Aaron Rodgers Clears the Air on "Immunized" Controversy

Yeah, it's been an interesting year or so, but man, it's been a good year. What was the craziness like? Like when all the people were calling you a plague rat? I mean, it's you and the... How do you say the guy's name, the tennis player? Novak Djokovic. Yeah, Djokovic. I mean, we talk about the healthiest human beings on Earth. Professional athletes. What do you plan in the US Open now? Yeah, I know. Which is bananas. The guy's already had COVID, recovered from it. I think he had it twice. And he's one of the best athletes in the world. I mean, the guy's body's in tipton condition. Tennis players are incredible fitness. Incredible. Yeah. And no, you can't come. You didn't follow the rules. Like it defies science, defies logic. It doesn't make any sense. None of it makes sense, especially at this stage of the pandemic. Air quotes. I mean, what the fuck, man? What was it like for you? It was really difficult for sure. And a lot of different reasons. I think I knew that this was coming down. That at some point, I was going to talk about my status because I'd chosen to not get vaxxed for reasons that you talked about on your show and I talked about on... We should just say it because it's kind of important. You're allergic to a medication or a part of the vaccine. Right. What is it called? PEG, polyethylene glycol. And so I did my research. Now, I think, typically speaking, because I'm healthy and I take care of myself, getting vaccinated was not on the top of my list. But I wanted to look into it because everybody was doing it and talking about it and trying to be safe. And I wanted to make sure I was doing my part, if that's what was necessary, to keep myself safe and my loved ones safe and my teammates safe. And I looked into it. And at the time, I went on the CDC website and they specifically said, if you're allergic to PEG, we do not recommend you get vaccinated with the mRNA vaccinations. So the only other one available was Johnson & Johnson. And it had just got pulled at the time for blood clots. So I looked into other options, which included an immunization process through a holistic doctor. And I researched and talked to probably a dozen different MDs and found a protocol that I felt like was the best available. And what's involved in that protocol? It involved basically a couple-month process of taking a diluted strand of the virus. So I was doing basically what the vaccine is supposed to do without. How do they do that? I don't know the exact way that they did that. But it was by injection? No. No, it was oral. And how are they even getting a diluted strand of the virus? I don't know that exactly or want to get into that exactly. Yeah, I don't think. But there was hundreds and hundreds, if not thousands, of people that I knew in this circle that were using, that had been doing this, to protect ourselves. Because we were thinking, hey, look, for me, I didn't want to risk anaphylactic shock or any type of clotting associated with the vaccine. So that was my only option, either do nothing or do this process. And I felt like that this was the best way to protect myself and my teammates, and that the NFL would understand and maybe grant me a waiver. Because one of the most difficult parts about the whole process was that there was clearly two classes of player at the facility. There was the vaxxed and the unvaxxed. And the vaxxed had full privileges. They tested once every two weeks. They had full privileges on the road. They could go out to dinner on the road. They could go to a concert in town. They could go to a comedy show that was in town. They could be at any place they wanted to and live life normally. Non-vaxxed, fully masked, zero privileges on the road. Could not go into establishments with more than 15 people. You cannot be around more than three individuals from the team outside the facility. All these different, what I think now we all realize were crazy policies. And that's what actually got me into trouble was that I attended a Halloween party in a 10,000 square foot warehouse with 18 other individuals all fully vaccinated. And myself not vaxxed and was eventually fined for that. Ended up getting COVID from a vaccinated teammate of mine who contracted COVID and spread it. And that's where it gets a little bit crazy. And I told this story, I think, on the McPhee show. But I said, when I came to camp, they knew I was not vaccinated. So you had to submit a vaccination card. That went to the system with the NFL. And obviously, I didn't have one. So we were given wristbands, too. So everybody in the facility knew who was vaxxed and who wasn't vaxxed. Vaxxed was green. Non-vaxxed was yellow. So already, it's weird wearing your colors out there. And I think to do an aside here, there was a lot of shaming involved in it. There was a lot of public shaming that was attempted to coerce people to get vaccinated. Because not only are you wearing a yellow wristband, you're the only ones wearing masks. And you have to work out by yourself. Can't work out with your teammates. So no drills, nothing? Well, you could have practice. But weight room stuff or our weight room every day, we're working out on the side, just the seven of us not vaxxed. Is it because practice is outside and the weight room is inside? Supposedly, yeah. But so they knew my vaccination status from the start. As did all my teammates. There was a lot of talk about I endangered my teammates. And I lied to my teammates and my team from day one that I returned, which was July 25th, probably, of 2021. They knew where I was at. Everybody did. Also on the side, I had an appeal going with the NFL. Because I said, look, here's my health issues. Here's the protocol I went through. Here's the research behind it. Gave them 500 pages of research from a number of people that put together case-reviewed studies around homeopathy and immunizations and safety in them and also the efficacy of them. And then I had a conversation with the league. And the league said, in this conversation, this is what I knew that 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. And I said, you got to be kidding me. 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. Oh, boy. And I said, no, I just think I'm a realist. I'm just looking at the facts here. Like, you just told me. At what point in the pandemic was this? This was like beginning of August, 2021. So by then, they had already known that breakthrough infections were real. By then, it had already, I mean, the vaccines started being rolled out. Was it, when, what was the first year? It was January of 2020, where they started getting them to older people, right? No, no, our time started. Right, I'm sorry, January of 2021, rather, sorry. January of 2021, they started giving out to older people, wasn't that? They started rolling out in March and April, because that's when I was going through the process of researching and looking into what I could do to protect myself, having the, you know, the allergy of that. And by August, people were still, they were already getting it, even though they had been vaccinated. So this was not, you know. It wasn't talked about, I don't think a whole lot. Right, but it was four months. But it was definitely happening. So it was definitely happening, yeah. I had only known one person at that time, somewhere around April, that had been vaccinated and also got COVID, and I just thought it was an aberration. I didn't, based on what I saw in the first few weeks at the facility, and that's why I thought that there was an opportunity. But it was difficult because we were separated. There was a whole other situation that was going on that, you know, also was going on in the rest of society is that my non-vax teammates who were on the bubble, right? So 53 guys make the active roster, 16 on the practice squad. So 69 guys on the squad. There's 90 in camp, right? So of the, I said seven, I think it was about 10 guys not vaxed. Only a few of us were guaranteed roster spots, like we're going to be on the team. And there's a lot of bubble guys. The general managers, and there was talk around the league of general managers, were not going to keep bubble non-vax players, right? So they were already up against it. Not only did non-vax players have a harder chance of making the squad, but they also had an almost 0% opportunity to get a workout afterwards. So if you get cut, right? And the season starts every Tuesday during the football season, most teams will bring in anywhere from five to 15 guys for workouts, just to see who's out there. Is there any players that can add to the roster? So if you weren't vaxed, you had a very low percentage, not just of keeping a job, but even getting a job opportunity like a workout, which is wild. And so after this conversation with the league, I knew that my appeal was going away and they were doing this, I call it a witch hunt, where they were asking every single player, are you vaccinated? They're asking a bunch of big quarterbacks and some guys were saying, it's personal or whatever, didn't want to talk about their status. And I'd almost guaranteed you weren't vaccinated, right? So then they were getting ripped and certain guys said, yes, I'm vaccinated. And then they tried to get them to say shit about their teammates, who weren't vaccinated, like dogged their teammates out. So I've been ready the entire time for this question and had thought about how I wanted to answer it. And I had come to collusion, I'm gonna say, I've been immunized. And if there's a follow up, then talk about my process. But thought there's a possibility that I say I'm immunized. Maybe they understand what that means, maybe they don't, maybe they follow up, they didn't follow up. So then I go the season, them thinking some of them, that I was vaccinated, right? Cuz the only follow up they asked was basically asking me to rip on my teammates. Like, what do you say to your teammates who aren't vaccinated? Like what kind of example do you feel like you're setting to your teammates who aren't vaccinated? I said, it's everybody's own decision with their body and we're super healthy individuals, we take care of ourselves. We understand what goes in our bodies and I don't have any judgment on any decision the guy makes with their own body, right? But I knew at some point, if I can track the 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 and then sure enough, I can track COVID in, at the beginning of November, end of October. And that's when the shitstorm hit because now I'm a liar, I'm endangering the community, my teammates, all these people. And the attempted takedown of me and my word and my integrity began, but so that was difficult. But I will say and I'm thankful to be on this show, I really appreciate you and you helping me out during that time. I reached out to you, I think being the season I feel like and just said, hey, because you had talked about your podcast a little bit. You'd had some controversial, maybe less controversial now. People on there talking about- Quite a bit less controversial now. Talking about their experts in the field talking about their own ideas about COVID and you helped me with a game plan to be ready in case I did get COVID. And I followed it to a T and when I got COVID, within 36 hours, I was symptom free and feeling amazing. But the protocols was you're off for 10 days, so I missed the game. We lost the football game, I came back, had to answer a ton of questions about it. Obviously, I had my, basically, I lost the majority of allies I thought I had in the media. The good thing is it drew a real line in the sand and everybody who wanted to jump on me and trash me did and show their true colors and very few people, kind of in the media at least stuck by me.