Pat McAfee is tired of the political division.
In the modern day, supporting the United States can be viewed as a political statement (crazy, right?). The former NFL punter and host of The Pat McAfee Show has learned that lesson on multiple occasions. Most recently, the sports personality has come under fire for picking up the tab at a Team USA hockey celebration.
As you likely already know, the boys in red, white and blue brought home the gold at the 2026 Winter Olympics. After taking down Canada in the gold medal game, Team USA got to celebrating before all of the players needed to return to their respective NHL teams to continue the season. One of their big parties happened down in Miami at a nightclub called E11EVEN.
According to the Daily Mail, the team racked up a $150,000 bar tab thanks to “vast amounts of E11EVEN Vodka, Armand de Brignac champagne and Dame Más tequila.” Luckily, they didn’t have to pick up the tab themselves. During the party, ESPN star Pat McAfee popped in with a video for the team – and surprised them by paying the tab for the entire night:
“Boys! Thank you for representing the United States of America in such a great way, it was an honor to watch you win. Enjoy the hell aht of all of it. Tonight all of your drinks are on me, E11ven and the rest of the United States of America. Cheers Boys. We appreciate you.”
That classy, patriotic move got Pat McAfee intertwined with the Team USA discourse.
Why? Because the women’s USA hockey team won gold too, which in theory should make Americans everywhere awfully proud. Instead, the whole thing has become politicized, mainly because of a call that the men’s team got from President Trump shortly after winning gold where he jokingly said he’d “have to invite the women’s team” to the White House too.
So showing support for one team has effectively turned into disrespecting the other. Happy for the men’s team? Shame on you. Happy for the women’s team only? Then you aren’t a patriot. In a moment where America should have come together and embraced the USA’s collective success at the Winter Olympics… the whole thing has turned into a side-picking contest.
Pat McAfee is sick of it, and yesterday during his progrum, he launched into this rant against the frustratingly divisive situation:
“I’ve learned in the America-Canada disagreements… I somehow find my way into the middle of them. Buying the tab felt like an obvious move. This is what should happen. That turns into me being a sexist, racist, everything like that.
Really cool that that happens by a small number of people that we cannot let (bother us). We would like to let them know that you will never outweigh the happiness and the unity that sports bring, so you can all eat s***.”
I agree with Pat McAfee on this one.
More than anything, I just hate that the joy has been stolen from this moment in American sports history. For the first time ever, both the men’s and women’s Team USA hockey teams won gold at the Winter Olympics in the same year. That should be the headline, and that alone should be a uniter.
