Bill Simmons couldn’t resist another chance to continue his emerging feud with Pat McAfee, given the former Colts punter’s controversial “white bitch” comment — and the apology that followed — regarding Caitlin Clark on Monday.
On Wednesday, before Game 1 of the NBA Finals, Simmons mentioned Luka Doncic’s odds to win MVP for the series and asked “If Pat McAfee calls him a white bitch before game time, would that go up or down, Sal [Iacono]? Would the Finals odds get affected by that?”
And, later in the show, according to Awful Announcing, Simmons asked an “over-under” question of whether McAfee would still be with ESPN in February 2025.
“Oh, I’m going to go under,” Iacono, appearing on the podcast, said. “This industry’s insane. Yeah, I’m going to go under. February 2025? That’s what, 17 months? Solid under.”
McAfee called Clark a “white bitch” when referring to her during a Monday segment on the WNBA’s rookie class, and he later apologized in a statement on X later in the day while also acknowledging the “massive f–k-up on my end” on “The Pat McAfee Show” the following day.
“I did reach out to Caitlin Clark through the Fever, sent an apology and then got a message back that she said it was all good,” McAfee said Tuesday. “No blood. We move forward. And she appreciates us reaching out and apologizing. So that obviously makes me feel a little bit better. But to the people that got pissed off yesterday and offended, I understand. I learned a lot.”
That didn’t prevent Simmons and Iacono from bringing the topic up on his podcast the next day, though.
“He just apologized for that,” Iacono said after Simmons asked about the NBA Finals odds. “He apologized proactively for calling Luka a ‘white bitch‘ so that’s good.”
“I happened to watch that apology this morning,” Simmons then continued on the podcast.
“Yeah? Teared up a little bit?” Iacono asked.
“It was emotional stuff,” Simmons replied. “Mullet guy No. 2 was tearing up. It was really great.”
Earlier this year, McAfee told Simmons to “keep running your mouth” after the latter mocked the ex-NFLer during an episode of his podcast.
Later that week, Simmons responded by blasting McAfee for poor television ratings on ESPN — the network where he signed a five-year contract worth around $85 million.
And in the latest exchange of jabs, Simmons has started to wonder about the future of McAfee with the network two years from now — or even October 2024, the “adjusted line,” as Iacono described it, set by Simmons later in his show.