The NFL dropping the hammer on Antonio Brown and Mike Edwards of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers was not unfair when compared to the Aaron Rodgers situation.
So there was quite a lot of ballyhoo out of Tampa Bay, to put it mildly. In case you live under a rock, Brown, and Edwards were suspended three games without pay by the NFL for falsifying their vaccine cards and lying to the league about their vaccine status. Naturally, this coming a couple of weeks after Rodgers mislead the public about his vaccinated/immunized status, many Buccaneers fans have been crying foul and hypocrisy at the NFL. Unfortunately Bucs fans, these situations are not the same.
When it comes to Rodgers, sure it may have been a slimy thing to do, basically having the public and media believe he was vaccinated when he was only “immunized”, but nothing about that is illegal. Also, the NFL knew of his status, even if the public at large did not. The NFL allows for players to be unvaccinated as long as they follow league protocol.
In the case of the beloved Bucs, they outright lied to the NFL by presenting falsified vaccination cards, which is a big no-no for the league. It’s also a no-no for the country. Falsifying vaccination cards is a federal offense. It’s not illegal to be unvaccinated, but it is to lie about it.
As much as fans love Edwards and Brown, when you take all of this into account, their decision was both unnecessary, and for lack of a better word, dumb.
They both will be missed on the field, more so Edwards than Brown at this point, but the Buccaneers will keep chugging along, as they’ve been all season. So while it’s perfectly fine to be upset by the sanctions by the league, even if that feeling is misjudged and should go to the players, it’s not fair to compare it to the Rodgers situation. One situation was sneaky, the other one was stupid.