When he was on ESPN Radio, I was one of Dan Le Batard’s biggest fans. A former boss explained the reason perfectly: to programmers, the show sounded like chaos; to talent, it sounded like a revolution. Ten years ago that was true.
There was a machine to rage against and Le Batard and crew did it in big ways, criticizing bosses for celebrating Major League Baseball’s trip to Cuba and showing real emotion over the exit of his champion, John Skipper. He did it in small ways, poking LeBron James’s return to Cleveland by paying for a billboard in the city celebrating the success of the Miami Heat. Dan Le Batard was always unapologetically himself and it was fun. The show worked as a great juxtaposition to everything else on ESPN Radio at the time.
Since I have been working for JB, twice he has sent me gifts from the Le Batard AF store. I send multiple entries to the show’s “Looks Like” game every year ahead of the NCAA Tournament. There was a time when I was a superfan of Le Batard and crew.
Maybe it is because I am ten years older than I was when I first discovered the show in 2014. Maybe it is that the show truly isn’t what it used to be. Either way, it just doesn’t work the same anymore.
Stugotz is the engine that made that show run. His “Weekend Observations” and sports guy idiosyncrasies, like calling out players’ nicknames whenever someone mentioned their name, were necessary for Dan Le Batard and his producers to create the kind of comedy the show was built on. How do you satirize sports talk radio without someone that really loves old-school sports talk radio?
Now that they have left ESPN, Stugotz has unlimited paid time off. Of course he is going to use it! If you know anything about the show, it is that the Stugotz character is who Jon Weiner really is.
Without the fool to play off of, the classic comedy formula doesn’t work. What even is a movie or live show that is nothing but the straight man? It’s kinda just a lecture, right?
Dan Le Batard without Stugotz is just a sports media guy that hates the sports media. A lot of people in our industry agree that Stephen A. Smith and Skip Bayliss spawned an era of unserious sports debate shows. A lot of people in our industry would like to tell Outkick to f*** off. With Le Batard, that is the full breadth of content now.
The show is way less fun and way more self-appointed ombudsman high-horsin’ these days. I work in this industry. There are plenty of observations Le Batard has that I agree with, and I find it pretty boring to listen to. Imagine how the guy that doesn’t have journalism ethics at the center of his universe must feel now.
Going after your bosses while you work for ESPN is rebellious. Going after the industry and constantly bemoaning rules and market conditions that no longer apply to you just kind of sounds bitter. Like it or not, Stephen A. Smith is not wrong about Dan Le Batard. What used to sound like revolution now sounds like a cult leader trying to keep his followers inside the village he has convinced them is the only safe place after a nuclear apocalypse that never actually happened.
Also, by the way, I just have to point this out for the record. Le Batard talks about how much he hates what First Take is, but praises Pardon the Interruption for being influential and groundbreaking. I have never understood how I am the only one that sees they are the exact same show.
Now, if Le Batard and his crew really wanted to, they could run the same playbook at Meadowlark Media. Dan could bemoan the influence DraftKings or gambling in general has had on the way we talk about sports. He doesn’t though. I don’t think it is because he has suddenly become sheepish or more respectful of authority.
I think Dan Le Batard is coming to terms with the fact that trying to do his show outside of the walls of ESPN, outside of the confines of sports radio is not easy. It may not even really be possible.
The show worked as a multi-platform product, finding success on TV and as a podcast. The parameters of ESPN Radio were essential though. They defined who the heroes and villains were and how the players approached the game. Without them, The Dan Le Batard Show may be a pirate ship, but too often it sounds like there is no rudder.
Le Batard has talked a lot about valuing freedom over money, and I genuinely believe that is true. It’s one of his more admirable qualities. But now that he has the freedom he craved, he is still trying to do the same kind of show he was doing at ESPN Radio. DraftKings gave him money, and have taken a very hands-off approach to the content.
Raging against the machine from inside the machine seems bold. Raging against a machine that your audience believes you have already defeated, or at least put in your rearview, seems kinda silly.
It’s that episode of The Simpsons where the Van Houtens get divorced. Kirk has Homer over to his new bachelor pad. He insists to Homer that divorced life really does make him happy even though we see that no one else at the apartment complex seems to want to be his friend and that he sleeps in a child-sized bed shaped like a racecar.
Demetri Ravanos is a columnist and features writer for Barrett Media. He is also the creator of The Sports Podcast Festival, and a previous host on the Chewing Clock and Media Noise podcasts. He occasionally fills in on stations across the Carolinas in addition to hosting Panthers and College Football podcasts. His radio resume includes stops at WAVH and WZEW in Mobile, AL, WBPT in Birmingham, AL and WBBB, WPTK and WDNC in Raleigh, NC.
You can find him on Twitter @DemetriRavanos or reach him by email at DemetriTheGreek@gmail.com.
