Aaron Rodgers stunned nearly 500,000 live viewers on The Pat McAfee Show when he confirmed that he wanted to leave the Green Bay Packers for the New York Jets in a bombshell trade update.
Rodgers has been tangled in a trade saga between his Packers and the Jets for some time and a deal is still not close to being completed with his contract still reportedly needing to be restructured and a compensation package ironed out.
It’s not the first time Rodgers has appeared on ex-Indianapolis Colts punter McAfee’s successful YouTube channel, where he has grown a subscriber base of 2.16million. McAfee is a close, trusted friend of four-time MVP Rodgers, with the pair’s friendship starting in 2019 at a golf tournament in the Bahamas.
A late dropout saw McAfee be recommended to Rodgers for the tournament by Packers teammate of nine seasons, A.J. Hawk. Funny guy McAfee arrived for the tournament having left his comedy tour, and at the welcome dinner did ten minutes of standup. From that moment Rodgers says he knew they “would be good friends”.
Speaking to ESPN2 in January 2022, Rodgers recalled: “We had a late drop-out and my buddy, A.J. Hawk, said, ‘You should get Pat McAfee’. So I reached out to Pat, and Pat was actually on a standup comedy tour.
“He came off the tour, joined our team and I went to him when he got there — I had never met him, I introduced myself and said, ‘Hey, when I introduce you at the welcome dinner, do you mind doing a couple minutes of standup?’ He goes, ‘Naw I’m not doing that.'”
Rodgers continued: “Pat walks up on stage, takes the mic out of my hands, and does 10 minutes of standup, and I knew from that point forward we would be good friends. And I always appreciate that about him.
“He went the whole trip, he rolled his pants up to show off his quads, it was almost like he was wearing a short bathing suit. He played barefoot. I don’t think the golf worked out very well for him, but it was a partner event, I made sure he had a good partner every time and I think he was on the winning squad for most of his matchups.”
Rodgers also says McAfee’s platform allows him to “silence all the douchebags” with an “authentic” conversation. He said: “It’s allowed me to silence all the douchebags who were talking for me, and making themselves more relevant by using my name, or running with stories that weren’t fact. This was a natural, authentic way to have a conversation.”
McAfee is a jack of all trades. The Plum-born punter spent eight years in the NFL and even played in the Super Bowl in his rookie year in a loss to the New Orleans Saints. Even during his playing days, McAfee was laying the groundwork for a post-NFL career in the entertainment industry.
McAfee tried his hand in pro wrestling and went up against The WarPig at an IWA East Coast show in South Charleston, West Virginia. McAfee hit him with a low blow and a superkick, securing an upset victory. After retiring, McAfee even made appearances in pro wrestling’s top promotion, WWE.
McAfee began appearing on WWE programming as a pre-show analyst in 2018 and has actually competed in a pay-per-view match, defeating Baron Corbin at Summerslam in 2022. McAfee then disappeared from WWE TV before returning to commentate on the 2023 Men’s Royal Rumble.
The former NFL star draws crowds wherever he goes and it’s not a surprise that he is a successful comic. In 2016, McAfee started performing in stand-up events around Indiana.
