Greg DeMarco, one to often disrupt the good guy/bad guy/babyface/heel/hero/villain dynamic, discusses one of the true good guys–Pat McAfee, and his new deal with FanDuel.

Thursday was a landmark day for Pat McAfee, sports media personality, pro-bowl NFL punter, WWE Smackdown color-commentator, and former WWE NXT superstar. While the deal didn’t go down on Thursday, it was announced that day that Pat McAfee had signed a new deal with FanDuel for what he called “an absurd amount of money” to bring his show (and, presumably, brand) further under the FanDuel umbrella for a period of at least three years (the deal is for four, with an opt-out after three). According to The New York Post, the deal is worth $30 million per year, which indeed meets the “absurd” adjective used, and likely changes the sports media industry.

Remember, The Pat McAfee Show is a YouTube show that also airs on Sirius XM satellite radio. But if you’ve ever listened to it, you know they don’t really focus on the radio feed at all, oftentimes missing breaks (the show still cuts away, sometimes mid-sentence) and only ever really pushing the YouTube channel. McAfee himself has said it’s because Sirius doesn’t tell them how many people are even listening, whereas YouTube gives him detailed analytics.

Those details are trivial, what’s important here is that Pat McAfee just signed a deal with FanDuel for $30 MILLION DOLLARS A YEAR for his YouTube show. Has anyone else, in any industry, signed that much for a YouTube show?

I like to look at things through a different lens, and you will see tons of people reporting on this deal. I have a simple topic here: Why?

What makes Pat McAfee, and more importantly his entire brand, so attractive to FanDuel? The answer is quite simply, really. He’s one of the good guys.

Sources: The Pat McAfee Show and FanDuel have agreed to terms on a new deal, ensuring that FanDuel continues to be the exclusive sports book of the show. It’s a 4-year, massive deal that includes an opt-out after three years. 💰💰💰

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) December 9, 2021

Pat McAfee Is A Real Person Who Happened To Make It

Many celebrities will try to brand themselves as just like you or me. But that’s simply a lie–many of them aren’t. Maybe they were at some point, but fame and money can change a person. Yes, Pat McAfee keeps a private jet, lives in a huge house and has tons of money. But the person hasn’t changed. He’s still down to earth, authentic, and oftentimes at awe of the the life he leads, one he calls “stupid” at least once per week.

That makes him relatable. Which is why his audience sticks around. Authenticity is a big thing, something you’ll see again later in this article. Pat McAfee is definitely that.

Pat McAfee Knows Exactly Who He Is

Pat McAfee is a millionaire in at least eight different industries, a story he tells from time to time (and one he made part of his storyline with Adam Cole). No, I can’t list them all, but obviously we can count football, podcasting, merchandise, gambling, wrestling–that’s five right there.

But here’s the thing: I am not even sure he graduated from West Virginia (he hasn’t referenced graduating from what I have heard), and by his own admission he’s never read a book in his entire life. He doesn’t pretend to be smart, but he does surround himself with smart people. He will routinely tell you, on his show, that no one needs to hear him discuss certain topics  (politics, medicine, legal matters, etc), yet shys away from nothing. That’s bold, and fortune favors the bold.

Pat McAfee Isn’t Afraid To Go After Something

You don’t get all of the opportunities that have come the way of Pat McAfee on accident. You have to be driven to succeed, and not be afraid to ask the question–shoot your shot. McAfee has obviously done that. He had no problem leaving a major brand like Barstool to create his own thing. It obviously paid off–no one can say he was wrong to bet on himself with that one.

Now, if you haven’t watched the video at the top of this article, you might want to. That will help you understand the next point.

It’s a roughly $30 million per year deal, industry sources say. 💰 https://t.co/dd9ZbPlqmv

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) December 9, 2021

Pat McAfee Appreciates Everything He Has

Watch the video. Pat McAfee appreciates every bit of this “stupid” life he leads, and he gives back. He’s often doing huge giveaways, but there are so many examples just from Thursday that point to his level of appreciation:

• He immediately donated tons of money to two foundations that are set up by Peyton Manning and Robert Mathis–players who have appeared on his show when they don’t often make appearances (Mathis even did so in studio).
• He made his parents millionaires on the spot.
• He gave each person working on his show a bonus of $250,000. A quarter of a million dollars. When he signed his first FanDuel contract, he gave them each $50,000. Cash. In a backpack. Hand delivered to their house.
• He’s doing a social media giveaway for his followers–listeners of his show–totaling $1.5 million. They made him what he is today, and he’s giving back.
• He let NFL insider Ian Rapoport reveal the deal itself, and the length; he let Shams Charania report the financial side of the deal. Why is that important? Both appear on his show weekly–for free. McAfee is smart enough to know this info will get out, so he might as well make sure those reports will benefit those who have stuck with him.

These are just examples from Thursday. Former players have come on his show to promote a venture, and will reveal that McAfee financially helped them start it–and Pat will get mad that they revealed it.

Bold.
Driven.
Authentic.

The three words above appear in this article about Pat McAfee. That’s no accident. Those three words jumped out at me when I took a new job in February 2019, after my prior company went belly-up and laid all of us off. The three words define how I live my life, and fully apply to McAfee. Now, that company has also been sold and had no problem laying me off 4 days after they found out about my leukemia diagnosis.

There’s a reason why Aaron Rodgers, who hates the media, goes on Pat McAfee’s show each week. Why AJ Hawk appears on a daily basis. They like the person behind it all. It’s not favoritism in this case, it’s the same authenticity that created a crazy engaged fanbase. FanDuel doesn’t offer $120 million dollars (over four years) and build a whole  to a show that topped out at 175,000 viewers one time (for their NFL Draft special) for no reason. Those numbers aren’t worth that kind of money, unless a great portion of those viewers–exponentially higher than the industry averages–are engaged and participating. Obviously, McAfee’s is.

This is no accident. Good things can happen to good people, and Pat McAfee is one of the good guys.