Pat McAfee has responded to the backlash he has received in the wake of ESPN’s massive layoffs.
On Friday, the Worldwide Leader in Sports laid off a plethora of well-known and popular on-air personalities. This included 27-year veteran Suzy Kolber, Jeff Van Gundy, Jalen Rose, Todd McShay, Matt Hasselbeck, Steve Young,, Keyshawn Johnson and Max Kellerman.
Back in February, Disney CEO Bob Iger announced that they’d be cutting 7,000 jobs as a way to save billions of dollars. Despite this, ESPN handed McAfee a lucrative five-year deal worth $85 million.
Many fans expressed anger and disappointment on Twitter over ESPN’s decision to pay McAfee top dollar while letting so many key talents go.The former NFL punter responded to that backlash with a statement posted on Twitter, which you can read below:
McAfee, of course, had absolutely nothing to do with the ESPN layoffs here. Iger warned of massive layoffs coming several months before the network wound up signing McAfee away from FanDuel.
But it’s also easy to understand why so many sports fans are frustrated with ESPN’s decision-making. It’s going to be difficult for the Worldwide Leader in Sports to make up for the losses of many special talents, especially veterans like Kolber, Van Gundy and Kellerman.
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McAfee is one of the most popular names in sports media right now. The price to land him may have been hefty, but he promises to deliver strong ratings for the network.
