National Football League

Aaron Rodgers 'regrets' infamous 'immunized' quote about COVID-19 vaccination

Updated Aug. 12, 2024 1:02 p.m. ET

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New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers says that he regrets his infamous decision to tell reporters that he was "immunized" against the COVID-19 virus at training camp in 2021 in a new biography, according to ESPN. 

Rodgers' phrasing made waves at the time and caused a much bigger stir later in the regular season when he was forced to sit out 10 days and miss a game against the Kansas City Chiefs after the NFL confirmed he was not vaccinated against the illness. Rodgers would still go on to win his second consecutive NFL MVP and fourth with the Green Bay Packers, who traded him to the Jets in 2023.

[Related: The biggest storyline of Aaron Rodgers' summer? That he's not the story.]

Rodgers reportedly told author Ian O'Connor in an interview for his upcoming book "Out of the Darkness: The Mystery of Aaron Rodgers" that his "immunized" phrasing was part of Rodgers' unsuccessful attempt to appeal to the league to not consider the quarterback unvaccinated. 

After that backfired, though, Rodgers had a very different take on his initial strategy.

"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, per ESPN. "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.'"

Since the 2021 incident, Rodgers has said he believed he was allergic to an ingredient in two of the publicly available COVID-19 vaccines at the time and had safety concerns about the vaccine manufactured by Johnson & Johnson — the pharmaceutical giant ironically started by the same Johnson family that owns Rodgers' current team, the Jets. 

According to ESPN, Rodgers told O'Connor he has teased Jets vice chairman Christopher Johnson, brother of team owner Woody Johnson, about the company's COVID-19 vaccine.

The 40-year-old Rodgers is attempting to lead a young, talented Jets roster to the playoffs, where the team has not been since 2010. His first season in New York was virtually wiped out when, on his fourth offensive snap in Week 1, Rodgers tore his Achilles tendon and missed the rest of the season.

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