Pat McAfee made call to cut Aaron Rodgers’ appearances on ESPN show

Pat McAfee made the decision for the brand. On Wednesday, McAfee announced that Aaron Rodgers would not be continuing his weekly appearances on the former punter’s eponymous show on ESPN this season after the last two spots in particular caused an uproar. The Post’s Andrew Marchand reported earlier that Rodgers had been slated to appear on the program through the Super Bowl and has now confirmed that McAfee made the call to cut the collaboration off early.

Marchand exclusively reported in October that Rodgers makes more than $1 million annually to do these weekly interviews. He is expected to be paid in full by McAfee. McAfee has creative control of the show, which he owns and licenses to ESPN. The Athletic’s Richard Deitsch first reported that McAfee made the decision, which is supported by ESPN.

Last week on the show, Rodgers said that ABC late night host Jimmy Kimmel did not want the Jeffrey Epstein list to come out, a remark that was widely interpreted by the media as a speculative joke that Kimmel’s name would be on there. Kimmel fired back , first on X and then in his show’s monologue , aghast at the insinuation that he was a pedophile and had any connection to Epstein.

The Jets quarterback denied that this was what he’d meant by the comment, and went through the history of potshots Kimmel has taken at him over the years, castigating the quarterback over not being vaccinated for COVID 19 and later calling him a “tin foil hatter” for deadpanning on McAfee’s show that the U.S.

government released UFO disclosures to distract from the upcoming Epstein list. Rodgers also took a shot at Mike Foss , the ESPN senior vice president who oversees the network’s relationship with McAfee’s show, and also criticized Rodgers’ comments about Kimmel. “I don’t understand the Mike Foss comment, and he didn’t help out either,” Rodgers told McAfee on Tuesday.

Foss had given a statement to multiple outlets that “Aaron made a dumb and factually inaccurate joke about Jimmy Kimmel. It should never have happened. We all realized that in the moment.” Rodgers was not happy about the statement. “How many people actually watched the clip, and how many people saw a headline?” Rodgers asked.

“I don’t think Mike Foss watched the clip. I don’t even know who that is. I don’t work for you, Mike.” McAfee himself has taken multiple shots in the last week at ESPN executive Norby Williamson , accusing the nearly four decade veteran of the network of trying to “sabotage” his show. It is unclear at this time whether Rodgers will return to McAfee’s show next season..