Dr. Anthony Fauci’s attorney had some harsh words for Aaron Rodgers after the Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback went on a lengthy rant against Fauci during an appearance on ESPN earlier this week.
“Aaron Rodgers doesn’t know what he’s talking about. He should stick to football,” attorney David Schertler said in a statement to The Athletic, published Tuesday, August 4.
Schertler’s statement came after Rodgers, 42, appeared on The Pat McAfee Show on Monday, August 3, where he called Fauci, 85, a “coward” for repeatedly invoking the Fifth Amendment during a senate hearing last week.
“I’m going to plead the fifth,” Rodgers said. “Like that absolute coward, Tony Fauci. Absolute coward.”
Rodgers continued, “Are you kidding me? You got a pardon and you pleaded over 100 times at the White House? What are you scared of, Tony? I thought you were the science. I thought, ‘I am science,’ and you get up there and you can’t answer a question? What are we doing?”
Fauci, for his part, explained why he pleaded the Fifth more than 100 times during his opening statement before the July 29 hearing began.
“Given Senator [Rand] Paul’s obvious obsession with calling for my prosecution, his repeated slanderous comments about me, and recently his publicly releasing my unredacted personal diary aimed at embarrassing and intimidating me, the only conclusion I can reach is that the sole reason he is calling me before this Committee is to get me to say something, anything that could vindicate his repeated public pledges that I end up in his words, ‘Behind bars,’” Fauci said.
Fauci previously served as Chief Medical Advisor to President Donald Trump during the COVID-19 pandemic, becoming the face of the country’s response and the health and safety mandates that followed.
Rodgers, who on Monday baselessly asserted that the virus was created in a Chinese lab, has long been critical of those mandates, even refusing the safe and effective vaccine and not complying with the NFL’s COVID protocols.
With training camp well underway ahead of the 2026 season, Steelers head coach Mike McCarthy was, naturally, asked about Rodgers’ comments.
“My job is to keep it about football,” he told reporters on Tuesday. “These are grown men. They all have different opinions. There’s no question about that. But at the end of the day, my job is to keep it about football, keep the focus on winning. That’s why we’re here. We have a good locker room. We have a player council that’s in place. We had our second meeting yesterday. We’re in a good spot.”
Steelers spokesperson Burt Lauten added in a statement, “Discussions around culture and politics can bring differing perspectives, and our players are entitled to their own personal views.With respect to that, I am certain there are a variety of opinions on many topics within our locker room.”
