Matt LaFleur “100 percent confident” team followed…
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Aaron Rodgers is “doing well” after testing positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday, coach Matt LaFleur said Thursday.
The same can’t be said for the Packers, who will play Sunday’s game without their starting quarterback and who are under investigation by the league for possible COVID-19 protocol violations.
“I have no information on the investigation,” LaFleur said, via Stephen Watson of WISN.
LaFleur added that “as far as the football space is concerned, I’m 100 percent confident” the Packers followed the league’s COVID-19 protocols for unvaccinated players.
But Rodgers dressed as John Wick at a team Halloween party Saturday in video and photos that surfaced of him. Unvaccinated players are not allowed to gather in a group of more than three players, coaches and other members of the football operation staff.
He also went maskless during media interviews, which violates the NFL’s rule that unvaccinated players must wear masks at all times while inside the team facility.
LaFleur said he doesn’t “pay attention to media rules.”
“That’s not what I said,” LaFleur said when asked how he could be 100 percent certain protocols were followed when Rodgers was maskless during interviews. “I said within our football space: meeting rooms, walkthrough, everything we do in that area.”
The NFL appears ready to give the Packers and Rodgers a pass on going maskless on the sideline of the team’s preseason games, even though he was not an active player as is required for unvaccinated players to go maskless on the sideline. The NFL does not have a preseason inactive list, the reason they are showing leniency on that COVID-19 protocol violation, though the Packers announced before every preseason game that Rodgers would not play.
The NFL can fine players $14,650 for a first violation of COVID-19 protocols, with a maximum of $50,000. The league has fined at least five teams for violating COVID-19 rules, with New Orleans and Las Vegas given the stiffest punishment. The Saints paid $500,000 and lost a seventh-round choice, and the Raiders were docked $500,000 and lost a sixth-rounder.
Matt LaFleur “100 percent confident” team followed COVID rules “in football spaces”
