On Thursday morning, Andrew Marchand of The Athletic published an article in which he reported that ESPN NFL insider Adam Schefter had been “essentially banned” from The Pat McAfee Show after an incident that took place roughly three months ago. Marchand articulated that Schefter was not able to make his show while appearing on an ESPN2 free agency special, and he has not been on the show ever since. Within the story, it was also reported that McAfee has considered starting his own, independent iteration of College GameDay, how he deviates from traditional media personalities and his success in resonating with younger audiences.
McAfee briefly addressed the story on his program Thursday morning and reiterated previous discourse in which he called Marchand “a rat.” While he was writing for the New York Post, Marchand broke the news that McAfee had reached a deal with ESPN under which the network would license episodes of his show to be distributed across multiple platforms. McAfee also called out Marchand at ESPN Media Day last August, explaining that he made his life “hell for a bit” with some of the things he reported.
“I learned a lot about my business this morning in another article, which has been a great news,” McAfee said. “It seems like that happens all the time. I don’t know if this is just normal, par for the course. I guess it’s just life these days. There’s so many of them it’s hard to keep track of, but when that rat writes something, it is nice to just be like, ‘Well, that’s bulls**t,’ immediately.”
Earlier in the program, McAfee mentioned another story towards which he is tangentially involved related to the NBA. ESPN senior NBA insider Shams Charania has reported that Milwaukee Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo is open to exploring his long-term future with the team or playing elsewhere. Charania discussed the matter while appearing on McAfee’s show, and Antetokounmpo later tweeted if anyone missed Adrian Wojnarowski, who moved on from the insider role to join St. Bonaventure University as the general manager of its men’s basketball team.
“Oh, shut up Giannis,” McAfee replied. “We do not, okay. And this has happened before with the Jimmy Butler news in Miami. Shams gets tried because he’s a young buck, he looks younger than everybody else, and he’s new to this game in some people’s eyes. It’s like, ‘We’ll see, we’ll see.’ I think that’s Shams’ big thing. ‘We’ll see.’ A lot of these insiders know stuff before everybody else — that’s kind of their job — and there’s been plenty of times where insiders say something, and even the direct people that are part of it are like, ‘No, no, no,’ and then the insider just sits there and is like, ‘Okay.’
McAfee was at Gainbridge Fieldhouse on Wednesday night as the Indiana Pacers took a 2-1 lead over the Oklahoma City Thunder in the NBA Finals. While he was sitting in a suite with some of his colleagues, he cut a WWE-style promo that ignited the crowd and led to a 16-7 run for the team. Although linear television ratings for the NBA Finals have been down through the first two games, McAfee mentioned that he likes how NBA commissioner Adam Silver has contextualized the situation. Both games rank as the most-viewed television programs to air since the first week of May, but it nonetheless is the second time since 1988 in which neither game averaged 9 million viewers.
“When a transition era of linear and digital and social and everything else that’s taking place, it’s like the world is interested in this particular series because of how great the basketball is,” McAfee said. “Even though the numbers linear-wise aren’t as big, I guess, as it used to be, Adam Silver is like, ‘We’re in a great spot for where the current world is of entertainment,’ and if you watch this team, you can’t help but be entertained.”
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