2-9-24 After Hours with Amy Lawrence Podcast: Hour 3

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Offer valid for a limited time, $10 minimum per order. Additional terms apply. It's a place where friendships are forged, football is revered, and food is enjoyed. Sullo Stove, the perfect flame for the big game. This is his first full season as a starter. He competed his ass off today. He kept grinding. Touchdown San Francisco!

Guess who's still playing in the NFC? It's a purdy party. Heck of a game manager.

Wow, man, it's the heck out of that game, boy. He the reason we gonna have a chance to win us a ring. I love him. From the home of Super Bowl 58, it's After Hours with Amy Lawrence, sponsored by Southern Recipe.

I cannot wait to see how Mr. Irrelevant, oh the former Mr. Irrelevant, plays on Sunday. The game is almost here and yet it still seems dwarfed by everything else happening in Las Vegas.

We're at 98.5 HD2 The Bet, two hours to go in our run of shows. From the home of Super Bowl 58, we will be with you on the night of the Super Bowl, so after your party. Oh, and by the way, Bobby Flay has got some great recommendations for your Super Bowl party, no joke. Along with the Thunderbirds, celeb chef Bobby Flay, maybe the coolest guest that we've had this week on Radio Row, so you'll hear him in the final hour. We've still got stories from our cigar party, the mountain of a man that we were hanging out with in the VIP area. Oh, the VIP area.

That's where the heaters were. Also, we gotta tell you about our Damar Hamlin card trick. That was pretty incredible. And the moment that I realized I liked Josh Allen more as a man, maybe, than as a football player.

It was pretty sweet. Lots of stories from Radio Row still to come. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. We've got some new photos up and still more that we want to share with you this hour on Twitter, After Hours, CBS, or my Twitter, ALawRadio. Thank you so much for all of your kind words this week.

You've blown up both our Twitter and our Facebook pages, After Hours with Amy Lawrence. We had not one but two Hall of Famers sit down with us on Radio Row. Steve Largen, you heard him in the first hour, the Hall of Fame wide receiver who played his entire career with the Seahawks. Kellen Winslow, a tight end, was inducted in the same 1995 Hall of Fame class as Steve, spent his entire career with these San Diego Chargers. Never met him before, had no idea that he's about so much more than football. I told him and we talked about the fact that the NFL just keeps expanding.

It's got urban sprawl. There's really no off season anymore. People just can't get enough and I wanted to know from Kellen, why is that? The power of sports and the effect it has on society. I took a class as a freshman, a recreation class, and the opening lecture was a professor who came in and said that we basically spent three phases in our life. There's work, there's rest, and there's recreation. We sleep eight hours a day, we work eight hours a day.

I wish I slept eight hours a day. The other eight hours we spent in some pursuit of recreation and sports is a major part of that. It is and yet for you it was a job, right? Yeah.

How immersive is it? Is it an all-in thing? Well, it can be but it's also dangerous when it's all in because if it's a singular focus you don't develop your other personal skills, your other skills you have in other areas, and when that singular focus is taken away from you, you're lost. A lot of today's athletes, they're very diversified. They've got the social media, they've got the platforms, a lot have podcasts these days.

It seems like many athletes too. What was it like when you were in the NFL without the social media component? Well, it was a different way of developing your brand.

That was very rare. Those vehicles were not there but in some ways it was a good thing because it forced you outside of football or baseball or whatever your particular sport was because if you had the singular focus, once that's taken away, you're really lost and you struggle to know who you are or what your capabilities are or what your contribution is to society. You hear from a lot of former pro athletes that really struggle once they're out of the locker room and off the field.

So how was the transition for you when you finally retired? Well, mine was a little bit different because I didn't grow up being the star athlete. I played one year of high school football. I was on the chess team before I played football in high school.

Wow. And when I did play that one year of high school football, it was just okay. And the schools that came in to recruit me were recruiting me on potential that he might get bigger, he might get stronger, he might get better. And my high school coaches were my biggest advocates that I was going to be okay to play and I just continued to get better. But my childhood, my upbringing, my work history was let's say varied during my development where I had different jobs. And before I played football, I was a member of the Teamsters Union because I worked at United Partial Service.

Wow. And I played chess and then I ran a lot. So when it came time to football became my singular focus because of collegiate athletics and professional athletics, I knew that there was something else out there that I could do that I might be good at. At what point did you catch the bug and it became something you really enjoyed? More than likely when I realized that football and chess are the same thing and that my role in the game of chess and football, I'm the knight at tight end. And as the knight, I control certain spots over the middle.

So I took it as a philosophy. My job was to control the middle of the field as the knight on the field. But when I realized that the game of football slowed down for me because my high school, football in high school, my freshman year in Missouri and probably maybe half of that year, I just didn't know what was going on, why I was out there, what I was doing, why I was doing it.

I didn't understand time and space continuum. I didn't understand the passing game, why this was this or this was that. But when I realized that football was chess, I went, oh, okay, I know what I do. I know why I do it. And I know what you do. And I know why you do it. And it all made sense to me. And the game slowed down for me. And I began to think of the game differently.

I've done this business now for 20 plus years. I've interviewed countless athletes. You are the only one that I've ever heard compare football to a game of chess and yet football is so cerebral. It really can be.

That's so fascinating. Well, it's a game of chess. And that's why when I was doing collegiate football from the booth as a raw caster, I would always struggle with offensive or defensive coordinates being on the field, because there's no board game that you play that you're board level. You can't see everything that's going on. So when you have an offensive coordinator down on the field, I wonder if somebody could do a study and compare the plays that are called by a coordinator who's on the field versus ones in the booth.

And I think you might see more creativity call coming from the booth because your viewpoint is different than the viewpoint of being on the field. Wow. Kellen Winslow is with us. Hall of Fame tight end from the 95 class spent your whole career with the San Diego Chargers.

Nobody else wanted me. Well, that was their loss. Is it strange now seeing the Chargers in L.A.?

Very. I still at times refer to them as the San Diego Chargers. So to stop that, I just call them the Chargers. Gotcha. They may move.

I don't want to get in deer to another city. What's your perspective on some of the great tight ends today? So Travis Kelsey, who is not just a huge mountain of a man who can pretty much catch anything that Pat Mahomes throws to him, but is also this incredible personality. George Kittle, another one who is one of the top in the league.

I know it was a down year for the position, but how different from when you played? Well, when you talk about those two, they're basically the same person, same personalities, very outgoing, very funny, you know, and on the field or off the field, you know, they draw a crowd. And that's the great thing about it. I like watching them play because there's a type of players that when the game's on the line, they want the ball. You know, not everybody wants the ball when the game is on the line.

Right. They like the stats. They like to have a good game, but when it's third down and we need six yards, not everybody's stepping up, throw the ball to me.

So we've all seen that who've been in the huddle of played team sports. You know, those who want the be in the moment. I like the, I like the fact that they like to be in the moment and they want to contribute. So I enjoy watching them and have a great deal of respect for what they do that way when it comes to, you know, the game, who's going to win.

It's a personal thing. I want Kansas City to win because I'm a Missouri guy and I lived in Kansas City for a number of years. I know a lot of chief fans.

I know Andy Reid and, you know, it's, uh, I watched Patrick Mahomes, uh, you know, uh, during his career, watch his dad's career. So like most procrastinators, excuse me, prognosticators would at a Trump moment there, excuse me, most prognosticators would say that they've looked at all of this and they choose who they want to, you know, they choose based on the facts. Most of them are just, it gets down to, you're just guessing. Yeah. Yeah. I like their pants.

Yeah. It's my favorite color. That's why I'm choosing them.

So I'm too biased about it. The Chargers powder blues. Those are sweet. Those are sweet, but I never played in the powder blues. We didn't have the powder blues. It was just that era. I guess the, you know, the color was in short supply. Just couldn't get it or it was on the, you know, catwalk in New York and everybody was dominating that color, but I never played in the powder blues.

Interesting. Kellen Winslow with us here on radio row, you were, you mentioned not playing football until your senior year in high school. And then it turns into this hall of fame career.

So love that part of the story. So then just to go back to what we were talking about when you left the league, the transition wasn't as tough because you were saying you'd had a whole varied interest before you ever got into football. I knew that I could do something else. And that's one of the biggest things about leaving the game. You know, it's no different than leaving the military. In the military, that's your identity.

That's your title. That's where you get your respect from that uniform. But when you take that uniform off, you know, what does a person who's done 20 years in the military wear the day after they retire? Their uniform. They don't know what to wear. Right. You know, because now that putting on the uniform or some portion of the uniform doesn't make sense. And they may have some clothes that they have around the house.

But it's rebuilding a whole new wardrobe, which means building a whole new personality, unless you have a plan, unless you've done something else. So or you stay somewhere close to the military, like go to work for a defense contractor. I have an uncle who is a lieutenant colonel in the Air Force, flew B-52 bombers in the Vietnam and Korean conflict, Korean I should say, and Vietnam conflicts.

He never called them a war because war was never declared. And he had a plan. So he went to school every base that he was stationed on. He graduated with six degrees and he went to work for a defense contractor until he retired.

So he had a plan for that, but it kept him close to the military being involved with the defense contracting business, which is an extension of the military. So I kind of used that model. And when I knew I was getting I was getting close to leaving the game in that year eight, year nine, I decided I was going to go to law school. And I listened to people who I trust and respect.

And one person told me, Dr. Walter Daniels, a professor at the University of Missouri Columbia, told me that a good way to spend my time would be a good way to spend my time in transition would be in school. So those three or four years of going to law school were a good time for me to figure it out. What did you do with that law degree? Well, I took the bar once. I failed passing the bar the first time in Missouri bar. I got sick the morning before the first break of day one and didn't come back to write day two.

And of course, if you don't write the whole thing, you can't pass. So I fell, I missed, I came very close to passing, but did not pass the bar and then decided that I don't want to practice law. So I went into broadcasting and public speaking. And then from there, I went to work for Disney in Orlando, Florida, excuse me, Lake Buena Vista, Florida, and worked there for five years. And then I did three different stints as an athletic director at three different schools in three different divisions and retired two years ago after spending five years as a special assistant to the president at a small Catholic university just outside of Detroit, Michigan, Madonna University. It feels like we could talk for hours. There's so many different interests and different branches of your life.

I'm going to ask you about something that you've always been passionate about. I've heard even in your hall of fame speech about more minorities, about not just at the playing positions, right, but in general manager spots, in coaching jobs, coordinators. Here we are, it's decades after you played. How would you evaluate the league in that respect? It's getting better.

It really is getting better. Opportunities are there. In many ways, the numbers, the sheer number of individuals who are coming into the league, coming to the coaching ranks from the player ranks is pushing that number. But it's really no different than what's happening in society as a whole. If you think of African American players as immigrants and most immigrants who come to this country start at the bottom.

It's designed that way. You start at the bottom and through generational work and generational success, you work your way up so that your children one day will have an opportunity and that opportunity will be a great opportunity. Then one day you find that you have a head coach in your ranks because of the work that's been done by other people and it's the same type of thing. In the days of, let's see, the early turn of the century 1920s and 30s when African Americans were in this country, their goal was to get a job that had benefits and had a pension. That set the formation, the foundation for them to buy a house. From that house, they could send their kids to college.

There were a lot of kids who were first generation, the next generation first generation college kids and then that first generation college was able to set the expectation early that their kids were going to go to college and their kids naturally went to college and they did even better. It's the same thing that's happening in the coaching ranks. We started at the bottom. There was a time when we couldn't play this game and so the progress is taking place. We just have to continue to work it to remove the barriers, whether they're barriers or physical barriers or whether they are perception barriers. We need to remove those barriers. Well thank you for your insight.

I appreciate you elaborating on that. About to find out the new Hall of Fame class, right? Am I going to get in?

Am I going to get in? There are many who are waiting potentially for the phone calls. What do you remember about your phone call, your revelation? The good thing about when I got in in 1995 was that we didn't have all the social media coverage. We didn't have all the technology for instantaneous information so there wasn't a lot of talk about the Hall of Fame as it is today.

Now look around. This was not media row in 1995. I mean radio row in 1995 but today is so instantaneous.

The conversation is constantly going on. I remember when I got in in 1995, I was at the Super Bowl in Miami, Florida. It was the year that the Chargers made the Super Bowl against the San Francisco 49ers. I was having breakfast with two very good friends at the Fountain Blue Hilton Hotel and over breakfast I got a phone call. I didn't recognize the number but I answered it.

I didn't even remember that the committee was voting that morning that morning. It was Pete from the Hall of Fame and Pete said that he wanted to inform me that I'd just been voted to the Hall of Fame. Tears flowed. The champagne came out. The orange juice came out and we had a good time in celebrating that but it was a life-changing day. Yeah, awesome.

More men are about to have that life-changing moment. Before I let you go, sir, why is it important for you to work with Mike Dinka and the Gridiron Grades? The Gridiron Grades has been doing a great job over the last 20 years and filling in the gap where NFL benefits and when I say NFL, I mean I want to say it's not the owners. It's the NFL. It's the union. The players association as well as the NFL have now gotten better benefits for players who played, retired players who played during my time and even before and some of them after I played but those benefits weren't that great a long time a while ago when the Gridiron Grades started.

So this Gridiron Grades were able to help people financially with medical costs, with basic living costs, with helping them with resources, etc. With the Gridiron Grades along with Southern Recipe Small Batch, they've done a great job in raising money to support Mike Dinka's visions for the Gridiron Grades and of course, wouldn't it be a tight end who leads this effort because that's what we do. Awesome. I love it. Well, it's great to meet you. Nice to talk to you for the first time. I just love that we could talk about a lot of things that have nothing to do with football. That's cool. They have everything to do with football because they have because football is a part of what we do. That's true.

Microcosm of society. It's all it is. Hall of Famer Kellen Winslow, it's again, thank you so much for your time. It's great to connect with you.

You bet. He is so well versed, everything from his passion for affirmative action and for more minorities in positions of power and decision making in the league to taking the bar after he went to law school, working at UPS, also in broadcasting. And he's the first player who's ever used chess as a way to learn the game of football, or at least the first one who's ever said that to me. Never heard it before, and yet it makes perfect sense. I suppose that's one reason why he is now a Hall of Famer.

Kellen Winslow from the San Diego Chargers. Never had to blame the powder blues though. Man, did we cover a lot of territory or what? On Twitter, there's a photo with Kellen, A Law Radio, also on our Facebook page after hours with Amy Lawrence.

Jay told me he's working on this funny reel of two figures that we could not understand on Radio Rose. We've got some stories to share. Also, the moment I nearly asked for an annulment from my new hubs.

Yeah, that almost happened a couple hours ago. He freaked me out. And then up to the top of the hour, Trey Wingo, my long lost former colleague. We've been running in different circles the last decade plus. It was great to come together on Radio Rose again. And Bobby Flay in our final hour. So find us on social media. So excited about Friday morning and Chicago Johnny and our trip to the Mob Museum. It's all happening. Producer Jay has chosen the brunch at the Bellagio for his tourist Las Vegas birthday gift before he heads back to the East Coast. So still a lot to do with this is our final hour and a half of actual show from Las Vegas and 98.5 HD to the bed.

It's after hours with Amy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio. Your fever is high and the pressure to log in at work is too. But when you finally decide to take care of you, there's Instacart. Just because that one perfect coworker of yours is attending all meetings, camera on while she's sneezing, coughing and aching doesn't mean you have to do the same. Take it from us. Trying to stay on top of things will only get you further behind.

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Good thing he got a new one finally after six years. He's been filling up his phone with funny videos and great photos and the deeper into the week we got the goofier and more creative he became with the photos and the videos. The types of reels that he's taken on his phone they've caused us to crack up a bit including one that he just shared on our Facebook page after hours with Amy Lawrence. There were these two costumed figures.

I will describe them if you're not in front of Facebook or at a place where you can access the reels. One of them was wearing a puffy yellow costume with yellow sweatpants and green shoes. The other one was wearing a green puffy orb costume, green sweatpants and yellow shoes. They stood there and waved. They were very jovial. They didn't make noise. They had to be led around by a caretaker who would grab their hands and walk them through the crowds because they can't see. We have no idea what they are but they were gallivanting all over Radio Row.

People were taking their photos. I get it. We're not cool.

Okay I'm far less cool than producer Jay. I thought they were M&M's initially but when you see their face did you get a picture of the front of these costumes? Okay they're not M&M's. Their mouths look more like fish but I don't I have no idea what they are. It looks like like a lemon or like a lime but the thing that's throwing me off is their faces are they have like gladiator masks on almost that's what I see. I thought they looked more like fish faces. Maybe but I see like it looks like it like almost like a helmet around its it's but its face where its eyes are like where its mouth should be and its eyes are in its mouth. I don't it's some new trend for the kids the cool kids and we have no idea. No idea.

Yeah it's got to be is it a company? They're neon colors. Are they fruits? Are they vegetables? Are they candy?

I don't think I'm telling you they've got fish lips. Anyway no idea what those things are but as Jay points out they're interesting and they were gallivanting that's his word all over Radio Row so he finally took their video just to try to figure out what in the world they are. Did you put it up on Twitter as well? Okay so on Facebook first he's going to throw it up on Twitter after hours CBS. Still to come we've got photos from inside the cigar party hosted by Mike Ditka and Ron Jaworski had a chance to talk to Jaws for the first time in person in a really long time. Again former colleague of mine going back to my days in my previous network. We had so much fun on Radio Row not just with our own guests the Thunderbirds, Bobby Flay who you'll hear, different broadcasters, some incredible women that work in sports as well like Laura Oakman and Colleen Wolf and Judy Batista, Hall of Famers which is one of our favorite elements of every Super Bowl week but the things that you witness and it's not just these these globs we don't know what these stuffed globs are it's not just the globs it's the interactions a lot of time with various current and former players and how they come together they haven't seen each other in a long time for instance and I did post a photo of this the NFL's Walter Payton Man of the Year actually just crowned or just awarded I should say on Thursday evening Cam Hayward longtime defensive lineman for the Pittsburgh Steelers. He and James Connor intersect on Radio Row now James was drafted by the Steelers but no longer plays for the Steelers he's with the Cardinals. We're standing they're standing right next to us we are close enough to hear Connor say what I'm trying to get your attention you're ignoring me and Cam go whoa hey man and then Cam decides to interview him for his podcast and we're standing right there and we have an audience for it. DeMar Hamlin was wandering all over Radio Row on Thursday now he had done a press conference on Wednesday I believe in which he announced new initiatives to continue to share medical equipment with high schools around the country. I tweeted when I saw him how proud I am of the way he's using his platform and his voice he was wearing a Bill's hat by the way so he was pouting his uh pouting he was parading no touting touting there that's that's the word my brain is really fuzzy he was touting his Bill's love and everywhere he goes people want to talk to him right he can't go more than two or three steps without someone asking for a photo a video anyway I just love the fact that his life and his mission is now so much bigger than football. He nearly won the comeback player of the year award lost out by a few votes to Joe Flacco but it's not even about football anymore of course he's still alive which is the most important thing that's the miracle didn't play a whole lot for the Buffalo Bills this season was actually inactive for a good portion of the year he did get the ball direct snap on that failed fake punt attempt in the Bills playoff game against the Chiefs but I'm proud of him because he understands now that he's here for something far greater than football which is crazy right not many athletes would tell you that anyway later in the day he's walking around on radio row and there's a magician no idea who this guy is I just oh Jay has a video of it actually no idea who the the magician was it wasn't David Copperfield okay but he's walking around he's doing card tricks and he recognizes Damar and he asks Damar for two seconds to do a quick card trick and it's one of those ones where you have to guess the card right so Damar picks a card I'm not even going to tell you you already know what card he picks or at least the number he picks he picks a card he shows it to one of these guys that he's walking around with gives it back to the magician the magician shuffles he kind of makes a big display of mixing the cards up and then he pulls one card out it's not Damar's card so he he kind of shows it to Damar and he goes no no no I don't feel like that's it that's not it and he drops it on the ground then he pulls another one out of his mouth I have no idea when he put it in his mouth because we never saw him he was standing right in front of us the entire time no idea how the card got from his hand into little pieces in his mouth it was in pieces in his mouth then he pulls it out and he shows it to Damar of course it's Damar's card now he's not Damar was relatively serious the whole time but as he sees his card come out of this magician's mouth he breaks into a huge grin the whole group cheers I don't know who was with Damar but I think it was a family member says to him mad respect dude and so we're standing there in this group of people but really that's what happens everywhere Damar walked on radio row people just flock to him and want pictures and want to talk to him but he's really neat because he smiled and he had someone perform a trick for him and Shay was able to grab a photo and a video which was really neat but coming up I gotta tell you my favorite Damar moment of the entire day and again we saw him a bunch it was really cool it makes me appreciate Josh Allen as a human far more than even a football player which is saying something so on Twitter A Law Radio also on our Facebook page after hours with Amy Lawrence we'll continue with the stories we got some great ones top of the hour Trey Wingo reunited on radio row was great to catch up with him again he's got a great sense of humor and a brand new show you're not gonna want to miss it I'm telling you the the the pretense well not the pretense the entire theme and the basis for his show it's fascinating and as a history buff I can't wait but the best conversation of the week that had nothing to do with football except for your Super Bowl watch party Bobby Flay we're gonna wrap up the week with Bobby Flay don't miss it next hour is gonna be a whopper we might even throw in the boom the magic trip that the magic trip for like drugs the magic trick that dazzled Damar Jay just put the reel up on Facebook after hours with Amy Lawrence it's really cool wait until you see Damar's smile and also the magician I'm telling you oh and you can see my shoulder too I'm taking photos Damar was a lot of fun he picked the number three of course because he would and the magician was bold he just walked right up to him and said hey man can I do this trick for you can I do this trick for you and initially Damar was kind of gonna move on with his group and then he stopped and the trick definitely did the trick it's after hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio on Facebook with a bunch of new reels including the two characters that were perusing no not perusing they were patrolling Radio Row and you all tell me they're called Lem and Lime and they're the mascots for Pepsi's starry soda is that supposed to be a competition or a competitor for Sprite sounds like a lot like starry I never had starry I didn't even know it existed why does Lem get a starry starry night I don't I don't know right like there's Lem not Lim or I don't know what it's just lemon lemon lime I don't know I have no idea uh but their names apparently are lovingly Lem and Lime promoting starry soda Sean on Facebook says I don't know what that is but it's what Google tells me although Andy says those are the peanut butter M&Ms Dan Marino was promoting Jim thinks they're Skittles Skittles is not a bad guess except I didn't see Beast Mode anywhere oh by the way we walked by Marshawn Lynch's Beast Mode store in the mall at Mandalay Bay and there is in fact a Skittles dispenser in the far corner the the store was closed I guess he didn't feel like opening it on Thursday but the Skittles dispenser was there all right so on Facebook on Twitter after hours CBS you can see the Damar video and also a bunch of photos from Radio Row this week Jay has done a great job documenting and he'll be putting together a YouTube montage at some point so find our channel on YouTube and subscribe all right I've been teasing you with a couple stories let me finish the Damar part of the show just because this was a moment that really warmed my heart he was getting ready to do an interview on a TV set at the same time that Josh Allen is on our CBS Sports Radio set talking to Maggie Perloff who's a huge Bills fan apparently she went over and said my parents are season ticket holders my family season ticket holders and Josh for that reason went over and sat down so they were not scheduled to have him she went up and she was aggressive this is the story okay so this is what Perloff told me anyway if you don't want to miss Josh Allen make sure you catch Maggie and Perloff following us here on CBS Sports Radio Friday morning so Josh sits down he does a quick interview he's promoting Subway which actually I thought the characters might be from Subway because they're the same color yeah anyway so he does a quick interview he gets up and he's got no kidding at least 15 people around him so there's the Subway people there's the PR people there's his schedulers there's his handlers there's probably a couple of personal friends as well 15 people in a big mob around Josh Allen as they're walking away from our CBS Sports Radio set he sees out of the corner of his eye his teammate Damar Hamlin he takes an abrupt left-hand turn I mean sharp left-hand turn cuts right through the crowd goes up to Lamar Lamar sorry Damar gets him in this big bear hug and embraces him one of those types of hugs that Roger Goodell gives one of the draft picks that makes a lot of people uncomfortable this was such a special moment and Josh didn't care about the next interview about where his handlers were navigating him about what he had still to do and actually he apparently told some people the CBS Sports Radio people that he was really tired because he'd been doing a lot of interviews didn't matter saw Damar just walks away from his entire group cuts through a crowd of people goes straight for tomorrow makes a beeline for his teammate and grabs him in this huge embrace and they're rocking back and forth and it really felt like one of those moments that that would have happened whether there were a million people or no people the bills talk about being a family in the locker room they obviously went through an experience that was traumatic and that was tragic and yet it turned into a miracle we know that Josh himself was so shaken by what happened to Damar on the field that he was in one of the teammates in tears he's talked about faith and miracles and how much he prayed for Damar and I imagine hasn't seen him since they did their exit interviews maybe not even then because Josh is well he's Josh Allen right he's in a different stratosphere as most NFL players Damar was inactive for a good portion of the season so who knows how long it's been since they've seen each other maybe weeks maybe longer and just mattered more to him than anything else that was going on and I loved it left hand turn went straight through to Damar to give him an embrace and talk to his teammate it was really cool I felt like I admired Josh Allen far more for that moment and that exchange again didn't care who was watching it was only about Damar than anything he does on the football field it's after hours with Amy Lawrence here on CBS Sports Radio after we finished up on Radio Row we had to get all gussied up for the Jaws wait Ditka and Jaws that's how they do it Ditka and Jaws Cigar Party and Jay's actually going to post a couple photos so Jay and I I wouldn't say we walked the red carpet I would say we stood on the red carpet it was a short swath of carpet but it was fun to be out there Jay was wearing a tie so you all can get to see producer Jay when he's dressed up with no hat and wearing a tie we were guests of Southern Recipe Pork Rinds who's sponsoring our entire adventure here on Radio Row and in Las Vegas so make sure you ask your friends to pass the pig skin at porkrinday.com you're running out of time to enter the pass the pig skin sweepstakes but it's never too late because you can still enter these last few days at porkrinday.com and you can win prizes but also you support Mike Ditka's gridiron grates so Mike Ditka Ron Jaworski they they partner on this cigar party it's called Cigars with the Stars oh and there were some for instance Brian Urlacher was in the same VIP area as we were I felt a little out of place except Mark Singleton and his wife were there and one of the family members of Rudolph Foods so Rudolph is a Rudolph Foods is a family-owned company got to meet Mr Rudolph he said he's a big fan of the show he thanked him profusely for all of his partnership with After Hours and the sponsorship of After Hours so we're up there in this VIP area because the wind chills are in the 20s so this is supposed to be an outdoor plaza Vegas party people are smoking cigars they're oh they're eating pork rinds because there was an entire table and baskets of pork rinds Jay really liked the mini beef skewers those were delicious there were wraps I had some pulled pork beverages of all kind people paid a lot of money to get into this party but apparently according to Mark they raise more than a half million dollars every year at this party for Mike Ditka's Gridiron Great so it's one of the biggest events they do all year it always happens during Super Bowl week and there we are up in the VIP area with Hall of Famers Brian Urlacher people who are a lot more important and a lot a lot cooler than we are so when we walked in I we had like you know the land of the past the ticket the credential whatever and I go down we get down the stairs to the security and she goes oh you're in that line you have a special ticket I was like she said you're in the VIP line she's like you have the special ticket I was like oh what does that mean right tell me more we bypass the entire line of people who are waiting to get in in fact we had to leave after an hour because we had to get back to our hotel change and get ready for work so we were only there for an hour truth be told I couldn't feel my feet after that so it didn't matter we were ready to get out of the cold anyway we leave after an hour and there is a very long line of people waiting to get into the party at the M Resort Spa Casino really nice facility on the outskirts of of Las Vegas so yes our thanks again to Southern Recipe small batch pork rinds I snagged a few bags stuffed them in my clutch and I know Bob grabbed a few as well anyway so it was really neat to be there and to see how this famous cigar party works I've been hearing about it for years and I've just never had the chance to go so we dressed up we stood on the red carpet we took some photos want you to check out the montage jase putting it up on our social media so twitter after our cbs and then on our facebook page after hours with Amy Lawrence top of the hour Trey Wingo from Radio Row and later in our final hour Bobby Flay I love sports you all know that I love talking you definitely know that I have a huge passion for outdoor adventures we're going to engage in some of those on Saturday heading up to Hoover Dam and then Red Rock Canyon but what I love the most food is my love language I should have told Bobby Flay that food is my love language anyway he was dynamic he was so much fun he's got a new project on the horizon that we didn't get much out of him he's pretty tight-lipped about that but I asked him what he's not good at in the kitchen his answer will make you laugh it definitely made me laugh as we head up to the top of the hour here though I gotta tell you Vegas almost caused an annulment in my very new marriage I got a text message from Bob after Jay and I had already come to work scared the crap out of me he says so I did a thing um and that was it right dot dot dot I write back what half hour goes by no response I'm thinking oh my gosh he's in jail in Las Vegas oh my gosh he got a tattoo that could be anything oh my gosh he went to see some showgirls I have no idea right so a half hour goes by and I write babe what with like seven question marks oops sorry didn't get the first text here's what he did wanting to get the full Vegas experience I put 20 bucks in a slot machine he sends me a photo of his cash out ticket 227.19 where so apparently my husband's got some pretty sweet luck 20 slot into a 200 return on investment nice it's after hours with Amy Lawrence in Las Vegas here on 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 return 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 okay picture this it's Friday afternoon when a thought hits you I can spend another weekend doing the same old whatever or I can hop into my all-new Hyundai Santa Fe and hit the road with available h-track all-wheel drive and three-row seating my whole family can head deep into the wild conquer the weekend in the all-new Hyundai Santa Fe visit hundayusa.com or call 562-314-4603 for more details Hyundai 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 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