Pat McAfee hints Aaron Rodgers WILL return to weekly guest spot on ESPN show after Jimmy Kimmel fallout

Could Aaron Rodgers be making more than one triumphant return this NFL season? Pat McAfee appears to believe so.

McAfee is remaining hopeful that the New York Jets quarterback will return to his hit ESPN show this season. 

Rodgers had made weekly guest appearances on McAfee's eponymous program until the end of the 2023-24 NFL regular season when comments he made about Jimmy Kimmel on the show sparked backlash. 

However, McAfee, speaking at ESPN's media day in Bristol, Connecticut, Wednesday, teased the possibility of the four-time MVP resuming his long-standing Tuesday appearances.

'I think it will end up happening,' the former NFL punter said about Rodgers' potential ESPN comeback.

Pat McAfee (L) said he's optimistic that Aaron Rodgers (R) could make a return to his show

'There's a good chance that you probably see Aaron on Tuesdays again, but he's got a lot going on right now.'

'If so, I would be incredibly honored to get a chance to continue the conversation of a comeback story for a four-time MVP in a city that has been desperate for a win forever, since Broadway Joe (Namath) came out and made the promise (before Super Bowl III) and a team that has a massive amount of fans.

'That story, riding along this season with him, would be amazing, and it'll probably be used in every documentary about Aaron Rodgers 10 to 15 years from now. I would assume a lot of our clips would be in there.'

During a January episode of the Pat McAfee Show, Rodgers had appeared to suggest that Kimmel's name would appear on the list of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein's associates.

'There's a lot of people, including Jimmy Kimmel, who are hoping that list doesn't come out,' he said. However, the Jets quarterback later denied suggesting Kimmel was on the list.

Speaking on the McAfee Show after his initial comment, Rodgers said, 'I totally understand how serious an allegation of pedophilia would be... so for him to be upset about that, I get it.' 

McAfee himself addressed the outrage at the time, claiming the former Super Bowl winner was 'just s***-talking Kimmel'.

And on Wednesday, the former-NFL-player-turned-media-personality acknowledged once again that he and the rest of the crew had to handle the fallout sensitively.  

Rodgers had made weekly appearances on the ESPN program until January 2024

'Last year with how everything went down, I think we all kind of understood, "we get past it now, we move forward and we look in the next season,"' he told the reporters gathered at ESPN's Bristol campus. 

McAfee acknowledged that he had faced accusations of not pushing back enough on some of Rodgers' conversations but clearly the risk did not outweigh the reward for the host.

'Every single time he comes on, you're getting an opportunity to listen to a guy that's going to be a Mount Rushmore in history of football,' he said. 

'I've heard some people talk in the business about how I don't push back. I'm just there to kind of hopefully introduce a man that did not talk to the media much for 13 years to the world.' 

The former NFL kicker's wildly popular YouTube show was licensed to ESPN in 2023 but continues to run on YouTube while blocks of it are also simulcast on ESPN and streamed on ESPN+. 

McAfee hit back when questioned whether 'journalistic standards' should apply to his show by a member of the 50 or so journalists at the ESPN Media Day.

'I felt like there was kind of a calculated attack seemingly taking place on me and my show because of how different we are, because of the journalistic standards that we don't adhere to,' he said. 

'We have no journalism school people on staff. I did not do anything with an agent. I negotiated the deal myself. So those are two powerful groups that potentially were cut out of my operation completely. [...] A lot of legitimate people I had a lot of respect for before this whole thing started kind of just made me look like a complete a**hole.'

The quarterback had appeared to suggest that Jimmy Kimmel was on the Epstein List

'I understand that you may have a lot of reasons to potentially hate me,' he added 'I think they're misguided. I would appreciate if you would give me and my guys a chance. I think we're helping out sports media as a whole in the future. 

'I think we're going to get some things wrong and we apologize for that. But whenever you're ripping our s**t and trying to kill us, I think "journalistic standards" certainly is problematic. We want to be good for sports in sports media. We want to build sports. And we'd appreciate if you just gave us a fair shot.' 

Rodgers suffered a season-ending achilles tear just four snaps into his career as a New York Jet in last season's home-opener. 

The signal caller is expected to return to the field for the Jet's Week 1 game against the San Francisco 49ers on 'Monday Night Football' on September 9. 

And if McAfee gets his wish fulfilled, Rodgers may be making his return to another ESPN show in the near future too.