Recent ESPN hire Pat McAfee made headlines over the weekend, commenting on a photo of Michigan State’s football uniforms by saying that Larry Nassar (the former MSU/USA Gymnastics doctor currently serving three concurrent sentences ranging from 40 to 175 years over sexual assaults, possession of child pornography, and tampering with evidence) must have been part of the design team.
Joking about the convicted sexual predator was considered poor taste by many, but McAfee defended it as a throwaway comment, laughably saying that he invoked Nassar as a way to remind people how terrible he is and that The Pat McAfee Show had actually “covered that more than probably anybody.”
Despite saying he was under threat of being “canceled,” it doesn’t appear that ESPN is taking any outward notice of McAfee’s tweet. Some people who followed the Michigan State scandal closely, however, would like to see some kind of repercussions for ESPN’s high-profile new hire.
“If you sit there and it’s uncomfortable to read to yourself, let alone say it out loud – I’m glad that you read it instead of offering that opportunity to me,” Jon Jansen said to Mike Stone on 97.1 The Ticket’s Stoney & Jansen on Monday. “If it’s that uncomfortable, then it shouldn’t even be tweeted. He should be disciplined.”
Rather than coming from anger, Jansen, a former NFL offensive lineman, explained how treating Nassar and his crimes as punchlines do a disservice to his more than 200 victims.
“I mean, this is unacceptable, especially at a time where those at ESPN have gone through ‘hey, a lot of our friends, a lot of our acquaintances have lost their jobs’ and they’ve always handled themselves in a professional manner. A lot of them, not all of them, but a lot of them. Then they bring on Pat McAfee, and this is how now he is representing ESPN?
“It’s unacceptable that this would be used as comedy. A sexual deviant. And an abuser. A serial abuser. That you would use that as comedy in this day and age. Read the room, have a little bit of sympathy for those that were abused by the aforementioned Larry Nassar.”
Stone added that he didn’t think McAfee meant any harm, but that doesn’t mean there shouldn’t be consequences for the lack of care.
“[ESPN has] to do something,” Stone said. “Whether you believe what he said was funny, whatever the intent was. Look, the intent was humor. There’s no doubt about it. But sometimes, you know, humor in these cases is not what’s called for.”
[97.1 The Ticket’s Stoney & Jansen, Barrett Sports Media]
