Posts tagged MikeGolic at FanHouse

On ESPN's Mike and Mike in the Morning today, Mike Greenberg made a brief comment that provided an interesting insight into ESPN's relationship with the blogosphere.

Greenberg said that one day, out of curiosity, he typed "Greenberg Golic ESPN" into Google, and was horrified by the results. Greenberg's bottom-line conclusion: "People cannot stand us."

Sure enough, the first Google result for that search query is a blog post headlined, "Weenie Greenie: ESPN Radio's Mike Greenberg Gives Us All a Lesson in Arrogance." The post mocks Greenberg and "his sub-normal-IQ sidekick Mike Golic."

But what really interests me about Greenberg's comment on the radio today is that it seems that if it weren't for that one-time occasion of Googling himself, Greenberg would not be the least bit aware that there are a whole lot of sports bloggers who rip ESPN on a daily basis. When you're sitting in a studio in Bristol, the sports blogosphere is easy to ignore.

I happened to catch ESPN's Mike & Mike in the Morning this week when they announced the winning bid for a charity auction to have the show broadcast from a listener's home. The top bid was $57,100 -- all of which will go to the V Foundation for Cancer Research -- and although it's nice that a good cause is getting that kind of money, my first thought was, What kind of person pays $57,100 to have Mike and Mike come over?

Now I know what kind of person: Rush Limbaugh's ex-wife, Marta Maranda. The Palm Beach Post reports that Maranda, an aerobics instructor who met Limbaugh online and was married to him for 10 years, was the person who placed that top bid.

Maranda has not said publicly what made her decide to pay so much money to have Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic come over, and she hasn't said which of the many homes she bought after her divorce settlement will play host to Mike and Mike. Her primary residence is an $11.5 million mansion in Jupiter Island, Florida -- not far from where Tiger Woods lives -- but the code enforcement officer there says doing a live radio broadcast in a home would be strictly prohibited.

Wednesday night, a crime against Wrigley Field, and humanity, occurred. Sullying one of the great reputations in baseball, ESPN journalists personalities Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic threw out the first pitch and sang the seventh-inning stretch in the Cubs' 7-4 win over the Orioles. OK, so it wasn't that bad. But it was slightly dubious -- just what business do ESPN employees have screaming "Let's get some runs!" at a Chicago Cubs game?

As a cure -- a cure for all the bad versions of the song, the slow celebrities, the sketchy selections -- Goatriders make a simple proposal: have Ron Santo sing every anthem.

It makes sense. Santo, for all his faults, is in many ways the spiritual successor to Harry Caray -- the bumbling, silly, lovable man in the (radio) booth. Give him the microphone, and make the insanity stop. No more of this. For the love of God.

ESPN has announced this year's second-string Monday Night Football team, and it's the same as last year's second-string Monday Night Football team: Mike Greenberg, Mike Golic and Mike Ditka.

The NFL season's kickoff weekend features two Monday night games. The first, Vikings-Packers at 7 p.m. Eastern, will be called by the usual ESPN crew of Mike Tirico, Ron Jaworski and Tony Kornheiser. The second game, Broncos-Raiders at 10:15 p.m. Eastern, gets the Greenberg-Golic-Ditka trio.

I thought the three Mikes were fine last year (aside from the one unfortunate moment caught on camera), although I wish Greenberg and Golic wouldn't be quite so reverential toward Ditka: They act like he's a god, not a colleague. If the three of them can just talk football without reminding us every five minutes that Ditka is a Hall of Famer, they'll be fine.

On the May 1 edition of ESPN's Mike and Mike in the Morning, co-host Mike Golic participated in a competitive eating contest in which he scarfed down 15 chicken wings, while professional competitive eaters around him ate significantly more.

It was intended to be a lighthearted moment on the show. But some people took it seriously. Really, really seriously. Peter Finney Jr., a writer for the official newspaper of the Archdiocese of New Orleans, has this to say:

The hedonistic display was bad enough - Golic finished last to "professional" eaters Tim "Eater X" Janus, Pete "Pretty Boy" Davekos and "Crazy Legs" Conti - but the gluttony-as-sport, far from laughable, should sting any correctly formed conscience.

I guess my conscience isn't correctly formed, then, because I don't feel the least bit stung by watching competitive eating.

I report this "news" at the risk of Enrico and the rest of Philly hunting me down, but it turns out that Mike (JACK!) Schmidt just really does not care for Philly Cheesesteaks. He's well aware of the finest cheesesteak joints in town, but claims that he never really made it downtown a lot because he lived outside Philly. Also note that I'm really only posting this because Mike Golic works himself into a veritable froth before asking Jack what his favorite cheesesteak is. Combine Golic's reaction with the build-up they give Schmidt and I'm sorry, but the clip is just hilarious.

Don't get me wrong -- I always loved Schmidt just because guys like he and Dale Murphy were legit heroes for little kids like myself back in the day. And he's not insulting Philly at all here, Golic just kills me, is all.

ESPN's Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic appeared on David Letterman Monday night, and a little over three minutes into their appearance, Letterman asked Golic about his past steroid use:

"Back in '87 I was with the Philadelphia Eagles," Golic said. "It was not illegal in the NFL then, [steroid testing] came about in the next CBA, I think it was in '89, but certainly it was illegal to acquire steroids and inject them."

"I blew out my shoulder and I had reconstructive surgery and it was in January and I didn't want to miss minicamp, it was only my second or third year in the league and I said I'm going to do it to recover quicker. I did it for about five or six weeks and it made me nuts. My wife was the one who said, you know, 'I understand what you're trying to do, but it's getting out of hand'."

When Letterman asked what he meant, Golic said, "Roid rage. The roid rage is very, very true. In the mid-80s there was a lot of steroids going on, it was used an awful lot and I think football has done a nice job of cleaning it up."

Letterman asked whether it's possible that moderate use of human growth hormone and steroids could be beneficial, and Golic said that might be true, but that athletes don't do anything in moderation.

Golic and Greenberg also discussed March Madness, Tiger Woods and Billy Crystal.

Well, you don't see this every day:

That was Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic, best known as ESPN's Mike and Mike in the Morning, guest starring today on Guiding Light. Greenberg and Golic were playing a pair of brothers whose wives left them -- for each other. They confronted the preacher who convinced their wives to leave them and were ultimately physically assaulted by the woman who was with said preacher.

Greenberg and Golic might want to have a long talk with whatever agent, publicist or other suit convinced them that this appearance would be good for their careers.

On ESPN's Mike and Mike in the Morning, co-hosts Mike Golic and Mike Greenberg were, of course, discussing the Roger Clemens hearings. And when the subject arose of Clemens saying he was close enough to Andy Pettitte that he would have known if Pettitte were using steroids, Golic, who has acknowledged using steroids when he was an NFL player, said that was wrong:

But what's interesting about that 30-second clip is the way that Greenberg clearly felt uncomfortable. Greenberg is usually a smooth speaker, but he stammered and stuttered as he interrupted Golic when Golic began talking about his own steroid use. As soon as he could get the words out, he tried to shift the course of the conversation.

This follows a pattern: Golic has never had a problem discussing his steroid use, but Greenberg is clearly uncomfortable with it. Whenever Golic talks about having used steroids, Greenberg cuts him off, as if he's worried that Golic talking about his own steroid use is somehow going to damage Mike and Mike in the Morning.

And that's silly. The entire point of ESPN hiring ex-athletes is that ex-athletes presumably have experience that they can share with the viewers. Greenberg should let Golic speak freely and draw on his own experience as a steroid user, not cut him off every time he brings it up.

This morning I wrote that ESPN anchor Dana Jacobson was suspended for a week for saying "F--- Jesus" at a celebrity roast early this month.

Having talked to one source familiar with the situation and exchanged e-mails with another, I would like to clarify that I think that, to the extent that Jacobson used the F-word and the word "Jesus" together, it was about Touchdown Jesus, the mural depicting Jesus with his hands raised at Notre Dame Stadium. Jacobson was roasting former Notre Dame football player and current ESPN Radio host Mike Golic at the time.

Does that distinction matter? Some people seem to think so. I think Jacobson is getting a raw deal here regardless. Her comments weren't on the air, like those of Kelly Tilghman or Don Imus. She was speaking at a roast. Have you ever seen the Pamela Anderson roast? These things are designed to be offensive.

But, if you insist on being offended, you should only be offended if you're a Notre Dame fan and you consider Touchdown Jesus sacred. That's the one Dana Jacobson made a couple of raunchy comments about. Sorry, No Photos