Aaron Rodgers blasts ESPN for lack of coverage of Dianna Russini-Mike Vrabel relationship

Credit: The Pat McAfee Show / YouTubeWith The Pat McAfee Show broadcasting live from Steelers training camp on Monday, it was no surprise that Aaron Rodgers was set to make an appearance. How that appearance went was either surprising, or exactly what you might have expected, depending on how much attention you’ve been paying to appearances on the show over the years.

>The biggest headlines Rodgers made stemmed from his jokes about “pleading the fifth,” referencing the recent Senate hearing at which former NIAID director Anthony Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment. He went on to call Fauci an “absolute coward.” Rodgers has made his feelings on the COVID-19 pandemic exceedingly clear, so those comments, while fiery, didn’t come as all that big of a surprise.

>What was a bit more shocking was the shot that Rodgers took at ESPN, the network he was appearing on. Rodgers first expressed frustration with ESPN for spending time covering his own vaccination status while not covering the recent hearings. He later pivoted to calling out the network for what he believed was a lack of coverage of the scandalous relationship between NFL insider Dianna Russini and  New England Patriots coach Mike Vrabel that came out over the summer.

>“What was this network doing?” Rodgers asked. “You had literally an individual that maybe used to work at ESPN, that covers our league at the highest level, and there’s a major scandal, and it’s just like nobody can f*cking talk about it? What are we even doing here?”

>“Personal lives are personal lives,” joked a member of McAfee’s crew. “I feel like you of all people should know that.”

>“I understand, but if it’s affecting certain things, if there’s leaks going on, if there’s tampering going on, if that person is also an MVP voter and a Coach of the Year voter— remember when I won MVP in 2021 and that bum in Chicago? That’s real life. How are we allowing these people to have an impact?”

#Steelers QB Aaron Rodgers also unloaded on the Dianna Russini/Mike Vrabel offseason story.

>Rodgers says the story and its ramifications weren’t covered properly.

>(@PatMcAfeeShow) https://t.co/PZhnAW6Xizpic.twitter.com/fHVpKTM1cl

>— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) August 3, 2026

On why ESPN covered Rodgers’s own vaccination status and not the recent Senate hearings, well, Rodgers’s vaccination status was directly tied to his availability to play NFL football, while the hearings are pretty far removed from having anything to do with the upcoming NFL slate.

>As for ESPN’s coverage of Russini and Vrabel, the Worldwide Leader did publish an extremely thorough story by Ben Strauss covering the fallout of the news, but if you think they could have spent more time on the subject, sure, there’s an argument to be made. How ESPN feels about that particular bit of media criticism being aired under its own banner is another matter entirely, but as recent years have shown, McAfee has a whole lot of leeway when it comes to what gets covered on his show.

>Rodgers says this is his last season in the NFL. Last year, he stopped his tradition of weekly visits to McAfee’s show over the course of the NFL season. His performance on Monday made clear that even if he isn’t back in a weekly spot, whenever he does stop by the show, he will not be holding back.

>If Rodgers decides he doesn’t want to try out for a spot in the broadcast booth once he hangs up his cleats, maybe he can pursue a career in media criticism.

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