Does anyone out there think ESPN is second guessing their investment in the Pat McAfee brand?
There’s certainly been a fair share of controversy since The Pat McAfee Show climbed aboard the ESPN mother ship, and to be honest, a lot of it has revolved around one of the program’s reoccurring segments. Every Tuesday, the show welcomes in Aaron Rodgers, and he’s had a lot of controversial things to say so far this year.
In the latest edition of “what will Aaron say this week,” Rodgers suggested that longtime late night host Jimmy Kimmel will be named on the Jeffrey Epstein client list when it is ultimately released. While he was on Pat McAfee’s show earlier this week, the Jets QB said this:
“That’s supposed to be coming out soon… There’s a lot of people, including Jimmy Kimmel that are really hoping that doesn’t come out. If that list comes out, I definitely will be popping some sort of bottle.”
The guys on the show just laughed off Rodgers’ commentary as an “oh Aaron” moment, but those words have actually caused a lot of trouble.
Suggesting that another high-profile person could be associated with someone that was charged with a felony and is viewed as a “monster” is a very dangerous thing to do, and Kimmel obviously wasn’t a fan of the allegations.
He fired back at Aaron on social media with a long message which ended with the late night host threatening to sue:
“Dear A**hole: 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.”
Love the fact that Kimmel spelled it “Aasshole.” A very small detail, but a hilarious one at that…
So when The Pat McAfee Show fired up today, the main host of the show had no choice (I’ve got a feeling there was a nudge from ESPN) but to address everything that had flamed up as a result of what Rodgers said on the program.
McAfee did his best to deescalate the situation by saying his unscripted show can sometimes lead to some harmless, off-the-rails moments:
“There’s no scheduled conversations. There’s no scheduled debates. There’s no topics to think about before you get in there. There is just an opportunity to talk about damn near everything for three and a half hours.
In doing so, the upside of that is that some magic can come that you never knew was going to come. Good times to be had, laughter to be had…
On the flip side, there can be some things that were certainly (and) probably meant to be sh*t talk jokes that can then become something that is obviously a very serious allegation. I can see exactly why Jimmy Kimmel felt the way he felt, especially with his position. But I think Aaron was just trying to talk sh*t.”
McAfee went on to point out that he doesn’t like the fact that his “positive show” is ever associated with any sort of negativity, and hoped that Rodgers and Kimmel could settle things outside of court.
He also said he can’t wait to see what Aaron has to say about all of this, and just going off of recent history, maybe they’d be better off not hearing Rodgers’ thoughts on the matter?
