Aaron Rodgers gratuitously revisits his "immunized" comments
I really didn't want to do this. It's old news. It's water under the bridge. It's spilled milk that was never really worth crying over.
But Aaron Rodgers, the four-time NFL MVP who maintains a weekly platform on Pat McAfee's show, went there. After rambling for far too long about COVID protocols while justifying whatever he said about Jimmy Kimmel (Rodgers insists he didn’t mean what his words seemed to mean), Rodgers became triggered by McAfee's joking reference to the Rodgers "yeah, I've been immunized" controversy.
In November 2021, Rodgers tested positive for COVID. It became obvious at that point, based on the protocols that applied to him after testing positive, that he had not been vaccinated. That prompted many to revisit his comments from earlier in the year, when he was asked by reporters if he's been vaccinated.
"Yeah, I've been immunized," Rodgers said.
He later admitted that he deliberately misled reporters, waiting for one of them to ask whether "yeah, I've been immunized" means "yes, I've been vaccinated" or something else. When they didn't, he never bothered to say he hadn't been vaccinated.
Fast forward to Tuesday, when McAfee made in clear jest a reference to the argument that Rodgers lied when he said he was "immunized." McAfee was having some fun. Rodgers couldn't let it go.
"Do they still not understand why I said 'immunized'"? Rodgers said. "Do they know that I was in an appeal process? Not to mention, like, I don't know what you would call it if you go to a homeopathic doctor and you get taken to an immunization process, what do you say you are?"
Again, that's not the point. He was asked if he was vaccinated. He said, "Yeah, I've been immunized." He didn't say, "No, I've been immunized."
He plays word games when it suits him. He did it then. He did it today, with his clunky effort to explain his comment from last week about Jimmy Kimmel.
Nick Wright of FS1 recently called Rodgers the "most disingenuous athlete of my lifetime." Rodgers also comes off, frankly, as a close cousin to Kevin Kline's character in A Fish Called Wanda. Otto was a phony intellectual who pretends to fully understand complex subjects like philosophy — and who flies into a rage if anyone dares to call him stupid.
In fairness, Rodgers isn't stupid. But he's not nearly as smart as he thinks he is. And he's clearly willing to bend the truth to suit his purposes.
Which probably means he'll run for office at some point. God help us all.
