Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Mike Florio talks jury finding Stefon Diggs not guilty of assaulting chef (Hour 2)

Episode Date: May 6, 2026

This hour is brought to you by The Great Escape. Ladies and gentlemen, joining us now is a man who's got a massive brain. Mike Florio. He used to be a lawyer, then he decided to take his talents to the internet. NBC Sports. I'm sorry, I'm late. I was talking to Robert Kraft. That is at the time for an airing of grievances.

Pro football talk. I got a lot of problems with you, people. No, you're going to hear about it. On Chicago Sports Radio, 1043, the score. I want to keep talking Legos. As we know, the NFL never sleeps. And that is why Mike Florio is a weekly guest on our show. And we like him.

He's the creator and editor-in-chief of Pro Football Talk. He is at Pro Football Talk on X. He joins us on our hotline and on Twitch. Twitch.tv slash Chicago. The score. Chicago. I was about to say Chicago's 670, The Score. Because old habits.

Sometimes they go back. We're still on 670 the score for all our people who are a little further away. We are. But our address is the score of Chicago. Mike knows. Mike thinks we're coming on. Thanks for having me. I'm curious now. If you didn't like me, would I still be on because the NFL never sleeps? Would that be enough to overcome your disdain for me if that were the case? I'm curious. You know what, Mike? I once read a quote that I use way too often as an edict in my life, which is power is the ability to have the uncomfortable conversation. So yes. Okay, good. Now I know. You're good at what you do. And I feel like you kind of also subscribe to that theory.

Yeah, I think so. I think so. Even though the NFL would prefer that the uncomfortable topics never be discussed, and they go about avoiding it by buying up all the media properties and expecting the people who work there to act accordingly. See, and this is why we have you on, because we need you on that wall. So that said, I know you've talked a lot of. about just the trends. Marshall and I were just talking about some of the business trends that we've seen over the past couple of years. When you mentioned the NFL buying up media properties, we see the news about like Peter Schrager, for example, and perhaps replacing the show like around the horn. What do you think about just some of the consolidation that you've seen?

And why that was top of mind for you and you brought it up with us? Well, because I constantly deal with the push and pull that comes from speaking my mind and the feedback that I often get directly or indirectly to my supervisors and the people who cut my checks at NBC when someone at 345 Park Avenue may not like something that I've said. Instead of worrying about what I said or the fact that they disagree with it, how about addressing the merits of it? How about focusing on what I'm actually talking about and engaging me instead of compliance? If I'm wrong about something, I'll listen. It's amazing how many people in the NFL ecosystem

think that I can't be talked to, that I can't have things explained to me in a way that maybe I haven't thought of them before. They just prefer to dismiss the opinion instead of trying to better inform it if they think it's misinformed. But that's kind of the world we're in now. Anytime someone says something you don't like,

the current mood set by the person at the very top of our gut. top of our government is just attack them. Just attack them any way you can. Dismiss what they're saying, attack them, and never engage in a real discussion that could be beneficial to everyone about the merits of the reason that the person may be saying something that someone else doesn't like. Mike, from a legal standpoint, but more importantly, a societal standpoint, are we ever going back to that not being acceptable? I don't know. I don't know. I'm not going. I'm not. given up, they're not going to break me. I'm not going to stop. And hopefully one of these days

will emerge from our fever dream with a renewed commitment to truth and honesty and morality and all of the things that become lost over the last 10 years. I can hope, we can all hope. And if there's anybody out there that hears me saying those very basic things and gets triggered by it, you don't like truth, you don't like honesty, you don't like morality, you don't like integrity. If you don't like those things, then that's your problem, not mine. Amen. And the words of empire records, the revered movie of our lifetime, damn the man saved the empire, so to speak. In the meantime, speaking of the justice system and concepts and public perception, Stefan Diggs's jury found him not guilty. What's next for him after this?

Well, the fact that he was acquitted likely means there will be no impediments whatsoever to his career continuing. If he had been convicted, he undoubtedly would have faced a suspension under the NFL's personal conduct policy because sufficient proof to convince a jury beyond a reasonable doubt that he did something he allegedly did should be enough for the NFL to come to the same conclusion. I watched the whole trial. I think that this chapter is now closed for him. I'm surprised the prosecutors in Massachusetts even decided to go forward. They have such broad discretion. You don't have to pursue criminal charges and take to trial any complaint that comes to you. Prosecutors have incredible power. They're the most powerful people in each

American jurisdiction, more powerful than the judges. The judges are constrained to what's on their docket. The prosecutor decides what does and doesn't land on the docket. I'm stunned this case was brought now that I've had a chance, unfortunately, to watch all of it, because it was a very boring couple of days with just bits and pieces of things that were truly interesting and intriguing. But at the end of the day, this was a witness who was not equipped to perform, to defend her story. There were not enough facts to corroborate her claims. And I don't know whether the prosecutors failed to vet it or whether they just made a bad decision. But Diggs now should be in no different standing than any other free agent. There shouldn't even be a hesitation. He should be free

and clear and regarded is free and clear with no baggage, with no issues, with no mark on his resume that should cause anyone to do anything other than evaluate where he is as a football player and sign him if they're interested. Well, and Mike, I think the way you speak of this, you're right about it going to trial. And I think all of us taking it more seriously than what it ultimately ended up being. Because we've seen time and time again allegations of this nature. not go to trial among involving other professional athletes and other leagues. And it doesn't get that far. So that's why I think this was taken so seriously by so many people. Yeah, the idea of anyone standing trial on criminal charges. That implies that someone has come to the

conclusion that there's enough there to justify the effort. And frankly, no prosecutor should ever lose a case that goes to trial because you only take to trial the cases you know you can win. The cases where you have the defendant dead to rights, there's no chance of conjuring any sort of reasonable doubt. In other words, the glove always fits. You have the full control over that. Now, you also have to present your case in a compelling way, but I got the impression after watching this thing and given the benefit of the former life that I lived practicing law, I just think the prosecutor did a very bad job of screening the case and taking a step back and pressure testing all the different things, anticipating the arguments that would be made by the defense,

ferreting out the facts that would confirm or debunk the idea, for example, and I thought this was extremely compelling, the behaviors of the alleged victim in the hours and days after the alleged incident didn't seem to mesh with the way that someone would act if they had just gone through this type of trauma. And it all came through during that two-day trial. The allegations, of course, that his live-in chef, he assaulted her and choked her, and she got on the stand and refused to answer questions about whether or not financial demands were made. And that's when I checked out, Mike, honestly, on that. But to continue a conversation about things happening that will affect the NFL going forward.

I understand the referees have gotten together and they have a chance to ratify what would be a new CBA and that means we would not need replacement officials. Where do you think we are on this? Well, I know one thing. It's not done until it's done. Right. If they schedule a vote on ratification, though, that is very encouraging. Now, there's a chance that the rank and file won't cast sufficient ballots in favor of the new CBA to pass it.

But it's a sign that they are taking it seriously on both sides. They're making progress on both sides. And for me, the tipping point was when owners got involved in the negotiations, after there had been a bargaining session that failed and the NFL Referees Association said, they sent people with no authority to bargain. It's hard to get a deal done if the people there don't have the ability to advance the conversation toward a middle ground. And then I think the other key, the propaganda,

that was prevalent. And this gets back to what we were talking about earlier. The control the NFL has over certain media outlets, NFL network and ESPN. The NFL now owns 10% of ESPN. There was so much one-sided stuff that was being just snap your fingers and pushed by reporters of NFL network in ESPN without the other side being considered, painting this picture that the referees association was in the wrong. Look, everybody's in the wrong if we end up with another debacle like we saw in 2012.

and there's a shared obligation by both sides to the good of the game, because the people who are currently working those jobs are merely stewards of the game. And at some point, everyone has to take a step back and say, what's more important to us? Scoring some little win here to make a little extra money there, or is it about preserving the integrity of the game we all love?

And I'm hoping that that momentum continues, that people set aside their own individual desires and wants and focus on what we all want, which is a game, and has the highest level of integrity not undermined by a bunch of glorified amateurs who don't know what the hell they're doing. Shots fired. We are talking to Mike Florio, the creator and editor-in-chief of pro football talk on Rahimi Harrison Brody. And I always like just learning thought processes of GMs as well.

And I was really interested to see the story that came down by Josh Alper saying that Jason Lick, the Buck's GM, said that the Max Crosby trade falling apart helped them. And as we know, they were able to get what a lot of people think was a steal at 15 in the draft getting Rubin Bain out of Miami. This is interesting. Like, it's interesting to see how people can make rights out of wrongs and wrongs out of rights and things like that. Well, I think the Buccaneers were involved in the conversations, at least at some level. Now, the Raiders wanted what they wanted, and they wanted two first round picks and a player for Max Crosby. They settled for two first round picks and then it all fell apart.

But it is amazing. All the different things that have to line up just right for players to be drafted by certain teams. One little change here, one little change there. It can affect everything. It can completely reshuffle the deck. And rewrite history. The history that's going to be told moving forward is all based upon everything lining up exactly the way it did in this year's draft. And now we'll see whether Rubin Bain and the rest of the guys who are coming to the NFL for 2026 can play at a sufficiently high level.

We know what will happen. There will be stars. There'll be a Hall of Famer or two, maybe more. And there'll be guys who just, for whatever reason, at that level, whether it's their fault, whether it's a team's fault, whether it's a combination of factors that come together, they just don't get it done. But we know that.

You know, during the draft, a lot of the coverage is how everything's awesome and everyone's great and everybody's made a great pick and everybody gets an A on their draft grades for every pick and every round. We know that it plays out very differently. And now we get to go forward and see how it have it all. happens. Mike, I'm always amazed at some of the simple things that I just don't understand. Help me, help walk me through this. The NFL schedule release has become a thing, right? And yet, here we are allegedly about a week away from the schedule release. And I don't know when the schedule is going

to be released. Is that not ridiculous? No, it's not because it happens every year. And it's usually just a few days before they announced the schedule that they announced when the schedule is going to be announced. And we've been looking at next Wednesday, May 13. because that tracks with the same day last year that the schedule came out. But Mike North, the VP of Broadcast Planning, said in a podcast appearance that happened before the draft, there's a chance it'll be the following week. I can't imagine it being the week after that because that's when we're getting up against Memorial Day weekend. After that, it just loses some of its sizzle.

You want to find the right day. When people are paying attention, when people are engaged, you want to pick the right day to unveil the full season schedule. and it's critical. It's important. We were talking today about the Cincinnati Bengals, for example. The Cincinnati Bengals have a favorable schedule this year. They play all the teams of the NFC South, all the teams of the AFC South. They have three teams in their own division with new coaches. How their schedule is configured is going to be critical because they're slow starters. Wouldn't it be great if you're a Bengals fan if you get the Brown Steelers and Ravens right out of the gates while

they have new coaches who are still getting their sea legs with their new teams? So how those games are put together, where those games, we know where, but when, what night, what day, what time. I was on the morning show yesterday, and we were talking about how the bears are probably going to get pulled all over the place this year. It's one of the consequences of being a good team. You're going to have short weeks. You're going to have night games. You're going to have anything but noon central games this year for the Chicago Bears. One of the greatest things about the schedule release is how the individual teams go about releasing their individual schedules. I got to ask you, my This one could be extra hot if you got maybe, I don't know, the Patriots on the schedule.

Do you think there will be any Mike Vrabel, Diana, Rucini references, or is that below the belt from an NFL is watching standpoint? And why would it most likely be the Chargers? And the Chargers play the Patriots this year. Oh, let's go. That's what I'm saying. And a couple of weeks ago, I did some poking around to see whether or not we can expect a Mike Vrabel, Diana, Rucini, reference in the Chargers Schedule release video. time, the indication I got was no. I think that thing from Sunday night on inside the NBA on ESPN, where they included Vrablin-Versini in the Titanic pose. Yeah, gone fishing.

At the front of the Celtics boat in their gone fishing segment, that may, the fact that that slipped through and didn't cause the world to stop spinning, you never know. You never know. Hey, we've seen the Chargers throw shade at issues that weren't necessarily related to them or any team they're playing. Right. So you never know. And one of the things we saw last year, and this dealt more with copyright infringement, not necessarily, you know, any jokes that may or may not have been in good taste. The NFL really does need to look at these before they're released. There was an issue with the Colts video getting taken down very quickly because it in.

infringed on the Microsoft logos from Minecraft. And the charges did the same thing, but the charges checked all the boxes and they got the permissions. The Colts just kind of threw it out there. So there needs to be greater control when it comes to copyrights. We'll see if anyone has any control or if anyone decides to get a little cheeky when it comes to the story that is still four weeks later, one of the top stories that everybody wants to talk about in the NFL. I do not want the NFL proofreading anything and incenses me that they would be like, oh, no, that's too low. You can't do that.

Well, I mean, but Mike is right, though. That was, ESPN has a relationship with the league. And for that to be on inside the NBA, that was a, I don't know if it was a test balloon, but that was bold. That choice was not made lightly, Mike. And the one thing we don't know is what happened behind the scenes afterward. Was there a phone call from 345 Park Avenue to ESPN saying, what the hell are you people doing, never do that again, where the Patriots upset? What was the blowback? And we won't know the answer to that

unless and until somebody reports on it. But if it really didn't go as badly on the back end as maybe ESPN or whoever put that graphic together feared, we may get some interesting content. But I guarantee you, every team on the Patriot schedule, their videos, people are going to be scouring those for any evidence of any shot being taken directly or indirectly at the story of the month. Might as well be an Easter egg hunt because that's what we're doing. That is the Chargers video in a nutshell. Mike, thanks as always for the time. Thank you.

Have a great week. Thanks, Mike. That is Mike Florio. He's great. The creator and editor-in-chief of pro football talk. We're going to stay on the smoke here for a second. There was a hot debate in our pre-show meeting today on Rahimi Harrison Grotie about how we were going to bring this to you. And we thought that the feud that is

bubbling between Austin Rivers and Draymond Green deserves your time. So we will all listen and laugh next. Rahimi Harrison Grody, middays 10 to 2 on 1043, the score. This is just the theme. It's going to be the theme for the next 10 days. It's just going to be really intense, have no chill whatsoever club bangers leading up to socks and Cubs. Do we have any references of Draymond Green or Austin Rivers being affiliated with the White Sox or the Cubs like wearing a hat, whatever? Yes. Because that would help here.

Draymond Green plays for the Warriors and he played with Clay Thompson, whose brother Trace spent way too much time on the White Sox. At one point, I had a question plan for Clay when he was still with the Warriors. And it was going to be, who is your brother's favorite baseball team and why is it White Sox. It didn't make it to Clay. It made it to the Warriors PR staff. And they thought it was funny. If you don't give a damn, we don't. Anyway, the reason we bring this up is because of a quote from Draymond Green that is borderline delusional. He said in a previous episode of the Draymond Green show, as much as he has done for me in basketball, Steve Kerr, that is, a part of me thinks

he has hindered me in my career and what I could have become. Draymond Green thinks Steve Kerr may have hindered him. But what he's also helped me is become, Green said, like you got to take the good with the bad. Now that is a little more reasonable. Maybe he was just thinking out loud and had to come to that conclusion, but it's out there. And then it got reacted to.

Like when Dan Patrick asked Austin Rivers about it, and Austin Rivers said, it's ridiculous. Draymond has such a high IQ. That's a big part of his game is how smart of a basketball player he is. So it bewilders me that he even thinks like this, which I don't think was wrong. You and I talked about this Marshall, like in a side conversation that wasn't on the air. Draymond believes that he could be this different type of offensive player if he had not been held back by Steve Kerr, which is somewhat ridiculous. But also, I understand almost where he's coming from.

Because the concept of to be an athlete who's always exceeded expectation, who always exceeded reputation, to the point where you're a Hall of Famer, is that you have to have a bit of a rational confidence. Do you not? Yeah, and I think the confidence is off. I think what he's saying is if I didn't focus so much on defense and being a guy who facilitated for the greatest shooter of all time, then I would have worked maybe on my offense and been, you know, showcased a little bit more.

But to a man who observes the NBA, we think here's somebody who flourished, thanks in part, large part, if not most of the part, like 80, 90, 95% of the part to Steve Kerr. He brought out the best in him. I think Steve Kerr put him and those Warriors teams in possibly the best position to succeed, and they'd have another championship. It is my belief. If, I don't know, Draymond isn't out here getting suspended for NBA's finals games.

Such is the balance of life. So Austin River said what he said about being bewildered, and then Draymond did, well, Dremont things. I don't like to get in these back and force, because quite honestly, guys that you usually get into the back and forth with, they become back and forth because it's like one of them like severely tipped something this way,

and the other just like kind of so far down that it kind of pulls you back a little bit. And so, speaking to Austin Rivers, you know, I saw he said he's bewildered and it's ridiculous of what I said. And I just find it interesting that a guy who was the 10th pick in my draft, I was 35, who's on his second act, still on Act 1. He goes, Traymine, never been to score. Austin, you and I average the same amount points in high school. I say high school because that's when you were at your best. And then in college, you know, he was still good.

He was very featured at Duke because NBA careers, should he really talk about my NBA career? I'm still with my first team. He was gone from his first team in two years. The guy received the biggest bailout in U.S. history prior to President Trump, bailing out. The airlines when his dad gave him $42 million. And I tell him I have to die. I pray that I can give DJ $200 million or give deuce $250 million. I pray that I can do that one day. I love how people just go take the 15 seconds that they want to take and make it a headline. But I really enjoy watching Austin Rivers be bewildered. What? Airline bailout? First of all, didn't the airline bailout happen to like 2008 or nine? I don't remember when the airline bailout was. I might have been Trump's first term now that I'm thinking about it. The airline industry bailout happened. Oh yeah. Oh, he met the 2021. I was thinking of the recession one. Oh, no, no, no. There's been a few. Corporations get bailed out and whatnots. There's been a few. But no. No, no, that was a. not the biggest bailout, although he had a point about the first act thing. But you know what he did?

He played defense. He played better defense than Austin Rivers. I think Austin Rivers would tell you that. In fact, Austin Rivers had a lot to say in response to Draymond, correct? Come on, Draymond. This is ridiculous. Seriously. Ridiculous. But you know what? I'm going to address it because you cross the line and you are mad disrespectful for whatever reason. You've been around too long. We both were drafted in the same class. The fact that you're going to be. that you don't have the wearerth all to do your due diligence and actually understand I was being highly complimentary of you on the Dan Patrick show. But it's you and I shouldn't be surprised. You always act irrationally, emotionally, emotionally immature and your anger always

puts you in hot water. So here I am having to address a video of you belittling my career. First off, Dremont, we weren't the same players in high school. I don't care about our numbers being similar. I did it at the national level, the top level. Hence why I got the Naysmith Award and I got pretty much every award you could think of in high school. I was ranked number one. You were ranked, I don't know. So cut it out. Next.

College, you actually were a solid, you actually a really good college basketball player, but it's hard to compare because I was only there for six months, something you could never do. Talk about I was, you know, one of the featured guys. I was the guy. I led my team in scoring. I was first team all ACC, freshman player of the year.

Lottery pick. Stop. Next. NBA? Hey, man, you got it, Dre. I mean, listen, I played the NBA for more than 10 years, more than a decade, but 11 years. but I'm not a Hall of Famer like you.

So I'll give you that credit. All right, you got it. But let's peel back that onion and understand why. Easy, Tiger. Okay? You have the delusion, the non-warthal. The irony of you saying I'm part of the biggest bailout in NBA history. Draymond, you were the luckiest basketball player I think I've ever seen,

especially in modern day history. Let's talk about that. You were drafted to a franchise with the Hall of Fame front office, Bob Myers, Hall of Fame coach Steve Kerr, the greatest shooter of all time, and perhaps the top five player of all time, Steph Curry, Hall of Famer. One of the greatest shooters, top five shooter of all time. Another Hall of Famer, Clay Thompson. The Swiss Army Knife himself, the guy who could do a little bit of everything on the

floor, Andre Goddala. Another Hall of Famer, I know, keep up. It's a lot of talent. Not to mention one of the most lethal scores of all time and arguably a top ten player of all time, Kevin Durant, the same guy you chased off because of this, your mouth. you talk too much. And that's not even counting the plethora of talent around those guys. The Sean Livingston's, the Barboses, the Andrew Wiggins, the Jordan Pools, who you also chased off.

Cut it out. Dreyman, you're the backpack jump shooter. You're the guy that everyone leaves open. No one guards you. There are hours and hours and hours of film of just you being left wide open. In fact, anybody can just YouTube or Google or watch any Dremont game ever, and he's open all game. There are clips of you getting a rebound and just driving in a straight line and just getting a wide open layup because everyone's fanning out to guard the actual talent on the team.

Talking about Steve Kirk hit in your career. Bro, Steve Kerr made your career. How dare you? Coming at me? Are you kidding me? I wish I could give my son $200 million if I was a coach. Yeah, the NBA doesn't give coaches coaching jobs of guys who may or may not sucker punch one of the players and staff. You can fall back, Dre.

Let's just be frenemies. Let's just be frenemies. You know, backpack jumper is what really just, whoof. Because, because imitate yourself trying to shoot a jumper with a backpack. And that's what Dr. Ma Green looks like. Look, this is coming from a lifelong run TMC forever, serunus, marchalonus, Golden State Warriors fan.

Shout out Don Nelson. Tim Hart. Chris, like Chris Mullen, Mitch Richmond, Baron Davis, go get up and put Andre Carolinko on a poster. Put whoever on a poster. At the same time, Leila, Austin Rivers told no lies. He left no. room for notes.

I was ranked number one. You were ranked, I don't know. The pointing to the Naismith trophy. Yeah, it's in the background. So when he's talking about his high school career being different, he literally has the Naismith trophy for top high school player in the country directly behind him and references it. And, and Draymond, listen, we can all, if we want to as a show, get together when Draymond Green is inducted into the Hall of Fame because he will be.

He will be. But he was out of point. pocket for the way he came at Rivers because Rivers really was being complimentary and when he went on Dan Patrick and said he just disagreed with the the sentiment of his statement and said you're great, you're Hall of Famer, but and your basketball IQ is, you know, second to none. But what are you talking about? Clearly. Draymond played defense.

That's exactly what happened. I love beef. A lot of talent. And I am entertained. by Draymond Green just as somebody who speaks. I understand we all do to watch the NBA is to partially understand him

and his role in the Warriors and yes, there are decisions he has made that have not been good to say the least. Is he also the person though if he's in the tunnel during some suspension and you see him when the Warriors play the bulls you say hey Draymond and he greets you with a smile and says hello back despite not knowing you? He seems like

a great nice guy off of the court on the court it's different and the nepotism thing would bother a lot of people. He's not wrong for that either. After I heard him and then I heard Austin, I was like, both of you were right, but this doesn't feel good. Easy Tiger. When he hit you with the Easy Tiger, I was like, you know what? That man is his father's son, because what age group would you expect Easy Tiger to come out of? Someone at least over the age of 50, right? Easy Tiger? What's the last time you heard someone would say Easy Tiger in real life?

The bailout line, about the $42 million. I want NBA athletes to all. Always speak freely. Always be able to speak. Because this was ridiculous. And why do I feel like it's not done? No, it's not done. This is going to be beef.

And you know what? I am confident they will make up at some point. But I think the beef is what, this was what to me makes the NBA the most entertaining of the professional sports leagues. Because we get stuff like this, whether on the court with LeBron the other day, anybody else can say it, not you, not you, talking about Aper and Shagoon, talking about, so there's more. There's just always more with the NBA.

There's a, to all of this, there is a self-awareness that is just brilliant. Out of everyone. Out of Austin Rivers, out of Dremont to an extent, like out of everybody. To the point where I think Steve Kerr doesn't even need to have to address it because he probably knows that his player, one of the best he has, is thinking out loud. You're the backpack jump shooter. Vag pack jump shooter is wild.

I can't tell you how many times after I heard that. This makes me want to go to a court with my backpack on and just take jumpers. I tried to jump pretending I had a backpack on and I kept laughing. It was too good to not play for you. That's it. When the audio is so compelling and why do I feel like everything I heard with the ether beat. Hey, speaking of airline bailouts,

there was one that did not happen and that I think might affect us all. Before you go dissing on the little yellow plane that could, you might want to figure out how it's going to affect your vacation plans. Halftime is next. What time is it is? It's halftime here in Rahimi Harrison Brody, a reminder that we will carry the Bryson Graham introductory press conference

to you live at noon. That is brought to you by your local Hyundai dealers. In the meantime, we talked about the Cubs. What lead is too large for them to overcome? Marshall set the line at six. That's a touchdown. If it reminds you of the Bears, well, it's because it should. Everybody's coming back.

And the White Sox tried. They got close against the Angels, but they still have the chance to win yet another series. And in the meantime, I made the stupid request to ask people to not fight across town, but now I realize that's impossible. The request itself wasn't stupid? No, it was stupid.

It's just the answers that we've received since you made the request that tell you that's probably not going to happen. If you do fight, just fight responsibly. What does that even mean? I don't know. I don't know. We also heard from Draymond Green and Austin Rivers and a beef that will likely be ongoing and we talk to Mike Florio. We have an event to celebrate here at halftime at Rahimi Harrison Grotie. before we get to a discussion that will likely affect you if you fly at all.

Happy birthday at Tyler Beterbaugh. Happy birthday. Oh, thanks, guys. Marshall. Cupcakes up in here. Marshall is the MVP of the show for many reasons, but because somehow he pulled off creating birthday cake where there wasn't previously. There was no birthday cake.

I found out that today was Tyler's birthday right before we came on the air, right after transition. I was like, well, we got to do something because, you know, birthday. And I got some cupcakes. It's his birthday. You're the real MVP. You know I try. We try to put you in first place every day.

Appreciate you guys. But in the meantime, Marshall came through with cupcakes via a bike delivery. The cupcakes on a bike did not spill. Ray, is that what we just showed on the Twitch chat and YouTube? The score of Chicago? Cupcakes are in good shape, right? They're in good shape. And now we get to celebrate them with you.

There's three kinds. there's vanilla, there's chocolate, and there's red velvet for all of you luxurious cupcake eaters out there. Yeah, but, you know, I just ask, consider red velvet with cream cheese frosting and not butter cream, I say. That's the original way. Okay. You can remix it, but I just need you to know the original. You know what else is getting remixed, Lela? Yeah.

These flight prices. These flight prices are getting remixed. The nature of an oligopoly business, you don't necessarily have to take the cheapest. option. But you need it there. Just like we were talking to Mike Florio, Marshall. You want Spirit Airlines on that wall. You needed Spirit Airlines on that wall. And so to understand, Leila, understand this. Even before Spirit Airlines shut down, they were trying to get a bailout. We were just talking about Airpoint Bellouts. And now... And I had forgotten about the one that had happened in 2020. It was thinking about the one that happened to 2008. So it's not like it hasn't

happened before. And it's not like it hasn't happened recently. I, I feel like at some point, if you're always having to get bailouts, multiple bailouts per decade, then maybe something's wrong with the industry. There's been talk about it becoming sort of public utility because travel is travel is travel. You need to travel. And it's vacation season. So if you're going to book a flight, I might want to do that now because we don't know what the future of jet fuel prices looks like. I can just tell you it has gone up dramatically just in the last couple of months.

Frontier Airlines looking for about $2.5 billion in relief. and here's an article. Well, and Spirit Airlines cited the rising fuel prices as to why this became so dire so quickly. The collapse of Spirit Airlines set to reverberate across the entire airline industry after failed bailouts talks with the Trump administration led the prominent budget carrier to abruptly shut down

over the weekend. Now, the administration had floated a last ditch bailout which would have given the federal government a controlling stake in the airline, but the proposal stalled amid resistance from key creditors whose approval would have been required for the deal to go through. Now, the airline's closing up shop. Some analysts warn even non-spirit flyers could feel the impact as reduced market competition.

Again, you need that airline on that wall. You want the airline on that wall. I take spirit and frontier. I'm not too good for it. It's likely to put upward pressure on ticket prices, which have already been rising as, of course, the major airlines contend with higher jet fuel costs. others predict the fallout will be more contained since the airline accounted for just 3.4% of the market and it had already been shrinking. But here's a note.

When Spirit Airlines stopped flying to Minneapolis in December, Delta Airlines increased prices almost immediately in some cases by as much as 50%. And that's a good example. That is one of the best examples we can give of how it affects your market. And some people say Spirit was already shrinking. It wasn't a huge player in the American airline industry, but think about all the people who save up so much money just to be able to take a flight. And you've seen it with a lot of these other major airlines

and how it has been effectively, hey, your points don't count unless you buy this tier of flight. Now you're, yeah, basic economy no longer counts. Another Delta practice that everybody decided to follow. One airline decides to charge for check bags. They ultimately all do. You don't need us to point these things out to you. And so I would encourage you if you are planning on taking a necessary trip,

whether it's an event like a wedding or a vacation or anything, you might want to get on that quickly here before things go even further through the roof. And I just, I feel it makes me sad to let me know that air travel is going to be harder to come by for a large segment of the population because of what has happened now. And I just want us to have better options. That's all. Well, and additionally, it's not even about, this isn't capitalism, not when other groups collude in order to raise price. When you're working together, that's not what that is.

This is different. So for everybody who always makes that argument, the idea is that businesses don't work together to then all charge more. The market will bear a certain price, sure, but that's not what this originally is. It is what it is now. and there's still intervention, as we talked about. That's why there was an actual discussion for a bailout and a buyback. So either way, before you go mocking spirit, you needed spirit. I just want to point that out there.

And you might miss them when they're gone. And the other thing is, I don't know if you heard about this, Lela, but there was a proposed merger between American Airlines and United. United Airlines CEO, Scott Kirby, proposing a merger not too long ago. but American said we're not interested in that immediately. And the reason they gave is because they felt like it would be anti-competitive and that customers would be punished if that happened, which how could you argue with that knowing how airlines work?

First thing you do is, right, when you're booking a flight, let me check all the airlines and see what the prices are. Yes, and now we're getting triggered people who have magically forgotten that every day at 1140 for the last several years we do a non-sport story. Oh, they are triggered. You poor things. I hope you feel better that two people you don't know are talking about a story that you don't like for five minutes of your day. However will you survive?

708. Simple supply and demand. Fewer flights means prices increase. Yes. There it is. Exactly. There it is. So hopefully this isn't the end of spirit, but it sure feels that way.

People have been showing videos of them, you know, driving by all the empty fleets just sitting there of the yellow planes. It's not great. No. No. But don't worry. We'll talk about sports next because we're going to bring you the Bryson Graham Press Conference. And guess what happens tomorrow at 1145? Another non-sports story.

Are you going to be okay?