ESPN’s Pat McAfee unexpectedly went on a blistering rant against his employer during the latest edition of his show today.
Pat McAfee is in the second year of a five-year, $85 million deal he signed with the Worldwide Leader in Sports in May 2023. The network has essentially given McAfee total freedom on his show, and the former NFL punter took advantage of that privilege on Tuesday.
ESPN published the first portion of its list of the top 100 professional athletes of the 21st century, numbers 100 to 51. The network will release the names of the top 50 throughout the week.
During Tuesday’s edition of “The Pat McAfee Show”, the popular sports personality ranted against his employer’s decision to run out a top 100 list:
“Now, there is a top 100 list that is coming out from ESPN people. And I’ll tell you what, it is the epitome of everything that everybody hates about ESPN. What they chose to do, in ranking the top 100 athletes of the 21st century, they only gave us 50 to 100 yesterday. What a s**t show. What an absolute terrible list.”
Also Read: Pat McAfee Posts Mysterious Message On “X” After Going On Hiatus, And Fans Are Totally Confused
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This isn’t the first time where Pat McAfee openly criticized ESPN during an episode of his popular program. In January, he stated that people within the company were trying to sabotage his show.
He also ripped the network for giving the Pat Tillman Award to Prince Harry at this year’s ESPYs. McAfee said questioned the decision and accused of purposely trying to enrage others by giving the honors to Harry.
Pat McAfee Can Get Away With Public Criticism Of ESPN
It is hard to fathom that anyone with a platform as big as McAfee’s would be allowed to publicly rip on their employers.
But there’s no reason to believe that Pat McAfee’s job with ESPN is in jeopardy, even with his habitual criticism of the company. The network knew what they were signing up for, and McAfee drives ratings (hundreds of thousands of viewers per episode) more than most other sports personalities.
At the end of the day, an outspoken and strong personality like McAfee is good for sports media business. ESPN paid McAfee top dollar to score big ratings for them, and he hasn’t at all disappointed on that front.
