Another day, another ESPN executive getting put on blast on “The Pat McAfee Show.”
On Tuesday, Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers made his customary appearance, and he opened up about the history of his back-and-forth with Jimmy Kimmel, denying that he insinuated that the ABC late-night host would be on the Jeffrey Epstein list.
Rodgers, 40, then took aim at Mike Foss, ESPN’s senior vice president of production who oversees the network’s collaboration with McAfee’s show.
“I don’t understand the Mike Foss comment, and he didn’t help out either,” Rodgers said.
Foss, 35, gave statements to Front Office Sports and the Washington Post last week about Rodgers’ remarks on Kimmel.
“Aaron made a dumb and factually inaccurate joke about Jimmy Kimmel. It should never have happened. We all realized that in the moment,” Foss said.
Rodgers responded to this statement.
“Mike, you’re not helping. I just read earlier exactly what I said,” Rodgers said.
“This is the game plan of the media. This is what they do. They try and cancel. It’s not just me. It’s nowhere near just me. You look at all the different people who have been censored from the internet, especially during Covid — the canceling that went on, the censorship, using the government to try and censor people — and if that doesn’t work, they go to name calling.
“I mentioned all the names that I’ve been called, and they don’t stick, because I’m not anti-vax. I’m interested in informed consent, and things that are in the best interest of my body. I’m not a MAGA. I’ve never had any affiliation with anybody associated with that movement, which is OK if you are though! There’s different opinions all over the place. If that’s your ideology, that’s fine! I’m not a super political person. Do whatever you want. Conspiracy theorist? That’s fine. Because if you’re looking at the track record of conspiracy theorists in the last few years, they’ve been right about a lot of things.”
Foss and an ESPN spokesperson declined to comment to The Post in response to Rodgers’ appearance.
Rodgers threw in a barb at Kimmel, who accused the quarterback Monday night of believing himself to be more of an intellectual than his education would dictate.
“I’m glad that Jimmy is not on the list. I really am. I don’t think he’s the p-word [pedophile]. I think it’s impressive that a man who went to Arizona State and has 10 joke writers can read off a prompter,” Rodgers deadpanned.
ESPN and ABC, where Kimmel is a longtime star host, are both under the Disney umbrella.
Rodgers brought Foss up again later in lengthy interview.
“How many people actually watched the clip, and how many people saw a headline?” Rodgers asked. “I don’t think Mike Foss watched the clip. I don’t even know who that is. I don’t work for you, Mike.”
Rodgers’ former teammate and McAfee co-host, A.J. Hawk, asked him which part of Foss’ statement he did not enjoy.
“Made a dumb and factually incorrect joke,” Rodgers answered.
Foss was the first managing editor of USA Today’s For the Win sports vertical and was a VP of digital sports content at Fox Sports before joining ESPN in 2017.
McAfee suggested everything would get smoothed over when Rodgers and Foss met in person.
McAfee had twice put longtime ESPN executive Norby Williamson in his crosshairs over the past week.
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