Deion Sanders remains the biggest story in sports even after a loss to Oregon over the weekend. And while every sports media personality has dipped into the Coach Prime content well, Dan Le Batard is particularly attracted to the story given its crossover in sports, celebrity, race and history.
Last week, producers on The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz created a “Days Without Talking Deion” counter on a whiteboard in the studio. And Le Batard has failed to get that number above zero.
“Let’s see how many days I can go without talking Deion,” Le Batard said last Tuesday morning.
“Try an hour,” responded his cohost, Jon “Stugotz” Weiner.
Since then, Le Batard has not made it a single day without mentioning Sanders.
The idea originated from an old show bit with a similar counter around Le Batard discussing race.
Again, Le Batard is not unique here. First Take, Undisputed, even The Pat McAfee Show and Pardon the Interruption are all talking Sanders every day. That could fade if Colorado hits a rough patch in its schedule, but for now he’s big news.
Only Le Batard’s approach to his show means the topic runs deeper than that. A Sanders discussion means examining what it means for him to be Black in his field, the dissolution of the Pac-12, the NIL era in college sports, and a trip down memory lane to the 1990s Cowboys and more. Plus the gossip of how others are discussing Sanders.
Le Batard Show fans love (and sometimes hate) the meandering path through meaty sports conversations. That doesn’t make it any less funny when Le Batard predictably returns to the same well over and over in spite of himself.
Let’s see how long that board stays up, and if the number can tick above zero in the coming days or weeks.
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.