The reaction to the Packers’ loss on social media isn’t just from football fans, and it’s not all about football. Much of the reaction was directed at Rodgers specifically, as evidenced by “Goodbye Aaron” hashtag trending the next morning as everyone happy roasting midfielder for his previous comments on Covid-19. (“Guess who just got some extra time to ‘do their own research'”, one of the more popular tweets speak, mocking Rodgers’ earlier statements he made his own fact-finding about Covid treatments. And, of course, there are much more “colorful” comments.)
However, there was one response that really resonated with me. It was one of the more elegant and thoughtful responses directed at Green Bay QB: “Always enjoyed watching you play and respected you as a great midfielder”, tweets read. “After this year… no.”
That’s exactly how I feel about the three-time NFL MVP, football pundit Note earned his fourth MVP title this year (one of the can still get) thanks to a remarkable performance on the field that led his team to best record in NFC. Rodgers’ path from one of the most beloved and respected players in the league to being the target of mockery shows how widespread and polarizing disinformation about Covid-19 has become.
The origin of this “rise and fall” begins in November. That’s when Rodgers found himself in a firestorm after positive test for Covid-19. The positive test set off a chain reaction that included Rodgers publicly sharing unproven Covid treatments – the ones encourage given to him by comedian Joe Rogan – and admitted that he had not been vaccinated against the coronavirus. Worse still, Rodgers apparently misled the public in August, when he gave the impression during a press conference that he had received the vaccine. (When request by reporters if he had been vaccinated, Rodgers replied, “Yes, I am vaccinated.”)
As a Rodgers fan, I wrote a pillar at the time urged him to show leadership by apologizing for past remarks and to stop promoting misinformation about Covid-19. In recognition of his merit, Rodgers did a few days later “full responsibility” for making comments about his vaccine status “that people may feel were misleading.” This whole story could have ended there.
But instead, Rodgers failed miserably at the end of December To share misinformation about Covid. While on a radio show, Rodgers emphasized NFL protocols designed to keep players as safe as possible, saying, “It makes no sense for me to continue to disseminate this story. that unvaccinated players are more dangerous or these super-spreaders, which have not been proven true.”
He added, “it’s clearly not a pandemic of unregulated people.” Reality, a CDC study last fall found that unvaccinated people are about 4.5 times more likely to be infected with Covid-19 and 10 times more likely to be hospitalized. NFL protocols are simply designed to save lives, not to play a political role.
Rodgers then poured gasoline on the fire just days before this weekend’s game by embracing the incorrect views of the right in a Interview with ESPN. When asked about President Joe Biden’s joking comment to a Packers fan last month that she should tell Rodgers to get vaccinated, Rodgers replied in a tone that sounded like an audition for a job as a host at Fox News.
“When the president of the United States says, ‘This is a pandemic of the unvaccinated,’ it’s because of him and the people of his constituency, this, I don’t know how there is any what if you watch any of his attempts at public speaking, but I guess he got 81 million votes,” said Rodgers, though nothing to “guess” – fact , Biden received 81 million votes in the 2020 election. And for dire measure, Rodgers called the Biden administration a “fake White House machine,” which, of course, refers to Trump’s repeated use of the phrase, “believe ie fake”.
All of this helps explain the mixture of anger and glee directed at Rodgers from various angles on the Internet when his team lost Saturday. It didn’t help the last two times his team had soccer with bound game at 10-10, Rodgers just finished one pass out of four he threw, for a total of four yards – plus he was fired. The 49ers finished with a 13-10 win, with a goal in the last second.
After the loss, Rodgers tell the media he’s “a bit numb.” He then added a line that passed Saturday’s match: “[I] I didn’t think it would end like this. ”
None of us Rodgers fans thought it would end like this – not just with the Packers loss, but with the disappointment of watching one of the NFL’s most famous players become one of the most mocked. But Rodgers has no one to blame for that but himself.
