Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers has tested positive for COVID. By NFL rules, Rodgers must stay away from the team for 10 days. Therefore, he will miss this coming Sunday’s game against the Kansas City Chiefs.

After reporting to training camp this past August following a lengthy holdout over how the Packers franchise had treated the Super Bowl-winning and 2020 NFL Most Valuable Player, when asked about his COVID vaccination status Rodgers replied he had been immunized. Rodgers had received homeopathic treatment from his personal physician that he asserted met the antibody levels required to qualify for immunized status. Neither the league nor the NFL Players Association agreed, classifying Rodgers as unvaccinated.

Rodgers testing positive for COVID has provided Packers management with a seized-upon opportunity to snipe back at their star quarterback following his openly expressed dissatisfaction this past off-season with the franchise. Head coach Matt LaFleur led the charge.

After telling reporters the Packers are “all hands on deck” with Rodgers out, coach Matt LaFleur was asked if the QB’s August comment may have been misleading, to which he replied, “It’s a great question for Aaron, I’m not going to comment on it,” per the Green Bay Press-Gazette.

When asked if he’d consider Rodgers to be selfish for electing not to get the vaccine, LaFleur replied: “I think everybody has to make their own personal decision, and that’s just is what it is.”

Rodgers, 37, has led the Packers to a 7-1 record, tied with the Los Angeles Rams and Arizona Cardinals for best in the NFL (the Dallas Cowboys are 6-1). Despite less than stellar offensive line play (17 sacks through eight games), Rodgers has thrown 17 touchdown passes against only three interceptions.

Unarguably handsomely compensated for his services, unlike many superstars, Rodgers does not have any trade prohibition or restriction clause in his contract. Given how Packers management seems fiercely determined to prove they, not Rodgers and his open dismissal of PC foolishness, are the reason behind the team’s perennial contender status, it will be interesting to see if the Packers use this as all or part of an excuse to ship Rodgers elsewhere at season end should the team fail to win or reach the Super Bowl. Which, given how in the NFL both the Rams and Tom Brady-led Tampa Bay Buccaneers stand in Green Bay’s way, is a tall order indeed.