Jimmy Kimmel offers Aaron Rodgers his own conspiracy theory

Jimmy Kimmel shut down Aaron Rodgers with his own wild conspiracy theory on Thursday night after the New York Jets player was accused of spreading lies about the Sandy Hook school shooting.

“What the deep state won’t tell you is that Aaron Rodgers never played football, he’s not a football player, he faked his entire career,” Mr Kimmel quipped.

“Fact, first time he played in an NFL game was last year — the week before his first game with the Jets — Aaron’s body double, the guy who played every single game for him before this, died of COVID and they had nobody dumb looking enough to fill in,” he added.

Mr Kimmel’s comments on his show on Thursday night came after Mr Rodgers was accused of pushing conspiracy theories about the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting where a gunman murdered 26 young students and staff.

The allegations came following reports that independent presidential candidate and anti-vaxxer Robert F Kennedy Jr is considering Mr Rodgers as his vice-presidential pick.

A CNN report alleged that the Jets quarterback told CNN journalist Pamela Brown that the shooting was a government inside job and that the media was intentionally ignoring this.

He also allegedly asked Ms Brown if she thought it was off that there were men in black in the woods by the school, falsely claiming those men were government operatives, according to the report.

CNN also cited a second anonymous source who said that Mr Rodgers claimed several years ago that “Sandy Hook never happened”.

“All those children never existed. They were all actors,” he allegedly said.

Following the report, Mr Rodgers denied that he has ever been of the opinion that the shooting did not take place.

“As I’m on the record saying in the past, what happened in Sandy Hook was an absolute tragedy. I am not and have never been of the opinion that the events did not take place,” he said in a statement posted to X.

On Thursday night’s show, Mr Kimmel laid into the sports star – a man who he has had a long-running feud with.

Offering his own conspiracy theory about Mr Rodgers, Mr Kimmel pointed to the time he tore his Achilles with the Jets last year, before claiming that the “real” Rodgers had to fake an injury.

Mr Rodgers represents “man’s true ‘born again’ event when he’s resurrected from the dead into eternal life” according to the Bible, the late-night host joked.

“And guess what number Rodgers chose to wear when he ‘played’ for the Jets? Anyone? Anyone?” Mr Kimmel asked.

“Eight,” replied Guillermo Rodriguez.

“Eight, that’s right, number eight. Whoa, wow. That story, by the way, is more believable than what Aaron Rodgers told people happened at Sandy Hook,” Mr Kimmel ended the segment saying.

Mr Rodgers has been involved in a long-running feud with Mr Kimmel over his penchant for conspiracy theories.

In 2021, Mr Kimmel slammed the New York Jets player for lying about whether or not he was vaccinated against Covid-19.

“The only thing worse than not getting vaccinated when you’re in close proximity with other people is letting them think you’re vaccinated when you’re not,” Mr Kimmel said on his show at the time. “It’s basically the Covid equivalent of the condom fell off.”

Mr Rodgers told a press conference that he was “immunized” against Covid, only to be diagnosed with the virus three months later, leading to a fine from the NFL for breaking safety protocols.

The New York Jets player said he had found an alternative “immunization protocol” because he was allergic to ingredients in two of the FDA-approved vaccines.

NFL experts found no evidence that the treatments used by Mr Rodgers were effective.

Three years later, in January 2024, the feud between Mr Kimmel and Mr Rodgers escalated again when the quarterback suggested that Mr Kimmel’s name could appear on the so-called “Epstein list”.

“There’s a lot of people, including Jimmy Kimmel, that are really hoping that doesn’t come out,” Mr Rodgers said on “The Pat McAfee Show.”

Mr Kimmel threatened legal action against Mr Rodgers in a post on X and demanded he apologise for his remarks.

Mr Rodgers appeared on The Pat McAfee Show on 9 January and denied calling Mr Kimmel a paedophile, but stopped short of apologising.

Mr Kimmel’s name did not appear anywhere in the hundreds of pages of documents released as part of a lawsuit involving Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell and there is no evidence he has any connection to the sex offenders.