Bill Simmons sure seems to watch a lot of The Pat McAfee Show.
Sunday night on his podcast, Simmons delivered a surprisingly strong impression of the headline-making ESPN personality. An impression so good only a frequent viewer could nail it.
Speaking with “Cousin” Sal Iacono on their weekly NFL recap show on The Bill Simmons Podcast, Simmons ripped through the NFL headlines, McAfee style.
“McAfee has created a new version of how to do this,” Simmons said. “He starts the show, and then he’ll be like, ‘Cowboys, bro, I don’t know man. I don’t know. What’s going on there, bro?’ And then it cuts to his three people, and they’re like, ‘I don’t know.’
“And then it will go back to him, and he’s like, ‘not good, bro. Not good. Keep an eye on that, bro.”
Bill Simmons with a surprisingly accurate impression of Pat McAfee
(h/t @rBillSimmonsPod) pic.twitter.com/SI4ziWOMpw
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) January 16, 2024
Iacono then cleverly referred to PMS as Dukes of Hazzard Live, a great name for ESPN president Jimmy Pitaro to consider if he ever does purchase the show outright for the worldwide leader.
Simmons continued with some genuine praise for McAfee, saying he is impressed with how McAfee is able to incorporate such a big crew and a laid-back show.
“It would be really hard to do this podcast with seven people staring,” Simmons said. “How do you include the seven people? You’d be like, ‘oh I didn’t get to Bobby yet.'”
Of course, Simmons is criticizing McAfee’s freewheeling style and lack of specific takes as well. The “dudes” and “bros” might be accurate McAfee ticks, but the point Simmons seems to be making is there’s a whole lot of nothing going on most of the time on PMS.
That show’s audience, though, clearly loves the energy and flow of it.
Do we have to count Simmons among that audience now? You don’t get the cadence and tone of someone down that well unless you really dive in.
Just food for thought.
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.