In his latest appearance on the Pat McAfee Show, Aaron Rodgers said he experienced COVID-19 symptoms before and after his positive test. This casts further doubt about his availability for the Packers’ Week 10 game.
An unvaccinated player must be away from his team for 10 days after experiencing symptoms. Rodgers, who tested positive Wednesday, said symptoms were present Tuesday, via Tom Silverstein of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and added that he did not feel well as late as Thursday. The Packers host the Seahawks next week. News of Rodgers’ positive test will thrust Jordan Love into the spotlight against the Chiefs.
Rodgers, 37, violated NFL protocols by speaking to media without a mask in-person. While the 17th-year quarterback said he followed all protocols while in the team’s facility, he admitted he did not follow the one regarding media availability. With the players having agreed to protocols before the season, Rodgers may be set for a fine for not adhering to them.
Rodgers said Aug. 26 he’d been “immunized” but added Friday that if a follow-up question came at that point, he would have indicated he did not receive a vaccine dose. Rodgers said the NFL was fully aware of his choice to go through the season unvaccinated. While the future Hall of Famer said he petitioned the league to authorize an exemption that would essentially count him as vaccinated due to the homeopathic treatment he received, no such exemption was given, according to The Athletic. Rodgers himself did not petition the league, according to the Washington Post’s Mark Maske, who notes a Packers employee made the inquiry (Twitter links).
When Rodgers appealed the NFL’s ruling, he said one of the league’s doctors communicated to him a vaccinated person could not contract COVID or spread it. The NFL countered Friday by responding (via Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio, on Twitter), “No doctor from the league or the joint NFL-NFLPA infectious disease consultants communicated with the player. If they had, they certainly would have never said anything like that.”
This, of course, follows a turbulent offseason in which Rodgers requested a trade and skipped Packers offseason activities. The parties agreed to a revised contract, making the three-time MVP a 2023 free agent, but his long-term status in Green Bay is murky. Rodgers’ positive COVID test does not stand to help matters for the Packers. When asked if he planned on listening to Rodgers’ interview with McAfee, Matt LaFleur said he most likely would not (via Silverstein, on Twitter).
Regardless of the plot points that led to the present circumstances, the Packers are without one of the NFL’s best players amid a push for the NFC’s only playoff bye. Based largely on Rodgers’ play, the Packers earned a bye in each of LaFleur’s two seasons. Although they did not have Love when Rodgers was last absent, the Pack went 3-7 in games their starting QB did not complete in 2017. Three other NFC teams enter Week 9 with one loss, with the Buccaneers sitting at 6-2. With Rodgers out, the 7-1 Packers are now 7.5-point underdogs against the Chiefs. His absence against the Seahawks would create another hurdle for a team already missing its top two defensive players.
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