Aaron Rodgers back on 'Pat McAfee Show' on Thursday

Aaron Rodgers’ absence from Pat McAfee’s ESPN program, which some thought might be permanent, ended up lasting two days.

The Jets quarterback turned up on McAfee’s show on Thursday to pay tribute to Bill Belichick and Nick Saban, appearing from a location he described only as “in the woods,” with a bookcase behind him and a spotty internet connection.

The visit was noteworthy because it came after McAfee announced on the show on Wednesday that Rodgers no longer would appear this season, then wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, later in the day that he hopes to Rodgers will be back in the future despite the agita it causes the host.

After Rodgers’ segment was over on Thursday, McAfee alluded to the fact some viewers thought he was being too harsh with Rodgers the day before.

“Yesterday, I’m just getting absolutely crushed,” McAfee said. “How do I explain to all these humans that Aaron Rodgers has an offseason, too, that he enjoys doing, and this is how it’s kind of gone with ‘Aaron Rodgers Tuesday?’”

McAfee added, “That was wild. We were getting absolutely killed. (People said), ‘You turned your back on Aaron Rodgers!’ Do you know how many things I’ve been through with Aaron Rodgers in our short relationship?

“Yeah, I’m not pumped to be in the middle of any of that. We all have friends who put us in situations where we’re like, ‘Did we have to?’ I’ve been that guy.”

On Wednesday, hours after announcing Rodgers no longer would visit his show this season, McAfee conceded he needs a break from the sort of drama Rodgers brings with him, preferring to focus on “good vibes.”

“I haven’t polled our crowd, but I’m rather certain that nobody’s wanting to come hangout with us to hear us talk politics,” he wrote. “I think it’s probably a massive reason for our success.”

He added, “Some day , I’ll try and build up enough of a brain to dive into the politics world but that time is nowhere near now.”

Rodgers for the past two weeks has been feuding with late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel, part of ongoing friction between the two over Rodgers’ stance on COVID-19 vaccinations and more recently Rodgers' comments that many took as him tying Kimmel to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.

The Jets quarterback has been a staple of McAfee’s show for four years, but it is unclear what his precise status will be moving forward.

McAfee said Rodgers in the past has made “random surprise” visits in his team’s offseason (such as Thursday’s), “but it’s always been a season thing. I never said he’ll never be on the show again. I hope he chooses to still chat with us.”

But McAfee made it clear the drama has gotten to him, writing, “I certainly don’t love that I’ve found myself in political wars and public beefs because of something that a guest has said on our show or something that [I] said.”

He said that he and his cast “just want to talk [expletive] about sports.”

McAfee seemed to say farewell to Rodgers for the season at the end of his Tuesday appearance, which featured extensive comments on Rodgers’ thoughts about vaccines.

Then McAfee made it official on Wednesday, saying on the show, “There is going to be a lot of people happy with that, myself included, to be honest. The way it ended got real loud.”

Rodgers has not been the sole controversy-generator this month. McAfee publicly called high-ranking ESPN executive Norby Williamson “a rat,” alleging that he had leaked negative ratings information about the show in an effort to sabotage it.

McAfee controls his show’s content, but it is licensed to ESPN under a five-year deal that the New York Post reported is worth $85 million.

McAfee suggested that Williamson was seeking to undermine a lengthy release from ESPN last week touting the viewership success of his program.

Because McAfee’s presence on YouTube and TikTok is a big part of his appeal, it is difficult to fully assess him based on traditional metrics.

His viewership on ESPN averaged 332,000 in December, an extremely modest number by ESPN standards.

ESPN said McAfee’s YouTube audience averaged 403,000 and offered other data that had sports media experts sharpening their virtual pencils to assess it all.

In that viewership release, McAfee praised several ESPN executives, including senior vice president Mike Foss, who also was quoted.

“The first three months have been a tremendous success across every platform regardless of how you add it up,” Foss said.

After Rodgers’ initial comments about Kimmel, Foss said in a statement, “Aaron made a dumb and factually inaccurate joke about Jimmy Kimmel. The show will continue to evolve. It wouldn’t surprise me if Aaron’s role evolves with it.”

On Tuesday, Rodgers said, “Mike, you’re not helping, bro. You’re not helping because I just read earlier exactly what I said [about Kimmel]. So this is the game plan of the media. This is what they do. They try and cancel.”

On Wednesday, McAfee seemed to cancel Rodgers. On Thursday, he was back.

By Neil Best

neil.best@newsday.com@sportswatch

Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.