Steelers’ fans have to love seeing this side of Aaron Rodgers come out on camera. The man hasn’t forgiven, he hasn’t forgotten, and he’s not afraid to take shots at Fauci aka “The Science”.
“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 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.
There are a lot of people who would like to sweep their words and actions during the fake Covid crisis under the carpet. No one should permit them to do so. Rodgers clearly throws rhetorical bombs with the same degree of accuracy he throws the football.