Craig Carton rooting for Brandon Tierney vs. Gregg Giannotti to go nuclear

As Brandon Tierney and Gregg Giannotti continue to trade jabs from afar, Craig Carton has enjoyed watching this radio war as a spectator instead of a belligerent.

WFAN is no stranger to radio wars; it’s just rare to have one without Carton being involved. For years, it was Carton vs. Mike Francesa, Carton vs. Peter Rosenberg, or Carton vs. Michael Kay. But as Tierney vs Giannotti continues to ramp up, Carton is happy to just watch, for now.

“I’m gonna watch this one from the sidelines for a good majority of it,” Carton said during his Tuesday afternoon show on WFAN with co-host Chris McMonigle. “And as things evolve, and hopefully they do, I want the fight to continue! I’m enjoying not being involved and just being an expert witness or commentator.”

“I’m like the king of the radio wars,” Carton continued, touting his own record of battling colleagues or competing hosts. “I’m trying to be more mature these days, but I do have a history. I am Rocky Marciano when it comes to radio wars. Case in point, the last guy I got into a silly little tussle with woke up this morning unemployed. Another win for me in that regard, don’t have to say his name.”

His name is Christian Fauria, a former New England Patriots tight end and ex-afternoon radio host on WEEI in Boston. When Carton returned to WFAN for the first time in 2020, he joined WEEI for an interview in which Fauria asked whether he was allowed to have conjugal visits in prison. Carton wasn’t interested in playing along and instead went on the attack. Fauria was dismissed from WEEI in 2024 after being bumped to middays in 2022.

But for now, Carton sees no reason to join the fracas between Giannotti and Tierney. On Monday afternoon, he praised WFAN as a very healthy product, a sentiment he echoed on Tuesday.

“From a radio station standpoint, I’m very proud of the station,” Carton said. “The station’s never been healthier from a relationship standpoint, of all the shows getting along with each other.”

The hosts might all have good working relationships right now. But Giannotti did imply the station’s program director, Ryan Hurley, might need to be careful about his future at WFAN after letting Tierney join Evan Roberts and Tiki Barber as a guest to talk St. John’s last week.

“If you’re gonna do this for a living, you gotta be able to take some shots and have a sense of humor,” Carton said of the Tierney vs Giannotti beef. “Because let’s be honest, we do it to everybody all day. We criticize people all day, every day. So, if we can’t take a little good-natured ribbing, well, shame on us. Now, if it goes beyond good-natured ribbing and it’s a personal attack, then I think you have to respond in kind. The only difference between me and the guys involved in this one, is that when I do it, it’s full on nuclear. There’s no bodies left.”

And according to Carton, there are still bodies left in this one, with Giannotti and Tierney not going at each other as hard as they could have. Despite Carton’s assessment, Giannotti and Tierney have seemingly gone pretty hard at each other for two former colleagues who never feuded when working together.