ESPN New York afternoon host Michael Kay is not praising Mike Francesa for his 30-year run on WFAN. On his show, Kay said, “We don’t have to pay homage to competition that never really was nice to us.” Kay and Francesa had battled for years over who was winning in the ratings. Francesa retired from WFAN last month. There’s another reason Kay will not show Francesa any respect.
The New York Daily News reports Kay also refuses to give Francesa any praise is because he’s not really retired. “Imagine somebody having a day for a player who leaves as a free agent. That’s exactly what Mike’s doing. He’s coming back next season to do something else on another station or another medium and we’re supposed to sit there, ‘Oh, Kumbaya, oh, he’s great.’ Please.”
Kay did admit Francesa helped raise sports talk to a new level. “A 30-year career in anything is amazing” and that it should be celebrated.”
Both Francesa and Kay are consistently members of Radio Ink’s Local Sports Talkers list. Francesa was #1 for six consecutive years, since the list was created.
