Pat McAfee surprised by negative reaction to ESPN move

A significant portion of Pat McAfee's fan base is not feeling much excitement for his new move to ESPN.

McAfee admitted on Thursday that his social media mentions have been a rough place since news of his move from FanDuel to ESPN dropped on Tuesday, and a lot of seems to revolve around the idea that the worldwide leader might force him to give up control of his content. 

He addressed that during his podcast on Thursday, saying things have been "very, very, very rude" out there. 

More from McAfee, via Awful Announcing:

“It’s been tough to go over the mentions,” McAfee said during Thursday’s episode of 'The Pat McAfee Show.' “It has been tough out there. I don’t think I expected that. That was a miscalculation…I think the reason I didn’t expect it is because it didn’t even cross my mind…I feel like our people are the ones that were most mad. It’s like, ‘Hey, we have a good history, do we not?'”

It is not known exactly how much ESPN is paying McAfee, but it will reportedly be eight figures per year, according to the New York Post. That deal comes Disney has gone through thousands of recent layoffs, including some at ESPN.

It remains to be seen how much of a change McAfee's show will undergo and how much control he will keep.  One thing is almost certainly going to be a given: He will probably need to cut down on the profanity. 

McAfee has already done some work for ESPN after becoming a regular during "College GameDay" this season.