ESPN, the world’s leading sports network, has bet big on Pat McAfee’s continued popularity. The former punter began his broadcasting career at Barstool Sports before leaving to go independent. He was an interesting mix of insider and outsider: an NFL punter from 2009-2016, yet not concerned with legacy media decorum. He gave sports fans the feeling of talking about the game with a friend at a hometown bar.
In many ways, McAfee was what sports fans needed: a guy who said whatever was on his mind, surrounded by buddies who did the same. This made him extremely popular with young men and helped him secure deals with SiriusXM and FanDuel. He became the most popular independent voice in sports, so legacy media had to have him.
In 2023, ESPN brought The Pat McAfee Show to its airwaves in a multi-year deal with McAfee. Suddenly, he was everywhere on the network: on College GameDay, his daily show, and as an alternative broadcast for College Football Playoff games. As with any public figure, he risked being overexposed, and over the past few years, many of his biggest supporters have soured on him.
ESPN clearly believes he is the key to the network remaining relevant with the younger generation. Despite protests from long-time viewers who feel ESPN has become the Pat McAfee Network. We may have seen the first cracks in the foundation as the network gave him his own alternative broadcast to Monday Night Football.
ESPN has had success with alternate casts in the past, like The ManningCast, which features brothers Peyton and Eli Manning. With four Super Bowl wins between them, they offer deep insight into the game that other broadcasters can’t provide. However, even that is beginning to lose its appeal as more time is spent on guest appearances and less on the game itself.
So they tapped McAfee to see if his audience would follow him on yet another endeavor. Unfortunately for him and the network, that didn’t seem to be the case for its premiere. According to Austin Kapp of Sports Business Journal, the first McAfeeCast drew in just 351,000 viewers. That’s compared with 6.6 million on the main broadcast and 10.3 million on the ABC simulcast.
The main broadcast is usually pretty good, though lately it’s been a bit tense because hosts Joe Buck and Troy Aikman aren’t on great terms. When the ManningCast first debuted, the main broadcast booth was widely maligned, so having an alternative was appealing.
There is certainly a fatigue element with McAfee; viewers can only stand so much of him, as his debut album says he’s a polarizing figure. There’s also a question about what a former punter can really provide, commentary-wise, that a three-time Super Bowl champion like Aikman can’t. There are five more McAfeeCasts to go, so we’ll see whether it gets more popular over time or stays this dire.
