Pat McAfee claimed he identified early in his partnership with ESPN that some people in the company were actively working to ruin him.
Amid the media frenzy that came from Aaron Rodgers’ comments about Jimmy Kimmel on The Pat McAfee Show, McAfee started an entirely new fire when he accused company Vice President Norby Williamson of trying to “sabotage” his show. According to McAfee, Williamson was responsible for multiple leaks that had been reported at the time. McAfee doubled down on it days later.
Speaking on the All The Smoke podcast, McAfee explained how the tension with Williamson began years ago.
“That guy left me sitting in his office for 45 minutes,” McAfee said of the Williamson. “No-showed me when I was supposed to have a meeting with him five years ago, six years ago.”
That wasn’t the end of it. Prior to the ESPN deal, when McAfee was still just streaming his show on YouTube every weekday, Williamson banned ESPN talent from appearing on the show. This included insider Jeff Passan and analyst Dan Orlovsky. In response, McAfee started the online hashtag “#ESPNStinks.” That got the attention of former ESPN President Jimmy Pataro, who reached out in an attempt to resolve the issue with McAfee.
McAfee’s show runs noon-2 p.m. on ESPN, with the final hour streaming on YouTube. Before his arrival, that two-hour block on ESPN was reserved for SportsCenter. Because of this, he said, a “war’ began between him and the people behind SportsCenter.
“[We] get the ESPN deal done, I’m like, ‘This is awesome,”” McAfee said. “We joined the ESPN team. So lucky to be here. We get access. And then immediately, it’s like, ‘This guy sucks. This guy’s ruining ESPN.’ And it’s not coming from people outside ESPN. It’s coming from people within ESPN; and I did not expect that at all. So, I’m immediately like, ‘OK, I’m at war.’
“And then once you start learning about how shit’s going behind scenes, things that are being said to people, things that are being leaked, the timing in which they’re being leaked, it’s like, ‘Oh, they’re trying to kill me.’ They’re trying to make our show impossible to advertise with. They’re trying to make sure people don’t watch our show.”
That’s when McAfee took his stand and called out Williamson with what he called a “warning shot.”
“That wasn’t even supposed to be a [big deal],” McAfee said in reference to his on-air comments. “And then, obviously, it goes big. I heard from — this is no lie — no less than like 40 people that have worked at ESPN or used to work at ESPN and they were like, ‘Thank you for saying what you said.’
“If I really crafted a statement about that, I could’ve said something much better.”
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