Kellerman Will "Hopefully Be Back On-Air Soon"

For the first time since unceremoniously leaving his radio show on 1050 ESPN in New York, Max Kellerman commented publicly about the departure. He did so in an interview promoting the upcoming Floyd Mayweather vs. Juan Manuel Marquez fight on HBO PPV this coming Saturday former adversary Bob Raissman, whose mustache Kellerman frequently pondered the Freudian implications of.

After discussing his ascent from his cable access show "Max on Boxing" to his current role as primary analyst for the Mayweather vs. Marquez fight, Kellerman expressed regret for how he departed his radio show, saying:

Would I do certain things different? Absolutely. I don't know anybody who has made the optimal choice at every moment in their life. Some things, given the information I had at the time, well, I made what I thought was a good choice. Now, I would be more diplomatic, not so plain-spoken behind the scenes.

Loyal members of the Max Kellerman army wish it had gone down differently as well. After Kellerman left, his slots were filled by the Brandon Tierney Show and The Herd with Colin Cowherd, neither of whom provided the unique perspective on the Yankees and Giants that Max did since his show debuted in August of 2006.

He also made some opaque comments about his eventual return to the radio:

"I love the radio. I loved what I did," Kellerman said. "Now that some time has passed, yes, I was interested in (joining) Mike Francesa and WFAN. What he's done with his show, and his career, is very impressive and I was absolutely interested in that. And I think there was interest there too," Kellerman said. "There are several (radio) things we are looking at. Hopefully I will be back on the air soon."

Interesting that Kellerman talks about his interest in partnering with Francesa, something we speculated about a while back, in the past tense. Interesting also that the interview was published almost exactly six months after he left the show, when his contract was supposedly up. Given that ESPN no longer controls his rights, a return to the air is likely near.

As I said back in February, I think WFAN should slot Kellerman from 10-1, where his old show was on 1050. A pairing with Francesa would be annoying to loyal listeners of each host and they would get better ratings by spreading two big draws out over two time slots. But what do I know? I'd only been listening to Kellerman since the day his show came on the air and represent the most desirable demographic of radio listeners - males 18-34.

Either way, I'm anxiously awaiting Kellerman's return to the airwaves. Sports talk radio has been unlistenable without him. We'll keep you posted on any developments in this area.