Pat McAfee insists he doesn’t want Troy Aikman’s ‘MNF’ job

Pat McAfee is the face of ESPN right now. He hosts a daily show on the flagship station in the middle of the day. He’s one of the co-hosts of College GameDay and he’s recently starting getting more involved in the company’s NFL coverage. First there were the appearances on “Monday Night Countdown.” Then the news that he’d be doing alt-casts for some games this season.

On Monday, Front Office Sports‘ Mike McCarthy wrote an opinion piece about how McAfee might be doing an audition for the main job with his alt-casts this season.

On Tuesday McAfee responded to the social media post. In response to the original piece he wrote, “This isn’t real,” and “Theres been zero conversation about this.”

While that sounds pretty straightforward, it wasn’t enough for some people. If you’ve spent any time on social media the last few days there are still people posting in dread about the idea of McAfee showing up as Joe Buck’s color commentator in the “Monday Night Football” booth.

That was mixed with the usual people group of people voicing their displeasure about McAfee on College GameDay. One person even said he hoped McAfee got kidney stones this weekend. That was mentioned on McAfee’s show while again insisted he was not going to be in the MNF booth.

I’ve already posted that this isn’t real..There’s Monday Night Football business happening in a very public way..We’re BIG fans of Joe Buck and Troy Aikman..I’m not supposed to be in a football booth and there’s never been a conversation about me being in the Monday Night Football booth #PMSLive

— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) October 15, 2026

I’ve already posted that this isn’t real..There’s Monday Night Football business happening in a very public way..We’re BIG fans of Joe Buck and Troy Aikman..I’m not supposed to be in a football booth and there’s never been a conversation about me being in the Monday Night Football booth #PMSLive

— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) October 15, 2026

“There’s Monday Night Football contract business happening in a very public way and we are big fans of Joe and Troy and the Monday Night Football operation,” explained McAfee. “That’s for them to figure out. But in an effort to continue to pour gas on a fire of people that hate my guts and tell them just wait there’s more just wait there’s more. There’s now been these efforts to say that I am trying to get into the Monday Night Football booth as a color commentator or that ESPN is trying to put me in the Monday Night Football booth as color commentator.”

“I am not supposed to be a color commentator for football,” McAfee insisted. “That is something I’ve decided. I’ve had a chance to try a couple times. I hated it. I got bored.”

McAfee couldn’t be more clear about how he feels about this particular job and went on to say he’s perfect for an alt-cast or doing wrestling commentary. And yet there are still going to be people commenting about the possibility as long as he remains such a fixture at ESPN. Or at least until ESPN figures out who will be color commentator next year and beyond.