By design, the quarterback is the face of an NFL franchise, and ever since Brett Favre removed his cheesehead, Aaron Rodgers has been the face of the Green Bay Packers, a champion face at that.
Now? Now, you can’t help but think that 1265 Lombardi Avenue is the home office for the two-faced franchise quarterback.
He ran a misdirection play when he told everyone in the summer that he was “immunized,” when he was never vaccinated. Then, after he tested positive for COVID-19, he launched one of his famous Hail Mary’s on Friday, attempting to justify his arrogance and entitlement.
He gambled that he could beat the system — during a pandemic — and had the unmitigated gall and lack of consideration to conduct indoor press conferences this season without a mask, against NFL mandates.
He would have won his gamble if he hadn’t tested positive, and here’s hoping he is well.
None of it is his fault, of course:
It’s the media’s fault for not asking a follow-up after he said he had been immunized: Don’t blame me, blame the “woke mob” and “cancel culture.” The media was interested in a “witch-hunt” to identify the unvaccinated.
Yeah, right. Blame everyone else. Keep deflecting.
Longtime NFL agent Leigh Steinberg tweeted the record straight about the NFL’s COVID policy: “This policy has nothing to do with “cancel culture” or “woke”. It was collectively bargained and agreed to by the players for their own protection. It has produced an exciting season with live, non-masked crowds and few unavailable players.”
Apparently Martin Luther King would have approved his stance, or so Rodgers claimed on “The Pat McAfee Show.”
“The great MLK said you have a moral obligation to object to unjust rules and rules that make no sense,” Rodgers told Pat McAfee.
Unjust rules that make plenty of sense, or enough sense, to more than 90 percent of his NFL brethren. Of all times to quote MLK, he chooses this cause?
He claimed he had spoken to a league doctor when the league claims he did not.
He has the right not to be vaccinated. He did his own research? Fine. He’s allergic to something in the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines? OK. He’s concerned about the reports of blood clots from the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. OK. He trusts Joe Rogan more than the scientists? His choice. He is worried about the vaccine’s potential effect on fertility? Unfounded, but to each his own. He believes in “bodily autonomy.” OK. He’s not the only one.
But he has no right to act recklessly and disingenuously and call a misdirection play, and endanger anyone who may have been exposed to him while he brazenly neglected wearing a mask in defiance of the NFL’s COVID policy. Even at a Halloween party. And then make excuses for his behavior.
Let us not forget that he has let his teammates down, because he will not be able to play on Sunday. And he has put his organization in the crosshairs of the NFL at the same time.
“Failure to properly enforce the protocols has resulted in discipline being assessed against individual clubs in the past,” NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said.
Maybe “Jeopardy!” wasn’t the right show for him to host. A remake of “The Twilight Zone” might have been better. Or “Looney Tunes.”
A-Fraud.