Cowherd Used Manziel and Bayless to Rip Dan Patrick and The Danettes

"You can't start a fire without a spark." That's what Bruce Springsteen says in his song "Dancing in the Dark."

Johnny Manziel and Skip Bayless provided the spark for Colin Cowherd to light a fire and refuel an old feud.

On Monday morning, it was reported thatJohnny Manziel had entered rehab. On top of discussing Pete Carroll's questionable play-calling and Brady and Belichick's legacies after the Super Bowl, Manziel's entrance into treatment gave talk show hosts material to work with.

Colin Cowherd of The Herd on ESPN Radio gave his thoughts about the Manziel news on Monday, and made sure to include fellow ESPN colleague, Skip Bayless, in his commentary.

Bayless called Manziel an alcoholic on an episode of First Take. With alcoholic being a clinical term, Skip took a lot of criticism from many (including myself). In the end, Bayless used the wrong words, but, believe or not, he was right that Manziel probably had a problem.

There is a part of me that sympathizes with Cowherd and Bayless. Skip's parents were alcoholics and Colin had his bouts with alcohol and he says his father had a drinking problem as well.

But while there is sympathy, Cowherd loses most of us later in his monologue.

While giving Skip Bayless credit, Cowherd decided to tell his listeners about the sports personalities he respected (Bayless, Jim Rome) and gave himself credit for his hard work.

With that, he had an opening to take a jab at Dan Patrick and his staff, saying that the talk show host and former ESPN Radio host had "marginal talent" and needed 35 producers to fill a segment.

Cowherd saw his chance to rip Patrick, and he took it.

On Tuesday's Dan Patrick Show, Dan decided to address it after friends and colleagues brought it up during the show. Rich Eisen of the NFL Network and a friend and former co-worker of Patrick's at ESPN, came to his defense.

Patrick was not afraid to let Cowherd know how he felt about the comments.

A lot to take away from Patrick's comments. He did not hold back for one. He and Cowherd have been feuding for some time.

It goes back to 2012. Patrick called Cowherd out for ripping off questions about football and concussions that he had asked Kurt Warner during an interview. Some say their feuding goes back to when Dan was with ESPN. I'll just leave it to speculation at this point.

The person at fault for this feud being refueled is Cowherd. 

Cowherd has taken jabs at Dan Patrick and his radio show without referring to him by name. This time, Colin decided to give his adversary an unflattering shout-out on his show Monday.

As Patrick stated, all of the things he does outside of his radio show could make all of us disregard Cowherd's comments.

NBC had coverage of Super Bowl XLIX this year. Patrick works with the Sunday Night Football crew and hosts Football Night in America. He presented the Lombardi Trophy to the Patriots that evening in Glendale, Arizona. After doing his postgame duties, he took a red eye flight across the country to New York and was on the air at 9am Monday for his radio show. Yeah, he's really lazy, Colin.

In sports talk radio, all hosts like to present their shows differently.

After leaving ESPN and started his own radio show, which he did from the attic of his house in Milford, Connecticut for some time, Patrick landed a deal with DirecTV and their flagship channel, Audience Network, to televise the show from a "man cave" built above a bar in the town. The show has also been televised on regional Fox Sports Networks around the country, and now on the NBC Sports Network.

Dan makes his staff, which consists of Producers, Paul Pabst and Todd Fritz, Director of Operations, Seton O'Connor and show blogger, Andrew "McLovin" Perloff, a part of the show.

Can anyone who listens to Cowherd name his producers and board operator without looking it up?

Unlike other radio shows, televised or not, producers and board operators are kept behind the scenes (I am currently that guy).

Patrick, who credits The Howard Stern Show for the inspiration to include the "Danettes" in his show, gives them a voice and a chance to contribute to the show, and like Stern, will make fun of them in a lighthearted manner, and will even make fun of himself.

Cowherd once did SportsNation with Michelle Beadle and for a short time, Charissa Thompson, and does his football show simply named Colin's Football Show during the season. A little extra on top of his 10am-1pm weekday radio show, but still a lighter schedule than Patrick's, which also includes hosting Sports Jeopardy and contributing as a columnist for Sports Illustrated on top of his radio show and NBC hosting duties.

In a way, The Dan Patrick Show has changed the way we see radio shows that are syndicated on television.

Let's face it, most of the radio shows we see are just filler for the schedules of sports cable channels. Cowherd's show is mainly a single shot of him doing his show. Same goes for Mike Francesa on Fox Sports 1 and Boomer and Carton on CBS Sports Network to name some others.

The Dan Patrick Show pads NBC Sports Network's morning schedule. But with Patrick, who is an acclaimed interviewer, listener interaction, and segments like "Against the Grain," "Five Good Soccer Seconds," "Mock Headlines" and "Stat of the Day," courtesy of the Danettes, all give the show an extra boost over its competition, which is mainly Cowherd at that time.

Also, if you've been around long enough to listen to several different sports shows, egos are also at play with most hosts around the country. It's the factor that gives most of the industry a bad name and the title of the lowest form of sports commentary in the media.

Ego took over for Cowherd. He exploited the Johnny Manziel story and Skip Bayless being right about something, for once, and used it to attack Dan Patrick out of the blue.

This feud will blow over quickly, but it does show the ridiculous pettiness of the business at times.