A few hours earlier on Wednesday, with a tweet teasing big news regarding WFAN’s Mike Francesa and his simulcast home at Fox Sports 1, we thought the only possibility was the two sides walking away from their deal after a long, drawn out war. As author Jim Miller reported, Cowherd debuts September 3rd on FS1’s Michigan-Utah pregame, and his new radio show begins September 8th.
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Cowherd is looking to start fresh at Fox after a messy departure from ESPN in which his racist remarks about Dominican baseball players took the spotlight during his final week at the Worldwide Leader. Maybe there will be some pre-interview preparations this time, along with the host being perhaps a bit more focused on the game at hand, rather than trying to find out if the famously intense Harbaugh has his softer moments.
Cowherd and Harbaugh, of course, made headlines in early July after an awkward ESPN Radio interview that saw Michigan’s coach give short, broad answers to broad questions before the host ultimately cut him off by hanging up the phone and going on a rant. Cowherd addressed the matter, speaking with THR’s Marisa Guthrie. He said that the incident that ended his ESPN tenure was because “I chose my words very poorly. I made a mistake”, said Cowherd. “I can be harsh but I don’t think I’m mean”, Cowherd told the Hollywood Reporter’s Marisa Guthrie. I hurt people with my words and I regret that. I want to be amusing and interesting and compelling.
Considering his well documented dissatisfaction with having his FS1 simulcast preempted by other Fox sports programming, Francesa will not be thrilled over being permanently bumped to FS2 to accomodate Cowherd, who is joining the Foxies after a lengthy tenure at ESPN. “They’ve got, to me, momentum”, he said of the LA-based network. I mean ESPN plucked me out of nowhere and I’m forever grateful for the opportunity.
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As I wrote last month: Given all of Cowherd’s comments over the years, ESPN management suddenly finding religion on Cowherd’s content was a laugh riot, lacking only a donkey to pin a tail on. “I am completely rooting for him”, Cowherd said, continuing his non-grudge holding theme. “In fact, I think Jim is really smart, and I think he knows it would be really entertaining for the audience”.
