Aaron Rodgers Challenges Travis Kelce to a Vaccine Debate

Travis Kelce might very well be the most popular player in the NFL right now. And it seems he’s got a target on his back. He’s been trading barbs with Aaron Rodgers for a week now, culminating in the injured Jets quarterback challenging the 34-year-old Kansas City Chiefs tight end to a debate over their respective views on vaccinations.

Rodgers made his latest remarks on Tuesday while once again appearing on The Pat McAfee Show, as he recovers from an Achilles injury that knocked him out the opening game of the season.

“Mr. Pfizer said he didn’t think he would be in a ‘vax war’ with me,” Rodgers said, smirking. “This ain’t a war, homie. This is just conversation. 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.”

The 39-year-old was referring to the New Heights podcast Kelce hosts with his older bother, Jason Kelce, center for the Philadelphia Eagles.

“Let’s do it like in John Wick 4, right? So we both have a second, somebody is help us out,” Rodgers continued. “I’m gonna take my man [Robert F. Kennedy Jr.] and he can have, you know, Tony Fauci or some other ‘pharmacrat’ and we can have a conversation about this.”

“Mr. Pfizer said he didn’t think he’d be in a vax war with me.. this isn’t a war this is just conversation..

Come on the show and we’ll have a conversation” ~ @AaronRodgers12 #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/Kv85yjaqRZ

— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) October 10, 2023

Rodgers likewise started the war of words by disparagingly referring to Kelce “Mr. Pfizer” during a conversation on the same program last Tuesday, in a reference to a commercial Kelce appears in for the pharmaceutical company.

“I think there’s some sentiment that there’s some sort of moral victory out there that we hung with the champs and that our defense played well,” Rodgers said, of that Sunday’s game between the Jets and Chiefs. “[Patrick Mahomes] didn’t have a crazy game and Mr. Pfizer, we kind of shut him down a little bit.”

For his part, Kelce took the high road when addressing the so-called controversy just a few days later.

“I thought it was pretty good,” he said at a press conference, laughing. “I mean with the ‘stache right now, I look like someone named Mr. Pfizer. Who knew I’d get into vax wars with Aaron Rodgers, man? Mr. Pfizer verses the Johnson & Johnson family over there, man.”

“Once I got the vaccine, I got it because of, you know, keeping myself safe, keeping my family safe, the people in this building,” he added. “So yeah, I stand by it, 1,000 percent, fully comfortable with him calling me Mr. Pfizer.”

It seems unlikely that Kelce will take the bait, as he already seemed to sum up his thoughts pretty succinctly. Plus, unlike Aaron Rodgers, he’s kind of a busy man at the moment, with the Chiefs being one of the highest ranking teams in the NFL and a budding romance with arguably the biggest pop star in the world.

But we’ll give Rodgers an A for effort, if not one for science.