I don’t know how many different angles I’ve seen the Pat McAfee vs Norby Williamson angle discussed since the former NFL punter’s inflammatory comments Friday. But I don’t think that is the biggest issue he or ESPN has ahead of them. The biggest issue for ESPN is Aaron Rodgers.
In this day and age, you truly get a feel for who some of the NFL’s biggest stars are away from the field. You get a glimpse into their personalities, their psyche, and who they really are underneath the helmet. Some content makes them more likable, as the Netflix documentary series did for Kirk Cousins. Other content — like bad Subway commercials and weird press conference interactions (Russell Wilson) and appearances on The Pat McAfee Show (Aaron Rodgers) — do damage.
And Rodgers has undeniably done damage to his persona and personal brand due to his appearances on the show. But this is a media column, so we’ll look at the media angle.
There’s no way to sugarcoat it: ESPN has an absolute mess on its hands, and I don’t see how it gets cleaned up without more damage.
Aaron Rodgers creates must-see TV nearly every Tuesday during his appearances with McAfee. The problem is, it isn’t the fun, whacky, zany, glimpse behind the curtain of an NFL QB that entices viewers back each week. It’s the Dale Gribble-esque topics that make you question if Rodgers actually believes the things he’s hopping around to and from during his appearances, or if its an elaborate ruse because he really is smarter than the rest of is. Is he a modern-day Andy Kaufman or just your neighborhood “I don’t give Facebook permission to use my photos!” idiot? Having listened to him, I lean more toward the second one, but who can be sure?
However, Rodgers isn’t completely dumb, and he has now put ESPN exactly where he wants them. He has said enough inflammatory, outlandish things that make you think the folks in Bristol have to be privately questioning if an intervention with McAfee is needed.
What is the path forward for ESPN that doesn’t include intense scrutiny? From my perspective, I don’t know that one exists, and that’s a tough spot to find yourself.
ESPN has limited options to make the situation go away. In my view, they are:
Option #1: Tell Pat McAfee No More “Aaron Rodgers Tuesday”
The nuclear option, if you will. Because when you press that button, there’s no going back. Whatever fallout comes, the ramifications will be wide-ranging.
If you do that, you risk intense backlash from the general public and conservative media. Do the people who would publicly criticize the network for this decision actually watch ESPN? No, probably not. But nobody — not even the hardest of hardened media members — wants to spend roughly four days in the Fox News/Newsmax/OutKick crosshairs.
On the flip side, everything ESPN does is already going to be hyper-scrutinized anyway, so you gotta do what you gotta do, right?
Not so fast, my friend!
Not only would the decision alienate some viewers, it would alienate both McAfee and his most ardent supporters. The former NFL star told his viewers nothing would change about the progrum (sic), and getting rid of its most high-profile interview subject at the behest of new corporate overlords sure wouldn’t jive with the persona McAfee has created, would it?
Let’s not sugar coat it: any relationship between media company and McAfee is going to be a volatile one. History has shown that. Sometimes, in managing your top talent, you gotta let them get away with things you wouldn’t let others get away with. I don’t know what Pat McAfee’s reaction to being told “You can’t have Aaron Rodgers on your show anymore” would be, but if everything on the surface appeared a-ok before he dropped a nuclear bomb on Bristol with his comments about Norby Williamson, I wouldn’t want to find out what he’s capable of on the air.
Option #2: Do Nothing and Continue to Give Rodgers A Platform to Discuss Whatever Hits His Brain That Day
Not a great option, as evidenced by Tuesday’s appearance. Rodgers came off — at times — like a raving lunatic.
It appeared he both defended his comments about Jimmy Kimmel being on the list of Jeffrey Epstein companions while simultaneously chastising anyone who would accuse Kimmel of such a thing, despite being the one who levied the accusations in the first place.
Hell, that sentence alone should be enough to make you think “Is allowing this guy unfiltered access to our airwaves the best use of an hour of a show we’re attempting to hang our hat on?”
It appears that Aaron Rodgers went to the Clay Travis School of Everyone But Me Should Stick to Sports, so his appearances are often littered with outlandish comments about some of the most asinine topics you can imagine, including one of his favorite targets, Dr. Anthony Fauci. I don’t particularly care how you lean politically, but I think most can agree that spending 20 minutes on a sports talk show in 2024, on a day when one of the most surprising NFL head coach firings in recent memories came down, is the equivalent of dropping a “Where’s the Beef?” reference, and yet, there doesn’t appear to be any end in sight.
Aaron Rodgers really likes Aaron Rodgers. And that’s a perfectly fine quality to have. But when it begins to damage not only McAfee’s brand, but also that of the Worldwide Leader, I wonder when someone decides to step in and say enough is enough.
But there is no logical answer to end the madness. And make no mistake, it is madness. The weekly appearances are akin to seeing a homeless woman strip naked and jump into a fountain in your local city. You’re not exactly jumping for joy that you got to witness such a commotion, but you’re not going to look away, either.
Maybe ESPN is ok with hanging $85 million over the course of the next five years on the back of “homeless woman strip naked and jump into a downtown fountain”. But, logically, I have to think there are some folks in offices in Bristol asking themselves “How do we get out of this? Can we get out of this? And if we can, how do we do it without the entire brand crumbling in around us?”
Not about McAfee’s show. The network has — for better or worse — hung its hat on his brand leading it into a 2020s surge that it hopes will be written about as one of the finest media business decisions of the decade. And that hope still exists. But I don’t know see a light at the end of the tunnel shining very brightly.
The one option that may exist, and would potentially be the best for all involved, would be asking McAfee to host Rodgers on the hour that only airs digitally on YouTube and ESPN+. Now, you’d still get some of the “The liberal media is censoring me because they don’t want the truth getting out there!” pushback, but you can still point to “We’re allowing you to say whatever comes to your brain, no matter how dumb it might be, so your points about censorship are null and void.”
But anytime you’re in a junior high name-calling fight with a future NFL Hall of Famer, you’ve already lost. And, unfortunately, that’s where the Worldwide Leader finds itself in this situation.
Garrett Searight is Barrett Media’s News Editor, which includes writing bi-weekly industry features and a weekly column. He has previously served as Program Director and Afternoon Co-Host on 93.1 The Fan in Lima, OH, and is the radio play-by-play voice of Northern Michigan University hockey. Reach out to him at Garrett@BarrettMedia.com.
