Aaron Rodgers
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New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers will no longer appear on ESPN's Pat McAfee Show.
McAfee announced the news on his show Wednesday.
“Aaron Rodgers Tuesday Season 4 is over,” McAfee said as his staff applauded. “There will be a lot of people who will be happy with it, including me, to be honest. At the end it got really loud. I’m glad that won’t be my mentions in the future, that’s great news.”
“Aaron Rodgers is a Hall of Famer, he’s a four-time MVP. He's an important part of NFL history when you look back and say he's going to be a big part of it,” McAfee added. “We are very lucky to be able to talk to him and learn from him. However, some of his thoughts and opinions get on a lot of people's nerves, and I'm thrilled that this will no longer be every Wednesday of my life, as it has been for the past few weeks.”
Rodgers had appeared on McAfee's show every Tuesday as part of the “Aaron Rodgers Tuesdays” segment (Alabama football coach Nick Saban also has a branded segment on Thursdays), and McAfee confirmed that Rodgers was paid for his recurring segment.
Of course, the segment has become a national story in recent weeks after Rodgers claimed (apparently in jest) that ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel was concerned about the release of the “Epstein” list.
McAfee ultimately apologized for his show's role in the fold, saying, “I can understand” why Kimmel – a fellow Disney executive – would be upset. Rodgers himself appeared on McAfee's show on Tuesday (seemingly for the last time), where he responded to Kimmel's comments by pivoting to a discussion about the COVID-19 vaccine.
In the midst of it all, McAfee also claimed that a top ESPN executive, Norby Williamson, was “trying to sabotage his show.”
“On Friday, of course, I threw us into the fire,” McAfee joked about the incident, adding that he will “stand by that forever.”
McAfee occupies an unusual position within ESPN. He produces his own show and ESPN simply licenses it from him, giving him much more autonomy than other ESPN hosts.
The host said Wednesday that the arguments between Rodgers and Kimmel ultimately gave ammunition to people who simply don't like his show.
“Over the last week we've certainly given them a lot of things to get upset and loud about, but in this particular aspect we made a mistake,” McAfee said. “I mean, we are a conversation show, people have conversations, we live in a country where there is freedom of speech. But you also have to deal with the consequences of your freedom of expression.”