Aaron Rodgers Shares Regrets About 2021 COVID-19 Controversy

The former Packers QB shared thoughts on his "immunization" comments in an upcoming book.

East Rutherford, NJ -- August 10, 2024 -- Aaron Rodgers, who wasn't dressed to play, during pre game warm ups as the Washington Commanders came to MetLife Stadium to play the New York Jets in the first preseason game of the 2024 season. / Chris Pedota, NorthJersey.com / USA TODAY NETWORK

Next week, sports writer Ian O'Connor will release his latest book in the form of an unauthorized autobiography on New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers. In an excerpt published to ESPN on Monday morning, it was revealed one of the topics covered is the immunization controversy from 2021.

As a refresher, while with the Green Bay Packers Rodgers was asked by reporters if he was vaccinated from COVID-19 and he said he was "immunized." No further clarification was given so the NFL world assumed the quarterback was vaccinated until he tested positive for the virus and he had to wait longer than vaccinated players to return to play. It was the first domino in the Rodgers saga the sports world is still embroiled in, when the all-time great player went from a private individual to someone willing to battle over his personal beliefs in the public eye. It's made him a lightning rod for controversy and likely played a role in his exodus from Green Bay to his current home of East Rutherford, New Jersey, suiting up for the Jets.

To O'Connor, Rodgers expressed regret for how the immunization situation unfolded. Via ESPN:

Three years after Aaron Rodgers told reporters he'd been "immunized" against the COVID-19 virus, the quarterback says in a soon-to-be-published unauthorized biography that he should have been truthful about his status.

Rodgers, who previously said the controversy had a dramatic impact on his public image, told author Ian O'Connor that the primary reason he claimed he was "immunized" was the statement represented "the crux of my appeal."

"If there's one thing I wish could have gone different, it's that, because that's the only thing [critics] could hit me with," Rodgers said in the book.

Additionally:

"But if I could do it again, I would have said [in August], f--- the appeal. I'm just going to tell them I'm allergic to PEG, I'm not getting Johnson & Johnson, I'm not going to be vaxxed,'" Rodgers, now the quarterback of the New York Jets, said in the book titled "Out of the Darkness: The Mystery of Aaron Rodgers".

So it sounds as though Rodgers wishes he were honest from the jump, and he went the immunization path as part of an effort to convince the NFL that his holistic treatments should be considered on par with vaccination. Not much would change in that alternate universe. Rodgers would probably still catch heat for his anti-vaccination stances and his relationship with the Packers was quite rocky already. But it may have been less of a PR storm.

The quarterback would stick with Green Bay until the end of the 2022 season. The following offseason he was traded to the Jets; he made it five minutes through his first game in New York before tearing his Achilles and missing the rest of the 2023 season.

The 2024 season is one chock-full of expectations for Rodgers. The Jets are desperately hoping he'll return to form despite the severity of the injury he suffered last year. If he does not, the future looks bleak indeed.