Put Pat McAfee down as a genuine fan of the state of Utah.
The sports personality praised the Beehive State Monday on the “Pat McAfee Show” following his visit and stay in Utah for ESPN’s “College GameDay.”
Speaking with ESPN’s NFL guru Adam Schefter, McAfee had nothing but good things to say about his time in Utah over the weekend for the Utah-Oregon game.
“Bro, I’m not a skier or do the snow stuff, so I’ve never really had a chance to go to Utah for any reason. ... Need to go back,” McAfee said. “It is awesome.”
McAfee noted specifically that the people he met in Utah were almost universally kind.
“People were so kind,” McAfee said. “Obviously everybody there was so kind, to all of us (at ESPN). We get put in these ridiculous situations where people are normally going to be nice to us, but everybody was nice there.”
It wasn’t just the people though. McAfee praise the scenery — “The views were insane,” he said — and weather, and wryly noted that he thought about going skiing to get the full Utah experience.
“I thought about picking up some ski poles and go skiing up there, just so I can be a part of the Salt Lake community,” McAfee said. “I loved it, Schefty. I did not expect it.”
While in Salt Lake City, McAfee did attend the Utah Jazz game against the LA Clippers on Friday night, an experience he had some fun with, including some friendly in-game negations with Jazz center Kelly Olynyk, a “flex-off” with minority Jazz owner Dwyane Wade and a courtside with Jazz owner Ryan Smith.
McAfee joked with Schefter that he is now the coach of the Jazz, leaving Will Hardy without a job.
“I’m coaching the team now. I had to go there, obviously,” he said.
He then added, poking a little fun at those who don’t view him as a positive addition to “GameDay” or the general sports media landscape, “I didn’t see any Washington Post articles about me being coach for the Utah Jazz, but happy weekend.”