New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers made his weekly appearance on The Pat McAfee Show on ESPN earlier this week.
As has been the case throughout his appearances on said show, Rodgers was involved in some major controversy.
The future Hall of Fame quarterback suggested that comedian and light-night host Jimmy Kimmel was somehow involved in the pedophile ring led by the deceased Jeffrey Epstein.
“There’s a lot of people, including Jimmy Kimmel, really hoping that doesn’t come out,” Rodgers said on the show. The four-time NFL MVP went on to say that he’ll “be popping some sort of bottle” when the list comes out.
About that? The Epstein client list dump was released on Wednesday. There was not a mention of Kimmel within it.
This presents an issue for both ESPN and Pat McAfee. Kimmel took to X (formerly Twitter) and threatened legal action over Rodgers’ claims.
“Your reckless words put my family in danger,” Jimmy Kimmel wrote. “Keep it up and we will debate the facts further in court.”
McAfee has since issued an apology.
“Some things obviously people get very pissed off about, especially when they’re that serious allegations,” McAfee said. “So we apologize for being a part of it. I can’t wait to hear what Aaron has to say about it. Hopefully those two will just be able to settle this, you know, not work-wise, but be able to chitchat and move along.”
This is unlikely to diffuse the situation much, especially given the release of the Epstein list on Wednesday without a mention of Kimmel.
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Will ESPN remove Aaron Rodgers from Pat McAfee Show after Jimmy Kimmel feud?
ESPN and ABC are both owned by Disney. Kimmel’s late-night show airs on ABC. Rodgers’ weekly appearance — in which he has been paid over $1 million to appear on — is on ESPN.
See the conflict of interest here? If Kimmel follows through with his suit against Rodgers, it will create some sort of a major issue for Disney to deal with.
ESPN signed McAfee to a five-year, $85 million contract last year to bring his popular show over from FanDuel. The former NFL punter had Rodgers as a regular guest before he made the transition to the four-letter network.
All of this came after Kimmel made fun of Rodgers during one of his programs last March over the quarterback’s push to know the names on the Epstein client list. Kimmel had also in the past made fun of Rodgers’ stance against the COVID-19 vaccines.
It certainly does not put ESPN, ABC or the parent company at Disney in a great position moving forward. It could also lead to them simply opting to remove Aaron Rodgers from his weekly appearance on The Pat McAfee Show.