As the Indiana Pacers were closing out a victory over the New York Knicks in Game 4 of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals, former NFL punter and sports commentator Pat McAfee hyped up the crowd at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. McAfee, who hosts his weekday sports talk show from the locale and also played for the Indianapolis Colts, pointed out several celebrities rooting for the Knicks and implored the crowd to send them back home and used profanity in the process. A few days later, musician and Indiana native John Mellencamp released a statement on social media apologizing “on behalf of most Hoosiers,” calling it poor sportsmanship and not mentioning McAfee by name.
McAfee took time on Friday’s edition of his show to respond and questioned what Mellencamp was doing with the post on X entirely. In fact, he called the entire quote tweet “horrendous” with the graphic, quote and timing, explaining that he was two days late. On top of that, he conveyed how it felt like Mellencamp was grandstanding higher than anyone else in this situation. While he delivered a monologue talking about what transpired, he addressed Mellencamp and expressed gratitude for the audience his program has built over the years.
“John, shut the f**k up, okay?,” McAfee said. “So they put this out there, calls me ‘somebody,’ okay. I am ‘somebody,’ and I normally don’t want people to just get slaughtered, okay, because I know we have a very active following, and I appreciate the hell out of those people. They are very kind. The people that have followed our story are the greatest people on earth because there’s a lot of times they could have just said, ‘Nope, we’re not doing this anymore.’ They stuck with us, they are active though and they like us, John.”
McAfee emphasized how Mellencamp and his team may not have considered that there are people on his side in this situation, predicating such based on the people the musician hangs out with, listens to and reads. Furthermore, he hopes that when he opened his X account, he saw all of the replies on the tweet calling him out for criticizing what took place in such a manner.
“You could have taken the angle and be like, ‘Hey, there’s some people attacking Pat for what he did. I’m actually on Pat’s side because we represent this state of Indiana. We’re lucky and thankful to represent the state of Indiana. We don’t have a lot of people pulling for us in the state of Indiana, but you know what? I see another young buck that’s doing it, and I appreciate him doing it.’ You could have easily done that, John, but instead you try to think you were going to bury me. I don’t think so, John. Hey Coug, suck it buddy, and I hope I get a chance to see you real soon.”
Although McAfee acceded that Mellencamp has good songs, he felt that he could have had his back in this instance. On the contrary, turning the opposite way has elicited responses from social media users about Mellencamp and how he goes about treating people. McAfee also mentioned how he hopes every sporting event Mellencamp attends goes exactly like Game 4 and causes his head to explode because he cannot take it anymore.
“I want to be honest – it very rarely happens,” McAfee said later in the segment. “I appreciate everybody getting on the back for me seemingly. It felt like everybody was kind of on my side on it.”
Barrett Media produces daily content on the music, news, and sports media industries. To stay updated, sign up for our newsletters and get the latest information delivered straight to your inbox.
