Pat McAfee Dedicates Portion Of His Show To Monologue Honoring Charlie Kirk With A Message Of Unity

Pat McAfee gives his thoughts on the tragic situation surrounding Charlie Kirk’s death.

On September 10, conservative media personality and Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk was killed while speaking at an event at Utah Valley University. He was attempting to have conversations with those who both agreed and disagreed with him – as he often did – and his life was brutally extinguished while he did so.

Since the shocking news spread across the world, politicians, artists, athletes and celebrities to athletes have voiced their support for Kirk, and shared their feelings of sadness, outrage, and horror that a man that was simply trying to talk with others was shot down because of his political beliefs, and championed his relationship with Jesus Christ.

As a whole, ESPN hasn’t provided much commentary on the passing of Charlie Kirk. But when it got around to the The Pat McAfee Show’s time slot, the sports personality and show host dedicated over four minutes to simply addressing Charlie Kirk’s death and the current state of the country.

One that Pat McAfee hope can change for the better as we all move past the dark day that took place on September 10:

“I don’t want to say that everyone has to get along and everyone has to agree, but at least we can move forward without hating each other, which is seemingly what social media has done to us in a way that I don’t know if anyone could predicted when we thought that the entire world should be connected in the palm of our hands.

It feels like there are lot of people that get a lot of satisfaction from being ‘the most’ something. The ‘most this,’ the ‘most that.’ Whenever people try to compete on who is the meanest to the other side of aisle, I think you are inevitably going to run into some chaos happening in our world.”

Pat McAfee then made sure to point out he wasn’t into politics, and only got dragged into them when things that he said (or his guests like Aaron Rodgers said) were politicized.

The sports show host and former NFL punter recognizes how ugly and hateful the political sphere can be, and commended Charlie Kirk for constantly marching right into the middle of it:

“I’m not a politics person. I’ve been thrown into the political world a couple of times by my own mistakes, but also because of my own opinions. It’s a blender over there. And to be a person that wants to go in and stand on your beliefs, and try to change the world, and have the courage to do so. And also welcome and embrace debate in that world, with how much anger there is, I think is a pretty admirable trait to have.

So although I did not know Charlie Kirk – I certainly saw his clips from afar – I thought he was a crazy person for welcoming and embracing the interactions that he wanted on the topics that he believed so mightily in. But I also believe that he believed that what he was doing was making the world better. I think the people that are willing to hear the other side and maybe extend a hand or maybe change their own opinion are the people that we should be modeling ourselves after.”

McAfee then explained that, in the sports world, he’s always loved to hear the other side on things. Whether he was in the locker room, or he’s been locked in the middle of a sports debate, Pat McAfee sees it as a good thing to be challenged, to think, and to put yourself in the shoes of others.

Pat thinks that at the very basis of things, that’s what Charlie Kirk was trying to do, and he hopes that the country can come together in this moment rather than continue to be divided:

“I did not know Charlie Kirk, but I thought it was admirable to hear of someone who was so firm in their beliefs, but wanted to hear why other people were against him. So yesterday, when we see a public execution of this man happen in all of our palm’s of our hands, in real time, you can’t help but wonder, ‘Damn, first of all, he has a family, he has kids.’

But also, ‘Are we a society that’s really going to become that? Is that who we are? Is that what we are gonna be? Just because we think we are better than the other side?’ It’s been a wild time in our existence, and hopefully yesterday was a pivotal moment for us on this September 11th, 2025 to maybe have a September 12th, 2001 moment.”

You can hear more of Pat McAfee’s let’s-come-together monologue in honor of Charlie Kirk below:

RIP Charlie Kirk. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family, and anyone else who has been affected by this tragic and senseless act of violence.The post Pat McAfee Dedicates Portion Of His Show To Monologue Honoring Charlie Kirk With A Message Of Unity first appeared on Whiskey Riff.