After Hours with Amy Lawrence Hour 4

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So pick up a Baja Blast wherever you are, in stores now. I was listening to the Star Wars soundtracks. It's working!

It's working! Sometimes that's just all I want to do is listen to Star Wars music. Hello there. General Kenobi! Master, the Chancellor is very powerful. You'll need my help if you're going to arrest him.

For your own good, stay out of this affair. I was so engrossed in my Star Wars. I sense a great deal of confusion in you, young Skywalker. I forgot the football game had started and was like, uh-oh! It's over, Anakin! I have the high ground! Nooooo!

Are you sure this thing is safe? It's not really a Star Wars weekend, but now I'm thinking about it. This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Two things that we're known for, oh gosh, more than two, but two things that we're definitely known for here on the show. Food, and our love for Star Wars, and then dogs, and then, okay, a little sports every now and then. You guys, I can't even keep up with the dog photos. Ryan and I are blown away, so Ryan filling in for the last show here for Producer J, who's on vacation. Not even, was it, I don't know, two hours ago, not even two hours ago, we put up a post on Facebook, along with the post on Twitter, asking you to share your dog photos with us, or puppy photos as I put it. We have received, on Facebook alone, 300 photos in the last two hours, and on Twitter, we've got to be getting close to 100 as well. So you all are so kind and sweet, and they're so encouraging and they make me smile. I do not have time to go through and like them all right now.

I did start during commercial breaks, and I frequently will, I have been able to do a few. I'll frequently look at them as we're going through, but it's impossible for me to respond to each one of them at this point. Just know that we are tickled with the photos.

It's amazing how many shapes and sizes and colors and combinations and ears and smiles and everything else that you could imagine. Just the personalities of our dogs that we love. So I stand corrected about my phrase that I use a lot. It's one of my trademark phrases that we agree on nothing in this country except for football. Well, I got to amend it.

We agree on nothing in this country except for football and dogs. Some of you have thrown in cat photos. That's amazing because I also have a cat. Sugar is 15 now, and she's seen a lot of changes. I'm a little nervous about her because a few years ago, actually it was almost four years ago now, I had to put down an older cat, and Sugar for a couple of months really wouldn't eat and just wasn't herself. She had been with that cat essentially since she was a baby, and so it was a big change for her. And now, Penny. So Penny's been around for the last 12 years. And again, almost all of Sugar's life, and as I'm going to have to say goodbye to Penny sometime in the next couple of days, it's gotten that dire.

I know Sugar is going to feel that effect too. So it's incredible to me, even as you all are sending photos of more than one dog or multiple pets, how they bond together as well. So if you have more than one, of course we know that our dogs are loyal, and our cats are our fur babies, but actually they develop relationships too. And my husband brought a puppy into the mix, so he didn't like cats and I didn't want a puppy, but we now have both, and we're fine, we're good. But I wonder how much the puppy will be affected by Penny not being around, and just the way that they develop relationships and how they communicate with each other, sometimes loudly, sometimes just with the nose touches, or the puppy runs through Penny. I mean, it's crazy how quickly they became acclimated, probably even more than the humans did, even more quickly than the humans.

Anyway, I wonder how it will affect them as well. So I have to think of them even as I'm feeling my grief over my puppy. It's the first dog I've ever had to do this with too. I've had a lot of cats in my adult life, because they were easier sometimes when I had to travel. I've never had to make this decision with a dog.

And I don't want to say it's harder, because that's not fair, it's hard with the cats too, but it is different, I'd say it is different. And Penny's a trooper, so if you want to see a photo that I just took of her yesterday, you can find one up on Twitter, ALawRadio, and also on our Facebook page, After Hours with Amy Lawrence. And it's just a simple request asking you to send your own puppy photos, and you all have obliged to the point where you've completely blown us away. So thank you for your kind words and for your funny dog photos, especially the ones of them sleeping in all kinds of compromising positions, it's hysterical. Or if you're holding up a treat in front of the camera, have you ever noticed the kind of expressions you get when you're holding treats up in front of the phone or the camera?

I've never done that. Try it, see how attentive your pet looks when you hold a treat just behind the lens. It's incredible how well behaved they are and how much they will stare. See, I have a dog, Penny, she knows, when the phone comes out, she instantly turns her head. Trying to get selfies with that dog is like a lifelong pursuit. I have an entire folder of photos that are completely ridiculous and goofy because she refused to oblige. So if you want a selfie with Penny, that's one thing. But if you take a photo of her and hold a treat just behind the phone or just behind the lens, oh yeah, you get one of those types of photos you can hang up on your wall. That's how good it is. I'm going to do that now.

Yeah, you should. If you ever want to show off your beautiful dog or your handsome dog, put a treat where the dog can see it. Little trick. Anyway, many of you I feel like are doing that because your photos are perfect. So thank you. Again, on Twitter, on our Facebook page, it is a furry Friday. Oh, that is so perfect. It's a furry Friday.

Thank you. Furry Friend Friday. Furry Friend Friday. Or some people call them Fur Baby Friday.

We can say a fur baby too. Oh, I don't really want to talk about anything else. But I will. It's fine. It's Friday. It's after hours here on CBS Sports Radio 855 212 4227.

That's 855 212 4CBS. It's our toll free line. We had a guy fall asleep on us earlier. He wasn't even on the phone that long.

I don't suppose I should tell our guest at the time. So we had Randy Mueller, a long time NFL GM and front office executive. He joined us to talk about what's happening behind closed doors right now. And so our friend from Pittsburgh had gotten on the phone right as we started talking to Randy. So of course, I couldn't stop talking to my guest to take the phone call. By the time we got through our break, and Ryan can attest to this, it's on the podcast, I went right from the break to our caller to make sure he could weigh in on the Steelers quarterback situation. And he was already snoring. That is not on me.

I did not make him wait for three hours. He just he, I guess he fell asleep to Randy's voice. That's a good thing. NFL executive of the year, host of a podcast, soothing voice to put people to sleep.

It's on the resume. Great. Well, I guess I shouldn't take it as a slight either. I don't care if you fall asleep. If you fall asleep while you're listening and you need sleep, that is okay with me. Like I said earlier, the radio is likely still on or the phone, the device is still airing. The show.

So we're still getting the time spent listening number. TSL. I taught Ryan a classic radio term earlier. TSL. Do you know what P ones are?

No. I went to school. They didn't teach us this stuff.

They were very bad. Did you have a radio degree or a media degree? Broadcasting. So it was a little different. Interesting that they.

But still, they I would think that they would have taught you P ones or TSL. P ones are not specific to radio, though it's used a lot in radio. It's essentially the label that we give to. Well, I didn't start it, but that radio gives to extremely faithful listeners, meaning no matter what's happening, you could talk about moon landings. You can talk about dogs.

You can talk about absolutely nothing to do with whatever the topic of the show is supposed to be, I guess. And whoever knows what that is. But P ones never tune up. They never tune out. They listen when there's a fill in host. They listen when it's a holiday. P ones listen regardless of what's happening. They need to rename that. You could insult the P one and they would still listen, right? Like you could do something to make them angry and they would still listen there.

But the radio is essentially a part of their lives and it doesn't matter what you do or what you talk about, they're still going to listen. I say they rename it from P ones, though. To? Stans. Stans? You know what the word stan means?

Stand? Stan. S-T-A-N. A stan. It's a person's name. From the song and from Eminem.

Uh oh. The song... I do know a few Eminem songs, but not that one.

The song follows a stalker. Oh, great. Who's very dedicated to the artist, Eminem. And obsessed with his life, so people have claimed stan culture is someone who has a following. So Taylor Swift's Swifties are stans. Huh.

Interesting. It's not a compliment, though? It's like, oh, you're just obsessed.

No, being a stalker is, right, that's not a compliment. But P ones, you can consider them stans of the show. Let's not insult them. We need them.

No, no, it's not necessarily a bad thing. Okay. You're just dedicated.

Ryan, there you go. You're dedicated. You're committed. You are faithful and loyal.

Okay? We could call our puppies P ones. No matter what we do, they're still going to follow us around. They're still going to be committed and loyal.

But they deserve better than that. Thanks again for your puppy photos, because they are blowing us away. I'm trying to think of what was really the main topic of the show tonight. I suppose it was jumping into the second half of the NBA, which we did, a little bit of the drama around the Western Conference and the Warriors who have now won 9 of 11, blah, blah, blah, something about the MVP race.

You can get that part on podcast. Also, on this, I guess it was Thursday now into Friday, it's a fur baby and furry friend Friday. We've dubbed it that. But it was the start, the very first spring training game for the Dodgers and the Padres. For those of you who are big into this and you set your calendars and your clocks by pitchers and catchers reporting and the first spring training games, I said this earlier this week, it's actually against my religion to give you a spring training score because it's not real. It's a figment of your imagination.

It does not matter. I normally don't even give you highlights from spring training games because I think it's kind of goofy. However, in honor of Ryan's last morning here on the show, a highlight from the first spring training game of 2024. The bases are loaded with nobody out. This is going to bring up to Oscar Hernandez. This one's hit in the air well, the left center and deep heading back after at the center field or as a car and that ball is going to bounce and go over the wall for a double two runs will score out middle. Stop at third and the Dodgers strike first in the top of the first.

It's to nothing. Look at that. He actually gave the score, which is making me break out in hives.

Well, that's not even the worst part. Oh, they scored eight runs before getting two outs. It's spring training. Who cares?

Joe Musgrove. That's a that's a starting pitcher, an actual name. Right. But it's spring training. It doesn't matter.

All right. I don't think it's going to keep Dave Roberts up at night or the pod. Well, not Dave Roberts, of course. Not going to keep the Padres pitcher up at night. Do you think that he got shelled in spring training? I don't know. Might have to resort to more oil or is using against the Mets. Oil. Is that what it was? I don't know. It was like Vaseline lotion.

It's still weird. It was October and his ear was glowing red. Oh, in honor of Ryan, who's really excited about this, I'll even give you a postgame cut from Dave Roberts. What an amazing start to our spring. You never know how spring training is going to go. You're going to play your starters for a handful of innings and then you've got young guys cutting their teeth. And so there's it just speaks to a lot of the depth that we have on the pitching side, as well as the position player side.

So for me, there's a lot of positives and things to build on going forward. I mean, that's the first time in my career I've ever played a highlight from spring training. That's just for you. It's a first on after hours. It's not bad. I was I was looking up my eyes.

My eyes glazed over and rolled back in my head. That's how little I cared. The voice, though, by the way, was Tim Neverette on Dodgers radio. That's kind of fun to get back to the voices of Major League Baseball play by play, just because some of them have been doing the jobs forever. And actually, in the case of Tim, he was with the Red Sox for a long time and then made the jump to the Dodgers, along with Charlie Steiner, Rick Munday.

See, these are a lot of the West Coast teams. I end up listening to them on my drive into work. And so I'm pretty familiar. The last couple of years of Vin Scully's tenure with the Dodgers, I listened or watched religiously because I wanted to soak it all in. So really familiar with the Giants broadcast team, the Dodgers, the Mariners, trying to get some of the others, even the Diamondbacks when they're home.

It's it's right in the window where I'm driving to work because of our hours here. And so I am. Yeah, I'm excited. I'm excited that we get to hear a little flavor from baseball. But that's it. That's all you get.

Fanatico? Teasco Hernández was teaching Shohei Ohtani how to speak Espanol. And it was easy to say buenos dias.

That's no problem. Everybody knows. Well, not everybody. A lot of people know buenos dias is one of the first phrases that you learn along with como se llama. But what about Fanatico?

And it was kind of fun to hear Shohei Ohtani repeat that back. Fanaticos? Fanaticos. Fanaticos.

That's right. Fanaticos. But I'm not as Fanatico as Ryan who needs to hear spring training highlights. I need to get something. Basketball is boring. Football is gone. Wait.

Here. You're breaking a cardinal rule in sports radio. Never tell your listeners it's boring.

Because if it's boring, why do they need to listen to you? Okay. I'm not going to say it, but look up the NBA ratings. It will speak for itself.

No, I know. Every time we talk about the NBA, I get pushback. However, even so, it's the start of something beautiful and hope springs eternal. So, whether or not the games matter, they don't.

The score is irrelevant. It's still exciting for a lot of people. And I think in some places, signals the start of spring.

Not just spring training, but actual spring. Some places, not so much. But in some places, yeah.

It gives you something to look forward to. All right. On Twitter, A Law Radio. Also on our Facebook page. Speaking of spring, it's not here yet. But the silly season and the spring start to the NFL New Year brings a lot of change, a lot of transition, a lot of turnover. We had the chance to catch up with former NFL GM Randy Mueller about what's happening now in front offices around the league. And asked him some of the pertinent questions, too, about Justin Fields and the Bears, about some of the other free agent quarterbacks. But not just QBs, defensive players, too. Chris Jones, actually, is considered to be the top free agent who's available. Or at least right there with, say, a Kirk Cousins and Derrick Henry.

So there's a lot of big names, and it'll be really intriguing as we head through. So whether or not you're into baseball spring training, you can be into football spring. That never stops in the NFL. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. You are listening to the After Hours Podcast. It may feel like it's quiet and it's calm and there's nothing going on in the NFL.

Oh, just wait. First of all, the combine is days away, which turns into another NFL convention. But also, there's plenty cooking behind closed doors. And to that end, it was great to catch up with longtime NFL GM and front office exec. Randy Mueller is now with the athletic and has the football GM pod. And I tend to go a little longer with him because I'm just so fascinated by what he shares. And he's always very candid about his time in front offices and some of the challenges and when guys make their money and how they do it. And so I wanted to bring back part of that conversation. Of course, the whole thing can be found on our podcast available every weekday morning.

You've got to Google it, After Hours, Amy Lawrence Podcast, and you'll find it on a variety of platforms. We're picking it up when I was asking him about what we're seeing these days in the headlines. Guys getting cut, veterans getting cut in honor of salary cap space. And so I wanted to know from him, how difficult are these decisions that have to do with veterans and cap space?

I think it's the hardest task a GM has. And I've been asked this over the years, what is the hardest part of it? It is when you have to decide that guys who have given you their all for sometimes maybe a decade that you can no longer use that.

And you no longer use them. It's the hardest thing to decide if you have to part company with these guys who have really been your partners in business for the last, depending on who it is, 10 years. So it's a hard job.

It really is. And it's a lot more than just finances. It really is because you're a team builder, not a collector of talent. So a lot of these guys who do make the money are there also because of their intangibles and leadership and everything else. And so these are decisions that don't come likely to to GMs and to coaches.

And you've got to all be on the same page. And it's hard to shut the door on these guys who have given you their whole livelihood as a professional. We're always excited to spend a few minutes with Randy Mueller. He's a former NFL executive of the year as a general manager. And did you just tell me you were in an NFL gig from the time you were 22 years old? Yeah, full time all the way through for, I guess, about 36 years. So, yeah, it's the only thing I ever knew. That's how I grew up because I actually started as a ball boy when I was 16 in the summertime. So it's the only job I really ever had. And I always tell my buddies back home, they always say, what's it like?

I said, will it be working for a living for 40 years? It was awesome. Now he's with the athletic and has the football GM pod as well as weekly columns during the season.

It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence here on CBS Sports Radio. How much emphasis did you place on veterans and how much emphasis did you place on younger guys that you might get a little cheaper? Yeah, it's definitely a puzzle that every team kind of fits it together differently. And again, I mentioned the fact that free agency comes and then the draft, but in order to participate really functionally in free agency, you have to know what your options are going to be in the draft as well.

So they work together. I think the financial part of it, everybody sees when free agency starts the big money that gets spent that first three or four days. I think the smart teams end up waiting and finding the right value and the right fit. It's really not about when you're a team builder getting a bunch of great players. It's about getting the right players for you and your scheme and your coaches. And that sometimes I think flies under the radar for fans and for listeners is they think you have cap space. So spending equates to being successful. Spending does not necessarily equate to being successful. You've got to make good decisions.

And sometimes that's easier said than done. When you look at a team like the Kansas City Chiefs that have had extended success now or even going back to the Patriots, how much does it help to attract free agents and big names and maybe even get them to not take top dollar when they're looking to win and you've had some extended success? I think it's definitely a factor.

It's a thing. The underlying fact of it is and you mentioned the Patriots. It's really about the quarterback. Players want to play with Pat Mahomes. Players want to play with Tom Brady because they know success is going to bring you whatever you want, whether it's more financial security, more accolades, more attention, whatever it is that floats your boat, winning brings you that. And Pat Mahomes does that. Tom Brady does that. These other quarterbacks that are at the top of their game, people want to get on board with that. And to be honest with you, the guys who have made their money, they're going to sign up to play for that just to win.

And they'll not necessarily be driven by the almighty dollar. Right now, we've got some quarterbacks who are likely to hit free agency. Kirk Cousins, Russell Wilson, Jimmy Garoppolo, who's got a two-game suspension to start next season. Ryan Tannehill, a Mason Rudolph, oh my goodness, a Joe Flacco, maybe a Justin Fields. Where would you start to find your QB?

Well, you're on to a bunch of them. Don't forget Baker Mayfield as well, who had a pretty good year in Tampa. So I think what happens is teams kind of segregate the UFAs in that maybe there's two or three guys that you view as starters, and there's two or three guys after that that might be starters or guys that can compete for the starting job. But it's really all about options. You mentioned Kirk Cousins. That's an interesting spot because Minnesota, here's their choice. Do we pay Kirk Cousins $40 million a year, a 36-year-old coming off of Achilles, or do we go a different route and maybe as a bridge pay a Mason Rudolph or pay a Sam Darnold or somebody like that for $20 million?

And that gives us $20, $25 million extra to build this team up in some other areas. So it's all about options. It's all about choices.

But to get to the point of pulling the trigger, you've got to have researched it all. You've got to met with them all. You've got to talk to all the agents with all these guys.

That's why I'm saying the volume of deals that are on the table are crazy. So then thinking about the draft, of course at the top there is the Chicago Bears with a big decision to make. We know Ryan Polis generally plays his cards close to the vest, but if you're sitting in that position, which direction are you going at QB? Well, I think Ryan has to play his cards close to his vest.

I understand that. He's also got to put out certain intentional messages, which helps their positioning. I don't think it's a hard call, and I have nothing but respect for Justin Fields. I think he's progressed the last three years.

He's just not to the point where I could turn my back on Caleb Williams from USC. Having the first pick, I think that's what they'll end up doing. I think they'll manage to get something for Justin Fields.

It's not going to be a lot. I don't think anybody's going to give them a first-round pick for Justin Fields, but maybe it's a second or a third, and they move in a different direction. But when you can reset at the quarterback position your salary cap for what would have to be Justin Fields in the $20 million range a year from now and supplant that with a rookie first-year deal, that's a no-brainer as far as if you don't take a step back on the field.

And I don't think Caleb Williams is taking a step back to anybody that's in the free agent market for sure. We have seen a bunch of new head coaches, and there's always chatter about a general manager and a coach coming in at different times and who predated who and who's in charge of what. You've been in these situations before. How much is that a challenge when the two guys weren't hired at the same time or didn't come in together? It's definitely a little more difficult. It's, like I say, a little more sticky, but it can surely work.

And here's the only thing I use as a gauge. I worked under coaches, I worked even with coaches, and I worked as the coach's boss. The relationship never changed in any of those situations. We always made decisions together, and my theory was if we can't agree, we're going to pick a different lane that we agree on. So as far as a team build goes, I think they can work out those things. The calendar and how that reflects their own contract, sometimes that can be an issue. If a GM maybe has a year or two left and a coach has four years left or vice versa, the agendas on how you make decisions sometimes can be a little difficult and problematic.

So you've got to work through those. It's challenging, but if there's communication and if there's an effort to team build together as a staff, I don't think it's going to hold you back by any means, but it's definitely a little difficult to do that way. Is it possible that front offices around the league are intimidated by a Bill Belichick? Oh, 100 percent. I think we saw that in Atlanta, and I don't have that from any great source, but this will maybe make people cringe, but I think maybe this happens in any industry. I don't know.

I've only known football. There's people within the building that guard their own desks, right? They don't want anything to change for them. They don't want to feel uncomfortable. They don't necessarily want to be pushed. So some people say they really want to win, but what that means to others, I don't know, because everybody I think needs to be a little bit uncomfortable in order to get the best out of them. Even a Mike Frable, people might fear that a little bit with him. Definitely with Belichick, I don't know as much with Pete Carroll, but they're going to hold others accountable, which I think is awesome, but there are some that really don't want to change.

They want to kind of keep things the same because it's best for them, and therefore it's hard for a guy outside the building to crack that code. I always say this. The GM jobs, the head coach jobs, sometimes, and most of the time, I feel like they don't go to the best candidate. They go to the candidate who fits within the box that the people doing the hiring have made, and I think that's the case with Bill this time around. But he's one of the best coaches that the league has ever seen. I agree. I think some people have the owner's ear, and for Bill to get a job, it's going to take an owner to just say, hey, I don't care what any of you guys say.

They're going to say just what you did, Amy. Here's the best coach we've ever had. We're going to hire him, and if other heads have to roll or if other people have to be uncomfortable, so be it.

But this is the route we're going to go. Randy Mueller is with us from Seattle. He's got the Football GM podcast.

Really great stuff. It's after hours on CBS Sports Radio. I asked my listeners this question, and it wasn't specific to football. What is the toughest job in sports? And my answer was coach at the pro level because there's no job security. But looking around the landscape of the NFL, what is the toughest job?

Well, the toughest job, for my money, is the quarterback. That's why they make $50 million a year. Because only, think about it, maybe six or eight of these guys in the whole world, the whole world that can do what they do at the highest level. And therefore, that's why they make the money they do. They are also the one guy on the field that can't protect himself.

They're out there ducking, diving, duking, running from people trying to take his head off all the time. I just think it's the hardest job in sports. It's one thing to be talented, but your skill level then has to rise above that talent.

And the Pat Mahomes, the Josh Allen, the Lamar Jackson, those guys can do it at a level where nobody else can. And therefore, I don't want to say anybody deserves $50 million, but they sure do in this world, that's for sure. Well, and my response to that is the owners are obviously making money hand over fist. Any owner in the NFL, even the worst owners in the NFL are getting richer.

They're obviously very wealthy, but getting richer. So if they're making money courtesy of this cash cow of a league, then why shouldn't the players who are billed as faces of the franchise and used as faces of the franchise get a healthy cut of that money? More with Randy, there actually is more with Randy. Randy, great stuff, even talking about some of the defensive guys that are available, the free agents. I asked him specifically about Russell Wilson.

We talked about Kirk Cousins. There's a lot more in there. I tend to go longer with the guys who have been in the arena just because you get such great insight and intel. So check that out on the podcast. I could tell you a bazillion places to capture the after-hours Amy Lawrence podcast, but just Google it and use whatever platform that you use. On Twitter, ALawRadio, in the last 30 minutes since we mentioned the number of Facebook puppy photos, we've gotten about 150 more that quickly. You guys are amazing. Thank you for sharing your puppies with us on this Fur Baby, Furry Friend Friday. It's easy.

It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Hey Mel, Bri here. Got to work from home today because the whole family caught a nasty... Daddy! Hey, Mikey!

If you're going to puke, find the popcorn bowl! But my availability is 110%. Coincidentally, so is my fever.

Kidding. Mel, I'm so cold but hot. But I'm going to get you that budget. Just as soon as... Mikey!

Popcorn bowl! Press 1 to use Instacart and get your family sick day essentials delivered in as fast as 30 minutes. Press 2 to keep working.

Do not press 2. Just use Instacart, Brian. 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. You are listening to the After Hours podcast. Well, when we started this whole dog project on this edition of the show, I told you and I told Ryan who's been filling in amazingly well for Jay all week. He finally started talking to me. For the first, I don't know, two months that we worked in the same building, Ryan would not even utter a peep.

I would say hello and he would nod. What happened? Were you afraid? Yes.

Why? Am I scary? No, it was uncomfortable. It was a new time, new place, new faces.

Yes, I get that. It's like the first day of school? Yes, but like times 10 and the people are much more intimidating. Are they?

Interesting. I will not ask you specifics about why we're intimidating, but I do suppose that as humans, sometimes in unfamiliar new situations, we get intimidated. And then especially in a business like this where there are such crazy misconceptions about the people who sit behind the microphone. I don't know why people call me intimidating.

I don't feel that way at all, but I am loud, so there's that. If that was intimidating, all right, I'll give you that. So Ryan's finally started talking to me. We've had a good week here. When we started this, hey retweet us, or not retweet us, tweet us photos of your dogs. Send us photos of your dogs on Facebook. I told people that we would retweet them from our show account. And so a couple of minutes ago, Ryan says, I stopped doing it because I'm worried that we're flooding people's timelines. Okay, I'll give you the floor.

I'll give you the microphone, Ry. What else could you possibly flood on someone's timeline that would be better than what we're doing this morning? You're right. It'd be funny jokes. I don't know.

No. Not everyone has the same sense of humor. Quality sports takes.

First of all, what you consider quality and what I consider quality are two completely different things. But also, we don't agree. What I've been telling you, we don't agree on sports. First of all, I can't even stand the word take.

It drives me insane. Have a take! And I know some of my colleagues are big into takes. It's a well thought out, qualified opinion. Why do we have to call it a take? Anyway, it's one of my pet peeves. But fine, fine. No one's going to agree with your quality sports takes because that's the whole point.

Also, jokes, what you think is funny and what I think are funny are two completely different things. We can agree on dogs. Maybe we go to dog videos.

Like them juggling and bouncing on the bouncing ball. We could start our own show. It's not America's Got Talent, America's Dogs Have Talent. Amy's Help videos, I don't know.

Something like that. Oh my gosh, you guys are amazing. Some of you are not only sending your dogs in just cute, lazy, sleepy, happy, goofy positions and photos. But some of them are smiling. Some of them are ready to eat the camera. They're awesome. Some of you are making your dogs wear hats and jerseys.

No. Anyway, we've been inundated with your photos. I disagree with Ryan in that I think we should retweet every single one of them. Because that way people can wake up on this Friday morning, check out their social, whether it's Twitter or Facebook, and they can see the same joy and have the same joy through dog photos. I love the names that you all assign to your dogs as well, too. Some of you have given names like Moose to a big Great Dane or a Chocolate Lab, one that maybe runs 100 pounds. And then you've got people who insist on giving their toy puppies names like Napoleon.

Although I suppose there is the Napoleon complex. But one guy named Ryan sent us a photo of his Yorkshire Terrier. He's little.

And his name is Napoleon. That's great. Yeah, it is.

Awesome. Some of your names are so, they're so good. I've seen OSHA as in like O-S-H-A, OSHA. I mean, there's some really creative ones. A lot of you do, in fact, name your animals after your favorite sports heroes, your favorite sports. And I can't claim to have never done that because my cat that passed away or that I said goodbye to four years ago, her name was Ellie in honor of John Elway. Oh, yeah. One of these days I need to talk to John Elway and let him know that I named a cat after him. I mean, just reading the names are amazing. Koba, like as in Kobayashi, probably not.

Scooter. Winifred is the best. Winifred or Winifred? No, Winifred. Like Winnie, Winifred. Did you ever see Wonder Years or even the remake of Wonder Years?

No. Oh, one of the great old shows. Anyway, Winifred is a girl's name and you shorten it, many people shorten it to Winnie. And it's adorable. I believe it's a lab puppy, but I guess I can't know for sure. Sometimes they have different breeds all mixed in. I mean, some of your dogs are seniors like Penny.

Sixteen, seventeen, eighteen. We've got a Murphy. Petey and Chico. Rufus is a good one. Yes, Rufus is a great one. Harper. She's a tyrant.

She's a French bulldog and she's a tyrant. These are amazing. I mean, I'm just blown away by the photos of dogs that you sent. Honestly, never thought that we would get so many, but we're well over five hundred. And we've only had the post up for three hours.

Not even three hours yet. And that's between Twitter and Facebook, so thank you. And I appreciate your kind words. I need to end with something funny. Well, I mean, the dog photos are funny, so just go check them out on Twitter, A-Law Radio, or on our Facebook page. I promise you will be amused by checking out other people's photos. But something funny, that doesn't really translate as well on radio.

You know what? Actually, last night on the show, I teased this. And this is one of my big faults in radio. I get very eager and I tease a particular topic.

And then, because I talk so much and I also have kind of a running stream of consciousness sometimes, I get off on other topics and I forget to come back. Brody and Boyzie is wearing a pink sweater and a pink blanket. You guys are with your pets. We treat them like people. We do. They're family.

Anyway, I'm getting distracted by photos of dogs. So, on last night's show, this is kind of amusing to wrap up, even as we talk about quarterbacks and new coaches. And again, go get the rest of the conversation with Randy Mueller on our podcast, almost on the Facebook page. It'll be up there, but on our podcast. Antonio Pierce was a guest with Max Crosby on Max's podcast, which he was actually taping over Super Bowl week, in addition of it. He was there on Radio Row.

It's called The Rush. And Pierce is pretty sure that he has figured out the clues. The clues and the method to defending Patrick Mahomes so that he's not effective.

All right. So, he actually says you have to have a set of rules for Patrick Mahomes like you do for Michael Jordan. Remember, they were the Jordan rules that different teams like the Pistons would use specifically to guard MJ. We got the Jordan rules and I'm calling out from now on, as long as I'm here, the Patrick Mahomes rules. So, you remember when Jordan was going through it with the Pistons, all those guys in the 80s, before he came, Michael Jordan, the Air Jordan, the Pistons used to whoop his ****.

Anytime he came to the hole, elbows, filling them, love taps, we touched them, we in the head, mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually, I'm touching you. So, I show those guys Jordan getting his **** whooped. So, the Mahomes rules are that you hit them as much as you can.

Now, no doubt, that's a plan that many teams would like to employ. The Raiders did it well on Christmas Day, but there's a catch. So, if you remember that game, it's not one of the top ten games of 2023, by the way. You're not going to see that one on NFL Network.

Right now, they're up to number three. So, number four was Niners-Packers divisional round. Number three is the overtime game between the Rams and the Ravens from week 14.

For those of you who remember, can I tell you something? That was the weekend I got married, so I watched no games from week 14. I think that was the weekend I got married. Maybe it was week 15.

Anyway, whatever. They're actually mixing playoff and regular season games. But the game between the Raiders and the Chiefs was one that sparked the Chiefs. They won six in a row after that, including the Super Bowl. But they also hit Patrick Mahomes a bunch. They got to him and sacked him four times and hit him another ten times.

So, they had ten QB hits and four sacks. I told them, we'll write it back. We'll see them again. They got CS. We got CDM.

And we already gave them a recipe of how to do it. He's got it. He's figured it out. Antonio Pierce, brand new head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders in the same division as Patrick Mahomes.

And yes, they got the upset on Christmas Day. We've got the recipe. We've figured it out. I mean, what a relief to the rest of the NFL.

A.E. O'Connell is the recipe. Max Crosby and Antonio, Max is his yes man in the background. You can hear him. About defending Patrick Mahomes.

Making him ineffective. They figured it out. They've got it. Everybody, take notes now. Alright, have a good weekend. Thank you for your dog photos. We'll talk to you Sunday night. After Hours with Amy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio.

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