Aaron Rodgers and Jimmy Kimmel have been engaged in a back-and-forth as of late, which was initiated after Rodgers suggested that Kimmel might be revealed as an associate of Jeffrey Epstein. Kimmel later clapped back on social media, mentioning that he might take legal action against the athlete over that claim or any additional ones. Kimmel shared a lot of thoughts on the matter this week when he blasted Rodgers during an opening monologue on his eponymous talk show host. After that, the quarterback is now breaking down his feud with Kimmel amid what’s been “a very interesting week” for the both of them.
Several days ago, the NFL veteran appeared on ESPN’s The Pat McAfee Show, on which he’s a frequent contributor, and the topic of the Epstein list came up during a discussion. It was at that point that Aaron Rodgers said “there’s a lot of people, including Jimmy Kimmel, who are really hoping [the list] doesn’t come out.” It was sometime after that Kimmel took to X himself and called out the footballer for sharing the “reckless words.” Those sentiments were followed by the aforementioned monologue nearly a week later.
The Green Bay Packers alum returned to Pat McAfee’s program on Tuesday, January 9, to discuss the matter, and a clip was shared on X. He began his address by noting just how eventful a week this has been for him and mentioned that “a lot has been said” and that “a lot of people have been taking shots” at him. He then proceeded to discuss the host of the long-running ABC talk show and explained why they currently don’t see eye to eye:
The history of this – whatever this is between Jimmy and I – this goes back to COVID times, right? And in COVID times, he mentioned, on his show, jokes about my immunization, which I know [, Pat,] you also made a little joke about it. … But made a joke about that, and the fact that, you know, [I did] my own research. He didn’t just stop there, though, you know? He made a lot of other comments about unvaccinated people, mentioning that they don’t deserve treatment. That if they’re at a hospital, they shouldn’t be given a hospital bed. [He talked about] repurposed drugs that were being used all over the world that have incredible safety profiles that were derogatory. … He gave a platform to one of the biggest spreaders of misinformation during the COVID times – Dr. Fauci.
Aaron Rodgers made headlines when he contracted COVID during the 2021 NFL season, after previously saying he was “immunized” against the virus. It was eventually revealed that he had not taken the vaccine and, a year later, he admitted to having misled the public on that front. During November 2021, Kimmel chastised Rodgers for his medical stance, mentioning (in the YouTube clip from the show) that “the risk of dying from COVID is 11 times higher if you aren’t vaccinated.” Kimmel referred to the debate as a “dumb conversation” and also referred to the former Jeopardy! guest host (who wanted Alex Trebek’s job) as a “wack Packer.”
The Super Bowl winner referred to those comments as “Ls” on the host’s part, as he says the vaccine was proven to be unsafe. He then shifted his attention towards his comments regarding Jeffrey Epstein, which also included a quip about “popping some sort of bottle” once the list was released. When discussing the situation, the 10-time Pro-Bowler said:
Fast forward to again, unprompted, we’re talking on our show as we do about a lot of different topics. Somehow the Epstein client list comes up, and I said it’s interesting… But we said there’s an excitement to exposed corruption. And what I joked about the other day about popping a bottle, there’s excitement about when the corruption anywhere gets exposed and people who are accused of these heinous crimes get exposed, that will be nice. that we can get this all out in the open. That’s not there. So I made this comment on the show, whenever that was last year.
He wasn't done after that either. He shared additional details on the latest batch of Jeffrey Epstein-related sentiments he shared on air:
And uprompted, he comes out and says that I’m an overly concussed wacko, in my opinion, because I believed that there was a list and that there were names on that. Then we fast forward to this last week, right? And I said that a lot of people including Jimmy Kimmel are really hoping that doesn’t come out. That’s what I said, that’s the entire quote. I was referring to the fact that if there is a list – which again, this hasn’t come out yet, this was just a deposition and there are names on it – then that it would be the second time that a soft-brained junior college student, wacko, anti-vaxx, antisemite, spreader of misinformation, conspiracy theorist, MAGA, whatever other things have been said by him and other people in the media would be right twice.
Aaron Rodgers went on to say that he “understand[s] how serious an allegation of pedophilia would be” and can understand why Jimmy Kimmel would be “upset” about that. He also said that he’s not “stupid enough” to accuse Kimmel of something like that “with absolutely zero, concrete evidence is just ridiculous.” Additionally, the star quarterback said he’s “glad” the host isn’t on the list. These statements all come after Kimmel said during his monologue that Rodgers “has a very high opinion of himself, because he had success on the football field.” The media personality also stated “that this hamster-brained man thinks he knows what the government is up to because he’s a quarterback, doing research on YouTube and listening to podcasts.”
This back-and-forth has taken a number of turns since this all began. So all in all, the sports star seems to have said his piece on the subject. It’s currently unclear whether the ABC veteran will feel compelled to speak out again.
