Michael Kay and Mike Francesa are never going to exchange Christmas cards.
Kay spent years grinding to catch Francesa in the New York sports radio ratings war. And even if things got personal, it was never without respect, at least from Kay’s side. Personal respect? No. But professional respect? Absolutely.
And that’s why you should believe Kay when he says that he has “unbelievable” admiration for what Francesa and Chris “Mad Dog” Russo built. That show set the standard. It changed what sports talk radio could be. And once Russo left for SiriusXM, Francesa carried the whole thing on his back.
And kept right on winning.
That’s where things got messy. Francesa’s arrogance — the dismissive attitude, the cold shoulder, always reminding everyone he was “numbah one” — only deepened their bitter rivalry. Kay doesn’t have many fond memories of going toe to toe with a guy he calls “not very gracious,” but he’s not bitter about it.
Far from it.
“I wouldn’t have any animus at all towards Mike if he was more gracious in victory,” Kay told Andrew Marchand on his Marchand Sports Media podcast. “The best way I can put it: Mike stood on the top of the hill and didn’t pound his chest, but he peed down the hill at all those trying to climb up.”
Still, he’s not blind to the impact Francesa had. Quite the opposite.
“Believe me, I have unbelievable respect for what he and Chris built,” Kay said. “I think they built sports talk in this country. I think they built what we see on ESPN with First Take and all those shows. The hot takes, that was Mike and Chris. So, his career is something, to me, that should be admired and should be studied. But he could’ve handled his success a lot better than he did.”
Mike and Mike Dog’s unfiltered authenticity laid the groundwork for an entire generation of sports media. Before First Take, before Undisputed, before debate became a format, Mike and Chris were laying the very foundation of the format: the cadence, the hot takes, and the daily arguments. You name it.
Whether you loved them or hated them, you listened. And in the business of sports radio, that’s everything.
And for Kay, eventually beating Francesa in the final ratings book stands as one of the proudest moments of his career. Because when you spend years chasing the king of sports radio, toppling him means something. Especially when the crown came with that much ego.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.