Ryan Clark calls Aaron Rodgers 'slimy, hypocritical and deceitful' after attack by Jets QB on Pat McAfee show
The war of words between New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers and ESPN NFL analyst and ex-NFL cornerback Ryan Clark continues.
After an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show where Rodgers bizarrely invoked Covid vaccine status nearly five years after the pandemic began, Clark decided to issue a public response.
The pair have feuded over the course of the past few days - with Rodgers going on ESPN to attack the analysts on the very network that has given him such a platform, and Clark calling the Jets quarterback a 'fraud'.
That led to Tuesday's 'McAfee' appearance, with Rodgers demanding to know Clark's vaccine status - appearing to suggest that if he was vaccinated, that his criticisms of Rodgers didn't matter.
'Because then when you say things about me people can at least be like, 'Oh you are captured by the multi-billion dollar propaganda psy-op and you're still upset about it,'' Rodgers said on the network.
Clark responded on Wednesday with a video posted to X, formerly Twitter, that ran over four-and-a-half minutes long and was laced with many more attacks.
Former NFL cornerback and current ESPN analyst Ryan Clark responded to Aaron Rodgers' latest round of attacks in the pair's ever evolving war of words in a Twitter post on Wednesday
Rodgers launched into a bizarre rant against Ryan Clark on the Pat McAfee Show on Tuesday
'Wanted to make sure all your people knew it was me. Here is why I called Aaron Rodgers... a hypocrite. Because you're actually on ESPN talking about my fellow colleagues and the people I work with saying that now, because they are former players and weren't as great of players as you were, they feel like they're the stars,' Clark began
'And that's not it. TV has changed. It's more about opinion and the informed opinion of people who have played the game. What's hypocritical about what you said is you said it while on TV with Pat McAfee, who has done an amazing job with this platform. And even though he was an all-pro punter, he's now extremely famous and more well known for what he does in his post [playing] career.
'Even more hypocritical of you is that you're sitting across from three people who have never played the game, and they are also entitled to talk about football in a very informed way, because if we've learned anything from Mina Kimes, you don't actually have to step on the field to be excellent at the job of analyzing football.
'And I spoke to that hypocrisy because you were getting paid to do that, which Pat said you deserve to. And that is why you received the money that you did, at least initially, because of what you brought to his platform.
'Now, let me be clear because I know you want us to list these things. My name is Ryan Clark. Played 13 years in the NFL, been to two Super Bowls. I have as many rings as you do. I was the captain of two separate football teams. I'm also an Emmy winner. I'm also the co-host, owner, and partner of an Emmy-nominated podcast called The Pivot.'
Clark then revealed that he did get the Covid vaccine because he doesn't have a spleen or a gall bladder due to his playing days.
Under Rodgers in his first fully healthy season with the team, the Jets are only 4-10
The cornerback then delved into the vaccine issue as it pertained to Rodgers. In 2020, Rodgers - who was then in Green Bay - misdirected the media by saying he was 'immunized' despite not receiving the Covid vaccine, as was his choice.
The consequence of that choice was that Rodgers committed multiple violations of NFL protocols - including not using personal protective equipment around players and at press conferences. As a result, he was fined nearly $15,000 and the Packers were fined $300,000.
Addressing that issue, Clark said, 'As far as your vaccination status, so you can stop trying to trick people into thinking that we want to talk about that [issue] above the stink of your film, I've never heard it one more time after your incident.'
He added, 'People didn't care that you weren't vaccinated, they cared that you were slimy about it. They cared that you were deceitful about it. And they cared that you had this air of arrogance when answering the questions about it. And you've been the only person that's talked about it since.
'But let me be very, very clear. My job is to analyze you... And in analyzing you, what I know is your QBR is 21st. Also know that you're the quarterback of a 4-10 team who has to win the last three games of the season to even be equal to what last year's team was without you.
'Now, I get it. You get on the show and you talk about my brooch and you curse and all this tough talk. I just need you to know: don't none of that scare me. I'm going to do my job the way I'm supposed to do it. I feel no way about not being able to talk about what the film says because of what my career was.
'And if you continue to be arrogant or smug or hypocritical, and pertains to my job, I'm going to do it.'
In his NFL playing career, Clark - best known for his stint in Pittsburgh - was named to a Pro Bowl and won Super Bowl XLIII over the Arizona Cardinals.
