Earlier this week, the NFL hit Antonio Brown, Mike Edwards, and free agent defensive back John Franklin III with three-game bans for violating COVID-19 protocols. Initially, however, the league was considering six-to-eight game suspensions for those players (Twitter link via NFL.com’s Tom Pelissero). 
[RELATED: NFL Suspends Antonio Brown, Mike Edwards]
An eight-game ban would have trickled into the playoffs for Brown and Edwards. Thanks to NFLPA negotiations, both players will have a chance to return in a few weeks. According to Bucs head coach Bruce Arians, it’s not a given that Brown will be activated straight away, and Pelissero hears that’s legitimate. The team first wants to ensure that Brown is focused on football and adhering to the league’s rules. Beyond that, there’s also a non-trivial chance that the players could be facing legal entanglements, since falsifying vaccination cards is a federal crime.
Brown, 33, has been productive on the field, but he’s missed time thanks to a lingering ankle injury and time on the COVID list. Before the suspension, Brown was on pace for another 1,000-yard season with 29 grabs for 418 yards and two touchdowns in five games. Now, he’ll finish shy of that mark for a third straight year.
If the Bucs welcome Brown back immediately after the suspension, he’ll retake the field on Dec. 26th against the Panthers.
How is it that Aaron got nothing but these 2 have to sit? Aaron lied his butt off, & broke the same protocols.
He didn’t forge a vax card and then use it to claim to be vaxd….that’s the diff.
ARod said he was immunized but never supplied a vax card to the league and was treated as unvaxxed which he is.
Not really the same situation other than covid being involved.
It is the same. The only thing the card did was make this a felony. Like Brown, he tried to falsely pass off he was vaccinated. Rodgers never said he was unvaccinated until he got publicly called out on it, and then blamed everyone but himself. He lied about being vaccinated and never once wore a mask on the sidelines or in any of the team meetings or practices. My question is why was a Bills’ player suspended for not wearing a mask on the sidelines and the entire Ravens’ organization fined more than Rodgers for breaking protocols. Why didn’t the Packers themselves get punished? They undoubtedly knew he was unvaccinated and allowed him break protocols anyway.
On a side note, the fact the NFL was considering a 6-8 game suspension and only gave them 3 shows that they just gave in and have no backbone.
The ONLY difference is that one of them committed a felony, and the other didn’t! That’s it. Derp
Reading comprehension is overrated anyway.
If you can’t see the difference between supplying forged documents and providing no documents, it’s a good thing you aren’t a lawyer. Hopefully you’re not a cop either.
Who cares if Aaron Rodgers is vaccinated? That’s Aaron Rodgers’s business and not yours and not mine.
I haven’t seen any criminal charges brought against either Buc’s players. Aaron and GB flat out rebuffed all protocols agreed to by both the league and NFLPA and got nothing.
I guess I have to spell it out for some of you. In the realm of the NFL, they both blatantly lied about being vaccinated, albeit in two different ways and the league virtually did nothing. You idiots can argue the small stuff if you want.
I can’t believe this still has to be said after all this time, but whether or not Rodgers is vaccinated was never the issue. The issue is that he blatantly lied about it. How some people still can’t comprehend that is beyond me.
You’re wrong. Aaron was fined $14k and not suspended. The Bucs players are losing 3 games checks & suspended. Completely different outcomes and financial differences. For the same thing.
I was replying to Alec. Besides, like I said, the league virtually did nothing but make sure the Bucs’ players were back in time for the playoffs.
Actually, yeah, spell it out for us. Where exactly did Rodgers “blatantly lie”? What did he say? Just curious?
Where do I start? The part about him thinking he was smarter than anyone else in the room by ‘cleverly’ saying he was “immunized” or the part about him saying he doesn’t care if his other teammates aren’t vaccinated, blatantly implying the entire time he in fact is vaccinated?
So he never said he was vaccinated, right? So Rodgers never lied about it. Rodgers said that he was immunized according to whatever wonky homeopathic treatment that he was getting. The NFL knew because he informed them. The team knew because he told them. The only people who didn’t know were the journalists. This really is not at all similar to what Brown did.
If you look at it objectively you’ll see a big difference between obtaining false documentation that proves one is vaccinated and allowing another person to believe what they infer. Rodgers really didn’t lie. He didn’t clarify, either, but he never said anything that was untrue. Brown, however, did, and not only that, but forged fake proof to back up his claims. That’s a lot more than what Rodgers did.
You can argue semantics all you want, which was obviously your whole agenda and sole reason for replying. However, according to this thing called a dictionary, lying is exactly what he did, “if you look at it objectively”.
Lie, “used with reference to a situation involving deception or founded on a mistaken impression”.
I mean, I feel like you’re doing that exact thing. Obviously I and many others disagree. Just consider that argument. Deception and lying are obviously different, albeit similar, concepts. I appreciate your telling me what I meant, but no, that was not my purpose. I disagree with your conclusion that Rodgers and Brown committed the same offense.
From what I saw, Rodgers didn’t really put all that much effort into deceiving anyone. Yeah, he probably knew what they’d think. But he’s not responsible for clarifying everyone’s perceptions of his words. Antonio Brown, on the other hand, put effort into ensuring that he presented false information. Rodgers never presented any false information, people presented a false conclusion. That’s the difference, and that’s why Rodgers never lied, though he also never bothered to clarify the truth.
I totally agree it is no one’s business to know the status of a persons vax history. This league, like some businesses has decided to implement rules concerning said status. To stay employed in the NFL requires adherence to their rules concerning Covid at this time. I myself got vaxxed but only because I was in a similar situation job wise and I need to work to get health care and feed my family. Proletariat like me don’t have options. These rich NFL guys can just walk away. If you break the rules, be prepared for the KGB squads to hunt you down. Just drink the Koolaid.
Nope….it’s not…but cool story.
You’re entitled to be wrong.
Aaron was not treated as unvaxed. He broke every league protocol out there. He mislead everyone with his terminology. I think it was Joe Rogan(?) that gave him his treatment, a non-doctor.
Rodgers evidently lied to the public, but not the Packers.
The question is why neither were punished for violating other rules and protocols related to him being unvaccinated but not the same thing as AB.
To say the Packers didn’t know he wasn’t vaccinated is very naive in my opinion.
How do you mull a 6-8 game and end up at 3? Negotiating with the NFLPA? So they both decided player safety once again isn’t as much an issue as they make it. They have set a precedent that you can lie and violate the law to avoid nfl standards and get a 3 game suspension. Disturbing
Suspensions are just a money grab. Goodell uses a dart board to determine who the culprits are each week.
Some of the stuff missed and some of the stuff fined is atrocious. It’s not like they don’t have every video angle in NY to make the right calls….
The problem isn’t the ability to fine, it’s an image problem if they started handing out fines on every play that actually deserve one. The networks have done a great job of not showing to many replays of blown calls. NFL worried about image not safety
Goodell generally looks like a clown when he attempts to prop up the NFLs image. Frank Gore got fined for wearing socks too low in a playoff game because that apparently damaged the image…lol.
That Gore tidbit proves my point about Rodgers’ “punishment”.
well they probably mulled lower ones too but that’s not a revelation given he got 3
Remember Ray Rice got 2 games for beating his wife. This is on par with the nfl. They ultimately don’t care in the end. All they care about is $$$
There is no safety issue with the jabs. Jabbed people contract and spread Covid-19 just as easily as non-jabbed people. There may be some lightening of symptoms in high risk people, thanks to the jab. Jabbed and non-jabbed people spread Covid-19 equally easily. Jabbed people, as they have been misled into believing that they are immune to Covid-19, are probably higher risk.
Faking vaccination costs money and is a federal crime.
The vaccine is free and makes you somewhere between 11 and 40 times less likely to die.
AB is brain damaged so…it stands to reason he would choose the former over the latter.
Moron
Have some evidence for those figures among young healthy athletes? Those figures sound like the figures for either a nursing home or the morbidly obese. There are many athletes suffering serious heart issues, even death, due to the jab. More soccer players (they run harder and longer than American football players), it’s true.
Those figures can’t be proven. It’s FAR to early. How about we check them in 5 years….. AND tell me why the drug companies don’t want their ‘papers’ on this drug released for 55 years…..that’s what they’re asking for now.
Before Dec. 25: “We will ensure that AB has his head in the game and understands he needs to be a positive, upstanding citizen and representative of our team.”
Dec. 25: “So what do you think? Is AB going to behave?” “Who freakin’ cares! He can catch a football.”
Dec. 26: “After many sincere discussions with AB, we’ve decided to activate him for today’s game.”
The nfl is run by hypocrites. Rogers lied and got a slap on the wrist. No, he didn’t break the law but he did violate the protocols and put other people at risk. That deserves more than 1 game suspension.
If the league needs you for revenue you are given a pass, otherwise…
Agreed.
arty! and forwhomthejoshbelltolled, you’re both right on! \m/
He won’t be needed for the Panthers. They self inflict enough damage to themselves on their own. As for Brown – league suspension 3 – games from NFL – one or two games from Bucs. I’d rather see Brown on the field helping his team win another SB but he needs to be taught a lesson. This will all depend on injuries etc… But you can’t hamper the teams effort to win another SB. That’s inflicting team damage twice due to Browns stupidity. Let’s hope that his salary freezes or has subtraction clauses due to suspension!
So tell me people getting the ‘vaccine’ are still getting covid so why bother? Tell you why…. someone is making the drug company BILLIONS of dollars selling ‘snake oil’. As for AB I don’t get the NFL……different rules for different people…. all. the. time.