Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show
Mike Florio talks Bears' stadium saga & latest NFL headlines
10 Jun 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
This hour is brought to you by Jewel Osco.
Ladies and gentlemen, joining us now is a man who's got a massive brain. Mike Florio. He used to be a lawyer, then he decided to take his talents to the internet. NBC Sports. I'm sorry I'm late. I was talking to Robert Kraft. That isn't the time for an airing of grievances. Pro Football Talk. I got a lot of problems with you people. No, you're going to hear about it.
On Chicago Sports Radio, 104.3 The Score. I want to keep talking Legos.
It is a Wednesday at 11 a.m. or so, 11 to 450. And that is when we talk to Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk. He is the creator, the editor-in-chief. He is kind enough to join us, not just on our hotline, but on Twitch, twitch.tv slash thescorechicago. Mike has now figured out the commands for fireworks, and it is always very exciting. We get fireworks when Mike comes on. You can check that out.
And Mike, we are happy to have you on today. Thanks for joining us.
Great to be here, as always. Happy to delay my lunch on a Wednesday at noon Eastern time. I am very OCD when it comes to my meals, but as we have established in the past, it is a thrill on Wednesday every week to press pause for 20 minutes or so.
We appreciate that you do that for us. People do ask about your lunch, so just know that our listeners have you in mind.
Well, that's good. I got a whole bunch of pepperoni rolls out in the kitchen. I'll probably have one or two.
Let's go. Nice. Speaking of delay, your comments yesterday about the Bears stadium latest, I feel like we've had so many twists and turns. And you've been watching this from afar, understanding the NFL's place in all of this. Mike, the last time we talked to you, We had talked about the Chicago portion of this. What was the city's effect on the bill not getting out of the Senate, for example?
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Chapter 2: What are the latest updates on the Bears' stadium saga?
And if the Bears really, really, really, really, really said they were going to go to Indiana and said that they've got a date where they're going to put shovels in the ground, does Roger, can he do anything about it? Because obviously I'm assuming he wants the Bears to stay in Illinois and probably wanted them to stay in Chicago would be my guess.
All it takes is nine no votes to keep the bears from going. And it would set up some interesting dynamics. But this is what happens when you own a business, but you become part of a league with 31 other ostensibly competing businesses. And we've seen litigation in the past. That was... How the Raiders dealt with the NFL not wanting them to move to Los Angeles.
And then there was a fight over lingering rights to the L.A. market after the Raiders went back to Oakland. It all comes from this basic concept of I own my business. I run my business. You don't tell me how to run my business. But when you're part of the league, you sacrifice some of that freedom. And that's where Goodell's power comes from.
He only needs nine owners to say no to the proposed deal in Indiana.
Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk on with us on Rahimi Harrison-Grody. There's a massive story, and you as a former lawyer, I'm sure, are pretty ensconced in it, in the Brendan Sorsby case. And he gets an injunction from a local judge in West Texas, home of many Texas Tech fans and alumni. to be able to have eligibility.
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Chapter 3: How does the Bears' stadium situation impact Illinois politics?
And I know that the latest report is that unless an appeal happens fast, he's available. We're already seeing leagues respond to this. We're seeing teams respond to this in ways that they're concerned about their integrity. What are you seeing as far as the ripple effects? And as a former person of practicing law, how are you seeing this take place?
Well, I was disappointed by the ruling itself. It's only four pages long, and it recites all of the magic words necessary to come to a defensible finding that a preliminary injunction that would freeze everything in place while the case goes forward is justified. But there's no reasoning. There's no explanation.
And I see everyone having an opinion, but nobody really knows what the legal arguments were, what the reason was, whether or not it holds water. You really have to get in the weeds of the case to understand whether or not this judge did the right thing.
The perception is it's just another state court judge throwing a bone to a college in that state and a player who wants to play football in that state. And the thing that... that I eventually was struck by was the idea that no one said anything about this until after the ruling came out.
Chapter 4: What leverage does the Bears' management have in negotiations?
And after the ruling came out, all hell broke loose. And look, we know how this game goes. We know that the school and or the player try to find a favorable judge and the NCAA has gotten its ass kicked all over the place in recent years. And the fact that nobody said anything to all of a sudden there's this hue and cry almost universal from the schools, from the conferences, from the media.
When no one was saying last week or the week before how bad this outcome would be, it really does make me think that whether it was deliberate or whether it happened spontaneously, this outcome potentially gives the NCAA the political ammunition to get what they've been unable to get from Congress. They badly want an antitrust exemption.
They want to turn the clock back, not all the way back to the days when the players got nothing. I don't think that's ever returning and it shouldn't. But I think they want to find a way to mess with the current imbalance as they see it at the expense of the players. And I think this Sorsby thing could become the key.
NCA President Charlie Baker called it the thunderbolt moment that could cause everything they're looking for to finally come together. And I just think that would be unfortunate. I'm a firm believer Congress shouldn't be cleaning up this mess.
I think if the NCA and its members truly want to clean up this mess, they need to do it themselves by embracing unionization, by having collective bargaining. It would give them the antitrust exemption they would want. They'd be able to set transfer rules. They'd be able to set rules regarding compensation. There's a lot they could do, just like the NFL does. That's how the NFL has a draft.
That's how it has free agency rules. That's how it has minimum salary rules. That's how it has salary cap. There's a 32 company union, a multi-employer bargaining unit that gives them the antitrust exemption. That's what The NCAA should be doing.
And it's disappointing that I feel like I'm shouting that into the wilderness while everyone is pushing this thing toward a federal solution that just gives the NCAA everything it wants.
What's funny is I look at this in so many different ways, Mike, because number one, what do we always hear from the NFL, for example? Well, let the legal process take its course before we act. That's always what they say. So I'm not surprised that the NCAA, who famously doesn't ever want to govern, decided to let somebody else handle those.
But I don't necessarily think that they thought past the idea of in Texas gambling bad and looked into how, for example, in Amarillo, the 7th District of Texas where this was decided, all four justices that preside over the court are graduates of Texas Tech's law school. They have to some point do their job here.
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Chapter 5: Why is Hammond, Indiana being considered for the new Bears stadium?
Are we going to get to see, will we have the pleasure of seeing Aaron Donald and Miles Garrett play football together on the same defense?
Well, the door is definitely open. And Donald said last week the arrival of Miles Garrett gets him thinking. And you see the videos of Aaron Donald working out. And yeah, he's 35, but he hasn't played for two years. So he doesn't have the wear and tear that a 35-year-old who's been playing ever since coming out of college would have.
And I think one of the reasons he got burned out is he was sick of being double and triple teamed on every single play. And he was still effective despite the extra attention. So now you get Miles Garrett, who's going to attract some, if not most of that attention, all of a sudden your life is a lot easier.
I know that Schefter made some comments recently that it was clearly speculation, but he also said he thinks it's more likely than not that Donald comes back. But he also said repeatedly, I don't know anything. I, I, I, If you're Donald and you can relight that fire, that's what he said last week. He needs to relight the fire.
And if he can relight that fire and he wants to come back for one last run that culminates in a Super Bowl to be played in the Rams' home stadium at SoFi, it wouldn't surprise me if he did it. And it would just make the Rams the even more presumptive favorite to get to the Super Bowl and win. It would almost put too much pressure on the Rams if Aaron Donald came back.
Mike, this has been a lot of fun as usual. The Law Talk and more. We appreciate you taking the time.
Thanks. Have a great week. Thanks, Mike.
That is Mike Florio, the creator, editor-in-chief of Pro Football Talk. You can find his work at Pro Football Talk on X and, of course, on the NBC side as well. The Southside Summer Festival, presented by Marist, is coming up July 18th from 4 to p.m. at Marist Stadium. Features live music and more. Tickets are on sale now for $45 at Marist.net.
We do need to play what the Hammond mayor, Thomas McDermott, said this morning on Mullion Hall. He helped us fill in the gaps a bit, clarified a statement from the Bears that came out on Friday. So we will listen to what he had to say and react. This is our only Bears stadium segment, okay? We try, but it's also just news you need to know.
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