Jemele Hill Backs Pat McAfee’s Singling Out ESPN Executive in Viral Rant

The former ESPN employee weighed in on Friday’s controversy.

The Atlantic journalist Jemele Hill, formerly of ESPN, weighed in Friday shortly after Pat McAfee named an executive who he believes is trying to sabotage his eponymous show on the network.

“There are folks actively trying to sabotage us from within ESPN,” McAfee said on Friday afternoon’s episode of The Pat McAfee Show. “More specifically I believe Norby Williamson is the guy attempting to sabotage our program.”

Hill, who worked at ESPN from 2006 to ’18, empathized with McAfee’s statement.

I can relate. https://t.co/57q99SIHHd

— Jemele Hill (@jemelehill) January 5, 2024

Williamson is currently the executive senior vice president of studio and event production for ESPN. He began his career at ESPN in the 1980s and has overseen studio shows and sporting events on the network since 2005.

Hill, the former SportsCenter and His & Hers host, was suspended by ESPN in 2017 for a series of tweets about then-President Donald Trump and comments about Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. She joined The Atlantic in 2018.

“(Williamson) is seemingly the only human who has information, and then somehow that information gets leaked, and it’s wrong,” McAfee said Friday. “Someone tried to get ahead of our actual ratings release with wrong numbers 12 hours beforehand. 

“That’s a sabotage attempt. It’s been happening basically this entire season from some people who didn’t love the addition of The Pat McAfee Show to the ESPN family.”