“The Pat McAfee Show” has become the place the sports world turns for some of the most important interviews. McAfee has an engaging personality and, as an ex-All-Pro punter, a certain cachet that makes it easier for him to connect with the biggest names in sports.
“Aaron Rodgers Tuesdays” and “Nick Saban Thursdays” have become staples of the program and the sports media world. But there is a special sauce that makes it all go. McAfee spends millions to procure these interviews, The Post has learned.
Rodgers is receiving more than seven figures per year to come on the show each week, according to sources, while Saban is in that vaunted neighborhood.
McAfee is media savvy. He cuts into his five-year deal for around $85 million from ESPN to pay people that help the business. He confirmed that Rodgers’ spots are paid for, but didn’t get into the exact amount per year.
“Aaron has made over $1,000,000 with us, for sure,” McAfee told The Post over direct message.
Rodgers has been central to McAfee’s rise. There was Rodgers’ picking daisies on-air – “Will I play? Or won’t I play?” Then there was the retreat into the darkness and his pronouncement that he would be a Jet. And then there is Rodgers, the shock jock.
On Tuesday, Rodgers, who is against the COVID vaccine, offered to debate Travis Kelce, who does advertisements for Pfizer, and Dr. Anthony Fauci. In this hypothetical debate, Rodgers said he would partner with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Rodgers is, of course, entitled to his opinions, but it takes some hubris to think that we should really care because he can throw a football better than nearly everyone ever.
Still, ESPN insider Adam Schefter followed up by tweeting, “The Potential Next Great American Debate” as if it were just another “Michael vs. LeBron” verbal throwdown. ESPN pays Schefter around $9 million per year, but he needed to use some of that money to invest in a clue before hitting send on that one.
There was concern among McAfee fans that ESPN would change him. If anything, McAfee is changing ESPN. He can swear on the air and he is ubiquitous.
He and Stephen A. Smith are probably the two leading personalities on the network. Besides McAfee’s daily show that is licensed to ESPN from noon-2 p.m., McAfee is now the center attention on ESPN’s iconic “College GameDay,” even raising the stakes in recent weeks during a battle with Washington State after a misunderstanding about what octogenarian GameDay legend Lee Corso said.
It is too early to say if it is all working for ESPN or not. McAfee is putting up big numbers on YouTube and social channels, like TikTok. However, his linear numbers on ESPN aren’t off to a hot start at 276,000 the first three weeks, losing a lot of the lead-in from “First Take.”
“It’s been amazing, honestly,” said Mike Foss, ESPN’s senior vice president of studio and digital production. “I think you look at Pat, in the aggregate across YouTube, social, digital — and when you’re on site because Fridays have turned into quite the thing for us. It’s really been exceptional and I don’t think we could have expected more than what we’ve gotten through the first six weeks.”
What McAfee is doing with Rodgers, et. al., is not unusual or new, even if the financial numbers are eye-popping. Baseball managers, from Joe Torre to Joe Girardi and Aaron Boone, have routinely done “exclusive” audio spots in the $250,000 neighborhood — deals with radio stations or, in Boone’s case this year, with Jomboy’s Yankee podcast.
Eli Manning used to make around $125,000 to appear for 15-to-20 minutes on WFAN. McAfee has taken this realm to a new level.
“My company went from a valuation of [$2 million to $5 million] to a company valued over $500,000,000 in just a few years,” McAfee said. “Everybody who helped us get to this point has reaped the benefits of it, that’s how business is supposed to work. To be transparent, Aaron deserves much more than what he’s gotten for the time and effort he has put into ‘Aaron Rodgers’ Tuesdays,’” McAfee said.
“I know there’s an old viewpoint that Billion Dollar corporations have tried to make a standard that players and coaches are lucky to get on the platform and talk.. Well, as the human who owns my company and sees the value directly associated with these guys sharing their stories and thoughts, I think that’s bull—t. ‘If somebody’s making money off of this, I’m making money off of this. If nobody’s making any money, and it’s all for good will, I’m making no money as well’ is my mindset for doing stuff and I treat my company the same way. I give rather large bonuses as thank you’s and I genuinely believe it’s the only way to operate.”
McAfee, just 36, is the new age of media. He is a performer, a businessman and he’s omnipresent on ESPN. And he likes where he is at.
“It’s going good,” McAfee said. “Way too much of me on TV, but I’m thankful for everything ESPN has assisted with us so far.”