Fans Brawl In The Stands As Pat McAfee & Shane Gillis Donated $100k To Special Olympics At The ‘Big Night Aht’

It was indeed a Big Night Aht…

Pat McAfee put on one of the biggest and wildest nights of entertainment and giveaways the Steel City has ever seen last night, selling out the PPG-Arena with a stacked line-up featuring legends both new and old. While Pat Mac gets a lot of hate online, I’m forever going to be a fan. He saw what was happening with ESPN and other sports commentary programs and said “Nah, we’re not going to do that”, then put his money where his mouth was a created a daily-talk show that actually appeals to a huge audience of sports fans that were absolutely neglected by every other mainstream outlet.

Last night was a perfect example of just how influential and narrative-defining of an individual he’s become, not just in sports, but in media as a whole.

As you have to do when you’re in Pittsburgh, he leaned heavily on the hometown heroes, at one time bringing Big Ben Roethlisberger, Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang, and Paul Skenes out on stage at the same time.

Sid. Geno. Letang. Big Ben. Skenes. All on one stage together. Pretty sick. pic.twitter.com/jBWoIebBjX

— Andrew Fillipponi (@ThePoniExpress) April 10, 2025

When Skenes was announced and brought on stage the crowd erupted in “Sell the team!” chants as Pirates fans have been begging for a change in ownership to allow for someone to come in and actual spend some money making a competitive roster. I’m not even a Buccos fan but it’s pretty clear that some changes need to be made over there because that city and baseball park are primed to host some bigtime games that the team is just no capable of reaching.

Beyond sports, McAfee brought out some of country music’s biggest stars, with Jelly Roll and Parker McCollum performing songs. Parker played one of my favorites by him, “Hell Of A Year”, which brought the house down from the raging drunken antics to a sentimental moment of reflection:

"IT'S BEEN A HELL OF A YEAR" ~ @ParkerMcCollum #BigNightAHT https://t.co/Cok53FC8k5 pic.twitter.com/xEMl6Poz9V

— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) April 10, 2025

There was also a Snoop Dogg and Wiz Khalifa appearance, Oz The Mentalist actually screwed up a numbers bit, and a WWE segment (with sumo wrestling commentated on by none other than Mechanicsburg, PA legend Shane Gillis).

Oh yeah, did I mention the guy gave away millions (… and MILLIONS) of dollars? Multiple people in the crowd walked away with huge prizes and many donations were made to charities around the Keystone State. While you might assume that all of this fun would keep people in a happy mood, when you get a crowd of yinzers drinking beer (whad), whiskey (whad), tequila (whad), and probably a few vitamins on top for good measure, there’s bound to be some tensions, albeit probably over nothing more than boozy-ego.

While Shane Gillis and McAfee were on stage announcing that $100,000 was going to be donated to Pennsylvania Special Olympics (a truly great organization that you should help out with if you can, I really do mean that), two dudes in the upper deck starter throwing big ole haymakers at each other while others tried helplessly to pull them back and their pants up.

@PatMcAfeeShow #BigNightAHT pic.twitter.com/SUP00e9lLC

— Mr. Blonde (@JediPreacha) April 10, 2025

We have to acknowledge that the one guy couldn’t punch his way out of a wet paper bag. You have a dude on hands and knees on the stairs, completely defenseless, while you land right hand after right hand on him and nothing? The guy just stands back up and starts man-handling you again? Brother, you have to know you can’t fight, why are you participating in one? Hit the weight room my man.

Obviously, you never want to see this but let’s be honest and say that it was bound to happen… a bunch of jacked up dudes screaming about nonsense while borderline blacked out? Yeah buddy, them is breeding grounds for a fight.

The Big Night Aht was certainly a success, regardless of whether these two nincompoops feel validated for throwing down on a Wednesday night in Pittsburgh.

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE PHILADELPHIA EAGLES FAN..

YOU JUST WON TWO MILLIONS DOLLARS #BigNightAHT https://t.co/XtNem7m0Ys pic.twitter.com/wggyxzXGri

— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) April 10, 2025