Jimmy Kimmel did not hold back in blasting Aaron Rodgers, calling the Jets quarterback "hamster-brained" after he suggested the two-time Emmy winner had ties to the late multi-millionaire financier and sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein.
Kimmel spoke out against Rodgers' "false and very damaging" allegations Monday, during his first show of 2024.
"Out of the blue, [he] insinuated that I was nervous because the Jeffrey Epstein list was coming out," Kimmel said in his opening monologue, according to the New York Daily News. "And then it did come out and of course my name wasn’t on it, and won’t ever be on it."
Kimmel went on to deny having any link to Epstein.
"I don’t know Jeffrey Epstein. I’ve never met Jeffrey Epstein. I’m not on a list. I was not on a plane, not on an island, or anything ever," he said.
Rodgers' remarks suggesting Kimmel had connections to Epstein appeared to be in response to a joke he made on his late-night show last year, following a conversation in which Rodgers talked about Epstein and UFOs on an earlier episode of the "Pat McAfee Show," Variety reported.
Kimmel played the clip of Rodgers saying, "It might be time to revisit the concussion protocol, Aaron," before referring to the quarterback as a "tin-foil hatter."
On Monday's episode, Kimmel doubled down on a post on X in which he threatened to take Rodgers to court, saying that if the NFL star "wanted to make false and very damaging statements like that … we should do it in court so he could share his proof with, like, a judge."
"When you hear a guy who won a Super Bowl and did all the State Farm commercials say something like this, a lot of people believe it. … My wife hears from them, my kids hear from them," continued Kimmel, noting that Rodgers "thinks that because God gave him the ability to throw a ball, he’s smarter than everyone else. … We learned, during COVID, that somehow he knows more about science than scientists."
Kimmel added that Rodgers likely said what he did as retaliation for previous quips he had made about the footballer, including that he had lied about being vaccinated against COVID.
"Can you imagine that this hamster-brained man thinks he knows what the government is up to because he’s a quarterback doing research on YouTube and listening to podcasts?" said Kimmel. "Aaron Rodgers is too arrogant to know how ignorant he is."
Kimmel added that Rodgers should apologize for his remarks.
"But I bet he won’t,” said Kimmel. If that does happen, though, he will "accept his apology and move on."
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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