Mike Greenberg points out that working at ESPN for nearly 30 years isn’t noteworthy. Rece Davis has been there longer. So have Chris Fowler and Linda Cohn. Dick Vitale is still exhorting, baby!
Here’s the difference: Greenberg, 55, is friggin’ everywhere.
Turn on ESPN as the coffee brews, he’s hosting “Get Up,” the weekday morning show. Drive to get the kid from day care and “Greeny” is on the radio. Flop on the couch Saturday night to watch some hoops, see Greenberg, with Stephen A. Smith and Jalen Rose, running point for ESPN’s NBA coverage.
“Anyone who has any degree of success in anything who doesn’t attribute at least some of it to good fortune is either kidding you or kidding themselves,” Greenberg said.
And now there’s another book, the informative, breezy “Got Your Number” (Penguin Random House, $25.99), written with “Greeny” co-host Paul “Hembo” Hembekides, which makes the case for which athletes own the numbers 1 to 100. It’s the perfect book for ESPN’s longtime state as a hot-take and analysis emporium. Greenberg, smooth and unflappable in any scenario, arrived during ESPN’s catchphrase era embodied by Dan Patrick and Keith Olbermann. He then headlined the network’s foray into debate, co-hosting ESPN Radio’s massively popular “Mike & Mike in the Morning” with ex-NFL defensive lineman Mike Golic from 2000 to 2017.
Greenberg is OK with that path.
“You go into this line of work hoping that you can have a show that makes people care what your opinions are,” he said. “The fact that people want to engage me in sports conversation is genuinely the best thing about my job.”
“Mike & Mike” ended with rumors of a once-happy partnership turned acrimonious. Golic was “cut” by ESPN; Greenberg has thrived. How? In a nearly 30-minute conversation, Greenberg, two days removed from a heart procedure and prepping for the NFL draft, talked with Poynter about just that. This interview has been edited for clarity and space.
Looking at your three nonfiction books, it really does track from when ESPN was more of a games and information hub to now, where there’s a lot of emphasis on debate. When did you notice that change?
Well, I think that we (Greenberg and Golic) were a part of it. Radio lends itself to that more than television did at the time, so I think we were somewhere in the early part of that. What has happened over the course of time is the technology has just driven everything. There was a time when you turned on the television to get your news and information. Now I think viewers expect and demand something more than that because news and information is so easily accessible in so many other places and so many other ways. So I think if you are just presenting dry news and information four out of five days of the week, that’s not going to be what the audience wants.
What I like about “Get Up” — I always use the word “nimble” with our staff. On a given day, we need to be whatever the audience wants us to be. So there are some days that lend themselves to covering news and information. Is this trade gonna happen? Did it happen? When will it happen? What’s the latest? But most days it is much more leaning into analysis and debate. Those are the things you can’t get quickly on an app.
I remember when ESPN was all about the 11 o’clock “SportsCenter” and the six o’clock “SportsCenter.” Those were the tent poles of a sports kid’s day. Is there a part of you that misses that, that wishes you weren’t having to be so nimble on a day-to-day basis?
No, I don’t miss it. I worked there when that was the case. I’ve been at ESPN since 1996. When I got there, Keith and Dan were still there. Stuart (Scott) and Rich Eisen were doing the overnight “SportsCenter,” and Charley Steiner and Bob Ley and Robin Roberts were doing the evening “SportsCenter.” And it was absolutely my goal to try and ascend to that. That was the pinnacle of the business.
And I still think that “SportsCenter” is the Rolls-Royce of the sports news and information business — and it’s not even close. I’m 55. One of the things I always say is in my industry, as things change, you have two options: You can either evolve with them or you can sit and complain about how much better it used to be. And the people who sit and complain about how much better it used to be are the ones who get left behind.
The industry has evolved, and if you don’t evolve with it, it’s not waiting for you. I have kids who are in their twenties. “Seinfeld” is my favorite television show. One night I was watching an episode, and my daughter was sitting next to me, and at one point it occurred to me that the episode I’m watching was entirely built around someone waiting for a phone call on a payphone in a coffee shop and trying to get people off the phone so it wouldn’t be busy when someone was calling. So it’s no wonder my daughter couldn’t relate to this in the slightest. This has nothing to do with her reality. If I were to sit there and say, “You know what, I’m going to do it the old way,” there just isn’t going to be the same level appetite for that.
What do you remember about getting the call that you had made it to ESPN?
Oh, I remember it like it was yesterday. It was July of 1996, and they had just decided that they were going to start a new network called ESPN News. And they were going to hire a bunch of young, comparatively inexperienced people. I only had one-and-a-half years of TV experience; I had been primarily a radio reporter. My agent got me an audition, and they flew me to Bristol (Connecticut) and I auditioned. I sat in what I perceived to be Keith Olbermann’s chair on the “SportsCenter” set. I waited impatiently when I got back to Chicago. I got a call saying, “They offered you a job.” And I said, “Well, this is gonna change my entire life.” And I was right.
When did you realize your life had changed?
“Mike & Mike” is what really changed everything for me in a big way. I got to ESPN and I was thrilled, but in the first couple of years I was anchoring ESPN News and I was doing “SportsCenter” a little bit and trying to work my way up the “SportsCenter” totem pole. It was the radio show that really started getting us noticed. That was really when things started changing. There were tent poles along the way. The one I remember the best was the first time that we went on David Letterman. I idolized him growing up. So I would say that was probably the first time I thought to myself, “Holy smokes, something different is going on here.”
Your time with Mike ended about six years ago. Is it strange to not be associated with him, because you guys were faces of the network for so long?
Well, no, I wouldn’t say that. I wouldn’t say that it’s strange. It was a wonderful experience and I loved it, but my plate is more than full right now, that’s for sure.
On the “Pat McAfee Show” in 2021 you said you hadn’t run into Mike, but that if you had, there’d be no problems. Have you spoken with Mike?
I have not.
Would you be open to that?
Sure. Of course.
Are you asked about “Mike & Mike” a lot?
Almost never anymore. These days I get asked about Stephen A. Smith a lot to be honest with you. I host the NBA show, and I have people walking up to me in the street every single day saying, “You tell Stephen A. this,” and “You tell Stephen A. that.” I say to him all the time, “Stephen, I have a lot of messages for you.” Everyone in New York has something they want me to tell Stephen A.
Over the years, prominent ESPN employees, from Dan Patrick to Jemele Hill to Dan Le Batard, have left to do their own thing. Has that ever crossed your mind?
I don’t know that it hasn’t crossed my mind. It’s not something I was ever close to doing. I like my job. I like what I do. I love (“Get Up”). I think it’s the best seat that you could have in sportscasting right now — we are sort of the morning water cooler and sort of set the table for the day at the network, which I really like. I host the NBA on ABC and ESPN. Last year, I got to say for the first time in my life, “Welcome to ABC’s coverage of Game 1 of the NBA Finals.” That was a thrill. There aren’t other places that you can do that.
Look, everyone’s got to follow their own path. I don’t think I’m anywhere near being done, so I have no idea what the future will be. To this point, it’s not something that has ever crossed my mind, but those are all people I know and like and respect. They found a different course and it works for them, so I think that’s great.
What would you like to do at ESPN?
Right now, I don’t think there would be any room to do any more. What I’ve learned over the years is that almost every good thing that has ever happened to me in my career happened because I just answered the phone. Most of the plans that I’ve made — I’ve never sat there and schemed, “I’d like to do this, I’d like to do that” — those things have very seldom amounted to anything.
And then every now and again, my phone has just rung and someone has said, “Hey, would you like to do this?” And those have been the life-changing moments. So, at this point, I think I’ll just wait and see if another phone call comes that is exciting.
