Pat McAfee did not have inside info on the New England Patriots when he made a vague allusion to the organization’s future on College GameDay this weekend.
McAfee clarified what happened on GameDay during Monday’s broadcast of his own show on ESPN after viewers assumed McAfee’s comments to Patriots owner Robert Kraft in an interview signaled the impending dismissal of legendary head coach Bill Belichick.
While interviewing Kraft, McAfee said “I don’t envy your position, what’s about to happen. We all know, we don’t have to ask.”
On The Pat McAfee Show on Monday, McAfee admitted to awkward wording on his part but corrected the “narrative” being built up online.
“I just would like to let everybody know that I was not disrespecting Robert Kraft,” said McAfee. “It was the complete opposite of that. It was like, massive respect for everything and you have a tough position right now.”
Pat McAfee responds to the pushback he received about his comments to #Patriots owner Robert Kraft on Saturday's College GameDay at Gillette Stadium (via @PatMcAfeeShow):
"At the end, I think they said anybody else have anything?' and I'm like, 'I do not envy your position', is…
— Mike Kadlick (@mikekadlick) December 11, 2023
At this point, while McAfee certainly can be defensive at times, fans are far too eager to pounce on whatever he says on GameDay. They still clearly see him as an outsider and, even when he is doing an NFL interview on the show that is more in his wheelhouse, fans take issue with something.
McAfee this weekend confirmed he will return to GameDay in 2024, so expect more of the same in the future.
From an outsider’s point of view, what McAfee said to Kraft was unclear but certainly did not come across as some sort of secret code for “fire Bill Belichick.” If anything, Patriots fans worried McAfee intimated such a move are likely just paranoid it’s coming anyway.
