News that Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers tested positive for COVID-19, is unvaccinated and will miss this weekend’s game against the Chiefs shocked the NFL world on Wednesday — and not just because he said in August that he had already been “immunized.” Since training camp opened in late July, Rodgers had not been publicly observed to be following any of the obvious protocols for unvaccinated NFL players, as agreed upon this summer by the NFL and NFL Players Association.
So what’s the deal here? Did Rodgers mislead everyone about his vaccination status? Was he flouting NFL rules? Were the Packers or the league looking the other way? What follows is our best attempt to separate fact, assumption and outright fiction in this evolving story.
Vaccinated players, however, can return following a positive test as soon as they produce two negative tests with 24 hours in between, as long as they are asymptomatic.
According to ESPN’s Rob Demovsky, Rodgers pursued an alternative treatment and then petitioned the NFL to recognize him as vaccinated.
Many of them are listed here.
As others have noted, the NFL/NFLPA have pulled together their various COVID-19 protocols for this summer.
No.
They do, and Rodgers has not been wearing one during indoor press conferences with reporters at Lambeau Field, where the Packers practice and play games.
Masks are required for unvaccinated players at games only if they are inactive, meaning they are not in uniform and not eligible to play.
So based on any reading of the protocols, Rodgers should have been masked for those games.
As of this moment, the league has not responded to questions about that.
The NFL issued a statement late Wednesday afternoon noting pointedly that “the primary responsibility” for enforcing COVID-19 protocols is with the team, not the league.
So it’s not out of the question that he could miss two games, and that’s assuming he tests negative and is asymptomatic at the 10-day mark.