"I trusted him. He believed in me tirelessly. He put me front and center with everything. I've never had an executive believe in me as much as he did."
"There’s a lot of people I would love to work with, but doing something with Paul would have been great... This was in the works for a long time, so a big chunk of the last eight months was developing this show."
He then mentioned that he believes Ryan truly still has "the coaching bug", sharing that he wouldn't be shocked if Ryan coached again, but is unlikely to leave ESPN for the Broncos at the current time.
“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.”
“If the audience rises, the advertising increases, and your brand gains significant value, which leads to a major deal with the industry's largest sports media company, why would you even think a key contributor wouldn't be paid let alone not expect a fortune to appear?”
Pat McAfee has a large following. He’s grown that following by having high-profile interviews with players like Aaron Rodgers and now Alabama head coach...
"Where do you draw the line and say, 'okay, there's got to be some time when you can talk to your team and say what you have to say, and it's really not for everybody else to hear'?”
"There’s a lot of people I would love to work with, but doing something with Paul would have been great... This was in the works for a long time, so a big chunk of the last eight months was developing this show."
"What I saw was part circus, part radio festival, and part New England sports fans reunion. I couldn't help but sit there and think about how radio should be taking notes."