We haven’t heard from Aaron Rodgers about the fact that he lied about being vaccinated and ultimately was outed as being unvaccinated. When we do, we may hear about his frustration with the process that culminated in his ruse being exposed.
Per a league source (the same one who tried to tell me on October 5 that Rodgers wasn’t vaccinated), Rodgers is “furious” over the fact that his true status was leaked. Given his propensity to complain about the manner in which he’s treated by the media, it’s safe to wonder whether he’ll complain about the fact that NFL Media reported his status, despite his clear desire to hide it -- and his ability to do it for weeks.
The league doesn’t disclose the names of players who are and aren’t vaccinated. However, portions of the daily transaction report often can be cross-referenced to determine that a player was placed on COVID reserve for being in close contact with an infected person. Since only the unvaccinated can be placed on COVID reserve as close contacts, that’s one way to identify unvaccinated players.
Another way, of course, comes from the player wearing a mask in certain settings. But Rodgers consistently did not wear a mask when in the public eye, even in circumstances when he should have. That also helped him hide the truth.
Frankly, Rodgers would have been outed as unvaccinated last week, if he’d been in sufficiently close contact with receiver Davante Adams to be shelved for five days after Adams tested positive. That’s how it became known that receiver Allen Lazard isn’t vaccinated.
That said, Rodgers could argue that there was nothing inherent in the fact that he tested positive that revealed his status, and that without the reporting from the league-owned media conglomerate, no one would know he wasn’t vaccinated. Although the original report regarding the positive included a clear statement that he’d miss Sunday’s game -- an implicit acknowledgement that, as vaccinated players would be, he’s not eligible to generate two negative tests at least 24 hours apart and make it back by Sunday -- it wasn’t entirely clear that he isn’t vaccinated until NFL Media reported it.
Given that the NFL has access to the truth when it comes to vaccine status, an unretracted report from NFL Media that he’s not vaccinated makes it 100 percent clear that he’s 100 percent not vaccinated.
Of course, the reporting from NFL Media went farther than that. The league’s media arm also reported that Rodgers had tried to secure an exemption that would regard him as vaccinated because of a homeopathic treatment that raised his COVID antibodies. (Others reported that, too.)
When Rodgers finally speaks again, he’ll get plenty of questions. We’ll be listening to all of his answers. And we’ll be paying close attention for any potential detour by Rodgers into the sharing of some thoughts about how his private medical information improperly came to light.