In the wake of Andrew Luck’s retirement news, plenty of people in sports media dropped some predictable takes.
That included this tweet from ESPN college basketball analyst and Indianapolis sports radio host Dan Dakich:
I have family working in steel mills..cops..teachers making far less and this guy is “tired”….. my backside https://t.co/2zx5kutkSL
— Dan Dakich (@dandakich) August 25, 2019
This issue ignited a lot of intranetwork debate, both on the air and on social media, with things getting more heated than normal. Trey Wingo, in a relevant example, suggested Dakich needed to “clean up his own backyard.” Dakich responded thusly:
Hey @GolicAndWingo you read some idiotic fake article and deem me having to “clean my back yard”..I’ll put my yard against @wingoz ..with a young family I left 3.5 million on the table after David Hardesty the WVU President threatened me and my wife..hey @wingoz ever do that?
— Dan Dakich (@dandakich) August 26, 2019
If you’re wondering what happened after that, the answer is probably disappointing for the segment of the crowd that was hoping for more in-house conflict: there were some phone calls with upper management (including Norby Williamson), and Wingo apologized.
That’s from Dakich himself, who spoke to Barrett Sports Media’s Demetri Ravenos as part of a larger piece about how fear of a social media backlash can influence opinions that sports media personalities share.
There was only one comment Dan Dakich was taken aback by. ESPN Radio morning man Trey Wingo referenced Dakich’s abrupt exit as West Virginia University’s men’s basketball coach and said that Dakich should “clean up his own backyard” before commenting on anyone else.
Dakich Tweeted his objections.
He told me that it actually lead to phone calls with Trey Wingo and ESPN’s Executive Senior Vice President of Studio and Event Production, Norby Williamson.
“Trey was great. ESPN was fantastic with it. I made my opinion known to the higher-ups. Trey and I had a long conversation, then Trey apologized on air…He was great. He was really, really good with it. Norby Williamson was great with it. We got it resolved once we were able to get on the phone, Trey and I, and it was very nice of him to apologize.”
So, there’s the end of that story. Obviously more feuds popped up than just this one, but Troy Aikman probably didn’t end up apologizing for this tweet.
That’s total bullshit Doug. What qualifies you to decide how someone should live their life? So you’re now the authority on what motivates Andrew Luck? And if his decisions don’t fit into what you think is best for him then you rip him? Guess that keeps you employed on FS1. Nice https://t.co/p59DsmPoER
— Troy Aikman (@TroyAikman) August 26, 2019
At least let’s hope he didn’t. That tweet was too good.
About Jay Rigdon
Jay is a columnist at Awful Announcing. He is not a strong swimmer. He is probably talking to a dog in a silly voice at this very moment.