Craig Carton sits out of WFAN's weekly 'football Friday' picks segment
Craig Carton on air on the first "Carton & Roberts" afternoon drive show on WFAN in the station's Manhattan studios on Nov. 9, 2020. Credit: Entercom/WFAN 101.9 FM/660 AM
Per sports talk radio tradition on "football Fridays," WFAN’s new afternoon show offered NFL predictions late in its first Friday show. But understandably, one of its co-hosts sat out the exercise.
At about 6:51 p.m., Craig Carton passed the picks baton to his partner, Evan Roberts, in keeping with his vow not to read gambling ads or discuss gambling on the air.
Carton has said he has a gambling addiction, and that it played a big part in the legal troubles that led him to spend a year in prison, ending in June. He did not specifically mention his self-ban on making sports picks on Friday. He simply threw the show to Roberts for those two or three minutes.
Roberts made three picks – Buccaneers minus-5 ½ against the Panthers, Texans plus-3 ½ against the Browns and the under at 47 ½ for Browns-Texans.
Roberts was joined by producer Tommy Lugauer (Packers minus-13 ½ against the Jaguars) and engineer Chris McMonigle (Giants plus-3 ½ against the Eagles).
Before announcing this week’s picks, Roberts said his former partner, Joe Benigno, went out with a 3-0 week. He retired last Friday.
Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.
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