Aaron Rodgers still has a few NFL teams vying for his services. But if he wants to retire and move into sports media, the former Packers and Jets quarterback might find a chilly reception, Front Office Sports has learned.

With the 41-year-old Rodgers at a career crossroads, I spoke with sources at multiple NFL media partners, as well as agents, to gauge his prospects. I found surprisingly little interest in one of the league’s all-time great QBs.

Would NFL TV and streaming partners take a meeting with Rodgers? Of course. Ever since ex-Cowboys QB Tony Romo exploded for CBS Sports in 2017, NFL TV partners have scouted the next great White Whale broadcaster even during their playing careers. 

Sources say Rodgers would get nowhere near the rapturous welcome given to QB contemporaries like Tom Brady, who signed a staggering 10-year, $375 million with Fox Sports in 2022. Peyton Manning was relentlessly pursued by ESPN and Fox for years before doing it his way with Omaha Productions’ ManningCast on ESPN2. Romo set the bar for NFL color commentator salaries with his 10-year, $180 million contract extension in 2020 before some of his contemporaries exceeded that number. 

Rodgers, who will turn 42 in December, is smart, incisive, and highly quotable. Media outfits typically desire those qualities. So what’s the problem? None of the network executives or talent agents I talked to would go on the record. If asked publicly about Rodgers, they’d likely say they’re happy with their current broadcast teams and have no cast openings. Some might choose the all-purpose “If he wants to talk to us, we’d be happy to talk with him.” 

Their main concern, under condition of anonymity, is that Rodgers comes off as a pompous know-it-all who would turn off viewers. His dalliance with COVID-19 conspiracy theories and public feuds with critics like Jimmy Kimmel on The Pat McAfee Show also concern some. With that in mind, the prospect of hiring Rodgers does not thrill executives.

“Yes, he could be a great analyst. But he’s insufferable,” said one source. Rodgers “needs an image rehab,” warned another.

Even if Rodgers declared today that he’s retiring and wants a media job, networks and streamers might not want him. Over the last few years, he’s rubbed many members of the press the wrong way. Even on-air personalities from networks who could potentially hire him have blasted him with both barrels. 

In December, ESPN’s Ryan Clark called Rodgers “arrogant” and “tone-deaf” for his criticism of sports talk shows. “This dude is a fraud. He’s been a fraud. He can throw a football—and that’s where it stops. Once that talent ends, so does him and so does he.” After Rodgers was voted the “most annoying” NFL player in an Action Network poll, Colin Cowherd of FS1 agreed with the results: “He’s exhausting to everybody.”

Still, it’s surprising that a four-time NFL MVP, Super Bowl champion, and future first-ballot Hall of Famer is not drawing major interest. Drew Brees landed a deal with NBC Sports before he even retired from the league. 

There have been unlikeable personalities who got their shot on sports TV. Start with the late, great Howard Cosell, the NFL announcer who many fans loved to hate. Dan Dierdorf was a know-it-all. It didn’t stop him from calling ABC’s Monday Night Football for years. More recently, Fox hired the apathetic Jay Cutler to be its No. 2 game analyst in 2017—before the ex-Bears QB changed his mind and returned to the NFL. Even the late Bob Knight joined ESPN in 2008 after retiring from coaching. To paraphrase the late John Feinstein in A Season on the Brink, the irony of the media-hating Knight joining the media, in any capacity, was almost too funny for words. But it happened.

At this point, we don’t know whether Rodgers even wants to call NFL games or serve on a studio show. The superstar QB has earned a staggering $380.7 million during his 20 NFL seasons, according to Spotrac. He shouldn’t need the money.

Rodgers has earned a reputation for being thin-skinned. He has rabbit ears for criticism—and holds grudges like an elephant, according to Tyler Dunne of “Go Long,” who covered him in Green Bay. That’s not a good combination for somebody in a public-facing media job. Just ask Joe Montana, the four-time Super Bowl champion with the 49ers, who quit his analyst job with NBC, at halftime of Super Bowl XXX no less, when he felt disrespected by his colleagues.

Rodgers has shown he can be interesting and entertaining when he wants to be. His controversial weekly appearances helped make McAfee’s show a national success. McAfee is nothing if not loyal to his crew. If Rodgers wants it, he could likely talk football forever with McAfee & Co. 

Of course, some media companies may not want to telegraph their interest in Rodgers. Circumstances could also change as commentators and analysts move around. 

Right now, the chances of Rodgers landing a top game analyst or studio gig are not high. Certainly, not as high as they should be for a superstar of his caliber.

Caitlin Clark affects TV ratings more than any superstar since the glory days of Tiger Woods. The WNBA won’t make the same mistake as the U.S. Olympic women’s basketball team and keep Clark off the air.

Clark’s Indiana Fever will be featured in no fewer than 41 nationally televised or streamed games, the WNBA announced Thursday. That’s the most of any franchise by far.

Meanwhile, the Las Vegas Aces, led by three-time WNBA MVP A’ja Wilson, will appear in 33 nationally televised games. Breanna Stewart’s defending-champion New York Liberty will get the national TV spotlight 32 times. 

A closer look at the Caitlin Clark Effect on the WNBA’s TV schedule:

• Clark’s Fever will make 10 appearances on ABC or ESPN. Disney’s opening-day coverage on May 17 will include a grudge match between Clark’s Fever and Angel Reese’s Chicago Sky as well as the Aces vs. Liberty.
• CBS will feature Clark in the WNBA’s first-ever primetime games on broadcast television. The network will broadcast a pair of Fever-Sky games on June 7 and Aug. 9.  
• Ion is scheduled to televise eight Clark/Fever games as part of its Friday doubleheader package.

As iconic male superstars like Woods, LeBron James, and Lionel Messi enter the twilight of their careers, the former Iowa star is now arguably the biggest draw in U.S. sports. Clark received the most mentions, male or female, in Morning Consult’s recent poll of America’s favorite active male and female athletes. That was despite going head-to-head with the likes of James, Patrick Mahomes, Steph Curry, Travis Kelce, and Josh Allen. 

“With so much excitement around the player movement that took place this winter through free agency and trades, the WNBA’s broadcast and streaming partners in 2025 will spotlight the league’s superstars, rising stars and must-see matchups like never before,” WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert said in a statement.

Mecum Auctions is driving to a new home. 

The live automobile auction platform is moving from Warner Bros. Discovery’s Motor Trend network to ESPN+, the company confirmed to Front Office Sports. 

The multiyear deal kicks off Thursday for three days of auctions in Glendale, Ariz., and will encompass all 11 of Mecum’s annual live events and more than 180 hours of content. 

Mecum has been televised since 2008, starting on Discovery HD Theater, which later rebranded as Velocity. In 2014, the auctions landed on NBC Sports Network.

“The thought was we needed to expose the collector car hobby and Mecum Auctions to more than just the traditional hardcore car enthusiasts, to bring new eyeballs to what we do,” Mecum CEO Dave Magers told FOS. 

“That worked very well for us until NBC Sports no longer existed, and we went to Motor Trend, back to the traditional car audience, always thinking that we would relish the idea to go back to a more broadened sports network. Of course, when you start talking about sports, the No. 1 name that comes up is the ESPN family. The other thing we’re very excited about is providing our auctions on what we think is the future of broadcasting—streaming.” 

Magers expects about $800 million in car sales at Mecum’s auctions this year. The biggest annual event is in January in Kissimmee, Fla., a 13-day event with $250 million in sales with more than 5,000 cars.

The auctions have a cult audience, and classic cars are starting to encompass the 1990s and 2000s, as millennials come into money and are interested in purchasing symbols of their youth.

One high-profile example came last year when Mecum held an auction in Indianapolis. Live on his ESPN show, Pat McAfee bought a 2002 Cadillac Escalade for $21,000, and he gifted it to one of his producers. 

“About three years ago, we started to see a younger demographic showing up at our auctions—the 25-to-35 group,” Magers said. “We believe that the demographic on ESPN+ will broaden the base, so it won’t just be the older traditional car collectors. What’s interesting about that younger demo is of course we’re all interested in the cars we grew up with, and the cars from 1990 to 2010 or so also interest them, but the younger generation is also very interested in the ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s American muscle cars.”

ESPN+ has about 25 million subscribers, many of whom have the platform in a bundle with Disney+ and Hulu.