Mike Greenberg believes avoiding hot takes helped ‘Mike & Mike’ be successful

While the show went off the air eight years ago, Mike Greenberg believes that Mike & Mike, which he co-hosted with Mike Golic, has aged well. He believes that to be the case because the pair avoided falling into the trap of “hot takes.”

During an appearance on Stugotz and Company, Greenberg discussed his former show, which ran on ESPN Radio from 2000 until 2017.

“I think most sports talk show hosts became popular by being very hot take oriented,” Greenberg said, H/T Barrett Media. “The thing that people would criticize Mike and me the most for. Which was not being hot takey enough, not being hard enough on people, all that stuff — I think ages well. After a while, the other stuff kind of becomes white noise.”

Greenberg added that while the show was a lot different than other sports talk shows of the time, the differences mostly came naturally, as Greenberg and Golic just acted naturally.

“Sports talk in those days was very guy talk, right? It was a lot of chicks and all that kind of stuff,” he said. “Mike and I didn’t make a concerted decision we weren’t going to be that. It’s just not who we were. We were married guys with kids and all that kind of stuff. And I think that also ages well in the scheme of things.”

While both Greenberg and Golic denied any issues, rumors that the two were at odds were persistent at the end of the show’s run. But as Greenberg noted on Stugotz and Company, the show outlasted most others of its kind.

“Not too many people do 18 years,” Greenberg said.