We Asked Mike Florio How Roger Goodell Could Ever Lose His Job
We’re going to try something a little bit different with Pigsplosion this season. As opposed to writing out all the picks, we’re going to be doing a podcast. For the first part, we’ll have a guest where we go through the big NFL story du jour, and then the two of us will go through the games on our own and make any observations we may have about trends, gambling implications, and random, silly nonsense.
The inaugural guest is PFT founding editor Mike Florio. In addition to running his web site, Florio has an NBC radio show, debates Rodney Harrison on weeknights on NBC Sports Network, and appears on the Sunday Night Football studio coverage. We discussed the recent long reports about the Patriots that ESPN and SI published on Tuesday, what information was new and factual versus already-known and/or alleged, and whether Jeff Pash is setting up to be the fall guy from the Deflategate debacle.
Finally, given the PR nightmares Roger Goodell has faced with the Patriots, Saints, and Ray Rice/Greg Hardy, we asked what he could ever do at this point that would cause the NFL owners to relieve him of his job. This then begged the question as to whether the leaks this week, which reflected as poorly or worse on the league as on the Pats, indicated that somebody(s) in NFL headquarters was out to get Goodell in this round.
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Around the 17-minute mark, we began discussing the games. Nobody knows anything at this time of the NFL season, so much of the talk revolved around broader storylines than the actual nuts and bolts of the matchups. Topics of conversation included whether JJ Watt would receive the same treatment from the media if he were not white (Dan Le Batard explored this hypothetical on Rob Gronkowski this past February), this season as a referendum on Chip Kelly’s freewheeling ways, and the tumultuous offseason for the San Francisco 49ers.
Pittsburgh @ New England (-7)
Ryan – Steelers; Lisk – Patriots
Green Bay @ Chicago (+7)
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Kansas City @ Houston (-1)
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Cleveland @ NY Jets (-3)
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Indianapolis @ Buffalo (+3)
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Miami @ Washington (+4)
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Carolina @ Jacksonville (+3.5)
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Seattle @ St. Louis (+4.5)
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New Orleans @ Arizona (-3)
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Detroit @ San Diego (-3)
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Tennessee @ Tampa Bay (-3)
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Cincinnati @ Oakland (+3.5)
Ryan – Bengals; Lisk – Raiders
Baltimore @ Denver (-5)
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NY Giants @ Dallas (-6)
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Philadelphia @ Atlanta (+3)
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Minnesota @ San Francisco (+2.5)
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Ryan – Steelers, Eagles, Cardinals, Browns, Panthers
Jason – Bills, Dolphins, Jets, Broncos, 49ers