The Bridge Ep. 51: Mike Tanier, NFL national lead writer for Bleacher Report, joins the show to recap the NFL Divisional Round, preview the Championship Round and chat NFL MVP

Mike Tanier

We’re closer and closer to Super Bowl 51, but also farther and farther away. That two week hiatus between the championship games and the Super Bowl is tough to take, but we’ll try to fill in the void here on The Bridge.

Before we get into Episode 51, as a reminder, The Bridge is now broadcast as a one hour radio show every Wednesday night at 7 ET on Sports Radio America. Once the dust settles from that live broadcast, the show is released as a podcast on iTunes and this website on Fridays. You can listen to the live show every Wednesday on Sports Radio America here or through the TuneIn app.

  • Sports News Read Like Real News told the tale of Antonio Brown taking a Facebook Live video in the Pittsburgh Steelers locker room during head coach Mike Tomlin’s victory speech (2:22).
  • “Wait, Who?!” introduced us to the field goal kicker of the Pittsburgh Steelers who scored all of his team’s points in the 18-16 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs in the Divisional Round game (8:06).
  • The Bridge Question of the Week is: Who is your favorite to win the Super Bowl and why? Call or text in your answer to 929-BRIDGE7, that’s 929-274-3437, and you’ll make it on the next show.
  • This week’s guest was Mike Tanier, an NFL National Lead Writer for Bleacher Report. Mike traded in his life as a math teacher for the life of a football writer and does a damn good job at it. We’ll get into some of what he does as a writer, recap the Divisional Round of playoff games, preview the AFC and NFC Championship Round and round out discussion with MVP and Super Bowl 51 discussion. Oh, and we’ll make Tim Tebow jokes.
  • You can follow him on Twitter @MikeTanier. The interview starts at the 13:50 mark.

– In the interview, we discuss:

How he went from teacher math to becoming a football writer (14:17), if we should label him as a “stats guy” because of his teaching background (15:20), if he’s hanging out in Philadelphia during the NFL season as an Eagles fan (16:00), the player he’s most enjoyed poking fun of (16:54) and the Tim Tebow pretzel joke (17:54), what the writing process is like for the “Monday Morning Digest (18:49), if there’s anything the Dallas Cowboys could have done differently to beat the Packers (20:40), if the Cowboys’ season can be considered a success (22:04), if there’s any early inclinations about what will happen with Tony Romo (23:30), if the Seahawks can get back to what they once were (25:14), if the Patriots should be worried about their “poor play” against the Texans (27:08), if we should be impressed in Pittsburgh’s defense or disappointed in the Chiefs for another playoff loss (28:10), what the hell Antonio Brown was thinking (30:47), what stuck out regarding the Big Ben vs. Brady “rivalry” (31:43), what will be the deciding factor in the Steelers and Patriots game (33:40), if the Packers and Falcons game will be the shootout Vegas expects it to be (36:16), what quarterback has the most to lose by losing (37:40), who wins the NFL MVP award (39:22), who wins Super Bowl 51 (41:45) and what he’s working on in the days leading up to the Championship Round games and the week after (42:32).

  • “Good Try, Good Effort” closes out the show and recognized the Los Angeles Chargers logo troubles, the new Chargers head coach forgetting his new team is now in LA, Jim Irsay trying to woo some big names to his staff and one more time for Antonio Brown (44:37).

Call in or text the show 24/7 at 929-BRIDGE7, that’s (929) 274-3437. Contact the show with your questions, comments, stories or hot takes and you might be featured in the next installment of The Bridge.

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You can listen to the show live on Wednesday nights at 7 ET via Sports Radio America or the TuneIn app.

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Show music: ‘Actionable’ and ‘Epic,’ courtesy of www.bensound.com.

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