Eagles GM Howie Roseman labeled Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio a “conspiracy theorist” in a feisty back-and-forth after the Philadelphia exec was pressed about a recently settled tampering case involving his team and the Cardinals.
During the recent conversation, Florio turned his attention to the tampering ordeal with Arizona, which had “impermissible contact” with Philadelphia’s former defensive coordinator, Jonathan Gannon, in its offseason head-coaching search before tapping him for the job.
“Before I let you go, what can you tell me about how the Jonathan Gannon tampering situation came to be? How did you find out about it?” Florio said Tuesday.
Roseman responded by heaping praise on Gannon, who helped lead the Eagles to a 14-3 regular-season record and an NFC Championship berth, and made it clear, “The more we look in the past, the less focused we are on the future.”
“For me, that’s over with, wish him well in Arizona and we’re moving on.”
Florio wasn’t ready to move on, however.
“Did you guys actually make a complaint or was this the Cardinals raising their hand and saying, ‘We realized we screwed up.'”
Roseman didn’t blink and celebrated Gannon’s contributions once more.
“I’m really appreciative of JG’s contributions, helping us with the NFC, and that was handled at the ownership level, and I think we need to move on,” Roseman said.
Florio then expressed answers such as the ones provided “make people like me think there’s a hell of a lot more to this than anyone is ever going to tell us, and it was a much bigger deal than anyone ever let it on to be.”
Roseman then offered an interesting rebuttal:
“If I was making a list of top five conspiracy theorists around the National Football League you would be — I don’t know that you would be one, I don’t want to appoint you as one, but you would definitely be top five,” Roseman said.
Florio shot back with the curious timing of the resolution, which was announced minutes before the start of the 2023 NFL Draft in April when the Eagles received the Cardinals’ third-rounder, No. 66 overall, and Arizona obtained Philadelphia’s selection at No. 94, and a 2024 fifth-rounder.
“It is possible that’s when [the] resolution came, right?” Roseman said.
“Again, I don’t want to get into any details but I’m saying there are answers for some of your conspiratorial, is that the word, conspiratorial theories.”
Florio was pleased with the response, telling Roseman, “Well, that’s good. It’s good I got something out of you, I thought you were just going to read the talking points again.”
Florio addressed the exchange with Roseman on Twitter later in the day Tuesday.
“Howie wasn’t mad at me, I wasn’t mad at Howie. We both have a job to do. There’s a story about the Gannon tampering that they’re keeping under wraps. I’m curious as to what really happened. Fans should be, too,” he tweeted.
“It’s possible that the Eagles determined Gannon was incredibly distracted by the Cardinals improperly inviting him to interview for their job the day after the Super Bowl — and that this distraction undermined his preparation for the game.
“The Eagles defense had huge flaw with their adjustments to motion and shifts. That flaw was not corrected by Gannon during the two weeks before the Super Bowl. The Chiefs exploited it. Could a more focused Gannon have fixed that problem in time? That’s NOT a conspiracy theory.”
The Eagles lost to the Chiefs in February’s Super Bowl, 38-35.
Gannon was introduced as the Cardinals’ head coach shortly after.
