Pat McAfee: Relationship with ESPN Is Strong, But...

When ESPN placed a big bet on a new star, Pat McAfee, to bring in young audiences with an edgy brand of sports-talk programming, the network knew the appointment carried risks. And in recent days, they have been apparent, reports The Wall Street Journal. 

McAfee, an F-bomb-throwing former NFL punter whose show made its debut on ESPN in September, has been on the defensive since an appearance last week by New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers. Rodgers, a recurring guest on McAfee’s show, implied during the show that ABC talk show host Jimmy Kimmel had ties with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, accusations that Kimmel denied.

McAfee and ESPN have both apologized for the incident, but McAfee also accused people within the network of trying to sabotage his show, specifically calling out Norby Williamson, a high-ranking ESPN executive. Those comments led ESPN to issue a statement of support to both McAfee and Williamson, vowing to handle the matter internally. 

“A lot of people are saying I’m trying to get fired; no way,” McAfee said on his show Monday, ahead of the college football playoff championship game, which is among ESPN’s most-watched events of the year. He described his relationship with ESPN as strong, but said he didn’t “take back anything that I said about said person.”

Pat McAfee

The kerfuffle shows the risks of betting on larger-than-life personalities to stay relevant in the streaming era, where viewers have myriad options and have become quite fickle.

Last year, ESPN reached a deal to license McAfee’s YouTube show for five years for more than $85 million. The move was seen as a sign the network was willing to go outside its comfort zone.

Then last week, during a conversation with McAfee about a list of names of people associated with Epstein, Rodgers said: “There’s a lot of people, including Jimmy Kimmel, who are really hoping that doesn’t come out.”

Kimmel denied the allegations and threatened legal action: “Your reckless words put my family in danger. Keep it up and we will debate the facts further in court,” he wrote on X on Jan 2.

“Aaron made a dumb and factually inaccurate joke about Jimmy Kimmel,” said Mike Foss, senior vice president of studio and digital production at ESPN on Friday.

On Monday, when asked about the comments during a press conference, Rodgers said he would discuss the matter on McAfee’s show Tuesday, a week after his initial comments. “Tune in,” Rodgers said.

This wasn’t the first time Rodgers had said something controversial on McAfee’s show. During a 2021 appearance, Rodgers told McAfee he was opposed to Covid-19 vaccines and was unvaccinated.