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Well, it took a couple of months, but we may finally have a famous person, Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who is actually truly self-aware about his situation during this pandemic and the weeks of self-isolation-induced stress and boredom we have all had to endure.
Over the past several weeks there have been an untold number of celebrities sharing their versions of public service announcements, telling folks that “we’ll all get through this” and the like. Which, while in most cases is probably done with the best of intentions, the message falls flat, gets drowned out, and becomes completely unrelatable when famous folk like Ellen Degeneres say things like being stuck in self-isolation inside her gigantic mansion is “like being in jail” and Justin Timberlake complains about having to be a parent 24/7 to a five-year old in his giant house in Montana with help from his wife Jessica Biel.
Rodgers has seen these disingenuous efforts to be relatable by celebrities and realizes that his situation during the pandemic is in reality far different from the average American citizen.
“One thing that I haven’t done or will not do is being one of those celebs who’s telling you how difficult it is, or stay-in-your-home stuff from a mansion,” Rodgers said on The HawkCast with A.J. Hawk. “I just think that kind of falls on deaf ears. Because what I do know is that my friends who are small-business owners are really hurting.”
He continued, “There’s real people hurting, so I’m not going sit here in my privilege and tell people from my ivory tower to do this or do that. I just think it falls on deaf ears. I will say, let’s all be smart about what we’re doing and who we’re seeing. But man, I know people are hurting and that is way more important to me than some sort of message that I can relate to you. That to me just falls on deaf ears.”
Amen, brother.
His current situation is definitely a far cry from what most of us have been dealing with for the past several weeks.
As for whether or not Rodgers envisions the NFL season starting up as planned in the fall, he expressed a hint of doubt, saying, “We have to go from ’10 or less’ to 80,000 people. That’s a pretty big jump, to start filling the stadiums back up.”
He also believes NFL commissioner Roger Goodell is going to struggle a bit doing the draft online and not in person. “Virual hugs?” said Rodgers. “He’s going to miss those hugs, I think.”
Hey, at least we’ll all still get to boo him. Some things will just never change.
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