And, he says, "Who cares?" It's about his Twitter run-up with a college professor in February. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/media/2021/04/14/es... /

I always thought he was a self-promoting carnival barker from the Dick Vitale mold.

He's one of the very few sportscasters who know anything about the MAC beyond what's in the media notes.

Never listened to his radio shows always enjoyed him on his tv stints. To me always tried to be a friend to the MAC and defended such as being a legit b-ball conference. Also called out a coach or player when he felt it needed to be done.

That said I was stunned ESPN didn’t fire him on the spot after the controversy broke. The DoubleD committed the unpardonable sin of offending two “woke” entities Duke and ESPN. There can be no forgiveness for such transgressions in today’s sports world. I will miss the guy as being a long-time MACer (1969] I enjoyed his trips down memory lane with his experiences and memories of life in the MAC.RIP Dan you weren’t the first taken out by the Woke brigade and you won’t be the last either..

I appreciate your comments as this culture of mob mentality is getting tiresome. I just listened to a Podcast with Seth Greenberg. I don't think he is going anywhere but I have been wrong before and will be again in the future. Give it a listen and see if there is any indication they have let him go. https://open.spotify.com/episode/50NfMbdpMucR4F1hqwJmCb

I didn't suggest there isn't an issue with cancel culture. I just don't think Dan Dakich is a victim of that. He's a replacement level broadcasting talent for ESPN. And as soon as somebody who is replacement level -- at any job whatsoever -- causes more headaches than they're worth, they get replaced.

Further, Dakich's behavior here isn't super defensible. A Duke professor challenged him on Twitter -- not even directly, and he ranted about the guy on the radio, shared the guy's contact info on the air, shared where and when his office hours were, and encouraged his audience to reach out. Ironically, that sounds an awful lot more like cancel culture than anything the Duke professor did. In what way did the Duke professor try and silence Dakich? Because Dakich sent his listeners after somebody just for having a difference of opinion with him (and others) about Jalen Johnson. I'm struggling to see how Dakich isn't guilty of the very thing you're accusing him of being a victim of. Was he not trying to silence a voice who disagreed with him?

Pretty frequently nowadays the "woke mob" gets blamed whenever adults face adult consequences for their childish actions. That's what happened here with Dakich -- the additional PR headache outweighed his value add, and his employer moved on.

It appears that Dakich never met Mr. Vitale. He doesn’t know Dick.

I like Dakich's programs usually. I'm not a regular listener, but it's fun when I catch him. Heard him and Benetti last night on Sirius 84 ES0NU.

Play stupid games you win stupid prizes. What Dakich did on both occassions was out of line. If he's not back, I bet they still play basketball next year.

Not trying to defend him but ESPN and the radio station have to bear some responsibility. They want their on-air people to be entertaining and controversial, to a degree. But too often they don't set the parameters or they move the parameters without notice. "I can't tell you what's over the line but I'll know it when I see it." Usually it's when somebody complains. Not very fair.

Respectfully, I think this is a sentiment that sounds true on its face but doesn't actually hold up well to scrutiny. The idea that the line needs to be clearly defined in all cases is both wildly unrealistic and more than a little bit infantilizing. Let's look at the examples involving Dakich. How, exactly, do you write policy on that issue? "Hosts will not accuse minors of illicit drug use?" "Hosts will not publicly discuss the repercussions of having sex with a woman who disagrees with them about NCAA athletic compensation"?

There are endless examples of societal norms that nobody writes out as policy but still hold as reasonable expectations. Almost all employers state rules of conduct in employment agreements, and almost all of them specifically call out that the list of offending behaviors is not comprehensive. That's because creating such a list and comprehensively defining 'the line' in a way that applies in a blanket way is virtually impossible.

What Dakich did in these cases doesn't meet basic societal definitions of decency. He was an assh*le. The notion that the line keeps moving and is confusing may well be true in regards to certain social issues; none of them are relevant here. Dakich's just sort of rude and crossed the line a few times; he's also not popular enough to get away with doing that. That's a bad combo.

If people want to turn this into a general discussion of the issue of cancel culture, I'm totally cool with that. I just don't see how it applied to Dakich at all, and making complaints about the 'woke mob' as a default reaction anytime somebody faces consequences for doing and saying stupid things misses the point entirely.

Woke us a marketing term invented by Twitter and using it unironically just makes you look like a dope.

And I’ll go ahead and say “cancel culture” is a scare parade that’s about as meaningful as politically correct. People just whining about being criticized.

I guess? ESPN radio is basically innocuous sports content 99% of the time. Edgy in that context is somebody saying they think Luka Doncic is better than Kevin Durant or whatever. I struggle to think that ESPN created an atmosphere where Dakich's understanding of the job was that they wanted him to call a high school basketball player a meth addict.

As for "what was okay with them yesterday suddenly isn't today": this is true. But only because that's how societies function and progress. There are a lot of things that shouldn't have been accepted yesterday that aren't today. And while the internet magnifies the voice of a minority of people who want to punish every misstep, ultimately the vast, vast majority of people are understanding of those missteps, provided the intent was decent.