When Max Kellerman met with Bill Simmons last week for an extensive interview, most of the attention was paid to his comments about former First Take colleague Stephen A. Smith. After years being a public punching bag for years, it was Kellerman’s first real chance to fire back at his one-time debate partner.
What flew a bit more under the radar was Kellerman’s claim that he was supposed to work together with Mike Francesa after the breakup of Mike and the Mad Dog.
Kellerman said that he was “the plan” and implied that he was the person that Francesa had hand-picked to be his new partner. His interpretation of events was that once Francesa realized that he wasn’t going to be forced to take a partner at WFAN and winning in the ratings battle, he decided to continue with his solo career.
Eventually, those comments were going to make their way back to Mike Francesa. And in answering questions from listeners on his BetRivers podcast, he totally tore apart Kellerman’s version of events.
“It’s completely untrue,” Francesa said. “There’s not a word of truth to that. When Dog left, [WFAN program director Mark] Chernoff wanted me to sit down, take time, and meet a lot of people. We got hundreds of calls, hundreds, as you can imagine. I mean out of the woodwork, people I didn’t even know.”
So who did Mike Francesa talk to regarding being a potential on-air radio partner? Contrary to Max Kellerman’s story, the New York radio icon says it was the man who interviewed him a week ago, Bill Simmons, who was his first call. However, Simmons (who said in the Kellerman interview he got a call) shut down any conversation before it could even began because he didn’t have interest, which makes sense given how firmly established in Los Angeles he is and the fact he’s a Boston sports fan.
“The truth of the matter is, going back to the beginning, the first person I ever talked to, believe it or not, was Bill Simmons. Now, I called Bill and I said, ‘Bill, I got an idea.’ And he said, ‘I have no interest. It’s not what I want to do with my life, I appreciate it, I don’t even want to discuss it.’ So we didn’t even discuss it. He was the first person I talked to. He might not even remember that, but I do. Because I made the phone call.”
Another person Mike Francesa says he talked to was Kellerman’s former on-air colleague and current rival Stephen A. Smith. While he didn’t offer many details, Francesa did say he had lunch with Stephen A. However, he did offer more details about his one meeting with Kellerman.
According to Francesa, he met with Kellerman for dinner. However, he found out that news of the meeting leaked almost immediately after their gathering. He said he never talked to Kellerman again after that transpired.
“We tried to be nice to people in-house who wanted an opportunity, but none of them were ever serious candidates. The first person I had lunch with was Stephen A. with Chernoff. I liked Max, I wanted to talk to Max, but like I said, I never thought there was a chance I was going to hire someone,” Francesa recalled.
“I met with Max myself for dinner near my house. And by the time I got home it was already out that we had met and that finished him. We never talked again. And nobody, I can tell you this right now, this was an absolute fact and no one can dispute this because if they are they’re lying. Nobody ever got a second interview, there never was a second interview for anybody. Number two, nobody ever got far enough to even have a discussion about being part of the show, what their role would be or money, it never ever came to that. That never happened. Nobody ever got that far and nobody was ever in line to get the show. Case closed.”
Ultimately, Mike Francesa decided to forge ahead with his solo radio career, which even wound up being nationally syndicated on Fox Sports 1 for a brief period of time. Of course, it wasn’t the same as the success he had when paired with Chris Russo.
It doesn’t sound like Francesa truly ever wanted to have another partner after the end of Mike and the Mad Dog. But instead of being the chosen one, it sounds like Max Kellerman ended his own chances at filling that seat, at least according to the sports pope himself.
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