Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio raised the ire of Chefs fans on Wednesday morning, after a segment on his television show in which he said that the 49ers may risk taking penalties in order to “send a message” to Chiefs quarterback Pat Mahomes.
Florio made the remarks during a discussion with NBC NFL reporter Peter King, about how the 49ers might try to stop Mahomes.
“I want to be careful here, because I’m not suggesting that they try to knock him (Mahomes) out of the game, that’s not what I’m saying,” Florio explained. “But, at a certain point, you trade the risk of 15 yards if you can send a message.
“Football is still a physical, violent game, if you can hit him, even if it’s close to the sideline, even if he’s maybe started into his slide, when the championship is riding on it, I think it’s a different analysis.”
Many fans were displeased with Florio for, what they perceived as, his encouraging of illegal hits on Mahomes (NSFW):
However, despite the backlash to Florio’s comments, football is indeed a violent game. Moreover, it’s very naive to think that NFL teams are not thinking of ways to send messages to opposing players, even if it means accepting a penalty. Whether someone should actually verbalize that is open to debate, but Florio’s comments are probably much more controversial outside of NFL locker rooms, than they are inside.
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