The "Holy Grail" of NFL Secrets

EPISODE 256: Exclusives (and, now, paid PTFO subscriptions).

I love a little friendly competition.

Especially with someone like Mike Florio, whom you probably know from NBC’s Football Night in America and ProFootballTalk, the preeminent online clearinghouse for NFL news. Which is where Florio has been publicly calling for any reporter out there to be dogged enough to find a secret artifact that neither league ownership nor the players’ union wants you to see.

And so I did.

After tumbling down yet another strange rabbit hole, I have now obtained the full 61-page document — which I’ll link to at the end of this newsletter. And which one source described as follows:

It’s almost like the holy grail for the union. Here’s 61 pages of gory details about how the league really works, thanks to an independent judicial arbitrator. You should be screaming about this from the high heavens.

The never-before-seen ruling reveals the results of both extensive discovery and a closed-door hearing with witness testimony from — deep breath — NFL commissioner Roger Goodell; three star quarterbacks (Lamar Jackson, Kyler Murray, and Russell Wilson); eight (!) owners; NFLPA leaders; and various powerful agents and executives. It also includes details about a closed-door presentation for all 32 NFL owners at an annual meeting, in the wake of the Cleveland Browns’ unprecedented, fully guaranteed contract for Deshaun Watson. (The trigger for this whole saga.)

But our investigation here isn’t just about Roger Goodell and his shadowy “NFL Management Council.” Because I believe this document is also a map. And if you follow it carefully — as Mike Florio and I do in an episode that is about and is, itself, a coalition of competitors — then the stops along the way will include:

• a towering allegation of collusion, levied against the most powerful men in the most powerful sport in the United States;

• a stunning level of disarray that’s been hidden inside the NFL Players Association, in plain sight;

• the private text messages, secret slideshows, and previously unpublished testimony of billionaires;

• Lamar Jackson’s busted phone;

• and one star quarterback being called a word that rhymes with his name.

But before I send you off on this quest: I do need to mention a bit of personal business here at Pablo Torre Finds Out.

You may have heard, recently, that while I proudly remain at Meadowlark Media, PTFO has officially left the DraftKings Network after a surreal and incredible run. But this means that as I type this to you, right now, our weird little show about journalism is genuinely independent — and searching for a new licensing partner (more good news on that front soon, I hope).

But for now, I am doing something we’ve never done before:

Activating Paid PTFO Subscriptions on Substack.

What does this mean?

Good question! Practically speaking, it means that I’ve finally clicked the Payments button on Substack and kept the default price points, which means that if you want to support our thrice-weekly, highly produced show — this is Episode 256, a number which makes me want to faint — please do!

It’s just $8 a month. And you can now click here to support us.

(THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU.)

To be clear: we’re not gonna paywall the audio or video of the full episodes themselves. You can still consume as you always have. I’ve simply learned that in the age of independent digital media, if people want to economically support the work that you and your exhausted team are doing, you should let them.

And in exchange… I’m cooking up some increasingly elaborate subscriber-only PTFO benefits — involving exclusive meetings and even more digital artifacts you can’t get anywhere else — that I’m brainstorming now.

Speaking of which: here’s that secret 61-page document I promised you.

Enjoy:

Ptfonflnflpadoc

9.49MB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

YOUTUBE SPOILER ALERT:

Yours in sunlight,

Pablo