He won’t exactly be listed along with the likes of Dwyane Johnson, Dave Bautista, and John Cena when people talk about wrestlers-turned actors. Pat McAfee has several different careers on his resume, including NFL All-Pro and self-made sports media tycoon. But WWE was a key part of the strategy McAfee employed to go from kicking balls to name-dropping the Chairman of the Walt Disney Company. With his love of pro wrestling, he knew he could use the WWE’s platform to grow his brand while he lived out more
of his childhood dreams in the ring as a wrestler and on the microphone as a commentator.
Anyway, enough of me justifying my headline. You’re here to find out what in the wide, wide world of sports and entertainment I’m talking about in that headline. An article from Netflix’s TUDUM website earlier this week mentioned that McAfee is playing a US Marine drill instructor in the upcoming film The Mosquito Bowl.
Directed by Peter Berg (the actor-turned-director famous for Friday Night Lights, who has experience working with wrestlers from 2003’s The Rundown with The Rock) the movie is based on a bestseller by Buzz Bissinger (author of Friday Night Lights) called The Mosquito Bowl: A Game of Life and Death in World War II. Here’s an official description, and a cast photo with Pat to the immediate right of Berg, who’s the un-uniformed guy in the middle:
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Starring Nicholas Galitzine (The Idea of You), Bill Skarsgård (Nosferatu), Ray Nicholson (Smile 2), and Tom Francis (You Season 5), The Mosquito Bowl is based on the true story of four top American college football stars who set their fame aside to enlist in the Marines following the attack on Pearl Harbor. As they prepare for the brutal invasion of Okinawa, they participate in a legendary game featuring some of the greatest players in history — a game that, for many, will be their last. Joining the cast in the supporting role of a US Marine drill instructor is American sports analyst and host Pat McAfee.
The Mosquito Bowl has been filming in Australia, which is probably why guest hosts have been filling in for McAfee on The Pat McAfee Show for the past couple weeks.
Triple H says Pat’ll be back in WWE for Wrestlepalooza, Sept. 20 on ESPN. Maybe we’ll have a release date for The Mosquito Bowl by then.
