Over the years there have been a lot of opinions about how ESPN covers sports. And how could there not be? ESPN has been the self-proclaimed Worldwide Leader in Sports now for over a generation. The network sets the table for the sports world in every meaningful way possible from rights packages to highlights to debate shows to documentaries to journalism and so much more. In many ways, ESPN is sports and sports is ESPN in this country.
But whatever you think of ESPN, the network has never been more detached from its stated mission of serving sports fans as it is every Tuesday when Aaron Rodgers is given an open mic on The Pat McAfee Show.
This Tuesday featured the much-anticipated response from Rodgers to the controversy he created when he linked Jimmy Kimmel to the release of potential associates of Jeffrey Epstein. Even reading that sentence is all kinds of insanity. But it’s nothing compared to what followed. Rodgers was invited to spend a full 30 minutes complaining about the woke establishment, cancel culture, spouting years-old COVID conspiracies, painting himself as the victim because people have been so mean to him while simultaneously trying to say he didn’t care what anyone thought, praising Robert F. Kennedy Jr., taking more shots at Kimmel, and generally becoming a living, breathing Facebook comments section.
By any objective standard, watching Rodgers rant unabated and unhinged while being sarcastically prodded by McAfee and A.J. Hawk blankly stared into a camera, was terrible television.
Sure, there was some shock value when Rodgers started diving into his wacky conspiracies, darkness retreats, and psychedelic drug use. But as he repeats the same QAaron talking points every week, it’s just getting repetitive and boring.
When ESPN made their deal with McAfee to license his show every weekday, was this what they actually had in mind? This was supposed to be a way to attract younger viewers and bring some fun back to ESPN’s sports coverage.
What about any of this is fun?
Who watched the National Championship Game last night or is excited for the NFL Playoffs and tuned into the McAfee Show to get Aaron Rodgers’ thoughts on the efficacy of anti-malarial drugs?
But it’s not just Rodgers’ rantings and ravings. What from McAfee’s show says that it’s the fun and cool place to be anymore? Is the average sports fan setting their DVR for McAfee’s inside scoop on what ESPN executives he likes and doesn’t like? The constant culture of grievance that dwells on what someone wrote or said and how much he and Rodgers are the real victims here? What’s really going on with his ratings or how much he pays his guests?
Is… whatever all that is…. what made McAfee such a sought-after personality?
Surely nobody at ESPN can think this is what they signed up for. But they’ve paid a ton of money to license McAfee’s show and make him a face of the network while giving him what seems to be total creative freedom to say and do as he pleases. And if that’s giving his weird friend carte blanche to turn ESPN into the InfoWars Hour, then Bristol apparently is helpless to stop it. Because in no way is this responsible, good, entertaining, or relevant television.
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