After calling Boomer Esiason a “pu**y” for telling Olympians to shut up and skate, Mike Ryan admitted he reached a breaking point in the rant, but that doesn’t alter his larger point.

Last week, Esiason casually claimed athletes representing the United States at the Olympics should “pipe down” and “respect the flag” during his WFAN radio show. Although Esiason didn’t name any specific athletes, his comment came shortly after freestyle skier Hunter Hess was asked about what it means to represent the United States at the Winter Games. The Olympian admitted he has “mixed emotions” about it.

Ryan heard Esiason’s comment and went off last week, calling the former NFL MVP a “p*ssy” while urging him to “say what you mean, say it with your chest, you chickens**t.” Esiason was off Friday and unable to respond to Ryan, but his co-host, Gregg Giannotti, did, saying the rant from a producer on The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz seemed misguided.

“What it seemed like to me was this is a lot of misguided anger…I sit next to Boomer five days a week, four hours a day. I wish he would say what he meant less, to be honest with you.” Gregg Giannotti responds to Mike Ryan rant on Boomer Esiason https://t.co/ocaZWVHH3N pic.twitter.com/EZmmditAOb

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) February 13, 2026

“This guy is very angry politically about things that are going on,” Giannotti guessed. “Maybe there’s people in his life or others that he has stayed silent about, but then this Boomer thing comes across his plate and he all of a sudden just explodes.”

And after listening to Giannotti’s rebuttal Monday morning, Ryan called it a “fair” response, while admitting there was some truth to his assessment of the rant.

Boomer Esiason represents the double standard of political discourse in sports pic.twitter.com/fWgAfkHIlp

— Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz (@LeBatardShow) February 17, 2026

“What was outlined was something that was factual in that I did reach a breaking point,” Ryan said. “And Boomer was an amalgamation of a lot of people, like Boomer and Boomer himself included, that wade into these waters just to scold what is obviously opposition. Because Boomer does not have these takes when the UFC is on.”

Ryan went on to note how it’s becoming hard to be a sports fan without being exposed to Donald Trump. The current president has inserted himself into NFL broadcasts, attends UFC events, took a lap at the Daytona 500, and even accepted a bogus peace prize award from FIFA at the World Cup final draw.

“And for Boomer Esiason and others like him to only venture into these waters when someone says something pretty innocuous, you want to talk about a triggered snowflake? The Olympian was asked a question, and all he said was, ‘I feel conflicted.’ And yet, that’s when you decide to inject politics into the conversation,” Ryan continued. “Because that’s when you don’t want sports and politics to mesh.”

“I respect other people’s opinions because I have to sit there and take it when it comes to sports; we can disagree,” Ryan said. “But if you’re just trying to shut up one side because it makes you feel better and it helps you sleep at night, that’s where I take issue with it.”

Esiason’s “shut up and dribble” style take, directed at Olympic athletes for sharing some of their concerns about the United States, was tired, and Ryan was right to point that out. Where Ryan opened himself up for criticism, however, was by accusing Esiason of not saying what he means. Because Esiason rarely has an issue sharing an opinion, even if it might garner pushback. But even if part of Ryan’s rant stemmed from hitting a breaking point, it doesn’t change his larger argument and highlights the hypocrisy in anyone who tells an athlete to “pipe down” for sharing a differing political opinion.