Aaron Rodgers Claims His Stance on Covid Cost Him His Friendship With NFL Analyst Mina Kimes

Former media darling Aaron Rodgers has claimed that his personal beliefs ruined his professional relationship with the media, specifically NFL analyst Mina Kimes.

Asked about being a “controversial” figure in the media during the Thursday, September 10 episode of the Not Just Football podcast, the Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback, 42, said he believes people initially appreciated his “takes” on current events.

“Mina Kimes had me to her house for a feature that I did. All these people were my friends in the media until I came out against Covid,” he claimed.

In November 2021, while playing for the Green Bay Packers, the football star tested positive for Covid and admitted he wasn’t vaccinated, despite saying in a press conference three months prior that he had been “immunized.” He later claimed he was allergic to an ingredient in the vaccine, and appealed to the NFL to have his treatment from a holistic doctor qualify him as vaccinated, per ESPN. That appeal was denied.

“Now after everything that’s came out, all they can say is, ‘Oh well, you lied about it,'” he continued. “When someone has an argument and all they can ever say is, they attack your character instead of the content of what you’re actually saying, you know that you’re actually on the right side of things.”

“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,” the Super Bowl MVP explained on the podcast. “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 [expletive]. Six feet of distancing.”

He also called the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci, a fame-chaser and “criminal.”

Rodgers’ comments come after Kimes herself addressed his vaccination controversy while appearing on the Tuesday, September 8, episode of The Sports Gossip Show.

“It was interesting to see him to rehash … the Covid stuff,” she said. “He clearly was very bothered by the criticism. I was someone who was critical of him. But I wasn’t critical of, and I think a lot of people, of the fact that he wasn’t vaccinated. The criticism was that he lied about it by omission or whatever.”

She went on to note how Las Vegas Raiders quarterback Kirk Cousins didn’t receive the same level of criticism, despite also pushing back against the vaccine.

“I think those two are an interesting point of comparison,” she added.