ESPN
The 81st Golden Globe Awards
Pat McAfee is standing firm on his claims that an ESPN executive was “trying to sabotage” his show.
The football commentator addressed his remarks from Friday’s show on Monday’s episode of The Pat McAfee Show, which airs its first two hours on ESPN, followed by a third hour on ESPN+ and his YouTube channel.
“There was some comments about a particular person at ESPN that I made only on the YouTube and ESPN+ show,” McAfee said after giving ESPN a shoutout for “setting us pretty good” to cover the college football National Championship. “That wasn’t even on linear TV. I didn’t know anybody was going to hear it because it was just on digital.”
McAfee aired his grievances on Friday’s episode against Norby Williamson, who the ESPN analyst accused of leaking information that “sets a narrative of what our show is.” With headlines about McAfee’s claims being reported, the former NFL player said he was “super bummed out about” ESPN’s president of content Burke Magnus “was made to look bad because of what I did and how I did it.”
“I would like everybody to know — we love Burke Magnus,” McAfee added. “And also love Jimmy Pitaro. Love [Disney CEO] Bob Iger.”
He continued, “But there’s quite a transition era here between the old and the new. And the old don’t like what the newby do.”
McAfee also addressed comments that he was “trying to get fired” from the sports network, saying, “No way!”
He also noted that “there’s certainly people that we don’t like and they do not like us. That’s how it’s going to be and I don’t take back anything I said about said person. But the overall storyline about us and ESPN, I think people need to remember, is that we’re strong, baby. And we all understand what the future looks like, there’s just some old hags that potentially don’t.”
ESPN had previously released a statement saying that they would “handle this matter internally” and had no comment about McAfee’s claims, adding that “no one is more committed to and invested” in the success of the network than Williamson.
