Aaron Rodgers will not have a weekly segment on The Pat McAfee Show for the rest of the NFL season, McAfee has announced. Per a report from The Athletic, this is a decision that McAfee himself made and not an ESPN mandate. The news comes after Rodgers pointedly refused to apologize to Jimmy Kimmel during his segment on January 9. Rodgers, who had implied that Kimmel did not want the list of people who had traveled to Jeffrey Epstein's island, argued that he never actually made any specific assertions about Kimmel.
After Rodgers' initial comments, McAfee tried to clear the air between the long-time rivals. While discussing Rodgers' claims about Jimmy Kimmel, McAfee said that Rodgers' comments were "certainly probably just a sh-t talk joke" and that everyone involved should just move on. However, McAfee did note that he understood why Kimmel had reacted so heatedly. Kimmel took further aim at Rodgers this week, dedicating his January 8 monologue to roasting the sidelined quarterback.
Aaron Rodgers Voted "Most Inspirational" By Teammates
While the legal consequences of his spat with Kimmel are unknown, Rodgers is beloved by his team, the New York Jets. Rodgers received the Jets' "Most Inspirational Player" award, as voted on by the other players. "I've said it a million times: He loves his teammates, and his teammates love him. He's so intentional with how he approaches everybody in the building. He's very thoughtful in the way he does things, and he's a tremendous human. Aaron is really well deserving of this award," head coach Robert Salah said.
Not only is Rodgers seen as an "ideal" teammate, but his expedited return from a torn Achilles served as motivation for the rest of the team. While Rodgers would ultimately admit he was not ready to play again, his return to practice just two-and-a-half months after undergoing surgery to repair his torn Achilles was nothing short of miraculous. Despite this, Rodgers maintained that he would return to play for the team if they were still playoff contenders.
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