Mike Golic & Mike Golic Jr. on Their New Show & Returning to ESPN

All right.

Joining me now, this is a first here on SI Media with Jimmy Trainna, father-son duo, and, uh, you'll be hearing a lot from them now because they will be starting a radio show on ESPN radio on August 3rd.

Starts soon, and, uh, both familiar with ESPN.

Mike Golic Senior, Mike Golic Jr.

Guys, thanks for coming on and doing this.

I appreciate it.

Our pleasure.

Jeff, thanks for having us.

I'm gonna try to navigate this as best I can, you know, with a junior and a senior.

I'll, I'll, I'll do my best.

Um, let me, uh, uh, let me just start with something.

Well, let me start with this actually.

I found it interesting the show is starting August 3rd because sort of like in the sports media world, our New Year's is not January 1st.

It's when the football season starts.

And usually everyone tries to get, you know, wants all that time off until the, the day after Labor Day.

Any reason why you're starting it up on August or I'll let Junior go with that one and then I'll come back to Mike Senior for that.

But early jump here on, on the new show.

Yeah, well, I mean, I would say, you know, early road to game starting, but we got training camps open now.

We already have holdings going on in the NFL.

College football will be following close behind with a lot of teams starting to open up camp soon.

So, yeah, we thought it'd be kind of fun to roll in with that, you know, for my dad, his rhythms, he's used to being useless to my mom by this time of year.

She was always ready to ship him off to camp anyway, so this is more of the same.

We've been on the shelf and enjoying.

Offseason for a while right now in the lead up to this, we're ready to go and start getting the reps in.

Hey, I'm not, I'm not gonna lie, sitting out the summer months is, uh, pretty nice.

That's, that's kind of, that's the, that's when you do the Mount Rushmores of something or the lists of something.

So at least for the start of this, uh, we got to miss that.

We'll, we'll get our share of it over the next few years, but we got to miss it right out of the gate.

Obviously, the big story surrounding this is Mike Senior's return to ESPN where he did radio for so long, ends the, the show ended with Mike Greenberg.

Now, it's, it's funny ESPN having this renaissance with bringing people back.

We saw Rich Eisen come back.

So, from Mike Senior, I'm curious, I, I'm curious just.

How this all came about.

Tell me how it all came about, your reaction and how we got here.

Well, I mean, Mike and I actually had, uh, we were talking to a couple of other people actually for us doing something together and then for Mike doing, uh, his own thing and then.

Uh, one of the, uh, ESPN executives, Mike Foss, who actually has a relationship with, with Mike, my son, Mike, they did a, they, they were doing digital well before digital was being done.

They did a show out of actually Mike's house in West Hartford, Connecticut, a rankings reaction show to the college football power rankings.

And Mike.

Foss headed that up.

So Mike and, and Mike, Mike and Mike, another Mike and Mike, they had kind of a, a relationship and, and Foss called Mike and asked if we would be interested in this.

I, I was somewhat stunned.

I, I, I quite honestly never thought I would have a, uh, a chance to go back to ESPN, but I mean, to, to be able to go back to where it all started is, is pretty exciting.

So Mike Junior, when you had that conversation with the executive, Mike Foss, what was your reaction when he first pitched that idea, especially knowing how things ended with your dad there?

Yeah, you know, I, I, I, like Dad said, I, I've known Mike for a while now and I've watched him rise through the ranks there and so, uh, I, when he thought he was calling, I thought he was calling to catch up, you know, we had just finished the show with FanDuel Sports Network at that point, but Uh, when he threw it out there, it, it was exciting to Dad's point, you know, I think with him, he had obviously had such a full life there at ESPN and, you know, he'll tell you, it's gonna be doing this for a lot less time than he's already done it.

I, I, I was never sure if this would be an option again for me, but I knew the runway was different where, you know, who knows what form and fashion it could have taken to come back, but to get an opportunity to come back and do this.

Together to still get to do a show that we've been doing with each other for a while now here was uh exciting and a chance to, you know, continue to work with Dan but also to do it with people that we knew.

So many of the same folks behind the scenes in production and in the office, of ESPN radio and ESPN audio are the same people that we have left.

And so, uh, it, it was really exciting on both of those fronts to get to do something like that with people we know and trust.

So was it a yes right away from both of you, or did you have to sort of hear a plan?

Go ahead, Mike.

Well, I mean, it, it, like I said, we, we did have other opportunities, but ESPN was always the front runner.

Quite honestly, you know, since we left ESPN, we had been doing stuff together , but we had also been doing stuff separate, you know.

Mike does, uh, is the number one analyst for TNT Big 12.

He does a Notre Dame podcast.

Uh, I was doing stuff for Westwood One Sunday Night Football.

Um, so we wanted to make sure we could still do those other things that, that we had built up over the years.

So that was, that was really what we navigated with all the people we were talking to, especially with, with ESPN.

And when that got worked out, uh, like I said, we knew that's where we wanted to go, but we wanted to be able to hold on to the other things that we were doing as well.

So you were there from 95 to 2020.

I, you, you, I know you weren't happy with the show ending with Mike Greenberg.

Does, was any, was any part of going back sort of a, um, Finish the job.

Redemption, uh, close the chapter with a nice bow instead of maybe a sour tasting bow.

Is any of that a factor in coming back?

Uh, it, it wasn't redemption.

It was, it was again more surprise that I was able to go back.

Uh, obviously very happy to go back and be able to continue.

To work with, with my son.

That, that's still been, been the highlight of my career to be able to flip on a mic and, and be able to do a show with someone I've known for 36, going on 37 years.

I don't know if there's another show out there where one host has changed the diapers or the other host.

Uh, so that, that may be a first.

Um, so it, it was, I, I, I guess I didn't know it was going to happen again, but I just look at it as a continuation and maybe a chance to, I still have more than a few years left in me, but maybe end it where it began.

I , I, I think would, would really, I think be nice as far as the, the radio and audio aspect , uh, of my career, uh, where it started at ESPN maybe to end at ESPN down the road would be very satisfying.

I'd love for you to just clear this up and say whatever you want to say on it.

I was always under the impression of someone who covers this, that The ending of Mike and Mike was not pretty.

I felt like you were maybe hurt by it and I thought maybe the relationship with Mike Greenberg was frayed.

But then in reading preparation for this interview, I saw you say you've always sort of stayed in touch.

I know Mike said some really nice things about you when this announcement came about.

So I'm just like, can you just give us a little summation of what the relationship is with Mike Greenberg in in 2026?

Yeah, I mean it, it, it did not end well.

I mean that, that's been pretty much, uh, 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 now.

Uh, and the same thing when I left Philadelphia to go to Miami.

You, you move on and you, you, you study the task at hand.

As far as the relationship with Greeny, we, we kept in, we don't keep in touch much, uh, in all honesty, but occasionally, we'll check in and, and quite honestly, mostly it's about how the kids are doing, how his kids are doing, how our kids, uh, my kids are doing, because we kind of, I was growing my family during Mike and Mike.

And Greeny had his kids during Mike and Mike, and we were always a very family-oriented show, so kids were always involved.

So, again, we don't, we don't keep in touch much.

But when we do, like I said, it's, it's, you know, he, he, he texts me, you know, about coming back to ESPN and was very happy for me and certainly for Mike.

Uh, but, and, and I said, as I said, we, we, we talk about the kids.

So it's, it's cordial.

I mean, even when we were doing the show, he lived in Westport.

I lived in Avon, a year, an hour and a half from one another.

It's not like we're ever in a position to Hang out, uh, right?

So we're living in an hour and a half from one another, but we, we certainly meshed well on the show.

Uh, so yeah, so now, like I said, it's, it's, uh, not, not, not very frequent we keep in touch, but when we do, it's cordial.

Were you ever surprised, you know, I'm thinking about, it seems like fans of a show.

It could be radio, it could be TV, but whenever there's a show, and I, where there's a, a team, whether it's two people or even an ensemble, whenever that dissolves, The fans almost take it worse than the people involved, it seems like sometimes.

Like I remember, you know, here in New York, you know, I've been in New York my whole life.

I mean, when Mike and the Mad Dog broke up, it was on the front page of the newspaper.

It's not usually the deal in radio.

Did you at any point, because, you know, when it first happens, you're probably in shock, but you're probably 234 years later, still hearing from people about Love Mike and Mike, love Mike and Mike.

Did it ever take you aback?

Were you ever surprised by how much the fans, You know, get hurt by a split.

I, I, I, I still hear about it, uh, without question.

I mean, listen, those were some, some, some fantastic years.

There's no doubt about it.

Um , and, and yeah, you, you, you certainly do hear about it from people about, about, you know, hey, I grew up on that show.

I'll get people in their, you know, 40s or 30s saying, I had a paper out and I listened to your show.

Then I listened to your show in grade school.

I listened to your show in high school and made me sound really, really and feel really, really old.

But Mike has talked about this as well, my Mike, you know, when, when we're talking about radio.

Radio.

Obviously, content's the most important thing coming out of the speakers, but there's an intimacy to radio, where, where listeners get to know the hosts.

That's why consistency and continuity in a lineup is so important for that day part and the people that listen to get to know those people, especially if they're willing, like Greeny and I were, like Mike and I were.

We were willing to put our families out there, both good.

Good and bad.

So people kind of get to know you, you know, so that there, there is that, I keep using the word intimacy to radio where people, you know, I get moms, you know, still, man, I used to, I used to drive my kid to school.

We used to listen to your show.

We never had to turn it off.

It never, you know, got R rated or anything, and we love those times.

And, and I love hearing that.

I, I, I love hearing when it's all family-oriented.

It's funny, let me, I'll, I'll transition because you, I wanted to get into sort of the sports media landscape in 2026 in radio and you, you touched on it.

I'll go to Mike Junior for this.

You know, given you're the son here, so you're younger, I, I, you know, maybe you're scrolling a lot more than your dad.

You know, I feel like this whole business now is reels and TikTok and it's kind of crazy.

So how do you, what, what's in your head as a plan?

Like how do you navigate radio in 2026?

Yeah, I mean, I, I think, you know, that Dad's always fond of saying that there are certain things about the old ways that always kind of shine.

Through and it, it's kind of the blocking and tackling of all this, like the nuts and bolts of radio and trying to, you know, win your 5 minutes every quarter hour and do all that stuff, like, it's all still a part of it.

There are still breaks, there are still gonna be callers, there are still gonna be all those things that work there.

I, I think the difference is now on the back end, you just try and figure out how to get all those other places that people are.

Having a visual element, it's always been important.

I mean, Dad and Greeny were the ones.

at the forefront of simulcasting radio and making that a television product, and now it's ubiquitous.

Everything that's audio has some sort of video component.

And so it's all right, how do you get the portions of that part of your show onto Twitter, onto Instagram, onto TikTok, and vertical videos so that, hey, even if someone maybe never migrates back with you over to radio, they're aware of you, they're aware of what you're about.

To Dad's point, those parts of yourself.

Help that you give, make it to all those places where fans of sports are, you know, that's the ESPN mission has always been about, you know, meeting fans wherever they are, anytime, anyplace, and so that's the same charge now.

It just requires, you know, a couple of extra editors and people that know how to clip vertical video.

I, I, I'm glad, I'm glad you asked Mike that question because my, my answer is very simple.

When people ask the, you know, from, from getting faxes back when I did the show with Tony Bruno and Greeny to now instant, you know, access with, with listeners and viewers.

My response is always simple.

I talk into the microphone the same way that I started in 1995.

How it gets distributed, that's up to people higher up than me.

That's usually my answer, very, very simple answer.

Uh, listen, that's the way it should be, but, uh, what you don't want, I'm not saying this would happen to you, but there is, there, there is that element of like someone may say to you, you know, this would make for a great clip, you know, say LeBron's an idiot for going to Philadelphia or something like that.

You, that, you don't want the interference to make the clips because it's all about the clips these days.

Yeah, I like, and I've, I've heard plenty of people talk about how at times, you know, the aims of folks in social media who are trying to get something that catches on and has virality could be at odds with, you know, a host who wants to say something, especially in a long-form medium that's got more context to it .

You've got, you know, 10 to 12 minutes to flesh it out in a radio segment.

You've got an infinite amount of time in a podcast.

Has to do it and you have like less than a minute to try and hook somebody in on social media for that.

Uh, my thought is always, you know, there's some give and take to that.

Excuse me.

You wanna have a relationship enough with the people that do your social media to where if something ever really isn't representative of what you're saying, to be able to say, hey, maybe can we tweak it and do this.

But it's kind of, you know, what my dad's told me and what anyone will tell you.

One, it's that same idea that every mic is a hot mic.

Like, if you say the words on air publicly, you've gotta be willing to defend it and also understand that, you know, what you hear on social media half the time is just gonna be, you know, bots and a bunch of stuff that's not really real in terms of that reaction.

It's, you know, get used to being able to defend your words the way that you always have, just kind of in a different arena now.

I would bet money your dad hates the word vi virality.

I, I, I, listen, I, I mean, again, to say something just for clicks.

I know we're, we're in a different time, um, and, and, and maybe off-handedly, I'll, I'll accidentally do that.

Or again, we'll, we'll get, we'll get very opinionated on our show.

My, my classic line is no way on God's green earth, something's going to happen and then invariably it happens.

Um, but yeah, I, I, I, I know it's, I know we're in a hot take world and stuff, but it, if it happens, it happens organically.

But you hit on something interesting there, which I, I, I hate the flip side just as much because there are times where I will give an opinion and someone's like, oh, that's a hot take, and it's like, no, no, I was just actually I was just giving my opinion on something that happened in sports.

It was, there was like, now you can't even do that without, you know, yeah .

But, my thing is you can.

It's just that before the reaction we got was different.

It was a caller that would call back in.

Like it's just like with the athletes that we cover.

Social media has created a different brand of access, and at times I think we overweight the importance of the entire medium in terms of what the dominant conversation is there, how the things that go about there are actually reflective of what real fans think, because the conversations that I have with actual fans that aren't online tend to be.

Drastically different from the stuff that goes on there, but because they see it in a short clip, because they see it in that regard, like that arena where it gets digested and where a lot of conversation happens has an outsized reaction, but I, I don't know, again, but part of, so many of these human reactions that I have in conversations kind of reinforced it.

Like we can still have these conversations honestly and earnestly without people having bad faith reactions to all this.

I, I don't know if you, you can answer this with dad being right there, but I would love to hear the best and worst thing about working with your father.

It doesn't have to be as specific about your father.

Like, you know, it could be anyone who works with their dad, is there something, uh, uh, best and worst.

Yeah, well, I mean, the, the best is easy cause like Dad said before, uh, we'll never have a co-host that we know better than the one we're working with now.

And early in my career, the way that manifests versus the way it manifests now where, you know, I was getting started, I didn't know what, I didn't know.

I was going in with, you know, this has been something I'd studied, what I wanted to do, there was like some natural aptitude for it, but the rest you gotta learn on the fly.

And I always had, you know, dad there when We would do stuff together on air, who was able to set me up perfectly, who knew where my strengths were, was able to put me in positions where I could go and be successful.

Now, that cuts both ways to where I get into a certain conversation, and I know, hey, these are some of the stories that dad's gonna tell.

These are some of the places that I, I know he's gonna wanna hit on with this, and so, it, it can make the on-air product better like that.

And then at a base level, there's just, I get to spend 2 hours a day with my dad still, whether it's remote, whether it's together.

At a time where everyone naturally in their life, you know, grows apart as families grow and not grows apart in that, like, you know, the relationship phrase, you get busy, but you have busy, you have your own lives.

People have growing families geographically you're further apart, and so I, I think being grounded in that is awesome.

The worst part, he knows, and this is the part that I feel like is most relatable for people that watch cause you mentioned the end of, you know, Golic and Wingo, that was the end of Dad's time at ESPN radio.

The coolest thing was we got so many.

Notes from parents and children who got to work with their children or parents and talked about how much of themselves they saw in that relationship and how cool that was to be able to share that not just with us, but with their child or with their parent.

And that was awesome.

And there's good and bad to that.

And I feel like a lot of people on my peer range who have parents who are in their like 60s and getting into older than that, you wind up wearing your IT hat way more than you wear your like son or Daughter or co-worker had.

I was on before, we, before we did this, I was FaceTiming my dad because I got the home set up for all our audio and video stuff for this show.

And I am giving him the pre-rundown because I know what's gonna happen is he's gonna open the box full of stuff.

He's gonna get frustrated and he's gonna call me.

So I've learned to head this off and try and A, help myself, and B, help my poor mom who's been in charge of helping him navigate Netflix passwords and every other bit of technology that my My dad just refuses to get on board with in his life.

So that's the worst part.

Yeah, I, I'm, I'm horrible at it.

And I, the thing is, and it's true, I don't try because I have 3 kids, including Mike and my wife who will help me.

So I don't even try.

I just immediately ask them.

I'm horrible at it.

You've, you've hit so close to home because I do have, I, I yell at my dad because he refuses to try to learn.

That's my issue.

And you know , I, for 20 years I've said, write your passwords on a piece of paper, keep them in your bedroom, and it's just that, no, I gotta get the call.

What's my password because they're in my notes app and it's the not trying that offends me.

So I have to side with Mike Junior on this one though.

I, I, and, and I admit it, but listen, but I will say this, my dad can't even FaceTime.

I mean, I think I've tried it twice.

And I've seen the ceiling the whole time.

So your dad's a little bit ahead of the game that he could.

I, I can do the bare necessities for it, and my way if there's a problem is turn it off and turn it back on.

And if it still doesn't work, I'm done.

Yeah.

Now how do you navigate maybe some of the like the pop culture and sports mix?

Like I'm not gonna count like Taylor Swift because that, that everyone knew, but like Justin Herbert gets engaged to Madison Beer.

Is Dad gonna be able to discuss that?

Dad, are you gonna be able to discuss that?

Yeah, yeah, I'm, I'm into pop.

I love doing off-sport topics.

I mean, we obviously as a family love talking about food, but I, I love, it's just a matter of how in-depth you go and If it's to things that I don't, there are things that Mike talks about in pop culture that I have no clue about, uh, whether it's with some kind of entertainer or some kind of meme or something, but quite honestly, we'll turn it into a bit, you know, on the radio to try and make some, make some people laugh and, and make me look more stupid.

And that's good stuff.

I like that stuff.

I think that you want because that's real.

Like, it is real, I, yeah, it is real.

It's funny you said that.

I was talking to someone in the sports media business this week, and I don't know how the topic came up, but I said to them.

There is nothing that I can ever throw on social media that will ever get more of a reaction than anything to do with food.

Food more than sports.

Like it is the number one thing to generate responses.

It is, it is wild whenever you put anything out there about food, anything, anything in food, and, and Mike does , uh, in his car, he, he does a, a food thing which is very, very cool.

And quite honestly, now that I'm back at ESPN.

I am hoping to be able to live out one thing.

You talk about one of the most disappointing things of all my time at ESPN and Mike got to do it.

You did it twice, I think.

Mike got to host or be part of the hot dog eating contest on July 4th.

And I have never been, I have never been part of it.

So I'm hoping as I hopefully finish my career at ESPN I will be asked to be on that broadcast.

All right, put that out there for the ESPN people listening.

Mike Golic Senior on the, I mean, listen, they have a bit right there where you two could just have a one on one at the hot dog eating.

I mean, so many possibilities, yeah, about 100%.

It's, but like food's the great equalizer.

Like with sports sometimes the barrier to entry can be this feeling like maybe I don't have the level of expertise or knowledge that someone else has.

We all eat.

We all got an opinion on that, so it's perfect.

It the I had, you know, let me get, uh, are you a coffee drinker, Mike?

Yes, I am.

Yeah, hot coffee, hot coffee.

OK, me, OK, me too.

100 degrees.

I need a hot coffee in the morning.

So I had put this out there a couple of weeks ago.

I went into a Dunkin' Donuts.

I'm a very straightforward medium hot coffee with cream.

That's it.

There's nothing, medium hot coffee, nothing else.

I was the only one on line.

There was no one or in line.

There was no one in line.

And it took me like 7 minutes to get my drink because the poor people working there were making these pink and orange and yellow concoctions.

And I said on Twitter, it would be great if there was a separate line for people who just want a coffee with nothing else.

And the reaction was off the charts of either I agree with you or you're the worst person in the face of the earth.

Am, am I, where, how, where do you stand on that?

You are so correct.

There should be a, because when you go into a coffee place and you order basically dessert for a drink and what you get.

There is a place where they put it after you're done.

Whenever I order a hot coffee, they fill it right there and hand it to me.

And I'll go one step further.

You should not have to say hot coffee.

It should be assumed if you say coffee, it is hot.

You should have to say, I'd like a cold brew or something.

Coffee should be considered, that's a hot coffee unless other words, other words.

Specified.

I tweeted that once too and almost got murdered for that take.

I mean, listen, stick to it.

It's an objectively bad take by both of you guys here.

The one extra word's not gonna kill you.

We live in a time where me and the cold coffee crowd, and shout out to my compatriots one time for ESPN SportsCenter's Randy Scott, who's a cold coffee any time of year guy like myself.

When we lived in Bristol , it was freezing cold.

There was snow on the ground.

I'm gloved up with my iced coffee ready to go.

Having to specify one.

They're on equal footing in 2026 as far as I'm concerned.

I don't, I don't really, I'm not strong on that take.

Like I wouldn't push back on you for that, especially like, I feel like now everyone just drinks iced coffee.

I think it's like a trend almost.

So like I, I, I could, the other one though, when I'm waiting for just a coffee with some cream in it because you're making a thick pink drink with white shit on top of it, that irritates me.

So this is, this is my solution.

I think there is an easy solution to this that we already see take place some places.

Like I'll go to a place that's less a coffee shop and more like breakfast bagels and stuff like that, but you see it in like airport sky lounges and stuff.

You got hot and cold coffee with a nozzle.

You can do it yourself.

Hand me the cup and let me go about my business, and that way, and then you can be back in the lab cooking a but it's just like there's that coffee machine in like a Delta sky lounge, and you can get all the different stuff in there.

I don't need that.

I got the nozzle and I got.

Hot coffee there and I'm good to go.

I drink it black.

I don't need anything else.

Give us the agency to do that and then let the people that want dessert for breakfast have dessert for breakfast, you know.

I, I, I love dessert for breakfast, just not in the coffee form.

I'm gonna get my calories the old fashioned way.

It, it's, it's, see, that, that's it.

The food takes there.

Now, let me ask you this though.

So you, you, you have, you, you haven't been behind the mic for a little bit.

Give me, I mean, we just went, you know, we could do Dunkin' Donuts here for 3 hours, it seems like.

Give me a sports thing that has happened in the last month or two that you said, oh, I wish I was, I wish I was behind the mic.

I wish our show had started.

I, I mean that, that, that's an easy one.

LeBron going to Philadelphia.

I mean, I'm from Cleveland.

I was hoping he'd go back there again.

Uh, to help Cleveland.

Oh, though with James Harden on the team who struggles in the playoffs, that's always an iffy proposition.

I thought he may think about matching up with Giannis, uh, in Miami.

I didn't think he would do the Golden State thing, but Philly, I mean, again, all you can do is look on paper right now.

That, that lineup of Maxie and Edgecombe and Brown and Embiid and, and LeBron.

Now, again, health is, Uh, is a key thing, especially for Joel Embiid.

Some will say for LeBron as well, but let's also remember, when the Lakers were in the playoffs last year , that Austin Reeves and Luca were out and the old man LeBron was the one that was still playing.

So I, I'm, I'm really, really excited to see what that group can do.

What about you?

That, that one would have been great.

Like my sports and pop culture answer obviously would have been the Swift Kelsey wedding at MSG, the event of the summer.

And as someone that was on that part of the Venn diagram of Swifty fan of Swifty and NFL fan and got to kind of help bridge the gap for people.

That was important to me.

But in terms of you were, you weren't invited like everyone else, and man, I tell you, like I said, you know what, we talked about, you know, Mike Foss, who helped bring us back here and so, you know, so grateful for that.

Like, what an awesome opportunity.

Uh, the timing of this to get to do this going into the season with Dad, we're thrilled.

Had it maybe happened a little bit sooner, I do feel like I would have had a better shot at getting in the door there because it seemed like there were a lot of folks from ESPN that made their way into that.

So, you know, the biggest, the biggest happen soon.

Who knows?

The biggest sports media story of the week by far was the Ryan Clark situation, and then I found out he was there.

After he, I, I would like, was there anyone not there for me?

Like me, yeah, Mike wasn't there, the one that wasn't there, and it's gonna haunt me till my dying day.

I mean, Mike, I don't think you missed much.

Mike, you have to admit though, people had to stand in line to get food and stand to eat.

I mean, aesthetically.

That's not a really good look.

I would have stood for hours for that opportunity.

So that would have been certainly up there, but if I can offer a sports one briefly that I did miss, it was a bummer not to be on air during the World Cup.

I, I had such a great time getting to be a fan of that event, and it was made easier by the fact that, you know, Team USA in the group stage had this incredible.

Incredible start and there was this groundswell of support where we thought, OK, things feel different now.

This is a team that played a faster, more exciting style offensively than we had seen from a lot of the US men's national team sides in the past in my lifetime.

It didn't end the way that people wanted it and it invited some of those same old doubts back, but then you got to see all of the compelling action, you know, ending with, you know, Spain and Argentina and everything that went on there, but to get to see, you know, Kylian Mbappe in France and just all the different parts of this.

And then the culturally immersive side, like the part of the sports that we also love where, you know, as a person who loves college football and covers it, we talk about pageantry so much for that.

The exchange of culture among people coming over to support their team and country with people in different.

Towns around the United States and the way everyone opened their arms up for each other.

To me is the best of this, like, FIFA, FIFA is rife with corruption and there's obviously so much with that entity with the World Cup that is a, you know, part of the worst of sports in certain ways.

But what you saw among the people, the people that make all of this go, I thought was the best of what we had to offer.

Uh, it's funny, because, you know, we're here doing this because you're returning to radio.

It's sort of like the celebration of your return to radio.

And I feel like in radio, sports radio, there are those, You know, red meat topics that you can ever always throw out there to get, you know, like, uh, the, obviously the class one is LeBron versus MJ, but you just hit on one that I always find amusing as someone, as an outsider on this is the World Cup was here.

I feel like we heard about it 24/7 nonstop, and then it always starts the discussion.

Is soccer gonna take over America?

Where is soccer?

And, and I think that part of the discussion is dumb because we saw what the reaction was to soccer in America.

But, It is amusing though that the World Cup ends.

I haven't heard one word about soccer since the World Cup has ended.

And that seems like one of those standard radio topics that you could always throw out there.

It, it is.

And listen, doing radio since, since basically '95, whether it was in Arizona here or all those years at ESPN, it's always been a topic.

The younger group, uh, the youth, youth soccer is gonna make it grow, and, and make no mistake, it's grown over the years.

But to your point, It is , it is never going to be one of the more popular sports in the United States, and it is always going to be the most popular sport in the world.

And you're right, because we had games, because we had automatic entrance into it, because games were in the US.

There was going to be a good reaction.

Then as Mike said, they played well, uh, in, in the opening round , uh, opening round.

So you were like, oh, could this be?

And then we saw it wasn't to be.

So yeah, I think it falls back to, you know, there, there's, there's just unfortunately not the huge interest in it.

Yeah, I just like the theory that someone's gonna watch a World Cup game and then like watch a random MLS game on Tuesday night.

Like I don't know why we keep having that conversation, but that's, yeah, I, I do think that that's more about like.

Do you get the kid that watches the World Cup and says, oh, now this is what I want to do.

And I think there were some important conversations that got started about youth soccer in America and the amount of, you know, people trying to get money off parents' pockets, which is, you know , part of youth sports in general in this country in a way that needs a reckoning.

Like the way that we handle all that, you hear from parents all the time.

It's just not doing anyone any favors and making sports accessible to young people whose lives are enriched by the parts of this that Aren't just financially driven and by your ability to get to the pros, but also providing more opportunity and access, gets you the bigger talent pool you seek and all that.

The difference is what you just mentioned is, you know, MLS has made plenty of strides in my lifetime, but it's not the best league in the world.

And I saw someone else make this point.

I wish I could remember who and give them credit, but American sports fans are used to being able to watch the NBA, the NFL, the NHL.

They're able to watch the best leagues in the world right in their own backyard on their time.

You wanna watch that with soccer, you've got to get up early on the weekends and watch the Premier League before you get going with the rest of your weekend.

And so you've got that natural hurdle.

I, I do think this was an important World Cup still for it, but I, I think what time has shown us and Dad covering this, you know, basically his whole career is that change is a lot slower than I think people wanted to give it credit for, especially in the last 10 or so years.

Yeah, also it doesn't help that all the MLS games are on Apple TV.

You just, you're not gonna get the fringe viewer.

I, I know everyone streams, but that's not how you bring in the fringe fan.

Um, there was a line in the press release.

I just wanted to, um, there's a line in the press release, I wanna get it accurate here.

You guys both have appearances on shows across ESPN platforms.

Can you shed on the, like, are we gonna see you on GetUp?

Are we gonna see you on McAfee?

Like what, what, what is that, uh, well, that, that we don't know.

I mean, it's just kind of a catch-all that, that we have X amount of appearances, uh, cross-platform.

We don't know what shows they'll, they'll, they'll be.

I'm sure they'll ask here or there, uh, to go on shows, but they're, they're not defined, quite honestly.

I apologize for not knowing this.

What is the Westwood game you do, Mike?

What night?

Oh, I do Sunday night, the Sunday night game, yeah, the Sunday night.

Who do you do that with?

I do that with Ryan Radke.

I've been doing it with him for about 4 years now.

It's great.

I love it.

I absolutely, so what's your, what's your situation doing a Sunday night game and then the Monday radio show at 10 in the morning?

Uh, well, the, the Mon, uh, so yeah, the Monday Mike will go through that in college.

He'll be on the road every Friday, and I'll be on the road every Monday.

So, the one great thing about ESPN is there's tons of affiliates all over the country.

So Justin Craig, who runs up, you know, ESPN radio, will look for spots for me in the NFL city that I'm in to try and go do it there.

If not, I'll have like a, a, a traveling unit where I'll be able to do it from the hotel room.

All right.

In wrapping up, I had Mike Junior on before last college football season.

You had just gotten the gig at TNT.

And when we were done taping, It was one of the most devastated I've ever been after taping a podcast because I forgot to ask something.

So I was thrilled this opportunity came up because I said, how on earth did I do that whole podcast and not ask about having an uncle who was on Saved by the Bell the College Years, which I'm sure you've talked about a billion times in interviews, but I loved Saved by the Bell of College Years like most people my age.

Was that a big thing for you when you were a kid and he was doing that?

Or did you not realize the impact of Saved by the Bell on the world?

I, I, so I had known the impact of Saved by the Bell to an extent.

I think based on my age, it has like a core fandom thing for me.

I had kind of missed, but that was my first introduction into just how much bigger the world of larger media is than sports media in so many ways because when I first went off to college.

College, I mean, it was, you know, the height of Mike and Mike.

I was at Notre Dame from 2008 to 2012.

The show was on fire.

It was everywhere.

It was in our training room, like, you know, it's to that's point, all of my friends had grown up with that on in their cars, in their homes, all that.

And I would meet students on campus who would see my last name, and the first thing they would bring up was the college years.

And so, it, it was.

That reminder, and I feel like we get those, you know, the Taylor Swift and Travis Kelsey thing was a reminder that pop culture at large and the world of entertainment outside of sports is still so much bigger than even, you know, sports which takes up, you know, 99 of the top 100 live broadcasts every year and all that stuff that we know, but it was still the big bank take little bank of sports versus entertainment.

Have you ever had a chance to interview anyone from the cast though because you've had a bunch, a bunch of shows.

I, I know, we, we, we haven't, but when my, when my brother Bob got married in Vegas, the cast showed up for that wedding.

So I did get, I did get to meet them all, uh, you know, I thought they were gonna do a segment or something, but yeah, I did, I did get to meet them all.

But no, we've, uh, I don't believe we've ever had them on, on the show.

I interviewed Mark Paul Goschler once because he had that show on TNT.

What was it called with Breckenmeyer?

I don't remember it, but they were doing promo for that, and I saw Mario Lopez at a New York City Starbucks, so that was, that was cool.

You know, I wonder, I wonder if I would, did his drink have any of the pink stuff on the top of it that was making you mad, or did he go black coffee?

This is before all those crappy drinks came out and became a big deal with the, with the TikTok crowd that you're gonna have to cater to now when you do your radio.

Oh yeah, yeah, TikTok loves Dad.

We did one video with him, and it's the most watched one I've ever had, so we're gonna set him up with that at some point.

Let him cook.

God, you know, there, there is.

You know, listen, I've, I've posted some videos over the years of my dad trying to work technology, and I, it always gets the biggest reaction from people.

So I'm not surprised that your dad would be a, a hit on.

It, it, Listen, I, I've learned that TikTok, you have to be like consistent on it all the time every day.

I, I, I can't do that.

But every now and then we, we, we do something and, or Mike will help me with something, but I.

I even on, even on Twitter or X or whatever you're gonna call it, I'm a reposter.

I rarely post, you know, anything original.

I kind of just answer things.

All right, well, you can, you can find my Dunkin' Donuts thing and say I agree with it.

I will, I will, uh, I appreciate you guys coming on.

Let's tell everyone it's the Golics ESPN radio 10 to 2 Eastern.

They start August 3rd.

They're not one of these shows waiting till after Labor Day, waiting for the NFL to start.

August 3rd.

Be there.

They will be there, uh, with their new radio show.

Appreciate you guys coming on.

Thanks a lot.

Thanks.