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Mike Florio Details Fights With NFL, Coaches

“Florio said that since Pro Football Talk partnered with NBC, his bosses have never told him what he can and cannot write. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t hear complaints from the outside.”

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Pro Football Talk has become one of the must-read sites for football fans. Mike Florio started the site in 2001 and has never been shy about sharing his opinions. In a recent interview with Awful Announcing, he explained that sometimes the people he writes about let him know how they feel about those opinions.

During an interview to promote Florio’s new book Playmakers, writer Michael Grant asked Florio how often he hears directly from the NFL office when they object to an opinion. Florio said that since Pro Football Talk partnered with NBC, his bosses have never told him what he can and cannot write. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t hear complaints from the outside.

“It happens,” he said. “Sometimes I go into a story knowing that it’s going to happen. Sometimes I go into a story expecting it to happen and it doesn’t happen. Sometimes it’s something that I didn’t think anybody was going to care about at all. It blows up and I have to get on the phone with someone from the league or talk to someone from NBC.”

When asked to describe his most memorable conflict with the NFL, Mike Florio pointed to the tryout the league set up for Colin Kaepernick in 2019. Florio says that he had some strong opinions about the language the league put in a release lawyers wanted Kaepernick to sign.

“The two sides got into a back and forth and the whole thing fell apart. I was expressing some pretty strong opinions about that. The league office didn’t like it, but they didn’t say anything (at first) They let it fester. It eventually erupted on a Friday afternoon. The next thing I knew I was on a conference call trying to help everyone understand.”

Mike Florio also talked about his most intense run in with a coach. That came when Dirk Koetter waited months to confront Florio about a question Florio asked him on NBC Sports Radio’s Pro Football Talk Live.

Koetter had just been named the new head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, replacing Lovie Smith. There was some speculation that Koetter had been interviewed for another head coaching job and used the prospect of leaving the team and quarterback Jameis Winston as a bargaining chip for the promotion.

Florio says he asked Koetter about that rumor. The coach gave an answer that he described as “very fair and rational” and he did not think anything of it again until he was confronted by the coach months later at the league meetings.

“I’d never met Dirk Koetter, and I walked up to say hi to him. He chewed (me out) for 10 or 15 minutes. I tried to explain to him how this works. He didn’t want to hear it. It was awkward. At the time I felt bad. But the more I thought about it, the more I got upset because if you have a problem with what I said, don’t wait until you have a chance to jump me. Especially since my wife was with me.”

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Sports Online

WWE Legend The Iron Sheik Remembered By Sports Media

“Following the announcement of his death, many sports talk shows took time out to pay tribute.”

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Courtesy: Getty Images

The Iron Sheik is one of the legendary villains in the history of professional wrestling. While he reached the peak of his fame in the ring in the 1980s and 90s, he found new life on Twitter thanks to his often profane, sometimes vulgar, and always funny commentary on the world.

The Sheik, whose real name was Hossein Khosrow Ali Vaziri died on Tuesday. He was 81 years old.

While most know his professional wrestling career, his amateur career is no less impressive. He competed for Iran at the 1968 Olymipcs and served as a coach for the United States national team at the 1972 games.

Following the announcement of his death, many sports talk shows took time out to pay tribute. Pat McAfee called the Iron Sheik “one of the greatest heels of all time” before offering a moment of silence. In Boston, Felger & Mazz producer James Stewart took to the 98.5 The Sports Hub website to post a tribute.

On social media, tributes poured in from all over. It started in the wrestling world.

But the appeal of The Iron Sheik was far bigger than just professional wrestling. As an entertainer, Sheik had plenty of fans across the sports media. They came with their own tributes that included favorite memories and taunting The Iron Sheik’s bitter rival Hulk Hogan.

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Joel Klatt Launching Big Noon Conversations Podcast

The subset of The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football Podcast, will premiere on Monday, June 12.

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Courtesy: FOX Sports

FOX Sports has announced the launch of a new interview-based series as college football season quickly approaches. The series, titled The Joel Klatt Show – “Big Noon Conversations” will feature lead college football analyst Joel Klatt and contain compelling and intuitive conversation about the sport.

The subset of The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football Podcast, will premiere on Monday, June 12 with an exclusive sitdown interview featuring Colorado football coach Deion Sanders. FOX will also carry Sanders’ first two games as the leader of the Buffaloes on Big Noon Saturday – first on Saturday, Sep. 2 on the road against TCU and then, one week later, in Boulder, Colo. against the University of Nebraska.

Other guests set to appear on the series include Ohio State football coach Ryan Day, Southeastern Conference commissioner Greg Sankey and UCLA football coach Chip Kelly. The endeavor is in collaboration with FOX Sports Podcasts, and a preview of the series was tweeted out by the podcast shortly after Wednesday’s announcement.

Klatt has worked at FOX Sports since 2013, concurrent with the launch of FS1, where he began as a studio analyst for college football coverage. In addition, he joined broadcasts as a game analyst on select Thursday night games and the 2014 Pac-12 Championship Game, while also hosting FOX NFL Kickoff.

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Colin Cowherd: The Volume is Worth $100 Million

“In 18 months, my contract runs out. I have no idea what I’m doing, but I think the Volume will be a part of my life for the remainder of my broadcast career.”

Ricky Keeler

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With all of the things that Colin Cowherd has done in his illustrious media career, he enjoys getting the chance to be a part of a team. He gets that from his podcast company The Volume. Even though Cowherd is already a big name talent himself, he always wants to try to find who the next one is. 

Cowherd was a guest host on The Marchand and Ourand Sports Media Podcast filling in for John Ourand. He talked about how fun it is to work like a baseball scout.

“I like searching for talent. I feel like a baseball scout. It’s kind of a digital media company with podcasts…We have a pretty good staff. We will announce a couple names before the football season. It’s just really cool to be part of a team, to find talent. It’s the most fun I’ve ever had.”

As for how much The Volume is worth, Cowherd said he is not looking to sell the company anytime soon.

“I’ve had people who have explored buying it. Right now, we are not going to. In 18 months, my contract runs out. I have no idea what I’m doing, but I think the Volume will be a part of my life for the remainder of my broadcast career.”

When that time does come though, Colin Cowherd isn’t going to give The Volume up for just anything. He recently got a high valuation.

“I think I know what it’s worth. I’ve talked to LionTree, a couple of banks. We are in a very soft advertising market, so what your evaluation is can be very fluid. I feel very strongly about what we are worth and we are not looking to sell it. It’s over $100 million.”

With the latest news about the duo of Skip Bayless and Shannon Sharpe splitting up on UNDISPUTED, Cowherd believes that Shannon Sharpe is one of the few people in media who can migrate an audience in the opinion space. 

“I think tandems are hard. I think they have an expiration date, but there’s not a lot of Shannons in the opinion space. There’s a lot of people doing it. There’s not a lot of people doing it at a high level and Shannon is theatrical, funny, handsome, and he is quick on his feet and he has stride and strong opinions. I think he is going to flourish wherever he goes.”

Cowherd did say some good things about Bayless. He admires Bayless’s passion for wanting to win the debate and he respects people who are passionate about anything that they do.

“I tend to like the search for theories, I’m not a debate guy. It’s just not my personality to debate. He was born to do it. He loves what he does. I found through the years in the media, I respect people who are passionate about what they do…He loves winning. If you told me he goes home and keeps a standings about the arguments he wins, I would believe it.”

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