Lots of people are chiming in on the feud between NFL star quarterback Aaron Rodgers and late night host Jimmy Kimmel — and one of the most prominent ones is ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith.
Smith hopped on his podcast, “The Stephen A. Smith Show,” on Wednesday, Jan. 3 to talk about the issue involving Rodgers and Kimmel which happened on ESPN airwaves on “The Pat McAfee Show.”
The ESPN host addressed Rodgers — who he said he believes is “a good dude” — and gave him some advice.
“Let me say this to Aaron Rodgers: Jeffrey Epstein has nothing to joke about,” Smith said. “Aaron Rodgers should apologize, just plain and simple.”
Smith expounded by saying that an apology should not be viewed negatively like it sometimes is by society.
“In this world, we got people that’s scared to apologize if you’re wrong because it incriminates you somehow, someway to be exposing yourself for being wrong. Damn all that. We’re human beings first. If I said something egregiously wrong about somebody, and they point out factually that I’m wrong, I’d apologize,” Smith said.
Related: Jimmy Kimmel calls out Aaron Rodgers, suggests potential lawsuit
Rodgers and Kimmel’s feud dates back to last year when the late night host called the NFL quarterback a “Green Bay Wack-Packer” on an episode of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” On Tuesday, Rodgers went on “The Pat McAfee Show” — where he is a weekly guest — and suggested that Kimmel was going to be a part of the infamous Jeffrey Epstein client list that is expected to be revealed soon.
Kimmel responded on X (formerly Twitter) to deny the allegations and suggested that he could sue the injured NFL quarterback, likely for defamation.
Smith, who was actually a guest host on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” in 2021, also believes that Kimmel was “right to react the way he did” on social media.
The day after Rodgers made his statements on “The Pat McAfee Show,” the former NFL punter opened his show by addressing the feud.
“I can see exactly why Jimmy Kimmel felt the way he felt, especially with his position. But I think Aaron was just trying to talk shit. Now did it go too far? Jimmy Kimmel certainly said that was the case,” McAfee said. “We obviously don’t like the fact that we’re associated with anything negative ever … we apologize for being a part of it. Can’t wait to hear what Aaron has to say about it. Hopefully those two will just be able to settle this.”
Related: Stephen A. Smith strongly defends Pat McAfee and Aaron Rodgers on ESPN’s ‘First Take’
Smith defended his new ESPN colleague Pat McAfee by saying that he did not deserve any blame for Rodgers’ statements despite it occurring on his show.
“I can applaud Pat McAfee for apologizing but let me be the first to say he didn’t need to, he didn’t do anything wrong. It’s his show. The show is live. He didn’t know what Mr. Rogers was going to say,” Smith said.
McAfee joined ESPN in September after his show was licensed by the network, with McAfee reportedly receiving $17 million annually in the deal.
An odd subplot of all of this is that Kimmel’s show has been a mainstay on ABC while Rodgers made his statements on ESPN, two networks that are under The Walt Disney Co. DIS family. Disney or ESPN have yet to release any statements on the situation.
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