Aaron Rodgers reveals why his friendship with Mina Kimes ended (Getty Images)
Aaron Rodgers has never been shy about speaking his mind, but his appearance on the *Not Just Football with Cam Heyward* podcast on September 10 crossed from opinion into something more personal. The 42-year-old Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback called out NFL analyst Mina Kimes by name, claiming she was among the media friends who turned on him after he spoke out against COVID vaccinations. Rodgers later admitted he had avoided the vaccines due to an allergy to polyethylene glycol and expressed skepticism about the Johnson and Johnson vaccine.
“Everybody loved hearing my takes,” he said. “When someone has an argument and all they can ever say is, they attack your character instead of the content of what you’re actually saying, you know that you’re actually on the right side of things,” he said. He explained that his use of the word “immunized” was tied to an active appeal he was making to the NFL regarding his vaccination status. “When I said I was immunized, it was because that statement alone was the crux of my entire argument and ongoing appeal with the NFL around my vaccination status,” he said on the podcast.
What followed was a candid, at times sharp, account of how one decision reshaped nearly every professional relationship he had built in the media. Aaron Rodgers made it clear that the fallout was not limited to Kimes alone. He recalled a time when the media genuinely valued his perspective — on Colin Kaepernick, on social issues, even on moments that earned him a handwritten note from President Obama. “Mina Kimes had me to her house for a feature I did. All of these people were my friends in the media. Until I came out against COVID. ” He pushed back on the criticism that followed, arguing that his critics abandoned facts for personal attacks. This is where Rodgers gets into territory he has revisited multiple times over the years. His appeal to the NFL, which sought to have treatment from a holistic doctor count toward his vaccination status, was ultimately denied.
His comments landed just days before his first game of the 2026 season, with the Steelers set to host the Atlanta Falcons at Acrisure Stadium. At 42, Rodgers is likely in his final NFL season. And yet, rather than stepping back from controversy, he is leaning into it — revisiting old grievances with the same conviction that created them in the first place.
Kimes addressed Rodgers’ vaccination controversy just two days earlier, on September 8, during an appearance on *The Sports Gossip Show*.
Beyond the semantics, Rodgers says the bigger issue was how unvaccinated players were treated inside team facilities. “Not to mention the hypocrisy around the treatment of players that were non-vaxxed, the inhumane way that we were treated as secondhand citizens around the facility, the way that we couldn’t do anything on the road,” he said. “It was interesting to see him rehash the COVID stuff,” she said. “He clearly was very bothered by the criticism.”