When ESPN announced their new morning television lineup for 2018 and Mike Greenberg’s solo morning show was featured, everyone knew the end of Mike & Mike on ESPN Radio was near. After 18 years together, Greenberg and long time co-host Mike Golic would be working on different projects, with Golic continuing on in radio with Trey Wingo and son Mike Golic, Jr.
The split was officially announced by the duo over a month ago, and there appeared to be some tension between the two during their public reveal on the show for the first time. After that announcement, rumors began to swirl about the deterioration of their relationship off set and how they would barely even make eye contact with each other, because Golic was upset with the way Greenberg went about taking the TV deal without so much as discussing it with him.
Golic has since denied the tensions between the two, and in a recent interview with the New York Post, Greenberg likewise broke his silence on the issue, voicing his frustration with all of the leaks coming out of the show.
“We’ve been together a long time and we’ve had a very close-knit staff over the years. We’ve had people work with us and most of them have been with us for years and years and years,” Greenberg told The Post. “So, if there are people that are talking anonymously about us, then sure, that would bother me, too. Absolutely, no question. So I agree with Mike completely.”
Greenberg also noted that he was “bothered” that the news of the show’s split broke before they were able to announce it on air first, feeling that it should have been them that told their audience what was happening first rather than someone else.
“It would’ve been nice if we had been the ones to tell our audience that we were going to be going on to do separate things,” Greenberg said. “Instead, the overwhelming majority of our audience had already heard that by the time we were ready to tell them. That was the part that bothered me.”
He also insisted that his relationship with Golic is “great,” and that they’ve exchanged texts about a number of things.
“He and I texted back and forth with each other probably six different times about different things,” Greenberg said. “Regardless of what anyone seems to want to think, Mike and I are doing just great.
“I will treasure what that guy has done for me and what he has meant to me — and he will continue to mean that to me for the rest of my life.”
The most interesting quote from Greenberg in the entire feature, though, is when he claims that the decision to take the morning TV show and break up their radio show wasn’t his.
“I’m going to miss him. It’s just that simple,” Greenberg said of Golic. “The decision for me to go do a new show was one that was made by other people. It was not made by me.”
That part is especially hard to believe, considering the reports that Greenberg worked the deal somewhat in secret — which was one of Golic’s main issues, per reports. Whether the idea was originally Greenberg’s or ESPN’s, I can’t imagine there was ever a situation in which Greenberg was forced into taking a new lucrative contract that included his own television show.
With six months left on their radio deal, Mike & Mike will exist for at least a short while longer, and now we’ve had both co-hosts insist that reports of their relationship’s demise have been greatly exaggerated. The truth of the matter likely lies somewhere in the middle, with there genuinely being tension, but not to the extent that was reported by anonymous ESPN staffer.
(h/t Awful Announcing)
