Former Arizona Cardinals star J.J. Watt was super annoyed as he wasn’t able to watch his old team take on the Dallas Cowboys on Monday Night Football. ESPN’s bitter standoff with YouTube TV left millions of subscribers blacked out of the game, including Watt, who admitted on *The Pat McAfee Show* that he ignored the host’s advice on how to fix it.
When Watt appeared on the show, he admitted to being left in the dark during the ESPN blackout despite being offered a fix by McAfee.
“I don’t have the stuff. I can’t watch ESPN shows. I don’t have that one,” Watt said. “I didn’t go to the website that you told me to go to…You told me that I had to go to some website, I saw you do a PSA, and I didn’t go to it.”
“I can’t watch ESPN..
I didn’t go to the website” ~ @JJWatt #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/KR9ND0w1RI
(@PatMcAfeeShow) November 5, 2025
ESPN made Saturday’s “College Gameday” available for free through its app and Pat McAfee’s X account. Later, McAfee shared that the broadcast on his feed, helping Watt, which pulled in 1.18 million unique viewers and reached 2 million impressions. However, those numbers don’t represent the same thing as the average minute audience usually used to measure TV or streaming viewership, meaning the actual live engagement could be quite different.
The YouTube TV-ESPN feud, or, more specifically, Disney’s ongoing spat with Google, has left millions of sports fans across the U.S. rather bruised. YouTube TV, reportedly the fourth largest TV distributor in the country with about 10 million subscribers, lost access to ESPN, ABC, and other networks owned by Disney earlier in the week. That left many unable to tune into marquee broadcasts like Monday Night Football.
“When that [QR code] pops up, I get hot,” Watt said, venting his frustration over the blackout. “And then you do it, you scan it, and you’re like, ‘Alright I’m in!’ And then they’re like, ‘No. You don’t have that one. Too bad.’ I’m trying to watch my guys, I played for the Cardinals, I wanted to watch the game on Monday night.”
In typical McAfee fashion, the host jumped in with humor and empathy, revealing he had tried to help Watt find a workaround. “It was an honor to be able to stream that and shout out to X,” McAfee said. Watt fired back jokingly, “No idea, I don’t even know if I can watch this show in my own house right now, no idea the thing about x.”
But the blackout was not funny, neither for viewers nor for McAfee, who used the moment to criticize how ESPN handled the situation publicly. The blackout wiped out college football coverage over the weekend and continues to impact Monday Night Football and other major broadcasts.
Fans like Watt have had enough, and McAfee’s blunt, fan-first approach summed up the collective mood best. “Figure it out,” Watt said.
However, McAfee made it clear his frustration wasn’t directed at fellow on-air personalities.
“Not the boys’ fault,” says Pat McAfee
ESPN had launched a campaign featuring top names like Kirk Herbstreit, Adam Schefter, Mike Greenberg, Stephen A. Smith, and Scott Van Pelt, urging fans to “speak up” by visiting Disney’s website KeepMyNetworks.com. The move backfired, with viewers accusing the network of asking millionaire personalities to fight a corporate battle for them.
“Once again, not the boys’ fault that are doing it,” McAfee told Watt on Wednesday. “That should’ve never been an idea. Whoever’s idea that was just coming from a place of not understanding the reality of everything.”
McAfee defended Herbstreit in particular, noting that the longtime broadcaster already carries enough pressure without being turned into a mouthpiece for corporate negotiations. ”Herbie’s already got enough on his plate,” McAfee said. ”Herbie’s already got enough people for whatever reason, because he’s been calling games for 30 years and has the voice that he has in this entire thing…”
The pointed commentary from McAfee’s perspective reflected what millions were already thinking: the real problem wasn’t the broadcasters but the executives calling the shots. He continued, “A lot of people saying ‘greedy corporations,’ yeah, need each other, especially with where sports are right now, and we’re in the middle of it. Stop asking me to go to a website. I don’t want to do that. So stop that. All you’re doing is pi—ng everybody off even more.”
By doubling down on his criticism, while further clarifying who it was targeted against, he managed to cover his colleagues and clarify his message. Herbstreit, Schefter, and Greenberg were doing what ESPN asked. It was the executives who thought a social campaign would win public sympathy who fundamentally misjudged the situation.
So, if the two giants don’t reach an agreement soon, millions of fans could lose access to college football and NFL games each week due to the money dispute. Disney wants YouTube to pay what it calls the “market rate” for its channels, but YouTube says that would mean hiking prices again, just months after the last increase. For now, the deal’s at a standstill. Still, Google promised to refund subscribers $20 if the blackout drags on, though no one really knows how long that “extended period” might be.
