Aaron Rodgers of the New York Jets runs onto the field prior to the start of the game against the New England Patriots at Gillette Stadium on Jan. 7, 2024, in Foxborough, Mass.
Kathryn Riley/Getty Images
The tournament posted a slideshow on Instagram announcing the celebrity athletes who would compete in the annual Pebble Beach competition, leading off with the Jets quarterback and the caption “We’re thrilled to welcome defending champ Aaron Rodgers … to our amateur field.”
This announcement came just a couple hours after Rodgers, a former Cal star and Super Bowl champion with the Green Bay Packers, made his weekly paid appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show” on ESPN, which went viral for less-than-ideal reasons. Rodgers clarified that he did not call late-night host Jimmy Kimmel a pedophile, railed against perceived cancel culture backed by the mainstream media and called out an ESPN executive by name.
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
For the uninitiated, the only truly surprising moment was the executive callout. Rodgers, who is a big believer in “informed consent” but also frequently ridicules vaccine and COVID-19 mandates and Dr. Anthony Fauci, took issue with Kimmel when the late night host dedicated an opening monologue to making fun of the quarterback’s vaccine takes. The Jets quarterback famously misled the public when he said he was “immunized” from COVID-19 when asked about his vaccination status.
Kimmel’s jokes against the quarterback began in November 2021 and continued every time Rodgers brought up a new conspiracy theory, or deeply online fascination, during his appearances on McAfee’s show. It wasn’t until earlier this month that Rodgers replied with a joke of his own, implying that Kimmel would be named in the unsealed documents about convicted sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein — worth noting that Rodgers is doing this on a Disney-owned show against another Disney employee as Disney owns ABC and ESPN. Kimmel responded on Twitter and on his show, where he basically alleged he was slandered, which forced Rodgers to address the situation, although he never apologized. Instead, he claimed he never made any accusation in the first place. McAfee, for his part, was forced to actually put on a shirt during his show and apologize.
Rodgers’ complaints about cancel culture have been par for the course. He’s used his appearances on ESPN to express many such grievances, and considers pushback to those complaints as cancellation. What was once a moment where one of the best quarterbacks in the 21st century would talk about UFOs has turned into a power hour of whining about COVID.
This is to say that perhaps the Pebble Beach Pro-Am could have waited a day or two before cheerfully announcing Rodgers’ participation in the competition. Or even just led off its announcement with, oh, say, Tom Brady (who was No. 2 in its Instagram slideshow after Rodgers). After all, this is also the first year it’s radically changing the format so that celebrities aren’t competing during the weekend tournament, as the event is now a sanctioned PGA Tour event. Bringing on the controversial athlete while ushering in a controversial new format doesn’t seem like a recipe for success.
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
The tournament did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication.
At least they won’t have to worry about Rodgers going on ESPN to say anything else stupid: McAfee bravely declared on Thursday that the Jets quarterback would not appear on the show for the rest of the NFL season. Coincidentally, the NFL season ends just one week after the tournament finishes on Feb. 4.