The broadcasts of The Pat McAfee Show on ESPN platforms (linear ESPN for the first two hours of the daily show, ESPN+ and YouTube concurrent with and after that) have stirred up a ton of talk this week. Some of that have been about McAfee’s comments on ESPN executive Norby Williamson, while others have been about regular (paid) guest Aaron Rodgers and his various political comments. Those included a suggestion that ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel would be found on lists of people tied to infamous criminal Jeffrey Epstein (he was not).
But this week has seen some notable walkbacks there from McAfee. That included a discussion that Rodgers’ appearances are over for the year. And that’s partly because the season of the New York Jets, who Rodgers theoretically plays quarterback for when not opining on vaccines or late-night hosts, is over.
But there had been previous reports that Rodgers would continue his appearances through the NFL playoffs. So it’s notable to see official confirmation this season of the show’s time with him has ended. And that even came with McAfee saying he was “pumped” those appearances were over for now, considering the blowback they’ve led to for him. But a more remarkable comment still came from McAfee himself on Twitter/X Wednesday:
A lot of you are talking very wild about me and our progrum.. I assume you are very new to us.
We are a sports show that tries to inform folks of what’s going on and have a good time with good vibes… Everyday.
We do not bat 1000 but we feel as if we do make solid contact A… pic.twitter.com/h3befnizy9
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) January 10, 2024
Here’s the full text of that tweet:
A lot of you are talking very wild about me and our progrum.. I assume you are very new to us.
We are a sports show that tries to inform folks of what’s going on and have a good time with good vibes… Everyday.
We do not bat 1000 but we feel as if we do make solid contact A LOT.. Our people found us because of that. We’re wildly lucky for the folks that enjoy taking mental vacations with us.. Monday-Friday.. 48 weeks a year. We take a lot of pride in making folks’ lives a little bit happier or better.
This past year with our show’s going to College towns on Fridays, I got to chat with a lot of folks that watch our show. I loved learning about them and then I would normally learn about how they started watching our show.. There was always a “buddy referral” story.. then there was the other stories about folks going thru some shit and we were there to hangout with them as they battled thru whatever they were going thru.. I haven’t polled our crowd but I’m rather certain that nobody’s wanting to come hangout with us to hear us talk about politics. I think it’s probably a massive reason for our success actually… so all of this has been a good reminder of what we’re good for, and who we’re good for. Some day, I’ll try and build up enough of a brain to dive into the politics world but that time is nowhere near now..
Also..
Our fans know that ART ends shortly after Aaron’s team’s season ends.. that’s how it’s been. He’ll make random surprise welcomed pop ins during big events or offseason adventures but, it’s always been a season thing. I never said he’ll never be on the show again. I hope he chooses to still chat with us. We’ve been lucky the last 4 years to ride the wave of a season with a 4X NFL MVP (2 of which during The ART Era) and get his thoughts along the way.. in real time.I certainly don’t love that I’ve found myself in political wars and public beefs because of something that a guest has said on our show or something that my dumbass has said.. including a lawsuit that was VERY public.. but I think what I’ve come to realize is that it’s gonna come with the territory of this venture. We are much more aware of that now. And, for the good of our lives, happiness, and mana 🤙🏼.. we’re gonna try and avoid as many as possible.
I say all that to say this…I have a lot of pride in what the boys, our fans, and I have built. We found what we’re good for. There was a lot of different points during our journey that it could’ve ended or stopped or slowed down.. because of the entire team, we’ve kept rollin… I love them. I’m thankful for them… and we just want to talk shit about sports.
See you tomorrow.
Cheers
The most remarkable thing there is probably McAfee saying “I’m rather certain that nobody’s wanting to come hangout with us to hear us talk about politics.” And he’s likely right. Even the discussion on the show’s subreddit from devoted fans has been strongly against the repeated overly-political comments from Rodgers.
But McAfee has thoroughly set up and enabled these comments throughout this entire run. And he has kept Rodgers on as a well-paid contributor on a “deal,” long after it became clear the quarterback was eager to talk about everything except football. And he has even very much not cut ties with Rodgers following Rodgers’ comments on Kimmel and ESPN executives (who McAfee has his own battle with, albeit with different execs). So it is at the least a little disingenuous for him to say his fans don’t want to hear political/culture wars talk while he’s completely enabling it.
At any rate, it’s certainly interesting to see this kind of statement from McAfee. And it is notable that he has previously talked about taking the pulse of fans, especially the fans of College GameDay who don’t like what he’s brought to the show. Compared to many in sports media, McAfee is very engaged with reading the discussion about him and the criticism of him. And perhaps this will actually lead to his show lowering its amount of explicitly-political discussion, both with and without Rodgers.
But perhaps it won’t. McAfee reupped with GameDay despite those criticisms, and made zero actual promises to change anything. And his comment here can be seen as an admission that he doesn’t love the political and cultural wars he’s currently discussed in, but those are fully on him, with his show’s licensing setup giving him full guest booker authority outside ESPN. So we’ll see if anything actually changes. Maybe Rodgers will return and only talk football, and maybe the show overall will go back to just the “have a good time with good vibes” ideal McAfee cites for it. But that’s far from assured right now.
