What Fans Want to Know About Pat McAfee and ‘Tulsa King’
Pat McAfee has spent years building a profile that stretches from the NFL to ESPN to WWE commentary. He turned a punting career into a sports media empire and became one of the faces of ESPN and a mainstay of the College GameDay cast. A move into scripted television was always going to draw attention.
That attention has now landed on the Paramount+ crime drama ‘Tulsa King’, and Pat McAfee in ‘Tulsa King’ has become one of the more talked about pieces of casting news around the show. The fourth season was set to premiere on October 16, 2026, which means viewers are only now seeing how the sportscaster fits into Dwight Manfredi’s world.
Pat McAfee Role and the Badge Fans Spotted
The clearest clue came from the season trailer. At one point McAfee shows off a badge, which marks his character as law enforcement. A separate preview reached the same conclusion, stating that he will represent law enforcement on the show.
The trailer also gives a sense of where that badge points. A split second later McAfee is grinning as he talks to an unknown woman, and he appears to be part of the crew claiming all of Dwight’s assets. That fits a season in which law enforcement is shown confiscating every business entity Dwight owns.
One outlet describes a no nonsense local officer in Oklahoma and places him in Dwight’s favorite saloon, while another preview notes that he is seen meeting with someone who could be Big Foot, Dwight’s head of security. Forbes, for its part, lists him simply as a guest role.
How the Four Episode Arc Came Together
The casting traces back to a Bloomberg report. It stated that McAfee is now represented by WME Group Executive Chairman Ari Emanuel, who helped him book an arc of four episodes on the fourth season. Emanuel added McAfee to his client list and started booking him in film and television roles.
The news did not fully come as a surprise to McAfee’s audience. Emanuel teased the collaboration on ‘The Pat McAfee Show,’ and he noted that McAfee had already finished a bunch of episodes. The announcement itself arrived in February, well ahead of the season.
Bloomberg framed the effort in ambitious terms. It reported that Emanuel is trying to turn McAfee into the next Sylvester Stallone. Media personality Jason Whitlock pushed back on that framing, saying he sees Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson as a more apt comparison.
The television work is not his only acting credit on the way. McAfee also has a role in the Netflix sports drama ‘The Mosquito Bowl,’ directed by Peter Berg, where he plays a United States Marine Corps drill instructor.
The Tulsa King Cast Around Him
McAfee steps into an ensemble led by Stallone, who plays mob capo Dwight ‘The General’ Manfredi. The supporting cast includes Martin Starr, Jay Will, Vincent Piazza, Annabella Sciorra, Neal McDonough, Chris Caldovino, McKenna Quigley Harrington and Frank Grillo. The full cast from the previous season appears set to return, minus Max Casella.
New faces round out the picture. Gretchen Mol joins as a series regular, playing local politician Amanda Clark, who is quoted as wanting to rid Oklahoma of the mob. The same preview adds that Richie Stephens plays a crime boss called English Dan and Flula Borg plays a tech billionaire named Bradley Van Heusen.
McAfee also is not the only wrestling adjacent name in the show. Mike ‘Cash Flo’ Walden of OVW plays the role of Bigfoot in the series. Samuel L. Jackson is part of the wider picture as well, since his character Russell Lee Washington Jr. is introduced during the season and leads into a spinoff.
What the Season Trailer and Official Description Suggest
The official description sets the stakes around Dwight. He fights to legitimize his empire and protect his crew as corrupt politicians, dangerous new enemies and a crushing personal loss hit from every direction. A lawman who is circling his businesses fits neatly into that pressure.
Behind the camera, the show has also changed hands once more. Terence Winter, the original showrunner, returns as head writer and executive producer, while Dave Erickson will not be returning. The new season follows Dwight’s defeat of Jeremiah Dunmire at the end of the previous one, and it pits him against New York mob boss ‘Quiet Ray’ Renzetti.
The series is clearly not slowing down. Paramount+ renewed ‘Tulsa King’ for another season ahead of the latest premiere, so McAfee’s turn as a badge carrying presence in Dwight’s Tulsa could be a one time curiosity or the start of a larger acting run. For viewers who have seen him share scenes with Stallone, the question worth sharing in the comments is whether a sportscaster playing a lawman in Dwight Manfredi’s Oklahoma feels like a natural fit or a distraction from the mob story.
