Aaron Rodgers keeps causing headaches for Pat McAfee and ESPN

Aaron Rodgers continued to turn his weekly appearance on the Pat McAfee show into a circus on Tuesday, continuing to spout conspiracy theories about the COVID vaccine, ABC talk show host Jimmy Kimmel and took shots at ESPN executive Mike Foss.

It did nothing to silence the storm that erupted a week ago when Rodgers continued his feud with Kimmel, setting off a week of controversy for the program, McAfee and Rodgers himself.

New York Post media critic Andrew Marchand wrote another column about the show on Tuesday, arguing that McAfee's show is becoming an $85M disaster for ESPN. 

The network brought McAfee on this past year and gave him total control to continue doing his show the way he did when it was streaming. They have also attempted to make him one of the stars of the network, finding spots for him on College Gameday and major college football broadcasts. 

But all the deal has done over the past couple of weeks is create headaches for ESPN, almost entirely due to the weekly presence of Rodgers (who is reportedly paid handsomely to be there). 

Rodgers has used his weekly appearance as a platform to share his conspiracy theories on pretty much every subject he thinks he is an expert on, while also spreading baseless rumors about Kimmel — one of ABC and Disney's biggest headliners and moneymakers. 

What is most baffling about all of this is nobody needs to be doing this. 

McAfee has a big enough following independent of Rodgers that he does not need to bring his circus act on once a week to bring in viewers. 

He also has a massive contract with ESPN to be one of its biggest headliners and can simply run his show the way he does for the several hours per week where Rodgers is not a guest.

Rodgers certainly doesn't need the extra money, and it does nothing to "eliminate the BS" that he talked about regarding the Jets and what they need to do to win. The only "BS" oozing out of the Jets organization is everything that comes out of Rodgers' mouth when he makes these appearances. 

At this point, it's almost as if McAfee and Rodgers are attempting to be renegades and just defy authority because they can. Almost as if it is just a giant joke to them. 

What is not a joke for ESPN — or for McAfee in the big picture — is that his show's TV ratings are not doing enough to justify his salary or the circus tent he keeps propping up for Rodgers. 

As Marchand notes McAfee's show is losing nearly half of Stephen A. Smith's audience from First Take, which is not the sort of thing ESPN is paying big money for. McAfee should not only be expected to maintain that audience but also build on it.

He is not. As long as he is not it creates the question of how long ESPN will think all of this is worth it. Not only in terms of Rodgers' appearances on the show, but also McAfee in general.