Another man in sports media is apologizing to Caitlin Clark for his seriously questionable comments about her. On Monday afternoon, ESPN host Pat McAfee said he was sorry for calling the Indiana Fever player a “white bitch” during a segment about the popularity of women’s basketball.
“I shouldn’t have used ‘white bitch’ as a descriptor of Caitlin Clark. No matter the context … even if we’re talking about race being a reason for some of the stuff happening. I have way too much respect for her and women to put that into the universe,” McAfee, 37, wrote on X.
During a discussion about whether race has played a part in Clark’s enormous success, McAfee said he wanted people to acknowledge that in Clark, the WNBA has “what we like to describe as a cash cow — a superstar.” He criticized “the media people that continue to say ‘this rookie class’” and said he’d prefer if people would “just call it for what it is. There is one white bitch for the Indiana team who is a superstar.” The backlash was swift with female sports journalists for ESPN and the New York Times saying the comment was unacceptable.
It’s not the first time a man in sports has been unprofessional toward Clark. Days after she was drafted, Indianapolis Star sports columnist Gregg Doyel asked Clark a series of creepy questions at her first press conference. He subsequently apologized following widespread backlash.
In his own apology, McAfee said he didn’t mean to insult Clark by calling her a bitch: “My intentions when saying it were complimentary just like the entire segment but, a lot of folks are saying that it certainly wasn’t at all. That’s 100% on me and for that I apologize.”
