Pat McAfee has made college football Saturdays a whole lot louder with his theatrics and wild energy on ESPN’s College GameDay. His own show is just as popular, and he also appears as a panelist on Monday Night Countdown for the NFL. Keeping up with it all isn’t exactly a walk in the park, especially with an already packed schedule.

When asked how he shows up every day knowing it is time-consuming and exhausting, McAfee admitted that he hasn’t had a proper day off in a while.

“Interesting. I think every day I wake up, I feel incredibly lucky that I get to do what I do,” McAfee told Kiera Baker during an interview on October 25. “I have a beautiful daughter, a beautiful son, and a wife. So every day I wake up, I know that I’m doing the right thing, I think. So I don’t know if I ever show up for myself.”

McAfee enjoys his work, and he enjoys “accomplishing things” even more. However, he couldn’t help but admit that every now and then he feels the need to take a good nap.

“Although someday I’m going to need to take a nap, you know, at some point,” he added.

McAfee is usually energetic and constantly busy, but in June of last year, the pressure and exhaustion from his schedule caught up with him. Until then, he had been juggling college football and WWE events, but he took a break when keeping up with his media work, travel, family life, and other responsibilities became overwhelming.

After a short break, however, McAfee bounced back and joined the NFL’s Monday Night Countdown panel in 2026.

Today, he works as an analyst on Monday nights, covering the NFL before Monday Night Football. He then hosts The Pat McAfee Show every weekday afternoon from noon to 3 p.m. After that, he travels for ESPN’s College GameDay on Saturdays. On top of that, he also makes occasional guest appearances on other platforms. McAfee has his plate full, and it does get exhausting for him, but fans are not amused. They still accuse him of turning College GameDay into an episode of his podcast.

“Nobody cares. Just keep your clothes on and stop using profanity,” a fan wrote.

The fan dismissed McAfee’s comments about his exhausting schedule and pointed to his behavior on College GameDay, where he has drawn heavy criticism for taking his shirt off on air. The most recent incident came during the show’s broadcast from Salt Lake City, where a chanting crowd of Utah fans pushed him to climb onto his chair just minutes into the show and unbutton his shirt.

It came after fans had already been angry with him for going shirtless during the Iowa segment, and after he had reportedly pledged not to do it. That’s why fans couldn’t sympathize with him.

“Unwatchable,” wrote another uninterested fan.

McAfee has faced heavy scrutiny for ripping his shirt off during the GameDay segment. However, the frustration goes beyond the shirtless moments.

“Yawn,” remarked a third fan.

At Utah, McAfee slammed The New York Times for criticizing his antics before taking his shirt off, and fans also questioned why he pushed back on an analyst’s hypothetical about GameDay’s theme song. Some fans even say the crew shows bias.

One such X user complained that the panel’s job is to be experts on all of college football, not just the SEC, and fans mocked McAfee and his colleagues for backing Florida before Missouri beat them. Many fans have also objected to his language on air. Some also feel he is stretched across too much of ESPN’s lineup, from his daily show to Monday Night Countdown to GameDay, which has fueled the sense that he is everywhere.

Interestingly, the backlash has not hurt the College GameDay show commercially, though, since the numbers continue to climb in 2026. The fan backlash is focused on his on-air behavior, not his workload admission.