Michael Louis Golic Sr. (; born December 12, 1962) is a former

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the majo ...

(NFL)

defensive lineman In gridiron football, a lineman is a player who specializes in play at the line of scrimmage. The linemen of the team currently in possession of the ball are the offensive line, while linemen on the opposing team are the defensive line. A numb ...

and television host. Golic is well known for his 25-year association with

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

, most notably co-hosting

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's '' Mike & Mike'' from 2000 to 2017. Golic joined ESPN in 1995 as a reporter/analyst for '' Sunday NFL Countdown''. He was an original analyst for ''NFL 2Night'' (now known as ''

NFL Live ''NFL Live'' (stylized as ''NFL Live presented by Autotrader'' for sponsorship reasons) is an American National Football League (NFL) studio show, currently airing Monday through Friday at 3:00 p.m ET on sports cable channel ESPN. Formerly know ...

''), the five-night-per-week news and information program on ESPN2. Golic also served as analyst for Arena Football League on ESPN. In 1997, Golic began serving as college football analyst for ESPN and ABC Sports, a role he continued until 2004 and resumed in 2020. He also hosted '' Golic and Wingo'' from 2017 until 2020. After leaving ESPN, in 2021 Golic joined Learfield as co-host and analyst of College Football Saturday Night, a new personality-driven streaming radio broadcast of college football games throughout the season. He currently serves as an analyst for

Pro Football Talk Pro is an abbreviation meaning "professional". Pro, PRO or variants thereof may also refer to: People * Miguel Pro (1891–1927), Mexican priest * Pro Hart (1928–2006), Australian painter * Mlungisi Mdluli (born 1980), South African retired ...

, and as the analyst for Westwood One's broadcast of Thursday Night Football. Golic was also the host of the long-running syndicated sports highlights, bloopers, and gag show called ''

The Lighter Side of Sports ''The Lighter Side of Sports'' is a syndicated American sports blooper program produced by Steve Rotfeld Productions. The series, at the time of its cancellation, was hosted by Mike Golic. ''Lighter Side'' is the first and longest-running of Rotf ...

''.

Early life and playing career

Golic was born and raised in Willowick, Ohio, and attended St. Joseph High School in

Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S ...

. Golic graduated from the

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin founded the school in 1842. The main c ...

in 1985 as a

finance Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of f ...

and

management Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activitie ...

major. He served as

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

of the football team during his

senior Senior (shortened as Sr.) means "the elder" in Latin and is often used as a suffix for the elder of two or more people in the same family with the same given name, usually a parent or grandparent. It may also refer to: * Senior (name), a surname ...

season and also wrestled for the Irish. Golic was drafted by the Houston Oilers selected in the 10th round with the 255th overall pick in the

1985 NFL Draft The 1985 NFL draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. The draft was held April 30 and May 1, 1985, at the Omni Park Central Hotel in New York City, New York. The league also held ...

. He was an eight-year NFL veteran, playing

defensive tackle A defensive tackle (DT) is a position in American football that will typically line up on the line of scrimmage, opposite one of the offensive guards, however he may also line up opposite one of the tackles. Defensive tackles are typically the l ...

for the

Houston Oilers The Houston Oilers were a professional American football team that played in Houston from its founding in 1960 to 1996 before relocating to Memphis, and later Nashville, Tennessee becoming the Tennessee Titans. The Oilers began play in 1960 a ...

Philadelphia Eagles The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia. The Eagles compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. The team play ...

and

Miami Dolphins The Miami Dolphins are a professional American football team based in the Miami metropolitan area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member team of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. The team p ...

. He played in 115 games (starting 49 games) and 5 playoff games during his 8 seasons in the NFL. He recorded 11.5 sacks and three interceptions in his career. Golic admitted to taking

corticosteroid Corticosteroids are a class of steroid hormones that are produced in the adrenal cortex of vertebrates, as well as the synthetic analogues of these hormones. Two main classes of corticosteroids, glucocorticoids and mineralocorticoids, are inv ...

s briefly while recovering from an injury.

Life after retirement

Broadcasting career

During his five years in Philadelphia, he decided to begin his television career with a weekly segment on the ''

Randall Cunningham Randall Wade Cunningham Sr. (born March 27, 1963) is a former American football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 16 seasons. He spent the majority of his career with the Philadelphia Eagles and is also known ...

Show''. He received a Mid-Atlantic Region

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

for his feature ''Golic's Got It''. Mike Golic began his fulltime broadcasting career in earnest when he moved to Phoenix, AZ, in 1995 to become the lead talkshow host at KGME radio. Paired with co-host Bruce Jacobs, the Golic-Jacobs morning show on KGME became the model for ESPN's "Mike & Mike" five years later. Golic served as the analyst for

Jacksonville Jaguars The Jacksonville Jaguars are a professional American football team based in Jacksonville, Florida. The Jaguars compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) South division. The team pla ...

pre-season games from 1995–98. From January 2, 2000 to November 17, 2017, he hosted '' Mike & Mike'' with Mike Greenberg on

and

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. November 27, 2017, he began a show with

Trey Wingo Hal Chapman Wingo III (; born September 19, 1963), known as Trey Wingo, is the former co-host of ESPN '' Golic and Wingo'', '' SportsCenter'', and ''NFL Live''. He has previously served as host of the Women's NCAA basketball tournament. He curre ...

named '' Golic and Wingo'', which also featured Mike Jr. Prior to "Mike and Mike," Golic was co-host of ESPN Radio's first-morning show, "The Bruno-Golic Morning Show," with talk radio veteran Tony Bruno. The program started in 1998 and ended in 1999 with Bruno's resignation from ESPN Radio. Golic worked with a series of co-hosts for the remainder of 1999. On July 9, 2020, ESPN announced that they would be canceling Golic and Wingo. Their final program together aired on July 31, 2020. On July 18, 2020

Adam Schefter Adam Schefter (born December 21, 1966) is an American sports writer and television analyst. After graduating from University of Michigan and Northwestern University with degrees in journalism, Schefter wrote for several newspapers, including '' ...

reported that Golic would return to his former role as a college football analyst for ESPN during the 2020 season.

Other appearances

On April 27, 2008, it was announced Golic would appear alongside football's greatest players in the

PS3 The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. The successor to the PlayStation 2, it is part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. It was first released on Novemb ...

and

Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generati ...

game, ''

All-Pro Football 2K8 ''All-Pro Football 2K8'' is an American football game for seventh generation consoles. ''All-Pro Football 2K8'' is the first football game to be published by 2K Sports since EA Sports purchased exclusive licenses to the intellectual properties of ...

''. Golic made an appearance on ESPN's mini-series ''Tilt''. He can be seen during the final episode eating a donut at the buffet table. Mike also appeared with Mike Greenberg on the TV series ''

Guiding Light ''Guiding Light'' (known as ''The Guiding Light'' before 1975) is an American radio and television soap opera. It is listed in ''Guinness World Records'' as the third longest-running drama in television in American history. ''Guiding Light'' a ...

'' in 2008. In 2015, Golic was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in the Outstanding American category, designated for those who have used wrestling as a stepping stone to success in other fields.

Personal life

Golic's older brother, Bob Golic, also played at University of Notre Dame. He earned multiple NFL All-Pro nose tackle honors and is currently a

talk radio Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues and consisting entirely or almost entirely of original spoken word content rather than outside music. Most shows are regularly hosted by a single individual, and often featu ...

host Monday through Saturday on

WNIR-FM WNIR (100.1 FM) is a commercial radio station licensed to Kent, Ohio, carrying a talk format known as "WNIR 100 FM". Owned by Media-Com, Inc., the station serves the Akron metro area as the local affiliate for ABC News Radio, syndicated persona ...

Akron, Ohio Akron () is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Summit County. It is located on the western edge of the Glaciated Allegheny Plateau, about south of downtown Cleveland. As of the 2020 Census, the city ...

and co-hosts the

Cleveland Browns The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. Named after original coach and co-founder Paul Brown, they compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conferenc ...

television pre-game and post-game shows on Sundays on CBS affiliate WOIO-TV. Their father, Bob, also played football. Mike and Bob appeared with their father and their brother Greg on the May 28, 2009 of ''Mike and Mike in the Morning'' broadcast from

Progressive Field {{Infobox stadium , name = Progressive Field , nickname = ''"The Jake"'' , logo_image = Progressive_Field_Logo.svg , logo_caption = , image = , caption = Progressive Fiel ...

in Cleveland. The three Golic brothers again appeared together on ''Mike and Mike'' on May 7, 2010, May 9, 2012, and May 31, 2017 when the show broadcast from Progressive Field. Golic has stated numerous times on ''Mike and Mike'' he is a

Cleveland Guardians The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. Since , they have played at Progressive ...

and a

Cleveland Cavaliers The Cleveland Cavaliers (often referred to as the Cavs) are an American professional basketball team based in Cleveland. The Cavaliers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Central ...

fan. Golic resides in

South Bend, Indiana South Bend is a city in and the county seat of St. Joseph County, Indiana, on the St. Joseph River near its southernmost bend, from which it derives its name. As of the 2020 census, the city had a total of 103,453 residents and is the fourt ...

and

Scottsdale, Arizona , settlement_type = City , named_for = Winfield Scott , image_skyline = , image_seal = Seal of Scottsdale (Arizona).svg , image_blank_emblem = City of Scottsdale Script Logo.svg , nic ...

with his wife Christine. All three of Golic's children attended Notre Dame. His sons, Mike Jr. and Jake played football (Jake played the 2014–15 season with

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line w ...

), while his daughter Sydney was a swimmer for the Irish. Mike Jr. signed with the

Pittsburgh Steelers The Pittsburgh Steelers are a professional American football team based in Pittsburgh. The Steelers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) North division. Founded in , the Steel ...

as an

undrafted free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who i ...

following the

2013 NFL Draft The 2013 NFL Draft was the 78th annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible football players. The draft, which is officially called the "NFL Player Selection Meeting", was held at Radio City Music Hall ...

. In 2010, Golic co-wrote the book ''Mike and Mike's Rules for Sports and Life'' with co-host Mike Greenberg.

References

External links

ESPN Radio: ''Golic & Wingo''
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Golic, Mike 1962 births Living people American people of Slovenian descent American football defensive tackles American sports radio personalities American television sports announcers Arena football announcers College football announcers Doping cases in American football ESPN people Houston Oilers players Jacksonville Jaguars announcers Miami Dolphins players National Football League announcers Notre Dame Fighting Irish football players Sportspeople from Cleveland Philadelphia Eagles players ArenaBowl broadcasters People from Willowick, Ohio Notre Dame Fighting Irish wrestlers People from Avon, Connecticut Players of American football from Cleveland