Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Mike Florio talks jury finding Stefon Diggs not guilty of assaulting personal chef

Episode Date: May 6, 2026

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, 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 good, 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 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 have 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. In the words of Empire Records, the, you know, 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 undisputed.

doubtedly 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 as 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 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 CBOs. 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 Referee's 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 at 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 that 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 Floreo, 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 Licked,

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. 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 the 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, 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 all happens. Mike, I'm always amazed at some of the simple things that I just don't understand. Help me 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, Mike, 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 Brable, Diana Rusini 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, 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, Diane and Rossini, reference in the Chargers Schedule release video at the time. The indication I got was no.

I think that thing from Sunday night on Inside the NBA on ESPN, where they included Vrable and Mersini in the Titanic Post. 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 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. I just, that incenses me that they would be like, oh, no, that's, that's too low. You can't do that. Well, I mean, but he's, 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. Were 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... 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, 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 Grady 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.