Patrick having a good time post-ESPN

Dan Patrick spent 18 years as one of ESPN's marquee personalities and thus one of the most visible faces in sports television.

Then he abruptly left in 2007, which Rick Reilly - then of Sports Illustrated, now of ESPN - at the time called one of the worst career moves in television history.

On Wednesday, it will be 2 1/2 years since Patrick's farewell on ESPN Radio. How's it going so far?

"I said when I left, wherever I was going and whatever I was doing, I was going to have fun again,'' he said Sunday from Vancouver, making it clear that fun was exactly what he was having.

At 53, Patrick has fashioned an eclectic post-ESPN career, including a radio show that is syndicated in 220 markets (though not in the New York area) and appears on DirecTV and the Internet. He writes a weekly page in Sports Illustrated and plays a key role on NBC's "Football Night in America.''

The renewed flexibility also has opened new doors. For example, he always wanted to work a Super Bowl. Presto: He hosted the trophy presentation last February on NBC.

And he always wanted to work an Olympic Games from the inside after doing peripheral coverage for CNN in Calgary in 1988.

Patrick planned to cover the Beijing Olympics, but he said ESPN still had a contractual right to limit him and asked NBC for added access to the Games as compensation. So Patrick backed out, figuring "it wasn't fair to NBC'' to push the issue. He called ESPN's stance "a little surprising and disheartening.''

This past weekend, he finally got his chance, covering the Opening Ceremonies on Friday and moguls skiing Saturday and Sunday.

"It was remarkable to be there,'' he said, marveling at the steep pitch of the course.

His visit was brief, though. On Monday, he was to fly home to Connecticut and host his radio show Tuesday. Why not stay in Vancouver?

"My heartwarming story ends Friday with hernia surgery and a colonoscopy,'' he said, which sounds like a joke but, alas, is not. "I've been looking in the paper for a two-for-one coupon.''

Patrick said ESPN is "still a great place'' and emphasized that his leaving the Bristol grind was an amicable parting. But he did fire a return shot at Reilly in '07 on Boomer Esiason's old MSG show, saying (correctly) that TV is something Reilly "doesn't do well.''

Patrick, by contrast, is in his element. He said he will host The Players Championship golf tournament and Stanley Cup Finals for NBC this spring.

After that, what's next on his bucket list? " 'Dancing with the Stars' or taking over for Simon Cowell ,'' he said jokingly (I think), before heading back to the Olympic hills.

"I'm just sort of picking things I hadn't done. I want to see the fun in it and challenge in it.''

Vancouver: Strong TV start

In a span of six days, the United States and Canada set national TV viewership records, the former for Super Bowl XLIV (an average of 106.5 million), the latter for the Olympics' Opening Ceremonies (13.3 million).

It's not surprising that Canadians are watching in droves, but the Games also are off to a good start south of the border.

Through Sunday, NBC was averaging 28.6 million viewers, up 25 percent from Turin in 2006.

The top two markets are Milwaukee, a winter sports haven, and Seattle, just south of Vancouver. New York ranks 40th among 55 markets measured, averaging 16.0 percent of homes.

Dead last, by far: New Orleans, where the Super Bowl party must still be going on.