Mike Greenberg Thinks Of Himself As The "Kelly Ripa Of Sports Talk Radio"

Tuesday, September 16, 2008


Michael Greenberg of the Mike & Mike show took his turn on the Dan Levy podcast, On The DL, today and along with referring to himself as the "Kelly Ripa of Sports Talk Radio" he chatted about dumbing things down Golic, the show itself, his MNF gig and more. Here are a few excerpts....

On Golic: “I think I have to dumb it down because of Golic. It is impossible to have a conversation on a high, intellectual level with a man whose idea of fine literature begins with Doctor and ends with Seuss. I remember one time I referenced ‘The Catcher in the Rye’ and Golic honestly did not know who had written it or what it was. That was the day I realized, ‘you know, I’m not going to be able to do some things here.’"

On The Show: “We have never had a real serious disagreement. I think that our off the air relationship is the reason for that. I honestly think our partnership should be a model for all business partnerships everywhere and that is that our relationship is purely professional. And by that I mean that we get along well, we don’t have any problems, but we really don’t socialize outside of work."

On Monday Night Football: "Considering I had never done it before, I thought it came off okay the first time, but particularly in the preparation I figured out I had wasted a lot of time. I wasn't nearly as efficient as I should have been in my preparation. Because I didn't know. I spent a lot of time doing things doing things that did me absolute no good. So I think I was able to prepare a lot better the second, and thus I think it came off a lot better."
Now I will agree with the statement that the second go around was better than the first, but it's not hard to improve "god awful" with "trainwreck". While I don't necessarily dislike Greenberg, or the show for that matter, I still can't get over him being just a platform for ESPN to sell products and give no opinions at all. There's a reason that the show is referred to as the "USA Today" of Sports Talk Radio, and that's because neither he nor Golic ever say anything interesting or shocking. You can't be controversial when you have advertisers to think of!

If you want to listen, then good for you, but that kind of programming just isn't up my alley. Good interview though, and you should definitely check out the whole thing if you have time.

Mike Greenberg Talks About His Career and Germs (On The DL)

Posted by Awful Announcing- at 4:18 PM

16 Comments:

thankfully he doesn't look anything like kelly ripa.

Anonymous said...
Sep 16, 2008, 4:30:00 PM  

He's just a pompous ass. Why would you even mention literature on a sports talk show???

GMoney said...
Sep 16, 2008, 5:39:00 PM  

I think Greenburg is just being a prick. Why is it necessary to reiterate that Golic is stupid? He did graduate from Notre Dame, a very good college. I don't think he's as dumb as Greenburg leads you to believe.

Anonymous said...
Sep 16, 2008, 5:52:00 PM  

Greenberg is a douche and the Mike & Mike show is unlistenable.

Anonymous said...
Sep 16, 2008, 6:26:00 PM  

anonymous 626's exaggerations are unreadable and he is probably a douche.

Anonymous said...
Sep 16, 2008, 7:38:00 PM  

I suspect that Golic is actually smarter than Greenberg, and I suspect that Greenberg knows it. Take Golic off the show and it loses something; take Greenberg off and it's usually better.

Anonymous said...
Sep 16, 2008, 7:55:00 PM  

I'm sorry, but I'd much rather listen to these two interview people than listen to some knucklehead (Mad Dog) yell about something, gives me a headache.

But I appear to be in the minority.

Anonymous said...
Sep 16, 2008, 8:05:00 PM  

I agree with jb. Even if Golic was a legacy he still had to have good grades to get into Notre Dame and maintain good grades throughout college. He had to be smart in both school and Xs and Os, he earned team captainship for a reason.

Also I found Golic better with Eric Kuselias (Though his schtick has waned) or X than Greenberg with X.

Anonymous said...
Sep 16, 2008, 9:05:00 PM  

Interesting that they don't socialize outside of work. I always sort of got the impression that they did. Then again, both are raising families, so that maybe explains the whole thing. Makes them sound like the don't like each other though.

Anonymous said...
Sep 16, 2008, 10:11:00 PM  

I always sort of got the impression that they did.

Maybe you got that idea from the commercials where they ate breakfast and shopped for lumber together.

/decided not to go with the Tony Siragusa-Joey Harrington example

Sep 16, 2008, 10:23:00 PM  

Mike and Mike may be Malt-o-Meal, but give me that over scumbag Colin Cowturd and his constant efforts to be CONTROVERSIAL~

Kyle said...
Sep 17, 2008, 1:12:00 AM  

If you have an affiliate in the area, listen to the "First Team on Fox" with Steve Czaban. Much much better content than the blowhards Mike Squared.

Anonymous said...
Sep 17, 2008, 10:11:00 AM  

Yes, Yes, Yes!!! I might start listening to the show again if Eric Kuselias goes full time. Mike Greenberg is so annoying. I would rate him at the bottom of the ESPN crew.
I think I would give the guy that cleans the studio after hours a chance before having to listen to Greeny.

Anonymous said...
Sep 17, 2008, 12:06:00 PM  

the only show left on Four LEtter radio listening to is the V Show.

odessasteps said...
Sep 17, 2008, 1:41:00 PM  

@odessasteps:

I didn't know that show was still on.

@kyle:

Good call on Malt-o-Meal. I would've went with a stale box of King Vitamin.

Sep 17, 2008, 1:51:00 PM  

pretty insensitive AA using "trainwreck" just after 26 people died in california cuz an engineer was texting teens.
the people died cuz of some pervert and you're making jokes about their death.

Anonymous said...
Sep 17, 2008, 2:47:00 PM  

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