Aaron Rodgers
Aaron Rodgers is a terrific quarterback. Nobody disputes that.
Family man? Nope. Not married, never has been. He dates actresses and celebrities. He recently knocked one up, but otherwise doesn’t have what you’d call a family.
He has a father, mother, and two brothers, but they’re not on speaking terms, not least because of religion. They don’t like that he’s an atheist. (See story here).
None of this makes Rodgers a crappy human being, just a very ordinary one off the field, but his behavior about Covid-19 is something else.
For starters, he’s a liar. Back in August, Rodgers told reporters he was “immunized.” He wasn’t.
“Instead of getting vaccinated,” NBC News says, citing NFL.com, “he received a homeopathic treatment from his doctor and then asked the NFL to count that as being vaccinated.” Seriously? “The league did not, and for good reason — because homeopathy has never been shown to work.”
Rodgers claimed he has an “allergy” to Covid-19 mRNA vaccines. (Then what stopped him from getting the non-mRNA J&J vaccine? It’s less effective, but much better than no vaccine.) He’s keeping the nature of the homeopathic treatment to himself, but asserts “it was a way to stimulate my immune system to create a defense against Covid.” No, it’s not.
That’s debunked quackery. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) says there’s “no evidence to support homeopathic immunizations.” Or, as NBC News puts it, “None. Nada. Zilch.” The NBC article (here) describes homeopathic treatments as sometimes positively dangerous, even to criminal extremes (as when someone dies from the treatment).
By the way, it didn’t work; he’s now benched because he’s Covid-19 positive.
It gets worse. Rodgers doesn’t follow “the normal protocols for unvaccinated players.” That puts other players at risk.
Now that he’s got it, what’s he doing about it? Taking medical advice from Joe Rogan, a rightwing talk-show host who promotes conspiracy theories and quack treatments like ivermectin and vitamin therapy. (See story here.) He can’t afford a real doctor on his NFL salary?
But there’s a bigger problem than Rodgers’ pursuit of quack cures. As that story points out, “The treatment Rodgers has sought is irrelevant, of course, to the fact that he deliberately chose not to be vaccinated and deliberately chose to conceal his status.” His excuse? “He claims that he kept the truth quiet because he feared a ‘woke mob’ and ‘cancel culture.'” That sounds like something straight out of Tucker Carlson’s steaming pot of agitprop.
For fans, it’s enough that Rodgers is a terrific quarterback, one of the best ever. (He’s also a Cinderella story; see his bio here.) But he’s 38, which in the NFL is ancient, and his relations with the Packers were already fraught. However you slice it, he’s nearing the end of his career, and maybe just reached it, if he gets sick from his exposure or sickens others on the team.
As an athlete, Rodgers has always been a shining example of grit, determination, drive, and hard work. We all should hope he doesn’t become seriously ill from this. But his personal reputation is shredded because he listened to the wrong people. That’s happening to a lot of other folks these days, too.
Related story: Rodgers’ anti-vax antics has cost him a gig as spokesperson for a Green Bay-based health care provider. See story here.
I think the Packers standings are the bottom line. They are number one in their division and they are 7 and 1, It appears Aaron is worth every bit of the millions he is being paid. I am sure if he has to sit out a game he will actually want to be in there playing. He is most likely going to be a typical Corvid patient at his age and will likely survive and probably will not even be ill. He likely has no underlying conditions.
The only question is whether he will be back to play the Seahawks on the 14th. The Seahawk players hope he will still be benched.
I’m a Packers fan, but the team can do without this. Rodgers let his team and Packers fans down.