Twitter exploded on Friday, after the @BackAftaThis (a/k/a Funhouse) account posted a clip from the Morning Show with Boomer & Gio on WFAN in New York that pushed the idea that Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers will threaten to boycott the Super Bowl over the NFL’s COVID protocols. Apparently, it was all a prank.
Gregg Giannotti, Esiason’ co-host, explained the situation on the WFAN afternoon show, featuring Boomer’s former co-host, Craig Carton. Long story bearable, Esiason and Giannotti eventually came to the conclusion that someone was trying to dupe Esiason.
On the surface, the problem flows from the fact that the clip posted by the Funhouse account didn’t include any mention whatsoever of a potential prank.
“I’ll take the bullet on this one,” the Funhouse account tweeted on Saturday morning. “My work schedule is nuts these days, so I’m only able to listen to part of the show. At the time I posted that, honest to God, I had no idea that you had 100% determined that it was a prank. Didn’t know that part when I posted. Apologies.”
He may want to think twice about using a phrase like “take the bullet.” As mentioned by the Funhouse account in a separate tweet, “I’ve been getting death threats from Packer Nation as if I said those things.”
At a deeper level, Esiason and Giannotti shouldn’t have done a real-time vetting of the tip Esiason received on a live radio show. They should have decided before the show or during a break whether the tip had sufficient credibility to even mention.
So the joke originally was on Boomer. The real joke is on the rest of us. Whether deliberate or not, Esiason and Giannotti played this in a way that has resulted in a ton of free publicity.
So what if some people are pissed? Their audience on Monday morning will likely be higher than it’s been in weeks, as people tune in to hear what Esiason will have to say for himself about the fact that he was pranked, and about the fact that he chose to eat the trash on the air without rifling through it before the microphones went hot.
