ESPN analyst Monica McNutt took heat for appearing on SportsCenter mid-pedicure. After that, Jemele Hill was one of the loudest voices pointing out that Pat McAfee had faced far less scrutiny for his own live-TV moments. Weeks later, a fresh McAfee moment on College GameDay has brought Hill right back to the same argument, and this time, she’s making the double standard impossible to ignore.
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Reacting to McAfee’s latest on-air antics, Hill took to social media to revive the exact comparison she’d made weeks earlier.
“I’m old enough to remember when the Internet played the professionalism card over Monica McNutt getting a pedicure while doing a SportsCenter, but bragging about smoking w*** and taking ed*****… hilarious! Good TV!” Hill wrote.
“By the way, I have ZERO problem with Pat McAfee doing what he does. Get it how you live,” she wrote. “I have more of a problem with the hypocrisy.”
The comparison can be traced to when McNutt appeared live on SportsCenter from a nail salon after getting a pedicure. It drew sharp criticism online, with some viewers and media personalities questioning its professionalism and ESPN’s standards.
“So let me get this straight: Pat McAfee can hit a vape during a broadcast…but y’all on here losing your minds about Monica McNutt’s pedicure,” Hill wrote on X. “It’s the hypocrisy for me.”
Fellow ESPN analyst Kendrick Perkins came to her defense at the time. “So most likely she got asked to a hit that wasn’t on her schedule and she said yes… and it’s her fault??? Stop trying to make nothing into something. It’s 2026 and nothing is normal no more,” Perkins wrote.
What Sparked Jemele Hill’s Latest Round of Criticism
During an episode of College GameDay, Pat McAfee turned to Nick Saban with a question. “Coach, have you ever used any, like, ancient medicine to potentially calm the boys? Like maybe burn some sage?” McAfee asked.
Kirk Herbstreit responded: “You do that in the studio.” Saban then added, joking that his old Alabama teams might have won even more games if he’d let his players take “gummies”.
The exchange got a big laugh from the rest of the GameDay desk and it quickly circulated online. It also placed McAfee back in the same territory he’d already found himself in weeks earlier, with calls asking for his exit from the network.
For Hill, watching that moment get treated as lighthearted banter, while a female colleague’s unrelated on-air choice drew calls for accountability, was exactly the pattern she felt needed calling out again.
Between the McNutt controversy and the week’s College GameDay exchange, Hill’s argument has not really changed. Hill said her issue was not McAfee’s conduct itself, but the differing reaction to his on-air behavior compared with the criticism McNutt received.