The Dark Side of Internet Fame: A College Student’s Nightmare
On February 26, “The Pat McAfee Show” was broadcasting live from Indianapolis during the NFL Scouting Combine week. Seated behind a desk, McAfee was flanked by his regular crew of “stooges,” with ESPN’s NFL insider Adam Schefter as a featured guest. While the backdrop featured the 2025 NFL Scouting Combine logo, McAfee had something entirely different on his mind.
With a teasing tone, McAfee asked Schefter, “Have you heard about Ole Miss?” One of his cohorts chimed in, alluding to what he described as a “ménage à trois,” which McAfee amplified by stating, “has really captivated the internet.” After building suspense, he plunged into the details: “Some Ole Miss frat bro, k? Had a K-D (Kappa Delta) girlfriend,” he began, emphasizing the word “allegedly.” He continued, “At this exact moment, this is what is being reported by … everybody on the internet: Dad had sex with son’s girlfriend.” Another crew member interjected, “Not great,” and McAfee added, “And then it was made public … that’s the absolute worst-case situation.”
Schefter, looking visibly uncomfortable, attempted to steer the conversation back to sports: “So where is (Ole Miss quarterback) Jaxson Dart in all this?” McAfee, never naming the 18-year-old college freshman at the heart of the rumor, quipped about incorporating Ole Miss fathers into NFL Draft analysis—”We’re just wondering. His dad … We’re just trying to combine evaluate …” Another crew member laughed, “Ole Miss dads are slinging meat right now.” The segment, which lasted around two minutes, showcased how McAfee interwove a baseless internet rumor into his show before swiftly pivoting to analyze Dart’s draft stock.
Meanwhile, Mary Kate Cornett, the freshman at the center of the scandal, wished she could do the same. Just five weeks prior, she was a typical first-year business major dating another Ole Miss student—happy, confident, and outgoing. However, her college experience took a dark turn on February 25 when a malicious rumor about her and her boyfriend’s father exploded on YikYak, an anonymous messaging app popular among students. The rumor rapidly gained traction on X, entering the sports talk ecosystem and becoming a trending topic that day, with many posts featuring a photo of Cornett taken from her Instagram account.
The following day, McAfee became the most prominent sports figure to address the rumor on his show, which boasts 2.8 million subscribers on YouTube. However, he wasn’t the only one. Former NFL receiver Antonio Brown shared a meme about Cornett on X, while two Barstool personalities referenced the rumor on their social media. ESPN radio hosts in St. Louis eagerly dissected the “saga” on their morning show, with Doug Vaughn, a veteran local sportscaster, performing a dramatic reading of a purported Snapchat message that accompanied one of the original posts. The station even promoted this segment across YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram.
Cornett reflected on the situation, stating, “When the more popular people started posting, that’s when it really, really changed,” noting how they lent credibility to “something completely false.” As the rumor spread, Cornett removed her name from outside her dorm room, but she continued to receive hateful messages slipped under her door. Campus police alerted her that she was being targeted, leading her to move into emergency housing and transition to online classes.
In a shocking twist, Houston police arrived at her mother’s house with guns drawn in what appeared to be a “swatting” incident—where someone falsely reports a crime to dispatch emergency responders to a location. Security camera footage and a police report reviewed by The Athletic confirmed that the homicide division responded to the call.
After her phone number was posted online, Cornett’s voicemail became inundated with degrading messages. One caller laughed while labeling her a “naughty girl,” cheerfully asking her to return the call. Another man, identifying himself as a father, suggested she might be interested in him. Cornett also received numerous obscene texts, branding her a “whore” and a “slut,” alongside advice to end her life. “The only way I could describe it is it’s like you’re walking with your daughter on the street, holding her hand, and a car mirror snags her shirt and starts dragging her down the road. And all you can do is watch,” her father, Justin Cornett, lamented. “You can’t catch the car. You can’t stop it from happening. You just have to sit there and watch your kid be destroyed.”
Eventually, Cornett issued a statement on Instagram, categorically labeling the accusations as “false,” “inexcusable,” and “disturbing.” Her boyfriend also took to social media, declaring the rumor “unequivocally false.” Justin Cornett shared on Facebook that he had hired a private investigator to look into the “defamatory” cyber attack and had contacted Oxford police, Ole Miss campus security, and the FBI regarding the matter. (The Oxford police department is currently investigating.)
Cornett engaged legal representation and expressed her intention to pursue action against McAfee, ESPN, and potentially others involved in disseminating the rumor. “I would like people to be held accountable for what they’ve done,” she stated. “You’re ruining my life by discussing it on your show for nothing but attention, but here I am staying up until 5 in the morning, throwing up, not eating because I’m so anxious about what’s going to happen for the rest of my life.”
An ESPN spokesperson declined to comment, and attempts to reach McAfee, KFC Barstool, and Jack Mac for their responses were unsuccessful. Cornett’s attorney, Monica Uddin, indicated that the legal team may also pursue action against those who promoted the rumor to benefit from a cryptocurrency scheme. According to GeckoTerminal, a cryptocurrency tracking website, the memecoin associated with Cornett’s name was created on February 25, surging around 11 a.m. on February 26. “This is just a Wild West version of a very familiar problem,” Uddin remarked. “It’s even worse because it’s not a company; it’s an 18-year-old girl.”
In a conference room at a hotel about 90 miles from Oxford—a location chosen for its distance from the Ole Miss campus—Cornett expressed confusion over why McAfee and other sports media figures would amplify a false claim unrelated to sports. She also felt anger at their apparent indifference. “They don’t think it matters because they don’t know who I am and they think that I deserve it,” she said. “But I don’t.”
Uddin added, “They elevated a lie from the worst corners of (X) to millions of general sports fans just to get a few more clicks and ultimately a few more dollars. While they don’t have to deal with it after it airs, the lie is chained to Mary Kate for the rest of her life.” Since McAfee’s show premiered on ESPN in 2023, he has made headlines for controversial remarks, including referring to WNBA player Caitlin Clark as a “White bitch” (which he later apologized for) and joking about Larry Nassar, the disgraced former doctor who abused numerous young girls and women. On X, he also falsely linked talk show host Jimmy Kimmel to pedophile Jeffrey Epstein during a paid appearance on his show, for which he later apologized.
McAfee, his crew, and some guests embrace a provocative style, fully aware of the thin line they walk. Their show’s opening disclaimer highlights this ethos: even Vaughn in St. Louis, who operates on a lower tier of the sports media hierarchy, acknowledges the risks he might encounter. His X bio states, “Opinions are my own except for the ones that could get me in legal trouble.” (Vaughn did not respond to a request for comment.)
However, their willingness to amplify a falsehood about a non-public figure in pursuit of internet notoriety carries significant consequences. In the weeks since the rumor surfaced, Cornett has largely isolated herself, avoiding her sorority house and the student union. When she does venture out, she dons sunglasses and a hat to escape the stares and jeers from peers—”I can’t even walk on campus without people taking pictures of me or screaming my name or saying super vulgar, disgusting things to me,” she lamented.
She had hoped that retreating would allow the chaos to subside, but it persisted. In a recent online class, a classmate took a screenshot of her writing prompt and shared it publicly. “I just feel defeated, honestly,” Cornett admitted. She has sought solace in her family, friends, and boyfriend, all of whom have been affected by the fallout. Her boyfriend faces bullying online and harassment on campus, while her 89-year-old grandfather received a late-night call from someone taunting him about his granddaughter.
With concerns that the false accusation could jeopardize her future career prospects, Cornett worries that her future children may one day stumble upon these damaging claims. “These folks … they can just say whatever they want and destroy a young girl’s life forever,” her father expressed. “When you begin to have a following like (they do), you have a responsibility to society and to the people you speak about. You have to understand the impact of your words and how they might affect others. To disregard that is not only ignorant but also malicious and deceitful at worst.”
Before addressing the rumor on his show, McAfee opened the February 26 episode discussing his young daughter, recounting how a trip to Disney World (ESPN’s parent company) brought him to tears as he witnessed her “pure joy.” “Am I a big, sappy softy now that I have a daughter?” he pondered aloud to his crew.
— The Athletic’s Carson Kessler contributed to this report.
(Illustration: John Bradford, Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; Sean Gardner / Getty Images)
