ProFootballTalk

Profootballtalk.com is a news and rumor website that focuses on the National Football League. Though much of the information on PFT is aggregated from mainstream media sources, site editor Mike Florio often writes stories he based on tips he attributes to a network of sources.

The main focus of the site is the "Daily Rumor Mill" consisting of postings of the aforementioned news items as well as editorializing by Mike Florio. Throughout the season, weekly rankings of players at various positions for fantasy football are posted. Furthermore, the site maintains a year-round "Turd Watch" competition, in which teams are ranked based on the arrests of their personnel.

The site was created on November 1, 2001, by Mike Florio, who is also the site's primary editor and contributor. Florio is responsible for the multiple daily updates to the primary page of the site, the "Daily Rumor Mill." In addition, content such as satirical photo-illustrations and periodic live blogs by Mike Florio of NFL games or the draft.

On June 14, 2009, it was announced that Profootballtalk.com would become an affiliate of NBC Sports, which would hold exclusive rights to PFT content although Mike Florio would retain ownership.

PFT 'Staff'

Name	Duties	Notes
Mike Florio	Main contributor	Aside from his work on the website, Florio works as a lawyer. He resides in West Virginia. Before creating the site, Florio worked at ESPN.com for a week. Florio is a life-long fan of the Minnesota Vikings as per his appearance on Paul Allen's radio show on 1/19/2010.
Gregg Rosenthal	Contributor	Joined the writing staff following the affiliate agreement with NBC.
Michael David Smith	Contributor	Re-joined the writing staff in 2009 while still working for FanHouse
Josh Alper	Contributor	Author of "one-liners," short team-by-team news blurbs posted at least once a day
James Clinton	Technical Design	JetBlackNinja handles the design and layout of the site.
Joe Brocato	PFTV Contributor	Participates in the PFTV segments by asking Mike Florio questions. His day job is a sports reporter for a local West Virginia TV station.
Ted Sundquist	Twice a week contributor	Former Broncos GM that writes previews and reviews of three high-profile games per week, going over several 'keys to success.'

Former contributing writers include Tom Curran and Aaron Wilson.

Site sections / elements

• Rumor Mill - The main aspect of the site. Multiple articles are posted every day on all sorts of NFL related information.
• Fantasy Mill - Embedded content from Rotoworld.com concerning NFL Fantasy information.
• Teams - Contains links to individual team websites (official and unofficial), message boards and updated daily news links.
• Draft - Draft order list and trade value charts.
• Power Rankings - Ranking the 32 NFL Franchises, commenting on each as they're ranked.
• All-Turd teams - Annual 'All-turd' teams and 'Hall of Turds' inductions, which feature lists of players that Florio asserts are the worst "characters" of the NFL.
• PFT Gear - External link to merchandise available for purchase.
• Events - Listing of radio appearances.
• Media - Links to audio and video content supplemental to the main site content. Also contains link to sister site CollegeFootballTalk.com
• Turd Watch - Tracking the arrests of every member of NFL organizations and assigned points in a ranking system until 2009
• Live Blogs - Florio holds live chats with fans during NFL events, such as games, the draft and Brett Favre retirement press conferences

Former

• Pic of the Day - Contained satirical pictures (often photoshopped) made by Taco Bill.

PFT & 'The Real Media'

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 perceived defense of troubled wide receivers like Terrell Owens.
• Joe Theismann - For his alleged contradictions and general lack of NFL common knowledge. For example: He has referred 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.
• Len Pasquarelli - Florio often alleges that Pasquarelli, a senior ESPN.com writer, defends players represented by certain agents by writing overly positive articles in an effort to help out the player and thus the agent. Florio claims that Pasquarelli does this to keep on the agents' good side so that the agents will continue to supply Pasquarelli with inside information. PFT often refers to Pasquarelli as "Pastabelly" and "Don Vito". PFT has also alleged that Pasquarelli has a bias against the Washington Redskins, writing columns that have criticized the organization, the death of Sean Taylor, the second retirement of Hall of Fame coach Joe Gibbs, and owner Daniel Snyder. He later admitted that his attacks were "in the early days when we we're trying to get noticed."
• Emmitt Smith - For using phrases such as "debacled", "blowed out" and "rightsize the ship." Florio criticizes Smith for his reputed refusal to prepare, which Florio views as an indictment of ESPN for hiring an inexperienced announcer in hopes that viewers would tune in based on name recognition. Smith has also infamously referred to one of the league's teams as a "golf club" and has repeatedly used the terms "conference" and "division" interchangeably.

Notable errors

Pro Football Talk has developed a reputation around the internet for erroneous reporting, although they are losing this reputation by currently printing very few errors. PFT posted and thus spread the unconfirmed rumor that broadcaster and former Steeler Terry Bradshaw had died in a car accident. This proved to be incorrect.

PFT reported that Philadelphia Eagles defensive tackle Brodrick Bunkley may have been arrested on weapons charges, when he was stopped by a Port Authority Police Officer when crossing over a bridge from New Jersey to Pennsylvania. However, it was later confirmed by the "real media" that in fact Jabar Gaffney had been the one arrested and not Bunkley.

A similar instance occurred on the 14th of September, 2009 when the crew of Profootballtalk.com errantly reported a quote from Keyshawn Johnson in referring to Joe Flacco as a "bum". A correction to this was posted on the 15th of September.

It is important to note that, while these errors did in fact occur, the site does not claim to be a 100% accurate in its reporting. The main section of profootballtalk.com is called 'The Rumor Mill.' All stories, unless noted otherwise, are to be seen as rumors and/or speculations.

Style

Posts reference television shows such as Seinfeld, The Office, The Simpsons and Family Guy.

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.

Mike Florio often refers to himself as "we", "us", and "some internet hack". He almost always writes "stupid" as "stoopid". Additionally, he frequently calls the Internet "the intergoogle."

Florio has also made mock drafts during the offseason, usually one before the NFL Scouting Combine and another after. Even though he makes them himself, he has claimed several times to despise mock drafts.

The site also sometimes reports news items using reoccurring nicknames in place of the real names of the reported players and media personnel. Past examples include:

• "Lord Favre", Brett Favre
• "Santurdio Holmes", Santonio Holmes
• "Uncle Rico", Vince Young
• "Joey Sunshine", Joe Theismann
• "Len Pastabelly" or "Don Vito", Len Pasquarelli
• "Ron Mexico", Michael Vick
• "Coach Kevlar", Mike Shanahan
• "Dookie", Najeh Davenport
• "Big Show", Mike Holmgren
• "Koronholio", Tony Kornheiser