Danny Parkins’ career goal was to be a Dan in Chicago. As in McNeil or Bernstein, the guys he listened to in his car driving around the suburbs.
The New Trier grad’s dream was to be an afternoon drive sports radio host in Chicago. It was a difficult goal, but one that he accomplished by his early 30s.
Typically, when you make it in Chicago in a sports media job, you stay in Chicago. What’s next is another contract and a stable life.
That was the plan for Parkins. And then someone decided to put him on TV from coast to coast in every airport, barber shop and car dealership.
He did his last shift on 670 The Score two weeks ago and in a New York minute, he’s living out of a hotel in Times Square and is co-hosting the first episode of “Breakfast Ball” on FS1, which debuts Monday.
The three-person show, which is part of a shuffled weekday lineup, includes longtime New York radio host Craig Carton and former NFL player turned ubiquitous talking head Mark Schlereth.
Get to know the boys of Breakfast Ball ☀️
The show premiers Monday, 8/26, at 12P ET on @FS1…you won’t want to miss it 📺👀 pic.twitter.com/sVsXXwiJj6
— Breakfast Ball (@BrkfstBallOnFS1) August 23, 2024
Two months ago, this would’ve been fan fiction on a niche message board. Now, it’s reality.
“Crazy, man, crazy,” Parkins said in a phone conversation last Friday. “I met Carton Tuesday and met Schlereth Wednesday. Rehearsals Thursday and Friday, on the air Monday.”
“Breakfast Ball” will actually air its first week during lunchtime while it takes Colin Cowherd’s spot while he’s on vacation. Then, starting Labor Day, it will slot in at 8-10 a.m. ET.
No word on when the name change takes place, as “Breakfast Ball” sounds like something a network executive wrote down as a placeholder and forgot to change.
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Parkins had appeared on his buddy Nick Wright’s New York-based FS1 show “First Things First” before and then got a chance to guest host for Cowherd on July 8-9 out in Los Angeles. That was when he started to get an inkling that FS1 was interested in him more than just sporadic appearances.
“When they asked me to fill in for Colin, I am not an idiot, I knew that they liked me,” he said.
After he finished that stint, they didn’t bring up specific dates for a follow-up appearance, instead telling him “give us a few weeks and we’ll be in touch.”
“I really had no idea and then I heard from them a few weeks later and they asked if I’d be willing to move,” he said. “And I said, ‘Yeah, I’d be willing to move for a really big opportunity. But I’ve got my dream job.’ And they said, ‘We would never ask you to move if it wasn’t for a really big opportunity.’”
Danny Parkins (right) tried to lure Manny Machado to the Cubs early in his Chicago radio career. (David Banks / Getty Images)
Like everyone with a job in a big market in the sports media industry, Parkins was just searching for some side hustle gigs. He and former radio partner Matt Spiegel were getting regular work on the Cubs’ TV network. That kind of thing.
Now he’s a national TV guy.
“I was supposed to be off the week after the radiothon,” Parkins said Friday of the 24-hour fundraiser he hosted on 670 The Score the week before. “My friends are at a golf trip in Sand Valley right now that I planned. I was supposed to be taking a week’s vacation from the radio show before football season starts to just kind of decompress and chill. And instead, I’m in a hotel room in New York by myself, without my wife and kids, rehearsing for a TV show. This was not the plan.”
The previous two years were the most difficult of Parkins’ life. He lost his father, Tom, to dementia in November 2022 and his older brother Brad to glioblastoma around Easter in 2023. And just as he had found a new equilibrium, his life is changing again. But in a good way.
His wife and two kids are working on a move to New York while Parkins tries to figure out how to create TV magic early in the morning with two new co-workers.
Carton was a major star in New York City sports radio who lost it all with a gambling scandal. After time in jail, he made his comeback on WFAN and then got an offer to be a TV host for FS1. Schlereth won three Super Bowls (with Washington and Denver) and then built a lucrative second career in the media.
When we talked on Friday, Parkins was raving about their rehearsals. We’ll see what FS1 die-hards think about it starting this week.
I figured Parkins or Carton would be running the show, but Parkins said Schlereth will be the one bringing them in and out of breaks and teeing up the topics.
“So it’s me and (Carton) kind of reacting and going back and forth with Schlereth as the expert,” Parkins said. “We’ve kind of thought about it as ‘Stink’ is the oldest brother who has the experience, Craig’s the middle brother who says the crazy s— and is hilarious, and I’m the smart-ass younger brother who thinks he knows everything. We’ll just kind of talk sports and banter and do whatever.”
But as one sports-bantering show begins for Parkins, another one had to end. The “Parkins & Spiegel Show” wasn’t just a commercial success for 670 The Score. It was a fun listen as well. The quartet that made it up (producers Shane Riordan and Chris Tannehill and hosts Parkins and Spiegel) became close friends along the way.
“It was a bummer to break up what we had because it became a very special show with very, very special chemistry,” Parkins said. “Obviously, it creates uncertainty for all three of them on varying levels. So we weren’t popping champagne, you know what I mean? But they were all immediately very happy and supportive of me.”
Now that he’s freed from the shackles of mediocre-t0-bad Chicago sports teams, Parkins will have no problem talking about the NFL every show all year long. And if you’re looking for a little more Chicago flavor on a national TV show, don’t worry, it won’t be all Aaron Rodgers and Dak Prescott on “Breakfast Ball.” Just like 75 percent.
“Caleb Williams was in the A block yesterday and in the B block (Friday),” he said of rehearsals. “I will be talking Bears damn near every day on the show during football season because they matter.”
But the question is: Will “Breakfast Ball” matter in a crowded sports-talk space? And what kind of show will it be?
“People keep thinking about these shows that it’s a debate show because of what Skip (Bayless) did 10 years ago,” he said. “If people actually watch, like if you watch Nick’s show, it’s just three dudes who like each other that are talking sports. That’s all it is now. It doesn’t mean you don’t have big opinions. It doesn’t mean you don’t talk Cowboys. But none of it is contrived debate.”
I’ll do more than take his word for it. While I’ve never intentionally watched an FS1 show, given my respect for Parkins, I’ll actually (try to) watch this one. And you know what? I’ll even put the sound on.
(Photo of Danny Parkins: Courtesy of Parkins)
