Some NFL Employees ‘CONCERNED’ About Working w/ Belichick - Florio

You're Still Still Still Getting Scoops out there Mike what what's your overall impression of what's happened here in New England because I uh we've talked about this all day all week all offseason I am just massively underwhelmed with their reset and their staff and the people they're bringing in and their plan post bellich check it doesn't feel like they had much of one other than ger mayil right and the plan was the plan I thought it was so strange that the story emerged as gerod Mayo being a very viable candidate for the job I think this was from NFL media he is a very viable candidate because they have a contract already in place it's like well wait a minute hang on hang on Ian if the contract's already in place he's already got the job he's not a candidate you're going to have to write him a massive check to buy him out you have promised him the job in advance to just even have a search that would include him and Mike Vel and anyone else you've got to buy this guy out so they made the decision that Mayo was the guy and they reduced it to writing and they were going to owe him and I don't know what the number is but it would been something at least in the seven figures maybe low eight figures I don't know but they would have owed him a lot of money if they didn't give him the job because there had been this presumption it was going to be mayo and at some point during the season it felt like is this so bad that they have to clean out everybody that anyone with any connection to belich has to go and it's going to be a hard reset everyone out and we're going to start from scratch and they decided not to do it and one of the business reasons surely is we've already made this commitment to D Mayo when you're listing the pros and cons one of the cons of a hard reset is we got to pay this guy a bunch of money to not take the job that we've already promised to him in addition to what they're probably paying bellich check this year now you're talking big money that's a great question to get the answer to they did a mutual parting that allowed him to go anywhere else he wanted to go unfettered did he give up any of his buyout to make that happen that would be a great question he didn't have to no I said that all along when like when we started talking about the possib will a trade I said you know what why would he agree to anything right just say I'm here I'm working he was putting those signals out too in his press conference after the the season ended I'm here I'm working I'm getting ready for next season if you want me to do it I'll do it if you don't that's fine but either way I'm just doing my job my sense is he got he wouldn't have given that up he shouldn't have given that up I don't think he did I think they'll probably paying them off which is why their current staff is so cheap cuz they're factoring bills money as well which they tend to do there what do you think happened with bichu how come you didn't get a job I think that unless you're going to throw the keys to the entire car to bich and say drive it wherever you want you've got these organizations with employees already in place who are going to be concerned about what the contract says and what happens when he shows up okay I'm going to go work for this team and so and so is a GM he's got final say over the draft he's got final say over the roster I just take whatever players he gives me and I coach them up and I'm fine with that I agree to it okay that's fine but then for that guy and this goes back to exactly what Robert Craft said that Thursday when they announced The Parting of ways well did you consider Bill's willingness to take on less power well it wouldn't it wouldn't work it would be too confusing it would be too awkward I think that applies to any team his reputation will precede him he is Bill bich he is the greatest of all time he walks through the door and you know I'm the guy that I'm the 37-year-old general manager and I'm like okay uh uh coach you you work for me but you know I work for you you know and when it's time to go over the draft all right fourth round there's this receiver from Marshall that I like and bellich is giving you that look it's like well maybe not him right well I'm sorry maybe let's try somebody else so I just don't know how you make it work the right way when the the subordinate is so much better and experienced and older than the boss and I think that that like the I I had heard that Arthur Blank wanted to hire him in Atlanta and you know Palace Intrigue Rich McKay working some things because he he would have wanted McKay I don't know if he would have wanted him fired but he would have wanted him to have no fingerprints whatsoever in any way shape or form directly or indirectly I'm never talking to him I'm never talking to anybody but Arthur blank that's the way I always did it that's the way I'm always doing I don't want Rich McCay around I don't want this person I don't want this person I don't want this person here's who I want here's how I want to do it and I think blank wanted to do it but along the way someway somehow blank was convinced to stay the course and maybe it was going to be that McKay was going to have to be so neutralized that it made blank uncomfortable because I think a lot of these guys who are you know they they don't want to admit that they don't know things so they have a rich McKay to whisper in their ear to help them know know the things that they don't want to admit to the world that they don't know and they feel very exposed if they don't have Rich McKay there to help them along do you think he'll coach again you know it's funny he goes 0 for seven and we're like oh he'll definitely get a job next year it's like wait a minute he went 0 for seven this year we have no idea which job is going to be open we have no idea which owners are going to want him we have no idea whether or not somebody's going to be willing to throw him the keys to the car what's he going to do between now and then to make himself more appealing to a f base I really do believe the the letter on page A3 of the Sunday Globe was step one in strategically laying that Foundation it didn't come out until he knew all the other doors were shut he could have done that letter the first Sunday after he walked or Mutual parting or whatever I think it's all part of you got to get a fan base excited you got to get an owner excited you got to get a Media Group excited I mean he needs to get involved in TV somewhere and he needs to be likable he needs to be funny he needs to be someone who makes people say man I he needs to be the guy that they always tell us he is when you get away from football because you hear all the time you get away from football great he's great he's this he's that that's the guy he needs to be on a big platform all season long to get fans media and everyone in the building willing to bring in the old kudin when he puts the cut off sleeves back on and he goes back to scowling all the time because that's what he'll do but at least you get in the door by being somebody different for that Year Mike floral pro football talk joining us here before we let you go I just got a hit one thing with you because it's a it's a core thing on our show we uh we like to say and I like to say that I I think our very existence as sports fans and sports media the uh us as followers of sports we are in a pitched battle uh for the heart and soul of our sports with the analytic community that is taking over these Sports now the the baseball people have already lost the analysts have completely taken over that sport that is a completely analytically driven sport from top to bottom teams are run by the analyst the game is played based on the numbers and it's over the baseball has lost that war in football I feel it's being waged on a daily basis with the analyst trying to take over this sport like they have baseball and we're in a pitch battle and I feel you're on the right side of that war as we are that but that means we're stupid how did we even how did you get your shoes on your feet today how did you manage to buckle your belt can't argue the math how did you walk from your hotel how did you even manage to check in how did you know where to even go you can't be functioning in society if you don't accept these fundamental mathematical truths Michael don't you think that that that people won't put it on Campbell but don't you it's the analyst driving those decisions there in Detroit well I think that it used to be if you were a coach and you had a big decision to make there was a conventional and an unconventional and if you pick the unconventional and it didn't work you knew you were going to get killed for it so they would always go conventional cuz if conventional doesn't work well that was the smart way to go then came analytics which turned unconventional into conventional and then you start doing this stuff and your easy response is well why did you go for it on Fourth and five from your own 27 well the analytics said we should well and then you at least haven't answer to the question other than I don't know I'm dumber than Barry Switzer so I'm sorry Barry switcher catching astray but remember he went for it on fourth and one from his own 29 in a game between the Cowboys and Eagles like in '94 or 95 and it's like what the hell is this guy doing now hey it's just analytics and you're a genius and I think what it's created it's created this monster where now you have guys like Dan Campbell who say regardless of the analytics I'm just going to be aggressive because it seems like the analytics always point to being aggressive the ESPN bug at the bottom of the Monday Night Football screen anytime it comes up does it ever say ESPN analytics say don't go it always says go I don't even think there is a don't go it's amazing to me so it's conducive to guys like Campbell saying I'm going to be aggressive I'm going to be aggressive so now when he's aggressive it doesn't matter about the analytics you don't get criticized for it anymore you can do whatever you want behind it too well well right but it's created I mean we should like it as fans because the game's much more unpredictable now but the whole analytics thing because they always say oh we have a formula for that well you you you I was talking to a coach about an an interaction he had with an owner of a different team about analytics because the owners get smitten with this cuz then they hire all these mathematicians and phds and ivy league and then they're they become part of the cabal that Whispers into the owner's ear so the owner doesn't feel so stupid because the owners typically don't know a damn thing about football so the coach was talking to the owner and the owner was questioning well okay this game when it was fourth and three why' you kick the field goal why didn't you go for it well why are you asking well because the analytics under that circumstance here it is I've got it all figured out this time of game this down in distance get as you go for it well here's I didn't go for it because the defensive end was not being blocked by my left tackle that day that's why I didn't go for it and I didn't my quarterback killed in that spot because he couldn't stop him so you know all of these other factors when you talk about an 11on 11 ballet with all these inner moving parts and all the other things that go into it and momentum is real right you just feel it you know whether and you know goal line fourth and two analytic say go for it well okay what's your play call where's your call sheet what what plays do you have left for short yardage do you feel good about them have you already used two of them would you use another one again are you going to use this one those are all decisions that have to be made like that by the coach so I think it has a place but this idea that it drives these decisions is ridiculous it doesn't dve good experienced situational football game day coaches bill bich should have a job because he would have kicked the field goal up 2410 on Fourth and two from the 28 and the Lions would be in the Super Bowl the analyst are taking over and I think they've taken over in Detroit the only reason he manages it that way Mike is cuz he knows he's not going to get blowback because the analysts upstairs say you're on firm ground analytically and so he's not going to get fired for keep going on fourth down because the whole organization's behind him I mean I think it's beyond that and I think they're in his ear I I I I keep saying this he did kick the field goal at the end of the second quarter mik I think that was even analytically driven because there's an EPA equation there that if there's not enough time to for it to play out you kick it at the end of the second quarter for lack of a better got a statistic to respond they've got a statistic that responds to everything and and the push back I get is well there's no guarantee this guy would have made a 45 year field goal he hasn't made you know he's this here's this statistic about this and it's like look if you don't have a guy in this day's NFL if you don't have a guy that can make a 45- year field goal you got a big problem you got a kicker problem yeah and and somebody said to me may maybe maybe Dan Campbell likes having a kicker problem so he can go for it more often I mean that's next level but uh yeah I uh I agree with you completely football is far more complicated than anything that could ever be reduced to a mathematical formula I was a math guy once upon a time right so I understand you anybody that's ever done anything competitive there is a human element that is inherently quantitative that can never be turned into numbers thanks for coming by Mike as always good to see you we'll be a watching we'll be listening all right

Channel: 98.5 The Sports Hub

Views: 31,636

Keywords: 98.5 The Sports Hub, mike florio, new england patriots, atlanta falcons, bill belichick, pro football talk, pft, nfl

Id: UFHX6lfQak4

Length: 12min 18sec (738 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 06 2024