On the latest edition of his BetRivers podcast, Mike Francesa was asked what he is most proud of from his time partnered with Chris “Mad Dog” Russo. It didn’t take him long to answer. He is convinced that sports talk, as a radio format, doesn’t exist the way it does now without his old WFAN show.
He said that before there were dedicated sports talk stations, the guy who talked about sports on the local talk station wasn’t taken seriously. He said the guys hosting those radio shows weren’t even treated as peers of newspaper columnists or television anchors.
“People had always looked at sports talk as a guy with a bell and a whistle who was on after 6 o’clock who either answered trivia questions or yelled and screamed his head off and made a fool of himself,” Francesa said. “I think we changed all that.”
According to Mike Francesa, there is now a standard for what good sports talk is. It doesn’t sound the same in every market, but a good host can be the most important and influential member of his local sports media. There is a generation of young people that grew up with that being the norm.
“I think we made sports talk matter to the point now where kids go to school to become sports talk show hosts.”
Francesa has never had a problem putting the importance of his show into perspective. He said that after Mike & the Mad Dog, night time shows with bells, whistles and trivia wouldn’t be good enough for sports fans anymore.
“We made sports talk matter and we made it be held to a much loftier standard.”
