The Pat McAfee Show‘s Thunderdome studio will be HQ for ESPN’s NFL free agency coverage next Monday.
McAfee took over the noon-2 p.m. ET slot in 2023 that previously belonged to SportsCenter. His show, which airs from Indianapolis and away from the typical ESPN production studios on the East Coast, devotes the majority of its airtime to the NFL.
Free agency week is one of the biggest content events on the NFL calendar, particularly the first Monday, when the “legal tampering” period begins. This window opens at noon ET, the same time that McAfee’s show begins. But last year, ESPN produced its own special programming on the second Monday of March, including a special edition of SportsCenter that ran opposite the McAfee Show on ESPN2.
That will change this year. McAfee announced Tuesday on his show that there will be no ESPN2 special next week, and that he will anchor the opening hours of the negotiating window with live, in-studio guest appearances from top NFL commentators for the Worldwide Leader.
“That Monday is electric. It is electrifying to see what people are doing,” McAfee said.
“ESPN NFL people, which is a department, ESPN NFL. They didn’t think we would be able to handle it last year, so they counter-program us on ESPN2. They tell us immediately, ‘You’re not allowed to have Schefter, he’s with us,’ all of this. It’s like, OK, we’ll see how this goes for you guys. Murder scene, by the way, not only because we’re on ESPN, which is what everyone has on, but also because we’ve lived this life too, somehow. I know you guys created the game, but we’ve also been in this whole thing.
“So there were some nice conversations between the last free agency frenzy and the next free agency frenzy, where we’re going to work together. Don’t we think this would be a good idea?”
McAfee added that fellow ESPNers Peter Schrager and Dan Orlovsky will also be on-site for the Monday show.
The free agency show will mark one of the most significant collaborations between McAfee’s staff in Indianapolis and the wider ESPN team. While just two hours, the network is entrusting McAfee to operate as the signal-caller on one of its biggest news days of the year — not only for television coverage but as the face and voice of the many clips that will go out across its social and digital platforms.
“We are considering it an honor to be able to represent for the entirety of ESPN on this,” McAfee said.
A year ago, McAfee and Schefter were in the midst of a strange détente following an awkward on-air interaction at the Scouting Combine. Flash forward to next week, and Schefter will be in-studio with McAfee to report on the opening day of free agency.
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.