. But also, he is out there freewheeling it sometimes because he and Pat know each other so well. He can see what's developing.

He can send him somewhere, but still. How he gets alone is beyond me. He's a tree. And he says he blends in with the trees.

And he's like, you know, playoff record holder with Mahomes. But let's leave him open. Don't worry about him. Let's leave him open. Let's take our chances. Maybe he'll drop this one. Cover everybody else.

Let's get busy covering MVS and just leave Travis wide open. It's good stuff. All right, NFC Championship. You Lions fans, you're cur... Make this Valentine's Day one she'll remember forever with an engagement ring from JamesAllen.com. James Allen knows each love story is unique. That's why they make it easy to custom design engagement rings at up to half the price of a traditional jeweler. Choose from tons of conflict-free diamonds, both natural and lab-grown.

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This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Dan Miller on Lions Radio, recent guest here on CBS Sports Radio, After Hours, and before that, Greg Papa on Niners Radio, and yeah, a lot of star power in these two games, but the NFC Championship, because of the Lions and the success, one step away from the Super Bowl where they've never been before, there's so much buzz for this game in the Bay Area on Sunday, and instead of chanting Derek Barnes' name at the Red Wings game on Thursday night in the third period, you're not going to believe whose name they were chanting. This is the times you dream of as a kid and you grow up hoping to be in these final games and we're one win away from our ultimate goal of getting to the Super Bowl and winning that game as well, but yeah, we're where our feet are today and being very present and I know this will be a challenge for us this week and doing our best. I know when Jared said these are the moments you dream about as a kid, he wasn't talking about his name being chanted by fans inside the Red Wings arena, but how cool is that? Jared Goff has become the toast of the town. He is king of Detroit right now, Jared Goff.

Oh my gosh, that makes me so happy for Jared. It really does. I know. He's not even there.

I didn't show him. But it's so cool. It's so cool. It's amazing.

It is after hours here on CBS Sports Radio. Yeah, so Jared of course, the offense, Jamir Gibbs, and Sam Laporta, both Offensive Rookie of the Year candidates, so they were named as finalists. I don't think he's a candidate, I mean, he's not a candidate for Comeback Player of the Year.

I'm trying to think of what other award might fit him, but it's just so neat to see him resurrect his career and be happy about playing in Detroit. Now, the Lions obviously represent so much of this fan base. Aidan Hutchinson, he's been a part of that fan base even before he was a part of the Lions. Growing up here, you grow up with a lot of the same old Lions stuff and a lot of the tragedy and whatever you want to call it, I grew up with it, and so to be on this side of it and even, I see videos of little kids and just seeing that generation grow up with this Lions team and the Lions teams to come, it's cool to have two different perspectives on it and to see both sides of the coin. I think we all believe it, we all believe it, we're all going to come into that game with the expectation of winning it and going to the Super Bowl, that's what we believe and we'd expect nothing less. So awesome, the story itself is amazing and we can't preview the NFC Championship without letting you hear from one Dan Campbell, I mean, it's just Dan Campbell.

Right now, is there anybody on the planet you'd rather hear from? If you want to be, you want to be competitive in the playoffs, you want to have a chance to really go all the way, you have to be a good road team, I believe that because you're not always going to get the one seed, that's the cream of the crop, that's the one. But man, if you can win on the road, that means you can handle adversity, you can handle the ebbs and flows of the game, you don't crack, you handle pressure well.

And so I think that's something that we talk about here, the way we practice, the way we do things, the way camp is, all of that, and I think it serves you well. He's relatively tepid there, not the emotional Dan Campbell we get post-game locker room, but you never know, there could be one of those coming up, epic, it could be epic if he leads the Lions to the Super Bowl. Now I'm not rooting against the Niners, I don't pick sides in these games, I'm looking for the stories, and Detroit is a story along the lines of the Chicago Cubs ending their 108 year drought, right, to win the World Series in, what was that, 16? I mean this is what we're talking about, we're talking about the USA men's soccer team winning the World Cup, that's what this is right here.

Who says we can't get flexed? Really, it's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio, Brock Purdy, I don't know why people have so many negative things to say about this guy, maybe he wasn't supposed to be the starting quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, but I don't know what there isn't to like and appreciate about him, and he's already moving on, absorbing the mistakes from Green Bay. You're real with yourself, you understand where you're at as a quarterback, how you played, and it doesn't matter if you play good or bad, like you can't, I don't think, take really any of that with you the next week, it's a new game, it's a new scheme, it's a new environment, everything, everything about it is new, so it's almost like you gotta clean the slate, learn from the mistakes, build off of the good things that you've done, but it's gonna be, it's a new game. So that's the mental battle that I feel like all the NFL quarterbacks go through, and I think that's where the great ones really separate themselves from the others.

So yeah, that's how I look at it. I don't think Brock really listens to too much, I don't think he uses any type of social media very much, and I think he's kind of like me, you don't really read anything unless your mom sends you it, so I think Brock's just gonna be dialed the way that he has been all season the last two years for us, and people can say whatever they want to say, and he's just gonna go out there and be Brock. All right, well he could have Deebo Samuel, he could not have Deebo Samuel, as for the Niners, they've got to face Aiden Hutchinson and that Lions-Fierce D-front. They're bigger guys, they compress the pocket, all of them play like their hair is on fire, nobody takes a play off, you know, they're a great complement to 97 on the other side because he often gets pressure and kind of flushes the quarterback right to those guys that's compressing the pocket. So they have a good rush plan, man, you know, obviously Colton, I'll probably see him too I'm sure, but any place 97 lines up, you got your work cut out for you, he doesn't stop, so he's a great player, so you know, we definitely got to be locked in.

Like their hair's on fire, all gas, no breaks, baby, all gas, no breaks. I do believe the Lions are gonna be a sentimental favorite, but the thing is, the Niners haven't won a Super Bowl either since the 80s, or was it early 90s? Quick, Google it! So the Niners haven't been there in a long time either, but this, it's just such a different animal because of the Detroit story, 95, thank you. They've been to a couple of Super Bowls, but they haven't won one this century either, so either way, there are some vindication storylines that are going on here, so we will talk to you on Sunday night, enjoy your weekend, no Saturday football, whatever will we do with our lives, it's After Hours with Amy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio, boom!

A Peanut Butter M&M's Production. In a world where Super Bowl winners get the world's admiration and a fancy ring, but the runners-up get nothing, one retired cop returns. That's one retired quarterback, read the script!

Oh, sorry. One retired quarterback returns to claim what's his. Let's claim a ring with diamonds made from M&M's peanut butter, but you're on a roll. The Ring of Comfort, coming soon to a Super Bowl new you.

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2024 Santa Fe, available early 2024. 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, join the thousands of professionals who rely on Graybar to help keep them up and running. Yeah, Graybar does that.