The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - Dan Interviews Dan: A Live Show About Love, Loss, and Laughter

Episode Date: February 10, 2025

It was a night to remember in New Orleans as we heard from industry titan, a man who conquered sports television and reinvented sports radio, a pillar and a trailblazer who lights up the room the second he walks into it. And also Dan Le Batard was there. Le Batard interviews Dan Patrick for over an hour in front of a live audience in New Orleans for Super Bowl Week about his life and career, the most important choices made along the way, and how he built one of the most powerful empires in sports media. The duo also shares how their friendship formed and the ways they've supported one another throughout the years. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to Giraffe King's Network. Who's got a better video? Ladies and mostly gentlemen, introducing an industry titan, a man who conquered sports television and then totally reinvented the sports radio. A man whose movies start good looks are only surpassed by his charm and intellect. A pillar and trailblazer who lights up a room the second he walks into it. Please give a thunderous welcome that properly expresses how eternally grateful we are for these legends bountiful contributions to sport and society.

Here is Dan Patrick! And Dan Levatore. Oh, come on, man. Come on. Come on! Come on, come on! Come on! Come on! Thank you, Dan! Thank you, Dan! Thank you, Dan!

Thank you, Dan! Can you hear us okay? Is his mic okay? Is his mic okay? I say this sincerely, what a magical thing. Thank you, Dan! And you say, so I would also ask you, what is it? Do you know? Do you know what is it?

Do you know what we're doing here? The reason I want to explain what a magical thing it is, do you know what we're doing? Like really, do you know what we're doing? How many times are you going to ask me if I know what we're doing? No! I don't know what we're doing. Neither do I, and this is what I would say to you. It's a fairly amazing thing.

I know how much gratitude he has for you. I know how much gratitude I have for you. You're here because you trust us. You don't know what this is. You paid money. You made a pilgrimage because you spend hours with us every day and now you're giving us yet another hour because you trust us.

And this is one of the few people in the industry who is simpatico with me on what his audience is. And he has a value and appreciation for what that trust is because he's climbed to the top of the business. This business, the ShoutFest, that is the ocean of debate with fairness and decency. It's a tough, you trust him to be credible. Everybody hates the media.

You don't, you don't, they don't hate him. You're bringing the vibe down here, Dan. Come on, let's go. Let's have some fun here. I want to talk to them about radio though, and I want to talk to them about what your community means to you, because I don't think they understand. They may feel it, but you're a repressed Irish Catholic. You don't necessarily, you might not tell them how you feel, but I know how much he values you. I see it in the care he exhibits and the product he insists on giving you. What was their question?

Sorry, that's by way of introduction. I really admire him. The second half of his career is more impressive than the first half. And the first half he changed sports television. So tell me though what your relationship is with your radio audience, because it's more intimate than anything else,

and you do a radio show before anything else. TV star, but radio is what, like that's where the connection is with you guys who are here to see him. Yeah, that was always the important thing that I did Sports Center, but I didn't know you. Radio, I know you, whether you email, you call, you tweet, even just interactions when I go out to sporting events.

That's the friendship that you have. Like you feel like your partners every morning. You're watching, I'm there with you. You allow me into your home, into your car. That's as intimate as it can get. I mean, I can't blame some of the ladies if you hear this voice in the morning in your car. Yeah. It's smooth. It's good. It's good. It's threatening. It's threatening. It is. It's dulcet. I like, I love the relationship there. I got into radio

because I loved that ability to be able to talk to somebody, tell somebody, let you, I could say somebody's name or a sport or it could be a game, you have it in your mind, you create and I love that. I love that we create together. I give you words, you put them in your head. We visualize together and we've been doing this a long time. But it's because you mean something to me as people, not just a listener, somebody out there in the wilderness there. And I think that my crew, the Danettes,

we've really made it a point of making this personal. Every single day, I tell Dan, every single day is the Super Bowl. It's gotta be. I don't care what's going on, even when it's not the Super Bowl, you gotta make it important to people. You gotta make sure you're thinking about them. And that's imperative.

When I left ESPN, I left sort of a world that wasn't personable because I was at the mothership. Then I left on my own it had to be me talking to you so I'm very fortunate thank thank thankfully that you came out tonight so I appreciate that speak to that for a moment because I don't think this is the vanity business there's a lot of ego in it You are grateful that any person would spend any amount of time as I am listening to anything you have to say.

You've been doing it for a long time. No, it's an, no, you've allowed me to build a business around it, but the power that you've given my voice by listening to it, like I will tell you that I don't know many people in this business. It's bloated with a lot of, a lot of ego. He's got plenty too, but he's grateful. He is so grateful that you would think him worthy of your time and his work and his opinions. And he cares for it with a craftsmanship.

You don't understand how much more difficult what he's doing than what I'm doing is. I have a lot of people. He's got a couple, but he's doing a three hour show by himself and he's been doing it for a long time. It's a harder lift. If you would just tell the people who are here from the most meaningful places, people who would come, drive here, spend a Wednesday night to come listen to a man they've listened to for many years like the intimacy of the connection because the gratitude is real. Well I think that we've talked many many times over the years and I never thought I would be friends

with somebody who was a columnist. He's not friends with Greg Cody he's only friends with me. Woo! No, I think that we struck up a relationship that allowed us to kind of unload on each other. And we just connected for some reason. I never would have thought that because I didn't know if he would take an interest. But that's one of the great things about him is he truly cares. And Dan said, can you describe me in five words? And I said, I can try. No, what you said is relax, Larry King.

I did. That's what you said. I did. That is true, I did. But when you start to think about friends and how many friends you have in your life, in this business I mean this is a we're cannibals this this business is not for the meek

It's not for the young I mean it and if it is for the young, you know Hopefully you get older so you can survive all of this stuff that you go through and we just had this relationship where We connected and we just spoke about sort of what we do every day. How are we doing it? Why are we doing it? How do you get better like I'm 68 and I'm still every day I just I want it to be better than the next day and the next day and the next day. Thank you and But but that's I can't do it any other way, you know, I just there's a cost though There's a tax. Like I would say, like this is not a serious, it's not a serious thing that we do,

but it is if you care about craftsmanship. Well no matter what your job is, it doesn't matter, it's how serious, how do you take it, when you bring it home, can you leave it at work, all of those things. I never can do that. Never able to do that. When I did Sports Center, I couldn't, I bring it home,

and I analyze everything I did. Every Sports Center I did for years, I get the videotape of Sports Center, and I would sit down after I did an hour long Sports Center, and I would watch the entire Sports Center to see what I didn't do right every single night. And the fun part of it is, whatever you do wanting to be great,

it's being able to turn that off at times. And that's the toll that it takes, where I'm already thinking about questions for Joe Burrow tomorrow morning as we sit here. Now it's not fair to you, but that's how my mind works. You're thinking constantly and it's hard to turn that off to have quality of life. I didn't have quality of life when I was at ESPN but I didn't know I didn't have it. I was working second shift, four kids, I didn't see them during the day and I still think I've got it made until I stepped aside and said, oh my God, what did I do to

my wife for 18 years? And you know, came to the realization of quality of life and that'll make you better at what you do. But it took me till I was 50 to figure that out. So you know, but I figured it out, which is, you know, I'm very, very fortunate. We did my radio show in my attic for three years. So when people say, you know, guy, you left ESPN, what happened to you? I went up to my attic, you know, and you just see their faces and they're like, I said,

yeah, I'd never had three better years in my life than when we did the show in my attic because I was at home. I saw my kids now off to school, my wife making breakfast, the Danettes came over, we went upstairs, we made a national radio show for three years and people think oh my god what happened to your career and I said the best thing ever. He speaks very lovingly of his family we will give him a chance to do that here at some point because he learned that he had to be a better father and in here somewhere and whatever is the obsessive quest to be better than everyone

else because I have met very few people as competitive as he is. He's a bit of an insane person in that regard but he's also somebody who helped give me permission. I will say flatly I admire him for a number of different reasons makes hard things look easy all the time very easy He was doing it from his attic It's not easy to do it from your attic and on top of that the way that he cares about this thing is Super unusual. It's, he should be gliding into retirement. He should be, he should be like, he should be, no,

but I'm just saying he's, he should get to enjoy the rest of his life because there are things he missed, but he also gave me permission to leave ESPN because I saw that it can be done. I saw what he did, but he made it look easier. The asshole, it looked easier. The asshole. It looked that way on television. So explain to people the difficulties of it because I don't think they understand what it's like to go from he was the

most powerful thing in sports television. He and Keith Obermann were the biggest thing in sports television at ESPN's most golden time. He went from that to doing a show in his attic, more meaningfully around his family, for an audience that he's closer to. Yeah, I think it was ESPN, those four letters are so powerful. And I was there for 18 years. But I really needed to get my ass kicked.

I really needed to kind of see if I could do it on my own, because you can lean on those four letters, and they can hold up mountains. And I thought it was time to take a chance. The day I was driving up, I was gonna sign a five-year contract extension. Kids go off to school, my wife's there having breakfast. She said, are you sure you wanna do this?

I said, hon, five more years? I love it there. Okay, kids are all gonna be gone. They're gonna be out of the house. Ah, I'll see ya. Drive up to ESPN. Bull and driveway. Get out, go upstairs, second floor, walk in at my boss. He said, what's it gonna be? Take it or leave it. Boom. My wife hits me. Boom. Like a thunderbolt, I go, I'm gonna leave it. And he said, all right, we'll get Danielle, she'll draw up the conch. Wait, what? And I said, I'm leaving.

I'm gonna leave it. And I had to say it to myself because I didn't believe it. I'm like, who's the voice saying that? I need to say it again. And I walked outside, beautiful blue skies, and I said hon I'm coming home she said 15 minutes in crying I had the under by the way I'm surprised I'm not crying all right I'm the crier. I'm the crier. When I cried about my brother's death, the voicemail he sent me to butch up, to toughen up, and he was right. I did. I was like, god damn it, come on, you've got to get tough. Come on. You love him, you get tough for your brother.

I'm so good at other people telling them to toughen up. No. But it's the greatest advice that I've ever received. My wife just said they're all going to be out of the house. I have three daughters. My son is our oldest. And I came home. It's going to be a big, big deal.

I come home, I pack up all my stuff, and I pull in the driveway, and my youngest daughter is nine at the time, and so she comes out to the driveway. She comes out to the car, and I think, God, my wife, she's wonderful. She sent my daughter out to welcome me home. And my daughter, my youngest goes, Dad, should I be honest? And I go, come on, just say you love me, I'm home. Should I be honest? I said, honey, dad should I be honest? And I go come on just say you love me I'm home. Should I be honest? I said honey you should always be honest. You swear? I go come on and she goes you got a booger in your nose. So I walk in to the, I walk into the kitchen they're all at the table. It's

silent. They don't know if it's good news. Finally my son goes, Dad is this good news? I said it's great news. Bam! They started banging on the table. So I'm like, and then I realized six weeks later no one's at home. I got the family dog and I go, what did I do with my career? Like where is everybody? It was me and the dog on the front porch and I called Paul Paulie, my producer, and I go, Paulie, I made the worst mistake in my life. And he said, no, you didn't. And he talked me down off the ledge. It was one of those where we would meet at a bar. Eventually, our show was above that bar,

but we would go to that bar. And basically, it was therapy. I'd say to Paulie, tell me I'm great again. Tell me we're going to be okay. And thankfully it worked out. But it takes a lot of people. And so when I saw that he was going through what he did with his brother, I'm like, God, I got to be strong for him. But I didn't know how to be strong for somebody who just lost their brother and how important his brother was, how long he stayed with their brother, and how important his brother was,

how long he stayed with his brother, bedside with his brother, what his brother meant to him. And you're just like, how can I be a problem solver? How can I be a benefit to him? And it went back to just being a dad who was a Marine, and you're just like, stop, you're being a baby. Let's go, let's be tough, be tough for your brother. He'll be proud of you to be somebody more than what you are.

And you were like stuck, you were in, and I kept saying move, move, move, move, move. And still am in some ways, and may I never get unstuck in some ways because the pain is forever a reminder of the love that won't die. But, and he is helpful.

But we're like, no, I will tell you that he is built very differently than I am. We have built the same thing. It's the same thing. It's a community, but it's built very differently because around our authenticities, whatever they are, wherever it is that you connect with us, he's buttoned up. He's the drill sergeant. I'm sloppy. I got, I came out here, my wife's cleaning a stain on my shirt because I got, I got, you

know, scallops on my shirt because he looks dignified on television. But we do, we do the same thing, which is reveal as much of ourselves to the audience authentically as we can, and daily, no matter what our opinions are, or wherever it is that you think we're dumb about X, Y, and Z, you feel like you know us, because you do. Well, I think that you want to be real to you, that's all. I mean, it's not where... When I was on SportsCenter, you didn't know me, I was just the guy who was on TV, but radio is just way too personal and intimate and that's what's fun about it, but you have to make that conscious decision. And they're a radio host who are very successful, they don't

reveal anything about themselves. And when I left ESPN I said, I'm gonna bring you in. You let me in your life, why can't I let you in my life? That way highs and lows, good and bad, granddaughter, whatever, my dog died, whatever, we're in it together. You go through the same things. We can share those things. And that kind of synchronicity is what powered me every day.

Still powers me every day. Why do you care the way you do? Well, because you care. So why, I mean, I'm not above it. I mean, I think sometimes we get caught up in our world that somehow what we do is more important than what you do or makes me more important than who you are. And it's just not.

And we should never lose sight of that. We do at times, but I'm grounded. I'm grounded by my family, my wife, my kids, my brothers, my sisters. I grew up in a family of six. They're nothing special. Nobody got anything. I didn't get my driver's license until I was 18

because we didn't have a car. So you didn't need a license to ride your bike. So I'm like, well, why? I rode the bus my senior year in high school no one rides the bus their senior year in high school I would stand out there with freshmen and I would be there you know these little guys that pimples on their face I'm like I'm a big basketball star like what am I how did I get here?

But I came from a very humble family and keeps you grounded, but it reminds you of that, of who you are. Hey, you handed out Super Bowl trophy, great. Go get me a beer. Like, that's, but that's the environment I grew up in. It was three, three Super Bowl trophies. It was four to be.

Four, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Woo! What did love look like in the household? I never saw my parents kiss. Old school somebody. I never saw them kiss. Which I don't know, sounds mind boggling, but it was. Like, I don't know, you just kind of, back then, my parents let us do stuff and trusted us. And you got home and you, you know, you, I don't know, there was so much leeway, but they also gave you that where you, I had a head start when I got out of college.

I got on my own, I've been on my own. Like I'm okay. Instead of, let me be careful holding you in case you fall, but love wasn't, love was there, it was in a different definition of love. My dad would do whatever to always be there. I'm asking my mom. I'm trying to figure out why you're as driven as you are.

Like, did you enjoy that? At ESPN, obviously you enjoyed the success, you enjoyed the fulfillment, but did you enjoy the doing of it? Or were you too busy trying to win that you, or trying to criticize every broadcast that the cost, the tax on what you were doing is that you couldn't enjoy it. I don't think I enjoyed any of it.

None of it? No, because I didn't allow myself to stop. I never, my wife would always say, you should enjoy it. I said for how long? Like minutes? Like a day? And I couldn't do that. And I've learned, you know, smaller things to enjoy, but I, my career accomplishments couldn't do that. And I've learned, you know, smaller things to enjoy, but my career accomplishments couldn't do it. Well, I'd like to explain to you guys,

for those of you who happen to be here for us in our community, I hope you get to see Billy and Mike and Lucy and some of the people around what we do. I'm assuming that most of you are here because of allegiances that have to do with the intimacy of specifically radio. And I will tell you again, he's a television star, but the craft, like this, Keith Oberman is one of the best I've ever seen at television.

You rode right alongside him, galloped with him. It was amazing to watch. Radio totally different thing, totally different skill set. I've told the story before too many times of him walking up to me in the bowels of wherever the heat played and I was already doing a local radio show he was already like the biggest star in television he looked at me he's like I can't do what you do I can't do sit in front of a microphone and give three hours of opinions that make others find me entertaining but but you

obviously found a pathway to what I would argue. Kornheiser says it and I'd agree. This is the best of the mediums and the reason it's the best is because these people feel like they know me and I feel like I can tell some of their stories too. You were willing, like I was afraid to share myself and like once you get past that it is very freeing but I'm trusting that you'll handle that those stories with care as as I would yours so I'm sharing things that are really personal and like I told a story just the other day I'd never told this story on the air. I had a family member who got engaged at my reception. My wife, you know, this beautiful wedding, we just get to the reception, we're in New York, the yacht that goes around Manhattan, the band's there,

they're playing, it's just wonderful. And my family member comes up and says, I don't mean to upstage you, but I just got engaged. I could have gotten away with murder, I think, that day. I think I could have pushed him off the yacht. But you tell these stories. And sometimes I'll tell stories, and my kids or my wife don't know the story that I've told. And then their friends will say, I heard what Dan said about you.

And my poor kids, because nobody wants to hear if your kids are great or they're grade point average. So I tell stories where they don't look their best, but that's being a parent. We all go through that. And my wife is very disciplined, very tough, very loving. One morning my son was moaning

that he wanted a certain kind of egg. And I have three daughters, they're young. I have four kids under the age of seven. My son wants eggs. My wife finally says, you want eggs? Boom, right off the forehead. Yes. Boom, right off the forehead. Yes? Boom, right off the forehead. Yes. Boom, right off the forehead.

Yes. Boom, right off the forehead. I wish my wife would do that. Yes. With muffins and chocolates. That's why I love her. But you're telling stories that people can relate. You know, I don't want you to,

I don't want to say, oh, add cord side seeds for the Knicks. No, I got obstructed view, you know? So it's trying to relate to you, because when you invest, then we're in this forever. It's not just, hey, we're gonna spend some time and I hope you're with me, or how long you're with me. Like I take it, when somebody says, hey, I've been with you since 95,

I've been with you since 2002. Man, best thing you can say. Because we've grown up together. We've grown up together. And that's what's fun. Different stages in our life, different stages with family, with grandkids or kids, whatever those things are.

Everyday things that you go through in life and that's what's fun to be able to share. Now I take great pride in interviews that we have I take great pride in having fun the guys that I work with the Dan Ants. Awesome. But we come in every day and you have fun. You have fun. And I get to go to work, I don't have to go to work. And you have that mentality and hopefully that comes through when you're listening on radio or you're watching on TV. How do you, how did you feel at the start? I'm curious about this, I haven't asked him this. I would imagine from Dan Patrick's viewpoint, right? You're running ESPN, you've got the popular show,

and then John Skipper, the CEO of Metalarc, he brings in a bunch of journalists. He overruns the place with a bunch of gas bag journalists. He buys all of journalism's watchdogs. He feeds us the candy of look, you can have fame, and you can be on television, and you writers who pretend that you're more intellectual than the TV foos who comb their hair and are too vain, when the print journalist came and

overran the place, you resent it? The only reason why I did is because when you're on TV, you're already a narcissist and you're ego and all of those things and yes, do you care about how you look? Yes, you do. Well, the print guys, they normally don't care about how they look. They don't care about how they look. So when they started to come on TV,

and now they're wearing makeup and they're combing, and I said, you're a fraud. Like, I'm a fraud because I'm a narcissist and I'm an egomania, I'm on TV, and I comb my hair and wear makeup. These guys would make fun of us all the time. And I go, you're frauds, not us. We sign up for this.

You guys are like the print journalist and we're Woodward and Bernstein and we're gonna break the next story and coming up on 30 for 30. That's right. That's right. We lost, Dan. You don't need to rub it in. We lost. They kicked us all out of ESPN. America hates right. That's right. We lost, Dan. We're like, how do I look? We lost.

They kicked us all out of ESPN. America hates us. The media lost. We lost already. And then they did around the horn, a bunch of writers on there wearing makeup and combing their hair. You phonies.

That's right. So yeah, deep, deep darkness. Shame, shame, shame. Hey folks, it's Mike Ryan. Shame, shame, shame. Hey folks, it's Mike Ryan. It is big game week and I've got just the thing to make your big game time a Miller time. From fireside conversations to football Sundays, winter means more moments with the coolest people in your life. Make these moments even better with Miller Lite, the great tasting light beer for people who love beer. A new year is a perfect time for friends,

family and great tasting light beer. Tastes like Miller time. Miller Lite is brewed for taste. It hits different than other light beers when you're hosting your ultimate game day party. Why don't you bring out a beautiful silver platter of that amazing white can and know you will make everybody there happy because Miller Lite is the original light beer since 1975 and still the very best one. Miller Lite, great taste, 96 calories. Go to MillerLite.com slash Dan to find delivery options near you or you can pick up some Miller Lite pretty much anywhere they sell beer. Tastes like Miller time! Celebrate responsibly Miller Brewing Company in Milwaukee, Wisconsin 96 calories and 3.2 carbs per 12 ounces. So how did we become friends? Remind me. No, I'm serious though.

How did we become friends? I'm asking you seriously. I think I heard something different with you. You're caring, you're sincere, you're annoying, you're smart, but you're, I was hearing somebody who was different and allowing, allowing yourself to listen to me and defer to me, and take advice instead of, you know, look, were we equal?

I never even looked at it that way, and I still don't. I mean, there's an age difference here, a bit of an age difference, but when we spoke, I thought we talked about really, really, really important things. And to this day, now, I will say the relationship changed, and usually nudity changes a relationship.

Woo! Big FaceTime guy. Hate FaceTime, hate. Only with my granddaughter. So he, you know, I just see Dan Leventhal, FaceTime, and next thing I know I says join and I see a pair of breasts it's Dan and I'm going so he's sitting on the couch with his shirt off next to his wife and I and he's having a serious conversation I'm like dude your shirts off this isn't how we became friends oh yeah it is yes it is but but

but you know we just got then it just became a relationship of he would call me when he needed to I'd call him when I needed to and I think that that was the beauty of it it was when that needed, when necessary, you know, break glass when necessary, and that was kind of the important part of this, of having a friend. I don't have many friends. I don't, I'm kind of a loner. My wife even encourages me to go out and get friends, but I don't know where you get friends from, you know. It's like, where do you go, hon? And I think he became sort of that where it was a friend I could lean on. My wife's texting me right now.

She says, let's talk sports. Okay, fair enough. All right. She says let's talk sports. Okay fair enough. Alright, and he will deflect like that. We'll get closer in future times that we try whatever this is. Thank you, thank you, hon. Thank you, hon. Did you have any regret? How about that lucatrade, huh? How about that lucatrade? You're a good interviewer. You know how to interview. You wouldn't back off right now if you were me.

So tell us about the craftsmanship of interviewing. Explain to me why it is you're so good at it. I thought I was good at it until I took a seminar at ESPN. It was five days, eight hours a day, one whole week on interviewing. And what I thought I knew, I knew nothing. It changed my life, it changed my career

because I learned how to, all you have to do is listen. To be a good interviewer, listen. And ask close-ended questions, or ask open-ended questions. I want you to talk. You don't have to have the answer, even if you, I know the answer, because sometimes somebody will go, hey, what do you think of that Luca trade? Because I think Dallas did pretty well here the first couple of years, but then the Lakers went, what do

you think of that Luca trade? Just ask, what do you think of the Luca trade? Having that and being a good listener is really, really important because most of the people I speak to don't want to tell you something. They'll be on TV or radio, but they got to be careful with what they're sharing, unless it's Charles Barkley. All bets are off. But listening, it's amazing what people tell you when they're not trying to tell you something. And I want to get you talking. And when I get you talking, it's amazing what you'll say that you don't even know you've said. The commissioner of the NBA the other day when I said, give me the wildest thing that's come across your desk. And he goes, well, here's something I like. Okay, now

it's simple question. And then he said, how about we do 10 minute quarters instead of playing 48 minutes? We play 40. Well, it got picked up, it exploded, but it was a simple question at the end of the interview and you just take a chance on something like that. And you also build up a rapport with people that you interview that they'll trust you. You can ask a tough question and and they'll respect you for asking that but I think in a way that you ask and and listen to what they're saying.

And I know it sounds crazy, but if you try this with your kids or you try it at work or try it with your wife, when you ask a question, make it open-ended. We got to the point where if I said to my son, how's your day? Good. Then I said, tell me what was the best part of your day? Well, then he was talking to me. And that's what you need to do. My girls, same thing.

I just want you talking. And I think the interviewers who ask a question, why did you kill that person? They might say, I didn't. Why do people say that you killed somebody? Whatever it might be, getting people to speak. And I didn't realize it until this guy, John Swatski, and he was from Canada, we invited him to ESPN,

and everybody had to take this seminar. I thought it was wonderful. But it was something so simple that was right in front of me that we were taught differently on how to ask questions. And if you can interview Mike Tyson or Dennis Rodman, go down the list of all the people that I've interviewed over the years that are tough interviews. Normally, if you ask the question in a correct way, you'll get interesting answers. And I didn't know that until later in my career at ESPN, but we do it every day.

We take great pride in the guests. When somebody says you ask great questions, and I always say, what was the answer? Because it's not a great question unless you get a great answer. And sometimes we in our business get caught up in, hey, I'm asking great questions, or how did that sound, or it sounded like I knew

what I was talking about. How, when, where, why, who. those are the best questions you can ever ask? Do you do you feel like you can I without being too haughty about it impart career wisdoms here from things that you've learned Because your the resume is expansive. We're talking about CNN, we're talking about ESPN, we're talking about on your own as a business venture since 2007, so what is it, 50 years? Or close to 50 years? When did you start on the path?

Because it was an obsession from the very start, was it not? Like from 18 years old, crazy competitive, I'm gonna be a TV man. No, not TV. I just wanted to do sports. I used to go to parties when I was dating my wife, and I wouldn't let you leave the party

unless you could stump me with a trivia question. That's pathetic. I would, it is sad. It is sad. It is sad. But I would be at the front door late in the party and my wife would, my girlfriend at times she would cringe and she'd go, are we doing the trivia thing? And I'd go, yeah. So you had to stump me with a sports trivia question, but that's what I wanted to do. I didn't know how to do it, but I knew somehow some way that I was gonna be involved in it.

And there's no clear path. There's parents that come up to me all the time, or students, how do I get in the business? And there is no clear path. Internship, volunteer when somebody else isn't volunteering. You started a school, right? Yeah, broadcasting school in Orlando, Florida. We wanted to give students the answer to the test

that took me years to come up with. And they're so much more advanced. They're 21, 22, and they're working, they're getting jobs right away. I was 27 when I got my first job and I I'd lost out on a job in Dayton, Ohio the local station there and I almost quit the business because I thought I you know I can't get a job in Dayton, Ohio doing weekend sports and I went to Atlanta and I got a job doing headline sports and I took a $10,000 pay cut and I

wasn't even on TV. Headline sports back then it's two minutes where you just voice over something but six months later they said do you want to replace a guy named Keith Obermann in New York as the New York Bureau reporter. I covered Baltimore Boston Philly New York DC, I covered the, Boston, Philly, New York, D.C. I covered the Celtics with Larry Bird, Dr. J with the Sixers, the Mets in 86. I mean, I covered U.S. Open, all of this stuff. And I met my wife at CNN at the time. So it was just, there's no, there's no strategy to this. There's strategy, you know, it's just all it is is you've got to work.

You've got to be ready when you get called and I was very lucky. Okay, very lucky. He's a lunatic about obsessive compulsive, needing to be better. Where does your competitive come from? Does it come from an insecurity? Have you studied the roots of is your competitive come from does it come from an insecurity that you studied the roots of where your competitive comes from i'd i'd i'd i'd i want to crush you i want to kill you

i mean not you but i think my approach is that i have to win i have to win but but why why i'd i'd i'd it always, it's there, you know. And my wife is not a competitive person. She just knows when I get, and look, it's been called jaw face. When I get jaw face, it's not good.

Not good for anybody. But that's the only way I can approach it. You just gotta be great. And every single day, and I've always had, I've never needed motivation, ever. You know, sometimes you gotta, hey, that guy needs a kick in the butt. You gotta get him, I've never needed motivation ever. You know sometimes you got it hey that guy needs kicking the butt you got to get him gunned. I never needed that. Like I needed you to say slow down a little bit back off a little

bit but I don't know where it came from. How do you want to punctuate this? Three years you've announced your retirement you're I think I can say that people like us get a great deal of their identity from their work. It's not an easy thing to leave behind. You're going to be meticulous about leaving it behind as you become 70 years old. Why did you make the decisions you made and how do you want this to end? How do you imagine it feeling? I wanted to laugh with you, not have you laugh at me. Like I was concerned about not being great that last day, December 24th, 2027. Like even that day, I better be good.

Like I want, you know. So even if I, like in my mind, I know I've slipped some with this, but it's not really something that is percept, you know, the audience isn't probably seeing that or hearing that, but like, but, but I think my producer Paulie knows and he's, you know, he's cognizant of helping fill in the gray area sometimes memory, you know, just certain things that I know. But it's just, it's got to be great. I was worried that I was slipping a little bit and I was forgetting names. One

day I couldn't remember. He's forgetting names. I'm 57. I'm 56. I've been forgetting them for five years. I've given up hundreds of dollars in fines. I haven't gotten a name right since 2008. I've been forgetting them for five years. I've given up hundreds of dollars in fines. I haven't gotten the name right since 2018. Woo! But I care about my career, Dan. My brother died. I'm broken.

I'm broken. He cares about his career. He doesn't care about human grief. It's hard starting a business. I've told you this thousands of times. I'm tired of hearing that. I couldn't remember Albert Pujols' name and I couldn't remember Tom Izzo, Michigan State head coach.

I could not remember. And I said to Paulie during the commercial break, I go, I don't know what's happening. I can't remember Albert Pujols' name and Tom Izzo's and he said don't worry if I see that you're losing something or you can't remember I'll help you and it helped me to have a security blanket there if I needed it and I think it stayed in my mind that I was I just wanted to make sure that what I was doing was going to be at a level that you expected it

Not where you go gosh, you know, you used to do it. They used to be pretty good I didn't want sympathy viewers or listeners. I wanted it to be where you go You know what did it the right way the best thing that I can tell you the most intimate thing that I can tell you The most personal thing I can tell you about this evening is that it's been brought to you by Miller Lite. Great taste, 96 calories. We got Q&A is what we're doing. Mike Ryan tells me we're going to give away some stuff. If you're not done, we don't have to finish.

We're on your schedule. So it's up to you whether we have as much time as you want or we can do question and answer at your leisure. We'll do some Q&A here. Sounds good. So, but Mike Ryan, where are you with what the prizes are and we have a couple of things to give to people on behalf of Miller Lite that he had a sign in the back. Yeah, this guy keeps trying to seal the thunder.

Jimmy Butler did get traded while you were doing that. So what Dan, what do you think of that trade? I don't know anything about the trade. You're gonna have to inform me what happened. It's Warriors, but PJ Tucker's back. Okay. Yeah, we got Miller Lite gave us some cool premiums. We got an autograph hat from both Dan's and we also have an autograph bar sign of two beautiful Miller Lite cans. So you guys have to deem whether or not the questions are worthy of these two premiums, all right?

So the first thing we're gonna give away is the hat. I've heard a lot of talking from this side. So I'm gonna walk over there. Just, you know, the producer of me, I don't know if I can, I just don't trust that side a little bit. There was one guy that screamed boobies at a certain point. So who's got a question over here?

Yeah, yeah. Alright, we'll go with David. Curiosity, based on the school that you have, Dan Patrick, when it comes to your voice, it just, it controls the radio. People that don't have your voice, it just controls the radio. People that don't have your voice. What do you say to the people that want to be the Pauleys and the producers of the world? How does that work? Well, when we get with these students, I'm honest with them. My lead professor, Gus Ramsey, worked with me at ESPN. I said, we got to be honest. We don't want your money, we want your money

to get you a job, we want you to learn how to do this. And I said there's people who do this and they're producers, coordinating producers, people who are Dan Eds on his staff, they can have a career in this. Not everybody's gonna get on TV or radio. We say that to them right away. You gotta be honest with people,

because if you're not, I don't want you to be 27 and go, why didn't you tell me? I want you to know, this is why it's gonna be difficult. As far as your voice, I mean, I'm fortunate that I was born with this. I didn't develop this. I just woke up one day and I didn't have a high-pitched voice. I had a-

You can do it with an annoying voice too! Yeah. Woo! And that is, but look, I'm with Chris Berman or Dick Vitale, like people who have unique voices. It's not how you sound, it's what you're saying. And that's the most important part. Do you connect with people?

Are you saying something in a way that makes them react? And there's a lot of people who are very successful, they don't have a great voice, but they have a great message to deliver. And that's the most important part of all of this. All right, was that worthy of a hat? Is that worthy of a hat? Is that worthy of a hat?

Hat worthy? A hat? That's a good question. That's a great question. That's a great question. I'll give you an autograph. You said it's a great question. I'll give you an autograph. You said it's a great question.

I don't know if it's hat worthy or not. Aluminum bar sign. Coming up next. Let's have a good question. It's your night too, Dan. I'm here to please. My dad and I traveled from Tampa just for this event today. Thank you.

We've been watching both the shows. I'm a Patrick fan. He's a Levitard fan. We've been watching and we've been debating and the big debate is who came up with stat of the day first? We've been arguing. See that's a bad question even though you're... like you know better, you know better. You do, you know better. I will be honest here, I will be honest. On air what I have said on air, okay, I pride myself on being authentic and honest on air. I sit next to a liar. And that, that liar once accused Dan Patrick of stealing the idea of they should do Super Bowl Saturday

instead of Super Bowl Sunday. Stugat says he had the idea before Dan Patrick had the idea. And as a retaliatory measure, even though I was pretty sure that Stugat was lying and that it wasn't true in any way that Dan Patrick had stolen it, I said, you know, Dan does have that one good idea with the stat of the day, I'm gonna steal that.

And I'm gonna say that we deserve that as a trade, but yes, that's just totally stolen. And he did. Yes. And Dan did tell me that he stole stat of the day from me, which I said said that's fine I but I didn't know anything about what Stu got said because I don't listen to the show That's why I would have no idea

Is that worthy of a bar sign It's a lady very take his hat Turn in your hat to us here. So, I'm here. I'm here by accident. I'm kind of here by accident with my husband, Steve, who's 63, and his little buddy over here, David. Wait, did you say you're with husband's? No, husband.

My husband's, well, David wants to be my husband. Now I'm interested. So he's 30, he's 35. Here's a question though. Like my two, I have two sons, 35 and 30 now. They grew up listening to you, Dan Patrick, with my husband. And my friend Jane Ann has two sons, same thing.

You're 68, you're 68 now, I'm 63. I still work. How do you stay relatable to younger people? Like I'm looking around the room, I see the generation that's in the room. How do you continue to stay and how do you feel about staying relatable some of those are my people to? Would that be the older or the younger way How do you plan to stay relatable until you retire to the younger people? I mean, you need that crowd, right? We're going to be gone soon,

so how do you do that? That got dark, didn't it? We're going to be gone soon. I don't act my age. I will never act my age. I listen to my daughters with music or my son with music or TV shows. I'm constantly, I read a ton. I'm always looking at what is going on. Whether it's the Grammys, whatever Kendrick Lamar is doing to Drake and can we can we mention that on the show what is relatable you know are you mentioning something on Netflix is there something that is somebody's watching that nothing he's doing is casual it's not flippant

like he's not he doesn't keep up lazily he keeps up because he's forgive me but like because if you call him at five o'clock, he's preparing for the next day's show. No, it's important though, because, but there's certain times where I go, I'm not familiar with that. Or, you know, Marvin is such a, and he's younger, but he's such a great reference with younger things.

And it, so. So, you're able to to I just grab information I'm just listening I whatever somebody says something about that I'm curious about is it relatable is it something that you care about because there are a lot of things I care about and sometimes I'm gonna make you care about it because you'll hear it in my voice if I really love a show I'm passionate about something or music or you know we had an artist Stephen Wilson Jr. who was on and nobody really knew who he was. I heard his voice and I said I can get this guy on the show maybe I can give his career

a boost and hopefully you would appreciate that because I'm bringing it to you and that's what's fun about this. It's we have three hours. We don't have a boss. We can do what we want and we go every single day with you know are we going to go in this direction or that direction and we never know but that's the fun part of it but having things that are relatable to you instead of being stuck in the get off my lawn. There are times when I do act that way, because you know what? The younger kids should learn, get off my lawn.

You know? This is how it should be done. You hear me? Damn it. Was that worthy of a premium? I think we have time for one more question, Tim, if you wanna do one more. Was that worthy of a sign, or should I keep it?

You can ask another question, but I would be remiss if I didn't say to that question and many others I wouldn't speak on behalf of him. I know he's got a lot of production help but in my case we have a lot of people who are helping us stay young, stay relevant in ways that I can't possibly because they care about me, they care about what they're doing and we're blessed to do like a really weird thing. I will tell you again and again, it's an unusually blessed way to make a living.

It's really silly. I'm a bit stunned that we get to sit here in front of you and do this. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me. It's not, right? I mean, it's not, it doesn't get old. You've done this for many, many years. You're used to being famous. You're used to being successful.

The idea that people would want to listen to you is like, it's just, I'm staggered in disbelief all the time by it. I said to Dan, is anybody showing up? And he goes, yes, there'll be people that show up. Like I'm forever grateful. You know, that's why I took a picture when I came out. Hey, you came to see me, I came to see you. So thank you. Thank you. All right, we got one more question over here. My question's for Levitard.

If you were to put a percentage on it, what percentage of Stugatz is bit and what percentage is actual Stugatz? Yeah, it's not, it's not bit, man. It's not, it's, okay, so dirty secret. actual Stu Gots. lifting up the puppet character so that I could fight with it but he's a lying conniving thief and I love him and I often don't like him I've told the story before in the original incarnation of our radio show that was going to be on television the producers of PTI came down and we're going to see how they

could televise that show. They came away five minutes they packed up their stuff and they left they can't do that they're like they're talking to Jim Brown about his penis size because he was in Playgirl magazine and he was trying to make a woman jealous and by posing in Playgirl we can't televise this on Disney but the thing that they left with was seeing Stugats in the hallways and saying It's real. That's that thing is real. It's not playing a character it's marching up and down this the hallways trying to pull a grift on somebody and

and and if There's one thing he's doing is turning nine and a half up to ten on occasion Because Mike Ryan's yelling at him that he's got to. Just stop being lazy and turn it up to a 10. He's got some interesting opinions on Stugats. I'm sure he's never shared with me. He hasn't. Like he hasn't told me anything about Stugats, but I can just imagine what he thinks of me needing

the crutch of Stugats in a way that noble, noble pillar of professionalism, Dan Patrick wouldn't need a Stugatz to run around as a court jester to fool people into making him more entertaining than he actually is. At his wedding reception, Stugatz showed up late, he missed the wedding, and he was there for the reception, and then he offered to give me a ride back to my hotel and then he proceeded to ask me for a job. See?

See? It's real. It's real. It's lovely. It's funny. Thank you guys for coming tonight and thank you sir. Thank you. For trusting me with this.

We appreciate you making the journey. I don't know the proper way to say goodbye. How do we properly say goodbye to you and express our gratitude? I don't know what the greatest compliment is that Dan receives. We often tell people that the greatest compliment that we receive is when listeners come through and say, hey, you helped me during a dark time, you were a bit of medicine for me. I will tell you over the last three years that the audience has been medicine for me during a great deal of pain. And so if I tell you in a vacuum, this over here needed help and was

helped by this. This over here needed help and was helped by this. This over here needed help and was helped by this. Are those people friends? Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Pretty close. Pretty close, so thank you.

I say with genuine sincerity on behalf of him, I'm as grateful and he's as grateful for what it is that you do for us, supporting our businesses as we are for you because it's not it's not a joke you make us you're the reasons we can do this this is not it's not normal to have an allegiance in a stickiness who wants to come out and listen to us for yet another our it's so like that might like my gratitude, my gratitude is sincere and I don't think his is any less than mine.

No, thank you. This is the reward when you get people to come out and that we do hear what we mean in your life. Whatever it is, sometimes we don't find that out, but sometimes when we do, it's very rewarding because that's what you're trying to do. We're connecting with you. Whatever you're trying to do. We're connecting with you, whatever you're going through, if we can help you through that, we can make

you laugh, make you cry, make you angry, whatever we can do to get a reaction out of you but you allow us still to be in your life. Like I don't get along with my brothers all the time but they're my brothers and I love them. We won't always get along but as long as we still believe that we're related, there's a relationship there, we'll be together forever. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.