Aaron Rodgers Tuesday might be done for the season, but that didn’t stop the quarterback from joining The Pat McAfee Show on a Thursday.
McAfee opened his show on Wednesday by addressing all the drama surrounding Rodgers’ contributions, confirming season four of the quarterback’s segments have concluded.
“There will be a lot of people who are happy with that, myself included,” McAfee said, noting that he was “pumped” to get a break from dealing with the backlash that inevitably comes with Rodgers’ delving into topics that have nothing to do with football.
What followed, were claims that Rodgers was censored by ESPN and betrayed by McAfee in response to the quarterback insinuating reckless accusations about ABC host Jimmy Kimmel last week, capped by his attack on the “woke establishment” this week.
But after sounding like even he had enough of Rodgers this season, McAfee decided the world has not yet had enough of Aaron Rodgers, with the polarizing quarterback joining the program Thursday afternoon. Despite a rash of narratives implying otherwise, Aaron Rodgers was not censored, banned or betrayed by ESPN and Pat McAfee.
Thursday morning began with reports that McAfee was being bumped from ESPN for a day in favor of SportsCenter and a Bill Belichick press conference, along with rumors that Rodgers had been dumped from the show. Thursday afternoon began with Rodgers and McAfee both appearing on ESPN, perhaps as a way of trolling anyone who implied any sort of cancellation of the quarterback. Which is especially ironic considering Rodgers has cried being cancelled and censored, just not on Thursday.
In a surprising plot twist, Aaron Rodgers is on The Pat McAfee Show, which is airing on ESPN, to talk football pic.twitter.com/HpYWRRdXOJ
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) January 11, 2024
This season was the fourth consecutive where Rodgers made weekly appearances on The Pat McAfee Show while his team was still playing. Previously, when his team’s season was over, Rodgers would still join McAfee’s show on occasion, just not on a weekly basis. Still, it seemed like McAfee was looking forward to a more than 48-hour break from Rodgers this year.
But in a surprising plot twist, Rodgers’ latest appearance was not to pour gasoline on a feud with Jimmy Kimmel, nor was it to share conspiracy theories, attack the “woke establishment” or challenge Dr. Fauci to a debate. Rodgers joined the show to talk football, specifically Nick Saban’s retirement and Bill Belichick’s departure from the New England Patriots.
“Yesterday, I’m just getting absolutely crushed,” McAfee said after Rodgers signed off from his Thursday appearance. “I was like, ‘How do I explain to all these humans that like, Aaron Rodgers has an offseason too that he enjoys doing. And this is how this has always kind of gone with Aaron Rodgers Tuesday…Now last year, a little different cause of the whole situation that was taking place.”
The “situation” being Rodgers contemplating retirement last offseason before ultimately working with the Green Bay Packers to get traded to the New York Jets.
“That was wild, we were getting absolutely killed,” McAfee said of the response to his earlier announcement that Rodgers would not return to the show this season. “They were like, ‘You turned your back on Aaron Rodgers!’ Do you know how many things I’ve been through with Aaron Rodgers in our short relationship? I was not pumped to be in the middle of any of that.”
In response to getting “killed,” McAfee penned a sort of angry tweet Wednesday night to address the rumors about his partnership with Rodgers.
“He’ll make random surprise welcomed pop ins during big events or offseason adventures but, it’s always been a season thing,” McAfee wrote. “I never said he’ll never be on the show again. I hope he chooses to still chat with us.”
Hours later, Rodgers was on the show again, choosing to still chat with McAfee and his cast of contributors.
