Pat McAfee shrugs off blame for ESPN interrupting tribute to late founder

Joshua MbuThu, August 20, 2026 at 1:08 PM UTC

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Pat McAfee has explained the circumstances in which his show started following a tribute to late ESPN founder, Bill Rasmussen -Credit:Getty

Pat McAfee has shrugged off the blame after his show followed on from the news that ESPN founder Bill Rasmussen had died at the age of 93.

Rasmussen, the visionary founder of ESPN, died on August 18. He passed away at his Florida home. Alongside his son Scott, he launched the 24-hour sports network in 1979, transforming the way sports were covered on television and laying the foundation for what would become a global media giant.

News of Rasmussen’s death emerged late in the East Coast morning, leaving First Take only a brief window to acknowledge his passing. Fill-in host Courtney Cronin broke the news before the show ended, with the panel spending just over two minutes reflecting on Rasmussen’s legacy.

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The tribute was abruptly cut off at noon ET when The Pat McAfee Show went live. Cronin was replaced by McAfee, who immediately launched into his usual energetic introduction without mentioning Rasmussen.

It comes as McAfee looks to negotiate a huge $60 million-per-year salary with the network.

The transition didn’t go down too well with some ESPN viewers, who voiced their displeasure on social media, forcing McAfee to address the situation on his show the next day.

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“Ladies and gentlemen, what happened at the beginning of the show was called TV magic,” McAfee said. “Yeah, somehow one linear channel can have something live in New York City … and then somehow, this Thunderdome out in the middle of Indianapolis, Indiana can somehow just kinda go on at the same time.

ESPN founder Bill Rasmussen died at the age of 93 this week -Credit:Getty

“There’s like a little bit of a snap of a finger and it happens. So what happens there from a technical standpoint of on-air television is there’s a hard out.

“And there’s actually a countdown to the hard out. This has been happening since the beginning of time, I do believe.”

McAfee explained that there was little that he could have done to soften the transition. “From my understanding … I think the way it all goes is the show that was on is in control of that,” he continued.

“Like, the next show, they don’t even hear the countdown at the other place.

Pat McAfee's show opening on Tuesday made no mention of ESPN founder Rasmussen -Credit:Getty

"They don’t even know those people at the other place. …We’ve missed some hard outs in the past, I think many people have, but it’s always on us.

“It is not on the next people. So you can certainly utilize it as a situation to call me a piece of s—- again, but I don’t think I had anything to do with it.”

McAfee recently caught flack for his cameo at the Patriot Games alongside President Donald Trump.

Original Article on Source

Source: “AOL Sports”