In the heat of the “Mike & Mike” breakup rumors earlier this year, Mike Golic considered retirement.
Eighteen of Golic’s 22 years at ESPN were spent talking sports with one person, and before he knew what his next step would be, the radio veteran figured he’d go out as Mike Greenberg’s co-host. Now, he’s two weeks away from beginning the next chapter with partners Trey Wingo and Mike Golic Jr. on their weekday morning show, “Wingo & Golic.”
“Until I found out it was Trey and Mike, [I thought] maybe at the end of the deal, I just move on, head out to Arizona and retire,” Golic told The Post over the phone as he prepared for the final week of “Mike & Mike,” whose last show is Friday.
“But they presented me the thought of Trey doing it and then my son, and … I still love doing it, I still love talking sports. So like I said, I changed teams a few times in the NFL, so it’s the same game I’m playing, just with different teammates.”
It’s not the new team Golic has a problem with, but the way his old team pulled apart at the seams so theatrically. The news of his and Greenberg’s split leaked this spring before they had a chance to announce it themselves. What followed were months of rumors about their deteriorating relationship and a “poisonous” atmosphere on set — all of which Golic and Greenberg denied.
While Golic said he still doesn’t understand ESPN’s decision to break up a “pretty successful” show and wishes the fallout had been handled differently, the 54-year-old assured that he and Greenberg made it out unscathed. Being upfront with each other during those months in the spotlight, Golic said, was the key to overcoming the swirling negativity.“The best thing you can do in a situation like that is just have a conversation. The last thing in the world you want is stuff just kind of hanging out there,” Golic said. “So when I was told, Greeny had dealt with the powers that be in his way and I dealt with them in my way. …
“The bottom line was that was the decision that was made, so the main thing at that point was just to make sure there was a conversation of saying, ‘OK, this is the reality of it, so we need to deal with it. And the bottom line is we still need to put on a good show no matter how either one of us felt about it at the time or the decision that was made.’ … And Greeny and I are fine.”
Golic restated the bone he picked in May, that he takes the most offense to the colleagues who went behind his and Greenberg’s back to say the co-hosts were not talking to each other off the show.
He used that argument as part of his defense for damning ESPN tweets his younger son, Jake, posted the same day Golic and Greenberg addressed their breakup — the “worst-kept secret” — on set. Jake followed up their comments by calling the Worldwide Leader “idiots” and joking about the incompetence of the “higher-ups.”
“Like I told people at ESPN who had a problem with what Jake did, I said, ‘Listen, A) I look at it as a kid who’s sticking up for his dad, and B) at least he put his name to it,’” Golic said. “I said, ‘He did it, he put his name to it, however anybody wanted to take it, did it.’ So I’ll take that over somebody talking to the press and saying, ‘Oh, I’m doing this anonymously and not telling you who I am,’ and doing it in that cowardly way.”
On the verge of leaving behind the somewhat callous end to an iconic partnership, Golic has far more concerns about his and Greenberg’s transition out of the show than his and Wingo’s transition in. Golic and Wingo have been friends “for years,” working together on the first-ever “NFL Live” set in the early 2000s.
“The thing is we probably will rarely see one another,” Golic said of Greenberg, 50, whose New York-based show — with expected co-hosts Jalen Rose and Michelle Beadle — has been pushed back to next spring due to construction delays on a new ESPN studio in the South Seaport district.
“I mean if we didn’t do this show, we would rarely see one another because our kids are in such different stages and we live an hour-and-a-half from one another. … I’m used to seeing the guy every single weekday for at least four hours a day to now when the show ends and he goes to New York, I don’t know physically when I would see him again.”
The two will continue to text and talk about their DraftKings contests, Golic said, but after Friday, they’ll diverge into unfamiliar territory. Golic’s first episode with Wingo and Golic Jr. — who will appear on the show every day, though for how long will vary — is set for Nov. 27 following a weeklong break.
“I think Trey and I might have something up our sleeves for that week that we might hang out and do something together on TV to have a little fun with,” Golic said. “But we’ll have that last show on Nov. 17 and hopefully there will be a cake, then take a breath for a week and keep going.”