Superstar NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers upped the ante in his back-and-forth over the COVID vaccines with Pfizer pitchman Travis Kelce, challenging the All-Pro tight end to a debate on ESPN.
The sidelined New York Jets quarterback who last week dubbed the Kansas City Chiefs touchdown machine “Mr. Pfizer” over his appearance in a recent ad spot urging football fans to get jabbed, reacted to Kelce’s remarks about getting into a “vax war” on Tuesday’s edition of “The Pat McAfee Show on the “woke” sports network.
“Mr. Pfizer said he didn’t think he’d be in a vax war with me. This ain’t a war, homie, this is conversation,” Rodgers said.
The potential next great American debate: pic.twitter.com/4MK5lcChBh
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) October 10, 2023
“But if you want to have some sort of duel, debate, have me on the podcast, come on the show, let’s have a conversation,” he added, before throwing down the gauntlet to Taylor Swift’s beau.
He then dropped an action movie reference on McAfee and his former Green Bay Packers teammate, cohost A.J. Hawk, telling the two that he wants a tag-match with the two-time Super Bowl champ turned Pfizer pimp.
“Let’s do it like in ‘John Wick 4,’ right so we both have a second, somebody to help us out,” he added. “I’m gonna take my man RFK Jr., and he can have Fauci or some other pharmacrat, and we can have a conversation about this.”
It was Kelce who fanned the flames with his remarks during a press conference last week, jabbing the ex-Packer and vaccine skeptic whose new boss is Jets owner Woody Johnson, an heir to the Johnson & Johnson pharmaceutical fortune who swung a trade for the future Hall of Famer this year.
“Who knew I’d get into the vaxx war with Aaron Rodgers, man? Mr. Pfizer vs. the Johnson & Johnson family over there, man,” Patrick Mahomes’ top target joked to reporters.
Travis Kelce on being called Mr. Pfizer:
“I thought it was pretty good. With the mustache, I look like someone named Mr. Pfizer. Who knew I’d get into vax wars with Aaron Rodgers, man? Mr. Pfizer against the Johnson and Johnson family over there.”
— Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) October 6, 2023
“The Johnsons have been great to me. I don’t mind if you call me Mr. Johnson & Johnson. Woody and Christopher, their families, they’ve been great. I don’t play for the Johnson & Johnson Corporation – I play for the New York Jets,” Rodgers said. “I made a tiny little joke about guys shilling for a potentially corrupt company, and everybody kind of loses their minds a little bit.”
The audacity of Rodgers to offer ESPN as a forum for what would be an epic throw-down in which he and Kelce would take a backseat to RFK Jr. and the elfin career bureaucrat who was the subject of his unsparing 2021 book “The Real Anthony Fauci” triggered jab-happy leftists who took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to gnash their teeth in rage.
ESPN should be embarrassed for airing this nonsense. They are journeying into Outkick territory. https://t.co/2GaKyG7GTc
— Dustin Gouker (@DustinGouker) October 10, 2023
Others lashed out at ESPN’s NFL insider Adam Schefter who shared the clip on X, promoting at as “The potential next great American debate.”
1. We shouldn’t give platforms to anti-vaxxers
2. We shouldn’t call it a “debate”
3. So irresponsible of Schefter here. Clown shit. https://t.co/fG4jBYSQtf
— Chris Moxley (@ChrisMoxley19) October 10, 2023
Schefter has been continually losing credibility by catering to nonsense like this and b*rstool, but framing Aaron Rodgers and RFK Jr. spewing anti-vax crap at Travis Kelce and Fauci as “the next great American debate” is his dumbest move yet https://t.co/Fuqd3QNiut
— Jack Linnehan (@JackLinnehan) October 10, 2023
On the field, Kelce is definitely getting the better of the two superstars this season with the Chiefs roaring along at 4-1 while Rodgers went down with a season-ending knee injury on the first drive of the year, likely ending the Jets Super Bowl hopes.
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