New Report Claims Growing Tension Between Pat McAfee, ESPN

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Grant Bricker | Last updated Oct 24, 2025 3:05 PM ET

Pat McAfee first entered the public eye as a punter for the West Virginia Mountaineers from 2005-08. That led to an eight-year NFL career with the Indianapolis Colts.

Following his NFL retirement, he teamed with Barstool Sports and started "The Pat McAfee Show" before joining ESPN in 2019 as a college football analyst. Despite the move to ESPN, he did not become a regular member on "College GameDay" until the 2022 season.

McAfee is on the GameDay crew alongside Kirk Herbstreit, Nick Saban, Rece Davis and Desmond Howard. Since 2023, "The Pat McAfee Show" has been broadcast on ESPN as his brand continues to grow. However, a report surfaced on Friday detailing mounting frustrations between McAfee and some ESPN producers.

McAfee ranted on a recent Instagram story about how the older fans do not appreciate his antics, stating how the producers of GameDay are also old, via Awful Announcing's Ben Axelrod.

“If you think about old white people and old ESPN people, those are really the people that hate me the most at this stage of life,” McAfee said. “Now granted, there’s some other groups that certainly have threatened my life on a pretty regular basis, I’d say they hate me too. But throughout the entirety, old whites and the old ESPN people over the last like three years have really hated me. That’s who all the producers are of GameDay, too. So now — it’s been a fun run. College football is great. OK, cheers. Have a great day.”

Sources told Front Office Sports' Michael McCarthy that those at ESPN are growing tired of McAfee and wish he would tell them his issues in person instead of behind their backs.

McCarthy revealed that another source called McAfee a "diva."

“Totally unnecessary. Grow up and talk to these people to make it better. You are not a victim,” the source told FOS. “Everyone is bending over backwards to put you in a good position — and these same people are incentivized for you to succeed.”

This weekend, GameDay is headed to Nashville, Tennessee, as No. 10 Vanderbilt takes on No. 15 Missouri. The last time the pregame show was at Vanderbilt was in 2008, when an undefeated and 19th-ranked Commodores team took down No. 13 Auburn 14-13.

Comedian Nate Bargatze will be the guest picker Saturday on GameDay, which airs from 9 a.m. to noon ET on ESPN. Kickoff for Missouri-Vanderbilt is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. ET on ESPN.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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