Aaron Rodgers and Jimmy Kimmel Go to War

Whoever had this little number on their 2024 bingo board, congratulations, I guess…?

By Kylie Cheung  |  January 3, 2024 | 2:10pm
Aaron Rodgers and Jimmy Kimmel Go to War
Photo:Shutterstock

Aaron Rodgers, the 40-year-old quarterback who’s been on medical leave from his day job for the last few months, made his weekly, wholly unnecessary appearance on The Pat McAfee Show on Tuesday. And the man came armed with a hit list that included just one name: Jimmy Kimmel. When Rodgers’ former teammate, A.J. Hawk, inexplicably asked him about the highly anticipated list of names of Jeffrey Epstein associates that’s expected to be made public this week, Rodgers snidely suggested Kimmel’s name would be on it. “It’s supposed to be coming out soon. There’s a lot of people, including Jimmy Kimmel, that are really hoping that doesn’t come out,” Rodgers said, without a shred of evidence. “I’ll tell you what, if that list comes out, I definitely will be popping some sort of bottle.”

Kimmel promptly responded via tweet by threatening, in no uncertain terms, to sue Rodgers for his accusations. “Dear Aasshole: for the record, I’ve not met, flown with, visited, or had any contact whatsoever with Epstein, nor will you find my name on any ‘list’ other than the clearly-phony nonsense that soft-brained wackos like yourself can’t seem to distinguish from reality,” Kimmel wrote on Tuesday night. “Your reckless words put my family in danger. Keep it up and we will debate the facts further in court.”

For those curious: Yes, as random as this heated Tuesday night exchange may be, it isn’t completely random. About a year ago, Rodgers first brought up the Epstein list on The Pat McAfee Show in March, implying that U.S. government disclosures about UFOs at the time were an orchestrated distraction from the list, which could include prominent U.S. politicians: “Did you hear about the Epstein client list about to be released?” Rodgers said. “There’s some files that have some names on it that might be getting released pretty soon.” Kimmel then mocked Rodgers’ comments on his late-night show, playing a clip of Rodgers, calling him a “tin-foil hatter,” and saying that “it might be time to revisit the concussion protocol, Aaron.”

Rodgers’ latest comments seem to be an attempt to fire back at Kimmel’s 2023 jokes about him. But surely there are better ways to defend yourself from accusations that you’re a crazy conspiracy theorist than by…baselessly accusing someone of being a pedophile???

Here’s hoping Kimmel’s threats to sue will de-escalate things, but given Rodgers’ tendency to never let any of his outlandish beliefs go, I really can’t say what happens next.