Written by Des Bieler at Washington Post.com
There are such things as amicable breakups, but more often than not parting ways engenders hard feelings, particularly when one side is perceived as having set the breakup in motion and not having been completely open about it. That may have been the case with Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic, whose partnership in a popular and long-running ESPN radio show is set to end sometime later this year.
We already received strong indications that all was not well between the two hosts when they spoke on-air last week about the impending end of “Mike & Mike.” In a report published Monday, Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch cited sources close to the show who described the relationship between Greenberg and Golic as “poisonous” and predicted that the pair would part ways well before the end of the year.
“It’s really a poisonous atmosphere right now,” a source described by Deitsch as a “longtime ESPNer who has worked on the show” said. “Most of us don’t see the show lasting through its contractual end [which is believed to be the end of December]. But I give both these guys immense credit because when the light comes on, you would not know what’s going on. They are pros on air.”
Other sources agreed with that assessment, calling Greenberg and Golic “marvelous actors” in the way they are behaving on-air as if they still have the good-natured relationship that was so apparent for much of the run of the show, which began in October 1998. In reality, according to those who spoke with Deitsch, the two “barely even make eye contact with each other” and “virtually ignore each other off air.”
Greenberg is set to host a new ESPN TV program in January 2018, one that will have “Today”-style morning-show elements mixed with “SportsCenter”-style highlights and commentary. What it won’t have is Golic, who will host a radio show with Trey Wingo and his son, Mike Golic Jr., and reportedly was unhappy not to have learned of Greenberg’s venture directly from his longtime partner.
“From Golic’s perspective, he thinks Mike [Greenberg] should have come to him and told him he wanted to do his own thing,” a source told Deitsch. “But Greeney is very nonconfrontational, truly a nice a guy, and he would say that it wasn’t incumbent on him to tell Golic everything about what he wanted to do professionally.”
After Greenberg said last week on “Mike & Mike” last week that “at some point toward the end of this year” his “18-year run” with Golic would end, he added, “For today, all I wanted to say is that this experience has been, by far, the best thing that has ever happened to me in my professional life. I don’t expect anything I ever do to be this much fun again, and I will be grateful for it for the rest of my life.”
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