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By placing Pat McAfee front and center for its football coverage, ESPN is tying itself to the popular and polarizing figure in a Super Bowl year. Andrew Marchand & Jon Meterparel go deep on what it means for the network, its other big personalities and its future.
It is a 36-minute “Marchand & Meterparel: Everybody Loves Sports Media” podcast.
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POD RUNDOWN …
* What is the biggest take-away from McAfee adding Monday Night Football Countdown, a potential a Monday Night alt-cast to go along with his daily show, College GameDay as part of his anticipated $60M-65M per year extension
* What to love about the ESPN founder Bill Rasmussen, who passed away at 93 last week
* The young Fox Sports play-by-player on the rise
* Why Netflix’s low “Field of Dreams” ratings are bad news for MLB
* Is “Hard Knocks” on the Seahawks good or no …
* What is misunderstood about the ‘Stephen A. vs. McAfee: Who is bigger?’ conversation
* What McAfee is very good at
* ESPN is clearly saying it is OK with some of the poor choices that McAfee has made
* MNF Countdown is Scott Van Pelt’s show, but McAfee likes to lead
* Did ESPN have to put McAfee on MNF Countdown
* ESPN should be known for having the Super Bowl, not any distractions
* Jason Kelce is moving into the No. 2 ESPN NFL booth with Dave Pasch and Kurt Warner, what to think of this trio
* Karl Ravech gets his due as he says goodbye at ESPN
* ESPN is very good on the Little League World Series
* The real story in light of the Tom Pelissero Netflix/Ringer move
* Bill Simmons’ scours the ESPN waiver wire for a hat trick
* Being a human being, a reporter and the tragic Ed Oliver story
* Is Frank Isola a strong choice to succeed Tony Kornheiser on PTI with Michael Wilbon
* The ESPN, NBC, USA Network and the post-soccer World Cup bump
* Two years in, Meterparel vs. Ourand is the modern day Brady vs. Manning debate
* Cakes are Baking Game
