The most dangerous thing about Aaron Rodgers is he's someone who feels easy to like. He has an easy-going and fun air about him that resulted in folks enjoying him temporarily hosting, "Jeaporady," when the show needed a new host and was trying people out. He's an amazing quarterback who will end up in the Hall of Fame when he retires and he is the best chance The New York Jets have to get anywhere near a Super Bowl in the foreseeable future. Aaron Rodgers also seems to believe in conspiracy theories about mass shootings and has a distrust of vaccines that is less based in science than utter nonsense--the kind of views that can get people killed when they get sick with easily prevented illnesses. We know these things because Aaron Rodgers likes to talk.
Aaron Rodgers enjoys discussing fun things even if they are a bit out there (he has a UFO story) with folks on television or podcasts just as much as he likes to ramble about things that make him sound like he stepped well over the line of, "Eccentric," into, "Unhinged," awhile ago---saying that the COVID-19 vaccine alters your genes, for example. He gets away with a lot because he's weirdly charming and because the Jets need him. This leads to, as Nora Princiotti of The Ringer puts it, "The Curious Case of Aaron Rodgers." If he's, "Just," a quarterback he is allowed to have any beliefs if he wants, we as humans can think whatever and tell our friends. When does he go from a guy with some eccentric beliefs to dangerous, however? If he runs for political office (RFK Jr. apparently considered Rodgers for his Vice President pick during his ill-fated run)? If people take him as some kind of expert on vaccines even though he clearly is not?
One must also ask if the, "Step too far," goes back a couple steps the better he is at football? Meaning, can an Aaron Rodgers who somehow helps the Jets win a Super Bowl (hey, it could theoretically happen) get away with a lot more than an Aaron Rodgers who can't even get them to the playoffs? I don't think anyone can say for sure what's too much until Rodgers does make that one statement that breaks everything.
Rodgers does know people listen. He does regret some things he says. Is an affable personality and playing football really, really good going to be enough to keep Rodgers out of hot water, however, or will this metaphorical pot eventually boil over? We've just started this NFL season, so we've got a ways to go to find out.
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