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ESPN’s Pat McAfee is confirming Front Office Sports reporting that the FBI has safeguarded his College GameDay appearances to stem a Charlie Kirk-like assassination attempt.
On Tuesday, FOS reported McAfee regularly receives threatening messages–including death threats–and that the FBI had encouraged him to wear a bulletproof vest in the week after Kirk was murdered at Utah Valley University on Sep. 10, 2025.
On Wednesday night, McAfee confirmed he’s been working with the FBI and other security agencies dating back to GameDay’s telecast before Tennessee-Georgia on Sep. 13, 2025–only three days after Kirk’s assassination. In his tweet, McAfee also screenshotted a tweet from a hater who called him a “faggot” and vowed to make him “bite the curb.” Disney’s ESPN has taken the threats extremely seriously, say sources, providing McAfee and the GameDay cast with their own security.
“The FBI.. alongside, Disney security, Tennessee State Police, Knoxville PD, University Police, everybody in the area, all had the very same goal to protect the shit out of the area. FBI snipers were sent down there, huge presence of police.. it was a surreal moment,” McAfee recalled on X/Twitter Wednesday night.
“The conversation about the death threats I had been receiving in life was definitely a huge topic. I don’t think it was the FBI that suggested the Bullet Proof Vest, but it was certainly an idea presented by one of the security groups. We had no idea what to expect. Nobody had been in that type of situation before. Everybody wanted the best for everybody. I never felt safer and never felt more appreciative of the people that were around me that morning including the students that came out and did WAY more than they could’ve ever imagined for my soul.”
McAfee didn’t address his controversial GameDay telecast from the University of Utah on Saturday. In the aftermath, he publicly stated he’s never felt more “uncomfortable” since the school’s Instagram account mocked him as a “corny” shirt-ripping clown. The ESPN star joked afterward that if GameDay ever returned to the school’s Salt Lake City campus, he would call in sick with COVID.
On his eponymous ESPN weekday show Monday, McAfee alluded to Kirk’s murder, noting: “I thought to myself: Has anything really scary happened at, like, a college gathering in the state of Utah recently? Do you think we should be amplifying reasons for why people hate my guts as a university? I don’t know. So it was just a lot of mixed feelings for me going out there.”
While McAfee was widely mocked as a “soft-as-charmin” diva for his Utah comments, Clay Travis of Sport & State came to his defense Wednesday night.
“I understand where Pat McAfee is coming from. I’ve received serious death threats that required armed security at my home,” tweeted Travis. “During Super Bowl week in 2018, I remember broadcasting live and realizing we were sitting ducks. Most people have no idea how vulnerable we are.”
The FBI did not return a request for comment on this story. An ESPN spokeswoman said Tuesday: “The safety and security of our on-air team, crew and fans is paramount at College GameDay. We are committed to ensuring a safe environment, and given the very real threats that members of our team face, we take issues involving their safety seriously. We support Pat and recognize the very real and valid concerns he has around safety and security.”
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