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Pat McAfee is joining the 'Monday Night Countdown' crew
Pat McAfee is on ESPN at Noon Monday through Friday, hosting his radio show. He’s back on the airwaves on Saturday for College Gameday. Now, the network has announced that he’s joining the Monday Night Countdown crew.
Despite the fact that much of the sports world seems to believe we’ve reached the point of Pat McAfee overexposure — particularly in the wake of his largely lambasted country-rap album Diary of a Polarizing Figure — ESPN has decided to add Pat McAfee to the Monday Night Countdown crew alongside Scott Van Pelt, Jason Kelce, Jason McCourty, and Marcus Spears.
ESPN has announced that Pat McAfee will be joining the crew of Monday Night Countdown for the 2026 NFL season
ESPN will also be broadcasting this season’s Super Bowl, meaning McAfee will surely be heavily featured in their coverage of the big game, too.
In their official statement, ESPN described McAfee as one of Monday Night Countdown’s “core four former NFL players” alongside Kelce, Spears, and McCourty. McCourty is also a new addition to the crew, taking the place of the recently let-go Ryan Clark.
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Earlier this year, ESPN and McAfee reportedly negotiated a new contract that will see him earn around $65 million per year. Before his career in sports media, McAfee spent seven years in the National Football League as a punter with the Indianapolis Colts and was named to the Pro Bowl in 2014.
After retiring from the NFL in 2016, McAfee joined Barstool Sports before acrimoniously departing in 2018. In 2019, The Pat McAfee Show was syndicated by DAZN and Westwood One before moving to SiriusXM in September 2020. In Septembr 2021, McAfee signed a four-year, $120 million deal with FanDuel before returning to ESPN in 2022.