Sports

ESPN host fumes as engagement announcement is read on air

Don’t be so quick to congratulate ESPN host Dan Le Batard on his engagement because he wasn’t ready for the world to know about it.

The Miami-based radio and television personality is engaged to Valerie Scheide, his girlfriend of two years, Greg Cote of the Miami Herald reported … with neither Le Batard’s permission nor knowledge.

Le Batard, 49, wasn’t aware that Cote, once a close friend, was running the story until his producers vaguely told him about the report just before recording began, leaving him livid.

“I am scared. Who’s gonna read it? My texts are blowing up,” Le Batard gasped. “I’m getting a lot of congratulations as Greg Cote, without my permission, has reported something very few people knew.

“I’m mad right now and hurt and it’s funny. I can’t dispute that this man does whatever he wants, selfishly. But here’s the funniest part about it: What a crappy story in terms of news, ‘journalism news,’ that I’m getting married, and yet it’s the biggest scoop of Greg Cote’s career.”





“He’s been threatening to report this on me for days,” he said. “I told him, I think last night on the phone, telling him, ‘Don’t report that! … Let me announce it my way!'”

“For years, Greg Cote has put this show in uncomfortable situation after uncomfortable situation because he picks the oddest times to wear his journalism hat, personal relationships be damned,” producer Mike Ryan said. “We actually trust this man with information and he runs to the paper with it.”

Cote is a regular on the show on Tuesdays, and his son, Chris a producer and researcher on Le Batard’s show, making the situation even more awkward.

Finally, producer Billy Gil read Cote’s scoop on air, leaving Le Batard furious.





“He’s covering me like an athlete who just signed a four-year extension,” an astonished Le Batard said, burying his tomato-red face in his hands. “He wants his clicks. He will sacrifice anything to get his clicks, including what used to be our friendship.”

Le Batard then left the studio, presumably to make calls to anyone he and Scheide, 29, hadn’t yet informed of the otherwise happy news.





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