Aaron Rodgers has been spouting nonsense without any pushback on The Pat McAfee Show for several years now, but he took things to another level on January 2 when he not-so-subtly alluded to ABC host Jimmy Kimmel being on Jeffrey Epstein’s client list while McAfee’s show was being broadcast on ESPN. That caused Kimmel to fire back with threats of legal action.
We don’t know exactly what conversations happened behind the scenes but we know that McAfee appeared to be somewhat contrite on his “progrum” the next day, attempting to distance himself and his show from the Rodgers-Kimmel beef, lest he once again finds himself in legal trouble involving a former Green Bay Packers quarterback.
While the language that McAfee used caught the attention of some, for others, the most important detail of the day was the fact that McAfee was wearing long sleeves. Given how often he hosts the show in a tank top, this was how you knew the situation was important.
You can tell they were worried because he put the formal sleeves on the tank top. https://t.co/Bpf8Yo5tx4
— Gourmet Spud (@gourmetspud) January 3, 2024
you know it’s serious because he’s wearing sleeves https://t.co/jRVEzWEONG
— Brian Floyd (@BrianMFloyd) January 3, 2024
In the days ahead, others also keyed in on McAfee’s outfits as a sign that important moments called for covered arms.
You can tell it’s a serious topic because Pat McAfee is wearing sleeves. https://t.co/6vJE2WjXjL
— michelle (@tashell) January 9, 2024
Anecdotally, this made sense. When you picture McAfee, you picture a black tank top. That’s his uniform. (As someone who has a rotating collection of black t-shirts and a black hoodie that he wears religiously, I can appreciate that.)
But how true is that notion? How often does McAfee wear that blank tank top? Furthermore, how often does he wear sleeves? And beyond that, does he really only break out the long sleeves for “important” moments?
Awful Announcing is committed to service journalism, so we launched Operation: Pat McAsleeves.
McAfee’s show debuted on ESPN on September 7, 2023, which gave us four months of hard data to consider. While the show existed for quite a while before that, we wanted to use that as our benchmark. We went back and looked at every episode through January 12, 2024, 88 in all. That includes on-location episodes at college campuses.
In each episode, we documented several pieces of critical information.
- What kind of shirt is Pat wearing?
- Does that shirt have no sleeves, short sleeves, or long sleeves?
- Is that shirt black or not black?
- Did Pat wear a cowboy hat? (Trust us, this is relevant data)
Here’s what we found out.
If the ESPN broadcasts were your introduction to The Pat McAfee Show, it makes perfect sense why you tend to only think of him in a black tank top. From Sept. 8 through Oct. 9 (23 episodes), that was his shirt of choice. That Ripkinesque streak ended on the October 10th episode when he donned a black Pittsburgh Penguins jersey with the sleeves cut off. We’ll come back to the Pens jersey, but McAfee went right back to the black tank top for the next two shows.
McAfee finally wore a non-black shirt for the first time in the ESPN era on Oct. 13 when he was in Seattle for College GameDay’s coverage of Washington vs. Oregon. Broadcasting from Husky Stadium, McAfee donned a grey “Penix for Heisman” hoodie in support of the home team. It’s worth noting that the sleeves had been cut off the hoodie, so that streak remained intact.
McAfee returned to the blank tank top for a few days but our long, national, sleeveless nightmare ended on October 19 when the former NFL punter donned a black long-sleeve thermal. Another notable streak ended the following day when McAfee wore a long-sleeve flannel over a black t-shirt while broadcasting outside before the Notre Dame-Ohio State game. That made it back-to-back sleeves for the first time in the ESPN era, though it should be noted that McAfee removed the flannel at one point during the show to reveal, you guessed it, a black tank top.
The following week was mostly black tank tops except for Friday’s on-campus broadcast from Utah, where Pat wore a black sleeveless microfleece with University of Utah branding.
For the rest of the football season, McAfee went with the black tank top for most days, often switching it up during those on-campus shows or for special occasions. Most notable was the Lolita the killer whale costume he wore for Halloween (a nod to Jim Irsay’s attempt to return the orca to the Pacific Northwest before it died. R.I.P.).
The dominance of the blank tank top ended in November, however. There were signs all month long that a change was coming, had we only taken the time to notice. On Nov. 8, McAfee introduced ESPN audiences to the forest green tank top. On November 10, he wore a tank top emblazoned with the phrase “Eat Off The Floor.” On November 21, we met the dark grey Marco Island, Florida tank top. McAfee closed the month by flipping the tank top script and donning a turquoise one, which is still the vibrant shirt he’s worn since at least September.
While he went with the plain black tank top 16 times in October and 14 times in November, we only saw it two more times in December. McAfee seemed to be signaling that he was ready to diversify his tank top collection in general. Between Nov. 30 and Dec. 11, he wore six different tank tops of varying color and branding. The blank tank top that had carried us for so long made its final appearance on Dec. 8.
At that point, the cooler Indianapolis air called for some more consistent shoulder coverage. On Dec. 12 we met the black long-sleeve henley, while the next day marked the return of the black long-sleeve thermal. On Dec. 14, Pat went long-sleeved for the third consecutive day, a new record. He also introduced us to the “Girl Dad” forest green long-sleeve shirt, which would come back around in January as well. This also seemed to usher in McAfee’s green phase as he donned a forest green t-shirt and a “For The Brand” light green shirt in the following days.
However, as much as it might have felt like we’d entered Pat’s experimental phase, the black shirts were never far. He shuffled between a black t-shirt, black long-sleeve henley, and black long-sleeve thermal throughout the end of December, splitting their appearances with a series of green shirts of varying hues (dark green, forest green, and sage green).
Pat ushered in the new year with the black t-shirt, coinciding with Rodgers’ now-infamous Jimmy Kimmel comments. The following day, when McAfee had to be at his most sincere and professional, the black long-sleeve henley was the call. The Penguins jersey made its monthly appearance on Jan. 4 and was followed by the introduction of the cadet grey (our best guess) t-shirt, a surprising selection indeed.
The final week of this grand experience was a perfect way to cap things as McAfee went with five different shirts that summed up his winter mix (Black long-sleeve thermal, black t-shirt, “Girl Dad” forest green shirt, black long-sleeve thermal, dark green t-shirt).
And so, 88 episodes and 88 shirts later, what have we learned?
Learning: Pat prefers the tank top, but colder months call for sleeves of some kind
Over the four months that McAfee has been on ESPN, he’s worn a tank top two-thirds of the time. However, that percentage is heavily weighted towards the fall while sleeves became de rigueur. The regular t-shirt was the most likely sleeved apparel but the henley and the thermal also made their mark. The sleeveless Penguins jersey also became a dependable monthly option.
Learning: Always bet on black
As noted, McAfee has a surprising interest in green shirts, but his preferred outfit of choice includes something black. He wore a black shirt over three-fourths of the time.
Learning: The black tank top is king but Pat likes himself some green, too.
If you just tuned in to a random episode of The Pat McAfee Show, there was a better than 50% chance you’d see him in the black tank top. Otherwise, McAfee likes to mix it up, so long as the shirt is black or some type of green. It’s like he got a 12-pack of t-shirts with varying degrees of green and he’s slowly breaking them out over the year. The sneaky part is that so many of Pat’s shirts are dark green or dark blue, so you might confuse them with black if you weren’t paying close enough attention.
Learning: Pat wears sleeves more often than you might think
The presumption that sleeves are saved for special occasions simply doesn’t bear out. Yes, Pat goes sleeveless 73% of the time, which is quite a bit, but the sleeves have been coming out with more regularity since December. Interestingly, the split between short sleeves and long sleeves is even. There doesn’t appear to be a sleeve preference.
Learning: You never know when the cowboy hat might strike
Pat doesn’t don headwear very often. However, if he’s broadcasting from Texas, the odds are good that he’s going to do as the locals do and put on the 10-gallon hat. That happened twice.
While it certainly makes for a fun joke, we can put to bed the notion that McAfee specifically considers “formal sleeves” when he has something important to say. However, we’ll need to revisit this in September when Aaron Rodgers returns to the show and launches into a conspiracy theory about Disney CEO Bob Iger and pizza place tunnels. Keep an eye on what Pat wears the next day. If he goes with sleeves in September, well, then we may have to reconsider our findings.