00:00It's a good reminder to the kids out there that everything and anything you do these days
00:05never disappears forever. Right? Right. Like if you think, well, I deleted it, that's gone.
00:11You didn't. You didn't delete it, right? Oh, if you think like, hey, those guys don't remember
00:14when I told that, you know, bad joking. No, no, they're going to remember, okay? And the reason
00:18I say that is there's a big deal happening at Syracuse right now where the commencement speaker
00:25for this upcoming year's graduation at Syracuse is legendary Syracuse graduate and broadcaster
00:32Mike Tirico. Okay. Right? Sunday night football, the Olympics. Well, Mike Tirico is an amazing
00:39sports broadcaster. He's a Hall of Fame resume guy. Yeah. He's also been very generous in giving
00:44back to Syracuse. He has written checks for a considerable amount of money. He's been on
00:49the board of trustees. He's been on the board of the famous Newhouse School of Communications
00:53there. He has gone back and given speeches and taught classes. He is like the, he's the
00:59best example, you would think, of a graduate that's had success, that doesn't forget where
01:04he came from, and has always given back. And that's a good story to tell. So we're good.
01:09Which is why Mike Tirico has chosen to be the commencement speaker at this year's Syracuse
01:13graduation. The whole door. Craig Carton right now is doing a feel-good story on a Thursday.
01:18I know Mike Tirico. Yes, great. I like Mike Tirico. I respect Mike Tirico, the broadcaster.
01:24Yeah. And Mike Tirico should do what he does, and I'm glad that he does it. All right. So
01:29what do we got? Well, we have a problem, though. We have a problem. Yeah. In this Diana Rossini
01:35world, we have a problem now. Okay. Unfortunately, back in his, back, back, back, earlier in his
01:43life, Mike Tirico was accused of being untoward with a number of women. Okay. Very early in
01:51his career at ESPN. Okay. To the point where he was suspended at one point, early in his
01:56career at ESPN. Okay. And then a few other women also accused him of ABC and D. When he
02:02got the job at NBC, NBC executives even had to acknowledge the fact that they're aware of
02:07the accusations in his past and they fully vetted him and thought that he was still worthy of
02:13being the face of NBC sports. And these are stories that go back now 30 plus years. Okay.
02:19Yeah. I Googled it because you brought it up and I see it in front of me. Yeah. Like this,
02:24it's just, everybody knows it happened. It's just one of those things that nobody talks about
02:28because A, he's a great broadcaster. B, he's a very likable guy. And C, he hasn't been accused
02:35of anything in a long time. So it's one of those things like, all right, he was able to
02:39better himself, move on and not do the things he was accused of early in his career. Yes.
02:43We're now talking about 34 years ago, 1992 is where these. But they happened. He was suspended
02:49by ESPN. For three months. Early in his career at ESPN. You can go read it. It's also in that
02:55book about, you know, the ESPN, the start of ESPN. Yes. Like it's all well documented. So
02:59on the surface, it's like, of course, Mike Tirico should give the commencement speech. He's
03:04one of our most famous graduates, right? Yes. Well, the Daily Orange is the student-run
03:08newspaper at Syracuse. And there's a graduating senior, a young gal, who wrote an op-ed piece
03:15that now has gone viral and has legs now on the Syracuse campus and is dividing the Syracuse
03:22campus a little bit as to whether or not Mike Tirico is an appropriate choice to give the
03:27commencement speech, considering all the women that are graduating Syracuse and the fact that
03:33if they Google him, because not everybody that graduates Syracuse is a sports broadcasting
03:37major, they might want to do a little background check on who did Syracuse choose to give our
03:42commencement speech. Yeah. And as a woman, you might say, I'm uncomfortable with the fact
03:48that you chose a guy that allegedly harassed women early in his career to give the commencement
03:53speech. So now there's a debate at Syracuse. Should he be canceled? Now, I don't think he will
04:00be. I think he's got enough goodwill at Syracuse with the student body, with the alumni, with
04:07the folks that run Syracuse, that all the good he has done outweighs what he did 34 years
04:13ago. And I think he's going to be allowed to give the speech. But it's a good lesson to
04:18everybody out there. Just when you think you've done everything right for the better part of
04:23three and a half decades, and you've lived an exemplary life, the stuff you do in your
04:2920s can and will come back to haunt you. Yeah. And that's and I'm not sure if this is, you
04:37know, unempowered gal saying, I feel that, you know, Mike Vrabel should be getting more heat
04:42than he's getting. And it's not right that women are always the ones getting all the heat
04:46in this profession. Right. Why is Dan and Rossini out of a job? But Mike Vrabel isn't. Right.
04:52And I know this is apples to steaks, but it's a fair line of thinking when you do the research
04:59on who your university chose to give the commencement speech. You're absolutely right.
05:04And here's the tough thing about it. While it's not apples to apples, as you as you just said,
05:09could we imagine a woman even in the 90s doing something similar and then having the
05:16career? Yeah. Afterwards, if I'm going to be completely honest, I don't think so. I think
05:21it'd be harder to find that one. That's what I mean. What I mean is now I also believe in
05:25redemption. I know you do. Obviously, I believe in redemption. Yes. Now, just so we're clear
05:30in cases, people that don't know, these are the things that were cited officially by like
05:34HR and ESPN. Okay. It was unwanted advances, explicit comments, and then following slash
05:43stalking a producer. Yes. That is what he's accused of as far as the HR file from 1992.
05:49Right. The question I guess we have to make then morally is, do we believe a person can
05:54be redeemed from that? Yes. So allow me to say this. What he was accused of is bad. It
06:00is. Made at least one, maybe multiple women feel very uncomfortable. The number they have
06:05is it could be six. Okay. So let's just say they're right. Let's say there's half a dozen
06:09women who felt a certain way about how Mike Tirico approached them. And that's bad. And
06:14that's ugly. And he was punished for it. He was suspended for at least three months back
06:18then by ESPN. My belief is that while those women have the right to feel the way they feel
06:24to this day about what they experience, I don't think you have to pay for that crime every
06:30day for the rest of your life. I don't. I think if you've lived an exemplary life for
06:35the last 34 years, and you've done everything right, and you're a good husband and a good
06:40father, and you live your life the right way, and while it's bad what you did, and you paid
06:47for those sins, how many times do we have to get blood from the same stone? I agree with
06:51you. Now, there are some crimes the answer is forever. Murder, rape, things like that, crimes
06:56against children. Yeah. Like all that kind of stuff. I think we'd all agree on that. He
07:00also did not. And I'm not excusing what he allegedly did. But just to be clear, he is
07:03not accused of any violence, which does play a role. To me, for me personally, I'm not
07:08trying to speak for you at all. I'm not saying you don't feel this way. To me, violence against
07:11women, to me, done. Is a forever crime. Forever crime. Yeah, I'm with you on that too. So he's
07:15followed her. Had he grabbed her, had he groped her, then I'm done forever. He did not
07:20do that in this case. I think Mike Tirico should be allowed to give the speech. I respect you feeling
07:24a certain way about it. I'm not telling you that you're wrong to feel the way you feel.
07:28But I think 34 years of living life the right way, of recognizing the mistakes you made,
07:36and apologizing for those mistakes, and not making those mistakes again, I think you should
07:42be allowed to give the speech. Now, I don't know all the details, to be fair, of the other
07:47five women that are alleged to have complained about how he treated them. And I suppose if I
07:53did read those details, if they ever made public, I think I reserve the right to change
07:57my mind. But based on what I've read, which is basically what you're reading right now,
08:01and what I know, based on being in this industry for 35 years, I do think there's got to come
08:07a point where you're allowed to say, what I did was wrong, but look at everything I've done
08:13since. And that's where I put Mike Tirico. And as a Syracuse graduate, I fully support,
08:20based on the information I know, Mike Tirico giving their commencement speech.
08:25And by the way, how do you know he's not going to say that I'm a prime example of overcoming
08:31your mistakes? He very well could. I assume he won't, but I don't know that he won't.
08:35He very well could. And for people that maybe think that Craig might be, or we're being
08:38hypocrites, we said yesterday, Diana Rossini will get another job. She will. And should get
08:43another job. Yeah. This should not be the end of her career. We said that for one mistake.
08:47If I needed a co-host, I'd consider hiring her.
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