Pat McAfee and Olympics Opening Ceremony (Photos via Twitter and Getty Images)

ESPN’s Pat McAfee has joined the long list of critics over the 2024 Summer Olympics opening ceremony.

The popular sports personality/occasional WWE superstar and former NFL punter touched base on the 2024 Summer Olympics opening ceremony during Monday’s edition of his popular program, “The Pat McAfee Show.”

Friday’s opening ceremonies featured performances from world-famous singers, including Lady Gaga, Celine Dion and Philippe Katerine. The opening ceremonies dew 28.6 million viewers alone on NBC and Peacock, per The Hollywood Reporter.

The drag queens’ performance at the ceremonies resembled Leonardo da Vinci’s “Last Supper” painting of Jesus Christ with the Twelve Apostles. The performance led to criticism from religious groups and well-known celebrities like Piers Morgan and Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker. Paris Olympic organizers apologized and stated that there was never an intention to disrespect or offend religious groups.

Speaking on the latest edition of his show, Pat McAfee opined that the Olympic ceremony should have simply kept their focus on the athletes and sporting competitions:

“We need people that love sports being a part of sports happenings…we need sports people around. Whenever we have the biggest platform for sports in competition happening once every four years, we need some sports people at least there to say, ‘Hey this is a celebration.’

…We just want it to revolve around sport and we can’t have the opening ceremony be a reason why people won’t watch these athletes who have sacrificed everything about their lives to be great at something and only get to experience and celebrate once every four years.”

 

McAfee added that the Olympic opening ceremony shouldn’t be “starting a war, starting a protest.” McAfee said he loved the “time” but wasn’t happy with what he called “self-created” drama. His segment on the Olympic opening ceremony had over 275,000 views on his X/Twitter account.

The 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris began on July 26 and will run until Aug. 11. More than 10,700 athletes around the world are competing in this year’s games.

Pat McAfee Is In Year Two With ESPN

The 37-year-old McAfee was able to get out of his $120 million contract with FanDuel last year to sign a lucrative five-year deal with the Worldwide Leader in Sports worth $85 million.

McAfee’s program has been a giant ratings win for ESPN, as he delivers hundreds of thousands of viewers per episode. With the 2024 NFL season right around the corner, McAfee’s show should enjoy a noticeable surge in ratings.