The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Oral History of the Dan Le Batard Show: Episode 11
Fri, 07 Feb 2025
In this episode of the Oral History of the Dan Le Batard Show With Stugotz, Dan, Mike and Stu take us through the era following John Skipper's departure from ESPN leading up to just before the COVID-19 pandemic. In this time, a power shift is going on at ESPN as Jimmy Pitaro assumes the role of president after Skipper's departure. The crew shares how the shift in power affected the show's ability to discuss some of the hot-button political issues taking place during the second-half of the first Donald Trump administration. In this episode, you will hear Dan's comments in which he calls ESPN's policy about discussing political issues "cowardly" while Mike Ryan was at a show even in Fort Wayne, and the fallout that ensued. You will also hear from former ESPN radio executive, Traug Keller, about what went into the decisions ESPN made to be stricter about the content discussed on the show, as well as the infamous dinner he had with Dan and Dan's agent. Then, stick around for this week's supercut which includes legendary moments such as Billy Gil's home run call, corporate Michael, and the single most important thing the Falcons have to do to beat the Patriots. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: What happened after John Skipper's departure from ESPN?
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Stugatz. What's the single most important thing the Falcons have to do to beat the Patriots? 20 mediocre years.
Thanks for having me. Have a great day.
This is the oral history of the Tan Levitard Show with Stugatz.
I'm proud of this project, we're proud of this project, narcissistic though it is, and I do believe that the second half of this has the potential to have more information and be more interesting and more honest than even the first half because there's a lot of stuff in here that I have not talked about and that I will need help
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Chapter 2: How did the power shift at ESPN influence the Dan Le Batard Show?
If you protect the show, it will protect you.
And just to further clear up the timeline, we're in the second half now of the first Trump administration. And by then, most people are tired. And it's not just the people that are going through the things that are triggered by what they see on the news. It's also people on the opposite side of the political spectrum that are tired of you complaining about it.
And this is the height of the ESPN is woke machine. And there's a whole economy now of people getting clicks and covering the media through a conservative lens. And you're getting aggregated a bunch and you're one of the lead dogs when it comes to getting engagement on those things. So the world is a changing. And once John Skipper leaves,
I'm more in tune because I'm getting more of the complaints. And I certainly know of more things to keep away from Dan and more things to be more careful with, but also more thoughtful with. Again, I said this in a previous episode, part of me does miss some of the guardrails that ESPN put in place when it came to political discussion.
because it did force us to be more thoughtful and generally less abrasive with the words that we use now that we're more independent and we have partners that don't manage us quite like that. If we're emotional about something, we convey that emotion and it's probably working against our best interests. I know that for a fact in terms of perception, in terms of growth.
So I do kind of see where ESPN was going with it, but this was a top line call from Disney. We are not going to be perceived as woke anymore.
I will cover as much of this as I can. I know Mike Ryan has said previously that we or I have to be careful here. And I don't feel like I have to be careful here because my emotions here have subsided on wherever it is I was
hurt and I can see clearly now without that emotion the benefits and why it is ESPN is entitled to run its business however it is that ESPN wants to run its business and so I don't have disparaging things to say about how all of this ended I will say that I was hurt because I wanted a big company to stand for something when I knew the reasons that I was hired there and the company changed and the country changed but I didn't change
the reasons I was hired there at the beginning was to do that job and so whatever was getting me in trouble was me just thinking hey I'm doing the job that you hired me to do when you went and got the Latin columnist from Miami to speak on things that are also social commentary we probably don't have enough time to get into it
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Chapter 3: What were the implications of the 'send her back' controversy?
Yes. and to kind of put a personal spin on this, we discussed when we first went to meet John Skipper, me, you, and Dan. And John Skipper was not very receptive to me as Dan's co-host. He wanted Bomani Jones. And then I get a meeting with Jimmy Pataro, and I get a completely different, different boss than John Skipper was to me. Jimmy Pataro loved me.
There were a lot of reasons to like ESPN and be frustrated with the challenges there, but we were the biggest thing in sports talk radio. We were the biggest thing in sports podcasting at the time. The branding helped us. Our arrow was pointing up. We were elevating. We had security. We felt like we were cooking.
But I want Dan and the audience to understand my disappointment where I'm there for the first whatever amount of years and I felt like To me, the only reason I am here is because of Dan Lebitard. John Skipper does not want me here. He wants me out. He wants Bomati Jones in.
You're doing the fantasy football stuff. Your star is ascending. Individually, you have a brand now.
Right. And I start having some success away from Dan and away from this show. John leaves. Jimmy comes in. Jimmy really likes my character, likes the thing that we've developed. And by the way, loved you and loved the show. He really did. Like he told me, him, his kids, they would listen all the time. But I went from having a boss that I didn't...
feel like was terribly confident in me to having a boss who loved me. Or at least made you feel that way. Jimmy was good like that. Jimmy was a salesman, and he is.
He's great. And he's a sports fan.
Oh, Dan, he would throw me a football when I saw him in the hallway. I mean.
In terms of chumminess and perfect partnerships.
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Chapter 4: How did the COVID-19 pandemic affect the show?
I think the biggest thing that they have to do to beat the Patriots is they need to play clean, mistake-free football. It takes a full two weeks of preparation to get ready for that game. Number one, you have to be prepared for the unexpected. You have to know the rules of the game. But the biggest thing for me looking at this game is it comes down to coaching. And I talk about halftime.
Halftime usually come in, it's about 15 minutes during a regular season game or a playoff game. But the Super Bowl, it feels like you're in there for like an hour. I'll never forget in Super Bowl 42, I'm like, okay, we still have time. I'm going to go to the bathroom. I'll come back out. I'm sitting in the bathroom and I'm going, I'm taking a pee and I'm starting singing Free Fallen.
I'm like, wait a second. I could hear Tom Petty in the stadium while I was in the bathroom going, I'm like, okay, this is definitely the Super Bowl.
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Chapter 5: What is Dan's perspective on ESPN's handling of political discussions?
Chapter 6: How did the relationship with local radio evolve?
Chapter 7: What led to the internal tensions at ESPN?
Fight! Fight for something! Fight! Fight! And the answer's like, no, please. Like, okay, we're done here.
And please stop yelling at me. What are you doing? I just wanted to talk sports. And at that point, Trog had an illustrious career. He was defending you. I was in meetings in which he was defending you and our show. And Trog doesn't end up attending this event. and very quickly after retires. And that opens the door for the new power with Dave Roberts.
Wildly supportive of us. I do not have a single bad thing to say about Trog Keller. I mean, how could you? Trog was great.
I do look back fondly in some ways on the Levitard show. I loved it. I loved the content. I thought it was good stuff. It was fun. I thought it created community with its audience. And that's always the most important thing, a radio show. an audio show can do is create community and keep that community coming back.
And being able to, by the way, sell products to that community because that's how you monetize it. But you only do that through trust and staying true to yourself. I think it just got difficult when it started to veer into things. As the country changed, as things got more dicey politically, it got too difficult. And I was glad that in some small way, I was part of that show's success.
And I'm glad that it worked out for everybody.
But Dave was trying to get a hold of Dan and Dan wouldn't respond to Dave. And Dave was calling me in my car and yelling at me for Dan not calling Dave back. And my kid's in the car and I'm sitting there going like, what do you want me to do? I answered the phone and I knew like our days were kind of numbered.
Miami has the Super Bowl that year. First take is broadcasting from our studios. We feel like strangers in our own home.
Yes.
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Chapter 8: What was the significance of the new management team at ESPN?
The flip of, I thought it was important, had you known. I thought that discussion.
Yeah, thank you.
Thank you.
I wanted to defend our guy, too, because I've known Dan. There's been like four dozen times where I'm like, Dan, this jeopardizes everything. And I know you want to do it. And he did it. No, no, no. And he doesn't do it. Or he alters it. He listens to me.
I'm like, Dan, if you go down this road, when he has a full grasp ahead of time of how it might impact everybody, Dan almost entirely acts in the best interest of the group. There was so much change so fast during this time that Dan genuinely was confused by it. And you were avoiding so many phone calls, which if you would have answered one of them, you would have had an idea.
Just one Dave Roberts call. One phone call, you would have had an idea. He's yelling at me.
My daughter's in the car. I'm at a lacrosse tournament.
I know what your answer is. What do you want me to do? I know what your answer is to this question, but I want to ask Mike this question. I'm going LeBron. Really? Really. Mike Ryan made some of the decisions with an unborn daughter on gambles that we've taken as a show in the name of believing in ourselves and believing in the content.
So if I tell you now, Mike Ryan, not with everything else that has happened, but that the hill we're going to die on, Mike, you're not going to believe this, but this is how it ends at ESPN. It ends because Dan and we knew that if we went down to the pool with Chris Cody in the battery and sat in first takes shot, that we would immediately get fired and did it anyway.
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