Former readers of Bill Simmons’ Grantland might find the following comparison sacrilegious, but the old ESPN-owned sports and pop culture blog that birthed what is now The Ringer isn’t all too dissimilar from what Pat McAfee is doing with his eponymous show.
Let ESPN’s newest NFL star Peter Schrager explain.
Appearing on The Bill Simmons Podcast on Wednesday, Schrager suggested that both Simmons’ and McAfee’s resentment of ESPN’s middle management “suits” connects the two entities in an unexpected way.
“What you would appreciate about them, and it’s got a good Ringer/Grantland feel, it is like them against the [world],” Schrager, who recently guest hosted The Pat McAfee Show, told Simmons. “Like, they live in Indianapolis, it’s five friends, they don’t have a rundown. I go down there and it’s just like, ‘Let’s just talk football,’ and I so appreciate it.
“It’s like, the part that you and McAfee have like … the complete distrust and disrespect for middle management and, like, that kind of stuff of like, the khaki pants and the suit and the lanyard and all of that.”
“Yeah, that does speak to me,” Simmons concurred.
“Like, Pat doesn’t suffer fools,” Schrager continued. “And that’s just what it is. He licenses his show, it’s his deal. But like, I know you guys both speak a very similar tongue when it comes to, ‘Hey, we’re the talent. We know what works and just trust us and don’t try to interfere too much.’ That’s the game he plays and I kinda respect you both for that.”
“I always respected what he built, I just didn’t like the [Jimmy] Kimmel-Aaron Rodgers thing, but I’m over it,” Simmons said, referencing the infamous incident in which Rodgers suggested Kimmel was associated with Jeffrey Epstein on McAfee’s show.
It’s certainly difficult to compare the type of content that came out of Grantland to The Pat McAfee Show, but Schrager raises a decent point about their similarities. Both operated as fiefdoms within the ESPN empire, often eschewing the conventional wisdom that drove decision making at the network in their respective eras. They weren’t beholden to the ESPN orthodoxy.
And no matter where you fall on the Simmons-McAfee continuum, it’s easy to appreciate the independent-mindedness both have in spades.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.