Dan Patrick would be the first one to tell you that other shows do politics far better than The Dan Patrick Show.
That’s by design, however, as Patrick told his audience when he first started, “If you are gonna come here and expect sports, you’re gonna get sports.”
Patrick recently made an appearance on the Awful Announcing podcast and told host Brandon Contes that he’s not here — presumably on his platform — to wax poetic about something.
“If something comes up, and I feel like it’s pertinent to the show, then great,” Patrick said, “but I’m not going out of my way to make it seem like I’m the person who should be talking about this, or knowledgeable about this. When it comes to sports, I’m pretty knowledgeable, but I told my audience, I would not get political with them. And it’s not a cop-out. I’m doing a show that I want to do. If you want to listen to somebody who talks sports, then go listen to them — and they have politics in there. Good for you. This is my show. I lean on my strengths, and this is what I do well.”
Patrick said if you want to talk politics — and you’re doing a sports show — the more power to you.
“Stephen A. [Smith] can do it all he wants,” Patrick added. “I have no issue with that. It’s his show. I always tell people, ‘If you don’t like it, turn it off.’ This is what I do. This is how I’m gonna do it and I’m not changing.”
Patrick hates the fact that the Lt. Gov. of Texas, shares the same name as him and that people sometimes think that he’s against old people. During the pandemic, some things were said that reflected poorly on the famed sports personality even though he didn’t say it.
“People get mad at me, and I’ll go, ‘That’s not me! I didn’t say it! That’s him.’ But you know, people only read just enough and they’re like, ‘Dan Patrick said this,'” he said. “…There’s no need to get political, the other Dan Patrick is getting political.”
On that same note, Contes asked Patrick if he had ever interviewed a president or former president.
Patrick interviewed Bill Clinton, George Bush, and George W. Bush. While he discussed a variety of topics with the trio, the topic of conversations was generally focused on sports, as he spoke about the Houston Astros and Texas Rangers with the Bushs and Arkansas Razorbacks football with Clinton.
They don’t want to talk politics and I don’t want to talk politics,” he explained. “I want to have you talk sports…To be able to talk to them, it’s really about finding out what kind of sports fan they are; it’s not to get political. Couldn’t care less about playing favorites. And hopefully, it doesn’t appear that way.”
Never interviewed Trump earlier in your career?
Patrick says that he initially met former president Donald Trump back in 1983 when Doug Flutie had signed with the New Jersey Generals of the United States Football League (USFL). Patrick went to Trump Tower then, in addition to when Herschel Walker joined the Generals. They also met face-to-face sometime later.
“I’ve been in Donald’s office before to do an interview with him,” Patrick said. “[I] saw him when he was doing The Apprentice, when I was at Football Night in America, I saw him. He came up, said hello, introduced Mark Burnett, and said that we should do a show together. And then, he left and I’m standing there with Mark Burnett, who I had no relationship with.”
Patrick exchanged pleasantries with Burnett before acknowledging how awkward their interaction with one another was. Burnett — the creator and producer of The Apprentice — told Patrick that it “always is with Donald.”
Patrick has had conversations with Trump, but it’s always been sports-related. And that seems to signify his career, as Patrick avoids politics on his show altogether — unless it’s pertinent to The Dan Patrick Show — because he wants to focus on sports and does not want to play favorites with presidents.
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About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.