Pat McAfee Facing Possible Lawsuit Over Comments On Show Amplifying Social Media Rumor

Pat McAfee is looking at a potential lawsuit over comments he made on The Pat McAfee Show that amplified a rumor about a college student posted online. As The Athletic reports, McAfee made comments in February about a viral rumor regarding an Ole Miss freshman, Mary Kate Cornett. The rumor alleged that Cornett had cheated on her boyfriend with his father, something which gained traction due to faked/altered screenshots, AI-generated videos and more.

While McAfee did not directly name Cornett in the February 26th show, he made jokes about it and that — along with comments by the likes of NFL star Antonio Brown, KFC Barstool and Jack Mac of Barstool Sports and more — helped the rumor spread rapidly to the point that it became a top trending topic. Cornett says that the platforming of the comments by “more popular people” took it to a new level and she and her family began to receive harassment, threats and more. Cornett’s mother was the victim of an apparent swatting incident, Cornett received a massive amount of degrading and abusive voicemails and more.

The segment on the McAfee show lasted two minutes and saw McAfee say, “Some Ole Miss frat bro, ‘kay? Had a K-D [Kappa Delta] girlfriend… At this exact moment, this is what is being reported by … everybody on the internet: Dad had sex with son’s girlfriend.” While ESPN’s NFL insider Adam Schefter tried to shift the conversation away, they continued to talk about it and McAfee joked about “shoehorning” college fathers into their combine analysis. One of the other hosts joked, “Ole Miss dads are slinging meat right now.”

Cornett, her bofyriend and family have all denounced the rumor and her father has said that he has enlisted a private investigator to investigate the cyberattack, which he called “defamatory.” Meanwhile, Cornett has obtained legal representation and said she intends to take action against McAfee and ESPN, as well as possibly others who helped spread the rumor. She told The Athletic in a statement:

“I would like people to be held accountable for what they’ve done. You’re ruining my life by talking about it on your show for nothing but attention, but here I am staying up until 5 in the morning, every night, throwing up, not eating because I’m so anxious about what’s going to happen for the rest of my life.”

Cornett’s attorney also says that the team may take action against those who may have promoted the rumor to try and profit via cryptocurrency; a memecoin in Cornett’s name was created on February 25th and spiked in value on February 26th. The lawyer added, “They elevated a lie from the worst corners of (X) to millions of general sports fans just to get a few more clicks and ultimately a few more dollars. While they don’t have to deal with it after it airs, the lie is chained to Mary Kate for the rest of her life.”