Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
This is an iHeart Podcast.
Guaranteed human. It's that time to put on your jersey and wave your flag, whoever you root for.
Why do I watch the World Cup? That's like asking me, why do I breathe? and it's beautiful. The guys are young and cute and fit.
It's not just a game. It's your culture.
I like watching it with my dad.
It's a connecting force.
From Futuro Studios, I'm Fernanda Echavarri, and this is American Football, a show about soccer culture in the U.S. and its underdog roots. Listen to American Football on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Joy is essential and it's also elusive. But now there's a new and exciting way to start your journey toward a more joyful existence. Joy 101.
It's a new podcast hosted by me, Hoda Kotb.
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Chapter 2: What is the Brendan Sorsby saga and its implications?
It does really bad. I applaud the NFL for cutting him out of the draft, whatever. I think he should learn a lesson today. And you got to learn lessons hard.
Chapter 3: Why did the NFL cancel the supplemental draft?
And addiction, it'll take over. I just look at the, remember the Chris Herron story? And I know he wasn't trying to get back in the NBA or anything, but he owned up to everything. And he went on later in seminars and spoke out. And, you know, I applaud that. Yeah, if he could have cleaned up earlier, then maybe he gets back in. And yes, we all know addiction is a bad thing.
And the NFL wanted to send a message here. They were drawing a line in the sand. But I don't know if we've gotten the true story yet about Brendan Sorsby's side of things. Did they do everything they were supposed to do if it just comes down to we don't want you in the league? Mike Florio knows more than I do.
Pro Football Talk Live co-host and his latest novel, Big Shield, available on Amazon in e-book form for only 99 cents. It's about a tale of the mob and pro sports in the age of legalized gambling as we make the segue to Brendan Sorsby. NFL moved the goalpost here on Sorsby's team that they did get in before the deadline.
well and then i was listen to what you're saying i agree with the idea that there was a belief in league circles and specifically in the league office that there needed to be a punishment there needed to be accountability there needed to be a pound of flesh now what they could have done and what they've done in the past though let a guy into the supplemental draft and then suspended later they did that with terrell prior different case but with similarities from two thousand eleven
Here's why I think they didn't do that with Sorsby. If they had tried to suspend him after he was drafted, they had two prior cases, two guys currently on NFL rosters who had similar situations to Sorsby and were never punished by the league. K. Sean Booty, the Patriots receiver, who actually bet on LSU games he played in, never punished by the league.
They didn't even know about it when he was drafted. And Hunter Deckers, who re-signed with the Saints this week. He had no suspension, no punishment. He did the same thing Sorsby did. So instead of suspending him and opening yourself up to the argument that, wait a minute, you didn't do anything to Booty or Deckers, let's just slam the door in his face.
Let's just say, we don't feel like having a supplemental draft this year. We'll see you in April, which is basically a one-year suspension. Could Sorsby and his agent have done anything different?
i don't know what they could have done differently dan in the way that the letter to sores be reads it's like this thing just fell out of the blue for the nfl last week well i think about this what are you talking about eligibility and eligibility ncaa we don't have time to look into that and i think the truth as its spelled out in the statement that lawyer jeffrey kessler's office released last night that they had given them everything that they asked for that they had even asked if you need anything else let us know and dan
I wouldn't be surprised if we find out that there were maybe some communications between Sorsby's camp and the NFL predating the application. Maybe all the way back to the beginning of this because they knew what was going to happen. If Kessler couldn't keep Sorsby in the NCAA, he was going to apply for the supplemental draft.
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Chapter 4: What are the chances of a work stoppage in the NFL?
We knew that from the moment that Sorsby's eligibility came into question at Texas Tech. Yeah, it's just confusing. And I don't know. And we've talked about this, I think, the last time with Jeffrey Kessler. He's not afraid of the NFL. He's with the NFL Players Association. But can a player who's not a member of the NFL rely on the NFL Players Association to help him get into the league?
Well, and Dan, that's a problem for Sorsby. I went back and read the Maurice Claret legal decision from 2004, and one of the things said in that decision, unions have an interest in protecting their current membership. Sorsby is not a member until he's drafted or signs a contract as an undrafted free agent.
So if the union does something to help a guy who's not a member, who once he's drafted is going to cause a current union member to lose his spot on the roster, that's a problem. And I think that's why the union is keeping...
Back, hands off, we don't know what to do here, and I think they can't do anything because they'd be directly hurting the rights of a current union member if they help a non-member try to get into the union. Yeah, my suggestion was don't sue the NFL. Take this year off, six months, rehab yourself, and give seminars to high school football teams or kids and talk about how you got into this.
And it's only $20, but I'm doing it 9,000 times, and it could easily happen to you, and it may cost me my career, maybe an act of contrition. What Pete Rose, I truly believe if he gave back for an entire year, that Commissioner Selig would have fought to reinstate him or at least put him on the Hall of Fame ballot. I don't know if that is going to work in Brendan Sorsby's camp.
Do you sit down with 60 Minutes and do, you know, you've got to glean some sympathy here. Or I thought about if you put him in the supplemental draft, then you leave it up to the teams if they want this headache on their roster. And then if not, then you've done your due diligence as the stewards of the league. What do you think? And I think that's a great point.
I think what he may do, Dan, is just not fight it, take the year off, train for the draft in 2027, go around and speak to high school students, as you've said. He could be a great way. This is a great opportunity to provide a tangible example of what can happen to you, especially if you have aspirations to play college football, any college sport, professional sports. You've got to stay away.
The fruit of the forbidden tree, everybody else is eating it. You've got to stay away from it if you're going to be involved in college sports and pro sports. And I think he has a great opportunity to help a lot of kids avoid the problems he got into. We're talking to Mike Florio, Pro Football Talk Live co-host. The show that precedes ours on Peacock.
His latest novel, Big Shield, available on Amazon in e-book form for only 99 cents. A tale of the mob and pro sports in the age of legalized gambling. While I have you, we've seen these new fields for the World Cup. And boy, they look great. And there's some NFL players saying, well, wait a minute. I thought you said it's too expensive.
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Chapter 5: What insights does Mike Florio provide about player accountability?
Why can't we keep the grass that's down on these fields that we would be using for NFL games? Well, and Dan, here's the reality. It's now a collective bargaining issue. How bad do the players want it? You can prefer grass to turf. What are you going to give up to get the owners to spend the money to retrofit dome stadiums to have grass for NFL games?
And you've got to prioritize what you're looking for when it's time to bargain with the NFL. We know what the NFL wants. They want 18 regular season games, 16 international games. They want to reduce the size of the piece of the pie that the players get as the pie keeps getting larger and larger. What are the players willing to fight for? There's a fundamental imbalance in the relationship.
The owners will shut the sport down for a year to get what they want. We know all the way back to 1987, the players are not going to go without football. They're not going to go without getting paid. Will the players ever strike to get all grass fields? And then by the time we get to that point five years from now, most of the guys currently in the league are going to be gone.
We're talking about what guys in high school and college may do five years from now to try to get grass. So you can want it. But you may not want to do what you have to do to go get it. So they're not testing for weed anymore, but they're testing the player's ability or resolve of fighting for grass. So there's some kind of correlation here, Mike, I think.
Well, hey, and look, Dan, here's the bottom line. We know how much power the league has over the players. We've seen it play out time and again through collective bargaining agreement negotiations. We know at the end of the day, the league's going to get what they want. And for the players to get what they want, it's always going to be a fight.
You could have given me a courtesy laugh on the weed and the grass, Mike. I mean, I've been there for you. Well, I'm sorry. I hope that I'm coming through well. I'm apparently having technical difficulties on my end, so I'm hearing every other word you're saying. So I missed the joke. I apologize. Okay. I'll leave you with this. The New York Times did a deep dive on Diana Rossini.
I guess that's, like, happening now. What are we waiting for? This investigation that started in what, January? Dan, I think that the New York Times report is the appetizer to the announcement of whatever the Athletic, owned and operated by the New York Times, is going to conclude and publish as it relates to its investigation of her report. And that was my first takeaway.
This investigation is just about done, and we're going to find out soon. And this New York Times article is just kind of the precursor to what's coming maybe within the next week. Yeah, but what are they looking to find out here?
Well, you know, they claim they're going back and looking at her reporting, and there's a lot of reporting to sift through to see whether or not it was affected by an actual or perceived conflict of interest. Any reporting that relates directly or indirectly to Mike Frable, when he was with the Titans, when he wasn't working. When he's with the Patriots. There's a lot of stuff.
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Chapter 6: How do different teams evaluate their draft picks?
I think that's what it's all about. Thank you, Mike, as always. Thanks, Dan. Mike Florio, Pro Football Talk Live co-host, and his latest novel, Big Shield, available in e-book form on Amazon. Yeah, I just saw that this is a big – I don't know if this is a Sunday Magazine Diana Rossini article, but it's a deep dive. I don't know what they're going to tell us and how that matters to anybody.
Does it affect Mike Vrabel at all? Probably not. And Diana Rossini hasn't said anything, and she's out of a job. So this might be just, hey, you know, self-gratuitous on the Times part or the Athletics say, look at us. You know, we have standards here, and we're going to uphold those standards. We'll take a break. Seth Greenberg, former coach, works for the Mothership.
He'll recap the draft, and we'll chat with him after this. Be sure to catch the live edition of the Dan Patrick Show weekdays at 9 a.m. Eastern, 6 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app. Hey, it's Covino and Rich from Fox Sports Radio. Now, in addition to hearing us live weekdays from 5 to 7 p.m.
Eastern, 2 to 4 Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, we're excited to announce a brand new YouTube channel for the show. Yup, that's right. You can now watch Covino and Rich live on YouTube every day. All you gotta do, search Covino and Rich FSR on YouTube. Again, go to YouTube, search Covino and Rich FSR. Check us out on YouTube, subscribe, hit that thumbs up icon, and comment away.
I love the sounds. The buzzing from the stadium, the chanting from the fans, the announcers calling the place. Soccer. Football. It's home.
Why do I watch the World Cup? That's like asking me, why do I breathe? I inherited that fandom from my mom.
I like watching it with my dad.
It's a connecting force.
From Futuro Studios, I'm Fernanda Echavarri, and this is American Football, a show about soccer culture in the U.S. and its underdog roots. We go beyond the game to the people and the stories that make it great.
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