Retirement of WFAA’s Dale Hansen leaves loss of candor in sports scene | Opinion
When you say the name “Dale Hansen” there is always a reaction, often times a wince. Maybe even a little bit of nausea.
It is not a coincidence “Dale” is a four-letter word.
Love him or hate him, we are all going to miss our favorite four-letter word.
The longtime sports anchor at WFAA will step down on Thursday.
When he made the announcement in May that he would retire after 38 years, the target date of “Sept. 2” felt a comfortable amount of time away that this was actually not real.
We are here. This is real.
As much as some people hate him, they need him. We all need someone in our lives to point out the details we refuse to see.
The flaws that we need to see, but normally deny their existence.
Dale’s job was technically in sports, but it expanded to tell us all that we are basically full of it. That we are fat when we think we are fit. (Yes, Dale is aware he’s, uh, not fit.)
That too often we are the worst type of hypocrites, those who hide behind a cross, and offer the ability cite a few verses from the Bible as virtue when in fact it merely displays a good memory.
Dale had it good at Channel 8, and he knows it. I have not seen Dale at a sporting event in forever.
He didn’t have to go. They came to him.
More power to him.
The only one I can’t think who visited Dale Hansen was former Cowboys coach Bill Parcells, who took exception to some of Dale’s criticism because he didn’t go out to Valley Ranch to introduce himself.
Dale wanted Bill to visit in studio, and he wouldn’t do it.
Dale didn’t need Bill. Bill didn’t need Dale.
They were both right.
Dale knew he was going to outlast Bill, because he’s outlasted everyone else here since 1983.
Like anyone who is good at their craft, Dale made a difficult job look as easy as opening the mailbox.
Go on TV and tell people what you really think, and deal with the consequences.
This would be akin to taking that polarizing sentence or two you offer on Facebook about a divisive subject, and doing it all the time. For decades.
His fearless candor made him a lot of money, landed him on Ellen, and earned him a profile in The New York Times.
It also cost him friends.
For years Dale played cards with a large group of friends in Dallas. They were all about the same age, liberals and conservatives.
They could all see past whatever different political ideologies existed and enjoy each other’s company.
One day Dale noticed the card games stopped.
He called a friend and asked what was going on.
Some of the players didn’t care for Dale’s opinions he was expressing TV, and he was no longer invited to the card game he was a part of for so many years.
It hurt Dale, for good reason. These were people, he thought, were his friends.
“Close enough,” Dale texted when I sought to confirm that story. “And it did hurt. But I don’t think it was a good reason.”
It’s one thing to potentially alienate a viewer; that’s part of the job.
It’s quite another to lose a friend.
“But it did save me a lot of money because I’m a horrible card player,” he said.
One thing about Dale was that while he knew his stature was big in this market, he treated everyone like a professional no matter their level of experience.
The same for my former colleague, Randy Galloway.
For young people coming up, that sort of treatment means so much.
I may get in trouble for writing this but ...
A few years ago Dale was covering Dallas Cowboys training camp in Oxnard, Calif., and it was his birthday. He invited the local media contingent there to join him at a sports bar.
There were 20 people there, and Dale is holding court on what was a mild evening. Nothing gets out of hand.
At the end of the night, he gets the tab and it’s about $700. Maybe a little more.
He shouts at all of us, “What?! That’s it?! C’mon! That’s too low!”
We all ordered another round.
Then he picks up the check. We were all grateful because he didn’t have to do it.
From his fearless honesty to his picking up a large check, he really didn’t have to do any of it, but he did because that’s who he is.
Dale Hansen is retiring, not dying.
Love him or hate him, we’re all going to miss our market’s favorite four-letter word.
This story was originally published September 2, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
