Adam Schein and Boomer Esiason in afternoon drive on WFAN? They were once discussed as the tandem to replace Mike Francesa.
Schein was The Main Event on Andrew Marchand’s sports media podcast this week. During the interview, Schein retold the widely known story of WFAN having interest in picking him to replace Francesa.
Schein even previously told the Awful Announcing Podcast that Francesa picked him to be his WFAN successor. But now we know Esiason may have been his co-host.
If Boomer Esiason had moved to afternoons, Adam Schein would’ve likely been his partner.
Fun pod 👇👇 pic.twitter.com/xE4hOR9C1K
— Andrew Marchand (@AndrewMarchand) February 27, 2025
“There was that one moment in time where the mornings and the afternoons were open at the same time,” Schein told Marchand. “And Boomer was thinking about the afternoons. If Boomer would have picked afternoons – and he knows this – I would have tried to find a way to move heaven and earth and make that possible”
Schein said WFAN program director Mark Chernoff was even willing to let him keep his midday show on SiriusXM Radio and his evening TV show on CBS Sports Network. One thing Schein didn’t want to do, however, was host a morning show.
“Boomer decided to stay at mornings, and that was that,” Schein said. “But if he would have decided to go to afternoons, I honestly think Boomer and I would have been phenomenal together in the afternoons.”
“Doing a morning show, I’m not a morning show guy. I’m a sports talk guy,” Schein explained. “I also think replacing Carton and his style, I had no interest in doing that. What Craig did was unique and special and following him, it would not have been a good situation for me. Replacing Mike, that would have been a dream.”
Instead, Adam Schein continued building his career at SiriusXM, Boomer Esiason stayed in mornings, and it was Gregg Giannotti who took on the tall task of replacing Carton as the former NFL MVP’s WFAN co-host. Giannotti lived up to the task, bringing his own style to the morning show and continuing its ratings dominance for seven years. But Schein in afternoons would have been an interesting era for WFAN and a stark contrast for Esiason.