Sports Media Demonize Aaron Rodgers, Nearly Silent on NFL Player Who Killed a Woman

The sports media is filled with story after story attacking Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers over his vaccine reluctance. Meanwhile, they’ve given only perfunctory coverage to Henry Ruggs III, who killed a woman during a drunk driving crash.

Rodgers, of course, has become a target for insisting that he has allergy problems with the various coronavirus vaccines and that he won’t take them for fear of having an adverse reaction. He engaged in a lengthy interview to explain his reasoning on Friday, but his explanations did not mollify the sports media in the least.

Meanwhile, former Las Vegas Raiders standout Henry Ruggs III was arrested last week for a drunk driving crash in which a 23-year-old woman was killed when her Toyota RAV4 burst into flames after Ruggs slammed his Corvette Stingray into her car. A police report said that Ruggs was more than twice the legal blood alcohol limit and clocked, going over 150 MPH ahead of the crash.

Not only did Rodgers lose his sponsorship deal with a Wisconsin health care provider, but the sports media has spent weeks attacking him over his comments on the vaccine and his decision to pursue alternative treatments.

The headlines covering the two stories are telling.

The Denver Post called Rodgers “whiny,” multiple stories laughed along with Saturday Night Live as the TV series attacked the quarterback, sports reporting legend Bob Costas accused Rodgers of being “disingenuous,” the Wisconsin State Journal claimed Rodgers “misled us,” the Ringer calls Rodgers a liar. Finally, TV host Michael Strahan blasted Rodgers for invoking the name of Marin Luther King, Jr.

On the other hand, the media coverage for Ruggs’ accident is all just straight reporting, despite that he drove drunk and killed a woman. All the headlines for the Ruggs drunk driving story are straightforward. Almost no story features the journalist’s finger pointing, accusing, or attacking Ruggs for his actions that resulted in the catastrophic car crash and death of an innocent woman.

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