Since the May announcement that Pat McAfee would be moving to ESPN, there have been lots of questions about how McAfee would fit in with that network. Some of the discussion there has been what sort of editorial restrictions there might be on McAfee in the ESPN environment. But McAfee has said the company hasn’t restricted him from booking non-ESPN guests, and he’s told fans concerned about his content changing to trust him. And while McAfee’s daily show is still on YouTube for now and not yet on ESPN (it launches there Sept. 7), he had some notable criticisms for ESPN colleague Ryan Clark on that show Wednesday, speaking in support of Miami Dolphins’ quarterback Tua Tagovailoa’s pushback on Clark and noting that other players have also recently took issue with comments from Clark:
Tua Tagovailoa responded to Ryan Clark's comments about his offseason #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/i10h3GM06j
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) August 23, 2023
That clip has McAfee play the video of Tagovailoa’s comments in response to Clark’s claims he “wasn’t in the gym,” “was not at the dinner table eating what the nutritionist had advised,” and is “built like a girl working at Onyx in Atlanta right on the bottom,” then offer his own reaction starting around 1:40. Here’s what McAfee says there:
“I love that. Tua’s like ‘I’m trying to be respectful, I’m supposed to be respectful, this is how this whole thing goes, he’s on TV, it doesn’t bother me, but also, hey, bub, enough with the mouth.’ And Tua, let’s talk about the jiu-jitsu and everything like that [part of Tagavailoa’s discussed training plan], but I do wonder what Ryan Clark was getting at with the nutritionist, he probably has some kind of inside information. But I like the sauce from Tua there in response. I love everything about it.”
After co-host A.J. Hawk also discusses his support for Tagovailoa’s pushback, McAfee offers some further thoughts, saying “Now, that’s our business, we do a lot of that about a lot of people” (in terms of takes on players), but then going on to say “I kind of feel like he probably thought he was being personally attacked by Ryan Clark there. So getting an opportunity to kind of chitchat there, saying ‘You don’t know me, hoss, you don’t know me at all,’ and I respect it, I appreciate it.”
McAfee then discusses Clark more specifically, saying “Ryan Clark, though, has now been in the headlines for a couple of things said about a couple of different players. And I think as you climb the ranks of sports media, more people are going to hear what you’re going to say, so there’s going to be more of a reaction. But here’s a couple times in a couple weeks where people are getting, I think, genuinely upset at Ryan Clark for what he’s saying. I did not expect this, but I did appreciate how Tua responded.”
None of this is necessarily huge criticism of Clark. By the standards of ESPN-on-ESPN crime over the years, it’s pretty mild. And it’s also understandable that former NFL player McAfee has some support for current NFL player Tagovailoa pushing back on media criticism. For what it’s worth, Clark did offer an interesting defense of his comments on Twitter Tuesday, saying he said it and meant it but it was a joke:
I 100% take accountability for it!! I said it!! I meant it!! It was a joke!! If asked why I said it by Tua I would tell him. I have 0 issues looking a man in the eye and telling my truth. I accept any consequence
— Ryan Clark (@Realrclark25) August 23, 2023
McAfee also does note that he, like Clark, is in “the business” of offering takes on players. But it’s interesting that he brings up “personally attacked” here (but saying Tagovailoa feels that, not saying himself that Clark did that), and that he references other controversies around Clark. Nothing from McAfee here feels like anything Clark or ESPN really need to address, and his comments on Clark feel in line with things he’s said before, but it is notable to see that he’s continuing to offer some media criticisms of his now-colleagues despite this ESPN deal. And that may be a positive sign for those worried McAfee’s ESPN move will limit what he says.
[The Pat McAfee Show on Twitter]
