Where will Mike Francesa do his football picks after WFAN finale?
Mike Francesa engages sports analyst guest host Bill Simmons, left, during Francesa's show on at the WFAN studios in Manhattan Monday, May 16, 2016. Credit: Craig Ruttle
Mike Francesa has not had much to say about his media plans beyond his last WFAN show on Dec. 15, other than a guest appearance on CNBC’s “Halftime Report” financial show on Dec. 18.
But he offered a small tidbit on a Sports Illustrated media podcast recorded Monday with host Richard Deitsch and posted Thursday, saying he is considering an offer from Bill Simmons to do his NFL picks on Simmons’ podcast on “The Ringer” site.
“It is no secret that Bill and I like to work together,” Francesa said. “A lot of people want to know where I’ll go to finish my football picks, which are very popular. A couple of people have asked me to sell them. I said no.
“But I will pick, and Bill has offered me a home to pick them on his podcast, which I’m thinking about. The NFL Network has offered me the ‘Good Morning Football’ show . . . So I’ve been offered three or four different places just to do my football picks for the rest of the year.
“So I will do it somewhere. I don’t know where. But I would say the likeliest place is probably Simmons’ podcast because of my relationship with him. I don’t know that we’ll ever work together in any real fashion.”
Simmons and Francesa have been friendly for years. Simmons appeared last month at a farewell event for Francesa at the Tilles Center at LIU Post.
Francesa ruled out doing a television talk show, calling that a “non-starter,” and said it is “a very, very unlikely pairing” that he will work with his old partner, Chris Russo, on SiriusXM Satellite Radio.
Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.
