Pat McAfee Issues 3-Word Statement After Being Accused of Airing False Rumor on Ole Miss Student

Pat McAfee may have built an energetic persona around himself in his thriving sports media career. But sometimes even the best face unnecessary adversity. Just a few years ago, McAfee was embroiled in a controversy with Brett Favre for alleged false claims of his misuse of welfare funds. Later, Favre filed a defamation suit that has since been dropped. Two years since those comedic style and lack of background check reporting that landed him in trouble. McAfee yet again found himself in the mix of another potential defamation suit from a 19-year-old. This time, he’s trying to calm things down before the situation gets even worse.

Back on February 26th, McAfee shared a clip to his 3.2M followers on X. This short video was an extract of McAfee talking about an Ole Miss sorority freshman having an illicit relationship with her boyfriend’s father. He even captioned the post, “What’s going on at Ole Miss,” with two laughing crying emojis. Here he said, citing the internet, “Dad had s– with son’s girlfriend..then it was made public…That’s the absolute worst-case scenario.” He reported those alleged internet rumors without any prior background check.

This led to Mary Kate Cornett, the girl in the rumor, getting bombarded with harassment and insults. She later also told NBC News that McAfee’s viral clip “practically ruined my life.” What started as a false rumor on YikYak soon found itself trending on X. And it only caught more fuel after McAfee’s comments. “I thought it was absolutely ridiculous that an ESPN sports broadcaster would be talking about a 19-year-old girl’s s– scandal that was completely false,” Cornett told NBC News.

Cornett’s attorney, Monica Uddin, also believed her client is a victim of cyberbullying and that a possible defamation suit can be filed against McAfee. So, having found himself in the loop of another potential defamation suit, McAfee issued a 3-word statement. On his Pat McAfee Show, from where everything started, he wrote, “p.s.. Don’t sue us.” at the end of a content disclaimer. He wanted to float the idea that his show “is meant to be comedic informative. The opinions expressed on this show do not necessarily reflect the beliefs of their peers, their boss, or ESPN.”

While the damage has already been done, this is not the first time McAfee has been captured trying to save himself from an impending lawsuit. On his “Big Night Aht” show in Pittsburgh, McAfee broke his silence on the Ole Miss controversy for the first time.

Pat McAfee desperately tries to avoid a defamation suit

Cornett has been pretty vocal since getting her life turned upside down by a false rumor. After his NBC News interview, she also had an exclusive interview with The Athletic. There, Cornett spoke openly about wanting accountability from those who destroyed her normal life. “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,” Cornett revealed.

This situation painted an even darker image of McAfee when Cornett further revealed, “He never once reached out to ask if this was true or for me to give any sort of statement to him.” However, McAfee did try to address the scandal in his own way. “Just like the current situation that is happening, where I have a lot of people saying I should be sued. I want to say this: I never, ever want to be a part of anything negative in anybody’s life, ever. That is not what I want to do,” McAfee said on Big Night Aht show.

He also wanted to promise that something like this would never happen again. “I didn’t want to add any more negativity as it was taking place like I did. We will try to figure that out and make some sort of silver lining in a very terrible situation. You can have that promise from me,” McAfee added. But only time will tell whether Cornett and her attorney do consider McAfee’s public statements. If not, then it could be a possible repeat of Brett Favre’s defamation suit or even worse.