Dan Patrick blasts ESPN over the way Karl Ravech’s exit was handled
Dan Patrick went after ESPN on Thursday’s show over the way the network handled this week’s layoffs, and he was specific about what actually bothered him, which according to him was Karl Ravech finding out his 33-year run was up around the same time reporters started contacting him for comment.
“Show dignity to those people in how you let them go,” Patrick said. “It can’t happen that Karl Ravech is contacted by somebody wanting a comment. 33 years, and that’s how it ends? Show dignity, give them that dignity.”
ESPN notified employees of the cuts on Tuesday. The layoffs stem from the network’s purchase of NFL Network, which closed in January, along with broader cost-cutting at Disney. Ravech, Cam Newton, Ryan Clark, Tom Pelissero, Charles Davis, Bart Scott, Stephania Bell and SportsCenter anchor David Lloyd were among those let go. ESPN declined to confirm individual names, and word of most departures came through The Athletic and other outlets before anything official.
Ravech joined ESPN in 1993. He anchored Baseball Tonight, called Sunday Night Baseball, and handled the College World Series and Little League World Series for years. He worked Monday night’s Dodgers and Phillies broadcast, one night before the layoffs, and was scheduled to call the Little League World Series again next month. He is 61 and was one of the longest-tenured on-air people left at the network.
Ryan Clark and Cam Newton exits raise similar questions this week
“Show dignity to those people in how you let them go. It can’t happen that Karl Ravech is contacted by somebody wanting a comment. 33 years, and that’s how it ends? Show dignity, give them that dignity.”
– Dan Patrick on the recent ESPN layoffs pic.twitter.com/D23gq9IlTl
— Dan Patrick Show (@dpshow) July 23, 2026
The Ravech situation was not the only messy one. Clark was supposed to be informed on Tuesday with everyone else, but once media inquiries about his status started coming in on Monday, ESPN pulled him from NFL Live mid-day and told him then. He did not return to the show. Newton was cut less than a year after signing a contract extension last August.
ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro sent a memo to staff on Tuesday saying the company had to make difficult decisions about job impacts as it integrates the NFL Network assets, and that the moves were meant to position the network for the future.
Patrick worked at ESPN for 18 years before leaving in 2007, and he has been through the company’s rounds of cuts from both sides, watching colleagues go and eventually walking out himself. His show covers ESPN business news regularly, but Thursday’s comments were more pointed than usual, and the Ravech line clearly hit a nerve with him.
He did not call for anyone to be rehired or question the business logic behind the merger cuts. A layoff is a layoff, but a 33-year employee should hear it from the company before he hears it from a reporter asking for his reaction.
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