College students screaming lewd call-and-response chants at the top of their lungs is a time-honored tradition.
And even at 8:00 a.m. local time in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the site of ESPN’s College GameDay ahead of Alabama-LSU on Saturday night, Tigers fans were ready to make a statement.
Pat McAfee, who loves to get a rise out of the GameDay crowd bright and early no matter where the show goes, decided to kickoff the show with a “Hey-ooooooo!” That call is red meat to the LSU fan base who promptly responded with an enthusiastic “Suck that Tiger d*ck, b*tch!”
“That was fairly aggressive,” GameDay host Rece Davis chimed in. “I thought they were going to say ‘thick’ like the humidity,” McAfee joked. “I didn’t know it was actually, hey-ooooooo!” To which the crowd once again responded accordingly.
Now, LSU isn’t the only fan base to throw their weight behind a vulgar chant. In fact, it’s pretty commonplace in college football. West Virginia fans love to chant “Eat! Sh*t! Pitt!” when Sweet Caroline plays over the loud speakers during the Backyard Brawl. Or how about Virginia Tech fans chanting “Stick it in! Stick it in! Stick it in!” when the Hokies are on the goal line?
Perhaps most schools are a bit more subtle about their favorite chants than down in the Bayou, but in a college football environment it’s not completely out of bounds.
The real question is whether or not McAfee should be encouraging it live on-air. The chant isn’t exactly family friendly, and there will surely be some pearl-clutching GameDay viewers upset that the audio came through so clearly. And it’s fair to argue that this chant crosses the line in ways that other profanity-laced chants do not.
McAfee has seemingly gotten back into the good graces of some fans this season, but moments like this can jeopardize that goodwill. The GameDay co-host even leaned into the chant again later in the show during a segment with LSU head coach Brian Kelly.
No doubt, a moment like that can energize the crowd for the rest of the show and keep them engaged. But maybe next time ESPN’s audio engineers can help drown out the profanities a little bit.
[ESPN]
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.