Mina Kimes notes blatant hypocrisy in Aaron Rodgers’ ESPN criticism

Aaron Rodgers hates when people go on ESPN to platform their personal opinions, the polarizing quarterback said while on ESPN.

During his Tuesday appearance on The Pat McAfee Show, Rodgers aired his grievances with ESPN, complaining that the Worldwide Leader in Sports has transformed from highlight-driven to personality-driven programming in recent decades. Thursday morning on ESPN, First Take responded to Rodgers’ criticism, with Mina Kimes noting his blatant hypocrisy.

Mina Kimes on Aaron Rodgers calling out ESPN’s personality-driven programming:

“He’s espousing that opinion on a personality-driven program that employs him as a personality during the NFL season.” pic.twitter.com/vO2zesrOEo

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) December 12, 2024

“His point that personality-driven programming has overtaken highlights, he’s well within his rights to note that,” Kimes said. “But others are well within their rights to note that he’s espousing that opinion on a personality-driven program that employs him as a personality during the NFL season. That context does matter here.”

Stephen A. Smith similarly acknowledged Rodgers’ criticism of ESPN’s personality-driven programming was “hypocritical.”

“The other context that matters,” Kimes continued. “There is some subtext that he is saying some of the criticism perhaps of his play this year might have been unfounded. Again, he is totally well within his rights to note that. But a lot of the criticism this year is substantiated because of his play. And I guess that’s why I come away from this feeling like there is a lot of validity to this message, but it does seem like the wrong messenger at this moment.”

For context, here is Rodgers’ full rant about the evolution of sports media, ESPN, and the way NFL players are covered today.

“There’s a lot of people talking about the game now,” Rodgers said. “Both non-former players and former players who are trying to stay relevant fame-wise. So the takes and the criticism are a lot different than they were maybe in the mid-2000s.”

“I’m talking about these experts on TV who nobody remembers what they did in their career,” Rodgers ranted. “So in order for them to stay relevant, they have to make comments that keep them in the conversation. That wasn’t going on in 2008, 2009. The SportsCenter of my youth, those guys made highlights so much fun. And that’s what they showed on SportsCenter. Now it’s all talk shows and people whose opinions are so important now and they believe they’re the celebrities now, they’re the stars for just being able to talk about sports or give a take about sports, many of which are unfounded or asinine, as we all know. But that’s the environment we’re in now.”

Rodgers is right, SportsCenter has evolved from the time he entered the NFL, to 2008, to today. But so has the way media is consumed. No longer are sports fans reliant on SportsCenter to get their fix of scores and highlights.

The lack of self-awareness here from Rodgers is impressive. Yes, he’s right in noting the change in media. But amazingly, Rodgers failed to recognize he’s complaining about that evolution while sitting on a platform that is taking advantage of the changing media landscape as well as anyone. And if we’re going to keep a tally of the personalities who have given the most asinine opinions on ESPN in the last year, Rodgers will rank toward the top.

[First Take]