Dan Patrick to Sports Illustrated

Neil Best was first to break the news that ex-ESPN anchor Dan Patrick had found a new home at Sports Illustrated. He'll have his own weekly column, stream his radio show and hold weekly chats with SI writers.

My FanHouse colleague, Michael David Smith, is wondering out loud whether this is just another indication of SI following ESPN's lead:

But it's a little strange that SI would ask Patrick to write a column for the magazine. Sports Illustrated has always prided itself on being a home to highbrow sports journalism -- I've known of more than a couple of SI writers who deride the more fan-friendly approach of ESPN the Magazine. Hiring a writer whose background is working at ESPN -- on the TV side -- is an example of SI, as it so often does, following ESPN's lead.

Count me down as thinking that Michael has got it half right. Sure, SI will undoubtedly get a boost from having an ex-ESPN hand like Patrick in the house. But what's different about the Patrick hire is that he is of an ESPN that no longer exists. The ESPN that I'm talking about was the one that birthed the original SportsCenter and the smart, tough journalistic sensibility that came part and parcel with it.

Today, as we have often lamented, that ESPN is dead and gone. So while the headlines a few months ago might have read, "Patrick Leaves ESPN," the cold, hard fact is that ESPN left Patrick a long time ago.

But while ESPN seems to have abandoned that hard journalistic sensibility in favor of pumping its sponsors and broadcast properties, Sports Illustrated never really left that niche. So, if anything, Patrick is going home again. Count me down as thinking he'll be awfully happy at SI.

UPDATE: Patrick in, Rick Reilly out?

Eric 10:54 AM

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