In an insightful interview, the former punter, kickoff specialist and now famed media personality analyst, Pat McAfee has recently discussed the controversy that earlier surrounded his show around Norby Williamson, ESPN executive.
The media giant, ESPN, had last year committed to pay $85 million to McAfee to air his show on the network for five years. In one of the episodes of Showtime’s All the Smoke podcast, which is co hosted by the former NBA talents, Stephen Jackson and Matt Barnes, McAfee revealed his opinions regarding what had happened.
He was also asked if he faced counterblast for his remarks, the acclaimed personality revealed that he was not sure and then shared as per Front Office Sports, "I report directly to [ESPN president] Jimmy [Pitaro] and [Disney CEO] Bob [Iger]. 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."
Throughout the episode, McAfee made a point of praising ESPN"s president of content, Burke Magnus. The analyst has also on several occasions praised Magnus for his vision and partnership. McAfee did not name Williamson outright but made himself clear who he was referring to by mentioning a few key points.
In January, Pat McAfee accused ESPN executive Norby Williamson of attempting to sabotage his program.
He describes those comments as "a warning shot."
MORE » https://t.co/ZztCpVEGAZ pic.twitter.com/yWNnHzyMe6
— Front Office Sports (@FOS) February 29, 2024
He also mentioned as per the report that a plethora of people at the network are wary of Williamson but he is not. McAfee also shared an incident five to six years back when he was left waiting by Williamson in his office for forty-five minutes. The distinguished host shared that he still remembers the experience.
He also added that the media giant has also prohibited some other talented individuals from coming on his show and some of them are baseball insider Jeff Passan, and NFL insider Dan Orlovsky and Matt Hasselbeck. After getting ESPN President Jeff Pitaro’s attention through his hashtag, "#ESPNstinks" McAfee was able to resolve the situation as Pitaro asked him how they can move further, surpassing this problem.
McAfee also stated that after he came to the network the internal response and retaliation felt like he was in a "war". The former talented punter also felt that the ratings of the show were getting affected and the sponsors were hard to come by.
After McAfee made his remarks against Williamson, the analyst shared that "roughly 40" former and current employees of the network contacted him and showed appreciation. However, McAfee also regretted his remarks made to Williamson as they also shadowed his relationship with both Pitaro and Magnus with whom he shares good relations.
He mentioned via FOS, "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. 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."
