Mike Francesa admits future with Chris Russo is murky
Click below for the complete transcript of Mike Francesa's on-air remarks at about 1:25 p.m. Friday, the first time he has offered his take on my story last Sunday that the "Mike and the Mad Dog" show could be through by Labor Day and Chris Russo's comments Monday.
At times Francesa sounded like he was giving the first draft of the show's obituary. Wow.
Like he said . . . should be an interesting summer.
Mike Francesa on WFAN/YES Friday:
Dog got it in his lap on Monday. I made sure I was near a TV at 1 o’clock when he came on. I thought he handled it well. Everything he said as far as the relationship was true. You know, we’ve been together 19 years. That’s a long time. And in a very visible position for 19 years, so we’ve kind of carried on this relationship in a very public way, so that when there’s been fights they’ve been made public and when there’s been battles they’ve been made public.
Now there haven’t been many in recent years. The last bad one before this was probably about eight years ago. I think it was in 2000 we had a bad one. And I’d say in the last 19 years we’ve probably had four or five bad ones. This one was pretty bad.
He gave you the timetable. I would say we did have a meeting in May where we decided we had maybe carried it onto the air and we were not being very professional so we apologized. He apologized, I apologized, because I thought I had handled myself terribly. I apologized for that. I thought I carried it onto the air and was very unprofessional, which is something I don’t want to ever try to be.
When you do this this long, you are going to have problems. I think we’ve patched it up on the air. Have we patched it up off the air? Not really, to any real extent. I’ll give you an example: We haven’t spoken this week. So that should give you an indication. With everything that’s going on, we haven’t spoken this week. So I think that’s a pretty good indication of where we are right now.
Um, about everything else and all the conjecture, I haven’t spoken to anybody else about that. I haven’t spoken to anybody about the story. I’ve had plenty of requests about it this week. I would just say this: In 20 years of being here – I came to the station in ’87, I’ve been with Dog since ’89 – I have never, not once, discussed my contractual relationship with FAN publicly. Not on the air, not in the newspapers. I’ve never negotiated publicly, I’ve never negotiated on the air, I’ve never negotiated in the newspaper.
I’ve had a great relationship with the station. I’ve never had any contract battle in 20 years. I’ve had four or five contracts. They’ve all been handled very, very well. I’ve never had a bad day with them in 20 years. So I’ve never discussed that and I never will. So I have no interest in discussing my contractual situation and where it is or will I ever do that publicly.
As far as the “Mike and the Mad Dog’’ program and where everybody thinks it may be going, all I will say is this: You know, we’ve done 19 years together, which is a very long time. We’ve had a lot of different things happen in our lives. We’ve had seven kids in recent years. You go through a lot of changes, a lot of things happen, a lot of things are said.
You don’t know everything that’s going to happen day to day. Life’s not that predictable. Nothing is that predictable that you know there are any certainties of what’s going to happen day to day. I would say this: I think our relationship would never be a sole reason that we would ever part. I don’t think it would ever reach that level. I think we could always work well together. I think we’ve worked well together.
I think even our most severe critic would say that we have produced something pretty special over the last 19 years, pretty special and pretty successful and pretty special. It’s something that I’m proud of and I hope he’s proud of.
Where it goes from here, I’m not sure. I think, to be fair with the audience, I think we have reached a crossroad. I think we’re at a crossroad. I think this will play out over the summer and we’ll see what happens. I’m not going to sit here and say something couldn’t change. Maybe it does, maybe it doesn’t. I don’t know that yet. If it does I will be very proud of everything we accomplished here. And if it doesn’t we’ll be back and do hopefully 19 or 20 more years together. I don’t know, you know?
I don’t know how long is long enough, you know? You wait and see how it happens. Would I guarantee anything? No. Would I make any declarations today? No. Eventually all things have to pass. If we’re at that time, I’m not sure. We’ll see what happens. It’ll be an interesting summer. Next, Met baseball.
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Comments (28)
Neil, everybody, before we go crazy about the future of the show let's take an easy for a second. Francesa seems to be painting a bleaker picture than Russo. But before we declare that the show is done let's see how this plays out first during the summer. Who knows how it will played out, but let's wait and see what happens next.
I heard this live today. It was a little strange.
Mike definitely made it seem worse than Chris did. Good job, Neil, on getting this story a few days ago. I would not be surprised to see them part ways after hearing this today.
I heard it live today, too. That is my comment.
neil i know this is off subject but can you update the contract talks between wfan and the mets
So, Neil, how much did they grease you to write all this stuff? I bet m&md slipped you a cool 12k. It's perfect! Mike's contract will hit 4m!
Mike was much more candid than Russo and it was very compelling radio. Congrats on that scoop Neil.
M Bruce, the only "sports media" writer who gets grease in this market is Raissman, and only about anything Mets or SNY related.
Who cares.. Fatboy and angry puppy are clueless...
I find this so coincidental that they are having this "feud" that they carried onto the air. Did anyone back then see a difference? Was this evident back then? I don't think any of us saw anything unusual. But now we were supposed to "notice" something. Now we can sit here and say "oh, I remember March 23rd, they were really upset with each other". You can always look back and read into things that were not there. Does one probably want to move on? Maybe. 19 years is a lot of time for anything, esp. if you are in a small studio with someone of a different personality for 19 years. They are probably thinking to make this public (whether real or not), see how much money they can grab out of WFAN and if WFAN does not come around, that is fine because they had enough of the gig. Time to go separate ways. But I really doubt that the "off-air" feud is as bad as people seem to be reporting it is to be.
I think this is a contract ploy. To come on the air and say that
People still listen to these 2 idiots? They do nothing more than throw gasoline on whatever embers are smoldering, & if they ever give any insight, it'll be a first. How many years has it been since Dog was whining "Mike, you're killing me!!!!!" WFAN, please put them out of our misery, & put on something remotely interesting.
Yeah, the FAN has a great recent history of producing talent...let's see, It starts with the "Frankenstein and Woody Woodpecker" show, then we have the "Mope and the dope", followed by the "mad ferret and the rhino". Yeah, GREAT talents there. 1050 isn't much better, but they do have the Max and Kenny show, which might be the best sports show in the area. In short, WFAN is sinking, they need to come up with something, and FAST. A Dog and Evan afternoon would send a lot of people elsewhere.
Neil, What is the fight actually about? Do you know? Is it something outside of their on-air sports aguments? Please let us know. Great work and reporting.
Until a couple of days ago, I've never heard of Neil Best. I did read your two articles about M & M, but there wasn't a single shred of concrete evidence that there was a problem between the two, just conjecture. Now both are admitting there is a problem and Newsday, of all papers gets the so called scoop. Something smells fishy here.
Francesa is leaving, and the differences in opinion are probably based on Dog is a moron and Mike thinks he knows everything. Russo always takes the contrary opinion whether its right or wrong and tries to make Francesa look bad. Even though I don't like either guy, it's apparent by the lack of guests when Russo hosts alone and the amount of guests when Francesa is alone, which one has more respect in the sports industry. And Francesa knows that by teaming with Chris, it downgrades whatever credibility he has. Bottom line Chris needs Mike, Mike doesn't need Chris.
Best- Uhhh the check is in the mail
we pay mike on MIKED UP by letting him keep the bowl of chips on the table that we tease him with while he does the show
Just says "pay me in burgers" and then he burps!
and as for Chris- we just buy him gay looking tennis shorts!
Ater listening to Francesa's version it sound smuch more like they are breaking up. Russo pretty much gave a rosey picture of what was going on. He even made it seem like they did get into an aurgument, but they were on their way to fixing everything. Somebody even called and asked if Russo called Mike and he said no, but acted like it was something he was planning to do. After hearing Mike's side, Russo has proven that he is the same type of phoney that he has been destroying for 20 years. Just imagine if a player, manager, gm or owner gave Russos side then we hear the other side of the story a few days later. I hope they don't break up, but they do owe us at least one last show. It would really hurt their legacy if they go out this way.
They won't be missed.....ESPN Sports Radio is much better....Mike and Mike were not very good..They were the minor leagues of sports radio....
Tommy- are you living under a rock?
SNY/CW11 just had a shot of Francesa at the Mets-Yankees game at Shea. He look very tense and serious. Cohen, Darling and Hernandez talk about Francesa and Russo and the job they do on the radio. Anyone catch that?
They are discussing it at *my* website Dennis. Jeez, you're lost. -hand wave- for you !
Mikey- you have a website? That's a good job out of you in a big spot. Geez.....gun to my head I didn't know that. I'm in a goofy mood. The Doggie is loosey goosey!
Tommy - what are you saying? I wouldn't listen to Colin Cowherd if he was broadcastin from my back yard! NOT ONE TIME!
Tommy,
The only good stuff on ESPN Radio was Tony Kornheiser and Dan Patrick, and they're both gone. The only good stuff on ESPN Radio now is Gamenight and The Bob Valvano Show on weekends.
I can honestly say Fox Sports Radio is better than ESPN Radio top to bottom.
Did anyone notice that Mike and Chris' statements contradicted eachother? Chris says that their relationship is improving, while Mike says it's not and the show is at a crossroads.
In my opinion, Mike is the one who's being more honest. The show is screwed, although they're scheduled to do one last one together on July 11.
It's gonna be an interesting summer.
I live in Philly and I listen to them everyday on my way home from work. I have even seen them at the shore with southside Johnny with my family four times. They were both nice to me and my family and signed autographs. I started off as a 24 year old and am now 43 and my kids do not understand why I listen but then again I do not understand why the listen to Radio disney As they would say "Everyone needs to be in their comfort zone!" and Mike and the Mad Dog is mine!
It's like Martin and Lewis and it's run it's course. Sure Mike is cantancerous and arrogant, but he's very knowledgeable in the world of NY sports. Russo is there just to "stir the pot" and PO the listener into calling and arguing. You can see that when they have guests Mike is taken seriously and Chris is treated like an afterthought. I did see a gr8 video of them aruguin on "You tube" and for one I actually had to agree with Russo, even though he probably doesn't believe in what he says. He was just trying to get under Mike's skin. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out. I honestly can't see listening to 4+ hours of each of them individually. In fact I avoid the show when they are on their summer vacations. Here is the link to the You tube video: http://1stnews.org/53/mike-and-the-mad-dog/
I don't see how the FAN can let Mike and the Maddog split. Especially since Neil, you made it sound like the split did not include either of them staying at the FAN.
First, the Mike and the Maddog bring in ratings and second they at least have some credibility. Actually they are probably the only show that does have credibility on the station. Boomer and Carton is a joke and I don't see that show lasting and Joe and Evan are mediocre and can barely fill the 3 hours a day that they do.
Chernoff is going to be doing everything he can to get Mike and the Dog back on the same page and under contract for a long time.