The Josh Innes Show - LeBatard's Dopey Producer v. Pat McAfee

Episode Date: August 13, 2026

When did the Dan LeBatard Show become the Mike Ryan Show featuring Dan LeBatard? I used to love this show. It was hysterical. Now, it's miserable. Why is it that seemingly all the content I see online is the producer guy bitching about the politics of other sports media people? Also, Pat McAfee is at the point that he's annoying. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Is there a group of people less likable than the Dan Lebitard show people? Like, first of all, I don't know who the fuck they're talking to. Like, they're talking to themselves, seemingly. And here, okay, I think here's the thing that is my favorite thing about, lebitard and his people. They're super sanctimonious and super judgmental about everything. Like Dan is like this gatekeeper

of what is right and holy about journalism and broadcasting and everything. Yet they're all employed by a casino, by a sports book, right? Like who's there? There's draft kings or fan d'ul,

whichever one of it, I think it's draft king. Sports betting. And look, I'm not going to judge people for sports betting because I do it and I'm a degenerate and I've lost a lot of cash doing it. Sports betting is an epidemic. People losing money sports betting, young people losing money sports betting is a fucking epidemic. On the same levels as alcoholism, as the same levels of other gambling, as the same

levels of cigarettes or drugs or whatever. Like, it's not good for people. And you could make an argument that legalized sports betting has added to the rot of society. It's added to the shitty way people treat and consider athletes and how people have no issue going after them now on social media because they lost a bet. Like sports betting is a bad fucking thing in a lot of ways. I love it, but I'm a degenerate. And I would never say don't do it because I'm not some guy that says since I can't control myself, the other people shouldn't get to have it. But like the best part about Dan Lebitard

and his weird group of people, his sanctimonious dopes, is. they are making their money off of something that is probably costing people a lot of livelihoods. Your summer travels deserve an upgrade. With select Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, and Cadillac vehicles connected by OnStar, you can stream, game, and more on the go. Whether you're headed to a music festival or a cottage getaway, you can access hundreds of apps on Google Play right from your center display.

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So I guess he's the star. Because we all know that Lebitards fucking quit. Lebitard has given up. He does not care. He's collecting a check. He looks bored. And when he doesn't look bored, he looks despondent. they're talking to the fucking air, they don't care.

That show has quit. And the only people who still like the show are people who agree with them politically. Because if it's people like me who used to listen to the show and found it to be irreverent and different and making fun of, it made fun of sports radio and it made fun of media. And Dan was this kind of iconoclast in a way. And I thought it was fucking great. Like I loved Lebitard back in the day. Like I found, like he was doing the kind of shit that I wanted to do. do, making fun of sports media, making a mockery of sports media.

Now you watch it, and it's just curmudgety old liberal dudes sitting around finding opportunities to shit on conservative dudes. It's MSNBC. It is dog shit. The entire thing is garbage, and they're talking to themselves, and they're staying afloat by the money that was given to them by sports betting, which I'm going to guess Dan Lebitard's probably not a huge fan of, considering that it ruins a lot of lives. But of course they're all getting rich off of that and making money off of that.

And one day, here's my bold prediction. One day the podcast thing is all going to collapse. And the podcast thing is all going to collapse because this sports betting money is eventually going to run out. When I was in St. Louis, when I signed to go to St. Louis and I had a very nice deal, first year paid me like $130,000. And the second year paid me $150,000 on the deal. I think it was a three-year deal. but the first year was 130, the second was 150, okay?

And they're like, well, Josh, why did you leave I heart the first time? I don't know. They doubled my fucking pay. That's why. It's pretty simple. I love because I wanted to go to St. Louis and they doubled my fucking pay. There you go, okay? When I went there, I think they had all this money to spend because sports betting had just

got into Missouri and they were just pouring dump trucks of cash on these radio stations. Just tons of cash. So their budgets were out of this world. Well, then right when I got there, is when the sports betting people decided, you know what, we're going to spend like 90% less on all these radio stations now. We've already hooked all these degenerates here. So we're done with this now. And then, of course, a large chunk of the revenue generated by the radio station took a hit.

So when the radio station took a hit, all of a sudden it's like, shit, we ain't making this money anymore. We're paying this jagweed to talk in the afternoons on a music station, paying this guy a shitload of money, morning show guy money to do this. yeah, this probably won't be long for the world. And it wasn't. And I think that's what's going to happen to a lot of these sports betting groups and these sites that use podcasts and pay for these podcasts is eventually they're just going to stop giving money. Like what is Draft Kings getting back from sponsoring Dan Lebitard show? When the only thing you ever even hear about Dan Lebitard is this guy, this Mike Ryan,

bitching about politics in some way. He's got a punchable face. He's annoying and smarmy. and they all are. Other than Rich Eisen, who seems like the biggest cockbag on the planet, bless his heart, he just seems like an asshole.

And the one time I talked to him in person, I felt like he was an asshole, just a smarmy cockbag. Like, they might have the least likable show ever. Like, I don't really like Pat McAfee. I admire Pat McAfee, because I think Pat McAfee built something.

Well, really, if we're being fair, Dave Portnoy's sandbox helped him build something, and he's taken advantage of that and got very rich doing it. He's got an audience of people. And he knows that his audience of people are very much right-wing people who view him as some guy that says FU to liberals, even though he plays dumb. There's a lot of elements of this I can get into and break down.

But Mike Ryan, I despise, his face I despise. I despise Dan Lebitard's face now because it always looks like he's on the verge of just exploding into tears. Like at any moment he could just. be in the fetal position curled up sobbing. There's no joy. I never see the guy smile. It's just a bunch of dudes trying to smile around him and he's just sitting there like a curmudgety old bastard. And I get it. Like his brother died and that's sad and I get that. Then do something else because you look fucking miserable. And I think deep down, and here's one of the reasons I think Dan is

miserable. Because he knows what he's doing is making no impact and nobody cares. And he knows that when he was on ESPN, he was making impact, and he knows that Dan Lebitard is highly questionable made an impact, and he knows that people liked when his dad was on TV and it was wacky. And I thought it was hysterical when it would be Bimani Jones, the dad, and Dan Lebitard. I thought it was hysterical. But I watched this, it's not. It's just angry talk.

And you might say, well, Josh, you don't listen to the show. No, I don't. But I see every video they post, and every video they post is this stupid Mike Ryan giving stupid political takes on somebody and why would I watch it? Why would I want to engage in this shit? It's joyless, right? But this Mike Ryan calls Pat McAfee

a pawn of Trump administration after Patriot games. Here's why I don't believe that. First of all, like, why does, if someone can't be president again, although I don't know that Trump knows that, if you can't be president again, like you don't really need people to campaign for you, I guess. But my other point would be this. And here's what.

annoys me. Now that I've told you what annoys me about this Mike Ryan, who I think is it, like, I can't stand the fucking look at this guy. There are just some people whose faces you fucking hate. I can't stand the look at this guy. My issue with McAfee is this. First of all, bro, why the fuck you're putting out music? Because you can, I guess. But my problem with guys like McAfee is, and he knows what he's doing. He's doing old school stern stuff, which is do shit you know is going to be offensive and then play dumb about why it's offensive. I, bro, it's 2026. You do it like you sit next to fucking Trump at a thing. You know that there's going to be half of the people that think you're a scumbag racist motherfucker. But you know this. So you play it up and you ham it up and you and you convince people that you had no idea that it's offensive and whatever. But you know what you're doing. And apparently he's trying to put out music. I'm like, brother. Like nobody cares about Pat McAfee music, bro. Go do your fucking show. I guess you're bored. You're too rich. You're too bored. You want to keep trying different things. So you're putting out music. And it's all about how people hate you and shit. he's doing like the kind of shit that McAfee is doing right now I think is beneath somebody that's got the audience that he has and the power that he has not that he's putting out music if you want to put out music put out music I don't give a shit but the whole hey people are mean to me on Twitter here's some screenshots of that like bro that's what local losers do when they're trying to get a little interaction so they can get three or four people to say hey bro no you're awesome like I know because I've been there I know because I've been there I know because I'm

I still do that. I know because I'm that local loser who does that. I feel like it's beneath somebody who's on ESPN and it's beneath a guy who's got a billion dollars in the bank and is arguably one of the handful of the most powerful media personalities in America, not just in sports, but you could argue he's one of the most powerful people in America based on the money he's generating the money he's making the fact that ESPN just says, here you go, we're desperate to have you. You have carte blanche, go do whatever the fuck you want. You could argue that Pat McAfee is one of the handful of the most powerful media personalities. Not necessarily, like a, he's not bigger than, you know, Viacom or some shit.

But as far as just personalities, individual personalities go, he is one of the most powerful sports and slash media personalities on the planet. It is beneath you to get into the game of, oh man, people are saying mean things about me on Twitter. Here's some screenshots of it. Listen to my music. I think it's beneath you. The other thing about McAfee, and again, I admire the shit out of the guy. I admire the shit out of anybody who has the ability to build something. I'd give my left.

If I ever put my mind to it and really committed to it, I probably could. But not to that level. To be very clear, I'm never going to be Pat fucking McAfee. But I could build something that's bigger than what. what I'm doing, but I'm just, I'm lazy to a degree. And it's just, I don't know that I want to sit around and deal with all the shit that you'd have to do to become that level of celebrity, if that makes sense. And then once you are that level of celebrity, do you really want to sit around and just deal with idiots all day? And I think about those things a lot. And maybe one day a switch will go off

and I'll just go, fuck it. Let's go balls to the fucking wall. But I don't know. But the thing about McAfee is that I feel he's, I mean, this is obvious. This is obvious. is he's created something that is special and big and he's got a giant fan base and people want him. Like people ask, well, what's the difference between Stephen A. Smith and in Pat McAfee's, but Stephen A. is black and they don't want to give him this? No, it's because Stephen A. Smith would be nothing if not for ESPN. ESPN wants to get into the Pat McAfee business. ESPN is already in the business of Stephen A. Smith.

They don't need, like if Stephen A. Smith left tomorrow, they'd probably be bummed, I guess. But then they'd be like, well, it's just $10 million less. We have to spend on somebody like him. So let's go find somebody else. We'll create another angry guy to yell at shit. And that'll be our new character that we'd create. And you know what? The reality is that Stephen A. Smith knows this.

That's why Stephen A. Smith is trying to get his podcast going and everything else. He's trying to make himself a commodity outside of ESPN. Because he knows that's the difference. And he'll never say these kind of things. And he says them kind of, but he never really says them. but Pat McAfee is what Pat McAfee is because Pat McAfee made his own world and created his own sandbox and ESPN wanted to play in that sandbox.

And I tweeted that a couple weeks ago and like idiots are like, I don't get it. I don't understand. It's not that hard to fucking understand. Pat McAfee is his own entity and ESPN wanted to play in that game. Stephen A. Smith is a product of ESPN. They made him. It's not really that difficult. But the thing that annoys me about McAfee now is instead of just being the cool fucking dude that says, I let the shit roll off of you, people are talking shit, he's now kind of playing up the idea that he's this bad boy.

And let's be real, bro. Like, everybody wants to be 1995 Stern, but nobody is 1995 Stern. Portnoy is the closest thing. Portnoy is still the closest thing you've got to 95 Stern with the hate he gets. McAfee, here's what bothers me about McAfee is I think he's trying to do things to drum up hate so then he can come back and say, look at all this hate I'm getting. Listen to my shitty music. And I think he's above that. He doesn't need that. You know what I'm saying? Like Pat McAvey doesn't need to play that game. He doesn't need to play that role. But he's starting to. And people I know, Jilly,

who like Pat McAfee a lot are even like, this is fucking stupid. Like I like him, but this is stupid. And I don't even like Pat show. Like I've watched it. It's okay. And I can see why it has an audience because it's different than just the, you know, the yelling and screaming about sports thing. but it's also just a group of fucking hard on saying dumb inside jokes, which has been what radio's been for 50 years. So it's not like it's some innovative format either. Because nobody's really innovative. How can you innovate?

There's nothing else to innovate. You sit around, you make some dick jokes. You say dumb shit. You talk to a coach and you go home, the same shit that sports radio people have been doing for 30 years. So it's not like it's a super innovative show. But I also don't believe there's anything you can innovate. I think we're out of innovations in media.

So it's just about, you know, do you say things that one side of the political spectrum thinks is good. And if the other side thinks it's bad, that makes you a bad guy and you're a rebel and all this shit. But whatever. So let's see what Mike Ryan of the Dan Lebitard show, which is on a milk carton. Let's see.

Let's see what Mike Ryan has to say. Let's see. And while discussing the event Wednesday morning on the Dan Lebitard show, long-time producer Mike Ryan, who is increasingly willing to clash with other sports hosts over politics, ripped the Patriot games as propaganda before calling McAfee a pawn of the administration, and suggesting McAfee's engagement with Trump was far more purposeful than McAfee lets on. It's just using sport literally as propaganda with the Supreme Leader watching the stands,

a vision of what America should look like, and it's hugely embarrassing, Ryan said. And straight up, if it were happening in another country, you would say, oh, that's on the nose for Putin, creating the whole thing to justify and normalize his entire administration. And Pat McAfee is right there beside him being a pawn. Willing or unwilling? I think we're at the point where we need to stop underselling whether or not he's willing. Seems pretty damn willing and smart, and I'm sure he's going to be super defensive about it later today on a show. Well, that part's probably not wrong.

Ryan and the Lebitard show crew have reason to take note of McAfee's behavior as one of the faces of ESPN. When the Miami-based show existed under the ESPN umbrella, it frequently drew the ire of network executives when it waded into politics and social issues. Again, this is not hard and stop being willfully ignorant, you dipsheds. There is a gigantic difference between what Pat McAfee does and what Dan Levitard does. Dan Levitard, again, was an invention of ESPN. He was a product of ESPN. His audience was built by being on ESPN. I know he did Miami Talk Radio.

Big fucking deal. Miami is the worst talk radio city in America. No one listens or gives a fuck. It's like a notch below Houston in terms of audiences not giving a fuck about sports radio, okay? It's that low. So the idea like, well, Dan Levitar was a big Miami talk show host, big fucking deal. Oh, he wrote for the Miami big fucking deal. He became what he became because he was on ESPN.

He was a product of ESPN and they could say, hey, shut the fuck up. They are in the Pat McAfee business. That's what this is. They are in the Pat Maccalfe. They bought into the Pat McAfee business. I'm sure it helps Pat McAfee financially and in other ways to be on ESPN. But Pat McAfee does not need ESPN. He has made his own world.

Look, his money goes up considerably by being on there because they licensed the show. But he is not in the business. He was not a creation of ESPN. Dan Lebitard and others like him were a creation. of ESPN. So there is a difference when you're buying. Like, I don't know that the guys at ESPN have much sale for anything Pat Mac if he does because he's doing his show on YouTube and they're airing it.

But again, it's hard for mouth-breathing dipshits to understand. It's hard for these smarmy cockbags to understand at these websites like awful announcing. But anyway, all righty. More to come. Hey, y'all. It's Kelly Clarkson with Wayfair. Ever order furniture online and wonder what if? Like, what if it doesn't hold up?

That sofa was four days old. You should have ordered from Wayfair. With Wayfair, there's no what if. Just style you love and quality you can trust. Visit Wayfair.ca. Wayfair, every style, every home.