By Charles Stampul
For years Aaron Rodgers has played the position of NFL quarterback better than anyone who has come before him. After 17 seasons as a Green Bay Packer, he has an unrivaled 5 to 1 touchdown to interception ratio, 10 to 1 over the last two seasons. But athletic feats amount to little in the grand scheme of things and don’t alone make a man a hero. Public speech, on the other hand, can.
Rodgers decided last summer to not get a Covid vaccine. When asked by reporters if he was vaccinated, he replied accurately, that he had been immunized, meaning that he had been exposed to asymptomatic carriers of the virus acquiring the antibodies to fight off the virus should he come in closer contact with symptomatic carriers. This is how immunization most effectively works.
When Rodgers tested positive in November he revealed that he had not been vaccinated and was attacked by nearly every hair hat on ESPN and broadcast news. A few days later he appeared for his weekly spot on the under-the-radar Pat McAfee Show.
“I realize I’m in the cross hairs of the woke mob right now, so before the final nail gets put in my cancel culture casket, I’d like to set the record straight about the lies out there about myself right now. During that time there was a witch hunt going on where everyone in the media was so concerned about everyone’s vaccination status, what it would mean if someone said it was a personal matter…”
The quarterback proceeded to carve up the media like a cover 2 defense then lofted a soft over-the-shoulders touchdown pass. “If science can’t be questioned it’s not science anymore it’s propaganda and that’s the truth.”
Rodgers was interviewed a week later by McAfee but had little to add on the topic. At the end of the interview, in a segment called Aaron Roger’s book club, he jabbed his detractors by holding up a copy of Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, a novel about great doers and makers going on strike.
“I heard there is a lot of stuff in there that people don’t like,” McAfee played along.
A couple of weeks after holding up the book on the Pat McAfee show and mentioning it on the Manning Brothers show, someone put out the rumor that Roger’s was planning on sitting out the Super Bowl should the Packers make the game.
MVP voter Hub Arkush said that he would not cast his vote for the Packers quarterback because he’s “the biggest jerk in the league” and “a bad guy.” Barry Wilner of the AP told the Chicago Sun-Times “We’re not going to throw out his ballot.”
In the end, Roger’s performance on the field was too spectacular to credibly vote against him.
Is asserting one’s right to choose what they put in their bodies really such a heroic act?
Given what has been done to usurp individual rights over the past two years, and given where this has led historically, and considering the massive influence that Rodgers has and what he risked by speaking out; the answer is yes.
Roger’s has separated himself from fellow all-time great quarterbacks past and present. He did this on the field with an absurd 9 to 1 touchdown to interception ratio and off the field through his weekly interviews on the Pat McAfee Show. But don’t call him the GOAT. He may be the greatest quarterback of all time, but he showed that he can’t be herded.
He doesn’t show up in the post season.
“Shut up and dribble! Unless the sports star is saying something I agree with….then he’s literally a hero….”- people who unironically hate Kapernick for being “political”
People hate Kapernick because he is a racist.
Unironically ?
That’s irregardless.
Speaking unpopular truth can make one a hero. Spreading popular lies makes one a coward. BLM is collection of lies that has cost lives.
BLM has adopted the Sharpton/Jackson methodology of shaking down corporations that goes into the pockets of its own elite.