--- title: Mike Francesa Slams Mets's Daniel Murphy for Paternity Leave, Men Object description: The radio personality calls paternity leave a 'scam and a half,' and his male fans call him out canonical: https://time.com/48225/mike-francesca-daniel-murphy-mets-paternity-leave/ author: Charlotte Alter article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-04-03T16:14:42.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:55:05.869Z og:title: Dudes Slam Mike Francesa For Blasting Daniel Murphy's Paternity Leave og:description: The radio personality calls paternity leave a 'scam and a half,' and his male fans call him out og:url: https://time.com/48225/mike-francesca-daniel-murphy-mets-paternity-leave/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1c35dddd9e927329/698688ba1eebf7e9553702fb/106777920.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2270 og:image:height: 1277 og:image:alt: 8th Annual Joe Torre Safe At Home Foundation Gala og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Dudes Slam Mike Francesa For Blasting Daniel Murphy's Paternity Leave twitter:description: The radio personality calls paternity leave a 'scam and a half,' and his male fans call him out twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1c35dddd9e927329/698688ba1eebf7e9553702fb/106777920.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Amazing Response to Sports Radio Host Mike Francesa's Anti-Paternity Leave Rant > Sponsored content. 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Worth Your Time is TIME's culture recommendation newsletter, edited by culture editor Eliza Berman. Twice a week it surfaces the books, shows, films and ideas TIME's editors think are worth your attention, and explains why. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Does TIME have a culture newsletter? Yes. Worth Your Time is TIME's culture newsletter, published Tuesdays and Saturdays. #### Who writes TIME's culture recommendations? Culture editor Eliza Berman writes Worth Your Time, drawing on TIME's critics and culture desk. #### Is Worth Your Time free? Yes. It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters.  by [Charlotte Alter](https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/)  ## Charlotte Alter Senior Correspondent Apr 3, 2014 4:14 PM UTC  NEW YORK - NOVEMBER 11: Mike Francesa attends the 8th annual Joe Torre Safe at Home Foundation gala at Pier Sixty at Chelsea Piers on November 11, 2010 in New York City. (Photo by Jim Spellman/WireImage) NEW YORK - NOVEMBER 11: Mike Francesa attends the 8th annual Joe Torre Safe at Home Foundation gala at Pier Sixty at Chelsea Piers on November 11, 2010 in New York City. (Photo by Jim Spellman/WireImage) Jim Spellman—WireImage  by [Charlotte Alter](https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/)  ## Charlotte Alter Senior Correspondent Apr 3, 2014 4:14 PM UTC Sports talk radio host Mike Francesa blasted Mets second baseman Daniel Murphy for taking three days off when his wife gave birth this week, calling the paternity leave a “scam and a half.” “I mean, what would you possibly be doing?” Francesa said on his Wednesday afternoon [broadcast at WFAN](http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/mets/mets-murphy-wfan-francesa-rips-paternity-leave-calls-scam-gimmick-article-1.1743733), “I guarantee you’re not sitting there holding your wife’s hand.” Murphy took three days off as part of the collectively bargained paternity leave, and missed two games. He’s expected to be back in the Met’s starting lineup on Thursday. But that’s not soon enough for Francesa. “One day, I understand,” he said. “Go see the baby be born, and come back. You’re a major league baseball player, you can hire a nurse.” “Your wife doesn’t need your help, those first couple days, you know that,” he said. “What are you gonna do? Sit there and look at your wife in the hospital bed for three days? The host also blasted his co-workers for taking 10 days paternity leave. “For what? To take pictures? But then, something incredible happened. Francesa’s _male_ listeners called in with objections, saying the old-timer had outdated ideas of a dad’s responsibility. “Society has come to a point where we recognize this is one of the most important milestones and it’s important to be with your family,” said one caller, who then got slammed by Francesa. Another caller also attacked Francesa for being out of touch. “For you to say ‘oh it’s okay, let’s throw some money at a nurse and have them take care of the kid,’ and not let Daniel Murphy take two days in the beginning of the season is crazy,” he said. “He’s learning prenatal care, he’s learning how to take care of the baby,” the caller argued. “He plays a 162 game season, he wants to spend time with his family.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/48225/mike-francesca-daniel-murphy-mets-paternity-leave/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/48225/mike-francesca-daniel-murphy-mets-paternity-leave/"},"headline":"The Amazing Response to Sports Radio Host Mike Francesa's Anti-Paternity Leave Rant","datePublished":"2014-04-03T16:14:42.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:55:05.869Z","description":"The radio personality calls paternity leave a 'scam and a half,' and his male fans call him out","url":"https://time.com/48225/mike-francesca-daniel-murphy-mets-paternity-leave/","keywords":["Living","feminism","Family","Baseball","paternity leave"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1c35dddd9e927329/698688ba1eebf7e9553702fb/106777920.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Charlotte Alter","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1c35dddd9e927329/698688ba1eebf7e9553702fb/106777920.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"8th Annual Joe Torre Safe At Home Foundation Gala","caption":"8th Annual Joe Torre Safe At Home Foundation Gala","creditText":"Jim Spellman—WireImage","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-living/","name":"Living"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/48225/mike-francesca-daniel-murphy-mets-paternity-leave/","name":"The Amazing Response to Sports Radio Host Mike Francesa's Anti-Paternity Leave Rant"}}]}] ```