Aaron Rodgers Interview With YouTube Host Pat McAfee Attracts Nearly 500,000 Reside Viewers; NFL Quarterback Indicators “Intention” To Go away Inexperienced Bay Packers For New York Jets

Aaron Rodgers’ weekly slot on Pat McAfee’s YouTube present is usually a newsmaking draw, however Wednesday’s version reached a complete new degree because the quarterback confirmed his “intention” to play for the New York Jets.

The each day present drew simply shy of 500,000 concurrent dwell viewers right now, an viewers a number of occasions the dimensions of that for ESPN or different cable TV networks on a typical weekday. Throughout the NFL’s free company interval, the future of Rodgers has been a significant storyline because the 39-year-old stored the sports activities world and New York Metropolis in suspense for weeks about whether or not he would head to New York, stick with the Green Bay Packers, or simply retire. Some have in contrast Wednesday’s silence-breaking interview with LeBron James’ extensively hyped revelation in 2010 that he would “take his abilities to South Seashore” and play with the Miami Warmth, a transfer famously packaged for TV as The Determination.

Associated Story

YouTube TV Adds ‘Multiview’ Feature On Eve Of March Madness, With Eye Toward NFL Sunday Ticket Debut

Since final Friday, Rodgers informed McAfee, “my intention was to play for the New York Jets.” The one factor holding up a commerce between the groups is “compensation,” he added, which means what the Packers will obtain in return for the four-time league MVP.

Rodgers coming to New York ranks practically on the prime of the all-time record of splashy sports activities arrivals within the metropolis. Together with nationwide media shops, a number of dozen beat reporters monitor the Jets on daily basis, in contrast with a a lot smaller coterie of Packers media in Inexperienced Bay; the Inexperienced Bay-Appleton, WI market is the 68th-largest within the U.S., in line with Nielsen. Alongside along with his presents on the sector, Rodgers has a big contrarian streak, which can get a brighter highlight in New York. He drew backlash final yr after telling reporters in 2021 he had been “immunized” in opposition to Covid. Months later, it got here to gentle that he had not, actually, acquired the Covid vaccine however as an alternative provided an deliberately deceptive reply when requested if he was vaxxed. (On the time, leagues, groups and well being authorities had been engaged within the complicated technique of returning to motion in entrance of followers and navigating the waves of the pandemic.)

McAfee, a former NFL punter, has rocketed to sports activities media prominence lately. His freewheeling YouTube present often attracts notable names and options the host in dialog with a coterie of pundits and fellow athletes in an uncensored discussion board, with viewers contributing to the YouTube feedback part. The present’s traction has earned it greater than 2.1 million subscribers and bought McAfee a four-year, $120 million cope with sports activities betting firm FanDuel (although a New York Put up report this week indicated that the connection might unravel earlier than the deal is up). Half one million concurrent viewers will not be anyplace near the hundreds of thousands who watch livestreams associated to videogaming, SpaceX launches or BTS exhibits, however for a sports activities chat present it’s an enormous quantity.

Along with delivering the phrases that victory-starved Jets followers have wished to listen to ever since Joe Namath left city after delivering the crew’s lone Tremendous Bowl win in 1969, Rodgers as traditional had loads of opinions in regards to the media. After rising from a days-long “darkness retreat” final month, Rodgers mentioned he found that ESPN reporter Adam Schefter — one of many foremost scoop-meisters within the NFL institution — had obtained his contact data and reached out for a Packers-Jets replace. “Ask Schefter what I texted him when he someway bought my quantity,” he informed McAfee with a smirk. “Lose my quantity!”

Right here’s one of many clips from Rodger’s hour-long look:

Learn Extra About: