Kansas City Chiefs superstar tight end Travis Kelce has a number of titles he has earned over his illustrious career.
All-Pro and Pro Bowler? Been there, done that. The best pass-catching tight end in NFL history? Perhaps. Taylor Swift’s boyfriend? It sure seems like it, as strange of a couple as the two would appear to be.
Injured New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers offered a new, more controversial title for the star Chief: Mr. Pfizer.
Appearing on Tuesday’s episode of ESPN’s “The Pat McAfee Show,” as he often does as a recurring guest, Rodgers discussed how his Jets played in a controversial loss to the Chiefs on Sunday night.
While discussing the positive contributions of the Jets’ defense, Rodgers casually jabbed Kelce with the nickname.
“Our defense played really well and Mr. Pfizer didn’t have a crazy impact on the game,” Rodgers remarked.
“Our defense played really well and Mr. Pfizer didn’t have a crazy impact on the game” 😂@AaronRodgers12 #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/AGzbcRFjdi
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) October 3, 2023
The nickname stems from Kelce being a paid spokesman for the COVID-19 booster shot from Pfizer.
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Rodgers, for the unaware, has been a known and vocal critic of COVID-19 vaccines, so “Mr. Pfizer” wasn’t exactly a compliment, coming from him.
Kelce, who clearly caught wind of that new title, responded to Rodgers during Friday’s media session.
“Mr. Pfizer” responds to Aaron Rodgers: pic.twitter.com/N3Ptfea9oH
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) October 6, 2023
After being broached about the nickname, Kelce responded: “Haha, I thought [the nickname] was pretty good. I mean with the ’stache right now, I look like a guy named Mr. Pfizer. Who knew I’d get into the vax wars with Aaron Rodgers? Mr. Pfizer versus the Johnson & Johnson family.”
(The “Johnson & Johnson” dig is aimed at the fact that Rodgers currently collects a paycheck from Jets team owner Woody Johnson, an heir to the same Johnson & Johnson that has produced a COVID-19 vaccine.)
It’s at this point, however, that things took a turn for the much more serious.
When asked why he accepted that paid spokesman role with Pfizer, Kelce struggled to offer an eloquent response.
“I mean I’ve always been, you know,” Kelce said, before pivoting. “Once I got the vaccine I … I got it because of, uh, you know, keeping myself safe, keeping my family safe, the people in this building [safe.]
“So yeah, I stand by it.”
While the truth of the matter is that Kelce really probably just accepted the role for the untold amounts of money that Pfizer handed him, the fact that he couldn’t even come up with a fabrication as to why he accepted the role and peddled this vaccine is rather telling.
For as much flak as Aaron Rodgers sometimes does genuinely deserve, and for however wrong he may be sometimes, the man at least appears to have the courage of his convictions.
He talks a big, weird game, but genuinely seems to believe it.
The same clearly cannot be said for Kelce, after the way he floundered when asked about why he supported the vaccine. Some inexplicable and abstract sense of “safety” is hardly a good reason to inject anything into one’s veins.
(To be clear, this is not an anti-vaccination rant. Most vaccines just need decades of data to really be properly studied, and that’s literally impossible for a vaccine that rolled out in late 2020.)
The only thing Kelce could muster was a word salad before spilling into words that sounded nice, but didn’t actually mean anything.
Actually, upon second thought, perhaps Kelce and Swift might, in fact, be a perfect couple.
