Even Pat McAfee thinks Adam Schefter went too far in his coverage of Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs this weekend. After multiple questionable calls benefitting Mahomes and the Chiefs during their AFC divisional round win over Houston, Schefter scored a scoop on the league’s response. He reported that the NFL intends to address the controversy by expanding replay assist to include plays involving quarterback slides — just like the maneuvers Mahomes executed against Houston.
However, Schefter neglected to mention that the NFL backed up the calls in question after the Chiefs’ victory over the Texans. In an attempt to mitigate the perception of bias toward Kansas City following ESPN analyst Troy Aikman’s comments on Mahomes’ antics, the NFL sent longtime referee Walt Anderson onto NFL Network’s pregame show to explain each call. Essentially, Schefter bolstered the backlash against Kansas City without acknowledging it was ultimately unfounded.
The usual suspects — Chiefs fans and former Chiefs — rallied to defend them, but it was a relatively quiet chorus until McAfee added his voice on Monday. During Schefter’s weekly appearance on The Pat McAfee Show, the host questioned Schefter’s motives, pondering whether he was omitting facts or pushing an agenda.
“Good luck in those Twitter streets as you are being attacked viciously,” McAfee warned Schefter. After Schefter insisted he was simply reporting facts with no ulterior motives, McAfee pushed back, asking, “Yeah, but which facts do you present and which do you withhold? That’s journalism, baby.”
As Schefter’s smile faded and frustration became evident, McAfee wrapped up the segment — but his critique continued. “I always appreciate that ‘We’re just presenting facts,’” McAfee remarked. “Yeah, but which ones, though? Which ones are you withholding? Because it seems like you’re potentially building a narrative with the facts that you’re choosing. What about the ones that might contradict your claims? Those get suppressed. ‘We’re telling the truth.’ Which truth, though? What’s the angle? Hashtag journalism, hashtag journalistic standards, and then we get questioned about it.”
In this comment, McAfee appeared to draw a parallel between Schefter’s reporting on Mahomes’ clever running style and a controversy from the previous year, when McAfee clashed with reporters at ESPN Media Day over his own “journalistic standards” in interviews with figures like Aaron Rodgers.
Later in the show, McAfee referenced a follow-up post from Schefter on X that highlighted the disparities in unnecessary roughness and roughing the passer penalties between Kansas City and its opponents. Cohost and former NFL defensive back Darius Butler suggested that Schefter must have been aware of the implications of sharing those statistics after the fan backlash against his original report, prompting McAfee and the crew to poke fun at Schefter again for maintaining he has no “agenda.”
By omitting the critical detail that the NFL upheld all calls protecting Mahomes in the divisional round, Schefter set himself up for criticism. However, it seems the league also shifted its stance on replay review of QB slides largely due to Aikman’s criticism and the subsequent uproar regarding Mahomes gaming the system. This cause and effect likely explains why Schefter connected the Chiefs to the rule change, even if he could have articulated that link more clearly.
In earlier years, such “ESPN on ESPN crime” would have been problematic in Bristol. But figures like Pat McAfee (whose show is not an ESPN property) have transformed that culture, creating moments when Schefter is left to contend with the fallout.
