Aaron Rodgers PLUMMETS by More Than Half in NFL ‘Most-Liked’ Player Ranking After Vaccine Flap

Superstar Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers has fallen precipitously in an annual ranking of the National Football League’s “Most-Liked Skill Players” following a season of controversy over the Covid-19 vaccine.

Morning Consult is out with its annual survey ranking football fans’ favorite skill players, and while many players at the top were repeats from last year’s list, one name was conspicuously absent. Rodgers, despite a stellar season that made him an early favorite to win the league’s Most Valuable Player award, failed to make the top 20 this year and saw his approval rating cut more than in half:

Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who ranked just behind Brees and Mahomes in last season’s survey, has seen his net favorability rating decline precipitously — from 32 last season to 15 this season — due to controversy surrounding his vaccination status against COVID-19. Rodgers told the media during the offseason that he was “inoculated” against the virus, but it was later revealed when he tested positive during the season that he had never received the vaccine. State Farm, Rodgers’ most prominent sponsor, maintained its relationship with the three-time league MVP while scaling back the frequency of ads featuring him. Several smaller brands cut ties with him altogether.

Last year, Rodgers tied for 4th place behind Patrick Mahomes, Russell Wilson, and the now-retired Drew Brees. Mahomes and Wilson topped this year’s list in Brees’ absence. Mahomes “scored a net favorability rating of 34 among U.S. adults in a poll conducted during the final weekend of the NFL regular season, a figure calculated by taking the 41 percent of respondents with a favorable opinion of Mahomes and subtracting the 7 percent with an unfavorable opinion of the fifth-year signal-caller.”

Rodgers became a reluctant poster child for NFL vaccine resistance, and has been widely criticized for lying about the vaccine, promoting Atlas Shrugged, and taking Covid advice from Joe Rogan — among other things.