Aaron Rodgers tests positive for Covid-19
Photo courtesy of the Associated Press.
By Nicholas Winter
Just a few short days ago, a bombshell report was dropped that Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, the reigning MVP, had tested positive for COVID-19.
Rodgers was out for Sunday’s game against the Chiefs and could potentially miss next week’s game against Seattle. Normally, a vaccinated player would only need to test negative twice to return to the team. But, a little note about Rodgers’ vaccination status was dropped by NFL insider Ian Rapoport. Rodgers, who was previously thought to be vaccinated, is, in fact, not. This means Rodgers has to be away from the team for ten days and also needs two negative tests. This news enraged many people, as they felt like Aaron Rodgers lied to everyone in saying he was vaccinated, but that technically was not the case. Everyone in the organization knew Rodgers’ vaccination status, and so did the NFL. During training camp, a reporter asked Rodgers if he was vaccinated, and he responded by saying that he was immunized. Being immunized is different from being vaccinated, as it is a status that is not accepted by the NFL as considered to be “fully vaccinated.” The word immunized was not noticed by any of the media members as something out of the ordinary, so everyone believed he was vaccinated.
Rodgers faced a lot of backlash from around the league, as the situation seemed to get worse when people had realized he had not been fully following the unvaccinated protocols for NFL players. Members of the media took note of the fact that Rodgers did not wear a mask to press conferences, and they questioned whether other protocols were also ignored. This is somewhat of a gray area, because of reports that unvaccinated players are not required to wear a mask during press conferences, but as other people have contradicted that statement and other players have also broken that rule, it is definitely an area that needs more clarity. Unsurprisingly, owners around the league were furious with Rodgers and his inability to follow protocols, and called for him to be suspended. Whether or not they wanted him suspended for the right reasons is another conversation, but reports have emerged that a suspension is not on the table for Rodgers; more likely fines will be the chosen course of action.
The situation got even more interesting when Rodgers made an unexpected appearance on the Pat McAfee Show. Rodgers has appeared on the show every Tuesday during the NFL season since he started making appearances during the 2020 NFL season. Rodgers appeared on Thursday November 4th, because he wanted to have people hear his side of the story. However, in doing so he created more problems than solutions. Rodgers called out the “woke media” in being a major problem in the harsh treatment of unvaccinated players. While he may not be wrong, Rodgers definitely created enemies with that statement. Rodgers made some pretty grandiose statements that included talking about Joe Rogan, his own team of doctors, and his own concerns about getting one of the vaccines. Rodgers made it clear that he was allergic to an ingredient in the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, which left him with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Rodgers stated that he did not want to get that vaccine due to concerns over blood clots that had been a problem with that vaccine in the past. The only problem with that argument was the fact that those blood clots were only found in women and dealt with other medication that was interfering with the vaccine.
I would advise you to go watch the discussion Rodgers has with Pat McAfee to draw your own conclusions. There are a lot of things Rodgers says that seem to contradict other information. Rodgers’ focal point of his argument was that the way the media and the NFL treated unvaccinated players was ridiculous. It’s possible that he might be right in the sense of how much these players are shamed for not being vaccinated, but I think he did more damage than good in his discussions on the Pat McAfee Show.
