Popular sports media personality and ex-NFL punter Pat McAfee is surprised by the amount of criticism he’s receiving for moving to ESPN.
Earlier this week, McAfee agreed to a lucrative multi-million dollar deal with the sports network giant. McAfee is leaving in the midst of a four-year, $120 million contract he signed with the FanDuel sportsbook in Dec. 2021.
During Thursday’s edition of “The Pat McAfee Show” (h/t Alejandro Avila of OutKick), McAfee expressed confusion over the backlash he’s receiving for taking his show over to the Worldwide Leader of Sports:
“It’s been tough to go over the mentions. 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?…
I don’t know…Some of the things that are being said are very, very, very rude.”
Andrew Marchand of the New York Post was first to report about the ESPN-McAfee deal. Though the amount of money involved in the deal is unclear at this time, Marchand reported that it’s “more than eight figures per year.”
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Before he began his sports media career, McAfee was a standout NFL punter for the Indianapolis Colts from 2009 to 2016. McAfee earned two Pro Bowl nods as well as a 2014 First-team All-Pro selection.
McAfee retired after the 2016 season, citing knee injuries. After retiring from football, he joined Barstool Sports and stayed there for a year before leaving in 2018.
Aside from hosting his own show, the 36-year-old McAfee has also done commentary work for WWE (primarily on SmackDown) while also working occasionally as a wrestler. He has even wrestled at each of the last two WWE WrestleMania pay-per-views.
McAfee is also an analyst for ESPN’s College Gameday program.
