Josh Pate spent Thursday defending a decision he insists wasn’t really a decision at all. When the President of the United States offers to talk about college football, you say yes. End of discussion.
Pate had announced earlier in the day that Donald Trump would appear on his show Sunday to discuss college football, and he knew exactly what criticism was coming.
“When the President of the United States offers to discuss College Football, it’s an auto-yes 1000% of the time,” Pate wrote on X. “Those expecting political discussion will be sorely disappointed.”
Wild day. Will tell the story Sunday night. Two quick things…
1.) When the President of the United States offers to discuss College Football it’s an auto-yes 1000% of the time
2.) Those expecting political discussion will be sorely disappointed
— Josh Pate (@JoshPateCFB) February 20, 2026
The problem with that promise became apparent even before Pate announced that Trump would be on Josh Pate’s College Football Show this Sunday. Georgia Lieutenant Governor Burt Jones — a vocal Trump ally — posted a video on X of Trump asking the crowd of patrons at The Varsity in Rome, Georgia, “Think [Joe] Biden would talk about the NIL? He doesn’t know what it is.”
.@POTUS “Think Biden would talk about the NIL? He doesn’t know what it is”
📍The Varsity
Rome, GA @JoshPateCFB pic.twitter.com/APZ1d5rp3c— Burt Jones (@burtjonesforga) February 19, 2026
As far as we know, Josh Pate hadn’t asked Donald Trump a single question yet, and the interview was already being weaponized for partisan purposes. Those are the waters he’s now navigating, whether he wants to acknowledge it or not. You can’t platform Donald Trump in 2026 and expect the conversation to stay apolitical, even if every question is about Name, Image, and Likeness and conference realignment. The mere presence of Trump carries political weight. It always has, and it always will.
Pate launched The Late Kick from Columbus, Georgia, after spending years working in local television as a sports director and anchor. He built the show from scratch, streaming on YouTube and social media platforms, and eventually landed a deal with 247Sports in 2020. In August 2024, he signed with CBS Sports, renaming the show Josh Pate’s College Football Show and relocating production to Nashville while retaining ownership. He’s since partnered with On3/Rivals and Yahoo Sports for distribution, joined Bussin’ With The Boys for a separate weekly show, and signed on as an ESPN contributor.
Landing an interview with the sitting President of the United States about college football would be the biggest booking of his career and a massive validation of everything he’s built over the past several years. That’s not nothing. Getting Trump on the show is a genuine accomplishment, and Pate has every right to be excited about it.
But Trump’s entire political identity is built on provocation and confrontation. He doesn’t operate within other people’s boundaries. He never has. Pate can set all the ground rules he wants about keeping the conversation focused on football, but that doesn’t mean Trump will follow them. And even if Donald Trump somehow stays perfectly on topic for the entire interview, the conversation will still be political because Trump makes everything political by virtue of being Trump.
The interview airs Sunday.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.