The Brian Flores case against the NFL and several teams (Dolphins, Texans, Giants, and Broncos) has recently focused on a document produced by Korn Ferry, in connection with a coaching search the company performed for the Ravens.
Korn Ferry and the NFL want the document to remain under seal and, as a result, not available to the public. Flores has challenged the designation.
In most federal civil cases, the presiding judge delegates disputes that arise during the discovery process to a magistrate judge. In this case, the magistrate judge has issued a ruling.
The ruling, as reported by Daniel Kaplan, is also under seal. For now.
The apparent reason for the decision is to give the party that lost the issue a chance to appeal to the presiding judge. And the fact that the decision is sealed doesn’t necessarily mean Korn Ferry lost. In order to issue the preliminary ruling, the magistrate judge likely had to quote from or otherwise describe key aspects of the currently secret document.
If the case goes to trial, the document undoubtedly will be presented and discussed in open court. But that’s a long way away. Securing the publication of the document sooner rather than later could create a bad P.R. look for the league, which could not only spark meaningful settlement talks but also prompt the media, the fans, and those with oversight of the league to sit up and take notice of the manner in which the sausage gets made.
For now, the question is whether the losing party on the issue of the sealed document will appeal within the 14-day time period for doing so. And whoever files the appeal necessarily will have been the losing party.
Broncos Clips
Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua sat out practice again Thursday. He has missed the past four practices after injuring his hip in the Sept. 17 practice.
It puts his availability for the Week 3 game in question.
Nacua missed the Week 2 victory over the Giants, watching as Davante Adams caught eight passes for 195 yards and two touchdowns.
Coach Sean McVay said Wednesday the Rams will be deliberate in Nacua’s return given it’s a soft-tissue.
Wide receiver Jordan Whittington (quad) returned to practice Thursday with limited work. He did not play in Week 2.
Offensive lineman Alaric Jackson (knee) and tight end Terrance Ferguson (ankle) were full participants Thursday after being limited a day earlier.
Tight end Colby Parkinson (knee) and safety Kam Kinchens (hamstring) were non-participants a second consecutive day.
Inside linebacker Nate Landman (shoulder) remained limited.
Graham Bensinger’s recent interview with Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald made headlines not just for its content but for how the content was obtained — making Bensinger himself part of the story.
As a result, Bensinger posted the following statement on Twitter:
“Due to ongoing media requests for comment, I want to clarify the timeline surrounding a portion of our recent interview with Mike Macdonald that has received attention this week.
“The complete Mike Macdonald interview, including the conversation now at issue, was provided to Seahawks PR last Wednesday, September 16 — five days before it was published on YouTube Monday. During that time, no concern was raised about the exchange, and we were never asked to remove it. For the last couple of years, our typical practice with long-form interview releases has been to include some of the pre-interview conversation.
“Coach Macdonald reached out to me directly yesterday morning expressing concern. I immediately told him we would remove that portion, and we did. Unfortunately, it had already been clipped from our interview by online outlets and circulated elsewhere. I told Coach that, in hindsight, I regretted allowing that exchange to be included and that it was my error in judgment.
“I have tremendous respect for Coach. We spent significant time together in Seattle, and I came away impressed not only by what he has accomplished in such a short period of time, but by the person he is. The last thing I want is for one exchange to overshadow that story. I also have great respect for Sean Payton, whom I had the opportunity to profile previously.”
It will be interesting to see whether the Seahawks agree that the full conversation, including the segment regarding the 2024 brouhaha with the Broncos, was sent to them on September 16. Also, it feels like Bensinger is opting to blame the Seahawks for not spotting an interaction that, as Macdonald has said, was never meant to be aired.
Besides, why was Bensinger giving the thing to the Seahawks in advance anyway? This isn’t Hard Knocks; it’s an independent interview that does not need to be reviewed or approved by the subject of the interview before publication.
And while the situation has helped remind everyone that Graham Bensinger continues to operate in an increasingly crowded media space, this specific incident could complicate his efforts to attract willing participants from the NFL ecosystem for future sit-down interviews.
Despite his immense success in a short time with one of the 32 most coveted jobs in football, Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald is still learning.
As it relates to his recent sit-down with Graham Bensinger, Macdonald has learned that nothing is off the record unless both sides to the conversation agree that it is. Macdonald also has learned to assume that every mic is a hot mic, and that every camera is capturing images.
He’s also learning to be careful about who he trusts, and about when and where he lets himself get comfortable.
More broadly, Macdonald is learning why Bill Belichick behaves the way he does. If you say as little as possible, the chances of saying something you come to regret will be minimized.
Earlier this week, Macdonald was asked about his decision to submit to interviews in the aftermath of winning the Super Bowl.
“If someone’s interested in talking and you feel like it’s an honest process, then why not?” Macdonald told reporters on Monday. “I don’t have a long relationship with Graham [Bensinger], but I was really impressed with how they did their business. There are other podcasts that you had prior relationships with folks, and I respect the work that they do, and we have prior relationships that you want to honor. It’s probably that simple.”
As the owner and operator of a media outlet, I’ll never complain about coaches, players, and others from the NFL universe providing compelling content. Plenty of it comes from the press conferences to which coaches are required to submit. When they stray beyond that, they need to be careful.
Careful about what they say. Careful about who they say it to. Careful about who they trust.
As to Bensinger, he won the battle of capturing a compelling sound bite. He may have lost the broader war, however. By possibly operating under the premise that it’s better to seek forgiveness than to request permission — and by clinging to the technicalities of invoking off-the-record protection — Macdonald surely won’t be inclined to sit down with him again. And, if Macdonald does, he’ll be far more guarded.
Others may have similar trepidations about submitting to interviews and/or allowing themselves to be charmed into getting too comfortable.
For Macdonald, he got way too comfortable. One source not connected to either the Seahawks or Broncos deemed it “reckless.”
Complicating matters for Macdonald is that he now reports to ownership that didn’t hire him. And while winning is ultimately all that matters, early impressions matter, too. And it’s one thing for outsiders to question Macdonald’s judgment and discretion. If Vinod, Neeru, and/or Neal Khosla feel a little differently about Macdonald after this incident, it could come back to haunt him if/when the wins aren’t as consistent or convincing.
The top three Broncos running backs are all on the injury report.
Jonah Coleman did not practice on Wednesday due to an ankle injury. Coleman scored his first NFL touchdown in last Sunday’s win over the Jaguars and the rookie ran 10 times for 39 yards in the game.
Coleman saw more playing time because J.K. Dobbins left the game with a hip injury and RJ Harvey was inactive with a hamstring injury. Both of those backs were listed as limited participants.
Wide receiver Marvin Mims (foot) was also a limited participant. He missed practice all of last week and did not play against Jacksonville.
Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua missed Week 2 with a groin injury and his outlook for this week’s game against the Broncos remains unclear.
Head coach Sean McVay said that Nacua would have missed Wednesday’s practice — the team only held a jog-through — and they’ll see what he’s able to do on Thursday. McVay said Nacua is “frustrated,” but that the team doesn’t believe this is a long-term issue and will exercise caution to ensure it doesn’t become one.
“I don’t think so. I think it’s more along the lines of just seeing how that responds,” McVay said, via Nate Atkins of TheAthletic.com. “When you’re a skill player and you’re really trying to hit high-speed yards and really open up, then some of the things can be like pre-hernia is what he’s feeling. You err on the side of caution. Usually, time is the best thing that allows that thing to heal and then when you get to a certain point, I think you feel pretty good moving forward.”
If that doesn’t happen by Sunday, Davante Adams will remain the top wide receiving option for the Rams.
Broncos head coach Sean Payton got his chance to address Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald’s comments about a 2024 disagreement between the teams at his Wednesday press conference.
Macdonald said earlier in the day that he called Payton to apologize after comments he intended to be off the record about Payton getting upset about the Seahawks’ use of fan videos from training camp to prepare for a 2024 game went public. Payton said he and Macdonald are good and said he called Seahawks General Manager John Schneider “shooting before I started looking” because he didn’t know how the Seahawks had obtained the videos.
The videos were posted on social media and Payton said that the incident wound up in a positive way because it allowed the Broncos to address videotaping of their practices.
“Talking with them, it allowed us to figure out how to handle our training camp relative to videos,” Payton said. “I don’t think anything was intentional by fans. We did some research online of what was available and that’s kind of how we changed our policy.”
Payton called the entire episode “eye-opening” in terms of how information from open practices can circulate and both sides will likely be sticking to official game tape to prepare for their Week 6 game.
Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald confirmed that his comments about Broncos head coach Sean Payton in a recent interview were meant to be off the record during his Wednesday press conference.
In an interview with Graham Bensinger, Macdonald recounted Payton getting upset with the Seahawks for using fan-recorded videos from Denver’s training camp to prepare for a Week 1 game between the teams in 2024. Macdonald likened it to a “Cold War” with Payton referencing Spygate and the Seahawks countering with a threat to sue him if he went public with any accusations.
Macdonald said on Wednesday that the comments were made during a conversation before he thought the interview was being recorded and said there was a “certain type of understanding” about their use. Macdonald declined to discuss any conversations that might have taken place about how the video made it to the public, but said he reached out to Payton with an apology.
“It was something I didn’t intend to come out for public use,” Macdonald said. “Thought it was the most appropriate thing to reach out to Sean and really just apologize to him for having that be public when it wasn’t meant to. . . . It’s a lesson learned. I gotta be better in that moment for understanding I’m responsible for what I say no matter the circumstance.”
Macdonald said Payton was “awesome” in their conversation and the two men will have a chance to face off for the second time as head coaches in Week 6.
The story of the day on Tuesday featured the unexpected disclosure of a behind-the-scenes beef between the Seahawks and Broncos. And while the whole thing was eye opening (and likely not intended for air), one specific line caught my eye.
Regarding Broncos coach Sean Payton’s assertion that the Seahawks had obtained training-camp footage through improper means, Macdonald said, “He thought it was a Michigan thing where we had a plant.”
That’s a reference to the 2023 Connor Stalions scandal in Ann Arbor, where Stalions developed a mechanism (in violation of NCAA rules) to scout future opponents with the goal of figuring out their sideline signals. In this specific context, Payton presumably suggested that the Seahawks sent someone to Broncos training camp to record their plays.
Beyond the fact that Macdonald’s journey included a year on Jim Harbaugh’s Michigan staff (2021, as defensive coordinator), the 2024 Seahawks employed former Michigan assistant Matt Weiss as an outside contractor. And while Weiss’s coaching career has imploded due to criminal allegations of widespread hacking, it’s fair to point out that the 2024 Seahawks had a distinct Michigan component.
That’s not to say Payton’s allegations had any merit. Faced with a threat that the Seahawks would sue the Broncos if Payton went public with his suspicions of shenanigans, the issue died. And it would have remained unknown if Macdonald had spoken about it into a hot mic.
It will be interesting to hear what Macdonald and Payton have to say about it today, when they meet with reporters for their usual Wednesday press conferences. Regardless of their likely efforts to downplay the situation and move on, the Seahawks have self-applied the kind of scarlet letter that will give the coaches of the teams they beat the same kind of excuse that plagued the Patriots during their run of dominance.
Pressed by owners as to why the Seahawks keep beating their teams, coaches can resort to the notion that the Seahawks cheat. Even without a shred of evidence to support that claim.
If/when that happens, it will trace to the fact that Macdonald got way too comfortable — and said way too much about a topic that otherwise would have never come to light.
Meanwhile, the Broncos host the Seahawks in 22 days, for a Thursday night game. Which will create a motivation for multiple media outles to fully explore the rabbit hole that, as of Tuesday morning, no one even knew existed.
Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald launched his career as a head coach with a win over Sean Payton and the Denver Broncos. The game from September 2024 moved back to the front burner on Tuesday, thanks to footage from Macdonald’s recent interview with Graham Bensinger.
The excerpt, which wasn’t released when the first clips and quotes began to be circulated, relates to a squabble that emerged regarding the use by the Seahawks of fan-generated video from Broncos training-camp practices. It got ugly, as Macdonald told the story to Bensinger.
It could get ugly between the Seahawks and Bensinger’s camp. As we understand it, the conversation was not intended by Macdonald for public consumption. The Seahawks, we’re told, didn’t even know that portion of the “more off than on” the record discussion had been recorded until Tuesday morning.
The situation is another reminder that everything is potentially on the record, absent a clear agreement between the parties that it’s not. And while Bensinger’s people didn’t breach any journalistic rules by using it, the fact that it was posted could make future subjects more leery about agreeing to be interviewed.
On or off the record, others are befuddled by Macdonald’s decision to air gripes from two years ago. And there’s a question as to whether the various things Macdonald said to Bensinger (regarding Payton and others) are the product of arrogance or naiveté.
“What’s the point?” said one source connected to neither the Seahawks nor the Broncos. “It was reckless.”
The Broncos declined comment on the situation. Undoubtedly, Payton will be asked about it when he conducts his usual Wednesday press conference.
Either way, the kerfuffle adds a little extra sizzle to a spicy Week 6 Thursday night game between the two teams.
