Today on his WFAN radio show, Mike Francesa finally addressed Keith Olbermann by name after Olbermann's veiled shot at him by making fun of him falling asleep on the air. This was in the midst of the ongoing feud between KO and fellow WFAN hosts Craig Carton and Boomer Esiason.
While the Carton-Olbermann tete-a-tete has been quite entertaining, we've all been waiting for the Sports Pope to enter the mix. After all, he's got over 5 hours of radio to fill by himself. He has to talk about it at some point, right?
That point came this afternoon. After initially dismissing Olbermann's snipe and downplaying what was said, Francesa immediately came back to describe in detail how Olbermann mocked his drowsiness. He then went on the offensive as only Mike Francesa can, by calling Olby a "jerk" and bringing up how he squashed Olbermann in the ratings when the two went head to head. Tip of the cap to @EliisElite for the audio.
It's great to see the differing tactics of everyone involved in this feud. Olbermann uses his wit and sarcasm to lob shots from on high. Francesa sticks to his guns that everyone not named Mike Francesa is not worthy of the air Mike Francesa breathes. It's fantastic. This little piece of radio is the definition of condescension. At first Mikey makes it clear KO isn't worth his time, and then he unleashes just a few daggers from his own lofty perch. He's not worried about Ketih Olbermann, but he's willing to calmly decimate him, his career, and his ratings when he tried to mess with the pope.
Francesa wins this round for WFAN 10-9. Given who's involved here, I can't imagine Keith Olbermann is going to let Mike Francesa have the last word.
Oh, he didn't.
Another factual mistake. Did he stay awake through it? RT @legitsportstalk Francesa just dismissed you, hahaha. 8 jobs in 5 years.
— Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) November 7, 2013
Well, @MikeFrancesaNY just lied about my employment history, hallucinated that we once went "head-tuh-head" #HopeYouHadANiceNap
— Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) November 7, 2013
We're *this close* to reaching Hogan-Andre levels, here.
Earlier: