Pat McAfee has joined Stephen A. Smith as one of ESPN’s biggest sports media stars. Smith acknowledged that the two personalities operate under much different circumstances.
Much of ESPN’s content revolves around Smith or McAfee, two of the network’s most ubiquitous talking heads. ESPN has invested considerable time and money in both, but they’re not working under the same arrangement.
Smith told Front Office Sports Tonight that he doesn’t think McAfee has followed his lead to TV stardom.
“I don’t look at Pat McAfee as emulating me,” Smith said. “I look at Pat McAfee as somebody that’s charting his own path. I have to give respect and praise where it’s due. This is a man who bet on himself.”
The First Take pundit explained that McAfee still owns his daily show, which ESPN airs through a licensing agreement. The former Indianapolis Colts punter has a separate deal in place to appear on College GameDay and other ESPN programming.
“I don’t think it’s fair to be compared to Pat McAfee,” Smith continued. “Pat McAfee has a level of independence I’ve never had. He owns his own platforms. He leases that to ESPN. I’m employed by ESPN because ESPN owns First Take. Pat McAfee, when he says he’s his own boss, he truly is his own boss. They are not his bosses. He is his own boss. That’s the model, and he deserves a lot of respect and a lot of credit for that.”
“There’s a different set of rules”
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Given his arrangement and stature, McAfee has persevered through controversies that might have landed the typical ESPN employee in hot water. He’s given Aaron Rodgers a platform to tout conspiracy theories, spread false rumors about an 18-year-old Ole Miss student, and accused an ESPN executive of sabotaging his show.
“That’s not to imply that Pat is not a part of the team because he’s on ESPN’s airwaves. But there’s a different set of rules that we’re obligated and culpable and attached to that he’s not,” Smith said.
Smith said people are “missing the boat” when they discuss McAfee’s relationship with ESPN.
“They don’t get the fact that he doesn’t work for us,” Smith said. “You see, he works for himself. And that’s a testament to him.”
Smith has created some independence by starting his own media company. He acknowledged that he has more leeway than his other peers, but it’s still not in line with McAfee’s situation.
“I do have freedoms that the average person doesn’t have in this business, and I get that part,” Smith said. “And there’s a lot of things that I can do because I negotiated the contractual right to do them. The reality is that’s an entirely different world than Pat McAfee.”
