Mike Francesa says returning from retirement was biggest mistake

Regrets, he’s had a few. Or at least one.

WFAN radio legend Mike Francesa said in an interview Monday with Barstool Sports that his initial retirement in 2017 was perfect and he “should have kept it at that.”

But like Michael Corleone, just when he thought he was out the station pulled Francesa back in.

“They appealed to me to come back on so many different levels. I didn’t really want to do that,” Francesa said, per Awful Announcing.

“That was the one thing if I could do over since I retired, I would not have come back. I didn’t like that whole thing. It was a mistake.”

After Francesa’s departure in December 2017, WFAN turned to the trifecta of Maggie Gray, Bart Scott, and Chris Carlin to replace Francesa for the afternoon drive.

Concurrently, Craig Carton was arrested, convicted and sent to prison for running a ticket brokering scam in order to pay off gambling debts.

So with uncertainty in the air and ESPN’s Michael Kay smelling blood in the water, Francesa returned to the station in 2018, only months into retirement, to anchor WFAN’s afternoon drive.

Francesa returned to No. 1 ratings in May of 2018, but his top ratings streak ended before going back into retirement at the end of 2019.

When Carton was released from prison in 2020, he went back to WFAN and teamed with Evan Roberts to anchor afternoon drives and give WFAN a ratings bump.

Carton’s departure to Fox Sports earlier this year led to more musical chairs at WFAN, with former Giants running back Tiki Barber sliding into the co-host chair next to Roberts.