Those of us in the sports world know Curt Menefee as the congenial host of Fox NFL Sunday where he has piloted the top NFL pregame show in the country for many years. But New York City mayor Eric Adams knows him as one of his chief adversaries in local media.
Menefee has been pulling double duty since the beginning of last year when he was named as co-host of Good Day New York on Fox 5 New York.
Earlier this week, Menfee and co-host Rosanna Scotto were interviewing outgoing mayor Eric Adams after Zohran Mamdani’s victory to replace him next year. Adams’ tenure has been marred by various allegations of impropriety including a controversial deal with the Trump justice department that saw federal corruption charges dropped.
The topic that started the fireworks between Curt Menefee and Eric Adams seemed to be mundane enough, though. It was whether or not Mamdani would keep NYPD police commissioner Jessica Tisch as part of his administration. Menefee was trying to seek clarity from Adams over whether or not he thought that she would stick around.
Menefee and Adams have history. They previously sparred in February in a viral interview where the Fox host confronted the mayor over his use of the phrase “all these negroes.” Menefee later told Brandon Contes on the Awful Announcing Podcast that he felt Adams was “evading answers” in their interview. And it certainly appeared that he felt the same on Wednesday.
After Menefee wondered if Adams was misspeaking about the certainty of Tisch’s status, things quickly became personal.
“So are you saying that you think the commissioner’s going to stay,” Menefee asked.
“Brother, I don’t know how many times I have to say the same thing over and over,” Adams answered.
“You keep asking me the same question. You do that often when I’m on your show. Ask Zohran,” Adams retorted.
“I’m asking you the question. You said he wants her to stay and you said we will see members of your administration stay including her. So if you’re saying that you’re going to see her stay, that means, I’m asking, do you know that she’s going to stay. That’s all. I’m just trying to get clarification when you’re saying one thing but then you’re coming back and saying, ‘well he’s saying that,’ which he did. I’m asking do you know if she is going to stay. That’s all I’m asking,” as Menefee tried again.
Adams then refused to engage any further and turned to Scotto and things got even more heated between the two over who was playing games the most. The outgoing mayor then threatened to leave the interview as Menefee called him out over having a “temper tantrum” live on the air. Adams then addressed Menefee directly, calling him “rude” and “disrespectful.”
“You have an agenda when you come on this show,” Menefee answered.
“Breathe brother, breathe man,” Adams said. “Just take a deep breath, that’s why I do meditation.”
“I do meditation every morning, brother, so don’t worry about me, you take care of you,” Menefee quipped back.
After Scotto asked a question about affordability and things seemed to calm down, the pair then clashed again at the end of the interview, even after Menefee attempted an apology.
“You said something and you weren’t clear on it and I asked for a clarification and then you got defensive about it. Then I got defensive. This happens, so I owe you an apology for getting defensive and you getting defensive, so thank you very much for joining us though, I appreciate it. Good luck to you,” Menefee said.
Adams did not appreciate being called defensive as he couldn’t resist getting one more shot across the bow at his rival in what may be their final morning show appearance together.
“You guys have a great day and don’t define when I get defensive, define yourself and I’ll define myself. I didn’t get defensive, I answered your question,” Adams said dismissively.
“Try to talk us right off the air, we appreciate you,” Menefee said as he got in the final dig.
Who would have ever thought we would see fireworks like that between Curt Menefee and Eric Adams? There’s clearly no love lost from the pair after their February sparring session and that continued into what seemed to be a rather simple thing to address directly. However, it quickly went off the rails when Menefee felt as if he wasn’t getting clear answers from Adams. As for Tisch’s actual status with Mamdani, well, perhaps unsurprisingly we’re still waiting for answers.
Aaron Glenn should thank his lucky stars that the Fox NFL host is busy during the week trying to keep the mayor accountable as a member of the vaunted New York media. Zohran Mamdani better do some serious gameplanning for when he takes office next year.