Dan Le Batard blasts ESPN over Max Kellerman

Max Kellerman has been out of the public eye since he was let go by ESPN last summer.

Kellerman held a lot of roles at ESPN over the years. Most recently, he hosted afternoon TV show This Just In with Max Kellerman and co-hosted morning show Keyshawn, JWill, and Max on ESPN Radio until his departure from the network in June 2023.

Recently, Brian Kenny told host Brandon Contes on the Awful Announcing podcast that Kellerman would “emerge” from the shadows later this year, but what that entails remains to be seen. For now, ESPN paying Kellerman to essentially go away and be shelved for the duration of his contract has drawn a lot of responses, including from Dan Le Batard.

The host of the Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz revealed Wednesday that ESPN asked him something similar when they were negotiating his exit from the network.

“Max Kellerman, at the center of those [debate show] wars, was collateral damage on something,” Le Batard said in a conversation on his show with Miami radio host Jonathan Zaslow. “If you were watching what was happening to us at ESPN, they tried to kill Max Kellerman after we left by giving him the morning sports radio show.

“And the reason I bring you into this, Zaslow, is because I believe ESPN’s strategy of figuring out that most people are disposable, including, they’re saying, Stephen A. Smith when Burke Magnus talks about ‘Well, we’ll go on without Stephen A. Smith’ publicly. You are the beneficiary of what it is that’s changed at ESPN, where they have realized that they can get a person who is a professional radio host, and they don’t have to give the Max Kellermans of the world the morning radio slot.

“Max Kellerman was a prodigy in this business. Max Kellerman is exhibit A on how you have to be careful about how disposable the pieces can be. …The original incarnation of Around the Horn was with Max Kellerman as host. He thought he was more valuable than that. He was a prodigy. He was a prodigy in sports television and sports radio.”

According to Le Batard, ESPN’s response to Kellerman overestimating his worth was to pluck Tony Reali, a Pardon the Interruption intern, straight out of the office hallway. Reali has since become the face of Around the Horn for the last 20 years.

Kellerman left to host I, Max at Fox Sports Net, and after bouncing around a bit, he found a home back at the Worldwide Leader across from Stephen A. Smith for several years on First Take . This time, Le Batard knows what happened to Kellerman because he says it’s what ESPN tried to do to him and his show.

“I don’t believe that when we were negotiating at the end with ESPN over our intellectual property, I don’t believe they know the amount of value they were giving us in those negotiations,” Le Batard said. “When I was in those negotiations, I was coming to realize, ‘Oh, they don’t know that these feeds are this valuable.’ But the most scared I was during those negotiations was when they were suggesting doing to us what they did to Max Kellerman.

“Which is ‘We’ll pay you through the end of your contract. You can get the money and not have to work, but we’re gonna put you on the shelf for 18 months. And you can see after the pandemic how that goes, as you try to re-invent it after 18 months.’ That’s a long, long time. Kellerman, after being on everything ESPN was doing, disappeared. Kellerman, a friend. Kellerman, whose talents I value, and I don’t know how many people have noticed.”

Le Batard believes Kellerman is likely glad to be out from under the intense pressure of his ESPN schedule.

“Because they were trying to kill him, Max Kellerman is relieved from not having to avoid being killed any more,” Le Batard continued. “Because the schedule he was keeping, 6-10 a.m. and then a show at 2 p.m. as well on television — impossible.”

At the same time, Le Batard suggested that Kellerman’s grueling schedule at ESPN, which included early morning radio and afternoon television, was unsustainable and likely contributed to the network’s decision to sideline him.

“And I was just sort of throwing in front of the audience the idea of, here was a person, unquestionably a star at ESPN. Unquestionably, I’d say a star since he was like 15 or 16 years old on New York access television doing boxing expertise. Somebody who had sophisticated knowledge on a variety of different subjects and how quickly someone of even that name value in a changing industry can be replaced.

“And the reason I bring it up to you, Zaslow, is because I believe that what ESPN has done, in general, with radio while trying to profit off of the remaining embers that there are in this economy. Find a person who is a professional radio host and you don’t have to go pay the person. You don’t even have to make them an employee; you just make them a contract appearance-based person and do it in a way that’s maximum professional, but you don’t need name value. We will roll through here with people who are good radio hosts.”

[ The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz ]

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