I dunno. If I were another of AR's "friends" right now, I'd be quietly re-assessing the quality of his friendship with me.
Ok, I get it. He feels betrayed. He's been lied to by a friend. Maybe their friendship has died. Maybe Braun is just another athlete scumbag.
But, as he said, everyone makes mistakes. And, sure as God made the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, Rodgers is not the first person who has been lied to by one of his friends. I've made a helluva lot bigger mistakes, mistakes that I might lie about to my friends, too, depending on the pressures on me.
And I'd sure as hell might lie about them to any "friend" I thought might abandon me if "the truth came out". Because if he's going to abandon me for a lie in protection of my livelihood, I'm pretty sure he's going to abandon me when he finds out about *my* real skeletons.
And as far as what the media might do or the public might think if Rodgers hadn't broadcast his sense of betrayal, well, I'm sorry. If it is/was a true friendship, it should matter more than what either of those *theys" might think. It should matter more than whether they might make an issue out of it.
If a bunch of sharks or vultures are circling around your badly bleeding friend, is it okay for you to add another wound so you can escape their feeding frenzy?
IMO, friends don't judge their friends in the court of public opinion. They just don't. They judge them in private. Preferably, they stand by their friends in public. But if they feel sufficiently offended or betrayed or hurt that they cannot do that, then they should remain silent. Let the rest of the world, those who aren't his friends and never have been do that. If you can't publicly defend the person, at least let him defend himself without adding to his wounds.
Sure it's hard. That's why real friendship is so dear. Not because it is easy and fun and a bunch of shared interests. Because to maintain it means doing hard stuff along the way.
It's easy to defend a friend before the evidence is all out. You're going to take your friend's side. The test of the friendship is what you do when the evidence is out and it falls against your friend.
There's a lot more people behind bars today whose "friends" have abandoned them than there are friends who will go to visit them in jail/prison. There are a lot more people who have been wrung out by public opinion for their moral shortcomings whose "friends" have taken the easy route by sharing public opinion than there are friends who continue to associate with them.
It's easy to be the kind of "friend" who, when the going gets tough, get going.
I understand feeling betrayed. And I understand if, feeling I have betrayed you, you abandon me.
But that doesn't mean I won't feel abandoned.
And when I see you abandon someone else you called friend? Well, I might still hang out with you, but you're not going to be a friend I'm going to trust with the deepest parts of me, good or bad.
Sorry.
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Romans 12:2 (NKJV)