A simple question from Pat McAfee led Pittsburgh Steelers four-time MVP quarterback Aaron Rodgers to unload on Dr. Anthony Fauci, mocking the former Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for recently invoking the Fifth Amendment during a Senate hearing this past week.
"Can you tell us about your mindset coming into your last season?" McAfee asked.
The ESPN personality couldn’t have guessed where the four-time NFL MVP was about to take this.
"I’m gonna plead the Fifth," Rodgers said, as McAfee and the Steelers fans watching at training camp laughed in unison, "like that absolute coward Tony Fauci. Absolute coward. Are you kidding me? You get a pardon and you’re and you pleaded over 100 times at the White House? What are you scared of, Tony? I thought you were the science. ‘I am science,’ and you get up there and can’t answer a question? What are we doing?"
Rodgers is referencing an infamous remark by Fauci during a 2021 interview, where he defended his public health policies during the COVID-19 pandemic, saying "I am the science."
Fauci pled the Fifth 111 times during a Senate hearing, on the advice of his attorneys, to answer questions from the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, chaired by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky. He was questioned over his response to the pandemic and his policy decisions, where the former White House COVID advisor was accused of funding gain-of-function research in Wuhan, China.
Paul argued Fauci using the Fifth Amendment was unsupported because former President Joe Biden, whom Fauci advised during the pandemic, pardoned him. Paul said the committee will vote this week on a resolution to hold Fauci in contempt of Congress.
"Spending the entire time writing in his diary about how fun it is to be famous.
You gotta be kidding me," Rodgers’ diatribe continued. "What are you going to say about me now? Seriously, what are they going to say about me now? Now, you can’t talk about the COVID stuff because obviously it was made in a lab in China. That’s like not even questionable anymore. Tony Fauci is an absolute criminal.
"It’s been a great life and a great career, and it’s nice to be sitting on this side now especially after that coward pled the Fifth over 100 times. I thought you had a pardon there, Tony. Why couldn’t you answer one question the entire time?"
But Rodgers wasn’t just airing out his grievances with Fauci, which he's had many since the days of the pandemic. He pointed the finger directly at the network he was being interviewed on.
No matter how McAfee and his supporting cast tried to get the conversation back on track, Rodgers took aim at ESPN, the sports network giant which airs "The Pat McAfee Show" daily.
Rodgers was vilified for his own 2021 COVID saga, where his "immunized" remark in August, months prior to testing positive for COVID-19 in November of that season, led to immediate backlash in the media.
"How much time did the network spend on that? How much time did they spend on my responses every week? On my vaccination status? On Taylor’s [Swift] and Travis’ [Kelce] wedding? Did they do even a minute on Tony Fauci? No, I bet they didn’t," Rodgers said on Monday.
Rodgers even mentioned his recent reconciliation with his family, as he shared pictures with his parents, as well as his brother Luke and his children, after a decade-long estrangement.
"I’m on good terms with my family – what are you going to say now?" Rodgers said right into the ESPN camera lense.
Rodgers even brought up the Dianna Russini scandal and the lack of coverage from ESPN with it. Russini, who worked for ESPN before joining The Athletic, was entrenched in a scandal as an inappropriate relationship with New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel was exposed this offseason, ultimately leading to her exit from The Athletic and Vrabel leaving the Patriots during the NFL Draft to enter counseling.
In 2021, Rodgers was asked by reporters if he was vaccinated, to which the then-Green Bay Packers signal caller said he was "immunized". He later sought an appeal from the NFL and the NFLPA to treat his alternative antibody treatment as equivalent to being vaccinated for COVID-19. The league denied it.
Rodgers was officially classified an unvaccinated player, and then he tested positive for COVID-19 on Nov. 3, 2021, leading to a mandatory 10-day quarantine period that forced him to miss a game against the Kansas City Chiefs. Two days later, he used McAfee’s show to explain his stance, stating he had an allergy to an ingredient in mRNA vaccines, and explained his alternative treatment. Rodgers later admitted on another episode of the show that he "misled people" by calling himself immunized, though he doubled down that he did not lie.
Now, Fauci’s refusal to answer has Rodgers going full tilt years after dealing with constant scrutiny, whether it’s the man himself or the network he has issues with. Rodgers has never shied away from sharing his feelings about certain individuals, media networks, or anything in between.
This season marks 22 years Rodgers has starred in the NFL, and he doubled down recently saying this will be his final year.