‘I‘m Not Accusing Jimmy Kimmel‘: Pat McAfee Sidekick Aaron Rodgers Attempts to Move On
If Aaron Rodgers was bothered by Jimmy Kimmel’s rant last night, he didn’t look it during today’s appearance on The Pat McAfee Show.
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The quarterback, always calm and collected in the face of a pass rush, was ready to take on the controversy that he ignited last week, if for no other reason than so “the woke establishment who’s tuned in for this can move on with their day.” The Rodgers defensive strategy went like this:
Kimmel Started It
The history of the Kimmel/Rodgers war goes back to COVID times, according to Rodgers. Kimmel has joked about the quarterback’s immunization status, although “I’m not going to get into this.” (Don’t worry, he got into this.) Rodgers took issues with Kimmel’s opinions on unvaccinated people in general, and “he even gave a platform to Dr. Fauci, one of the biggest spreaders of misinformation.”
It was unclear what either man’s vaccination opinions had to do with Rodgers’ comments about the Epstein list.
Rodgers Never Called Kimmel a Pedophile
Rodgers pulled out a piece of paper to quote himself verbatim about the Epstein list, claiming that he was joking about his excitement to expose corruption and heinous crimes. “Last week, I said, ‘A lot of people including Jimmy Kimmel are hoping it doesn’t come out.’”
But the quarterback wasn’t accusing Jimmy of being on the list, Rodgers said. He was only joking that Kimmel would be mad if Rodgers was right. “I totally understood how serious an allegation of pedophilia would be,” he said. “I get it. But I’m not stupid enough to accuse (Kimmel) of that with no evidence.”
Rodgers hoped that he and the comedian could find common ground around two points: That the alleged Epstein crimes were heinous and that anyone on such a list should be investigated.
ABC Executives Made Things Worse
Rodgers then called out Mike Foss, an ABC/ESPN executive who oversees The Pat McAfee Show, for pouring gasoline on what might otherwise have been a small brush fire. Last week, Foss put out a statement that said in part, “Aaron made a dumb and factually inaccurate joke about Jimmy Kimmel.”
“Mike,” Rodgers said, “you’re not helping.”
To McAfee’s credit, he told Rodgers that he’d be pushing back on the quarterback’s claims and there were some mild attempts to do so. McAfee suggested to Rodgers that because Kimmel’s name has been linked to Epstein rumors in the past (... er, what? Is anyone fact-checking McAfee?), some might have assumed that Rodgers was trying to confirm the Kimmel/Epstein connection.
Rodgers set the record straight for a final time with a clarification, not an apology. “I’m not accusing Jimmy Kimmel,” he said, “and I’m ready to move forward.”
Then the two men discussed Anthony Fauci for an extended period because Rodgers just gotta Rodgers. McAfee tried to put on his journalist hat and push Rodgers on his facts, but the quarterback wowed the host by citing “credible studies” at odds with Fauci’s stance on vaccination.
McAfee was duly impressed: “You have more research than any other human that exists.”
He knows, Pat, he knows.