The world lost a beloved musician when Jimmy Buffett passed away last week, but Mike Francesa lost his biggest fan.
Francesa joined Chris “Mad Dog” Russo on his SiriusXM radio show Thursday afternoon to break down the NFL season and give their over/unders, or ovah/undahs, a staple from their WFAN days. But before they got to talking football, Russo begged Francesa to tell an early ‘90s Jimmy Buffett story.
“I got tickets for us to go to Jones Beach, I knew someone who worked there,” Francesa said. “And I got him to take us backstage afterward. Now I had to sit through a Jimmy Buffett concert, and I had no interest, zero. Didn’t want any part of it. But I did sit through it because I wanted to take Dog back afterwards to meet Jimmy Buffett…We go back there, and lo and behold Jimmy Buffett is my biggest fan!”
“Oh he loved you!” Dog enthusiastically concurred. “He loved you. Loved you.”
“I’m trying to get him to talk to Dog,” Francesa continued. “And all he wants to talk about is football and college football and college basketball. It was funny. It was very, very funny, but we did get to meet Jimmy Buffett.”
Great story. But how can Jimmy Buffett be Francesa’s biggest fan when the Sports Pope already bestowed that honor to the late Mary Tyler Moore after she passed away in 2017?
“Amazingly, we were at a charity event one night,” Francesa recalled in 2017. “And Mary Tyler Moore walks over to our table and she says that she was a really big Mike and the Mad Dog fan, I was stunned.”
And then there was also James Gandolfini’s driver, who similarly loved Mike and the Mad Dog. No disrespect to the late Jimmy Buffett, but did his fandom really rival that of Mary Tyler Moore and James Gandolfini’s driver?
Maybe Buffett does deserve the honor of “biggest fan” because Mary Tyler Moore and James Gandolfini’s driver loved the Mike and the Mad Dog duo. Buffett spurned Dog’s fandom and declared his allegiance to Francesa. RIP Jimmy Buffett, Mike Francesa’s biggest fan.
About Brandon Contes
Brandon Contes is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. He previously helped carve the sports vertical for Mediaite and spent more than three years with Barrett Sports Media. Send tips/comments/complaints to bcontes@thecomeback.com