Aaron Rodgers explained how his relationship with ESPN analyst Mina Kimes came to an end during a controversial time in the Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback’s career.
“Mina Kimes had me to her house for a feature that I did,” Rodgers, 42, said on the Thursday, September 10, episode of the “Not Just Football” podcast. “All these people were my friends in the media until I came out against COVID.”
In 2021, Rodgers was widely criticized for being cagey about his vaccination status during the pandemic, telling reporters at a press conference that he was “immunized.” Three months later, Rodgers tested positive for COVID-19 and admitted to being unvaccinated.
“Now after everything that’s come out, all they can say is, ‘Oh well, you lied about it,’” he said on the podcast. “When someone has an argument and all they can ever say is, they attack your character instead of what you’re actually saying, you know that you’re actually on the right side of things.”
Rodgers continued, “When I said I was immunized, it was because that statement alone was the crux of my entire argument and ongoing appeal with the NFL around my vaccination status. Not to mention the hypocrisy around the treatment of players that were non-vaxxed, the inhumane way that we were treated as secondhand citizens around the facility, the way that we couldn’t do anything on the road. All the bulls***. Six feet of distancing.”
This week, Kimes, 41, addressed Rodgers’ complicated COVID history, which the NFL star brought up himself during a fiery appearance on ESPN’s The Pat McAfee Show last month, when he called Dr. Anthony Fauci a “coward.”
“It was interesting to see him rehash — I mean, he’s been doing this for a while — the COVID stuff,” Kimes said on “The Sports Gossip Show” on Tuesday, September 8. “He clearly was very bothered by the criticism. I was someone who was critical of him. But I wasn’t critical — and I think a lot of people — that he wasn’t vaccinated, the criticism was that he lied about it by omission or whatever.”
Kimes contrasted Rodgers and now-Las Vegas Raiders quarterback Kirk Cousins, who has also admitted to being unvaccinated.
“[Kirk] didn’t garner much criticism and seems to have completely moved on, totally unbothered,” Kimes argued. “I think those two are an interesting point of comparison.”
Kimes also pushed back at Rodgers’ constant assertion that he craves to live a private life, while he chides people who continue to ask about his recent marriage and family drama.
“I watch interviews with him and press conferences or whatever, and he’s the one who brings it up a lot,” Kimes said on the podcast.
She added, “On the one hand, you’re very private about this, which is totally your right. But on the other hand, you bring it up a lot, dude! Like out of nowhere. I don’t really know how to parse that. I’m happy for him that he’s happy, but I guess the confusing part for me is what actual level of privacy he is seeking in all of this.”
