After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 3

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

These are the admired ones. Those who've created the prime place to gather. 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.

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. Um, 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.

I am assuming that producer Jay dials up this music on this production, as we call it in the biz, because he needs you to wake up. We are two hours to the weekend, peeps, and we've got two championship games to preview. While we're on the two-theme, we're into the second semi-final at the Australian Open on the men's side. Believe it or not, Novak Djokovic ousted in four sets, and he barely managed to stay alive in the third set. He wanted a tie break, but did have to erase a match point against the Italian Yannick Sinner, who is into his first ever Grand Slam final.

So congratulations to him. Meanwhile, Novak is left to contemplate what went wrong. I was, in a way, shocked with my level, you know, in a bad way. I mean, not much I was doing right in the first two sets. And, yeah, I guess this is one of the worst Grand Slam matches I've ever played. Wow.

At least that I remember. So, yeah, not a very pleasant feeling playing this way, but at the same time, you know, credit to him for doing everything better than me, you know, in every aspect of the game. How about that? A humbling experience for the number one player in the world. Novak Djokovic has his dominance, his grip loosened at the Australian Open. In fact, get this, he never lost in the semifinals of the Australian Open in his entire career.

What about that? But the 22-year-old Italian Sinner broke Novak's serve twice in each of the first two sets. Sinner didn't have his serve broken. Congratulations to him.

That's amazing. So Novak will not win his record 11th Australian Open title, and his 25th major will have to wait for later on this year for another opportunity. It was really, it was incredible to watch, especially with Sinner's serve.

That was a major, it was a major weapon slash asset in this match. The other semifinal is going on right now down under. Daniil Medvedev and I forgot Zverev's, I forgot his first name. Andre, no Andre, no. Alexander. I was close.

I was so close. I would never have guessed that. With the last name Zverev, I never would have guessed that.

It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. Also, his coach is getting in trouble for talking from the stands. You're not supposed to be talking to your player from the stands. You actually, in fact, Medvedev is calling for the coach of Zverev to get kicked out because you're not supposed to be communicating with your player from the stands. It's against the rules. You could actually see your player, your athlete, can get docked points.

You get warnings and then you get docked points. Ultimately, you could actually lose a game if your coach continues to speak to you from the box. So you're not supposed to be coaching. When these athletes are out there in tennis events, it's not like golf where you have a caddy, maybe you have an agent or a coach walking with you. No, you're not supposed to have any communication from anyone else when you're out there on the court. It's a lonely feeling. I feel like it's the loneliest sport.

We have a team around you, but you're out there on your own island when you're competing. Anyway, so Medvedev is not thrilled with Zverev's coach. The judge was very stern. Did you hear him? Because I don't have the audio up in here. No, I didn't hear him. I just see his face. He's not messing around.

Yeah, no, he's not. He gave a warning. So beware. Serious warning. Serious warning. Don't be messing with this chair umpire.

It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio, on Twitter, ALawRadio, also on our Facebook page, After Hours with Amy Lawrence. As much as I am blown away by Novak Djokovic losing in the semifinals and really getting unceremoniously dumped out by Sinner, I'm just as astonished that Bill Belichick does not have a coaching job. Will he coach anywhere in 24?

That now becomes the question. I don't think there's any way he ends up in Seattle. That, to me, feels weird. Why would John Schneider go from Pete Carroll, who's got, what, 15 years of experience, 14 years coaching there, to a guy who was a year younger?

That part makes no sense to me. I'm not saying that Bill Belichick isn't an upgrade. I guess that's subjective. If you're just measuring by Super Bowl rings, of course he is. They went head-to-head in the Super Bowl.

Bill won. But it just doesn't seem like if you fire Pete Carroll that you're looking for a Bill Belichick. I don't know.

It's hard to explain, really. But given their tenure in their previous jobs and their ages and their experience, if what you were looking for was Belichick, Pete Carroll's already there. Right? So he's already a Hall of Fame coach?

Pete Carroll? Yeah. I think so. Yeah?

Okay. So at least, if nothing else, he's mentioned. He's on the docket whenever his turn comes up. And I don't know that he's officially retired.

But it's either Seattle or could you imagine if he took a defensive coordinator job? No. No.

It crossed my mind if that's something he would consider. I don't think so. He can't, right?

No way. Who's going to tell Bill Belichick what to do? I mean, he'd be great at it. But really, maybe he wants that. Maybe he doesn't want to be in charge. No, that doesn't fit him.

I don't think so. I think he would have made that clear, right? Because then it would have been on his terms. He would have said, I want to be a defensive coordinator. He would have made that clear, right? So this conversation wouldn't have happened. He would have put the kibosh on that. He did interview for head coaching job.

So there's that, right? If he didn't want to be a head coach, why would you take those interviews? It is really interesting that after speculation, this is before he ever parted ways with Bob Kraft.

After speculation about Washington, unless it's been some secret clandestine interview, he's not even a consideration there. That's really interesting to me. And by interesting, I mean head scratching. Odd. Strange. I guess they're a team trying to rebuild, maybe, and he's not more looking to do that. I don't know if that's his decision. Maybe. I mean, we're speculating.

We have no idea. Except that both Atlanta and Carolina have quarterback projects, right? Atlanta doesn't really have one. I can't imagine they're going with Desmond Ritter again. So they're going to be in the free agent.

We'll call it a portal. They're going to be in the free agent portal again. And Washington still has to figure it out. Maybe Sam Howell gets another opportunity.

It really depends on what else they can find, though. That revolving door at quarterback and Washington just continues to spin. I will see them drafting someone at number two this year and then probably going with Sam Howell for, I don't know, six weeks. Let them play it out a little bit. A lot of the quarterbacks that are coming out will be expected to start. Yeah, but I don't know if that's always the best idea.

Well, agreed. I'm just saying, like, they're going to draft them high up. Caleb will start, right?

You'd imagine where he ends up. Caleb Williams, yeah. Well, I mean, most people think there's no way that Chicago doesn't pick him. So maybe Justin Fields is available. Maybe Justin Fields is available. Baker Mayfield's available. He absolutely is. Kirk Cousins is available.

He's not going back to Washington. Russell Wilson. Is he available? True.

Probably is available, but the price could be steep. How about Jimmy Garoppolo? Yeah. What are the Raiders going to do with him? He signed a three-year deal, if I'm not mistaken. So he's got two years left on his deal. They're clearly not going to go with him.

Right. But is anybody else interested now? A team maybe like the Falcons or the Steelers who have a good team. The Steelers? They need a quarterback who's not going to maybe lose or turn it over. Mason Rudolph's available. Yeah. Mason could be available.

He kind of resurrected his career until the playoff game. Anyway. Yeah.

There are definitely some names out there. So we'll have to see what happens. But I am astonished that Bill Belichick and Mike Vrabel do not currently have jobs. Would Mike Vrabel be a fit in D.C.? I could see him more, not that I could, I never would have picked this to begin with, but I could see him maybe going to the Seahawks, maybe? Hmm. I could see him going to the Seahawks more than I could see Bill Belichick, of course. Right.

That fit doesn't, it doesn't work. Yeah. Well, we'll have to comb through the insiders' intel and see if we can find anything new on these other two coaching opportunities. But what we know now is the NFC South is filled out with one defensive coordinator, and actually a former interim head coach there in Atlanta, though the job was Dan Quinz, and he inherited it. But Raheem Morris hasn't had his own head coaching job since 2011, and now is the head coach again, and he's got a lot of people who will rave about him until the cows come home.

I don't know where I got that phrase from. And then Dave Canales taking over as the new head coach in Carolina, where his primary responsibility will be finding the best of Bryce Young. Bryce Young needs to live his best life, and that's Dave Canales' primary job. But Golden Tate is absolutely on board with the Canales hire. I remember Dave always been a hard worker, always had a lot of knowledge, always had a lot of enthusiasm, and I think he's going to fit in great with the young team over there. And besides that, what he did in Tampa this year, I know I didn't give him much of a chance, is really impressive. So I'm excited for him. And then thinking about, so those are an offensive and defensive coordinator, an offensive guy in Bryan Callahan in Tennessee, and he was introduced on Thursday.

And so you've got two O coordinators and a D coordinator. The connection from the get-go was incredible. And I knew that it was going to be a place that I wanted to call home. It felt like that from the very beginning. I'm thankful that they felt the same way. I was about to make an impassioned plea to Rand as our meeting was concluding on Monday evening, and it turns out I didn't have to do that.

They wanted me about exactly the same way that I wanted them. Bryan Callahan in the AFC South. Three South jobs are filled. And then Jim Harbaugh from college in the AFC West. And this is kind of cool. We haven't heard from him yet. I'm not exactly sure when he is going to speak. But his brother, John, is getting ready for his AFC championship game in Baltimore, and he's all excited for his bro.

My thoughts are we play next year. So we're looking forward to all of it. I'm just very happy for him, proud of him, excited for him, excited for his family.

I heard my mom and dad told me that he called back in the evening, and he found out that all of his kids, starting with Addie and Katie, had their bags packed already. They're ready to go. So they're excited too. So it's going to be great. He's well-deserved. And I'll say this, the Chargers just got themselves one great coach. I love their relationship.

It's really cool. Also, he says that he's still trying to convince Jim before he dons the powder, blue, and gold that he needs to put on purple and black for Sunday. I actually thought about that. Will Jim be wearing Ravens gear if he comes in for the game this weekend? I don't know the answer to that. We may have to require it perhaps.

So that's a good question. The defensive coordinator job in Miami is open. Maybe Bill Belichick would like to go work with Mike McDaniel. Vic Fangio, by the way, left the Dolphins and is expected to get the job in Philadelphia. So Philadelphia is changing both coordinators two years in a row.

That's crazy, isn't it? Both coordinators two years in a row. I'm just imagining a conversation between Mike McDaniel and Bill Belichick. Maybe he'll go to the Giants and be the new D coordinator under Brian Daybal.

I know he loves the Giants. Maybe he's waiting out a year to see what happens with Brian Daybal next season. It's a big season for Daybal. Are you suggesting that Daybal might get the boot?

If the season doesn't go well next year, it's definitely possible. Maybe he could go work in Buffalo, replace Ken Dorsey. I guess we don't know yet whether or not Brady is going to keep that job. Allen seems to like him. Yes, Allen.

Josh does seem to like it. Let's see. Where else is there a coordinator? Oh, he could be the offensive coordinator back in Cleveland. That'll go well. The Jets might be looking for a coach.

They hate him there. The Jets are looking for a coach next year, you mean? Yeah, next year.

Oh my gosh. Early on into the season, maybe. What happened when Bill went to the Jets last time? If we're going by what a lot of the insiders are saying, even though Washington has interviewed a ton of people and they still have second rounds of interviews set up with a handful of those guys, they've been very quiet about it.

This is the new ownership group spearheaded by Josh Harris. Ben Johnson is seemingly the guy that everyone's putting there. But at the same time, Bill Belichick was destined for Atlanta when this whole process started, and that's not the direction Arthur Blank ended up going in.

So be prepared for curveballs. But yeah, a lot of people are tying Ben Johnson to the job in Washington, which would lead only Seattle, and then coordinator gigs or TV gigs. I just can't imagine Bill Belichick on TV. He's done specials for NFL Network, and he knows football like nobody's business, but he just doesn't play the game. No, he's not very entertaining to listen to. Right, he can be monotone.

He is funny, but it's weird. I just don't know if his personality would translate as well on TV or radio. What would he do, you think? He wouldn't be like a color commentator. He'd be more like an analyst, right?

I mean, the same thing. He'd be a straight man, though. I mean, I can't imagine him making jokes. No, I mean more could you see him being like calling games? No, he wouldn't be play-by-play.

He would be an analyst. Or like a halftime show. Oh, I see what you're saying. In the booth or on the... Gotcha.

Gotcha. Or at the... what would they call it? Desk. At the desk.

There you go. That's a good question. Probably at the desk would be a better fit. Because then you can hand him topics and say these are yours. As opposed to off the cuff or what has to be taking place on the fly in a booth. I mean, it's not his football knowledge.

It's just whether or not he can package it in a way that's somewhere between Tony Romo and Matt Ryan. I think I'd be interested to hear what he'd have to say. Well, I would too, but what if he doesn't want to? What if he's like, nah. Of course. That's not...

I'm just not interested in that. But if he was into it and like put into the time and effort into that that he did coaching, it could be... I mean, obviously you're saying he's a brilliant football mind. He's brilliant, but the communication part. If he could take that channel, that humor, which he's able to sometimes and just be that all the time. But he mumbles. I know.

I know. But like you said, he's shown flashes of being like charismatic. So the NFL Network specials where they did the top 100 and it was like top 10 quarterbacks, top 10 this, top 10 coaches. He is a football historian in addition to being a mad scientist. It's not the knowledge part. And when he's engaged and wants to, yeah, he can be very entertaining.

But the personality is still more, much more monotone. It's football that gets him excited. Football and Bon Jovi. He's a big Bon Jovi fan? I know that. He is a big Bon Jovi fan. Actually a big music fan.

Anyway, it's just I don't know. I can't see that. I could see a year off and then waiting for the right job. That's what Mike McCarthy did, whether he wanted to initially or not. And he got the best job. What? I said speaking of. Speaking of.

Could be that one. Stop it. Will you stop firing him? We haven't even started the next season yet.

Fire him. Okay. Coming up, a little bit about my trip to Augusta. I know you guys are all thrilled that I didn't get arrested for stalking Augusta National. I had to see Magnolia Lane multiple times.

When you're taking a photo, you don't get a chance to soak it in. So we had to go back. It was really cool. And you can vote for after hours game of the week.

We'll get to QB news and our previews and all of that jazz jazz coming up in the final 90 minutes of the week. I haven't slept in a couple of days. Well, I've slept one night like the last three days. So if I say something that makes no sense, just nod and smile. Day by day. Yeah, right. That's only a principle that applies to one of us when we're sleeping. It's After Hours with Amy Morris.

We don't have time for that. 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. 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. Um, that's claim a ring with diamonds made from M&M's peanut butter, but you're on a roll.

Ring of Comfort, coming soon to a Super Bowl new you. Every night I woke up about one something I've been with you ever since. Hey, God bless you, Amy. Good morning. How are you? I'm great. Hey, Amy, I love listening to you. Hello. Hello. Hey, Amy, how you doing?

First time caller. Love your show. Love you. Wonderful. In the words of Ric Flair.

Woo! This After Hours with Amy Lawrence. If you needed a jam to wake up on your Friday morning, I'd rather be up all night than to have to wake up at such an hour. Whether it's 4.25 Eastern Time, 3.25 Central Time. No, I might as well just be up all night because I stink at mornings and it would take me forever to get warmed up and going.

I did mornings a couple times in my career and it was not pretty. So I am back with you for another 90 minutes and then off for the weekend. But just so you know, I was working really hard while I was gone. I was in Augusta, Georgia, for the Peach Belt Conference Women in Sports Seminar. And it was really neat to participate, first off, in a panel discussion that featured nine women in all walks of the sports industry. There was a head softball coach. There was a woman who worked in NCAA compliance. There was a woman who participates or works for a subsidiary of U.S. Soccer for the state of Georgia.

So she runs Georgia Soccer for the U.S. Soccer Federation. There was another athletic trainer there. There was a couple different educators. Also, there was an athletic director for a D3 school, which was really neat. An African American woman that was in charge. She was awesome. Learned a lot from her.

And then there was a ref, a D1 basketball official. She was super cool. She's been doing it for 11 years, 12 years, and has worked all manner of games, including NCAA tournament games. And she was really cool to hear from. Anyway, so I was part of this panel.

There was also a soccer announcer who works for Sirius XM, as well as Charlotte FC. She had graduated from a school in the Peach Belt Conference, and so they brought her back as an incredibly special guest. So it was an awesome new part of that panel where the young women, the athletes, and some of the younger administrators from the conference would ask questions. And it was really cool just to be part of a group that was sharing some of their stories, some of the hardships, but also some of the successes and victories, and to learn from them. Oh my gosh, one of the questions was about balancing personal and professional and finding a proper work-life balance. And so it was a question that was posed to every member of the panel. And they got to me and I said, hey, I'm just here for the Intel.

I got married five weeks ago and I'm still trying to figure it out. So that was fun. It was just really neat to hear from so many other women. And then after a great lunch, we did these breakout sessions that the conference dubbed professional speed dating, where you would sit at a table, the different panelists, and then the young women, the athletes, or the coaches, or the young administrators would come around and sit at your table and theoretically ask questions, except they would sit down at my table and just stare at me.

So I would start the conversation. But it was fun. It was really neat to meet some young women who were still participating in sports and talk to them about how college athletics have changed, the transfer portal. I got the skinny on the transfer portal. It's not as cool as you think it is. Someday I'll have to tell you about it because it's not what it's made out to be. Unless you are an athlete that's already well known is going to have people who are searching for you specifically.

Otherwise you are lost in a sea of names. And so that was kind of an education for me. And then to talk to some of the other young women who are now starting careers in sports, that was really cool as well to kind of encourage them and say, hey, take advantage of being in a room with 90, 85 to 90 other women who are either in similar spaces as you or are maybe more experienced than you and have some ideas about how you can get your foot in the door, how you can advance, and how do you find opportunities, and then what do you do when you've got an opportunity.

It just was really neat because they were from all walks of industry in the world of sports. And the last thing then was my keynote address. And I told them flat out how nervous I was because, and I said this to them, I'm generally not talking while people are staring at me, right? So producer Jay, he's busy behind the double pane glass. We do have a conversation and he's the person I look at most often, but half the time he's paying zero attention because he's doing something else.

That's not fair. Half the time he's not looking at me because he's doing other things. Sometimes he's eating. Sometimes he's drinking. Sometimes he's cleaning up the mess left by the people before him. Sometimes he's, I don't know, pulling sound for another segment. So he's busy doing his own thing, but it does help to have a human on the other side of the glass. It's just that he's more of a security blank as I'm not really talking to him. I'm talking to you most of the time.

It doesn't, I don't need it. When I take my show on the road or when I did my show from home during the pandemic, I was staring into a corner in my spare bedroom. So it's not necessary to have someone to look at. But when I'm standing at a podium and there are 80 young women staring at me, it is entirely different.

That is such a different experience. So I was nervous enough. Now I had written my notes down. This is how I generally come up with these things. I jot them down in a notebook and then I go back and I consolidate and I rearrange and I organize and I use color-coded markers if I need to and I number my points.

Writing it down again helps me remember it, but it also helps me to stay more organized. Except that because I was nervous, I was going through my 5x7 cards and somehow got them mixed up. And then toward the end was like, uh oh, where's my card?

I don't know. I must have flipped it over and so I couldn't see the end or like I put conclusion on the last card and I had my number three point. And so after I made my number three point, I flip over a card, but I'd already used that side of the card and was like, oh no.

And so I'm kind of sliding through my cards and at this point I know I'm running out of time. I told Jay I had way more material. I thought I was going to be under the 30 minutes, but because I tell stories, well you know me, I take the scenic route. So because I tell stories and I have tangents and my spaghetti plate brain and just in general taking time and kind of making my way through it and letting them have an opportunity to think about what I was saying. They also had to do a couple exercises with me, just write down a few lists that I asked them to write down. And so for that reason, it ended up taking the entire time and I probably had, not probably, I had more material I could have used.

And so I wasn't expecting that either. I had to wrap it up before I, you know, felt like I'd gotten to everything, but that's okay too. So I did finish only losing my place once or twice on my wayward note card.

Thankfully I had the notebook in front of me, so I just went back to the notebook to find my place. But yeah, it's a little scary. Just as a side note, so you know this is something that's not just in my professional life. I have never been more petrified than when my new hubs and I were doing our first dance at the reception and everyone was staring at us. I do not do well when everyone is staring at me. I will say though, more for the speaker, with everyone staring at you, it's a good thing.

It is, you're right. They were engaged, some were smiling, they were doing the exercises, I only saw one girl yawn. So you're right, to have them all staring at me means they're looking at me because they're expected and they're listening. But I just, I don't love people staring at me. Like I said, first dance, I was so uncomfortable. And I know now, my husband has said, I made a comment that it wasn't meant to be hurtful, but it also wasn't real nice about him and his dancing because I was so nervous. And I really don't remember what I said or what I was doing, only that I was petrified to be up there dancing. It's one thing to be talking, it's another thing to be dancing, which is not something I'm great at. And we were laughing and we had a good time, but it was not, I don't know. I don't do well when I'm the center of attention like that. I much prefer to be hiding in my radio studio where no one's looking at me, right?

You don't really count. I get that a lot. Do you know how our elevator has like fun facts? So I saw one the other day and it said, fear of public speaking? Try this. And it said, think of it in your own mind if you had to give a public speech.

Don't say people in their underwear. No, it said, think of it like you're doing them a service. Like the information you have to offer is so valuable that they wouldn't be the same if they didn't hear what you had to say. Interesting. All right, that's a good confidence boost.

Would you like to know what I talked about? Yes. Here was the hard part.

They gave me no parameters except for 30 minutes. Just go talk. Yeah. Like they said, you pick the topic, you do whatever you want. Inform us. Which was also a little bit disconcerting because I wasn't going to talk about radio for 30 minutes.

That's not something that a lot of these young women, I mean, they would have been interested, I suppose, in the stories, but not in it as a career. And I wanted to be a support and encouragement to them. So my overall umbrella theme was identity. And I started out by asking them to write down who they believe they are. What is your identity? And I shared some of my identity roles, right? So that it's not only who you see yourself as, but who others see you as.

So things like, well, new wife, daughter, granddaughter, auntie, radio host, writer, goofball, zookeeper, hiker, runner, coffee lover, piano player. So I asked them to take a couple of minutes and write those down. I probably, in hindsight, gave them too much time.

Maybe that's why I ran out because it got so quiet in there. They were focused. They were very focused. And so from my identity, I went to some main principles that I felt like are important to preserve your identity. Because in 2024, what's one of the number one threats to who you are as a person? Like who you are as a young woman specifically is social media. So I went through a lot of the, some of the challenges with social media here on the show, but also some of my main.

Because people, everywhere I go, people ask me, how do you deal with social media? And for a group of that age, most of them in their early to mid 20s, that was really important. In fact, the athletic director said to me afterwards, or the conference commissioner said to me afterwards, the social media, you knocked it out of the park. Like, so that was, that was big. But the second thing was about my identity, which is a role model, not supermodel.

It's something that I've done for the past 15 years. And so just talking to them about the qualities you learn in sports are the qualities that you can not only emulate to people who are watching, but also you can use those forward in your career. So that was kind of number two. And the third one was choose your battles. Not every battle is worth your time and energy. And I shared some of like the failures that I've run into and not every battle is worth fighting. And, you know, just careful how you spend your energy and your thoughts because that also defines you. So that was essentially the main. That's all great advice.

Thank you. That was essentially the main kind of outline. And then I told some stories too. And so I, like I said, felt nervous.

I feel like when I'm nervous that I really evaluate myself poorly. So now I feel like it was terrible. They were all engaged. Everyone's looking at you. Or maybe they were falling asleep with their eyes open.

That'd be cool. Anyway, so it was neat to meet a lot of them, especially the one other broadcaster who was there. And it was just an honor to represent the Peach Belt Conference. So I'm grateful for them again for having me. And oh my gosh, she called me nationally renowned sports radio host.

Well, I know, but it's funny to hear. Anyway, so it was neat. It was really neat. And they fed me well and they got me as much coffee as I needed and they took photos. And so it was good. It was fun. It was a quick trip, though.

Very quick trip. So we'll see if it leads to something else. Or if I never get asked to speak again because I was nervous and stuttering. Have you heard back from them since? Well, yes. So Diana took me to the airport and now we're fast friends. Okay, so it sounds like it went well. She was worried about me missing my connection in Atlanta, where I got on the plane and the pilot probably comes on after we push back from the gate. Well, we've been informed by air traffic control that there are 17 planes ahead of us for takeoff. Isn't that the worst?

Yes. And so then this is amazing, though, Jay. This has never happened to me before in my entire life.

And I've flown a ton. He comes on 10 minutes later. So we've all got our phones out again. People are standing up.

They're getting into the overhead bins. Make yourself comfortable. Yeah, just might as well. You're going to be here a while.

And all of a sudden he says, guess what? Great news. ATC is what he called it. Air traffic control has allowed us to cut the line.

Why? I don't know. We're going from 18th to first. So we pull out of line, we bust a move to the front, and we take off.

We have a national renowned radio host on this flight. Oh, stop it. That was not mine.

We've got to get out of here. I'm assuming it's because we were already late. I don't know.

No, there probably is. But isn't that amazing? That's insane. Never happened before on any flight that I've ever been on. Air traffic control, he said, let us cut the line. And we pulled out of line and went around a bunch of planes and took off within 30 seconds.

I would send that man a fruit basket. The controller. Thank you. ATC. Atlanta ATC, if you were working on the night of January 25th, I got a gift for you. Shout out. Oh my gosh. Yeah, thank you. Air traffic control in Atlanta.

We were only about 10 minutes late getting back to New York. I think he's a guardian angel. It might be. Now, if only they could find the personal item that I left on the first plane. What if he finds it? He's not going to find it.

He's in a tower. I left it on a Delta flight. Oh, that's the only bad part. That and the fact that I was so nervous and I lost my place in my notes.

But otherwise. Sounds like a great trip. Next stop, Vegas, baby. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence.

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It's toothpaste. That's because the middle is the most important part at Graybar. We're at the middle of electrical and data com jobs across the country, connecting installers, facility managers and business owners with smart solutions for their most challenging projects. Which means stocking and delivering crucial products on time and on budget with no surprises. Thanks to our nationwide logistics network. Yep, Graybar does that.

Postage and a free digital scale, no long term commitments or contracts that stamps dot com code program who has since been fired. You are listening to the After Hours podcast. It's always surprising when you see someone get fired, especially with a record like that, I think they're 30 and 13 or something.

But I've seen I've seen stuff. David Blatt got fired from Cleveland. This is a very difficult league for coaches and players. There's not much job security. Yet another reminder.

This is a pretty tough business. This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. The reaction of Steve Kerr, who has as much job security as you can possibly have in the NBA. And he commenting about the abrupt firing of Adrian Griffin, which even caught people in Milwaukee off guard.

And that includes one Yanis Atenakumpo. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. We now know, according to Sports Illustrated, in the last hour, Doc Rivers will be will be signing a four year deal to take over. I mean, if you want an experienced head coach, why not just hire him in the first place? Worth 40 million on it. OK, four year deal reportedly worth 40 million dollars for one Doc Rivers.

All right. So then what does Yanis have to say about the firing of the coach that he endorsed? He was 100 percent behind Adrian Griffin. At the end of the day, you know, like we're human, it hurts. I appreciate that Yanis is willing to let us behind the curtain, so to speak, and really share his emotions and the fact that this hurts. He was building something with Adrian. He believed in Adrian and someone's there and then they're not. And that's how quickly things can change and how much it actually can hurt. And he says no way was he expecting this to happen. I think he caught me by surprise.

I've been here 11 years. This have happened one time before. And I think the time that that happened wasn't doing real well.

We were 30, you know, 30 and 13. But again, like trust, like I got to trust the front office. I got to trust the ownership group. He does say he had absolutely nothing to do with this decision. When somebody is being hired at times, the GM might come and ask, like, what do you think about that?

What do you think about this or whatever you like? Not just me, my players, people that he trust, the advice. But at times they make it seem like it's the players are making the decision that this guy got traded because this, he wanted him. Like, no, you know, I have a job. Like, my job is to be the best version that I can be and try to lead this team to win games. That's like, that's why I get paid. I don't get paid to change people's life and make people uncomfortable. I get paid to defend, like, you know, I try to stick to that as much as I can, because I understand, like, I don't like that aspect of it.

And these people that get paid a lot of money to make those decisions and those decisions are hard. Seriously, the more he talks, the more I like him. He's so authentic and honest.

He even has dad jokes, though this was not the appropriate time. And honestly, he doesn't want to get involved in these types of decisions. It's clear that he's uncomfortable in that arena. I don't want to be involved in that.

I don't like that. You know, have I been in a position to be asked, what do you think about that or what you think about this? Yeah, many times, but I was not involved in the, you know, hiring of Coach Griff.

You know, I felt he was, you know, I talked with him the same way I talked with Coach Budd, but nobody said I was involved in, you know, hiring Coach Budd because I was a kid. But of course, what do you think about this guy? I think he's a great guy. He looks like a good guy to me, you know.

Coach Griff, everybody are good people. But ultimately, I don't make that decision. Lori, don't get me wrong, I wish I did. You know, I wish I did, but I don't. I really, really don't. I just try to stick with basketball.

It's tough. It's tough for any player to be in, especially when it catches you off guard and you are 30 and 13, as he points out, and now you have to adjust to someone new. And Doc Rivers is generally known as a player's coach.

I can't imagine it's going to be super abrasive. As a veteran, though, he's going to know how to, I don't want to say handle, but navigate the Damian Lillard, Giannis and Dennicumpo relationship, not just the spacing and the ball distribution and the sharing of the basketball, blah, blah, blah, on the court, getting that pick and roll to the point where, I mean, theoretically, it would be seamless, it would be a real weapon, but also the defense. I mean, Doc is known as a defensive guy, and they desperately need an upgrade on the defense.

Still, though, they were 30 and 13 with all these issues. It's astounding. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio. 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. Um, 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. On Monday, there's joy in every journey.

2024 Santa Fe, available early 2024. Nobody wants a surprise in their jelly donut. It's toothpaste? That's because the middle is the most important part. At Graybar, we're at the middle of electrical and datacom jobs across the country, connecting installers, facility managers, and business owners with smart solutions for their most challenging projects, which means stocking and delivering crucial products on time and on budget, with no surprises, thanks to our nationwide logistics network. Yep, Graybar does that.