This might not be how Pat McAfee saw things playing out for himself. The former Indianapolis punter jumped over to ESPN, even taking David Pollack’s spot on College GameDay—which definitely ruffled some feathers with fans at the time. But little by little, McAfee really built up a following with his own spin on “The Pat McAfee Show.” He carved out a pretty sweet career mixing sports talk with his signature bold humor, pulling in around $17 million a year. His podcast channel just kept blowing up, and now they’ve got this huge family of 2.8 million subscribers on YouTube. But he might be about to lose some of those followers because it looks like McAfee could be heading into some legal trouble. Courtesy? Apparently, it involves an Ole Miss freshman and some unverified internet rumors the analyst decided to spread.

Things started on February 25. A freshman student at Ole Miss, Mary Kate Cornett, saw a post appear on YikYak, an anonymous message board platform for college students, claiming that she became entangled with her boyfriend’s dad. Going by Cornett’s admissions, the allegations are false. The rumors spread like wildfire, and even though netizens were initially just bashing her on social media, things were still somewhat under control. But the issue took an abrupt turn when, on February 26, McAfee thought of digging this topic up at The Pat McAfee Show, which was filmed at the NFL Scouting Combine.

Indulging in a conversation with ESPN’s Adam Schefter, McAfee went like, “Have you heard about Ole Miss? Some Ole Miss frat bro, ‘kay? Had a K-D (Kappa Delta) girlfriend…” For anyone not in the know, the rumor McAfee seemed to be hinting at involved a father and his son’s girlfriend in a supposed entanglement. And thanks to McAfee bringing it up, this kind of rumor—you know, the juicy kind—took off super fast, without anyone really checking if it was true or not. Even former NFL wide receiver Antonio Brown and the folks at Barstool Sports jumped in. While Barstool’s Kevin “KFC” Clancy just talked about the controversy on his social media, Brown went a step further and started sharing memes about it.

For some extra attention, McAfee ended up dragging Cornett into this mess, and she’s already filed police reports with local law enforcement in Oxford, the University of Mississippi campus police, and even the FBI. McAfee’s got a lot of explaining to do now. Meanwhile, questions keep mounting…..

On April 1, Bailey Jackson took a stand for the teenager.  “Did he say that it was all alleged? Yes. Doesn’t necessarily cover his tracks. The story has to do with Greek Life at Ole Miss. What business does it have on a sports show? On ESPN? And what does a 37-year-old man have speaking on two college freshmen?”

After all, the 18-year-old Cornett and her family are not spared from the nasty repercussions. As Jackson noted, “Now this girl has to do with bullying, hate messages, switch to online classes, be moved to emergency housing. Her family is being threatened and harassed.” Cornett herself opened up about the physical and mental toil she has been going through.

“I would like people to be held accountable for what they’ve done. You’re ruining my life by talking about it on your show for nothing but attention, but here I am staying up until 5 in the morning, every night, throwing up, not eating because I’m so anxious about what’s going to happen for the rest of my life.” That’s how McAfee failed to follow journalistic integrity. While the analyst might not have thought about the aftereffect, he did land in the hot seat.        

Pat McAfee’s troubled track record 

After the rumor spread rapidly online, hate comments flooded towards McAfee. Meanwhile, the college football community on Reddit rallied behind Cornett. Supporters shared messages like, “Hope these ppl gets sued so heavily. It’s so evil what they do,” and “I hope she takes these a—-les for a pretty penny.”

Cornett, now represented by Houston-based attorney Monica Uddin, confirmed she’s pursuing legal action against McAfee, ESPN (which airs his show), and possibly others who helped spread or profit from the rumor. Uddin also noted they may go after those involved in boosting a cryptocurrency bearing Cornett’s name—one that spiked in value shortly after the smear surfaced. An ESPN spokesperson declined to comment. McAfee, along with Barstool personalities KFC and Jack Mac, hasn’t responded to requests for comment.

This isn’t McAfee’s first brush with backlash. Since his ESPN debut, he’s drawn criticism for calling WNBA star Caitlin Clark a “White bi–h” (a comment he later apologized for), joking about disgraced doctor Larry Nassar, and airing Aaron Rodgers’ baseless claim linking Jimmy Kimmel to Jeffrey Epstein. In each case, apologies followed—but not without significant public outcry.

McAfee and his crew thrive on toeing the line, but that line may now be catching up with them. With legal action looming and public sentiment shifting, Pat McAfee may soon find that controversy can’t always be brushed off with an apology.