Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Mike Florio talks Maxx Crosby's handling of his Raiders discontent (Hour 2)

Episode Date: February 18, 2026

In the second hour, Leila Rahimi and Marshall Harris were joined by Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk to discuss the latest NFL headlines, including Raiders star pass rusher Maxx Crosby’s discontent in Las Vegas. After that, Rahimi and Harris listened and reacted to Cubs outfielder Ian Happ’s comments about MLB Players Association executive director Tony Clark’s resignation. Later, they held the Halftime segment.

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Ring Central, voice of your business. Why have we asked our contractor we found on Angie.com to be our kids' legal guardian? Because he took such good care when redoing our basement that we knew we could trust him to care for our kids, all eight of them. Should something happen to us? Are you my dad now? No, sorry, I do basements. Connecting homeowners with skilled pros for over 30 years. Angie, the one you trust, to find the ones you trust.

Find pros for all your home projects at Angie.com. Hey there, I'm Kendra Adachi and my show The Lazy Genius Podcast helps you be a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't and you get to decide what matters. I'm not here to tell you what to do. I'm here to give you a new way to see. episodes of the Lazy Genius podcast are full of compassionate time management tips and permission slips to do what makes sense for you. New episodes drop every Monday. Follow and listen to the Lazy Genius podcast on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcast. This hour is sponsored by Riverfront Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram. 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. The NFL news never stops and neither does Mike Floreo. He is the creator and editor-in-chief of Pro Football Talk.

He joins us every week at this time on Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 104-3 The Score. You can find him on X at Pro Football Talk. He's also on Blue Sky. And he is the creator and editor-in-chief. Joining us via Twitch, twitch.tv slash the score Chicago, trying to get the fireworks going on the Twitch I see. and he is on our Circa Resort and Casino Hotline, Circle Las Vegas.com. There they go. There's the fireworks, Mike Florio.

Love that. How are you today? Good. I thought it was a dud today. It hadn't been working lately. I thought they turned it off because they recognize I'm an infant. First of all, being an infant is fun. We work in sports. Secondly, like, isn't that the whole point is to have, if the computers are going to take over our life the way they have and take all of our jobs, Shouldn't we at least have some fun stuff along the way, like fireworks on Twitch or something? Well, they distract us with that. That's right. While AI secretly plots our demise, they distract us with fireworks. There was a time, too, where if you would do the quote marks, it would like make balloons fall, but I don't know.

That doesn't work anymore. All right. Well, we'll figure it out, I guess, as they take, you're right, they are going to secretly plot to take over. They've already created their own social network. Frankly, I don't blame them for that one. Mike, yesterday was the first day that we could see players get it. It's always the verb, right? hit with the franchise tag. It's like getting hit with a RICO charge. You're never, like, it's, it's never just like applied to your contract. It's like some sort of, some sort of charge or some sort of punishment.

You know, have you seen anybody or is there an expectation for you of somebody who might get the franchise tag at some point with this window open? You know, it's funny. Once upon a time, they actually tried to make it seem like a good thing, like it's a reward. You're a franchise player. You're so good. and you're so valued that we're going to use this thing that prevents you from becoming a free agent

and making what you deserve. And I think over time we've realized this isn't good. It's never good. It's a way for the teams to keep the guy around at a number that the team is happy to pay because it's less than and it's less of a commitment than it would be if they had to compete with whoever out there is willing to try to sign the player

on the open market. So this year, look, last year there was only two. This year it remains to be seen what's going to happen. The big name is George Pickens. He had a career year in his only season with Dallas, traded by the Steelers last May to the Cowboys, 1,400 plus receiving yards, second team all pro, pro bowler, and the Cowboys clearly want him, but they don't want to pay him market value. And he's in a position where if he was available the first day of free agency, maybe somebody would offer him a Jamar Chase contract. We don't know, because if they block him from the market, with the franchise tag, he won't get it.

And I know that the natural reaction for fans, they're gonna hear $28 million in 2026 for George Pickens, boo-hoo. But when you get that one shot, and for plenty of players, it's one shot at free agency, and the multi-year, life-changing generational wealth. To have that taken away from you,

to have that delayed for a year, and there's no guarantee you're gonna get it next year, to have that taken away, that's a disparity in bargaining power between teams and players, and it's been baked into the collective bargaining agreement for more than 30 years. So he's the one that I think we all should be watching. There are other names that possibly will get tagged. But again, last year there were only two,

and both of those players ended up signing long-term deals to stay with their teams. Does that mean we're changing the way this franchise tag works in your eyes, Mike? Is it going down and maybe not that it won't ever be used, but it seems like it's being used less and less and less. I think a lot of it just depends upon whether or not a team allows a player to get to that point. And most teams that have a player who is highly skilled and highly valued, I think they've learned that the longer you wait, the more expensive it's going to get. Like Caleb Williams will never have the franchise tag applied to him.

The Bears will sign him well before they're on the brink of that decision. Some teams have made a mistake. Tuotong of Iloa is going to be in the headlines very soon for what the Dolphins do with him. They had one year left on his rookie deal, $24 million under the fifth year option. They gave him a market-level contract when they didn't have to. They should have let it play out. They should have seen what he could do in 2024 and then make a decision, do we franchise tag him or not.

So I just think the functional teams, when they know they have a great player, they don't play games. They don't wait around. They get that player signed well before the franchise tag dance ever begins. No, I think it makes sense, Mike. There is one person on the Bears who, I think maybe the most likely candidate, if there is one, but it's kind of the same idea. The position can command a high salary. Like would Kevin Byard be a good fit for one of these, like a franchise or the transition?

Well, the transition tag doesn't get used all that much anymore because I think it was 2011 that tender, that one-year contract that goes with being the transition tagged player became fully guaranteed the moment the player takes it. It used to be it wasn't fully guaranteed and the team still had some options if it wanted to do something down the road. So, and it also doesn't give the team any compensation if the player leaves. The issue with Byard, like how much of this is right place, right time, right moment, and when you factor in his age,

does it make sense to make that commitment? And the other side of the coin is, what does the team think the market for the player is going to be? Is there someone out there that is going to offer significantly more than what the Bears would pay to keep? I mean, if there isn't, there's no reason to slam the door on free agency. And for some teams, and look, they have a two-week window for this. Now, there's a chance someone is going to get tagged by Friday,

so it sends the message when everyone goes to Indianapolis next week for the scouting combine where tampering is rampant. Don't waste your time trying to put ideas in the head of this guy's agent about what's out there because he's been tagged. But in some situations, it can be valuable because, you know, the bears will get wind of what may be out there for Byrd if he becomes a free agent. And that could be enough to get them to say, you know what, you know what? we'd rather tag him because we think somebody else is going to sign him if he hits the open market. So that two-week period can be very useful as it relates to the current team getting the information necessary to make a final decision. Mike Floyd joins us as he does every week here on Rahimi Harrison Grody. Mike, I'm curious because we know that the NFL went to a lot of length to go and make sure that these NFLPA player surveys,

were not published. But you make your great point in saying, all they're doing is delaying the inevitable. We're going to find out what the players think about their teams and the facilities and the staffs and the ownership and everything else in between. Yeah, this is the ultimate Wiley Coyote Roadrunner moment where the Coyote thinks he's won and that stick of dynamite blows up in his face. And it was funny to see how the NFL crowed about this.

They sent out a memo on Friday. they created the impression that they'd successfully defeated the whole process, that there would be no report cards. It became clear right away, and I've read the whole opinion. The union is allowed to make them, and the union is allowed to make that information available to its 2,000 members. Do we really think that none of 2,000 players will find a way to get that information to a reporter?

And it'll probably go like this. They'll find a way to get it to their agent. The agent will find a way to get it to the reporter, and it'll all be out there. And it creates a greater incentive. You know, when we are told we're not allowed to see something, if we previously weren't interested in seeing it, we now are. Because somebody wants us to not see it. There must be something good there.

So they already generated plenty of interest as it was before the NFL won this hollow victory that the report cards can't be public. Now that we all know they don't want us to see them, I know we're going to be more motivated to find them, to cover them, to put the stuff out there that the owners don't want out there. It is kind of ridiculous that the owners are so thin-skinned that they don't want feedback from their players to be published. But it's just an example of how NFL owners have created a world where they have no accountability whatsoever, which makes them loathe any accountability that they may indeed. Well, Mike, do you also think that it's that NFL owners will realize how good some of their brethren are treating players and then they're going to be asked to meet a higher standard? Well, the teams that get it like the Broncos, they saw the criticisms in the report card and they made changes. Other owners have done that. And my understanding is it's a loud minority of owners who hate these report cards, who don't appreciate the feedback, who resent

the employees complaining about work conditions that mobilized to get this thing, not killed, but at least muzzled in a way that ultimately won't be effective. So, yeah, I think that any responsible employer would want to know, what can we do better? How can we take better care of you? I use the metaphor all the time. Every football player on every NFL team is a piece in a football machine that is eventually going to be replaced with a new piece. But that doesn't mean that the players should not be treated as human beings, that they should be given proper treatment, that their families should have

proper treatment. That's one of the categories, how teams treat the families of the players, and you're going to have good teams, you're going to have bad teams, and the bad teams tend to stay bad, and the dysfunction starts at the top, and it's the owners of those teams that don't want to be publicly shamed into trying to spend more money or view their players differently than they do. Mike Florio, the creator and editor-in-chief of pro football talk, joining us here on Rahimi Harrison Grady. Hey, Mike, I really want to know just your first reaction to this podcast that Max Crosby sat down with Caleb Williams for over an hour, and we were trying to figure out, is this Max signaling that he's good with the Bears or is just happenstance? It's not happenstance,

but just the timing of it and the understanding that Max Crosby, even if the Raiders say they want to keep him, it sounds like he's a guy who wants to go play for a winner. And that doesn't look like it's happening in Las Vegas. Well, now I know what I'm going to be doing for an hour this afternoon, because I haven't seen that podcast yet. Oh, okay. I will be checking it out. Max Crosby is dealing with his discontent in Las Vegas so differently than Miles Garrett did last

year. Garrett came out Super Bowl week with this lengthy statement saying, I'm done with the Browns, and we know what happened. Cleveland, which it usually does, threw enough money at the problem to solve it, and Garrett stayed there. And it worked out for him. Defense Player of the Year and single-stead. season sack record, but the Browns continue to be the Browns. Crosby, I think, kept his mouth shut

for so long and dealt with the situation in Las Vegas for so long. I think that they broke him when they shut him down for the last two games of the 2025 regular season with a knee injury that he had been playing through, that he wanted to play through. They took from him the thing that is most important to him, the ability to go play football with his teammates and to be in that. in that pit of competition. He had two more chances last year, and he was deprived of that. And it felt like the breaking point.

Jay Glazer has spoken to him. Jay Glazer's had some reporting. During Super Bowl week, Glazer said Crosby's done with the Raiders. I ran that by someone who's in a position to know, and I was told to draw your own conclusions. So even though Crosby isn't coming out and saying it directly,

I think there's enough pieces there that we can come to that conclusion. Now, will the Raiders try to throw money at him? They got plenty of cap space. His contract, which was market level when he signed it a year ago, has been supplanted multiple times. And he's in about 35, 36 million. Michael Parsons at 47. So I don't know, maybe a raise will change it.

But it sure seems like he's at his wits end. And this is a guy, he told us the story at the Super Bowl last year that I thought was very compelling. There are other guys on the Raiders team that want to be like him. How do we get like you? And he said, well, okay, I'll see at the gym at 6 o'clock tomorrow morning. And we'll work out the way I work out. will make the commitment that I've made. And they show up for a day or two and then they don't show up again.

So he's the kind of guy you want in a locker room where the others will listen to him. And he'll complement the existing leadership and inspire the guys to go all out and be all in and be fully committed to the cause. And it just hasn't happened with the Raiders. He could be the difference for some other team that is looking for that kick that they need to get to the top of the mountain. Mike, I also want to ask you this because it came out after a week. got to talk to you. And I know you wrote the story on Valentine's Day. And I think for you, professionally, this is as good of a Valentine as it gets, to hear that the Brian Flores case is allowed to be made public, that it will not be closed like per an arbitration. What do you expect to hear?

And what are you looking forward to hearing when it comes to information surrounding this? Well, it's not over yet. And the NFL will continue to fight tooth and nail to try. to convince the U.S. Supreme Court to force the Flores case into the NFL's what I call secret rigged court, kangaroo court, excuse me, of arbitration. And people ask me, why do you call it that? And the answer is because it is. Because this is what they want. They want to have everything under their control. And the idea that the CEO of any company would be the person who resolves any legal claims made by the workforce against the company, I can't believe it's taken this long for it to finally be recognized as a major problem. The NFL shouldn't want to do this.

It's inherently unfair. So Flores has them on the run. Now, John Gruden has already won on that point, and the NFL didn't exercise its prerogative to try to appeal the decision of the Nevada Supreme Court to the U.S. Supreme Court. So we're going to find out who ordered the Code Red against John Gruden unless they settle the case or otherwise get the case dismissed. With Flores, what it's going to mean is there's going to be a lot of depositions, there's going to be a lot of documents, if it goes to trial, it's all going to be an open court. These types of disputes need to be in open court so we can cover them and understand them and explain to the fans the way the NFL operates. There's never been true accountability, and I had DeMores Smith

with me two weeks ago. He's the former executive director of the NFLPA, and he made an excellent point. There's no accountability when it comes to the NFL's hiring practices, and this is the kind of thing that will make them accountable. accountable, answer questions where people can hear the questions, hear the answers, and tell their audiences what's going on. They have wanted to keep us from getting a look behind the curtain. If this thing goes forward in court, we're going to find out a lot about the evidence, about the arguments, and maybe ultimately a verdict against the NFL that would reflect frustration and disapproval of years and years and years of systemic racial discrimination when it comes to hiring

for some of the most important jobs in an organization. Yeah, yeah. If everything's on up and up. Why are they so afraid of hiding? Why do they need to hide so badly then if everything is fine? And there's the answer. Yep. Maybe it's not that fine. And they just love to control everything. That's really what it comes down to. Control. They don't want anyone second guessing them. They don't want anyone scrutinizing them. They don't want anyone doing anything other than sitting back and watching the games and forget about it. We'll handle everything else. Don't wrap up with the other stuff. Just enjoy the games. We'll will take care of everything else. And it works. It works for a lot of fans. And for those of us who

try to hold their feet to the fire, they get upset. They complain to our bosses. And you know, you have others in the media that that will say, if you dare raise these questions, you hate football. I think it's a testament that you love the NFL if you're trying to help make it better. And when you have the billionaires hiding behind a screen doing whatever they want to do with no wheel accountability. I think if you don't fight against that, you don't truly love football. There's a lot of that going around these days. A lot of what you just described going around in a lot of places these days. Also, last time I checked, I wasn't in a marriage or relationship with football. So I don't really know that that matters. I am in the business of protecting people's

rights and hearing the truth. Mike Florio, thanks as always. Thanks, Mike. All right. Thanks. Thanks. Have a great week. That's Mike Florio. Coming up next on Rahimi Harrison Grotie here on 1043, the score. More labor talk, but it's not necessarily what you would think. The news about Tony Clark stepping down from the Major League Baseball Players Association sent shockwaves yesterday, and it also reached the player reps for each team and a former player rep in Ian Hap, a friend of the show. He had a lot of really important things to say ahead of a season where we keep being told to savor it. So let's listen to Ian Hap next. Ring Central's AI receptionist uses voice AI to answer on the first ring, so you'll never miss a call again.

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Rahimi Harrison Grody. The great Kevin Harlan. I just pulled through the Taco Bell drive-through, and I've got a couple of big, nasty, supreme burritos right here waiting to beat. You know, the first thing they ask you now, are you using the app? The app, no, I just want my burrito. I don't want to use an app.

Bring a lot of mild sauce because I'm going to escort it all over the place. Put some hot sauce on my burrito, baby. Rahimi Harrison Grody, midday's 10 a.m. to 2 on the score. My first piece of advice and one that I'm going to take is, you know, enjoy the season. Why does it sound like something good and a threat at the same time? That's Tom Ricketts. This is Rahimi Harrison Brody on 1043 The Score. Doesn't it?

Like your face says everything, Marshall. I think it's just a forewarning. enjoy this season because I can't tell you if the next season's going to happen at all. It reminds me of Billy Madison where he's holding the kid's face and he's like cherish it and he's grabbing his cheek and shaking. That's how I feel. Is that too extreme? Probably.

That's my brain. I honestly think Tom Ricketts and the talk that he's had not only in going out and spending the big money on Alex Bregman right now. You did do that, Tom. Not only in talking about how the trade deadline, I want to remind you, we are always flexible with a trade deadline, salary cap be damned for this year at least. You're willing to go over the CBT. I like it. I think all of that has to do with the fact that I don't think Tom Ricketts, if you put a lie detector on him, would be able to tell you without that thing going off, hey, yeah, we're going

to have baseball in 2027. Everything's going to be, I mean, Tom Ricketts said, honky dory. You are not the father. Look at me in the eyes and tell me there's going to be a baseball season next year. You can't do it. Can't. Not the way things have been going. Which is why it's concerning that Tony Clark amidst an investigation by the Eastern District of New York, which is, and what do we just say in our last segment with Mike Florio,

when stuff comes out in court, other things come out. Tony Clark is the head of the Players Association for Major League Baseball. There are multiple reports yesterday early that had broken. during the morning show of Mullen Haugh about him stepping down from his role. And then we find out it is amidst an investigation by the Eastern District of New York. And the reason I keep saying that is because they are a big, big deal regarding a whistleblower complaint and a charitable organization questioning where the resources were going. That's unfortunately just the tip of the iceberg on this thing.

and it's shocking to hear that the Players Association and leader would be stepping down the season before the CBA is up, which we know is at the end of the season. But then there's also the other side of this that we learned in the afternoon, this was after our show, multiple reports saying that

there was also an inappropriate relationship regarding his sister-in-law, which is, again, this is how it goes, right? You're under investigation. You find out what you're under investigation. for if you're us observing, that's usually the first thing. And then you start finding out more details. That's why Mike Florio, for example, is so intent on finding out what's going on with the Brian Flores case. So needless to say, if I were in their union, the Players Association,

I would not be thrilled that you have to find a new executive director ahead of what is going to be expectantly a very contentious negotiation. Several people tweeted out, it's no longer the Players Association, it's the players association. Because when your leaders doing things like that, well, you're open to all types of criticism. Fair enough. Now, look, this is a

bad look. Let's start with that. This is a very bad look. It's also very bad timing. But the timing could be worse. If this happens in the middle of the summer or at the end of next season, it's a much different story. I think it's good that they got this

done over with, find a new Peter, keep it moving. Well, I think of it in terms of when the negotiation has to happen. So for me, any time closer to the negotiation, which let's frankly understand is ongoing. But when the actual timing of all of this happens when the season ends, anytime closer to the end of the season is concerning. In the meantime, it's just Marshall and I talking. Yeah, I've been a member and I'm a member of SAG Aftera, but that's a little bit different deal. You know, we've been called to authorized strikes when it came to other aspects of our jobs that were unrelated to the broadcast side of it.

This is completely different, but the process we understand a bit because of it. Now, Ian Hap used to be the player rep for the Cubs he was for many years. It's now Nico Horner. But he still understands how the process goes, having been through that and having understood a previous CBA. So he spoke on Marquis Sports Network about how the players are handling the news that came down yesterday. I haven't been so involved with the union. What do you feel like will be the key for you guys collectively staying together and not letting the league try and use this against you guys? Or just how do you stay together through something like this?

Yeah, I think it's the bond of the fraternity. But I think more importantly with this group of players, we've been through a lot. This group of players, especially the guys who, you know, myself, Dansby, Brague, like a lot of the guys that are in our position, or even, you know, the guys Machado, Harper, that have seen four of three, four of these things now is that, you know, we've seen a ton. We've been through a lockout. We've been through 2020. And I think that keeps the players very informed and very aware. And so having gone through those experiences, I think will only help us in this one. battle tested? Your facial expressions are on point today.

It's because here's why. I feel like before we play the sound, I know what they're going to say because it's very company lineish, very union lineish for them. It's very owner-lineish for the owners. You could say they got a playbook. They have a playbook.

And they're sticking to the playbook. Which, by the way, is not as easy as it sounds. It's especially not easy when you're, the person leading your union just, resigned under very bad conditions. You would call it duress. They are under duress. A federal investigation, the feds are watching.

And when the feds are watching, usually they don't even think about pressing charges unless they already have you. 93% conviction rate. That is a high, that's a high conviction. May have changed recently, but that was always the reputational conviction rate. This ain't Barney Fife and Mums. Okay. Nothing is getting nipped in the bud.

Nothing. Well, actually everything's getting nipped in the butt. That's the problem. Fair. I don't think these problems are going to get addressed swiftly any time soon. Exactly. So when I hear the players talk, I feel like I know what they're going to say. They genuinely say what I think they're going to say. And like, what else are they supposed to do in this situation? Well, actually, this is a good sign.

Because last year, if you remember with the CBA and the negotiation, what happened? They all fell in line. A lot of it was surrounded by, and fell in line, I'm not saying that to be condescending. I'm saying like they picked stances. And then they decided to all agree on them. Which is what a union's supposed to do. I don't want to be condescending about it because that is not how I feel. I do want to say, though, that that happened.

And then the bargaining chip of the international bonus pool money came into play. And that's when you started to see the fissures and the cracks in the facade. And that's the frustrating part is, don't, are you going to hold the line? And what are the deal breaker negotiations for you? And I was a little disappointed when I saw how that went. down because I wonder, like, did you give on some of the real issues that seem to be major until that became one of the bargaining chips? But that's the whole point of negotiation. You know, that's how this goes. It's kind of like everybody asking the question, well,

why is the soldier field renovation money from 2003 now part of the Bears discussion? Because they decided to ask for more money. So the state's like, okay, you want to ask for this? Well, then we're asking for this. And we're going to have to just deal with this. This is how it goes. it's an ebb and flow. Ian Hap was also asked about the timing when it came to these CBA talks coming up. It sounds like you don't think it's late that he's doing this. You know, he's been under investigation. Should you have done it a month or two ago or I guess it's better than doing it a month from now? Yeah, I think that's the, you know, we'll figure out when the details come out if that was the case. And right now, you know, I don't have any information to speculate on whether, you know, either of those things should be true.

I will say this. It's a lot better timing than the NFL players association situation occurring. I'm not stepping down. Well, what about this conflict of interest? What about this conflict of interest? What about this one where you just flat out didn't do your job? That whole scathing report and finding on the NFL side makes you wonder about everybody's role in any union agency, whatever. It's like...

Well, that's the conflict of interest here. You know, that's part of the Tony Clark. discussion. Here's what I'm going to talk about here. The fact that we are trained through our education as part of our journalism to be skeptical and to ask questions and call power into question. These are basic tenets, right? And in all these situations that we're talking about, whether it's the NFL and now the MLBPA,

it's, hey, maybe you just don't assume just because someone's in charge that they have all pure intentions. In fact, you should probably assume the opposite. Are you kidding? There's a lot of people who get triggered when you and I question authority, when in reality, at least for now, it is still very much your right. Limnings are going to limming. That's all I can say to that. That specific thought you're saying.

The people who just want to believe rah-rah, pep rally for everybody, that's going to continue to exist. Our job is to cut through it and to make sure that we're critically looking at what's happening, why is it happening? is there an ethical problem? As you said, are we looking at a conflict of interest? Because there's a whole lot of conflicts of interest that have been popping up lately. Who pays, who loses, who benefits.

Our friend Ray Diaz is coming in now with some information. I like information. You know me, Leila, I'll never, ever, ever turn down the data. Yeah, and I think we've discussed this. So there's going to be an eight-player subcommittee. That seems to be the latest news here. Several teams, including the San Francisco. This is from Evandrelic and Ken Rosenthal.

So this is courtesy of the athletic. In the aftermath of Tony Clark's shocking resignation as executive director of the MLBPA on Tuesday, the behind the scenes jockeying to name an interim successor, quickly grew intense. Deputy executive director, Bruce Meyer, is perhaps the leading option to replace Clark. Now that we mentioned yesterday. Bruce is quoted in a lot of Evan's stories. So that would make sense. some players and agents are lobbying for other candidates fearing rightly or wrongly that the influence of Scott Boris

is pushing the union toward too hasty of a promotion of Meyer, a polarizing figure both within the union and the general player population. With the collective bargaining agreement not expiring until December 1st, those players and agents believe there is time for more thorough search. So you're seeing here already there are divided interest among players. and we've talked about the divided interest among the owners. You know, the owner of the pirates has a different plan than the owner of the Dodgers, for example. So this is interesting too because this means that if you've suspected that Scott Boris controls a bit of the market

and might look out for him and his client's interests, this gives you an indication that you are correct. And when we talk about him and his client's interest, just understand if they're Boris clients, they're at the top of the earning power chart. And baseball shrinking middle class has been a growing issue. Stop me when you've heard that before. Just take out the word baseball. But that's why this is important to note. So there are other details in this story, as we're seeing.

Another union official general counsel Matt Nussbaum is also a possible candidate. So is Don Fier, who was the union's executive director from 1983 to 2009. Of course, he being made famous a bit in 1994 strike season. Yeah, because that's when I got shorted of seeing Frank Thomas break the home run record. I got shorted of seeing Tony Gwyn bat 400. I got shorted of a Montreal Expos World Series championship. And MLB decided to decline to govern their own rules because they needed people to save baseball. So there's also that.

It does have side effects and effects that last for years. So this is more news and more information as we continue to track this. But never also forget the phrase, United We Stand and divided we fall. That's real. So if they have concerns about having their interests heard among the haves and the have-nots among the players side, we're also going to have to see how that plays out with this as well. It's real and maybe real lure for the players, but it's also real for the owners, because that's part of the problem with this whole idea of a CBA getting done,

is that the owners, they are divided as of right now. Which also just may mean time. All of this may mean it's going to take a lot of time to get everybody, to agree to something where people feel like they've either given or gotten enough. See if they need more time than the end of next March. Cherish it. I don't like being held hostage by this. I really don't.

It's not fun. I feel like I'm already subscribing to some theory that isn't necessarily the case. I feel like I'm being controlled in some way already and I don't like it. Like you'd better prepare for this. I mean, I work in media. I prepare for a lot of things at all times, okay? You and I have worked across the damn country, for example. Like, can I not?

Can I just enjoy this? You know what? I don't like ridiculous court rulings. I feel like we had a ridiculous court ruling recently that you apparently are in favor of. I am very much against. And it's affecting the fabric of how we eat our food. It's tearing us apart.

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voice of your business. Why have I asked my HVac guy I found on Angie.com to change my grandpa's trachea tube? I was so amazed at how we replaced our aerodox. I knew I could trust him to change Pop Pop's tube. I think we should call a doctor. Angie, the one you trust to find the ones you trust. Find pros for all your home projects at Angie.com. What you heard right there was the power of audio.

And audio is what we do at Odyssey. That true crime podcast you spent hours listening to? We produced that. That radio station where you discovered your favorite artists? That's our station. That weird playlist of bonga music? We ain't judging. One of our curators made that.

Advertise with Odyssey. We can get your message in front of a broad or targeted audience. Visit ads.odicy.com. What time is it? It's halftime. It is halftime. We spent the first hour of our show listening to a lovely conversation between Caleb Williams and Max Crosby. It was lovely, wasn't it?

It's a little too lovely. They're out here trying to get you. on the oky-doke like see we love each other and then you're going to be real disappointed when Max Crosby's not on the Chicago Bears. You just need enough money to operate the rest of your team. And I just don't know how that works. Because if you get Max Crosby, chances are you're going to be paying him more money than he earned and is scheduled to earn next year. Then we had an hour where we discussed a lot of court stuff. We didn't mean to. We talked to Mike Florio to get the latest news in the NFL. He have pro football talk. And then we discussed what's going on.

In the Eastern District of New York, how it relates to Tony Clark, the Players Association had in baseball stepping down, and then what's next? And apparently the Boris is and how this is sounding more and more like an episode of the haves and the have-nots. You know the Tyler Perry show? I don't know the- It's on Oprah, on Oprah's network. I'm not doing a very good job of describing this. You know the has and the have-nots.

I know. I know. Here's what I know. I know Tony the Tiger. They're great. is not the first thing you come to think of now when you think of Tony the Tiger. Oh, man. We're going to continue court talk here because I'm upset. I got said this on Twitter.

I didn't know that we were doing a court hour here on Rahimi Harrison Grotie. This is Nick Papa Georgio found me this on Twitter and said, I'd like Lelahimi to chime in here and then sent me a court hearing. And then I found out what the court hearing was. This is from Rob Front Law. Update. Court says boneless wings is not a deceptive name for Buffalo Wild Wings to use, even though they are, quote, essentially chicken nuggets and not deboned wings.

And then the quote, the quote is so good from the court hearing. And by the way, this was in the state of Illinois. This is so ridiculous. This quote you're about to read. His complaint has no meat on its bones. I rest my case. Polis Buffalo wings are good. They're not as messy as real wings.

Everybody kind of knows what you mean. Why are you going to court over this? Why are you wasting the tax dollars of the state of Illinois? Can I tell you the headline on this one article? U.S. District Judge John Tharp said in his ruling that the plaintiff didn't, quote, drum up enough evidence in his lawsuit against the franchise. Did they just rule on this for the puns? I think they did.

I don't hate it. You can't convince me that strategy. I did not. I recuse. My tax dollars went up puns. And then that's part of the, listen, Tharp, in the ruling. Judge John Tharp, Jr.

Quote, Hallam did not drum up enough factual allegations to state a claim, though he has standing to bring the claim because he plausibly alleged economic injury. He does not plausibly allege that reasonable consumers are fooled by Buffalo Wild Wings use of the term

boneless wings. Do you know what that means? That means that, unlike say, the case regarding Ian Cunningham getting a promotion because while the chief football officer by title only told you he was getting promoted and running everything that we would call the letter of the law this would be called the spirit of the law

which means who's buying boneless buffalo wings thinking they're not getting a boneless piece of chicken practical application was used properly here why are you mad? I'm mad because the idea of a boneless buffalo wing is that there was a wing and they removed the bone straight out.

That's what that picture is that they are drawing. Which people do. You know, that is a way you remove the bone from the wing. But that's not what this is. These are just chicken nuggets. That's all they are.

Have you had the boneless buffalo wings and buffalo wall wings? Of course. That's all I do. Did you read the entirety of the article? Did you read the part about March 20th? I don't need to because I still have my beautiful boneless buffalo wing. For now.

What does it say about March 20th? Marshall. Tharp is allowing Hallam to amend his initial complaint by March 20th in case he can, quote, provide additional facts about his experience that would demonstrate that BWW or BW3 is committing a deceptive act. There's still time, Lela. We got over a month. Oh, yeah?

What about that? this portion of the argument. Halim is the plaintiff, by the way. If Halim is right, reasonable customers should think that cauliflower wings are made and those are applicable today, at least in part from wing meat.

But they don't. They don't, Marshall. I prefer my cauliflower wings of bones in a man. How does that go? I love cauliflower bones. How would that go exactly? The cauliflower bone. I do love the spicy cauliflower.

Oh, yeah. On a day like today, where I can't eat meat. This is top-notch. This top-notch work right here. And you know what? I would saunter on over to BWW. And I would be like, hey, can I get some cauliflower wings?

They'd be like, why, yes, Layla, we know what you're talking about. 847 on the text line. Boneless wings are less messy, but too dry for me. I like my skin and bones with my meat. That's okay. I'm not here to tell you you shouldn't. You're not here to bone shame? I am not.

Very appropriate, Tyler. buzzer. No buzzer. Very appropriate. There's another, there's another point here. And I love this because you know what this is. This is basically just a big old logic exercise. And so I'm into it for that reason.

Do I think my tax dollars should have gone to it? I'm not really sure. And they're going to continue going to apparently. There's time. But like, could my tax dollars go to worse things? Absolutely. So, you know, take what you can get here, right? Cherish it, so to speak.

So there's also this. Also, I love that this is the, the essay and the ruling that I have to read. Okay, so boneless wing is also clearly a fanciful name because chickens do have wings and those wings have bones. As the Ohio Supreme Court recently put it, citing precedent, a diner reading boneless wings on a menu would no more believe that the restaurant was warranting the absence of bones in the items than believe the items were made from chicken wings just as a person eating

chicken fingers would know that he had not been served fingers. So this means that there was... A reasonable consumer would not think that BWW's boneless wings were truly deboned chicken wings recostituted into some sort of Franken wing. Franken wing is in a

court hearing. In Ohio. No, Franken wing is in this ruling that was filed. So they cited precedent from the Ohio case and then created Franken Wing in the actual statements. The fact that there's an Illinois case in an Ohio case.

Well, 630. This is a lot of people liking a class action lawsuit is what this is. And I get it. You know, there are some advertising stipulations. 630 says, can he amend it for a deceptive act since buffaloes don't have wings? I didn't even think about the fact that buffalo's. Look at that. They call them buffalo wings, but yeah.

I think it falls under the mythical discussion here. There is some understanding that you're not getting a truly literal product. Hold on. These are the court cases I would love to argue. You're telling me that the talking. Buffalo with the wings in the commercials isn't real. 312 is a good point here. They're assuming consumers are reasonable in the year

2026 of our Lord. That's the best point that's been made in this whole discussion. 2026, I know this. People aren't as... No, they're... No. They're... No. They just aren't. And if feeding buffalo wings that are boneless is wrong, I don't want to be right. I can't eat anything on bones. I've got bone phobia.

That for me, four, seven. not bone phobia. That sounds rough. Yeah. Don't want to go to the bone yard with that attitude. Somewhere in here is a bone thugs and harmony song. I just saw them. Boom, boom, bone.

Tell me what you're going to do. I would quote that. I'd be like, it is bone thugs in harmony say there ain't nowhere to run when judgment comes for you. I just saw bone thugs in harmony in concert three weeks ago. And they still got it, man. They still got it?

Did we get all the members? No. but it was still an amazing show. Did you see them on the first of the month? No. Oh, okay. But that would have been... Yeah.

That was a little too on this. The song was performed, though. Did you enjoy the show? Oh, it was so good. So good. Did you have your friends come and meet you at the crossroads? No, it was my cousins. Okay, so you weren't lonely, though.

I wasn't lonely. You know what, Ray? I think in the spirit of Lent at some point during the season, we should get some cauliflower wings just to prove the point. To reinforce the ruling that was really, reasonably handed down by the state court here in Illinois. Hell yeah. Let's see which part of the court it was.

This is hilarious. This was the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois Eastern Division, which I assume means Chicago. Good on you guys. You, it's usually one judge. See? I love this story, but I don't like your stance on this story. 217.

So you're telling me the shrimp does not fry the rice? What? These things just, yeah. This is a dangerous gateway you're playing with, Leila. No, that's the point. That's the point of all of this. Like, there is a concept, like, that's the whole point of the court even hearing it. There was actually a reason to have the discussion.

They had a case. Their case just failed. They still have a case. And by March 20th, we're going to get some answers. Your chicken nuggets are going to be labeled chicken nuggets on the menu. If I have my say. But define a nugget to me. Maybe that's our question for five on it.

Yeah, that's another question for another day. Okay, fair enough. Five on it is next. No more court talk. Ring Central's AI receptionist uses voice AI to answer on the first ring, so you'll never miss a call again. In just a few minutes, you can personalize your own AI receptionist to answer questions, route calls, schedule appointments,

and even send texts in multiple languages. Plus, it's easy to scale. Create unlimited AI receptionists across any phone system. It's all powered by one reliable platform for effortless AI communications. See for yourself at ringcentral.com. Ring Central, voice of your business.