LeBatard & ESPN parting ways
Loyal LeBetard listener/viewer; can't say I saw this coming, but it was certainly in the works. Don't always agree with the position he takes, but I appreciate his passion.
Yeah, the show is quirky, takes a little getting used to and such, but he always tended to push the envelope a bit. Completely enjoyed how he railed against the ESPN "machine".
I wish him well and will follow him; wherever he ends up. Stugotz/Weiner can go. Hope that Mike, Roy, Guillermo and Chris can land on their feet. Chris had been laid off a few weeks ago, but Dan kept him on and paid him out of his own pocket.
It wasn't so much that his show was quirky, the few times I watched bits and pieces of his show's segments, I realized it came across as odd but also sort of silly and hate to say this, a bit stupid and juvenile. A grown up professional sports journalist using his variety cable sports series as almost amateurish, late teens sort of behavior. A lot of silly antics and stunts, but rarely anything of substance that kept me enthralled long enough until he decided to get serious.
Now, when he wasn't hosting Highly Questionable and speaking for himself on topics like how dominant, nasty and aggressive Miami Hurricanes teams from 80s-early 2000's, or explaining how effective and deadly Dan Marino's passing really was and how Dolphins FO and Don Shula became so one-dimensional as a result by early 90s, you saw that edgy, raw, yet accurate on-the-street sort of persona he had.
. He remarked in the ESPN 30 for 30 docu-series Catholics vs. Convicts, that the Miami Hurricanes of the mid-late 1980s were the sort of team that "would tell you before the game they'd kick your arse, then they would kick your arse, and then afterwards, brag to you about the kicking of your arse." I know enough about his background growing up in Miami, watching Shula's great Dolphins teams and then how the arrival and impact of Dan Marino totally revolutionized how NFL passing offenses operated and how as a University of Miami graduate, he saw, witnessed and cheared on a lot of those great, intimidating Hurricanes teams under Jimmy Johnson in mid-late 80s and even early 1990s. He's often said that if Miami doesn't win that 31-30 legendary upset over heavily-favored Nebraska in 1984 Orange Bowl, what the American public, popular culture and society would know about the "The U" never happens.
(Quite a few fans from other NCAAF teams have said, even a few Hurricanes fans, have told me over the years that Miami fans should be thankful Osbourne was the kind of HC who believed in winning the MNC by going for it, because there not totally sure that if they'd been in his shoes under similar circumstances, they wouldn't had settled for the tie and let the pollsters figure it out afterwards.) I mean, what in the hell did Tom Osbourne owe Miami to sacrifice his winning streak and # 1 standing and try and all-or-nothing feast or famine 2-point conversion?