Pat McAfee and Pat Bostick had moved on from their college days long ago and were well into their life’s work when they walked into the men’s restroom in the Heinz Field press box and stepped up to side-by-side urinals.
The occasion was a prime-time Thursday night game between Pitt and North Carolina. McAfee, a former West Virginia kicker, was working the game for ESPN. Bostick, who played quarterback at Pitt, was the color analyst for the Pitt Radio Network.
This was more than a decade after Bostick had helped engineer Pitt’s stunning 13-9 upset of the second-ranked Mountaineers in Morgantown, W.Va. Pitt’s victory at the end of the 2007 season deprived WVU of a berth in the national championship game.
“That game was supposed to be a coronation,” Bostick said.
It was perhaps Pitt’s finest hour among 106 Backyard Brawls, with No. 107 coming Saturday at Acrisure Stadium (formerly Heinz Field). Central to this story, McAfee missed two field goals that probably cost the Mountaineers a victory.
While the two men were taking care of their restroom necessities, McAfee turned his head and said, “Screw you, Bostick.”
Remember: This was more than decade after Pitt’s victory. The worst pain never subsides.
“Pat’s a great guy. I think he was kidding,” Bostick said, recalling that McAfee, a Plum native, worked out at Pitt’s indoor practice facility while preparing for the 2009 NFL Draft.
“But I would always tell him, ‘You had more to do with us winning than I did.’”
