Pat McAfee told he runs ESPN, ‘clearly gotten all the woke out the building’

Pat McAfee runs ESPN.

Well, he does according to Dan Le Batard.

Getty

ESPN has undergone a huge transition over the last week, making mass layoffs to some of its biggest on-air talent, perhaps none more so than Ryan Clark, who was fired during a live broadcast.

NFL Network, who ESPN purchased for an estimated $2 billion at the start of the year, also suffered some casualties with renowned NFL reporter Tom Pelissero being arguably the biggest name affected.

The ironic part about all of this, though, is that McAfee himself is currently in talks over a contract extension that could see him earn upward of $60 million annually, which would dwarf ESPN personality Stephen A. Smith’s contract.

LeBatard isn’t having any of it.

While he doesn’t blame McAfee for ESPN’s mass lay-offs, although former NFL star J.J. Watt jokingly did to his face, Le Batard has identified the possibility of there being a unique chain of command at the ‘Worldwide Leader in Sports.’

“Look who emerges from the ashes getting all the money as all of the past and personalities are knocked aside in a way that’s aggressive, top-end heavy on how you’re paying people at your network because they’re the people who pay for themselves and everyone else is disposable,” Le Batard said.

“As people complain and are outraged by, ‘This isn’t how you do it. You don’t fire longtime personalities.’

“As people who don’t understand the business blame Pat McAfee, what a promotional item for the wrestling guy on College GameDay to emerge from all of this talk of ‘he stole all the money’ and say, ‘I’ve got an album dropping now, I’m the biggest star in sports. Stephen A’s over there making less than me with Bill Maher trying to build out his own brand, I’m going to build it on his platform, because I’m in charge.’”

Glaringly obvious direction they’re headed in

News emerged on Thursday that ESPN were in talks with Josh Pate and Bussin’ With The Boys duo Will Compton and Taylor Lewan over fronting a new college football show.

“Disney and ESPN somehow keep getting called too woke,” Le Batard added. “All the journalists are out the door now.

Getty

Getty

“All of the Black people, or almost all of the Black people who were actually going to say things that Black people agree with strongly, all of them are gone too.

“You’re gonna have trouble finding Hispanics, you’re gonna have a network run by McAfee and all of the white people now in charge there.”

“That’s what [ESPN President] Jimmy Pitaro is saying,” he continued. “And it’s understandable. It’s the way to do it. But they’ve clearly gotten all the woke out of the building.”

Le Batard’s claims are his opinion, but there is no evidence that McAfee is running the network or trying to shift its direction politically.

Pitaro’s leaked memo to ESPN staffers began with the positives and the network’s equity deal with the NFL, before laying down why cuts and structural changes have been made.

“Team: Over the past several months, we’ve made significant progress integrating the NFL assets that we acquired into ESPN,” Pitaro’s memo read.

Getty

“Throughout this process, we have taken the time to carefully evaluate our collective teams, resources and organizational structure to best position us for the future. As a result, we had to make some difficult decisions about job impacts that we will be communicating today.

“While most of the job impacts are tied to the acquisition, we will also notify colleagues in other parts of the company today that their positions have been impacted.

“We are committed to treating employees with compassion and respect and to providing support as they navigate this transition.

“Even in moments like these, the strength of ESPN comes from our people, our teamwork and our shared mission to serve sports fans.”

Stay up to date on all things NFL across our talkSPORT platforms – subscribe to our YouTube channel for the latest news, opinion, exclusive interviews and our daily unfiltered, unscripted show ‘The S* Word, from 8am ET.