ESPN is in Pat McAfee’s crosshairs again.
The former Colts punter and host of his eponymous TV show that airs on ESPN had thoughts about the network’s ongoing list of the top 100 professional athletes since 2000.
The Worldwide Leader has published Nos. 51-100 of the best athletes thus far, saying it used contributors from ESPN’s editions across the globe to create the extensive list.
McAfee, no stranger to sharing his opinion, said on his show Tuesday that the whole process has been a “s–t show.”
“Dan Orlovsky, who’s been on ESPN all morning … will join us in six minutes. We’ll probably just cook him and ESPN as a whole for a lot of s–t they’ve been putting out from ESPN’s people. Now there is a top-100 list that’s coming out from ESPN people, and I’ll tell you what, it is the epitome of everything that everybody hates about ESPN,” McAfee said.
“What they chose to do in ranking the top-100 athletes from the 21st century, they only gave us 50-100 yesterday. What a s–t show. What an absolutely terrible list.”
It’s not the first time in the past few weeks that McAfee has gone off on the network after ESPN decided to award Prince Harry with the Pat Tillman Award for Service at this year’s ESPY Awards.
In the days before the show aired last week, McAfee blasted the decision on his program.
“It’s going to Prince Harry,” McAfee said. “Who I don’t even think is a Prince anymore, right? He said don’t call me that? See, why does the ESPYs do this s–t?”
And, in January, amid the Aaron Rodgers-Jimmy Kimmel back and forth that partially played out on his show, McAfee went on a tirade against then-ESPN executive Norby Williamson as the host believed the honcho was trying to “sabotage” the former NFLer’s popular show.
“We’re very appreciative, and we understand that more people are watching this show than ever before. We’re very thankful for the ESPN folks for being very hospitable. Now, there are some people actively trying to sabotage us from within ESPN — more specifically, I believe, Norby Williamson is the guy who is attempting to sabotage our program,” McAfee said.
Williamson, four months later, left ESPN after nearly four decades at the sports giant.