Pat McAfee Praises 'COVID King' Aaron Rodgers

By Andrew Sanford | Celebrity | August 29, 2024 |

By Andrew Sanford | Celebrity | August 29, 2024 |

Not every person who goes on air and speaks confidently about a topic is a journalist. A lot of them act like they are! They reference sources, speak with authority, and question guests like they are seeking to unveil some secret truth. But a lot of them aren’t journalists. They are just television personalities who know how to be loud and talk with authority. They want to be treated with respect. But they don’t like facing consequences for their actions. It’s just a show!

Yes, the people (or in this case, the person) in question want to have their cake and eat it too. They demand to be taken seriously. But not too seriously! If they are taken too seriously, then they have to watch what they say and who they talk to. But you better respect them! Again, not too much cause it’s still just a funny little show that they are doing between gigs at the WWE. You clicked the link. I’m talking about Pat McAfee.

McAfee is a former football player and current football analyst. He has a show at ESPN where he sits (but mostly stands) behind a desk and has a rowdy time with his dudes. They talk about football, life, the ineffectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines, and what restaurants they like. It’s a totally chill time, unless you ask McAfee if he’s willing to hold himself to a certain standard when it comes to misinformation.

“Define journalistic standards,” McAfee said when asked if journalistic standards should be applied to his show by CNBC’s Alex Sherman. McAfee did not like the question and took the opportunity to rail against a show called Awful Announcing, which he claims uses his show to drive clicks, taking clips out of context. He went on to claim that he could sue people if he wanted to. Threatening to be litigious is always a good way to show you aren’t mad!

McAfee is just a fun guy trying to have fun! Everybody else is just a hater. “I understand that you may have a lot of reasons to potentially hate me,” McAfee explained. “I think they’re misguided. I would appreciate if you would give me and my guys a chance. I think we’re helping out sports media as a whole in the future. I think we’re going to get some things wrong and we apologize for that. But whenever you’re ripping our sh-t and trying to kill us, I think ‘journalistic standards’ certainly is problematic. We want to be good for sports in sports media. We want to build sports. And we’d appreciate if you just gave us a fair shot.” Yeah, guys, chill out!

Why did things get so heated in the first place? Someone asked about McAfee’s buddy Aaron Rodgers. Specifically, they wondered if McAfee was going to continue inviting him on the show, giving him a platform to spread more harmful misinformation. While McAfee isn’t sure, he is “optimistic.” He also doesn’t care about the people who wish he wouldn’t invite him on because Rodgers is a really good football guy. “I’ve heard some people say ‘Why’s he letting this guy on? He doesn’t push back,’” McAfee told the room. He continued, saying that Rodgers will be on “the Mount Rushmore of NFL quarterbacks. … This is one of the best football players of all time.”

See?! It’s OK. Everybody calm down and don’t be too serious. Knowing that one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL is an ignorant charisma vacuum is good for sports. He was so good in 2020 and 2021, y’all! So good that McAfee nicknamed him the “COVID King!” Yes, McAfee was initially “pumped” to get rid of the guy, but happiness doesn’t make good ratings!