By now, all sports fans are aware of the situation Aaron Rodgers has placed himself in.
His decision not to get vaccinated and take all of the precautions mandated by the league has led to Rodgers testing positive for Covid and being prohibited from playing this weekend against the Chiefs.
To be fair to Rodgers, he never said he was vaccinated nor did he explicitly lie about it.
When asked about his vaccination status in August, the self-proclaimed “critical thinker” responded affirmatively with some clever wordplay.
“Yeah, I’ve been immunized.”
He was asked point-blank if he had been vaccinated and he responded yes, he was immunized.
Maybe the “yeah” threw everyone off, but the word “immunized” should have raised every red flag in the book.
He continued to discuss the situation in that same press conference.
“You know, there’s a lot of conversation around it, around the league, and a lot of guys who have made statements and not made statements, owners who have made statements. There’s guys on the team that haven’t been vaccinated. I think it’s a personal decision. I’m not going to judge those guys. There are guys that’ve been vaccinated that have contracted COVID. So it’s an interesting issue that I think we’re going to see played out the entire season.”
In his response, Rodgers proved he’s as adept at dodging direct questions and providing clear answers as he is at evading sacks on the field.
Also note that he’s not wearing a mask in that video despite that being a league protocol for the unvaccinated.
According to Jonathan Jones of CBSSports.com, Rodgers is unvaccinated and the Packers knew he wasn’t vaccinated.
That in itself is a huge issue.
Aside from his cleverly worded responses, it appears that he did not always follow protocols for the unvaccinated, one of which was wearing a mask in the facility.
Carson Wentz wore his mask on the sidelines, but Rodgers wasn’t seen with his on after the Packers’ big win in Arizona last week, after which he embraced Cardinals’ star quarterback, Kyler Murray, without a mask.
Did he expose Murray? It’s unlikely but still possible.
So Rodgers, the Packers and the NFL should all be held accountable for his actions as he was never fined for being maskless.
Mind you, the league fined Cowboys’ receiver CeeDee Lamb five times in six games for, among other things, multiple uniform violations.
But Aaron Rodgers received nothing for his failure to wear a mask.
Favoritism by the league? Sounds like it.
But today Rodgers made the situation even worse with his long and ridiculous response on The Pat McAfee Show.
Rodgers blamed everyone for the firestorm over his positive Covid test and immunization status.
That list included Democrats, Republicans, the media, wokeness and cancel culture.
In the interview, Rodgers claimed he provided the league with over 500 pages of research, compiled by his “medical team” that supported immunization.
He stated that he wasn’t pro or anti-vaccine and that he made a decision based upon his best interest.
Cool, no problem.
But take ownership of your decision.
Don’t blame the left or right.
Don’t invoke cancel culture.
Don’t make wearing a mask part of a conspiracy to “out and shame people”.
Don’t say testing and masks aren’t based upon science.
Stand by what you believe in. Double down if you so choose.
But stop making excuses.
And please, please, please stop quoting Dr. Martin Luther King to justify your rationale.
“The great MLK said, ‘You have a moral obligation to object to unjust rules that make no sense,'” said Rodgers.
Quoting Dr. King has lately become a textbook response by those seeking to either justify their ignorance, camouflage their racism or distract from the reality of the situation.
Rodgers should recognize that Dr. King was addressing segregation, which is morally wrong.
“I can urge them [men] to disobey segregation ordinances, for they are morally wrong,” said Dr. King.
I wonder if Rodgers will also address the new gerrymandering, Jim Crow segregation laws passed in Texas and North Carolina since he’s quoting Dr. King.
But I digress.
Vaccinations don’t 100% guarantee that you won’t contract Covid. It gives you the best chance of not catching it, and if you do, it gives you a better chance of dealing with it.
Rodgers unequivocally stated that he’s not a disbeliever of Covid.
“I have taken this very seriously,” said Rodgers. “I’m not a Covid denier or any bulls**t like that. I just wanted to make the decision that was best for my body. That’s it.”
But his nearly 50 minute breakdown of all of the rules and his frustration with them sounded like one big excuse.
The bottom line is that those are the rules and every player is aware of them.
Your choice was to not get vaccinated so you had to follow the rules that correspond to your decision, which he stated he did daily.
But his repeated claim during the interview of the rules not being based upon science was monotonous and childish, completely disparaging his claim of being a critical thinker.
His explanation sounded like one long excuse and ultimately made him sound more like Oswald Bates from “In Living Color” than a critically thinking individual.
For that, he deserves all the heat he receives.
