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Pat McAfee calls out 'rat' Andrew Marchand over report on Adam Schefter absence, College GameDay spinoff

by:Alex Byington•06/12/25•

_AlexByington

pat mcafee (1)

Pat McAfee is never one to hold his tongue and the ESPN and YouTube firebrand certainly didn’t to kick off Thursday’s episode of The Pat McAfee Show, calling out The Athletic‘s Andrew Marchand for a report earlier Thursday suggesting his show had “essentially” banned ESPN NFL insider Adam Schefter.

“I learned a lot about my business this morning with another article, which has been great news. Seems like it happens all the time,” McAfee said in the show’s first 30 minutes Thursday afternoon. “I don’t know if this is normal and par for the course. I guess it’s just life these days. There’s so many of them it’s hard to keep track of. But when that rat (Marchand) writes something, it is nice to be like, ‘Welp, that’s bullshit immediately …”

McAfee then introduced Schefter for a lengthy segment about the NFL.

Earlier Thursday, Marchand released a scathing report titled “Inside Pat McAfee’s world: Adam Schefter’s ban, solo GameDay dreams, possibly more live events.”

In that report, Marchand included a graph that revealed McAfee “has essentially banned ESPN NFL insider Adam Schefter from his program since March,” pointing out “the usually omnipresent Schefter” hasn’t appeared on the show since that month’s NFL free agent deadline. Marchand went on to reveal “sources” told him the main issue centered around an incident when Schefter wasn’t able to appear on The Pat McAfee Show because he was already scheduled to appear on a NFL free agency special on ESPN2.

Instead, McAfee has utilized other NFL insiders such as ESPN newcomer Peter Schrager and NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, both of whom have maintained regular appearances on his show in recent months. Marchand acknowled Schefter’s return Thursday in a social media post an hour before the show’s 12 pm ET timeslot.

“Pat and his show are thriving on ESPN,” ESPN president of content Burke Magnus told Marchand in a statement to The Athletic. “We are very pleased with the partnership. That said, in the nearly three years since Pat has brought his show to our platforms, we’ve continuously seen those out there that are seemingly obsessed with wanting to see Pat fail on ESPN. This rumor is just the latest example of that. Pat and his show continue to break the mold and reach new audiences, and we look forward to the continued success together.”

Of course, that wasn’t the only McAfee nugget Marchand dropped Thursday.

Report: Pat McAfee has considered starting independent version of College GameDay

On Thursday, The Athletic‘s Andrew Marchand released a story examining ESPN sports personality Pat McAfee. Within the report, Marchand alleged that McAfee has tossed around the idea of starting his own version of ESPN’s College GameDay.

“Pat McAfee has mused with associates about starting his own, independent version of College GameDay,” The Athletic wrote on X. “McAfee has two years left on his College GameDay contract. Last year, he considered not returning before re-signing.”

In September 2022, McAfee struck a five-year deal with ESPN, reportedly worth $85 million. In turn, McAfee joined ESPN’s College GameDay as a co-host, and brought his show, The Pat McAfee Show, which previously aired on YouTube, to ESPN.

The beloved show has ushered in a new era of daytime television at ESPN, and includes recurring interviews from some of the sports world’s biggest names, such as Bill Belichick and Aaron Rodgers. While McAfee’s show has been successful for ESPN, it hasn’t come without some controversy.

McAfee brought the show to ESPN under the condition that he and his co-hosts would be allowed to swear. ESPN agreed, making The Pat McAfee Show the first of its kind in the company’s storied broadcasting history.

— On3’s Grant Grubbs contributed to this report.