Maybe we’ll now finally get to the bottom of whether Vladimir Putin lifted Robert Kraft’s Super Bowl ring.
The guy who set the table for coach Bill Belichick’s three Super Bowl wins in four seasons has entered the NBC family.
As explained by Richard Deitsch of SI.com, former Chiefs G.M. and Patriots V.P. of player personnel Scott Pioli will join the Football Night in America crew this season. He’ll also be making appearances on NBCSN’s Pro Football Talk.
And I’ll corral him from time to time to join me on PFT Live. (Including, for example, today.)
Pioli has drawn great reviews during his offseason work with NFL Network, NBCSN, and SiriusXM NFL Radio. He’ll appear in a variety of capacities during the Sunday night highlight and pregame show.
“I just saw another smart football mind that gives us a different perspective that we don’t have on the team right now -- a player personnel guy who has a smart way of looking at the game,” NBC executive producer Sam Flood told Deitsch. (Does quoting the boss in a non-gratuitous way still constitute sucking up?)
“I am evaluator by nature so I wanted to spend time taking it all in to make a thoughtful decision,” Pioli told Deitsch. “I decided this would be a great, new opportunity. Evaluating in my old job the things I did well and the things I did not do well, I certainly believe understanding the media and what their job is was something I did not do a good job of. I thought this was a good opportunity to learn and grow, and get better in a lot of different areas.”
He’ll make us better, too. And we’re looking forward to having him around.
Especially if he plans on bringing any of those Super Bowl rings to the studio. I could kill someone with one of those. Or at least give them a nasty bruise.