Pat McAfee takes aim at big-name ESPN colleagues: “Nobody cares what you have to say”

Pat McAfee is the latest figure to wade into the power struggle between ESPN and YouTube TV but he has split from some of his colleagues on the issue.

The Walt Disney Corporation and Google, who own the two networks/streaming platforms, are locked in a bitter dispute over live sport coverage. As a result, many viewers who use their YouTube TV subscriptions to access ESPN-covered sports like NFL, NBA and college football are unable to access the games.

The situation has come to a head in recent days with millions of people unable to watch last weekend’s college football action and the Monday night NFL game. Some big-name ESPN stars like Mike Greenberg have used their platforms to encourage viewers to go to a website to push for an end to the dispute.

However McAfee has hit out at the two billion-dollar companies, arguing that they are to blame for the outage. He questioned why fans are being asked to wade in on the issue.

McAfee said: “If you’re on TV, stop telling people to go to a website to save a multi-billion-dollar deal. Nobody cares what you have to say. There will be nothing that we have to say or any website that will be visited. There are, I don’t want to say the exact names, but these people... let’s put our swords down. Let’s put our swords down for the good of sports.”

While fans will be frustrated with the lapse in coverage, McAfee is right to say that the solution remains with the high-level executives at both ESPN and YouTube. For all the attempts to increase the pressure on one side to cave, the resolution will require both corporations to find a compromise that ensures the fee-paying viewers do not miss out on any more action.

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