Pat McAfee wants everyone to settle down over his alleged issue with Jason Kelce referring to the Philadelphia Eagles as “we” on Monday Night Football.
“Now, I usually mind my own, but if you thought I was being serious whenever I pointed out that Jason Kelce was saying ‘we’ about the Philadelphia Eagles, knowing who Jason Kelce is, with the Philadelphia Eagles at the Monday Night Football halftime, you have no brain, and I think you should just realize that,” McAfee, 39, said to begin his ESPN show on Wednesday, September 30.
The “I usually mind my own” line appears to be a reference to former ESPN analyst Ryan Clark, who posted about the controversy via X the day after it happened.
“I’m trying to mind my own, but hell yea it’s ‘We.’ Future Hall of Famer!! You’re a legend @JasonKelce,” Clark, 46, wrote on Tuesday, September 29. “Blood, sweat, tears, & glory in Philly. No one can take that away.”
Clark continued, “You can still do your job the right way! Bump anyone saying differently.”
Kelce, 38, appeared as usual on ESPN’s Monday Night Football broadcast between the Eagles and Chicago Bears on Monday, September 28, where he repeatedly referred to Philadelphia as “we” in a halftime segment. (Kelce played his entire NFL career for the Eagles, from 2011 to 2023.)
“It’s 10-7, I feel pretty good going into the half,” Kelce said Monday. “We played really well offensively. We had opportunities. We shot ourselves in the foot but we moved the ball, we ran the ball well. Jalen Hurts is throwing the ball well.”
McAfee, who was seated next to him, joked, “A lot of ‘we’ talk out of Jason for Philly,” prompting Kelce to say, “Sorry, sorry, I forget. Sorry, Bears fans.”
While it appears to have been an innocent mistake from Kelce, Bears fans — or anyone not cheering on the Eagles — could view it as a show of bias in his analysis of the game.
Looking back at the moment on Wednesday, McAfee viewed the controversy as a continued pile-on from his haters.
“I don’t love just the lying and the stuff that happens on my name these days, but just saying stuff to continue to add gas to a flame that isn’t real when you’re in this place and carry as much weight as you definitely do, I think it’s a little bit of a piling on, and I hope you all rot. All of you,” he said.
