Patrick v. Reilly.

After trading jobs, Dan Patrick and Rick Reilly are trading barbs.

On the Boomer Esiason Show, Patrick, now of Sports Illustrated, made several interesting comments about his colleague Reilly, now of ESPN. When asked by Esaison whether or not he felt hurt by Reilly’s comments that leaving ESPN was “the worst career move ever made“, Patrick did not mince his words, saying “[Reilly] doesn’t know the inner workings because I don’t talk about the money. He talks about money. There’s a big difference. If he knew the inner workings, then Rick would probably rewrite what he said.”

Also in the interview, Patrick had no qualms about judging Reilly’s talent, matter-of-factly stating that “[Reilly] doesn’t do [television] well … Rick can’t host SportsCenter. He can’t do the NBA.”

Esiason: “Why would you leave such a great job and such a great opportunity?“

Patrick: “Well, I likened it to going to high school for eighteen years. And then I decided to go to college. And I would not have been able to go to college without ESPN, and it afforded me the luxury to be able to do something different, do it on my own, and then pick and choose what I wanted to do. And I think ESPN is a tremendous and powerful brand, but it became my identity. ‘Hey, you’re the SportsCenter guy.’ I wanted to do radio, I’m gonna work for Sports Illustrated, I’ll pick and choose what I want to do with TV — so its just an opportunity to be a free agent.”

Esiason: “Kind of interesting, your buddy Rick Reilly of Sports Illustrated who now is going to ESPN, got a nice big contract. Are you bothered by the contract he got from them?“

Patrick: “No, not at all. … I view it as supply and demand. They wanted Rick Reilly, they were going to get Rick Reilly.”

Esiason: “So … you go to Sports Illustrated, for their SI.com as well, and you’re going to do some blogging for them on their website. … It seems to me that that’s so much smaller than what ESPN was.”

Patrick: “I guess, if you look at it from just Sports Illustrated. But lets say I went and did NBC. Let’s say I worked for CBS. And you coupled that with Sports Illustrated. … If you add the pieces to it, then it can be just as big, if not bigger [than ESPN].”

Esiason: “Kind of interesting, because Rick Reilly basically said its one of the worst career moves anybody ever made. I mean, did that hurt you when he said that?“

Patrick: “No. Because, Rick’s gonna go do TV, and this is something he doesn’t do well, but he wants to try to do it. As far as writing goes, you know, Rick is one of the greatest columnists of all time. And people want to make this into a swap. Rick can’t host SportsCenter. He can’t do the NBA. … But for him to say the worst move, well, I counseled him in taking the job and he counseled me in the job at Sports Illustrated. He doesn’t know the inner workings because I don’t talk about the money. He talks about money. There’s a big difference. If he knew the inner workings, then Rick would probably rewrite what he said.”

Esiason: “They’re going to grind him, aren’t they?“

Patrick: “Oh, absolutely. I told him. I said, welcome to the car wash. You’re going to ESPN, you know, I’ll see you in a couple of days, when you come up for air.”