Pat McAfee is once again defending Caitlin Clark.
The ESPN personality was brought up in controversy again Wednesday when the Fever rookie was featured on “The Pat McAfee Show.”
“The universe told me not to talk about her,” McAfee said of Clark during a conversation with veteran sportscaster Rich Eisen.
The former NFL punter added that his earlier comments calling Clark a “white bitch” on his show on June 3 were “stupid.”
He publicly apologized and contacted Clark at the time.
Some on social media assumed McAfee was referring to ESPN when he said “God” and “the universe” had told him to stay away from his conversations with Clark.
“This is not true. I said ‘God’ and the ‘Universe’ told me to stop talking about it because anything I said inevitably caused chaos every time,” McAfee wrote in a response tweet.
“This was bad for my life and bad for the show. You took a completely false headline from a stupid account and amplified it. ESPN has no say in my show. Thank you again.”
In June, McAfee, 36, drew criticism when he spoke about Clarke, the 2024 WNBA draft candidate, and her impact on the league’s viewership this season.
“It’s all well and good that people in the media keep saying, ‘This rookie class, this rookie class, this rookie class,’ no, tell it like it is: They have one superstar white woman on that Indiana team,” McAfee said at the time.
McAfee apologized on X a few hours later.
“I should not have described Caitlin Clark as a ‘white chick'” McAfee said:“Regardless of the context, even if we were talking about race being the cause of some of the events, I have too much respect for her and for the women in her life to take that out into the world.
“When I said it, I meant it as a compliment, like that whole segment, but a lot of people have said that it never was. It’s 100% my fault and I apologize for that…I’ve also sent an email to Caitlyn apologizing.”
Clark has never spoken publicly about the situation.
