Pat McAfee Ends 'Aaron Rodgers Tuesdays' After Drama

Aaron Rodgers' comments about Jimmy Kimmel and Jeffrey Epstein have gotten the Jets quarterback booted from future appearances on the Pat McAfee Show, at least for this season. The drama between Rodgers and Kimmel escalated during Rodgers' Tuesday appearance on the ESPN show, and on Wednesday, McAfee said he's ending his weekly "Aaron Rodgers Tuesday" segments. "The guy who stopped by yesterday caused quite a conversation," McAfee said on Wednesday's show, per NBC News. Explaining that Rodgers was becoming too much of a distraction, he continued, "So 'Aaron Rodgers Tuesday,' season 4 is done." McAfee later clarified he has no intention of Rodgers "never" appearing on the show again, and hopes he will be back at some point, the New York Post reports.

Applause followed from McAfee and his staff, though, on the show after he announced that ART would end immediately rather than running through the Super Bowl as had been planned. "There are going to be a lot of people ... happy with that, myself included to be honest," McAfee said. "Over the last week, we have certainly given [critics of the show] all a lot of stuff to get mad about and become loud about. We've messed up in that particular aspect. ... The way it ended, it got really loud, really loud. I'm happy that that is not going to be my mentions going forward which is great news." He acknowledged the freedom of speech Americans enjoy, but said there are still consequences of some speech, and that since he has full creative control over his show's content, he gets to decide who exercises their free speech rights on his show and who doesn't.

McAfee did praise Rodgers, a Super Bowl champion and four-time MVP in the NFL, and added, "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. 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." Sources say McAfee is paying Rodgers in full for this season of ART, for which Rodgers is said to make $1 million per year. (More Pat McAfee stories.)