Aaron Rodgers took a cheap shot at Travis Kelce over vaccines.
On Tuesday, the injured New York Jets quarterback decided to give the Kansas City Chiefs tight end — and rumored boyfriend of Taylor Swift — a new nickname on ESPN’s “The Pat McAfee Show.”
Rodgers — who was at the Chiefs vs. Jets game Sunday but was unable to play due to a torn Achilles — was asked about his team’s performance in the game, which the Jets lost. Rodgers responded by taking a jab at Kelce about 2 hours and 26 minutes into the episode.
“Mr. Pfizer, we kinda shut him down a little bit,” Rodgers said. “He didn’t have his crazy impact game, obviously, he didn’t have his yards and stuff.”
Chiefs tight end Travis Kelse (left) was targeted by Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers.MICHAEL OWENS VIA GETTY IMAGES (LEFT), RICH SCHULTZ VIA GETTY IMAGES
The nickname is a reference to Kelce’s recent Pfizer commercial in which the football player urges viewers to get a COVID-19 and flu shot at the same time.
Rodgers, on the other hand, infamously revealed he did not receive a vaccine shot during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Although Rodgers’ nickname for Kelce drew giggles from the show’s co-hosts, Pat McAfee and A.J. Hawk, “Mr. Pfizer” is a pretty lazy moniker that shows Rodgers is mimicking talking points from right-wing pundits.
Late last month, Media Matters found dozens of conservative pundits had already attacked Kelce for his appearance in the Pfzier ad to advance their anti-vax agendas. The uptick in right-wing hate aimed at Kelce also seems to be spurred by his recent romantic link to Swift.
Some NFL fans have already expressed overt irritation with the amount of attention Swift gets for merely attending Chiefs games. The singer-songwriter’s left-leaning politics don’t exactly help the situation and have encouraged some on the right to resort to grade-school insults, flat-out criticizing her appearance and labeling Kelce as a less-dominant “beta” male for dating her.