If you thought Aaron Rodgers was stopping by on The Pat McAfee Show just because he didn’t have anything going on during his injury rehabilitation, you would be wrong.
Pat McAfee is a former NFL punter who bet on himself (in the figurative sense) and became one of the sports world’s most popular personalities. The 36-year-old’s sports talk show recently cracked a deal with ESPN, and now one of the worldwide leaders in comical sports takes calls the “worldwide leader in sports” home.
McAfee’s transition into ESPN first started with his appearances on the wildly successful college football show College Gameday on Saturdays, and now he’s arguably one of the faces of the company (second to Stephen A. Smith of course).
One of the secrets to his success is bringing on high-profile sports figures to almost “guarantee” viewership. Two of his more popular segments as of right now are weekly interview spots called “Aaron Rodgers Tuesdays” and “Nick Saban Thursdays.”
And thanks to some reporting from The New York Post, we now know that Pat McAfee pays out a pretty substantial amount of money for those interviews, and especially for Aaron Rodger’s weekly sit down.
McAfee reportedly told the Post:
“Aaron has made over $1,000,000 with us, for sure. My company went from a valuation of $2 million-$5 million to a company valued over $500,000,000 in just a few years.
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.”
Like the old saying goes, sometimes you have to spend money to make money. Considering that the weekly interviews with Aaron Rodgers and Nick Saban are often the most time those two individuals give with the media, the payments for their visits are probably worthwhile.
Anytime anything noteworthy is said on Pat McAfee’s Show (like Rodgers calling Travis Kelce “Mr. Pfizer,” or trying to set up a vaccine debate with RFK Jr.), it gets aggregated on social media and brings eyes to his show and ESPN.
In an industry that’s usually all about the numbers and viewership, the business model that McAfee is rolling with is pretty smart, and seems to be rather successful.
McAfee went on to tell the Post:
“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 bullsh*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.”
Respect.
