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If You Haven't Heard This Sports Analyst's Take on Charlie Kirk's Assassination, Take a Listen

Matt Vespa
Matt Vespa  |  September 18, 2025 6:30 AM

Last week, Charlie Kirk was assassinated. On September 10, he was shot and killed at Utah Valley University. The suspected assassin, Tyler Robinson, was captured two days later. He was formally arraigned this week, slapped with a slew of charges, including aggravated murder, and the death penalty is being sought. Kirk’s death on the eve of the 24th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks is a one-two punch to the country. Can we come together? Can we talk with those who wish to kill us, and that is a cancer on the Left, whose followers are five to six times more likely to say that political violence is justified? Conservatives still believe in the promise of America and the basic notion that there will be another election—Democrats do not.

Sports analyst and former kicker for the Indianapolis Colts, Pat McAfee, was aghast at Kirk’s death. He’s not political but understands that killing someone over differing views is inherently anti-American. On the day Kirk was shot, he posted this on Twitter: 

Charlie Kirk, a name synonymous with having the courage to speak what you believe and seek/welcome conversations with those whom you disagree with. 

I’m not a political person but I am a proud American citizen and today was startling, saddening, and maddening all at the same time.. I’ve realized that I’m a bit naive to how crazy it all has become but watching a man get hunted and slayed in broad daylight because of his opinions made me disgusted and devastated. 

This can’t be what we actually are or become as a country.. I believe that the good people will always outnumber the evil people but damn… today was an alarming day in our country’s history.

 2 kids lost a dad.. a wife lost a husband.. and societal discourse lost a voice. 

RIP Charlie Kirk.. I send my prayers, thoughts, and love to his family and friends. 

The next day, McAfee elaborated further on his shock and disgust over this assassination while first commemorating the 9/11 attacks, how unified we felt after those attacks, and how that could be something to aspire to in the wake of this act of domestic terrorism (via RCP): 

I happen to be at an age of memory and remembering. September 11, 2001, took place 24 years ago. I was in high school, and obviously, it was a devastating day. 

We will never forget all the lives that were lost and all the badasses that ran toward fire and collapsing buildings. The heroes stepped up among us in the middle of the crazed, terrible chaos. 

It was crazy. I don’t think any of us fully understood what was happening. 

But I do remember on September 12, 2001, it felt like our entire country—no matter what you believed, no matter where you were from—was all together as one. We were unified more than I think I’ve ever witnessed in my entire 38 years of existing. 

I think that is something that a lot of people who were able to live through it, and who believe in the good of people instead of the bad, hope we’ll be able to get to again. It’s almost like we’re chasing that, hoping we can be… 

I don’t want to say everybody has to get along and everybody 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 anybody could have predicted when we thought the entire world should be connected in the palm of our hands. 

Now it feels like there are a lot of people who get satisfaction from being known as “the most” something—the most this, the most that. And whenever people try to compete on who’s the meanest to the other side of the aisle, I think you’re going to inevitably run into some chaos happening in our world. 

I am not a politics person. I’ve been dropped into the political world a couple of different times—by my own mistakes, but also because of my own opinions. It’s a blender over there. To be a person who 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 it 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 embracing and welcoming the interactions that he wanted on the topics that he believed so mightily in, but I also believe that he believed what he was doing was making the world better. 

I think people who are willing to hear the other side and maybe extend a hand and maybe change their own opinion are the people that we should be modeling ourselves after. 

I am not always right. I am a doofus. I am an idiot that talks about sports. But I love hearing other people’s ideas on things. 

Now, I am not in the politics world, and I know there are much more serious things out there, but in the sports lane that I live in, it is nice to hear the other side. So when I learned of Charlie Kirk on the internet—and once again, I did not meet him, I did not know him personally—I thought it was admirable to hear somebody who was so firm in his own beliefs but wanted to hear why other people were against him. 

So yesterday, when we saw a public execution of this man happen in the palms 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’re going to be, just strictly because we think we’re better than the other side? 

It’s become a wild time in our existence, and hopefully yesterday was a pivotal moment for us—on this September 11, 2025—to maybe have a September 12, 2001 moment. So that’s my thoughts. Positive vibes, prayers to his family and friends. But also I hope—to our entire society—like, yo, you can disagree with people. You can disagree with people, and you don’t have to hate them or have disdain for them forever. 

Everybody has different backgrounds. I grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Somebody who grew up in Miami or South Florida is going to have different views. Shit, I would assume somebody who grew up in Compton, California—who I’ve had a chance and opportunity to hang around and get to know—probably has a little bit of a different view on things than people who grew up in Columbus, Ohio. I mean, we’re never going to all agree, but we all have to exist, and we might as well try to shake the hand and hear from the other side more than try to fight them every single time. 

And I think even though you might not have believed in or felt the same way that Charlie Kirk felt about a lot of things—and I’m not saying anybody on this set agrees with everything that anybody believes in this whole world—we can’t just hate people forever because we disagree with one or two things that they feel. We’ve got to move forward. We’re in this thing together. Team on me, team on three—one, two, three! 

Our jobs are to distract people from the real world and create a little bit of levity, and maybe let you know—and kind of reconfirm—the fact that there’s good shit happening in this world. There are good people in this world. There are great things in this world. And although one terrible thing—or yesterday, two terrible things happened, with another school shooting in Colorado, obviously devastating—all this… I have a daughter, a two-year-old. I think about it all. It’s like, there’s also a lot of good happening in this world. And although these terrible things happen, we hope that they will not happen in the future. We can still understand that what we’re doing right now—we’re lucky to be alive—and there are good people out there trying to make it better. We hope and we wish them all good luck, and yesterday is a day that I think we’re all going to remember forever. 

Well said, sir.