Dan Patrick on leaving ESPN: ‘There was this smear campaign’

Dan Patrick’s decision to leave ESPN is undoubtedly viewed as a success story today, but it didn’t always look to be on that path.

It’s been nearly two decades since Patrick left ESPN. And while many have since followed suit in choosing to leave the Worldwide Leader for other opportunities, Patrick did it at a time when it was considered a career death sentence to willingly leave ESPN.

Patrick joined the latest episode of Barstool Sports’ Pardon My Take with hosts Dan “Big Cat” Katz and PFT Commenter (Eric Sollenberger) from the American Century Celebrity Golf Tournament in Lake Tahoe. During the interview, Katz noted Patrick was one of the first big talents to leave ESPN and asked if the move was scary.

“Oh, frightening,” Patrick said without hesitation. “Because there was this smear campaign that started. Any radio affiliate that had my show, you’d be dropped as an ESPN affiliate if you decided you still want to carry me. It was heavy-handed, but I understood.

“It empowered me. Like, ‘Holy, s**t. I’m gonna matter. They’re gonna have to deal with me.’ I loved David against Goliath. I’m sure they didn’t care, but in my mind, I would tell the Danettes, ‘These motherf***ers, man, we’re coming after them.’ I don’t think anybody was shaking in their boots because we were doing our little show.”

Patrick said, “There’s no doubt” that ESPN treated his departure with a heavy hand as a way of sending a message to other talent who may have similarly been interested in leaving.

“I probably had four people – one a big name and the other three were recognizable names – they wanted to know about leaving,” Patrick told PMT. “And I said, ‘Don’t leave…it’s a million to even larger odds than that.’ I was doing the show in my attic for three years. We didn’t have it made. There was a six-month period where I made sure the Danettes cashed their checks cause I didn’t know if we were gonna make payroll. We changed ownership, and that changed everything for us, but it was not a success story.”

But, it is now a success story. The Dan Patrick Show is bigger today than it was while airing on ESPN Radio from 1999 – 2007. On ESPN Radio, The Dan Patrick Show was just part of the larger brand. On its own, The Dan Patrick Show is a brand, one that reflects the personalities of Patrick and the Danettes, rather than just serving ESPN.

Patrick’s exit from ESPN might not exactly mimic the story of David against Goliath, because ESPN was, is still, and always will be just fine without him. But Patrick’s exit from ESPN is undoubtedly a success story that made others believe they, too, could leave the Worldwide Leader without it being a death sentence for their career.