Erin Andrews addresses her controversial hug with Aaron Rodgers

Erin Andrews found herself at the center of a silly controversy a few weeks ago when she hugged Aaron Rodgers after an interview, but she may have misunderstood what all the fuss was about.

Andrews and Rodgers went viral after they exchanged a hug following the Green Bay Packers’ win over the Cleveland Browns on Christmas Day. The main reason the hug became a big topic was that it illustrated the hypocrisy that exists with the NFL’s COVID protocols. Andrews and Rodgers remained socially distanced while talking, only to hug before they parted ways.

Andrews discussed the reaction to the hug with co-host Charissa Thompson on their “Calm Down” podcast this week. She said she has close relationships with several players and exchanges hugs with them quite frequently. Andrews thinks the controversy stemmed from her being a woman and Rodgers being a “lightning rod for his stance on COVID.”

“For the first time in my career I kind of thought, this was like a chick thing,” Andrews said, as transcribed by Ryan Glasspiegel of the New York Post. “They’re going after it because I’m a female. Now, maybe I have it wronged they’re just going after it because Aaron is a lightning rod right now but I will say this, no one has said anything when Greg Olsen and [George] Kittle tackled and hugged each other.”

Andrews added that she has hugged other players like Matthew Stafford, and neither he nor his wife had any issue with it. She then briefly touched on the COVID protocol issue.

“And I know that there’s the other argument where we’re doing the interview six feet apart, because of the COVID protocol,” she said. “It is what it is. I understand that. I’ll do whatever the NFL needs me to do.”

That was the real issue. The majority of people thought the hug proved that many of the NFL’s COVID protocols are strictly for theater. There’s no point in a socially distanced interview that ends with a hug. It just makes no sense.

This isn’t the first controversy Andrews has been involved with this season, but neither was a big deal. For most people, the hug reaction was more of a COVID thing than a “chick thing.”