Profootballtalk.com

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Profootballtalk.com is a website dedicated to delivering inside news, rumours and commentary on everything associated with the National Football League (NFL). It has become crucial for all interested due to its uniquely unbiased position and service as watchdog over other professional NFL media.

Contents

[edit] Site Information

The site, often referred to as PFT, was created on November 1st, 2001, by Mike Florio. The engine behind PFT, Florio is responsible for the multiple daily updates to the primary page of the site, the "Daily Rumor Mill." The site relies on inside information, calculated rumors, humor and dedication to the NFL to maintain and develop its fan base.

As the site has grown in popularity and respectability, other elements have been added to PFT such as: Photos, Live Blogs, Podcasts, a Fantasy Mill and even a sister site dedicated to the college game.

[edit] PFT 'Staff'

Name Duties Notes
Mike Florio
AKA "The Grand Poobah"		 Editor, Journalist, Podcasts Aside from his work on the website, Florio works as a lawyer and has a wife and son. He resides in West Virginia, supporting the Mountaineers collegiately - yet has no allegiance to any professional franchise. Before creating the site, Florio worked as an editor for ESPN.
Taco Bill Photos Taco Bill produces photos for the site, usually by Photoshopping images for humorous effect; he also polices the site's message board and seems to have the ability to piss off almost anyone he interacts with.
James Clinton Technical Design JetBlackNinja handles all visual aspects of the website, along with all html, php, etc. He is relatively new to the PFT Crew, having enlisted in the summer of 2006.
Morningstar Sinclair Server maintenance, Admin's PFT Forums Tustar also new to the PFT Crew; he started showing up in the fall of 2006. He is the PFT Server Guy, and admin of the official PFT Forums.
Joe Collegio collegefootballtalk.com Writes the college equivalent to the pro site.

[edit] Site Sections / Elements

  • Rumor Mill - The main aspect of the site. Multiple articles are written every day on all sorts of NFL related information.
  • Team Pages - Contains links to individual team websites (official and unofficial), message boards and updated daily news links.
  • 10-Pack - 10 observations on the weekends football action.
  • Power Rankings - Ranking the 32 NFL Franchises, commenting on each as they're ranked.
  • Fantasy Mill - Fantasy Football articles powered through fanball.com
  • All-Turd teams - Annual 'All-turd' teams and 'Hall of Turds' inductions signifying the worst characters of the NFL.
  • Merchandise - Buy PFT hats and shirts.
  • Forum - Talk to other PFT readers.
  • Archives - Read all PFT's stories since its creation in 2001, as a sign of accountability Florio refuses to remove incorrect or ignorant articles, preferring to explain or apologize instead. There is also an archive of all the images posted on the site.
  • Turd Watch - Tracking the arrests of every NFL player on every NFL team just like wins and losses.

[edit] PFT & 'The Real Media'

PFT offers a free service to football fans which often conflicts or attacks the views of other media outlets. As a result PFT struggled to gain acceptance and its breaking stories were, (and still are) often stolen by the paid writers and commentators around the country. PFT's reputation has grown due to its continued success in delivering news and has been accredited in a myriad of online columns and even on television (Peter King of SI.com and Tom Jackson of ESPN are two prominent examples). The fact that Florio now makes multiple radio appearances around America is further proof of PFT's increasing reputation. The site is reportedly read by many NFL 'insiders,' including players, coaches, journalists and most NFL front offices. Whilst not often acknowledged, issues originating from the site have been confronted by people of these positions. Inaccuracies and criticisms of official NFL team websites have often been addressed and fixed within hours of being noted at the site.

PFT often acts as a watchdog for the NFL media. In an effort to improve the NFL product, PFT keeps an eye out for the lazy, incorrect or biased stories that are often written, scrutinizing their authors in the process. While PFT has criticized a lot of journalists, franchises and media outlets, certain entities have become repeated targets of PFT. Some of these include;

  • Michael Irvin - For his unmitigated defense of distracting WRs such as Terell Owens.
  • Joe Theismann - For his contradictions and general lack of NFL common sense, e.g. referring to The University of Miami as "The M."
  • 'ESPN Monday Night Football' - For promoting non-football related products by interviewing various non-football "celebrities" live during games.
  • Chris Havel - A former writer for the 'Green Bay Press-Gazette,' Havel has wrote several books on Brett Favre, yet still claims to be an unbiased journalist.
  • Len Pasquarelli - The senior ESPN writer often defends players represented by certain agents, this is done usually by writing extremely positive articles in an effort to help out the player and thus the agent. Often derisively called "Pastabelly."

With his appearance on the NFL Network in March 2007, Florio, although showing just how far PFT has come, took his first dangerous step towards becoming part of the "real media" establishment, risking PFT's underground status.

[edit] Style

Amid the information and observations PFT relies on humor to entertain its fan base. Toilet humour, mixed with references and comparison's from television shows such as Seinfeld, The Office, The Simpsons and Family Guy combine to keep the site entertaining.

Seinfeld above anything else is used in comparison to NFL situations;

  • "Maybe the Bills should treat G.M. Marv Levy like the Yankees treated George Costanza, and wake him up only for the important meetings."

The site received much negative feedback for making fun of the death of Barbaro. They used a reference to the movie Animal House with the scene of the dead horse in the dean's office.

[edit] Nicknames

PFT also gives nicknames to just about everyone related to football. Some of these include,

Coaches

Players

  • Brett Favre - "Lord Favre", for his untouchable standing amongst NFL commentators.
  • Martin Gramatica - "The Hamburglar", for his similarities with the McDonalds character.
  • Byron Leftwich - "Fat Albert," The Jaguars QB has strong similarities with the cartoon character.
  • Edgerrin James - "No Gain," for his inability to run the football in 2006.
  • Andre Gurode - "Gouda," the Cowboys center had his faced stomped on by Titans defensive tackle, Albert Haynesworth.
  • Najeh Davenport - "Dookie", for defecating in a dorm room closet while the girl who lived there was sleeping.
  • Chad Johnson - "Ocho Stinko," for his inability to keep his mouth closed (makes fun of the name Johnson gave himself, Ocho Cinco)
  • Vince Young - "Uncle Rico," for his awkward arm throwing motion that resembles the same throwing motion of Uncle Rico from the movie Napoleon Dynamite.
  • Santonio Holmes - "Santurdio," for his conflicts with the law.
  • Pacman Jones - "Rain Man," for his showering of tens of thousands of dollars into the air as a "visual effect".
  • Dominic Rhodes - "Poppie," for peeing on himself while in a police car. The name is a reference to the character from Seinfeld who once peed while sitting on Jerry's couch.
  • Eric Steinbach - "The Skipper," in reference to his arrest for boating while under the influence.
  • Luke Petigout - "Luke Pet-a-goat," just because it's funny.
  • Peyton Manning - "Herman Munster," for his large forehead, and general resemblance to the tv character.
  • Kevin Kaesviharn - "Mr. Vowel," for the A E and I and an extra A for kicks.
  • Courtney Brown - "Cavity Sam," for his inability to stay healthy. Named after the character from the classic game "Operation."
  • Todd Pinkston - "Stinkston" for his underachieving performance on the field, including demonstrations of being a wimp including giving up on a pass because of the impending bone-crushing tackle he would have sustained had he caught it

Misc.

[edit] External links

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