Aaron Rodgers is getting sidelined for a second time during this NFL season. Pat McAfee announced Wednesday that the New York Jets quarterback will no longer appear on his eponymous ESPN show.
The decision was announced just one day after Rodgers doubled down on his feud with Jimmy Kimmel, whose late-night TV show airs on the network owned by ESPN’s parent company. The feud intensified last week when Rodgers falsely suggested Kimmel could’ve been one of the names listed on Jeffrey Epstein’s flight log.
“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.”
