Aaron Rodgers minced no words when talking about former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci on Monday, repeatedly calling him a “coward” in front of a live audience.
The Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback was meant to be talking football and his feelings heading into likely his last year in the NFL, but it took less than one minute for the interview to shift from pro ball to politics.
‘Did they do even a minute on Tony Fauci? I bet they didn’t.’
Appearing on ESPN’s “The Pat McAfee Show” live from Steelers training camp, host Pat McAfee started off by asking Rodgers simple questions about where his head is at before the start of the 2026 campaign.
“Can you tell us about the mindset of coming into your last season?” McAfee asked.
“How do you kind of view this year versus maybe the years of the past?”
“I’m going to plead the Fifth,” Rodgers quickly replied. “Like that absolute coward, Tony Fauci.”
Rodgers was referring to Fauci invoking the Fifth Amendment 111 times last week during a Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
Rodgers’ comments immediately started to rile the crowd up, escalating into jaunts and jeers as Rodgers increased his rhetoric.
“Are you kidding me? You got a pardon, and you pleaded over 100 times?” Rodgers continued.
“What are you scared of, Tony? I thought you were the science!”
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Rodgers mocked the doctor for not answering any questions and then looked straight into the camera and seemingly set his sights on ESPN.
The 42-year-old started listing the critical coverage of his “responses,” his “vaccination status,” and even coverage of the marriage between singer Taylor Swift and NFL tight end Travis Kelce.
“Did they do even a minute on Tony Fauci? I bet they didn’t,” Rodgers claimed before McAfee’s panel hilariously urged him to go back to insulting Fauci. Much to their pleasure, the Super Bowl champ obliged as the crowd erupted in “M-V-P!” chants.
Rodgers claimed that Fauci was “spending the entire time writing in his diary about how fun it is to be famous. You got to be kidding me! What are they going to say about me now? … They can’t talk about the COVID stuff because obviously it was made in a lab in China, that’s, like, not even questionable anymore.”
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Al Drago/Bloomberg/Getty Images
As McAfee informed Rodgers they had only four minutes to speak — so he’d like to get some football talk in — the former University of California QB took a second to applaud pundit Stephen A. Smith.
Just days earlier, Smith apologized for his 2021 comments when he suggested NBA player Kyrie Irving made himself look “flat-out stupid” for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine. In hindsight, Smith said, “It didn’t make him stubborn or selfish; it made him brave.”
In response, Rodgers said to Smith, “You are not a coward. I appreciate you.”
Viewers may be surprised to see that McAfee did not back off from the conversation. In fact, he took significant time to talk about the abuse he took for hosting Rodgers on his platform at the time in 2021.
McAfee said that given his history with the quarterback and all they had discussed years prior, he knew Rodgers would have something to say. This culminated in McAfee leading an applause with the live audience for Rodgers.
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Covid-19, Aaron rodgers, Anthony fauci, Nfl, Sports
