On Tuesday afternoon, Pat McAfee, a former NFL punter, stood behind the cluttered desk in his production studio in downtown Indianapolis and chewed over the zeitgeist of professional football with his usual gang of wisecracking co-hosts. For the next three hours, with the cameras rolling, the host of “The Pat McAfee Show” did his thing: a little mocking of the previous weekend’s losers, a quick imitation or two, a friendly interview with Packers superstar Aaron Rodgers and lots and lots of F-bombs.
It’s a formula that, while perhaps not ground-breaking, has suddenly turned McAfee into a rising star in a sports media landscape that is being rapidly transformed by legalized gambling. Since this past fall, the free-wheeling program, which airs live on YouTube during weekdays and is licensed by the satellite radio company SiriusXM, has risen to national prominence, thanks, in part, to weekly interviews with Rodgers that often make national news.
