Kirk Herbstreit: Pat McAfee said he’d cover costs to prevent budget cuts

During a recent appearance on the Next Man Up Podcast, Kirk Herbstreit recalled how Pat McAfee prevented certain budget cuts. What did McAfee do to prevent those cuts? According to Herbstreit, he offered to foot the bill himself.

During the conversation, Herbstreit shared the story of a meeting that both he and McAfee were on, where budget cuts were brought up.

“Budget is always a big thing in our industry and trying to cut back on certain things,” Herbstreit said. “And they made an announcement that they were going to cut back on this and cut back on that. And we were on a Zoom and Pat was listening to that, even I was listening to that like, ‘Why are they cutting back on that? That doesn’t make any sense.’ And Pat decided to say, ‘OK, if you’re going to cut back on that, I’ll cover that. I’ll cover that. Because the crew, the people around the show, they need to have that. They need to have that.'”

Herbstreit continued, saying that shortly after McAfee volunteered to cover those costs, upper management stepped up.

So he’s like, ‘If you guys are gonna do your budget thing, I’m taking care of the crew.’ And everyone was like, ‘Wow.’ And then upper management heard that and they said, ‘Whoa. We don’t need Pat to cover that. We’ll take care of that.'”