Gregg Giannotti could not live with himself if he let the LIV Golf ad come and go on WFAN.
Giannotti and morning drive co-host Boomer Esiason both called out their network for taking money from the Saudi-backed upstart golf league.
“It’s just awkward to ignore it, so I had to mention it, because if we’re talking about all these golfers taking the money, and the PGA Tour sponsors taking the money, then we have to at least be fair and mention how I guess we took the money as well,” Giannotti said.
Esiason concurred.
“We took the blood money. Trump Bedminster took the blood money. Trump Doral took the blood money, too …”
Esiason thought there would be a lot of protests in New Jersey at the end of this month when there’s a LIV tournament at Bedminster.
“I think the 9/11 families, if Dustin Johnson’s making $125 million, and Bryson DeChambeau is bragging that he’s been making more money than’s been reported, and Phil Mickelson’s making $200 million … And we have the Saudi government that had their hand involved in 9/11 and you have all these families that have been suing the Saudi government, and gotten nothing — you tell me what you think,” Esiason said.
Boomer acknowledged that most people would say they’d take the money if they were in the golfers’ position, to get paid more to work fewer dates.
“But it’s sportswashing, is what it is,” he said. ” And we all know what it is. I think it will, over time, calm down, but I still think it’s a pretty raw emotional feeling for a lot of people who don’t like that this thing is going on the way it’s going on, and now it’s going to President Trump’s Bedminster golf course.”
Beyond the golfers, WFAN and President Trump, it also bears mentioning that President Biden is seeking to better the country’s relationship with the Saudis, as the administration seeks a path toward a drop in energy prices.