Taking out his frustrations on 37-year-old Green Bay Packers’ quarterback Aaron Rodgers, 74-year-old Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the National Basketball Association’s [NBA] leading scorer, savaged Rodgers far worse than any of the critics coming out of the woodwork. Rodgers got himself into hot water catching Covid-19 Nov. 3, after telling the media in June that he was “immunized,” not elaborating at the time what he meant. After getting Covid-19, Rodgers admitted that he didn’t take one of the three FDA approved Covid vaccines, instead let his personal doctor give him alternative treatments. Rodgers watched his Packers lose to struggling Kansas City Chiefs Nov. 7, now in the10-day NFL Covid-19 quarantine preventing him from contact with his teammates and staff. Kareem went for the jugular, much like former Pittsburgh Steelers Hall of Fame quarterback Terry Bradshaw, now a CBS NFL analyst.
Kareem’s attack on Rodgers was especially vicious, going after Rodgers’ intelligence and personal integrity. “Rodgers ignorance regarding the science of immunology brings back to life the old stereotype of the big dumb jock,” Abdul-Jabbar wrote, revealing his personal bias against white athletes, especially someone of Rodgers fame and fortune. Of all the current NFL players—or other professional sports for that matter—no one has more charisma and media appeal than Aaron Rodgers. At the height of all Kareem’s accomplishments on the basketball court, he never received a fraction of the media attention as Rodgers, instead was viewed by the media as a cantankerous personality, difficult to get along with. Kareem calls Rodgers a “big dumb jock,” because he envies Rodgers “whiteness,” but more to the point, his movie-star-like good looks and charisma.
Rodgers explained openly to the media that when he said he was “immunized” back in June, he never said he received one of the three approved Covid-19 vaccines, including Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson. But to Kareem, Bradshaw and to NBC broadcaster Bob Costas, Rodgers lied. Rodgers said had the press asked him in June whether or not he took a Covid-19 vaccine, he would have said, “no.” Rodgers “directly and deliberately” lied, insisting Rodgers hurt the image of professional athletes, Kareem said. Rodgers speaks for himself, not for Abdul-Jabbar or any other current or former professional athlete. “What’s especially bothersome is that Aaron Rodgers didn’t just lie and threaten the health of those around him, he also damaged professional sports,” Kareem said. Kareem talks about “science,” so he surely knows that double-or-triple vaccinated people get Covid.
Rodgers couldn’t give the virus to anyone because once he came down with symptoms he quarantined like anyone else. Kareem didn’t like when Rodgers told “The Pat McAfee show” that he was the victim of a the “woke mob.” “I realize I’m in the crosshairs of the woke mob right now,” Rodgers told McAfee. “So before my final nail gets put in my cancel culture casket, I think I would like to set the record straight on so many of the blatant lies that are out there about myself,” Rodgers said, infuriating Abdul-Jabbar. “Rodgers complained that the ‘cancel culture’ was coming to get for him, but his own words cancel him as a liar and a bad thinker,” Kareem said, showing his extreme prejudice against Rodgers. Kareem knows there’s a debate going on in the country about the limits of government mandates when it comes to Covid-19 vaccines, some believe it’s a matter of personal choice.
Kareem’s vicious attack against Rogers speaks volumes about his own frustrations as an African American, who, he believes didn’t get the same “white privilege” as Rodgers, referring to him as “a big dumb jock.” Rodgers is anything but how Kareem describes him. While he currently plays professional football, Rodgers has the looks-and-brains to do anything he wants in the media business, including TV and film. While Jabbar appeared in a few TV and movies as an “extra,” compared to Rodgers capable of playing the leading man. Kareem thinks Rodgers speaks for the professional sports world when, in fact, he speaks only for himself when it comes to vaccines. With the 5th Circuit Court Appeals in New Orleans staying President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandates, Rodgers has become a test case for vaccine freedom. Biden’s mandates violates the 1992 Patients Bill of Rights.
Kareem raised the issue of 34-year-old former San Francisco Forty-Niners’ quarterback Colin Kaepernik. Kareem said Kaepernick “was blacklisted by the NFL for passively expressing his frustration with systemic racism,” revealing for all to see the white-and-black issue that consumers Abdul-Jabbar. Kareem has extreme prejudice against Rodgers because of his “white privilege,” conflating Kaepernick kneeling down to protest police brutality against blacks in 2016, not protesting at all about “systemic racism.” Kareem has a net worth of about $20 million, compared with Rodgers’ with about $120 million. Kareem lost untold millions to bad investment schemes, leaving him scrambling to maintain his former lifestyle. Instead of dealing with the real issues, Abdul Jabbar chooses to denigrate Rodgers because of pure envy and what he sees at “white privilege.”
