Yahoo Finance Aaron Rodgers Slams 'Woke Cancel Culture' After Facing Criticism Over Postgame Comments
Aaron Rodgers is not a fan of what he calls "woke cancel culture."
The 37-year-old quarterback discussed the topic during his regular appearance on The Pat McAfee Show on Tuesday after facing criticism for a comment he directed at Bears fans on Sunday toward the end of the Green Bay Packers' win over Chicago.
"There's a PC woke culture that exists, and there's a cancel culture at the same time," Rodgers told the hosts. "And it's based on people's own feelings of maybe personal miserability or distaste for their own situations or life, or maybe just enjoyment of holding other people down underneath their thumb."
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The Packers were up three points when Rodgers sealed the deal with a six-yard touchdown run with just over four minutes left in Sunday's game. A hot mic caught the QB yelling "All my f—g life, I own you. I still own you. I still own you" at Chicago fans while celebrating with teammates on the field, per the New York Post.
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Following the game, Rodgers told reporters that he looked up in the stands after scoring the touchdown and saw a woman giving him the "double bird," NFL.com reported. He claimed that "sometimes you blackout on the field, in a good way."
Rodgers said Tuesday that he was not aware of the controversy until after the game. Noting that trash talk is often exchanged between fans and players each week, he said he didn't think much of his remarks at the time.
The signal-caller certainly didn't expect his comment to blow up as it did either. One former Bears player, Olin Kreutz, even said on radio show 670 The Score that he would "like to punch [Rodgers] in the face" over the comment.
"Look, I think that's to say … Are we getting that soft in society where we can't have words now?" Rodgers pondered.
"Somebody can pay for a ticket and say whatever the hell they want — which I think they should be able to, that's fine — but the one time you say something back to them and it gets caught on a hot mic … now I've disrespected an entire city and organization and my own organization?" he added.
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Rodgers said he misses the days when he claims trash talk was "more normalized" and players didn't feel the need to apologize for comments that some might have found offensive. That said, he doesn't let the "woke cancel culture" stop him from expressing himself.
"I just think that it, for me, helps me to keep sane when I can recognize and point out that there is this culture that exists that gets off, I think, on shrinking people, keeping them small, keeping them in a box, quieting them through [cancelation] or demeaning comments," Rodgers explained.
He added: "I also exist outside of that in a different realm where I do feel confident in things I say and I do stand by what I do. I like to speak the truth and I'm not part of this woke cancel culture that gets off on trying to silence people all the time."
