Pat McAfee Isn’t Taking Anything Back After Blasting ESPN Executive
After publicly accusing longtime ESPN executive Norby Williamson of trying to “sabotage” his show, ESPN star Pat McAfee isn’t backing down.
In the last hour of his ESPN show, which doesn’t air on linear cable, McAfee took aim at Norbison, accusing the executive of intentionally leaking wrong information to the media outlets in order to make his show look bad.
“There are some people actively trying to sabotage us from within ESPN,” McAfee said on Friday. “More specifically, I believe Norby Williamson is the guy who is attempting to sabotage our program.”
Norbison, McAfee concluded, was “the only human that has that information. And then somehow that information gets leaked, and it’s wrong. And then it sets a narrative of what our show is.”
McAfee Doesn’t Back Down
After having some time to cool down, McAfee addressed his Friday comments on today’s show, noting that while he did not take anything back, he did feel bad for the position it put ESPN’s president of content, Burk Magnus, in.
“There was some comments about a particular person at ESPN that I only made on the YouTube and ESPN+ show. It wasn’t on linear TV,” McAfee said. “I didn’t know anyone was going to hear it.”
When noting that his comments were a “topic of discussion” over the weekend, he said he was “super bummed out about” how Magnus was made to look bad because of what I did and how I did it.”
McAfee Says His Relationship With ESPN Is “Strong”
After noting that he “loved” several ESPN executives, including Magnus, Jimmy Pitaro (the network’s chairman), and Disney CEO Bob Iger, McAfee once again took aim at Williamson.
“But there’s quite a transition era here between the old and the new,” McAfee said.
“Now there’s certainly people that we don’t like and they don’t like us,” McAfee continued. “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 … is that we’re strong, baby.”
ESPN’s Response
Following McAfee’s initial comments, ESPN publically defended Willaimson while also touting McAfee’s success.
“No one is more committed to and invested in ESPN’s success than Norby Williamson,” an ESPN spokesperson said in a statement. “At the same time, we are thrilled with the multi-platform success that we have seen from the ‘Pat McAfee Show’ across ESPN. We will handle this matter internally and have no further comment.”
While McAfee is publically praising ESPN, and the matter seems to be put to rest, the tension between the “old” and the “new” will continue. Whether or not ESPN embraces the sometimes controversial McAfee, along with his younger audience, remains to be seen.
Thanks for visiting MickeyBlog.com! Want to go to Disney? For a FREE quote on your next Disney vacation, please fill out the form below and one of the agents from MickeyTravels, a Diamond level Authorized Disney Vacation Planner, will be in touch soon! Also, thanks for reading!