March Madness has officially arrived, and sports media has now shifted their attention to the Big Dance, as 68 college basketball teams have punched their names into the tournament. This past Saturday, during a live edition of his BetRivers podcast, Mike Francesa was set to begin discussing St. John’s earning a shot to win their first Big East Championship in 25 years. However, that’s when the longtime WFAN voice apparently lost his cool with his BetRivers production staff.
Since the episode was broadcast live, Francesa seemed distracted by his staff providing him with incorrect information about St. John’s. As a result, he asked for the episode to restart recording.
Then, Francesa exploded on his staff during the live broadcast for a couple of minutes while still on the air.
“Excuse me, who’s correcting me?” asked Francesa, puzzled by who was speaking to him via his IFB connection. “Now who said that the Big East has been won already?”
As he begged for clarification for several minutes during the live broadcast, Francesa attempted to confirm the facts with his staff while the show continued to air.
At that moment, his staff informed him that the show was indeed live instead of being taped for later distribution.
“We’re live? This was all on the air, me just yelling at you guys?” he asked in surprise. “What? You gotta be kidding me. You guys have got to be kidding me. All right, I apologize for that outburst, okay, folks? I didn’t realize we were live, I thought we were taping this, okay? That’s my mistake, I didn’t realize that. Now … so this is going to go viral now because I yelled at you guys, you realize that?”
Ultimately, Francesa took ownership of the situation, and he was correct in his prediction, as the clip flooded social media throughout the entire weekend.
Meanwhile, New York Mets radio play-by-play voice Howie Rose came to Francesa’s defense after critics on social media took issue with how he handled the moment.
“Anybody who thinks Mike was out of line here must have an agenda or a vendetta,” tweeted Rose via X. “If you ask me, that was about as gentle an admonishment as you can give under the circumstances. He was totally calm, in control, and not at all disrespectful. Come on.”
For those interested, Mike Francesa’s podcast publishes episodes weekly through the BetRivers Network.
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