Pat McAfee gets candid on leaving FanDuel to sign eight-figure deal with ESPN - “Want to get like a little bit of backing”

Since its premiere in 2016, The Pat McAfee Show has become one of the most popular sports podcasts in history, largely due to the charismatic personality of its host, Pat McAfee. After seven years of success, the show is now reaching its biggest platform yet.

Last month, ESPN announced that Pat McAfee had signed a lucrative eight-figure deal, which included bringing his podcast to the sports media giant. Previously, McAfee's show had been partnering with FanDuel, but this new deal with ESPN marks a significant milestone. In an interview with Jimmy Traina on the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast, McAfee discussed the deal and shared his thoughts on the transition.

"FanDuel was our exclusive sportsbook partner… They weren't licensing the show. They were just our exclusive sportsbook partner… When you're fixing every single problem that you have with every single part of your business, it can get a little bit taxing."

He said that his decision to join ESPN came after he impressed as an analyst on College Game Day, and he wanted to parlay that goodwill into growing his audience.

"So after watching what happened with Game Day and how they weaponized ESPN, I came to the decision alongside my wife and everybody in here because all my guys worked their a**es of, absolutely worked horses in here. I said, You know what? I've made the decision. I want to go to a network. I want to get like a little bit of backing, a little bit of a tag team. I would like to get the back end stuff kind of handled by people that have teams of this type of stuff."

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What else did Pat McAfee say on the SI Media Podcast?

In the same interview, McAfee discussed Aaron Rodgers' presence at Taylor Swift's recent concert at MetLife Stadium, home field of the New York Jets. The former Colts punter noted that Rodgers knew he would be filmed, but did not care anyway, and it was a good thing:

"Aaron knew everybody was going to film him, and Aaron didn't give a f**k, and I think that's a cool thing that."

Wrestling fans have also been familiar with McAfee via his appearances in WWE as both a commentator and occasional wrestler. He also acknowledged his continued closeness to top WWE executives despite his absence from their programming:

"So you know, myself, Michael Cole, Nick Khan, Kevin Dunn, Hunter Hearst Helmsley (Triple H), Vincent Kennedy McMahon, we all (are) still very much in contact with each other."

In fact, they had given him advice during his negotiations with ESPN:

"Vince gave me a stern, ‘Do not’ for one thing that I was thinking about doing because I did not appreciate the way something was kind of laid out by one particular person in a company that I was kind of negotiating with and everything like that. So I sent (Vince) a question. ‘This was said. Am I allowed to say this back?’ And it took a couple hours and I got a, ‘DO NOT,’ period and then it was like, ‘Now is not the time’ or something like that.

Nick Khan was like a ghost in this thing where I’d be like, ‘This person, what type of person are they?’ That type of stuff. He would send me back like boom, boom, boom, bang, pow. Think about this. Thank you.