Pat McAfee continues to give Aaron Rodgers a platform for his nonsense

During his weekly look on The Pat McAfee Show, vocal anti-vaxxer Aaron Rodgers took a shot at Travis Kelce for showing in a PSA encouraging individuals to get each their COVID boosters and flu pictures, referring to him as “Mr. Pfizer.” 

McAfee laughed fairly exhausting on the joke, saying throughout a later present that a part of that’s as a result of he was fascinated about the response Rodgers would get on-line, which he definitely did get. Rodgers is clearly addicted to consideration, and I assume I’m a part of the issue as a result of I’m giving him some extra.

I’m not right here to police jokes. It was simply a joke in spite of everything, however Aaron Rodgers has constantly gone on The Pat McAfee Show and non-jokingly peddled misinformation about COVID vaccines, and never as soon as to my information has McAfee pushed again.

Rodgers has been making weekly appearances on the present for two years now, and did so after he was found to have lied about his vaccination standing, and issued a phrase salad of an apology, fielding softballs from McAfee and former teammate, AJ Hawk. Watching McAfee and Hawk throughout that 2021 interview made me surprise if that’s what it was like within the Green Bay Packers’ locker room all these years.

Maybe it’s unfair to anticipate somebody like McAfee, who’s clearly an entertainer, to do the job of a journalist and really counter Rodgers’ conspiracy theories with info. That being stated, it shouldn’t be an excessive amount of to ask him to cease being Aaron Rodgers’ PR staff.

Later within the week, McAfee recounted the interview on his present, saying “That was a solid joke. It was a solid joke. Now obviously there are people on the internet who did not appreciate the way Aaron cracked a joke at Travis’ expense, because of a vaccine, especially with Aaron working for Johnson & Johnson currently at the New York Jets.” [Ed. note: Jets owner Woody Johnson is an heir to the J&J pharmaceutical empire.]

That’s an attention-grabbing piece of hypocrisy that McAfee might’ve introduced up whereas interviewing Rodgers, however after all, he saved it for a later date.

Another member of the present, Ty Schmit even speculated that Rodgers made the joke as a result of he was jealous of Kelce (allegedly) relationship Taylor Swift, or as a result of he’s in State Farm commercials. But not to Rodgers’ face. Never to his face.

Even if McAfee doesn’t vehemently disagree with Rodgers about vaccines, he clearly does at the very least considerably as a result of he himself is vaccinated, and selected to work for a community with a vaccine mandate. He doesn’t consider in Rodgers’ reasoning for not being vaccinated, however he simply lets Rodgers say any loopy factor he needs with out questioning something.

I consider the rationale nobody on the present ever pushes again towards Rodgers or provides him any grief about something is that they’re nervous they’ll piss him off sufficient that he stops approaching the present.

The Pat McAfee Show debuted on ESPN on Sept. 7, and has skilled a stellar month of rankings with 242 million throughout all platforms from its begin to Sept. 29. I can’t say something about that. That’s unimaginable for a present that’s on through the center of enterprise days.

I’m skeptical about whether or not this efficiency will proceed. Shows have a tendency to obtain the best rankings after they debut after which decline and degree out as time goes on. The PMS was a enormous success earlier than ever being on ESPN, and it looks like it has introduced its viewers to the community, however I’m wondering if ESPN’s conventional viewers will come round.

The format and presentation of the present hasn’t modified, and there’s one thing inherently bizarre about seeing a newer type of media collide with conventional media. It’s like seeing a late-night speak present host make a joke about a TikTok development.

No matter how profitable the present is, McAfee definitely needs to take pleasure in a score increase from weekly Rodgers interviews, and he’s not going to do something to lose that.