Mike Said it FIRST

MICHAEL KARVELIS was born on October 20th, 1996 in Richmond, VA. Shortly thereafter, his family moved to Guyton, GA which is about 45 minutes from Savannah and 4 hours from Atlanta. Karvelis proclaims that he is “the only person on either side of the family” that enjoys watching sports. Michael never graduated High School although he says “it doesn’t matter if I graduated, I grew up with the class of 2015 and I am smart enough to live.”

Michael started watching the NFL in 2005 and became a Colts fan in 2006. Per Karvelis, “One of my dearest friends Ron recorded me on some old phone and forced me to pick between the Bears and the Colts. I went with the blue team.” The Colts beat the Bears 29-17 in Super Bowl XLI in Miami, FL.

Karvelis became a Miami Heat fan in 2006, but admits “I didn’t watch the Heat vs Mavericks Finals.” Michael says he “started watching hardcore in 2009 and the following season LeBron James joined the Miami Heat along with Chris Bosh.” He adds, “I jumped on Twitter in 2011 and defended that team from haters.”

Michael admits that NASCAR and Jeff Gordon were his first love. “I still have so many small die cast cars.” Karvelis also credits those toys as his ‘aha’ moment where he learned to love sports broadcasting. “I’d race about 25 of them around a carpet for like 2 hours every Sunday. My mom used to yell at me for yelling when I got excited.”

Michael’s play by play commentary love became more apparent when he played Madden NFL 10 for the PlayStation 2. “I loved Gus Johnson. He made the game exciting.” Michael used to watch ESPN’s SportsCenter a lot and created his own “SportsShow” via YouTube.

In 2018, 12oz Sports contacted Michael via Twitter direct messages. Michael co hosted a show with his friend Chris entitled ‘Michael and Chris Experience’ or ‘MCX’ at the time. “Chris met me at a local convenience store I worked at. We would talk about the NFL like I do with all of my sports loving customers.” Michael took up the offer to co-host an NFL centered podcast. “It was a door that opened wide for me. I was so happy that someone noticed me,” says Michael.

In 2019, the MCX was put on hold. Michael eventually left 12oz Sports. “I lost my love for broadcasting. Something still sparked me about sports debates though.” Michael was always opinionated and made his sports thoughts known on Twitter.

In the Fall of 2019, 12oz Sports contacted Michael again. Karvelis accepted and started back with the growing brand. In December 2020, Michael adopted the show title ‘Mike Said It FIRST.’ He says, “I lived in a house where dad was Mike and I was Michael. After being called Mike so much at work and on Twitter, I just ran with it.”