Elsa/Getty Images

ESPN's Mina Kimes Accuses Aaron Rodgers Of Blatant Hypocrisy

Originally posted on The Spun | By Tzvi Machlin | Last updated Dec 12, 2024 4:31 PM ET

New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers recently went on The Pat McAfee Show and promptly went off on the sports media industry for being centered on personalities as opposed to highlights and accurate analysis. ESPN's Mina Kimes had some thoughts on his little spiel.

On Thursday's edition of First Take, Kimes said that while she agreed with the message itself, she found it hypocritical to be coming from Rodgers. Kimes decried Rodgers for himself being an employed personality on a perso nality-driven program like The Pat McAfee Show.

“His point that personality-driven programming has overtaken highlights, he’s well within his rights to note that,” Kimes said, via Awful Announcing. “But others are well within their rights to note that he’s espousing that opinion on a personality-driven program that employs him as a personality during the NFL season. That context does matter here.”

Mina Kimes on Aaron Rodgers calling out ESPN's personality-driven programming:

"He's espousing that opinion on a personality-driven program that employs him as a personality during the NFL season." pic.twitter.com/vO2zesrOEo
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) December 12, 2024

Kimes also asserted that Rodgers may be using his statement on The Pat McAfee Show in order to show that criticism of his play on the field this year is unfounded. She said that while he has the right to believe that criticism of his play is wrong, he's the wrong messenger to be making the case.

“The other context that matters,” Kimes continued. “There is some subtext that he is saying some of the criticism perhaps of his play this year might have been unfounded. Again, he is totally well within his rights to note that. But a lot of the criticism this year is substantiated because of his play. And I guess that’s why I come away from this feeling like there is a lot of validity to this message, but it does seem like the wrong messenger at this moment.”

Getty Images

Aaron Rodgers has rarely been afraid to speak his mind on an issue, no matter how it makes him look. But he clearly wanted to get that message about the state of sports media off his chest for a while now.

Rodgers is in the midst of the worst season of his NFL career. He's 3-10 as a starter with 2,966 passing yards, 20 touchdowns and eight interceptions through 13 games.

This article first appeared on The Spun and was syndicated with permission.

More must-reads: