There was an odd moment during Tuesday’s episode of The Pat McAfee Show.
Pat McAfee was telling Aaron Rodgers, who appears every Tuesday during the NFL season, that he remained welcome on the show “forever” despite the criticism and pushback he’d received over the years.
“Just like this year, and anytime in the future, I would never take a dollar from you guys,” responded Rodgers.
That’s confusing because, in October 2023, McAfee confirmed that he paid for Rodgers’ appearances, including an initial $450,000 check after the first year the quarterback appeared. He also indicated that he’s sent Rodgers similar payments multiple times and that the QB has made over $1 million total for his appearances on the show.
It’s unclear if Rodgers is saying that he no longer gets paid to appear or if he’s trying to pretend he was never paid to appear. Regardless, McAfee pressed on, using it as an opportunity to reiterate that he pays guests like Rodgers to appear on the show and that the criticism he receives for doing so is unfounded and confusing.
“To the point about the money to you that was paid by me to you, I think that’s the difference with this particular program,” said McAfee. “I know everybody’s me and everybody uses my name in their negotiations and go ahead, do what you got to do. But as a person that actually runs this company and actually sees the numbers and actually goes through all the P&Ls and yada, yada, yada, and the sales and how much advertising is worth, pre- and post-situations that take place, the amount of time and effort that you gave to our company in our business on those Tuesdays and the value that it brought, I felt obligated to give you money. I thought that’s how the world was. People are supposed to get paid their worth and their value…
“So I felt in my soul obligated to pay somebody whose value is what it is as somebody who came from a household and parents that I wish they would have got paid for the work that they were putting in properly. So that’s just my belief, and I think that’s how it is with f*cking everybody that works in this company.
“So, yeah, that whole thing being held against me, I was so confused. I was like, what? The guy brought literally hundreds of millions of dollars in a valuation for my business that I own 100 % of. And then just because he’s rich, I’m not supposed to thank him or say, give him his value. I had no idea that was going to be viewed in a negative way. I had no clue that was going to be the case, legitimately.”
McAfee has expressed similar frustration with the pay-for-play reports in the past. In all those instances, however, he seems to have either missed the real criticism or has chosen to ignore that aspect of it.
The criticism that came with learning that Rodgers is paid to appear on McAfee’s show is related to what the New York Jets quarterback says while there. Ever since the infamous revelation that he lied about his vaccination status and used McAfee’s show as a safe space to say whatever he wanted without fear of reprisal, the concern with this arrangement stems from the potential ramifications of platforming an anti-vaxxer and conspiracy theorist to an audience of millions.
We hate to be so cliche as to say “With great power comes great responsibility,” but as the ‘progrum’ has become a premier daily sports show and his personal profile has shot into the stratosphere, there is a responsibility that comes with hosting, owning, and promoting a show where people come on and say dangerous things.
That goes double when McAfee joins in with Rodgers to share unfounded conspiracy theories during the show. If this is what the money is going towards, it deserves to be spotlighted and critiqued.
Now, it stands to reason that McAfee and his cohorts might not see the danger in what Rodgers says. And unfortunately, we currently live in a society where saying and doing what you want without consequences is in vogue. But that still doesn’t absolve someone in McAfee’s position, especially when he’s paying for someone to come on his show and spout medical misinformation that could really hurt people.
There’s a larger argument to be had here about how broken our culture is in terms of how it views vaccine misinformation, the COVID-19 pandemic, and whatever other conspiratorial nonsense has broken Aaron Rodgers’ brain. But McAfee, who has long attempted to absolve himself of responsibility for what Rodgers says on his show, as well as instances of reporting gone wrong, there’s a social contract that many still expect to be upheld, especially if you’re going to have a show on ESPN and become one of the faces of their publicly traded parent company.
McAfee would presumably disagree with this sentiment. He’s said as much when it comes to his journalistic responsibilities, which is a different matter.
But in terms of why he received criticism over the revelation that he pays for those appearances, much like Rodgers does when it comes to reality, McAfee had his head in the sand.