• Tempe, Arizona
  • Wednesday, May 8, 2024
   
Our Lives. Our Stories. Our Voices.
Our Lives. Our Stories. Our Voices.
Close
 

 

Aaron Rodgers vs. Kyrie Irving: White Privilege on Planet COVID

by Gordon Jackson

November 15, 2021 554 views
 

Welcome to the DSL: The Double Standard League.

 

Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers was called out ferociously by the likes of Hall of Fame receiver Shannon Sharpe, Los Angeles Lakers icon Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith and even former Pittsburgh Steelers QB Terry Bradshaw for a series of exposed contradictions and falsehoods that have come back to bite him in his green-and-gold posterior.

 

What happens next may also result in the calling out of the NFL.

The turmoil started to unravel on Nov. 3 when Rodgers found out he had been contracted with COVID-19, which led to a 10-day dismissal from team activities, as per NFL rules. He missed his team’s Week 9 game against the Kansas City Chiefs but was tested negative the next week, enabling him to return to the lineup and play on Week 10 against the Seattle Seahawks.

That positive COVID test result however uncovered the grand revelation that Rodgers had been unvaccinated all season long, despite telling reporters in late August that he was immunized.

Rodgers “directly and deliberately lied to fans and the public when he assured everyone he was ‘immunized,’ knowing that word would be interpreted as his being vaccinated. He wasn’t vaccinated,” Abdul-Jabbar wrote in a column on Substack. “And he got COVID-19. And he went maskless during in-person press conferences, which not only violated NFL rules, but put everyone else’s health at risk.”

Sharpe, speaking to co-host Skip Bayless on their ESPN show, “Skip and Shannon: Undisputed,” also lashed out at Rodgers.

“Aaron Rodgers lied! He said he was immunized! Sharpe said strongly. “He’s arrogant, selfish, flippant! He always thinks he’s the smartest guy in the room. I have lost so much respect for him.

“He didn’t think this was going to come out because he thought he wouldn’t get infected. That’s not being disingenuous, that’s a bold face lie!”

Additionally, Sharpe went straight into expressing a sharp double-standard, comparing Rodgers with Brooklyn Nets superstar guard Kyrie Irving, who has refused to be vaccinated and -- being in direct violation of New York City’s vaccine mandate – is not allowed to play with his team as the NBA season is now almost a month old.

“I still hope Kyrie gets the vaccine. But he didn’t try to circumvent anything; he didn’t try to pass a fake immunization card or give false information,” Sharpe said of Irving. “One guy (Irving) faces the consequences, the other guy (Rodgers) lied because he didn’t want to face the consequences.”

When Rodgers tried to defend himself, he took himself from a future Hall of Famer to the Hall of Shame. On Nov. 5, speaking on “The Pat McAfee Show” on YouTube and SiriusXM, he said: “I’m not an anti-vax, flat-earther. I have an allergy to an ingredient that’s in the mRNA vaccines.

Further, in classless fashion, Rodgers fumbled into quoting Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., saying that people have a “moral obligation to object to unjust rules.” Sharpe, once again sniffed through that remark and acutely criticized Rodgers as a classic example of “white privilege.”

Whether one agrees or disagrees with Irving’s decision to not take the vaccine, a comparison reveals him taking the consequences of his decision in a straight-up manner, “like a man.” Not so with Rodgers.

In a slap-on-the-wrist gesture, the NFL fined Rodgers $15,000 and the Packers $300,000. Rodgers has also lost at least one major endorsement, the Wisconsin-based healthcare company Prevea. But, as of now, it appears that the league may still be successful in overall giving Rodgers a pass, with him missing only one game where Irving could potentially miss the entire NBA season.

Rodgers’ expose’ has also further revealed a double-standard in comparison with one other football “hero.” Former San Francisco QB Colin Kaepernick did not risk other lives when he began to take a knee during the playing of the National Anthem in protest of police brutality against mostly young Black men. Yet, he’s on his way to missing a fifth straight season of playing because of the NFL’s blackballing of him.

Double standards make up one distinct component of racism, although it’s not always such the case. A look at Rodgers’, Irving’s and Kaepernick’s ethnicity points undisputedly in that direction.

Either way, it must be said, with no reservation: Major League Sports, we have a serious double-standard problem.


[Updated on November 17, 2021]

 
  • Share:  
  •    
  •    
  •    
  •    
Gordon Jackson
NOIRE Contributor

  • Follow Gordon:
  •    
  •    
 

 

 

Please wait..!