Pat McAfee, a former Indianapolis Colts punter-turned ESPN radio host, took issue with the Paris Olympics opening ceremony as he talked about the Summer Games on Monday.
The opening ceremony featured several controversial segments, with many viewers taking issue with the apparent mockery of The Last Supper, a moment in Christianity that followers of the religion revere. It caused an uproar among world leaders and athletes alike.
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McAfee didn’t appear to be upset with the content but said the ceremony should revolve around sports and spoke of Thomas Jolly, the ceremony’s artistic director.
“There’s a lot of people that are saying, ‘What Thomas Jolly put together was incredibly disrespectful.’ And I think that is certainly a way to view things. That is a way to take it. And there’s a lot of people that have said that and for good reason,” McAfee said. “I have no idea how any of these things are the start of the Olympics or to announce that the Olympics are taking place.
“It was a form of artistic expression that was paying trib… whatever. We just want it to revolve around sport. And we can’t have the opening ceremony be a reason why people won’t watch these athletes who have sacrificed everything about their lives to be great at something and only get to experience and celebrate once every four years.”
Jolly told The Associated Press that making a parody of The Last Supper wasn’t his intention.
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“My wish isn’t to be subversive, nor to mock or to shock,” he told The Associated Press. “Most of all, I wanted to send a message of love, a message of inclusion and not at all to divide.”
McAfee said his biggest issue was that the ceremony needed “people who love sports, being a part of sports happenings.” He didn’t find Jolly was one of those people.
“Can’t have the opening ceremony starting a war, starting a protest,” he said. “So, I hope the next time around we go ahead and think about that – how sports are a (unifier)… and we can’t have things that aren’t part of it be the reason why people won’t watch it because when you watch it, it’s magic.”
Paris 2024 official Anne Descamps told reporters on Sunday that the purpose of celebrating “community tolerance” was achieved.
“Clearly there was never an intention to show disrespect to any religious group. On the contrary, I think (with) Thomas Jolly, we really did try to celebrate community tolerance,” Descamps said.
“Looking at the result of the polls that we shared, we believe that this ambition was achieved. If people have taken any offense we are, of course, really, really sorry.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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