Pat McAfee Appears to be Standing By His Larry Nassar Tweet

Pat McAfee signed a lucrative new deal with ESPN two months ago after walking away from an equally lucrative FanDuel deal. The Pat McAfee Show will air across multiple platforms this fall while the titular star will continue to appear on College GameDay, which will bring him to college campuses across the nation. One of the staples of GameDay is the signs that students make and hold up behind the set. Over the weekend, McAfee sent a tweet with a joke that would almost certainly not be allowed to appear on a GameDay sign.

In response to a tweet from McAfee Show producer Evan Fox about some old Michigan State uniforms, McAfee tweeted, “I think Nassar was in on the design team actually.”

This is a reference to Larry Nassar, who is spending the rest of his life in prison for multiple high profile sexual assaults perpetrated against young female athletes while working at Michigan State. It’s not really something you would expect an ESPN employee – or most people in general – to joke about on Twitter. It’s insensitive, unnecessary and on top of everything else, a lazy, ugly attempt at a joke using something that only the lowest common denominator would enjoy.

You would think it would have been taken down immediately, but it remains up. McAfee even defended keeping it up with another tweet on Sunday.

For what? Because it seems like it should be beneath someone of McAfee’s status. What was gained from this tweet besides the applause of the worst people? McAfee’s persona, which ESPN feels expands audiences, is fun and positive. This tweet was neither.