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Pat McAfee addressed the social media narrative on Tuesday that his massive salary was to blame for ESPN’s latest round of layoffs.
On Monday, the company began cutting a handful of on-air personalities. The first to be announced was NFL analyst Ryan Clark. The next day, it was revealed that the company also let go of longtime MLB announcer Karl Ravech, analyst Cam Newton, and several others.
In response to the news, many on social media were quick to point out the massive salaries commanded by ESPN’s top talent — including McAfee and Stephen A. Smith.
On Tuesday’s episode of The Pat McAfee Show, ex-NFL star JJ Watt poked fun at the situation by bringing up that narrative.
“Did they keep anybody, or is everybody fired to pay you?” Watt said. “I was trying to figure it out.”
McAfee immediately laughed at the comments before saying, “That’s not funny,” and making clear that he did not like the narrative circulating online.
“On that note, we hate anytime this happens,” McAfee said of the layoffs. “Obviously, this is terrible. We don’t like that, but we are very honored that we are still partnering with ESPN and Disney for the good of sport for the future, and I hate this.”
McAfee then revealed that his show was blamed for previous layoffs, as well. He suggested those critics were not familiar with how businesses actually work.
“The first time we licensed the show through ESPN, one of these happened,” McAfee continued. “We got blamed for it all. It’s like, blame us. OK, OK, thank you. I feel like you don’t fully understand budgets and where things are coming from, but I do appreciate that. This time, we’re getting blamed, as well, which I guess I can understand. But, I mean, there’s billions and billions of dollars in these companies, and hard decisions have to get made, and we don’t like any of them, and we hope we’re an asset to the company going forward.”
Watch above via YouTube.
The post Pat McAfee Fires Back at Critics Blaming His High Salary for ESPN Layoffs first appeared on Mediaite.
