‘Conspiracy theorist’: NFL star reveals league promoted known vaccine myth to push mandate

When Green Bay Packers Quarterback Aaron Rodgers publicly refused to get the COVID-19 injections in November 2021, he was subjected to virulent media attacks and fierce public blowback.  

Though he had taken a COVID-19 immunization protocol, Rodgers was forced to wear a yellow wristband at practice and events to mark his “unvaccinated” status, ordered to pay a $14,650 fine, forbidden to leave the hotel or eat with his team, confined to solitary workouts and banned from using the sauna. 

In an appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast Saturday, Rodgers revealed more details about his refusal to get the shots, which began when the NFL star followed the CDC’s advice not to get the Pfizer injection due to his polyethylene glycol (PGA) allergy. At the time, the only other COVID-19 shot was from Johnson & Johnson, which had recently been pulled due to reports of blood clots, and was limited by the FDA in May 2022 for the same reason. 

The quarterback says his team and the NFL were aware of his refusal to get the shots as early as late July 2021. 

“They knew my vaccination status from the start, as did all my teammates,” Rodgers told host Joe Rogan. “There was a lot of talk about how I endangered my teammates and I lied to my teammates and my team.” 

When the NFL mandated injections for all players, Rodgers submitted 500 pages of scientific research to the league supporting his homeopathic immunization protocol, but the research was ignored and both Green Bay Packers and the NFL accused him of putting others in danger. 

“And then I had a conversation with the league,” Rodgers went on, “and the league said in this conversation – and this is when I knew my appeal was definitely not going to happen – was they said, ‘It’s not possible for a vaccinated player – person, sorry – to contract or transmit COVID if they’ve been vaccinated.’” 

By this time, it had already been established for months that the COVID-19 injections protected against neither infection nor transmission, but the NFL clung to the original myth used to justify the mandates. 

“And I said, ‘You gotta be kidding me,’” continued Rodgers. “Because I showed up, and five people – non-players – five people fully vaxxed, are out with COVID. So what are you talking about?’ 

“And he said, ‘You’re a conspiracy theorist.’” 

Rodgers added that the NFL’s general managers intended to not only cut non-injected players for the season, but even shut them out of "workouts” with the team, which would have bolstered their chance of getting back onto the squad. 

“So if you weren’t vaxxed, you had a very low percentage not just of keeping a job but even getting a job opportunity, like a workout. Which is wild.”