One of the big current free agents (in at least some sense) isn’t in the NFL, but rather in sports media. That would be Pat McAfee. McAfee is in the second year of a four-year, $120 million contract with FanDuel, but he’s recently made a lot of headlines with lines like “Up to something season” and a “need to keep evolving,” and he recently told Andrew Marchand of The New York Post there are “a lot of moving pieces right now” and he wants to “make my show and life easier.” That led to discussions about McAfee taking his talents somewhere beyond his current YouTube show, including mentions of Amazon. And Marchand weighed in on that more this week with a segment on The Marchand and Ourand Sports Media Podcast, where he pegged Amazon as the current favorite for McAfee, but also mentioned ESPN interest:
CLIP: I have Amazon as the favorite in the Pat McAfee Show Sweepstakes, but ESPN and others are involved too.
POD: https://t.co/knns4btvkj pic.twitter.com/mqv2kGfGLM
— Andrew Marchand (@AndrewMarchand) March 22, 2023
“I would say, if I were putting up bets on here, I would say Amazon is the favorite. ESPN, despite layoffs, is talking with McAfee, they already have him for GameDay for a couple more years under contract. And so, if I were betting, I think it’s going to happen, I think he’s going to move. Maybe he’ll get a little less money. He wants to simplify his life. You know, he’s a daring guy, how daring is he? That’s the question with McAfee, because most people, if they’re in the midst of a four-year, $120 million deal, would just do whatever they needed to do.”
We’ll see if McAfee winds up taking his talents to Amazon (which has been building up a Prime Video daily sports talk hub) or ESPN (where McAfee does already have that College GameDay deal). But it’s certainly interesting to hear Marchand opining on those two particular platforms as likely destinations, and also adding “I think it’s going to happen.” That definitely adds to the case that McAfee’s show will change where it’s airing in the near future.
[The Marchand and Ourand Sports Media Podcast]
