Ever since Dan Patrick left ESPN in 2007, there’s always been wonderment whether a situation would ever arise that would lead the former SportsCenter anchor to return to Bristol airwaves. Recent years have seen many former ESPNers welcomed back home with open arms like Michelle Beadle, Keith Olbermann, and Jason Whitlock. But when it comes to former Bristolites coming back home, DP is in many ways the holy grail of ESPN returns.
Not only was Patrick one of the faces of the network for some time, his exit from ESPN (and success in his post-Bristol life) has always made a return the most unlikeliest of all. When a potential SportsCenter reunion show was touted last week once again, Patrick said he would only appear for $100,000 and the ability to fire a person in management on the air.
All that will change on Monday night. With the new Scott Van Pelt centered SportsCenter debuting after the Ohio State-Virginia Tech game, the anchor announced his first guest on the program on Twitter. It will be none other than Patrick himself.
If Keith Olbermann’s return to ESPN was a “hell freezing over” type moment, Dan Patrick appearing on SportsCenter once again might just be hell freezing over and Santa Claus moving in to take over the reins from Satan himself.
The relationship between Patrick and ESPN has improved in recent years. After a lengthy period of time when no guests from ESPN could appear on The Dan Patrick Show, we’ve seen several Bristolites like Chris Berman, Bill Simmons (at least when he worked there), and Van Pelt make appearances. Given Van Pelt and Patrick’s relationship, this would be the time and place to welcome DP back onto ESPN airwaves.
Of all the front-facing personalities who have left ESPN over the last 20 years, you can easily make the case that Patrick has had the most success. In addition to his daily national radio show, he’s a mainstay on Sunday Night Football and NBC’s Olympic coverage. Patrick doesn’t really *need* to come back to ESPN and relive his glory days because he’s still in the midst of them. Nevertheless, it will be a cool piece of nostalgia to see him on SportsCenter once again. Too bad we missed out on that Olbermann reunion though.
Credit to Awful Announcing who originally published this article
Jason Barrett is the President and Founder of Barrett Media since the company was created in September 2015. Prior to its arrival, JB served as a sports radio programmer, launching brands such as 95.7 The Game in San Francisco, and 101 ESPN in St. Louis. He also spent time programming SportsTalk 950 in Philadelphia, 590 The Fan KFNS in St. Louis, and ESPN 1340/1390 in Poughkeepsie, NY. Jason also worked on-air and behind the scenes in local radio at 101.5 WPDH, WTBQ 1110AM, and WPYX 106.5. He also spent two years on the national stage, producing radio shows for ESPN Radio in Bristol, CT. Among them included the Dan Patrick Show, and GameNight.
You can find JB on Twitter @SportsRadioPD. He’s also reachable by email at Jason@BarrettMedia.com.
