A McAfee Message?

Pat McAfee wonders aloud if ESPN is sending him a message by hiring Rich Eisen to air in the same timeslot on the new DTC platform.

Author

Matt Yoder
May 14, 2025

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🎤 QUICK START ✍️

📺 ESPN revealed the price point of its DTC platform at $29.99 per month with bundle options also available combining Disney+ and Hulu.

⚾ The cheap streaming deals made by MLB with Roku and Apple are coming back to haunt the national pastime.

🏀 NBA commissioner Adam Silver was very diplomatic when it came to the NFL’s hostile takeover of Christmas Day.

🚨LEADING OFF 🚨

A McAfee message?

Screengrab via The Pat McAfee Show

Pat McAfee is a fascinating and frustrating figure to cover and his comments welcoming Rich Eisen back to ESPN show exactly why.

There are the periodic cryptic tweets about his future that may signal a seismic change or may never be mentioned again. There are responses to journalists that range from calling them rats to arguments about semantics.

So with Eisen coming to ESPN’s new DTC platform at the exact same timeslot as McAfee from 12-3 p.m. ET, you knew there would be some kind of response. And in typical McAfee fashion, you can choose your own adventure with how to read it.

Taking the comments at face value, there was glowing praise about Eisen, pumping up the new ESPN platform, and the jolt of positivity McAfee says he brings to the world.

But go just one step below the surface and there was just enough passive aggressiveness there to lead any engaged viewer or listener to wonder.

Why talk about being counterprogrammed? Why bring up the ESPN NFL Free Agent Frenzy show in a tangential remark where nobody has any idea what you’re talking about? Why ask if your own network is sending you a message?

It’s these kinds of comments that lead to way more questions than answers, which has been a hallmark of the McAfee-ESPN relationship almost since it began. We still don’t have any inclination how the entire Mary Kate Cornett controversy will play out between the Ole Miss student, McAfee, and the network for instance.

Could Rich Eisen one day replace McAfee at ESPN if things eventually turn south? Sure. Could McAfee keep doing his thing on ESPN for the next two decades? Absolutely. The only thing we know is that we’ll probably have many more episodes like this to try to dissect in the future.

📣 SOCIAL EXPERIMENT 🌟

Joe Buck and Troy Aikman make their Super Bowl picks on Good Morning America. Buck: "I'm going to say Buffalo finally wins it." Aikman: "Cowboys. Yea!"

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing.bsky.social)2025-05-13T13:56:09Z

Joe Buck and Troy Aikman were on GMA to promote a Monday Night Football game when the former Cowboys QB joked about his old team winning the Super Bowl.

Far be it from a newsletter of a sports media blog to comment on fashion, but the suit and hoodie combo from Adam Schefter should have been worthy of at least a misdemeanor.

Sarah Spain was the latest past star to make a final Around the Horn cameo appearance as the longtime ESPN show prepares to say goodbye.

🔦 IN THE SPOTLIGHT ☀️

Credit: Pablo Torre Finds Out YouTube

The earth-shattering Pablo Torre Finds Out episode on Bill Belichick and Jordon Hudson may provide a template for sports journalism moving forward in what the host compared to a YouTube unboxing video.

🏄 CHANNEL SURFING 🌊 

💃🏻 While the UK tabloids aren’t exactly a beacon of journalistic integrity, this report of Jordon Hudson turning down Dancing with the Stars because she has greater aspirations in mind wouldn’t be all that shocking. [Daily Mail]

🏈 YouTube is the latest platform to get an exclusive NFL game and the production of that contest will come via NBC. [The Athletic]

🏀 Several NBA teams are continuing their relationships with FanDuel Sports Network instead of opting out. [Sports Business Journal]

🗣️ NOTABLE QUOTABLES 🗣️

“You celebrate the championship. So, sucks being you, Boston. And I don’t root for the injury, but I ain’t complaining about it.” - Knicks fan Craig Carton did not mince words about Jayson Tatum’s devastating achilles injury.

"It's a personal relationship and she doesn't have anything to do with UNC football." - Bill Belichick gave a typically Belichickian answer when side stepping a question about Jordon Hudson on SportsCenter at ACC media days.

“The NFL should add this. Every sport should add this. The lottery is a brilliant idea…” - Mike Greenberg applauding the NBA lottery after the Mavs’ shock victory and suggesting the NFL should incorporate their own.

🔥THE CLOSER🔥

Finally.

Screengrab via NFL

Our long national nightmare finally comes to a close today as the NFL will finally reveal the full 2025 schedule to a world on the edge of their seats. But in true NFL fashion, the league has squeezed every possible milligram of juice out of this one until it is drier than the Sahara.

It started at the NFL Draft when the showcase event was brought to a screeching halt for a scheduling announcement about the schedule announcement.

It continued with another announcement about networks making even more announcements about select games.

Each network partner has revealed spotlight games throughout this week from Good Morning America to Good Morning Football. And with so many platforms to choose from, it feels like we know 40% of the schedule already before we even get to the full release even if it’s just a few contests.

The NFL has done an incredible job of feeding football to the masses on a 24/7/365 basis. And why wouldn’t they? We all are obsessed with the shield and there’s a reason why it’s the most popular sports and entertainment property in the country. Hundreds of thousands of people just showed up in Green Bay to watch people’s names get read from a podium just weeks ago!

But sometimes just a little bit of restraint might be healthy for the NFL and the rest of us. The drip, drip, drip of the NFL schedule release is just too much. Enough is enough. Do we really need to know 36 hours ahead of time that Packers-Eagles is the Week 10 Monday Night Football game? Really? Is that life changing information that can’t possibly wait?

The NFL will not be any less popular if we just wait until the full schedule reveal to find these things out in 2026. Nobody will cancel their season ticket packages or their Sunday Ticket. We can actually do one simple schedule reveal without feeling like we’ve been through our own personal NFL version of Super Size Me. We’ve done it before and survived.