Mike Francesa's Feud With Twitter Chronicler Reaches Fever Pitch: TRAINA THOUGHTS

Feud between WFAN's Mike Francesa and Twitter chronicler reaches fever pitch.

1. If you don't live in New York, I can totally understand you not caring about this story. However, if you are into sports media, this is actually a fascinating story.

As most sports fans who use Twitter know, there is a popular Twitter account, @BackAftaThis, that posts several audio and video clips a day from Mike Francesa's shows.

It's hard to keep up with what shows those are these days because Francesa has retired a couple of times, launched and closed a $8.99-a-month app, and has a bizarre setup now where he does one hour a day on Radio.com and then 30 minutes on WFAN in New York.

After a recent video of Francesa ripping into the government for its lack of urgency in dealing with the coronavirus crisis in New York City went viral and got picked up by several non-sports shows around the country, Francesa and Radio.com/WFAN's parent company, Entercom, dropped the hammer on Thursday.

Francesa announced that because of copyright issues, people would no longer be allowed to rip audio and video from his shows without the "express written consent of Entercom."

Mike Francesa announces that he will no longer allow Funhouse to post clips from his fabulous 90-minute daily show going forward.

Alternate title: Mike Francesa announces that exactly ZERO people will hear anything he has to say going forward. pic.twitter.com/GJKKjYEx7U

— Funhouse (@BackAftaThis) April 3, 2020

The BackAftaThis account has been posting audio and video clips of Francesa for years, so why the change now?

My guess is that in this time when sports media companies can't get advertising dollars, Entercom wants to make sure they are getting the views and listens for all of their clips so they can monetize them.

The Twitter contingency who yearns for the clips of Francesa's blunders, gaffes and worse is up in arms, claiming BackAftaThis makes Mike relevant.

And this is the part that's fascinating. Yes, without the BackAftaThis clips, Francesa would get no attention or traction on social media and across the internet. However, 95% of BackAftaThis's clips paint Francesa in a very unflattering light.

So the dilemma for Francesa comes down to this: Get negative social media attention or get no social media attention. Most media people—because of our large egos—would choose the negative social media attention, but it also has to wear you down after a while. Like him or not, you have to agree the Francesa bashing from social media and the world wide web is pretty relentless. I'm not saying it's warranted or unwarranted, but when Mike gets the attention, he gets beat up pretty good. 

The dilemma for Entercom, though, is different. Entercom cares about one thing and one thing only: money and thinks that by shutting down BackAftaThis, it will be able to monetize Mike's clips. However, this isn't going to happen because the clips that get the most traction for BackAftaThis are the ones that mock Mike. Entercom is not going to post those clips.

The video of Mike ripping the current administration is an aberration, not the norm. So if Entercom thinks it is going to get tons of views for its Francesa videos, it is mistaken.

And the people on Twitter who support BackAftaThis and yearn for the clips of Mike giving a prediction one day and then claiming he never made said prediction the next day, use the same line over and over: "BackAftaThis made Mike relevant." 

No. He made embarrassing clips of Mike relevant. If he made Mike relevant, more people would tune in to Mike's various shows. 

Here's an exchange I had with someone I follow on Twitter on Thursday night that perfectly sums up my point.

Knowing who Mike Francesa is, but not tuning into Radio.com or WFAN doesn't help anyone's bottom line. And that's what this latest kerfuffle is all about.

2. It's so bizarre that WrestleMania 36 is taking place this weekend. There's hardly any buzz, it was already taped, it's taking place in a tiny performance center as opposed to the usual football or baseball stadium, and there won't be any fans in attendance to watch what is supposed to be pure spectacle.

Having said that, many of us will be tuning in Saturday and Sunday to see how it all unfolds, with the event taking place over both nights—and being hosted by Gronk.

Here's some WrestleMania content SI.com has put together this week:

• Justin Barrasso had a look at how WrestleMania is dealing with the coronavirus this weekend.

• Here's a Q&A I did with Seth Rollins about the weirdness of working in empty arenas, what he's watching these days, and more.

• Barrasso also spoke with Becky Lynch about how strange this weekend will be.

3. In Thursday's Traina Thoughts, we issued a warning to athletes who are doing Instagram Live videos while self-quarantining.

Now we'd like to remind them to be careful roaming around during this time.

4. Maybe I'm going a little stir crazy from being in my house, but I did an actual lol when I saw this.

5. A brand new SI MEDIA PODCAST came out Wednesday. Good Morning Football's Kyle Brandt joined me to discuss a truly wide range of issues: NFL games with no fans, Tom Brady shouldn't have left New England, why we hate our beards, whether we get dressed these days, Netflix's top feature, Marriage Story, Tiger King, Kyle just starting to watch The Office, watching old NFL games vs. recent NFL games, and much more.

You can listen to the podcast below or download it on Apple, Spotify, Stitcher and Google Play.

6. RANDOM YOUTUBE VIDEO OF THE DAY: Happy 59th birthday to my all-time favorite comedian, Eddie Murphy.

7. SPORTS HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY: I've said this many times before and I'll say it again: NFL players should be allowed to use props for TD celebrations.

Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on iTunes, Spotify or Stitcher. You can also follow Jimmy on Twitter and Instagram.