After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 3

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Minimum monthly payment, down payment, tax and delivery may be required. See store for details. In the middle of all of this, this intense conversation, our computers want to update. No, no, not right now. Postpone, postpone, postpone. I'm going to postpone four hours right in the middle of the next show here on CBS4tradio.

Well then they can postpone to the next show after that. Until it's right in the middle of Jim Rome and then it doesn't matter. And that's why our equipment is from 1992.

It never gets updated. Is it 1992? Our computers? We actually do have laptops that come from this century. But some of the other equipment, I mean they wouldn't take it if you tried to donate it somewhere at a civic center or a library or I don't know, a school where they need computer equipment. They wouldn't take this. They would charge us like a storage fee. They wouldn't even take it in a recycle center. Remember the old tube TVs?

Of course. No joke. Five years ago I had to get rid of one. I still had one and five years ago I tried to get rid of it. I couldn't find any place that would take it obviously. Because you can find the flat screens, not just the flat screens that are HD, but the flat screens that are now smart TVs. And it was a tube TV.

It was none of those things. And I couldn't even find a recycle center to take it. I decided to take it to the dump, which I felt terrible about. That's sad.

You know, it's really sad. Think about the number of electronics that are buried in dumps around the United States and around the world probably. Yeah, electronics are one of those things where the second you buy it or it gets out, it's already diminished in price immediately. And then within years it's archaic.

Done. So, sad story. My husband tried to sell his 75 inch TV because there's not enough room in our house for it. My house is much smaller.

And there's really no place that it would go. And he just bought it a couple years ago, right? It was brand new. But couldn't sell it. And couldn't sell it for anywhere near what he paid for it. Because now those TVs are so cheap. Now those TVs are just so easy to get. And the new models come out every year and make yours look like it's archaic. So when we say our computers are archaic, I get it. You might think they're from five years ago. Oh no.

I could show you some pictures, but I might get fired. So I don't want to do that. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Postpone! Postpone!

Postpone! Here on CBS Sports Radio. The Dodgers and the Padres are getting ready for Game 2 of the Soul Series that starts in two hours. I'm going to have to listen to the Padres Radio Network on my way home on Wednesday morning.

This morning I'll be listening to Dodgers Radio because I need to hear their commentary. I just put this on Twitter. I'll say it again.

Maybe next hour I'll go back over the details for people who are just waking up. But I so badly want to believe that Shohei would not hang his best friend out to dry and allow him to be accused of massive theft to save his own rear end. Because that seems to run anti-Japanese culture which is where honor is so important and relationships are highlighted.

Now people tell me I'm too naive when it comes to believing other humans and so I'll readily accept that I could be completely wrong. And a friend has pointed out to me, what's the alternative? So I've been texting with a friend of mine who's passionate about the same thing and he said, what's the other alternative? And this is why Shohei's attorneys maybe had to take such a drastic course of action. To recant everything that the interpreter said to ESPN in the story, deciding that wasn't drastic enough for him to claim that these were his debts and Shohei knew nothing. Because his names are on the wire transfer, the money is coming from his account, the bets are illegal and if baseball wanted to be a stickler about it they could suspend him.

This could affect his career. But even more than that, this bookie is under a federal investigation. There's a chance this bookie could go to jail. He's been caught up in this larger gambling investigation and that's how he was found out. That's how these wire transfers were found out. They weren't found out because somebody made a mistake and the bookie leaked the info. Oh look, it's Shohei Otani's name. No, this came out because of a federal investigation and the records being made public.

The records being pulled and ESPN got a hold of them and saw these wire transfers. And so maybe Otani's camp is all freaked out now about him being connected in any way to an illegal gambling ring and a federal investigation and realizes that he stands to lose a lot more than his best friend. Now would that be Otani's choice?

I hope not. Again, I so badly want to believe there's no way he would put this on his best friend. Now maybe his best friend agreed. So you know how I said earlier, if it was my brother or my best friend and I had the means to bail him out Jay, I would do that without a thought. I mean, I would be pissed. I'd be like, you idiot, right?

Like I'm never giving you money again. But I would, if I had the money, I would bail out my friend or my brother. But on the flip side, now this is maybe a tougher question, but if you are Ipe Mitsuhara and your best friend Otani stands to lose everything, not to mention you stand to lose your source of income, right? Potentially. I mean, I guess you could work with another player, but Otani's your best friend. Would you then fall on the sword willingly?

Right? So maybe that's, again, part of their culture where honor and relationships and shame are such a big deal. I'm trying to think, would I take that fall for someone that I loved? Now, I don't know anyone who's a millionaire slash billionaire.

So that's not really part of the equation, but I'm trying to think if I love somebody enough or cared about him enough and didn't want him to ruin his life. And we got into deep without realizing what was happening. We didn't know the bets were illegal, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Before you know it, it's four and a half million dollars. Would I take the fall? But it's one thing to take the fall, which sounds like he was prepared to do by admitting that these were his debts. It's entirely another to get accused of massive theft. Well, that takes Shohei's name out of it entirely is the idea behind that, right? No, but... One, it's we messed up, but he's taking the fall. This time it's no. Shohei had nothing to do with it, not even a part of it, never had any idea what was going on, blindsided by his best friend.

He's nothing to do with this. But that best friend could now go to jail. He might, yeah. And this goes back to what we were saying last hour where, and you were just saying kind of before hinting at, is there this under the table incentive for the friend to take this fall?

Because why would anyone do that? But do you think the attorneys care though? Shohei may care about the best friend, but do you think the attorneys and the financial advisors give a flying crap about the interpreter? No, I think they just want Shohei's money to be protected.

Exactly, because that's their source of income too, right? So they recognize that he's the meal ticket. They recognize that they've got to clear his name as quickly and as abruptly and cleanly as possible. That's the end game.

That's the goal right now. Exactly, for them. And maybe in this case, Otani is scared to death now, realizes what he has to lose, and is like, oh, well, I have no choice but to allow them to clean up the mess. But still, like again, the attorneys couldn't care less about the interpreter. They're just worried about the bottom line. I don't know if they care about Otani either, to be honest. Well, they care about his money. Right. Oh, gosh.

Why do I care so much about relationships? If only I was more cynical. The whole thing hurts me. It's a horrible, it doesn't look good for a guy who we all thought was this crystal clean, awesome face of the sport.

We don't know, but right now it's suspect. He's super private, obviously, and tries to keep all of his personal information close to his vest, which I think some people then suspect even more. But again, it's not even really the gambling. I don't think anybody, I shouldn't say anybody, I think very few people in America would hold against him that he gambled. I haven't heard one person come down on Calvin Ridley and be like, you idiot! I mean, stupid for getting caught, right? And stupid for placing bets on the NFL, but no one thinks less of Calvin Ridley because he was placing $1,500 worth of bets. Unless he was making bets that I'm going to drop five passes in this game and he purposely dropped five passes, then no. Right, if he was throwing games, that'd be one thing, but he wasn't even playing when he was placing bets. And I'm not saying, I mean, he served his time for it.

I don't think the majority of football fans even care anymore. So the gambling is one thing, but the money is something different. That's the hard part. It's the pivot. It is.

The coverup is always worse than the crime. This is going to be a podcast series someday. A Netflix special? It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio 855-212-4227. We're going to get right back to your calls here. But Dave Roberts did just speak minutes ago in advance of their second game in the Souls series and we're going to take them in order. Of course, the very first questions are about Ipe Mitsuwara and Shohei Ohtani and what they knew in the clubhouse after the game and how this played out. I can't comment on it, man.

Yeah. On that, can't comment. When was the decision made to have him address the team? Anything with that, the meeting, can't comment. Sorry. Were you surprised when you found out he was fired when that happened? Again, can't say anything.

Not going to comment, guys. It doesn't sound like it was a Dave Roberts decision then, right? But of course, Dave's not acknowledging, confirming, denying, nothing like that. But the reporter phrased the question in were you surprised that he got fired, meaning that decision came above his head, which it may have.

It may have. He was an employee of the Dodgers. So then Dave is trying to say I can't answer any of these questions, is trying to shut it down, but the questions persist.

A different bent, necessarily. Are you worried about Ohtani as you head into game number two? Shohei's ready. I know that he's preparing in a hitter's meeting right now and ready to go for tonight's game. Did you think about holding him out in the midst of all of the news and all of the speculation and not just that, but losing his best friend? No, no.

I think that he's ready to play and that was not considered. You're all the way across the globe. You're showcasing baseball and these incredible athletes in the country of South Korea. Now you have this and it's impossible to ignore. How distracting is this to you? We're here to play baseball and obviously with what happened yesterday, we did a good job of focusing on a baseball game.

We're going to do the same thing today. Now CJ and I heard that the first time from Dave Robinson thought, wait a minute, we did a good job of focusing on baseball. If you didn't know until after the game, why would you need to worry about baseball?

Because you would have been oblivious. So I went back to the article and was just kind of reading through it. And so Major League Baseball, a source for the league, told ESPN that the federal authorities have not reached out to them and they weren't even aware of the situation until ESPN brought it to their attention in recent days.

That's the quote, recent days. The source said baseball's next step is to gather facts which could take time in light of the federal investigation. Right, so this was all spearheaded by federal authorities seeing these wire payments with Otani's name on them as part of their investigation into the bookie. Not into Otani, but into the bookie in the operation. And you can very clearly see Shohei Otani alongside the various bank account and wire transfer info and then the word loan. So again, everybody's declining comment at this point, but neither Otani nor Mitsuhara have been contacted by the federal authorities. Again, think about it, in their scope, this is about the gambling operation in the bookie.

It's not about the people who were placing bets. This just happened to come out in the wash. So you know what it reminded me of, Jay? When the NFL was investigating the Washington football team slash Redskins slash commanders, whatever, and they're looking into Daniel Snyder and they're looking into his workplace culture and the accusations that were made against him. And what they come up with is John Gruden emails.

So it was a very small part of what they told us were hundreds of thousands of emails that somehow disappeared, by the way. But that is what got John Gruden in hot water, while the rest of it we never saw. So it was part of a much larger investigation into the Washington football team and the Sniders. It never had anything to do with John Gruden, but somehow that part got leaked.

Well that's very similar, right? So this investigation is not about Shohei Ohtani, it's not about the Dodgers, it's not about these two or three wire transfers or this four and a half million dollars. It's about this bookie being part of this larger gambling ring and they stumble across his name on these wire transfers. Yeah, dots are being connected.

Yes, exactly. And somehow someone told ESPN, right? Because ESPN would have had no idea unless they were monitoring this investigation because there had been other...

So Yasiel Puig, remember him, the former Dodger? He was caught up in the same gambling ring. Not with this particular bookie, but with a different bookie that kind of connects. So maybe ESPN was monitoring because of the larger gambling organization. They know about it, yeah.

And if there were other athletes that might get fingered or other baseball or football people that might get caught up in it. And so could you imagine you're doing your diligence, you're reading through what the hell and you see Shohei Ohtani's name. Oh my gosh. By the way, I want to mention her name again because she's done an incredible job reporting even though there's a lot of details that still have to be fleshed out. But Tisha Thompson of ESPN, this is her original work, so I want to make sure you know.

And the article is on ESPN.com and she's done a great job. It's confusing though. I mean, the first time I read it, my head was spinning and I had to go back and read it two and three times just to kind of figure out, wait a minute, what does this mean? What does this mean?

And the part about the about face where the story is completely different a day later, that kind of smacks you in the face. Wait a minute. What just happened? Mike is in Philadelphia. Mike, welcome to After Hours, CBS Sports Radio. Good morning, Amy. How are you doing? I'm good.

Thank you. Before I talk about this Tommy thing, I went to the Flyers game the other night and I haven't been to a hockey game in a long time. And it was so exciting. They beat Toronto.

I think it beat them eight times in a row. But I need the music. I'm sorry? I said yay.

Yeah. Well, I got to get back into sports full force. And on a side note, I'll give you a little secret. You do know a millionaire. I'm a millionaire and I still listen every day. I get up every day. I still go to work every day. Well, should I take your word for it? Yeah, you got to take my word for it. How did you make your money?

Well, I used to have more, but I blew up on half a million dollars in 2004 in the city of Philadelphia. Uh oh. But this is a Tommy thing. Now we're talking about wire transfers, okay? I think this kid was placing the bets and losing. He's like the Charles Barkley of sports betting. I can't believe, I can't believe him. And he's a 700 million dollar man. And why didn't this story come out sooner?

I'm telling you, this kid was placing bets and losing. And his interpreter is going to take the fall. You know what I mean? Why do you believe that as opposed to believing that it was his interpreter and Otani was bailing him out? Because you say his interpreter was his best friend and you say his attorneys and his accountants are sticking with the story, sticking with the Tommy and stuff. They need the money to keep coming in. You know what I mean? It's going to be a bad thing for the Dodgers, a bad thing for Otani. But I mean, it's not believable.

You know what I mean? You don't wire transfer 4.5 million into your interpreter's bank account so you can pay off his debts without somebody finding out about it. No, they didn't wire it. The interpreter never had the money. The money went straight to the bookie. Yeah, exactly. The bookie that you placed the bet with and lost.

This kid messed up. And they're trying to come up with a story that's believable. It's not believable in my opinion.

Alright, I guess it depends on experience, right? And I certainly do know, I readily admit, I could be flat out dead wrong about this. These could be Otani's bets and he could be the one.

In fact, the interpreter could have nothing to do with it. And it's all Otani. Though it's hard to imagine since the two of them spent every waking minute together. They did holidays together. They've been together for 12 years.

This is his person. And so you kind of wonder what impact losing him will have on Otani's career too. I mean that's another question. Yeah, that's interesting. So I know I could be flat out wrong and these could be Otani's debts.

Yeah, I mean I can understand though that if I had the means and one of my favorite people on the planet, someone I loved dearly, was caught in gambling, I would pay off his debts too. Like an idiot. Are you going into Brooklyn this weekend to watch the NCAA basketball? I was going to come up there but the weather doesn't look like it's going to be too good.

Yeah, no. So here's the hard thing about covering all the games is it's hard to go to one site because it's then really difficult to monitor all of those games. So it's the same thing on an NFL Sunday.

It's really hard for me to go to a stadium because then I'm missing out on all of the other games. So no, I'm going to be home with my computer and my two TVs and my laptop and just watching as much as I can and taking notes. Good for you. Enjoy the show.

Alright, thank you so much Mike. I appreciate it. He says, you know a millionaire.

And I asked him how he made his money in crickets. Don't worry about that. Don't worry about that. That's not important.

Completely irrelevant here. Just take my word for it. Oh my goodness. One more from Dave Roberts and then we'll get to our break. Does this change anything about your trip to South Korea? I'm very excited about this series, our experience here in Korea. I think my players feel the same way. And we're excited about tonight and we've got our hands full with Musgrove and the Padres. So ready to play tonight.

Oh, I feel bad for him too. What a mess. What a freaking mess.

You just got him for one game and now this? Oh, can you imagine what it's going to be like when they get back to L.A.? It's going to be a circus. And also if we just could have one video reel, one TikTok reel of the Japanese media.

I don't know how, you can't get them all together obviously. But maybe even the Japanese media at this game in South Korea, right? Because I bet there's a ton of them covering the series. Oh yeah, I mean he's playing today. He'll be out there. I'm sure there's going to be people screaming his name, trying to get a hold of him after the game right now.

As we speak, trying to get a hold of him. They can only protect him for so long. And he's going to say the same thing Dave Roberts did, right? I can't say anything about it. Who's going to speak for him?

Well, that's a good point. They're going to have to get another interpreter right away. Although he does speak English. We know he speaks English.

But in this case, there's no way he's comfortable speaking in his broken English about this. But like imagine that. You have a routine. You're committed to it.

It works for you. This guy's your buffer. He's your insulation. He's your best friend. You do everything together and now you can never speak to him again?

Because you just accused him of massive theft? Yeah, true or not. To make this story look true, you can't be seen with him.

No, you can't. The attorneys would kill him. Well, you know.

Theoretically. That's his best friend. Arguably, it's almost his brother at this point. How much time they spent together and how close they've been in his time in America. A foreign country for both of them. They speak the native language together. They do everything together.

Right. They do everything together. Michael Duarte of NBC LA even said to me they do holidays together. I mean, they hang out together away from the field. Who knows more about Shohei Ohtani than him? I don't think anybody. His family's halfway across the globe.

I mean, his wife I guess theoretically could get to know him, but probably doesn't yet. Oh, this hurts. This whole thing hurts. Ouch.

There's so many things about it that hurt. Call from Mom. Answer it.

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Minimum $10 per order. Additional terms apply. Yo, next round is about to start. You ready? Yeah, yeah, just shopping for a car in Carvana. For real?

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Visit Carvana.com to shop for thousands of vehicles under $20,000. On Twitter, ALawRadio. Also on our Facebook page. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. You are listening to the After Hours Podcast. I can't comment on it, man. Yeah, on that, can't comment.

When did, when's the decision made to have him address the team? Anything with that, the meeting, can't comment. Sorry. Were you surprised when you found out he was fired when that happened? Again, can't say anything. I'm not going to comment, guys.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Dave Roberts, just a few minutes ago in advance of this big game, the Soul Series. Gosh. He says they're still focused on baseball, never thought about pulling Shohei Ohtani from the lineup, but will not answer any questions. That doesn't mean the media won't pose them, and Ohtani at some point will have to stand in front of a microphone without his interpreter.

And that's jarring, too, right? He's used to having the same guy next to him. Trust him. Oh, no.

Oh, why as humans do we screw up our relationships over and over again? It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. Mike is in Boston. Mike, welcome to the show. Hey, how you doing, Amy?

Long time listener, first time caller. Awesome. Thank you.

Yeah, I actually live up in New Hampshire. Boom! Live free or die, baby! That's right. Love it. So I figured I had to throw that out. I just stopped up at Cumberland Farms, got my company's coffee. Oh, no!

You're making me jealous! That's not fair! So I got a good take for you, and this is just, I was listening, and this bothered me to hear, because I could see baseball doing a totally different thing here than they did back then to Pete Rose. They crucified Pete Rose, and they're still crucifying him for gambling. I could see the PR machine right now of Major League Baseball getting involved and actually trying to aid in covering this up.

That's my personal opinion. How, though? Meaning, like, hey, let's conspire to dump this on the interpreter? Any kind of spin they could add without incriminating themselves, but just the PR machine, I could just see it, because this would hurt baseball massively.

Oh, of course. And there's a lot of money involved for baseball, so to me, I could see baseball doing the complete opposite, you know, trying to save a player versus back then crucifying him and still continuing to crucify him. Now, I could see that, but here's the one reason why I say that I never think these kind of conspiracies or cover-ups work is because, you know, in 2024, everybody wants to be famous for 15 minutes, right? Nobody can keep a secret.

Well, I shouldn't say nobody. The more people that have this kind of a valuable secret that's burning a hole in their head or in their pockets, the more you have people that know about it, the more people are in on it, the less likely it is that it stays a secret. So they would have to make it only a couple of people at the very top, because there are people that just can't keep a secret like this, not to mention if they think they can make money off of it, they're going to sell it to TMZ or some other place so that they can cash in and become famous. So that's the only reason that I don't generally believe in cover-ups these days is because I think social media is too much of a lure and the opportunity to go viral because you're the whistleblower is too much of a lure for people, not everybody, but for some people.

It's true, but I mean, there's ways of covering things up too, without exposing yourself. I mean, look what they did to the Astros. Basically, they barely penalized them for their cheating scandal. So I mean, that's a way of making it downplay and to tone it down without making it look like you're part of the cover-up.

Baseball just basically didn't decide to publicly crucify the players when they could have. Right. That's true.

That's true. And they didn't have to cover it up. All they had to do was say we gave them immunity, right? We gave them immunity for their testimony and to make it some type of an arrangement like that. Basically, if you turn a blind eye to something and you don't shed light to it yourself, you're actually aiding and covering it up. I mean, it's like a kid that stole a cookie and you say, I'll let it go this time versus, you know, saying, Hey, look, you know, to his brothers, he stole a cookie.

He's going to spend time in his room. I love that you compare four and a half million dollars to a cookie. That's fantastic. It's perfect. I'd rather the cookie.

No, but most of me too. Most importantly, Mike, how's the coffee? Let me tell you right now, Cumbie's makes a good cup and it's not expensive.

No, that's the best part about it. So my, my new husband has not ever been to New Hampshire. So sometime in 24, we are taking a road trip up there and I will be getting Cumbie's coffee at every stop.

You know, take them up to the White Mile and show them real New Hampshire. Absolutely. Absolutely. All right, Mike, you made my morning.

Thanks so much for calling. Bye Amy. New Hampshire's motto, by the way, is live free or die.

Not the baby part. I add that, but live free or die. It's on the license plates. Live free or die. It's so altruistic, isn't it? It's so noble.

Live free or die. Oh, so Cumberland Farms is a native New England convenience store chain. Now it's also gas stations. It's like a Wawa only it's better. Sounds right up my alley.

Yeah, I'm sorry. Cumberland Farms is the best. But here's the amazing thing about Cumbie is that they have their own coffee. It's called the Farmhouse Blend. It is freaking delicious. And I've never had any convenience store, gas station, fast food coffee ever that's as good as Cumberland Farms.

And here's the amazing thing. Any size for a buck. Any size coffee. You can get a gigantic iced coffee.

You can put all your own stuff in it. The milk, the cream, the ice, the whatever. They keep iced coffee on tap so it's not a hot coffee they have to put ice in. A lot of people in New England drink iced coffee even in the middle of winter. So the iced coffee is tremendous and it's cheap. Now it could have gone up, I guess, inflation. The last time I was in New Hampshire buying Cumbie's coffee, it was a buck. I really want a Cumbie's coffee now. Oh yeah.

I think with tax it was a dollar five. I think that's okay. Amazing. Okay, one more really quick.

Marcus in Detroit. Welcome to After Hours, CBS Sports Radio. Oh, good morning. Thanks for getting me on.

You're welcome. First I want to say that I'm a huge Shohei Otani fan. A 57-year-old man from Detroit.

Okay. That's kind of rare. I really love baseball and I think the dude is phenomenal. But I'm also an Amy Lawrence fan, just so you know. I'm a truck driver so I listen to you every night. I take a ride about 200 miles at three in the morning. So I'm rolling with you every night. Thank you.

For every morning. First things first. If this dude rides with this story that he didn't know, I'm going to be really disappointed. I mean I feel like if this guy is really your friend, tell the truth. Because there's no way, and I'm only a thousand there, not a millionaire billionaire. If this guy says that four and a half million bucks comes up missing in his bank account over the course of two years and he didn't know it, I don't believe it. It's impossible.

You got too many people around you that count every beam because they get parts of it too. There's no way. There's no way.

I agree with that. I don't think there's any way that the money could have been stolen going back to last fall. There's no way. It was never stolen. Even if his buddy did place all these bets, which I'm still going to say I don't believe because I used to gamble on football 20 years ago.

And they come after me on Monday following a Sunday for $500. So there's no way that you're going to run up a bill that gets thousands and millions of dollars unless this bookie knows that he's backed by someone who has millions and knows he's responsible for paying it. So there's no way that he did not know. I'm not going to say he placed the bets himself because I won't do that.

But if he's a real dude, a real man, he's really into the Japanese culture, he cannot let his buddy fall on the soil. I don't care what the debt to be paid is. And it's not even that they're doing, I mean, this is illegal in baseball standards. The rule in baseball is that you can gamble as long as you don't bet on baseball. So he needed to come out and say, listen, we're not in a place where we want to talk about this right now. You can ask as many questions as you want.

I won't answer them. But I promise you, once we sit down and figure this out, as a family, me and my brother, the organization that I work for, and the MLB, and whatever the authorities are, I will let you know where I stand and what's going on here. But until then, I have nothing to say about this. And as long as the MLB is not ready to spend him for it, he doesn't have to say anything.

The fact that this is coming out and that somebody is saying that this dude stole money is disgusting. I agree with that. And the only thing is, Mark, is just to clarify, yes, they are allowed to bet on any sport but baseball. However, it has to be legal. And whether they knew it or not, they were betting in Southern California. And this bookie was illegal. Exactly.

So there would likely still be a suspension. But I still say that's better than accusing your friend of stealing four and a half million dollars. There's nothing in this world that could get me to accuse my friend, who I know for a fact did not steal.

Now, like I said, it could very well be that Otani said, okay, you're responsible for the debt because you ran it up, and I'll pay it. But there's nothing wrong with that. There's no dishonor in that.

It is what it is. I come out when I'm ready to say yes, I knew he was gambling. It's unfortunate that I probably did not put the brakes on it before, but that is my friend and I will not let him take the fall for stealing. Whatever happens with the punishment, for him gambling, that's on him. I am not letting him take the fall for stealing.

I think there's more to this for sure. All right, Marcus, it's good to talk to you. Be safe while you drive. Thanks so much for listening. Take care too, guys. Thank you. Thank you. I hate all of it.

I just hate all of it. All right, I got to do a CBS Sports Minute. Oh, I'll give you one guess as to what it's about. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio.

You are listening to the After Hours Podcast. Celebrate and save at Ashley's Anniversary Sale. With hot buys, your choice of colors starting at just $399. Ashley Sleep mattresses starting at $250. Plus, receive a free adjustable base with select mattress purchases and shop top mattress brands like Stearns and Foster, Tempur-Pedic, Purple, and Beautyrest Black with 60-month special financing only at Ashley. Subject to credit approval, no minimum purchase required, minimum monthly payment, down payment, tax, and delivery may be required.

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Frick responsibly, beer imported by Crown and Port Chicago, Illinois. Second and goal SC at the one and a half, Lake McCree in motion. Caleb runs around the left side, he'll walk into the end zone. And that's a touchdown, USC. The 59-yard pass from Caleb Williams to Taj Washington to set him up at the three. Caleb dances in for his 11th rushing touchdown of the year.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Ever since Caleb Williams was a sophomore and threw for 4,500 yards and 42 touchdowns as the quarterback of the USC Trojans, he has been the presumptive number one overall draft pick in the NFL whenever he chose to come out. He waited until the last possible day to declare for the draft and then did. And, of course, because of that, the Bears are seemingly the ones who will win these Caleb Williams sweepstakes. Still, though, reps for all 32 teams were at his pro day on Wednesday.

Kind of interesting, right? In Southern California, reps for every single one of the NFL franchises were in-house. Now, the Bears had a larger contingent that included GM Ryan Polls as well as head coach Matt Eberfluse and how about Mike Williams? Was it Mike Williams that was there? No, not Mike. I'm sorry, Keenan Allen.

Yes. Get my former Chargers receivers messed up. I even watched them, duh, like a dope.

Sorry about that. I've been wrapped up in Otani speculation for the last three and a half hours. Yes, Keenan Allen. And I watched him. I just happened to tune over to NFL Network when this was playing out live. And Caleb Williams walked onto the playing surface there at USC and he's greeting people. Not the NFL people, but he's greeting USC people. And then he sees Keenan Allen and apparently they know each other. And so it's kind of neat that Allen was there for his pro day. I've known Keenan for a little bit now.

Hung out. He was at the Chargers at the time, obviously. And then, you know, now he's at the Bears for, like it says here, for a fourth round pick, which is crazy.

He had his best year last year. You know, he's a beast. Good guy. Awesome dude to be around.

He can give you a lot of knowledge. Yeah, they gave each other a bro embrace, a bro hug. What would you call it, Jay? A bro hug. A bro hug.

All right. I mean, it was kind of a hug, but not like a full hug. You know, it was a bro hug. Hands in the middle hug.

One hand around the back, one hand in the middle. An embross? No. No?

I mean, I love you dearly, but no. It's after hours here on CBS Sports Radio. So Caleb, of course, is the Bears to either choose or to lose. And I honestly do feel that way. This would be like the Jaguars bypassing Trevor Lawrence. Or, gosh, let's go back to the Andrew Luck sweepstakes, right, with the Colts passing up the chance to draft Andrew Luck. I don't think the Bears want to be that team. They just misfired on Mitch Trubisky a few years ago and missed out on Patrick Mahomes.

So I don't think they're going to roll the dice that Caleb Williams is not the quarterback that people think he could be in the NFL. He did an interview with Steve Weisch of NFL Network and was kind of talking about going through his pro day and passing, not just passing, but running through some drills with guys that he's comfortable with. That's always one of the most important things is to have fun. I made sure my guys heard that a bunch of times, whether it was last night when I sent them a text and then throughout this morning and this day so far, making sure that was the first thing that I said to them in the text or when I'm talking to them.

So I had to go out there and show that I was having fun and lead by example and then obviously go out there and handle business. Caleb Williams seems like he's comfortable in his own skin. So it's interesting because you see him there at USC running through the pro day and of course he's mentioned his guys, he's throwing to his own receivers. But then to hear people tell it from the combine, they didn't necessarily get the same vibes. Now Caleb has readily admitted, I didn't go through medicals, I didn't throw, and I'm actually on his side when it comes to this because I don't believe Caleb has anything to gain by performing at the combine. He said I'll do medicals for any team that's serious about drafting me but I don't feel like I need to go through all 32 teams. So it's kind of a shift because his camp is doing it a little bit differently and we know the NFL doesn't like it when people step out of line.

They don't like it when you try to change the script or write your own story. Nah, this is the NFL. You're supposed to fall in line. You're supposed to do it the way that everybody's always done it. Anyway, does he expect to be a Chicago Bear?

It's a good question. I wouldn't say it's my full expectation. Obviously things can happen, things can change throughout this time.

I think it's around 33 days or so, 30 days until April 25th. A lot can change and you take it day by day. Handle and control what you can control.

Don't you love his reaction? I'm sorry, what was the question? Could you rephrase that? How do you spell that exactly? Wait, I'm sorry.

Sorry, I think it's a bad connection. Wait, is this thing on? Get me some oxygen. Excuse me.

Right? I just love the reaction because that would be so me, an awkward laugh. I always laugh inappropriately at the worst possible times.

Oopsie. I feel like we need to do another one of those montages where we have laughter and awkward laughter like Caleb Williams with his um and then Patrick Mahomes with his Kermit the Frog laughter. Kawhi Leonard with his laugh that no one's ever heard since. One time we heard Kawhi's laugh. You wouldn't talk about unbelievable.

It would be Kawhi Leonard's laugh. By the way, am I the only one who saw James Harden fly out at Kawhi Leonard for a corner three and try to block it? Did you see that? Google it.

I'm telling you, James Harden tried to block Kawhi Leonard's shot in a game. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio. Bless you. Hey, have you tried Instacart for spring allergy relief? You can order decongestants, antihistamines, and more through Instacart from stores like CVS, Walgreens, and Costco delivered in as fast as one hour. Because those red, watery eyes need relief now.

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Additional terms apply. Celebrate and save at Ashley's Anniversary Sale. With hot buys, your choice of colors starting at just $399. Ashley Sleep mattresses starting at $250.

Plus, receive a free adjustable base with select mattress purchases and shop-top mattress brands like Stearns and Foster, Tempur-Pedic Purple, and Beautyrest Black with 60-month special financing only at Ashley. Subject to credit approval. No minimum purchase required.

Minimum monthly payment, down payment, tax and delivery may be required. See store for details. Old Man Winter here. If I had it my way, it would stay winter all year long. Short days, wind chill, black ice, and a good polar vortex.

Heaven! Wait, is it getting warm in here? Your cold snap is over, Old Man Winter. Spring has arrived.

Spring? Spring is here, which means it's the perfect time to get away in the Hyundai you've always wanted. Visit the Hyundai Getaway Sales Event, where you can get great deals on all of our award-winning Hyundai models like the tech-filled Tucson and Kona, as well as the spacious Palisade.

Enjoy wherever you go with the peace of mind that comes with America's best warranty and three years or 36,000 miles of complimentary maintenance. But hurry in, these deals won't last. Add more joy to your journey at the Hyundai Getaway Sales Event. Now get 0% APR or up to 1,500 bonus cash on the Hyundai Tucson, now during the Hyundai Getaway Sales Event. Offers end soon. Call 562-314-4603 for details.