Pat McAfee is a bigger name today as a sports show host than he was as a player. But for veteran Michael Wilbon, the flamboyant sportscaster’s appeal couldn’t move the needle. Wilbon does not see McAfee as one of the network’s biggest faces.

“Two of them must be [Mike Greenberg] and Stephen A. [Smith], right? And Scott Van Pelt,” Wilbon told Awful Announcing when asked about his top choices for ESPN’s ‘face.’ “I’d say that those are the leading candidates for the face [of ESPN]. There can’t be one.

“I don’t consume Pat McAfee, so I don’t have a sense of it,” he added when host Brandon Contes asked about McAfee. “… It’s not in the world in which I am. And that’s just a matter of time. You know, the other guys have been at ESPN a hell of a lot longer than McAfee.”

Wilbon also mentioned that it really depends on the circumstances; Adam Schefter could also be looked at as a face on transactional coverage grounds. Baseball would mean Buster Olney and Jeff Passan.

Pat McAfee is younger than the veterans Wilbon mentioned. But he is still among the highest-paid employees at ESPN, with his reported current salary of $17 million. Wilbon’s criticism also comes at a time when McAfee is reportedly negotiating a new deal that could pay $60 million per year. Should this deal become official, McAfee will become the highest-paid employee in the network.

Currently, Stephen A. Smith holds that title, having signed a $105 million extension last year. Smith is also one of the network’s most tenured faces, having been with the network since 2005. As the host of First Take, Smith is a major crowd puller for the network.

Also, this is not the first time Wilbon has criticized McAfee. In September 2024, while discussing an issue surrounding LIV golf players, Wilbon made a sly remark at McAfee about wanting to use foul language on air.

“I can’t use the words that I would use to the face of any one of those colleagues if they suggested that,” Wilbon said. “I guess if I wore black tank top and I could get away with those words on this show.”

Unlike other talk shows, McAfee keeps his show a little informal, choosing to wear laidback clothing instead of the formal attire he wears on College GameDay. Perhaps it’s because of that carefree yet informed talk that McAfee has appealed to the younger generation.

Today, The Pat McAfee Show has nearly 3 million subscribers on YouTube. Last year, with an average of 436,000 viewers on YouTube and TV, the show recorded its most-watched year.