ESPN star speaks out on Olympics opening ceremony

The opening ceremony for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris certainly got people talking.

That included on ESPN, where Pat McAfee took issue with the controversial display, which has been criticized by some as being anti-Christian and/or anti-American.

“There’s a lot of people saying they’re not going to watch the Olympics because of the opening ceremony,” McAfee said on Monday’s episode of The Pat McAfee Show , before proceeding to discuss the work of Thomas Jolly, who is the artistic director of the opening and closing ceremonies. “The one thing that I did not read or see is that he cares anything about sports. So I think that’s the biggest thing. We need people that love sports being a part of sports happenings.”

While McAfee didn’t outright criticize the content of the ceremony, he clearly took issue with its divisive nature.

“There’s a lot of people that are saying, ‘What Thomas Jolly put together was incredibly disrespectful.’ And I think that is certainly a way view to things. That is a way to take it. And there’s a lot of people that have said that and for good reason,” he continued said. “I have no idea how any of these things are the start of the Olympics or to announce that the Olympics are taking place.

“It was form of artistic expression that was paying trib– whatever. We just want it to revolve around sport. And we can’t have the opening ceremony be a reason why people won’t watch these athletes who have sacrificed everything about their lives to be great at something and only get to experience and celebrate once every four years.”

McAfee is obviously entitled to his opinion, but he appears to be using the shield of “a lot of people saying” to project views he seemingly shares. But considering his A-political nature, it’s not surprising he’d rather point to criticism from others regarding the content of the ceremony rather than issuing his own.

While there are plenty of instances of the Olympics being about more than just sports — Tommie Smith and John Carlos say hello —  whether such statements belong in its opening ceremonies is a valid conversation. The idea that this year’s opening ceremony negatively affected viewership, however, is quickly refuted, as the opening day of competition delivered NBC its biggest Olympics audience since 2016 .

If there are people who can’t bring themselves to watch the rest of the Olympics because they’re so appalled by what they saw in the opening ceremony, that’s their prerogative. But based on the early returns, the people actually boycotting this year’s games based on the opening ceremony appear to be a vocal minority, thus nullifying the heart of McAfee’s argument.

[ The Pat McAfee Show on X ]

The post Pat McAfee critical of controversial Olympics opening ceremony appeared first on Awful Announcing .