Pat McAfee is leaving his FanDuel deal behind to join ESPN, with Andrew Marchand of the New York Post breaking the news this week.
McAfee has one of the most popular football shows on the internet and inked a lucrative deal with the aforementioned sportsbook to the tune of $120 million in 2021. But he’s set to leave that behind to potentially make a lot less money.
A newsletter coming from Joe Pompliano has shed some light on the thinking behind the decision, which admittedly left a lot of McAfee’s fans baffled.
According to the above, the former NFL placekicker just welcomed his first child into the world and wants to scale things back as it pertains to his workload. Given that he runs his own show, there’s a lot of work that goes into it apart from speaking.
While he’s hired people to help with production and other things, Pat still does a lot himself as he’s the sole owner of his company, stuff that ESPN will take care of for him once he’s there.
On the financial side, McAfee is expected to make a lot less than $30 million a year at ESPN. Stephen A. Smith is the highest-paid employee on the network, so Pat is probably going to make around $15 million thereabout.
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However, the $30 million he gets on a yearly basis still has to cover production costs, salaries, travel expenses, office space, talent fees, and whatever other expenses are necessary.
There’s also the fact that having his show on The Worldwide Leader In Sports would open him up to an even larger audience as it will reach 74 million homes while being broadcast at various other locations such as restaurants, bars, and gyms.
Considering all of the aforementioned, it doesn’t seem like that bad of a deal.
