There’s a belief in some league circles that Jim Mora (the son) has an evil twin. (Of course, there’s also an even stronger belief that the elder Mora has an evil twin, too.) If that’s the case, the younger Mora’s evil twin made a cameo appearance on ESPN Radio earlier today with Doug Gottlieb.
We’d heard about the segment from a reader, and we’d been trying to track down the audio.
The folks at The Big Lead have obliged.
Mora, as you’ll hear, didn’t like being asked about Mike Vick’s stunning improvement. Gottlieb asked Mora, “Does it bum you out at all thought that he wasn’t that bought in to be what it took to be a great quarterback when you coached him in Atlanta?” (Yes, those are the specific words Gottlieb uttered.)
I’ve met Jim, and I like Jim. But he probably was too hard on Gottlieb, even though Gottlieb asked for it a little bit by at one point suggesting that Mora “might still be the coach of the Falcons” if Vick listened to coaching and committed himself to preparation earlier in his career. (Mora previously has sung Vick’s praises when it comes to preparation.)
By the time the the topic finally changed to Donovan McNabb’s return to Philly, Mora had enough. Asked a clumsy question by Gottlieb about how Philly fans should feel about McNabb’s return, Mora went off.
“I don’t know, how do you feel?” Mora said. “Is this your first interview? Jesus Christ, what kind of questions are these? How should they feel? I don’t know how people should feel.”
The interview wrapped up not long after that, and when it wrapped up, Mora said to Gottlieb, “You are a real joy, thanks.”
Gottlieb responded by saying, “That has never happened before,” in a manner that strangely reminded us of a certain news anchor who once famously told us, “That is not the right video.”
UPDATE: Our buddies at the Two Live Stews on Sporting News Radio tell us that Mora was scheduled to do a spot on their show today promoting his weekend interview of Mike Vick, and that at 12:45 p.m. ET it was canceled. Dennis Johnson of NFL Network says Mora had another meeting to attend.