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The McAfee Economic Miracle

Athlete-owned sports media companies, and video podcasts in particular, have become legit competitors to the mainstream sports media ecosystem in the fragmented, omni-channel media universe. But have we reached Peak McAfee?

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Pat McAfee
Is ESPN more reliant on McAfee’s audience, or is McAfee more reliant on ESPN’s reach? Photo: Stephen Lam/San Francisco Chronicle/Getty Images
Julia Alexander
October 14, 2025

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The era of athlete-owned media is upon us, and it’s only accelerating. The success that ESPN has found with its $85 million investment in Pat McAfee, the shock-(former)-jock business builder, seems to have inspired Fox Sports’s Eric Shanks to secure his own mini-McAfee in Barstool entrepreneur Dave Portnoy. From LeBron James’s SpringHill and Kevin Durant’s Boardroom media companies to Jason and Travis Kelce’s $100 million Amazon deal for their podcast, New Heights, we are living in the time of the athlete-creator-entrepreneur.

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