Dan Patrick knows ESPN better than just about anyone. And he wants to know why ESPN puts up with Curt Schilling given his tendency to step in it all the damn time:
In some of his many roles, Dan Patrick’s corporate overlords are my own corporate overlords. And Patrick talks about this when asked if anyone has ever told him, as a prominent face of the company, to back off political stuff. His answer is sort of refreshing in that (a) he’s not been given any diktats over such things and likely wouldn’t be until something came up; and (b) it’s basically the same way NBC has treated little old unimportant me about such things too.
No one has ever told me to stay away from politics. But there is an unsaid and quite reasonable expectation, I sense, that (a) if I DO mess up, Schilling-style, I’m in big trouble; and (b) dude, at least make sure it has SOME connection to what we’re paying you for, Which I think I do for the most part.
All of which is to say that, in my experience and Dan Patrick’s experience and, I suspect, Curt Schilling’s experience, we’ve been given some latitude and respect and trust that we’re not gonna throw bombs and say outlandish things. But as Patrick notes, Schilling has crossed that line several times. Will ESPN continue to accept that? I’m not sure how they can.
