David Schertler, the attorney representing former federal health official Anthony Fauci, offered a remarkably thin rejoinder after Green Bay Packers legend and current Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers publicly shredded his client on national television.
As reported by Western Journal, Schertler broke his silence in an email to The Athletic, one day after Rodgers used a live appearance on ESPNs The Pat McAfee Show to torch Faucis conduct during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Aaron Rodgers doesnt know what hes talking about. He should stick to football, Schertler wrote, a curt dismissal that sounded less like a legal defense and more like a talking point from the same establishment that spent years insisting its preferred experts were beyond criticism.
The sneer Stick to football was clearly intended to put Rodgers in his place, to suggest that a Super Bowlwinning quarterback has no standing to question a powerful Washington bureaucrat. Yet the remark only underscored the arrogance that has surrounded Fauci for years, particularly among those who still refuse to reckon with the damage wrought by lockdowns, mandates, and a politicized public health regime.
Rodgers, for his part, showed no inclination to retreat from the debate that Schertler wants him to abandon. Im gonna plead the Fifth, Rodgers joked when asked about his career during a live broadcast of ESPNs The Pat McAfee Show at Steelers training camp in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, a pointed reference to Faucis recent performance on Capitol Hill.
Like that absolute coward, Tony Fauci, the quarterback continued. Absolute coward. Are you kidding me? You got a pardon and you plead it over 100 times? That line cut to the heart of what has infuriated many conservatives: a powerful official shielded by a preemptive pardon, still refusing to answer basic questions about his role in one of the most consequential policy failures in modern American history.
Last week, Fauci repeatedly invoked the Fifth Amendment before Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentuckys Senate Committee on Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs, despite the pardon he received from then-President Joe Biden on Bidens final day in office. For a man who once declared himself to be synonymous with science, the refusal to testify only deepened suspicions that the public was not told the full truth about COVID policy, origins, and the cozy relationship between government and pharmaceutical giants.
Fauci, who led the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases from 1984 to 2022, became the face of the federal COVID response, championing masks, sweeping lockdowns, and eventually the much-touted vaccine. Millions of Americans saw their businesses shuttered, their childrens education disrupted, and their freedoms curtailed under policies he aggressively promoted, often with the enthusiastic backing of liberal politicians and media outlets.
Yet in his pandemic diary, released late last month by Pauls committee, Fauci recorded private observations and opinions that did not always align with his public pronouncements. He also devoted considerable space to celebrating his own celebrity, a jarring contrast to the hardships endured by ordinary Americans who were told to follow the science while their livelihoods evaporated.
On McAfees show, Rodgers criticism did not stop with a single jab. When one of the programs regulars urged him to go back to Fauci, the quarterback obliged with another broadside that reflected the frustration of many who felt gaslit throughout the pandemic.
Go back to Fauci? the quarterback asked. Go back to the coward Tony Fauci whos science, whos spending the entire time writing in his diary about how fun it is to be famous? You gotta be kidding me. That remark captured a sentiment long voiced on the right: that the COVID era elevated unelected technocrats into quasi-political celebrities, insulated from accountability even as their guidance proved inconsistent or destructive.
Rodgers has been a lightning rod on COVID issues since the media hounded him over his vaccination status, treating his personal medical decisions as a moral failing rather than a matter of individual liberty. In response, he famously mocked Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce as Mr. Pfizer, after Kelce appeared in advertisements for the pharmaceutical giant that profited handsomely from government-backed vaccine campaigns.
Within the Steelers organization, first-year head coach Mike McCarthy signaled he would not be drawn into the political fray. According to The Athletic, McCarthy pledged to keep it about football, a stance that implicitly respects the players as adults capable of holding and expressing their own views without institutional censorship.
These are grown men. They all have different opinions. Theres no question about that, McCarthy told reporters on Tuesday. But at the end of the day, my job is to keep it about football, keep the focus on winning. Thats why were here. We have a good locker room. We have a player council thats in place. We had our second meeting yesterday. Were in a good spot. For advocates of free speech and limited government, that approach focus on the game, let individuals speak for themselves is far preferable to the top-down silencing that defined much of the COVID debate.
A friend of free expression could hardly ask for more from an NFL coach than a promise to let grown men hold different opinions without institutional punishment. McCarthy may stick to football, but Schertlers attempt to bully Rodgers into silence is unlikely to succeed, especially as more Americans question why a man who got a pardon still chose to plead it over 100 times rather than finally level with the country.
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