It took him a while to get to it, to get past the friendly banter and the tribute and the jokes and the goofing around, but make no mistake about this: Aaron Rodgers knew what he wanted to say and how he was going to say it. The Green Bay Packers’ (for now) quarterback talks in riddles and enjoys doing so, which meant that while choosing the goodbye show of SportsCenter anchor Kenny Mayne as the outlet for long-awaited comments about his tangled job situation might have been an odd choice for some, for him it wasn’t. Rodgers likes to keep everyone guessing to some degree, to operate in the space between full-chested assertions and subtle implications, talking in such a way to make us think we know what he means yet never being entirely sure. A lot of it you can disregard as filler, unless you happen to be particularly interested in Ayurvedic cleanses, which, apparently, Rodgers underwent and lost 15 pounds in the process. But we’ve been watching this little game within the game play out for a while now and we’re getting to grips with it. Probably. Rodgers doesn’t speak without there being an underlying message, the one thing he wishes for you to take away from it all, even if you’re not 100% convinced of it yourself. His video appearance on Monday night was largely about frivolity and not much about news. Yet we’re pretty sure that whatever news there was … is bad news for the Packers. At his moment of greatest clarity, when for a couple of minutes of an 11-minute chat Rodgers got serious about discussing football-related matters, he used it to fire a searing broadside at the Green Bay front office, the precise part of the organization with which there must be some positive agreement if things are going to resolve. “I think sometimes people forget what really makes an organization,” Rodgers said. “History is important, the legacy of so many people who’ve come before you. But the people, that’s the most important thing. The people make an organization. People make a business and sometimes that gets forgotten. “Culture is built brick by brick – the foundation of it by the people. Not by the organization, not by the building, not by the corporation. It’s built by the people. I’ve been fortunate enough to play with a number of amazing, amazing people and got to work for some amazing people as well. It’s those people that build the foundation of those entities. I think sometimes we forget that.” Whoever you believe is at greater fault, the reality is that the deterioration of Rodgers’ situation, the one that has spawned a real possibility he could leave the franchise after 16 years, is that he has fundamental differences of opinion with general manager Brian Gutekunst. Rodgers doesn’t seem to care much for Gutekunst as a GM or as a person, widening a wedge that gained its greatest distance when the Packers traded up to draft Jordan Love in 2020, with the idea he would become Rodgers’ long-term replacement. Now, with voluntary team activities already underway and Rodgers having skipped the first portion of them, he’s digging in. There wasn’t a lot of leeway left by what he said. It has become personal. It has become a point of pride. He feels that him playing like a dream and winning the MVP put “a wrench” in the club’s plans for a future without him and he’s not enthused about the idea of letting them get away with it. “Aaron Rodgers wants nothing to do with (Gutekunst),” former All-Pro Brandon Marshall said on FS1’s “First Things First.” “He wants him out of the organization. It is time to move on because it is going to break down the integrity. Either you move forward with Aaron Rodgers or Brian Gutekunst, but you have to pick one. “Everything you’re trying to do from a football standpoint, winning ball games, getting back to the main thing, is broken down. They have to make a decision, they have to make a decision fast. They are not going to win like this.” It does indeed seem to have reached a crescendo. Rodgers is ready to push and push and push some more until he either gets Gutekunst out of his way or makes Green Bay yield into moving him elsewhere. Certain players play in their familiar uniform for so long it is hard to imagine them departing for a new location, but that’s more about our own customs and expectations than anything else. Tom Brady wore a new jersey last season. He found it fit quite well. If Rodgers finagles his way out of Green Bay, there would be a mighty price to be paid for it, yet several suitors willing to cough up. The Denver Broncos passed on every quarterback on the board in the recent NFL Draft and seem prepped to pull the pin on a blockbuster trade, should that option materialize. In truth, if Rodgers does become available, you can’t rule anything out. Having a reigning MVP with perhaps several big years left in him become available never really happens like this. Concrete plans sometimes become a bit more fluid in such situations. Until then, we wait. News has been slow to trickle in on this one. The biggest story of the NFL offseason has come with a serious paucity of updates. Green Bay is saying nothing out loud except the consistent proclamations of head coach Matt LaFleur that they want him back. Of course they do, but it’s far from certain. Until resolution comes we wait for the next message, cryptic or otherwise, that Rodgers has to offer, a tricky business in itself when you’re dealing with a man who doesn’t say much while saying a lot. Or should that be the other way around? When it comes to Aaron Rodgers, you can never be quite sure. Here’s what others have said … Colin Cowherd, FOX Sports: “I have to give Aaron respect here. He wants treatment like Russell Wilson, Patrick Mahomes and Tom Brady and absolutely deserves it.” Nick Wright, First Things First: “Aaron Rodgers’ message was clear: I have been disrespected and that has not been remedied, and I don’t know if it can be remedied.” Chris Broussard, FOX Sports: “I truly believe the Packers aren’t going to trade Rodgers unless he comes out and says he doesn’t want to play another down in Green Bay. They’re too close to winning another Super Bowl.” |
