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Earlier this week, The Athletic published an article about Pat McAfee titled “Inside Pat McAfee’s world: Adam Schefter’s ban, solo GameDay dreams, possibly more live events.” The popular radio host, perhaps unsurprisingly, has since publicly taken issue with it.
In the article written by longtime sports journalist Andrew Marchand, it’s reported that Pat McAfee tries to exert his influence on the ESPN programs he appears on, which Marchand claims “essentially banned” Adam Schefter from featuring on The Pat McAfee Show for three months because the famed NFL insider opted to contribute to a free agency special on ESPN2 instead.
One particularly embarrassing anecdote from the report claimed that the former Indianapolis Colts punter threw something of a hissy fit after a video of him being struck out by a college softball pitcher made its way onto the College GameDay broadcast, with McAfee even going as far as trying to get the name of a specific employee to pin it on.
“McAfee grew upset about being shown swinging and missing during a segment in which he faced a University of Oklahoma softball pitcher. McAfee, according to sources briefed on the incident, demanded to know the name of the GameDay staff member who put it on the air, but he was denied the information.”
On the Thursday, June 12 episode of The Pat McAfee Show, the 38-year-old sports media personality laid into The Athletic’s report.
“Speaking of an update, I learned a lot about my business this morning in another article. Which has been great news. Seems like that happens all the time. I don’t know if this is just normal, par for the course. I guess it’s just life these days. There’s so many of them it’s hard to keep track of. But when that rat writes something, it is nice to just be like, ‘Well, that’s bulls–,’ immediately,” McAfee said while also referring to Marchand as a ‘rat’ and the execs at ESPN as ‘dinosaurs.’
“All these people that talk about our business are very interesting, because in a lot of situations, and this is going to sound narcissistic, there’s only one person who has the answer. And that would be me.And I don’t talk to that f—— guy (Marchand), so how would he ever (know)?”
For a guy who has built a brand as a devil-may-care, I’m-having-too-much-fun-to-be-a-serious person, McAfee certainly seems to have developed a habit of speaking out virtually every time a report about him is published. Still, he has a right to defend himself and his reputation against an article he believes is false. The issue is that Marchand has widely been considered to be a reputable reporter throughout the entirety of his career.
The report that McAfee is referencing he’s also developed a bit of a diva attitude, as he reportedly tried to get the name of an ESPN employee who aired a clip of him striking out against a college softball picture on College GameDay.
Coincidentally enough, Adam Schefter returned to The Pat McAfee Show the day that The Athletic published its report.
After around 3 months of Adam Schefter not being on, ESPN said Schefter will return to The Pat McAfee Show today. https://t.co/tqNwgi2p6I
— Andrew Marchand (@AndrewMarchand) June 12, 2025