Stephen A. Smith sticks up for Pat McAfee in Aaron Rodgers-Jimmy Kimmel feud

Stephen A. Smith doesn’t believe Pat McAfee had anything to apologize for.

McAfee apologized to Jimmy Kimmel on Wednesday after Aaron Rodgers speculated Tuesday on McAfee’s show that Kimmel would be on the list of Jeffrey Epstein associates that has been trickling out.

Speaking on his eponymous podcast, Smith absolved McAfee of responsibility for the dustup.

“I can applaud Pat McAfee for apologizing, but let me be the first to say, he didn’t need to,” Smith said, as covered by Awful Announcing. “He didn’t do anything wrong. It’s his show, the show is live, he didn’t know what Aaron Rodgers was going to say.”

It was McAfee’s co-host and Rodgers’ former Packers teammate A.J. Hawk who brought up the Epstein list Tuesday, as Rodgers was speaking tongue-in-cheek about how the official Super Bowl logo foretells a potential Ravens-Niners matchup next month.

Rodgers responded by saying there are people, like Kimmel, who are hoping the Epstein list does not come out.

On his podcast, Smith was of the belief that Rodgers was joking — but he still owed Kimmel an apology.

“I do feel like Pat McAfee hit the nail on the head when he said Aaron Rodgers was just taking a dig at him [Kimmel], he was just joking around, he wasn’t necessarily serious about such a thing,” Smith said. “But let me say this to Aaron Rodgers – Jeffrey Epstein ain’t nothing to joke about. I love Aaron Rodgers, everybody knows he’s a bad man, you know me. But Aaron Rodgers should just apologize. Plain and simple. Just un-complicate the situation. Even if you don’t like Jimmy Kimmel, say that too!”

After Rodgers’ remarks, Kimmel tweeted emphatically that he’s never “met, flown with, visited, or had any contact whatsoever with Epstein,” and threatened to see Rodgers “in court” if the quarterback kept making such insinuations.

Rodgers and Kimmel have been beefing back and forth since 2021 when Kimmel slammed Rodgers for saying he was “immunized” against COVID-19 before it was later revealed that Rodgers was unvaccinated.

“The only thing worse than not getting vaccinated when you’re in close proximity with other people is letting them think you’re vaccinated when you’re not,” Kimmel said during his November 2021 show. “It’s basically the COVID equivalent of ‘The condom fell off.’”

Kimmel also slammed Rodgers earlier this year as a “tin foil hatter” for wryly wondering if U.S. government UFO disclosures were intended as a distraction from the impending release of the Epstein files.