Aaron Rodgers Sacked: ESPN’s Pat McAfee Show Drops Divisive NFL Star Amid Jimmy Kimmel Feud
Touchdown for Jimmy Kimmel.
NFL loudmouth/noted conspiracy theorist Aaron Rodgers will not be returning to ESPN’s The Pat McAfee Show for the remainder of the current football season, the host announced Wednesday. The move comes after the Jets quarterback linked Kimmel to pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, causing a huge headache for ESPN parent Disney (which also employs Kimmel, whose late-night show airs on ABC).
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“So ‘Aaron Rodgers Tuesday,’ Season 4 is done,” McAfee told his audience at the top of Wednesday’s show, referring to Rodgers’ weekly appearances. “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 real loud.”
According to CNN, the decision to end Rodgers’ regular Tuesday guest stints “was due to his recent behavior, not the conclusion of the regular NFL season.”
To recap: Earlier this month, Rodgers suggested on McAfee’s show that Kimmel may soon be outed as one of Epstein’s associates, promoting this social media response from Kimmel: “For the record, I’ve not met, flown with, visited, or had any contact whatsoever with Epstein, nor will you find my name on any ‘list’ other than the clearly-phony nonsense that soft-brained wackos like yourself can’t seem to distinguish from reality. Your reckless words put my family in danger. Keep it up and we will debate the facts further in court.”
Kimmel followed that terse statement with a seven-minute rant against Rodgers on Monday’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!, during which he called the QB “a hamster-brained man,” adding, “Aaron Rodgers is too arrogant to know how ignorant he is.”
Rodgers, in turn, responded to the escalating backlash Tuesday on McAfee’s show, stopping short of an apology but clarifying that he doesn’t think Kimmel is a pedophile: “I’m not stupid enough to accuse you of that with absolutely zero evidence,” he maintained. “That’s ridiculous.” He also condemned fans who were labeling Kimmel a pedophile after his comments: “Don’t do that in my name. Don’t do that at all. Those are serious accusations meant for people who are on the list.”
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