ESPN host Pat McAfee announces debut album "The Diary of a Polarizing Figure"

Pat McAfee announced his debut album, "The Diary of a Polarizing Figure," a collaboration with country singer-songwriter Ernest set for release Aug. 14. "For as long as I can remember my mere existence has made people hate my guts," McAfee wrote in an X post announcing the project. "I've been writing songs about it for 20yrs." He said the record is meant to leave a record for his own kids: "if I was to die, I'd like my kids to know exactly who their dad is."

The album adds another item to an already crowded resume. The former Indianapolis Colts punter and two-time Pro Bowl selection hosts his own daily show on ESPN, appears as an analyst on "College GameDay," was a commentator and on-screen presence for WWE until earlier this year, and runs multiple podcasts on top of all that. He is also reportedly in talks for an ESPN contract extension worth more than $60 million a year, which made some online commenters note the irony of an album built around his critics.

The announcement's timing drew its own criticism, landing a day after several of McAfee's ESPN colleagues were laid off by the Walt Disney Co. McAfee reposted one such complaint on X and responded simply with the album's title and release date. On his own show, he addressed the subject matter directly: "A lot of things are being said about me at this exact moment," he said, adding that people are "going to hear my responses through these songs" because he has faced this kind of pushback "since elementary school."

The project builds on a partnership that started in December, when McAfee and Ernest released the country-rock single "Dookie" under a new deal with DeVille Records and Big Loud Records. Ernest told Whiskey Riff earlier this year that the pair had recorded eight or nine songs together, describing McAfee's musical style as suited for a video game soundtrack: "Any EA Sports game should have a Pat McAfee song on it."

McAfee would hardly be the first athlete-turned-broadcaster to try music; NFL analyst and four-time Super Bowl champion Terry Bradshaw released several country and gospel albums and even landed a top-10 country hit with a cover of "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" in the 1970s. McAfee said he wrote the new songs entirely in the notes app on his phone over roughly two decades. "Finding my singing voice has been fun," he said. "That has been a blast."