As ESPN transitions from a television company to a streaming company, it is undergoing a rapid transformation. But if the extraordinary events of the past week are any indication, the transformation of its corporate culture is equally seismic.
For decades, ESPN's biggest star was ESPN. A long list of its best-known employees, such as Keith Olbermann, Bill Simmons and Dan Le Batard, clashed with executives, and the story always ended the same way: those employees left and ESPN continued operating.
But last week, Pat McAfee, the Indianapolis Colts punter turned new media jock and ESPN star, directly criticized a powerful executive at the Disney-owned network by name, calling him a “rat.” Not only was McAfee not fired, he apparently was not punished at all, surprising current and former ESPN executives and employees.
“We know there is no more offensive crime in the ESPN and Disney universe than host-on-host crime, or talent-on-talent crime,” said Jemele Hill, a former “SportsCenter” host who left ESPN in 2018 after coaching. with executives, he said last week.
To complicate matters further, days earlier, Aaron Rodgers, the New York Jets quarterback and a regular paid guest on Mr. McAfee's daily afternoon talk show, said during an appearance that many people, ” including Jimmy Kimmel,” they expected a The court did not make public a list of associates of Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier and registered sex offender.
Kimmel's late-night talk show airs on ABC, which is also owned by Disney.
It used to be that executives at ESPN headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut, considered publicly criticizing a colleague to be pretty much the worst thing an employee could do.
Tony Kornheiser was taken off the air for two weeks for commenting on Hannah Storm's outfit. Simmons was suspended twice from social media, once for feuding with an ESPN-owned radio station and once for criticizing the network's popular show “First Take.” Olbermann was suspended for appearing on Comedy Central and calling Bristol a “God-forsaken place.”
But McAfee's great escape has shed light on his unusual deal with ESPN, which licenses but does not own his show. It also illustrates the bind ESPN executives find themselves in empowering McAfee as the company is transitioning from the cable era it dominated to the streaming and social media era it has so far entered with less success. .
Mr. McAfee is both an employee of ESPN who appears on some of its college football and National Football League programs, as well as a contractor who produces “The Pat McAfee Show,” which airs for several hours on both the ESPN cable channel and the ESPN+ Streaming Service.
Mr. McAfee previously worked for media company Barstool Sports, sports betting company FanDuel and World Wrestling Entertainment, and came to ESPN with a large and loyal audience. His show is a free-for-all scream-fest reminiscent of Don Imus or Howard Stern, with a recurring cast of characters and a lot more swearing than ESPN allows on most shows.
Last week he called Norby Williamson, who has worked at ESPN since 1985 and is officially the executive editor and head of event and studio production, a “rat.” McAfee also accused him of leaking unflattering ratings data for his show to the New York Post.
“There are some people actively trying to sabotage us from within ESPN,” McAfee said on air. “More specifically, I think Norby Williamson is the guy trying to sabotage our program.”
In a statement issued over the weekend, ESPN had positive things to say about both men, adding that the company would “handle this matter internally and have no further comment.” McAfee and Williamson did not respond to messages seeking comment, and ESPN declined to make them or any executive available for an interview.
Then there's Rodgers, whose weekly appearances on McAfee's show sometimes include anti-vaccine rants and have become increasingly unpredictable. After Mr. Kimmel, whose name was not on the Epstein list released by the court, threatened to sue Mr. Rodgers, McAfee apologized on his behalf, more or less, saying he thought Rodgers was just trying to irritate Kimmel as part of a petty dispute between the two. Rodgers did not apologize when he appeared on the show Tuesday, but instead said that ESPN executives and other media outlets misinterpreted his comments. On Wednesday, McAfee said Rodgers would not appear on the show for the remainder of the NFL season.
While McAfee seemed somewhat uncomfortable in the middle of a confrontation between Rodgers and Kimmel, he did not apologize for his own criticism of Williamson. In fact, he reiterated it.
“We love Burke Magnus,” McAfee said on his show Monday, naming a parade of top ESPN and Disney executives who are more powerful than Williamson. “I love Burke Magnus. And I also love Jimmy Pitaro. I love Bob Iger. But here is a great era of transition between the old and the new. And the old people don't like what the new people do.”
Speaking of Mr Williamson, he added that he did not take back “anything I said about said person” and that there were “just some old hags” who did not understand what the future was like.
Williamson has long been a powerful but divisive figure within ESPN. “The joke was that they couldn't get rid of him, and now he has more power than ever,” Simmons said on his podcast in 2017, comparing Williamson to Littlefinger, a Machiavellian, power-hungry character from “Game of Thrones.”
Mr. Williamson's domain has long been “SportsCenter,” which he promotes obsessively within ESPN. While other top executives focus on big-picture issues, Williamson is known for sending emails focusing on the smallest adjustments to programs, and he has a reputation for liking a traditional version of “SportsCenter” focused on highlights. .
It is unclear where the dispute between Williamson and McAfee may have started. Mr. McAfee's arrival at the company relegated the midday broadcast of “SportsCenter” to ESPN2 from ESPN, but the two otherwise operate in separate domains.
It may be that the fight is part of a broader struggle over power within the network, and whether it should fall more directly to on-air talent or executives.
McAfee is in the first year of a five-year deal that reportedly pays him a total of $85 million. ESPN wouldn't want to deal with the consequences of ending that contract prematurely, especially when Mr. McAfee is one of its star personalities and takes up hours of television daily.
One possible reason McAfee escaped punishment is that while Williamson had never been criticized so publicly by an ESPN employee, it wasn't the first time someone at the network had clashed with him and believed he was undermining them.
“These people did this to us in the end, with a series of strategic and orchestrated leaks,” Le Batard said. said Monday on his podcast, referring to his battles with Williamson and others, and his eventual departure from ESPN three years ago.
Le Batard once gave a stern warning to employees, like himself, who chafed at ESPN's restrictions. “Don't leave ESPN, man,” he said on the radio in 2016. “ESPN is a monster platform that is responsible for all of our successes.”
But in 2023, at least as far as McAfee is concerned, his opinion has changed.
“This is a guy who has all his own power and he rents it to you,” Le Batard said on his show. “He'll be bigger by the time he gets out of there, because he was too hot for Disney to handle, than at any time before. He has nothing to fear here, and that has to scare the hell out of them.”
