After the Pittsburgh Steelers breezed past the Green Bay Packers with a 28-9 victory in preseason, the mood on the Pat McAfee Show was quite celebratory. But as head coach Mike McCarthy appeared on the latest edition of the show to talk football, the conversation inadvertently turned to the Steelers’ 42-year-old quarterback, Aaron Rodgers.

McAfee asked Coach McCarthy whether he plans on “playing Aaron Rodgers ever,” referencing Rodgers’ recent comments on how preseason wasn’t real football. McCarthy, amid a chorus of laughter, took a dig at the show’s last interview with Rodgers instead.

“Well, hell, just put him on your show again. Jesus Christ!” McCarthy said. “I thought we were on the same team here.”

McCarthy was referring to the August 3rd edition of McAfee’s show, where Rodgers was asked about his expectations for the 2026 season, and whether he was already thinking about life after retiring. Instead of answering, Rodgers took a heated swipe at Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), who also worked as the Chief Medical Advisor to the President from 2021 to 2022, during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Dr. Fauci had invoked his Fifth Amendment rights over 100 times during a hearing on Capitol Hill last month when asked about his leadership during the pandemic. Following the hearing, Rodgers also pleaded the Fifth on the Pat McAfee Show, drawing a parallel to all the questions he faced about his vaccination status while playing for the Green Bay Packers and calling out media houses for not covering the hearing enough.

“How much time did they spend on my responses every week, on my vaccination status, on Taylor and Travis’ wedding?” Rodgers said on the show. “Did they do even a minute? Did they do even a minute on Tony Fauci?”

Following Aaron Rodgers’ explosive comments on the show, the Steelers’ Senior Director of Communications, Burt Lauten, issued an official statement supporting Rodgers and all the players.

“Discussions around culture and politics can bring different perspectives, and our players are entitled to their own personal views,” Lauten said. “With respect to that, I am certain there are a variety of opinions on many topics within our locker room.”

Even Coach McCarthy had issued a similar message when faced with questions about Rodgers’ comments, choosing to bring the focus back to football instead of all the narratives out there.

“These are grown men,” McCarthy said. “They all have different opinions. There’s no question about that. At the end of the day, my job is to keep it about football.”

As for Pat McAfee’s question about Aaron Rodgers not playing preseason football, Mike McCarthy had already fielded that question in his post-game presser, noting that he chose to split the snaps across the roster.

Aside from Rodgers, the Steelers have three more quarterbacks on the depth chart, and it was only natural to give them some preseason action, where a loss wouldn’t impact their regular season hopes. McCarthy got the QB evaluation he wanted, along with his first win as the Steelers’ head coach. The questions around Rodgers, however, are likely to continue.