With roughly two blatant COVID protocol violations per week, which happened when unvaccinated Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers showed up for indoor press conferences without a mask, the league knew or should have known that the rules were being broken -- and the league ultimately did nothing about it.
The question then becomes what other violations did the league’s ignore and/or fail to properly investigate or discipline?
This isn’t a shot in the dark. There’s reason to believe that the league didn’t investigate Rodgers for violating COVID protocols as aggressively as it investigated, for example, Tom Brady for allegedly deflating footballs. (Brady’s violation did not contribute to a public-health crisis.) Indeed, when the Patriots are suspected of breaking the rules, an army of business suits descend on New England in an aggressive search for immediate answers, typically under the assumption that the rules were broken and that it’s just a matter of finding the evidence to prove it.
So what did the league do once it became obvious that: (1) Rodgers was violating COVID protocol; and (2) the Packers weren’t doing a damn thing about it? According to NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy, the NFL “selected and viewed video from random weeks at the conclusion of the preseason through the last several weeks” to come to the conclusion that there were a “few isolated instances” when Rodgers and Packers receiver Allen Lazard failed to wear a mask in the facility, and that “there was no widespread or systemic mask-wearing violations.”
The teams are required to keep in-house video for up to 30 days. Apparently, the Packers kept video longer than that. Why not study all of it, and search for every single instance in which the COVID protocols may have been violated? It’s one thing to say that there were a “few isolated instances” based on limited review of “random” videos; it’s quite another to come to that conclusion after looking at everything. The NFL did not look at everything that was available to it.
Then there’s the question of whether the NFL interviewed Rodgers, asking him whether he complied fully or partially with the COVID protocols, interrogating him about any excursions away from his home that may have violated protocol, and perhaps even demanding access to his phone in search of text messages or photos that would show that the Halloween party wasn’t the only time that he violated the rules applicable to unvaccinated players.
To be clear, the 2021 protocol prevents the following activities for unvaccinated players: (1) gathering outside the team facility or team travel in groups of more than three players, Tier 1, Tier 2, and/or Tier 3 Individuals; (2) attending an indoor night club, unless the player is wearing PPE and there are no more than 10 people in the club; (3) attending an indoor bar, unless the player is wearing PPE and there are no more than 10 people in the bar; and (3) house gatherings of more than fifteen people without the player and all guests wearing masks or PPE or where social distancing for the more than fifteen people is impossible.
Rodgers made it clear on Friday that he thinks the rules are stupid and non-scientific. His attendance, without a mask, at the Halloween party confirms it. Did the league explore whether there were other incidents where an unvaccinated Rodgers was out and about under specific circumstances that violate the rules listed above?
There’s reason to think that the Halloween party wasn’t an aberration. Via Kalyn Kahler of Defector.com, Rodgers went on October 15 to a Green Bay axe-throwing bar, with at least three teammates present. That’s another obvious, and unpunished, violation.
How many more visits to bars or clubs or parties were there, and what did NFL general counsel Jeff Pash and his minions do, or not do, to determine whether other violations occurred?
At some point, it makes plenty of sense to sit down and talk to Rodgers about the violations he did or didn’t commit. The NFL has not yet responded to an inquiry as to whether Rodgers was interviewed and/or whether evidence was sought directly from him.
If the league asked for such information, for his sake here’s hoping he didn’t destroy his phone.
