Everyone’s favorite lawyer turned NFL blogger Mike Florio took offense this week to the Pardon My Take crew calling his work “fan fiction” and insisted it was actually “informed speculation.”
After hearing the show’s producer Hank Lockwood dubbed his work “fan fiction,” Florio took time out of an interview on the show to try to set the record straight about his work on Pro Football Talk.
“Think about all the crazy s*** that happens in the NFL,” Florio said. “And we react to it after the fact. Part of my job is to say, ‘hey folks, here’s where all the dots are right now, let’s try and figure out the crazy s*** that might happen.”
Added Florio: “I’m willing to throw the dart if it misses the board, if every once in a while it hits the bullseye.”
When Lockwood said that sounded a lot like fan fiction, Florio called that a “derisive term.”
“It’s informed speculation,” Florio clarified. “And 23 years of seeing all the patterns … I’m not sitting here making this up, I’m trying to project where the ball is moving based on where the ball has been for the last generation.”
Lockwood then accused Florio of “taking some liberties.”
Florio denied that, then asked the crew “what the f*** else are we supposed to do but talk about what’s going to happen?”
The debate originated over Florio’s recent piece speculating the Washington Commanders could be a landing spot for legendary head coach Bill Belichick this offseason.
Flori0 certainly draws from connections and his perspective as a lawyer to concoct flashy headlines. He once posited Odell Beckham Jr. could be punished by the NFL for tossing cash in LSU’s locker room at the Superdome following the national title game.
But Florio doesn’t just write at his website for NBC, the inspiration for PMT cohost Eric Sollenberger’s pseudonym. He also appears daily on a Peacock morning show as well as segments during NFL broadcasts.
“There is a market for analyzing what is going on and what it could mean. And sometimes, what it could mean is obvious. Sometimes, yeah it’s a little bit out there,” Florio explained. “But we have seen so much stuff that happens that after the fact we say holy f*** we didn’t see this coming. I’m trying to prepare people for the things that could happen. And this whole Belichick thing flows directly from that.”
In the coming months NFL fans will see whether the Belichick-Commanders speculation comes to fruition or feels more like fan fiction.
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.