Just one day after Pat McAfee announced Aaron Rodgers would no longer appear on his show this NFL season, the ESPN host welcomed him back.
On Thursday’s episode of “The Pat McAfee Show,” the host brought the New York Jets quarterback onto the show to talk about his relationship with Bill Belichick upon news the coach was leaving the New England Patriots.
“Joining us now to chitchat about massive names being amicably departed from two teams and at a very, very high level is a four-time NFL MVP and a man who is a Super Bowl champion,” McAfee said. “Ladies and gentlemen, the last human Bill Belichick talked to on the field as the New England Patriots head coach: Aaron Rodgers.”
Rodgers noted that he’s in the woods enjoying off-season activities as the regular NFL season ended Sunday night.
McAfee had said on his show Wednesday that the weekly segment of “Aaron Rodgers Tuesday” was done for the season, noting, “There are going to be a lot of people that are happy with that, myself included to be honest.”
Rodgers had caused a stir last week after appearing to suggest on the show that late-night host Jimmy Kimmel was going to be named in unsealed documents connected to accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
Speaking Wednesday on the blowback from Rodgers’ comments about Kimmel, McAfee said the incident gave his critics ammunition against the show. “And over the last week, we have certainly given them all a lot of stuff to get mad about and become loud about,” he said. “We’ve messed up in that particular aspect.”
“We are very lucky to get a chance to chat with him and learn from him. Some of his thoughts and opinions, though, do piss off a lot of people,” McAfee said. “And I’m pumped that that is no longer going to be every single Wednesday of my life, which it has been for the last few weeks.”
McAfee on Thursday lightly touched upon yesterday’s announcement, saying, “We were getting absolutely killed. They were like ‘You turned your back on him!’”
“It’s like, do you know how many thing I’ve been through with Aaron Rodgers? Yeah, I was not pumped to be put in the middle of that,” he said.
McAfee noted this is how his show has usually gone with Rodgers, he’d appear on Tuesdays during the football season, but when it’s off season, he’d enjoy his time off the field.
Rodgers, however, appeared on “The Pat McAfee Show” following the 2022 regular season, even doing stints before and after the Super Bowl.
