A week after baselessly accusing ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel of having ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, Aaron Rodgers was back on ESPN’s Pat McAfee Show to lash out at Kimmel again, spout conspiracies and complain about ESPN executives.
On Wednesday, Pat McAfee got a chance to call himself a hero for putting out the very fire he started at ESPN.
McAfee opened the show by saying the Rodgers’ weekly Tuesday calls were done for this NFL season, and the former Colts punter added that he was happy to put that drama behind him for now. The decision, though, didn’t seem to have anything to do with Rodgers’ recent comments.
We've given a lot of people who have been waiting for us to fail a lot of ammo the last week..
Let's chat about sports #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/S7J3FGprv0
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) January 10, 2024
Pat McAfee announced today on his show that Aaron Rodgers is done as a guest for the NFL season.
From everything I understand: McAfee made that call (as I have written he has creative control & control of guest booking).
Obviously, I AM CERTAIN ESPN supports this.
— Richard Deitsch (@richarddeitsch) January 10, 2024
In the few years of Rodgers being a weekly (and paid) contributor to the show, his scheduled calls only took place during the regular season. There were a few exceptions like last year’s call about his darkness retreat during Super Bowl weekend. He also had a Wednesday call in March where he announced his intention to play for the Jets.
So, there are exceptions to that rule. But the timing — with the NFL playoffs starting this weekend — offered some convenient cover for McAfee and ESPN to end the Rodgers calls for now. We’ll have to see if ESPN uses that break to put a permanent end to Rodgers’ Tuesday calls because having him on serves no meaningful purpose.
