ESPN has issued a public response one day after Pat McAfee’s comments about top executive Norby Williamson.
On Friday, McAfee accused Williamson of trying to “sabotage” his ESPN show, even referring to him as a “rat” who was leaking negative information about the program. The network took a full day to respond, but said Saturday that the matter would be handled internally.
“No one is more committed to and invested in ESPN’s success than Norby Williamson,” the network said in its statement. “At the same time, we are thrilled with the multi-platform success that we have seen from the Pat McAfee Show across ESPN. We will handle this matter internally and have no further comment.”
The statement offers little clarity and suggests that the network still wants to try to make things work with McAfee. Whether that is plausible or not remains to be seen.
ESPN has had to do some cleanup work regarding McAfee lately, particularly over some recent comments made by regular show guest Aaron Rodgers. The network signed McAfee to an expensive contract in 2023, but one has to wonder whether the network will ultimately decide that he is not worth the trouble.
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