The Josh Innes Show - Pat McAfee May Actually Be The Worst Part 1

Episode Date: August 17, 2026

I've never really had a major issue with Pat. I admire that he's built a sandbox and I admire that he's got a fanbase. But, I think this stupid album has driven me to the dark side... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You guys want to listen to this shitty Pat McAfee album? I guess I can't say it's shitty because I haven't heard it, but I'm just going to assume it's shitty. I don't know if my opinion of somebody has shifted more than my opinion of Pat McAfee because on one hand, like I admire the guy because he's created something and he's built this whole universe and he's somehow made ESPN and all these people believe that everything he does is the greatest thing that's ever happened. He's built an audience. Like that's the thing.

Like if you dump on somebody, people then come back. you and go, oh, you wish you had that audience. Oh, totally. I'd love to have Pat McAvey's audience and Pat McAfee's money. Who fucking wouldn't? But that doesn't mean it's good. There's a lot of things that have an audience that aren't good. And I think McAfee was at one time good.

And I think that his schick was a better schick than it is now. This little bit that he's doing here where he's like the most hated guy in the world and he's shocked by how hated he is. But I'm going to sing songs about how hated I am because I'm a polarizing. figure all while I'm going to go out and do a bunch of polarizing shit, shit that I know is polarizing. And then I'm going to be like, wait a minute, why is everybody think I'm so polarizing? Like, that's the part about it that annoys me. And I get that that's the bit you kind of have to do. You have to, like, get your people behind you. Like, that's, like, and I understand that because

I've lived that life. You know, that's a way you become powerful is you get your audience behind you. And you make your audience a ride or die audience, an audience that will cut for you, an audience that will defend you no matter what when you're on the internet and people are you're getting shit on the internet from people those are the people that are going to come in and have your back like i get all that that is a powerful thing having a powerful audience an audience that is connected to you an audience that loves you an audience that will die for you that is a big deal and i get it my issue with pat is he doesn't have to do this bid but he's doing this bit he's doing a trump essentially or he's doing an old school stern but i think the thing that annoys me more is that annoys me more than you're doing it's

is that at the end of the day, it's like, like he's not doing anything controversial. People just don't like him because they see him everywhere and they're annoyed by him. Right? Like, it's not like he's saying controversial things. Like, the most controversial thing that McAfee does is like he hung out with Trump the other day,

but he'll never fully commit to being right-wing guy. But then, like, he does enough where he can keep the right-wing people who are probably a large part of his audience, keep them happy enough, but without actually coming out and saying, hey, I'm one of y'-y-ins, right? The problem is, like, pick something.

You know what I'm saying? Like, here's what I would say. Let's look at Aaron Rogers. Aaron Rogers might be annoying and Aaron Rogers might be pretentious and Aaron Rogers might do a lot of shit that's seemingly self-serving or whatever, right? Like he, but one thing about Aaron Rogers is he doesn't mince words about anything. You know what Aaron Rogers thinks of something, whether it's crackpot shit or it's political shit or whatever. It's vaccine shit.

It doesn't matter. You know where Aaron Rogers stands on something. My issue with Pat McAfee is he wants to play the game where he kind of panders to his right-wing people because I would guess that right-wing bros are a large part of his audience, much like a large part of the bar-stool audience. It's kind of right-wing and not necessarily right-wing, but, you know, bros, right? And there's nothing wrong with that being your audience. But, like, that's a large part of his audience.

So he does just enough. You know, you hang out with the kind of rock country guys. and you hang out with Trump a little bit and you give a platform to Aaron Rogers and you do all that kind of shit and you know that it's going to be something that's going to piss half the people off but you do it anyway

and then you don't really choose a side which makes it even worse. Then you play dumb. Then you're like, I don't understand why everybody thinks I'm this. Well, get lost, bro. And I think that's the most annoying part about Pat McAfee.

And it's also annoying when people who are not really controversial because they do controversial things. They're just controversial because people are annoyed by them and they're tired of seeing them, yet they act as though they're doing something so important or so profound that that is what's offending people.

Like, bro, you're doing sports talk. You're standing around saying, ah, for four hours. You're offering very little opinion on anything. Like, that's the thing about McAfee that's annoying is he doesn't do anything. He doesn't really have a thought on much. He sits around and does the bit with the Pittsburgh accent. Fine.

Like, again, whatever works for you works for you, But stop pretending like you're controversial. When is the last time Pat McAfee legitimately said something controversial? And it can't be, oh, he sat next to Trump at some made up weird Olympic thing. Like, that can't be it. When did Pat McAfee really say something that you go, oh, damn, that's really controversial? When did McAfee do that? McAfee didn't have a thought on anything.

McAfee wants to play the kind of MAGA right-wing guy, but never full-on commit to bit. Maccafee does sports shit and is over exposed to the nth degree, but has never actually had a thought on anything. Like Stephen A. Smith, bless his heart, he says a lot of dumb shit and rides both sides of the fence, but Stephen A. Smith will at least say something sometimes. Like, you'll get Stephen A, and Stephen A, I'll say something, and you'll go, well, at least he's got a thought on that. You don't get much of that out of McAfee. Now, granted, I don't watch the show that much. I used to watch it. Jilly used to love McAfee, and I don't get the vibe that she's as into McAfee as she used to be.

I think the music, I think the McAfee album might be what finally put it over the top where Jilly's like, hey, I'm an OG, I've been a ride or die for a long time. I don't think I want to get down with this. I think people are sick of McAfee and he's just doubled down on the fact that people are sick of him. Like it may not hurt to take a step back for a second. You're still going to have your core audience. You're still going to make your cash.

We don't need an album, especially an album that the whole point. of the album is that you're this polarizing figure when the only thing that makes you polarizing is people are annoyed by you like at least back in the day like he's kind of playing the stern playbook like the old school um the old school stern bit uh and where you know you get the people that love you and hate you you're controversial you're kind of everywhere and and that's the bit right the difference is stern was doing shit that was legitimately controversial was legitimately shit that was legitimately shit that was really important in the world. And by important, I mean, like, the type of shit that would piss people off about important

shit. You know, like Stern shitting on Salina when she died or Stern making fun of the people in the L.A. riots and almost getting murdered during that. Like, that's legit shit. What is so controversial about Pat McAfee? Nothing. He says, ah, and he does the yinzer bit? Ah, what, yinzen?

Like, is that it? Like, that's the part that annoys me the most about the guy. Not that he's successful and not that he, you know, that he, that he has an audience. Good for him, bro. Like, I admire the shit out of that. The part that annoys me is you don't really stand for anything. You act like you do, but you really don't. And you don't really have any thoughts on anything.

You're just there. And you've built an audience. And then people like build this up because you've planted it in the minds of your moron fans that you're some sort of controversial figure and everybody's out, to get you and you got all your people behind you on that. It's like, bro, you're not doing anything controversial. You're just fucking annoying. That's the worst part. You're just everywhere. You're just over exposed. You're just fucking annoying. And then if you give that opinion on social media, of course, all of the McAfee minions will come in and tell you that you're a left-wing pussy

or something. Like, no, you know who's kind of a pussy? Maccify. Because McAfee wants to play the political game. He wants to hang with Trump. He wants to hang with all these bro-country guys, and he wants to kowtow and pander to a right-wing demographic, but then doesn't want to be the full-on right-wing demographic. There was someone who was it that was saying Van Lathen, who I actually like a lot. But Van Lathen was saying that. I wonder if that audio is anywhere. But Van Lathen was just hammering this like, bro, Pat McAfee is Maga, just be MAGA.

You know, you want to be in that game? You want to be in that party? You want to play grab ass with Trump? Go for it. But at least stand for something. Now, the argument would be, well, you know, we want to keep the politics out of things and whatever. But you don't. The people that tell you, by the way, fun fact, the people that tell you to keep politics out of shit, that's just if your politics differ from theirs.

If they agree with you politically, please talk politics all fucking day in sports. Look at Clay Travis. Clay Travis is launching, although he's had a website for a billion years, it's politics and sports. But he's launching a politics and sports website, right? You know who loves it? All the right-wing people. The same people that say, shut up and dribble. They all love it because they agree with the politics.

But anyway, all that said, Pat McAfee has music out. Oh, boy, the excitement of Pat McAfee music. I haven't listened to any of Pat McAfee's music. But I'm going to go into it telling you that it's going to suck. And maybe I have now given myself that premeditated out, where even if it's the greatest shit ever, even if it's the white album or the black album for that matter,

I will not say that because now I have convinced myself that this album is going to be terrible. By the way, the fact that I'm even trying to reason with myself that it may or may not be terrible, it's going to be terrible. There's no way it's any good. Like the fact that I'm even trying to reason with myself on it is comical. There's no way a Pat McAfee album would be good. This will be right up there with the Super Bowl shuffle,

which is probably a better song than anything on this. Or like whenever you would get actors that would put out songs. Like it happened a lot in the 80s. You know, you'd get like Don Johnson heartbeat. I'm looking for a heartbeat. But I think that's kind of a banger. Bruce Willis. Eddie Murphy party all the time.

That was also a super duper banger. But there's no way that anything that Pat McAfee is putting out on his diary of a douchebag or whatever the fuck this album's called. What the hell is this Pat McAfee album called? The Diary of a Pulitzer. polarizing figure. And then of course what happens is you criticize this. And then like you're the butt of the joke. Like,

ah, look at this guy. No. Pat McAfee is everywhere and he's annoying. And by the way, I wasn't always this way. I was not always an anti-Pat McAfee guy. Now,

I've never been like a diehard fan of it because people try to elevate this Pat McAfee show like it's doing something revolutionary. It's got like five dudes. They sit around and they make inside jokes and talk about. sports. You know who else does that? Every sports radio show for the last 50 fucking years, it's just a sports radio show. It's not innovative. Go back to the Stern shit. What Stern was doing in the 80s and 90s was innovative shit and really truly controversial shit. Like how hard is this to grasp? Like that stuff was really, Opie and Anthony having people banging in a church. You know,

that is true controversy. That's oh shit, the Pope. The Pope. get involved in this. He ain't getting that kind of shit from Pat McAvey. The controversy is that he's annoying. Oh, boy, he, ugh. But anyway, so let's listen to some of this album. Let's do that in episode two of this. So we've got the McAfee thoughts out.

Let's do a full breakdown. See how long we can make. There's 14 songs on this thing. This thing is 14 songs in 43 minutes. Okay With titles like Pitbull and a mugshot Like now

Is he just doing a goof here? Is this what we're doing? Are we just doing like a full-on goof? And again now if you're critical of Pat McAvey It's because you're a liberal. Oh, you're just a liberal pussy That can't handle it, Snowflake. Okay, whatever.

That's nothing to do with that. It's just that Pat McGee is now a douche And that's totally fine. That's his prerogative. But Pat McGee is a douche. if Jilly is turned on you. Like, Jilly was literally ordering fucking Pat McAfee shirts.

Before this album came out, Jilly was saying things like, you know, I really regret that I didn't get the Pat McAfee hoodie and I just got the T-shirt. Like, Jilly, if you want to order more Pat McAfee shit, order more Pat McAfee shit.

It was a big deal. The biggest thing ever is when we went to the game in Indiana, we went to the Colts game. I guess they played the Texans. And it was the Pat McAfee day and they had the Lodha shirt. Jilly's got my ass walking around like I'm eight years old again picking up cups at the stadium. I don't know why you bring home stadium cups, but my coach used to make me do that.

Jilly's like, we got to find a shirt. I didn't get one of the shirts when we came in. And I guess, you know, people left the shirts. So we picked up the Lodhah shirt. And it was a treasured possession. She was like, hey, can we go to, can we go see the Thunderdome? Like Jilly was a stand, like a Pat McAfee stand. I don't even think she's into it anymore.

She's finally, she says, I've drawn a line. And the line is the album, the white trash album, the diary of a polarizing figure. Whatever. All right, let me see here. Now, I was reading a review of this, going into this. I did see a review from someone said, Pat McAfee album review, a train of diarrhea and disappointment. How are you disappointed in this? What is there to be disappointed in?

Did you go into it thinking it was going to be good? Like that was your mistake, pal. This is somebody from SB Nation named Jared Bailey. This, ladies and gentlemen, is what happens when you let a bit go too far. Picture that, now these people like this guy are also snarky and annoying. I'm enjoying my Friday morning, basking and Drew Aller having the debut of a lifetime in a Steelers preseason opener with the Packers, while scrolling Twitter with Head the Call on,

on my TV. I see Dan Orlovsky posting lyrics to a song like he's a high school defensive back who only plays JV, but is willing to die for the game he loves. I did wonder why he mentioned Pat McAfee at the end. I realized those were lyrics that were from Pat McAfee songs. So then the person goes through the whole thing about how they admire some of the stuff Pat McGavie's done. Oh, he's done great charity things. That's the key in life. You can be a douchebag and then you can do a bunch of charity stuff. So then you can fall back on the fact that yeah, you're a douchebag. but you did charity. That's the key.

That's the only reason people actually do charity is so when people call them a douchebag, they can say, oh, when's the last time you raised $3 million for charity? I've been there before. The number of times people tell me I'm a shithead and I'm like, hey, I help build a handicapped ballpark in Houston, you sacks your shit. I may have. I know we raised $100,000, $100,000. One of the years I was in Houston to help build a handicapped ballpark,

but I don't know if it ever got built or not. I assume it did. I think right after that is when I roll out of town, so I don't recall. But maybe it got built, maybe it didn't, but I know we raised $100,000 for it. It is a good weapon to have when people come at you and like, you're a piece of shit and you're an awful human. You're like, oh, am I? Well, here's all the money I've helped raise for charity, you shitheads. And that's essentially what McAfee has with all the charity stuff and all that.