Aaron Rodgers will not return to “The Pat McAfee Show” for the remainder of the NFL season, the host told his viewers during Wednesday's broadcast on ESPN.
McAfee also informed his viewers that he is “excited” that is the case.
“So 'Aaron Rodgers Tuesday, Season 4' is done,” McAfee said, referring to the New York Jets quarterback's weekly segment on his show during football season. “There might be a lot of people who are happy with that, including me to be honest with you. The way it ended it became very loud, very loud.”
Rodgers had been scheduled to make his weekly appearances during the NFL postseason, but McAfee decided to suspend the segment at this time, a person familiar with the situation but not authorized to speak publicly about it told The Times.
The person added that there have been no discussions about whether Rodgers will return to the program next football season.
Rodgers is an outspoken and often controversial NFL superstar. McAfee has given Rodgers a weekly platform for the past four football seasons, with this season being the first since ESPN picked up McAfee's show in May.
Speaking on the Jan. 2 show about Jeffrey Epstein's court documents that had not yet been released at the time, Rodgers said, “There are a lot of people, including Jimmy Kimmel, who really hope that doesn't come out.”
Kimmel, among many others, understood that Rodgers was suggesting that the late-night host would be mentioned in that document (he was not), and he threatened legal action in a tweet and dedicated a seven-minute monologue on Monday to defending himself and hitting Rodgers.
McAfee apologized on Jan. 3 on behalf of his program for Rodgers' comments. Rodgers did not apologize when he returned to McAfee's show on Tuesday, claiming that he had never suggested that Kimmel be on Epstein's list.
On Wednesday, McAfee found himself talking about Rodgers once again.
“Aaron Rodgers is a Hall of Famer. He's a four-time MVP, he's a huge piece of NFL history. Every time you go back and tell it, it will be a big part of it. “We are very lucky to have the opportunity to talk to him and learn from him,” McAfee said.
“Some of his thoughts and opinions bother a lot of people, and I'm excited that it won't be every Wednesday of my life anymore, like it has been for the past few weeks. …And I'm also excited to not have to give these kinds of talks anymore.”
ESPN declined to comment on this report.
