-he was leaving and annoucing it today, but ESPN got involved with him on some last minute negotiations and he may stay.

-he was leaving and announcing it today but ESPN got nervous about how he was going to do it (he does spend a lot of time with Keith) and would not let him on the air today.

-he is going to do something with Sirius or XM that is more than just sports. He seems intensely interested in music and celebrity, and I bet he is intereted in politics/social issues too.

All right, my brain is tired from all the speculating today.

Think they’ll mention ERT on the radio again? You know, assuming they show up.

With Morning Joe, Dan Abrams has been temporarily filling in for Scarborough at 9 ET after Keith. I say temporarily because I figure the general manager of a network probably wouldn’t have his own show permanently.

What if Dan Patrick took over the 9 ET hour after Keith on MSNBC? It wouldn’t have to be a hard news show.

Imagine the two of them expanding on what Stewart and Colbert do in between shows. That could be very cool.

I’d rather have the status quo and keep the Big Show. But if Dan’s going to leave, my idea would be great.

OK. I don’t think Dan was sick (hawaii is right–nobody makes big teasy funny announcements about being sick). Perhaps he had something else pop up unexpectedly that had to do with this announcement. I wish jo’s speculation was possible, because if so it would be interesting in that it would have KEITH bringing DAN into someplace as a kind of return favor to Dan for having brought him back to ESPN. Then again, how crazy do you think ESPN would be about that? Also, as Dan said, he got into radio to get OUT of TV. And Morning Joe is looking pretty much like a sure thing, yadda yadda.

Could Dan be leaving ESPN for some other sports gig? Really? Something tells me no. And the biggest thing that tells me no (besides all the obvious stuff–why leave at this point, etc.) is the remark Keith just made yesterday about how trying to compete with The Worldwide Leader (and, as he pointed out, he should know) is like throwing your used wad of gum at the side of a battleship. Why would Keith say such a thing if he was well aware that after many years with The Mothership, Dan was finally setting sail in a new dinghy? It would be at worst extremely rude and insensitive, and at the very least would exhibit serious questioning by Keith as to the wisdom of Dan’s decision–none of which I have sensed thus far. Keith seems to be just fine with Dan’s announcement, whatever it is; I sense no underlying conflict between the two of them on that topic, and you KNOW that if there was an underlying conflict, we’d be able to tell.

Naah. Could it be…a non-sports opportunity? Maybe. But if so, yeah, why no leak?

So…Is Dan retiring? Yeah, he’s young–young for poor working sots who have to keep grinding away until we are 70 just to avoid poverty in our old age. But Dan probably doesn’t fit that category. What if he just wants to? What if he, unlike all those crooks stepping down from their government positions, really DOES want to spend more time with his family? Or whatever?

Damn, I’d miss his show, and I’d miss The Big Show. And so would Keith. But maybe Dan has decided that he’s had enough of the radio and the road. He’s done enough jock banter, he’s presented enough trophies. Time to kick back and enjoy life with The Chairman and the demon seeds that are his children.

I don’t know. Your guess is as good as mine. All I know is, the suspense is killing me.

The rumors would make much more sense if they said he would be doing general interest programming either on radio or television.

This is why I don’t like posting rumors.

And if Dan likes it there, that would just make leaving even more ridiculous.

Either way, I don’t believe the rumors that he’s leaving for a syndicated show. And he’s too young to retire.

If he was interested in leaving for a non-sports network, we’d probably have heard it before (these things aren’t good at being kept a secret).

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