For the second straight year, Pat McAfee’s Draft Spectacular will feature a high-profile guest. And once again, it’s a recently fired NFL head coach.
Last year, Pat McAfee welcomed Bill Belichick to the set. This year, it’s Mike McCarthy’s turn. It’s becoming something of a tradition for the former Indianapolis Colts punter to showcase ex-head coaches fresh off the unemployment line on his marquee draft broadcast. Belichick, of course, was already a weekly contributor to The Pat McAfee Show at that time, and Pat McAfee had been teasing a major guest appearance in Green Bay — if he ended up going, that is.
Pat McAfee just announced that Mike McCarthy will be part of their NFL Draft show in Green Bay.
— Ryan Glasspiegel (@sportsrapport) April 21, 2025
Many people thought it would be his good pal, Aaron Rodgers. But the ayahuasca aficionado will remain in his Malibu lair, lobbing passive-aggressive shots at Aaron Glenn and the New York Jets from afar.
It’ll be the now-former Dallas Cowboys head coach, instead.
But it almost didn’t happen. Not the McCarthy part — the Green Bay part.
Pat McAfee initially vowed to skip this year’s draft festivities after a much-publicized fallout with NFL officials during the NFL Scouting Combine in his hometown of Indianapolis. He didn’t mince words, citing “Insufficient respect throughout,” as he doubled down, saying he wouldn’t attend in any capacity. Then, the backpedal began. Green Bay was floated. Talks heated up. And last week, McAfee officially confirmed he’ll be there after all.
And now, so will a Super Bowl-winning head coach in McCarthy.
It remains to be seen if McCarthy will lob shots at his former team like Belichick did. Now the North Carolina Tar Heels head coach, Belichick said, “We’ll see about that,” when Drake Maye was compared to Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen. He didn’t sound sold. But he did sell himself on why his media career would be awesome, even if it was short-lived.
This very much feels like McCarthy’s opportunity to sell himself to networks.
So, maybe, just maybe, he won’t use it as a platform to punch down at Jerry Jones.
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.