I Listened To The Entire Pat McAfee Country Album, And I Have Some Thoughts

Sam Hodde. Getty Images.

If no one else is gonna review this thing, then I guess I'll bite the bullet. 

When Pat McAfee announced last month that he was releasing an album, he was almost universally clowned. When the album was officially released today, people rushed to clown him again. But I was genuinely curious if the people dogging on him had actually listened to the music or if they were just mocking the premise of a 39-year-old sports commentator dropping a country rap album that no one asked for.  

So I decided to give McAfee a fair shake. I listened to all 14 songs on the album before forming a final opinion on the matter, and I gotta say…

I didn't hate it. 

Sure, there are songs that are definitely cringe. Sure, you can tell that his voice is heavily auto-tuned. And sure, it sounds exactly like an album that Jelly Roll or any of these modern "country" stars would produce. There's not much about his music that really stands out to me, but I won't lie, it exceeded the expectations I had for it. I mean, I truly thought that this was gonna be DOGSHIT. It surprised me, though. So kudos to McAfee, I guess. 

I'm not even a McAfee guy. I've never tuned in to watch his show. I don't love him on Gameday. I was honestly pissed at him for a long time because he replaced David Pollack on that program, and I fucking love David Pollack. The only time I truly enjoy McAfee is when he's at the commentary desk for WWE. I think he's spectacular in that role. But he even had to go and ruin that! He tried to be the main character and force his way into a storyline with Cody Rhodes, and it sucked. 

But even though I don't have much of an appetite for McAfee's content, clearly a lot of people do. There's a reason why he's getting paid over $50 million by ESPN. There's a reason why he's able to sell out arenas for a live show. And honestly, I could see him trying to sell out arenas for his music now. 

There are people who are genuinely confused by the decision to make this album, and I just don't think they get who McAfee is. Yeah, he'll talk football, but he's also done standup comedy. He's wrestled in the WWE, as I just stated. Fuck, guys. He was at BARSTOOL SPORTS. One of the beauties of this company is that you can produce whatever the hell you want when it comes to content. You don't need to stay in one specific lane and only do one specific thing your entire career. You can be a general manager for a Call of Duty team and a host of a children's educational show. It doesn't matter anymore. 

It's obvious McAfee has that same mentality. Personally, I think being a country music star has gotta be one of the coolest feelings in this world, so I understand why McAfee would choose that lane of content. And if people wanna consume it, great. All the power to him. 

What I DON'T love, however, is ESPN forcing it down our throats. There's absolutely zero reason why the official ESPN twitter account (with 58 million sports fans following it) should be retweeting McAfee's album promo. I'm fairly confident they did earlier today and have since un-retweeted it. But what I do know for sure is that Kirk Herbstreit was on the Pat McAfee Show saying that McAfee should perform his new music on Gameday, and that's something we just don't need in the slightest. 

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It's a good thing we're a Big Noon Kickoff company. You won't see my guy Matt Leinart doing any of this shit. 

But I'll wrap things up by saying this: The album might not be your cup of tea. You might not even listen in the first place because you hate the idea of it so much. That's totally fine. But personally, I don't hate the idea of trying new shit out and leaving no stone left unturned. We're living in the most creative time in human history, and I don't mind someone putting themselves out there to create. 

I will go on the record, though, and say there is zero chance I listen to any of these songs again. Have a good weekend.