Disney Broadens Super Bowl LXI Plans With Pat McAfee, Next-Gen Stats

Pat McAfee has been turning up in more places on ESPN. Add Super Bowl Sunday to the list.

McAfee will lead a growing number of so-called “alterna-casts” built around Disney’s 2027 Super Bowl plans. The outspoken host has been tapped to anchor “Field Pass,” a commentary-driven option that will play alongside a traditional broadcast of the Big Game on ABC and ESPN, and a Super Bowl version of the popular “ManningCast” featuring Peyton and Eli Manning, on ESPN2.

Additionally, the company will offer a statistics-focused Super Bowl telecast, “Playbook,” which will be led by a team to be announced later.

“Field Pass” will appear on ESPNU, while “Playbook” will run on the NFL Network on Super Bowl Sunday.

The new options mean that Disney will, across its properties, offer five different Super Bowl telecasts. ESPN Deportes will feature a Spanish-language version of the gridiron classic. A Super Bowl “mega cast” has been in consideration at the company since 2021, when Disney struck a new rights deal with the NFL that will keep “Monday Night Football” on the air at ESPN through 2033. Since that time, the league and the company have become even closer, with the league taking a 10% stake in ESPN as part of a deal that put NFL Network and NFL RedZone under the ESPN umbrella.

Many media companies have been experimenting with bespoke telecasts aimed at a narrower niche of viewers, like young women or sports-stats aficionados. In 2020, Disney devised a range of bespoke telecasts of a Wild Card game, one tailored for younger viewers on the company’s Freeform cable outlet. It has created “viewing party” sessions that rely on sports celebrities and others that work to appeal those interested in sports wagering. In 2019, ESPN aired a version of the NFL Draft tailored for sports aficionados, while ABC ran one aimed at general audiences that featured music and was hosted in part by “Good Morning Anchor” Robin Roberts. The company has also tried its hand at “mega-casting” a handful of “Monday Night Football” games on ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC, and tapped characters from Marvel, Pixar and the Disney Channel for kids-and-families versions of games.

Fans won’t have to wait until 2027 to start trying out some of the new concepts. Both of the new alterna-casts will air tied to “Monday Night Football” during select weeks. McAfee’s “Field Pass” will air on ESPN2 during five weeks of the regular season and will start in the current season’s sixth week. “Playbook” will start in the fifth week and air seven different Monday telecasts. Field Yates, Chase Daniel, Louis Riddick and Seth Walder will lead the telecasts on a rotating basis.