[SmootSmack]

Originally Posted by sportscurmudgeon

I never said NBC bought PFT. What I said was that it paid enough to partner with PFT that Mike Florio is retiring from his career as an attorney. Most attorneys make a decent living; the fact that he can retire from that kind of regular and non-trivial income means he must have gotten more than "three easy payments of $29.95" from NBC.

I never said you said that. I don't know how much Florio is getting paid, or what the terms of his deal are. Just that it's not clear if he's giving up his career as an attorney because of the money, or because he feels he has enough comfortably in the bank (not withstanding any monetary transaction on this deal) to focus on pursuing full-time his true passion.

NBC has been in the broadcating/news/sports business for a while now; they probably have a person or two there who know their ass from their elbow. NBC is owned by General Electric - - another company that has been around a while and might just know something about good business practices.

This has little to do with NBC (or GE) thinking there is great editorial value in PFT, and more about the huge amount of traffic it generates. NBC has not been able to compete online with ESPN, FOX, CBS, or even Yahoo. This gives them a great asset from an advertising, traffic standpoint.

So, if I read the general sentiment here correctly, all of the folks who make decisions at NBC and GE are dumbasses to the highest order while the folks here are smart enough to discern that Mike Florio is a bubblebutt.


You may all be right - - but on the basis of track record, let me say that I'd probably go with the judgments of the folks at NBC and GE.

Yup that's exactly it.

And with regard to John Riggins's sitting out a year before he won anything, let the record show that it was the Redskins' coaches and front office at the time that went to Riggins to convince him to come back to football. The success of the the Skins in that endeavor got them an eccentric but Hall of Fame quality running back. If Portis' career ended today, would he make the Hall of Fame - - where John Riggins' bust resides? I doubt it.


John Riggins' position in the HoF gives him license to criticize current Skins' players - - much the same way Jim Brown has license to criticize current Browns' players. BTW, that same license is given to Darrell Green and Art Monk and Joe Gibbs and...


If/when Cliff Russell were to criticize current WRs on the team, it would be fine to suggest that Cliff Russell may not have the pedigree to be a credible critic. But when a member of the Hall of Fame says a current Redskin has some flaws that need to be adjusted, he has the chops to make that judgment.


That does not mean that everyone needs to agree with the Hall of Famer who is leveling the criticism. But you really ought to step back and listen to what he has to say and take a fresh look at the situation he is addressing.

Riggins can say what he wants, but he shouldn't forget that he was not easy to deal with either.