Pat McAfee clarifies his comment to Patriots owner Robert Kraft on ‘College GameDay’ broadcast

Patriots

McAfee’s comments were seen as a clue about Bill Belichick’s job security with the Patriots.

Robert Kraft and Bill Belichick appeared on ESPN’s “College GameDay” on Saturday. Matthew J. Lee / The Boston Globe

Former NFL punter and “College GameDay” panelist Pat McAfee raised eyebrows during ESPN’s broadcast before Saturday’s Army-Navy game at Gillette Stadium.

During an interview segment with Patriots owner Robert Kraft, McAfee appeared to address the elephant in the room with the 3-10 Patriots: Bill Belichick’s job security.

“We’d like to win,” Kraft said when asked about New England’s hopes of regaining the contender’s tag. “That’s why we want to do everything possible to recover our team and be able to win again.”

“I don’t envy their position, what’s about to happen,” McAfee said. “We all know. We don’t have to ask today.”

Kraft did not respond to McAfee and shook his hand as he wrapped up the panel interview.

As expected, McAfee’s comment to Kraft and the implied implication about Kraft’s impending decision with Belichick this offseason garnered plenty of headlines over the weekend.

Speaking Monday during his daily ESPN show, McAfee pushed back against discourse surrounding his comments.

While Kraft and New England ownership will no doubt have to make several difficult decisions this winter in hopes of rebuilding a broken roster, McAfee said his comment should not be seen as any kind of confirmation that Kraft plans to fire Belichick once that the 2023 season ends. .

“At the end (of the interview), I think they said, ‘Does anyone else have anything?’ And I said, ‘I don’t envy your position,’ is what I told (Kraft),” McAfee explained on “The Pat McAfee Show.” “I’m not going to ask the question. It’s not about that. We all know what I’m talking about. But I don’t envy your position.

“And everyone in New England (and I understand, I guess, from a New England perspective, why they did this) was saying that I ambushed Robert Kraft. I didn’t even ask a question. They said I ambushed him with that and then we shook hands. They said, “Pat just told Robert Kraft that he’s going to fire Bill Belichick.”

“I didn’t say that at all. What you were talking about, for the first time in 20 years, are you going to extend the extension to Bill Belichick? Are you leaving Bill Belichick? How about the quarterback position? What are you going to do? I don’t envy his position at all. He is the man who owned and led the greatest dynasty in sports history. The most consistent dynasty. He even said it. He said: “Bill has been with us for 24 years.” … “So when I said, ‘I don’t envy your position,’ everyone in Boston said, ‘He just told Robert Kraft that he has to fire Bill.’

“I was like, you said that. She was talking about everyone else; maybe that’s one of them; Maybe that’s one of the results. Which further leads me to say that I don’t envy his position, because you heard what I just said about Bill Belichick. That’s how I feel about Bill Belichick.

“The Internet very quickly built a narrative around what I said. … I didn’t say Robert Kraft fired Bill Belichick. You all are saying that. I was just saying I don’t envy what you have to do. After listening to it again, that was my intention. It was nothing more. So I’d like everyone to know that I’m not disrespecting Robert Kraft. It was the complete opposite of that. It was like enormous respect for everything, and right now you have a difficult position.”

As expected, Belichick didn’t offer much on Monday. when asked on WEEI’s “The Greg Hill Show” on McAfee’s comments or Kraft’s response.

“Like you said, this week against Kansas City it’s week to week,” Belichick said. “We’ll focus on everything we can do to go out and play our best game of the year against KC.”