When Pat McAfee is in the news, it’s a virtual guarantee that he will address the reports.
The ESPN and WWE star wasted no time Thursday responding to the latest piece from Andrew Marchand at The Athletic, calling the sports media reporter a “rat” early on in the first hour of The Pat McAfee Show. He referenced it again during a segment with NFL insider Adam Schefter. To close the show, McAfee also went on an extended rant toward Marchand and the reporter’s sources in Bristol.
“Speaking of an update, I learned a lot about my business this morning in another article,” McAfee said, transitioning out of a U.S. Open golf update to Marchand’s reporting. “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 bullsh*t,’ immediately.”
McAfee then moved into a conversation with Schefter, who was also a subject of Marchand’s article. While welcoming the NFL insider for the first time since March 4, McAfee borrowed Marchand’s wording to introduce Schefter as the “banned man.” One focus of Marchand’s article was the unofficial “ban” of Schefter from PMS in favor of NFL Network insider Ian Rapoport, a longtime friend of the show before its move to ESPN.
As McAfee wrapped his interview with Schefter, he dropped another allusion to the Athletic piece.
“Tell Seth we know,” McAfee said, in what might be a reference to ESPN Vice President of Production Seth Markman.
In the waning moments of his show, after it was no longer being broadcast on ESPN, McAfee dug in even further on Marchand and the “dinosaurs” at the Worldwide Leader, who have presumably leaked news about him to reporters since his arrival on ESPN airwaves in September 2023. McAfee also publicly thanked ESPN content head Burke Magnus, who was quoted in Marchand’s piece staunchly defending him.
“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,” McAfee said. “And I don’t talk to that f*cking guy (Marchand), so how would he ever (know)?”
PMS panelist Anthony “Tone Digs” DiGuilio interjected that McAfee couldn’t speak to Marchand because he doesn’t “speak rat.”
McAfee responded that he could.
“Bah bah bah bah bah, I’m soft,” the host said, imitating a robot.
Two other PMS panelists joined in, making fake rat noises.
It was a reminder of January 2024, when McAfee thought he’d identified then-SVP of Production Norby Williamson as a leaker and similarly dubbed him a “rat.” Williamson was dismissed later that year.
McAfee also called Marchand a “rat” over the former New York Post columnist’s scoop on McAfee paying Aaron Rodgers for his appearances on PMS in 2023.
McAfee closed Thursday’s show on a more serious note with a lengthy rant about his exhaustion stemming from the negative headlines surrounding the background of his show since its move to ESPN. As if speaking directly to the sports media industry and the halls of power in Bristol, McAfee implored critics to leave the PMS crew the “f*ck alone” and commented that any executives leaking negative publicity about him would be obsolete before long.
“The naiveté of whenever we started licensing our show through ESPN, and once again, full creative control, still own my company 100 percent, all of that, but partnered with ESPN. In the green, by the way,” McAfee said. “I remember a lot of articles about how grotesquely overpaid we were. And I’ve learned about the lack of business knowledge that these writers have, including the one who wrote this morning about how this all works.”
McAfee then turned his attention to ESPN. The host, who is also a star on College GameDay and hosts a Sports Emmy-winning College Football Playoff alternative cast for the network, explained that he hoped the noise around his show would die down by now.
“I thought there was going to be like a, ‘Hey, we’re coming in here to do that,'” McAfee said. “And instead, there’s somebody in ESPN, and we know who it is. He knows we know who it is, too. He knows, you (A.J. Hawk) know, we all know. Everybody knows who it is. And it’s like, ‘Listen up, you little rat. This is the future, I think, of what people who are much more important to the company than you are, are thinking. And we are just trying to be an additive to sports media. And if you just continue to sh*t stories out of context, so many missing parts of things, just to try to make us look bad.
“Three years into this, it’s like, come on. We’ve made money for the company. I think we’ve done good things for the company. I think there’s been some awards that have been given to some shows that we’ve [been involved in]. Like, come on. At what point are we just going to f*cking just leave us the f*ck alone, almost?
“But every time I wake up, it’s like, ‘Hey, there’s another thing being written about you being a piece of sh*t.’ It’s like, great. F*cking great. Can’t wait to continue to do it. But I appreciate Burke Magnus going to bat for us. That was the most definitive statement that has been made by actual people with power at that company. And there’s this level right below there, probably a couple … that they all think they are somebody. Y’all motherf*ckers are dinosaurs, bro. You’re about to get run into extinction. And you know it. And it’s only a matter of time before everybody else does.”
This is not the first time McAfee has railed against sports media insiders or his opponents within ESPN. At a media day event in 2024, McAfee accused Marchand and others of a “calculated attack” on PMS.