Pat McAfee doesn’t sweat much these days, but his desire to get legendary NFL coach Bill Belichick on his “progrum” has been a high priority. It sounds like he might have finally landed his white whale, if only for a night.
Wednesday, McAfee was discussing the 2024 NFL Draft with NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah when The Pat McAfee Show host mentioned they would be “doing our draft spectacular live from Detroit.” He then dropped a nugget about a major guest who’ll be joining them.
“We got a whale. We got a whale,” said McAfee. “I know you guys got your thing going on, on NFL Network, and we follow along. We watch it as we’re doing our thing on the internet or whatever. The person that’s gonna be joining us on this thing is a big one.”
“I think the announcement is gonna be big,” he added.
Of course, despite his efforts to keep some mystery about the special guest, McAfee opened the door to some potential guesses from Jeremiah.
“Does his first name and last name start with the same letter?” asked the NFL Network host.
“We don’t know, responded McAfee, hands in the air. “I’m not giving away anything. Don’t you even think I’ll be giving away anything.”
“I just have a wedding ring,” responded Jeremiah, who was undeterred. “He’s got like seven more,” alluding to Belichick’s eight total Super Bowl rings as a coach.
At this point, McAfee realized the cat was getting out of the bag and shut the guessing game down.
So while we can’t say with certainty yet that McAfee will be doing a MegaCast for the NFL Draft with special guest Bill Belichick, all signs sure seem to point there.
McAfee’s weekly guest list is the admiration of the industry (sans maybe one person) and it’s clear he can usually get whoever he wants to show up (and they are excited to be there). However, he’s also made it abundantly clear just how much he wants Belichick on as a weekly guest.
“I will make this promise that if Bill Belichick is gonna go do TV, ‘ol Pat McAfee will be in the running to try to get Bill Belichick to join our program,” McAfee said in late January when the former Patriots coach didn’t land any NFL coaching gigs.
He doubled down on that sentiment a few weeks later.
“I am trying my best to get Bill Belichick on this program at least once a week going forward. Just at least once a week going forward into football season,” he said in mid-February. “Could you imagine us peppering Bill Belichick every single week throughout an entire football season? That’s if he wants to get into the media world and if he would want to be on our particular program. There’s a chance he says no way.”
Just this morning, The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand reported that ESPN is “pursuing” Belichick, though he is “disinclined to be part of a regular studio show, according to officials briefed on the talks.”
Do you know what he might be more inclined to do? A one-off NFL Draft broadcast in a casual setting where he’s being feted the entire time.
Sure, it’s possible McAfee is referring to someone else. But how many people would qualify for “whale” status in this context? Tom Brady, perhaps, but there’s no way the Fox broadcaster is showing up to promote ESPN’s NFL coverage all night.
We await the official ESPN press release to confirm our suspicions.
About Sean Keeley
Along with writing for Awful Announcing and The Comeback, Sean is the Managing Editor for Comeback Media. Previously, he created the Syracuse blog Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician and wrote 'How To Grow An Orange: The Right Way to Brainwash Your Child Into Rooting for Syracuse.' He has also written non-Syracuse-related things for SB Nation, Curbed, and other outlets. He currently lives in Seattle where he is complaining about bagels. Send tips/comments/complaints to sean@thecomeback.com.