Mike Ryan wants Boomer Esiason to \u201cquit being a p*ssy\u201d and say what he means. Gregg Giannotti wishes Boomer Esiason would say less.<\/p>\n
After hearing Esiason suggest Olympic athletes should just \u201cpipe down\u201d and \u201crespect the flag<\/a>\u201d while representing the United States at the Winter Games, Ryan exploded over the shut up and skate take<\/a>. Despite Esiason\u2019s opinion seeming clear, The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz co-host accused the former NFL MVP of hiding behind \u201cMAGA-coded bullsh*t.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSay what you mean. Say it with your chest, you chicken sh*t,\u201d Ryan ranted<\/a> during Thursday\u2019s Le Batard Show. \u201cQuit being a p*ssy, Boomer Esiason. Put your name to it. Say what you f*cking mean!\u201d<\/p>\n Esiason happened to be off Friday morning, meaning he was unable to respond. But Esiason\u2019s WFAN co-host Gregg Giannotti heard Ryan\u2019s rant, and thought it was misinformed.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat it seemed like to me was this is a lot of misguided anger\u2026I sit next to Boomer five days a week, four hours a day. I wish he would say what he meant less, to be honest with you.\u201d Gregg Giannotti responds to Mike Ryan rant on Boomer Esiason https:\/\/t.co\/ocaZWVHH3N<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/EZmmditAOb<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) February 13, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cWhat it seemed like to me was this is a lot of misguided anger,\u201d Giannotti said to Jerry Recco. \u201cThat this guy is very angry politically about things that are going on, maybe there\u2019s people in his life or others that he has stayed silent about, but then this Boomer thing comes across his plate and he all of a sudden just explodes and all of the things that were bubbling up in him about whoever that he\u2019s been annoyed with comes out and the direction of it all goes to Boomer.\u201d<\/p>\n Giannotti continued to explain that based on Ryan\u2019s rant, it\u2019s clear he\u2019s not familiar with WFAN\u2019s morning show or Esiason\u2019s unfiltered radio personality. Because for nearly two decades, Esiason has had no issue saying what he means without any coded language.<\/p>\n \u201cI sit next to Boomer five days a week, four hours a day. I wish he would say what he meant less to be honest with you,\u201d Giannotti said. \u201cSo, you don\u2019t know what you\u2019re talking about. I\u2019m never ever going to tell Boomer stop doing this or that. But there are times where he\u2019ll jam politics into conversations that I\u2019m like, \u2018that was unnecessary\u2019 and now I got to find a way out of it, but that\u2019s what he wants to do, he\u2019s earned that ability to say all of these things that he wants with this platform.\u201d<\/p>\n Esiason\u2019s \u2018shut up and skate\u2019 take probably doesn\u2019t fall into that category because Giannotti welcomed that conversation by asking his co-host if Team USA\u2019s figure skating team is \u201chappy to represent America?\u201d But usually, when Esiason drops a political take or reference, he often does it without needing much encouragement.<\/p>\n \u201cBut to sit here and say that he is on here giving you some sort of coded message because he\u2019s afraid to say what he wants and he\u2019s a p-word, is just completely misinformed,\u201d Giannotti pushed back, \u201cHe\u2019s just misguided, he just doesn\u2019t have the information. He\u2019s just screaming about whatever that he\u2019s annoyed about and he\u2019s putting Boomer in a category that he\u2019s not in.\u201d<\/p>\n Giannotti also claimed he felt the urge to defend Esiason because when you consider The Boomer Esiason Foundation and his resume of off-the-field accomplishments, he doesn\u2019t deserve to be minimized or disrespected with name-calling.<\/p>\n Esiason telling Olympic athletes to \u201cpipe down\u201d and \u201crespect the flag\u201d in the wake of freestyle skier Hunter Hess admitting he has \u201cmixed emotions\u201d about representing the United States was going to garner warranted pushback. But Esiason didn\u2019t need to say it louder. His opinion was, and usually is, made very clear.<\/p>\n After Giannotti called Ryan\u2019s response \u201cmisguided,\u201d however, the Le Batard Show personality wrote a social media post explaining some of the emotion behind his rant.<\/p>\n pic.twitter.com\/tAs9mTBPMX<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Mike Ryan (Ruiz) \ud83d\ude4c\ud83c\udffd (@MichaelRyanRuiz) February 13, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cIf the only time you step into this conversation is to scold people for speaking out, then not only are you a coward\u2026 YOU are part of the problem,\u201d Ryan wrote.<\/p>\n \t