After Pat McAfee's muffed punt of an apology for Aaron Rodgers' latest brain fart of misinformation and conspiracy theory spreading across ESPN airwaves, the question has to be asked — is it time for McAfee to immunize himself against Aaron Rodgers and drop the quarterback from his weekly Aaron Rodgers Tuesdays segment?

Rodgers' inciting comments this time, in which he suggested baselessly that Jimmy Kimmel's name might be on the list of celebrities associated with Jeffrey Epstein, is the sort of quote usually reserved for far-right wing fringe message boards and “soft-brained wackos” (as Kimmel so eloquently put it), not multi-national broadcast sports' network telecasts.

“I can see exactly why Jimmy Kimmel felt the way he felt, especially with his position. But I think Aaron was just trying to talk s—. But did it go too far? Jimmy Kimmel certainly said that was the case,” said McAfee.

Chalking it up to the equivalent of a “Your Mom” joke is a pretty weak mea culpa, but McAfee did go on to “apologize for being a part of it.”

However, he also added troublingly that he “can’t wait to hear what Aaron has to say about it. Hopefully those two will just be able to settle this. Not court-wise, but be able to chitchat, move along.”

But is it really such a good idea at this point to have Aaron Rodgers continue to appear on the show? He's already spread Covid vaccine misinformation, UFO fake news, and Jeffrey Epstein conspiracy theory nonsense on more than one occasion.

These are similar to the sorts of comments that got Tucker Carlson kicked off the airwaves from Fox News, a channel that prides itself on its far-right politics, truth and facts be damned.

ESPN is the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, which has taken great pains (especially in recent years) to rid itself of any outspokenly politically liberal or conservative sportscasters and analysts from its ranks so as not to appear biased. So why should Aaron Rodgers be treated any differently?

Sure, it's fun for McAfee to have a big-time quarterback on his program every week. Maybe he's right and his buddy is just trying to “talk s—.”

It also seems possible Rodgers is saying outlandish things because he's thirsting for that spotlight that Travis Kelce gets every week on his mega-popular New Heights podcast. Kelce clearly peeves Rodgers, who called Travis “Mr. Pfizer” after he appeared in a clever ad promoting the Covid vaccine.

Or maybe Rodgers sees himself as Jimmy Stewart in the Alfred Hitchcock classic Rear Window — pent up in bed with a foot injury all year and now thinking he sees something suspicious happening outside his window. (If so, sorry Aaron, but there's only one Jimmy Stewart and you aren't him).

Regardless of Aaron Rodgers' motivations, he needs to stop being given a weekly platform on a major sports network to drudge up fake news. It's time for Pat McAfee to cut ties from his buddy A.A. Ron (and while we're at it, maybe it's also time for Key & Peele to rescind the great nickname).