{"id":464733,"date":"2026-02-12T19:16:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T19:16:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/464733\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T19:16:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T19:16:10","slug":"the-sports-media-machinations-of-reporting-on-pat-mcafee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/464733\/","title":{"rendered":"The sports media machinations of reporting on Pat McAfee"},"content":{"rendered":"

This originally appeared in the Thursday edition of\u00a0 The A Block, Awful Announcing\u2019s daily newsletter with the latest sports media news, commentary, and analysis.\u00a0Sign up here<\/a>\u00a0and be the first to know everything you need to know about the sports media world.<\/p>\n

Move over McDreamy and McSteamy, make way for McAfee and McCarthy.<\/p>\n

Wednesday, ESPN officially unveiled \u201cThe Year of the Super Bowl<\/a>,\u201d a 12-month celebration across multiple platforms building toward ESPN\u2019s first-ever Super Bowl production in February 2027.<\/p>\n

Any sports fan not living under a rock would know about this already, given how much pomp and circumstance they put into \u201cThe Handoff<\/a>,\u201d their 24-hour event spanning SoFi Stadium to Disneyland, in which Chris Berman symbolically passed coverage responsibilities to Scott Van Pelt for Super Bowl LXI coverage.<\/p>\n

Michael McCarthy was covering the announcement for Front Office Sports and even dropped a few extra nuggets on Tuesday about what Disney and ESPN might have planned for their Super Bowl. He reported that they were\u00a0considering a \u201cfamily-friendly altcast\u201d<\/a>\u00a0featuring one of their iconic IPs, such as The Simpsons or Star Wars (ESPN has already\u00a0effectively announced a ManningCast Super Bowl altcast<\/a>).<\/p>\n

He also reported that the company was considering adding a Field Pass with The Pat McAfee Show altcast<\/a> for the Super Bowl, but noted that the idea \u201cfaces rights hurdles.\u201d<\/p>\n

SCCOP: ESPN + Disney are considering adding a Field Pass with The Pat McAfee Show to their coverage of Super Bowl LXI, sources tell @FOS<\/a>. But idea faces rights hurdles.<\/p>\n

The @PatMcAfeeShow<\/a> show drew all-time record 2.4M viewers for Rose Bowl alt-cast. https:\/\/t.co\/CjlVCsH9zb<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/BzLKMFLsnl<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Michael McCarthy (@MMcCarthyREV) February 11, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

About three hours later, McAfee took to X to offer a reply to McCarthy\u2019s announcement. \u201cBREAKING: Source(s) tell me that the rights hurdle is very hurdle-able,\u201d he wrote<\/a>. \u201cWould be absolutely bonkers.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s all pretty normal, but it was the attached image that made things so very Pat McAfee. In a petty move, the mercurial host had taken a screenshot of McCarthy\u2019s post but cropped out all credits to McCarthy or Front Office Sports.<\/p>\n

Sensing an opportunity, McCarthy quoted McAfee\u2019s credit-less aggregation by saying it won\u2019t hurt him to include \u201cthe dreaded letters\u201d FOS and invited him to connect.<\/p>\n

Hey @PatMcAfeeShow<\/a>, it\u2019s OK, you can use the dreaded letters @FOS<\/a>. The truth shall set you free!<\/p>\n

Give me call any time, love to talk. Personally, I think you guys would kill it on a Super Bowl Field-Cast.<\/p>\n

For those who want to read story, here it is\u2026https:\/\/t.co\/CjlVCsH9zb<\/a> https:\/\/t.co\/CMOiainvIh<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Michael McCarthy (@MMcCarthyREV) February 11, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

In the subsequent hours, McAfee\u2019s selective editing didn\u2019t go entirely unnoticed<\/a>, and, in a curious change of pace from his usual relationship with the media, he offered a follow-up that included credit to FOS.<\/p>\n

This has blown up a bit, that\u2019s sweet.. this was first reported by the very fine and fair folks from @FOS<\/a><\/p>\n

On that note.. I, representative for myself and The Progrum, have officially added details about the Super Bowl Field Pass report.<\/p>\n

\u201cHurdle-able\u201d<\/p>\n

Thank you all for\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/LWPBeWFKlY<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) February 12, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

The turnaround is curious on two fronts. One, as noted, McAfee\u2019s relationship with sports media reporters<\/a> is usually adversarial<\/a>. Two, McAfee didn\u2019t seem to receive too much, if any, public pushback from the cut-and-paste move. So why feel the need to reverse course?<\/p>\n

We can speculate that either there was a McAfee-McCarthy McConnection to smooth things over, or someone at ESPN asked McAfee to play nice, given how important \u201cThe Year of the Super Bowl\u201d campaign is to the company.<\/p>\n

It certainly wouldn\u2019t be the first time the GameDay analyst has hijacked ESPN\u2019s best laid PR plans<\/a>. Perhaps he was mad that he had been scooped, which is understandible, though a bit naive to expect, given his status in the sports media world<\/a>. But given how important the corporate synergy at play seems to be for Disney and ESPN, this might have been one defiant move too many, even if it didn\u2019t seem to break sports media containment.<\/p>\n

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