Pat McAfee is now officially in a class of his own when it comes to today’s new-age sports media landscape.
The former Indianapolis Colts punter began a podcast after his long NFL career and has changed the way sports media is looked at, consumed and set the stage for shows like New Heights with the Kelce brothers and an an informal, funny yet informative, behind-the-scenes glimpse into everything NFL and college football.
But it seems like McAfee — in a media landscape where any little slip can get someone cancelled — has all of the power and can’t be controlled no matter what.
This was evident when he recently called out one of the top executives by name publicly, Pat McAfee didn’t hold back when voicing his displeasure with top ESPN exec Norby Williamson publicly, who has apparently been less than thrilled about the content he’s bringing to the airwaves of the World Wide Leader and was called out by the hottest name in sports media for apparently leaking misleading ratings information.
McAfee has a unique contract He works as a talent for College GameDay and a weekly guest on First Take, but his Pat McAfee Show airs on ESPN through a separate licensing agreement. That has led to some clashes with management, including most notably Norby Williamson. .
McAfee also stood by NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers after Rodgers alluded to Jimmy Kimmel being connected with child trafficker Jeffrey Epstein earlier this year. McAfee’s arrival has been an abrupt departure from the buttoned-up image president Jimmy Pitaro tried to cultivate since taking over in 2017.
Stephen A. Smith chimed in on the addition of Pat McAfee at ESPN on a recent episode of “Bussin with the Boys” featuring former NFL players Will Compton and Taylor Lewan.
“I love Pat McAfee, love him to death. I love his swag; I love the fact that he’s an honest brother. He don’t give a s*** … That’s my kind of dude,” Smith said. “That works for me.”
Pat McAfee Doubles Down On ESPN Beef In Recent Interview, Says He ‘Don’t Got A Motherf***ing Boss’
In a revealing interview on the All the Smoke podcast, cohosted by retired NBA players Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson, McAfee weighed in on the controversy that put him and his show in a public dispute with Norby Williamson at the sports network, which in 2023 committed to paying McAfee $85 million over five years to air his program. (A clip of the podcast episode was released late Tuesday; the full episode will post Thursday morning.)
When asked whether he faced backlash for his comments, the former Colts punter turned radio host and commentator said he wasn’t sure and then weighed in on his situation with the network.
“I report directly to president] Jimmy [Pitaro] and [Disney CEO] Bob [Iger],” McAfee said on the episode. “I saw [media reporting] ‘Pat calls out his boss.’ I don’t got a motherf***ing boss. What are we …? We talking Jimmy Pitaro or Bob Iger? Like, is that who we’re talking about? Because those are people that could technically be described as my boss.”
Pat McAfee went out of his way multiple times in the episode to compliment Burke Magnus, ESPN’s president of content, for both their relationship and his vision. In a clip that was shared late Wednesday,
McAfee never named Williamson directly, but he made clear through certain details who he was talking about, going on to say that plenty of ESPN employees fear Williamson, but that he does not.
The 36-year-old McAfee also recalled a story from, he said, five to six years ago in which Williamson no-showed McAfee in his office and left him waiting for 45 minutes. McAfee said he has an elephant’s memory and never forgot the experience.
McAfee added that the network had banned certain notable on-air talents from coming on his show, including NFL insiders Matt Hasselbeck and Dan Orlovsky, and baseball insider Jeff Passan, each of whom he had previous relationships with before any of them worked for the mothership.
Only after McAfee started a hashtag to get Pitaro’s attention, #ESPNstinks, did Pitaro asked McAfee how to rectify the situation. McAfee told Pitaro about the ban.
McAfee said the drama and internal backlash behind the scenes after he arrived surprised him and made him feel like “I’m in war.” Without naming names, he said that the network made it harder for his show to land advertisers and hurt its ratings, saying, “Hey suits, this is not how this is going to go.”
After Pat McAfee called out Williamson earlier this year, he said “roughly 40” former and current employees reached out to him and thanked him for doing so.
Expressing some regret about the situation, McAfee did not foresee how much traction his Williamson comments got and was apologetic over the backlash Pitaro and Magnus received despite being “allies.”
“I genuinely did not expect it to get as big as it did because I didn’t think I said anything that was like that crazy,” McAfee said. “You know what I mean? … Like if I really wanted to saw a motherf***er down, I thought I could have done it in a much bigger way. And I did not. So I was actually pretty proud of myself. I was like, Look at me, I’m an adult. And then it got loud.”