Pat McAfee rants about ‘fat, lazy’ sports media bums on Super Bowl’s Radio Row

Pat McAfee spent Wednesday afternoon calling certain sports media members fat nerds, lazy bums, and basement-dwelling losers who hate sports and commit their lives to eating terribly. Then he explained why he was getting it all out of his system now, rather than waiting until later next week.

“That’s not the energy we need,” McAfee said on his eponymous show.

McAfee is heading to Radio Row for Super Bowl LX in Santa Clara, where he’ll be surrounded by the same sports media people he just spent several minutes mocking. He knows he’ll see journalists he’s criticized and journalists who’ve criticized him. He knows there will be “massive pop-ins” and “huge celebrity conversations” with people his show has “certainly made fun of or talk sh*t about.”

So the former Indianapolis Colts punter decided to get all the insults out now — on his show — before he has to interact with these people in person.

“Oh, you fat nerd. Good to see you,” McAfee said. “They have shots for you, dude. You fat, lazy bum. Look at you, fatso. Have you been outside of your basement all season? I know that’s cliché to say, but Jesus, the sun is allergic to you. Look at how bad you look.”

The rant came more than a week after McAfee attacked sports journalists on social media, calling them “curmudgeon bums” who hate sports and claiming “a LARGE % of these things hate sports.. they hate what sports are for people (happiness).. They hate what sports are for society (unifier).”

Pat McAfee wrote that sports journalists are “political journalists by nature who’ve preyed on sports because they saw it as an easier path to ‘make it'” and celebrated his show operating with “ZERO creative say from any ‘journalism school’ puppets.” He declared their “days are numbered” and urged his followers to “stop taking these particular humans seriously.”

The social media tirade focused on journalists who criticized Jacksonville Free Press reporter Lynn Jones for showering praise on Jaguars coach Liam Coen during a postgame press conference. McAfee defended Jones and positioned her comments as proof that actual journalism still exists, while attacking everyone who questioned whether a press conference should function as a venue for offering encouragement rather than asking questions.

But Wednesday’s show took the attack in a different direction. Instead of framing it as a philosophical debate about journalism’s role in sports, Pat McAfee just wanted to call people fat.

“A lot of that to a lot of these sports media people who run their mouth all season, and we see him at Radio Row, and they all go, ‘Oh, it’s good to see you. Thank you for everything,” McAfee said. “Uh, hey, fatso, I remember what you said about me. Remember when you said that?”

McAfee then pivoted to explaining why he was saying all of this now instead of at Radio Row itself. He didn’t want to bring that energy to the event. He just needed to get it out of his system first.

“We’re just saying people that commit their lives to eating terribly and writing very mean things about sports all day, every day,” McAfee said. “They do end up happening upon radio row.”

There’s no bigger point here. Pat McAfee called them “fat nerds” on Wednesday so he could smile and shake hands the next day. He attacked them on his ESPN-licensed show, where he controls everything, so he wouldn’t have to say it at Radio Row, where someone might actually respond. He framed it as getting energy out of his system. Really, he just wanted to insult people without consequences.