The Ben Shapiro Show - August 04, 2026


Aaron Rodgers Torched Fauci on ESPN's Own Air


Episode Stats


Length

9 minutes

Words per minute

195.76

Word count

1,863

Sentence count

156


Transcript

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00:00:00.000 So quarterback Aaron Rodgers went off on ESPN yesterday while appearing on ESPN.
00:00:04.000 It was kind of great.
00:00:05.000 Sports leagues and politicians alike would be wrong to ignore the anger that Americans still feel about the after effects of the pandemic.
00:00:11.000 Meanwhile, a women's tennis champ says true things about keeping men out of women's sports.
00:00:15.000 And Megan Kelly is calling Caitlin Clark a coward, which I mean, maybe true as far as it goes, but Megan, Megan, here we go.
00:00:26.000 So Aaron Rodgers, the former Packers quarterback and Steelers quarterback, he appeared on ESPN yesterday.
00:00:32.000 He talked a bit about some politics.
00:00:35.000 Is on Pat McAfee's show.
00:00:36.000 There had been some controversy a few years back when McAfee suggested that Rodgers had been briefly banned from ESPN, which it turns out then he was back on McAfee's show literally the next day.
00:00:45.000 Rodgers is one of the smarter people in the NFL.
00:00:48.000 And when he came into the NFL, I remember he was from UC Berkeley and he had scored like in the 1300s on his SATs, which for the NFL is really, really high.
00:00:55.000 And so he is one of the more thoughtful players in the NFL.
00:00:59.000 Well, he talked with Pat McAfee a lot about politics.
00:01:02.000 And here's what it sounded like.
00:01:04.000 I'm going to plead the fifth.
00:01:06.000 Okay.
00:01:07.000 Okay.
00:01:08.000 Gotta love that guy.
00:01:10.000 Okay.
00:01:11.000 Like that absolute coward, Tony Foster.
00:01:14.000 Absolute coward.
00:01:15.000 There, it's back, baby.
00:01:17.000 Are you kidding me?
00:01:17.000 Yeah.
00:01:18.000 You got a pardon and you pleaded over 100 times at the White House?
00:01:18.000 111,000.
00:01:23.000 What are you scared of, Tony?
00:01:24.000 I thought you were the science.
00:01:25.000 Yeah.
00:01:26.000 I thought you were, I am science.
00:01:26.000 Yeah.
00:01:28.000 And you get up there and you can't answer a question?
00:01:30.000 Yeah.
00:01:30.000 What are we doing?
00:01:31.000 And how much time did the network spend to that?
00:01:33.000 How much time did they spend on my responses every week, on my vaccination status?
00:01:38.000 On Taylor and Travis's wedding.
00:01:43.000 Did they do even a minute?
00:01:43.000 Yeah!
00:01:45.000 Did they do even a minute on Tony Fauci?
00:01:47.000 No, I don't think I've heard of that.
00:01:48.000 No, I bet they didn't.
00:01:49.000 But on that note.
00:01:50.000 And there was another scandal this offseason, too, involving a voter for MVP, for Coach of the Year.
00:01:56.000 How much time did your network spend?
00:01:58.000 Wizard Kemp.
00:01:59.000 Did your network spend on that?
00:02:02.000 I wish I had more time.
00:02:07.000 Go back to Fauci.
00:02:09.000 Go back to the coward Tony Fauci and the science.
00:02:12.000 Who's spending the entire time writing in his diary about how fun it is to be famous?
00:02:17.000 You gotta be kidding me.
00:02:18.000 Okay.
00:02:20.000 Now, again, remember that he in 2021 had suggested that he was immunized from COVID.
00:02:26.000 Because he'd already had COVID.
00:02:26.000 Why?
00:02:27.000 And people ripped him up and down.
00:02:28.000 They said, Oh, you won't take the vaccine.
00:02:29.000 It's just terrible.
00:02:31.000 It's just terrible.
00:02:32.000 Well, he said that he had not been vaccinated after saying that he was immunized.
00:02:38.000 And he missed a game after testing positive.
00:02:41.000 And then he was fined like 15 grand because he wouldn't wear masks at news conferences and press conferences.
00:02:46.000 And the Green Bay Packers were fined like $300,000.
00:02:50.000 So, again, the people ran him through the ringer because he did not want to be vaccinated.
00:02:54.000 And it turns out there were a lot of athletes who got treated this way Novak Djokovic, most famously.
00:02:58.000 So, Novak Djokovic is already the leading major winner in men's tennis ever.
00:03:04.000 He would have had at least three more majors if they had not banned him from tournaments because he didn't get vaxxed.
00:03:08.000 And if you are somebody who makes a living being athletic, if you're somebody for whom like every movement is fine tuned, your nutrition is fine tuned.
00:03:14.000 Fine tuned.
00:03:15.000 Your exercise is fine tuned because you make your living with your body.
00:03:19.000 And you say you don't want to get the vax because it's untested and because you don't need it.
00:03:22.000 And because if you get COVID, you ain't going to die.
00:03:25.000 Then the entire scientific establishment came out and said that you were awful.
00:03:28.000 And this happened to Aaron Rodgers.
00:03:30.000 And it was terrible.
00:03:31.000 It was really, really bad.
00:03:31.000 So he has every right to be ticked off about all of this.
00:03:36.000 Again, they did this with a lot of people.
00:03:39.000 ESPN pretty famously went after Sage Steele over some of this sort of stuff.
00:03:45.000 The politics of the sporting community.
00:03:49.000 Almost killed the entire sports industry in the United States in 2020, 2021.
00:03:53.000 You remember, people like me turned off MLB.
00:03:55.000 I love MLB.
00:03:57.000 People like me, because of the wokeness, turned off MLB.
00:04:00.000 People like me, I'm an NBA fan.
00:04:01.000 I turned off the NBA.
00:04:03.000 People didn't want to see a bunch of propaganda on their TV about vaccines and Black Lives Matter when they watched the NFL.
00:04:08.000 And we'll get to all of that first.
00:04:11.000 The modern world has turned eating into a full time research project.
00:04:13.000 So every single week, there's a new headline telling you that something you've been eating for years is terrible for you.
00:04:18.000 It is really, really difficult, honestly.
00:04:20.000 Like my wife will bring up clips of influencers telling me a thing that I've been eating is awful and then insisting I eat another thing.
00:04:24.000 And then one week later, it turns out that that thing is also terrible.
00:04:28.000 Well, I don't have time for all this.
00:04:30.000 I don't want to spend my life researching every bite of food I eat.
00:04:30.000 I don't.
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00:05:15.000 It turns out when people watch sports, here's what they want they want people performing at the top of the human spectrum, and they don't want anything else.
00:05:22.000 That is the thing that they want.
00:05:23.000 And the fact that Aaron Rodgers was treated like trash because he decided he didn't want to vax is totally insane.
00:05:29.000 It's totally insane.
00:05:30.000 And it's a good reminder.
00:05:33.000 Aaron Rodgers reminding people of that.
00:05:35.000 Again, the fact that ESPN made a huge deal out of Aaron Rodgers and his vaccination status for legitimately like weeks and months treated him as sort of some sort of bizarro world alien.
00:05:47.000 But then when Anthony Fauci is pleading the fifth and all of that, then they're nowhere to be seen.
00:05:51.000 Pretty, pretty fascinating stuff.
00:05:54.000 Meanwhile, the controversy in women's sports continues.
00:05:59.000 Now someone else has fallen afoul of the woke brigade.
00:06:02.000 This would be Arena Sabalenka.
00:06:05.000 She is currently number one in women's singles.
00:06:09.000 And she supports gender testing in sports because, of course, she recognizes, as do all sentient beings, that were a man to play her, the man would destroy her.
00:06:18.000 And we have evidence of this.
00:06:20.000 Serena Williams, when she was number one in the world, played a dude who was ranked in the triple digits and he was smoking between sets and he beat her in straight sets, like 6'2, 6'1.
00:06:29.000 Because it turns out men built different.
00:06:31.000 Why is this?
00:06:33.000 Trucks are built different than Corvettes.
00:06:35.000 Like, this is, they're not the same thing.
00:06:37.000 This is so stupid.
00:06:40.000 Now, the WTA has in fact banned men from participating in women's sports.
00:06:44.000 It doesn't mean that this lady didn't receive an enormous number of negative headlines for saying the obvious.
00:06:50.000 Hi, the WTA recently announced that the players will take a one time gender test.
00:06:56.000 How do you feel about that?
00:06:57.000 The first pro league to go in that direction?
00:06:59.000 I think it's really important to keep the fairness in our tour.
00:07:03.000 And it's obvious that biologically, right, the men are way stronger than women.
00:07:07.000 So I feel like it would be not really fair for the woman to compete against.
00:07:12.000 Biological man.
00:07:14.000 So I believe it took them a little while to make the decision.
00:07:20.000 And yeah, I support it.
00:07:26.000 But for me, I'm focusing on myself, on my goals, you know, whatever it takes.
00:07:30.000 If they want to test us all, I'm happy to do that.
00:07:33.000 It's pretty fair.
00:07:35.000 And let's keep it that way.
00:07:38.000 So again, she's right about that.
00:07:39.000 The fact that this is even in any way remotely controversial is totally insane.
00:07:42.000 Again, the controversy continues in the WNBA because the WNBA is so militantly leftist, they can't say the obvious.
00:07:48.000 And so, again, the world just awaits a D3, 40 year old basketball player saying he's a female and going for a tryout with the Seattle Storm.
00:07:56.000 Some six foot nine, 310 pound dude who is still better than the ladies.
00:08:00.000 That's all we are waiting for here.
00:08:01.000 By the way, people have acknowledged this openly, right?
00:08:03.000 Caitlin Clark has openly acknowledged that if she played with the men, she would not even be competitive because, of course, she would not be.
00:08:08.000 I mean, Caitlin Clark would destroy me off the dribble.
00:08:12.000 But again, I'm a 42 year old man who's not very good at basketball.
00:08:15.000 So, like, that would be kind of the limit, actually.
00:08:20.000 It is totally insane.
00:08:21.000 By the way, I should say about Caitlyn Clark.
00:08:23.000 So, Megan Kelly went after Caitlyn Clark because she said Caitlyn Clark should come out and she should openly defend Sophie Cunningham and she should get involved in the trans issue.
00:08:31.000 Now, listen, I agree with Megan, obviously, that Caitlyn Clark and everyone in the WNBA should say men are not allowed in the WNBA.
00:08:38.000 Of course.
00:08:40.000 But she called Caitlyn Clark a coward for not doing it.
00:08:43.000 And again, you want to indict anybody for cowardice over not speaking up about this issue?
00:08:48.000 I'm kind of okay with that.
00:08:50.000 But, Megan, really.
00:08:54.000 Megan, Megan Kelly on cowardice in not speaking about an issue.
00:09:00.000 My Lord.
00:09:01.000 Maybe Caitlin Clark, maybe Caitlin Clark should come out and say that the Jews killed Charlie Kirk.
00:09:09.000 And then Megan would be very shy about saying anything at all.
00:09:12.000 I mean, she has her opinions after all.
00:09:16.000 Oh, goodness gracious, Megan Kelly.
00:09:18.000 Well, at least she got some clicks off of it, which is the thing that she cares about most in life.
00:09:22.000 What an amazing video you just watched.
00:09:24.000 Wasn't that amazing?
00:09:25.000 Well, you know, if you think so, head on over to dailywire.comslash subscribe to watch the full show ad free or check out this crazy story here.