Mike Francesa And Barstool Sports - World Collide
Wow. Pretty incredible day for me and Barstool New York. I feel like Forrest Gump when he opened up US-Chinese relations or Balboa at the end of Rocky IV. Somehow, someway, Barstool was able to break down Francesa’s iron curtain and get him to shake hands with the internet. Ordinarily any mention of “Twittah” or the “intanet” and you immediately get hand waived. Mike doesn’t dabble in any of that stuff. But I guess the Numbah One shirts finally got the job done. I almost expected a “I guess what I’m trying to say is, if I can change, and you can change, everybody can change” speech on the air for a second.
Mike’s producer Monzo reached out to me about a week ago saying “I can’t believe I’m actually saying this…but Mike wants a batch of the Numbah One shirts for his family.” Which already blew me away. Never thought Mike would even catch wind of them. But when I brought them down to Blue Heaven and he actually brought them in studio to display them on the air I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t really mention it on the blog or anything because I never thought that was gonna happen. Thought I’d just drop them off, shake his hand and be on my way. But in between one of his breaks he came back behind the glass and said “Awh youah the t shirt guy?” We chit chatted for a bit and he told me that later next week he would plug the shirts on the air. I don’t know if then he realized that the YES contract was expiring or what but all of a sudden he had a change of heart and decided to do it right then and there. He was kind enough to give the shirts and the Stool a shoutout on air which I think is probably the first time in about 5 years that Mike has liked anything or anyone aside from Alex Rodriguez and Lonnie Quinn.
The highlight for me afterwards was he asked me about Bahstool Sports. He turns to me and says: “Go ask ya boss…go ask him what it would mean foah youah guys if I worked foah Bahstool Sports.” So I jokingly responded something like “Hey Mike if you’re willing to take a pay cut, we’d love to have you.” Dead ass serious he goes “I wouldn’t have to take a pay cut. I’m allowed to do whateva I want on the intanet.” Then he just said “Would that be good for business?” I mean I honestly could not have scripted a better exchange then the one I got. The only line better than that was when I first gave him the shirts and he asked “How much?” I said Mike I feel completely foolish making you pay for these” and he goes “I don’t do handouts.” Numbah. One.
PS – Mike’s hair is even more impressive in person. No wonder he never puts anything on his head. The only guy at WFAN with better hair than Mike is his producer Monzo. Dude has flowing locks like you read about.
Advertisement
