Ryan Glasspiegel
One day short of 21 years to the date after Mike & Mike debuted on ESPN Radio, Mike Golic completed his final assignment for the company, color commentary on the Fiesta Bowl. Here was the send-off from his partner, Dave Pasch:
Mike Golic's ESPN send-off (via @awfulannouncing) pic.twitter.com/j0WTHDguuv
— Ryan Glasspiegel (@sportsrapport) January 3, 2021
Golic also received a cake to commemorate the occasion:
Golic nearly dropped his cake but just took a bit directly out of it pic.twitter.com/24fk0doaD9
— CJ Fogler #BlackLivesMatter (@cjzero) January 2, 2021
This is a bittersweet moment. It was cool to see Golic pivot back to the booth and in my opinion he did a pretty good job at it this season. However, this date marks the end of an era and it’s pretty safe to say that changing media dynamics will make it so no one could have the type of run he had in ESPN Radio morning drive again, first with Mike Greenberg and then for a couple years with Trey Wingo.
It will be interesting to see where Golic goes from here. I’d bet a considerable amount of money there is an audio component, whether he finds a new radio job or launches a podcast. Could this season also lead to more football announcing work? It would hardly be shocking.
I have not been big fan of ESPN over the last few years and now this, end of a great Golic run. I am even less interested in watch ESPN unless there is a live sports game on.
It would be very cool to hear Golic on a podcast, totally free of the Disney influence. Not that I expect him to go scorched earth conservative, I just believe he’s got a lot of interesting takes on sports and life that he was not able to share as an ESPN employee. Same goes for Kornheiser, I think he’ll be great fun to listen to as the grouchy old man on the podcast circuit once he officially disconnects from ESPN.
Golic was great for 20 years and will be missed. I guess he liked to laugh and not take himself seriously enough for the ESPN execs. He was insightful when he needed to be, funny, entertaining and just a wonderful person
Never liked the guy, in any incarnation. But he had a great run.
Golic Sr is so much better (announcing games) than Jr.
Jr. has unfortunately fallen victim to the Lebaron James, Beats by Dre, 50 tattoos having woke generation. I’m not interested in anything that guy has to say.
I like Golic, but after the first two minutes of talking about his career, etc., I was yelling, call the game!
Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out of the race baiting, militant homosexual enclave….