Editor’s Note: A version of this article first appeared in the “Reliable Sources” newsletter. Sign up for the daily digest chronicling the evolving media landscape here.
ESPN has a Pat McAfee problem on its hands.
The sports broadcaster ignited a torrent of backlash on Tuesday when he allowed the conspiracy curious and injured New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers to baselessly suggest during his show that Jimmy Kimmel might be named in documents identifying Jeffrey Epstein associates.
Kimmel, undeniably one of the brightest stars in the Disney universe, fired back at the assertion made on ABC’s sister channel, saying the “reckless words” put his family “in danger” and that if he kept it up, the two of them would “debate the facts further in court.”
McAfee, for his part, offered an apology on Wednesday. The sports personality, who confessed to the New York Post’s Andrew Marchand that he pays Rodgers seven figures to appear on his show, told his audience that his program is supposed to be “an uplifting, a happy one, a fun one” and that he doesn’t “like the fact that we’re associated with anything negative ever.”
“Some things, obviously, people get very pissed off about, especially when they’re that serious allegations,” McAfee said. “So we apologize for being a part of it.”
The less than vigorous apology, delivered a full day after the offensive remark was made, came much too late. Rodgers’ supposed “s**t talk joke” about Kimmel, as McAfee described it, had leaped around the world and breathed air into the notion that the comedian was an associate of Epstein, the convicted pedophile.
A spokesperson for ESPN declined to comment on the matter and a representative for Disney did not respond when I reached out on Wednesday, despite the unusual situation in which one of the entertainment juggernaut’s most prominent personalities was smeared from within the walls of the Magic Kingdom.
It’s unlikely Bob Iger is thrilled about one of his top talents having his reputation run through the mud on Disney’s own sports network. But perhaps the Mouse House boss should get acquainted with the ritual, given that episodes like this are bound to repeat themselves with McAfee on his payroll.
In fact, the Kimmel-McAfee-Rodgers drama underscores a growing problem for ESPN, which inked a reported $85 million five-year deal last May with McAfee to expand his role on the network and bring “The Pat McAfee Show” to its airwaves. Instead of drawing attention for sports commentary, McAfee’s weekly conversations with Rodgers have given way to the type of headlines that might prompt envy from Alex Jones of InfoWars.
The anti-vaccine Rodgers, who positions himself as a warrior for “medical freedom,” has repeatedly and shamelessly used his platform on ESPN to question Covid-19 vaccines, which the scientific community has credited for saving countless lives and restoring normalcy to society after a year of shutdowns that brutalized the world economy. But Rodgers doesn’t seem to care about what the overwhelming number of medical professionals believe. Instead, he has waded into the fever swamp occupied by the likes of Alex Berenson and Tucker Carlson.
Rodgers has assailed Dr. Anthony Fauci, hyped anti-vaccine presidential candidate Robert Kennedy Jr., and mocked Travis Kelce as “Mr. Pfizer” for advertising with the pharmaceutical company. Just the other day, Rodgers went on what the Daily Mail referred to as a “bizarre anti-vax rant” on McAfee’s show, in which he talked about vaccine supporters having supposed “puppet masters.”
Rodgers has peddled this junk on ESPN with encouragement from a gleeful McAfee. Instead of pushing back, McAfee often approvingly laughs it up with the NFL player, with no apparent care in the world for the damage that his irresponsible rhetoric can carry with it.
And, to be frank, ESPN and Disney have not done much better. Instead of denouncing the dangerous cocktail of conspiratorial trash that Rodgers serves up for its audience, ESPN — which bills itself as the “worldwide leader in sports” — has opted to stay silent, apparently unable or unwilling to work up the courage to take a stand for the truth.
