Aaron Rodgers Repeatedly Torches ESPN While Pat McAfee Covers His Face, Launches Into Coughing Fit

Published|Updated

The much-anticipated return of Aaron Rodgers to the Pat McAfee Show on ESPN came on Tuesday afternoon.

After setting off a firestorm last week by mentioning Jimmy Kimmel in the same sentence as the Jeffrey Epstein client list, Rodgers promised to follow-up that appearance by putting the feud to bed.

He mostly did that, but also stirred up some new controversy for ESPN and Pat McAfee. McAfee created his own firestorm when he openly bashed network executive Norby Williamson, accusing him of trying to sabotage the Pat McAfee Show.

He doubled-down on that commentary on Monday's show. But, McAfee doesn't seem eager to start up a beef with a second ESPN executive. At least not publicly.

Pat McAfee covers his face while Aaron Rodgers bashes ESPN live on ESPN television.

Pat McAfee covers his face while Aaron Rodgers bashes ESPN live on ESPN television. (Screenshot: ESPN)

However, Aaron Rodgers was more than happy to do it. Rodgers blasted Mike Foss, a Senior Vice President at ESPN, for the statement Foss put out with regards to Rodgers comments about Jimmy Kimmel.

Here's what Foss said in a public statement: "Aaron made a dumb and factually inaccurate joke about Jimmy Kimmel."

Rodgers took issue with that statement and called Foss out. McAfee, though, did not look particularly pleased when the quarterback mentioned his name.

But Rodgers wasn't done coming after ESPN. And, he backed up his friend Pat McAfee by jumping in on the Norby Williamson-bashing train.

Which, for the record, it does appear McAfee wants to move on from. At least judging from his reaction when Rodgers brought him up on Tuesday.

Finally, Rodgers flames ESPN.com and accuses them of making click-bait headlines designed to enrage fans into reading their articles. The show's crew rightfully points out that most of the Internet does this and is not just an ESPN problem.

Once again, though, McAfee reacts as soon as Rodgers starts bashing his employer. This time, McAfee bursts out into a full-blown coughing attack.

Although ESPN did not publicly punish McAfee for his negative comments, it does appear that someone got to him. Perhaps they simply said, "Hey, Pat ... if you could just tone down the public bashing of our employees on our air, that would be great."

If they did, it seems to have worked. To some degree. Although, Aaron Rodgers is under no such restriction.

At the end of the day, Pat McAfee draws eyeballs to ESPN. So does Aaron Rodgers.

That isn't likely to stop anytime soon.

Tags
Written by
Dan began his sports media career at ESPN, where he survived for nearly a decade. Once the Stockholm Syndrome cleared, he made his way to Outkick. He is secure enough in his masculinity to admit he is a cat-enthusiast with three cats, one of which is named “Brady” because his wife wishes she were married to Tom instead of him.