Pat McAfee

McAfee earned the starting job at West Virginia as a freshman. He was 11-for-18 as a freshman on field goals, and had 70 kickoffs for the season, with 20 touchbacks. McAfee's most memorable moment came against Louisville in a 46–44 triple overtime win, which was reached after a successful McAfee onside kick. The onside kick gave running back Steve Slaton the chance to tie the game with a one-yard touchdown run.[6]

Although they had losses to Louisville and USF, the Mountaineers won 10 games and were victors in the Gator Bowl over Georgia Tech.[7]

McAfee started his junior season with a missed extra point against Western Michigan, ending his streak of 106 consecutive extra points. He finished the season in the Fiesta Bowl with a 2-for-4 performance, having one kick blocked by Oklahoma. He was named to the ESPN All-Bowl Team following the bowl season.[8]

McAfee missed two relatively short field goals in WVU's 13–9 loss to a Pitt Panthers team with only four wins; ultimately taking the Mountaineers out of the BCS National Championship Game. He was named to the 2007 Lou Groza Award semi-finalist list for the best collegiate kicker. McAfee earned Big East Special Team Player of the week honors three times in 2007 and was named second-team All-Big East. He earned West Virginia's Scott Shirley Award for the second consecutive year.

McAfee began his senior year in a 48–21 season-opening victory over Villanova in which he kicked two field goals, including a career-long of 52-yards, six extra points, and two punts. In the following 27–3 win over Marshall, McAfee became the school record holder for all-time scoring with a field goal, passing Slaton. He went two for two on field goals to move to third place for the Big East record of career field goals made in a 34–17 victory over Auburn.

Against Cincinnati on November 8, the Mountaineers trailed by 13 points with 1:11 left in regulation, but reduced the deficit to 3 points with a safety, touchdown, and two-point conversion, all in less than a minute. McAfee's onside kick was recovered with 18 seconds remaining. He then tied the game as time expired with a 52-yard field goal, but the Mountaineers would lose in overtime.

McAfee finished his senior year with a career-best 44.7 yards per punt average, a Big East-leading 23 punts inside the 20-yard line, and a career-high 2,639 yards with a 65-yard long. He was named a finalist for the Ray Guy Award, losing out to Matt Fodge.[9]

After his senior season at WVU, McAfee was invited to the 2009 Senior Bowl in Alabama, joining Mountaineers Pat White and Ellis Lankster. He started the Senior Bowl as the South team's kicker. McAfee performed in the 11th annual State Farm College Football All-Star Challenge, winning the "round the world" kicking competition. As he was not invited to the NFL Combine, he had team workouts with the Indianapolis Colts, Dallas Cowboys and New England Patriots, all as a kicker.[10]

McAfee was drafted in the seventh round (222nd overall) of the 2009 NFL Draft by the Indianapolis Colts. McAfee was signed before training camp. He handled punting and kick-off duties for the Colts in 2009, as well as holding for extra-points and field goals, a position he had never played before. In 2009 McAfee helped Indianapolis win the AFC South, the AFC Championship, and helped the Colts reach Super Bowl XLIV.

McAfee maintained a 46.6-yard punting average for the 2011 regular season, a mark he would better the following season by posting a 48.2-yard average on punts.[11]

On January 4, 2014, McAfee tweeted a photo with Colts teammate Andrew Luck in the background, almost completely nude.[12] McAfee, who was taking a picture of kicker Adam Vinatieri being interviewed in the locker room, apologized for the incident and was fined $10,000 by the Colts organization, according to his interview with The Bob & Tom Show.[13] On March 7, McAfee announced he had signed a five-year contract to remain with the Colts.[14]

McAfee was named the AFC Special Teams Player of the Month for September 2014. He led the NFL in punting average (45.6 yards) and touchbacks on kickoff (24), and converted the NFL's only two successful onside kicks in the first four weeks of the season.[15] In week 6, McAfee converted his third onside kick of the season, recovering the ball himself after it traveled the necessary 10 yards.[16] On December 23, 2014, McAfee was selected to play in his first Pro Bowl,[17] and on January 2, 2015, he was selected by the Associated Press as the First Team All-Pro punter.[18]

On December 20, 2016, McAfee was named to his second Pro Bowl.[19]

On February 2, 2017, after eight seasons, McAfee retired from the NFL and stated he intended to join Barstool Sports as a contributor. He cited his recent knee operation (his third in four seasons) as a factor in his decision, as well as his fractured relationship with Colts' general manager Ryan Grigson.[20][21]

During the 2020 NFL season, despite being out of the NFL for four years, fans began making a push for McAfee to come out of retirement to play for his hometown Pittsburgh Steelers, who have struggled with their punting during the season. McAfee himself added to the rumors by immediately tweeting a video of him punting after the Steelers released Dustin Colquitt without immediately signing a replacement. The team ended up re-signing Jordan Berry, who had been the team's punter for five years prior to the signing of Colquitt.[22]

Following his retirement from football at the close of the 2016 season, McAfee joined Barstool Sports, where he developed the "Heartland" division of the company in Indianapolis and hosted The Pat McAfee Show on SiriusXM channel Barstool Power 85. McAfee announced his separation from Barstool Sports on August 31, 2018, citing a lack of transparency with the business operations of the company as his reason for leaving.

On November 24, 2018, McAfee made his college football broadcasting debut on Fox, calling a college football game between Baylor and Texas Tech. On December 30, McAfee made his NFL broadcasting debut on Fox, joining Justin Kutcher, Robert Smith, and sideline reporter Sarah Kustok for the Lions–Packers game.[23]

On July 29, 2019, Adam Schefter announced via Twitter that McAfee would be joining ESPN as the color analyst for their Thursday Night College Football broadcasts, alongside Matt Hasselbeck. Also, McAfee will be making regular weekly appearances on Get Up!. This news comes after McAfee had auditioned for on ESPN's Monday Night Football after Jason Witten's return to the Cowboys, though ESPN decided to retain its booth as-is.[24] McAfee began making regular appearances on ESPN's College GameDay in 2019.

On August 7, 2019, it was reported that McAfee would begin to host a two-hour, weekday radio show, The Pat McAfee Show, beginning September 9, 2019, syndicated by Westwood One and DAZN. The deal with DAZN also includes McAfee streaming his podcast on the service three times per week, and appearances in NFL-related shoulder content in regions where DAZN holds streaming rights to the league (primarily Canada and Germany).[25][26] They parted ways in August 2020 due to McAfee's disdain for FCC regulations on terrestrial radio.

In September 2020, The Pat McAfee Show moved to Sirius XM's Mad Dog Sports Radio from 12 PM to 3 PM on weekdays. The show is also broadcast live on YouTube. Former NFL linebacker, and consistent collaborator, AJ Hawk co-hosts the third hour of the show with McAfee.

McAfee is a regular on the nationally syndicated morning radio program The Bob & Tom Show, itself based in Indianapolis. He has described co-host Bob Kevoian as one of his best friends during an interview on the Off the Air Podcast hosted by sports commentator Chick McGee.[27] In 2018, McAfee made his professional baseball debut for the Washington Wild Things as a right-fielder and guest first base coach. He made a putout in the outfield and went 0–3 at the plate, reaching second base on a throwing error before being replaced with a pinch runner.[28]

He was a sideline reporter for the XFL for some of its games in 2020.[29]

McAfee is a co host to the sports gambling podcast Hammer Dahn.

During 2018, McAfee began appearing on WWE programming as a pre-show analyst for the company's NXT TakeOver events, beginning with NXT TakeOver: New Orleans, where he continued his mini-feud with Adam Cole. He later appeared at NXT TakeOver: Chicago II,[32] NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn 4[33] and NXT TakeOver: WarGames. In December, it was reported that he had formally signed a multi-year contract with WWE,[1] and officially signed the contract in February 2019.[2][3] He then began hosting live watch-along of WWE's pay-per-views on YouTube, beginning with Fastlane, alongside a number of WWE wrestlers.[34] In the buildup to WrestleMania, McAfee, his crew and various special guests travelled venue to venue in an RV, that his friend Zito got stuck under an awning, which was filmed for Pat McAfee's Road to WrestleMania.[35] Backstage at the event, McAfee got into an argument with Michael Cole, when Cole had criticized him for wearing tuxedo shorts. McAfee threatened to quit on the spot and was sent to another room while the situation was dealt with. After Vince McMahon was shown an image of LeBron James at the 2018 NBA Finals, and that the outfit was similar to the one McAfee was wearing for WrestleMania, McMahon approved and McAfee was allowed to co-host the second hour of the pre-show, alongside Charly Caruso.[36]

McAfee made a guest appearance on the November 1, 2019 edition of SmackDown, as part of an on-air staff filling in for Cole and Graves (who were not able to make it back from Crown Jewel on time), where McAfee fully supported NXT's invasion of the show, and ultimately stormed the ring alongside the rest of the NXT roster at the end of the broadcast as they declared war on both Raw and SmackDown.[37][38][39]

On July 23, 2020, Adam Cole was a guest on McAfee's podcast. Cole became very frustrated with him during the interview for saying that the Undisputed Era was the reason for his success and that he would not have achieved all that he had on his own because he was a small guy. This would cause Cole to eventually curse out McAfee, break his microphone, push his friend and storm out of the interview. Triple H would appear on McAfee's podcast a few days later to invite him to come to an episode of NXT to talk things out with Cole. He appeared on the August 5 episode of NXT, appearing to have made up with Cole. However, later in the evening, as he was a guest commentator for an NXT tag team match between Bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reilly of the Undisputed Era and Fabian Aichner and Marcel Barthel of Imperium, Cole noticed him at the commentary table and began to insult and attack him, resulting in McAfee punting Cole's head. The next day, Triple H challenged McAfee to a match on behalf of Cole at NXT TakeOver: XXX, which he accepted. At the event, McAfee, in his first match for WWE, was defeated. He has not ruled out becoming an in-ring competitor in the future. He returned to NXT on October 21, 2020, interfering in an NXT tag team title match between Breezango (Fandango and Tyler Breeze) vs Danny Burch and Oney Lorcan, resulting in Burch and Lorcan winning the NXT Tag Team Championships and aligning with McAfee, in which all three turned heel. A week later, Pete Dunne aligned with McAfee after appearing to help Kyle O'Reilly go up against McAfee, Burch and Lorcan. On, December 6, 2020 at NXT TakeOver: WarGames (2020), Team McAfee (McAfee, Dunne, Lorcan, and Burch) took on the Undisputed era in a WarGames match. McAfee hit a senton from the top of the cage onto the other competitors, but in the end his team was defeated.