Aaron Rodgers tests positive for COVID-19

News that Environmentally friendly Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers tested beneficial for COVID-19, is unvaccinated and will overlook this weekend’s sport in opposition to the Chiefs stunned the NFL globe on Wednesday — and not just since he explained in August that he had presently been “immunized.” Due to the fact coaching camp opened in late July, Rodgers had not been publicly observed to be following any of the clear protocols for unvaccinated NFL players, as agreed on this summer time by the NFL and NFL Players Affiliation. The NFL is at this time examining the problem with the Packers, for every a league statement on Wednesday afternoon.

So what is the deal listed here? Did Rodgers mislead everybody about his vaccination status? Was he flouting NFL policies? Ended up the Packers or the league hunting the other way? What follows is our very best attempt to different truth, assumption and outright fiction in this evolving story. We lay out what we definitively know about the predicament correct now and run by the league’s protocols included, opportunity fines that could be in engage in and when Rodgers could be back on the field for Eco-friendly Bay.

What transpired?

Rodgers examined good Wednesday morning for COVID-19, and the Packers confirmed that backup QB Jordan Really like will begin Sunday night’s match from the Chiefs. That sequence designed crystal clear that Rodgers is unvaccinated.

Why is that?

Unvaccinated gamers who exam optimistic need to isolate at the very least 10 times, even if they are asymptomatic. Vaccinated players, however, can return next a favourable examination as soon as they produce two destructive exams with 24 several hours in in between, as lengthy as they are asymptomatic. In other text, Rodgers would at the very least have a chance to perform Sunday if he were vaccinated.

Failed to Rodgers say he had been vaccinated?

No. In August, a reporter in Inexperienced Bay questioned him if he had been vaccinated for COVID-19. He answered by expressing, in element: “Yeah, I have been immunized.”

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Is there a difference?

No a person assumed so at the time. The Facilities for Illness Command (CDC) defines vaccination as “the act of introducing a vaccine into the human body to deliver defense from a precise disease.” Its definition for immunization is “a course of action by which a individual becomes safeguarded against a disorder by way of vaccination.”

So if you want to parse words in retrospect, you could interpret Rodgers’ reaction to necessarily mean he believed himself to be secured towards COVID-19 without overtly indicating he acquired an approved vaccination.

Why did he assume he was shielded towards COVID-19?

In accordance to ESPN’s Rob Demovsky, Rodgers pursued an alternate treatment method and then petitioned the NFL to realize him as vaccinated. The NFL refused, citing the very clear language of the NFL-NFLPA arrangement arrived at this summer season.

What did that settlement say about vaccination?

It offered a number of paths towards a “thoroughly vaccinated’ standing. They include:

• 14 days past a two-shot regimen of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine

• 14 days previous a a single-shot routine of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine

• 1 shot of any vaccine if the participant had also analyzed positive just after August 26, has a full antibody stage of 100 U/mL or bigger and a beneficial antibody check to the COVID IgG nucleocapsid protein.

Absent 1 of the outcomes, Rodgers was essential to abide by protocols for any other unvaccinated player.

What are those protocols?

Quite a few of them are outlined below. They include each day testing and elevated mask putting on, and they are in general practically equivalent to the regulations that gamers and coaches followed during the 2020 season, ahead of vaccines have been obtainable.

As some others have pointed out, the NFL/NFLPA have pulled collectively their various COVID-19 protocols for this summer season. Boiled down, there are really several procedures for vaccinated men and women, although quite a few of the 2020 principles remain for those who are unvaccinated. Cheat sheet: pic.twitter.com/0IPB8GP4xO

— Kevin Seifert (@SeifertESPN) June 16, 2021

Are those the only policies unvaccinated gamers should stick to?

No. An unvaccinated player, for illustration, are unable to obtain in a group of additional than three gamers, coaches and other associates of the soccer operation employees.

Failed to Rodgers show up at a Halloween bash dressed as John Wick?

Rodgers absolutely dressed up as John Wick. Video clip of him dancing surfaced on the Instagram tale of teammate Marcedes Lewis. From that online video, at least, it could not be established regardless of whether the other individuals ended up teammates.

Do not the protocols also say unvaccinated gamers will have to don masks at all periods when indoors at the crew facility or at the stadium on video game times?

They do, and Rodgers has not been carrying a person in the course of indoor push conferences with reporters at Lambeau Area, exactly where the Packers apply and play video games. In some cases, the Packers have done interviews with unvaccinated players in excess of Zoom, but Rodgers’ have all been in-man or woman.

Rodgers has not been donning a mask on the sideline for the duration of online games. Was not he intended to?

The NFL-NFLPA policies have been amended this summer time. Masks are expected for unvaccinated gamers at video games only if they are inactive, which means they are not in uniform and not qualified to participate in. Active gamers are inspired but not essential to put on masks except if neighborhood or condition guidelines call for it, according to the present-day protocols. None of the 4 groups that the Packers have played on the highway so much have demanded lively gamers to have on masks on sidelines.

Did that incorporate the preseason?

A affordable reading of the protocols would advise that, indeed, the preseason must be included. And Rodgers was not in uniform for any of the Packers’ three preseason games. But there are no gameday roster boundaries for preseason game titles, so from a technological standpoint, there are no “inactive” players. For this cause, a source claimed, the league would not think about an unvaccinated participant who is not in uniform for a preseason video game to be in violation of its protocols if he were not masked.

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Stephen A. Smith, Keyshawn Johnson and Kimberley Martin respond to Aaron Rodgers screening constructive for COVID-19.

Did the NFL self-discipline him for any of this?

As of this instant, the league has not responded to concerns about that. The NFL has the capability to good players at minimum $14,650 on initially offense of violating COVID-19 protocols, with a maximum of $50,000.

Does Rodgers get compensated when he is in isolation?

Certainly. The only cause a match test could be dropped is if an unvaccinated participant sparks an outbreak that prospects to a forfeit. In that case, no participant from both workforce would be compensated.

Perfectly, it positive sounds like Rodgers was in violation of a number of COVID-19 protocols.

We’ll know soon more than enough. Finally, the Packers could experience far more culpability. The NFL issued a assertion late Wednesday afternoon noting pointedly that “the major responsibility” for imposing COVID-19 protocols is with the workforce, not the league. It pledged to “overview the make any difference” and famous that teams have been disciplined in the earlier for protocol violations. Among the the teams fined were being the New Orleans Saints ($500,000), Las Vegas Raiders ($500,000), Tennessee Titans ($350,000), New England Patriots ($350,000) and Baltimore Ravens ($250,000). The Saints had been also stripped of a seventh-spherical draft choose, and the Raiders misplaced a sixth-rounder.

How fearful must Rodgers and the Packers be?

The most significant thing to get worried about is Rodgers’ health and fitness in the two the limited- and long-time period. The best-circumstance situation is that he will re-be a part of the workforce the working day right before the Packers’ Nov. 14 video game in opposition to the Seahawks. So it can be not out of the issue that he could pass up two online games, and which is assuming he assessments unfavorable and is asymptomatic at the 10-working day mark.

Chatter in the course of the day Wednesday centered on the surprise of Rodgers’ unvaccinated standing, but the health and fitness of all concerned need to be the top priority.