{"id":329706,"date":"2025-12-04T09:15:05","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T09:15:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/329706\/"},"modified":"2025-12-04T09:15:05","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T09:15:05","slug":"pat-mcafee-sent-youre-next-text-to-mystery-espn-executive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/329706\/","title":{"rendered":"Pat McAfee sent ‘you’re next’ text to mystery ESPN executive"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nick Khan revealed a pretty remarkable detail about Pat McAfee\u2019s ongoing power struggle with ESPN executives during an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show<\/a> on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

After an executive was pushed out of the network (Khan didn\u2019t name who, but it would be hard not to connect this story to Norby Williamson\u2019s departure at ESPN)<\/a>, the WWE President said multiple ESPN executives, suddenly aware of McAfee\u2019s influence, started reaching out, hoping to get on the good side of the network\u2019s new kingmaker. These were people who had previously crossed McAfee or done him wrong, and who were now suddenly interested in building a relationship. One of them suggested meeting to talk things through.<\/p>\n

And at least one of them got a response they probably weren\u2019t expecting.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re next,\u201d McAfee\u2019s text apparently read.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike the Goldberg sort of \u2018You\u2019re next,’\u201d Khan said, referencing the wrestling catchphrase. \u201cI know people would need more context to fully appreciate that, but I know you know what I\u2019m talking about, and the boys know what I\u2019m talking about.\u201d<\/p>\n

McAfee<\/a> didn\u2019t deny it. He didn\u2019t elaborate either, but the implication was clear enough. An ESPN executive who\u2019d spent months or years on the wrong side of McAfee suddenly realized the former Indianapolis Colts punter had more juice at the network than they did, tried to make nice, and got told to kick rocks.<\/p>\n

The Williamson situation established a pretty clear power dynamic. In January 2024, McAfee called out Williamson by name on his show<\/a>, accusing the longtime ESPN executive of being a \u201crat\u201d who was trying to \u201csabotage\u201d his program by leaking negative ratings information. ESPN talent doesn\u2019t typically attack senior executives on air without facing consequences. McAfee faced none<\/a>. Three months later, Williamson was out after nearly 40 years with the company.<\/p>\n

ESPN maintained Williamson\u2019s departure had nothing to do with McAfee<\/a>, pointing instead to strategic disagreements between Williamson and content president Burke Magnus. But when you publicly call out a senior executive on your show, and three months later, he\u2019s gone while you\u2019re untouched, the rest of the building notices.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s apparently what happened in April when Williamson left. Other ESPN executives who\u2019d crossed McAfee or stood in his way suddenly started reaching out, presumably hoping to avoid Williamson\u2019s fate. Khan\u2019s story suggests that at least some of those peace offerings were met with the corporate equivalent of a middle finger.<\/p>\n

Khan didn\u2019t name which executive received the message because there are several possibilities. He\u2019s taken shots at multiple ESPN figures over the past two years, including angry comments about rats and dinosaurs<\/a> during Adam Schefter\u2019s return to the show after a noted hiatus<\/a>. More recently, he criticized \u201cold ESPN people<\/a>\u201d after facing backlash for his College GameDay performances. Any of those relationships could have prompted the reconciliation attempt Khan described.<\/p>\n

ESPN pays McAfee $85 million over five years to license The Pat McAfee Show for its midday slot, but McAfee still owns the show and his YouTube presence. He\u2019s not a traditional ESPN employee. He\u2019s a partner who happens to work on their air, which gives him a completely different relationship with management than most talent. When McAfee threatens executives or airs grievances publicly, he\u2019s not risking his job the way a normal employee would. He\u2019s leveraging his independent platform against a network that needs him more than he needs them.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a hell of a position to be in, and McAfee seems determined to remind everyone at ESPN that he knows it. The \u201cyou\u2019re next\u201d text is just the latest example of him doing exactly that. Who that was directed at and what their status is now or will be down the line remains unclear, but McAfee\u2019s confidence in playing by his own rules certainly doesn\u2019t.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nick Khan revealed a pretty remarkable detail about Pat McAfee\u2019s ongoing power struggle with ESPN executives during an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":329707,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[349,167411,3145,99,3146],"class_list":{"0":"post-329706","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-nfl","9":"tag-nick-khan","10":"tag-pat-mcafee","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-the-pat-mcafee-show"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=329706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329706\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/329707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}