Longtime Dan Le Batard Show cast member Mike Ryan has another target in his sights.
A week after dressing down WFAN’s Boomer Esiason over the Hall of Famer’s “shut up and dribble” style take toward American Olympian Hunter Hess, Ryan is at it again.
This time, Ryan is calling out Josh Pate, the college football commentator who recently taped an interview with President Donald Trump. The decision was so polarizing that it forced Pate to issue an explanation before even releasing the episode, which is scheduled to go out Sunday.
And it was enough for Ryan to challenge Pate directly, accusing Pate of helping to “normalize” the scandal-ridden chief executive and saying the interview undermines Pate’s stated mission to use his show as an “escape” within a sport that is deeply intertwined with American society and politics.
“Here’s where it’s impossible to have an apolitical, nonpartisan discussion with this sitting president. Because he always takes it there,” Ryan explained Friday on The Dan Le Batard Show.
“This president is very slippery when it comes to these interviews. He is going to shoehorn partisanship and lies, and he is going to cut you off when you try to hold him accountable at every end. Now, I don’t think Josh Pate wants to have a political discussion. I believe (him) when he aspires to be this apolitical show and wants to keep the discussion there. The interview subject never stays on one subject, and always tries to get his shot up.”
Ryan referenced Pat McAfee’s controversial interview with Trump last Veteran’s Day, in which the president insistently contrasted the state of the country a few months into his administration with the situation under Joe Biden.
Indeed, C-SPAN aired Trump’s arrival for the Pate interview. Sure enough, Trump immediately noted that Biden would not have done the sitdown because he did not know what NIL was.
Rather than bash Pate specifically (and before the full conversation has been released), Ryan said the situation exemplified why sports hosts writ large are not equipped to interview Trump.
“This is a real issue for sports in general,” Ryan said.
“When you have shows like this, you are further normalizing something that is not normal … when you give Donald Trump a platform, he is going to seize the opportunity to espouse lies, election denial, and do whatever he can. And most of these shows are not equipped to hold him accountable. He would trample you. He does this with some of the best interviewers in the nation that are political reporters.”
After his disagreement with Esiason last week, Ryan admitted he lost his cool because he had reached a “breaking point” with what he perceived as hypocrisy from commentators like Esiason who insist athletes like Hess avoid political speech simply because they do not agree with their opinions.
Ryan risks a similar rush to judgment here in calling out Pate. However, taking Trump’s spot on The Pat McAfee Show as well as another awkward appearance in the NFL on Fox broadcast booth around the same time (as well as his entire history as a political figure), it is hard to imagine that Trump does not make the interview political or partisan in some way.
Regardless of the contents of the interview when it eventually drops, Ryan believes Pate has already betrayed his audience:
“I cannot escape this person (Trump) in this sport. There are political opinions flying left and right. And for a guy who is famous for making sure you don’t have to worry about that with your college football, this is a huge bummer. And I don’t like that we continue to normalize what we’re seeing out there.”
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.