Sports Attorney Breaks Down NFL Bombs

It is the Fifth Hour with Ben Maller and Danny g back again to save you from the boredom on the weekend. I know it can be tough, not a lot of options to choose from, so we are here for you and it is just I on the Friday podcast, Big Ben, and we thank you for supporting the radio show. And as you know by now, this podcast is a spin off of the Ben Maller radio show, which is available on terrestrial radio. This only available in the podcast format.

As we begin to new this weekend and the biggest story in all of sports right now involves the Miami Dolphins, a former Dolphin coach, and a bunch of NFL teams that are scorming right now. A bunch of NFL owners that are scorming right now. This Brian Flores story is insane, and who better to talk about it than a guy by the name of Dan lust. Dan joins the series a practicing sports attorney. You've heard him on some Fox Sports radio shows. He's been all over the place, you

name it, he's popped up. This has been a big week for him, as he has been on television and radio doing a number of interviews. Uh, he is a practicing attorney, as he said, but also he's a sports law profess Sir at New York Law School. He's got the gift for gab. I first heard of him with my friend Tony Bruno a couple of years back. I said, this guy is good, and I'm glad that finally we get to touch base and to have a conversation here,

me and him. So let's give it up now to Dan Lusti also hosts a very popular sports law podcast, his own podcast, Conduct Detrimental. So Dan, let's get right into it, the story of the week involving Brian Flores. You've been all over it providing some great perspective on this. A lot of money involved, a lot of reputations involved in this depending on how far it goes, so on a scale of one to ten, with ten being as big as it possibly can get. Dan, how massive is

this Brian Flores story? I think you gotta lean towards a ten. And right, Um, you know it's obviously there's always the possibility the case gets dismissed and you know you kind of lose on a procedural ground. But the allegations, right, Uh, it's somebody calling out the NFL, not not indirectly. Right. Um, you can talk about the Colin kaeperni case. Was it a case about race kind of you know, but it was really a case without kneeling. Um, it was not

really a case that hit directly to the core. Um. And that's what Brian Flores is doing. And then, uh, you know, I'll give you one step further. You know, the Colin Kaepernick case, right was one person versus thirty two teams. Uh. The Kirk Flood case, another v case in our our sports little history books, was one guy versus the league. This is a class action lawsuit, which doesn't mean it's not just Ryan Flores. He's inviting coaches

of the past, Right that maybe we're wrong. Be it Marvin Lewis, be it um you know through Jackson Vatube called blow some of those guys he explicitly references isn't complaint. So this is gonna be uh, you know, maybe tens, if not hundreds of people joining Brian Flores on the sideline, no fun attended and going after the NFL. From from an umbers perspective, this could be on you know, I don't I'm not wanting to give hyperbole, but from a numbers perspective, could be the biggest sports a case of

all time. Wow. Yeah, And I trying to wrap my head around it. And you know, reading some of stuff and you have you have great information. I know you've got a podcast that will will plug as well when you took a deep dive in this. But how long as a lawyer and someone that teaches law, then this seemed to come together pretty quick? How long do you think that Brian Flores was working on this behind the scenes because the Giants hired a coach and within a

couple of days boom this lawsuits out. So how fast do you think from the time that the lawyers contacted him or recontacted the lawyers that they were able to turn this thing around very quickly. Um, you know, we could talk about the timing. There was something intriguing to me about the timing element um independent of the substance. So they turned this around very quickly. Right, you know, it's less than a week they at this thing out. Now. The question that I have right, like, why would you

have filed this lawsuit on you know, on this week? Right? The statue of limitations for something this is sometimes years, Like what was the benefit of doing that? Mind you Also, laws is in the middle of interviewing for the Saints head coaching position and the Texans head coaching musician. The day this lawsuit was filed and became public, he had an interview with the New Orleans Saints. So I'm like, you know, the lawyer in me because I don't know if it was my client, I'd say, hey, why don't

you wait until you get those jobs? So you don't care if you get the Texans job at the Saints job, maybe you know, maybe you want to consider not doing right. I'm not sure you have to have that conversation, um, and then the other way around if you don't get those jobs, wouldn't that make your case even stronger. Right if you if you don't get the Texans job and you're not competing against Brian Table, there's no one you know of that name caliber and you don't get it,

doesn't that say more? So? Then I thought about I had this epiphany, as you know, I've been kind of doing, you know, the media tour. I had this epiphany yesterday, and I'm like, that's why they did it, because right now, all eyes around the Houston Texans, you know, they you know, people have considered him the front under for the position, and I imagine to some except with the Saints as well. But now if he doesn't get it, we're going to

see you play out in real time. Right whoever they announced for that job, be Flores or whoever else, it's gonna put exponentially more pressure and more attention on this lawsuit. That's why I thought that time it was interesting. It was kind of rushed, you know, by all means, no one files a lawsuit within like five days of the thing happening. It's kind of unheard of. Um, But that's

why they did it. That's why two law firms around this, because it was a really unsure, intensive job to get this filed, have the media all lined up, uh, and now kind of sitting pretty as guys like Marvin Lewis speak out on your behalf and Hugh Jackson and you have a super Bowl two weeks away and you're in the middle of Black History Month. I think it was very well orchestrated from a PR perspective to get this filed. Um, you know when they did to two week lead up

to the Super Bowl. Yeah, and with that, with that is the backup from the lawyer's perspective, because you're you know again, you're the lawyer. So how does this work financially? Is Brian Flores paying the lawyers? Is this just a case for publicity because it's a high profocus. I've read the law firm these guys. Uh. One of the main guys was tied to one of the Harvey Weinstein cases. So this is not, you know, some small potatoes operation. What do you where do you think the money is going?

Do you think they're just gonna wait and see what the result is and get some of the money out of that. How's the financial part of this? So you know, I don't the charge is I don't think we know, But there's one of two ways the cases are normally retained it and you know, as you know, I'm a full time practicing attorney. So it's a conversation we have when a case walks in the door. Could be a good case, dead case. If it's not a great case, right, you're not you don't think there's a part of goal

to be on the rainbow. You would normally do was charge something called like an hourly So any time on the phone call, I write a letter, I'm gonna charge you and you're gonna get an invoice for it, either at the end of the week or the end of the month, but some type of hourly charge and I'm gonna get paid that no matter if you win or lose.

The other way that cases are sometimes handled. And if it's the case, it's very desirable that a lot of law firms want that case all of a sudden, that that client has a lot of leverage to say, you know what, I don't want to pay out like I don't want to do something called the contingency that you guys the law firm, you get paid zero, You get paid nothing until we win the case or there's some type of settlement and then you guys get a third of that, which is very common procedure. It's the same

thing we saw St. Louis Rams recently. A St. Louis sued the NFL on behalf of you know, St. Louis Ram's contingency when they left UM and went to over to l A. That was a whopping seven ninety million dollar settlement the lawyers, if you can believe it, they got a third of that. It sounds like a crazy number, but then again, for four or five years, those guys didn't get paid and they were holding all the risk

of putting all this work in and getting nothing. So he asked me, I'm leaning towards this case being taken on a contingency. I think Flora has probably had the leverage to ask for that. And if this firm really wanted the case and they thought it was going to be as big as I do, they'd be totally fine

taking contingency on it. So the theory and Dan I've talked about us on my radio show this week and the overnight, is that there's no way anyone's gonna hire and floors that he's now toxic that you can't you know, you can't hire the guy. He turned over private messages with Belichick and he's kind of violated the bubble of trust.

But the conspiracy part of me's like, well, what if the NFL said, hey, well, you know, you can get a job with the Saints or one of the one of these head coaching jobs and just dropped the lawsuit. Could they even do that? Were they get in trouble? Is that? Is that also illegal to make some kind of brokerage deal with Brian Floores at this point, kind of you now we're getting into the territory that happened

with Kaepernick, right. Why the NFL was kind of you know, I imagine behind the scenes, we're not gonna know what was said in the compositions, but like, why was in Kaepernick getting signed at a certain point. Clearly the guy had taken his team, you know, to the verge of a Super Bowl. Clearly he was better than the backups that were being thrown out there left him right, But the NFL, I think, behind the scenes, were saying, we're not not signing him because of his views of and kneeling.

We were not signing him because he's a distraction and there's a lot there's a lot to come with us, you know, being a distraction and not necessarily implicit purpose. Like you know, you can't discriminate against someone based on like rage, race, age, or sex, right, but not signing someone because they were a distraction. Yeah, it's I don't know, it's it's at least colorable that that's not some type

of discrimination. I think now, um, you know, I wouldn't want to be detectives making that argument, certainly, but I think now you'd say the guy was the most qualified guy. But there's a lot of noise about hiring him, and we're trying to have a rebuild and they get ready have the Deshaun Watson situation on our hands. You know, we just can't can't afford a second you know hit like that. Pr I think people could understand that that's maybe not a discriminate where you purpose. Again, I don't

want to be making that argument from the Texans. And that's why, you know, I mentioned so much more pressure placed than the Texans. You might have got the job. And I have people in my replies on Twitter it's Texas Scans that say they want him to get the job. Independent of all of this, he's the he's the most qualified guy for the job. He turned around the Miami Dolphins in one year. Maybe this is the right guy

for the job. Um. But yeah, if he doesn't get it right, and uh, you know, I don't know, could they could they create some type of deal, Hey, we'll give you this job if you make the lawship go away. Maybe, but who's who's gonna cut that deal? The things are gonna cut that deal with textans are gonna cut that deal, um and make their games kind of this media frenzy. I don't I don't know if the team is willing to sign up to that. Yeah, it is. It is interesting.

I mean, obviously this whole thing. And I read some of the documents online, the fifty eight pages uh that were out there with some of those who just you know, signed legal documents and whatnot. But uh, the question how much of this is actually meaty so far? You know, early on could have more stuff added to it. But it seems like a lot of the word you lawyers uses hearsay. Uh, is there a lot there? You know? And I like to pretend like I'm a lawyer, I'm not.

But the way I read it, I said, well that these points can be argued by the NFL, and they could probably get out of most of this stuff, if not all this off. How did you read it when you talk about the actual rather than just hearsay stuff that actually is gonna stick here. That's that's really at the crux of the case, right. Um, you know, even even Stephen Ross stuff, I don't know what evidence he has to shupport that Stephen Ross offered him a bribe

to lose James. I imagine Ross would have been smart enough, if indeed this is true, not put it in a text or an email. Um. And I'll go one step further seeing how they put the Bill Belichick text in the complaint. Uh, that's a you know, a creative move by the lawyer's about They didn't have to do that. They could have saved that for later and getting exchanged it. Um. I think they would have put a Stephen Ross text or an email like that directly in the complaints. So

I'm not sure what they have by way of physical evidence. UM. Uh, you know, certainly that's going to be very important. Otherwise, as you mentioned here saying he said, she said, who's more credible? Even having now what's coming out with the Denver Broncos. They're completely refuting his report. Um, you know that the Broncos and Elway showed up late to their meeting and they say they have documentary evidence to back

that up. So when you bring a case like this, uh, it's not just you know, oh I believe the NFL more, I believe Flooras more. It's really all eyes are on Flora's and the plaintiffs. They they are the burden of proof. They have to prove their case. They have to come forward with the evidence. The court will allow you to get in if you kind of have a colorable or good faith basis to believe something, but you're gonna have to find that during discovery, Um you know, the depositions, emails,

whatnot or else the case gets dismissed. Um. So yeah, I mean that's that's this next period of the case, assuming it gets the discovery, is gonna be really crucial, right. Bill Belichick is gonna have to answer the tough questions, always gonna have to answer the question Stephen Ross and so who's who of of NFL personnel? Um? You know, So yeah, you can't just have a case on here set.

I mean sometimes you can but it needs something that the jury can really put weight into a look at, and you can hold up in front of the jury they say, here's this email. Here's this email from the Giants, right, here's this email from the Broncos. So yeah, this stage, if anybody tells you, you know, Florida's is definitely gonna win or he's not gonna win, no one has any clue because no one has seen the emails. Right. So that's that's really where this case is gonna be one

of the most well. Absolutely then, and that's you know, you follow all these legal stories. Are great on social media and whatnot. I know, you do a lot of radio stuff and TV and whatnot. But the the email and with what we learned from the Washington I guess the Redskins now they're the commanders or whatever. But the the John Gruden story that came out of that, and you know, that was just an email. He I'm sure he never imagined crudent that that would ever come back

to bite him, and it did. And so you know, the the owners, I mean, you follow these things a long time. They're not going to allow this to get the discovery, are they? Because imagine the skeletons they've got in those those emails. Although some of these guys are so old, I don't know if they even email, but there's there's gotta be stuff out there, right, I mean, I would think right, just I mean, if you ask me this question maybe like two or three months ago,

I would say, I'm not sure. You know, these are billion dollar teams. They probably are very smart. They probably you know what I'm saying, smart, like I don't know, sneaky, right, they don't put anything in writing. Let's just talk about it, assuming that's what's going on here. Um. But was so with John Gruden saga that at a very fundamental level, those emails were horrendous. Those emails existed on the server

for years and no one said anything about him. So I think the grouting case kind of pulled the curtain back a little bit and tells you that maybe there's more behind the scenes than we've ever really, you know, thought about. John Gruden made it to the highest level of the NFL head coach, right, and he was, you know, his head coach for different teams over the course of you know, more than a decade, So you don't really

know what's behind the curtain. You asked me whether the NFL is going to pay to make this go away. I think they'd love to, but that always depends on the plaintiff in the case. Um. You know, another case that you know I've been doing a lot of a lot of coverage on is the DeShawn Watson case. There's twenty two individuals who assuming DeShawn Watson in civil court. It's been reported that some of those individuals want to

settle the case. They want to get other ones are more concerned about the message it sense and really sticking into Deshaun Watson and keeping this case in court, keeping it in the public realm. Se get the case of settled. No one's gonna talk about the case anymore. Maybe they will for a week or two, but this narrative of Watson has now gone on for a year because there are certain plates that don't want to settle. If he asked me, you know, I'm getting the vibes that Floors

doesn't want to settle. He didn't put an amount of money that he was seeking in the complaint, which is number one side number two. Is the kind of shock and all value that he put into this complaint. He's got the quote. You know, the first sentence of the complaint is the Bill Belichick text. The second sentence of the complaint is a quote from Martin Luther King, and then he gets into the actual normal legal stuff. So you know, all the optics to me point out, this

is someone that wants to send a method. It's not someone that wants to settle. It's not someone that's gonna go away so quickly. Um, And if you're the NFL, it's gonna get a lot worse before it gets better because you have now again, like the Hugh Jackson's coming out that Marvin Lewis is coming out, Hugh Jackson has his own allegations that he says the Browns paid him to lose. Is another African American coach who has kind of you know, let go from his team and now

can't find another head coaching gig. So yeah, I don't I think the NFL would love to settle it. I just don't think it's their call. Yeah. And as far as Brian Floores doing all the the interviews and from the legal perspective, like the advantage you have right as a lawyer when you have a lawsuit like this is I'm pretty confident in the NFL did not know this was coming. Right, This is not normal that you blow the whistle when you're still trying to get a job.

That's this. This is an unorthodox way of doing things. So doing all the TV, if he's going on CNN and CBS in all these places, he's doing that for the court of a public opinion. Right, This is this is to try to tug at the heart strings and that that's the message. Right. You have the advantage that you're trying to get your message out before the NFL can counter am. I correct in that. Yeah, I mean, I guess, I guess you have to think. Right, he

could file a laws doctor any media. Um, the media is set up, and it wasn't just you know, uh, you know, podcasts and radios. He went to the two biggest shots where he went to CBS, he went to ESPN back to back, and he had his lawyers on the stage. You know. Um, I don't know about the wisdom of this, but comparing him, you know, and they wanted this lawsuit to Rosa Parks, which I think is

a creative decision. I who am I to say whether or not he's the Rosa Parks in the NFL office early stage, but that was a calculated move that his attorney planned to say. So, I don't know. Anyway, I think to your point, the message it's sending is that this is not a guy that's gonna settle and walk away.

If if Ryan Floores accepted a check tomorrow for a hundred million dollars and walked away, it sends a really bad message, right, Um, it sends a message of someone that literally built up all the teams you just get paid, and to walk away again, it seems like someone that's giving up for a long protracted fight, similar to kaepernet in case took you know, years to develop. Um. Yeah,

so I don't it's your earlier point. I think it sends the message that if you hire are employers for better for worse, there's gonna be a lot of attention on your team and not necessarily on the field results, which I'm not sure if the team is gonna willingly sound up for that. And Dan, if you were advising with your your legal mind there, if you were advising the wonderful world of the NFL there, I don't really have plenty of lawyers themselves, but what what should the

NFL do now? Because this is the ultimate hot potato no, And you know, it's like a lot of guys don't want to talk about it because they're still employed by the NFL and everyone's very uncomfortable walking on eggshells. So what what would you do if you're the NFL? How would you handle this with grace? If you will? Um? Well, I take damage control the two words that come to mind, right, um And I think at a fundamental level that kind of I don't know that. I don't know what the

right expression is. I think they kind of blew it with their initial statement. They said, you know, you can read the whole statement. You know, they put US statements, Giants for US statement, Proco's browns Um, all the teams associated the one that's getting a lot of flak at the NFL statement because it was done, you know, pretty crudely. It was sent out about an hour after the text the lawsuit was filed, and it ends with Brian Flores'

claims are without merit. So you know, you can convince me that the claim his legal cases have got married. You're not really going to convince me that his claim that the NFL has a real diversity problem. That that's without Marrit That's pretty clear, right, Mike Tomlin is the only uh you know blackhead coach's only six general managers that are black and I have no owners. So yeah,

I mean it's subjective. Um. And then the other part is like, I don't know Stephen Ross this allegation that he paid uh you know Flora's a hundred thousands to tank games. I don't know how you say that without merit, without conducting a full blown investigation. So my advice to the NFL would have been, let's let you have your statement, not emphatically say that Flora's is one percent raw. That doesn't make any sense. Um, it should be re launching

a full and unfettered investigation. We're prepared to defend this, but you know, we take these claims very seriously. We were launching a full investigation. We'll have more on this at a later point in time. Without the statement, that don't completely pro proved. Brian Flores, who's I think whether he wins to loses his case, I think he's right that there is a diversity problem and something needs to be done about it. If the NFL doesn't want to

I don't know. I mean that's kind of what their message said, that there's nothing here and we're gonna swiftly move and we're gonna get this case dismissed. Nothing to see here onto the Super Bowl. Let's talk about Brady's retirement. Um, that's how I read it, which I think was was

definitely inappropriate. Yeah, And based on what you've said here and kind of reading, reading the room and hearing things, and does your gut tell you that if we have this conversation in February of three, that this thing is still out there or does this end up vanishing by next NFL season, which is in September. What's what is more likely to happen? What do you think we're gonna know? I want to say in about days. If so, the NFL is gonna move to dismiss, which they always do.

They moved to do it in the Grooting case. They always moved to dismiss, we'll know. And if that says right around and maybe a little bit longer, if the judge agrees with that, kind of the case would be kicked out of court. And if it's not kicked out of court, because when you entered discovery, so I don't discovery takes years, right, I mean it's it's a long process.

So we'll know and you know, again at six and ninety period, if this case is going to go a year, two years, three years, um, because that's how long takes to depose all these people, to depose all thirty two teams. It took that St. Louis Ram's case that was, you know, alleging that the NFL committed a fraud by moving the team from St. Louis Los Angeles. You know, it legitimately took that case four years to get ready for trial. Um. And it didn't have the same type of sensitive undertones

that this case does. And that this case will be playing out very publicly. So yeah, I you know, asked me to bet on it right now. Uh, And I think, as you know, I'm a I'm a betting guy. I'd say I'd say be minus two that this case is around a year from today. Bet the over. You gotta bet the over on this is what you gotta do. Yeah. And the John Gruden's story, now this is kind of off the radar, is not getting that much attention. Uh legally, you know, does does Gruden have a leg to stand on.

I know that there was a suit file as you you talked about the NFL im mediately tried to dismiss it and all this stuff. But we're Gruden's at right now. He's also probably not gonna work in the NFL game. But is there any kind of way that he can get some money out of the NFL and actually win this? Um? I mean it's another case kind of what we're talking about with for It's like, I don't really think really cares about the money. UM. I think Gruden losing his

job with the with the Raiders and whatever endorsements. I think he had a sketcher's deal. How much money was that really work? Uh? He had signed a ten year I think a hundred million dollar contract. I think he was a couple years in. It is at fifty million, you know at most, um, you know, maybe a little bit more for the endorsements. UM, I don't. I don't really think he was entitled to that number one is that canna be titled to the whole amount? Because it's

you know, will you have kept his job anyway? You know, the Raiders were kind of a middling team, right, Um, But I don't, I don't think it's a guy that cares about money. I think that the guy that cares about his reputation being destroyed, uh and wants to see why they leave the emails? Who else was in it? Um? Whatnot? If you asked me, I actually I actually think that Gruden's cases and hopefully old takes exposes and find me on this. But like, I think there's some credibility there

to the to the gruten case. Maybe it's an easier case to prove than the Florida's case because, like I don't know, there's hundreds of thousands of emails, and only the emails that are leaked belonged to John Gruden, So that seems to be someone selectively doing it. And then only three people had the emails, the lawyers for Washington Football team, Washington Football team. I guess now the commanders

will call them in the NFL that was it. So someone like the emails, and I think everyone can agree whoever leaked probably committed some type of you know, some type of tortious element, some type of that has some type of legal liability. So it was either Washington Football team, the lawyers, or the NFL. Right, it's you've just gotta take your poison here, whereas you know in the Floor's case, you's gonna prove this. It's thirty two teams, gotta prove

some collective elements. It's certainly a much tougher sell well. And also Gruden was not an employee of the NFL right at the time, so when when those emails were sent, Uh, he was not working for the NFL. And it is interesting.

I remember we were talking about that on the radio show, and those emails were all leaked to like major newspapers in New York, which I know the lawyer, a lot of lawyers in New York and when you're in New York, but it just seemed like it's right near the NFL offices, Like it was just too too convenient that that took place. But moving on from that, though, Dan, the Commanders, you've had some great stuff on social media, and I know you've got the podcast as well, The Commanders the Ultimate

Bland nickname and uh, it's just just generic. I guess we're in the age now where you can't have anything fun. But you brought up a great point on on social media that one of the reasons that we have this not only because everyone gets offended by everything these days. But also there was some random guy, right I guess in Virginia who has been waiting for this name change

and it had been hoarding different names. Explain kind of walked me through what this guy was able to pull off and apparently successfully pull off and stonewall a billion four billion dollar NFL team. I'm so hoping you bring this up like the sports laws now in the last you know, you're so getting a nice platform. I've been aware of all these like little niche stories for years, and it's nice that they're coming out. There's a random actuary from Virginia. He has no time to the NFL.

He has He's just a random guy. If you looked at him on the street, you wouldn't look twice. Just some random dude. And a couple of years ago he goes, you know what, I think the name Redskins is probably going to get in trouble with Maybe this guy was like maybe, like, um, you know, an early investor in crypto, he saw the trend happening before it really came to be, and he said, you know, it would be fun if

I just started trademarking all these names. Uh, Washington Presidents, Washington Monuments, Washington Justice, Washington Red Tails, which I guess is a very popular name. Washington read Wolves, you know, another popular name that I guess people Washington really wanted. So while he's doing this, Dan Stider is being interviews, you know, very public interviews and saying we will never

change the name. Never you could print that, um. And this guy's just sitting here, you know, a lot of the trademarking about thirty names of pretty you know good, you know good. I don't know solid names that I would think are better than commanders. So this guy does it. He starts opening up an online store with mugs and hats and T shirts. And for trademark law, you need to just prove you had a good faith basis for

using the name you were putting into commercial use. So he's selling like two mugs a T shirt with the Washington Monuments on it, and and that you know was viewed by some as being legitimate. So fast forward and obviously we know what happened. Washington announces the name change and Jason write the team president I thought had the most telling interview. He goes, well, there were other names we wanted, but you know, there was kind there was some trademark issues and we kind of had to go

a different route. And I'm sitting there, you know, like that Leonardo DiCaprio meme when he's like spitting up his beer and pointing at the television, I'm like, that's my guy, Martin McAuley. You know, you just stone wall the billion dollar team into submission. So if you're unhappy with the commander's name, Um, there's a there's a there's a world where you should be chuckling a little bit that this one guy was able to disrupt the whole NFL momentum.

And it's really a crazy story. Maybe a movie someday, Yeah, that definitely has You could see that on the big screen. Like had just selling your kind of disheveled guy and he's just because it doesn't cost that much, my my correct name, like the way to get something copyrighted or trademark or whatever. It's not it's not that expensive, right, Like he didn't How much do you think the guy was spending to trademark all these different names. It must

not have been that much. I would think probably for four figures, you know, maybe low five figures. It's not going to be that much, but we're the critical flow was for Washington. Um, as far as I know when when Dantonner said we're never changing the name, I imagine right, if I'm a lawyer, I would probably have said, well, Dan, I know you never change the name. You know, if you do change it, shouldn't we get back up? It's hoping it cost us like a thousand bucks. You know,

what do you think? And UM, I don't think they did that. That was the mistake from the legal perspective, Like, I don't know, you don't You can say you're never changing the name, but you know, um, at least spending thousand bucks. You guys are worth a billion dollars, so bi in and tickets every year. Get a backup name so you don't look really stupid and you have some random Virginia actually talking on you and making you look incredibly incompetent. Absolutely, Uh A little time left. I wanted

to talk about Deshaun Watson. You mentioned you referenced in earlier. This is also a fascinating, you know, sports law case that he's missed an entire season. This thing is still dragging on and on and on. I know we're after the Super Bowl here, there's supposed to be some new revelations that are gonna come out here, and you mentioned the publicity part of it, but he's already missed a year. Nobody wants to trade for Watson because this is still

hanging around with these different women. And I'll ask you a question I asked earlier about the NFL case with with Flores. Uh. We have this conversation, we have you backed in in September, the NFL is about to start another season. Is Deshaun Watson's legal trouble over or is this thing continuing? What do you think happens with Watson? We're about to hit an interesting point with Watson. Um, whether or not you want to believe before it said

they've been wrong before. There's reportedly a grand jury that is in the process of convening. You know, it's almost upends depends what the deal is, but the grand jury will announce whether or not there's criminal charges. Um. The d A could have made that decision on their own, but they wanted to give it to the grand jury, probably because you know, it's a high profile guy, pretty popular in Houston, and maybe the d A did we wanted to put the blame on on the jury or

the grand jury. If they, you know, indicted him on criminal charges, that's gonna happen. I mean people have saying it's gonna happen any minute. It's been eleven months and we haven't had it. I imagine, you know, we're getting closer there. Um, if there are criminal charges, I don't think Watson is ready. I think Watson gets kind of, you know, the Michael Vick treatment, and he just put

put in the background for years. I don't know. Michael Vick was legitimately sent to prison, Um, you know, and that happened fairly quickly. I don't. I think it's two premature say that with Watson. But I think if you're a betting man again as as I am, Um, I think that maybe it's less than it's certainly less. It's closer to even money. But I think you'd predict that there'd be some form of criminal charges that the a's officers circling this. They sent out subpoenas for his social

media accounts. They put a lot of time into this case. It would be odd for them to walk away with nothing. Um. I heard the same reports, which I'm sure you did that. The Carolina Panthers were considering potentially trading for him, even though this was hanging over his head, and ultimately they did not. Um that the Dolphins, you know, speaking of Brian Flores, that those guys were thinking of trading criminal ultimately did not. The trade window opens back up on

March sixteen, so pretty soon. Um, if there are no criminal charges by that time, it's possible a team takes a chance. Um, but again, my my gut, I'll take whatever the over is. I'll certainly go with it. Yeah, so that's the case. Then even on a civil thing, if it doesn't become criminal and he ends up having you know, he loses, then he's going to be suspended. I think he's suspended either way, which is weird because

he's aready missed a season. So anyway, listen, I I love you on on Twitter, falling you from afar there and you're you've got your podcast. How can people keep in contact, get caught up on all the sports law and you're blowing up here, You're on TV radio, you're everywhere. You're You're a one man machine over there. Dan. It's it's very impressive. Um, I appreciate it um and uh, yeah, I mean we're getting lucky with a couple of big stories. So yeah, I'm on social media at sports law Lust

on Twitter and Instagram. Uh. And then our podcast called Conduct Detrimental. Obviously we dedicated a full episode to the Brian Floyd stuff. We've done Washington football team, DeShawn Watson. Um. But yeah, the Conduct Detrimental is uh the top sports lave podcast in the world. I'm not sure that's saying much because there's only like three of us, but people say top sports lave podcast in the history of humanity. I think that's even better. Well, I want you to

know Dan, I you know, I love I'm fascinated. I'm jealous that you get to work in that world because I every time I'm doing sports radio and it's pretty standard fair, but anytime one of these stories comes up, I imagine myself as a lawyer, and I try to think like a lawyer, and it's a I always have a lot of fun with these things. So I appreciate your expertise, and thank you. We'll have you on again, and good luck, thank you, my pleasure you tom me when