Aaron Rodgers has been in the headlines all week for his refusal to take the COVID-19 vaccine, and Jeopardy! fans are kicking back and laughing. Rodgers was one of the celebrity guest hosts of last season, and was reportedly a contender for the permanent job. Now, many are glad that he didn’t get it.
Rodgers said that he was “immunized” against the novel coronavirus back in August, but he does not seem to have meant that he got any of the three available vaccines. On Friday he appeared on The Pat McAfee Show, saying that he has already survived COVID-19 so he had antibodies against it at some point. Rodgers’ statements were unnecessarily politicized, referenced unreliable rumors instead of hard science, and shocked fans who thought he had been vaccinated.
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“This is a huge unforced error by a man who has transcended football and wants to have a career … whether it’s hosting ‘Jeopardy!’ or on other parts of our culture,” said CNN‘s Christine Brennan. “What a shock, what a surprise that this is the guy we thought was so smart and well-read and it turns out that he doesn’t even have the courage or the guts to say he wasn’t vaccinated, probably because he was fearful of that ‘woke mob.’”
Many commenters feel quite the same, especially given his association with Jeopardy! Here’s a look at what they are saying on social media.
Lies
Finally, many people wanted Rodgers to answer for the activities he did this summer under the pretense of being vaccinated, and the people that he put at risk by doing so.
State Farm
Many commenters called on State Farm to take a stance on Rodgers’ new comments, considering that Rodgers is still in some of the company’s most prominent commercials. So far, State Farm has not responded.
Dr. Oz
Some also cracked jokes about fellow guest host Dr. Oz, who has also been criticized for promoting insubstantial science.
Host
Comedian Mohanad Elshieky joked that Rodgers was still a “host” in certain sense, having carried COVID-19 in his bloodstream even when he said he was “immunized.”
Retrospect
Some fans pulled up Rodgers’ old episodes of Jeopardy! just to laugh at the dichotomy. They marveled that he hosted the show without saying something as shocking as he did on McAfee’s show this week.
Relief
Fans were feeling vicarious relief by imagining the situation behind the scenes at Jeopardy!
Dodged Bullet
Former Jeopardy! contestant Matt McDaniel joked in the show’s signature format that Rodgers was “another hosting bullet dodged.” The search for a permanent host of the series has been fraught with controversy, but somehow Rodgers was almost in a position to make it even worse.
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