The Pat McAfee Show broke some major news on Wednesday, with Scott Hanson confirming that NFL RedZone will carry commercials throughout the 2025 NFL season.
Many, however, weren’t happy with McAfee’s response to the news, as the former All-Pro punter seemingly justified the intrusion while speaking on behalf of fans.
Opening Thursday’s episode of his eponymous show, McAfee addressed his comments and the backlash they elicited. And in doing so, he clarified that he wasn’t excusing the commercials so much as stating that fans — including himself — would still be tuning in.
“I responded to Scott Hanson with saying, ‘We don’t care,'” McAfee said on Thursday. “Now when I said ‘we,’ I did think I was speaking for a large portion of people. But when I said ‘we don’t care,’ what I meant was ‘we’re still gonna watch. We’re still gonna watch.’ And the only reason why I said that is because they started rolling advertisements into last year…
“What I don’t think I said properly is obviously it’s not as good if we’re adding commercials. Whenever it was just pure without commercials and we had paid for an upgrade of a product so we don’t have to see commercials, that was better. But as soon as soon as they started seeing a little bit of money from those L-Wraps [on-screen ads], I think all of us that have seen or been around the NFL for a long time just assumed that the commercials would be on the way.”
We’re still gonna watch RedZone
They started rolling in L-Wrap advertisements last season..
This show is commercial free but it does have advertisements as well #PMSLive https://t.co/5rhfkwBpiU pic.twitter.com/ljrMpd27Z1
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) September 4, 2025
The West Virginia product also addressed allegations that he downplayed the commercials because he’s an “ESPN and Disney shill.” And while ESPN did, in fact, reach an agreement to acquire NFL Media properties, including RedZone, McAfee noted that the deal has yet to be approved, meaning that RedZone currently remains under the NFL’s control.
“ESPN and Disney don’t even have RedZone channel [this year]. I think it’s two years they might not even have it,” the 38-year-old said. “Our show might not even be with ESPN and Disney whenever the time comes for RedZone to be with ESPN and Disney.”
Clearly, McAfee views such criticism as unfair and is of the opinion that the news he was downplaying wasn’t as shocking as most made it out to be. Still, he was willing to apologize — albeit, with some additional commentary.
“I’d like to apologize for saying that we don’t care and pseudo representing a lot of people,” McAfee said. “What I meant was ‘we’re going to watch.’ And if you had a brain, you knew the NFL was going to do this. And me shilling for ESPN or Disney, that’s interesting. Just listen to the show every single day.”