Aaron Rodgers was one of many Americans outside of the country as the coronavirus pandemic started to hold the world in its grip weeks ago. The Green Bay Packers quarterback called in for a conversation on The Pat McAfee Show, revealing how he, Danica Patrick, and others he was traveling with in Peru had to race to “escape” the country on a flight back to the United States.
While Rodgers maintained a cool head according to Insider, he described a scene that was like something out of Hollywood. He uses Argo and its thrilling airport chase to close the film as an example, but you could also picture the airport rush from Home Alone.
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“Nobody was chasing us, thankfully, or holding us,” Rodgers said to host McAfee and former teammate AJ Hawk. “We didn’t have to speak Farsi to get back into the country, but there were some moments where we worried we were not going to get out.”
Rodgers described the scene at the airport as “absolute pandemonium” with people rushing in all directions to make flights before a possible shutdown was dropped from either country. The Super Bowl champion was also quick to point out that nobody seemed to be practicing social distancing.
“When we rolled up to the airport at, like, 7 in the morning, it was wall-to-wall people and you couldn’t move,” he told McAfee. “I was thinking, ‘This isn’t very safe.’ Not many masks on, and there was definitely a panic in the air.”
Despite the panic to leave and the tight constraints, Rodgers and his group made it just under the wire.
“Somehow [we] made it through, and then they shut the airport down because it was really bad weather. They had a drop-dead time where they were going to shut the entire airport down — we made it by about 15 minutes,” Rodgers said.
Despite all of this, the Packers star returned to the U.S. and girlfriend Danica Patrick. Rodgers didn’t specify if the NASCAR star was with him on the trip, but Insider reports that she may have been part of the group. Patrick also posted this photo from March 18 that has the look of Peru to it, but this isn’t confirmed in the caption.
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Rodgers also shared that he’s still symptom free despite his tight exit.
According to The Daily Mail, Peru has 635 reported cases of the virus, with 11 deaths now. In comparison, the United States is the current leader with over 113,000 cases and 1,895 deaths.
