VIDEO: Mike Florio Actually Said 49ers Might Consider Hitting Patrick Mahomes Late to Send a Message

Football is a violent game. There's ultimately no denying that fact. But putting the idea out there that one team's players should go out of their way to skirt the rules and hit an opponent in order to rattle them lives in a different category. Unfortunately, that's what ProFootballTalk's Mike Florio sounded like he was suggesting the San Francisco 49ers might consider doing to Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes in the upcoming Super Bowl.

@ProFootballTalk is encouraging late hits with the possibility of taking Mahomes out of the game. pic.twitter.com/wUV3vYSnPC
— Thee AB (@AB_3127) January 23, 2020

"At a certain point you trade the risk of 15 yards if you can send a message. And football is still a physical, violent game. If you can hit him -- even if it’s close to sideline, even if he’s started his slide -- when the championship is riding on it I think it’s a different analysis," he said to colleague Peter King Wednesday.

"[I]f this guy’s going to think he can just run through the defense without any physical consquence, they need to dispel him of that notion the first time he tries."

"At a certain point you trade the risk of 15 yards if you can send a message." - ProFootballTalk's Mike Florio.https://t.co/2H4fbc0RKj
— For The Win (@ForTheWin) January 23, 2020

Yikes.

Florio later tried to defend his argument by adding some nuance, but alarmed, incensed Chiefs fans were absolutely not having it.

You literally advised them to hit him late and swallow the 15 yard late hit penalties. It was lame in the first place, but to double down on it is, well, Florio-level lame https://t.co/6PV9rUFRz0
— Ryan Landreth (@ryan_landreth) January 23, 2020

As much as Florio does know football, it's baffling to see that he dropped even the remote possibiity of illegal hits being a formal part of a team's strategy in the Super Bowl. There's just no real way to justify this, or walk it back besides.