Mike Valenti

Submitted by Tocco013 on

What does everyone think of of Mike Valenti after his jokes on-air about Corey Smith? This guy was always an ass but he hit an all-time low. This spartan on the radio should be fired for showing absolutely no class whatsoever.

MichiganStudent

March 4th, 2009 at 7:25 PM ^

I didn't listen this afternoon on the drive home from class. Can you elaborate on what was said?

TheTruth

March 4th, 2009 at 7:30 PM ^

he read some instant feedback from people, it was in poor taste and before he even read it he said he probably shouldn't. i still like valenti though, he may be a prick but he knows what he's talking about unlike most of the guys on the ticket.

CipASonic

March 4th, 2009 at 11:43 PM ^

Valenti is an arrogant, opinionated jackass, who is clearly biased against U of M.
But I disagree that he knows what he is talking about, because his bias against U of M shows, whether he will admit it or not. Just compare him to Scott "The Gator" Anderson, who is also a host on the ticket who graduated from MSU, but is not on a mission to destroy U of M.

Also, Valenti has been very rude to some callers who disagree with him even if they make good points.

I don't know why any one would want to listen to him... but, ironically, since WDFN is gone I listen to him anyway.

TheTruth

March 5th, 2009 at 12:00 AM ^

he does get in to michigan but like rich rod said, get in line. if we are truely good he, and everyone else involved in college football, would give props to us. we're down right now but it's not like we're gonna be down forever, it's michigan.

also i like valenti because he is very realistic and has a lot of good things to say re: pistons, tigers, lions. but i also like most of the personalities.

Jay

March 4th, 2009 at 7:59 PM ^

I don't mind Valenti. He didn't make fun of Corey Smith, either. He read an instant feedback message over the air on Monday that made light of the whole situation. It was poor judgement to do so, but, it was hardly a capital offense. Who gives a fuck that he's a Spartan fan? He's a Michigan St. grad. So what?

Jay

March 4th, 2009 at 8:10 PM ^

I can't remember exactly what it was about, but, it did mention Corey Smith specifically by name. Immediately after hearing it on Monday, I do remember thinking to myself, "Huh. I'll bet the Lions PR department is gonna call up the station and bitch about that."

qbwaggle

March 4th, 2009 at 10:14 PM ^

It certainly was in poor taste. If I repeat it does that make me just as guilty as Valenti? He did seem reluctant to read it and Terry Foster encouraged him a little bit (but I don't think Terry knew what it said prior to Valenti reading it on the air).

I'll leave the punchline up to your imagination, but it was along the lines of "Corey Smith weighed in heavy at 300 lbs, but to be fair it was mostly _____ ______."

Jim Harbaugh S…

March 4th, 2009 at 8:06 PM ^

family guy jumped the shark, Peter Griffin, delvered a wonderful message "C'mon, c'mon," he implored. And by this I mean C'mon - Valenti, does not suck because he is a Sparty, he sucks because he is a jack-ass who believes Barry Sanders was a hall of shame fraud.

Valenti is a terribly opinionated host and if he made jokes in light of Corey Smith's (assumed) fate, he is even more of a toll bag then originally supposed.

Jimmy Ballgame

March 4th, 2009 at 8:21 PM ^

As a fan of the former WDFN, I find it very difficult to listen to any of the on-air personalities at the Ticket. I'll take your word for it that this was a classless act by Valenti (no surprise there), but the tipping point for me was national signing day. I listened to several hours of Michigan bashing and proclamations of MSU's recruiting dominance. It was ridiculous.

Sommy

March 5th, 2009 at 3:43 AM ^

Eh, I don't buy this at all, honestly. I listen to Valenti quite a bit, and yeah, he's still obviously an MSU shill, but he's not unreasonable at all. He picks on people who are UM homers. He picks on homers in general. Before MSU had won any meaningful basketball games, he went out of his way to contest MSU's "elite" status.

I like the guy 'cuz he's funny, and even though I'm a hardcore UM fan, I wouldn't mind having a beer with the guy (though I think he's a teetotaler from what I remember). The crux of the whole signing day thing was just what we knew all along -- okay, we got the number one guy in the state, MSU got basically the next six. Even he admitted our class is clearly better.

I don't want to flirt with the banhammer her, but I actually like the guy. He's an MSU homer, but he's not overbearing, and he puts on an entertaining show (though it was more entertaining before they moved to FM and their boss made the show more of an open forum -- I used to love the "slider challenge"). It's really all just part of his persona.

MGoPacquiao

March 5th, 2009 at 12:57 AM ^

Valenti made a horrible decision, and it reminded me of a comment he made after Sean Taylor was murdered (basically along the lines of Taylor was a bad dude and it wasn't a surprise). I think he tries to be overly shocking sometimes.

I actually don't think he's bad, in small doses. Unfortunately, he's just negative about almost everything. It does crack me up what someone said comparing him to Gator though. Gator is the biggest Sparty homer there is (my favorite was him saying the Wings needed to add Abdelkader to the playoff roster after they lost a few early games last season). And he jumps on the RichRod hate wagon. OTOH Valenti has said that RichRod will get us to a nat'l championship game within 5 years. How many of our crotchety alumni brethren (you know, the ones that need water bottles chucked at their heads) would believe that?

GOBLUE4EVR

March 5th, 2009 at 5:10 AM ^

isn't all that bad. in talking with the people from the station they have told me that 90% of it is just for the show and the other 10% is him being him. i did not hear the corey smith joke on monday. but mike did appoligze when he opened the show yesterday afternoon.

as for you fools that don't like him because he bags on michigan get over it. he is honest and says how he feels. and what doesn't help is when michigan fans call into his show and don't have there facts ready to go and just say something along the lines of "you don't know anything cause you went to state"....he is going to kill you every time if you call in and say that. also he is just as hard on state as he is with michigan. were bashing a guy who picked michigan to win the NC in 2007, openly admitts that mike hart is one of the best college backs in the last 10 years. and just said about a week ago that braylon should have gone number overall the year he came out.

he does know what is talking about. the ticket have the best radio shows hosts in metro detroit. and to the person above who said that gator is trying to destroy michigan as well, your dumb. listen to the show, he never goes out of his way to bad mouth michigan. oh and by the way the only 2 michigan people that are hosts on the ticket didn't even go to michigan, karsh went to state and fithion went to EMU.

sorry for the rant but it drives me nuts when people get all pissy cause some one is making fun of michigan or doesn't like michigan. i used to get that way also, but i was 10.

marlon

March 5th, 2009 at 1:37 PM ^

isn't all that bad. In talking with the people from the station, they have told me that 90% of it is just for the show and the other 10% is him being him. I did not hear the Corey Smith joke on Monday, but Mike did apoligze when he opened the show yesterday afternoon.

As for you fools that don't like him because he bags on Michigan: get over it. He is honest and says how he feels. What doesn't help is when Michigan fans call into his show, don't have their facts ready to go, and just say something along the lines of "You don't know anything because you went to State." He is going to kill you every time if you call in and say that. Also, he is just as hard on State as he is with Michigan. We're bashing a guy who picked Michigan to win the NC in 2007, openly admits that Mike Hart is one of the best college backs in the last 10 years, and just said about a week ago that Braylon should have gone number one overall the year he came out.

He does know what he is talking about. The Ticket has the best radio shows hosts in metro Detroit. To the person above who said that Gator is trying to destroy Michigan as well: you're dumb. Listen to the show. He never goes out of his way to bad mouth Michigan. The only two Michigan people that are hosts on the ticket didn't even go to Michigan. Karsh went to State and Fithian went to EMU.

Sorry for the rant, but it drives me nuts when people get all pissy because some one is making fun of Michigan or doesn't like Michigan. I used to get that way also, but I was 10.

BTW: "Your dumb" is f'ing classic

Mongoose

March 5th, 2009 at 3:09 PM ^

"and just said about a week ago that Braylon should have gone number one overall the year he came out.

He does know what he is talking about."

Sounds like a contradiction to me.

In reply to by marlon

Hard Gay

March 6th, 2009 at 1:12 AM ^

Do you seriously have nothing better to do than correct people's grammar and spelling on the internet? It's not like his post was impossible to understand. Mistakes and typos happen. Get over it.

In reply to by marlon

GOBLUE4EVR

March 6th, 2009 at 4:39 AM ^

FUCK HEAD!!! i don't care if my spelling and grammer was bad. this is a blog not a college class room. trust me when i am at work i proof read all of my stuff before it gets sent out and i also have spell check. next time before i make a post like that i'll wake my wife up so she can go over it since she does have a english degree from Michigan. or maybe brian can put spell and grammer check on here.

btw, is there any reason why you singled out my post??? i'm pretty sure you could spend all day on here going through every single thread and correcting peoples mistakes because i am not the only one.

MGoPacquiao

March 5th, 2009 at 8:51 AM ^

I didn't say Gator is trying to destroy Michigan. I said he's the biggest msu homer, which I think is pretty obvious. He also seemed to agree with the MSM people who thought things like Boren leaving, RR not emphasizing beating osu in his introductory press conference, etc were big deals and detrimental to the program. My point was that Valenti seems to put more thought/objectivity into his arguments.

But YOU'RE right, I'm dumb. Go back to playing dress-up with YOUR dog.

GOBLUE4EVR

March 5th, 2009 at 11:17 AM ^

dumb might have been harsh but it was 5am when i wrote that. all i was trying to say is that i have never once heard gator go out of his way to say is that he hates RR. when he does do it he just giving his opinon on the whole situation. he and doug have the most level headed show on 97.1. neither one of them go out of there way to show which school they are a fan of. gator does do more so than doug but its mostly in a funny way. he does not take to the extent that MV does.

and yes i do dress up my dog with michigan stuff, but i have stopped my wife from buying him a jersey to wear on game days.

GOBLUE4EVR

March 7th, 2009 at 6:31 AM ^

can't do it. every time my wife and i go to pet smart she wants to get them jerseys. one has a michigan coller and i am trying to find a pink michigan coller for my other dog because she's a female. both of my dogs are very destructive and i'm afraid if we were to buy them jerseys they would chewed up within the hour.

Blue Durham

March 7th, 2009 at 12:28 PM ^

We have 3 Shi Tzus (had 4 until a year and a half ago), and they have coats and shirts, and lots of Halloween costumes. Most have actually been gifts from friends and family.

But strangely, the jerseys the two pictured in my avatar were gifts (along with 2 OSU jerseys) from my younger brother, who is an OSU alum. They have also been given, at various times, NC State, UNC, Va. Tech and Duke jerseys.

readyourguard

March 5th, 2009 at 10:47 AM ^

When WDFN was local, I wouldn't turn on the Ticket.....EVER! Valenti was irritating enough but throw in the biggest D-bag on radio, Pat Caputo, and you have the makings of the worst radio lineup in any market in the country.

Then a funny thing happened. I turned it on one day (towards the end of DFN's reign) and I didn't hate Valenti so much.

Now I listen everyday on the way home. 1) there's nothing else except Holier-than-thou Albom and 2) I've become my dad and listen to AM almost exclusively. God I'm getting old.

PS. Caputo remains a gumpy dolt whom I'd like to punch in the throat.

tricks574

March 5th, 2009 at 12:20 PM ^

I like listening because they offer opinions and viewpoints that aren't just the same old shit spouted by everyone else. He tries backing up his opinions with real information, and the wonderful thing is if you disagree with him, you can call in and argue with him.

Caputo sucks though, he's the kind of guy who I would expect to see on Fire Joe Morgan. Just an uninformed, ignorant, shortsighted dope.

bronxblue

March 5th, 2009 at 1:13 PM ^

I only caught a bit of of Valenti's show before I moved out of the state (I mostly listened to DFN before it disappeared), but the guy sounded like most sports jocks on the radio. He's loud, opinionated, usually at least somewhat right (like virtually everyone else in the world when it comes to something they know anything about), and the owner of a massive ego at least on-air. I didn't hear the joke, but it was a dumb joke that shouldn't have been read over the air. But as it stands, is what he said really much worse than anything else most radio personalities say? He didn't use his best judgment, and maybe he should be suspended for some time; at the end of the day, though, losing your job over a dumb comment would seem excessively draconian.

As for The Ticket in general, Caputo was the only guy I honestly could not listen to for more than 10 minutes before I had to change the channel. He seemed to know something about the Tigers, but his knowledge of any other sport was so shallow that it drove me insane. I get it that radio guys want to push their own opinions and may want to start a little controversy to get the show moving along, but there were times when I'm not even sure he put any thought into his comments.

big gay heart

March 5th, 2009 at 1:41 PM ^

I don't get why it matters or doesn't that Valenti is "anti-Michigan." That's fine, he's a homer, he's fan. Whatever.

The fact of the matter is that he was making fun of someone who very well could have been struggling to survive at that exact same moment. Somehow, he must have rationalized this with the idea that "omg the Lions suck."

I don't think apologizing for something like that can or should make it "ok." Any rational, compassionate human isn't going to make that joke.

Sommy

March 5th, 2009 at 3:13 PM ^

Other reasons I like Mike Valenti include:

- Regularly ripping on his co-host, Terry Foster, for "mailing it in" when it comes to his column in the Free Press (c'mon, even Brian would smile about this)

- Talking like he's from Brooklyn when he grew up in upstate New York

- ND/MSU '06 rant is on repeat on my MP3 player

Stephen Y

March 5th, 2009 at 10:49 PM ^

It went something like Corey Smith weighed in at 320 pounds but most of it was waterweight... (sent by instant feedback).

Was it wrong? Yeah. Should he get fired? No way! Sure it was bad, and he shouldn't have said it, but there is no way this constitutes a firing. Valenti and Foster are probably the most popular radio show in Metro Detroit.

And about him hating on M, he definitely will give us props when props are due. I remember before the summer a caller called in to tell him that Morgan Trent is a horrible corner, and Mike countered with something like "Whoa there, MT is one of the best corners in the Big 10, maybe even better than Malcolm Jenkins." My point is yeah, he's a homer, but guess what... So is our very own Brian.

If anyone should be fired from it should be Pat Caputo, and he can take Dennis with him. By far worse than Mike and Terry.

Sommy

March 6th, 2009 at 10:53 PM ^

I'm kinda surprised at all the Caputo hate on here. I don't like the guy either, but it's mostly just because he's incredibly boring and predictable. That, and it seems like he only makes one declarative statement for every ten questions he asks, and it's usually just him answering his own questions with "I don't know."

"What do you think? Should the Lions take Stafford first overall? What about Sanchez. Do Lions fans really want another QB after the Harrington fiasco? If you don't take a QB, what do you take? I mean, they need to build defense, but are there any top defensive players over all this year? Would you take Maualuga first overall? I don't know."