As it turns out, going onto television and implying that someone might be on the list of Jeffrey Epstein’s clients isn’t going to go over all that well. In a statement released on Friday afternoon, ESPN spokesperson Mike Foss released a statement regarding a recent appearance Aaron Rodgers made on Pat McAfee’s show where the New York Jets quarterback speculated that Jimmy Kimmel’s name could pop up in the recently-released documents related to Epstein’s court case.
BREAKING NEWS: ESPN Is Apologizing For Aaron Rodgers' comments about Jimmy Kimmel on @PatMcAfeeShow.
“Aaron made a dumb and factually inaccurate joke about Jimmy Kimmel. It should never have happened. We all realized that in the moment,” says ESPN's Mike Foss.
Story coming.
— Michael McCarthy (@MMcCarthyREV) January 5, 2024
“Pat announced today that he’s planning on Aaron joining the show Tuesday. Aaron made a dumb and factually inaccurate joke about Jimmy Kimmel,” Foss told Front Office Sports. “The show will continue to evolve. It wouldn’t surprise me if Aaron’s role evolves with it.”
“There’s a lot of people, including Jimmy Kimmel, who are hoping that list doesn’t come out,” Rodgers said during his weekly appearance on McAfee’s show, which is broadcast on ESPN. It’s worth mentioning that ESPN and ABC, the network that airs Jimmy Kimmel Live!, are both owned by Disney.
Unsurprisingly, Kimmel was pretty pissed about all of this, going as far as to threaten legal action against Rodgers if he continued to go down this road. McAfee attempted to do some damage control on his show in the aftermath of Rodgers’ appearance, making the bizarre argument that while he understood Kimmel’s frustration here, “I think Aaron was just trying to talk sh*t.”
Rodgers’ appearances on McAfee’s show have caused plenty of controversy in the past, as the All-Pro quarterback has used the platform to do things like spread misinformation regarding COVID vaccines. Recently, it was reported — and McAfee confirmed — that Rodgers is paid for his appearances on the show.
