Oh, Mike. The easiest way to address your apparent dozing off was to have fun with it! "I may or may not have dozed off for a few minutes," you could have said. The end!
Instead, Francesa came armed into the studio today with a big story about how a.) he didn't fall asleep and b.) he was very, very tired (audio is above). He was sleep-deprived from a long day of working and dealing with a sick child, you see. He simply was resting his eyes. Francesa had all the self-seriousness of David Letterman announcing that he was being blackmailed and had an affair, but Mike: This is not that.
The announcement seems to have backfired if today's callers are any indication:
UPDATE, 5:59 p.m.: Ho boy. Mike's former partner in crime, Chris Russo, weighs in and says, yup. He was sleeping. Per The Daily News's Bob Raissman:
"Yeah, Mike fell asleep....Mike came on at 1 o'clock and essentially said, ‘I closed my eyes but I didn't fall asleep.' Now, listen, I think Mike can say what he wants—and, listen I shouldn't even say this—but Mike fell asleep," Russo told Mario From Minnesota, a caller to his Sirius/XM "Mad Dog Radio" show.
"We've gotta be fair. I mean, Mike nodded off. He probably would've been better off just saying, ‘I nodded off, my error.' It can happen. Listen, he's been doing that show forever so it can happen," Russo said. "I don't think Sweeny took offense to it but Mike did nod off, no question about it."
Sigh. Anyway, let's just keeping staring at this: