The Indiana Pacers defeated the New York Knicks in six games this past weekend as they advanced to their second NBA Finals appearance in franchise history. Meanwhile, Pat McAfee, who played for the Indianapolis Colts and hosts his program from Indianapolis, made headlines late last week. His pump-up speech during game four of the series caused singer John Mellencamp to take to social media and call out McAfee (without mentioning his name) for his antics—imploring the crowd to “send them back home” and using profanity in the process. In response, McAfee fired back on Friday, telling Mellencamp to “shut the f**k up” and “s**k it.”
Subsequently, this response caught the attention of Boomer & Gio on WFAN in New York, which left both hosts confused by McAfee’s outburst.
“I understand exactly what John Mellencamp is doing. I don’t, for the life of me, see why Pat McAfee would just attack back to him,” said Boomer Esiason. “I don’t know if there’s something else going on, or something that I don’t know about. Just seems to be taking a shot at an older guy who at one point in time was at the top of every freaking musical chart in this country.”
During his Friday program, McAfee emphasized how Mellencamp and his team may not have considered that there are people on his side in this situation. Specifically, he predicated this belief on the people the musician hangs out with, listens to, and reads.
In an effort to make sense of the situation, Gregg Giannotti noted that McAfee does sometimes cause controversy because of his wrestling persona with the WWE.
“I completely appreciate the entertainment value here with Pat McAfee, but I wonder, is he really upset? If he’s doing this as one of his wrestling bits like ‘Hey, this is a thing that will get people talking, and it’s a layup for me.’ Okay, fine,” said Giannotti. “If he’s really upset that John Mellencamp came after him to the point where he’s now saying, ‘Hey Coog, s**k it buddy.’ That’s a little strange. I don’t know which McAfee are we getting. Are we getting sensitive McAfee, are we getting wrestling McAfee?”
Although McAfee acceded that Mellencamp has good songs during his program on Friday, he felt that Mellencamp could have had his back in this instance. Conversely, turning the opposite way has elicited responses from social media users about Mellencamp and how he goes about treating people.
Furthermore, Giannotti continued, saying that the outburst from McAfee was a little over the top for the criticism Mellencamp posted to social media.
“Going back to the original Mellencamp criticism, it wasn’t as if he was really personally attacking Pat McAfee. He didn’t even say his name in there, which I guess pissed off Pat even more,” said Giannotti. “This is like a little punch to the gut, followed up by a bazooka to the face.”
As of now, neither McAfee nor Mellencamp have followed up with each other on social media since McAfee’s comments on Friday.
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