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As Front Office Sports previously reported, ESPN is adding a Pat McAfee-led Field Pass alt-cast to its coverage of Super Bowl LXI.
That’s big news on its own, as ESPN throws everything but the kitchen sink at its first-ever Super Bowl telecast on Feb. 14, 2027. But if you ask me, this could be an audition for an even bigger move by McAfee. How about putting the star of The Pat McAfee Show in ESPN’s main Monday Night Football broadcast booth?
Far-fetched? Not quite. Multiple sources outside of ESPN have speculated about this as a possibility. Here are three reasons why I think McAfee could eventually join MNF, with play-by-play announcer Joe Buck and sideline reporters Lisa Salters and Laura Rutledge. And no, we’re not talking about an alt-cast, but rather MNF: the iconic broadcast booth made famous by the likes of John Madden, Frank Gifford, and Howard Cosell:
Whither Troy Aikman?
Between Aikman and Buck, ESPN now boasts what I think is the best NFL broadcast team in the business. But ESPN is playing chicken over a big bucks contract extension with Aikman, whose current five-year deal expires after this season. Why ESPN and Aikman are choosing to let this contract impasse fester is beyond me. Especially since the network just handed Buck a six-year extension worth $108 million.
The answer, to paraphrase the late great ABC Sports producer Don Ohlmeyer, is probably money. Aikman currently makes $18 million a year. But Tom Brady makes double his salary at Fox Sports, pulling down $37.5 million a year.
Word on the street is Aikman and ESPN will likely come to terms. But who knows? I never thought Aikman and Buck would leave Fox after 20 seasons to jump to ESPN in 2022. If the ex-Cowboys quarterback and ESPN can’t hammer out a deal, the Worldwide Leader will have other options. They could recruit Fox Sports No. 2 game analyst Greg Olsen, or break the bank for Travis Kelce of the Chiefs or Sean McVay of the Rams. On their Press Box podcast, Bryan Curtis and Joel Anderson thought McAfee could be a gonzo choice by ESPN, similar to Ohlmeyer casting comedian Dennis Miller on ABC’s MNF from 2000-01.
“To me, putting him in the booth would be getting football, plus funny,” said Curtis.
McAfee’s on a Roll
The former NFL punter is at a point where he can practically call his own shot. He joined the cast of Monday Night Countdown this year. The 39-year-old’s eponymous weekday show is bringing younger viewers to ESPN. Along with castmate Nick Saban, he helped lead College GameDay to its most-watched season ever in 2025, increasing viewership 23% to an average of 2.7 million viewers per episode. Plus, McAfee has the best Rolodex in sports media, interviewing everybody from commissioners such as the NFL’s Roger Goodell and the NBA’s Adam Silver to President Donald Trump.
While announcing his Big Game Field Pass Friday, he oh-so casually noted he’d gotten the OK from Goodell himself. McAfee is prickly and paranoid about criticism. But he has the ear of the most powerful ESPN executives in Bristol, including chairman Jimmy Pitaro, content czar Burke Magnus, and fast-rising EVP Mike Foss. As the fictional detective says about criminal mastermind Keyser Söze in The Usual Suspects, “I‘m telling you this guy is protected from up on high by the Prince of Darkness.”
ESPN Takes Big Swings With MNF
No network has experimented more with NFL games than ESPN. Who can forget ESPN casting Pardon the Interruption co-host Tony Kornheiser as a color commentator along with play-by-play announcer Mike Tirico and Joe Theismann in 2006? The snarky Kornheiser only lasted three seasons before bowing out due to his fear of flying. Then ESPN put poor Booger McFarland on a motorized cart 10 feet above the game action in 2018. The “BoogerMobile” only lasted one season before it was mercifully put out to pasture. But ESPN continued to experiment until it finally struck gold by luring Aikman and Buck in 2022.
During ESPN’s official announcement of the Super Bowl LXI Field Pass with The Pat McAfee Show on Sunday, it said Dan Orlovsky will be joining him and his castmates on the sidelines at SoFi Stadium. The alt-cast will air on the ESPNU channel.
This season, McAfee & Co. will also offer Field Pass alt-casts on seven games, starting with Commanders-49ers on Oct. 19 and ending with the Big Game on Feb. 14.
ESPN and parent company Disney plan to flood the zone around Super Bowl LXI. Sister broadcast network ABC and Disney+ will simulcast ESPN’s coverage. There are three announced alt-casts so far, including: McAfee’s Field Pass on ESPNU; Peyton and Eli Manning’s ManningCast on ESPN2; and a Super Bowl LXI Playbook with Next Gen Stats on NFL Network.
Don’t be surprised if parent Disney rolls out a Kids-Cast inspired by Disney franchises such as Star Wars, Family Guy, The Simpsons, or Cars. FOS previously broke the news that legendary NFL PrimeTime host Chris Berman will be counting down his 20 favorite Super Bowl moments every week around MNF telecasts, with his No. 1 pick coming on Super Sunday.
