Brandon Tierney explains why he axed Paul O'Neill WFAN interview

April 2024 · 2 minute read

Hours after WFAN host Brandon Tierney abruptly cancelled an interview with Paul O’Neill due to his refusal to discuss the Josh Donaldson controversy from the weekend, he fired off a tweet explaining his reasoning.

“My #1 priority is the show. The audience. That will never change. When we accept dictated terms of what we can/cannot ask–and we accept–all credibility is lost. That will never happen. To avoid the biggest topic of the weekend, simply cannot have it,” Tierney tweeted.

“No disrespect at all,” he added to the end of the message.

My #1 priority is the show. The audience. That will never change. When we accept dictated terms of what we can/cannot ask–and we accept–all credibility is lost. That will never happen. To avoid the biggest topic of the weekend, simply cannot have it.

No disrespect at all.

— Brandon Tierney (@BrandonTierney) May 23, 2022

O’Neill was supposed to appear on “Tiki and Tierney” — the mid-morning show featuring Tierney and ex-Giants running back Tiki Barber — on Monday to promote his new book, “Swing and a Hit,” co-written by Jack Curry. But the ex-Yankees star and current YES Network analyst told the radio station that he would not discuss Donaldson, who had been headlining news for the Yankees after he called White Sox star Tim Anderson “Jackie” — referring to Jackie Robinson — during an exchange on Saturday.

Tierney made the decision to pull the plug on the interview live on air, after the duo had spent a majority of the show discussing the situation before O’Neill was supposed to join.

“I said, ‘We can’t do the interview if that is the case.’ I said, ‘Please tell Paul, we will navigate this responsibly. We will not belabor it. But I can’t have Paul O’Neill on the show after we spent an hour and 35 minutes talking about Tim Anderson and Josh Donaldson and not ask him about what transpired,” Tierney said at the time.

“That sucks. No disrespect to Paul. I love him. Truly, my second all-time favorite Yankee. We have a responsibility to the show.”

Donaldson was suspended Monday for one game as a result of the comment, which was dubbed “racist” by White Sox manager Tony La Russa. Donaldson was also placed on the COVID IL around the same time the suspension was handed down.

ncG1vNJzZmimqaW8tMCNnKamZ2Jlf3N7j25ma2xfl7%2BiusOopWasmZq%2Fr7HYZpyxqJyWtq%2B%2FjLCfsmWYmnqixMSdZKmZpaF6sLrEoqOlZaebrq95yKernqqmnrK4ew%3D%3D