WFAN's Mike Francesa blasts Phil Murphy, N.J. for online sports betting delay; Twitter fights back

by Felix Pantaleón

WFAN host Mike Francesa blasted Gov. Phil Murphy’s Monday release announcing he had signed legislation that will finally bring legalized sports betting to New Jersey starting Thursday, but many are supporting Murphy.

New Jersey’s No. 1 elected official is getting the benefit of the doubt over New York’s Numbah One on Twitter.

WFAN host Mike Francesa blasted Gov. Phil Murphy’s Monday release announcing he had signed legislation that will finally bring legalized sports betting to the state starting Thursday. Francesa’s issue? While in-person betting will start soon at sites like Monmouth Park, Murphy’s statement said online betting won’t start for 30 days and not all betting sites will be ready to go live this week.

That’s not good business, Francesa said.

“Wait a second. If you’re New Jersey, why would you put out a release like this? … What kind of way? If you’re a government, you do business that way. If you’re a private business, you would never – you would fire people if they did business that way. ‘Here it is, our grand opening, and we’re not open,'” Francesa opined, via Funhouse.

“You think Amazon does that? You think Apple does that? You think Apple says, ‘Hey, come to the Apple Store, we’re putting the phone on sale tomorrow, but we won’t have any for 30 days?’ That’s why when you give bureaucrats or anyone in government a chance to do something, they’ll screw it up.”

Mike Francesa reads a statement from @GovMurphy about the beginning of sports betting in New Jersey. It did not go as planned. pic.twitter.com/n1f5ZxRA0v

— Funhouse (@BackAftaThis) June 12, 2018

However, many are taking issue with Francesa’s rant, arguing it’s far from rational or realistic.

Guy who can’t get an App running criticizing pple for not having an app ready within a month lol

— Justin Wilcox (@Slick_W) June 12, 2018

Mike says a lot of dumb stuff. This is way way up there

— Brian Sales (@iambriansales) June 12, 2018

“You think Apple would do that?!? You think they’d say ‘hey come down to da staw and get a phone oh but we won’t have any for thirty days??”
Yes, Mike. They ALWAYS DO THAT

— John Kessanis (@JKess812) June 12, 2018

It doesn’t sound like a well-worded press release, but Mike is wrong on his argument/analogies here, as per usual.

— Todd M. Kohlhepp (@TK_SegalGroup) June 12, 2018

Our two cents: How about Francesa and the Guv hash it out over a nice glass of Diet Coke at the Bar-A show in August?

James Kratch may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @JamesKratch. Find NJ.com Rutgers Football on Facebook.