Pat McAfee explains relaxed approach to Aaron Rodgers interviews
Pat McAfee and his popular YouTube show are headed to ESPN and presumably Aaron Rodgers will still join him each week.
McAfee, his crew and Rodgers have a great rapport. It’s one of the biggest guest spots in sports radio at the moment. But the former punter has a relaxed approach to his interviews with the quarterback.
He told SI’s Jimmy Traina why he does it that way with Rodgers on the SI Media Podcast.
“I think a lot of people that have done sports media, they think they’re more impressive or important than the people that are on the field doing it,” McAfee said. “And I live by like, Hey, we’re learning about the greatest right now. Like we’re learning about the greats. So like, that is also a form of media. I didn’t go to Syracuse. I wasn’t allowed in the broadcast boot camp like three times I got turned down by the NFL’s broadcast boot camp.”
McAfee, like Frank Sinatra, is going to do it his way, especially with Rodgers.
“But there’s also a form of journalism about learning about people and their thoughts,” McAfee said. “Not every single person that is in the media needs to know the answers to things that aren’t in their world. So like, I know you’re talking about him talking about going into the darkness, but you’re certainly also chatting about the vaccination stuff, and everything like that.
“It’s like, Who the (expletive) am I to tell Aaron Rodgers that what he believes, with the 500 page report, and it also with his football ability, I’m supposed to tell him that he’s wrong? There are a lot of things that he has said that don’t make sense to me, and certainly are like, Oh, I don’t know why you do that. But this is Aaron Rodgers that I’m interviewing. And it’s his conversation. It’s not mine. You know what I mean? Like, that’s how I view everything. And hopefully the more we learn about these people, the more we can learn about sports as a whole.”
McAfee’s move to ESPN will see him walk away from his $120 million deal with FanDuel Sports. However, no exact number has been released regarding the show’s new value as of this report. One would assume that McAfee is earning a substantial pay increase with the new blockbuster deal.
The current version of PMS airs on YouTube and the new one is expected to as well, according to Andrew Marchand of the New York Post. However, a portion of it could also reportedly start airing on ESPN with the show moving over to the network.