ESPN Executive’s Pat McAfee’s On-Air Slams Shows a Network Power Shift
As it transitions from a television company to a streaming company, ESPN is undergoing a rapid transformation. But if the extraordinary events of the past week are any indication, the transformation of corporate culture is just as seismic.
For decades, ESPN was the biggest star at ESPN. A long list of its best-known employees — like Keith Olbermann, Bill Simmons and Dan Le Batard — clashed with executives, and the story always ended the same way: Those employees left and ESPN moved on.
But last week, Pat McAfee, the Indianapolis Colts gambler turned new media shock jock and ESPN star, directly criticized a powerful executive at the Disney Network by name, calling him a “rat.” Not only was Mr. McAfee not fired, he was apparently not punished at all, shocking current and former ESPN executives and employees.
“We know that in the ESPN and Disney universe, there is no more offensive crime than host-on-host crime, or talent-on-talent crime,” said Jemele Hill, a former “SportsCenter” anchor who told ESPN left in 2018 after sparring with executives, said last week.
To complicate matters further, Aaron Rodgers, the New York Jets quarterback and a regular paid guest on McAfee’s daily afternoon talk show, said days earlier during an appearance that many people, “including Jimmy Kimmel,” were hoping for a The court would not make public a list of associates of Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier and registered sex offender.
Mr. Kimmel’s late-night talk show airs on ABC, which Disney also owns.
Previously, executives at ESPN’s headquarters in Bristol, Conn., considered publicly criticizing a colleague as practically the worst thing an employee could do.
Tony Kornheiser was taken off air for two weeks for making comments about Hannah Storm’s clothing. Mr. Simmons was suspended from social media twice, once for a feud with an ESPN radio station and another time for criticizing the network’s popular show “First Take.” Mr Olbermann was suspended for going on Comedy Central and calling Bristol a “God forsaken place”.
But Mr. McAfee’s great escape has shed light on his unusual arrangement with ESPN, which licenses but does not own his show. It also illustrates the bind ESPN executives find themselves in by giving Mr. McAfee more power as the company transitions from the cable era it dominated to the streaming and social media era it has so far entered with less success.
Mr. McAfee is both an ESPN employee appearing on some of the college football and National Football League shows, and a contractor producing “The Pat McAfee Show,” which is shown for several hours on both the ESPN cable channel as the ESPN+ streaming service.
Mr. McAfee previously worked for the media company Barstool Sports, the sports betting company FanDuel and World Wrestling Entertainment, and came to ESPN with a large and loyal audience. His show is a freewheeling shoutfest reminiscent of Don Imus or Howard Stern, with a recurring cast of characters and way more swearing than ESPN allows most shows.
Last week he called Norby Williamson, who has been with ESPN since 1985 and is officially the editor-in-chief and head of event and studio productiona rat.” Mr. McAfee also accused him of leaking unflattering ratings for his show The New York Post.
“There are people actively trying to sabotage us from ESPN,” McAfee said on air. “More specifically, I believe Norby Williamson is the man who is trying to sabotage our program.”
In a statement last weekend, ESPN said positive things about both men, adding that the company would “handle this matter internally and would have no further comment.” Mr. McAfee and Mr. Williamson did not respond to messages seeking comment, and ESPN declined to make them or other executives available for an interview.
Then there is Mr. Rodgers, whose weekly appearances on Mr. McAfee’s show sometimes include anti-vaccine tirades and have become increasingly unpredictable. After Mr Kimmel – whose name was not on the Epstein list released by the court – threatened to sue Mr. Rodgers, Mr. McAfee apologized on his behalf, saying he thought Mr. Rodgers was just trying to rile up Mr. Kimmel as part of a petty feud between the two. Mr. Rodgers did not issue an apology when he appeared on the show Tuesday, saying instead that ESPN executives and others in the news media misinterpreted his comments.
Although Mr. McAfee appeared somewhat uncomfortable amid a clash between Mr. Rodgers and Mr. Kimmel, he made no apologies for his own criticism of Mr. Williamson. In fact, he repeated it.
“We love Burke Magnus,” Mr. McAfee said on his show Monday, naming a parade of top executives from ESPN and Disney who are more powerful than Mr. Williamson. ‘I love Burke Magnus. And also love Jimmy Pitaro. I love Bob Iger. But there is quite a transitional era here between old and new. And the old ones don’t like what the new ones do.”
Speaking about Mr Williamson, he added that he “didn’t take back anything I said about that person”, and that there were “just a few old witches” who didn’t understand what the future looked like.
Mr. Williamson has long been a powerful but divisive figure within ESPN. “The joke was that they couldn’t get rid of him, and now he has more power than ever,” Mr. Simmons said said on his podcast in 2017, comparing Mr. Williamson to Littlefinger, a power-hungry and Machiavellian character from “Game of Thrones.”
Mr. Williamson’s domain has long been “SportsCenter,” which he obsessively promotes within ESPN. While other top executives focus on big issues, Mr. Williamson is known for sending out emails focusing on the smallest tweaks to shows, and has a reputation for keeping a traditional, meat-and-potatoes version of “SportsCenter” focused on highlights.
It is not clear where the dispute between Mr Williamson and Mr McAfee started. Mr. McAfee’s arrival at the company relegated the afternoon show from “SportsCenter” to ESPN2, but otherwise the two operate in separate domains.
It could be that the battle is part of a larger battle for power within the network, and whether it should rest more with the radio talent or the executives.
Mr. McAfee is in the first year of a five-year deal reportedly paying him a total of $85 million. ESPN would not want to deal with the consequences of terminating that contract early, especially when Mr. McAfee is one of its star personalities and takes up hours of television time every day.
One possible reason why Mr. McAfee escaped punishment is that while Mr. Williamson had never been so publicly criticized by an ESPN employee, it was not the first time someone at the network had clashed with him and believed that he was undermined.
“These people ultimately did this to us, with a series of strategic, orchestrated leaks,” Mr Le Batard said. said Monday on his podcast, referring to his battles with Mr. Williamson and others, and his eventual departure from ESPN three years ago.
Mr. Le Batard once had a stark warning for employees like himself who chafed at ESPN’s restrictions. “Don’t leave ESPN, man,” he said on the radio in 2016. “ESPN is a monster platform that is responsible for all our successes.”
But in 2023, at least when it comes to Mr. McAfee, his opinion has changed.
“This is a man who has all his own power and rents it to them,” Mr. Le Batard said on his show. “It will be bigger when it leaves there, because it was too hot for Disney to handle, than it ever was before. He has nothing to fear here, and that should scare them to death.”