WWE star Pat McAfee on Friday accused an ESPN executive of trying to “sabotage” his show from the aftermath of Aaron Rodgers implying Jimmy Kimmel would be on Epstein’s List,
On Friday’s episode of The Pat McAfee Show, the former NFL punter thanked the viewers and ESPN for their support.
According to McAfee, however, the support from ESPN hasn’t been unanimous. He then claimed Norby Williamson, the Executive Vice President of Studio and Event Production, deliberately tried to compromise the show by leaking information, and called him a ‘rat.’
“Now, there are some people actively trying to sabotage us from within ESPN,” McAfee said. “More specifically, I believe Norby Williamson is the guy who is attempting to sabotage our program. I’m not 100% sure. That is just seemingly the only human that has information; and then somehow that information gets leaked and it’s wrong, and then it sets a narrative of what our show is… Are we just gonna combat that from a rat every time? I don’t know.”
An example he gave was when ESPN announced his show’s ratings after its first few months on air.
“Somebody tried to get ahead of our actual ratings release with wrong numbers 12 hours beforehand,” he continued. “That’s a sabotage attempt, and 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. There’s a lot of those. We’ve heard them anonymously quoted in the Washington Post, in the New York Post, in The New York Times, in the L.A. Times, in Wall Street Journal.
“And they’re never like, ‘Yeah, love the show.’ It’s always little things to try to tear us down. 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. So, even with that taking place… we’re still growing somehow.”
McAfee and his show were already in hot water this week after Rodgers’ comments. When he appeared as a guest on the show Tuesday, Rodgers implied Kimmel would be mentioned in the newly released documents from the case of late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Kimmel threatened to sue Rodgers, and McAfee apologized the next day. Rodgers has not addressed the backlash.
