McAfee also informed his viewers that he’s “pumped” that’s the case.
“So ‘Aaron Rodgers Tuesday, Season 4’ is done,” McAfee said, referring to the New York Jets quarterback’s weekly segment on his show during football season. “There could 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 — real loud.”
Rodgers had been scheduled to make his weekly appearances throughout the NFL playoffs, but McAfee decided to discontinue the segment at this time, a person familiar with the situation but unauthorized to speak about it publicly told The Times.
The person added that there have been no discussions on whether Rodgers will return to the show next football season.
Rodgers is an NFL superstar, and an outspoken and often controversial one at that. McAfee has given Rodgers a weekly platform during the last four football seasons, with this season being the first since McAfee’s show was picked up by ESPN in May.
Speaking on the show Jan. 2 about the Jeffrey Epstein court documents that had yet to be released at the time, Rodgers said, “There’s a lot of people, including Jimmy Kimmel, really hoping that doesn’t come out.”
Kimmel, among many others, took that to mean Rodgers was suggesting the late-night host would be mentioned in that document (he wasn’t), and threatened legal action in a tweet and dedicated a seven-minute monologue Monday to defending himself and slamming Rodgers.
McAfee apologized Jan. 3 on behalf of his show for Rodgers’ comments. Rodgers did not apologize when he returned to McAfee’s show Tuesday, claiming he had never suggested that Kimmel was on the Epstein list.
On Wednesday, McAfee found himself talking about Rodgers yet again.
“Aaron Rodgers is a Hall of Famer. He’s a four-time MVP, he’s a massive piece of the NFL story whenever you go back and tell it, he will be a huge part of it. We are very lucky to get a chance to chat with him and learn from him,” McAfee said.
“Some of his thoughts and opinions piss off a lot of people, and I’m pumped that that is no longer gonna be every single Wednesday of my life, which it has been for the last few weeks. … And I’m also pumped that I don’t have to do these types of talks anymore.”
ESPN declined to comment on this report.