Mike Golic
Mike Golic Promotes Stem Cell Treatments
What does a native of Willowick, Ohio do with his life? If you’re Mike Golic, you major in finance and management at Notre Dame while serving as captain of the football team during your senior year, and oh yes, you wrestle too. If that is not enough, you go on to play eight years as a defensive tackle for the Houston Oilers, Philadelphia Eagles, and Miami Dolphins.
Not enough for ya? How about becoming a television sportscaster, co-hosting the perpetually popular ESPN Radio’s Mike & Mike, and also co-authoring Mike and Mike’s Rules for Sports and Life with co-host Mike Greenberg?
For Mike Golic, achieving is part of the Golic family legacy. Mike’s father played football as did Mike’s two brothers. All three of Mike’s kids attended Notre Dame, and no surprise, all athletes. Let’s peer into the mind of Mike and see what’s happening.
MyEliteNetwork: Why did you choose Notre Dame?
Mike Golic: My brother Bob committed there in 1975 when I was about 12-years-old, so I got to see Notre Dame through my wide-eyed, almost teenager eyes, watching great players like Ross Browner and Willy Fry. It was at that time that I saw what Notre Dame was all about. When I started getting heavily recruited, my brother Greg went to Notre Dame in 1980, and when I would visit him, I saw players and students my age, and I thought I could fit in there; I felt comfortable. Our family had been there for some years, so there was a substantial level of familiarity.
MyEliteNetwork: After almost two decades of co-hosting with Mike Greenberg, share a couple of your most memorable moments.
Mike Golic: When you say memorable, it doesn’t always include great memories. A little more than a year after the show started we were on air during 9/11 in 2001. In our studio a bank of TV’s are set on different channels; Digger Phelps was on the air with us as a guest when we were told about the first plane flying into the tower. We initially thought it was just a horrific accident until the second plane flew into the other tower. We were on air so we couldn’t see or hear the TVs around us, but during commercial breaks, we started seeing the headlines about terrorism. So naturally, the show took a decided turn at that point to, What the hell’s going on? And what was interesting is that Greenie and I expected that the next day the network would preempt our show with ABC News, and go with the terrorist coverage, but the producers asked us if we would go on air, not necessarily to talk about sports, but just two guys, two Americans, talking about what happened. So we went on, and it was a surreal type of show.
The other big thing was being guests on David Letterman which we ended up doing 11 times. Greenie and I both grew up watching that show, and now we were on it, so we were very excited. When George Bush, the son, was in office, we got invited to be play-by-play analysts for the tee-ball game on the lawn at the White House. We had dinner at the White House that night.
MyEliteNetwork: Why do you think you and Greenie had the edge over all the other sports talk shows; why do you think you guys gained such notoriety?
Mike Golic: That’s a great question, and I don’t know if I can give you an answer, but I’ll try. Certainly, the letters ESPN helped. They give you an audience, but our job was to keep an audience. I think we appealed to a lot of people. We didn’t cross the line with raunchy guy talk. We were both family guys, and the one thing we were really proud of is that we would hear from a lot of women who told us, You know what, we appreciated the fact that when we drove our kids to school, we never had to turn you off because of the subject matter you were talking about. So I think we appealed to a broad scope of people. Other than that, I don’t know why it took off the way it did. We did radio first, then ESPN News, and then ESPN2 over a span of 18 years. There was no way we expected that, so we just enjoyed the ride.
MyEliteNetwork: There had to be some serious personality chemistry.
Mike Golic: You know, chemistry is something you can’t script, and we just had that chemistry. We couldn’t be more different, and that probably helped. As a matter of fact, through 18 years you go through a lot of taglines. The show got reinvented a few times, and one of the taglines was, What makes them different, makes them great. Our differences created the chemistry; I was an athlete, he wasn’t. I played, he had season tickets. That’s how we played into it a lot.
MyEliteNetwork: Share any secrets on how you and Greenie have managed your off-air contrary personalities and still maintain your professionalism on air, and were there any times you were fuming at each other 10 seconds before cameras rolled?
Mike Golic: Never. And I think in all honesty the big reason was that we never saw each other after the show. He lived 50 minutes one way from ESPN. I lived about 20 minutes the other way. My kids are 28, 26, and almost 23. Greenie’s kids are younger. So his first kid was born the year we started in 2000, and I had had my third kid by 1995. Our upbringings were so different that we didn’t have a ton of things in common so we never really saw each other outside of the show. We never hung out, and our families never really hung out either.
MyEliteNetwork: “Golic and Wingo” is set to premiere on November 27th, 2017. How do you anticipate the new show being different with Trey Wingo as your co-host?
Mike Golic: Well, we’re not reinventing the wheel here; we’re still going to be a sport’s show. My son, Mike, is going to be on it as well, at least the first hour every day, so I think that will be a nice twist. Greenie is 50, I’m in my 50’s, and Trey is in his 50’s, and then you throw in my son Mike, who’s 28, the millennial, with the different point of view, not afraid to take on his Dad on opinionated issues. We’re going to have fun.
MyEliteNetwork: How do you see your broadcasting career evolving in the next five to ten years?
Mike Golic: I signed a new three-year deal to do the show with Trey and my son, Mike, and I’ll see where it goes from there. We’ll do the three years and then see what’s going on. Maybe they’ll ask me back for more, or maybe they won’t. Maybe I’ll have had enough by then, and they can go in another direction. Whenever I decide to hang up the everyday radio/TV stuff, I may go back to doing college games; I really enjoyed getting in the booth and calling games.
MyEliteNetwork: Let’s turn a corner into another industry you’re involved in which is stem cell treatments, and serving on the Advisory Board for Premier Regenerative Stem Cell and Wellness Centers. Tell us why you initially got involved and how stem cell treatments can help former players.
Mike Golic: All ball players, pretty much in any sport, get injuries, and often have multiple operations. I had 12 during my career and post-career between my shoulders and knees. I remember a few years ago talking on air about my years of cortisone shots and taking pain pills for my different aches and pains. Don Horn, who played for the Packers and is also on the Board, and works very closely with Premier, emailed me, Mike, listen, I’m helping out with Premier Regenerative Stem Cell here in Colorado. Why don’t I put you in touch with Kandace Stolz, President/Partner of PRSC, and maybe we can look at your shoulder and knee. They were conducting a study to present to the NFLPA about how well stem cell treatments have gone.
So long story short, I went to Colorado and got my knee and shoulder done, and the results were unreal. I haven’t had a cortisone shot or a pain pill for three or four years since having the treatment. So many former athletes live off of opioids and cortisone, and that is not the way you want to go through life. But you accept it as an athlete, especially in football, you’re going to give parts of your body to the game. That’s just the price of admission. But now, it was like, you know what, maybe we don’t have to live like that. I was amazed at how well it worked for me when I first did it as a 50-year- old.
I know so many athletes who have had it done with fantastic results. Kandace has such a big heart; not only is she conducting stem cell treatments for the everyday person but she’s offering free stem cell treatments to former athletes, and retired military people. She’s just lining them up and saying this is going to help you guys, and by the way, there’s no cost. Kandace asked me if I would be on the Board because I had so much success with the treatment, so I said yes. I love talking about just how good the results can be for you, whether you’re a current player, weekend warrior, or a former athlete. We help not only those who played in the NFL and live with daily aches and pains but also current athletes. Stem cell treatment is the perfect thing to get done right when your season is over. Get a stem cell treatment and be ready to go when it’s time to train for your next year on the field.
MyEliteNetwork: Do you need continual treatments to be pain-free or just a one-time treatment?
Mike Golic: It depends. Everybody’s ailments are different, like my shoulder, I’ve only had the one treatment, and I’ve had no issues with it. My knee, I’ve had two, and I was pain-free for a couple of years, and then I hurt it again, so I got another treatment; it’s fantastic. It all depends on the degenerative stage of your joint. Kandace is also starting to work with doctors who are researching brain trauma. It’s an excellent company to be a part of—I know it helped me tremendously.
I am 54, and I’m in the best shape of my life since I’ve played football. I’m able to lift regularly; I’m able to run on a treadmill, I’m able to bend like I used to bend, both knees and shoulders. I’m a Type II Diabetic, and to keep my numbers right, I need to be able to work out, but I was never able to work out like I should because of the pain. But now, because of the stem cell treatment and how it makes my knee and shoulder feel, I’m able to work out exceptionally well. I’ve lost another 20-25 pounds, my A1C number, which is the big number for someone with Type II diabetes, has gone down tremendously because I’m able to work out and get my metabolism going. It’s resulted in a great domino effect for me.
If former players want to participate but lack funding, can they enroll in one of the clinical trials?
Players can visit the PRST website to get in contact with Kandace regarding clinical trials. There’s a line now of approximately 200-300 former players who are waiting to get the treatment, and that line just keeps growing. When former players get in touch with her, she always tells them, we’ll take care of you. She’s been talking with the VA and lining up a bunch of military veterans to take care of their issues, whether it’s stem cell, hyperbaric chamber, erectile dysfunction, traumatic injuries, or whatever treatment is going to help them.
She’s changing the world, one body at a time. The business side of it involves a lot of fundraising to pay for the 5,000 former military men and women, and former athletes. Some people come in and pay for specific treatments, but then there’s the other side where funding needs are ever present.
MyEliteNetwork: Describe a typically stem cell treatment.
Mike Golic: A treatment at one of their first-rate facilities is the easiest thing in the world. You go in a room where there’s a chaise lounge and a TV. They start an IV on you, and you wear whatever clothes you came in with; I was in shorts and a t-shirt. They lightly knock you out, you don’t have to be all the way under like with anesthesia. They do a little spinal tap on you and pull out fluid, and then they put it in a centrifuge where they spin it. From some of the layers that are left, one of the layers is your stem cells. They draw out the stem cells, and they put it in place in your body where you’re experiencing pain. They can put it in multiple joints; like the first time I got my stem cells drawn, I flipped over, and they put some in my knee, some in my shoulder. After my treatment was over, I got up and went back to the waiting room where I rested for three to four hours, and then walked out of there. If you’re active with bike riding, running, lifting, whatever, you can slowly start working your activities back in fairly quickly. You’re not going to jump right back into it as there’s a slight recovery time to get back into regular strenuous exercise.
In a nutshell: You walk into the room, get the procedure done, and you walk out of the place. Nobody is going to take you anywhere on a gurney. It’s a breeze. There’s nothing invasive in it. You’re aware the entire time of what’s happening, and then when you’re done, the staff just wait for you to feel well enough to leave.
MyEliteNetwork: Can you drive yourself to/from treatments?
Mike Golic: They would rather you not. They’ll take you wherever you need to go. They’ll come pick you up at the airport; they’ll pick you up and take you back to your hotel. Although they don’t want you to drive, quite honestly, I think you could, but for safety reasons, they don’t want you to.
MyEliteNetwork: Are stem cell treatments NFL-approved, or are you guys trying to gain more visibility, more entry into the NFL?
Mike Golic: We are trying to gain more visibility, more strength, because again, stem cell treatments have just come onto the scene in the last few years. We’ll meet with the NFLPA, DeMaurice Smith, Roger Goodell, and the NFL, to show them how treatments are helping their guys, and try to get them involved as best we can. I think even orthopedic surgeons who weren’t supporters of stem cell treatments are starting to realize that these treatments work. I deal with a lot of people who have, let’s be honest, deep pockets, and we need money to serve as many as we can. The veteran athletes are taken care of, which I think is great, but anytime we can take care of our military personnel, we can’t do enough of that, that’s for sure.
Author: Michelle Hill
Interview conducted by Michelle Hill, Your Legacy Builder, at Winning Proof. Michelle is a sports ghostwriter, book collaborator, and author. She works exclusively with pro athletes, coaches, team owners, and other sports professionals, to march their book idea from concept to publication, from the Red Zone to the End Zone. You have a story to tell! Contact Michelle at winningproof@gmail.com or (714) 797.3731. You can also visit the Winning Proof website at www.winningproof.com