Pat McAfee played in one Super Bowl in his eight-year career as an NFL punter — and as a rookie no less. He lost. However, a new opportunity has emerged that may see the popular sports-media personality on a Super Bowl sideline once more.
ESPN will have its first-ever Super Bowl in 2027, capitalizing on sister network ABC’s turn in the new NFL rights rotation. We know ABC and ESPN will both televise the game, and that ESPN2 will put on its popular alternative telecast the Manningcast starring Peyton and Eli Manning (and guests), but the greater Disney simulcast may bring a few new options to the gridiron.
Among the possibilities in very early discussions is a possible Field Pass alt cast with McAfee and his Pat McAfee Show cronies, a person with knowledge of the considerations confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter. Even more likely than that is a Disney/Pixar animated Super Bowl LXI Funday Football installment, THR is told. Potentialities were bandied about at various Super Bowl LX events in San Francisco; Front Office Sports first reported the Field Pass and KidsCast possibilties.
It is too early to go any further down the field on either idea, and any additional alt casts beyond the previously agreed-upon Manningcast would require an allowance on the NFL’s part. But as McAfee himself put it on X, “the rights hurdle is very hurdle-able.”
“BREAKING: Source(s) tell me that the rights hurdle is very hurdle-able,” McAfee tweeted. “Would be absolutely bonkers.”
Among the hurdles would be handing McAfee and his buddies an unprecedented amount of access to the sidelines during the biggest game of the NFL season and the largest telecast of the year. The guys don’t bother players and coaches — they just banter among themselves from a proximity usually reserved for cheerleaders. Sometimes their commentary comes with a unique camera angle and at other times they’d just be the voices viewers hear chatting over the same live shots usually accompanied by Joe Buck and Troy Aikman.
The Pat McAfee Show has pulled off the feat a few times for ESPN’s College Football Playoffs. But that’s the NCAA, quite literally amateur hour compared to the professional ranks of the NFL.
Funday Football is much more of a chip shot field goal here. Intended to engage with a younger audience (and families with young children), Disney and Pixar have already shown the NFL what they can do — they’ve not only done it a few times, but have already gone through many of the growing pains such a technical feat requires.
Plus — and most importantly — it’s already been done. The 2024 Super Bowl on CBS and Paramount+ offered a slime-filled alt cast on Nickelodeon, where players from the SpongeBob Squarepants universe squared off. The SpongeBob Super Bowl was counted by Nielsen in its final total-viewer tally — rights owners would only put up an alt cast with such a guarantee. Otherwise a media company’s various platforms risk cannibalizing pieces the overall human pie.
A few of ESPN’s plans for the next 12 months are more concrete. The company on Wednesday announced it will produce and air 61 “Super Bowl Stories” (for Super Bowl 61), including the weekly shorts I Scored a Touchdown and a weekly video podcast The Biggest Game hosted by Jeremy Schaap.
“With the full strength of The Walt Disney Company and in collaboration with the NFL, ESPN has embarked on a year-long Super Bowl celebration,” ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro said on Wednesday. “This fan-focused initiative unites our Company’s beloved brands with industry-leading storytelling and technology to showcase football’s greatest stories, heroes, and moments like never before. Across our platforms, screens, and parks, we’ll build momentum throughout the year toward Super Bowl LXI — a monumental event for sports fans everywhere and for ESPN.”
How much does ESPN love the Super Bowl? Super Bowl LXI will take place on Valentine’s Day, Sunday, Feb. 14, 2027.
