Charles Barkley Says If He Was Jimmy Kimmel He’d ‘Punch Aaron Rodgers In The Face’

Charles Barkley has never been afraid to speak his mind on any topic, so it should come as no surprise that he was fully prepared to offer his thoughts on the Jimmy Kimmel-Aaron Rodgers feud that has been the leading topic of the sports media world for the last week.

Rodgers went on The Pat McAfee Show said Kimmel wouldn’t want the Jeffrey Epstein list to be revealed, which led to Kimmel threatening legal action and ripping the Jets QB on his late night show. ESPN issued an apology for the “dumb” comments and McAfee did a halfway apology himself before bringing Rodgers back on this week. Rodgers responded by not apologizing but hoping everyone could move forward (and getting mad at ESPN for apologizing for him), with McAfee then announcing Rodgers would not be making his any more of his weekly appearances during the NFL playoffs.

While joining CBS Mornings on Wednesday to promote his new CNN show with Gayle King, Barkley was asked how he would’ve responded if he was in Kimmel’s place, and he said very succinctly “I’d have punched him in the face.”

“I’d have punched him in the face,” Barkley said, with King asking what that meant. “You know what the hell punched him in the face means. I think when you’re in the limelight people get to say things about you, that goes with the territory. But when you start comparing people, saying you hanging out with pedophiles and people having sex with underage girls, that’s dangerous. I love how Jimmy responded, but like — I don’t know Aaron Rodgers, he’s always been cordial, I’ve said hello to him a couple times. But you can make fun of celebrities, that goes with our territory, but that’s slander. When you say he hangs out with pedophiles and people having sex with underage girls…hell yeah I’d punch him in the face.”

I do love the “you know what the hell punched him in the face means,” because while so many people speak metaphorically in the media world, Charles absolutely means what he says — he even joked he didn’t know what metaphorically or rhetorically meant. King will learn that soon enough on their show together, and Chuck will get to tackle all manner of stories outside the world of sports with his typical bluntness and humor.