Well, that was fast. Some 24 hours after Pat McAfee announced Aaron Rodgerswould no longer appear on his eponymous ESPN show, the controversial New York Jets quarterback made a surprise return at the top of Thursday’s show.
In an effort to discuss Thursday’s NFL bombshell news that Bill Belichick is stepping down as the New England Patriots coach after 24 seasons and six Super Bowl wins, McAfee introduced Rodgers as “the last human that Bill Belichick talked to on the field as the New England Patriots’ head coach.” The Jets closed out their disappointing NFL season last week with a 17-3 win against the Patriots in Foxborough, Massachusetts.
The appearance, it seems, took at least one of McAfee’s staffers by surprise. An audible “What?!” could be heard after McAfee introduced Rodgers as the show’s guest. Rodgers then went on to share that he’s in “off-season” mode somewhere in the woods. Rodgers then expressed a bit of shock after also finding out that legendary Alabama coach Nick Saban is retiring after 17 years at the helm. That remarkable run included six national championships.
It’s unclear why Rodgers returned to the show after it was announced during Wednesday’s show that the NFL star would no longer appear on the show in the wake of his Jeffrey Epstein claim that reignited his feud with Jimmy Kimmel, whose late-night TV show airs on the same network owned by ESPN’s parent company.
To be fair, McAfee said Rodgers would no longer appear during the regular season, and the NFL is technically in postseason mode. So, that’s one caveat.
“So, ‘Aaron Rodgers Tuesday,’ season four is done,” McAfee announced at the top of Wednesday’s The Pat McAfee Show. “There could be a lot of people that are happy with that. Myself included, to be honest with you. The way it ended, it got really loud, really loud. I’m happy that that is not going to be my mentions going forward, which is great news.”
On Jan. 3, documents revealing the names of dozens of people connected to the disgraced billionaire and late sex offender were unsealed, following a federal judge’s December ruling. Kimmel’s name was not listed.
After making the false suggestion last week, Rodgers on Tuesday returned to the popular ESPN show and essentially walked back his Epstein claim, though he never offered an apology, as Kimmel predicted in his monologue last week.
“I totally understand how serious an allegation of pedophilia would be, so for him to be upset about that, I get it,” said Rodgers, who had a season-ending injuryfour plays into his Jets debut. “Did you watch the quote? Because that’s exactly what I said.”
He continued: “You made a lot of comments about my intelligence, but I’m not stupid enough to accuse you of that with absolutely zero evidence, concrete evidence. That’s ridiculous.”
McAfee, who apologized to Kimmel on his show following Rodgers’ initial Epstein claim, said the controversy surrounding Rodgers and his show was the result of the athlete’s outspokenness.
“We live in a country that has freedom of speech, but also you’re going to have to deal with the consequences of your freedom of speech,” McAfee said. “So, what I”m saying is we’ve given a lot of people who have been waiting for us to fail a lot of ammo in things to attack us over the last week.”
Now, following Rodgers’ ouster from the show, McAfee essentially said he’s sticking to sports moving forward because rants like Rodgers’ is not something he wants his show “to be known for.”
“Aaron Rodgers is a Hall of Famer. He is a four-time MVP. He is a massive part of the NFL story whenever you go back and tell it,” McAfee said. “We are very lucky to get a chance to chat with him and learn from him. Some of his thoughts and opinions, though, do piss off a lot of people. And I’m pumped that that is no longer going to be every single Wednesday of my life.”
