Aaron Rodgers

You have the right to get vaccinated or not. And with that right you have a responsibility to follow the rules. I am talking, of course, about Aaron Rodgers. He has the right to listen to and take advice from anyone he wants, and to get vaccinated or not. The issue that he is not vaccinated is clearly a mistake to some, and something to be proud of to others. Whether or not he gets vaccinated really is up to him.

My understanding is that the NFL does not require him to be vaccinated, but there are protocols an unvaccinated player is supposed to follow. That applies to every unvaccinated player – even Aaron Rodgers. These protocols are in place to protect the players, others with the team, and their families. He did not follow those protocols. He lied about being vaccinated. He put every player that he came into contact with at risk, on both his team and teams that he played against.

I can’t argue that he is smart enough to make decisions for himself, because I am not sure he really is. But whether he is or is not, he has no business making decisions for the players around him. They may agree with him or not, but he does not get to make their decisions for them, which he basically did by lying to everyone. They had no idea they were in the presence of an unvaccinated person, and so could not make the decision to further protect themselves and their loved ones by masking or even removing themselves from his presence. He took that decision away from them.

I hope (but am not holding my breath) that the NFL deals with him in some way besides fining him an amount of money that he probably won’t even notice. And a short suspension really doesn’t seem to be adequate. I think a longer suspension, or even letting him go, is more appropriate. Not because he didn’t get vaccinated, but because he lied about being vaccinated and put a lot of people at risk.