Was Pat McAfee calling out his ESPN superiors
once again? On his show today, Pat seemed to imply that the higher-ups at ESPN - when he referred to "God" - told him not to talk about Caitlin Clark anymore. Now why would that be? It actually could stem from a couple of different things. First off, McAfee tried to defend the Indiana Fever star (in a perhaps aggressive but rather funny way) earlier in the year, saying that she was viewed as the
"white b*tch" of the league by her rivals. That obviously didn't come off how he intended to, and he later apologized for describing her that way. Then, it seems that the "Worldwide Leader in Sports" got upset because when Pat McAfee talked about the WNBA on his show, all he talked about was Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever. ESPN apparently wanted Pat to talk about other stars and other teams, even though Clark is the biggest of them all - and practically plays within walking distance of where
The Pat McAfee Show broadcasts. So when Clark came up during
The Pat McAfee Show today, which simulcasted with
The Rich Eisen Show , McAfee immediately made it clear to Eisen that he wasn't supposed to be talking about the WNBA star. And he didn't exactly break that news discretely:
"The universe told me not to talk about her. 'God' came in and was like, 'You know what pal? Probably go ahead and stop it.'" At first, Eisen didn't understand what Pat McAfee meant by that. However, the sports radio host quickly caught on, though still wanted to know why he would be told to stop talking about the rookie sensation - especially if ESPN holds WNBA broadcasting rights and would want viewers pointed in the direction of WNBA games, regardless of who is playing in them. So Eisen straight up asked McAfee why the "universe" was trying to shut him up, and Pat responded by saying:
"Because I'm an idiot, mostly. The reason is because I'm an idiot. And I want to say, we are big supporters. We took a show to Iowa to support during the first day of men's March Madness to launch the women's March Madness because we just wanted to catch the vibe of what Iowa was with Caitlin Clark. I think what she has done is obviously remarkable. Now it's the whole rookie class, yadda-yadda, we get it. I'm not even getting into it. But nonetheless, I am dumb. And the way I speak, not good. And multiple times, 'God' has come in and been like, 'You need to stop.'" However, McAfee denied that he was referring to ESPN in a follow up tweet:
"This isn’t true. I said “God” and the “Universe” told me to stop talking about it... that was thru me saying something that inevitably always caused full chaos. It wasn’t great for my life or for the progrum. You took a completely false headline from an asinine account and amplified it. ESPN has zero say over my show. Thanks again. Cheers." https://twitter.com/PatMcAfeeShow/status/1826401601243795503 There's no doubt that the Pat McAfee - ESPN relationship has been fruitful, but it has come with its fair share of fireworks. It all must be worth it from the perspective of the ESPN executives - though I wonder how long McAfee will find all of the trouble to be worth it. For now, it seems that the network doesn't have a say in anything that McAfee does on the show, especially when it comes to the Caitlin Clark conversation... after all it doesn't exactly make a lot of sense from a network standpoint to
not be able to discuss one of sport's biggest stars. https://youtu.be/mwa5S28TBMA?si=yvSqx1hdFG7HbX3Z&t=733
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