Aaron Rodgers Finally Explained Why He Said He Was "Immunized" When Talking About His COVID-19 Vaccination Status
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Hey, remember when Aaron Rodgers got in trouble with pretty much everybody over his COVID-19 vaccination status?
Let's do a brief recap: After the NFL star said he was "immunized" against the novel coronavirus in August of 2021, he tested positive in November of that year and subsequently revealed that he was not, in fact, vaccinated.
During a lengthy interview on The Pat McAfee Show that month, Rodgers also said he wouldn't "acquiesce to some woke culture or crazed group of individuals who say you have to do something" in regards to getting vaccinated.
The backlash was swift, and it went on for a while, too. After he and Shailene Woodley broke up and ended their engagement earlier this year, he publicly apologized to her and "my loved ones" for his COVID-19 comments.
“I didn’t realize the kind of shrapnel that was being flaked off of what I felt like were the bullets coming at me because I was too locked in on me and defending myself and trying to get a message out," he said in another interview on The Pat McAfee Show.
Now, a year after his initial "immunized" remarks, Aaron is continuing to reflect on how he spoke about his own unvaccinated status.
On a recent episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, Aaron reflected on how he "misled" people when making his initial remarks.
"I'd been ready the entire time for this question and had thought about how I wanted to answer it," he explained while talking about the thought process behind his initial statement.
"And I had come to the conclusion I'm going to say, 'I've been immunized.' And if there's a follow-up, then talk about my process."
"But, [I] thought there's a possibility that I say 'I'm immunized,' maybe they understand what that means, maybe they don't," he continued. "Maybe they follow up. They didn't follow up."
"So, then I go the season [with] them thinking, some of them, that I was vaccinated."
Aaron also admitted that he "knew at some point if I contracted COVID or if word got out, because it's the NFL and there's leaks everywhere, it was possible I'd have to answer the questions."
Of course, that's exactly what happened, and Aaron also briefly discussed the fallout from his deceiving remarks.
"That's when the shitstorm hit," he said, "because now I'm a liar, I'm endangering the community, my teammates, all these people. And the attempted takedown of me and, you know, my word and my integrity began."
"So, that was difficult."
