Pat McAfee says reaction to ESPN move was 'alarming'

Pat McAfee didn’t expect to see as much negativity surrounding his show’s move to ESPN when he originally announced the deal.

Now, he’s having to defend his position and ensure to his loyal fans that they’ll continue to enjoy the same Pat McAfee Show experience regardless of the show’s parent network. He remains adamant that his show’s format and content will not change — minus the F-bombs.

“I didn’t expect it to be as big of a drawback as it was,” McAfee said, via the ‘SI Media with Jimmy Traina’ podcast. “I knew that there would be some people, because there’s probably new fans of the show and new viewers of the show who hadn’t been through these types of situations before with our program, but it was big.

“… There were a lot of people that were excited about what this means for the future of things. A lot of people were like, ’Next step, next evolution of the show, this is cool,’ but I did not expect the amount of people that were negative about it before even knowing what it was.”

McAfee and ESPN have some history, as McAfee joined ESPN’s College GameDay alongside Lee Corso, Kirk Herbstreit, Desmond Howard, and Rece Davis midway through this past season.

Still, ever since McAfee’s deal was announced, it seems as though he has to convince his fans that the move will prove to be beneficial rather than stifle the show fans have come to know and love.

“I know it comes from a place of passion, so I’m honored about it, but it was alarming,” McAfee told Traina. “It was alarming. I did not expect that many shots to the shins from my own people.”

McAfee’s move to ESPN will see him walk away from his $120 million deal with FanDuel Sports. However, no exact number has been released regarding the show’s new value as of this report. One would assume that McAfee is earning a substantial pay increase with the new blockbuster deal.

The current version of PMS airs on YouTube and the new one is expected to as well, according to Andrew Marchand of the New York Post. However, a portion of it could also reportedly start airing on ESPN with the show moving over to the network.

Regardless, McAfee does not expect much to change once the deal goes into effect in the near future — so fans shouldn’t be too worried about losing McAfee to the so-called establishment.