Bob Nutting just took a public beating on national TV and Pirates fans loved it

Of all the things Pittsburgh sports fans expected to hear on a crisp November morning, the Pittsburgh Pirates being name-dropped by Pat McAfee on a college football Saturday on ESPN probably ranked somewhere between “Penguins trade Crosby for draft picks” and “the Steelers just hired Matt Canada again.”

The fact that the Pirates — a team that usually disappears into hibernation the moment the MLB season ends — became a central talking point during the opening monologue of ESPN’s College GameDay is, in itself, remarkable. Pittsburgh sports dominate fall coverage with the Steelers, Pitt football, and Penguins hockey… but the Pirates? In November? On ESPN’s top weekly broadcast? That doesn't happen.

But McAfee did it. He went there. He said “Pirates,” and instantly the crowd outside Acrisure Stadium in Pittsburgh turned into a live-studio laugh track of pain, trauma and pent-up rage.

"Paul Skenes just won the Cy Young," McAfee began. "He's the best player in baseball. That's sick. Although the team might be obstinate..."

And then — almost instinctively — came the chant: "SELL! THE! TEAM!"

Loud. Proud. And broadcast to millions. Bob Nutting probably spilled his Folgers.

Pat McAfee's Pirates rant on College GameDay was national validation of what Pittsburgh fans have been yelling about for years

The chant wasn’t just noise; it was a genuine cultural moment for a fanbase starved to be heard. Pirates fans have cried out about ownership’s failures for years. They’ve been ridiculed, ignored and told to “trust the process” while the team posts one winning season in a decade, a 27th-ranked payroll and 10 straight seasons without a playoff appearance.

Inside Pittsburgh, everyone knows this. But nationally? The Pirates are often invisible, treated as a non-factor or charity case in baseball conversations. GameDay changed that.

The best part was that the fans didn’t hesitate. Didn’t stutter. Didn’t need to workshop a chant. The moment McAfee mentioned the Pirates, it led to an instant primal scream. It was almost Pavlovian.

As if that wasn't enough, the same group of Pirates fans who organized protests and paid for an airplane banner and billboard ads earlier in the year chose Saturday's GameDay broadcast as an opportunity to fly another banner over the city –– one that read, "Set Pittsburgh free, Bob! Sell the team! H2P!!”

That’s not a protest sign. That’s a medieval curse scroll.

McAfee’s whole monologue was basically: "Pittsburgh: great football; great hockey; great sports culture... oh, and a baseball team that still pays players like it's 2005." Pirates fans adore that kind of honesty because nothing roasts Nutting harder than saying, "This city deserves better."

The entire sequence of events on Saturday confirmed what fans already know: that Pittsburgh is a great sports town held hostage by a man who thinks "market size" is a personality trait.

Pirates fans are starved for hope, so watching Nutting get torched on national TV is the only win they'll be guaranteed this offseason. National analysts dragging Nutting is the only real accountability this franchise gets. If it's not McAfee making it a focal point on GameDay, it's his ESPN colleague, Jeff Passan — the unofficial president of the “Pirates, DO SOMETHING!” fan club — chiming in yet again about the $84 million payroll.

Other MLB owners aren’t stepping in. The league office isn’t stepping in. But the ESPN cameras are, and it gave Pirates fans their first meaningful moment of the fall.

So, the Pirates finally made national news… for being exactly what Pirates fans keep saying they are.

And for one beautiful moment, the whole country saw it, too.