ESPN NFL analyst and former defensive back Ryan Clark appeared on First Take last week and referred to New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers as a “fraud.” Clark spoke about Rodgers following comments he made during a weekly appearance on The Pat McAfee Show. At that time, Rodgers claimed that people on television need to “make comments that keep them in the conversation” and that it was not taking place when he was younger. Rodgers added that he believes the people on the shows think they are the celebrities for being able to discuss sports or have opinions that he called asinine.
In discussing the comments made by Rodgers, Clark stated that the reason he has a chance to promote his opinions is because he is being paid for it. Clark added that Rodgers acts like he is above everybody and everything and found it funny that he is saying things on a show with a pundit greater than him in McAfee. On Tuesday’s edition of The Pat McAfee Show, Rodgers appeared to take aim at Clark by issuing a public service announcement after conveying that he would never take a dollar from McAfee and his company.
McAfee addressed the matter of paying Rodgers for his appearances, stating that he evinced value in these weekly interviews through looking at metrics related to his company. Because of the value that it brought his company, McAfee felt that he was obligated to give Rodgers monetary compensation as the company continued its growth and estimates that he brought hundreds of millions of dollars in evaluation of the business.
“The amount of time and effort that you gave to our company and our business on those Tuesdays and the value that it brought, I felt obligated to give you money,” McAfee said, “and I thought that’s how the world was.”
McAfee expressed that people are supposed to be paid their worth and their value and was confounded about pushback on paying Rodgers just because of his career earnings. Additionally, he shared that everyone is driving good cars, has fantastic homes and are starting families. Rodgers is someone McAfee regards as having helped boost their business, and he wanted to express his appreciation as someone who came from a household with parents who he states were not paid properly for the work they put in.
“That’s strictly because there isn’t an agent that sees these numbers or a president of a company or a CFO – which we do have Phil in there; we’ve known each other since Kindergarten – it’s because I actually know my f****ng business and the value in the worth and who brings and who doesn’t and what it is and how it goes,” McAfee said. “So yeah, that whole thing being held against me, I was so confused.”
Shortly after Rodgers completed his weekly appearance on The Pat McAfee Show, Clark posted on X that he texted and FaceTimed the number he had, presumably for McAfee himself. Furthermore, he expressed a willingness to clear up the assertion of his being “jealous” and that a quick conversation should be able to set it straight.
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