Pat McAfee Delivers Sarcastic Rant About NFL 'Middle Management' Giving Him A Hard Time

Last year, Pat McAfee and his crew did their show live in Detroit at the 2024 NFL Draft. This year, though, McAfee announced that his show will not travel to Green Bay for the 2025 version.

Why? Because, according to McAfee, the "middle management" of the NFL makes his life unnecessarily difficult, so he's protesting by not attending. 

The draft being held in Green Bay introduces a wrinkle because one of the main characters on McAfee's show is A.J. Hawk, one of the best defenders in Packers' franchise history. 

Seemingly, it makes sense for McAfee and Hawk to head to Green Bay. 

Pat McAfee isn't doing his show live from the 2025 NFL Draft in Green Bay and says it's because the "middle-management" of the league makes everything harder than it needs to be.

(Imagn Images)

But as anyone who has dealt with difficult middle managers in their career knows, they can be real pains in the ass. Thankfully, that's not an issue at OutKick. 

However, I worked at ESPN for nearly 10 years. That company is packed with useless middle managers whose sole purpose seems to be to make everything unnecessarily difficult for no other reason than to justify their jobs – which usually aren't necessary in the first place. 

Sorry for the digression, but McAfee's rant really hit home with me. 

Pat McAfee sarcastically shreds NFL "middle management" for being so difficult that he's not attending the 2025 NFL Draft 

"The NFL’s making it very easy for us to do stuff," McAfee began, with sarcasm dripping on every word. "It’s really very kind of them. It’s very cool. I’m very appreciative of the opportunity to showcase your shit." 

He certainly wasn't done there. 

"Middle management’s doing exactly what they don’t normally do. They’re making it easy. It’s awesome," he continued sarcastically.

"Those people matter for sure. You guys are really good at your jobs. Thank God they’re there. Without them, could you imagine? Nobody would watch the NFL if it wasn’t for these people being there."

Man, this part definitely resonated with me. I'm jealous that McAfee was able to deliver that message to a national audience. You have no idea how many times I wanted to tell some middle manager at ESPN how the company couldn't have needed them any less. 

Pat McAfee continued, noting that people way "above" those middle managers in the NFL hierarchy invited his show to the NFL Draft, but the middlemen made it too much of a hassle. 

WATCH: 

I know so many of you reading this story and watching that video know exactly what McAfee and I are talking about. They say relatability is important in the media, and I can't think of a more relatable rant than the one McAfee delivered Wednesday about purposeless middle managers.