Aaron Rodgers COVID-19 Choice
During the height of COVID-19 pandemic, everything shut down. Your job went remote for the foreseeable future. Toilet paper, paper towels, and disinfectant were flying off the shelves in record speed. Depending on where you resided, the impact of COVID hit even harder for you - as hospitals were packed beyond capacity for those still in the ICU and those that had succumbed to the contagious, aggressive virus.
A year-plus later, we are still not out of the woods yet. Booster shots are highly recommended for those that are fully vaccinated - another layer needed to continue to fight a virus that also has adapted. Yet, with the disruption to life and business as usual; there was a loud cry for economies to open back up in some way, shape or form. There was no one beating the drum for this quite as loudly as the Big 4 sport entities.
Owned by billionaires who have come to rely on the swath of income their side projects bring in, whatever needed to be said or done to get players back out on the field was just a sacrifice of business. The players also fit in this as well. The NFL specifically has come under fire during many of CBA negotiations, where players are criticized for not risking a lengthy holdout in order to obtain better concessions for their now - and most importantly, their future.
A future that may include rehabilitation and care for a body battered by years and years of vicious hits. Yet what we see often is that in the game of chicken, in the game to see who can wait longer for play to resume, it tends to be the players itching and willing to do whatever to get back to play - and those game checks ASAP.
In many lines of work, there is a beautiful saying called CYA. Google it if you are unfamiliar. The more money on the line, the more CYA is necessary to keep the green coming in. In pro sports, everyone is eating lavishly. The TV stations that pay to have broadcasting rights eat. The players eat. The coaches eat. The team owners eat. The commissioner eats.
We can’t dare go a full year without playing to best wait out a public health crisis. No. Let’s throw some duct tape over it and get back to work! Regardless of what you feel about the situation with the New York City vaccination mandate and Kyrie Irving’s sit out, you can’t say New York City isn’t pulling out all the stops to try to limit the spread of COVID-19. If anything, this was seen as one of the epicenters of COVID, one of the cities in the U.S. hit the hardest in terms of COVID-19 related deaths and hospitalizations.
So yeah, it’s understandable that this is the city that’s saying I don’t care about your little basketball game if you live/work here this is our line in the sand. And sure, Bradley Beal can waltz in to the Barclays or MSG and play on a random Tuesday night. It’s not perfect, but at least they’re trying. The same can’t be said for these sporting entities. At least not to anyone actually unfazed by CYA.
The NFL does not have a mandate for players to be vaccinated. Instead there is incentivization for teams to strongly encourage the majority of players to be vaccinated. The emphasis and blame is put on unvaccinated players who test positive for COVID being the object that would draw the ire of the league.
And if these players were to lead to an outbreak that would stand in the way of games being played, there would be hell to pay. This is really good CYA. Expert level. Instead of drawing a line in the sand that unvaccinated players are ineligible to play, there’s this in place. Now sure, some teams have done their cost-benefit analysis on players not worth the headache and outright cut those players.
But what happens when the player causing all the commotion is one that brings in the money? Cutting Aaron Rodgers or forcing Aaron to sit games isn’t a real option, because no of course not. He’s box office. So sure, Aaron Rodgers can potentially be the reason for a COVID outbreak at the Packers facility or the entire league and that’s just a gamble we’ll have to take because it’s Aaron-freaking-Rodgers, right?
Here is Aaron Rodgers’ version of the tale from his fight with the NFL to be considered vaccinated down to his daily regimen as an unvaccinated player in order to remain eligible to practice and play in a 2021 campaign that includes fans being present at the games.
Now much of the criticism of Aaron has come down to people being disappointed, or even outright angry, at the 2020 NFL MVP for deceiving the public when asked earlier in the year about this vaccination status. As he explains in the clip on the Pat McAfee Show, he essentially didn’t want to be the face of anti-vax and whether you wish to bash Rodgers for this or not - the reality of the situation is he has played in 8 games this season for the Green Bay Packers.
So clearly in some sense, he is doing enough by the NFL’s standards to be deemed eligible.
He is complying with the frequency of COVID-19 tests, staying socially distant from teammates, etc. Any other infraction such as not wearing a mask during press conferences, obviously hasn’t ruffled any feathers enough to draw a punishment from the NFL. Which would not be surprising to you if you understood that all of this was a CYA play and not this genuine, heartfelt pledge to be as careful and cognizant of COVID that some may think. Basically, do enough of x, y, z so we can say we tried.
How you know this to be true is this: imagine if someone visiting a Packers game contracting COVID. Now think what the NFL would say if that person attempted to pursue legal action on the basis that not every player in attendance - and most likely not even every fan - is vaccinated from COVID. While a vaccine does not prevent the spread of the virus, it can be argued from this light that the Packers and/or the NFL isn’t being as enforcing as they should be - negligent even - about protecting its fans and other personnel in attendance from potentially creating an outbreak.
The NFL would point to all of the measures they have unvaccinated players go through, would point to its employees working the grounds as having to wear a mask at all times…basically CYA. While we don’t actually care, we need to do enough so that liability does not fall on us. Go Packers though :)
If you want to place your anger, frustration, etc. in the right direction; point it in the direction of the entity that seems to be able to get Aaron Rodgers to act - the NFL. Despite sending pages and pages of mumbo jumbo in his fight to be declared vaccination, sans Moderna, Pfizer or Johnson & Johnson shot; Aaron complied when his case was denied.
He’s thrown a tantrum about it by not wearing his mask in scenarios he feels he can - and has - get away with but he’s been a good employee, adhering to everything the NFL has asked him to do so they can cover their ass. Aaron Rodgers doesn’t care about affecting others and neither does the NFL.
When something happens at a store that you’re not pleased with, who do you ask for? The manager. right? To you, the manager is responsible and has the authority to override whatever this employee is saying or doing. Why is it any different here? Aaron Rodgers is only doing what the NFL allows. If the NFL said stay away for 10 days because you tested positive.
He’s going to do that. If he has to test negative a certain number of times to come back, he’s going to do that. Hell, if they said from the jump that he needed to be vaccinated in order to be eligible to play this season; I think his actions so far show he would’ve done what he needed to do to play. Stop letting these entities get away with CYA because the lowly grunt is an easier target for you to unleash your frustrations at. Aaron Rodgers doesn’t care because the NFL doesn’t care. And the NFL doesn’t care about a lot of things because they know every Thursday, Sunday and Monday you’re still pulling up to watch and support.
