During a lopsided affair against the Bears on Sunday Night Football, the Packers offense decided to get a little creative following a touchdown just prior to halftime.
Green Bay took a commanding 24–7 lead into the break after Aaron Rodgers hit Allen Lazard for a five-yard score with 32 seconds remaining in the second quarter. Lazard, whose SNF appearance marked his first game of the season after missing Week 1 with an ankle injury, was met in the end zone by an amped-up Aaron Jones before taking a few steps back as his teammates began to gather around him.
The fifth-year receiver then simulated pouring a drink into the cupped hands of each of his teammates, who pretended to pass out after taking a “sip,” before Rodgers showed up waving his arms and bringing Lazard in for a bear hug at the end of the sequence.
As the eye-opening celebration began to make waves on social media, several Twitter users began to theorize the “tea time” may have been a clever nod to Rodgers’s recent admission of drinking ayahuasca, a psychoactive tea containing the hallucinogenic drug DMT. Check it out for yourself:
Green Bay ended up winning the contest, 27–10, to improve to 1–1 on the year. Afterwards, receivers Sammy Watkins and Randall Cobb were asked to explain what the celebration meant.
According to ESPN’s Rob Demovsky, Watkins confirmed Lazard’s TD celly was, indeed, an homage to the four-time MVP while Cobb, one of Rodgers’s oldest teammates, took the nonchalant route and said they were “just drinking some tea.” Rodgers was also asked about the moment but told reporters, “I don’t know what you’re talking about” before saying he was not involved with the planning.
The chatter surrounding the celebration, of course, calls back to Rodgers’s comments in August about his journey to self-love and how taking ayahuasca prior to his back-to-back MVP seasons in 2020 and ’21 helped him reach the point he’s at now.
“To me, one of the core tenets of your mental health is that self-love,” Rodgers said at the time. “That’s what ayahuasca did for me, was help me see how to unconditionally love myself. It’s only in that unconditional self love, that then I’m able to truly be able to unconditionally love others. And what better way to work on my mental health than to have an experience like that?”
Nevertheless, Rodgers and Co. were clearly having fun at Chicago’s expense as the 38-year-old improved his record against his NFC North foe to 24–5 all-time. It’ll be interesting to see what the Packers have in store next week when they travel to Tampa Bay to face Tom Brady and the Buccaneers in the future Hall of Fame QBs’ fifth meeting in three seasons.
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