Pat McAfee is part of the sports media now, but he will always think of himself as an NFL player. When multiple players say they have a problem with a particular media member’s criticism, he is bound to notice. That is why his ESPN colleague Ryan Clark came up on the Wednesday edition of The Pat McAfee Show.
McAfee wanted his audience to see and hear the reaction from Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa when a reporter told him that Clark had reported that he had come into camp out of shape and was not following a nutritionist’s diet plan for him.
“Love the sauce from Tua Tagovailoa to Ryan Clark,” McAfee said before playing the clip. “Love the way he chose to answer it, and I think this is a thing, if you’re a Miami Dolphins fan, you’re like, ‘Yeah, finally this guy seemingly standing up for himself.’”
Tagovailoa initially tried to dance around the question joking that Clark knew more about Tagovailoa than the quarterback knows about himself. He also said it was strange to hear someone talking about another person’s nutrition plan that he isn’t familiar with. That was before he turned the rhetoric up a notch.
“I come from a Samoan family,” Tagovailoa said. “Respect is everything. But, you know, it does get to a point where ‘Hey, little easy on that, buddy, because, I think we’re we’re pretty tough minded people. And if we need to get scrappy, we can get scrappy.”
McAfee said that he loved what he heard in the press conference. He also noted that Tagovailoa is not the first to talk about the ESPN analyst this way.
Last week, Clark was the butt of internet jokes when he declared that the Pittsburgh Steelers’ George Pickens had more talent than the Minnesota Vikings’ Justin Jefferson, widely regarded as one of the best players at any position in the NFL.
Clark also drew the ire of Houston radio host Landry Locker earlier this year when he attacked FOX’s Brady Quinn for his take on new Texans’ quarterback CJ Stroud.
“Ryan Clark has now been in the headlines for a couple different things that have been said about a couple of different players,” McAfee said. “I think as you climb the ranks of sports media, more people are going to hear what you’re gonna say. So there’s going to be more of a reaction. But here’s a couple of times in a couple of weeks where people are getting, I think, genuinely upset at Ryan Clark for what he’s saying.”
