More Shots Fired in Ongoing Rodgers-Kimmel Spat

Jimmy Kimmel wanted an apology from Aaron Rodgers, but as he suspected, it looks like he's not getting one. Last week, the Jets quarterback appeared on The Pat McAfee Show and made what appeared to be a suggestion that the late-night host might be one of the names that popped up on a soon-to-be-released list of Jeffrey Epstein associates, earning Kimmel's ire and the threat of legal action. Rodgers' exact quote: "There's a lot of people, including Jimmy Kimmel, that are hoping it [the list] doesn't come out. ... If that list comes out, I'll definitely be popping some sort of bottle." Now, Rodgers insists he was never making any such insinuation and that he doesn't think Kimmel is a child molester, per TMZ.

"Any type of name calling is ridiculous and I'm not calling him [a pedophile], and neither should you," Rodgers told listeners in a repeat appearance Tuesday on McAfee's ESPN program, per the AP. "I was referring to the fact that if there's a list and there are names on it, that it'd be the second time a soft-brained, junior college wacko ... would be right," he added, per TMZ, sarcastically referring to himself (Kimmel had called him a "soft-brained wacko" in an X response). Rodgers then noted, "I totally understand how serious an allegation of pedophilia would be," and "I'm not stupid enough to accuse you of that with zero evidence."

The two men have long tangled with each other—Kimmel has poked fun of Rodger's anti-vaccination stance—but in an op-ed piece for USA Today, Nancy Armour notes that it's Rodgers who risks "tainting the legacy of one of the NFL's greatest quarterbacks ever" by continuing to "cling to conspiracy theories and grudges," and by claiming (as he also did Tuesday) that the media are trying to "cancel" him. "It wasn't the 'woke establishment' that did this," Armour writes. "'The mainstream media' isn't to blame. This is all Rodgers' own doing." At any rate, it appears Rodgers wants to put an end to the back-and-forth between himself and Kimmel. "I wish him the best," Rodgers said Tuesday. "I don't give a s--- what he says about me. I'm not accusing him of being on the list." (More Aaron Rodgers stories.)