Aaron Rodgers has never been shy about speaking his mind or doing things his way. But if he could change one thing he did, it was when he told reporters he was “immunized” against COVID-19.
In 2021 Rodgers, then playing for the Green Bay Packers, was asked whether he’d been vaccinated — which was required by the NFL at the time. He replied with he’d been “immunized,” but not vaccinated. The quarterback never was vaccinated and didn’t need to go through safety protocols the league had in place for unvaccinated players.
Rodgers tested positive for COVID-19 in November 2021 and had to spend a mandatory 10 days away from the Packers. This led to the public discovering he wasn’t vaccinated, and instead was taking a homeopathic treatment regimen. He appealed to the NFL to allow the regimen to take the place of the vaccine, but the league denied it.
Now, in an unauthorized biography authored by Ian O’Connor, Rodgers revealed he regrets even saying he was “immunized.”
“If there’s one thing I wish could have gone different, it’s that, because that’s the only thing (critics) could hit me with,” Rodgers said to O’Connor, according to ESPN.
“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.’ And it was an ongoing appeal,” he told O’Connor. “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.”
During a 2022 appearance on “The Joe Rogan Experience,” Rodgers admitted he knew what he was doing when he used the word “immunized.”
“I’d been ready the entire time for this question and had thought about how I wanted to answer it. And I had come to the conclusion I’m gonna say, ‘I’ve been immunized,’” Rodgers said. “And if there’s a follow-up, then talk about my process. But, (I) thought there’s a possibility that I say ‘I’m immunized,’ maybe they understand what that means, maybe they don’t.
“Maybe they follow up. They didn’t follow up,” he continued. “So then I go the season (with) them thinking, some of them, that I was vaccinated.”
Rodgers, now with the New York Jets after getting traded by the Packers ahead of the 2023 season, is looking to bounce back in 2024 after tearing his Achilles in Week 1 on the first drive of his Jets debut.
“Out of the Darkness: The Mystery of Aaron Rodgers” is set to be released on Aug. 20.
