WHAT WE LEARNED: NFL WEEK 9

BY ADAM GREENE

It was a wild week of upsets that didn’t so much as reset the NFL, but expose problems on teams that all looked like contenders. Of course, it was the NFL’s off the field story that made the biggest and loudest news of the weekend.

AARON RODGERS AND THE PACKERS DESERVE EACH OTHER

Tuesday night the NFL brought the hammer down on Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers and that hammer was made out of a toddler’s soap bubbles. The Packers were fined $300,000 for allowing Rodgers (and presumably Allen Lazard) to continually violate the league’s COVID-19 policy all through the preseason and eight weeks into the regular season. Lazard and Rodgers were both fined $14,650 each, basically for one violating even though Rodgers was shown on video violating the policy multiple times per week every week since the season began.

The idea that Rodgers would be suspended was kaboshed before Week 9 had even kicked off, with the NFL saying that they would only levy fines, but “from now on,” Rodgers could be subject to a suspension and Green Bay could lose some draft picks.

The NFL did what it always does, cowardly attempted to protect itself since the league knew Rodgers was unvaccinated the whole time and just pretended not to notice his continual violation of their safety protocols. They’ve tossed the buck at the Packers’ feet, hence the fine levied upon them, as if they didn’t all collude, perhaps not openly, but certainly nodding at each other from across the room, to let Rodgers get away with it as long as he could.

COVID-19, of course, had other plans.

It’s been an interesting week for Rodgers, a guy who is used to avoiding the stink as he’s suddenly found himself sitting inside a massive fart cloud of his own making. After Rodgers unleashed an anti-vaxx screed to rival anything your psycho uncle posted on Facebook before storming the US Capitol on Jan. 6 as a guest on the Pat McAfee show last week, he was dumped as a spokesperson by Prevea Health, a Green Bay healthcare group.

And while State Farm, a company that also offers health insurance and promotes the free and proven safe lifesaving COVID-19 vaccine to its customers decided not to fire Rodgers as their spokesperson, they did cut back on his commercials. Rodgers appeared in just 1.5 percent of the 400 State Farm advertisements Sunday. In weeks past, Rodgers appeared in around 25 percent.

State Farm didn’t get away unscathed and was publicly trashed all weekend for “standing by” Rodgers while simultaneously being hailed as heroes for the same by pretty much the scum of the Earth.

To exemplify how bad it got for Rodgers, he was publicly praised for both his stance, his continual lies and his wanton violation of the league’s COVID-19 protocols by none other than famed Ohio State sexual assault cover up artist and current United States Representative from Ohio’s Fourth (but absolute worst) District, Jim Jordan. 

All this seems to have sobered Rodgers up a bit. Tuesday, back on the Pat McAfee show, he kind of apologized in that way politicians and celebrities do where they don’t actually acknowledge doing anything wrong.

Rodgers is set to return Saturday, a day before his team will host the Seattle Seahawks. The Seahawks are getting their own starting QB back for that game too, Russell Wilson.

Rodgers, being sidelined, unquestionably cost Green Bay its game against a Kansas City Chiefs, a 13-7 loss that wasn’t really that close. Jordan Love played terribly, showing exactly how big a mistake the Packers made in not only trading up to draft him without Rodgers being warned ahead of time, but in their entire evaluation process. Not only did Rodgers’ “personal decision” hang a loss on the Packers, it knocked them from the NFC’s No. 1 playoff seed.

Green Bay screwed up and alienated Rodgers by taking Love, a guy that not only shouldn’t have been drafted in the first round, but probably not in the second or third either.

This is why they were desperate all season to mend fences with the 2020 NFL Most Valuable Player. They knew what they had with Love and it was a swirling garbage gyre. Not only can they not win a Super Bowl without Rodgers, they can’t win a single game. That right there is exactly why they let Rodgers stomp around the media room unmasked to fool (and endanger) Packers beat reporters. They were scared to piss him off because they knew the consequences of doing so. They drafted those consequences out of Utah State.

Hard lessons have been learned all around. Green Bay now needs to lean into Rodgers completely, give him whatever he wants and kiss his ass outside of violating the NFL’s Covid-19 rules. Rodgers needs to get vaccinated when his monoclonal antibody and post-infection immunity wear off. Unless he really is allergic to some part of it, which seems sketchy at this point. Ironically, his immunity from the treatments he received after catching COVID-19 would wane right after the NFC Championship.

And no one wants to see Jordan Love starting the Super Bowl except whatever AFC team Green Bay could face.

Rodgers needs to stay on the field and it needs to be with the Packers. He’s not going to get a better situation next year anywhere else.  

CURRENT NFL PLAYOFF SEEDING

There’s half a season to go, but here’s where we stand heading into the final eight-nine games of the 2021.

AFC

1. Tennessee Titans (7-2)

2. Baltimore Ravens (6-2)

3. Los Angeles Chargers (5-3)

4. Buffalo Bills (5-3)

5. Las Vegas Raiders (5-3)

6. Pittsburgh Steelers (5-3)

7. New England Patriots (5-4)

NFC

1. Arizona Cardinals (8-1)

2. Green Bay Packers (7-2)

3. Tampa Bay Buccaneers (6-2)

4. Dallas Cowboys (6-2)

5. Los Angeles Rams (7-2)

6. New Orleans Saints (5-3)

7. Atlanta Falcons (4-4)

AFC Wild Card Games

Patriots at Ravens

Steelers at Chargers

Raiders at Bills

NFC Wild Card Games

Falcons at Packers

Saints at Buccaneers

Rams at Cowboys

Follow Adam Greene on Twitter @TheFirstMan

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