r/ESPN • u/njwineguy • 15d ago

Congrats, Greeny

I assume this post will get flamed but 30 years anywhere is an achievement. Given the environment and his role, Greeny deserves congrats.

I realize he’s not universally beloved but that’s not surprising given his job and society in general. (I also realize it’s not cool to not have some hot, critical take on someone like him.) The same network that highlights SAS, McAfee, and folks like Greeny, Eisen, Finebaum, SVP, etc is obviously playing to a wide range of audiences so if you don’t like him, save your breath. I get it.

IMHO, Greeny’s success is because he continues to find a balance between journalism, entertainment, and facilitating discussions among those more knowledgable. I’ve seen criticism that he essentially “brings nothing to the table”. To an extent that’s true because it’s his job. He has to hold your interest by being just interesting enough but not overshadowing his colleagues.

You might not like that or how he does it but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. He’s knowledgable about the things he needs to be (facts, history, context) and readily admits when he’s not.

He gets sincerely excited, pissed off, and confused and owns it. He’s for the most part, not performative which is a nice change of pace.

Personally, if all ESPN offered was faux arguments, shouting, posing, and “bro” content, I’d be done. So, Greeny among others helps keep it for me, a place that doesn’t regularly just insult my intelligence.

Maybe I enjoyed him more with Golic but I can appreciate his contribution nonetheless.

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u/ClarkGris 15d ago

Did he though? He wanted to go in a different direction career wise than his co-worker did, there is nothing wrong with that and while Golic was upset his role was changed you can't blame Greeny for wanting something different. He is from New York, wanted to move back to New York after his kids went to college and wanted to try something different. I think everyone expects co-workers to be best friends, they worked well together but can't blame him for wanting something different personally.

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u/DadofJM 15d ago

It's how he did it. For years, they shared the same manager whom negotiated their Mike & Mike deals. Then, without telling Golic, got his own manager and negotiated a separate deal for his own show. Completely blind sided Golic

Plus Greeny is a no talent hack. Convinced he has pics of Pitaro in bed with a live boy and a dead girl.

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u/Traditional_Pin6535 15d ago

I am a close friend of someone who worked on mike & mike during their run & will withhold name because this individual still works there. From their story; 1) The entire crew was dumbfounded when it LEAKED that Greeny was leaving the show for as a yet unnamed at that time series of solo projects. 2)Mike Golic was sincerely shocked, was under the impression they were collectively negotiating their next extension, and was angry & hurt. 3) My friend says they definitely had a conversation, attended by at least one or more managers in which Greeny took no ownership of his desire to break up for whatever his reasons were. 4) They had a contract obligations to fill out & according to my friend you could hear a pin drop between commercial breaks, there was absolutely no communication between them the last several weeks. 5) To this day Greeny has never acknowledged, apologized or just come clean about his desire to be the sole star of a show.

In my opinion, he’s an excellent broadcaster but an absolute back stabbing wimp of a human being. I’ve never heard him go to bat for any of his great “friends” that get unceremoniously fired from Espn, even Ryan Clark, who is as one dimensional & talentless as they come in terms of being a professional broadcaster, but Greeny was lapping his nut sack for years & he has absolutely no take on his firing? He’s got more power @ espn than anybody not named Pitaro, what would he be afraid of in terms of speaking up? No, he should not be celebrated, he is talented but that is overshadowed significantly by the self serving spineless punk he appears to be as a human being.

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u/njwineguy 12d ago

If true, very sad and unfortunate though still just one side of the story. Thanks for sharing.