Welcome to Thursday’s Morning Mashup. For the latest news, start at our WEEI.com home page or click here for the top stories from our news wire.
THURSDAY’S BROADCAST HIGHLIGHTS:NBA: Golden State at Houston, 8 p.m. (TNT)NBA: Oklahoma City at LA Clippers, 10:30 p.m. (TNT)NHL: Florida at Boston, 7 p.m. (NESN)
AROUND THE WEB:
-- Nate Solder, the Patriots nominee for the NFL’s Walter Payton Man of the Year Award, visited the Jimmy Fund Clinic on Wednesday to surprise someone very special to his family with Super Bowl tickets.
Solder and his wife, Lexi, have spent time at the Jimmy Fund in the past couple of years with their 2-year-old son Hudson, who is being treated for kidney cancer. And if you have spent time at the Jimmy Fund, you know Lisa Scherber.
Dubbed the “Play Lady,” Scherber, the Director Patient & Family Programs, has dedicated over two decades to bringing joy to patients and their families in the Clinic. She also pours her heart and soul into organizing events and trips for the patients and their families, including the annual Christmas Party, the Summer Festival and the teen trip to Red Sox Spring Training, for patients to have fun and feel special.
“Lisa was the first person to come to mind because she’s always here. She’s always pouring out her heart,” Solder said of Scherber before presenting her with the tickets. “And she organizes these incredible events … And the amount of balls she has to juggle and the things that she does and the people that she impacts is amazing.”
When a caller said Kay should have paid homage to Francesa because Kay wouldn’t have a show if Francesa hadn’t made sports talk radio so popular, Kay, who fought with Francesa for years over ratings, made it clear he completely disagrees.
“First of all, we don’t have to pay homage to competition that never really was nice to us,” Kay said. “No. 2, sports radio was not invented by Mike and Chris [Russo>. Bill Mazer, John Sterling, Art Rust Jr., there would be sports talk, my friend.”
Kay did say Francesa had an “iconic career” but also said his show never got any respect from the former afternoon drive host.
“Mike was never kind to us, never gracious about his success,” Kay said. “For us to sit here and, like, bow down because he decides to leave his job at FAN, I mean, I’ve had arguments with people on Twitter about this. Sorry, that’s not happening. Mike never showed any respect … respect goes both ways. If it doesn’t come one way it’s not going to go back the other.”