The idea that sports media ‘suits’ are in trouble is a bit naive

Suits.

The bane of Pat McAfee’s existence. The scourge of the true sports fan. The “idiots” in the C-suite who give us Stephen A. Smith when we want Zach Lowe.

Much has been made of the current sports media era we find ourselves in. Debate shows, corporate branding, and legacy media are out. Podcasters, creators, and independent voices are in. We are in the age of McAfee, Barstool Sports, Bill Simmons, Dude Perfect, and Club Shay Shay.

There’s been so much talk about not only how seismic this shift has been, but how we’ve salted the earth behind us to ensure we’ll never go back to the days of Dick Ebersol, Norby Williamson, and Sean McManus.

Josh Pate is an excellent example of the modern sports media landscape. After starting as a local radio host, Pate has quickly risen in the college football analysis ranks thanks to investing in his own content and social media platforms, becoming one of the most listened-to football podcasters out there. He’s now parlayed that success into gigs with On3, ESPN, and Bussin’ With The Boys. He benefits from the reach and promotional capabilities of his partners but retains his ability to craft his voice and content as he sees fit. And if any of that doesn’t work out, he can go back to dominating on his own.

So if anyone is going to see the era of “suits” as over, it would undoubtedly be Pate.

“For a long time, suits, if you want to call them that, just people at the executive level, people with seven-figure earnings and golden parachutes if they fail, they have formatted their content for themselves in lieu of knowing it doesn’t matter what we present. They’ll consume it because there are no other options,” Pate told Will Compton and Taylor Lewan on a recent episode of Bussin’ With The Boys. “Well, bad news for them when digital media came of age is, well, now there are options. Fully on-demand world. That’s the beauty of what you do. It’s the beauty of what I do. The audience is in full control.

“You have never accidentally gotten a viewer. Every viewer has intentionally sought out your video, sought out your social feed, sought out your podcast. Same with me. If you’re on network TV, you may see me cause you’re in an airport. You may just see me cause you’re in a barber shop because I happen to be on. And so for a long time, they didn’t really have true feedback. What they were doing was working because there was no competition in the marketplace. Now there’s competition in the marketplace, and magically, you’re willing to bend on things like on-air wardrobe.

“And people who don’t watch sports may say, Do you really think that’s why Pat McAfee works? Because of what he wears? No. What he wears is authentic to himself, and that’s why it works. The same as you, the same as me. It’s just that 15 years ago, you weren’t allowed to present it that way because someone who really didn’t know the audience, but owned the keys to the audience, controlled that. And now they don’t, and you find out it really never mattered what you were on air to begin with.”

Setting aside that I don’t think that notion of “every viewer is intentional” is true (algorithms and Apple Podcasts’ marketing team would like to have a word), I do think it’s interesting to extrapolate this mindset from a slightly broader perspective.

Not to age myself too much, but I’ve officially spent 25 years working in the online space, much of that in content, and much of that in sports. I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Social media platforms going from dominating the world to becoming a footnote in history. Colossal dot-com companies with Super Bowl commercials erased from existence in a matter of years. I watched the blogosphere glitter in the dark before disappearing. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.

The point being, the media revolution has always been going on. And every time a new technology, platform, or strategy emerged, there was a sense that this was going to be the thing that changed everything, and the people in charge were in for a rude awakening (pivot to video, anyone?). But if there’s anything that has been fundamentally true through the cyclical rise and fall of all these developments and changes, it’s this:

The suits always win.

And to put a finer point on it, if there’s anything that the suits are great at, it’s letting you think you’ve gotten one over on them while they’re winning.

So when you’re doing things that you never thought were possible, like calling out ESPN executives on-air or wearing sleeveless shirts, it’s a shock to the system, but not one that the powers-that-be aren’t willing to roll with if it means more eyeballs and more revenue.

That’s not to discredit the work that people like Pate, McAfee, and others like them have done. They have identified the industry’s direction and significantly benefited from it, creating a primer for others to follow. But time moves forward. Trends evolve. What’s cool today is lame a year from now. And if you’re caught holding the bag, you’ll suddenly find yourself wishing you had one of those golden parachutes.

It’s worth remembering that McAfee, who works for ESPN and WWE, has two ultimate bosses in Bob Iger and Mark Shapiro. You could not find two bigger “suits” in the media industry if you tried. And both of them are the end beneficiaries of the work he does. They and “suits” like them haven’t lost anything. In fact, their power has only grown in recent years as the independent content creator revolution has gained momentum and massive media conglomerates have swooped in to take advantage. Just as they always do.

Please don’t take this as me defending the suits or applauding them for their work. I’d love to see the paradigm shift and the bottom fall out on them just as much as anyone else. But I’ve been around the block long enough to know how this all works. If there’s anyone who is sitting pretty right now, I can guarantee you it’s the suits in the sports media industry lapping up the attention and revenue generated by people like McAfee, Pate, Barstool, and the rest.