Mike and Mike in the Morning
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Mike and Mike in the Morning | |
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| Genre | Sports talk |
| Running time | 4 hours |
| Country |  USA |
| Home station | ESPN Radio (1998-) ESPN2 (2006-) ESPNEWS (2004-2005) |
| Starring | Mike Greenberg Mike Golic |
| Air dates | October 12, 1998 – Present |
| Website | Mike and Mike in the Morning |
Mike and Mike in the Morning is a sports talk radio show hosted by Mike Golic and Mike Greenberg (aka "Greeny") and broadcast on ESPN Radio. The show is also simulcast on ESPN2, with cameras inside the show's studio. The show is broadcast from 6:00 am ET to 10:00 am ET, Monday through Friday. The ESPN Radio SportsCenter update anchors for the show are Bob Picozzi and Christine Lisi. The show's motto for all commercials on radio and television is: "What makes them different, makes them great." The program is sponsored by AT&T.
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[edit] Design
The show centers on an Odd Couple relationship between its hosts, and how it relates to their views on sports. Mike Greenberg is portrayed as a stereotypical nerd and metrosexual. Conversely, Mike Golic, a former football player for Notre Dame and the Philadelphia Eagles, is set up in the role of the tough and boisterous "man's man", a former pro athlete who likes nothing more than to eat and "tell it like it is."
Despite Golic's insistence that his co-host knows little about sports, Mike Greenberg has been a sports journalist for 16 years, working in radio and print out of Chicago. And, though Greenberg has proclaimed that Golic is a slow-witted Neanderthal, Golic, in fact, graduated from the University of Notre Dame (although he was only recruited for football, and not for his academic prowess) with a degree in finance and management, and worked as a color analyst for college football for ABC and ESPN for several years after his professional football career ended.
The usual substitute for Mike Greenberg is Erik Kuselias, who is also the former host of The SportsBash on ESPN Radio and the current host of NASCAR Now. The usual replacement for Golic is normally Mark Schlereth (who also periodically guests without one of the Mikes on vacation), affectionately known as "Stink" when he guests on the show. Prior to Kuselias, Dana Jacobson frequently substituted before she was named co-host of the ESPN2 show Cold Pizza. The show also incorporates some sports alumni to add color and depth as weekly guests, including Joe Theismann, Sean Salisbury, Buster Olney, Peter Gammons, Bill Curry, and Dick Vitale. Guest hosts for the show have included Steve Phillips, Tim Legler, and Jeremy Schaap.
[edit] Segments
[edit] Daily
- Grill Golic: This segment is when listeners call in to ask questions directed for Mike Golic. The questions usually revolve around football.
- Man Up Question of the Day: This is a question asked of Golic and sometimes the listeners meant to inform male listeners of how to be more manly.
- Mike Golic's News of the Weird: This is a segment that looks at one of the more outrageous and disturbing stories found in recent news mostly outside of sports.
[edit] Weekly
- Just Shut Up: Tuesdays on the show have been deemed "Just Shut Up Tuesday", a reference to the McDonald's Just Shut Up Award, an honor bestowed on the sports-related figure of the past week voted by listeners as the person who most needs to just shut up. Past winners (and examples of the types of actions that could induce a nomination) include Bode Miller bragging about partying in Torino, Terrell Owens fighting with his teammates, and Latrell Sprewell turning down a multi-million dollar contract extension and asking for more money, claiming "I've got a family to feed."
- NFL Stress Test: This segment usually involves Golic and Mark Schlereth when Greenberg poses them a question and they respond to it.
- Monday Morning Quarterback: This is a segment every Monday morning during the NFL season when Greenberg and Golic go over all of the games that Sunday.
- Stone Cold Lead Pipe Locks: On Fridays during the NFL season, Mike and Mike do a segment called "Stone Cold Lead Pipe Locks", where both of them pick 3 NFL games (two of their own and then one head-to-head) based on point spreads. These picks have comical undertones with soundbites (sport stars, celebrities, TV/Movie quotes) in between analysis of the game.
[edit] Special
For the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament, the Mikes fill out brackets and go head to head. The competition, known as the "Sheet of Integrity", usually has a bet that goes along with it. After the 2004 tournament, won by Greenberg, Golic had to have his eyebrows waxed on air. The past two years have been won by Golic, with Greenberg dressing as a Notre Dame leprechaun when the two go on the road for a big Notre Dame game (USC in 2005, Stanford in 2006). In 2007 Greeny and Golic have new bets on their sheets of integrity. If Golic wins, Greenberg has to milk a cow, and if Greenberg wins, Golic will submit to being tasered.
Song parodies are also a big part of the show. Often they do postseason award campaigning for a player they like by doing a parody of a song. In December of 2005, Mike and Mike parodied Christmas carols for the NFL season. Possibly the most famous parody has been of the Billy Joel song Honesty. Both Mikes did their own parody of the song for the Sheet of Integrity contest in 2005 where Greenberg thought it was not ethical to submit more than one NCAA Bracket while Golic planned on entering as many as he could. While it was decided that only one sheet could be submitted, the song received plenty of air time during the 2005 contest and during the 2006 contest. Other parodies include multiple ones of Blitzkrieg Bop by The Ramones and a campaign for Chris Carpenter to win the 2005 National League Cy Young Award using the song Rainbow Connection.
[edit] Marriage Madness
In January 2006, Mike and Mike revealed an event known as " Mike & Mike's Marriage Madness," a contest in which engaged couples would compete to earn the right to be married at ESPN headquarters, live on the radio and on ESPN2 and ESPN2 HD. After an initial selection process, the field was pared down to 16 and placed into a NCAA tournament style bracket, in which listeners could go online and vote to determine who would advance [1]. The wedding occurred on Friday, May 26, 2006.
[edit] Off Mikes
In 2005, ESPN and Animax Entertainment began producing two to three minute cartoons of Mike and Mike in the Morning with Greeny and Golic, called Off Mikes. They take live conversations and arguments of the two from the show and make animations for them. Most of the episodes have nothing to do with sports like arguing if you've ever peed in your pants during a football game, if fishing is a real sport and Golic and Greeny taking the metrosexual quiz. Off Mikes can be found on ESPN Motion and ESPN 360 both on ESPN.com. The cartoons won an Emmy award and are animated by Animax Entertainment.
[edit] Arena Football
In 2007, ESPN announced that Mike and Mike would be the primary announcing team for its coverage of the Arena Football League, in which ESPN bought a minority ownership stake in Dec. 2006. It will be Greenberg's first time doing play-by-play. Golic was an analyst for ESPN's first era of AFL coverage (1995-1999) as well as NCAA football. The duo made its debut on March 4, 2007 with the Dallas at New York game on ABC. After that, the majority of their assignments will be on ESPN2's monday night game, extending the 'Football on Mondays' motif begun with the NFL Monday Night games in the 2006 season. They will conclude the season by calling ArenaBowl XXI from New Orleans on July 29, also on ABC. When on the road for these games, the Monday and Tuesday editions of the Mike and Mike in the Morning radio show will be done on remote.
[edit] Sheet of Integrity
"Sheet of Integrity" is a phrase coined by Mike Greenberg[1] describing a single bracket entry created for wagering on the NCAA basketball tournament. During the NCAA tournament, many people play in office pools or online tournaments in which each person tries to correctly predict the outcome of each game. Most pools limit the number of entries to one per person; however, many people play in multiple pools. Mike Greenberg holds the belief that if a person wishes to enter multiple pools, they should do so using the same picks for each entry. While this view is not unique, he was the first to term this the "Sheet of Integrity." In contrast, Mike Golic, has no problem with choosing different winners for each entry he submits, because, as he says, "I want to win the pool and win the cash!" The two have good-naturedly debated this difference of opinion each year since 2000.
In 2007, Lowe's sponsored the Brackets of Integrity Sweepstakes, an online tournament pool which allowed listeners of Mike and Mike in the Morning to play against Greenberg and Golic using bracket sheets of their own. Ironically, the rules allowed each participant to create up to five different "Sheets of Integrity".
[edit] Bracket Wager
During the week prior to the 2004 tournament, the two decided to take their differences one step further, which resulted in a one-on-one office pool referred to as the Sheet of Integrity Challenge. Mike Greenberg ultimately won that first wager, which concluded with Mike Golic getting his eyebrows waxed on-air. Mike Golic turned the tables in 2005, for which Mike Greenberg had to dress up as a leprechaun (the mascot of Mike Golic's alma mater, the University of Notre Dame) for the entirety of the show. Golic won again in 2006, for which Mike Greenberg once again had to dress in the leprechaun outfit, but this time at a remote held near campus of Notre Dame.[2] The 2007 bracket wager has Mike Golic getting TASERed if he loses and Mike Greenberg having to milk a cow if he loses.[3]
[edit] References
- ^ Terpstra's Two Cents, Ottumwa Courier
- ^ Insert Offensive Lineman Here. Mike Greenberg's Official Website (2006-10-06). Retrieved on 2007-03-16.
- ^ Bracket Wager for the ‘07 Sheets of Integrity. Mike Greenberg's Official Website (2007-03-15). Retrieved on 2007-03-16.
[edit] External links
- ESPN Show page
- ESPN Radio
- Emmy winning Off-Mikes Cartoon Show
- Mike Greenberg's Official Fan Page
- Mike Golic's Unofficial Fan Page
