Mike Greenberg on ‘Mike & Mike’ legacy: ‘We created something that mattered to people’

When Mike & Mike wrapped up after 17 years, Mike Greenberg says he was able to step back and appreciate what he and Mike Golic had built. Their show ended in mid-November. Golic and Trey Wingo had their new gig launching less than two weeks later. Get Up was initially scheduled to start on New Year’s Day but was pushed back to April.

So, for Greenberg? That meant five months off.

That stretch of quiet gave Greenberg time to think about what it means when a long-running show like Around the Horn comes to an end.

“For the most part, I did nothing but reflect,” he told host Brandon Contes on the Awful Announcing Podcast. “And I did think about that a little bit when I watched all of the reaction to Around the Horn on Friday. I did remember that. I think what happens is, if you stick around long, Mike and I were together 18 years… There’s an expression in our business called ‘Letting it bake.’ When you let something bake, there’s a value in that because you become a part of people’s routines. They count on you. You’re with them through monumental things in their lives. And there’s real value in that.

“And the fact that the show was that important — I know this — I don’t have to hope this. I know Tony [Reali] knows that. And I know all of them who were regulars on that show that were there all the time know that, because you can feel it. Because you can feel it in the interaction you have. Not even direct, but indirect. You can just sort of feel it in the air. And certainly, Mike and I could feel that when we were ending the show and even before that.”

It “felt great” to Greenberg, who says he and Golic “created something that mattered to people” in a medium where that’s far from easy. Just think about how many shows Around the Horn competed with over its 23 years on the air. How many started and stopped while it stayed a constant?

“That’s an enormous success,” Greenberg said of ATH’s 23-year run. “And I have no doubt that Tony feels that. And that he feels great about it. Because he absolutely should.”

Greenberg’s own run with Golic was a success in its own right. Their ending wasn’t quite as tidy, but it’s no less real.

“Our relationship in the overwhelming years that we were together was extraordinary,” says Greenberg. “And things
didn’t end the way either of us would’ve liked, and that’s old news now. But these days, we don’t really talk to each other much. Every once in a long while. But, I will forever wish him well and I will forever be grateful for the opportunity and the experience that show was, because it changed my life in exclusively good ways. If I think back to where I was when it started, it’s one of the great things that has ever happened to me. And I’ll never stop feeling that way.”

It’s been seven years since the show ended, but Greenberg believes if they hosted a radio show tomorrow, their chemistry “probably would be instant.”  In Greenberg’s experience, chemistry is either there or it’s not. And with Golic, it definitely was. Whether they still have it? He’s not so sure. A lot has happened since then. But back in the day? They absolutely had it.

“That’s for damn sure,” he said.

Greenberg’s right. You don’t last 18 years on-air without becoming part of people’s routines. The same goes for Around the Horn, which has survived for two decades in a format built to churn out talent and rotate panels. That staying power isn’t luck; it’s earned. You bake it in as he said. And once you’re baked in, people feel it when you’re gone.

The Mike & Mike ending wasn’t perfect. Neither guy pretends it was. But there’s still a quiet respect there. Greenberg knows what they built. He knows how rare it is. Is the chemistry still there? Who knows. Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. But what matters is that, for a long time, it was.

And in this business, that’s more than most can say.