New York Giants: Mike Francesa forever tied to the franchise
By Zac Wassink
Radio personality and New York sports icon Mike Francesa will forever be linked to the New York Giants long after he leaves the WFAN studios on Friday.
New York radio and the lives of fans who have listened to Mike Francesa for years/decades changed Friday at roughly 6:25 pm ET when the local sports icon signs off on WFAN for the last time. Francesa has made it clear since first announcing he was leaving the FAN that he isn’t retiring and that loyal listeners will be able to hear his rants somewhere somehow at some point next spring. Still, things won’t be the same, particularly for New York Giants supporters who have hung on his every word since the late 1980s.
The NFL is different from every other North American sports league in that teams are guaranteed only 16 meaningful days per season. From September through New Year’s Day, Sundays are meant for football. Passionate NFL fans plan vacations, holiday trips and even weddings around season schedules. In that same way, tuning in to hear Francesa before and after Giants games became tradition for followers of the team. Win or lose, you knew Francesa would have something significant to say about the Giants come 1:05 pm ET the day after any game.
Because of that, Francesa evolved into the true voice of the Giants, more so than play-by-play man Bob Papa and commentator and former player Carl Banks. People in the region and fans able to hear Francesa via the television simulcast or through a streaming service legitimately positioned work lunches and meetings around the start of Mike’s On and his opening monologues.
Francesa hosted weekly interview segments with two-time Super Bowl champion and two-time Super Bowl MVP Eli Manning each season. He spoke with former head coach Tom Coughlin and with former coach Ben McAdoo each week — at least he did until McAdoo ended the tradition, which was possibly the first sign he didn’t have the goods to guide the top NFL team in the country’s biggest sports market. Francesa’s rant about McAdoo’s benching Manning weeks ago went viral and was covered by national media outlets:
Francesa was there for the highest of highs and lowest of lows of Giants football. He and former radio partner Chris “Mad Dog” Russo both picked the Giants to lose Super Bowl XLII to the 18-0 New England Patriots by double digits, Francesa was “in da building” for the game, and the duo was on the air to praise the Giants the afternoon after arguably the biggest upset in NFL history. Francesa hosted the station’s first true Monday celebratory show after Super Bowl XLVI. He ripped the Giants over the team’s handling of kicker Josh Brown, and he broke the news to listeners that Manning had been relegated to second on the depth chart after 210 consecutive starts.
The unspoken acknowledgement Francesa is a Giants fan separated him from others on WFAN. Neither Boomer Esiason nor Craig Carton, when Carton was part of the station, had any emotional attachment to the Giants. Both Evan Roberts and Joe Benigno are Jets fans. Between 6 am and 6:30 pm every fall weekday, Francesa was the only person capable of speaking for Giants supporters because he is one. He thinks, speaks and reacts as do those who pay money to watch games at MetLife Stadium and who rock Big Blue apparel.
Sure, Francesa is a character and a gimmick, to a point. You could sometimes catch him chuckling at himself during his more ridiculous soliloquies when the show was televised. That’s part of his charm, and it’s a reason listeners hung onto his every word. The Giants are a dumpster fire weeks before Christmas, but at least Francesa screamed what so many felt, and he served as an outlet for those who wanted and needed to voice their frustrations over the franchise’s state.
Of course, Francesa isn’t just a football guy. He covered everything from his beloved New York Yankees to horse racing (“hawse,” as members of Mongo Nation, the name of Francesa’s most feverish followers, have joked over the years) to golf to politics and breaking news. Somebody reading this sentence learned about Michael Jackson’s death from Francesa.
With that said, he’s at his best every fall when football is king of the airwaves and atop the sports world. For some, his departure from WFAN won’t hit home until he isn’t broadcasting from Giants training camp next summer. Even if he does a weekly podcast or some other program, it won’t be the same. Because of that, Giants football won’t be the same for those who grew up hearing him coming to and going from work and school.
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Just as there will never be another Eli Manning, there will never be another Mike Francesa. Both are franchise faces who, in different ways, have been taken for granted and won’t be fully appreciated until they’re no longer with their current teams. It is, thus, fitting the Giants are pressing the figurative reset button as Francesa leaves the station he helped build. Giants fans will have to do the same when the team begins preparations for the 2018 season without Francesa there to lead the way.