Aaron Rodgers has admitted regret for the way he handled his controversial vaccine debacle.
Rodgers, 40, now says he should have been more truthful about his vaccination status when he told reporters he was “immunized” during an August 2021 press conference, according to an excerpt from the upcoming biography Out of the Darkness: The Mystery of Aaron Rodgers published by ESPN on Monday, August 12.
“If there’s one thing I wish could have gone different, it’s that,” Rodgers tells author Ian O’Connor in the book, “because that’s the only thing [critics] could hit me with.”
Rodgers’ vaccination status made headlines in November 2021 when he was ruled out of the Green Bay Packers’ Game against the Kansas City Chiefs after testing positive for COVID-19.
Two days later, during an appearance on ESPN’s The Pat McAfee Show, Rodgers said he was unvaccinated and blamed the “woke mob” for coming after him.
“Do they still not understand why I said ‘immunized?’” Rodgers asked McAfee, 37, at the time. “Do they know that I was in an appeal process? Not to mention, 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?”
Rodgers had filed an appeal with the NFL to have his homeopathic treatment regimen qualify him as vaccinated. It was eventually denied.
“But if I could do it again, I would have said [in August], ‘F–k the appeal,’” Rodgers explains in the book. “I’m just going to tell them I’m allergic to PEG, I’m not getting Johnson & Johnson, I’m not going to be vaxxed.”
As for the appeal, Rodgers said, “I had an immunization card from my holistic doctor, which looked similar.”
“I wasn’t trying to pawn it off as a vaccine card, but I said, ‘Listen, here’s my protocol. Here’s what you can follow to look this up,’” he continues in the book. “And it was an ongoing appeal. So, if I had just said [I was unvaccinated] in the moment, there’s no chance that the appeal would have been handled the exact same way.”
When asked by O’Connor whether he would have gotten vaccinated had a local mandate prevented him from playing at all — like in the case of the NBA’s Kyrie Irving — Rodgers said, “I wouldn’t have done it.”
Deal of the Day
Helen Mirren Uses This $23 Moisturizer That Gives Shoppers a ‘Soft Glow!’ View DealRodgers was traded from the Packers to the New York Jets during the 2023 offseason. Three plays into his Jets career, Rodgers suffered a torn Achilles and missed the rest of the season.
He is expected to be the starting quarterback for the Jets when they open the 2024-25 regular season against the San Francisco 49ers on September 9.
Out of the Darkness: The Mystery of Aaron Rodgers is available August 20.
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