Boomer Esiason walked off the WFAN set after Gregg Giannotti lambasted a caller for not being sensitive to mental health issues.
As covered by Elite Sports NY, a caller named “Bill in Connecticut” mocked Giannotti for being “soft” and compared his content to Bravo’s “Real Housewives” programs.
Later, Giannotti told the caller that one on-air instance the caller referenced was attributable to a “legitimate anxiety attack,” and the caller told him to “suck it up.”
That was when Giannotti went on a lengthy soliloquy about mental health.
“Oh, my God. Are you serious, Bill? You’ve got to suck it up?” Giannotti asked. “Do you know how many people have killed themselves because they were told to suck up their mental illness? Seriously. You know how many people?
“That’s the most insulting thing I’ve heard all the time. I’ve gone to therapy, I’m on two different medications, I’m trying my best to get through the things I have wrong with me. And you’re telling me to suck it up?
“I mean, this is why you get a lot of people who go through real trauma, who are out in wars and come back here and kill themselves, because they were told to suck it up.
“Because of guys like you. Bill in Connecticut. Because I’m soft because I had a panic attack. That’s a real thing, man. It’s a real thing.
“If you don’t want to believe it, then quite frankly you’re not smart enough or intelligent enough to understand it.”
At one point, Giannotti’s microphone cut out due to apparent profane language, and it was covered by music by the TV sensors at CBS Sports Network.
“I mean, you’re soft because you had a panic attack. That’s what I heard,” Giannotti said. “I mean, we have got the most idiotic, neanderthal callers out there. This is not 1945 any more, man. Women are equal and people have mental illness.
“Anybody else want to bring on something else? Anybody want to call up and knock some Black people while we’re at it? Let’s do that. Hispanics? So we’ve already taken on women and people with mental illness.
“What about little people? Want to take them on too, today? What are we doing?
“You’re soft because you had a panic attack. It’s 2023, man. And that’s not going to hurt me anymore. it’s not. Tell that to guys like Kevin Love, in the NBA, suffers from anxiety. He doesn’t get hurt, he’s not soft, he plays professional sports. Does that live up to your standard, Bill in Connecticut? He’s got anxiety. Is that OK? Is that OK?
“There are people who have fought in wars and come back, way tougher than I’ll ever be, and have anxiety. Are they soft? Or are you a d-ck? You’re a d-ck. We’re not soft. Got it?”
After Giannotti concluded his tirade at the caller, Esiason walked off the set instead of responding to it.
“Well he can’t handle it either,” Giannotti said. “Quite frankly, he doesn’t understand mental illness to save his life. That’s a big problem. A big problem.”