Mike Florio talks Bears' stadium search & Caleb Williams' pursuit of 'Iceman' trademark

Añadido: 2026-05-26

[00:00:00]finally concluded. Aaron Rodgers much to nobody's surprise is going to be a stealer. I feel like this is a very anticlimactic way to get into the year for him.

[00:00:10]Well, but it's still strange because there's been this talking point that's emerged from Rodgers agreeing to terms with the Steelers that this is always what was going to happen. This is the way it was always going to be. Everybody knew it was going to happen. Well, why did the Steelers use the unrestricted free agent tender on Rodgers 3 weeks ago to protect themselves in the event that he signed with another team if they knew he was coming back? That makes no sense. The fact that they applied that tender to qualify them for a compensatory draft pick if he signed with another team and to make him their exclusive negotiating property as of July 22, why do that if you know he's coming back? That one fact shows me that they didn't know. If they didn't know, we didn't know. Nobody knew. And one of my theories is Rodgers deliberately waited until after the schedule was out so the league couldn't load the Steelers up with short week games, primetime games, making it more difficult like they did in 2024, his second year with the Jets, six primetime games in the first 11 weeks, two short week games Sunday to Thursday in the first half of the season.

[00:01:24]I would not be surprised if the truth is he deliberately waited and deliberately kept it vague until after the schedule was out and then it lined up perfectly with the start of their OTAs on Monday. That weekend is the weekend where you would sign if you're trying to keep the league in the dark before you show up to work for the Steelers.

[00:01:44]Mike Jackson Smith-Njigba is supposed to be having an off season of celebration.

[00:01:50]He won the Super Bowl. He was the offensive player of the year last year in the NFL and yet that honor has become a source of trauma and disrespect after we know what happened with the award ceremony itself with Druski mispronouncing his name to the tune of a racial slur. And then he gets the actual trophy and it's misspelled according to the NFL. Not Defensive Player of the Year, they're saying that's a block O.

[00:02:16]What do you make of this and how does this happen?

[00:02:20]I mean, what's worse that it says defensive instead of offensive or it says ooffensive oeff like I think that's worse than just admitting that they accidentally dialed up defensive instead of offensive. Either way, they're sending him a new trophy with the proper engraving.

[00:02:41]My suggestion is auction off the one with the mistake and give the proceeds to charity. I'm sure there's someone out there that would pay a pretty penny for a one-of-a-kind item that has created an unexpected little news blip in a slow week. So, you know, accidents happen.

[00:02:58]The NFL's not immune to it. Kudos to the NFL for taking responsibility. We asked the AP right away, who makes these trophies? Because the AP is responsible for lining up the panel of voters, getting the votes, harvesting, tabulating, and handing the NFL the results. The NFL is the one that makes the trophies. So, this was their mistake. They owned up to it because they had to. The visual evidence was clear and obvious, more clear and obvious as any in any call you've ever seen overturned during a game. So, uh yeah, hey, no one's perfect. I just I wish they would have just said, "We accidentally put defensive instead of this convoluted idea that it was a typo, not the wrong word." Additionally, Mike, there's only one way to really find out.

[00:03:42]Ask Myles Garrett. Did he get the NFL Offensive Player of the Year trophy instead?

[00:03:47]Myles Garrett could do something funny and I know he's not afraid of of a funny / uncomfortable conversation.

[00:03:55]So maybe we just find out if Myles Garrett got the right trophy and that would help shed some light on it.

[00:04:00]Yeah, that's a great point. That's a great point. So there could be two one-of-a-kind items. Myles Garrett's offensive player of the year trophy and Jaxon Smith-Njigba's defensive player of the year trophy available on eBay.

[00:04:11]And I really like that idea. I mean, what are they going to do with it?

[00:04:14]What's he going to do with it? The other one's meaningless to him. It would be a great way to raise a little money for charity if that's what he chooses to do.

[00:04:21]That's Mike Florio Pro Football Talk with Rhett and Harrison Grody here on The Score. And I was looking at the Pro Football Talk website and I saw the the story in regards to the Titans new stadium. The headline the the they say that their stadium remains on schedule to open in the spring of 2027, a Super Bowl there in 2030. Meantime, what counts for news and an update around here on the Bears stadium is the NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell saying that there are two viable sites for the Bears stadium and neither is in Chicago.

[00:04:51]We know that. Duh. It's been chaotic around here, Mike. It has been crazy. It has been embarrassing at times. It has been exhilarating at times. What is the latest as far as you know surrounding the Bears stadium and what is the perspective from the rest of the world watching what's going on with the Bears when the Titans move in um and they're able to get their stadium taken care of.

[00:05:12]I really do think that someone within the organization had a light bulb go off when the Chiefs did a deal with Kansas to cross state lines from Missouri after the Chiefs had been unable to get the package of public money that they wanted to renovate Arrowhead Stadium.

[00:05:30]Hey, we can just go to Indiana. And I think Indiana continues to be the leverage to get the best possible deal in Illinois. My question will be is there a minimum below which the Bears say, "We will go to Indiana." Or is this just we're using Indiana to get the best we can in Illinois and we'll ultimately take whatever that best deal is even if it falls short of what we want. Kevin Warren told us back in March, "There's no deadline, but they think there'll be an answer by early summer."

[00:06:05]And I just think this whole Indiana effort is about applying enough pressure to the people in Illinois to make them think the Bears will leave and to get them to give the Bears something close to what they want. Well, and we're trying to figure out still what is going on with the actual stadium locations.

[00:06:23]The mayor of Arlington Heights, who was an architect by practice before he was now the mayor of Arlington Heights, had talked to the Chicago Tribune about the site for the Bears stadium, which was still under discussion and him and when it came to the environmentals and some of those those further tests. There were initial tests done. And it was reported yesterday about it being built on a slag heap. Now, there's already a golf course built on that and there is a there's a way that they can rehabilitate the land, which ultimately I think is a good thing. But it does give pause when it comes to asking a lot of questions about just exactly what the plan is and how feasible and if it can be expedited at all as well.

[00:07:06]This is all part of the political push and pull. If the Bears are going to say, "Hey, we'll go to Indiana, Illinois, if you don't give us what we want." then it's incumbent on the people in Illinois with an invested interest in this to say, "Hey, your site in Indiana is flawed. We know it's fugazi. We know you're not going to go there. Now, can we focus on trying to work something out here in Illinois?" These are very, very high-stakes projects and the league has a habit of trying to get as much taxpayer money as possible for the stadium and all of the stuff around it to the point where when a deal is done, it's not done until the other owners approve of it. Think about that. The Bears run an independent, multi-billion dollar business. They're not free to do a deal, to do a stadium in Indiana or Illinois until at least 23 of the other 31 owners say it's okay. So, that's part of this, too. And they don't want, they being the owners collectively, they don't want teams doing bad deals because then a bad deal becomes precedent the next time a team is trying to shake taxpayer money out of the tree. It's just free money. They've come up with this argument that continues to be viable as long as it's never on a ballot. If it's on a ballot, it loses.

[00:08:24]If you can work it in the back rooms with the elected officials, you have a much better chance of pulling it off.

[00:08:29]But, the Bears have had more opposition and resistance than we usually see teams encounter when they're trying to get their public money. Mike Florio joins us here on Rahimi Here's and Grody on the score. He is the creator and editor-in-chief of ProFootballTalk. And Mike, you know, that NFL ownership and commissioner, it's all it's all about control. And now the NFL's removed teams' ability to protect home games from being international games. And we know the end goal is 18-game regular season with international games, I guess every week. What does this mean for teams going forward? And how likely is it that we see some of the bigger regular season matchups now not played at someone's home stadium? Yeah. It's ideally, in the next CBA, 16 international games per year. There would be, if we had two byes with one extra game to get to 18, there'd be 20 weeks of the season. So, four weeks of the season there wouldn't be an international game. Or maybe some weeks there would be more than one. Who knows how it all shakes out. This is part of that effort to slice off a game here or there, expand the the of windows to the detriment of the Sunday afternoon experience, which is being diluted and diminished, but this is all about the NFL understanding that the more windows you can create that can be sold either to the networks or to the streamers, you make more money that way. And to have a broader international package of 16 games, most of which would be stand-alone, which ideally for the NFL are going to be available on international streaming companies, so people around the world can watch it.

[00:10:06]They are leaning so heavily into the international growth and expansion. I said 20 years ago this is a 100-year plan. They're trying to incrementally make the sport more popular around the world with the inventory they have. And watch this, it hasn't happened yet.

[00:10:24]I think at some point in the next 5 years, someone in a position of influence within the NFL structure is going to raise the possibility of expansion. Mhm. That's one way to deal with diminished inventory as it relates to Sunday afternoon. Add more teams, whether it's two, whether it's four, and I think the best long-term, if you can have enough, you know, quarterbacks who are competent, configuration of the league would be 40 teams.

[00:10:52]I think that's possible someday, but they'll probably creep in that direction. I I think that that solves this problem of Sunday afternoons not being what they once were while having as many of these weeknight and stand-alone games as they can now fit into the schedule.

[00:11:10]Mike, I have been hearing rumors. The word on the street is that you have Caleb Williams down as a top five quarterback going into the 2026 season.

[00:11:22]Would you care to elaborate and explain on that?

[00:11:25]Well, I don't do quarterback lists because, unlike some others in the media, I'll acknowledge I'm not qualified to do a full and proper quarterback evaluation.

[00:11:33]Now, Chris Simms does a list every year and he's in the process of unveiling it.

[00:11:38]It's not crazy to put Caleb Williams among the top five and I think my own belief is based upon this season, what the Bears do this year, what he does statistically, does he win the MVP award? He'll be in the conversation. It all comes down to what he does week in and week out along with the others, but if you look at Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, Joe Burrow, not necessarily in that order, there's a spot open in the top five. Just this general idea of who the top five are and he could be one of them. And if I was, you know, the question that you get from time to time, if you were starting a team right now, who would you want? I said on the morning show yesterday, I'd want Josh Allen and then Caleb Williams.

[00:12:18]Just because he's younger and I see the potential there and if I could partner him with Ben Johnson for the next 15 years, I think that at the end of the day, he's going to be one of those guys that it's going to be a no-brainer. He's one of the most desirable players to have on your team in the entire league and he's moving in that direction. It's only year three coming up, but this is his chance and this is his time to to elbow his way into the top five, the top three, the top two.

[00:12:44]Mike, as a former lawyer, what do you think of the uh have you been paying attention at all to the Iceman uh discussion surrounding an attempted trademark and then George Gervin also being involved and uh Drake also having his own Iceman uh album release?

[00:13:01][laughter] Yeah, so have you been paying attention to that at all?

[00:13:05]Well, we have been covering just the basic question of Caleb Williams trying to get the legal federal trademark protection. Apparently, George Gervin didn't dot the right eyes, cross the right T's, get the right paperwork filed to secure it, but that's part of the game. You got to win the race to the courthouse to get the rights that you're looking for.

[00:13:27]I still don't fully understand how and why Iceman became Caleb Williams' nickname, but he explained it very well. He did a podcast appearance, I think, with Front Office Sports within the past month or so.

[00:13:42]This The goal here is to get the protection because if you don't and if Iceman becomes a thing, as you walk into the stadium, you're going to see all those usual suspects out front selling all of the Iceman gear with Caleb Williams having no leg to stand on to shut it down. That's why you get the protection. That's why it's a smart business move. And, you know, there's a segment of the fan base out there national overall fan base that is always looking to criticize Caleb Williams for anything he does. He and his dad have had some great business ideas over the past few years. None of them have actually worked yet, but they think outside the box, they think offensively, and it is a great defensive move for him to get that protection. Otherwise, you got a bunch of people that can make money off of what could become his organic natural nickname. That's a great point, Mike. Yeah, I I like their business acumen and I feel like I understand usually where it's coming from, so that's a really good point.