Dan Le Batard Tells Ryan Clark He's A Victim of the 'Race Wars'

Dan Le Batard hosted Ryan Clark for an hour-long interview last week on his "South Beach Sessions" podcast. Given Clark’s turbulent year in the media, we were curious how Le Batard would approach the discussion. Admittedly, we expected him to ask Clark about his many blunders, errors, and public outbursts, then let Clark explain himself without any real pushback.

That did not happen. Instead, Le Batard defended Clark and told him none of the controversies surrounding him were his fault.

"The race wars are unpleasant, and you get in the middle of them by virtue of having honest opinions and protecting the disenfranchised," Le Batard said. "So you end up in fights that are not fought in good faith."

Le Batard went further, portraying Clark as isolated and unfairly targeted.

"I have reached out to you a couple of times when this happens to you, when I feel like you are alone in the world, like you are fighting alone at ESPN or in the landscape," he said. "There have been a number of times where things have happened with you where I think you might feel alone, like everything around you does not feel honest or fair."

Clark thanked Le Batard and said he would never "stop speaking about things that matter" to him. "When people attack you from a point of misunderstanding, it’s difficult for me to stomach," Clark added.

Le Batard is right about one thing. The race wars are unpleasant. What is not true, however, is that Clark only finds himself in the middle of them because he is selflessly "protecting the disenfranchised."

Clark appears in these discussions because he repeatedly inserts himself into them and often sparks them.

In June, Clark shamed Robert Griffin III for marrying a white woman and suggested that fact disqualified Griffin from speaking about Black women. That controversy began during a debate involving Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark. Ryan Clark turned that conversation into a racial confrontation. No bad-faith actors forced the outcome.

Clark later admitted he was wrong and apologized.

"She should not have been brought up in me trying to make a point about how having black women close to you and the things that you can learn from them can help you approach how you speak to, and about them," Clark said of Griffin’s wife, Grete Griffin, who is white. "She didn’t need to be the illustration of that. I could speak positively about what they are without making the insinuations that it’s something that non-black women don’t do well."

Clark also apologized for claiming during an impromptu Monday Night Football segment that Louisiana police fabricated evidence against Kyren Lacy, a black former LSU wide receiver. Lacy later died by suicide.

Between those apologies, Clark issued another for a "regrettable" on-air and off-air moment in which he belittled colleague Peter Schrager for never playing in the NFL. Clark has shown no similar disdain for Mina Kimes or Stephen A. Smith, neither of whom played professionally. One wonders why.

You might also wonder why Clark claims the media protects Josh Allen while unfairly criticizing Lamar Jackson, when his own commentary reflects the opposite.

According to Clark, Allen has "no excuses" for failing to reach a Super Bowl, while Jackson deserves a pass because football is a team sport.

Clark’s first notable entry into the culture war likely came in 2021, when he refused to appear on "SportsCenter" with Sage Steele over a comment she made about Barack Obama. Steele, a bi-racial woman, questioned why Obama, a bi-racial man, identifies as black with a white mom and black father.

Ryan Clark admitted this was the reason why he told management he would not go on set with Steele. 

So the question remains. How are bad-faith actors supposedly distorting Clark’s words for cultural war purposes while he simply "protects the disenfranchised"?

OutKick posed that question to Dan Le Batard via text message on Monday. As of publication, he has not responded. We will update this story if he does.

We do not expect a reply. Le Batard knows he cannot credibly defend his defense of Clark. For one, Clark has admitted to and apologized for most of the controversies. Secondly, Le Batard’s own role in the culture war explains why he rushed to Clark’s defense.

Consider Le Batard’s recent record. He defended Deadspin after it framed a nine-year-old child as wearing blackface by publishing a deliberately deceptive photo that showed only one side of the child’s face. He labeled fans of Donald Trump and Dave Portnoy as anti-Semitic. He accused OutKick of sexist coverage of Mina Kimes for accurately quoting her own words.

Le Batard frequently condemns the NFL, UFC, and the Baltimore Ravens for failing to "respect women" who accuse men of violence. Yet he employed Howard Bryant, who was arrested for allegedly beating and choking his wife in public.

In October, Le Batard landed the first interview with Doug Emhoff, Kamala Harris’ husband, after a Daily Mail report alleged Emhoff forcefully slapped a former girlfriend in 2012. And yet, Le Batard never asked Emhoff about the allegation. Not once. Instead, he asked what "loving Kamala" felt like.

So much for "respecting women."

We admit, Le Batard and Clark are good for each other. They are both clout-chasing race idolaters who cry foul whenever they overreach or expose their own hypocrisy, which happens a lot. 

If there were ever two people who should "stick to sports" for their own sakes, it’s those two.