After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 4

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I won't sugarcoat it. This is the longest cold flu analogy season we've ever seen, but we're not alone. We've got Instacart. Sure, you may be a coughing snot faucet who just wants mommy, but you're not giving up! Not when cold medicine, fragrant herbal teas, and honey shaped like bears can be delivered through Instacart in as fast as 30 minutes! Now let's go win the sick playoffs! Daddy, I just want my soup.

Oh sorry, SportApp says it'll be here in a few minutes. Instacart for the win! Not only is it the hump show, but strategically Valentine's Day is dead center of your work week. That's how you get over the hump. You make a big deal of your love. I know, I'm being all funny and sappy, because this time last year I did not have a love, but I still, well I take that back. I didn't have a husband.

I didn't have even a boyfriend at this time last year. However, I try to make a big deal out of Valentine's Day with the other people that I love. So I would say happy Valentine's Day to mom who still sends me Valentine's which is super cute. Friends of mine, just sending them cute text messages or photos, and you'll know every now and then if you follow a particular team, maybe your favorite sports teams on social media, they will post quirky and humorous Valentine's sometimes. And so I know in the past, there's one that I really loved.

I'm going to have to see if I can find it by scrolling through my likes on Twitter. But my all-time favorite hockey player is Joe Thornton, and so the San Jose Sharks put out a Valentine going back to when he was playing with them. And I think it's something along the lines of I love you a thorn-ton.

I love you a thorn-ton. I know it's goofy and it's corny, but I still liked it. Anyway, it's a day, one day, in which we're supposed to really highlight love, passion, maybe even the exhilaration of a relationship. And I'm trying to project that onto our love for sports. Because, and this is partly sports radio in the culture, there is, I would say, the vast majority of sports radio, TV, podcasts, digital, all that jazz, that are consumed by complaining, whining, grumbling, bitching, pointing out everything that's wrong, firing a coach, replacing a coordinator, blaming a quarterback, talking about how this guy makes too much money, that guy's not worth it. I know it is a rite of passage as sports fans that we get to complain and we want to fix it.

Okay. But on this one day, just this one day, can we focus on what we love about sports? We wouldn't pay attention, we wouldn't follow it, we wouldn't be diehards, we wouldn't ride or die with our teams if we didn't love them. But as I said earlier, the cost and the price of great love is great grief. And so we pour our heart and soul into them.

And yes, sometimes that means our hearts get broken. But on this day, why can't we focus on what we love about sports? I love, well, I love a bazillion things, but I love that sports offer me a job that I'm passionate about.

I love that they give me an escape from what's really important in life. Okay. So you'll never hear me say this job is important. I don't think sports are that important, though I do believe they can play an important role.

Right. They they provide for families. And I don't just mean the athletes or the coaches, staff members, people who work at stadiums, vendors, corporate sponsors. Sports employ a lot of people.

And that's something I said over and over during the pandemic. We need sports to come back, not because we're not entertained without them, but because they employ and provide for a lot of people, their livelihoods. So I love that sports gives me the opportunity to do a job that I love. But I also love the emotion of sports. I love the drama.

Oh, you know, I love the drama. I love the excitement, the energy, the electricity. The traditions, the strategies.

The sheer will. I love the competition, especially when it's toe to toe, especially when it requires everything. The athletes and coaches have got like the Super Bowl and really like the NFL playoffs that we just came through. I love the underdogs, the upsets, the surprises. Oh, big fan of the redemption stories, the rags to riches stories. I love the joy. They offer me great joy. There are moments in my life that I will never forget. Because I was watching the end of a particular sporting event or.

A piece of history, for instance. When American Pharoah won the Triple Crown, I will never forget where I was, what I was doing, how I felt when American Pharoah pulled away to win the Belmont Stakes in 2015. Right.

I'd never seen one. And to be able to witness a Triple Crown after all the years of waiting. I will at some point witness the Lions Super Bowl. I believe it. Got to see the Cubs win a World Series for the first time in one hundred eight years, got to see the Red Sox win a World Series for the first time in eighty six years.

So first time in our lives. I love the history and I love being a witness to history. And that seems to happen routinely in sports. As some of you have pointed out, we love the camaraderie with other fans, many times perfect freaking strangers. And yet sports bond us. Our love for our teams or in some cases, our love for Team USA. They bond us. They bring us together across language barriers, cultural barriers, across backgrounds, across socioeconomic lines, quote unquote. Races and genders. Religions, politics, all these things divide us in the United States. But sports bring us together like nothing else can.

They unify us and they offer healing in many cases. And then what I love about sports, how they sound. And maybe that's because I'm a radio junkie.

We did a show on this a few years ago. Your favorite sounds, your favorite noises in sports. The roar of a crowd. And I mean the crowd that's off the chain.

Wait, is that what the cool kids say? That's good. She's nodding like you just embarrassed yourself, but I'll not anyway. Obviously, the crack of a bat. How about the clang of a puck of a post? Oh, man, there is no sound that is more identifiable and funny, too, because in some cases it's full of angst.

No, but in other cases, you're thrilled. The puck clanged off the post. My gosh. How about the swish of the ball through a net with Steph Curry shoots it and it does not touch the rim? Or. The collision of pads at the line of scrimmage.

Or Omaha. Here we go. Even on TV, because there are so many cameras, you can hear almost everything. I do love hearing the team, the teammates. Communicate with each other in the heat of the moment. Now, sometimes we don't get to hear all the language.

It's bleeped out. Yeah, I love the energy and I also love the intensity. I love how we lose our minds. Now, that doesn't mean you should send death threats. It doesn't mean you should scream and yell at athletes. And yes, I'm talking to those of you who went to the Phoenix Open and acted like complete and total idiots.

Not you. I don't love the constant complaining. I don't love how the radio host gets playing for everything.

But whatever. Oh, you know what else I love the sound of? Flyovers.

CBS. We actually like the sound of the flyovers. Jay, I forgot to tell you this, but there is a video. On Twitter, I liked it.

So at some point we can share it. The behind the scenes video of the Thunderbirds team that was on the roof of Allegiant Stadium coordinating the flyover. Do you remember when we spoke to Zachary Taylor, who was the left wing, number two, and then number one, Commander Nathan Malafa. And I asked them about the team. If you haven't heard that interview, it's probably my favorite interview from Vegas. It was awesome. My mom loved it.

My family has loved it. They said that coordinating the flyover would be a team of people on top of Allegiant Stadium. Well, there's video of it. Somebody was there. I'm sure it's an authorized video. Somebody was there filming their coordination and their communication. And then, of course, the flyover happened. And as you can imagine, they're thrilled. It's stolen valor one is the name of the Twitter account. And it's it's pretty cool.

So definitely check it out. I love the sound of of of the flyover. So what do you love about sports on this day, on this Valentine's Day? Happy Valentine's Day to you. My husband sent me a question after the show had started. I don't know why he was still awake, probably because he had to fix my broken windshield wiper at.

Twelve thirty in the morning, Eastern Time. He sent me a text asking me anything. Will you be my Valentine? I know he's so sappy. This from the guy who weeks ago told me he wasn't interested in Valentine's Day. He didn't care.

He was thought it was a sham. Now that was his play. You think so?

Yeah. Well, he hit a card in my bag. He sent me a text and he's making dinner tonight. Now I'm baking.

He doesn't know what I'm baking, but I am baking him something. We'll see. It's a significant choice.

I chose it for a reason. I can't tell you what it is because he'll probably wake up and listen to the show like he does every day. So we'll see whether or not he figures it out. Pressure's on, babe. Pressure's on. So what do you love about sports?

On Twitter, ALawRadio, on our Facebook page, too. Eight five five two one two four two two seven. That's eight five five two one two four CBS. Now, as I was saying just a few moments ago and I have throughout the show, the cost of great love is great grief. Now, generally, I associate that with loving a human or a pet. Right.

I have shared this just a little bit. Penny's. She's having trouble probably looking at the last couple of months. I hope I get a couple more good months with my sweet dog. I've had her for almost 12 years. She's 14 and a half.

She's got a lots of health issues. And it seems like we're coming to the end. And all I do is think about losing her and not having her. And I break into tears so it can be love for a person. It can be love for a pet.

The cost of great love is great grief when you pour yourself into it, when you love with wild abandon. Well, of course, the grief is accentuated and that can be the case with sports. And we were hearing some of that from the San Francisco 49ers.

On Tuesday, their exit interviews. Now, Kyle Shanahan, he started out with his general sarcasm. He was asked about why this loss hurts more than others. And he said, well, because it's the Super Bowl. Oh, really?

OK. But then as he talked about. The emotions in the wake of the loss. About when he'll watch the game film.

Well, you could kind of hear it. He became a little more candid about how this hurt. Usually when I'm ready to or when I have to. I don't think I have to anytime soon.

So but I'm not really ready to right now. I mean, we got home last night and I just hung out. Watch Chris Zelda Blanco with my family.

It's pretty cool. Just want it's hard because I don't feel like usually I watch sports or read some of my phone. And I don't really feel like doing any of that right now. So I got to catch up on some movies last night with my family. And then came in today and just really talked with players and stuff and just got to say bye to a couple of guys, which love to say bye to everyone. But I can't talk to 60 people before this press conference. So we'll see if there's any people linger in here till probably seven at night. But that's really what we do these two days. And I'm sure I'll come in here.

I'll be a little bit quieter over the next couple of days and I'm sure I'll turn it on pretty soon. I can understand not wanting to watch the game tape. Here's the thing. He probably can't forget anything about it right now. At least what he saw. Obviously, head coaches don't see everything, but at least what he saw. He was asked about this idea that he cannot win the big game. He'd love to fix perception because I would love to win one for what I know about football and stuff.

And I know if I fix perception, that means I did everything I wanted to do, which isn't fixed perception. It's win a damn Super Bowl. But I also know like when you say big games, like we've got to win a bunch of big games to get to Super Bowls. We've won a lot of big games here. We've won a lot of big games to get into playoffs. The fact that we keep getting there shows you guys how many how much we've been game win games are big games.

And I think you guys are aware of that. But it's you know, these two Super Bowls have been tough losing to Kansas City. But to think that if if we win that, that means I can win a big game. No, that means our team won the Super Bowl.

That's what that's what I understand. You guys can have any narrative you want. But like the success or the failure, it comes down to one game.

And I hope that I can be a part of a team that wins a game at the end of the year. But to say that the Niners can't win a big game would be an extremely inaccurate statement. No, candidly is. It's not about me. Of course, I'd like to fix perception. But the reason I'd like to fix perception is because it means the Niners won a damn Super Bowl. It's so awkward to think about someone asking him, hey, why can't you win the big game?

I hope the question was phrased, hey, there's this idea that you can't win a big game. Not mine. Just so you know, I would never ask that question because I feel like it's I understand. I'm not a reporter who sits in press conferences on a regular basis. I do it. I've done it in the past. But it's not my everyday job. I get it.

Reporters are writing stories. And these are questions that people come up with. But I could never ask that. Hey, coach. A lot of people think you can't win the big game.

Like I'm embarrassed just thinking about asking that question. Trap question. Right. Which is no right answer, which makes me not a hard hitting reporter.

But he gets more candid there. I want this franchise to win a Super Bowl. It'll mean the Niners were able to win a Super Bowl. Lots of guys talking about why this hurts. I'm a Christian McCaffrey says he's losing sleep over the fumble on the opening drive. There's so many things to look back on on that game that you just want back.

You know, obviously for me, I think just putting the ball on the ground is something I keep replaying in my head. Just can't do it. And, you know, there's a lot of different plays that we could have made and we didn't. And we fell up short. And I think it hurts. But that's life.

He said that multiple times now. Try to bring it back to perspective. That is life. Life features a lot of failure and disappointment, dejection, devastation, coming up short, not being good enough. That is life. Life can stink a lot of times. And yet some reason we feel the sports losses seemingly more than anything else. Brock Purdy actually was taking responsibility for the shortcomings of the offense, even though his team continues to pick him up. And he's wearing it, too.

He takes his things hard. Sucks. We're right there.

Once over time, you know, had an opportunity. And, yeah, it sucks. But, I mean, that's the game that we play.

And you got to find find a way to sort of have it fuel you and and have that role in the next year. Like with that taste in your mouth. I know we're supposed to be focusing on love. But my point is that when we love and when we invest in these guys, poor heart, soul, blood, sweat, tears, time, energy, effort, their physical bodies, but also their mental and emotional effort into it. Gosh, you you give everything you have.

You come so close. Well, then it hurts a lot more. Actually, I like the fact that Fred Warner focused on that fact.

Yes, this stinks. But gosh, we're right there. I stand up here talking about it as if like, oh, I guess Fred's good. But it's it stays with you all the way. You know, even back in 19 when we lost that one, that stays with you. You know, it gets easier, but it's going to stay with you all the way through. And the thing that I that gives me hope is knowing the how much it means to me, how much it means his organization, how much it means to Kyle and the players and John and like the things that make up a championship team.

I know we have those things. You know, you've got to you've got to act the way of a champion before you are a champion. And so I know it's not a thing of like of if it's it's just when, you know, and it sucks that, you know, it wasn't this time, you know, because it should have been.

But like I said, not if but when. The hard part is that the team very rarely stays together. Now, the core may stay together, but even the questions about Brandon Aiyuk, oh, my gosh, if you guys haven't seen the social media stuff with Brandon Aiyuk. He had a career high. Thirteen hundred plus yards this year. Seventy five catches. But in the Super Bowl, only three catches. And if I remember correctly, in the three playoff games, Packers, Lions, Chiefs, only nine catches total. Now, granted, as the top receiver, what happens?

You draw the best defense or the best defensive game plan because you are the top option. I mean, that makes sense. Oh, gosh. Think about the one catch he had that bounced off the Lions face mask, the defender of the face mask. Anyway, he, I think he was unhappy on social media, though for him, you can kind of chalk it up to they lost and it was frustrating.

But his girlfriend made this big show of how this could be her last time and their son's last time at a Niners football game. All right. So that was one social media post.

I think it was TikTok, but I'm not sure. Don't quote me on that. And then his best friend.

Said, hey, something along the lines of will always be grateful. That the Niners drafted my brother, but this is why we're leaving. Now, people are interpreting that as a reference to the fact that he only got three catches in the Super Bowl. This is why we're leaving San Francisco. And so for Brandon Aiyuk, it's actually not his choice. He can't just walk away unless he wants to retire. But the Niners have his fifth year option. He was a first round draft pick, which means they own the rights to his fifth year. They picked up the option.

He's scheduled to make fourteen point one million dollars in twenty twenty four. But I don't know that money is the issue. It sounds like right now, if there is a complaint, it's about usage. It's about the fact that he only had three catches in the Super Bowl. Of course, he didn't go and knock over his coach like Travis Kelsey did. Anyway, we all express ourselves differently. There's a little bit of drama there. Watch out. He may scrub his social media. That's all I'm saying.

Seems to be the next move. What do you love about sports? Gosh, I love the fact that it's a lot of times just sheer effort and that guys and I don't say I want them to play through pain. But sometimes guys can get out there on the field and do what they do at the highest level, even though they're injured. Remember Patrick Mahomes last year with the high ankle sprain and Andy Reid made him go to the locker room. But otherwise, he wouldn't get off the field.

We found out that Eric Armstead actually has been playing with a torn meniscus since the last month of the regular season. Sometimes it's literally the sheer will and determination. And that always impresses and inspires me. On Twitter, ALawRadio, what do you love about sports on this Valentine's Day?

Also on our Facebook page, I did answer a bunch of your Ask Amy questions so you can go back and see those responses. 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.

That's 25% off at JamesAllen.com promo code podcast. This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. This is actually not the famous, famous version, of course.

But if we're talking about the best movie soundtracks of all time, in my top three is The Bodyguard and Whitney Houston's version of I Will Always Love You. It's Valentine's Day. We can be sappy, right?

Well, we technically can be sappy any day, but it's perfect on this day. And men can get away with it too on this day, which I think is great. We had a guy call us earlier. He's been married a long time, a lot longer than me. And he said his wife has received 42 Valentine's Day cards. It's something she's pretty proud of. Good.

That's awesome. What a tradition. What a legacy. It's a good one. Consistency.

It matters. What do you love about sports? Not so much about Valentine's Day, but what do you love about sports? On Twitter, After Hours, CBS, On My Twitter, ALaw Radio, our Facebook page too.

We're going to get through some of those before the top of the hour. Mark is listening in Tennessee. Mark, what do you think? Well, before I say that, I have to say playing the Queen of Tennessee's version, and since she wrote it, that was fabulous. She did write it, yes. It is her song, and you can imagine she made a ton of money off it once Whitney Houston hit it big. Yep, and she wouldn't let Elvis record it because Colonel Parker said he would have all the rights, and she said, I can't do that. No, good for her.

Smart business move. I also have to say, Amy, I love your show. I love that you talk with a smile on your face, and it's just so refreshing and wonderful.

Thank you, sir. What I love about sports is I tend to be a news junkie, and news is dominated by politics, which is a blood sport with no rules. Whereas sports in general, there are rules. Somebody wins, somebody loses. You have to deal with it, and the semblance, at least a fair play, is exhibited.

And it's just a vision of what should be, whereas the world of politics just keeps your head spinning. Yeah, and it's kind of dirty too. Yeah, and I wean myself off news the best I can and listen to more sports talk radio because the lines are cleaner. And sports-wise, I'm mostly a baseball and golf guy.

Golf, I should mention first. It's the ultimate. But baseball is a unique sport, and you mentioned the sound of the crack of the bat. There's nothing like it.

I would agree. I would agree with that as an iconic sound. You know it the second you hear it. Coming back from a break one time listening to a Reds game when Marty Brenneman was the announcer, he came back on the air and said, it's six to nothing, and you heard this sound, and immediately said, make that seven to nothing Reds, because the sound, you could tell it was a home run, and you heard it on the radio. Yeah, you're talking about golf. A couple of sounds that I love from golf, when the ball drops into the cup, so that's a sound that you can hear pretty clearly. And then another one is when, now this doesn't happen with me every time, maybe once or twice a round, but when I hit my driver cleanly, and that noise, I don't know what to call it, that ping? No, it's not a ping. Whatever it is, when you hit your driver cleanly, and the ball, the driver strikes the ball at the dead center, right, the heart of the driver, the heart of the driver head, oh, you know, that sound is also incredible. Yeah, you barely feel it, and you look up where you usually see the ball, and it's further out.

Yeah, those are good ones. I like it, Mark. And you go, why can't I do that every time? I mean, otherwise we wouldn't keep coming back, right? Once I play the perfect round, I'm done playing. That's right, but you never will.

That's true. All right, sir, good to talk to you. Thanks so much for listening. Likewise, thank you. Bye-bye.

Why do we love sports? We'll do another one here, 855-212-4227. Mike is in Dallas. Welcome to After Hours. Hey, Amy, can you hear me? Yes, sir. Well, now that you're talking golf, Bryson DeChambeau is in my history of photography class.

Really? And nobody would sit by him. You know, he was a big nerd. He'd walk into classes with about four physics books. Well, one day I was, it was late at night, so no one's going to know, but I was on the mushrooms, and I was having a good old time. Somebody knows.

And I talked to Bryson. I thought, next one was like, dude, you know physics is like mass, force, acceleration. Why couldn't there just be a sumo wrestler that's just crushing the ball?

I think you took that a little too seriously. Interesting. Why do we love sports? Well, because there are fans that find themselves highly amusing.

There are fans that love to hear themselves talk. Okay, moving on. Any chance there were mushrooms involved in that conversation? Were any mushrooms harmed in the making of that phone call, Jay? I think he picked a few, yeah.

Emily on Twitter, Alaw Radio. Sports are the original reality TV. The great escape and the storylines. The amazing camaraderie and passion of the fans is intense.

Another one from The Colonel. I love watching sports because you can put the world on hold for a while. That's true. They are a great escape and we need it. And how often do they provide us a reason to smile, a reason to cheer, a reason to bond when the world desperately needs that? You know, how often have we seen sports bring people together in the wake of a tragedy or a natural disaster?

Not only do they bring us together for those reasons, the escape, the joy, just the excitement, the reason to smile. But often sports also bring us together for a good cause, right? Think about DeMar Hamlin. That whole phenomenon in the wake of him getting hurt, a cardiac arrest in Cincinnati. I mean, I'm not sure I've ever seen anything like it in sports. It was, wow.

It was just wow. Let's see. Lee says, what do I love about sports? The fresh cut grass on opening day. The wonder and awe of a youngster attending his first ballgame, the roar of the crowd, the peanuts and popcorn, the drama of sports. He says, Vin Scully, I am not.

Let's see. The reason I love sports and then CD sends us a video of Greg Olsen and his former quarterback Cam Newton embracing on Radio Row. Jay, how do we miss that? We saw Cam Newton a ton on Radio Row. In fact, on the day he was wearing his hair just like that.

But we did not see he and Greg Olsen embrace. So that's really cool. Hadn't seen each other in a while. Just bringing bringing people together again across cultures and backgrounds and languages and ethnicities. Think about the number of people who have learned Japanese right to be able to communicate with Ohtani or the way that Ohtani has roped in a global audience. I mean, all of those things. I don't know what it is about sports, but they unify us where most everything else divides us. So what do you love about sports? We'll get to some of your answers on Facebook. I know I'm not going to be a negative Nelly, but sometimes our passion, our love carries over the top.

And you may have seen what happened at the Phoenix Open where the fans were unruly. Well, now they're trying to figure out what changes to make, but also explaining as best they can what happened at that golf tournament over the weekend. You are listening to the After Hours podcast. This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence.

I haven't heard the song in a long time, but I could name it in three notes, though I think I've listened to it, I don't know, a thousand times when I was younger. It's Valentine's Day, you guys. And we're being cheesy and sappy and talking about love, why we love sports.

And honestly, I love your answers. Some of you are taking it seriously. Now, some of you are not. And that's OK. Some of you are reserving the right to complain.

And I'm reserving the right not to read your answers on the air or respond to them on social. There's a reason why we complain. There's a reason why we bitch and moan and gripe. It's because we're sucked in. We're ride or die.

So take us back to that moment. There's some incredible answers, deep answers on Facebook. And some of you are writing me novels, which just underscores my point. It started with love. So why do you love sports?

On Twitter, After Hours, CBS, my Twitter is A-LOL Radio and our Facebook page. We'll get to a few of those. But as is always the case, that passion crosses over and it becomes. This type of driving emotion that pushes people over the edge, and I will never understand that. Partly it comes with maturity.

Let's be honest. Partly it comes with being sober versus being not sober at sporting events. There's certainly a component of alcohol a lot of times when fans get unruly.

But honestly, it happens, too, on social media. The number of times where I've received tweets or Facebook posts that are vulgar and inappropriate and rude and just over the top because a fan is angry about the fact that his team just lost a big game or, let's be honest, a fan is angry about the fact that he or she just lost a lot of money. Gambling is one of the reasons why people love sports.

But you've got to be prepared to lose, as I've heard from people who do this for a living. Fans can lose their minds. Athletes can, too.

Fans can lose their minds. And at the Phoenix Open last weekend, we had a situation like that where fans were yelling and screaming and interfering with the athletes as they were trying to golf. Now, the thing about golf is that there are unwritten rules, okay?

There are not a lot of rules that are posted. But you're not supposed to be yelling. When you're watching a tennis event, you can actually get kicked out if you're yelling. Same thing at a golf event. But often, there are fans who will take it upon themselves to yell right when a guy is in the middle of his backswing to try to mess him up. In the whole thing.

I mean, it can get over the top. But you're not sitting in stands. You're standing right there next to these athletes. And when you are mixing alcohol with fans who have access, that can be a formula and a recipe for disaster. So yes, there were a series of incidents involving fans and golfers to the point where some of these guys were complaining. I mean, you had golfers like Billy Horschel cursing out fans. You had guys like Zach Johnson getting into it.

You had guys like Jordan Spieth, who was visibly frustrated because people were yelling when he was in the midst of trying to make a shot. And now it's something that Chance Cosby and his team. Now, he's the executive director of the organization.

It's called Thunderbirds, weirdly enough. But the executive director of the organization that is responsible for the Phoenix Open, the Waste Management Phoenix Open. And he's been called on the carpet for what went wrong over the weekend. A challenging week.

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Avatar, The Last Airbender, only on Netflix February 22nd. Off with with Nick and Charlie Hoffman. And so we ended on a very positive note. But the week really started in a tough way when you think of what kind of led to what happened on Saturday. You know, we don't get a lot of rain in Arizona. I think we get about six inches a year.

And we got significant rain on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and then ultimately Saturday morning. And when you think of TPC Scottsdale, it's a stadium golf course. It's built for the W.M. Phoenix Open. And our fans, when you go to a normal W.M.

Phoenix Open, they're enjoying the entire property. And they were not able to do that this year. It was muddy. So many areas on the golf course were simply unusable. And what that led to is our fans ended up moving to more of our concrete paved areas and really created significant congestion to where ultimately on Saturday, you know, we didn't do anything different from a ticketing or fan perspective as we've done in years past.

So what he's saying is there are a lot lots of areas where fans couldn't go and it created log jams. I don't know how many of you have ever been to a golf tournament. I actually have been to a bunch and and this is going back a few years, been to some where the galleries are so deep that you can barely move around Tiger Woods, around Phil Mickelson, around some of the other popular golfers. And yeah, you're standing feet away from Mickelson as he takes a shot.

I mean, nothing separating you from him, but a rope. That's it. And maybe a security guard who's been enveloped by a crowd. And once you have pushing and shoving and once, you know, these crowds become so enormous. And then you throw alcohol into the mix and maybe it's a hot day and the sun is shining and all that jazz mix in the mud and the congestion and the fact that they couldn't spread out as much as they wanted. And actually, the fact that they decided to shut down alcohol sales, which sadly incensed a lot of fans since areas of the golf course were not usable. The decision was made by our security partners and and our team to close the front gate, to close the concession stands, to close alcohol sales. We opened up all of our security blowouts on the entire course to safely remove our fans from the course and get everything back under control and try to get through that Saturday, which was a very tough day.

Yeah, it just turned into a major mess, again, fans and golfers. And he doesn't know whether or not it's because of alcohol sales. He says it's not sure. Maybe that made some fans irate. I would almost guarantee it.

One more with Chance Cosby. He says no matter what, this is not going to happen again. I will tell you that, you know, we spent five or six hours on Saturday afternoon as the course was steadily flowing outward. You know, we sat as a leadership team and evaluated just kind of brainstorming what our next steps are. I mean, there's no time off. We've got 365 days to fix this.

So I think that you will see a complete operational change of how we manage really our Friday and Saturday, but the entire week. This is the hard part, though, is they're human beings, right? And fans can get mad and they can lose their minds. And then you just you you add in the frustration of not being able to move.

Right. And the log jams. Have you ever been in a huge crowd? And it's almost overwhelming. It's overbearing. Can't move. Can't can't get to where you want to go. People get frustrated really quickly.

It's like the the the foot foot path version of road rage. Right. It's just so frustrating. But that doesn't excuse fans. And I really hope that.

They figure it out and I hope it doesn't happen again, because it's unfortunate for the golfers who are competing for a lot of money. But also, I think it is a sign sometimes we excuse our behavior as fans because, oh, we're passionate about it. We just care a lot.

Great. But that doesn't mean you should interfere with these athletes who are trying to do jobs for which they are paid and for which there is a lot of pressure. So what do you love about sports? Sasha on Facebook says the reason I love sports because you can still believe in miracles.

That's amazing. And he actually shares a photo of the U.S. hockey team going back to 1980. Roland says, I enjoy sports because every game, every situation is different. The strategy of the game, the outcome, the in-game adjustments.

He says it's better than reality TV. Kevin, I love sports because of the passion of winning. And then when you lose, you're learning from your mistakes and preparing for the next victory. He says life is wins and losses you'll overcome in the long run. Missy loves watching athletes challenge themselves and then grow from college to the pros.

There's another one, too, that I love. A lot of you pointing to the connections you have with family. And yeah, Andy says, I love the memories I've made with my dad and my son attending games together.

And he goes on to give some examples. Listening to sports radio, too. Focus on what you love today. What do we love about sports? 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. 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.

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