Boston icon and noted New England Patriots fan Ben Affleck was one of many celebrities to pass through The Roast of Tom Brady live on Netflix on Sunday night, but hardly the most successful roaster. Fellow Bostonian and former Fox Sports and ESPN commentator Katie Nolan joined The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz on Monday morning to lament Affleck bringing his C-game to the sports world, and questioning whether Affleck was sober during his subpar roasting performance.
Nolan said Affleck was giving off the vibe of someone who was on cocaine as he ranted at a random social media poster, recalling a previous Affleck appearance on Bill Simmons’ HBO talk show in which Affleck ranted about the Patriots’ Deflategate scandal and drew similar questions.
“Every time he does anything in sports TV, we get ‘is he on drugs?’ Affleck — allegedly,” said Nolan, as Le Batard proceeded to play a reckless speculation sounder. “I’m bad at telling if somebody is on drugs, but he did give the energy of when you kind of get stuck talking to a guy late at a wedding, and you don’t realize until you get too into the conversation that, ‘oh this guy’s on coke.'”
After commenting that it was possible Affleck just didn’t want to be there, Nolan offered up that he could have just skipped the headline-making broadcast. But since he showed up, Nolan wanted more from the evening’s biggest New England icon.
“You’re at the Tom Brady roast, you’re like the representative of the fan,” Nolan said.
This who bit made zero sense for the Tom Brady roast, but this line is dead on for trolls…
Ben Affleck: “Fans have your back. You guys out there talking sh*t, all right, behind your f*cking keyboard, that doesn’t make you a fan, that makes you a Bi#ch.”
He’s not wrong. pic.twitter.com/IDlBLRA0PC
— Nadine Babu (@NadineBabu) May 6, 2024
Affleck once dropped 18 f-bombs on Simmons’s show Any Given Wednesday in a vicious rant against the NFL after Brady was suspended over deflated footballs. Many believed Affleck was not sober in that appearance, either.
That time, Simmons went out of his way to deny Affleck was inebriated.
BTW – we taped AGW in the late-AM, Ben got fired up about DeflateGate during the convo, that's it.
— Bill Simmons (@BillSimmons) June 23, 2016
Affleck, of course, has longstanding and public issues with alcoholism. He has discussed three separate stints in rehab, and even taken acting roles that manifest his struggle onto the big screen.
So while Nolan was clearly joking, commenting on Affleck’s sobriety is not so far flung.
