If ESPN won’t get in the way of Aaron Rodgers’ partnership with The Pat McAfee Show, maybe Woody Johnson and the New York Jets will.
On his latest appearance with McAfee, Rodgers suggested ABC host Jimmy Kimmel is on Jeffrey Epstein’s list of associates. Now in the fourth season of their partnership, Rodgers and McAfee are well versed in fielding criticism for their chats, but they’re having a harder time finding supporters after the quarterback recklessly connected Kimmel to a convicted sex trafficker.
While some have wondered whether Rodgers initiating Disney-on-Disney crime might lead to his ouster from McAfee’s show, WFAN’s Gregg Giannotti suggests the Jets should get in the way of the polarizing interviews.
“He’s gotta get off that show and the Jets have to do something about it.” pic.twitter.com/JPSjnUXvkX
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) January 3, 2024
“Ben Roethlisberger used to go on a local radio station in Pittsburgh and say all this stuff on the show about the team that he never said when he was in the locker room to the assembled media…until the point where they shut it down,” Giannotti told his WFAN co-host Boomer Esiason Wednesday morning.
Roethlisberger made weekly appearances on 93.7 The Fan in Pittsburgh for six seasons before they parted ways. The former Steelers quarterback created headlines for calling out his teammates and coaches, as compared to Rodgers who frequently goes viral for spreading conspiracies.
“If I’m Woody Johnson, I’ll find a way to get you whatever you’re getting paid from McAfee. I’ll find you a way. Robert Kraft found all sorts of different ways to get Tom Brady paid,” Giannotti said. “I’ll get you that million dollars. You can’t do the show anymore. You can’t. ‘You’re killing us. You killed us for an entire year.’ Everybody has to respond to it.”
Giannotti acknowledged Rodgers is a “gold mine” for McAfee. And from a content and attention standpoint, he is. But having to answer questions about Rodgers’ weekly segments is becoming a headache for the Jets, and especially for ESPN.
“He’s gotta get off that show and the Jets have to do something about it,” Giannotti continued. “But they don’t have the guts to stand up to him and say that.”
If Woody Johnson and the Jets really want to get Rodgers off that show, one million dollars, or any monetary amount, probably isn’t going to cut it. Rodgers has repeatedly proved that he craves attention, and another million from the Jets isn’t going to feed that desire the way McAfee’s show does.
[WFAN]
