There was a time when Todd McShay almost didn’t end up at ESPN and could’ve had a completely different career path.
McShay was a guest this week on The Ryen Russillo Podcast where they talked about their humble beginnings. McShay started out working for Gary Horton and what eventually became “Scouts Inc.”
But Todd McShay said a career in sports media wasn’t what he was after initially.
“Ultimately I got into it to go up the chain and become a general manager,” he said. “That’s what I wanted to do. I wanted nothing to do with television, nothing to do with radio.”
When the time came for McShay to figure out his next move in 2006, he said he was at a crossroads. He could either venture into sports media and work for ESPN, or he could get a job in the NFL. It turned out that a life in the NFL wasn’t meant to be.
“At that point, I’m like, ‘I’ve seen this thing through I can go work for the Browns or the Jets’ – those were the two teams I was talking to – or I can see this through,” he said. “I had an opportunity to go (to New York) in a very high-ranking position, and then ESPN came back and said, ‘You know what, we’re going to give you a six-year deal.’ So the timing was never there, but it’s the one thing I’ve missed in my professional career.”
Todd McShay eventually joined ESPN and ESPN Radio. But it was the conversations with his contacts already in the NFL that convinced him to go into media.
“They were like, ‘Dude I haven’t been home in four months. I’ve been traveling around from like Omaha, Nebraska to Kansas and all over the country in my car. You should see the back of my car with McDonald’s and Burger King and all this shit,'” he said. “‘Stay where you are it’s a better life.'”
McShay recalled telling Urban Meyer he’s come to enjoy what he’s doing in the media space, but there’s no real competition aspect to it. He yearns for the thrill of victory.
“That’s the hard part about what we do,” McShay said. “There’s just no winning, no losing.”
