Over his time at ESPN, Mike Greenberg has hosted a variety of different programming and read different advertisements and sponsorships. Whether it be Get Up on television in the morning or #Greeny thereafter on ESPN Radio, segments usually implement some kind of sponsored element part of the overall business proposition in sports media. Greenberg recently hosted ESPN’s coverage of the 2024 NFL Draft for the fourth consecutive year, which was presented by EGO, an outdoor power tools company owned by Chevron.

Throughout the broadcast, Greenberg reiterated the presenting sponsor for the broadcast and executed his responsibilities. EGO, however, happens to be a homonym and can, at times, have a negative connotation when referring to an individual. During a recent appearance on The Ryen Russillo Podcast, Greenberg was asked how he felt comfortable enough to continue saying that coverage was presented by EGO.

“Listen, I’ve been telling the world that I’m presented by something for a very long time,” Greenberg said. “I actually said this to somebody – everybody has their own claim to fame. I think it’s possible that I have read more sponsorships than any other person in the United States in the last 25 years. I think that’s a real possibility – four hours a day on Mike & Mike – now four hours a day when you combine the TV and the radio.”

Russillo concurred with this point, affirming that it likely was not close in that Greenberg has this distinction. From there, he recalled a story about filling in on Mike & Mike and being handed a stack of papers that the producers of the show referred to as the rundown. When Russillo discovered that all of the documents contained advertising reads, he was somewhat incredulous that it was considered to be the rundown for the show.

The producers explained that it was what Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic did during the show and would figure out the segments. Russillo remembers messing up an advertising read for 5-hour Energy by reading the phrase “No guardrails” that was listed on the paper. The program listened to the clip back several times off the air and laughed over the years as well; however, Russillo was coerced to apologize for it on the air.

“Whenever anyone would do the show when I wasn’t there, the running joke was always, ‘How was the other person?,’ [and it was], ‘He did the reads,’” Greenberg said. “If you did the reads, then nothing that terrible happened. At the end of the day, did someone say Progressive? Did we say it? Did we say it six times? If so, then yeah, sure, but did we talk about basketball? I don’t know, but we definitely got the reads in and that’s, at the end of the day, that’s the most important part of the job.”

With Greenberg’s years of hosting experience and aptitude in the space, Russillo was impressed with how he handled his job during the ESPN coverage of the NFL Draft. In fact, he made an observation while watching on television that he communicated to Greenberg before moving the conversation to the New York Knicks and the team’s run in the NBA Playoffs.

“I watched it and you brought everybody in,” Russillo said, “and I could just sense, I think in the way only people that are on the air can sense, you were like, ‘This is absurd that I’m saying I’m presented or we are presented by EGO,’ so you left a little pause in there for the companies, which I thought was brilliant because of how long you’ve been doing this.”

Over the last several days, a feud has been escalating between ESPN analyst Shannon Sharpe and TNT Sports analyst Shaquille O’Neal that stemmed from the results of the 2024 NBA MVP vote. Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokić won the award for the third time in his career and took part in a live interview with Inside the NBA, in which O’Neal told him that he believed the award should have gone to Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander instead. This led to Sharpe discussing why O’Neal would divulge that opinion during an interview on a recent edition of the Nightcap podcast with Chad “Ochocinco” Johnson.

Part of his rationalization was that O’Neal was jealous that he is never mentioned in conversations about being the greatest basketball player of all time. Sharpe then stated that if O’Neal had his work ethic, he would have had 40,000 points in his NBA career. O’Neal won one MVP award during his 19-year NBA career and was named a member of the All-Star team 15 times. Moreover, he is a four-time NBA champion and three-time NBA Finals MVP, widely regarded as one of the most dominant centers to ever play the sport.

“Shaq should have five MVPs,” Sharpe said. “He sees a guy like Nikola Jokić that’s not as dominant as him and gets three in four years, but see when you historically great, they talk about you as great basketball player, – the G.O.A.T. – and Shaq is never brought up, and I think a part of him is envious of that.”

In a post on Instagram that featured an image of Sharpe being ranked No. 51 among the top 100 characters in NFL history, O’Neal took umbrage towards what had been said about him. Additionally, he stated that he should be greeted as “the most dominant ever” and that Sharpe did not have his qualifications. Sharpe, who played in the National Football League for 14 seasons with the Denver Broncos and Baltimore Ravens, is a Hall of Fame tight end, four-time All-Pro and three-time Super Bowl champion. He is reportedly on the verge of signing a multi-year contract extension with ESPN that will continue his Monday and Tuesday appearances on First Take.

“I know you tryna stay relevant by gossipping on your podcast,” O’Neal said. “We don’t believe you. You need more people and in case you forgot. 4 rings three finals Mvp top 50 and top 75. google me. and to b quite frank all this new success you got, you still under me. u don’t kno my work ethic. but according i work less than you but im worth more than you. make it make sense. love you too. if you need help making money it’s better ways than gossiping.”

Sharpe responded to what O’Neal said on Thursday’s edition of Nightcap by explaining that he got everything out of his natural talents. Furthermore, he explained that he was not as good at football as O’Neal was at basketball. Sharpe then asked O’Neal if he believed that he gave everything that he possibly could have in basketball. If the answer to this question was ‘No,’ Sharpe believes it underscores just how great O’Neal was in that he still won NBA championships and is a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

“Did the train the way you should have? Did you eat the way you should have? That just goes to show you how great you was is that you didn’t,” Sharpe said. “You allowed your weight to get out of control, the injuries started to creep up and you got four rings and you got three Finals MVPs.”

On Friday afternoon, O’Neal released a diss track towards Shannon Sharpe in which he criticized his opinions towards the entire situation. O’Neal had previously released diss tracks targeted towards then-Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard, precipitated by Lillard saying he was a better rapper than O’Neal. Upon sharing the diss track to his Instagram page, O’Neal said that he was “done with this.”

“but remember #noweqponformedagainstmeshallprosper #buffalosoldier #omegapsiphi,” O’Neal said within his post. “you can never break the UNBreakable. and to all the people that kno both of us don’t call me, it will never be a sit down. #loveyall.”

‘New Heights’ the podcast featuring brothers Jason and Travis Kelce which started in September 2022, could be headed to a new home. The New York Posts’ Ryan Glasspiegel has reported the show is “in serious talks” to bring the podcast to Amazon’s Wondery.

Glasspiegel’s report says no deal has been finalized and that there are still discussions continuing with Wave Sports + Entertainment who distributes the show currently. Ashley Carman from Bloomberg reported at the end of February that industry executives believe ‘New Heights’ could be looking at a possible eight figure payday.

The podcast is consistently in the top five of all sports podcasts on the Apple Podcast charts and the top 50 of all podcasts. While the show did well before the Travis Kelce-Taylor Swift romance took off, it has gone to another stratosphere since the power couple became public.

The YouTube channel for the show has over 2.3 million subscribers and several of the full episodes have reached viewership numbers in the millions.