The relationship between ESPN and host Pat McAfee is becoming strained, with a familiar name yet again emerging at the center of the conflict.
On his eponymous show Friday, McAfee accused ESPN executive Norby Williamson of attempting to sabotage him by leaking negative ratings data to the New York Post. The Post on Thursday published an article suggesting that McAfee was not generating sufficient viewership to justify the bad press occasionally generated by his show, which began airing on ESPN in September.
After crediting ESPN for being hospitable to his show, McAfee said there “are some people actively trying to sabotage us from within ESPN. More specifically, Norby Williamson is the guy who is attempting to sabotage our program.” He added that Williamson is a “rat” and “an enemy within our own camp” for whom he has no respect.
The McAfee news cycle began earlier this week when New York Jets QB Aaron Rodgers — making his usual weekly guest appearance on the McAfee show — implied that ABC late night host Jimmy Kimmel was associated with Jeffrey Epstein, an infamous criminal whose relationships with public figures have been the subject of considerable speculation. The suggestion was met with a forceful denial by Kimmel and a wave of a criticism for both Rodgers and McAfee. ESPN on Friday apologized for the incident.
Williamson has been at the center of virtually every major talent-related controversy at ESPN in recent years, from the exits of then-SportsCenter anchors Jemele Hill and Michael Smith in 2017 — reportedly quipping, “one down, one to go” after Hill’s departure — to the disastrous Rachel Nichols-Maria Taylor controversy four year later. As his influence has grown in recent years within ESPN, the company has parted ways with virtually every nonconformist personality in its employ (outside of Stephen A. Smith) — from Dan Le Batard, Bomani Jones and Michele Beadle to the aforementioned Hill, Smith and Nichols — shifting from unique, personality-driven programs to debate and studio shows.
While McAfee has a distinctly different fanbase than Le Batard, Jones and others, he and his show would seem to have more in common with those hosts and programs than with the programming preferred by Williamson.
McAfee is far from the first ESPN personality to criticize the long-tenured, increasingly powerful Williamson. In 2021, former ESPN PR person Keri Potts said that a New York Post scoop about ESPN’s NBA talent “smells like a Norby Williamson special. The framing. The subtle trashing of colleagues.”
ESPN, it should be noted, has fired employees for leaking to media outlets — specifically MLB host Adnan Virk for leaking details of ESPN’s MLB coverage plans to Awful Announcing in 2019.
