As Pat McAfee contemplates walking away from his $120 million deal with FanDuel, ESPN has emerged as the leading candidate to be the home for his daily online show, The Post has learned.
No deal has been finalized. McAfee did not return messages and ESPN declined comment.
McAfee, 36, has become a multi-platform sensation with “The Pat McAfee Show” on YouTube, his work as a WWE announcer and performer and as a “College GameDay” panelist, but now he is working toward a larger relationship with ESPN.
In addition to sources with knowledge of the situation saying ESPN is in the pole position, McAfee recently tweeted out a picture of a meeting he had with Disney CEO Bob Iger. On his show Monday, McAfee said he was up to something, which he said would be announced in the next 10 days. That timeline perfectly corresponds with Disney’s upfronts. Those announcements of Disney’s upcoming company-wide programming are scheduled for May 16.
The exact amount of money McAfee would earn in a deal is unknown, though it is expected to be in the range of eight figures per year. It may be less than the FanDuel deal of $30 million-plus a year he potentially would be walking away from.
Whatever the number is, it comes at a time when Disney, including ESPN, is shedding 7,000 jobs. It will be a difficult optic for those working at the company if the deal goes through.
In meetings, according to sources, ESPN executives have said that it would only do a McAfee deal if it pencils out and it can make money. ESPN will report its earnings, as a breakout division, in November, under Disney’s new structure that has been put in place with Iger’s return to the company.
Besides his daily show and GameDay, there are no exact details of how McAfee would be utilized at the company. McAfee also already has done alternative college football broadcasts for ESPN in conjunction with Peyton Manning’s Omaha Productions.
ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro is a believer in the “best available athlete” theory, meaning to bring in the top people and then make it work.
McAfee and his team will surely continue to do their three-hour daily program. It will likely be kept on YouTube, but it’s possible a component (maybe an hour) could be aired on ESPN. Placing it on linear TV would make it more feasible for the numbers to add up.
The role of his longtime friends, who contribute a lot to the show, would likely grow under the ESPN umbrella. ESPN’s Audio division, with podcasts, could be a place where it tries to expand “The Brand,” which is a slogan McAfee, who spent eight NFL seasons as a punter, has used during his post-playing career. Those type of deals also typically include ESPN+.
McAfee and his partners, who include former NFL Pro Bowl linebacker A.J. Hawk, have made it a point to be genuine.
“Can people please have faith that I am too dumb to change,” McAfee said on his program Tuesday, after The Post’s story was posted online. “You know what I mean? I understand that. It’s part of the conversation now. ‘Hey, this isn’t going to work.’ I’ll be excited to see how people react to the actual news.”
In March, The Post reported that McAfee might walk away from his $120 million FanDuel deal. He is in the midst of the second of four years on the contract. McAfee had removed the FanDuel seal from the right corner of the screen during his show. McAfee was noticeably absent from the gambling platform’s Super Bowl ads, but in correspondence with The Post for that story, he denied that was at the crux of his unhappiness.
McAfee, who just became a father to a baby girl, has talked about reducing the behind-the-scenes work that running his own company and show entails.
He has held talks with all the major players in the market and he can be a bit unpredictable. All signs, however, are pointing to ESPN with his current ties to the network.
Now, McAfee could be one of the faces of ESPN, next to Stephen A. Smith, Joe Buck, Scott Van Pelt and Manning. If the deal goes through, it would not be surprising at all if he were officially introduced Tuesday at the Disney upfronts.
