Linda Cohn shreds ESPN for its ‘lovefest’ with Pat McAfee: ‘Welcome to overexposure’

Michael Blinn Sat, August 22, 2026 at 2:16 PM UTC

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Linda Cohn isn’t on ESPN’s airwaves anymore and she isn’t a fan of what her former employer is becoming.

The longtime “Sportcenter” host, who retired from the Worldwide Leader in June, objected to the network’s “lovefest” with Pat McAfee.

“I admire it all, but admiring what Pat McAfee has accomplished doesn’t mean I believe he needs to be everywhere at every time,” Cohn said on her self-titled podcast on Thursday. “Because, yeah, ESPN wants Pat McAfee to be everywhere at every time. How much Pat McAfee is enough Pat McAfee?! The answer apparently was more.”

Pat McAfee and Pittsburgh linebacker T.J. Watt during a recording of The Pat McAfee Show at the Steelers training camp. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

McAfee, in addition to his titular daily show on ESPN, is being added to the “Monday Night Countdown” roster as well as being slotted in for an alternate broadcast of “Monday Night Football,” according to The Athletic.

It adds up to a Monday that could be wall-to-wall McAfee on the ESPN airwaves.

“So, let’s review your potential Monday during the NFL season, which is just a couple of weeks away,” Cohn said. “Three hours of Pat’s daily show, ‘The Pat McAfee Show,’ from the game site. Then, Pat joins ‘Monday Night Countdown’ before the game. And then, on certain nights, potentially, his own alternative broadcast of ‘Monday Night Football.’ At this point, let’s just call it ‘Monday Night McAfee.’”

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That doesn’t take into account his analyst work on “College GameDay.”

It’s not about McAfee taking the opportunities given to him, but rather ESPN not realizing that viewers may be coming down with “McAfee fatigue,” Cohn said.

“They’re basically saying, ‘I like Pat, I watch Pat, I just don’t need him at breakfast, lunch, and dinner’,” she said.

Cohn pointed to an incident earlier in the week, when the “First Take” crew, honoring late ESPN founder Bill Rasmussen, was cut off for the beginning of McAfee’s show.

“A founder is honored,” Cohn said. “A tribute is cut short. Pat gets blamed, he responds, and suddenly, we’re talking about Pat again. Welcome to overexposure. Somehow, someway, everything becomes about you.”

“SportsCenter” icon Linda Cohn criticized ESPN for its “lovefest” with Pat McAfee. Linda Cohn/Youtube

It’s nothing that the 66-year-old, who hosted her first “Sportscaster” in 1992, hasn’t seen before.

“ESPN has done this for decades,” Cohn notes. “They have their favorites. Let me tell you. And they make sure you know it over and over and over again. The viewers can speak up, say they don’t like it. But ESPN, most of the time, turns a deaf ear. They do it more than you know. Trust me, I was there.”

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”