Dan Patrick

Keith Olbermann’s guest-hosting stint on Pardon The Interruption this week (Thursday and Friday) has sparked some commentary from Olbermann’s former “Big ShowSportsCenter co-anchor Dan Patrick. Patrick brought this up on his Audience/NBCSN/Fox Sports Radio show Wednesday, and executive producer Paul Pabst asked if he’d consider sitting in with Olbermann if Olbermann becomes a more regular PTI presence. Patrick shoots that idea down, but says he’d be open to appearances on other ESPN shows like Around The Horn:

“No. No. …I love the show, but I don’t want to mess up the show that I love. I don’t want to do it. I don’t want to do it. It would be nice, I’m just not going to do a one-and-done.” “Oh, so you’d do a week?” “Full time! Kick Tony to the curb!” “Patrick back!” “Yeah! Get Wilbon out of there, and we’re gone!”

There’s then a digression with show blogger Andrew “McLovin” Perloff about people confusing Dan with recently-exiting ESPN announcer Mike Patrick, and then Dan gets into talking about Around The Horn. 

“It’s good if Keith wants to do that. And if they want to bring him back, I’m sure he’ll be great there on Pardon The Interruption. I want to do Around The Horn. But don’t you have to be a writer to be on there? Don’t you have to be a journalist to be on there?” Executive producer Todd “Fritzy” Fritz then chimes in with “And you have to be willing to tank!” (in response to Tim Cowlishaw’s recent admission to Patrick about tanking on ATH), and Patrick responds with “Well, that’s only one person. That’s Tim Cowlishaw. And I would not be willing to tank.”

Perloff then adds “See, you get so competitive, I don’t know how you’d do on Around The Horn. You might get into it.” Patrick responds “Oh, I would definitely get angry at Mina Kimes. I mean, I’d be really upset. And I’d go in and erase Woody Paige’s blackboard there, his chalkboard. I mean, it would be on. It would be on like Donkey Kong. Yes!”

Patrick then talks about the recent Sporting News report from Michael McCarthy that he had spoken with ESPN and “ESPN could re-team Patrick with his former “Big Show” partner Keith Olbermann on the 6 p.m. ET SportsCenter.” Patrick previously said that meeting (with former ESPN president John Skipper) was about partnership opportunities for his other projects, including Sports Jeopardy and his Full Sail University School of Sportscasting, and here, he thoroughly went off on that report before going back to talking about Around The Horn:

“When the rumor came out that I was going to do the 6 o’clock with Keith, I went ‘Are you crazy?’ I never brought it up, but all of a sudden, there was an article that came out that I’m trying to get back in to do the 6 o’clock. No, no, I don’t want to do the 6 o’clock. I could never leave you guys. I couldn’t do that, I wouldn’t do that. Cause I’d get done with this show, then I’d have to go up there, and I don’t want to do that. But Around The Horn, I could be available, I’m just saying, I could be. Cowlishaw, I’m coming after you. Hey Reali, come on, let’s go.”

“And I know Reali’s watching right now, you know, they have their conference call coming up where they talk to all the writers, give them a head start on the topics. Tony, I’m looking at you right now. Yeah. I’m ready. You want a piece of me? Cause I want a piece of you. And don’t hit the mute button right now, dude, cause it doesn’t work in this studio. Not in my dojo.”

Reali then responded, in a video from the “Before The Horn” conference call released through Around The Horn’s Twitter account:

Reali mused on a Big Show reunion, and then said he’d love to put together a week of ATH featuring ESPN legends like Patrick, Olbermann, Chris Berman, Charley Steiner, and  Kenny Mayne.

“If I was putting together a greater show, in any time slot, and I was running this network, I’d get Keith and Dan back together again. I’d call it SportsCenter and I’d say “Embrace The Center,” that would be my tagline, so that’s where I’m coming from. And secondly, I’d do a week of Around The Horn, not to put you guys out of work for a week, and this is tough, because a lot of these guys are hosts and they should be sitting in this chair, but Dan, and Keith, and Boomer (Berman), and Steiner, and I’d just have them go west to east and just chop it up. Kenny Mayne…actually, I’d have five, and I’d just rotate the host throughout the week. Because they’re all going to be best as hosts, but it would be more fun for them to compete as panelists.”

“So I’d go Around The Horn with those guys and do it for a week. And do we have an anniversary coming up? An ESPN anniversary? I’ll talk to the guys about this: ESPN 40 for 40, and we’ll do an entire week of Around The Horn with all of our favorites, and like I said, Dan would get to host one day and get to mute Olbermann, which would be the greatest thing ever. And Boomer, and whoever else we want to put on there, and then it rotates around and Olbermann is muting. Tell me that’s not a great idea?”

You know, that idea does seem to have quite a bit of potential. And ESPN launched on September 7, 1979, so the 40th anniversary is just over a year and a half away. Time to get lining this up…

The Dan Patrick Show airs on Audience, NBCSN and radio affiliates.

About Andrew Bucholtz

Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.