ESPN pay cuts?

Pat McAfee is relieved Pat McAfee won’t be inviting Aaron Rodgers on Pat McAfee’e show for the rest of the season.

This guy is something, isn’t he? Like he had no agency in last week to get Rodgers off the air.

 

Jim Rome may have been what kept me alive in August 2002 as I drove back from Jags training camp daily to my desk shift in Valdosta on half the sleep I needed. I think most of us Gen X dudes had that moment in time when he was right in our wheelhouse.

 

Aaron Rodgers Is Back on Pat McAfee’s Show a Day After Host Said He Was Done for Season

 

Of course.

What is McAfee’s appeal? I see Jim Rome comments on this thread, and he did some dumb shit of his own, but he had some bits, some wordplay, interviews with Eric Musselman, wherever he happened to be at that moment. Katie Nolan is legitimately funny. Bomani Jones is legitimately sharp in his worldview, whether I agree with him or not, and I like listening to him.

What is McAfee’s appeal? Obviously he has some verifiable draw or ESPN wouldn’t have given him all the money. But who is that character he plays? Where does that guy live? He acts and dresses like a stooge but he’s an expert? A sleeveless sports Colombo? The only person I could think of that, yeah, fits this Pat McAfee is, like, Sugar Ray. Or Carrot Top.

I could scan the catalogue of people I know and pick out the Portnoy types. I don’t think Dave is playing a character, and I know men, in my extended family life, who live through a month like a Portnoy type would.

The only McAfees I’d know are deliberate characters. “Tiger Joe.” “Dan The Diehard Dawg.” Whatever. Put ons. Every time I watch the guy I feel like I’m watching a put on saying obvious things.

And maybe people want that. They must.

 

Also possible at this point in its history ESPN has no idea what it's doing.

 

A lesson I have learned is that plenty of companies beyond journalism don’t know what they’re doing either, and not just mom and pop joints.

 

Yeah, but they thought they did in hiring McAfee.

 

This seems pretty seismic.

 

Bob Ley weeps.

As if they way they hype ESPNBets as part of SportsCenter isn't bad enough...

 

Oh good. There’s not nearly enough NFL on ESPN these days.

 

You spend a good piece of your life gripping the NFL and in the end it turns out that it was the other way around all the time.

 

Its funny because I remember the ridiculous amounts of money ESPN paid the NFL just for extended highlights! And this was long after ESPN was firmly established.