Norby Williamson, the longtime ESPN executive who was recently criticized by popular on-air personality Pat McAfee, will leave the network after nearly 40 years, according to a memo sent to employees on Friday.
The move had nothing to do with McAfee, a person familiar with the situation but not authorized to speak about it publicly to The Times, but came about because Williamson did not share ESPN chief of content Burke Magnus' long-term vision for the company's content. strategy.
In a memo to staff, which was seen by The Times, Magnus wrote: “I am communicating some important news. Norby Williamson will leave the company today after nearly 40 years of dedicated service.
“Throughout Norby's career, he has made significant contributions across many important roles within content. Through his unwavering commitment and attention to detail, Norby has made a lasting impact on the sports fan experience. His wide-ranging impact includes SportsCenter and breaking news coverage, tremendous creativity in event and studio production, and diverse storytelling.” Across various ESPN platforms.
The memo to employees also included a message from Williamson, which read: “Almost 40 years ago, in 1985, I was very fortunate to have an opportunity at ESPN. Given the exceptional hard work, creativity and commitment of the people at ESPN, and to a much lesser extent my contributions, I would like to… I believe we left our great company in a much better place than we found it.
Magnus wrote that ESPN will conduct a full search for a new chief content executive as soon as possible.
According to his online ESPN biography, Williamson began working for the network as a mailroom clerk and rose through the ranks to become one of its top executives. As executive editor and head of event and studio production since 2017, Williamson has been responsible for the “SportsCenter” franchise, ESPN Radio, the “E:60” newsmagazine series and more. He was also overseeing the company's content production for baseball, NHL, UFC, boxing, tennis, golf and soccer as of last summer.
Despite Williamson's influence within the company, many viewers had likely never heard of him until the Jan. 5 episode of “The Pat McAfee Show,” in which the host called Williamson a “rat” and accused him of “trying to sabotage our show.” program “by leaking false ratings numbers to the press.”
The episode aired three days after New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers appeared on McAfee's show and suggested without evidence that the name of late-night host Jimmy Kimmel could appear in Jeffrey Epstein's court documents. Kimmel's name was not mentioned in the documents.
ESPN responded at the time with a statement that both defended Williamson and praised the success of McAfee's show, which gained a large following on YouTube before being picked up by ESPN last May.
“No one is more committed and invested in ESPN's success than Norby Williamson,” the network stated. “At the same time, we are pleased with the multi-platform success we have seen from The Pat McAfee Show on ESPN. We will address this matter internally and have no further comment.”
