It’s a joke that Aaron Rodgers will be playing football today. After sitting out last week’s 13-7 loss to the Chiefs, Rodgers will reportedly be back under centre after being activated off the COVID/reserve list.
Once again the league is putting ratings and winning above what’s right. And before anyone chimes in with a “well the NFL is a business at the end of the day” comment, that doesn’t mean that they’re exempt from doing what is morally right. Adding additional revenue to the bottom lines of billionaires bank accounts should be secondary to holding players accountable to the extreme privilege they’re afforded of throwing a football around and being paid millions of dollars to do so.
One would think that after the black eye the Raiders have put on the season with their off field actions thus far, the league would want to take advantage of the opportunity to hold players accountable. But why do that when you can get more viewers to tune in to a Rodgers led Packers squad in your “game of the week” time slot with your best announcers calling the game? Am I saying that what Aaron Rodgers did is on the same level as Henry Ruggs? Absolutely not. What I am saying though is this was an opportunity to hold Rodgers accountable that the league chose to do nothing about.
Let’s be clear here, what Aaron Rodgers did was wilfully break NFL mandated rules. Rules that, because he didn’t agree with them, he chose to ignore. This isn’t Lord of the Flies here Aaron, you live in a society. If everyone had the ability to pick and choose which rules to follow and when it would be anarchy. You don’t get to say “I feel like this is more of a 100km/h speed limit area as opposed to a 40km/h zone, I’ll drive how I want, public safety be damned”.
Because at the end of the day that’s what he did, he knowingly put others at risk. And how did the NFL respond? A $14,650 fine. If we were to take just his cap hit alone for this year (forget money from endorsements, or any financial acrobatics the team did to defer money etc.) that represents 0.0005% of just his playing salary this year. Which would be akin to fining someone who makes $50k a year $27.05.
Cowboys wide receiver Ceedee Lamb just got fined $15,450 for having his jersey untucked. READ THAT AGAIN. The league is more concerned about a player having an untucked jersey than they are about one of the faces of the league knowingly flaunting rules and putting others at risk.
Hell, this is the same league that was never able to prove that the Patriots tampered with footballs in the infamous “deflategate” scandal, but still fined the Pats $1M, stripped them of draft picks and suspended Tom Brady for 4 games. And that’s for something they couldn’t prove. They’ve got weeks worth of footage, photos, interviews, you name it where Rodgers is maskless, breaking COVID protocols, gathering in large groups at Halloween parties, the list goes on.
Let’s also not forget that this isn’t just a case of “oh sorry I didn’t read the fine print”. We get it, no one reads the Apple terms of use before clicking “accept”. But in this case, Aaron not only knew the rules, but attempted (unsuccessfully) to petition that his home brew, half assed internet research, fueled by noted medical guru Joe Rogan should be sufficient to count as a vaccinated player. An appeal the league denied outright.
So not only did Rodgers know the rules, but he CHOSE to ignore them, thereby putting others at risk. Per the latest figures there have been 762,000 deaths related to COVID in the US since the onset of the pandemic. To put that in perspective, that’s more American deaths than WW1 and WW2 combined. But don’t worry folks, Rodgers has taken horse de-worming medication so he should be fine…
At best he’s a selfish asshole, at worst he should be appropriately fined and suspended for the remainder of the season. Unfortunately when it comes to the NFL, profits always trump people, and Rodgers is good for the bottom line. Afterall, untucked jerseys and purportedly underinflated footballs are more important than public health and honesty right?
-Kyle Skinner
Twitter: @JKyleSkinner