Popular sport analyst and professional wrestling commentator, Pat McAfee, confirmed that he is leaving FanDuel, a flagship sports-tech entertainment company. According to the report from New York Post’s Andrew Marchand transferred by Yahoo Sports, the former NFL punter and kick-off specialist will continue his media career with ESPN, an American international cable sports channel owned by The Walt Disney Company and Hearst Communications.
Leaving $120 Million Contract Behind:
According to the report, McAfee is leaving the four-year $ 120 million contract with FanDuel in the second year of its performance achieved through the popular ”The Pat McAfee Show.” The details of the commentator’s deal with ESPN are still unknown but Marchand reportedly said that the value of the new contract exceeds eight figures. What is known is the information transferred by Yahoo Sports that McAfee is taking his entire team with him to the new venture.
”Eight-Figure” Transfer:
The main McAfee’s asset and the reason for the ”eight-figure” transfer is ”The Pat McAfee Show”, an extremely popular YouTube show featuring the commentator’s interviews with athletes and informal discussions about sports news. Under the new agreement, McAfee reportedly confirmed that the show will remain on ESPN’s YouTube channel, but will be also broadcasted on ESPN and ESPN+.
The Pat McAfee Show:
McAfee reportedly said in his recognize manner that he will ”not change a damn thing.” Yardbarker cited the Marchand’s report: ”It is expected to remain on YouTube in some form, but one or two hours of it could be on ESPN, where the network would more likely be able to make the math of McAfee’s deal work. ESPN executives had vowed to only do a deal if they thought it would make money for the company.”
The citation continued: ”When The Post reported last week that ESPN had emerged as the favorites for his services, McAfee said on his show that he is too dumb to change in response to some of his fans’ concerns about Mickey Mouse sanitizing the language and the vibe of McAfee and his crew.”
Changing the Language:
Despite McAfee’s firm promise, he reportedly announced a minor change of the show’s language which is not appropriate for daytime TV and the Disney-owned network. According to Yahoo Sports, McAfee said that him and his crew have decided ”that [they] won’t say f*** nearly as much, but every other word is good to go.”
Lucrative Deal:
McAfee pursued his media career in 2017 upon retirement from the eight-season long NFL career. He worked as a sports analyst with various media and joined FanDuel in 2021. Among other partnerships, McAfee was a contributor at ESPN and made regular appearances on “College GameDay,” television program covering college football. He apparently made such impression that ESPN now offered a highly lucrative deal in the middle of the extensive employee layoffs at Disney and ESPN.