Dan Le Batard has been dealing with personal pain for the better part of a year. He revealed to his audience on Tuesday that his brother had been battling cancer and passed away overnight.
“My wife doesn’t think I should be here,” he said. “We will see if I can get through today’s show. I will see if I can get through this segment. I told her I needed the laughter. I badly needed the laughter.”
While Dan is the one at the center of the show, his audience had come to know David Le Batard’s work as well. Creating art under the name “Lebo,” David’s work has decorated the show’s studio and adorned several t-shirts.
“I don’t have a lot of experience with grief, but I have been grieving him for a year because when he was diagnosed more than a year ago, he’s been steadily deteriorating since,” Dan admitted. “And it’s been brutally, brutally hard to watch a poison eat him up from the inside. And one of the biggest spirits I’ve ever seen consumed by illness.”
Even in a heartbreaking moment, the show was still very much itself. When quoting Jason Isbell’s song “If We Were Vampires,” Dan asked a poll be put up that asks “Can the most beautiful love song ever written be about vampires?”. He also said that he was overjoyed that Greg Cote was proud to have his first edition of his signature bit, “Back in My Day” since May.
Le Batard then made an interesting decision. He apologized for his energy being down. He acknowledged that he may have been off his game for about a year.
“I am thankful to be able to do this show with you guys in general. I’m thankful to be able to do this show for the people who listen to it. And I just want you to know, to the degree that this show or me haven’t been my show for more than a year, it’s because I’ve been hiding in the pain of this.”
David Le Batard was 50 years old. Barrett Sports Media extends its deepest sympathies to the Le Batard family.
