Michelle Beadle has spent years on the receiving end of abuse from viewers. She says she has received death threats and threats of sexual violence on social media for more than a decade, and those threats shape how she reacted this week when Pat McAfee explained why a Utah social media video made him uncomfortable.
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“I can’t tell you how many death and rape threats I’ve gotten via social media since 2009, when we got on Twitter originally,” Beadle said on October 29 Episode of The Dan Le Batard Show. “I could never be that soft. Never.”
Beadle’s criticism was not simply about whether McAfee should have laughed at a few jokes. She questioned why someone with his audience and influence appeared so offended by a video that she considered harmless.
She described his response as disproportionate, calling the incident “so ridiculously unserious,” and admitted she was enjoying watching the criticism directed at him.
“This has been one of the softest, and we’ve seen quite a few from some of the people at the top of this food pyramid of sports media,” Beadle said of McAfee’s Utah video response.
Beadle spent years working at ESPN, so she knows how the network operates. She made a name for herself on SportsNation before moving to NBA Countdown, where she became a familiar face to basketball fans.
Her time at ESPN ended in 2019, after she lost her place on the network’s studio shows. ESPN paid out the rest of her contract and the two sides parted ways.
ESPN had big plans for Get Up! when it debuted in spring 2018. The network brought together Beadle, Mike Greenberg, and Jalen Rose, reportedly paying Beadle around $5 million a year.
But the three hosts never quite clicked on air, and Beadle looked uncomfortable in a format that did not seem to suit her. Things took a turn in August 2018, when she publicly criticized Ohio State’s handling of domestic abuse allegations against assistant coach Zach Smith, which put head coach Urban Meyer under scrutiny.
“There’s a reason why this will be the second season I don’t watch the NFL, and I don’t spend my Saturdays watching college football either,” she said on air.
She explained that the way both sports dealt with scandals involving women had left her feeling pushed aside and unwilling to keep supporting them. ESPN removed her from Get Up!, and she moved to the NBA exclusively.
Her run on NBA Countdown did not last long. ESPN took her off the desk and rotated Rachel Nichols and Maria Taylor into the role. By 2019, Beadle had lost her place on both of ESPN’s biggest studio shows. She has remained involved in sports broadcasting and now hosts Run It Back on FanDuel TV.
Beadle’s argument was that women working in sports media often face abuse while being expected to carry on without making a public spectacle of it, and that McAfee has received considerably more sympathy for his complaints.
“I’d like to think people are watching themselves and maybe learning a couple of things,” Beadle added. “Let it humble you the proper way, but I don’t think that’s what we’re going to see. So, quite frankly, from afar, I’m enjoying every single second of it.”
McAfee, though, has already provided details that go far beyond the student video that Utah posted. In an October 28 social media statement, he shared examples of abusive messages and described threats involving his wife and children.
Other former ESPN personalities have also questioned McAfee’s reaction to the Utah video. Linda Cohn, who retired from ESPN earlier this year, also addressed the controversy on The Linda Cohn Show. She questioned why McAfee had used his considerable platform to give a “national audience” to a few students who might otherwise have faded from view after the weekend.
“By now, you have to know not everybody is going to like you. That’s the business,” Cohn remarked.
For now, McAfee remains scheduled to appear with ESPN College GameDay at Indiana on October 31, when the Hoosiers host Minnesota.