A lot was written last week about ESPN’s relationship with Pat McAfee. In the wake of Aaron Rodgers once again turning the show into a forum for his “guess what Joe Rogan retweeted today” brand of independent thought, many an internet scribe pontificated on the corner ESPN has painted itself into by getting into business with someone it never should have in the first place.
Those pieces all missed the mark entirely. ESPN does have a Pat McAfee problem, but it isn’t the one they think. The problem is that rather than bringing McAfee in and letting him coexist inside of the ESPN ecosystem, the ESPN ecosystem is trying to be more like McAfee. It makes McAfee feel less unique, and it cheapens the appeal and reputation of those established talents and shows.
No one at ESPN could have been caught off-guard by Aaron Rodgers saying something stupid about the Covid-19 vaccine to keep his name in the news. For the last two years, the guy has been going through the lamest midlife crisis we have ever seen and he has done it all in public on McAfee’s show. ESPN not only knew it would be part of the deal of bringing McAfee aboard, it being part of the deal is likely a big reason Jimmy Pitaro, Bob Iger and others judged The Pat McAfee Show to be a good investment.
Andrew Marchand’s story about Rodgers receiving around $1 million for his weekly appearances is not a problem. The dollar amount is absurd, but the practice of paying for regular interviews is pretty common in our business. Radio stations do it all the time as Jason Barrett thoroughly outlined on Friday. McAfee’s segments with Rodgers routinely produce clicks and headlines. ESPN could rightfully argue that McAfee is making a wiser version of the same kind of investments that Barrett did in his days as a programmer.
ESPN could let these things happen and still be ESPN. McAfee’s show is a licensed product. The network’s biggest problem with the interview and Aaron Rodgers proposing a debate about public health between one doctor and three normal, uneducated dudes had nothing to do with McAfee. It was Adam Schefter tweeting the video out with the headline “the potential next great American debate.”
Schefter gets paid a lot of money by ESPN to have credibility. His value is in the trust the audience has that if Schefter is reporting it or saying it, it must be true. That tweet damages Schefter’s credibility.
Anything tweeted by Schefter, Adrian Wojnarowski, Jeff Passan and other insiders is loaded. Participating in or promoting this stunt makes Schefter look foolish. A debate about the Covid vaccine featuring two NFL players and occurring long after most of America has made up its mind one way or the other is not going to happen and if it did, would likely attract next to no attention. The whole concept is goofy. Schefter looks goofy for playing along and makes ESPN look goofy by extension.
Ian Rapaport spent years proving there is a way to go on McAfee’s show, be a regular contributor and not do damage to yourself or your reputation with the audience. The show is fun and has a lot of wacky morning zoo elements to it, but McAfee and his crew regularly do serious football talk. Rapaport would go on to have serious football conversations with the understanding that things likely would get derailed. He let himself enjoy the circus. He never volunteered to swing on the trapeze.
McAfee’s constant barrage of cuss words isn’t a problem for ESPN either. Is it shocking to hear words like “shit” and “asshole” on the network? Absolutely! It’s a major policy shift for ESPN and Disney. But the network addressed this head on, putting the show on a delay and establishing that its only request to McAfee about his language was to dial back the F bombs.
Going into business with Pat McAfee means you want Pat McAfee to be Pat McAfee, and guess what? Pat McAfee likes to cuss. The problem for ESPN is it has other stars trying to be Pat McAfee.
Maybe some people found Mike Greenberg going on the show and saying “let’s f***ing go” to the news that Aaron Rodgers is thinking about possibly trying to see if he can potentially play again this season charming. I go back to the same word I used for Schefter. It was goofy, a transparent attempt to create a “moment” for social media. Moreover, it damages the brand Greenberg has built for himself and that ESPN has more than doubled-down on.
Greenberg is seen more as a host than a personality. Going back to the Mike & Mike days, it was Golic that was the goofball living his life on the air. Greenberg was the straight man. You got details of his life, but it was to set up the story from Golic that would get the big laugh.
ESPN values Greenberg as the steady ship in the storm. He is the anchor that the chaos of the NFL Draft, Get Up and NBA Countdown can unfold around. His talent is providing the nuanced point that sets Rex Ryan off or asking the question that allows Stephen A. Smith to make a bombastic statement.
It doesn’t mean Greenberg isn’t allowed to have fun. It means that there is value in being the stick in the mud to make the fun guys seem more fun.
If McAfee has presented any problem for ESPN, it’s on College GameDay. The words “Pat” and “McAfee” do not appear anywhere in the title, and yet his weird fight with Washington State has completely changed what the show is and does well. Honestly, it is the thing that at 42 and a good 30 years into College GameDay being a part of my Saturday routine, made me decide that I wasn’t missing anything important by skipping the show each week.
I’m not a pro wrestling fan, but that is only because I am not a fan of the sport itself. I think the show around the action is entertaining at the least and exhilarating at its best. McAfee brings that energy to College GameDay and it is great for a live show. Giving the crowd someone to cheer or boo just for their mere presence plays really well for the people that have stood around for hours to watch people talk into a microphone in person. On TV though, that energy has turned a show that was built on celebrating every aspect of college football into an entity that seems to genuinely resent that it has to cover the entire sport.
Awful Announcing’s Sean Keely wrote a great column about this earlier this month declaring McAfee punching down on a team without a conference after this season as a prime example of how College GameDay can be “college football’s biggest cheerleader and biggest bully”. Washington State, a fanbase whose participation and reverence for the show has been one of College GameDay’s great constants virtually since it started going on the road, has been turned into persona non grata by the new guy. What audience is that for and what does it accomplish?
This all reads like I hate Pat McAfee and think ESPN made a mistake. Nothing could be further from the truth. I think McAfee is a tremendous talent and I understand the value he brings to ESPN.
Aaron Rodgers is a deeply unserious person. It isn’t Pat McAfee’s job to scold him for that. If McAfee is going to have him on, it is McAfee’s job to turn Aaron Rodgers into content that keeps people interested in his show.
ESPN hired Pat McAfee to be Pat McAfee and to do what Pat McAfee does. It was an element the network did not have that had an appeal to a different audience in multiple spaces. It did not hire McAfee to serve as a model for a full makeover of the network and its top personalities. If the network has not communicated that clearly to Schefter, Greenberg and the College GameDay cast, then that is ESPN’s real Pat McAfee problem.
Demetri Ravanos is a columnist and features writer for Barrett Media. He is also the creator of The Sports Podcast Festival, and a previous host on the Chewing Clock and Media Noise podcasts. He occasionally fills in on stations across the Carolinas in addition to hosting Panthers and College Football podcasts. His radio resume includes stops at WAVH and WZEW in Mobile, AL, WBPT in Birmingham, AL and WBBB, WPTK and WDNC in Raleigh, NC.
You can find him on Twitter @DemetriRavanos or reach him by email at DemetriTheGreek@gmail.com.
