{"id":1616,"date":"2025-10-26T01:20:39","date_gmt":"2025-10-26T01:20:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/media\/?p=1616"},"modified":"2025-11-28T01:21:54","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T01:21:54","slug":"report-espn-producers-fed-up-with-pat-mcafees-diva-behavior","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/media\/sports-media\/report-espn-producers-fed-up-with-pat-mcafees-diva-behavior\/","title":{"rendered":"Report: ESPN Producers Fed Up With Pat McAfee\u2019s \u2018Diva\u2019 Behavior"},"content":{"rendered":"

ESPN\u2019s Pat McAfee took to his Instagram this week to complain about how he has been treated by the network\u2019s production staff. Some of his colleagues were not too thrilled with what he had to say, and let their grievances be known, according to a new report from Front Office Sports.<\/span><\/p>\n

McAfee calls out ESPN’s production staff<\/strong><\/h2>\n

On Tuesday, McAfee stated some harsh comments about the ESPN <\/span>College GameDay <\/span><\/i>production crew, \u201cIf you think about old white people and old ESPN people, those are really the people that hate me the most at this stage of life.<\/span><\/p>\n

He added, \u201cNow, granted, there\u2019s some other groups that certainly have threatened my life on a pretty regular basis, I\u2019d say they hate me too. But throughout the entirety, old whites and the old ESPN people over the last like three years have really hated me. That\u2019s who all the producers are of GameDay too. So now\u2014it\u2019s been a fun run. College football is great. OK, cheers, have a great day.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

ESPN sources respond to McAfee’s comments<\/strong><\/h3>\n

In response to McAfee, sources told Front Office Sports<\/a> that McAfee\u2019s comments were viewed as juvenile, unprofessional and bad for business. There was also a bit of frustration that McAfee was airing his issues, ripping his co-workers on a public forum, rather than discussing it in-person with the ESPN production staff.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTotally unnecessary. Grow up and talk to these people to make it better. You are not a victim,\u201d one source told Front Office Sports. \u201cEveryone is bending over backwards to put you in a good position\u2014and these same people are incentivized for you to succeed.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

McAfee\u2019s complaint was geared towards some of the staff that produce <\/span>College GameDay<\/span><\/i>, not <\/span>The Pat McAfee Show<\/span><\/i>. Although <\/span>The Pat McAfee Show<\/span><\/i> airs daily on ESPN, the show is produced in-house by McAfee\u2019s staff in Indianapolis. A different source also told Front Office Sports that McAfee sometimes acts like an \u201centitled diva.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t the first time that McAfee has publicly expressed issues with production. On April 8, 2024, The Pat McAfee Show aired live from Philadelphia on ESPN after <\/span>WrestleMania XL<\/span><\/i>. McAfee vented on-air about audio issues that were going on with the show airing on-location.<\/span><\/p>\n

ESPN stands by McAfee<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Although McAfee has had his fair-share of feuds with ESPN<\/a> management and production in his short-time at the network, he still has full-support from where he needs it. ESPN President of Content Burke Magnus recently hailed McAfee as a \u201ccreative force.\u201d But in the same statement to Front Office Sports, he admitted his disruptive style can sometimes cause \u201cfriction.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPat is a creative force. He\u2019s pushed hard to advance <\/span>College GameDay<\/span><\/i> and his impact has been enormous,\u201d Magnus says. \u201cSince he joined ESPN, <\/span>GameDay<\/span><\/i>\u2014as well as his own daily show\u2014have experienced unprecedented success. Pat is also an innovator, and when you have someone who disrupts the status quo, it\u2019s not surprising when there\u2019s friction and disagreement as a result. We will continue to encourage and support Pat and the entire <\/span>GameDay<\/span><\/i> cast and crew as together they break new ground on one of ESPN\u2019s most important franchises.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

McAfee has two more years remaining on his contract with <\/span>College GameDay<\/span><\/i>. He is set to join the show on Saturday for the Missouri Tigers vs. Vanderbilt Commodores matchup from Nashville, Tennessee at 9 a.m. ET on ESPN.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ESPN\u2019s Pat McAfee took to his Instagram this week to complain about how he has been treated by the network\u2019s production staff. Some of his colleagues were not too thrilled with what he had to say, and let their grievances be known, according to a new report from Front Office Sports. McAfee calls out ESPN’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5665,"featured_media":1618,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[267,238],"tags":[355,75,335],"class_list":["post-1616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-espn","category-sports-media","tag-college-gameday","tag-featured","tag-the-pat-mcafee-show"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5665"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1616"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1616\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1617,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1616\/revisions\/1617"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}