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Bad blood and accusations fly when ESPN host gets hammered during ‘College GameDay’ show

August 27, 2024 | | Print Article

A raucous broadcast in Ireland found Pat McAfee facing allegations about his sobriety “80% of the time on his TV show” from a former peer and top draft pick.

Bad blood from former ESPN college football analyst Ryan Leaf saw the second overall pick in the 1998 draft asserting McAfee’s contract wasn’t the only thing that was high on X Saturday. The take followed the viral response to an on-location broadcast of “The Pat McAfee Show” that had the host claiming to have downed 30 pints of Guinness throughout the day, including on air.

“No one thinks it’s wild someone can get hammered drunk on ESPN & everyone act like it’s cool?” wrote Quincy Avery of “Quarterback Takeover” prompting Leaf to reply, “$85 million bro, hell, he’s high 80% of the time on his tv show it’s said!!”

Adding to the commentary, Avery remarked, “A talented dude. No guardrails. ESPN should do better.”

On Saturday, McAfee told his co-hosts on “College GameDay” about his supposed two-and-half-dozen pints after his Friday antics from J.R. Mahon’s Pub included dancing with the wife of Nick Saban.

It also followed Leaf calling his former colleagues McAfee and Kirk Herbstreit whom he faulted for losing his own gig at ESPN.

During an appearance on Outkick’s “Hot Mic,” the former NFL quarterback suggested a disagreement about conference realignment and Washington State University had prompted the duo to have a role in getting him pulled from coverage on the network.

“Herbstreit and McAfee are the most overly sensitive people I’ve ever met for guys who live in this…high platform. They get criticized all the time. But oh my God are they overly sensitive narcissists,” Leaf said as he recounted, “The coordinating producer calls me and I said, ‘Well, you’re not making this decision. Who’s making this decision?’ He said, ‘Well, someone above my pay grade.’ And I said, ‘Well, you need to have someone about your pay grade call me.'”

“So they did and by that time I had confirmed with people on why it happened. So when I got them on the phone, I was just like, ‘Yeah, I think this is about right. I think you and I, we don’t have shared values and so I think this is probably the proper decision,'” he added before digging at McAfee’s contract. “I get it, I get it. You get $85 million scaring you. You got to fall in line. I understand that, on my end of things.”

While it was unclear how Leaf had come to his figure in his accusation, it was clear that McAfee was well aware that he had overdone it during his broadcast.

“I just want to let everybody know, I almost puked just a few moments ago. Sheamus, I put you to bed last night, but it feels right now I’m in a bad spot,” he said, bringing up his professional wrestler pal who was drawing pints behind the bar.

“If, uh, I was who I was as a very honest person, I’m sh*t-faced right now,” McAfee said at another point as he also leveled, “I don’t know how we were supposed to have a show in Ireland without this happening, but I would like to let everybody know.”

Kevin Haggerty
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