ESPN Analyst Josh Pate on Trump Interview Fallout: ‘It’s the President Asking’

In late February, ESPN college football analyst Josh Pate conducted a sit-down interview with President Donald Trump about college football on his personal show, “Josh Pate’s College Football Show.” The conversation, filmed in Georgia, drew criticism from fans who wondered why the college football expert was wading into politics—and for what many critics called a lack of substantive discussion.

Reflecting on the conversation, however, Pate didn’t appear to regret it.

“There’s some pro and con there, no doubt,” Pate said in a recent interview with Front Office Sports. “You understand this is gonna be really polarizing. But it’s the president asking to sit down one-on-one with you.” 

Pate also saw a potential benefit for his fans given that “there’s never been more infusion of federal government [into] college football.”

“This is when you’re hearing rumors of Senate bill and whatnot. And so, you know, you’re having to make the call a couple of weeks ahead of time. Could this serve the greater interest of my audience? I lean enough yes to say yes to the request,” Pate said.

Ultimately, he said, it only took him about three minutes to decide to accept the White House’s invitation.

The interview was supposed to be between 35 and 45 minutes, and cover NIL and other issues, Pate previously said. But the conversation was cut down to 10 minutes due to Trump’s schedule—and showed a president who appeared to lack basic knowledge about college football programs.

“Would love to have the parameters have gone differently, in terms of timing and whatnot,” Pate told FOS. “But you go into it and you don’t have the benefit of hindsight when you make the call. Hindsight is only a weapon that your critics really get to use. You don’t get to use that. You just have to use the information available to make the decision. So it was a learning experience.”

As for the negative feedback, Pate said most of it came from “outside the sphere of my audience.” But he said he took it as a learning experience: “Listen to it, and adjust to it, and learn from it.”