Looks as though Aaron Rodgers wasn’t banned from ESPN’s Pat McAfee show after Jimmy Kimmel controversy
Aaron Rodgers appeared as a guest on “The Pat McAfee Show” on Thursday, just one day after the host expressed on ESPN how happy he was that the New York Jets quarterback would no longer be making his regular appearances for the rest of the NFL season.
Rodgers originally had been scheduled to continue his weekly appearances, known on the show as “Aaron Rodgers Tuesdays,” throughout the NFL playoffs. But McAfee decided to discontinue the segment for the remainder of the season because of the recent controversy over comments Rodgers made on the show about comedian Jimmy Kimmel, a person familiar with the situation but unauthorized to speak about it publicly told The Times on Wednesday.
The person added that there had been no discussions on whether Rodgers will return to the show next football season.
“So ‘Aaron Rodgers Tuesday, Season 4’ is done,” McAfee said on Tuesday’s show, referring to Rodgers’ weekly segment on his show during football season. “There could be a lot of people who are happy with that, myself included to be honest with you. The way it ended, it got really loud — real loud.”
Host Jimmy Kimmel brings his public feud with NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers to the late-night stage, slamming the ‘too arrogant’ football star.
So viewers may have been surprised Thursday when McAfee brought Rodgers back on the show for a remote appearance. Rodgers stayed on topic (Bill Belichick parting ways with the New England Patriots, Nick Saban retiring as Alabama’s coach) during the relaxed, five-minute conversation. None of the recent controversies were mentioned.
After Rodgers’ appearance, McAfee explained that he had reached out to Rodgers because he knew the quarterback wanted to pay his respects to Belichick. McAfee also discussed his comments about Rodgers the previous day and the reactions they received.
“So yesterday I’m just getting absolutely crushed,” McAfee said. “I’m like, how do I explain to all these humans that, like, Aaron Rodgers has an offseason too, that he enjoys doing and this is how this has always kind of gone with ‘Aaron Rodgers Tuesday’?”
McAfee added: “That was wild. We were getting absolutely killed. They’re like, ‘You turned your back on Aaron Rodgers!’ It’s like, do you know how many things I’ve been through with Aaron Rodgers just in our short relationship? It’s like, yeah, I was not pumped to be in the middle of any of that. We all have friends that put us in situations where we’re like, ‘Did we hafta?’”
McAfee has given the often controversial Rodgers a weekly platform during the last four football seasons, with this season being the first since McAfee’s show was picked up by ESPN in May.
The fight for accountability now raging in the courts, and the court of public opinion, is so vital and at times worrying — because it’s unclear who is winning from week to week, hour to hour.
Speaking on the show Jan. 2 about the Jeffrey Epstein court documents that had yet to be released at the time, Rodgers said, “There’s a lot of people, including Jimmy Kimmel, really hoping that doesn’t come out.”
Kimmel, among many others, took that to mean Rodgers was suggesting the late-night host would be mentioned in that document (he wasn’t), and threatened legal action in a tweet and dedicated a seven-minute monologue Monday to defending himself and slamming Rodgers.
McAfee apologized Jan. 3 on behalf of his show for Rodgers’ comments. Rodgers did not apologize when he returned to McAfee’s show Tuesday, claiming he had never suggested that Kimmel was on the Epstein list.
On Wednesday, McAfee found himself talking about Rodgers yet again.
“Aaron Rodgers is a Hall of Famer. He’s a four-time MVP. He’s a massive piece of the NFL story. Whenever you go back and tell it, he will be a huge part of it. We are very lucky to get a chance to chat with him and learn from him,” McAfee said.
“Some of his thoughts and opinions piss off a lot of people, and I’m pumped that that is no longer gonna be every single Wednesday of my life, which it has been for the last few weeks. ... And I’m also pumped that I don’t have to do these types of talks anymore.”
ESPN declined to comment for this report.
The documents are part of a case brought by Virginia Giuffre against Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime girlfriend, who was convicted of child sex trafficking.
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