Okay, the football world was either shocked or tickled pink to hear that last year’s MVP got benched due to violations of the NFL’s COVID-19 protocols. Yep, I was tickled pink because I don’t like the guy even though I do recognize his skills. I read the article that talked about Aaron’s side of this story and, wow, if I didn’t have a good opinion about the guy as a player, his spin on this didn’t help much.
Then again, this whole anti-vaxx thing is… disturbing. A lot of people don’t understand the science behind the vaccine and stubbornly don’t want to know anything about it and if there’s something I know about humans, it’s that they can be scared to death about stuff they don’t understand. I know for myself, I wasn’t in a hurry to be vaccinated, not because I had any fears about the vaccine itself but I know something about both the science and what it takes to get any drug approved and on the market and since they kinda/sorta rushed to get this out – and they had to – well, hmm, there could be some issues but I still got vaccinated because I’m smack dab in the middle of the group that can be highly susceptible to getting the virus and the worse could happen.
I’m not surprised that Aaron is one of those people who thinks that the rules don’t apply to him. One of the things I don’t like about him as a player is he’s arrogant and is of a mind that being the quarterback for the Green Bay Packers is all about him and more so when he fucks up, it’s always someone else’s fault other than his own. Like, there was a rumor that their previous coach had gotten fired because Aaron wanted him gone… then it was revealed that, yep, that’s exactly what happened. I know that when I heard about it, the first thing I thought was why would the Packers organization get rid of a coach who proved he can run a winning team and had, in fact, won a couple of Super Bowls?
Okay, that season, the Packers sucked and that makes me just as happy as it does when the Dallas Cowboys bite the big one. Their dismal season, however and to me, wasn’t about bad coaching as much as it was Aaron having a lot of bad games and, really, just the team as a whole having a “bad hair season.” It’s to be expected if you know anything about football… but Aaron, well, he seems to be of a different mind about things.
On the one hand, I get it. That level of arrogance and just being cocky can be the fuel to drive his ability to play the game and, yeah, shit, as well as he has proven he can. He is very good at what he does and he knows it… but he’s not humble about it and that, for me and a lot of other people, makes him an asshole of the highest order.
And he didn’t do himself any favors by blatantly ignoring the protocols that the NFL established and the players’ association also signed off on. Then his “explanation” for why he dissed the rules, in a weird way, makes sense: He doesn’t have to take the vaccine if he doesn’t want to but the NFL protocols do include what unvaccinated players have to do to be in compliance… and Aaron is of a mind that those rules don’t apply to him which, at least to me, implies that he thinks he’s above the game, too.
That the league is going to hit his wallet hard for this makes me happy since, um, I don’t like the guy all that much but, yeah, any player who blatantly disregards the established protocol should have their bank account lowered… and a lot. There’s some investigation taking place to determine how often and badly Aaron violated the league rules and if it’s proven that he violated the rules a lot, not only will his wallet get hit, he could be suspended. And, on general principle, he should be suspended for repeated violations and more so when the NFL is quick to suspend players for other off or on-field violations of league rules.
Ah, but he’s a superstar quarterback. MVP a few times and has those pretty rings, too. As this started making the rounds in sport media, I got to thinking about the many times on my job where the powers that be laid down the law and that we all had to toe the line and without exception… and the many times I personally thought it was bullshit and, yeah, I ain’t doing that because I don’t have to… and did it anyway because, hmm, I not only liked my job, I needed to keep it and whatever objections I had were minor when compared to the possibility of getting black marks in my personnel folder or summarily dismissed for cause… and the cause being my not complying with the rules as established. Yep, doing my job? About as arrogant as I can manage to be because I know that I am very damned good at what I do and the people I worked for knew it because, if I wasn’t, I wouldn’t be working there at all. So, as such, I understand the arrogant and cocky attitude and also understand that this gets… misinterpreted because it’s really about being highly confident in your ability to do whatever it is you do but also understanding that even the best have bad days and, if so, um, it’s usually not management’s fault. You accept the blame for having a bad day at work and just move on and, yeah, even if it is management’s fault that your work day sucked donkey dicks.
You can fuss with me about this but it’s not COVID-19 that scares me the most: It’s the people who aren’t vaccinated that scare me. I understand their resistance… and I don’t. I don’t understand why anyone would want to take the risk of, one, getting infected and, two, passing it on to someone else. No, wait – I do understand it; there are some people who just believe that nothing’s going to happen to them so there’s no need to be vaccinated and, yep, all the people who are scared shitless because they don’t know what’s in the vaccine. Shit, I wanted to know… so I went to the company’s website and read about what’s in the vaccine and the technology used to create it. Was… surprised to learn that the science used to create this vaccine isn’t something new but, you know, being a science nerd myself, I understood the science behind mRNA and that there is no actual COVID virus, alive or dead, in this vaccine. mRNA, simply, “teaches” the body to fight the virus should one be exposed to it – the ‘m’ means “messenger.” It is a kind of gene therapy but not one that fucks with one’s genetic composition other than, again, to teach it that if, after vaccination, if it “sees” the virus, kill the shit out of it.
Okay. People have been vaccinated and still gotten sick. It happens and has happened with other vaccines. Along the same lines of how a woman can take birth control and still get pregnant or you can get a flu shot and still get the flu. Shit still happens since these things aren’t ever 100% effective and it stands to reason that it wouldn’t be since we’re all different and, yeah, sometimes, it’s not gonna work as expected. Shit… I got a pneumonia shot today and, honestly? I didn’t want to even though I know that, quite a few years ago, I somehow managed to get pneumonia and that was pretty fucked up since it took me over a month to get over it but the really bad part was knowing that if you get pneumonia once, you’re very susceptible to getting it again… and I don’t ever want to have to go through that again so, yeah, I got the vaccine even though there’s no real guarantee that I won’t get pneumonia… but there’s a greater chance that I won’t.
Again, I hesitated to get vaccinated because I needed more information and I went to the source to get it. I hear the stuff other people are saying about why they’re not gonna get vaccinated up to and including the possibility that the US Government is using this vaccine scare to implant microchips in everyone so they can track and control people which, according to what religious stuff you believe, ties right into the beginning of the world ending catastrophically. I hear people getting seriously pissy about their right not to be vaccinated and that’s all well and good… but do they have the right to put others at risk?
Apparently, they think they do and so does the future Hall of Famer, Aaron Rodgers, MVP quarterback for the famed Green Bay Packers. I watched the game they played Sunday night… and they lost and badly so which does, in fact, speak to how well they play when Aaron’s under center and being the team’s leader and motivating the offense and defense to give 200% every time they go out there and, as such, I can understand why he’d be unhappy when the team has a bad hair day and like they did last night. He’s not going to be happy about that loss and, for me, it begs the question of whether or not they would have won if this asshole hadn’t gotten benched for violating the league’s COVID-19 protocols. I think they would have, by the way, but since they didn’t, it makes what he’s being accused of even more pointed and in ways that have nothing to do with football and topped off with it being reported that he – and like a lot of other people – are very misinformed about much of what’s going on with this damned virus.
And I sit back and take notice of this… and shake my head. People are seeing the push to be vaccinated as a violation of their rights and it really does make me ask, even rhetorically, why this is “more important” than the very real possibility of getting the virus and either getting horribly sick or dying and, yeah, passing it along to everyone you might come in contact with since some of this people won’t even wear a mask.
As far as Aaron’s punishment for violating league rules, I hope they hit his wallet real hard and I do hope they suspend him, not because I can’t stand the guy – and I can’t – but he’s gotta be made to understand that the protocols apply to everyone on every team and he’s not above those protocols. The team will likely get slapped with some heavy fines and other things like draft choices; the latest thing I read talked about other teams being fined as much as $500,000 for violations and while that might be a drop in the bucket for a professional football team, whew, that’s a lot of money… but there’s no amount of money that can justify putting yourself and other people at risk just because you don’t want to take the vaccine and more so when the reason why you won’t do it is due to misinformation.
I got the vaccine. All I got out of it was stuck in the arm and having to deal with a sore and stiff arm. Better safe than sorry. Better to have it and not need it than to need it and I didn’t get it. Not even of a mind to put my lady at risk because I’m being stubborn or even stupid about not getting the vaccine; that’s just heinously reprehensible as far as I’m concerned and, yeah, it plucks my nerve to see a guy who a lot of people admire and look up to getting himself and his team in trouble… and all because he believes he has justifiable reasons for the rules not applying to him.
Way to set a good example, Aaron. Way to not let your celebrity lend itself to encouraging people to get vaccinated because shit usually happens when you don’t believe it will. No wonder so many fans of the game see you as an arrogant asshole despite your mastery of the game and, yeah, in part, why your team took an “L” last night because you should have been doing your goddamned job but chose to wind up not doing it because you think you didn’t have to abide by the rules and it doesn’t say much about whatever you think about your teammates and the other members of the Packers organization by taking the risk of infecting them… and you might have done so already. One of his game checks comes to $66,900 – that’s more money than a lot of people make in a year. I’d love it if the league not only garnished his game checks, they suspend him without pay even to make an example out of him.
He has the right to not get vaccinated… but he’s not so large and in charge that he has the right to violate the league rules with impunity. But, alas, because he’s Aaron Rodgers, he won’t get bitch-slapped like a lesser player might be…
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