Aaron Rodgers bashes ‘absolute coward’ Anthony Fauci in return to ‘Pat McAfee Show’

Aaron Rodgers returned to The Pat McAfee Show on Monday for the first time this NFL season, and picked up right where he left off.

Early in his appearance from Steelers training camp, Rodgers moved the conversation toward former National Institutes of Health leader Anthony Fauci, whom Congress brought in for testimony last week. Fauci made headlines for pleading the Fifth Amendment more than 100 times during the session, re-energizing critics of the country’s handling of COVID-19 and even prompting an apology from Stephen A. Smith.

During Monday’s show, when McAfee asked him a football question, Rodgers clearly had a plan.

“I’m gonna plead the fifth, like that absolute coward, Tony Fauci,” Rodgers said with a big smile.

“Are you kidding me? You got a pardon, and you pleaded over 100 times at [Capitol Hill]? What are you scared of Tony, I thought you were the science? I thought you were, ‘I am science,’ and you get up there, and you can’t answer a question? What are we doing? And how much time did the network spend with that, how much time did they spend on my responses every week, on my vaccination status, on Taylor and Travis’ wedding? Did they do even a minute on Tony Fauci?”

“I’m pleading the Fifth 😂😂

You’ve gotta be kidding me” ~ @AaronRodgers12 #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/kg3y0uMxxR

— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) August 3, 2026

Fauci oversaw the nation’s pandemic response in the spring of 2020, and has become a media target, especially among conservative political commentators. A U.S. Senate committee called Fauci to testify last week over revelations from his personal journals; the 85-year-old retiree, who said he has addressed Congress 200 times already, said he would not answer questions he felt were designed to impugn him. Fauci was pardoned by former President Joe Biden.

In a great many of his media appearances since 2020, Rodgers has devoted considerable energy to hammering Fauci.

Later, Rodgers appeared to bring up Dianna Russini, the former ESPN and Athletic NFL insider and erstwhile enemy of Rodgers’ who was alleged to have had an affair with New England head coach Mike Vrabel.

Rodgers called it “another scandal” with “a voter” for NFL MVP, and questioned why ESPN did not cover that story as deeply as it did Rodgers’ own various scandals. In reality, ESPN shows did address the scandal, and ESPN reporter Ben Strauss published the definitive story on it.

Interrupting several attempts by McAfee to refocus the conversation as the McAfee Show crew and assembled fans in Pittsburgh cheered the quarterback on, Rodgers closed his monologue with a victory lap.

“You can’t talk about the COVID stuff, because obviously it was made in a lab in China; that’s not even questionable anymore. Tony Fauci is an absolute criminal. I’m on good terms with my family … what are you gonna say now?”

It comes as no surprise to see Rodgers play the hits on McAfee, the only network television show he will grant an interview to. Still, as he plays out his final season on a retirement tour with the Steelers, it would be unfortunate for that story to become overshadowed by the same political hobby horses and personal controversies that Rodgers has been talking about for almost a decade.