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Pat McAfee Unloads on the NFL As the League Puts Ridiculous Restriction on His Show

Also in Traina Thoughts: The most honest NHL coach ever; NFL ref invents new penalty; the greatest Halloween moment in TV history and more.

Jimmy Traina

1. The NFL’s bully tactics never cease to amaze.

No league has more rules about how its content can be used than the NFL. The No Fun League doesn’t make exceptions for anyone, not even a former player who promotes the league to a massive audience every day.

According to Pat McAfee, the league is cracking down on his use of NFL graphics on his daily YouTube show.

McAfee broke the news to his audience Monday as only he can.

“The Professional American Football League will finish its eighth week of its riveting prime-time schedule as the Cincinnati football club travels to Cleveland to take on Cleveland’s football club and a lot of people might be asking, ‘Pat, on this particular Halloween, why are you talking the way that you’re talking about the league that you’ve talked about for the last three years?’ McAfee asked. “Well, the reason I’m doing so is because even though we currently have a rights deal with the NFL that costs millions and millions of dollars, we’ve been informed this morning that we are no longer allowed to use any of their logos on any of our graphics.”

McAfee then aired a graphic for tonight’s Bengals-Browns game that looked like this:

Screen Shot 2022-10-31 at 1.04.51 PM

McAfee then revealed that his show has paid more than $4 million for the rights to air NFL highlights.

He also issued this warning to the league: “It’s been great doing business with you. I’m happy we have covered your league in the way that we have for the last few years. I’m appreciative of the league and everything it’s done. I don’t think we’ve really touched on many subjects we could’ve dabbled into and I think we’ll do that this offseason, for sure. Things I know a lot about, that my friends know a lot about, like insurance and CTE [chronic traumatic encephalopathy] and concussions and everything like that. I think we can find some people to chat about, to learn more about what the NFL should be held accountable for and what they shouldn’t be held accountable for because I thought the entire deal with the NFL [cough], the Professional American Football League, I’m so sorry, that I wanted to get involved with was making the game celebrated.”

McAfee then concluded his speech with, “I wanted to celebrate everything that was the Professional American Football League. We did so in a fashion I guess we’re not supposed to even though we paid millions and millions of dollars to the league, played in the league, was a nominee to the Hall of Fame of the league, but can’t have any logos on the graphics, because obviously some lawyer in that building is a f---ing dips---.”

McAfee had cryptically alluded to the NFL’s edict on Twitter before his show started Monday.

I know there will be many of you out there who take the “rules are rules” attitude on this, and I understand the NFL can do anything it wants, because there isn’t anything more powerful in this country, but for the league to pick this fight with McAfee is pathetic.

Think about the example McAfee gave in that clip above. The NFL is literally banning McAfee’s show from airing a Bengals and Browns helmet while it promotes tonight’s Monday Night Football game on ESPN.

The NFL has to have more important things to worry about and more nefarious people to go after.

Despite McAfee’s enormous popularity and power, this won’t do any damage to the NFL, because nothing can damage the NFL. But it will be VERY interesting whether McAfee follows through on his idea to start covering the negative aspects of the NFL.

2. One problem the NFL should focus on more than McAfee is the refs, who don't even know which teams are playing.

3. We also had an NFL ref give us some new phrasing during Sunday’s Steelers-Eagles game. 

4. You don’t often see a team going wild after a win in the sixth game of the season, but when you start 0–5, you gotta let loose after that first W, which the Lakers did Sunday night in celebrating Darvin Ham's first win as head coach.

5. I know nothing about the NHL, but if there’s a more honest head coach than the Flames’ Darryl Sutter, please let me know.

6. This week's SI Media Podcast features a conversation with Sports Business Journal‘s John Ourand about the latest sports media news. Topics covered include:

• Amazon’s declining Thursday Night Football ratings

• Jim Nantz out, Ian Eagle in for the NCAA tournament

• World Series ratings issues

• ManningCast perspective

• NFL Sunday Ticket update

The show closes with my weekly “Traina Thoughts” segment with Sal Licata, where we discuss a terrible gambling loss, the World Series and Taylor Swift.

You can listen to the podcast below or download it on Apple, Spotify and Google.

You can also watch the SI Media Podcast on YouTube.

7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: Happy Halloween.

Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok.

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Jimmy Traina
JIMMY TRAINA

Jimmy Traina is a staff writer and podcast host for Sports Illustrated. A 20-year veteran in the industry, he’s been covering the sports media landscape for seven years and writes a daily column, Traina Thoughts. Traina has hosted the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast since 2018, a show known for interviews with some of the most important and powerful people in sports media. He also was the creator and writer of SI’s Hot Clicks feature from 2007 to '13.

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