Almost two weeks ago, Aaron Rodgers was in Peru just before the country closed its borders to slow the coronavirus outbreak, and he said he almost didn’t make it out.
The Green Bay Packers quarterback said he was traveling with three other people in remote areas near Cusco and had not heard of any COVID-19 cases reported nearby. But as a call-in guest on The Pat McAfee Show on Friday, Rodgers described his group’s successful efforts to leave the country before the borders closed as “quite the ordeal,” adding that “there was definitely a panic in the air.”
Trying to explain the scene at the airport, Rodgers referenced the movie Argo, asking McAfee and co-host (and Rodgers’ former teammate) A.J. Hawk if they had seen it before. Rodgers explained:
“The scene at the end where they’re racing to the airport. Like, nobody was chasing us, thankfully, or holding us. We didn’t speak Farsi to get back into the country, but there was some moments where we worried we were not going to get out. It was absolute pandemonium at the airport.”
Had he and his group been flying commercially, Rodgers said they “probably” wouldn’t have been able to fly out “right away,” especially with bad weather complicating things a bit. He said this trip was planned months ago and they were scheduled to travel to other South American counties, but they decided to cut their trip short.
Rogers continued:
“I know that there’s been some planes and some folks who were down there who’ve gotten brought back [since he flew out]. When we rolled up to the airport at, like, 7 in the morning, it was wall-to-wall people, and you couldn’t move.
“And I was thinking, ‘This isn’t very safe.’ Not many masks on, and there was definitely a panic in the air. But somehow made it through, and then they shut the airport down because it was really bad weather. They had a drop-dead time where they were going to shut the entire airport down. We made it by about 15 minutes. Made it back.”
Since flying back, he said he and the other three people on the trip have not experienced any COVID-19 symptoms. He’s also been locked down at his ocean-side Malibu home with girlfriend and former NASCAR driver Danica Patrick, but he has made four or five trips to the store for supplies.
He was particularly excited to come across toilet paper for the first time when he went out on Thursday.
“I bought a six pack, and that was a good day,” Rodgers said.
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