There is plenty of stupidity in the NFL.
Players have retired at halftime, torn their ACL by celebrating a field goal or slid out of the top 10 in the NFL draft because a video of them wearing a gas mask attached to a bong surfaced minutes before they were about to be picked sixth overall.
For no reason at all, all those moments of profound stupidity had career- and league-altering ripple effects, but none of them managed to destroy any chance the NFL had of being a positive social force.
That is a privilege reserved only for the reigning league MVP, revered by tens of millions as one of the best players in football today and one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time. Hoisting the banners of anti-vaxxers through Green Bay, Aaron Rodgers has invented a new kind of stupid.
Last week, Rodgers tested positive for COVID-19, and initial reports held that he could still play in Week 9 because he was vaccinated, something he seemed to confirm to ESPN reporter Rob Demovsky in August.
However, Rodgers was listed as out for the mandatory 10 days for an unvaccinated player, leading to questions about what exactly he meant when he said he was “immunized.”
Well, Rodgers was kind enough to clear it up for us on the Pat McAfee Show, the antithesis of sports journalism and a glorified soapbox for players to say whatever they want with little to no pushback on any of those pesky facts. He claimed to have an allergy to an ingredient in two vaccines, but that he had received an unspecified alternative treatment to boost his immune response to COVID-19, which is not even remotely the same thing as being “immunized” against the virus.
Rodgers lied to avoid public scandal, yet had the audacity to defend his cowardice with a half-baked, idiotic rambling against “woke cancel culture” and his medical advice from renowned not-expert Joe Rogan. Rodgers refused the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which he was not allergic to, yet appealed to the league to be considered and treated as though he were vaccinated. The Green Bay Packers organization was fully aware of his vaccination status yet did nothing to refute his lies and misinformation.
At the end of the day, everyone does have the right to choose whether to be immunized. But this is not an issue of body autonomy as Rodgers claims it is. Professional athletes, especially those with the platform Rodgers has, are putting the world in danger by not getting vaccinated against COVID-19. Their stardom acts as a megaphone, bringing applause or condemnation depending on their position.
Rodgers must be acutely aware of this, or he would not have lied about his vaccination status. He fell victim to the misinformation about vaccines yet still wanted the positive press that comes with doing what is morally right.
Yet he fails to understand that lying about an irresponsible choice is actually worse than the choice itself. By doing so, Rodgers is driving a nail through any image the NFL wished to project. If the league’s MVP makes such a mockery of the process, any effort to appear pro-vaccine will be clouded by his idiocy.
Rodgers was not ignorant or coerced, but he knowingly deceived millions of his admirers in order to exploit their adulation for personal gain. What an idiot.
