Trey Wingo gets ‘honest’ about time at ESPN: ‘Pretty f–king stupid’

Former ESPN host Trey Wingo, who worked at the Worldwide Leader from 1997-2020, said “put a power drill to my head” at the idea of working at the network today.

During an appearance on the “God Bless Football” podcast, Wingo — who hosted “NFL Live” from its early days as “NFL 2Night” in 1998 through 2018 — explained that it was “pretty f–king stupid” at times because he had to fill shows with “fodder” due to a lack of information.

“I didn’t think it was stupid at the time,” Wingo said of working at ESPN. “I’ve come to the realization [that] when I don’t do this five days a week, eight hours at a time, most of what we used to do was pretty f–king stupid. Let’s just be honest about it. Let’s just be honest about it, right? There’s not enough real information to talk about this stuff 24 hours a day, seven days a week. There’s not.”

Wingo recalled his ESPN days while playing a game of “Wing Go or Wing No.”

When he was asked about making the NFL schedule release an event, Wingo said “no,” and used it as an example of him “filling the time” on-air.

“That’s why you come up with stuff like the schedule release or funny little bits like ‘Wing Go or Wing No,’ because there really isn’t enough to talk about,” Wingo said. “That’s the issue. That’s like half the stuff I watch now, and I’m like, ‘Why are you talking about that?’ Oh, ’cause you have to. Cause you have to fill the time.”

“Outside of watching live events and then reacting to it or talking about what’s gonna happen next, it’s all just fodder. It’s all just filler. It is.

“… So I enjoyed it while I did it. If they asked me to do it now, I’d say, ‘Put a power drill into my head.’ … All you’re doing is you’re setting up the times. We know how they’re playing, it’s just a matter of when you play it.”

Wingo explained that things seem much different at ESPN now than when he was there.

“We used to have a saying on ESPN when we were in cahoots with CNNSI and battling for viewers,” he said. “We were like, ‘We don’t take ourselves seriously. We take sports seriously.’

“And now I feel like it’s the exact opposite. We may talk about sports, but, ‘Look at what I have to say.’

“It’s just a very different dynamic now, and if people are enjoying it, God bless you. Go for it. Have fun. I couldn’t do it right now for all the money in the world. I just couldn’t do it.”

After hosting “NFL Live,” Wingo co-hosted “Golic and Wingo” on ESPN Radio.

ESPN canceled “Golic & Wingo” in 2020 as part of a radio programming makeover.