Pat McAfee Calls Out Olympic Organizers for Controversial Opening Ceremony: ‘We Just Want It to Revolve Around Sport’

Pat McAfee called out the producers behind the opening ceremony of the Olympics after many online took offense to the event’s artistic choices.

At center of the controversy was one scene during the performance that drew parallels to Leonardo da Vinci’s painting “The Last Supper.” During the scene, a scantily-clad blue man laid on a table surrounded a number of other characters. Some believe the scene was a direct reference to painting, thus mocking Christianity.

In response to the backlash, opening ceremony designer Thomas Jolly said in a statement that the scene was inspired by the Greek God Dionysus. In other statements, however, producers claimed the scene was actually inspired by “The Last Supper.”

Regardless of the intent, McAfee believes it was a bad look for the Olympics.

“There’s a lot of people saying they’re not gonna watch the Olympics because of the opening ceremony,” McAfee said Monday on The Pat McAfee Show . “Now, I learned a lot about a man named Thomas Jolly over the weekend. I think we all did, and the one thing that I did not read or see is that he cares at all about sports. So I think that’s the biggest thing. We need people that love sports being a part of sports happenings.”

McAfee acknowledged that “the history of France had to be told,” but reiterated that his belief that some of the messaging and imagery from the opening ceremony strayed too far from sports.

“We just want it to revolve around sport,” he said, “and we can’t have 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.”

Despite the online criticism, the opening ceremony ended up being a big hit for NBC. It reportedly drew an audience of more than 28 million — the biggest since opening ceremonies for the 2012 games in London.

Watch above via ESPN.