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“ESPN and representatives for Pat McAfee are discussing an extension to his contract that would pay him more than $60 million per year, sources briefed on the talks told\u00a0The Athletic,” Marchand reported.<\/a><\/p>\n “The deal is not yet completed, and if an agreement can be reached, it could be a sliding scale based on McAfee\u2019s new responsibilities. McAfee, already omnipresent, could be on the air even more, with a bigger role in NFL coverage a possibility, according to the sources. The two sides are currently between $60 to 65 million per year, according to the sources, who were granted anonymity to discuss the ongoing negotiations.”<\/p>\n Feb 6, 2026; San Francisco, CA, USA; Pat McAfee on the Pat McAfee Show set at the Super Bowl LX media center at the Moscone Center. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images\u00a9 Kirby Lee-Imagn Images.<\/p>\n If the deal goes through, McAfee will be the highest-paid employee in the history of ESPN. In fact, only two current NFL players will be making more than McAfee in 2026.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n There are just two players – two star quarterbacks, unsurprisingly – that will be making at least $60 million or more.<\/p>\n Dak Prescott<\/a>, Joe Burrow<\/a> will make more than McAfee – but that’s it<\/p>\n The Dallas Cowboys<\/a> quarterback and the Cincinnati Bengals<\/a> quarterback each make north of $60 million per year.<\/p>\n Prescott signed an extension in September of 2024 that will pay him $61.6 million in average annual value. Burrow, meanwhile, signed an extension that will pay him $61.3 million in average annual value.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n No other NFL player makes at least $60 million or more.<\/p>\n McAfee probably didn’t think that he’d be making a lot more money in media than he did as an NFL punter, but life is good for him these days.<\/p>\n This story was originally published by The Spun<\/a> on Jun 9, 2026, where it first appeared in the Sports Media<\/a> section. Add The Spun as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pat McAfee is set to get paid in a big, big way. The former NFL punter turned sports…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":725761,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[29554,64,63,1252,1273,1234,794,629,593,134767,87003,85],"class_list":["post-725760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-andrew-marchand","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cincinnati-bengals","tag-dak-prescott","tag-dallas-cowboys","tag-espn","tag-joe-burrow","tag-nfl","tag-pat-mcafee","tag-pat-mcafee-show","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=725760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725760\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/725761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=725760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=725760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=725760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Feb](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/793f00ff8bfbf135932ba1e636080acb.jpeg\"\/)
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