Pat McAfee accuses ESPN executive Norby Williamson of ...

Pat McAfee accused the ESPN executive Norby Williamson Friday of sabotaging his program “The Pat McAfee Show” by leaking false viewership information to the media.

“There are some people actively trying to sabotage us from within ESPN,” McAfee said. “More specifically, Norby Williamson is the guy who is attempting to sabotage our program.”

McAfee said that someone tried to get ahead of the show’s December ratings release “with wrong numbers 12 hours beforehand.” He called this “a sabotage attempt,” alleging this has been happening throughout the season.

“It’s been happening basically this entire season from some people who did not like the ol’ addition of ‘The Pat McAfee Show’ to the ESPN family,” McAfee said.

McAfee called Williamson an “enemy within our own camp.” He alleged that Williamson “left him in his own office for 45 minutes” and “no showed” him in 2018.

“This guy’s had zero respect for me and in return same thing back to him,” McAfee said.

ESPN declined to comment.

McAfee targeting Williamson happened after New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers — during an appearance of “The Pat McAfee Show” on Tuesday — alleged that late-night show host Jimmy Kimmel would appear in court documents from a case filed against Jeffrey Epstein before his death. The documents include names of more than 150 people that had previously been redacted from court filings. Kimmel’s name has not appeared in any of the documents.

To start his show Wednesday, McAfee addressed the situation. “We obviously don’t like the fact that we are associated with anything negative, ever. We like our show to be an uplifting one, a happy one, a fun one. But it’s because we talk s— and try to make light of everything. Some things, obviously people get very pissed off about especially when they (are) serious allegations,” he said. “So we apologize for being a part of it. Can’t wait to hear what Aaron has to say about it. Hopefully, those two will just be able to settle this, not court-wise. But be able to chit-chat and move along.”

In May 2023, McAfee moved his show to ESPN as part of a multi-year agreement. The show began airing live on weekdays in September on ESPN, ESPN+ and ESPN’s YouTube channel. The show brought in 1.7 million total reach per show across all platforms in December, a 21 percent increase from September, according to ESPN.

One of the things you learn about ESPN if you have studied its culture for some time is that ESPN-on-ESPN crime is often the worst transgression a staffer can commit.

In-fighting at ESPN of course happens, as it does at every corporation with big egos and big salaries, but McAfee publicly calling out a powerful member of ESPN’s senior management on “The Pat McAfee Show” would fall under the phrase “unprecedented action.” ESPN clearly was going to ride out McAfee making headlines this week around Rodgers.

What happens next? Well, we are in uncharted waters and ESPN is in a place it hates: The center of attention over ESPN-on-ESPN crime. Some former ESPN staffers who dealt with Williamson were quick to weigh in on Twitter including Jemele Hill, who tweeted “I can relate.” It’s a mess.

Hill later sent this along to The Athletic. “Talent-on-talent time just creates a lot of headaches, grudges and when it gets in the public domain, it disrupts the perception that ESPN is one big happy family. It’s messy.” — Richard Deitsch, sports media writer

ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro and president of content Burke Magnus have bet millions on McAfee. They believe in his talents, they have given his show creative freedom (McAfee staffers are not ESPN employees; the show is licensed), and have made him in short order one of the faces of the network, including a prominent role on GameDay (where he has been excellent, in my opinion). But management is now in a spot with no solution because there is no previous playbook for this.

If they suspend McAfee, it risks blowing up the relationship. If they do nothing, it’s a message to other staffers that they are emboldened to criticize management. As of Friday night, the feeling among some senior ESPN staffers was management is going to try to mend fences between McAfee and Williamson. We’ll see if that’s possible. — Deitsch

(Photo: Sam Hodde / Getty Images)