When Mike Golic and Mike Greenberg’s announced last week that their show, “Mike & Mike,” was coming to an end after nearly two decades, it was confirmation of one of sports media’s worst-kept secrets. The behind-the-scenes drama, however, is a different story.
Multiple ESPN employees told SI.com’s Richard Deitsch recently that while the ESPN Radio show is ending in part because of the hosts’ new ventures — Greenberg is getting his own show and Golic will continue at ESPN Radio with Trey Wingo — the hosts’ strained relationship isn’t helping matters, either. In fact, one longtime ESPN employee told Deitsch they don’t even see the show finishing its contract.
“It’s really a poisonous atmosphere right now,” the employee, who’s worked on the show, said. “Most of us don’t see the show lasting through its contractual end (which is believed to be the end of December). But I give both these guys immense credit because when the light comes on, you would not know what’s going on. They are pros on air.”
“They are marvelous actors on set,” another employee told Deitsch. “But they barely even make eye contact with each other these days.”
The source of the tension reportedly began in May 2015, when ESPN announced “Mike & Mike” would move from Bristol, Conn., to New York, where they’d broadcast from ABC’s Times Square studio. That obviously never happened, though, and by September 2016, ESPN executives were looking to give Greenberg his own show. Deitsch was told Golic found out about the move from a Sports Illustrated report.
“From Golic’s perspective, he thinks Mike (Greenberg) should have come to him and told him he wanted to do his own thing,” an ESPN employee said. “But Greeney is very non-confrontational, truly a nice a guy, and he would say that it wasn’t incumbent on him to tell Golic everything about what he wanted to do professionally. I guess I can see both sides.”
Greenberg’s show is slated to begin Jan. 1, 2018, while Golic is expected to start working with Wingo by the fall.
Thumbnail photo via Jerry Lai/USA TODAY Sports Images
