Once upon a time, the New York Giants had a strong relationship with WFAN host Mike Francesa, who would do at least one live show from team facilities during training camp each year.
Francesa was also known for weekly interviews with the Giants’ general manager, head coach and starting quarterback — whoever they may have been at the time.
This year however, things have changed. Drastically.
In April, veteran quarterback Eli Manning canceled his weekly spot with Francesa, which led to the Sports Pope unleashing on both Manning and the Giants. That, in turn, created some friction between him and general manager Dave Gettleman.
Shortly thereafter, following another outburst by Francesa in which he called the Giants a “clown show,” Gettleman pulled the plug on his weekly spot, which left head coach Pat Shurmur as the last man standing.
Now there is no one left standing.
During a Thursday morning press conference, Shurmur acknowledged that he, too, has canceled his weekly spot on WFAN after a very contentious radio interview on Monday afternoon in which Francesa essentially screamed at the coach, refusing to allow him to speak.
“Well, I think that was an organizational decision — you know, not to do that,” Shurmur said. “Most people aren’t aware of this, but I wasn’t contractually obligated to do that spot. We did it out of a courtesy and out of respect for our relationship with the radio station.
“We felt like for a while here that we’ll just put that bed for a while and not do it, and move forward.”
The fractured relationship between Francesa and the Giants is worthy of the headlines it’s going to receive, but it’s also hard to blame Big Blue this time around. After all, Francesa is a shell of his former self, and these “interviews” are basically 20 minutes of the radio host screaming about how terrible the team is.
Ask yourselves: Who would volunteer for that?
We’ll see if any bridges can be mended in the future, but for now, it’s a full-on divorce between Francesa and the Giants.
