Pat McAfee recently struck a deal to bring his namesake sports commentary show to ESPN. The former NFL player has been receiving backlash after the sports network announced layoffs and many viewers are correlating that it has to do with McAfee.
McAfee, who is also an analyst on ESPN’s College GameDay, took to Twitter to clear things up and address the “mass exits.”
“I did a lot of reflecting about our show’s journey while I was getting murdered on the internet today (hell yeah).. all roads lead back to how honored I am to be the leader of such a talented group and how lucky I am to be a part of this team,” he tweeted.
He continued, “We’re very pumped to be joining ESPN and our goal is that ‘Mass exits’ are never a thing again.. we hope to help that.. obviously that’s a lofty goal but, that’s how I truly look at life… I wish we could’ve worked alongside a lot of the folks that got released today. Some absolute legends, that we all respect, in the sports media world were trending today for losing jobs. That sucks.. no matter how you slice it.”
ESPN cut about 20 on-air personalities from its airwaves, including College GameDay’s David Pollack, Jalen Rose and Jordan Cornette. Other analysts and reporters that were axed included Suzy Kolber, Max Kellerman, Jeff Van Gundy, Keyshawn Johnson, Matt Hasselbeck, Chris Chelios, Steve Young, Rob Ninkovich, Neil Everett, Ashley Brewer, Joon Lee, LaPhonso Ellis, Todd McShay and Jason Fitz.