(OutKick) Liberal sports fans, I hear you.
I understand why Aaron Rodgers’ segments on ESPN’s “Pat McAfee Show” rattle you.
I find Rodgers captivating and bold. I agree with much of what he says about Covid-19, Dr. Fauci, vaccines, mask-wearing and woke people. Many of his statements are verifiably accurate.
However, you are right: ESPN is not the place to have those conversations. ESPN is supposed to be an escape, a promotion of the games we turn to for entertainment.
Waving goodbye to liberals is not a smart business play for ESPN, either. Liberals watch sports. They pay for cable to watch sports.
I hear you, liberals.
But do you hear the other half of the country? Do you understand why they have been rattled by ESPN since, around, 2016?
I don’t think you do.
Jemele Hill’s appearance on CNN this week amused me. She proclaimed that “every week when you see Aaron Rodgers on the Pat McAfee Show” it is like you are watching right-wing talk.
Take a look:
“Every week when you see Aaron Rodgers on the Pat McAfee Show, it is like you are watching Newsmax.”
Former ESPN personality Jemele Hill on Aaron Rodgers’ regular appearances on The Pat McAfee Show. pic.twitter.com/iXgvgHqmqM
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) January 10, 2024
Hill’s emotional diatribe is consistent with what most critics say about Rodgers’ appearances on ESPN. Former employees, media journalists, and athletes — all of whom disproportionately echo the voice of liberal sports fans — are aghast to see Rodgers voice conservative-adjacent opinions on a sports network.
Yet this group rarely, if ever, challenges ESPN hosts and guests for providing left-wing sports talk. At ESPN, the Jemeles far outnumber the Aarons.
Let’s take a look:
Where was the outrage when ESPN host Sarah Spain called five Tampa Bay Rays players “bigots” for not wearing the gay pride logo on their uniforms because of their religious beliefs?
Or when Elle Duncan interrupted a college basketball game to protest the erroneously-dubbed “Don’t Say Gay” Bill?
Or when Duncan used ESPN studios to urge “girl dads” to speak in favor of their daughters’ rights to have an abortion in all 50 states?
There was no such outrage when Max Kellerman called Donald Trump supporters “susceptible to very low-quality information and easy to propagandize and almost immune to facts.”
Max Kellerman says Trump’s base voters in SEC “seem to be susceptible to very low quality information and easy to propagandize and almost immune to facts” pic.twitter.com/TNNz1yOosj
— OutKick (@Outkick) August 27, 2020
Nor was there when J.A. Adande declared red state voting laws worse than the CCP torturing, raping, and killing Muslim Uyghurs.
