OAN’s Brooke Mallory
6:11 PM – Wednesday, January 10, 2024
Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers has made his final appearance on The Pat McAfee Show for this season, according to the sports analyst and YouTuber, who announced the news on Wednesday.
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Rodgers, who had received a seven-figure salary each season to appear with McAfee, prompted controversy last week when he brought up Jimmy Kimmel’s name in relation to court records that listed people connected to the now-deceased convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
“There’s a lot of people, including Jimmy Kimmel, who are really hoping that [list] doesn’t come out,” Rodgers said at the time.
Rodgers was initially supposed to appear on the show all throughout the NFL playoffs, according to Andrew Marchand of The New York Post.
Following Rodgers’s insinuation that Kimmel, host of ABC’s late-night show Jimmy Kimmel Live!, could be on Jeffrey Epstein’s client list or that Kimmel could be connected to individuals mentioned in the court documents, Rodgers’s fourth season as a guest on the show culminated in an online spat with Jimmy Kimmel.
Even before the Epstein debacle, Kimmel has a lengthy history of criticizing Rodgers, especially in regards to the football star’s skepticism of COVID-19 vaccines and due to the fact that Rodgers leans more conservative politically, at least in comparison to Kimmel.
Although Kimmel often portrays himself as a very progressive and anti-racist media figure, ironically, CBS News previously reported that Kimmel was forced to apologize for his past sketches when he chose to wear “blackface” and attempted to impersonate Black celebrities, similar to liberal media personality Howard Stern.
Rodgers made his farewell visit on Tuesday, primarily talking about his views on COVID-19 and the Kimmel dispute.
McAfee also made a public statement regarding the decision to let Rodgers go. He initially credited Rodgers for his NFL-related successes, but then subtly criticized him for the Kimmel drama.
“Aaron Rodgers is a Hall of Famer, a four-time MVP, a massive piece of the NFL story whenever you go back and tell it he will be a huge part of it,” McAfee said. “We are very lucky to get the chance to chat with him and learn from him, some of his thoughts and opinions do piss off a lot of people.
“There will be a lot of people who are happy with that, myself included to be honest with you,” McAfee said, regarding his decision to drop Rodgers from the show. “The way it ended, it got really loud. I am happy that he’s not going to be in my mentions going forward, which is great news.”
Rodgers, the former quarterback for the Packers, stated that he would “deal with the issue” on Tuesday.
“I’m going to talk about it tomorrow on the show. Tune in,” Rodgers maintained.
However, during Kimmel’s Monday monologue, the talk show host—whose feud with Rodgers dates back to 2021—added that while he would accept an apology from the Jets athlete, he was not “holding his breath.”
“When I do get something wrong, which happens on rare occasions, you know what I do? I apologize,” Kimmel said. “Which is what Aaron Rodgers should do, which is what a decent person would do. But I bet he won’t. If he does, you know what I’ll do?
“I’ll accept his apology and move on. But he probably won’t do that. My guess is he won’t apologize.”
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