Station: WFAN
Host: Mike Francesa

The King of Sports Talk: Mike Francesa

First, for purposes of reported bias, I thought Mike & the Mad Dog was the blueprint for all sports talk that has come after their pairing. While they were together they often did solo shows in the summer. I admit I liked Mike by himself better than Dog. He was the facts-on-his-side guy. Dog was the comedian, he would argue about anything, which made for interesting radio when they were together.

We will discuss what is left of “Mad Dog Unleashed” at a later date. Mike’s initial idea when Dog left was to have a group of co-hosts the way Imus did. I wish we got to hear that concept. Instead we have Mike telling people if they disagree with him they are ridiculous. If you think this is a bash Mike review, you are wrong. He doesn’t owe us a thing. While the show lacks the urgency and energy of Mike & the Mad Dog, he is still the best sports talk show hands down. So I am reviewing today’s show only.

Former Giants quarterback and CBS announcer Phil Simms

After he conducted a professional Joe Pa interview with his son Jay, who just released a book, he started talking about the Washington D.C.’s football team’s nickname. In a previous show he had talked about his reaction to St. John’s University, his college, change from “Red Men” to “Red Storm” and said at the time he was against. Now, after all these years (this happened before UConn had ever won a national championship as how long ago this was) he doesn’t mind the change at all.

Here’s where today’s show went to hell. He found out that Phil Simms is considering just calling the team just “Washington”. Mike hated the idea. He said if an announcer felt that way they should not broadcast the game and sacrifice their paycheck. That according to Mike would be a real protest. But here’s where his “logic” got hypercritical. As he was saying, “not using the name was a silly thing to do” as he did it. Yes folks. He never said Phil Simms name through his rant. He called him “a national announcer”. Could this be because Simms appears on his show so much? Of course it does. But to criticize Simms without using his name is SO much like Simms not using the name “Redskins”. It’s empty. I do not remember even one other instance of Francesa doing this. But he did it today so we had to point it out.

That’s it for Sport Talk Radio Review. We will return. Same time. Same blog.