In addition to knowing a thing or two about tossing the pigskin, quarterback Joe Flacco also showed he knows how to throw a little shade when asked about his vaccination status heading into a Week 11 start for the New York Jets.
Speaking to the media after being named the starter for Sunday’s game against the Miami Dolphins over injured first-string QB Zach Wilson and upstart signal-caller Mike White, the 36-year-old said he is not vaccinated against COVID-19 but declined to reveal why.
“I’m not vaccinated,” Flacco said when asked directly about his vaccination status, a stark contrast to the misleading answer Aaron Rodgers gave when he was asked if he was vaccinated over the summer. “Yeah, I’ve been immunized,” Rodgers told media members in August. “There are guys on the team that haven’t been vaccinated and it’s a personal decision, not going to judge those guys.”
As we found out earlier this month after Rodgers tested positive for COVID-19 and was forced to miss a game because he was “immunized” instead of vaccinated, he chose not to get the jab because he pictures himself as a freedom fighter who belongs in the same sentence as Dr. Martin Luther King. And because Joe Rogan advised him not to.
Unlike Green Bay’s quarterback, Flacco, who has as many Super Bowl rings as Rodgers, opted against going on an anti-vax diatribe when asked about his reasons for not getting vaccinated.
“I definitely have my reasons,” Flacco said while talking to reporters with a mask on in accordance with NFL health and safety rules. “Honestly, I probably like to talk about this topic more than anybody. It’s one of those things that you debate with all the time. But overall I’ve felt like it’s more of a distraction than anything. So I feel like to kind of talk about it too much and give you all my beliefs is more of a distraction than anything. I think the most important thing is going to play the football game.”
Were Flacco not playing for the two-win Jets in a game against the three-win Dolphins that might actually be true. In reality, the game is somewhat meaningless outside of how it will affect seeding for draft picks in April. But at least Flacco will be playing in it thanks to following the NFL’s rules for unvaccinated players.
“I mean, we all know what the rules are. So when those things happen, we’ve all been told what the protocols are, and we’ve all been following the protocols,” Flacco said. “If you want to go out there and play the game you love, you have to do what you have to do.”
Unless you are Rodgers.
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