Florio: Borland Retirement Momentum Fueled By People Who "Want to Kill Football"
Mike Florio received some heat for his comments relating to 24-year-old 49ers linebacker Chris Borland shockingly announcing his retirement from the NFL this week.
Pro Football Talk's founder joined 560 WQAM this morning to discuss the situation at length, explaining the Borland case isn't likely going to be some tipping point of young NFL players retiring by the masses.
"I just think Borland was so different from what we've seen and there are people out there who want to jump on it as the start of a trend, that he's blazing a trail that hundreds, if not thousands, of others will now tread upon -- I don't know that that's the case," Florio said Friday morning on the Joe Rose Show. "Guys like me get called out for having an interest in seeing the NFL continue to thrive. Look, I love the NFL, that's why I started the website 15 years ago.
"I got into this because I love football. If I wasn't doing this I would still want football to thrive and succeed because I enjoy following it and now I enjoy covering it. It's okay for people to point out that bias because that bias gets pointed out whether it's me, whether it's you, whether it's Adam Schefter, whether it's whoever. It's almost like we're not allowed to say that some of this momentum coming from the Borland retirement is being fueled by people who want to see football fail, who want to kill football, who want on their own tombstone that they give football a tombstone. We're not allowed to say that. I don't know why no one is saying that, that some of the people in the media who have taken Chris Borland and extrapolated it into well, football is doomed, football is gonna be gone in 20 years, people are going to stop playing football.
"Chris Borland made a personal decision for himself that was the right thing for him and oh, by the way, anybody else out there who plays football it's the right thing for you too. There's a lot of that going on and there's no pushback against that. The only pushback is against the guys like us who love football and want to see football continue to succeed and understand how the entire risk spectrum works in American life. So that's made the whole experience a little frustrating because our biases get pointed out and I admit that I've got a bias. I want football to continue but the people who want to kill football, number one, we're not allowed to mention it and, number two, they're never going to admit their bias."
Does Florio have a point?
