Jack and Harrison Francesa, sons of former WFAN host Mike Francesa, guest hosted parts of the midday program on WFAN alongside former producer Sal Licata. A special family-friendly edition of The Brandon Tierney and Sal Licata Show featured an edition of three random questions, during which listeners learned more about Francesa’s children. Jack is a football player at Hamilton College, while Harrison is studying at Fairfield University with aspirations to work in sports media. Licata started the segment by asking them to reflect on their first memory of recognizing that they had a famous father.
Jack Francesa replied by stating that he was very young and remembered his mother always having his show playing on the radio in the house. Moreover, he used to sing the jingle and became obsessed with it, and he remembers coming to the studio seeing himself on television at the age of 5.
Later in the segment, Jack reminisced on coming in the studio with his father ahead of them attending a New York Knicks game and remembers being stopped on the street by someone who said his name rather than his father’s. Harrison shared that they had tickets for the New York Mets in 2015 and would park in the players’ lot and walk through a tunnel at Citi Field to access their seats.
“You’d walk out the tunnel, and you’d have people yelling at us from the 100 sections,” Harrison Francesa said. “They’d run to the gate where the tunnel was and they’d start yelling at him, and they’d be like, ‘Mike, Mike!’”
Licata knew Mike Francesa growing up, but he remembers going to the Subway Series game when Mets second baseman Luis Castillo dropped a pop-up that resulted in the Yankees winning the matchup. The first time he recognized Mike’s fame came as they left the stadium following the game and he was approached as if he was Taylor Swift.
“The amount of people that were mobbing your father and us as we were just walking to get to his car, it’s something that I’ll never forget,” Licata said. “It was incredible.”
The segment continued with Licata asking if either Jack or Harrison had ever won a sports argument against Mike Francesa. Harrison stated that he had not, but that the conversations generally result in them either getting shut down immediately or the discourse going back to the same things for 45 minutes and ending in a stalemate. “You never win,” Jack Francesa added. “You might be right, but you don’t win.” Jack elaborated by saying that he and his brother are just as bad, following a similar pattern of their father in having sports arguments with other people.
Licata’s final question pertained to the best sports experience Jack and Harrison have ever had with Mike Francesa. Jack explained that he had been at Super Bowl LIII in Atlanta when Tom Brady secured his sixth championship with the New England Patriots. Even though it was the lowest-scoring game in Super Bowl history, Jack remembers enjoying himself and being immersed in the atmosphere of the game.
“I’ve been to three Super Bowls, and just being at the Super Bowl with my dad, there’s just nothing better because the Super Bowl’s is just the Super Bowl,” Jack Francesa said. “There’s nothing [that] compares to it, and just being there with my dad, having him bless us with the opportunity to go and see it and the seats we have and seeing whoever we see there, meeting guys, it’s just awesome.”
Harrison Francesa added that he attended Super Bowl LIV in Miami, Fla. despite having a 103-degree fever and watched the Kansas City Chiefs come back to win the championship over the San Francisco 49ers. When the Chiefs achieved the feat, Harrison remembers his father, who was sitting six rows back, seeing him shoot out of his seat like a bullet and celebrating the overtime victory.
“Another thing about our dad that just goes to show how much he cares about us and puts us first,” Jack Francesa elucidated. “Me and Harrison, probably row four on the 50-yard line, and my dad was 20, 15 rows back with Julio.”
Barrett Media produces daily content on the music, news, and sports media industries. To stay updated, sign up for our newsletters and get the latest information delivered straight to your inbox.
