Peter Schrager used to call into WFAN as ‘Peter from Freehold’

Peter Schrager used to be “Peter from Freehold.”

The ESPN NFL analyst confirmed to the New York Post’s Steve Serby that before he was breaking draft news or hosting Good Morning Football, he was calling into WFAN as a kid from New Jersey trying to talk sports on the radio. He’d call Joe Benigno when he was doing the Umberto’s Clam House show. He’d call Adam Schein and Tony Paige on late nights. Richard Neer. Anyone who would pick up.

“I’m a product of WFAN sports talk radio,” Schrager told Serby.

Now he works Wednesdays on First Take with Chris “Mad Dog” Russo, one half of the Mike and the Mad Dog show he used to listen to for hours after school. Mike Francesa used to have him on Fridays before that, and Schrager admitted he was over-the-moon about it.

ESPN hired him away from NFL Network and Fox earlier this year and immediately made him a fixture across Get Up, First Take, The Pat McAfee Show, NFL Live, and SportsCenter. He launched The Schrager Hour podcast with Omaha Productions, and reports suggest he could be getting his own afternoon show, though nothing is official.

Mike and the Mad Dog were major influences on how Schrager approaches his work. He told Serby he appreciated how they talked about things in an unfiltered way, crediting them with helping form how he likes to connect with listeners, viewers, and readers. The unfiltered approach — the willingness to say it like it is — was what stuck with him.

That stuck with him through his time at NFL Network, where he became one of Good Morning Football’s original co-hosts in 2016. GMFB made him a known name in NFL media circles. He built relationships across the league, developed a reputation for breaking draft news, and became someone coaches and executives actually trusted. By the time he left earlier this year, he’d established himself as one of the most connected reporters covering the NFL.

His first season at ESPN has gone about as well as anyone could have expected. He was the breakout star of Pat McAfee’s NFL Draft coverage, appearing across ESPN’s programming without wearing out his welcome. The network clearly sees him as someone who can carry more than just NFL content, even if football remains his primary focus.

Not bad for Peter from Freehold.