Professional provocateur Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk opened up a can of worms on Thursday saying the San Francisco 49ers should “trade the risk of 15 yards” if they can send a message by laying late hits on Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
Florio prefaced his remarks by saying he wasn't suggesting trying to knock Mahomes out of the game – and then proceeded to suggest that the 49ers can't let Mahomes scramble “without any physical consequence.”
The transcript of Florio's remarks:
“You know what, at a certain level, I think that – and I wanna be careful here, because I’m not suggesting that they try to knock him out of the game. That’s not what I’m saying. But at a certain point, you trade the risk of 15 yards if you can send a message. And 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. And yeah, we may give up 15 yards or half the distance to the goal line – I mean, that’s the thing, Peter, if somebody had blown up Patrick Mahomes inside the 5, OK, it goes from the 4 to 2, big deal. So again I’m not saying that that should be part of the deliberate effort but the Super Bowl is riding on it, and if this guy’s gonna think that he can just run through the defense without any physical consequence, they need to dispel him of that notion the first time he tries.”
NBC Sports colleague didn't disagree with Florio's take, but said he believes an aggressive posture against Mahomes would have "zero impact."
"He has been used to people taking shots at him all through high school, all through college and I just don't think that's going to stop him or even deter him from playing exactly the way he wants to play," King said.
It's not the first time Florio has delivered a "hot take" about a Chiefs that didn't age well. Florio in April suggested he wouldn't continue covering the NFL if the league didn't permanently suspend Tyreek Hill.
The Kansas City themselves have episodes in their history of hyperbolic talk when it comes to leveling violence at opponents. Several Chiefs who played for head coach Marty Schottenheimer, including former quarterback Rich Gannon, said their boss indicated he would pick up the bill if they received fines for rough plays against the Oakland Raiders.
"'If something has to be done, do it,” Gannon said of Schottenheimer's message. “No one is going to be physical against us like that.'"
