{
  "id": 19675535,
  "title": "‘Men are ready to be normal again’: Writer says Pat McAfee outrage shows a shift to Democrats",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/11/12/men-are-ready-to-be-normal-again-writer-says-pat-mcafee-outrage-shows",
  "topic": "culture",
  "section": "Culture",
  "published": "2026-11-12T16:32:51.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Yahoo Sports",
    "slug": "yahoo-sports",
    "url": "https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/men-ready-normal-again-writer-163251666.html"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "In the wake of last week's midterm elections, many are attempting to decipher the shift of young men towards the Democratic Party. A recent column suggests that the growing backlash against Pat McAfee on College GameDay may have been an early indication of this change. The writer argues that young men have become weary of the \"Barstool-tinged masculinity\" that was prevalent during the Trump era.\n\nMcAfee has faced significant criticism this fall, starting with his complaint on air about a University of Utah video in which students referred to him as \"corny\" and \"creepy\" ahead of GameDay's visit to Salt Lake City on October 24th. McAfee subsequently distanced himself from X, alleging that people were calling him a \"snowflake.\" He was also compared to MrBeast for his tendency to take center stage on GameDay.\n\nThe backlash even extended to cable news. Joe Scarborough used a segment on Morning Joe to criticize McAfee for \"ruining College GameDay\" and suggested the manosphere might be washed away. In a Slate column, Luke Winkie posited that young men have returned to the Democrats due to their exasperation with the Trump-era version of masculinity, a phenomenon he dubbed \"chud fatigue.\" Winkie explained that \"chud fatigue\" refers to the exasperation of voters by figures who gained prominence on the back of the Trump wave, suggesting that society may have been better off with a more conservative consensus.\n\nThis general sentiment of \"chud fatigue\" was evident in the response to McAfee. Winkie described McAfee as someone who embodied a MAGA-ish image, though not explicitly partisan. He noted that McAfee's rise was intended to soften the network's strict image, appealing to a crowd of young men who, especially during the tumultuous year of 2025, were seen as representing a new cultural mainstream. Winkie pointed to the numerous sarcastic comments mocking McAfee's habit of removing his shirt on set, with one comment garnering over 16,000 likes. He argued that the frustration with McAfee's behavior signifies a rejection of the \"past its sell-by date\" 2020s-era right-wing machismo.\n\nAccording to Winkie, the clearest representation of what the MAGA movement wanted from young men was visible in McAfee's behavior, specifically his shirt-ripping on set of College GameDay. Last week, he argued that young men had rejected this approach, declaring, \"Please, for the love of god, can we just be normal?\"",
  "summary": "Young men swung back toward Democrats in last week’s midterm elections, and plenty of people are trying to figure out why. One writer thinks the answer was hiding in plain sight on Saturday mornings. According to a new column, the growing backlash against Pat McAfee on College GameDay was an early sign that young men…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}