Aaron Rodgers ‘Absurd’ Expectations of the Media

Aaron Rodgers

New York Jets quarterback and future Hall of Fame inductee Aaron Rodgers feels and is communicating that he is being unfairly judged and criticized by a contingent of the media that he asserts is biased and unethical in their reporting about him due to his past vaccination status.

Interesting comments for certain.

The question is, is he correct? Could his assessment be reasonable — or is he confused, unprofessional or petty himself?

Headline: “Jets Aaron Rodgers wants critics to state ‘vax status’ before commenting on his injury situation.”

Rodgers was highly criticized for not divulging his status during Covid and then being found, many claimed, to being deceitful or completely lying.

Of course, during a pandemic, his semantics and negative viewpoints about being immunized angered a large percentage of people who said he was selfish to both his teammates and society, which predicatably opened him up to ad-hominem attacks.

Now that he’s being criticized again about being out all season due to an injury and not making it back to play, despite the excitement about him going from Green Bay, where he became a legend, to New York. Add on his gigantic salary to go with the high expectations and team’s desperate need for him, Rodgers believes the criticism is shameful because of who is criticizing him.

He accuses the same people and media outlets that he says mocked him and railed against him for not being “vaxed.”

Now, he proposes that critics should state their “vax status” before talking about his injury and him being unavailable to the Jets.

“It’s the same people, with the same comments,” Rodgers states. “I think what we should do is, the same people who are criticizing me, or coming up with these conspiracies about my injury, whatever… before they talk, let’s go back to 2021 and let’s make people say their vax status to start. That’ll frame all these comments in the right window.”

He is of the mind that he and his body’s recovery are not being reported on objectively and he is frustrated with what he sees as unprofessionalism.

“Before they say something, let’s have them say, and ESPN is probably gonna shut us off here, let’s have them say, ‘hey, I’m so-and-so, double-vaxed with Pfizer and triple-boosted and my opinion about this is this guy’s a bad guy because he just wanted to practice and took money away,” he says. “Then at least you’d know and everybody could know at that point that they have their puppet masters who are puppeteering them to say this certain thing about this guy and that they’re still upset that I believe in medical freedom.”

One communications professional is not impressed with this behavior.

“This, like many of Rodgers’ comments of the past couple of years, feels like a way to draw attention to himself,” says Gail Sideman, owner and publicist at gpublicity. “From a PR standpoint, it’s not good attention. He craves the camera. He wants to be the center of attention. Ego over everything. Perception is reality.”

Rodgers says transparency is needed from a media which is human, emotional and biased, which sometimes colors its reporting.

“This is absolutely absurd,” Sideman counters. “It’s so out there. It again bleeds of ‘look at the batsh*t crazy things I can say to get media to notice me when I’m not on the field.’”

The reality, she contends, is that Jets quarterback isn’t worthy of trust in all that he communicates.

“Rodgers hasn’t earned the benefit of the doubt, which in communications practice, is what we coach our clients on in case they say something ill-advised. He does it so often, however, it feels like part of his plan,” Sideman says.

It seems reasonable, even if not likely, that the possibility exists that he has been, at least to some small degree, unfairly criticized on some points.

“As a record-setting, high-profile quarterback in the NFL, he should have learned a long time ago to let criticism roll off his back,” Sideman says. “Use it as motivation? Fine. Air his grievances to grab headlines? In that case, he’s a diva, personified. More people, per my unscientific research and publicity expertise, are sick of his pointed fingers toward the wrong parties.”

If there is a takeaway from this, it isn’t obvious to her.

“I’m sure his schtick sticks with the FOX News hot-take artists and the like, but smart people see through him. Even in the case of him reportedly not asking to be activated off IR (Injured Reserve) and another player released to make room for him is more an aside because he continues to blather,” Sideman says.

“I would say that he doesn’t get it,” she begins, “but I believe this is all his intention for attention.”