If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all. That’s the adage Mike Francesa abided by when he was asked to participate in Wild Card: The Downfall of a Radio Loudmouth, the recent Craig Carton documentary on HBO.
“No chance,” was the text Francesa sent to the doc’s filmmakers, according to Carton.
Carton has previously detailed the origin of the disdain between him and Francesa, which stems from a meeting shortly after he teamed up with Boomer Esiason in 2007. Program director Mark Chernoff arranged a get together to ease any tension between the morning and afternoon shows. The way Carton tells it, Francesa showed up late and never removed his sunglasses, claiming “it’ll never work” of WFAN’s morning duo. Carton and Francesa would continue to have a turbulent relationship throughout the next decade, which was often portrayed on-air.
Returning to WFAN for the first time in more than three years Thursday evening, Carton began by noting the irony of doing so from the ‘The Mike Francesa Studio,’ named after his former foe. Carton also shared that the directors of his HBO documentary, Martin Dunn and Marie McGovern reached out to Francesa to gauge his interest in being interviewed for the film, but he predictably declined.
Francesa has, so far, been quiet on Carton’s return to the airwaves. He wished well for Joe Benigno and Evan Roberts on his way out. Now on to a new show pairing, which will be the replacement of his replacement, Francesa isn’t obligated to send another salute.
The nicest thing Francesa ever did for Carton, was a previous time he followed the ‘if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all’ motto. When Carton was arrested in Sept. 2017, Francesa could have said ‘I told you so,’ he could’ve used the incident as a way of payback for WFAN’s former morning host.
But Francesa took the high road and chose not to say anything negative about Carton after his arrest, conviction and sentence, only offering empathy for Craig’s family.
Now more than three years later, Carton will sit in the chair previously occupied by Francesa, assuming he gets the “power chair” over new co-host Evan Roberts. Expect Carton to continue his past ribbing of Francesa, but that chair is still a difficult one to fill. Despite falling behind The Michael Kay Show for his final book in afternoon drive with WFAN last year, Francesa’s run of success in sports radio remains unmatched.
