When Pat McAfee played for the Indianapolis Colts from 2009 through 2016, he made good money. Over the course of his football career, according to Over the Cap, the punter made $14 million. Good money, if you can get it.
But that number pales in comparison to what McAfee has made as a talking head over the last decade. He is enormously popular on his eponymous program on ESPN, and the four-letter network has likely paid him well. The network is about to give McAfee a lot more money, though.
According to Andrew Marchand of The Athletic (subscription required), McAfee has been making around $30 million a year working with ESPN (slightly more than twice what he made in his eight seasons with the Colts, of course), but he is finalizing negotiations that will pay him as much as $60 million a year beginning once his current contract runs out.
Former Indianapolis Colts punter Pat McAfee is about to get a large increase in income
That's two years from now. So, while the two-time Pro Bowl punter (and one-time Associated Press First-Team All-Pro) has been making fantastic money, he is about to double his previous earnings.
To be fair, while the amount he will get paid might be ridiculous compared to teachers and other impactful vocations, McAfee does work hard for his money. He has a daily Pat McAfee show, and he is present on Saturdays on ESPN's College GameDay program. When he has a day off, if he does have one, it is a mystery.
More importantly, Pat McAfee has been smart enough to maintain ownership of his self-titled show. What ESPN pays for is the license to broadcast the program. The network knows that McAfee brings eyes to screens, and that means high-paying advertisers are also interested.
ESPN wouldn't pay McAfee $60 million a year if the broadcaster weren't making a lot more money on top of that, of course. While the former punter is raking in money, just imagine how much ESPN must be making. Of the three hours of the daily show, the first two are on ESPN, but all three are on YouTube.
Pat McAfee also has other partners, such as DraftKings. In other words, he has lots of different avenues for his income, all of which dwarf what the 39-year-old made playing in the NFL. He quit at the perfect time, while still performing at a high level. Some might disagree with what McAfee espouses at times, but no one can doubt that his business acumen is elite.
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