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A prominent New York media member is urging the Jets to force quarterback Aaron Rodgers to leave the Pat McAfee Show. He believes his presence on the show is bringing too many negative headlines to the organization.
Rodgers made waves this week with comments about late night television host Jimmy Kimmel, joking that he should be nervous about the recently released Jeffrey Epstein client list.
The baseless accusation quickly went viral, sparking a reaction from fans, media, and Kimmel himself.
Rodgers’ remarks resulted in a dilemma for Disney ownership with the spat involving a pair of direct employees – Pat McAfee, who has the passer on his ESPN show weekly, and Kimmel, who works for ABC.
McAfee addressed the situation shortly after, while ESPN has remained silent.
While potentially becoming a problem for ESPN and Co., New York media member Gregg Giannotti believes Rodgers is a liability for his own employer – the New York Jets.
In a recent radio segment with former NFL quarterback Boomer Esiason, he urged the team to force their signal caller to leave the show.
“He’s gotta get off that show and the Jets have to do something about it.” pic.twitter.com/JPSjnUXvkX
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) January 3, 2024
“If I’m Woody Johnson, I’ll find a way to get you whatever you’re getting paid from McAfee. I’ll find you a way. Robert Kraft found all sorts of different ways to get Tom Brady paid,” Giannotti said. “I’ll get you that million dollars. You can’t do the show anymore. You can’t. You’re killing us. You killed us for an entire year. Everybody has to respond to it.”
Giannotti referenced a similar situation that took place in Pittsburgh while Ben Roethlisberger was under center for the Steelers.
“Ben Roethlisberger used to go on a local radio station in Pittsburgh and say all this stuff on the show about the team that he never said when he was in the locker room to the assembled media… Until the point where they shut it down.”
The Rodgers situation has gotten to the point where the word ‘lawsuit’ is being tossed around, amplified by the fact that Jimmy Kimmel’s name was nowhere to be found on the first round of released Epstein documents.
While Aaron Rodgers is a draw for McAfee, he’s become a headache for the Jets organization in Year 1. It will be interesting to see if the team does anything to either tone down or completely remove their quarterback’s presence on the show.
Based on Rodgers’ history in contentious situations, it doesn’t seem he’d go out quietly.