Former NFL punter Pat McAfee is known for his razor-sharp takes on football related issues. However, recently, McAfee stirred up a debate by openly expressing his disdain for Baseball. This comes when Pat has been making the headlines for jumping ships from FanDuel to ESPN.
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Since he finalized his ESPN deal, McAfee has been constantly termed as a sellout by innumerable angry fans. They are afraid that the Pat McAfee show will get politicized in order to adjust to ESPN standards. However, Pat has repeatedly clarified that ho won’t change a thing about his show.
Pat McAfee’s blunt take on Baseball
In a recent video, Pat McAfee unleashed his frustrations about Baseball, describing it as “f*cking tough to watch.” Known for his straightforward style, McAfee minced no words in expressing his lack of enthusiasm for the sport. The shots were fired at the slow pace, and extended games in Baseball.
“No offense to MLB, there are around 7000 games left and there is no consequence to them,” McAfee stated. He even imitated the game commentary in a drawling manner to prove his point, that the sport is indeed very hard to sit through.
Pat’s disdain for a sport that is close to a lot of Americans has been receiving severe backlash. On the above video, comments criticizing McAfee’s take have not stopped pouring in. Some of them read, “To be fair, there is, on average, 18 minutes of action in an NFL game spread across about 3 hours,” and “I would recommend finding a race to pay attention to and focus on them”. Many fans expressed their disappointment in McAfee’s take, suggesting that he should stick to discussing football.
Breaking down McAfee’s ESPN deal
McAfee-ESPN deal is worth $85 million over five years, brining his average payout to $17 million per year, as per NY Post. The show will be telecasted on ESPN’s YouTube channel, ESPN+, along with a weekly place on ESPN’s College GameDay. The deal primarily aims at ESPN’s idea of diversifying its content. For Pat, the idea is, the show must not only go on but continue to grow.
Despite all the criticism, there is a lot of excitement among fans to witness McAfee on ESPN. Moreover, Pat’s statement that he will have almost all the creative control over the show, has actually forced some of the fans to change their opinion about the former punter.
