Well, that didn’t take long.
Approximately 24 hours after announcing Aaron Rodgers would not appear on The Pat McAfee Show for the rest of the season, ESPN’s McAfee took an abrupt u-turn Thursday and welcomed the New York Jets quarterback back as a guest.
On Wednesday, McAfee announced that his show was parting ways with Rodgers for the remainder of the season, in the wake of the football star saying some pretty controversial things about Jimmy Kimmel on the show recently.
“So ‘Aaron Rodgers Tuesday,’ Season 4, is done,” McAfee told his audience on Wednesday. “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.”
“I am happy that he’s not going to be in my mentions going forward, which is great news,” the host added.
Looks like McAfee will likely have to deal with more of said mentions, however, as people across X (formerly Twitter) appeared to be either delighted or horrified with the footballer’s quick return to the broadcast.
Watchers of the show were taken aback by the about-face, but it might not be that surprising given McAfee’s wording in his initial announcement — he said that “Aaron Rodgers Tuesday” was ending, but the quarterback returned on a Thursday. Also, McAfee pledged that Rodgers would no longer appear during the regular season, and the NFL is technically entering postseason territory.
Also, McAfee tweeted Wednesday night that he hoped Rodgers would still come on his show to discuss “big events.”
And Rodgers did return to discuss the bombshell announcement that Bill Belichick is stepping down as coach of the New England Patriots after 24 seasons.
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McAfee introduced Rodgers’ appearance by announcing him as “the last human that Bill Belichick talked to on the field as the New England Patriots’ head coach,” referencing the Jets’ final game of their disappointing season last week when they defeated the Patriots 17-3.
This time, however, his appearance was brief and Rodgers didn’t go off on any tirades about Jimmy Kimmel, Jeffrey Epstein or delve into debunked COVID-19 conspiracy theories.
The Rodgers/Kimmel feud
Rodgers, 40, sparked a firestorm of fury last week after he suggested on McAfee’s show that Kimmel’s name will eventually surface on the list of Epstein’s associates.
Rodgers said there are many people, “including Jimmy Kimmel,” who do not want the contact list belonging to Epstein to be publicly released.
“I’ll tell you what, if that list comes out, I’ll definitely will be popping some sort of bottle,” added Rodgers, who appeared to be sitting inside a wine cellar.
A furious Kimmel responded shortly after, taking to X to re-share the clip and deny he’s ever met the late financier and convicted sex offender. He also threatened to take legal action against Rodgers.
“Your reckless words put my family in danger. Keep it up and we will debate the facts further in court.”
Kimmel, 56, also laced into the New York Jets player during his Monday night monologue on ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!
“Either he actually believes my name was going to be on Epstein’s list — which is insane — or the more likely scenario is he doesn’t actually believe that and he just said it because he’s mad at me for making fun of his top knot and his lies about being vaccinated,” Kimmel said in his lengthy rant, where he also called Rodgers “hamster-brained” and joked the two ‘A’s’ on his report card were “both in the name Aaron.”
“It might be time to revisit that concussion profile, Aaron,” Kimmel said.
While McAfee issued an apology to Kimmel last week, Rodgers stopped short of doing so during Tuesday’s appearance on McAfee’s show and doubled down on COVID conspiracy theories.
“I said that a lot of people, and I’m quoting myself here, ‘a lot of people — including Jimmy Kimmel — are really hoping that [list] doesn’t come out,’ end quotes, that’s what I said,” Rodgers told McAfee.
“I was referring to the fact that if there is a list — which, again, this hasn’t come out yet, this was just a deposition — and there are names on it, then that would be the second time that a soft brain, junior college student, you know, wacko anti-vax, antisemite, purveyor, spreading misinformation, conspiracy theorists, MAGA — whatever other things have been said by him and other people in the media — would be right twice.”
“Any type of name calling is ridiculous and I’m not calling him (a pedophile), and neither should you,” Rodgers continued.
Even after that, he said he didn’t care what Kimmel said about him, “but as long as he understands what I actually said and that I’m not accusing him of being on a list … I’m all for moving forward.”
— with files from Global News’ Sarah Do Couto and The Associated Press
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