Pat McAfee Name Drops People ESPN Recently Laid Off in Wild, Profane Cameo on First Take

Pat McAfee wasted no time making things incredibly awkward on First Take when he casually mentioned all the talent ESPN laid off this year.

This week, McAfee has filmed The Pat McAfee Show at the network’s Seaport studios in New York. He brought on colleagues Stephen A. Smith and Mike Greenberg on Monday and appeared in-studio on First Take on Tuesday.

Within seconds of uttering his first words at the desk with Smith, Shannon Sharpe, and Molly Qerim, McAfee let the word “asshole” slip. Although he was given the green light to continue using that kind of language on his own show, First Take is run differently.

Then, McAfee went on a tangent about the rumors that his hiring directly led to ESPN laying off more than 20 on-air personalities over the summer.

“They did not love me,” McAfee said of Georgia football fans. “You gotta remember, the whole narrative all year was that because my show came to ESPN, obviously we fired Steve Young, we fired all the people that were here and were great people at ESPN. It was my show’s fault.

“And then on (College) GameDay, David Pollack got let go. David Pollack — who I am a massive fan of, one of the greatest Bulldogs of all time, a dude who was very good to me — obviously, I took his spot. So, Georgia fans all year [were] not necessarily the biggest McAfee fans.”

On Saturday’s episode of College GameDay, McAfee picked Alabama to beat Georgia in the SEC championship. He explained he did so as a “go to Hell” gesture to Georgia fans, and Smith agreed that saying that to critics is “cathartic.”

Qerim then interjected to get things back on track.

“OK, guys. OK,” she said. “Disney, morning show… Let’s keep it together.”

Watch above on ESPN