ESPN investigates remarks made by Dakich
ESPN is investigating announcer Dan Dakich over statements he made on Twitter and his radio show last week.
“We are taking this matter very seriously and are in the process of looking into it,” the network told IndyStar on Sunday.
The latest controversy for the WFNI The Fan sports talk show host began when Nathan Kalman-Lamb, a lecturing fellow at Duke who teaches on the intersection of sport, race, labor and social inequity, criticized media members – including Dakich – for saying Duke freshman Jalen Johnson quit on his team by opting out.
It evolved into a debate about college athletes’ compensation, with Dakich, a former college coach, saying a scholarship and the additional benefits available are fair compensation with a handful of college professors arguing players deserve more.
Dakich questioned whether the teachers understood athletics. In response, Dr. Johanna Mellis, who lists herself as a teacher, oral historian and co-host of The End of Sport podcast, which also includes Kalman-Lamb, in her Twitter bio, appeared to tweet a challenge for a swimming competition:
“Dan you want to play in the “arena”? Let’s level the playing field a bit: I used to swim upwards of 10,000 yards in practice sometimes. I’ve done 10x100s butterfly, 10x400IMs, and one time 10x1000 freestyles for time. It’s brutal, but yeah let’s go at it in the pool”
Kalman-Lamb accused Dakich of misogyny by using the word “bitching” in reference to Mellis.
Dakich addressed the controversy on his radio show, stating he said Kalman-Lamb, Dr. Andrew McGregor, a history professor at the Mountain View Campus of Dallas College and Mellis were “bitching” and that Mellis’ tweet referred to something that would require him to get a divorce. Here is the transcription:
“Two guys and a lady came at me. And they said, ‘Well, you’re yelling at student-athletes while they’re being exploited’ or something, and I said, ‘Look, maybe, but I … I was in the arena and you guys were sitting outside bitching. Now, remember, it was two men and one lady. Guess what that got called? Sexist. (Laughs) Be careful. I didn’t even realize, I just said bitching because it’s what people do. It’s what everybody does, everybody just bitches. But that’s sexist apparently because I said bitching and a lady was in the conversation.
“And I said outside the arena, and then she wanted to, quote, go at in the pool. Well, if you go at it in a pool, that’s a public place and then I’m gonna have to get divorced, and then it’s just gonna be a problem.”
Dakich went on to call Kalman-Lamb a “dbag” and said, “You can tell he’s never played a sport in his life.”
Dakich de-activated his Twitter account Sunday, then re-activated it. He tweeted that he “had an epiphany at Traders Point Church” and that a “Voice told me to get off Twitter for 12 months.” But a second tweet included, “I’M BACK!!” and “Too much fun to be had and too much truth to be told!!!”
Dakich was suspended for five days from his afternoon sports talk show in October 2019 due to “a failure last year on Dan’s part to adhere to the journalistic principles valued by Emmis.”
IndyStar learned in June that an upcoming disciplinary action was possible for Dakich and reached out to Emmis, which said only that there was no litigation surrounding Dakich.