"LeBatard, what's the deal, man?" Says Mel Kiper as Dan LeBatard Walks Out On Their Interview
By Jason McIntyre
Dan LeBatard is trying to prove some silly point here about how he doesn’t care to talk about the NFL draft seven weeks before it happens – and some of the discussion, like hand size, is impossibly stupid – so he had ESPN’s Mel Kiper on his radio show and decided to walk off the set.
LeBatard is a stunt guy – remember the billboard he put up in Cleveland when LeBron left Miami? – which is fine, because ESPN’s had nobody in that role since Bill Simmons left … but this one falls flat.
NFL fans, the type that LeBatard needs listening to his show – and given the massive decline in his radio and TV ratings, and departing affiliates over the last six months, he desperately needs them – love the NFL draft. And the Combine. And franchise tags, and free agency, all of it.
They prefer incessant NFL draft talk to spending a minute discussing the NHL or college basketball. Sure, debating what teams will do two months before the draft is a fool’s errand, but isn’t that 90% of sports talk radio? Come on Dan, you’re interesting. Walking out on Mel Kiper isn’t interesting, it’s juvenile and reeks of desperation.
And yeah, we still wrote about it, anyway.
[UPDATE: Several people have asked for an example of the ratings I mentioned above.]
[UPDATE II: Dan writes in to provide more context: “We are ESPN’s number 1 digital property. Four million downloads last month.“]