It took just one minute for Dr. Fauci’s name to get broached during Aaron Rodgers’ Tuesday interview on The Pat McAfee Show. And just 10 seconds after that, ESPN curiously went dark on some platforms.
In celebration of Halloween Tuesday afternoon, McAfee was dressed as the late killer whale Lolita, while show contributor A.J. Hawk wore an Edward Scissorhands costume. Aaron Rodgers, however, arrived on screen without a costume.
“I had my costume on last night,” Rodgers said. “But couldn’t wear it today, apologize.”
Rodgers, who previously dressed up as Rambo, John Wick, and Nick Cage in Con Air, had The Pat McAfee Show curious about what his Halloween Eve costume was.
“What was it, Fauc?” Hawk asked. “What was it?”
After other guesses including a doctor, scientist and vaccine were mentioned, Rodgers joked that he was a spike protein, presumably the one released into the body by COVID vaccines. Weirdly, “spike protein” was the last audible thing uttered on The Pat McAfee Show before ESPN lost connection on cable and went dark for the next 12 minutes.
Maybe ESPN had enough of Aaron Rodgers’ vax commentary? pic.twitter.com/jNCFwVDJbh
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) October 31, 2023
The glitch seemed to only occur on cable, so if you were streaming the show, watching on YouTube TV or YouTube, your enjoyment was probably uninterrupted. But for many who were consuming the show linearly on ESPN, the technical issue was conspicuous.
A conspiracy theorist like Aaron Rodgers would undoubtedly assume there were some dirty politics at play. But considering the show didn’t universally go dark, it seems more likely that this was nothing more than a technical glitch. We’re not about to assume some ESPN executive heard the words “doctor,” “Fauci,” “vaccine,” or “spike protein” and ran to pull the plug. Still, the timing of the supposed technical glitch was curiously suspect. And for 12 minutes? 12, which just so happens to be the number Rodgers wore when he opted to not get vaccinated.
McAfee and his cast of contributors later accused Awful Announcing of “fake news” and having an agenda against the show, but would they prefer that we didn’t alert them when their progrum is dahn on ESPN for 12 minutes? 12 curious minutes.
Rodgers has been an outspoken assailant of COVID-19 vaccines for years now, but it was never ESPN’s problem until this season. With Rodgers making weekly appearances on The Pat McAfee Show and subsequently ESPN this year, they’ve been accused of serving as an accessory to his fixation on dropping subtle anti-vax narratives and mocking Dr. Fauci. But they weren’t an accomplice this Tuesday, at least not for 12 minutes on cable.
[ESPN]
