We all belong outside. We're drawn to nature. Whether it's the recorded sounds of the ocean we doze off to, or the succulents that adorn our homes, nature makes all of our lives, well, better. Despite all this, we often go about our busy lives removed from it. But the outdoors is closer than we realize. With AllTrails, you can discover trails nearby and explore confidently with offline maps and on-trail navigation.
Download the free app today and make the most of your summer with AllTrails. In the market for investment-worthy bags, watches, and fine jewelry? Rebag is the answer. Rebag is a luxury resale platform where each piece is carefully inspected by experts to ensure quality and authenticity. Use Rebag to buy and sell finds from the world's top brands, including Hermes, Chanel, and Cartier. Head to rebag.com to get up to 15% off your first purchase as a member with code RebagNew. Shop today at rebag.com.
That's R-E-B-A-G.com and use promo code RebagNew for up to 15% off your first purchase as a member. You sit in traffic now, but later, there's an ice cold reward. Medela, the mark of a fighter. You've earned this rich golden lager with a crisp, refreshing taste. Because you know, all your patience is paid out in gold. You remain calm through haunts, bumper to bumper, and people yelling. You are a fighter, and Medela is your reward. Medela, the mark of a fighter. Trick responsibly.
Beer imported by Crown and Port, Chicago, Illinois. What's that sound? That's the sound of Downey Unstoppable's scent beads going into your washing machine and giving your clothes freshness that lasts all day long.
There it is again. It's like music to your ears or more like music to your nose. That freshness is irresistible. Let's get a Downey Unstoppables bottle shake. And now a sniff solo. Nice.
Get six times longer lasting freshness plus odor protection with Downey Unstoppables and wash scent beads. That was a real conversation. It was not staged. It was real. The best part from Stefan is that we had nothing else to listen to, so this was our best option. And the guys in his unit, they pushed back and said, no way.
What does a woman know about sports? I like it. I like that Stefan stood up for me and set them straight. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Yes, yes it is. And coming up, we're going to dive into SEC Media Days just a little bit, not a ton. Actually, coming up on Wednesday Night Show, I'm going to welcome a guest from Dallas in the SEC Media Days because it is a change, it's a shift for a league that has now expanded to 16 teams. But there are still calls for even further expansion to try to keep up with the Big Ten, et cetera, et cetera. And not just that, but this idea that you've got a football conference that is now more of a free-for-all without the various divisions, the scheduling, and we're talking about landmines all the time.
The various nuances of having a 16-team league and what that looks like and how you manage it and is it enough to keep up and will it still be competitive. Just all kinds of questions, not to mention, no Nick Saban. I saw this headline from The Athletic, which blew me away.
I'll have to go back and read the column itself. But it essentially looked at all of the various ripple effects of Nick Saban retiring from Alabama. Now, this is according to The Athletic, 400 coaching hires, 400 coaching movements that took place as a result of Nick Saban retiring from Alabama, meaning this guy and this guy and this guy and this guy and this guy, right, all getting new jobs. 400 of those stories that you can trace back to the top of the family tree, so to speak, if Nick Saban is the godfather, which I've never seen.
I know, you can yell at me, my husband can't believe it. Now that he's seen Pride and Prejudice, I do actually have to watch The Godfather in 2024. But if Nick Saban is the godfather in that coaching tree, well then 400 different limbs, some more closely connected like the coach who took over at Alabama, but as he's putting his staff together, he's plucking people from various places around the country, right? And now those coaching jobs have to be filled. And now those coaching jobs have to be filled. 400 coaching changes because of Nick Saban.
That is astounding. And that's according to The Athletic. So the fact that Nick Saban was there for SEC Media Days is a big deal, but a lot of this is still fluid. What does it look like?
How does it work out? Not just the 16 teams, including Texas and Oklahoma now, but could there be further expansion? How does this affect rivalries?
And scheduling, of course, with the changes. But before we get to any of that, I wasn't with you last week and didn't have the chance to rant and rave. Didn't have the chance to react. Not to a crying Messi, though that's a pretty powerful image as well from the Copa America final that took place over the weekend, took place on Sunday between Argentina and Colombia.
Man, talk about fallout and a disaster with the crowd control. But Messi gets hurt. He's in tears. Don't know what that means moving forward.
Haven't heard any update on his health. But I do know Argentina wins for a third straight time. I think the 16th time overall. You also had the Euro final going on. The United States isn't part of any of it. Yes, I'm still upset.
Yes, I'm still angry. And later on this week, so we'll talk SEC Media Days, but also later in the week, we'll talk to our friend Jesse Bradley, who's a former pro keeper on the international level. But also is now working as a chaplain for the Seattle Sounders and has been so great in helping us to kind of break down and tear apart some of the issues for Team USA, as well as his love for the World Cup that shines through. And I get it because he played in multiple other countries around the world where that event is the stage. It's the end all be all.
That stage will land here in the United States in two years. But late last week, Greg Berhalter, once again, second time's a charm, removed as the head coach, the manager, depending upon your perspective, of Team USA. It's gross.
The whole thing is gross. Now, if we get a manager and a coach in place right away, who's the right fit? Well, then there should still be time. A lot of talented athletes. In no way do I think all hope is lost for Team USA.
But why does it always have to be so hard with this team? Why can't the U.S. men's national team ever take the easy route ever? Now, this comes on the heels of the Americans missing out, well, missing out, being grouped, if you will, group eliminated in Copa America and missing out on the opportunity to play on that stage, Copa stage, on their own soil. So it's taking place in the U.S., a little bit of foreshadowing, I hope not, taking place in the U.S., same as the World Cup will do along with Canada and Mexico. It's a North American World Cup. And this as a potential precursor preview, if you will, this is what happens.
They don't even make it out of the group stage. Instead, it's other countries who are exalting on our soil. Like I said, I hope that's not a sign of things to come. But you heard all the cries for Greg Berhalter to lose his job as the coach of the men's national team. And on July 10th, late last week, I guess it was, what was Wednesday? Wednesday it happened.
It's after hours with Amy Lawrence. I know that there have been names floated around already. And there have been some who've said, no, no, no, not taking that job, kind of like Dan Hurley did before he signed his new contract at Connecticut.
So far, the speculation is running rampant. Where will U.S. soccer go to find someone who can get the best out of these players? Again, young guys, supposed to be a youth movement, supposed to be the team that would carry the United States finally to the elite level as a program. And yet, falling flat, more of the same as the team bombs out of Copa America. He had three years in charge that included the World Cup where they did make the elimination round. And I feel like a lot of people thought they showed up and did themselves proud as one of the youngest teams in the most recent World Cup. But that was supposed to be the setup, right?
The precursor. That was supposed to be the foundation, the building block for this World Cup that will be on U.S. soil. He was let go or his contract wasn't renewed over the whole thing with Claudio and Gio Reyna, but he gets brought back for a short period of time. And now, Team USA has no coach. Inside of two years to go and no coach.
I mean, this blows my mind. I can't pretend to tell you that I know where they go from here, but what I do know is this is beyond embarrassing. And it feels like it's been more of the same, whether it's Berhalter, whether it's Bruce Arena, it's just been more of the same. The United States doesn't have a margin for error. This is not one of the world powers that can make a mistake. Like, for instance, Tim Weah getting a red card and the Americans having to play with only 10 guys on the field against Panama. This is not a team that can afford a mistake like that.
And that was a grave error. That really put them in a very difficult position. Now, it's their own fault, of course, but I didn't see the toughness. I didn't see the resiliency. I didn't see the Americans fight back.
And as always seems to be the case, they're well conditioned. They certainly can pack it in on defense, clog up the center of the field. But when it comes to being aggressive, breaking out, pushing the ball, going for broke, playing with wild abandon, like their hair's on fire, that's not the Americans. It's too conservative. It's too boring.
It's too stable. It's more of what we've always seen from this team or what we've seen from this team for such a long time. So when it comes to offense, goals always seem to be at a premium. And sadly, that's what turns a lot of marginal soccer fans off. It can be so boring and be so bogged down in the middle when it comes to Team USA. They do have dynamic playmakers.
They do. I mean, nobody's Messi, nobody's Ronaldo, but even Ronaldo misses a penalty kick and then cries about it now and then. He's so melodramatic.
We know he does have a budding acting career when he's done playing football. And so here are the United States kids. A lot of them are young kids. And it's not as though they were the only nation that played badly, right? I mean, Brazil didn't play well. Italy was out.
Portugal. You know, all of these nations had their own kind of hiccups. But for Team USA not to even get out of the group stage in a tournament on its own soil does not bode well.
And now they need to coach. So yeah, when you look at some of the other nations, they can maybe get hit in the gut, punched in the gut, smacked in the face. But nations like England, Portugal, Brazil, they still find a way to move forward. They find a way to advance.
They find a way to fight and scratch and claw and keep going. But that just didn't seem like the spirit or the tenor of the U.S. men's national team. Remember, three or four total shots in the entire game against Uruguay. The entire game.
You only generate three or four shots. That's inexcusable. This is supposed to be one of the most talented groups the U.S. has ever assembled. And so who knows where they go now to find leadership.
But Greg Berhalter's leadership was not inspirational. The U.S. needs to figure it out and do it quickly. Otherwise we're going to end up being embarrassed in two years. And I'm starting to dread it already.
I was so excited about it. I thought that this might be the deepest team, deep roster, a bunch of young guys who would push each other, which of course meant that the roster would be the best of the best. But you've got guys who've been hurt on and off the field. There are some really impressive players. And I don't think we've seen them ever really come together and reach their potential, but isn't that the point? There's two years to go.
They need a coach who can bring out the best in them. It's depressing, to be perfectly honest. It's absolutely depressing. This is still one of the teams that I root for as a fan. I don't do that much often anymore because after 20 plus years in this business, it kind of beats the fandom out of you. I don't ever really watch a game as a fan because my brain is constantly going and thinking about storylines and athletes and stats and trends and how I can talk about it on the air. And even when I'm not working, that still seems to be the case. But I really, heart and soul, get wrapped up in U.S. soccer.
Especially on the men's side. And this sucks. Again. After they missed the World Cup in 16, I did not watch soccer. Was it 16? 16, 20, 20? No. 18.
18. After they missed the World Cup in 18, I didn't watch soccer for a year. I was so mad and then I was so upset.
I finally came back to it. I felt like they did a pretty good job with the young squad two years ago. And now this. It's all blowing up in our faces all over again. It's not enough to have Messi in America playing MLS. Nope.
I need U.S. soccer to get it together. Or that's it. I'm writing him off. That's it. I can't. I can only take so much disappointment with this team.
And I'm bound at my limit. Alright. You can find me on Twix, ALawRadio, on our Facebook page as well. There are a few photos up in both places. Coming up, just a little more with soccer. And this is really not about the game itself as much, but just about what happened in Miami with the crowd control failure. I don't know if you heard about the arrest of the Colombian soccer federation president and his son. They got into an altercation with law enforcement. But my goodness.
There's investigations everywhere. Sports and otherwise. But yeah, this was rough. And again, does not bode well for what's to come in two years. So maybe a cautionary tale as we get set to host the World Cup.
Because those fans do not mess around. Good morning to you if you're waking up on your Tuesday, July 16th. We're about a little more than halfway through the show. Glad to be back.
It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence. We all belong outside. We're drawn to nature. Whether it's the recorded sounds of the ocean we doze off to or the succulents that adorn our homes. Nature makes all of our lives, well, better. Despite all this, we often go about our busy lives removed from it. But the outdoors is closer than we realize. With AllTrails, you can discover trails nearby and explore confidently with offline maps and on-trail navigation.
Download the free app today and make the most of your summer with AllTrails. In the market for investment-worthy bags, watches, and fine jewelry? Rebag is the answer. Rebag is a luxury resale platform where each piece is carefully inspected by experts to ensure quality and authenticity. Use Rebag to buy and sell finds from the world's top brands, including Hermes, Chanel, and Cartier. Head to rebag.com to get up to 15% off your first purchase as a member with code RebagNew. Shop today at rebag.com. That's R-E-B-A-G.com and use promo code RebagNew for up to 15% off your first purchase as a member.
Doors take us to summers away or winter adventures and afternoon getaways. Your dedicated Fidelity advisor can help you open those doors by working with you on a comprehensive plan to help you reach your wealth's full potential because doors were meant to be opened. Visit fidelity.com slash wealth.
Investment Minimum Supply. Fidelity Brokerage Services LLC. Member N-Y-S-E S-I-P-C. You are listening to the After Hours Podcast. Once I turn on the radio, I'm ready to roll, ready to roll Here on After Hours, we like you as much as you like us. I've never been on the radio, so this is new to me, but I always listen to you when I get off work. Oh my goodness, you're so on right now.
You're sore. Don't stop what you're doing. Hi. You are a superhero of the sports world. You have a very inspiring show. Thank you for taking my call. I love your show and you have a great night. Thanks, Taylor. I appreciate you tuning in in Houston, home of my mama. Hello, Amy. I just wanted to say, in my humble opinion, you're one of the best to ever do it.
I'm so positive and happy and it makes my life happier. Well, I appreciate it. I try. I feel like it's hard to get started when I'm driving, turning every head. Hell, I ain't even trying.
Call me old school, but hey, I'm a 90s baby in my 80s Mercedes. Why not Maren Morris to sing the national anthem? I bet that would have gone better. Heck, I would have taken the Texas Symphony Orchestra in an instrumental version over what we got from Ingrid Andress, who I'd never heard from before, but I am quite certain.
I wasn't on Twix at the time, but I am quite certain she was trending on social earlier. Oh my gosh. We'll share a clip of her national anthem, if you can call it that, when we get to the next hour of the show, but I can't play it more than twice because it's so bad.
I'm embarrassed for her, but also it hurts my ears. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Thanks so much for hanging out with us. Some of you are still asking about producer Jay. He's been gone for a couple weeks now. We are attempting to find the next great producer for this show. I have no doubt that we will whip him into shape, and soon he will be network level quality.
I just have to help him along a little bit, of course, because I have a high standard. We're going through the process of auditioning guys who are interested, and at this point it's only guys, according to the manager, who's in charge of the candidates and scheduling them, slotting them in. There are no females who've applied, and that's a bummer to me.
I wish that there were. There are a lot of women who work in the sports industry now, who work in sports broadcasting, but trust me when I say there are still very few in radio on the air or off the air. I've only had full-time male producers since I've been here, and I would dearly love to have a qualified female, if we could find one to at least interview, if for no other reason than to encourage her that maybe she's on the right track or here's what you can do to get better. You all know if you listen to me or you follow me on social or you read my blog that it is one of my stated goals to mentor young female broadcasters so that they don't have to walk the same path that I did. Now the climate in sports broadcasting has changed a lot, meaning the sexual harassment, the discrimination, that's not overt anymore.
People get fired for that kind of thing now, and that's what I dealt with at my previous network, not to mention a lot of my local stops. And so I'm thankful that young women that I mentor, and I do have a few that have become like little sisters to me, but also whenever a young woman or young man reaches out to me, I've got Syracuse students, guys right now who I keep in touch with and who are asking me to help them as they try to dive into the industry and find their first job and try to encourage them as well. I'm glad that the young women don't have to walk the same path, but it's still hard when you're one of only a handful. And while I do know of some talented female producers from my previous network, I've never had one here. I've been here 12 years and I don't think we have any female producers at the network. I think we've had a couple of female interns, that's pretty much it. Maggie Gray, of course, she started on the weekends here, did a Saturday show, and then left and came back, so she's part of the show that follows ours here, Maggie and Perloff. So we now have two female hosts. Our friend Erica Herskowitz doesn't really do updates here anymore, so I haven't heard her voice on sports in a long time.
I think she does some stuff for Bloomberg and some news. But yeah, there's just two of us female voices and no females behind the scenes, no females in management here at the network. And yeah, this is a national network, so we need more female voices, and for no other reason than that's how you train people to move on to the next level, right? That's how you train people and expand the roster, but also because diversity is good for the business.
It's good for the business. And I would love to be able to encourage some young women, even if they weren't my pick as producer, just to be able to tell them, hey, you're on the right track or here's how I can help. But unfortunately we've had no females who've applied yet. So yeah, I did put that out on social last week and yeah, quite the interesting reaction.
But most people know my heart and most people understand where I'm coming from and aren't out to be trolls when it comes to this particular thing. So at this point, we're only auditioning. We've got a few guys in house who want the job and then maybe a couple of outside candidates hoping to get that done within the next month plus, maybe a little over a month. But at this point, we're still in the infancy stages. So yeah, if you're interested, you can find me on social.
That'd be all right. But some of you are still asking me about Jay. I can't speak for him.
I just hope he finds a path that offers him a challenge and a lot of joy to be sure. Now back to soccer. We not only had Copa America that was taking place this weekend, but also the Euro final. And so it was all the rage on Sunday. The games themselves were fairly dramatic. You had crying messy, which is also a big deal.
I'm still waiting to hear about him. But yeah, between Argentina and Columbia, it wanted to stop it's time, right? And they hadn't said anything. It should have been.
Let me say this. It should have been the headline that Argentina won a third straight Copa and that Messi got hurt and okay, let's see what this means moving forward. Instead, the headlines coming out of Sunday were the failures of the security teams and the crowd control at Hard Rock Stadium. And actually the Columbia head coach said that the situation was, and I'll use his term, anxiety inducing.
That it actually affected his players. Not only was the start of the game delayed, I think about 45 minutes, but this was happening hours before kickoff and the athletes knew about it and just had to weather it and wait. You had, and I don't know how many, a lot of fans without tickets who broke through a gate at the stadium and they were leaping over barriers.
They were jumping over fences. They were getting in to the venue without having tickets and essentially just created mass chaos and a stampede, if you will. And this is not uncommon when it comes to Euro leagues, when it comes to international soccer in Europe or in other parts of the country, but not generally something that we experience here in the United States. Usually security is so much better at these events, but you also don't have fans attempting to rush the security teams and rush law enforcement. A lot of these fans ended up getting tackled and arrested and detained. They ended up having to close the gate because they had a breach and then the entire venue gets shut down.
The entire venue went into lockdown. So again, this is the perspective of the Colombian head coach. From the locker room, we're trying to communicate with family members, with friends to see if they're in trouble or not. It was overwhelming.
He called it chaotic. He said we were trying to keep the team calm, but there was a lot of anxiety. Again, thinking about it, people getting potentially trampled, run over, tackled, fans in their desire to get into the stadium with or without tickets, people likely getting hurt. Not to mention your entire schedule for the day. We know athletes, they're very much creatures of habit, not just because of superstitions, but because a lot of them, this is how they get themselves mentally and physically ready to play an event.
This is a final. It's a huge deal, far more than it is in the United States, as much as it ticks me off that the Americans weren't even part of the elimination stage. But the coach goes on to say, you've got this final and a schedule that is laid out minute by minute, breakfast and lunch, preparation, departure on the bus, the arrival, and then you have to wait a half hour and then 45 minutes and then an hour. And in the meantime, they're worried about their family members, their friends who may have been caught up in the fray. Now, the Columbia head coach acknowledges it happened to both teams, but man alive, you should see the video if you haven't seen it already.
It's a little bit scary. They had to end pregame warmups, players get forced off the field and into their locker rooms, and then they have to wait. And they don't really know when they're going to start, so mentally you can't really prepare for the first few minutes because you don't know when they're going to be. And the coach also said they warmed up, they got cold, they warmed up again. That's not great for their muscles either. I mean, that's physically potentially putting them at risk.
And so you ended up having just a total mess, and I don't think it bodes well for what's to come in two years. This is just a hard rock stadium issue. I wouldn't say this is nationwide, but I was surprised it happened there. Again, we do see these types of stampedes and fans going crazy, and safety becomes an issue at international events, but this is not something we're used to in the United States.
I was pretty surprised to see it. A red flag, like Team USA failing to advance out of group stage, here we are two years until the World Cup is here again, finally, and it seems like it's nothing but negative headlines and tough circumstances for the Americans. And again, we'll talk to Jesse Bradley, former pro soccer goalkeeper, and a guest that we love here on the show. He's big into the psychological, the mental, the emotional, as well as the physical. And we may or may not have a new coach for the U.S. men's national team by then, but that'll happen on Thursday.
Thursday, yes. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence, coming up a little bit with the SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey. Also, I have to tell you this crazy story. It's not a long one, but for those of you who remember me talking about the dog sitter who also leaves a total mess in my house, oh no, just wait until you hear the latest. I know, I know, we need to find someone else, but we got caught in the lurch with a change in our dog sitting schedule, and we ended up having to rely on her because we didn't have another option. Oh my gosh. Every time I think it can't get worse with this woman. So yeah, she hasn't been there in a while, but it was quite, she wasn't even there for more than two nights.
Still, I can't get over it. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on Twix, ALOL Radio, on our Facebook page too. Glad to have you with us. You are listening to the After Hours Podcast. I've never worn a credential in my life, and was always for 17 years able to get in the SEC Media Day without a credential. I had to go back to the room today and get my credential to get in, so that's one of the biggest changes I see.
It's not like it used to be. This is Clay Thompson, four-time champion with the Golden State Warriors. You're listening to one of the best shows in America, After Hours with Amy Lawrence. A lot of iconic names and voices right there. Aerosmiths. And then, Greg, no not Greg, Nick, wow I was thinking about Greg Sankey, I just ruined the whole thing.
There goes the perfect show. Greg Sankey, you'll hear from him in a second. Nick Saban, who says that he had to have a credential to get into SEC Media Days, he forgot it in his hotel room. He tells the story to ESPN, and then he had to turn around and go back and get it. Could you imagine being the security guard, even as I'm talking about security breaches at Hard Rock Stadium on Sunday, could you imagine being the security guard who tells him he has to go back to his room and get his credential? It's Nick Saban. I get that there's AI out there, and maybe if you believe that Mission Impossible could actually happen in real life, well then maybe you think he could have been wearing a mask, but come on, it's Nick Saban.
How much trouble can he get into? It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Oh, and then our friend Clay Thompson, Mutual Admiration Society. I know that we'll have to take out the part where he talks about the Golden State Warriors, but still, that is him, it's not AI generated, it's actually Clay Thompson recording that liner for us to go back to the beginning of last season. It was a gift from the Warriors as an organization who say they're big Amy Lawrence fans, so that was awesome.
It was a surprise to me, and I put it out there actually on both Twix and Facebook if you want to check it out. We're going to have to keep rooting for him, even though he's now a member of the Dallas Mavericks because he's a fan of ours, we're a fan of his. 855-212-4227, glad to have you with us here After Hours as we head up toward the top of the hour on the East Coast, 5 o'clock in the morning, which means up and at them for a lot of you.
Ouch, I don't know how you do it. Yeah, I've been talking about the SEC Media Days, and the big storyline on Tuesday in Dallas is SEC expansion. And so the commissioner of the SEC, Greg Sankey, gets out there and he talks about the 16 schools, but still facing questions about whether or not there will be more added to the fold. From 14 deep to 16 strong, 16 is our today, and 16 is our tomorrow. Those 16 universities represent a currently enrolled student body of right at a half million.
How about that? A global network of 5 million living alums and former students. Direct local economic and state impact exceeding $100 billion annually, a number that will continue to grow. Lots of cool talking points there about the SEC. Big 10 could say the same thing, not the Pac-12 anymore, Big 10 and some of the other power conferences could say the same thing. But this is the first media days for the SEC with Texas and Oklahoma, and because of the expansion, because of what we've seen around the rest of college sports, the changing landscape of these power conferences, which really there's only four of them right now, Greg Sankey was asked multiple times about the future of his league, and he said he's not recruiting any other members.
He was also asked about the lawsuits. So right now you've got Florida State, Clemson, the ACC, all embroiled in lawsuits, and there's multiple suits and multiple judges and multiple cases out there, but FSU and Clemson have sued the ACC and now, or really about the rights, it's not so much about the conference itself, it's about granting rights for the schools and how they use them and how much autonomy they have and how much has to go through the conference and all that jazz. And the ACC has sued those schools to defend the conference. So you've got kind of counter suits, and there's been talk that potentially Florida State and Clemson would seek to leave the ACC and that the SEC could be a landing spot. And while Sankey didn't say, no, that's never happening and slam the door, what he did say is I'm not recruiting, and right now we're happy with our 16, which honestly, what else is he going to say?
It's still going to be a question. Kind of a different way to put it, though, when it comes to the expansion, I know there are a lot of fans that are happy about it, some that are not, mixed emotions, we'll have to see how it plays out in year number one, but Sankey tells a story about a conversation he had with an athlete about the expansion. One of my really great conversations, Henry Coleman III, who plays basketball at Texas A&M, right after we announced the expansion, Henry was on our men's basketball leadership council call and asked, when are they going to join? And I said, is that because you don't want to play your in-state rivalry or you do?
And he said, I want to play them as soon as I can. Our student athletes want great competition. They want the excitement of our stadiums and our arenas. They want to be against the highest level of competition.
Oh, cut him off there. They want to engage in the highest level of competition, I assume he was going to say. So yeah, if you're inside the conference, they're likely to be mixed emotions as well. But one of the ripple effects is that Texas and Texas A&M will be able to renew their rivalry, I guess presumably on an annual basis, but if not that, because that one's a special one, you know, you expect it to get special treatment. But the idea now is with the SEC, you get rid of the divisions in the conference so that you can have these battles, the ones that matter to fans, the ones that have tried and true traditions, the ones that really will bring eyeballs and ear balls to the table across the board. The SEC needs to accentuate those rivalries, accentuate those matchups.
And so we'll see how it plays out. But I know Nick Saban, he's free to say what he wants now, and he was asked on the SEC Network about Texas joining the conference and potentially facing a rude awakening. You know, what kind of tickles me is all these people asking these questions about how Texas always ran the conference they were in. They're not going to run the SEC. There's a whole lot of arrogant people in a lot of places in the SEC, so they can forget all about that. They'll be a good team and a great program, and Sark will do a great job, but that's not going to be a problem. I suppose if anyone can trash talk Texas and his former coach, it would be Nick Saban, of course Sark coached under him, and it'll be fun to hear his reaction and his commentary throughout the year.
A completely different role and a completely different hat he's wearing, right? Because he was always like Bill Belichick. It's so interesting that the two of them are now going into broadcasting, and if you didn't hear, Belichick is also joining the CW broadcast. It's a weekly broadcast of Inside the NFL.
It's now on CW, so find it on your channel guide. But between the two of them, they were always so tight-lipped. They almost always had a chip on their shoulders about the media. Now, good friends learn from each other a lot, so you can imagine they took cues and pointers from the other when it came to dealing with media. But yeah, these guys never wanted the media to know anything more than was absolutely necessary, and even then tried to run interference in disguise. I mean, going back to the Jalen Hurts to a Tango Valoa quarterback competition at Alabama, think how cranky he was about everybody who would ask, and how defensive he would always get. Same thing with Bill Belichick.
If you ask him a yes-no question, he might just say yes or no, or he might just ignore you altogether. Now these guys are broadcasters. Talk about Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Look around. What do you see? Cars? Lots of them. And guess what? They're probably on AutoTrader.
Whether you're into timeless classics or the latest trends. Did somebody say solar-powered, eco-friendly, vegan leather-wrapped, aromatherapy-scented, disco-ball-equipped self-driving car? If you see it on the road, you can likely find it on AutoTrader. Big cars, small cars, blue cars, new cars and used cars, electric cars, and one day, maybe even flying cars.
With millions of options to choose from, buying a car becomes a whole lot easier. See it. Find it. AutoTrader. Master outdoor cooking this summer with the MeatEater Outdoor Cookbook. The inspiring and practical new guide from Steven Rinella, host of the MeatEater Podcast and television show. With over 100 recipes for meat, fish, poultry, and game birds, accompanied by lush photography and easy-to-follow tips, the MeatEater Outdoor Cookbook is the ultimate guide to open-air cooking. Whether you've hunted the ingredients yourself or forged them from the supermarket. Because food just tastes better when it's caught, cooked, and eaten outside.
The MeatEater Outdoor Cookbook by Steven Rinella is available now. You sit in traffic now, but later, there's an ice cold reward. Modelo, the mark of a fighter. You've earned this rich golden lager with a crisp, refreshing taste. Because you know, all your patience is paid out in gold. You remain calm through honks, bumper to bumper, and people yelling. You are a fighter, and Modelo is your reward. Modelo, the mark of a fighter. Trick responsibly. Beer imported by Crown Imports, Chicago, Illinois.
