ESPN star Pat McAfee is well aware of the speculation surrounding his future with “Monday Night Football.”
Prior to “Monday Night Football,” Michael McCarthy of Front Office Sports brought up the possibility of McAfee eventually replacing Troy Aikman as ESPN’s lead color commentator. As of this moment, the former Dallas Cowboys star has not received a contract extension. Joe Buck, however, has already agreed to s xi-year extension worth $108 million.
“No network has experimented more with NFL games than ESPN,” McCarthy wrote. “Who can forget ESPN casting Pardon the Interruption co-host Tony Kornheiser as a color commentator along with play-by-play announcer Mike Tirico and Joe Theismann in 2006? The snarky Kornheiser only lasted three seasons before bowing out due to his fear of flying. Then ESPN put poor Booger McFarland on a motorized cart 10 feet above the game action in 2018. The “BoogerMobile” only lasted one season before it was mercifully put out to pasture. But ESPN continued to experiment until it finally struck gold by luring Aikman and Buck in 2022.”
This column from McCarthy received so much buzz online that McAfee felt the need to address it. He let NFL fans know that he won’t be replacing Aikman in the broadcast booth.
“This isn’t real,” McAfee said, via Awful Announcing. “Theres been zero conversation about this.”
© Julia Hansen/Iowa City Press-Citizen / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
To be fair, McAfee is quite busy.
As if being part of “College GameDay” wasn’t special enough, McAfee has been added to the “Monday Night Countdown” crew. Suffice to say, he’s taking on more responsibility at ESPN.
If it wasn’t clear that ESPN values McAfee, it was revealed this month that he’ll host an alternate broadcast for Super Bowl LXI at SoFi Stadium. His “Monday Night FootballField Pass” will be televised on ESPNU on Feb. 14.
We’ll see if McAfee’s alternate broadcast leads to him receiving even more opportunities on national TV.
