Aaron Rodgers on Wednesday reportedly became the highest-profile player in the NFL to test positive for COVID-19.
Rodgers will miss the Green Bay Packers’ game Sunday afternoon against the Kansas City Chiefs after the reported positive test, and it’s expected second-year QB Jordan Love will make his first career start instead.
The news led to an obvious question: Is Aaron Rodgers vaccinated? The answer to that question — or at least the story behind it — is one that needs a little more clarity moving forward.
NFL Media reporters Ian Rapoport and Mike Garafolo reported Wednesday morning Rodgers is not vaccinated.
However, Rodgers in late August claimed he was “immunized” — although it’s unclear what exactly that means, especially in hindsight.
Rodgers was asked point-blank whether he was vaccinated.
“Yeah, I’ve been immunized,” Rodgers said on Aug. 29. “There’s a lot of conversation around it, around the league, guys who have made statements and not made statements, owners who made statements. There are guys on the team who haven’t been vaccinated, I think it’s a personal decision. I’m not going to judge those guys. There are guys who have been vaccinated who contracted COVID. So, it’s an interesting issue. I think we’re gonna see it play out the entire season.”
He added: “I like to learn about everything I’m doing, and there was a lot of research that even went into that.”
Until Rodgers speaks publicly, we’re left to parse through his words, which is what Rapoport did shortly after breaking the vaccination news.
There’s also this, from Mike Florio at Pro Football Talk: “A (general manager) with another team tried to tell me weeks ago that Rodgers isn’t vaccinated,” he wrote Wednesday. “I looked up photos of Rodgers from the preseason, standing on the sideline in street clothes. … He wasn’t wearing a mask. I told my source that this means that Rodgers was vaccinated. In actuality, it means that he was deliberately and flagrantly violating COVID policies to create the impression that he’s vaccinated.”
And, well, Rapoport had a tidbit on that, too.
Ultimately, with no vaccine mandate, it is up to the players, and there’s probably a conversation to be had about how much the public actually should know when it comes to these sorts of things. But Rodgers is very much in the spotlight and was more than willing to comment on the situation in August.
