Pat McAfee Says 'God' Told Him Not To Talk About Caitlin Clark, Denies ESPN Involvement

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On Wednesday night, OutKick published an article with the headline, "Pat McAfee Implies ESPN Bosses Told Him Not To Talk About Caitlin Clark." 

Since that article was published, McAfee wrote on X that he was not talking about ESPN management, and he literally meant that "the universe told me not to talk about her."

The "completely false" headline to which he is referring was from Awful Announcing, which initially posted the full video of McAfee's comments on X with a caption that said something along the lines of, "Pat McAfee appears to confirm ESPN told him not to talk about Caitlin Clark." 

Now, to defend myself for a moment, I did not take a false headline and run with it. 

I watched the entirety of the clip and that was also how I interpreted it. Especially given the fact that he was talking to Rich Eisen, himself a former ESPNer. 

Personally, I remain skeptical that McAfee was speaking literally and saying that "God" or "the universe" spoke to him about Caitlin Clark.  

He is good friends with Aaron Rodgers though, so perhaps those ayahuasca retreats have led to some unexpected results. 

In addition, I added a note in the story saying that if McAfee was NOT talking about ESPN management, he's smart enough to know that people might take it that way. 

Pat McAfee says his comments about "God" telling him not to talk about Caitlin Clark were literal and ESPN wasn't involved.

Pat McAfee says his comments about "God" telling him not to talk about Caitlin Clark were literal and ESPN wasn't involved.

(Mike Lawrie/Getty Images)

As I wrote in my original piece, during Wednesday's show, Eisen steered the conversation towards Clark.

Immediately, McAfee said, "Well, the universe told me not to talk about her."

Eisen's eyes widened as he said, "Uh, oh. Is that right?"

"God came in and was like, ‘You know what pal, probably go ahead and stop it,’" McAfee retorted.

"I had no idea about that," Eisen said. "Why's the universe telling you not to talk about Caitlin Clark?"

"Because I'm an idiot, mostly. The reason is because I'm an idiot," McAfee replied.

Pat McAfee is not an "idiot." I think that much is clear. But he did add, "the way I speak, not good." 

So, perhaps, this was just a case of McAfee speaking "not good," which led to the misinterpretation of his comments. 

We report, you decide.

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Dan began his sports media career at ESPN, where he survived for nearly a decade. Once the Stockholm Syndrome cleared, he made his way to OutKick. He is secure enough in his masculinity to admit he is a cat-enthusiast with three cats, one of which is named "Brady" because his wife wishes she were married to Tom instead of him.