Ol’ Aaron Rodgers has been stirring up a heap of drama on The Pat McAfee Show. It all started last week when the New York Jets quarterback started to discuss the Epstein files, and he said that Jimmy Kimmel doesn’t want the list to come out.
“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.”
And naturally, Kimmel was PISSED at that insinuation that he was somehow implicated, and even said that he was going to take legal action against Rodgers for his accusations:
“Dear Aasshole: 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.”
A number of people took that to mean that Aaron Rodgers was suggesting that he was ON the list. However, Aaron later clarified that their beef goes back to when Aaron first mentioned the list, and Jimmy suggested that Aaron was a conspiracy theorist lunatic because of it. Jimmy also made fun of him over his stance on vaccinations, so Aaron argued that he would simply be proven right (and Jimmy wrong) if there was an actual list released… not necessarily that Jimmy was on it, himself.
So whether you believe Aaron Rodgers or not, and whether it was reckless or not, that was Aaron’s reasoning:
And just to be clear, no list was ever released. Court documents of witness testimony were released… not the results of any kind of investigation and names of people who participated in illegal and disgusting actions.
But to add insult to injury, Kimmel also went on his show to talk sh*t about Rodgers for a whole seven minutes:
“When you hear a guy who won a Super Bowl and did all the State Farm commercials say something like this, a lot of people believe it.
A lot of delusional people honestly believe I’m meeting up with Tom Hanks and Oprah’s at Shakey’s once a week to eat pizza and drink the blood of children.
And I know this because I hear from these people often. My wife hears from them, my kids hear from them, my poor mailman hears from these people, and now we’re hearing from lots more of them thanks to Aaron Rodgers, who I guess believes one of two things: either he actually believes my name was gonna be on Epstein’s list, or the more likely scenario is he doesn’t believe that he just said it because he’s mad at me for making fun of his top knot and his lies about being vaccinated…
He floated these wacko ideas that these UFO sightings that were back in the news in February were being reported to distract us from the Epstein list.”
So that brings us to today, and the vast amount if misinformation out there.
Yesterday, McAfee announced on his show that Rodgers was done making his normal Aaron Rodgers Tuesday appearances for the season, adding that things got “real loud” towards the end with the war between Rodgers and Kimmel. Which it did.
We know cancel culture sucks, but when McAfee announced this, many speculated that Rodgers was being “kicked off” the show because of the whole situation going on, and that ESPN was involved, McAfee was caving to the pressure, etc… a number of popular Twitter accounts even shared the news saying that McAfee bent the knee. But it was clear to Whiskey Riff (and anyone else who watches The Pat McAfee Show) that Aaron’s time on the show has always coincided with the NFL regular season… which is now over. Sure, Aaron will pop in here and there, and did last year after the Packers didn’t make the playoffs, but for the most part, it’s an NFL season segment.
Pat has stated that he has 100% creative control over the guests on his show, as negotiated in his contract with ESPN. And while, it’s easy to see that Aaron’s comments have had Pat’s mentions exploding over the past couple weeks, Pat also fired up the mention machine himself when he called out executives at ESPN. He admits as such…
Pat McAfee’s Statement
In a lengthy statement on Twitter (AKA X), McAfee clarified a number of things, primarily that Rodgers wasn’t kicked off the show, and they hope to have him back for Season 5 of Aaron Rodgers Tuesdays next season:
“A lot of you are talking very wild about me and our progrum.. I assume you are very new to us. We are a sports show that tries to inform folks of what’s going on and have a good time with good vibes… Everyday. We do not bat 1000 but we feel as if we do make solid contact A LOT…
Our people found us because of that. We’re wildly lucky for the folks that enjoy taking mental vacations with us.. Monday-Friday.. 48 weeks a year. We take a lot of pride in making folks’ lives a little bit happier or better. This past year with our show’s going to College towns on Fridays, I got to chat with a lot of folks that watch our show.
I loved learning about them and then I would normally learn about how they started watching our show.. There was always a “buddy referral” story.. then there was the other stories about folks going thru some sh*t and we were there to hangout with them as they battled thru whatever they were going thru.
I haven’t polled our crowd but I’m rather certain that nobody’s wanting to come hangout with us to hear us talk about politics. I think it’s probably a massive reason for our success actually… so all of this has been a good reminder of what we’re good for, and who we’re good for. Some day, I’ll try and build up enough of a brain to dive into the politics world but that time is nowhere near now..”
He then went on to explain the Aaron Rodgers situation:
“Also.. Our fans know that ART ends shortly after Aaron’s team’s season ends.. that’s how it’s been. He’ll make random surprise welcomed pop ins during big events or offseason adventures but, it’s always been a season thing. I never said he’ll never be on the show again. I hope he chooses to still chat with us.
We’ve been lucky the last 4 years to ride the wave of a season with a 4X NFL MVP (2 of which during The ART Era) and get his thoughts along the way.. in real time. I certainly don’t love that I’ve found myself in political wars and public beefs because of something that a guest has said on our show or something that my dumbass has said.. including a lawsuit that was VERY public.. but I think what I’ve come to realize is that it’s gonna come with the territory of this venture.
We are much more aware of that now. And, for the good of our lives, happiness, and mana .. we’re gonna try and avoid as many as possible. I say all that to say this…I have a lot of pride in what the boys, our fans, and I have built. We found what we’re good for.
There was a lot of different points during our journey that it could’ve ended or stopped or slowed down.. because of the entire team, we’ve kept rollin… I love them. I’m thankful for them… and we just want to talk sh*t about sports. See you tomorrow.”
