Broadcaster throws Jets star out: Aaron Rodgers makes unfounded accusations against Jimmy Kimmel

What’s going on when one of the best NFL quarterbacks fires poison darts at one of the greatest show hosts in the USA? Aaron Rodgers and Jimmy Kimmel are having a crazy mud fight that’s gotten completely out of hand these days. These are serious allegations – until Rodgers is fired.

Suddenly the superstar quarterback is feuding with one of the country’s biggest entertainers? In the USA these days, a special mud fight is dominating the news away from the NFL pitch: Aaron Rodgers, playmaker for the New York Jets, and the comedian and late-night show host Jimmy Kimmel are arguing via TV appearances and social media.

The feud is not new, but it has reached a completely new level of escalation. Poison arrows fly back and forth in a completely crazy way. It’s about serious allegations, conspiracy theories, threats of impeachment, half-hearted backtracking – and ultimately Rodgers is fired from a TV job.

In the last NFL season, Rodgers and his team at the time, the Green Bay Packers, were unable to qualify for the playoffs. His successor Jordan Love, who is playing his first season as starting quarterback, did better and his Packers will duel with the Dallas Cowboys tonight (10:30 p.m./RTL) for a place in the Divisional Round, the second round of the playoffs. Rodgers, on the other hand, had a season to forget, tore his Achilles tendon on the first day of the game, never returned to the pitch and attracted attention off the pitch.

Rodgers puts Kimmel in touch with Epstein

While his Jets missed the playoffs, Rodgers continued his job as a weekly pundit on “The Pat McAfee Show.” A daily, extremely successful sports talk show on the TV channel ESPN, which is hosted by former NFL punter McAfee and reaches almost a million people with each episode. On January 2nd, Rodgers caused a stir when he verbally attacked Kimmel on air. During that now-infamous appearance, he implied in his statements that Kimmel’s name would appear in court documents linked to Jeffrey Epstein. False and dangerous claims without any evidence.

Epstein is a convicted sex offender and pedophile who killed himself in prison in 2019 before he could be charged in court with sex trafficking. The current US court case of alleged abuse victim Virginia Giuffre recently granted the public access to court documents relating to Epstein released by the US judiciary.

Rodgers said, “A lot of people, including Jimmy Kimmel, are really hoping that doesn’t come out.” He went on to say he would “pop the corks” if Kimmel was on the list. However, his name was not found in the 943-page document that the Southern District of New York unsealed on January 3, nor in other Epstein files published in the following days. Most of the names in the documents, including some high-ranking figures, had previously been publicly mentioned, but the case continues to spark conspiracy theories and wild speculation.

Kimmel threatens legal action

Kimmel was less than pleased when Rodgers linked his name to the documents and Epstein. On the X platform, formerly Twitter, he denied any ties to Epstein and also threatened the three-time NFL MVP with legal action.

“For the record, I have not met Epstein, nor flown with him, nor visited him, nor have I had any contact with him, nor will you find my name on any ‘list,'” Kimmel wrote. He further said that Rodgers believes in “obviously fake nonsense that crackpots like you can’t distinguish from reality.” The entertainer then threatened: “Your reckless words are putting my family in danger. Keep it up and we will discuss the facts in court.”

But the dispute and escalation did not end there. Next, Kimmel used his TV stage. On his late-night show on Monday, he described Rodgers as having a “hamster brain” and suggested via cameras that he “revise his concussion profile.” An allusion to the many and sometimes serious head injuries suffered by NFL professionals. Plus, “a decent person would apologize,” Kimmel said. “But he probably won’t.”

Kimmel jokes on his late night show

In 2021, Kimmel had already criticized Rodgers for the fact that the then-Green Bay Packers quarterback tried to hide the fact that he was not vaccinated against Covid-19 at the height of the pandemic. Rodgers later admitted the deception. Last year, Kimmel called Rodgers a “tinfoil hat wearer” for speaking on The Pat McAfee Show about alleged cover-ups of UFO sightings designed to serve as a distraction from Epstein’s client list.

The entertainer now referred to the earlier points of criticism in his late-night monologue and argued that Rodgers wanted to “hit back” because of it. A guy who went to an inferior college, received a football scholarship and “never studied the human body for a minute of his life” knows more about science than a scientist and suddenly mutates into “an expert in the field of immunology ” he joked.

Rodgers had claimed in 2021 that he was “someone who thinks critically” and that he had researched the vaccines extensively, but was allergic to something in the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. He would rather look for an alternative treatment. Dr. At the time, the NFL professional described Anthony Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, as “one of the biggest spreaders of misinformation.”

ESPN fires Rodgers

Then it was Rodgers’ turn again in the mud fight. Less than 24 hours after Kimmel’s latest comments, he half-heartedly backpedaled on the “Pat McAfee Show”; He denied that he implied that Kimmel was a pedophile and condemned those who make such claims. “I’m not stupid enough, you also think I’m an idiot to accuse you of something like that without any evidence,” the quarterback said to Kimmel. However, he didn’t want to apologize. Instead, he saw himself as a victim of the so-called “cancel culture”, wanted to recognize a “media game plan”, made fun of what he considered Kimmel’s low intelligence and criticized an ESPN boss who had reassuringly said that Rodgers only had “one made a stupid and factually inaccurate joke” about Kimmel.

Ultimately, the feud between Rodgers and Kimmel became too uncomfortable for the Walt Disney company: Both ESPN and ABC, where Kimmel’s late-night show airs, are owned by the parent company. In the final act of the insane mudslinging, Rodgers was fired from his ESPN show on Wednesday and has to watch the NFL playoffs on television.