ESPN’s hit college football pregame show “College Gameday” returns next week when the crew heads to Dublin, Ireland, which includes the always polarizing Pat McAfee.
While McAfee has become one of the biggest names in sports media, his style and antics haven’t been for everyone, and there’s nowhere that’s become more apparent than on “College Gameday,” where he has become a love-it-or-hate-it addition to the panel.
So it should have come as no surprise that the McAfee haters took the opportunity to chime in about him in a joint Instagram post by McAfee, College Gameday and the ESPN College Football account, of him shirtless on the GameDay set.
What made the situation so notable was McAfee’s desire to chime in and respond to some of those trolling him online.
The sports media personality responded, according to a report by Awful Announcing, to one commenter who had posted in part, “damn he makes me angry.”
“I’ve been with me a long time.. You’re definitely not the only one. Good news is, I’d probably hate you too,” McAfee replied.
When someone called McAfee a redneck and that he needed to keep his shirt on during the program, it led him to retort with a sarcastic comment of his own.
“Damn shame… I don’t love that you’ve stopped watching maybe we’ll be able to get you back this year,” he replied about people tunning out. “If so, we’ll have the third straight season of highest ratings ever. WE NEED YA.”
The 2023 college football season marked the second most watched season of “College Gameday” for ESPN since 2011 with an average viewership of 2.0 million.
It had been just shy of the 2022 record the program set with an average of 2.1 million viewers.
When another commenter chimed in that they just vomited, McAfee responded, “Could’ve been the mirror you walked by.”
Love him or hate him, McAfee will be back on “College Gameday” this year after a bit of uncertainty around whether he’d be back in 2024.
McAfee had hinted last October that he could leave the show after the 2023 season, but he announced in July that he would return to one of ESPN’s most popular programs.
McAfee brought his “The Pat McAfee Show” to the network in 2023 in a separate deal with the World Wide Leader in Sports that allows them to license the daily show.
