PFT's Mike Florio still hates Bill Polian

by Brad Wells on Oct 11, 2007 10:45 AM EDT in Bad Journalism

This man would like to pimp you a Sprint phone.

It's no secret that Mike Florio really dislikes Bill Polian, and it seems like a personal dislike. Why? I don't know. Maybe Bill is sleeping with Mike's wife. Maybe Bill once insulted Mike's mom.

Or, more likely, Mike Florio is just acting like a schmuck again, trying to stir up controversy where none exists.

Once again, Mike quotes his "league sources" when talking about Bill Polian:

In response to one of the Wednesday Morning One-Liners capably harvested by our own MDS, a league source has raised the question of whether Colts G.M. Bill Polian should be fined by the NFL for making comments critical of game officials.

The "criticism" Florio and his league source, Harvey the Rabbit, are referring to is Polian answering a question from a fan on his Monday call-in radio show on HANK FM, The Bill Polian Show, which you (and Mike Florio) can listen to on Colts.com. Florio links to The Polian Corner on Colts.com, which is an edited for space transcript of the show. I listened to the actual radio show, and on it a fan called in and asked Polian about refs not calling roughing the passer as much this season. Polian agreed that they weren't:

(Colts quarterback) Peyton (Manning) got drilled in the head earlier in the year and they let it go. The officiating department said, `No, we don't want that called.' We didn't get the memo on that apparently. In any event, that has been liberalized a little bit, although that was not the case in the Monday Night game last week. There was a little love tap on the quarterback's shoulder and it was called. You've heard me say before that consistency is the hobgoblin we have to deal with in officiating. That was never more clear than Sunday, by the way. You had two teams (Colts and Buccaneers) that preach and coach penalty avoidance and a crew of officials that was on top of every play. You had a great game and a quick game. The question you ask yourself is, `Why can't you have that every week?' It's puzzling. In any event, my impression is it's a little more liberal now. We'll know at the end of the year. Sometimes, your impression when you see snippets of games here and there is not true when you research the data.

So, I think the most obvious, rational question for Mr. Florio, attorney at law and Sprint phone pimp, is WHY THE HELL DO YOU THINK THIS SHOULD DRAW A FINE? Polian is answering a question, offering his opinion on rule interpretation. Where is he bashing or questioning refs? Refereeing is going to be inconsistent because (duh!) different people ref different games. In his full response (not shown here but on the radio show), the inquiring fan asked Polian about the ref for the Tampa game, Mike Carey. In responding to the fans question, Polian applauded Carey because Carey seems to be a consistent ref. The response linked above, and attacked by Florio, is in relation to Polian praising Carey for his consistency and wishing more games had that kind of consistency.

If Florio is suggesting Polian get fined for saying this, Florio needs to seriously consider rooting for another sport, or moving to the People's Republic of China.

Also, I sometimes wonder if Florio actually reads his full source material, or if his league source, Harvey the Rabbit, is an even bigger dumbass than Florio makes him out to be.

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What is with Bill in the news?

MDS wrote about him at Fanhouse, saying that he gave the Patriots bulletin board material?!?

When did Bill become Mr. Popular?

Go Colts!

by Marked Hoosier on Oct 11, 2007 11:37 AM EDT reply actions

MDS

He works for Florio at PFT.

Please make an account and post a diary, add some comments, and make some noise. Accounts are free, and only require an email address.

by Brad Wells on Oct 11, 2007 11:53 AM EDT up reply actions

honestly

I have no idea who Mike Florio is, nor do I care what he thinks.

Go Colts!

by KingRichard on Oct 11, 2007 2:51 PM EDT reply actions

Reading way too much into the comments

in both cases. I don't think anyone would disagree that refs aren't always consistent, especially between different ref crews and that a great team like the Colts usually win games at home by a decent margin. You have to really be reading with a bias or just trying to find more meaning than there is to get "Polian says the Colts will destroy the Pats and that he is openly criticizing refs from that.

by shake n bake on Oct 11, 2007 3:38 PM EDT reply actions

adding

Polian says it's good when refs are consistant and that the crew last week was and did a great job, Florio twists that. He says that because Polian is praising one ref crew for consistency that must mean that he thinks the other crews sucked, so he is criticizing them and should be fined.
Pretty soon coaches and GMs will have to say that every ref is "special and unique and great in his own way" or else risk being fined. I don't think NFL refs are that fragile emotionally that another receiving praise for a good game will mean to them they are being called bad.

by shake n bake on Oct 11, 2007 3:44 PM EDT up reply actions

WTF????

What is going on with this Florio idiot? I mean did Polian screw his wife or something? The "Polian should be fined" argument was weak enough, and now today there's an entry on PFT where Polian discusses how the Colts try to change things up to prevent teams from reading their signals. Here's the link:

http://cache.colts.com/sub.cfm?page=article7&news_id=35f0d6f2-ff3d-467e-a86c-15ef430f360f

Read it. NOWHERE in Polian's response does he mention the Patriots. In fact, it seems to me to be more about Peyton's audibilizing, and refers to the Bucs game and Cato June's knowledge of the Colts' signals. So what's the headline of our buddy Florio's entry?
"Polian Suggests Patriots Cheating Didn't Work."
Seriously? This is what passes for journalism these days?

I have no idea why Florio is continually misrepresenting Polian's statements. But I certainly wouldn't trust anything he writes about the Colts from here on out.

by ctnyc on Oct 11, 2007 11:36 PM EDT reply actions

It's simple

he can read Polian's mind. That's the only way he could know that Polian means these things that he doesn't say. That or he has the story he wants to tell then takes any quote/news that will fit it.

by shake n bake on Oct 12, 2007 9:09 AM EDT up reply actions