Aaron Rodgers emerged from the soundstage he built in his home to practice for his Jeopardy! audition last night. He was part of Kenny Mayne’s last Sportscenter on the WWL, which also commemorated the end of ESPN having anyone with an identifiable personality on their flagship show.
Rodgers was never going to come right out and say what it is he’s after, what it is he’s so pissy about, and what if anything the Packers can do to make it all OK (the answer is nothing, because he is signed for three more years with them). After all, if Rodgers went too hard on his current bosses and then has to go work with them anyway this fall, which seems the most likely, that’s going to be awkward for everyone.
So Rodgers had to do a lot of couching, use a lot of euphemisms, talk in circles, and try and say things without saying anything. You tell me if you can figure this out:
“It’s just kind of about a philosophy and maybe forgetting that it is about the people that make the thing go. It’s about character, it’s about culture, it’s about doing things the right way.”
“But it is about the people, and that’s the most important thing….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.”
Well that’s a whole lot of nothing. If you try to get to the meat of it, either Rodgers is saying Packers GM Brian Kutegunst is an asshole or an incompetent asshole. But when Rodgers starts to kind of get near what’s got his boxers so bunched is when it gets weird.
The going story has been Rodgers was angry that the Packers took Jordan Love without warning him, or not using that first-round pick for a player that could help him immediately. And that may still be a part of it. This is an instance where you have to listen to the notes he’s not playing. But Rodgers did his best to dispel that.
With my situation, look it’s never been about the draft pick, picking Jordan… A lot of this was put in motion last year, and the wrench was just kind of thrown into it when I won MVP and played the way I played last year.
This is just kind of, I think, a spill-out of all that.
So because Rodgers played so well, and he won his third MVP… he wants the plans changed? Were the Packers planning on starting Love in 2021? That never sounded like the case, unless Rodgers had spent the 2020 season throwing the ball at his tackles’ ankles. Does he want Love traded now? What value could he possibly have? He’s got to be a suitable backup by this point, you’d have to think. What is it Rodgers wants?
It’s clear he has no relationship or much respect for his GM, and if Rodgers were 27, the Packers would probably punt Gutekunst out the office so hard he’d leave a vapor trail. But he’s not. He’s 37, and unless he’s going to start drinking the virgin’s blood that Tom Brady is on, his football mortality isn’t too far off. How quickly can it go? Drew Brees was first team All-Pro in 2018. Two years later every ball he threw made a fart noise. The Packers choosing Rodgers over a GM could leave them with their second- or third-choice general manager trying to rebuild the team whenever Rodgers is done, and that could be sooner than anyone wants to admit, especially Rodgers.
It’s not where you want to be.
What a way to go
Speaking of Kenny Mayne — who’s lengthy ESPN career came to an end last light — here’s how that interview ended.
Nuts!
Yeah... what he said.
It was ALL ABOUT THE CUP for Blake Wheeler last night:
Thanks, be here all week.