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Mike Golic Sr. Sets Record the Straight on His Relationship With Mike Greenberg

Ahead of his ESPN return, the radio host addressed where he stands with his former ‘Mike & Mike’ co-host.
Jimmy Traina|
Mike Golic Sr. worked for ESPN from 1995 to 2020.
Mike Golic Sr. worked for ESPN from 1995 to 2020. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

1. People come and go from ESPN all the time, but some returns are more surprising than others. I think it’s fairly safe to say no one saw Mike Golic Sr.’s getting another chance at the Worldwide Leader when it was announced last month that he’d be teaming up with his son for a new ESPN Radio show.

Golic Sr. had one of the best sports-talk radio runs with Mike Greenberg during their 17 years together on Mike & Mike. However, Greenberg parted ways with the show in 2017 to become the face of Get Up.

Golic Sr. was then teamed with Trey Wingo for a show that lasted from 2017 to ’20.

Six years later, Golic Sr. is back with his son, Mike Golic Jr.

The new show, called The Golics, will debut on Monday. Ahead of its debut, Mike Sr. and Mike Jr. both joined me on the latest SI Media With Jimmy Traina.

Given how things ended with Mike & Mike and reports of a strained relationship with Greenberg, I asked Golic Sr. to pull back the curtain on their relationship and the abrupt end of the show.

“It did not end well,” said Golic. “That that's been pretty much documented. But somewhat like my football career, when I got cut by the Houston Oilers and went to the Philadelphia Eagles, I didn’t reminisce about the Houston Oilers. I was playing for the Philadelphia Eagles. The same thing when I left Philadelphia to go to Miami. You move on and you study the task at hand.

“As far as the relationship with Greeny, we don’t keep in touch much in all honesty, but occasionally we’ll check in. Quite honestly, mostly it’s about how the kids are doing, how his kids are doing, how my kids are doing, because I was growing my family during Mike & Mike and Greeny had his kids during Mike & Mike and we were always a very family-oriented show, so kids were always involved.”

“Again, we don’t keep in touch much, but he texted me about coming back to ESPN and was very happy for me, and certainly for Mike [Jr.]. As I said, we talk about the kids, so it’s cordial. Even when we were doing the show, he lived in Westport [Conn.], I lived in Avon, an hour and a half from one another. It’s not like we were ever in a position to hang out. But we certainly meshed well on the show. So, it’s not very frequent we keep in touch, but when we do, it's cordial.”

You can listen to the full interview with the Golics below or watch it on YouTube.

2. People (especially those on social media) will rip this idea and then watch every minute.

3. You can always count of local news for the good stuff. If you’re on social media and pay attention to politics, you know that this photo of Senator Mitch McConnell was posted by his office a month ago to provide an update on his health status.

This week, after news of Kyle Shanahan’s car accident, one rascal on the Internet photoshopped the Niners head coach into the McConnell picture.

Here’s the kicker: Chicago’s WGN used the doctored photo of Shanahan in its report on the incident.

4. I can’t recall ever seeing an athlete defend a team’s alternative jersey the way Josh Allen did on Wednesday. The uniform did NOT go over well with Bills fans at all.

So, Allen did some damage control, and quite frankly, the organization should give him a bonus for this performance.

5. The WNBA’s official account on the app formerly known as Twitter posted a video showing that Paige Bueckers and Angel Reese made a $400 bet on the All-Star Game last weekend. Then the account deleted the post.

This is one of those cases where two things can be true at the same time. It’s pretty dumb for the league’s official account to post this. Bueckers and Reese making a bet on an exhibition game that counts for absolutely nothing is not a big deal on any level.

6. Speaking of betting, no one will be more into MLB awards season than this person.

7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: I’ve always thought This Is the Time was Billy Joel’s most underrated song. He just dropped this live performance of it on his YouTube channel to celebrate the 40th anniversary of his album The Bridge, which features the song.

Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on X and Instagram.

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Jimmy Traina
JIMMY TRAINA

Jimmy Traina is a staff writer and podcast host for Sports Illustrated. A 20-year veteran in the industry, he’s been covering the sports media landscape for seven years and writes a daily column, Traina Thoughts. Traina has hosted the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast since 2018, a show known for interviews with some of the most important and powerful people in sports media. He also was the creator and writer of SI’s Hot Clicks feature from 2007 to '13.

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