Eating on live television looks easy until a deep-fried potato fights back. Pat McAfee found that out the hard way on Monday Night Countdown, and ESPN’s Mina Kimes now has some advice for the next person handed a stadium snack.
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Kimes knows Monday nights well, having been a guest on the 2023 ManningCast. She weighed in on Desus Pieces. The show played the clip of McAfee mid-bite while Kimes and Desus Nice broke it down.
“We eat on air. This is a thing. We go to these stadiums on Monday, and then they’re like, ‘Try this Gator at, like, the Saint or whatever.’ And it is so hard not to look like an idiot eating on camera, right? Like, in a cool way.”
The moment happened on October 26, before the Cowboys and Eagles played in Philadelphia. Monday Night Countdown runs from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. ET.
McAfee, a full-time analyst on the show this season, took a big bite, and ESPN went to a commercial break while he choked on a potato, according to a social media post from that night.
The food was not exactly small. Desus described it as a $20 Tush Push Tater, a fried baked potato topped with a breaded chicken cutlet, pimento mac and cheese, hot honey bacon jam, and 215 sauce.
It is also a very Philadelphia thing. The Tush Push is the Eagles’ signature short-yardage play, and apparently somebody turned it into a $20 menu item. Jason Kelce, who sits next to McAfee on the show, retired after the 2023 season and was an instrumental part of the Tush Push.
Desus said it was a big bite, and that McAfee was already turning red. Kimes had a simple rule for a situation like that.
“Here’s the thing I’ve learned about eating on television. You have to make the smallest possible bite. It’s not about trying to impress people. The people who made the food are standing there looking at you. And if you want to make them feel good, you have to fight that instinct.”
Desus added a producer’s view of it. He joked that the director would have been telling McAfee to keep going, with the camera zooming in on five seconds and then a clean break.
That is a fun line, but there is something real in it. Live television leaves almost no room to spit something out, and a bite that big does not leave much of a margin.
McAfee has had a lot of eyes on him lately. He joined Monday Night Countdown full-time this season, sitting alongside Scott Van Pelt, Kelce, Marcus Spears and Jason McCourty.
He also appears on College GameDay and has his own daily show. Even with some fan complaints about overexposure, ESPN says Monday Night Countdown is averaging 1.6 million viewers, up 26 percent, and the best start in a decade.
The desk has had other Philly moments, too. Earlier this season, McAfee teased Kelce on air for talking about the Eagles like he still played there.
“A lot of ‘we’ talk out of Jason for Philly.”
Kelce, a six-time All-Pro center who spent his career in Philadelphia, apologized to Bears fans right there on the set. It was a lighthearted exchange, and it showed how much the show leans on that kind of banter.
It was also a reminder that nobody on that set is safe from the camera, not even a star. Kimes’ advice may be the best takeaway. Nobody expects a broadcaster to be graceful with a plate that big, but a smaller bite goes a long way.
If ESPN hands McAfee another Tush Push Tater, expect him to remember this. Or maybe not, because he has never been one to take the small bite.