Aaron Rodgers made headlines on Thursday afternoon, but not for anything stellar. Andrew Marchand of the New York Post reported that the superstar quarterback makes paid appearances on the popular ‘Pat McAfee Show’ on ESPN.
“McAfee spends millions to procure these interviews,” Marchand said of Pat’s weekly spots with Rodgers and Alabama football coach Nick Saban. “Rodgers is receiving more than seven figures per year to come on the show each week,” Marchand reported. The Post writer also said that McAfee confirmed the spots are paid in a DM but nothing specific.
You’ll usually see that weekly spots on the radio are often paid for in the six-figure range. But this obviously far usurps that. The optics of the situation aren’t too great, either. ESPN’s hiring of McAfee received significant criticism while the company was undergoing layoffs that saw many veterans exit the company.
Critics have also skewered McAfee over the past few weeks for his behavior and what he’s said on ‘College GameDay.’ The popular personality has sparked a war of words online with Washington State, for example.
Needless to say, this new piece of news won’t get Pat in anyone’s good graces, especially considering the type of content often shown during Rodgers’ appearances. Lately, he’s continued to trot out anti-vaccine opinions and even challenged Travis Kelce to a vaccine debate.
Not surprisingly, the NFL world had plenty to say over the new Aaron Rodgers controversy.
cool that espn is (even if by proxy) literally paying to distribute antivaxx propaganda https://t.co/MZVfuUSnDT
— Natalie Weiner (@natalieweiner) October 12, 2023
https://t.co/h1sbgqQVBp pic.twitter.com/wg7aTtqgKy
— charles (“you look good” – andy reid) mcdonald (@FourVerts) October 12, 2023
The proliferation of paying for interviews across media companies is really bad for journalism. You’d be surprised to learn how often even relatively anonymous players ask or expect to be paid https://t.co/pPwvVGvwLF
— David Gardner (@byDavidGardner) October 12, 2023
it’s not just that mcafee gives him run of the place to spout whatever he wants, it’s that mcafee (and now espn) pays him a lot of money to do it too https://t.co/oeqR7H61P2
— Brian Floyd (@BrianMFloyd) October 12, 2023
No one actually thought a superstar quarterback was spending an hour a week making content for a wildly popular TV/streaming show for free, right? https://t.co/h9MVafhRcZ
— Brendan Dzwierzynski (@BrendanDzw) October 12, 2023
