ESPN talk show host and former NFL player Pat McAfee wrote a lengthy post on X yesterday regarding his previous comments on New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers’ departure from his show in an attempt to clear the air.
Yesterday, McAfee appeared to cave to ESPN’s demands to ban Rodgers from his show over his controversial comments about the COVID-19 vaccine and the Jeffrey Epstein court documents. McAfee had specifically said he was “happy” that he no longer had to deal with the fallout from Rodgers’ comments, and said freedom of speech has “consequences.”
But McAfee claims that Rodgers was not formally suspended from “the Pat McAfee Show,” saying that it has “always been a season thing” and that he “never said [Rodgers] will never be on the show again.”
He claimed Rodgers was already scheduled to end appearances on the show for the rest of the season prior to the reignition of his feud with Jimmy Kimmel. However, McAfee doubled down on his desire to move away from politics and made it clear he no longer wants to chase political or cultural controversy.
“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.”
McAfee went on to distance himself from political discourse, lamenting the fact that his show has been caught in the crosshairs of the national cultural wars.
“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..
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..”
McAfee was seemingly referring to retired NFL quarterback Brett Favre’s lawsuit against the show in spring 2023.
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He concluded by thanking his team and his fans for helping him build the show and toasted to its future. “I’m thankful for them… and we just want to talk shit about sports. See you tomorrow. Cheers.”
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… pic.twitter.com/h3befnizy9
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) January 10, 2024
Rodgers had joked on a previous episode of “The Pat McAfee Show” that the forthcoming Jeffrey Epstein court documents had made a lot of people nervous, “including Jimmy Kimmel.” The late-night talk show host lashed out at Rodgers on X and threatened him with a lawsuit.
Kimmel also delivered a monologue about the comments on his show and invited Rodgers to apologize. McAfee had apologized on-air to Kimmel on Rodger’s behalf, and said “We apologize for being a part of it.” That was evidently not enough, and there seems to have been turmoil behind closed doors at ESPN due to Kimmel’s threats.
McAfee made headlines over the weekend for insulting ESPN executive Norby Williamson, accusing him of trying to sabotage his show. When his comments blew up, McAfee addressed it live and said he took nothing back but made it clear he is not against ESPN’s leadership at large.
For the record, this is what McAfee specifically said about Rodgers on January 10th:
“What we do know is that the guys who stopped by yesterday caused quite a conversation… So Aaron Rodgers Tuesday Season Four is done. There’s gonna be a lot of people who will be happy with that—myself included, to be honest. The way it ended, it got real loud, real loud. I’m happy that that is not going to be in my mentions going forward, which is great news. We’re a conversation show, people are having conversations. We live in a country that has freedom of speech, but also you’re going to have to deal with the consequences of your freedom of speech.
So what I’m saying is, we’ve given a lot of people who have been waiting for us to fail a lot of ammo and things to attack us for over the last week, and we would love to get back to the point where we just move on and continue to silence all the haters over here who can’t negotiate as good as I can, all the people over here who can’t create a show as good as us, and all the people up here who will always be here and they’re gonna hustle and do their thing which I respect—but we need to do that, and that is our focus, that is our goal.
And Aaron Rodgers is a hall-of-famer. He’s a four-time MVP, he’s a massive piece of the NFL story: whenever you go back and tell it he will be a huge part of it. We’re very lucky to get a chance to chat with him and learn from it. Some of his thoughts and opinions, though, do piss off a lot of people, and uh, I’m pumped that is no longer gonna be every single Wednesday of my life, which it has been for the last few weeks. On Friday obviously I threw us into the fire as well—forever stand by that. Everything else though, like—just can’t do that, and not what we want to be known for. And I’m also pumped I don’t have to do these types of talks anymore. So with that being said: sports are ALIVE right now!”
Disappointed by McAfee’s approach!
Disney/ESPN won.
Aaron Rodgers suspended from "The Pat McAfee Show" after his comments on Jimmy Kimmel.
McAfee said he was "happy" Rodgers wouldn't be back on the show because of the drama it caused.
— Patrick Bet-David (@patrickbetdavid) January 10, 2024
Shane Devine is a writer covering politics, economics, and culture for Valuetainment. Follow Shane on X (Twitter).
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