Pat McAfee accuses ESPN executive of sabotaging his show

On a Friday broadcast of “The Pat McAfee Show,” the sports commentator said ESPN’s head of studio production was leaking false information about the show to media.

Pat McAfee, the sports-talk sensation who has found life working for the “Worldwide Leader in Sports” can be more complicated than hosting his own YouTube show, has accused his new business partners of purposefully undermining him and his show. On a Friday broadcast of “The Pat McAfee Show,” the former NFL punter and current muscle-shirt-wearing broadcaster said that ESPN head of studio production Norby Williamson was leaking false information about the show to media. “There are some people actively trying to sabotage us from within ESPN,” McAfee said. “More specifically I believe Norby Williamson is the guy who is attempting to sabotage our program.” McAfee is a bit of a loose cannon who has been allowed to curse and veer into strongly opinionated areas from which other ESPN hosts and guests are generally barred. He recently found himself in the middle of a firestorm when guest Aaron Rodgers, the Jets quarterback who has often shared various conspiracy theories, suggested that comedian Jimmy Kimmel’s name might appear on the list that has been released over the course of the past week related to associates of Jeffrey Epstein, who died by suicide in jail while awaiting federal sex-trafficking charges in 2019. Kimmel, who like McAfee is paid by Disney, erupted in anger in a heated response on X, formerly known as Twitter. McAfee apologized Wednesday. Rodgers has not commented. On Thursday, the New York Post noted that McAfee’s TV ratings are lower than his lead-in, suggesting the rating are perhaps not high enough to justify the $85 million contract the Post reported ESPN has paid him to air his show. Although the report didn’t cite any unnamed sources, McAfee said on his show Friday he believed Williamson was behind the report and others in the media.