After Hours with Amy Lawrence Hour 4

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If anyone needs anything, they can just redirect their questions to that one perfect coworker of yours. Getting you to the good half of your week. It's the Hump Show on After Hours. Exactly dead center of the work week. I've already done the faceplant right into the hump.

You may have to walk over me on your way up to the top. The hump feels a little bit like Mount Everest. That's what it feels like this week. It still feels like it's really far off. It's a cloud right now.

Very small off in the distance, but keep moving. And eventually, you'll get to the weekend. So it's our Hump Show to mark the middle of the work week. Hoping you get to the back end of the work week. Welcome to the Hump Show on After Hours. We made it. We made it through to the other side.

The second half of the work week. It's the Hump Show. Good morning to you if you're waking up on your Wednesday. We're glad you're here.

We're glad you're with us. If you missed Ask Amy Anything, it is a part of our podcast. Every Hump Show, every Wednesday morning as soon as the show is done, that whole link is posted. And so you can find it anywhere you get your podcast is Google After Hours Amy Lawrence Podcast. That's the funny thing is I actually don't have the podcast link saved or bookmarked or loaded up on any of my devices whenever I need it. Which is every day because I post links on social. I go to the Google homepage and that's what I do. I search for it.

After Hours Amy Lawrence Podcast and there it is. I don't take any tricks. Is it bad to say I don't remember the login either? No. It's not a requirement for working on the show. As long as you know where to find it.

As long as you know where to find it. I've already gone back and answered a few of your questions for Ask Amy Anything. And so we've got a lot of traffic on our social media sites.

So Twitter, ALaw Radio, our show Twitter is after our CBS and then also on our Facebook page. Because not only were we asking you for your questions and we got, gosh, well over 100 of them just before Ryan started. I'm not sure how many of them he actually had a chance to go through because he got inundated with them. But we also are getting dozens of responses now for the answers to our question for you. Alright, so tit for tat.

You asked us questions. We're asking you now what is the toughest job in sports? I am leaning toward coach of a pro team. Coach slash manager of a pro team. But I can be convinced a variety of jobs are in the running for toughest one. So one of the reasons I'm thinking of this is just because of all the coaching turnover that we've seen in the NFL, in the NBA even. College sports too, though I'm thinking more at the pro level because it's such, well see it is big business when it comes to college football and men's college basketball.

I will give you that. It's big business. And so there's a lot of money that's poured into it even more now with NIL. So yes, there are more impatient owners. Well, in college it's not owners, it's administrators, athletic directors. But when you are working for an impatient owner of a team who's got his own money invested and who is watching the bottom line number one, number two. Desperately wants to win a championship because he's envious of all his peers who are winning titles and raking in the dough.

Well, those owners tend to get impatient. And just purely the nature of sports, especially in the NFL where half the playoff field turns over every year. It's all about what have you done for me lately. And so even as we entered this final hour, I'm seeing more answers that I hadn't thought of before. And some of you are very creative about the toughest job in sports. Others of you are kind of walking the beaten path.

And so we're going to go through these on Twitter, again on Facebook. We've had some very specific responses like Buffalo Bill's Kicker, Charles Barkley's Caddy. Although I tend to think you eat well and you get tipped well. So I'm not sure I agree with that one. Mike Tyson's sparring partner. That's another one.

That'll last like three days. Right. He cycles through many of you, I'm sure. Definitely agree with goalie. Now, I can't decide if I think goalie in hockey between the pipes.

Man, I'm telling you what, you get a whole lot of help from the crossbar and from the posts. But goalie in hockey or goalie in soccer? Because you're manning a much larger area in soccer.

The goal is enormous compared to the size of the person. You can't actually reach from one side to the other. So you're always leaving at least part of it exposed.

My issue is when you're a hockey goalie, you're half blind. Because there's people screaming in front of you and your mask like you can't really see anything. Well, then why are they wearing them? So they don't die.

Well, I know. But I mean, make one that is plexiglass so you can see through it. That'd be weird. That would be weird.

Could you imagine seeing their faces? Well, when guys break noses, they wear those type of masks over their faces. A full bucket goalie mask. I actually think that in soccer you get screened as well. Now, I didn't play goalie, but in soccer, too, you've got guys and gals who are standing right in front of you and are running misdirection in front of, well, through the goalie box and around the goalie box.

So that's a tough one as well. Just goalie in general. We had a cricket player call us earlier and mention the keeper, which he said is similar to the goalie. I really like the answer of catcher in baseball. But actually, few of you say that you think pitcher is tougher than catcher. And so we've got a bunch of different answers.

Some of them are cool and unique, and I hadn't thought of them. What is the toughest job in sports? Meanwhile, yet again, on this Wednesday morning, we are hearing from a team that has just replaced its head coach. And it's not just about wins and losses. Sometimes it's about culture. Sometimes it's about your voice in the locker room. Sometimes it's about the fact that you're trying to keep up with the Joneses in your same division or your same conference, and you're not doing a good enough job, and therefore, you need to be replaced. You're being compared to your peers so often. But one of my creative answers, though, I think is Aaron Judge.

I'm actually on this. I'm on Aaron Judge as one of the toughest jobs in sports. The Yankees captain who has to hit a home run every time he steps to the plate.

Otherwise, he's done something wrong. His team hasn't won a World Series in 14 years, which is a travesty for Yankees fans. And he has had some freak injuries that people will start to point to as him being injury prone, right? Even if they're freak injuries like him running into a cage or a door at Dodger Stadium last June and dislocating a toe and tearing ligaments.

And somehow that makes him injury prone. He was doing his job. It's a tough job, but someone's got to do it.

Aaron Judge. So what is the toughest job in sports? I have had a lot of a lot of responses, and I've had great enjoyment out of this particular question on After Hours here on CBS Sports Radio. Definitely when you are a coach, whether it's student athletes or whether it's the pro level, you're responsible and the buck stops with you when it comes to making sure your team is ready to play.

Now, whatever that means, right? Ready to play in terms of your attitude, your approach, your preparation, the scout, but these are still human beings. So sometimes they step on the field, the ice, the court, and collectively the intensity is not there or collectively they just don't have the same energy. It can be fatigue, right? It can be because they played three games in seven days in three different places. It can be because they're a victim of their own press. It can be because they're overconfident. How often did Nick Saban scream at the media?

Scream. How often did Nick Saban rage against the media? Because he felt like they were building up his teams too much to the point where his teams hadn't earned it. They hadn't gotten to a point where they deserved to be hailed and lauded the way that they were. And he was worried that his athletes would read their own press and would decide, oh, well, it just comes naturally because I'm in Alabama.

I don't have to work that hard for it. Well, maybe, just maybe a little of that happened or played out with the Yukon Huskies last night in Omaha. They haven't been challenged a whole lot lately. In fact, they'd already beaten the Creighton Blue Jays fairly handily. They're coming off a game in which they trounce a top five opponent in record setting fashion. And for the first time, they are a unanimous pick for the number one team in the country. They build a lead against Creighton. They've got the leading scorer for the Blue Jays in foul trouble and on the bench. But for some reason, their head coach is talking about a lack of energy and a lack of intensity in the huddle.

Wait until you hear his reason for it. Creighton had another gear. Creighton found its shooting stroke, went 50 percent from beyond the arc, 14 of 28, and had a massive crowd behind it in Omaha.

And this turned into a rout. 12.38 to go. Cross court, Baylor, Baylor to the baseline, Baylor wraparound pass into the corner, Mason for three!

Yes sir! And a backslide from back! The second five-point bank three-pointer, Mason Miller. Jays back up by 21. Timeout! And Frank McDermott says, get on your feet!

And ladies and gentlemen, as asked a steal by Bello. And this is it! It's a career achievement unlocked! A first ever win versus number one!

And career achievement unlocked! The 600th Jays win for Greg McDermott! And the students bobbed the floor! We did a bad job coaching tonight. Our players did a bad job playing. I did a bad job coaching.

Yeah, and your huddles aren't going to be super energized when you're in, you haven't lost in two plus months. This doesn't happen to us very often, so yeah, I mean we were definitely stunned. We knew this was a dangerous game and a quality opponent and one of the better teams in the country. But we didn't expect this to happen.

He talks about a lack of energy in the hustle, in the hustle, in the huddle. Because they hadn't lost in two months. Because they just stomped Marquette, who was a top five team. Here they are riding a 14 game win streak, longest in the country.

The talk around them is what Ryan? What's all the talk about the Huskies? Back to back. Back to back. Whether or not they can win a second consecutive NCAA Men's Basketball title.

Yeah, a little bit of victim of their own press. Now they had played, they were playing their third game in seven days. And there is some fatigue there, especially when you're relying on young players. If you've got young players in critical roles, freshman, meaning, or first years. Because they've never gone through a season this long before. So this is about the time when they hit the wall. You always hope as a head coach and as a staff that they find that second win going into the end of conference play, conference tournaments.

On into the NCAA tournament, should you get that far. But that's one of the challenges of coaching freshman and first year players. Is that they've just never been through this before.

And physically and mentally, most of them end up hitting a wall. So Dan Hurley says, we coach poorly. The huddles weren't intense. And we just never expected to lose this game.

Huh. That means you are ripe for an upset. And so maybe a wake up call that the UConn Huskies needed. And they shot poorly too.

That could definitely be tired legs. Three of sixteen from beyond the arc. I dare say they will not be a unanimous pick for number one come next week.

They may still be number one, but they will not be unanimous. Big deal for Greg McDermott and the Blue Jays as they're trying to boost their tournament resume. Historic game for our program. I told the team in the locker room, we had Marcus Foster in there. And Ryan Hawkins are back there on break from overseas.

It's really a culmination of a lot of work by a lot of people over a long period of time. To give these guys the opportunity to wear this uniform and play in front of the crowd. We were able to play in front of tonight. College basketball March Madness is on the horizon. I was just thinking about how the selection show is inside of a month away.

Wheels start turning. We know that conference tournaments are kind of a precursor to it. You really get a taste of it even at the end of February on into March. It's just hard to even think about the fact that we're at the end of February.

I do not know. I say this every year. Because the NFL playoffs are so all consuming. And because we work seven days a week from Christmas really through. Well, I do.

I won't speak for anybody else. But I work seven days a week from Christmas all the way through the Super Bowl. It just is overwhelming. And then you look up and oh my gosh it's the middle of February. And so that's kind of where we are.

And now recovering it's nearly the end of the month. And we're so close to March Madness. And the Masters talk is right now beginning. But more and more people getting excited about the Masters as one of their next big things in sports. And so it's all on the horizon. It does still crack me up when people talk about how it's a slow time in sports.

Yeah, not so much. It's just the little bit of the calm before the crazy storm that is the spring. April being the busiest, second busiest month of the year. I'll say October is the busiest.

April being the busiest of the spring with just everything going on. Oh, and I'll be teaching another class at Syracuse. So you know there's that. Why not? I might have the toughest job in sports. I know. Grab your tiny violin and play it for me.

A sad song. On Twitter, ALawRadio. And then our Facebook page too. What is the toughest job in sports? A lot of you keep saying playing QB for the Dallas Cowboys. That's funny. Let's see.

Youth baseball umpire says Ben. And I can imagine dealing with parents is no joke. I teach fourth and fifth graders on Sundays and the parents generally behave.

But every now and then we'll get some weird questions from parents. Let's see. Oh, here's another one. I officiated high school football for 40 years.

Officiating is definitely the toughest job in sports. And then Carlton on Facebook. An agent.

Yeah, that's true. Now we think of agents like Scott Boris and Drew Rosenhaus and others who represent some of the highest profile athletes in sports. And yes, they are rich. They're filthy rich. But the problem is the business is filthy.

Forget the rich. It's filthy. I've got some friends who are agents and it is cutthroat and it's dishonest. There are very few who will stick to a code of ethics where you don't steal another guy's clients or another girl's clients. Where you play by the rules. Where you're not paying for things you're not supposed to be paying for.

Where you're abiding by the guidelines when it comes to how and when you can have contact with players. It is a dirty business. It's very dirty.

It's slimy. And not all of them. Okay? Not all of them. I've got some friends that are very well respected as agents. But agents are also the source of leaks very often when it comes to media. If you were following the Jets this year, it's pretty widely accepted now that the agent for the backup quarterback, Tim Boyle. Well, one of the backup quarterbacks, Tim Boyle, was the one who leaked the story to the media, to the athletic, about how Zach Wilson didn't want to go back on the field because he was worried about getting hurt.

There's a reason Tim Boyle got cut not long after that leak. So agents, yeah. They're not all slimy.

I'm not saying that. I'm sure there are ethical ones. I know some ethical ones. But it is a dirty business. And so Carlsen has a point there. Being an agent, as much as you might like to look at some of the ones that are high profile. Oh, that Jerry Maguire was patterned after.

Yeah, it's not all like that. On Twitter, ALawRadio, on our Facebook page, too. What is the toughest job in sports? Also, Jason and Travis Kelsey weigh in on the shooting at the victory parade for the Chiefs last week, even as two adults are charged in that tragedy in which one woman died and 22 others were injured. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. You are listening to the After Hours podcast. Good morning to you. It is your hump day. It's our hump show.

We're glad to have you with us. You all have been busy over the last couple hours blowing up our social media with not just your questions for Ask Amy Anything. And I am going back to answer more of them. Some of them crack me up. Like, here's this one, and I will read it verbatim.

Are you ready? This is from Rich. Did you ever play with Slim as a kid? I was so confused when I read that. I'm pretty sure he meant slime, but the fact that it says Slim. I was like, M&M?

Right. Some of them are great questions, though, too. Like, baseball opening day is my favorite day of the year. What's your favorite day of the year?

Do you think that he is disappointed that I responded with Thanksgiving and not an opening day? Thanksgiving. I love Thanksgiving. It is my favorite day, my favorite meal of the year. Love Thanksgiving. Christmas provides the same meal, basically.

Does it? Okay, not for my family. So, is that your tradition? You eat turkey? We don't eat turkey, not turkey, but sometimes there's ham, sometimes there's lasagna. Which isn't Thanksgiving, but it's a blend of everything. So for us, our Italian family tradition, the big meal is Christmas Eve, and it's the seven fishes. So our Christmas Eve meal, which is the big one for that holiday, is completely different than what we do at Thanksgiving. Which is all the starches, and yet they're so good. I love turkey and gravy.

Love it. I would eat turkey and gravy multiple times per year, but the fact that it only happens on Thanksgiving. And stuffing? I only eat stuffing once a year. Mashed potatoes? Maybe a couple times a year, but not the way that you make them at Thanksgiving.

With all the butter. Cranberry sauce, too. I don't eat that at all.

Yeah, exactly. Nobody I've ever seen eats cranberry sauce outside of Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving, right. I mean, that's the deal, is as much as people want to say, it's not a big, it's not a great meal, whatever.

And I know the hard part is that you spend hours and hours and hours doing it. Well, not you specifically, but people spend hours and hours and hours of cooking it. I know last year, because I did Thanksgiving at home, it was unexpected. I had to pivot. I wasn't going to be by myself, but I was. And so ended up making a turkey breast in the crock pot, and then also making a big old thing of smashed potatoes. I started a fire in my oven when I made a new recipe for a pumpkin pie. The second one was much better. Anyway, you spend all that time and effort, and then it's gone in 20 minutes. Or you're done eating in 20 minutes. So yeah, there were some other good questions, but I haven't had a chance to answer them all. So go back over the course of Wednesday to either Twitter or Facebook, and I will have responded to many more of them.

It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence. What is the toughest job in sport? It's a popular answer to say quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys, but I honestly think quarterback at the pro level for any team is tough. But even tougher when you don't have an offensive line, right? So it's a lot easier when you have an O-line in front of you that does a great job at holding back pressure and protecting you. For instance, the Lions offensive line, terrific this year, leading to a great campaign for Jared Goff. But what is the toughest job in sports just in terms of the skill and the vision and the mental preparation that's required?

Well, I think a lot of people could point to quarterback. Definitely requires so much more preparation. You have to know everything, what everybody's doing on the field, not just what you should be doing, not just throwing the ball, not just looking for where your receivers are going.

And man, just having to memorize the play calls that likely change during the course of the year too so that you can keep defenses on their toes, that alone requires a lot of preparation. So yeah, you have a ton of responsibility. Now you get far too much of the credit when everything goes well. Wins is not a QB stat. That is not a stat that we should be giving to quarterbacks. But you also get way more of the blame. A team can give up 50 points on defense and somehow if they lose it's the quarterback's fault.

It's so myopic sometimes when it comes to quarterbacks in the NFL specifically. Alright, in the wake of the shooting last week at the Kansas City Chiefs victory parade, we know now that two adults have been charged. In that shooting it was a dispute.

It wasn't meant to be an attack on revelers. It was a dispute that broke out and maybe more a crime of opportunity, not that it means anything different to the family and the friends of the woman who lost her life or those who are recovering from now gunshot wounds. But two adults have been charged with murder in last week's shooting and they are one of Missouri, well actually both of Missouri, excuse me, both charged with second degree murder, two counts of armed criminal action, and then unlawful use of a weapon. Get this, according to the court documents they were perfect strangers. Perfect strangers. This wasn't a gang turf war. This wasn't two friends who had a beef because they'd been drinking too much.

No, they were perfect strangers. And they got into some type of an argument and started firing right away. They both had guns on them and within a couple of seconds of starting to argue, they pull out guns and start firing at each other. They actually both got shot themselves and neither one is out of the hospital. So they both are seriously injured but also being held on $1 million bond. And I don't know if this is true or not but this is what's in the police documents.

This also blew me away. How crazy it is that something so ridiculous can escalate to the point where it's a mass shooting, a stampede, kids are in the hospital, one woman loses her life. According to police documents, there were these two groups of people, right, so didn't know each other but one of the groups got upset because it felt like the other group was staring at them.

That's according to the police documents. That's how an argument started. This argument started, a deadly confrontation started because one group of people thought the other group of people were staring at them.

I mean that's insane because that's literally insane. And so you've got two people who pull out guns, don't know each other, start firing and this is what ensues. And they do have surveillance video that have people, including the shooters, from the two groups approaching each other and it escalates quickly. Yes, they had words exchanged, I'm going to get you, blah, blah, blah. One guy pulls out a gun, so does the other. They both start shooting. It's like crazy.

It's crazy. Jason and Travis Kelsey have their podcast. It drops on Wednesdays but they were in a clip that was released talking about what happened last week. To the tragic events of the Super Bowl parade in Kansas City, it didn't feel right without you guys hearing from us first. We just wanted to say our hearts go out to all of the victims, their families, Chief's Kingdom and really all of Kansas City that was really there on a day to try and celebrate the community and it's unfortunate and deeply tragic, the events that occurred. So we also want to thank the local law enforcement that sprang into action, responders, on scene and anybody that's been willing to help those affected by this tragedy. One of the things that's evident is how much Kansas City is coming together and rallying around the people that have been affected by this and one of the beautiful things that we have in doing this podcast is a wonderful community out there. The 92%ers, everybody that watches this show are still figuring out a way for us to be involved and obviously you can donate to these links right now, but we plan on doing something in the future.

We're trying to get that situated right now, have some ideas, but just make sure you're following and we'll be telling you guys in ways that we're going to try and get involved. 92%ers, we appreciate you. Kansas City and Chief's Kingdom, we love you guys.

We're with you guys and we'll see you guys soon. A clip from the New Heights podcast with Jason and Travis Kelsey and certainly you can hear in their voices the empathy, the compassion. I can imagine that there was some fear there too and maybe all the chiefs didn't even hear the shots, but they were immediately corralled and ushered off stage and according to the reports, they were pretty shaken on the buses even if they weren't afraid for their own lives because there was security. They still knew that something horrible had happened and that there were people out there that were suffering and just to be in that space where that happens, man, that changes you.

So I appreciate their compassion and their kindness. On Twitter, ALawRadio, on our Facebook page too, what is the toughest job in sports? Calvin says it was the Auburn football coach.

That changed a month ago. Toughest now is Alabama football coach. Kind of remarking about the rivalry, right? And with Nick Saban as the Alabama coach, well then the toughest job was to be the coach of his rival. I like that. I like that twist. Let's see, Mark goes with manager, although he says manger, which manger of the Chicago Cubs. Let's see, Luis on Facebook, the independent doctor on the sidelines.

Yeah, that's no fun either. Gosh, wasn't it Tyreek Hill who just unleashed on an independent doctor on the sidelines like a concussion? Jamal Adams. Oh, Jamal Adams, thank you.

That's right. Because he had just come back. I'm sorry, Tyreek, that is my fault.

I misidentified you. Right, Jamal had just come back and doesn't even survive to the first half, through the first half. Thomas says any coach or player following a legend? Brady, Belichick, Saban, Shula, Marino, Mahomes, Reed, hate to be the fella or gal following one of those. Yeah, I actually don't have the same opinion about that. I feel like when you follow a legend, yes, the expectations are high, but you also have the resources and the support and the money and because of the tradition and the winning culture that's pre-established, you're not going in and ripping it all out.

At least if you're smart, you're not. And so I kind of feel like you're ahead of the game a lot of times when you're following a legend because of what they've done before you to pave the way. It's not easy to be a pioneer.

It's easier to come behind someone who's a pioneer. Chris on Facebook. Rodeo work, especially working as one of the clowns. Oh, yeah, you're just out there asking for the Bulls to gore you.

And then Gary on Facebook. Toughest job in sports, the security staff at the venues. Imagine dealing with intoxicated fans all the time, breaking up fights, being disrespected by so many people. You know what that reminds me of is in the New York City area, the subways, the trains, there's been a major spike in crime in the last couple of years, and a lot of the crimes are committed against the train operators and the people who work for the transit company. I mean, yeah, you're in the wrong place at the wrong time.

People are taking out their frustration, their anger, their angst. At venues, sometimes there's alcoholism on you, and you just get to be the punching bag. That's tough. I agree with that. Toughest job in sports.

Also, do you understand the new college football playoff format? It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence. 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 HyundaiUSA.com or call 562-314-4603 for more details. Hyundai, there's joy in every journey. 2024 Santa Fe, available early 2024.

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

Oh, sorry. One retired quarterback returns to claim what's his. That's claim a ring with diamonds made from M&M's peanut butter, but you're on a roll.

The Ring of Comfort, coming soon to a Super Bowl new you. 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. Instead, get everything from tissues and teas to cough suppressants and comforting soups delivered through Instacart in as fast as 30 minutes.

If anyone needs anything, they can just redirect their questions to that one perfect coworker of yours. You are listening to the After Hours Podcast. What is the toughest job in sports? Sometimes I think it's being a female radio host. Who has to be on social media?

But after a few years, it kind of all blends together, so it doesn't have nearly the same impact. But I do try to warn other young women who are getting into the industry that there are definitely some pitfalls, and there are ways to navigate social media that maybe you don't learn in the manual at school. A lot of you are saying officials. Bob on Twitter, I think the toughest jobs in sports are officials.

I do for high school several sports, baseball, softball, basketball, field hockey. You rarely get any love, even if you're correct or you do a great job. Well, that's probably not why you're in it.

I would venture to guess. If you're working in sports for the love, the praise, the adoration, the fame, it's fleeting, right? We're fickle as sports fans.

We're fickle in the sports world. One day we love you, the next day we can't remember your name. Or one day we love you, and the next day we're on to a new love. Or worst case scenario, one day we love you, the next day we completely turn on you.

We do not claim to be irrational or logical. We do claim to be loyal, but loyalty comes with a price. And so when we're dealing with sports fans, oh yeah. If you're wanting love, adoration, recognition, fame, I guess money is easy come, easy go.

But if what you're in it for is human praise or human reaction, then, well, it's going to be a volatile industry to be sure. Let's see, another one, this is from the Colonel, officiating because you're never right. And I like this one from Will, also creative.

The guy that holds the sign up for fans to be quiet at the Waste Management Open in Phoenix. You guys are extremely creative. Let's see, another one, Chicago quarterback has to be worse than Dallas quarterback. And then, let's see, talent says college football head coaches now with the NIL and the transfer portal. Oh yeah, no doubt that has made the job so much more complicated. And it's not just in football, in basketball as well, right, because, baseball, in basketball, excuse me, as well, because it's also a revenue-producing sport. And think about the number of Hall of Fame coaches we've seen who just don't have the energy and don't want to do it anymore, right.

They're just not interested in keeping up with the constantly changing landscape or fighting their way through the wild, wild west. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio, on Twitter, ALaw Radio, and then our Facebook page too, people keep asking about Penny. I have a new really sweet picture that I'll post at some point before the end of the week. I don't know, how many pictures is too many pictures of your dog? Never. Never, are you a dog family? I'm a dog family. Yeah, what kind of dog? Right now, we got a new dog recently, her name's Roxy, with a shelter adoption, so she's kind of a mix of everything.

Of everything? Kind of looks like a pit bull, kind of looks like... How big is she? Not that big. Oh really, she's little. So like a little bit below, she's like a little bit medium size.

Gotcha, okay. So Penny at her height was 70-something pounds, 72, 73 pounds, maybe because she was well loved and well fed. Now she's down to, gosh, about 62, and so she's lost a bunch of weight, but she still has that same sweet spirit. Man, speaking of loyalty and sports fans, we think we're loyal. We're nothing compared to the dogs in our lives because they are definitely loyal to a fault. So we have taken a lot of these toughest jobs in sports, and it really was inspired by the fact that you've got yet another coaching change in the NBA, this one with the Brooklyn Nets. And Jacques Vaughn has been their whipping boy for the last few years, right, going back to when he was the coach in the bubble. Kyrie Irving refused to play in the bubble, and other guys were injured, and it was a group of kind of misfits, though they did end up... Did they almost... They made the playoffs, right, in the bubble? They did, they lost to the Raptors. They did, okay, but they made the playoffs in the bubble, and he earned rave reviews for that gig only to then get out and find out that, oh, instead the Nets are going to go with Steve Nash, right, because that's someone that they felt like would match their high-profile roster with Kevin Durant and Kyrie, and then later James Harden.

Oh, dear, pity Steve Nash, I did. That might have been the toughest job in sports, to be honest. And then when Steve Nash got fired, what do they do? They bring back Jacques Vaughn, and now he's been fired again, replaced by his own assistant in Kevin Ollie. So the toughest job, I still say, is coaching, whether we're talking about the Nets, whether we're talking about Doc Rivers taking over for a fired Adrian Griffin, who was having all kinds of success in his first year, but you're talking about general managers, front office execs, like a Sean Marks, who's looking ahead. Now, keep in mind, the Nets are 6-18 since the end of December, and they're one of the worst teams in the NBA since then, but he's looking around and he's thinking, oh, my team still has a chance to make the playoffs. With 28 games to go and 55 days before the playoffs start, it's time where we can get some movement with this group, and the expectations for Kevin as the new head coach here is to come in and get that movement.

Those are some lofty expectations for Kevin Ollie, who won a title with the Yukon Huskies going back, gosh, a decade ago now, and who has played in the NBA and a guy who was a journeyman in the NBA, so I guess understands the pressures there. How about this one, one of the toughest jobs in sports? Coach, let's see, I forgot what his title is. So it's College Football Playoff Committee, the conference chair. No, no, the committee chair. Committee chair is what I'm thinking of, no fancy title. The committee chair of the College Football Playoff Committee, who has to decide, well, it's been the Final Four and the rankings and all the criticism that we've had for the past however many years. Now they're expanding it, and the job becomes infinitely more challenging, and you're front and center.

Maybe that's one of the toughest jobs in sports. From The Athletic, Chris Vannini explains this new format, which features 12 teams. The College Football Playoff has changed its format. It will now be a five plus seven in the 12-team model, meaning five conference champions have a guaranteed spot instead of six. When the 12-team model was pitched in 2021, it came with a six plus six format, giving six automatic spots for conference champions and six at large spots, meaning in most years, the power five champions and one group of five champion would be guaranteed a spot. But conference realignment didn't stop, and the Pac-12 was torn apart, now down to just two schools. The commissioners in November voted to change it to five plus seven with the power four and one G5 again. That means in most cases, each of the power four champions next season will get a first round bye, as only conference champions are eligible for the bye. But questions remain for 2026 and beyond, as nothing is officially in place afterward.

That's Chris Vannini of The Athletic, and it's interesting, right? They actually adjusted to what happened with the Pac-12 and how the Pac-12 imploded with all of the teams leaving, well, all but two, and so it's no longer considered. Even if they fill those spots with teams from other conferences, they start plucking teams from other conferences. There's been a lot of talk about the Mountain West and how they can envelop that into the Pac-12, but it doesn't matter because they've lost their automatic bid as a conference. And so instead now it's four conference champs who will get the byes plus the top team in the whatever, I forgot what the name of it is, but the top team that comes from the mid-majors, right, that comes from the other groups of schools, and then you've got the at-large bids, which I would venture to guess end up coming primarily from the power conferences. As for the Pac-12 and the Mountain West, right now they're at least working on scheduling so that the two teams at Oregon State and Washington State could have conference slates, but it's going to be so drastically different, right? The group of five, that's what it's called. It's complicated. College football, college basketball, really high-profile college sports.

They've gone through so many iterations now, and it's not likely to stop. What are the toughest jobs in sports? Emily on Twitter says pit crew at an auto race.

Oh, no doubt. Not only are you under pressure to do your job perfectly in, I don't know, all of 16 seconds, but it's hot. There are cars and tires and parts flying all around. There's fire very often.

Guys get run over. I mean, it's a lot. Mistakes are made. It's a mess.

Of course, it can be a thing of beauty, as Emily points out. Toughest jobs in sports. Somebody's got to do them. Thanks for finding us on Twitter and Facebook. Enjoy your Wednesday. We're back tonight.

It's after hours on 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. State Farm is there. State Farm, Bloomington, Illinois.