Earlier this month, Pat McAfee was put in the spotlight after hosting outspoken Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers on his show on Aug. 3.
McAfee then grabbed the headlines this week when he sat with President Donald Trump at the 2026 Patriot Games at SPIRE Academy in Ohio on Tuesday evening. As expected, he faced backlash for it on social media.
Pat McAfee Slams Critics After Patriot Games Appearance with Donald Trump
During Wednesday’s segment of the “Pat McAfee Show,” the polarizing analyst revealed the extensive criticism he has received for attending the Patriot Games with the president.
“The attention that this event is gonna get and is gonna continue to get, I think, is great for the future,” McAfee said. “And I think it’s a very, very cool thing in concept, so I’m excited for that. I got a three-year-old daughter, a lot of people are saying terrible things about her. I got a three-month-old baby boy, a lot of people are saying terrible things about him right now because I want to encourage high schoolers to be fit and active.”
“We take a lot of pride in the fact that we are big promoters of sport, fitness, you name it,” McAfee added. “I will love to continue to promote kids being active. I will continue to promote sports.
“I do appreciate how people feel towards their politics and everything like that. I do respect it, but there are some absurd things when it’s like, we’re trying to create something here for the next generation. We’re trying to give back from our community in our world of sports and fitness. So it’s like, I think once it settles in, and if this Patriot game thing goes for 10, 20 years, which I’m hoping happens no matter who’s president, I think this will be something that we’ll look back on and say, ‘This was inevitably good.'”
I think Patriot Games is great for the future and it’s a very cool concept..
We will continue to promote sports #PMSLive https://t.co/KViGfMvQxY pic.twitter.com/xXscqMnifk
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) August 12, 2026
McAfee greeted Trump when the president deplaned from Air Force One on the tarmac in Cleveland and rode with him on Marine One to SPIRE Academy.
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The “College GameDay” analyst sat next to Trump during the event.
The Patriot Games is a four-day competition in which one male and one female contestant from each state navigate a boot camp circuit and are tested in a Presidential Fitness Test. The finalists further navigate an obstacle course to test strategy and skill.
Ten finalists, five male and five female, competed for a $250,000 scholarship prize pool, with the top male and female winners each earning $125,000.
McAfee controversially interviewed the president on his show from the Marine Corps Recruit Depot on Parris Island, South Carolina, last year. He also hosted a segment of his show at the UFC White House event in June.
In June, The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand revealed that the former Indianapolis Colts punter was in talks with ESPN to sign a mammoth $60 million deal. McAfee’s current contract, worth $30 million annually, runs through 2028.
