A controversial joke about Catholics made Friday on a live edition of The Pat McAfee Show could land McAfee and company in some hot water.
ESPN College GameDay is taking to South Bend, Indiana for Week 4 of the college football season for Saturday’s primetime matchup between the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the Ohio State Buckeyes. McAfee is a part of the College GameDay cast, so The Pat McAfee Show took to Notre Dame’s campus for a live broadcast of their show.
A number of Notre Dame personalities were featured on the show Friday, including former Notre Dame head coach Lou Holtz, current Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman, and running back Audric Estime.
The broadcast had its fair share of controversial moments but things took a turn when a joke was made about the Catholic faith while McAfee was greeting some of the Notre Dame fans in attendance for the show.
“Be careful. You never know where Catholic hands go,” Pat McAfee Show regular “Boston Connor” presumably said.
The camera was focused on McAfee in the stands, so it isn’t exactly clear who said this disparaging comment about Catholics. But by the sounds of the voice alone, most fans tuning into the show determined that it sounded like Boston Connor.
https://twitter.com/_MLFootball/status/1705268613954011351
https://twitter.com/ajlaubenthal/status/1705303741891588397
Making any kind of joke about a religion is a very touchy subject and plenty of people were offended by the live comment.
Another example of the War on Catholicism:
"Be careful. You never know where Catholic hands go." – As heard on 'The Pat McAfee Show' on ESPN from Notre Dame
Absolutely disgusting. Pat McAfee should be fired immediately.
My religion is not comedy
— Steve Franklin (@MyGuySteve) September 22, 2023
The Pat McAfee Show just arrived on ESPN programming at the beginning of September. The appeal of the show is that it’s extremely unfiltered, which is exactly why they share disclaimers beforehand and have a censor dump when airing on ESPN.
McAfee wasn’t the one who made this joke, but the show as a whole could certainly be reprimanded by ESPN, or at the very least be asked to apologize, as it’s hard to imagine many other ESPN personalities being allowed to say something similar on the air.
About Reice Shipley
Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.