The sports analyst accuses the network's top honcho Norby Williamson of trying to bring his show down while praising ESPN for being 'hospitable' despite Aaron Rodgers' 'dumb' comment on the YouTube series.
- Jan 6, 2024
AceShowbiz - Pat McAfee has accused a top ESPN executive of "trying to sabotage" his show following the Jimmy Kimmel-Aaron Rodgers drama. In a new episode of his YouTube series, the sports analyst called Norby Williamson a "rat" for allegedly trying to bring his show down.
In the Friday, January 5 episode of "The Pat McAfee Show", the host once again addressed the aftermath of Rodgers' comments in a previous episode of his show. "We're very appreciative, and we understand that more people are watching this show than ever before," he said of fans' reactions. "We're very thankful for the ESPN folks for being very hospitable."
While he claimed the network is supportive of him and his show, McAfee believes that at least one person doesn't like his program. "Now, there are some people actively trying to sabotage us from within ESPN - more specifically, I believe, Norby Williamson is the guy who is attempting to sabotage our program," he began pointing finger.
"I'm not 100 percent sure," the 36-year-old clarified, explaining, "That is just seemingly the only human that has information, and then that information gets leaked, and it's wrong, and it sets a narrative of what our show is."
"Are we just gonna combat that from a rat every time? I don't know," he continued, claiming there was one instance where somebody "tried to get ahead of our actual ratings release with wrong numbers 12 hours beforehand."
McAfee said it's been "happening basically this entire season from some people who didn't necessarily love the old addition of The Pat McAfee Show to the ESPN family." He added, "There's a lot of those. It's always little things to try to tear us down."
He went on calling out Williamson, "So, even with the enemy within our own camp - I don't like that guy. That guy left me in his office for 45 minutes, no-showed me in 2018. So, this guy has had zero respect for me; and in return, same thing back to him for a long time."
McAfee's allegation against Williamson comes after ESPN spoke on Rodgers' controversial remarks about Kimmel. Slamming the athlete, the network said in a statement on Friday, "Aaron made a dumb and factually inaccurate joke about Jimmy Kimmel. It should never have happened. We all realized that in the moment."
Despite the apology, Rodgers is still expected to make a weekly appearance throughout the rest of the football season on "The Pat McAfee Show". The NFL star is paid millions to appear every Tuesday on the show.
