A day after he was skewered for calling Caitlin Clark a “white bitch” on his show, Pat Mcafee said Tuesday the WNBA star had responded to his apology and told him that the two are “all good.”
McAfee began his Tuesday show on ESPN by addressing the scandal, which saw scores of people in media, sports, and, entertainment condemning his tasteless remark—one he’s insisted he didn’t mean to be derogatory.
“Obviously that’s a massive fuck up on my end,” McAfee said while standing, wearing a black tank top. “I apologize for that. I did reach out to Caitlin Clark through the [Indiana] Fever PR, sent an apology, and then got a message back that said it was all good.”
He added that there was no bad blood and that Clark indicated that she “appreciates” him reaching out to her.
“That obviously makes me feel a little bit better,” he said. “But to the people that got pissed off yesterday and offended, I understand. I learned a lot.”
Clark has not spoken publicly about the comment, which McAfee re-emphasized Tuesday was meant “in a complimentary fashion, like, this is the one.”
McAfee said he didn’t immediately realize his mistake. He said it wasn’t until hours after his show aired Monday that he realized he messed up after a deluge of comments flooded social media to criticize him.
McAfee, who hosts his show from Indianapolis where Clark is based, made the bizarre comment Monday after he spoke on the Fever’s win over the Chicago Sky the night before, which saw Chennedy Carter brazenly hip-check Clark during an inbound play that was later deemed to have been an “unacceptable” flagrant foul.
Moments after that incident, the Sky rookie Angel Reese, who famously went head-to-head against Clark in a pair of chippy NCAA Tournament games the last two years, was seen jumping to celebrate the unnecessary foul.
That seemed to peeve McAfee, who ranted that sports media needs to stop praising the WNBA’s entire rookie class—A.K.A. Reese—for bringing more attention to the league this summer and instead give the credit to just Clark.
“I would like the media people that continue to say, ‘This rookie class, this rookie class, this rookie class.’ Nah, just call it for what it is—there’s one white bitch for the Indiana team who is a superstar, and it is because she stayed in Iowa and put an entire state on her back and took a program from nothing to a multiple-year success story,” McAfee said.
McAfee said Tuesday that Clark “did not feel disrespected” by that remark, despite what others were claiming. He added that everything he ranted about remains true in his eyes.
“Everything I said in that game show is true—a matter of fact,” he said, holding up his hand to count the points he made that Clark has single-handedly upped the WNBA’s reputation.
“Attendance, Caitlin; ratings, Caitlin; merch, Caitlin; business, Caitlin; popularity, Caitlin.”
This post was originally published on Daily Beast
