Sometimes you can predict the ending of a movie or book halfway through the narrative. They’re not that clever. Or maybe, the foreseeable outcome was the only one.
That’s how I feel about Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who has been unmasked trying to pull a sneak about being COVID-19 vaccinated. Rodgers and the Packers revealed he tested positive for COVID on Monday. He will not play on Sunday, you’re welcome K.C. Chiefs, and may be out longer depending on how quickly he can get back to full health and cleared by medical.
Quarterback Aaron Rodgers of the Green Bay Packers reacts during the NFL game at State Farm Stadium on October 28, 2021 in Glendale, Arizona. The Packers defeated the Cardinals 24-21. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
Rodgers’ vaccination status was a leak, that he was not vaccinated with real things from science that do something about COVID. (BTW, the leak game in the NFL is Niagara Falls these days...)
Oh wait. Let’s play the word dance with Rodgers…he said he was immunized. Which means, according to NFL.com, “Rodgers received homeopathic treatment from his personal doctor to raise his antibody levels and asked the NFLPA to review his status. The players' union, the NFL-NFLPA jointly designated infectious disease consultant and the league agreed that Rodgers' treatment did not provide any documented protection from the coronavirus.”
He was asked, directly, on August 26, about his vaccination status. He said he was good to go. The NFL, like all other pro teams, are strongly asking – if not downright requiring – vaccination against COVID-19 to limit the spread of the virus.
Some NFL players are choosing not to be vaccinated, which then requires them to wear masks, daily testing, and isolate if they have contact with anybody who was exposed/had COVID. Rodgers asked to be exempted from the vaccination rule, because he said his antibody levels qualified for status. The NFL said nope to his appeal and kept his status as not compliant.
He said today, during an interview, that he has some minor symptoms. Which means he must isolate for 10 days – as a symptomatic unvaccinated player – and test negative twice over a 24-hour period, and be clear of symptoms to be allowed back to play.
Rodgers is waving the anti-vaxxer flag pretty hard, throwing down some of the greatest hits for his excuse pile: worried about being allergic to substances in the vaccine formulations based on his own research, concerned for his fertility (no proof that the vax affects male reproduction capacity), he didn’t agree to the NFL’s COVID vax policy (well, Aaron, the NFL union did, and you are member of that group – so maybe ask them what was negotiated?), and that COVID/vaccination policies are a threat to his personal freedom.
Rodgers is a big star in the NFL, so massive that he is an entire ad campaign from State Farm and had a tryout run to be the next permanent host of Jeopardy. He lives in People Magazine as much as the sports pages because of his taste in dating Hollywood stars and racing queen Danica Patrick.
In other words, Rodgers is not attention shy. He knows how to handle himself in the public eye and is deliberate in everything he does. But listening to him questioning vaccines that have growing bodies of data behind them, while saying he is taking a veterinary-based med Ivermectin (WHICH HAS NADA GOOD DATA THAT IT WORKS) to clear up his illness…makes zero sense. The show he appeared on, which I am not naming because I don’t give them any run, isn’t exactly discerning about disseminating crap science. Sure, Aaron, wave the freedom flag. Cool cool. However, just know your decisions aren’t just about you when you are the quarterback of a team. But please, make yourself a martyr for the WOKE MOB posse. Yawn.
(Cue narrator: Rodgers did not reveal any “lies”. Just went off on rants.)
I take COVID very personally. My family has been ill. Dear friends, young and old, have died. Friends have lost parents. My college students lost a year of their normal interactions to grow as young adults. Others are long-hauling and may never have their senses of taste and smell back.
This anti-intellectual tap dance around reality and science and public health exhausts me. Maybe having high-profile Rodgers foolishness exposed will spur some discussion. 750K-plus are dead in this country. We have all been affected from straight up illness to financial hurt to emotional/mental distress.
But by all means, let’s play ball in the Joe Rogan school of medicine.
What do you think? Please comment at Open Court, or on my Facebook page.
BORAHAE TEAM KOREA
OK, let's calm down and get some pure joy.
The Olympics are 100 percent fraught with a ton of ethical dilemmas, but the one pure thing about them is watching people being happy while cheering them on. NBC’s online fam cams of watch parties culminating in crazy happy dances brought me so much happy.
A late entry to the canon: my guys BTS watching the Tokyo Olympics from their summer retreat house in Korea during “In the Soop” (their reality show). The show was filmed at the end of July/start of August, and is now airing every Friday on Korean TV and online. The limited-ep run shows them chilling, gaming, playing sports so-so, eating mouth-watering foods prepared by the guys (I want, no NEED, to have Yoongi cook for me. He is really, really good.), and watching TV with some healthy pours of whiskey. With a puppy in tow.
Today’s In the Soop showed the guys taking in the Olympics, cheering hard for all things Team Korea, and watching Korea-Japan in women’s volleyball. Loved watching them live and die on every point.
Bang PD apparently approves of his people jumping on the furniture. And puppies on the couch.
And yes, bonus bonus points for having Bam the doggie and digging women’s sports. They also got into women’s archery.
Jungkook and Bam get it:
DRAMA DRAMA DRAMA like MARSHA MARSHA MARSHA.
And we are here for all of it. The 2022 Beijing Winter Games start in less than 100 days. So get ready.
See you Tuesday.
