LEAWOOD, KS—Periodically grunting and nodding his head, a dead-eyed Travis Kelce was reportedly viewing an array of bow tie options for cat ring bearers Thursday. “Looks great,” said the 35-year-old Kansas City Chiefs tight end, whose mouth was slightly agape as fiancée Taylor Swift scrolled through page after page of sequined collars and tulle bandana designs the pop star’s three feline companions could walk down the aisle in. “Love it. Love it. Sure. Yes. Love it.  It’s going to look great on you. I mean them. Good. Good. Cat. Yes.” At press time, sources confirmed Swift was accusing Kelce of not paying attention after he answered “Travis hungry” to her question about which cat should serve as flower girl.

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In just a matter of days, Rich Eisen is set to make his official return to ESPN.

Starting Sept. 2, The Rich Eisen Show will depart Roku for ESPN’s new direct-to-consumer streaming app. It’s a reunion that, according to a new report by The Ringer’s Bryan Curtis, has been several years in the making. But it’s also a reunion that could have seemingly happened sooner if it weren’t for one former ESPN executive.

Curtis reports that ESPN had started courting Eisen for his return “two or three years ago,” but former executive Norby Williamson had other ideas. Williamson oversaw ESPN’s studio productions for nearly two decades before his unceremonious ouster last year after an incident in which Pat McAfee called him a “rat” during his eponymous show, while also accusing him of “sabotage” after unfavorable ratings data about his daily show leaked to the press.

He now heads studio production for the FanDuel Sports Network regional channels.

But before Williamson left ESPN, he apparently put the kibosh on Eisen’s reunion at the Worldwide Leader. “Eisen said his return was delayed by the presence of Norby Williamson, the former ESPN executive who’s now at FanDuel,” Curtis writes. “‘I think Pat McAfee removed the managerial impediment when he put a bullet in one particular individual by referring to him as a rodent on his show,'” Eisen told The Ringer.

Eisen was widely praised in his unofficial return to ESPN last week, hosting a throwback edition of SportsCenter after a Monday Night Football preseason broadcast. The show ended a 22-year saga of bad blood between Eisen and certain power brokers at the network.

“When he came home from SportsCenter that night, I saw 22 years of wonder and questioning and pressure instantaneously lifted from his shoulders,” Eisen’s wife, former ESPN producer and current sportscaster Suzy Shuster, told The Ringer. “It was really drastic. I don’t think he realized how much emotional weight he had put on himself.”

After Eisen’s contract was not renewed in May 2003, a table full of ESPN executives failed to attend his wedding reception just 10 days later. (Fellow ESPN anchors like Stuart Scott and Dan Patrick showed up “en masse,” according to Curtis.) Eisen would also regularly joke about not getting invited to the ESPYs, despite living in the city that hosts the event.

“To go from 22 years of viewing ESPN as them,” Eisen said in the piece, “after seven years to start my career of viewing ESPN as us … For me to be able to put that to bed, it was palpable.”

Decades full of sleights and resentment have finally been put behind him. And, at least in part, Eisen has McAfee to thank.

Ultimately, whether ESPN admits it or not, McAfee’s dressing down of Williamson last year at least partially led to his departure from the network. Williamson was a relic of a bygone era at ESPN, favoring standard-issue SportsCenter programming over new and innovative formats like The Pat McAfee Show.

Yes, there’s irony here, given that Eisen made his name hosting SportsCenter, but Williamson has a history of holding grudges. Clearly, 22 years wasn’t enough time for Williamson to willingly welcome Eisen back into the ESPN fold. But in the end, that didn’t matter. Eisen returns to help ESPN jump-start its new app, and Williamson has been cast away to the declining business of regional sports networks.

And yes, Eisen’s return is made even more ironic because McAfee paved the way. Not only did McAfee’s show create the licensing model under which Eisen’s show will also operate, but it would’ve never happened if Williamson were still working at the network. So even if McAfee might not be thrilled that he and Eisen will be sharing the same timeslot (McAfee on linear, Eisen on the app), it was he who unintentionally made this a possibility in the first place.

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