Pat McAfee should be ashamed of himself. At the beginning of his sports talk show on Wednesday, the former NFL punter announced that quarterback Aaron Rodgers would no longer appear on his show this season. The decision came after Rodgers’s controversial (and admittedly stupid) comments last week in which Rodgers made baseless insinuations that left-wing ABC talk show host Jimmy Kimmel might be listed as one of the names connected to the late ephebophile Jeffrey Epstein.
Rodgers’s comment drew a scathing rebuke from Kimmel, who denied any connection to Epstein. He threatened legal action and then proceeded to trash Rodgers during his late-night comedy show monologue. McAfee, however, expressed relief during his show’s opening.
“There will be a lot of people who are happy with that, myself included, to be honest with you. The way it ended, it got really loud,” McAfee said on Wednesday. “I am happy that he’s not going to be in my mentions going forward, which is great news.”
McAfee appeared happy with Rodgers’s removal from the show. However, just a few days ago, McAfee was singing a different tune and pushed back against the criticism of Rodgers. He even went so far as to claim an ESPN executive had a vendetta against him and tried to sabotage his show.
“There are some people actively trying to sabotage us from within ESPN,” McAfee said last week. “More specifically, I believe Norby Williamson is the guy who is attempting to sabotage our program.”
Williamson is the ESPN head of studio production, a pretty important position at the network. Williamson and McAfee have no love for each other. But their feud aside, it was shocking to see McAfee so quick to dismiss Rodgers, especially since the quarterback’s earlier appearances on the show helped McAfee rise to prominence, ultimately landing him a lucrative contract from ESPN.
“Aaron Rodgers is a Hall of Famer, a four-time MVP, a massive piece of the NFL story. Whenever you go back and tell it, he will be a huge part of it,” McAfee said. “We are very lucky to get the chance to chat with him and learn from him. Some of his thoughts and opinions do piss off a lot of people.
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“I am pumped that will no longer be every single Wednesday of my life, which it has been the past few weeks. On Friday, obviously, I threw us into the fire as well. Forever, stand by that. Everything else, though, just can’t do that and not what we want to be known for.”
McAfee’s words starkly contrast with the bombastic loose cannon he portrayed himself as just a few days earlier. The retreat was pretty quick and rather gutless. He’s not the cocky, swaggering, outspoken warrior that he pretends to be. At the end of the day, he’s just another ESPN corporate shill.