Pat McAfee is an ESPN employee. He doesn’t do radio for the company, but come football season, he is on the payroll and making regular appearances on both Get Up! and College Gameday. If anyone hosting radio shows for another company were immune to ESPN’s usual policy of not letting their talent appear on other networks, it’s reasonable to think it would be him.
Turns out no one is immune.
During his SiriusXM show on Friday, McAfee revealed that ESPN talent had been barred from appearing with him on Mad Dog Sports Radio. AJ Hawk asked McAfee how he found out it was a company decision. The former punter responded that he was told by a third party.
McAfee and his crew mourned the fact that Dan Orlovsky, Rex Ryan, Dianna Russini, and Jeff Passan couldn’t be part of the show anymore.
He also mentioned that this could end up going both ways. McAfee said that he spent “a million dollars traveling around the country working for that company” and added that if ESPN people can’t be on his show anymore, maybe he wouldn’t be on ESPN shows anymore.
Hawk asked McAfee if this was a new policy. He pointed out that it has only been recently that ESPN has allowed its personalities to appear on platforms not owned by Disney. When Hawk asked if this was a sweeping edict in Bristol, McAfee laughed and said “I do believe this show was singled out.”
Disney standing in the way of ESPN talent appearing on local stations and shows not affiliated with ESPN Radio is nothing new. Still, it is curious that McAfee is in this situation. As mentioned above, he makes regular appearances on the network during football season. He was also courted by ESPN Radio just last year. With no official comment from ESPN as to why this decision was made, McAfee and his listeners are left to speculate.
