4-6-23 After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 4

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Subscribe to NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast. Reality is a little bit warped. Now, that would be okay. I would say most franchises and fan bases would have the same warped sense of reality if, in fact, they'd had as much success as the Patriots had over 20 years.

There are times in your life where it's okay to be completely unrealistic. I would say this is probably not one of them, so be careful what you wish for, Pats fans. Also, we've got, and this is kind of crazy, a name I never thought I would hear again ever, Eric Mangini. What is he doing now? Is he an analyst? I don't even know what he does now, but former Jets head coach, who, by the way, was on the scene when Brett Favre was traded to the New York Jets.

So a little perspective from him. And then if you didn't hear the, you want to talk about unrealistic, the unrealistic and slightly naïve press conference that was held by Eric DaCosta and John Harbaugh yesterday, I swear it was just one of those bite the bullet, get out of the way. It's going to be awkward and awful no matter when we do it. Let's just do it now. Three weeks before the draft because we're not going to say anything and we know the questions are going to be about Lamar.

So anyway, some fun, funny stuff. Oh, and Cam. Cam, he's not going to let it go. I am the queen of not letting it go. He is not going to let this go. I'm not 32.

Exactly my point. You're not going to let it go. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. We're going to get to that these next few minutes because 35 minutes from now, we will spend some time at Augusta National getting ready for what is the first major of the golf season. Yes, Tiger Woods. Yes, Phil Mickelson.

No, Greg Norman. You are not welcome, even though you're a Masters champ. We've got Matt Adams, our friend from Fairways of Life, longtime analyst, longtime host, also longtime friend of mine.

I'm old. We've been friends for a long time. And he's going to join us live so that we can get the lay of the land as what we know about the world of golf is that it's really wide open. It's very wide open. And there are live golfers and there are PGA golfers and never the twain shall meet. Unless, of course, someone accidentally shanks a tee shot and hits another guy in the side of the noggin. Oh, wouldn't that be terrible? That'd be terrible. So we'll talk to Matt because he'll have all the deets.

Plus, there is potentially going to be a weather wrinkle or two this weekend at the Masters. So excited to talk to Matt. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. Oh, might have to sneeze here. OK, it's going to be OK. Everything's going to be fine.

Totally fine. Thank you, Aaron Rodgers. You can find me on Twitter, A Law Radio, also on our Facebook page After Hours with Amy Lawrence. And our question for tonight is, I love your answers. It is amazing the wide variety of answers that we are getting.

Some sports, some have nothing to do with sports. And I don't. What was the catalyst for this? Oh, I know what it was.

When we got on the air over on the side of Twitter on the right hand column, Aaron Rodgers was trending. And I forbid anyone on this radio show, anyone who's associated, anyone who's breathing in the vicinity of this radio show. You are not allowed to click on that. One of my darkness retreat.

Go back in your darkness retreat. Actually, this is not on him. Jay, did you click on Aaron Rodgers to find out why he was trending? I did not.

I didn't. I'm very impressed with you because you're not so good at that. Self-control is not Jay's forte.

Willpower, not Jay's forte. Especially when it comes to Aaron Rodgers news. When it comes to clickbait or candy. Right, Manny apparently is a candy monster as well. So there's that. Manny, did you click on the Aaron Rodgers bait?

Because, just because. Yeah, I did. Huh.

Alright, this will be your last day of training. So anyway, what did it say? Not much. It basically just said that the Packers believe that the ball is in the Jets' hands right now.

And that, you know, whatever move is going to be made. So nothing, essentially. More or less.

More or less. Okay, good. That was an exercise in futility. So that's the thing. We were thinking about how Aaron Rodgers was trending and I refused to check on it.

I'm very proud of myself. But we now know it was nothing. Stop talking about it.

I would love to. That is really what clickbait is all about, isn't it? You open up something. There's maybe one line in there that's even remotely connected to the actual headline. Now, very often, the authors or the writers of articles, they do not also craft the headlines. Okay? Never the twain shall meet.

There's not always a lot of connection there. So I get it. The headline is designed for you to click it. Click it or tick it. Click it or lick it.

No, don't do that. Anyway, so the clickbait thing, it drives you crazy because then your computer is spying on you. Your phone is spying on you. Google is spying on you. Facebook is spying on you. And you go into the algorithm where they now send you every last article.

It has that person's name or anything that might be remotely connected to the clickbait subject. You're sunk. You're inundated.

And then you have to unsubscribe for things you have to do. It's just it's a sham. No, it's a scam. It's a scam and it's a sham. Right?

Definitely both. Yeah. They put you in like this limbo and there's just no way of getting out of that. That's right. You're stuck. I feel like no matter how many times you go to search like other things to try to like trick the algorithm, it knows that you're trying to trick it and it'll still just give you whatever the first thing you clicked on was. Yeah.

No, it has zero respect for your quality of life. So we're going to not do that. But we did ask you the question, what clickbait is impossible for you to resist?

And the answers are delicious. I love it. So on Twitter, A-Law Radio, look for the post. Also on our Facebook page after hours with Amy Lawrence. Quickly, could the West get any wackier in the NBA?

I don't believe so. So here's the latest. The Clippers beat the Lakers.

This blew me away for the 11th consecutive time. I had no idea that that had actually become a thing where the balance of power has shifted so drastically. Remember, they used to be the ugly redheaded stepchildren to the Lakers. And instead now the Clippers have the edge right now.

And the Warriors were idle last night. The Clippers and Warriors fifth and six. Exact same record. Lakers, Pelicans seventh and eighth. Exact same record.

Oklahoma City Thunder and Dallas Mavericks. Now the exact same record. Luca to his left. Chased by Barnes. Backs up but doesn't shoot. Across the way to Green. Fakes a pass to Hardaway.

He'll drive. A round monk. Wrap around left corner. Kyrie Rainbow. Oh man, did he bring rain with that? This box got out of there on him. 31 for Kyrie. Kyrie Euro step.

Floater no good. Wide to the left. Wood the rebound.

Shot clock didn't reset. Out to Hardaway. On the move.

Kick it left. Wood. Four. Three. Kill shot. Kill shot for Christian Wood. And the Mavericks up by nine.

123 to 114. They've had the answers down the stretch. Not every fourth quarter is like that for me. And if you look back at the last few games, I wish I could have played as well as I did tonight. And just stay aggressive and just settle in our offense and defense. But tonight it just was working well. And I just wanted to stay in attack mode no matter what. We really needed this win tonight. So, you know, just desperation basketball and playing smart. It's not like it's the first time I've been in a must win game.

It's just normal. It's what he does here of late. He's, you know, Miami.

Atlanta. He's come out of the gates. He hasn't waited. And tonight he didn't get off to a great start. But just knowing Ky, he's going to compete. And I thought in the second half he controlled the game.

Oh, find someone in life who loves you as much as Jason Kidd kisses Kyrie Irving's ass. 19 points in the fourth quarter. And that's what Ky did. And yes, they rallied. They won.

Chuck Cooperstein on the Mavericks radio network. But that's just their second win in their last nine games. And they are on the outside of the playoff picture looking in. They are, what are they since the trade went down? Nine and 16 since the trade went down.

They've gotten worse. They were in fourth place when the trade happened. If you go back to the Jaylen Brunson deal with Jaylen leaving for the New York Knicks, then you think about the two guys they traded, the primary guys they traded to get Kyrie, Spencer Dinwiddie and Dorian Finney-Smith. You've lost three very quality glue guys, but also skilled guys. Not superstars, but skilled guys. And you bring in Kyrie Irving who missed some time.

He and Luka are trying to figure it out. And they have fallen from fourth to 11th in the Western Conference standings. Now, they're tied with the Thunder who were in 10th.

They're not out of it. There's a few days left. The NBA regular season ends on Sunday. But my goodness, this is not what they had in mind when they traded for him.

It's after hours here on CBS Sports Radio. The Memphis Grizzlies, well, they've already got their playoff spot locked up. But the Pelicans, they're working on it. Timeout Taylor Jenkins. Beautiful pass for Brandon Ingram.

Oh, a steal, Ingram. Up the floor, Herb. Come on, Herb. Duck it down. Two hands. Herb. Let's go, Herb. 34 for Herbert K. Jones.

Okay, all of this is so great. The reason that I play this compilation and talk about the Pelicans is because, A, they beat the Grizzlies in overtime. So they are hanging tough right now with the Lakers for that 7-8 spot in the playing tournament. Todd Graffagnini on Pelicans Radio. Herbert Jones finished with 35. Herbert Jones finished with 35.

Fantastic. And Trey Murphy had seven triples and 30 points. You look at the starting lineup for the Pelicans and they crushed it. But other than Brandon Ingram, I'm not sure how many of them the average basketball fan knows, which I think is, well, C.J. McCollum. C.J. McCollum. So 24 points, 13 assists for Brandon Ingram.

But here's this kind of fun behind-the-scenes story about Herbert Jones. Trey Murphy says that they actually had a premonition that he was going to go off and have this huge game. Crazy is somebody before the game during our little shooting time said, all right, Herb, get your 30 tonight. And we looked and we were like, I mean, Herb, like, he be scoring, but like, 30?

No, that's a lot. And then when he came back on the bench, I looked up, he had 30. I looked and I was like, maybe we got to bring him back for more games because he might know what he's talking about.

How about that? Way to go, Herbert. Are there any other NBA players named Herbert?

Are there any other professional athletes named Herbert? Or Herbie? Can we call you Herbie?

Would that be OK? Herb. Justin. No, that doesn't count as his first name. Although I bet he goes by Herbs or Herbie or whatever. I mean, I can imagine people call him by his last name. That's what dudes do.

Girls don't do that. We don't call people by their last names. Yo, Botch. So Jay's last name is, his last name is, I shouldn't say your last name, but in the beginning, the shortened version is Botch. And every single morning, the other guys in the building are like, yo, Botch.

No. Ew. I've been getting that forever. I know, but girls don't do that. We don't call dudes by their last names. We don't call anybody by their last names. I don't go to my friends and be like, yo, Grant.

We don't do that, bruh. Anyway, way to go, Herbert. I do love the Herbert part of this. But seriously, find another Herbie in professional sports. Who's another Herbie? I'm getting stumped.

I'm really trying to think. I know. That's why it's amazing.

It's unique. Herb Williams count? Herb Williams could count. Herb. Herb.

Same thing, really. So yay. Yay for the Pelicans. Yay for Herbert.

I think that's fantastic. Also in the NBA last night, the Milwaukee Bucks clinched the top seed and best record in the East Drew holiday was once again carrying the load. No Giannis. Right knee soreness. Chris Milton is out in the first quarter, I believe.

Also right knee soreness. And so instead it's Drew who has 20 points, 15 assists. They didn't have Grayson Allen. They didn't have.

There was somebody else missing. Oh, Pat Connaughton. So Brook Lopez has 26. Drew holiday has 20 and 15. And full speed ahead to the postseason for the Bucks. I think we're ready. Well prepared. I think we've been through a lot.

Not only this year, but last year. You know, having the same team and coming through and adding a couple pieces. Really just preparing for this moment. So really excited to be going into the postseason. Now we get to take a breath.

You know, I have no idea what we're going to do Friday and Sunday, but we'll take a breath tonight. The guys have earned it. Ton of credit to them for what they've done over the last, you know, whatever it's been since the All-Star break to put themselves in this position. Mike Budenholzer and the Milwaukee Bucks.

Congratulations. They have now locked up that one seed and also best record. Remember, the Celtics had it in the East for, I would say, the middle third of the season. The Bucks have played extremely well. And it's not only a potent lineup with a potential MVP. It's a veteran core.

So you think Warriors. Dre, Steph, Klay, Andre, even Jordan Poole now with some veteran experience. They're supposed to get Gary back as well.

He's not already back. The Bucks have a core of Drew. And Chris and Giannis. And these are guys that understand what it takes to win in the postseason.

So they're going to be a tough out always. I can't believe it. Told me I didn't make my free throws. So I made my free throws and dad jokes. When was the last time we got some dad jokes from Giannis? That's the gist of what's happening in the NBA with a few days left in the regular season.

Now, producer Jay gave me all this great baseball audio and instead we're going back to football. Is that bad? Are you mad? Are you mad, bro? No. No, it's not. Are you mad?

That sounds very nerdy. You mad, bro? You mad? No, I'm cool. Or is it you mad, brah? Or you mad?

What's the other one? Bra? Bra? Bra?

You mad, brah? Depends what company. Yeah.

Depends what company? We've had this conversation on the air before about the difference between bro and bra and bra. And I still look at it. There's really, they're all, you know, they're synonymous. Are they? Yeah.

I don't know. I feel like you could get in major trouble if you dropped the wrong one and mixed company. You better be careful. So, yeah, I super uncool. Don't care.

Plan to be uncool for the rest of my life. On Twitter, ALawRadio, what we're asking is the impossible to resist clickbait. What is your impossible to resist clickbait? Straight ahead, Patriots fans, be careful what you wish for. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio. You are listening to the After Hours Podcast. Say anything to the fans right now as to where the team sits and what you're trying to put together.

What would you say to them right now if they were listening to this? Long way to go. It's March. We play in September. A long way to go.

A lot of work to do. What would you say to them to give them a reason to be optimistic for what's ahead? For the Patriots. The last 25 years.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. That, of course, got Bill Belichick into trouble. Remember, they later had to, I wouldn't say backpedal, but he later had to clarify. The Patriots are not resting on their laurels from the last 25 years, no.

They are working hard. Though we did have a caller last night, Tuesday night, who told us that, oh, he was sure that Bill Belichick couldn't care less about winning anymore. The only thing he cared about was getting the all-time wins mark and passing Don Shula.

And, I mean, obviously I don't agree with that. I still think Bill Belichick is an incredible coach, but I do think last year he got a little too cute. You know how they tell you in Survivor Pools, don't get cute.

All you gotta do is advance to the next week. Bill Belichick got a little too cute with his coaching decisions. I love that he's loyal. I love that he wanted to bring these guys back and give them jobs. Having Matt Patricia call plays was like, I mean, it's like putting a novice in where an expert is required in any field, right? It's like me allowing Manny, who's currently training to run our board on the other side of the double pane glass, having him host my show. We don't have time for that.

We don't have time for that, and it's also not a good idea. I mean, it might end up being some quality entertainment, but you don't throw someone who's training and who's never done the job before into the position like that would have been required. So he was over his head. Wait, he was over his head? It was over his head.

He was under the water. Never mind. I suck at cliches. Jay, I got it. Jay's never helping me. He just laughs at my cliches. That's it.

That's what he chooses to do. It's fine. I don't mind.

I'm totally fine just floundering around here. It's after hours on CBS Sports Radio. It's my thing. Jason McCourty was on Good Morning Football saying to Patriots fans, I don't know, for those of you who are buying into the clickbait that Mac Jones is on the trade block and that Bill Belichick is the one who wants to trade him, you just best be careful what you wish for. It's not only the smoke of the reports coming out of Foxboro, but there's a lot of fans as well.

Like, we need to play Zappi. We need to go get Lamar Jackson. Mac Jones was really good as a rookie. He came in after Brady leaves, Cam Newton comes from a year, took him on a seven-game win streak. And look at where his numbers play some of quarterbacks in the NFL during that streak. Mac Jones had 10 wins in his rookie season, led all rookies in passing yards and touchdowns.

This guy was unbelievable and skies was the limit after his rookie year. And I love Joe Judge and I love Matt Patricia. They're two really good football coaches. But as they take over an offense and they were kind of co-coordinators, quarterback coaches, positions that they hadn't held, it's not fair to Mac Jones. And we've heard Robert Kraft come out as the owner and say he really likes Mac Jones and he said we didn't do him any favors in his second year.

So I think these rumblings and everything we're hearing, we need to slow down. Let's see what Mac Jones does in year three with a guy like Bill O'Brien coming back who is a ton of experience, a ton of success in the NFL, in the college ranks. And let's see what Mac is able to do in his third year as quarterback for the New England Patriots. Now I agree with that and I think it's not fair to judge Mac on that year two.

But here's the funny part. We're about to go into year three with Mac and three different voices in three different years. That's not a sign of consistency.

What do I tell you all the time? Constant change in sports equals constant losing. So let's hope that they can find a solid foundation here, a good relationship and a good rapport between Mac and Bill O'Brien right away. If in fact Mac is still the starting quarterback. Now there are people out there who would tell you the Patriots should go after Lamar Jackson, that he would be an upgrade and that you'd at least have some energy and some spark to your offense. Well to that end, don't ask me why the Ravens are holding a pre-draft press conference three weeks before the draft and we all know they're not going to say anything. They all know that there will be questions about Lamar Jackson. I mean this couldn't have been more awkward.

I thought John Harbaugh, I said this earlier, looked like he'd rather have Salmonella poisoning than be sitting there next to Eric Tagosta who was fielding the questions and telling us nothing. I understand the need to ask those kind of questions. I think just out of respect for the process, this is a draft luncheon and we're going to try to keep as much of this discussion as we can to the draft. To the coming weeks, building the best football team we can build. So I understand those questions. I think we've spoken about this situation probably five different times this spring in various different press conferences and such. So we're going to try to just kind of defer to those questions and move forward to the draft. Later it got actually acrimonious where a reporter tried to keep pressing.

Are you going to go after a quarterback in the draft if you don't know about Lamar? And their PR guy stepped in and put the kibosh on it but actually had to like, Alex! Alex! He sounded like a cranky mom. I don't know why they did it. My guess is to get it out of the way. They knew it was going to happen regardless.

They're not going to give you any info or intel on the draft so you might as well just bite the bullet and do it and be as uncomfortable as possible. Seriously, John Harbaugh couldn't have looked any less thrilled. The poor guy, he looked like he was sitting on a seat of fire or ants in his pants or something along those lines.

It was very uncomfortable. But at least it's over with. They wake up this morning and they're like, thank goodness that's in the rearview mirror. It's after hours here on CBS Sports Radio. If you haven't heard Cam Newton, well, he's not letting it go. He, in fact, is going to continue pounding the strum that, hey, I can be on an NFL roster.

Now I actually don't disagree with him. This is how I feel. There ain't 32 guys that's better than me. But I also know that I could also be a backup and I'm willing to be a backup. Players that I will back up. Number one, I'll back up Deshaun Watson. That noise. Me and Deshaun Watson's relationship. He was on my 707 All-Star team. I've grown to admire the person, the athlete that he is going through a lot of turmoil.

But I believe that doesn't that that's behind him. There's this really obnoxious, it almost hurts your ears. What would you call a knocking sound? Like a bubble pop?

I think it's a little sharper than that. It's some kind of a knocking sound where it's like almost two, you know what it is? Two pool balls knocking against each other. It sounds like that. And every single time he lists a quarterback, there's this knocking of these two pool balls together.

I don't know if you can isolate it and play it a couple of times. But he goes through his list of quarterbacks that he would back up in the NFL. It's funny because he doesn't mention the teams at all. He just mentions the quarterbacks. But then he goes through a list of say, I don't know, eight, nine, plus a bunch of rookie quarterbacks that he would prefer to back up. So essentially he gives us about 15 different teams by the time it's done. So Cam is still angling for a gig and I have no problems with Cam angling for a gig at all.

Alright, one more before we take our break and this is just for fun. Eric Mangini, I'm glad to know he's still alive talking football. I didn't actually, well I assumed he was still alive. Raise your hand if you've thought about Eric Mangini in the last say three years. No? No one?

Exactly. Where's the man been? So he's on this football website called the 30 Third Team.

They actually have some really incredible members and he does a lot of analysis. And he actually remembers the Brett Favre trade when he was the head coach of the Jets and kind of compares it with what's going on right now with Aaron Rodgers or not going on. Brett came into the mix a lot later and we didn't get him until I think it was the second preseason game. We were actually in Cleveland playing a game when he finally showed up. So the timeline is a little bit different in terms of when the negotiation and when the process started.

But there's so many similarities in the other way. We were trying to take a leap. We thought we had actually a pretty good team.

We had done a bunch of stuff for agency. We thought we were poised to take the next step. Similar to the way the Jets feel now. And then Green Bay was in somewhat of a similar circumstance. They felt strongly about Aaron Rodgers. I don't know if they feel as strongly about Jordan Love as they did back then about Aaron Rodgers.

But they were ready to move on and that's kind of how it all evolved. Eric Mangini on the 33rd team. Oh, I feel bad now. I have to apologize to him. Jay tells me he was an analyst with Fox Sports last year.

Ruh-roh. I somehow missed that. That's just what I read. I did not confirm or deny.

I can neither confirm nor deny. But it is interesting to hear his comparison about the timing. Brett never did training camp. Like the last, what, five years of his career, he was like, nah, I'm out. Call me when we're halfway through preseason. And same thing with Aaron.

Really doesn't play in the preseason, nor does he do many OTAs with his team. So there is a comparison there. Just the whole thing. It's got nonsensical now. Which is why when Aaron Rodgers was trending on Twitter three and a half hours ago, I strictly forbid anyone clicking on it. Manny did it anyway, which is why he's never working the show after the next 30 minutes. He's done. He's out. We've banned Manny. We're doing the Banny Manny here on the show. Straight ahead. We're going to head to Augusta National and try to be serious. I'm trying to be serious.

I like to eat animals. Okay. Why would you do that to me? Again, Banny Manny. That's what's happening, right? Okay. I can't even recover from that.

You're a jerk. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Here's our latest sports update.

You are listening to the After Hours Podcast. Just appreciate the memories that I've had here, whether it's in competition or the practice rounds or the stories. There's so much of my life has been here at Augusta National. And again, just so excited to be back here and be able to compete and play.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. We are hours away from the first tee times at Augusta National. First major of the year. It's Masters weekend. And as much as I have a bunch of flowers blooming in my yard and I take pictures of them, man alive.

It would be a bucket list item to take photos of the Azaleas at Augusta National. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. Hopping right in. So excited to welcome our friend Matt Adams back to the show. Longtime host and analyst.

Fairways of life. It's every weekday morning. Live at 8 o'clock Eastern Time. Matt, how are you? Good Amy. How you been? We're good. We're glad to have you. What's the buzz factor at Augusta?

How would you rate it? The buzz factor is very high. I mean with everything that's floating around the game of golf. Currently, mostly outside the ropes.

Inside the ropes. I don't know if I can remember a Masters where so many of the top players were in such great form. So it sets the stage for a great tournament. Of course the part that we don't know is what's going to happen with the weather and what impact that's going to have in the coming days. That's also part of, if you will, the buzz. There's a lot of talk about that. Yes, for sure. And you talk about guys with their health. We've heard from some of those. Just before we talk about some of the contenders, how hot is Scottie Scheffler right now?

Very hot. I mean Scottie Scheffler's defending champion. He's certainly proven multiple times that he doesn't have a problem coming back and defending. Scottie Scheffler is a player that seems so resolute in his emotions, so comfortable in his own skin, that he doesn't seem to be consumed by the moment. He doesn't seem to be driven by the passion when he wasn't world number one to get back to number one. But he gets back to number one because the passion that he has is one that burns within to play the best golf that he possibly can. That kind of mentality that Tiger used to have back in the day of just play good golf and everything else takes care of itself. And that's very much the way it seems with Scottie Scheffler. It seems as though while he's the best in the world and playing the best golf overall as a result of that ranking, he doesn't seem to change anything else about who he is. He still drives a Yukon SUV from 2012 that has tons of miles on it. I'm not kidding.

He didn't even get a new car. I like it. So then who would you say are some of the golfers that would pose the biggest challenge to Scottie? Well, I think it's definitely the big three. I mean, you're talking about Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm would be the two chief contenders because those three have had such incredible form that any one of them on Sunday night would not be a massive surprise. I think the hardest to get to that point, frankly, even more so than defending champion Scottie Scheffler would be Rory McIlroy because he's chasing that piece of history for a career grand slam. And we know that Rory is subject to being an emotional golfer and at times it can consume him like we've seen not only at Augusta National multiple times, but also at the 2019 Open at Royal Port Rush, where he later admitted it's just the emotions were too much for him. He wasn't able to channel it and play. Now, coming off of what he did last year in that final round, highlighted by the hole out 18, which was absolutely brilliant. He I think he thinks that he may have found something to stem that tide and he may be able to perform accordingly. Jon Rahm is Jon Rahm.

He's got to talk about a passion that burns within. If he could channel those fires, you know, it's a constant debate with those three, at least of if any one of them, all of them were playing at their very best at the exact same time, who would be amongst the best of them? And most people say it would be Rory McIlroy because of the way he tries to golf ball. I would say right now it's Jon Rahm. If everything is firing for Jon Rahm, he has so much power.

He's got that that's a competitive shield, that bravado, that passion that I referenced that right now. If he's on form at this Masters, it wouldn't surprise me a bit if he didn't win and went against him. Some of the big names not going until the very end. So Scottie Scheffler, not until 136 Eastern time. And then Rory McIlroy is in the group right behind him. Then you've got Jordan Spieth, who's in the final group going in this first round at two o'clock Eastern.

It's after hours here on CBS Sports Radio. Matt Adams with us from Fairways of Life Radio and YouTube and also the Golf Channel. And so Matt, Tiger's there. We know last year he made the cut, but really struggled because the track is so challenging to walk. How does he look to you?

OK. I mean, it's funny with Tiger because we're used to doing this now over years and years and years. You're reading body language as much as you're listening to the words that Tiger says. And because Tiger, the template is pretty much the same. He comes into a press conference. And although it was a little different, this one, because he talked about rolling back conditions on the golf ball and kind of bigger picture elder statesman of the game type stuff, which is which is natural to his role now.

But from the standpoint competitively, Tiger looks to the eye and goes, look, I'm not the golfer that I used to be day in and day out, but I can find it. And no one thought I'd do a lot here in 2019. And that turned out OK. Right.

I'm paraphrasing. But in 2019, at least we we saw, you know, tour championship coming in. We saw form coming in at the Masters. Those who play well and those who ultimately win here all have form coming in. Nobody finds it at Augusta National.

It just doesn't happen here. When it comes to Tiger Woods, his right ankle was completely crushed in that near fatal car accident. He's spoken and he said it the other day multiple times that he's lucky to have his right leg. And so the ankle has been rebuilt.

There's all kinds of equipment in there, screws and rods, et cetera. And that's what wears down. Now, consider the fact that I reference the weather looks like we're going to be OK today. Oh, good. But starting tomorrow, rains are going to come in in the afternoon. And on Saturday, the high is going to be fifty one hundred percent chance of rain. So when you consider everything that Tigers go with, let's say that's a reasonable expectation for Tiger to make the cut.

Certainly hope so from a fan's perspective that that's the case. Well, if he's going to play early or on Saturday, then he's going to be in the 40s at best and likely playing in a driving range with rain, with wind gusts at or above 20 miles per hour. These are the conditions. Hate to say it, but these are conditions that for someone like Tiger, it could be tough for him. You just expect wild speculation. These are the conditions that you could see Tiger be unable to compete because of the way that that arthritis and that ankle and the rest of his body that's been so surgically repaired might be aching. I hate to say that, but it's something to keep an eye on because we have seen that pattern before.

Sure. Phil Mickelson took a self-imposed exile in twenty twenty two. What's it like to have Phil back at Augusta National?

You know, Phil and all the live players, I think it's it's good to have them back. And I know it's going to shock some people because the narrative is supposed to be that everything live is bad and evil, et cetera, et cetera. I always ask the same question. If the money had come from Elon Musk or, you know, Jeff Bezos, would would be would we have the same moral outrage?

Probably not. Not to mention the fact that the public investment fund from Saudi Arabia that backs live is in all kinds of stocks. Do you think an Uber? They have more money invested in Uber. They have money in the credit cards that we use, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. So, you know, it's it's not that I like the source of funds.

It's that I'm also a realist with it. These are paid professional athletes. And if you really want to go down the rabbit hole of knowing where all the money comes from, that backs all the players salaries and all the sports, you might have a different perspective. But these guys have earned the right to be here. The Masters said, look, if you have a right to be here, if you have status that provides you with an alleyway to be here, you're here. And I like that. So I like that the guys are here. I think the thing that we saw once everybody together, once the parties together was a couple of things. One, the majors are actually going to be stronger because it is the one place where we'll see all the best players in the world together at the same time. And two, once the players together, I mean, Rory played a practice round with Brooks Koepka the other day. The players are not at each other's throats. Now, they've had some disagreements with each other and there's players like each other and don't.

That's just human beings, right? But they're all here playing. Phil is here of all accounts on Tuesday night.

The champions dinner was that he was very, very subdued. I think their persona of who Phil Mickelson was publicly and privately was crack through all of this. There's many people saying, hey, Phil is a martyr now.

What he was saying was correct. And while what Phil was saying in terms of the tour and giving more to the top players, et cetera, et cetera, has come to fruition to credit. The thing that brought down Phil Mickelson was not that he was speaking those truths. The thing that brought down Phil Mickelson was that he was revealed as being something different than the public image of what everybody thought that he was with the smiling thumbs up.

And they found out, oh, he can be very conniving and planning and strategic behind the scenes and at times quite crude. So that's what brought down Phil Mickelson. And I think that's the reason why he's a Phil Mickelson.

That is far less out in the open and in your face. The smartest guy in the room type of Phil personas you used to have. However, it does seem like, Matt, that the fans still respond to him very similarly than they had in the past. Do you think the fans just still love Phil or they're going to hold on to this?

No, I think it's I think it's red state, blue state society we live into. The people who are diehard Phil fans and he lost a lot of them are still going to be diehard Phil fans on site. It is not the same crowd reaction to Phil Mickelson as it used to be where it used to be. Probably 80, 90 percent of the crowd was with this deep expression of love for everything that he did.

It's not that at all. Now, those that do still harbor their their pandemonium for Phil Mickelson. You're going to hear the cheers and you're going to hear all the rest. The other part of it is that we saw this with Tiger when he had a social following of his own making to 10 years ago now more. And you'll find that sports fans, particularly American sports fans, in my view, are very forgiving. And they're willing to give someone a second chance if they see a contrition, if they see an effort being made, et cetera. So I do think that there is a pathway back for Phil. I just think it takes time. And I think Phil was incredibly smart as he's proven over and over again that you have to let the dust settle. And I think his judgment, but based on the way he's been acting in the way that he's so subdued, is that the duck hasn't fully settled yet, but it's starting to. So much to look forward to. And that's just tree topping some of the major challenges. Yes, wide open.

It's been this way for quite a while in the majors in golf. You want to find Matt Adams on Twitter at Matt Adams FOL. The fairways of life show is eight o'clock Eastern Time. You are doing it today, correct? Yeah, we'll be having we have all kinds of content. We post fairways of life on YouTube. OK. Our national television show, Amy, this weekend kicks off. You have to check your local affiliates around the country.

I know in the New York area, it's MSG and Wayne Winitz, Nesson, Valley Sports, sports, AT&T sports and excites everywhere. Awesome. You are star. We always appreciate a couple of minutes with you. Have fun this weekend and we'll talk to you soon.

So much fun. Matt and I have known each other for a long time. He's actually an equipment expert, so we never really get to talk to much about equipment because we're always talking to him about the tournaments.

But he's so good. So make sure you follow his stuff. And again, look for the fairways of life on your local listings. I'm going to check it out.

That's the first I'd heard of it. Awesome. All right. On Twitter, a law radio on our Facebook page after hours with Amy Lawrence. I didn't have a chance to go over a bunch of your responses for the online click bait that you absolutely cannot resist. But we'll do that tonight because it's funny stuff. Have a great Thursday. It's after hours with Amy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio. Boom.