NFL fans who are tired of listening to Aaron Rodgers give his hot takes on, well, anything and everything, are in luck.
Pat McAfee announced on Wednesday that the Jets quarterback will no longer be making appearances on his ESPN program, "The Pat McAfee Show." Rodgers had been a weekly guest on the show throughout the NFL season, however, Tuesday's controversial appearance was his final one for the 2023 season.
Rodgers and McAfee have been making headlines over the last week — for all of the wrong reasons. It started with Rodgers insinuating late night TV host Jimmy Kimmel had connections to Jeffrey Epstein on one of his appearances on McAfee's show. That led to Kimmel responded by threatening to sue the "soft-brained whacko."
McAfee later landed himself in a bit of hot water, calling out executives at ESPN for supposedly wanting to "sabotage" his show.
"Some of [Rodgers'] thoughts and opinions do piss off a lot of people," McAfee said Wednesday. "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.
"On Friday, I obviously put us into the fire as well — forever stand by that. Everything else though, just can't do that. Not what we want to be known for."
It's been an eventful few days, but the drama surrounding the show should take a dive now that Rodgers won't be on the program as the NFL playoffs commence.
Here is more on why Rodgers is no longer on the "Pat McAfee Show."
Why Aaron Rodgers no longer on the 'Pat McAfee Show'
Opening the "Pat McAfee Show" on Wednesday, McAfee announced that "Aaron Rodgers Tuesdays, season four, is done."
With the playoffs coming up in the NFL, the Jets quarterback is no longer going to be making his weekly appearances on the ESPN show.
We've given a lot of people who have been waiting for us to fail a lot of ammo the last week..
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) January 10, 2024
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"There are going to be a lot of people happy [with Rodgers no longer appearing on the show]," McAfee said. "Myself included to be honest. The way it ended, it got real loud. Real loud. I'm happy that's not going to be my mentions going forward."
While McAfee has never shied away from controversy, his comments Wednesday indicated the Rodgers drama had gone too far.
"In the last week, we have certainly given them all [the critics] a whole lot of stuff to get mad about and become loud about," McAfee said. "We have messed up in that particular aspect ... we have given a lot of people who have been waiting for us to fail, a lot of ammo and things to attack us for over the last week.
"We would love to get back to the point where we silence all the haters."
While fans may speculate that Rodgers' removal from the ESPN program is directly tied to the recent Jimmy Kimmel drama, that may not necessarily be the case.
Rodgers has been a frequent guest on McAfee's show for four seasons now, including the pre-ESPN era. The quarterback would make weekly appearances during the season. However, once the playoffs began, that was when Rodgers stopped coming on weekly.
Considering McAfee stated that Rodgers is "done for the season" and did not outright say he won't be back on the show, it's certainly possible that by next fall, the controversial signal-caller could return.
