On Monday, Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers sparked a problem for Pat McAfee and company by suggesting that ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel might be on the notorious Jeffrey Epstein client list. Kimmel took loud exception publicly. Privately, there likely were conversations and communications about how this specific mess, made by Rodgers, would be cleaned up.
Step One, apparently, consisted of McAfee addressing the situation during Wednesday’s show. Minutes into the broadcast, he downplayed Rodgers’s comments as a “shit-talk joke that can then become something that is obviously a very serious allegation that then leads to a massive overnight story.”
McAfee opted to extend an olive branch to Kimmel.
“I could see exactly why Jimmy Kimmel felt the way he felt, especially with his position,” McAfee said. “But I think Aaron was just trying to talk shit. Now, did it go too far in a lot of people’s — Jimmy Kimmel certainly said that was the case.”
Kimmel definitely thinks it went too far. And, frankly, it’s for Rodgers — not McAfee — to explain the situation. While McAfee felt compelled to get out a mop and a bucket of soapy water since this happened on his show, Rodgers is the one who said it. Not McAfee. Rodgers should be performing the cleanup. Not McAfee.
Rodgers should be the one uttering the word “apologize.” Not McAfee. Still, McAfee did it anyway.
“So like we obviously don’t like the fact that we’re associated with anything negative ever,” McAfee added. “We like our show to be an uplifting one, a happy one, a fun one. But it’s because we talk shit and try to make light of everything, some things obviously people get very pissed off about especially when they’re that serious allegations. So we apologize for being a part of it. Can’t wait to hear what Aaron has to say about it. Hopefully those two will just be able to settle it, you know? Not court-wise, but be able to chit chat, move along.”
Rodgers doesn’t have to wait until next Tuesday on McAfee’s show to address it. He’s practicing with the Jets. He can snap his fingers and manifest a gaggle of reporters. He can post an apology on X.
“Remember, you’re allowed to disagree with people’s opinions,” McAfee said. “You’re allowed to say, like, ‘You sound dumb, the more and more you talk, you sound dumber and dumber.’ And then you’re allowed to just move on.”
He’s right. But there’s a difference between opinion and fact. Rodgers made comments suggesting that, as a matter of fact, Kimmel’s name is on the Epstein client list. Whether it was an effort at “shit talk” gone sour or an opinion poorly expressed or an effort to suggest that Kimmel will be dismayed when the list comes out not because his name will be on it but because someone else’s will be, Rodgers went too far.
McAfee did the smart thing here. He has a broader relationship with ESPN and ABC and Disney to consider. His guest was in the wrong, and McAfee knows it.
The question now becomes whether said guest is willing to eat shit when it comes to his own “shit talk.” Tune in next Tuesday to the Pat McAfee Show to find out, apparently.
