Dan Le Batard Kane Outkick Credit: The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Meadowlark MediaOnline OutletsBy Ben Axelrod on

On Tuesday, Dan Le Batard opined about Deadspin’s coverage of a kid wearing face paint at a Kansas City Chiefs game.

For the uninitiated, the controversy began when CBS showed a young Chiefs fan wearing face paint and a headdress during Sunday’s matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and Las Vegas Raiders. Deadspin published a post about the occurrence titled “The NFL needs to speak out against the Kansas City Chiefs fan in Black face, Native headdress,” which included a picture of the fan in which only black face paint was visible.

Outkick later noted that the other half of the kid’s face was painted red, which resulted in the likes of Elon Musk and Ted Cruz ripping Deadspin and calls for the fan to sue the sports blog. During his show on Tuesday, Le Batard marveled at the “stupidity” of all of this, pointing out that while he may not have been wearing Blackface, the fan’s costume could still be considered offensive to Native Americans.

“The right picked this up and said, ‘Sue Deadspin, bankrupt Deadspin.’ And I can’t help but laugh at the center of this, I can’t help but laugh at the idea that they want them sued for one racism, while the kid is still in full racist garb,” Le Batard said. “The only part of him that’s not intentionally, kind of, racist is the black part! The rest is team colors and he’s going for just being a fan, but the racism is already in there, just not the kind the right is picking up and flogging Deadspin with over a five-year-old kid. Like, the stupidity of this is remarkable.”

https://twitter.com/LeBatardShow/status/1729529951823577392

 

Unsurprisingly, Le Batard’s take ruffled some feathers, especially at Outkick, where Bobby Burack authored a post titled “Update: Dan Le Batard defends Deadspin for lying about Chiefs kid wearing Blackface.” The post, which suggested the kid in question’s family could sue Le Batard, would have been ridiculous enough considering the Meadowlark Media co-founder wasn’t defending Deadspin so much as he was mocking the right’s outrage despite his belief that the costume was still racist in nature. But that was before Burack took to social media to produce the a “gotcha” moment: a picture of Le Batard wearing black and red face paint while dressed as the professional wrestler Kane.

“Dan Le Batard defended Deadspin smearing a little kid because he said you should never use the red and black combination on your face, no matter what, because it’s racist,” Burack wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “Also, here is Dan Le Batard last year:”

It goes without saying that the contexts of wearing black and red face paint while dressed like a Native American and wearing black and red face paint while dressed like “The Big Red Machine” are very different, and Burack likely knows that. Still, that didn’t stop Le Batard Show producer Mike Ryan Ruiz from having fun with the false equivalency, announcing on X that Le Batard had been suspended pending the outcome of an investigation.

And unfortunately for Le Batard, that investigation found another smoking gun; in 2019, the former Miami Herald columnist donned black and red face paint as he portrayed the Star Wars villain Darth Maul.

“You won’t believe what our investigation uncovered. Here is self-described ‘woke’ ESPN failure Dan Le Batard once again in red and black facepaint,” Ruiz wrote. “He’s even doing so while culturally appropriating a Zabrak from Dathomir. We’ve reached out for comment.”

On Tuesday’s show, Pablo Torre referred to the right’s performative outrage over such incidents as its “Vegas residency phase.” But if there’s a Vegas residency that provides this much unintentional comedy, it might actually be worth checking out.

[Mike Ryan Ruiz on X]

About Ben Axelrod

Ben Axelrod is a veteran of the sports media landscape, having most recently worked for NBC's Cleveland affiliate, WKYC. Prior to his time in Cleveland, he covered Ohio State football and the Big Ten for outlets including Cox Media Group, Bleacher Report, Scout and Rivals.

View all posts by Ben Axelrod