Back in 2017, Indianapolis Colts punter Pat McAfee said he had big plans to take over “the bum ass media that’s in sports right now.” At the time it had to do with being snubbed from the AP All-Pro team, but in a way, it was a prescient declaration about his plans for the years ahead.
A few weeks later, McAfee abruptly quit football and immediately joined Barstool Sports where he quickly became a mainstay across the ever-growing Barstool empire, from podcasts to videos to blog posts. In January 2018, McAfee became a part of Barstool Radio on Sirius XM and it seemed as though he was building a budding empire for himself in Barstool’s corner of the sports media world.
That changed in August when McAfee announced he would be leaving Barstool altogether over perceived disrespect and disagreements from some people on the financial side of the business. However, he continued to do The Pat McAfee Show as a podcast while figuring out what the next step in his take over of the “bum ass media” would be.
Turns out, it will be in the NFL booth with Fox. McAfee announced Thursday on his podcast that he would be making his broadcasting debut with Fox as an NFL analyst this Sunday when the Detroit Lions take on the Green Bay Packers.
McAfee will be working alongside play-by-play announcer Justin Kutcher, color commentator Robert Smith, and sideline reporter Sarah Kustok. The game itself will feature two disappointing teams who are eliminated from playoff contention (and the TV distribution map reflects that). However, it’s still a bigtime opportunity for McAfee and Fox to see if this might be the beginning of a bigger relationship.
McAfee said that looking forward to the broadcasting process that precedes an NFL game, including meetings, walkthroughs, and interviews. That hardest part may be remaining impartial given his relationship to some of the Packers.
“I’ve gotta be impartial, I’ve gotta be 50/50,” he told IndyStar. “I’m pulling for the Lions just as much as I’m pulling for Aaron Rodgers, who’s a really good friend of mine. … Joe Philbin was a coach of mine.”
Philbin, who is the Packers interim head coach this weekend, was the assistant head coach with the Indianapolis Colts in McAfee’s final season with the franchise.
It won’t be McAfee’s first stint in a TV booth this year. He called the Texas Tech-Baylor game for Fox Sports last month as well, so clearly, the folks at Fox are interested at going all-in on the Pat McAfee Experience. In the meantime, they’ll still have to make sure he’s available as he also recently signed a multi-year contract with WWE to be a co-host for NXT TakeOver shows. In fact, McAfee also announced in the podcast that WWE had just offered him a multi-year contract.
Looks like McAfee is making good on taking over the bum ass media after all.
[IndyStar]
