Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show
Mike Florio talks Bears' stadium saga & NFL headlines (Hour 2)
03 Jun 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What is the Bears' stadium saga and its current status?
Every Wednesday, we do it at this time. We talk to Mike Florio. He is the creator, editor-in-chief of Pro Football Talk, and he joins us on our hotline and on Twitch, twitch.tv slash thescorechicago, and he's rocking his West Virginia swag today. Mike, thanks for coming on.
Hey, I have reason to rock the swag today. The Mountaineers hosting the Super Regional against Cal Poly coming up starting on Friday. If they win the best of three series, they go to the College World Series for the first time ever.
Are you going to Omaha? Is that what you're saying?
No.
You should check it out. It's a fun atmosphere.
No.
Fine. I tried. Hey, college baseball may be the only NCAA sport left where there's some honest parody. So I've enjoyed it. I've enjoyed seeing the kids celebrate so far.
Mike, we are... It's our only chance to win a national championship. You're right. Between football and basketball, we have no chance because we don't have the money. In baseball, we've got enough money to be competitive. And West Virginia, listen to me, we. But I live here. I went to law school there, so I can say we. In baseball, we have...
a chance to be among the best and this year may be their best chance ever if your money goes there yeah you can say we mike i want to ask you on this is june 3rd and we saw the fireworks happen on june 1st when it came to the a.j brown trade the miles garrett trade what were your biggest takeaways from all the action that happened in the league
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Chapter 2: How does Mike Florio view the recent NFL trades?
That's how close the Rams are. And now, with Miles Garrett there, this vague possibility that Aaron Donald is going to decide to come back after two years off at age 35, I don't know that he's going to do it, but he told Pat McAfee yesterday that it makes you think, and man, that would be something.
You think of all the attention Donald got and how effective he was, even though he's being blocked by two and three guys all the time. That attention gets diverted to Miles Garrett now. Even at age 35, Aaron Donald... could be a force of nature if he would come back. So it is the kind of thing that changes everything. You look at the betting odds, how they've moved.
I mean, the Rams are the favorite now to win the Super Bowl, and it's almost getting to the point where anything less than a Super Bowl appearance is going to make this season be perceived as a failure for the Rams.
You mentioned the Aaron Donald, but I mean, in your estimation, how difficultā likely is that to actually transpire?
Well, he keeps himself in great shape. And the talk all started because there was a video of him working out recently. He works out as intensely as he always did. And yes, he's 35, but he doesn't have two full years of wear and tear that he would have had if he'd be playing at age 35. So He needs to relight the fire. That's what he said yesterday. He was burned out two years ago.
Does taking that two years off, does seeing an opportunity to play with Miles Garrett, does the opportunity to come back for one year and and try to win a second Super Bowl. Does that appeal to him enough to get him willing to do everything that's necessary?
It is a major commitment to say, I am going to sign up and be all in the way that Aaron Donald is all in to go to that level when you don't need to do it financially. Your career is complete. Your Hall of Fame bust in Canton. They can already go out and requisition the bronze and start making that thing when he becomes eligible.
What is the upside and is it worth what you have to put into it at this age to try to position yourself for it? And he's the only one who can answer that question.
Mike, also, we are talking to Mayor Brandon Johnson today, the mayor of Chicago. He's going to come with us in studio at 1230. And I know you wrote about this, too. This is a topic that is really gone on for way, way too long at this point to still be in its infancy today. The legislative session, as you know, passed in the Senate in the state of Illinois.
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Chapter 3: What are the implications of the Bears potentially moving to Indiana?
And I don't know that they had the liquid to be able to do the leverage on the other side with the Arlington Heights property.
I think there's two explanations. I think there's either a method to the apparent madness that we've witnessed over the past several years, or it's just madness. When you think about it, you buy this property at Arlington Heights and you don't buy it with an understanding of how you're going to handle the exorbitant property taxes. You're just going to Figure that out as you go.
So it is possible that all of this and that the Bears have embraced the appearance that they don't really have a plan when the reality is they've got a plan that is operating at a much higher level than their apparent plan. And that plan has a goal of building a stadium in Chicago. I don't know. I don't want to give them too much credit. Yeah.
But if it ends up that they build a stadium in Chicago, they're geniuses. Whether it was deliberate or accidental, they're still geniuses.
No, I agree with that as we talk with Mike Florio, the creator and editor-in-chief of Pro Football Talk. Mike, so because we're having the mayor on today and we have so many questions and we'll see how many he actually gives us a straight answer to. Just this idea that you're having the backdoor dealings, that...
that makes it seem like the Bears either really do know what they're doing or they have no idea what they're doing. And that's what gives me pause. I think in this era, because we saw what happened with the Kansas City Chiefs, nobody wants to put this on the taxpayers.
And that's my issue with this is how are they going to put a stadium downtown where the taxpayers aren't going to be more on the hook? Remember, we're still on the hook for what happened with the renovations to Soldier Field.
More than $400 million. Wow.
And let's be completely accurate about this. Nobody wants to put it on the taxpayers if putting it on the taxpayers means putting it on the ballot. Because we know what happens when one of these measures gets put on a ballot. It loses miserably. That's what happened in Kansas City.
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Chapter 4: What are the legal and political challenges regarding the Bears' stadium situation?
Learn more at Chicago 13.1. That's the word point dot com. You went to see a movie over the week and you have a review for us.
I have a review for a movie that is coming out later today, I believe. Yeah, it's coming out later today. And I saw a sneak preview and it brought back some feelings of nostalgia. But also, I really wish Hollywood had more original ideas. I just do. I really do.
Do you think Hollywood comes up with more original ideas before or after a Bears stadium is constructed?
After. That's how dire it is out here.
Oh, man. All right. Marshall's got a movie review next. What time is it? It's halftime. It is halftime here on Rahimios and Grody. We spent our first hour talking about the Cubs. who lost a 2-1 ballgame. They've now lost seven games in a row at Wrigley. They fell to the A's last night, and Jamison Tyone called it a wake-up call. So how awake are they?
Unfortunately for the White Sox, Davis Martin did not Davis Martin last night. The White Sox fell to the Twins. Two out of three games in that series. But it's okay because at least the lineup tried to pick each other up. And we saw fun stuff like Luis Angel Acuna steal a bunch of bases to ultimately get home without any contact. It's enjoyable.
It's a bit of frustrating.
It's a fun baseball thing that happened. And then we heard from Mike Florio. And then we also listened to what the Hammond, Indiana mayor, Thomas McDermott said regarding the, the latest on the bear stadium. So you went to see a movie.
I did. I went to see a movie because I got invited by my friend. Brandon Pope said, do you want to see this movie? And now I know why he wanted me to see the movie.
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Chapter 5: How does the Hammond mayor perceive the Bears' move?
Have I turned into Skeletor?
Not physically, but mentally, of course. So Skeletor is played by Jared Leto.
okay appropriate casting and jared leto actually kills it as skeletor it is the best part of the movie he do you think the pitch to him was like we want you to play skeletor and he's like the culmination of my life resulted in this role well if you remember jared leto was playing the joker jared leto's played a hell of a lot of roles yeah but in so in dc he was playing the joker um in in the the universe that just ended the one that had uh
goodness don't look for me for answers because I don't know so Superman and Wonder Woman you know the Wonder Woman franchise came back that all that universe Jared Leto is the guy Masters of the Universe no no stop you're trying to confuse yourself and me and we're not doing that but Jared Leto as Skeletor was amazing Idris Elba plays man-at-arms Nicholas Idris Elba is man-at-arms yes dope maybe I do watch this Marina Baccarin is is the sorcerer sorceress
If you remember Deadpool, she was the love interest in Deadpool or the series Gotham. No, you're not. You're not with me. You haven't seen Deadpool.
Yeah. I speak no language here that applies.
So Nicholas Galadzian plays He-Man and it's just, it was an uninspiring kind of performance. Like I wasn't like, I want to be He-Man after watching this. Actually, Man in Arms, who has kind of a dip and a comeback. I was like, yeah. But then Idris Elba is Idris Elba, right? Yeah. But so if you have a nostalgia thing, if you love nostalgia, go see this movie.
It will give you the warm and fuzzies from a nostalgia standpoint. But y'all got to stop mining nostalgia is the only thing you can sell. Is my message to the production companies of the world.
Well, when you don't have creatives in charge of the production companies, not that they necessarily need to be the ones in charge, but to have a say.
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Chapter 6: What are the financial considerations for the Bears' stadium project?
Oh yeah, post-serial. It was like post-production. I don't know.
So like at the beginning of this movie, they roll like the Mattel because it's a Mattel toy. So they roll like the post at the beginning of the movie?
That is the era where Saturday morning cartoons became just a vehicle for people to buy toys.
That's all it was to begin with.
Yeah, it was just marketing.
I didn't know this growing up, but I know this now. That's why Transformers, the movie, the animated one, is such a just... It's so sad. Because they literally just made the movie to kill all the characters so that you would buy new toys. That's all Transformers and movies was.
If there's one thing I learned, it's that whoever was writing...
kids product in the 80s whether it was the transformers brave little toaster stuff like that they're just like let's add in some really unnecessary trauma because life is hard like what the hell was that as if we were gonna know that just walking outside you needed to put it in these these cartoons and films and i don't know other stuff like old yeller even though that's older but name the thing unnecessary
We've talked about sequels and whole universes, whether it's Fast and Furious. Remember we talked about Air Bud?
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Chapter 7: What role does public opinion play in the Bears' stadium decision?
And then I looked and it was like Castle Grayskull, Skeletor, the Death Star. The Death Star is a great Christmas ornament because it looks like a ball, you know, like just like a typical ball Christmas ornament, except it's the Death Star. So I had an idea of like... Doing an entire Christmas tree with ball ornaments that were like all sparkly and cute and stuff.
And then just randomly as an Easter egg, Death Star.
Are movie reviews four or five stars? I forget.
I don't know because I don't watch enough of them.
Okay. On a four star review, I'm going to give this two and a half stars. If it's five stars, I'll give it three stars.
Okay. Okay. So three out of five stars.
Three out of five stars. And Rotten Tomatoes has it at 75%, which is higher than I would give it.
I think I need an evil Christmas tree.
I would need a Christmas tree one to begin with.
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