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Davis Journal

Rodgers dropped the ball with his vaccination lie

Nov 29, 2021 01:11PM ● By Bryan Gray

Aaron Rodgers, quarterback of the Green Bay Packers, is a highly regarded athlete, one of the best quarterbacks of our era, a handsome man who enjoys dating famous sports car drivers and actresses, a multi-millionaire with screen presence as an effective spokesman for State Farm Insurance.

He also has proven himself to be one of the sporting world’s biggest jerks!

I don’t care that his ego erupted when the Packers used a top draft pick without the approval of “His Highness Aaron.” I also don’t care that with his feelings hurt he basically snubbed the Packers selection of a Utah State quarterback and, angry at a Super Bowl coaching call, was a no-show at pre-season practice while letting Wisconsin fans know the Packers were not in his future.

That’s ego talking, what one can expect from a brash bully on the playground, not an athlete which many of us used to admire for the arc of his spirals.

But we can’t admire him for lying about being vaccinated or his belief in medical quackery. Instead of relying on a doctor, he received “treatment advice” from a talk show host – and, not surprisingly, contracted COVID which put his teammates at risk and led to the Packers losing a game they should have won.

As ex-Steeler quarterback Terry Bradshaw said, the Rodgers incident only puts fresh paint on the popular concept of “dumb athletes.”  If I needed heart surgery, I’d request treatment from a heart surgeon, not an English teacher. If I had a plumbing problem at my home, I would call a licensed plumber, not an accountant or a philosophy major.  And if I wanted information on COVID, I wouldn’t seek out a mouthy talk show host. 

Speaking to a New York Times sports columnist, a medical director of a hospital in Wisconsin urged Rodgers to visit the emergency room where he works. The columnist explained what Rodgers would see.

“He would see patients young and old, gasping for air, wracked with pain that scorches their chest. He would see patients pleading for a first dose of the vaccine, even though at that point it would be too late to help them recover.

“He would see patients in cramped emergency wings, traditionally meant for a quick triage, sometimes stuck there for 24 hours because there are not enough beds in intensive care units. He might also see death in the ER, or, more commonly, he’d see funeral home workers transporting bodies out of the ICU.”

Rodgers is adept at seeing receivers run complex patterns on the football field, and few have been as successful as he, figuring out when to hurl the ball while these patterns play out.  What he cannot see, however, is the harm he has caused in the community by telling people they are being duped by medical professionals.

Even though State Farm has decreased the number of commercials in which Rodgers appears, the guy will still be a shoo-in for the NFL Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, and young fans will still dream of “being like Aaron” in Milwaukee and Madison, and Oshkosh.  

Good for him. But he is still a classic jerk who, when it comes to basic intelligence, would have trouble finding an elephant in a phone booth.