Pat McAfee reignited his feud with ESPN executive Norby Williamson in a podcast episode this week.
The former Indianapolis Colts punter, who hosts the popular "Pat McAfee Show," appeared on the "All the Smoke" podcast, hosted by former NBA stars Stephen Jackson and Matt Barnes, and broke down his war of words with Williamson. He described his initial comments as a "warning shot."
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McAfee’s feud with Williamson came as New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers continued his own rivalry with late-night host Jimmy Kimmel after making a Jeffrey Epstein-related dig at the comedian. McAfee said in January that Williamson was trying to "sabotage" the show.
However, as he explained to Barnes and Jackson, McAfee said he is the executive producer of his show, and he reports to ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro and Disney CEO Bob Iger.
"I report directly to Jimmy and Bob," he said. "I saw (reports), ‘Pat calls out his boss.’ I don’t got a motherf---ing boss. … We talking Jimmy Pitaro or Bob Iger? Like, is that who we’re talking about? Because those are people that could technically be described as my boss."
McAfee described what he believed to be a war brewing when he arrived at ESPN. He said the network briefly banned his friends, who worked for the company, to appear on his show before Pitaro reached out to smooth things over. Then, when he and his team arrived, he said replacing the 12 p.m. ET "SportsCenter" caused a rift.
"I’m a fan of ‘SportsCenter.’ We all watched ‘SportsCenter.’ But there became like a war almost from behind the scenes from, like, ‘SportsCenter’ people and, like, people who have been at ESPN a long time against us coming in and ‘taking their jobs.’ And all this other s--- and I didn’t see it like that," McAfee said.
"We were, like, pumped we made it to the big leagues. That’s how I viewed it."
ESPN declined to comment on McAfee's remarks.
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