While he was at ESPN, Mike Golic got to do many different things such as being the co-host of Mike & Mike, being a color commentator on Monday Night Football and college football games among other different things. However, there was one event this past weekend that Golic’s son got to do that he wished he was able to do.
Golic was a guest on the latest episode of StuPodity and he mentioned that while he got to interview competitive eaters on Mike & Mike, he never got to call the action at the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest at Coney Island. Over the past two years, his son has had the chance to do that:
“One of my big regrets from ESPN is the fact I never got to be in Mike’s shoes and call the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest. I’m happy a Golic got to do it,” said Golic Sr.
Of course, the big story from that event was that the video feed went out at the end of the competition as Joey Chestnut was setting the record of 76 hot dogs and buns eaten in 10 minutes. Golic took the listeners behind the scenes to what his son can see from the monitor during the contest and why Golic Jr. didn’t apologize for the technical difficulty at the end of the broadcast:
“In a booth, it depends on the monitors that you have. Mike only had the feed from the truck and his view. He actually had no idea that that happened, which is probably good because what happens is they clean it all up at the end for the re-air. People were saying why didn’t Mike say when they came back, sorry for the technical difficulties. There was a decision made because they didn’t know because of the type of monitor that was in their booth, the producer did not tell Mike that so they could get a clean feed for the re-air. They had no idea that it had gone out. It could not have been worse timing. I felt bad for him.”
Golic and StuGotz did talk about the big sports media story of the week in what has happened at ESPN with Rachel Nichols and Maria Taylor. In Golic’s opinion, he thought somebody higher up at ESPN needed to get involved to help diffuse the situation:
“Here’s my problem and it’s been my problem with a lot of things over time whether it’s at ESPN or anywhere else. It’s communication. Communicate more. You let this situation get bad…Somebody higher up at ESPN needs to get involved and say listen, you guys both work for this company, we’re all going to get in one room and we’re going to talk about this. The lack of face-to-face meetings with people to talk about anything, things that need to be talked about, to me is embarrassing.”
“This had been a year old. Somebody in leadership needs to step in and say ok, that person’s texting and you aren’t responding to the texts. No, we are going to the same room. We are going to be in the same room and talk about it. I have said this from Day 1 and I learned this from my parents, especially from my father. You deal with people face-to-face, voice-to-voice during COVID. Even if it is the aftermath and you are trying to clean things up, get face-to-face, somehow, someway. One party wanted to, the other didn’t, and that’s fine, but that’s when leadership needs to take charge.”
Since Golic’s last season in the NFL was in 1993, there are many people that tend to know him more as a broadcaster than when he was playing in the NFL. Golic does get asked which one he would like to be remembered as and it was an easy answer for him:
“My equation is I have never woken up in the middle of the night from a great dream going oh my god, what a great segment that was with Stu. When I wake up from a great football dream, I sacked the quarterback, I caused a fumble, I had an interception. It’s kind of a weird situation.”
“While that’s so cool that I am in a couple of different Hall of Fames and I appreciate it and it’s a great honor, if you asked me would I rather be in the Pro Football Hall Of Fame, there’s no comparison.”
