Aaron Rodgers' Sandy Hook Conspiracy-Making Is Not Surprising, Even If It's Disgusting

New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers has long been a believer in conspiracy theories. His willingness to go deeper down the rabbit hole than you can ever imagine means it's all on the table.

Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images

Shortly after news broke that independent presidential candidate and anti-vax darling Robert F. Kennedy had quarterback Aaron Rodgers on his shortlist of vice presidential candidates, CNN published a story revealing that Rodgers shared conspiracy theories about the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting with others as early as 2013.

In that piece, CNN shares two different accountings of Rodgers’ opinions on the massacre. The first, from a meeting with Rodgers at a 2013 Kentucky Derby afterparty, suggests that Rodgers believed that the shooting was conducted by the government — the reasoning for which is unclear.

The second comes from an anonymous source to CNN, who claims Rodgers believed that the tragedy never happened, even saying “those children never existed.” This story allegedly comes from several years ago.

Those that have followed Rodgers’ relationship with conspiracy would find this unsurprising, but this is the first time such a disgusting conspiracy from Rodgers was made public on a broad platform like this.

Later, Rodgers posted on Twitter that he believed the events at Sandy Hook took place and that he regards it as a tragedy.

While this does refute the second characterization of his beliefs it does not refute the first, much more common version of the conspiracy. He also never denied making the statements, regardless of his belief in them.

This is important, as Rodgers has a history of making statements with the intent to communicate a more socially acceptable vision while couching reality behind easy-to-misinterpret words. The most obvious example comes from his “immunization” controversy in 2021.

Aaron Rodgers is Immunized

Large portions of this piece were taken from my podcast appearance on the QAA Pod discussing Aaron Rodgers’ relationship to conspiracy, and how it related to the Jimmy Kimmel controversy. With their permission, segments from that show are reproduced in print here. I highly encourage you to listen to it.

When Green Bay Packers media asked Aaron Rodgers if he was vaccinated, he responded with “Yea, I’ve been immunized.”

Not only did he say yes to the question, he also said he wouldn’t judge people who were unvaccinated – which clearly positions himself as someone who is. On top of that, headlines – still up to this very day – went out telling the world that he was vaccinated.

He wasn’t. This was a lie. No matter how much he wants to get around it by what he thinks was a clever play on words, he intended to mislead people, saw that they were misled and was satisfied with the result.

He also clearly got the Packers organization to buy into this lie and keep up the illusion – while he was otherwise following the protocols for an unvaccinated player throughout the facility, he still met with media, in person, without a mask – in violation of the policy. No unvaccinated player on the Packers, other than him, met with the media in person, much less without a mask.

We found out about his real vaccination status on November 3rd, when Rodgers was ruled out for a Week 9 matchup against the Kansas City Chiefs. Given the timeline – vaccinated players could have been available for the game while unvaccinated players would be out for at least ten days – the only way this could be dispositively true is if he was unvaccinated.

His explanation for his decision to mislead the media hit some pretty common talking points.

Rodgers complained about the “woke mob” and “cancel culture,” two concepts that are virtually meaningless and have definitions that can change from moment to moment in order to suit a larger narrative. His complaints about being silenced are the least convincing complaints one could muster.

He's perhaps been the least silenced athlete in modern football. Aside from the fact that he has his own platform that will be boosted by the sports media apparatus — his tweets are news — he can call a press conference whenever he wants.

He had a weekly television spot on ESPN and will likely continue to have one next season. He was on the Joe Rogan Experience, meaning he’s been on one of the most popular sports podcasts in the United States and the most popular podcast in history.

Like most “canceled” figures, Rodgers’ cancellation status does not denote any silencing, it instead is an essence he wears — a way to signify his cultural values. It’s the same as being a “free thinker,” a pair of words that in the dictionary mean one capable of independent thought but in reality signal a certain set of beliefs and practices.

It’s easier to think of cancellation as a jersey he wears or a team he plays for than any significant loss of cultural power.

He went on to claim that he didn’t lie during the presser where he lied and complained about the witch hunt culture against unvaccinated football players. He said his “plan” was to answer any follow-up questions about what it means to be “immunized” truthfully.

It is notable that he makes fun of the fringe end of conspiracy theory here, and that’s worth putting a pin in, but he runs through the gamut of arguments that he would have used — familiar in the vaccine debate — instead of sitting with how obvious it was that he was misleading people.

In doing so, he turned this from an issue of lying to an issue of the decision to vaccinate. These are not unrelated of course; he values having all the information available to him to make a decision but he did not allow others to have that information when deciding whether or not to be in a room with him.

In reframing the debate, he was able to get away from the question of dishonesty and get into a well-worn and contentious topic that perpetuates itself. Of course, he lied while doing this, too.

For example, he said that the NFL’s medical professionals told him that it was impossible for a vaccinated person to get COVID or spread COVID. If that were true, that would be a misleading statement from NFL medical officials. But NFL medical officials confirmed that Rodgers never contacted them at all and they never spoke to Rodgers or ever held that stance, much less communicated it to anyone.

On the Pat McAfee Show, he shared opinions about how unvaccinated players were actually safer — opinions counteracted by the data on NFL infection rates. He later shared, on the Look Into It podcast with Eddie Bravo, a more insidious belief: that the COVID-19 vaccine is experimental gene therapy that “changes your DNA.”

Also worth pointing out, Rodgers invokes Martin Luther King Jr. when asked if he was violating league protocols (he was).

This is astounding. But this kind of martyrdom is not new among conspiracy theorists or those resistant to vaccination protocols.

The NFL did not jail him in Alabama, they merely fined him about $14,000. At the time, he was making $50 million a year. That is less than one percent of his on-paper, football-only income. It is less than one-tenth of one percent of that income. It is one-fourth of one-tenth of one percent of that income.

Incidentally, “… and rules that make no sense” is an incredible addendum to the King quote — as if King also objected to city ordinances that disallowed parking on the even side of the street during the summer.

Aaron Rodgers Lies, Often

Rodgers’ willingness to mislead or misinform the media extends beyond the vaccine debate.