Sports media loves to celebrate Halloween, but Pat McAfee took it to a new level this year.
Right from the jump of The Pat McAfee Show on Friday, fans were welcomed into the Thunderdome by a man in a grotesque bald-headed mask, replete with liver spots and covered in wrinkles.
“My name is Peter Neverville, and I’ve been covering sports longer than you so I know sports better than you,” McAfee said to open the show. “I am an old sports media man.”
Hello beautiful people..
IT IS FEEL GOOD HAPPY HALLOWEEN FRIDAY#PMSLive pic.twitter.com/g9xZmcX0Qm
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) October 31, 2025
It was an easy opportunity for McAfee to once again bash his favorite target: the old, stuffy sports media suits who he feels continue to doubt and disrespect him.
“If you disagree with me, you’re wrong,” McAfee said after a rant about quarterback Lamar Jackson, who returned to the Baltimore Ravens this week. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard an argument against mine that I’ve ever liked.”
Later, during a segment with ESPN NFL analyst Dan Orlovsky, McAfee picked back up with the character. Citing a statistic from Week 8 in the NFL regarding the historic number of blowouts, McAfee put on as if he had covered the league back in 1970, the last time there were so many games decided by more than a touchdown.
Never one to withhold his feelings, McAfee continued. Speaking as Mr. Neverville, McAfee explained that he could be accepting and respectful toward the new wave of sports hosts, but it’s “hard” not to rip them instead.
“I go through waves of who I am,” McAfee explained, in character.
“‘Am I a conversational, respect-the-young-generation guy or am I a ‘I know more than you because I’ve been around this place longer than you have, I’ve forgotten more about sports than you’ve ever learned’?
“‘Yeah but we’re in a very new stage of life,’ McAfee continued, taking up the other side of the argument, presumably as a version of himself, the actual Pat McAfee.
“‘Don’t care, don’t care.’ ‘I know every life, kid. Your life, this big. My life, this big. Shut the f*ck up.’
“It’s hard not to be that guy every time, but I don’t want to do that,” McAfee finished.
Just last week, McAfee took aim at the College GameDay audience as well as producers on the show who continue to resist his imprint. In response, a report from Michael McCarthy at Front Office Sports suggested there is indeed unrest on the GameDay set over McAfee’s “diva” behavior.
While McAfee certainly got the last laugh on anyone who doubted him or denied him during his ascent in sports media following a successful NFL career, he continues to use every chance he gets to taunt them all.
