Pat McAfee Was Surprised By Backlash After He Signed With ESPN

Pat McAfee was surprised that he got the amount of online backlash he did after he joined ESPN. As announced earlier this week, McAfee has signed a deal to bring The Pat McAfee Show to ESPN in a multiplatform deal that will see the show air on ESPN, the ESPN YouTube Channel, the ESPN App and ESPN+ where it will air on weekdays. In addition, McAfee will continue as an analyst on ESPN College GameDay.

The announcement was met with criticism from a number of viewers who believed he had sold out, and McAfee addressed the situation on his show on Thursday. You can check out a clip and some highlights below:

On the criticism that they are “sell outs” for going to ESPN: “It is a little bit more of [the] negative. You gotta stay out of the mentions. I just stay in the [timeline]… it’s been tough to go over to the mentions bar. It has been tough out there.”

“I don’t think I expected that. That was a miscalculation, I think… And I think the reason why I did not expect it is because like, it’s not — it didn’t even cross my mind. At this stage — and we’re young, obviously, we’re 20 years younger than pretty much everybody else that’s on TV at this stage, right? Pretty much. Twenty years younger. So we are young, but I feel like our people were the ones that were most mad. It’s like, ‘Hey, we have a good history, do we not?’ Do I not have a pretty solid of ‘Eh, don’t love what’s going on here?’

“Do I negotiate those into things? Yes. Are there expectations going into these things? Yes. It’s like, have I not earned any trust at all from anybody for any of the things that we have done? I don’t know. I guess not. And some of the things that were being said are very, very rude. But back to your point, Twitter has become a different experience. [laughs]”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit The Pat McAfee Show with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.

The internet is AWESOME 😂😂#PMSLive pic.twitter.com/sxt9AdVRc5

— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) May 18, 2023