Mike Greenberg is back at ESPN after taking off a little more than a week. Last Monday, he had a heart procedure that required time to recuperate. He talked about it Monday morning on his ESPN Radio show #Greeny.
He joked that he had planned to set aside plenty of time on the show, but it was derailed. News that Lamar Jackson had requested the Baltimore Ravens trade him took priority on the show.
Still, he wanted to address his fans, because he was taken aback by the concern so many of them showed after his wife tweeted that he was out of surgery.
“I had a cardiac ablation last Monday,” Mike Greenberg said. “It was planned. It was scheduled. It’s a scary-sounding procedure and it is a big deal, but it is certainly not a heart attack or anything like that.”
Greenberg noted that his last day on air before the surgery was March 16. On that day, he explained why he was going to be off the air for a bit. However, most learned of Greenberg’s procedure after a tweet from his wife, Stacy, shared details of the operation.
“To my surprise, and hers, the overwhelming majority of people had no idea what happened,” he said of the response to her tweet.
He noted that it was important to him that everyone that showed concern know that it was not a minor procedure, but he did not have a heart attack and it was not an emergency situation. The surgery was scheduled. He described the week after the surgery as “challenging” but “not frightening.”
The kind words on social media were far from an inconvenience. In fact, Greenberg concluded the segment by saying that, more than anything, he wanted to thank the people that responded.
“It is very hard to express how much that means to a person, and I will tell you that having been around as long as I have been around, like you, I’e heard a million people say your thoughts, your well-wishes, your prayers for those that are so inclined ‘mean the world to me’. And I will admit that when I sometimes hear people say that, it really sounds just like words.
“That’s an easy thing to say, but why do you say that? You’re sitting alone in your apartment and your wife is bringing you soup. What does it matter that people are sending you nice thoughts? It matters. Believe me, it matters. I can’t begin to tell you how much it matters.”
