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Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio joins Rich, Ken, and Ted to discuss the Patriots schedule and outlines a possible scenario where Mike Vrabel could lose his job over the Dianna Russini situation with one sentence.
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00:00the great mike florio from pro football talk joins us right now uh mike hey thanks for coming on the
00:04show we appreciate it great to be with you guys that's everything everything's good we're actually
00:09just all trying to read between the lines there are a lot of conspiracy theories as to why the
00:14patriots were chosen to start the season opener against the seahawks i know on the surface many
00:21people can say well it's you know just because it's a super bowl rematch but i think new englanders
00:26right now are thinking there might be a different reason what do you think mike well i think the
00:31super bowl rematch is the most obvious although it's only the third time there's been a super bowl
00:36rematch immediately upon the start of the next season it hasn't happened in a decade and that
00:41was actually a good game nbc had that one 10 years ago panthers broncos but for a missed field goal
00:46by
00:47graham denneau the panthers would have beaten the broncos in the rematch i just looked at it
00:51objectively why do we think the outcome is going to be any different after what really felt like
00:56a suffocation 70s style in this super bowl in san francisco now we go to seattle where it's tough
01:04for anyone to play except the seahawks they're hanging their banner that night they don't have
01:09kenneth walker the third the patriots may indeed have a.j brown by then and a healthy drake may and
01:14a healthy will campbell so who knows how different it'll be i know that maybe the bears would have been
01:20a more compelling candidate but at the end of the day it's a super bowl rematch it's the first game
01:25of
01:25the season the patriots are a national brand and they always have been at least over the past 20
01:29years and the seahawks are emerging as a team that could potentially win another one so i don't know
01:35that there's any theory that applies other than there were nine options five of the teams were tied
01:42up based upon other week one games so it came down to the chargers cardinals patriots bears and it ends
01:47up being the patriots well i guess the theory is that you know when you have a game this big
01:51like the
01:52big season opener you want to try to get as many fans as possible to watch you've already got the
01:57common football fan they got you they got me but what they want to get is they want to get
02:01you know
02:02the people who read people magazine the people who cover the stories outside of it and know about the
02:07whole diana russini my uh and mike frable situation do you think that there was any kind of maybe unspoken
02:14motive to putting that front and center during that first week of uh the very first game of the season
02:19you know it's kind of the taylor swift dynamic turned on its head you have people who will
02:24rubberneck the game for reasons other than something the league would regard as a positive so
02:31the league would have to be willing if they considered that they'd have to be willing to say
02:37we don't care why they're tuning in we don't care if they're tuning in so they can find something
02:44out about a story that who knows what relevance it'll have by then it's kind of died down after
02:51having legs for a lot longer than i think anyone expected but my first thought when i found out that
02:57that was the game wednesday september 9 and tuesday september 8th the night after labor day suddenly
03:03looks like a perfect time for the other party to the situation to do a sit-down interview with oprah
03:07or whoever that would that would make things very interesting come wednesday night if we hear the
03:14version of events as told by diana russini the night before the game and i have no idea whether
03:20or not that's going to happen but nobody knows what's going to happen that's been i think the
03:24characteristic of this whole thing from the get-go you never know what's going to happen next and it
03:30wouldn't shock me if we get the sit-down tell-all interview the night before the game would that mike
03:36would
03:36that maybe put a capper on this story that just seems to not go away does that need to happen
03:42for people to move on from this story is for diana russini to speak publicly about it well i think
03:49it
03:49ends part of it but once you are injected into the paparazzi realm and you can't walk through the
04:01airport without being photographed or questioned and i don't know how long that sensation lasts you
04:08know i think back to the tanya harding nancy kerrigan thing what a big deal that was and i know
04:12it was a
04:13long time ago but i just remember that was something that just burned so bright and it fundamentally
04:17changed how the people involved were perceived forever yeah so i don't i don't know it it would
04:23be useful i think to everyone if it just kind of died down but there is that that lingering question
04:32given that we heard from diana russini twice the initial comment made to the new york post the
04:38content of a resignation letter a week later and she drew a pretty clear line in the sand that this
04:45is nothing between mike rabel's two statements and the photo dumped from the new york post a couple of
04:51days before the draft it was pretty clear that her story is inaccurate so it all comes down to
04:56whether or not she even wants to tell it and then what she has to say and one thing i've
05:01been saying
05:01is hey in one sentence because we don't know what she's going to say in one sentence she could make
05:06it impossible for mike rabel to continue as head coach of the patriots if she really chose to to go
05:12there and and we have no idea that's the great unknown that's the wild card and it's a wild card
05:18that
05:18we don't know is even going to be played which makes it even more of a wild card what sentence
05:25could she say well and let me be clear on this because it's all speculation but to the extent
05:32we're looking at something that could make it impossible to variable continuing as patriots coach
05:40if her explanation went like this and i i i know how the aggregators on twitter are so i need
05:47to be
05:47clear this is just speculation if she would say that hey i'm just trying to get by in the male
05:53dominated profession i'm trying to get any edge that i can i can't compete with these guys and
05:58and a head coach told me hey i'll help you i'll i'll give you information and you know there's a
06:06quid pro
06:06quote it's involved here and that's how it all got started and then you know it sparked a relationship
06:12after that but if she would make that kind of a claim i i think that that's the kind of
06:16thing the
06:17nfl couldn't ignore because that becomes problematic under the law it becomes problematic just as a matter
06:22of basic public policy in society where you would have this dynamic where a coach is using a position
06:28of power to make a bargain that is premised on sexual activity and that gets into what they call
06:35under the law quid pro quo sexual harassment that's where it would become an issue it's the
06:39kind of harvey weinstein stuff that sparked the me too movement nine years ago where you're
06:45conditioning professional favors on sexual favors that's the way that this could go sideways for
06:52mike grable if she would ever say that and again that's speculation but that is the kind of thing
06:56where if that dart gets thrown it it starts heading toward a pretty large bullseye jeez mike i haven't
07:03even thought of that angle whether it's true or not that's the thing i'm not saying i don't know
07:07and and you know she had the comment in her resignation letter that the media speculation was
07:13unmoored from the facts it sure looks like her denials are unmoored from the facts so i don't know
07:17what she would say i'm just this is what would upset the apple cart if she would ever say that
07:24well mike you've been writing some some interesting and stuff that's made sense about this whole
07:29situation and a couple of days ago you were talking about how you know speculating will she talk at all
07:34and you wrote some sort of settlement agreement with an nda a non-disclosure agreement would not
07:40be unprecedented in a situation like this first of all like when you say it it wouldn't be
07:45unprecedented you know can like does this really happen and and do you think that that would be
07:50something that a team would do or or or somebody would have her sign and she just not end up
07:54speaking
07:55at all well and when i face this situation like this i don't mean the nfl but we've heard a
08:00lot
08:00in recent years about nba there was the situation with the president stormy daniels that all flowed from
08:07an nda jerry richardson the panthers owner yeah he had multiple ndas that had been signed by people who
08:16disregarded them told their story to sports illustrated and that was the first domino in a
08:20chain of events that forced him to sell the team to david tepper so it's not uncommon when you're
08:26settling an actual lawsuit when you have legal claims that either have been made or could be
08:30made it's not uncommon for that settlement to include a confidentiality agreement loosely known
08:35as an nda but it's also possible to just ask someone to sign an nda that was an issue in
08:42the
08:42stefan diggs trial a couple of weeks ago that the alleged victim at one point was asked to sign
08:49an nda famous rich people who want the people who are associated with them to keep their mouths shut
08:55are able to give someone money in exchange for a vow of silence and yes in theory it's possible
09:02who knows if it's happened but it's possible that there could be some sort of an agreement
09:07you know if you're thinking about selling her story she could tell her story uh to a vault and it
09:14never sees the light of day how much do you think that would cost well you know things are worth
09:22whatever someone will pay for them and and think of it this way i'll give you an example all speculation
09:28let's say oprah is going to pay her 10 million dollars to sit down and have this interview well
09:33that's the you gotta do 10 million and one if you want to do that so you know the leverage
09:38comes
09:39from what value is out there from someone else who would who would want to pay to have that story
09:46told on their platform mike if it does go sideways what contingency plans do you think the patriots
09:52would have in place could there be a temporary leave a full leave and who would be the guide that
09:57you would think would be the replacement and this is one of the reasons why the decision of mike
10:02were able to step away from the team for the third day of the draft was so much more jarring
10:07than i
10:07think anyone has realized because it just kind of happened and we dealt with it and we moved on and
10:11the draft started the next day like okay he's not going to be there for the third day of the
10:15draft but
10:16that's what turns this story into a football issue and it shows that it can and will have football
10:21consequences and the question becomes will there be a greater necessity as you're trying to balance
10:27your personal life with a job that consumes your life and for all nfl head coaches you need to have
10:34your personal life in a situation where you can press pause on it and throw yourself into your job
10:39when training camp opens and especially when the season starts so i have suggested that if this fire
10:47just gets to the point where it burns so hot that mike rabel can't do both things yeah leave of
10:52absence
10:53would be on the table but it has really stabilized over the past couple of weeks that's the best news
10:59possible for rabel and the patriots it has calmed down and that drip drip has gotten to the point
11:05where we haven't seen anything that's really felt like a tipping point since the photos from march of
11:112020 were published by the new york post at or about the time that rabel decided to skip the third
11:16day of
11:16the draft so leave of absence would be one possibility but the example i gave you earlier if that happened
11:21i
11:21don't think there's a leave of absence in play i think it's he he has to step down if it
11:27would be
11:27something that serious and you know you got a guy on the staff who's been a head coach twice and
11:31he's
11:31one of the most respected offensive coordinators in the nfl and josh mcdaniels i think he'd be the
11:36first guy that you consider as a replacement if it ever comes to that yeah uh mike let's let's change
11:42gears a little bit and i'm just curious to get your thoughts on a lot of people talking about
11:47the the games the schedules that came out and just games basically almost on every night of the week it
11:52feels like uh these days your your thoughts on so many standalone games not as many sunday games
11:58and the theory that you know that uh maybe this is a tipping point for the nfl people are going
12:03to
12:03get it's oversaturated your thoughts on that maybe being the case and just all the games being played
12:08throughout the week now well i i think what jerry jones said when he was asked about the mark cuban
12:16pigs get get fat hogs get slaughtered line several weeks back at the league meetings jerry jones said
12:22if the duck's quacking you feed it this long because we learned they have the capacity during
12:29the pandemic to find a way to stage games tuesday and wednesday night i'm surprised we don't have
12:37regular tuesday or wednesday night nfl football because friday night and saturday is off limits from the
12:46second weekend of september to the second weekend of december that's part of the trade-off under the
12:51sports broadcasting act and that antitrust exemption has been a talking point lately because you could
12:56argue that selling games to streaming goes beyond the exemption the nfl is allowed to have you've got
13:02political pressure to get rid of the exemption altogether which would turn the nfl's business
13:07model on its head but as long as they can keep plucking games away from that cluster that's played at
13:14one o'clock eastern the afternoon and make them standalone games you're trading out a game that's
13:21going to be watched by a small portion of the country for a national broadcast that is worth a lot
13:26more but you're right about sunday afternoon you know week 16 christmas weekend there are 10 total
13:34windows 10 you've got three on christmas one on christmas eve to the day after christmas the usual
13:41three on sunday and monday night 10 windows that depletes the supply of games and i think it makes
13:48sunday ticket a lot less attractive you've got eight games played that sunday afternoon you're going to
13:53get three of them for free on fox and cbs you're getting five more if you're paying the freight for
14:00sunday ticket i think that at some point they're really going to have to take a closer look at whether
14:04or not sunday tickets a viable product hey mike we finally get tom brady back for a broadcast on fox
14:10against the packers are you i mean is there any evidence that he avoided this on purpose for a
14:16couple years was that intentional at all and how do you think his relationship with with robert craft
14:20is currently well i i think that when you go to work for the network that historically is the place
14:27that has the nfc package it's not going to come around very often that you end up covering the game
14:34with any nfc team it took him two years to get to the point where he went to buffalo and
14:40so if he was
14:42paired with jim nance of cbs he would have been in new england by now and i don't know about
14:47the
14:47relationship with robert craft i know when he made the comment before the super bowl about i don't have
14:52any dog in the fight that prompted all sorts of speculation you know did he want to buy a piece
14:57of the
14:57patriots for a sweetheart deal and the patriots weren't interested so he went to mark davis and mark davis
15:03let him buy along with a couple of others 10 of the team for a ridiculously below market rate
15:09i don't know i don't know but he is an owner of the raiders now and in the strictest sense
15:14that's his loyalty that's the team that he's part of and he's trying to do this strange balancing act
15:22where he covers all 32 teams as fox's top analyst but also is partial to and by definition in the
15:31camp of
15:32the raiders it's just an awkward situation the league allowed it to happen and i think brady's
15:37just trying to navigate this this existence now but he's got a statue outside the stadium i i'd like
15:43to think he's not going to get harassed when he comes back well to that point mike we were having
15:48a discussion uh the other day about do you think that tom brady was paid to come back for that
15:55big
15:55ceremony they had here did they think do you think that they had to pay him to come back a
16:00large amount
16:00of money that's an interesting point i don't know that that in and of itself was a transaction it
16:09may have just been a byproduct of a broader relationship that had seen tom brady get paid
16:13a lot of money over the years so i i i wouldn't man that's something you've got leverage you've got
16:20leverage someone's going to give you a gigantic award and and you know have this big night where
16:27they packed select stadium do you have the gall to ask for an appearance fee that you've made it when
16:35i mean if anyone could do it it would be him and then and then you hear stories about bill
16:39belichick
16:40stories i mean we've got somebody sitting right here was there ted johnson was backstage and said
16:44that bill belichick slunk in after everyone had already come in and then left immediately after he was
16:50done and that to me sounds like someone who was paid to be there that's an interesting point and
16:58you know given everything that's happened since that night you really wonder if that could ever
17:03happen again under any set of circumstances and it seems like the hostilities have died down between
17:08belichick and the patriots and i hate to put it that way because i think from the patriots perspective
17:13it's like what what the hell is going on like what did what did we do to have bill belichick
17:18be so mean-spirited and so aggressive in the position he's taken as it relates to the patriots but
17:25the passage of time tends to help everything and if everything just kind of dies down then maybe we
17:31get to a point where belichick takes a step back and realizes that you know he had a pretty good
17:36in
17:36new england he was able to run that team however he wanted and that was because he won i guarantee
17:40you
17:40this if he hadn't won he'd have been out on his ears sooner than later yeah you can't be bill
17:44belichick
17:45and lose no one's going to give you the benefit of the doubt when you treat people the way that
17:51he seems to treat people but he won and he had a place where he was able to win and
17:55it's just sad to
17:56see in the aftermath of that unprecedented run of greatness in the nfl especially in a salary cap era
18:03it's just sad to see relationships fractured everybody should be getting along uh well uh mike
18:07florio uh great stuff this is going to be one hell of an interesting off season to see how this
18:12all
18:13plays out here in new england but uh but man great having you on let's let's let's uh let's um
18:17connect soon as more news breaks with all this crazy stuff all right mike hey guys great talking
18:22to you call me anytime happy to talk thank you mike
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