Pat McAfee on Wednesday apologized for airing feedback that Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers made towards Jimmy Kimmel on McAfee’s ESPN tv present a day earlier suggesting the late-night discuss present host had a connection to the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
“Some issues clearly folks get very pissed off about, particularly once they’re that severe allegations,” McAfee mentioned. “So we apologize for being part of it. I can’t wait to listen to what Aaron has to say about it. Hopefully these two will simply be capable to settle this, , not work-wise, however be capable to chitchat and transfer alongside.”
Talking on his weekly Tuesday look on McAfee’s tv present on ESPN, Rodgers, a four-time winner of the N.F.L.’s Most Precious Participant Award, prompt that Kimmel, the host of “Jimmy Kimmel Dwell!” on ABC, was acquainted with Epstein, who was accused of getting intercourse with minors and in 2019 died by suicide whereas in jail. Epstein was a longtime buddy to highly effective politicians and enterprise executives, and the names of a few of his associates are anticipated to be publicly launched quickly in courtroom paperwork.
“There’s lots of people, together with Jimmy Kimmel, actually hoping that doesn’t come out,” Rodgers mentioned on McAfee’s present. Kimmel denied the allegations on X, previously referred to as Twitter, and threatened potential authorized motion towards Rodgers.
“Your reckless phrases put my household in peril,” Kimmel mentioned. “Stick with it and we are going to debate the information additional in courtroom.”
ESPN and ABC are owned by Disney, inserting McAfee and each entities in an uneasy scenario. The predicament highlights the leeway ESPN provides McAfee, together with the common appearances by Rodgers, who has used his time on the present to talk out towards vaccines and even challenged Travis Kelce to a debate throughout a latest look. In October, McAfee confirmed a report that Rodgers had been paid over $1 million to seem on the present.
Spokesmen for ABC and ESPN didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.
ESPN signed McAfee, a former N.F.L. punter, to a reported five-year, $85 million contract final yr to carry his in style digital present to the community and to seem on different programing. The rent got here as ESPN underwent layoffs as a part of an total cost-cutting technique from Disney.
McAfee stands out among the many community’s different personalities, typically utilizing profanity on what had lengthy been family-friendly programming and eschewing the same old business-casual apparel for tank tops. Although he has scaled again on the coarse language, ESPN has hoped his present’s freewheeling format would entice new viewers because the community’s enterprise mannequin modifications.
“We’re not placing a swimsuit and tie on him,” Burke Magnus, ESPN’s president of content material, advised The Wall Avenue Journal in September.