At first glance, it is an odd fit. That is probably why everyone has an opinion about Pat McAfee becoming a Disney employee. It was announced earlier this week at the Disney Upfront presentation that his popular digital show is coming to ESPN and its YouTube channel.
I wanted to hear what McAfee’s peers had to say about the move. I reached out to hosts and personalities across the sports landscape. What I found was a sort of “all or nothing” reaction.
Ian Rapoport is a rarity. He kept his comments short. He makes regular appearances on the show and told me that he wants to celebrate his friends’ victory.
“I’m so so happy for Pat and the boys,” he told me in a text message. “They deserve every bit of this!”
For everyone else, I either heard a lot or nothing at all. Very little in between.
So I decided to open things up a bit. The perspectives of people that have been on McAfee’s side of deals like this are important, but so are the people that have insight into the past and present of sports media. I added reporters that are well-sourced and have an analytical mind to the call sheet.
What I got back were complicated and nuanced opinions. Even if the people that responded have nothing but good things to say about Pat McAfee moving to ESPN, they have a lot to say and it is all worth considering.
I reached out to Paul Finebaum, because he has already done what McAfee is about to. He took a show that was already popular and successful on its own and moved it under the Disney umbrella. For Finebaum, it was the SEC Network, which has been the home of his radio show, which is syndicated across the South, since 2013.
“It’s a challenge because there are so many more people involved, but I think Pat will easily overcome the issues,” he said in an email. “He is the most authentic and unique talent to come along in a generation.”
Challenge or not, to Bryan Curtis, the move makes a lot of sense. Forget how Pat McAfee would play with the rest of the Disney portfolio. He is exactly what ESPN is looking for these days.
“McAfee is a classic Jimmy Pitaro free-agent signing,” the Editor-at-Large of The Ringer and host of the site’s media podcast The Pressbox told me.“Huge name. Big audience. Top-of-the-market salary (never mind the layoffs). The most interesting thing Pitaro has done is take John Skipper’s vision of a network made up of a big group of medium-to-high wattage stars and change it into a network made up of a small group of mega-mega-stars. Now ESPN has one more.”
Ben Strauss covers media for The Washington Post. In Jimmy Pitaro’s tenure atop ESPN, the network has added the NHL, Troy Aikman and Joe Buck. It has secured its future with the SEC and NFL. Still, Strauss told me this deal stands out.
“For ESPN, it’s easily their biggest content swing in the Pitaro era outside of live sports and it certainly makes their daily lineup more varied, and probably more interesting.”
Strauss adds that he doesn’t think McAfee is susceptible to landing in hot water with ESPN bosses. That means we can probably expect the nuts and bolts of his show to remain unchanged.
“What other big names have gotten in trouble for is politics and being overly critical of the leagues. McAfee hasn’t shown much interest in politics but what happens when Roger Goodell or an NFL owner does something stupid?”
Doug Gottlieb is now at FOX, but he was once an ESPN employee. He sees Pat McAfee as a smart investment to boost the reach and impact of the network’s own digital products.
In terms of the fit, Gottlieb doesn’t worry about McAfee’s personality at all. He is curious about how the show fits ESPN’s content philosophy.
“I do wonder what his topics will look like as his show is not produced like an ESPN show at all,” he told me in a text. “It wanders in terms of topics and discussion at times and is completely set to his and his crew’s personalities. Do ESPN viewers care? What we were taught, and frankly still execute with so many ex-ESPNers at Fox, is to pick topics with the widest set of ears/eyes.”
ESPN isn’t immune from criticism and speculation with the move. Gottlieb pointed out that there will be plenty of people that openly wonder how ESPN is being forced to layoff so many long-tenured employees if it has the money to lure someone like Pat McAfee away from a lucrative deal with FanDuel.
“This is a business and my guess is Pat will make ESPN money day 1. Otherwise why do it?”
Michael McCarthy, who covers the industry for Front Office Sports, jokes that ESPN needs to keep its mute button handy to make sure it avoids any consequences of McAfee’s language. Overall though, there is little to criticize.
“I see it as a win-win,” he says. “McAfee gets the distribution and marketing power of ESPN, and the Worldwide Leader lands the hot personality and creates a loaded weekday lineup of Get Up, First Take and The Pat McAfee show.”
The questions surrounding the relationship all go back to the same theme. How much does Disney want to police McAfee, and how much is Pat willing to bend for his new bosses?
“McAfee does what McAfee wants. He’s emphasized that he is not going to be different, which means ESPN might need to do things differently,” Andrew Marchand wrote in his Monday Sports+ newsletter.
He added that McAfee will have his own rules. That isn’t uncommon at Jimmy Pitaro’s ESPN, but the network, even under Pitaro, hasn’t always been as accommodating to talents like that as it thinks it can be.
“Over its history, ESPN has had many big-opinion, successful, ‘I do it my way’ types, from Bill Simmons to Keith Olbermann to Dan Le Batard. Each had success. None of their runs ended smoothly.”
There is an elephant in the room with Pat McAfee, Strauss told me.
“McAfee has bounced around a fair bit from different media companies during his brief but meteoric rise, so can ESPN keep him happy in all facets of the partnership?”
Keeping Pat McAfee happy is at the core of Doug Gottlieb’s question too. McAfee gave up his role on Smackdown when he started with College GameDay, but that doesn’t mean he never wants to work with the WWE again. Nick Khan, the WWE’s CEO even said recently that the company hopes McAfee wants to return someday.
“I guess my only question is will Pat not be able to do WWE events anymore?” Gottlieb asked. “Nick Khan and WWE are building a monster and it helps grow his audience and visibility, but ESPN likely will shut that down. Is he really good with that?”
That to me seems like the most valid concern. McAfee values being able to do what he wants with who he wants. I am sure Disney knows that and the two have worked out an agreement, or at least an understanding. Now, sometimes two sides can think they are on the same page and do not find out that isn’t true until a potential opportunity becomes real opportunity.
On Wednesday, McAfee asked his audience to have a little faith. He said they can trust that he laid out to Disney why the show has worked, and what they need to do, and not do to ensure it keeps working. Inside the industry, it sounds like there is optimism, but it might come with a raised eyebrow.
